Bulk Meals for the Week!

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austindperry
austindperry Posts: 20 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I just graduated college and have limited time in my new job! I am on a budget of $170 for food a month and am looking for some bulk recipes that I can make on a Sunday and eat throughout the week.

Anyone have any ideas great for making multiple servings, that is nutritious but not too far out there. I don't do tofu or vegan! LOL

My first thought was to do bowtie wheat pasta, broccoli, and chicken. I could put this in tupperware and heat it up each night. Anyone have any more ideas.

Thanks in advance!

Replies

  • platoon
    platoon Posts: 340
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    Healthy chili:

    - ground turkey
    - kidney beans
    - lots of veggies ( I like mushrooms, onions, garlic, and red, orange, yellow, and green peppers)
    - diced tomatoes
    - tomato paste
    - chili powder
    - salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder
    - red pepper flakes

    You could make it, and eat it by itself or over brown rice
  • KPaden1221
    KPaden1221 Posts: 433
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    rachael ray is doing a new show where she cooks all her meals on sunday and she does 5 meals a week.. you should look it up and get some ideas..


    but make big crock pots of chili, speghitti sauce, soups, pastas and pasta salads when you fix meat, grill or bake a few extra pieces... we are trying the cooking on sunday thing too.. i just got married, and i'm in school, and my husband and i both work full time.
  • mizzougirl84
    mizzougirl84 Posts: 7
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    Hey Austin! Just throwing a quick search at you from what you said you were looking for (cheap, fast, and in bulk):
    http://busycooks.about.com/od/makeaheadrecipes/a/freezecasserole.htm

    Of course I love the Taste-Of-Home site; I'm sure you could find great recipes to fit your need with a quick search:
    http://www.tasteofhome.com/
    (i.e., "budget recipes" led me to: http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Budget-Recipes)

    Hope that was helpful! I'm a newbie to this site. Day 8 and I've already dropped 3 lbs. Whoo hoo!
  • jenjust6
    jenjust6 Posts: 13
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    Beans are cheap, and frozen veggies are cheaper than fresh and sometimes more nutritious because they're frozen at the source.

    Anything with beans would keep well and add great fiber to your diet! It may sound gross to you, but I mix two parts veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, carrot, whatever non-starchy veg I have on hand) to one part legumes (kidney, pinto, cannellini, whatever) and I love this for lunches during the week. I get my veggies in, but the legumes make it more satisfying and filling.

    We're also moving into soup weather, which is another easy way to combine veggies and beans (you might even throw in tofu, that's the only way my husband wll eat it) -- make a big pot on Sunday and eat all week!

    Good luck!
  • becomingsara
    becomingsara Posts: 205
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    What a great and healthful idea!

    One of my favorite go-to healthy meals is easy spaghetti. Get a jar of sauce (we use Ragu robusto) and barilla plus angel hair (we use half a box for our family of 5), along with some ground meat(we use turkey, but I am sure if you use lean beef it would be good and cost effective).
    I season the ground meat with italian herbs (mccormick makes a good one) pepper and salt, brown it and then put that in the sauce and let it simmer while the noodles are cooking.

    Another one is fajitas with beans and/ or rice (dependent upon your calorie needs). You can get the pre-seasoned strips (again we use the light turkey, but they have chicken and beef available as well - walmart). Then cook it up along with the rice (lipton mexican rice if you want fast, mix some salsa into some already cooked white or brown rice for less sodium) and beans (the canned fat free refied are great). You can use tortillas some nights and iceburg with a salsa/light ranch combo other nights.

    Taco soup (also called 9 can soup) but this makes a TON. Ground meat seasoned with taco seasoning. Add that (into a BIG pot) to 1 can of each of the following: corn, beans (we use ranch style onion or jalapeno), mexicorn, & diced tomatoes. You can also add a seasoning packet of ranch powder to jazz it up some.

    And MFP has that cool recipe tool so you can type all the ingredients in and know exactly what you are eating!!!
    Good luck :)
    ~ Sara

    HAH! I forgot one trick - the whole roasted chickens you can get at wlamart or sams club...buy one, shred it up and the possibilities are ENDLESS for what you can use it in!
  • brityn
    brityn Posts: 443 Member
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    dried beans are the way to go! Here's a great new take on chili that my husband and I love! I think it cost me $11 last time I made it and it made six servings. We ate two and i portioned out the rest and stuck it in the freezer. Just throw it in the fridge the night before you want to eat it and it's ready to go!

    15 bean soup

    one bag dried 15 bean soup (or 21 bean soup, whatever you can find)
    one large onion diced
    one can fire roasted tomatoes
    1 bay leaf
    one smoked turkey leg (they come in packs of 2 so i froze the second one for my next batch)
    2 tsp. salt
    1 tsp. cumin
    1 tsp. chili powder

    Soak the beans in a good amount of water overnight.

