Menu Plan Monday

Well, we all survived the first week back to work and school. It was very nice to have a weekend though. I did some big shopping trips today. Two of my stores were having deals on meat, and well, I took advantage of them. I spent almost $100 on groceries, but I got the main portion of 28 dinners (some of which actually provide enough leftovers to freeze for a second meal and some of which will at least provide leftovers for lunch or a leftover night) and specific lunch items for 10 lunches. In addition, I picked up some cereal, some cans to replenish items I was out of, and some weekly essentials like milk and bread. I did save on average 40% between the two stores, between coupons and sales and that made me happy too (much better than the $167 it would have been before sales and coupons).

It seems like a lot of shopping when I keep reading about everyone else's eating from the pantry challenge, but we pretty much didn't buy much more than produce and dairy for about 6 weeks while we emptied out our freezer to defrost. My deep freeze is getting plenty stocked again, but we are actually working on eating our way through our regular freezer now. We had it absolutely stuffed when we squeezed in the last of the deep freeze and I want to use most of that up.

For dinner on Sunday, we tried out a new recipe. My husband texted me from the store a couple of weeks ago in response to a frozen meal he had seen - Rattlesnake Pasta. I did a search for the recipe and found it. It's a restaurant knock-off, but we've never eaten it before, so I can't really say how it compares to the original. Everyone enjoyed the pasta and the recipe is a keeper. I did separate for the kids before adding the jalepenos, as I thought they would be too much for the kids. I also used just milk, no half and half and it was still plenty creamy and rich.

At our house, the focus is on dinners. I tend to only list the main course and any standard side we have with it. We do still have vegetables and/or fruit with each of our dinners, I just don't always call them out.

Sunday
Cereal
Sandwiches
Rattlesnake Pasta

Monday
Ravioli Lasagna

Tuesday
Dinner Out at our favorite local Mexican (authentic #54 for my husband)

Wednesday
Leftovers

Thursday
Turkey Tetrazinni

Friday
Pork Chops

Saturday
Cereal
Sandwiches
Pizza

Weekdays breakfast is at daycare for my daughter, the rest of us eat cold cereal, frozen waffles, oatmeal, toast or whatever strikes our fancy. Lunch we pack, usually leftovers for me.

Check out other menu plans for the week at Menu Plan Monday at I'm An Organizing Junkie.