March Meal Plan - Week #1

Can you believe I'm meal planning for MARCH!? 

I have been incorporating items from my pantry & freezer in order to purge out our stockpile just a bit ~ and minimize our food budget, using items that I find for cheap or free using coupons...yes, I am a coupon clippin' Mama.

Here is what I plan to feed my family this week, hopefully it will help give you ideas in your meal planning:

Snack Options for the week (things I have on hand):

• string cheese

• corn chips and homemade salsa.

• oranges, apples, bananas & frozen blueberries.

• yogurt (also very popular at my house, with some apples for dipping or graham crackers!) Sometimes we add sprinkles or granola to spice it up a bit! 
  

•  mini quaker rice 'chips' the kids love the cheesy ones.

• cheese & crackers or pretzel sticks and peanut butter

• yogurt covered raisins or apple crunchers Recipe Here  

Breakfast Options (also already on hand):

•  Banana bread I have made ahead and stockpiled in the freezer :)

• Homemade granola Recipe Here

•  Cinnamon Rolls, I made a batch this week for the freezer, here is my all time favorite recipe ~ Cinnamon Rolls Recipe
  

• Applesauce, canned peaches, frozen blueberries. (cleaning out the pantry & freezer) Great Smoothie options!

• Homemade French Toast made from Cinnamon Raisin Bread (made this last month and froze a batch)

• Pancakes from the freezer :)   Bisquick Melt in your Mouth Pancakes!  I always add vanilla to the batter, and about a 1/2 cup of extra milk to thin them out a bit. So they are not super dense. These are a BIG hit! Even the husb loves them. I make about 35 per batch. 
• and of course old faithful...Cold Cereal. I usually give the kids 2 options for breakfast. No battles for this Sleepy Mama, I always have cereal on hand or they can devour something that I've made ahead of time - that makes minimal work for me during those early mornings ~ all I have to do is pull it from the freezer and warm it up ~ love that. 

Lunches:

• Leftovers

• Brown Bag Burritos Recipe here   I followed this recipe ~ except I added shredded ckn instead of ground beef. I have about 26 burritos made and in the freezer. Should make some of our meals a breeze! (the kids devoured these for our last freezer night)

• scrambled eggs and toast. The kids love this and its super easy/fast to make...I'm going to try to make it more mid day...something I don't always think of for a lunch option but it should be just the "pick me up" they need to keep going the rest of the day ~ or nap with a full belly!
  

• Grilled Cheese or Cheese roll ups

• Homemade Chicken tenders Our Fav Recipe Here!

• Cheese & Crackers  Or Tuna Fish & Crackers

Dinners:

Sunday: CrockPot Night: Roast in the crock pot - slow cooked all day ~ to make hot roast beef  sub sandwiches.

Monday: Salad Night: Taco Salad ~ Shredded ckn from the freezer ~ crumbled tortilla chips and shredded cheese with all good stuff ~ salsa, sour cream, jalapenos :)

Tuesday: Casserole Night: Speedy Cheese & Ckn Enchiladas ~This is a new to us recipe, but it looks like a good one, my plan is to make 2 or 3 pans of these ~ cook 1 for dinner Tuesday night but stick the other 2 pans into the freezer for "freezer" night - later in the month. This worked WONDERFULLY for us last month so we are definitely sticking with it!  Speedy Cheese & Ckn Enchiladas Recipe Here

Weds: Breakfast Night: Eggs Eggs and more Eggs - Last week I could not make eggs fast enough, everybody had 2nds! With a side of turkey sausage and some whole wheat toast & fresh fruit. Delish & SUPER easy.  

Thursday: Pantry Night: This will be a "unplanned" night - GASP! :) I have lots of odds and ends to pull from my pantry. This theme is definitely sticking around, it worked wonderfully last month, it gives me one night that I have to be creative and use what we've got.  Last week it was a great way to end the week with a big ol' plate of spaghetti, meatballs and french bread from the freezer PLUS we had leftovers for Friday afternoon's lunch.

 Friday: Pizza Night:  Homemade Pizza Dough  We are really enjoying this night - Last week I used leftover french bread, and made french bread pizza. It must have been good - there were no leftovers :)   Who knew making pizza could be so easy and have so many options! Green Salad on the side and leftovers for lunch Saturday afternoon! :)

 Saturday: Freezer Night:   Lasagna from the freezer.  I have 1 left that I made beginning of February! Love having these on hand!

Bread this week:

Whole Wheat  and Country White

Sweet Treats this week:

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip cookies. I have had a special request from a certain MAN OF THE HOUSE, that has asked me to make these cookies because its been wayyyyy too long. My AMAZING friend, Jessica shared this recipe with me MANY MANY years ago ~ so I can't link to it because it is in my recipe box...in my kitchen. Maybe I'll add it this week...just maybe :)