This Week In My Home: Menu and Work Plans

I believe this is the first January in ten years I haven't started out with a Pantry Freezer Challenge.  Truth is January is a fairly flush month for us.  We usually begin it with holiday pay from Christmas and New Year's. In the past I've avoided stocking up as I might otherwise have done and limited myself to just the purchases needed to piece out pantry menus, then rued it mightily in March which has no holidays.  This Christmas season was not a tough one with lots of added expenses.  We put money back into savings from the budget we'd set...then John got his annual bonus and not having urgent need of funds we put that into savings as well.  In the end we put over half of the funds we had taken back into the savings account.  I had an overage in our checking account that allowed us to pay for our meats last week without dipping into the grocery budget.   I've always used this month to balance the books and this year it's not necessary.  Instead I will plan to focus on my pantry holes and stock those...which we started New Year's Eve when went to meat market.    And I'll save my pantry freezer challenge time for months with no holidays and less funds, such as March and August...and other lean periods that might appear.

I've decided to rethink some of my 'acceptable expense' areas.  We've allowed ourselves a package of breaded chicken fillets each month that are tasty as can be.  We use them mostly for sandwiches and that makes for a pricey sandwich.  I will be looking at other sandwich options that cost less.  Frankly I'd get more bang for my buck buying a pound of Deli beef bologna and far more sandwiches. It seems with the New Year we've also been saying no to chips more often, but it's obvious we want something for a snack, so I'm checking out my cookbooks for inexpensive but tasty options.  Here lately it seems like my mind is just ticking along with new ways to save. 

Well, in the meantime, it's time to plan a new week's worth of meals. 

breakfast:   

Banana Nut muffins, cream cheese, Clementines

Fried Eggs, Toast
Blueberry Muffins, Cheese

Egg Muffins, Grits

Breakfast Sandwiches

Bacon and Cheese Biscuits

Oatmeal, Peanut Butter Toast

suppers:

Tuna Melts, Chips

Grilled Cheese sandwich, Cream of Tomato Soup

PB&V sandwich, chips (The V stands for vegetable.  Shredded carrots and minced celery...it's really good!)

Nachos with chili and cheese

Cream of Potato Soup, BLT sandwich

Corned Beef and Swiss on Sour Dough
One night on my own so leftovers

Dinners:  
3 Bean and Beef Chili over Rice, Cornbread,  Salad
Homemade chili using extra beans  and tomatoes. I purposely made a large batch of chili with the outlook for leftovers. I made chili this weekend and had two almost full quart jars leftover.  I put one in the freezer will make supper and another dinner from the  1 quart in the fridge.

Fried Chicken, Macaroni Salad, Baby Carrots, Rolls
John didn't care for the idea of Chinese today and although I had options here at home I hadn't yet made up my mind which I'd use.  He went into the grocery for eggs and came out with Chicken and Macaroni Salad. I'd meant to fry chicken this week but I never look a  kindness in the mouth and frown about it.  We'll get two meals and likely his lunch off this 8 piece box, so I will make it a frugal deal.

 Tortilla Towers,  Sweet Potatoes, Green Salad

 This is a dish Mama used to make.  It's thin cornmeal pancakes layered with chili and cheese in a casserole (hence the 'tower) and then baked in the oven.  I'll add some canned corn to the chili mixture.  

Vegetable Soup, Crackers, Cheese, Rice Pudding
I purposely cooked more rice than needed when I made chili.  I've been just hungry for rice pudding.  In the past I've made it with lemon zest which makes it seem very delicate, but this week I'll add in raisins and cinnamon.

Chicken Spaghetti,  Butter Beans, Salad, Rolls 
I'll use the wings and a thigh to make up the chicken in this dish which calls for just 1/2 cup of meat.  If there's extra I'll turn it into chicken salad.  In the past I'd have just gone on and added the extra but really it only runs up the cost of the meal doesn't it?  We've never felt we were missing protein when we ate this dish as written in the past, so why put in extra? 

Chinese take out on my own

Lazy Days Beef Stew, Corn Muffins, Coleslaw
This is one of my favorite oven meals.  It's just loaded with good vegetables.

Jobs Last Week

Plan a month of menus
Plan goals for 2015
Plan Blog work for 2015
Plan 2015 Budget and First Quarter Budget
Plan Shopping for 2015...
Planning, Planning, Planning!

Jobs This Week

Deep Clean the laundry/back entry/kitchen sitting area

Get Christmas things into shed and back into bins and boxes

Plant peas 

Thrift store

Work on booth

Grocery shop

Pay bills and run errands