Use what you have-Week 2

First, a reflection on Week 1.  Overall it went very well, we had plenty of good food and it felt really good to get rid of some food from my pantry/freezer!  There were only a few things that didn't go as I planned (like FORGETTING to menu plan our football team night on Friday...seriously how do you FORGET to plan to feed 75 people?!?!)  Overall I was 8/11 on the meals that I had planned...not bad!  

My second thought is that leftovers are so great, especially for Sunday lunch.  Sunday mornings are hectic enough for us since we drive 40 minutes to church (which provides a much needed 40 minutes to prepare for worship after having a not-so-worship-filled-hectic morning!).  It's hard enough for me to get everyone ready, out the door, and to church on time on Sundays, let alone prepare lunch!  So, leftovers have become my new favorite Sunday meal.  My family will have to learn to adapt.

Here's what's on my menu for this week:
Monday: beef stroganoff (yep, a repeat from last week, this one never got made)
Tuesday: Mediterranean pork chops, corn on the cob
Wednesday: beef fried rice
Thursday: broccoli chicken potato parmesan
Friday: beef stew
Saturday: pancakes (breakfast), chicken nuggets & fries (lunch), chicken pot pie (dinner)
Sunday: cinnamon rolls (breakfast), leftovers (lunch), Italian pork chops (dinner)
***Grocery bill for the week: $8.51!!!

Third thought...LOVE that grocery bill! :)

I've had a number of people ask me how to get started with this.  Here's what I did.  I went through my freezer and pantry and wrote down everything that I had, separated into meats, cream soups, canned vegetables, etc.  Then I went through the meat/main dish list and tried to pair it with something in the other columns.  For example, I had chicken in the freezer and paired it with cream broccoli soup and frozen broccoli from the freezer, red potatoes were bought this week...broccoli chicken potato parmesan!  I also made note of those strange leftovers in my fridge where I only used a small bit.  Again, an example is sun dried tomatoes in my fridge.  I have a can of spinach in my pantry, purchased some feta cheese...Mediterranean pork chops!  The other thing I would recommend is researching substitutes.  Last week I made honey mustard pretzel chicken (which was delicious) but didn't have honey mustard in my fridge.  The last thing I wanted to do was buy a jar of honey mustard so I researched a DIY honey mustard, and I think it was even more delicious than if I had purchased.  Another thing I'm attempting this week is homemade chicken stock.  I need some for Saturday dinner, but didn't want to purchase a can.  So...when I cook the chicken for the pot pie I'm going to attempt some homemade stock...we'll see how it goes!

This is only week 2 of this process, but I'm loving it.  Hopefully this will not only apply to my meal-planning but other areas of life as well!