Low-cost Eats Week 4 (Heat Climate)

You’ve made it to Week 4 of a budget eats meal plan! By now, your pantry is absolutely stocked, your kitchen’s operating like a well-oiled machine, and also you’ve obtained three full weeks of home-cooked dinners beneath your belt. This week wraps issues up with one other spherical of easy, satisfying meals—all nonetheless beneath $3 per serving.

As all the time, this plan is supposed to be versatile. You don’t must observe it in precise order, and also you positively don’t must make all seven recipes if that doesn’t work in your week. Be happy to swap in one thing else, eat leftovers, or double up on a favourite.

Want to regulate parts or change meals? Our customization tool remains to be in beta, nevertheless it’ll allow you to make adjustments and generate a recent buying checklist. It’s not fancy, nevertheless it does the job.

And if you’d like a bit further assist in the kitchen, every recipe has a step-by-step video tutorial on our web site so you possibly can observe together with confidence.

A decorative image showing the menu for week 4 of the Cheap Eats Meal Plan.

Make sure to discover the total month of recipes, the pantry staples checklist, and our different weekly plans. Whether or not you’re right here for only a few meals or the total month, it’s simple to customise.

Notice

This week’s meal plan is filled with taste! You’d be shocked by what you are able to do with our pantry staple spices and seasonings. This week, you’ll learn to make your individual fajita spice mix and tips on how to season selfmade sauces. Your meals will style higher and also you’ll spend much less cash, too.

Grocery Haul

Your closing grocery journey is generally made up of recent components and a few dairy and meat. All these pantry staples you got in Week 1 are nonetheless pulling their weight, serving to you retain prices low and waste minimal.

Don’t overlook to obtain the Week 4 Shopping List PDF to take with you to the shop.

Groceries for the fourth week of the Cheap Eats Meal Plan laid out on a kitchen counter.

Receipt

Whole Spent: $137.49
Whole Servings: 52
Common Value Per Serving: $2.64

Week 4 provides you the best serving rely of the month—and nonetheless is available in properly beneath $3 per plate. This contains full family-style meals utilizing on a regular basis grocery retailer costs with no gross sales, coupons, or bulk offers.

Finances Saver

Massive batch meals like baked ziti, casseroles, and pasta salads are key to stretching components and lowering meals waste. You’ll see some overlap in components throughout recipes, and that’s by design—every merchandise does double responsibility so nothing sits unused within the fridge.

The Recipes

A photo of Rachel in The Stay At Home Chef Kitchen with the meals from Week 4 of the Cheap Eats Meal plan on display on the kitchen counter.

Up above, you’ll see what every of this week’s dinners appears to be like like plated. We’ve included a snapshot of the serving sizes and a brief video that exhibits the meals in additional element. It’s useful to see the true quantity of meals you’ll be working with.

Right here’s a fast breakdown of the week:

Monday

This baked ziti appears to be like and tastes prefer it comes from a flowery Italian restaurant, nevertheless it’s surprisingly simple to make. And the ricotta and cream cheese topping takes this one excessive!

Best Baked Ziti Ever

That is severely the Greatest Baked Ziti Ever. Your loved ones goes to like the selfmade meat sauce, and ricotta and cream cheese topping!

Tuesday

Say goodbye to dull rooster dinners with this rooster fajita recipe. With our selfmade spice mix, you don’t must spend some huge cash to get a number of taste! One other profit to creating your individual spice blends? You’re not getting preservatives and anti-caking brokers in your meals—extremely suggest!

Sizzling Skillet Chicken Fajitas

Take pleasure in scorching rooster fajitas, made in a single skillet in simply half-hour! Fajitas are all the time a straightforward weeknight dinner the entire household will love.

Wednesday

This pasta salad is an entire meal with hearty floor beef, cheddar cheese, and veggies. Southwestern taste mixed with easy and reasonably priced components makes this one an everyday go-to, particularly in the course of the summer time months.

Cowboy Pasta Salad

Cowboy Pasta Salad is filled with beef, bacon, cheese, and veggies, all tossed in a fast selfmade creamy smoky salsa verde dressing.

Thursday

Costume up your customary rooster and rice dish with Mexican spices and gooey cheddar cheese. Prime with salsa and bitter cream so as to add a bit one thing further with no complete lot of additional effort.

One Pot Queso Chicken and Rice

Flip your queso cravings right into a full dinner! Queso Rooster and Rice is creamy, tacky, filled with taste, and made in only one pot.

Friday

This isn’t your canned Manwich sandwich! Floor beef is mixed with a flavorful tomato sauce and bell peppers for a straightforward, selfmade sloppy joe recipe that’ll make you loyal to the true factor!

Best Homemade Sloppy Joes

Improve your Sloppy Joes with actual components, veggies for texture, and toasted buns. This restaurant-worthy model is prepared in 45 minutes!

Finances Saver

For this week’s meal plan, two of the recipes name for salsa verde, so we purchased two 16-oz jars of salsa. When you’re trying to avoid wasting cash, simply purchase one jar and a 7-oz can for the enchiladas as a substitute of shopping for an entire second jar.

Saturday

Spaghetti by no means regarded higher with this simple, lemon and herb rooster pasta. This recipe is gentle and recent and appears prefer it got here from an Italian restaurant, however with out the value tag.

Lemon Herb Chicken Spaghetti

This simple recipe combines tender, lemon and herb rooster with recent tomatoes and olive oil for a light-weight and flavorful pasta dish.

Sunday

This isn’t your typical, bland enchilada casserole. The avocado cream sauce is made with salsa verde and jalapeño, which add a refined kick of warmth whereas offering moisture.

Creamy Chicken Enchilada Casserole

This simple rooster enchilada casserole is made with a scrumptious avocado cream sauce that may have you ever making it repeatedly!

Make It Work for You

By now, the drill. If life’s too busy for seven full dinners, skip one or two and luxuriate in a leftovers evening. If one thing on the checklist doesn’t sound like your factor, sub in a favourite from earlier weeks.

Use the customization tool in beta to swap meals, change serving sizes, or generate a brand new buying checklist that matches your precise wants.