With grocery prices reaching all-new highs, it can be hard to find nutritious meals for your family. Today we’re creating a healthy meal for a family of 4 for less than $15!
What can families do to save on their grocery bill?
Meat is sky-high, but warm comfort dishes are great for winter and an easy way to use less expensive cuts of meat. You can even use leftover bones for a very nutritious broth.
Make sure you have a snack before you head to the grocery store! If you’re hungry when you’re shopping you’re going to spend more.
Plan your meals around what’s on sale that week at your local store. You can even have the kids help in the kitchen trying out new recipes to make it into a family activity.
Cook in large batches and then freeze easy to prepare meals that will last all week. Nobody expects you to cook a gourmet meal from scratch after work on a Wednesday after homework with the kids and other activities.
Make sure you note if you’re throwing away food each week. Stop buying that bag of greens that’s well intended, but is consistently thrown away or if you are only using half the bag, then now is the time to explore new recipes like this one to use up your leftovers.
INGREDIENTS
- 16oz Seashell pasta
- 1 1/2 cup Canned corn
- 1 can Black beans
- 1 cup Cherry tomatoes
- 1/2 cup Red onion
- 1/2 cup Herbs
- 4-6 tbsp Olive oil
- 1 Lime
- 1 tbsp Honey or Brown Sugar
- 1 tsp Garlic powder
- 1 tsp Cumin
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Pepper
- 1 Head of lettuce
- Protein of your choice
METHOD
Start with cooking your pasta.
In a large bowl combine the cooked pasta and all of your other ingredients except for the lettuce and mix well. Explains the price and nutrition of each item as he adds.
Again this is all about swapping out for what you have in the pantry to save on your grocery bill. If you don’t have honey, use maple syrup, or even brown sugar. If you don’t have red onion, swap for a sweet onion or use alternate canned veggies.
In this case I’m opting to use canned Tuna that I found on sale as my protein.
How do you prepare your boat?
Carefully pull each lettuce leaf off and spoon your pasta, tuna, veggie mixture onto each leaf.
Use the lettuce leaves as boats to hold an serve from.
As a bonus, feel free to grate on some Parmigiano Reggiano if you have some on hand.
Also if you’re feeling spicy, add a spicy mayo sauce as an extra kick. You can add it on the side or put it right on top.
