Menu Plan Monday Week of October 1

I missed posting last week as my menu "plans" were not very exciting.  We were in those last few days of the month when the challenge is to see what I could feed my family of six with just the spare change I could round up in the house.  I managed to do fairly well since there were still a few packages of meat in our freezer.  Monday I cooked up some boneless chicken breasts the kids' favorite way (dipped in egg and bread crumbs then fried in olive oil) and then went to the local fruit and veggie store where I could buy potatoes buy the pound self serve style.  I bought a kilo and a half of potatoes and felt bad when I had to pay the cashier the 62 cents in almost all 1 and 2 cent pieces.  Haven't felt quite that broke in a while.  I used the fun french fry cutter that we bought at a flea market in Germany this summer to make homemade french fries from those spuds and then made a nice salad.  The kids were thrilled and none the wiser that we were eating a "crisis mode" meal.  The rest of the week's meals were soup (once homemade, once from a can), spaghetti, sloppy Joes, etc.  Not exactly inspiring, but it is what life is like when waiting for payday.
Payday has come but we still need to be very careful and I am doing my best to plan in such a way as to buy the least possible at the grocery store.  The other challenge is to figure out how to provide non/carb or low carb choices for my husband and I who are trying to lose some pounds.  Any ideas of low cost, low calorie or low carb meals would be appreciated.

Here is the tentative plan for this week.  I am still waiting for "inspiration" for Sunday's meal which must be something that can either be made ahead and then just heated on the stovetop or in the microwave when we get home from church (ravenous as we leave around 8:30am and don't normally get home until after 2pm) or something that can be cooking in the crockpot the whole time we are away (Usually the way to go).

Monday 10/1
Lentil soup and fresh spanish bread

Tuesday 10/2
Pork chops
apple sauce  (Can't you just hear Peter Brady saying "pork chops and apple sauce"? )
fresh green beans

Wednesday  10/3
Cream of Zucchini soup
carrot and celery sticks

Thursday 10/4
Taco Rice (Gonna kind of make this up as I go .... thinking to try and prepare the meat like for tacos but serve it all over rice so I don't have to go buy tortillas)

At some point in the day, either for breakfast if I can get up early enough to make them in the morning or for dessert after the evening meal, I plan to make my homemade cinnamon rolls in celebration of National Cinnamon Roll Day.  Not sure where I heard about Sweden's fantastic holiday, but I am feeling the need to have a little Swedish celebration in our Spanish home with my Christmas morning family tradition.  The kids will be pleasantly surprised! (I don't think any of them will be reading this blog post before Thursday so I'm sure it will be a surprise).  The recipe I use is here. (but I love the frosting recipe here.  Or I could think "outside the bun" and try Cinnamon bun pancakes from this recipe. (Has anyone ever tried this recipe?  Let me know how they turned out, please)

Friday 10/5
Some variation of pizza or pepperoni rolls.

I'm thinking these Pepperoni Pizza Puffs look interesting.

Saturday 10/6  The schedule will have us out from about 2:30 till well past 8:30 pm so I am hoping to have a hot meal for mid day meal to fill us up and hold us till we get home at night.

lunch:  Broccoli casserole, tossed salad, muffins
dinner:  hotdogs and beans from the crockpot.

Sunday:  awaiting inspiration and your suggestions.

Needing more inspiration?  Head on over to Laura's blog for all the rest of the Menu Planning Monday links.