and healthier eating too!
Here's what I use to do when I went to the grocery store: browse aimlessly through the store, throwing any B1G1 items in the cart. Confused and having no clue as to what I was going to make with the random assortment of items. I'd get the must haves for the boys: milk, bread, snacks, cereal, juice...then it was some salad stuff (tryin' to be healthy, remember?) and crazy ingredients that kept piling up in the pantry. I would end up spending a ton of money on a ton of CRAP.
How I shopped this past Monday and how I hope to shop more in the future: found five solid meals for Monday-Friday and tried to cut out as many carbs as I could (my husband has lost a ton of weight by doing this over the past year. He snacks on apples & PB. Refuses to eat bread or pasta. I need to be more like him. Seriously)
I went in with the list of what I needed for each meal, grabbed everything and what do you know? I actually spent LESS than what I usually spend at the grocery store and these were kind of expensive meals (salmon, pot roast, etc...). Even grabbed the usual snacks, lunch items and drinks for the kids too. It really floored me. Lesson learned: A little preparation goes a long way!
Here's what we did this week and yes, I wrote I scribbled it on our chalkboard just for me to remember, feel organized, and not have Chad ask me twenty million times.
MONDAY
Publix Ready-to-Cook Chicken stuffed with mozzarella cheese and asparagus + parmesan, squash and zucchini (one of my tried and true super easy ways to make veggies). Two of these huge stuffed breaded chicken breasts was $9, but by the time I would have bought the chicken breasts, bread crumbs, asparagus, and cheese? $9...easy. For the boys it was chicken strips, mac & cheese and squash and zucchini like we had.
TUESDAY
Salmon + brown rice + asparagus. I used this salmon recipe and liked it, but next time I want to try this soy sauce & brown sugar recipe! Cade went to eat Mexican with cousins after t-ball practice and Charlie had ravioli. I fix their food and have them eating/entertained while I'm cooking mine and Chad's. We were so starved this night after practice that I forgot to snap a pic! Because of the salmon, this was the most expensive meal but I looove me some salmon.
WEDNESDAY
Pot roast with potatoes & carrots (this amazing crock pot recipe. my new fav!) + white rice + green beans + deviled eggs. Cade asked "Daddy what is this?" and Chad told him, then he replied "Well it's REALLY GOOD!" So glad Cade approved. I had not done a roast in the crock pot in forever and I really did love this new recipe. We will certainly be making again and it's just so darn easy to dump in all the ingredients and let it cook while I'm at work!
THURSDAY
Make your own pizza night. Ok, ok so some carbs here but a friend had told me about Publix's pizza dough over in the bakery and since they had it on sale Monday I decided to try. I grabbed pepperoni (also on sale that day) and fresh mozzarella cheese + bags of regular mozzarella to use on salads tonight too. I used a fire roasted tomato pizza sauce and it was so good. Cade loves helping in the kitchen and it was a fun and easy meal (even if Chad mostly just ate salad :)
Tomorrow night I am going to a welcome dinner/rehearsal dinner for a friend in Greenville, so I'll eat there while Chad keeps the boys. They'll just eat leftovers from the roast (it makes a ton!) and then Saturday we will both be at the wedding! Sunday I plan to go shopping and start it all again for the week.
I usually spend at LEAST $100 on just junk and processed foods for our family per week. Last Monday I only spent $80 on those four meals + other necessities. I hope to cut down on costs and zone in on meal planning, only buying what we need, to save $ on future grocery bills. Groceries are RIDICULOUS. I'd love to save some $, make weeknight dinners easier (so we're not sitting there staring at the pantry like "What do we make?" and use that extra $ to put towards Summer vacations.
Oh and for my lunches at the store (which saved me $ bc when I'm not prepared I'll just go through the CFA drive thru or next door at Howards or Main Street Market - nearly $10 a day on lunch!) I grabbed deli turkey from Publix that was on sale and rolled it up with smoky Provolone cheese slices and added hard boiled eggs + almonds. I did have a sandwich at Main Street one day, but for the most part this filled me up and I also lost three pounds this week just by making a few changes in our menu. Hope I can keep this up!! Will report back next week...
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