Monday – Menu Plan September 22, 2014 AND a Giveaway {CLOSED}

Happy Monday and a new week to make new menu choices!

I hope you’re having a good week so far. I’m doing well thank you 😉

Last week’s menu went fine until I looked in the fridge and spotted the leftovers from Monday. Remember we had the pork chops that my husband was hinting at. I wasn’t sure what to make with them but based on the other things in my fridge I landed upon stuffed cabbage leaves. I’ve never made those before and they looked kinda easy, not to mention healthy, so I made those.

It’s great because they were basically just a few leftovers in my fridge.

1. Leftover pork
2. Leftover rice
3. Leftover spaghetti sauce (freezer)
4. Cabbage leaves

Can I just say there were a hit? My family loved them so much we’re serving it to our guests this coming Sunday but will change the meat from pork to a ground turkey/ ground beef blend as not all guest eat pork.

I was also excited to use my leftovers in such an ingenious way because my grocery money is about tapped out.

Since moving we’ve come up with a new plan for grocery shopping. We decided on a set amount (grrrrrr, so hard for me) and that’s what I have to work with for the month. Remember that trip to Costco a little while ago? Well that ate about half of my funds. But it’s good because I did buy food.

But that means I only had $45 for the rest of the month. Well I went a little over my $23 budget for last week and that means I now have $18. That should be enough but I need some butter (I mean to load up and freeze this fall when it goes on sale), milk, fruit, veggies, bread, and dessert, gotta have dessert! I have meat in the freezer so no problems there. We’ll see how well I do.

Since I buy soy-free that generally runs in the same path as gluten-free, organic, and well…pricey. Butter ain’t $1 a pound is $4.99 for the grass fed stuff.

I also got to chop up and store some peppers in the freezer this week. My favorite local market sells great varieties of in season local peppers once a year. It’s my chance to load up and freeze. I like to freeze peppers because there’s no blanching. Just wash, chop, and freeze. Voila! I try to stretch them all through winter in stir fries, quesadillas, and other dishes.

Here’s my menu for this week.

Monday: Apricot-Mustard Pork (eMeals)
Chops
Tuesday:Jerk Chicken Drumsticks (eMeals)

Wednesday:Skillet Mac using leftover spaghetti sauce

Thursday:Soup

Friday: Stuffed Cabbage

In other food news I have a Giveaway for your today! Wheeee!

One my lucky readers will receive a 3 month dinner subscription to eMeals.

Now since this post is about my Menu Plan for the week and you’re reading it I’m assuming that maybe you menu plan or know all about it.

If not I want to tell you all about menu planning.

Menu Planning is one of the great ways busy households can be sure to have a delicious well thought out dinner on the table each day of the week.

With menu planning you have the great option of checking your pantry, fridge, and freezer at an appointed time during the week. Preferably before you go grocery shopping and come up with some great dinner entrees for the week.

You usually end up saving money too because your meals and purchases are thought out. Very little goes to waste or is spent on impulse buys.

The problem is that after so many menu planning sessions you usually come up dry for new tastes and your family may be getting tired of the old.

Enter Menu Planning services like eMeals.

eMeals sends a new and entirely different menu plan, from your chosen menu type, to your inbox each week.

There are 18 kinds of meal plans including breakfast, lunch, and dessert, gluten free, clean eating (I have his one),

I was using eMeals each week before my move but got off the bandwagon with my eat through the freezer phase and then my getting comfortable in my new home phase.

Now I’m excited to dig into my email and find some great new recipes for dinner each night.

Each week I receive a Clean Eating menu plan with seven entree recipes including side dishes.

Each PDF printable includes…

• dated menu plan with 7 recipes, instructions, and ingredients
• prep time
• tips for how easy or any preparations
• grocery shopping list
• staples list of items you may have in your pantry

 

What is eMeals. Just a great, family friendly, finicky eater Menu Planning program designed just for you busy mom.

So ready to enter? Use the Rafflecopter widget below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

What’s on your menu?

• Find more great menu plans at Organized Junkie
• Read some Menu Planning articles for tips on planning your weekly menu
• Need delicious easy recipes for your family? Simplified Dinners is your template for fresh easy recipes every day.

*I’m an affiliate for eMeals and this post includes affiliate links

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