Menu planning!

Menu for October 27, 2013 through Nov 2, 2013

Day	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Main	Chicken Noodle	Chicken Pot Pie	Roast beef sandwhiches	Baked Potato Soup	Halloween	Turkey Meatloaf	Baked Zitti
Side 1	Crackers	Salad	Aus Jus			Homemade Scalloped potato	Cheddar bay Biscuits
Side 2			Home fries

This is my menu for the next week. Its nothing special it offers a few different menus for different days and since its getting colder out, I am going to be using my crock pot a lot more. How did I come up with this list? Well honestly its not that hard, through just time consuming.

The first thing I have done is figure out what proteins that I have in the house. My current list I have:

Chicken (about 2lbs)
Roast beef (1lb cook)
Roast beef (2lbs uncooked)
1lb of Hamburger
60ozes of Tuna Fish
4lbs of ground Turkey
2lbs of ground chicken.

Why so much Tuna? Honestly its a WIC Item that I get 30ozes of it a month and I have yet to figure out what to do with.

Second step is to figure out the side dishes. Most of the time I attempt to put healthy sides, usually veggies are our go to. The second side is a starch or veggie if I can't find one that fits in well. Over all I want to make sure my family is getting every food group that I can.

But What about fruits? Honestly I have a hard time trying to figure out how to put fruits in the menu. Most of the time I attempt to use them for breakfasts, and snacks. So far it seems to be working out well.

Now when I do meals like this I am attempting to figure out the balance of veggies and proteins. You can figure out what is best for your family.

Tonight's Meal: Chicken Noodle Soup

Chicken noodle soup is something I tend to make from scratch. Its chicken stock veggies and meat. Mix together in a pot, and cook. I will post the recipe for tomorrows Menu tomorrow, but I am sure you will all enjoy it. :) If you don't know how to make chicken stock, well honestly its not that hard. Get a roast chicken, and after you eat all the meat off it, take the bones and what is left into a pot, Cover with water and cook until it all falls off the bones. You are going to want to strain out the liquid and you have stock!

Ingredients:

2 cups chicken stock
1 can cream of chicken soup
2 cups water
1lb chicken, cubed
4 carrots, Pealed and Cut.
1 Onion, Cut up
2 cups of Pasta (I used elbow macaroni)
4 TBS Italian Seasonings
1 TBS Salt
1 TBS Pepper

 I used a pot on the stove for tonight. Mixing it all together I let it cook for two hours on medium high on the stove. I made the pasta up separately and then mixed it in when it came time to eat. Over all its pretty simple and straight forward. The left overs are going to be made into chicken pot pies tomorrow.

Ooh the enchilada sauce that I made was a huge hit, only thing my husband said that could be improved on it, was it could have been spicier. Next time I am going to add another tablespoon of Chili Powder and see!