Grocery Spending/Menu Plan | It's back too!
On Saturdays, I share my menu plan for the upcoming week along with a photo of my groceries and a tally of my spending. My goal is to spend $100/week for our food, toiletries, and cleaning products. I'm currently in the midst of trying to buy more local, sustainably-produced food while sticking to my budget. Can it be done? I don't know, but I'm going to try, and I'll share what I learn as I go along.
I haven't done one of these posts in what seems like a really long while!
And I haven't posted a picture of my groceries in an even longer while.
That's really a partial picture...I put my shrimp and fish and dairy products away before I managed to snap a picture.
Speaking of my shrimp...
Weis has a policy that states if a product doesn't ring up at the sale price, you get the item free, up to $10. Well, my bag of shrimp rang up at the wrong price, so I got two pounds of 31/40 raw shrimp for a total of $6.98. Sweet.
As far as my spending goes, I can tell you that I spent $81.88 at Aldi, and $21 at the organic store (for the packaging-free chicken, some nitrate-free bacon, and some cilantro), but I cannot locate my Weis receipt at the moment. I'm not entirely sure where I put it after I got my $10 price adjustment at the customer service desk.
If I find it, I'll update this post!
Saturday
- Pizza. I think I'm going to try a new Cook's recipe. I'll let you know how it comes out!
Sunday
- Snacky stuff...crackers, veggies, dip, popcorn, fruit and fruit dip, etc.
Monday
- Asian Meatballs and rice (trying a new recipe from AllYou magazine
- grapefruit halves (they were $0.35 apiece this week at Aldi!)
Tuesday
- Chicken Parmesan Risotto
- green salad
- garlic breadsticks
Wednesday
- Shrimp Burgers (a new recipe from Cook's Illustrated)
- veggie chips
- green beans
Thursday
- Chicken Teriyaki
- Cheese bread
- green salad (don't you love my uber-traditional accompaniments to Chicken Teriyaki??)
Friday
- Takeout date night for Mr. FG and me, something easy for the kiddos
Have a lovely Saturday, and check back here tomorrow because I'm going to give away 5 Seeds cds!
Today's 365 post: I replaced this with something from Goodwill...
how much per pound is your chicken? And can you buy in bulk from that store for larger amounts of meat? Please post your risotto recipe, I'm always looking for good risotto! I also took advantage of the grapefruit sale and stocked up...we love grapefruit!
You can buy as much as you want from that store, I believe. The chicken is $5.99/pound for boneless, skinless breasts.
Shrimp burgers? That sounds scary. 🙂 Let us know how it turned out!
I'm hoping they'll be sort of like crab cakes, except with shrimp. 😉
Shrimp burgers sound awesome. We eat 'em in the deep South. Almost as good as a shrimp po boy!
Love your blog! You may have explained this previously, but do you cook more than enough for your planned dinners and use the leftovers for lunches, or do you do something different for your lunches? Do you have a schedule/routine for breakfasts at your house? Thanks! Your menu plans are always inspiring!
Yep, we eat leftovers or just a simple sandwich meal at lunch.
Great menu ideas! We are having pizza tonight, too. The kid's have been dying to christen the new pizza stone I got for Christmas (someone dropped the last one a broke it 🙁 ). Now I'm off the the grocery store to take advantage of their cheap avocados. Enjoy your day!!
The chicken parmesan risotto sounds really good. I LOVE risotto, and am always looking for new ways to do it - would you mind giving the recipe for it?
Also, just curious if you're done with the 2 week shopping trips? I'm in the middle of a 2 week meal plan for the first time, and I have to say it is such a relief that I don't have to worry about groceries this week!
ps. I love your blog. I've been reading for a few months now, and really enjoy all of your posts. thank-you so much!
Kristen,
About your nitrate free bacon: I was buying ALL nitrate free lunchmeats (at higher price, of course) for several years. Last year I read an article in Cook's Illustrated that had done a comparison on regular vs. nitrate-free and they said that the "naturally occurring nitrates in celery juice, etc." released MORE of the nasty chemicals in our body than the chemical nitrates, or something to that effect. I was SO discouraged. You might want to go back and look up that article for your reference. I'm still on the fence about what to buy, so for now, I just buy LESS processed meat. I don't know what else to do.
There's nitr_a_tes and nitr_i_tes. If you eat cured bacon (most cured meats, really) you'll get nitrite one way or another: from the added chemical, from pink salt (aka pickling or curing salt, and is sodium nitrite and salt, dyed pink to distinguish it from other salt), or from celery juice.
NitrAtes, on the other hand, can be avoided and, according to many sources, should be.
could someone direct me to the article in Cook's? i'd like to read up on this subject
Bleah. I just read the Cook's article and am feeling the same way you were. Argh.
It does sound like there's not much point in paying for the expensive bacon.
WilliamB-they tested nitrites AND nitrates, and the "nitrate-free" bacon was just as high as the regular on both counts. Boo.
Boo.
I'm going to have to reread CI and McGee's "On Food And Cooking" to check. I expect I'll end up doing what I do now: consider bacon an occasional treat and buy really good tasting bacon for when I go. Right now I buy Whole Foods' bacon, which has spoiled me for Oscar Mayer and its ilk.
I am so glad I found your blog!! You have a bunch of terrific looking recipes that I will be trying. I look forward to reading all year long!! have a wonderful weekend!
tina
wow, keeping an eagle eye at checkout really pays off. must do that!
Absolutely. Never assume that the cash register or cashier got it right!
I made the pizza from the Latest Cooks Illustrated Magazine on Friday night and we just loved it! Hope yours turns out great too!
could someone post that recipe? 🙂