What I Spent, What We Ate | early Saturday is where it's at!
What I Spent
You guys, I went shopping at Aldi early on a Saturday morning, and my goodness, it was fantastic.
The parking lot was so not full of cars!
The store was so not full of people!
It was...relaxing.
As relaxing as grocery shopping can be.
I spent $110 at Aldi and $47 elsewhere.
And of course, I had my $25 Hungry Harvest.
(Get $5 off your first Hungry Harvest by using my referral link.)
So I'm at $182 for this week.
December Spending
Week 1: $131
Week 2: $182
What We Ate
Saturday
Sonia and Mr. FG went out for dinner and Zoe and I ate the meatballs from the freezer.
Sunday
We made fish tacos, using some mahi-mahi from the freezer.
Monday
I made cast-iron fried chicken, buttermilk biscuits, and we ate some raw fruits and veggies on the side.
Tuesday
I had some ravioli in the freezer (not even part of my challenge!), so we had shrimp and ravioli with pink sauce.
I also cooked some spaghetti squash and cut up some oranges.
Wednesday
I made a pot of tortellini soup and a pan of muffin-tin popovers.
Thursday
I made BBQ chicken pizzas to use up the mozzarella from my freezer challenge.
Friday
I think I'm going to make a pot of jambalaya to use Andouille sausage and shrimp from my freezer. Plus I have a pepper and some celery that need to be used.
We have had main meals in the middle of the day. I have failed to eat my way through an entire cooked chicken from Costco. We have had soup and salad a lot. In the evening it has been fruits, veg and cheese.
It has been so hot and humid here. Nobody seems to want to cook hot food.
Mostly I feel like I've been baking non-stop--hello, holiday season and month of December with ALL the birthdays!--but there's been some actual food in there too. To wit:
Monday: Pork, rice, steamed cauliflower, green peas
Tuesday: Chicken in tomato sauce, hot breakfast sausage patties, leftover rice and mashed potatoes, roasted sweet potato/bell pepper/onion, leftover pureed squash
Wednesday: Bacon and eggs, leftover baked beans and hot dogs, bread and butter, green salad, radishes
Thursday: Sourdough pizza--one cheese, one onion and pepperoni--and another salad
Tonight: All I have actually planned for today is to make yet more cookies--mass amounts have been baked for the gift baskets my sons are making at school for senior citizens--but as for an actual dinner . . . I have a bunch of stock thawed that I've been meaning to make into soup for like three days now, so I think we'll have vegetable soup, pizza grilled cheese (grilled cheese sandwiches made with mozzarella and a layer of pizza sauce and pepperoni slices for those that like that) and probably another salad. I have to use up the lettuce now before it goes bad.
Yeah, I just can't seem to get my mojo going - mainly ate party leftovers this week from a do last weekend, frozen meals, ate cereal for lunch a couple of times & more than my usual amount of chocolate - it's been chocolate galore at home & work...although I did still eat my 2 fruits a day which is probably just as well but haven't actually spent much on food this week so...atrocious diet but frugal!
Made lots of chicken in the crockpot so two meals of chicken, mashed sweet potatoes and green beans. The rest of the chicken was supposed to be for soup but our dogs had other ideas... so the soup I made was hearty hotdog soup instead of hearty chicken soup. I had a mason jar of dried soup mix I wanted to use up so I made that with broth from the crockpot chicken and then cut up a pack of hotdogs (freezer) to put in it. It was surprisingly good and we had that as dinner with salad then forseveral lunches. Also on the menu was turkey burgers and veggie burgers (both from deep in the freezer) with apple sauce and raw veggies and tortellini (freezer) with red sauce green beans and salad. Not sure what’s on the menu for tonight...
Saturday we met my daughter's future in-laws for lunch in honor of my daughter's birthday.
Sunday, I have no idea.
Monday I made my GF version of Chicago style pizza, using GF pasta instead of pizza crust.
Tuesday was leftovers from Monday.
Wednesday was takeout from our favorite Italian place. My daughter and her fiance came over for her actual birthday.
Thursday was shredded BBQ turkey, using up some of the Thanksgiving time turkey in the freezer.
Tonight will be leftover BBQ turkey, hopefully with fresh rolls.
Assorted fruits and vegetables were consumed as well.
We did pretty well eating at home this week and using up our freezer stockpile and hungry harvest box.
Mon: shrimp and chicken stir fry with zucchini and asparagus from HH
Tues: leftovers
Wed: bratwurst with corn, potatoes and beets from HH
Thurs: chicken with roasted spaghetti squash and kale from HH
Fri: ravioli is on the menu but I have chicken thighs and bacon to use in the fridge, so probably changing plans
I stayed at about $95 last week, which was not bad. Part of that expense was a farm order for pastured free-of-everything chickens, which I cut up and we consumed much of:
We had fried chicken thighs with cauliflower rice and cassava flour gravy, plus green beans.
Bacon, fried squash and onions, and sweet potato.
Roasted wings with parsnip fries and fresh pineapple.
Chicken vegetable soup that I made using the chicken backs and various vegetables that needed to be used up.
