So, this week I increased the budget a little bit. I've been trying to be better about the breakfast we eat. The kids and I are notoriously bad about eating a good breakfast. I'm sure they follow after me, but neither seems to have a big appetite in the morning (though Abel is starting to change). I bought 3 months of the eMeals breakfast meal plan and we are trying a few of the recipes this week. I didn't go crazy because otherwise that would affect our budget even more. I'll share the breakfast recipes at the end of the post.

Monday: Burrito Bowls. Total for meal: $3.00

We actually make this a vegetarian meal and cut out the chicken. There are enough flavors that it's still a really good dish! I already had onion, and spices.

Tuesday: Pasta in a Bag. Total for meal: $0

This just keeps appearing every week on the meal plan haha. We're actually going to use it this week! Clarence and I have a date night tonight, so I'll make this for the kids to eat. 

Wednesday: Rotisserie Chicken, Roasted Sweet Potato/Brussel Sprouts. Total for meal: $9.19

We are having a couple friends over for dinner tonight, so I grabbed a rotisserie chicken to cook in the crock pot. This is more cost-effective when there is a better sale and you can use leftover chicken for other meals, but not bad to feed four adults and two kids! Also, we tried this side dish when my parents were here a few weeks ago and it was so good; you've got to try it!

Thursday: Meatball Bombs and Frozen Veggies. Total for meal: $5.39

I bought a pound of grass fed ground beef and will use half to make meatballs for this dish, and half for Sunday night. We were going to eat broccoli with it, but Aldi was out so we bought a pack of asian blend veggies instead.

Friday: Church event. Free!

I am actually headed out of town for the weekend to attend a technology-free weekend at a lake nearby, headed by A-GAP. I'm looking forward to a free weekend to disconnect and spend some time with God and other women! Clarence will be with the kids for the weekend and our church is hosting a hangout at a local park, so he's taking them to that. 

Saturday Lunch: Out

Not my problem, I'm gone. Muahahahaha! Actually, Clarence offered to just figure out lunch with them.

Saturday Dinner: Sausage, Spinach, and Sweet Potato Skillet. Total for meal: $6.88

I actually just noticed the chicken sausage was apparently mislabeled, so I might take that back and get a less expensive sausage for them. 

This meal was on the breakfast emeals plan, but sounded good and perfectly suitable for a dinner.

12 oz pkg fully cooked chicken sausage links, sliced
1 Tbsp olive oil, divided
10 oz pkg frozen diced sweet potatoes (we will use real and cook them first for longer)
1/2 cup thinly sliced onion
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
5 oz pkg baby spinach  

Cook sausage in 1/2 Tbsp oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat 4-6 minutes or until browned. Remove from skillet; keep warm. Add 1/2 Tbsp oil to skillet. Add potatoes, onion, thyme, salt, and pepper; cook 8-10 minutes or until tender. Stir in sausage and spinach. Cook 1-2 minutes or until spinach is wilted and sausage is thoroughly heated.

Sunday Lunch: Leftovers

Sunday Dinner: Beef Stroganoff and Green Beans. Total for meal: $6.28

Total at the store this week: $74.13

Also bought, Eggs, tub of yogurt, pack of diapers, 4 individual yogurts, honey, riced cauliflower, sliced almonds, two boxes of fruit pouches, apple juice, 2 avocados, 2 kefirs, raisins, ranch dressing, milk, canned fruit cocktail (a Haven request...), chicken bouillon, bag of peaches, bread, lunch meat, blueberries

Here are the breakfast recipes we're trying this week:

Blueberry-Peach-Oat Smoothies

1 cup old-fashioned oats

2 cups 1% low-fat milk

2 peaches, cored and chopped

1 (4.4-oz) pkg blueberries

1 1/4 cups fat-free vanilla Greek yogurt

2 Tbsp turbinado sugar (omitting this)

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 cup crushed ice (or use cubed)

Combine oats and milk in a bowl; let stand 10

minutes. Process oat mixture, peaches,

blueberries, yogurt, sugar, and cinnamon in a

blender until smooth, scraping sides as needed.

Add ice; cover and pulse until smooth. Pour into

4 glasses.

Fresh Blueberry Parfaits with Coconut-Almond Granola

2 Tbsp maple syrup

1 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup sliced almonds

1 cup old-fashioned oats

3 Tbsp unsweetened flaked coconut

2 cups fat-free vanilla Greek yogurt

1 (4.4-oz) pkg blueberries

Preheat oven to 325°F. Whisk together

syrup, oil, cinnamon, vanilla, and salt in a large

bowl. Stir in almonds and oats. Spread in a

single layer on a parchment paper-lined rimmed

baking sheet. Bake 20 minutes or until lightly

browned, stirring after 10 minutes. Add coconut

to pan; bake 5 minutes. Cool. Layer . cup

yogurt, 2 Tbsp blueberries, and 2 Tbsp granola

in each of 4 glasses. Repeat layers once.

Note: You can make the granola ahead, cool

completely, and store in an airtight container up

to 5 days.

