Menu Plan - February Edition

I swear....wasn't yesterday Christmas?  So its impossible that I'm writing "February Edition" in the post title.  I'm not ready to be doing the meal plan again so soon.  I'm serious!

I'm giving the monthly plan another try.  I liked being able to see multiple meal choices and choosing based on how our schedule looks, and I enjoy the flexibility it provides.  The only thing I'm gonna strive for this month is one soup each week.  David said he'd eat soup all year round, but I have a harder time with it when it's 100° outside (in the shade!)  So we'll enjoy them while it's still cool outside.  Also, I only have 20 meals "planned", allowing for leftover nights, unexpected changes to our schedule, or the Superbowl.  Some are carried over from last month since we didn't get to them, and I'll link the recipes when they make it on the weekly planner.

1.  French Toast Casserole
2.  Taco Rice
3.  Meatballs and gravy over rice
4.  Pancakes
5.  Homemade Pizza **planned for this week
6.  Mexican Lasagna
7.  Turkey Bundles
8.  Crockpot Broccoli Beef over rice
9.  Sausage Tomato Soup
10. Ham
11. Baked Potato Soup
12. Cheesy Chicken Soup
13. Meat Mix **planned for this week
14. Crockpot Taco Chicken and rice
15. Basil Garlic Sausage and Potatoes **planned for this week
16. Sloppy Joes - could be Baked Joes **planned for this week
17. Pasta e Fagioli
18. Chicken Enchiladas
19. Chicken and Fish - I don't eat fish, but the boys love it and I have some in the freezer
20. Pork Noodle Soup **planned for this week

Swing by Orgjunkie for more menu plans and recipes.

Introductions are in order

Meet Mutley, the newest member of our family!  She's a 10 year old girl who was in need of a forever home, and she picked me. She's doing great, and seems quite happy to be home.  She'd been at the SPCA since August, when her family had to surrender her because they were having to move into an apartment and couldn't take her with them.  (It's sad that that is a recurring story these days.)  Mutley was a staff favorite and was considered "too good" to be in a kennel, so she spent her days lounging on her own special bed in the boss's office - so you know she's a special girl!  The staff was funny - they thought we were joking when we said we were there for her!  They didn't want to get their hopes up that she'd be adopted, only to be disappointed again.  So when we said we'd take her, there wasn't a dry eye in the place!  They were making phone calls to say "Mutley is being ADOPTED!" and let people know to come say goodbye to her.  So, I'd say we've lucked out and got ourselves an awesome addition to our family!!

 

 

Wow, I thought we had covered this

Day #1 of Kelton's school career: things went well.  Since this is his first school experience, the fact that he "didn't want to" do some things wasn't any cause for concern for the teacher, yet she did let me know that we would need to talk to him about school routines and expectations.

Good to know.  So we had a little chit chat with him, and I think he understood.

Day #2 of Kelton's school career: better...and worse.  He didn't say that he "didn't want to" do something.  So that's good - the conversation seemed to have registered. 

Oh, and then she told me that he peed on the play ground.

Really?

I really thought we had established (you know, because we do live in a house, and not outside) that if you need to go potty, you go to the bathroom.

I guess Kelton missed that memo.

I can't wait to hear how Day #3 goes.....

Happy Birthday, Monkey

Five years ago, he looked like this....

Today he looks like this.

 

And he started school....

It's a pretty big day for him.

Why didn't I think of that?

I hate "duh" moments.  But I totally had one the other night.  I was sitting here at the computer thumbing through various money saving blogs.  I'd read so far and then I would click on a link to another post or blog, and before I knew it, I was 43 layers deep and had 2,743 savings tips swimming in my head. 

And then...

...there it was...

My "duh" moment.

I had read that it was cheaper to buy bone-in chicken breasts (on sale of course), and just de-bone them yourself.  Well, that part I knew.  I had planned on doing that this week since Safeway had bone-in chicken breasts for 99¢ per pound.  What I hadn't thought of was what to do with the bones when you are done removing the meat from them.....

Are you ready for this?  You could have your own "duh" moment here.....you boil them!  You get homemade chicken stock, and you can save all the meat that stuck to the bones. 

I'm serious, why didn't I think of that before?!

