All hail the mighty paycheck! We got paid yesterday. So, we have groceries in the house again, which is a relief to say the least :).
This next month (February) is going to be a bit different on the grocery front for me as this is the first month where I planned out my meals a month in advance, so my grocery budget gets kind of screwy as I am picking up things early for things later in the month. For instance, this shopping trip I ended up picking up good salad dressing (Caesar and blue cheese) to use in salads later in the month that are planned on the menu and I also picked up some shaved Parmesan cheese this month to use in said Caesar salad as well because I had a really good price on the salad dressing (2.85 personalized price minus 1.00/1 coupons I had for Litehouse dressings, so I got them for 1.85 per jar) and the cheese (1.87 as it was on sale and also on reduced for 50% off). So I'm kind of pooling my grocery budget for the month and just deducting as I buy things. So far, so good. I budgeted out a "stock up" amount in this paycheck since we had gone so long in between getting paid (and thus shopping trips) and I was under budget, so woohoo for that :).
I'm not sure how complicated I'll be able to get with the menu plan in the next bit. Turns out speech therapy might be off for a while. Our new speech therapist, Christene, who has been doing great with Alvah and such, texted me last week and cancelled speech therapy for the time being as her dad, who has been living with her for the past few years, had a massive stroke (which he's had smaller strokes over the past few years, but this was the most severe one he's had) and now requires 24/7 care and she's trying to get care worked out for him so he's watched and cared for while she works at home. This has been a depressing development, for sure. I feel terrible for her, for one, as taking care of a loved one when their health is failing is super rough. And then a part of me feels like it seems, when it comes to speech therapists, we're cursed or something. I mean as soon as we get a speech therapist, Alvah bonds with them and starts making progress something terrible happens to them and speech is off. It's depressing.
Anyway, back to the matter at hand. For the moment I'm still planning on having speech therapy twice a week just in case things start trucking along again, so I'm planning on utilizing the pressure cooker a lot on those days or even things I can make a day or a few days before and just have it ready to reheat in the oven.
The menu plan last week went awry, but not terribly bad as I was still able to feed everyone and not waste any ingredients or anything. The crepes didn't happen the one night as the son was getting over being sick and was just so busy that I couldn't turn my back on him for two minutes to get crepes made. So, we had ham with au gratin potatoes and veggies instead. My husband went into work early on Monday to do a side project, so we ended up having spaghetti that night instead of enchiladas. I was going to have enchiladas yesterday to make up for it, but the husband's stomach hasn't been feeling great this week, so I pushed off the enchiladas completely till later and we had balsamic chicken thighs with rice last night for dinner (actually my husband had them for lunch at work as his stomach was bugging him and he wasn't hungry at dinner time). Tonight I decided to make the actual item that was on the menu plan and I'll figure out a way to use the leftover re-fried beans and Spanish rice later in the week (since they weren't left over from the enchiladas like I had planned). So, yeah, we did eat this last week and nothing went to waste or anything, so as far as I'm concerned we're all good :).
And now, onto this week's menu!
Wednesday: Grilled honey lime chicken (I used the marinade from the recipe, but used boneless skinless chicken thighs instead of chicken breasts and then we just ate them on the plate instead of in a sandwich type of situation. I also marinated them for an hour in the fridge before frying them versus the 10 minutes she used in the original episode. It was good!), Spanish rice (from the Uncle Ben's mix I had in the pantry), re-fried beans.
Thursday: Ham sandwiches (ham from freezer, sliced) on home made bread. Lettuce as a topping (yay for having fresh produce in the house again!!!) with choice of condiments. Chips.
Friday: Home made pizza and breadsticks (if husband's stomach is still hurting he can have the last piece of leftover chicken in the fridge). Use leftover ham as topping on pizza.
Saturday: Chicken enchiladas with leftover rice and beans. This was originally "Leftovers/Punt" day so this was a good day to move this to.
