Meal Planning: 1/28 thru 2/3
Brand new to Meal Planning?
Start by reading all about Meal Planning (scroll down to "A Day in My Life" on the right-hand side of this page and click Meal Planning: How To Get Started or just click here) in order to familiarize yourself with the steps! There, you will find a link to a detailed example of my own weekly meal planning where I walk you through step-by-step.
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The first thing I do on Saturday mornings is to look back over the week to see if we did indeed eat everything on my meal plan and adjust my inventory, reducing it by what we ate and increasing it by anything I purchased and/or made-ahead. Last week, I made and froze a meatloaf and two portions of meatballs, and discovered a portion of shredded spicy beef I had previously missed, all of which has been reflected here.
Inventory
6 portions ground turkey
1 portions porkchops
7 portions boneless, skinless chicken breasts
3 portions ground sirloin
1 portions flank steak
1 portions pork baby back ribs
1 portions made-ahead chicken enchiladas original red
2 portions made-ahead chicken enchiladas verdes
2 portions marinated chicken fajitas
1 portions made-ahead meatloaf
2 portions made-ahead meatballs
1 portions made-ahead shredded spicy beef
Then, I shopped my pantry, freezer and fridge for ingredients to come up with some meals, looking at our family calendar to ensure I wasn't planning on something we had recently eaten. I scanned the weekly ad to see what was on sale that might complement and/or substitute for what I had come up with and of course, how to stretch ingredients over enough meals to use them up (like the fresh basil and the 3lb bag of onions I scored for $0.99!). My last step would be to clip any coupons I would need but there weren't any of value to me this week.
Because of a Costco run last month, I had fresh mozzarella on-hand and combined with the 10@$10 (or $1 each) dried pasta special, it was easy to come up with a spaghetti and meatball dinner as well as a tomato soup (I stocked up last week when they were $1 each!) and grilled cheese sandwich, Caprese style (mozzarella, basil, tomato), dinner. Both of these meals as well as the basil pesto I am making (and freezing to use at a later date) will use every ounce of fresh basil I purchased today for $2.99. Planning on a meal of shredded beef over baked potatoes and using potatoes Au Gratin as a side dish will use up a few more of the potatoes I have leftover from last week. I already had the heavy cream and cheeses on-hand so the Au Gratin potatoes didn't cost me anything in additional ingredients. We use one package of ground turkey at each meal, which is a little more than half a pound. I already had all the ingredients for tacos (lettuce, tomatoes, taco sauce, shredded cheese, taco shells) and with just the purchase of Velveeta cheese and the dried pasta on sale, I would have everything to make my version of Hamburger Helper's cheeseburger macaroni with the other half of the ground turkey. I have Romaine lettuce leftover from last week I'll use up in side salads this week and I have two pouches of guacamole (from my Costco run) in my freezer for a quick side.
Weekly Meal Plan
So, what exactly did I have to buy at the store today?
Only $87.11 worth of fresh produce (except for bananas, I only purchase fruit that is in-season and/or on sale!) a few canned items on sale that weren't advertised (like the Chili garlic sauce, hoisin sauce and Stubb's chicken marinade, all more than $1 off regular price!), milk, cottage cheese, and deli-sliced ham (as always), and I stocked up on the dried pasta sale. We were out of grated Parmesan cheese (Emily eats it on everything) and I needed 1/4 cup of pine nuts for the pesto. Not on my list was a new product for making Orange chicken (a family favorite) that I decided to purchase and give a try next week as it was at a special introductory price of $1.99 and the sauce I normally purchase is $5.99 for the bottle of about twice as much.
So, that's it for this week! I spent $60 less than my weekly budget of $150 and will have some pesto sauce as well as some home-made spaghetti sauce to add to my inventory.
Check out these and all my recipes on the right-hand side of this page under From My Kitchen!
