What I Spent, What We Ate | A week of requests
What I Spent
I spent $148 this week on an embarrassing number of stops! In addition to Costco, I have five other stops recorded.
Geez.
It was not my most organized week, to be sure.
But hey, at least I am on budget this week.
October Spending
Week 2: $148
What We Ate
Saturday
Sonia went to a homecoming dance with her cousins, and that left Zoe home with Mr. FG and me.
So, we skipped our usual date night and took Zoe out to Chick-Fil-A (her choice!) and then did some shopping with her.
Sunday
Mr. FG and I made Barefoot Contessa's lasagna rolls, plus a fruit salad.
Monday
I asked the girls for requests when I made the menu this week. 🙂
To start things off, Sonia requested chipped beef on toast.
What did we eat with that? I have no idea! Monday was too long ago and I didn't write it down.
Tuesday
Lisey requested shrimp tacos with mango salsa.
I also made a cilantro lime sauce to go on the tacos, and we added shredded purple cabbage too.
Wednesday
Zoe requested pulled chicken sandwiches, and we had a rather random assortment of raw fruit with that.
And also a bag of Bugles. 😉
Thursday
I made pasta alfredo with chicken sausage, and we had fresh fruit on the side, largely because I don't have much in the way of veggies in my fridge right now.
Friday
We're going to have ham and cheese hobo pies tonight!
Saturday: Shredded beef roast fried in tallow with spices, garlic bread, mashed pumpkin, tomato and cucumber salad. Pumpkin and tomatoes from the garden. When seasons collide.
Sunday: Bunless cheeseburgers, oven fries, leftover pumpkin, a random assortment of vegetables sauteed all together
Monday: MREs my husband's friend the Marine left when he was here hunting that my boys wanted to try but discovered were disgusting, leftover taco meat, tortillas and cheese, leftover hamburgers, leftover pumpkin, cucumber slices
Tuesday: Pork chops, mashed potatoes, roasted bell pepper and onion, tomato salad
Wednesday: Bunless hamburgers (again--it's a fast meal; what can I say?), fried potatoes, frozen peas, yet more pumpkin. We had a lot of random volunteer squashes this year, so it will be featured frequently in the coming weeks. Much to my children's dismay.
Thursday: Beef and green chile soup, scrambled eggs, bread and butter, tomato salad with the very last fresh basil of the season.
Tonight: My husband and eldest son will be gone elk hunting, so the remaining children and I will have pasta with pesto. We made the pesto yesterday when I pulled the basil plant before the hard freeze last night. We have some leftover hamburgers, too, which will be their protein, or they can have some more of the soup. As for vegetables . . . raw tomatoes and cucumbers sound good. And easy. 🙂
Sunday- chicken, mac n cheese, salad at moms (its pan fried chicken that was my sister late mother-in-laws recipe)
Monday- Ravioli, salad, bread
Tuesday- Sausage, peppers, onions, potatoes, kids had fried mac/cheese
Wednesday- Chicken Alfaro, salad. (DS was at soccer, he doesn't like this so he had eggs before practice)
Thursday- French toast/bacon, sliced apple. (meeting at school)
Friday- Took hot dogs out of the freezer, most likely tarter tots to go with.
Saturday: We were invited to my uncle's birthday for a incredible lunch at a restaurant/butcher shop and had some cake afterwards.
Sunday: We returned from our trip to my uncle and I had planned our dinner before so we didn’t have to eat out. We had fish sticks, mashed potatoes and creamy spinach.
Monday: Pasta with marinara sauce made from scratch
Tuesday: Fresh walnut bread from our local bakery with cheeses and salami. We had tomatoes and carrots as snacks.
Wednesday: I met a friend for lunch so I had some leftovers, a salad and pears for dinner.
Thursday: Oven-roasted vegetables (potatoes, carrots, parsnips, parsley root) seasoned with cumin.
Friday: I will make a hearty and creamy potatoe soup with vegetable leftovers from the freezer and grilled mushrooms.
