Help Me Menu Plan?

[TammyandParker]

I could use some help. I'm trying to come up with next month's menus. I shop once a month, and then have someone stop by here and there for fresh fruit and veggies as needed.

I have about $300.00 for the month. And this includes pretty much everything we'll need for the month. For the six of us that eat. My youngest is g-tube fed with Neocate.

Luckily we have always believed in food storage principals and have plenty of the following on hand:

Rice: all kinds......brown, white, basmati
Flour Plus I have wheat I can grind if needed.
Yeast
Oil (although I'll need to buy some more soon)
Pasta
Cornmeal
Sugar
Honey
Seasonings
Canned tomatoes and salsa from our garden.
TONS of Potatoes from our garden.
Grated and frozen zuchinni from our garden.
Canned Pumpkin
Canned green beans from our garden.
Various frozen veggies.
I have beans, but only a few of us will eat them. My dh won't touch them if he can see them.
Peanut butter
Pd. milk. I can only use this in cooking. My kids won't touch it to drink. I've tried a zillion times.
Spaghetti squash from our garden.
TVP

I'd love some recipes using what I have and then needing only a small amount of meat to make a meal.

I never use more than a pound of hambuger a meal. But bringing that down to .5 of a pound per meal would be even better.

I'm looking for ideas for breakfasts, brown bag lunches (my kids each have a thermos for leftovers too) and dinners.

Oatmeal doesn't go over well at our house.

I'm thinking of making my own bread machine mixes up in advance so that I can quickly throw a loaf of bread into my machine each day and not have to purchase any.

I'm all for cooking from scratch. But my youngest guy is pretty high needs and is very labor intensive. (But he is also super cute so it's worth it. So make ahead for the freezer meal ideas are welcome too.

Share your wisdom with me? What would you purchase to make meals with what I have in storage?

[MaShroom]

Muffins. They are a staple at our house. There is always a bag of them in the kitchen and they're always different. Surprisingly, nobody is sick of them yet. I've learned to loosely (very loosely, it's hard to screw up muffins) follow the Tightwad Gazette recipe for them. I can post it if you need it, I've got to find the book. This is where I slip in oatmeal and all sorts of things that would probably not get eaten otherwise. Think fruit that has seen better days, applesauce (we had TONS when a friend of mine gave us more apples than we could ever possibly eat), stuff hanging out in the pantry that is just not fun to eat (canned commodity sweet potatoes and carrots) and anything else that you need to disguise to get your family to eat it.

There is also a recipe for scratch tortillas with a bulgur/lentil filling that has become very popular with my kids. Super cheap, filling, and good. Lmk if you want me to post it.

[velochic]

You might try posting this under "Meal Planning" in Nutrition and Good Eating.