Monday, March 08, 2010

Menu Plan - March 7 to 13

We've been trying to cut down on some of our spending on food (mostly on eating out) for the last 10 months or so and while we were doing great for quite some time, we've fallen off the wagon recently.  Any success that we did have with cutting down food spending I mostly attribute to the 15 minutes we spent every Sunday night planning out our meals for the week before hitting the grocery store the next evening.  This tactic definitely meant enduring the bummer of grocery shopping on a regular schedule but I am pretty certain the benefit of this weekly trip was an average of at least $40 in weekly savings at the grocery store as well as another $60 per week on eating out!  Which makes it worth it in my books...

Since returning from Mexico almost a month ago though, we've been slackers with the menu and our budget - and waistlines - have suffered.  In fact, last week we didn't even bother with a menu plan before heading to the grocery store and let me tell you, it was madness - complete madness!  We spent well over our usual budget and didn't end up with much food that actually fit together into a coherent meal.

In order to get myself back into the groove of menu planning for the week - I think I'll start posting the menu here.  I'm hoping it will help me track what we eat and maybe keep me from planning the same meals on a regular basis.  Who knows, maybe someone out in BlogLand will even comment with an idea of something we could add to the regular meal rotation??

Here goes:   Lunch   Dinner

Sunday - Roasted Red Pepper Soup & Flaky rolls ; BBQ Chicken Breast, Rice and Corn
Monday - Leftovers ; Clean out the freezer night (chicken fingers, egg rolls, fish, fries)
Tuesday - Mixed greens salad ; Orange-Cashew Chicken with Broccoli and Rice    
Wednesday - Leftovers ; Quesadillas and Caesar Salad
Thursday - Mixed greens salad ; Sweet and Sour Pork-chops, Rice and Carrots
Friday - Leftovers ; BBQ Chicken Pasta
Saturday - Homemade Waffles ; BBQ Ribs, Roasted Potatoes and Broccoli
Sunday - Pasta and cheese ; Lasagna


* You'll notice a lot of BBQ on the menu for this week - that's because the temps here are supposed to be incredibly Spring-like... so we're betting on getting out on the deck to fire up the grill!

2 comments:

Littlec said...

It looks like you have a tasty week ahead. I cannot keep with with all the recipes I find on blogs that I want to make.

I think planning is key. On Sundays I now routinely prepare a big dish of something so that I have lunch leftovers for most of the week.

Lucky Girl said...

That's a great idea April! I like to think that would be a good idea for us, but we are a little snobby about leftovers so I'm scared it would just sit in the fridge...

 
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