Trim Healthy mama

Trim Healthy Mama Fast Food Guide For S Meals

January 12, 2019 by Stacy Craft Leave a Comment

Eating out does not have to be detrimental to your waistline. You can eat according to THM principles using this Trim Healthy Mama fast food guide!

You have the plan down while you are at home but you know that eventually you will have to venture out into the real world. At some point you will probably find yourself sitting in the drive thru line needing to grab something quick. Will you just have to start again in 3 hours after eating something fatty and loaded with carbs? Nope! Use this Trim Healthy Mama fast food guide to give you easy “S” meals that you can eat on the run.

Trim Healthy Mama Planning For Success

Ok, ok. I know that the reason you are sitting in that fast food drive thru lane is because you didn’t have time to plan. The kids have practice or your meeting ran late at work and you need quick and easy.

What I mean is to plan for this emergency to happen. The biggest complaint that I have with eating fast food out on plan is that sometimes the meal seems kind of dinky. You know what I mean? A cheeseburger without a bun, while ok sometimes, doesn’t always seem as satisfying as it would with that big huge bun.

To combat those dinky meals, you can literally stock your car, purse or top drawer at your office for success. Here are the things that I like to have to help make my meal out more substantial.

Stock Your Car

If the conditions are extreme outside, you may be better keeping these things in your purse so that it moves in and out of the element with you. But you can be the judge of that! Here are the things that I think make this Trim Healthy Mama fast food guide more substantial.

Joseph’s Lavash or Pita Bread – These make great vehicles to wrap up your low carb burger or grilled chicken to make it more filling. You could even dump part or all of a side salad in with your meat to bulk it up.

Mission Low Carb Tortilla – If you want something amazing, stuff a Taco Bell protein bowl into one of these tortillas for a delicious S taco on the run.

Lily’s Chocolate Bar – I like Lily’s but I also eat other brands of on plan chocolate. By keeping a piece of chocolate with you, you can finish off your fast food meal without being tempted by a milkshake or cookie.

True Lemon – I broke my addiction to diet soda but I am still sometimes tempted by a big Coke when I am in line. A packet or two of the true lemon takes up no room in your purse and will give your water a little flavor.

Pork Rinds or Whisps – Ok, we might be getting outside of what can comfortably fit in your purse unless you are Mary Poppins. But unlike the chocolate, I think both of these would be safe to just keep in your car. These will help you have a good “side” to go with your bunless burger.

Trim Healthy Mama Fast Food Guide for S Meals

Arby’s

Roast Turkey Farmhouse Salad, meat with no bun (they will put it in a bowl for you) and a side salad (dump the meat on top of salad or put it in a wrap you brought from home home), French dip meat on a side salad, Beef N Cheddar in a wrap (that you bring from home) would be amazing but the cheese will be your choice – it has additives that won’t be on plan. But still way better than eating that big onion bun, in my opinion!

Burger King

Whopper and side salad

Chick-fil-a

Grilled Chicken Cool Wrap with the Avocado or Ranch Dressing

Cobb Salad with Grilled nuggets,

In-N-Out

Burger “Protein Style” – They will wrap your burger in lettuce if ordered like this.

Jimmy Johns

Unwhich – Sub ingredients wrapped in lettuce.

McDonald’s

Bacon Cheeseburger (no Bun) & Side Salad

Grilled Chicken Bacon Ranch Salad

Grilled Ranch Snack Wrap (The ranch sauce has some less than desirable ingredients. You could use a little of their ranch dressing which is also not perfect but ok for Drive Thru Sue’s; Also throw out the tortilla it comes in and replace with a low carb tortillas). This is less than $2.

Popeye’s

Blackened Chicken Tenders with Green Beans

Subway

Chopped Salad with lots of veggies, cold cuts or grilled chicken, cheese.

Sandwich Filling into your own low carb tortilla (feed the sub roll to the birds)

Taco Bell

Grilled Chicken Protein bowl (no rice or beans). Bring 2 low carb tortillas and you can make 2 huge tacos.

