Get the $60 a Week Shopping List

March 11, 2008 — -- On "Good Morning America" today Jodi Balis divulged her secrets for eating on $60 a week.

Now you can get her shopping list to see just how Balis does it.

Below you'll find all the fresh foods she uses to feed herself and her husband. It includes three meals per day and snacks for the entire week.

Also, you'll find Balis' kitchen staples -- the items she already had in her pantry to complete her week's menu.

But first check out some additional notes from Balis.

I shop between Friday and Sunday. During the farmer's market season, I coordinate shopping with my farmer's market days -- Thursday, Saturday or Sunday, depending on which market I decide to go to.
All recipes and ingredients are tied together. For example, I have whole wheat tortillas in a dinner meal, so I use the remaining tortillas as a breakfast item.

I have included a list of each ingredient and how each ingredient was used multiple times.

The whole menu is based on dinner. It is the ingredients and recipes from dinner that determines what we will be eating for our other meals. I link ingredients used for dinner with lunch and breakfast ingredients.

Saturday

Chicken with citrus pan sauce (from Epicurious.com) over

Creamy polenta and garlicky greens

Homemade sourdough bread

Sunday

Vegetable frittata

Split pea soup

Homemade sourdough bread

Monday

Quinoa quesadillas stuffed with chipotle corn and greens

Butternut squash soup

Tuesday

Thai chicken satay

Asian peanut noodles

Edamame carrot salad with rice wine dressing

Wednesday

Garbanzo burgers on homemade sourdough with creamy BBQ dressing

Sweet potato fries

Thursday

Curried cabbage chickpea roll-ups (from Low Fat Moosewood Cookbook)

Quinoa with roasted corn

Friday

Pizza Night! We use leftover veggies and put in on homemade pizza dough. Some weeks I make our own fresh mozzarella.

We keep lunch simple. Leftovers carry us for three to four days out of the week.

Nonleftover Lunches:
1) Cold Cuts (we use "soy meat") with tortilla and fruit
2) bean and grain salad (the beans and grains I made for the week; shredded carrots thrown in) with fruit
3) We like good fashioned PBJ with our homemade bread w/ fruit.

I like to have options for three different breakfast items during the work week.

On the weekends, we will either make pancakes, crepes, waffles or corn bread, for example.

Breakfast options during the week:

1) Whole wheat tortilla or homemade wheat bread with peanut butter, honey and sliced banana

2) Hot cereal with soy milk and raisins (if I have leftover winter squash, I will stir a about 1/4 cup into my cereal. It tastes great, is a way to get a vegetable into my meal and it stretches the recipe)

3) Boxed cereal (my husband likes to eat dry cereal!)

4) Carrot raisin squash muffins

Chickpeas: curried cabbage roll ups, garbanzo burgers
Onions: curried cabbage roll ups, pizza, split pea soup
Frozen spinach: quesadillas, pizza,
Frozen corn: quesadillas, garbanzo burgers, roasted corn and quinoa
Butternut squash: muffins, butternut squash soup
Chicken: chicken with citrus pan sauce, Thai chicken satay
Quinoa: quinoa quesadillas, curried lentils soup, roasted corn and quinoa

Whole wheat tortillas - 2 packages

Tortilla chips

GRAND TOTAL: $51.47

She says you can save a lot of money if you keep your pantry stocked with staples and cook from scratch as much as possible.

Flour (white and whole wheat)

Yeast

Couscous

Quinoa

Popcorn

7 Grain Cereal

Coarse corn meal

Salt

Baking powder

Baking soda

Brown sugar

White sugar

Honey

Molasses

Cinnamon stick

Whole cardamom

Cayenne pepper

Rosemary

Whole cloves

Curry powder

Vanilla

Olive Oil

Canola Oil

Black tea

Green tea

Raisins

Soy milk