Tuesday Meal Planning

The hubby had to work late last night and then found out it was going to be even later than he thought so I wanted dinner that could be reheated. So it was a one pot meal. I am always baffled why people buy hamburger helper type meals when you can make them yourself. They taste much better and are less expensive. Unless you get a really good markdown and have coupons. Then I guess I can forgive you for buying them.

One Pot Beef Dinner

1 pound of beef cut into chunks
1 Tablespoon oil
1/4 cup seasoned flour, if you dont have seasoned flour just add salt, pepper, garlic powder to plain flour
4 cups of beef broth
2 cups of dry pasta


Toss flour and meat until well coated. Place oil in pan and heat, add meat flour mixture. Even add the loose flour that didnt stick to the meat to the pan. stir to get the meat well coated and cook for 3-5 minutes. Add beef broth and stir well to incorporate the thickened flour to the liquid. Add the pasta and peas, cover with lid and bring to a boil. Once it boils turn burner down to simmer and let cook 12-15 minutes or until pasta is cooked.

You could add ground beef to this instead of the steak. Any vegetable combination would work. The peas were the first veggies I saw when opening the freezer door. This meal took about 30 minutes from start to finish and cost about $6 for four servings.

I have a few new meals to try next week. What good do all those recipes saved on Pinterest
do if I never try them?


Friday..............Easy Clam Chowder
Saturday..........Pizza
Sunday.............Parmesan Bacon Mushroom Fettuccine
Monday............One Pan Chicken Enchilada Skillet
Tuesday............Beef and Cheese Pasta
Wednesday.......Chicken Pot Pie
Thursday........... Chili


A few pointers for meal planning

Inventory what you have and try to use that in your meal plan. If you cant think of a use for it maybe you need to toss it.

What is something that you find yourself eating often? If your family loves spaghetti always have those ingredients on hand. Stock up on those ingredients when they are on sale.

Know how much of things you typically use in a week. We usually go through about a gallon of milk, 1 1/2 dozen of eggs, 2-3 pounds of chicken and  one pound each of beef and ground beef.

Shop around your store ads especially for meat. Most stores have at least one meat each week thats a great deal, If you keep track you can usually notice a trend.

Stock up on things you know you use a lot. I was able to get boxes of cereal for a dollar the past few weeks, I now have 12-15 boxes of cereal. That should last until I can get them for a dollar again.  That saves me at least 50 dollars a year. Same with pasta if you can get it for 50 cents when its normally a dollar thats at least a dollar a week and another 50 dollars in a year.