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Every week, I post our weekly meal plan. Here you’ll find an affordable, budget-friendly menu that’s easy to cook and kid-friendly!
Every week, you’ll also find the total cost of these dinner items along with my shopping list of exactly what you’ll need! I don’t assign specific days of the week to each meal in order to allow some flexibility for our schedules and our cravings!
This week: $89+ items I already had on hand (pantry, fridge/freezer or garden).
Weekly Menu:
Award winning chili: https://sugarspunrun.com/best-chili-recipe/ Crockpot salsa chicken bowls:
For the chicken - place chicken breast in crockpot. Season with salt & pepper. Pour on a jar of your favorite salsa. Cover and cook on high 4 hours or low 6-8 hours. Shred & use for bowls. In our bowls - white rice, shredded chicken and toppings of your choice! We're doing corn, cilantro, avocado, lime and choice of cilantro lime dressing or green dragon sauce! Pizza & salad:
For pizza dough - remove dough from bags and let rest on lightly floured surface covered with damp paper towel for at least 30 min (an hour is best!) Then stretch by hand and place on pizza pan sprinkled with cornmeal. Using the TJ pizza sauce & shredded mozzarella along with whatever toppings you like! Salad - doing a cheater Caesar. Just romaine lettuce, Caesar dressing, shredded parm and the homemade croutons. Baked ziti:
Preheat oven to 375. Undercook ziti by 1 min, then drain and set aside. Brown Italian sausage (removed from casing), drain then add marinara sauce (using one I made last week and froze but you could also just grab a jar!). Mix some of the sauce with the pasta. Separately, use 1 container of ricotta cheese (16 oz) and mix with 1 beaten egg, shredded mozz, parm and chopped parsley. In 9x13 pan, spread layer of sauce, then add half the ziti, all of the ricotta, half the sauce, then other half of ziti and remaining sauce. Top with shredded mozz and bake for 30 min. Fusilli alfredo with Italian chopped salad:
For pasta: Using this recipe but subbing fusilli for the fettuccine https://spaceshipsandlaserbeams.com/copycat-olive-garden-alfredo-sauce/ For salad - chopped romaine, sliced black olives, halved cherry tomatoes, sliced pepperoncinis, thinly sliced red onion, any Italian meat and cheese cut into cubes or ribbons (I'm using leftovers from charcuterie night). General Tso chicken with white rice:
Cube chicken. In a bowl, beat 2 eggs and season with salt and pepper. In separate bowl, mix together 1/2 c flour and 1/2 c cornstarch. Dip cubed chicken in egg then flour mixture. Brown in vegetable oil (may need to do in batches). Once all chicken is browned, combine chicken and bottled sauce and heat through. Serve over white rice (I make mine in rice cooker but you could also buy the frozen packets of white or brown rice!) Top with scallions. Leftovers buffet: Life hack: give something a fancy name and it will automatically sound more appealing!
On this night I put all of the leftovers on the island and let everyone pick and choose as they wish! There's no rules on leftovers buffet night so if the kids want only white rice and salad.. then that's what they eat! They love this!
Trader Joe’s Shopping List:
2 packages pizza dough Romaine hearts 1 red bell pepper Cilantro Parsley Avocado 2 limes Cilantro lime dressing Peeled garlic Heavy cream Shredded mozzarella Bacon Shredded cheddar Ricotta cheese Sour cream Ziti Fusilli Caesar dressing General tso sauce Beef broth 1 can red kidney beans 2 cans black beans 1 can fire roasted tomatoes 1 can diced tomatoes 1 can green chilies 1 can tomato paste 1 can corn Sliced olives 1 lbs ground beef Italian sausage 2 packages chicken breast White rice Corn chips 1 jar mild salsa
Items I Already Had
Salt Pepper Corn starch Brown sugar Onions Chili powder Ancho chili powder Smoked paprika Cumin Onion powder Worcestershire sauce Jalapeño Croutons Shredded parm Marinara sauce Italian seasoning Egg Flour Milk Red onion Pepperoncini Italian meat & cheese Tomatoes Fire roasted tomatoes
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