What I Spent, What We Ate | A haphazard shopping week
What I Spent
The previous two weeks, I did a great job with an organized shopping trip to start off the week.
This time around, not so much. Ha.
Let's see. Last Friday, Sonia and I made a shopping trip to buy some birthday meal necessities, like Jello. 😉 That trip was $42.09.
Then on Monday, I made a $22 non-Aldi trip:
And Tuesday brought a $22 trip to Aldi. What is with me and the $22 trips this week?
And then I also spent $60.94 at Costco (unpictured) on four bags of berries, 5 pounds of honey, and 4 pounds of butter.
That puts me at $147 for the week.
March Spending
Week 1: $194
Week 2: $147
What We Ate
Monday
This is the night I made my new recipe, the pesto chicken.
I also made muffin-tin popovers and a green salad.
Tuesday
I made a pot of tortellini soup and a couple of loaves of French bread.
I'd planned to make a green salad as well, but something came up around dinnertime that derailed my plan. So, sliced cucumbers were all the green we had!
Wednesday
I made a shrimp, snap pea, and red pepper stir-fry, which we ate over rice.
And I thawed some homemade applesauce from the freezer.
Thursday
Mr. FG and I had a meeting to go to (dinner included). The kids fended for themselves. I know Sonia and Zoe made tortellini, but come to think of it, I'm not sure what Joshua and Lisey ate!
Friday
One of my besties is moving away (Waaaah!), so my group of besties is having a girls' night out (Woo!)
Which means that Mr. FG and the kids will probably be getting a takeout pizza. 🙂
How about you? Whatcha been eating this week?
That stir fry looks mighty tasty! Aww, sorry to hear your friend is moving away. I hope you'll have a fantastic girls' night out. 🙂
This week we ate:
Monday: Freezer night! I had orange chicken and Mr. Picky Pincher made a sandwich.
Tuesday: Steak fingers with salad and homemade beans. I also made a gravy for the steak fingers and it was good! I'm infamous for burning gravy so this was a big win. 🙂
Wednesday: We were supposed to have fried rice but instead we made a frozen pizza. Daylight is limited right now and Mr. Picky Pincher needs all the light he can get to build our raised beds. That means dinner needs to be extremely fast. So pizza it was. 🙂
Thursday: We planned on having roasted chicken with mashed potatoes and salad. I had a terrible day at work and didn't want this, so I made myself tostadas with leftovers. Mr. Picky Pincher made himself some jambalaya with corn muffins.
Friday: Today we're grilling steaks with baked potatoes and salad. I'm SUPER excited for these steaks because they're part of the quarter cow we purchased a while back. They're local, grass-fed, and organic. They should taste wonderful. 🙂
I didn't have nearly as productive of a meal planning week as I would have liked. My husband was out of town for work, and my in laws were in town for a few days to help. I did try a new recipe though! Excited to get back to meal planning for next week-dinner time is much less stressful when you already planned what you are going to have!
My week wasn't nearly as exciting unfortunately. These meals are awesome. Thank you for sharing.
Adrien
We've had a week of sickness which has been a bit challenging (still ongoing) but I managed to make something every day!
Monday:Tried to make homemade chicken noodle soup. I was missing a few things and "winging" it ended up producing not so tasty a soup. We ate it with some rolls but I will definitely be more prepared next time.
Tuesday: Easy button: hotdogs, chips and cut up raw veggies-weather was warmer so that was nice.
Wednesday: Mother-in-law treated for pizza.
Thursday: Pancakes and Bacon
Friday: Most likely leftovers as we still have some sick ones. Trying to redeem Monday's leftover soup.
Saturday: Planning on grilling hamburgers. Looks like we may actually get a week of true winter!
Our week was also really haphazard and didn't go to plan! It's calving season, so we were at the farm quite a bit this week helping my Dad with his cows. The stir fry looks amazing, I'm going to have to seek out your recipe.
Have fun on your girls' night out - that's always a nice treat!
Sunday-chicken/broccoli/rice casserole
Monday-potato gnocchi with Alfredo sauce and green peas
Tuesday-ground beef & Spanish rice enchiladas with spinach
Wednesday-hamburger patties with leftover gnocchi and spinach
Thursday-chorizo & potato dish with black beans and spinach
Friday-breakfast for dinner: leftover chorizo with eggs
Can you tell we had a big bunch of spinach to use up this week?
