Meal Planning Week 1

First off - I understand that this is not the first week in the year.  This is the first week of my actual meal planning.  We try to meal plan every week - some weeks we are totally successful and feel like we have this stuff together and then other weeks we don't make anything on the list. 

Second - I am not one of those planners who decides that on Monday we are having this and on Tuesday we are having that.  I know that I have to plan for seven meals and I let us pick as the day arrives.  Three of the seven days my husband makes dinner for the family before I get home from work so I like to have several things on the list that are able to be made while two kids under three are either having tantrums or trying to lock one another in the laundry room or are trying to open the oven door.  My husband is an awesome cook and I am lucky that I don't have to dumb down recipes for him... if anything I feel like he should be doing that for me sometimes. 

My meal plan and grocery shopping this week is adventerous for a few reasons:  1) I am behind on my 52 Pinterest projects in 52 weeks, and 2) I am bored with some of our recent favorite meals.  I planned seven meals for this week:

1. Chicken spaghetti - this is adapted from the Pioneer Woman's version and it is a hit everytime.  I will do a recipe post on this because of how awesome it is. 
2. Cheeseburger pasta - this will be one of my Pinterest posts for this week.  My sister pinned this but I don't know if she has made it yet... either way, it looked awesome. 
3. Bacon cheeseburgers and tator tots - my husband requested bacon cheeseburgers last week and it didn't happen so this is to make up for that.
4. Chicken logs, rice dish and veggie - this sounds weird but it's really awesome and horrible for you.  It's a stuffen chicken cordon bleu frozen entree from one of our grocery stores. 
5. Baked tacos - second item from Pinterest this week.  It looks awesome.  We don't usually eat this much red meat during the week but it's what sounded good
6. Pulled pork on burger buns, tator tots and veggie - this is a recipe also adapted from a previous recipe from Pinterest.  We always have pulled pork in our freezer.  We used an approx 8lb pork shoulder the other day and made about 6 different meals out of it; one that night and five freezer meals for later. 
7. Country style pork ribs, pasta dish and veggie - pasta dish will be this cheesey, garlicy, buttery wonder that I found from Pinterest as well. 

After a review of our pantry, fridge, and freezer, it was determined that we needed a lot of items this week.  I like to keep a stash of some items that we were going to use this week, so even though we had some I still bought as if we didn't.  We were also going to buy some extra items from a local grocery store (Brookshires) that was doing a "Buy one get one for $.01" on a lot of different items.  We try to buy most of our groceries from Aldi for cost purposes, but items that we can't get there we normally get from either Walmart, Trader Joes, or Brookshires. 

Aldi:
Spaghetti pasta x 2
Cream of Chicken soup x 2
Colby Jack cheese - block
Chicken broth x 2 paper containers
Approx 3 lbs ground beef
Poblano peppers- 15 (my husband roasts these and we freeze them for all year)
Tomato Sauce x 2
Sour Cream
Chicken logs x 3
Veggies - corn, peas, green beans x 9 (3 each)
Hamburger buns
Sliced cheese - Colby Jack and Pepper Jack
Tator tots x 2
Paprika
Onion Powder
Sandwich bags
Milk
Eggs
String cheese
Veggie Chips
Taco shells
Arizona lemon teas in the can x 3

Total: $58.74

Brookshires:
Toilet Paper - B1G1
Yellow Mustard - B1G1
Smoked sausage - B1G1
Breakfast sausage - B1G1
3 lbs Bacon - B1G1
Windex refill
Yogurt x 6
Parsley
Lemonade Vitamin Water x 2
Pimentos
Black Olives
Frozen Chicken breasts - 3 lbs -B1G1

Total: $64.14

Trader Joes:
Cookie butter - we have never had this before and my husband said it was amazing
Oatmeal Chocolate chip cookies
6 mixed beers
Apple Cinnamon puff snacks
Tarter Sauce
Caramel corn

Total: $22.57 - we didn't need any of this but it was a matter of being in the area and being bored. 

All in all a decent week and I set myself up well for at least a few extra week's worth of protein with the smoked sausage, chicken, and breakfast sausage.  I also have a stockpile of dried rice and pasta so this week I will be looking for extra recipes to make side dishes.  I have a small stock pile of canned and frozen veggies so this could be no shopping for next week! 

- Sara