Menu Madness

I haven’t posted in a LONG time – haven’t been in the mood.  I’m posting this because I’ve heard from several friends of mine *who are moms too* who are intrigued about my menu planning.  So in an effort to help the MOMS OF AMERICA (or North Carolina) I’m putting this out there…

 

This week:

Monday LASAGNA

(This is not my dear friend Kary’s homemade everything lasagna but it does the job).  I made a LARGE throw away pan of it.  Bought large package of ground beef from COSTCO, browned half of it, used half for sauce – the other half was browned, drained and put in a freezer bag.  I will use it next week.  Bought the double pack of Prego sauce from COSTCO, used one.  My family likes pepperoni in the sauce too…so added that.  Lola and Crash helped with prep, it’s cooked and in fridge to “set” – tomorrow night it can warmed up accordingly.  Will make a simple salad and garlic bread.  What DOES NOT GET EATEN THIS WEEK – will be frozen into smaller servings for quick fixes for hungry teens.

Tuesday STEAK

COSTCO has some really good top sirloin steaks – these will get seasoned and grilled.  I’ve got stuff ready to go for homemade mac and cheese (Crash does NOT like boxed kind at all…)  I will also add a simple salad- just goes with the steak.  FYI – I love spring grilling :-)  And YES, I do the grilling.

Wednesday SPIRAL SLICED HAM

This is another family favorite….I buy the spiral sliced ham from ALDI….I’ve got mashed potatoes already done and frozen.  I think making literally a TON at a time and then freezing works great.  I’ll probably do corn or green beans of some sort.  The HAM will also serve a 2nd purpose – Hubby is good about cutting it all up and will use it over the weekend for omelets PLUS the kids will eat “after school snack” sandwiches from it. 

Thursday LEFTOVER Night

With these three big meals – it will get me off the hook for Thursday night. 

Friday night – PRE-SOCCER MEAL will depend on everyone’s schedule. 

I will probably do a simple pasta dinner, chicken alfredo,  because both boys have games on Saturday and they need to carb up.  I have zip lock bags of cooked shredded chicken in the freezer, and the jar of alfredo sauce is perfect tossed in with some cooked funky pasta and broccoli!

• What else I did to help me with the week.  I had Crash pound out about 7 chicken breasts, let them marinate for a bit, then threw them on the grill.  I’ll use that for sandwiches for lunch.  I bought the big package of croissant rolls from COSTCO this morning too.  The “bigs” love sandwiches on those butter fattening layers of deliciousness.
• I made a hashbrown casserole – for breakfast.  Lola loves it and it is super easy.
• I also cooked (don’t laugh) 20 pieces of patty sausage – that way in the morning I can just nuke them while I am frying eggs.  It takes 15ish minutes to cook that stuff in the morning.  I do use the precooked stuff if desperate – and it’s fine – but this way is much more cost effective. 

For my MOM friends trying to plan things out – hope this helps!!!