What I spent, what we ate (it's a bye week for birthdays)
Sonia's birthday comes up next week, but this week? No birthdays.
What I Spent
I spent $166 this week, including a chicken stop at the organic market.
Grocery Spending Summary
Week One $242
Week Two $18
Week Three $224
Week Four $166
So, I’m at $162/week for the month of February. Considering that I averaged $200/week last year, I'm pretty happy with $162.
YTD Summary
January: $680.55
February: $650
What We Ate
Monday
I tried a grilled pork kebab recipe from a Cook's Illustrated magazine, which went a little bit wrong.
I mean, the recipe was fine. The problem was that I bought what I thought was a plain pork tenderloin, but it was only after I followed the "salt the pork" directions in the recipe that I realized my pork was pre-seasoned.
Whoops.
So our kebabs were pretty salty. I threw together some chipotle chicken kebabs to round our plates out with something slightly less salty, and things worked out all right.
We had applesauce and fresh pineapple with our kebabs.
Tuesday
I made chicken enchiladas with red sauce, and my heart was happy.
I love enchiladas. And chipotle chilies.
They are my favorite.
We had a fruit salad with these.
Oh! I figured out a way around the fact that Joshua and I prefer our food to be way hotter than Mr. FG and the girls do. I put fewer chipotle chilies into the enchilada filling, and then when I served the enchiladas, I mixed some chipotles into a bowl of sour cream, and Joshua and I ate that on our enchiladas.
We were happy, and the other four family members walked away without a fiery experience.
Perfect.
Wednesday
I made shrimp lettuce wraps, and Joshua and I used chipotle sour cream again.
(Photo courtesy of Bev Cooks)
Have I mentioned how much I love chipotles? They make my heart sing.
Thursday
I made a crock pot pork noodle soup recipe from an ATK cookbook I have. I could have sworn the recipe called for bone-in country ribs, so I passed up the boneless ones on sale and paid more for the bone-in.
Then I got home and realized that the recipe called for boneless. Gah!
This is my week for making pork mistakes, I guess.
The bone-in worked fine, and my soup is probably tastier and more nutritious due to the bones, but, I did pay extra for that. Oh well.
Friday
I haven't made deep dish pizza in forever (and the photos on that recipe could use some re-doing!), so I'm thinking about maybe opting for that.
____________________________
Monday - rice and beans with mango and cucumber salad
Tuesday - pasta fazool with beets for the adults and carrots for the kids
Wednesday - chicken and red pepper stir fry with rice and broccoli
Thursday - homemade bread with butternut squash soup, broccoli, cheese
Friday - pasta all'amatriciana with green beans
I've been trying to keep our meat consumption low and I did a pretty good job this week. I don't know how much I spent yet. I tend to tally it at the end of the month, but I may start doing week by week. Then I have a chance to course correct if things are getting high.
I probably would tally it once a month too, except for this whole blogging gig. Ha. It keeps me accountable weekly.
My total as of yesterday's Vitacost purchase was about $715 but I tend to shop on the weekends and there's still one more to go this month:( I also will pick up a winter CSA share either today or tomorrow for another $20-30 so...I predict my grocery total to be around $850 for February. This will be less than last month when I managed to spend over $900 despite working to clear out the pantry and freezer. We have also been focusing on using our beatiful home preserved goods before getting ready for this year's garden.
Anywho, here's what we ate to the best of my memory:
-Cauliflower and cheddar egg bake with local Apple chicken sausage and spinach salad
-turkey and black bean tacos with avocado, salsa, sour cream and cheese
-seared pork tenderloin with maple syrup, roasted sweet and Yukon potatoes and canned green beans from our garden
-homemade breaded chicken tenders, roasted red potatoes, veggies and ranch
-chicken pot pie that I had frozen and just made a crust for, fruit with that and an apple crisp with homemade vanilla maple ice cream
-ham and pea soup for some and chicken veggie soup for others with fresh baked bread and fruit
-tonight will be pizza but not sure which dough recipe I'll use.. I typically use the ATK make ahead thin crust dough but I didn't make it last night so maybe we shall do a Sicilian style thicker crust? We will have Carsar salad with homemade dressing and croutons as well and finish up the ice cream:)
That is the one downside to that crust recipe...you gotta think ahead!
