The Meal Planning Challenge August 2017

I originally titled this Clean Out the Pantry Challenge, but then got lazy in doing a strong inventory. I did a general perusal and have the lay of the food stores. Oh how my daughter hates my clean out challenges, but I get invigorated by them. As I posted earlier this week, this challenge for me is more than a game. I'm hoping to get our personal spending under control, and with that, be able to contribute a bit more to needs in my community. When I refer to pantry, I mean anything stored in my kitchen, so freezer and fridge as well. For August, I want to keep total household spending to $350, including all groceries, household, and personal items. This should free up $50 or so to go towards school shopping. I'll need to plan a few nights of DD2's favorites to keep her from total rebellion.by serving chow mein, pasta, and a curry each week, I should tame her annoyance.

Looking at what was there and realizing we are all sick of our standard foods, I noodled around in my head ways to increase variety. Keeping in mind that I put myself back on track this week with healthier eating, I'm trying to not rely only on carb heavy meals, but built around vegetables and protein. Chicken will be a base for many meals as we seem to have a lot of it. I'm also stepping up my vegetarian game-curry and bean burgers are budget stretchers. Zucchini's should start to be plentiful at roadside stands for a pittance, but fingers crossed I score some from friends, neighbors, and coworkers. I will gladly gift  homemade muffins and quick bread for extra produce. DD2 and I will do an Aldi's run, with a list, after supper. I will be tight fisted with my cash, and stingy with my yes's to her requests.

I worked a few hours from home this afternoon, trying to get ahead of horrid road construction rush hour.  A bag of $3.00 ravioli, a $1.19 can of crushed tomatoes, $ .39 tomato paste, water, olive oil, garlic, onion, and Italian seasoning were thrown together in the crock pot, for a meal for three for under $5.00. Yes, lots of carbs, but I'll keep to a small portion with some carrot sticks and fruit.There will be plenty for DH and DD2 for lunch tomorrow.I've got the makings all ready to go for a vegetable and country gravy stew, topped with biscuits. Tomorrow is predicted to be unseasonably cool, with temps not getting out of the 60's for highs. Stew will give us a little taste of fall, and used up the last of the carrots, a soft onion, soft potato, and celery. I'm also tossing together a salad with olives, artichokes, garbanzo beans, and celery for my lunch the next couple days. The link has the real recipe, but I'm using what I have so no peppers and goat cheese wedges instead of feta. Pasta, stews, and salads are great budget stretchers. I'll keep you posted on my success this month.

Picture from the recipe link at Food.com