What I Spent, What We Ate | I'm $19 over for the month
What I Spent
I spent $171 at the grocery store, plus $25 on my Hungry Harvest.
So I'm at $196, which is on the high side again. Partly this is because I keep having to buy all my proteins for the week since I don't have a stash in my freezer!
But I'm slowly adding some staples in there...for instance, this week I bought a big pack of chicken breasts and froze what I didn't use this week.
January Grocery Spending
Week 1: $115
Week 2: $92
Week 3: $216
Week 4: $196
That adds up to $619 which is just $19 over my goal of $150 a week.
So, I'm good!
What We Ate
Saturday
Date night for Mr. FG and me! We went to Five Guys, which works very nicely for our $20 budget.
Sonia and Zoe ate mac n cheese, and Lisey was at work.
Sunday
Mr. FG and Sonia made pasta alfredo with chicken (for Zoe) and shrimp (for the rest of us).
We had a fruit salad with the pasta.
Monday
I tried a recipe from Cook's Country for pork meatball Bahn Mi sandwiches.
Verdict: tasty, but difficult to eat because the nature of meatballs is that they make a sandwich tall and gappy, which makes other parts fall out during eating.
So next time I will try a bahn mi sandwich that calls for sliced, roasted pork tenderloin, and that should be better.
The meatballs and marinated veggies made for a good lunch the next day, though.
So there's that.
Tuesday
This is Zoe's dance night, so I needed something to make ahead. Pulled chicken sandwiches it was!
I salt and pepper chicken breasts, cook them in a cast iron pan, let them cool, shred them, and heat them up with BBQ sauce.
EXTREMELY EASY.
I also cooked some broccoli from Hungry Harvest..
Wednesday
I tried a new recipe from Dinner Illustrated; some vegetarian corn quesadillas.
Verdict: A yummy filling, but baking the quesadillas made the cheese dry out too much. They were better when I tried cooking one on the stovetop (my usual method).
Thursday
I tried another new recipe from Dinner Illustrated!
This one was a chicken and sweet potato curry, which used the Thai red curry paste I've been loving recently.
Verdict: Not quite as tasty as the Thai chicken soup, which is weird, because a lot of the ingredients were similar! I will definitely go heavier on the salt if I make this again.
Funny coincidence: I posted this photo on my Instagram stories last night, and a reader messaged me to say she was making the exact same thing last night. What were the odds?
Friday
I have kind of a packed day today, so I think we will get some carryout pizza, which we haven't done in quite a long time.
If you slice the meatballs in half, they work better on the bread.
Or just make the meatballs patty shaped when cooking them.
I was coming to here to offer just these two suggestions! Plus a third: don't make sandwiches. Have them as meatballs, or with rice, or as you did for lunch the next day.
sunday- Dh, ds had plan, so I had a dinner date with DD, we went to houlihan's (her favorite!)
Monday- tried a new recipe from delish " one pot creamy Mushroom chicken pasta". Nice taste to it, it made way too much. might make it again, wasn't crazy about the thyme in it.
Tuesday- DD soccer practice so Hot dogs, Tater tots.
Wednesday- Chicken Cutlet, butter noodles, and mixed veggies.
Thursday- Shrimp scampi, Brussels sprouts for me, DS had pasta.
Friday- Ds has soccer practice, so its usually breakfast for dinner, also have 2 cakes to bake tonight, as we are having my DS 13th family party tomorrow...(real date is next week) .. and he requested white cake and chocolate icing.
Does anyone ever get dinner idea from what others post?
I do! Especially if I'm in a funk and can't remember what foods are out there.
We usually make banh mi rice bowls instead of sandwiches. Much easier to eat, but not messy.
Sunday- Pork roast for lunch, pizza for dinner
Monday- We were at a hotel/water park, so we did pizza rolls and steamable veggies in the microwave with blueberries and Cheetos (vacation!)
Tuesday- Got home from the trip around 6, had a sick kid, husband had to go to a meeting... We picked up a hot and ready pizza. So much pizza this week.
