This week I decided to switch it up a little bit and share our weekly meal plan a day in advance! What do you guys think about that? Would you rather see our weekly meal plan post come out at the beginning of the weekend to give you some meal ideas before you go grocery shopping? Or are you like me and you prefer to do your grocery shopping on a weekday to avoid the weekend crowds? Leave some feedback in the comments section, we would love to hear from you!
MEALS
- Shepherd’s Pie
- Fettuccine Alfredo* (Gluten Free Version & Regular Version)
- Pasta Shells
- Buddha Bowl
- Pad Thai
- Minestrone Soup
- Salmon with Cauliflower Mashed Potatoes
INGREDIENTS
- Potatoes
- Cream Corn
- Yves Veggie Ground Beef
- Gluten Free Pasta
- Fettuccine
- Cream Cheese
- Parmesan
- Garlic
- Milk
- Asparagus
- Maple Syrup
- Pasta Shells
- Cottage Cheese
- Broccoli
- Cheese
- Eggs
- Squash
- Spinach
- Red Pepper
- Black Beans
- French Dressing
- Instant Noodles
- Shrimp
- Cabbage
- Peanut Butter
- Soya sauce
- Fish sauce
- Catalina Dressing
- Sugar
- Sriracha
- Onion
- Carrots
- Rosemary
- Red Pepper Flakes
- Bay leaf
- Diced Tomatoes
- Lentils – most of the time we omit these
- Vegetable Broth
- Small pasta
- Red Wine Vinegar
- Lemon Juice
- Parsley
- Basil
- Salmon
- Cauliflower (leftover from last week)
GROCERY
- Gluten Free Pasta – $2.99 at Superstore
- Asparagus – on sale; paid $2.11 at Superstore
- Eggs – 3.99 at Costco
- Squash – $3.03 at Superstore
- Spinach – $2.99 at Costco
- Red Pepper – $2.75 at Superstore
- Yellow Pepper – $2.80 at Superstore
- Instant Noodles x2 – $1.29 each at Superstore
- Bananas – $2.81 at Superstore
- Gluten Free Rolled Oats – $7.49 at Superstore (couldn’t risk buying this in bulk since our friend has Celiac Disease)
- Hummus – on sale for $1.79 at Superstore (because they’re all expiring this week, but whatever!)
- Peach Slices – $7.89 at Costco
- Cheese & Cracker Snacks – on sale for $7.99 at Costco
- Ice Cream Bars – on sale for $10.49 at Costco
The total amount of money we spent on these groceries is a whopping $60.41! And initially, I wasn’t going to buying any gluten free items, but after having helped us when the car broke down yesterday, I knew I needed to make a home cooked meal for our friend PJ.
Despite our savings, we did still go over budget a bit because our Costco Membership was due for renewal (the cost of which is shared with my brother). I also purchased two Easter items on Clearance – I paid less than $5 for two silicone muffins moulds shaped like Easter eggs, and a pack of 48 plastic Easter eggs!
What meals do you have planned for next week? Did you find a great deal at a grocery store lately? Let us know all about it in the comments!
I dont go grocery shopping in the winter much because I’m not fond of the fact the city doen’t believe in snow removal, so the last trip was a $900 trip, yes, 900…that was in march, I’d last been shopping in nov. We were out of quite a few things. I prob will make a trip in again once we get close to emptying the deep freeze (june? LOL)
We do meals like, spag and sauce one night, use up the sauce and make it into chili, that sort of thing. I ALSO don’t buy via a list strictly because if I find a bunch of broc marked down I then will buy it and make cheddar broc soup. Lots of times weird leftovers turn into a stir fry OR a soup (I like soup, prob because its so very damned cold here for so very long LOL…2 more weeks of -20 C weather, gez I can’t wait for “spring”…is it still a “Season”?)
Wow, that’s really different!! I’ve never heard of doing grocery in that much bulk, but I love the idea! If we lived out of town, I definitely would not want to be driving to do groceries every week either.
It’s great that you can make good use of leftovers. And we are definitely with you about buying things that are on sale for a good price. The list that I publish in these posts is a combination of what we need and what we found for a good deal.
We’ve also been eating lots of soup – I think we’re officially in second winter… Ugh! Hopefully the weather will warm up soon because we’re in the mood for veggie burgers on the BBQ! ^_^
I’m rather impressed by your low cost grocery shopping! I started this myself a couple months ago, and I think I only managed to keep it under $100 once or twice. However, I still think we’re spending a bit less. Whereas I used to spend maybe 50-60 bucks every few days, making weekly purchases as high as $200 or more, now I can spend $120-150 and have the food last almost 7 days. How do you go about deciding which meals to cook when you plan? Do you strictly look at ingredients already in the kitchen? Do you base it around protein? We eat similarly to you guys- not a lot of processed foods and very little meat (only chicken and fish- each about once per week).
It must make a difference that you’re buying for three people instead of 2 though, so that’s really great! And of course, we can’t manage to keep our budget this low every single week, or we’d be stuck eating very little protein/veggies. We used to spend more money when we used to go to the grocery store more often – we’d always stop in to Superstore if ever we were nearby. But now we try to only go out once for our weekly groceries and it’s made a difference in how much we spend, but also what we eat. We would usually buy not-so-healthy foods during those drop-by visits. Going less often means being more motivated to eating the healthy snacks (ish) we already have at home.
For deciding meals, I start off by looking at our recipe list (we have a sheet with all our favourite meals) and on my recipe board on Pinterest. I’ll try to pick two really good meals, and then think about which other meals I can make with similar ingredients. For example, when we’re in the mood for cauliflower wings, I need to think of at least one more recipe with cauliflower, because I know it will go bad if I don’t make use of it in the same week. We also take a look at what we have, if we have anything left over, so that might influence it too. I know this week we probably won’t finish the spinach, so next week’s meal plan will definitely include a recipe with spinach.
As for protein, Max adds his own meat here and there, depending on what we make, such as chicken, pork, moose, etc. He’s got a lot of stuff in the freezer so it’s easy for him to cook something on the side to make sure he’s getting enough protein. On my end, I always try to have at least one meal per week that includes fish, and one meal that has beans or another strong source of protein. Fortunately, I’ve never had to watch my protein intake that much so we don’t think about it more than that (my blood tests have always been in good standing since I became pescetarian).
I hope that answered all your questions, and if not please feel free to leave us another comment. And happy cooking! ^_^
[…] This week’s meal plan included a great meal that Max has always made without following a specific recipe. He loves cooking by tasting his food, not by measuring it. I knew it would be challenging to share such a recipe with you all, but I kept a good eye on him while he made his famous Shrimp Pad Thai last night so I could share his secrets with you all! […]