Food budget and menu plan

[raeoflyte]

Hi ladies! I know that our biggest budget leak is food and eating out. I'm hoping some of you would be willing to share your menu plans and maybe even recipes with me that keep your budget in check? In my fantasy world I'd love to keep all food/hba and paper products at $400 per month for 2 adults and a toddler. I'm too ashamed to tell what we actually spend...

We're not big cooks or real foodies. Our hang up is convenience. We want to prepare and clean up dinner as easily and quickly as possible.

[sarcasticgirl]

one thing i'd recommend is finding a few recipes and batch cooking. Things like Lasagna, soup, chili, pot pie, etc are all things that are easy to cook in batches, easy to freeze and re-heat well.
if you take a sunday and spend a couple hours batch cooking you can have several meals in your freezer and ready to pop out and put in the oven at the drop of a hat!

also, slow cookers. if nothing else than throwing some meat in it in the morning and throwing in some BBQ sauce when you get home: pulled pork/chicken. tender and tasty and easy. saute some frozen veggies to go with it, super duper easy!

[kittensaver]

Here is an excellent article that got me starting cooking healthier and cooking at home (both of which will keep your food costs down!) This naturopathic doctor (author Colleen Huber, not the Mercola website) is located in Arizona (you can Google her); she has some other excellent nutrition articles on her website.

www.stumbleupon.com/su/24VXB2/articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2004/05/29/whole-food-cooking.aspx

She says many of the things folks here have already wisely said: plan, plan, plan; cook in batches and freeze in portions; stock up when you have extra time and extra dollars; stick to ingredients that are common for the foods you and your family like (it might be fun to experiment with, say, Thai food, but what the heck are you going to do with all those expensive leftover spices and half jars of exotic ingredients?); stick to seasonal ingredients (unless you feel like paying $3.50 for one tiny avocado or $6.99 for a small basket of strawberries in December).

In my experience, if you are going to consistently eat in a healthy and cost-effective manner, you need to mentally come to grips with two things: first, someone is going to have to spend SOME amount of time in the kitchen each week, and second, you need to "hang in there" and not give up while you are figuring out your "system." I PROMISE that once you are in a rhythm or cycle of meals it gets MUCH easier.

Here's what works for me (I work 40-50 hours each week): I have access to CSA rancher who sells organic, pastured, grass-fed beef and organic pastured chickens, so twice a year I buy a quarter cow and about 18 chickens for the chest freezer (he's going to have pastured, heritage pigs next year YAY!). Depending on the time of year, once a week I hit up either (sometimes both) the farmer's market and the grocery store for everything else (keeping an eye out for those stock-up deals!). The first thing I do when I get home is wash, dry and bag up all of the produce so it is ready to go when I reach the kitchen at night after work (I defy anyone who comes home from work tired and ravenously hungry to spend 30-45 minutes per night just to wash and prep vegetables!). Then I start a crock-pot meal for that week, make a soup or prep another large-batch meal, do whatever other prep work is needed for that week's meals (soaking beans, thawing meat, etc), maybe pull a meal out of the freezer from another large-batch cooking session, and make 2 or three simple dressings and marinades for that week's salads, veges, fish, grains etc. This routinely takes me about 3-4 hours per weekend, but 95% of the time during the week dinner comes together easily AND there are leftovers for brown-bag lunches.

Good luck to you!

[raeoflyte]

Thanks everyone!

I love having chili in the fridge. It might sound weird, but its one of my favorite foods for breakfast.

I think I'll try starting with 2 batch meals a week, so a soup like chili, and probably a stir fry that can have potatoes or pasta added to it. I guess I'll see where that takes me.

[fuzzylumpkins]

Dec 16, 2011 21:20:15 GMT -5 @chef241 said:

Use the No bake noodles-Barilla's are very tender. I follow the directions on the package. You can skip the meat layer and use extra ricotta cheese if you want a meatless meal.

