2018 $50 Budget Menu Plan Week 1: Happy New Year! As the temperatures dip across the country our focus this week is on hearty, warming meals that don’t take much time to prepare.
A new store recently opened in our area called Lidl. It’s quite similar to Aldi and offers a wide selection of organic produce, meats and antibiotic free meats, cheeses and other dairy products. The prices are quite reasonable, unfortunately, the store is about an hour away, so unless we already have plans to visit our son, we wouldn’t be making a special trip.
Part of the way we save so much on groceries is that we take the time to peruse the weekly ads of two to three of our favorite stores before we bother heading out to grocery shop. For example, cabbage is 29¢ a pound this week and 93% lean Black Angus (USA raised) ground beef is only $3.79 a pound.
So, we take into consideration what type of tasty meals we could throw together in a short period of time using those inexpensive ingredients. Cabbage is loaded with nutrients and is even known for healing stomach ulcers and preventing colon cancer. Not too shabby for twenty-nine cents a pound!
This week we purchased the following: Avocados, raspberries, mango, 5lbs chicken drumsticks, ground beef, Salad Greens, celery, carrots, red onions, potatoes, blueberries, kiwi fruit, pomegranate, cabbage, tortilla chips, cabbage, flour tortillas, peppers, couple cans of tuna and whole milk.
We normally don’t purchase milk, but it was literally $1.08 per gallon for whole milk at Lidl’s and it freezes well.
Total spent this week on groceries: 52.21
From our Backyard: Fresh Eggs
From our Windowsill/ Garden: a few fresh herbs in the windowsill– cilantro, basil, parsley and rosemary
Breakfast Options for this week:
- Fruit & Yogurt Parfaits
- Eggs-poached, over-easy, hard boiled, scrambled with leftover sauteed veggies & a sprinkle of cheese, etc
- Guilt Free Cinnamon Mango Muffins Or Mango Cream Oatmeal
- Instant Oatmeal (18 Flavors)
- Cinnamon Raisin Toast
Monday January 1st: Southerners are often known for celebrating the new year with a symbolic meal known as Hoppin’ John and while I’ve been here over a decade now, I still haven’t developed a taste for collards, black eyed peas or “butter beans” known to most of us Yankees as nasty ol’ lima beans.
So this year, we thought we’d try something a little different, for greens, we’re using split peas and leftover ham (that we froze) from Christmas dinner.
- Dinner: Hearty Split Pea Soup with crusty french bread
Tuesday January 2nd: The weather is pretty harsh, the winds are blowing and this dish is wonderfully warming and filling.
- Lunch: Tuna Salad Wraps
- Supper: Unstuffed Cabbage Rolls and leftover cornbread with honey jalapeno butter
Wednesday January 3rd: Tonight we’ll bake a couple extra potatoes to use in tomorrow nights dinner.
- Lunch: PB & Jelly Sandwiches
- Supper: Sriracha Honey Chicken Drumsticks, Baked Potatoes, Salad
Thursday January 4th:
- Lunch: Sriracha Honey Chicken Wraps with greens, onions, (using leftover chicken from last nights dinner)
- Supper: Chilis Loaded Baked Potato Soup, Biscuits
Friday January 5th:
- Lunch: Leftover Unstuffed Cabbage Rolls
- Supper: Slow Cooker Omelet Casserole
Saturday January 6th:
- Brunch: French Toast Bake Casserole (we use this quick french bread recipe)
- Dinner: Venison Pepper steak, Mashed Potatoes, Salad
Sunday January 7th:
- Lunch: Leftovers from previous days or fend for yourself day (aka, whatever the hell you can find, it’s not my problem, lol).
- Dinner: Cabbage Veggie Stew (use a cup or so of diced leftover venison roast), Biscuits with cinnamon honey butter (Sorry- for this one I don’t follow a recipe, I throw it all together in my instant pot.)
Various Snacks & Desserts: We had leftover pears and strawberries from last weeks menu plan, so we opted to make this delectable fruit salsa recipe to snack on. It’s also fantastic over oatmeal too.
- Fresh Fruit Choices Available– Fruit Salsa with Cinnamon Triangles
- Blueberries & Cream Oatmeal
Drinks Available:
- Coffee
- Hot Chocolate/Cocoa
- Iced Tea (Unsweetened or Sweet Tea)
- Water, of course.
Less Likely to be used, but still available:
- Copycat Gatorade
- CopyCat Arizona Green Tea
- Lemonade
- Iced Coffee Drinks
- Almond Milk
FYI: If you’re wondering why all the ingredients listed in the recipes aren’t necessarily showing in the “purchased groceries” list, please check out our Frequently Asked Questions!
thank you so much for doing menu plans again, they make such a huge difference for our family. we like reading how you find and figure out sales, i’ve gotten so much better!