What I ate: very little
Hello, friends!
I have been down with a GI bug, so my "what I spent, what I ate" report would be very boring.
I spent very little. I ate very little. And honestly, although I am on the mend, I really do not want to think about food right now. The most substantial things I've eaten recently are bowls of Rice Krispies and cream of wheat (separately!)
Chiquita has been thrilled that I've been on the couch because hello, more snuggle time.
Anyway...I might not want to think about dinner food, but I don't want you all to be without a place to share your menus, so I'm putting this post up for ya.
BOOOOO. I hope you are 100% ASAP. And now I feel kind of bad even writing about food, but we still ate. And how.
Saturday: A totally made up casserole with loose Italian sausage, potatoes, tomatoes, beet greens, cream, and asadero (my mozzarella substitute) cheese. Every male that ate this--six of them--LOVED this. My daughter wasn't too wild about it. So I guess it was engineered for the Y chromosome. Since there were a lot of chopped beet greens in it, I just gave everyone some sliced radishes for a vegetable. And then there was ice cream after dinner.
Sunday: Two pizzas--one with some unpleasantly slimy deli ham that I fried to make crispy before topping the pizza with it, and one with garlic scapes, collard greens, and bell peppers. Ranch dip, carrot sticks, and the extra cake I baked when I made my small Fourth of July flag cake. I had baked some of the batter in a cake pan and froze the whole thing. I sliced that in half to make two layers, put the rest of the vanilla frosting in the center with strawberry/rhubarb puree, and then covered the whole thing with whipped cream.
Monday: Birthday meal! The birthday boy wanted lamb, pasta and pesto, and cheesecake. I used ground lamb to make burgers on the grill; some of the fresh basil from the garden to make pesto, plus the last of last year's frozen pesto; half a cabbage in the refrigerator to make coleslaw; the King Arthur recipe for easy cheesecake, which was indeed extremely easy. The birthday boy also likes fruit sauce on his cheesecake, which is why I had made the strawberry/rhubarb sauce that also went on the previous day's layer cake.
Tuesday: Roasted chicken, potatoes, carrots, green beans; leftover coleslaw for those who don't like cooked vegetables much. I also made a pot of something like baked beans, except cooked on the stove, with some cans of pinto beans because we had a last-minute guest and I wanted to make sure there would be enough food. Also also, while the oven was one for the chicken, I baked something called "butterscotch brownies," which were really just chocolate chip cookie bars made with all brown sugar instead of any white sugar. They were very sweet, but very good.
Wednesday: I used the leftover chicken and gravy to make what we call "chicken slop," and then I made rice with the chicken stock I had made from chicken bones in the morning. I also cooked one package of jalapeno/cheddar sausages for those who will eat them. There were peas in the chicken slop, so I didn't make another vegetable.
Thursday: I made meatballs in the morning to serve with leftover pasta and pesto. Pickled radishes for a half-hearted vegetable.
Tonight: I have leftover not-baked beans, leftover rice, leftover pasta and pesto, and I will supplement all of this with eggs. Vegetable . . . maybe carrot sticks? You can tell that the vegetable is always an afterthought in our house. 🙂
Kristen-with-an-E: I can’t think about food or I’ll hurl.
Kristin-with-an-I: We ate unpleasantly slimy deli ham and chicken slop.
Sorry for taking the piss, but this genuinely made me laugh so hard.
Kristen, I want to eat at your house! Your menus always sound so delicious!
Kristin, see below. I inadvertently spelled your name with an e not an I
Hope you’re feeling better. We had chili, crockpot chicken fajitas, pork chops, veggies from the garden, and that’s about it. Chili gave us leftovers and the fajitas too. So not much other cooking happened. 💜
I hope you feel better soon, Kristen. And out of sympathy (and because I rarely do anyway), I will not post what I ate. But we did eat, I assure you. And most of it was homemade.
BUT my husband and I did something very not frugal on a whim last night after supper. We decided (since we needed to pick daughter up from work anyway) to go a little early and have dessert and coffee at the restaurant where she is hostess. We called to make reservations (she takes the reservations) and reserved a table for two for Romeo McFlourish (she loves that Bluey episode). It was decidedly delicious and terribly expensive. I am so, so thankful that she loves this first regular job, and the people are really nice to her (two of the servers bought a piece of cake for her to give to her brother-- whom they've never met-- to celebrate his pilot's license win.
Oh no, Kristen! I hope you feel better soon!
This week we mainly ate salads with new potatoes but last night we had veggie sausages with mashed potato, aka bangers and mash. No idea what we're eating tonight!
Oof, Kristen, sorry about the GI bug! Hope it passes quickly.
