Monday, September 8, 2008

This week's coupon contest and Menu Planning Monday all together!

I am issuing a stockpile challenge to all of my readers.
Every other Friday is my grocery shopping day, so for this week, I am putting a major challenge to myself. I bought only what is essential for the next two weeks and will try to make all of my meals from my stockpile. I bought only deli chicken (for daughter's lunchbox), veggies and salad fixings. I will go to Walgreens or CVS and use gift card or ECBs to get milk when we need it.
So, the following is my menu for the next two weeksI am going to try to live almost completely off of my stockpile (and since I hadn't been planning this until tonight, this should be interesting). You will notice there is a lot of Mexican, but that is definitely our family's favorite, so they don't mind having it several times!

Anyway, on to the contest...
What creative ways can you think to plan menus around your stockpile? Leave me a meal suggestion and you will be entered for this week's contest. Good luck and good eating!


Weekday breakfasts - Cereal or Poptarts (My daughter and husband don't eat big breakfasts, and I don't usually eat it at all)

Weekday lunches - Since my daughter eats her lunch at school (usually sandwich, fruit and granola bar) and my husband eats lunch at work, I usually just grab whatever is around. Usually a deli chicken sandwich with fruit or salad.

Monday dinner - Roast, carrots and potatoes

Tuesday dinner - Taco soup from the freezer with torilla chips or Fritoes

Wednesday dinner - Chicken with Romano's Macaroni Grill mix, veggies and salad

Thursday dinner - Homemade pizza and salad with breadsticks

Friday dinner - Beef broccoli, fried rice and egg rolls

Saturday lunch - Sandwiches and chips

Saturday dinner - Beef enchiladas and Mexican rice

Sunday lunch - Grilled cheese and fruit

Sunday dinner - Beef stirfry and white rice

Monday dinner - Roasted chicken, veggies and rolls

Tuesday dinner - Crockpot Salsa Chicken (love this recipe, except I make it with boneless chicken and serve it over tortillas with cheese on top) and rice and torilla chips

Wednesday dinner - Chicken salad (from roasted chicken leftovers) and fruit

Thursday dinner - Tacos and rice or beans

Friday dinner - Upside down pizza and salad

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, two weeks of menus! That's impressive.

Anonymous said...

You'll have to tell me if you like those Macaroni Grill things. I have coupons for some, but haven't tried them.

Jessica-MomForHim said...

I'm trying to give the crockpot a try. I just went down to my deep freeze today to make a list of what is in there. Then I taped the list on top of the freezer and told my hubby that if we put anything in there, it needs to go on the list. Then we need to use the items on top of the list before the bottom ones. So I am trying to make a meal plan from my "stockpile", too, and trying to make sure things don't get lost forever to freezer burn. Thanks for your help in this, too! And thanks for the giveaway!

Megan said...

I would suggest roast, potatoes and carrots for the first night. Use the leftover beef to make beef and noodles and/or vegetable beef soup.

Jennifer said...

Ok, let's see, I am coming for dinner on Friday, Monday and Thursday!!!LOL!

Great job getting your menus planned:)

Theresa N. said...

Something I've done for years that works for our family is save left over vegetables and meats (in separate containers) freeze until later. After I have several containers, defrost, cook in large pot using canned tomatoe soup, bouillion cubes and bay leaf as base, season. Makes a great soup.
Theresa N
weceno(at)yahoo(dot)com

Anonymous said...

I love Kraft's Chicken bruschetta reciepe. It is made with stuff I already have on hand. Something else I always have on hand it rice. By golly I think you can do just about anything with rice! LOL

Brandy said...

I just started couponing and stockpiling, so I don't have a great stash as I am sure you do, but I do have some recipes that are standbys with stuff I normally have at the house.

Chuckwagon ChiliMac
http://www.kraftfoods.com/kf/recipes/chuckwagon-chili-mac-94489.aspx

15min. Mix and Match Mac&Cheese dinners
http://www.kraftfoods.com/kf/recipes/15-minute-mix-n-65907.aspx

Mix and match potato casseroles
http://www.kraftfoods.com/kf/recipes/mix-match-potato-casseroles-90937.aspx

and
One pan oven bakes
http://www.kraftfoods.com/kf/recipes/one-pan-oven-bakes-66154.aspx

Melissa said...