Enjoy your night out!
This week my husband made twice baked potatoes with ham would night – they were delicious. We also had okra, tomatoes, and in doing enjoy your night out!
This week my husband made twice baked potatoes with ham would night – they were delicious. We also had okra, tomatoes, and andouille over rice. Has been has a weekly meeting near the pizza place so we grab takeout. Best of all a friend brought a vegetable quiche for breakfast.
It was a quiet week for us.
Monday: Leftovers from the weekend which I can't recall at the moment. I also made salads.
Tuesday: Wife and daughter went out with a friend (I wasn't invited) so I ate eggs and toast.
Wednesday: My wife made a roast chicken in her covered stoneware baker. It came out fantastic! We also had some mashed potatoes that were hanging out in the fridge waiting to be eaten and cooked carrots.
Thursday: Leftover roast chicken and carrots. I made rice to go with this. The chicken that's left over
Friday: Bible study tonight. A new member of the group offered to bring dinner. Not sure what it is but hopefully it's something I can eat. 🙂
On a side note, my wife found an article (which I can't find now) about how we're looking at food all wrong if we use recipes and cookbooks to guide our cuisine. I get the point the author was making and only partially agreed. That said, my wife has felt inspired to change up a few things and we're going to look into the idea of Sunday meal prep as she's terrible at the whole "What will we have for dinner this week?" concept. Hopefully this works out for us.
It's always fun to see if I can remember this without looking at my menus...let's see..
Thursday - Turkey Pot Pie using my freezer turkey and pie crusts
Wednesday - Pan Sauteed tilapia with peppers, onions, and tiny tomatoes, quinoa
Tuesday - Dr. Martin's Mix (sausage and rice with veggies)
Monday - Chicken Tacos (freezer leftovers)
Sunday - Burgers from the grill
Saturday - Beef Soup crockpot
Tonight I am making Poor Man's Stew, which has carrots, potatoes, ground beef and such in the crockpot..It's happy hour night for Hubby and I so we'll come home to a cooked meal to avoid temptation to eat a pricey dinner out. Hopefully he will grill something tomorrow, and on Sunday I plop one of my freezer roasts into the crock as I head out to work!
It is amazingly hard to remember sometimes, isn't it?
Monday night, I can't remember, but probably leftovers from Sunday -- whatever that was.
Tuesday, we had pork cutlets, tzimmes, and roasted asparagus and mushrooms.
I have a meeting every Wednesday evening after work, so it was leftovers.
Thursday we used a gift certificate to eat seafood out. The food was good, but the place was so crowded the only booth we could get was right by the door. It was aggravating. The nicest part was not having a kitchen to clean up.
Tonight, I suspect we will have burgers with as much salad-y stuff as I can throw together in a bowl. I'm baking that new cake recipe tonight, so I don't intend to spend a lot of time on dinner.
I bought quite a bit of local pork from the farmer, so my grocery bill is already close to the two week's budget mark, in just one week. I expected that, and will try to keep eating as much as possible from our stores, as I have a chicken order in for later this month. Let's hope I find some more recipes for chicken that my husband will eat.
I've got to say there's a certain amount of irony in having tzimmes as a side dish to pork, though I'm sure it was tasty! A couple of years ago we had a backyard BBQ party for our son's bar mitzvah and served BBQ chicken sandwiches. My SIL, who does eat pork, kept calling them "pulled pork chicken" which cracked me up. Gotta love mixed metaphors. 🙂
Enjoy your night out.... a friend from our monthly girls night out group moved away last June it has been sad without her. We have been getting together over 20 years.
I had a total food waste fail Wednesday night. I had a work meeting until until 11 pm and went straight to bed. Well my family never put the leftover crockpot chili in the refrigerator so had to dump it out.
Sunday: spaghetti with green beans and garlic bread
Monday: slow cooker chipotle chicken bowls with brown rice and toppings
Tuesday: Mexican pork tacos. New recipe fail but I still bagged it up for the freezer as it made a ton. I'll just docker up with spices when I reheat
Wednesday: crockpot chili with rice and zucchini stir fry
Thursday: leftovers
Friday: jamabalaya with stir fried peppers
Saturday: grilled steak, sweet potatoes and asparagus
I also made crepes to freeze and granola. Plus I made minestrone garden soup.
Plus I marinated some chicken in 4 different marinates. When the weather is good I'll start grilling.
Monday we had a mix of quesadillas--I like veggie, my husband had chicken, and the two littlest split a bacon and corn quesadilla. Our oldest had a grilled cheese because he is very picky, and I can only fight so many battles.
Tuesday--penne pasta with chicken, broccoli, and Alfredo sauce. My husband and I turn this very calorically dense meal into a salad by putting just a scoop over kale with tomatoes and walnuts. We add a little italian dressing to the kale to give it some umph.
Wednesday--used the end of the clearance chicken I scored at Aldi last week to make chicken soup. We had sliced bread with butter on the side
Thursday--leftovers and sandwiches
Friday--homemade pizza. Friday is usually our hit-the-road-for-the-weekend day so we keep it simple. Then we do pizza on Saturday night. This weekend Friday and Saturday are flipped, so my husband will make a cheese pizza for the kids and for us a pizza with kale and peppers.
Let's see...
Monday & Tuesday: Chicken & dumplings
Wednesday & Thursday: Spinach Mushroom Bacon Quesadillas
Tonight: Homemade Pepperoni Pizza
Tomorrow: My sweet in-laws are feeding us. Yay! And I'm bringing cheesecake.
That stir-fry looks wonderful! My husband LOVES stir-fry, but I've always been intimidated by them. I need to find a good recipe.
Monday: leftover chili, with Fritos. Also fresh fruit.
Tuesday: pasta with homemade sauce (from the freezer) with Perdue Short Cuts chicken. Plus fresh fruit.
Wednesday: A repeat of Tuesday (leftovers).
Thursday: Balsamic baked chicken, flavored rice, your (recipe) baked carrots and fresh fruit.
Tonight: A repeat of last night.
Last Saturday we had soft tacos with all the fixings.
Sunday was leftover tacos or taco salads
Monday - grilled chicken tenderloins, baked potatoes, grilled asparagus, cottage cheese
Tuesday - goulash made with deer meat sausage, salad & garlic bread
Wednesday - mesquite BBQ pork tenderloin grilled, cubed seasoned potatoes, mixed veggies, cottage cheese
Thursday - i had a work dinner meeting (dinner provided at no cost to me), hubby & girls got a sub & pizza takeout to eat at home
Tonight - baked seasoned cod, pierogies, green beans
I like to add a good bit of baby spinach to my tortellini soup. It's an easy way to add green without the extra dishes getting dirty. AND it doesn't taste a bit like greens.
I need to start coming to your house for dinner. Your food always looks awesome! I hate to cook and with no kids in the house any more, I just don't bother. Hmm, what did I eat for dinner this week...?
I thought I would go over but I managed to stay on budget last week.
Saturday - steak, baked potato and asparagus
Sunday - I sliced up the left over steak and threw it on a salad.
Monday - Baked BBQ chicken, stove top, and asparagus.
Tuesday - went out for Mexican with friends. I had an enchilada and a beef taco.
Wednesday - Tacos again. This time they were homemade chicken tacos. I also made asparagus again.
Thursday - picked up a taco on the way home from work. (Funny, it wasn't until I was typing this that I realized I had tacos 3 nights in a row, all from different places. It is possible I have a taco problem.)
Friday - Meeting a friend for burgers and fries.
I have the flu this week. And it is wicked. I must be feeling better, because I told my son all I could think about was going and getting tacos.
You MUST be on the mend!
This should be easy because I haven't been able to cook much. We're on our 3rd day with no power and it isn't supposed to be back up until tomorrow night.
Monday: chicken tortellini with turkey meatballs (frozen), steamed peas and Alfredo sauce (from a jar). Everything was from Aldi 🙂
Tuesday: leftovers from Monday
Wednesday: the day we lost power. We could have made do with cold food but I reeeally wanted a hot meal so my husband stopped for a rotisserie chicken, which we rounded out with cut up veggies, canned peaches, and bread and butter.
Thursday: my parents kindly treated us to dinner out.
