Trim Healthy Mama can seem overwhelming and expensive. Eating healthy doesn’t have to cost a ton. Here we have planned 7 Frugal Trim Healthy Mama dinners for your family of 4 (that your non-THM family will actually eat).
When I am following Trim Healthy Mama, I like to keep it really simple. Simplifying the plan helps this working mama of 2 young kids stay sane and eating healthy. Today I am going to share 7 Frugal Trim Healthy Mama Dinners that we eat frequently. They are all quick to prepare, will feed your family of four and are inexpensive.
(Affiliate Links are used in this post. A small commission may be paid to me at no extra cost to you and that helps to support this page. Please see my disclosures page for additional information.)
Eating Cheap On Trim Health Mama Plan
Myth #1: Eating healthy is too expensive! Ya’ll that is fake news! I know you can buy junk food that is cheap. Sure you can buy a frozen pot pie, a can of chips or a box of orange mac n cheese for a $1 or so.
But you can also buy a carton of 12 eggs. Yesterday at Aldi, for less than a $1.50 I found a huge bag of gala apples. So I can eat a hard boiled egg (S) or an apple (E) for snacks and I spent less than $2.50 for both.
To make those snacks complete, I would add probably add a lite string cheese or even a slice or two of lean deli meat. Another tip to save money on THM is to only buy the lite string cheese or the lean deli meat. If you pair your boiled eggs with the lean cheese or meat, you are still getting enough fat from the eggs to make the snack an S. However, you won’t have to buy additional cheese and meat to go with your E snacks like an apple where you can only have the lighter varieties.
I encourage you to open your heart and mind to researching the plan and finding ways that you can do it, even on a tight budget. It may be a little more difficult than just walking into the store and buying whatever you want. However, it is so worth it to have your family eating better foods.
These 7 frugal Trim Healthy Mama dinners will help get you and your family on the right track.
7 Frugal Trim Healthy Mama Dinners
Myth #2. You will be in the kitchen for hours a day on THM. Ok, ain’t nobody got time for that! Whether you are working 40+ hours a week with two little ones at your feet like me or you may be running from the football field to ballet every night, we need quick and easy and THM compliant. That’s not too much to ask, right?
My favorite THM meals are cheap, quick to prepare and something that my whole family will eat. My husband will usually at least partially participate in my Trim Healthy plan so long as I don’t get too crazy with cauliflower or onions (or other things he doesn’t think he likes). My daughter (5) is in that phase where if it isn’t shaped like a chicken nugget, she may or may not eat it. The baby will currently eat anything, so naturally he is my fave.
So, getting my family to eat the food that I prepare can be a challenge. These meals are all things that my family of four eats frequently and for the most part all enjoy. (being 5 can be tough, so her level of love can vary from day to day!)
Trim Healthy Mama Meal Plan
Here is the list of 7 Frugal Trim Healthy Mama dinners that we eat at our house often.
Day One: Cheesy Salsa Verde Chicken with Cauliflower Rice (S)
- Ingredients: Steam bag of Cauliflower rice, Salsa Verde, cream cheese, Frozen Chicken tenders (1/2 bag)
- Recipe: My most popular Recipe, read all about it here!
- Tips: Use mild salsa if you want kids to eat this. The medium is quite spicy. This is a very rich and filling meal. If you want an additional side, I would go with a green vegetable or a side salad.
Day Two: Black Bean Tacos (E)
- Ingredients: black beans, Mission Low Carb Tortillas
- Recipe: Warm your black beans and serve in tortillas. Top it with some greek yogurt as a sub for sour cream if you have it, Shred some fresh spinach (you should have some to spare from Day four), some hot sauce and a sprinkle of cheese (go really light if you want it to be an E, too much and you will XO)
- Tips: This is such a quick meal. It is probably our go to “it is 6:30 and we have no dinner plan” meal. We love it.
Day Three: Whole Baked Chicken, Steamed Vegetables, Sweet Potato (E)
- Ingredients: Whole Chicken, bag of mixed vegetables, sweet potatoes
- Recipe: Season and roast your chicken (I use a Rotisserie similar to this but you can do it in the oven or even buy one already cooked from the grocery), Steam the veggies in microwave and cook your sweet potato.
- Tips: This can be an “emergency” meal if you pick up an already cooked chicken at the store and do your sweet potatoes in the microwave to prevent a drive thru run.
