Growing up in a big family, and now having one of my own, I've learned ways to feed a crowd without blowing our budget.
In addition to staying in budget, I aim at avoiding the trap of visiting fast food restaurants because:
1. Fast food is not healthy. It's filled with fillers, chemical flavorings, and artificial ingredients.
2. While convenient because someone else is doing the cooking for you, it still requires a trip out of the house. In the time spent leaving home, getting drive-thru meals, and returning home, I could have already made a healthy, home-cooked meal for my family.
I'm sharing the real menu that I fed my family this past week. Like I said in the beginning of this post, I'm feeding a family of 7...5 kids and 2 adults. I also need to prepare meals that will have food left over so my husband can have lunch the next day at work (he packs 3 servings of food to take each day).
Ground turkey (1 lb) $3.88
3. It's not always cheaper. Yes, most fast food restaurants have a dollar menu, but by following the tips I present in this post, you can come out cheaper by eating in vs. eating out.
How do you feed a large family healthy meals without breaking the bank?
Most people swing through the fast food window because it's "faster, easier, convenient and saves time." However, Preparing a home-cooked meal can be fast, easy, convenient and save you time. It takes a little bit of planning, but if you invest that time and make preparations, you'll wonder why you once thought fast food was the way to go.
If I can't eat cheap, fast food, then what else is there? I don't have time to prepare every meal my family eats.
Hmmm. "Don't have time..." Isn't that something everyone mutters weekly, if not daily? We all have the same 24 hours in a day. We are all busy. The best way to manage that time we all have and get things accomplished is by keeping and following a schedule.
Being a SAHM doesn't mean I have an abundance of time. I homeschool my 5 children, work my home-based business, make time to go to the gym 6 days a week, am in charge of paying the bills, running errands, the grocery shopping, carpooling kids to their martial arts lessons, I have my own martial arts lessons 5 days a week, and still manage to have a home-cooked healthy and hot meal every evening. It can be done! People that say, "I don't have time," just haven't perfected how to manage it properly.
Time-Saving Tips (so you can eat a healthy meal each night):
•Schedule your day.
This can be broke down in as little as 15 minute increments. Keeping a schedule will help you better manage your time. You'll be surprised on how you become more organized and what all you can accomplish. Set a timer and reminders on your phone to chime when you have an important task to complete or have an appointment to get to. You definitely plan ahead and set your alarm to make it to work on time each day, why can't you do that for other tasks?
•Plan Ahead.
If you wait until 4:00 pm to start thinking about what you're going to make for dinner tonight, you've just set yourself up for running to grab take out for the 3rd night in a row. Sitting down and allowing yourself 15-30 minutes once a week to plan a weekly menu will save you time, stress, and money. Pull out a cookbook, or quickly peak at your Pinterest board where you've pinned recipes you want to try. This time is spent just writing out your menu.
Our menu includes the following for each day, Monday-Friday:
-Breakfast
-Lunch
-Snack
-Dinner
Yup, we eat on the weekends, too. However, we typically eat leftovers and/or eat out at a restaurant one meal (this is usually after church on Sunday, or going out on a Saturday night). You can definitely make your menu to include all 7 days of the week. Look at what you're planning for dinner each night, and find a couple of lunch and/or dinner times that you can mark as "Leftover" to clean up the leftovers in your refrigerator. If you're not big on eating the same thing again throughout the week, you can more than likely freeze your leftovers for a quick- grab meal when you haven't had time to plan ahead.
•Make a List.
Now that you have your menu wrote out, you need to see if you have all your ingredients on hand. Review your recipes, if needed, to make a shopping list to get anything that you're missing. Utilize what you have on-hand already instead of buying extra. Making a shopping list to get all the ingredients you need will save you time because you'll only need to make one trip to the store. It will also save you money because you won't be buying extra food that you don't need. Everything you buy will have a purpose in your meal planning and will get used before it expires so you won't be wasting money by throwing out spoiled food.
•Prep Ahead.
