Menu Plan Monday – 12/21 to 12/27

The following is our dinner menu for the week beginning 12/21.

L/O = indicates leftover from previous meal

Sunday (First night of Hanukkah):

Noodle kugel
Carrots
Broccoli
Sufganiyot (jelly doughnuts)

Monday:

Pot roast
Kashe varnishkes
Salad

Tuesday:

Latkes
Smoked Salmon with Horesradish Cream
L/O Kugel
Applesauce

Wednesday (Christmas Eve – will be taking cookies to church to enjoy after the service):

Hearty Lentil and Ham Soup
Cheddar Biscuits

Lemon oil cookies with lemon glaze
Eggnog cookies with cream cheese glaze
Gingerbread cookies

Thursday (Christmas Day):

Fennel-Potato Soup with Smoked Salmon
Ham with Bourbon, Molasses and Peacn Glaze
Spinach with Lemon Olive Oil
Popovers (shhhhh….DH is getting a second popover pan, now we can bake a dozen all at once!)
Peppermint ice cream

Friday:

L/O’s/Clean out the fridge night

Saturday:

Possibly Pizza Night…

Total spent on groceries (food only): TBA
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Weekly Notes:

A new pizza place/convenience store opened in town on Saturday, and of course we had to go for Opening Day.  They had been rehabbing the old general store building at the center of town since May or June, and I have to say it was well worth the wait!  I just hope they can stay in business though the current economic downturn.  We will do our best to support them, although we’ve significantly cut back on our dining out in recent months.

Last week’s Beer and Onion Braised Beef Carbonnade was AWESOME.  You can see my comments on the recipe at the Epicurious website – I made a few minor changes, in addition to using beef instead of chicken. I plan to make this one again, doubled or tripled for the freezer.

The chickens continue to lay eggs, we’re getting about 3-5 per day.  The greenhouse greens are officially kaput – apparently, nothing grows when it’s in the single digits outside.

Menu Plan Monday – 12/14 to 12/20

The following is our dinner menu for the week beginning 12/14.

L/O = indicates leftover from previous meal.

Sunday (first date hubby and I have been on since the spring!):

Chinese food at Wei Li’s (thank you Clara for the recommendation!) after seeing A Christmas Carol at the Public Theatre in Lewiston with our gift certificate from the Block House Preschool’s auction last March.

Monday:

Smoked salmon and cream cheese frittata
Biscuits
Salad

Tuesday:

Meatloaf
Carrots
Mashed potatoes
Salad

Wednesday:

Beer and onion braised *beef* carbonnade
Rice
Steamed spinach

Thursday:

Pasta  and meatballs
Peas
Salad

Friday:

L/O’s/Clean out the fridge night

Saturday:

BBQ Chicken pizza

And for coffee hour at church on Sunday: Smoked Salmon Horseradish Mousse

Total spent on groceries (food only):
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Weekly Notes:

I kind of went AWOL for the past couple of weeks, but I’m back on track once again.  For anyone who cares, we basically had turkey or ham in one form or another last week (we had our annual post-Thanksgiving party a week ago Saturday, and had leftovers up the wazoo).

We got an enormous egg a couple of days ago (my first reaction upon seeing it was:  “Ow!”).  Turns out it had THREE yolks.  I’ve heard of double yolks, but had never seen one before, so a triple-yolk egg was pretty exciting.  And it made a tasty omelette, too.

Our power went out several times due to last Thursday/Friday’s ice storm.  The longest outage was maybe 1 or 1 1/2 hours total, with several brief interruptions (just long enough to make me have to reset all the clocks in the house YET AGAIN!). We have a generator but didn’t need to use it.  I’m glad that the freezer is FULL, because if we did lose power for a long period of time, it wouldn’t take a lot of energy to keep it freezer full of frozen stuff frozen.

Coming up next week…Hannukah!

Menu Plan Monday – 11/16 to 11/22

The following is our dinner menu for the week beginning 11/16.

