WIS, WWA | I ran out of milk.
What I Spent
This was not a week for a big shopping trip. After all, I spent $430 last week!
I did get a Hungry Harvest delivery ($25).
And two days ago, we ran out of milk.
I guess I didn't buy enough to put into the freezer. Or my family drank more than usual?
I broke down and made a quick milk stop, where of course I picked up more than milk! I spent $30 there.
So, $55 for me this week.
What We Ate
Saturday
It was too hot to make pizza, so I made grilled meat and veggie kebabs and buttery bubble bread.
I hadn't made that bread in a while, but one of the girls had requested it last time I made garlic pull-apart bread.
The outside of all the pieces in this bubble bread are slightly crispy and oh-so-buttery...highly recommend!
I'd forgotten that the dough recipe doesn't call for any milk, so I didn't even have to sub anything to make this safe for Sonia.
(Mercifully, butter doesn't bother her.)
Sunday
The weather cooled down, so I made homemade pizza.
Monday
We had beef au jus sandwiches on homemade French bread, with sautéed asparagus on the side.
Tuesday
I made chicken, green bean, and pepper curry, which we ate with buttered naan (from Aldi).
Wednesday
I tried Pioneer Woman's recipe for creamy chicken enchiladas.
Verdict: good, but I would spread some sauce on the bottom of the pan next time to keep the tortillas from getting stuck.
Sonia ate chicken noodle soup because
a) she doesn't like Tex-Mex
and
b) I am not about to bend over backwards to make a dairy-free version of something she hates anyway.
She was thrilled to eat chicken noodle soup instead. 😉
Thursday
I tried a pork ramen recipe from Cook's Country and I made soy-marinated eggs to go in the ramen (first time trying that at home)
Friday
I think I might try a recipe for chicken teriyaki from a recent Cook's Country magazine.
I am following the CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation an Australian group) diet and have been eating their recipes. Generally they make four serves so the meals are repeated four times over a fortnight. So far I am not enjoying the meals. With a little thought I may be able to tweak the food to my tastes. This week I have had a chicken dish with pasta (a no no), a beef stew, a chicken with olives and some sort of soup. We re heading into winter and today and the next few days are much cooler than average so I grateful for warm and nutritious meals.
For Melissa and anyone else interested in the sauce recipe for garbage plate:
1 c. Chopped onion
2 lb. Ground beef, cooked and drained
1/2 c. Frank's hot sauce
1 T. Garlic
1 c. Water
1/4 t. Cumin
1/2 t. Pepper
1/4 t. Cayenne
2 T. Beef boullion
1/2 t. gr. Cloves
Simmer together all afternoon. Add ketchup for milder flavor
I was very excited to see the Chicken Teriyaki recipe from Toshi’s in the latest issue of CC because Toshi’s was one of my favorite eateries when I lived in the Seattle area. Don’t take offense my fellow mid-westerners but I’m finding the Midwest not to be very “foodie” as compared to the PNW.
We spent $63 so far this week. Yay! But I forgot a couple of things that my son will pick up this morning. Boo! ( the forgetting, not the son) I actually have a plan in place for the upcoming week. Yay! Weather still yucky making barbecue less fun/likely this weekend. Boo.
Ok WWA
Saturday - Eggs and potatoes O’Brien
Sunday - homemade Mac and Cheese
Monday don’t remember
Tuesday - Chinese corn soup
Wednesday - leftovers
Thursday - leftovers
Friday- it’s my night to cook so I’m going to try a fettuccine with black bean sauce from an old Taste of Home magazine. I’m trying to put more meatless recipes into the rotation to reserve what I have on hand.
Have a nice weekend everyone!
Saturday: Chicken tacos with homemade corn tortillas, refried beans, green salad with ranch dressing. Still MY LETTUCE HOORAY! even though it is getting a little bitter. I will still eat it until it actually bolts.
