Adoption Meals--one way to save!

So we've recently coined a new term in our household--Adoption Meals! You can probably guess that it refers to budget-friendly meals that encourage less money spent on food so that more money stays in the bank for the ENORMOUS adoption fees that are coming our way soon. However, we are trying to add the component of praying for our adoption process and future children during these meals as well.

For example, on Valentine's Day we made the choice to not eat out for lunch or dinner (since it was on a Sunday, we could have done either one). Here's the yummy and super economical meal we shared together.

Mizithra Cheese and browned butter on angel hair
($3.50 for the cheese at Safeway, $.45 for one stick of butter from Costco, $.99 for one pound of angel hair pasta from Trader Joe's) $4.94 total

Caesar Salad
( $.50 for 1/6 of a bag of Romaine lettuce from Costco; $.50 for 1/2 of a cucumber from the Costco 3-pack; $.25 (approx) for a handful of Craisins from the big Costco bag; $.25 (approx) for a handful of croutons from the big Costco bag; $.50for 1/6 of a bottle of Girard's Caesar dressing; $.25 for a handful of grated parmesan cheese.) $3.00 total

French Bread
($.99 from Safeway--butter and herbs added from pantry) $.99 total

Lemonade/"Adult beverage"
(girls had lemonade from a $.99 frozen can; mom and dad each had 1 glass of wine from cheap $6.00 Trader Joe's bottle) $2.50 total

Chocolate chip cookies
(don't really know the total here since I had all the ingredients in my pantry, but I would estimate that we ate only about $1.00 worth) $1.00 total

So, for less than $12.00 all 5 of us had a wonderful and special Adoption Valentine's Meal that was so yummy! And there were NO crowds to fight! And we watched a movie while we ate!

It's not easy to always choose the adoption meal plan--I'll be honest here. With both Mark and I working full-time, it is so tempting to eat out when we're tired. However, we almost never ate out on a weeknight before we decided to adopt, so those days aren't really the problem. It's the weekends!! I REALLY enjoy the break of not cooking so much on the weekends. Even though cooking is one of my joys, it's tiring to try to be creative all the time so that the family isn't always eating the same thing. Our typical weekend meals used to be easy fun food on Friday (usually take-out pizza from our favorite pizza places), and Date Night for Mark and I on Saturday night while the kids ate left-overs or easy stuff Alli can make at home. Then Sunday it's out to lunch after church since church is a 1/2 hour away from home. That's 3 meals out in 3 days---not good, even if it's cheap! We are trying to choose only 1 time to eat out in a week in order to stretch the budget further. Then when eating at home I am trying to be more aware of how I can stretch things further (eating a few meatless meals helps!).

I'm on the hunt for cheap and nutritious meals that can go into our "Adoption Meal" category, so please share any tips you may have! In the meantime, I now have to decide if this week's meal out will include everyone or just Mark and I--that Date Night is HARD to give up!! :-)