What a shopping spree Karen and I had Tuesday evening! Between the extrabucks I already had thanks to the CVS Beauty Club, the 25% off all non-promotional items coupon and the coupons I clipped, I walked away paying about 45% of the full cost.
Honestly, from the savings Karen and I had, I could create numerous meals, including breakfast, lunch and dinner for the week with ease. For simplicity, we will take Karen’s savings of $19.71 and show you how this easily translates into not one, but two fabulous meals with leftover money to boot!
My suggestions this week, priced from my local Stop & Shop, would be to buy:
Meal #1: Roast Chicken, Salad & Mac-n-Cheese
*Protein: A 5 lb. Nature’s Promise Organic Whole Chicken at $1.39/lb. = $6.95. Roast that darling one night while you are folding laundry or the next morning while you get ready for work.
*Vegetable (Salad): three heads of Romaine lettuce & a pint grape tomatoes (buy 1 get 1) for $2.00: An instant salad using 1 head of lettuce and half the pint of tomatoes. If you have any other vegetables or seeds or nuts (sunflower) etc, toss them on as well. You can simply dress the salad with olive oil & vinegar as I bet you have that in your pantry.
*Starch: Annie’s Organic Mac-n-cheese $1.67. Always a fun favorite. If you prefer, you can always pull out a whole grain pasta from the pantry (often on sale for 10/$10) and top with marinara or a small pat of butter.
Total: $10.62
My kids are 6 & 7 but can eat like line backers. With that said, we still had enough of the chicken left so two days later, we made chicken tacos for dinner with chicken, shredded romaine lettuce, and grape tomatoes that we cut in half. Toss on some salsa or avocado and wrap it all in whole wheat tortillas.
Meal #2: Chicken Tacos (modify this recipe)
*Protein: leftover chicken, shred it up = Free
*Vegetable & Starch: leftover romaine lettuce and tomatoes= Free. Nature’s Promise Salsa = $2.50, Nature’s Promise Naturals Tortillas Whole Wheat – 10 ct Refrigerated = $2.50. If you prefer, you can use ranch dressing instead of salsa.
Total: $5.00
Two Meals for 4 = $15.62 / 8 = $1.95 for healthy meals!
Since you have extra money left, consider buying fruit or even some reduced fat cheese that you can use on your tacos and then on an egg wrap for breakfast.
If your budget needs are even stricter, look for the non-organic options on sale and match up with coupons.
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