What I Spent, What We Ate | Costco is always the culprit.
What I Spent
We spent $150.52 at the grocery store this week, which means I would have been right on budget.
Except there was a Costco trip that totaled $31 (two chickens plus floss and toothpaste.)
On a related note, here are the top ten things I buy at Costco.
Anyway, I'm at $182 for the week.
September Grocery Spending
Week 1: $123
Week 2: $182
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What We Ate
Saturday
I was still at FinCon, so I had gyros with a few people from my mastermind group, at a Greek restaurant in DC.
I'm not sure what Mr. FG and the girls ate this night!
Sunday
I came home from FinCon on Sunday, and Mr. FG and Sonia cooked dinner. Excellent.
They made cheese souffles and a strawberry green salad, both from Dinner Illustrated.
Monday
Sonia REALLY wanted mashed potatoes, and I had a bag of Yukon Golds that needed to be used.
So, I made a big batch of those and I asked Mr. FG to pick up some rotisserie chickens at Costco on his way home.
I cut up some fresh produce to eat and dinner was done. Not fancy, but very easy.
Tuesday
I made the ham and Swiss rollups that I tried recently, specifically so I could take pictures and share the recipe.
Coming next week!
Wednesday
I made croissant chicken sandwiches to use up the rotisserie chicken from earlier in the week.
We had steamed broccoli with our sandwiches, topped with cheese of course.
Thursday
Mr. FG and I weren't home at dinnertime, and Sonia and Zoe had mini pigs in a blanket, which they'd been requesting anyway.
And orange slices. So they did have something remotely healthy.
Friday
I've got book club tomorrow night, so we are gonna do our weekly date night tonight instead.
We haven't decided where we are going, and I also have not decided what Sonia and Zoe are going to eat.
The food situation is up in the air at the FG house right now. 😉
What did you eat for dinner this week?
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This week I have spent $140 (AUS) on food shopping. I swear most of it was cat food and litter. I used to buy big bags at Costco and then the cats went off the food. So now I am buying more expensive stuff and I haven't yet figured out how much to buy each fortnight. Fruit and vegetable are our biggest costs. Since I eat the same foods for breakfast everyday I spend a fortune on berries when they are in season and used dried fruits from Costco in the off season. My bill was bumped up a bit as I bought training pants for my granddaughter to use when she is here. She is interested in doing this now. I should have a much lower spend next week.
We tried a new to us vegan supper. Grilled portobello mushrooms with onion and garlic , sweet potatoes and quinoa spinach salad. We only tolerated the mushrooms as our main dish ( would have been great on a steak). New empty nesters. Trying new things! Win some lose some. ♀️
Luckily I had a good meal plan, because I got a wicked cold this week and was barely functional until last night. There were two nights of sloppy joes, two nights of a pasta bake, and two nights of a breakfast casserole. Tonight will be ham and potatoes and broccoli. I think one night I simply had cheese on crackers because I just couldn't bear to eat anything else. Down with beginning-of-the-school-year colds!
Oh man. I hope you are feeling better soon!
Thank you! I'm finally feeling better today. 🙂
Glad you are feeling better! You did awesome in terms of getting your peeps fed while you were so sick!
That's so sweet (and appropriate) that you were welcomed home with a meal from Dinner Illustrated. 🙂
We got lots of things from Costco this week, too, thanks to my overly generous mother coming to visit. Who knew you could buy a 24-can variety pack of citrus-flavored seltzers? Is this the sort of luxury most of America is accustomed to?
Anyway. Our Week In Food.
Saturday: Bunless cheeseburgers, baking-powder biscuits, hardtack, frozen peas. I helped my son make the hardtack--which is literally just flour and water, no salt even--from instructions in a book about the Revolutionary War. It tasted about like you'd expect, so I made the baking powder biscuits as back-up. Good call.
Sunday: Beef pot roast, baked potatoes, roasted pumpkin (from our volunteer squash patch) and apples (from our apple tree), cucumbers with salt and vinegar, peanut butter cookies that my son made. It's so magical to make those peanut butter cookies without flour. And so easy. And so tasty.
Monday: Pork ribs, rice, mashed pumpkin. My children are not pleased with the return of squash. Sorry, kids. That's what grew this year.
Tuesday: Meatballs with marinara sauce, pasta, roasted summer squash/bell pepper/onion, frozen peas
Wednesday: Chicken tacos with roasted green chilis (it's chili season in New Mexico!), homemade corn tortillas made with the press my dad made for me, pinto beans, Mexican slaw, blueberry pie (storebought, because while I do many things well in the kitchen, pie is not one of them) and vanilla ice cream)
Thursday: My parents bought us dinner at the sole restaurant in the village. We all had either hamburgers or corn dogs, and french fries. When it's the only restaurant, it doesn't have to be a gourmet restaurant.
