Menu Plan Monday, ok so Friday but whatever

It's that time again - Menu Plan Monday!

Everywhere you turn people are tightening their belts, and like the rest we are too. I posted earlier about my attempts to get a better handle on our finances and what I've been doing to help. While some things are a fixed cost like rent and our car payments, others can easily be changed. One of the easiest ways to cut costs is in the food bill. Granted we hadn't been eating out alot there are still ways to cut back even for us.

We're lucky that the hubby hunts and fishes for practically nothing and then can process and fillet the fruits of his labor so that we have a freezer full of meat. This enables us to cut our grocery bill in half I'd estimate. For any meal that uses hamburger, roast, stew or even steaks we can use venison and save the raising cost of beef. The only thing that I buy true hamburger meat for is meatloaf or hamburgers. So this leaves just pork and chicken for us to purchase out of pocket. Even so those pockets are running emptier lately and I needed to find a way to cut our costs even more.

The answer is AngelFood Ministries. I stumbled upon this by accident really and I believe this will really help our family cut costs. I compared prices and decided that purchasing 1 or 2 boxes (designed for 1 week's use) could help get us through a month of groceries. Granted I'll still have to make a trip or two to the grocery store but I believe we could come in under $150.00 for a month's worth of meals.

For the month of January I purchased the Regular box and the January Special #5. Items used from the box can be found in blue and like before you'll find the supplemental grocery list at the end.

Saturday, January 24th
Breakfast: Pancakes
Lunch: Tomato Soup and Grilled Tomato, Smoked Turkey and Muenster Cheese Sandwiches
Dinner: Steakhouse Night - Grilled Ribeye Steaks, Loaded Baked Potatoes, and Steamed Broccoli

Sunday, January 25th
Breakfast: Everything but the kitchen sink Omelets (eggs) and Toast
Lunch: Sandwiches
Dinner: Cheese Filled Manicotti with Homemade Marinara Sauce, Cesar Salad and Breadsticks

Monday, January 26th
Dinner: Pinto Beans, Honey Cornbread Muffins and Collard Greens

Tuesday, January 27th
Dinner: Chicken Fajitas with Bell Peppers and Spanish Rice

Wednesday, January 28th
Dinner: Slow Cooker Venison Stew and cheddar biscuits

Thursday, January 29th
Dinner: LaBamba Casserole (ground turkey)

Friday, January 30th
Dinner: Pork Ribs (recipe tbd), Scalloped Poatoes and green beans

Saturday, January 31st
Breakfast: Pigs'N Blankets, Blueberry Muffins and Oranges
Lunch: Sandwiches
Dinner: Lady & Sons Lasagna, salad and garlic bread

Sunday, February 1st
Breakfast: French Toast, Bacon and Scrambled Eggs
Lunch: Leftovers
Dinner: Super Bowl Sunday dinner at my parents' house

Monday, February 2nd
Dinner: Pastor Ryan's Mexican Lasagna and a southwest salad

Tuesday, February 3rd
Dinner: Grilled Chicken, Chicken Flavored Rice and Brussel Sprouts

Wednesday, February 4th
Dinner: Fend For Yourself, Mommy's tired

Thursday, February 5th
Dinner: Fried Chicken with Red Beans & Rice

Friday, February 6th
Dinner: Take 'n Bake Pizza and salad

Saturday, February 7th
Dinner: Hamburgers and Potato Salad

Sunday, February 8th
Dinner: Fried Fish, Coleslaw and French Fries

Monday, February 9th
Dinner: Maple Glazed Salmon, Baked Sweet Potato and Broccoli

Tuesday, February 10th
Dinner: Venison Stroganoff

Wednesday, February 11th
Dinner: Chicken Pot Pie (carrots, peas and potatoes) and Spinach Salad (tangerines if left over)

Thursday, February 12th
Dinner: Spaghetti and breadsticks

Friday, February 13th
Dinner: Chicken Enchiladas and black beans

Saturday, February 14th
Breakfast: Waffles and fruit
Lunch: Sandwiches
Dinner: Out to Eat for Valentine's Day!

Here's this month's supplemental grocery list, and as always there may be items that I have in my pantry that I didn't include in the list so double check the recipes so that you don't miss an ingredient.

Grocery List

And as always be sure to check out the rest of the group's menus at the Organized Junkie.

Beef and Beer Chili

What a great long weekend! I wish everyone could have had Monday off, its so great to have MLK Day off because it really helps to break up the dull after Christmas. Anyways the weather was a bit chilly outside so we decided to stay home and what's better to curl up with on a cold day than a bowl full of chili? This is a new recipe that I tried and I think it turned out really great. Its a different spin on chili, it's not a red chili but it's not a white chili either. It's more of a broth chili, is that even a type? Anyways it was great and I think it would taste great finished with cilantro and monterry jack cheese but I didn't have either of those and it wasn't called for in the ingredients though. But trust me add these to your bowl!

Picture and recipe from CookingLight.com

Beef and Beer Chili

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups chopped red onion (about 1 medium)
• 1 cup chopped red bell pepper (about 1 small) *I didn't have one so I omitted this
  
• 8 ounces extralean ground beef *substituted venison
  
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 1/2 tablespoons chili powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 (19-ounce) can red kidney beans, drained *I used pinto instead
  
• 1 (14.5-ounce) can no-salt-added diced tomatoes, undrained
• 1 (14-ounce) can low-sodium beef broth
• 1 (12-ounce) bottle beer (such as Budweiser)
• 1 tablespoon yellow cornmeal
• 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

Combine first 4 ingredients in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Cook 5 minutes or until beef is browned, stirring to crumble. Stir in chili powder, cumin, sugar, and salt; cook 1 minute. Add oregano and next 4 ingredients (through beer) to pan; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes. Stir in cornmeal; cook 5 minutes. Stir in juice.

