Friday, January 16, 2009

Yesterday's grocery shopping trip

I decreased my grocery budget from $180 to $175 for the next two weeks. I finished my shopping with $25 leftover for any random produce or dairy that I might need between now and the end of the month.

Here are my dinner meals for the next 2 1/2 weeks, with some of my random notes showing how I build my meals around what is on sale, and build my meals on top of each other:
1. Beef tips (stewing beef on sale $2.59/lb. at Fiesta) over brown rice (make extra rice for chicken fried rice), collard greens (always dirt cheap--0.79 ea).
2. Chicken fried rice (I have cooked chicken from last week in the freezer, and will use rice from yesterday, since the rice needs to be cold anyway), asian slaw (cabbage is the main ingredient, and it is 0.34 a lb--use only 1/3 of the head to save for later).
3. Polish cabbage & sausage dinner (sausage on sale at Kroger for $1, use another 1/3 of the cabbage) over mashed potatoes, corn (the frozen variety)
4. Meatless spaghetti & marinara, steamed broccoli (broccoli crowns on sale at Kroger for $1)
5. Asian lettuce wraps (Boston lettuce on sale at Kroger for $1, I already have some ground beef in the freezer, and I will use half a can of water chestnuts, saving the other half for later)
6. Manicoti a la Romana, garlic toast (bought at Save A Lot for $1.79), steamed broccoli (we are having dinner guests that night, so this is one of my fancy meals).
7. Potsticker skillet (I have no idea what to call this, it is a recipe that came about after a failed attempt at making potstickers--I'll use the last of the cabbage and water chestnuts, and sub in beef instead of pork, because I have ground beef on hand already)
8. Barbeque pork chops (pork chops on sale at Fiesta for $1.19/lb), baked potatoes, greens
9. Chicken noodle soup (I have chicken legs that I bought on sale at Fiesta on my last trip, I will save half the meat for a later meal, and 1 c. broth for a later meal).
10. Chicken enchilada casserole (using leftover chicken, and broth for the sauce that goes in the recipe), refried beans
11. Homemade bean and cheese burritos (well, halfway homemade--I'm going to use canned beans, but I'll make the tortillas myself), lettuce and tomato
12. Salmon skillet (salmon, new potatoes, peas, seasoned and cooked together in the same pot)
13. Six Layer dish (a simple meal from my More-with-Less Cookbook--haven't tried it yet, basically meat, potatoes, tomatoes, layered in a dish).
14. Baked potatoes and salad
15. Chili and homemade cornbread
16. Pancakes and sausage (using up the last of the milk before it goes bad, sausage on sale for $1 at Kroger)
17. Pantry/Freezer Meal

2 comments:

Me said...

Looks like a good menu!

Dina said...

good ideas! I am printing off to help get into the routine of meal planning again!