No offense, but this makes for a very bland lasagna.

If you're putting it in the fridge over night, you actually don't have to use the no boil noodles. You can use regular noodles, just don't cook them. I do it like this all the time, the uncooked pasta soaks up the extra tomato sauce.

Though I recently discovered that the cook time is dramatically decreased if you just make fresh pasta. But that kinda defeats the purpose of being "fast" since making the pasta will take, at minimum, an hour.

[twinmama85]

i use www.foodtv.com, www.eatbetteramerica.com, and www.eatingwell.com to get my recipes...just type in the main dish, like chicken, and ton of recipes will show up ;D

also, check out the grocery challenge thread! I just started that and its been awesome! Im trying to get my food/household stuff budget down to $200/mo and we are 2 adults with two 3 yr/olds

[mandyms]

I got a good batch of starter recipes from savingdinner.com. You have to pay, but I believe it's 10 or 15 dollars for 12 weeks of menus. She provides a weekly menu of 3 different types of menus (which come as PDF files, so you can save them): heart healthy, low carb, and traditional. From these three, she provides recipes for both a family of 4 and 2 people. She also provides a complete shopping list if you would like to use all 7 days of a specific menu. I found that picking and choosing from different selections wasn't overwhelming and she tends to repeat a lot of spices, so you won't be left with using an 1/8 of a teaspoon and it sitting in your cabinet forever.

I also started checking out crockpot365.blogspot.com so I can use my crockpot more often.

[mizbear]

Meatless lasagna- I use veggies such as zucchini, squash, eggplant, mushrooms, greens (spinach, kale, arugula, whatever is on hand)- roasted peppers and sundried tomatoes are also good.

Breakfast- Breakfast is about just that- breaking the fast- not about any particular food- I also eat chili (and stranger things) for breakfast. My friend Jose and his brother Santos- whom I worked with at my first factory job, introduced me to a hearty breakfast of chili with black beans, warm tortillas, fried eggs, and cheese with a homemade salsa- the salsa depended on what was in season and available- tomatillos, tomatoes. It was hearty and warm. Jose's wife Maria would heat the tortillas and fry the eggs while she was warming the chili up. Soooo yummy.

When I do my meal plans- I start with my budget. Then I go through the pantry and the flyers. I see if I am out of any necessities, see if there is anything I eat that is on sale (I try making menus out of the pantry first.) I make my menus- writing down all of the ingredients and double checking the pantry. Then I make the grocery list, clipping my coupons and checking my sales. I actually will adjust my menu if I am too far off budget.

For instance if my budget is $40 and my total is coming in at $50, I will let it slide if it includes pantry restock. If it coming in at $50 because I am buying splurges or if it is much over that- then I scale back.

[Sam_2.0]

I like quick, easy meals, and DH likes variety. So we signed up for e-Mealz. Its about $40-50/week for our dinners, the meals are super quick, and we are trying out a lot of different foods. It cost $12.50 for three months, and each menu comes with a shopping list. I saved a copy of each week's plan and shopping list. Instead of renewing right away, I am going to recycle some of the plans that we really liked for awhile, and then I will sign up again.

For me, the pros were:
-Knowing what's for dinner. The meals can be juggled around if needed, but we knew what the possibilities were.
-Organized shopping list - cut my time at the store in half! I just jot down items for breakfast & lunches, and go (we tend to eat the same things for those meals anyway)
-Quick, easy to prepare meals. I HATE to cook (only do it so we can eat), but even I can do these meals and have dinner ready in about 30 mins or less.
-Sticking to our budget. We buy what we need, have little waste, and stick to our budget. Knowing we already have a plan for dinner for the week eliminates 99% of our last-minute plans to go eat out.
-Tasty food that comes out to 400-600 cals per meal. Great since we are trying to eat healthier and watch our weight.

