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My Menu This Week

Each week (in a perfect world) I sit down and plan a few meals I will be cooking over the next seven days.  Remember I live alone so one dish may last me three or four meals. 

Each week I base my choice of meals off of what I already have in my kitchen.  This way when I go the store there is very little to buy. 

So this week when I started looking around the kitchen these were the things that jumped out at me:

Chicken (I have alot of chicken courtesy of Zaycon foods [1])

Zucchini, Eggplant & Onion from some people who were nice enough to give me veggies

Marinara sauce that will go bad if I don’t use it this week

Parmesan bread crumbs that I bought at a farmers market a few weeks ago

With those ingredients in mind, I starting thinking through my favorite recipes.

One that immediately jumped out is my friend Merissa’s Homemade Chicken Nuggets [2].  They are unbelievably yummy.  And when I look down the list of ingredients the only thing I will have to buy at the store this week is eggs!  Combine those nuggets with a bag of veggies (which I already have in my freezer) and that should be two or three meals.  Harris Teeter has eggs on sale this week Buy One Get One Free which makes them $.99 a dozen.  So for three meals my cost paid this week will be $.99.

I also want to use those other veggies so my immediate thought went to some kind of zucchini dipped in marinara sauce.  So I found this receipe online for Baked Parmesan Zucchini Sticks [3].  This will also allow me to use the bread crumbs as well.  And since I will be buying the eggs for the chicken nuggets I do not need to purchase anything to complete this meal.  So my total out of pocket cost this week is FREE!

Now my third meal for this week is a bit more complicated.  I have a love of Sesame Chicken but it is SO unhealthy.  Deep fried chicken is not really high on the list of things I want to put in my body.  I have been searching for an alternative recipe and my friend Jen has what she calls Simple Sesame Chicken at Home [4].   (I have been drooling all day over the picture).  So to try to curb my craving I am going to attempt to make this as well.

Now this recipe has alot of actual ingredients in it so I will have to make an investment up front.  My shopping list will include rice wine vinegar (about $2.50), cornstarch ($.97), ground ginger ($4.00- WOW), red pepper flakes ($2.50) and sesame seeds ($1.99).  All the other ingredients I already have in my house.  So this total will be right around $12.

So to make three dishes in my house this week will cost around $13.  If I can cook the portions correctly that should be about $1 a meal plus most of the ingredients for the Sesame Chicken I will not have to buy again for a while.

This is what combining your stockpile and picking smart recipes can do.  You will notice none of the prices above included a single coupon.  So by taking a few minutes to plan, you can save big bucks!