What kind of meals are in the meal planner?
If you are looking for healthy, well balanced food your family will enjoy – this is for you! I work hard to make sure our family eats a mixture of vegetables (leafy green, orange, etc.), fruits, whole grain breads, and lean protein. Our family is working hard to only eat “real” food. I know that’s a funny term to those that have not heard it before {I mean you haven’t been eating fake food up to now have you!}.
Basically, “real food” means foods that are not heavily processed. All food should be naturally found (i.e. vegetables come straight from a garden, milk comes straight from a cow, whereas Bisquick comes straight from a factory that mixes ingredients – make sense?} sourced with 5 ingredients or fewer.
We pinch pennies! Groceries are expensive, so I work hard to provide my family with delicious, nutritious food while at the same time making sure it is affordable!
Take them or Leave Them?
You can follow our plan exactly or modify it to suit your families individual needs!
- We make our own bread & granola. We do it as #1 a cost saving method and #2 to eat more healthily. I’ll post more on our favorite bread machine recipes later . . . but here are 2 resources to get you started: My FAVORITE bread machine cookbook {I have the ebook on my ipad and use it daily! It has pizza dough, rolls, lots of different breads, and so much more! You can use whatever recipe you like, but it is safe to assume I am using one from this book} and Honey Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread.
For Granola you can make the super healthy granola or the simple and healthy granola. You choose.
- We choose to eat fruits and veggies from the Dirty Dozen list organically. We know it costs extra, but by cutting out those 12 fruits & veggies we are cutting down our families exposure to harmful pesticides by 80%! You can of course buy non-organic or buy everything organic. You pick what works for your family’s budget.
- We choose to buy mostly grass fed {always non-GMO} local meat. Again, this is more expensive. We would rather eat less meat and buy quality, good-for-you meat. But if you are pinching pennies or have to have steak more often this may not be affordable for you.
- We make our own yogurt. It is so simple to make your own yogurt! And it only costs $.07 - $0.28 per serving {depending on whether you use the run-of-the-mill grocery story milk or organic non-homogenized 100% grass-fed cow milk} I LOVE our yogurt maker! It takes me about 7 minutes to whip up a batch and then it “cooks” for most of the day. So easy!
- We have backyard chickens. To cut down on the ever-rising cost of eggs, we got our own chickens. Now we control what they eat. Our organic eggs average out to $1.25 a dozen. for And just in case you are wondering, no we don’t live in the country. We have a less than .25 acre plot in suburbia. But more on our backyard chickens later.
- We grow many of our veggies. Our garden started as a fun, educational activity. It is still a lot of fun, but it also helps us dramatically cut down on the cost of our summer veggies {by $600+} During the summer we have a thriving garden that stocks us with organic veggies. Again, we live on a small less than 1/4 acre in suburbia. It can be done! So my summer menus are filled with lots of veggies to make sure of our bounty. If you don’t have a garden, no worries. The supermarket has lots of fresh veggies and year-low prices during the summer. We can, freeze, or pickle our extra veggies to use during the winter.
- We eat less. Since eating more “real food” and whole grains we've realized we eat less. But feel free to adjust portions to fit your individual family’s needs. We also don’t drink a lot of milk. {google it if and decide for yourself. We opted to try a balance approach} If you do, make sure to add that to your weekly grocery list. As is you will get about 1 serving of dairy a day.
August Meal Planner
In August home gardens are producing by the bucketful! Augusts' menu takes into account all the fresh veggies you have on hand to maximize savings! Our meal planner feeds our family of 5. With your homeschool about to gear up for the year I thought this was the perfect month to start with! So for all you busy moms out there – dinner is served {and you didn’t even have to plan it!}
Week 1:
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| Monday | Fruit & Granola | Gyro with Veggie (peppers, squash, onion) in flatbread with gyro yogurt sauce** | Pesto Pasta | fruit |
| Tuesday | Oatmeal w/ fruit | Avocado Egg Salad Sandwich with carrots | veggie (squash, pepper, tomato) kabobs with brown rice & Fruit | string cheese |
| Wednesday | Yogurt & Fruit | Taco Salad (beef with taco seasoning**, lettuce, chips & salsa, sour cream ,cheese) | BBQ Sandwiches, fruit, and side salad *make enough rolls for 3 meals +1 for crumbs | popcorn |
| Thursday | Blueberry Muffin | Leftover BBQ Sandwiches with leftover chips & salsa *save some for bread crumbs | Grilled chicken with baked or mashed sweet potato | Granola |
| Friday | Farmer Eggs** with 2-3 potatoes & 2 eggs per person) | baked beans & fresh bread | Veggie Burgers with sweet potato fries** | bell pepper with hummus *only eat 1/2 hummus |
| Saturday | pancakes *make extra for Monday lunch | leftovers | Cheese & Veggie Pizza *save 1 pizza crust for breakfast | celery with peanut butter |
| Sunday | Quiche | Flank Steak,buttered potatoes**, green beans | Mac & Cheese | fruit |
*Granola makes 20-24 servings – save the rest for other days on menu (keeps in air tight container for 2-3 weeks)
**Recipe in Shopping List Download
Treat: Granola Banana Sticks
Week 2:
| Breakfast | Lunch | Dinner | Snack | |
| Monday | Fruit & Granola | pancake sandwich (with cream cheese & jelly inside) + fruit | Carnitas on Homemade Tortillas *make extra for Tues dinner & Wed lunch | bell pepper with humus (leftover) |
| Tuesday | Oatmeal with fruit | Salad | Breakfast burrito with eggs & cheese & peppers | fruit |
| Wednesday | Yogurt & Fruit | Quesadilla (cheese or PB & choc chips) | Angel Hair Brushetta | Peanut Honey Power balls |
| Thursday | Banana Bread | Baked potato with cheese, sour cream, and broccoli | Stir Fry (Vegetarian with 1 cup nuts) | fruit |
| Friday | Fried Eggs + Fruit & English Muffin | Blueberry Spinach Salad ** | Eggplant Parmesan, pasta & sauce | popcorn |
| Saturday | Whole Wheat Waffles *save 2 for casserole bites | leftover | Cheese & Veggie Pizza | fruit |
| Sunday | Smoothie | Lime-Cilantro Quinoa Salad | Casserole Bites | fruit |
Treat: Ice Cream
Week 3:
| Breakfast | Lunch | Dinner | Snack | |
| Monday | Fruit & Granola | Mozzarella, basil, Tomato & balsamic Vinegar Sandwich *Save 2-3 slices for tomorrow’s kabobs | Red Beans & Rice** | fruit |
| Tuesday | Oatmeal with fruit | Fruit, bread cheese, kabobs | Tortilla Espanola** with Sauted Zucchini | granola |
| Wednesday | Yogurt & Fruit | Spinach Salad with berries, candied nuts, and feta, cranberries & red onion | slow cooker flank steak fajitas on whole wheat tortilla @save 1/2 of flour tortillas for Thu lunch | celery with peanut butter |
| Thursday | Maple Breakfast Cookies & Fruit | tortilla pinwheel with cream cheese & pimiento | Pasta with alfredo sauce** and green beans | Granola |
| Friday | Spinach/garden Omelet (add ground mustard & nutmeg) | Lettuce Salad (opt. grilled chicken) | Hamburgers, watermelon, homemade sweet potato fries** *slice leftover bread for French toast | fruit |
| Saturday | French toast with homemade applesauce | leftover | Cheese & Veggie Pizza | popcorn |
| Sunday | zucchini bread | roast, broccoli, carrots | Soufflé** | fruit |
Treat: Fresh Fruit Pie
Week 4:
| Breakfast | Lunch | Dinner | Snack | |
| Monday | Fruit & Granola | hummus on pita, peppers *make extra for tomorrow lunch | steak, zucchini, peppers, red onion, mushrooms kabobs brown rice | fruit |
| Tuesday | Oatmeal with fruit | tuna sandwich & fruit | Stuffed peppers | granola |
| Wednesday | Yogurt & Fruit | Cobb Salad | Peanut Thai pasta with peppers | fruit |
| Thursday | Muffins | Grilled Cheese Sandwiches and carrots | Egg in a whole and fruit | Granola |
| Friday | Apple Crepes with sausage *Use tortilla and save 1/2 for lunch | refried bean burritos fruit | meatloaf, broccoli, mashed potatoes | popcorn |
| Saturday | Eggs & Zucchini pancakes | Leftovers | Cheese & Veggie Pizza | fruit |
| Sunday | Smoothie | Pork chops with Blueberries**, green beans | Scrambled Eggs with potato pancakes | homemade pretzels or crackers |
Treat: Peach Sorbet
{free} Weekly Shopping List Printable
First off, because I know you are going to ask, where is the Menu {free} printable? I know I usually have free printables for everything! But I think it will be more helpful to you if you just read the menu {this post} on your smart phone. All the recipes are hyperlinked for your convenience! {This is how I am cooking now too}
UPDATE: Sorry folks, the shopping list says July (I'll fix it as soon as I can) but just know that it is really the August one =)
You can also pull up your shopping list from your smart phone, but I know sometimes it is easier to print this off to add your own notes {things you already have, add’l household supplies you need, etc.} Each weekly shopping list contains everything you need to make the recipes that week. Easy Peasy!
If you notice a mistake, please let me know so I can fix it. Thanks
Feedback
I’d love to hear from you if you used my meal planner. It does take a little longer to prepare like this than it does to just do for my family. But if it is helpful to you I’ll continue doing it!
