by Ashley
I wrote on the finish of August about beginning a MONEY and FOOD weight loss plan for the month of September. Has anybody been becoming a member of me? I needed to test in with a progress replace now that we’re nearing the tip of the month!
Meal Planning & Consuming At Dwelling
I give us a strong A for consuming at house. I’ve solely relied on take out a few instances and it’s been “more healthy” quick meals sort meals so it’s been comparatively cheap. For instance, I’ve gotten a grilled hen salad from Chick-Fil-A one week and from Salad-and-Go one other week.
I’ve meal deliberate quite a lot of wholesome meals to have at house. And I took a special method than regular. As an alternative of meal planning for a single week at a time, I meal deliberate for the whole month of September. This allowed me to assume strategically about meals I may need leftover one week, and the way I may repurpose it later within the week or early the next week, and many others.
To offer an thought, I made 3 separate meals out of a giant pork loin. The primary meal was crockpot pork loin with mini potatoes and carrots. For the second meal, I took about half the leftover pork and pulled it, tossed with BBQ sauce, and served with baked beans and broccoli as sides. For the third meal, I took the opposite half of the pork, pulled it, and pan fried it up with some taco seasoning to make it like carnitas. I served it on flour tortillas for the household (and simply on lettuce for me since I’m doing low carb), with a contemporary pico-de-gallo chalked filled with flavorful veggies.
I like how crockpot meals simplify issues at meal time, and I’m additionally an enormous fan of the “cook dinner as soon as, eat twice” motto of mainly repurposing meals after its been cooked to make use of in a second meal. It speeds alongside the prep a part of dinner and saves money and time.
Cash Food plan
My aim was to have whole meals spending this month be $750 or under and, though we nonetheless have every week to go, I simply positioned my ultimate grocery pick-up order and we’re barely going to squeak by at our aim!
I believe having a grocery plan for the month helped dramatically, in addition to doing on-line pickup orders so I wasn’t tempted with point-of-sale purchases. I’ll say that I didn’t do a Costco buying journey this month and, if I had, I positively would have gone over. Despite the fact that we use Costco largely for paper merchandise (e.g., paper towels, rest room paper, paper plates), I nonetheless put this in our “grocery” finances. I’m pleased with the “win” of assembly our aim……but in addition totally acknowledge that I actually would NOT have, had I executed our usually month-to-month Costco journey. It’s progress, however nonetheless extra room to enhance, too.
Recipes
I wish to share a few enjoyable recipes I used this month, simply in case anybody else is on the lookout for new meal concepts.
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Blueberry Candy Potato Breakfast Meatballs
These are a brand new favourite! I acquired the recipe from a buddy and had initially given it main side-eye. It’s lots of flavors collectively and sounds odd. However I’m right here to let you know – it comes collectively fantastically and is scrumptious! I’ve already made the recipe twice! I make an enormous batch, then freeze so I can pull out only a couple balls at a time to re-heat for breakfast.
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Hawaiian Shrimp Taco Bowls
These are wonderful! It’s good to have one thing completely different (we in any other case eat lots of hen and pork), and the do-it-yourself cilantro lime crema is the star of the present! I eat mine with cauliflower rice, whereas the remainder of the household eats jasmine rice. I received’t lie the cauliflower rice isn’t pretty much as good. Nevertheless it’s a pleasant low-carb substitution.
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Ginger Steak Salad
That is technically not Complete 30 because of the sugar within the marinade and salad dressing. However that is the place I say I’m doing Complete 30-ish as a result of that is nonetheless a lot more healthy than what I’d in any other case eat (like fried hen or pizza! Ha!), so I name it a win! The truth is, we’ve had a LOT of salads this month. Feels good to get within the contemporary veggies. And a do-it-yourself dressing is at all times higher than store-bought, in my view.
Has anybody else adopted alongside this month with a meals and cash weight loss plan? How did you do? Have any favourite Complete 30 (or Complete 30-ish) recipes you wish to share? Drop them within the feedback!
Hello, I’m Ashley! Arizonan on paper, Texan at coronary heart. Lover of working, running a blog, and all issues cheeeeese. Freshly 40, married mom of two, working in academia. Attempting to lastly (lastly!) repay that ridiculous 6-digit scholar mortgage debt!
