February Menu Plan

I realize it's almost halfway through the month already (how did that happen?),
but I wanted to share our menu plan for February with you.

Last month, I talked about how I plan out the menu and make my grocery list so if you're curious how I do that, go here to find out. :)

We almost never eat out because the best way to save money on food is to grocery shop and eat at home! It also helps control what you are eating because you know exactly what goes into the food. We try to eat mostly unprocessed food- ie: food not from a box, but whole grains, fruits and veggies. I make our bread, granola and any sweets that we decide to indulge in. If you have to bake the treats first, it cuts down on the amount you eat! ;)
We buy free range eggs, organic grass fed beef, organic milk and as many organic fruits and veggies as we can afford and we're hoping to grow some food this year as well. Eventually we'd like to get chickens so we can have fresh eggs and pastured poultry for meat, but that may be a few years down the line.

Source

Back to the menu. I got off an a side trail! :)
This month, we are having a lot of soups since it's been cold. I love soup! It stretches forever, feeds lots of people, makes great leftovers/second meals and freezes well.

We also have a few "portable" meals to go in the car with us when we're on the way to the chiropractor. (Our whole family gets adjusted twice a week.)

I'm going to post dinner recipes only, because otherwise this would be a really long post!
Without further ado,

February Menu for the Swans:


~Crockpot French Dip & Swiss Sandwiches with AuJus 
This is from Maggie of Smashed Peas and Carrots and it is delicious!

~Roast with Root Veggies, Gravy and  Crusty French Bread Rolls

~Beef Stew

~Chicken Enchiladas, Rice and Beans

~Minestrone Soup and Green Salad

~Jamaican Black Bean Pot

~Ranch Chicken Chili

~Turkey Stew (using turkey frozen from Thanksgiving)

~Pizza

~Grilled Moroccan Chicken and Rice & Moroccan Carrot Soup

~Cow Meat Chili (actually with venison instead of beef, because Costco was out of organic beef when we went.)

~Chicken Salad Rolls with fruit or veggies

~Cuban Black Beans and Rice

~Tacos, Chips and Salsa

~Breakfast for Dinner

~Chili, Bean and Rice Stuffed Peppers

~Sausage Spaghetti

~Mashed Potato Soup


For lunch the kids and I usually eat leftovers or fruit and sandwiches, or hot dogs and fruit. Tim eats pizza or a sandwich at work.
For snacks we munch on popcorn made on the stove top (I'll post a quick how-to tomorrow),apples and peanut butter, chips and salsa, fruit, carrot sticks and ranch and whatever else needs to be eaten up.
For breakfast we almost always have either steel cut oats with raisins, frozen organic blueberries, cinnamon and milk or homemade granola. Occasionally we also eat bacon along with that. (Bacon is one of Eliana's favorite foods, she always gets so excited when we eat it for breakfast! It's also one of my favorites.)

That's our menu for this month!
 I usually end up making quite a few extra meals out of leftovers and sometimes we just feel like eating granola for dinner instead of cooking. (like tonight.)

I said we hardly ever eat out and that's mostly true, with a few exceptions. ;)
We had Papa John's pizza for dinner a couple of nights ago because we won a free pizza from "the big game" coin toss. (Score!)
And since it's Valentines day, today hubby and I went out to lunch at a local Mexican restaurant after dropping the kids off at a friend's. (Thanks, Heather!)  The restaurant was SO. GOOD.
We also fed the kids lunch at Sonic. (so we don't ALWAYS eat healthily.. just mostly.)
Lastly, since tomorrow hubby has the day off, we're taking the kids to the children's museum and then to Chick-Fil-A for lunch.

So that's more than we usually eat out.
We aren't perfect, for sure.
Our thinking is, if we eat pretty healthily at home 95% of the time, it's okay to indulge every once in a while and eat food that isn't as good for us.

Do you plan your our your meals? Are there any tips you'd like to share? I'm always up for learning better methods! :)
Hope you all had a great Valentine's Day!

Organization: Spice Cabinet and Under the Kitchen Sink

Hello!

Today we're talking organization!

Last week, Kristen over at The Frugal Girl re-organized her spice cabinet
and it got me inspired to do mine as well.
Our spice cabinet isn't really a spice cabinet;  at least it wasn't meant to be.
It was a first aid cabinet at hubby's work and he brought it home because it was empty; they got a new one and were going to throw it out. Now we use it for our spices and it works great! It's metal, nearly indestructible and makes for a handy stool for the kids to stand on when they want to reach something. (usually something they're not supposed to be able to reach.)

This is what it looked like before:

I emptied it out, wiped it down and then put the smaller spices into the cubbies in the doors, then added some spices and honey that had been living on top of our fridge into the cabinet, since there was now room for them! I also put the butter in there, but then moved it out onto the counter a bit later. It was too hard to get to.


Here is the after:

I also quickly reorganized under our kitchen sink. It really needs to be patched up (there's old water damage under there) and repainted but I just wanted to wipe it down and rearrange things in there for now.

We keep our kitchen towels,  plastic grocery bags to be used for small trash can liners,trash bags, dish soap, natural cleaner, reusable grocery bags and dishwasher soap down under the sink.

Here is the before:

Kind of a jumbled mess, don't you think?


Here is the after:

Still not very pretty, but at least it's in better order! Someday we'll paint it and make it pretty with baskets or plastic bins to hold things in but for now, how it is will have to do. Do you have any tips for beautifying under-sink ugliness? I'd love to hear them!