Menu plan, Week of April 23-April 29
I feel like I just wrote a post saying how fast March went and here we are closing in on May. My goodness!
After the good news we received last week, The Chick Magnet and I needed to re-work our budget again to enable us to save every last penny possible now that our move seems like it will be happening sooner than we thought. Because of this you will see lots of leftovers on our menu as I try to stretch our grocery budget as far as possible.
I shared on Facebook the other day that I spent $112 on our groceries for the next two weeks (for our family of five-The Chick Magnet obviously has his own grocery budget, but if he were here I would have spent exactly the same for our family of 6). That included new sheets for my bed AND a trip to the Farmer’s Market (and not one coupon was used)!
I will be sharing tomorrow the details of our shopping trips, along with pictures of everything I got from the store this week and my best tips for saving on groceries! Be sure to come back tomorrow. I hope to prove to you that it IS possible to eat healthy on a tight budget!
Here’s what we’re eating this week!
Monday:
- Breakfast: Steel-cut oats (eggs for me-trying to limit my carbs)
- Lunch: Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, ants-on-a-log, fresh pineapple
- Dinner: Pork carnitas, cilantro lime rice (I’m going to attempt to make this with cauliflower instead of rice)
Tuesday:
- Breakfast: Scrambled eggs, green smoothies
- Lunch: Grown-Up Grilled Cheese , apples, sliced carrots
- Dinner: Spaghetti with home-canned tomato sauce, homemade garlic bread, salad
Prep for Wednesday: Mix-up pancake batter
Wednesday:
- Breakfast: Healthy, Hearty, Whole Grain and Nut Pancakes
- Snack: almonds, green smoothies (we usually eat our pancakes a little later in the morning and then just have a snacky type of lunch since they are so filling, and then an earlier dinner)
- Dinner: Leftover spaghetti & salad
Prep for Thursday: Make granola
Thursday:
- Breakfast: Homemade peanut butter, chocolate chip granola with milk/yogurt (3-egg omelet for me)
- Lunch: Egg salad sandwiches (a request from my daughter), fruit
- Dinner: Chicken pot pie, salad, quinoa
Prep for Friday: make up pizza dough, thaw ground turkey for pizza
Friday:
- Breakfast: Homemade granola with milk or yogurt
- Lunch: Zucchini boats, fruit, sliced avocado
- Dinner: Pizza night! Homemade, of course.
Prep for Saturday: Make batter for Green Monster Muffins
Saturday:
- Breakfast: Green Monster Muffins
- Lunch: Scrambled eggs, fruit
- Dinner: Leftover pizza
Sunday:
- Breakfast: Whole Wheat Banana Nut Bread (made a couple of loaves last week so all I have to do is pull this out of the freezer-quick meal the kids can get for themselves during the pre-church rush)
- Lunch: Egg McMuffins (homemade), fruit
- Dinner: Leftover chicken pot pie
What’s on your menu this week?
I am joining the Menu-Plan Monday link-up at Orgjunkie.com this week. Head on over to get some more great inspiration for your meal-time madness.
And as always, I am happy to post recipes for anything I have not already linked to, just let me know in the comments!
The Chick
I only have a 15YO daughter at home so I don’t plan for breakfast for her or my husband, they are on their own. Lunch too even when my daughter is not in school. Figure she is old enough to take care of that herself. Dinners this week include: chicken tacos (using leftover chicken); pork roast, broc/caul, parm baked pot halves; tilapia and ??; goulash; enchiladas; pork tenderloin with seasoning, sweet potato dish and a veggie; chicken, spinach, tomato pasta dish; spaghetti or lasagna; hamburgers and ??; beef roast and ??. I’m not holding to my day that I have planned for each meal as it can change depending on schedules and I just realized I have pork twice in the same week so some of it will get switched around. BUT i’m so proud of myself for planning this out. This is a first for me in quite some time. Sure made grocery shopping much easier.
Yes Amy! Good for you-sounds like you have some yummy meals to look forward to!
Hi friend! I love reading your meal plans and trying to get ideas for my mini-family of just Big Bear and I…lots more leftovers here
Do you put any kind of meat on your egg mcmuffins. I have used the morning star breakfast patties but find they are lacking in what I want. Have only found links otherwise. Please tell me of your pot pie! Do you skip the bottom crust to save on calories? How do you make your steel cut oats? I saw a recipe for crockpot steel cut oats and want to try it out…breakfast for days with that there! Might have to go buy a mini crockpot for that though. I am going to attempt some meal planning this week (see my post on fb) so wish me luck! It will be my first time!
Yes, I use turkey sausage patties (I think they are Jimmy Dean?). I get them at Sam’s and they are 60 calories each.
The pot pie is SO easy-two cans of mixed vegetables (drained), once can cream of chicken, one can cream of potato and 2 cups of cooked, cubed chicken-mix and dump into crust (deep dish). I make my own crust, but you can use store bought as well. Bake at 350 for 30-45 minutes (you can brush with beaten egg white to make a pretty, shiny crust). I do use a double crust-I hadn’t thought of leaving off the bottom one-that’s a great idea! That is admittedly not the healthiest recipe but it’s not high calorie either, it’s quick and everyone loves it so I keep it on our rotation.
For the steel cut oats, we just make it as directed on the stovetop. I usually add milk, and a bit of cinnamon and brown sugar. ! wish I could like them plain, but I don’t. I need a little flavoring in mine. I have made them a few times overnight in the crockpot and they have turned out great. I made some with apples and cinnamon and apple juice. Yum!
Good for you for menu planning-it gets easier the more you do it and then you will wonder what you ever did without it!
I might try your version of the pot pie. I have a deep covered baker from pampered chef and have made it in there before. But their recipe calls for butter and flour and then stock and milk to make the sauce, creates a lot of calories. Wondering if I could do it with just the stock, a splash of milk and flour? Funny that you said pot pie today because I was pretty sure that was going to go into my meal plan. I can’t WAIT to hear you tell us about your shopping. I can spend $112 on Big Bear and I for a week. But prices may differ, they are pretty pricey here.
I love the fact that you include prep for next day’s meals in your meal plan! I only just struck upon this idea myself a few days ago. No other meal plan I’ve seen has ever included this adivce.
I live alone, so I cook only for me. I worked out that there isn’t any point in cooking everyday, I just don’t eat it all, even if it becomes my leftovers for lunch the next day. So I’ve swapped to cooking every second day and decided I would use the nights I’m not cooking to prep food for the next night. And because my routine does include some late shifts at work, when I do get back, I find that I can easily talk myself into cooking something to eat. Rather than falling into the thought pattern of ‘I’m too tired to cook, I’ll just microwave some mac n’ cheese.”
It’s much easier to stick to your meal plan when have already done half the work!