Meal Planning Mama

I love meal planning, though I frequently fall off the wagon when it comes to actually doing it week after week. I'm not sure why. I love planning and shopping and having the stress and hassle of figuring things out each day for each meal being lifted off my shoulders. After a little thought of what I should do about this problem, I decided to do a little experiment this month. I am starting a week into the month. Better late than never, right? In case your interested in streamlining your meal planning schedule in the near future.

The Month of June Breakfast Menu:

Muffin Monday: Apple, Blueberry, Bran

Tasty Cobble Tuesday: Apple, Blueberry, Blueberry/Rhubarb

Wacky Egg Wednesday: Egg Sandwiches, Egg Casserole, Egg Burritos, Scrambled

Tasty Toasted Pancake Thursday: Whole Wheat, Blueberry, Chocolate Chip

French Toast Friday: French toast casserole, and just reg. french toast

Sausage Saturday: Biscuits, & Sausage gravy

Cereal Sunday: Cereal or Oatmeal

 The Month of June Lunch Menu: 

(except VBS week we eat at church)

Monday: Grill Cheese or BLT Sandwiches, pretzels, french fries, fruit

Tuesday: Chicken & Rice, veggie, butter bread

Wednesday: PB&J Sand., grapes or bananas, chips

Thursday: Spaghetti, garlic bread, veggie

Friday: Tator Tot Casserole, veggie, butter bread

Saturday: Bologna Sand., raspberries from the garden, yogurt with granola

Sunday: Burrito Casserole

The Month of June Supper Menu:

Meatloaf Monday: potatoes from the garden, a veggie and rolls

Taco Tuesday: brown rice, sour cream, lettuce, tomatoes, refried beans

Wacky Wednesday: Leftovers

Tasty Treat Thursday: Eating from the GARDEN!

Fun Friday: Homemade Pizza

Soup Saturday: Chili, Potato, Hamb./Veggie

Scrounge Sunday: Leftovers or our traditional popcorn supper

I'm hoping that by sticking to a very simple, quick, and easy menu that it makes this whole plan very stress free for this busy month. It also should help to streamline my monthly shopping trip. If you have struggled with consistent meal planning or never tried it before, maybe you should give this method a try and then let me know what you think. Happy Planning!

Cooking/Baking Spree

We got some unexpected yucky winter weather on Monday (well unexpected from me anyway), and I thought that was a good excuse for an afternoon in the kitchen... It was totally impromptu so I had to come up with things I already had on hand and make due with that.....did I mention that I REALLY needed to go to the store? I just haven't made the time lately......so my wonderful Hubby stopped and picked up some needed ingredients to finish out my baking/cooking afternoon that ended up lasting part of the evening portion as well. I was on a roll and hated to stop while the dishes were already dirty.....know what I'm saying? This is a picture of the first round of cooking butter rolls, 3 loaves of amish bread, lasagna, and oatmeal bake.

I also grabbed a HUGE deer roast out of the freezer to defrost and put it in one of the Hot Oven Bags. I added some spices, a little soy sauce, and a bit of water (to help it steam) and cooked it on 400 for an hour. The bags were given to me recently and I thought I'd try them out!

The second round of cooking/baking included a double batch of pumpkin cookies, another batch of butter rolls, egg casserole and a meatloaf.
Between the leftover we already have and the stuff I made we've had "convenience meals" ready at the drop of a hat all week so far! LOVE THAT!!! Remind me again why I don't do this all the time? I get lazy is really the only good answer. I think also its hard to carve out 6-8 hours of uninterrupted time in the kitchen. I figured up how long I cooked/baked and I'm saving myself a ton of time throughout the week. If you figure up how long it takes up on average to prep and cook three meals a day, cooking once a week or month really makes a lot of sense.

Do you ever cook in bulk? What are the reason you like it, or what keeps you from trying it out?

Meals for October

Here is a peek into what the Gaertegang is eating this month after my monthly shopping trip....

