Meal plans

These meals . are based on the Taste  of Home “Busy Family Favorites” cookbook,   Most Taste of Home recipes can  be found on the Internet,  

• ‘White bean soup, rolls pg 46
• Buffalo chicken pizza, salad 
• Bacon burgers, salad oven fries  pg 71
• Linguine with garlic sauce, green beans, cheesy bread pg 94
• Creamed chicken on mashed potatoes, 
• Tuna puff sandwiches page 164
• Breakfast for dinner, 

Notes 

Based on a protein source matrix: 

• 1 beef 
• 1 fish or seafood 
• 3 chicken or pork 
• 2 vegetarian 

We all have our favorites, this makes everyone happy at least part of the time.

1. There are vegetarian and with ham versions on the cookbook,   Mostly white beans, broth, and carrots, celery, and zucchini, I have dehydrated zucchini and it can be made smaller in the food processor.   
2. Buffalo chicken pizza starts with the bulk pizza crust that I made last week and put in the freezer, but the shells at Winco were really cheap too.   Instead of red pizza sauce, use ranch or blue cheese dressing,  add cooked chicken cut up small, some red pepper cut into small cubes, mozzarella and blue cheese.   
3. Bacon burgers have cheese, onion, and an egg and seasonings in them.   Oven fries are raw potato wedges , soaked on water, drained and sprayed with olive oil and cooked in a hot fryer or in the oven on convection.  This makes for almost no fat and what fat there is is the good kind because it boosts you good cholesterol.  
4. Linguine is on our meal plan because when I sent my hubby to the store for spaghetti on sale with a coupon, he grabbed linguine instead! Lol.  It has spinach, cream cheese and nuts,  I have spinach from last week and I got cream cheese with far out pull dates for a dollar a few weeks back.   Using things that are versatile that you got on sale helps reduce your costs. 
5. Creamed chicken on mashed potatoes 🥔 is quick and easy.  I have chicken in the freezer from the whole chicken I cooked in the insta pot a few weeks back . 
6. Tuna puff is from tuna bought at Costco when it had a markdown.   It is quick, cooked in the oven and goes together on about 11 minutes,   
7. Breakfast for dinner is always a staple here,   It can be expensive, or cheap and always a family affair. Everyone participates.   

The notes here are to show my train of thought.  It’s nit necessarily what you need to do, it’s an Example of how I get to where I got.  Groceries on the cheap is a mindset.   You can eat well and still keep a very low budget.   

A recent test of prices here found the following stores with the best overall prices .  Note grocery outlet is not a complete  store and I avoid meat and produce.  

Grocery outlet 

Winco

Fred Meyers