Sometimes I complain about living on a budget, but really, I like* the challenge of coming up with good meals for my family without spending a fortune. I find that the limits actually help me to be a little more creative in the kitchen.

We do a lot more meatless meals, which is healthier anyway. I’ve resurrected some old Southern favorites that I kind of forgot about, and they are so good. And I’ve found that the more I make myself the more money I save, plus it all tastes better.

I’ve started grocery stopping once every two weeks instead of once a week; it works better for us, overall, schedule and money wise. Sometimes I have to make a run for fresh produce, and we get fresh raw dairy (milk and eggs) every week.
I’m finding some keys for cooking frugal without sacrificing. See, I’m kind of food-obsessed. I read cookbooks for fun. M.F.K. Fisher is one of my favorite authors, right up there with C.S. Lewis. So if being on a food budget means I have to eat low-quality food, I’m going to rebel. But that’s not what it means. A food budget just means you need to get a bit smarter.

• Quit centering your meals around meat. Meat should be part of the meal, not the main attraction.
• Eggs are one of the best all-purpose, frugal, and versatile ingredients you can use.
• Presentation matters. Make it look good.
• Serve a little of the more expensive stuff and a lot of the cheaper stuff. Small serving of dairy or meat, large serving of beans, rice, pasta, or seasonal vegetables.
• Buy seasonal!
• Love it? Grow it yourself or buy it in bulk.
• Keep it simple; you don’t need all the variety that you can get at the grocery store.
• Fresh garlic, fresh onions, and a couple of fresh herbs (cilantro and parsley are my favorites) can help you turn the most basic staples into a gourmet meal.
• Borrow from other cultures, those which have built their cuisines on non-wasteful lifestyles.
• Processed foods are the enemy of the frugal cook! Try to buy things in their most basic form.
• Homemade is cheaper! And better!
• Save desserts for the meatless nights.

Here’s my last 2-week menu, that came from a $125 grocery trip. Of course, we had some leftovers and pantry staples already plus our milk & eggs.

dinners:

fried ham, biscuits, cheese omelet and oven fries
beef goulash with peppers and onions, egg noodles
cheesy baked penne with cauliflower
white bean and chicken chili, salad
jerk chicken with rice, black beans, and pineapple
black-eyed peas with ham, cornbread, scalloped potatoes
thai soup with rice noodles
broiled tilapia, salad, 3-cheese crustless quiche
butter-sauteed gnocchi, roasted tomato soup
chicken fried rice
french onion soup, homemade garlic breadsticks
salvadoran stuffed masa flatbread

lunches:

leftovers, boiled eggs & salad, apples & peanut butter, tuna salad, soup
(we get really fancy around here for lunch…)

breakfasts:

ham biscuits
cold cereal
breakfast casserole (make with leftover scalloped potatoes)
muffins (apple cinnamon, cranberry-oatmeal)
homemade granola bars?
homemade raspberry cheese danishes

desserts:

chocolate chip-cranberry-oatmeal cookies
from-scratch chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream frosting
madeira cake
anzac biscuits
homemade graham crackers?

*…but in a recent conversation with my husband I did explain that, to me, being truly (monetarily) rich meant I could go grocery shopping and buy whatever looked good, whatever I wanted to cook for my family, without thinking about the cost. He said that financial riches, to him, meant a huge bathroom with a huge soaking tub & built-in computer & tv for movies…  We all got dreams!

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This post is linked up with OrgJunkie’s Menu Plan Monday.

Am I the only person whose menu is affected by the weather? I just looked up my 10-day weather forecast to help me decide what we’ll be eating, and on what day, this week. Do other people do that? Can you stand eating hot soup on a warm day? Do you reject cold entrees on a chilly day? Does your menu change if it’s raining? It’s only at certain times of the year that I actually have to check. Summer will be, oh, HOT AS THE… well, hot. Uncomfortably hot, so there’s no surprise there. Winter will be refreshingly, beautifully cold. In between is where the surprises hit me. I keep planning soup and getting 85 degree days. This week I’m looking ahead.

