Meal plans for week of 8/8 - 8/14

Taking you along for the ride...I have taken an informal inventory of the fridge and pantry.   We are well stocked of pepperoni ( .50 at the dollar tree with coupons,) amd eggs ( .79 at Safeways) .  That tells me we are having breakfast for dinner and pizza once a week for a few weeks.   I will switch to a theme based meal plan for a while .  

1. Breakfast 4 dinner 
2. Pizza
3. Tex-mex 
4. Soup and bread 
5. Casserole or meat and starch.  ( meat  balls over noodles etc) 
6. Sunday dinner 
7. Pasta 

Meal plans matrix can be protein based, theme based, rotation based, or freezer meals.   

The first step in meal plans is to shop the specials and take inventory of what is in your stash ( another word for pantry and fridge and freezer.  ) LOL Paying attention to what needs to be eaten soon.    

Last night we were going to have pasta primavera.    Our neighbour generously gave us a basket of veggies.    The squash needed to be eaten.     We had a stir fry instead because we also had leftover  rice and a lot of veggies.   I had shrimp in the freezer.    Plan. But be flexible.    

• Pepperoni pizza ( make dough early in the morning and refrigerate.   
• Scrambled eggs. Bacon, muffins ( made with Greek yogurt) or yogurt cups 
• Chicken bow tie pasta dish 
• Pork chops with Apple- craisens dressing. , salad 
• Tomato , basil, Gorgonzola soup, cheezy biscuits.   
• Chicken enchiladas. Rice and beans 
• Meatball subs, salad 

I have to say that this matrix is harder to follow than the protein based one.  I will share my meal plan work sheet as soon as I can figure out how.   I am still learning the tech thing.   

Work plan: 

1) make pizza crust early in the morning and out in fridge.   

2) make muffins 

3) cook chicken breast from frozen in the pressure cooker.   This will work for the vow toe pasta and the chicken enchiladas.   

4) thaw pork chops and make bread cubes .   

5) make cheezy biscuits 

6) make rice and cook beans in pressure cooker.    

7) make green salad, croutons, and buy rolls if I can't find baguettes.    

I still have to tackle making baguettes from scratch.   I make bread in the bread baker, or I make cold start , no knead bread.   Granddaughter and I made bag bread that was on the Internet. It didn't turn out so well.   How many ways can you say hockey puck!    

Groceries on the cheap is looking at the "put the meal on the table train" from  a different perspectives. 

The emphasis is on purchasing good shelf stable or frozen food  for a RBP in quantity - enough to last you until it goes on sale again or to keep a controlled non-perishable stock of the things you  use  on a weekly basis. 

This means that instead of shopping daily or weekly for just the things you need to cook your meals for the week. You go to two stores and buy :
1) a protein that is a RBP - enough to make that meal for x number of days. (I.e.: if you eat it once a week, buy enough for 4 meals.)
2) produce and dairy you will need to fill in the meals for the week. 
3) a stock item, if you need to and it is on a RBP - enough to fill in to your self imposed stock level. 

You often are paying 1/2 price for your food.   This allows you to put well-balanced meals on the table consistently on a four dollar a day per person budget.   You spend more time on the locomotive ( planning and shopping ) end of the train, and less time in the caboose ( kitchen j) by 
cooking more efficiently. 

 Four dollars a day is the target amount for people on snap.   My premise is that of you can do it on 4 dollars a day, spending more is not difficult and you still get more nutrition for your buck.