Meal Plan Changes and Grocery Re-Cap

As usual, my meal plan changed this past week. I actually managed to keep it all the same until Saturday. I ended up making meatloaf instead of chili. I've been making the same meatloaf, using the same recipe, for years. But for some reason it didn't come out well this time. I bought meat from BJs instead of the local market where I usually get it from, so maybe that had something to do with it? I don't know. Either way I wasn't pleased. But we ate it and it made enough for leftovers. Tonight I made a chicken tostada recipe that I'd been meaning to try for awhile. It was delicious! I'll post the recipe later this week.

Here are the groceries I purchased last week:

Trader Joe's:
Hummus
Milk
Almond milk

$8.77

Dave's:
Corned Beef
Apples

$10.71

Stop & Shop:
2 Loaves of Whole Wheat Bread
2 peppers
4 boxes of barilla whole wheat pasta
2 bags of New England hazelnut ground coffee
Organic cereal
Oats
(This was the only shopping trip that I remembered to take a picture of. Oops!)

$21.01

BJs:
Honey Bunches of Oats (Dan's cereal of choice. He eats it at home and in his apartment)
Almonds
Fig Bars
Strawberries
Raspberries
Stonyfield Farm yogurt squeezes
3lbs of Chicken breasts

$44.93

I went to so many stores this past week. Yikes. I spent a total of $85.42

I started the month with $275. I am left with $18.99 for this entire week. I'm actually looking forward to the challenge of eating out of the cupboards and freezer as much as possible! And i'm determined NOT to spend more than that $18.99. I'll let you know how it goes. :)

If you're curious, here are my previous shopping trip posts from this month:

Week One
Week 2

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Meal Plan Monday & Recipes

Here is my meal plan for the week:

Monday: Quinoa Pizza bites & steamed broccoli (me) and English Muffin pizzas with leftover sweet peas (the kids)

Tuesday: We are supposed to go to a friend's house for dinner. If the snow ruins that plan, I'll have a tuna sandwich with spinach on a flat-out wrap, and the rest of my steamed broccoli from Monday. The kids will have fish sticks and finish up their leftover peas.

Wednesday: We'll eat at my mom's house

Thursday: Chicken (new recipe), pilaf rice, and green beans

Friday: Eating at the dining hall (maybe. My husband might have to work. If he does, I honestly have no idea what we'll have. Possibly soup and rolls.)

Saturday: Chili and chips

Sunday: Leftover chili for whoever wants it; Whole Wheat Banana pancakes with fruit and yogurt for anyone who doesn't want the chili (I have the pancakes in my freezer leftover from Valentine's day breakfast.)

***Tomorrow I'll post my weekly grocery round-up. In the interest of full disclosure, I have to say that my mother-in-law was in town this weekend, and when we took a BJ's trip, she bought our weekly groceries. This was so generous and so helpful for us. However, because i'm trying to prove that we can live on a $275 a month grocery budget, i'm going to deduct the price of the groceries from our budget as if we spent it. Also, i'll post what we spent on food for Stephanie's party, because we ended up having the leftovers for several other meals. This of course keeps the budget down for the rest of the month. I'm probably going to end up challenging myself on the blog again during March when there aren't so many special occasions! That will be the real test as to whether I can spend only $275 for the month.***

Several people have asked for some of my recipes!

My Pumpkin Spelt Muffin recipe came from 100 Days of Real Food, and you can find it here:

http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2012/09/25/recipe-whole-spelt-pumpkin-muffins-and-other-spelt-recipes/

The Cheddar Egg Muffin came from my friend Melissa over at Marching to a Different Beat. I'm not 100% sure, but I think she got it from the book Wheat Belly by William Davis.

2 C. fresh broccoli, chopped

1 C. Cheddar cheese (shredded. I've used mozzarella if that's the only thing I have on hand.)

1 tsp dried basil

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp salt

8 eggs

*Combine everything but eggs. Whisk eggs in separate bowl, then mix with everything else. Divide into muffin tin. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Enjoy the deliciousness! 