    Placed everything in the crock pot and top it with 3 quarts of water.

    cook for 6-8 hours. whatever you have time for. Pull the turkey leg out and let cool til you can handle it. Shred the meat and add back to the beans. Serve and enjoy!
  • H_82
    H_82 Posts: 418 Member
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    Lasagna (turkey or beef), can add in veggies if you want. Make a 9x13 pan & it should last a little while (depending on how much you eat of course) :)

    Soups are definintely a good suggestion!

    Get a whole chicken - do "beer butt chicken" on the grill (this is now the only way I'll make chicken, so yummy!). You can do different chicken recipes with it all week long.
  • melodyg
    melodyg Posts: 1,423 Member
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    One thing we did this week was cook up a couple of pounds of dried beans in the crockpot on Saturday.

    1 2/3 cups of cooked beans = 1 15 oz can of beans

    Great to eat plan and then use in chili or taco soup. You can also take the leftover chili and use it over a baked potato, in taco salad, or over spaghetti/macaroni for chili mac. :) You can also freeze the beans or chili/soup to use another week if you are totally tired of beans.


    Another idea... cook up and slice/dice a lot of chicken over the weekend. You can use this for chicken pot pie (I have a recipe for one that is freezable somewhere, I'll have to look for it and post), in chicken noodle soup, with a bag of stirfry veggies and brown rice for chicken stirfry, with onions/peppers/fajita seasoning for chicken fajitas and of course just diced up over salad greens and veggies for a grilled chicken salad.
  • lorifrost1
    lorifrost1 Posts: 21 Member
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    I am totally a fan of this! Meals we do at our house... these are our favs!

    1. BBQ Chicken
    Put chicken breasts into 9x13 pan (chicken can even be frozen still!). Mix together equal portions of canned, jellied cranberry sauce and BBQ sauce. Pour over chicken and bake in oven at 350 for 45 minutes about. Just cut to see if the chicken is fully cooked. Nice, moist, and easy. Great for leftovers. You can even wrap some gold potatoes in foil and bake them at the same time... they need about 45-60 minutes unless they're bigger. Just take the oven mitt and try to "squeeze" them. If you can feel it "break" then it's ready.

    2. Taco Chicken -- you have to try this!
    Put chicken breasts in crock pot. Cover with salsa. Add 1/2 or 1 packet taco seasoning. Add up to 1 cup of water. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours. My favorite way to eat this lately is on tostada shells. You can also use tortillas. Just layer a tiny bit of sour cream, some chicken, and a tad of cheese. So good!! My favorite meal by far!

    Another meal we like is teriyaki chicken with rice... great for leftovers..., grilled chicken on the outdoor or Foreman grill, spaghetti, lasagna or manicotti, chicken enchiladas, etc. Just email me if you want any of those recipes. :) Good luck!
  • eabrown1
    eabrown1 Posts: 25
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    If you get tired of eating the same thing everyday, you can cook say, 3 big batches on a weekend when you have some time and freeze them in gladware...then you've got your own homemade frozen dinners.

    As for a recipe....I swear by the crockpot, so here is one I got from skinnytaste.com

    Pork Carnitas

    2.5 lb pork shoulder blade roast, lean, all fat removed
    6 cloves garlic, cut into sliver
    cumin
    adobo
    garlic powder
    3/4 cup 99% fat free chicken broth
    2-3 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (to taste)
    2 bay leaves

    First bronw the pork on all sides in a pan then poke some holes in it with a knife. Season generously with the cumin, garlic powder, adobo

    Then put it all in the cockpot. Eight hours later take it out and shred it. You can use it for tacos, burritos, I like it on a salad with some avocado.

    Hope this helps! And congratulations on the new job!
  • austindperry
    austindperry Posts: 20 Member
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    Wow you all are AWESOME!

    Thank you so much.

    I think I may be able to make most of these! I think I may also invest in a crock pot because that seems like a good plan. I really like the different taco chicken ideas and the chili recipes. They look so good I may have to go to the store right now!

    I will have to let all of you know how these work out for me. I hope other people found helpful ideas as well. And thanks for the congrats about my job. I am working as a college counselor and love the interaction with students everyday. With these helpful ideas I will have more time to go to events at the University and spend less time making dinner!
  • cathleen4h
    cathleen4h Posts: 43 Member
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    There are also lots of cookbooks that you can get to make meals and freeze. Then you thaw and heat and eat. I have the same problem in my new job. It is really easy because a lot of them use chicken and there are tons of great soups!

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