We are in a new house and a new city 750 miles away from our hometown, living the dream on an island along the coast of Texas. It has been wonderful, but eating out and the corner store on the island are EXPENSIVE!
So we set out to duplicate our earlier success with monthly grocery shopping. You can check out that earlier post HERE
So why shop monthly?
- The warehouse store is a 30 minute drive
- It is much more inexpensive compared to the neighborhood island market
- It saves time from going to the store weekly or biweekly
- You are less tempted by the treats on the store caps of traditional grocery stores
- It forces you to plan, and when you plan you are likely to choose more rationally
I will say that I am lucky my husband is on the healthy bandwagon with me, I know not all spouses are. BUT he was not always down with eating this way, and my kids can be picky. You can always tweak the meal to make it for friendly for picky eater- i.e. turn a taco salad for you into a burrito for the picky ones. Same meal prep but served differently.
So what does this list turn into?
Dinners
*Recipes are HERE - http://venuscrossing.blogspot.com/2016/06/dinner-recipes-for-monthly-meal-plan.html *
- Burrito bowl (beef, beans, rice, greens, and salsa)
- Sauteed chicken breast, roasted sweet potato, and seared Brussels sprouts
- Hamburgers and sweet potato fries
- Roasted chicken breast, rice, and roasted asparagus
- Steak cubes, roasted potatoes, and roasted broccoli
- Baked fish, quinoa, and steamed snap peas
- Hashbrown omelet and bacon
Breakfast
*Recipes are hyperlinks*
- Bacon, eggs, and toast
- PB Cup Protein shake (made with Greek yogurt instead of almond milk)
- Greek yogurt and berries (stevia and Greek yogurt mixed with some berries)
- Chocolate PB&J Protein Oatmeal (or regular for the kiddos)
- Cereal (kids)
Lunches
- Leftovers (generally the hubby and I eat for next day's lunch, sometimes kids too)
- Sandwich (with lunch meat, or kids like PB&J) with veggies
- Fish sticks with veggies
- Chicken Nuggets with veggies
- Pizza Rolls (kids)
- Mac 'n cheese with veggies (kids)
So basically we rotate through a different meal each night of the week, then recycle for the 4 weeks of the month. We tend to eat out about once a week, we have to try all the new places after all ;) so there will be a few things left over for the month which is fine as most of it keeps anyway.
Fresh produce
This meal plan is different from the past in that we bought ALL fresh veggies for the month to prove a point. Some of my friends could not see it going that long, and it does if you buy the right fresh produce and treat it right. I will follow up on this at the end of the month.
The List
*** I am buying for a family of four, adjust your amounts according to your family size
- Frozen chicken breast (2x10 lbs bag)
- Lean ground beef (10 lbs chub, I break this up into 8 sections and freeze them)
- Fish fillets (2x 3lbs bags, generally tilapia but cod, halibut, or flounder have all been good)
- Eggs (4x18 packs)
- Bacon (2 packs, I switch out between turkey and regular)
- Beans (1 pack of canned or the bag of dried lasts FOREVER)
- Potatoes (1 large bag)
- Sweet potatoes (2 medium bags)
- Asparagus (2 bags)
- Broccoli florets (2 bags)
- Snap peas (2 bags)
- Bell peppers (1 bag)
- Brussels sprouts (2 bags)
- Greens (1 box spinach or kale medley)
- Lunch meat (2 contains, usually 1 turkey and 1 chicken)
- Flat hamburger buns (1 bag)
- Bread (2 loaves)
- Frozen berries (1 large bag)
- Quinoa (1 medium container)
- Oatmeal (1 large box, will last longer than 1 month)
- Salsa (1 large jar)
- Hashbrowns (1 large box, will last longer than 1 month)
- Protein bars (2 boxes of 18)
- Peanut butter (2 pack)
- Plain nonfat Greek yogurt (5 x 32oz containers)
- (here and below are for kids) Tortillas (1 pack)
- Chicken nuggets (1 bag)
- Pizza rolls (1 bag)
- Milk (1 box of 3 half gallons)
- Cheesesticks (2 bags)
- Mac n' cheese (1 box)
- Fish sticks (1 box)
- Kid snacks (this time was 1 box pop tarts and 1 box Kashi granola bars)
- Cereal (this time was 1 box Honey Nut Cheerios)
- Household items (paper towels, allergy pills, etc)
We put all this into 1 french door refrigerator/freezer and a chest deep freeze.
Have you ever tried to do monthly shopping? How did it go?
X- Liss
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