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Grocery Recap: Week 2

I've completely finished food shopping for this week, and went to four different stores. I did BJs, Trader Joe's and Target this weekend, and Dave's this morning. (I went to Dave's first thing today, leaving the kids with my husband. Such a rare privilege to go alone! I appreciated every second.)

What I bought:

BJS
3 lbs of ground beef
Pirates Booty
3 dozen eggs
Fruit squeeze pouches (I was frustrated to learn that they switched from Motts all natural applesauce pouches to the ones with high fructose corn syrup. I refuse to buy them, so we switched brands.)
1 gallon of milk
Bananas

Total: $37.96

Trader Joe's
Organic whole wheat pitas
Whole Wheat Pasta (1lb)
White Whole Wheat Flour
sour cream
hummus
honey
blueberries
spinach
broccoli
raspberries
granola (this wasn't on my list. It was the sample and Stephanie begged me to buy it. I caved.)

Total: $28.59

Target
Cocoa
Jelly
Red Sprinkles (for Valentine cookies and Stephanie's birthday cake)
Strawberry Jam (Stephanie asked to try this, and since I found some with all natural ingredients, I agreed. Just a note...buying things because your kids ask for them is not the way to shop on a budget. I was feeling generous for some reason this week. And she asked for granola and strawberry jam, not cookies and chips. So I guess there's that.)

Total: $8.79

Daves
Annies Mac & Cheese (2 boxes)
Chunk Light Tuna (2 pouches)
Kid's yogurt smoothies
Shredded Cheese (2 bags)
Cored Pineapple
Apples
Bananas

Total: $19.50

Weekly Total: $94.84

I now have $104.41 left for the rest of the month. I'm done this week, so that leaves 2 full weeks. This is where it will start to get tight as I try my hardest to stay in budget this month! By the final week we may be digging through and scraping bottom with whatever food we have left in the house.

*I've been asked for a few recipes that I've written about. I'll post them soon!

**We have another meal plan change this week. With more snow on the horizon, we cancelled our dinner playdate tomorrow. I'll serve the kids Annie's mac & cheese with a steamed frozen veggie on the side. I'll have leftover meat pie that my mom sent home with me tonight, and whatever veggies I make for the kids.

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Weekly Meal Plan and Recap

So i'm officially one week into my February meal planning/grocery budget project. I'm happy to say I still have grocery money. (It would be pretty bad to have used it all already, but hey i'm all about finding victories wherever I can.)

I did not, however, stick to my meal plan last week. The weather definitely changed things, and showed me that it's a good idea to make sure you always have some things on hand for unexpected meal changes. (That way you don't end up calling for take out!)

On Monday we had a bigger snowstorm than anticipated, so it took longer than I thought it would to shovel snow. By the time I got inside at 4:30pm, it was too late to make and cook the turkey meatloaf. Since I already had a pound of ground turkey defrosted in the fridge, I took Thursday's plan of turkey tacos and switched it to Monday. We had a lot of leftovers, so we had the same meal on Tuesday. Wednesday we were supposed to eat at my mom's house, but got another snowstorm. I decided to make a quinoa/broccoli/chicken sausage stir-fry, and it was delicious. (The kids didn't like the quinoa, but ate the broccoli and sausage.) Thursday I was visiting a friend in Massachusetts, and got home around 4. I didn't feel like cooking, so I just heated up some soup. (Trader Joe's Creamy Tomato for Joseph and I; Progresso Chicken Rotini for Stephanie.) Friday we were supposed to go to the dining hall, but since we hadn't seen Dan since Sunday, he decided we should go out to dinner at The Mews. I of course didn't protest this suggestion. Saturday we were at a party, and Sunday I made turkey meatballs to take to Dan's apartment, where we also had pasta (whole wheat for me, regular for everyone else) and jarred sauce. I usually make my own, but I was busy grocery shopping and cleaning during the day and didn't have time.