"Oh, no! She wants me to spend the entire day in the kitchen prepping!!!" No, no I don't. Adding a few extra minutes to prep your meals will save time. Here's how you can prep ahead. If you're chopping onions for tonight's dinner, and you know you need onions chopped for another dinner this week, why not chop all your onions needed for the week at once? By doing so, when you go to make that next meal, the prep work has already been done, and you can throw things together faster and easier. I love using rotisserie chickens from the store. They're already cooked. I'll buy a couple for the week (depending on my planned menu) and when I go to de-bone and chop the chicken, I do all my chickens at once, and bag up the extra that I'll be using for a different meal. You can even schedule time at the beginning of the week to prep all your meals. If you have to chop veggies, brown meat, pre-cook rice, etc, you can get it all done at once. Meals will seem to go together effortlessly, and you won't have as many dishes to wash every night.
•Utilize your Crock Pot.
Even if I don't start a meal in my crock pot in the morning, it's a great appliance to use to keep your meal hot and ready for dinner time. Some times I'll prepare dinner at 3:00 in the afternoon, transfer it to my crock pot turned on Low, and then when I get home from taking my kids to their lessons, dinner is ready to eat. I've even prepared the meal ingredients in the evening, placed in the pot and refrigerated it so it's ready just pop in it's cooking vessel the next morning. Crock pots are convenient and versatile. You can make just about anything in them, and it cooks while you get other things done for the day...or even while you're sleeping. You can start your breakfast on Low in the crock pot and go to bed! It will be ready when you wake up to start your day. Quit hiding it in the back of the cabinet. Dust it off and make it a permanent fixture on your counter top. Clean up is easy (and can be even easier by using crock pot liners). Forget buying a cookbook if you're not used to cooking with a crock pot. The Internet has a plethora of recipes waiting for you to look them up.
Now that you have a few ideas on how to save time, let's look at how I'm able to feed my family easy, healthy meals that taste great, and are cheaper than the dollar menu.
When I design my menu, I'm looking to make dinners that:
-have at least 10 servings
-healthy
-avoid processed foods as much as possible
-be something that my family will actually eat
-something I can prepare in a timely manner
-plus be inexpensive
Breakfast, Lunch and Snacks are almost always a free for all. I purchase a number of items so the kids and I have options for those times, but we don't typically sit down and eat the same thing together. Before you think this is boring, remember, my kids are home with me all day since they're homeschooled. As far as boring, it's no different than a cafeteria or packed lunch. You'd typically be eating the same thing each day in a sack lunch, or the same handful of items rotated each week from the school cafeteria.
Here's my list of items I usually keep on hand for the following meal times, plus by giving options like this, it makes meal planning even more simplified:
•Breakfast (7:30 am):
Eggs
Yogurt
Cereal/Granola
Oatmeal
Cream of Wheat
Fresh Fruit
Whole-grain bread (for toast)
Cottage Cheese
️Coconut Milk or Juice
•Lunch (12:00 pm):
Lunch meat
Sliced Cheese
Whole-grain bread (for sandwiches)
Pita bread
Fresh vegetables
Fresh fruit
Macaroni & cheese
Crackers
Peanut butter
Hotdogs (occasionally)
Salad greens
Leftovers
•Snacks (3:00 pm):
Yogurt
Granola bars
Fruit
Vegetables
Crackers
Hummus
String Cheese
Popcorn
Pretzels
Nuts
For Dinner, I need something I can prepare before-hand due to my schedule in the afternoon. I utilize my crock pot so dinner is ready when the kids and I get home from their lessons.
•Dinner (6:00 pm):
Monday- Chicken, Rice, & Broccoli
Tuesday- Chicken, Sausage, & Rice served with Green Beans
Wednesday- Turkey Chili
Thursday- Pinto Beans & Sausage
Friday- White Bean & Sausage Soup
•Each dinner has an average of 10 servings and the cost per serving for the week of dinners was $1.10.
•All dinners were either prepared entirely or partially & transferred to the crockpot so they were hot and ready when it was dinner time.
Still think the dollar menu is the way to go?
Ready to go shopping? Here's my shopping list to prepare all the dinners I have listed above.
