Meal Plan Monday/Happy New Year!

This week my budget it tighter than usual.  We're making tamales and spent almost the entire weekly budget on the ingredients for them.  I'm looking forward to some delicious tamales and we're making tons to freeze and share with family and friends.  But this makes this weeks meal planning limited.  I'll be working with a lot of items I already have and doing pantry meals and freezer meals.  Here's what's for dinner this week:

Dinner 1: Tamales!

Dinner 2: Spaghetti

Dinner 3: Easy Chicken Casserole

Dinner 4: Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

Dinner 5: Breakfast For Dinner (Eggs and Pancakes)

Dinner 6: Chili

I'll use about a half a pound ground beef in the Spaghetti and Chili (so I only need to pull out a pound of frozen ground beef).  I'll defrost 3 chicken breasts for the soup and casserole (so 1 and 1/2 for each recipe).  Produce will be minimal but a few mushrooms, onion, a couple carrots and a bell pepper should do it for the veggies in spaghetti, chili and the casserole. 

For Breakfast: I'll make muffins and some special ones with Christmas MnM's I found at Target 70% off in the holiday section!  We'll also eat granola bars, cereal and eggs/pancakes.

For Snacks: I have some leftovers from a party this weekend.  The kids have been snacking on a leftover veggie and fruit tray, Chex Mix and yogurt.

For Lunch (usually paired with some snack item as a side): Tamales! Peanut butter sandwiches, chicken nuggets, grilled cheese and turkey (lunch meat) and banana/pb roll ups ('recipe' coming soon).