In case you missed it. I am on a quest to tame my family's food budget. For years now, it's gotten totally out of control for the first quarter of the year, resulting in stress for the rest of the year as I try to play "catch up". So, this year I've been employing every grocery saving tip that I have in my arsenal to keep that budget in line. And it's working!
Here are the other posts in this series:
Menu Planning When Your Fridge Is Empty
Three Food Prep Techniques Guaranteed to Save You Money
I Cut My Grocery Budget in Half With Bulk Cooking
Feeding My Family of Five for Seven Days for $50
I've totaled up the expenses from this week's bulk cooking menu and ..... (drum roll, please)
It looks like we did it again! Week #5 bulk cooking is another $50 week! This week I really focused on food that could be served in bowls. There is seriously nothing that makes everyone in my family happier than getting to choose toppings to put on their bowl of food. We start with a base and then they add whatever they want from a variety of fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, beans, and more! Let's see what we did!
Breakfast:
I told you in my initial post on bulk cooking why I rotate between cream of wheat and oatmeal for breakfast. The only time they get boxed cereal is on Sunday evening, when we break open a new box of Wheaties, corn flakes. or raisin bran.
I offer a choice of fruit, nuts, milk, and a drizzle of maple syrup for topping oatmeal.
Total cost of breakfasts for a week: $6.50
Lunch:
Soup:
Chickpea soup
1) Cincinnati Skyline Chili - $3.00
2. Chickpea soup - $2.50 (My recipe! Click here to see recipe and download it.)
3) Tomato Soup with Spaghetti Squash - $2.50
Cincinnati Skyline Chili
A base of sauteed veggies, with tomatoes, beans, and barley! It thickened up once it cooled. We ate it plain (optional toppings of homemade guacamole, diced onions, tortilla chips, salsa, and hot sauce.) The next day, it made the perfect filling as we rolled it up in tortillas with additional veggies and then toasted it in the oven for 10 minutes until browned.
Lunch sides:
1) Potato salad
2) Tuno Salad (for sandwiches) This vegan sandwich filling is so good you'll want to eat it from the bowl by the spoonful!
3) Fruit and Raw veggie tray every day
Vegan potato salad.
I made this with that amazing 30# potato haul that I got from HyVee last week for $6.00. I added some avocado to the dressing. Delightfully creamy, but a really bad idea! The avocado turned it a very unappetizing shade of brown the second day! But, it still tasted amazing. Next time I'll stick to using vegan mayo or just make it mustard based (which is what I usually do) and it will look better - especially if I am serving it to guests.
Total cost of lunch for 7 days: $16.00
Dinner:
2 pounds of roasted potatoes seasoned with onion, garlic, and curry powder can be used as a base for supper bowls instead of rice or pasta! Cost: 40¢
1. Hot Stuffed Baked Potato Bar - (1 meal) $3.10
3 pounds of potatoes: 60¢ Toppings: $2.50
2. Gandhi Bowl - (2 meals) Total Cost: $5.00
Garbanzo beans in a spicy tomato sauce and greens for Gandhi bowls.
Instead of serving it with a sweet potato, as in the recipe, I roasted chunks of russet potato, coated in onion, garlic, and curry powders. It was amazing!
3. Buddah's Delight Bowls - (2 meals) - $6.00
Pre-chopped veggies I got on markdown at Kroger create this filling
for Buddah's Delight bowls!
4. Smoky Black Bean Roll ups - (1 meal) - Total cost: $1.25
Smoky black bean filling with brown rice for serving alone or making roll-ups!
5. Cabbage Rolls - (1 meal) - Total cost: $1.00
Cabbage rolls for just $1.00!
The cost of this recipe directly reflects the power of shopping loss leader items! In this case, it was 19¢ per pound cabbage on sale for St. Patty's Day. By the way, I went back the final day of the sale and they were out of cabbage. It took me less than 5 minutes to go and request a rain check from the courtesy desk. I can now visit my local HyVee and purchase cabbage for 19¢ per pound any time in the next 30 days!
Sides:
1. Salad - $5.00 - I got GREAT deals on greens this week all markdowns. So the total cost was just $5.00 for 2 pounds of organic spinach.
2.. Smashed Potatoes - (2 meals) - Total cost: 50¢ for 2.5 pounds of potatoes.
Smashed potatoes.
On a side note, if you have never tried vegan food, then Nutmeg Notebook's recipes are sure to please everyone in your family. They are absolutely divine!
Cost of dinner for 7 days: $21.85
Snacks:
It was definitely a fruit and popcorn week at my house for snacks. I didn't make any granola or anything else extra for that matter. But, they got along just fine! Remember that I pay the lowest advertised price for fruit when I go to HyVee and ask them to price match competitor ads.
Snack cost for 7 days: $5.00
WEEKLY FOOD TOTAL: $49.35
Hey! Are you on this journey with me? Cutting your grocery costs, while maximizing the nutritional value of what you serve your family? If so, give me a shout out! It always helps to know that others are on the journey with you! Let's "buddy up" and tame those grocery costs so we can meet our financial goals!
Hope
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Do all to the glory of God,
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