This week I am feeling stressed and burned out. I decided to try asking Chat GPT for help. I thought it would not only give me a bit of a break, but would also be a fun experiment to share on my blog. I am not a food photographer, so don't judge me there, but I'm overall happy with how things went. Here is the prompt I gave it:
"Please come up with a meal plan and grocery list for me for this week that is budget friendly. I have lots of cuts of steak, roasts, and ground beef already. I also have some pork chops in the freezer."
This is the menu it came up with:
"Night 1: Ground beef tacos with rice and beans
Night 2: Pork Chops with mashed potatoes and green beans
Night 3: Roast (slow cooker) with carrots and potatoes
Night 4: Cheeseburger pasta (ground beef + noodles)
Night 5: Steak stir fry with frozen veggies and rice
Night 6: BBQ pulled beef sandwiches (using roast) + coleslaw
Night 7: Leftovers or breakfast for dinner
Breakfast ideas
- Oatmeal with fruit
- Scrambled eggs and toast
- Greek yogurt with granola
- Smoothies
Lunch ideas
- Leftovers
- Tuna salad sandwiches
- Quesadillas
- Egg salad on toast"
Here is the Grocery list it gave me. This is what I used to complete my shopping.
"Produce
- Onions (2-3)
- Garlic
- Potatoes
- Carrots (1 bag)
- Bell Peppers (2-3)
- Green beans (fresh or frozen)
- Cabbage or bagged coleslaw mix
- Bananas or apples
- Spinach or mixed greens (optional)
Dairy
- Milk
- Butter
- Shredded Cheese
- Eggs
- Yogurt
Pantry
- Rice
- Pasta (elbow or penne)
- Canned black or pinto beans
- Canned tomatoes (1-2 cans)
- Taco shells or tortillas
- Bread
- Peanut Butter
- Oatmeal
- Granola (optional)
- Flour + baking powder (if you want to make pancakes)
Condiments/seasonings
- Salsa
- BBQ Sauce
- Ketchup/Mustard
- Basic Spices
Frozen
- Mixed stir-fry veggies
- Frozen fruit for smoothies"
Luckily I didn't have to buy a lot of this since I had a lot on hand already. There were also a couple things (like peanut butter) that I was running low on and needed to restock. So here's what I actually bought and how much it cost me:
Produce
Garlic (I bought a jar of the minced stuff)...........$11.99
Potatoes (10lb bag)................................................$4.99
Carrots (1.33 lb).....................................................$1.58
Bell Peppers (2)......................................................$3.98
Cabbage..................................................................$1.57
Bananas.....….........................................................$1.58
Salad mix bag.........................................................$2.99
Tomato....................................................................$0.88
Dairy
Eggs...................................................................... $3.99
Egg restock (from the neighbor's hens) .................$5.00
Raw Milk(from a local dairy)...............................$10.00
Pantry
Hamburger buns.....................................................$3.00
Peanut Butter........................................................$10.99
Frozen
Green beans...........................................................$2.69
Mixed stir-fry veggies...........................................$3.29
TOTAL: (not including milk and 2nd carton of eggs) $52.52
You may have noticed that a couple items I bought weren't on the shopping list ChatGPT generated (hamburger buns and tomatoes). It did say bread, which would have worked, but I prefer hamburger buns for a BBQ sandwich, and since I knew I was going to have a busy week, I didn't feel up to making homemade bread anyway. I also added a fresh tomato to the list to put on the tacos rather than canned tomatoes.
Night One
For night one, we had tacos. I made the tacos seasoning myself out of spices I already had, used leftover homemade refried beans, and made some Spanish rice to go on the side. We had corn tortillas already, as well as sour cream, and hot sauce. I also diced up a tomato I had bought.
Night Two
Night two was pork chops. My husband was in charge of this dinner and decided he wanted to an Asian-inspired version. Rather than serving with mashed potatoes, he served it with rice. He seasoned the pork chops with salt and pepper and grilled them, and cooked a green beans with soy sauce, garlic, salt, and pepper in a cast iron. He served it with additional soy sauce, and some sweet soy sauce.
Night Three
Night three we did the BBQ pulled beef sandwiches. We put the roast in the instant pot with BBQ sauce and seasonings, shredded it, and served it on hamburger buns with homemade coleslaw and extra BBQ sauce. Delicious!
Night Four
Night four, I did a pot roast using the leftover BBQ meat. I threw it in the slow cooker with some potatoes, carrots, and onions, and added some beef broth so it wouldn't burn. Since the meat was already seasoned, I went easy on the seasoning and it turned out great!
Night Five
We actually skipped a couple nights because we had dinner with relatives both nights, but then we were back at it with "cheeseburger pasta." I'm not sure if its what was intended, but I made homemade hamburger helper. I served it alongside a green salad with ranch.
Night 6
This is the night I had to restock eggs. I had used all of ours for breakfasts, rice pudding, and cookies. Since I had to buy eggs, I opted to forgo the meat in this meal to make it a bit cheaper. I did a fried rice with the stir fry veggies instead and used a couple of the eggs for protein.
Night 7
This would have been the night we had leftovers, but since we missed a few days, I opted to freeze our leftover pot roast for another day. We were out of eggs as well, so while I could have made pancakes and bacon with no eggs, I opted to declare the challenge over and just go to the store since it has been over a week already.
All in all I think it worked really great! I was impressed because normally my grocery trips are more expensive. I felt like we had plenty of food, and even though the meals were simple, they were tasty and healthy. I didn't end up using the bell peppers it had me get, but I used them the next week for dinner.
I want to try it again but buy my meat this time to see how that affects the cost. We saved a lot by having meat at home from hunting, so it would be interesting to see what it would like if we didn't have that resource. Stay tuned!
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