This Week's Meal Plan

Pretty much any cook will tell you the secret to cooking well for a family on a budget is a well-stocked pantry and fridge. But what does "well-stocked" mean? Well, it's different for everyone because we all have a different set of Must-Have Ingredients for our Family Favorite Recipes. For example, my mom always have several cans of chopped clams on-hand so she can make things like linguine with clam sauce on super busy nights. For me, I need to have large assortment of canned tomato products. You never know when I might have the time to make up some spaghetti sauce for the freezer, do a barbecue sauce for an upcoming dinner, or need to mix up some more pizza sauce for Friday night. And if I have anything less than six boxes of cereal open for my growing boys' breakfasts, well, crazy things can (and DO) happen. It's actually gotten to the point where my pantry is so well-stocked, I usually spend most of my grocery time and money in the produce and dairy aisles getting perishables.

BUT (oh you knew that was coming). Every so often the stars align and that perfect storm hits. And I find I need to restock what feels like nearly everything in my house in order to keep my system going. This week is one of those weeks. I really hate that stormy star lineup.

This week we'll be living out of our freezer and what I have left in the fridge and pantry in order to stretch my dollar as far as it will go. And I'll try to explain to what I'm making and why:

Thursday

• French Toast. I'll use up last night's bread. And I'm getting more milk and eggs anyway.
• Baked apples. My kids are Fruit Monsters, and they have cleaned me out! This week I'll stock up on big bags of the basics: bananas (would you believe I get 5-6lbs of these every week?!), apples, and oranges.

Friday

• Pizza of course. And thank God I made a fresh batch of dough last week so I don't need to make any new for this week's dinner. Plus I discovered I got Cheese Paranoid at some point and I have extra mozzarella in the freezer. Score!!
• Popcorn. Because I buy 4lbs of kernals at a time and still have half of it left. I also keep extra butter in the freezer for when my fridge runs low.

Saturday

• New Recipe! Baked Tilapia. This one is new to you but I've made it once before and it's awesome. It also uses up the limes I bought for Taco Night last week. The tilapia I get frozen and in bulk so I've already got a bag.
• Rice. Brown would be my preference but my family doesn't like it as well as white, so I'm outvoted and will use what I have.
• Tossed salad. I get twitchy if I don't have lettuce around to make a salad as the mood strikes, which is often for me. I'll be buying more of my favorite lettuces anyway, which we'll only eat about 1/4 of for this dinner; they last a long time.

Sunday

• Thai Chicken & Butternut Squash Soup. Last time I made this I filled a 1-quart carton and stuck it in the freezer. Since it's Daylight Savings Time (nooooooooo!!!!), a ready-to-go soup will be perfect for this already sleep-deprived Mama.
• Fresh bread. Flour, salt, and yeast are actually among the few things that don't need restocking this week. So whipping up a batch of our favorite basic bread is no hardship.

Monday

• Leftovers. Because Rob works late AND there's no cost involved in cleaning out what I've already made.

Tuesday

• New Recipe! Smoky BBQ Rib-burger on Cheesy Garlic Bread. I am allowing myself ONE new recipe this week where I need to pick up a few things that I wouldn't normally get. And really I don't need much; just a couple things for the sauce and the meat itself. Everything else, even the bread, I've already got.
• Tator Tots. Long, semi-embarrassing story but let's just say I happen to have many pounds of them in the freezer. 
• Steamed mixed vegetables. I always have 3-4 bags of different veggies in the freezer (green beans, peas, corn, and mixed). As soon as I run out of one, I get more.

Wednesday

• Layered Enchilada Bake. I haven't made this in a while and I either already have, or will be buying more of, all the ingredients to make this. Plus I can put half in the freezer for another week when those damn stars align.
• Steamed corn.

So yeah, there's my plan and why I'm doing it. I hope this helps anyone who continues to run into challenges when planning family dinners. It really is possible to have an interesting, creative, tasty, and healthy menu for a family each week, on a budget. Even when you're using up most of what you've already got.

Happy planning!!