Menu Plan 12/20/10: Organize your pantry

Today's menu planning tip: Organize your pantry!

This week, in preparation for an Eat from the Pantry month in January, I took all the canned and boxed items out of my pantry cabinets, allowed my youngest to build castles with of the cans, then organized them by type of food and put them back in, with the earliest expiration dates in the front of the pantry.

Besides being more organized, this will help me with meal planning as well.  I can see what's about to expire or that I have lots of, and work those items into my meal plan.  Conversely, I can see that I only have one or two items left of some types of food, so I can leave that food out of my planning until I find a great sale, coupon, or (preferably) combiniation of the two, so that I can replenish.

And here's what's for dinner this week:

Monday - chicken stir-fry over brown rice

Tuesday - cheese ravioli with alfredo sauce, Caesar salad

Wednesday - mushroom pizza on  whole wheat pizza dough, fruit

Thursday - tuna-noodle casserole

Friday - spaghetti and meatballs, salad, challah

Saturday - going out for Chinese food after seeing a movie in the afternoon

Sunday - grilled cheese, tomato soup, vegetable sticks

If you're a frugal food blogger, please come and link up with Frugal Food Thursdays, a new feature here at Frugal Follies.  And check out all of my frugal recipes!

Check out Menu Plan Monday for more menu plans!