Taco Salad (No Beans, Rice or Shell)

Wendy’s

Baconator and side salad

Whataburger

Grilled Chicken Melt (no Bun) & Side Salad

I hope this Trim Healthy Mama fast food guide helps you make easy and good choices at your favorite drive thru. Don’t forget to stock your car or purse up so that you can round out your meal in the most cost efficient method possible.

My Favorite THM Drive Thru Option

Here is an example of how I used the Trim Healthy Mama fast food guide and a stocked car to have an amazing Drive Thru Sue lunch the other day.

I ordered the Taco Bell chicken protein bowl with no beans or rice. I was kind of worried that the remaining food was going to be small (you know these restaurants love to bulk up meals with the cheap fillers). But I was pleasantly surprised. Excuse the lap picture but here is what it looked like in the bowl.

I took the lovely spork that they gave me & divided it out into 2 Low Carb Tortillas. It was so good!

Pin this Trim Healthy Mama Fast Food Guide to your THM board so that you have some good S Meal ideas to choose when you are out. It is so nice to know that you can stay on plan while still living your busy life.

If you would like to read more about my journey on THM postpartum, how I make the plan work for me and a free 2 week meal plan, read this post. 7 Frugal THM Family Meals and a Free 7 day meal plan may be helpful in your weight loss journey as well.

7 Frugal Trim Healthy Mama Dinners

January 4, 2019 by Stacy Craft Leave a Comment

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?

Trim Healthy Mama Weekly Meal Plan 1

December 7, 2018 by Stacy Craft 1 Comment

A 1 week photo diary of everything I ate for one week. Dig into this Trim Healthy Mama Weekly Meal Plan 1 and stay tuned for subsequent weeks!(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.)

Trim Healthy Mama Meal Prep

I was planning to meal prep a few things to make my week easier. Here are the things that I was hoping to get done during my 1 hour meal prep.

Make baked oatmeal (will eat this throughout the week for breakfast or even a snack)
Make sausage crumbles for the microwave egg scrambles
Boil Eggs
Cook & Shred Chicken thighs
Chop Turkey ham for ham and beans.
Wash fresh fruit and veggies and prep in ready to go containers

Since I was also in charge of keeping my 11 month out of trouble and entertaining 747 questions from my 4 year old, getting snacks and a bottle, I didn’t quite get everything accomplished that I was hoping for.

I missed making the sausage crumbles, boiling eggs and chopping the turkey ham. Geez, I was only at 50%. I did also get our dinner made in that 1 hour prep, so it wasn’t a complete miss.

What I Ate for A Week on Trim Healthy Mama

Here is everything that I ate for a week. There are lots of pictures and I included recipes where I could. Seeing pictures and other trim healthy mama meal plans helps me to stay on plan and get new ideas so I hope this helps you too!

I aim to keep Trim Healthy Mama ultra simple. Complicated recipes and special ingredients do not often make it to my table. The only thing remotely “special” that I frequently use are the Mission low carb tortillas and Dreamfields pasta. Those are usually in my pantry but they are easy to find at my Walmart and reasonably priced.

Day 1:

Breakfast: Jimmy Dean Simple Scramble Copycat (would typically add some berries with this but I am a mom on the go and the clock said it was time for school so I missed that) (S)

I think this is such a pretty little cup of eggs. I hardly believe it came out of the microwave in less than 2 minutes!

Lunch: Turkey and cream cheese pinwheels, pork rinds, mini bell peppers, 4 oz blackberries (S)

I don’t have a recipe for the pinwheels but they are super simple. Spread a little softened cream on the Mission Low Carb tortilla, spread on some spicy mustard on top of the cream cheese. Add some deli meat and shredded cheese. Roll the tortilla up and place in the fridge for 10 or 15 minutes to help set it up. 30 minutes is probably best but I can’t ever wait that long! Slice them up with a sharp knife. I love these for a quick lunch.

Snack: string cheese and 2 oz of nuts (S)

Dinner: Hummus crusted baked chicken with roasted carrots, bell peppers and green beans (E or XO) I am calling it an E because I only used about a tablespoon of hummus. Hummus is a crossover typically because of the oil and beans mix the fuels. However, since my meal was very low fat otherwise, I call it an E (carrots and my dessert give me the carbs to make it an E). Just be aware if you are using a lot of hummus or have other fats in your meal that you may go into XO territory which is still on plan but not as good for weight loss.

