As for the present, today I have yet to really do anything truly productive except read news headlines, vacuum, dust, clean the bathroom *YUCK* and put stuff in the slow cooker to make Italian Beef. In about 3 hours, I'll be a happy camper (and so will my bf, who I hope will eat dinner tonight since he didn't care too much for what I made last night). Of course, I over reacted, as I usually do to any type of criticism from him and hope that tonight will be a much better evening in our household. :)
Now, as to the reason I've decide to blog. I've been reading for awhile on different sites on how people are only spending "X" amount of money for groceries each week and the benefits of being frugal (aka cheap, before we all went politically correct.) Now, as a single mom, I've never had too much money to just spend randomly, but I do have some things that I think are helpful tips that I hope will tie eating healthy and yes, cheaper all together! Really? Seriously? YES!
Now, if you at all have children, you will understand the frustration of trying to make a dinner that everyone will eat. Child A only wants beige food, while Child B only wants food you can eat in a bowl, and Child C will only eat food that is not mixed together (ie, casserole). This is perhaps every parents nightmare but most every parents reality...each and every night they choose to cook in instead of going out or through a drive-thru. Sooo....let's get down to those tips!
Tips:
1). When you only have "X" amount of money to spend on groceries, I have found it very beneficial to make a grocery list AFTER making a menu plan. Now, I know you are groaning and rolling your eyes in disbelief that I'd bring up something so incredibly "duh" but you'd be surprised at how many people skip the menu planning step! I get paid on the 1st & 15, so I have to make sure I have enough food for two weeks.
Okay. Menu planning for two weeks. How many meals is that? Well, in my family (of 3 typically unless the oldest, the d-i-l and the grandbaby are here, then it's 6 but MOST days it's only family of 3) we don't eat breakfast but do occasionally on the weekends, so 4 breakfasts and lunches on the weekend as no one is home to eat lunch during the week, (yes, we take our lunches and the teen eats at school), so 4 lunches and 14 dinners. 22 meals is what I come up with. You may come up with more depending on your own personal situation (or unless I really can't do simple math, which is always a possibility!)
Now the fun begins...I'm sure you all have "staple" foods that your family enjoys...chili, chicken -n - noodles, spaghetti, tacos, meatloaf...right? Okay. Based on our above 22 meals, that means I have to figure out what to make for 14 dinners (breakfast and lunch are easy - a bag of cereal, a loaf of bread, a galon of milk, some lunch meat...menu complete).
Back to our 14 dinners...Now, this isn't going to be an easy task, but we will get through it. What is the basics for tacos, meatloaf, spaghetti and chili? Hamburger! Really? Seriously? YES, hamburger. So your job is to figure out how much hamburger to buy so that you can stretch it and make it last until you need it. Now, I am a big fan of family packs of meat, especially hamburger. So buy big. Once you get it home, you then divide that big hunk o'meat into however many servings you will need: Ex: 6 dinners/recipes with hamburger = 6 portions. Now, portion size has to be considered as well. Spaghetti sauce can do without as much hamburger as lets say, meatloaf. So, make a smaller portion of hamburger to be used in spaghetti and use the remainder in your meatloaf pileo'meat. See! Not too hard after all huh? Little more effort once you get home, but it's gonna be worth it, trust me! Really? Seriously! (tip in a tip: put hamburger into a collindar, put under water for a bit and shake off excess water and away goes the excess grease from frying/browning!)
Now all you have to do is figure out the remaining 8 dinners and plan according. Chicken how many nights? 2? 4? Buy a bag of frozen breasts. Economical at about $9 per bag. Now, for those of you saying to yourself "But in that bag are only like 8 breasts." True, but the RDA serving size is only 3-4 oz of meat/chicken per person, so techincally, each person doesn't NEED their own piece of chicken...especially children who can share or those of us who are a bit overweight can certainly stand to share. (Just think~not only are you being economical, but weight loss could just end up being an added bonus!)
2). Menu planning. It's all about menu planning and how to stretch that all mighty dollar. Will post more tomorrow after I've made my own menu plan and shopping list. It'll be worth your time to read tomorrow...I'll be posting some of my own menu items and maybe a few recipes...Until then...~M~
