I posted a lot of information about my family and how we plan meals in this initial post.

Sunday – Creamy chicken noodle soup

Since I’ve been sick this weekend, this was the only thing that really sounded good. I make all (but the noodles) in the crockpot.

Ingredients:
3-4 chicken breasts
3 carrots (sliced)
3 celery stalks (sliced)
3 cans chicken broth
2 cans cream of chicken soup
Seasonings (to taste): garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, and parsley
noodles (I use “Country Style” ones that are just like homemade ones!)

Place chicken breasts, carrots, celery, broth, and cream of chicken soup in the slow cooker. Cook on low for 5+ hours. Shred chicken breasts, and whisk everything together. Add seasonings. Cook noodles, drain, and add to the mixture. Let everything cook for 30 more minutes on low.

Monday – Easy Cheesy crockpot chicken

Tuesday – Salisbury steak (in the slow cooker)

Wednesday – Kielbasa and sauerkraut in the slow cooker

Thursday – Teriyaki chicken (I joined a freezer cooking group, and this is one of the meals that I got. Unfortunately, I don’t have the recipe)

Here’s a teriyaki chicken once a month cooking recipe you can check out, though:
Teriyaki Chicken
1/2 C. soy sauce
1/2 C. sugar
1 1/2 T. red wine vinegar
2 t. veg. or sesame oil
1 sm. minced garlic clove
3/4 t. ground ginger.

Stir ingredients together and pour into a gallon sized ziploc bag with 1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts. On serving day, thaw and pour into a baking dish. Bake in preheated at 350 for 35 min. Serve over rice. To stretch this out, I add a bag of frozen, stir fry style veggies in before baking.

Friday – Chicken Fried Steaks with Creamed Pan Gravy and Biscuits
(This recipe comes from the Rachael Ray Classic 30 minute meals The All Occasion Cookbook)

Ingredients:
1 1/2 pounds round steak (1/2 inch thick)
1 c. (plus 2 T) all purpose flour
1/3 c. cornmeal
1 tsp sweet paprika
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly grund black pepper
2 eggs, beaten
2 T water
4 T vegetable oil
1 1/4 c beef broth or stock
1/4 c. half and half or cream
1 pkg bake-off biscuits (prepared to directions)

Preheat a large, heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Set steaks ona waxed-paper-lined work surface and cover with another piece of waxed paper. Pound steaks to a 1/4 inch thickness. Set steaks aside.

Line work surface with more waxed paper. Make a pile of 1/2 cup flour on both ends of work space. Add cornmeal, paprika, salt, and pepper to one pile of flour. Beat eggs and water in a pie plate or shallow dish.

Cut steaks into 4 portions and coat first in plain flour, then in egg, and then in the seasoned flour and cornmeal mixture.

Add 2 T oil to hot skillet and brown 2 steaks at a time. As they brown, remove from the pan and add more oil, as needed. When the last 2 portions are browned, add the first two back into the pan witht he others. Cover pan, lower heat to medium-low, and cook, covered, 15 minutes. Remove steaks to serving platter and pour off all but 2-3 T drippings. Add 2 T flour to the drippings and cook for 2 minutes. Whisk in broth and seasons with salt and pepper. Add half and half or cream and whisk into gravy. When gravy bubbles, remove from heat. Serve steaks and warm biscuits with gravy on top.

Saturday – Creamy chicken burritos

3 chicken breast halves cooked and cubed (I used canned chicken when I’m in a hurry)
1 8 oz pkg cream cheese
1 cup salsa
1 can red enchilada sauce
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1 15 oz can pinto beans
1 1/2 Cup shredded cheddar cheese
8 flour tortillas

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9×13 baking dish.
Add cream cheese and salsa to large sauce pan. Cook over medium heat until cheese is melted and blended with salsa. Add garlic, beans and chicken. Mix well. Fill tortillas, roll up and place in baking dish. Mixture will be a runny so be careful not to burn yourself filling tortillas. Pour red sauce over the tortillas. Sprinkle burritos with cheese cover with foil and bake 20 minutes. Remove foil and bake an additional 10 minutes.

Serve with lettuce, tomatoes, olives etc.

Get ideas for planning your menu here:

I posted a lot of information about my family and how we plan meals in this initial post.

You can check out my $40 weekly shopping trip for the week here.

Here is my meal plan for this week:

Sunday – Tuesday is my husband’s birthday, but since I have to work, I’m doing the big family dinner tonight. I am also making breakfast, which I rarely do.

For breakfast, I made the Puffed Pancakes recipe that I got from Marci’s blog.

