Healthy Grocery List Week #10 (Kid-Friendly, Healthy, & on a Budget)

Some weeks are just crazy busy, and I don’t want to really cook, so this week’s meal plan is all about super easy and simple to make. We are going to focus on healthy and quick!

Our meal plans try to use fresh produce as much as possible and a few frozen items. We like to stick to basics and skip the overly processed convenience meals. I like to include some snack ideas and we have to have a sweet treat for the week too!

Family Meal Plan with Shopping List

Here is the full meal plan for this week that includes breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, and a sweet treat for a family of four.

Breakfasts

Bagels & Cream Cheese with Bananas
Breakfast Casserole with sausage, hashbrowns, and cheddar cheese (jiffy book)
Hard Boiled Egg, Toast, and Orange Slices
Scrambled Egg and Veggies (peppers, tomato, and mushrooms) Tortillas and Cinnamon Apples

Bagels & Cream Cheese with Bananas– I am going to pick whatever flavor of bagels is the cheapest so I am open on the flavor. For the cream cheese, I will typically buy the block of cream cheese and put it in a tupperware type container. Occasionally I will see a flavored or whipped cream cheese that is cheaper, but that is pretty rare so we will go with plain. My kids are still small, so I cut one banana in half for breakfast.

Breakfast Casserole– I love a good breakfast casserole that I can make ahead of time and then just heat up later. This is a good size casserole so it will last for a few days. I like to start with my breakfast sausage and 1/2 of a chopped onion and cook it on the stove until fully cooked. You can use patties, links, or ground sausage for this and I will go with the cheapest option. In a separate bowl, I combine 4 eggs, 1 1/2 cups of milk, and 1 cup of baking mix. (Pro tip: you can use any baking mix, or even waffle/pancake mix for this.) Once everything is combined, I add in my frozen hashbrowns, the cooked sausage & onions, and 1-2 cups of shredded cheese. Pour the whole mix into a greased casserole dish and bake for 25-35 minutes in a 400 degree oven. To reheat, I just place in microwave for about 30-45 seconds since my kids don’t like any foods super hot.

Hard Boiled Egg, Toast, and Orange Slices– This is a super easy breakfast that is super filling. I love to go ahead and make a few hard boiled eggs on a sunday night, so that way they are ready for breakfast or a snack at anytime. This breakfast works well for super busy mornings because all I have to do is make toast, slice some oranges, and cut my egg in half.

Scrambled Egg and Veggies Tortillas and Cinnamon Apples- This is a breakfast I make that is typically for a Saturday morning when I have more time in the kitchen. I will scramble a few eggs, and add in my leftover cooked veggies (mushrooms, peppers, and tomatoes). These are from the dinners that were made this week and they weren’t vegetables I would typically add to the soup. Any remaining apples at the end of the week will be sliced and cooking butter and cinnamon for a nice sweet addition to this breakfast. This is also an easy way to use up any leftover tortillas from the week.

Lunches

Rice & Bean Burritos & Apple Slices
Buffalo Chicken Dip (made with leftover chicken from leg quarters) with Carrots and Celery
Leftover Pasta Bake & Salad
Leftover Soup with Bread
Homemade Hummus and Saltines

Rice & Bean Burritos & Apple Slices- this is an easy way to use up some of the leftovers from the Chicken Fajita night. Any of the rice and beans leftover will become burritos with a little cheese on top and I serve it with some apple slices. (My kids can’t always finish a whole burrito, so I make one good sized one and slice it in half for them to share.)

Buffalo Chicken Dip– I am all about repurposing leftovers from dinner into something else, because then it always gets eaten right away. After I have the roasted chicken quarters for dinner, I will separate the meat from the bones as much as I can and save the chicken for this dip and the bones for making my own chicken broth. This dip is super easy and I have learned to make it based on how much chicken I have. Basically, you want to take your shredded chicken and add cream cheese, shredded cheddar cheese, a little ranch dressing, and some hot sauce. If I make a huge batch of this I will bake it in the oven till it is all bubbly but for a quick lunch, I have found heating it in the microwave works well too. I will also take this time to prep all my carrots and celery into sticks for the week. These make great dippers as well as snacks.

Homemade Hummus– We will be using some chickpeas in the side salad one night, and any chickpeas leftover will be tossed in the food processor to make hummus. I tend to skip the tahini paste and just add some vegetable oil and seasoning to make my own spread. I love the saltiness of the saltine crackers with hummus, but I am open to any crackers and will pick up whatever is the cheapest or on sale.

