I love www.5dollardinners.com. I try to make our meals fit into that most nights. Sometimes, if something special is going on, I'll splurge - like today. We all needed a pick me up, and I always have a splurge meal on grocery shopping day. Here's how tonight's dinner broke down for me. I went over, but my BIL joined us making us 5 people, and this is actually two meals since I'll be sending it for lunches tomorrow and having the rice with a salad for lunch tomorrow.

1 lb ground turkey - $1.68 (frozen roll from Wal-Mart by the Turkey Store - awesome deal and I stack these in the freezer)
30 ounces kidney beans - $1.25
Spices - $.50
Tortillas - $1.25 (buy one get one free)
Rice - $.75
canned tomatoes - $.50
can of diced green chilies - $.75
lettuce - $.50
mushrooms - $4 (a grocery day splurge. My family LOVES mushrooms!)
advocado - $1

Total - $11.18

I could have made another meal out of this, but I let everyone serve themselves seconds and they loaded up on the meat and not the rice. ARGH! Next time I'll have to put half in the freezer BEFORE I put dinner on the table. lol

I try to start off my menu planning week with salad and fresh veggies and fruits. By the end of the menu week, I am with frozen or canned veggies, normally in a soup, stew, or pot pie. With my food allergies, I have to make just about everything from scratch, so I don't buy too much processed food. All of my cooking is dairy free and onion free (as well as a bunch of other stuff I'm allergic to also).

Gotta go! Night all. I'm heading to bed and getting a good start to tomorrow. Is it a bad thing to wish for a snow/cold day from school tomorrow for the kids? lol