Monday: orange chicken, sandwiches. (My husband and I ate different things.)

Tuesday: beef burritos

Wednesday: nachos, using leftover burrito meat and some cheese! I don’t do this very often at all because it’s not exactly health food, so we enjoy it when we have it and try to forget about it when we don’t.

Thursday: flexible. I have ingredients for pizza or pasta, but I might not need to cook*.

Friday: chicken pot pie

* I’m thinking about going to visit my parents one day this week, probably Thursday, so it’s likely that I won’t actually cook that day.  If I think I’ll be gone at dinner, I try to pull something together from the pantry for that night so if I don’t do it, I won’t end up with a bunch of ingredients going to waste.

Monday -Kielbasa, Potato and Cabbage Stew

Tuesday – King Ranch Chicken Casserole (new recipe. I’d link you but I can’t remember where I found it, and there are lots of different versions out there, apparently.)

Wednesday – slow cooker chicken and noodles

Thursday – beef burritos, rice

Friday – homemade pizza

p.s. I put very little thought into what day I write down for each meal.  Mainly, I just come up with five meals that I will have the ingredients for on hand, and then decide what I want on each day. What little thought I do put into it revolves around the fact that my husband gets home 45 minutes earlier on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so sometimes we do something different that day.  I sometimes go shopping on Tuesday evenings, for example, so I don’t want to be cooking something that takes forever or I’ll be too tired to shop. :)

Hence, I stumbled upon material for this post. You win, I win.

Going to O’Charley’s for dinner? First, sign up for their e-club for a “free gift” upon signing up, and one on your birthday. The best part is that you don’t have to wait–the welcome email contained the gift, which was a free appetizer. I suppose that your free gift might be different but I am assuming that it’s always a free appetizer. Since I usually order from the appetizer menu anyway, that meant a free meal for me. Awesome! (Technically, the welcome email does not say that you can only use it once, either, so you could theoretically print one for every night of the week for a month… but I haven’t tried it so I don’t know that for sure.)

So now we are home from a nice meal out and it didn’t break the bank. At least, not too badly. My daughter is now at an age where we have to actually have to order her food sometimes. On the bright side, she actually ate it tonight, which makes it worth it. I just hate the times she doesn’t touch it!

(My parents laughed at me after I posted that, and reminded me of a particularly persistent Schwan’s delivery guy that they inherited when they bought a produce market a few years back.  They seemed to think that $10 in free food isn’t worth the hassle.  However, this guy seemed to get the picture when I told him that I would order something else from the website when I required it, but wouldn’t be ordering from him regularly.  I have also heard that if you can’t get rid of your delivery person, you can contact the Schwan’s corporate office and they will take care of it.  Personally, I don’t answer my door for anyone I don’t know, so if I end up having a problem with it, I will just stop answering the door for him, too.)

McDonald’s is giving a a FREE sample of iced or hot Mocha, between the hours of 7am and 7pm. No coupon is necessary, but you might want to make sure that your McDonald’s is participating first.

Enjoy!

General Mills will send you a coupon for a free gluten-free dessert from their new line of gluten-free mixes if you call them at 1-800-446-1989 (option 4).  You will need to talk to a live representative about the gluten needs in your family, and give your name and address for sending the coupon. 

I will pass on this one because a) I don’t need gluten-free products and I’d rather the coupons went to someone who needs them b) phone discussions of my gluten needs scare me and c) I don’t think my hips need any free desserts. :)   So, more for you!  Call today.

Thanks to Money Saving Mom for this one!

McDonald’s is giving a a FREE sample of iced or hot Mocha every Monday until August 3, between the hours of 7am and 7pm. No coupon is necessary, but you might want to make sure that your McDonald’s is participating first. Enjoy!

Enjoy!

(My husband might disagree with that statement, as he had to go to Kroger three times on Saturday morning due to a series of errors on our part. We had friends over and decided at the last minute to cook something.  We maybe should have just gone out to lunch instead.)

Anyway!

Meal Plan (such as it is)

Monday: homemade pizza
Tuesday: mac and cheese, steamed veggies. maybe sausage, if M is really lucky
Wednesday: no plans! probably something delicious, cooked outside
Thursday: no plans! no firm plans, anyway. I have an idea but I haven’t run it by the parents yet
Friday: no plans! probably something else delicious!

And doesn’t it just make your eyes pop out of your head to know that I saw one vendor selling them for $9 each?  Are they high?