What I Spent, What We Ate | $210
What I Spent
I spend $80.50 at Aldi, $6.47 on a small stop for eggs, crackers, lettuce, bananas, and cilantro, and $25 on Hungry Harvest.
But then I needed to stop at Costco, and that cost me $98.47.
So, I'm at $210 for this week.
June Spending
Week 1: $235
Week 2: $164
Week 3: $210
What We Ate
Saturday
I had dinner out with Mr. FG at a burger place (we are Very Fancy, in case you hadn't noticed), and the kids fended for themselves.
Sunday
Father's Day! I baked braided cheese bread, sauteed some scallops, bought steamed crabs, and sauteed asparagus for a special meal.
I also made this cheesecake.
Monday
It was a night of randomness.
Sonia and Zoe ate the beef ravioli from my freezer basket, Lisey ate leftover pulled chicken, I ate some sausage from the freezer, and Mr. FG ate a sausage and one crab cake that I made from the two leftover Father's Day crabs.
Oh, and you guys, I used the heel from my freezer basket to make bread crumbs, which I used as part of the binder in the crab cake. Yay me!
I also cooked some corn from Hungry Harvest and got out some homemade applesauce from the freezer.
Tuesday
Joshua and Lisey were both gone, so I was only feeding four of us and I made some random tacos to use up odds and ends.
I got out a package of chorizo from the freezer and also some shrimp, which I seasoned and pan-sauteed.
I also made pico de gallo and mango salsa, which we ate with chips.
And we had more applesauce, plus watermelon.
Wednesday
Mr. FG was meeting up with a friend, so of course I planned to make something he doesn't like. 😉 This time around: Apple Pfannekuchen, because he doesn't like eggy things.
And also because I had a lot of apples from Hungry Harvest.
Thursday
I tried a recipe from Dinner Illustrated: chicken katsu with tonkatsu sauce, cabbage salad, and rice.
This used up almost all of my panko crumbs, so, yay! Also, the recipe called for ¼ head of cabbage, which was exactly what I had left in my fridge. I love it when that happens.
Friday
I think Mr. FG and Sonia are going to go to a restaurant to see a friend play music, Zoe has come down with the stomach bug (poor kiddo!), and I still need to find out if Joshua and Lisey will be here at dinner time.
Once I have that info, I'll decide what I'm going to make for dinner. If it's just me eating, I probably will opt for an egg and veggie skillet, because: EASY.
Yummy and beautiful as always! It's amazing how all of these delicious-looking dishes come mostly from the freezer challenge. Who would have known!
Mr. FAF is going to see soccer at the Swedish embassy this weekend, so I'm gonna try to finish the leftovers in the fridge. Time to declutter the fridge and pantry!
I was in Florida just returned and all he wanted was spend money not stay In save. I am did enjoy KFC buffet yummy
Those crab cakes! Yum!
Your goal of using things from the freezer has inspired me to work on the freezer sections of my two refrigerators this coming week. I know I have piles of random stuff in there that needs to be used up. Here is a link to my meals for the past week: http://ahomeinthecountry.blogspot.com/2018/06/meals-for-week-of-june-12.html
Woohoo! Happy freezer cleaning out. 🙂
More randomness and craziness Chez WilliamB this week. I have some houseguests, and some local travel, and a couple of unusual obligations, which led to erratic dinners. Dinners included:
- leftover ribs
- leftover lasagne
- nothing
- fruit & veg only (I'm rocking the early-summer produce)
- actually tasty supermarket sushi
- hors d'oeurves at neighbor's retirement
Future meals will include:
- shrimp
- breakfast for dinner (biscuits & strawberry almost-jam & almost ham, bacon, eggs)
- Gorton's fish fillets
- multiple almost-ham meals (plain, w eggs, in quiche, hashed & frozen taters bought by roommate)
- 2x pizza
- pulled chix (need to do last step of a CI recipe)
- 40 clove chix (to use the garlic)
- smoothies
Things that will not get used before the Great Freezer Scrub:
- 15 lbs butter
- 3 lbs lard (I still aspire to make soap someday)
- parmesan rinds (for soup)
- smoked pig parts (for soup)
- 10 lbs of deli turkey (rare deal too good to pass up)
- the spice stash
Do you find that lunch meat gets watery when you thaw it? I've never been happy with the results of freezing it.
If I thaw it in the microwave, yes. In the fridge, not so much. I can wrap it in a towel to dry it out if I want. Brand might make a difference, this stuff was the Hormel Natural Choice.
Love breakfast for dinner!
Monday: Pasta with meat sauce, cucumbers, hamburgers for my husband when he came home unexpectedly early from a trip
Tuesday: Beaver tail appetizer (wouldn't want to waste the beaver tail that's been hanging out in our freezer, now would we?), scrambled eggs, bacon, grilled garlic, salad with ranch dressing. We were supposed to have pork tenderloin, which smelled bad when I opened it but was way before its "good until" date, so I cooked it anyway. I never buy it, so I thought maybe that's the way vacuum-sealed meat smells when it's opened. But it still smelled bad after it was cooked, and then the small taste I had tasted bad, so I threw it out and made scrambled eggs. Annoying.
