Menu Planning Monday: My menu for the week of 1/18

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!