12-1-12 This Weeks Meal Plan of Cheap 15 Minute Meals. *Shopping List Included* (Under $120.00 weekly for all food), New Meal Plans Post on Sunday.

This week, I’m back at work and surprisingly loving it. It’s less hectic than I remember it being. Of course, I’m only on day four of ten worked in a row, so perhaps we should revisit this idea in a few days. Meals have been going great, and while I could probably upgrade to 30 minute meals, I’ll spend a few more weeks on 15 minute meals to make sure I can keep this pace. 

Each Week, I sit down with my schedule book and plan out this week’s meals. Breakfasts are serve yourself from pre-made options, and snack bags for lunches are separated into snack baggies on shopping day (Sunday). I just grab 3 snack baggies for each of our lunches to toss in. We both pack our lunch every day, even being at home these last few months. I pack my lunch as well so I can grab it and go while running errands etc. Jon took over the shopping as one of his chores (You rock Jon!), He does that on Sunday and then I can do food prep that day for the week. I share our menu for the week for those that are new to menu planning. If you have no idea what to do for the week and would like to steal some or all of our plan... I promise not to prosecute:-)

As always, I feel it's important to note that this is not the healthiest plan to follow. It's a great plan for us, because it's breaking our addiction to fast food and other unhealthy habits, and its cut our food budget by about 50%. Slowly, we're making substitutions that will lead us to a healthy cheap meal plan. Rome wasn't built in a day and all that jazz.

 

"Recipes" for all menu items can be found here and here, unless they are noted below in the menu plan.

 

 

 



 

 

MENU:

 

 

 

 

Breakfast Options for the Week:

 

French Toast and Pancakes!! I’m making tons of these tomorrow from scratch and freezing them in groups of three. Add a little butter and strawberry preserves and I’m a happy girl.

Milk and Cereal: Self Explanatory.

 

 

Fruit Smoothies: We have frozen strawberries left over from last week’s Strawberry Shortcake so we can blend these with milk and ice (and chocolate if it’s going to be one of those days).

 

 

Lunch Options:

 

 

Jon may never get sick of Turkey and Muenster, but I certainly do. I’ll get a few options for the week and we can choose accordingly.

 

Frozen Healthy Choice Steamers- at 200 calories, these are great addition to lunch if I get sick of sandwiches.

 

Roast Beef and Cheddar

 

Oven Roasted Turkey and Muenster

 

Leftover TurkeyJ- Lots and Lots of Leftover Turkey, considering Mom and Dad brought down another turkey so we had two for Thanksgiving.

 

Snack Options for Lunches:

 

Pudding cups
Slim Jim's
Peanuts
Popcorn
Granola Bars
Fruit
Carrots

 

 

 

Reminders:

 

Gym all week right before lunch. Dinners must be stored for Jon and quick to both make and heat.

 

Make sure you have everything you need to pack two lunches from now on.

 

Plan for an insane Breakfast Burrito batch cooking session on your day off this week. We need 20 burritos to last until my next day off.

 

Pack extra easy snacks to store in car for unexpected late nights.

 

Weekday Lunches are now also being eaten on the weekends since one of us will almost always be working the weekend.




Monday:

Lunch: Lunch Options and Three Snacks

Dinner: Broiled Steaks, Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans. Served with A-1 Sauce and Garlic Parsley Butter.

(Broiled Steaks- Take 2 pieces of steak, preheat broiler to HI. Place steaks in oven on a broiler pan, leave the oven door open an inch. Broil on each side for about 5 minutes (could be less or more depending on steak thickness). Check the middle, if you want it more well done, close the oven door, bake at 375 for another 5 minutes.)

We use instant mashed potato flakes for quick mashed potatoes and frozen steamable green beans.


