Our Meals For This Week | Making the Most of Your Freezer and Pantry

My handsome hubby and me at a family gathering this Saturday

Stocking up our freezers and pantries using store sales, store coupons, and manufacturer coupons is a wonderful thing, but then we also need to use the foods we buy. Having a stockpile doesn't do us any good if we don't use what we have been blessed with.

This week and for the next few weeks, my challenge for myself is to plan my meals accordng to what I already have and only buy what I need to complete my meals. It has been a lot of fun seeing what I come up with. And I can also attest to how much fun seeing a small grocery bill is, too.

Below is the meal plan for this week.

Monday: Pasta, peas, and mushrooms with pork chops- I had half a package of egg noodles and no idea what to make. The back of the bag had the recipe. I had to purchase 1 can of peas, 1 jar of sliced mushrooms, 1 jar of alfredo sauce, and the pork chops.

Tuesday: Rice and beans with cubed steak- I have bags of rice stored up, and anytime I make beans, we have lots of leftovers. I pulled out a frozen container of beans to thaw, cooked my rice for 15 minutes, and cooked the steak. Fast, easy, and I only had to buy the steak.

Wednesday: Mom's Chicken Soup- Again, this is a meal that when I make it, I always have leftovers. I freeze the leftovers in containers that I know will give us a full meal for the three of us (since little man doesn't eat real food yet). Because Wednesdays are busy for us, it is nice to have something to defrost and eat, rather than having to cook something.

Thursday: Leftover night- I hate throwing away good food. My way of avoiding that is having a leftover night. We try to eat up all of the leftovers in the fridge, which means that everyone gets to choose what they really want to eat.

Friday: Quiche- I have recently fallen in love with quiche, I have plenty of eggs. and Brian prefers a nice meal to kick off the weekend (hence why leftover night is on Thursday and not on Friday). This is a recipe I got from the New Cook Book (Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbooks). It is quite delicious. I had to purchase the pie pastry, green onions, and a can of chicken. 

On Saturday, I'll be going through the panry again and finding the base ingredients for our meals this coming week. Happy cooking!