For dinner, I made manicotti, which is my husband’s favorite. I use the one straight from the Barilla website.

I also made this recipe for Basil Garlic Bread, which I got from someone off of a Babycenter cooking board years ago:

Basil-Garlic Bread

Prep: 10 min., Bake: 10 min.

1/4 cup melted butter
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 6-ounce Italian bread loaf

Stir together 1/4 cup melted butter, 1 teaspoon dried basil, and 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder. Cut a 6-ounce Italian bread loaf in half horizontally; brush cut sides evenly with butter mixture. Wrap loaf in aluminum foil, and bake at 350° for 10 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Yield: Makes 4 servings. (I added some parmesan cheese on top also)

Then, I made cheesecake, which is another one of my husband’s favorites. This recipe is super easy, but good:

Philadelphia 3 step cheesecake
Ingredients:
2 packages (8 ounces each) Philadelphia Cream Cheese (I use the 1/3 less fat and it works fine)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 T fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp grated lemon peel
1 Honey Maid graham cracker pie crust

Beat cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing on low speed after each addition just until blended. Stir in fresh lemon juice and grated lemon peel. Pour into crust. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool and refrigerate 3 hours (or overnight). I add a can of cherry pie filling on top.

Monday – Green enchiladas – this is a modified version of a recipe my dad makes

Ingredients:
1 can green enchilada sauce
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can Rotel
3-4 chicken breasts
corn tortillas
monterrey jack cheese

I place the chicken breasts, enchilada sauce, cream of chicken soup, and Rotel in the crockpot on low all day. When I get home, I shred the chicken and add it back to the mixture. Then, you can either do stacked enchiladas (pour some of the mixture on a corn tortilla/add cheese and repeat for as many layers as you would like) or do rolled enchiladas (place some of the mixture in the corn tortilla, roll, and place in a pan….repeat 9 times…then, pour the remaining sauce mixture over the top and top with cheese and bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes).

Tuesday – Mix in a Blender cheese souffle – this is a recipe from my mother in law and is one of my husband’s favorite. Since tonight is his “actual” birthday, that’s what we’re having! We have yummy sourdough bread with it.

Ingredients:
1 T butter (softened)
6 eggs
1/2 c. heavy cream
1/4 c. grated parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp prepared mustard
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 lb cheddar cheese (sharp)
11 oz cream cheese

Butter souffle dish. In blender, combine eggs, parmesan, mustard, salt & pepper. Whirl until smooth. Cut the cheddar cheese into pieces. Add piece by piece to mixture in blender. Do the same with the cream cheese. Pour mixture into the buttered souffle dish. Bake at 375 degrees for one hour. (If souffle is prepared ahead and refrigerated, add about 5 minutes to the baking time)

Wednesday – French dip sandwiches (slow cooker)

Thursday – Creamy bacon ranch chicken (slow cooker)

Friday – Ravioli (slow cooker)

Saturday – Lemon Chicken Puff – this is from Marci’s blog and has become a family favorite!

One of the things I love about planning a weekly menu is that we sit down and talk about ideas for meals for the upcoming week together. Then, we are eating meals together as a family which gives us more “together” time and we are saving tons of money because we are not eating out! We only have eaten out once so far this month which is a big change from previous months. Having a plan makes it easier to cook each night because I’m not fumbling around trying to figure out what I’m going to cook at a point where everyone in my house is hungry and cranky already.

Here is my menu for the week. I’ll be relying on a lot of stockpile items for several of these meals:

Sunday – spaghetti (nothing special about that, but I was struggling to come up with ideas for dinner and my husband said it sounded good)

Everything for this meal comes from my stockpile. I got the spaghetti noodles for free when there was a .50/1 Barilla coupon and they were 10/$10 at Kroger awhile back. The coupon doubled and the noodles were free. I got the Prego sauce at Target a few months ago using a combination of Target/manufacturer’s coupons. I can’t remember exactly how much I paid, so I went back through old posts and it was .80/jar. Once every few months, I have my mom pick up ground beef for me in bulk at Sams Club. I pay about $20, but then I divide it in half and cook half and put it in small baggies and freeze and then I divide the other half into small baggies (I LOVE MY FOODSAVER!) and freeze! When I need ground beef for a recipe, I just defrost it and add it – it’s quick and easy! I get at least 10 meals out of the $20 of meat, so that is about $2. I had some frozen garlic bread in the freezer that I got for .70 (it was $1.50 at Kroger and I used a .40 coupon that doubled). I also added some green beans that were .40/can. Total cost for this meal was about $3.90 and it doesn’t even come out of my budget for the week! 🙂

Monday – Tuna casserole
Tuna casserole isn’t the most popular thing, even at my house, but this recipe actually is pretty good and I have all of the items to make it in my stockpile.

