On the Menu...It's March!

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 Menu Planning

March has arrived! Winter will still be with us for a while longer, but I am really enjoying the longer daylight hours, hearing the birds chip in the morning, and the thought of starting our garden seedlings soon!

Last week we successfully worked through most of our "what needs to be used up" list, which was helped by hosting a dinner for six - that's six people I was able to feed lettuce to! This week we are back to our standard weeknight commitments after a week off due to schools being out for February vacation, which means making sure we plan ahead for lunches and busy nights. We also received a last minute invite to go out to dinner on Sunday night, so you'll see where I've spread some meal prep throughout the week on an as-needed basis.

Otherwise, this weeks meal plan is primarily based around items that need to be used up, whether from the fridge, pantry, or freezer.

  • green peppers
  • roma tomatoes
  • diced onions and peppers
  • french bread
  • heavy cream
  • leftover rice
  • leftover steak
  • ...and still more lettuce
  • cereal
  • taco shells
  • tortillas

What's on the Menu?

How menu plans tend to work for us is that some ideas get assigned to specific nights, other tend to float so that we can adjust incase our schedule changes. This is my rough projection for the week.

Breakfast

If you remember from my pantry challenge posts, we have a lot of cereal that needs to be eaten up. We are trying to get out the door a few minutes earlier in the morning, so Ben has been taking advantage of the available cereal. I'm sticking to my standard granola bar with peanut butter at work. I'd like to switch this out for homemade energy balls soon, but need to work on my freezer space first.

Lunches

Lunches are always either dinner leftovers or a meal specifically prepped for lunches. I typically take the dinner leftovers, and make another dish for Ben to take throughout the week that might not be to my taste.

This week for lunch there are leftovers from Texas Roadhouse, creamy kielbasa pasta, steak & vegetable fried rice, and one lone bowl of soup left from last week. I also made up some apple sauce cups using homemade applesauce that I canned back in the fall.

Dinners

Monday: creamy kielbasa pasta with salad and rolls

Creamy Kielbasa Pasta

 Meal Prep: steak & vegetable fried rice

Steak & Vegetable Fried Rice

Tuesday: cheeseburgers with salad

Wednesday: we will both be out of the house at dinner time, and will need to eat late. I'm thinking a steak quesadilla for myself, and crockpot taco soup for Ben that I can throw together before I leave for the evening.

 Meal Prep: crockpot taco soup

Thursday: pesto chicken pasta with broccoli

Friday: not sure yet, but likely tacos or quesadillas


Other Kitchen Happenings

This past weekend we hosted my husbands family for dinner and a few rounds of Skip-Bo. This was a last minute invite, but I was able to pull together almost everything I needed from my fridge/freezer and only went to the store for an additional head of broccoli, a cucumber, and a loaf of french bread. For dinner we had steak, salmon, green salad, steamed broccoli, roasted summer squash/green pepper/onions, rice, and french bread. This was a frugal kitchen win for me because I got to use up some of that lettuce, and I estimated the cost of the entire dinner to be around $20 (that includes what I had on hand, plus the veg/bread run). A much less expensive option than going out for dinner.

Additionally in the kitchen this past weekend, I made waffles, french fries, nachos, and calzones for our weekend lunches and dinners, all from items in the fridge/pantry. I find it very satisfying when I can prevent food waste and feel like I'm indulging at the same time.

For pizza especially, I like to make a batch of sauce and dough, portion, and store in the freezer for the future. I also buy pepperoni on sale and that in the freezer as well.

Sheet Pan Nachos

This week, I still plan to make a breakfast casserole using the (sadly) very stale half-loaf of french bread - I forgot to put it in a better bag after dinner, oops!

Have a great week, and happy meal planning!

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