Chicken tenders from breast meat, and chopped salad
Something else I have forgotten, but it wasn't chicken. At this point, we were about to sprout our own feathers, so that's enough chicken for a while. Getting my husband to eat that much chicken was a real surprise. Normally I don't serve it that much, but the chickens took all of my meat budget for the week, and we are trying not to overload the freezer right now. If I had not already agreed to purchase them, I wouldn't have at this point, as I need to clean out the freezer and defrost it.
I love when the grocery store is empty and quiet too!
And... what we ate:
Monday - Leftover clean up night with mack and cheese, potatoe pancakes (latkes), ground meat, zucchini and peas.
Tuesday - Venison steak with rice, broccoli and cauliflower
Wednesday - Baked chiken hindquarters with rice and greek salad
Thursday - we had a potluck at church for people who volunteered to work with the children. It was both yummy and fun! I love tasting other people's cooking.
Friday - Tonight we will probably be eating leftover chicken from wednesday with some rice and steamed veggies.
Sunday: Barbacoa style crockpot beef + rice/beans
Monday: Ground turkey chili with fixins/ frito pie
Tues: Philly cheesesteak style sandwiches/bowls with peppers, onions, mushrooms
Weds: lazy day so we just picked at whatever was leftover.
Thurs: some tuna steaks from the freezer + wild rice mix + broccoli
and then we just kind of pick at whatever fruits and veggies we have laying around to go with dinner. we usually will eat our mains, and then grab some fruits/veggies to pick at as we play a card game at the table after we clear plates.
AND I only spent like $50 bucks on groceries for this week, because we already had a bunch of stuff in the freezer, veggies carried over from the week prior and staples in the pantry. It was AWESOME!
Yum! Your meals looked delicious this week!
Sunday: Pulled pork, baked beans & mashed potatoes
Monday: Cowboy rice (beef/rice), corn, mac & cheese
Tuesday: Leftovers
Wednesday: Chili and fries
Thursday: Chickfila
Friday: Tacos
Well, this will be different than my normal menu because my family is eating vegan meals as a trial for health reasons. For now..no meat, cheese, or eggs.
Monday- "chicken" alfredo with a delicious home concocted cashew sauce that I think any non-vegan would love. Also, baked apples and sautéed kale
Tuesday- "pulled pork" sandwiches using canned green jack fruit, with baked beans and cabbage slaw. Also, great for meat eaters.
Wednesday-chili
Thursday- chili "meatless" dogs with the leftover chili.
Friday- not sure...my kids will be out of town so I will have to some up with something.
For those that have never tried meatless meals. It's not as bad as I thought. Just takes a little more planning.
I'm confused. Today is Friday right?
Hmm, are you referring to my post title? I went grocery shopping early Saturday last week. 🙂
Giiiirl, early Saturday morning shopping is where it's at! Hubs and I wake up every Saturday at 7, grab breakfast, and swing by the grocery store. We're done with everything by 8:30 and there's so much less hassle. 🙂
I kept the meals easy (read:unhealthy) this week. I know Christmas craziness will be here soon, so I've been storing extra mental energy. 😉
This week we made brisket chili with tater tots. Tonight I'm also making calzones. I'm using storebought pizza dough (sshh, don't tell hubs!) and a homemade filling.
This week was a rotation of kale salads with red pepper, banana peppers and homemade balsamic dressing, pesto chicken with squash and butter parmesan rice, and soup.
I make a couple small batches of a meal on Sunday or Monday and rotate them between lunches and dinners throughout the week. I will through in some other things such as grilled cheese and soup, frozen leftover lasagna, frozen leftover chili etc to break up the week as well.
That about sums up what I ate. Breakfast is hash browns and 2 eggs every morning. It's what I love and I never seem to get tired of it.
Let's see what I can remember- most meals had a veggie and./or fruit of some kind
Monday- meatloaf and baked potatoes. We had my father in law over for dinner and I needed a familiar favorite.
Tuesday- I am sure it was something tasty...
Wednesday- Breakfast - Waffles and sausage
Thursday- BBQ pulled pork sandwiches- needed a crockpot meal
Friday- teriyaki chicken over rice
"I am sure it was something tasty..."
That cracked me up!
WHY is it so hard to remember what we made for dinner? I struggle too!
I always do my main grocery shopping trip early Saturday morning...I usually leave my house by 7:15. Not only is the store deliciously empty, but often the store has marked down meats and such and who doesn't want some cheap meat for their freezer!
I was just thinking as I opened your blog that I didn't see the cookie post yet! How funny it was there when the page loaded!
Your title bugs me. It should not be "where its AT". You don't end a sentence in a preposition. As a homeschooling mom, I thought you would be aware of this.
Ah, I wouldn't do it in formal writing.
But, "That's where it's at!" is just kind of a colloquial phrase, and this is blogging, which is arguably a rather informal platform. I do all kinds of things in blogging that I wouldn't do in formal writing, such as using sentence fragments, starting sentences with, "and", and using made-up numbers like eleventy. 😉
Interestingly, I've seen several sources in the past few years that say that ending sentences with prepositions is an acceptable thing, but that it's just a little less formal. Phew.
https://www.grammarly.com/blog/youve-been-lied-to-heres-why-you-absolutely-can-end-a-sentence-with-a-preposition/
https://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2011/11/28/grammar-myths-prepositions/
Kristen, that was a very gracious response 🙂