Real Food for Real Families: Week 4

Here's the next and final instalment of Real Food for Real Families.  This is a really great meal plan, as it uses a lot of ingredients in a couple of recipes, which helps keep the cost down.  For example, just buy 1 packet of rice noodes, and split them between the Rice Paper Rolls and the Asian Market Noodles.  I also omitted the baby corn from the Asian Market Noodles and used 1/2 tin corn instead.  A couple of the recipes also serve 6, so if you're serving a family of less than that, you'll have plenty of leftovers for lunch, or even for an extra dinner.

I hope you've enjoyed keeping it real for the month - it's been a great challenge for me and very eye-opening in some cases.  I also think it's really formed some good habits for me, in reading labels more and being more picky about some of the food I buy for the family.  I hope it's given you some food for thought also, and helped you to make some healthy changes along the way!

Monday: Shepherd's Pie
Tuesday: Rice Paper Rolls
Wednesday: Minestrone
Thursday: Brown Fried Rice
Friday: Asian Market Noodles
Saturday: Sausage & Cous Cous Salad
Sunday: Leftovers/throw-together meal/go out to dinner

Breakfast: Porridge (sweeten it naturally with fruit or honey) or Healthy Breakfast Crumble
Lunch: Home-made wraps with salad and egg; leftovers
Snacks: Nuts, sultanas, rice cakes, cheese, home-made yoghurt, Pizza Scrolls (use wholemeal flour), fruit, carrot & celery sticks

Shopping List:

In the pantry:

cinnamon

30g butter

tomato paste
dried and/or fresh herbs
oil
vegetable stock
soy sauce
cumin

Fresh:

pears                       $3

2 capsicum              $3

500g sweet potato   $2
bag of onions          $2
red onion                 $1
1kg carrots              $1
bag zucchini           $3
bean sprouts           $3
1 cucumber             $1
garlic                       $1
celery                      $2
1/2 cabbage             $3
lemon                      $1

Dairy/Meat:

100g mild salami     $3

400g beef mince      $3
6 sausages (try and get nice, less processed ones from the butcher) $5
1kg cheese              $6
3L milk                   $3  
1 chicken breast      $3
shaved parmesan    $3

Groceries:
oats                           $1

fruit, nut & seed mix $4
honey                        $3

coconut                     $2

rice cakes                  $1

wholemeal SR flour  $2

3 tin diced tomatoes  $3

1 packet rice noodles $4

peanuts                      $2

rice paper rounds       $3

hoisin sauce               $2

wholemeal pasta        $2

1 tin white beans       $1

1 tin corn                   $1

eggs                           $3

cous cous                   $2

1 tin chickpeas           $1

raisins                        $3

brown rice                 $2

frozen vegetables       $2

Extras:
1kg plums                     $3

1kg apples                     $3

1kg bananas                  $2

1kg grapes                     $3

mineral water                $1

Total:                          $108