Category Archives: $5 Meals

This is a running list of $5 meals that feed at least 7 for one meal.

Day In The Life

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Today, I spent the entire day at home. Yay this is one of the things I like most about the summer. Unfortunately, today did not include reading a book or watching television or even enjoying some much-needed downtime.

This morning, I had already planned to make breakfast bowls. Yesterday, I had made gravy biscuits, saving some for today.  I ended up using 16 eggs and I found “bo rounds” which made these bowls even better!  Next up I spent about an hour in the garden, wedding and harvesting.  I sent a 5-gallon bucket to the chickens!

I have harvested 8 pounds of tomatoes in the last 3 days, so I started a huge crockpot of spaghetti sauce. The current plan is to make a couple of “million-dollar spaghetti pies” tomorrow and bag the rest for the freezer.  Matt made potato salad, while I made a squash casserole and a huge pot of chill.   Last night we had purchased a chicken from Costco so the squash casserole and potato salad along with a jar of green beans made an awesome lunch.  The chili used four pounds of ground beef that Matt cooked on the Blackstone along with supper last night.

I pressure canned 8 2oz jars, 4 half pints and one quart of chill for future use. After lunch I tossed the chicken bones and carcass was tossed in the insta pot with water and placed on low using the slow cooker function. So far I have pressure canned 8 pints of chicken stock with the insta pot cooking for another 12 hours.

I did discover that my food processor is broken. We dug out the kitchen aid attachment and shredded the LARGE zucchini for making a loaf of zucchini bread later in the week.

Matt was in charge of cleaning the front and back of the older refrigerator and also used his new shop vac to drain the water from the AC system.  I was in charge of deep cleaning the deep fyer.

Matt made a regular load of bread and I have a loaf of sour dough to finish tonight. Zach decided to deep clean so that also meant I placed 17 nerf guns, a box of legos and a huge hot wheel track on Facebook to sell.

I am tired!

 

Tuesday Thoughts- Groceries and Summer Goals

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When we returned home, I knew that I wanted to get busy on preparing food for the school year which is one of my summer goals.  I was very hopeful that we would return to a ton of ripe tomatoes. That did not happen but I still knew this was one of the weeks that I wanted to focus on getting things in the freezer.  Sunday morning Matt and I went to the store. I had planned to re-stock our pantry and see what deals I could find.   I was so excited to find that Food Lion had lots of good things on sale.  One item that I wanted to get in the freezer this week was at least 4 Baked ziti.   Without tomato sause I did not think that was possible. Buy 2 Get one Free made the Ragu jars $1.33 each so we purchased 12.  The ziti pasta was on sale for 54 cents along with a 25 cent digital coupon!  English muffins were BOGO and we found sausage patties on clearance. This was probably one of the high spending single trips to Food Lion in 2 years or more. I spent $201. But this should assist with 12 dinner meals and at least 3 breakfast meals.

Monday morning this summer have included a trip to the Bargain store as everything is $3.  Followed by grocery shopping with my Mom.  I had planned to grab a couple of items that are usually cheaper there.  What I did not plan to grab was chicken breast. These were on sale for $2.29 a pound. I decided to go ahead and stock up. I ended up spending $78 at Aldi with over $50 of that in Chicken breast. I came home and with help from the kids I bagged up 2 bags of Italian chicken for the grill, 1 bag of chicken teriyaki and 5 bags with 2# pounds each. We also started Pineapple Chicken in the crockpot for dinner.

Today I have spent most of the day chopping veggies. Matt and I made philly cheese steak casserole (one for dinner and one to freeze). I will also get omelet bags in the freezer this afternoon.  Tomorow the plan is to make 5 Baked Zitis. We also got 15 English muffins in the freezer yesterday!

It feels awesome to be able to work toward a goal and stay on budget!

Five Things Friday

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  1. Countdown to Summer!
    5 weeks till Lily’s High School Graduation!
    5 weeks of school for the kids and 5 weeks and 3 days until my Summer Break!
    60 days till we go to the beach!
  2. We are all ready for the newest chickens to move outside. Last weekend, Lucky the rooster escaped!  This evening they have knocked over the water so much that the cardboard box is mushy and the floor is wet!  They should move outside full-time next week!
  3. I am starting to organize and prepare for canning this summer. I have been slowly purchasing jars since October. I have been lucky enough to find on sale at Walmart, Target and Tractor Supply for around $1 a jar including rings and lids.  I was hoping to pick up some jars used but they are at least $2 a jar so today on Walmart, I found an ordered 3 dozen pint jars and 3 dozen quart jars.  One of my goals for tomorrow (Saturday) is to get the canning closet organized and cleaned!
  4. This weekend is probably the least busiest one in a long time. We do have several small projects to complete but the goal is to rest and prepare for the busiest week of the school year!
  5. We tried one of the new recipes that I was hoping to use to stock the freezer this summer and it was a bust. No flavor!

