Tonight’s dinner featued homeade pizza! One of the BEST meals to make out of leftover veggies and 99cent whole wheat pizza dough from Trader Joes!
Each week I sit down and plan out my meals. I enjoy this task, not only to see how far I can stretch my dollar, but to see how creative I can get with the ingredients that I already have. Doing so, I save a lot on my weekly grocery bill and don’t waste food! I simply love meal planning.
Seek out the pantry- Literally, go through your pantry and see what you have in there. You never know what could be hiding…cans of tomato sauce, soup, a half box of pasta etc. By clearing your pantry, you will feel more organized and have a better sense of what you can use to create meals!
Today, I went through my pantry and found:
Peanut butter
about 1 serving of pasta that was left in a box
old fashioned oats
Sandwich thins
2 sweet potatoes
Peek in the fridge- Again, I take a look in the produce bin (where produce often goes to die) and see what produce is on it’s last leg. I will often use the items that are just about to go bad first, either the day of or the next day. Take items out and rearrange them so that you can actually see your items left over from a previous shopping trip.
Here’s what was in my fridge:
a ton of grapefruits, a few oranges and 1 apple
1/2 jar of applesauce
1/2 pint blueberries (getting old)
7 packs of yogurt (apparantly, I was yogurt happy last week)
1/2 red onion
1 rutabega
1 green bell pepper (getting shriveled)
1 serving green beans
cottage cheese
skim ricotta cheese
1/2 jar tomato sauce
about 2 sandwiches worth of turkey
My freezer also had:
1 lb chicken breasts and about 1 serving of frozen broccoli
I write EVERYTHING down on a sheet of paper and start thinking of which items I need to use up before they expire and others I can use for meals later in the week. I start combining things and before I know it, I have created one or two meals containing items I already had!
If there is a meal that I can easily create by adding one or two NEW ingredients to the mix, I will add the new item to my grocery list for the new week! Make sense?
Here are the meals that I created using both pantry items, and fridge items that I had on hand. Anything in red is added to my shopping list for the week. Here we go! Let’s plan.
Breakfast
Peanut butter + Oats + bananas = whipped banana oats
yogurt pack topped with bluberries
Sandwich thin + peanut butter, orange
Lunch
baked sweet potato + side salad
pasta + mushrooms + parmesan cheese = yummy pasta
Turkey on a Sand thin w/ lettuce.
I can eat an orange or grapefruit with any of these lunches
Dinner
Apricot Chicken + broccoli
red onion+green pepper+ mushrooms, mozzarela cheese, pizza crust= pizza!
Snacks: rutabega fries, applesauce with cinnamon, yogurt, egg nog protein shake
My final grocery bill totaled: $33.08
I came out with a few staples, some extra snack bars for class and the red items to build my weeks meals. I have a ton of snacks now to choose from, 3 solid dinners that will include leftovers! That’s pretty good for a week full of meals. If I do say so myself!
somekindofsunshine 