Cons:
-The cost ($15/3 months)
-If you have a picky eater, it won't work as well. The shopping list indicates which meal the ingredients are for, so you can easily eliminate the things you won't need if you decide not to do a certain meal. But doing that frequently will quickly defeat the whole purpose of buying the plan.

[Tiny]

This is more of a 'quick' dinner - to keep from going out for take out as at it's most basic it's pantry/freezer stuff:

I jokingly call these "my ethnic background" tacos:
Base: Can(s) no fat or low fat refried beans (trader joes has yummy ones!)
Can of Ro-Tel diced tomatos (or any can of diced tomatos) Drianed OR jarred salsa
package of soft corn tortillas (can keep them in the freezer until needed).

You can just use the 3 things above OR you can doctor these up - here's some suggestions:
Add taco Seasonings to the beans (McCormick, Lowries, Aldi all sell packets of the stuff - I think there's also Adoba brand Taco seasonings).
Add a minced Chipolte pepper (buy a small can - and freeze the leftovers - these are great in chili!!)
Add shredded cheese, lettuce, onions...
Saute up some Pepper strips (red and yellow are pretty! I buy peppers on sale and cut into strips and freeze so I always have peppers on hand). Slip a thinly sliced onion in there with the peppers - even better!

You could also substitute left over mashed potatos (expecially good with the chipolte pepper and Monterrey Jack cheese!) for the refried beans! yummy!

Ok, you've got a toddler - reserve some unseasoned beans/mashed potatos and season up the rest!

You could also shred a zuchinni and a sweet potato - combine the shreds and saute with some olive oil (and taco seasoning or chipolte pepper or whatever seasonings you want) and stick that plus some extras in a tortilla... mmmmm good!! (if you don't have enough zuke/sweet potato to go around - add a can of drained black beans MMMMMM!!)

FWIW: this is a good 'stick with you dinner' and it's not too unhealthly unless you consider canned goods and veggies you bought and froze, or tortillas that have been frozen unhealthy
(I have a friend who would be appalled at eating any of this since it came out of cans and the freezer)

[meli_beach]

ok, this is going to seem like a silly question I know. But for those of you who batch cook, what do you freeze your items in? Rubbermaid, foil pans? Are their any cheap freezer to oven products out there? And do you defrost your stuff before cooking or does it go in the oven frozen? I've been wanting to try batch cooking, but I don't know what to put the stuff in to freeze it.

[raeoflyte]

We've set our grocery budget at $100 a week starting in January. That should include everything we buy there except cat litter. I know it will be an adjustment, but it has to be doable. DH and I will each cook a real meal once a week, and then I'll continue to do chili or stirfry, for extra dinners and other meals.

I am probably going to stop carrying my debit card to work. I know that sounds weird, but my daily trips to the store aren't helping anything, so it will be better if we plan and then I can't go to the store if I don't like what I brought.

I think dh and I are both finally ready to get serious about cutting out the fluff in our budget (and the rest of our lives).

[raeoflyte]

The veggie tacos sound good! We've kind of let it drop, but taco tuesday is a meal plan that we always liked. I'll have to try it out!

I know 'they' say you shouldn't eat anything from a can, but I'm just not at that point in my life. I did get a pressure cooker so I'm going to try to cook dry beans more often, but for now we eat lots of beans and soups from cans. There are only so many things I can worry about, and that isn't one of them for now.

[reeneejune]

Another great way to keep your budget down is to make sure that you have several things in your fridge/freezer that you can make a meal out of in 10 minutes flat. Whenever I get ground beef, I make a few patties and freeze them (set on parchment or wax paper, freeze individually, then stack in a bag) they can go straight from freezer to pan an cook up in just a few minutes while I toast some bread and top to my heart's content. Also handy: frozen pizza crust (or frozen pizza), pasta and canned/jarred sauce, canned or frozen veggies.

Also, don't get too hung up on having a recipe for every meal. Sometimes a simple grilled chicken breast, green beans, and baked potato or roll is an easy, good enough meal. That kind of simple protein-vegetable-carb dinner is satisfying and fairly infinite in it's variations.

