Menu plan 6-10-13: The costs of not planning meals

I haven't posted a meal plan in a few weeks.  I figured, since I seem to plan the same stuff over and over again, why do I need to plan meals?

But here's some of the costs of not planning:

• Leftovers didn't get used up and ended up being thrown away.  What a waste of money!  
• Vegetables went bad in the crisper instead of being used for healthy meals.
• My kids asked for certain meals, and since I didn't have specific plans in mind, I made what they asked for.  Those meals might not have been as healthy as the ones I would have planned.
• I was really tempted to get takeout.  I didn't cave in, but I easily could have.

So I'm back to planning again!

Here's this week's plan:

Monday - Creamy Garlic Shells with Salmon, Caesar salad

Tuesday - hamburgers, baked tortilla chips, veggie sticks

Wednesday - Cannelini and Feta Casserole, salad

Thursday - Veggie Burritos

Friday -  breaded chicken strips, pasta with garlic and oil, salad, challah

Saturday - grilled cheese with tomato soup

Sunday - takeout

See Menu Plan Monday for more menus!

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Menu Plan 5-13-13: Chicken and more chicken!

Right now, we have a lot of chicken in the house.  I bought a family pack of chicken breasts recently, and we have a whole chicken in the freezer.  So we'll be eating a lot of chicken a couple times this week! 

Here's this week's plan:

Monday - chicken and veggie stir-fry with rice

Tuesday - 3 Can Veggie Chili over pasta

Wednesday - fish fillets, tortilla chips, veggie sticks

Thursday - Veggie Burritos

Friday -  roast chicken, salad, tabbouleh

Saturday - tortellini, salad

Sunday - takeout

See Menu Plan Monday for more menus!

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Menu Plan 4/29/13: Delicious fish!

Sea Cuisine fish fillets were on sale this week at Publix, and there's a $2.00/1 HIGH LINER® SEA CUISINE® product coupon for them, so I stocked up!  We'll be eating them twice this week because they are sooooo good!

Here's this week's plan:

Monday - Sea Cuisine Potato-Crusted Cod, salad

Tuesday - 3 Can Veggie Chili over pasta

Wednesday - Veggie Burritos

Thursday - Sea Cuisine Tortilla-Crusted Tilapia, pasta with garlic and oil, salad

Friday -  roast chicken, tabbouleh

Saturday - black bean nachos (recipe forthcoming)

Sunday - takeout

See Menu Plan Monday for more menus!

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Menu plan 4-22-13: Breakfast party

This weekend is the birthday party for our youngest child.   We're having a bunch of her friends over for a breakfast party!  The kids will eat breakfast in their pajamas and do some activities she's created.  Should be fun!  And that should mean lots of breakfast leftovers for dinner on Saturday night!

Here's this week's plan:

Monday - Mango Chile Meatballs with salad

Tuesday  - Char Crust Salmon and Vegetables

Wednesday - 3 Can Veggie Chili

Thursday - Veggie Burritos

Friday - roasted chicken, pasta with garlic and oil, salad

Saturday - breakfast party leftovers (recipes upcoming!)

Sunday - takeout

See Menu Plan Monday for more menus!

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Menu plan 4-15-13: Birthday dinner

We have a birthday in the house this week - my youngest daughter is turning eight!  She loves my homemade chicken strips and French fries, so that's what we'll be making her for her special dinner!

Here's this week's plan:

Monday - black bean chili with pasta

Tuesday  - dinner at friends' home

Wednesday - hamburgers, veggie sticks

Thursday - veggie burritos

Friday - chicken strips, homemade french fries, veggie sticks

Saturday - ravioli with alfredo sauce, Caesar salad

Sunday - dinner out!

See Menu Plan Monday for more menus!

