Making Do Without Missing a Thing--Six Weeks of Inspiration in Meal Planning in Six Posts--week Five

   In some ways, I have been dreading doing this week only because I know it will take time and effort for me to lay out for you the meals we eat every day. But at the same time, I am excited because I know you will walk away from this week very well equipped to feed your family well for little, and also understanding how all of this pulls together to save you money.

 Before we get started I wanted to remind you of two things.

   The first we talked about in this post: click here.  Here I discussed how I do meal planning and what works for our family each night of the week. Mondays are when my husband is home, so we eat a meat based meal, and something more substantial than soup for lunch. Tuesdays are my busy lesson days, but we like to have stuff made ahead of time, for ethnic meal night. I used to call it Taco Tuesdays, but we have branched way out from that, so the other name works better. :). Wednesday we are gone for homeschool co-op, so it is our crockpot night. Thursdays go late, so I make that our casserole night. Fridays are always something fun that the adults will mostly eat as my oldest goes to Grandma's house for her sleepover, and then Saturday's are homemade pizza night. :) Sundays we have our big meal right after church, and end the week with something like waffles or leftovers.

   The second thing I wanted to remind you of is that with canning, dehydrating, and building a pantry, our meals cost a bunch less than if you went out and purchased this straight out of the store. Not that you cant do that if you are just starting out. Everyone has to start somewhere, and by putting all of these things in line together, you will be able to save more and more money. It will just cost you more to start out with until you have this under your belt. I am trying to share with you a WAY of living, and planning, that has worked wonders for our family in the long run. It has enabled us to feed our children really well, in a healthy way, for much less than most families, and invest the money into other things, such as paying our house off sooner, or building an emergency fund.


   And finally, let me encourage you.

  You absolutely, positively, beyond the shadow of a doubt, can do this.

   If I can do this, a woman who never planned ahead really ever in her life, who loves to live by the seat of her pants and is a spur-of-the-moment-kinda-gal..........then you certainly can do this. It takes initiative, planning, and creativity within a certain limit. And on the flip side of all of that, once you find yourself at the end of the process, you realize just how free you are to make and do whatever you want, and not pay those high prices ever again unless you CHOOSE TO.
   We still have fabulous holiday meals, because we have gotten to the point that we can spend money on something like a whole ham, or prime rib. Those things can feed us for a holiday, but I can always make one or more meals from it afterwards too.

no this is not my grandmother--but it sure could have been!

    I have gotten to the point I am so frugal, knowing that it pays in the end, that what we dont finish goes into another meal. Why should I throw it away unless it is unusable? It is how my grandmother used to do things, and that is something I could have learned a lot about if I had known her. The women of her generation coined the phrase, "use it up, throw it out, make it do or do without". Have you heard of that? I read somewhere, a while ago, that many of the meals made during the Great Depression were passed down as family favorites...with people never realizing their grandparents or great grandparents made it that way because that was all they had! I, instead, grew up in the "throw-away" generation, where if something doesn't get eaten in a week, then it hits the trash. That mentality has passed over into a million subcategories in our lives as well---just drive down the road a couple days after Christmas when the trash bins are out, and you will see what I mean. Think of the amount of trash you had to carry out as a kid, versus how large our trash bins are now. We buy plastic containers that are marketed as "disposable" for our leftovers, and if things look a little fuzzy inside, what do we do? Right. Throw them away. I cant imagine my mother ever just deciding to hoist one of her precious Tupperware containers into the trash can. She would scrape it out, wash it really good, and put it back in the drawer. Me? I used to not think anything of it until the last couple of years....and I am ashamed to say that I don't even KNOW how much waste I personally am responsible for in caring for my family for the last 10 years.

   But I am determined not to be that way anymore.

   So should I put the picture of the Bunny Trail back here again? LOL. Seems like my passion for certain things and a way of life tend to break out once in a while beyond what I can control.
   I am planning on sharing a meal plan a day this week, with the recipes included. Now, if for breakfast we are having oatmeal, folks, I am very sorry, but if you cant figure out how to make oatmeal, you aren't going to learn it here. :) Perhaps you need a cookbook at that point more than you need me! :) But I will give you my recipes for my main meals, or how I tweak certain meals with what we have.
   I hope that you get a lot out of this series, and that you are excited to get started. If there is something you don't like in the meal menu--then put in something that works for you! My husband used to be a meat-and-potatoes kinda guy with little imagination. I was an almost-vegetarian who loved a good dose of chicken and beef once in a while. And now we are all over the board, eating fresh foods, one pot meal foods, every ethinicity of food under the sun within our reach. I hope you too will find some tried and true favorites here that you family will rave over.
   I bake twice a week, both bread and a snack/treat for my family. That normally happens on Tuesdays and Fridays or Saturdays. That, combined with making extras of things each time I cook or bake, gives me a comfortable stocked freezer and keeps me days ahead of my meal planning. Since I have been recovering from surgery the last five weeks, we have been relying on simple meals that are either already canned and waiting on the shelf, or easy ones like spaghetti, etc. So this will be fun to get back into the swing of things with you right alongside me! Here we go!

