Menu: Nov 26 through Nov 30

What a great Thanksgiving week!  I cannot believe how quickly it flew by.  Back to reality.  We did get the tree set up this last weekend and are in the process of decorating.  It's sort of like I have to go back after my 2 elves decorate to make sure the branches aren't going to fall off because of all the weight.  Here is what I'm planning on cooking this week:

Monday: Leftover Thanksgiving Dinner
Tuesday: Ham and Egg Sandwiches (they never got made last week)
Wednesday: Basil Pesto Chicken Pasta
Thursday: Deer Tacos
Friday: Red-Sauce Free Pizza (I'm gonna work on this one this week)

If you can't tell, I have to be a little careful about what I'm eating because of MJ #2.  She's sensitive on a few things.  Pasta sauce is one of them.  She really is not a fan!

So that's this weeks plan!  I braved Walmart today with MJ #1&2 and survived!  We were out quick though - just an apple juice, milk, bread sort of trip.  And carrots - because MJ #1 watched Yo Gabba, Gabba and they were eating carrots.  So she said she needed some too!

Menu: November 15 through November 23

So I'm on a mission - clean out our freezer/deep freeze/cupboard.  There is SO much food in these three areas in our house!  I wonder why I go to the store and buy things sometimes because I have a lot of stuff right there in the freezer that is capable of being eaten.  Plus, if we don't eat some of it soon it's not going to be very good.  So, I inspected these spots and came up with a menu (minus Thanksgiving - I obviously had to purchase a few things for that!). The object is to purchase as little as possible at the store and use up what we have.  Just think of it as an early spring cleaning :)

So here it goes!  Here is what we're having for the next 7 days:

Thursday (Yesterday): Beef Fajitas
Friday: Deer Burgers/Fries
Saturday: Chicken Fried Chicken/Corn/Mashed Potatoes
Sunday: Ham/Egg Sandwiches
Monday: Parmesan Tilapia BLT's
Tuesday: Velveeta Chicken and Broccoli Skillet
Wednesday: Breakfast for dinner
Thursday: Thanksgiving! Turkey, Cheesy Cornbread Stuffing, Mom's Green Beans, Mashed Sweet Potatoes, Cranberries, Rolls, Pumpkin Pie, and Pecan Pie
Friday: Leftovers! :)

For recipes not linked above for Thanksgiving I'll try and type those up this weekend so they're there a little early.  All are super easy.  It's going to be a traditional Thanksgiving meal for us this year.  Nothing fancy :) I'm pumped!

I have returned. Menu 10/21-10/27

Umm, yes.  I let the fast pace of life get the best of me.  I am back though and hoping that things sort of settle into a groove again.  I have done a lot of things in the last month and stayed pretty busy with school.  I have a lot of things that I want to do and therefore I am back to chronicle my journey, which hopefully doesn't flop under the pressure.

Here is our menu that starts tonight - I know its a little odd to start a menu on a Friday, but hey - at least I'm starting one, people.

Friday: Hoagie Bake (will post recipe later - this is really good and easy)

Saturday: Taco Soup

Sunday:  Beef Fajitas

Monday: Greek Chicken Burgers

Tuesday: Growth Group (I will explain this later)

Wednesday: Meatballs and Pasta

Thursday: Chili

Tonight's dinner is already in the oven.  I guess it might be slightly easier to plan this and execute starting on the weekend.  The follow through just may not be there come Monday.  We shall see.

Weekly Menu - September 4

I didn't post this last week.  Was a little crazy with JJ's birthday and the 2nd week of school.  Hoping things settle down and I'm able to catch up with my blogging!  Here is this weeks menu:

Sunday: Stuffed French Toast and Sausage

Monday: Lemon-Sage Chicken with Green Beans

Tuesday: Thanksgiving Feast! Turkey, Cheesy Cornbread Stuffing, Green Beans, Rolls, Cranberry Sauce, and Pumpkin Pie

Wednesday: Turkey Sandwiches

Thursday: Southwest Chicken Stromboli

Friday: TBD (But probably a repeat of Tuesday!)

Hopefully we'll see how I fair this week.  Things should be starting to get into a routine and I should be able to catch up.  Since it was a holiday weekend this weekend I tried to get ahead with my school work too so I'm not stressed about that as much.

Next thing will be getting my couponing back in order.  Haven't stressed too much about saving a dollar when I'm pulling in a paycheck now.  But would be nice to start having some extra cash! 

Menu - August 22

Here is what I have for this week.  Last week was a bust with my root canal and school prep.  Hoping this week is also not a bust since I'm exhausted from this morning.  We shall see!