Dinners

Fajita Chicken Breasts with Tortillas, Yellow Rice, & Refried Beans
Pineapple Brown Sugar Pork Chops with Roasted Potatoes and Broccoli
Cheesy Ground Turkey Potato Boats with Sauteed Cabbage
Roasted Chicken Quarters with Mushroom Pasta and Green Beans
Cheesy Chicken Broccoli Pasta Bake with Side Salad with Chickpeas & Tomato
Ground Turkey & Vegetable Soup with Grilled Cheese

Fajita Chicken Breasts- I am a huge fan of quick and easy dinners, so I love to do this dinner mostly on a sheet pan in the oven. I chop my bell peppers and onion into strips and drizzle some oil with salt and pepper on top, then arrange on the outside edge of my baking sheet. Then I sprinkle the chicken with taco seasoning and lay those in the middle of the pan. I bake for about 30 minutes and flip the chicken, and then bake till done. While the chicken and vegetables are cooking, I make yellow rice on stove and prepare my refried beans. Serve everything together in a tortilla or set it up as a make your own fajita bar on the table! (After dinner, I will save all my cooked vegetables to use for breakfast tortillas with scrambled eggs.)

Pineapple Brown Sugar Pork Chops– This is another super easy oven meal for when you are short on time. I start with the roasted potatoes by washing and cutting them into about 1-inch cubes. I lightly pour on some oil, and then sprinkle salt, pepper, or any other seasonings. These will roast on a sheet pan for about 30-45 minutes depending on their thickness.

For the pork, I like to mix my pineapple juice and 1/2 cup of brown sugar until combined into a glaze. (You can also add soy sauce if you want a little more kick.) I then dunk my pork chops into the glaze and place in a glass baking dish. Usually there isn’t a ton of glaze leftover, so I pour it on top of the pork along with my half of the can of pineapple. (We are saving the extra pineapple for snacks, breakfast, or other dinners.)

You could roast the broccoli with the potatoes, but my kids prefer steamed in the microwave. (I save any leftover broccoli to use for our Chicken Broccoli Pasta Bake.)

Cheesy Ground Turkey Potato Boats– This is my super easy and more filling version of twice baked potatoes. I start by cooking my ground turkey in a pan on the stove. While that is cooking, I will microwave my potatoes until soft. (I wash and then puncture them with a fork first. Microwave for 3 minutes, flip the potatoes, and do another 3 minutes. I keep doing this until they are tender.)

After my ground turkey is done cooking, I am going to take about 1/2 of the meat and put in a Tupperware container for soup on another night. I like to season my turkey meat with salt, pepper, and whatever else I have on hand like taco seasoning or chili powder.

Just like a traditional twice baked potato, I use a spoon to take out most of the potato meat but leave the shell intact. All the scooped-out potato gets mixed into my ground turkey with a cup of shredded cheese. I then spoon my cheesy potato ground turkey mixture back into the potato skins and bake in the own until golden brown.

For the sauteed cabbage, I will chop my cabbage into strips and also include chopped onion in a large pan with butter, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and a little bit of water. This helps steam the cabbage as well as sauté it until tender.

After dinner, I will have some cooked cabbage for leftovers and some for use in our soup along with the already cooked ground turkey.

Roasted Chicken Quarters with Mushroom Pasta- There are lots of different ways to roast chicken quarters, but I prefer super simple! I take my chicken quarters and season them with salt, pepper, and garlic powder and then place them in a pan with tall sides like a lasagna pan because I want to catch any chicken juices! I will bake these for 45-60 minutes depending on how many I am cooking at one time. My kids don’t really like chicken on the bone, so I will pull meat off the bone and put it on their plates. (I save all the bones to make my own chicken stock for the soup later on!)

Since this dinner takes a little while, I typically make the chicken in the afternoon so it can cool down and I can go ahead with making stock from my bones. I take all the bones and place them in a large pot with water and boil for at least 1-2 hours. Once the broth is done, I will let cool and then store for my soup later! (All leftover pulled chicken will be used for buffalo chicken dip and for our pasta bake.)

For the pasta, I will boil about half of my box of noodles, and then make a simple white sauce. I start with 2 tbsp of butter and cook my sliced mushrooms in it until soft and brown. Then add 2 tbsp of flour to create a roux. That roux is cooked over low heat until smooth and bubbly. Gradually stir the milk into the roux and heat to boiling while stirring. I like to boil for about a minute until the sauce gets nice and thick. I mix my cooked noodles into the sauce and allow to sit for a little bit, so the noodles soak in the sauce as well.

We usually do an easy side like canned green beans and add a little butter to make them better! (We will save any leftover green beans for the soup.)

Cheesy Chicken Broccoli Pasta Bake– There is a common thought that healthy dinners take a while, but really it is all about planning ahead! For the pasta bake, we already have our leftover pulled chicken and cooked broccoli, so we really just need to boil the last of our noodles.

While the noodles are cooking, I am going to make a quick batch of cream of chicken soup. I will start with a basic roux of butter and flour like we did for the white sauce on the mushroom pasta, but instead of adding milk as the liquid, I use some of our homemade chicken broth we made from the leg quarters.

Once the noodles are cooked, I combine my cooked chicken, broccoli, noodles, homemade cream of chicken soup, and shredded cheese into a casserole dish. If you want you can put some crumbled saltines or crackers on top, but I usually skip that step. This just bakes for about 20 minutes in the oven until golden brown and melty!

Pasta bakes can be a little heavy, so I serve this with a super simple side salad of lettuce, chopped tomatoes, and rinsed canned chickpeas. This pasta bake usually makes about 8 servings, so there will be plenty for leftovers for lunch.

