Menu Plan: Week 1 (And A Challenge!)

It has taken me a little bit longer to come up with my menu plan today because both of my kids were home (school starts back tomorrow), and I was trying to figure out what was actually in my freezer.   It seems that my garage freezer is always filled to capacity, with either meat or meals.  That's not a problem, but when I see a good price on meat, I tend to buy it whether I need to or not.

When I counted up the meals, cooked, and uncooked meats in there this afternoon, I found enough to feed us 69 meals, not counting any leftovers we might have.

I'm going to challenge myself to not purchase any meats for the next 2 months (that is, until payday at the end of February.)  We should have more than enough in the freezer to get us through this time, especially since we have been having pancake night every Sunday (made by my husband while I'm gathering the girls from Awana).

This is going to have two purposes:  to clear out some of the older meats/meals that we purchase/prepare and then for whatever reason, they just don't make it to the menu, and to save a little bit extra money during this time period that will be a little extra tight.

I will still be getting my Bountiful Baskets  (I just ordered today for Saturday pick-up and I'm very excited to see what I get!) so I will have plenty of produce, and will still buy all other items that we will need.

So for week 1 of my challenge, here is what we will be having:

Monday:  Provencal Pork
Tuesday:  Leftovers
Wednesday:  I have a 5 lb. pack of ground beef in the freezer.    I am going to thaw it, and cook it all, and make half chili and half spaghetti sauce.  We will eat the chili, and freeze the spaghetti sauce.
Thursday:  Chili again, maybe even chili dogs.
Friday:  Italian Sausage Soup
Saturday:  Baked Catfish with lemon
Sunday:  Pancakes


I'm linking this post at Menu Plan Monday: