5 Money Saving Meal Planning Tips

I have my own system of meal planning and it works well to save us money without taking up a ton of time.  I go to the grocery store regularly and keep close tabs on what is in my fridge and freezers that needs to be eaten.  Those things alone keep my meals on track.

I make 28 breakfasts a week.

I pack 10 school lunches a week.

Leo and I almost always eat lunch at home for 14 lunches a week.

Big kids eat lunches at home on the weekends for 4 lunches.

And then I cook 6 dinners a week.

Plus snacks.  Plus treats.

 

WOW!  That's a lot of food to have prepped and ready to go.  No wonder I've always got food on the brain.  I take advantage of grocery pick up from Walmart, pick up and shopping at Sams and monthly Aldi or Meijer trips.  I plan my grocery pick up around other errands so that I can grab groceries at the end of my running errands.  I love grocery shopping late at night in my pjs and just being able to drive up and get them the next day.  It is a life changing service.

I hope you enjoy my 5 Money Saving Meal Planning Tips //

1. Eat at home.

I love the idea of Sunday brunch after church, but waiting in brunch crowds, eating a busy restaurants and paying $100 for brunch isn't my idea of fun.  Instead, I've been making different brunches for my family at home on Sundays.  We go to church, come home to rest and then I whip up this brunch for my family.  I picked the main things - bacon and eggs and then took their orders to customize their fruit and carbs.  It was quick and easy and everyone loved it.

I did scrambled eggs with or without cheese.

Egg in a basket (toast)

Baked french toast sticks.

Cooked bacon for everyone and then asked them their preferred fruit.

Eggs are a staple in my brunch menu.  Then I swap out the meat and carbs each week.  I'm hoping this is a meal planning routine that sticks!

2. Establish routines in your cooking schedule.

Tuesdays = Taco Tuesday at our house and everyone knows it.  Almost every Tuesday you will find us eating some form of Mexican food at home.  I usually make taco meat and then have all the toppings and ingredients for soft tacos, nachos or salads.  Each person build their own plate.  It's so nice to not have to worry about what I should make on Tuesdays.  It's a no brainer.

Another taco night option is Sheet Pan Nachos.  Customize each section for each member of your family and enjoy.  I do a layer of chips and meat and then each person comes to the kitchen to pick their toppings.  This sheet pan of nachos was delicious.

3. Make extra

I intentionally make extra food at dinner time to give me leftover lunch options all week long.  I make a casserole we can enjoy for a dinner or two and my lunches.  Or grill extra chicken or make extra taco meat.  That way I have leftovers that can be ready quickly for lunches.  I try to plan leftover lunches on Saturdays to clean out the fridge.  I lay out all of the leftovers on the counter and then the kids pick what sounds best to them.  It's a genius way to clean out your fridge and ensure you aren't letting food go to waste.

4. Try to waste nothing

I work hard to never let food spoil in the fridge.  This requires me keeping really close tabs on our produce and leftovers.  If something is looking sad, I'll fix it for dinner that night or chop it up and freeze it.  Or if it's too far gone, I will compost it.  I also to a fridge/freezer inventory before I go to the store.

5. Write out your menu

I do this every weekend.  I write out 7 dinner options for the week - main dish and sides.  Then I pick whatever sounds good that morning to make for dinner.  Kevin enjoys seeing dinner options for the week and it takes the pressure off of me to come up with a meal each night.  I just select something from the list.  This saves us money when we're tempted to go out to eat. 

What meal planning tips and tricks do you use to save your family money?

9 Simple Summer Dinner Ideas for Your Family

I've been cooking like crazy now that Summer is here.  My crew seems to be hungry 24/7 so I'm always fixing a meal, cleaning up a meal or prepping for the next meal.  I really do love to cook so I'm not complaining.  It just takes a lot of extra time and planning to be ready to feed my family all day long.  I have some really simple dinner ideas to share with you this month!  

These nine meals are all crowd pleasers with my crew - ages 3 to grown ups.  The kids loved these meals and so did the adults.  And they are all quick prep meals which feels perfect for this time of year.  Win-win for everyone!

Let's get started!  I hope you find a meal idea or two that you can try with your own family.  

My best meal prep tip has been that I have made a little extra each night at dinner and saved the leftovers for my lunch the following day.  It feels so good to have a nice and easy lunch to heat up for myself in the middle of a busy day.

