Eating healthy on a budget doesn’t have to be tasteless or boring. This weekly meal plan includes spinach & white bean enchiladas, spinach bacon cheese quiche with sweet potato crust, roasted rosemary pork loin, Instant Pot honey sesame chicken, and more!
As someone who has lost 100 pounds, healthy eating is important to me, but I also don’t want to spend a fortune doing it. Here is my weekly meal plan – how I can maintain my weight loss with healthy eating on a budget.
It’s just my husband and I eating most nights, so we always have leftover nights planned in and I will be the first person to admit that my meals are only healthy-ish. I try to eat balanced meals with lots of veggies, but I also don’t like feeling deprived. I love to eat a variety of different flavors, proteins, fruits, and veggies and this is what works for me to maintain my weight loss.
I modify recipes all the time to fit my tastes, my budget, and make them healthier, so I include tips for that, as well.
Affordable Healthy Meal Plan
Budget tips for the week:
- Eggs make a cheap & filling breakfast choice. Just one egg has 6 grams of protein and at $1.39/dozen, that is less than 12 cents per egg.
- Meatless Monday. Meat can easily be the most expensive part of a meal, so using low-cost proteins like beans can make a filling, inexpensive meal.
Breakfasts & Lunches
This week’s breakfasts:
Spinach, Bacon, Cheese Quiche With Sweet Potato Crust
This tastes all kinds of amazing! It was a hit and I’ll definitely be making it again. I’m a huge fan of sweet potato crusts because they are so much healthier than the traditional pie crust with lots of flour and butter.
Healthy changes:
- I used white whole wheat flour for the crust
- I used 3/4 c. cheese instead of 1 1/4
- I added an extra cup of spinach (it cooks down so much, you can hardly tell!)
Sunday Meal Prep
This Sunday, to get ready for the week, I prepped:
- Spinach bacon quiche
Healthy Snacks:
- sugar snap peas
- peaches
- hummus
Lunches
I eat leftovers every day for lunch and so does Adam unless we don’t have them available (which usually only happens once or twice a month).
With his leftovers and his breakfast, I always pack:
- a Nature Valley Protein Peanut Butter Dark Chocolate granola bar
- a piece of fruit (an apple, peach, grapes, watermelon)
- sometimes I add an easy-to-eat vegetable (baby carrots, sugar snap peas, baby bell peppers)
If we don’t have leftovers, Adam loves eating the Starkist tuna creation pouches on multigrain bread with a little bit of mayo.
I usually go for veggies and roasted red pepper hummus.
Meatless Monday
BudgetBytes’ Spinach White Bean Enchiladas and bell pepper strips
This recipe was great! Even though I love flour tortillas, I opt for corn most often because they have less calories and more fiber.
I almost never use pepper jack cheese because I’m a wimp when it comes to spice, but it was flavorful and delcious here!
Tuesday
Roasted Rosemary Pork Loin, potatoes, & carrots with spinach salad
The homemade rub on this pork had lots of garlic and rosemary, but it was much better with some of the pan juices (I made them with chicken broth instead of wine).
As always when using cuts of meat like this, make sure you cut off any visible fat.
I added a pan of baby carrots and potatoes to the oven for the last 40 minutes of the pork cooking.
Wednesday
The Girl on Bloor’s Instant Pot Honey Sesame Chicken
Next time I’ll use a little less sriracha (I used the lower end of the 1-2 tsp recommendation), but other than that, this recipe is fantastic!
I love the crunchy texture of the fresh veggies (I doubled the bell peppers and next time I’ll double the snap peas, too) and the rice noodles are a nice change from traditional noodles.
Thursday
Leftovers
Friday
Basil Pesto Tilapia, Quinoa & Brown Rice, and sweet mini bell peppers
This meal was a quick throw-together meal after a busy Friday. The tilapia is from Costco’s freezer section and the Seeds of Change Quinoa & Brown Rice mix was also from Costco.
I love being able to throw together a filling, healthy dinner in just a few minutes!
Saturday
Out to eat at the dinner theater
Sunday
Hamburgers, mango black bean salad, pasta salad, fresh veggies, fruit, chips, tzatziki dip
This was my nephew’s birthday meal, so most of this was made at his request.
The mango black bean salad was SO good. I never think about mixing black beans and fruit, but the flavors and textures were perfect.
*Healthy tip – don’t snack on chips while you’re standing around talking. Put a portion size on a plate and when that’s gone, stop with the chips. They can be super addicting and it’s easy to eat half a bag without even realizing it.