Meal Plan ideas on a budget

Happine55

Hello all, Im new and was wondering if you could please give me a sample of your daily menu for ideas. Thanks

sspayde

well im on a limited budget so i try to buy cheap an healthy. For breakfast I usually eat oatmeal and flavor it with fresh fruit and honey, or my latest favorite, natural peanut butter! Not too costly and keeps you full all morning. One of my favorite things to do for lunch and dinner is get a rotisserie chicken from kroger. I can eat the meat all week long and when it's on sale it only costs $5! Regular price is around $8. It's healthy and so versatile. I pair it with brown rice (also very cheap), or with spinach and tomatoes in a wrap. If you watch for sales you can eat healthy every week for about $20! I try to eat a banana every day also. Hope some of this helps you!

UrbanLotus

Hi, you can add me as a friend and look at my diary for ideas if you want? I'm new here too, been about 3.5 weks for me, I've logged almost every day

nicole3110

Breakfast:
High fiber oatmeal (when it is on sale I buy a few boxes)
Generic brand of the Special K w/ berries cereal
Special K waffels or multi grain waffles (again, what is on sale and stock up)
eggs, 2 over easy and sometimes with turkey bacon or sausage (again what is on sale)

snack-
fruit (again look for what is on sale)
nuts
baby carrots
100 calorie or non fat greek yogurt
special k cracker chips or ritz cracker chips (again, sales and coupons)

Lunch-
canned tuna on salad or the 100 calorie sandwich thins or wraps
canned soup
microwave WW meals or similar generic

Dinner-

In general i shop sales for dinners. What ever meat is on sale I buy and menu plan around that (check your local store ads before shopping)

Menu planning a week at a time will save you $ and from buying foods you don't need or want in the house. We live outside DC and it is FAR from cheap here, but if I spend 30 minutes looking through ads and meal plan out a weeks worth of dinners, I can keep our grocery bills fairly low.

CharityGC

I generally shop the sales. My grocery store posts their upcoming ad two days before it comes out so I plan meals that way. I like to stock up on things I use the most during the big sales. I also like to freeze as much as I can when it's on sale like breads and cheeses for uses in future meals.

nikki_dw

I like to make my meal plans in Google Docs and keep track of the recipes I plan to use (most are from Pinterest).

This is the meal plan I've created for the week:

breakfast, snacks and lunch food for the week:
*luna bars
*turkey sandwiches
*yogurt
*fruit
*target fruit strips
*target trail mix
*salad
*edamame

Superbowl party dishes:
*Peach and brie quesadillas
http://www.oprah.com/food/Caramelized-Peach-and-Brie-Quesadilla-with-Honey-Chef-Chris-Santos
*Buffalo chicken “cupcakes”
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/778112-buffalo-chicken-cupcakes-my-specialty

Monday --
leftovers from the weekend’s anti-superbowl party with salad or edamame

Tuesday --
*Black bean and spinach enchiladas
http://www.thegardengrazer.com/2012/03/black-bean-spinach-enchiladas.html

Wednesday --
*Slow cooker spinach lasagna
http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/slow-cooker-spinach-and-ricotta-lasagna-with-romaine-salad-00000000052378/index.html

Thursday --
*chick pea salad
http://www.thesnarkychickpea.com/2012/10/chickpea-salad-on-crackers-veganmofo-2.html

Feel free to add me to exchange more ideas!

hippy2skippy

A website I use frequently is Skinnytaste.com. I find that I can make a low cal soup or dish, feed myself and my family 1 day, then have leftovers for all week for myself (lunch at work or dinner at home). Or I freeze it and have it in the next week or two.

I've liked several recipes from there so far (Spinach and Feta Pie, Low Fat Baked Ziti, Crockpot Picadillo, Santa Fe Chicken, Baked Potato Soup, lots more...) I agree, planning ahead and using what's on sale to plan the meals with is *key*.

Edited to add: My husband is trying to *gain* and I'm trying to LOSE, so that's why I generally use the low cal leftovers only for myself and that's also how I can stretch it out for a whole week or more.

kwentz1960

Thanks for the link for skinnytaste.com from the last gal. That looks amazing!!!!! I have found that if I make a large quantity of something healthy it can stretch a few meals. I think in the long run it is cheaper. I rarely buy packaged processed foods which are usually more pricey and not healthy.
Good luck!

alaskanaomi

I usually have some kind of fruit and veggie for breakfast, with coffee (skim milk)
Lunch: big, big salad, small protein (cottage cheese or chicken)
Dinner: 1/4 cup starch, half a plate of veggies and 1/4 plate protein
Snacks: more veggies and fruit, sometimes a yogurt, if I'm craving carbs then a piece of Ezekiel toast with 1 tbsp peanut butter
Drinks: lots of water, 2 cups green tea, if I need a sweet snack I add 1/8 cup of OJ to sparkling water w/ a lemon squeezed in it

JessHealthKick

Breakfast: Red or brown rice (1/2 cup dried, cooked) + poached egg + chia and flax seed. Stirfried mushrooms (if I have time)
Snack: mandarin or carrot sticks. 10 almonds. maybe some blueberries
Lunch: Tofu with wakame, ginger, soy, bunch of steamed vegetables (spinach and broccoli are my favourite!)
Snack: small Japanese sweet potato, baked in the skin. 10 pistachio nuts
Dinner: Salmon fillet either pan cooked (no oil of course) or baked with garlic etc for goodness and flavour. 1/2 cup quinoa and more veggies of course

Drink lots of tea during the day, sometimes have 350mL of Pocari Sweat (Japanese energy drink). My general goal is to eat as raw as possible, cook vegetables as little as possible and avoid processed food as much as possible (no frozen meals thank you!)

Since I live in Tokyo, this is actually quite well within budget. Fillets of fresh fish (any fish you could imagine) are about $1 (no joke) and there is a cheap veggies Tuesday, so this does me well Of course I mix up my protein with chicken sometimes, do some crazy spicy stir fries and on weekends I do give in to that little cake when having coffee with my friends or for dessert after a nice wine bar with the bf Living in the city with, in my opinion, the best food to eat out, there are many temptations on the weekends! But all have calorie counts next to them so it's very helpful.

EDIT: I also have home made-chai with no added sugar (tsp natural honey if I must) and soymilk. I generally avoid all dairy altogether and am trying to be as gluten free as possible. I have hypothyroid so I am hoping this gluten free will help, as well as having more seaweed and (soon when the delivery comes) adding in sunflower seeds and pupkin seeds

FURTHERMORE I used to have oats every morning with blueberries, but I found I got bloated. Since changing my diet I really have stopped having bloating or my stomach 'churning' during the day (I think you know the feeling, bowels used to be very active on the inside during the day).

EDIT2: yes I avoid red meat as much as possible, nothing good for you in it that you can't get elsewhere (and study after study shows how it contributes to heart disease)