On Saturdays, I share my menu plan for the upcoming week along with a photo of my groceries and a tally of my spending. My goal is to spend $100/week for our food, toiletries, and cleaning products. I’m currently in the midst of trying to buy more local, sustainably-produced food while sticking to my budget. Can it be done? I don’t know, but I’m going to try, and I’ll share what I learn as I go along.

The Shoppping

I went about a week and a half between grocery shopping trips this time around…and of course, whenever I can put off grocery shopping, that makes me a happy camper.

Here’s what I bought.

I spent $43.83 at Weis and $68.31 at Aldi for a total of $112.14.

The Menu

Since Mr. FG works second shift, we eat our dinner meal at noon during the week, and at night on the weekends. And our lunch meal happens at night during the week and at noon on the weekends.

We do eat breakfast in the morning, though, all week long!

Breakfast options are homemade yogurt, granola, scrambled eggs, oatmeal, fruit, and cereal.

Lunches will be comprised of sandwiches made with whole wheat bread, homemade yogurt, yogurt smoothies, cottage cheese, fruit, raw veggies, nuts, cheese, and leftovers as necessary.

Here’s the dinner meal plan (some of these are meals that got bumped from last week’s plan)

Saturday

• Takeout date night for Mr. FG and me, something easy for the kids

Sunday

• French Bread Pizzas* (plus chips, dip, veggies, and other such Super-Bowl appropriate snacks)

*please excuse the not-very-great photos in that post.  It’s from a long time ago!

Monday

• Baked Potato Soup
• Garlic Breadsticks
• fruit salad

Tuesday

• Shrimp/Fish Creole
• Roasted Green Beans
• Buttermilk Biscuits

Wednesday

• Swiss Mushroom Chicken
• Rustic Dinner Rolls
• Spinach Salad

Thursday

• Meatball Subs
• green salad

Friday

• Pizza (hmm. I just saw that I have pizza and subs right next to each other.  That might be kind of boring, so maybe I’ll switch the order of things up a bit!)

Things are usually quiet around here on Sundays, but you should come back tomorrow because I have a fun giveaway just in time for Valentine’s Day!

See you then.

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Today’s 365 post: Check out what Mr. FG made for me!

Joshua’s 365 post: I’m a Ninja!  In a plaid shirt!  With ninja stars!

On Saturdays, I share my menu plan for the upcoming week along with a photo of my groceries and a tally of my spending. My goal is to spend $100/week for our food, toiletries, and cleaning products. I’m currently in the midst of trying to buy more local, sustainably-produced food while sticking to my budget. Can it be done? I don’t know, but I’m going to try, and I’ll share what I learn as I go along.

The Shopping

I spent $17.67 at a local grocery store for a few things to help me squeak by until grocery shopping day. And then I went shopping for real.

Some of you have asked for more detailed shopping list breakdowns, and while I don’t have time to type up everything I bought and the price I paid, I did take the time to break up my groceries into several pictures so you can better see what I bought.

Here’s my refrigerated stuff.  The yogurt container is there because I accidentally used up all my homemade yogurt and so I didn’t have any starter.  Whoops.  The red gallon of milk is for making yogurt.

Here are my non-food purchases.  I buy my toilet paper at Aldi because it’s a good everyday price and I don’t have to watch sales or use coupons.  Easy-peasy.

I don’t usually buy that much shampoo or conditioner, but we were just about out.  The cheap shampoo doubles as body wash.  The container on the right is Aldi conditioner, which I’ve never bought before.  So far I like it a lot…it feels a lot like the expensive name brand conditioners.

These are my fruits and vegetables…they’re pretty self-explanatory.

And here’s the least virtuous part of my haul…the shelf-stable items.  The Mini-Wheats were on a good sale, so I decided to be nice and buy them for my kids.  And I’ve since been reminded why I don’t buy new and exciting cereals every week…they eat way more cereal when I do that!

I spent $65.16 at Weis and $71.53 at Aldi.

And while I didn’t buy any meat at Aldi or Weis, I did stop at our local organic store to buy some packaging-free local chicken. It’s $6.49/pound, but you guys, it’s so good, I’m pretty much spoiled rotten. Most normal chicken just doesn’t taste as good to me anymore. This chicken has so much more flavor and is crazy tender.