Sunday: Breakfast sausage patties, fried eggs, bread and butter, carrot sticks, banana "ice cream"
Monday: Chicken-rice taco skillet with leftover chicken, leftover rice, and grated cheese
Tuesday: Someone gave us some flour tortillas, which I never buy, so I used those to make crispy fried burritos with the rest of the chicken and rice for my kids. They LOVED them. Not that I am surprised. They are awfully good. They also had carrot sticks and still-frozen green beans as an appetizer.
Wednesday: A random tuna skillet of leftover diced bacon, diced onion, big can of tuna, frozen peas, mayonnaise, and shredded cheese. Surprisingly tasty. Kind of like tuna noodle casserole minus the noodles. And plus bacon.
Thursday: I made the first garlic scape pesto (with the addition of lamb's quarters--a foraged green) of the season and then put it in everything. Lamb stew . . . with pesto. Broiled bread . . . with pesto. Asparagus . . . with pesto. Pesto makes everything better.
Tonight: Leftovers. We have a lot of stew left and one serving of the tuna for the boy who doesn't like stew. Maybe I'll be really indulgent and make them some pasta. With pesto. 🙂
We also focused on more vegetarian dishes this week to reduce grocery costs.
Saturday: Pasta with matriciana sauce (tomatoes, onions and a little bit bacon)
Sunday: Cooked white asparagus, small potatoes and home-made sauce hollandaise (white asparagus is a very typical dish here in May, often accompanied with slices of boiled ham)
Monday: Leftovers
Tuesday: my MIL insisted to visit us (although we would have prefered not to due to corona, but she suffered so much from not seeing here adult kids in person) and as a compromise, we met for a picknick in a park following all distancing rules. We had a quiche, pastrami and cheese sandwiches, strawberries and vegetable snacks.
Wedneday: Gigantes Plaki (greek giant beans baked in tomatoe sauce) and potatoes
Thursday: Beyond Meat burgers were on sale and my SO likes them from time to time.
Friday: Nachos with home-made cheese sauce and pico de gallo
This was my shop week, 130.00 at the grocery store (4 of us) and about 120.00 at BJ's. (we don't go to bj's very often, but they have better prices on some items!)
Saturday- was our take out night, we ordered from a local Pizza place, dh.dd, and I shared a cheese steak, and calzone, Ds had chicken parm.
Sunday- Grilled burgers for dh,ds and Dd and I had Grilled shrimp, as both of us are not big fans of burger, made some simply salad (like a pasta salad) bacon ranch and a veggie.
Monday- BBQ chicken on the grill, butter noodles, left over pasta salad, veggie
Tuesday- Dh and I had London broil on the grill with potato and carrot packet. (Basically you cut up new potatoes in coins, carrots on the slant, add butter, salt pepper, onion if you want, paprika, put it in foil, close tightly and grill. Takes about 45 min, and you need to flip it every so often) beats heating up the oven! And making more dishes!
Wednesday- forgot to take something out, so Kids and I had naan pizza, DH had a grilled cheese sandwich.
Thursday- Pasta with sauce, bread, an a salad for me.
Friday- Thinks we are doing chicken alfrado, ds will have chicken parm, out of the bread cutlets I have in the freezer.
I just made an excellent Kale and Potato soup with dill. It has buttermilk, though, so you'd have to think of something for Sonia. It was easy and very good. Everyone in my family liked it. Have you tried oat milk. We started using it for environmental reasons and I have used it in baking and had no issues using it. It is neutral flavor and seems to work just like regular milk.
Sonia tried oat milk on cereal and thought it was disgusting. Ha. But for baking, I can definitely see it working. Coconut milk has been working great for baking too.
Kristen, I agree with Sonia. We thought the baby might have a dairy intolerance when he was born and I tried oat milk and I just couldn’t stomach it. Bleck. Thankfully it wasn’t an intolerance after all!
YOur dinner this week sound very good! That stir fry - YUM. As usual, I was slightly off menu. I think my menu is more or less a framework for meals that I refer to loosely. Oh well, it works. We ate:
Monday - Enchilada Chicken, onions and peppers, twice baked potatoes from freezer
Tuesday - Quiche Lorraine, spinach salad with Copper Pennies dressing
Wednesday - Salsa Verde Pork Tacos with onion, cilantro, avocado, cheese, and sour cream
Thursday - Bruschetta Meatloaf, (freezer) skinny potatoes, sauteed zucchini
Friday - I think I will pick up take-out!