Week One---Meal Plan ONE
   *any drinks are water, milk, coffee, tea or juice depending on what we have on hand. Our family rarely drinks soda or anything sugary. If the kids want something warm in the morning, they drink hot chocolate from my homemade mix. I will share that here today for you. :) For our morning snack we always have a fruit or vegetable, such as carrot sticks, ants on a log, apple slices with peanut butter, etc. Afternoon snack is normally something baked or available, such as bread and cheese, or a baked good.

Monday:
   Breakfast: potato pancakes with shredded carrot, diced onion, and cheese, served with fresh fruit
   Lunch: Sweet and Sour Asian Meatballs on Brown Rice
   Snack: Carrot sticks with Ranch, Whole Wheat bread with sliced Colby
   Dinner: Roast Chicken, stuffing, salad (with apples, cheese, raisins and peanuts) and Black Bean Brownies

Tuesday:
   Breakfast: blueberry streusel muffins, and hot chocolate
   Lunch: baked Potatoes with broccoli, onion and cheese, seasoned with homemade garlic salt
   Snack: Apples and Peanut Butter, Delicious Pumpkin Bread
   Dinner: Meatless Enchiladas with green chili cornbread, vanilla pudding topped with cinnamon

Wednesday:
   Breakfast: Strawberry and Cream Oatmeal (I use dehydrated strawberries and extra full-fat dry milk added to regular rolled oats while cooking to make this--my kids love it)
   Lunch: Chicken, Cheese and Spinach roll, with homecanned peaches for dessert.
   Snack: Avocados with salt, Black Bean Brownies or Pumpkin Bread (whichever is left over)
   Dinner: Crockpot Hobo Stew with biscuts and Dried Apple Pie Bars

Thursday:
   Breakfast: sausage and gravy with biscuts, bananas, and milk or coffee
   Lunch: Broiled Tuna Melts on homemade bread with fruit cocktail
   Snack: Ants on a log, and Dried Apple Pie Bars
   Dinner: Tatertot Casserole

Friday:
   Breakfast: scrambled eggs with onion, tomato and spinach (dried), toast points, and juice
   Lunch: our version of Turkey Tettrazini, pear halves
   Snack: Apples and Fruit Dip, Bread and sliced cheese
   Dinner: Peanut Chicken Curry, and salad

Saturday:
   Breakfast: cold cereal, fruit such as apples or bananas
   Lunch: Sandwich pockets, and carrot sticks and ranch
   Snack: fruit and Molasses Ginger cookies
   Dinner: Cheeseburger Pizza

Sunday:
   Breakfast: homemade Cinnamon Rolls
   Lunch: Beef Roast, potatoes, carrots, and onions, Cherry Pie
   Dinner: Waffles or leftovers, whichever the family prefers.

Scroll down for recipes listed under each daily title. :) I will be posting the costs for each meal later the last week so you can see how much we save.

Many Blessing to You and Yours,

Heather

Monday:

Potato Pancakes: 2 cups leftover mashed potatoes or one quart canned potatoes, drained and smashed. 2 large shredded carrots, one diced onion, 2 cups flour, 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese, 2 eggs, basil and garlic salt to taste. Mix batter well, then taking a large spoon, drop large spoonfuls into heated oil (we use olive oil or coconut oil). When one side is crispy and brown, flip over and press with your turner until it becomes flat and more pancake like. Serve warm. * just a tip: if you have a kid who has a hard time with veggies, you can add in up to one cup of pureed cauliflower into this recipe and they will not be able to taste the difference. Instead of or with the parmesan throw in some shredded cheese and let them see you do it, and it will color the batter so the carrots arent as noticeable as well. :) I know, sneaky sneaky.