Anyway, I dropped $28.23 there.

That means I’ve spent $182.29 on groceries this week, but that’s actually not a big deal because I didn’t really go shopping last week. Phew!

Zee Menu

Just so you know, since Mr. FG works second shift, we eat our dinner meal at noon during the week, and at night on the weekends. And our lunch meal happens at night during the week and at noon on the weekends.

We do eat breakfast in the morning, though, all week long!

Breakfast options are homemade yogurt, granola, scrambled eggs, oatmeal, fruit, and cereal.

Lunches will be comprised of sandwiches made with whole wheat bread, homemade yogurt, yogurt smoothies, cottage cheese, fruit, raw veggies, nuts, cheese, and leftovers as necessary.

Here’s the dinner meal plan:

Saturday

• I just found out that our usual takeout plans are getting bumped, so I’m not sure yet what we’re eating for dinner!

Sunday (I try to pick something super easy on Sundays)

• Chicken Noodle Soup and Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
• fruit

Monday

• Takeout date night for Mr. FG and me, something easy for the kids
  

Tuesday

• Bacon/Chicken Wraps
• Spinach Salad

Wednesday

• Shrimp and Fish Creole
• Garlic Breadsticks
• steamed broccoli

Thursday

• Swiss Mushroom Chicken
• green salad
• French Bread

Friday

• Pizza.  Probably just a regular sort this week.

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Today’s 365 post: Melted Chocolate.

Joshua’s 365 post: More Books! (hint: He’s not reading Organized Simplicity. Surprising, I know.)

On Saturdays, I share my menu plan for the upcoming week along with a photo of my groceries and a tally of my spending. My goal is to spend $100/week for our food, toiletries, and cleaning products. I’m currently in the midst of trying to buy more local, sustainably-produced food while sticking to my budget. Can it be done? I don’t know, but I’m going to try, and I’ll share what I learn as I go along.

Congrats to Sheila G. and Michelle R.! You’ve both won copies of The Money Saving Mom’s Budget and you’ve been emailed.

By the way, I must say that I love you, readers, for your enthusiastic response to book giveaways. You tend to enter more for books than for $100 Visa gift cards!

If you didn’t win the book, but are still interested in reading it, check to see if your library has a copy. Or buy a copy of your own! Crystal is giving all of the proceeds from her book to Compassion International, so by buying her book, you’re helping to support a good cause (and by reading it, you’ll likely learn how to save at least $8.40, which is the price of the book.)

Ok, on to groceries! I was feeling too lazy to get my zoom lens out, so not everything is visible in this picture.

Here’s some of the stuff that didn’t make it into the first frame.

I spent $50.08 at Weis and $64.71 at Aldi.  And then I had to stop at our local grocery store to buy a few things, and that bill was $13.71.

So, my total is $128.50, and I’m not sure whether to say that’s on budget or not, because Mr. FG and I still need to sit down and rework our budget.  One of the things I’m hoping to squeeze in is a bit more grocery money.  I think I’d really like to have at least $125/week instead of $100.

Oh!  I just remembered that I bought two dozen eggs from my local blog reader (Hi, David!), so add another $6 to my total.

What are we eating this week?

Since Mr. FG works second shift, we eat our dinner meal at noon during the week, and at night on the weekends. And our lunch meal happens at night during the week and at noon on the weekends.

We do eat breakfast in the morning, though, all week long!

Breakfast options are homemade yogurt, granola, scrambled eggs, oatmeal, fruit, and cereal.

Lunches will be comprised of sandwiches made with whole wheat bread, homemade yogurt, yogurt smoothies, cottage cheese, fruit, raw veggies, nuts, cheese, and leftovers as necessary ( Mr. FG takes the previous day’s leftovers to work most days.)

Here’s the dinner meal plan:

Saturday

• Takeout date night for Mr. FG and me, something easy for the kids

Sunday

• Not positive about this meal yet.  I need to talk to the kids and Mr. FG and see what they want to eat.

