Mothly Mini-cooking To-Do List

So, the kids are all in bed, Eric will not be home for at least another hour, and I'm sitting here trying to decide if I should write a blog post first, or if I should write out my cooking To-Do list for tomorrow. Then the proverbial light bulb went off and I decided, "Why not just combine the two into one!" Am I smart, or what?

Today was the big, once-a-month grocery shopping trip. After 4 plus hours spent last night and on Sunday night, I had my meals all planned out for the month, including breakfasts, lunches, snacks, and dinners. I checked off everything I needed, including quantities, on my master monthly grocery list. Then I added up prices, plus coupons and sales, and came up with a total of $253.95. This process makes our trips to the store so easy. I was lucky and found some unadvertised sales, so our total was $240.95. I was thrilled that we spent less than I had planned, and that means we are left with $59 for the rest of the month for milk, produce, and eggs! I'll post more about this trip later, including my whole meal plan and grocery list. For now though, I really need to get that To-Do list going while my plans are still fresh in my mind.

• Make french toast for breakfast. Use the whole loaf of bread and freeze the remainder in portions for later on in the month.
• Make chocolate chip cookies, use only 1/2 the bag of chocolate chips. Bake 1/3 of the dough and freeze the other 2/3.
• Using the 1.75 lb. pkg of chicken breasts, thinly pound the chicken, and cut into tenders. Make a double batch of chicken fingers - eat one tonight, freeze the other for later this month.
• Divide up the 5 lb. pkg. of chicken breasts and freeze individually.
• Divide the 1.5 lb. pkg. of ground beef in half and freeze both halves.
• Using the 6 lb. pkg. of ground beef, divide in half and brown one half with some onions. Freeze 6 1/2 lb. pkgs. for later in the month. With the other 3 lbs., make meatloaf cups and meatballs. Bake. Freeze in portions for 5 more meals this month.(Yes, I do stretch my ground beef quite a bit and will get 11 meals out of 6 lbs.)
• Peel one 5lb. bag of potatoes and make mashed potatoes. Use some for dinner, portion the rest, and freeze.

That's tomorrow's plan! I hope to have all this done by lunchtime, which is 1:00 in our house, and also right around the same time Gracie wakes up from her nap. That is what I do most days - have dinner done by 1:00, freeing up the rest of my day for other chores and playtime with the kiddos, but that is another post for another day.