Tuesday Menu Planning

TOTALLY spaced this yesterday! It just dawned on me a few minutes ago, so I figured I should probably get my meal planning done! I have to say that we did pretty well at sticking with the menu plan....so I'm pretty excited about that. It's definitely harder on the weekends when my husband is home (he travels during the week on business) because we tend to eat out more (more spontaneously at least) and because he doesn't like to eat lunch AND dinner, but rather usually one or the other...so I try to work around what he wants, too.

My 1st grader has now decided that he much prefers having free breakfast at school and informed me that he "never wants to have breakfast at home until school is over." Lol. I had to remind him about weekends and "no school" days. He said "well, ok, on those days then I guess I will." Too funny. Any way, so now that it is just my toddler and I most days for breakfast and lunch, you will probably see a lot more toddler friendly foods on the menu. I told my 1st grader that he could pick about 10 times a month to have lunch at school, so that's about twice a week. We have the days circled on the menu from school on the fridge, and on the other days we will pack him a lunch. I can't wait to see how cost effective packing school lunch is when you start using groceries you got for FREE or pretty close to it! Any way...so here's this week's meal plan. I don't know how well we will stick to it, as this week is taking some adjustment getting used to a new schedule and all, but at least I have something on paper in front of me to hopefully make things easier.

Now, considering I didn't really do much shopping for food last week, as there was not much in the Albies sale that I was too excited about, I am once again going to be using things I have already bought in the last several weeks that needs used up as well as things from this week's sale.

:Breakfast:

Cereal w/ milk, toast, orange juice

Rhodes Warm-n-Serve cinnamon rolls (SOOOO good), milk

Eggo Bakeshop blueberry muffins, banana, apple juice

Biscuits and sausage gravy, scrambled eggs, orange juice

French toast sticks, yogurt, milk
Oatmeal, toast, orange juice
Pop-tarts, milk (my toddler would live off of these if I let him)

:Lunch:

Mac-n-cheese w/ hotdogs, jello, chocolate milk

Nachos w/ taco meat, refried beans, soda
Lunchables, grapes, cookie, CapriSun
BBQ Chicken wraps (from left-overs), cantelope, juice
Meat and Cheese sandwich, chips, grapes, milk
DiGiorno Flatbread Melts, salad, strawberry milk
Chef Boyardee, green beans, grape juice

:Dinner:

FAIR FOOD! :) YUM
BBQ Chicken, corn on the cob, salad
Tuna Helper, peas, garlic toast
Chicken fajitas, spanish rice, beans
Grilled Cheese, tomato slices, chips
Bow-tie pasta salad w/ veggies, corn, bread-n-butter
Quesadillas w/ taco meat, refried beans

:Snacks:
Fruit snack
Cheesestick w/ grapes
Cantelope
Carrots w/ ranch
Cheerios Snack Mix
Nut Clusters
Popsicle

:Desserts:
Brownies
Fruit Salad
Popcorn/Crunch-n-Munch
Decorate-your-own-cookie bar (sugar cookies)
Reese's Peanut Butter Cups w/ milk
Strawberry-banana-orange smoothis (YUM)
Fruit parfait w/ yogurt

When you plan your menu around sale items, instead of planning your grocery shopping around you menu, it will make a drastic cut to your grocery bill! You will be using items you already have in your stockpile (so that you can plan to use them before they expire) that you got for a great price and items that are on sale that current week (especially produce/meat/perishables). It's such a great feeling knowing I don't have to make any last minute runs to the store...I already have everything I need and half of the stuff I use was FREE or close to it...totally awesome. :)