Meal Planning on a Budget: Ham & Pea Pasta

In a few short months, we will be welcoming a new member to our family. With all the changes that will occur, we know that our finances will be one of the biggest adjustments we have. Over the last few weeks, I have been working a little more on our budget and setting a few financial goals for when Baby J arrives.

One of the best ways to save money is to eat at home. It’s healthier and you can save a lot of money by not going out to eat. We typically eat at home on a regular basis, but there are definitely nights of the week when I am too tired to cook or I didn’t plan anything for dinner. That’s when we end up going out and spending more than what we would spend if I had planned and prepped a meal at home.

I am a huge fan of my weekly meal planner (you can read all about it here) and I use it every Sunday or Monday to plan our meals for the week. One of my goals is to plan meals for the ENTIRE week, so we are eating out less.

I don’t always shop at the same grocery store and typically bounce around from Cub Foods to Costco to Target to Trader Joe’s.  My newest grocery store addition is Aldi.  It’s not my favorite store, but I am starting to like it more and more for a few reasons: 1) I am always surprised when they tell me what I owe. $51 for a cart full of groceries? Yes, please! 2) It seems pretty environmentally friendly. You need to bring your own bags to pack your groceries (or you can buy some if you forget). 3) They have an expanding organic section and the prices are hard to beat.

The only thing I have a hard time with is their limited selection of items. If you need something specific for a recipe, you sometimes have to make a second stop at another grocery store, like Cub Foods. Cub has everything.

Anyways, I meal planned on my way home from the cabin this weekend and made a grocery list. I decided to go to Aldi and filled my cart with mostly produce and ingredients for our meals this week.

Because I am pregnant and it's winter, I am craving warm, comfort food. I decided to make a creamy ham and pea pasta, and thanks to shopping at Aldi, I only spent about $4.73 per person on this meal. We also have leftovers for the entire week and I was able to save and freeze some of the unused ingredients.

Here is a breakdown of the financials…

Pricing

• Frozen Sweet Peas                                 $0.95 (Used about ½ a bag, so about $0.48 for this meal)
• Half Turkey Ham                                      $4.90 (Used half and froze the rest, $2.45 for this meal)
• Parmesan Cheese                                   $2.49 (Used about 1/6 a container…$0.42 for this meal)
• Red Onions                                              $1.89 (Used 1/6 of bag…$0.32 for this meal)
• Sliced White Mushrooms (8 oz.)              $1.89
• Lemons (bag of about 6-7 lemons)         $1.49 (Used 1 lemon…$0.22 for this meal)
• Heavy Whipping Cream                          $1.69
• Farfalle Pasta (2 boxes, 12 oz. each)       $1.98
• Nutmeg                                                    Already had on hand, no cost
• Salt                                                           "   "
• Pepper                                                     "   "
• Butter (1/2 stick or ¼ cup)                        "   "
• Shredded Parmesan Cheese                 "   "

     Total                                                            $9.45 or $4.73 per person (with a week of leftovers)

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Ham & Pea Pasta

Ingredients:

• ½ Onion, chopped
• 8 ounces White Sliced Mushrooms
• Olive Oil (drizzle in pan before cooking onions)
• Zest of 1 small Lemon (could have almost used only ½ lemon)
• ½ stick (¼ cup) Butter
• ½ Cup Grated Parmesan Cheese
• 16 ounces Heavy Whipping Cream
• 1 ½ Cups Diced Cooked Ham (or substitute Turkey Ham)
• 1 ½ Cups Frozen Sweet Peas
• ½ teaspoon Nutmeg
• Pepper to taste
• Salt to taste
• 24 ounces Farfalle Pasta (or pasta of your choice)
• Shredded Parmesan Cheese to taste (sprinkled on top of completed meal)

Directions:

1. Begin by prepping the ingredients.

• Wash produce.
• Chop onions.
• Rinse mushrooms.
• Dice turkey ham.
• Zest the lemon.
  Note: If you don't own a zester, you can peel the very outside of the lemon, avoiding any white pieces, and finely chop the yellow stuff.

2. Drizzle olive oil in a cooking pan and cook the onions and mushrooms over medium heat. Break apart larger pieces of mushrooms as you cook.

3. Add butter and lemon zest. Stir together until melted. 

4. Add grated Parmesan cheese and heavy whipping cream. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to simmer. 

5. Add nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste. Mix in turkey ham and frozen sweet peas, increasing heat to medium-low. 

6. Cook Farfalle pasta (or pasta of your choice) and drain. 

7. Add cream sauce to the pasta. Top with shredded Parmesan cheese and serve warm. 

And voila! Cheers to a little comfort food on a cold winter day. 

If you happen to drop some turkey ham on the floor, you might be lucky enough to have two automatic vacuum cleaners nearby. 

How to Avoid Getting Hangry by Meal Planning

One of the best things I do for my health is meal plan. Each Sunday, I sit down and figure out what Seth and I are going to eat for the rest of the week.

I do this for two reasons: 1) So we are not ordering Pizza Hut on Tuesday night once we have ran out of resources in the fridge and 2) So we can stay somewhat slimmer versions of ourselves and fit into our high school skinny jeans. (JUST kidding. That goal was long gone after we both went to college and discovered beer and Mesa Pizza. Chicken Penne, you have stolen my heart!) I want to fit into last year’s skinny jeans. That is the goal.

