easy week

meal plan for this week:

Monday: Chicken Tostadas with Spanish Rice and Beans - I already have shredded chicken pre-made (I made extra when I was making my crockpot chili last week, and packaged it up for an easy meal later on!) so this recipe will take no time at all. I bought corn tortillas and will be crisping them in the oven with a slight olive oil rub, way healthier than buying tostada shells at the store (and less expensive!)
Tuesday: Grilled Pork Chops with Homemade Cinnamon Apple Sauce, roasted potatoes and green beans - remember the "buy one, get one free" deal on pork that I mentioned last week? Well the pork roast that I bought for last weeks sweet pork salad recipe, bought us some delicious chops that i will be grilling up this week! (stu loves me for this, he LOVES pork chops!) also I saw this recipe for homemade crockpot applesauce (so simple, and i love that it doesn't have to come from a jar) so i'll be trying that out. So excited!

Wednesday: Teriyaki Chicken with Broccoli and Rice - The last two weeks, I haven't stuck to my Wednesday plan, because all I wanted was rice... Typically this is my long day at work, and I come home pretty beat and with an unsettled stomach (pregnancy drawback) so I figure I'll make a rice dish and see how it goes. And nothing is easier than this meal... chicken, teriyaki sauce, broccoli- DONE.
Thursday: Chicken Enchiladas (favorite recipe of all time, i'll get it posted so you can all enjoy its goodness)
Friday: out

Saturday: Crispy Wontons with Whole Wheat Noodle Stir Fry (meatless meal) - Stu and I made pork and veggie wontons together for our first Valentines Day (in), we had celebrated the Saturday before with a nice restaurant and then decided to stay in on the actual day with some good food and a great make-out movie. The food was awesome, and the kissing wasn't so bad either ;) Anyway, I think we'll do a veggie-tofu wonton this time, and also make up some cream cheese wontons with pineapple dipping sauce (knock-off of a RA favorite, SO GOOD) and kind of go off this recipe to get an idea. So inexpensive to make at home, and a really fun meal to make with your spouse. To this day, I still wonder if it was my cooking, or my kissing and charm that won Stu over...

Sunday: Family Dinner


This weeks grocery bill: $9.43

There wasn't a lot that needed to be purchased because we had a lot of this stuff at home, I just planned out our meals based on what we already had in the fridge/freezer- go figure! We were able to save too, because we knew what would be on sale from checking the ads that came out on Wednesday. Isn't that great?!! Now, I did spend about $45 at Costco last week on chicken, cereal, milk, eggs, CHEESE, etc. Our total grocery spending for all of February came out to be less than $120, which was probably my two-week spending average before... Seriously helping us save a TON. I didn't even feel guilty when I went on a girls trip to H&M last week :)

Oooh also, I wanted tell you all about Mint.com! There are so many free budgeting sites out there, but this is the BEST in my opinion. Especially if you have a smartphone, because it will send you updates on your spending and you can refer to it as many times as you want to see how you're doing to keep on track with your budget! We started doing this a year ago; we put all our information up, made up a rudimentary budget for different categories of spending (retail stores, groceries, gas...) and gauged our spending habits. You will get notifications (almost instantly to your phone) if you are over-spending in a certain category. *cough, cough* -retail... The best way to do it would be to look and see how much you have left in your budget for that category, and then spend accordingly, but sometimes it's more fun to be ignorant right? I'm getting better at it, and it definitely helps to keep a monthly budget. Try it out!!! It's so, so easy and helpful!

how have you been doing with your weekly meals??