SUPPER
Homemade pizza
Tilapia, mashed potatoes, peas
Fried chicken, baked potatoes, roll, corn
Potato soup
Tacos
Chicken quesadillas
Meatloaf, sweet potato casserole, butter bread
Tator Tot Casserole, green beans
Lasagna, garlic bread
Spaghetti bake, veggie
Chili, crackers and butter bread or rolls
Pork burgers, fries, pork and beans
Fish, veggie, applesauce

LUNCH- super simple...so we can get back to schooling
BLT sandwiches, apple slices
salad with croutons and all the fixings
cold meat sandwiches, chips, grapes
Mac & Cheese and hot dogs, fruit
PB&J sand., raisins, chips
Chili dogs, fruit
Cheese toasties, fruit
leftovers

BREAKFAST
Egg & Sausage Casserole
Cereal
Pop Tarts ( for fast Saturday soccer mornings)
Sweet rolls (for Sunday mornings, twice this month)
Oatmeal with blueberries
blueberry muffin, yogurt
scrambled eggs with bacon and shredded cheese
Biscuits and Gravy

BLESSINGS,
DANIELLE

Food for Thought...

Since today I ran across a GREAT POST from the Happy Housewife I thought I would share it with you......talks about food prep GO HERE to check it out!!

BLESSINGS,

DANIELLE

Justin's Month To Plan.....

As some of you might remember this is my hubby's month to meal plan and shop for groceries....upon his request! Needless to say I didn't argue with the proposition! (GRINS) I have to admit I was a bit worried with what he would come up with. On Monday he stopped on his way home to get some groceries so we would actually have some food around here to eat!!! Aldi's was the only stop he made, in the pic above, and the total was $77.60 for 96 items. Just in case inquiring minds want to know what meals we are having for the next couple weeks her is the list we came up with so far.....Did you notice I said "WE"......It has been a bit of a group effort...which is entirely okay with me!!!!! To explain a little more, he went shopping with NO meal plan......no-no number one....and with no grocery list...no-no number two!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! In his defense, it all worked out just fine this go around.

Here is what we are eating around the Gaerte household:

Breakfast:
Pancakes with our new blueberry jam.....ohhhh so yummy!!!, sausage
cereal
peanut butter toast or sugar toast with a yogurt cup..ever had sugar toast?
hearty oatmeal muffins (I made a double batch (about 30 muffins) of these Tuesday night )
sunny-side up eggs, toast

Lunch:
frozen pizza with a can of veggies
mac & cheese with hot dogs, a can of fruit
he bought three different kinds of soup
PB&J sand. with apples slices, chips
Grilled hot dogs, fruit, pretzels
LEFTOVERS!!!

Supper:
Homemade meatballs in BBQ sauce and a can of chunked pineapples, veggie, homemade fries
Tacos with all the fixings
Chilli, butter bread
Chicken and noodles with mashed potatoes, corn
Hamburger helper (Hubby loves it....me not so much),veggie
Sloppy Joes, homemade fries, bake beans
(leftover sloppy joes) each person can make their own Pizza: I am toasting hamb. buns then letting each person build their own creation......an idea from my mom!
Meatloaf, baked potatoes, green beans
Fried Bluegill (fish), bake beans, peas
Hamburger on the grill, corn, chips

Well that is it for now with the meals we have planned! I really can't tell you what a blessing it has been to have Justin help me with the shopping, and contribute some ideas to me on meals. It obviously is much easier to only have to do part of this process instead of the entire thing by myself! I also think it has been great for him to see how much time and energy I do put into planning, shopping, then carrying out the meal plans I come up with......double blessing wouldn't you say?
Here is a funny comment he made when you came home from shopping, "WOW!! I can quickly see that meat can kill a budget! By us having our own meat in the freezer really saves us a bundle each month! Meals that we can for under $2, others would have that just in the meat......." This is a comment I already knew the truth to...he did too I think but when you are playing the "let's feed our family for cheap but still feed them well game" it really brings all the little details to light!

Menu from Last Week!

Well I have been trying more cheap and easy recipes this past week and I thought I would share them with you!!!!



Easter Sunday: I took Corn Casserole to my mil's house, it was a hit and this was the first time I had the recipe to make it...I will definitely be making it again...so easy and everyone gobbled it up!