Monday: Breakfast for dinner - Waffles, Bacon & Eggs

Tuesday:  Slow Cooker King Ranch Chicken

Wednesday: (church night) Velveeta BBQ Chicken Skillet

Thursday: Grilled Italian Meatball Burgers

Friday:  Oven Baked Tilapia with Lemon-Tomato Fettucine

Hope these work out.  I have very low motivation right now.  Plus, I am having an open house on Saturday - so prep for food, cleaning, etc has to be done this week as well.  I know I can do it.  I need to think positively! 

Weekly Menu - August 14

This is the last week of summer!  I tried to come up with some things that would be easy and mindless.  Hope I succeeded - I know I will be stressed with other stuff, like getting my room ready for teaching.  Today I'm at home because I have a dentist appointment at lunch.  I'll be spending the rest of the week up there though!  Parent night is Thursday!

Here is what we have planned:

Sunday - Out

Monday - Buffalo Chicken Pizza

Tuesday - BBQ Sausage, Potato Salad (possibly)

Wednesday - Chicken Parmigiana, Pasta

Thursday - Parent Night @ School (Probably out, or leftovers)

Friday - Fish Tacos (This is for JJ)

For lunches we have some sandwich meat and I was going to make some pasta salad.

I feel like I'm a little jumbled this week with all the things that are going on.  I am really going to try and keep this menu in place, but being exhausted might change a few things up.  Hoping it doesn't though.

Hope everyone has a great week.  Would love to hear what's on your menu!!

Weekly Menu - August 7

A few days late, I had this planned on Saturday and just never got it on here.  I will give you what I wrote and cross out what we didn't do and tell you what changed.  Make sense?  I'm sleepy :) Changes are in red.

Sunday - Pasta, Homemade Focaccia

Monday - Chicken Sausage, Potato Salad  Eat Out @ Whataburger (Doctors appts ran too long!)

Tuesday - Brisket, Potato Salad Chicken Sausage, Gran's Beans

Wednesday - Chicken & Broccoli Skillet

Thursday - Fajitas, Gran's Beans

Friday - TBD Brisket, Potato Salad, Gran's Beans

Saturday - TBD

This is a typical week.  Everything gets changed around.  Being sick and on antibiotics really doesn't lend to eating anything.  You just sort of lose your appetite.  MJ and I are both feeling that.  And I'm on some serious decongestant so I'm sleeping like a rock at night and then getting up still feeling sleepy.  Only 8 more days of this!  Yea!

Hoping the rest sort of stays put.  Saturday I have church instead of tonight, so it will need to be something quick.  May be a pizza night :)  We'll see!

Cool Cooking - Menu for the Remainder of Week: August 1

I know its been a few days since I have posted.  I was lucky enough to have my in-laws to come visit for a few days and spend some time with the kids.  We did some fun things around the house and ventured to the Natural Science Museum in Jackson.  It was a good time.  Back to a schedule starting today - MJ is already down for her nap this morning.  Hoping to reset some clocks (including mine).

It is so dang hot.  I'm sure if you're anywhere in the south and some of the north you have been experiencing this ridiculous heat wave.  Thankfully in our part of MS the afternoons were broken up with some afternoon thunderstorms last week.  Not so much this week.  We have been sizzling all through the day, where its not even tolerable to be outside at all until the sun has basically gone down.  Right now, at 1025am, it is 89F outside - but it feels like 102F.  Only going up from here.  Our poor a/c is struggling to keep up.  It can't get our hallway below 80F in the afternoon - and our hallway is completely insulated.  So I know the rooms and the kitchen are a good 5-10 degrees warmer.

I decided to focus my menu for today through Sunday on cooking cool.  I know, my cooking is cool, but I'm referring to cooking without heat, or as little heat as possible, or cooking outdoors on the grill to keep the heat outside.  I'm still trying to keep my food simple, clean, and mostly healthy.  I can't resist fried foods every once in awhile - sue me.

Here's what I wrote down last night.  Hoping that we can make this work for this week.

Thursday: Greek Hot Dogs, Potato Salad

Friday: Tacos, Homemade Guacamole, Rice

Saturday: Roasted Pepper & Onion Chicken Sausage, Potato Salad

Sunday: Mom's Meatballs and Pasta

I'm going to try and pre-make the meatballs for Sunday tomorrow morning.  I'm going to make 2.5 pounds of meatballs - freezing probably around 1 pound.  We plugged in our deep freeze so I have plenty of room to store now :)

Should be a good couple of days.  We have been eating out lately because of the heat and company.  Going to refocus my energy and get back to cooking.  Got to be creative with this heat!  GOODNESS!!

Weekly Menu - July 24

Let's try this again.  I made a menu for this past week and did not follow it.  At all.  Just too much going on, still trying to get back into the swing of things from Texas, my parents were here in MS, and Brandon is gone.  TOO much.

So, there will be some repeats on this weeks menu that were there last week that never got made.  We'll try again.

