Thursday & Friday Meals

Hello again!

    Today we are going to look at some fun recipes and go over some more meal ideas and shopping lists.

My "helpers"

We left off with Wednesday last time so today we will go over Thursday and Friday.

For lunch on Thursday we had frozen pizzas. Toby loves sausage on his and Josh isn’t picky. I got 2 of the small Tostino individual pizzas and it was plenty for both of them and the leftovers were my lunch. Easy, and cheap. Total price: $2.66.  About .86 cents a person. Ya!

I also threw in some mandarin oranges so I could feel like I was being some what balanced.

    For dinner Thursday night, we had leftover ham and bean soup and leftover green beans (there were lots so I guess the $5 from the other night was well spent) as well as cornbread and applesauce. A big meal but not too expensive. The ham was leftover from Christmas so ham/bean soup is not a regular meal for us. However, I’ll break down prices in a minute.

    For the soup, I really don’t follow a recipe. I chop up the leftover ham and put it in a pot with a bag of dried Northern beans and a chopped onion. I dump a bunch of chicken stock and water on it and add some pepper and garlic powder. Then I just simmer it until the beans are soft. It’s yummy!   For cornbread, I use the Jiffy mix and it works fine.

**Tip: Don’t grab a cast iron skillet right out of the oven. Blisters, Ouch.**

For the grocery list I will assume you have eggs and milk which are needed for the cornbread mix and pepper and garlic powder for the soup. Here is a breakdown of costs.

Ham--$3.63 (if you don’t have ham leftovers, you can buy a bag of chopped ham)

Northern Beans (GV)--$1.18

Onion--.98c

Chicken Stock (GV)--$1.43

Cornbread mix--.42c

Applesauce (GV)--$1.96

Total: $9.60

Not too bad! Also, if you want to spend a bit more, you could just get a regular ham and use it for sandwiches too!

Alright now to go over Friday. For lunch today we are going to have fishsticks and applesauce. A box of frozen Fishsticks at Walmart is: $3.12 and lasts me at least two meals. My boys loooove fishsticks and eat a lot!

    For dinner, we are going to have a St. Louis classic,  Toasted Ravioli (click the link for the recipe).  I will also add a Premix salad.  We are big fans of the premixed salads that Walmart and Costco sell. They’re a bit expensive but not having to chop up lettuce makes it worth it to me.  Our favorite is the Chopped Asian mix. Walmart sells them for $3.32. Even Toby eats it and he usually doesn’t touch greenery!

For the toasted ravioli I will post the recipe below but here are the ingredients you need:

Frozen ravioli--$2.58

Bread Crumbs (not Panko!)--.82c

Dried Basil--$1.23

Dried Ground Oregano--$2.27

Parmesan Cheese--$3.42

Pepper (I assume you have this)

Eggs--$1.30 *

Pam spray--$1.53*

Spaghetti Sauce (Ragu)--$1.44

Total: $14.59

In the future I will assume you have basics like eggs, cooking spray, salt/pepper and I will not include prices for these things.

This is a higher price than usual but those spices will last quite awhile and the eggs will as well and the Pam. The bread crumbs are enough for at least two meals of this. And of course you won’t use all the parmesan.

    So really, these are basic pantry things you should stock up on too! And really, $4.48 a person isn’t bad for a meal!

My mixing buddy

 Hope you enjoy and I will post about weekend meals next time!

Until next time,

Mama Bear

Weekly Menu

Good morning!

    It’s a cold, wet, wintery day and I have two hyperactive boys on my hands! Time for some Pinterest ideas on how to keep them entertained for a bit while I get housework done.

Alright, so for today I’m just going to go over a pretty common weekly menu for us. I’ll list what we are having and try to include some links and quick tips. I’ve found there are a couple meals that are quick, easy and everyone likes so we have these at least once a week. They’re also cheap so that’s awesome too!

Alright to start off, here is my weekly meal plan. I didn't have a plan for Monday so I din't include that.  I usually don’t include breakfasts because they usually just eat cereal or toast.

                                 LUNCH                                                            DINNER

M:       ---	----
T: Lunchables and mandarin oranges	Tacos
W: Leftover taco salad and PB&J	Pork chops, green beans and biscuits
TH: Frozen pizza	Leftover Ham/Bean soup and cornbread
F: Fish sticks and applesauce	Toasted Ravioli and  Premix Salad
S: Homemade Mac & Cheese and Premix salad	Corned beef hash and roasted parsnips
S: Tuna salad sandwiches/pbj	Leftovers/popcorn

      For fun we will start off with some pretty printables for weekly menus if you are interested! Here are a couple places, first there is the  Neat House, Sweet Home blog, where you can find a really fun menu printable.  And then here is a categorized shopping list for you. I love my lists to be categorized. I’m sure you will find lots if you do a quick Pinterest search too!

This is next week's menu!

     Ok, now I will start with Wednesday and go over the shopping list.

For Wednesday lunch, I ate the rest of the taco salad that I had made Tuesday night. The boys had the leftover meat and cheese with nachos and sour cream. Josh had part of a pbj because he eats like a horse.  It worked out well because I used up all the taco leftovers! No waste.

 I will assume most of you have necessary items for pbj but in case you don’t, here’s a quick breakdown of Walmart based cost for PB&J:

• Bread: $1.68 for a loaf. We love the Aunt Millie's Country Buttermilk or Wheat. It’s very soft but not mushy.

