Sunday, August 20, 2017

Menu Plan

Here's what's on our menu for the week ahead. I typically cook a bigger meal on Friday, Saturday, & Sunday & then we have leftovers during the week, plus one quickly assembled freezer meal. Unfortunately, I didn't make enough naan pizza on Friday - every one disappeared! I need to adjust quantities a bit, now that the boys are eating more.


  • Saturday: tacos + chips & guacamole
  • Sunday: lasagna 
  • Monday: homemade mac & cheese (if I can get it assembled this weekend) + grilled chicken
  • Tuesday: leftover lasagna
  • Wednesday: leftover mac & cheese + chicken
  • Thursday: I'll be out of town (relay), so the boys will have spaghetti & meatballs
  • Friday: I'll be out of town (relay), so the boys will have pizza (from the freezer)
  • Saturday: I'll be out of town (relay), so the boys will have any leftovers, or may go out to Sweet Tomatoes. A wild Saturday night. ;-) 
  • Sunday: I'll be flying in late afternoon, so I'm hoping M will grill kebabs.
In addition the dinners listed above, I pre-prepped some breakfasts for Sam. He needs to be out of the house earlier in the morning, so we're experimenting with different prep ahead breakfast options. This weekend I also made:

  • Breakfast burritos
  • Breakfast sandwiches
  • Chicken stock (just with leftovers from the freezer/fridge). Finally got the time to make it happen, and I needed to clean out the freezer! I freeze it in 1.5c portions for our favorite risotto.
  • These granola bars
  • As well as these  granola bars. (I'm not sure what I did wrong, but they are too sticky/soft. Not great for a lunchbox.)
And, what we bought at Costco this week:
  • 2% milk - $4.69
  • Peaches - $8.99
  • Pears - $5.99
  • Honeydew - $2.99
  • Two dozen eggs - $13.99
  • Strawberries - $4.99
  • Plums - $6.49
  • Cucumbers (x2) - $3.49
  • Sliced fresh mozzarella - $7.69
  • Red seedless grapes - $7.49
  • Pineapple - $2.99
  • Canadian bacon - $9.99
  • Cottage cheese - $4.99
  • Butter - $11.99
  • Bananas - $1.39
  • Blueberries - $3.99
  • English muffins - $6.99
  • Baguette - $4.99
  • Broccoli - $5.29
  • Bananas (organic) - $1.99
Total for Costco  = $124.82. (All other ingredients we have in the freezer, pantry, fridge, etc). Most fruit/vegetables are for snacking & salads.

M did this shop, so a few takeaways. . . 
  1. Eggs are insanely expensive. I'm going to need a new source, when we're prepping meals in batches. . .  $7/dozen?!!
  2. The broccoli was also crazy expensive, and we should have picked it up at the produce stand.
  3. The mozzarella wasn't a bad deal per oz, but we needed less & I could have gotten it at the store (in a smaller size). It would have been more per oz, but we would have used it all. Now I need to make sure I use all of this. 
After realization #1, and realizing we had no ground beef in the freezer (and, we *always* have ground beef in the freezer), I went to the local grocery store to pick up a few morethings:

  • Unplanned - A box of tea (12 count) clearanced for - $.10 (caramel apple - not my favorite, but a super inexpensive treat)
  • Also unplanned - Organic ranch dressing for $.57. I planned to make my own, but saw this & thought the price was good enough to try for an upcoming recipe
  • Elbow macaroni - $.99
  • Ground beef - $5.69 (the price was supposed to be $3.99, so I was not happy. The sign was very misleading)
  • A dozen eggs - $1.79
  • Neufchatel cheese - $1.99
Total spend at the grocery store = $11.13

I also needed avocados, and they didn't have any at the produce stand. Instead, I picked up a bag of 4 at Trader Joes for $4.99

And, my final stop was the produce stand:

  • 5 tomatoes - $1.66 
  • 2 lbs of mini cucumbers - $3.30
  • A huge head of cauliflower - $.99
  • An enormous green pepper (I used the rest of mine from the garden in my breakfast burritos) - $.72
  • A container of organic strawberries -  $.99
Total spent at the produce stand = $7.66

All told, I spent $148.60 for a week's worth of groceries, plus some items to stock the freezer. I haven't done this kind of total in a while, & it's a good way to check out how I'm doing, areas to trim back, etc. What about you? How much do you typically spend in a week? Do you price out your recipes? That's another thing I haven't done in a long time & should start doing!

2 comments:

  1. I'm playing around with a new blog, one totally focused on food and cooking so will be pricing out meals more as part of that. If the sticky granola was wrapped in wax paper would they work for lunches? I need to get thinking on the quick breakfast items.

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    Replies
    1. I would love to read that! And, I have them wrapped in wax paper in the freezer & the taste is fabulous, but I need to work on the texture. In the meantime, sadly, I'm eating them out of the freezer. ;-) Not the goal!

      I can highly recommend the breakfast sandwiches listed above. I followed the oven omelette recipe for the eggs, and got maybe 16 sandwiches out of the recipe. Sam tried one this morning & loved it. Paired that with a banana & milk. You can prep them & keep them in the freezer. Next time I will do a double batch for max efficiency.

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