Saving on Saturday

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The chicken coop needed to clean out and new bedding added. I am allergic to both hay and straw so I have been purchasing shaving to use. Although it is not extremely expensive, every little bit counts so we are cleaning out at work and have an abundance of paper.  I bought home some of the paper and shredded it using my shredder. Today, we clean the chicken coop of the shaving and filled the coop with shredded paper bits.  We re-used the bedding and chicken poop by adding it to our tomato beds to help with growing.  Total spent for new chicken bedding was $0.

Last week, I had meal planned but that plan went out the window. This meant that I had 2 cups of chicken left in the fridge. I had also planned to do a fried rice with brown rice and a cup of black beans.  These items needed to be used.  I ended up making chicken enchiladas with enough leftovers for 2 lunches.  and Lily used the brown rice, black beans and added a can of chicken to make herself a rice bowl for lunch. This actually made enough for 4 meals for her!

So far this month we have spent $215 on groceries. This includes $144 Amazon subscribe and save. This has become a huge money saver for me as it allows me to stay stocked up without buying everything at once. This month I have also used rewards from a couple of credit cards as well. I am hoping to keep the grocery spending under $350 for the month.  The kids have been bagging up snacks for school at night was we have used most of the individual bags but have plenty of larger bags. They also have been “digging” in the freezer for treats such as popsicles and “Hot Pockets” I know the Hot Pockets were purchased in August of last year and forgotten about.  Money spent on food this weekend $0!

We have started 34 tomato plants and 24 pepper plants from seed this year. Today we moved all these plants to the greenhouse. I was so excited to find that my “mosquito” plants have all survived the winter in the greenhouse. The goal is to keep as many plants as possible alive so we can transplant the first of May!

We did use a bit of sweat equity today but we also saved alot of money!

Five Things Friday

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  1. This has been one of the busiest weeks this year!  Monday was Zach’s ballgame, Tuesday a long dentist appointment, Wednesday- church, Thursday- Hair cuts and Braxton ballgame.  Today we are trying to get ahead on some outside chores as it is suppose to rain in the morning!
  2. The weather has decided to try again. It was 45* on Wednesday and 73* yesterday. I am hopeful that we stay at least in the sixties for highs from here on out.
  3. We have eaten out twice this week, Monday I picked up roast beef sandwiches and Tuesday we ate at Cracker Barrel. Wednesday- we ate $5 meals from Cracker Barrel so that really is three days of meal out!
  4. This evening, I knew we needed to use up most of the produce and I wanted to try and get some breakfast meals in the freezers. For dinner, we had breakfast bowls with onions, green peppers, sausage, tomatoes, hash browns and homemade gravy. I used the remaining mixture to make 16 breakfast burritos and then cooked some potatoes and made 16 “add a egg bowls as well.”
  5. We are in the single digits until our Disney trip!

Saving on Saturday

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So, an interesting fact is that I have not done a “Saving on Saturday” since December 10th!  That is 11 weeks!

Today we focused on food!  Not wasting and making the best possible use of the space and food we have.

To start the day, I found a container of “French Toast” mixture in the freezer.  I combined it with half a loaf French bread purchased at Walmart yesterday.   I knew that I needed to clean out both the refrigerators today as well. I did have to throw out a couple of serving of chocolate pudding and Almond milk that expired in October 2022.  I did find several containers of taco dip from “Junk Food Sunday”.  In order for this not to go bad, I decided to make some elbow pasta and combine with some canned beef, to make a taco pasta.  I will count this as a win!

We have decided to can up some ground beef for convivence and to free up space in the freezers.   We currently have 23 pints of canned beef and 1 half pint of beef.   I also made 14 bacon cheddar burgers and froze those for our Disney Trip.

When I put it on paper it does not look like a lot but I am exhausted so I know it was work!

5 Things Friday

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  1. This has been a very long stressful week!  Matt’s surgery was on Tuesday and with me having a half a day workday on Thursday, I have remained confused and exhausted all week. Wednesday we attended a student’s vs staff basketball game at Zach’s school. Thursday, I delivered a meal to a friend. I am looking forward to a slower weekend.
  2. The meal plan was totally derailed however I am happy to report that we have not gone out to eat during this stressful week. Today, I stopped at a bakery and purchased several pieces of cake instead.  We have been using up left-overs and eating at home!
  3. It is time to start thinking and planning for our garden this summer. In fact, we already have some lettuce growing and have planted green peppers. No green peppers have sprouted but I am hoping this was not a waste of time. We plan to start tomatoes from seed on Monday.  I have decided not to plant sweet potatoes this year. We have been cooking up and packaging the remaining ones from the garden. Currently we have 11 pounds packaged up with another 4 or 5 pounds that need to be cooked and packaged.  This is more than enough to last us another year.  Now to decide what to plant instead!
  4. I do have plans for outside tomorrow. Matt’s building for his beetle needs two more pieces of tin placed on top. I need to trim the rose bushes, plant the strawberry plants and raspberry canes that arrived in the mail today. These are both replacements for items I purchased last spring that did not survive.
  5. The chickens are laying! We are currently receiving 4 eggs on a daily basis. On Wednesday, I made a huge breakfast bowl. After dinner I was able to package up 10 additional burritos that we can enjoy in the weeks to come!