Tonight: Pizza and salad. I always make my famous (in my head) sourdough pizza when we have guests. One will be cheese, one will be half pepperoni and half vegetables. It will all be good.
I saw what you said about all those things your mom brought.
And I concluded that she should come to see you on a very regular basis.
Thank you for the clarification about the hardtack. I've been reading a lot of American history lately and couldn't for the life of me understand why anyone would voluntarily make and eat it! 🙂
Traditionally it was made because travels well and it doesn't go bad for long periods of time. As for a reason to make it now? Because you're nine years old and want to eat something soldiers ate during the Revolution, I guess. It wasn't BAD, exactly, it just tasted like flour. And nothing else. 🙂
Good for keeping you alive. Not good for adding joy to your life!
Maybe you can sell your son on food from the Franco-Prussian war? Some of the French food from the military cookbooks is not bad! (Just don't tell him about the siege of Paris; he might also want to eat the zoo!)
Sunday: We spend our meat budget again for organic pork for carnitas. This time we chose another cut and it was so much better and not dry at all. We had sides of tomatoes rice and guacamole. The rest of the week was meatless, but also very tasty.
Monday: Rye bread, cheese and cold meats with a green salad
Tuesday: Sweet potatoes with sour cream
Wednesday: Pasta with sauce made from squash, white wine and parmesan
Thursday: Rye bread and cheeses with fresh tomatoes and carrots as snacks
Friday: Spicy red vegetable curry with zucchini, carrots, mushrooms and coconut milk over basmati rice
Saturday - chicken nuggets, rice pilaf, & green beans. I don't know why this was so good but we thoroughly enjoyed our frozen chicken nuggets lol
Sunday - Meatloaf with mashed potatoes and lima beans.
Monday - kielbasa, green beans, potatoes, & pierogies
Tuesday - Hamburger Helper with corn. Quick & easy!
Wednesday - Sausage biscuits & gravy with scrambled eggs
Thursday - chicken quesadillas
Friday - leftovers from this week!
Sunday was a roast with egg noodles and a side of veggies
Monday: chicken lasagna
Tuesday macaroni and cheese
Wednesday Spaghetti with meat sauce
Thursday cheese quesadillas with gold fish crackers (we hit the easy button)
Friday: tonight will be homemade bagel pizza.
I haven't got my Costco shopping figured out. Even when I buy only the stuff there that I absolutely will use and can verify the lower per unit cost, I still end up buying just as much from the regular grocery store as I would without Costco. Costco shopping never seems to reduce my grocery bill for the month. I'm doing something wrong here.
Our week's menu:
Homemade vegetable and ham pizza, on cassava flour crust
Herbed ground beef with mushrooms, onions and pesto, served over rice pasta, fruit on the side
Hamburgers (homemade GF "bun" for me) and carrot fries
Sliced white sweet potatoes, skillet-fried with plenty of onions and served with ham
Tuna salad made with finely chopped celery, carrot and onion. Side was spinach and fruit.
One night I had a half a sub sandwich from Publix as I drove home late from taking my husband to the hospital. The bread reminded me later of why I try to avoid gluten these days.
So sorry you glutened yourself. You sound like you’re in the same boat as us—making GF meals. One of my kids is anaphylactic to wheat and my husband is VERY gluten sensitive. It does not make for inexpensive groceries!! The best price around here for rice pasta is $3.45/lb. I try to make as many meals as possible that are naturally GF, but do spend a lot of time baking allergy-safe desserts or GF breakfast foods.
Your meals always sound better (and look better) than mine...cooking for two is more of a struggle for me than I thought it would be. here's what we had:
Monday - Conchitas con chicken**, lima beans
Tuesday - Pork Chop and pan gravy, green beans with mushrooms
Wednesday - BBQ Lime Shrimp, zucchini medley
Thursday - Grilled Chicken Salads (romaine, pear, bleu cheese, pecans)
Friday - Bacon and mushroom quiche
Saturday - We are visiting our Girl in Houston and I am taking the ingredients to make her a Mexican food feast
Sunday - Freezer Meal (its leftovers that I will heat once we get home)
**This is a boxed pasta mix that I added chicken to and was not impressed
Your dinners look so tasty! And isn't that the worst? When you feel like you're about to be right on track and then you have to run in somewhere else? For me, it's always Aldi or Target. Thankfully, no Costco membership!
I think what my family enjoyed the most this week was making pizza...on the grill! Plus, we're still getting salad stuff from our garden. So that's been a nice treat, too!
