What I Spent, What We Ate | I have $75 left for April.
First, a little clarification.
What I meant is that I've already been through the process, so I know it can work.
But I realized that it could sound like I was cockily saying, "Well, I'm an expert homeschooler, so I knew my kids would be geniuses."
I'm not an expert; I just have the ability to trust homeschooling since I've already been through it myself! And I know that first-generation homeschoolers often struggle more with worry than I do.
Ok. On to food.
What I Spent
I spent $156 at the grocery store and $25 on my Hungry Harvest box.
April Spending
Week 1: $169
Week 2: $176
Week 3: $181
Sheesh. It's been an expensive month...I'd better be a little more careful this week.
What We Ate
Saturday
I was at book club and Mr. FG and the girls got Panera to go.
Sunday
I made pulled chicken sandwiches and we had chips and asparagus on the side.
Monday
I tried a recipe from Dinner Illustrated for paella. Mr. FG and I both liked it, but the girls were less enthused.
So I'm not sure I will make it again, especially because it called for cured chorizo which was stupid expensive at the grocery store.
Tuesday
I made beef and rice noodle bowls, from Dinner Illustrated. I figured these covered our veggie requirements, so we had some oranges on the side.
Wednesday
We had falafel pitas. I've never made falafel before, but the recipe in Dinner Illustrated piqued my interest. It was really easy!
Sadly, I have no photos of this meal because we ate in a hurry before leaving for the evening.
Thursday
I made orange chipotle chicken tacos, from Dinner Illustrated.
I had some tomatoes to use up, so we had pico de gallo and tortilla chips too.
Friday
I'm planning to make Korean sizzling lettuce wraps.
Which, to break with the theme, are not from Dinner Illustrated!
(Incidentally, I read that this cookbook is really not fun to use on Kindle, so if you buy it, go with the physical copy.)
Crazy week, seems getting crazier by the moment!
Saturday- Take out at moms/dads -Portuguese,
Sunday- palm Sunday, pasta at mom, sausage/meatballs/pork chops in sauce, salad, and anti pasta, I made a cake.
Monday- I had the dentist-dd has soccer practice - made homemade Belgium waffles, pork roll/bacon, sliced apple.
Tuesday- quick since we had a meeting- hot dogs, beans, tarter tots.
Wednesday- Leftover at mom/dads (pasta/salad)
Thursday- Chicken cutlet, corn, Pasta in oil/garlic
Friday- (good Friday) Pierogi's at moms/dads
Waffles are such a good busy night meal, aren't they?
Hello! Long time reader and first time commenter! Many times when I’ve read your meal plan recaps, I’ve wanted to mention that Cooks Illustrated (and many other cooking magazines) are available electronically & for free through our local library (we live in St Louis). Our library uses the RBDigital app to checkout & read the magazines and there’s also a website. I’ve been introduced to some fun cooking magazines & new recipes and since I know you subscribe to cooking magazines, maybe your library has the same option? Free new recipes from reliable sources? Yes please 🙂
Ahh, I'll have to see if ours does! I know they've had the physical copies of Cook's Illustrated sometimes in the past, but I don't think they currently do.
I’m so curious! You’ll have to let me know.
Kind of an odd week, with quite a lot of food other than mine, which is extremely unusual.
Monday: American Legion dinner of three kinds of enchiladas, pinto beans, tortillas, chips and salsa, and various desserts. Not cooking OR cleaning up is an amazing treat for me.
Tuesday: Enchiladas, spanish rice, pinto beans sent over by our neighbor (who lives alone, but apparently still cooks as if her five children are still at home :-), cube steaks simmered in red chili sauce, and salad from MY LETTUCE YAY!
Wednesday: Leftover cube steak made into tacos, more of the neighbor's pinto beans, raw vegetables with ranch dip leftover from my contribution to the preschool's Easter party
Thursday: Pork chunks fried in bacon grease with paprika, garlic powder, salt, and pepper; rice; and frozen green beans. Not that anyone was hungry after eating platefuls of junk at the other boys' Easter party . . .
Tonight: Something with tuna again. Last Lenten Friday.
I'm supposed to grocery shop today and a huge storm is rolling through, so I'm not sure how that is going to work out. There's a tornado warning just west of where I'm working. I went way over budget last week, thanks to doing a little holiday and stocking up shopping, but to be honest, I also just bought too much expensive stuff that we didn't really have to get. We'll use it, but it wasn't needed.
