There are affiliate links in this post – please read my full disclosure policy.
It’s peach season around here and we have been enjoying lots of fresh, juicy peaches! I think that if I had to choose, I’d say that fresh peaches are my favorite fruit, right behind fresh strawberries. While I’m all for eating fresh fruit when it’s in season, we don’t typically eat it quite every day like we do these 2 weeks.
But I had bought some peaches and planned to use some of them for fresh eating and then my in-laws got some seconds of peaches for free that they shared with us too. So between the 2 of those, we had lots of peaches to eat fresh!
Not that we minded, we all love them! Well, the littlest of us doesn’t like them that much, but her older brother eats enough for both of them.
You’ll also see that we did some traveling too. Typically we try to pack a lot of our food simply to save money. But because of some of the details of this trip and the places we were going to be staying, it didn’t work very well. So we packed what we could and just tried to be choosy about where we ate otherwise.
If you are new to these menu plans of mine, it’s probably helpful to know a couple of things first:
- Our family of five consists of two adults with fairly big appetites, a 7-year-old boy, a 3 ½-year-old girl and an 18-month-old girl.
- I buy lots of fruits and veggies in bulk from local farmers/orchards in the summer and then freeze or can them.
- I have a stockpile. My cupboards are full from previous shopping and here’s why. When I can get pasta for free with coupons, I buy as much as I have coupons for. If I’m able to get flour for $0.50/bag like I did last fall, I’ll buy half a dozen and put them in the freezer to use as needed. I do this as much as my budget allows, on as many items as I can and as a result save lots of money. Then when I go to plan menus, I simply plan our meals around what I already have in my cupboards and freezer, as much as possible. Obviously, I still might have to buy a few things at regular price here and there, but by stocking up when the price is at rock bottom I save a lot.
- I cook almost totally from scratch. That means when I make a cake, I rarely use a cake mix. I make my own bread totally from scratch. I rarely use pre-packaged sauces. I make my own cream soups and pie crusts. Making your own food is typically less expensive and healthier too.
- We rarely snack. By eating “heavy” food like granola at breakfast we don’t get hungry until lunchtime. And the same goes for the afternoon. Our lunches are big enough that we usually are fine until dinner time. When we do need a snack, I try to keep it mostly healthy by offering fruit, nuts or maybe No Bake Energy Bites. We don’t always do it perfectly though, and sometimes end up having chips or cookies instead.
- Our breakfasts consist of Easy Homemade Granola or Baked Oatmeal, the occasional bought cereal that I was able to get for $0.50/box and sometimes some fruit too. I know that might seem awfully boring to some of you, but we actually all really enjoy it and prefer it over other breakfast food. I also have a homemade iced latte, homemade frappe or some other fun beverage every morning. It’s just one of the little things that I do to add a bit of sunshine to my days!
Below you will find our lunches and dinners. (If we ate something other than our usual breakfast, I’ll note that too.) Since it’s summer vacation, all three children are home for lunches right now and since my husband is currently only working 1 to 2 days a week, he joins us most of the time too.
The days that he goes to work, he takes a packed lunch with him that typically consists of sandwiches, fruit, homemade yogurt and sometimes random leftovers too.
WEEK 1
Sunday
- Ate at my in-law’s
- Homemade Chicken Salad Sandwiches using Homemade Whole Wheat Bread; Homemade Popcorn; Easy Frozen Fruit Smoothie
Monday
- Meat & Cheese Sandwiches made with Homemade Whole Wheat Bread; Homemade Yogurt; Fresh Peaches
- One Pan Spanish Chicken and Rice; Green Beans; Homemade Applesauce
Tuesday
- Various Leftovers; Homemade Yogurt; Bananas; Fresh Peaches
- Enjoyed dinner out thanks to a gift card that had been gifted to us!
Wednesday
- Meat & Cheese Sandwiches made with Homemade Whole Wheat Bread; Homemade Yogurt; Fresh Peaches; Frozen Blueberries (I preserved)
- Chicken, Bacon Alfredo Pizza with Homemade Alfredo Sauce and Homemade Crust; Homemade Applesauce; Fresh Peaches
– This homemade crust recipe is awesome! Not only does it need no time to rise, you can have it ready to go in the oven in 30 minutes! And it’s really tasty too. The only thing I do differently is pre-bake the crust a bit before putting on the toppings.
Thursday
- Leftover Chicken, Bacon Alfredo Pizza; Homemade Yogurt; Fresh Peaches; Frozen Blueberries (I preserved)
- Big Lettuce Salad with Chicken, Black Beans, Carrots, Tortilla Chips with various dressings; Homemade Applesauce; Turkey Hill All Natural Ice Cream
Friday
- Meat & Cheese Sandwiches made with Homemade Whole Wheat Bread; Homemade Yogurt; Bananas; Frozen Blueberries (I preserved)
- Zucchini Bacon & Rice Casserole; Lettuce Salad with Mexican Dressing; Fresh Peaches
– The Zucchini Recipe was a new one for us and overall we really liked it! If I make it again, I’ll probably add a few more seasonings to it though, just because we thought it was a tad bland. But that’s just us…everyone likes their food seasoned differently.