Here is this week's plan:

Monday: Leftovers for me (I still have some of the quinoa/sausage/broccoli in the fridge) and frozen pizza for the kids. Raw baby carrots and a spinach salad on the side.

Tuesday: It's Stephanie's 4th birthday so we're going out to eat.

Wednesday: We'll eat at my mom's house.

Thursday: I think we're going to a friend's house for dinner.

Friday: Valentine's Day dinner at my mom's house (i'm making meatballs)

Saturday: Stephanie's family dinner. We're having sandwiches and a veggie platter with homemade dill dip, a pickle/olive tray, and some chips. (Doritos, per the birthday girl's request.)

Sunday: A new chicken recipe, steamed greenbeans or peas (whichever i'm in the mood for) and a side of quinoa and pilaf rice. (I am not a fan of making two meals, but I prefer quinoa and the kids prefer pilaf, so I figure this is one area that I will make two. And I'll request that the kids take at least one bite of quinoa.)

Wow I didn't realize how little I had to cook this week until I saw it written out like this!

I've already done 2/3 of my grocery shopping for the week, so stay tuned for my recap later this week!

In case you want to catch up on this project here are the links for the previous posts:

An explanation of the project and my first week's plan

The first week's grocery shopping

What we eat for breakfast

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What We Eat For Breakfast

To go along with my series on grocery budgeting and meal planning, I thought I would share with you the things that we eat at other times of day, not just dinner.

 At our house, breakfast is typically very predictable. In fact, our whole morning routine is pretty predictable.

I start my day with three (yes, three) cups of coffee. I make a half pot, and since i'm the only one who drinks it, I get it all. I don't put any sugar or cream in my coffee, and this week I've been experimenting with using almond milk instead of my usual 1%. It's definitely different, but I want to give it a full week before I decide whether I actually like it or not.

When the kids get up, they watch a show and drink half a sippy cup of 1% milk. They often request a snack while they watch, so they get little bowls with Trader Joe's cheerios, craisins, or bran flakes in them. (I serve it to order, whichever combination of the three that they ask for on any particular day.)

When we sit down at the table for breakfast, the kids eat yogurt, fruit and some kind of grain. (A pumpkin spelt muffin, a Trader Joe's breakfast bar, a piece of toast with peanut butter.) The type of fruit and yogurt depends on what we have in the house at the time. Occasionally they will request cereal with milk, in which case they get either cheerios or bran flakes.

I have two breakfasts that I alternate between. I either have plain organic yogurt with a tablespoon of flax seed and a cheddar egg or pumpkin spelt muffin on the side, or oatmeal made with milk, cinnamon, walnuts (or sunflower seeds) and a little maple syrup or honey. Sometimes I'll add fruit or a cheddar egg muffin if i'm still hungry. Like the kids, I occasionally switch it up by having fruit and a bowl of cheerios or bran flakes.

Breakfast is a nice meal for me because it's predictable, so I always know which ingredients I need to keep in stock. If I notice i'm running low on something, I just add it to my ongoing shopping list and pick it up the next week. I've never run out of everything all at once before, so we always have at least one of our optionsa available to eat.

I'd love to hear what all of you eat for breakfast! It's the most important meal of the day, after all. :)

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Weekly Grocery Shopping

This week I went to 3 different stores. I didn't need anything for the dinners I had planned, so I just needed to pick up some things for breakfasts, lunches and snacks. Because there weren't many things I needed, I was able to shop the sales for things to stock up on.

Yesterday I ran to Trader Joe's in the morning to do a quick shop before our snow storm started. I bought:

32oz tub of plain lowfat organic yogurt
1 loaf of multi grain sprouted bread (I'd never bought this before but heard good things and wanted to try it.)
Blueberries
Bagged salad (baby spring mix)
Organic squeeze yogurts
Box of 100 calorie dark chocolate
Corn tortillas
Chicken sausage
A Smoothie  drink

I spent $25.18

Then today I went to Dave's, our local market. I had gone through the ads, and again, since I didn't necessarily need much, I bought things that were on good sales.

