Recap: $5 Dinners Workshop

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Yesterday was the big day! A chance to meet some fellow bloggers, while learning about frugal meal planning. Two of my favorite things!

I attended a local $5 Dollars Dinners Workshop, led by the brilliant Erin of $5Dinners.com. Erin actually lives in Ohio, but returned to her old DFW stomping grounds for the weekend.

Here is the lovely Miss Erin in action:


Can you believe she was actually a bit camera shy? The 2-hour workshop covered a lot of information. In the room were about 30 women, and even a few men, who came to hear Erin’s best tips and tricks. She really does make healthy meals every night for her family for 5 dollars or less!

A few key points from the workshop:

  • The key to frugal dinners is meal planning. Something I know, but don’t implement often enough. Erin plans her meals one month a time {gasp!}, but I recommend starting with one week.
  • Successful meal planning will benefit not only your budget, but your family’s health, nutrition, and your mental sanity!
  • Erin uses a magnetic dry-erase calendar on her fridge to write out the plans. You can start with your family’s favorite meals, use what you have in the pantry, and write out a grocery list based on what is on sale.
  • Of course, planning $5 meals involves coupons, so Erin covered some basics of matching coupons with sales, using the Grocery Game, and stockpiling.

Erin prefers lots of fresh produce, which she only buys on sale. She used the example of broccoli and asparagus, which are currently on sale at local stores for $1.00-$1.49 per pound, your target price for fresh produce.

Here she drizzled it with a bit of olive oil and lemon juice, and sauteed until bright green. Perfection!


She also focused on the protein portion of the meal. To achieve a complete meal for $5 or less, your target price for the protein (chicken, beef, turkey, pork, etc.) should be $2.50 or less total.

A good price for chicken is $1.77-$1.99 per pound. Erin stressed that it’s important to let go of “boneless/skinless” preferences, and go with the best price.

Here, she used bone-in split chicken breast. She combined it with canned tomatoes (the only vegetable that she prefers to buy canned), a can of tomato sauce, and italian seasonings. Baked for about an hour, and voila!

This photo honestly does not do it justice. It was absolutely delicious! Very tender, and seasoned just enough.


After the chicken was cooked, Erin taught us how she makes homemade stock with the bones. She places the bones in a deep pot, adds water, simmers, then strains. This way, she stockpiles the cooled broth in ziploc bags and freezes them. There is little waste, and she always has healthy, homemade stock on hand!


Erin’s meals are simple, fresh, and healthy. I am so inspired to tackle some meal-planning! Of course, this will be much easier when I am no longer pregnant. Here I am sampling the finished product:


After the workshop was over, I joined four other bloggers for some coffee and girl time. Thanks to the blogosphere, none of us were strangers!


This is Stephanie, me (and baby), Amber, Erin, and Rachel. We had a wonderful time getting to know each other better. Meeting other bloggers in person is such a delight!

A big thanks to Erin for this fun and informative workshop. I even recruited a few of my MOPS friends to go, who are now inspired to start couponing! I myself just might be inspired to host a local couponing workshop. Stay tuned!



Comments

  1. Jen - Balancing beauty and bedlam says

    Sounds like such fun. I met Erin at Blissdom, and was so excited when she shared she was going to start doing these workshops.

  2. Amber @ Classic Housewife says

    Ooh, you got really good pics of the food. 🙂 I’m hungry again!! 🙂

    It was soo much fun meeting you. 🙂

  3. Casey M says

    You are just so darn cute with that belly (not sure if you FEEL cute…but you sure look it!!)! 🙂 I have recently started Meal-Planning (Erin’s website is one of the places I use for recipes) and it REALLY does make a difference in $$. I did not meal plan at ALL last week and spent an extra $30+ running out to buy last minute items for dinner. So take the extra time and meal-plan..you’ll be glad you did! 🙂

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