Now that summer has officially hit and we are starting to harvest some of our garden crops I am once again really excited about meal planning. We have been doing really good at planning our meals and staying within a $150 budget for 2 weeks, however…. things are about to get real!
We splurged a bit this week and spent $60 at lucky’s. We bought 2 nights worth of teriyaki steak kabobs for $16! I nearly had a heart attack until C reminded me it was for 2 nights. We also bought the milk, cream, and buttermilk that we prefer but can’t justify buying because it’s almost twice the price of the cheap stuff but it’s so much better for you because it’s low-temp pasteurized and un-homogenized. You can definitely tell a HUGE difference in that vs the cheap stuff. We also bought butter, oatmeal, veggies that we need that we either aren’t growing this year or havent come in yet. We got cabbage, bananas, sweet peppers, and organic onions and potatoes. We have decided we are no longer buying root vegetables that are not organic. We really want to get the most out of our food and until we either are growing everything we need or can buy all organic we are slowly moving towards what we feel is most important, and after reading about the soil quality of potato farms after the dirty dozen list came out we decided to make the change. We also bought some spices, cheese, and drinks for us.
Today C is going to the restaurant store. He is buying yeast, flour, corn meal, butter, and cheese. My guess is he will be spending about $50.
Here are our meal plans for the next 2 weeks:
Dinners:
bean stew MON 1
teriaki beef kabobs with rice and naan TUES 1
pizza WED 1
chili THURS 2
buffalo chicken cornbread with blue cheese salad FRI 2
cornbread sliders with green beans SAT 2
spinach and mushroom quiche SUN 2
calzones MON 2
Chicken enchiladas with rice and salsa TUES 2
baked cabbage and ground beef WED 2
Breakfasts:
frittata, fruit oatmeal, omelete, fruit pancakes, scrambled eggs, breakfast burrito, pork buiscut sandwich
Lunches:
chicken sandwiches, feta and spinach fritters, steak sandwiches, curried chicken salad, stir fry veggies with rice, veggie roll ups, leftovers, homemade fish sticks
and snacks:
Bananas, banana bread, zucchini bread, oatmeal cookies, veggies with homemade ranch dressing, cheese cubes,
Now I know what you are probably thinking: “Wait a minute, you didn’t buy a lot of those things”, and you are right, but as you may recall 1) we are growing a lot of our own food 2) we have been slowly buying bulk meat and putting it in the freezer, and 3) we have both meat and egg chickens. I have also been figuring out a preliminary dinner plans for the NEXT 2 weeks:
here is my shopping list:
restaurant store: yeast ($2), olive oil ($16), steak ($35), cheddar cheese ($12) = $65
lucky’s/ kroger: fish ($5), onions ($5), peppers ($4), chocolate chips ($3), kale ($2), raisins ($3), potatoes ($5), lettuce ($5), beans- dried black and pinto ($4), cream ($8), milk ($4) = $48
Now these things may change because I’m not sure we will need cream, and i’m going to try to find steak for cheaper than $35, and I tend to overcompensate for the price of things so that if C decides to splurge on a few things I’m not freaking out. So right now we are looking at about $110 for 2 weeks of food. and this is what it looks like:
thai curry fish with rice THURS 1
chicken tikka masala with rice FRI 1
stuffed pablano peppers with beans and rice SAT 1
rolled steak with cucumber tomato salad SUN 1
grilled cheese with zuppa toscana MON 1
ranch taco salad TUES 1
beef stew with beans and veggies WED 1
stuffed cabbage rolls with fried green tomatoes THURS 2
pizza FRI 2
chicken pot pie SAT 2
veggie fajitas SUN 2
green beans with pork and fried green tomatoes MON 2
grilled cheese with homemade tomato soup TUES 2
tortellini WED 2
I dont know about you but i’m pretty hungry now. The beans slow cooking on the stove aren’t helping. yummmmm