1 can of whole corn (drained)
1 can of cream corn
1 box jiffy corn bread mix
1 egg
1 cup of sour cream
1 stick of butter


Mix together. Pour into a greased 9 x 13 pan. Bake at 350 for about one hour.



Monday : Breakfast Pizza



1lb. Sausage (browned & drained)

1 package of crescent rolls (press seams together for crust) in 9 X 13 pan

1 -2 cups of frozen hash browns (thawed)

1-2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese



After you form the crust with the crescents layer sausage, hash browns, and cheese. Then just sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes.

Then only thing was I thought this recipe was a bit dry....any suggestions on what I could add?? Other than that it tasted great!!


Tuesday: Sausage & Potatoes, with dinner rolls, green beans


8-10 potatoes

1 package of smoked sausage (you could also use ham)

8oz. cream cheese

1 can of celery soup

1 ranch mix pouch



Cut and thinly slice potatoes and the smoked sausage. Place in crock pot. Mix the cream cheese, celery soup, and ranch mix and put on top of the potatoes and sausage. Cook in crock pot for 6-8 hours on low.



Wednesday: Herb baked Tilapia, mash potatoes, corn

I absolutely love making this, it is sooooo yummy I could eat it several times a week!! I bought Tilapia when it was on sale for $2.99 I think at Kroger a few weeks back...you can get it anywhere from 2.99-3.99 a bag most weeks.

4-6 Tilapia fillets

1/3 cup of Parmesan cheese

1/4 cup mayo (I use miracle whip)

1/4 cup of breadcrumbs (I use cracker crumbs)

1 tsp basil

1tsp. oregano

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp pepper


Spray your 9 x 13 with spray. put in fish fillets. Combine cheese & mayo spread over fish. Combine all other ingredients, sprinkle over fish. lightly coat with Pam cooking spray. Bake for about 10 minutes at 400.



Thursday: Spaghetti, and Garlic bread



Friday: OUT!!



Saturday: Sloppy joes, chips

Have you tried any of the recipes I have passed along to you yet??? Any look interesting and your thinking about trying??? Leave a comment and let me know...I LOVE hearing from you all!

Menu from Last Week!

I thought it would be fun to share with you what we ate last week...I used only recipes I got from my new cookbook from the retreat!!! Here is a list of what we had with the recipes....in case you would like to try them...

Monday: Baked Scrambled Eggs HINT: Double the recipe to make an 9x13 pan!

1/8 cup of butter Directions: Melt butter in the bottom of an 8x8
9 eggs pan. Mix the remaining ingredients together.
1/2 cup sour cream Pour into pan. Bake @ 325 for 25 (for 8 x8).
1/2 cup milk Bake about 45- 50 minutes for 9X13 pan,
1 tsp. salt until nice and brown on top :)

Optional: For this recipe you could add in whatever else you wanted which makes it so nice and flexible!.....mushrooms, sausage, peppers, ect.

I served the Baked Scrambled Eggs with sausage links...again you could do whatever else you wanted! It was a hit at our house everyone loved it.....Thanks Tera for the recipe!

Tuesday: Tator Tot Casserole

1 lb of hamburger cooked and drained
2 can of cream of mushroom ( or chicken)
1 bag of tator tots
2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese

Mix Hamburger and cream soups together and put in a 9 X 13 pan (sprayed with cooking spray first) then layer it with the cheese, then top with the tator tots and salt and pepper. Cook @ 375 for 30 minutes

I served this with a veggie side.

Wednesday: Sour Cream Chicken

4-6 chicken breasts Directions: Place chicken in crock pot. Combine
1 can cream of mushroom all ingredients, pour over chicken. Cover and cook
1 cup sour cream on low for 7-8 hours. The gravy is great for mashed
1/2 cup chicken broth potatoes.
3 or 4 fresh mushrooms (sliced)
salt and pepper to taste

Thursday: We actually went to someone else's house for supper!! FUN TIMES!!

Friday: This is a day I didn't cook....Zach had surgery...we went to visit my grandpa at hospice...then I spent the rest of the day doing school and household stuff...so we went with COLD MEAT sandwiches and chips for supper.