Sunday: Leftovers

Monday: BLT Mac & Cheese

Wednesday: Breakfast for dinner - French Toast Stratas, Bacon, Fruit

Thursday: Shrimp Po'Boys

Friday: Beany Chicken Tacos

Saturday: Off

Gonna try hard to stick to this. We shall see!

Weekly Menu - July 17

Back to the grind! Brandon is leaving Monday, but my parents are coming in Tuesday. I'm a little rusty, but wanted to try some new things this week since I've had plenty of time to look at good food magazines!

I know right before vacation I was doing themed days. I'm going to suspend that for this week to make it less complicated. There will also probably be one night that we eat out, so I'll just include one night as 'off'.

Sunday: On the road. Eating out!

Monday: Grilled Cheese

Tuesday: BLT Mac n Cheese

Wednesday: Beany Chicken Tacos

Thursday: Shrimp Po'Boys

Friday: Off

Saturday: Breakfast for dinner - French Toast Stratas, Bacon, and Fruit

Always subject to change. Looks good though!

Weekly Menu - June 26

Look at me! I'm ahead of schedule! WOOT!

So, the themes worked fairly well last week!  Sort of excited about the possibility of making that work every week.

But of course this week is going to be different because FRIDAY we are driving to Texas.  Woohoo!

So, here's what I have scheduled for Sunday - Thursday this week.  Easy stuff since I'll be sort of stressed with cleaning and packing.

Sunday: Marinated Salmon and Fresh Vegs on the Grill (because I didn't get to that last night)

Monday: BBQ Bakers

Tuesday: Bruschetta Chicken Bake; Salad

Wednesday: Lemon Cream Pasta with Chicken

Thursday: BLT&E

Easy, and probably cheap week.  If I look at this menu here is what I'm going to estimate as my grocery bill (Sunday's meal already bought):

Potatoes - $3.00
BBQ Meat: $5.00
Chicken: $10
Bag Salad: $3.50
Produce: $10
Bread: $4

Just dinners I'm estimating around $35.50.  I'll need to buy some necessities and trip stuff, so I'm thinking I can stick with around $125 this week.  Let's see! :)

Weekly Menu - June 19

I think this is the trend - posting the menu on Monday :)

Here is what I think we're going to eat this week.  Seems like last week was a little off.  The House Party threw me off I guess :)

I have toyed around with the idea of doing 'theme' days.  I was struggling last night with trying to decide what to cook, and I thought if each day of the week had a theme, then maybe I could narrow down my massive recipe collection to a certain area.  So, I'm going to try this.  Not sure it will stick, but its worth a shot! And by giving it a theme I'm not saying I have to 100% stick to it - if things work out and I have to switch stuff, then I have to switch it :)  I'm not that OCD!

Here's what I have:

Sunday (Breakfast Night): Breakfast Tacos with Homemade Potato Hash

Monday (Sandwich Night): Fried Green Tomato Shrimp Po'boys (this is going to be ambitious!); Onion Rings

Tuesday (Italian Food Night): Homemade Pizza

Wednesday (On-the-Go Night): Ham & Egg Sandwiches; Chips

Thursday (Mexican Food Night): Burritos; Jalapeno Lime Refried Beans

Friday (All-American Night): Grilled Portabello & Cheese Sandwiches; Sweet Potato Fries

Saturday (Grill Night): Grilled Fish of the Week; Grilled Fresh Vegetables

Hope these make it.  I really like what I plan and then get disappointed when life moves to fast and I can't keep up.  Hopefully these theme nights will make it a little more fun for me.

I will also keep doing my budgeting for each meal.  I am setting my limit @ $125 this week - finding out quickly that $100 didn't get it done.  Hope that works!

Let me know what yall are eating!  I love hearing what other people are cooking in their kitchen :)

Weekly Menu - June 12

Again, a day behind.  The only time I got to sit down and actually make the menu was at 1030pm last night when everything calmed down.

Here's what we're having (It seems to be partially Mexican themed this week, not sure why):

Sunday: Chicken Fried Chicken, Roasted Red Potatoes, Peas

Monday: Fold Over Tortillas, Rice (Because it never made it last week)

Tuesday: Grilled Tilapia Tacos; Refried Beans

Wednesday: Dilly Turkey Burgers; Sweet Potato Fries

Thursday: Breakfast Tacos; Homemade Hash

Friday:  Kid's Night Out @ Church!!! :)

Saturday: Grilled Cheese (I'm gonna make it special - not sure how I'll spice it up yet!)

I just got home from the store buying the things I needed for this week.  I spent $84.

I just updated this from earlier - I forgot we have Kid's Night Out at Church this week!  So from 6-8pm on Friday JJ & MJ will be entertained for FREE while we go out to dinner.  Papa John's will just have to wait until next week :)