Friday, August 31, 2012

Menu (8/31/12)

I tried a crockpot breakfast bake. It was overcooked because I did not get up to turn it off on time...or to turn it on later. I need to use a timer I suppose. Anyway, it's still edible, but  not as palatable.

Breakfast bake:
eggs (free), milk (powdered), leftover ham from last night(already accounted for last night), shredded cheese (1 1/2 cups)             .80

While we do have some eggs to come from our chickens, we have a hatchery who gives us their double yolk eggs as they do not hatch well. The cheese we buy from Sam's Club  in bulk at a little over $2 a pound.
This is our main buy at Sam's Club! This saving alone pays for our membership.

Lunch: I made some chili cups. I took leftover chili that had been frozen, then thawed. I patted out pizza dough in the muffin cups and then filled with the chili. I topped it with 1 cup of cheese. These were so good. Brittany suggested adding salsa to the top at the table next time. $1.25

***Time saver- I mixed the sauce and dough for pizza tonight. I heated the oven once and baked both lunch and the pizzas for tonight at the same time. There will also be enough pizza left over for tomorrow's lunch.

Pizza dough is so inexpensive to make! Buy your flour while it is at least under .40 a pound. Sam's Club currently sells all purpose at .32/ pound for a 25 pound bag. Our local IGA food store has flour on sale for $1.99 for 5 pound bag. Yeast is best bought at Sam's Club or Costco where you can buy them in 1 pound packages, double packed to make 2 pounds. You can freeze yeast and it lasts this way practically forever.
It's sooo much cheaper than buying those little packets. Pizza dough is so easy to make! It can be frozen for future meals as well. With buying cheese in bulk, 5 pound bags, it is good to measure out how much you're using ahead of time so you don't go crazy with it! I measure out 2 1/2 pounds(9 cups) in a bowl.
Buy cans of pasta sauce for $1 or less or make your own with tomato paste, diluted with water, add sugar, salt and italian seasonings.

Supper:  4 pizzas, (1 1/2 buffalo chicken, 1 1/2 cheese, 1 ham, onion and peppers)        $10.50

Beverages: tea, kool aid and coffee .80

Total: $13.35

2 comments:

Vicki said...

Hi, Susan! I love hearing about ways other families save on groceries. They are getting so expensive. I try to keep our groceries under $100. Last week I gave a dollar amount to each food group. My groceries came to $95. We had a delicious filling meals for 7 nights. When we had left overs that became our lunch the next day. Otherwise we had sandwiches with sliced apples, tomato slices, carrot sticks, and watermelon. Our breakfasts are always homemade granola, eggs, toast, yogurt, waffles, or oatmeal. Everyone gets to choose.

This week I didn't buy lunch stuff and only chose meals that I knew I could double cheaply and have leftovers. Today is lentil chili with chips, cheese, and sour cream. My kids love this and will eat it for lunch and supper-even snacks really. Tomorrow chicken and dumplings, then lasagna, then chicken casserole.... Our groceries this way came to $92.

I hope your mom is coping okay. She is in my prayers.

And your puppy is super cute!

Have a great weekend. :)Vicki

Anonymous said...

Susan, This is really challenging me in my approach to meal planning and buying groceries. Thank you for this break down, even though I'm sure most days you could spend the extra minutes doing something"fun" with your family. I am going through our kitchen right now trying to come up a good number for our family...we'll see how far I get!

~Heather~