I bought 30 pounds of chicken for $30 ($29.58 if you want to get technical!), and saved myself $50 because it was on sale.  So far, so good.  I was eager to see how my new information would pay off in our favor.  David and I set up a little assembly line and got to work.  We had one bowl for meat (which turned into 2 bowls by the end of it), a huge pot for the bones, and another bowl (with a plastic bag for easy clean up) for the skin and fat.  You can see it up in the corner of the picture...

I'll admit, it was time consuming, but it didn't feel that bad since we were working together.  And the pay off would be huge (so I hoped.)  Well, right off the bat, I saved $50 just from the sale.  Had I waited for the boneless skinless to go on sale for $1.79, I would have paid out another $24 for someone else to do a little work for me.  I'd rather keep the money thankyouverymuch!

By de-boning the meat my self, what I got was:

• about 10 cups of chicken stock and I can pronounce every ingredient that went into it
• 5½ cups of cooked chicken that was stuck to the bones that I would have just thrown away - I can use that for soups, tacos, pizza ~ whatever I want.  I froze it in 3 packs - 2-2 cup packs and 1-1½ cup pack.  In case you missed that, I would have thrown away three meals worth of chicken!!
  
• 3 packs of chicken tenders about 1 pound per pack
• 15 packs of boneless skinless chicken breast, 2 per pack.

All that for less than $30 and a little work.  Yeah, I'd say that was a pretty good deal, and worth every penny saved!

Menu Plan - Jan 24

 

Oh my, the time is flying by!

We're still on track with the Eat from the pantry challenge.  As for the menu, I see that we will have meals that we won't get to this month, so I'm pushing them on to February's menu plan. I like having the menu done for the month, but it is time consuming to plan it all out.  It looks like I'll need to start this week trying to decide what we will be eating next month. 

Here is the recap of the monthly menu with the meals we've already eaten crossed out, and notations for this weeks plan.  Check out Laura's page for more menus and recipes.

1. Baked Spaghetti with Bread Machine Garlic Bread
2. Pulled Pork Sandwiches on homemade hamburger buns
3. Turkey Bundles using homemade crescent rolls
4. Homemade Pizza
5. Pizza Loaf
6. Sunday Chicken Dinner in the slow cooker
7. Mexican Lasagne
8. Pumpkin Pancakes
9. Chili Mac (freezer meal)
10. Philly Cheesesteak Sandwiches (freezer meal) on Italian rolls
11. Pretzel Dogs
12. French Toast
13. Meat Mix
14. Split Pea Soup
15. Herbed Pork Roast **planned for this week
16. Creamy Pork Potpie
17. "Wacky Mac" spaghetti with meatballs (this will be on the 26th as this is what Kelton has asked for for his birthday dinner. He's also asked for "strawberry cake with chocolate on the bottom and a cherry on top" for the cake, and I'm still trying to figure out how to accommodate his request!!) **Tuesday's meal
18. BELTs That's a BLT with a fried Egg on it...
19. Spinach Lentil Stew **planned for this week
20. Turkey tenderloin
21. Sausage Tomato Soup
22. Pork Noodle Soup **planned for this week
23. Italian Chicken Rice Soup (substituting turkey for the chicken)  **planned for this week
24. Crock pot broccoli beef
25. Kris Kringle Pancakes

Green Rice

This wonderful side dish has a bit of kick to it, and we love it!  It's so easy to throw together too.  When I plan my menu, if a recipe calls for an unusual or hard to use item, I look for other recipes that can use the same ingredient and incorporate all of it in the same week to avoid throwing away food.  I love when I find other recipes that need fresh parsley, because then it gives me a good excuse to make this.

1 cup chopped green onions
1 cup minced fresh parsley
4½ tsp olive oil or vegetable oil
4½ tsp butter or margerine
1½ cups uncooked long grain rice
3 cups chicken broth
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper (don't get adventurous here, this little bit does the trick!!)
1 bay leaf

In a saucepan, saute the onions and parsley in oil and butter for 1 minute or until tender.
Add rice; cook over medium heat until rice is coated with oil and translucent, about 3 minutes.  Stir in broth, cayenne pepper and bay leaf.  Bring to boil.
Reduce heat; cover tightly and simmer for 18-20 minutes and rice is tender.

Discard bay leaf and serve.