Last night's pork loin and potatoes (cooked in the crock pot with a little garlic and soy sauce) turned out AWESOME!  Something so simple is so homey and wonderful.  I have 3 more 1-lb pork loan roasts in the freezer as well!  It was so tender it just melted in your mouth.  Dh gave his compliments to the chef!

Tonight I MAY waver from my menu plan.  I am supposed to be making unstuffed cabbage, but I may make this casserole with ground beef, hashbrowns w/ onion and green pepper, cream of mushroom soup, and french fried onions.  I'll link to the recipe if it is any good!  Dh LOVES those crunchy onion things -- I think I"ve only had them once in my entire life if you can believe that!

I will also be blanching, peeling, chopping, and freezing my frugal tomato find.  I will also be chopping and freezing 7 of the 8 peppers I got for a dollar.  I wonder if you can freeze raw cabbage?  Even making unstuffed cabbage and veggie-cabbage soup this week, I will still have some left over.  I can make a coleslaw one night if I can't freeze it.

Another thing I will be doing, which I haven't done before and it is an area where I waste a lot of money, is cutting up my day old bread and buns and making croutons and bread crumbs.  I also have some left over, going stale pita bread that I am going to make garlic pita chips out of.  (DELISH!) 

As you can see, much of my afternoon and evening will be spent in the kitchen preparing for next week and beyond.  I will also be cooking all three pounds of ground beef even though I am going to only use 1 pound for dinner -- then I will freeze the other 2 pounds in single-servings for later use. 

As time goes on -- I hope to become more and more organized in the kitchen.  This is just a starting point.  I want to come up with a rotating monthly menu.  I want to cook and freeze more dinners.  I want to buy more in bulk when it is on sale.  I want to cook more from scratch.  I want to search out and make new, frugal meals that my family will love. 

The kitchen is truly the heart of my home.