Meal Planning 101

A little about me: I am a wife and a mom of a 3 and 6 year old. I work 7 hours a week as a fitness instructor and I am going to school part-time for my special education credential. I am busy just like every mom and I am on a limited budget. What I bring home from my 7 hours a week is what I have to spend on groceries. I love to cook and eat well and my family likes to eat well too. I pack my husbands and son's lunch, we eat breakfast at home and I cook dinner 5 nights a week.

Here is how I buy the freshest ingredients while being on a tight budget.

Now, how do I meal plan and save money?? This may seem a lot at first, but really it takes less time than staring into the frig and wondering what you are going to come up with or waiting for a pizza to be delivered.


1. First off, meal planning alone can save you a lot of money. If you have a plan and a grocery list and stick with it, right there you will save money. Do not impulse buy!

2. Every Wednesday I get the store ads in the Fresno Bee and look at them to see what is on sale. If I see a good deal on meat or an item I can stock up on I will and will use that item in my meal plan. I then look at what coupons I have in my coupon clutch that match up with the sale item. This takes me about 15 minutes on a Wednesday morning. Once you know what you are looking for, it does not take a lot of time. I also look for coupons on coupons.com and smartsource.com.

3. I start thinking about what I would like to eat for dinner. Yes, I said "I". If I asked my kids I would get, cheeseburgers and spaghetti and meatballs every time (and funny enough those 2 dinners are in my meal plan). My husband just tells me whatever is good, so I just do not ask most of the time.

4. I look through my resources (recipes). I like to try new recipes all the time. We do not eat the same food every week. I love getting the Food Network Magazine and I thumb through my collection when I want to change dinners up. There are also sites you can go to where you can pull up a recipe with what you have on hand.

5. I start to make my list of dinners for the week and write my grocery list. I may go to 3 grocery stores if I see great deals at all three. I try to do my shopping on a Wednesday or Thursday when there are less people. I am lucky that I have 4 grocery stores within 2 miles of where I live, so it makes it pretty easy.

6. Know prices of items you buy! Make a list at the beginning of the staples you keep on hand and go to the different stores to see where you can get them for the least amount of money. Make it a habit to look at prices when you are going down a aisle when you are shopping.

Time breakdown:
*Looking at ads and cutting out coupons 15-30 minutes per week
*Preparing a meal plan 15 minutes (usually when I am watching T.V.)
*Grocery Shopping on average 1 hour (Big savings weeks 2 hours at the most, some weeks I only go to the Farmer's Market if I am stocked up).

Here is an example of what I will make based on sales:

Saturday- Cheeseburgers, fruit and corn on the cobb
Got a great deal on hamburger meat at Whole Food for $1.99lb early bird special last week.

Sunday- Chili Verde, pinto beans, homemade salsa and tortillas (A friend gave me a bunch of tomatoes that she grew).
I want to make a big batch of chili verde so I can freeze some for dinners on busy nights. I know I can find the best deals at Foods Co. Shopping at Foods Co. when I want to make Mexican food will save me about 50% of what I would pay at a Save Mart of Vons.

Vons has a sale on tortillas 2/$3.00 and canned refried beans for $1.00. I keep these items on hand to make burritos or baked chimichangas for a quick dinner. Vons always has a 50% off rack in the back of the store. Make sure you go through it every time you go shopping.

Monday- Spaghetti and turkey meatballs
This week I saw that Smart and Final had ground turkey on sale for 2/$5.00. This is a great price and I will buy as much as the store will allow me. Always look for the limit. I use ground turkey for meatballs and hamburgers.

Tuesday-Roasted red pepper pasta with salmon
Great sale on salmon Friday only at Whole Foods.

Wednesday-Leftovers
Great way to strech a dollar.

Thursday- Going to dinner at my in-laws.
My father-n-law is a great cook!

Friday- Out to dinner
We go out every Friday (using coupons of course)

Black bean and corn taco salad

Ingredients:

*Use what you have on hand. Add olives, bell peppers, whatever veggies you and your family like. I used:

1 head red lettuce
2 fresh corn on the cobb
1 can black beans rinsed
1/2 yellow onion diced
1 jalapeno diced
1/2 bunch scallions
1/2 bunch cilantro
1/2 basket cherry tomatoes
1/2 cup crushed Tostitos chips
Flour tortillas
1/2 cup jalapeno jack cheese
1/2 cup ranch dressing
1 tbsp chipotle in adobo sauce (key ingredient for making the dressing spicy and smokey)
*Freeze the rest of the chipotles for another time.