I meal plan to save myself from coming home and getting hangry at Seth. I get a bad case of the hangries if I don’t eat, and believe me, you do not want to meet hangry Nicky. Seth and my family know her, and she is not a nice girl.

I discovered this Knock Knock (What to Eat) pad from World Market on one of my “Money Mondays.” (Seth calls it this, since I have Mondays off and I like to spend all of our money. Shout out to all my Money Monday friends, who support my financial spending’s, and participate in similar monetary damage to their bank accounts. You know who you are.)

I love the Knock Knock pad, because it is super easy to use. Plus, it has a magnet on the back, so you can put it up on your fridge. For the price of two lattes, you can purchase a Knock Knock pad online here.

I hope the Knock Knock pad helps you organize and plan your meals better. Since we have started using it, we have been eating in more, eating healthier, and saving more mullah (for Money Mondays).

Now, I am going to go shopping.

Organization Tip: Creating a Workspace

One thing I have found to be extremely beneficial to the organization in my life is my workspace.  I have found that I am more productive, organized and less stressed when I have a workspace.  You might already have one of these and call it your home office or desk.  Whatever you call your workspace, you should make sure it follows these two simple guidelines:

1.      It is organized and free of clutter. You need to put the junk somewhere, and I will give you tips on where and how to do this.

2.      It is personalized. You need to feel “good” and peaceful when you go to your workspace.  Personalizing your workspace is essential to making it feel like it is yours. 

How I Created My Workspace

I recently bought a refurbished desk at an antique store.  If you live in Minnesota, you must check out Buffalo Nickel.  The store has a huge selection of antiques from over 70 different dealers.  Each room is staged differently depending on the dealer’s style.  And it’s awesome.

The reasons I chose an antique desk versus a large unit from a furniture store were endless, but were mainly due to these three factors:

1.      My house is old and small.  With old small houses, you get tiny narrow doorways. I needed a desk that would fit.

2.      Price.  You can find great deals on older antique furniture.

3.      I’m all about refurbished antiques. If it comes with an ornate handle, I am sold.

Now, one would wonder, where do you put all of your desk “stuff?”  When you have two drawers to your desk, you are limited with storage space.  If you create a workspace with an antique desk, you will need somewhere to store all of your papers, files, pens, etc…And this is how the second part of my workspace was created.  My desk was put in a room with two closets, one that was currently in use.  I used the second closet as my storage unit. 

The closet was not “ready to go” in a storage space sense, so I recruited a little help from my husband, Seth.  We went to Home Depot and bought shelves, and he helped me make the storage closet of my dreams.

The best part about having your desk storage in a closet is that you can shut the doors and you don’t have to see it all of the time.

Now, let’s go back to the two guidelines needed for a productive workspace and I will give you some tips and tricks to making this happen:

1.      Organized and free of clutter:

• Only keep the essentials at your workspace.  Since my workspace only has two drawers, I keep the basics such as paperclips, Post-its, tape and pens nearby.  If you do not use certain things on a regular basis, you need to remove these items from your workspace.
•  Keep the top of your workspace free of clutter. I have always found that the more “stuff” I have lying around, the less productive I am. And the research proves this to be true.  Remove the stack of papers that has been weighing you down. Organize them in some type of filing system.  For me, I have a fire-proof safe with my more important documents, and a regular filing cabinet, for less important materials.  
• Organize the space where you are keeping all of your “stuff.”  All of my stuff is in my closet, and the shelves give me space to separate and group like-items. When we were building the storage closet, I also purchased plastic and fabric bins to help with the organization. You can also label these bins, if you would like.  
• Make a “To Be Organized” box.  My “TBO” box is the key to my organization. When I get mail that needs to be filed, I put it in my TBO box. It doesn’t sit on my counter in the kitchen, my workspace or by the couch. It gets put in the box.  I do this for everything I need to keep, including paystubs, medical receipts, even keepsakes (I’m a little crazy and save every thank you card and wedding invitation I receive).  Every two months, I go through my TBO box and organize the pile.  I file the items in my filing cabinet, fireproof safe and keepsake box. The key to having a successful TBO box is that you purge it on a regular basis. I can keep up with it and not feel too overwhelmed with the pile if I organize it every two months. Some people might find that it works for them to organize it every three months, and others will need to do it every two weeks. Whatever works for you, do it. I love my TBO box, because I do not feel pressured to file a piece of mail the day I receive it. I can simply throw it in the box and get to it when I do my purge.

2.      Personalized and peaceful:

• Personalize your workspace with something that makes you smile. I have added a glass jar with buttons and a flower, a lamp, and a gold clock to my space. Why does this work for me? The flower and buttons make me feel good, remind me of my grandma and add a little color to my tabletop, the lamp gives off a warm light when I am working, and the clock lets me know the time. You can personalize your workspace in many different ways, including a framed photo, an award you received or your grandpa’s paperweight.  
• Make sure you “feel good” when you sit down at your workspace. It’s weird, but I get really excited when I look at my workspace. I know it’s a place where I can be extremely productive. It’s cute and warm and totally me. If it makes you happy, you know you’ve created a great workspace.

Now is the time to create your own workspace. Start your own TBO box and watch your spaces become less cluttered. You will find that with an organized and clutter-free workspace, you will feel less stress, more happy and productive.