by Ashley
I wrote on the finish of August about beginning a MONEY and FOOD food plan for the month of September. Has anybody been becoming a member of me? I needed to verify in with a progress replace now that we’re nearing the top of the month!
Meal Planning & Consuming At House
I give us a strong A for consuming at house. I’ve solely relied on take out a few occasions and it’s been “more healthy” quick meals sort meals so it’s been comparatively cheap. For instance, I’ve gotten a grilled hen salad from Chick-Fil-A one week and from Salad-and-Go one other week.
I’ve meal deliberate quite a lot of wholesome meals to have at house. And I took a unique method than regular. As an alternative of meal planning for a single week at a time, I meal deliberate for the complete month of September. This allowed me to suppose strategically about meals I might need leftover one week, and the way I may repurpose it later within the week or early the next week, and so on.
To offer an concept, I made 3 separate meals out of a big pork loin. The primary meal was crockpot pork loin with mini potatoes and carrots. For the second meal, I took about half the leftover pork and pulled it, tossed with BBQ sauce, and served with baked beans and broccoli as sides. For the third meal, I took the opposite half of the pork, pulled it, and pan fried it up with some taco seasoning to make it like carnitas. I served it on flour tortillas for the household (and simply on lettuce for me since I’m doing low carb), with a contemporary pico-de-gallo chalked filled with flavorful veggies.
I really like how crockpot meals simplify issues at meal time, and I’m additionally an enormous fan of the “prepare dinner as soon as, eat twice” motto of principally repurposing meals after its been cooked to make use of in a second meal. It speeds alongside the prep a part of dinner and saves money and time.
Cash Weight loss plan
My aim was to have whole meals spending this month be $750 or beneath and, though we nonetheless have per week to go, I simply positioned my last grocery pick-up order and we’re barely going to squeak by at our aim!
I believe having a grocery plan for the month helped dramatically, in addition to doing on-line pickup orders so I wasn’t tempted with point-of-sale purchases. I’ll say that I didn’t do a Costco buying journey this month and, if I had, I positively would have gone over. Though we use Costco principally for paper merchandise (e.g., paper towels, bathroom paper, paper plates), I nonetheless put this in our “grocery” price range. I’m proud of the “win” of assembly our aim……but additionally totally acknowledge that I definitely would NOT have, had I executed our sometimes month-to-month Costco journey. It’s progress, however nonetheless extra room to enhance, too.
Recipes
I need to share a few enjoyable recipes I used this month, simply in case anybody else is in search of new meal concepts.
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Blueberry Candy Potato Breakfast Meatballs
These are a brand new favourite! I obtained the recipe from a buddy and had initially given it main side-eye. It’s numerous flavors collectively and sounds odd. However I’m right here to let you know – it comes collectively fantastically and is scrumptious! I’ve already made the recipe twice! I make an enormous batch, then freeze so I can pull out only a couple balls at a time to re-heat for breakfast.
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Hawaiian Shrimp Taco Bowls
These are wonderful! It’s good to have one thing totally different (we in any other case eat numerous hen and pork), and the home made cilantro lime crema is the star of the present! I eat mine with cauliflower rice, whereas the remainder of the household eats jasmine rice. I received’t lie the cauliflower rice shouldn’t be nearly as good. However it’s a pleasant low-carb substitution.
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Ginger Steak Salad
That is technically not Complete 30 because of the sugar within the marinade and salad dressing. However that is the place I say I’m doing Complete 30-ish as a result of that is nonetheless a lot more healthy than what I’d in any other case eat (like fried hen or pizza! Ha!), so I name it a win! In actual fact, we’ve had a LOT of salads this month. Feels good to get within the contemporary veggies. And a home made dressing is all the time higher than store-bought, for my part.
Has anybody else adopted alongside this month with a meals and cash food plan? How did you do? Have any favourite Complete 30 (or Complete 30-ish) recipes you need to share? Drop them within the feedback!
Hello, I’m Ashley! Arizonan on paper, Texan at coronary heart. Lover of working, running a blog, and all issues cheeeeese. Freshly 40, married mom of two, working in academia. Attempting to lastly (lastly!) repay that ridiculous 6-digit scholar mortgage debt!
