Meal Plans for week of June 4, 2018

Meal plans are a tool to keep you organized and saves time and money.   It doesn’t have to be time consuming, just a quick jot down of main dishes is all you really need.  Most of us have a good idea of what we serve with what.  The basics of protein,starch, and vegetable/fruit is time tested.   Our grandparents have lived to be 98 years old, why mess with tried and true.   The basic difference in my opinion, was that they ate basics and there wasn't all the garbage snack food, pop, and easily purchased sugar based treats.  We all love them, but they are not good for us.

Simplify, use a RBP for food, always have food in the house.
Your attitude on shopping changes greatly when you are not destitute for food.  When you don't have that fight or flight reaction because it’s finally ‘payday” and the cupboards are bare.

Take a quick look at the fresh foods you have and note what you need to use up.   Incorporate them into your meals.  Look at your schedule and adjust for any busy days.   Soup is a good go to when the family is going to be coming home at different times.   The slow cooker is a good tool.

• Sloppy Joes, Oven fries, veggie platter 
• Pizza
• Chicken Pot Pie; yogurt parfaits 
• Pork stew, bread 
• Vegetable bean soup, bread 
• Dad cooks: Mom in for surgery 
• Breakfast for Dinner. 

Notes: 

Sloppy joes use the buns we got for .88. Hamburger is already cooked and de-fatted in the freezer.  Dinner in less than fifteen minutes.   Cut and soak the fries in the morning.   Wash in vinegar water, place in deli container with paper towel.  Homemade sloppy joe sauce .  Heat with hamburger.   

Veggie platter is done at kitchen. Management time and replentished all week.  Good for snacks and I picked up hummus on sale.  

Pizza is at a cost of less than a dollar for a cheese pizza.   Scratch dough cost .19 even with the raise of the cost of flour.   Add toppings.   It is easy to pull out toppings as you are cooking other things and freeze.   When its time for pizza, everything is chopped, cooked, and ready to roll. 

Chicken pot pie is a Betty Crocker recipe and uses frozen mixed veggies.   Easy with a bisquit crust.  Less carbs, no bottom crust.. 

Parfaits are yogurt, granola (homemade) and berries 

Pork stew is from the 1.29 a pound pork loin.   Cooked in insta pot with carrots and potatoes.   

Vegetable bean soup recipe is on a blogpost.   I now make beans from scratch that cuts the cost down considerably more.   Peasant bread cost .25 a loaf.   Easy, peasy and good. 

Breakfast for dinner isn’t necessarily the cheapest dinner of the five dollar dinners.   Eggs are still realatively cheap.   Its any bacon etc that you add that bumps up the cost.  We recently got bacon for three dollars a POUND at the GO.  It is Oscar Mayer.   Still, a quiche is a good thing for dinner.  It is easy and saves a lot of money.  None of these meals are over the five dollar mark, it just takes buying and efficiently scratch cooking.