Meal Plan Ahead
I mentioned in our last post that I was planning on embarking on a No-Spend Month challenge. A HUGE part of this is planning and preparing meals so that you don’t end up scratching your heads looking at an empty fridge/freezer/pantry.
In August, I spent 2 days meal prepping freezer meals. Most of those meals were a delicious hit, but we didn’t eat them every night because I made the mistake of making mostly chicken meals, and we can’t eat chicken every.single.night. But, the bright side of my error is that we still have freezer meals that I can use during the No-Spend Month.
I also took to Pinterest to find some budget friendly, kid friendly, health friendly meals. I grabbed an old spiral notebook that still has a lot of pages left in it and started writing down the recipes I found. Then I used that list, plus my freezer meal inventory list and started mapping out our meals for the month. Here’s the meal plan I came up with. I tried to link my recipes for you (but if it says freezer meal, check out our post on that for those recipes!)
Meal Plan Recipes
10/1 – 3-Ingredient Ravioli Bake
10/2 – Honey Lime Chicken (freezer meal)
10/3 – Leftovers (there are meals from earlier in the week that will have leftovers)
10/4 – Leftovers/sandwiches/pasta
10/5 – Chicken, Broccoli, Quinoa Bake (freezer meal)
10/6 – Sloppy Joes (freeze meal)
10/7 – Chicken Fajitas (freezer meal)
10/8 – Herb Roasted Chicken and Veggies (freezer meal)
10/9 – leftovers
10/10 – Artichoke Chicken Thighs (freezer meal)
10/11 – Tortellini Soup
10/12 – Poor Man’s Stew
10/13 – Mexican Chicken Spaghetti
10/14 – Honey Mustard Chicken (freezer meal)
10/15 – Birthday Girl’s Choice
10/16 – Leftovers
10/17 – Fish Sticks (see-regular old frozen convenience food!)
10/18 – Philly Cheesesteak Casserole
10/19 – Chicken Slop (this literally is just chicken breasts, topped with a couple packages of stuffing, 2 cans of cream of chicken soup and a small container of sour cream!)
10/20 – Spicy Black bean and veggie soup
10/21 – Breakfast for Dinner
10/22 – Leftovers
10/23 – Pizza (homemade pizza dough)
10/24 – Oven Baked Chicken Legs
10/25 – BBQ chicken (freezer meal)
10/26 – Wholesome Hamburger Soup
10/27 – Black bean and Rice Casserole
10/28 – Ribs (using a spice rub I created a while ago)
10/29 – Honey Mustard Chicken (freezer meal)
10/30 – Leftovers
10/31 – Spaghetti and Meatballs
And That Meal Plan is Done
Is it a pretty method to a meal plan? Nope, but I have my meals planned through October and beyond, and that alone will help us save a TON of money! What budget friendly, kid friendly, health friendly meals have you made?
We’d love to hear about your meal plan, especially heading into the colder months where comfort foods take on a whole new meaning. So, share your meal plans in the comments below and we’ll gladly take on some new recipes.
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