What I Spent, What We Ate | I can't think of an interesting title.
I just gave up on that whole title thing, so let's get to it!
What I Spent
As I mentioned yesterday, I made two trips to Costco. Oof.
I spent $32.06 on the first trip, and $4.50 on the second trip (for yeast!).
At Aldi, I spent $102.75.
I made a quick trip yesterday to a local store for milk and a few other things ($19.87).
And it was a produce box week ($32).
So my total is $191.
November Weekly Totals
Week 1: $145
Week 2: $191
What We Ate
Monday
I was bringing a meal to a friend who just had a baby, so I just made double and we ate the same stuff I brought over.
My friend needs to eat dairy-free while she's nursing, and I made Chicken Tortilla Soup (she left off the cheese and sour cream), fruit salad, and French bread (which is an odd bread side for tortilla soup, I know, but I have no idea how to make cornbread dairy free!)
And I made a pan of brownies for them too.
I did not serve them on a silver platter, though. That's a photo from a baby shower I hosted.
I brought my friend a chocolate bar since she can't eat the brownies. 😉
Tuesday
We had Shrimp Viennese, sauteed asparagus, and garlic bread.
Wednesday
I made Swiss Mushroom Chicken, much to my children's delight. On the side, we had a green salad.
(Obviously, this is a photo not from this week because, um, that's not a green salad on the side!)
Thursday
We had pulled pork sandwiches. Plus fresh pineapple, sliced cucumbers, and a bag of Sun Chips.
Friday
I'm making pizza and I'll poll the family to decide what kind!
By the way, I made deep dish pizza using Yukon Gold potatoes last week, and we all agreed that the crust was not appreciably different than the crust made with russet potatoes.
So! Go forth and use either, I say.
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Substitute almond milk for dairy in cornbread.
Soymilk also works well. 🙂 We can't do dairy or nuts in my household due to food allergies (among other things), but I combine regular flavored soymilk and apple cider vinegar to make "buttermilk" for my cornbread recipe.
You two beat me to it in explaining how to make corn bread dairy free 😉 but I'm going to post a link to Isa Chandra Moskowitz's vegan corn muffins too. They are very yummy, as are all of the recipes I've tried from her website/cookbooks. http://www.isachandra.com/2008/10/sunny-corn-muffins/
We use rice milk. Yes, it's thinner, but one kid is allergic to dairy and nuts and I can't tolerate soy. I've never had a problem with my baked goods, though occasionally I use a tad less rice milk than is called for in the recipe.
RE brownies and other baked goods: If you couldn't make it dairy free because it called for butter, you can substitute with a good non-dairy margarine like Earth Balance. It does have other allergens (soy, pea) so if those are an issue, use Spectrum Organics shortening. It's gonna be more expensive than Crisco, but does have a somewhat buttery flavor (and is still dairy, soy, and nut-free). On sale everywhere right now as are most baking supplies.
Try learning to bake when everything has to be dairy-free, nut-free, soy-free AND gluten-free! We can't use coconut in our house either. Crazy, but not as impossible as it sounds!
Oh yeah, I used to have to do everything egg-free, too. Thank goodness that's one allergy that cleared up!
Oh man, that sounds very challenging!
Wow! It sounds like you have it under control! Good job!
I was quite a bit overbudget this week on grocery shopping this week. I mostly blame butter. A few stores had butter for less than $2/lb so I bought 22 lbs and tossed them in the freezer. Its so rare that I see butter that cheap anymore. I also stocked up on noodles since Kroger had them for $0.59/lb. I don't do a ton of stockpiling, but if its something I use regularly/a lot of and it keeps, then I will stock up on a really good sale.
Monday - Chili and buttermilk bisquits
Tuesday - Aussie Chicken, Rice Pilaf, Brocolli,
Wednesday - Pulled Pork Sammies on homemade Kaiser rolls, cauliflower, peaches
Thursday - French Toast (I finally made your challah bread recipe and it was great! I watched a youtube video on how to do the 6 strand braid and it turned out pretty cool)
Friday - Homemade pizza
I am IMPATIENTLY waiting to see $1.99/lb butter.. I have freezer space waiting....
