Menu Plan Monday: Fridge & Pantry Cleanout!

This week’s menu planning took place in the passenger’s seat of our car somewhere between Yakima, Washington and Hood River, Oregon. We had a lovely weekend visiting with family as we celebrated the baptism of my beautiful niece. Read the rest of this entry »
This Week’s Menu: Fridge & Pantry Cleanout

Welcome to the first week of my fridge & pantry cleanout challenge! I am challenging my fellow bloggers and readers to not only plan their menus, but to use up those leftovers and pantry items as well! Please, leave a comment or e-mail me privately if you’d like your link added to this post. All I ask is that you refer a link back to this blog. You are also welcome to grab my button (above) and use it! I’m so excited to see what others are doing!!
Read the rest of this entry »

Menu Plan Monday: Grain Free under $30!

This week I did online shopping at New Seasons (which, if you haven’t done before and want to try, you can do for free. Mention that I referred you and we’ll both get a free delivery! Very cool). I chose the “store pick-up” option which allows me simply to pull up and wait in the car for my bags to arrive. I was able to shop from the comfort of my laptop,cruise the good deals (in peace and quiet!) and even with the pick up fee of $4.99, I still spent under $30 and I resisted a myriad of impulse purchases (not to mention “Mommy can I PUH-LEEEEEASE get a Lara Bar?”) and saved a lot of time and energy out of my day!

My menu once again this week is grain-free and GAPS. I want to thank the amazing Baden of the GapsGuide blog for her wonderful inspiration on shredding cauliflower and cooking/flavoring it like rice! And Simple Natural Nourishing has an amazing recipe for Roasted Cauliflower which was literally the most amazing cauliflower ever. Oh, and I’m also sneaking in some beef tongue! Read the rest of this entry »

Menu Plan Monday: Grain Free under $50!

After another week of grain-free I can honestly say I feel really great! My pants are even feeling looser around the waist! We are doing the GAPS diet for the sake of my daughter, but it’s such a healthy way of eating (and my dear husband could use GAPS too!) that we do it for the whole family. In the spirit of thriftiness, I am putting together menus that are low-cost, and nourishing! Here are some recent thoughts I had about eating no-grain on a budget. This weeks menu cost less than $40 at the cash register, however I did not purchase the meat (I have a stockpile in my freezer that I purchased off the bone in bulk), so I estimate that if you add the cost of the meat, it would be about $50, even if you were to purchase the meat at the store. Read on to see this week’s Grain Free menu! Read the rest of this entry »
Menu Plan Monday : Under $15 Challenge

This week I’m further challenging myself (down over 50% from last week’s spending!). It turns out that my $40 last week got me more than enough to spread through this week. This week I also thought I’d do something kind of fun with my menu. I’m going to show you exactly what I have in the fridge (excluding milk and condiments), and then you can see exactly how I use it!

  • T-Bone Steak, defrosted
  • 1 red bell pepper
  • 1/2 butternut squash, cooked
  • 1 cabbage
  • 2 bags carrots
  • 3 head broccoli
  • leftover red lentil stew
  • raw cheddar
  • turkey broth
  • miso
  • zucchini (3)
  • eggs
  • smoked salmon
  • coconut flour zucchini bread
  • liverwurst
  • chicken-apple sausage

Read on to see how these will be used in my Under $15 menu!

Read the rest of this entry »

Menu Plan Monday: Under $40 Challenge


As I alluded to in my New Year’s Resolutions Post , I am striving more than ever to pinch pennies and be as thrifty as possible, while staying true to the dietary principles to which I adhere. My main motto has always been “Use what you have, have what you’ll use” when it comes to menu planning. This week I gave myself an “Under $40 challenge”. Basically, I get to use what I have plus $40 to purchase any additional fresh produce or other essentials. Here’s what I came up with:

Read the rest of this entry »

Menu Plan Monday: Clean Out Your Fridge Week

Since we here in the Northwest are currently experiencing what news anchors are calling the “Arctic Blast”, I’ve been lead to believe that there’s no way I’m getting out of my house to go to the store anytime in the near future. No worries for me, since I am a food pack-rat and I have plenty of frozen and dry goods….not to mention unidentifiable items in mason jars in my fridge! Oh well, since I always operate on the principle of “use what you have” (more on my menu planning philosophy can be found here), this challenge was one I am always up for!

Read the rest of this entry »

Menu Plan Monday

November 10, 2008
Menu Plan Monday

Menu Tip of the Week: Keep a notebook of all of your previous menu plans so that if you need inspiration, you can look back and recall some meal ideas that work!

