Meals from Last Week

Last week was our first full week living in our new apartment which called for some serious meal planning. Here's a little peek at what we've been eating over the last week...

Linking up for Menu Plan Monday

All of these meals were delicious and seriously so so simple to make. Elizabeth and I sat down on Saturday night and asked ourselves the following questions as we went through the Dillons and Hy-Vee flyers. Here are a few questions we asked ourselves as we planned our meals for the week...

How Many Meals Do We Need to Make This Week?
- For Elizabeth and I this only amounted to four, since she was going to be gone one night. 

What Do We Already Have on Hand?
- My mom had purchased chicken breasts, ground beef, and tilapia on sale a few weeks ago and froze it for us. Therefore, we only had to purchase other items to pair with them.

What Staples Are On Sale This Week? 
- All types of pasta were on sale for $1.99
- Dole pre-packaged lettuce mixes were on sale for $1.99
- Kraft shredded cheese was on sale for 2 for $4
- Fresh strawberries were on sale for $1.98
- Kraft cheese slice singles were on sale for 2 for $5

What Recipes Can You Make With Those?
- I finally made use of my Recipe board to hunt down a few recipes! We also flipped through a couple cookbooks and our recipe binders too. We decided that we wanted two meals using chicken, one meal with ground beef, and then went from there!

What Do We Still Need to Buy?
- After we had our recipes picked out, we wrote up a grocery list of the things we still needed. Since we planned our recipes around what was on sale for the week, this worked out well and saved us quite a bit of money!

What Coupons Do You Have?
- We then went through the coupons we already had and picked out the ones we could use. Do NOT take coupons just because you have them! This will cause you to spend so much more money.

MONDAY

-  Penne with Creamy Tomato Sauce

(we added cubed chicken to this too!)

TUESDAY

* order Chinese take-out *

WEDNESDAY

* Turkey & Pepper Jack paninis *

* Strawberry Mixed Greens salad*

(we also prepared meatballs to freeze & use later!)

THURSDAY

- Parmesean Crusted Chicken

- Olive Garden salad dressing

FRIDAY

* leftovers *

- Red Lobster Cheddar Bay biscuits

  

Do you make a meal plan each week? 

If so, what tips/tricks have you found work for you?

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