Kid Friendly - Sloppy Joe's

I originally tried this recipe out from Cooking Light, and it was so yummy. But I thought it was a bit time consuming. Instead of making this sauce from scratch it would be much simpler, although not as healthy, I could just use store-bought sauce. So that's what I end up doing the majority of the time. Again since it's all about reheating for the hubby, I'll be making the meat mixture Tuesday night.

Menu: Sloppy Joe's, oven fries and cottage cheese

Kid Friendly Sloppy Joe's

Ingredients:
1 can of sloppy joe sauce
1 can of corn
1 small white onion
1 green bell pepper
1 to 2 lbs of ground beef (or venison)
4 hamburger buns

1. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion, bell pepper, and garlic; sauté 3 minutes.
   
2. Add meat to pan; cook 5 minutes or until browned, stirring to crumble. Stir in sloppy joe sauce.
   
3. Reduce heat, and simmer 12 minutes or until thickened, stirring occasionally. Stir in corn; cook for 2 minutes or until thoroughly heated.
4. Spoon about 1 cup meat mixture on bottom half of each hamburger bun; cover with top half of each bun.

Oven Fries: I'd suggest preparing these first and then letting them cook while you get the sloppy joe's ready. Pre-heat your oven to around 425 to 450. Take 4 large baking potatoes and cut into medium thick wedges. Place wedges on a baking sheet and drizzle with EVOO, sprinkle with some chili powder and salt. Cook for about 20 minutes or until they are nice and crispy. Remember you want them all to sit flat on the sheet, don't overload the sheet or they're steam and not crisp. Once they're done, remove from oven and sprinkle with salt.

Now your fries and sandwiches are done so plate them up, add a dollop of cottage cheese sprinkled with salt & pepper and you've got a scrumptious sloppy supper!

Picture from CookingLight.com

Pepper Steak

This recipe comes from the best book for budget friendly, not so figure friendly but beginner's guide to cooking cookbook "Where's Mom Now That I Need Her". I started out with the intention of following the recipe to a t, Pork Chops & Rice. However after defrosting 2 sets of wild pork chops (again my great hubby) I realized they had been in the freezer too long and had severe freezer burn so scratch that. Quickly found some round steak (venison thanks to the hubby) in the freezer and made a quick change to the recipe. I had only bought 1 green bell pepper so it was going to be a variation on traditional pepper steak.

Crockpot Pepper Steak & Rice

Ingredients:

• 1 lb of round steak
• 2 tbsp of chopped green bell pepper
• 2 tbsp of white or yellow onion
• 1 can of stewed tomatoes
• 2 tbsp of cooking oil (I use EVOO)
• 1 cup of rice (I used brown)
• 1/2 cup of flour
• salt & pepper to taste

Set crockpot to low, either 8 or 10 hours depending your time needs

1. Take steak and place between 2 sheets of ceran wrap and pound vigerously until meat is very thin. Doesn't that feel good, go on get all your frustrations out. Dang dog, dang husband, stupid clothes that don't fit anymore! Omit this step if your meat has already been prepared this way, though I'd suggest doing it yourself since its lots of fun.
2. Mix flour, salt and pepper in a shallow dish. Coat steaks in flour and place on bottom of crockpot.
3. Next chop your onion and bell pepper and add to crockpot.
4. Add rice and open can of tomatoes pouring on top of rice. Add the evoo and cover.
5. Occasionally check and stir mixture together.
6. Once rice has been cooked to your desired texture, plate and serve.

Stroganoff

Down to the bottom of the barrel as far as groceries go this weekend, yet I couldn't get my lazy butt to the store knowing that the minute I step outside I'd melt in the sweltering heat of 100 plus temperatures. Instead I came up with an oven/stove free recipe in which I did little to no work because lets face it, even with the a/c running full blast it was too hot to even think about cooking! And because my husband is such a great provider we had a freezer full of axis and whitetail to use up instead of beef (something of which I rarely have to buy), so instead of your typical beef stroganoff. I made venison stroganoff.

Crockpot Venison Stroganoff

Ingredients:
1 to 2 lbs of cubed venison (or beef)
1 small yellow or red onion (doesn't really matter)
1 small can of mushrooms
1 packet of onion soup mix
1 can of cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup of flour
salt & pepper to taste
3 cups of egg noodles






Set crockpot to low, either 8 to 10 hours depending on your time needs.

1. Combine flour, salt and pepper in a shallow dish. Coat meat in flour mixture and place of bottom of crockpot.
2. Slice onion into medium thick rings or half rings and add to crockpot.
3. Open, drain and add mushrooms to crockpot.
4. Add soup and dry soup packet, gently stir together to cover the meat.
5. Once meat has browned to the bottom of the pot, mix all ingredients together freely scraping up the bits to add flavor, continue cooking and occasionally stirring.
6. 30 minutes prior to serving add the sour cream and continue cooking, while preparing the noodles.
7. Once noodles are done, plate and serve over the noodles. Garnish with parsley if you desire.

This turned out to be a super yummy dinner and while not heating up the house, the aroma of a home cooked meal was intoxicating. I would also go so far as to say this was a very healthy meal. Venison is known for being a much leaner meat than beef thus there was less fat. I always use 98% fat free creamed soups and light sour cream in all recipes and I have made the switch from flour pastas to whole wheat pastas of which the difference is unnoticeable. The sauce tastes great and is very rich, which means a smaller portion is all one can take of this meal. And smaller always means better in terms of overeating. I hope you and your family enjoy this meal as much as mine did.

*Picture is from cookinglight.com, I could never dream of taking such a great picture and if I had attempted to take a picture of this meal it would surely have looked like dog poo or vomit and non so appetizing.