What I Spent, What We Ate | I passed $200 (!)
What I Spent
So, late last week, I made this trip, which I didn't properly photograph because I was bringing a meal to someone and I needed to get busy cooking. I spent $106.81.
Then I made a trip this week that cost $94.04.
And I got my brand new produce box, which costs $15 instead of $35, so, yay!
However, I'm at $215.85 this week.
But, that's ok! I brought two meals to two other families this week, so I was feeding more than just the six of us.
I'm going to have to be seriously under budget this week if I want to average March out properly, though.
Soo, I think I'm going to do some digging in my freezer as I make next week's menu plan!
March Spending
Week 1: $194
Week 2: $147
Week 3: $216
What We Ate
Monday
I made grilled Caribbean chicken with couscous (the couscous had grilled onion, red pepper, and pineapple in it), plus braised mashed sweet potatoes, buttered corn from my new produce box, and a green salad.
This was a recipe from my 52 New Recipes series, and it's the second time I've made it.
This go round, I marinated the chicken right away in the morning, and I feel like it tasted a lot better that way.
More marinating = more better. 😉
Tuesday
We had shrimp and ravioli in pink sauce, plus homemade French bread and a fruit salad.
Wednesday
This is the night I made the Indian-spiced grilled chicken.
We also had homemade naan, plus a green salad.
Thursday
I made a pot of pulled pork, (from The Make Ahead Cook) so we had that on sandwich buns, plus applesauce from the freezer and veggie chips from Aldi.
Friday
Last Friday, I didn't make pizza since I had a girls' night out with my friends. So this week, I'll probably make some pizza at home.
Your turn!
What have you been eating this week? And are you staying on budget better than I am?? 😉
I miss grilling! It has been too cold/too windy to grill here.. I am jealous of your chicken! lol
I picked a few sale/coupon items up on Monday before * snowpopcalypse* was supposed to hit us...I am looking at hitting the stores this afternoon...
Monday- I pulled a container of shredded pork out of the freezer and reheated it with apple bourbon bbq sauce, served on honey burger buns. I baked a bag of potatos and reheated a bowl of leftover broccoli and cauliflower to go along.
Tuesday- snow day for the kids and ended up losing power in the afternoon due to a car accident.. Thankfully hubby got our generator going to keep us warm.. pulled the leftover chicken/stuffing casserole out from Sunday and reheated in the oven.. served with green salad
Wed.- Home made chicken and veggie lo-mein.
Thur- Breakfast for supper- diced and fried up the last 3 baked potatoes.. tossed in a few turkey breakfast sausages, some diced pre cooked bacon, poured in scrambled eggs and some shredded cheddar... served with toast..
Fri- I will be making sticks of city chicken! Serving with either rice or noodles and veggies!
All the proteins this week have been pulled from the freezer from previous shops or batch cooking days!
Cream cheese iced banana cake was dessert this week... putting 12 year old to work and not wasting the bananas!
What is city chicken?
What does the "less than perfect" produce look like?
I just added two photos for you!
We are under budget, woo hoo!
M: snack night because of ballet class. Sandwiches, veggies and fruit.
Tu: Family pizza night at my grandfather's.
W: I made some delicious homemade chicken nuggets, we had applesauce and edamame with it.
Th: Dinner out at our favorite local restaurant.
F: I brought dinner to work because I have errands, Little Daisy is having dinner with her grandma, which leaves Mr. Daisy on his own.
We are going to smoke a turkey this weekend and attempt to stretch it and be creative and make an entire week's worth of meals!
Saturday: dinner over at friends house. We brought some salad. She made a turkey and stuffing meatloaf which was delicious!
Sunday: beef tacos
Monday :turkey meat loaves and scalloped potatoes
Tuesday: homemade white pizza
Wednesday: take out
Thursday: breakfast for dinner-cooked by my husband!
I have great plans for salmon and rice tonight! (but depending on timing, we might end up doing takeout)
I thought I hadn't tried any new recipes this week, but I just realized the scalloped potatoes were new. I had never made them before, and my new food processor sliced those potatoes SO quickly!! We will definitely be making more sliced potato dishes.
Oh my goodness, yes. So much easier to make scalloped potatoes with the food processor.
Sunday - sausages, I think; don't remeber the produce.
Monday - leftover Turducken, plums.
Tuesday - breakfast for dinner: waffles, home-made bacon, clementines, carrots, tomatoes.
Wednesday - eat out; a usually reliable restaurant was not good that night.
Thursday - smorgesborg (aka leftovers, aka clean out the fridge).
Friday - Cosi, because of a meeting.
Saturday - Asian shrimp patties, steamed (I've tried lots of recipes, this one is the best).
