How To Meal Prep & Shop (Corona Virus Edition) Part III
So it’s been a few weeks since I officially finished my whole shop and prep for one whole month challenge I created for myself during the coronavirus craziness and I’ve been dying to fill you guys in.
First, I DID IT!! I made it one whole month without going to the grocery store. It doesn’t sound like much to some people probably but a pretty big deal to me since it’s my favorite place to go.
Before I dive into what we ate in the second half of the month I want to share with everyone what I/we got out of the whole thing. First, off I estimated that we saved roughly $300-$350 dollars for the month of April from what we would normally spend. Now I do want to preface that with the fact that we DRASTICALLY cut down our alcohol intake. While most people have been drinking more during the quarantine, we actually had a 27 day stretch with no alcohol so definitely saved a little money there for sure. But overall on groceries we saved by planning. I bought less random things that maybe sounded good but weren’t actually a part of a meal. We threw away not a single piece of food! This is a big one for me. I’m terrible at buying things (especially produce) and not eating it all before it goes bad. I plan to make something and then don’t if I’m not in the mood or I buy things again, that sounded good but don’t go with a specific meal. Either way we for sure wasted WAY less food during the month than normal. We ate a handful of vegetarian meals, all of which Kevin ate and actually liked which is not only better for our health but better for the planet and easier on the wallet. I can’t say we ate “healthier” because there were a lot of home-style meals but we for sure ate more well balanced. I think for me it just made each meal feel so much more intentional than just eating to eating. I thought more about what we were eating which for me gave the whole challenge a new purpose and meaning.
In full disclosure, while I did not visit a grocery store or other store like a Target, I did get a few fruits and veggies at a roadside stand as well as fresh eggs locally and we went peach picking for fresh peaches. We also received milk from a neighbor whose kids are getting the free school lunches but don’t drink milk. My parents made us dinner one night which actually was enough for 2 nights and Kevin’s parents gave us pot pies one night for dinner.
With all of that said I’m pretty proud of myself that I made it and with meals to spare. I finished out the month and 2 days and still have meals that I planned that we didn’t eat so we are finishing those now.
All and all some resemblance of this will become our new normal. I liked planning out our meals, I liked knowing I was only buying what we were going to actually be cooking and eating. I liked knowing I was providing healthy balanced meals for my family in the most organized cost-effective way possible. And I secretly liked the challenge. It put my cooking skills and my well-stocked pantry to the test and I loved it.
(There were a few things I forgot to photograph so couldn’t tell you what we ate those days but otherwise this is the list). Item’s in blue have full recipes :)
16th - Breakfast: Trader Joes Ancient grains hot cereal with honey
Lunch: Turkey Wrap
Dinner: Pork Ramen
17th - Breakfast: Trader Joes Ancient Grains hot cereal with honey
Lunch: Hummus wrap with coleslaw
Dinner: Lasagna (homemade by mom)
18th - Breakfast: Eggs & Potatoes
Lunch: Don’t remember, and apparently didn’t document it
Dinner: Leftover lasagna & Salad
19th - Breakfast: Feta & spinach omelet with tater tots
Lunch: Caprese Salad
Dinner: Chicken with wild rice and veggies
20th - Breakfast: Cherrios with banana and peanut butter
Lunch: Dinner leftovers
Dinner: Beef Tacos
21st - Breakfast: Eggs, sausage, and hash browns
Lunch: Dinner leftovers
Dinner: Sweet potato lentil stew
22nd - Breakfast: Eggs on toast
Lunch: Tuna Sandwich
Dinner: Chicken pot pie with mashed potatoes
23rd - Breakfast: Peach French toast
Lunch: Don’t remember and apparently didn’t document it
Dinner: Tofu Curry
24th - Breakfast: Cereal
Lunch: Dinner leftovers
Dinner: Meatloaf and mashed potatoes with broccoli
25th - Breakfast: Hashbrown casserole with scrambled eggs
Lunch: Beet chickpea salad
Dinner: Curry leftovers
26th - Breakfast: Eggs, toast, and leftover hash brown casserole
Lunch: Meatloaf sandwiches and beet chickpea salad
Dinner: Baked Ziti
27th - Breakfast: Eggs in a tortilla
Lunch: Don’t remember and apparently didn’t document it
Dinner: Salad and baked ziti leftovers
28th - Breakfast: Almond granola with Greek yogurt and peaches
Lunch: Chicken wrap
Dinner: Mexican quinoa bake
1st - Breakfast: ?
Lunch: ?
Dinner: Lasagna
2nd - Breakfast: Eggs & potatoes
Lunch: Hummus sandwich
Dinner: Salad and Quinoa mac-n-cheese
3rd - Breakfast: Eggs & potatoes
Lunch: Leftovers
Dinner: Potato chip crusted chicken, fried green tomatoes and carrots
4th - Breakfast: Homemade granola
Lunch: Chicken sandwich
Dinner: Salad & Dijon Salmon with couscous and spinach
5th - Breakfast: Homemade granola & Greek yogurt
Lunch: Salmon leftovers on a salad
Dinner: Beef Tacos
6th - Breakfast: Veggie scramble with hash browns
Lunch: Leftover tacos
Dinner: Salad & Chicken Tikki Marsala
7th - Breakfast: Egg scramble & toast
Lunch: Leftovers
Dinner: Chicken pesto tortellini
Again, all and all this was not only a super fun challenge but money and time saving for sure. It really taught me how to stretch my food in ways I hadn’t before and I’m pretty happy with the results. Just putting the photos together made me smile because our meals were all so full of color and as an RD that’s kind of a big deal.
Curious what we ate the first part of the month? Check it out here. Want to know how I shopped for the month? You can read about that here.