Meals, Smiley girl, and Crochet

With no car for the week and one brief opportunity to get groceries, I had to plan well for our meal plan this week. Due to the circumstances and time constraints of our shopping trip, I had to deal with some less than stellar prices and had to stick to my shopping list even though it was based on a different store's sales flier!



My slightly crazy kitchen helper, who likes to hide under the kitchen sink.


Even so, we managed to spend just under $70 for 6 days worth of food for 3 people, one being a very small person:) Basically all we started out with was some salt and pepper, so I thought we did pretty well. This is definitely not the healthiest week ever, with our consumption of whole grains taking a nosedive (who knew they don't sell whole wheat flour in small town North Carolina?!?!?) but we are eating protein, some whole grain, dairy and fresh fruits and veggies every day.

Here is non other than the veggie-chopping diva herself, making homemade veggie soup.

If you want a low-cost menu for 4-6 people, the Hillbilly Housewife has a great breakdown of how to do it. The prices aren't realistic for my neck of the woods, but its a good place to start from and gives lots of food for thought:)

Here is my original meal plan, and what we are actually eating, day by day is listed below. Although as usually this will bore our friends and family to tears, I thought it might interest others who are looking for frugal food ideas a bit more:)

Sunday:

Breakfast for the first day was provided: cereal and juice boxes, bread for toast, jam and butter packets, some powdered milk and 3 eggs.

>Lunch: out with our new friend to a great local italian place. Not in our original budget, but worth it to get to know another missionary and to say thank you for the ride to the grocery!

Dinner: Homemade veggie/noodle soup and tuna cheese melts. I chopped up a 1/2 cup onion, and 2 cups of carrot/broccoli and sauteed in a little margarine. After the veggies were tender, I added several cups of water, 2 veggie bouillon cubes, 1/2 cup dried whole grain pasta (from home) and simmered until the noodles were tender. It actually was pretty good, and my 1 year old loved it. Daniel made the tuna melts, which were also very good:)

Monday:

Breakfast: Pancakes from "Jiffy" mix with honey and margarine and milk/coffee

Lunch: Leftover soup, tuna melts and italian food

Dinner: out to a JAARS family house (tacos and pie:)

Tuesday:

Breakfast: Pancakes from Jiffy mix, scrambled eggs, milk/coffee and tangerine for me

Lunch: Tacos with ground beef (stretched this with onions and oats, but was still good!), cheese, sour cream, salsa (forgot beans and lettuce)

Dinner: Tuna Noodle Casserole (using tuna packets from home, as well as whole grain pasta from home:)

Wednesday:

Breakfast: Blueberry muffins from mix and leftover eggs with tangerines and milk/coffee

Lunch: Leftover Tuna Noodle Casserole

Dinner: With JAARs family

Thursday:

Breakfast: Pancakes with Honey and Margarine, bananas, milk/coffee

Lunch: More Tacos from leftovers

Dinner: Beef Stroganoff with Steamed Broccoli

Friday:

Breakfast: Pancakes, Eggs, Coffee/Milk

Lunch: Leftover Beef Stroganoff with Steamed Broccoli

Dinner: Frozen Cheese Pizza with Carrot Sticks/Dip

Saturday: Coming home! We'll have whatever's left all day. Probably a few tangerines, a few slices leftover pizza, some granola bars we brought, PB&Honey Sandwiches, quesadillas, carrot sticks, etc. I also brought a chicken flavored rice mix from home that didn't end up in a meal so I may mix that up with leftover meat, veggies and cheese for our lunch before leaving for the airport. Airport food is so overpriced! If you have flown recently you probably noticed that you are lucky to get peanuts and a soda now, much less a meal even for longer flights. So we always try to pack more food than we think we'll need.

Oh and a tip...don't forget that pudding, dips and yogurt all count as liquid at the airport! Sadly, about a third of our food was thrown away at security because I was thinking of actually liquid, not stuff like pudding:(

On another note, my friend Marie is re-teaching me to crochet. I have been wanting to do a rug (actually with old t-shirts, but that is next) for a long time, but couldn't figure it out from online tutorials. So this has been a fun diversion while away from my normal tasks:) Thanks Marie!


M's newest thing is when she falls she will just lay down for awhile and be silly. Here is a demonstration: