What I Spent, What We Ate | $100.89
What I Spent
I didn't spend much on groceries this week, actually. Even when adding in our road trip snacks and Monday's Chick Fil A trip (see below), I'm only at $100.89.
August Spending
Week 1: $166
Week 2: $100.89
What We Ate
Sunday
Brats and hot dogs over the fire at my friend Mia's house!
Monday
We'd just gotten back from Ohio, and at first we thought we weren't hungry. But then 8:30 pm rolled around and we decided we WERE actually hungry.
I hadn't gone to the grocery store, though.
So, hello, Chick-Fil-A!
Tuesday
We had chicken and veggie stir fry over rice.
Wednesday
I pulled some chicken thighs out of the freezer earlier in the day, salted and refrigerated them, and then headed to the pool with a friend.
I broiled the chicken, toasted some bagels, and cut up fresh peaches. Easy peasy for after a pool day.
Good grief, I only just now realized that we had chicken three nights in a row. Whoops.
Thank goodness Mia didn't feed us chicken too. 😉
Thursday
Sonia's down with a cold, so I asked her to pick whatever she wanted to eat. Swedish meatballs it was.
(Click on the photo for the recipe.)
Friday
I'd initially planned on making French Toast, but my dad texted last night to invite us to eat with them. He's marinating some meat, so this is going to be an upgrade from my French Toast plan. 😉
Monday I poached chicken breasts in the crock, shredded and BBQ sauced them so sandwiches for supper! frozen fries, some veg and fresh fruit. ( I also took a bowl of BBQ to a friend who recently got out of the hospital!)
Tuesday I had the kids grill burgers for themselves and dad since I had to go to work.
Wednesday-green beans, the last of the Easter ham and yellow potatos in the crock pot! Served the complainers hot dogs wrapped in cresent rolls and alfredo noodles..
Thursday- treated the boys to long john silvers before we took kid#1 to work... sister was out to a movie and supper with grandma and I did not want to cook...
Tonight.. I just tossed homemade meatballs and some red sauce in the crock... planning a family LUNCH over supper due to sons work hours and a daughters volleyball scrimmages...
Eating down the freezer supplies as much as we can right now.. I really want to re-organize the freezers and try to get more organized.. with my back to school work routine, sports and a work schedule things are feeling really chaotic! and I hate losing the one mealtime routine we have always held so strongly too! (parent guilt 101)
* also used the crock to cook shredded salsa chicken to take meat, beans and rice to 2 different friends with health issues this week! Those crock pots have been BUSY!
** made a batch of pumpkin mini breads and a huge batch of banana muffins to use up stuff
I LOVE my crockpot and use it a couple times a week, minimum!!
"Complainers" LOL... but dang, who would complain about ham and potatoes!! sounded good!
Sounds like you guys are ending summer right! (:
This week we ate
Monday - Roast and Gravy (freezer), mashed potatoes, peas
Tuesday - Cheese and Bacon Spread on toast, cut up fruit
Wednesday - Alamo Bowls with leftover chicken taco meat (freezer)
Thursday - Beef Enchiladas (homemade enchilada sauce from freezer), salad
Friday - Turkey soup with broth and meat from the freezer, pasta I needed to use up, garlic toast
Saturday - TBD, but I think we will grill fish
Sunday - I'm fixing Dr. Martin's Mix, and making a peach pie with ice cream
On a related note, I need to make more freezer meals to plop into my crockpot on Mondays - its so great to come home to!
Gina: Reading your Texas meals is so interesting to me, largely because I don't know what some of it is. What, for instance, is cheese and bacon spread? I mean, do you buy it or make it? What are Alamo Bowls? What is Dr. Martin's Mix? Now that I'm a Texas neighbor, I feel I should know these things. And possibly make them, because some of them sound so good. 🙂
Dr. Martin's Mix is from the 1960s "I hate to cook". Peg Bracken wrote a cookbook in the 1960s that kind of collected all of the "modern" easy things women were cooking and gave them names, descriptions, and formal recipes. It's a hilarious read-- well worth getting a used copy of even if you don't use the recipes. (You might recognize a bunch of the recipes from growing up.) That specific recipe is what other people call a "sausage skillet" but with rice instead of potatoes. (I have no idea what an alamo bowl is though.)
If you link to her blog, she explains the spread in her weekly meal post on 8/13. I was clueless too!
Ha. Chicken stir fry is such and after-road trip meal, when you feel the need to eat lighter food with more vegetables.
Anyway. Here we had . . .
Monday: Beef pot roast (yes, it was 85 degrees and I made pot roast--it was the meat that was on sale), potatoes, steamed broccoli, cucumbers with vinegar and salt, sauteed mushrooms and garlic
Tuesday: Pork loin chunks with a wine and cream sauce that ended up tasting a lot like stroganoff, pasta with butter and garlic, steamed green beans, sauteed mushrooms and onions
Wednesday: Ground beef tacos. Lazy, with just browned meat and onions with salsa and spices dumped in. It was a challenging day for cooking.
Thursday: Scrambled eggs, fresh bread and butter, roasted vegetables (done when the bread was baking), carrot sticks with ranch dressing
Tonight: I had taken chicken out yesterday that I obviously never made, so I'll marinate it today for Cornell chicken. We haven't had rice this week, so I'll make that, cooked in the beef broth left from Monday.. Vegetable to be determined by what's at the tiny grocery store (20 miles away) I'm planning on getting to today. If I don't get there or they don't have anything fresh I want, cooked carrots or frozen peas it is.
I have a bigger grocery list this week, but I've been holding to 70% of my grocery budget so far. I hope I don't bust that too badly this weekend.
This week, in no order, we had:
We had sausage and cheese balls, with homemade cassava crackers, cottage cheese and pineapple, and cucumbers marinated in red wine dressing. It was a sort of an appetizer supper.
One night, I made "shrimp scampi" out of a handful of leftover uncooked shrimp in the freezer. I used lots of butter and garlic to make a sauce (always more sauce, right Kristen?) and put it over rice pasta. We had salad on the side.
I made sausage-corn chowder one night, with homemade crackers again.
We had meatloaf, peas, and roasted carrots early in the week.
We had what my family calls five-decker dinner, also known as a hobo meal. My family version is bacon, a burger patty, sliced potato, sliced onion and sliced carrots, all in a stack.
We had an Indian-inspired dish of raw peanuts cooked and added to potatoes, onion and spices to make a sort of peanut stew. I left out the hot peppers (I know, it's sacrilege) but I can't handle much hot pepper. It was a new dish, and we both liked it, although I could see how much some hot pepper would have added to it. Since we both love boiled peanuts, which are raw peanuts boiled in the shell in salty water, as a snack, it occurred to us that we would probably like a dish that used raw peanuts, although I bought these un-shelled at a bulk bin.
Tonight will probably be steak, since steak is on a good sale here.
May it be a happy weekend for everyone!
Our grocery bill this week is much less than usual. Tomorrow two of my children move out so I will have three less adults to feed. I spent about $200 this week as opposed to $400 (Australian) plus last fortnight. We still have vegetables and meat to use.
We had roasted chicken and vegetables on Sunday. Monday was a different chicken dish. Tuesday saw the creation of a huge pot of beef curry and it has done Tuesday's, Wednesday's and Friday night's dinner and there is still some left. Thursday night we had take out chicken. Tomorrow is probably good old British bangers and mash.
Monday, I made cajun pasta with white beans and kale. Tuesday was beans and rice, which is what I make when I'm in a hurry and have no idea what else to make! On Wednesday, it was homemade veggie burgers, a green salad, and tomato and mozzarella salad. Yesterday, everyone just ate leftovers, and if I have the energy tonight (because I'm feeling off this morning), I'll probably throw together a big pot of veggie soup. 🙂
I love these posts and hope you keep doing them! A few other blogs I read have stopped posting about meals and grocery shopping and I need my fix so thanks!
