Meal Plan 5/25-5/30

Last night, I FINALLY made a meal plan for the next two weeks. Even though I post a weekly meal plan and grocery list here, I actually plan and shop for two weeks at a time. This morning, I intended to get out the door and off to the store (Hey, I'm a poet!) early in the day, so that we could enjoy the beautiful weather this afternoon. However, I spent the morning printing, clipping, and organizing my coupons, then cleaning out the fridge and pantry and tidying the house. By the time that I had everyone fed, showered, and dressed for market day, it was approaching 2 pm. I was gathering my list, coupons, and shopping bags for departure when my phone rang. It was a friend, inviting us over for a "pool party". She'd filled up the kiddie pool in her lawn and her daughter wanted mine to come over for the afternoon. "Oh man. We're just on the way to the store." I told her. We had to go to the store. We were definitely running low on supplies here. I even endured the last two mornings without coffee. Not good. "No problem," she assured me. "Just drop them off and go to the store." Bless her, bless her, bless her! A whole shopping trip without saying, "please sit on your bottom" to my toddler, like, 500 times as she stands up in the race car shopping cart? Without having to debate the nutritional value or cost of "junk food" with my oldest in every aisle? It sounded like a dream come true!

I have to say that this was one of the best shopping trips ever! Not only because I moved freely BY MYSELF through the aisles with a "regular" cart, but because I was a bargain shopper extraordinaire today. I usually budget $200 per trip ($100 per week) including diapers, paper goods, personal care and pharmacy, and cleaning supplies. I know some of you out there have this down to a science. I've even seen people that can shop for just $25/week! Amazing! I reason that since we eat 3 meals a day, almost 7 days a week at home, that $100 is a reasonable goal. Well...today I spent $66 at ALDI and $74 at Giant Eagle. That's $60 under budget! With my doubled coupons, I even got some free stuff: Jack Daniels barbecue sauce and pasta, AND only paid 50 cents for Heluva Good Dip (What?! That's what it's called). I even found an Angel Food Cake for 25 cents. It was good too! We ate some topped with strawberries for dessert tonight. I also stocked up on lots of goodies for our upcoming holiday weekend cookouts. I am definitely feeling good about today's "haul"!

I knew that I wouldn't be in the mood to really cook after all of that shopping, so I had thawed some marinated chicken breast from my recent chicken freezing session. My husband grilled the chicken while I steamed some fresh green beans, then we enjoyed them both with a yummy Greek pasta salad that I purchased at our corner store. An easy delicious dinner on a beautiful night!



Now for what we're eating the rest of this week:

Tomorrow May 26th

Crock Pot Beef Tacos (from the freezer)

Thursday May 27th

Tuna Orzo

Friday May 28th

Pizza

Saturday and Sunday May 29th and 30th

Cook out food- burgers, brats, hot dogs, salads, chips...

No grocery list this week. The only new recipe I'm making is the Tuna Orzo. The rest of the ingredients can be found on the links provided above. I'm gearing up for Memorial Day Weekend instead. You can check out some of my favorite cook out/picnic recipes on tomorrow's post. Stay tuned!


Hope you're all having a wonderful week!