If you’ve already sent a child/ children back to school, you may feel like the summer is over. Womp. Womp. Come on, it’s not even Labor Day yet! Our grills still have gas to burn! Those zucchinis are still growing like crazy! You may be over the heat (especially Ali, who is currently eight months pregnant ? I can totally empathize, I spent three of six consecutive Augusts 7-9 months pregnant!) But we are still not over the summer meal plans.
We’ll slowly start transitioning to more fall-friendly ingredients… spoiler alert… in September. Until then, may your salads be crisp, your pasta be cool, and your air conditioners efficient.
This shopping list is for Kroger, with regular priced-items. If you shop Kroger regularly, you know they have incredible sales and coupons. As I was loading the shopping list for this particular meal plan, I had more than $30 in coupons for what I was buying. (Find out how to save even more at Kroger here) Additionally, if you can pick up some of the ingredients from your local farmer’s market, you’ll likely save money. Even better, you grab the ingredients from your summer garden (if the deer don’t get to it first ☹ )
If you need an updated list of what
Before you shop
Here are a couple of quick, standard notes and disclaimers that will apply to most of our meal plans. While some plans may feature gluten-friendly or dairy-free or keto-type meals, these plans don’t typically follow any types of restrictions (except for Lindsey, whose household is gluten-free). Email us directly if you have any questions or refer to specific recipe creators where it applies.
Also, we mostly follow USDA recommendations when it comes to portion sizes for meat, etc. That means we stick to 3-4-ounce portions of chicken, beef, fish, etc. We try to stick with as much organic meat as possible, and that access can vary. If you can get your hands on organic turkey, pork, or other cuts of meat, feel free to sub in where desired. See FAQ for more.
Next, we try to keep our shopping list totals to about $150 or less, but that doesn’t include tax. In West Virginia and Ohio, we don’t have food sales tax, but Ali and Lindsey do in Tennessee, so keep that in mind when you’re budgeting.
Finally, we all do the best we can when it comes to eating mostly organic, but we aren’t going to find every ingredient every time that’s organic. If you find something on our shopping list that you can’t get organic, simply do the best you can with your options. Conversely, if you CAN find something that’s organic that we have listed as “conventional” on the list, feel free to grab that option.
Another disclaimer: Prices, product availability, and coupons will obviously vary from region to region.
Greek Quinoa Salad
BBQ Chicken
Classic Taco Night
Citrus Chicken Salad
Summer Veggie Pasta
Barbeque Chicken Pizza
BLTs
Simple Sloppy Joes
Garlic Herb Chicken Salad (Pinch of Yum)
Grilled chicken Sausage and Veggies
Greek Chickpea Chopped Salad
One-pot Chicken Parmesan
Pepperoni pizza rollups
Fish Tacos w/ Lime Cumin Slaw (Budget Bytes)
