Meal Prep/Plan Monday Week 3

March 13, 2023March 13, 2023 / healthbuddymelissa / Leave a comment

Hello, and happy Monday! We have had a soaker of a day so far. It poured and thundered all night and morning. If you like light shows, the lightning would have impressed you.

This is week 3 of my meal prep/plan series. This week I remembered to keep my receipt, plus have my Walmart app handy so I can give prices for each meal. We are also on a mission to spend only 100 dollars per week for food, for 3 adults, and company when we have it. The only things not included in that 100 dollars are dog food, non-food items, and coffee. Yes, coffee. It is a necessity and I buy it in bulk on Amazon.

Last week, I went over my budget by 20 dollars. This week I spent 104 dollars and that is close enough for me. Even making a meal plan, it is very easy to go over budget when you are in the store. If I was always happy with the fruit and veggies that were picked by store employees, I would just always do a pickup order. But, sadly, I am not. So, I have been using the app to add the items from my grocery list into the app, so I know how much I can anticipate spending. Then, I have to stick to it, lol.

I buy larger packs of meat and split them into different meals. So, you will note on the meal plan, hamburgers, but won’t see any in the weekly shop. That is because I bought it in bulk the previous week, so I got three meals out of it.

I only share dinner plans, and when I work they eat pizza or some other quick meal. Breakfast is not common in my house, and lunches are always leftovers, sandwiches, soup, salad, etc. I always have some kind of fresh fruit on hand and veggies for snacking. I try to buy some crackers, or pretzels as well.

My meal prep is basically just cleaning, chopping, and storing fresh veggies and fruit for easy, fast snacks, and work lunches. This week I even prepped the onions from last week. I also chopped up all the lettuce into bite-size pieces. It makes it much easier, and faster to throw together a salad when everything is prepped and ready. But, buying these items already chopped is expensive and a waste of money.

This current meal plan started on Friday the 10th and will end Friday the 17th. Any of these meals can have fresh fruit added, or other veggies. The prices may not be exact, just a reference to how much the meal could cost if you made the amounts stated. There are items that are on the menu that are not shown in the image. That is because I have items from other grocery hauls and stuff already on hand.

Saturday: They had pizza Dinner cost $4.98

Sunday: They had chicken alfredo leftovers. I don’t have the cost for this one because I didn’t save my receipt from the previous week’s shop. But, the chicken was about 3 dollars, and I made homemade alfredo sauce. I will be doing a Taste Test Tuesday post about this recipe and I will try to figure out the cost then.

Monday: Chicken and rice with either Teriyaki or Sweet Chile sauce, and broccoli. I can’t decide. I buy the bulk chicken and split it into 5 meals. Even at the higher end of 15 dollars that is 3 dollars per meal of chicken. The sauce comes out to about 26 cents a serving, and there are three of us. Brown rice is about 44 cents per serving. Broccoli is 98 cents a bag. So, this meal is only $6.08 for three adults and I am sure there will be leftovers.

Tuesday: Hamburgers on a bun with onion rings. I bought the burger meat in the grass-fed, organic, 3-pack for $19.32. So the burger meat is $5.83. The onion rings were $5.26 This meal costs $11.09 and is the least healthy, go figure. We will probably have a side salad or fruit.

Wednesday: Kielbasa, peppers, onions, and rice. I bought frozen peppers and onion this time, so the fresh peppers can be for snacking. The Kielbasa is $3.98, the rice 44 cents per person, the peppers and onions were $4.28 and I will use half the bag, so 2.14. But, I had my daughter pick these and they were not the most affordable. I will not make that mistake again. This meal comes out to $7.44 to feed three adults and there will probably be leftovers. We may add some of the sweet chili sauce as well.

Thursday: Pork chops with stuffing, and either broccoli or green beans. I bought the family-size of boneless pork chops for 9.51 and split it into 3 meals for $3.17 per meal. Everyone gets 1 pork chop. The stuffing was 88 cents, and a big can of green beans was $1.08. So, the cost of this meal as is, and will have leftovers, is $5.13.

Friday: Chicken Cesar salad. We buy the family size and it costs $4.98 and is a kit that comes with everything you need to make it.

So, for the week of meals, I added 10 dollars for the chicken alfredo as I didn’t do a cost breakdown, 50 dollars for a week of dinners is pretty good. That means we are spending 50 dollars, on lunches, and snack items.

There are other things that may mess up my budget for the next few months, namely hurricane season.

I hope you enjoy these posts and they give you some ideas. You can make them even more affordable by replacing meat with beans. But, at this point that will not work for my family. It doesn’t make sense to buy stuff no one will eat. I bought fresh strawberries this week and was very disappointed with them. So, I have to find a use for them, and I think I might try dehydrating them. They will last up to a year that way and they are sweet and delicious.

My disclaimer is short and sweet. None of the information on this blog is intended to be medical or nutritional advice. It is for informational purposes only and to spark a conversation.

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Meal Plan/Prep Monday

February 28, 2023February 28, 2023 / healthbuddymelissa / Leave a comment

But, on Tuesday, lol. I am kind of consolidating several topics into one weekly post that has to do with budgeting, pantry challenges, budget meals, meal planning, and prepping. I will try my best to always post these on Monday.

