What I Spent, What We Ate | Basically Dinner Illustrated. And that's all.
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What I Spent
I spent $202 this week! That's definitely on the high side for me.
But the good news is that things are still averaging out to be right on budget for the month.
March Spending
Week 1: $76
Week 2: $166
Week 3: $144
Week 3: $202
Year to Date Grocery Spending
January: $619
February: $485
March: $588
What We Ate
Saturday
I made grown-up mac and cheese from Dinner Illustrated.
Pretty tasty, but the Gruyere cheese did make a rather stringy sauce. I think I'd prefer homemade mac n cheese made with a cheese sauce more similar to a white sauce.
I also roasted some butternut squash.
Sunday
We had Parmesan polenta bowls topped with roasted broccoli and fried eggs.
The recipe was from Dinner Illustrated (surprising, I know), and it called for sun-dried tomatoes in the polenta.
Sonia and I both thought they tasted kind of like raisins in polenta, so we will not do that again.
Monday
I tried a recipe for baked ziti from, ummm, Dinner Illustrated.
It was pretty good, but I think next time I'd use fewer mozzarella chunks in the pasta.
Somehow, it was a little too much of a good thing! The ricotta dollops were very good, though.
Tuesday
I made Thai Chicken soup from Dinner Illustrated.
You can find the recipe right here.
We had sauteed green beans on the side, plus some pot stickers from the freezer.
Wednesday
Another new recipe from Dinner Illustrated...this time for ricotta gnocchi.
I'd never made gnocchi before, but these were easy and very tasty.
We ate these topped with tomato sauce and Mr. FG had sauteed portobello mushrooms with his.
I made a snap pea, cucumber, and radish salad to go on the side...also from Dinner Illustrated.
Thursday
I made a recipe that is not from Dinner Illustrated!
Sonia was out babysitting, and since she hates hamburgers, it seemed like a good time to make them.
I made these well-done hamburgers from Cook's Illustrated (they have a panade to keep them from drying out.)
Friday
I'm planning to make turkey and pepper jack panini (recipe from a Cook's Country magazine.)
I had the Thai Chicken Soup on Wednesday, and I found out that one really shouldn't substitute boneless, skinless thighs for the breasts; way too greasy! But still a tasty soup.
Ooh, I can see that being a problem!
The Martha Stewart macaroni and cheese recipe--which I got via Smitten Kitchen--is very good. I made it last Friday and even with not having the right kinds of cheese and screwing up the proportions, it was still a winner. It does use a white sauce.
Monday: Cheese omelets, rice dish made with leftover rice, bacon, diced carrots, peas
Tuesday: T-bone steaks, thin-sliced potatoes fried in duck fat, green beans
Wednesday: Meatballs baked in barbecue sauce, garlic bread, roasted broccoli and cauliflower
Thursday: Flank steak, chicken rice from our neighbor that was kind of bland, green salad
Friday: My sister is visiting. I always make my famous (in my own head, anyway) sourdough pizza for guests, and since it's a Friday in Lent, it will be a meatless one. Probably one plain cheese and one with mushrooms, bell pepper, and onion, because that's my favorite. And there will be another salad, because my lettuce is looking limp and forlorn.
Ok, good to know about the mac n cheese!
You probably already do this, but just in case...have you tried soaking your chopped lettuce in a bowl of cold water? I am always amazed at how perky it gets in under an hour.
Yup. Did that last night. My mother-in-law taught me to do that with garden lettuce in the summer when it's harvested during crazy hot weather and comes out of the garden kind of wilted. I always wonder how commercial harvesters deal with that problem. Maybe they soak all lettuce when it's harvested? Or maybe they just grow more robust varieties.
I figured I could count on you to know that!
Saturday, 2 birthday parties, Had dinner at one pizza, sandwiches, salad, and dessert at the other one! Yea no cooking for me!
Sunday-(mom still laid up!) So my sister and I, and BIL, made Corn Beef, Ham (for those that don't do corn beef) cabbage, red potatoes, Carrots! It was yummy! I made some mini morsel shortbread squares (first time, everyone loved them!) from Pinterest
Monday- dd had soccer practice, so after we had Chicken cutlet, pasta in garlic oil sauce, and corn
Tues- Ds soccer practice, so before we had Hot dogs on the grill, Mac and Cheese, I also had Baked beans (no one else eat them)
Wednesday- Chicken Alfredo, Ds had fried mac and cheese, since he doesn't eat this.
Thursday- dd soccer got cancelled due to the rain, We had chicken cordon on bleu, mashed , green beans. DS had chicken parm from left overs, since he doesn't eat this. (yes he is picky!!!)
Friday- the plan is French toast, cut up apples, before DS soccer practice.
Need to find some new items, gets boring cooking the same over and over!
Your meals always look so delicious! I make such plain things. I don't really enjoy cooking or meal planning. I probably should start working on getting better at that. Ha!
I don't necessarily enjoy cooking or meal planning...but the thing is, I DO enjoy eating. Sooo...I gotta do the cooking and meal planning.
That gnocchi looks great. They look good enough for a cook book illustration.