Day Four: Smoked Sausage with Grilled Vegetables, Cheesy Spinach (S)
- Ingredients: Smoked Sausage, onion, Red, green and yellow Bell peppers, Fresh Spinach, portion of heavy whipping cream, Portion of cheese
- Recipe: You can find the recipe for the sausage and veggies here. For the spinach, wilt the spinach and cheese it up with the HWC and cheese
- Tips: I really prefer this with Chicken sausage but Walmart doesn’t have one that fits the plan that I can find (I get it from Aldi). The meal itself is pretty light so make sure you bulk it up with all the veggies. Adding in a zucchini or yellow squash would be good too.
Day Five: Ground Pork and Vegetable Stir Fry (S)
- Ingredients: Ground Pork, Stir Fry Vegetables
- Recipe: Just brown your pork, drain any fat and combine with vegetables. Cook until veggies are softened. Add in a tablespoon or so of liquid aminos and some ground ginger (tsp) if you have it.
- Tips: Very quick meal. You could add in some cauliflower rice if you wanted to bulk this meal up.
Day Six: Grilled Chicken Tenderloins, Fried Radishes, Cheesy Zucchini (S)
- Ingredients: Remaining 1/2 bag frozen chicken tenders, Radishes, Zucchini, Small portion Heavy whipping cream, portion of shredded cheese
- Recipe: Just season your tenderloins with what you have on hand, fry radishes in olive oil (save some bacon grease from breakfast for extra flavor) and make the cheesy zucchini
- Tips: the cheesy zucchini makes it to our plate at least once a week. Just sub the HWC for milk in the original recipe. It took a little convincing to get my girl to try it but it tastes a little like mac n cheese!
Day Seven: Turkey Ham & Beans (E)
- Ingredients: 1/4 – 1/2 of turkey ham, white (Northern) beans
- Recipe: Easy 15 minute recipe here
- Tips: Top it off with a little parsley if you have it. This is so easy and my kids always eat it. If you can find sprouted rolls, those are yummy as a side.
Walmart Grocery List
A low grocery bill is great. But I also need my THM grocery list to be easy to get. Going to three different grocery stores is not something I have time to do on a weekly basis.
I do shop at Aldi often, but I know not everyone has access to this store. So I chose to show this meal plan with a Walmart grocery order since I think most people have access to a Walmart. And because I love their free grocery pickup! It saves me so much time and sanity to just pull up to a parking spot and get my food. No getting the kids out of carseats!
Here is exactly what I put in my cart to make the 7 frugal Trim Healthy Mama dinners. This list does assume that you have a few basics like olive oil, seasonings and liquid aminos (I just use regular soy sauce but that is not on plan, you can read how I make the plan work for my budget here).
Also, your family, your meals. These are ideas for basic meals. Add additional veggies or fruit as you see fit. If you buy fruit or veggies in season, you can usually get a serving of 4 for around $1. Also, frozen veggies are almost always available for around $1 a bag.
Cost Per Meal
Using this 7 Frugal Trim Healthy Mama Dinners meal plan, the average cost of dinner is $8.15 per meal. That works out to $2.03 per person.
These meals easily feed our family of four which consists of my husband, a 5 year old, a 1 year old and myself. My husband is a pretty big eater and most meals we still have some type of leftovers.
At the end of this meal plan, you should also have about half of the turkey ham leftover, most of the heavy whipping cream, some shredded cheese and some fresh spinach leftover. You could make some yummy omelettes or 2 minute microwave eggs with those ingredients.
More THM Help
If you found these 7 frugal Trim Healthy Mama dinners helpful, here are some other things that may make your THM life easier! As a working mama, easy lunches are a must. Here are 6 THM lunches for work and 5 things to do with leftover chicken for lunch.
Another easy and fairly low cost dinner option is a twist on my popular cheesy salsa verde chicken and cauliflower rice. These Salsa verde chicken enchiladas require just a handful of ingredients and 20 minutes in the oven.
If you want something totally different, try my Granny’s low carb cajun shrimp casserole. She always made it with white rice but I THM’d it by using cauliflower rice. So good!
You can find two other meal plans here & here if this 7 frugal Trim Healthy Mama dinners guide was more your style.
What are your THM goals this year?