Broiled Peaches with Walnut Crumble and Honey-Vanilla Yogurt

1 1/2 cups fat-free plain Greek yogurt

2 Tbsp honey

1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup walnut halves

1 Tbsp butter, divided

⅛ tsp kosher salt

4 peaches, halved and pitted

Preheat oven to 350°F. Stir together yogurt,

honey, and vanilla in a bowl. Process nuts, 2

tsp butter, and salt in a food processor until

finely chopped. Spread on a rimmed baking

sheet. Bake 6 to 10 minutes or until toasted.

Remove from oven. Increase oven temperature

to broil. Place peaches, cut sides down, on a

broiler rack or baking sheet greased with 1 tsp

butter. Broil 3 minutes; flip and broil 1 minute.

Sprinkle peaches with toasted nuts. Serve with

Honey-Vanilla Yogurt.

Note: Make walnut crumble ahead of time;

store in an airtight container until ready to

serve.

Weekly Meal Plan 6/18/18

Today's meal plan brought to you by....15 min! That's all the time I had to throw this together before running out the door. It's one of those days where I just don't care about planning our meals. Can't this be someone else's job? :) I guess not, so here we go....

Monday: Stuffed Cabbage Casserole. Total for meal: $1.38

I'm going to half this recipe. I already had cabbage, ground beef, brown rice, and the seasonings. 

Tuesday: Creamy Garlic Chicken and Veggies. Total for meal: $8.69

I could've cut down on the cost of this meal by buying cheaper potatoes. I got the bite sized yellow potatoes and it won't give me any leftovers. If I had bought a big bag of potatoes and cut them myself, it would've been cheaper and I would've had extra, but the potatoes looked gross and smelled bad so I passed. 

Wednesday: Mexican Zucchini and Beef Skillet with Fruit. Total for meal: $3.29

I'm using half of the ground beef from last week for this meal (split with Monday). Oftentimes we cut down on the amount of meat listed in the recipe so that it helps us stretch our dollar further. If there is a good amount of other ingredients, you don't really miss it.

Thursday: Chicken Nuggets, Mac and Cheese, mixed veggies. Total for meal: $1.75

Clarence is at a meeting tonight, so mommy is being lazy. I had the mac and cheese already. I base the total on how much we'll use. We obviously won't eat the whole bag of nuggets. 

Friday: Chicken Bacon Tomato Alfredo Skillet and Salad. Total for meal: $7.48

I had the pasta and am splitting some of the other ingredients with another meal, which brings cost down. 

Saturday Lunch: Friend's Birthday Party

Saturday Dinner: My husband's office is having a 4th of July party we'll go to. Dinner is provided.

Sunday Lunch: Leftovers from Friday's dinner. That makes me feel better about the total :)

Sunday Dinner: Small Group Leader's Meeting. Dinner may not be provided, but if not, we'll just grab something on the way.

Total at the store: $46.59

Also bought apple juice, muffins, two boxes of pouches, 4 yogurts, 2 kefirs, milk, cereal bars, grapes, cookies.

Weekly Meal Plan for 6/11/18

One way that I save money is by "shopping" from our cabinets. There are weeks where we may not use all of something I bought, so I always try to come up with meal plans based off what we have first. Then after that, I'll look up meat prices that are on sale at Aldi and try to plan off those. There are definitely weeks that our cabinets are bare by the time I go to the store (since I try to only buy what's on my shopping list), and this method doesn't work, but sometimes it's a great way to save some $$.

This may seem pretty like a pretty obvious tip, but I was terrible at this kind of thing when I first started living on my own. I was incapable of looking at an item I had in my cabinets and planning a meal around it. So if that's hard for you too, know you're in good company. It gets easier! This week I'm using a lot of what we have already.

Monday: Chicken Spinach Bacon Alfredo with crescent rolls. Total for meal: $3.04

I've made this once before, but was not super impressed. This time I'm only kind of following the above recipe. I had some alfredo sauce leftover from a dish I made last week, so I'm going to use that instead of following the recipe for one. I'm also putting in some leftover rotisserie chicken from last week and splitting the bag of spinach with tomorrow's dish. I already had pasta and will toss in a bag of bacon pieces instead of cooking bacon.

Tuesday: White bean with spinach and sausage soup and peaches. Total for meal: $2.07

We had this meal not too long ago, but it's a good fit to split the sausage and spinach with other meals this week (I'll make a smaller portion of the soup). Clarence has a meeting tonight, so this will be good and easy for me and the kids to share. I had a can of diced tomatoes in the cabinet as well as some canned peaches. Using what we have! 

Wednesday: Fried Cabbage with potato and bacon, fruit. Total for meal: $1.56

Using up the rest of the bacon and some potatoes we had from last week, so all I had to buy was a cabbage and it was HUGE, so I'll just use half of it for this meal and save the rest for next week. Oh and the rest of the cost was the grapes.

Thursday: Chicken Bog and green beans. Total for meal: $2.11

The name of this dish leaves something to be desired, but the recipe sounds good! Thanks to my friend, Liza, for sharing this one. I'm halving this because it sounds like it makes a TON. I'm using some rotisserie chicken from last week and half of the kielbasa I'm splitting with Tuesday's meal. I had rice, onions, butter, a can of green beans, and Old Bay seasoning.

