Wow, one week and it is over! I participated in the #SurviveOn35 Challenge with 9 other #FitFluential ambassadors and Anytime Fitness. It was a program that was very dear to my heart. And I am hoping beyond HOPE that the Manhattan Breadbasket will be awarded the $1,000 at the end!
I had a budget of $110 to spend on my family this week. The food had to be completely healthy and I was asked to get creative. This was fun for me because I was able to use my mom’s tips and tricks for making food stretch and taste delicious meal after meal. (No, hunger is not fun. But working with my mom to create healthy meals on the cheap was)
Just like she taught me as a kid, I created a menu using inexpensive meal options and made my list. Then, I was off to Dillons to buy my groceries. You can click the receipt collage below to see exactly what I bought. I stuck with store brand items and almost everything I bought was on sale. (Ground turkey was buy one get one free)
Here is what I thought we could eat on for one week! (Turns out I had to go back and get one more gallon of milk, my children drank more than I thought they would)
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The first day!
For breakfast I made us all scrambled eggs. Their favorite! Then for lunch the kids ate PB & J sandwiches while I had a filling salad. For dinner I took another tip from my mom. I browned the entire pound of Turkey and put half in the spaghetti. Then I saved the other half for another meal.
Day 2 was delicious! Again, eggs and bread for breakfast, but this time runny (or as Lizzie calls the, “leaky eggs). Lunch was grilled cheese and apples and bananas. And for dinner I used the rest of the ground turkey. I made a sweet chili that was scrumptious, filling, and inexpensive! Paired with green beans it made for a very healthy meal.
Sweet Chili ingredients (put this all in a pot and that is your meal – easy!)
*1 can black beans *1 can Kidney beans *1/2 lb ground turkey *1 can diced tomatoes no salt added *I chopped fresh tomato *1 T brown sugar *1 teaspoon vinegar soooo goood!!!
On day 3 I made pancakes for breakfast. Like when I was a kid, I used powdered sugar instead of syrup. You use less so the kids get less sugar and it saves you money! Lunch – homemade mac & cheese and carrot sticks. Dinner I used the leftover chili and put it on top of mashed potatoes and ate the rest of the green beans!
I remember my mom doing this a lot – using the same foods in different meals. A really great way to stretch the dollar for her.
On the 4th day I used some of my whole what tortillas and made breakfast burritos. All that is inside is scrambled eggs and salsa though. The banana was delicious. Then at lunch I grilled some chicken thighs (that were on sale, or I would have bought chicken breasts). I made a delicious salad with Italian dressing. My mom used to make a killer oil & Vinegar dressing too.
Then dinner I used the rest of the chicken thighs in a stir fry! Brown rice, chicken, carrots and a dash of stir fry (or low sodium soy) sauce. It was fast, cheap and easy.
On day 5 I had a bunch of rice to use up. For breakfast I made “sweet rice” – dash of brown sugar, cinnamon and milk. The kids ate a little bit of it but chowed down on the apples that I dusted with cinnamon.
Lunch (which I accidentally put 3 on, but 2 is dinner, I promise) I made quessadillas and spanish rice. My quesadilla had black beans, fresh tomatoes and cheese on it. The rice was fried black beans, rice and chili pepper. The kids asked for cheese quessadillas.
Dinner (#2 top right) I used more leftovers in a DIY burrito night.
Then we ran out of milk! I went to the store and bought some fresh fruit and veggies too with the money I had left. I saw pineapples and avocados on sale and decided I’d get creative and use them somehow.
On Day 6 I tried a new flavor of oatmeal – peanut butter and jelly banana. It was too sweet for me, but the kids loved it! They called it “cookie oatmeal.” For lunch I used the leftover burrito ingredients in my own salad while the kids had PB & Js again.
Then I was so happy I bought those avocados! I boiled whole wheat rotini noodles, steamed some frozen broccoli and chopped up the avocados. Put it together with some Italian dressing and it was an amazing and filling dinner.
