What I Spent, What We Ate | Also: we eat more than one pizza.
What I Spent
I spent $149.53 at the grocery store, and then $13 on the 36 pounds of peaches.
Groceries:
And the milk, which didn't make it into the other picture. Two gallons are for cereal/drinking, and the other gallon is for making homemade yogurt.
August Spending
Week 1: $252
Week 2: $140
Week 3: $34
Week 4: 163
What We Ate
If you'd like more meal ideas than what I post here every week, you're in luck! There's a handy-dandy recipe index page with all of the main dish recipes I've ever posted. Check it out here.
Monday
I made a pan of chicken enchiladas with red sauce.
We had guacamole too (of COURSE).
Tuesday
We had pork cutlet Cuban sandwiches (from my Cook's Country magazine). And broccoli topped with cheese.
Wednesday
I made Pad Thai, using a recipe from America's Test Kitchen. I'd never made it before, and it was pretty easy and tasty! I think this will go into regular rotation.
Since Zoe is allergic to shrimp, I dished her noodles up before adding shrimp and mixed in leftover pork cutlet for her.
Thursday
Joshua had his wisdom teeth out, so he wasn't eating. And Mr. FG and I weren't able to eat until later.
So, the girls had stuffed shells (I'd made them ahead of time and frozen them), Joshua had juice and tea and water (!) and Mr. FG and I had potato cubes, grilled sausages, and some fresh fruit.
Friday
It's gonna be a pizza night. Except for poor Joshua, who probably is not going to be up for pizza yet.
By the way: multiple people wrote to me last week wondering how in the world we eat just one pizza for dinner on Fridays. Rest assured, we eat more than one pizza! In fact, if all six of us are here, we can eat 3-4.
But I bake them one at a time, and photographing multiple pizzas doesn't really look that awesome anyway, which is why there's only one in my photographs.
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What did you eat this week?
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P.S. I have a fun giveaway from Froozer this weekend, so pop back in tomorrow to throw your name in the hat!
P.P.S. There's still time to get a set of Lunchskins for just $3.
I started re-stocking my freezer, so I spent a good bit more than I do normally on meat. I get pork and poultry from a lady who runs a farm with her kids (and now her new husband) and they do a great job, but it's not cheap. Still, the meat is delicious and tender, no antibiotics or hormones, clean, natural food, and I can go anytime I want and see how well her pigs and chickens are treated (very well, for the record). I've just started tracking my food budget this month (shame on me). This month I've spent over $600 for two people (yikes), but as I said, this is an out of the ordinary month. And I do include non-food items in that, such as TP, which I also re-stocked on, and vinegar, which I use by the gallon for cleaning and laundry.
What did we eat? I was sick Monday night, so my husband had soup and I had an egg. Not exciting, but there was no ordering out at least.
I made home cut-and-cooked breaded chicken tenders with a big salad one night. This same farmer raises a large breed of meat chickens, and they have plenty of breast meat, so I usually slice up a breast half into tenders when I cut up the chickens.
We had sausage, butternut squash and peas one night
I pushed the easy button one night and made pasta with jarred sauce. That was Tuesday, when I was still recovering.
Tonight is still up in the air. I have some pork cutlets -- maybe I'll try those Cuban sandwiches!
Since marching season for my high schooler is in full swing, there are going to be loads of gaps in my cooking. Last night was case in point as none of us were here at dinner hour. So, there were bbq sammies pre-game (that I made from rolls and pre-sliced brisket from HEB), and burgers late at night. Since that isn't ideal for any of us, I think the past game "meal" from now on will be cereal and milk. The week is a blur, but we had Beanie Weinie with garlic toast, Bacon wrapped chicken thighs with mashed potatoes, Tacos with taco meat from the freezer and an assortment of taco shells and tortillas, and take-out Chinese. Tonight I am going to do a crock pot meal as I am trying to tie up the loose ends of the first week of school - laundry and cleaning. Hubby will put a marinated pork tenderloin in the tabletop oven along with potatoes and carrots for Saturday. There are dibs and dabs of leftovers in there for weekend lunches. I really should get back to making homemade pizzas - yours always look so good!
Here is the oven we got: http://www.overstock.com/Home-Garden/Nano-carbon-Fiber-Wok-based-Convection-Oven/
It was in a box along with a lot of cooking tools when we bought our second hand trailer. Works great!
