Ta-dah! The menu post, it is back.
Welcome to the first installment of the new weekly menu posts!
Menu board made from ugly Goodwill framed print
To keep it super real around here, I'm going to try something new: posting what we've eaten for the last week rather than what I plan for us to eat.
(Because heaven knows you can be all, "We will eat All Of The Vegetables and I'll make from-scratch meals every night!" and then your plans get all derailed. So, this method will give you an honest-to-goodness idea of what we actually are eating.)
Groceries
I don't have a grocery photo for you...sorry! I'll take one next week.
I can tell you that this year, I've averaged about $200/week on groceries, which is up from the $150 I use to shoot for a few years ago. Partly this is due to my kids getting older and hungrier, and partly it's because I'm buying more in the way of organic and local food.
It would be awesome if that bill went down, but it's not something I'm spending a lot of time stressing out about.
The Menu
Weekends are not that interesting around here menu-wise because we usually have a $20 date night and Sunday nights are frequently snacky meals or breakfast for dinner.
Soo, I'm thinking that our Monday-Friday eats would probably be the most helpful to you all!
Monday
- Well-Done Grilled Hamburgers
- Potato Cubes (because some of my potatoes rotted and I wanted to hurry and use the rest of the bag before they too went bad. Related: rotten potatoes are, like, the stinkiest thing ever.)
- Apple Slices
Tuesday
Mr. FG and I went out to use a soon-to-expire Groupon.
(Wasn't this an unusually lovely week? Tuesday night dates are very infrequent!)
Lisey made Fettucini Alfredo at home.
Wednesday
- Swedish Meatballs
- Mashed potatoes (Finished up the bag of potatoes. Yay!)
- Strawberry Pear Green Salad
Thursday
Friday
Fridays are almost always pizza night at our house. Sometimes we buy it, sometimes I make it, but either way, it's nice to have one night a week where I don't have to think very hard about coming up with a meal idea.
Here's how I make my homemade pizza.
And that's all, folks!
(until next week's menu. 😉 )
Totally agree - I was just saying yesterday that one of the stinkiest smells is rotten potatoes - and rotten onions. Bleh. Oh, and we use your pizza dough recipe every. single. Friday. So, thanks for that 🙂
Yes-rotten onions are pretty bad too. But not QUITE as bad as potatoes!
When I was teaching, the science teacher down the hall left potatoes in his classroom over Christmas break. They rotted. They entire hall was filled with the stench.
Oh yes, that lovely rotting potato smell. So bad!
The more healthy food I buy for the family, the bigger our grocery bill is. That is very frustrating, isn't it? Keeping it in perspective has come a little easier for me through the years.
I started menu planning after reading your posts years ago. I also shamelessly copies your menu many weeks. Haha. So glad to have them back! Thanks for posting!
I say $200 is pretty reasonable. We feed two adults (one of them pregnant) and two little guys, and I rarely spend less than $125.
I like the "after" format. So real!
Yay - so glad these are back, thank you!
This week, our family of two has had two main meals: tortellini with ham and cream, and beef chili. The tortellini was repurposed with all the leftover veggies (asparagus, roasted sprouts, spinach) into a casserole, though I doubt I'll eat the last serving. Hubs is thrilled to eat chili all week, no joke. I also made some breaded chicken cutlets when hubs took out the FULL package of chicken thighs instead of the one breast I needed to make chicken noodle soup. They became sandwiches and the meat part of a snacky cheese board dinner.
Kudos on using up those potatoes. You're right, the smell is awful.
Does anyone have tips for storing potatoes longer? I read about pioneers storing potatoes all winter, but I'm lucky if mine last a couple of weeks. I take them out of the bag and keep them in a wooden potato bin in my utility room -- which is dark and not too hot. They still rot.
I've just been looking into this because we grew potatoes for the first time this year and have some to store. From what I can find, cooler is better. The ideal storage temp is just above freezing, but of course most people don't have that option. The coolest dark place you can find in your house is best. They also say you shouldn't keep them in plastic bags, though paper bags are fine. I'm going to keep ours in the coolest corner of the basement in paper bags and hope that they last until we can use them up. Some day....a root cellar.
Is it wrong to keep them in the fridge? I do in the summer, and they last quite a while. In the winter I can leave them anywhere. Same with onions.
I've read that storing potatoes in the refrigerator can lead to your potatoes being sweeter and darker when you fry them, but I'm not sure that is necessarily a bad thing. Something about the starches being converted to sugars. The thing that puzzles me is that temps in your refrigerator are not colder than those in a root cellar in the middle of winter--at least around here. Many people say that putting them in the refrigerator works for them and that it's the only way they can keep them for any length of time. One thing to remember though is that potatoes don't keep well if they are stored with apples or onions, which some people keep in their refrigerators. I've never tried keeping them in there because of space. Ours is always bursting at the seams...
Love that Lisey made the fettucini. How cool for her AND you! These posts are so helpful -- they remind me to stay the course, at least part of the week. Also -- fun, since they give such neat little glimpses of life at the FG household -- endlessly fascinating! And reassuring, somehow. Just the cheerfulness Also the Frugal 5 --well, pretty much your entire blog is so helpful and beautifully done. I am never disappointed. So thank you.
My dad and I were just talking about storing potatoes after my enormous harvest. He is 94 and said when he was growing up they had a root cellar and their potatoes kept until spring. He said the cooler the better. We had our basement insulated and it is warm so I know mine won't keep for long. So I am going to freeze some. I made a couple of large batches of mashed taters, froze some in individual servings, I am going to make hash browns and freeze them too.
If you can get this years crop in the fall, and keep them cool&dark you should get at least 3-4 months. A lot of the ones in the stores are from the previous years crop and don't last as long. I bought a 50lbs last fall from the current crop and they lasted for months in the bag just sitting in my kitchen.
I love when you post your menus! I started doing this (not every week but as often as possible!) after reading one of your posts and seeing your cute repurposed chalkboard. I am surprised at how much my kids love this. I think it is more for knowing "there is a plan" for dinner and family togetherness than for what I am making. They don't love everything I make that is for sure!!!
Thanks for posting menu. I made the swedish meatballs tonight 1/2 beef and 1/2 turkey. I had no heavy cream so 2%+cream cheese. So good! I went back 3x totalling 8 meatballs. Im still full 4 hours later and thinking about them for lunch tomorrow!!
I put mine over spaghetti squash and everyone else had noodles. Yum!!!!! Its in my Recipe Vault notebook with the keepers.
Yay! So glad they were tasty.
I can't wait to try the homemade pizza. I've been meaning to try making it for a long time!
I'm with you on the smell of rotten potatoes. I can't stand it. We try to do Pizza night on Fridays, too. 🙂
Love this post, Kristen. It's nice to know how other families do it.
I just made pizza today using your recipe, and I must say...it was amazing! Thanks for the tip on the hot oven and preheating the pizza stone! My only comment would be...my parchment paper hung over the edges of the pizza stone, and got really brown. I was a little afraid they might catch fire, so next time I'll trim it to the size of the round stone.
I used the bottom rack...maybe that was why the paper browned. Do you use the bottom rack for a browner crust, or the center rack?
Yeah, mine does that too if I don't trim it to a circle. It's never actually caught on fire, but it does get dry and brown.
I usually use my second-to-the-lowest rack.
So glad your pizza was tasty!
And don't you know it, it's always the potato waaay at the bottom of a huge bag that goes bad and by the time you find it...ugh...maggots! Creeps me out.
This really has nothing to do with your menu post but do you still have that other site where you featured your daughter Lisey cooking? I can't remember the name of it.
Yup! Bakingwithlisey.com