Random thought, if you like meatloaf, make it in a muffin pan. Keep out enough servings for tonight's dinner and freeze the rest in a ziploc for another night.

[mizbear]

I use BPA free plastics mostly- such as rubbermaid or ziploc. I always use reusable plastic. I use glass such as pyrex or rubbermaid sometimes- but have fears of it being dropped. Sometimes I use plastic bags but look for BPA free.
As a rule I try not to reheat in plastic containers even though I use the BPA free simply because it keeps the containers from staining and the containers- in my opinion - last longer.

Canned and frozen and convenience foods are not all inherently evil. Especially when you are on a tight budget, a tight schedule and are trying to feed a toddler- you probably already know this, but my experience is that toddlers are very very picky and strange eaters.

And remember that something fun like tacos or pizza does not have to be unhealthy. My nieces and I make pizzas all the time. TBear also uses the refrigerated pizza dough in the tube to make homemade stromboli and calzones.

The best part with budgets and menus and meal plans is that you can adjust and format to your needs and lifestyle. If plan A doesn't work for you- you can tweak it or throw it out completely.

[hockeygrl]

I like the Carroll Shelby chili mix you can find in stores (Kroger/King Soopers). It isn't as cheap as making your own, but the convenience factor is great. It uses two pounds of ground beef, so it makes a big batch, as well. I steam white rice and put my chili over that to stretch out the servings. With two adults and a toddler, we can eat for 3 days on one batch of chili. To give it a little more home-cooked feel, I sautee onions and green peppers in the pot, then add the ground beef and brown it with them. I also use plenty of Tony Chachere's on the ground beef while I'm cooking it. The box gives directions for cooking it on the stove, but I've put it in the slow cooker on low (after the ground beef is browned of course) and cooked it all day, then added the kidney beans after I got home and it turned out really good.

[kittensaver]

About the how-to-freeze question: I freeze liquid meals (soups, stews etc) in portions in my pyrex bowls, and when they are solid I pop them out and put them into BPA-free plastic bags. Be sure to squeeze out as much air as possible to prevent freezer burn. From there, it's easy-peasy to put the solid mass in saucepan on the stove and heat on low/medium low to defrost & rewarm. This also works for grain portions (rice etc). For individual items like protein portions (fish, steaks, chicken breasts) or veges or berries, spread your items out in a single layer on a sheet pan and stick in the freezer until solid (no longer than overnight, some things freeze much faster). Once frozen, toss all the like-items into a BPA-free freezer bag and squeeze out the air. They will stay frozen but will not stick together. This is called the IQF (individually quick frozen) method. For casseroles and main dishes like lasagna, I freeze them in their serving containers (pyrex or corning ware dishes) and pop them out when frozen and transfer them to a bag (again, squeeze out the air!). This frees up the serving dish for prepping and serving other meals. To re-heat, I transfer the frozen meal back to the serving dish and allow it to thaw overnight in the frig. Then into the oven it goes. Hope this helps!

[meli_beach]

Dec 22, 2011 13:18:26 GMT -5 kittensaver said:

About the how-to-freeze question: I freeze liquid meals (soups, stews etc) in portions in my pyrex bowls, and when they are solid I pop them out and put them into BPA-free plastic bags. Be sure to squeeze out as much air as possible to prevent freezer burn. From there, it's easy-peasy to put the solid mass in saucepan on the stove and heat on low/medium low to defrost & rewarm. This also works for grain portions (rice etc). For individual items like protein portions (fish, steaks, chicken breasts) or veges or berries, spread your items out in a single layer on a sheet pan and stick in the freezer until solid (no longer than overnight, some things freeze much faster). Once frozen, toss all the like-items into a BPA-free freezer bag and squeeze out the air. They will stay frozen but will not stick together. This is called the IQF (individually quick frozen) method. For casseroles and main dishes like lasagna, I freeze them in their serving containers (pyrex or corning ware dishes) and pop them out when frozen and transfer them to a bag (again, squeeze out the air!). This frees up the serving dish for prepping and serving other meals. To re-heat, I transfer the frozen meal back to the serving dish and allow it to thaw overnight in the frig. Then into the oven it goes. Hope this helps!

