Five dollar meals

In order to keep to a four dollar  a day budget and still cover the things that you need to complete meals;  you need to stick to averaging five dollars a day based in a budget for four people.

4+1 =5.    Four people, one meal, five bucks,
 By averaging , you can afford a more expensive meal by balancing it with an inexpensive one.

I cleaned the pantry, took inventory, rotated stock and tidied it up.  If the pantry is cleaned up, there is a place  for everything and you can tell at a glance what you may be running short of.   If the basket is getting empty, it's time to watch for a sale.  

I am on a mission to eat down the pantry and then replenish.  We ate a lot from the fridge freezer, and I replenished it from the downstairs freezer with the foods we will need to complete this weeks meals.

None of this takes a lot of time.   Ok, I'm not going to lie, the pantry clean up took several hours.   The meal planning and shopping trip planning does not take a lot of time.    It probably takes less time that if you shop weekly for a weeks worth of food.   You aren't writing detailed lists.    You are buying - a protein that is RBP and on your rotation, replenishing dairy and perishables.  If you are low on a stock item, and it's at a RBP, you will replenish.   I work left to right on the shelf, so the new stock will be placed on the right so it is rotated through.

Ok, next weeks meal plans.   We have a LOT of eggs.    They were 18 for two dollars last week at Fred Meyers.     My granddaughter and I love hard cooked eggs.   We have been eating them all week.   I ate a hard cooked egg and my regular bowl of oatmeal the other day.  I stayed fuller longer.
We still have two packages of sausage to use up.  One of them is chicken.    They have April and May pull dates.

1. Breakfast for dinner.   Eggs, confetti pan  cakes ( mix bought for .50 at GO) fruit.   
2. Pizza, salad ( pizzas bought for 2.44 super bowl week) 
3. Speghetti and meatballs.   Bread.  ( bread on sale  at Costco, vegetable speghetti gets an additional veggie into our diets. Meatballs from the freezer.   Salad 
4. Chicken pot pie.    Chicken , peas, carrots. Cream soup base, Bisquick crust 
5. Fish packets  : salmon, rice, beans, broccoli 
6. Sausage and peppers 
7. Easter 

1. Mac and cheese, broccoli 
2. Lemon chicken stirfry ( Betty Crocker) 
3. Buffalo chicken pizza ( scratch crust ) 
4. Beef and bean taco casserole ( Bc) 
5. Bacon and bean quesadilla and tomato soup.  ( tomato soup from Costco in a box is 2.00.  ) (Bc) 
6. Tuna casserole with peas 
7. Beef and broccoli stir fry.

1. Tacos , refried beans, rice. ( kit from GO) 
2. Pizza , salad 
3. Tomato soup, cheezy biscuits 
4. Chicken pot pie
5. Pork chops with bread dressing with Apple and craisens , peas 
6. Chicken carbonara (Bc) salad 
7. Salmon, a gratin potatoes. Green beans 

I decided to mix things up and try a bunch if new recipes from the Betty Crocker on line  cookbook.  It is free to download and is a good resource.   If you have something you need to use up, you can plug it in and ideas will magically appear.