Ground Turkey & Vegetable Soup-my favorite ways to use up leftovers are pizza and soup! This soup is super quick to put together because everything is already cooked and just really needs to be combined and heated up. We are going to use our cooked ground turkey, any leftover yellow rice, homemade chicken broth, and every single leftover veggie including diced tomatoes and chickpeas from this week!

I bring the soup to a boil and then make some quick grilled cheese sandwiches to go with it. My kids love to dip their sandwiches into this soup too.

Snacks

Carrots and Celery
Orange Slices
Hummus & Crackers
Pineapple Chunks
Apples

Most of these are just grab and go throughout the week, but I will utilize leftovers like the hummus for snacks too. Any leftover carrots and celery will be diced up and added to the ground turkey & vegetable soup, so nothing goes to waste!

Sweet Treat

Cinnamon Sugar Donut Holes

These donut holes will blow your mind with how simple they are to make. Remember that baking mix that we bought? That is going to be the base for these donuts.

I start by preheating oil in a large pan, and while that is heating, I combine 2.5 cups oof baking mix with 1 cup of flour, 1/2 cup sugar, and 1 tsp cinnamon. I use my Kitchenaid mixer for part where I slowly add 3/4 cup of cold water to the dry ingredients until a stiff dough forms.

You can use an ice cream scoop or just eyeball it, but I then roll the dough into 1.5 inch balls. Carefully drop your dough balls into the oil and let them brown on both sides. I use a slotted spoon to gently flip them over. Once browned, I let the cooked donut holes drain onto paper towels to get any excess oil.

For the cinnamon sugar coating, I put about 1 cup of sugar and 2 tsp of cinnamon in a plastic bag. After shaking well to combine, I add a few warm donut holes at a time. Give the donuts holes a shake in the bag to get them well coated!

I usually make donut holes when I have an easy afternoon during the week or on Sunday. These donut holes are a great breakfast, snack, or dessert for the week, and we store them in an airtight container or in a Ziploc style bag.

If you want, you can make a huge batch and freeze them too! Simply defrost for 20-30 seconds in the microwave.

Budget Grocery List for Family of 4

Look through this broken-down by section grocery list and see if you have any of these items already in your pantry or freezer. This will help lower your grocery costs by using what you already have.

We have 2 adults and 2 young kids, and these are the amounts that we use, so you may need to tweak the amounts a little if your family is bigger.

This is all the fresh vegetables and fruits we need for the week.

Item	Have on Hand?
Bananas x5
Onions x2
Oranges
Bell Peppers x2
Mushrooms
Apples
Carrots
Celery
Potatoes
Cabbage
Lettuce
Tomato
Total: (12 items)

This is all the meats that we will need from the deli and meat counter.

Item	Have on Hand?
Breakfast Sausage
Chicken Breasts (4-5 needed)
Chicken Quarters (need 2-3)
Pork Chops (need 4)
Ground Turkey
Total: (5 items)

This is all the dry goods and shelf stable items that we need for our meal plan.

Item	Have on Hand?
Bagels
Baking Mix
Sandwich Bread
Cinnamon
White Sugar
Tortillas
Yellow Rice
Refried Beans
Hot Sauce
Ranch Dressing
Canned Chickpeas
Saltine Crackers
Canned Pineapple
Brown Sugar
Dry Pasta (Penne)
Canned Green Beans
Total: (16 items)

These are the frozen items needed for this week’s meal plan.

Item	Have on Hand?
Frozen Hash Browns
Frozen Broccoli
Total: (2 items)

These are all the dairy items needed like milk and cheeses.

Item	Have on Hand?
Cream Cheese (two 8oz blocks)
Cheddar Cheese (16oz)
Eggs
Milk
Sliced Cheese
Total: (5 items)

1 Week Family Meal Plan on a Budget

I have priced out this meal plan at multiple stores, and at most places it typically runs about $100. If you have some of the items like the dry goods already in your pantry, you can spend even less!

Store	Total
Kroger (Indianapolis, IN)	$102.08
SaveALot (Indianapolis, IN)	$111.22
Albertsons (Mesquite, TX)	$109.81
Target (Mesquite, TX)	$104.53
Safeway (Columbia, MD)	$120.73
Walmart (Columbia, MD)	$95.63
Ralphs (Thousand Oaks, CA)	$115.33
Pavilions (Thousand Oaks, CA)	$126.55
Wegman’s (Syracuse, NY)	$115.33
Price Chopper (Syracuse, NY)	$126.55
Aldi (Worcester, MA)	$99.85
Price Rite (Worcester, MA)	$93.63
Publix (Tampa, FL)	$137.58
Winn-Dixie (Tampa, FL)	$123.82
Meijer (Oak Creek, WI)	$99.85
Woodman’s (Oak Creek, WI)	$93.63
Sprouts (Henderson, NV)	$147.71
Vons (Henderson, NV)	$115.11
Piggly Wiggly (Columbia, SC)	$114.59
Food Lion (Columbia, SC)	$95.39
Total Stores (20)	Average Total: $112.45