monday – menus and more

I’m not sure how it’s Monday already.  Or how I am so unprepared for this post.  Just when I was getting to the height of my organization game we really got off course with travel.  First it was Portland, which meant two weeks with half-capped menu plans, not to mention what it did to my weekly shopping.

Now, the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.  Don’t get me wrong, I love when we make our lives interesting and do cool stuff.  But I don’t know which end is up with the shopping and food supply.  Not to mention our eating out budget.  Yikes.  I think we’re eating in until the second child turns 10.  He’s not born yet but it could take that long to catch up.  Or at least it feels like that right now.

So to kick off this week’s home cooking let’s see what we’ll be eating…

Monday:  salad w/ grilled chicken (this is George Foreman style grilling, I’m just not up to having a charcoal grill on the balcony of our apartment)

Tuesday:  no menu (I am out of the house and the husband has to fend for himself)

Wednesday:  chicken in soda & oj, peas, mashed potatoes (even though it’s a favorite I don’t have a recipe for this, I make it up as I go.  If it turns out well maybe I’ll list some pointers in the non-recipe section that I don’t have)

Thursday:  egg noodles with spinach & sausage (what is this?  I have no idea but I have these ingredients to use)

Friday:  stuffed salmon, stewed tomatoes

Saturday:  no menu (we are headed to the Angel’s game so probably bratwurst or giant hot dogs)

Okay, so we’re already looking at a night not eating at home.  I could suggest we not eat that night, but I don’t think it would go over well with the family.

As for the food budget last week, we were off to a good start but then I sent the husband out for a couple of items clearly marked on the shopping list.  That was my first mistake.  Apparently, frozen pizza, when on sale, is in the budget even if it’s not on the list.  Then, in some catatonic state I also wasn’t around for his shopping sprees at Ralph’s and Walgreens.  What was I thinking?  So I blame him for going over our budget.  And as a lesson (to him or me I’m not sure), he will be eating said frozen pizza on Tuesday I’m sure.

Our budget was $80, we spent…

Sprouts Farmers Market – $49.01 ($3 of which I get back when I return the cinnamon I didn’t need after all)

Vons – $15.59

Ralphs – $18.96

Walgreens – $29.98

At $30.54 over budget I have learned my lesson.  Granted, husband now has enough hair care product to last at least 4 months and 3 packages of english muffins in the freezer.  Now we just need to work on budget vs. sale items.

In other news, I saw this tip about cooking ground beef before freezing and thought it had some merit.  Enough to post it here.  I think I’d still need to keep some for actual hamburgers, it would be kind of hard to stick all those little pieces back together but other than that I liked the idea.

Do you have any quick tips that make cooking easier?  Especially when you don’t get off the computer until it’s after the time you had planned to have dinner on the table anyway?

Excuse me, I have to go make dinner.