Two weeks worth of menus

It's a double feature Meal Planning Monday.  I'll be busy next weekend so I planned two weeks worth of menus and will do all of my grocery shopping today and just pick up  few perishable items next week.

Sun 4-24

B Sour Cream Coffee Cake 

D Meatloaf, Mashed Potatoes, Homemade Bread, Peas

Mon 

Bean and Cheese Enchiladas, Spanish Rice

Tue

Linguine with Clams, Salad, Bread

Wed

Country Style Ribs, Pasta Salad

Thur 

Orange Chicken with Scallions, Jasmine Rice, Potstickers

Fri & Sat

I'm chaperoning K's choir trip to Denver, so the boys are on their own.

Sun

Pork Burgers

Potato Salad

I'll also be making a pot of Minestrone for Monday night because I'll be going with my students to Cody and won't get back to 6:00 or later.

Mon 5-3

Minestrone

Tue

5 Spice Roast Chicken, Rice, Snow Peas with Almonds

Wed

J's choice, since he it his day off.

Thur

Penne and Tuna Salad

Fri

Fish and Chips

Sat 

Gratineed Chicken, Salad , Bread

Earth Day

While my environmental footstep is not the size of a small country, I'm sure there is more that I could do for the planet. Baby steps we've taken include recycling glass, plastic, aluminum, and plastic. I bring my own bags to the store, but mostly for selfish reasons; I hate pulling plastic bags out of my trees every spring.

We have a cow share and enjoy fresh, raw milk and cheese that has exactly 7 food miles. We also butchered our own steer in January, one of the calves from a milk cow heifer. We also bought a pig from the college and processed that ourselves. We've ordered 30 meat chicks and 5 turkey poults. We live in town so luckily, we're able to keep them at a friends place.

I'd love to have a super local Earth Day dinner, but by April everything I canned last fall is gone. We'll be having Spaghetti with Bolognese. I froze a big batch during Christmas break before we had the steer in the freezer, so it's made with plain old grocery store burger. Caesar Salad from a bag and French Bread. The local part of our meal will be fresh mozzarella toasted on the bread.

I'm hoping to get my hoop house completed for the garden this weekend. Hopefully I'll fresh salad fixings by Memorial Day.

I'd like to see a big improvement to my global efforts by next Earth Day!

Baby steps to a better life for my family one reusable grocery bag at a time

Who needs a New Years Resolution...I'm making a completely arbitrary middle of April goal to monitor the food my family eats, (at home, at least) lose a few pounds, and keep better control of my food budget.  

I'm a mom, I have a full time job, and I've gone back to college nearly full time.  My first baby step is to feed my family wholesome home-cooked meals.  I am a good cook and always prided myself on having healthy, sit-all-together-meals when I didn't work.  I continued as the kids got busier, and have tried very hard to keep this up after I started school again.

My first post will be a very late Meal Planning Monday.  I have been pretty consistent about meal planning for about a year.  When I get lazy and don't plan ahead, I spend more money, eat crap and feel more stress at dinner time.  The baby step in this process is keeping better track of my grocery budget.  

Monday

Beans and Leftover Ham

Cornbread (Jiffy I am embarrassed to admit)

Tuesday

Pulled Pork Sandwiches (leftover pork in freezer from Super Bowl)

Homemade bbq sauce

Betty Crocker Au Gratin Potatoes

Wednesday

Spaghetti (Frozen homemade sauce)

Salad

French Bread

Thursday

Bean and Cheese Burrito

Spanish Rice (Lipton)

Friday 

Orange Chicken with Scallions

Jasmine Rice

Potstickers (Frozen that we bought on last trip to Denver)

Saturday 

Didn't plan a meal for Sat because I thought I would go to the lake with Mom & Dad, but will most likely stay in town and do homework and garden prep

Sunday

Ditto. Will have to take a look through the freezer and find something. 

So by Wednesday, I can already tell you, we did not have Spaghetti on Wed.  My husband was home and he decided to cook so we had Filet Mignon (from the freezer, we butchered a steer in January and split it with my step-son) Crab and Mushroom Stuffed Shrimp, Baked Potatoes and Dinner Rolls.  He does not buy into the whole budget/wholesome idea yet.  We're going to skip burritos and replace with spaghetti, look for burritos next week.

So far grocery bill is a reasonable $31.00.  Sadly most of that was frozen breakfast items.  I'm not a morning person, but do make sure there is something available to eat before leaving the house.  I'm happy with a whole wheat bagel and cream cheese.  Hubby likes sausage biscuits, the kids like freezer waffles, toaster pancakes, etc.

Looking forward to improving my life (or failing on a global scale) with an audience.

Ginger