Saturday - Haven't figured this one out
Sunday - Family Dinner: Sliced glazed ham, loaded mashed potatoes, buttered peas, pineapple dream dessert
It is seriously so hard to hit that stretch point, isn't it? The pull-apart bread looks heavenly. Hooray for not worry about substitutions. We are finally getting some weather where I am hesitating to turn on the oven. Next shopping trips means it's time to meal plan around the grill!
We have had such a cool spring here on the east coast. There have been lots of days that are good for baking, at least.
Monday: burgers on the grill. Strawberries. Chips
Tuesday: breakfast for dinner, frenchtoast casserole to use up odds n ends
Wed: grilled sirloin steak, mashed potatoes , cucumber salad, sautéed mushrooms and onions and garlic toasts
Thursday: pizza and spinach salad KROGER BRAND CHEESE RISING CRUST PIZZA ( pretty good)
Friday: chicken strips, potato puffs, fruit salad, lemon brownies
Sat: will be chicken stir fry
Happy cooking frugal friends !!
Ooh, the French toast casserole sounds like an inspired idea to me!
Your note about Sonia and the chicken soup, and her reaction to it, created an 'aha' moment for me- food really does represent love at times, doesn't it?
I'm going to re member and hold onto that more, going forward.
I am always fond of saying feeding people is my love language.
We are treating ourselves to a weekly taco night. Not very tex-mexy, just a variety of chopped up veggies, a meat and bean filling. Sometimes we have grilled queso fresco also.
Other dinners:
-Baked salmon, grilled beets and baby kale salad, potatoes.
-Pork schnitzel and hollandaise sauce, green beans, waffle fries
-Ravioli with cherry tomato and feta salad
-Linguine pasta with green pea/radish green pesto, spinach salad with boiled eggs
Has anyone else noticed that their dishwasher is working overtime these days!
Totally agree with the dishwasher working overtime!
Yes, I am now running my dishwasher every single day!
Originally I was trying to shop every other week but I gave up and went back to once a week a few weeks ago. I was always forgetting something or needing a prescription or some sort of something that brought me back to the store anyway. Now that the CDC thinks it’s unlikely to catch the virus from surfaces, I feel a bit better about this. I just try and stay away from people and wear a mask (especially since it’s required by law).
Monday- Stuffed shells and salad
Tuesday- grilled burgers and hot dogs, crispy potato rounds, fruit
Wednesday- grilled smoked sausage, mac & chz, fruit, carrot sticks
Thursday- grilled pork chops, rice pilaf, corn on the cob, fruit
I guess we grilled a lot this week. It makes for easy clean up.
What was the verdict on the soy marinated eggs and what does that entail?
Hi! I'm a faithful reader, but (I think?) this is only my second time commenting here. We do Misfits Market for produce, which sounds a lot like your Healthy Harvest box. We went through a few weeks of kale, kale, and yet more kale. We (toddlers included) were happy to eat some kale chips for a while, and my husband and I had a salad or four. Finally, sick of the kale but not wanting to waste it, I was desperate for a new kale recipe...one that made the kale taste nothing like kale. That led me to discover the wonder of kale pesto, which I will happily eat almost indefinitely. There are various recipes, but we basically food processed a bunch of kale with some fresh basil, some walnuts, garlic, and olive oil. We enjoyed it on some crusty bread and over pasta, and found it to be a fantastic departure from our usual kale-based meals.
Anyway, sincerely, thank you so much for your blog. Your outlook and faith are inspiring and continue to be a bright spot in my day.
I have to shop this week for two weeks I guess - maybe I'll go back to every week, maybe not. I'm not looking forward to it. I still don't even have a list made up. All I know is that it will be expensive.