L/O = indicates leftover from previous meal

Sunday:

Bacon and cheddar quiche
L/O Matzoh ball soup
Salad with garden/greenhouse greens

Monday:

Halibut with Vegetables and Parsley (because I have a nearly full jar of ajvar from our NH friends in the fridge)
Spinach, tomato and feta cheese salad

Frosted cranberries

Tuesday:

Baked ziti
Green salad

Wednesday:

Chipotle chicken enchiladas
Spanish rice
Lettuce/tomatoes/sour cream

Thursday (Dinner at our friends’ house – will be bringing dessert, probably a cranberry-apple pie):

Friday:

L/O’s/Clean out the fridge night

Saturday:

BBQ Chicken pizza

Total spent on groceries (food only):TBA
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Weekly Notes:

Last week we got our first egg from the chickens, and have been averaging one or two per day (we have a dozen birds). I’m sure it won’t be long before we are knee-deep in eggs, and giving them away to family, friends and co-workers, but for now, they’re still a rare treat.

I didn’t get as much stuff into the freezer as I had hoped to last week. This week, I have three pies to bake for our church’s Gingerbread Fair on Saturday, plus one to take with us to dinner with friends on Thursday night. Since my sewing machine had an EPIC FAIL last week (nothing like having it out of commission in the weeks leading up to Christmas!) and will be in the shop for awhile, I am going to *try* to get more baking/freezing done this week.

Hubby made a salad Sunday night with greens from the garden and greenhouse. He had the cutest smile on his face while he ate it…he’s so proud that a month after our first freeze, we’re still eating spring salad greens.

Menu Plan Monday – 11/9 to 11/15

The following is our dinner menu for the week beginning 11/9.

L/O = indicates leftover from previous meal

Sunday (other than the salad, DH did all the cooking – lucky me!):

Beef stir-fry with onion and carrots
Pork (OK, it was really bacon) fried rice
Micro-greens salad (from garden)
Crepes Suzette

Breakfast: Toasted challah with butter and jam, grapefruit sections, yogurt, coffee and orange juice
Lunch: L/O BLT pizza (tomato/bacon pizza and lettuce/mayo topping refrigerated separately)

Monday:

Shepherd’s Pie
Carrot and apple soup
Spinach, tomato and feta cheese salad

Breakfast: English muffins, clementines, coffee/milk and…the *first* egg laid by our chickens (split three ways).
Lunch: L/O fried rice
Snacks: Applesauce, chocolate malted milk (yes, I splurged on malted milk powder this week)

Tuesday (Veteran’s Day, so I have the day off to bake/cook):

Grilled Pork Chops with Saté Sauce
Cilantro coconut rice
Asian cucumber ribbon salad

Wednesday:

High Roast Danish Viking-Smoked Sea Salt Chicken Stuffed with Bacon
Honey glazed carrots
Salad with greenhouse greens (mache, mustard greens, spinach, lettuce)

Thursday:

Chipotle chicken enchiladas
Rice
Refried beans
Lettuce/tomatoes/sour cream

Friday:

White pizza

Saturday:

LO’s/Clean out the fridge night

Total spent on groceries (food only): $155.30
Shaws: $155.30

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Weekly Notes:

I spent a ton of money at the grocery store this week, stocking up on flour, sugar, cranberries, butter, chocolate chips and more. I am getting started on my holiday cooking and baking, although it’s going to be quite difficult to find room in the basement freezer to store everything now that I have a 22-pound turkey in there until December 3 or 4. We’ll be having a large group of friends over for a post-Thanksgiving bash on the 6th.

For the upcoming week, I’m hoping to make Peppermint Bark (two sheets of melted choc. chips with layer of peppermint patty filling in between), gingerbread boys and girls (or at least make the dough), eggnog tea cookies and a batch or two of Foolproof Fudge. I’m also going to be making a double recipe of the Shepherd’s Pie, and Bourbon Chicken Liver Pâté (using the turkey liver).

We’re still getting greens, carrots and beets from our garden (under row covers), and the fall greenhouse vegetables are coming along nicely: mustard greens, escarole, spinach, carrots, beets, mache, celery and some broccoli. We’ve had a stretch of warm, wet weather recently, which has helped the garden veggies.

Menu Plan Monday – 11/2 to 11/08

I’m a bit late in posting this week’s menu, as we have been away for several days, then stayed up WAY too late watching election results last night. Looking forward to getting to sleep early tonight!

