Meal Plan! - Kimberly

Holy cow Megs, even I am hungry just READING your post! Where is the giant grilled steak with sauteed mushrooms and onions?! That's what you need to settle your hunger!!

...but I will bite my tongue since I know you are having protein (read: MEAT) difficulties :)

I went shopping last night to Fred Meyer and got an entire cart worth of great stuff for not very much money. I felt sad standing in the checkout line and watching the people in front of me...a youngish couple with a preteen son.....their faces all looked washed out and sad and totally lifeless. They were buying three giant bags of knock-off sugar cereal (Marshmallow Mateys, anyone?) and four ENORMOUS boxes of Eggo waffles. I didn't see what else was on their conveyer belt. But I felt sad for them. And I looked at my waiting cart, which was full to the brim with fruit & vegetables and nuts out of the bulk bin, with packages of meat balanced on top of each other on the lower rack, and I thought immediately of how much life I was bringing home to my family. Life begets life. And the converse is also true...

Among my spoils: A sweet onion, five pounds of apples, a pound of creminis, chicken sausage with mango & jalapeno, nuts & raisins, almond butter, two dozen eggs (I already have 3 dozen in my fridge), cilantro, red leaf lettuce, 8 pounds of bananas, 7 pounds of peaches, limes, celery, cukes, mangoes, spaghetti squash, tomatoes on the vine, Bob's unsweetened coconut, jicama, 6 avocados, zucchini, jalapenos, 5 pounds of potatoes (for the fam), 6 assorted colored bell peppers, 3 pounds of broccoli, a pound of organic ground beef, a package of fresh burger patties, two huge bags of bs chicken thighs, and a carton of chicken livers. YUM! Add in some canned goods and a container of sour cream for the boys and my grand total was $133.54. Wowza! Now this isn't enough food for a week for us, granted, but my food budget is $300 a week. I spent the other $170 over the weekend on fun party/Father's Day food, so I'm still maxed out until next week, but STILL. I'm curious now to get to next weekend and do another week's meal planning and see how much I might possibly be able to save?

Here are the things I bought for: green smoothies (they just taste like fruit--all the veggies do is add some texture!), crockpot chuck roast with a scrumptious-looking sauce and broccoli on the side (from Civilized Caveman), shredded barbecue beef-topped baked potatoes (with more of the broccoli, sour cream & cheese for the dairy crowd--I have the cooked meat in my freezer already), homemade barbecue sauce (sans sugar), homemade ketchup (same), banana cake, apple banana cookies, guacamole & bacon-topped hardboiled eggs, vampire stew (chicken, apple, garlic, onion & spices--from The Clothes Make The Girl), chicken fajitas with jicama, mango and homemade salsa (from whole9life), taco salad, grilled chicken with peach salsa, and yogurt with blueberry sauce (for the boys to have at their picnic tomorrow as a treat)! Doesn't that sound amazing? I can't wait to get eating!!

Oh and I'm thinking I'm going to end up doing a lot of soups...I can cut down on the amount of meat consumed...and add plenty of legumes to the family's portion....stock up on veggies....play with spices....yum, yum! So many of my favorite soup recipes can be tweaked just a tad and made paleo. Hot & sour soup, chicken, yam & sausage, and chicken tortilla soup are just the ones on the forefront of my mind!

Off to tackle some housework...Megan, get GRILLING! xo

Pounds lost: 2