A few questions about menu planning/grocery shopping/recipes

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mablesyrup
mablesyrup Posts: 286 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Ok I will try not to make this confusing. Here is some background info: we're living with my grandparents while I finish college to save money and because it helps them out a ton. So anyways, I cook dinner everynight but it's for our family of 4 (me, dh, and 2 daughters ages 8 and 14 months) and then my grandparents- and usually one of my uncles comes over to eat. I have roughly $100 dollars a week for groceries. And they have to feed 6 people. (I dont count in our youngest yet- she doesn't eat enough to make a difference!) Because of this it's gotten real easy to buy cheap- way overprocessed foods to make. Otherwise things get made from scratch, like my grandmas cooking, but everything she does/makes is either coated with butter/mayo/heavy cream/sour cream/chicken broth etc. This makes it pretty hard to stay in my calories!!!!!! (I'm at least realizing just how many calories the meals are now)!!!! We subscribe to Taste of Home and Taste of Home- Simple & Delicious- and while I LOVE the recipes= i'm finding as I go through them now that there isn't much in the way of "not a lot of calorie" foods- and most of the recipes don't even have the nutritional info on the recipe. This week was my first week on MFP- and I found I hadn't planned meals well enough and on 4 out of 7 days I completely went over on my calories etc. I know I just need to plan to be successful!!!! So a few questions:

1. Is there a taste of home for healthy eating? Anyone know?
2. Is there a web-site where I can punch in everything in our fridge/pantry/cubbards and have it give suggestions for meals- or for "buy this 1 ingrediant to make this"??? (normally i'm excellent at looking at what we have or anyone has and finding something to make with it- but looking through what we have- i dont know if i can do anything to help with watching my calories etc..)!!!!
3. Any suggestions on recipes that don't taste completely gross?
4. Any suggestions on some magazines I can subscribe too that offer EASY/SIMPLE healthy recipes?
5. I am going grocery shopping later today- so any ideas on a menu for the week? for a family of 6? Mind you- 5 of them are adults eating!

Replies

  • mablesyrup
    mablesyrup Posts: 286 Member
    Options
    Ok I will try not to make this confusing. Here is some background info: we're living with my grandparents while I finish college to save money and because it helps them out a ton. So anyways, I cook dinner everynight but it's for our family of 4 (me, dh, and 2 daughters ages 8 and 14 months) and then my grandparents- and usually one of my uncles comes over to eat. I have roughly $100 dollars a week for groceries. And they have to feed 6 people. (I dont count in our youngest yet- she doesn't eat enough to make a difference!) Because of this it's gotten real easy to buy cheap- way overprocessed foods to make. Otherwise things get made from scratch, like my grandmas cooking, but everything she does/makes is either coated with butter/mayo/heavy cream/sour cream/chicken broth etc. This makes it pretty hard to stay in my calories!!!!!! (I'm at least realizing just how many calories the meals are now)!!!! We subscribe to Taste of Home and Taste of Home- Simple & Delicious- and while I LOVE the recipes= i'm finding as I go through them now that there isn't much in the way of "not a lot of calorie" foods- and most of the recipes don't even have the nutritional info on the recipe. This week was my first week on MFP- and I found I hadn't planned meals well enough and on 4 out of 7 days I completely went over on my calories etc. I know I just need to plan to be successful!!!! So a few questions:

    1. Is there a taste of home for healthy eating? Anyone know?
    2. Is there a web-site where I can punch in everything in our fridge/pantry/cubbards and have it give suggestions for meals- or for "buy this 1 ingrediant to make this"??? (normally i'm excellent at looking at what we have or anyone has and finding something to make with it- but looking through what we have- i dont know if i can do anything to help with watching my calories etc..)!!!!
    3. Any suggestions on recipes that don't taste completely gross?
    4. Any suggestions on some magazines I can subscribe too that offer EASY/SIMPLE healthy recipes?
    5. I am going grocery shopping later today- so any ideas on a menu for the week? for a family of 6? Mind you- 5 of them are adults eating!
  • dhayes
    dhayes Posts: 216 Member
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    Wow congrats on being able to feed 6 people on $100 a week. .. thats fantastic. I would think that you would do well to stick to the whole feeds and cooking from scratch like your grandma. But substitute fat free and low fat products , for things like cream and cheeses. Also bulk brown rice, fresh and frozen veggies, chicken and cheaper cuts of beef and pork cooked low and slow. Whole grains for starches, oatmeal for breakfast.
    I think you already know that cooking from scratch is much cheaper than processed foods. What you may not know is that as you learn portion control and trusting your bodies "real" signals you will naturally tend to desire and eat less. That takes a few weeks to happen for most of us.