Successful Sunday

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Sunday are usually a less stressful day around here. Today was less stressful but I am so happy with all we were able to get accomplished that I wanted to share.

We did the usual of course, church and lunch out! Then we came home and I got an hour nap which was much needed!
This afternoon, Matt worked on getting some plants started in our living room. I live in zone 7b, which means we have long summers but still not long enough to grow a ton of peppers. So this year, we are trying something different. We have sown approximately 35 pepper seeds in our living room. I am not currently planning to purchase any seeds this year so I am hoping that we get at least 15 pepper plants to grow!   I did purchase a grow mat to keep under the seeds until they germinate.  Matt also planted a batch of lettuce seeds.  If we get to eat some leaves I will be happy if not we have only wasted time.
We ended up purchasing a Costco chicken yesterday an ate for dinner. Last night I pulled off all the meat and threw the skin and bones in the crockpot. They finished 18 plus hours this morning before we left for church.  This afternoon I was able to can up 9 pints of chicken booth and used the remaining bit for dinner and for a chicken pot pie later this week. I used the remaining meat from the chicken along with several bowls of vegetable soup I found in the freezer to make a chicken pot pie. I will add a topping for dinner on Wednesday this week.
Matt was able to fry up 6 pounds of ground beef on the Blackstone. I used a pound for green pepper soup, a pound for a taco casserole I am going to try this week and the remaining 4 turned into my chili.  I ended up canning 5 pints of chill with one left out to use for Junk Food Sunday.
This week gets slightly more busy with baseball workouts starting but we no longer have swim in the morning.

Monday Menu Planning

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Week 3 of the Pantry Challenge and I have two exciting things to share. First my children have decided to stalk my blog to figure out what we are eating!  Second we don’t have any night events this week!  And finally, we have managed a three day weekend with only our scheduled meal out!  We will be using up left-over sides for most meals this week.

Breakfast- Saturday- bacon, sausage, eggs and toast, Sunday-left-overs Monday- pancakes and sausage, Tuesday Wednesday and Friday- find it oatmeal, omelets cereal and milk, French toast sticks, bagels, breakfast burritos and pancakes. Thursday- homemade bagels or baked oatmeal.

Lunch- Saturday-Everything pigs in blanket and cucumbers Sunday-Panda Panda, Monday- Quesadilla and Mexican street corn, Tuesday Beef liver and onions, Wednesday- sandwich or roll up, Thursday- taco soup Friday- out to eat

Dinner- Saturday-Beef ribs, baked beans, 7-layer salad green beans and corn bread.  Sunday- Potato Sausage Soup from Freezer, Monday-Broiled Fish, and green beans Tuesday- Shake and Bake Pork Chops   Wednesday- Hamburger Helper, Thursday- Kielbasa and Rice Friday-Grilled chicken and pasta salad.

 

5 Things Friday- Pantry Challenge Update

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  1.  One of the things that I had given myself prior to the pantry challenge was that if 2L Diet Cokes went on sale for under $1 I would plan to stock up.  If you have been around here for any length of time you know this is my drink of choice. Late Friday night I received a text from my Mom that Food Lion was having a one-day sale on coke products.  After a swim meet, we (Matt, Lily, Zach and I) went into Food Lion and each purchased the limit of 10. Matt actually purchased Dr. Pepper, so I have “only” 30 Diet Cokes.  This puts our grocery total up to $50.46.
  2. One of the reasons, I have heard several people use for participating in the Pantry Challenge is to discover where you have holes in your pantry.  The very first hole was toothpaste.  That is now on my Amazon subscribe and save list. Yes, I am paying for toothpaste for the first time in almost 10 years but hopefully we will not run out again. The awesome thing about subscribe and save is once I get stocked up I can cancel and restart if needed or simply skip for 6 months. The second items that we discovered needed to be on subscribe and save was liquid soap. The good news is that we had enough credits on Amazon that this was a no cost item!
  3. A pleasant and fugal surprise this week was discovering 9 eggs in our chicken coop. We decided to enjoy these on the day they were discovered. This meant we switched up our menu plan for the week and had breakfast for dinner!
  4. My master list of repeat dinners has grown to nine!  The goal is that after we have eaten a meal if everyone enjoys, we can add it to our master list, and these can become items/meals we repeat at least once per month.
  5. I went grocery shopping in the freezers today. We are doing excellent with eating and re-arranging. Zach is a little concerned, but I think we are doing well!  Second biggest accomplishment of the day/. No Amazon deliveries scheduled until the 28th!