Thrifty Couple Weekly Menu Week of 9/12

Wow, it has been a long time since we have posted our menu.  We weren’t sure if this was a post that you enjoyed or was a benefit to you.  But we had a few people over the last several weeks mention that they missed it and so we are going to try and start posting it again! We have it written on our fridge, but this post helps us too as it seems that, after we publish it for you all to see, we are more likely to stick to it too 🙂

Also, Thrifty Al and I are on a fitness program right now that we just started.  It requires lower carb and healthier proteins, with fruits especially for the next few weeks. So….. the week we decide to start sharing this again, we have had to set our budget a little higher for the next few weeks to accommodate all of the lean proteins!  And, it is kind of a boring menu (I know a really great week to start this again :)) as we can really only have veggies, fruits and lean meats and so it is just rotating the lean proteins.

As a recap of how our menu works:

1. We don’t necessarily have a day-by-day plan for our lunches and breakfasts or snacks, just our dinners.  We have a list of ideas for those meals that week, and so we wake up eating selections from the list. For lunches, we also have a list of possible lunch ideas for that week, but most lunches end up being leftovers, which is why we have a loose plan!
2. Our Sunday dinner plans are varied, we try to have guests from church over every other week, if we know in advance, we usually put a roast in the crockpot, or prepare a casserole. If it is planned last minute (as many are) we have homemade chilis and stews in the freezer to heat up, frozen entrees and sides to heat up,  or lots of pastas to quickly feed a crowd! Thank goodness for a full pantry! Anyway, if it is just us, we usually have leftovers, lunch or snack items, or simple prepared meals! So on our menu, you will find Sunday’s marked with a “?”
3. Our goal for this site is to share the deals, freebies, hot finds; but we also want to share how we live as a larger family on a tight budget everyday and ways that we try to live thriftily in every area of life….. so this would be one of them!

Here are the ideas for breakfasts this week:

• Egg dishes
• Quick Oats with applesauce
• Protein Shakes
• Fruit Smoothies

Here are the ideas for lunches this week for us:

• Salads (and lots of them for Thrifty Al and myself)

For kids:

• Annie’s Mac and Chees
• Cheese Quesadilla with wheat tortillas
• Soup with baked veggie fries
• Leftovers

Here are the snack ideas for this week (both the kids and us):

• Baked Veggie Fries
• Fruit Tray
• Carrot chips
• Celery
• Plain yogurt with fresh fruit berry mix-ins
• Crackers and cheese
• Cottage Cheese and pineapple
• Cheese sticks

Here are the dessert ideas this week:

• Organic suckers
• Plain Yogurt with honey and fruit
• Homemade Yogurt popsicles (made from fruit smoothie recipe)

Dinner Menu:

• Monday: Chicken Stir Fry (we will be sharing the recipe with a giveaway starting tomorrow), Salad
• Tuesday: Fish Tacos with whole wheat tortillas, mangoes
• Wednesday: Lean steak, steamed veggies, salad, watermelon
• Thursday: Blackened Salmon over brown rice, with steamed veggies and salad
• Friday: Baked chicken, watermelon, steamed veggies and salad
• Saturday: Family dinner out – first meal out on our new fitness program, we will see how it goes
• Sunday: Low-key leftovers, soups, sandwiches, salad, etc.!

Monday:  Chicken Stir Fry (we will be sharing the recipe with a giveaway starting tomorrow), Salad

• Chicken package $2.25
• Brown rice around .40
• Veggies for stir-fry about $2.00 worth
• Salad around .90
• Homemade vinaigrette probably .10

Total Cost: $5.65 for the whole meal for 6 = about .94 per serving

Tuesday:  Fish Tacos with whole wheat tortillas, mangoes

• 3 Tilapia fillets $3.60
• Wheat tortillas $1.00
• 1 packet Taco seasoning .12
• Leftover rice from the stir fry to make the meat go further
• Organic Mangoes, from our most recent produce co-op basket $2.00
• Taco toppings (cheese, diced organic “ever growing” green onions, sour cream, salsa, tomatoes) about .80 worth

Total Cost: $7.52 for the whole meal for 6 = about 1.25 per serving

Wednesday: Lean steak, steamed veggies, salad, watermelon

• Steaks around $2.50
• Steamed fresh veggies around $1.25
• Salad with homemade vinaigrette $1.00
• Watermelon around $1.00 worth (we bought a HUGE one for $2.37 last week and should last us for 2-3 meals)

Total Cost: $5.75 for the whole meal for 6 = about .96 per serving

Thursday: Blackened Salmon over brown rice, with steamed veggies and salad

• 3 pre-blackened lg. Salmon fillets (Sam’s Club had taste tests of this a couple of weeks ago and it was some of the best Salmon we have had, it is pricey though!! But makes for a nice dinner treat here and there!) $7.00 (YIKES – but have to remember it is a treat to reward ourselves for working so hard)
• Brown Rice .40
• Steamed Veggies $1.25
• Salad with homemade vinaigrette $1.00

Total Cost: $9.65 for the whole meal for 6 = about $1.61 per serving

Friday: Baked chicken, watermelon, steamed veggies and salad

• Chicken Breasts $3.49
• Watermelon around $1.00
• Steamed veggies $1.25
• Salad with homemade vinaigrette $1.00

Total Cost: $6.74 for the whole meal for 6 = about $1.12 per serving

Saturday: Family dinner out – first meal out on our new fitness program, we will see how it goes

We plan to hit Denny‘s after a trip to the State Capitol building for Capitol Discovery Week.

Denny’s offers two FREE kids meals per each adult meal on Saturday nights.  This means our entire family of 6 can eat for the price of two adult entrees! We will try and get salads, or baked chicken or fish and see if we can stick to our fitness eating plan.  This will be the first meal out on our new plan.

Sunday: Low key  – leftovers, soups, sandwiches and salads = CHEAP

COST SUMMARY FOR THIS WEEK’S DINNERS: Cost for the dinners this week $35.31 for the 6 of us. This isn’t too much more than our norm. But, due to all of the extra eggs and high protein snacks we are eating throughout the day (outside the cost of dinners) our budget is running about 20-25% higher and probably will be the next few weeks.