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Menu plan 4-8-13: Cheap meals out

A few weeks ago, a reader noted that we eat out or get takeout most Sunday nights and asked for tips on eating out cheap.  Here are a few strategies we use to get coupons and gift cards for restaurants:

• Major restaurant chains often have coupons available in the Sunday coupon inserts.  We regularly find coupons for restaurants like Sweet Tomatoes (my children's favorite!) and Steak 'N Shake.  
• Another source for restaurant coupons are those in local newspapers and magazines.  We get a local free newspaper every week, and several magazines covering my city come out each month.  There are often good coupons in these mailers.
• Also, we often get mailed sets of coupons for all sorts of services, including restaurants.
• Sometimes we even get small gift certificates to restaurants in the mail!
• Some restaurants offer printable coupons if you join their email list.  For instance, Hardee's is currently offering a free small fries and drink when you order their 1/3 lb. hamburger, and Jamba Juice is offering a 16 oz smoothie for only $2.00.  Check restaurant websites for more offers like these.
• Restaurant.com sells $25 restaurant gift certificates for $10 or less.  You have to read the fine print, though - sometimes there is a minimum table order of $35 or even $50.
• Also look for restaurant gift card giveaways on blogs.  Enter them, and with a little luck, you might win!  Frugal Follies will be hosting a giveaway for a LongHorn Steakhouse gift card soon - be on the lookout for that!

Here's this week's plan:

Monday - Picadillo over brown rice

Tuesday  - black bean chili over pasta

Wednesday - Char Crust Salmon and Vegetables with bread

Thursday - veggie burritos

Friday - baked chicken breasts, pasta with garlic and oil, salad

Saturday - macaroni and cheese, veggie sticks

Sunday - takeout!

See Menu Plan Monday for more menus!

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Menu plan 4-1-13: Pasta, bread, and more!

Passover ends on Tuesday night, and I can't wait.  Eating matzah and other holiday foods is fun for a little while, but by the end of the holiday, I can't wait to get back to eating bread again.

Here's this week's plan:

Monday - Still Passover: turkey soup with matzah balls, salad

Tuesday  - Passover is over! Pasta, pasta, and more pasta! and Caesar salad

Wednesday - Char Crust Salmon and Vegetables with bread

Thursday - 3 Can Veggie Chili over brown rice

Friday - baked chicken breasts, pasta with garlic and oil, salad

Saturday - grilled cheese with tomato soup

Sunday - dinner out!

See Menu Plan Monday for more menus!

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Menu plan 3-25-13: Lots of leftovers

Happy Passover!  We will be attending a family seder on Monday, but we are holding the Passover seder at our house on Tuesday night.  I'll be doing lots of cooking over the next two days, but we'll have a wonderful holiday dinner and lots of leftovers for the next few days!

Here's this week's plan:

Monday - Seder with relatives; I am bringing a tossed salad

Tuesday  - Seder: chicken soup with matzah balls, gefilte fish, roasted turkey breast, potato knishes, apple matzah kugel, tossed salad, fruit, Passover brownies, chocolate chip meringue cookies

Wednesday - salads with leftover turkey and hard-boiled eggs

Thursday - Passover "Macaroni" and Cheese, leftover fruit

Friday - baked chicken breasts, leftover knishes and apple kugel, salad

Saturday - matzah lasagna

Sunday - hamburger patties, homemade French fries, veggie sticks

See Menu Plan Monday for more menus!

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Menu plan 3-18-13: Cleaning out the fridge

Here at the Frugal Follies household, we have Passover coming up in one week.  Where did the time go?

It's time to use up what's in the fridge, as well as open packages in the cupboard!

Here's this week's plan:

Monday - baked salmon marinated in raspberry dressing, macaroni and cheese, salad

Tuesday  - chicken marinated in sundried tomato dressing, spaghetti with garlic and olive oil

Wednesday - dinner salads

Thursday - Veggie Burritos

Friday - baked chicken breasts, spaghetti with garlic and oil, salad, challah

Saturday - whatever's still in the fridge

Sunday - takeout

See Menu Plan Monday for more menus!

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Menu plan 3-11-13: Emptying the fridge door

Here at the Frugal Follies household, we have Passover coming up in two weeks.  Two weeks?  Holy cow!

So it's time to start getting rid of products containing bread as well as wheat, oats, and other grains from our refrigerator and freezer, as well as open packages in the cupboards.  It's sort of like an eat from the pantry challenge.