Wow, I just ran across your blog and your menu is impressive. I would do Sloppy Joes in the crock pot. Meat, sloppy joe mix, and tomtato paste are all on hand here at my house.

Anonymous said...

Please enter me into your contest. My only suggestion is to check out recipe sites online - where you can type in one or two key ingredients and see what it can come up with for a meal idea. Sometimes they can help me "think outside the box" of an idea.
Shannon <><
bruceandshan@sbcglobal.net

Shay S. said...

We like to eat a lot of chicken, so when 3 lb. bags of frozen breasts are on sale, I buy enough to last until about a month later, when they are usually on sale again. I like to make meals up to freeze. Put one - 2 ingredients and seasonings in a freezer bag w/ chicken. Seal. Smoosh. Label bag and you can pull a bag from freezer and take out of bag to cook in crockpot from frozen. Tonight, we are having Enchilada Chicken and I will use the leftovers to make quesadillas.

vbjones said...

I always use leftovers to make soup.

Honey said...

This week we are using chili from our freezer with corn chips (on sale stock up), Macaroni Grill pasta with Salmon (freezer stockpile), homemade pizza with pillsbury pizza dough and pepperonis (both from stockpile) poptarts and cereal for breakfast, mostly sandwiches for lunches. And all of this (except dinners) is being served on paper plates I stocked up on a few weeks ago.

Lynn said...

Let's see I don't have a stockpile yet, but I always have the stuff I need to make sloppy joes or spaghetti, and yes I mean from scratch, then just add a salad and you're good to go. Thanks for the giveaway

pam said...

I always seem to have chicken breasts in the freezer, and salsa in the pantry, so I'll make chicken tacos, or something like that. The kids are always happy.

Jill said...

Goulash! Throw together the elbow macaroni and ground beef with some tomato soup and add chili powder to taste. Yummy!

Christian Frugal Mama said...

Stockpile. My stockpile isn't big enough yet, for food anyway. But we could easily live off of soup and pasta for awhile. We have a lot of that. And Ragu from some great deal.

Unknown said...

I am new at the Mommy coupon game and I love it so far! I feel more in control of my home this way. :) I love the menus! They seem to be great meals. Today it was rainy and chillier than normally in TX in early September so I would throw everything in my homemade pot of soup. :)

Anonymous said...

Um a quick and easy meal i like to make is a macaroni salad. Take macaroni noodles and cook them as directed let cool. Add some Mayo, green,red, or yellow bell pepper cut into small pieces, cubed ham and cubed cheese. LEt sit in fridge until cooled makes a yummy salad. Sorry I dont have exact measurments i just make it to looks/taste!

Ginny said...

Meatless meals are great for using up your stockpile. If I have some ingredients I will also google what I do have & try to find a recipe to use.

Anonymous said...

I discovered a delicious recipe in one of the August editions of All You for corn tortillas. My family loves it and DH doesn't even notice that it's a meatless meal.

(I'm giving it from memory, so it may be slightly modified to how I make it)
Take corn tortillas, wrap in foil and pop them in the oven on 350 for 10 minutes.
You roast 2 cloves of garlic in a skillet with olive oil. Add 1 1/2 cups of corn (fresh or frozen is fine). Add 1/2 cup of milk until mixture thickens.
Spray a baking dish with nonstick spray. Take a corn tortilla, fill with corn mixture and add a heap of cheese (pepper jack, monterey or cheddar). Top with red enchilada sauce.

This is delicious!! It's a new family favorite.

datura27 at yahoo dot com

Beeb said...

Here are some fun websites, where you can punch in items that you have on hand, and it will pull up recipes that you can make using those things:

http://www.recipematcher.com/
http://www.supercook.com/

This week, I made a veggie lasagna to use up some produce before it got too old. I love to grate veg like carrot and zucchini, because it's a good way to "sneak in" some vegetables! Yum!

Thanks for the fun giveaway! You can find me at my blog and at fwuffles AT jaided.com :)

Anonymous said...

I don't have room to stockpile enough meat for 2 weeks, but for one week we will sometimes roast a chicken. Then the rest of the week we'll have white chicken chili, wraps, salads ect.

brittlynn44@yahoo.com