Meatballs: I make these up in a huge batch for the freezer so we can pull from them in a short time for meals. Take a family pack of burger, around 3 lbs. Put in a large bowl and add: 2 cups instant oatmeal, one cup WW flour, four eggs, one diced onion, oregano, sage and thyme, about 1/8 cup of worchestershire sauce, 5 shakes of tabasco, one tsp of sea salt and one tsp of garlic powder. Mix really well and form into balls about the size of a walnut. Put on baking sheet. Bake at 350* for 20 minutes, let cool and place in gallon freezer bag. For a family of five I get three meals out of the 80 meatballs or so that this recipe makes.

Sweet and Sour Meatballs:  in a pan with a little olive oil, add the following: chunked onion, frozen and diced peppers, one large can diced and then drained pineapple (reserve the liquid), 2 TBS soy sauce, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1 tsp ground ginger and 1 tsp cinnamon. Let saute and cook until the onion is getting clearer, a couple minutes. Add juice from can, and whisk in one TBS of cornstarch. This will make the sauce. Add the meatballs and cook until heated through (I set them out a little earlier as they dont take long to thaw). Meanwhile, in another pan cook two cups of brown rice in beef stock with a little oregano. I use my new pressure cooker and it is such a time saver--rather than 45 minutes, it takes me 12 to make great brown rice. I always make extra and then dehydrate it so I have "minute rice" that can be re-hydrated in a matter of three to five minutes in standing boiling water or stock. :) So plan ahead,make a big pot of brown rice once every couple weeks and dehydrate it, then have it waiting for you to pull off the shelf and use! :)

Black Bean Brownies: seriously folks, these are so good, so incredibly fudgy and chocolatey, that once you try them you will never go back to a regular brownie recipe. And they are so easy to make, a little goes a long way, and you would never know there are beans of any kind in them. Here is the link to the recipe I use, just click your way to brownie heaven. I use home-canned black beans from my garden, one pint's worth.

Tuesday:

Muffins: I just use my muffin mix from week one of this series, and add in the following: one cup frozen or canned blueberries, one Tbs lemon juice, and top with a streusel made with 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup WW flour, 1/4 cup oatmeal and 4 Tbs Butter. 

Enchiladas: I  make up to three pans of this at a time. Make four cups of rice using a tomato and chicken based stock, or bullion. Be sure to add in chili powder to the liquid while the rice is cooking. Meanwhile, dice up onion, and open a can of chili tomatoes. When rice is done, empty two cans of drained beans (I use black beans as they have the highest protein count of any bean), the onion, chili tomatoes with juice, all into a large bowl with the rice. I actually buy my seasoning from a little mexican grocery, but you can season the mix with cumin, chili powder, and garlic for a similar effect. I take a ice cream scoop and put one scoop in each tortilla, tuck the ends and roll, then place in a greased 9X13 pan. I cover each pan with about 1 cup shredded pepper jack cheese, then pour over one can of enchilada sauce (the large cans). I buy the cans when I run out of my own sauce about halfway through the year. Each pan makes about 10 large enchiladas. If you like beef or chicken, just add one cup of meat and cut the beans down by one can. We will alternate each month, using regular enchiladas one month, then beef ones the next. You can cover these with foil and store for a couple months as needed, just write what they are on the top, and bake without the foil when it comes time to eat. The cornbread recipe is on this page  just add one can of green chilies to it. :)
Delicious Pumpkin Bread: 2 cups sugar, 2 1/2 cups flour, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp Baking powder, 2 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp ground cloves, 1 tsp nutmeg, 4 eggs, 2 cups canned pumpkin, 1/2 cup oil, 1/2 cup melted butter. Whisk the dry ingredients, then blend into the wet. Pour into two greased bread pans and bake at 350* for 45 minutes to one hour. It will take quite a while to set, so don't get discouraged. Makes amazing muffins as well.

Wednesday:
Chicken Cheese and Spinach Bread Roll: Take one loaf of bread dough from this post. Roll out into a 9X13 rectangle or as close as possible. In a small bowl, mix one cup mayo with one TBS mustard, 1 tsp oregano and basil, and 3 TBS paremesan cheese. Spread this thinly over the rolled out bread dough. Spread shredded chicken, diced spinach, and then 1 cup shredded cheese over the bread dough. Starting with the short end, roll up into one big log. Smooth water over the end and pinch seam together very well. Place on baking sheet and bake for one hour at 350*. We let it cool some and then cut into slices with a bread knife.
Crockpot Hobo Stew   
biscuts--make extra for tomorrow's breakfast
Dried Apple Pie bars: Using my Master Cookie Mix, add one cup instant oatmeal, and apple pie spice to make a basic oatmeal cookie crust. Press into a greased 9X9 pan and bake in a 350 * oven for about 4 minutes. In a sauce pan, place one cup dried apples that you have snipped into pieces, one cup water, 1 TBS apple pie spice, 1/2 Cup brown sugar, and a dash of vanilla flavoring. Cook about 15 minutes until apples are soft and spreadable. (using a lid makes this process go faster). Spread this over the cookie crust, and top with the same streusel I shared with you  on Tuesday's plans for muffins. Bake again for about 10 minutes, and then sit on counter for ten minutes before serving. Can serve warm with ice cream or cold like a cookie bar.

