How to Meal Plan on a Budget

Welcome to my new series, Meal Planning March! I’m excited to share all the tips and tricks I have for meal planning. It’s one of those things that most people know will help them eat better, eat cheaper, or just have less stress—but can feel overwhelming to get started! In this series, we’ll talk budgeting, creating meal templates to reduce decision fatigue, and more!

When you think of meal planning, what comes to mind?

Do you think of those complicated printables you see on Pinterest? Or do you think of those cutesy templates that are almost too simplified?

Or, are you like me and do you immediately want to go lie down?

I make so many decisions every single day: how to respond to comments for my work, how to respond to emails, how to do this, things I need to research, to do lists that I need to prioritize… it can be hard to add one more decision to my day, like deciding what to make for dinner or, worse, deciding what to make for 7 days worth of dinners.

So how do I make meal planning easier? And how do I not spend thousands of dollars every single week considering every possible meal option?

Let’s start with the second question: budget.

Setting Your Weekly Grocery Budget

For my family, we typically spend about $50-75 on groceries every week. Then, every 6 weeks or so, we do a big Costco shop that is between $100-200 (it depends on if we need dog food and toiletries, like paper towels, at the same time).

On this note, we also buy meat through co-op systems, like splitting a cow or pig from a local farmer with other people. That saves us a ton of money and we usually don’t buy meat week-to-week—the only exception is turkey or chicken, if we’re using those that week.

This is all to say: setting your weekly budget is hugely personal and one of the most challenging parts of meal planning. If you’re like me and a little obsessed with saving money, it can also be a huge headache when you end up spending a ton on groceries that you end up not using.

Here are a few factors to consider when creating your weekly budget:

• Be realistic about how much food you need to buy.

• Be realistic about what you will eat. I usually stick to buying 2-3 fruits to have for snacks every week—not a selection of every fruit I like. If it’s in season, even better. The same goes for vegetables; rather than buying a few of all the veggies I like, I pick my few rockstar veggies that I like in everything, typically broccoli, carrots, and spinach.

• Do you need all those snacks? I know lots of people buy lots of snack foods every week. And while some weeks I definitely go hogwild in the snack aisle, I don’t think it’s necessary. We usually keep pretzels, granola bars, and fruit snacks stocked and that’s pretty much it, as we try to snack on whole foods otherwise. If a significant portion of your grocery bill is going towards a ton of snacks, it might be time to re-assess, as they can’t be used in meal preparation.

Another huge part to consider: how much can you afford to spend each week? For us, we could probably spend a bit more on groceries (and/or I could spend less time shopping sales and looking for coupons), but we have found that our budget gets us what we need, and isn’t too time consuming for me to shop at this point.

Creating a Meal Plan with Budget in Mind

There are a few foods that are cheaper to make. Things like bean and rice bowls are highly affordable. Conversely, anything with a meat-based protein (or plant-based protein that is highly specialized, like Beyond Burger) is going to be more expensive. Pastas, rice, and most grains can be bought in bulk and make meal planning a lot easier.

Here’s what I do:

• Each week, I sit down with a cookbook and PInterest and start searching for things that look good. I keep in mind what I have on hand—typically, a lot of beef, some freezer items, and salmon that I buy from a local fishery—and pick meals based on those things.

• I also pick recipes that include more fresh ingredients, rather than canned.* While canned foods are cheaper, I don’t typically like them—but that’s just me!

• Recipes with less ingredients tend to draw me in more than time-consuming or multi-step recipes, probably because they’ll end up costing more overall.

My favorite cookbook right now for meal planning is Danielle Kartes’ Rustic Joyful Food: Meant to Share. These recipes are all big, meaning they make a lot (and are therefore easy to freeze extra or simply cut in half). She also tends to create recipes that don’t contain very expensive ingredients and that’s one thing she notes in her book as well.

Once I have a list of things I want to make, I start writing out what I don’t have for those recipes. If the list starts getting too long, I will re-assess what I’ve picked to make and swap things around to save for later.

My Best Money Saving Tips

• Buy in bulk if you can and if you have the storage. It’s more cost up front, but if you break it down, it lasts longer for less. However, that being said: the up front cost can be off-putting and the storage aspect can make it tough.

• Shop the sales. If there is a big sale on chicken or turkey, buy a few and plan meals around those for the month. I get weekly emails from my grocery store to better help me see what’s going to be on sale when it’s time to go shopping.

• Repurpose leftovers. Here’s an example: after I make tacos, I always have extra meat, rice, and beans. I usually will turn those into a layered taco casserole the next day just to change things up. If you make a roast on Sunday, you can work those leftovers into your meals for at least one or two extra days—think roast beef sandwiches, chili, beef stew, or shepherd’s pie. Super simple!

Have tips you want to share? I’m all ears! Leave your thoughts in the comments below!

How I Use Hungryroot for Weekly Meal Prep

It took me a long time to warm up to meal prepping; generally, I don’t like microwaved food. I’ve always struggled to eat leftovers. If I can’t effectively warm them up in the oven or on the stove, I probably won’t be eating them. However, ever since I had Forrest, I realized that prepping parts of meals, as well as quick lunches, in advance can be a huge help.

Another huge helper has been Hungryroot. I’ve written a ton of posts about them. Here’s just a few:

• Getting Kids to Eat Hungryroot

• Roadtripping with Hungryroot

• My original reviews

Hungryroot continues to change how they work to make everything easier for us, the busy people who are using them to get delicious food delivered to their door. It’s not just about meal delivery anymore; it’s like a one-stop-shop grocery store. When it comes to customizing your box, you can choose meals to include, or you can pick groceries you need.

As an example, last week, I got two bags of salad, some roasting veggies, a box of Banza pasta, chicken sausage, and almond butter. Just the basics I needed for meal prep that week! It helps so much with grocery shopping. Plus, they’ve started partnering with some amazing brands, like Banza, Right Rice, and Beyond Meat to provide their products. Danny and I have a package of Beyond Meat brats to try and we are so excited!

Want to try Hungryroot? Use the code PAUSESBROWNIES to get FREE brownie batter for life when you sign up.

Ok, let’s jump in and talk about meal prep.

About Meal Prepping Safety

I worked in food service long enough to tell you that when it comes to certain foods, some are safer to meal prep than others. I’m not a huge fan of meal prepping with, say, fish, which goes bad both uncooked and cooked much faster. Things like chicken will be ok for 4-5 days, but I wouldn’t risk over 6 days. Ground beef and other meats are a little heartier, lasting maybe 6-7 days. But again, not over a week.

Anything with eggs needs to be used within 10 days, even if it’s cooked (like pancakes or waffles).

If you’re not sure, don’t risk it. Food waste is real, but there is no point giving yourself food poisoning!

Meal Prep Supplies

You definitely don’t need to invest in those fancy meal prep containers you see on Instagram. Danny and I own a set of these ones, which I find too large. (You’ll see them later in this post!) Otherwise, I use whatever tuperware I have available. We’ve been trying to move away from plastic containers, as we now know that even non-BPA plastics leech into your food, especially if it gets warmed up. We are currently still saving up for a set of nice glass food containers, so please, don’t just my plastic tuperware!

Use what works for you, is all I’m saying. You don’t really need any fancy gear.

Recipe 1: Make-Ahead Breakfast Pancakes

Forrest is a child of routine and in the morning, he wants one of two things: pancakes or waffles. Thankfully, both are really easy to make ahead. You don’t have to rely on freezer waffles (although I will say, there are some great brands of freezer waffle out there now, way better than Eggo) either. I love the Hungryroot Ancient Grain Pancake Mix. Here’s a few notes about it:

“This gluten-free mix comes from quinoa, amaranth, flax, and other nutrient-dense grains—and it makes some of the fluffiest, most satisfying pancakes you’ll ever eat. Top with fruit, yogurt, coconut cream, your favorite nut butter, and/or classic maple syrup.”

That’s right! It’s gluten free! If you have celiacs (or any other problem that makes gluten a no-no for you), this is the ideal pancake mix. I’ve tried a lot of ancient grain style pancake mixes and they often don’t taste great or don’t make very good pancakes. A huge bummer! But this pancake mix isn’t like that. It makes delicious, fluffy pancakes, just as promised. If you want to be adventurous with your toppings, the more savory flavor is ideal; you can add avocado, egg, & bacon, goat cheese & honey, cranberry sauce & bacon… the options are really endless.

As I wrote on Instagram, this mix doesn’t make the sweet-sweet-sweet pancakes we often think of (look at you, Bisquick!). They are definitely more savory, but still really good. To make them, they only require water and oil, but I added an egg and oat milk to make them a little heartier! In the future, I might add a little more oat milk to thin them out—and not scoop as much batter!

We topped ours with mini chocolate chips. Once they were cooked through, I removed them from the griddle and let them cool completely before storing in a reusable bag and putting in the fridge.

Recipe 2: Butternut Squash & Vegetable Soup

Danny loves squash soup—and thankfully, we visited a local farm that had some mini butternut squash and gorgeous acorn squash. I had gotten the Roasting Vegetables with Herbs from Hungryroot as well that I wanted to use to make a soup for Danny to take for lunch. I figured this was a match made in heaven and I was right!