I won't be spending much on groceries. I joined a lot of birthday clubs at restaurants: Zoe's Kitchen, Jason's Deli, La Madeleine and Jersey Mike's Subs where I get a free meal! So I'll be set for awhile. I'll get takeout and probably have enough for 2 meals from each take out. Love birthday clubs!
Nice! Happy birthday to you!
It never once occurred to me to get takeout for birthday freebies. Brilliant.
Seems like I spend right around $200 each week - but a lot of times I will have non-food items in the basket that I don't subtract out of the food budget. Laziness...I did put together some Monday meals for the freezer:
http://cannaryfamily.blogspot.com/2016/02/freezer-meals-15.html
They aren't particularly frugal, but they are cheaper than picking up takeout when I am exhausted after my Sat - Mon. I let the crock pot do all of the work!
One night this week we had pancakes out of a mix that was given to us, so I only bought eggs and sausage to go with. And last night I made my own version of the chicken chile lime burgers they sell at Trader Joe's - very very yum. Tonight is freezer meatballs with sauce and linguini because I am working in the year all day, and know I won't feel like doing homemade...
Mon- Chicken Vindaloo, brown basmati rice, salad, naan bread
Tue- Turkey chile with, yeah, chipotle peppers, salad, naan bread. (Yep, still working on holiday turkey leftovers!)
Wed- Pasta salad w/homemade pesto, peas, navy beans and black olives, salad, garlic bread
Thu- Lentil soup w/lemon and dill, salad, naan bread. The lemon and dill came from a friends garden. 🙂
Fri- Orange glazed chicken*, brown rice, green beans (*ATK recipe, so should be delish!)
My spend for the month, 2 people, was @ $300. I budget $400, so I'm headed to our new Whole Foods today for a little food fun!
Ooh, that does sound fun. So many delicious things to buy at Whole Foods.
Whole foods has an app with digital coupons. This week they have free jar of peanut butter when you spend $10.
Ingrid, We caught that while we were there, signed up on our phone, and, yep, got our free jar of PB. 🙂
Yum! I'm with you on any type if Tex-Mex dish!
Do you have sriracha at home? It's a great way to add flavor/heat if you don't wish to mix your hot peppers in with sour cream. Also a great way to heat up any type of Asian dish. I got my most recent bottle from Aldi!
I do have sriracha, but I think I like the smokiness of chipotles in adobo sauce a little better. That smoky/slightly sweet combo is unbeatable!
Your blog is helping me. How? Because I thought about this post (the Friday post) all week, and the fact that I never have anything good to post, and that this week I would make an effort to cook more!! And I did :
- Butternut squash and turkey casserole
- Honey garlic beef with rice and broccoli
- Turkey +home-made cream of mushroom over mashed potatoes + carrots
- Pasta with snap peas, shrimps and Alfredo sauce
Don't know how much I've spent on food this week. Probably around 100$.
I love Kristen's Friday posts, too--very inspirational!!!!
Yay! So glad that these posts are helpful to you.
Sun: Steak fajitas
Mon: Mustard glazed chicken w/sweet potatoes
Tues: Spaghetti with sausage and turkey meatballs
Wed: Leftovers
Thurs: Cranberry chicken and roasted sweet potatoes
Fri: Stuffed turkey burgers and home-made baked beans
Steak Fajitas...now I'm hungry for some!
I'm surprised - and little envious - that you can find boneless ribs. None of my stores carry them, and sometimes the clerk is a little, er, joking bout it "You know why the;'re called ~ribs~, right?"
Really? That's so odd! I had such a time finding them with bones, and I did think that was funny, given that they're ribs.
I love the picture of the enchiladas with red sauce! I plan to make that soon. I was a little off this week but we got through it and didn't starve.
Monday-Homemade panko crusted chili brown sugar salmon, roasted normandy blend frozen veggies over wild rice.
Tuesday-Some of us had frozen junky pizzas and some had meatloaf sandwiches from leftover turkey meatloaf from the weekend.Then I made homemade old timey caramel corn which we ate while it was still warm and kinda gooey. I admit this night was a complete fail!
Wednesday-Home cooked Hamburgers with fresh cucumber slices on the side
Thurs- Lemon Pepper Salmon, broccoli, and roasted mashed potatoes.
Friday- I ashamed to say we will probably go out tonight but I will use a coupon.
