Week 2: Preplanning

Pork shoulder is 1.89/lb this week, so I think I'll go with that for my main dish. I kind of want fish as a second option, which is $4 per package. I don't know if I'll do that yet though. I also actually do need to buy flour, sugar, and oatmeal this week.

Looking online, I found a really great source for being able to plan a week's worth of meals on one chunk of meat. I think I'm going to follow most of the recipes on that website for next week. My one big problem with it, however, is that the website doesn't plan on using any of the other ingredients listed. Am I going to have to buy a whole head of bok choy just for 1/4 cup of it for pot stickers? Do I even need bok choy for pot stickers? What do I do with the rest of it?

The other thing is that I don't really find the Vietnamese salad or the spring rolls all that appealing, so can I possibly freeze the rest of the pork to use later? The recipe calls for 8lb of pork shoulder, but since it's just me, and most of the other recipes make 4 servings, I may just find the cheapest cut of meat and go from there.

Meal Plan

Friday: Pulled Pork: cooked in slow cooker, 6-8hrs
Saturday: Pot stickers
Sunday: Roleplay Night
Monday: Pork Tacos
Tuesday: Date Night
Wednesday: Leftover Night
Thursday: Leftover Night

For lunches, I have leftover chicken from this past week or that ground chuck. I probably don't need a second meat option this week. And breakfast will be raspberry oatmeal and coffee. Yum!

Week 1 Recipes: Rice

Rice

Ingredients and Materials

• Rice and Water should be a 2:1 ratio. I normally do 1c water : 1/2c Rice
• Salt
• A little oil to prevent the rice from sticking to the bottom of the pan
• a saucepan and lid

Recipe

1. Pour water in pan and bring to a boil. 
2. add a little bit of oil. I usually fill the cap about half full
3. add rice and a pinch of salt. stir
4. Reduce heat to low and cover. 
5. Simmer for 18 minutes DO NOT UNCOVER
6.  Rice should have absorbed all of the water by now. if not, recover for a few minutes
7. Stir. I usually add a little butter at this point for flavor.
8. Serve immediately or store for later

Week 1: Roast Chicken Recipe

Week 1: Recipe

Roast Chicken

I mostly followed Alton Brown's Recipe described in season 1 episode 2 of Good Eats: A bird in the pan

1. Position top rack in oven 8in from the top and crank the broiler on high
2. Place 1.5tbsp Peppercorns in Mortar and Pestle.
• I didn't have peppercorns, so I just used that much pepper
3. Work in 3 cloves chopped garlic, 1tsp parsley, and 2tsp olive oil until it becomes a paste

1. Arrange vegetables in a roasting pan
• I had carrots, cauliflower, mushrooms, and a sweet onion cut into quarters
2. Butterfly chicken with a big knife
1. Place chicken on cutting board breast up
2. Open up the back end of the chicken and find the backbone
3. slide knife along spine all the way up to the neck bone
4. Hold handle firmly, but don't press down with it. Press down on the chicken breast with your other hand
5. move the knife to the other side and repeat
6. Open the chicken book-style with the legs facing you
7. find the clear membrane covering the keel bone that separates the two sides of the breast
8. Take a pairing knife and slice through the membrane, the work your index finger underneath the keel and gently lever it up and out. Now the bird will lie flat
3. Loosen the skin over the thigh and distribute paste evenly underneath. massage skin with remaining oil
4. Place bird on veggie bed
5. Broil 25 mins
• The skin started to burn at the 20 minute mark, so I flipped it early
6. Flip bird and season with 1/2tsp salt
7. Return to oven until temp reaches 160F
• I also stirred the vegetables at one point. 

Week 1: Meal Plan

Week 1 Meal Plan

Since my payday is on Thursday, I'm going to do the shopping and plan each week starting on Thursday. Thusday and Friday are the days of the week where I have the shortest amount of free time, so they may ba leftover days. 

Thursday:

• Breakfast
• Oatmeal - I added apples and cinnamon to my oatmeal this week
• Coffee
• Lunch
• I got a chicken caesar salad at work $3
• Snack
• Leftover chicken stuffing that Mom made 
• I took some iced tea and crushed a handful of fresh raspberries into it with some sugar
• banana
• Dinner
• Leftover soup

Friday

• Breakfast
• Oatmeal
• Coffee
• Lunch
• Chef boyardee mac n cheese
• Leftover chicken stuffing
• Dinner
• Roast Chicken
• Vegetables
• Rice with Gravy

Saturday

• Dinner
• Chicken Spaghetti

I went out overnight on Sunday and Monday, so I didn't make anything. I spent $30 at a restaurant paying for 3 people.