Here’s everything I used for this soup:

• One acorn squash (average size)

• One mini butternut squash (or about 1/3 a regular size butternut squash)

• 1 package Roasting Vegetables with Herbs

• 1 cup of chicken stock

• 1 14-ounce can of fat free evaporated milk (you could also use almond milk or oat milk)

• 3 gloves of garlic

• Salt & pepper

• Red pepper flakes if desired

I started by roasting the squash. Then, I followed the package instructions from Hungryroot for the roasting vegetables, adding the herbs (& garlic) about halfway through until the veggies were soft. Then I put everything in my blender with the chicken stock & evaporated milk and blended it. I put it in a pot on the stove and warmed it through completely together, adding salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes to taste.

For storage, once the soup had cooled, I put it in a large, glass Pyrex with a lid and stored it in the fridge. It lasted for about 5 lunches; Danny ate it either with pepitas (pumpkin seeds) or croutons on top, whatever he had available that day. Tasty and easy!

Recipe #3: Chickpea Pasta with Chicken Sausage

I am a huge fan of Banza pasta, so I was excited to see that it was available from Hungryoot. One of our favorite things to get is the chicken sausage as well, so it was natural to combine both. This is a twist on a classic pasta dish. Here’s everything I used:

• Banza Cavatappi

• Hungryroot Seven Veggie Stir Fry

• Hungryroot Sweet Italian Chicken Sausage

• Hungryroot Kale Pesto

That’s it! It took me maybe 20 minutes to make in total.

• Boil water, add pasta, drain, then toss with pesto.

• Start veggies cooking in a pan with a tablespoon of oil; add chicken sausages and cook.

• Slice sausages and stir with veggies again. Add salt & pepper to taste.

• Dish into containers.

I divvied this up into 3 lunches, then let it cool. Pop on the lids and place in the fridge. Super easy and very tasty!

Recipe #4: Chicken Sausage with Salad & Rice

This is not that different from recipe #3, but different enough that I wanted to share. It’s a little more fresh. Here’s what I used:

• Hungryroot Sweet Italian Chicken Sausage

• Hungryroot Asian Salad Mix

• Hungryroot House Dressing

• Hungryroot Lentil, Quinoa & Rice Mix

• Right Rice

• 1/2 small onion

• About 2 tablespoons chipotle mustard

• 1/3 cup chicken stock

I started by mixing the Asian Salad mix (about half a bag) with 2 heaping tablespoons of House Dressing. Then, I started about 1/2 a small onion sauteeing in a pan with olive oil; I added the chicken sausage and let it start to brown. I microwaved the Lentil mix and mixed it with some leftover Right Rice we had from earlier in the week. Then, I added chicken stock to the sausage and let it simmer. I divvied up the salad and rice mix into my meal prep containers. Once the chicken stock had reduced in the pan, I added 1 scoops of chipotle mustard and stirred. Once it was ready, I split the sausages up. Voila! Done!

Once Danny was at work, he mixed it up all together to eat.

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Meal prep saves time and helps you use more of the groceries you buy—which means you save money in the long run! Hungryroot is a great way to get delicious groceries delivered for prepping meals ahead of time. Again, if you want to try Hungryroot, use my code PAUSEBROWNIES to get free brownie batter for life when you sign up. Click here!

5 Meal Ideas for Picky Toddlers

Before Forrest turned 1, he was an excellent eater. He would regularly eat meals of chicken, broccoli, and potatoes, or pasta, or just about anything. He ate protein and vegetables great. 

But a few weeks after he turned 1, everything changed. Like most toddlers, he became increasingly more picky--and any change in his temperament (say, a molar cutting or a cold) made him unwilling to eat just about anything.

As he's gotten older, I've found ways to sneak in everything he needs: fruits & veggies, vitamins, protein, meat, and more. Here are a few meal ideas that I always return to. They're easy, they produce the least amount of waste, and they make it easy to hide things!

1. Quesadillas, Grilled Cheese, or English Muffin Pizza

Forrest will eat carbs and cheese all day, every day. These three foods all fall into this category: carb + cheese + the capability to hide other foods. When I make quesadillas, I will mash black beans (a great source of protein) with some veggie puree and then mix it with cheese; that's the filling of the quesadilla. All he cares about is the cheese, anyway!

For grilled cheese, I layer a little turkey or chicken, as well as an leftover roasted veggies, between layers of cheese. English muffin pizzas are so easy to make and if you mix the pizza sauce with veggie puree, you can easily hide an extra serving of veggies--but all he knows is there is cheese, as usual. 

2. "Snack Lunches" 

This is an infinitely popular toddler lunch that I think every mom has done before: you let your toddler have a variety of their favorite snacks. A lot of Forrest's favorites are "sneaky" healthy things: he really loves the Ella's Kitchen oat bars (the carrot + mango flavor is his favorite), as well as the Nature's Bakery oat bars which has whole wheat and real fruit. One of these bars, plus a banana and some yogurt mixed with a pack of Similac Mix-In, is as well-rounded of a lunch as I'll get sometimes! 

