Spring Break Week Eats
Well, hi! It's been a quiet week around here. But I have been cooking meals, even though we're out of our regular routine and aren't doing school this week.
And I went to the grocery store too. 😉
What I Spent
I spent $194.97, including a trip to the organic market for some chicken.
Oh, never mind! I just remembered I also had a $48 trip to Costco. So that puts me at $242.
But I'm still averaging $181/week for the whole month of March, which means all is well in Grocery Budget Land.
March Spending
(last year’s average was $200/week)
Week one: $220
Week two: $87
Week three: $177.95
Week four: $242
What We Ate
Monday
We had ground beef tacos with chips and guacamole. Because Tex-Mex. Nom, nom.
Tuesday
We celebrated Lisey's birthday a bit early, with shrimp, kielbasa, pepper, and onion kebabs, orange jello salad, buttery bubble bread, & salty snacks + fizzy drinks.
For dessert, she picked plain chocolate ice cream with a bajillion sundae toppings on the side, so everyone made their own custom dessert.
Wednesday
I made BLT salad from my ATK quick cookbook, and we also had leftover buttery bubble bread, sliced and toasted.
Thursday
It was a summery, grilling kind of day, and luckily I already had hamburgers on the menu!
Friday
I think I'm going to opt for an easy kind of pizza tonight. Maybe pizza bagels or something of that ilk.
And that wraps up our week of eats.
What did you eat this week?
P.S. Have a lovely Easter weekend!
I noticed a bottle of chocolate syrup in your picture which made me wonder if you have ever made it yourself. I have a super duper easy recipe for making it that only takes about ten minutes tops to prepare. I can send it to you if you're interested.
Elizabeth,
I think a lot of people would be interested.... Could you post it as a reply?
Best,
Sara
Yes Sara I can!
Fudged Chocolate Sauce
( makes about 1 1/3 or 325ml)
1/2 cup cocoa
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla
Combine cocoa and sugar in a saucepan. Stir in water. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a boil. Reduce heat and boil gently for 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in butter and vanilla. Cool. Serve warm or cooled over ice cream or anything you want!
Couple tips:
I add slightly less water because I like it thicker.
It burns very easily (I KNOW!) so be careful to stir and once it boils I put it on low for the five minutes.
I store it in the fridge in a mason jar. It can be easily heated in the jar in the microwave and it heats up very fast so just needs seconds.
Whoops.....should be Fudgey!
my recipe is probably not so thick & fudgy as Elizabeth's . I use it to flavor my coffee for a pseudo mocha. the recipe is here http://wp.me/p266n1-Kh next time I run out I think I'll try Elizabeth's version.
You've probably answered this before, but does your grocery budget include household or HBA items or is it just food? Just curious.
Yup, it includes health and beauty items. There was some deodorant and shampoo in this trip, although maybe it was hard to see!
I was on vacation for five days (Fri-Tues), and my husband informs me he went Full Bachelor in terms of eating: frozen pizza, scrapple and bacon sandwiches, ice cream, and "straight from the baking dish" macaroni and cheese that I left for him. I enjoyed eating out at delis, food carts, and the occasional restaurant, because it was my first real time in The Big Apple - this is why we're frugal, amirite?? 😀
For the night I got back, hubs tried cooking green beans, broccoli, and an artichoke to accompany boxed mac and cheese. The artichoke was just too tough (not in season yet), but everything else was good.
Last night he grilled steak and I made a quick vegetable macaroni salad to use leftovers from the fridge, which we ate with a (discounted!) whole-grain loaf and fresh pineapple.
Tonight it's going to be hamburgers, fruit, mixed vegetables, and chips and salsa.
I'm looking forward to our weekend cooking, in particular, since both whole hams and leg of lamb went on deep sale for the holiday. Restocking the freezer never tasted so good! 🙂
It's been a quiet week here, mostly.
Sunday: Breakfast for dinner. I ended up working almost the entire day (so, yay for overtime pay I guess.) so we went with something easy.
Monday: BLT's - Since we cooked a pound of bacon on Sunday, it was only natural to use the leftovers in sandwiches the next day.
Tuesday: Honey Sriracha pork chops with rice. This came out better than I expected considering I just kind of threw it together.
Wednesday: Clean out the fridge for me and Macaroni Cheese for my wife. I don't care for wheat pasta (I think it has bad memories attached to it, when I was growing up we had it a lot because we were poor and my parents weren't home to cook so we had it all the time) so I found some leftover chicken from Saturday night, some leftover rice, cut up some veggies, seasoned with curry powder and stir fried it up.
Thursday: More overtime for me and my wife was working so sadly we both missed the Maundy Thursday potluck and service at church. Instead I made baked boneless buffalo chicken pieces (cut into nuggets, breaded in panko and baked in the oven) and oven fries. The fries came out excellent, especially when topped with malt vinegar.
Tonight, I have no idea what we're having.
As for grocery shopping we went to Target and got baby formula (Similac sent me a $16 rebate coupon which we were able to stack with a standard $2 off coupon and got a can of powder for cheap.) We went to our local grocery store chain and spent $40 on things like cheese, crackers and other sale items.