Saturday: Tacos – tofu for hubby and shrimp for me
Sunday: Lasagna and salad
Monday: Egg Zaa’tar
Tuesday: Sausage & Tortellini Soup
Wednesday: A weird combination of leftovers and cereal. It was an odd day between work and taking our cat to the vet.
Thursday: Swedish Meatballs and kale
Tonight will probably be cheesesteak sandwiches and grapes.
Do you have a recipe for the mango salsa?!? I love anything mango, and that looks amazing.
I basically made it like this one: https://www.thefrugalgirl.com/pineapple-salsa/
Except I used a combo of mango and pineapple, and I also added lime juice. 🙂
Do you have a go to alfredo sauce recipe?
I usually use this one: https://damndelicious.net/2014/09/05/olive-garden-alfredo-sauce/
But less garlic, and I stir it and bring it to a boil once I whisk in the egg yolks.
Saturday: Chinese takeout
Sunday: tuna sandwich with chips and applesauce for my husband, and beefsteak tomatoes, avocado and celery stuffed with chive cream cheese for me.
Monday: Salmon, baked homemade French fries for my husband and mashed turnips for me because I'm watching carbs, Caesar salad
Tuesday: taco bowls made of soy crumbles, black beans, tomatoes, other toppings of choice. My husband's was on rice and mine on cauliflower rice. Accompanied by tostones de pana (made of breadfruit, not plantains)
Wednesday: Mahi-mahi, more baked fries or mashed turnips, Caesar salad
Thursday: an assortment of leftovers
Friday: I'm meeting my husband for lunch. Then for dinner I'm taking my staff out for a happy hour celebration and will eat there. My husband will have tuna sandwiches.
That mango salsa looks so colorful. I don't like cilantro or fresh mango, so I'm not going to make it, but it looks gorgeous. As my dear late grandmother used to say, "That's so pretty, but I don't like it." 🙂
Staying on the elimination phase of my diet for another week, so I had:
Lemon garlic chicken with salad and lemon-y green beans (twice)
Tuna salad made with garlic "mayo", carrot, celery and onion; plus rainbow roasted root vegetables (twice)
Lamb meatballs over cauliflower rice, cinnamon spiced mashed sweet potatoes and roasted zucchini/onion/mushrooms (twice).
Tonight I will either cook a steak and pair it with the leftover roasted zucchini/onion/mushrooms or I might have a good piece of lamb. My husband should be home from the rehab later this coming week, so I'll have to start adjusting the menu to account for his dislikes, of which he has more than he does likes.
My shopping has been under budget, but since I'm cooking for one right now, it ought to be. The elimination diet is more expensive than a standard diet, though, so I haven't cut my bill by that much and I know it's about to go up when my husband comes home.
Yes! Fruit salsa is so beautiful.
I hope things go smoothly with your husband's transition home.
1. Leftovers! Our fridge was bursting with leftovers from all my cooking last week and making another meal just didn’t make sense. (We’re not big eaters and our side-by-side fridge doesn’t hold a lot.)
2. Grilled marinated chicken with roasted carrots, potatoes, and parsnips; also green beans.
3. Was going to make potato soup until I realised we had run out of milk. So we had chicken sausages, potato cubes, and a raw veggie platter.
4. Cabbage rolls, steamed broccoli, and applesauce.
5. Tonight we’re having friends over and it will be a houseful of little kids, so we’re having a pizza assortment (store bought crusts, and we’ll add toppings).
I have to say that planning our menu has made it a lot more enjoyable to eat at home. I am not naturally thrifty; I like to spend money and one of my very favourite things in life is eating out. Even with kids, I don’t care; I love eating out or choosing takeout! But obviously it gets really expensive if you’re doing that every week multiple times! Menu planning has helped me to make eating at home a more pleasant thing. Knowing what we’re having each day, not scrambling to figure something out at the last minute, takes the drudgery out of it 🙂
I am really quite a disaster at cooking without a menu plan. I wish it wasn't that way, but here we are! So I figure I'd better work with that knowledge and stick with the menu planning.
Fri - I used leftover shredded chicken from earlier in the week, along w/leftover rice and some frozen veggies to make Chicken Fried Rice and my husband made himself some French Toast.