This particular meal plan actually began this past Saturday and will end on Friday. So, even though I will do the post on Monday, a few days may have gone by. The purpose of these posts is to help you find ways to plan meals for your family while sticking to a budget. We budget our food because of several reasons, to save money, avoid food waste, and just be reasonable with what we need and don’t need. Our weekly budget for 3 adults, and sometimes we have family or friends for dinner, is 100 dollars per week. We have had to adjust it a few times since I first started last fall, due to inflation. This is only for food and does not include other household items in the budget.

Here are some tips that help me to stay on budget.

Shop with grocery pickup instead of going into the store. I was doing this all the time, but sometimes I get annoyed with their choices of fresh food, so now I am back in the store.
I know you have heard this one before, shop the sales, and shop in season. While I agree with this, I don’t always do this. Just because hot dogs are buy one get one free does not mean we should be eating hot dogs all week. If your goal is to eat somewhat healthy and stay on a budget, it may be a little bit harder.
Buy what you know your family will eat. Don’t buy something just because it is a good deal and then you throw it away because no one really wants it.
Yes, beans are more affordable than meat. But, are you going to eat them? No one in my house will consistently eat beans several days a week. Yes, we would be starving if we had to. So, they are not more affordable in my house. They are just going to go to waste.
Make a list and stick to it, even if there is a good sale.
Shop your pantry first and try to find new recipes or ways to use items that maybe are not the favorites of the house.
Even if you don’t need to spend your budget each week, 100 dollars for me, do it anyway and have a stocked pantry for when you can’t have that money that week.
Skip the junk food. I know I love potato chips too, but with some simple prep work, you can have fruit and veggies all cut up and ready to snack on. Plus, fruit and veggies, for the most part, are cheaper than potato chips and other snack items. Don’t worry we eat processed foods too, though I do try very hard to limit them. You will read more about that in the menu plan.
Buy family packs of meats and then split them up into smaller portions. One portion per person per bag. Learn what proper portions are. It will save you a lot of money.
Don’t take children or spouses shopping with you. Just trust me.

You will see my full Walmart grocery haul. I don’t always shop at Walmart but I do find they have the best prices right now for my area. I live in Florida, so your prices may be more or less. I will share the cost of each dinner meal for the night. I don’t meal plan breakfast or lunch. No one generally eats breakfast, but there are always options for it. Lunch is a salad, sandwich, or soup. Last Summer I did some posts on pantry kits for hurricane prep or any disaster. I had to use one today, so it didn’t expire. I will be doing more of those soon, as hurricane season is coming fast. The prices below do not include condiments, butter, oil, etc. They are pennies on the dollar and I am not going to figure that out.

Some of the items in the meal plan I already had on hand. So, I will share the price from the Walmart app that I set up my grocery pickup on. This week I only spent 91 dollars, but last week I went over by 20 dollars, so I tried to even it out. See #10 above. I do not drink soda and I feel it is a big waste of money. See #10 above, lol.

We almost always have some kind of fresh fruit, salad fixings, and canned or frozen veggies.

Saturday: pizza. On the eves that I work, even though my husband is a fabulous cook, they often want frozen pizza. One pizza feeds them both and sometimes I come home to a piece saved for me. Cost of this meal $3.98 I do not like most frozen pizzas, but this one is OK. So, that is definitely a budget meal. They can add fruit or salad if they want to, but they won’t, lol.

Sunday: Hot dogs on a bun with Cesar salad. Ok this one is a little more expensive, but I was at work and I don’t really eat hot dogs, so there were hot dogs for lunch the next day too. This meal is right around 10 dollars for all of the items. We buy the family-size Cesar Salad kit at WM and it feeds all 3 of us, plus some leftovers for the next day.

Monday: I worked the opposite shift this day, so I was pooped. We had an easy ravioli with sauce and garlic bread. Ravioli was 4.27 which is a shame of a price, it used to be so much more affordable, with sauce at 2.24, and garlic bread at 2.24. You could choose a less expensive sauce, and Dollar Tree has garlic bread for 1.25. The total for our meal was 8.75 But, there were again leftovers to have for lunch today.

Tuesday: Today, is my first day off of the week, so we will eat a properly cooked meal. Chicken, mashed potatoes, and green beans. The green beans need to be used up before they expire. We used to always buy chicken breast, but I have switched to chicken thighs because they cost less and they don’t dry out as easily when cooking. I very much prefer free-range chicken and or organic. But, it does not fit in a budget right now. I buy the family pack which will range from 11-15 dollars and I split them up into smaller bags with proper portion sizes for each of us. Then I stick them in the freezer. I can get 5 meals out of that price range, which is very economical. So, even if I go with the higher price of 15 dollars for the full pack divided into 5 packs, that is 3 dollars worth of chicken for this meal. My daughter loves the Idahoan instant mashed potatoes, and you know what they are easier too. They have gone up too. I used to get them for 99 cents, but now they are 1.44 The can of green beans is 50 cents. So, the total for this meal is 4.94, and as you can see this real meal is less than the ravioli or hot dog meals. I might even throw on some gravy if I have it on hand.

Wednesday: Breakfast for dinner. I love breakfast for dinner. It is not the healthiest option but it is splendid. I always have a banana, orange, or apple on hand. Pancakes, sausage patties, and fruit for those that will eat it, so me. The pancake mix is 1.98 because I buy the Great Value brand, the sausage patties were 2.76 and I buy bananas in bunches, but according to the app they are 27 cents each. So, we will go with that. I will probably eat an orange, as well. One orange is 88 cents. Those pancakes we have had for three meals now, so that is an awesome deal. This meal will cost 5.89 a little bit more if my husband decides he wants fruit. Technically, less because the pancake mix is for more than one meal, but you get the idea.