This week we had:
1. Burgers with salads
2. Spaghetti (for him) and zoodles (for me) with lots of homemade pasta sauce (for him) and topping of ground beef, chopped mushrooms, onions and garlic (for me). Plus a little salad
3. Cassava breaded and fried pork chops, green peas, sliced carrots and cucumbers
4. Chicken tenders with carrot raisin salad
5. Last of the hotdogs with slaw, chips and applesauce - I had cassava chips and no bun
And the rest, I forget. I ordered some pork from a farmer and milk and beef from another farmer, so that's adding to my bill this week. It sure is good, though, and I am glad to be able to help sustain them.
I highly recommend this recipe for Teriyaki Chicken thighs! I've been making it for years. So, so good. It's by Ellie Krieger from Food Network. https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ellie-krieger/teriyaki-chicken-thighs-recipe-1947351
I was very pleased to see that Chicken Teriyaki recipe in Cook's Country. I grew up in W. Washington and after 20 years in the midwest I have never found a good Seattle style Teriyaki substitute. The recipe did not disappoint though I would decrease the ginger next time to suit some personal tastes in our household. On to what we ate...
Saturday: Hamburgers, Chips and veggie sticks
Sunday: Salisbury Steak Meatballs w/egg noodles and green beans
Monday: shared tacos and ice Cream with one of our neighbors to celebrate a birthday.
Tuesday: Sweet Potato tacos w/corn
Wednesday: sausage, peppers and grits with fruit
Thursday: Summer Tuna Salad and bread
Friday will be pizza and movie night
I have been in the Midwest only a couple of years. Lived my whole life in W. Wa. Really missing Teriyaki, Thai, and Dim Sum. I’ve learned to make a few other things but was very excited to see the Toshi’s recipe.
Seriouseats.com and thewoksoflife.com both have some great Asian/South-east Asian recipes that we've really been enjoying.
I’ll take a look. Thanks
Since I continue to be "calendar-challenged" during this time, here are the week's dinners in random order:
- Chive risotto cakes
- Vegetarian tacos
- Asparagus cashew stir fry
- Roasted veggies
- Israeli couscous concoction
Leftovers are eaten for both breakfast and lunch, so each night we make something new.
I cook and try to have leftovers. Sometimes it works and sometimes... Anywho, we had:
- crockpot roast w/veg
- smoked chicken sandwiches, pumpkin pie
- enchiladas
- deli sandwiches
I have 5 lbs of chicken thawing out now for more enchiladas , chicken & rice, breaded chicken....
I make a weekly menu, but also pick randomly depending on what we're hungry for!
- cream cheese chicken/ crispy potato wedges
- zuchinni pizza pasta
- fried fish sandwiches/ coleslaw
- baked ziti- meatless
- meatball sandwiches/ coleslaw
- brocolli wild rice soup/ garlic bread
- parmesan crusted chicken/ green bean casserole
Sunday and Monday- lasagna pasta
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday- homemade garbage plates. My husband requested these for his birthday. We are from Western NY where garbage plates are a delicacy!
Friday- tacos
what's a garbage plate?
I had to google it because I'd never heard of it! https://www.thespruceeats.com/famous-garbage-plate-rochester-new-york-101383
My family loves this but makes it slightly different. We layer French fries, baked beans, thin sliced London broil steak, macaroni salad then top it with the meat sauce. If anyone is interested in the meat sauce recipe, I will put it on here. It is such a good meal.
Nancy, I would love the meat sauce recipe. It’s so hard to find a good one.
Yes! Rochester is home of the garbage plate!. The garbage plate can be made a variety of ways, but the original way is hamburgers on top of home fries and Mac salad all covered in meat hot sauce. You can substitute hot dogs or grilled cheese for the hamburgers. There are also breakfast garbage plates!
I think it was my father who said that if you just need milk, get it at the gas station or Dollar General or whatever. It's worth paying a little more to not be tempted to buy everything else.
All of these had fruits and veggies on the side:
-Naan Pizzas - twice this week!
-Bean Burritos, chips, salsa and guac
-Veggie Pasta & warm baguettes
-Watermelon Poke bowls (Ok, this one was a big leap of faith but surprisingly, everyone loved them!)
I agree with the others - I really enjoy your blog and appreciate your dedication to it!