Saturday
- Meat & Cheese Sandwiches made with Homemade Whole Wheat Bread; Potato Chips; Homemade Yogurt; Fresh Peaches
- Oven Ready Lasagna; Lettuce Salad with Mexican Dressing; Homemade Applesauce; Various Ice Cream Bars (got them for free recently thanks to coupons)
– My sister-in-law was here helping us for the day, so she ate with us too. She also made an extra lasagna to share with another family.
WEEK 2
Sunday
- Ham Loaf (comes pre-made- I just make a glaze for it); Baked Sweet Potatoes/Potatoes (butter/sour cream); Green Beans; Homemade Applesauce
- Homemade Chicken Salad Sandwiches using Homemade Whole Wheat Bread; Homemade Yogurt; Fresh Peaches
Monday
- Traveling
– Took along Sandwiches, Peaches, Potato Chips and a few other random things
Tuesday & Wednesday
- More Traveling
– My Dad who is 81 and adopted as a baby was able to meet some of his biological family for the first time! Since I was the one who did all the work of “digging up the information”, they wanted us to go with them. It was a wonderful time and we feel so blessed to now have a second set of family to claim!
Thursday
- Meat & Cheese Sandwiches made with Homemade Whole Wheat Bread; Homemade Yogurt; Fresh Peaches
– My kind mother-in-law came to help me can 2 bushels of peaches, so of course, she ate lunch with us too! - Away for a birthday party
Friday
- Meat & Cheese Sandwiches made with Homemade Whole Wheat Bread; Homemade Yogurt; Fresh Peaches
- Creamy Crockpot Mexican Chicken; Lettuce Salad; Homemade Applesauce; Turkey Hill All Natural Ice Cream; Crushed Strawberries (I preserved)
– We had 2 dinner guests and they brought some delicious Zucchini Cupcakes along.
Saturday
- Meat & Cheese Sandwiches made with Homemade Whole Wheat Bread; Homemade Yogurt; Fresh Peaches
- Hamburger Zucchini Quiche; Lettuce Salad with Mexican Dressing; Homemade Applesauce; Snickers Ice Cream Bars (got them free recently with coupons)
Roxanne
Thank you for this wonderful post! It is such a great idea. I need to be better with meal planning, and I’ll be these posts are great for accountability.
ThriftyFrugalMom
You are so right, Roxanne, these posts are awesome at keeping me accountable! 🙂 And it might kind of surprise you, but I’m not actually that great at meal planning. In fact, I’m more of a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of cook and typically only plan the morning of what we’re going to have for dinner that night. Sometimes if I’m doing really good, I’ll figure it out the night ahead. What saves me though are these things: 1) I have a substantial pantry stockpile, so I have a lot to work with 2) I keep a lot of already cooked meats in my freezer to speed up prep 3) I have quite a few simple, quick dishes that I keep in mind to fall back on when I fail to plan ahead like I should or when my day doesn’t go like I planned.
Anyway, it works for me and I guess that is what is important, right? I hope you can figure out what works for you, because having at least some kind of plan really is helpful and relieves a lot of stress!
Angela Howard
Very helpful! I was looking for some breakfast inspiration for the beginning of the school year. Thank you so much.
ThriftyFrugalMom
Yay! Glad it was able to give you some inspiration. I’m trying to get into more of a routine too with school happening again.
Jennifer
This sounds awesome! My boys are a little older and have very hearty appetites. (I make over 20 sandwiches a week for lunch alone.) I love how you make most things from scratch and can in the summer. Thanks so much for the helpful tips!
ThriftyFrugalMom
Our kids already have fairly hearty appetites- I sometimes worry that my budget is going to go sky high once they get a little older! I’m grateful they are healthy though and enjoy eating. Last fall, our oldest was sick with an illness that we never did figure out, even though he had numerous labs drawn. For about 3 to 4 months he had little appetite and lost a ton of weight. I can’t tell you how happy and grateful I was when he started wanting to eat normally again!
And I’m so glad that you’re enjoying the blog. That’s always a big compliment for me! 🙂
Monica
I almost missed this. What a great story about your dad. It must have been so interesting to meet his biological family and get to know them. Although I like these posts in general, that was my favorite part!
ThriftyFrugalMom
Monica, it was so incredibly interesting! There are lots more details that I didn’t post, but seriously, it’s been like a good mystery in many ways. And his “new” family are such lovely people too. We feel very blessed!