WIS: $15 at the Regional Market, $48 at Wegmans, and $20 at Aldi.
WIA: I'll join others in sparing you the details--especially as I have the usual nothing much interesting to report anyway!
Oh, I hope your innards settle down and you start feeling much better.
I spent $90 at Food Lion, but a chunk of that was shelf-stable items for the church food pantry. So probably $60 for my family.
We had leftover homemade soup, sandwiches, peppers and tomatoes from the garden, cheese and crackers, grapes and watermelon, tuna casserole and veggie burgers. Dessert this hot week was muffins from a mix.
I haven't eaten much either (different reasons), and was traveling all week. Japan is usually pretty rough for me if I'm not choosing my own meals, as I don't eat raw fish & that's...quite a popular option. 😉
-Skipped plane meal on flight over & home. Neither were worth having & I was exhausted & wanted to sleep
-I ordered room service 2 nights: one was a chicken club sandwich & the other was soup. Both were passable
-I ate at the lounge another night, and had salad, fried rice & fruit.
-Had a chicken skewer at another work event, along with some fruit.
It was a light eating week, and I got a bacterial infection in my foot & my appetite was low, so... I definitely saved some calories!
Eek, a bacterial infection in your foot? While traveling? That sounds very unfun. I hope it's easily treatable and gone soon.
It's a whole thing. I was on a work trip. Forgot a regular bra (wore a sports bra on flight). Definitely not Japan sized up top for a bra. Went out on Monday to find a bra. It's super hot & humid in Japan & difficult to find a bra. Feet were bigger than usual from heat. Got a couple of blisters. No big deal. Well, I'm on a new medicine for lupus (immuno suppressant) & the blisters became a big deal. Foot became huge, swollen & red, which I knew was not great. Couldn't wear shoes. Was flying business class (work flight) on the way home, so kept my leg propped for entire long flight. Swelling was pretty bad. Got off flight & went directly to urgent care. It actually looks a lot better today - you can almost see my ankle. Before that, it's been so swollen I've had no ankle. I had to do the things where you mark where the red line is, and hope it wouldn't go higher before I got home. 0/10, do not recommend!
Woah. 🙁
Get well soon!
This sounds like quite an ordeal! I'm glad you got back to the U.S. and to UC before this got worse. Thankfully you're already improving!
Oh my gracious that sounds terrible!
Oh, dear! I’m so sorry to hear this!!! Use the internet to search for videos on manual lymphatic drainage. It might help your body process the inflammation a little faster.
I hope you feel better very soon!!! When you feel more like your usual food appreciating self, update us, and I’ll add more menu details.
WIS: I briefly had my car back, so before I decided the mechanic needed to double check the new transmission because it was grinding a little going in and out of first gear and bucking a little going down from second, we did a quick grocery run and spent 212 at Aldi. Then, after dropping off my car, my husband wanted to buy our oldest a graduation gift of a laptop at Costco, so while there, we spent another 36 or so on easy quick food for dinner that did not require the oven. I finally tried one of the loss leader rotisserie chickens, and wow, is it a great deal! Annoyed that I never tried one before! Anyway, 246 this week is not too bad.
WWA:
Mostly things that didn’t require much cooking because it has been so hot and we’ve been eating lighter dinners and then heading to the pool afterwards. Walking home after the sun goes down is so much better when it’s hot like this. It makes it so a refreshing swim is not immediately erased by a sweltering uphill walk. The boys are hungry again when we get home after swimming, but they’ve just been helping themselves to leftovers or peanut butter toast, so it’s been fairly frugal too.
Get well soon!
We spent $56 ($36 at Aldi and $20 at the natural foods co-op).
-- Chia pudding and graham crackers
-- Egg-broccoli-mushroom-onion bake
-- Salad
-- Cashews, sesame sticks, apple slices, cheese and crackers
-- Plant-based chicken Bolognese over mashed potatoes
-- Cinnamon-raisin bread with butter along with yogurt with peanut butter protein powder
-- Bran flakes to which I added my own raisins
Sorry you are under the weather. My Gerd acting up so I understand. Have not taken
today's dose of the latest and greatest meds that seemed to have been working. But I will soon. Both today's and yesterday's posts did not show up in my in box. Not sure what is wrong. Also happened to glance at hubby's FACEBOOK and saw you have 17k followers. That is IMPRESSIVE. Feel better soon. Sending love, hugs and gratitude to you for creating and maintaining THIS.
On Weds the hubby took Buddy to our vet in Brooklyn on the subway. Buds is OK. So, I actually cooked dinner that night. Pasta pesto chicken. The whole family liked it. Yay me.
I'm so sorry you're not feeling well! Hope you mend real soon!