Grilled pizza is so good! And so perfect for when you don't want to heat your house up to a million degrees.
Have you tried using a food ricer on your potatoes? YUMMY!
I really want to buy one but I keep forgetting until I am in the middle of making mashed potatoes.
Any particular ricer you like?
Sunday we had church service at the park so there was a picnic afterwards
Monday was frozen pizza...i was busy and for some reason didnt put anything out to thaw
Tuesday. Pork tenderloin in crock pot and put bbque sauce on it and had pulled pork bbq sandwhiches and cut up vegetables and dip
Wed. Spaghetti and salad
Thursday I made your cast iron skillet fried chicken and macaroni and cheese and applesauce.
We are out of town today so not sure what time we will get home so we will see.
I have been meaning to try those cheese souffles and haven't gotten around to it yet. They look really good!
Dinner Illustrated is definitely a winner of a cookbook. I make things out of it probably 2-3 nights most weeks since getting it for Christmas. It's now my go-to gift for wedding showers and housewarmings and events like that.
They are really yummy, if you like cheese and souffles, of course.
I think I prefer quiche to souffles, mainly because I like the firmer texture.
I'm so, so glad that you like the cookbook! I use mine all the time too.
Tonight will be my husband's first night home for dinner this week. Yay for me for actually making something for the kids and I to eat for dinner all 4 nights he was gone. 😉
Monday: Chicken pot pie, watermelon
Tuesday: Quesadillas, chips, and salsa
Wednesday: Stir fry and cantaloupe
Thursday: Brats and broccoli with cheese. I had planned to have sweet potatoes, too, but they had gone bad. The plus side is that my kids ate a ton of broccoli!
Friday: The plan was Crock-Pot lasagna but I don't have lasagna noodles. Whoops. So I have no idea.
Oh my goodness, I know that feeling. Somehow when the other adult in the house is gone, it seems pointless to cook.
It makes no sense, but it is SUCH a thing!
Sunday: Fried potatoes with chorizo.
Monday: chorizo and chickpea stew with rice
Tuesday: pasta and pesto with salad
Weds: Quorn sausages, mashed potatos and green beans
Thurs: mint and chili dahl, onion bhajis, veggies, poppadoms and mango chutney
Friday: frozen pizza!
A week with two chorizo meals is a fantastic week indeed!
I'm back in NY at my work apartment during the week (where food is SO expensive) so the goal is to cook it all on Sunday/Monday and bring it with me. SO:
Saturday: cevapcici, avjar, etc.
Sunday: giant vat of mac & cheese for a potluck that we hosted....
Monday: leftover cevap, mac & cheese, salad
Tuesday: leftover cevap, mac & cheese, salad
Wednesday: leftover cevap, mac & cheese, salad
Thursday: leftover cevap, mac & cheese, salad
Friday: BLT sandwiches for a super-late lunch, so perhaps just forage through the fridge for dinner....
Ok, I had to google what cevapcici was!
Saturday, Sunday, Monday- beef burritos with tomatoes from our garden, brown rice, and black beans
Wednesday, Thursday- pizzas: homemade dough, homemade pesto using basil from our garden, homemade sundried tomatoes using cherry tomatoes from our garden, and local broccoli
Thursday and Friday- grilled hamburgers (we mix ground burger with shredded carrots to increase veggie consumption, but also save money) with homemade pickles and curried local cauliflower
I think we spent about $85 this week (2 adults, 1 child, 1 baby), which is high for us but we picked $25 worth of local apples ($.95 per lb) last weekend. The apples will last us at least 2-3 weeks though.
Have to share that we joined Costco even though we are just the two of us and retired and living in an apartment with not a lot of storage. What hooked us...the rotisserie chicken. We get one each time we go...eat the first night with veggies, then I cut up and freeze the rest for salads and casseroles. BUT...I cannot throw out that chicken carcass....my Depression Era Mom's voice is in my head each time saying "there is some good soup in those bones". So, each time I have picked it as clean as I can I then throw the bones in a pot with onion, carrots, celery....simmer for an hour our two....pull out the bones and pick off the rest of the meat. I can usually get 4 containers of soup that will serve two. I freeze it, and when I heat it up to eat later I throw in some noodles. This has worked great for us...but also, we have several neighbors who are sick/getting chemo/recovering from falls....so I often take a container ( purchase at Dollar Tree ) and add a little cellophane bag of noodles with it. It is very much appreciated !
Sunday - - dinner at youngest sister's house for oldest nephew's (25th) birthday
Monday - fried chicken
Tuesday - soup and sandwiches
Wednesday - bbq pork spareribs
Thursday - hamburgers
Friday - dined at IHOP
Saturday - fried shrimp