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Super Easy Menu Plan to Save on Groceries and Spend Less Time in the Kitchen

This week’s easy menu plan will help you save money on groceries, eat in all week and spend less time in the kitchen

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It’s the beginning of a new month and for February I’m doing an eat in all month challenge. Of course, I don’t want to break the bank so it’s always a goal to eat healthy meals and save on groceries. My goal for this week’s super easy menu plan is:

  • to save money on groceries,
  • eat in all week and
  • spend less time in the kitchen!

I’ll be using Plan to Eat this week and a combo of family recipes and new 5 ingredients or less recipes to get this done.

Last Week’s Menu Plan: goal to eat in 6 of 7 days

  • Copycat Carrabba’s Chicken Marsala (this is the closest recipe I could find since the original recipe on Carrabba’s blog I got a few years ago was taken down) with cauliflower mashed potatoes, penne and red marinara sauce
  • Beef Burritos with Green Chilies from passionate penny pincher freezer meals with Trader Joe’s cauliflower mexican rice, Spanish Rice. I used ground beef instead of steak just for the sake of saving money and it was pretty tasty. I added some of my homemade taco seasoning too and it made a lot so we had plenty of leftovers for nachos for lunches. It’s worth making again.
  • Baked Sweet and Sour Chicken, broccoli, white rice, cauliflower rice and dumplings
  • Cheesy Tortellini from passionate penny pincher freezer meals, garlic toast and salad. Kids loved it, it’s a keeper and a good one for the day before track meets and soccer games!
  • frozen pizza
  • Trader Joe’s gyros, tortillas, low carb tortillas, hummus, tzatziki, fries, lettuce, kalamata olives, and cherry pepper hoagie spread

It was my goal this week to eat in 6 days and I did it! Hubby and I did have a date out once for dinner and we hadn’t done that in ages!

This Week’s Menu Plan: goal to eat in all week!

New Done for You 5 Ingredients or Less Magic Menu Planning Box

You know I love Passionate Penny Pincher products and their magic menu plans. I have purchased several of the meal plan pdfs (freezer meals, slow cooker volume 1, and summer meals) and they just introduced a 5 ingredients or less menu plan recipe box with physical recipe cards. What great timing with the rising price of groceries and my constant effort to make cooking easier.

In the 5 ingredients or less menu planning box you get:

  • 12 weeks of 5 ingredients or less menus (5 dinners and 1 dessert)
  • pantry staples list
  • 72 4”x6” recipe cards
  • 12 reusable grocery shopping lists
  • daily family grace
  • 5 blank recipe cards
  • Sturdy box to keep cards safe in shipment
  • All cards printed in full color
  • Imported
  • Bonuses!
    • free pdf download of menus, recipes and grocery lists (i love the pdfs so i can copy and paste the ingredients of our favorites into my meal planning tool)
    • editable recipe card pdf (would be great to print your own recipe cards!)
    • active PPP summer club facebook group with even more great ideas

If you get the box, i recommend these lovely recipe tins so your recipes stay well protected. This would make a beautiful gift for busy moms!

The 5 ingredient or less meal plan also comes in a pdf only version which saves you money. I print them up and keep them in a binder. Then i take them out when i need it, photocopy the grocery list and hang the recipes inside sheet protectors on a mini command hook stuck to the inside of my kitchen cabinet. This keeps the recipe out of the way and clean, i’m a messy cook!

These menu planning boxes are great deals because they save so much time menu planning and these recipes in particular are easy to put together since there have 5 ingredients or less.

Of the meal plans we’ve tried, most of them are really delicious recipes and it makes a lot of food for my hungry crew of men. I usually do 4 of the dinners each week and it gives us plenty for leftovers 2 nights for dinner and every day for lunch for hubby and I.

Launch Deals!

Since the 5 ingredients or less meal planning box just launched, there are some fantastic deals you can snag until 2/6/23:

bundles include the pdf versions of the recipes and grocery lists, editable recipe card pdf and Facebook community memberships.

If you miss the sale, you can get $5 off at Passionate Penny Pincher with this coupon. Every little bit helps when saving money!

Grab the 5 ingredient magic meal planning box or 5 ingredients or less meal plan pdf , you won’t regret it! I’ll be cooking from my 5 ingredients or less meal plan and the sides menu plan pdf a lot in February and the celebrations menu plan pdf for the Super Bowl if you want to cook along with me and try out this method to make cooking easier! I bet you and your family will love it as much as mine!

If you’re new here, grab my favorite meal planning resources! 

Grocery Restock List Freebie!

I made you a copy of my grocery restock list. If you want it, subscribe to my simple cooking newsletter and it’s linked in each of the emails I send out. You’ll get my weeklyish menu plans, cooking tips, meal planning resources AND my free spices to keep in the pantry printable so you can make your own super easy and delicious seasoning mixes to save money and are better for your health.

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The restock list has the most commonly used items in our household. I print them up and hang it on the side of the fridge so whenever we run out of anything, we can highlight/write in what we need. This really helps me not forget anything that I or my hungry crew needs. 


You can rearrange the restock list in the order of your favorite grocery store’s aisles. It’s a huge timesaver if your list is in the right order so you aren’t running all over the store and backtracking.  

My Favorite Meal Planning and Prepping Tools and Cookbooks

If you like to plan on paper, the Erin Condren Meal Planner is my favorite. You can see how I use it on my Instagram.  (the newer versions are less colorful on the inside and have some additional pages like a price tracker, recipe log and conversion chart which is great!)

If you prefer digital meal planning, Plan to Eat is my favorite tool. I just renewed my subscription for the next year, it’s a super deal and a great time saver. Get a 14 day trial to see if it works for you before you commit to a one year subscription.

Simple Meal Planning - Plan to Eat

Other Meal Planning Freebies in the Subscriber Library

Be sure to head to my Exclusive Subscriber Library and grab my free meal planner and homemade seasoning mixes) I’m still looking for a good blender and food processor so if you have one you love, let me know!


I hope you enjoyed this easy menu plan and got some great ideas on recipes to make for your family so you can eat well, save money and spend less time in the kitchen!

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