Update to Saturday: friends came over to experiment with their new, wood-pellet fueled pizza oven. Once we figured out how to get the pellets burning, 10 min to preheat, 90 sec to cook a pizza. One thin-crust pizza is enough for a low-appetite adult.
Paired with salad from the farmer's market, strawberries, and two home-made pies because I missed Pi Day: strawberry and apple.
Nice! Good to have friends with a pizza oven!
Monday: pizza from our neighborhood shop
Tuesday: burgers
Wednesday: Ate dinner at a friends' house (brought two desserts to share that I made from things in my pantry)
Thursday: Ate dinner at another friends' house...got an invite last minute, was told not to bring anything other than LO
Friday: We're having what we were going to have yesterday: shredded beef tacos
The kids are visiting their grandparents this week so DH and I didn't have real meals, just ate up odds and ends. I did discover that sliced cucumber (leftover from cucumber sandwiches) plus fresh mozzarella on tortilla chips (leftover from taco salad last week) are an amazingly good combination. Also that bacon (leftover from corn chowder) + diced avocado (leftover from avocado toast) + salsa is a pretty good dip. But I do recommend the chip + sliced cucumber + soft cheese combination as something unexpectedly special.
That IS a super unusual combo! But I'm intrigued.
We've been doing *okay* but we're over budget for where we should be. I'm thinking we're either going to need to reevaluate our spending or reevaluate our budget. Luckily for us we have a full fridge and a full pantry so outside of the milk and such we should be okay with skipping shopping for a while.
BTW, How difficult was the make ahead pulled pork? Unfortunately I'm the only one in the house who eats pulled pork but it might be nice for a gathering at my place.
Anyway, this is what we ate:
Monday: Homemade pancakes (Cooks Country recipe) with Maple Syrup, eggs and bacon.
Tuesday: London Broil with Cooks Country potato wedges and salads. The wedges were a pain in the rear to make but went over very well.
Wednesday: Leftovers from Tuesday
Thursday: BLTs (using the leftover bacon) tater tots (the little one loves these) and tossed salad.
Friday: Not our turn to make dinner for Bible study but since this is New England I suspect corned beef may be part of the menu. I don't mind (despite being a French Calvinist; I do like Jewish food that pretends to be Irish.)
when my local grocery has pork shoulder ( boston butt roasts) on sale I get them as big as I can. I toss it frozen into my large crock pot and shake some worchestershire, a small amount of beef broth, season and lots of garlic. I cook on high 7-8 hours and then pull out to cool.. I remove the bone and fat and pull the meat apart. I then freeze in containers that are enough for the family meal. I defrost in fridge and warm in a pan with whatever sauce sounds yummy! Super easy to make ahead and tastes great reheated!
Yeah, this is totally easy! Click the link in the post for the recipe...it's ATK.
Haha, I've never seen grapefruit like that, but way to go for eating "ugly" fruit. 🙂 And oh my gosh, I 'm jealous of those beautiful potatoes in your produce box! That marinated chicken looks REALLY good. I've never successfully made couscous that didn't taste like glue, but maybe I'll give it another go.
It was a difficult week for food for us. As a result, our dinners were kinda 'meh.' It's also been a particularly bad week at work, so I haven't felt motivated to slap together fresh dishes.
Monday: We made pizza with leftover crusts in the pantry. Mr. Picky Pincher had a BBQ pineapple chicken pizza and mine was a margherita.
Tuesday: I tried to make wild rice soup, but it turned out REALLY bland, even after simmering all day. We got Jimmy John's instead.
Wednesday: We were supposed to make chicken adobo tacos, but we didn't have enough chicken. Instead I made ground beef tacos.
Thursday: This was the best meal of the week! Mr. Picky Pincher made stir-fried rice in our wok.
Friday: I'm not sure what we'll eat tonight! We'll pick up something since we'll be on the road.
Try Israeli couscous. It's a bigger "nugget" and not so grainy. I make it with either chicken or vegetable broth and throw in whatever veg is handy - I particularly like it with roasted broccoli.
Husband's week.
Sunday - pasta bake with spinach and garlic bread
Monday-green chili breakfast burritos with bacon
Tuesday-pasta leftovers with broccoli and garlic bread
Wednesday-ground beef tacos, Spanish rice, and apple slices
Thursday-marinated skirt steak (new recipe and good), veggie hash (corn/red pepper/onion) with southwest ranch dressing, and leftover broiled potatoes
Friday-hamburger patties with leftover veggie hash and baked cauliflower/rosemary
Oh my. What's the recipe for the shrimp ravioli in pink sauce? What's pink sauce? We love shrimp for special occasions, and Aldi has good frozen ravioli.
Not much to report this week, as I was under the weather and had no appetite, so the husband just scrounged much of the week.