 1 // Breakfast for dinner

I tried something new and it was a big hit!  I cut up a can of cinnamon rolls into bite size pieces and baked them in a 9x9 pan.  It took longer to bake than the usual 8 minutes the whole rolls require.  Then I drizzled the icing on top.  My family almost died and went to heaven.  They LOVED this meal so much.  I served ham & cheesey scrambled eggs, little smokies and fruit. 

 

Leftovers for an easy lunch the next day:

 

2 // Italian Nachos

Spread all of your favorite pizza toppings on tortilla chips and melt the cheese in the oven.  Dip your nachos in marinara.  Yum!  We like turkey pepperoni, turkey sausage crumbles and mozzarella cheese.  Kevin loves black olives, onions and peppers.  The kids just like meat and cheese. 

3 // Keilbasa sausage with sides

My family loves the Uncle Bens Long Grain and Wild Rice mix so much.  It's the easiest side for about $1 and I usually make two boxes for my crew.  I roasted broccoli and onions and served the keilbasa with fruit.  I just slice it and brown it in a skillet.  Kevin and I love the chicken apple sausages from Sams and the kids love the turkey Keilbasa.  This meal is so easy and so good!

4 // Roast & sides

I like to pick up the Hormel Roast Au Jus packages for dinner.  One will feed our family if I make sure to have hearty sides.  I served it again with our favorite Uncle Ben's rice, green beans and onions and cantaloupe.

5 // BBQ Chicken Naan Bread Pizzas

I love the small naan bread at Aldi - it makes the best pizza crust.  I used canned chicken, our favorite bbq sauce and cheese/onions on top.  Bake the pizzas until the cheese is melty and serve with easy sides like baby carrots and apple slices.  My kids don't love the bbq pizza so I make them cheese pizzas or toast plain naan bread for them.

6 // Burger Night

Kevin's back to grilling now that the weather is nice.  Olive requested his burgers for her birthday dinner.  He made smash burgers for us on the Blackstone and they were so good!  We had all the toppings and I made yummy sides of roasted potatoes that my kids dip in ketchup like fries, mac & cheese and fruit.  I love when Kevin takes care of the meat on the grill and I can do the sides quickly inside.

Leftover lunch the next day:

 

7 // Brats & Hot Dogs

Most of us like grilled brats and the boys like hot dogs.  Kevin grills them all on the Blackstone and I made sides - corn on the cob, fruit salad and tator tots.  We also discovered a mulberry bush nearby so we made some mulberry lemonade to go with our dinner.

8 // Charcuterie Board

We had another yummy charcuterie board!  I added our favorite pepperoni breadsticks and cleaned out all the fruits, veggies, crackers and cheese we had.  This is our favorite combo - something everyone loves to eat!

9 // Carne Asada Pulled Pork

We are still loving this Sams Carne Asada Pulled Pork. It's delicious for taco night and it's such an easy main dish to heat up and serve.  It's delicious leftover, too.  It's about $13 a container for one big dinner and a couple of leftover lunches.  

The adults love to make soft tacos and the kids do a mix of taco bowls or nachos.  I make all the usual taco toppings and serve corn on the cob or fruit or both!  I look forward to this meal every time we have it and the leftovers are delicious!

Did you find a meal you'd like to make for your family this summer?  I hope so!  Leave me a comment and let me know what your family would enjoy!

Must Make Pork Carnitas

I am so excited to tell you about these Must Make Pork Carnitas!

 

My family loved this pork carnita meat and it was the easiest dinner to prepare.

I grabbed a package of Pork Carnitas meat from Sams after seeing it in their monthly mailer.  This 2lb package is $13.98 and I figured it was worth a try.  It was delicious!  It has a good, subtle flavor that can easily be enhanced with delicious toppings.  I can't wait to stock up on more next time I go to Sams since it says Limited Time Offering on the package.

You get one package of meat and you can heat it up so easily in a 9x13 pan in the oven at 350 for 15 minutes or so.  I heated it up, let it rest, shredded it with my hands and removed any fat.  There was very little fat and the meat was so tender.

Here's what the pork look like after I shredded it and left it to soak up any remaining juices.

The kids enjoyed eating the meat plain and on nachos.

The adults loved making soft tacos and nachos.  I had lots of toppings to choose from - picked red onions, queso fresco cheese and all our usual taco favorites - lettuce, tomatoes, sour cream, shredded cheese and taco sauce/salsa.  I love dinners like this where the meat is so easy to heat up/prepare and I just have to add on the sides.