Monday: (Sunny; High 84/Low 59) We have a 7pm meeting on Mondays, so I’ll make a big batch of vegetable stir fry and rice noodles that we can eat in a hurry, or even on the way if necessary. Plus there will be extra to nosh on when we get home (around 10, probably) if we’re still hungry. Who am I kidding with the “if”? I’m four months pregnant; I’m always still hungry.

Tuesday: (Rainy; High 71/Low 58). It’s DATE NIGHT, so I won’t be cooking a dinner meal. I might whip up some blackberry muffins in the morning. I have just enough blackberries from my summer berry picking, bagged and frozen, needing to be used. I like muffins.

Wednesday: (Showers; High 68/Low 51). Now we’re getting into my kind of weather. Cooler. I even like gray, rainy days. I didn’t get to that fresh tomato soup I had on the menu last week, so this might be the night for that. Or maybe chicken enchilada soup. Guess which one my husband would like better.

Thursday: (Sunny; High 74/Low 52). My Memaw died last Thursday. She was sick, and it wasn’t unexpected, but it’s still sad and I feel bereft. I lost my other Grandmother in May of this year, so now I have only one grandparent left, my mom’s dad. And Memaw was my Mom’s mom, so it’s one more link to my Mom gone, which makes me sad too. I pulled out Mom’s recipe book, which I haven’t really looked at since I brought it home last year. I found her chicken and dumplings recipe, and it sounds exactly like what I want. Actually, what I want is to be sitting in Memaw’s kitchen watching her and Mom argue over how much milk to add. Weather really had nothing to do with this menu choice… weather of the soul, I guess…

Friday: (Sunny; High 75/Low 55). Since Thursday night meal was for me, and since my dear sweet wonderful husband doesn’t really like chicken and dumplings but won’t ever complain about it, I will make Friday’s dinner for him: some kind of cheesy hamburger pasta casserole-type thing. I know that’s kind of vague… I’ll come up with a recipe before then. This is his version of ultimate comfort food. Everybody should get some comfort this week. He will have just finished his first full week at the new job. Perfect time for a congratulatory comfort dish.

Saturday: (Showers; High 67/Low 52). Since it’s another rainy, cool day, soup is on the menu. I love soup. I’ll make whichever one I didn’t make on Wednesday, along with a Crustless Jarlsberg Quiche. It’s also a recipe from my Mom’s book, but a newer addition that I don’t remember her having made. I think it was in the “to be tried” category. (She had a lot in that category. So do I.) Sounds amazing, I love quiche, and I really don’t like making crusts. It’s on.

Sunday: (Showers; High 66/Low 50). Sunday is an iffy cooking day. I keep it simple. I don’t plan anything elaborate, because we often end up going to eat with my in-laws (always a yummy good time) or out to lunch with friends from church. If it’s one of the rare Sundays when we come straight home, we’ll have a) leftovers, b) cold cereal, c) sandwiches, or d) some sort of amazing concoction Joe comes up with while I feed the kids bananas and left-over quiche. He’s a great Sunday short-order cook.

Monday: HA ha ha! You actually thought I had something planned that far away?

(Sorry. Couldn’t resist. But you don’t get next Monday’s meal until, well, next Monday…)

Are you menu planning? If you’re not, click on the button at the top of the post and get in on the fun. Yes, I said fun. And I meant it, too!

I am on target this week! A MENU ACTUALLY PLANNED. Hallelujah.

Monday: Cube Steak and Rice with Tex-Mex Gravy
Tuesday: Fresh Bread, Big Salad
Wednesday: Savory Meat Pies, Fresh Fruit
Thursday: Pasta, Salad
Friday: Meat & Potatoes (probably Beef Roast and Mashed)
Saturday: Slow Cooker Chicken (either this one or this one.)