Grocery, Kitchen & More IV:My Food Pyramid

We are going to start with what I call 'pyramiding'. I am not talking about the famous food pyramid that will let you know how much milk and stuff to drink. I am talking about planning meals in such a way that you are never throwing away left overs! Can you feel the money going back into your wallet....

To pyramid food you should already have a grocery list and you must have a meal plan. So if you have not read those post please go back and quickly read over those two posts and check out the Kim's comments under the meal plan!

What is food pyramiding?
Basically it goes like this.....
Sunday
Crock pot roast, potatoes, carrots, cobbler
Monday
Beans, Rice & Corn bread
Tuesday
Lemon Roasted Chicken, salad, garlic potatoes --
Breakfast: Potato Pancakes or potato & egg Breakfast burritos
Wednesday
Bean & Cheese Burritios with Spanish rice
Breakfast: Hot Rice Cereal or Rice Pancakes
Thursday
BBQ Beef Sandwhiches with, peas & French Fries
Breakfast: Potatoe Pancakes
Friday
Chicken Pot Pie
Saturday
Sloppy Joes & French Fries with Salad

I know that looks like a meal plan ,however,the food is being pyramided!

On Tuesday ...
you will take the leftover potates and make Potato pancakes with eggs or if you just have a little bit left you would make breakfast burritos with egg.

On Wednesday ...
take the rice from Monday and make either Rice Pancakes (these hefty pancakes fill you up and keep you full!) or Hot Rice Cereal if you have a lot of leftover rice. You could also plan to use it in a dessert such as rice pudding!
Then for dinner you take your left over beans from Monday and refry them (warm them up mash them add a fat...again go to hillbillyhousewife for a specific recipe) to use in your bean & cheese burritos.
A DOUBLE WHAMMY TODAY!

On Thursday...
Take the leftover beef from Sunday and make your BBQ Beef Sandwhiches. And take the Garlic potatoes from Tuesday to make potato pancakes to make potato pancakes for breakfast.

On Friday...Take Tuesdays leftover chicken, Sundays carrots and Thrusdays peas and any other left over vegtable languishing in the fridge to make your Chicken pot pie.

By re-using leftovers you will save hundreds of dollars at the store.

HOW you may ask?...
Lets look at the Chicken pot pie meal. You spent $2.68 on a chicken for dinner, on Tuesday, and it feeds your family two meals. So the second meal the chicken was basically free, the peas and carrots are leftovers too so all you have to buy is the crust(or make it!!!), a little milk, a little flour. So your meal will cost you roughly $1.47 to feed your family or 2.94 to double it! Let's look at the BBQ beef/Pork Sandwhiches the meat is paid for in the first meal! So it will cost you roughy $2.50 to produce up to 8 sandwhiches, Salad and french fries. And so it goes...

If you know your family eats most of the chicken it may take two chicken dinners to get your chicken pot pie or 4 dinners if your family needs two pies. But the point is to plan the use of leftovers in your meal plan thus reaping additional financial and time saving benefits! After a while it will become habit... I know anytime we have a roast we are have BBQ sandwhiches or black bean soup that week, I no longer have to think about it. I also have a couple or recipes that together take 1 Can (96oz) of Tomato juice so I make sure to plan them in the same two week interval!

Your goal is to STOP THROWING AWAY FOOD and to start finding a productive way to use our leftovers.

Some Tips:

You know you are planning on using the rice, potatoes etc... on a subsequent day so you may want to make a little bit extra.

You also don't have to feel guilty about spending $2.99# on your pot roast when you know it will feed your family for two days.




Now you have time to sit down and read (You can afford to buy a book), relax and play more with your children and dear husband.

Coming up Saving Time in the Kitchen & Cheap Trix!