Week #5 $50 Weekly Menu

Week 5 Grocery Notes: Chicken leg quarters were on sale this week for .50 pound, so I purchased 20 pounds.
The best way to prepare such a huge amount of chicken is to remove the skin and place the chicken in a large stock pot. Bring it to a boil with a chopped onion and a bit of pepper. Once the meat is falling off the bone, strain the meat, reserving the stock, return the stock & bones to the pot and continue simmering. (I usually add a bit more onion, garlic, celery and a touch of tumeric to make a fragrant and flavorful stock. Total simmer time is about 1 hour.
Whilst the stock is simmering, remove the meat from the bones of the chicken, dice it and place it in a large bowl to cool. This will yield about 15 individual family size packages of pre-cooked chicken to add to casseroles, sauces, homemade pot pies and stews for fast easy meal preparation for the rest of the week. Once the broth is done, remove from heat, allow it to cool and package in ziploc or vacuum seal bags. (Freeze flat) to take advantage of freezer space.

With the remaining $40 of our grocery budget, using the grocery guide, I took advantage of the sales in our area and purchased the following: 1 head of lettuce, fresh broccoli spears, 4 fresh tomatoes, 2 cukes, pineapple, Milk, 2 lbs ground turkey, loaf of french bread, 2 packages of cream cheese, sour cream, crackers, apples,Cantaloupe, oatmeal and a mango.

January 31th – February 6th

Monday 31st:

• Breakfast: Homemade English Muffins & Jam
• Lunch: Hawaiian Chicken Sandwiches & Leftover Potato Salad
• Dinner: Spinach Stuffed Manicotti, salad

Tuesday 1st:

• Breakfast: Egg & Cheese Burritos
• Lunch: Leftover Manicotti
• Dinner: Honey Ginger Dump Chicken (Instead of making this in the crockpot as it’s intended, it can be made in a sauce pan using the pre-cooked chicken), jasmine rice

Wednesday 2nd:

• Breakfast:Peaches & Cream Oatmeal
• Lunch:Grilled cheese
• Dinner: Maltagliati with Baby Peas, Onion, and Bacon

Thursday 3rd:

• Breakfast:Fruit Kebabs (pineapple,mango,Cantaloupe)
• Lunch:Jalapeno Quiche
• Dinner:Beef-n-Broccoli Casserole (well, that’s what I tell the fam, I really use ground turkey!)

Friday 4th:

• Breakfast: Bagels & Cream Cheese
• Lunch:egg drop soup & peanut butter sandwich
• Dinner: Shake-n- Bake Pork Chops , lemon dill rice, Asparagus

Saturday 5th:

• Breakfast:Apple Cinnamon Muffins
• Lunch:Pizza Pasta, garlic butter, hot yeast rolls
• Dinner: “Restaurant Night” – this isn’t actually eating out, instead we use the individual portion size meals that have been vacuum sealed and frozen.

Superbowl Sunday 6th: We’re getting together with friends and are bringing a hearty chicken chili to share. With a potluck style lunch/dinner buffet with friends, I’m quite sure we won’t need to plan for dinner.

• Breakfast:Fruit Kebabs & Muffins
• Lunch:White Chicken Chili, cornbread

Alternative Meal Ideas:

• Giant BBQ Chicken Sub (using the loaf of french bread)
• French Toast Casserole

Various Snacks:

• Pimento Spread & Crackers
• 100 Calorie Snack Packs
• funnel Cakes
• Muffins
• Microwave Popcorn
• yogurt

Drinks included:

• Iced Tea or herbal teas
• Coffee
• Cocoa mixes
• Lemonade

:Note: A few things I’d like to share:

Initially I planned to add a shopping list for the recipes, but after spending nearly two hours compiling a list for the 1st weeks menu plan, it occurred to me that what you have on hand is not going to be the same as what I have on hand in my pantry and freezer.
For example, last summer we had an overabundance of tomatoes and zucchini, so our pantry consists of more than 60 jars of home canned tomatoes. While attending a farmers market last spring I discovered bundles of asparagus for only $1 per bundle, (which equals 2 side dishes per bundle!). I bought 26 bundles, which created 52 packages of asparagus (or, 1 per week). Your own family may not appreciate asparagus being on the menu once a week for a year!
Part of learning how to reduce your grocery bill is taking advantage of fruits and vegetables in season and pre-planning for their use later on it the year.

On occasion I add in alternative meal ideas. This is because you just never know how your day is going to go and whether you’re going to feel like cooking, you might come down with the flu, or discover the kids neglected to tell you that “Science Fair” night is TONIGHT, etc.