I am terrible at meal planning. I always buy the wrong things, in the wrong quantities, and end up buying a lot of take-out anyway. Unfortunately, budgets are very tight right now. I need to get through the next two weeks efficiently.
Can you suggest a week of cheap, nutritious, relatively easy meals for a family of two adults and one two-year old? We are looking for lunches to take to work/school, dinners, and simple afternoon snacks. Breakfast is usually a granola bar or bagel.
The adults eat anything, though we are more veggie-heavy than meat heavy. The kid has simpler tastes, but we are happy to give her chicken nuggets, peas and rice when she doesn’t like the main meal. We aren’t huge on dessert, and we love ethnic food.
We have a well-stocked kitchen, including lots of kitchen gadgets (slow cooker, steamer) and spices, but we work long hours so lengthy preparations are not ideal. I prefer to restrict the slow cooker to weekends. We are fine doing the occasional packaged meal (jars of pasta sauce and the like) but want to keep to real food as much as we can without breaking the bank or consigning us to hours in the kitchen.
Oh, Eggs are very economical, nutritious and filling. A couple of boiled eggs would fill you up at midday.
Rice is very cheap and you can stir fry it with eggs, meat, and vegetables.
Of course when you say inexpensive, that’s relative. Around here using fresh produce is not really cheap. But if you can stretch it over a week it might be economical.
The cheapest meals are 99 cent loafs of white bread and large packets of Bologna slices.
To clarify, I am a pretty good cook with a wide range. My real problem is the planning- Coming up with a week’s worth of meals and building a reasonable shopping list that won’t leave us hungry or overstocked. Often I’ll do a big crock pot, but not finish the food before it turns. Or I’ll plan to eat pasta three times in a row, only to get sick of it on the second day. Or I plan a cheap week, and run out of good three days in to it.
I am hoping for input on the question “What do I eat on Tuesday?”
I suppose relatively speaking eggs are economical, but due to avian flu they’re $3 a dozen here. Not outrageous, though. I’m surprised chicken is still low in price, I bought a whole (though small) cut up chicken for $3. Rotisserie chicken is about $5, we buy one every week and it lasts a couple-three days, for sandwiches and chicken salad if nothing else.
I made pasta primavera last night and it was awesome. Had some left-over pasta that I added to stir-fried vegetables (whatever is in the fridge, but I used mushrooms, asparagus and green onions). Be generous with the olive oil, and add a tiny bit of white wine (or chicken broth, or water) towards the end. Took about 15 minutes to prepare.
But the stew thing is the way to go for most of the meals. Make a big pot, and make some rice, and you’re good to go. But you don’t want stew every night, so the pasta dish above can be a nice monotony breaker.
Do the stew thing on Sunday, assuming that’s the day you have the most time. Have stew Sunday and Monday. Do the pasta thing on Tuesday. Maybe do a nice omelette on Wed, then back to the stew on Thursday, pasta on Friday, and then stew again on Saturday.
I should add that it’s tough to have “fresh” vegetables if you only shop once per week. By the end of the week, many of them are going to start looking tired even if they’re not actually bad. I usually do a quickie mid-week shopping to get a few vegetables. Only takes about 10 minutes, so it’s worth it. I use scallions (green onions) in almost everything, and they don’t last more than a few days.
You might just try googling “meal planning” and taking one of the many examples as a template to get you started. It should be fairly easy to tweak someone else’s menu rather than try from scratch.
In our household of two, this one is a pretty standard go to. Some strips of chicken meat browned and then simmered with a little soy sauce and the teriyaki sauce of your choice for a couple of minutes, mix in some steamed vegetable of choice and serve with rice. Takes about 20 minutes, half of which is the first 10 minutes of cooking the rice, feeds however many people you want to feed (depending on how much chicken and vegetable you use).
Not fancy, but reasonably inexpensive, relatively healthy, and fast.
I was a subscriber to eMeals.com for a year. They do meal planning for all kinds of restrictions, including “budget friendly”. Ever week, they send you an email with the week’s food.
If budget is the biggest concern, then I would base your meals around what’s on sale at the supermarket.
