With a family of six, we don’t eat out too often… usually once a week.   We save our restaurant meals for the weekends (when we have more time) or for when we have a coupon or see a deal somewhere.  When Groupon and Fourstarzz Media reached out to me about sponsoring today’s post,  I had no idea what a perfect fit this was going to be.

Groupon recently introduced a new thing called Groupon+.    It is perfect for our family because it lets us save money on restaurants that we want to eat at anyway.   A win-win.

Here is how it works.

1. Link a Visa or MasterCard (credit or debit) to your Groupon profile.
2. Go through and pick out any “deals” that you like (30% cash back on your favorite pizza place, or on that burger place up the road).  You just pick the restaurants and hit CLAIM. It is completely free. They never charge your card- they just need a place to send you the refund. You don’t have to print anything out or show them anything.  Just use the card that was linked to Groupon.
3. Go to the restaurant and eat.  When you go to pay, just show them your Groupon deal that you got.  They will charge your card just like normal.   No discount is added or anything like that.
4. The money ( the 30% that you saw) is refunded.  You’ll see it on your credit card statement or bank statement.

Oh- and you can use that claim again & again.

Here is a video that explains it in one minute:

That’s it! It is just simple.  It’s a way for restaurants to get their names out there more and we benefit from it.   It’s a good idea on Groupon and the restaurant’s part (and ours, of course!).

On that note, let’s chat about cooking!   I would say that our family eats out about once a week (usually on Sunday with my parents and my brother’s family), but what about the other days?  I like to have a plan and today I wanted to share it with you.

Week-long Menu Plan:

Sunday:

Groupon+ dinner out (or in).   There is a really good deal available right now for Papa John’s.   Since the game is on Sunday, we will just all get together at someone’s house to watch the game & have pizza.  Pa It’s $10 for a large pizza and a 2 liter of soda.   Plus, with the Groupon+ discount, you get an extra $5 back.    You can  find out more about that deal here
Here’s a screenshot of the deal:

Monday:

CHICKEN & BROCCOLI DIVAN
You need one pound chopped fresh broccoli,  2 cups cooked & cut-up chicken breasts,  1 can cream of broccoli soup (condensed), 1/2 cup cheddar cheese, 1/2 sleeve crushed Ritz crackers (or 2 T. breadcrumbs), one T butter (melted)

It is easy to make.  Just preheat the oven (350 degrees – I cook everything at 350.)
Cook your broccoli (you can boil it for 5 minutes with just enough water to cover the broccoli)
Put the cooked broccoli in a casserole dish.  Top with cooked chicken.
Sprinkle cheese on top.
Sprinkle crushed Ritz crackers or breadcrumbs on top
Pour melted butter over this.
Bake for 20 min the in the oven or until it is bubbly.

Tuesday:

French Dip Sandwiches.   This is probably a favorite for our kids.  They love this one (and it surprised me, honestly!) and so did Mickey and I.   You can find the full french dip-in-a-crockpot recipe here (on my site).  It is so good!

Wednesday:

Lasagna  (my mom’s recipe)
You need Sauce, no-cook noodles, Parmesan Cheese, Mozzarella Cheese, Ricotta Cheese & ground meat.
Directions–>> Cover bottom of pan with sauce
Layer noodles on the bottom.
Put a layer of all of the cheeses (mixed) – I don’t like ricotta, but Mickey does, so I put it on half and leave it off of the other half.
Layer noodles next
Add meat sauce (just cook you brown meat & add the sauce to it to make your meat sauce)
Sprinkle cheese mixture again.
Layer of noodles
the layer of Meat Sauce
the layer of Cheese
Cover with foil and bake at 350 for 35 minutes.
Set out to cook & thicken for 10 minutes.

Thursday:

Chicken Parmesan
This is Mickey’s recipe and he does it all himself.  I’m more of a “put cheese & sauce on a baked chicken breast” type of chicken parm girl, but he likes to do the whole thing (breadcrumbs, spices, etc…)
You can find his Chicken Parmesan Recipe here.

Friday:

My very favorite meal EVER!
This yellow rice, black bean and pepper recipe is so good!  It is easy to prep (the rice takes a little while to cook- like 20 minutes) and I eat the left-overs for lunch for days.   This is pretty much what you need (picture below) to make it.   You can find the full recipe here. 

Saturday:

Spinach Tortilla Soup
Our kids LOVE this soup.  Our daughter asks for it for her snack before bed.  (I say that because it doesn’t look or sound like a kid-approved recipe, but it is.)   Find the recipe here. 

These meals are all very family-friendly. They are easy, not time-consuming and our kids love them. Of course, the pizza is a huge hit. :).