Menu Monday #21 & Modified Taco Salad Recipe

Welcome to Menu Monday #21!  This week’s menu is chock full of soups, easy prep and my birthday dinner.  Yep, this lady turned the ripe old age of 43 today.  How did I spend it?  Blogging and doing laundry/housework and I LOVED it!!!  Yep, I do enjoying blogging when it is a fun subject like the scarecrow how-to I am sharing for workshop Wednesday and I also enjoy homemaking when it isn’t done in a rush or overly stressful.  Weird?  Maybe.  But it’s the truth.

I am not sharing a weekly shopping trip this week because I made the decision to only buy what we absolutely need to complete our menu.  And to be honest it won’t be much.  We grabbed Gatorades, Soda, Water & Milk over the weekend while they were on sale and I just don’t want to fill the fridge and cabinets before we begin Organized October (details to come). Read more »

Menu Monday #20 & Weekly Shopping Trip

Menu Monday #20

After a crazy week last week that ended with some serious menu adjustments, I am happy to say I believe this week should be fairly smooth sailing despite the virus some of us seem to have.  The jello is already made, menu is set and I am grabbing groceries later today.

I finally began using my Kindle Fire to keep lists on and the results have been AMAZING.  I will share more on why I like it so much soon.

This week isn’t expected to be super busy besides pet visits and babysitting, so I planned a few more time consuming meals full of comfort foods.  It isn’t quite fall temps but we are beginning to enjoy our fall foods anyway?  How about you?  Are you experiencing the exciting foods of fall?  Look for new recipes?  I know we are and I absolutely LOVE the cream cheese icing recipe we used last week.

Check out our Fall Food Pinterest Board and discover even more from warm, cozy drinks to delicious casseroles and desserts, I know we plan to.  Let us know which ones you enjoyed and which ones to avoid!!! Read more »

Monday Menu #19

Ever wonder what else could go wrong in a given week?

This has been one of those weeks for us and it has certainly played havoc on our menu planning and grocery budget.  It began with a family member misplacing our cash envelope system on Friday night.  Then a blown transformer unit on Saturday, resulting in a few hours of lost power and stressed teenagers.  Sunday added even more excitement, as my hubby was grilling 2 lbs of chicken and 2 lbs of hamburger, a big part of the week’s menu plan, when suddenly my girls were getting excited about “a fire”.  Hubby is always creating small grease fires on our propane grill so I didn’t even take a look UNTIL hubby came in to grab the fire extinguisher, and THEN yeah, I became a bit worried.  Thankfully, hubby put the fire out quickly but I didn’t feel it would be wise to feed our little family “grill de’ fire extinguisher” foam.  Needless to say, it was back to the drawing board for this week’s menu, starting with Sunday night.  Then Tuesday night I made a HUGE crock pot of  homemade “chicken pot pie” soup for my food intolerant girls, with the thought that they could eat leftovers during the week when we planned meals on their “no eating” list, BUT when I returned home I discovered  the leftovers were most definitely NOT going to last for even one meal.  THEN my daughter had another mast cell episode late last night and is still battling the effects, so today’s menu has been altered, yet again, to be homemade potato soup, something she can swallow.  

Why did  I share this with you?  Because many of you have asked if we always stick to the menu, and how we accommodate our various challenges each day.  No, we do not always stick to the menu because life changes everyday, but we do try to consume the meals listed sometime during that week in order to reduce food costs, food waste and our grocery budget.

Menu Monday #19

Monday:

Snack:  O.Y.O.

Supper:  Sausage Gravy & Biscuits

Tuesday

Snack:  O.Y.O.

Supper:  Hodge Podge Chicken Soup, Biscuits & Cake

Wednesday

Snack:  Pumpkin Spice Muffins, Applesauce & Milk

Dinner:  Meatballs, Pasta, Garlic Bread, Salad & Cottage Cheese

Thursday

Snack:  Sugar Cookies, Grapes & Apple Cider

Dinner:  Salad & Crepes w/ Chicken, Cheese, Green Onion & Tomatoes

Friday

Snack:  Crackers & Cheese  Picnic @ Park

Dinner:  Surprise

Saturday

Snack:  Ice Cream

Dinner:  Potato Soup, Steaks on the Grill & Deviled Eggs

Sunday

Breakfast:  Pancakes

Lunch:  Family

Snack:  Family

Dinner:  Family

I am excited to say we will be celebrating fall with our nieces and in-laws, so someone else is cooking.  I plan to bring a treat and of course, the often requested deviled eggs.

Breakfast this week will consist of the following choices: Eggo, scrambled eggs, english muffins, cereal or yogurt.  Hubby almost always has sausage, eggs and a bagel/English muffin/toast.

Lunch was expected to be leftovers, boiled eggs or sandwiches.

WHAT ARE YOU SERVING THIS WEEK?

Even with the changes and food loss of Sunday night, we managed to keep our grocery cost to under $80 this week by using what we have and planning ahead.  How is your budget?