Monday

• Sloppy Joes
• carrot sticks
• fresh pineapple

Tuesday

• Tortilla Soup
• Sweet Corn Muffins
• green salad

Wednesday

• Dirty Rice with Shrimp
• roasted green beans

Thursday

• Fish Sandwiches
• spinach salad

Friday

• Thin Crust Pizza

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Today’s 365 post: Bare

Joshua’s 365 post: A Nerdy Narwhal

On Saturdays, I share my menu plan for the upcoming week along with a photo of my groceries and a tally of my spending. My goal is to spend $100/week for our food, toiletries, and cleaning products. I’m currently in the midst of trying to buy more local, sustainably-produced food while sticking to my budget. Can it be done? I don’t know, but I’m going to try, and I’ll share what I learn as I go along.

You know by now that grocery shopping isn’t really my favorite activity, mostly because I’d rather use that time to do school with my kids (fitting shopping AND school into an afternoon is busy!)

Earlier this week, I really, really, REALLY didn’t feel like going shopping, and as I looked over my menu, I realized that I could probably make it through the week without doing a grocery trip.

Then I was very happy.

And I heard angel choirs.

It’s actually turned out to be quite a good thing to have an unplanned off-week because it’s forced me to use up a lot of the food I had in the house (of course, that’s aside from the benefit of not having had to drag myself to the grocery store!)

Of course, the downside is that I have no grocery photo for you.  So, here’s a photo of something I’m going to tell you about next week.

Breakfasts this week will be cranberry bread, granola, cereal, fruit, and yogurt smoothies.

Lunches (we eat this meal at night during the week and at noon on the weekends) will be comprised of sandwiches made with whole wheat bread, homemade yogurt, yogurt smoothies, cottage cheese, fruit, raw veggies, nuts, cheese, and leftovers as necessary. Of course, we don’t eat all of that every single day…it’s just a list of the things we choose from for lunch each day.  And Mr. FG eats leftovers for lunch pretty much every day.

Our main meals (which we eat at noon during the week and at night on the weekends) will be as follows:

Saturday

• Date night for Mr. FG and me, something easy for the offspring
  

Sunday

• We didn’t make crepes last week, so I think we’re going to try to get it done this week.
• Orange Julius

Monday

• Chipped Beef on Toast
• green salad
• oranges

Tuesday

• Chicken Parmesan Risotto (bumped from a previous week. Chicken will be from local organic store.)
• green beans

Wednesday

• Shrimp and Ravioli in Creamy Tomato Sauce (because I found some ravioli in my freezer)
• french bread
• green salad

Thursday

• Onion Braised Beef Brisket (a new recipe from my new Cook’s Illustrated Cookbook, and I’ll use my local beef))
• English Muffins
• steamed broccoli

Friday

• Pizza

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Today’s 365 post: All the boys

Joshua’s 365 post: Afternoon School

On Saturdays, I share my menu plan for the upcoming week along with a photo of my groceries and a tally of my spending. My goal is to spend $100/week for our food, toiletries, and cleaning products. I’m currently in the midst of trying to buy more local, sustainably-produced food while sticking to my budget. Can it be done? I don’t know, but I’m going to try, and I’ll share what I learn as I go along.

I spent $50.48 at Weis and $78.24 at Aldi.

I also paid a visit to a local farm,

where I bought 4 dozen eggs for $12, and 5 pounds of breakfast sausage for $22.50.

We ate some of the sausage that night (we had breakfast for dinner), and I froze the rest of it.

What are we eating this week?

Breakfast is nothing out of the ordinary.

Our lunch meal, which we eat in the evening during the week (due to Mr. FG’s work schedule) and at noon on the weekends, will be comprised of sandwiches made with whole wheat bread, homemade yogurt, yogurt smoothies, cottage cheese, fruit, raw veggies, nuts, cheese, and leftovers as necessary. Of course, we don’t eat all of that every single day…it’s just a list of the things we choose from for lunch.  And Mr. FG eats leftovers for lunch pretty much every day.

Here’s what we’ll be eating for our main meal of the deal (which we eat at noon during the week and at night on the weekends):

Saturday

• It’s a takeout date night, which means the kids will be eating something super easy.

Sunday

• I think we’re going to make crepes.  It’s a two-person project, so I need to get Mr. FG to help me.
  