Wednesday- Chicken noodle soup and strawberries
Thursday- Sloppy joes, roasted cauliflower, and salad
Friday- Trying a new recipe: Cheeseburger pie. I think we'll have green beans with it. Maybe salad, too. We'll see.
Cheetos are totally a vacation food for us. How can they taste so good?
I definitely get ideas here for meals. I sit down to make a menu and go completely blank, so this helps a lot.
Monday - homemade chicken tenders, AIP-diet compliant carrot halwa, celery sticks
Tuesday - Sliced flank steak and cassava-flour gravy over rice (I can have a little rice), with green beans and maple-balsamic roasted beets
Wednesday - Our new stand-by, tuna salad with veggies added, with fresh pineapple and cottage cheese. My husband loves this meal.
Thursday - Oven baked local pork chops, green beans, and the last of the halwa and beets.
Tonight -- all depends on what I find on sale, but it will have to be quick to cook, as I won't get home until about seven tonight.
I was not at my best in the kitchen this week and had some weird outcomes, but everyone ate everything anyway, so that's a win.
Monday: Pork chunks, lazy macaroni and cheese that totally clumped but I sort of redeemed, leftover pureed squash, raw grape tomatoes
Tuesday: Ground beef tacos, over-salted pinto beans, Mexican slaw
Wednesday: Sirloin steaks, boiled potatoes, sauteed mushrooms and onions, steamed carrots
Thursday: Meatloaf, baked potatoes, sauteed cabbage and onions, fried okra in which all the coating fell off but it was tasty anyway
Tonight: My husband and eldest son are spending the next couple of days in a town with a motel but no restaurant (like, no restaurant within sixty miles) so I had to pack all their food and make sure it was re-heatable in a microwave. They're having leftover taco meat with tortillas and cheese tonight. The remaining three children and I will most likely have breakfast sausage links, because they're fast and easy and the children, at least, love them. Leftover potatoes and frozen peas will finish out their meal. I don't like breakfast sausage. I'll probably have some leftover steak and vegetables.
Ugh, I seems like I get on a roll with cooking flops sometimes. I'm sure next week will be better
Wow, that's so weird to have a motel with no restaurant!
Not so weird here on the contemporary frontier. 🙂 I shouldn't have said NO restaurant--there's a Mexican restaurant there, but it's not open at night and my husband and son will be in hunter education class all day, so they won't be able to go there for lunch. The motel has refrigerators and microwaves in the rooms, and a grill outside. The owner warns people making reservations that there's no food at night so you have to bring your own. This village of 150 people is in the middle of NOWHERE--probably at least sixty miles to the nearest grocery store and I can't imagine they get that many visitors, so I'm sure it wouldn't be cost-effective for the motel owners to try to run a restaurant, too.
On this topic, if you can find a book entitled "Miles from Nowhere: Tales from America's Contemporary Frontier," by Dayton Duncan, you can read all about many, many places just like this in America. It's fascinating.
Maybe the unexpected thing is that they have a motel, not that they don't have a restaurant.
Is there a bodega that sells sandwiches, or something similar?
I gather there's some kind of mini-mart gas station, independently owned and again, so far from supplies that I doubt they have much fresh food of any sort.
Sunday and Monday- pitas with Mediterranean spiced ground beef, homemade hummus, artichokes, kalamata olives, lettuce, and sundried tomatoes
Tuesday and Wednesday- grilled Italian sausage on homemade rolls with a side salad of spinach, craisins, walnuts, and homemade dressing
Thursday- aunt brought dinner of roast beef, carrots, potatoes, and rolls
Friday- will have leftover roast beef from yesterday
I checked out Dinner Illustrated from the library after your post about the Thai Chicken Soup. We had that soup for dinner Monday, and I loved it so much I had it for lunch Tuesday, and dinner Wednesday. I did add a little salt to my bowl. I tend to like things on the saltier side, though. Hubby thought it was fine without adding any extra salt. I've been looking at the curry recipe you mentioned too, since it has the Thai red curry sauce (that stuff is seriously addictive!), so I'm glad to know that it needs extra salt.
Have you tried any of the other recipes in the cookbook? I'm probably making the African sweet potato one (I can't remember the exact name) this weekend.
