Frugal Meal Planning and Guest Post from Creative Kristi !!!

Hi all! My name is Kristi and I blog over at Creative Kristi. I blog about life, frugal living, crafts and DIY home renovations!


When Kaleena asked me to guest post about my frugal menu planning I was really excited. I did two posts earlier this year about how I feed my family on $140 every two weeks but I didn’t really touch on how I choose my recipes or where I find them online.  Just a note: We eat almost entirely organic or natural and I shop mainly without coupons.


I have a couple ‘go-to’ cookbooks that I use: Betty Crocker Cookbook: Everything You Need to Know to Cook Today, 10th Edition and Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food but 80% of the recipes we (Military Man-aka Hubby & I) use come from free sources online.


Here is a sample menu plan from the beginning two weeks in March of this year:

Menu Plan:We use a simple calendar printed from Microsoft Word and filled in with the recipes that I choose for the two weeks that I shop for groceries.


Week One:

Monday March 1- Northern Beans & corn bread

Tuesday March 2- Aloha Chicken & a veggie (From Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food)

Wednesday March 3- Baked Potato, a veggie & Stove Top stuffing

Thursday March 4- Taco Night with homemade refried beans & homemade taco seasoning

Friday March 5- Homemade pizza (dough recipe from Betty Crocker Cookbook: Everything You Need to Know to Cook Today, 10th Edition)

Saturday March 6- Pasta noodles with from the jar sauce and a veggie

Sunday March 7- Breakfast for dinner (whole wheat pancakes from Betty Crocker cookbook, turkey bacon & scrambled eggs plus fruit) You can also find whole wheat pancakes at The Happy Housewife too.

Week Two:

Monday March 8- Mexican Chiken Skillet (this is one of my favorites!!)

Tuesday March 9- Southwest Brown Rice/Black bean burgers with homemade hamburger buns (this is a new recipe for us to try)

Wednesday March 10- Cream Of potato Soup (again a new recipe to try)

Thursday March 11- Homemade Mac & Cheese (from Deceptively Delicious cookbook)

Friday March 12- Tuna salad sandwiches (from Deceptively Delicious cookbook)

Saturday March 13- Sloppy Joes made with ground turkey (from Deceptively Delicious cookbook)

Sunday March 14- Moroccan Spiced Chicken (can not find the link online- I'll post the recipe below it's really simple)

Week Three: (oh yes we are entering week 3 on the same $140 budget)

Monday March 15- Turkey Chili (from Deceptively Delicious) This one is a favorite among Hub's Army co-workers when we make way to much and he has to bring the extra to work.




Here is the list of recipes and where they came from (with links if appropriate):


 Veggie Lasagna


Black Bean/Brown Rice Burgers


Zucchini Garlic Pasta


Tacos-pretty self explanatory (lettuce, refried beans, tomatoes, taco seasoning, sour cream, taco shells)


Spinach Bacon Quiche


Potato Soup


Veggie Pasta Shells


Pizza-from Betty Crocker (or since it’s summer Pizza on the Grill)


Shipwreck


Mac & Cheese- from Deceptively Delicious (there are plenty of recipes online though)


Mini Meatball Sandwiches


F.F.Y. Night (Fend For Yourself Night)- this is where we eat up leftovers or make our own sandwiches, etc.


Tuna Macaroni Casserole

If you clicked on any of the links you will notice that there are the ‘big 3’ websites I use most frequently: The Happy Housewife, Prudence Pennywise and Frugal Family Recipes. I also use: About.com, Blissfully Domestic, The Pioneer Woman and when in doubt I Google “cheap dinner recipes” or some other similar phrase.


I didn’t find these websites by accident- I actively searched for frugal recipes. I had to because sometimes (well most of the time if I’m honest) the big ‘food’ websites have recipes that just have ingredients that are very expensive. Once I found one website I would click through the links they put up when they would say “Recipe Adapted From” and then I would search around that site.


The key is to find a website that ‘matches’ up with your lifestyle. For example I love Pioneer Woman but she doesn’t cook things that I usually cook/eat. The Happy Housewife does, so I usually stick with her recipes and just throw in PW’s recipes every once in awhile.


So to summarize how to find frugal recipes online:


1. Google frugal dinner recipes


2. Find a site/blog that does mainly recipes and follow it (e-mail subscription, Google Reader, etc.) Here’s a hint: you are reading this post on one such site- you might want to subscribe now while you are here!


3. Follow the links from that site/blog to other sites and search around for food recipes.


4. Most of the cheapest meals don’t involve meat. Unless you find a killer sale at the grocery store make sure you only plan one or two meals a week with meat- the rest should be meatless. So do more searches for vegetarian recipes then for ‘chicken’ or ‘beef’ recipes.


In addition to the above websites here is the quick and fast list of links I peruse regularly looking for frugal organic recipes: Simple Bites; it’s sister site: Simple Organic, Smashed Peas &; Carrots, AllRecipes.com and Nourishing Days. Here’s a great post on organic groceries on a budget.


If you want to know more about how I menu plan-without coupons and what I make from scratch please go read my previous posts on the topic: Frugal Menu Planning


Thanks Kaleena for having me over to guest post!


Please Check out Creative Kristi, she has a lot of great advice and information on how to frugally shop not only for food, but to improve and implement techniques in your home you can do yourself.  It's definite must read !!!

Enjoy !!!