The most important things to get rid of are the items in the refrigerator door.  They're rarely used, so it's hard to get rid of them, and I hate to throw food out!

So we'll be planning meals this week to use up some of the sauces, dressings, and other foods in the fridge door!

Here's this week's plan:

Monday - baked salmon marinated in raspberry dressing, ditalini pasta salad

Tuesday  - taco salads

Wednesday - buffalo chicken wings, cut-up veggies

Thursday - Veggie Burritos

Friday - Honey Mustard Herb Chicken, orzo, salad, challah

Saturday - Bailey's Irish Cream French Toast

Sunday - takeout

See Menu Plan Monday for more menus!

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Menu plan 3-4-13: Breakfast for dinner

One of my favorite things to do for a Saturday night dinner (besides going out to a restaurant, of course!) is to make breakfast for dinner.

Everyone loves it, and since most recipes are based on eggs or flour, it's pretty cheap to make!

Here are a few of my favorite breakfast-for-dinner meals:

• Bailey's Irish Cream French Toast
• Banana-Blueberry Whole Wheat Pancakes
• Banana Fritters
  
• Blintz Souffle
• Breakfast Egg Casserole
  
• Hash Brown Potato Casserole
  
• Oven-Baked Banana French Toast

And I'll be making another favorite for Saturday night dinner as well!

Here's this week's plan:

Monday - Picadillo over rice

Tuesday  - 3 Can Veggie Chili with rolls

Wednesday - macaroni and cheese, fruit salad

Thursday - Veggie Burritos

Friday - Chicken Broth with Matzo Balls, baked chicken, salad, challah

Saturday - Whole Wheat Waffles, fruit

Sunday - takeout

See Menu Plan Monday for more menus!

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Menu plan 2-25-13: Lots of fresh pasta

At Publix last week, by combining a sale with coupons,  I was able to purchase six packages of fresh pasta for only 15¢ each!

So those will be featured in this week's recipes.  One night I'll make meatballs and serve them with fresh linguini.  Another night, I'll make one of my favorite dishes, fettuccine Alfredo!

Here's this week's plan:

Monday - linguini and meatballs

Tuesday  - potato-crusted cod, salad

Wednesday - White Beans with Peppers over brown rice

Thursday - pizza bagels, fruit

Friday - Chicken Broth with Matzo Balls, baked chicken, salad, challah

Saturday - Fettuccine Alfredo, Caesar salad

Sunday - takeout

See Menu Plan Monday for more menus!

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Menu plan 2-18-13: Returning to normal

Dinner was crazy last week, but with my daughter's play ending, it's back to normal...well, as normal as it ever was.

We still have an activity Tuesday night, so dinner has to be made early that day.  And we have activities all afternoon on Thursdays, so dinner needs to be made in the early afternoon and then reheated very quickly.

But I'll be able to make a normal dinner at least a few nights a week!

Here's this week's plan:

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Menu plan 2-11-13: Crazy dinner week

Dinner is going to be real crazy this week.

My eldest's play is this week, so she will completely miss dinner pretty much every night.  But of course she'll come home and be starving, so I'll be serving her really, really late.

Secondly, it's Valentine's Day on Thursday!  So I'll be serving the younger two kids their own meal, then serving a special dinner for my husband and me... assuming that I don't have to pick up my eldest in the middle of the meal.

And then we are attending the play one night, so that means a really, really early meal that night.

Like I said, crazy!

Here's this week's plan:

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Menu plan 2-4-13: Two dinner shifts

This week, dinner will be in two shifts.  My eldest daughter is in a school play which they will perform next week, so her practices will be going very late, into the dinner hour.  So I'll be making dinner early every night, and feeding my younger two daughters before it's time to pick the eldest up.  Then after we get home, she, my husband, and I will be having a late dinner.

This is a bit of a pain, but better than just waiting to pick her up and then starting dinner after that!

Here's this week's plan:

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Menu plan 1-28-13: Appetizers for dinner

It's Super Bowl time! That means it's time for my favorite meal of the year: appetizers for dinner!

