Pantry Staples

It's very important to make sure you stay stocked up on your pantry staples.  Most people would count flour, sugar, olive oil, etc as the staples.  At our house it's shredded cheese and tortilla chips. 

The plan for dinner yesterday was chicken and dumplings, but when we got home at 5:30 and Matthew realized he had a big job to complete for a client, and I realized that we didn't have any chicken broth....plans changed.  (chicken broth should be on that staple list)  So the kids got chicken nuggets and pizza rolls, and mom and dad had chicken nachos with the leftover chicken from Saturday.  It's another cheap meal, and had the girls been interested in eating it I had plenty of chicken to do the whole meal for the family for about $5. 

So today is grocery day.  I'll post again later when I've decided what I'm making for the week, so far the list includes lobster tails, chicken and dumplings (I'm determined), and baked ravioli with meat sauce.  You can get free pasta at Kroger this week with a $1 ronzoni coupon, so there may be some pasta on the menu this week, too.

What I Have To Offer

I know that many of you are in the same boat that I am in -- staying at home with the kids, and making sacrifices to make it happen. Some of you may be trying to pay down debt, save for the down payment on a new home, or maybe you just want the challenge of seeing how much you can do and how little you can spend to do it. (I personally love this part.) So here it is: my commentary on how to make meals for less. I hope that this blog will provide a forum for us to share quick, easy and most importantly CHEAP recipes!