Start by reading all about Meal Planning (scroll down to "A Day in My Life" on the right-hand side of this page and click Meal Planning: How To Get Started or just click here) in order to familiarize yourself with the steps! There, you will find a link to a detailed example of my own weekly meal planning where I walk you through step-by-step.
__________________________________________________________________________
The first thing I do on Saturday mornings is to look back over the week to see if we did indeed eat everything on my meal plan and adjust my inventory, reducing it by what we ate and increasing it by anything I purchased and/or made-ahead. Last week, I made and froze a meatloaf and two portions of meatballs, and discovered a portion of shredded spicy beef I had previously missed, all of which has been reflected here.
Inventory
6 portions ground turkey
1 portions porkchops
7 portions boneless, skinless chicken breasts
3 portions ground sirloin
1 portions flank steak
1 portions pork baby back ribs
1 portions made-ahead chicken enchiladas original red
2 portions made-ahead chicken enchiladas verdes
2 portions marinated chicken fajitas
1 portions made-ahead meatloaf
2 portions made-ahead meatballs
1 portions made-ahead shredded spicy beef
Then, I shopped my pantry, freezer and fridge for ingredients to come up with some meals, looking at our family calendar to ensure I wasn't planning on something we had recently eaten. I scanned the weekly ad to see what was on sale that might complement and/or substitute for what I had come up with and of course, how to stretch ingredients over enough meals to use them up (like the fresh basil and the 3lb bag of onions I scored for $0.99!). My last step would be to clip any coupons I would need but there weren't any of value to me this week.
Because of a Costco run last month, I had fresh mozzarella on-hand and combined with the 10@$10 (or $1 each) dried pasta special, it was easy to come up with a spaghetti and meatball dinner as well as a tomato soup (I stocked up last week when they were $1 each!) and grilled cheese sandwich, Caprese style (mozzarella, basil, tomato), dinner. Both of these meals as well as the basil pesto I am making (and freezing to use at a later date) will use every ounce of fresh basil I purchased today for $2.99. Planning on a meal of shredded beef over baked potatoes and using potatoes Au Gratin as a side dish will use up a few more of the potatoes I have leftover from last week. I already had the heavy cream and cheeses on-hand so the Au Gratin potatoes didn't cost me anything in additional ingredients. We use one package of ground turkey at each meal, which is a little more than half a pound. I already had all the ingredients for tacos (lettuce, tomatoes, taco sauce, shredded cheese, taco shells) and with just the purchase of Velveeta cheese and the dried pasta on sale, I would have everything to make my version of Hamburger Helper's cheeseburger macaroni with the other half of the ground turkey. I have Romaine lettuce leftover from last week I'll use up in side salads this week and I have two pouches of guacamole (from my Costco run) in my freezer for a quick side.
Weekly Meal Plan
Spaghetti and meatballs with a salad
Turkey tacos
Grilled chicken with potatoes Au Gratin and roasted Brussels sprouts
Turkey Helper with a salad
Chicken fajitas
Tomato soup with Caprese sandwiches
Shredded beef over baked potatoes
So, what exactly did I have to buy at the store today?
Only $87.11 worth of fresh produce (except for bananas, I only purchase fruit that is in-season and/or on sale!) a few canned items on sale that weren't advertised (like the Chili garlic sauce, hoisin sauce and Stubb's chicken marinade, all more than $1 off regular price!), milk, cottage cheese, and deli-sliced ham (as always), and I stocked up on the dried pasta sale. We were out of grated Parmesan cheese (Emily eats it on everything) and I needed 1/4 cup of pine nuts for the pesto. Not on my list was a new product for making Orange chicken (a family favorite) that I decided to purchase and give a try next week as it was at a special introductory price of $1.99 and the sauce I normally purchase is $5.99 for the bottle of about twice as much.
So, that's it for this week! I spent $60 less than my weekly budget of $150 and will have some pesto sauce as well as some home-made spaghetti sauce to add to my inventory.
Check out these and all my recipes on the right-hand side of this page under From My Kitchen!
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