I make several different types of appetizers.  My absolute favorite is Jalapeno Poppers.  Jalapenos stuffed with cream and cheddar cheeses, rolled in bread crumbs, and fried golden brown.  I'm getting hungry just writing about it!

I make a couple plates of nachos - one with just cheese for the kids and another with the works for my husband and me.  I make some Bruschetta and Garlic Cheesy Bread, too. And of course I make a big plate of veggie sticks with some dip.  It's certainly not the most nutritious meal, but everyone loves it! 

Here's this week's plan:

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Menu plan 1/21/13: More challenging meal planning

As I mentioned last week, I've been really looking at how much sugar my family consumes.  I'm doing this because of a book I read,  Fat Chance: Beating the Odds Against Sugar, Processed Food, Obesity, and Disease by Robert H. Lustig, M.D.  I highly recommend it!

Unfortunately, following the suggestions means that we'll be cutting white flour and sugar products back to maybe one time per week.  That means big pasta meals, breakfast for dinner (too much syrup!), and a lot of my other favorite meals will be severely limited.  Sigh.

Oh, well, it just makes for more challenging meal planning!

Here's this week's plan:

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Menu plan 1-14-13: Cutting out the sugar

This weekend, I dove into a new book: Fat Chance: Beating the Odds Against Sugar, Processed Food, Obesity, and Disease by Robert H. Lustig, M.D.

It's made me understand more about the biochemical processes that cause us to overeat and gain fat, and I've learned more about sugar's role in harming our health.

I honestly never realized how much sugar is in manufactured food.  Take the peanut butter and jelly sandwich my kids often eat for lunch.  The bread has corn syrup, the peanut butter has sugar, and the jelly has high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, AND sugar in it!  I think they do that so that they can list the fruit as the first ingredient, when if you total up all the types of sugar, there is far more sugar than fruit in the jelly.

So I'll be taking common-sense measures to cut sugar from our family's diet.  I'm not going to go crazy and throw out all the sugar-filled items in our pantry and replace them with expensive, non-sugar alternatives.  But we will make gradual changes.  For instance, I've decided that the kids should have only have one small glass of juice in the morning; otherwise, they will be drinking plain milk or water.  And when I buy items with coupons, I'll check to see their sugar levels before purchasing.  No more buying sugared cereal, no matter how cheap it is.

And for dinner, we'll be cutting down on the sweet stuff and the white flour stuff.  It makes for more challenging menu planning, but I'm up for it.

Here's this week's plan:

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Menu plan 1-7-13: Why are my meal plans so boring?

After I posted last week's meal plan, I received a comment saying that my meal plan was boring, that I repeated the same meals over and over. And it said some other rude things, which is why I decided not to publish the comment.

But it got me thinking about the benefits of a boring meal plan:

• You know how to make the meals even when you're exhausted.  Trying new things is great but when time is short, it's great to have some tried and true meals to make.
• You know your picky eaters will eat the meals.
• You don't have to have as many ingredients on hand when you repeat meals week to week.  I can use the small amount of kitchen storage space to store the items that I know I'll be using, and buy many of each item instead of lots of different things.
• For me, the most expensive part of the meal is meat.  Because I buy kosher and try to stay under $5 per pound, that pretty much limits me to chicken, ground beef, and fish fillets.  So most of my meals are based on those proteins, as well as beans.  I don't have as much variety as someone who can purchase different types of meat on sale at the grocery store or a wholesale club.

So if you like a meal planner that varies every week for a year, this is not a good resource for you.  But if you want to make meals that are easy and cheap, then read on!

Here's this week's plan:

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Menu plan 12-31-12: Back on the diet again!

On Sunday, I restarted my diet plan that worked so well for me in 2011.  From January through August that year, I lost 28 pounds by cutting carbohydrate foods, other than beans, for six days a week.  That means, no pasta, no rice, no bread, no fruit, no dairy products other than cottage cheese. I ate lots of eggs, veggies, and meat, as well as beans in moderation.  And I drank lots of and lots of water.

And then one day a week, I ate whatever I wanted.

So I'll be back on that... which means I have to menu plan even more!  No making a pot of spaghetti on a day when I haven't had much time to think, much less cook.

Here's the plan:

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