Tuesday, January 31, 2012

This Month's Vittles!!

Wow!  I didn't realize it had been so long since I put anything to keyboard for my blog!!

I have spent the last few days getting a five week menu made, scheduling all our meals, snacks, food to freeze and shopping lists.  I have been able to trim about $800 off my usual spending at Wal-mart and going out to eat.  We have been spending way too much and eating way to much.  I have made numerous changes.  Now you might ask yourself if I trimmed that much off what are we eating?  Are we doing without?  Did I plan for cheap meals?  Did I cut out all the snacking and munching my family likes to do?   NO to all those questions!!

Here is a sample of my menu:


Breakfast:  fried egg sandwiches with orange slices, biscuit and gravy, pancakes, baked oatmeal with cinnamon-raisins-apples, scrambled eggs with toast, waffles, homemade yogurt with fruit and granola, muffins, and blueberry biscuits.    This list is rotated during the month.  We always have cereal for breakfast on Sabbath.

Lunch: leftovers from supper, turkey sandwich, soup w/crackers, tacos with re-fried beans, chicken salad w/crackers, celery and carrots, peanut butter wraps with veggies, peanut butter smoothies with half sandwiches, and grilled cheese or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and so on and so on.  

Supper:  Spaghetti, meatloaf w/mac&cheese-green beans-okra-cornbread, sweet and sour chicken w/homemade egg rolls, roasted chicken w/glazed carrots-squash-steamed cabbage-rolls, crock-pot chicken-black beans-corn-salsa-cream cheese over rice with lettuce-tomato-sour cream-cheese, chili and hot dogs, baked bean casserole, Ritz chicken casserole, turkey w/dressing-sweet potato casserole-sweet pea casserole-mashed potatoes, and so on, and so on. 

I like to fix 1 1/2 recipes or 2 recipes and we have the leftovers a couple of night later.  So I cook two meals in a row and then have two nights off.  I like it that way.  I also try to fix a meal in the crock-pot on Friday so it makes it easier to get ready for Sabbath at sundown.  That meal is always made to stretch to Sat. night.

As for snacks:  We tend to love ice cream and so I do buy that.  I also make a dessert every Sabbath.  I also make multiple batches of cookies and use a small cookie scoop and make cookies and then freeze them.  We then have cookies to bake whenever we want them.  I like to have nuts in the house and we also eat fruit and veggies for snack.

I am making 96 rolls to have in the freezer and 100 biscuits.  I am also freezing homemade turkey sausage patties and turkey sausage gravy for my hubby to get up and pop in the oven.

Granted this was a lot of work.  But I don't work outside the home.  I have added up the hours(15) that it took me to put all of this together and then took the money($800) that we are going to save.  It comes out to be an hourly wage of  $53.  I never made that kind of money at any job I have ever worked :)

Hope that you can glean some good ideas from my post!!  Many blessings to all!!

Shalom,
Tonia











1 comment: