Look at your weekly schedule, see what days you have evening commitments and plan for a slow cooker meal that’s all ready for you when you get home. Have some extra time on the weekend? Make a pot of soup you can keep in the fridge ready to heat up on a weekday or for lunch. Cut and prep your vegetables when you get home from the grocery store, which will cut down your meal preparation tremendously on a busy week day. All these little steps can help make feeding your family real food more manageable. By making a meal plan ahead of time and shopping the sales it also makes it more affordable. Welcome to Meal Plan Monday.

This week’s meal plan comes from The Atlantic Superstore.

Here’s what we’re having:

Taco Soup
Creamy Shrimp Florentine

Slow Cooker Beef Stew

Sweet and Sour Pork, Rice and Carrots

Here’s what I bought:

Primo tomato sauce- $1.99
Classico alfredo sauce- $2.49
Rooster sweet rice- $3.49
Del Monte peaches and cream corn- $1.50
Unico black beans- $1.39
Alymer diced tomatoes- $1.39
Barilla fettuccine – $1.49
Organic leeks- $2.96
3 beefsteak tomatoes- $1.49 lb/$3.02
Organic baby spinach- $3.99
Pork boneless chops- $2.99 lb/$5.26
Lean ground beef-$2.77 lb/ $10.96
Stewing beef- $5.99 lb/$11.31
PC raw peeled Pacific white shrimp-$6.99

Total: $58.23

Here’s what I had:

4 potatoes
10 carrots
3 onions
3 cloves of garlic
1 1/2 C beef stock
1- 5 oz can tomato paste
1 bay leaf
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 cup frozen peas
salt & pepper
2 Tbsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1 C brown sugar
1/2 C vinegar
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/4 C cornstarch
2 tbsp flour
2 tbsp butter
1/3 C white wine
fresh grated parmesan (optional)

Some notes about this week’s meal plan…

* I bought a large package of ground beef which will make 2 batches of taco soup. I have extra ingredients and will most likely make a double batch and put one in the freezer

* Often when meat is on sale on a good price it is being sold in the club pack size, which is the case with the stewing beef this week. Buy the club pack for the lower price and split the package up when you get home into two freezer bags, so that $11.31 package of beef is now the base for 2 meals…or $5.65/meal!

* Pork stewing cubes are on sale for $2.99/lb which is what I was planning to use for my Sweet and Sour Pork, however when I shopped they were out. I bought boneless pork for the same price which I will just cube.

*Check the prices of organic when you are buying produce. This week Organic Leeks where almost half the price of regular leeks

* I bought a produce box from Nourish Your Roots as part of a school fundraiser, so all my produce from this weeks meal plan is coming from there….and more! This is a fantastic fundraiser that supports local farmers and our school. Our Nourish Your Roots box came from Indian Garden Farms.

Once I half the ground beef and stewing beef, the savings there is $11.41 which I’m estimating which cover most of the cost if the ingredients I already have at home. So this weeks meals will cost roughly around $60.00.

Have a great week…and happy meal planning. 🙂

Need more meal plan inspiration? Check out OrgJunkie for her Meal Plan Monday link-up.