Menu Plannings

I have fun with planning my menus for the upcoming weeks, a lot of the times I am trying new things and god bless my family for being my guinea pigs,some are winners other losers but through it all I sometimes find that one thing for which becomes a signature dish. I have a huge I mean huge collection of cookbooks new & vintage and I add to it anytime I happen across a find at a used book store. I have everything from highly sought after collectibles, ones that belonged to my great great great grandmother which I treasure, to Paula Deans boys who lovingly signed their debut book to my son Logan who has aspirations to one day becoming a chef. Lately these cookbooks are gathering dust, although they are read from time to time as I love flipping the pages of a good cookbook, all of my menus lately come from websites and blogs. Sometimes magazines like Food & Wine or whatnot. I usually do my menu the beginning of every week  before I go shopping and am usually pretty good about sticking to the list buying only what the menu calls for with a few exceptions. Once in a while I splurge on the family sized Naked juices if they are on sale or an item that is on sale with a price that just can't be beat. The beauty of this I have found is not only do we eat little to no processed foods which goes without saying is better for our health and well being but by doing this I manage to feed a family of 5 on approx $525.00 a month. It also makes me feel good to cook for my family knowing that when we get together for a meal that it is one made with love.I know this may not seem spectacular to the couponers out there who manage to get $600 worth of groceries for $50 but I think this is pretty good.I usually throw in a "free for all" week every month or so where I may pick up just a few necessities and force myself to use up whatever I have left in the cabinets and freezer as I do freeze leftovers from time to time. Every week I throw in a leftover night to help reduce what is wasted which is little compared to the amount cooked. Our eating out consists of Pizza night usually twice a month and maybe 1-2 other meals out if that (If you don't count my husbands lunch hours which usually involve fast food...) I could care less about using coupons for free hamburger helpers and convenience foods even if they are free.This past week all of the meals that I made came from Envy My Cooking with the exception of the Tortilla Soup from the Pioneer Woman which won't be made till this week. I am also starting to add reviews and tips to my menus, please feel free to ask if you have any questions about something in particular you have been wanting to try. And with that here is our menu from last week, I would love to hear how your family shops for food, do you follow any kind of game plan and how do you save money on your grocery bills?

Monday: Chicken Tortilla Soup w/ Shrimp Pico De Gallo served with homemade corn chips

Tuesday: Lasagna & Fresh french bread : 2 words awesome for such a simple uncomplicated recipe this was not only quick to prep but made for a great traditional lasagna. Using cottage cheese makes this meal easy on the pocketbook too and the plus is you can't even tell. There were no leftovers and I made a whole pan!

Wednesday: Spicy Garlic Shrimp: This dish was pretty good, a little on the spicy side with it's use of Cajun & Creole seasonings but the combo of shrimp and sausage in a cranked up sauce made for a bit of different dish to which my husband exclaimed " Bland food bland life, Spicy food spicy life".....I used penne, next time I would recommend going with something a little more silky like egg noodles.

Thursday: Grilled New York Strips with Penne Fresca. I wasn't a big fan of the Penne Fresca warm. This may make for a good cold salad if the recipe was tweaked some what but as a warm pasta dish it fell flat of my expectations. I was attracted to this recipe by the fact that it resembles something somewhat Mediterranean but the penne al dente as choice of pasta used made the veggies just slip and slide right off the noodles. The balsamic added a nice touch but I think next time I would add the balsamic into the veggies first or grill them with it for more flavor.

Friday: Pizza Night/ Leftovers No Cooking

Prepare Knot Rolls for the weekend

Saturday: Caramel Knock Yourself Naked Brownies; this is a Oh My God You Need To Make These Now!

Salsa Chicken

Greek Spinach Melts

(Yes I know a weird combination, I think I may have been trying to paint my toenails and help with Science homework while I was making this menu....)

Sunday: Eggs & Cinnamon Mock Monkey Bread : Kids will love these little rolls kinda like donut holes but made with biscuits..these went pretty darn fast!

Homemade Calzones : This was my first time trying my hand at calzones. Although they turned out okay I could have used more sauce, definitely needed to serve with warm sauce on the side. They are a good way to use up leftover sausage & veggies. I wasn't a big fan of my dough though It was okay but I had a hard time working with it and it needed to be thinner than what I was able to pull off. If made again this
recipe will need some tweaking.
Once again you can find all the recipes from this week at

Envy My Cooking along with lots of cool things like a peek into other peoples dream kitchens! I like Envy for their no nonsense dishes which are quick to prepare and easy to pull off, also because they are keyed to feed families. Also this month on Envy Gwyneth Paltrow has teamed up with a great foundation Shaklee Cares and is donating a portion of the proceeds from her wonderful and inspiring cookbook My Fathers Daughter; Delicious, Easy  Recipes Celebrating Family & Togetherness  to providing aid for victims of natural disasters such as in Japan.If you haven't gotten a copy yet jump over to Envy's Amazon Affiliate Page ..this is a Great book you won't be sorry!