What I Spent, What We Ate | $204
What I Spent
It was an expensive week for us here!
I spent $179 at Aldi and Costco, plus $25 on my Hungry Harvest box.
Luckily, I only spent $120 last week.
July Spending
Week 2: $204
What We Ate
Saturday
Easy button night: we got some frozen pizzas!
Sunday
We were at my in-laws, and my contribution to the meal was egg bread.
My girls polished off the leftovers of that bread in a pretty big hurry. Lisey especially likes to toast it and spread it with Nutella.
Pretty much anything is good when spread with Nutella, though.
Monday
I made buttermilk pancakes and Orange Julius, while Mr. FG cooked up some bacon.
Breakfast for dinner is such a quick and easy meal!
Tuesday
We had pork cutlet Cuban sandwiches, using a recipe from Cook's Country.
Wednesday
I tried a Cook's Country recipe for fettuccine with asparagus, chicken, and bacon.
We had the collard green salad and cantaloupe as well.
I really have to give massive props to this salad recipe...it's helped me get through massive amounts of hardy greens that would otherwise have gone uneaten.
(I really do not prefer cooked greens, so a salad is perfect for me!)
Thursday
I had leftover chicken from Wednesday night, so I pulled out some naan from the freezer (Aldi has very affordable naan) and used it to make BBQ chicken pizzas.
Friday
I have book club tomorrow night, so I think maybe Mr. FG and I will do our date night tonight.
What did you eat for dinner this week?
Share and help inspire other readers!
I have been travelling for six of the last seven days. Eating well has been expensive but we have clocked up some beautiful memories. I have had a salmon dinner while sailing on the Derwent through Hobart, Tasmania. We have had coffee at some memorable eateries. I had mulled cider and scones in a little convict town called Richmond. If you had asked me would I like cider I would have said no. But the chilly weather in Tasmania in Winter is far different from my subtropical home state of Australia. We had an enormous lamb meal on our way back from Port Arthur penal settlement. I crossed something off my bucket list. Last night we went to the revolving restaurant and I had crepes Suzette cooked at my table. I enjoyed those so very much. To save money we bought cheeses and fruits to snack on so that most days we had one bought main meal.
Well, it sounds like you have had a wonderful trip!
I give a second thumbs up for the salad mentioned in this post! I made it last night and it was delicious!
Right? I don't like kale and collard greens, really, and this makes them quite palatable. I think the salad is even better if it's left in the fridge overnight...the greens get a little milder and softer.
Do you rub in the oil like suggested?
Yep! It helps to soften the greens.
Oh, my last week went way over budget, so here's hoping I can rein it in this week. My husband has suddenly found his appetite, and is demanding a lot of food and snacks, so it got harder to keep the costs down, especially since we eat organic, local, etc.
We had:
Pulled pork, cole slaw, fruit (twice)
Roast beef with potatoes, mushrooms, and onions, English peas on the side (Once, but again soon)
Farm made big link sausages with acre peas and candied carrots (once)
Easy button night last night -- fish sticks and tator tots with fruit. Yes, you can get non-GMO, wild caught, etc., etc., fish sticks and tator tots. We don't eat this kind of food much at all. I eat very little white potato and I prefer it in other forms than tator tots. I also prefer blackened or pan fried fresh fish to fish sticks, but, as I said, it was easy button night.
I'm going to take a look at that salad recipe! I find both collards and kale to be tough or leathery when raw so I don't eat them that way, but if the whole FG family likes it, I need to check this out.
I am so glad that he's back home and is hungry now. Yay!
The salad: If you asked me if I'd rather eat a blueberry muffin or the collard green salad, I would pick the muffin. But as hardy green salads go, this one is very, very tolerable. Ha.
I went a little over budget this week but since I have gone out to birthday meals a few times this week, the food at home should carry over through most of next week.
Saturday - I wasn't very hungry so I just had some cottage cheese and strawberries
Sunday/Monday - homemade pizza and salad.
Tuesday - Tacos
Wednesday - a friend and I celebrated our birthdays at a local burger joint followed by a trip to Ritas Italian Ice (which is new to our neck of the woods)
Thursday - another birthday dinner - this time at a local gourmet pizza place.
Friday - not sure yet. Possibly an omelet.
Ooh, what flavor did you get? The mango is one of our favorites.
I got a Blendini with the black cherry ice and vanilla frozen custard. It was good but next time I think I will just get the Italian ice. I will ask to taste the mango!
I was going to ask how you spent $179 at Aldi but realized you added "and Costco." I don't think I've ever come close to spending $100 at Aldi, even when prepping for a party.
Anyway, I had an easy week food wise:
Monday: Had baked potatoes and salads. It was too hot to cook much else.
Tuesday: Homemade (copycat) Shake and bake porn chops.
Wednesday: Grilled a London Broil I had in the freezer. Aldi's version of Montreal Steak seasoning is really good by the way.
Thursday: Leftover steak
Friday: Either breakfast for dinner or a frozen pizza. We're doing low-key tonight.
Haha, yes, Costco can really blow the budget on the week you go!
lOL. Ok I want to know what porn chops are and how to make them. I love spell check!
Made my day to read that.
This week I made a big pot of chili so I have been eating my way through it for dinner. I used Perdue ground turkey. Never again. It smelled so strong that I have had a hard time eating it. It wasn't bad, it just smelled very strongly of turkey. I am used to the Aldi ground turkey in the roll - it is very affordable and makes a great turkey chili.
What book are you reading for book club? That would be a post I would be interested in reading!
Spent less at Costco than I was expecting this week - stocked up on a few sale items that we use + replenished some of our frozen foods (broccoli, cauliflower "rice", veggie burgers).