Thursday: Chicken and rice bake with broccoli. I have not exactly decided how I want to make this yet, so the price is an estimate for the main ingredients. I already have cheese on hand and I buy it in a block and shred it myself. There may or may not be a condensed soup involved. The chicken, just like above is from my bulk chicken pack so 3 dollars, brown rice is 7 cents per serving and I make 6 servings so a whopping 42 cents, and the broccoli I buy frozen at 98 cents. This meal will cost you a whopping 4.05! Again, a homecooked meal is much cheaper than processed food items.

Friday: I work again, so another frozen pizza at 3.98

That will round out the week. We are having family over the weekend and we bought an extra turkey at Thanksgiving when they were at rock bottom price. We need to use that up before it gets too hot to run the oven. So, Saturday will be Thanksgiving in March.

Where I currently work, they feed me. It is not always a healthy option for me, so I always have fruit and a sandwich with me just in case they don’t have a salad or other option I may like and find acceptable. My husband brown bags it for lunch. You will see in the grocery haul, I allow for some snack items. Everybody can pick a reasonably priced item. But, once it is gone it is gone for the week. You will see not all of the items that I purchased this week were eaten. That is because I have items I need to use up in my fridge, freezer, and pantry. We very often eat the Cesar Salad, mentioned above as a whole meal, especially during the hot months. At 4.98 and it feeds all 3 of us, it is a good deal.

Tomorrow starts Kidney Awareness month, my favorite month to share, and I will be looking for new information to share.

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Meatless Monday Pasta and Sweet Peas!

February 6, 2023 / healthbuddymelissa / Leave a comment

Updated 2/6/2023

For some quick updates before I get to the main topic. I still have not taken the new Kidney Coach class, but you can still read the older version on this blog, as much as I got through. I hope to have that done very soon as summer winds down. I am finishing my Medical Billing and Coding classes to hopefully become certified by early next year. I am hoping this will be a supplement work-from-home job to my out-of-home nursing job. It is not hard, and a lot of it I already know, but it is boring, and they gave me a year to complete it so I see no need to rush.

If you read here often, then you know Meatless Monday is one of the weekly blog post topics I would do. I also have CKD, so limiting my meat protein intake is good. I have made it all the way back to stage 2, then dropped a bit and am hovering right at 58 or 59 eGFR. You could always opt to do meatless meals daily by having one of your meals, either lunch, or dinner be meatless.

I could literally eat this meal every Monday, and I could eat sweet green peas every day. I love them! Unfortunately, no one else in my house will eat them, so I don’t buy them as often as I could. I found these two videos below for your entertainment. The young man ate only peas for 3 days, now I don’t know about eating just peas for 3 days, but he did. He is funny, and I found him to be quite honest. The other video goes into detail about the many proven health benefits of peas, which are very healthy.

Peas are technically a legume, and I am not a fan of legumes, other than peanuts and peas. Beans make me gassy and cause frequent stools. I am not a fan of that at all. From a CKD standpoint peas are low in protein, fat, and sodium, with moderate levels of potassium and phosphorus. The phosphorus in the peas is not absorbed well by the body, though. They are also high in fiber. Be sure to read the label and get organic if you can, or peas with the least amount of additives and preservatives. Some are higher in sodium than others.

My simple Meatless Monday meal that I could eat every single Monday, is pasta, peas, and butter with some seasonings to taste, mostly garlic and paprika. If you are not a fan of avocado toast, which is all the rage right now, you could mash up some sweet peas and spread them on toast and no one would know but you. This is also affordable with a whole box of pasta costing about a dollar, and a can of peas 50 cents. I use whipped butter that is much lower in fat and it costs about 3 dollars depending on the brand for a tub. You obviously will only use part of the box of pasta, and some of the canned peas with a tbsp of butter. I also like to add lemon juice and brown sugar to the butter to make a beautiful sauce, but I don’t do that every time because I don’t always have lemons on hand. The peas on toast would be great for breakfast or lunch and are even more affordable than dinner. I like whole grain bread or the low carb high fiber wraps, so mine would be more expensive than it could be.

Let me know if you like sweet peas in the comments.

My disclaimer is short and sweet. None of the information on this blog is intended to be medical or nutritional advice, nor to replace seeing a medical professional. It is for informational use only.

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Is It Still Possible To Create $5 Dinners With Inflation?

January 28, 2023April 22, 2023 / healthbuddymelissa / Leave a comment

Updated 1/28/2023: As I continue to edit older posts and get ready for new posts, this topic is especially popular. Living on a grocery budget with CKD is difficult due to the food limitations one might follow. We have in the last few months had to increase our food budget to $100 dollars per week. It is still difficult, but with some effort it is doable. It is hard when you have a family with others that don’t need to follow the same restrictions or even worse you have several people in a home on varying restrictions. I look forward to enhancing this topic in 2023.

Hello, hello. You may have noticed I have not written anything in like 10 days. I took a much-needed break from blogging. I still have not had time to take the new AKF Kidney Coach Class, but I hope by the end of May I will have it done. Then I can edit the old posts, and post the new slides. I have not been feeling great the past couple of days. My new job has a lot of mental stress and it is wearing me out. You know they say the grass is not always greener on the other side. I can say for sure that is true. While my old job had become toxic in many ways, there were things I appreciated about that job. Switching to a new job did not necessarily change some of those toxic issues. Health care is a very stressful, and mentally challenging profession these days. I hope to have my certification in Medical Billing and Coding by the end of the Summer, and I can begin transitioning into that.

