New Me, New Plan, New Posts

I've decided to get my act together and start posting regularly.  I was having a hard time for a while but now I've decided just to share the things here that I share with my girlfriends in the real world - nothing earth shattering, but fun and probably money saving.  I also think that having a theme for posting tends to help keep me on track. 

I'm thinking of the following: (please let me know if they sound ridiculous)

Savings Sunday (stores and sales I'm going to hit this week)
Manic Monday (an overview of what my week contains - meals/food prep)
Mama Tuesday (what my daughter calls it since she doesn't go to school T/Th - a fun "mommy" tip or activity to do with munchkins)
Wild Wednesday (the day my husband and I have together with no kids - either involves a very cheap date or home improvement - probably a rundown of something totally mundane with a tip to make it easier
Thrifty Thursday - some fun way to save money/stretch a buck
Take Five Friday - a link, story, antecdote to make you take 5 and enjoy life - also mandating I tell you how I took 5 over the week - trying to work in my own 5 is hard so I'm hoping to be accountable here
Family Saturday - suggestion for something to do all together whether your family is just one or 100

Also I will throw in additional posts that may not fit the schedule but this will at least give me some structure and guidance and also provide a regular posting routine for any readers that I might someday get :-)

It Continues!!!!!!!

Our Eating From the Pantry Challenge continues!  I have decided that we will continue this until we have darn near depleted everything.  I really want to clean the deep freezer and reorganize my cupboards and pantry area and the best way to do it is if it is as empty as possible.  I am surprised at the amount of meals that we have been able to create with what we have.  The meals for this week will be:

Monday: Jerry's Pizza
Tuesday: Baked ziti, steamed broccoli, crusty bread
Wednesday: Lamb sausage, peppers and onions, couscous, pita bread
Thursday: Soup, crusty bread
Friday: Calzones
Saturday: Chicken drumsticks, stovetop stuffing, green bean casserole
Sunday:  Chicken quesadillas, beans, rice
I've also decided that it is much easier if I plan breakfast and lunch as well so I'm not tempted to feed my munchkins the same thing day after day.  Our breakfast and lunch meals for this week will be:

BREAKFAST
Monday:  Bananas/oranges with honey, cinnamon toast
Tuesday:  French toast
Wednesday:  Cinnamon rolls, eggs
Thursday:  Banana/strawberry smoothies, english muffins
Friday:  Waffles
Saturday:  Eggs and toast
Sunday:  Cold cereal

LUNCH
Monday:  Pita, hummus, apple slices
Tuesday:  Leftover pizza, apple slices
Thursday:  Chicken nuggets, apple slices
Saturday:  Tuna salad sandwiches
Sunday:  Peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, cheese slices

I'm not forgetting to feed my children on Wednesday and Friday but they both are in school so I don't need to provide their lunch so I'll just feed myself something random from the fridge :-)

Eating From The Pantry This Week

This has been a crazy two weeks.  There was an unexpected medical emergency in my family which resulted in our eating rather random dinners due to hospital visits, etc.  The medical drama is resolved happily and we made a small dent in our deep freezer and our pantry.  I had planned to participate in the Eating From the Pantry Challenge over at Money Saving Mom but didn't have a chance to inventory everything before the drama unfolded.

I have finally inventoried our deep freezer and created a surprising amount of normal seeming meals which should result in using the majority of our food with minimal trips to the grocery store.  I think I am going to continue to try to eat from our pantry/deep freezer as long as we can so that I can defrost our freezer and reorganize the pantry.  The meals for this week will be:

Sunday:  Turkey tetrazini, foccacia
Monday:  Jerry's Pizza
Tuesday:  Dinner at Mom's house
Wednesday:  Pork chops, baked apples, green bean casserole
Thursday:  Beef tips with mushroom sauce over bow tie pasta
Friday:  Homemade pizzas
Saturday:  Lamb sausage, peppers and onions, couscous, pita bread
Sunday:  Baked ziti, foccacia

The funny thing is that no one in my house was particularly excited when I brought up the pantry challenge yet they are all excited about the new and different things that we have on the menu for this week.  I guess necessity really is the mother of invention. 

Free Dinners Out This Month

A while back I posted about Boston Market having a Kids Eat Free event whereby you could purchase one meal for yourself and get up to two kids meals free.  Well, they are doing it again!  The current promotion can be found here and it is valid Saturdays and Sundays through the end of the month.  You just have to have the children present to get the children's meals.  They do say that you must have at least a $6 purchase to get the kids meals free but, I'm all for dinner out for $2 per person. 

I prefer to get the three sides meal for myself and order two 1/4 chicken meals for my children.  I bring a drink in a sippy cup for my little one and then I use the cup provided for him to get myself a soda and we all share the chicken.  That way I keep the cost of dinner right at the cost of a meal.  If I happen to bring my husband, I have him order separately and use a coupon for his meal so our out of pocket is as low as possible.

Enjoy!

Menu Plan

This week begins a new schedule for us because my husband has changed his hours at work due to a promotion (great job honey!) and my brother has some things going on so I'm on my own with the monkeys for two nights. My hubby's schedule won't have him home until about 7pm the rest of the days of the week so the dinner prep and timing will be a bit different in the future. Here is the plan for this week:

Monday - Jerry's Pizza (just me and monkeys)
Tuesday - World Market Pasta (just me and monkeys)
Wednesday - BBQ pulled pork sandwiches, baked apples, baked beans, coleslaw
Thursday - Chicken quesadillas w/ beans, rice, quacamole, sour cream, tomato
Friday - Baked ziti, homemade foccacia, clementines w/ honey
Saturday - Beef & venison burritos, beans, rice, quacamole, sour cream, tomato, cucumber
Sunday - leftovers

I hope you enjoy whatever you have planned for this week!

Chicken Broth Coupon

Here is a coupon for $1 off any College Inn chicken broth. This coupon doesn't expire until June 30, 2010 so please print it now while you can and use it anytime in the next six months! I am always in need of broth during the holidays for gravies and soups. Plus, a can of broth will last a long time in the pantry if you don't need to use it now or just hold the coupon to match with a sale later. You can print two coupons by hitting the back button on your browser while it is printing the first one. Enjoy!

Budget Friendly Dinner Out

We can pretty much always be found at Jerry's Subs and Pizza on Monday nights. Jerry's has a $5.99 large pizza special that either feeds me and the munchkins for about $7 (including my drink) or feeds my entire family (2 pizzas) for under $15. This makes it really easy to plan our Monday night on our weekly menu, gives me a break on the dinner prep and clean up and makes me feel like I have "gone out to dinner". Afterwards, we treat ourselves to ice cream at the custard place next door. If you are in the NoVa area and are looking for a fun, family friendly place for cheap, good eats, you should definitely try Jerry's on a Monday night.