The pictures this week are from our kitchen table which is where we share our evening meals while catching up on the days events. We often watch the news while having our dinner. Do you do that too? Family meals around the dinner table were always guaranteed when I was growing up. We continued that tradition while raising our girls and even now as empty nesters.

Sloppy Joe's and French Fries on the Menu Plan for Monday night

Sloppy Joe’s and French Fries are the perfect Monday night meal after a busy weekend at our house. There isn’t too much work involved and let’s just face, we love Sloppy Joe’s!

Nothing is made from scratch. We use this brand of sloppy joe sauce which cost only $1 per can. Our buns are the store brand and they hubby prefers the name brand fries which do cost a little more but we only buy them maybe twice a year. Ground turkey is usually less expensive than ground beef so that’s what I normally buy and in this case it was about $4. This meal is roughly about $2.65 per person for our family making it a Budget Stretcher for us. I had leftovers for lunch the next day.

Chef Salad

We discovered a salad kit on sale in the produce department! Score! Chef Salad made the menu plan this week! Tomatoes are still not in season and far to expensive which is why we did not indulge.

Our salad consist of lettuce, cabbage strips, sunflower seeds, boiled eggs, pan seared chicken thighs, cranberries and my Homemade Cornbread Croutons.

This meal is a Budget Stretcher because there is nothing expensive involved. The salad kit was on sale. I buy the chicken thighs in bulk which is cheaper and we do consume a lot of chicken around here. There are only 2 boiled eggs which are choppped. We keep the cranberries in the pantry all the time for salads so we get many meals from one bag. The sunflower seeds were in the salad kit! The Cornbread Croutons were made with leftover cornbread. I had leftover Chef Salad for lunch the next day so bonus for the budget!

Tilapia with green beans and rice are on our menu plan this week

Parmesan Baked Tilapia with rice and fresh green beans. Needless to say, there were no leftovers from this meal.

A bag of frozen Tilapia is about $7 with only 4 pieces so this meal doesn’t make the budget stretcher list for us. The meat alone is $3.50 per person in our home. Fresh green beans are a little pricey right now too. Rice is certainly cheap enough which is why you will always find it in my pantry closet.

Parmesan Baked Tilapia

Prepare a baking sheet. Preheat the oven to 400°

Place Tilapia onto baking sheet and sprinkle with salt, pepper, lemon pepper and Parmesan. Bake at 400° until done, about 20 minutes.

Crockpot Zesty Italian Leg Quarters with Roasted Onion Potatoes and a biscuit are our Thursday night meal.

Those Zesty Italian Leg Quarters are a two ingredient wonder! We are buying leg quarters in bulk right now as we are still nurturing our older dog back to health. I am about to work myself to death boiling chicken but the one of the bright sides is all this broth I have to can for later!

Buying leg quarters in bulk is very budget friendly. A 5 lb bag of potatoes is always on hand in our house. Potatoes are so versatile! I use this onion soup mix to make my Roasted Potatoes.

Roasted Onion Potatoes

Just peel your desired amount of potatoes then cut up into small bite size chunks and rinse. Let drain in a colander. Toss in a ziploc bag with the onion soup mix. Spread on a prepared baking pan and cook at 400° for about 20 minutes or until tender.