Week 1 Results

Meals:

This week was easy, I must admit. Although, I do love to grocery shop. So, staying out of the store was hard. I did go in to buy a local newspaper on Wednesday and that was the only thing we left the store with. I'm learning. It is kind of odd to call this Spring Cleaning anymore considering it has been cold and snowy the second half of this week. That's just life I suppose. Warmer weather will arrive again in a few days.

This week or big meals were:

Meatloaf. Sides included home made mashed potatoes and broccoli.

Baked Chicken and Rice with veggies (took 2 days including 3 meals to finish this one off).

Baked pork steaks. Sides included baked sweet potato and frozen California veggie mix.

Lunches consisted of a sandwich of some sort, fruit and a dairy serving. Breakfasts were basic.

Purchases:


Gallon Milk $3.79

Yup...that's it! Not too bad since we have $10 per week budget.

I will post any recipes you may want. You just need to ask for them. If you want them all, I'll try to post them through the week.

Week 2 starts tomorrow. I'm meal planning now and will be headed to the grocery store today.

Week 1 - Menus

At this point, I'm not being super specific with my meal planning and menus. We have enough food and incredible amounts of spices and seasonings in the house that I can sort of make it up as I go. It feeds my need to be spontaneous I suppose.

We have plenty of the following items in the house for breakfast:

-cereal
-oatmeal
-eggs
-bread for toast (I make my own bread)
-yogurt
-granola

As you can see, there is really no reason to "plan" breakfasts. At least for right now. Lunch will get tricky after this week. Right now I have some lunch meat, tuna and other items. Next week I may need to start getting a little more creative. I also LOVE to eat dinner leftovers for lunch.

Dinners for this week? I have thawing in the fridge:

-chicken thighs (6)
-pork steaks (3)
-2 lbs of ground beef from which I plan to make meatloaf
-leftover beef roast including potatoes and carrots

There is one issue I have not yet addressed, eating out. My $40/month ($10/week average) budget is for actual groceries/toiletries/cleaning supplies. My goal for eating out is once per week. Considering we ate out yesterday (Ray's last full day in Nebraska before leaving to finish his deployment) and this morning, we are done until next week.

How will week 1 turn out? Wait to see!!!!!!

Spring Cleaning

The groundhog said spring was coming early. Woo Hoo!!!!! I can't complain as this winter has been mild compared to other Nebraskan winters and we did not get much snow at all. We still had 4 or 5 foot drifts in the back yard this time last year. At this time, there is NO SNOW in our yard at all.


With the warmer weather comes time to open the windows and do some deep cleaning in our home. While yes, I have shampooed the carpets already and have washed the outside of some windows, my spring cleaning is going to take another form this year. Our pantry!!!!!


That's right. Our collective pantry has more food stored for our family than I believe we would need for 4 months. However, I'm going to go with a conservative number and say 2 months. Learning to shop smart with sales and coupons has allowed our family to accumulate food and toiletries and cleaning supplies without keeping track of what we already had. I went a bit overboard to say the least. The bottom line? We have a major surplus! With this in mind, it is time for a new challenge for me and my homemaking skills.....

Spring Pantry Challenge


Beginning this week, 2/20/2010, I will be creating our weekly menu plans with only the food we have in the house. There will be some exceptions as things such as fresh produce and milk will be needed. I will spend no more than $40 per month on any sort of food, toiletry or house care needs. I'll post my weekly meal plans here on my blog as well as post any item I purchase during that week. Maybe even some of the interesting recipes I will no doubt be creating during this period.

Do you think I can do it? Take a look at my collective home "pantry" and tell me what you think!

Baked Macaroni And Cheese

I tried this new recipe tonight. And oh-la-la....super yummy!!!!! Just thought I would share it with you....

1-1/4 cups whole wheat macaroni
water
2 eggs
1/2 cup part-skim or nonfat cottage cheese
1/2 cup skim milk
1/8 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp salt (optional)
1 cup part-skim or low-fat cheddar cheese, shredded
paprika for garnish
nonstick cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bring saucepan of water to a boil; add macaroni and boil until tender.

Combine eggs, cottage cheese, milk, paprika, pepper and salt in a blender and process until smooth.

Drain macaroni; place one-third of macaroni in the bottom of a 1 quart (I used a 1.5 quart) baking dish coated with nonstick cooking spray (I used olive oil). Sprinkle with one third of cheddar cheese. Repeat layers of pasta and cheese two more times. Pour blended mixture on top. Sprinkle with additional paprika for garnish.

Bake for 40 minutes. Makes 6 servings.
1/2 cup serving = 1 protein and 1 complex carbohydrate