Then there was the final day. We had a basic oatmeal raisin breakfast. Lunch was leftover pasta salad with cucumber spears and vinegar to dip in (my favorite!). Then I found a way to use the pineapple! I put the rest of the chicken thighs in some foil and put it in the oven with the pineapple and the lime. It was moist and delicious! Paired that with some baked potato “fries.” Kids loved it!
Thoughts?
Please show your support for The Manhattan Breadbasket by telling me which day looks the most delicious to you or tell me how you support your local food pantry.
Please: take every opportunity to support your local food pantry and other meals ministries. You never know who you are blessing!
TWITTER CHAT NEWS!
Join @AnyTimeFitness @FitFluential and me @MamaDweeb and the rest of the ambassadors for the twitter chat on Thursday, July 26th at 6pm CST. Hashtag is #SurviveOn35 and they will announce which 2 pantries will get the $1,000! (Crossing fingers for Manhattan!)
FitFluential LLC compensated me for this Campaign. All opinions are my own.
I think that what you’ve done here is a great thing. While I am not on food stamps myself, I am always looking for ways to cut our grocery budget and you’ve given me some great ideas!
Thank you Jenn 🙂 I also hope this inspires people to donate food and time to their local food pantries. While it is hard to find charities you trust, you know that local food pantries are giving food to the people that need it 🙂
Oh absolutely! We used to donate monthly to our local food bank but they’ve closed down. 🙁 Now we donate to the homeless shelter and whenever our local grocery store does food drives, we contribute as much as we can. My daughter’s best friend has been on food stamps ever since we’ve known them and sometimes when they are really struggling, we sneak over an anonymous gift card to our grocery store in their mail box!
This story gave me chills!! Thank you for sharing it. I cannot believe your local food bank closed down. I do hope another one opens.
Another thing I will be posting about and encouraging people to help with is school supplies! I went to school with 1/2 the needed supplies because food stamps don’t buy school supplies. Know what I mean? So I am going to search out ways to buy a backpack full of supplies for kids that need it. Not food related, but still VERY important.
Awesome job, lady!!!! Great work this week. Can’t wait to see which food shelf will get the awesome donation!
FANTASTIC job! I really hope that your food pantry is picked!
I love love love this! I have a family of five, and groceries are our biggest expense. I think all of the meals sound delicious, but I am going to start with the chili!
I have learned so much from following along as you did this challenge. What you’ve done is awesome, helpful and educational. Thank you!
Youdid great and food looks delay!
You did great! Good job being creative and repurposing food in new ways.
Day 2 looks like a day I’d really enjoy. I love “dippy” eggs! This is a great recap/review of the challenge. I’m glad this supports such an awesome cause. Wishing you the best.
I think the quesadillas look great! We’re a family of 8 and I have set a $160/wk budget for us. Usually I makeit, sometimes we go over. The healthier I cook, the easier it is to stick to my budget. I’m working on dispelling the myth that healthier food is more expensive.
Thank you Pam! There really is a debate out there that eating healthy is too expensive. And I want to dispel that too. Granted, going 100% organic will be pricier than eating non organic veggies. I don’t think I bought any organic stuff this week.
Day 1!
We support the food pantry by doing events through my daughter’s Girl Scout troop. This year we did a food drive and we donated birthday boxes (cake mix, icing, plates, napkins, toys) to give out when children have birthdays!
Thank you! I love the birthday boxes idea! As a kid I remember getting holiday food drops. My mom was thrilled when she unpacked the box full of Turkey, yams, marshmallows and all the other foods. It was such a treat. Those kids will love the birthday boxes, I just know it!
So resourceful! Food is one of the hardest parts of our family budget to manage, it seems. I think better meal planning like this would really help me. Good luck to the Manhattan Breadbasket!
Quesadilla day looks the most delicious! I love rice and beans…and a lot of cheese! You did a great job making that stretch. We keep our grocery budget down to $125/week for a family of 5. Sometimes we’re a little over, but that’s when we have to stock up on the supplies like TP, cleaners, etc… GREAT WORK!
