Eating at Home More - Meal Kit Delivery

We just moved. We moved 4 miles away from our previous house into a wonderful new (to us) home.  More bedrooms, more space, more land!

Because moving is hard and EXPENSIVE we have been eating more at home.

Let me back up a bit.  Over the past several years since the meal kits have come on the market, I have been interested in trying them but every time I go to sign up, my budget minded brain says, "you can make this same meal cheaper than they can deliver the food to you", and I don't bite.

About a month ago, I was sitting in the car waiting for my son to join me for an impromptu lunch.  I had been packing all morning and was looking forward to our lunch together, just me and him.  While waiting, I was scrolling social media on my phone and yet another meal kit delivery program popped up on my feed.  For some reason, I clicked.  And for some reason, it finally clicked in my brain that it was actually more budget-friendly than I thought. Why did my thought process change? I think it had a lot to do with me being tired of eating out all the time.  I was tired of the same end of the day conversation we have. "what's for dinner?", "I don't know what do you want?", "I don't know, what do you want?", "I have chicken.", "I don't want chicken.", "It's late. By the time we fix dinner it will be even later. Let's just go out and eat.", "Kids! Put your shoes on. We are going out to eat!" And we go out.  Not to a fast food restaurant usually but to a sit down restaurant.

So here is my normal weekly money routine for food: (Family of 5, 1 in college and home on weekends, 2 in upper teens - hit or miss if they are home for dinner)

Grocery store: $200 - I end up throwing at least a third of the food away eventually because we don't eat it.
Restaurants: Breakfasts $30 (one to two times a week)
                     Lunches $100 ($25 to 30 each time we go and sometimes that is 4 to 5 times a week)
                     Dinners $350 (3 to 4 times a week and usually $75 to $100 each time)
Total:  $680 a week!!!

We also go out to eat a lot because my kids are sick of what we fix when we are in a hurry.  We have gotten into a rut and have been eating the same things over and over again.

You know (from my past posts) that we have meal planned and that works for a little while but we end up in the same boat over time, fixing the same meals.

So, that day, sitting in the parking lot, all this information running through my head, I clicked the meal kit ad.  Suddenly, it all made sense to me.

This meal kit gives me 3 meals a week for 4 people.  I spend about $75 including the shipping price a week.  I pick the meals which rotates so I can't pick the same ones over and over again week in and week out. This kit is based on whole foods.  If you have mashed potatoes on the menu, you start with whole potatoes then mash them. Nothing is prepackaged.  It is all fresh ingredients. Most meals take less than an hour from pulling out the recipe card to putting it on the table.  This includes finding all the ingredients in the box, washing all the veggies, cutting everything up, cooking or baking, and then plating. Best of all I don't get half way through a recipe and realize I don't have an ingredient I need. Even more fun, we all have LOVED every single meal we have cooked!!

So for my budget I went from $680 a week to:

Meal kit program: $75
Grocery store: $150
Restaurants: $150 (fast food lunches are reduced because we usually have left overs, we still eat or take out once or twice a week)
New Total: $375 That is a savings of $305 a week!!!

Wow!!! We use Every Plate right now as our meal kit program.  It has an app that you can use on your phone to choose your meals.  I am not giving you a special link because I don't want you to think I am seeking out affiliate credits.  I am not.  I am just giving you information that I have learned.

***added note.  Because our nation is "social distancing" right now in the wake of the Coronavirus spread, I am even more thankful that I have this meal kit service coming right to my door once a week. I am thinking about looking into a second meal kit program to further help us bring whole fresh foods straight to our door.

Tri Tip Steak with Mr. Yoshida's Sauce

The other day we were in Costco and sampling their new foods.  We came across a lady in the meat aisle and she was sampling tri tip steaks.  She had marinated it with Mr. Yoshida's Original Gourmet sauce.  Oh my goodness!  This was steak heaven on a toothpick.  My whole family went CRAZY over this!  I mean the "mom you have to get this!" kind of crazy!

So I asked the lady how she prepared it and got the ingredients while I was there.  The next night we had Tri tip steak with Mr. Yoshida's Sauce and veggie kababs.  I served them over rice.

The sauce is a sweet and tangy sauce, similar to an Asian stir-fry sauce.  It is delicious with steak and veggies.  So delicious that the next day I cut up the left over steak and veggies into smaller pieces, made some more rice, and stir fried the steak and veggies.  Super yummy.

To cook the tri tip I cut it into a little larger than bite-sized pieces and marinated them for about 30 minutes in the sauce.  I cut the veggies into chunks and then put the veggies and meat on skewers.  I grilled them for about 8 minutes total, until the meat seemed done enough for us (medium).  I let the kababs rest for about 3-4 minutes before serving.

You can also cook tri tip steak on the grill in large long lengths.  Cut against the grain to make a more tender slice.

I know you can get Mr. Yoshida's Original Gourmet sauce at Costco.  I looked at Kroger when I was there but didn't see it.

Freezing and Putting Up

Yesterday we had a bunch of peaches that were starting to get soft, like too soft for eating.  I cut them up and peeled them and tossed them in a ziploc bag to freeze.  I plan to use these eventually to make peach jam.  I just don't have time right now.  So in the freezer they go.

I also cut and froze onions and red peppers too.  I will take some of these out to put in recipes, spaghetti sauces, and meat loaf.


Just a reminder that we can still salvage veggies and fruits that get a bit past their prime by freezing.