Monday, December 27, 2010

Healthy $10 a Day Menus

Hope everyone had a blessed Christmas and enjoyed a sweet time of fellowship with family and friends! We made a big brunch and didn't end up cooking our big Christmas dinner, so the plan is to make that tonight.

A few menu items you'll see repeating from last week. We always end up with more leftovers than I anticipate, so some meals I actually didn't end up preparing. They'll carry over to this week. We also may be visiting family later this week, so I am only planning out five days of meals.

I'm going to split this menu out a little differently today and group breakfasts, lunches, and dinners together, instead of separately by day.

Breakfast Ideas:

(None of these breakfasts are over $1. That's because flour, especially on sale, is super cheap. Gold Medal Flour was recently on sale for $1 for a 5 pound bag. There are 75 one-quarter cup servings per bag, so about 20 cups 1/4 c. servings, which means each cup of flour used in a recipe costs only 5 cents.
Eggs are inexpensive protein, and the milk used in these recipes costs maybe a quarter or less per recipe.)
I will round these out with fruit on sale (whatever is .99 cents a pound or less).

Puffed Oven Pancake
Oven-baked omelet
Peanut butter Baked Oatmeal
Swedish pancakes
Coco-Wheats: .30 cents/5 servings
(Milk reduced to $1.25/gallon; will use about 1/4 gallon=about .25 cents,
with spoonfuls of peanut butter added to bowls=roughly .05 cents (Peanut butter on sale for $1))

Lunches:
Macaroni Salad with hard-boiled eggs, oranges
Macaroni in bulk from Sams =.30 cents for this meal; celery and mayo=about .25 cents; 4 eggs=.50 cents; oranges on sale for .49 cents/pound
Meal=$1.50

Tuna Oriental, rice, milk
Tuna=.44 cents/can; rice=.50 cents; cream of mushroom soup=.60 sale; celery, onion=.25 cents; milk=.25 cents
Meal=$2.04

Ham buns, apple slices
$2 for this portion of ham, make my own rolls for about .25 cents, apple slices=$1

Quesadillas: homemade flour tortillas=10 cents for 10, 16 oz. cheese $2.50 (32 oz. on sale for $4.99)
Celery sticks=.50 cents
Meal=$3.10

Cheesy Ham Chowder (with leftover ham, $2), bread and butter
Corn=.50 sale
Bacon (1/2 package=$1.25)
Cheese=1.25
Milk, flour, broth, shredded carrot=less than .50 cents
Meal: $5.50 plus homemade bread and butter (minimal cost)

Dinners:
(Usually with milk to drink. I picked up some marked-down gallons for $1.25, so the cost is minimal for a glass)

Spicy Rice, Bean and Cheese casserole: .50 cents for rice, .50 cents for beans (cook half a bag of black beans), one can diced tomatoes (on sale for .50 cents), cheese=1.25, onion and garlic=let's say .25 cents
Meal= $3.00

Hamburgers, potato wedges, salad with homemade ranch dressing
1.99 sale for one pound ground beef, buns $1 (my husband prefers store-bought:)), potatoes .25 cents for one pound (10# bag=2.50) plus oil and seasonings, minimal cost; salad $1, homemade ranch approximately .50 cents
Meal=$4.75

White chicken chili, tortillas or tortilla chips
1 pound chicken=$1.49
2 cans Great Northern Beans=$1.60 (cheaper to cook your own)
Onion and garlic=.50 cents
Cream/milk=$1
Tortilla chips=$2, tortillas minimal
Meal=$6.60


Lentil Rice cheese casserole, cooked carrots
3/4 c. lentils=.75 cents (or less), rice=.50 cents, cheese $1.25, onion and seasonings=.75 cents
Carrots=.50 cents
Meal=$3.75

Goulash, cornbread
1/2 pound ground beef=$1
Macaroni=.75 cents,
Tomatoes=.50 cents,
Tomato sauce=3 @ .25 cents each=.75 cents
other veggies and seasonings minimal cost
Cornbread from freshly ground popcorn kernels, butter, milk, sugar, one egg=approximately $1.25
Meal cost: $4.25

(Linked to Menu Plan Monday)

4 comments:

  1. Wow, you've really inspired me to look at the cost of my meals! I've been too lax with grocery spending lately! Time to start paying attention again!

    Happy New Year,

    Sherry

    ReplyDelete
  2. Happy Coming New Year!

    This post has come at the perfect time for my family. Our property taxes have tripled this coming year, and so our monthly mortgage payments have significantly increased. So now I need to cut our food spending even further. I was hope you might be able to spare the time to share/link to your recipes. Thanks. God Bless.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Andrea,
    Is there a specific recipe you were interested in?

    ReplyDelete
  4. The peanut butter baked oatmeal sounds great! What a great idea! Thanks!

    ReplyDelete

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