Friday: since we still have no power, my husband decided he's bringing pizzas home for dinner. And he said it won't come out of my monthly food expenses. :-). I do love that man of mine.
Oh no! What's happened to your power? It is so hard to be without power in the winter.
Really high winds the other day. A huge tree came down on our road and took out some power lines. It's a pain for sure.... I'm just thankful for our our wood burning stove keeping our first floor warm and toasty.
The biggest pain is that we have a well. No power = no water.
That must be so hard! I hope their promise of power tomorrow night holds true.
The flu has knocked me off my feet. Thankfully the kitchen is well stocked and my children can fend for themselves. All we spent was 12.00 for a pizza delivery. I believe my son redeemed points to add a second free one and used a coupon too. I love that my children use my frugal tactics.
Monday: My husband took me out to an amazing restaurant for my b'day celebration.
Tuesday: Turkey Burgers... low carb style for me
Wednesday: Out at our Favorite pub for a couple of beers (Wednesday night? Delinquents!) and baked chicken thighs at home
Thursday: Treated ourselves to a lovely dinner out after suffering a ridiculously expensive and unexpected vehicle repair... what the heck... sometimes you just have to laugh really,really hard when life brings you uncontrollable expenses...I won't bore you with the details, but nesting squirrels and vehicles, not a good mix ... being frugal doesn't keep bad things from happening ...but when they do , it is less stressful.....
Friday.... he liked his turkey burger so much on Tuesday night, I made home another one tonight..
:
Happy birthday! And so much sympathy on the nesting squirrels. That just happened to me.
Car insurance will usually cover such damage...do give them a call!
Petey- Sorry about the car. Glad it got repaired.
Brooke-Hope your flu has taken the high road...UGH. I used to get the flu every 2 years but have avoided it the last 10.
Sarahbeth- how do you stay warm? do you have gas appliances and fireplace?
It's been a crazy week. but lots of homemade items.
I got a ice cream cake for DH's birthday but the bakery people weren't there to write on it. So, I found a volunteer. He hadn't used a pastry bag in years. Well, it got messed up and so I said to just make swirl designs all over it. He used his welding skills to design it and the amount of icing was so heavy but DH seemed to enjoy it.
The washing machine leaked all over the floor. We lifted the area rug and started the fan. The repair guy is coming with parts and we hope we guessed right when we told him what we thought the problem was. We'll find out. Repair cost- $235- $360. If it's more involved, we'll just pay the $85 home visit and seek a new washer!
Here is the past week's menu:
mon-chicken noodle soup
tues- beef barley soup
wed-steak nachos, blueberry pancakes
thurs-I attempted ground beef enchiladas with a tomato sauce. It was pretty soggy and would make a lasagna from it next time.
fri- DH wanted authentic fish & chips from a British pub. An hour later, he got them.
sat- beef tacos, possibly hatch chile cornbread
Our central heating is useless without electricity... we have a wood burning stove, so much we've had a roaring fire going for several days. It keeps the first floor comfortably warm, but the second floor stays freezing cold, so we have to sleep on the sofa bed by the fire.
Monday - My doctor delivered some good news so we went out for chicken wings. Bad for us, I know.
Tuesday - Beef stir fry with french fries
Wednesday - Trader Joe's Orange Chicken over brown rice
Thursday - chicken sausage with onions and peppers
Friday - pizza on the grill (easy to do and absolutely better than takeout!)
Hooray for good news!!
Monday: cheese enchiladas
Tuesday: chicken tenders, lettuce salad and fruit
Wednesday: waffles and sausage
Thursday: cod sandwich, potato wedges, and fruit
Friday: chicken noodle soup, veggie sandwiches, and chips
Monday: Airport food because we were traveling...yuck and not frugal!
Tuesday: Yellowtail (my husband is a fisherman so we are stocked up!) cauliflower from garden and a green salad.
Wednesday: Crockpot Chicken drumsticks with asian sauce, broccoli from the garden, organic potatoes from Ralphs discount bin, yum!
Thursday: husband worked late fresh eggs from the backyard and leftover potatoes!
Friday: pork ribs, more broccolini, green salad, and jasmine rice
We are very lucky we live in California where the only weather related problem has been a lot of rain. It makes for a great gardening year!