Monday - Chicken pot pie. No side dishes because we were going to have a movie night with lots of popcorn.
Tuesday - Chick-fil-A. It actually cost less than we remembered for all 5 of us. But in a very non-frugal evening, we drove 45 minutes to return a $12 item at a UPS Store (the main purpose of the trip), then got Chick-fil-A for dinner and donuts for dessert. We clearly need some more excitement in our life. Ha!
Wednesday - Sheet pan dinner (brats, summer squash, zucchini, sweet potatoes, carrots, broccoli, asparagus, green beans) and roasted cauliflower with parmesan cheese. So many veggies.
Thursday - Plan A was sloppy joes with your homemade burger buns, green beans, and cantaloupe. But I ruined the buns by getting distracted and heating my liquids too much and killing my yeast, then discovered that my cantaloupe apparently did not last as long as I expected (had to throw the whole thing out). So, I ran to the store to get buns and subbed potato chips and dip and cookies for the cantaloupe.
Friday - I'm going to attempt the buns again. Hopefully it stops raining and I can grill burgers and asparagus. Maybe more chips and dip with them - I LOVE potato chips and dip and only buy them 2 or 3 times a year.
Oh man, so sorry to hear about your ruined bun dough. So frustrating!
The buns I made over the weekend turned out beautifully!! I've appreciated having this option since I'm doing less-frequent grocery shopping right now. 🙂
My daughter is 19 months old and when eating homemade pizza she says "Bubble! Soooo good!". Gotta love that bubble slice.
She knows what's what!
Monday: It was unseasonably cool so we had potato scallop with ham and asparagus.
Tuesday: We had lo mein. As a bonus I used two carrots that were getting kind of rubbery.
Wednesday: Another batch of lo mein which used up the last of some noodles I'd been given.
Thursday: Pizza with a wonderful salad filled with two kinds of sprouts, mixed lettuce and grated carrot. I did an email order for the organic veggies and walked to the store for no-contact pick-up. So good!
Friday: Chicken with leeks and tomatoes with lots of sauce--of course--and noodles. This weeks theme seemed to be Eat All The Noodles!
Sunday daughter made a ground turkey curry of some sort
Monday I did a marinated London broil with potatoes, carrots, a huge roasted beet
Tuesday Creamy chicken, bacon, pasta with leftovers for lunch Wed
Wednesday a Dutch baby pancake with bacon
Thursday lunch was leftover past made into Caesar pasta sala. Dinner was a lovely piece of salmon (we bought a case of individually wrapped 8 oz pieces-well worth it)
Friday lunch base wAs the school sandwich my grandson didn't eat with lettuce and tomato added and the remainder of the pasta salad. I made pizza dough this morning
We purchased fresh beef hamburgs for over the weekend at a local supplier and ice cream at the farm up the street. I'll try my hand at your Hamburg rolls. And we have plenty of vegetables from our Misfits order and our CSS
Have a healthy happy weekend all.
We luckily don't have any food allergy issues.
We spent $160 at the grocery store and $130 at the abattoir. We should be good for 3 weeks (longer for meat). Working backward:
Friday: Vietnamese Grilled Lemongrass Pork Chops with Thai kohlrabi stirfry
Thursday: 5-minute miso salmon (serious eats), sautéed summer squash, broccoli & red pepper. Mesclun salad with miso dressing
Wednesday: panko broiled cusk, reheated french fries, broccoli
Tuesday: Socca (so good. so easy. davidlebovitz.com), homemade duck pastrami (serious eats), sautéed zuke and summer squash with goat cheese, preserved lemon, and basil. For an amuse-bouche, we split our first radish from the garden! 🙂
Monday: Tawainese 3-cup chicken, rice & broccoli
Sunday: Take out pizza from our favorite joint.
Saturday: beer-braised bratwurst, sauerkraut, German potato salad, sliced cucumbers with dill
For my birthday I made myself a batch of peanut butter cookies with peanut butter chips because what's better than more peanut butter?
Sunday - london broil with roasted potatoes, green beans and brussel sprouts.
Monday - matzoh ball soup and scrambled egg sandwiches.