We had pizza yesterday together with beef stew and rice. I'm still craving pizza and will make it for myself at lunch hehe. It's the frozen pizza with cheese topping we got from Costco, and it's delicious!!
First off, i am loving these posts!!
hmmm... lets see...
MONDAY: Chili Mac
TUESDAY: PB & J sammies and watermelon - I did not feel like cooking 🙂
WEDNESDAY: King Ranch Chicken casserole
THURSDAY: my hubby crocked some beans and ate with left over King Ranch Casserole
TONIGHT: Thinking spaghetti squash, marinara with meatballs
I am beyond excited, the city next to ours is getting an Aldi's!!! it will be less than 10 miles from me - HOORAY!!!
... we went to the city this week for the first time in a few months and spent something like $500 on groceries. But now our freezer is packed with TJ's meals so I can handle the kids' school starting, getting ready for my school to start, and DH being on a business trip without too much stress. And we replenished a bunch of staples we can't get locally including a stop at Penzey's. Also they had local peaches. 🙂
Well you're not alone in the chicken having department. 😉
Sunday: Cornell Chicken (it was my grandmother's birthday so guess who got to split four whole chickens, brine them and grill them?)
Monday: English muffin pizzas. Yes, we punted on this one but it kept the kid occupied and was cheap and easy.
Tuesday: Bacon, eggs, fruit etc. Breakfast for dinner, basically.
Wednesday: Chicken with a Thai Peanut sauce with salads and brown rice.
Thursday: Leftover chicken with mashed potatoes and corn on the cob.
Friday: BLT's with the leftover bacon. I'll probably also make tossed salad.
Luckily having been stocked up and being smart on shopping, I haven't spent all that much on groceries this month.
Once again we had tomato sandwiches every day for lunch, since the garden is still pumping them out every day. For dinner we had a zucchini based meal every single night (more garden produce): zuke latkes, zuke ravioli (where you use zuke instead of pasta), zuke stir fry for two nights, zuke meatballs (zuke instead of meat) and zuke cheese soup. Also froze 23 quart bags of shredded zuke for winter use. Oh, yes, I brought a double chocolate zucchini cake to a pot luck. But it was 41 degrees last night and the trees are changing so soon the garden will be done. I will miss the tomatoes! Note to self: next year you don't need 13 zucchini plants when it is just you and the husband.
I'm impressed with all the ways you've used your zucchini! Way to go!
Monday- Planned on meatloaf, but failed to get it out of the freezer. Moved the plan for Tuesday to Monday. We had chicken and salad.
Tuesday- Tacos and smoothies. Finally remembered to pull out the meatloaf.
Wednesday- Meatloaf was definitely still frozen. Ate grilled cheese and homemade tomato soup. It was our first time making tomato soup and we're going to try another recipe next time.
Thursday- Meatloaf, purple potato fries, corn on the cob.... was the plan. Turns out that the meatloaf wasn't fully thawed. When I pulled it out of the oven after an hour and it registered 90 degrees on my meat thermometer, I grabbed a bag of chicken nuggets. The meatloaf eventually finished cooking and we'll eat it Saturday night.
Friday- Vegetable beef soup. I took another reader's idea of putting leftover vegetables in a bag and making soup when the bag is full. It's time! I'm excited to try it. Oh, hey, I should probably get that out of the freezer now...
You're funny. LOL.
You are funny! Thanks for the giggle.
Monday traveling so ate snacks.
Tuesday I thought I could make it a no shop week but with no fruit or veggies I had to shop. Hamburg was on sale, made taco meat. We had tacos, taco salad.
Wednesday Back to the Bricks party with Hot dogs and salads. Lunch was Velveeta stuffed burgers. They were soooo good.
Thursday we grilled Costco chicken thighs with rice n salads n beans.
Friday Tacos again. I use my mil's taco recipe which you add to the meat rice and tomatos.
Saturday Italian sausage, eggs. We also had salads out of the garden every day. Lots of cucs and tomatoes.