The whole family (minus the toddler) loved this dinner!  We all ate generous servings and still had leftover meat.  It reheats perfectly.  I will definitely buy it again.

Would your family enjoy this meal?

9 Tips to Make Dinner Prep Easier on YOU

I really enjoy making dinner for my family.  I almost always rely on grocery pick up to make my life easier and rotate between Sams, Walmart and running in Aldi or Schnucks. I do a menu once a week and shop every week.  I cook 5-6 nights a week + Door Dash/eating out the other nights.  

I know that not everyone enjoys this task or that meal prep is stressful for many.  I'm here with some simple dinner tips to take the guess work out of meal prep!  I hope our dinners give you some inspiration for new meals or new ingredients or new routines to try for you family.

Tip #1: Divide up dinner duties

We divide up dinner duties and Kevin always does the grilling.  I marinate meat and he grills it.  Then I make sides to go along with it.  We love grilled chicken, burgers, brats or steaks.  He grabs steaks when he sees good deals on them and I make sides that are in season to go with the meat.  I always try to have him grill some extra meat to use for lunches that week.

Some nights the kids help me set the table.  Everyone helps clear the dishes.  Sometimes the big kids chop fruit for me.  When we have friends over for dinner, we divide up duties.  Or maybe your spouse picks up the groceries and you do the cooking.  Divide up the duties so that you aren't doing everything.

 

Tip #2: Mix homemade and convenience foods

I love to make homemade bread and my kids prefer boxed mac & cheese.  So I spend my time making the things I enjoy and then find shortcuts with other side dishes.

Tip #3 Make Your Plates Colorful

If you include a fruit, a vegetable (crunchy veggies and dip or a simple salad or roasted veggies) then your dinner will be healthy and filling.  If your kids aren't adventurous eaters, make a game out of trying to new things.  My kids love games so I can usually get them to try new foods that way.

Tip #4 Let everyone customize their own plates.

I set out all of the dinner foods buffet style some nights then we can all go through the line and make our plates how we like them.  I opted for loaded potatoes and all the veggies.  The kids wanted potatoes with ketchup to dip in and skipped the cherry tomatoes this night.

Tip #5 Offer new things with things they love

My kids love chicken and rice so I tried a new green bean recipe this night.  That way if they didn't care for it, they could eat fruit, roasted broccoli or extra chicken and rice.

I haven't cooked brussles sprouts in a while so I planned a dinner with several sides the kids would enjoy and one new item.  None of the kids loved them, but the adults did.

Tip #6 Make your own take out

If your family enjoys Chinese take out, try to find a recipe you can make at home for a healthier and cheaper dinner option.  My crew loves a good teriyaki marinade, anything with hoisin or soy sauce.  I like to make this shredded steak from Aldi, rice and roasted broccoli for a take out alternative.

 

 

Here is another take out alternative that we like: Lo Mein with veggies, teriyaki chicken and fruit.  I love the frozen Lo Mein from Sams, canned chicken, teriyaki marinade and usually pineapple or apple slices.

Tip #7: Prep your food whenever you have time

Look at your schedule and see which day you might have a little extra time to prep food for the week.  Maybe it's the weekend or one set night a week.

Right now, nap time is a really good time for me to get ahead on dinner prep.  I like to cook my taco meat or saute my veggies during nap time so that when dinner rolls around I just have to reheat them.  My next best time is after homework is done around 4:00 and the kids are playing together.  I chop and prep all the things for dinner so that when 6:00 rolls around it is easy to pull things together for dinner.

I used to stress when I have breakfast for dinner on the menu.  Everything cooks at the same time and needs tons of attention to get the eggs just right, the pancakes flipped and the bacon cooked to perfection.  The last time I made breakfast for dinner I tried a new strategy.  I made the pancakes and eggs in advance and put them in glass containers to pop in the oven.  Then I cooked the bacon right before dinner.  The pancakes and eggs reheated in the oven while I cooked the bacon.  Everything was delicious!  And breakfast for dinner was much less stressful.  Keep this in mind of a particular meal that your family loves is stressful for you!

 

Tip #8 Make a big dish to eat twice in one week

My kids love any kind of pasta.  They love this combination the best - meat, noodles and marinara with the littlest bit of cheese.  I love cheese so I usually add ricotta and mozzarella to the adult side and just do their side with meat, sauce and noodles.  We eat it one night then have it again another night that same week for an easy meal.  No one complains about leftovers as long as I don't serve them two nights in a row.

