A Good Ten Dollar Meal

     I strive to be one of those moms that successfully not only plans her meals out a week in advance, but also ensures she has all the necessary ingredients, AND remembered to take the meat out of the freezer in time...when and if that ever happens I'll let you know. So, that leaves the same pattern of that first half hour out of work being "what the hell do I feed these kids tonight?"

     Last night I was craving tacos and I remembered the last time we were in Food City (we had just popped into the nearest store for water) they had 3 packs of different taco meat for $20. Now that was last summer, but I thought what the hell, we went to check if they still had it and they did not. BUT they did have a complete fajita meal kit with veggies, chicken, and beef for ten bucks! So we grabbed a thing of corn tortillas for less than two bucks, a dollar bag of tortilla chips and salsa for $3.99, some jalapenos and onions to grill and had the most delicious fajita night ever! "That was a good ten dollar meal" my husband said after we were done. Now was it an even ten bucks? No, after the additional purchases it was just under $20 but still, and as he pointed out was about what we'd have spent at Taco Bell and wouldn't have been as healthy or nearly as satisfying! 

    What I'd like you to take away from this blog post is three things:

1) Healthier options. Are fajitas with chips and salsa a "super food", well no. But homemade Mexican food is definitely healthier and less greasy than the fast food options out there, and we didn't just down soda like we would have at some place like Taco Bell or Filibertos. Since we were at the grocery store anyway we got juice and water to go with our meal. 

2) Fast food can still come from your own kitchen! This meal took maybe ten minutes to make. These types of meal kits, when appropriately priced, can be a very convenient, quick meal when you're either short on time or just didn't prepare for dinner that night; maybe you have friends or family coming over last minute? Instead of throwing down cash at the nearest fast food restaurant, spend a little less money and just a tad bit more time running into a store and grabbing a pre-made kit like this. I guarantee it will taste better! 

3) Don't be a store snob! I'm guilty of it myself, shopping ate the "better stores" rather than the cheaper option. But the truth is you're not getting a huge difference in quality. In fact many times the products sold at both stores came from the exact same place! I was actually kind of shocked to see some of the produce at Food City was better quality than what I typically buy at Frys. So we've agreed to make an effort to shop there more. I bought a few extra things while we there because the prices were just phenomenal on some things! I walked out with a double package of pot chuck roast, the fajita kit and makings mentioned above, four different types of drinks, creamer, cereal, and additional veggies for just around $60. That was a pretty significant decrease from the $80-$100 we'll spend at Frys or Wal-Mart on a similar shopping trip.  So step out of your comfort zone once in awhile and you just might find something awesome!