Menu Plan Monday–April 13

Update on the $15 food budget: Last week was awesome! However, it was looking pretty bare in the way of fresh veggies so I splurged a little Saturday. Plus, I went to Gordon Food Services with my mom and bought some cheese for cheap. $7.00 for a 2lb block of sharp cheddar and $9.50 for 5lbs (160 slices) of American. I had to make extra cheesy au gratin potatoes (serves 30) for Easter so I used a pound of the cheddar and about 10 American slices for that. The rest of the American I’ll break up to fit in sandwich size Ziplocs and freeze it. The cheddar will appear on the menu plan!

I also bought a bunch of Polish sausage and brats that the meat dept. assured me was MSG free, but I got home, studied the ingredients and realized it said it had 2% MSG. I don’t know the technicalities of eating that much. I don’t know if I should even risk it. I opened two packages of the Polish to make for Easter before I realized, so I’m stuck with those. I can take the other two packs back. So that’s $8 down the tube.

But I did find (no lies!) Chorizo with no MSG! That was $6 but will last awhile. We love to fry chorizo with our scrambled eggs and eat them on tortilla with salsa. Mmmm!!

So while I’m technically over budget starting this week off, I’m not upset because I think the cheese was a rocking deal and we needed makings for salads. The whole time I’ve been trying this $15 food budget, I’ve not even been listing breakfasts and lunches and it seems this week I’ve run out of options and had to spend a little bit more to get us through another couple of weeks.

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Monday–leftover tuna noodle casserole.

Tuesday–leftover Easter food, ham and extra cheesy au gratin potatoes (family gathering size recipe below)

Wednesday–leftover round steak with gravy and mashed potatoes.

Thursday–Grilled steak, potatoes, Brussels sprouts

Friday–ham and beans and cornbread from the freezer

Saturday–steak Quesadillas (leftover from Thursday), chips and salsa

Sunday–Chicken stir fry

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Michelle’s Extra Cheesy Au Gratin Potatoes (Large recipe, could be used for Once a Month Cooking groups)

It was 10lbs of potatoes diced
8 cups of milk
4 sticks butter
1lb sharp cheddar
1/2 block velveeta
2 onions
1 cup of my homemade blue cheese dressing**
10 slices American cheese
Kosher salt
Fresh ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 350.

Dice potatoes and partially cook them in the milk, after the milk is hot add in the blue cheese** dressing. Grease a full-size food service foil pan. I put the onions in my food processor and gave them a zap then sautéed them in a stick and a half of butter.

Put half of the potatoes and milk in. Chunk up half the Velveeta and disperse. Same with the butter. Sprinkle with Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper. Break the American slices in half and lay them over the top. Add in the rest of the potatoes and milk and repeat with the remaining Velveeta and butter, salt and pepper.

Bake for 45 minutes. Stir everything up. Bake for another 25 minutes. Take out and add shredded cheddar to top. Bake 30 more minutes.

This should feed 30-40 people.

**If you don’t like blue cheese you don’t have to use it, but I suggest it highly. My sister hates, hates, hates blue cheese but she loved the potatoes because there aren’t chunks of blue cheese, they melt. But if you don’t trust me…well then you suck. LOL

Homemade blue cheese

1/4 cup blue cheese crumbles
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sour cream
juice of 1/2 lemon squeezed in
splash of Worcestershire
salt and pepper to taste

Mix and refrigerate.