Saturday: chicken, zucchini and mashed potatoes
Sunday: leftovers
Monday: McDonald's sandwiches with broccoli as a side
Tuesday: tacos
Wednesday: Costco Italian sausage lasagna
Thursday: Salmon, leftover broccoli, sweet potatoes, rice
Friday: probably leftovers since we have tacos, lasagna, and salmon in the fridge - we are pretty bad at eating leftovers during the weekend
After hearing about Aldi's from you for the past 10? years, I decided to go on a fact finding mission at the new Aldi's 6 miles away. I bought a gallon of milk, a loaf of bread, 4 bananas and two packages of cocktail weenies for $17. I definitely saved money but not sure if this is the store for me. I expected it to be more like Trader Joes which is incredibly organized & clean. I'm not sure if it was because I was there at 6PM...but the shelves were pretty bare & in the lunch meat area, the products were thrown all over the place (and many were not in any order.) Sort of disappointing. I expected better. I will try some organic fruit & veggies on Saturday morning to see if the store looks better. I'm not sure if the savings are worth the 6 mile drive each way.
I've noticed a difference between morning and evening at my Aldi. Mornings are more relaxed, clean, and well-stocked. I much prefer morning visits! I hope your second one goes better!
I would definitely try your Aldi on a weekday morning and see if you like it better!
My Aldi is generally well-stocked if I go in the morning, but by evening, sometimes the shelves are getting bare. This could be particularly true if your Aldi is new and very popular.
Susan - Agree with Ruth & Kristen, weekday mornings at Aldi much better stocked than evenings. I have particularly noticed this when stopping by for something late in the day after work. Quantities can be low or out completely. Our Aldi is "newish" to our town, maybe a couple of years but it does a tremendous amount of business & is very popular.
For the items they carry, the prices cannot be beat. Only drawback is that they don't carry everything, so I have to supplement with local grocer or big box store for some items.
I looked up your recipe for Orange Julius. I see that you reference it often on your blog, but I can't seem to find how many servings it makes. In your recipe: does that serve your whole family or do you have to double it? I'm thinking of making it tomorrow with our "brinner" (breakfast for dinner). Also, I noticed that you're family regularly eats sausage/bacon with pancakes. I was surprised because I always associated pancakes with eggs. Are they not fans of eggs with breakfast? Just curious. Thanks!
It depends how much Orange Julius you want! For six of us, I doubled it, but now that there are usually only four of us here, one recipe works fine.
You will need to do two separate batches, as your blender is probably not large enough to accommodate a double batch. My Vita Mix can only hold one batch.
Eggs: Some of us do like eggs, but we tend to cook those for ourselves at breakfast or lunch, and not so much when we are having breakfast for dinner. Mr. FG definitely does not like eggs except as ingredients in things (like French Toast). I think eggs make a great side for breakfast foods, though!
Interesting... different strokes for different folks. Thanks for the quick reply.
I think I will try the Orange Julius tomorrow. I enjoy these posts as it does give me ideas to not fall into a menu monotony around here. The kale/collard green salad looks promising too. My husband and I enjoy it cooked, but my kids don't appreciate those flavors like we do.
Thanks again!
I was horrified when Nutella came to the U.S. I fell in love with it when we were living in Scotland and was glad I could not get it when we returned home...then one day it showed up in the grocery store. I cannot keep it in the house because when I want some chocolate, I have been known to pull a jar out of the fridge (where it gets nice and hard) and eat it by the spoonful! My husband buys me a jar for my birthday but other than that I stay away from it.
Last week of beach eating. I am not too sad about this. Definitely ready to get back to my own kitchen and not rushing every evening to cook and haul food 300 yards downhill to the beach to feed a dozen people.
Saturday: The power went out as I was cooking bacon, so the end result for dinner was bacon, peanut butter bread, baby carrots, tortilla chips, and a kind of dense loaf cake my MiL makes called cider cake. But at least the stormy weather meant that everyone ate on the front porch instead of at the beach.
Sunday: Rack of ribs, boneless sirloin steak, hot dogs, corn on the cob, all on the beach fire, cornbread my MiL made and transported to the beach still hot in the skillet, baby carrots, cherries, s'mores
Monday: Pork chops from my uncle-in-law's pigs (HOORAY, SO GOOD), Julia Child's potato salad (dry Vermouth, diced shallot, and a mustard vinaigrette on warm boiled potato chunks), baby carrots. So many baby carrots on the beach.
Tuesday: Italian sausage and hot dogs on the beach, tortilla chips, garlic scapes, fresh cucumber slices, Grandma's bread and butter pickles, grape tomatoes, watermelon
Wednesday: Pulled pork, potato chips, cucumber slices, s'mores
Thursday: The day my children didn't consume a single fruit or vegetable all day. Sigh. They ate some hot dogs someone else cooked on the beach at like 2 p.m., and then I threw together a skillet of browned ground beef, black beans, salsa, and pepper jack cheese, which I brought down to the beach still in the hot skillet--wrapped in a towel--and put out with tortilla chips for scooping.
Friday: Hamburgers, hot dogs, corn on the cob, all on the beach fire, sugar snap peas, potato chips
Saturday: grilled Artic char with lemon & dill; new potatoes; sautéed peas & peas
Sunday: leftover pork carnitas tacos with the fixins'
Monday: salad with grilled chicken thighs; yellow tomato gazpacho
Tuesday: salad with grilled chicken thighs; popcorn
Wednesday: dinner at work: prime rib, scalloped potatoes, green beans & carrots
Thursday: tuna fish sandwich in the car for the 3.5 hour drive home
Friday: out to dinner with friends.
Why is it always so hard to remember what we ate? I struggle with this every week, but I know we ate. 🙂
Tacos, carnitas, grilled chicken sausages on salads, salmon. I think that was the menu, more or less.