Monday

• Parmesan Chicken Risotto
• green salad

Tuesday

• Fajitas made with grilled veggies, chicken, and steak
• chips and salsa
• Applesauce

Wednesday

• Beef Au Jus sandwiches on homemade French bread
• spinach salad

Thursday

• Broiled Tilapia
• Some kind of bread…I’m not sure what yet!
• green beans

Friday

• Pizza..probably regular crust, since we had thin crust last week.

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Today’s 365 post: Sonia’s haircut? Check.

Joshua’s 365 post: It’s December!

On Saturdays, I share my menu plan for the upcoming week along with a photo of my groceries and a tally of my spending. My goal is to spend $100/week for our food, toiletries, and cleaning products. I’m currently in the midst of trying to buy more local, sustainably-produced food while sticking to my budget. Can it be done? I don’t know, but I’m going to try, and I’ll share what I learn as I go along.

As you know, I spent a good pile of money at the grocery store last week, so I didn’t do a full-blown trip this week…just a stop at Aldi for some essentials.

Ok, so, the thin mint cookies there weren’t exactly a necessity.  But they ARE really yummy.  In fact, we ate them side by side with a real Girl Scout Thin Mint cookie, and we decided that the Aldi ones better.

Plus, the Aldi version is around $1.50/package, so there’s that.  You could buy cookies, donate to the girl scouts if you wish, and still be money ahead!

(of course, these aren’t particularly healthy, but the ingredients are no worse than the Girl Scout cookies…I checked.  )

I bought a few other things that aren’t in the picture due to my own oversight…more produce, some cheese, and a box of cereal.

I spent $49.89.

Breakfasts this week will be cereal, granola, yogurt, toast, eggs, and fruit.  Plus the occasional yogurt smoothie if I feel inspired.

Lunches (we flip-flop our lunch and dinnertimes because of Mr. FG’s work schedule)  will be comprised of sandwiches made with whole wheat bread, homemade yogurt, yogurt smoothies, cottage cheese, fruit, raw veggies, nuts, cheese, and leftovers as necessary.

And here’s what we’re eating for the main meal of the day (we eat this at lunchtime during the week and at night on the weekends.)

Saturday

• Takeout Date Night for Mr. FG and me, something simple for the kids

Sunday

• French Toast
• OJ
• fried eggs

Monday

• Chicken Tortellini Salad
• garlic breadsticks

Tuesday

• Clam Chowder (bumped from last week)
• Whole Wheat Rolls
• green salad

Wednesday

• Pulled Chicken Sandwiches
• fruit salad
• broccoli

Thursday

• Thanksgiving!  I’m sure you can guess what my contribution to the meal is. 
  

Friday

• Homemade pizza

Have a lurvely weekend!

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Today’s 365 post: Evidence of a successful leftover-eating night

Joshua’s 365 post: Light Stripes

On Saturdays, I share my menu plan for the upcoming week along with a photo of my groceries and a tally of my spending. My goal is to spend $100/week for our food, toiletries, and cleaning products. I’m currently in the midst of trying to buy more local, sustainably-produced food while sticking to my budget. Can it be done? I don’t know, but I’m going to try, and I’ll share what I learn as I go along.

Oh, yes. Mr. FG got me all fixed up.

I had one of those fake anti-virus bugs that won’t let you access anything on your computer…it says it’s all infected, and if you buy this anti-virus software, then you’ll be in good shape.

Except, the fake anti-virus software is from, well, a virus.

Sneaky, these things are.

(in case you ever need to remove one of these things yourself, Mr. FG says it’s a pretty easy process, and this post from How-To Geek outlines the steps he uses.)

Fortunately for me, I never have to mess with this kind of thing.  And I’m perfectly happy that way.

(because I feel the need for another parenthetical, I’ll add that this is the same type of bug that attacked my blog a few months back, but happily, it was my computer and not my blog that got the virus this time.  And I know my blog is clean because the good people at Sucuri scan it several times a day for me.  Love that. Such peace of mind.)

Anyhoo!  Let’s talk about food.

I haven’t spent a ton at the store these last few weeks, but I sure made up for it this week!  I spent $116.80 at Aldi and $76.74 at Weis for a total of $193.54.  Fortunately, I bought most of what I need to last us two weeks, so this is not as dreadful as it might seem.

What are we eating this week?