Thank you!! My brain finally wrapped around that. For some reason I was having a real blonde moment w/freezing meals (yes, I'm really blonde ). But I think I've finally got it!!

[mizbear]

For small amounts of things you won't use in ziploc size amounts- ice cube trays work wonders

[Sharon]

If I have celery or onions that I know I won't use before they go bad I will chop them up and freeze them in the ice cube trays. Once frozen pop them out and put them in a zip lock baggie. When you are making soups and such just throw in a few cubes of celery or onion.

I also try and freeze in a container that is close in size to what I am freezing. Pint freezer bags are my friends. One chicken breast per pint bag. There is less chance for air so less chance for freezer burn.

[Apple]

One thing that really helps me is to buy a lot of ground beef at once (try to do it when there is a really great sale) and then cook a lot up all at once, then freeze it in bags for later use in tacos, shepherd's pie, chili, casseroles, add to spaghetti, whatever.

I also do the meatloaf in muffin tins (originally got the idea from Sharon) it works great.

Pulling meat out of the freezer the night before or before you go to work can cut down on cooking time, just let it thaw in the fridge.

[mizbear]

I always let stuff thaw before cooking- except maybe frozen veggies.

[chiver78]

Dec 22, 2011 22:44:15 GMT -5 Sharon said:

I also try and freeze in a container that is close in size to what I am freezing. Pint freezer bags are my friends. One chicken breast per pint bag. There is less chance for air so less chance for freezer burn.

I also freeze breast tenders (2x bag) and individual servings of extra rotisserie chicken pieces in snack-size bags/store brand. I'll put 4 or 5 of those snack bags into a single quart-ish freezer bag for protection from freezer burn. saves a little more $ that way, as the snack bags are a lot cheaper not being freezer-safe. you can re-use the outer freezer bags, too.

[Apple]

As far as the menu plan part goes, I don't really have one, but these are some of our "throw-together" meals (I'll try to link to where I've posted recipes when I can)...

Ground Hamburger (pre-cooked hamburger works well):

Spaghetti

Alfredo Sauce and Pasta (DS likes hamburger in it instead of chicken sometimes--something different)

Shepherd's Pie (rather than link somewhere, just throw hamburger (or leftover roast ), veggies, and some gravy or cream of mushroom soup in a casserole dish, cover with mashed potatoes, cover with foil, then put in the oven on 350 for about 45 minutes, uncover and cook another 10 to 15 minutes)

Beef Stroganoff www.notmsnmoney.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=reciperequests&thread=4201&page=1#170270 <--this will link to a post in a thread nalto started, a lot of people posted a lot of easy recipes, they all look good

Tater tot casserole www.notmsnmoney.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=reciperequests&thread=4201&page=1#170270

Hamburger-helper type dishes (not specifically hamburger helper, but stuff I make that is similar) www.notmsnmoney.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=soup&thread=40&page=1#478

Chili

A "mexican casserole" type dish (one-dish, uses meat, throw in a can of tomatoes, corn, salsa, top with cornbread, cheese and olives and bake til done--no recipe, I'll try to come up with one)

Tacos

Enchiladas—lazy style www.notmsnmoney.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=soup&thread=40&page=1#478

Hamburger (not pre-cooked):

Meatloaf (play with it, do bread or oatmeal, use BBQ sauce instead of ketchup, add some cheese, whatever)

Hamburgers

Chicken (canned or chicken breasts):

Pasta salad with chicken--just realized I never posted my recipe, but here is a thread www.notmsnmoney.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=pasta&action=display&thread=889

Chicken Alfredo

Chicken breasts:

