What I Spent, What We Ate | Earth Day Edition
It's Friday, so I'm writing about food today.
But in case you want to read an Earth Day post, here's one I wrote last year about Christians and environmentalism that earned me some unhappy, "I'm unsubscribing!" emails.
(Which is totally fine. I know I'm not going to be everyone's cup of tea, and I know that if I'm ever going to say anything worthwhile, it's impossible to avoid offending at least a few people. So, it's all good!)
Anyway. You can go read that post if you're not in the mood for reading about food today!
Oh, before we get to the topic at hand...if you want to make a step toward a non-disposable life this Earth Day, consider subscribing to The Mighty Fix, the subscription service that sends you an eco-friendly item or two each month.
Get your first Mighty Fix (two stainless steel containers) for just $5.
And/or, you might want to place an order with Grove Collaborative, a service that delivers eco-friendly cleaning supplies.
Get $30 of freebies when you spend $20 on your first order.
Offer ends Sunday night or when supplies run out.
Both of these offers are a really great deal, so they're a lovely way to make a green choice while also saving money.
(Though of course if you haven't got the money, please skip right over these offers. I never want to encourage you to overspend!)
Alrighty! On to the spending and menu....
What I Spent
I made a trip to Aldi ($53), not in small part because we needed marshmallows for roasting.
(Priorities, dear ones. Priorities.)
Here's a better picture of what I bought. I still had a lot of produce left from the prior week and from my produce box, so I didn't need to buy a whole lot of food.
I also got a gallon of milk for yogurt-making and a gallon for drinking/pouring on cereal.
By the way, earlier this month I got 5 dozen eggs from a local farm for $15, and I totally forgot to add that into my total. So I'm adding it this week, for a total of $68.
I imagine next week will be a lot more spendy, given how little I bought this week. Still, I think I'm going to come in nicely under budget for the month.
April Spending
Week 1: $248
Week 2: $108
Week 3: $68
What We Ate
Monday
I made a big batch of make-ahead pulled pork from The Make Ahead Cook. We ate half for dinner and I froze half for a future meal.
I thawed some homemade applesauce from my chest freezer, and we ate some pita chips from Aldi as well.
Tuesday
On Monday, I spatchcocked and salted a chicken, so on Tuesday, I roasted it and also mashed some potatoes. I feel like I served some kind of veggie with this, but heaven knows I can't remember what it was right now.
Tuesday wasn't THAT long ago, but apparently that tidbit of info has fallen out of my brain.
BY THE WAY: If you haven't tried spatch-cocking and salting a chicken, you really ought to rectify that. This method turns out such a juicy, flavorful chicken every single time.
And the chicken cooks in about 40 minutes, which is fabulous.
Here are all the details about how to do the spatchcocking and salting.
Wednesday
This was the day (mentioned yesterday) that I realllllly didn't want to cook dinner. I made curried chicken breasts with curried couscous, and stir-fried cauliflower.
Thursday
I'd planned to make chicken enchiladas, but my day didn't go quite as planned and we had pizza subs for dinner instead.
Friday
Since we had pizza subs last night, I'm obviously not going to make pizza tonight. I was thinking maybe some paninis would be delightful, though.
Maybe the sort that involve chipotle mayonnaise....mmmmm.
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How's the ol' grocery budget at your house this month? And what did you eat this past week?
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I have made two decisions this week. The first is that no meat is to bought until the freezers are way less full. The second is that there is so much waste that I am only cooking meals for two. No doubling up even if mum insists because I am tired of eating the same meals over and over.
So this week there was a plan that went out the window
Monday was lamb shanks.
Tuesday night was smae lamb shanks rehashed with Moroccan spices.
Wednesday night was steak sandwiches.
Thursday night was eat out to accommodate a whole host of needs.
Tonight we had the same lamb shanks.
Who would have thought that four shanks would go so far?
Happy Earth Day!
Definitely going to check out the pulled pork recipe - looks fab.
We are spending a lot on food, primarily because I'm doing terribly at stocking breakfast foods and packing lunches. Knowledge is power - I'm going to double-down on that aspect with this week's menu planning.
1) We picked up some good, cheap takeout from the lunch counter next door, because it was 90*F outside and I did not want to be roasting chicken and carrots at that temperature. I did, however, follow through with my plan to make spinach pesto and pasta, which became my lunches this week along with grapes and snow peas.
2) We grilled out, because it was again too hot for indoor cooking. Simple salad, parsley butter potatoes, packet-grilled carrots, and chicken legs. We also batch-cooked some BBQ bacon chicken thighs, while we were at it.
3) I had a work dinner (free takeout Thai curry!) and hubs had BBQ bacon chicken to eat.
4) I had a late day at the office. Hubs had more BBQ bacon chicken, and I made mine into a sandwich with cheese and mushrooms, with chips on the side.
5) Tonight is tuna noodle casserole with lots of veggies packed in it: onion, celery, grilled carrots, snow peas, mushrooms. I prepped it yesterday, and will just need to heat it up in the oven, maybe topped with some buttery breadcrumbs.
