Menu Plan Monday (and Day Twelve)

I'm still in my "Month of Nothing" and going strong. I only spent $35 last week on groceries and I'm on track to do about the same for this week. I baked today so that we would have snacks for the week. I made another loaf of cinnamon swirl bread and then, because I have one kid who swears she doesn't like cinnamon, a made a loaf of cheddar swirl bread. It turned out pretty good. I just rolled the dough out like I would for a cinnamon swirl loaf and then brushed it with melted butter then sprinkled grated cheddar cheese, rolled it up and put it seam side down in the pan, let it rise then bake. It is good. Yum. Probably what I will have for breakfast tomorrow (if there's any left, that is).Doesn't that look good? I really need to work on my photography skills, they are not the best.

Meals for today were:

Breakfast was toast as we were running out the door to church.

Lunch is our big meal on Sundays, we had overnight waffles with jam and it was so good.

Dinner is whatever you can find on Sundays. I made apple oatmeal bars and a big bowl of parmesan popcorn. Some of us at only that. And I make no excuses. So there.

Here is the menu for this week. I'm going to buy a chunk of black forest ham and I'll make it last for several meals.

Breakfasts:

• Homemade bread toasted
• oatmeal with berries
• muffins
• cereal

Lunches:

• leftovers
• yogurt with granola
• various bits and pieces

Dinners:

• Ham fried rice, fruit
  
• scalloped potatoes and ham, salad and/or veggies
• ham and bean soup with bread
• croquettes (we call these croquettes but they are really rice balls filled with mozzarella cheese and chunks of ham. The balls are rolled in bread crumbs and then either deep fried or, what I do, baked. The Italians call them arancini which means "little oranges" because they look a little like oranges when they are finished. Here's a recipe for arancini but I don't use the peas), fruit
  
• Funeral Potatoes (a scalloped potato type thing, I know, I know, two scalloped potato things in one week. I pointed this out to my family when they suggested it but they didn't care. Whatever, potatoes are cheap. Fish Mama posted an almost identical recipe this week. Check out her Cheesy Potatoes)
• Leftovers or pancakes

I should only have to buy the ham, some fresh fruit and veggies, sour cream, milk, yogurt, and a few other things I'm out of. I won't shop for this week until Tuesday night or Wednesday so for the rest of the week we'll be having the rest of last weeks menu (I'm off because I started my "weeks" when the month started and October started on a Wednesday).

I'm excited for this week's menu - most of these recipes are family favorites and so everyone should be happy at the dinner table all week. Weeks like this make a momma proud.

If you want ideas for how to make your crew happy at the dinner table, visit Organizing Junkie for more menu ideas.
Jill