What I Spent, What We Ate | In which I burn a pizza.
This post contains affiliate links.
What I Spent
I got a $25 Hungry Harvest, and I spent $131 at the grocery store.
(These are cinnamon crisps, which I made to give away to some friends for Christmas.)
December Spending
Week 1: $131
Week 2: $182
Week 3: $192
Week 4: $156
What We Ate
Saturday
It was our date night, and we ended up going out for sushi.
Sunday
Mr. FG and Zoe went to a concert, and I'd planned to bake a frozen pizza for them before they left.
But. I burned it. REALLY burned it.
So they picked up some sandwiches on the way.
And I don't remember what the rest of us ate!
Monday
The girls requested pigs in a blanket, which I've only ever made once before in my life. I had to google for directions, actually, even though they only require two ingredients.
Tuesday
Christmas Day! We had overnight cinnamon rolls with cream cheese frosting for breakfast, of course.
Lisey requested a double batch of frosting, which meant that ours look like this:
I'm not saying it was bad. But it was a lot of frosting!
For dinner, we veered from our usual and got Chinese carryout.
And that was followed by a post-dinner cookie decorating session.
Wednesday
I didn't eat one single piece of produce all day on Christmas, so I was feeling the need for some veggies.
Which is why on Wednesday night, we had a main-dish green salad topped with sauteed shrimp.
(This is the gingerbread recipe we use.)
Thursday
I made chipped beef on toast, with broccoli and grapefruit on the side (separate, because OBVIOUSLY).
Friday
I'm planning to try a new recipe for Korean pork tacos from Dinner Illustrated.
I'm thinking I might try your cinnamon rolls for New Years.
Monday we had our traditional Christmas Eve pizza. Tuesday was turkey with all the trimmings and enough planned leftovers for a second meal on Wednesday. Last night was cheese ravioli with beet salad. Tonight we're having orange chicken with carrots and turnip because I think we all could use some vegetables--without gravy, I swear!
I was so burned out on baking that instead of making cinnamon rolls for Christmas Eve breakfast (not Christmas Day, because my kids always eat all the candy in their stockings first thing in the morning and I don't feel I need to contribute to more sugar consumption after that), I just made the kids cinnamon toast. And they were still excited about it. 🙂
Monday: Pot roast, bread, and butter, and frozen green beans for a very fast dinner after a somewhat late church service.
Tuesday: Well. Yes. I partially re-created Laura Ingalls' Christmas dinner from the book "On the Shores of Silver Lake" because my son shot a jackrabbit a few days earlier and my Little House fan-brain remembered that that was the main dish for the Ingalls' Christmas meal. I mean, I HAD to do it, right? So we had a jackrabbit--brined, covered in bacon, and roasted--sourdough biscuits, bread and onion stuffing, mashed potatoes, cucumber pickles, and an apple pie, all things mentioned in the book. I skipped the gravy (the meat juices were too salty because of the brine and bacon) the cornbread, (I felt there was plenty of starches represented already), and the peaches (because I didn't have any), and I added some carrots because the Ingalls' were woefully short on vegetables. I also added ice cream to the apple pie, because, well, my pies are terrible and ice cream is not. The jackrabbit, oddly, reminded me of beaver meat. My kids loved it. My husband and I were ambivalent.
Wednesday: While I was putting away Christmas dinner leftovers, I realized I could combine the leftover jackrabbit, carrots, and mashed potatoes--plus some tomato juice and frozen peas--to make a shepherd's pie, so I did. I dubbed it Prairie Pie--because one does not herd a jackrabbit--and the boys ate that. My husband ate some of his leftover pork/tripe/chili stew, and I ate a salad with some leftover hamburgers.
Thursday: Happy birthday to me! I made tacos because they are easy and I love taco salad. I also made peanut butter hot fudge sauce for the rest of the ice cream, because I am burned out on baking and eating baked goods and did not want a cake.
Tonight: Maybe pork to give us a break from the beef. Or maybe just the leftover taco meat. Lazy will most likely win. 🙂
I can't remember everything we had this week. My family is of English heritage so our Christmas meals are traditional. Last Friday was our family Christmas so we had chicken, ham and salads. After that it becomes a blur of roasted meats etc in our Australian heat. Today I gladly carved the rest of the ham and gave it to my daughter along with a roast pork. Tonight was the last of the chicken with mushrooms. I cooked one small chicken and a small pork but two of us can't finish that quickly and my son who works as a chef for hire has been sent outback to work in the mines. I would love some other flavours.
We used to always have orange danish and cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning, per my mother's old tradition, but since my husband is a diabetic and the kids are gone, I stopped making them. My kids, however, make them at their homes. I kind of miss them, but then, Christmas is a day with sweets in it already, so I get enough sugar as it is.
Christmas Eve saw us eating out at an Asian fusion restaurant, since we went to the service at 8 p.m. and we attend church in a different town from where we live.
