So here's how this will work. Every weekend I'll post my meal plan for the following week and the corresponding shopping list for ALL of the ingredients. Then, I'll show you what I actually had to go out and purchase and we'll see how close I stuck to my budget of $50-$75 a week. As much as I would love to toil over every last ingredient and get you in and out of the store with a $50 bill, I would prefer that you eat better than just those weird Ramen Noodle looking things the extreme couponers always seem to get free by the cart-full.
I'll post the recipes each day (so on Monday I'll be writing about the wonderful world of tilapia) but if you want to take a sneak peek, stop by
my new Pinterest page (it's a lot of work moving a few thousand pins from one account to another!), follow me and skim my boards! But, just like grocery shopping, don't going into it hungry and only carry cash so you don't buy $35 sweaters from a specialty shop in Ireland only for it to show up to your house and you think "whoa that looked way better on Polyvore." Not that I have ANY experience with that...
If you watch
The Chew on ABC (or even if you don't), they actually talked a little bit today about wasting money on food that gets thrown out and suggested meal planning at the top of the show. How perfect! I keep two food lists throughout the week - one for what we are running low on and I should probably look into getting next time I go to the store and one for the ingredients I need to build recipes around and soon. That way I minimize food waste by using what I already have before it has a chance to expire
and I keep my pantry well-stocked at the same time. Like I mentioned in my
chicken stock post, when the veggies are looking a little sad, it's probably time to make a stock if for no other reason than to get some use out of them. (You could also make a pot roast when they look sad! I should write that down!) Eventually, the more time you spend in the kitchen the easier it will be to look at a pile of seemingly mismatched ingredients and produce something pretty decent without even thinking. It's kind of like you're on Chopped, except it's every day and no one is forcing you to use circus peanuts in your salad.
So the menu! The foods I planned around this week were primarily shallots, cream cheese and the fact that I needed to make more chicken stock. Here's my thought process behind building the meal plan:
Monday - Panko Crusted Tilapia & Sweet Potato Fries with Steamed Vegetables
I like having at least one meatless meal per week and even more importantly, one lighter meal since I tend to gravitate towards cheesy pasta dishes (not that that's necessarily a bad thing). Tilapia was on sale at my grocery store this week so that's the route I chose. I've been meaning to pick up some panko breadcrumbs since I've been out for so long. I've been a little obsessed with sweet potato fries lately and seeing as pound for pound they have more nutrients than any other potatoes I feel a little bit better about adding this as the starch to my plate. I'll be honest, I added the vegetables because I didn't want you guys to see how horrible I am at preparing side dishes for my family. Normally I'd be like "well, here's your piece of fish and some rice, have a good night!" But now that dinner is on display I need to pretend like I've been doing this all along.
Tuesday - Enchilada Pasta and Steamed Vegetables
When I ran out of chicken stock the first (giddy) thing that came to mind was that I needed to buy a roaster chicken this week! Yay! A quick Pinterest search later and I landed on this twist on the same old enchiladas that I have a habit of making almost weekly anymore. Not that anyone's complaining. I already had the bulk of the ingredients on hand, too, which made it particularly appealing.
Wednesday - Onion Chowder with Cheesy Onion Popovers and Side Salad
My cousin made this the other day and sent me the recipe. I have a bag of onions waiting to be used up and I'll have the chicken stock once I break down the roaster for last night's enchiladas so this is perfect! My husband isn't the biggest soup person and I don't really know how well Maddie is going to take it, but it looked amazing and he's willing to give it a try. Hopefully I'll be able to say the same for Maddie.
Thursday - Feta-Stuffed Turkey Meatloaf with Tzatziki Sauce and Rosemary Mashed Sweet Potatoes
The enchilada pasta recipe calls for heavy cream, but I decided I was going to swap that out for plain greek yogurt. So now that I have a tub of yogurt left it only seems appropriate that I make tzatziki! I already have the turkey in the freezer along with a ton of rosemary. The potatoes specifically call for shallots, of which I have many, and I already have bags upon bags of frozen spinach on hand that I can use in the meatloaf. This was definitely a good pin to have stumbled upon seeing as all I really had to buy was feta, a cucumber, and two potatoes.
Friday - Tuscan Macaroni & Cheese with Side Salad
SPOILER ALERT! (And confession) - I totally made this tonight and it was SO GOOD. Anyway I did have to buy a few things to make this but they were inexpensive and once I saw the recipe online I knew there was no going back. Seriously, so good. Also, I figured it was appropriate for the other meatless meal to be featured on Friday with Lent coming up and all. I may get off easy having been a pregnant and/or nursing mom for the past three Lent seasons, but meatless Friday's are a cinch and this recipe will not leave you feeling like you're missing out on anything!
