Today there was a crisp breeze in the air that signaled a large pot of chili was in order. I figured while I wait for my crock-pot to do all the work for me, I'd also update with what I plan on doing for the rest of the week.
Day 1: Tacos
When we have tacos I always cook a little extra meat to throw into the chili.
Meat (we use ground turkey) : $2.29 lb x 2
Cheese: $2
Lettuce: $0.99/1 head
Soft Taco Shells: $1
Hard Taco Shells: $1
Sour Cream: $1.50
Seasoning: $.69
I didn't include tomatoes in the price because we get these from the garden. Apparently they did very well this year because several people gave us tomatoes since they had so many.
Total Cost: $11.76
Day 2: Chili
My favorite! I always make tacos a day or 2 before I make chili since I use my leftover taco meat in the chili to spice it up a little bit. You can't really screw up chili unless you set-out to do just that, it's very forgiving.
Meat (in addition to the leftover taco meat: $2.29 lb
Beans: $0.79 x 3
Tomato Sauce: $1.10 x 2
I have chili powder on hand and since I'm not a huge fan of onions, I always use dried minced onions. My chili is super simple and goes a long way.
Total Cost: $6.86
Day 3: Chili Baked Potatoes
The great thing about making chili is that I can use it for days and one of my families favorite meals is chili baked potatoes. I "bake" my potatoes in the microwave because it's so less time consuming than putting them in the oven.
Potatoes (8 lb bag): $3.50
Cheese: free (on hand)
Sour Cream: free (on hand)
Total Cost: $3.50
Day 4: Taco Salad
This is a free day (as in, you should have just about everything on hand). I make this by placing tortilla shells on a plate and then layering cheese,chili,sour cream,tomatoes,etc.
Tortilla Chips: $1
Total Cost: $1
Day 5: Rotisserie Chicken
I love rotisserie chicken (or anything chicken, pretty much). I have a rotisserie but before we got that, I would just roast it in the oven. Super simple!
Whole Chicken (on average, $0.99/lb) $6
Vegetable: $1 x2
Potatoes: Free (on hand from the chili topped baked potatoes)
Total Cost: $8
Day 6: Chicken Pot Pie
Chicken Pot Pie is super simple and so good and hearty! I use cream of chicken soup mixed with a can of mixed vegetables and shredded chicken. I mix them together and place it on a pie crust with another crust on top and bake it @ 350 for about 40 minutes or until the crust is brown and flaky. I also add in a little bit of milk since the soup is a little thicker than I'd like.
Cream of Chicken Soup: $1
Vegetables: $0.60 + leftovers from day before
Chicken: Free, leftover from day before
Pie Crust (I use the ready made rolled up crust): $2
Total Cost: $3.60
Day 7: Leftovers,Takeout or a Meat and 2
I always allow one day for anything goes. I use this day to either get takeout if our schedules are busy, we eat leftovers or I make fish or something and use up what ingredients I may have on hand. If there are any potatoes left you could do a meat, potatoes and a vegetable. My husband and I both take our lunch to work so we don't have leftovers very often as we usually take them for lunch the next day if we do.
Total Weekly Cost: $34.72 (+ whatever your cost is on Day 7 - if any)
I could go on for days about how I use 1 meal and carry it over to make several others but I'll save my other "recipes" for another day. I coupon and used my non-coupon pricing on the ingredients but you could get all these ingredients even less. I go to the grocery store and get my meat when it's marked down in the morning and I stock-up on the essentials that I know we'll use. My Kroger had canned vegetables for $0.33/can a couple of weeks ago. They had a very strict 6 can limit so I went everyday and I sent the hubs in several times as well to stock up on 6 cans every trip. I buy what is on sale and plan my menu around it. Last week I was able to score rotisserie chickens for buy 1 get 1 free so that made them $0.50 lb. I also was able to get tortilla shells for about $0.75 box and cheese was $1.50/pkg so I stocked up on that so our costs this week weren't quite as high as my figure. We did however make up for it by ordering pizza one day so it all equals out in the end. I normally buy what is on sale and plan my menu around what I have but sometimes the sales aren't that great or I know I'll be too busy to go to the store so I just plan the meals a week in advance and I just buy whatever ingredients I don't already have. I've tried to do the whole freezer meal thing and I think it's great but it just doesn't fit with our lifestyle. My deep freezer is filled with meat and vegetables and I don't have room to store a months worth of meals in it so this is what works for us. I love, quick and easy and by making most everything beforehand, it doesn't get much quicker or easier!