Christmas Day was a compilation of things brought by my kids and that I prepared. We had a very nice ham, cranberry sauce, sauteed and seasoned okra, sweet potato praline casserole, and deviled eggs. We've been eating mostly leftovers, especially the ham, since. However, I did make homemade chicken tenders with cut up fresh vegetables, fruit and cottage cheese last night, as a welcome change.
Next week we will be doing the traditional New Year's meal of black-eyed peas, greens, corn bread and pork, which for us is always hog jowl. The rest of the menu isn't planned yet, but that day is a given.
I spent about $90 last week, but this week I'm buying some meat from a farm, so my bill will be higher.
Happy New Year, y'all!
I like the idea of ordering out for Christmas Day - I think I spent far too much time in the kitchen!!
Here is what we ate:
M – Quiche for breakfast, Tamale Luncheon, Snackatizers* for dinner - cards and games!
T – Brunch was French Toast Casserole with bacon and sausages. Early Dinner of Spiral Ham, Arkansas Green Beans, Steakhouse Mac and Cheese, rolls, Bourbon Bundt Birthday Cake with ice cream (the food was SO GOOD, just a lot of work)
W – Burgers, Jalapeno Poppers, Chips
Th – Crockpot Cowboy Beans, cornbread
F – Chicken Strips, Loaded Mashed Potatoes, sauteed brussels sprouts with bacon
S – YOYO
S – Farfalle pasta with Pesto Chicken, eggplant and zucchini skillet
I am looking forward to making dinners simpler in 2019 - we will see how it goes.
Sunday-pizza with roasted squash and Brussels Sprouts dish and salad
Monday-leftovers
Tuesday-turkey with trimmings, ham, spinach salad with pomegranate and pear
Wednesday-ham and mango quesadillas with leftovers
Thursday-turkey and black bean chili with cheesy biscuits
Friday-more leftovers!
I’ve never shared before but read every week. So, here we go:
Sa-literally no ideas what we eat, but evidently we survived
Su-meatloaf sandwiches on biscuits with corn, mashed potatoes and mushroom gravy
M-chicken fajitas with beans
T- (Christmas breakfast) cinnamon rolls and pigs in a blanket both made with your Easter bear bread recipe(thank you!), croissants, eggs, bacon, and grapes because we’re healthy ;). Christmas dinner was a party meat tray and more fruit. Our family goes to the movies on Christmas night every year and snacks on breakfast all day so this was more than enough
W-baked club sandwiches, roasted potatoes and pineapple
Th-chicken gnocchi soup with herbs de Provence and rolls
F-we go out to eat every Friday as a family
On that note, do you include your dining out in the food budget each week or is it a different category? Thanks for your blog. I read every post 🙂
Monday - we hosted Christmas Eve at my house and had a baked potato bar and a ham
Tuesday - dinner at my in laws - full turkey dinner
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday are all leftovers
I think I went $30 over my December budget since we hosted Christmas Eve and had guests for 4 days, but I'm pleased.
Sunday- homemade chicken fingers with homemade macaroni and cheese
Tuesday- Christmas Eve appetizers at my sister-in-law's house- we brought homemade pizza breads
Wednesday- Christmas dinner at my in-laws- we brought homemade mashed potatoes
Wednesday and Thursday- tacos
Friday- stuffed pork chops and leftover mashed potatoes
Spent about $60 this week
We also did Chinese take out this year. It was our first time doing it for Christmas, but I think it’s goimg to be a yearly thing. It was very relaxing. That’s what I was going for this year.
Saturday - I pulled some bean and ham soup out of the freezer and made a small batch of 6 corn muffins. That night the kittens pulled the leftover cornbread off the stove, through the kitchen and dining room and had a picnic in the living room after chewing through the storage bag. Who knew cats like cornbread???
Sunday - I ate some cold chicken fingers and half an apple because sometimes I'm just fancy like that.
Monday - Tacos
Christmas - We ate around lunchtime and had pulled pork, potatoes au gratin, stuffing, rolls, and cheesecake. I didn't bother to bring the token vegetable this time and no one else did either. Christmas is for carbs, I guess. I just grazed on cheese and grapes for dinner. Oh and Christmas candy because . . . obviously.
Wednesday - Creamed beef on toast and broccoli.
Thursday - Christmas leftovers.
Friday - picked up a sub sandwich on the way home from work. Probably the biggest serving of veggies I have had all week. That's pretty bad.
On Christmas eve we had lobster rolls and Caesar salad.
Christmas day we had two turkey dinners, at both parents homes...
Wednesday I worked, so they were on are their own.
Thursday we had prime rib with garlic mashed potatoes, carrots, asparagus, corn and red wine sauce ( such a treat)
Friday we had turkey leftovers ( made into a casserole with the potatoes on the bottom, turkey, gravy and veggies mixed together and topped with stuffing).
Tonight, it's going to be leftovers of the beef, and which will then be turned into beef barley soup...
Ooh, lobster rolls sound pretty fabulous for Christmas Eve!