Thanks for recommending the cookbook. I've been in a major cooking rut, so it was nice to find a good cookbook to add a few new things into the rotation. I'm definitely going to be renewing it from the library. And probably asking for it for my birthday, assuming I can wait that long.
I just made the Thai Chicken Soup for the third time. It's definitely
a keeper!
We we're traveling over the weekend, so we had all our meals on the road Saturday and Sunday.
Monday - chickpea curry over rice
Tuesday - chicken tenders, mashed potatoes, and canned peaches
Wednesday - french bread pizzas and soup
Thursday - pork loin, tater tots and green beans
Friday - bratwurst and roasted red pepper pasta
Saturday: homemade hamburgers (veggie ones for me)
Sunday: chili with cornbread (from soaked beans, slow cooked)
Monday: oven roasted root veggies, sweet potato and bean/meat gravy
Tuesday: tortellini and green beans
Wednesday: coconut lentil stew on brown rice
Thursday: egg, feta, and red pepper frittata, chicken thighs and roasted potatoes
We are a part vegetarian family, so we cook either meat on the side or two versions of the same meal.
Monday - Saw one of those videos on FB where they show a recipe being cooked and was excited that I actually already had all the ingredients! So we had Italian Sausage, Potatoes, and Carrots that were cooked in the oven with a nice gravy.
Tuesday - My husband had chicken stir fry and I had leftovers from Monday
Wednesday - HOMEMADE PIZZA - compliments of thefrugalgirl! I have literally never made dough or anything using yeast. I actually found myself wondering what container the yeast would even come in but I found 3 packets of it for $0.99 so figured it was worth trying. I used the recipe from this site and was THRILLED when the dough actually doubled, like it was supposed to. One question I have, though, is is it supposed to be SO sticky? I lost quite a bit of dough between what was stuck to the bowl, then my hands, then the counter. I don't have a mixer though so maybe that has something to do with it? Anyway, I froze the other half of the dough for later. I was really pleased with how it turned out and proud of myself for doing something I don't think my mom ever has (and she is an excellent cook)!
Thursday - I have class after work so I pulled chili out of the freezer for my husband and went to Panera bread with a $2 off coupon that I got and a gift card that I got discounted from raise.com.
Friday - Earlier in the week I bought a rotisserie chicken that was on manager's special for $2.99. I pulled all the meat off the bone and froze it. Tonight I will use some for pesto pasta (pesta?) with veggies.
Everyone have a nice weekend!
YAY!!! I'm so glad your pizza was good.
The dough should not be super sticky...did you use the King Arthur bread flour, or another flour? It should be soft, but not unmanageably sticky.
I am listing here what we plan to eat this coming week. It's been a lonnggg month as we got paid early (due to the holidays). I have no money left until Friday's pay day but we have enough food for these meals. Also, I've been diligently tracking my spending this month and it appears that I spend less on groceries for my husband and me than I spend on food for our three pets (all of whom have some medical issue that requires high quality food)! Crazy.
Sunday (tonight) we will have shepherd's pie made from lentils, with steamed green beans
Monday: "fish" (Gardien nuggets), chips, and veggies
Tuesday: veggie stir fry with tofu and rice (rice frozen from a meal we had last week); home-made sauce with peanut butter, lime juice, and chili/garlic paste
Wednesday: Cauliflower gnocchi (from Trader Joe's--so good) with pesto and broccoli
Thursday: lasagne made from lentil pasta, homemade tomato sauce, spinach and ricotta
Friday: pay day, so I think we might go out to eat
I cannot remember all our dinners last week, but I remember the last half of it.
Wednesday: scrambled eggs and fruit
Thursday: flounder with side of arugula salad
Friday: Japanese take-out: veggie rolls, miso soup
Saturday: homemade chana masala over brown rice
Sunday: baked salmon and side of orange slices (we had a late lunch)
We love our library! They have passes for museums, activities for kids and adults, classes through Lynda, rb digital for reading magazines and hoopla for streaming movies, craft classes and so much more. They have speakers as well. One woman does meal planning and menus with lots of ideas. EST tax money spent.