I got back from a vacation (just me, no hubs). He doesn't remember what he ate at all! Once I got back, though:
Wednesday - a frozen pizza and ice cream. still on vacation! 🙂
Thursday - sauteed broccoli and potatoes with cheese sauce. hubs left the cheese sauce out over night, though. so sad!
Friday - carbonara night as is our usual
Today I'm making another round of pickles and water bath canning them.
I'll be going through the fridge and freezer today to do a good clean out and figure out what will come up on next week's menu. We've got tomatoes from our garden in addition to ALL THE CUCUMBERS, and a few squash and peppers here and there. First year working with red clay soil, and it has been a learning experience.
Honestly, though, it's the time of year when I just want to drink all of the ice cold drinks: Fresca, juice+sparkling mineral water (schorle), fruit smoothies... Above 90 before accounting for 80+% humidity, for the second month in a row. Summer in the South is not my favorite. Can I just shuffle back to Buffalo again, where I was on vacation?
This week we spent 140 on groceries. Hmm, what did we eat?
Sunday was my Hubby's birthday, and we always bbq for that! We had steak and brats for our children, baked potatoes, grilled asparagus, and sumer squash and zucchini, with peanut butter goodies for dessert.
Monday- all leftovers
Tuesday- pancakes and sausage
Wednesday-tacos
Thursdays-leftovers
Friday-the plan is chicken alfredo with corn on the cob
Thanks for sharing that recipe index!
This week we ate:
Monday: Farro with asparagus, kale, and walnuts. Mr. Picky Pincher topped his with salmon. We got the flash frozen cutlets this time and, in addition to being more expensive, they just didn't taste that good. Fresh fish is tricky as far as timing our menu, but it's still not worth it!
Tuesday: Potato leek soup with grilled cheese. Instead of a grilled cheese, I made a walnut-feta salad and it was amazing!
Wednesday: Thai cauliflower with soft boiled eggs. We love this recipe from you, FG! I like to top mine with soft boiled eggs and serve on a bed of white rice. Absolutely delicious and it makes for perfect leftovers!
Thursday: Pulled pork sweet potatoes with broccoli.
Friday: Spaghetti squash chow mein. I swear this tastes just like a dish I've had at Panda Express, but it's much healthier and cheaper!
Hi! Your walnut feta sallad sounds delicious, would you mind sharing the kind of dressing you made? Or did you use just olive oil?
Tonight is going to be pasta night. This week we've eaten homemade refried bean nachos, red lentil coconut curry, some greens thing my husband made, hard boiled eggs, and salad. I think my husband has grabbed pizza muffins and something else from the freezer.
How is Joshua doing? Poor kid. Wisdom teeth removal is a necessary evil.
He's doing a lot better this afternoon. So, I'm thinking he'll be in pretty good shape in a day or two. Yay!
So much easier than tonsil removal.
A quick pizza question for you. My husband loves homemade pizza so it was on the calendar for tomorrow night. Yet I just found out he is going out of town for work in the morning. Thus I wish to move pizza night to tonight. Here is my problem, since he is leaving we are also moving family biking night to this afternoon after he is off. Thus getting home just before I need to have dinner on the table. I am wondering if you think I can make the pizzas this morning then pop them in the fridge. I think the pizza itself will be ok but I am not sure if the pizza stones will do well in the fridge right to the oven. Any thoughts?
We are also in Alaska so I have four more hours to my Friday at the moment. I realized after I commented that you might wonder how I was going to get a pizza made before leaving for an afternoon. Thankful it is just before 10 am here and homeschool is mostly wrapped up for our Friday morning.
I'm sorry I missed this! I was out for my afternoon.
For future reference, I would definitely not put the pizza stones in the fridge. Stones don't like big temperature shifts and they'll probably crack.
Also, the advantage to using a pizza stone lies largely in being able to preheat it in a hot oven, so it really needs to be able to heat without the pizza on it.
If I need to have a pizza meal in a jiffy, I make pizza bagels or pizza subs instead...that's my cheat!
Monday: leftover vegetable soup. I had surgery last week, and our friends brought this over.
Tuesday: grilled chicken sandwiches, and salad
Wednesday: out for tacos
Thursday: Gardenburger for me, grilled sausage for the hubby. We had some cherry tomatoes that were getting soft so we roasted them with green beans.