Chicken cordon bleu www.notmsnmoney.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=reciperequests&thread=4201&page=1#170270

Baked chicken (just season with whatever you have on hand, we do something different every time--cut leftovers up and use later in pasta salad, regular salad, recipes that call for cubed chicken)

Chicken and stuffing www.notmsnmoney.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=reciperequests&thread=4201&page=1#165455

Fish:

DS just cooks it for a few minutes in the cast iron or a non-stick skillet and seasons it with whatever he feels like (I don't like fish or seafood, so this is good for nights when there are only enough leftovers for one of us and I didn't take them for lunch)

Potatoes:

Make a meal out of a baked potato by covering it with chili, broccoli and cheese, whatever looks good

Potato soup www.notmsnmoney.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=soup&thread=40&page=1#478 lots of recipes on this thread as well

Roasts:

Pot roast in the crockpot, make a stew for the next day out of leftovers

Roast in the oven (do a salt and pepper roast, or do a “coke” roast—just pour a can of coke over the roast and let it marinate overnight, then just add some seasonings and roast in the oven). Use leftovers in sandwiches, on salads or on its own (also good to slice up and reheat in bbq sauce, then use for sandwiches)

For nights when I'm feeling really lazy we'll do breakfast for dinner. Scrambled eggs and hashbrowns, sausage, french toast, pancakes, waffles--whatever is quick and easy (I have a nice, big electric skillet I can cook it all at once).

Hope that gives you a few ideas

[Apple]

Oh, and you might check out the pizza thread. We found safeway has a refrigerated pizza dough that is pretty good, so we can get dinner done in less than 20 minutes, you can pretty much put anything on one, just get creative with leftovers...

www.notmsnmoney.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=maincourse&thread=897&page=1

[raeoflyte]

We cut our food budget in half for January. We still went well over the $400 budget, but I'm really happy with our progress.

Things that worked:
We are focusing dh's bi-weekly paychecks for the recurring bills like groceries, gas, etc, so each paycheck in the month isn't a reason to go to the store. We're better at planning the big trips, and we did our list by narrowing down meal ideas by category. rhte65 fz

I cut down on soda, which cut down on the # of small trips I made. I'm actually spending more for less right now, but am weaning my self down and don't order soda, or make any extra stops when I've hit my daily allotment.

I have been working on losing weight since January 2011, although its been slow going. When I'm on plan I cut down/out on refined carbs (I eat lots of beans, lentils, nuts, and some fruit, but avoid processed food, bread, pasta). I really didn't stay too much on plan in January, so I had more sandwiches and pasta than 'typical'. I don't think that has a huge impact on the budget, but I'm sure it had some.

Picking out our crazy easy default meals to have ingredients for so that we can eat something good faster and easier than it would be to stop for takeout.

DH really helped keep the house and especially the kitchen clean. I can tackle a lot more in life when the house isn't a mess.

Things we need to improve on:
Prep lunch and snacks in advance to reduce the amount of daily work. Dinners too, but we're taking this slow.

I have very little willpower. Since I know we have money (just allocated for different things) when I'm tired I really push for us to go out. I am working on this, but really need to get better.

[thyme4change]

I got a new recipe the other day and I'm shocked how good it is and how easy it is

Chicken breasts - pounded thin
salt and pepper the chicken
put 1 T. cream cheese and 1 T. salsa on the breast

roll up
bread in breadcrumbs mixed with a little chili powder

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes (or however long to get done.)

I served it with a can of refried beans and roasted zucchini

[kittensaver]

Way to go, raeoflyte! Pat yourself on the back for what you have accomplished (quite a lot in just one month!) and remind yourself you can't change everything at once. Just pick one or two more things to add this month, one or two next month and the month after that, and before you know it by slowly adding changes you will find yourself settled into your new system. Good for you and keep on keepin' on . . .

[daisylu]

Good job on the savings!


thyme, that chicken sounds delish.