Now as you can see I only planned five meals for a seven-day week. My husband has a 24-hour shift every fourth day which I usually reserve for "breakfast for dinner" or "just eat the leftovers I don't care that we had them last night" type dinners when I'm left alone with the girls. So in reality I really am only cooking five nights a week. But for normal people with normal schedules and lives, maybe you pick one day for leftovers and another for take-out or going out to eat (ah, memories).
As for the shopping lists, for the five recipes above I needed to purchase 20 items totaling $49.81. Everything else I had on hand. Here is what I had to buy:
| Black Beans |
$0.75 |
| Broccoli Crowns |
$2.71 |
| Cage Free Brown Eggs (18-Count) |
$4.39 |
| Cannellini Beans |
$0.77 |
| Cheddar Cheese |
$1.67 |
| Chives |
$2.19 |
| Cucumber |
$0.79 |
| Feta Cheese |
$2.99 |
| Greek Yogurt (Plain) |
$4.45 |
| Kale |
$0.22 |
| Organic Salad Mix |
$2.69 |
| Panko Breadcrumb |
$1.09 |
| Rotisserie Chicken |
$6.99 |
| Salsa |
$3.99 |
| Shredded Provolone |
$1.67 |
| Shredded Tex Mex Cheese |
$1.67 |
| Sweet Potatoes |
$2.61 |
| Tilapia Filets |
$4.29 |
| Tomato Paste (Organic) |
$1.19 |
| Vegetable Medley (for Steaming) |
$2.69 |
| Total |
$49.81 |
Now I would be lying if I said that's all I spent at the store today. I had to get a few household items and I did find a couple packages on meat that were marked down so I took advantage and got them to freeze for a rainy day. My real grand total today was $112.30 but I had to restock a couple things in my pantry and as I just mentioned, I grabbed some marked-down meat. The biggest "splurges" this week? More juice for Princess Pickle Puss (V8 Fusion, $4.99), bread flour (King Arthur brand, $5.19), toothpaste for Maddie ($3.99), organic milk ($5.77), organic half and half ($3.99), a new hamper ($8.99) and the meat (two packs of sausage and a bottom round roast, $12.14). If I kept my total budget to $50 a week, we would be subsisting on paper towels and the tears of my forefathers.
So here is your list of everything you'll need to prepare next week's meals. Print it out, bust out some highlighters or just cross stuff off, whatever helps you get your own personal Monica Geller on, and cook along! Don't worry about leftover ingredients, either. We'll use them up, I promise!
| All-Purpose Flour |
4 cups |
| Bacon |
1 pound |
| Black Beans |
1 15 oz can |
| Brocolli Crowns |
1 pound |
| Brown Sugar |
1 1/2 teaspoons |
| Butter |
2 sticks |
| Cannellini Beans |
1 15 oz can |
| Cayenne Pepper |
|
| Cheddar Cheese (Block( |
2 oz |
| Chicken Stock |
38 oz |
| Chive |
1/4 cup |
| Coconut Flour (or substitue 1/4 cup
seasoned breadcrumbs |
1/4 cup |
| Coconut Oil (Olive Oil Is OK!) |
1/2 cup |
| Cream Cheese |
4 oz |
| Cucumber |
1 medium |
| Dried Parsley |
|
| Eggs |
One dozen +1 |
| Elbow Pasta |
18 oz |
| Enchilada Sauce |
16 oz |
| Plain Greek Yogurt |
3 cups |
| Feta Cheese |
1 cup |
| Fresh Dill |
1 teaspoon |
| Fresh Rosemary |
2 tablespoons |
| Frozen Spinach |
14 oz |
| Garlic Cloves |
5 medium |
| Garlic Powder |
|
| Ground Turkey |
2 pouds |
| Kale |
4 leaves |
| Lemon Juice |
1 tablespoons |
| Milk |
3 1/2 cups |
| Vegetable Medley (For Steaming) |
1 bag |
| Olive Oil |
10 1/2 tablespoons |
| Onions |
7 medium |
| Onion Powder |
|
| Panko Breading |
1/2 cup |
| Paprika |
|
| Parsley |
1/4 cup |
| Pepper |
|
| Shredded Provolone |
4 oz |
| Red Pepper Flakes |
to taste |
| Rotisserie Chicken |
1 bird |
| Salad Mix |
1 tub |
| Salsa |
1 tub |
| Salt |
to taste |
| Sea Salt |
to taste |
| Shallots |
2 medium |
| Sweet Potatoes |
5 medium |
| Tex Mex Shredded Cheese |
1 cup |
| Tilapia Filet |
4 large |
| Worcestershire Sauce |
2 tablespoons |
I can't wait to get in the kitchen next week! And the week after, and the week after...