    Keep up the good work.
  • BlazinEmerald
    BlazinEmerald Posts: 842
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    I made stuffed shells the other night it was enough to feed 6 of us plus stick some into the freezer for my lunches thru out the week

    1 package ground chicken
    1 16oz package of jumbo shells ( you only end up using about 23-25 shells)
    1 package frozen chopped spinach ( cant taste it , used as a filler for some good veggie)
    1 cup 1% cottage cheese
    1 cup partly skimmed mozzarella
    1/4 cup parmesan (halfed)
    1 jar healthy choice roasted garlic pasta sauce

    - Cook Shells according to package , place in cold water to stop cooking and line in a baking dish and allow to partly dry
    - brown the ground chicken in a skillet, drain any excess drippings
    - thaw and squeeze out water of spinach
    - combine ground chicken , spinach , cottage cheese, 3/4 cup of the mozzarella, and half of your parmesan

    - Stuff each shell with 1 tbls of mixture
    - Line in a baking dish cover with jarred sauce top with remaining mozzarella and parmesan
    - bake for about 30 minutes til warm and bubbly.

    3 shells per serving

    Calories202 Sodium348 mgTotal Fat6 gPotassium101 mg Saturated3 gTotal Carbs24 g Polyunsaturated0 g Dietary Fiber2 g Monounsaturated0 g Sugars0 g Trans0 gProtein14 gCholesterol43 mg Vitamin A42 %Calcium18 %Vitamin C5 %Iron10 %

    Have with a large tossed salad

    this is listed in the database here as Homeades Stuffed Shells
  • maestrachistosa
    maestrachistosa Posts: 202 Member
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    Yes!!! There is a Taste of Home for you!! I think it used to be called "light and tasty", but they recently revised it, so now it is called Taste of Home "Healthy Cooking". I just received my first issue and there are about 15 things I'm dying to try! I've made 2 things already, and they were fantastic. Below is my favorite...it is a side dish for green beans. I've never been excited about green beans before!!!

    Asian Grilled Green Beans (it says grilled, but you can probably just bake them)

    1 tbsp brown sugar
    1 tbsp sesame oil
    1 tbsp red. sodium soy sauce
    2 garlic cloves, minced
    1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
    1 1/2 lbs fresh green beans, trimmed
    1 medium red onion, halved and thinly sliced
    6 medium fresh mushrooms, quartered

    1. In large bowl, combine first 5 ingredients. Add beans, onion, and mushrooms. Toss to coat. Place half of vegetables on a double thickness of heavy duty foil. Fold foil around veggies and seal tightly. Repeat with remaining veggies.

    2. Grill, covered over medium heat for 18-22 minutes or until beans are tender, turning packets over once. Open foil carefully to allow steam to escape.

    3/4 cup equals:
    CAL - 55
    FAT - 2 g (trace sat.)
    CHOL - 0
    SOD - 82 mg
    CARB - 9g
    FIB - 3g
    PRO - 2g
  • HannahRoo
    HannahRoo Posts: 48 Member
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    Here is taste of home's website for healthier recipes:

    http://www.tasteofhome.com/Healthy/Recipe-Makeovers

    Try it out! I've found a few things that were really good and low calorie at the same time.
  • mommyskis
    mommyskis Posts: 277 Member
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    I get the Taste of Home magazine called Healthy Cooking (formerly Light & Tasty) and we love it! I've gotten it for about 3 years or so and most of what I cook comes from it. I've already entered a few of the recipies in the food database. It doesn't have a lot of exotic or expensive ingredients. Another idea - Can you have a garden? Very cheap and the veggies taste much better! Oatmeal is a cheap and healthy breakfast, that can free up some $ for lunches and dinner. My husband and I have also found that portion control makes meals last a lot longer! Before we started MFP, we'd typically polish off a 4-5 serving dinner at one meal, now we have enough left-overs for the next dinner too. We were both surprised at how much $ that can save. Good luck!
  • mablesyrup
    mablesyrup Posts: 286 Member
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    Thank you everyone for the EXCELLENT INFORMATION!!!! I'm going to go make my grocery list now!

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