L/O = indicates leftover from previous meal

Sunday – Tuesday: Staying with friends in NH to work on Senator Obama’s campaign. (We brought pulled pork for lunch on Saturday and pot roast for Sunday night, and I made homemade peppermint patties.)

Wednesday:

Chili (brought home with us from our friends’ house) over egg noodles
Corn
Salad
Peppermint patty brownies (made with leftover peppermint patty filling)

Thursday:

L/O Pot roast and vegetables from the weekend
Salad

Friday:

BLT Pizza

Saturday:

BBQ beef (from pot roast)
Corn
Salad

Total spent on groceries (food only): $468
Hannaford: $30 (can’t find the receipt, pretty sure it was less than this, though)
Little Ridge Farm: $438 (beef/smoked meats)

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Weekly Notes:

Our beef order came in this week, along with our smoked meats from Little Ridge Farm. The basement freezer is now packed to the gills, and I’ve updated my inventory spreadsheet so I’ll know how much of what cuts we have on hand. All the meat is cryo-vac’d this year; apparently, there was some problem last year which resulted in our beef order being wrapped in freezer paper. It didn’t seem to cause any problems – the two chuck roasts (from last year’s order) that we took to our friends’ house this past weekend were terrific. (Edited to add: The bacon on our BLT pizza  was AWESOME!)

We’ll be picking up the turkey on Saturday.  Don’t know where I’m going to put a 25 lb. bird, though…

Our household consists of two adults and one young child.

Menu Plan Monday – 10/26 to 11/1

The following is our dinner menu for the week beginning 10/26.

L/O = indicates leftover from previous meal

Sunday: Went to a pumpkin carving party that lasted all afternoon & evening

Breakfast: Ham and cheese omelets

Monday:

Grilled Salmon with Thai Curry Sauce
Basmati rice (double batch)
Thai cucmber salad with roasted peanuts

Breakfast: Bagels & cream cheese
Lunch: Macaroni and cheese, leftover quiche

Tuesday (knitting club night)

Macaroni and cheese
Broccoli
Spinach salad

Breakfast: Bagels & cream cheese, grapefruit sections, coffee/tea, juice
Lunch:  L/O salmon & rice, L/O pizza, L/O mac & cheese, pineapple, cherry tomatoes
Snacks:  Apples, raisins, peanut butter, crackers, milk

Wednesday:

Grilled pork chops w/ maple stewed apples
Mashed potatoes
Broccoli
Salad

Thursday:

Fried rice (made with (L/O rice)
PF Chang’s lettuce wraps
Edamame
Japanese sesame spinach

Friday:

Spicy grilled chipotle chicken
Green beans
Salad with Chipotle chutney dressing

Saturday:

LO’s/Clean out the fridge night

NOTE: NEED TO BAKE FOR coffee hour at church on Sunday: Sausage apple appetizers

Total spent on groceries (food only): $131.17
Thompson’s Orchard: $14.22
Panera Bread (bagels/bread/soft drinks): $17.21
Hannaford: $99.74

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Weekly Notes:

We started off this week a bit expensively, with stops at the local orchard (apples, cider, doughnuts) and Panera Bread (bagels, bread, drinks) during our 2 1/2 hour drive to our friends’ house in MA.  It was a last-minute decision to go, and as a result, we hadn’t planned anything to take with us for the party.

I’m the only one in our household who enjoys fish and seafood (DD calls it “underwater food”), which means we don’t have it at home very often.  The rule at our house is you have to eat two bites of everything that is served, and both DH and DD did their part.

Our household consists of two adults and one young child.

Menu Plan Monday – 10/19 to 10/25

The following is our dinner menu (and breakfast and lunches, when I remember to include them, that is) for the week beginning Sunday, October 19.

