Coming this week

Part of my New Years resolution was to make weekly menus. It is helping me save money. I used to have a habit of going to the store 2-3 times a week and coming home with over $70.00 in stuff and still not having 7 days worth of food while at the same time having 49 days worth of junk I wouldn't eat. So I put my husband in charge of cleaning out the garage freezer and I went and stocked it all up (still need to hit up Sams club for chicken), but basically I have Pork Spare ribs packaged in two serving portions (for me two portions is dinner and left over for hubs lunch since I don't eat it, you may want to package into 3-4 portions for left overs, it will save you a ton on lunch), steaks, chicken with bones and chicken with out. I don't keep fish in the freezer that is something I buy fresh the week I want to make it. I keep rib eye for my husbands friday meal (I'll explain later) and tri tip for any week night steak meals as I can make left overs out of that. I also have a pretty well stocked pantry so I only have to buy a few sides or veggies that don't store well over a week. Here is this weeks menu it starts on Sunday so that he has left overs for monday

Sunday: Quick beef tostadas
Monday: Pork rib adobo
Tuesday: Italian garlic chicken with asparagus & mashies
Wednesday: Husband wants to go buy sushi
Thursday: Roasted asian pork tenderloin with white rice (as a bonus I will post a recipe for a second meal made from this dish)
Friday: Rib eye with mushroom bacon sauce and finger potatoes
Saturday: Husband will talk me into getting KFC or some equally gross fast food to make him happy

I sat down to make my grocery list and realized that I already had the ground beef, ribs, chicken and steak in my freezer. That meant all I had to buy was the pork tenderloin, I got a big one so it cost a whopping $5.00. Then I just had to buy some salad stuff, asparagus, finger potatoes, and other random veggies. Everything else I bought was just normal house staples, milk, creamer and macaroni. I barely spent any money and I was in and out in no time. I've already started a menu for next week and what I hope to eventually do is have about 6-7 different weekly menus that I can start rotating through. Anyway this is my weekly menu and it was really cost effective. I will be using a Lawrys premade marinade but I already had those in my pantry. Walmart sells them for about a buck fifty so I stock up on them when I go there. I like to do that because its one less thing I have to buy later on plus it helps give me ideas on meals if I base them around the different yummy marinades I have.

Like I said I stock up on certain things in my freezer. I don't stock up on ground beef I usually buy that fresh the Sunday before cooking. However I always keep a few staples that I know are diverse.

Pork spare ribs

• Pork adobo
• Slow cooked ribs
• Grilled ribs (this is also a great staple for my husband on days he wants to cook for himself)

Tri tip

• BBQ tri tip (duh)
• Fajitas

Rib Eye

• Fancy fun friday night meals

Chicken bone in skin on

• Fried chicken
• Roasted chicken
• Grilled chicken
• Stuffed chicken

Chicken boneless skinless

• Tacos
• Pastas
• Stuffed chicken
• Quesidillas
• Salads

So you see once you have a nice freezer built around these staples all you really need is a few sides. I ALWAYS have potatoes, and green sauce for quesidillas, Onions, Garlic, marinades, tomatoes in a can, and red pasta sauce (this stuff is soooo diverse). That means when I go to the store I really only need some veggies to complete a meal. I hope this helps you start planning weekly meals and save a few bucks here and there. Good luck!