Menus

[Synn]

Do any of you make up menus for a couple of weeks or a month at a time? Maybe some of you could share with me your ideas. After a couple of weeks I start ruining out of ideas. I am just thinking of simple menu ideas that aren't too expensive. Then when you do your grocery shopping do you do it for the whole month of your menu or just a week at a time?

Thanks!

[Homesteader]

I build all my meals around the sales. If chicken is on sale I buy several. I'll usually keep one out for the next day or two and freeze the rest. I don't plan menus ahead of time. I guess I decide what mood I'm in when I wake up. DH always knows whats on sale by what I buy. A few months ago lettuce was way too high so we ate alot more slaw type salads. Sometimes he won't see steak for weeks on end. I've always shopped and cooked this way and it works out good for us. If there aren't any good specials I'll skip going to the stores for that week. Most of the time I end up going to one store and occasionally two in a week.

[gardnmom]

I also buy whatever is on sale, ground beef we cook up into spag sauce for several meal, also make several meatloaves, several meals of stuffed peppers, chili and freeze it for individual meals. We take out what ever we feel like for supper in the morning and plan the rest of the meal around it. It is one of the advantages of a well stocked pantry,we generally have what ever we would like to go with the main dish, as long as it is well balanced. We make out pretty well with this method.

Shopping for fresh produce, dairy and whatever we need for the pantry weekly.

[ricardo]

I ran into this problem last year. Here is what I did to

solve it. I made a list of all the meals that we eat.

Put them into catagories like beef, poultry, pork, fish, pasta, etc.

 

I go grocery shopping every two weeks, so the Thursday

before shopping day look at my list of meals and choose

14 of them and make my list out. If I see something on

sale while I'm there I go ahead and get it, that way

the next time I make out my list I usually have some

of the meals already.

 

If you are looking for cheap meals or just something

different here is a link that has just that. I use

some of these meals when I am planning.

 

http://www.justpeace.org/better.htm#Recipe...rugal%20Kitchen

 

 

[Guest Guest]

I do a lot of cooking ahead. Like others have said I shop around sale items and then spend a day cooking for the freezer. I'm leaving today and will be gone until Sunday so have tator tot casserole and enchiladas in the oven for DH to eat on. I've also got potatoes cooked and eggs boiled to stir up some potato salad.

 

When I leave I cook fresh since the man can only find Banquet TV dinners (yuk!!!) in the freezer. He's helpless!!!

[rockncook]

I do a week at a time, and go shopping once a week to make sure I catch all the sales. I don't plan the meals around what's on sale necessarily, but I will look in the freezer as I do my planning. Then I stock up on what's on sale.

 

When I was younger we didn't have a car, so my mom would come in to town once a month and take me grocery shopping, and I'd have to shop for the whole month. I learned fairly quickly how to do that kind of shopping, LOL.

 

One thing that I do quite often is what I call meal sharing. Beef Brisket was just on sale here for $.79/lb, so I bought 25 lbs of it. I cooked a bit up in the crock, froze half of what I cooked, and then used the rest for beef and gravy (2 large cans cream mush soup, 2 packets brown gravy mix, 1 soup can full of water, beef of your choice, cook on low for 5 hours, serve over rice or potatoes). Then I used the leftover beef and gravy to make stroganoff (cook 1 package egg noodles while gently warming beef and gravy mixture. Add 1 16 oz package of sour cream to beef and gravy mixture, then mix in cooked noodles-if you need to stretch it a bit, you can add another can of cream of mush soup while it's heating, plus 1 cup of bouillion).

 

I tend to try to cook a lot of things that don't require much meat, or that I can cut the meat the recipe calls for, so we don't do a lot of individual meat servings, we do meats in gravy, soups, and casseroles. I can boil up a chicken in water, use the broth and a bit of the chicken for chick and dumplings, pull out some chicken for chicken salad sandwiches, then have chicken burritoes with the remainder. Not a whole lot of chicken in each meal, but I make sure we have plenty of veggies with it, too, so we're rounding out the meal. I often do eggs for breakfast and lunch if I think we need extra protein, and different types of beans for sides. I made up a huge crock of baked beans on the fourth and froze 3 side portions of them for other meals.

 

When breasts go on sale here we are going to grill up as many as we can afford and freeze them cooked. We can use that in burritoes, pasta salads, chicken salad for sandwiches, as the meat in pasta sauce, etc.