    **TIP! Unless you are planning to eat it within a day or two, don’t buy bread from Costco. It tastes great but for some reason mine always molds within two days! We just stick with Walmart and Kroger**

• Peanut Butter: Jif is $4.28 but Great Value brand is $3.12 
• Jam: We like strawberry or grape any brand. Smuckers is $2.47.

So total cost is: $8.43 which will last several meals if you just use the bread for PB&J. (Also if you want to really stock up, we get peanut butter as one of our bulk items when we go to Costco. I love Costco!)

      Alright, on to Wednesday dinner. Aj found a great deal on porkchops at Kroger ($5.87 for 8 thick chops!) and fresh green beans for $5 (a bit much but AJ doesn’t eat canned veges).

To cook the chops, AJ marinated them in Worcestershire sauce and grilled them on the grill.

      For the green beans, I tossed them with a little olive oil and cooked them in a skillet. When they’re almost done, I put a very liberal amount of this awesome Weber seasoningon it. Usually about $3.14 a container which lasts a long time! This is one of AJ’s favorite dishes ever.

our favorite seasoning and my kitchen helper

The biscuits were leftover from a few nights ago, but you can use canned biscuits or even just sliced bread with butter.  Canned biscuits run about $1.98.

Again the breakdown would be $15.69 (didn’t include cost of marinade). So about $3.92/person.

So to sum up, here is my shopping list for Wednesday:

Bread

Peanut Butter

Jam

Pork Chops

Green Beans

Weber seasoning

Biscuits

Totals about $24.12

      For two meals, not bad but this is a bit more than we usually spend due to beans being a bit much. Also keep in mind the bread, peanut butter, jelly and seasoning lasts awhile. SO really, a bit cheaper.

Hope this all helps! Thursday and Friday next time and I'll try to post more pictures too.

Mama Bear

Welcome To My Blog!

    “They want to eat again??? Where did the day go? I forgot to go get groceries! Ok, what can I make with leftover turkey and a box of cereal?”

      This is usually my thought process as I scramble through the pantry and fridge to find something edible at 5:30 in the evening because I have forgotten—yet again—to plan ahead for meals.

When I do make a meal plan for the week and actually buy the groceries, it usually works out well! Getting the motivation to do it is another thing. I’d much rather sew. Or spend time with my boys. Or sleep. Sweet sleep…..anyway. I digress.

So, after perusing Pinterest and other menu websites as well as reviewing what meals we eat on a regular basis, I’ve decided to start making lists for other desperate moms to refer to. I’ll include my grocery list, menu, snack ideas, links to recipes, tips and tricks as well as a list of what I usually have on hand. I’ll try to keep in simple and easy to navigate. 

First of all, you should know I don’t use coupons and I’m no health nut. I try to feed my family balanced meals but you will rarely find the words organic, quinuoa or chia in my vocabulary. I have nothing against Cheetos as an occasional snack or buying my bananas non-organic. 

Don’t get me wrong though! I would LOVE to eat healthier and buy organic and be all creative with our diet. We did this to some extent when Josh (my youngest) had his dairy allergy when he was an infant and when AJ (hubby) was dealing with his heartburn. It’s just so expensive!

Also, I deal with an incredibly picky eater with Toby (my oldest), so I have to be creative anyway with my meal ideas. Anyway, I’ll be talking more about all of this in my blog!

So, here is my first entry. I’ll start with a few tips.

• ·      Plan your menu out after you eat. Don’t plan on an empty stomach.
•      Plan your meals so that you will eat all fresh fruits/veges in the beginning of the week.
•         Always have at least one leftover meal so you don’t waste those leftovers
•      Making use of either Kroger or Walmart order online grocery service helps me cut down on impulse buys quite a bit! I highly recommend them.  We use Walmart. If you are a first timer, you get $10 off. Feel free to use my code and I will get $10 off too!
•      I usually only have one or two things in a meal. Pork chops and green beans or chili and cornbread. I don’t plan elaborate three or four options for a meal.
•      We hardly ever do dessert.

So here's my first meal example.  I’ll include our menu for tonight (Tuesday). We had tacos. I had leftover tortillas, salsa, sour cream and taco seasoning from earlier this month. So I purchased tomatoes, shredded lettuce, shredded cheese and ground beef. We drink milk and water usually for dinner (mommy and daddy may have a soda sometimes). 

**With the leftover lettuce, tomato and cheese, I mixed it together to be my lunch salad for tomorrow.**

So here is what the cost would be if you had to buy everything (Walmart):

Tortillas (Great Value)- $1.98

Ground Beef (1lb)-$3.38

Taco Seasoning (GV)--.34c

Shredded Cheese--$1.62

Shredded Lettuce--$1.68

Tomatos (Roma, 1lb)--.98c

Salsa (Pace)--$1.98

Sour Cream--$1.34

Total= $13.30

 I already had some of the ingredients so my total was $9 which comes out to $2.25/person for one meal. Not bad!

SO there we go. My beginning post. Next post I will show you my menu for this week as well as my grocery list and some links to some recipes.

Thanks for reading and I hope you’ll enjoy the help I hope to offer,

Mama Bear aka Bethany