Category Archives: Menu Plans

Menu Plan: 11/7-11/13

Would you believe I’m still recovering from this awful virus? Yeah. I am not a happy camper. I’ve been sick for over a week. Ugh.

But I’m getting better every day. I’m back at work and feeling mostly okay. I’m just still coughing, and I still feel like I need a little extra sleep. :( I also haven’t felt up to working out for over a week. Hopefully I’ll be back to my old self again (and back in the gym) by the end of the week.

In the meantime, all I have for you today is a meal plan. Enjoy!

I hope you’re all having a great day! Happy Monday!

For more menu plans, visit OrgJunkie.

Menu Plan: 10/17-10/23

It’s finally fall in North Carolina! The temperature will barely reach 70 degrees this week. I know, 65 doesn’t seem that chilly to most of you right now, but it’s finally below 80, so I’ll take what I can get.

Now that it’s gotten a little chilly, we’re finally busting out our fall and winter recipes. Here’s our $63 menu plan for the week:

Saturday: Chicken nachos
Sunday: Broccoli cheddar soup
Monday: Leftovers/ sandwiches
Tuesday: Chicken fajitas with refried beans
Wednesday: Pasta with butternut squash
Thursday: BLTs with oven fries
Friday: Homemade pizza

For more menu plans, visit OrgJunkie.

Menu Plan: 10/10 – 10/16

We’re finally getting the hang of our modified meat shopping plan. Our total for the week was $62, and we even stocked up on three pounds of organic chicken on special.

The only meat we’re eating this week is a pound of organic ground chicken and half a pound of roast beef deli meat.

For lunches we eat leftovers, salads, or peanut butter sandwiches. We always eat whatever fruit is in season and on sale for snacks, so right now it’s locally grown apples. My favorite snack is apple wedges with peanut butter, so I’m in heaven. Breakfast is always cereal, oatmeal, or scrambled eggs.

And for dinner:

Sunday: Chicken burgers with oven fries
Monday: Leftovers/sandwiches
Tuesday: Chicken tacos and refried beans
Wednesday: Pasta with roasted garlic and crushed tomatoes
Thursday: French dip sandwiches
Friday: Homemade pizza

For more menu plans, visit OrgJunkie. Hope your week is off to a great start!

Menu Plan: 10/3 – 10/9

We’re slowly trying to adapt our food budget to incorporate healthier, organic foods without spending too much more (more on that later). Unfortunately, that means we had another week over budget — $65.

I’m confident we’ll learn to balance organics and price so we can get healthy, local foods without blowing the budget. We’re just not there yet. :)

Here’s our menu plan for the week:

Saturday: Appetizers! Homemade hummus, bruschetta, Veggies and dip
Sunday: Roasted chicken with new potatoes
Monday: Vegetarian chili
Tuesday: Chicken quesadillas
Wednesday: Spaghetti with spinach pesto
Thursday: Mexican bean skillet
Friday: Homemade pizza

For more menu plans, visit OrgJunkie.

Menu Plan: 9/26-10/2

Is this really the first menu plan of October? Holy cow, where is the year going? I’m not complaining, though. The faster time goes, the faster we get to beautiful fall weather. I can’t wait!

This week was not a good week for our grocery budget. Tony’s birthday was Sunday, and I found myself going a little overboard at the grocery store. We picked up quite a few things that weren’t on the list, including ingredients for a coffee cake he was craving instead of birthday cake and a 12-pack of Coke. Those little extra really add up! The result was a $70 grocery bill. Yikes. It’s been a while since we had one of those.

But he had a fantastic birthday, and if we can’t indulge a little bit for a birthday, when can we do it?

Here’s our $70 menu for this week:

Saturday: Pizza (Tony’s parents sent him some cash for his birthday, so we went out for dinner!)
Sunday: Chicken and dumplings
Monday: Leftovers/sandwiches
Tuesday: Chicken tacos and refried beans
Wednesday: Chicken Caesar salad
Thursday: Bean and cheese burritos
Friday: Homemade pizza

For more menu plans, visit OrgJunkie. Have a great Monday!