Back to the topic at hand. Is it still possible to create 5-dollar dinners with inflation? In November of 2020, I did a blog post with a whole list of possible 5 dollar dinner ideas. So, I decided to try and recreate them to see if they can still be made for 5 dollars or less. The first one is Chicken Fajita wraps. I have no idea why Chicken Fajita Casserole is on the list because I don’t know as I have ever made that. I am going to straight-up say this may not be doable unless you can find a really good deal on chicken since it is so expensive right now. You can always use beans instead of chicken. Anyway, I searched all of my local grocery stores to see if I could find chicken on sale at a decent price. The only place that did, and it is only a 2-day sale was my local Hitchcock’s. They have chicken leg quarters for 98 cents a pound. So, if you bought 2 pounds it would cost $1.96. Flour tortilla wraps you can not get any more for less than a dollar. In my area, the Dollar Tree has them for the best price of $1.25. The Great Value brand of Fajita seasoning mix is .62. one green pepper is .72, and one onion is.78. If you want the cheese to sprinkle on a block of Great Value cheese is 1.86. We will use sour cream instead of cheese, at 1.16 for a smaller container.

The total if you use chicken and cheese would be $6.57 and honestly, I don’t think that is all that bad considering.

The total if you use chicken with sour cream would be $5.87

To keep it closer to 5 dollars use a can of black beans at .72 for a total of $5.25 with sour cream but no cheese.

You can always make your own fajita mix if you have the 3 main ingredients, cumin, oregano, and chili powder already on hand.

I am making these tonight for dinner with chicken and sour cream. I par-boil the leg quarters for about 10 minutes. This makes it easy for me to remove the meat from the bones, plus if you have CKD it will reduce the fat, potassium, and phosphorus in the chicken.

We are still sticking by our 75 dollar per week grocery budget, for 3 people, and while it is not as easy as it was, it is still doable. Meat is super expensive right now, and we have cut back even more on meat.

Have an awesome Saturday!

My disclaimer is very basic and easy to remember. I am not a doctor or a dietitian. None of the information I share is intended to be medical advice or nutrition advice. All information shared is my personal opinion, personal experience as some living with CKD, or information I found online.

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DIY Meal Kits For Emergencies and Budget Meals!

October 7, 2022 / healthbuddymelissa / Leave a comment

I did not realize I have not done a post in like 3 weeks. That was not my intention at all. When I first moved to Florida, from a cold state, in 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. I remember watching it on TV and thinking what have I gotten us into. I was used to snow, ice, and blizzards. While those things can be very deadly they pale to a hurricane. During our first few years, I had our emergency kit stocked and ready to go every hurricane season. Then nothing happened for a while and I got lax about it. Now, granted where I live in Florida, we are at least an hour inland and I think the largest that has ever come over our home was close to a 2, but more like a 1.5 which is not really a thing. I find them to still be plenty scary, especially at night. We will almost always lose power, sometimes for up t a week. So, we still have to be ready to leave, and or stick it out without power. When Irma hit in 2017 we evacuated, because we were told to. I learned a lot from that as it was our first time evacuating. Now, Ian hit Southwest Florida just a couple of weeks ago. Given the size, Ian was, had it come on the original path it surely would have come right over us. If you have never seen what storm surge can do to a community watch the video below of Ian’s damage from storm surge. Our hearts go out to everyone affected by this monster storm, and if you can in some way donate to their needs please do so through charities that are good, solid charities.

I watched some Youtube videos on meal kits from shelf-stable foods all packaged and ready to use. I thought that is brilliant! I used to just store a bunch of food in a bin, all thrown in there. This way you will get a meal in a bag all ready to be used with what you need. You can even slip in directions if you forget what the meal was or how to make it. These are also budget meals or can be, depending on what you use. Food is so expensive right now, especially fresh food, finding healthier shelf-stable foods to put in my kits will be a goal, but definitely not budget-friendly I am sure. My goal will be to create 14 of these meal kits to have stored either in a bin or in my pantry for easy grabbing. Keep in mind how you will open these products, cook them, and or heat them if needed. You will also need something to eat them on and with. In an emergency, filling your belly may be more important than eating healthy. However, if you have to eat a special diet for any reason it is crucial that you have kits that you can eat and still stay well. I have CKD, so I am mindful of that when doing these kits. If we ever evacuate again we will just pack these kits up and take them with us. That way we have food to eat without needing to eat out and food when we come home should something really awful occur. If 14 don’t take up too much room, I will create 14 more.

This first one is from items I already have on hand. That will also be a goal, to try and use stuff I have, instead of buying more. The date on the bag is the date of the item with the earliest use by date. That means we need to eat it by that date and replace it with another. Don’t make kits your family won’t eat, even if they seem healthy. This is dumb and a waste of money. Like you will never see oatmeal in one of my kits because only my husband will eat it.

I will give totals for each meal kit. I am using Walmart as a guide, but if I bought it somewhere else and I know the price then I will use that price. You will see the kit in the image below. These meal kits are to feed 3 adults.