Fantastic and impressive – I get a kick out of how you use ideas your Mom did – I think we’ve all lost something in this day and age and it’s amazing how thrifty most of our parents were naturally!
Wow Annie, you have done an amazing job! All of your meals look delicious. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that your food pantry gets $1000!
I don’t know if I can pick just one day to like best! I’m amazed by your creativity with meals and really wish I had the foodie knowledge to do this!
Great job Annie!!! I hope you and the Manhatten food pantry win.
We donate to our local pantry through our local library. The library holds several drives a year. It’s cool because they wave your late fines if you bring in a food item. (And I always have a lot of fines.)
I love that Anytime Fitness is doing this and shedding light that a family can eat WELL on a small amount of money. What a great thing to do for the Manhattan Breadbasket! Hope they see the benefits of this at the end!!
At every monthly meeting of my sorority’s graduate chapter (Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.), we collect food to take to a local food pantry.
Recently, we’ve changed it around and asked that one or two specific items are brought which I think is great and really gives the pantry what they need (they tell us which items to bring). The last month it was canned fruits & veggies. The month before that it was peanut butter and jelly. I like it because I can look for coupons and then bring more of the stuff.
I think you did an awesome job on your week and I hope that the Manhattan Breadbasket gets their money. <3
Thank you Sili! I really like that you ask the pantry what they need. That is such a huge help to them. My church does that too. They contact the women’s shelter and ask them what supplies they are low on.
You did an amazing job. Great meals that look delicious! Good luck, I hope your Breadbasket wins! 🙂
I really hope that your food pantry wins, this is such an important issue and I am so happy that FitFluential is raising awareness!
I love the idea behind this. I saw Mario on the Chew do this type of #surviveon35 meal program. What a great idea to remind us how little some have. You did a great job!
That’s awesome! I loved seeing all your meals each day. It’s great to see such healthy options for such a low cost! 🙂
Thank you Sara! I am going to keep eating like this and donate what I used to spend on groceries to the Manhattan Breadbasket 🙂
I love that you not only stretched your budget, but ate such healthy meals as well! I hope you win! You did an amazing job.
You did a great job saving and still making healthy meals for your family.
LOVED all of your meals. You rocked this challenge!
Great meals! They all look so delicious. Nicely done 🙂
Great post. I appreciate that you shared the very real moment that your family ran out of milk and you needed to buy more. I think you really took this challenge seriously and thoughtfully – I have had problems with others (no one on this campaign) being flippant about this stuff. So thank you. Seriously. My family lived on SNAP benefits for almost two years and how you mapped out your week was exactly how we had to map out ours.
I will be honest – I am not familiar with SNAP. it is a fairly new program. My mom used WIC and foodstamps and healthwave for us.
And yes – hunger is not a game and flippancy in regards to eating healthy when you are pinching pennies just to buy those carrots is not right. It takes planning. And it also takes a strong person mentally to be able to not let the stress of low paying jobs, embarassed kids that don’t have what other kids have, etc to overtake their minds and attitudes. That is the hardest part of all – living on foodstamps is way more involved than just living on a budget.
This is awesome Annie. Delicious, nutritious and it doesn’t even look icky. You did better than I ever could. This challenge certainly taught you a life lesson.
Lee
First I love how many great healthy options you were able to purchase and make!
It goes to show with a little planning, you CAN make nutritious meals for your family.
We support our local food pantry by donating food during off seasons, asking our friends and family to bring a box of food instead of a gift to bday and other celebrations and we also work hard to make sure our neighborhood participates in the food drive sponsored by the post office.
I love that you ask people to donate food instead of bringing birthday gifts!!! Oh that really does thrill me. I am going to do that for Lucy’s 2nd birthday party this year. (Her bday is next to Christmas. And she is so young she doesn’t know what gifts are yet. Goodness knows she doesn’t need any more toys)
Fantastic job! I love your food options.