Me too! I usually have my Christmas cookie dough(s) made by now and in the freezer.
$ 2.69 is the cheapest I have seen.
Lucky you, to find butter that inexpensive. I can only hope it gets below $2.50 at my store.
This week I have had sticker shock. A few months ago I stored quite a bit of butter and potatoes. Butter had risen by 15%. Potato has gone up to $4 a kilo. Then I found that a fly had invaded the spelt bread. As for meat it is now a rare treat. Trying to save money is going to be a forever challenge for me. It seems things now go up by 50 cents or more at a time.
Once again I haven't kept a record of our meals. Monday was homemade patties made into burgers. Tuesday we had some ground beef which was made into taco filling. Wednesday was left over taco stuff over toast. Thursday is a distant memory. Today we had a very late roast lamb meal. The leftovers will form a main meal over the weekend.
I have placed myself on voluntary pantry challenge status until further notice as the grocery spending was higher than necessary for the last two months. We preserved a lot of food as well in September so our pantry and chest freezer are quite full with the exception of meat. I have allotted myself $400 for the month of November which is half of my usual budget. That does not count the $30/wk CSA that I prepaid for but it will include the ham that we are contributing to the Thanksgiving feast. So far I have spent just over $100 and the only things we will need next week are some dairy items and maybe some fresh fruit.
We will have thin crust pizza and salad tonight with leftover tapioca
Last night was leftover chicken pot pie from my mom, applesauce and beets, with tapioca
Wednesday we had maple Dijon pork tenderloin, crispy potatoes, beets and spinach bacon salad
Tuesday we ate rice quinoa pilaf with leeks, celery, sausage and apples, roasted squash and biscuits
Monday was skillet baked ziti with meatballs and garlic bread and cantaloupe
Sunday we ate chicken enchilada casserole with salsa, sour cream and tortilla chips.
Saturday was Italian wedding soup and biscuits
Last week I did so well making a meal plan and sticking to it.. then I got a bad cold and time changed and I was pretty out of it.. but I avoided being tooo lazy!
Friday I was going to be at a meeting so I ordered the people pizza to be delivered.
Saturday I had pulled a bag of chicken out to defrost so we had grilled chicken, pierogies, green beans and I had whipped up a batch of banana muffins while cooking everything else since the bananas were so spotty
Sunday I was exhausted and could feel the cold setting into my head.. I pulled a bag of precooked ground beef out of the freezer and made a quick batch of taco meat.. crunchy and soft shells were used.. applesauce and jello accompanied( I had found a rare and random box of jello that morning and made it and tossed canned pears in half way through gelling)
Monday- Chipotle bowls were already in the planning process early Sunday.. I had sliced down a pack of shoulder meat that was really tough.. marinated it in a zip bag with the juice of 3 limes, salt, pepper, cumin, cayenne, worchestershire and some oil.. SO much more palatable then previous meals( a great B1G1 free meat deal and I caught it on manager markdown so really inexpensive.. and really tough! ooops!)
served with lettuce, rice, black beans, lime wedges and lots of toppings
Tuesday... a small amount of taco meat still remained.. so I added 2 scoops of cold rice, lots of random grated cheese, ketchup and mustard and made a crescent ring with 1 roll of crescent roll dough... served with a bag of seasoned potato wedges... Kids were rather confused b/c it was not necessarily a cheeseburger ring.. but not that strong of a taco ring... ( one kid really hates strong taco flavors which was why I masked it)...
Wednesday- Kids requested lasgana because Ohio finally got chilly.. I used a bag of precooked ground beef to make meat sauce.. picked up ricotta and noodles at the store.. made one regular pan with ricotta/ cottage cheese layers and made a medium ramikan for the ricotta hating child.. just used shredded mozz in her layers. served with a box of garlic bread.
