I love food. Well, sure, who doesnt love food? We need it to fuel our bodies, to survive. My problem is that MY favorite food groups are carbs and sugar. If someone could figure out how I could eat some sort of pasta pr pizza for dinner every night and eat healthy, I would buy it!
Sadly, one cannot live on those foods alone and there is such a push to eat healthy so we are jumping on that bandwagon at our house too. Some of it has become out of necessity and some of it is just because I enjoy a good challenge.
In making this transition, our food budget remains the same – $400 a month for a family of four PLUS the four dogs. The dog food is about $100 a month. Usually, I don’t have a problem meeting our grocery budget because I use coupons. A lot of coupons! In case you didn’t know, there are not alot of coupons for healthy, unprocessed foods. There are coupons for organic foods, but they are not usually in the Sunday paper.
So, here’s the challenge. Feed the family for $300 a month replacing our normal meals, snacks, drinks, etc for healthier choices.
For this week, May 6-10, I will mostly be using what I already have in the house.
The important things to note are that we are making a transition, not a “cold turkey” process. You will see that in the meal plan below. I started the transition in April but this month, I am actually going to start documenting and blogging about it.
Weekly Menu
Breakfast: cereal ( we have Three Sisters honey puffs and coca puffs from Whole Foods and Puffins) or a shake.
Shake: I use a base of plain greek yogurt, banana or apple ( or both), peanut butter or cashews (soak in milk first for about ten minutes). Other ingredients: raw honey, strawberries, blueberries, spinach or kale, carrots ( slice first ), vanilla extract.
You can add or subtract ingredients as you wish. There are plenty of shake/smoothie recipes out there. I am currently loosely following the Love your Greens 30 Day challenge.
Lunch: Boars Head deli meat slices with cheese stick and tomatoes. Then, either the Peanut Butter or Chocolate snack bar from Trader Joe’s, Buddy Fruit pouch OR Clementine, Belvita crackers OR Triscuit Brown Rice Crackers. They have the Trader Joe’s low sugar lemonade to drink. Jack and I eat dinner leftovers or I’ll have cereal or a shake.
We always have apples and bananas to eat with breakfast or lunch. We use Smart Balance milk and butter. I cook with EVOO.
Dinner menu this week:
Monday – leftover pizza from Papa Johns with apples as a side
Tuesday – spaghetti ( Dreamfields ) with garlic bread ( Alexia ), Italian sausage ( Johnsonville ) and string beans ( store brand, frozen)
Wednesday – cheese and chicken quesadillas with Pico de Gallo and sour cream.
Thursday – Plain polenta circles topped with scrambled eggs and cheese
Friday – Hot Dogs ( Nathans) with house fries ( Alexia ) and house salad
The meals may change depending on the day but those are the five meals for this week. Unfortunately, I don’t have a price breakdown because I am using what I already have in the house.
As I go shopping, I will post what I bought and the meal plans.
Do you have suggestions on how to shop healthy and stay on budget? Do you have a favorite meal meal service you recommend? I would appreciate your comments!
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