"Soup"vember

Let me start by saying that I am a meal planner.  I just have to.  If I don't, I end up being totally unmotivated to fix dinner for my family.  Which means that we either eat last-minute something or Andy has to deal with the pressure of fixing dinner after he's been at work all day.  Neither of those scenarios are ones that I like to deal with on a daily basis.  (Don't get me wrong, Andy is an awesome cook, I just don't think it's fair to him to get home from a long day of work and then deal with having to come up with/thaw out/prepare a meal.) 

Therefore, I have to plan our meals.  We are "weird" and only go grocery shopping once a month (except to pick up eggs, apples, etc. that we run out of), so at the beginning of each month, I sit down with either a recipe book or a cooking magazine and plan out 15-20 meals. 

It works well for us on many levels.  First off, it takes care of the perpetual "what's for dinner?" question.  Secondly, it allows me to know what we need grocery-wise for the entire month.  And lastly (and perhaps most importantly), it is a major budget-saver.  #1 it seems like the more we go to the grocery store, the more we spend, so the once a month thing helps with that, #2 it allows me to plan a variety of meals, some with more-expensive ingredients and some with less-expensive ingredients all while staying within our overall monthly budget.  Does that make sense?

Well, this month, the cupboards and the freezer were looking pretty bare, and I knew if we stocked up on everything we needed that we would go way over our grocery budget for the month.  So, I decided that I would plan only soups for dinner this month (Dinner, by the way is the only meal I plan.  Breakfast is usually cold cereal, oatmeal, or toast, and Lunch is usually sandwiches for the boys and leftovers for us girls.) 

Soups are just economical in so many ways.  Typically, you can use less and less-expensive meats, or even no meat at all, in which case you can use beans to meet your protein needs.  You can also use a lot of canned/frozen vegetables, which are not only healthy, but a bargain as well! 

So we're seeing a lot of this at our house lately:

And quite honestly, it's been AWESOME to be able to get dinner ready in the morning and have minimal work to do in the evening during the dreaded "witching hour."  You fellow moms know what I'm talking about... that last hour before daddy gets home... aaarrrggghhh

And just in case you were curious, here's our line-up of soups for the month.  Let me know if you'd like me to share any of the recipes!

Lentil Soup

Mother's Nurturing Chicken Soup

Deb's Potato Vegetable Soup

Linda's Spicy Chicken Soup

Barley Beef Soup

Hamburger Vegetable Soup

Cream of Broccoli Soup

Meatball Soup

Split Pea Soup

Jambalaya

French Onion Soup

Minestrone

Cabbage Patch Stew

New England Clam Chowder

Monica's Mexican Chili

Mom's White Chicken Chili

Happy "Soup"vember!