I get to Friday and I can barely remember. Thursday was Dr. Martin's Mix from The I Hate to Cook Book, served with asparagus, lemon bars for dessert. Wednesday was oriechiette pasta and sauce with homemade meatballs from the freezer, and I think salad. Tuesday was Pan-sauteed tilapia with yellow and green squash, Monday was chicken breasts cooked in mole sauce, served with rice and a veggie I can't remember...
Tonight I was going to fix grilled cheese sammies, but I'm not sure who all will be home, and Hubby and I might go to Happy Hour somewhere.
I've been eating leftovers for lunch all week and the fridge is fairly empty. hubby will pick up something to grill on Saturday, and I will most likely pick up pizza for Sunday. I think that for the coming week, we will eat out of the freezer so I can get it cleaned out!
I got that cookbook from my mom! I love the Macaroni and Cheese with Tuna. 🙂
Sounds delicious! I'll have to try it this week with TVP and brown rice. 🙂
My week to plan and cook.
Sunday - leftovers
Monday - pork green chili with corn muffins, broccoli, and salad
Tuesday - Chipotle burritos (they were donating half their proceed to the animal shelter)
Wednesday - sour cream meatballs with a quinoa/peas/onion dish and the olive bread I cleaned out of the freezer last week
Thursday - cornmeal pancakes, bacon, and FG's strawberry syrup (delicious!)
Friday - leftovers
Saturday - ??
The past few weeks I started menu planning & planning my grocery list based on that, so i'm really happy with the results thus far! Each of the past 2 weeks, i only spent $92 each week on groceries.
Here's what we ate this week:
Sunday - grilled polish sausage with macaroni salad & grilled asparagus
Monday - goulash with garlic toast
Tuesday - breaded & fried chicken, french fries, corn
Wednesday- eggs, bacon & toast
Thursday - chicken salads
My upstairs freezer is starting to get pretty empty....still working on our stand-up freezer downstairs.
Thanks for this weekly posting.....helping to keep me accountable & keeping more money in my pocket!
I almost didn't comment because we ate out twice this week. This is a judgement free zone though, right?
Monday-Lemon pepper chicken, sweet potatoes, and mac&cheese
Tues-.Subway-Eat fresh, lol. This is not too bad because my husband eats a foot long and I split a foot long between my two kids and myself so we paid around $11 for all to eat.We had drinks from home
Wed- Okay, here is when it got bad -Kentucky fried chicken
Thurs-Teriyaki chicken thighs, quinoa, and sweet potatoes
None of my meals really paired well together because I used what I had on hand. Luckily, my family doesn't care.We also had a lot of play dates and extracurricular things this week. Okay enough with the excuses, will try to improve next week.
I just realized we had chicken every day! It didn't seem like it though, oh well.
Hah, my first thought when I read your post today was "Ugh, Earth Day."
Then I read your post from last year. I totally fall into your "I'm so alone" bucket. I am frugal, care about our God given Earth and being a good steward, but I can't stand the agenda driven environmentalists. So, you will definitely get an eye roll out of me come Earth Day.
I can't always remember all our meals either. Let's see what I can come up with:
Monday we had leftover roast chicken, which I had cooked for Sunday night's meal. On Monday, I used the saved pan drippings to make gravy and added rice as a side. I think that's the night I cooked gold beans from our bean vines. They aren't green, so I can't call them green beans!
Tuesday, we had seven bean soup from the freezer, with cornmeal pancakes, which is just cornbread batter cooked pancake style in a greased skillet on the stovetop. They were leftover from Sunday.
Wednesday I had a meeting, so it was a can of organic tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches on sourdough bread.
Thursday I got leftover Easter ham out of the freezer and served it with fresh collard greens plus cut up turnip root; my husband loves turnip root. We had grape tomatoes as a side dish, finishing them up. No cornbread this time.
Tonight will probably be burgers. Hey I did it!
I just want to say thank you for the heads up on the Grove offer! Now my house smells like rosemary 😉
Awesome! Your order must have already arrived...that was speedy.
Happy Earth Day! I love your blog and I especially love the blog post you referenced at the beginning of this article about waste and consumption!
Thank you for the encouragement!
Monday- Hubby was out of town, and my girls had colds so I made homemade chicken noodle soup with homemade bone broth. This used up carrots and celery which needed to be used.
Tuesday- We visited my grandma that day, so there was no cooking done at my house.
Wednesday- Rotini pasta with Aldi-brand jarred mushroom tomato sauce, to which I added grass-fed local hamburger. We ate random fresh fruit alongside the pasta.
Thursday- leftovers from Wednesday
Friday- I'm not sure yet what I'm making tonight. I'm keen to have some pizza but that will mean I need to buy some ingredients, which I was trying to avoid. We also have cod fillets in the freezer (from Aldi) and I could saute some veggies and make brown rice to have on the side, if I decide not to go with pizza. My girls won't be too happy about the brown rice but oh well. :-/
Love this! So great for ideas
Monday- pasta with homemade ragu, green beans
Tuesday- roast chicken from discount aisle, English peas, mashed potatoes
Wednesday- spicy coconut thai stir fry
Thursday- your awesome homemade pizza. Of course
Friday- pancakes and your strawberry syrup. We went strawberry picking and made your syrup- such a hit!! You are my favorite and most practical food site!