Directions:

1. Cook corn and cut off the cobb.

2. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Once oven is up to temp. place your tortillas on a cooking sheet lightly spraying them with olive oil or Pam. Sprinkle a little chili powder on the tortilla and bake until crispy. Once crispy add some cheese to each tortilla and melt.

3. While the tortillas are in the oven, dice your onion and jalapeno. Add a little oil to a saute pan over medium high heat and saute for a couple of minutes. Add the black beans and corn and season with salt. Cook until heated through and remove from heat.

4. Cut your lettuce, scallions and cilantro and any other veggie you would like and mix it into a large bowl.

5. Mix ranch dressing with the chipotle sauce.

6. Take the crispy tortilla with cheese and place on a plate. Mix salad together adding the black bean and corn mixture, tortilla chips and dressing.

7. Place salad on top of tortilla and top with more cilantro and crushed chips if you like.

Eggplant Parmesan

 I had an assistant today. The kids always fight over who is going to crack the eggs.

 Slice the eggplants, bread them and brown them in a pan. I used a combination of olive oil and butter.

 I used fresh mozzarella.

 Little missie helping me with the cheese.

 This is what it looks like before baking.

 Golden brown once it finishes cooking. It smelt so good while it was cooking.

 The finished product. My husband ate all of it and the kids tried it but prefered their meatballs.

I bought the eggplants at Farmer's Market which were half the price per pound than the grocery stores.

Ingredients

Recipe by Tyler Florence Food Nework

Spicy Tomato Sauce:

I made my sauce ahead of time which saved me a lot of time and dishes.

• 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 cup black olives, pitted and roughly chopped
• 1 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes
• 3 tablespoons capers, drained
• 2 (28-ounce) cans tomatoes (recommended: San Marzano), crushed by hand
• 1/4 cup fresh basil leaves, hand torn
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 4 cups dried bread crumbs
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 5 eggs
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• Extra-virgin olive oil
• 4 pounds medium eggplants, trimmed and cut lengthwise into 1/2-inch-thick slices
• 2 pounds whole milk ricotta cheese
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
• 1 1/4 cups freshly grated Parmigiano-Romano
• 2 pounds shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions

First make the sauce: Put a large saucepan over medium heat and add the olive oil. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute. Add the olives, red pepper flakes, and capers, and let that cook for 2 minutes, stirring often. Toss in the tomatoes with their juices and bring to a low simmer. Stir in the basil and season with salt and pepper. Simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Combine the bread crumbs, garlic powder, and oregano in a shallow bowl; season generously with salt and pepper and mix well. Crack 3 of the eggs into another shallow bowl; season with salt and pepper and beat with a fork to mix. Put the flour in another shallow bowl and season with salt and pepper. Arrange the eggplant, flour, beaten eggs, and bread crumbs on a work surface near the stove.

Heat about 1/4-inch olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. When the oil is hot, dredge several eggplant slices first in the flour, then dip them in the egg, and finally coat them in the bread crumbs. Put as many eggplant in the skillet as will fit comfortably in a single layer and cook until tender and well browned on both sides. Drain on paper towels. Cook all of the eggplant slices this way, adding more olive oil to the pan as needed.
Stir together the ricotta and 1/2 cup of the Parmigiano cheese. Stir in the basil and remaining 2 eggs,
and season with salt and pepper.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

To assemble the dish, first get yourself set up with a large, buttered baking dish. Have ready the eggplant, the ricotta mixture, the tomato sauce, the shredded mozzarella cheese and the remaining 3/4 cup grated Parmigiano. To start, spoon some of the tomato sauce over the bottom of the baking dish. Now add a layer of eggplant. Spread with half of the ricotta mixture. Spoon another layer of tomato sauce over and sprinkle with about one-third of the mozzarella. Repeat with a layer of eggplant, the rest of the ricotta, tomato sauce, and another third of the mozzarella. Finish with the rest of the eggplant, the rest of the tomato sauce, and the rest of the mozzarella. Sprinkle with the 3/4 cup Parmigiano.

Put the dish in the oven and bake for about 1 hour, until golden and bubbling. Let stand for about 20 minutes before cutting.

