Hey, Lacey here with the Sweet Pea Chef and one of the things I hear it the most about
eating healthy is that it's just too expensive.
I want to show today that you can totally eat healthy on a budget and still be full,
satisfied and have nutritious, delicious meal.
So today, what I have done is I went to Whole Foods with the goal of getting five meals
for five days, all those things under a budget of $75.
And I am happy to say that I only spent $71.44 which means I had a little money left over
to spare.
Let me show you what I bought.
For protein, I got chicken thighs, chicken breast, plain Greek yogurt, peanut butter,
walnuts and lean ground beef.
For produce, I've got bananas, apples, a yellow onion, garlic, bell peppers, sweet potatoes,
green onions, spinach, a lemon and a bag of carrots.
For my starches, I purchased rolled oats and brown rice which I bought in the bulk section
so I could totally get the amount I needed and at a cheaper price.
Finally, I also purchased honey, raisins, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, and Dijon mustard.
The only thing that I did not purchased for this challenge was olive oil and your basic
pantry, seasonings and spices.
All right.
So now that we've gone over the groceries, it's time to prep our meals.
We're going to make three large meals and two snacks for an entire week.
First, let's go ahead and get the starches cooking, since they will take the longest.
So combine the brown rice in a large pot of water with a small sprinkle of kosher salt
and bring to a boil.
Then simmer until the water is fully absorbed.
In a separate deep pot, combine the oats with water and bring to a boil over high heat.
Once boiling, reduce the heat and cook until the oats have fully absorbed the water.
Now, let's get the sweet potatoes going.
To do this, preheat your oven to 400 degrees, then wash the sweet potatoes very well and
pat dry.
Make sure to poke a few holes in each sweet potato with a fork.
Wrap the sweet potatoes individually in thin foils, sprinkled with just a little olive
oil.
Place on a rimmed baking sheet and then roast them in the oven until they are tender, about
30 to 60 minutes depending on their size.
To make the Dijon Roasted Chicken combine the chicken thighs, Dijon mustard, lemon juice,
kosher salt, pepper, and dried thyme and mix to evenly coat the chicken.
Cook the chicken thighs in a hot skillet over medium high heat until well-browned on one
side.
Then flip the chicken over, turn off the heat and add the carrots on and around the chicken
in the pan.
Transfer the pan to the oven and roast for 30 minutes or until the chicken is cooked
through.
Now that the oatmeal is fully cooked, stir in the honey and cinnamon.
We are going to top with chopped walnuts and freshly sliced banana.
I recommend not placing the bananas until the day that you are using them to make them
the most fresh.
Looks like our sweet potatoes and our chicken thighs are both ready to remove from the oven.
So let's go ahead and do that and then reduce the heat to 375 degrees for the stock bell
peppers.
A pro tip is to take advantage of the sales.
So that's why, when I saw that bell peppers and lean ground beef are both on sale, I grab
those to make stuffed bell peppers for our lunches.
To start, we need to make the fillings so in a large deep skillet over medium high heat,
add olive oil, the ground beef, onion, garlic, kosher salt, black pepper, chili powder, oregano
and paprika and stir to combine.
We're going to cook the meat until it's well-browned and the onion is tender.
Add the diced tomatoes, tomato sauce and the cooked brown rice and stir to combine.
Now we are going to carefully slice off the tops of each bell pepper, leaving as much
of the pepper as possible.
Clean out each pepper and wash thoroughly and then placed each pepper in an oven-safe
baking dish and gently spoon that rice and meat mixture into the hollowed out peppers.
If there happens to be extra stuffing, you can spread it around the peppers in the baking
dish.
Now, cover the peppers with tensile aluminum foil and bake for 45 minutes or until the
peppers are tender.
Let's go ahead and prepare the chicken for the sweet potatoes.
Season the chicken breast with a little kosher salt, ground black pepper and garlic powder
and cook them in olive oil over medium high heat until they are well-browned on both sides
and fully cooked through, flipping occasionally.
Once they are cooked, removed from the heat and dice into cubes.
Now, toss the spinach into that same pan and allow it to mostly wilt tossing constantly.
To assemble the sweet potatoes, slice a deep slit from one end to the other with a knife,
then crack the potato open by squeezing the end towards one another.
Top with that wilted spinach, the cubed chicken, a dollop of plain Greek yoghurt and then sliced
green onions.
Now to make the lighter of our two snacks, which is what I used for the mornings before
lunch, cut an apple into slices and add a couple of tablespoons of peanut butter and
a few raisins.
Just like with the bananas, we are going to slice these apples the day that we are going
to use them to keep them as fresh as possible.
All right, so let's go over our meals for the week.
For our breakfast, we have cinnamon and honey oatmeal with walnut and sliced banana.
For our light snack, we have fresh apple slices with peanut butter and raisins.
For our lunch, we have stuffed bell peppers.
For our heavier afternoon snack, we have a baked sweet potato topped with spinach, chicken
and Greek yoghurt.
And for our dinner, we have our delicious Dijon Roasted Chicken and carrots.
To get the full PDF of all these recipes plus a principal grocery list, click the link in
the description.
And if you enjoyed this five-day meal plan video on a budget, check out the "Take Back
Your Health Academy" where I provide a new meal plan video just like this every month
to our members.
Thanks, I'll see you next time.