Sat - (Our Cuban Dinner Night) Arroz Imperial, Green Beans and Key Lime Pound Cake
Sun - (Our Family Dinner/Game Night) Cube Steak, Mashed Potatoes w/gravy, Green Beans, Rolls and Banana Pudding. We play Pictionary, so much fun!
Mon - Chicken Pot Pie Casserole (made with noodles) in the InstantPot
Tues - Chicken Milanese (baked, a Skinnytaste recipe), roasted potatoes and carrots
Wed - Leftover Arroz Imperial
Thurs - Spaghetti (Leftovers that had been in the freezer)
October is my busy month for a lot of reasons so everything always feels super hectic.
Saturday: Went out with my wife on a date night. We never get to do this so it was nice.
Sunday: My daughter's friend is having some family issues so we're helping out by watching her at some times. The kid is a bit of a picky eater (what four year old isn't) so we tried to get her involved a bit. We made chicken thighs with barbecue sauce, rice some sort of vegetables and homemade cornbread.
Monday: It was my wife's birthday so by her request I made some Buffalo wings (though I used sriracha instead of Frank's as it was all I had) and ordered a pizza from her favorite pizza place.
Tuesday: Leftovers from the fridge with some roasted potatoes and vegetables.
Wednesday: My wife made a nice chicken and biscuit dish for a friend (the mother of the girl we're watching) and we just kind of ate from what wasn't sent over there. Bad planning on our part but we didn't starve.
Thursday: Due to a migraine and some other issues we had fish sticks. Nothing great but better than going out to eat, I guess.
Friday: Today we're doing a mishmash of stuff as we have to prepare for my daughter's birthday party this weekend.
Bad planning this week. Hopefully next week goes better.
I'm so glad that you got to have a date night!
I struggled to stay on task with menus this week...Hubby derailed it by shopping for stuff to make dutch oven cobbler on Tuesday and having a friend over to make it on Wednesday...
Monday - I think we had tuna salad wraps which were delightful
Tuesday - Plan: Pulled Pork (crockpot), baked potatoes, vinegar coleslaw
what we actually ate: grilled cheese and ham on whole wheat with the slaw
Wednesday - Leftover pulled pork with vinegar coleslaw for Hubby, I had a burger and fries on the way home from work
Thursday - more pulled pork and Hubby never wants to see that again since it also was lunch two days (spoiler alert: there's more in the freezer!!)
Tonight - Schwarma Salads (schwarma slices, romaine, tomatoes, red onion, olives, feta, chick peas)
Saturday - Something grilled (with baked potatoes already made) at Highlands - we are building a storage shed!
Sunday - Broccoli Cheese Soup with garlic toast
Sunday - Grilled sandwiches, tomato basil soup, fruit
Monday - Baked chicken, brown rice pilaf, string beans, fruit
Tuesday - Baked salmon, broccoli, white bean noodle salad, oranges
Wednesday - Marinated chicken, oriental tossed salad, Asian cucumber salad
Thursday - Dinner out, band concert
Friday - (Tonight) Pick up, have to drop one for a scout camping trip
Saturday - (Tomorrow) Stir fry, spinach salad, baked apples
Saturday: Haluski to use up the rest of a cabbage, plus corn, cottage cheese, and... Something else. But it wasn't meat, which I think was a disappointment to my husband. 🙂
Sunday: Chicken pot pie for lunch, then we hosted for our life group that night and I made chili
Monday: My mom came over to watch the kids and arrived early with sloppy joes and tater tots!
Tuesday: Pork BBQ sandwiches, grapes, devilled eggs
Wednesday: Crock-Pot lasagna. My daughter asked what we were having with it. Since I hadn't thought about it ahead of time and we were only home for 30 minutes... Nothing. But at least we had the lasagna.
Thursday: Baked chicken, roasted cauliflower, and cooked carrots.
Friday: Baked potatoes, the rest of the chili from Sunday, and broccoli with cheese.
Mmmm...now I'm craving tater tots and deviled eggs. 🙂
Just curious what a ham and cheese hobo pie is?