Monday:

B: Scrambed eggs w/ cortido, beet kvass, and leftover waffles
L: pan-fried scallops and Roasted Brussels Sprouts
D: chicken chunks, apples, cheese

Tuesday:

B: kefir smoothies and coconut muffins
L: Chicken caesar salad w/ homemade salad dressing
D: Shephard’s Pie with leftover meat, veggies, and topped with whipped cauliflower

To do: Start Millet in the slow cooker to cook overnight.

Wednesday:

B: Breakfast Millet Pudding (a slow-cooked variation on this recipe)
L: Veggie Saute
D: Peruvian Quinoa Soup (from Body Ecology Diet)

Thursday:

B: Veggie-egg scramble
L: smoked salmon, goat cheese, and veggie sticks
D: taco salad

To do: Soak white beans

Friday:

B: millet/rice waffles
L: seaweed & veggie saute
D: white bean vegetarian chili

Saturday:

B: kids out w/ dad
L: leftovers
D: hot dogs, sauerkraut, zucchini soup

Sunday:

D: quinoa-butternut squash risotto with roasted veggies

Be sure to visit The Organizing Junkie for more menu plans!

This Week’s Menu

November 4, 2008
This Week’s Menu


Menu planning tip of the week: For simple and nourishing lunches, have on hand the ingredients for a “chef”s salad”. Over a bed of greens, chop fresh veggies that you have on hand. Top with lacto-fermented sauerkraut (that’ s the pink stuff in the picture above), shredded cheese of choice, and leftover meat (shredded roast beef, chicken, ham, or fish). This way, you can count on using up leftover meat and veggies in a creative, nourishing way!

Here’s what’s cooking this week, albeit a little late. I’ve been having a hard time getting “blogging time” as of late, but here’s what’s up and coming this week!
Monday:
B: scrambled eggs w/cortido
L: dosas w/taramatosalata & kraut
To do: Defrost chicken. Make pumpkin pie.
Tuesday:
B: kefir-berry smoothies & pumpkin muffins
L: stir-fry broccoli
D: roast chicken (in crock-pot)
To do: Roast butternut squash.
Wednesday:
L: seaweed-veggie saute
D: cream of zucchini soup, baked red potatoes w/ sauerkraut on top
To do: Make corn tortillas
Thursday:
B: turkey bacon & eggs
L: tuna nori roll-ups (tuna & homemade mayo, rolled in a nori sheet with avocado)
D: chicken enchiladas (using leftover roast chicken)
To do: Soak quinoa and millet, soak lentils, make enchilada sauce
Friday:
L: vegetable stir-fry medley
Saturday:
To do: soak white beans
B: kids out w/ dad
L: huevos rancheros
D: baked white beans, hot dogs, sauerkraut
Sunday:
D: curried pumpkin soup w/ leftover waffles

This Week’s Menu

October 28, 2008
This Week’s Menu

Menu planning tip of the week: Make delicious, healhty whole-grain (even gluten-free!) waffles from scratch with a penny’s worth of grains in your blender! Make up a double or triple batch Saturday morning (or whenever) and freeze the extras for busy weekday morning breakfasts! Who says convenience food can’t be healthy and cheap? (For the blender waffle recipe, go here )
This weekend was VERY busy…..women’s retreat at church all day Saturday, followed by a busy day on Sunday. My dear sister from out of town is visiting (and she’s 30 weeks pregnant!) and so we were celebrating with a baby shower and lots of other social activities. So, basically “my dog ate my homework”….er, that’s why it’s Monday night and I’m just now figuring out my menu!
Without even having time to go to the Farmer’ s market, I’m working off of what’s left in my produce drawer and pulling out meat from the freezer and pantry staples. This is actually a fun challenge: what can I pull together based on what I have?!?!
So here’s what I’ve got:
Monday:
B: Fried eggs w/ cortido and leftover zucchini/apple/coconut pancakes
L: leftovers from my sister’s shower
D: shepherd’s pie (leftover morocan lamb, carrots, onions, green beans, topped with purreed cauliflower)
Tuesday:
B: strawberry kefir smoothies, bacon, and millet pudding
L: out at the Panederia in Newberg (where you can get authenitc, hand-made corn tortillas and tongue!!)
D: Crock pot chicken w/ sauteed veggies (warning: link contains audio “pop-up”.sigh)
Wednesday:
B: squash pudding
L: fish roe and veggies
D: Savory Lentil Pancakes (Dosas), Sauerkraut, Curried Carrots& Onions
Thursday:
B: coconut pancakes w/ zucchini & apples
L: tuna sushi wraps
D: mexican chicken soup
Friday:
B: quinoa-millet waffles
L: Miso soup, seaweed veggie saute
D: Baked red skin potatoes topped with avocado, sauerkraut, and steamed veggies
Saturday:
B:smoothies
L: left overs
D: hot dogs, kraut, veggie saute
Sunday:
D: TBA
 
 
Random Posts Widget By Best Accounting Services