However, I noticed the unusual cucumber combination mentioned from NicoleandMaggie, and I have to add that, although I really don't like most cucumbers, except Lemon cucumbers, I do like cucumbers battered and fried. Try it sometime.
Monday - meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green beans
Tuesday - This was my grandson's birthday so he chose the meal. Homemade mac & cheese, applesauce, green beans, garlic bread and green onions
Wednesday - BBQ meatball, potato perogies, mini corn-on-the cob
Thurday - My oldest granddaughter took me out for dinner. I had a pepperoni calzone. I don't know what the rest of the crew ate.
Friday - It's take out pizza for us tonight.
Just out of curiosity - do you have a particular "go to" food that you fix when you taking dinner to someone else?
That's a great question that I'd love to see Frugal Girl do a post on, actually! I need to take meals to people sometimes and I'm always looking for ideas. I'm curious as to what other people usually make in this situation . . .
Glory bowls are my go-to ever since someone brought them to us when my grandmother passed. They're so flexible and easy to eat in shifts if necessary.
I cook a ton of brown rice, then bake and shred chicken breast, hardboil and peel a bunch of eggs, steam or roast three or four veggies (whatever's in season), chop or shred two or three raw veggies (sweet peppers, red cabbage, beets, carrots, etc), for crunch, and then pack each component in a separate container (if feeding a small number of people, one of those multi-compartment veggie-and-dip-tray containers works really well), and add a little container of chopped nuts and a jar of a simple dressing. The recipient can then make their own from any or all of the components according to preference, and they're perfectly edible hot or cold. Easy to store and so simple even the toddler can mostly make their own.
Well, this isn't an area I feel super gifted in. Some people seem to bring meals to other with nary a problem, but man, I struggle! I think it's because a lot of the things I make aren't very portable..like, they're things that get cooked last minute.
I usually opt to bring something like soup and bread, if the season is right. Stuffed shells are another handy thing to bring. And I've done pulled pork before too because that's easy for the recipient to heat and eat.
I make homemade mac and cheese, which reheats well. My other go-to for delivering meals is potato soup, especially if the recipient is the one who is ill. It is not spicy, goes down easy and can be reheated.
I like lasagna, a green salad and a loaf of Italian bread. Can reheat it forever. Lindsey, I'd be in heaven if someone delivered potato soup to me!!
We almost always do a casserole or a pot pie-- something that can be frozen if they can't eat it right away. There's two casseroles in the make-ahead book that we make pretty regularly. People always ask for the recipe for Beef Tamale Pie casserole (or the vegetarian version if vegetarian) after they've gotten out of baby boot-camp etc.
Here's our post on pot-luck dishes, though the comments section is a lot better than the post itself was (not unusual for us given the high quality of our readership 😉 ): https://nicoleandmaggie.wordpress.com/2014/11/21/ask-the-grumpies-potluck-dishes/
Our 2 new recipes of the week were :
- a cauliflower and cashew cream soup (yuck!)
- a "modified" shepard's pie (regular ingredients+ swet potatoes, onions, peppers and carrots...) boring....
Hopefully the next recipes will turn out better!
Monday: baked chicken, sweet potato, mixed veggies
Tuesday: chicken salad sandwiches, baked chips, fruit
Wednesday: vegetable beef soup, sour dough bread, lettuce salad,
Thursday: avocado tacos and cheese quesadillas
Friday: salmon and lettuce salad.
Oh, the food photos you posted look especially yummy!
Tonight - prob pizza for us, too; carry-out
Thursday - Sauteed Chicken, yellow squash
Wednesday - Salmon, a few shrimp, asparagus in a one sheet pan dinner, plus fettucine alfredo, garlic bread
Tuesday - Leftover burger patties with sweet and spicy sauce, fried okra
Monday - Green chile Chicken Enchilada bake, corn
Sunday was a roast in the crockpot, masheds, peas and carrots
I am trying hard to stick to the menus, but it's hard when I think there will be 4 of us, then it turns out only three...
We didn't do too bad on the spending, down a bit from last week & hopefully it's because this is the first week I actually menu planned (&stuck to it)! Usually i have an idea what to have, but this week i actually wrote it all down, shopped my fridge, freezer & pantry. I'm so proud of myself. My girls thought this was a great idea. I think it's easier to stay around budget doing this. Anyways......
Saturday - we didn't have a formal meal because we were out of town for the day so we all just scrounged around & had salad & whatever leftovers we could find.
