Cereal and fruit. 5 days a week.

I'm just going to list dinners- breakfast and lunch are eggs/cereal/ sandwiches/ leftovers- etc.

Mon: grilled pork tenderloin (2 for 1 sale), roasted vegetables (from hungry harvest delivery)
Tues: chicken breasts topped with green onions and sour cream (onions again hungry harvest), fruit salad (hungry harvest), rice.
Wed: stuffed peppers (hungry harvest peppers- ground beef is on sale at HT this week.
Thurs spaghetti squash with ground sausage and cheese (spaghetti squash from hungry harvest)
Fri: pork fried rice (leftover pork tenderloin from monday, leftover rice from Tuesday.)

Get an instant pot and you can do your chili's, lentil soup, stews, ribs (yes, ribs!) in 20 to 30min during which you can prep veggies. Lots of easy recipes online or the book it comes with.

Anonymous wrote:-grill a big batch of chicken on sunday. use it for lunches and quick dinners during the week. even better if you can marinate it two ways.
-during the week, make any of the following for dinner using the grilled chicken: tacos, lettuce wraps, chicken sandwiches or salads
-have ground turkey handy and mid-week make turkey burgers. serve with baked sweet potato fries or just baked potatoes if you're too tired to prep. (or ground turkey lettuce wraps if you're really short on time and not too sick of lettuce wraps and tacos)
-have frozen shrimp handy, thaw when you get home and throw it on a pan with some olive oil, garlic, crushed red pepper. serve it with zucchini noodles that you prepped during the weekend.
-keep frozen meatballs (either homemade or buy from costco) and thaw when you come home. serve with zucchini noodles or just on a bed of spinach.
-pick up whole roasted chicken from grocery store, eat with salad and/or roasted potatoes.
-pick up large piece of salmon from grocery store, throw on grill. serve with spinach salad or steamed spinach.
-friday or saturday: dinner out or DH makes a nice lamb or steak dish

another few quick and easy dinners:
-stuffed peppers (stuffed with ground turkey or beef), top with cheddar cheese, you can mix cooked rice or cauliflower rice with the meat if you have a hungry crowd
-pretty much any sheet pan meal: prep the veggies on the weekends, throw it on a sheet pan with the olive oil, spices and meat when you get home for work. bonus if you cook it on foil as you barely have anything to wash
-agree with PP: in the fall, I do lots of chilis, stews, and soups. they can all be made on the weekend and feed for couple days. you can freeze the extra for another week.

Here are this week's meals so far:

-Slow cooker carnitas tacos
-Ravioli, marinara (I made it earlier and froze it), Caesar salads
-Sheet pan chicken, asparagus, mini potatoes
-Leftover chicken with broccoli, rice

I make liberal use of instant pot pork ribs with jicama slaw and ground beef and gravy with cauliflower rice. Those things are easy, healthy, and reasonably cheap. I make bulgogi w/ kimchi slaw and bo ssam with musaengchae (spicy pickled radish) when I’m wfh or have a little more time in the evening. I also like fat head pizza. I’m not even keto but like it bc it’s way quicker and easier than regular pizza plus more importantly just a slice or two fills you up so I can get away with just making a small one and the kids don’t whine for more lol.

-grill a big batch of chicken on sunday. use it for lunches and quick dinners during the week. even better if you can marinate it two ways.
-during the week, make any of the following for dinner using the grilled chicken: tacos, lettuce wraps, chicken sandwiches or salads
-have ground turkey handy and mid-week make turkey burgers. serve with baked sweet potato fries or just baked potatoes if you're too tired to prep. (or ground turkey lettuce wraps if you're really short on time and not too sick of lettuce wraps and tacos)
-have frozen shrimp handy, thaw when you get home and throw it on a pan with some olive oil, garlic, crushed red pepper. serve it with zucchini noodles that you prepped during the weekend.
-keep frozen meatballs (either homemade or buy from costco) and thaw when you come home. serve with zucchini noodles or just on a bed of spinach.
-pick up whole roasted chicken from grocery store, eat with salad and/or roasted potatoes.
-pick up large piece of salmon from grocery store, throw on grill. serve with spinach salad or steamed spinach.
-friday or saturday: dinner out or DH makes a nice lamb or steak dish

breakfast options: oatmeal (often as baked oatmeal or overnight oats), cold cereal, hardboiled eggs or crustless quiche with english muffin, smoothies, toaster waffles with peanut butter and bananas, yogurt. All with fruit. I usually pick 1-2 of these to have on hand each week, depending on time of year (I prefer warm breakfasts in the winter) and what's on sale.

lunch is usually dinner leftovers or a sandwich, with a fruit, a vegetable, and a sweet or salty snack.