Creamy Chicken Ramen with Corn

2 packets of creamy chicken Ramen .60

1 can of Libby’s corn .98 If you buy the Walmart brand it is about .50

1 bottle of Aquafina water .25 I buy them in packs of 32 and store them. Aquafina is my favorite, but there are cheaper brands. I drain most of the water off so I only need one bottle. If you intend to eat it more like a soup you may need 2. A single bottle is probably expensive if you choose to buy it that way.

1 can of chicken Walmart brand is $3.00 for 12,5 ounces. These are in water and fully cooked. You will get 13 grams of protein per serving. If you are watching your potassium there is 210 mg per serving and 380 mg of sodium. You could rinse the chicken to reduce some of the salt content, but honestly, if it is hot and humid and you don’t have power, you may need the extra sodium to not get depleted from sweating.

The grand total for meal kit #1 is $4,83 and it should feed 3 comfortably. I would break up the noodles before cooking to make them easier to portion out.

Just put everything in the bag, and seal it closed. This is a gallon bag but bigger bags would be better. I could not find any in stock anywhere, except for absurd stupid prices. So, I squished it all in there.

I have some ideas for some other kits and continue to search for products that are affordable, healthy, and easy to use. I will try to share a new kit each week and if I get more than one done, I will share them all. Hurricane season is coming close to the end this year, so it gives me time to get the kits made. The Dollar Tree has smaller-sized items and fit in these kits very nicely. However, they are not the best bargain always.

Follow me to get updates when I load new content. Let me know how you like the new header image and color scheme. I am working towards getting back to regular posts.

Extreme Grocery Budget Challenge Week #14 Dollar General

April 13, 2022 / healthbuddymelissa / Leave a comment

Hello, hello! Before I start my grocery haul for this week I want to remind my regular readers that the Kidney Class will begin again, after I take the updated class. It might be a couple of weeks, as I have a lot going on in other areas, but I will get to it.

This week, as promised, I decided to take my $75 dollar weekly food budget and head to Dollar General. Now, a few things to note. I was not optimistic at all as to how this would go. I either thought it would cost way more, or I would get cheap less quality food. I live in a very small town in rural Florida. There is a Dollar General in almost every town around me. About 25 minutes from me there is a Dollar General Market, which really is just like a small supermarket. You can get fresh fruit, veggies, and meat. But, I am talking about a regular Dollar General that has some freezer stuff, and the one where I live actually has a tiny area for fresh fruit and veggies. In my very tiny town we also have a Family Dollar, more on that in a minute, a small Hitchcock’s, and a Sun Stop which is really a gas station with a grocery, and deli section. I will hit all four of them, eventually with my budget.

This budget began as a 21 dollar per person budget, or 63 dollars per week. It also was a pantry challenge to see if someone like me, with CKD, could eat shelf stable foods and still feel well. That only took a couple of weeks to decide no, that is not possible. Everything is so expensive now, that I had to raise my weekly budget to 75 dollars. This is only for food, and it is to save money, spend down debt, not make new debt, avoid food waste, and just learn to be more wise with our money. I have to say, so far it has been successful, and with smart food choices, and portion control, it has not effected my health.

Dollar General is quite small, and buying groceries at these types of stores is odd, because most people probably go in and just buy a few things. The self checkout area is super tiny, and there is not a lot of place in the regular checkout, only one, to put groceries. But, we made it work, albeit with people looking at us strange. You are not going to get a huge selection, and honestly I am ok with that. Too many choices is just a pain to me.

I was pleasantly surprised by the small area of fresh fruit and veg. The grapes were way too expensive for me, but they looked good. I did get a bagged salad, some roma tomatoes, and white onions. These prices were comparable to Walmart, maybe a smidge higher. But, to not have to travel the 12 miles to Walmart is a plus. I noticed that the meat section was not horrible. I could get burger patties, ground beef, chicken breast, sausage, and various breakfast meats. I am not going to ever get organic, grass-fed meats in this town, but it is meat. The chicken breast was the frozen kind, like you can get at Walmart. The price for 2 pounds I think was 9.50. But, I had to run into Family Dollar because DG did not have the Idahoan potatoes, and the same size chicken breast was 7.50 there. I did not need any chicken and there were only a few bags left, so I did not buy any. They had no ground turkey at all, which was kind of disappointing. Family Dollar did not either. There were whole freezer sections where food had been sold out.

The dairy section was also not too bad. I expected just cheap imitation cheese, but there was actual real cheese and the price was not bad. I did need milk, and that was $4.50 which I think is way too much. I don’t drink milk, so it will last close to a week. I still have shredded cheese from last week, so I didn’t buy any more. I probably will never buy coffee creamer at these small stores. It costs way too much for a small container. But, if I am not wanting to drive to save gas, you never know I might. Maybe I will give up coffee. LOL, that is a lie.

They had lots of dry beans and canned beans. We do not eat a lot of those, and I have some in the pantry for when we do. They did not have a ton of flour, and I have some in the pantry, so again, I did not buy any. I did not see any dry rice. They had a small selection of pasta, and I did pick up one box of spaghetti which was 90 cents. We decided to try the chicken pasta in the package. I am not sure if I will have that, as it is very high in sodium. It was only a dollar, though. The canned veggies were on sale for 75 cents each, and I got 6 cans. They had no Idahoan mashed potatoes, or taco seasoning. I had to get those at Family Dollar. I already tried the sweet pickles shown, and I don’t care for them, but they will go good in chicken or tuna salad. I bought one can of fully cooked roast beef at $3.50. This was a curiosity buy to see if it is worth it to have it in the pantry. Let’s face it, even if it might be affordable if no one will eat it, it makes no sense to buy it. The bread was a decent price, but the hot dog buns were way too much. Unfortunately, it was the only kind available on this day. The Armour chicken hot dogs were only 1 dollar, which I thought was a very good deal.

