Weekly Meal Plan ~ 5/14/12 -- 5/20/12

This week is all about keeping my groceries under budget and I did just that! I allot $75 per week for our groceries and this week I spent $63.27! This is for an entire week of groceries!! If you haven't started meal planning yet, give it a try. It's amazing how much money you will save. I used to spend anywhere from $100-150 a WEEK in groceries and now I've cut that by half!

Here is my meal plan for this week:

Monday: Baked Ziti, Salad, Garlic Bread

Tuesday: Spicy Tomato Soup & Grilled Cheese (Sometimes I add the beans and pasta in this soup and sometimes I don't. It's good either way)

Wednesday: Grilled Chicken, Baked Potato & Sauteed Squash & Zucchini from the garden

Thursday: Mexican Chicken Casserole (I'll try to post this recipe later this week. So easy & so good)

Friday: Sloppy Joes

Saturday: Chow Mein (I'll also post this recipe later this week. It's also very easy & budget friendly)

Sunday: Roast, Pinto Beans & Cornbread (I cook my roast & my beans in my crock-pots. This is also a very easy meal to throw together. I love crock-pot meals on Sundays because I can put them on before church and come home to dinner).

I didn't post breakfast & lunch this week because we hardly ever follow "the plan." But here's what we rotate and eat:

Breakfast: Oatmeal & Toast, Pancakes, Biscuit & Gravy, Toast & Scrambled Egg, Bacon Biscuit, Muffins, Cinnamon Rolls & Fruit.

Lunch: Mac & Cheese, Soup, Fish Sticks, Chicken Nuggets, Hot dogs, Left overs, PB&J.

Snacks: Fruit, Gold Fish, Smoothies, Cereal.

Here's my grocery list:

Spaghetti Sauce, Chicken Breasts (I buy the bagged frozen chicken breasts at Wal-Mart, $6.98. Depending on how much chicken we eat during the week it will usually last for about a week and a half), Chuck Roast, Potatoes, Carrots, Hot dogs, Sweet potatoes, Manwich, Italian Sausage, Cheese, Garlic cloves, Bacon, Apple Juice, Milk 2% & Whole, Sour Cream, Sugar, Drinks (I have to have my caffeine especially in the mornings & this week I bought four 2 liters for $2.00 at Wal-greens using coupons), Orange Juice & Popcorn. Everything else such as the Garlic Bread, pasta, beans, etc. I already had on hand so I didn't have to buy those.

This week I shopped at Save A Lot, Wal-Mart & Walgreen's. I know everyone doesn't have time to go to all three places so this isn't the most practical idea, but when I go grocery shopping & as I call it "coupon shopping," I don't take the kids with me so it's kind of like my free time. I like to go and see how much stuff I can get for pennies on the dollar. lol. So even if you can't or won't go to three different stores, you can still save a ton of money just by planning out your meals. I hope you give it a try.



Party Chicken

It's no secret that I'm addicted to Pinterest!! I LOVE IT!! At night when Ben and I are watching TV, I'm usually half watching and pinning things at the same time. Who said I can't multi-task? lol! One of my favorite things on Pinterest is all the recipes! I blogged about our meal planning here and I said I would post the recipe to the "Party Chicken" so here it goes.

Unfortunately the pin that I pinned (crazy verbiage) did not link me to the actual site (I hope that makes sense). So here's my version of Party Chicken:

Ingredients:

Chicken Breast, cut into tenders or pre-cut Chicken Tenders (not breaded)

Bacon

1 can Cream of Chicken

1 cup Sour Cream

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2. Wrap Chicken tenders with bacon. If the chicken tenders are small cut the bacon in half and wrap it around the chicken

3. Place bacon wrapped chicken in a 9x13 dish

4. Mix sour cream and cream of chicken in a bowl

5. Pour over chicken

6. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until chicken is done

7. Enjoy

(I forgot to take a picture of the chicken until I had almost ate it all, but here it is along with a biscuit and fried okra. Delish.)

The chicken is so good. It's tender and with the bacon... YUMMY!! It's probably one of my favorite meals that I've pinned. We will definitely be adding it to our favorite recipes and meal plan.

Cooking Extravaganza!

Today has been a crazy day! I woke up and found our freezer to be completely thawed out!! Yeah, lots of food, lots of money, I couldn't see it all go to waste so I decided I'd start cooking like a crazed maniac!! lol! It kind of worked out because Ben and I had been talking about setting up a weekly meal plan. I hadn't really given much thought to freezer meals, but let me just say, I'm definitely thinking about it a lot more. I spent about 3&1/2 hours in the kitchen cooking, but I now have SEVEN prepared meals!! SEVEN!! (Actually nine because my Taco Soup & Chili made a double batch)!!

Here's some of the ingredients for all my lovely little meals. :)

I made Tater Tot Casserole (from the Duggar's), Chicken Alfredo Lasagna, Roasted Chicken with Vegetables, Chicken Pot Pie, Taco Soup, Chili and Baked Chicken Parm. (I'll add the other recipes to my recipe blog soon, but I'm a little bit exhausted today). :)

Here's all the food cooling down. YUM!

Packaged up and ready to go into the freezer.

Somehow I managed to fit everything in there.

I definitely think I'm going to like this freezer meal thing. As long as you have a plan in place, it's pretty simple. I think it will help cut down our grocery bill and it will give me more time to spend with my family. I look forward to not being trapped in the kitchen while they're all playing together. Even if we don't stick to the freezer meals, I still plan on using my planner and soon to be Erin Condren planner (thanks to my hubby) to make out our meals hopefully a month in advance.