We moved two months ago and I'm STILL trying to use up our freezer stash from the old house while we continue to dig ourselves out of boxes.
I read the old Earth Day post and your second clarifying post. I'm a Christian. And I don't see a single thing you wrote that could possibly be offensive to Christians. Or that makes it sound the environmentalism is more important than faith/Christian living. Good grief. Your strongest point was that our earth is also a gift from God and we need to be good stewards of it, just as we are good stewards of all blessings given to us.
I'm staying subscribed, thank you very much!
Super duper expensive week here...birthday girl turned five yesterday and so on Thursday I shopped for our family for the week along with a family birthday party we are hosting Sunday. I also placed a Vitacost order and stocked up on goodies for hubs lunches now that he's back to work full time. All together the two purchases were about $415 - about $100 for the party specifically. Hopefully that will get us through the month with just a produce trip next week. We usually average $800-1000 a month so I'm actually on target still.
We ate pretty well too:
-spaghetti with red sauce and turkey sausage, garlic bread and veggie sticks
-I made some tomato soup and we had grilled cheese too, and melon
-BLTand chicken salads on mixed greens, corn and peppers sauté and onion rings
-chicken sausage, LO Mac and cheese from the freezer, LO onion rings, veggie sticks, strawberries with whipped cream
-pizza and Caesar salad for birthday dinner. My folks joined us and we had ice cream for dessert.
-tonight will be turkey burgers, baked potato and coleslaw with assorted fruit
Happy birthday to your daughter!
Thank you! She is my Earth Day agenda:)
Monday- Hearty Amish Vegetable Soup with bread.
Tuesday- Aldi's cheese pizza with mushrooms and tomatoes.
Wednesday- Leftover soup.
Thursday- Quorn Chik'n Patty Sandwiches.
Friday- Salmon (on clearance, YAY!), sauteed mushrooms, (also on clearance), and fresh fruit salad (love summer fruit from Aldi!).
Today- I'll probably make soup for lunch and have leftovers with sandwiches for dinner.
I have a Capital One account we only use for food. (Thanks to you, and yes we love it!). So it was very easy to figure out what I've spent so far this year. 🙂
$407 per month! So that's exciting. There's still one more week, but should only be about another $50.
There are four of us. Technically we have three adults and one kid.
We don't spend much eating out ($40 so far this year, and that was 12 times! That's a lot more times than I thought it would be.) I don't buy very much meat, so that saves us a lot of money.
Kristen, an LED lightbulb went off while I was blathering on to Jan-Lex above. The regular Frugal Things is so effective.-- your gorgeous pictures and witty text are always a treat. Maybe the occasional Frugal recycling post would be welcome? For me that list might look like this:
1. Not wasting paper at school -- devised crafts from the scrap pile as much as possible and collected notices, calendars, etc, to use blank sides for coloring, etc.
2. Hyper-miled home from school (mostly downhill so possible to reach 39 - 40 mpg if I am careful and hit the green light at the bottom of the hill.
3. Took lunch in reusable containers, including reusable bags (the ones I didn't throw out by accident, that is ;). Yeah, actually REUSING the reusables -- who new? 😉
4. Turned a shallow wire basket leftover from a gift into a nest for the morning doves who kept building some very sad nests on the flat porch rafter. The eggs kept rolling down and splatting on the porch, so much so that the neighborhood cats would regularly skulk below, snapping their tails and licking their chops just waiting for the next free lunch. Husband lashed the basket onto the beam and every year we have several generations of doves and sparrows who make it to adulthood. (yeah, had to go back in time for this one)
5. Coming off a month or more of no heat, no air conditioning -- March/April in SoCal. Now have to monitor the temps when we get home to see where to set the thermostat so air won't kick into an empty house. So far, just turning it off during the day to see how hot it is exactly. Want to use as little as possible.
So far, not the best steward of the earth -- must drive car to work, restaurant takeout came with all plastic, not air drying, etc. -- but I do hope to get better. Like the 5 frugal posts, just thinking about what to write makes me do a better job. Well, just a thought for an occasional post. Thank you so much for your wonderful blog and for highlighting Earth Day! Cheers!
I read your Earth Day post last year and was so happy you provided a link so I read it again this year. I am a Christian and your post is right on. I am really surprised anyone was upset by it and I am encouraged to see more Christians taking seriously the care of God's creation. Thank you so much!
The spatchcocked chicken and gravy is on regular rotation at my house. I serve it similarly to a meal a friend told me about that she got while on vacation in Canada: with a simple salad and vinaigrette dressing, and thin, shoestring French fries (for the gravy, of course) and it's one of my kids favorites. So thank you for sharing it!!