For breakfast, we’ll be eating granola, cereal, fruit, yogurt, toast, or scrambled eggs.

Lunches (which we actually eat when most of you are eating dinner!) will be comprised of sandwiches made with whole wheat bread, homemade yogurt, yogurt smoothies, cottage cheese, fruit, raw veggies, nuts, cheese, and leftovers as necessary (well, Mr. FG eats leftovers for lunch pretty much every day.)

Here’s what we’re eating for our big meal of the day this week:

Saturday

• Takeout date night for Mr. FG and me, something easy for the kids

Sunday

• I think I’m going to do breakfast for dinner.  Maybe french toast?
  

Monday

• Clam Chowder
• cheese bread (I have a loaf in the freezer)
• spinach salad

Tuesday

• Grilled Hamburgers
• grilled veggies
• fruit salad

Wednesday

• Roast Chicken with cranberry sauce
• whole wheat rolls
• green salad

Thursday

• Shrimp and Avocado Lettuce Cups (I’m trying this out, but I’m going to seriously dial down the heat because my table is populated with heat wusses)
• fruit salad
• maybe chips and salsa

Friday

• Pizza, homemade

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Today’s 365 post: The third paint color fail

On Saturdays, I share my menu plan for the upcoming week along with a photo of my groceries and a tally of my spending. My goal is to spend $100/week for our food, toiletries, and cleaning products. I’m currently in the midst of trying to buy more local, sustainably-produced food while sticking to my budget. Can it be done? I don’t know, but I’m going to try, and I’ll share what I learn as I go along.

So far, we’re doing fairly well at adjusting to Mr. FG’s new schedule, but I have to say, I really haven’t quite figured out my ideal grocery shopping routine. I went at night last week and didn’t love it to pieces, so I’m hoping not to continue that.

This week, I made a couple of random grocery runs…one to a local grocery store, one to the local organic market for some local, unpackaged chicken, and one to Target, since I had to be there for a few other things anyways.  So, I actually haven’t been to Aldi OR Weis.  Highly unusual.

I think I’m going to try going on Mondays for a while to see how that works….we don’t usually have anything else scheduled for Mondays, so fitting in shopping shouldn’t be a big problem.

Actually, grocery shopping is sort of a big problem no matter when you go, isn’ t it?  Especially when you’re trying to make sure you get school done.

Whenever I am tempted to heartily complain about the shopping process, though, I think how fortunate I am to live in a day when food is abundant, and I can just go buy it instead of having to grow and process it all myself.  Compared to that, grocery shopping is pretty easy.

I spent $18.33 on food at Target, $15 on chicken at the organic market, $6 on eggs from a local blog reader, and $30.31 at the local grocery store. So, $60.64 altogether.

Our lunch meals (which we eat in the evening, due to Mr. FG’s work schedule)  will be comprised of sandwiches made with whole wheat bread, homemade yogurt, yogurt smoothies, cottage cheese, fruit, raw veggies, nuts, cheese, and leftovers as necessary. Of course, we don’t eat all of that every single day…it’s just a list of the things we choose from for lunch each day.  And Mr. FG eats leftovers for this meal pretty much every day.

Aaand, here’s our dinner meal plan for the week.  It includes quite a few meals that got bumped from last week, but I’m pleased to say that none of the bumping resulted in takeout meals..I just cooked something different than planned.

Saturday

• Takeout date night.  Oh yes.  I love these nights! I’m thinking maybe sushi this week.
  

Sunday

• I’m really not sure yet!  I do have buttermilk and flour and eggs, though, so I can always make a batch of pancakes or something.
  

Monday

• Grilled hamburgers
• Grilled veggies

Tuesday

• Teriyaki Chicken
• fruit salad
• green beans

Wednesday

• Baked Potato Soup
• Cheese bread
• green salad

Thursday

• Fish Sandwiches
• cucumber slices
• steamed broccoli

Friday

• homemade pizza

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Today’s 365 post: Sienna is growing, indeed.

On Saturdays, I share my menu plan for the upcoming week along with a photo of my groceries and a tally of my spending. My goal is to spend $100/week for our food, toiletries, and cleaning products. I’m currently in the midst of trying to buy more local, sustainably-produced food while sticking to my budget. Can it be done? I don’t know, but I’m going to try, and I’ll share what I learn as I go along.

