Meal Mania...

Several of my girlfriends have mentioned their frustration with creating weekly meal menus while maintaining a tight budget and serving both hubby and kid-friendly food. I certainly do not have the meal planning down to a science but the whole process is something I really enjoy. So, I thought I'd post my weekly meal plans on my blog site and see if my little ideas can make your lives easier.

My weekly routine is this:

Sunday afternoons -
1. Review weekly Safeway and Sunflower Market mailers to determine good sales and compare produce prices.

2. Pick recipes that contain most of the ingredients I already have in my pantry and may use sale-items from the current week's grocery sales. Note: I usually only plan 4 official dinners and 4 snacks for each week because we usually have easy dinner one or two nights (mac-n-cheese, frozen pizza, breakfast for dinner and the like) and then eat left-overs another night.

3. Make a grocery list and post my weekly meal and snack plan on my calendar.

4. Grocery shop with list and DO NOT buy anything not written on the list. Avoid center aisles of the store and always shop by unit price listed on the price tags not by sale price listed.

Meal Plan 5/4/08 - 5/11/08:

Snack/Dessert Options: (all homemade and, depending on my motivation level, I may only make 2 or 3 of option listed below)

• Banana bread made w/ applesauce and flaxmeal
• Rice crispy treats
• Almond Biscotti
• Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
• Panna Cotta (from a mix I bought on sale)

Produce to buy on sale: (Safeway)

• Mangos
• Watermelon
• Strawberries

Meal Options: (again, all homemade not store bought = less sodium/less $$)

• Quiche (ham, onion, spinach) and fruit
• Lasagna (1/2 sausage, 1/2 vegetarian)
• Chili w/ Parmesan-Cornbread Muffins (chili frozen from double batch made last month)
• Burritos (ground buffalo, black bean/served w/ leftover fruit or veggies)
• Breakfast for dinner (french toast and bacon)

I'm trying to think of a good way to post recipes... Any suggestions are welcome.

Hope this helps!