Meal Planning: 4/14 thru 4/20

Brand new to Meal Planning?

Start by reading all about Meal Planning (scroll down to "A Day in My Life" on the right-hand side of this page and click Meal Planning: How To Get Started or just click here) in order to familiarize yourself with the steps! There, you will find a link to a detailed example of my own weekly meal planning where I walk you through step-by-step.
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The first thing I do on Saturday mornings is to look back over the week to see if we did indeed eat everything on my meal plan and adjust my inventory, reducing it by what we ate and increasing it by anything I purchased and/or made-ahead. We ate everything except the chicken tortilla soup (unexpected guests stopped by so we ordered take-out) so I reduced my inventory by last week's meal that we did eat. I also increased my inventory by the mushroom stroganoff sauce and red pepper puree I made from last week and froze, as well as by the chicken breasts, pork, and fish I purchased today. I decreased by inventory by 2 portions of ground turkey because I made extra slider-sized patties and froze them for Emily to have for dinner in the future.

Inventory
4 portions ground turkey
1 portions pork chops
11 portions boneless, skinless chicken breasts
4 portions ground sirloin
1 portions flank steak
1 portions pork baby back ribs
1 portions brats
2 portions pork tenderloin
1 portions made-ahead chicken enchiladas original red
1 portions made-ahead chicken enchiladas Verdes
1 portions made-ahead cheesy turkey bake
1 portions made-ahead marinated chicken fajitas
3 portions made-ahead red pepper puree
2 portions mushroom stroganoff sauce

Then, I shopped my pantry, freezer and fridge for ingredients to come up with some meals, looking at our family calendar to ensure I wasn't planning on something we had recently eaten. I scanned the weekly ad to see what was on sale that might complement and/or substitute for what I had come up with and of course, how to stretch ingredients over enough meals to use them up.
 

 
 My last step would be to clip any coupons I could use. None this week.

Weekly Meal Plan

Chicken tortilla soup

Smoked pork tenderloin-stuffed herb biscuits

Baked "fried" chicken with mashed potatoes & spinach salad

Leftovers

Tilapia sandwiches

Cheesy turkey bake with spinach salad

Brats and sweet potato fries

So, how did I come up with this meal plan? 

David has been dying to smoke another pork tenderloin (to slice and stuff inside of the herb biscuits I made & froze) so, because of the "Buy 1 Get 1 Free" mix & match meat sale, I purchased pork tenderloins. We make a huge batch of the rub and keep it in the spice cabinet so I didn't need to purchase anything else for this meal. Baked "fried" chicken was picked as I already have all the spices and cornflakes on hand. I have been craving Houston's chicken tortilla soup so I purchased all the vegetables needed (including celery, carrots, potatoes, onion), plus creamed corn and Rotel. I'll use up the rest of the potatoes in the mashed potatoes that will go with the baked "fried" chicken. Tilapia was super cheap so I purchased two fillets and will saute them and place them on hoagie rolls (have in my freezer) with some shredded lettuce. I'm pulling my last cheesy turkey bake from my freezer for an easy Monday night meal as we have a class to get to and will serve it with a spinach salad to use up the rest of the baby spinach. For another excuse to grill, we'll pull the brats from the freezer, grill them, put them on hoagie rolls (have in my freezer) and serve them with baked sweet potato fries, finally using up the last of that huge bag I bought over a month ago! We always have a leftovers night as well.

 

What did I purchase this week?

 

 

$208.86 worth of stuff this week to rebuild my pantry stash! So many great "Buy 1 Get 1 Free" deals this week including: boneless skinless chicken breasts, pork tenderloin, Island spices (I needed lemon pepper for the tortilla soup so I got onion powder for free!), cherry tomatoes, Kraft slices, Carnation instant breakfast powder, Ghirardelli brownie mix, Lucerne brand milk, cooking spray, and Oscar Mayer bacon. I'm eating a TON more gluten-free, whole grain products so, I stocked up on Quinoa, Quinoa pasta, Van's 12-grain waffles, and whole wheat pasta as well as vegetables so, I purchased a head of cauliflower, zucchini, broccoli and a sweet potato, all of which I am roasting to have each day for lunch and with my dinner. I also splurged and bought a bottle of Chardonnay and a 6-pack of Stella for David and I to have while grilling all weekend. Grapes and pears were on sale this week so those, along with the organic blueberries I scored for only $3.99ea and bananas will be our fruit for this week's breakfasts, lunches, and snacks. I also purchased a loaf of whole wheat bread because Nolan is eating more table food and I was thinking toast and grilled cheese would be good for him.