Dessert: Baked oatmeal with non-fat greek yogurt (E)

Evening Snack: Baked Tortilla chips and Salsa (E) I don’t usually eat after dinner but I was really hungry. Possibly because this was my first full day back on THM and I had gotten used to eating a sugar filled dessert after dinner? Habits are hard to break.

Day 2:

Breakfast: Baked Oatmeal (E), topped with nonfat greek yogurt

Lunch: Cold Cut Roll Up Salad (S), Ranch Dressing

Dinner: Easy 15 Minute Turkey Ham & Beans (E) – I know everyone gets scared when you start talking about E meals. My whole family gobbles this meal up with no complaints and it is literally quicker than strapping my kids in car seats and driving to a fast food drive thru.

Seriously, add this to your trim healthy mama weekly meal plan now!

Snack: Nuts,String Cheese (S)

Day 3:

Breakfast: Sprouted Toast, Small amount of greek yogurt cream cheese, All Fruit Polaner’s Jelly and a side of plain greek yogurt with a tiny bit of polaner’s mixed in (about 1/2 teaspoon). (E)

Please excuse the lighting on this photo. I was up early, working on the computer and eating breakfast. That is what us working mamas do! Am I right?

Lunch: Salsa Verde Chicken Mini Pepper Nachos (S)

My most popular recipe on this site is the 30 minute Cheesy Salsa Verde Chicken with Cauli Rice. I took the filling from this recipe and stuffed it in a pepper for lunch. Delish. Here is the recipe for the Salsa Verde Chicken Pepper Nachos.

Dinner: Grilled Pork Chop, Cheesy Zucchini and Spinach salad (S)

Ya’ll – we eat this cheesy zucchini at least twice a week. And that is saying something because I am not huge on repeating recipes. Sub the milk for cream. You can find the recipe by Simply Delish Eats here.

It is a macaroni and cheese sub for me. It is so cheesy and rich, it goes great with grilled chicken, pork or steak.

Day 4:

Breakfast: Breakfast Taco and strawberries (S)

After living in Texas for 5 years, I learned breakfast tacos are life! I made this one on a Mission Low carb tortilla. It’s so good and it is something you can roll up and eat in the car on the way to work.

Lunch: Loaded Tuna Salad on Sprouted Bread (E) with a small apple and raw veggies. You won’t miss the mayo in this quick and easy tuna salad recipe packed with protein!

Dinner: Spaghetti with ground beef meat sauce on Dreamfields pasta, Salad with ranch (S)

Dreamfields pasta is a personal choice item but my body does fine with it so I use it. I can usually find it at Walmart for less than $2. My kids adore spaghetti and the texture of this pasta is really similar to regular pasta. In fact, I can’t tell a difference at all. Spaghetti on a “diet” – Yes please!

Day 5:

Breakfast: Leftover baked Oatmeal with Greek Yogurt (E)

Lunch: Chicken & Cheese quesadilla on a Mission Low Carb tortilla with pork rinds and raw veggies (not pictured) (S)

Dinner: Cheesy zucchini with Ham (S)

Told you that we love this zucchini at my house. Here I just made the cheesy zucchini and added some ham that was lightly browned in a skillet. It is grown up Mac n cheese with hotdogs (don’t judge!). So good and it takes less than 30 minutes to get this on the table.

Day 6:

Breakfast: Easy 2 Minute Microwave Eggs I usually eat the same thing for breakfast a couple of times during the week. It doesn’t bother me and makes planning easier.

Lunch: Baby Spinach, Cheese Cubes, Steak and Ranch (S)

My husband brought home some leftover steak. A delicious yet simple steak salad was calling my name.

Dinner: Sausage, fried radishes and green beans (S)

No Trim Healthy Mama weekly meal plan would be complete without some weird ingredient would it? I don’t know about you but radishes were not on my list of things that I would eat before THM. I finally got brave enough to try them and you know what? They aren’t half bad.