Cooked Rotisserie chicken (2 whole chickens) $9.96
Turkey sausage (3-13 oz links) $10.44
Brown rice (2 lbs) $1.18
Dry Pinto beans (2 lbs) $1.88
Chicken stock (3-32 oz boxes) $7.44
Cream of mushroom soup (2 cans) $1.76
White beans (2 cans) $1.36
Black beans (2 cans) $1.84
Diced green chile (1 can) $0.58
Rotel (1 can) $0.98
Diced tomatoes (1 can) $0.72
McCormick chili mix (1 packet) $0.84
Yellow onion (1 large onion) $0.88
Green onions (1 packet) $1.00
Sweet peppers (16 oz bag) $2.98
Baby spinach-organic (5 oz package) $3.28
Broccoli (1 head, or large bunch) $1.78
Green beans-frozen (2 bags) $1.96
Grocery Total $54.74
(for 5 dinners with leftovers)
Dinner Average $10.95
(Grocery total divided by 5)
Cost per serving $1.10
(50 servings total)
Remember, at dinner I'm feeding 7 people plus needing 3 servings of leftovers each night and only averaging $10.95 a meal. I used everything on my shopping list, and have sweet peppers and onions left over for next week's meal planning.
I planned my menu.
I wrote out my shopping list.
I went shopping one time for the week.
I saved time by prepping. I boned both my chickens at once, precooked the brown rice, chopped the peppers and onions, and browned the ground turkey.
Money Saving Tips
You can plan your meals and manage a schedule, but still go over budget if you're not careful. Here's a few tips that have helped me save money on my grocery bill and still feed my family healthy meals.
•Look for sales.
Watch for sales and price reductions. Grocery stores will reduce meat when it's nearing its expiration date. It's not expired, but may be within a day or two of the sale-by date. When I see that meat has been marked down for a quick sale, I'll literally buy every package that's on the shelf. I refrigerate what I need for the week, and freeze the excess. I may only be saving $1-5 a package, but those savings do add up over time.
You can also save money buy clipping or printing out coupons before shopping. I highlight the items on my shopping list if I have a coupon for it so I buy the correct brand and quantity.
•Buy in bulk.
Whether you get a membership to a warehouse club or not, buying in bulk, when available, does save money.
For example, buying 1 lb of dry pinto beans for a planned meal costs $0.94.
But I know beans keep well, and aren't hard to store, so they're something I can buy in bulk. Getting a 8 lb bag costs $6.88 (or $0.86/lb). Or getting a 20 lb bag costs $15.68 (or $0.78/lb). By those 3 options I listed, I can save $0.16 per pound of beans by buying in bulk.
Only buy in bulk what you'll actually use and/or consume. Couponing has become a big thing, but I don't know why someone would need 46 bottles of Herbal Essence:
I'm not knocking couponing at all. I'm all about saving money wherever possible. Just use it wisely. Buying something you won't use can ultimately be a waste money, no matter what kind of deal you got on it. Only use coupons for what you use and need...don't buy something just because you have a coupon for it.
•Crafty Multiplication.
How can you make 1 lb of meat into 2 lbs? This is something I learned when growing up. Meat is typically one of the biggest expenses on your grocery bill. But I can stretch it out to feed my crowd with one, inexpensive ingredient: potatoes. Yup. One pound of ground meat plus one pound of potatoes equals 2 lbs of my meat mixture.
Simply pre-bake or microwave your potatoes until cooked-through, cut into bite-size cubes and add to your meat while browning. Leave the skin on or remove (whatever you prefer) and mash or leave cubed. Plus, it works as a binder to keep taco meat together so it won't fall out of the taco shells.
You can use mushrooms, rice, or beans, too. Add chopped mushrooms to your hamburger mix before forming into patties. Make a soup go further by adding your favorite beans. Add cooked rice to your meatloaf or meatball mix before baking. Make your meat stretch further by making healthy additions.
•Buy only what's on your list.
Using a list when visiting the grocery store not only saves time, but money as well. Stick to your list! Buy only what you wrote down on your list. If you didn't put ice cream on your list, don't buy it.
•Don't go to the store on an empty stomach.
We've all done it. We've gone to the store while we're hungry, and end up buying things not on our list. Avoid extra spending and temptations by eating before you go grocery shopping. It's so much easier to pass up buying a dozen cupcakes from the bakery if your stomach isn't screaming "FEED ME!!!"
Now you're ready to skip the fast food combo, and have a quick, healthy meal at home for about $1 per serving.
Find my recipes and price break down for this week's dinners by clicking this link.
I love to hear from my readers! Tell me what you think by commenting below. And remember to SHARE this post to help your friends save time and money, too.
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