Comments on Our Growing Garden: Cheap Eats Meal Plan

Love this blog I am always looking for easy meals ...

2012-01-30T12:17:25.777-06:00

Love this blog I am always looking for easy meals :)

Yes I make ours from scratch. The trick is to make...

2012-01-13T10:37:15.035-06:00

Yes I make ours from scratch. The trick is to make sure you use bread flour with a higher gluten level in or add vital wheat gluten to A/P flour. I just stock up on Bread flour whenever I see that it is on sale. My two favorite recipes (that are pretty easy for a beginner) are:

http://itsavol.blogspot.com/2011/07/coming-home.html

http://www.food.com/recipe/our-daily-bread-in-a-crock-weekly-make-and-bake-rustic-bread-340621

The first is a good daily bread and the second is great to keep on hand because you can pull off just enough to make two rolls to go with soup or whatever and it is fresh baked and heavenly.

Also, I have an ABM and sometimes (a lot of the time) I let it do the kneading and first rise for me. Being a busy mom with another on the way, if you are serious about starting to make your own bread, I would look into getting one. I would get the cheapest one avialable because you only need the dough setting and none of the other fancy stuff! My BFF got hers for $20 at walmart and she makes awesome breads with it. Mine is super fancy (wedding gift) and I kinda feel guilty because I NEVER use 98% of its functions.

If you want any help with bread making or have any questions about it, feel free to email me. itsavol at yahoo dot com

Oh and dough kneading? It's a great stress reliever! :)

I think we spend around $150 a week. Sometimes les...

2012-01-12T20:21:43.473-06:00

I think we spend around $150 a week. Sometimes less, sometimes more. I buy organic meat, eggs, and dairy. Organic milk often costs twice as much as conventional, which makes me crazy. I get my organic meat in big packs at Costco and toss it into the freezer. I add frozen corn and extra carb to almost all of my casseroles, in order to turn one casserole into two (one for the freezer). Grilled cheese sandwiches!!! And pancakes and eggs for dinner sometimes. YUM.

Stephanie, will your son accept frozen blueberries? Thats what we do around here. I refuse to buy anything off-season!

2012-01-12T20:14:17.261-06:00

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I try to stick to $100 per week, which I never stu...

2012-01-12T20:14:16.652-06:00

I try to stick to $100 per week, which I never stuck too until I started shopping at Aldi. I don't know if you have one by you but everything is soooo cheap. I could probably do it for $50-$75 per week just by shopping there.

This list looks great! We are trying to stay under...

2012-01-12T19:41:28.039-06:00

This list looks great! We are trying to stay under $100 a week...goal is more like $85...but some weeks it's higher. I try to buy things like meat when they are on sale so those weeks I go over.

I think your plan looks great and I think you'...

2012-01-12T18:51:01.061-06:00

I think your plan looks great and I think you'll definitely figure out a way to stick to your budget, but it might take a while to get the hang of it!

I think it's kind of hard to compare budgets directly because cost of living differs, but our weekly budget is $85. To be honest, I definitely average $85, but some weeks are higher, some weeks are lower.

Last year when we were on a really strict budget I had to stay under $75/week. I don't know if I could do that now though with DS eating more and grocery prices always on the rise :-/

My tips: pick up meat on sale, try never to pay full price for that because it's the most expensive thing you buy (probably :) ). So, buy it on sale, check out the manager's specials area, and stick it in the freezer if you won't be using it that week, it'll definitely cut down on your expenses!

Make everything from scratch that you can, and also buy your staples when they're on sale. Just figure out what the rock bottom price is for things like butter and cheese because they'll keep for quite a while and then buy up enough to get you through several weeks while it's on sale.

And definitely plan on buying your veggies and stuff in season. DS doesn't subscribe to this rule (two words: blueberry fiend), but I really try to eat seasonally because a) the stuff tastes better, and b) $3 for a green pepper is kind of redonk.

Just keep working at it, you can definitely do it!

THanks for the bread recipe!! #6 and #7 are lefto...

2012-01-12T17:33:29.340-06:00

THanks for the bread recipe!!

#6 and #7 are leftover nights. And we have a few things in the freezer we could eat as well like frozen spaghetti sauce, lasagna, etc

Never mind my above comment about googling, here i...

2012-01-12T17:05:50.926-06:00

Never mind my above comment about googling, here is the recipe. I skip the thyme.

http://www.cowboybootsandbabybooties.com/2010/09/she-came-bearing-gifts.html

That Taco Chicken Bowl looks really good! Let me k...

2012-01-12T17:02:55.297-06:00

That Taco Chicken Bowl looks really good! Let me know how you like it.

I do good budget wise on my main shopping trips, but horrible on the small grocery runs where I inevitably end up buying stuff not on the list.

We spend $80 a week including toiletries and house...

2012-01-12T17:00:45.652-06:00

We spend $80 a week including toiletries and household products (have to shop at Wal Mart to do it, so good thing you already do!).

Where is #6 and #7? I love you have Ramen down for lunches! LOL!

Google Sandra Lee's chicken & dumplings. That's a staple in our weekly menu.

Do you bake from scratch? I can make beer bread bu...

2012-01-12T16:46:20.725-06:00

Do you bake from scratch? I can make beer bread but my attempts at real bread have been TOTAL failures. My only grocery option is pretty much WalMart. There is a small grocery but it's super expensive.

I find the easiest thing for me to do is look at t...

2012-01-12T16:24:06.464-06:00

I find the easiest thing for me to do is look at the store sales when they come out (Wednesday) and plan our meals (Sunday-Saturday) and then Sunday I go with a list. I also stick to the outside of the store as much as possible. I also tend to bake most of our own bread which is a HUGE $ saver.