I don’t usually make different meals for my family but my kids aren’t eating radishes. I can promise it. So I made them sausage and potatoes and I subbed radishes for mine. Now let me tell you the truth. You are not going to bite into it and think yum a potato. But if you go into it with an open mind to try a new veggie, I think you might just like it. I did.

Day 7:

Breakfast: Ham slices, scrambled eggs and berries (S)

Lunch: Sprouted Sandwich, carrots, apples and a small amount of ranch (E)

Sprouted Bread Sandwich Apple and Carrots

Dinner: Grilled pork chop, Wedge salad and Fried cabbage (S)

I hope you enjoyed this Trim Healthy Mama Weekly Meal Plan. I will continue to periodically post what I eat over the course of a week to try and give you ideas! THM really doesn’t have to be hard or complicated. If you have any questions, leave me a comment.

If you liked this weekly meal plan, check out some of my other popular posts that are THM friendly!

Cheesy Salsa Verde Chicken with Cauliflower Rice (S Meal)

Pin it Here!

Low Carb Cajun Shrimp Casserole (S)

Pin it Here!

6 THM Lunch Ideas for Work (E’s & S’s)

Pin it Here!

My THM Weight loss Story & Free 2 Week Meal Plan

Pin it Here!

Keto Cheesy Salsa Verde Chicken Bell Pepper Nachos

November 2, 2018 by Stacy Craft Leave a Comment

Simple Keto cheesy salsa verde chicken bell pepper nachos for a quick lunch or snack on a low carb lifestyle.

(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.)

My most popular recipe so far has been the Keto cheesy salsa verde chicken with Cauli rice (pinned more than 100k times!). Since I usually have the ingredients on hand, I was thinking about making it yesterday. But then I saw some mini bell peppers in my fridge and another idea was born!

I decided to make some keto cheesy salsa verde chicken bell pepper nachos inspired by the original recipe. With a little meal prep that I had done earlier in the week, these came together very quick for a tasty lunch. Just because you are following a low carb diet doesn’t mean that you don’t want some cheesy nachos in your life!

Keto Cheesy Salsa Verde Chicken Bell Pepper Nachos

Just like the original recipe, you need just a few ingredients to make this easy keto friendly lunch. Mini bell peppers, cream cheese, chicken and salsa verde are all you need.

I used the microwave for the cheesy salsa sauce for this recipe but you could also use one of those small crockpots to melt it down if you wanted to throw it together earlier in the day. Melt the salsa with the cream cheese for about a minute in the microwave.

For the chicken, I used my instant pot to shred up a bunch of chicken thighs earlier in the week. If you don’t want to cook your own chicken, a rotisserie chicken would work well with these keto cheesy salsa verde chicken bell pepper nachos.

Mix the cream cheese/salsa mixture, the chicken and the shredded cheese in a medium bowl.

Add the mixture to your cut and prepared mini peppers. Bake at 375 for 10 minutes. I then broiled it for 2 minutes on high so that the tops would get a light brown crust on top!

The cheesy chicken filling has a slight kick from the salsa verde and the mini bell peppers serve as the perfect vessel to get that yummy goodness into your mouth. Don’t forget some extra salsa verde and sour cream for dipping.

If you need some variety in your Keto or Trim Healthy Mama (S) lunch routine, I hope you try these keto cheesy salsa verde chicken bell pepper nachos. If you love the low carb lifestyle, don’t forget to try these smoked salmon, cream cheese roll ups and cheeseburger soup.

And don’t forget to make yourself a 2 minute keto breakfast in the microwave in the morning.

Keto Cheesy Salsa Verde Chicken Bell Pepper Nachos

Cuisine

Keto/Low Carb/THM S

Servings

Ingredients

Cuisine

Keto/Low Carb/THM S

Servings

Ingredients

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Prep the mini bell peppers by cutting off the top, slicing lengthwise and removing seeds.
Place the cream cheese and salsa verde in a microwave safe bowl and cook for 1 minute. You may want to do this in 30 second increments to ensure it doesn't burn.
If your precooked chicken is cold, warm it slightly in the microwave .
Add the salsa/cream cheese mixture, warm chicken and shredded cheddar cheese to a small mixing bowl and combine.
Stuff the sliced peppers with approximately a tablespoon of the cheesy chicken mixture. The exact measurement will vary based on the size of your peppers.
Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.
Broil for 2 minutes until the tops are slightly browned.