I ate soup for three days this week. It started as a can of sausage/beer cheese/potato soup, that was an Aldi find. Over consecutive days I added more beer, more cheese, chicken broth, mushrooms, tomatoes, lettuce -- it became fridge soup. In all it's iterations it was pretty good, especially when served along with Aldi's Everything sourdough bread.
I finished up some pepperoni pizza from the freezer -- that was three days, too.
I ate salad several days. It started out as a Caesar kit, but over the days I changed out the dressing, added more cheese, and made my own croutons from baguette.
Today I am thawing crushed tomatoes and tortillas. Not sure what I will make today, but in the near future I will make meatless cannelloni, quesadillas with refried beans and cheese, and tuna salad sandwiches, as I have celery to use up.
I spent $37 at Aldi and $6 at Food4Less.
Just wanted to say I do know how to use "its" properly, but my phone insists on changing it to "it's." So annoying!
'It's' is a contraction for 'it is'. When you're not sure which one is correct, replace the 'its' or 'it's' with 'it is' to see which option makes sense. Our phones are not always so smart lol. I hope this helps!
Her phone is the one who needs the lesson. Ha. I think she meant to use the correct "its".
Get better Kristen!
Did you happen to eat any shredded lettuce, btw?
Haha, no, I haven't, but I eat a lot of produce so who knows if I got something funky from another source?
You also work in a hospital, so…I think shredded lettuce is probably not your most dangerous source of infection.
Bahahaha, well, that is a fair point, but also, the floor I work on is not a terribly infectious floor. We have a lot of post-op patients (who have to be fairly healthy before surgery) and then a lot of patients with non-infectious GI issues (bowel obstructions, hernias, g-tubes, etc.). I would imagine people who work in the ER or urgent care are exposed to so many more germs than I am!
Fair enough, but I’ll keep favoring washed lettuce over the unwashed masses over here. 😉
Kristen, feel better soon! Remember to drink your electrolytes or coconut water.
WIS: $27 @ Costco
Sun fam dinner - elk satay, Coconut rice, cucumber and onion salad, bao buns, garlic beans, strawberry salad, sauteed nettles, various pickled fruits and veg. Peach upside down cake with soft serve.
Mon - grilled chicken, leftover rice, cabbage salad
Tues - Bolognese over penne, green salad, pea pods
Wed - Jambalaya, sides of rice, watermelon
Thurs - grilled venison, beet greens, tomato cucumber onion salad
Fri - friend is visiting from NY, bbq pork ribs, mac and cheese, veg and dirty martini blue cheese dip, peaches and berries.
Saturday - picnic on cousin's ocean boat = fishing day!
Recipe for dry martini blue cheese dip if you are so inclined. We purchase blue cheese from a somewhat local dairy and always have vodka on hand.
Ooh that sounds rough, hope you are on the mend!
Saturday - takeout Chinese food for the family, I had a tofu banh mi sandwich (also takeout, different restaurant but they are near each other)
Sunday - My son helped make cauliflower and potato soup (I let him cut the vegetables with a real knife, and we even sharpened the knife first, so it was very exciting for him) and because I wasn’t sure how popular it would be with the kids, I also made some French fries and sweet potato fries from the freezer, corn on the cob and biscuits. The kids actually did like the soup though so another successful vegan option for the rotation.
Monday - spaghetti and meatballs for the family, I had minestrone soup from the freezer along with toasted sourdough bread, one piece spread with hummus the other with Trader Joe’s vegan kale pesto.
Tuesday - I picked the kids up from camp at 3:30 and they were ravenous so they ate an early dinner at that time, more spaghetti and meatballs for my son, grilled cheese for my daughter. I had green curry and wild rice from the freezer. The good part about eating so early is we went to the beach after and didn’t need to rush back for dinner.
Wednesday - Bean burritos and Spanish rice for the kids, black bean dip spread on crispy corn tortillas, topped with avocado and mango salsa for me.
Thursday - veggie dumplings and veggie spring rolls along with steamed carrots and green beans for the kids. I had carrot soup and some toasted ezekiel bread spread with the lasting the kale pesto and hummus, topped with heirloom tomato slices.
Friday - I’ll make swedish meatballs (a heavy meatball week) and steamed veggies for the family, I’ll make a Buddha bowl for myself.
I love Buddha bowls, I ciuld eat them every day!
Oh no! I'm so sorry you've been feeling so rough. That definitely does get in the way of a WISWIA post. Hope you get well soon, Kristen!! GI bugs are no fun, to say the least. Glad you have a sweet kitty nurse like Chiquita to keep you company while you're on the mend.