Friday: Meatloaf, Mashed Potatoes, Zucchini. Total for meal: $4.67

I bought a 2 pound package of ground beef that was on sale for $2.69 a pound. I'll use half for this meal and save half for next week. I rarely do a meat-heavy dish like this, but we haven't had meatloaf in a long time and I was craving it (this is my mom's recipe). We'll use the rest of the potatoes we had leftover from last week.

1 pound ground beef
1/2 cup quaker rolled oats
1/2 cup ketchup
1 egg
1 diced onion
salt to taste 

Mix the ingredients together, shape into a loaf and bake at 350 for one hour or until browned.

Saturday Lunch: Leftovers

Saturday Dinner: Neighborhood cookout! Total for meal: $3.50

Every year, one of our neighbors hosts a cookout in their yard. Everyone brings their own meat and a dish to share. I bought us some burgers and buns and we already have hot dogs (which Abel will want). I will need to make a dish to share, but haven't figured out what yet.

Sunday Lunch: Pasta in a bag. Total for meal: $0

I bought this last week for lunch on Saturday when the boys were gone, but we ended up taking my mom to our favorite restaurant in Greenville (Adam's Bistro), so we'll eat it for lunch today instead.

Sunday Dinner: Church small group leader's meeting. Free dinner.

This was in the plan for last week, and the leaders suddenly had to go support a sibling who lost their full-term baby after trying to get pregnant for four years. It's absolutely heartbreaking and I can't imagine their range of emotions right now. Please pray for them! 

Total at the store this week: $37.27

Also bought kefir, fruit pouches, grapes, 6 yogurts, strawberries, mac and cheese (always good to have one hand just in case...), cantaloupe, and bread.

I love how using what's in the cabinet can drastically lower the grocery budget! And those individual meal totals make me feel so happy! What's on your meal plan this week?

Weekly Meal Plan for 6/4/18

We have more visitors this week! Clarence found out about a Porsche event in Atlanta, mentioned it to my dad, and suddenly they have tickets and are going. It's on Saturday and they're taking Abel and my two nephews that live in Virginia. My mom will stay here with me and Haven, so we'll have to do something fun, just the girls :) My parents and nephews are coming Thursday and leaving Sunday, so we've included them in the meals. Here's what we've got going on this week!

Tuesday: Mongolian Beef, Rice, Roasted Carrots. Total for meal: $0

This was a meal we were supposed to have last week, but we forgot our realtor was having a customer appreciation event at a local water park and provided dinner, so we pushed it to today.

Wednesday: Hamburgers/hot dogs, mac and cheese, green beans. Total for meal: $.63

We had a cookout on Saturday with some friends at our house and have leftover hamburgers, hot dogs, and buns, so we'll eat them tonight. Don't be jealous of our sides ;)

Thursday: Ranch Pork Chops and Potatoes Sheet Pan Dinner with salad. Total for meal: $8.61

Money saving tip: Originally I saw that assorted pork chops were on sale for $1.99 a pound at Aldi this week and planned on buying them. But once at the store, I realized I could actually pay less by buying the thin sliced boneless pork chops. Even after accounting for the bone weight, the one I got is probably a little less meat overall, but I could save about $2 doing it this way and we'll have all the meat we need. I also bought whole baking potatoes because they were much cheaper. It's more prep, and I'll probably have to roast them for a bit before putting in the pork chops, but I'd rather pay less and work more.

Friday: Rotisserie Chicken, Roasted Brussel Sprouts/Sweet Potatoes, Rolls. Total for meal: $7.38

Whole chickens were on sale for .59 a pound so I got the largest one I could find which will hopefully feed all of us! I'll bake it in the crock pot, which we've done before and it's super easy. The recipe for the side sounds delicious too. We'll see if my nephews eat it ;)

Saturday Lunch: Garlic Chicken Pasta in a bag. Total for meal: $3.29

The boys will be gone, so there will just be three of us, and this is as easy at it gets. A meal in a bag that you dump in the skillet. Yes, please!

Saturday Dinner: Bacon Chicken Bake, Broccoli, Fruit. Total for meal: $8.37

Boys are back! I had a little bit of frozen chicken breasts left I'm going to make work. I'm omitting the mushrooms and making my own alfredo sauce. My mom can't have eggs and the store bought alfredo sauce at Aldi had egg in it. I'm going to follow this recipe. 

Sunday Lunch: Out. The family might join us for church and lunch. But if they end up leaving before-hand, we'll still go out to eat.

Sunday Dinner: Small Group Leader Training at church, dinner provided!

Total at the store this week: $58.06 

We're over our $50 goal, but since I'm providing dinner for 4 adults and 4 kids on Thur, Fri, and Saturday nights, I'm still more than happy with the total!

Also bought: 2 fruit pouch boxes, sticks of butter, cinnamon rolls, two boxes of fruit bowls, cereal bars, milk, 7 yogurts, muffins, steak fries, orange juice, strawberries, 2 apples, raisins, eggs, bananas, and bread.

I'm always blown away by the amount of food I can get for around $50 at Aldi!!! Shopper for liiiiife.