You can see my whole grocery haul in the image below. My grand total between the two stores was $64.15. That means I am 10 dollars under budget this week and honestly that makes DG definitely worth it. Would I shop here every week? No, most likely not, unless I had to. But, even if I shop here once or twice a month, and get my other items that I can not get here the other weeks, it is still worth it to save the gas and wear and tear on my car. If you read last week, then you know I can get my organic meat at Winn-Dixie and if I got at a good time a lot of times it will be marked down to a reasonable price. I was very unhappy with the organic milk I got there last week, though. That might have been why it was such a good deal, because something was wrong with it. No one would drink it. I had to waste it. It was well within the use by date, so that was not the issue.

Are you joining in my grocery budget challenge? Leave me a comment to let me know how it is going.

Next week, I think I will try my budget at our small Hitchcocks to see what I can get there for 75 dollars.

Thanksgiving on Tuesday: Family Food Challenge!

September 21, 2021 / healthbuddymelissa / Leave a comment

Hello, Hello! As promised, yesterday, I am sharing something fun that your family, or friends can do too. I was watching a Youtube video last week and it was a family that challenged each other to make a themed meal. Their theme was a Dollar Tree theme challenge. It was really interesting, and the creative meals they came up with were amazing, well two of them were, lol. Plus, they had three meals worth of leftovers for the rest of the week. Brilliant! So, in my house at this time is myself, my husband, and my 17 year old. I proposed to them that we try this on Mondays when my husband and I are both off from work. My daughter decided she did not want to be a judge between her father and myself, so she will compete each week, and one of us will be the judge. For the first Monday coming up I picked the theme and it is a Fall casserole. Casseroles are easy, convenient, and we should have a ton of leftovers, making them also economical. I will be sure and share how it works out next week.

But, I wanted to do a challenge this week, so last night I challenged myself to make a Thanksgiving dinner that was not a Dollar Tree challenge, for as affordable as possible. I spent only $6.04 on my meal. Now, this is not a traditional Thanksgiving meal. That is not the goal. But, if you are tight on money, don’t really know how to cook, or maybe you just want a really chill Thanksgiving instead of all the hassle of cooking all that food, and the dishes oh my, then this might be for you. Maybe you are stuck at college for the holiday, or some other reason. This would also be great for leftovers after the big day. Check it out. I don’t have my receipt because I order online now, but I can tell you from my order the price for each item.

Ingredients:

Great Value Cream of Chicken Condensed Soup 1 can .57 If I ever make this again, and I probably will I would get low sodium.

Great Value Turkey Flavored Stuffing Mix 1 box .82 again if there is a low sodium option I would get that next time

Great Value Thin Sliced Oven Roasted Turkey Breast 1 pound $3.28 You honestly only need half of this so it could be even cheaper.

Daisy Natural Sour Cream 8 oz $1.37

1 cup of water free

That’s it! Now, if you bought half of the turkey breast you could get some canned green beans for .46 I had some already in my pantry and we ate them as a side.

To make this you need a crockpot. I chopped the turkey breast up and put it in a pan to sautee with some olive oil, and poultry seasoning. In hindsight I would not use the poultry seasoning the next time. This only took a few minutes. Then I layered it on the bottom of my crockpot, after spraying it with non stick spray. Open the stuffing mix and pour it over the turkey breast as evenly as possible. In a large bowl mix together the water, sour cream, cream of chicken soup. Then pour it all over the stuffing spreading it out to make it even. Cook on low for 2.5 to 3 hours.

My daughter and my husband were the judges. Now mind you my daughter does not eat stuffing. She hates it! But, she didn’t know what was in this meal because when you stir it all up to serve you really might think it is mashed potatoes. Anyway she ate it and had seconds. She gave me a 7! My husband said it was too salty, and I agreed. But, it really did taste like Thanksgiving in a bowl. He still gave me a 6. I would recommend the low salt versions that I stated above. I could have made the presentation better as well, but I didn’t think of that.

Anyway, I would definitely make this very easy, affordable meal again. This is obviously not a well rounded meal, but when you are in a pinch for time, and money, it will work.

How affordable can you make a Thanksgiving meal? Leave me a comment below. Probably Friday, for Foodie Friday, I will be sharing a chocolate recipe. Come back to check it out.

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Meatless Monday: Greek Spaghetti

September 20, 2021 / healthbuddymelissa / Leave a comment

Hello, Hello! As I try to work back more towards a Vegetarian type of eating pattern, I have discovered this wonderfully delicious recipe. If you have read any of my posts on Oxalates this month, then you know why I have steered away from strictly Vegetarian eating.

We actually had this on Friday, but I am sharing it today on Meatless Monday. I did not remember to take pics, but you will get the idea. It is a very simple and delicious meal. The video below is the original recipe, and I will share how I tweaked it for my family, and our preferences below.

Greek Spaghetti:

Ingredients: Penne Pasta, Feta cheese, Pepper Jack cheese, onions, black olives, butter, garlic, cherry tomatoes.

For starters I used mostly organic products, as that is my preference. I do not always get my preference, but I try. I also do not mix everything together, as I do not eat Feta cheese, and my daughter will not eat olives, or tomatoes.