It's kind of like a panini, but it's cooked over the fire, in a cast-iron hobo pie maker, like this one:https://www.llbean.com/llb/shop/45792?feat=sr&term=pie+iron&csp=a
I tried your chicken brinerade last night to rave reviews. Wanted to let you know. 🙂
Last weekend my family came over so I made 2 big pots of soup. One vegetable beef and one potato. So.....
Monday: leftover vegetable soup, homemade bread and butter, grapes
Tuesday: leftover potato soup (finished it off!) with ham and cheese sandwiches
Wednesday: a big salad , homemade bread and butter, tangerines
Thursday: breakfast for supper: scrambled eggs, bacon, pancakes and fruit of choice
Friday: air-fryer chicken thighs, broccoli, side salad.
The rest of the vegetable soup was frozen for later!
I try to make most of our meals to last two nights so it was two nights each of apple & bacon mac & cheese(yes, that's all one yummy thing), chili, and zuppa toscana, with one night of homemade pizza. Not only does doubling up mean there's only one prep for me, but it also means fewer dishes for my husband to wash, so everybody wins!
We have had three family birthdays and three parties. So here goes
Saturday night was fruit and cheese and other nibbles at party number one.
Sunday lunch was at a Thai restaurant for party number two and I had Pra Rama Long Song; A chicken dish with vegetables, peanut sauce and rice. Goodness knows what dinner was.
Monday: Roast beef with sweet potato, potato, carrots and green beans.
Tuesday night: Spaghetti bolognese
Wednesday night: Fish, chips and salad for mum. Chicken and salad for me.
Thursday Night: Last party and it was for youngest and eldest children. I cooked a roast lamb dinner with roast potato, sweet potato, cauliflower and broccoli cheese, pepperonata, peas and carrots. At my son's request there were a huge number of Yorkshire puddings.
Friday night: Left over roast beef and gravy and more Yorkshire puddings with a huge bowl of strawberries for dessert.
1. Mexican restaurant leftovers. Kid next door told me to bring excess stuff in refrigerator and canned goods over. Says he will cook for me while my kitchen is being fixed. He is in college and I am retired. Sounds like a good deal to me p
Sorry to hear about things needing fixed but that is so sweet of the neighbor kid! You provide the food he does the work.. Score!
Last week was the last week of the HS volleyball season.. and I swear I cannot recall what we ate.. (the end is near! the end is near!)
I remember Sunday I ordered a pizza deal and had my son pick it up on his way home from work....
I know some of us were eating leftover chicken noodle soup, and chicken and rice casserole ( my poor attempt to help stave off the inevitable colds)Not sure if this was lunches or a supper though...
One day was homemade meat sauce with frozen ravioli.....I was not there so I doubt there was a side....
One night I did make crescent wrapped Angus beef dogs before a night of games...
Friday I did defrost a container of beef tips and gravy which we had over noodles and a veg before we went to the football game- son's choral group was opening the night...
Saturday I put a pork shoulder in the crock pot early... made it much easier to say no to eating out when running errands! Served with boxed scalloped potatoes and frozen broccoli!
Sunday - pizza
Monday - sandwiches
Tuesday - hamburgers
Wednesday - pizza (again)
Thursday - chicken & rice
Friday - pot roast
Saturday - chicken tenders
Last week:
Monday: Pulled pork on small rolls with cole slaw and a veggie tray
Tuesday: Relatives came to watch my daughter play field hockey and then we all went out for pizzas
Wednesday: Chicken Fajitas
Thursday: Asian Chicken Rice Bowls
Friday: 'Snack Dinner' with cheese, salami, veggies, pickles, etc.
Saturday: One child at a sleepover, got take out sub sandwiches for the rest
Sunday: Minestrone Soup and Homemade Bread
Plans for this week:
Monday: Grilled steak, sautéed green beans, rice pilaf (I will also grill two sausages I found in the freezer which will be good fixings for lunches)
Tuesday: Baked potatoes with toppings and a big salad
Wednesday: Italian crock pot beef au jus sandwiches, veggie tray
Thursday: Black bean and pork nachos (using leftover pulled pork that I froze last week)
Friday: Possibly going out of town to see relatives. If we are home, we will have leftovers.