Don't Forget the Coupons

This is not necessarily food related. It could be, but I just had to share this. It's one of those "duh!" moments for me.

I don't know about you, but I tend to forgot all those great coupons I get in the mail, at HOME. Not the best place for them. Especially if I'm trying to save money and lower my expenses.

I got this great idea from a few of my mom friends at my daughters school.

Collect all your coupons from the mail and newspaper and put them all in one of the large coupons/ads that folds up. Now get one of those large binder clips and clip it all together. Now you have a neat little packet of all your coupons. You can keep them in the car (so you don't forget them) or even in your purse. 

These are my coupons for this week. I'm going to try this and see how much money I can save by actually USING my coupons.

A great big thanks to "the Cowgirl" and KF for the great idea!

This Weeks Menu

Over the years I have changed my shopping day and the "start" of my week many times. It also depends on my husband's work schedule. Wednesday seems to be a good day to start our week these days.

Wednesday

Chicken with Rosemary and Lemon Salt

Green Beans

Brown Rice

Thursday

Beef Bolognese

Green Salad

Friday

Meatloaf (pull from freezer)

Potatoes

Green Salad

Saturday

Chicken and Rice Casserole (bake half and freeze the other half)

Use leftover chicken from Wednesday (I put it in the freezer to make sure it would be okay.) {info. on freezing and refreezing foods} 

Veggie 

Sunday

Dinner at Nonna and Papa's - The easiest meal of the week. : )

Monday

Grilled Cheese and fruit

Tuesday

Deli dinner or Left Overs

Meatloaf

A true comfort food. This is my mom and brother's recipe. My brother came up with the recipe and my mom added the Italian Sausage.

I need to warn you,  it will make 8 to 11 loaves of meatloaf. Yes, you did read that correctly. It depends on how big you make each loaf. When I made this I made eleven 1-1/4 lb loaves. Put them in the freezer and take them out when you want an easy meal. My girls love this dinner!

Meatloaf

6 lbs of ground beef

4 lbs Sicilian Sweet Italian Sausage (take out of casing)

Put all the meat in a very large bowl.

1 loaf cheap white bread

3 cubes (1 tbsp) beef bouillon

Mix the bouillon with 1 quart hot water in a separate bowl. Tear up the bread and mush up in the bouillon water till very mushy. Put aside.

Add to ground beef mixture:

8 eggs (beaten)

12 oz French Fried Onion Rings

1-1/2 cup or so grated Parmesan cheese

about 1 cup chopped parsley

Add the bread/bouillon mixture and combine everything really good with your hands. Make sure all is mixed thoroughly.

Take out whatever you want for tonight's dinner and freeze the rest. I divide it up into 2 pound packages in zip lock bags.

I freeform the meatloaf on a tray in a roasting pan so the fat drips to the bottom instead of soaking into the meat.

Bake 2 pounds at 350˚ F for about 1 hour, 15 minutes.

If you put some potatoes in the oven to bake at the same time, all you have to do is make a salad or vegetable and dinner is done.

Question Regarding Freezing Casseroles

Can you help one of our members? Here is her question:

I read an article about time management and it mentioned cooking  
two casseroles at once. Then freeze one for a later date. Sounds like  
a good time saver to me!

The question is, what casseroles can you freeze and for how long? I thought it was a good question for the BMCC. All of us are busy :). Sharing recipes that can be made 2 at a time with one frozen for an easy meal later on would be cool!

If you have some ideas regarding freezing casseroles, please leave a comment.

Thank you for sharing!