Sunday Food for Thought

Another weekend almost done, and it is time to plan those meals again...

• Sunday: Baked Rigatoni and salad
• Monday (Meatless): Potato and Kale Soup
• Tuesday (should be Turkey): Chicken Curry with veggies and rice
• Wednesday: Baked Pork chops with garlic mashed potatoes and steamed carrots & broccoli
• Thursday: (Dad's night to cook, I have a skating club meeting!) Whole Wheat Pancakes and (hopefully) fruit salad
• Friday (Fish!): Seafood chowder with green salad and homemade bread
• Saturday: Lasagne and Ceasar Salad with homemade garlic toast (and the big girls night to cook!)

A tip for making a budget friendly menu: after you have reviewed what you already "own" (for example we have fish and prawns in the freezer, as well as pork chops and chicken thighs for curry), then browse your favourite grocery store flyer before you make your menu.  Once in a while for fun, I will pick a new recipe and shop for the ingredients (in spite of the price!) afterwards, but on a weekly basis, I work from both what we already have and what is on sale for the week.  Typically, I buy our meat on a monthly basis and supplement it with what the butcher has on sale each week, but I also have the bonus of driving past the butcher shop (and passing his sign advertising the specials) four times a day, five days a week.
   Lunches area also planned this way...yogurt on sale (Olympic Organic 650 g, for $2.99, as well as the 1.75 kg size for $8.99) means yogurt in lunches, in banana bread and muffins and also Raita for chicken curry on Tuesday.  Roasting chickens on sale last week, means there is chicken for sandwiches and also homemade stock.  And Gala apples as big as my ten year old's head on sale .99/lb, means apple crisp for Sunday dessert.   So, this week, our grocery dollars went to Thrifty foods but only because everything was on sale.

Happy Packing!

Kim

Honey Whole Wheat, makes three loaves