Our Weekly Meal Plan on a Squeaky Tight Budget

Wednesday is grocery day around here, and my bulk order from http://www.vitacost.com/ arrived yesterday, so here's our meal plan for the week:

Breakfast:
I never plan in advance, but thanks to my online order of hot and cold grain cereals, as well as bread on hand for toast, we are set for whatever the kids choose this week. Normally we use only a gallon of milk per week, the kids dont like drinking it plain.

Lunch:
My 2 sons pack a lunch each day, organic pb&j on whole wheat white bread, a side of raw fruit or veggie, an organic snack bar or baked treat from the kitchen, and water. Thankfully, that's usually all they want, but a couple days a week they ask for Annie's mac and cheese which I usually pick up when its $1.25 per box- they split the box plus a raw fruit or veggie, and snack bar/baked treat with water.

My husband and I have leftovers, cook up a few eggs, or make a sandwich- I dont really plan lunches since my daughter and baby that are home during the day arent the least bit picky and will eat whatever I serve- I just make sure there's sandwich fixings, raw fruits and veggies from our Bountiful Basket.

Snacks:
The kids usually snack on raw fruits, baked goodies, pb sadwiches (they love pb!), make and egg or something simple.

Dinner:
Here's where I do my real planning, otherwise we end up running out for fast food, or to the grocery store for some quick fix convenience food junk.

1. Elk Pot Roast, Chunky Mashed Potatos/Beef Gravy, and Brussel Sprouts- roasted with OO and garlic.




2. Turkey Meatloaf and Veggie Pasta Salad-brussel sprouts chopped (set aside from last night)/sliced black olive/parmasean/wholegrain pasta salad served warm dressed only with OO, salt and pepper.




3. Spicy Pulled Meat Tacos and Garden Salad with Homeade Ranch Dressing(half of roast from day one set aside and reseasoned overnight in the crock pot until fork tender), Ranch made from sour cream, lemon juice, skim milk to save on calories, dill weed, garlic, and paprika, salt and pepper, fresh cracked is best!




4. Ethiopian Stew, delicious and simple- simmer cubed potato and carrot in chicken broth along with a seasoning packet made by my friend Lindsey, tomato sauce, and chickpeas (both made myself to avoid canned BPA), my kids LOVE this soup and its hearty enough to serve alone.




5. Plowman's Share and Homeade Buscuits (3 layers: 1st cubed cooked potato, 2nd elk pot roast meat, topped with a bag of frozen green beans -organic of course), you can add cheese if you like, but we are trying to cut down on dairy consumption so I don't. Everyone loves to sprinkle with soy sauce to add flavor, or dip in homeade ranch dressing, and since it's all made ahead of time, it assembles quick in a 9X13.




6. Homeade Chili and Corn Chips (store bought, quartered corn tortillas baked till crispy). I'm combining elk hamburger, various roasted peppers/onions, tomatos, and pinto beans-again, made from scratch to avoid BPA, chili powder, garlic, and cumin- cook it low and slow, serve with sour cream.




7. Broccoli Steak and Rice- marinated antelope steak stirfried with fresh broccoli, tossed with a beef, soy, and ginger sauce (I set aside half of the gravy from meal #1 for the base of this sauce.)

I usually dont stick to the meal plan in order depending on what we're in the mood for, and this week is a bit heavy on meat consumption, but that's the benefit of a hunting husband, the freezer's always full of organic, wild grass and mountian stream fed meat!

You can see that I try to double up and set out ingredients for later meals to cut down on kitchen time for myself. Along with my Bountiful Baskets, and $85 monthly order from vitacost, I only spend $56 in the grocery store today for the week, it would've been $50, but I found some organic all beef hotdogs on quicksale which I'll work into next weeks menu. this month I did opt for conventional produce baskets instead of the organic for more variety- doing so saved me and extra $90, bringing my monthy grocery budget for this month down to $345 for our family of 6, oh woops, I forgot to add the quicksale hotdogs, I guess it's really $351 for the month!

Goals For This Week

1.Make ahead and freeze homeade organic bagels and dry waffle mixes

2.Learn from a friend how to make organic tortillas.