Wow. So impressive… I don’t think I could do it.
Awesome job!!! Loved all your meals 🙂
I love seeing you use up your leftovers in creative ways. Too often leftovers get ignored and then tossed. Way to go Annie, I’m so happy to see such an important topic get attention.
Thank you Catherine. That leftovers tip is from my mom. She was always saying to me, “waste not want not!” She usually said that when I was complaining about leftover again LOL
Awesome job!! We’ve lived on a strict food budget for years now. That’s the price we pay for one of us to be a stay at home parent. You definitely gave me some new ideas. Thank you!
My mom chose to stay home when my siblings were babies. That was a very tough time for us. My dad worked really low paying jobs – McDs or Pizza Hut or Taxi Driving – nothing that brought in enough to support a family. So I learned a lot from her about how to stretch a dollar!
I’m all about the leftovers here. I eat them constantly, my daughter, too. It’s rough cause my husband isn’t always a fan so I toss too much food. 🙁
We do a food drive here every fall and I ensure that we donate a TON to the food pantry then, and I try to do small drops and collections, but when my kiddo gets older my goal is for us to volunteer our TIME.
Thank you for sharing Andrea. Yes, as my kids get older – like when the youngest is at least 3 – I want us all to go in and donate our TIME too. I want them to go with me to do the holiday food drops and see the gratitude on people’s faces when they receive a huge Tom Turkey for thanksgiving when they would have eaten beans and rice. (I was one of those families once)
Wow! I’m so impressed with the creativity! I definitely learned a lot by looking through your menus about how to in general use my food better through a week.
Wow, What an awesome defeat to make it on $35 a day for a week. Your pasta salad looks amazing! It is great to see such healthy meals on a low budget.
Thank you – I admit, the pasta salad was delicious!
You did a great job! I need to start meal planning again.
I love that you used items more than once. That is the hardest part for me. I can create a menu and even make it budget friendly but I have a hard time multi-purposing items.
Ok, they all look food, but I think Day 3 would be my favorite. 🙂
Great job on the savings! My husband is on a juice fast right now… $35/day just for him. YIKES!!! But, it will be worth it for his health.
I’m am VERY impressed!! It’s not easy to eat healthy and cheaply.
Fantastic job, Annie! You were truly creative with your meal planning! I love the variety, and how everything is healthy!
Oh, some mornings I have the kids do DIY oatmeal, and the older two almost always make PB&J oatmeal. I’ll have to suggest a banana next time! 🙂
Wow, What a great post. Thank you for inspiring me and showing how meal planning can really help to save money
I am so proud if you! I like day 6 the best, it actually looks a lot like my day! I eat oatmeal every day, and try to eat an avocado (or half of one) everyday in something healthy, like a salad or wrap. You are VERY creative!
The last day’s meals look wonderful to me! They all do, really…but I love the pineapple in chicken idea! You have done such a wonderful job with this challenge. I have SO enjoyed hearing from you and your mom about how tough it is stretching a dollar, and your honesty about everything. I sincerely hope you can bless this food pantry with the money.
It’s amazing how little you can get by on when you have to. Everything looks so good, you did a great job!
Wow! You did really great with this challenge. Avocados are one of our favorite ways to bulk up a meal. Congratulations on a job well-done!
What an awesome challenge and it really looks like you succeeded. I love how you reused things and split the package of meat between meals. That’s such a great idea – we usually use an entire package of ground turkey in pasta sauce, but it’s totally unnecessary.
In any case, my favorite meal is the sweet chili – yum!
I would say day 1, all the food looks good and is healthy, but you’re always eating salad and I REALLY hate it. Pasta with ground turkey sounds fantastic and we love scrambled eggs!
This is so awesome! I love veges and salad so this is totally doable for our family! I think every family out there wishes they could reduce their grocery bill…I know mine does.
