Happy Saturday! Any exciting plans for the weekend?

Breakfast

I started my day off with one of my favourites.

 

Protein pancake, you never fail me. My usual mix (minus the flax seed, I don’t have any at the moment) with banana slices and PB2 sauce on top. I tried making the PB2 with unsweetened chocolate almond milk (I usually use water) and it made it even more chocolatey. More chocolate = always a good thing, in my book.

 

Food Budgets and Meal Plans

For the first time ever, I’m trying to stick to a budget when it comes to the food Eric and I eat. The vast majority of our meals are eaten at home (we eat out maybe once every week or two right now), so I need to make sure our fridge is good of wholesome, cheap stuff for us to work with.

This is my current strategy for figuring out meals:

1. I collect flyers throughout the week for the major grocery stores in our area.
2. Then, I figure out what’s on sale, and plan 5 or 6 dinner around them. This leaves 1 or 2 nights for leftovers, easy dinners (Annie’s Mac and Cheese, sandwiches) or eating out. Most of the planning is based around what proteins are on sale.
3. I take out the cash I’m planning on spending, and then I hit up the farmer’s market for our veggies and some of the animal products. When I’m done there, I hit up 3-4 grocery stores and Walmart, so I can find what I need at sale prices. This makes grocery shopping a two hour trip, but I think it helps us save money and get the most for our dollar.

 

Here is the tentative meal plan I made for the week (I’m not assigning them a certain night of the week, but just making them whenever it sounds appealing).

• Salmon, green beans and garlic toast
• Roast chicken, corn on the cob and salad
• Chicken and spinach quesadillas
• Turkey sausages on a bun and salad
• Shrimp with zucchini, tomatoes and feta with garlic cheese bread

 

Definitely looking forward to dinners this week – some good looking meals up there.

I went on my long shopping journey and was pretty happy with what I ended up with. I did go a little over budget, which means I’ll do my best to come in a little bit under next week.

 

Produce

• Baby spinach
• Baby carrots
• Bananas
• 2 bell peppers
• 2 Honeycrisp apples (first I’ve seen this season – so exciting!)
• The smallest pears I’ve ever seen
• Green beans
• Tomatoes
• Baby spinach
• A zucchini that I forgot to throw in the picture

 

Proteins and Dairy

• Eggs
• Oktoberfest turkey sausage
• Shrimp
• Deli ham
• Whole chicken
• Salmon
• Egg whites
• Feta cheese
• Cheddar (again, didn’t quite make it into the picture)

 

The Bakery

• Hot dog buns
• Tortillas
• English muffins

 

Etcetera

• canola oil
• body wash x 2
• Draino
• Bag clips

 

As I said, I went a little over budget. But, I managed to get everything for under $90 – not too bad!

 

Lunch

I hadn’t had eggs in a while, so I wanted to break into those as soon as I got home.

2 sunny side up eggs and a sweet potato with cinnamon and coconut oil.

On her blog, Chelsey had mentioned a sweet potato/coconut oil combo. Of course, that sounded amazing and I needed to try it immediately. She’s definitely onto something – it was fantastic.

 

Dinner

Of course, with having a brand new meal plan I immediately had to make something on the list.

 

Salmon, green beans and garlic toast.

I steamed the green beans (am I the only one who likes their beans steamed? It sounds boring, but I love it) and threw on some salt and garlic pepper.

For the toast, I simply melted some butter with a bit of salt and minced garlic, and spread it on toast with a sprinkle of parmesan on top.

For the salmon? I used Julie’s soy glazed salmon recipe (minus the chia seeds). It’s such a simple recipe, but it might be my absolute favourite for salmon. It comes out tasting like teriyaki. Delicious.

 

Dessert

I found out earlier this week that there was a Yogurty’s in town – right near my apartment, as a matter of fact. I told Eric that it was definitely happening this weekend.

Yup, already done.

I’ve never been to a Yogurty’s before, but I was impressed! Their flavours were unique and they had a good array of toppings. Plus – they were CHEAP. This is about my usual size for froyo and I spent less than $4.00. That has never happened to me with fro-yo before.

In that container, I’ve got:

• Root beer fro-yo (it tastes like a root beer float. Ridiculous).
• Peanut butter and jelly fro-yo
• Iced animal crackers (which led to a discussion between Eric and I where we decided I need to buy animal crackers next week. That will happen)
• Chocolate malt balls
• Red velvet cake pieces
• Crushed andes mint
• Chocolate covered marshmallows
• Butterfinger pieces
• Mini turtles
• Sprinkles

 

Clearly, I was feeling the chocolatey/desserty stuff. But really, what else is new?

The fact that this is so close to my apartment means that you can expect these pictures a lot.

 

Today, my parents are coming up from London to see the new place. We’re showing them the farmer’s market, taking them for a little walking tour and then going out for lunch. It’ll be good times.

Have a great weekend!

 

<— Do you have a food budget? Are you able to stick to it?

<— Do you make any sort of meal plan for the week? How do you plan it?