Last week, Fr-Fr
-Dinner at friends (homecooked, restaurant worthy). It included braised deer, a first for us and absolutely mouthwatering
- Dinner with kids: roast chicken, fregola and lentil salad with lettuce and grilled nectarine, leftover deer that had been sent home with us, ice cream with homemade red fruit sauce. The kids liked dinner a lot and absolutely loved the deer. Verdict for my cooking: " you too cook restaurant worthy, just a different type of restaurant". Thanks kids.
- salade niçoise
- leftover fregola salad with cold chicken
- pasta broccoli chicken salad
- vegetable soup and cheese on toast
- no meat lasagna
- today braised beef with cauliflower and baked potatoes. I put the last spoonful of deer gravy in with the beef.
A lot of meat for us this week, but a chicken is so versatile! Plus I have chicken stock in the freezer now.
Have a great weekend ahead and Kristin, hope you will feel better soon.
Boo hoo, Kristen! I hope you feel better soon. It’s no fun being sick, especially when your job requires you to be around “sick” people. I’m a ginger ale and coke fan when my tummy is upset … more ginger ale when I’ve been sick to my stomach. I’ve found that if I make a ginger tea concentrate and then mix it with sparkling water and some lemon, I get a nice drink without the calories or the artificial sweetener.
We had grandchildren last week, so this week has been very quiet on the meal front … meatloaf, a quiche, mashed potatoes, some vegetables. I’m trying to get the oven cleaned (in stages), so that’s curtailed things.
Kristen, I hope this won't go on too much longer and that you're feeling better soon. I recently went for a colonoscopy, and then a week later had a 24 hour stomach bug. I was relieved it was short lived. My sympathies for what you're going through. The bright spot is Chiquita snuggles!
Oh my goodness that is a lot of digestive drama in a short period of time. You poor thing!
Welcome to my life. 🙂
Whoops, that was in response to Becca. Not sure why it posted here.
Hahaha…I do enjoy reading about your menu. It’s definitely never boring.
For breakfast today (after work] sausage biscuits and a Dutch Brothers freeze. Lunch at work was cauliflower parmesan soup from Walmart and Pepsi. Lunch today is a sausage cross'aint from Safeway.
I got my paperwork to the municipal court today and they processed it immediately. The fine was waived.
Also took my blood sugar for the first time in a very long time, it was 85 which is right on target before a meal. And I remembered to go pick up my Ozempic prescription at my clinic.
Oh gosh, I hope you don't have that illness from the lettuce! Hope you get through it soon. I think we are gonna lay off lettuce for another til they get this figured out.
WIS/ WWA this week
I spent $68 at Walmart.
Friday – I cooked big hamburger patties, pasta salad, leftover sweet/sour green beans, fresh tomatoes from the garden.
Saturday – fried shrimp, pasta salad, fresh tomatoes
Sunday – grilled strip steaks, more pasta salad, fresh tomatoes, ??? .
Monday – potpies, 90 second Mexican rice, green salad.
Tuesday - oh no, I don't remember!
Wednesday – oven fried chicken, leftover pasta salad, green peas, leftover canned turnip greens.
Thursday – I ate leftovers, and my husband went out to eat solo with an old friend who needed to talk.
Friday – pork roast made in the crockpot since I'm out all day visiting a friend and whatever else I come up with when I get home.
Have a great weekend!
Oh Noooo!! I hope you recover soon! And so as not to gross you out, I'm just saying that we were able to eat luckily--mostly leftovers. But turkey burgers and pulled pork with homemade slaw each had their days.
Feel better!!!
Our oven is out of commission (temp sensor is broken and it is cooking too hot) and my son has had a roller coaster of a week! He went from recovering from two nasty stomach bugs to competing (and placing second) in the largest international youth soccer tournament in the Western Hemisphere. Not using an oven in the summer is easy, but why is that I only want to bake when it’s hot and my oven is broken?
Friday: Cabbage sauteed with chicken over mashed potatoes for the adults, plain chicken and pasta for the kiddo with a stomach bug (found out it was E.coli AND norovirus)
Saturday: Smoked beef, Kale Quinoa Salad (beef and rice for the kiddo)
Sunday: Leftover smoked beef turned into sandwiches (sauteed onions, mushrooms, provolone, horseradish sauce), fresh veggies and ranch dip. (plain beef sandwich for the kiddo)
Monday: Smoked chuck bites (from the freezer), mac and cheese, fresh veggies
Tuesday: Chicken Caesar Wraps, fresh veggies, watermelon slices
Wednesday: Beef Fajita Bowls
Thursday: Flatbread pepperoni pizza
Thanks for sharing! It was great to stop by and read your latest post. I'm back after a long blogging hiatus, so it was a pleasant surprise to see a familiar blogger still here. Looking forward to reconnecting and reading more of your work!