For a family of 3 for a week (lunch and dinner), I’m guessing that roughly the following would be plenty, with leftovers:
5 lbs (total) of meat/fish (boneless) – for example 1 pound ground chuck for pasta or chili, a pound of catfish for gumbo, 1 pound of cheap steaks, and 2 pounds boneless chicken breasts; if the meat on sale has bones (like chicken thighs, which are often cheap), then add about 30% weight or so
10 medium sized onions (every savory dish needs onions!)
about 5-10 pounds assorted other fresh veggies (carrots, cabbage, spinach, tomatoes, mushrooms, etc.)
~2-3 pounds of frozen veggies (peas are my favorite)
2-3 pounds (total) rice and/or pasta
2-3 pounds starchy veggies (potatoes, sweet potatoes), if that’s your thing (maybe 2-3 pounds starch total, between rice/pasta and potatoes, keeping in mind that you’ll need a bit more potatoes to = dried pasta or rice)
1 pound dried beans/lentils
Some amount of seasonings and condiments, which can include whatever you like (and marinades like soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, fish sauce, or whatever your family likes)
Feel free to tweak for preferences (bread/tortillas instead of pasta/rice, for example).
Then, when you get everything based on what’s on sale, you can put together a meal plan, and I’m sure the Dope would be glad to help.
This is something I used to do a lot when I was first married and we were on a strict budget.
Buy a whole chicken. They are often on sale. Roast the chicken for one dinner. Strip the remaining meat and save. Boil the chicken frame with onions, carrots and celery (Wilted veggies from the frig work great as soup fixings. Don’t toss them out!) and make chicken stock. Add whatever leftover or frozen veggies you have to the stock, along with a 1/2 cup of rice, and some of the remaining chicken meat and simmer for about an hour. Voila! Big pot of soup for lunches. Take what remains of the chicken meat, chop it up in the blender and make chicken salad sandwich filling. I usually put in some mustard, mayo, chopped green onions and some finely chopped celery, salt and pepper. Voila! Sandwiches.
Another trick for a cheap meal - take 1 can or bottle of pasta sauce, 1/2 lb of ground meat or sausage, 8-oz shredded cheese and some pasta. Brown the meat, then layer into a casserole as follows: sauce, meat, pasta, cheese, ending with cheese on the top. Cover and bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes until the pasta is tender. It’s a hearty meal for dinner and the leftovers are great reheated.
Each Saturday morning we inventory the freezer, look over the grocery store circular, and see what our personalized coupons are on line, and then plan the meals for a week. Unless there is something fresh needed at the end of the week we almost never go to the store again until the next Saturday.
As for saving money, besides eating what is on sale. Red beans and rice are the standard Louisiana cheap and nutritious dish, with vegetables. I take my lunch and it is much cheaper to buy a bigger chicken than we will eat at one serving and use that for lunch rather than buy meat at the deli or even worse, prepackaged.
Most stores sell in bulk at a lower prices, so you can make two meat loaves at once and freeze one for later, which is good if we need a fast meal or need an idea.
We also have lots and lots of cookbooks for ideas. Weight Watchers cookbooks are good for simple and relatively cheap things.
Since you know this happens, freeze some of it as soon as it cools. There’s lunch for at least one person. I regularly freeze half of what I slow cook since the same thing happens here.
Same here ('cept I do it on Sunday). I do all the cooking at our house. On Sunday I plan for usually five meals, expecting that we’ll have leftovers to cover the other two nights. I plan to use the fresh veggies at the beginning of the week, and the canned/frozen/dry ingredients later on. I write out the plan on a 3X5 notepad and make up the shopping list as I’m deciding what to make. My goal is never to throw anything out – at least, never to throw something out of the fridge. With a 4- and 2-year old, we end up tossing stuff they’ve licked or poked at and not eaten. But, with a little practice I’ve gotten pretty good at planning so we’re about out of food on Sunday morning.
You might take a look at Mark Bittman’s cookbooks. We’re vegetarians, so we use How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. There are some complicated recipes and some expensive ingredients, but most of the recipes are designed to be quick and relatively cheap. I cook out of that book at least once a week.
ETA: If you’re interested in South Indian cooking, take a look at Healthy South Indian Cooking. Lots of lentil curry recipes that are pretty cheap and deceptively easy. Full disclosure: this book was written by a friend of our family.