Ingredients:
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 c. sour cream
3/4 c. milk
1/2 c. mayonnaise
7 oz. can tuna (I will use a tuna pouch)
1 c. grated cheese
2 T parsley
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 T lemon juice
cracker crumbs (Ritz)
3 c. cooked noodles (your choice)

Combine all ingredients and pour into a 2 quart shallow dish. Top with cracker crumbs. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

Notes: The tuna pouches I have were free at Target a few months ago. The cream of mushroom soup was .50. I got the cheese for $1.50/bag at Target (w/ coupon) and it’s already shredded…I’m only using half the bag. The Ritz crackers were free at Walgreens. The noodles were free at Kroger. My total out of pocket cost for this meal is $1.25. I will serve this with a veggie side (free from Kroger), some crescent rolls (also free from Kroger), and some fruit.

Tuesday – Chicken & Stuffing (slow cooker recipe) – this is super easy and everyone in my family loves it! I usually add a veggie and some mashed potatoes as sides.

Wednesday – Slow cooker chili

I serve this with garlic cheese biscuits – they are SOOO good!

Thursday – Chicken Lickin’ Good Porkchops (slow cooker)

Friday – Smothered Steak (in the slow cooker)

Saturday – Chicken pot pie (I dice and add potatoes to the mixture, which the recipe doesn’t call for, but it gives it a little something extra!)

Notes: The veggies in this recipe were .02 after coupon (Thanks Target!), the cream soup was .50, the entire box of Bisquick was $1.50 and I’m not using anywhere near that much, the potatoes were $3.99 after coupon at Target (and I’m only using 2), the chicken was $6.49/bag at Target and I’m not using an entire bag. Total cost for this meal was about $3.77.

If you have a weekly menu blog, feel free to share the link here!

I posted a lot of information about my family and how we plan meals in this initial post.

Here is my meal plan for this week:

Sunday: Classic Chicken divan (This is a family favorite that my mom used to always make when we were growing up….I made a double batch of this to serve for our extended family dinner)
Ingredients:
2 bunches fresh broccoli (or 2 10 oz packages frozen broccoli)
1/4 c. margarine
1/4 c. flour
2 cups chicken broth
1/2 c. whipping cream
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 c grated Parmesan cheese
3 chicken breasts, cooked and thinly sliced

Cook broccoli in salted boiling water and then drain. Melt butter and blend in flour. Add chicken broth. Cook and stir until thick. Stir in cream, salt, and a dash of pepper.

Place broccoli crosswise in a 13X9X2 baking dish. Pour half the sauce over broccoli. Top with chicken slices. To remaining sauce, add Parmesan cheese. Pour over chicken. Add bread crumbs to top. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until hot through.

*A few of my variations…I cover the chicken slices with some shredded cheese and then put the bread crumbs on top (I make my bread crumbs from real bread by toasting it and then breaking it up and sprinkling parmesan over the top….it is one of the “favorite parts”

Banana pudding

Monday: Swedish meatballs (in the crockpot)

Tuesday: Cream Cheese Chicken (in the crockpot)

Wednesday: Honey Lime enchiladas – I saw this recipe on Marci’s blog and it looked yummy, so I decided to test it out this week! I usually don’t cook non-crockpot meals during the week, but my plan for this is to cook the chicken in the crockpot the night before and then just put it all together that morning so I just have to throw it in the oven when I get home!

Thursday: Creamy potato soup (in the crockpot)

Friday: pizza – There’s nothing fancy about this. I will use a Pillsbury crust that I got for .25 using a coupon, homemade pizza sauce (.33 for the can of tomato sauce), and then pepperoni ($1 w/ coupon), mushrooms (.44 for store brand), and cheese ($1.50/bag with coupon) as toppings. We will have a salad as a side ($2). My total cost for this meal was $5.52.

Saturday: Sweet and sour pork (another family recipe)

Ingredients:
1 t. soy sauce
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 T cornstarch
dash of salt
1/2 c. pineapple juice or water
3 T cider vinegar
2 T ketchup
Pineapple, onions, green peppers
Chopped ham

Mix ingredients in a pan. Stir constantly over low heat until thickened and translucent. Add pineapple, onion, green pappers, and ham. Serve over rice.

I got my ham free at Target with the $2 off coupon they had awhile back. The green peppers were 2/$1. The canned pineapple was $1.13. I had all of the other ingredients on hand. Total cost for this recipe was around $3.