Thursday- free for all! Kids made their own dinners before TKD classes so it was corn dogs or grilled cheese and they were thrilled
Tonight.... I am going lazy before I go meet up with friends! I have a bag of Tyson Chicken tenders.. gonna make a box of scalloped potatoes and bowls of salad! ( we have a local discount grocery outlet.. shelf stable items can be expired up to X many months... but fridge/freezer stuff is still fresh- usually just packaging change etc.. scored a huge deal on the chicken tenders so I grabbed a few.. great quick night fillers!)
My spending was higher than usual this week, as we are having our son and a son in law over for football watching tomorrow, and of course, that means FOOD. So...
Monday: crockpot country-style ribs, with sweet potatoes and roasted Brussels sprouts
Tuesday: Green chile chicken enchilada casserole, with cilantro-lime rice
Wednesday: Every man for himself; I had a club sandwich, hubby had leftover enchilada casserole
Thursday: oven-fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and peas
Tonight: eating out a free meal (for hubby) for Veterans Day ( restaurants in our area are offering this)
The menu for the football party is Philly cheesesteak sliders, crack dip, lil smokies sausages in sauce, and queso blanco with tortilla chips. My daughter is contributing some bar cookies as well.
Acckk I feel ya on those Costco trips! Bravo for getting out of there on your second trip for under $10! That's a talent. 🙂
This week we ate:
Monday: Bacon brussels sprout pasta. I was sooo so so sad when I realized our new grocery store doesn't carry pancetta! So instead I bought thick-cut bacon for this recipe. I also cooked it in a cast iron dutch oven this time. The result was a smokier, richer pasta, so that worked out!
Tuesday: I had a girl's night out where I grabbed tacos for $5 (yay happy hour!) and Mr. Picky Pincher made corn dogs and French fries at home.
Wednesday: Sighh. This was a big flop. I made pumpkin ravioli last weekend and was so excited to eat it. I even made a sage brown butter sauce with walnuts. It sounds fancy and amazing, but in reality it was kind of bland and the pasta was gummy. Neither of us were fans, so we picked up fried chicken. We tried!
Thursday: Pulled pork sweet potatoes with broccoli. We're getting a little sick of this one, so we'll give it a rest for a while. But it's been the easiest, most reliable weeknight meal in my repertoire, so I'd recommend trying it out!
Friday: We're celebrating Mr. Picky Pincher's 30th birthday this weekend, so tonight we're going to his favorite restaurant to celebrate! Normally we'd keep it low-key, but 30 is a big birthday and I wanted him to have a great meal. 🙂
Oh, so frustrating to make ravioli and have it not turn out. So much work!!
Thanks for sharing everyone! This is my first shot at doing this and reporting, so that I'm held accountable. I spent 58.78 at FoodLion this week, but almost $30 eating out, So far. We will probably eat out Satuday, too, to celebrate my husband finishing a five-hour test he needed to take for work. I'm anticipating with the movie, we'll be at around $200. On the plus side, I had frozen fish and shrimp that I'm using up in a crockpot cioppini tonight, and I cleansed out my fridge. I also froze some veggies and fruit that didn't look like they'd make the weekend. Thank, Kristen, for getting me on that bandwagon!!
Monday: Dad and Oldesr son - hotdogs, sauerkraut, chips, pears, salad, Mom and Youngest son - eat out.- (We had planned to go a Jazz Vespers service with friends. The upside: leftover chicken for Thursday night!)
Tuesday: portabello fajitas, black beans with cilantro, rice, fresh fruit -these were awesome!! First time I tried! http://cafejohnsonia.com/2014/10/gluten-free-vegan-portobello-fajitas.html
Wednesday: Spaghetti with clam sauce, salad, French bread, chocolate ice cream bars
Thursday: Homemade mac n cheese, cucumbers, pear, chicken leftovers (My eldest son made with a concoction of leftover cheeses. Really yummy, but not on my diet ;)!
