SNAP-py Eating

So our challenge this week was to plan a day's worth of meals for a family of four on a SNAP budget of $15.

This is the meal plan I came up with:

                Classic Breakfast-- eggs, toast, fruit, and juice

                Lunch-- soup and salad

                Dinner -- cheeseburger rice with zucchini

This all came out to $14.12 for a family of four. For each meal, I tried to get in a variety of different food groups and make them as filling as possible. I didn’t want to have to budget in snacks but as you can see from my final cost, there is a little room for that too. I went shopping at Rainbow foods and the price per meal is based on whatever the price was this weekend. Some of the items were on sale.  

 Breakfast---$1.18/serving

                2 eggs                                  ($1.99/12 eggs)

                2 slices of toast                ($1.79/~20 slices)

                A banana                             ($0.59/lb)

                Orange juice                       ($5.00/~15 servings)

                Coffee                                   ($0.15/cup)

Breakfast was a no brainer to me. I knew that eggs, bread, and bananas are pretty cheap and super delicious so that was an obvious choice. I splurged a little on the orange juice but it was on sale and it is also delicious so it would have been a crime not to.

Lunch----$0.91/serving

                Mixed Salad                     ($0.99/bag)

                Canned tomatoes            ($1.98/3-15oz cans)

                Bouillon cubes                 ($1.50/6 cubes)

                Heavy Cream                    ($2.39/half pint)

                Onion                                ($0.99/onion)

                Garlic                                ($0.20/clove)

Lunch was the hardest for me to plan. Since I knew that the day was already loaded with carbs from breakfast and dinner, I wanted to stay away from those as much as possible. Bagged salad was on sale (half price!) so I definitely thought a side salad would be a nice addition to whatever I made. I was browsing online and found what looked to be a really easy tomato soup recipe. It said that it made 8 servings but I guessed it would be more like 6 and used the prices I found to estimate the price per serving then. I also assumed that they would have a pantry with olive oil, flour, some kind of salad dressing or means to make one, salt, and pepper that they could use so I didn’t factor those in to my price. The recipe for the soup can be found here: http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/creamy-tomato-soup-10000001892157/

Dinner---- $1.44/ serving

                White Rice                         ($0.80/lb)

                Ground beef                      (3.99/lb)

                Onion                                 ($0.99/onion)

                Zucchini                             ($2.49/lb)

                Cheese                               ($4.98/3-8oz chunks)

I actually made this for dinner last week and saw how cheap it was so I thought I should include it. My mom used to make it for me growing up and we would add in whatever additional seasonal veggies we had. Since it is winter though, I just stuck with zucchini to keep the price down. It uses 2.5 cups of white rice, a pound of ground beef, half an onion, a pound of zucchini, some olive oil, and about 1.5 cups of shredded cheese (whatever kind). You cook everything up separately and then mix it in a dish, sprinkle the cheese over it, and pop it in the oven for a bit. Yum. Here's a picture of what mine looked like last week.

It makes about 6 servings and is really good  as leftovers.

These meals came to a total of $3.53 for each person which would be a total of $14.12 for a family of four. Making this meal plan was pretty challenging but not impossible. It just takes a little creative thinking and bargain hunting to eat well on a budget.