Menu Plan Monday ~ Week of October 31st

I'm having a difficult time believing that today is Halloween.  Not only did the month of October fly by so quickly, it also turned very cold and snowy!  Making it feel like it's Christmas instead of Halloween.  I have a feeling we are in for a very long and cold winter. 

Plans to visit the pumpkin patch with Joe's family were canceled due to weather damage to their fall fest attractions.  While I'm sad that our plans were ruined, I feel for the local businesses that lost income this weekend. 

Since we stayed in for the weekend, I did some home cooking.  We ate a lot of leftovers during the week, causing me to fall behind on my menu plan.  The two days at home allowed me to catch up...a little bit anyway.  I never do seem to get to all the meals I plan in a week. 

On Saturday, I made a wonderful tortilla soup inspired by a Martha Stewart recipe I saw online.  We enjoyed this for lunch on Saturday and Sunday along with grilled cheese sandwiches.

Instead of homemade rotisserie chicken and hashbrown casserole (that will carry over to this week), I decided to make Chicken 'n' Dumplings for Sunday dinner.  Even though we just had this a couple of weeks ago, I think it was a good choice for the cold weather that arrived too early. 

After dinner, Joe carved our first jack-o'-lantern!  Of course, since we're pretty obsessed with Sesame Street around here, we had to go with the Elmo stencil that came with the carving kit we picked up earlier this month.  The photo isn't great, and you can see the glow sticks that we used to light it.  There's a tea-light candle in the bottom, but we chose to use the glow sticks so Grace could safely enjoy her "Melmo Punkin" in the house. 

This week, I'm hoping to take advantage of a few local sales and stock up on some meat.  We have a new super-market that is celebrating their grand-opening with some great prices.  Since I don't know what day we'll be able to get out grocery shopping, I don't want to plan this week's menu around those purchases.  Instead, I'll rely on items we already have in the fridge, freezer and pantry. 

Here are some of the things we'll be enjoying this week: 

• Tuna Noodle Casserole.  We have most of the ingredients for this frugal dish.  We're all out of frozen peas, though, so that's the only thing Joe will have to pick up this week for this dinner.  Since Joe stops for milk at our usual grocery store a couple times a week, it won't be a big deal to grab a bag of frozen peas.   

• Crock Pot Minestrone Soup.  Did I mention we had snow this weekend?  I think a nice big crock pot full of soup will be perfect for this week.  I'm going to take a short cut and use a bag of cole slaw in place of the diced cabbage in this recipe.  Giant had the bags of cole slaw mix on sale for 10/$10.  Joe picked up 2 bags!  I forgot to add celery to today's shopping list, so I'll add that to the list with the milk and frozen peas. 

• Rotisserie Chicken, Hashbrown Casserole (just like Cracker Barrel), green beans.  The rotisserie chicken must be made this week!  I'm tired of seeing it popping up in my menu plan every week!  Besides, I'm really in the mood for that Hashbrown Casserole! 

• Black Bean and Sweet Potato Chili.  While making room in the freezer for ice cream, I spotted 2 containers of this tucked away in the back.  Woohoo!  This will be the easiest dinner this week.  I'll make some rice and cornbread to go along with this yummy chili! 

• Chicken 'n' Dumpling Vegetable Soup.  I'll add some broth, frozen mixed veggie and rice to the leftover Chicken 'n' Dumplings to stretch those leftovers just a little further.  Super-yummy and super-frugal!  I have a feeling we'll be seeing a lot of this dish in future menu plans. 

So, that's what we'll be eating this week!  What are your dinner plans for the week? 

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