It’s a new month, so I’m working with a fresh pile of grocery money.
What I Spent
On Monday, I made a small stop ($11.95) to pick up a few things that we needed.
Plus a persimmon, which we did not need, but which Lisey wanted. 😉
(Update: she tried it and thought it was disgusting. But now she knows what she thinks about persimmons.)
Then on Tuesday, I stopped at Costco to buy $15 of pistachios. And I also made a stop at Aldi ($14.45) for a few things on the same day.
And it was a produce box week ($35).
That puts me at $76.40 for the week, so, woohoo! I’m off to a good start for February.
What We Ate
Monday
This is the night I made the skillet chicken with orzo. I made a green salad to go with it (using the last of a head of lettuce, which I revived by soaking it in cold water).
Tuesday
I made the orange beef stir-fry for the second time, since I had some flank steak in the freezer from a Costco trip. Yay!
We ate our stir-fry over rice, of course.
Wednesday
Mr. FG and I went out to dinner with our pastor.
At home, the girls had tortellini and a green salad, topped with garlic croutons that I made from some bread odds and ends.
(Which you would know if you followed me on Instagram. I share Very Important Things like this all the time over there. 😉 )
Joshua also had a green salad, but for his main dish, he had some flank steak that was leftover from the previous night.
He is a big fan of steak. 😉
Thursday
I roasted a salted, spatchcocked chicken. To go with that, I made pan gravy, roasted red potato wedges (my produce box had potatoes in it), and I also made a shredded carrot salad.
I saved the chicken bones to make chicken broth, of course.
I almost didn’t, actually. Joshua was helping me put the bones into a bag and he thought I was wanting him to take the bones out to the trash can.
Luckily, I realized where he was headed before it was too late. Phew. One hates to waste perfectly good chicken bones!
Friday
Since I remembered to buy King Arthur bread flour last week, I’m all set to make homemade pizza.
I’m planning to make my basic pizza, which is basically not worth eating unless it’s made with King Arthur bread flour. And I am totally serious about that. It really takes the crust to another level.
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Ok, frugal peeps! What did you eat this week? And did you manage to stick to your budget this week?
P.S. Don’t forget to enter the TurboTax giveaway!
Randi MacDonald
Sunday 5th of February 2017
I made a half recipe of that skillet chicken/orzo. We loved it, my wife said " its very flavorful". This is what I did. I used frozen foster farms garlic italian marinated chicken(chunks). I had a coupon for 3.00 off, so almost a 2lb bag was less than 6.00. I used half a can of muir glen crushed fire roasted tomatoes For the stock, I used Progresso tuscan stock( seasoned with rosemary and garlic). Got that at our 99 cents only store. I browned the chicken really well and never removed it from the pan. I deglazed with some stock. I also used Italian seasoning and Penzey's california pepper. I added fresh green beans and some green peas( at the end). I stirred in the parm and some basil that its a tube. I'm glad my wife loved it, it was easy and will go on our rotation for sure.
Diane C
Saturday 4th of February 2017
Two important tips to share this week. Ripe Fuyu persimmons should have the texture of an apple. Slice them in thin wedges, then squeeze the juice of a fresh lime on it and sprinkle with coarse sea salt. An amazing taste explosion!
Frugal News Flash: You do not have to buy bread flour. You can make your own! Buy KA AP flour and add 1 tsp. gluten per cup to make bread flour. Look for it at health food stores. It's cheap and lasts a long time. Saves money, saves pantry space and you'll never have to worry about having bread flour on hand. Total game changer!
Marianne
Saturday 4th of February 2017
Monday baked meatballs with Costco 5 cheese tortellini & your Oatmeal Cinnamon bread (minus the cinnamon & sugar). That recipe makes the best bread & toasted =yummy! Tuesday leftover pizza & tuna salad. Wednesday chicken wings, cauliflower with more tuna salad & those thin frozen green beans that Aldi carries they are so good. Thursday cabbage rolls. Friday shrimp both breaded and plain. Most nights we had veggies and fruit at dinner too. My plan for the weekend is to make 2 dishes that I can freeze half to have during the weekdays when I am just to tired to cook. So far so good as I have 4 dishes ready for a weeknight and I will try to make 2 more this weekend.
I only spent $48 at Aldi & got blueberries, peanut butter pretzels, peppers, rice, bowls for work parties, celery, frozen green beans & a bunch of other stuff. Eggs were .38 per dozen so I picked up a couple dozen so the dogs can have eggs too.
One very frugal fail, the power company switched to new auto read meters and we did not notice till now that they have not been reading the gas in since September. I thought it was weird our bills were lower but our weather has been warmer than normal. Ah well they are coming out next week to look at it. My hubby did inquire as to why the system does not have a "flag" in in to notice no use as he works for our township with water meters and it shows a red flag when there is not any use or has not been read. I did look at all those bills when they came in and I still didn't notice it.
Tina S
Saturday 4th of February 2017
I'm taking of my eldery father so my mind hasn't been on meal planning lately but this week I was proud of myself. We ate most of what we had on hand. It wasn't the healthiest week but better than take-out except Sunday was a total bust!
Sunday- we had Chinese takeout at a new place. Biggest waste of the week. Greasiest Chinese food ever so no good leftovers for lunch. The yelp reviews were even good. Monday- swedish meatballs with carrots (leftovers for lunch) Tuesday - honey cashew chicken over rice with zucchini (leftovers for lunch) Wednesday- spicy chicken sausage pasta with carrots (leftovers for lunch) Thursday - Shepard's pie made with ground turkey - finally used up all the carrots and leftovers for lunch Friday - calzone pizza with side salad Saturday- going to a party
Edb
Saturday 4th of February 2017
Do you know how to eat persimmons? They need to be allowed to ripen until they are mushy and you think it's gone bad. You sort of spoon it or suck it out of its peel. They are never ready to be eaten from the store. They are amazing.
Kristen
Saturday 4th of February 2017
Well, that certainly does explain why this one tasted so bad!