I also bought vodka which is very unusual for me since I'm a teetotaler. I'm using it for making vanilla extract.
Tonight I'll feed my sourdough starter and possibly make some more sourdough bread. We shall see.
Am I allowed to say it has been a shambles.
Sunday we went out for fish and chips for my birthday.
Monday was my birthday and my chef son roasted a leg of lamb and vegetables..
Tuesday was steak and vegetable stir fry.
Wednesday I went out with my youngest girl and had souvlaki.
Thursday we had all kinds of leftovers.
Friday was salmon, potato and zucchini.
Tomorrow is salmon and something.
Sunday will probably be beef of some kind.
Well, now let's see...
Monday-Parmesan crusted tilapia, cabbage steaks, deviled eggs, and boxed mac& cheese.None of this really went together but my family doesn't really care about stuff like that, thank goodness!
Tuesday-My kids had a play date at the park right after school so some of us ate boxed pot pies and some ate frozen pizza. Bad, I know!
Wednesday- Homemade meatloaf, green beans, and crock pot lima beans from the freezer.
Thursday- Roasted orange and red beets, lemon pepper chicken, and roasted green beans sprinkled with turkey bacon and brown sugar.
Friday- I think we are eating out somewhere tonite. One of my children isn't home which will save us a little. Or we may grill hamburgers if it's warm enough. We are having another cool snap here today.
This week I had a lot of poorly planned meals because we just got back from vacation so I was just throwing things together each night. At least I got in a few veggies and protein! And I didn't make any unnecessary trips to the grocery store by eating what we already had on hand. Hopefully, next week be better
I love Lisey's birthday dinner. I often requested sundaes for my birthday, too.
This week I made an effort to clean out the freezer.
Saturday-I had a homemade bean and cheese burrito.
Sunday - I can't remember at all what I ate.
Monday/Tuesday - I cut up some chicken and apple sausages and sautéed them with veggies. I had a couple of pot stickers on the side. This was all from the freezer.
Wednesday - pepperoni pizza.
Thursday - I cut a boneless pork chop it into thin strips, cooked them up, and wrapped them in a tortilla with veggies and salsa.
Friday - I don't know. Possible a repeat of Monday/Tuesday's dinner.
Monday - burgers, oven fries, fruit
Tuesday - grilled sesame ginger garlic pork tenderloin, snap peas, roasted cauliflower
Wednesday - cooks country baked potato soup with bacon, sour cream, cheese, and fried potato peels. Yum! We had some kind of fruit with that and rolls.
Thursday - homemade soup for the kids (my five year old asked for it for breakfast so it was a big hit) and a pork hibachi (with leftover pork from tuesday) with yum yum sauce and rice for the adults. It's my favorite way to repurpose leftover grilled meat.
Friday - homemade Mac and cheese with veggies and fruit
Happy Easter!
Like Lisey, my son never chooses cake for his birthday. It's either apple crisp or Rice Krispie treats!
Sunday - grilled skirt steak from ATK
Monday - homemade tomato soup with quesadillas
Tuesday - shepard's pie ( made with ground turkey)
Wednesday - Harissa chicken tacos
Thursday - salmon burgers from blue apron free
Friday - spiced chicken from blue apron free
Saturday - probably out to dinner
I spent $54 at the farmers market that includes the organic skirt steak at $24. Plus spent $112 at the grocery store. Which is a low week but I live in California. I usually spend about $400 a month at Costco. So my weekly average is $266. This week was odd becuase most of my grocery store bill was pudding / jello, ice cream, yogurt, etc... For my kid getting her wisdom teeth out. In hindsight I should have made it home made. Have you ever made yogurt in a crockpot?
I've never done it in a crock pot, because my current method works so well (And also because my crockpot is VERY small!)
I love the idea of quesadillas and tomato soup. Keeps with the theme of grilled cheese, but a nice change up.
Just chiming in to say you were missed this week!
Aww, that is so kind of you. Thank you!
It's been a bit of a crazy week. We made special candle holders for Holy Week at church last weekend, and every night after dinner we've lit another candle and read a story to prepare us for Easter. Adding one more thing to our evening routine has been a bit hectic, but it has been lovely. There are stories that I might not have thought to tell my 3- and 5-year-olds otherwise, and we've had some great discussions.
Monday - homemade gf bread, turnip pottage, sardines, broccoli for the kids
Tuesday - bean chilli and cheese quesadillas
Wednesday - ham steak, leftover soup, sauteed zucchine
Thursday - black bean stew with leftover ham over rice, broccoli
Friday - pasta with tomato sauce, broccoli, chick pea salad
It was my busiest week of the year professionally; 16 hours on Tuesday, 17 hours on Thursday. After work on Wednesday I made a quick homemade marinara, turkey sausage, and GF spaghetti. I'm taking a few needed days off and very much looking forward to a break from heavy, rushed restaurant meals and "lunch" of a banana and string cheese. It was a delight this mirning to buy an organic roasting hen for tonight's dinner!