Good Morning Meal Planning

*In my best Ty Pennington voice- GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD MOOORRRNNIINNGG People!!!
I have a lot of big plans for today- Exercising(i have 20 lbs that have to go!) Organizing my linen closet, putting away laundry, and the biggest one- planning out my meals for the next week. Oh the life i live is oh so exciting. Lol! I find that if I don't plan out my meals, I am completely useless at the grocery store. I get a bunch of stuff that sounds good, but even if I do buy meat with intention of making (insert really awesome sounding recipe here) then when I look up said recipe on the day of, I am always missing one ingredient. Which means a quick run up to the store, where I notice that Cheez-its are on sale, who cares if I just bought a box of Scrabble Cheez-its because Miss M has a new obsession with Scrabble, these are on sale... Oh Look! Chocolate! And before I know it a 3 dollar shopping trip turned into a 30 dollar one.

So every Thursday morning, I pour myself a glass of iced Earl Grey tea and get to work. I look at the grocery ads for the week and see what is on sale. We do one meatless day a week minimum. I am not a fan of heavy meats (beef and pork) in general so we try to not do a whole lot of those. I am cooking for some picky eaters (not my kids, my bff/roommate's) so I am a bit limited in trying new exciting recipes, unless I have chicken nuggets on standby. I dont like to do that though because then my kids see the chicken nuggets and say "Well that does sound more appealing than these tofu lettuce wraps Mom is making!" So I save the adventurous nights for when it is just us.

After I look at our grocery ads for the week, I go to my cookbooks or online for recipe inspiration. Usually my searches include "cheap and easy" so a lot of the recipes I post on here will be both cheap and easy.

This is what this last week looked like for us. It was pretty typical for us, except it was New Years eve and we hosted a get together, so our grocery bill was a bit more than usual...

Friday-We went out to try the new Italian restaurant in our small town. 2 star service, 5 star food. It was very good. (Except the fact that not only did they not have balsamic vinegar, the waitress didn't even know what it was?!)

Saturday- Pork Chops (at the request of the kiddos) veg medley and couscous.

Sunday- Black bean and cheese burritos and spanish brown rice, roasted cauliflour.

Monday- NYE- Pasta and Salad for dinner, and the appetizers I made included sausage dip, cream cheese mints, cookies, Alton Brown's homemade guacamole, and salsa and chips.

Tuesday- Shrimp in a lemon butter garlic sauce served over brown rice, roasted carrots.

Wednesday- Today was "use up all the little meats in the freezer" day. When I buy large packages of meat I usually have one or two pieces that I don't use because it is too much for us, but the smaller ones aren't big enough. Tonight I made Hoisin-glazed Tilapia, Grilled chicken, burgers and hot dogs all on my indoor grill. Served it with a full salad bar and sour cream and onion mashed potatoes. Pick your own meal kind of meal. I was proud that Miss M chose fish and a burger. Not suprised that Mr A chose a hot dog. (Theyre nirtate free turkey dogs,so I dont feel so bad)

Thursday- This is today! On the menu is Roasted Chicken legs, couscous and Salad.


Salisbury Steak has been requested on the menu this week, so I will go through and find a good sale on ground beef. After I plan out the menu for the week, I like to go to pennypinchinmom.com and look for coupons for all the filler stuff I need- snacks, yogurt is big in our house, tp and paper towels, etc. Looking at the grocery ads, the winner for this week is Price Chopper. Not only do they have family packs of ground beef for 1.99/lb but they have chicken breasts for 1.69/lb and blueberries for 1.99 and shred. cheese on sale for 1.69! I like price chopper not only because I can save on gas (Yes i am aware hyvee does this now too) but my kids love to find that chicken they hide throughout the store (His name used to be Peep but now its Clifford. He had an identity crisis, like so many paper chickens go through. Sad, really.) If they find him they get free stuff. Once it was a lunchable, once an orange, on time they each got a whole box of hot chocolate. Worth the search!)

So, according to the sale ads this is what our menu looks like for this week-

Friday- Salisbury Steak

Saturday- Crock pot shredded chicken tacos

Sunday- Homemade chicken noodle soup

Monday- Monday is Cheer Night, we are at the gym from 5 to 8. I have to make something that can be brought to the gym and eaten on the bleachers with minimum mess. Ziploc's divided rectangles are the container of choice for this. Every week they line up on the bleachers and eat dinner. Some people are impressed, some people are ticked I am taking up space. It's purely out of necessity! I cant feed them before (too early, they get off the bus at 4 and we leave at 4:25) and if i wait to feed them after not only would they be grumpy but they would have to go to bed with full bellies,and probably have nightmares and keep me up all night.) So this monday it's breakfast burritos for dinner with a fruit salad and yogurt.

Tuesday- Roasted Chicken salad in pita bread

Wednesday- Open faced tuna melts

Thursday- Homemade loaded veggie pizza with homemade grilled pizza crust.

I dont usually plan my side dishes, the kids do the day of. I ask Miss M what she would think would go well with what we are having. I try to have most kind of frozen veggies, fresh fruit and veggies, stuffing, couscous, brown rice, baking and sweet potates avaliable for her to choose from. She is to pick at least one veggies and one other thing.

Thats my meal planning technique! Pretty easy, only takes about 20 minutes out of my week. Breakfat choices are Cereal, oatmeal (Which i think will happen a lot this week now that blueberies are on sale!) smoothies (Love my immersion blender!) french toast, homemade waffles and pancakes (I usually spend a morning every few weeks making a bunch for the freezer, no Eggos for us- homemade waffles can be frozen and popped in the toaster just as easily, for cheaper and less preservatives and crap i cannot pronounce) or eggs eggs eggs. I have egg crazy kids! Lunches are a whole seperate post. :)


Off to start my day!!! <3 Jessica