Friday: this is starting to feel like a spaghetti and meatballs night... Our basil plants are winding down and I want to be sure to use up that deliciousness.
We are in the middle of a corporate move, living in a hotel, and eating out every day. The amount we are spending (on my husband's employer's dime) is crazy. I don't know how anyone affords this lifestyle all the time. Honestly, with the amount of time we spend driving to and waiting at restaurants, I'm not sure that I am saving time over cooking at home anyway.
I made your chicken enchiladas with red sauce, which I love, but for some inexplicable reason this time I dumped the entire can of chipotle chilis in adobo in the sauce. (I always whirr it smooth in the food processor first.) I like my food very hot, but this is almost too much for me. I've had to add a LOT of sour cream on top to make it edible.
Oh my soul, I can't believe you can even eat them with that much chipotle!! That would be so, so hot. Even a tablespoon makes them pretty hot.
You are a brave person. Heh.
This week flew by so quickly......
Monday: Spaghetti & Meatballs, Garlic Bread and a Tossed Salad
Tuesday: Grilled Cheese with Fresh Tomato Salad (Tomatoes were from the garden)
Wednesday: Bruschetta Chicken, Garlic Bread (had to use the last of the large loaf of Italian bread that I bought at the beginning of the week) and some roasted vegetables
Thursday: Taylor Ham & Cheese Sandwiches
Friday: Leftovers
As usual I haven't written down what we ate. There has been a concerted effort to eat from the freezer and at home. We have had fillet steak and vegetable stir fry, grilled lamb chops and masses of coleslaw, fried chicken with coleslaw and fries, creamy chicken with pasta and today we will have roast lamb with vegetables. If our meals sound meat heavy they really aren't. the meat portion is small and mainly used to flavour the meal.
I spent way too much on my potluck offering for a work lunch (over $20 to make my dish!) so I was over budget this week. As far as what I ate, let's see . . .
Saturday - chili bean, brown rice and cheese burritos with salad
Sunday -I made the California tamale pie from the Rancho Gordo website
Monday - leftover homemade pizza from Sunday's lunch
Tuesday - Asian chicken lettuce wraps
Wed./Thurs. - French bread pizza
Friday - fried chickn take-out
It's been a busy week with lots of school projects, work, and paperwork. Our college son drives home 4x/week to do laundry and eat. Here's our dinner menu from the past week:
Sun- smoked chicken, grilled garlic potatoes
Mon- crockpot chicken, mashed potatoes & gravy with steamed carrots, hatch chile cornbread
Tues- grilled steaks and oven fries, hatch chile cornbread
Wed- pork roll sandwiches
Thurs- shredded BBQ leftover chicken sandwiches, onion rings
Fri- Asparagus and leftover chicken in a cream of chicken gravy over noodle, chocolate chip cookies
Sat - turkey burgers, oven fries
As you can see,we don't eat much salad for dinner. Fruits are limited as well. It sure does limit menu planning! I have severe GI sluggishness that won't tolerate fiber or fatty foods. So the menu above is what the family ate, although I'll eat the chicken dishes. I usually end up making soup/tuna /toast/cereal for myself.
I am a professional consultant and had a busy week with work, so we had a lot of easy meals.
Monday - chicken nuggets and sides
Tuesday - burgers and hot dogs, chips, fruit
Wednesday - tacos
Thursday - grilled pizza night with mangoes and melon
Friday - date night celebrating our 8th anniversary.
Monday-scicilian pasta (with aubergines-delicious!) We will definitely put this recipe in our database
Tuesday - left over from Sunday, porc tenderloin and green, red and yellow peppers with couscous
Wednesday - spaghetti bolognese (with pancetta, chicken liver and Marsala)
Thursday - sallad with tomatoes and mozzarella and another sallad with cucumber, romaine and lentils. + bread
Friday - we had 3 guests staing over the whole week and it was their turn to cook and they choose to make pasta and sauce fram a jar. A lot of pasta this week!!!
Saturday - shrimp sallad, some chorizo slices, bread and...chips!
It's been a while since I stopped by but I still think about your site a lot.
I love that you have your recipes in one spot now! And that you share with us what you make.
Take care!
- Charmaine
Good to see you pop in!
I am getting 4 wisdom out tomorrow morning! What helped Joshua?
Thanks! I truly love reading your blog.
Be consistent with the icing! That helped him a lot. And he spent a couple of days just laying low and resting. Soft foods too!