A March Menu Plan

Last week I struck gold before I went out grocery shopping.  I was trying to put together a meal plan for about a week or so, when a flyer came in the paper for one of the smaller grocery stores near us.  I regularly buy our meat there, as the quality has consistently been excellent.  They were having a blow-out on many meat items, and I decided to head on over and see what I could score.   I did very, very well.  I picked up a very large boneless pork loin for under $2 a pound, 12 pounds of massive chicken breasts at 99 cents a pound, a large, frozen salmon fillet for just under $4, and a gorgeous ham butt for just $7.  When I got home, that pork loin was divided into four meals worth of pork.  I put one in the fridge for later, but into the freezer went two nice sized pieces of pork loin, ready to roast as-is, or be sliced into chops.  One portion of the loin was cubed up to be stir-fry ready.

The chicken breasts really were massive!  Before portioning them out to freeze them, I took a knife to them and cut them way down to be much more reasonable in size.  The end result of that effort was six pieces of chicken breasts on hand for that night’s dinner, and then four more dinner’s worth portioned out and put in the freezer.   The ham was put into the freezer as-is, alongside the salmon fillet.  I can’t tell you how excited I was to get all this meat into the freezer for such a steal!  I will be keeping an eye out for more deals like this at this particular store.  It may take a little work on my part to divide the meat and prepare it for freezing, but boy is it worth the effort!

Anyway.  Once I had all this meat on hand, I started to plan around it, throwing in a few other things as my tastebuds dictated.  I spent some time thinking about dishes that we hadn’t had in a long while to kind of change up the monotony that’s been happening.  Thanks to the menu planning and careful budgeting, we are eating well once again.  My menu plan is actually about 9 days long instead of just a week, and the plan began last Friday, as that was my opportunity to get out and do some shopping.  The only day I’m still waffling on is Thursday’s Potato Leek soup.  Boy, did the leeks look terrible when I was out on Friday.  I plan to stop at a different store tomorrow and see if I can find some fresher ones.  I’ll have to come up with something else if I can’t find leeks.

Friday:  Chicken Parmesan, Spaghetti, Roasted Brussels Sprouts, Green Beans for Kids

Saturday: Basil Pork Chops, Butternut Squash Casserole, Corn on the cob

Sunday: BBQ Kielbasa and Beans, Celery and Apple Salad, Corn Muffins

Monday: Soft Tacos made with Ground Turkey

Tuesday: Chicken and Cashew Stir-Fry, Rice

Wednesday: Soy-Glazed Salmon, Homemade Noodles, Cauliflower

Thursday: Potato Leek Soup, Homemade Bread

Friday:  Cheese and leftover taco meat Enchiladas, Salad

Saturday:  Ham, Baked Potatoes, Mixed Vegetables

I just realized that my Saturday plan of ham will have to wait, as we’ve made plans to be elsewhere for dinner.