Wednesday: Cornell chicken, rice cooked in beef broth with chive flowers added at the end, pan-fried sweet potatoes, salad with ranch dressing
Thursday: Bland pork chops, rice, pan-fried sweet potatoes again, green peas
Tonight: Grilled Italian sausage, grilled bread, more green peas, carrot sticks
Tomorrow night is our last night in this house. I'm making scrambled eggs, toast, and carrot sticks, because it was the cleanest meal I could think to cook on our last night. I already did the deep clean around the stove and all, so I really don't want to have to re-do it.
Cooking until the bitter end. That tells you pretty much all you need to know about me and my dislike of eating out. 🙂
You are doing AMAZING, especially considering that you are about to move.
We had so much left from my daughters fathers day cookout did not even have to cook monday or tuesday hot dogs, chicken sausages hamburgers buns yummy taco dip, green beans, cabbage salad .baked beans, macaroni and cheese, grilled potatoes in the oven plus i had made sloppy joes and cole slaw from saturday so we had a feast. Weds. i made a chinese pork cabbage recipe from a cookbook i purchased at one of my jobs put together by employees, and bought rice from the chinese store to go with it. There was enough left for thursday just made another big salad. friday i made a big pot of vegetable soup since the weather turned cool which used up the cabbage from the chinese pork, more salad and finished up the coleslaw mix. my husband hunts and since there was no meat in this meal will make him deer steaks later today. I also had bought 3 zucchini, found a recipe of facebook for cheesy zucchini squares made those which were easy, went well with the soup. tomorrow looks like leftover from friday.!!
forgot to say all your food looks yummy u have great ideas. thanks
You always inspire me with your meals! The tacos look so delicious.
Thank you! Always glad to inspire someone's dinner plans. Because holy moly, it's easy to get uninspired about cooking dinner.
Dinners this past week have been...
Monday - Leftover fried fish with rice and veggies
Tuesday - Steak, carrots, broccolli, salad and rice.
Wednesday - My oldest daughter and I were visiting my mom and she took us out to dinner which is always nice. (The other family fended for themselves)
Thursday - We cut up a roast into "steaks" to marinate and served them with cauliflower, broccoli, zucchinni and rice.
Friday - tonight it's smokies in the firepit with salad and other raw veggies.
Saturday- Homemade vegetable soup, crackers
Sunday- Sausage pizza and lettuce salad
Monday- Left over sausage pizza and salad
Tuesday- Left over vegetable soup and corn bread
Wednesday- Sloppy Joes, baked beans, coleslaw, pistachio salad, and chocolate chip cookies
Thursday- Baked pork loin, brown rice, corn
Friday- Left over pork loin and a pasta salad
My week. Our freezer is on the empty side, but your challenge did inspire me to pull out the leftover ham from Easter and to use up a bunch of bread and cranberries in a bread pudding.
Monday - ham with mac&cheese, broccoli
Tuesday - snacky picnic before a concert (yogurt, carrots, apples, nuts, pretzels). Not only was bringing our own cheaper, but I hate the food the venue serves.
Wednesday - ham with sautéed zucchinis and carrots, watermelon
Thursday - ravioli with broccoli, green salad
Friday - grilled ham and cheese with tomato soup and green salad, cranberry bread pudding
Sometimes it takes letting my daughter cook, to get rid of leftovers in my fridge! She had a friend over yesterday, and I didn't have time to make supper, so before I headed to the barn for evening milking, I asked her if she would come up with something. She used the chicken breasts that I had thawing (from the freezer...yay!) , cut them up and sauteed them, added the 1 zucchini I had left, and threw in some leftover rice from the fridge. It was quite tasty, and leftovers got used up. Yay!
I am really inspired by everyone's efforts to respect food! I think it is a way to teach respect for many things in our homes by showing respect for the impact food waste has in our culture. And it takes creativity and effort to make tasty meals with leftovers! Thanks Kristen!
There's a mystery shopping company, Market Force, that has a burger place(not able to name specifics, they could kick me out if I do), but I think it's where you go on "date night". Not only is your meal free, but you get paid to eat it.
Hmm, I'll have to check that out!
Saturday- Chicken, broccoli salad, pasta and chocolate pie
Sunday- Sausage pizza and lettuce salad
Monday- Hamburgers, tortilla chips with avocado dip, and fruit
Tuesday- Subway veggie sandwiches
Wednesday- Salmon, cheese ravioli, and corn
Thursday- Ham sandwiches, pasta salad, and fruit
Friday- My brother took family out to a steak restaurant.