Monthly Meal Planning and Grocery Shopping Trips – Week 2 of 52

Market Basket $33.69

We don’t normally buy margarine, but a cake recipe I was making {that also includes 4 cups of sugar and a 1/2 a cup of shortening!!!} called for it . So you know, we didn’t want to mess it up. Those old fashioned recipes…. man they sure knew how to eat back then.

Hannaford $9.49

Every time we get a dumb rotisserie chicken at an ordinary grocery store, we compare it to the big/plump/beautiful Costco chicken. It’s like the Costco men’s white socks. Once you find the best of something, everything else is just such a let down.

Morse’s Sauerkraut $30.19

Pickles, beets and the best pastrami on the planet earth {$15.99 a pound!} and worth every single penny.

The best meal of the week was enjoyed at the neighbor’s house before we all went to the movies. But I don’t have a picture of that {because how awkward would that be?}. Dinner consisted of beef short ribs, mash, asparagus and a roll from our local bakery with butter. I may have let out a little moan it was SO GOOD. How we got so lucky with the neighborhood, I have no idea, but everyday that goes by, I love it here more and more.

Bacon and eggs with a little hoisin sauce {try it!!}

Crock Pot Pork Roast with Sauerkraut

The manicotti recipe was a total success. I’ll post the recipe tomorrow.

Copy Cat Panera Chicken and Rice Soup 

I wasn’t joking when I told you it made a lot of soup. The good news is, it freezes well. {Well, the longest I’ve tested that theory is 3 weeks. Maybe this time I’ll go for 5 weeks and see how it does}.

Also, somebody asked about freezing chocolate chip cookie dough last week. if you’ve never done it before, it’s super simple. Just whip up a batch of chocolate your favorite dough then use a 1 Tablespoon cookie scoop to scoop dough onto balls and place on cookie sheets and freeze.

Once the dough is solid, pop cookie balls into a freezer bags and label them {for best results, use the dough within 3 months of freezing}. When you area ready to bake the cookies, simply add 1 minute to the baking time. That’s it. 🙂

Pot luck lunch plate at the family gathering we went to on Saturday. Did I tell you my husband has some extended family that lives within driving distance? He does, and it’s nice to be able to get together every few months to share a meal and hang out together. It’s always a pot luck and so this time we brought a chocolate brownie cake and a caprese salad. They were both a hit.

Pickety bits for the football game. Note to self: we need olives.

It was a great week! Not only did we eat well, but I managed to put away 10 servings of soup, 2 manicotti dinners and homemade chocolate chip cookie dough without even thinking about it. It didn’t dawn on me until I put the trays of manicotti in the freezer that HEY… at this rate, I could have an entire section of our freezer devoted to freezer meals by the end of the month if I made sure to concentrate on portion sizes and to freeze the extra portions right after the meal was finished instead of just putting the leftovers in the fridge and hoping one of us {or The Girl} ate them.

And then I was like, you know what would be a cool idea? If we had a freezer full of ready to go meals for the month of May. Why May? Because in May, I’ll be in full on garden/outside mode {which means the HH will be out there with me too} and if we can sock away enough meals, well then, we wouldn’t have to think about dinner, it would already be done.

Giddy up!

And so, here we go. A new series: Freezer Meal Cooking for Two. Over the next few months I’ll break down some of our favorite recipes {and new ones two} into freezer meal friendly posts.

Life. Just when you think you’ve got it all figured out… 😉

Have a wonderful Monday everyone.

~Mavis

Total Spent This Past Week on Groceries $73.37

• Total Spent in January on Groceries $181.77
• Total Spent on Groceries in 2020 $181.77

You can go HERE to read more Shopping Trip Stories

If you have a big family, or your’e looking to make a boatload of meals all at once {or in batches} One Hundred Dollars a Month reader Mel wrote an AWESOME post a few months ago on how she made 4 months worth of freezer meals. You can find her post HERE.

Meals we’re planning on making in January:

Breakfast

• Make ahead cinnamon rolls Done!
• Toast
• Oatmeal
• Cream of Wheat
• Cookies
• Bakery treats
• Pancakes
• Bacon and Eggs Done!
• Whatever.

Main Dish

• Tomato Soup {Crazy good, and I will post the recipe tomorrow}
• Copy Cat Panera Chicken and Rice Soup  Done!
• White Bean Soup {in the freezer right now}
• Crock Pot Pork Roast with Sauerkraut Done!
• Pizza, Pizza!
• Thai Chicken Peanut Noodles {we LOVED this the last time we made it}
• Pickety Bits Done!
• Ritz Cracker Chicken
• Saturday Night Beans – New England Style and Maple Syrup Corn Bread
• The Best Meatloaf Recipe on the Planet
• Manicotti {the HH will be trying a new recipe} Done! 
• Mississippi Pot Roast
• Leftover Mississippi Pot Roast Stew or Beef Pie
• Pastrami sandwiches we will be making a trip to Morse’s Sauerkraut. They have the best deli meats, sauerkraut, pickles and beets on the planet earth and are worth the drive. Done!
• Big Salads

Desserts

• The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies on the Planet Earth Done!
• King Arthur Flour’s Lava Cakes
• A Chocolate Fudge Cake or a Rum Cake… we’ll see {new recipes}
• Ice Cream {Steve’s Banana Pudding for me and Häagen Daz Buttered Pecan for the HH}