To make my version put in your hot pan a half of a stick of real butter, or the whole stick as the original recipe calls for. Add fresh minced garlic, and chopped onions. I like Vidalia. I don’t think her recipe had onions, but I include onions in almost everything I cook. Just let that cook gently on low, while your pasta cooks. After the pasta is cooked, and drained, toss it in with the butter, onions, and garlic. You have to be fast here, and serve it quick. It is not as good once it starts too cool, and I would not like this leftover, so be sure and cook only what you are sure will be eaten. I had the olives sliced, cherry tomatoes sliced, and the cheeses all shredded up so each person could add whatever they wanted to their pasta. I also added some fresh chopped Basil to mine, and a little garlic salt. This really was so super delicious, and everyone loved it. It is also relatively inexpensive. Of note, black olives are very high in Oxalates, so use them cautiously if this is an issue for you. Pasta, can also be moderate in Oxalates, especially if you are using a whole grain pasta. I used just regular white organic pasta.

Try this and let me know if you like it. Try my version, and the original below. They are pretty much the same, but just a little bit different.

Come back tomorrow to see my 6 dollar meal that I am making today. I don’t want to give it away, so no hints. I will also be sharing a new family together time challenge.

Are you trying to eat more meatless meals? Let me know what your biggest struggle is to achieve it.

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what i eat in a day, Plant-based August 4, 2021

August 4, 2021 / healthbuddymelissa / Leave a comment

Hello, and welcome to Wellness Wednesday! Readers seem to like these kind of posts, so I thought maybe once, or twice a week I would do this type of topic.

First let me get this out of the way. Plant-Based is not Vegan. There is nothing wrong with eating a Vegan Diet, but it doesn’t work for me at this time. Plant-Based also does not mean that you eat no dairy at all, oil, fat, meat, etc. It simply means that at least one half to seventy five percent of your plate is plants. There are of course plant-based dairy products, I tend to really like Oat Milk, cheeses, and yogurts. I am also working towards Whole Food Plant Based, but again I am not quite there, at least not by blogger Nazi standards. People and their word issues. I also eat eggs on average once a week. I prefer organic cage free eggs.

Why have I chosen a plant-based way of eating? Well, if you actually read this blog then you know I have CKD, and my number one goal is to get back and maintain at least stage 2. One of the ways studies say you can improve kidney function is by losing weight. In the Fall of last year I started a low carb diet, not Keto, low carb. I stayed at or under 100 carbs per day. I was able to lose 15 pounds in a few months eating that way. However, it also meant I was consuming more protein, and fat than my body requires. This lead to my cholesterol going high, as well as my HDL, and LDL being backwards. Since going on a Statin is not something I wanted to do, they mess with kidney function, I decided to go very low fat to see if I could get it down. I did a one month very low fat, zero point food challenge and was able to get my cholesterol back to normal range. But, my HDL and LDL were still backwards. Most people with CKD will end up with some kind of Heart Disease. Obviously, that is also not a goal I wish to reach. So, for the last month, or so, I have been plant-based. I consume chicken, or fish only once or twice a week. If I decide I want milk, it is skim, and 4 ounces, and cheese is 1 ounce part skim or low fat. I may consume dairy once a week, or every other week. I also will add 1 tbsp of ground flaxseed to my smoothies, or certain foods to get Omega 3. But, I am concerned I might have an allergy to it, so I have to take note when I eat it so I can monitor for symptoms. When I eat a high meat based protein diet, I have issues with my gut. That is another reason to eat plant-based, to heal and restore my gut health.

Iron Deficient Anemia is a huge issue for people with CKD. For that reason I do take a B12 supplement on the days that I do not have any dairy, or meat. There is a very famous doctor that said it would take many years to deplete your B12 stores, but if you have CKD you know this either may not be entirely true, or don’t care to take the chance.

I am consuming a lot of potassium with this way of eating. But, I do not have issues with potassium. My labs are monitored every six months. I also realize plants have a lot more phosphorus than meat products, but again my phosphorus levels are fine. If you have any of these issues be sure and discuss with your doctor first before you make major changes to your diet. If you are a Diabetic be sure and stay within your Carb limits to keep your glucose under control. There are studies that are showing that higher fiber foods, even with higher carbs, may not spike blood sugar.

Ok, now that I got all that out of the way, what did I actually eat?

Breakfast: One banana and coffee. I do not generally eat breakfast, but I was particularly hungry today. I ate this before my treadmill workout. I do not count drinks in my daily calorie or nutrition count. Read why here.

Lunch: See the picture below. This is a ton of food! You can eat a lot of food on a plant-based diet, and trust me you won’t be hungry in an hour. I hardly ever snack, or even have cravings. On that plate is 2 red potatoes cooked in Instapot, 1 cup of shaved brussel sprouts, 1/2 of an onion, and 1/2 cup of canned pork and beans. I also sliced up a delicious tomato on the side. I cooked the onion and brussel sprouts in a pan on the stove with some vegetable broth. After they were soft but not mushy, I added the beans to the pan. I added about a tsp of brown sugar and squeezed in half a lemon. That is my favorite sauce type over top of baked potato or other veggies. The lemon and the brown sugar make a delicious salty and sweet sauce. I only really eat baked beans, pork and beans, or black beans. I buy them canned because they are convenient. Pork and beans are like 33 cents a can. I also add a tsp of Extra Virgin Olive Oil over my potato when it is on the plate. Why? It has certain health benefits, and I take my Vitamin D supplement with this meal and I need to the fat to absorb the Vitamin D properly.