Tuesday:

Lunch: Lunch Options and Three Snacks


Dinner: Taco Salad, Chips and Guacamole


Wednesday:

Lunch: Lunch Options and Three Snacks

Dinner: Grilled Chicken Salad on Pita’s

(Either use grilled chicken that you’ve made yourself and frozen, or you can use Tyson’s Frozen Grilled Chicken Breasts, or Wegmans Frozen grilled Chicken Breasts, or you can shred a rotisserie chicken.  Chop cucumbers, onion, olives, green pepper, romaine lettuce and mix with chopped chicken. Toss with greek dressing and pile on top of pita bread (or naan bread) that’s been warmed in the microwave for a few seconds. Salt and Pepper to taste.


Thursday:

Lunch: Lunch Options and Three Snacks

Dinner: Homemade Sloppy Joes, Steamed Peas, Brown Rice


Friday:

Lunch: Lunch Options and Three Snacks

Dinner: Sausage, Green Pepper, Onion and Pepperoni Pizza. Carrots and Blue Cheese Dressing


Saturday:

Breakfast: Tomato and Mozzarella Omlets.

Lunch: Lunch Options and Three Snacks

Dinner: Broiled Steaks, Cauliflower and Cheese (frozen prepared), Egg Noodles.

 

Sunday:

Breakfast: French toast with strawberry preserves

Lunch: Lunch Options and Three Snacks

 

Dinner: Chipotle Style Bowls

 

Shopping List: (All prices are approximate based off memory- If we shop before I post, I'll include total)

**This Post also serves as my husbands shopping list – you can ignore the descriptions meant for him.

 

2 Loaves of Giant Bread- $2.00

Gallon Fat Free Milk - $2.50

5 Healthy Choice Steamers - $9.00

Wegmans Muenster Cheese- $2.50

Wegmans Pudding Cups- $1.50

Slim Jim (Large Container)- $3.00

Wegmans Honey Roasted Peanuts- $2.00

Wegmans Applesauce Cups - $2.00

Wegmans Pear Cups (for lunches) - $2.00 (If Wemans doesn’t make these- just grab the cheapest national band)

3 Packs of Wegmans Burrito Tortillas- $6.00

3 Rolls of Frozen Sausage (like Jimmy Dean- but buy Wegmans if they have it)- $8.00

Huge Bag of Mozzarella Cheese- $14.00

Frozen Mixed Peppers (for burritos- if you can’t find them, just grab a club pack of green peppers for about $4.00)- $1.00

Frozen Onions (diced, chopped etc- doesn’t matter) - $1.00

Salsa- $2.00

4 thin personal size steaks (expiring after 11/30 if possible) - $11.00

1 Pound Wegmans Butter- $2.00

Steamable Green Beans- $2.00

Club Pack Ground Beef (when you get home, separate it into 1 pound packs and freeze with date and contents on label)- $13.00

Romaine Lettuce- $2.00

2 Small Packs of Cheddar Cheese - $4.00 (Don’t get a large one because once opened they expire in 3 days).

Large Wemans Sour Cream- $2.00

Taco Seasoning - $1.00 (these are kept with the seasoning packets- like beef gravy packets etc – If my memory serves it’s in the canned veggie aisle)

2 Avocados- $3.00

Wegmans Tortilla Chips- $2.00

Steamable Peas (with that french sauce- berganaise?- I’m sure I just butchered that)- $2.00

1 Green Pepper - $1.00

1 White Onion- $1.00

Pepperoni - $2.00

Pizza Crust- $2.00 (Any type- refrigerated, wegmans dough, or boboli type crust)

Baby Carrots- $2.00

Wegmans Blue Cheese (Not the light one)- $1.50

Wegmans Fozen Cauliflower and Cheese- $2.00

Egg Noodles- $2.00

1 Can of Black Beans- $1.00

Wegmans Frozen Grilled Chicken Breast- $6.00

Lime Juice- $1.00

 

 

Total: $ 120.00

 

Items already at Home:

 

Ketchup

Mayo

Strawberry Preserves

Brown Sugar

Diced Onion

Cilantro