February Menu

We're doing pizza night Monday night and leftovers still on Sunday this month. Saturday turned out to be biscuit night just because I kept finding so many biscuit recipes that looked good. The rest is pretty random. I tried to group things this month by what would go bad. I want the dinners with lettuce close together and the dinners with carrots and celery close together so that I don't end up cutting too much and wasting or anything like that. Plus I made a note of dairy products that will be used so that I can buy them later in the month if necessary so they won't go bad. It seems like this dinner planning is an ever-evolving process where I am constantly fighting the budget and wasting food. I am always trying to get better in these areas, and I think I have a long way to go. To give Matt incentive this month to try to help with staying in the food budget, I promised that I would make desserts that looked really good to him during the last week of the month if we could still afford the ingredients by then with what was left of our budget. We'll see how we do. So here's the lowdown:

Fridays:
1 - skillet lo mein - I did this last month and bought a bag of frozen lo mein stuff to put in the recipe. It turned out to have everything we needed in the bag. So this is a quick, easy fix and yummy. I'm not doing the whole big shopping trip until tomorrow so we needed something simple.
8 - Chicken Fajitas w/ Guacamole
15 - Chicken Taco Fettucine
22 - Corn Tortilla Lasagna
29 - Whatever I haven't made yet from the month calendar (There are always a few that I don't get to. Plus we are lucky enough this month to get a few dinners from my niece as partial payment for me watching her baby a couple days a week. Yippee! So there will be dinners that I don't end up doing because of those freebies.)

Saturdays
2 - Hoagie Sandwiches
9 - Matt wants Pigs in a Blanket for lunch, Mini Shepherd's Pies for dinner
16 - Sesame Hot Dogs
23 - Best Chicken 'n' Biscuits

Sundays
3 - Mexican Beef and Bean Casserole - We can't have leftovers on Fast Sunday.
10 - Leftovers
17 - Leftovers
24 - Leftovers

Mondays
4 - Party Pizzas
11 - Papa John's Pizza
18 - Boboli Pizza
25 - Little Ceasar's Pizza

Tuesdays
5 - Beef Enchiladas
12 - Hash Brown Sausage Bake
19 - Chicken a la King
26 - Whatever we haven't had yet

Wednesdays
6 - Super Duper Nacho Night (Thanks, Matt for a great idea)
13 - Mexican Chicken Tortilla Soup
20 - Potato-Bean Soup
27 - Southwestern Bean Soup

Thursdays
7 - Pesto Chicken Manicotti
14 - Mystery Valentine's Day Date :)
21 - Hearty Chicken and Noodles
28 - Topsy-Turvy Beef Pie

Last month we started evaluating dinners after eating them. If it gets a score of 7 or higher from both of us, we'll add it to the list of our dinners we like. If it gets 6 from one of us, we can do it again, but only occasionally. I hope this helps me build a repertoire. I have made lots of things we have liked since we got married, but I forget what and where they are. So I don't make them again. I dream of a day where it is easier to plan cooking dinner when I know of lots of things to make. I know it will happen some day. If any of you want any recipes, I'd be happy to give them. Let me know.