buffalo wings recipe: Menu Plan Monday: Week of August 8th, 2011

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The countdown begins. One week left until school starts. The kids are all ready and a tiny bit excited (even if they won't admit it). They have new shoes, socks, undies, outfits, book bags, supplies. Back to school shopping can be pretty costly but lucky for me I am not only a recipe blogger but also a member of the frugal sort as well. I purchased two pairs of sneakers for gym at payless this weekend using several of their codes available and spent only $20 between clearance sales and coupons. Next was backpacks, socks and some shirts off the clearance rack (including an angry birds shirt for the son) at JC Penney, used a $10 off $25 coupon, and spent $20 between clearance, sales and coupon. The school supplies I have been collecting over the past month by sale surfing. Kroger for example had crayons for $.25 whereas they were $.40 at Walmart. I shopped at Target on their Clearance rack and purchased shirts for $1 or $2 each. Not just last years shirts but really cute/pretty awesome items. Target has that really nice girls line and even those items were on the clearance rack for a good price. Walmart panties were on sale for $4-ish on rollback. 11 pair per pack, WOW! I feel really good at what I accomplished and how much I saved!

Lunch ideas are brewing and in the works. My son will pack this year too and has agreed on 6 lunches. My son really eats very little veggies so my packing options for him are limited. So far he has agreed to eat carrots, oranges, grapes, apples. The lunch thing makes me nervous, just as it did last year. I think I am am going to start a journal of the lunches I end up packing.

This week I made up most of my dinners in advance. The fried chicken is marinading in buttermilk and spices, coating flour and spices blended, chicken cutlets breaded, hamburgers pressed, rolls made, and chicken breasts deboned (broth made) and marinaded. I came across this idea over at 5 dinners in one hour and wanted to give it a try. Im not so great at getting it all done in 1 hour but everything I make is from scratch and I'm sure this is the way for most Gluten Free households. I'm de-boning my on chicken breasts, making my bread products from scratch. You get the drift. The blog reads like its mainly for regular dieters but any recipe can really be converted to Gluten Free. Any recipe could be made ahead. Just stop at the cooking point. And if you want the work all planned out for you, stop on over this this site. (P.S. the owner of this blog noted above has no idea I mentioned her today!)

MONDAY