If you follow me on Facebook, you already know this, but I did something unusual and went grocery shopping after dinner last night. I don’t think I’ve done that in eons, except on vacation. But, you gotta do what you gotta do.

The kids and I just went to Aldi instead of to Aldi and Weis. Here are the fruits/veggies I bought. (Well, mostly fruit, since I have a number of veggies still in my fridge.)

And here’s the rest of my food.  Can you tell I’m bringing cheese and crackers to the church lunch on Sunday?? And that’s we’re planning to roast marshmallows over our fire pit to make s’mores?

I spent $65 at Aldi, but I had run out of milk a day before I went shopping, so in addition to these groceries, I also made a $20 trip to a local store to buy two gallons of milk (one for cereal, one for making yogurt) and several other things.

Breakfast options this week will be yogurt, granola, cereal, toast, eggs, and fruit.

Our evening meals will be comprised of sandwiches made with whole wheat bread, homemade yogurt, yogurt smoothies, cottage cheese, fruit, raw veggies, nuts, cheese, and leftovers as necessary.  And Mr. FG eats leftovers for this meal pretty much every day.

Here’s the dinner plan, which includes weekend nights and weekday noon meals (during the week, we eat our big meal of the day at noon, before Mr. FG leaves for work.)

Saturday

• Takeout date night for Mr. FG and me, something simple for the kids
  

Sunday

• Grilled Hamburgers (this got bumped from last week)
• chips
• raw veggies
• grapes

Monday

• takeout pizza (sometimes you know ahead of time that’s just the right choice to make!)
  

Tuesday

• Seafood Subs
• Zucchini Patties
• green salad

Wednesday

• Teriyaki Chicken
• Cheese bread
• green beans

Thursday

• Baked Potato Soup
• Cheese Bread
• spinach salad

Friday

• Pizza (homemade this time!)

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Today’s 365 post: Zoe didn’t do this.

Joshua’s 365 post: Jack be Little, Jack be Quick!

On Saturdays, I share my menu plan for the upcoming week along with a photo of my groceries and a tally of my spending. My goal is to spend $100/week for our food, toiletries, and cleaning products. I’m currently in the midst of trying to buy more local, sustainably-produced food while sticking to my budget. Can it be done? I don’t know, but I’m going to try, and I’ll share what I learn as I go along.

It’s a Saturday morning post! We haven’t had one of those for a little while now.

I did go grocery shopping this week…it was a bit challenging to find a good time to go, now that our schedule has been turned on its head. Hopefully I’ll get that figured out.

I had to rush home from grocery shopping and begin cooking right away (I made clam chowder, which IS super yummy. You should make a pot. Soon.), so I don’t have a good grocery picture.

But, here is my produce, (some from Weis and some from Aldi), and my local eggs.

I spent $75.68 at Weis and $43.62 at Aldi.

Breakfasts this week will be granola, yogurt, muffins, fruit, eggs, or cereal.

And because Mr. FG has a new, late schedule, we’ve been eating dinner at lunch and lunch at dinner.

So, for dinner we’ve been eating things like sandwiches made with whole wheat bread, homemade yogurt, yogurt smoothies, cottage cheese, fruit, raw veggies, nuts, cheese, and leftovers as necessary. Of course, we don’t eat all of that every single day…it’s just a list of the things we choose from for lunch each day.  Mr. FG takes leftovers with him to work pretty much every day.

That means the plan that follows is actually for our lunch meals.

Saturday

• Pizza.  What kind, I’m not sure!

Sunday

• We’re celebrating my father-in-law’s birthday, and I’m bringing honey-glazed pan rolls.
  

Monday

• Chicken Tacos
• chips and salsa
• fruit salad

Tuesday

• Shrimp and Ravioli in Pink Sauce
• french bread
• green salad

Wednesday

• Swiss Mushroom Chicken
• Roasted Sweet Potatoes
• green beans

Thursday

• Grilled Hamburgers
• grilled veggies
• fruit salad

Friday

• Pizza (we’re bumping out takeout date night to Saturday to see if that works better for the new schedule)

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Today’s 365 post: Want to guess which is which?

Joshua’s 365 post: Hockey Night