 

Mommy of 5

[rockncook]

OK, Buttercup, here's what I have for the week:

 

Purchasing on sale for current/later use:

4 Gallons of milk (will last about 3 weeks)

6 lbs (I think) of cheese (will last quite awhile, will grate then freeze)

10 packages of store brand pasta (will last a few months)

10 lbs Broccoli to freeze (will last months)

4 Half Gallons Ice Cream (will last a few weeks, but it's hot and on sale so I can justify that LOL)

 

Breakfasts (weekends feed six, weekdays feed 4)

Sunday Fried Potatoes, Ham, Applesauce

Monday Muffins

Tuesday Hamburger Sandwiches, hash browns

Wednesday Scrambled Eggs and Toast

Thursday Chicken Quesadillas

Friday Cereal (Have an early appointment so quick breakfast, larger snack than normal)

Saturday Cereal (Same as friday)

 

Lunches feed 6 on weekend, 4 on weekdays:

Sunday Sandwiches and Salad

Monday Lasagne (leftover)

Tuesday Goulash (leftover)

Wednesday Sandwiches and Salad

Thursday Camp Out Chili Dogs (leftover)

Friday Chicken Macaroni Casserole

Saturday Chicken Salad Sandwiches

 

Dinners feed six plus any kids that get brought home every night:

 

Saturday Pork Chops, Ranch potatoes (Pork bought on sale for $.99/lb several mos. ago, this is the last of that batch. Ranch potatoes just mashed potatoes with ranch dressing mix, made from scratch instead of store bought), creamed corn casserole

Sunday Lasagne (Special Occasion dinner, that I'm not paying for)

Monday Goulash, Corn

Tuesday Sloppy Joes, Macaroni and Cheese with Broccoli, baked beans (all from scratch, no mixes except velveeta cheese)

Wednesday Camp Out Chili Dogs (Chili serves two purposes, see below, will freeze leftovers of this for several home lunches), carrots, corn

Thursday Grilled Chicken, baked potatoes, green beans

Friday Mexican Lasagne (using beans leftover from chili making, cheese bought on sale)

 

For DH's lunches, I make a few meals each week and then freeze them into lunch sized portions, plus include any leftovers from dinners that aren't needed for home lunches and that freeze well:

 

Chili

Stuffed peppers (I can't stand them, DH loves them, so he gets them for lunches, six peppers make 6 lunches)

BBQ Beef Sandwiches using beef brisket bought on sale

BBQ pork Sandwiches using leftover pork roast from Friday's dinner that was also bought on sale

 

I try to keep a variety of lunches on hand for him, and normally only make two sets a week, so he has a good variety, but I have been slacking lately, so I have to play catch up.

 

Treats include fruit, the last of my frozen muffin stash, the ice cream that was on sale, at least one day with ham and cheese just cut up like an appetizer thingie, and a few no bake cookie type treats. My son and Mary's 12 year old daughter seem to both be in a growth spurt, so snacks in the afternoon are a necessity, and some mornings.

 

For the family of six, I am spending (just on food) less than $110 this week, including the items for future use that are bought on sale. Part of the reason it's so high is that we are buying 20 lbs of chicken at full price, to cook on the grill and boil, so that we have some prepared meats for other meals, although that might be balanced out if I was paying to prepare a dinner on Sunday. Mary is broker than broke, and can't contribute much to groceries. When it was just her and her daughter, they could make due with so much less, but with DH around, I gotta cook, LOL. So what I spend seems like a lot to them-but if DH wasn't around, the kids and I would have far simpler meals, and eat much less meat. I do try to sneak in at least one meatless dinner per week, though, and this week it will be the Mexican Lasagne.

 

I posted this so you get an idea of how elaborately I plan my meals. Like I posted earlier, I had to learn a long time ago to plan things out, cause other than milk and bread, I only went to the store once a month, and I couldn't justify paying the convenience store prices for anything other than those items. I had to completely plan out my meals or we ended up having pasta and butter for 3 or 4 days at the end of the month LOL. I hope this helps someone to be able to look at their own meal planning and be able to plan around what they can spend. I'd like to get my spending down further, but don't see it happening until I can put in a garden.

 

Have to go, laundry is done!

 

Mommy of 5

[logcabinmama]

Wow, Mommyof5, you really do a great job with your menu.

 

 

[Guest Guest]

meal planning..

 

westbrook walks outside...looks around...chases that no good for nothing rooster around until it is cornered...nabs him!

dinner!

 

 

[rockncook]

 

 

OH man, I wish it were that easy here!!!!

 

ROFL

[mrsj]

I shop every two weeks and do a plan for two weeks. What we had a couple of years ago for meals is different to what we have now. Do you like to it all from scratch or have somethings that are half store bought, like tonight we are using a jar of teriaki?