L/O = indicates leftover from previous meal

Sunday: Visiting in-laws

Monday: Dinner out (first time in a lo-o-o-o-o-ong while) at our favorite Thai restaurant

Tuesday:

Kugel (DH makes this – yum!!)
Salad

Wednesday:

Spaghetti with Bolognese Sauce (made from pork sausage we got from our local farmer)
Green Beans
Salad

Breakfast:
Lunch:
Snacks:

Thursday:

Ham and cheese quiche
Salad
Sweet and sour cherry turnovers with goat cheese cream

Breakfast:
Lunch:
Snacks:

Friday:

Sausage Pizza
Salad

Breakfast:
Lunch:
Snacks:

Saturday:

Country-style oven ribs
Baked potatoes
Corn
Salad

Total spent on groceries (food only): $89.54

Shaw’s: $49.54
Dinner out – $40

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Weekly Notes:

We came back on Monday from visiting the in-laws to an almost empty refrigerator and a freezer full of meat from our local CSA. We ended up going out to dinner that night; while I’m really trying to avoid going out to dinner because we didn’t plan ahead, it was very nice to meet up with hubby there after not having seen him for five days. Plus, he made dinner the next two nights (and cleaned the house before we got home – yay!), so I can’t complain. Sometimes you just have to live a little.

Our household consists of two adults and one young child.

shopping list:

Sour cream
Carrots
Garlic

Menu Plan Monday – 10/12 to 10/18

This week has an abbreviated menu, as I’m taking DD to visit the grandparents, and DH is off to his annual men’s weekend, so we won’t be having meals at home Thurs.-Sat.

L/O = indicates leftover from previous meal

Sunday: (Apple picking at local orchard)

Pot roast with carrots, onions and celery from our garden
L/O scalloped potatoes
Fried Green Tomato salad
Chocolate banana snack cake

Brunch: Scrambled eggs, organic chicken sausage, biscuits with L/O gravy, cantaloupe, coffee/juice ($4.76 total for meal)
Snacks: Apples, peanut butter crackers, raisins, milk/juice

Monday:

Beef Fajitas (made from leftover pot roast)
Spanish rice
Shredded lettuce, tomatillo salsa, sour cream
L/O Dulce de leche ice cream

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs, L/O biscuits and gravy, grapes, yogurt
Lunch: L/O pizza, L/O Spinach and matzoh pie
Snacks: Apple, peanut butter, cheese crackers, milk

Tuesday:

Ham and cheese quiche
Peas

Breakfast:
Lunch:
Snacks:

Wednesday:

Leftovers/clean out the fridge night

Breakfast:
Lunch:
Snacks:

Thursday:

Road trip – packing Bento box dinner/snacks for drive down to Massachusetts

Breakfast:
Lunch:
Snacks:

Total spent on groceries (food only): $433.44
Shaw’s – $75.15
Thompson’s Orchard (apple picking) – $11.29
Little Ridge Farm (pork order) – $347.00 

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Weekly Notes:

Because we were going to be away for part of the week, I wanted to make sure that we didn’t buy a lot of produce or milk that would go bad before it got used up, or leave a ton of leftovers in the fridge. As a result, my shopping list was pretty short this week – one red pepper, some chicken sausage, popcorn, tortillas, butter, strawberry yogurt and milk — we always need milk.

Since we had friends who called last-minute to say they were driving up from Massachusetts and wanted to meet us in Freeport on Saturday, I went online and looked at the Shaw’s supermarket circular that morning to see if there was anything on sale that i wanted to stock up on so we could combine the two errands. (We usually shop at the Hannaford store in Auburn after church on Sundays.) So I ended up adding organic grapes, cranberry sauce, crushed and whole tomatoes, bread crumbs and pasta sauce to the list. I also added a bunch of items from the circular that we buy fairly often to my price book just to start building up a database. Since the three of us went shopping together after we had hung out with our friends for a couple hours, I was worried we’d end up buying a lot of stuff not on our list. But other than a bag of potato chips, we were able to stay on track (thank goodness for the free cookies from the bakery!).

No eggs yet from our chickens, but DH says it should be any day now (I’m pretty sure he’s just guessing). Our pork order (with the exception of the smoked meats) came in on Monday, so I need to rearrange the basement freezer and update my inventory list.  I hope we have enough room for the beef when it comes in later this month!

I also need to start planning the menu and making things for our annual post-Thanksgiving Day party pretty soon – we invite all our friends to come the Saturday after the Thanksgiving weekend. I was able to reserve a turkey last week from the farmer who raises our pork and beef. I was a bit surprised that there were still birds available at this late date (in fact, she asked if I wanted one or two).

