Meal Planning 3-16-23 to 3-23-23: Feeding the Family

 Happy St. Patrick's Day!  I hope you had a good one.  We did our St. Patrick's Day dinner 3-18-23.  Even though our Bishop gave a dispensation for meat on St. Patrick's Friday in Lent, we decided to keep that Friday meatless.  And I was making a soup for soup supper at church, so I did creamy potato which was meatless too.  The boys came home for spring break on Friday.  It's so nice to have them home.  It's only for a week and I know that week will fly by.  At least we'll get to see them again in a few weeks for Easter.  This week I shopped at Aldi and Marc's.  I spent more than I wanted to, but I have two extra mouths to feed and I had a meal for soup supper.  This week I have a meal train meal for our church family.  I plan on making chili and gluten free corn bread.

This week's menu:

Thursday: Hamburger Casserole

Friday:  Creamy Potato Soup for church soup supper

Saturday:  Corned Beef, Mashed Potatoes, Cabbage, Sauerkraut, Swiss Cheese, and Rye Bread

Sunday:  Turkey Meatloaves, Baked Red Skins, and Vegetable

Monday:  (Meatless Monday for us, but meat for the college boys) Baked Chicken Thighs and Fettuccini Alfredo

Tuesday:  Taco Night (and chili for meal train meal)

Wednesday:  Hamburger, Hot Dogs, and Vegetables

Thursday:  Tater Tot Casserole

I'm going to try to shop at some salvage stores this week for groceries, but the problem with that is that you never know what you are going to get.  There are also some bulk stores by the salvage stores so I may check them out too.  I just really want to get our grocery budget down, but I don't want us to eat garbage either.  

I don't think I ever posted the Lent Tree:

Have a blessed week ahead!!

Weekly Meal Plan 3/11/22 to 3/24/22: Feeding the Family

 I tried something new this week.  I did a 2-week meal plan vs a 1 week.  I was hoping to save money, but I'm not sure that is going to be the case.  I guess the good news is that it cuts down on my meal prep time. The bad news is that my family eats too much and I'm not sure I'm saving time and money.  But we shall see.

Friday:  Slow Cooker Tomato Basil Soup  and grilled cheese (on Aldi Sourdough Bread... so good!  GF flat bread grilled cheese for J)

Saturday:  General Tso's Chicken from Skinny Taste.  I modified this for our family and our food allergies.  I left out the egg and made sure the soy sauce and hoisin sauce were gluten free.  J has never had Chinese takeout, so I really wanted to do something special.  I also used jasmine rice, because my guys are not a fan of cauli rice.

Sunday:  Slow Cooker Pot Roast with Potatoes and Carrots

Monday:  Baked Salmon, Garlic Roasted Potatoes, and Green Beans

Tuesday:  Slow Cooker Chicken Tacos

Wednesday:  Hamburgers on the grill, Vegetables  Clam Chowder 

Thursday:  Slow Cooker Corned Beef, Sauteed Cabbage, Potatoes

Friday:  St Patrick Irish Cheddar Soup, baked fish, and rolls

Saturday:  Eating Out (It's a surprise for the kids)   We were going to eat out, but we called the restaurant that we had eaten at last time we were downtown (pre-Covid) and they can no longer cook for food allergies.  No problem.  We had burgers on the grill before we headed out to the Cavs game.

Sunday:  Easy White Wine Sunday Chicken (from The Food Nanny Rescues Dinner...Again cookbook.  I want to buy these books, but I can't find them reasonably priced, so I got this one from the library), Vegetable, Salad

Monday:  Old School Hamburger Stew (Same Food Nanny cookbook)

Tuesday:  Chicken Parm, vegetable, salad

Wednesday:  Clam Chowder, salad, rolls  😂 I can't remember 

Thursday:  Tamale Casserole (from the Food Nanny)  Chick Fil A takeout.

The second week, I'm making several recipes from the Food Nanny cookbook because I just got it from the library (after a 2 month wait list).  I will try and come back and post "after" photos of all the meals I make.  The oldest will be home from college for spring break so I'm trying to make filling, comfort food.  

I really want to get our grocery prices down, but I spent $291 at Aldi last week and I HAVE NEVER spent that much at Aldi...not even at Christmas time.  Prices have skyrocketed and I'm trying to work with that.  I know that if you are reading this, you are in the same boat.  All we can do it try to feed our families the best we can, within our budgets.  

Have a blessed and wonderful week!!