Strawberries (2lbs)
Chicken stock
Chicken tenderloins (2lb)
Ground Turkey (2lb)
A dozen eggs
1lb of american cheese

I spent $22.60

Later in the day I met a friend at Whole Foods (NOT the place to go when you're on a budget. But it was a special treat, and I have been wanting to go and price compare some things.) First we had a very expensive lunch of pizza and salad. (My friend brought things from home and supplemented with a slice of pizza from WF and a cookie from the bakery as a treat. She's a genius. I'll do that next time.) Then I attempted to walk around the store but it was nap/rest time and the kids were not enjoying being there. I did manage to grab some things that were really well priced like:

Bagged organic popcorn
2 cartons of organic soup (1 tomato and 1 sweet potato)
1 carton of  organic chicken broth (Which was a really good price)
Almond milk
32oz tub of organic plain yogurt. Yes I had just bought this at Trader Joe's. But it was the same price and I go through it fast. I usually buy two of them at TJs, but had forgotten.
Feta Cheese

I spent $19.97

I've spent a total of $67.75 on groceries in February, so based on my monthly food budget of $275, I have $207.25  left. And i'm completely done with this week's shopping. Pretty good so far!

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I'm Still Here! (And Still Meal Planning)

Happy New Year!

Wait. It's February. Well, better late than never, right?

As usual, I started the year out with a bunch of resolutions. One of which was blogging. I had decided to start a new blog, where I recorded a few simple sentences each day about things my kids had said and done. I thought it seemed so doable, and that it would be something I would stick with. I didn't.

I had kind of then decided that I was just done with blogging. I couldn't seem to get the motivation to keep up with it, and even though I missed writing I figured it just wasn't in the cards for me anymore.

Then last week three different people asked me why I haven't blogged in awhile. Then I got an email from Highlights saying they linked back to my blog. And I was embarrassed because if anyone clicked on the link, they would see that I hadn't blogged since October. Oops. THEN one of my friends, who I was talking about blogging with, got me talking about food budgeting. Something I've been spending a lot of time on lately. And I thought, ok, I think I need to blog about this, and what better time than the start of a new month!

Since buying our house last year, we've really tightened our belts on a lot of things, one being our grocery budget. I set a monthly budget of $275 for us for food. This is strictly food prepared and eaten at home. It doesn't include eating out (something we can only afford to do very sparingly) and it doesn't include household products like paper towels, tissues, toilet paper, etc. It's still a tight budget though, and I tend to go over almost every month. I'm hoping that, with February being a short month I'll be able to stick with it. And what better way than to share with the world all that i'm buying!

I'm going to use the blog to be accountable for all my grocery shopping. I'll also include my meal plans, and a wrap up of what we ended up eating.

There's a lot that goes into my planning and shopping days, and i'll detail it out bit by bit this month. But to start i'll share with you our dinner plans for the week:

Monday: Glazed Turkey Meatloaf with a side of baked sweet potato chunks, steamed broccoli and steamed green beans.

Tuesday: Sweet Potato pancakes with yogurt and fruit.

Wednesday: We will eat at my mom's house

Thursday: Turkey Tacos

Friday: We'll eat at the dining hall. (What's the dining hall? My husband works at a college. Since he has to live there most of the time, he's given a meal plan as a job perk. He's allotted a specific amount of meals to use at the dining hall each semester. He uses some each week to take us out for dinner. The kids think it's awesome to dine with the college kids and I love that I don't have to cook. Or pay for a meal!)

Saturday: We have a party to attend

Sunday: Meatballs, Pasta and sauce with steamed veggies on the side

I *hopehopehope* I will keep up blogging about our food budget this month because I really think it will help keep me on track! Stay tuned tomorrow to hear about my first grocery trip of the month.

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