$5 Chicken Sausage and Grilled Vegetables Meal

July 23, 2018 by Stacy Craft 5 Comments

It is a miserable and very humid 92 degrees here today. I spent a large portion of my morning pinning images of pumpkins, bonfires and autumn colored leaves. Just dreaming of Fall. Since my family still wants to eat (even when you could fry your meal on the back porch), I have to come up with simple ideas to beat the heat. This simple $5 chicken sausage and grilled vegetables meal comes together quickly. My favorite part is that it is healthy, packed with colorful vegetables and it is cheap.

(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.)

Actually, that is not my favorite part. I like that it is inexpensive. It is nice that it has vegetables full of vitamins. Love quick meals. But my absolute favorite part about this grill meal is that my kids not only eat it, they love it! The cheesy stuffed chicken sausage kind of resembles a yummy hotdog. The vegetables taste like the State Fair on a plate. It is probably my favorite healthy meal that I make (and it doesn’t hurt that it is also probably the easiest and super cheap)!

$5 Chicken Sausage and Grilled Vegetables Meal

Making yourself a list of 5 or 10 easy, cheap family favorite meals really helps to make your weekly meal planning much easier. I usually rotate 1 of our top meals into my weekly meal plan. It also helps to have these super simple meals in the back of your mind. So if you have the choice of running out and grabbing fast food or hitting the grocery store to grab a couple of things, that you can make the right choice for your budget!

If you have been hanging around here, you know that I follow the Trim Healthy Mama lifestyle to lose baby weight and stay in shape. Depending on the amount of oil and the type of chicken sausage that you use, you might be able to squeeze this in as a Fuel Pull (FP) meal. If you can’t get under the fat threshold then it would be an S meals. Meals with sausage are usually an S but sometimes i can find a spinach stuffed chicken sausage that keeps the fat very low. This is also a low carb option if you follow some other type of low carb diet.

If you want some more of my THM recipes, try my super popular Cheesy Salsa Verde Chicken with Cauli Rice, Parm Crusted Pork Chops and Smoked Salmon Cream Cheese Roll Ups.

Under $5 Supper

Here is what you need for this $5 Chicken Sausage and Grilled Vegetables Meal:

Chicken Sausage (I love the Aldi brand) – $2.99

Bell Peppers (I prefer red or yellow but if you can’t get them on sale, green work fine) – $0.99

Zucchini – $0.30

Olive Oil

Cajun Seasoning (I use this one)

Total: $4.28

This feeds our family of four. I usually give my kids a baked sweet potato to ensure they are getting some healthy carbs and my husband will sometimes add some french bread with his meal.

You could also add onions or asparagus to this if you wanted more yummy grilled vegetables in the mix.

Prep

I am not even really sure you can call this a recipe. More like food assembly. Just chop your chicken sausage and vegetables into bite size pieces and place them in a medium bowl.

Add some olive oil. I just drizzle it on but 1/2 of a tablespoon to a tablespoon should be fine. Add in some cajun seasoning. I just sprinkle some on but for this amount of food, I use about a teaspoon. If you don’t have cajun seasoning, just throw on whatever you have. The beauty of this is that it is so versatile.

Dump your chicken sausage and veggies into a grilling basket or skewer it as kabobs. I like the grill basket because it is quicker to throw it all in the basket and grill.

Cook on low for about 15 minutes or medium for 6-10. You just want to warm your sausage and get your vegetables softened up some. I like my veggies to still have a little “bite” to them so don’t grill until they are mush.

If you need a cheap and easy meal for your dinner rotation, try this $5 Chicken Sausage and Grilled Vegetables Meal. I hope it will be a family favorite at your house like it is at mine.