How is your meal planning going? I hope you are trying to get at least 2-3 meals planned so you can see the benefits in meal planning. I have dedicated to meal planning each week, at least 3-4 meals and I have greatly reduced our grocery spending because of it. What are you waiting for? 🙂
On Friday, I went to Kroger and got some managers specials and other deals. I ended up finding organic, cage-free eggs for just $1.59/dozen, so I got 3, then I found a great sale on ham (because I found $1.10/1 Oscar Mayer meats Q), plus lots of bread markdowns — like hoagies, french loafs and whole grain rolls. So, with that, I needed to find a way to use all those eggs.
Since I had so many eggs and so much ham, I will be incorporating them into my Kitchen Prep Day and my meal plan this week. I decided to use them ham in a Ham, Pepper and Onion pizza, a Ham and Cheese Quiche and then Cuban Sandwiches. The eggs will be used in a few more quiches, french toast and not sure what else. Any ideas on great recipes to use my extra eggs?
Ideas for Ground Beef?
I am also looking for some ways to use some of the ground beef that I got on sale at Kroger a few weeks ago. Other than Hamburgers, Tacos, and Spaghetti or Chili, I am stumped. I did add Lettuce Cups to the meal plan, which is one of our favorites!
Keep an eye out for my Master Plan of my Kitchen Prep Day this week! Have you started your planning yet? If so, what are you cooking?
Welcome! For those of you who are new to Meal Planning checkout my resources:
My Meal Planning Tab – to help you out while you are getting started – lots of great resources.- Previous Weekly Meal Plans
- Recipe Box – A comprehensive list of all my recipes!
- FREE Meal Planning Template – Just click on the image above to download it. The best part is that you can even type in your meals and print it out! Or, just print and fill it in. Don’t forget to put it on your fridge!
What about you, what is on your meal plan this week?
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Meal Plan for the week of March 28th :
Sunday:
(Lunch) Ham and Cheese Quiche, garden salad w/ blue cheese dressing
(Dinner) Cuban Sandwiches, steak fries
Monday: Lettuce Cups, egg rolls (frozen)
Tuesday: Chicken Piccata, steamed broccoli, roasted red peppers, homemade wheat rolls
Wednesday: Pancakes/Waffles Scrambled Eggs, and Bacon
Thursday: BLT’s, fruit
Friday: Good Friday Service and Date Night Out!
Saturday: Linguine with Creamy Walnut Sauce, green salad, homemade wheat rolls
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Lunches:
Turkey Sandwich
Tuna Fish Sandwich
Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, sliced apples
PB&J, sliced apples
Leftovers – Chicken Piccata on sandwiches, Linguine
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Breakfast:
Banana Oat Smoothies, toast
homemade yogurt, granola and fresh strawberries
strawberry smoothie, whole wheat toast w/ peanut butter
cereal, whole wheat toast w/ jelly
breakfast burrito (egg, cheese, & salsa)
egg sandwich w/ cheese, fruit
oatmeal, whole wheat toast, sliced apples
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Snacks:
homemade popcorn or mini-pouches
smoothies
apples w/ peanut butter
frozen yogurt
string cheese
cheese slices on crackers
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What meals are you planning this week? Any tips on how to easily meal plan? Whether or not you posted your meal plan for the week, please take a moment to leave your meal plan here. Let’s help each other out in sticking to our budgets!
Some ideas we do for ground beef – not sure if any of them would work for you:
Meatball subs
Mini meatloaves & mac-n-cheese
Taco salad
Beef Quesadillas (you mix it with Campbells Nacho Fiesta Cheese soup)
Cheese/rotel dip with ground beef (for an appetizer for a party)
Pasta Bake (pasta, cream cheese, chives, ground beef, sauce, etc – could give you the recipe if you wanted)
Baked Mostaciolli (my husband’s favorite)
Shepherd’s Pie (never actually made this, but have eaten it)
My favourite way to use up hamburger is called the Washday Casserole. When I was a child we had a ringer washer and had to hang the clothes on the line so it was a full day job.
It is easy to substitute veggies for what you have on hand as well as adjust the amounts.
Slice up:
3 potatoes
3 carrots 3
3stalks of celery
chop up one onion.
Brown 1 lb. of ground beef, drain and rinse with water.
Layer potatoes, then carrots and celery into casserole. Put ground beef on top and then sprinkle with chopped onions.
Pour over top 1 can of sodium-reduced tomato soup and one can of water. Cover and cook at 350 F for one hour or until veggies are done. If you don’t have tomato soup I’ve used a can of tomatoes however my kids didn’t like the lumps!
My kids love some dirty rice 😉
Where do you find the marked down bread at Kroger? Also, I never see marked down chicken there. Is it kept in the same area as the “Manager Special” on beef or is it separate? Thanks!
Kelly
shepherds pie is a good one b/c I bet u have some frozen bags of veggies and even some orida steam n mash potatoes in your freezer
that’s what I’m making with mine
I make a version of the Rachel Ray recipe for Mexican Deep Dish Pizza with ground beef (most of the time I use ground turkey). It’s basically a twist on tacos, but instead of using tortillas or shells, you put it on top of corn bread. Great idea for Martha White cornbread mixes I snatched up at Harris Teeter during triples. Also included a link for a similar recipe that is for Barbeque Sloppy Joes. Enjoy!
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/mexican-meat-zza-mexican-deep-dish-pan-pizza-recipe/index.html
http://cookbookjunkie.blogspot.com/2010/01/one-of-rachael-rays-family-faves.html