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90 Ways We Saved In The Last 90 Days

90 Ways We Saved In The Last 90 Days

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Super Simple Scarecrow How-To w/Printable

This last weekend we enjoyed a visit with my mother, sister and Grandmother and while they were here I decided we should build some scarecrows.  We created three for the yard, which I will share at a later date, and one for my porch.

When I began this project I had NO CLUE how I was going to create, build or make a head for our front porch man.  Read more »

Menu Monday #17

Menu Monday #17

Welcome to Menu Monday #17.  We have a very eclectic menu this week, but everyone in the house should be happy, at least one evening.  We are also serving lots of apples because my wonderful hubby picked a bushel or so at my in-laws this weekend so I could start on our fall freezer cooking.  Apples are a big staple since my daughter adds them to oatmeal, ice cream, pies, pastries, and more.  This year I hope to learn a few new recipes as well.  Follow us on Facebook or Instagram to watch our daily progress as I work at using every bit of our apples efficiently.

Monday:

Breakfast:  Choice- See below

Lunch:  Pizza brought by family.  We made deviled eggs and served chips and veggies with it.

Snack:  O.Y.O.

Supper:  Crock pot Chicken Fajitas

Tuesday

Breakfast:  Choice

Lunch:  Leftovers

Snack:  O.Y.O.

Supper:  Homemade Meatballs, Pasta, Salad & Garlic Bread (on sale this week with Penny Pinchers)

Wednesday

Breakfast:  Choice

Lunch:  Deviled Eggs, Sandwiches & Salad

Snack:  Applesauce, Graham Crackers & Milk

Dinner:  Chicken Breasts, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy, Green Beans, Corn & Homemade Apple Pie

Thursday

Breakfast:  Choice

Lunch:  Leftovers

Snack:  Pumpkin Spice Bread & Milk

Dinner:  French Toast, Bacon, Fruit & Milk

Friday

Breakfast:  Choice

Lunch:  Leftovers

Snack:  Applesauce, Pumpkin Spice Bread, and Milk

Dinner:  Crock pot Potato Soup, Chicken Strips, Apple Pie

Saturday

Breakfast:  Choice

Lunch:  Leftovers

Snack:  Ice cream & Warm Apples

Dinner:  Nachos and 5 Ingredient/5 Minute Nacho Dip- Recipe to follow on Sunday

Sunday

Breakfast:  Pancakes

Lunch:  Leftovers

Snack:  Chips & Dip

Dinner:  Grilled chicken, Burgers & Veggies, Baked Potatoes with all the toppings, Corn on the Cob

I do not have a shopping trip to share this week because hubby went before our guests came on Monday (Labor Day) and I did not pause long enough to take a photo.  I will share that our total purchases came to approx. $110 including meat and dairy items.  We will resume sharing our weekly shopping trips and recipes next week, now that September has begun and our holiday is over.

Breakfast this week is a choice of:  Oatmeal, Scrambled Eggs, Cereal, Eggos or Bagels/English Muffins with Cream Cheese

What is on your menu this week?  Would you like me to share more of the recipes for the dishes I make, or do you prefer to simply see the menu?  Please let us know in the comments and remember to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest to discover more of what we are up to.

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Monday Menu #16

Menu Monday #16

This week is another “Just Make Do” week at our house.

A review of our checkbook when paying some surprise medical bills and medicine “encouraged” me to plan to eat from the cabinets and freezer for the rest of this week.    The only items purchased this week were 2 gallons of milk, 2 dozen eggs, oats & 2 loaves of bread totaling less than $12.00 total.   If it is on the menu this week we already have it OR we will make adjustments to it and use what is on hand.

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August Shopping Trip- Stocking Up

We decided that stocking up on drinks last month was a great idea.  It reduced the amount of extra store trips we made considerably, and helped me manage the overall grocery budget better.  Because of our drink requirements and limitations it takes a considerable amount of our monthly grocery budget ($150/$500).  This month I was able to splurge on the Starbucks Drinks (.50 each) with the money we saved buying in bulk at the beginning of the month.  Besides, it is a much cheaper to put in the fridge and take on doctor’s trips than buying something on the road, and it makes a nice, refreshing treat for the teens and hubby.

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Monday Menu #15- What’s on Your Plate?

I am happy to share, that eating from the cabinets last month went well, but now it is time to restock.  Due to the amount of groceries we purchased this weekend, three carts at Save-a-lot alone, we are sharing our stock up trip in a separate post tomorrow.

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Monday Menu #14-Making Do With What’s On Hand

Menu Monday #14

As we enter week #14 and share our Menu Monday plan, we are wrapping up the end of our one month budgeted grocery period.  During this week we are trying hard to “Just Make Do” with food from the fridge and cabinets.  Keeping this in mind, we will not have a shopping trip to share this week, we didn’t last week either.

I would estimate that we have spent approximately $50 for this week’s groceries.  Those items included: 3 gallons of milk, eggs, cheese, bread, lunch meat, orange juice and a few more dairy products.  Items we were unable to pre-purchase and store in the freezer.

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