We had:
Pork chops, roasted and mashed calabaza pumpkin seasoned with pumpkin pie spice, and roasted asparagus.
On Sunday, of course, we had "uncured" corned beef, cabbage, onions and carrots. No potatoes, I'm avoiding them. It was really good.
Shrimp from the freezer and a huge salad from a mix of lettuces given to me.
Stir fry, topped with the leftover shrimp. I used No-Soy Sauce on mine. I sure miss soy sauce.
Meatloaf, carrots, and broccoli and cheese.
Steak and salad
Tonight will be whatever I find while shopping after work, that looks good and quick to make.
Just out of curiosity, have you cut out soy sauce because of a food allergy? If it's soy, I guess you can't work around that. But if it's wheat, we've found that tamari is wheat-free.
Kikkoman makes a gluten free soy sauce.
Yes, it's the soy, and I'm supposed to avoid gluten as well. I have a huge bottle of Tamari sauce that I should no longer eat, so my husband gets to enjoy it.
Saturday : date night, so we had dinner out - I had shrimp tacos which were fantastic
Sunday : corned beef with cabbage, carrots, and potatoes - never made corned beef before, but Aldi's was super easy and delicious
Monday : naan pizza with meatballs and a mozzarella ball that was at the end of it's life, served with green beans
Tuesday : tempura chicken from Aldi's frozen section - do not recommend the sauce with this one
Wednesday : rotisserie chicken, rice and sauteed zucchini
Thursday : curried chickpeas and potatoes over rice
Friday : possibly leftovers or something with hamburger since that's what is in the fridge...
I always thought gnocchi was hard so I've never tried making it. I am reconsidering that now!
We've been enjoying our cook's country resubscription. Though on Wednesday DC1 put together a bunch of leftovers to make super creative sushi at home. The winner: leftover refried charro beans, sliced steak, cream cheese, and mango chutney.
I thought it was complicated too, but I gotta say, this ricotta version was super easy. Mix, roll out, slice, and boil. No potatoes to mess with.
Are these pix all from your new phone's camera?! They look amazing!
They're a combo of SLR photos and phone photos, actually. In the right light, my new phone does a pretty fantastic job in portrait mode!
Sunday we had turkey in wine sauce with mashed potatoes, turnip and carrots
Monday was the remaining turkey with spinach and sweet potatoes
Tuesday night we had spaghetti with meat sauce and chopped carrots. There was enough leftover sauce to have pasta again on Wednesday.
Thursday was our usual pizza night with a salad on the side.
Tonight we're having my favorite chicken in orange sauce with fries and probably spinach
I'm about to put the stock pot on so I see ramen bowls for the weekend.
Between Dinner Illustrated, The Best Simple Recipes, and Quick Family Cookbook - which America's Test Kitchen book would you say has the truly easiest and fastest recipes? I almost always cook "semi-homemade" with some prepared items mixed in rather than fully from scratch. I believe I have seen all three books mentioned on this site and was curious what you thought about the.
I think if you want semi-homemade, the Quick Family Cookbook is probably your best bet, although I'm not SUPER familiar with The Best Simple Recipes.
Wow, your pictures are so good I'm about to buy that cookbook!
You should! It's got so many good meal ideas in it. And there are almost always some used copies available on Amazon (unless my readers went and bought them all. 😉 )
I agree! I don't even like recipes, but this post makes me want to change my ways!
Question about the cookbook, how many vegetarian recipes are there? Now I'm craving the parmesan polenta with fried eggs 🙂
There's a whole section of nothing but vegetarian recipes! And in the pasta section, there are a lot that either are vegetarian or could be made vegetarian quite easily.
Cool, thanks! I'm always on the lookout for new vegetarian choices.
Oh boy that gnocchi looks good...
I spent $208 this week most of which was cold meds $30, oil for the car $9 & veggies & meat for dog food $25.
Because we have the head cold that keeps giving and won't go away we lived on sandwiches. Steak gyros, fajitas, tacos, baked taters & soup out of the freezer. We helped my brother when he needed surgery a couple of weeks ago so he dropped off chili and case dip and that was 2 nights of meals. What a life saver!
I made hamburgers last night using a suggestion from, I think it was WilliamB., in the link to the panade recipe. Since I have to be gluten free, my additions were shredded potatoes and onions to my ground beef. I didn't tell my family what I was doing but they kept talking about how delicious, and moist, the burgers were. I usually make meatloaf from frozen bread ends so this will be my delicious alternative so I can have occasionally have meatloaf. I eat mostly meatless these days but occasionally I splurge. Thanks for this post because I never would have thought of it without reading the comments.
We came in at 110 for the week but are using a lot of freezer and pantry items and bought too many snack and lunch items to get us through Spring break.
Mon - creamy chicken enchiladas
Tue - chicken parm sandwiches and Caesar salad
Wed - breaded pork chops, mashed potatoes, roasted Brussels sprouts
Thur - Mom’s night off and our daughter is cooking
Fri - pizza
Sat - white chicken chili with cornbread muffins
Sun - roast beef, scalloped potatoes, and sautéed green beans