My $4.00 Project!

 This is little missies dresser with black drawer pulls that were cheap and half of them would pull out of the drawer when pulling on them.

 Black butterflies which are perfect for this dresser.

I think the new drawer pulls personalize the dresser and dresses it up from all black.

The best part of this was I was able to buy all 15 ceramic drawer pulls for $4.23!! I received the $10.00 off a $10.00 purchase from Pier One yesterday on Facebook, so guess where I went this morning? Yep, Pier One. I always cruise the clearance section first. I saw these and kept them in mind and cruised around the store. I looked at the other drawer pulls, but I kept thinking that these would be perfect for little missie's dresser. I had been wanting to replace them, but I was not willing to pay over $50.00 for drawer pulls.

They were marked down from $14.00 for 4 down to $3.58. I bought 4 packs and the total came to $15.03 and after coupon I paid $4.23. Not bad at all and I am very pleased with my purchase. My budget I had was $5.00, so I came under budget too!

Asian Vegetarian Peanut Noodle Salad

Cut up any variation of veggies that you like.

 Cook 1 lb. of spaghetti (Use whole wheat for more protein).

 Make your peanut sauce (does not look good in a picture). If it seems too thick you can add 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup of hot water to thin it out and make the sauce creamier.

Garnish with chopped peanuts and a wedge of lime.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

2/3 cup creamy peanut butter

1 tbsp sesame oil

1/3 cup rice wine or red vinegar

1 tbsp of red chile flakes (or less if you prefer it not spicy)

1 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp Dijon mustard

1 tbsp ground coriander

2 tbsp soy sauce

1/2 cup canola oil

1 pound spaghetti cooked

1 English cucumber

1 red bell

1 bunch scallions

1/2 cup chopped roasted salted peanuts

I added:

1 cup cilantro

1 cup diced carrots

Directions:

In a bowl, whisk together the peanut butter, sesame oil, vinegar, chile, sugar, Dijon, coriander and soy until smooth. Whisk in canola oil and check for seasoning. In a large bowl, toss dressing with pasta (adding it gradually to see how much you want) then adding all the veggies and top with peanuts.

**If your peanut sauce seems too thick add hot water and whisk. Anywhere from 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup. The veggies I did not use in the noodle salad I used in a salad using napa cabbage and I made a oriental dressing to go along with the noodle salad. Now I have leftovers for lunch this week!

Meal Plan Saturday

 Homemade Marinara Sauce

 Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Meatballs

My husband told me that he is going next week without eating meat, so I have come up with some different recipes for us to eat. I am looking forward to it! I thought I would get a head start and make a couple of the items for this weeks dinners. I made 2 jars of marinara sauce, meatballs and cookies. This way I can put a couple dinners together quickly. Also if the kids do not like a couple of the dinners they can have leftovers of what they like, but they will have to try what's for dinner first. I will also make a big batch of fettucine alfredo tonight for leftovers.

Saturday- Blackened Salmon, fettucine alfredo and brussel sprouts

Sunday- Hamburgers and fruit

Monday- Mushroom risotto and crusty bread

Tuesday- Eggplant parmesan and salad (the kids will have meatballs with theirs)

Wednesday- Black bean taco salad and corn on the cobb (I will make quesadillas for the kids along with this dinner)

Thursday- Spicy vegetarian peanut noodle salad and potstickers

Friday- Out to dinner

The Grocery Outlet

There are 2 Grocery Outlets in town, one in Fresno and one in Clovis. Let me tell you that this is a little gem that can save you a lot of money. The only problem is, you never know what they will have but it is worth the trip. Thankfully I have a Grocery Outlet buddy and she calls me when she see's an awesome deal. Lately they had Stoneyfield organic yogurt smoothies 4-pack for $1.49! They sell for $4.50 at Whole Foods and $3.49 at Trader Joe's for their brand. When you see a great deal like this you better stock up!

In the back of the store they have a organic section where you can find some great deals. Lately I have stocked up on Newman's Own organic popcorn for $1.29 a box which sells for $3.49 at Whole Foods for the same box. I have purchased real maple syrup there for under $5.00 and organic cheese and cream cheese.

So, if you are trying to save money or want to buy more organic products you may want to take a trip to the Grocery Outlet. I compare this store to a TJ Maxx because you have to go and look, it's different every time.