Tuesday - my husband made me rigatoni with bolognese sauce that had very little tomato in it as too much tomato aggravates my acid reflux. It was so good and we had it with ciabatta bread.
Wednesday - I wanted some comfort food so I made creamed tuna with peas served over biscuits. I know it sounds weird but it was a big thing in the 70s for cheap eats and it took me right back to my childhood sitting in my parents' red, white, and blue kitchen with the fake brick wall over the stove.
Thursday - more pasta bolognese with leftover green beans.
Friday - we had a big lunch so we opted for toast with peanut butter and jam.
Still love creamed tuna on toast (no peas) but nobody but me likes it at my place so I ear it when it’s just me at home. One of my top three comfort foods. I’m a seventies kid too.
I also eat creamed tuna on toast! Also 70s kid. Comfort food for sure!
My Mom would make creamed tuna when she had some inexpensive or going stale potato chips to pour it over. A great rare treat for us kids, that I didn't realize until I was an adult that she only made if Dad was gone for some reason. 70's - yes, with no peas.
We had a huge meal of garlic pork loin, green peas, corn on the cob, baked apples and homemade biscuits to celebrate me finally getting a job after 8 months of searching. The meal made several days of leftovers, which were followed by some cold meal days of sandwiches when our air conditioning went out. Lately we've been on an egg salad kick, since eggs no longer cost the earth.
Congratulations! That is definitely something to celebrate.
Congrats on the job!
Yay to the new job! Good for you after all that time. And to be hired during a pandemic is doubly awesome.
Congratulations!! That was an awful long time to be job hunting.
Let's see if I can remember everything we ate.
Friday: we had Chinese takeaway.
Thursday: I cooked oven fries and fish fingers for my daughter and I and spinach and feta triangles for everyone else.
Wednesday: hearty vegetable soup based on a kit and sausages.
Tuesday: sweet and sour chicken with sauce out of a jar and rice.
Monday: I know we ate but I can't remember what.
I actually made this Bubble Bread today and it was delicious and my 4yo adored making it! Thanks x
I can’t find a way to post a pic to show you.
Oh, fantastic! You can tag me (@thefrugalgirl) on Instagram or Facebook. Or you can email me (thefrugalgirl@gmail.com)
Ooh, let’s see how many meals I can actually remember! (I need to start writing them down...)
Monday - Hmmm. This one I’m finding hard to remember. Maybe bacon and eggs with toast? (Breakfast for dinner!!)
Tuesday - Chickpea stirfry with lots of veggies and ginger; served over rice. (Veggies included onions, mushrooms, broccoli, celery & sliced peppers.)
Wednesday- Leftover chickpea stirfry with rice. (We do a lot of cooking one night and then making it stretch out for about two or three nights worth of dinners. Less cooking...and we LOVE leftovers.)
Thursday - Was going to make spaghetti with the defrosted ground beef, but we both (oddly) didn’t feel like it. So, whipped up a batch of curried beef with veggies instead. Served on brown rice.
Friday - Curried Beef and Veggies with rice (leftovers)
Saturday - Making a pasta throw-together meal using chicken sausages, veggies, olive oil, herbs and a bit of hot sauce. Hub bought a bag of frozen sliced onions and peppers that I’ll use in this. I’ll top mine with grated cheese. (No cheese for hubby; he’s lactose intolerant.)
Sunday - Leftover Veggie Sausage pasta.
Yay, I remembered more than I thought I would. Thanks for this awesome post!
P.S. Is anyone else still eating a lot of quarantine chocolate, or is that just me?
I cook a few times a week, and then we have leftovers the rest of the nights:
-Egg roll in a bowl with samosas
-Taco slaw with tortilla chips
-Tacos
-Taco pasta bake
Yes, I polled the crew for recipe ideas, and.... everyone likes tacos. Next time, I will set a limit on taco themed recipes.
Sunday - Fried Chicken
Monday - Meatloaf
Tuesday - Steak Sandwiches
Wednesday - McDonalds
Thursday - Nachos
Friday - Pizza
Saturday - BBQ Ribs