meal plans

Weekly Meal Plan for January 12th 2015

Jan 12 by Paul Ivanovsky Leave a Comment

What’s on your meal plan this week? If you haven’t planned out your menu, here are some great suggestions for affordable, delicious meals. Feed your family this line up for about $52!

Weekly Meal Plan for January 12th 2015

Meal 1 – Homemade Hot Pockets – Broccoli Chicken Alfredo

Kids love homemade hot pockets and we love that we can pronounce all the ingredients. You can also control sodium, fat, and calories. These are great frozen, thawed overnight, and then reheated the next day for lunch.

Meal 2 – Baked Potato Bar

A Baked Potato Bar is a huge hit around here! Potato bar’s are easy and cheap. We usually can find many toppings in the fridge and rarely have to pick anything up at the store for it. It’s a great way to use up left overs – whether it be meats, veggies, cheese, salad dressings, or other toppings.

Meal 3 – Easy Slow Cooker Chicken

I love slow cooker meals. It’s nice to toss something into the crock pot and forget about it until dinner time. It definitely makes meal time prep easier and lets me get a lot of things done while it’s cooking. Serve this slow cooker chicken with a side of rice or potatoes. Rice-A-Roni and Pasta-Roni are on sale for $1 this week at Walmart. They make a great side for this.

Meal 4 – Chili with Turkey Burger

Again this week, turkey burger is priced better than lean ground beef. Make a pot of your favorite chili using turkey burger. You can also put this in the crock pot for an easy meal. Serve with tortilla chips and some fun toppings like sour cream, green onions, and cheese. Add rolls or a side salad to make this a complete meal.

Meal 5 – Easy Goulash

We always make extra chili. Sometimes we freeze it for chili another time but often we use it to make Easy Goulash the next night. Boil your pasta – elbow macaroni or your choice of pasta. Warm the left over chili and add the pasta to it. If you need to, add a can of tomato sauce or a bit of tomato juice.

Meal 6 – Birds Eye Voila! Garlic Chicken

This is only $3.88 a bag this week at Walmart. This complete meal is ready in no time. Grab a couple of bags and you’ll have leftovers for lunch the next day!

Use the free Weekly Meal Plan printable to plan your meals this week.

Print a copy of these Recipes and head to the store with the printable shopping list for everything you’ll need.

Feel free to print and use these great printables. They’ll help you stay on track with meal plans and your grocery budget!

Monthly Meal Planner – By planning a monthly menu you can better follow the sales, know what you need to buy, reduce waste, and save money.

Pantry Inventory – Keep track of what you have on hand, what you’re low on, and know what you’re using a lot of so you can stock up on those items.

Freezer Inventory – Take stock of what you already have on hand so that you don’t overbuy and to know what you need for upcoming meals.

Shopping List – Print this off and keep it on the fridge to jot down those items that you need to pick up from the store!

Meal Plans – 4 Meals for Less than $40 Making Meals from Leftovers

Aug 14 by Paul Ivanovsky Leave a Comment

I hope you’re enjoying our weekly Meal Plans. This week, the format is a little different. We’ve planned 4 meals but you’ll be cooking only twice. Using up leftovers is a great way to save time and money! Some families don’t care to eat the same thing two nights in a row and because of that, a lot of leftovers can go to waste and be thrown away. With this 4 day plan, you can alternate nights so you aren’t eating the same basic foods 2 nights in a row.

Meal Plans – 4 Meals for Less than $40 Making Meals from Leftovers

Monday Night – Dr. Pepper Pulled Pork Sandwiches with Easy Coleslaw $12.84
As my wife says, “You don’t get any easier than Dr. Pepper Pulled Pork”. It’s a great recipe you can throw in the crock pot and forget about. After a case of the Mondays, who wouldn’t want to come home to the delicious smell of pulled pork slow cooked and ready to eat? Not only is the pulled pork easy but I’m including a quick way to make coleslaw to serve along side these pulled pork sandwiches.

Tuesday Night – Grape Chili Meatballs with Mashed Potatoes and Corn on the Cob $7.58
The recipe I’m linking to calls for turkey meatballs but we substituted with regular Great Value Italian Style Meatballs. This is a filling meal and great to add to the plan for the upcoming cooler months. Meatballs aren’t just for spaghetti or appetizers. Serve these Grape Chili Meatballs with mashed potatoes and fresh corn on the cob.

Wednesday Night – Pulled Pork Nachos $9.32
Sound like a crazy idea? Seriously, if you’ve never had BBQ Pulled Pork Nachos, your life isn’t complete! It’s a great way to use up the leftover pulled pork from Monday night’s Dr. Pepper Pulled Pork Sandwiches.

Thursday Night – Meatball Subs with Kettle Cooked Chips and Pickle Spears $9.91
Again, use up those leftovers. The Grape Chili Meatballs from Tuesday night make a great meatball sub for a new meal tonight. Keep things quick and easy and serve with chips and pickle spears.

We have the shopping list and recipes ready for you. Just right click and select print!

If you missed the Meal Plans for the last few weeks, you can check them out here!

Meal Plans – 4 Meals for Less than $40

Meal Plans – 5 Meals for Less than $50

Meal Plans – 7 Meals for Less than $70

Meal Plans – 4 Savory Pie Ideas for Dinner for Less than $40

Meal Plans – 4 Savory Pie Ideas for Dinner for Under $40

Aug 7 by Paul Ivanovsky Leave a Comment

We’ve been sharing weekly Meal Plans with you and this week’s meal plan theme is – Pie for dinner! Who could pass up that? While these aren’t the dessert pies that may first come to mind, these savory pies are just as delicious! They are also very affordable to make, easy to put together, and filling. You can make them ahead for reheating on busy week nights or any of them are perfect for Sunday dinner. Again, we’re giving you the links for each recipe, a printable shopping list, and the price break down for these great meals!

Meal Plans – 4 Savory Pie Ideas for Dinner for Under $40

Mini Shepherds Pie – $9.65

Anything made in individual servings is fun and the kids always enjoy them. This Mini Shepherds Pie is no exception. Make them in a muffin tin for perfect portions. Shepherds Pie is filling and a great all in one dish to serve the family.

Homemade Chicken Pot Pie – $9.82

Chicken Pot Pie is a family favorite and while there are lots of great frozen options, there is nothing quite like a Homemade Chicken Pot Pie that feeds the whole family! There really isn’t much to making this dish but it looks as good as it tastes! This is a recipe that even works for a Sunday meal for a house full and making 2 isn’t any more work than making 1.

Homemade Pizza Pie – $8.28

We love pizza and while it’s sometimes nice to order a pizza on a busy night and have a no fuss meal, my family will always pick homemade pizza over take out or frozen! Sometimes we make individual pizzas and everyone can pick their own toppings and other times we’ll make a big deep dish pizza pie to eat as a family!

Spaghetti Pie – $9

Does your family love spaghetti and other pasta dishes? We found this great Spaghetti Pie recipe on AllYou.com. There are so many great recipes in All You Magazine and on AllYou.com. This one has become a family favorite and isn’t your typical spaghetti for dinner. It has bacon in it. Who doesn’t love a recipe with BACON?!?

The shopping list below is printable by right clicking and selecting the print option. This is not a complete list of ingredients as spices and such have been left out since most of you probably have these items in your pantry. Make sure to check each recipe to verify you have everything you’ll need.