No Dining Out challenge for June

Do you like to cook? That's great if you do, I hate to cook. Seriously hate to cook. And I'm all about convenience which all too much falls under the umbrella of eating out or a drive thru meal even if it is a salad. I simply do not enjoy the preparations or physical aspect of cooking. What I do like though is for my children to eat their meals and saving money. That's why I'm jumping on the bandwagon for the No Dining Out challenge for the month of June and will hopefully continue it throughout the summer. You can read more about the guidelines here. I am going to track how much I will save by NOT dining out. If you think about it I paid $4 for a salad and I could have bought 2 bags of prewashed and precut salad mix that would have made lunches for me for the week and a salad to add to one of our dinners this week. When you attach a dollar amount to it it seems so stupid to do that doesn't it? In order to help with the No dining challenge I have committed myself to also writing a menu plan for the week and sticking to it so at the last minute I'm not racking my brain trying to think of what to make for dinner. Are you up for the challenge?

What's to eat?!?!?

It's the beginning of yet another week (seriously where does the weekend go?) and that means it time for another edition of menu planning. You can check out some more menu plans here and possibly add to your menu as well :)

Sunday ~ Steakumm burgers (these are incredibly delicious hamburgers that Stop and Shop has on sale B1G1 free until 6/24) and salad

Monday ~ Crock pot pulled BBQ chicken from a guest post on Erin's site at 5 Dollar Mom. Potato salad and green beans.

Tuesday ~ Beef Stroganoff and mixed veggies

Wednesday ~ Pasta and salad

Thursday ~ Egg Sandwiches on english muffins, fruit, fried potatoes

Friday ~ Grilled pizza

Saturday ~ Chili dogs and oven fries with corn on the cob.

What are you eating this week?

Menu Plan Monday

Again my late Tuesday edition to Menu Plan Monday but since I wasn't home this weekend I decided that I get a break on this (although I'm not sure what excuse I'll be able to use next week)

Monday ~ was Mommy and Daddy are drained night and we splurged and had Chinese

Tuesday ~ Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green beans

Wednesday ~ Chicken parmigiana (we have a ton of chicken thighs in the freezer so we'll use that and I found some mozzarella too so perfect dinner), with spaghetti and salad

Thursday ~ Breakfast for dinner (pancakes, sausage, toast, and eggs for mommy)

Friday ~ Homemade pizza

Saturday ~ Daddy's home on a Saturday night (that rarely happens) and he likes to cook so I'll let him decide on dinner

Sunday ~ Crock Pot chili

Head on over here for more Menu Plans

Menu Planning

With being a working mom and not getting home until almost 5:30 most nights, I love the idea of menu planning. Unfortunately I am not the world's greatest cook and in actuality only cook out of the necessity to eat. However, I have come to love the the web and the blogging world for sharing their menu plans, I just have a itty bitty teensy weensy complaint.......most of the blogs that I've found that do menu plans are stay at home moms. Not that there is anything wrong with it, believe me I would LOVE to be a SAHM, I just wonder if there are any parents or even just people who like me work during the day and want to eat at a relatively decent time that might have menus that can be made in a Crock-Pot? Something that I can put in in the morning when we're leaving and have it cooked when I come home. Anyone have any suggestions?

PS. Just a side note being the so not culinary person that I am, I would also need the recipe.....thanks