Saturday: I had left over chicken from Wed. meal (which I planned for) so we enjoyed
Classic Chicken Pot Pie

1 pckg. Pilsbury Pie Crust 1/3 cup margarine
1/3 cup chopped onion 1/3 cup flour
1/2 tsp. salt 1/4 tsp. pepper
1 1/2 cup chicken broth 2/3 cup milk
2 1/2 to 3 cups chicken (can use canned) 2 cup frozen mixed veggies

Heat oven to 425. Prepare Pie crusts for 2 crust pie using a 9 inch pie pan. Melt margarine in med. sauce pan on med heat. add onion and cook 2 minutes or until tender. Add flour, salt, and pepper, and stir until blended. Gently stir in broth and milk, cooking and stirring until bubbly and thickened. Add chicken and veggies. Mix well. Remove from heat and spoon mixture into crust. top with second crust. Seal edges and put slits in the top several places. Bake @425 for 30-40 min. or until golden brown. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.
Thanks Abby for the recipe!!

Hope this is helpful when your meal planning and gives you some new easy ideas!!!

Hello Again Aldi's/ What We Are Eating

I haven't been to Aldi's since the beginning of December!!!! I needed a few staple items, and that is what I love to use Aldi's for.....I got 34 items for $31.14.

If you haven't been to Aldi's before you must go....I don't like to get their fresh fruits, I just don't have good experiences with them staying fresh for more than a day or two. I know others have told me that it might just be the Aldi's I shop at because they don't seem to have those issues.

Well over the next couple weeks this is what we are planning to eat..keep in mind it's nothing fancy nor are they very time consuming! I don't mind cooking but it is not something I REALLY enjoy doing I'd rather be doing a host of others things instead.......

Wednesday: Lasagna, garlic bread, green beans

Thursday: leftovers

Friday: Date night!!! Texas Roadhouse here I come!! (We got a gift card from x-mas to use)

Saturday: Chilli, crackers

Sunday: Chilli or chilli dogs

Monday: Tacos with all the fixins'

Tuesday: Mexican casserole

Wednesday: Fish, Potatoes, bake beans

Thursday: Potatoe Soup, crackers

Friday: Taco Soup

Sat & Sunday: Leftover Round up!!!

Well I guess you can tell I am in the winter frame of mind I have 3 different soups planned. OH WELL I know my family loves them all.

Like I said nothing fancy and you definitely have to like eating leftovers to survive at my house!! I always try to make my meals big enough to eat for two suppers or at the very least a supper and a lunch. REASON: It eliminates the number of times I have to be in the kitchen cooking each week!

For lunches we.....yes keep it simple also!!

Mac and cheese with hot dogs, fruit

cold meat sandwiches, fish crackers, fruit

Chef Boyardee, fruit

grill cheese sandwiches, fruit

PB&J sandwiches

OR yep you guessed it leftovers :)

Spreading Some Christmas JOY!!!

Even though the weather wasn't the best, I headed out this afternoon to spread alittle Christmas joy!! Well my first stop to a neighbor of mine, an elderly woman with no family, I took her alittle gift along with some hot chilli I made today and our family Christmas card.. All went well until I tried to leave the drive and I was stuck!!!!! After some trying of my own I had to call my father in law to come rescue me. Well he didn't have his 4x4 but we tried using some carpet scraps another neighbor was throwing out to get some traction. They worked some but I still couldn't back over the patch as of ice. Anyway another neighbor went by as saw I was stuck and pulled me out!
Next stop was to drop the kiddos off so I could go do some shopping for groceries I needed. Drop off was successful and shopping was also!! I decided to stock on a month or so worth of meals this time around. I thought since the weather has been so yucky lately and I wanted to get back to meal planning..I thought I would make this a BIG shopping trip.

Here is what we are planning on eating the next 30 days or so.

