Menu Plan Monday 1-25-2010

Keeping track of this online is sooo much easier than writing it down somewhere and then losing the paper or forgetting where I wrote it down at!

Monday : fish, broccoli and cheese, mashed potatoes

Tuesday: penne pasta, sauce, homemade garlic cheese bread

Wednesday: on your own, leftovers (faculty meeting)

Thursday: chicken strips, mac and cheese, mashed potatoes

Friday: shredded crockpot steak, sauteed onions and mushroooms, onion rolls (to eat as a sandwich), mashed potatoes, corn

Saturday: chili and crackers

Sunday: leftovers, on your own

Fun in the Kitchen

rye bread

ham and pineapple hot pocket

Our favorite pizza - ham and pineapple.

This past weekend I used the rest of my Christmas gift cards and bought myself a breadmaker. I've wanted one and have researched different brands for quite a while, but never could really justify spending so much to get a top quality one. My mind was made up when I opened my email and found a Kohls coupon! I ended up paying very little out of pocket and am thrilled with my purchase:) So far I've made pizza crust, cinnamon raisen bread, and rye bread. All have been super yummy and easy to make. I've already got a list of ideas to try for next weekend and hope to research some recipes using rye this week.

Menu Plan Monday 1-11

Monday: country ham, mashed potatoes, mac n cheese

Tuesday: penne pasta and sauce, homemade bread

Wednesday: China Buffet

Thursday: vegetable soup and sandwich

Friday: Papa Johns

Saturday: shake and bake chicken, oven roasted potatoes and onions, pumpkin pie

Sunday: snacky supper, or out to eat for a late lunch

Best Deal in a While

I'm loving Walgreens today! With my new coupon system, it was so easy to find the coupons and match them up with sales in the Walgreens ad. Here's how it went:

Transaction 1: Electrasol Power Ball 20 ct. 3.49 sale price
-2.50 coupon from Sunday's paper
_________
.99 had to pay out of pocket
- 1.00 back in Register Rewards
___________
.01 money MADE on this transaction


Transaction 2: Special K Cereal sale for 2.50
Special K Cereal sale for 2.50
________
5.00
- 2.50 ( B1G1 free coupon)
__________
2.50
- 1.00 Register Reward from transaction 1 - these are used like cash
__________

1.50 paid out of pocket and received 2.00
back in register rewards

I made .50 on this deal!

Transaction 3: gallon of milk 2.19
string cheese for Hannah + .59
__________
2.78
- 2.00 in register rewards earned from
transaction 2
_________
.78 paid out of pocket

Not too bad for a quick 10 minute stop at the store!

Menu Plan Monday

Week of January 4th- 10th, 2010 ***updated*****

M: white beans, country ham, and cornbread

T: lasagna, salad

W: on your own, leftovers (faculty meeting)

R: chicken tenders, mashed potatoes, cheesy broccoli and cauliflower

F: pizza

S: fried country ham, biscuits, soup

S: leftovers, snacky supper, or out to eat for a late lunch

Eating From the Pantry Challenge

I've decided to take the Eating From the Pantry Challenge from the Money Saving Mom and Life as Mom bloggers. I tried a couple of different ways to get their button for this challenge, but my technology skills are lacking in so many ways:(

Anyway, here's how the challenge will work for me:

I will spend no more than 120.00 this month on groceries and household supplies ( soap, toilet paper, etc.). I'm aiming to spend no more than 30.00 a week, but some weeks may be higher and some lower. As long as it comes to under 120.00, I'll be thrilled.

I will plan my meals based around food that I already have and will then match coupons and sales to create a very minimal grocery list.

I'll post meal plans each week, my grocery totals, and what we actually ate (which sometimes may be very different than the plan!).

Since I'm headed to BG tomorrow, I'll actually shop tomorrow for what I'll need the first week of January. I'm really looking forward to this challenge and am hoping that I save some big bucks! I guess we'll see!

Cooking - what's that?

There hasn't been much cooking going on around the Vincent household. Seriously, for the past couple of months cooking around here has looked like warming up previously cooked chicken strips in the oven, hamburger helper, steaming vegetables in the microwave, and grilling burgers. Nothing blog worthy. My crystal ball doesn't show any blog worthy cooking in the future either!

I'm sure I'll be cooking more as the weather changes. There's just something about hot weather and turning on a stove or oven that doesn't appeal much to me.