Since my “list” menu seemed to work better for me than my calendar menus have done, I’m trying it again this month with a twist. I’m really going to try very hard to make the majority of our meals based on foods we already have in our freezer or pantry. I just did a pretty thorough inventory of what we have and I’ve made a menu accordingly. Here’s a list of meal ideas for the next month that we are MOSTLY prepared for. Ingredients that I’ll need to purchase are indicated in GREEN.
I’m doing this because I realized that our pantry is in pretty good shape and I’d LOVE to be able to set aside a bit of our grocery $$ for Christmas this year. So if we can go lean this month, then we can fatten up later. 🙂
Here we go . . .
SOUPS & STEWS (MOSTLY VEGETARIAN)
- Chili (onion, green pep, ground beef)
- Black bean soup–from freezer, not sure when I made; therefore, must consume.
- Butternut squash soup–from freezer, last month
- Tomato soup with grilled cheese
- Corn Chowder (bacon, potatoes)
FANCY PANTS
- Pork Tenderloin with rice and veg
- Pasta w/ Sw. Italian Sausage and veg
- Shake and Bake Chicken (Italian) w/ Pasta
- Chicken Breasts w/ Orange Sauce (All You Magazine Recipe) (OJ)
- Pot Roast w/ Carrots and Potatoes (Because I need to eat this every now and then. :))
- Homemade Pizza–not really fancy, but does take longer. I LOVE making bread in the fall though and have already used up all our yeast making bagels, so (yeast)
SEAFOOD
- Shrimp and Grits (lime, green onions)
- Tilapia w/ Rice
- Gorton’s Grilled w/ Rice a Roni (on sale this week at HT)
QUICK PREP
- 2 Frozen Palermo’s Pizzas
- Umpteen Chicken or Hamburger helpers
- Mac N Cheese and WHITE HOTS!! (I know, right?! Can you believe, my Rochesterian friends . . . I found these down here in the sow-eth at the HT. Clearly Waxhaw has been overtaken by Durn Yankees, but thankfully they are at least importing the hots–what-what!?!?!)
- Spaghetti pie–frozen extra from last month (Adore myself when I have moments of cleverness such as making and freezing extra spaghetti pie. GENIUS ME!)
- Cobb Salad (Also in All You) (turkey, romaine, cranberries, bacon)
SILLY SUPPER (Breakfast)
- Omelet or Frittata (mushrooms, maybe eggs by then)
- Waffles and Sausage (sausage, more pancake mix if I can snag a deal)
- Cereal (inevitable Sunday night go-to)
- Awesome Oatmeal (pictured above in teeny tiny cup b/c that is all that was left after we devoured it–walnuts)
So there you have it! 23 meals planned out. Obviously I’ll probably have to go to the store for the normal produce, milk, and odds and odds. But I’m hoping to avoid the BIG TICKET items by eating up what we already have. It’s not as many as meals as last month, but we have plenty of pasta and pasta sauce to fill in the gaps. Speaking of which, does anyone have any pasta or rice tricks that don’t require meat or the oft required Parmesan expensiviano. I always have tons of pasta and tons of red sauce, but I need a new idea of how to make that fresh and fun without breaking the bank–or even opening it.
Happy menu-ing. What’s in YOUR pantry? and What’s on YOUR menu?
White hots!?! Really?!? Pat always has people bring him white hots and Tahou’s sauce when they come to visit from Rochester. Used to bring Dinosaur BBQ sauce too, but we can get that here. How long has HT had white hots? I will have to look into this. Thanks for the heads up. However, the good spiedie marinade has still not made its way here (if you are familiar with good spedies…not state fair, rather Lupo’s). Enough of my rambling. Thanks for some good ideas!
Yes, I got them at the Waxhaw HT. They are Zweigle’s brand–made in Rochester. I got them for a cook out b/c my grandpa used to always make them. My dad didn’t like the natural casings on them–tho my memory was that they were all like that. They were kind of expensive for hot dogs, but I got them for sentimentality. 🙂
As for other Rochester food, I am not an expert since I’ve really lived here since I was 6, but there are a few things that I absorbed from visits back to the “Land-of-Snow” as we refer to it for our kids. (J is from the “Land of Cheese”–WI. )
My mom used to add cubed zucchini to red sauce…it made it chunkier, therefore seemingly more filling. You would only need one zucchini. I guess I should be doing it also =)
Amy