Sunday - homemade bread, homemade cheddar & bacon & broccoli soup
Monday- crock pot stuffed peppers, rice, mixed veggies, cottage cheese
Tuesday - ham slices, parsley potatoes, california veggie blend
Wednesday - grilled chicken tenderloins, coleslaw & grilled asparagus
Thursday - oldest daughter went shopping & had dinner with her uncle, so it was just hubby, youngest daughter & i & hubby treated us to dinner out
Tonight we will be eating free at our church's fish dinner that we'll be working at. Fish, pierogies, mac n cheese, green beans, coleslaw, potato salad, roll & dessert
I'm trying to stick to a whole foods diet, nothing processed! This week went better than last!
Monday: finished the weekend's vegetable soup, homemade buttermilk biscuits
Tuesday: Broccoli-ham frittata, fresh fruit
Wednesday: Spaghetti with meat sauce made from our own home-grown tomatoes and our own home- raised pork sausage, garlic bread, tossed salad
Thursday: was on the road for 5 hours, so just brought along fresh veggies and fruits and boiled eggs and cashews to eat in the car
Friday: I'm making a fruit salad to use up some of the fresh fruit and we'll finish off the spaghetti
BTW, I noticed 2 people posted that they used "leftover" bacon in their menus. Is there really such a thing as leftover bacon?????? 🙂 Not at my house!
The imperfect produce looks perfectly good to me! The potatoes looked fabulous, far better than some that are sold at the grocery in my area (Coastal Georgia)!
M Baked ravioli with meatballs, salad
T Pesto chicken, salad, crusty bread
W Baked chicken, corn, string beans, fruit salad
T Leftovers
F Corned beef, potatoes, cabbage, carrots, green cake with icing
Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Kristen, I looked on site and was not able to find the recipe for "shrimp and ravioli in pink sauce" in either the search function or the main dish recipe section.
It is entirely possible that I have lost my mind, and if so could you please repost the recipe again??
Thanks!
Alison
You're not crazy! It's here: http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/ravioli-with-shrimp-tomato-sauce
Kristen,
Thanks for thinking I'm not crazy! lol
I have everything except the shrimp for this recipe and really wanted to try it out this week. I can grab the shrimp from the seafood shop (we live within 45 minutes of the coast and this stores prices are great!) and be done.
Thanks so much for the link, and hope you have a great weekend!
Alison
Monday -Chili
Tuesday -leftover baked chicken for.me from Sunday....he had a big lunch so just wanted chips and cheese
Wednesday-Mushroom Steak,green beans
Thursday-out for dinner after getting up for work at 2:30 am ..and getting home at 5:30 pm..
Friday-Supreme Pizza, takeout from Hyvee...my low carb life...toppings only!
Happy weekend!
Monday we grilled chicken thighs, which the hubby had with a salad I made summer rolls after I found the rice paper at my local asian store.
Tuesday was leftovers as he thought we needed to grill 3 lbs of chicken thighs for 2.
Wednesday was grilled steak with salads.
Thursday was steak tacos (left over from the night before (see a team in our house...my husband thinks we need to cook so much meat but I'm happy and thrilled he's helping) last night was clean out the fridge ad use up the last of our previous produce box since I just picked up the new one. I had roasted fingerling potato salad and carrot sticks.
Ooh, well, cooking extra protein DOES make the next night's meal easy!
I have to bookmark your recipes, they look amazing!
This past week I tried a couple recipes I never made before:
- baked polenta wedges (which is basically 'normal' polenta, but cut into wedges and baked with cheese on top)
- cauliflower 'meatballs' (they're like meatballs, but using cauliflower instead of meat. They're delicious!)
We usually spend less than $100 on groceries, on a weekly basis.
I admit I don't always make a meal plan for the upcoming week, but I always improvise lunches and dinners with what we have at home (I really love cooking, so planing a meal come easy).
We usually have a weekly grocery bill of $150 total. We get whatever we can from Aldi, then pick up any additional odds and ends from Wegmans for stuff Aldi doesn't carry. Our grocery budget includes food for 5 people, obviously, and also diapers for 2 babies, food for 2 dogs and 1 cat, and all toiletries/paper products. So...
Wednesday: comfort meatballs and egg noodles (a recipe from Pioneer Woman). Sort of like Swedish meatballs. Made a double batch: one to eat and one to freeze for future dinner.
Thursday: chicken pot pie (homemade)
Friday: risotto verde (risotto with peas, spinach, asparagus)
Saturday: scrambled eggs and toast
Sunday: baked sweet potatoes with black bean and bacon topping
Monday: frozen ravioli and jar sauce (mama's night off!)
Tuesday: we'll make a new menu and go grocery shopping. But the emergency meal in case shopping doesn't happen is frozen chicken fingers.
And we serve two pieces of fruit per person with each meal, like an apple and a clementine or whatever. I wish I liked cooking side dishes, but I don't. I like cooking mains then the energy peters out...
Can you share who you get your produce box from? I think I might be in the area they deliver to.