Feed your family tasty, nutritious food with this meal plan. This meal plan is designed to help those families who may be struggling with rising food costs but also don’t have time or don’t want to be baking and cooking non stop.
I have selected a range of recipes I use myself. While most is home made, it’s not labour intensive. This will be helpful especially if you work or have a hectic evening.
At Coles you can get everything you need for $200. This will cover breakfast, lunch and dinner for 4 people. You’ll need to have only oil, salt and pepper in your pantry.
I will try and do a few of these so that if you’re really needing help you have some options. This will help with using up leftovers like rice or spices etc. You can still eat cheaper than this if you need to but that will require more effort with shopping round, cooking more from scratch and building a pantry of basics like flour, spices etc.
The Meal Plan
Breakfast options
Toast
Oats with honey (overnight or porridge),
8 eggs (this is what is left from the carton after 4 have been used to dinners)
Lunch options
Leftovers if available
Sandwiches. Filling options: Tuna, chicken, spinach, cheese, Mayo, tomato (if left from tacos), carrot, onion, bacon.
Dinner options
Spaghetti carbonara with steamed vegetables
Chilli con carne
Pumpkin soup
Pork stir fry
Mayonnaise chicken
Chinese corn soup
Tacos
Snack options
Dip
Crackers
Carrots
Chicken bites
Apples
Oranges
Pears
Bananas
Strawberry yoghurt
Vanilla yoghurt
Cheese
Sweet options
Vanilla wafers
Peaches
Scotch fingers
Drink options
Water
Milk
Recipe Links
Here you can find links to the recipes I have used within this meal plan.
Breakfast
Porridge: follow oat packet directions. Use water or milk and serve with honey.
Lunch
Shredded chicken for sandwiches
Dinner
Stir Fry (use Pork mince option)
Shopping List
This is a list of ALL the items you will need to make this meal plan for your family. At Coles, today, this comes to $201.13. Not much is on special as it’s a lot of essentials. This price will fluctuate with the cost of fresh produce and available brands.
You can always make changes to this list. Think of it as a starting point if you’ve seen a few things you’d rather not eat.
Please see the text list for quantities if greater than 1.
5 x Bread
1kg Cheese block
1kg Bacon
1 dip
1 strawberry yoghurt
1 vanilla yoghurt
12 eggs
2 x 3Lt Milk
Grated parmesan cheese
Margarine
Sour Cream
Frozen Carrots
Frozen Cauliflower
Frozen Mixed veg
12 Bananas
1kg Onion
1 Cos Lettuce
2 Potatoes
4kg Apples
1.5kg Carrots
2kg Pears
900g Pumpkin
120g Spinach
3kg Oranges
3 Tomatoes
1.5kg beef mince
500g pork mince
750g chicken breast chunks (mayo chicken)
5 Chicken breasts (from the deli)
Beef stock cubes
Chicken Stock Cubes
Condensed Cream of Chicken soup
Canned Corn
Taco Shells
Corn Flour
2 x crackers
2 x creamed corn
French onion soup mix
Diced tomatoes
Long grain rice
2 x Mexican seasoning
Curry Powder
Oyster Sauce
Spaghetti
Quick Oats (or regular)
Red kidney beans
Scotch finger biscuits
825g tinned peaches
Baked beans
Chicken snack bites
Mayonnaise
Tortillas
Salsa
425g Tuna in springwater
Vanilla wafers
If you are looking for more recipe ideas you can find HEAPS of Mince recipes here or Chicken recipes here