Tip #9 Find sides that your family loves and repeat those

My crew loves these roasted red potatoes.  I roast them at 425 for 30-40 minutes with olive oil and seasoning salt on them.  Then we all top them differently - cheese, sour cream, ketchup or plain.  The whole family loves them so I know they'll eat it.

They also love a side salad or crunchy veggies or fruit.  I can always serve a salad and know it'll be well received.

Figure out your go to sides - pineapple, grapes, apple slices, cucumber slices, roasted potatoes, salad, homemade bread, bread sticks, etc. - and it'll make your meal planning easier.

Wow, that was a lot of food!  I hope that you found those tips helpful and have some new dinner ideas for your family!

4 Ingredient Crusty Bread

Do you make your own bread??

For years I've told myself that I was not good at baking bread.  I somehow decided that it wasn't worth my time to figure out and that I just wasn't a bread baker.  Have you ever done that with something?  Talked yourself out of it before you'd even had a chance to try it??

2020 has given us all some extra time at home and I'm happy to report that in 2020 I've become a bread maker!

I told you about my adventures in sourdough bread making back in January.  It's going great.  I usually end up making bread/cinnamon rolls 3 times a month.  It's been really fun to share bread with others.

Olive requested that I learn how to make delicious crusty bread.  Our whole family loves it so I figured it would be a fun skill to have.  I asked around for a recipe recommendation.  One friend gave me this recipe and she said, "It's so easy.  You really can't mess it up.  The only tricky part is that you have to remember to do it the night before because it needs to rise for 12-18 hours."

I'd had the recipe for months and finally got around to trying it out last week.

Friends - it turned out SO GOOD that I made it two times last week!!  

After making this bread many times, I realize that I prefer not to butter the outside.

 

I was really proud of my first loaf of crusty bread.  My family gave it rave reviews and requested it every night for dinner.  The kids said it was the best thing I had ever baked for them - ha!

 

Here is the link to the original recipe & directions: Budget Bytes: No Knead Bread

Ingredients:

1/4 t instant yeast

1/2 t salt

3 c flour

1 1/2 c warm water

Butter for topping (optional)

 

Directions:

Mix ingredients until well combined.

Let it rise/rest for 12-18 hours.

*I've been stirring it up before I go to bed, letting it rise 18 hours and then baking it for dinner the following night.

Shape dough into a ball with a little extra flour on parchment paper and let rise for 30-60 minutes.

Preheat oven to 425 and let your dutch oven heat up along with the oven.

Remove hot dutch oven and place your bread (on parchment paper) into your dutch oven.  Top with the lid and bake for 30 minutes.  Remove hot lid and let it bake another 10 minutes.  Add some butter to the top when it's still warm.

That's it! 

Let cool, slice and serve.  It's best fresh out of the oven or shortly there after.

Would your family enjoy some crusty bread??

If you don't have a dutch oven, I'd highly recommend this one.  It's more budget friendly than most and I think it's going to be perfect for bread, soup, roasts, etc once the weather gets cold!  There are so many pretty color options.  I ordered the Oyster White.  Here's my Amazon affiliate link to it:

Avocado BLT

When we were in Wisconsin I ordered an ABLT on homemade sour dough bread.

I'd never heard of an ABLT, but when I read that it was an Avocado BLT, I knew I had to try it.

It was just as delicious as I'd hoped.  I briefly contemplated ordering one for the road.  Then I came to my senses, took note of all the details and did my best to recreate it at home.

Isn't that half the fun of traveling - trying new things and incorporating them into your everyday life?!?

Kevin and I love BLTs.  I had no trouble convincing him to go along with my plan.  He does not love avocado plain.  I ended up just leaving it off of his sandwich and he loved it.

Here's my inspiration:
ABLT from The Free House in Wisconsin

My step by step recreation:
Spoiler alert: It was a pretty great dupe!

Ingredients:
Loaf of sour dough bread
Thick cut bacon
Ripe avocado
tomato
lettuce
mayo
real butter

I attempted to thinly slice the sour dough, but that proved to be a challenge.  This was the best I could do.

Butter the bread

Toast the outsides on a hot skillet.

Fry the bacon.

Perfectly toasted.

Thinly slice the avocado, tomato and prep the lettuce.  Spread mayo on one side of the bread and start building your sandwich.

Yum!  It was the perfect Summer meal.  The extra steps of slicing your own bread, adding the avocado and using thick cut bacon really made the sandwich feel special without much extra work.

Have you ever had an ABLT??  You'll have to give this one a try!