This meant 17 days of meals at home- breakfast, lunch and dinner. We started Monday the 11th and have until Wednesday the 27th to complete the challenge, which is the night we will travel to Oklahoma for the holiday. With great coupons and weekly specials, we spent a little under $200 for the challenge. That's two people (sometimes three - my little brother) with three meals a day for 17 days…. WOW.
We're 13 days in now and have gone "out to eat" only three times. I would consider this a success as we were notorious for going out to eat close to three times a week. As much as I enjoy cooking, cravings get the best of me.
Obviously the planner in me made a list of all our meals for this challenge. Most of our lunches are leftovers from dinner the night before as a way not to waste any food. Breakfast isn't ever anything too special because, to be honest, I'm not up that early to eat (unemployed life) nor am I ever hungry that early if I were awake. Breakfast is more so Heath's thing, which usually consists of scrambled eggs, toast, fruit and/or oatmeal.
This challenge has been a great way for us not to spend money on going out to eat. It's really made me experiment more in the kitchen, and it's helped us figure out new favorite dishes so we don't get too bored of eating the same thing. Another great thing is that all of our meals are HEALTHY! Most of the recipes are from Women's Health, Men's Health and various healthy recipe blogs via Pinterest.
Here are some pictures of our meals and links to their recipes (if available) if any of you are interested in new recipes. I never realized how red and green our dishes are!
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| Chili garnished with cheese, jalapeños and nonfat Greek yogurt |
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| Grilled pork chop with broccoli and boiled potatoes |
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| Turkey Spinach Lasagna made with ground turkey instead of roast turkey and whole wheat lasagna. We've had this twice already. |
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| Crockpot Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches on wheat rolls |
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| Mango Salsa… just mango, tomatoes, avocado, cilantro, lime and a hint of brown sugar. I put this over pork chops, but it's good with anything. |
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| Simple Shrimp Stir Fry… I just put this together quickly: raw shrimp, onions, peppers, minced garlic, spices, red curry paste and chicken broth. |
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| We had it over brown rice. This is one of my new favorites. |
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| Ground Turkey Stuffed Bell Peppers with homemade salsa |
We had the ground turkey bell peppers tonight, and they were delicious. I've made them before, but I tried something a little different with one of the ingredients. It enhanced the flavor a lot! I will share the recipe with you in a later blog post :)
Another favorite is Crockpot Salsa Verde Chicken Enchiladas. I probably was too busy devouring these to get a picture in. We've had this twice.
Let's just say Heath is a very happy, well-fed husband. Four more days to go!
Until next time,
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