Tuesday

• Breakfast
• Oatmeal with fresh raspberries
• coffee
• Lunch
• There was some Jet's pizza in the fridge. Mom must have ordered it yesterday
• canteloupe
• Dinner
• Chicken panini?

Wednesday: Chicken Soup

Week 1: Raspberries

Preserving Raspberries

Materials

• Raspberries
• Cookie sheet
• a clean space in your freezer. cookie sheet must fit flat
• freezer bags
• sharpie

What to do:

1. Wash the raspberries under running water. Be careful because they're delicate. We don't want them mushy.
2. Place Raspberries in a single layer on the cookie sheet. If you have to do this in batches, put the rest of the raspberries in the fridge for later
3. When the raspberries are frozen, take them out and dish them into freezer bags
4. squeeze out as much air as possible
5. Label and Date each bag

Week 1 Recipes: Oatmeal

Week 1: Oatmeal

The first thing I did was make Oatmeal packets. They make breakfast quick and easy, and I'll be referring back to this post later.

Ingredients and Materials

• Instant Oatmeal
• Sugar
• Brown Sugar
• salt
• Sandwich Bags
• A storage container
• 2/3c measuring cup
• teaspoon (a regular spoon will work)

Recipe

1. 1 Sandwich bag should contain 1 serving of oatmeal mix. So pull out as many bags as you want servings. Make sure the bags are open
2. Into each bag, combine:
1. 1/3 cup Oatmeal
2. 1tsp Sugar
3. 1tsp brown sugar
4. a pinch of salt
3. Squeeze out as much air as you can from each bag and store in a container in a dry place. 
4. Note: if you add fruit or frozen fruit, make sure to store the oatmeal a fridge or freezer respectively.

To Make Oatmeal:

1. Place 1 bag of oatmeal into bowl
2. Mix with 2/3c Milk. This is important: Milk adds protein as well as a creamy texture
3. Microwave for a few minutes. Until milk boils.
4. Add fresh fruit at this stage. I usually add a little butter at this stage too
5.  Either microwave again or cover and wait until oatmeal has absorbed the milk. oatmeal should be thick and creamy.
6. You can add more sugar if it's not sweet enough, but this is usually enough for me.

Week 1 Summary

Week 1

I don't have the receipt anymore, but I spent about $32 on groceries. 

What I Bought:

• Taco Seasoning
• Flour Tortillas
• Reduced Rack Cauliflower  2 for $1.50
• Pasta Sauce
• 1#  baby carrots $1.50
• 8oz Whole white mushrooms $2
• Sweet Corn 8/$1
• Yeast
• Raspberries 5/$5
• 1#  Gound Chuck
• 1/2 Gal Reduced fat Milk
• 1 Whole chicken. $6

What I already have:

• Rice
• oatmeal
• flour
• salt
• noodles
• olive oil
• veg oil
• onions
• garlic
• Other spices

Preface

Preface: Eating on a Budget Challenge

The challenge:

This blog was created to track my progress in learning how to eat on a budget. In this blog, I will create a meal plan based on what's on sale at my local grocery store, track what I buy and how much I spend on groceries, give out recipes based on what meals I make, and learn how to preserve leftovers. I will also mention what things I try that didn't work.

About me:

I am a 25 year old woman who is trying to move out of my parents' house. I live in Michigan, and I work at my local grocery store. In order to move out, I want to be prepared to eat healthy on my own. This means spending about $30/week on foods that are not boxed or frozen. This also means learning how to cook and preserve food for later. The internet says it can be done. So I want to make it happen so that someday, my boyfriend and I can live happy and healthy no matter how much money we make. 

Note:

I'm already on day 5 of my challenge, but I'll do my best to bring you all up to speed on what I've done.

Disclaimer:

I'm not an expert on this at all. All I'm doing is googling recipes and tips and attempting to put them all in one place. I'll do my best to link back to my sources, but I make no promises on my diligence.