Price Book idea revisited

One of my all-time favorite frugal authors, Amy Dacyczyn (I went to link to her Wikipedia entry – can you believe there isn’t one yet?), has long reccomended maintaining a price book for groceries.  I tried keeping a paper version before, but it was a real pain in the neck to keep up-to-date and organized in a way that I could actually use.  Attempts to use Excel to keep the data organized never really got off the ground.  But I recently came across this Grocery Price Book Spreadsheet at Sean Payne’s Uncommon Way to Wealth website which looks more user friendly than anything I’ve seen before.  What I like about it is the ability to quickly calculate a per weight/unit cost as well as the per serving cost.  

When I’m ready to go shopping, I can easily print out the price book pages organized by aisle so I can tell at a glance if the price has gone up, down or stayed the same.  And when I want to calculate the cost of a meal or recipe, it’s very easy for me to determine how much the individual ingredients (i.e., a single banana, a teaspoon of vanilla, etc.) cost.

Now I know that a cup of homebrewed Trader Joe’s coffee costs me 22 cents (including cream and sugar!).  I always knew that it was less expensive to make coffee at home than to go to Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts, but I didn’t realize it was such a huge difference.  I’m definitely looking forward to using this price book spreadsheet in the future.

Menu Plan Monday: 10/5 – 10/11

The following is our dinner menu (and breakfast and lunches, when I can remember to update them, that is) for the week beginning 10/5. Notes specific to this week’s menu are below.

L/O = indicates leftover from previous meal

Sunday:

BBQ pork sandwiches (made from leftover pork roast)
Sweet potato fries
Sweet slaw
L/O cranberry sauce

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs, home fries, coffee/juice
Lunch: L/O spiced beef cornbread cobbler, hot dog (DD), applesauce, juice/seltzer/water
Snacks: Apples, graham crackers with peanut butter, juice/water

*Monday: (DH out for the evening – it’s Girls’ Night In!)

Macaroni and cheese
Steamed broccoli
Green salad
Fresh baked chocolate chip cookies (DH usually makes these; he bakes up one or two cookie sheets full at a time, and keeps the remaining dough in the fridge or freezer for another time)

Lunches: L/O bulky rolls w/ BBQ chicken breast, provolone cheese, L/O sweet slaw
Note to self: need to freeze leftover pork gravy from last week for pork sausage, biscuits & gravy in the future. Use it up!

Tuesday:

Beef Stroganoff (made with L/O flank steak from Saturday night, )
Scalloped potatoes
Corn & edamame
Green salad
Meyer Lemon Olive Oil/Pistachio Ice Cream (homemade/improvised recipe)

Breakfast: Yogurt, cantaloupe, coffee, juice
Lunch: L/O BBQ pork, L/O sweet potato fries

Wednesday:

Pepper chicken with hummus
Saffron rice pilaf with apricots and almonds

Thursday:

LO’s/Clean out the fridge night

Friday:

Spinach and Matzoh Pie
Greek salad
Pita with hummus

Saturday:

Pepperoni pizza (homemade)

* – Indicates cost of entire dinner for family of three was $5 or less.

Total spent on groceries (food only): $133.60
48.70 – Hannafords (incl. bottle return and bag credits of $1.40)
84.90 – Trader Joe’s

I’m hoping in the future (as my recordkeeping improves) to include the cost per meal. I probably won’t break it down to a per serving amount (too difficult as we all eat such varied amounts).

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Weekly Notes:

Since he was going to be in the Boston area on Monday, I had DH stock up on multiples of some of our favorite items (coffee beans, crackers, olive oil, juice, etc.) at Trader Joe’s. I didn’t need to buy any meat this week (trying to use up freezer stuff as our pork order will be in next week!). We bought milk, feta cheese, broccoli, red pepper, red onion, matzoh and pita bread. I’m hoping to bake bread on Monday, too, as it’s been awhile and the recent onset of fall weather has got me in the mood to do it again.

To keep our meat expenses down, we purchase our beef and pork from a local CSA once a year. We have a dozen chickens that *should* start laying eggs sometime this month (October); in the meantime, we get our eggs from a local organic farmer who splits the income 60/40 with the church where I work. We have a very large garden (with quite a bit of produce in the freezer) and are hoping to grow some things (lettuce, broccoli, spinach, etc.) year round in our greenhouse.

Our household consists of two adults and one young child.