At the beginning of the year, I decided we needed to give this challenge a try!
I haven't documented the experience yet, ( because honestly I didn't know if I could do it!) but it's gone really well so far!
We've made minor purchases weekly for things like milk, eggs, bread, produce etc but haven't spent any money on other items for meal prep because we're trying to use up what's in our pantry!
It's been about 3 weeks now and we've spent somewhere around $70 on food and groceries total!
So far I haven't had to get too terribly creative...but I know that day is coming!
We've had cheesy crockpot chicken with rice, chicken fingers (Bisquick!), homemade biscuits, bean & cheese burritos, homemade mac & cheese, pancakes (Bisquick!), BBQ chicken, chicken burritos, turkey meatballs...and that's all I can think of right now!
(Can you tell we have little meat and LOTS of chicken?!)
On the menu this week? Well, for Breakfast, I have lots of quick oats, so we'll continue having oatmeal (creatively flavored by me). Lunch will be the usual sandwiches and fruit. Snacks will be more pretzels and Cheese-It's (from our trip to Sam's Club!)
For dinner...
Tonight: Crockpot Lasagna
Tuesday: Tacos & Tostadas
Wednesday: Chili (with canned soup base)
Thursday: Baked Ziti
Friday: Chicken Fajitas
Saturday: leftovers?
Sunday: we try to take it easy, so probably sandwiches and maybe some Taco Johns (::fingers crossed::)
So it looks like I'm gonna need to buy some cheese this week! But not just any cheese--a block of cheese...much cheaper than already grated!
And we have plenty of canned goods for veggies thanks to the CCA staff! (For Christmas they got us about 15 sacks of groceries!!! We also have them to thank for our Bisquick, and MUCH more!) So we're set there!
(my hubby just walked in with surprise breakfast sandwiches, so let's take that total up to $80 total!) :)
The most helpful thing to me has been writing down the items in our cabinets and making my menu from those things.
Now I just need to figure out what I can do with a sack of corn meal...Tamale Casserole?!?!
I'll let you know how this week goes!
3 comments:
I read that blog too... however, I didn't try the challenge this time - maybe sometime soon :) Sounds like things have worked out very well for you all, I'd think any of those meals would be delicious! Matt's a big fan of cornbread (from your cornmeal surplus), you could have some with the chili and even with the taco night?! I made a baked corn side dish one time that used cornmeal, creamed corn, regular canned corn, and lots of cheese (cheddar and cream cheese I think) - if you have a recipe like that it was also quite tasty
This is a motivation that I need to just do!!! Have you ever tried baked oatmeal Grace? I make it the night before and then all I have to do is throw it in the oven for about 30 min in the am. We eat it for days (but only Micah and I eating off of it), and it re-heats well. HE LOVES IT! I've tried a couple of recipes, some with more sugar than others, and some with honey.
Thanks for the inspiration!
Laura, unfortunately, none of these Wheelers are big fans of cornbread :/ I don't know why...we love all other starches! But the baked corn dish sounds...de-lish :)
Doll, blog the recipe so I can steal it!
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