Green Mami: Meal (and Money) Saving Menus

You might not think about it but, part of living green is not wasting and for me, a big part of that is food.  I am guilty of not eating leftovers or not planning my meals right and wasting food.  Afterwards, I feel really guilty.  These days I need to be also conscious of the fact that I'm trying to save money while giving my family nutritious meals. Here's my problem: I'm creative and fabulous at all kinds of things.  But when it comes to cooking, I have a hard time putting meals together in a jiffy. I cannot whip up a four course meal with flour, rice, garlic and bread.  While my line sisters call me MacGyver, I'm afraid that I sorely let them down in trying to MacGyver my way through an unplanned meal.

I've been researching and thinking and thinking and thinking.  Finally, this morning I decided to just go for it and see how this turns out.  I signed up for e-mealz.  Initially I didn't want to because it seemed like more work.  But, let's face it, if we are trying to do something good for the earth and for our families, it's going to take a tad bit of work.

I got my plan for the week (though I'm all late since my meal plan is published on Thursdays).  Here's what I like:

I can select a meal plan based on where I shop which is awesome because they take into account the weekly sales at that particular store.  I selected the Walmart meal plan but I think that I can make changes if I need to. There's also a generic "any store" plan.  Not only do they have their plans by store but you can also select dietary needs (low carb, glutten-free, etc).

You get your meals AND you get your shopping list. Hello?! How easy is this?!  Here's a sample of what you would get: Walmart Meal Plan.  The only thing is that you have to make a commitment.  So, it comes out to $15 for 3 months worth of meals.  That's about $1.25 each week for a little organization in your life.  I found a coupon that saves you $2.50 (simply type in DAVE in the coupon code box).  So that's only $12.50 for the 3 months (you do the math on the weekly b/c I refuse!).

So I am off this afternoon to go food shopping in order to not waste money or food. I have my plan all set and I am on my way to being a greener mami for it!

Now, if I can only get someone to give me a snack plan...

Check out this link if you'd like to sign up for e-mealz:

While I am not being paid to write this post, e-mealz does have a referral service.  I'm trying this and hope you try it with me but as usual, I'm more interested in passing the information along to you so that you can make better decisions and have an easier life as opposed to because I'm a money hungry mami (well, I'm kinda that these days but, I just want what's best for you! How's that for a mami line ;-) )