Trying a monthly menu....and some new recipes

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A couple weeks ago I found myself BORED with my menu.  Whenever I get bored with my menu, we end up eating out too much.  I vowed to find some new recipes.  I tried three new recipes in the past week and two of them were awesome! The third one we won't talk about other than....YUCK! ;)

The new recipes did the trick and I'm back to cooking.  Now if I could just find a way to get un-BORED of cleaning my kitchen after above mentioned cooking... blah!

Tuesday and Thursday I am out of the house at swim practice until 7 pm.  Dinner is hard.  Walking in the door with two kids that just had an hour long work-out and are literally STARVING, a 12 year old that is just finishing her homework and a husband who has worked all day...we need to eat ASAP...no time for cooking, it has to be ready.  These are the days where I love my crockpot.  I will either have something in there that is ready to eat or I will have done up a casserole like the sausage and ziti and have my daughter put it in the oven an hour before everyone gets home.  With a little planning it really does work!

The other problem I've been having is doing a big grocery shopping trip every week is getting boring and exhausting and very time consumming.  I've always done it weekly because that is when the paycheck comes.  I really want to try something different.  I just got done doing a monthly menu.  I plan on buying everything for that menu ahead of time at once that I can.  I based the meat on what's on sale this week, so I should be able to buy all that this week.  I can also buy the pantry items I need.  Then I plan on buying things like cheeses, snacks, eggs, drinks every other week.  I will get my produce and bread every other week from the food co-op and that leaves just the occasionally weekly trip to get milk.  Here's hoping it works.

Below I will list items on my menu.  Some of them we are having more than once.  I'll try and link to where I got the recipes if there is one needed.  The burritos are my new FAVORITE, you must try them!

Crockpot chicken and noodles
Easy Chicken-Rice Burritos
Grilled steak, rice and stir-fry veggies
Janey Gibson's chili and cornbread
Baked Chicken Roma served over egg noodles (yet to try)
Crockpot beef roast with rice and fresh fruit
Spaghetti and meatballs
Grilled chicken, mashed potatoes and salad
Fried Rice
Fajitas
Oven baked chicken with mashed potatoes
Sausage alfredo
Vegetable soup and cornbread
Chicken stir-fry
Baked ziti with sausage and fresh basil (yum, can make ahead then just pop in oven an hour before)
Meatball subs
Hamburgers

I'll keep you posted, wish me luck and share your menus with me too, PLEASE!! :)
Allyson

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