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.

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Gluten Free Pork Ramen

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