3. Mac & cheese 

You know that carb + cheese equation I posted above? This is the same principal. I like the Annie's Organic Mac & Cheese bowls because I can make a single serving (although Forrest usually only eats about half). I make him a bowl and then add half a packet of vegetable and meat puree. (Yes, I know that sounds great.) But he eats it, loves it, and gets a serving of veggies and meat in! 

4. Green Juice

Having a day where you simply cannot get your toddler to eat anything that isn't in the form of white bread? Been there! Forrest had croup recently and all he wanted to eat was milk. Seriously. I decided to take a chance and bought a bottle of Naked Green Machine juice; I mixed half juice and half water. He drank it up in barely 10 minutes. Hey, it's a serving of fruit and vegetables if nothing else. Smoothies and homemade juices are a great way to get some nutrition in your kiddo who is refusing everything else. 

5. Pancakes

If it is in pancake form, Forrest will (usually) eat it. I make both fruit pancakes AND oatmeal pancakes. Here are my basic recipes: 

Fruit Pancakes

• 1 banana, mashed 
• 1 packet of fruit + veggie puree
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• About 4 tablespoons of flour
• Vanilla + cinnamon

Mix well and cook like normal pancakes. 

Oatmeal Pancakes

• 1 serving of oatmeal, cooked
• 1/2 packet of fruit + veggie puree
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp baking powder
• About 3-4 tablespoons of flour
• Vanilla + cinnamon 

Mix well and cook like normal pancakes. 

The possibilities for adding to these recipes are endless. I will often use leftover oatmeal, add a bit of yogurt to up the calories, and try new combinations of fruit and vegetables. Forrest will eat them, covered in peanut butter, every day. 

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4 Genius Meal Prep Ideas to Save Time & Money

Every Sunday, I do meal prep. This isn't something I've always done and to be completely honest, I dread it every single week. It's something I cannot do when Forrest is around because he loses his mind the moment he sees food. 

This is my way of saving: meal prep isn't fun. I won't pretend it is. However, I always thank Sunday me when Wednesday rolls around and Forrest is scream-crying because he has a fever from his molars and I just cannot cook. 

If you're like me and you end up buried up to your eyeballs by halfway through the workweek, then these meal tips are for you. 

1. Set aside one day, two hours, and do it. 

This is the most basic of basic tips, but meal prep doesn't have to take an entire day. In fact, I beseech you: don't torture yourself by meal prepping all day. Here's how I typically meal prep: 

• I make my husband's lunches for the week (always stir fry). 
• I make my husband's breakfasts for the week. 
• I make something we can use in meals every single day (like a huge batch of roasted veggies or a bunch of rice). 
• I make something I can grab as a quick lunch every single day (like pasta or chicken). 

That's it. I don't make huge batches of overnight oats or cute little jars that take up way too much room in my small fridge. I don't torture myself. Don't torture yourself. Set aside two or three hours in one day, plan a menu for the week, and execute it. 

2. Remember to actually eat the things you prep. 

Okay, another really basic tip: remember to eat all this stuff. Whenever my husband forgets his lunch, I basically want to start tearing the doors off our house. (I don't. But I want to.) Remember to keep a list on your fridge or phone of what you have prepped, as well as a rough outline of things you can make every day. I personally do not like to do a menu plan for each day because, guaranteed, by Tuesday evening, I will rebel. Instead, I just make a list of what I have and what possible combinations can come from that. 

3. It's ok to be simple. 

I recently started following a budgeting program and one of the most revolutionary tips was, dinners don't have to be over-the-top insane, crazy. Dinners don't have to be three or four courses. BLTs and salad is fine. Chicken and veggies is fine too. You don't need to go crazy! It's healthier, and will save you money, to not feel like you have to prep a ton of food for each dinner. My advice is to go after simple meals and items. Chicken with rice and veggies can be just as delicious as a huge, hearty, steak-and-potatoes meal. My husband's favorite dinners are stir fry days, when I literally just reheat roasted veggies with some teriyaki sauce, add some chicken, and cook some chow mein noodles. Minimal effort, truly. 

4. Stretch what you make with bulk items. 

When I prep rice and vegetables for the week, I make sure to have things like pre-cooked chicken, beef, and meatballs in the freezer. I usually keep a batch of turkey meatballs and beef meatballs frozen and thaw as needed. I also cook ground beef with peppers and onions and freeze in bags to use for spaghetti, tacos, lasagna, and more. Chicken is easy to cook in the oven, cool, and freeze in individual servings to be de-thawed as necessary. Having these things in your freezer can be added to your weekly prepped items, like rice and roasted vegetables, for a quick lunch or dinner. Keeping canned goods (like black beans, corn, and chickpeas) on hand can also be a quick addition. 

When you meal prep ahead of time, you save yourself time and you save money. None of these items are particularly expensive and if you shop sales, you can get good deals on ground beef and ground turkey to cook in advance. 

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