Dinner: we are vegetarian, so your mileage may vary. We usually make 3 things a week, each large enough to eat twice for dinner and pack leftovers for lunch. Popular choices (some more in certain seasons than others) include:

* soup/stew/chili and bread
* rice or other grain bowl with beans or tofu, vegetable, and sauce
* ethiopian food (usually either lentils or shiro, with either gomen or cabbage and carrots) made at home with store-bought injera
* scrambled eggs with vegetables, huevos rancheros, shakshousha, or quiche
* sweet potato hash with chipotle field roast sausage
* stuffed butternut squash or bell peppers
* hummus, tabbouleh, pita, and roasted vegetables
* bean loaf with cauliflower/potato mash, mushroom gravy, and red cabbage
* curry with rice or naan and raita
* homemade veggie burgers and sweet potato oven fries
* vegetarian sloppy joes and coleslaw or broccoli slaw
* pancakes or french toast casserole with fruit and yogurt or veggie sausage
* pasta and sauce, lasagna, baked ziti
* tacos, burritos, quesadillas

if the meal doesn't have a major vegetable component we have a vegetable on the side as well--sometimes cooked and sometimes salad.

we make a list based on what we already have in the house, what's on sale, and what we feel like eating. We usually buy one package of ice cream or another dessert food each week as well, and generally don't buy any beverages other than milk. I feel like we eat well and have a good variety of food without spending a ton on it.

I spend 20 minutes a week sitting down and making a meal plan. I don’t have a super budget friendly plan though.
Saturday:
Sugar cookies for ice cream sandwiches
Kids pizza/parents date night

Sunday:
Mushroom and beef burgers
Potatoes and ketchup
Corn on the cob
Ice cream sandwiches

Monday:
Homemade chicken nuggetd
Cantaloupe
Salad

Tuesday:
Spaghetti and meatballs
Salad
watermelon

Wednesday:
Grilled cheese
Tomato soup
Salad

Thursday:
Corn chowder
Baked potatoes
Salad

Friday:
Make your own pizza

I don’t really have a weekly meal plan but here are some main dishes/meals:

Ground chicken or turkey (1/2 -1/3 large sizes package typically, remainder is froZen) - brown it, add sautéed onions and a Teryaki marinade. Use with metric for lettuce wraps

Another portion of ground meat from above - into taco shells or tortillas along with sour cream (if we have), lettuce, tomatoes, shredded cheese

Roast chicken with roasted veggies. (Most of the time the bones are used to make a chicken soup for another meal or lunches)

Pasta (either with meatballs or else frozen shells or pasta with clams or mussels)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I suck at meal planning, so I try to keep things very broad. My weekly plan is:

1 Breakfast for dinner
1 Roast meal
1 Roast redone a different way meal
1 Ground Meat meal
1 No meat meal
1 Pizza night
1 Stuff-inna-bun meal

Do you eat chicken?

All the time. It’s counted in the roast category, with an occasional foray into the “inna-bun” category. So roast chicken one night, leftovers made into curry the next, later in the week a rotisserie chicken from Costco sliced up and served on croissants with a Caesar salad. Roast night is often grilled night in the summer, so grilled thighs with coconut rice or grilled split chicken breasts in Spiedie marinade with microwave baked potatoes are popular options in the household.

Buy boneless, skinless chicken breast when it goes on sale. Put some in the refrigerator to use in the next couple of days. Portion the rest up and freeze for later.

Chicken veggie stir fry
Chicken taco salad
Jambalya
Chicken parm
Chicken and white bean chili
Grilled chicken kabobs

Anonymous wrote:I suck at meal planning, so I try to keep things very broad. My weekly plan is:

1 Breakfast for dinner
1 Roast meal
1 Roast redone a different way meal
1 Ground Meat meal
1 No meat meal
1 Pizza night
1 Stuff-inna-bun meal

Do you eat chicken?

I suck at meal planning, so I try to keep things very broad. My weekly plan is:

1 Breakfast for dinner
1 Roast meal
1 Roast redone a different way meal
1 Ground Meat meal
1 No meat meal
1 Pizza night
1 Stuff-inna-bun meal

The thread about cutting food expenses was very interesting, and like the OP for that thread, we have a hard time with meal planning. For those who have mastered this, would you share a typical weekly meal plan?