Menu Planning

Menu planning is not my forte, however, I’m really pleased with the results when the effort is made. First, I save money by only purchasing the items I NEED for the week (lately it’s mostly been meat and fresh veggies due to my pantry stockpile) and second, I always know what I need to get done for supper instead of realizing I need to do SOMETHING (BUT WHAT!) at 4:45pm! It saves a lot of time, and my husband likes knowing what to expect that evening, too.

The most complicated thing I’m figuring out is combining menu planning with coupon/sale management. Using CouponMom to figure out what newspaper coupons from which week are insanely priced low at which store, on top of  searching for good recipes to create a week’s menus, on top of preparing the grocery list for those meals (minus anything already in my cupboard) – but it gets easier. I’m on week 4 of doing this and it’s actually much simpler than I tried to make it at first. Blame my penchant for making lists.

So for this week, here’s our entree menu plan:

Bertolli Chicken Parm (from a sale+coupon deal last month) – Fiesta Meatloaf (with salsa and cheese!) – Polynesian Roast (pineapple, soy sauce and green pepper) – Chili (with corn and picante sauce) – Rigatoni Chicken & Spinach Bake (with cream cheese, garlic and chives, oh yeah) – Sloppy Joes (nothing fancy here) – Hawaiian Chicken (coconut, pineapple, orange juice and raisins). My grocery list requires only chicken, a green pepper, picante sauce, and a stuffing mix. Last week I got a great deal on several pounds of ground beef on Manager’s Special. I think I have a coupon for picante sauce. And for the sale/coupon thing this week, I think I can get a V8 juice, Suave deodorant (free, w/ coupon from 5/17!), Arm&Hammer toothpaste, and sauerkraut at great discounts. I’m also planning on a few mangoes, since they’re 50 cents each at Publix! I LOVE a good mango….