I forgot to include my list of what we ate again, but maybe I can think of all of it.
Last night was the easy button, tuna salad, fruit, crackers for the husband and plantain chips for me.
I used my grill pan to quick-cook a grass-fed London Broil, after marinating it all day then sliced it super thin. It worked -- it was tender. We had green beans and cauliflower au gratin with it.
One day we had pork chops and the same green beans. I had cooked two pounds of them in my pressure cooker. We had a second vegetable that I can't remember.
We had homemade chicken-vegetable soup one night, with bone broth from the freezer.
We had salad and shrimp one night.
I made ground pork into sausage patties and we had spinach plus sweet potato-apple "casserole" on the side.
Today is Good Friday, and while I normally fast part of the day, I always cook an evening meal. Considering the weather and the shopping I need to do, tonight may well be that frozen pizza in my freezer.
I hope everyone has a blessed Easter!
Monday— chicken salad and fruit
Tuesday— salmon garlic mashed potatoes garlic bread green beans
Wed—cannot remember
Thursday— tuna salad sandwiches Celery with almond butter grapes
Busy busy week. Kept it simple!
That's very smart. Did you feed the people? Ok! Good job. It doesn't need to be fancy.
Let's see if I can rememeber..
-Frozen pizza with carrots and celery sticks (this is our backup dinner for nights when dinner just doesn't happen)
-Chicken taco bowls and crockpot black bean soup with all sorts of toppings (the soup is from budgetbytes.com and we love it)
-Chickpea and cauliflower curry over rice
-Matzo brei, scrambled eggs, and fruit
-Red beans and rice
My husband and son are going to a baseball game tonight, so I'm on my own for dinner!
I love budgetbytes.com! So many of our go to recipes are from that site 🙂
A strange week with lots of scrounging and picking up something quick. There was:
- Smorgesborg (fancy word for eat leftover or scrounge); I think I did this twice :-<
- Buying (really tasty) burritos as a new place that was next to where I needed to be.
- Sushi out with my parents, a last minute thing.
- Breakfast for dinner (french toast using challah from the newest CI, eggs, bacon)[1].
[1] I duly note the irony of having bacon for dinner on Good Friday during Passover.
Thanks for all of the inspiration!
Saturday: tacos with roasted cauliflower, refried beans and leftover hanger steak, sautéed zucchini
Sunday: eggplant parm, sautéed zucchini, salad
Monday: mac & cheese, salad
Tuesday: jota (Slovenian sauerkraut, potato & bean stew)
Wednesday: burgers & grilled broccoli
Thursday: bratwurst, farro & chickpeas, sautéed zucchini, salad
Tonight: leftovers
(Clearly, zucchini was on sale this week.)
Scrounging week around here! The High school musical is OVER so that is a little less running around going on...
Sunday- Husband tossed chicken and salsa in the crock pot while I was at a volleyball tournament with the girl (and older son was trying to finish final musical performance).. Made Rice, black beans and queso while husband was photographing lightening in the backyard and the tornado watch alarms were going off!
Monday- super fast meal of kielbasa links, fruit and oven fries after the 2 finished a track meet.
Tuesday- used a container of frozen meat sauce and some jarred sauce to layer with frozen cheese raviolis... quicki lasagna served with fruit and garlic toast...
Wednesday - went out for supper after track meet with great grandpa...he paid for 2 kids!
Thursday- ended up ordering pizza to feed everyone since we had to clean up the basement chimney soot explosion of 2019 (it is as bad as one might imagine)
Friday- Tikki Masala, rice, Naan bread and cantaloupe
A chimney soot explosion sounds TERRIBLE!
Food of the week...
Monday - Roast chicken with rice and salad
Tuesday - Rice and Turkey with Pesto and some sort of steamed veggies
Wednesday - Deer steak with rice and broccoli and carrots
Thursday - Deer steak, millet, peas and corn with salad
Friday - We used a gift certificate and at out! So nice not to have cooked or had to clean up from dinner.
My parents were in town, so they cooked for us while we were at work. They are awesome!
Monday - we had chicken tenders & salad
Tuesday - steak salad
Wednesday - lasagna
Thursday - chicken enchiladas
Friday - We ordered Persian takeout, as it was a crazy day
Saturday - we had leftovers
Sunday - my husband is grilling kebabs today
I think they should probably visit you on the regular. 😉