Friday: seafood cioppini, salad, rosemary biscuits, olives, (pizza bread for boys in case they don't like the cioppini :)!
Saturday: eat out to celebrate dad finishing his test--dinner and movie?
Sunday: Boys youth, dad and Potato leek soup, corned beef and sauerkraut sandwiches on pumpernickel
"Weekly Food Review"
Recently I decided to keep a running total on what I spend on food shopping for the month.
I have to admit my food shopping money includes cleaning products and toiletries. So my first week was a total of $68 (I shop for 3 adults and each week, one night my other 2 adult children join us for a meal). I really shop sales and base my menu around those items and what I have in my pantry/refrigerator/freezer. I also find buying in bulk from BJ's really helps!
Monday: Ravoli with a side salad (with sale & coupons I was able to get the Ravoli for .49 a bag...I bought 4 bags and used 2 so I am ready for another cheap meal somewhere down the line)
Tuesday: Homemade Chicken Soup & Garlic Bread ( I saved the carcass from a over stuffer roaster ( $5.38 at BJ's with a coupon and it was 7 lbs) the week before to make my stock & chunked up the left over meat)
Wednesday: Cheeseburger Pie and a side salad
Thursday: I was the only one home so I had leftover Ravoli
Friday: Looks like I may be home alone again tonight so I will have some of the leftover chicken soup. If everybody is home they will have the same but I will make grilled cheese sandwiches also since there really isn't that much left.
I spent $95 at Kroger and then spent another $42 there again a few days later. Not too bad though. $137 for our family of 6. The kids all eat cereal or waffles for breakfast and take their lunches. We eat lunch at home every day. For dinner we had:
Monday: Pork chops, mashed potatoes, baked beans
Tuesday: Lasagna, garlic bread, salad
Wednesday: Leftovers
Thursday: Chicken Spaghetti, corn
Friday: Probably use a gift card to eat out at Olive Garden (not sure just yet)
I too have the same horrid cold/sinus issue that Jessica S said that she had! Feel better fast Jessica S!
Monday - Meatloaf, rice, green beans, peaches
Tuesday - Quesadillas, black beans, pears
Wednesday - Lasagna, salad for the bigs, fruit for the littles ----- choose your battles people, choose your battles! lol
Thursday - Skillet pork chops with onion garnish, brussels sprouts, brown rice pilaf, applesauce
Friday - Broke down and went to the walk in clinic, received an antibiotic sooooooooo dh volunteered to be in charge of dinner tonight being the kind soul that he is!
Happy Weekend Everyone!
To make dairy-free cornbread, make the southern version: it uses bacon grease, eggs, water/stock, and no flour. It doesn't rise much and is crumbly/crunchy rather than bread-like.
I spent $78.76 @ Trader Joe's. I did have a fullish pantry already.
Menu:
Veggie burgers with tomato spinach rice
Beef-less stew with rolls
Sweet and sour tempeh with rice
Chipotle Portobello and pepper fajitas
Pasta with vegan sausage.
I recently rediscovered the website budget bytes again. For those of us trying to stick to a food budget, this site is fabulous!
Wow, i didn't realise there were so many people eating so well whilst living frugally.
I spend a lot less than you guys but obviously don't eat quite as well.
Food in the UK seems to be cheaper than a lot of other western countries.
I'm delighted to say that I'm going to be spending a lot on food next week. Sounds crazy, doesn't it? Me nephew is visiting and has volunteered to make turduckens with me. He makes superb turkduckens and he's moving to Scandinavia next year so I need to get mine while I can.
We're planning to make three of them.
So my shopping plan this week includes three turkeys, three ducks, three cornish game hens, and three pounds of Whole Foods bacon. Budget busters, here we come!
Homemade turducken!!! Jealous
** turkduckens I have no idea how that can even autocorrect!!