Sunday: Waffles (from mix in pantry) with fruit topping (pie fillings in pantry. Family's choice on what sounds good to them), sausages
Monday: Sweet and Sour Chicken, rice, garlic green beans
Tuesday: Coconut fish and chicken pieces (I'm adapting a recipe I found and liked in Taste of Home magazine :), oven fries, salad
Desserts: Jello parfaits (Monday, make Sunday), vanilla pudding (Saturday), yogurt parfaits (use leftover fruit topping from waffles, Tuesday. Make yogurt from powdered milk).
Breakfasts: Oatmeal, toast, cereal, yogurt with granola, cinnamon swirl bread (make Thursday).
And there you have it folks. Our menu for the week.
Everything looks yummy! You can freeze the refried beans if you can’t use them fast enough. I add rice to soups (and dog bowls).
ReplyDeleteThat’s too bad about the speech therapist and her father, on all levels.
Debbie
Leftover refried beans plus sour cream or cream cheese makes a great warm bean dip with tortilla chips or crackers!!
ReplyDeleteIt's sure nice when the money comes in! Hope everything will turn out in regards to the speech therapist for you.
ReplyDeleteI'm still making meals from my pantry and freezers to stretch our money. I made 6 packages of Roasted Red Pepper Puree in 2016 and froze them. Although I enjoy peppers, I discovered I'm not fond of the puree so I'm finding ways to mask the flavour somewhat. I found a lovely Roasted Red Pepper Cream Sauce recipe at allrecipes.com a while back, (I added some sauteed onions to it) so I'm making that on Monday.
Sun - if weather is decent, hubby will BBQ pork chops (alternatively, bake in oven); herbed boiled potatoes; maple squash
Mon - Roasted Red Pepper Cream Sauce on Pasta; homemade spinach-herb breadsticks
Tues - Chicken Flautas using homemade corn tortillas; side taco salad
Wed - using another package of red pepper puree, chicken broth and leftover pasta from Monday, transform into Roasted Red Pepper Soup - add frozen greens; leftover breadsticks
Thurs - using my dehydrated potato slices, make Crock Pot Scalloped Potatoes; fried sausages; coleslaw
Fri - Irish Hand Meat Pies (really good - from Martha Stewart); while oven is being used, make Sweet Potato and Apple bake at the same time (Taste of Home); frozen green beans
Sat - homemade baked beans; homemade buns; leftover coleslaw; using frozen cherries make a fruit crisp
Will bake cookies and granola bars for school/work lunches; make warm fruit compotes using home-canned preserves; Chocolate Beet Cake using frozen beet puree; possibly homemade donut holes if I have time. If not, it gets carried into next week.
I really enjoy reading everyone's posts. Have a great week.
Pat, Cda.
Sounds like a yummy week, and thanks for the menu inspo!
ReplyDeleteI'm making my plans for next week's meals, as I'll be on partial bed rest for a few weeks. Given that it's just my DH and I, I tend to make family-size meals and then we freeze the leftovers for other days. And personally, I just eat snack meals and snack on lots of fruits and spoons of pb (need to up my protein intake!).
BREAKFASTS: raspberry yoghurt (with homemade yoghurt, still to make), cereal w/ milk, crepes (still to make) with raspberry jam or maple syrup
LUNCHES: grilled cheese on homemade whole grain bread (bread already in freezer), swiss chard and preserved lemon soup (already made and in fridge), beans n'gravy mini hand pies (I have the beans and pie dough ready, I just need to put them together with some gravy and bake them).
DINNERS: mushroom cheese herb crepes, bacon (pre-cooked and in freezer) & cheese crepes for the DH, pesto pasta bake (already in freezer - http://approachingfood.com/pesto-portobello-pasta-bake/), homemade thin-crust pizza (sauce, cheese, and meat toppings for the DH are already in the freezer, I just need to make the dough).
DESSERT: cinnamon bun bread pudding (using cinnamon buns in my freezer leftover from Christmas breakfast), vegan chocolate loaf cake (with a dash of flavoured balsamic vinegar and some ground hot pepper, for extra flavour)
Yum!