Sunday, January 31, 2010

January 31st - February 6th Menu

MPM
It's been a busy week for me and I still haven't gotten the pictures from Austin posted but will do that when I get the ones my son took. I only have a couple on my camera and he's a more creative shutterbug than I am, anyway, so those should be better.

I realized today I failed in my attempt to try two new recipes in January. However, I did try one of them and am going to try the other this week so I don't think self beating is in order.

As for this last week, we did go out to eat one night but otherwise stuck to the menu I had planned. Sometimes that's the hard part for me - sticking to the plan. The actual planning is the easy part!

Do you find that sticking with a menu plan is difficult? If so, do you have suggestions or strategies for helping with that?

Yesterday I did our grocery shopping and spent too much but man, it's tough to eat a lower fat, lower carb, and lower sodium diet on a budget! I spent $105 but except for milk and fresh vegetables that should last close to two weeks.

In my never ending quest to find healthier alternatives to sodium injected, fatty, cheap meats, I got a package of two very nice lamb shoulder arm chops for $4.99 a lb. A bit pricier than I like but it should be tasty and nice for a treat. I don't have a lot of experience with eating lamb and have less experience with cooking it but I'm game! I also found asparagus for $1.79 a lb and got a small bundle of that. It's a nice addition to a quick stir fry.

Tonight we were going to have the lamb dinner but I was ravenous when I got in from work so we had beef roast I cooked earlier today with a little bit of baked red potato.

Anyway, without further ado, here's this week's menu in no particular order except for tomorrow night's meal which is listed first:

Seasoned lamb shoulder arm chops with steamed asparagus and buttered herbed red potatoes

Roasted chicken with carrots, cabbage, potato and onion

Vegetable chicken soup made with the leftover chicken and vegetables

Beef tips and low carb gravy over wild rice served with tossed salad and baked onions

Quick chipotle chicken with leftover wild rice and my special green beans

Vegetable beef soup made with leftover beef roast and beef tips served with Carbquick cheesy biscuits

So there's our menu for this week. With the exception of the lamb and chipotle chicken, it's all our very standard and boring fare! But at least we're having a couple of interesting and different-for-us dishes.

If you haven't tried menu planning yet and want to give it a try, I encourage you to join Laura and her ever growing crew of menu planning fans at Menu Plan Monday. Head on over there to find new recipes and perhaps get some ideas for your own menu!

3 comments:

Jessie Weaver said...

I totally understand about sticker shock! We've been trying to eat more whole foods and skipping the whole processed shelves. My mouth dropped open when I spent $80 this week and the only meat I bought was a whole chicken and some inexpensive shoulder roast!

Anonymous said...

Lamb with asparagus and red potatoes are my mom's traditional Easter dinner. Fond memories! Delicious! She always served it with mint jelly.

CookinsForMe said...

Vanderbiltwife, it's tough doing that, I know! Scary but we do the best we can. :)

thesavedquarter, I don't know a lot about lamb but we had it tonight and it was fantastic! We'll have that more often. As a child, my mother ate lamb with mint jelly and she didn't like it at all so I grew up hearing how horrible it was. I don't think I'd like the mint jelly but the lamb is good!