Menu Plan: 9/19 – 9/25

Despite the fact that it’s still too warm to turn off the air conditioning, we can’t wait until it’s gets cooler to bring soup back into our menu plans. If you’re enjoying fall weather, please don’t tell me about it. I have another month of 80-degree weather before we can finally turn off the A/C.

We’re trying to reduce our grocery spending by about $10 a week. Unfortunately, this week we didn’t succeed. We spent about $58, but we’re working on it. Hopefully next week, we’ll be able to get down to $40-$50.

Here’s our menu plan for the week:

Saturday: Pulled chicken nachos (Who says you can’t have nachos for dinner? We’re adults!)
Sunday: Chicken noodle soup
Monday: Leftovers/sandwiches
Tuesday: Fajita chicken with pinto beans and rice
Wednesday: Cheese ravioli with marinara
Thursday: Chicken wraps
Friday: Homemade pizza

Visit Org Junkie for more menu plans. Have a great week!

Menu plan: 9/12-9/18

I’m counting down the days to soups and heartier meals for the colder months, but we’ve still got some weeks to go before fall weather arrives in North Carolina. I’m finding some great compromises in the meantime.

We’re trying something new with our routine, and this week we finished our grocery shopping Friday night. I loved that it left the weekend open for more fun, but I feel like the produce selection was a lower quality than usual. Any other Friday night shoppers have that problem, or is it just an anomaly since we’re approaching the end of the summer?

Here’s our $50 meal plan:

Saturday: Porterhouse steak and baked potatoes
Sunday: Broccoli Cheddar soup
Monday: Leftovers/sandwiches
Tuesday: Black bean quesadillas
Wednesday: Spaghetti with meatless marinara
Thursday: BLTs
Friday: Pizza

For more menu plans, visit OrgJunkie. Happy Monday!

Menu Plan: 9/5 – 9/11

We’re having a fantastic Labor Day weekend. After spending Saturday in Charleston, we ran all of our weekend errands yesterday, and now today we’re celebrating Labor Day precisely the way it should be celebrated: by doing nothing at all. We slept in, ate breakfast at noon, and I’m still not dressed for the matinee we’re seeing in less than an hour. Every weekend should be this way. :)

You can see some photos from our gloriously lazy rainy morning here:

Howie

Here’s our menu plan for this week:

Sunday: Bacon wrapped baked chicken with roasted red potatoes
Monday: Barbecue pork with corn on the cob
Tuesday: Tacos
Wednesday: Taco salad
Thursday: Leftovers
Friday: Homemade pizza

For more menu plans, visit OrgJunkie. Happy Labor Day!

Menu Plan: 8/31 – 9/4

Tony has always been a more adventurous cook than I am. It’s not that I don’t like to try new things; it’s just that I think I know what I like, and I’m content to stick with it.

But one of the many reasons that Tony and I are a good match is that he chooses foods that I’m not interested in trying, and he makes it his mission to cook those food for me. It typically takes him a month or two to convince me to add something to our menu plan for the week. There have been some disasters, but he’s usually right. The foods he insists I try usually end up being delicious. And once he’s cooked something. he chooses a new project to force me to try.

Lately he’s been obsessed with making braised beef short ribs. Personally, I thought they looked too fatty for me. Last night I finally gave in and let him make them, and I have to tell you: he was right. They turned out pretty delicious, even if they were a little fattier than I like my meat.

Most importantly, we got four big beef short ribs for about $5. To be honest, this is a meal that I’d recommend more for the cold winter months, but it’s definitely a hearty Sunday meal that I recommend you try. Hint: the gravy is the best part!

And here’s the rest of our $65 menu plan for this week:

Sunday: Braised beef short ribs with garlic mashed potatoes and corn on the cob
Monday: Cheeseburgers with baked french fries
Tuesday: Chicken quesadillas
Wednesday: Tomato-basil baked chicken and side salad
Thursday: Chicken Caesar salad
Friday: Bean and cheese burritos

For more menu plans, check out OrgJunkie.