Well, we made it through Week #1. Let's see how Week #2 goes. After a week of doing this, I have a few thoughts:
* this is going to save a lot of money. Total grocery bill for last week came to about $80. A little higher than my target goal, but there were quite a few things I bought last week in bulk and those items are going to be used next week. After doing my grocery shopping for this week, the total looks like it will be around $60 - though I'm sure a milk run will need to happen at some point.
* If you are cooking along with me - do it a week behind. It's just going to be easier as I sometimes change meal plans last minute, remember ingredients I forgot, or experience a terrible recipe that you won't want to waste your time repeating.
This weeks meal plan:
Sunday - Salad Night
* Pear and Blue Cheese Salad
Monday -
* Roast Tomato and Sausage Risotto (to do your prep in advance - up to 1 month in advance, read Roast Tomato & Red Pepper Base)
Tuesday - Soup Night
* Potato and Bacon Chowder
* Homemade Sourdough Bread (Starter should be made 2 days in advance)
Wednesday - Veggie Night
* Beans and Rice (leftovers from a couple weeks ago)
Thursday night
* Soy Sauce Chicken, Blueberry Poppyseed Muffins, Carrots
Friday - Leftovers
Saturday - no plan
Breakfasts
* Banana Bread
* Homemade Donuts
* Homemade yogurt and granola
Lunch
* leftovers
* mac n cheese (it's a weekly staple - my kids love it. It's easy. It's cheap. It's massively unhealthy. Love it.)
* mini pizzas with failed homemade pitas as the crust
Grab Bag
* homemade yogurt
* homemade donuts & banana bread
* crackers & hummus
* maybe, maybe homemade mozzarella or string cheese?
The grocery list:
[Key: *already have it in my kitchen]
Milk - 2 gallons
Butter - 4 cups
Bananas - 8
Blue Cheese
Garlic
Crackers
Onion
Pears - 3
Mixed lettuce
Pepperoni*
Chicken (can be whole or already cut)*
Bacon*
Sausage*
Yogurt - natural *
Eggs*
Cheese*
Carrots*
Potatoes* - I'm using the leftovers from the Roast Chicken
Tomatoes*
Soy Sauce*
Sugar*
Ginger*
Star Aniseseed*
Flour*
Baking soda*
Poppyseeds*
Sugar*
Honey*
Olive Oil *
Whole Wheat Flour*
Yeast*
Flaxseed*
Oat bran*
Pizza Sauce*
Cinnamon*
Baking soda*
Baking powder*
I think that's it - though I often go back through and realize I've forgotten something on this list; another reason to do this a week behind.
Last night we did homemade pizza night, I'll post a recipe soon, but for now I'm just going to refer you to this amazing no rise pizza dough recipe. The listed recipe is for a 12" pizza, so to make 4 large pizzas last night I made 6x the recipe, and actually used part wheat flour to give it a bit more character and nutritious value. I haven't tried it yet, but this dough should freeze fairly well - maybe we'll try that next week.
Anyway - hope you're looking forward to the meals of the week! I know I am.
If you're going to do this week in full, you'll need to go ahead and make your sour dough starter for your soup Tuesday night. It needs about 48 hours to sit. It takes about 5 minutes to make your starter, so there's no real cooking required today but do make sure you make the starter today if you want to have sourdough bread with soup on Tuesday.
* this is going to save a lot of money. Total grocery bill for last week came to about $80. A little higher than my target goal, but there were quite a few things I bought last week in bulk and those items are going to be used next week. After doing my grocery shopping for this week, the total looks like it will be around $60 - though I'm sure a milk run will need to happen at some point.
* If you are cooking along with me - do it a week behind. It's just going to be easier as I sometimes change meal plans last minute, remember ingredients I forgot, or experience a terrible recipe that you won't want to waste your time repeating.
This weeks meal plan:
Sunday - Salad Night
* Pear and Blue Cheese Salad
Monday -
* Roast Tomato and Sausage Risotto (to do your prep in advance - up to 1 month in advance, read Roast Tomato & Red Pepper Base)
Tuesday - Soup Night
* Potato and Bacon Chowder
* Homemade Sourdough Bread (Starter should be made 2 days in advance)
Wednesday - Veggie Night
* Beans and Rice (leftovers from a couple weeks ago)
Thursday night
* Soy Sauce Chicken, Blueberry Poppyseed Muffins, Carrots
Friday - Leftovers
Saturday - no plan
Breakfasts
* Banana Bread
* Homemade Donuts
* Homemade yogurt and granola
Lunch
* leftovers
* mac n cheese (it's a weekly staple - my kids love it. It's easy. It's cheap. It's massively unhealthy. Love it.)
* mini pizzas with failed homemade pitas as the crust
Grab Bag
* homemade yogurt
* homemade donuts & banana bread
* crackers & hummus
* maybe, maybe homemade mozzarella or string cheese?
The grocery list:
[Key: *already have it in my kitchen]
Milk - 2 gallons
Butter - 4 cups
Bananas - 8
Blue Cheese
Garlic
Crackers
Onion
Pears - 3
Mixed lettuce
Pepperoni*
Chicken (can be whole or already cut)*
Bacon*
Sausage*
Yogurt - natural *
Eggs*
Cheese*
Carrots*
Potatoes* - I'm using the leftovers from the Roast Chicken
Tomatoes*
Soy Sauce*
Sugar*
Ginger*
Star Aniseseed*
Flour*
Baking soda*
Poppyseeds*
Sugar*
Honey*
Olive Oil *
Whole Wheat Flour*
Yeast*
Flaxseed*
Oat bran*
Pizza Sauce*
Cinnamon*
Baking soda*
Baking powder*
I think that's it - though I often go back through and realize I've forgotten something on this list; another reason to do this a week behind.
Last night we did homemade pizza night, I'll post a recipe soon, but for now I'm just going to refer you to this amazing no rise pizza dough recipe. The listed recipe is for a 12" pizza, so to make 4 large pizzas last night I made 6x the recipe, and actually used part wheat flour to give it a bit more character and nutritious value. I haven't tried it yet, but this dough should freeze fairly well - maybe we'll try that next week.
Anyway - hope you're looking forward to the meals of the week! I know I am.
If you're going to do this week in full, you'll need to go ahead and make your sour dough starter for your soup Tuesday night. It needs about 48 hours to sit. It takes about 5 minutes to make your starter, so there's no real cooking required today but do make sure you make the starter today if you want to have sourdough bread with soup on Tuesday.
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