I like to go to the banana box, and outlet stores to find good deals on vegetarian meats, produce, and grains. It really helps me be able to put a decent meal on the table. I went shopping on Saturday, and I cut up all my produce on Sunday for the week. We will be eating oven fajitas, "meat" loaf, and spaghetti with "meat" sauce this week. My homemade rolls are almost gone, so tomorrow I will make some homemade bread in the bread maker for meatloaf sandwiches, and peanut butter and jelly.

alybran wrote: »

I prefer to cook all of my meals myself. Going out can be a chore, and outside of my budget!

I don't go so far as to do extensive meal-prep, but you bet your butt I plan all of my meals! I use my Pinterest to keep track of recipes. I plan each dinner and create a grocery list based on that. I spend, on average, $80-85 per week for 4-5 people. I usually take leftovers for lunch the next day, and have an apple with peanut butter for breakfast in the morning, and yogurt with granola in the afternoon

It's refreshing to see someone else with a smaller grocery budget like I have-so many times in the grocery themed threads in the main forum area, people share what they spend on groceries and it's like double-triple what I spend (which is a bit depressing lol). Family of 5 here on a $100 a week grocery budget

purebredpolly wrote: »

alybran wrote: »

purebredpolly wrote: »

I like to go to the banana box, and outlet stores to find good deals on vegetarian meats, produce, and grains. It really helps me be able to put a decent meal on the table. I went shopping on Saturday, and I cut up all my produce on Sunday for the week. We will be eating oven fajitas, "meat" loaf, and spaghetti with "meat" sauce this week. My homemade rolls are almost gone, so tomorrow I will make some homemade bread in the bread maker for meatloaf sandwiches, and peanut butter and jelly.

I LOVE "meat"loaf with my veggie gravy. I do a version of this recipe:
http://www.food.com/recipe/really-good-vegetarian-meatloaf-really-33921
(Honestly I never follow recipes, they're more like guidelines.) Usually I use a mixture of lentils, black beans, and mushrooms to try to get the texture right!

I gotta start cutting up my produce on the weekend after shopping... it'll save me so much on prep during the week. Sometimes, I wake up just a few minutes early to prep my veggies in the morning before I leave for work. It's also nice and quiet then, so I don't have my family or boyfriend running around distracting me and I can get it done quickly.

Oh wow! Thanks for the recipes. I can't wait to try them!

Best thing I did for myself this week was wash, and slice up all my produce. It was such a chore, but it has made this week so much easier.

I've started doing this as well and it makes the rest of the week go so much smoother!

crazyycatlady1 wrote: »

alybran wrote: »

I prefer to cook all of my meals myself. Going out can be a chore, and outside of my budget!

I don't go so far as to do extensive meal-prep, but you bet your butt I plan all of my meals! I use my Pinterest to keep track of recipes. I plan each dinner and create a grocery list based on that. I spend, on average, $80-85 per week for 4-5 people. I usually take leftovers for lunch the next day, and have an apple with peanut butter for breakfast in the morning, and yogurt with granola in the afternoon

It's refreshing to see someone else with a smaller grocery budget like I have-so many times in the grocery themed threads in the main forum area, people share what they spend on groceries and it's like double-triple what I spend (which is a bit depressing lol). Family of 5 here on a $100 a week grocery budget

I am the same with a budget of $100 a week, I feed mainly 3 people but have to add my adult son (never know when he will grace us with his presence! LOL) But I like all fresh veggies. I tend to hit about 2 - 3 stores on the weekend to complete all my shopping. I also go to the big box store once a month and load up on the meat (I put it up in marinades then freeze, this way I can toss it into the crockpot for the meat eaters) I hate this night since the smell of meat makes me gag, lately I have been making my hubby do the work. after all I don't eat the S - - T!

I cook for myself and I like to make things I can get two, three even four servings out of so that I can save a bit and splurge a bit more on things like protein bars, energy balls, fruit shots etc as I keep a snack box in my bag at all times to stave off hunger and prevent me from getting junk.

I currently have four boxes of oatmeal I bought for like $3 each and that's 32/a month's worth of breakfasts for $12. Doing stuff like that means I can treat myself to sale croissants for $1, y'know.

WHEW! HUGE shopping day! I'm just back from the Amish country where I hit a banana box store. I spent $140.38 and I bought a full cart, plus another half a cart full of food, paper products, health and beauty items. I am tuckered out!

I will be hitting an outlet store tomorrow in hopes of being able to round out my meals, because as it stands we are looking at 4 low calorie cool whip pies, a butternut squash casserole, and the fixings for salads. I had a difficult time meal planning this past pay period.

I live with a meat eater, so there are times I must make meat. This is one of those times. I finally have figured out what to make, and prep for this week. I am planning on a lot of vegetarian chicken dishes for myself, so to off set my time in the kitchen, I plan on making a tray of chicken thighs that I can pull out and season the same way I plan on seasoning my vegetarian chicken. I found chicken thighs on sale for $1, and I had them put up in the freezer, the same way I put up in the freezer all the vegetarian meat I find on sale. I know I am not the only one here who is Flexitarian, or has meat eaters in their households. This truly helps keep our food budget down to something manageable.

A few things I am planning on is

A thanksgiving style meal
An Japanese style "chicken" salad
A copy cat Bob Evans "chicken" salad
BBQ "chicken" sandwiches

I am making some vegetable soup to eat throughout the week.
Monday: Gardein Mandarin orange chicken over salad
Tuesday- Vegan Picadillo
Wednesday- Pasta with Cauliflower Alfredo
Thursday - Curry
Friday- My niece's Sweet 16 Party
Saturday - Will depend on how much I eat and drink at the party !

My week is a bit thrown out this week as I'm donating blood so the scheme of things is off.

Monday - (heavy training day) turkey breast, veg, and coucous.
Tuesday - veggie tortilla pizza! Spinach and sweetcorn topping and a bit of light cream cheese.
Wednesday - Cheese and onion quiche maybe. Big salad and couscous.
Thursday - (HTD) Fish and veggie risotto. More risotto than fish though.
Friday - (MTD) Probably leftover quiche. Couscous. Veg.
Saturday/Sunday - (L/MTD Sat, MTD Sun) veggie curry and wholegrain/quinoa rice. If I eat all the veggie curry I make on Sat I'll make veggie con carne on Sunday.

Generally lunch is some sort of (cheese/faux meat) sandwich because I love bread but I do like butternut squash and carrot soup if it's on offer. I get a couple when it £1 and depending on how hungry I am they can be two or three servings a pot. Breakfast as we all know by now is porridge and nut milk. I am also drinking a ton of protein shakes because I refuse to add more meat than is necessary to my diet and I train like I'm on the tracks.

I'm currently loving pitta pizzas as a cost/time effective meal. You can get a cheap packet of 6 pittas, a tin of chopped tomatoes, dig out the tomato paste and a bag of spinach and you're good to go for as many as 6 meals, depending on how many pittas you eat. If you have a jar of olives chuck some of them on too.