For breakfast and lunch the nutrition info is as follows:

Calories: 626

Total Fat: 9 grams

Saturated Fat: 1.3 grams

Sodium: 450 mg

Total Carbs: 122 grams

Fiber: 19 grams

Net Carbs: 103 grams

Protein: 18 grams I generally eat right about 35 to 40 grams of protein per day.

Vitamin A: 30% of RDA

Vitamin C: 250% of RDA

Calcium: 20% of RDA

Iron: 26% of RDA

Potassium: 2,453 mg

Phosphorus: 267 mg

I obviously still have dinner to go. Dinner today is a little harder to break down the nutrients because we are having pasta salad. The way I make pasta salad is I cut up celery, onion, black olives, bell peppers, cucumber and any other veggies I may throw in. Then I cook the pasta, usually bowties, and throw it all together in the fridge. Then each person put as much Raspberry Vinaigrette and Italian dressing they want on their own serving. They can also add cheese if they wish. I don’t put cheese in mine. I probably will add tomatoes to mine. If I had frozen peas I would also add them, or fresh broccoli. This makes a huge amount of food and will most likely be for lunch as well tomorrow. I am going to say my serving of one cup will be about 450 calories, mostly from the pasta and however much Italian dressing I will add to mine.

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meals on Monday: Budget meals

January 25, 2021 / healthbuddymelissa / Leave a comment

Welcome to another Manic Monday! I hope everyone had a splendid weekend. It is finally sunny here. The weekend was cold and dreary. I decided I would keep my Budget Meals, or 5 Dollar Dinners here on the blog, rather than my Meals With Melissa subscription plan. I will refer subscribers to the blogposts in addition to the weekly meal plan.

Part of Mindful Eating is knowing what you are eating and eating the healthiest options you can afford. Not everyone can afford, or wants to afford the most expensive of food choices and more expensive does not necessarily mean healthier. Budgeting and meal planning are all part of Mindful Eating. As you know if you are a regular reader I have created a unique Nutrition course for my homeschooled high schooler. As I continue to research information for topics I learn so much about food, food waste, food insecurity and so much more. During the wars and The Great Depression food was scarce and even rationed. Housewives had to be creative and wise with their food and money. While researching this topic I found a wonderful Youtube channel called YesterKitchen. She makes war time and old recipes that can be made on a budget. You will see one of her videos below for Tamale Pie.

Tamale Pie can definitely be a Budget Meal. All you need is Corn Meal, Diced Tomatoes, Onions and Ground Meat. I would use ground turkey as it is way more affordable than ground beef, plus it tastes better. I also would make mine in a 9 x13 pan with the corn meal only on top. It looked kind of mushy with the corn meal on the bottom and the top. This is not a low carb meal, but corn meal is a whole grain loaded with fiber and other nutrients. Read about corn meal here. It is calorie dense and filling. You could even make this meatless and use beans instead of ground meat. If you have CKD be careful because corn meal has a lot of Phosphorus as will the beans. If you are a hunter you could even use ground venison in this recipe.

So, how would this meal break down money wise? The prices are for my area using my Basket App. I have not made this meal yet as I do not have any corn meal on hand and my meal plan is already done for the week. But, we definitely will be trying it soon.

Ground Turkey Version:

1 pound of ground turkey: $2.98 at Walmart

Roma tomatoes: You need one cup chopped and one Organic Roma Tomato is .30 at Walmart

Onion: 1 Yellow onion is .48 at Walmart

Corn Meal: You only need a third of a cup and a 12 oz bag at Walmart is 1.58

Salt, Pepper and Chili Powder you should have on hand, but are very cheap spices to purchase.

Total: $5.64 I counted two tomatoes. Dollar Tree may have Corn Meal for only a dollar

Venison Version:

All of the same ingredients and prices, except you can remove the $2.98 for the ground turkey as you got the venison by hunting. So the grand total would be $2.66

Ground Beef Version:

1 pound ground beef: $3.48 at Walmart

All other ingredients and prices the same

Total: $6.14

Kidney Bean Version:

16 oz of Kidney Beans: .72 I would rinse and drain them first leaving a little liquid. You could always buy dry and save even more by making your own.

All other ingredients and prices the same

Total: $1.81 Wow! Now that is a deal.

I am sitting down today to figure out our money budget, Dave Ramsey style. I can already tell we over spend on groceries and energy ie air conditioning. We do budget billing, so I am going to figure out what our monthly average is and work from there. We also have two car payments which means we over spend on transportation as well. This is where my focus will be. We did renew our Sam’s Club membership from 2017. We went on Sunday for our two week shop and I only spent 65 dollars for each week on food. That is way under budget to my 75 a week I had hoped to spend. The secret to Sam’s is making a list, sticking to it, staying away from the snack aisles, and staying out of the middle aisles. Some things, because it is in bulk, will last at least a month or more. So, there is that to consider as well. I spent only 55 dollars on meat for two weeks. That is a steal. I also restarted my Misfits Market. I upgraded to the bigger box and I am so pleased with the bigger box. I do have to include that into my budget. I get it biweekly which means I am spending 80 dollars a month for that. Each Saturday I do a social media share blogpost. It runs on Saturday and Sunday. This week will be Pinterest sharing. It is easy and it is free self promotions.

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