This is amazing. I love how you reused all of the leftovers to maximize your purchases. I’m really bad about just tossing stuff when we’re done. I try to take it as a lunch the next day, sometimes, but I never try to make it into something new.
What an eye-opening challenge! I have read about cuts being proposed to food assistance and it’s disturbing. So often the cheapest foods have the least nutritional value. Love how you are giving back.
Followed your progress on Instagram, awesome!
Day 4 would be my favorite! I love this post – wonderful ideas and you did a great job!
You did an amazing job feeding you family healthy foods on that budget. I need to get better at stretching my buck.
These meals look really great! Awesome job.
That is wonderful. I just told hubby I’m clearing out to bring food that we wont’ touch to our pantry. We do it often!
Wow Annie! You did a great job. I have a budget for four of us of $150 a week so I can’t imagine trying to feed five on less than $100.
I love your creativity and frugalness in creating these meals for your family! I think what you’ve done here will be a huge service for anyone who is trying to save money, get out of debt, or just make ends meet before the money runs out. I know this challenge hit home with you and you did amazing!
You did an amazing job Annie! Thank you so much for sharing your passion and helping others to find new ways to stretch the dollar when it comes to dinner time.
I’d come over for dinner ANY day with those menus…although I love day 3
it can be done can’t it?! you make stretching a dollar and leftover look easy and good! i’m definitely going to try a few of your meals with my kids. and the final day with pasta salad and cukes, and pineapple chicken is my favorite!
Wow. I am impressed. Day one looks the best. Thanks for sharing your experience.
You did a FANTASTIC job! We do meals for 7 days for 4 on about $90.
Breakfast tacos are one of my faves!!
I’ve used a food bank before so I really know how much they help the community. I really hope you win the money for your food bank!!
your meals look great!
You did such an awesome job, Annie! As someone who relied on foodstamps for a short period of time (following my divorce a few years ago – I was a single mom of 3!), I know how difficult it can be to make money stretch and to plan healthy meals in the process. Way to go! I really hope Manhattan Bread Basket wins too. Best of luck. 🙂
Looks like you did a great job at saving money and making some great meals! Love the idea for breakfast burritos – yum!
Wow – I am so impressed, the meals looks both delicious and healthy! What a way to take a negative situation and find a way to turn it positive. Great job!
I am SO impressed!!!
You did awesome!
You did such a great job! I like Day 1 the best!
I liked day 4 best, stir fry and breakfast burritos = yum!! Thanks for sharing each day with details and pictures it really helps visualize cheap/healthy meals!
Day 5 sounded delicious! Great job!
Very impressive. The cost, variety and healthy/fresh aspect of your meals. I must say, I’ve never thought of putting peanut butter & bananas on oatmeal, but there isn’t much not to like. I like the chili recipe too and I think I’ll try the cold pasta salad idea with avacado.
I liked all of your meals. Especially how you used the meat many different ways over the course of the week. We support our local food pantries by donating food goods and money whenever we can. Good Luck!
Day 2 looks like it would be the best day. That sweet chili sounds amazing. I hope you win for your food pantry.
I’m surprised that they didn’t include WIC into their food stamps stuff… because I know if you qualify for food stamps then you qualify for WIC no questions. Which covers milk, bread, cheese, peanut butter or beans, fruits and veggies, cereal , eggs and juice. We have WIC but not food stamps and live off about 60 to 80 dollars a week for our family of 5.
Wow! What a great job Annie! Proof you can eat health and on a budget!
Wow Annie you made some great meals and so awesome you came in under budget! Going to have to try that sweet chili. Milk is the one item we go through the fastest in this house. While only two out of the three of our kids drink milk he still does cereal so it goes fast.
You did so wonderfully! Not only did you stay within budget, but you made SO many yummy dishes for all three major meals. GREAT job Annie!
Day 4 looks wonderful! Looks like you did a great job!
-Hannah
Nicely done! Congrats on your win for your foodbank.
awesome work. what a cool challenge!
Have you ever tried other recipe similar to image 1 and 2 along with drinks?