Grocery Shopping - Writing Challenge, Day 9

I'm going to recycle a post slightly here...but our meals have evolved a little bit since I posted this about meal planning and grocery shopping. 

I had a friend ask me over the weekend how I go about our meal planning and cooking.  I've slacked a lot on this the past month or so - we've eaten out a lot.  But this pay period, I decided to get back at it.  So, I looked at the sales going on at Kroger, picked out the stuff I thought would get us through the next two weeks, then went in search of coupons for those things that I'd added to my list.  That way I'd get the sales savings plus the coupon savings.  I focused mainly on meats because I knew we had a few things that could be made as sides here at home.  

Grilled pork tenderloin, baked potatoes, Brussels sprouts

My list looked like this (thought with a lot of scribbles about prices, weights, etc.!):

• Beef chuck roast
• 3 lb roll of ground beef
• Kroger Seasoned/Seared Pork Burnt Ends (pre-cooked thing I thought we might like...that ended up being kinda ehhhh)
• Bag of frozen chicken breast
• Boneless pork chops
• Boneless pork tenderloin
• Deli chicken breast
• Corn bread mix
• Frozen brussels sprouts
• Frozen green beans
• Tomato juice
• Pinto beans
• Russet potatoes
• Milk

We got all of this and a couple of other things for $62.79.  I had to pick up a couple things I didn't think about the next day, so really altogether probably around $70 total was spent...not too shabby for two people for two weeks.

After I'd made my list, I took a look at which days I needed to make dinner for (obviously most of them) and planned what I'd use from the list and what we already had at home to make on what day, and from there, which meals should yield leftovers for a day or two.  I have our meals planned on the calendar on my phone so it's easy to edit the "menu" if need be.  But so far, we're right on schedule and have plenty to get us through.

Pot roast with potatoes

I pretty much just planned the main course for each meal and decided to leave sides up to whatever we're feeling like having each evening.  But some of the meals on my calendar are:

• Buffalo chicken (crockpot) + leftovers
• Pot roast w/potatoes (Instant Pot) + leftovers
• Chili (Instant Pot) + leftovers
• Grilled pork tenderloin + leftovers
• Grilled pork chops
• Grilled chicken
• Tacos
• Brown beans (Instant Pot) and cornbread + leftovers

It's pretty simple, but I feel pretty good about the results!  And the pickiest eater in the world who lives with me seems content, so that's a win in my book!