Meal Plan #1

I started meal planning. I've been kinda-sorta doing it for three or four weeks now. In the past, my plan has started, been followed for several days, and then scrapped.

THIS time I'm kicking ass in the kitchen. Hubs isn't allowed to buy groceries. He sucks at it and has no self-control.

02/26/2016  Fri	honey garlic chicken	potatoes & broccoli	salad
02/27/2016  Sat	spinach ricotta pasta
02/28/2016  Sun	pork roast	rice
02/29/2016  Mon	mac and cheese
03/01/2016  Tue	frozen pizza	curly fries
03/02/2016  Wed	pork stirfry w/ramen
03/03/2016  Thu	bean burritos	rice	lettuce wraps
03/04/2016  Fri	lemon garlic chicken	potatoes	salad
03/05/2016  Sat	breakfast for dinner
03/06/2016  Sun	honey balsamic pulled pork	rice	lettuce wraps
03/07/2016  Mon	pizza w/leftover pulled pork	salad
03/08/2016  Tue	spaghetti	salad
03/09/2016  Wed	loaded baked potatoes	salad
03/10/2016  Thu	coconut curry chicken	rice

Here are my meal planning goals:

• easy
• cheap

That's about it. I avoid processed. I shop based on sales and modify plans if I find flash sales. I like buying marked down, nearly expired meat and freezing it. Most of my crock pot meals are cooked from frozen - either the entire bag of ingredients or just the meat starts off frozen.

Some things, like the pork stirfry with ramen, come from just throwing a bunch of random stuff together. Pinterest gave me the idea, but my fridge gave me the recipe.

I've been trying to incorporate more beans because they're a cheap protein. Giant bags of dried beans are dirt cheap in the Indo foods aisle of the grocery store. Cook them all at once and  freeze in individuals bags. Bam, Easy can of beans.

Lemon Garlic Chicken

Ingredients

12 chicken drumsticks

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/2 cup olive oil

2 tbsp rosemary (I totally didn't measure it)

1 head garlic, crushed

I think that's about it. I put the non-chicken ingredients in a measuring cup and stirred them together.

I also chopped up 7 small potatoes and 3 large carrots.

I dumped the chicken and veg into the crock, poured the mixture on top, stirred it all up, and turned it on. I started at low for 5 or 6 hours then increased to hot for 3 hours. Probably all day on low would have worked. Or all day on high. Crock pots are mostly idiot proof.
Optional: take the chicken and veg out and broil it for five minutes (I did this).

We will be having tossed salads for a while because I got a really good deal on romaine hearts. 30% off $3.87 I think? So 90c/head, and I use an entire head for our family of five. That and one tomato (60c) and one cucumber ($1) means the salad cost $2.50, not including salad dressing, which I am not about to calculate. There were leftovers. I have no idea what the chicken cost any more, but if I had to guess it would be at least $6.50. Add the carrots (45c?) and the potatoes (75c?) then the meal is up to $10.20 and that's not accounting for the sauce/marinade ingredients. Conclusion? Eat less chicken. $2/person not including leftovers isn't too shabby, but the pork stirfry with ramen cost me about $2 for the entire meal because it was made with a small amount of leftover pork and pork is cheaper than chicken.