Tatortot Casserole, Bake Beans
Chilli, cheese sprinkled on top, crackers, and rolls
Lasagna, homemade garlic bread, green beans
Scalloped potatoes and ham, sweet potatoe casserole
Spaghetti Bake, Corn
Crescent roll Mexican casserole
Meatloaf, bake potatoes, (topped with broccoli and cheese for those who like it)
Ham and Bean soup, corn bread muffins
Veg. Soup (with sausage, potatoes, green beans, corn)
Boneless skinless chicken breast cooked in homemade spaghetti sauce then put on top of long grain white rice, served with either corn or green beans
Chicken, green bean, potatoe mix ( concoction I came up with it has spices and several things added in)

These are not in the order we will have them..really there is no set order I just choose off the list each day,because I know I have the ingredients on hand. Coming up with the ideas is 1/2 the battle!!

All said and done I spent less than $200 for all those meals and ingredients, plus I bought lots of stuff for baking cookies and banana bread and pumpkins bread. Not bad!!

Well I love recipes with 5 ingredients or less and they take 15 minutes or less to prep..Do you have any you can share with me??? I would love to hear them!!

More about meal planning

I have been planning out our meals for about 2 years or so I would say..and what a piece of mind it has brought to my everyday routine!! It also has been amazing to me that just by taking about a half hour or so I can figure out what I am cooking for the next week, two weeks, or month, and then make up my shopping list up and be done. I used to grocery ONCE A MONTH!! It was a long list and would take be about 2 - 2 1/2 hours to do but then I was done for the month! I would buy about 2 weeks worth of fresh fruit like bananas, apples, and grapes. Then I would stock pile canned fruit to get us through the next two weeks until shopping time rolled around again. My husband is in the area at least once or twice a week where they have an Aunt Millie's bread outlet store and that is where we get all out bread, ham./hotdog buns, ect. On Monday's everything is .59 so he will get about 10 loaves at a time then we freeze what we don't need immediately and get it out as needed. Then since my hubby is in sales he is on the road everyday so if I need milk or maybe some ingredient I forgot on my list he can stop quick and get it for me :) I have to say the system works like a charm. Did I mention that we get paid once a month, so that system works out well for us..but like about anything you can make it fit your situation. If you get paid weekly and shop weekly then meal plan weekly, or every two weeks however it works best for you. But if you have the extra money on hand to shop monthly I would recommend trying it out for a month. I have loved the fact of how much time I save only shopping once a month.
I have to admit though, since June of this year I have been doing a little bit of new system, my husband has named it "COUPON CRAZINESS" or something like that. Since starting this new system, I shop weekly in order to take advantage of weekly specials then pile the coupons on top of that and I get lots of things free or nearly free. I won't go into all the details of that at this time, but my way of shopping has changed. I only wish I could combine the two so I could still shop once a month, but get all the crazy good deals at the same time.....but it doesn't work that way..BUMMER!!
Think about it, consider trying it if you are a person who hates to grocery shop and figure out what's for supper on a daily basis...this method might be a saving grace for your sanity.

What's for supper at your house??

Well I thought I would share a website with you all that I thought was pretty neat and informative. This woman's blog has a spot devoted just to shopping at ALDI! She has a plan for crockpot cooking and then just regular meal planning...all ingredients can be bought at ALDI.. I printed off the fall/winter crock pot meals shopping list and the price list. The fall and winter meals which includes #30 days of meals (so really more than a month's worth if you have leftovers and the total on the shopping list was around $150!!! (before any tax)

Whether times are tight for you or not, I think that sounds like a great bargin!!!! And if you don't already know I LOVE A GOOD BARGIN!! Justin and I get a kick out of trying to see how cheap we can feed our brood of 6 a healthy tasty meal!!! Some people see it at annoying and an inconvience to slim down their food budget, NOT US we love the challenge!!

A hint to helping ANY budget is meal planning for the week, every two weeks, or monthly whatever fits your shopping regiment..to go to the store with no list and no set ideas for meals is a recipe for diaster and over spending!!! Plus later you have to try to come up with something to make from all the "stuff" you just bought. I find that it saves me time and money when shopping, and in the days to come when I have it all planned for me and know what is for supper that week.

I will talk more about meal planning and other related topics later! STAY TUNED!

Check out the "ALDI QUEEN" as she is called. http://www.blogger.com/www.momadvice.com/aldi