Thursday:
Sausage and Gravy: use my Master Mix to make the gravy after frying up the sausage. We like it heavy on the pepper. You already have extra biscuts from yesterday, so heat in oven in a pie pan with a nice damp towel over them.
Broiled Tuna Melts: in a medium bowl combine the following: one large can tuna, three shredded carrots, one shredded onion, one shredded zucchini or cucumber. To this add 3/4 cup mayo, 3 dashes of hot sauce, 1/2 cup of shredded cheese, 1 tsp of mustard, and dash of salt and pepper. Turn broiler on in oven. On slices of homemade bread, heap spoonfuls of the filling until covered, makes about 7. Put under broiler for about 5 minutes while watching carefully. You will see filling bubble, and cheese melt, as well as some of the carrots blacken on the ends. If it looks like it could use a little more time, I move it to the bottom of the oven and let it sit in the heat but away from the intense heat for a few more minutes. This crisps the bread. I worked my kids and my husband up to this recipe, and they would not go back to boring tuna melts ever again!
TaterTot Casserole

Friday:
Turkey Tettrazini the Estey Way: using ground turkey, fry this up in a little olive oil, seasoned with tarragon, and basil. remove from pan and make a basic white sauce using the same master mix as the sausage gravy above. Add back in the meat, and one bag frozen peas and carrots or one cup dried peas and carrots rehydrated. Serve over homemade Whole wheat egg noodles.
Peanut Chicken Curry: basic recipe we use: however, we omit the tomatoes, we use green curry paste because we like the taste better, and right before serving we add 3 TBS of chunky PB to the sauce. Serve over sticky rice (which in our house is just plain white rice made in the pressure cooker). I like to add water chestnuts to mine. If the kids are eating with us, I pull some of the curry out before adding the spicy paste, and stir some PB into theirs. Even our toddlers love this stuff.

Saturday:
 Sandwich pockets: take small rounds of bread dough that you have pinched off the dough from earlier, and rolled out. fill with whatever filling kid want: Pb and Jelly, Cheese, Pepperoni, Ham and cheese, spinach and cheese, whatever. Put the ingredients on half of the round, leaving space around the edge. smooth a good amount of water on edge with your finger and fold top half round of dough over to make a half circle with the filling in the middle. using a fork, seal the edges well, then prick a couple times on top for steam to release while cooking. Let these pockets sit for about ten minutes before baking them. Bake at 350* for 12-15 minutes.
Cheeseburger Pizza: Take this pizza crust, and top with the following: one cup spaghetti sauce mixed with 3 TBS of ketchup, one Tbs of mustard and 3 TBS of sweet relish. Spread over the crust and cover all but the very edges. Onto this place one cup of mozzarella, sprinkled to cover. Top now with 1/2 lb browned ground beef that has been cooked in garlic salt and with minced onion. Sprinkle with 4 slices of bacon, crisped and broken into very small pieces. Top with more shredded cheese, and pickle slices. Bake at 350* for 15-20 minutes.

Sunday:
Homemade cinnamon rolls are made with the same concept as the Chicken and Cheese roll. Take one loaf of bread dough, roll out into a rectangle. In a bowl combine one cup shortening, one stick butter, 1/4 cup cinnamon, and 1/4 cup white or brown sugar. Spread this paste thinly over the dough, and starting this time from the long side, roll up into a log and seal the seam with water and your fingers pinching it closed. Cut the log into 12-14 pieces, and press into a 9 X13 pan that has been greased. I make these the day before while baking bread, and put them in the fridge overnight covered with plastic wrap. Take out about 30 minutes before baking to let them warm up a little. Bake for 20-25 minutes at 350*. Serve warm with a simple powdered sugar glaze (powdered sugar, lemon juice, vanilla flavoring and water mixed until smooth)