I’m Not Going Grocery Shopping This Week: The Meal Plan
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
I mentioned last week that the stockpile of food at our home had reached an all time high, and something had to be done. This week I’m challenging myself to make meals for my family using the items we already have within out home, the only exceptions being dairy, and fresh produce. Over the weekend my wife and I did our meal planning by looking in the cupboards, refrigerator, and freezer.
Here’s our meal plan for the week:
Breakfast
We don’t plan specific items for breakfast, but we determined we have an ample supply of cereal, mini-pancakes, eggs, and oatmeal for the week.
Lunch
My son eats at school, but my wife and I both pack our lunches to take with us to work.
Monday
- Lunch : Ham and Turkey Sandwiches with chips and grapes.
- Dinner: Smoked chicken drumsticks with baked beans and asparagus.
Tuesday
- Lunch: Lean Cuisine meals
- Dinner: Tuesday is taco night at our house, and I make a pound of taco meat at a time. However, we don’t eat all the taco meat, so I usually put the leftovers in the freezer. We’ve accumulated enough left over taco meat to have it for a meal, and then some. We also have hard shells, taco sauce, and cheese on hand. Add to that some shredded lettuce (fresh produce purchases are allowed), and we’re having taco night!
Wednesday
- Lunch: We’ll have enough left over taco supplies to make taco salads for lunch!
- Dinner: Orange Roughy from the freezer, with long grain rice and green beans.
Thursday
- Lunch: Tuna fish sandwiches with Cool Ranch Doritos and Clementines.
- Dinner: Spaghetti and meatballs with salad and garlic bread
Friday
- Lunch: We have a package of precooked chicken breasts that we’ll use for chicken/bacon/cheese sandwiches with apples.
- Dinner: Grilled steak and scallops with baked potatoes, frozen corn, and salad.
Saturday
- Lunch: We have a package of wild rice soup mix on hand, that we’ll combine with more of the precooked chicken breasts to make chicken and wild rice soup.
- Dinner: Frozen pizza night. Easy cooking night because it’s the weekend.
There’s the Kernin meal plan for the next 6 days, using items that we already have on hand. We’ll easily get through the week having great meals, and only having to purchase minimal produce and dairy. This was actually really easy, and I’m wondering if our stockpile would actually support us going not one, but two weeks with only minimal grocery shopping. We’ll re-evaluate at the end of the week and see where we’re at.
What do you think of our meal plan? What would yours look like if you went a week without grocery shopping?
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Brought to you courtesy of Brock
Brock is a software engineer by day and personal finance blogger at night. He is a fitness junkie and enjoys grilling and smoking meat. Married with two children, Brock strives to improve his skills as a husband and father, and is always on the lookout to stretch his family’s budget as far as he can.