Friday- roasted garlic mashed potatoes is what I meant, lol.
It's been an interesting week of food. The sink fills up with dishes every night. When I get down about them, I try to think, "I should be proud that these dishes are because we eat so well on homemade meals at home!"
Monday-salad with seared salmon
Tuesday-whole roasted chicken with potatoes and carrots
Wednesday-chicken enchiladas in a sour cream green sauce with steamed broccoli and carrots
Thursday-leftovers (I caught this cold crud going around at work)
Friday-Pizza sounds good to me!
I think we spent about $75 this week on groceries, but we are on a much more limited grocery budget as we're trying to pay off student loans. I've been trying to save some of our grocery budget to begin stocking up on a few foods that we eat regularly. I don't know if it's my age or my busyness with my 4 kids, but I can't even remember what we ate this week! Let's see . . . oh yes, we had Chicken Tikka Masala (ATK recipe) w/ Indian spinach, ham and potato soup, chicken and dumplings (also ATK), turkey burgers w/ potato salad, and macaroni and tomatoes.
It's surprisingly hard to remember what you ate, right? I often have to sit here and think for a bit before I can remember Monday's dinner!
I bought some frozen foods this week just to keep on hand for those nights when I reallly didn't want to cook. And wouldn't you know it, I ate them 3 nights in a row. Clearly if I have that option I will default to it. So no more frozen meals for "just in case." Haha. My real meals this week were roasted turkey breast (1/2) with asparagus and stuffing and a crockpot honey garlic chicken with rice and (more) aspargus. I buy asparagus every week when its in season. Yum!
Monday: Costco rotisserie chicken, stuffing, potato wedges and green beans.
Tuesday: chicken enchiladas with green sauce and southwestern salad
Wednesday: leftover enchiladas for adults and quesadillas for kiddos. Chicken nachos for all.
Thursday: Breakfast for dinner. Ham and cheese egg bake, waffles, and homemade potato wedges
Friday: Turkey chili with Cajun corn muffins.
We also have insanely delicious Aldi oranges, plus apples and clementines with every meal. Yum!
I can't remember every meal this week either
Monday was cottage pie and that left a heap of left overs
Tuesday
Wednesday was chicken cooked in a French way with rice etc.
Thursday was leftovers as I had an allergic reaction and felt too sick to do anything but sleep.
Friday was bacon and eggs.
I still have left over chicken ad cottage pie. I cooked small meals but that is just the way it is. We are slowly munching our way through avocado too.
Can you share the pork noodle soup recipe? I have a subscription to ATK (based on your recommendation and I love it!) but I couldn't find it on their site. I know some of their recipes are in cook books and not on their show and I assume that is the case with the one you mentioned. I'd love it if you would share it with us.
The shrimp lettuce wraps look so tasty! Reminds me of shrimp fajitas......only had those a few times at a restaurant but I think about them alot.....
For the past week, here's what we had and for the upcoming weekend, here's what I'm planning on making:
Mon- single crust chicken pot pies with leftover chicken
Tue- Roast beef & mashed potatoes & spinach & pumpkin pie
Wed-Eggs & Sausage
Thur- BLT's & leftover roast beef/potatoes
Fri- Frozen breaded fish and fries (I had sushi at work )
Sat- baked ziti with pepperoni bread from the bread machine & pumpkin pie
Sun- chicken stromboli
Mon- sloppy joes
We stock up on meats as sales come around and I'll buy a 1/4 cow on occasion.
Sorry this is off-topic, but does anyone recall what recent post (in the last two weeks) was there a discussion about cell phones in the comments section? I've looked and looked and can't find it. I think the topic for that day was something else, but the conversation took a turn in the comments section. There was discussion about something called Ting. Thank you very much!!
Sure! It's Ting Wireless, and here's the post where I wrote all about it. https://www.thefrugalgirl.com/2014/02/lower-smartphone-bill-21month/
I really trying to focus on menu planning and I haven't tallied up the grocery bills yet. We live in California so I'm guessing ours will be more.
Sunday - Sunday Night Roast beef with gravy, pan roasted potatoes & broccoli (roast beef made a ton of leftover sandwiches for the week. Definitely a splurge on beef this week)
Mon - fettuccine chicken with broccoli
Tues- So Addicted Chicken Enchildas with cucumber, tomato, avocado salad
Wed - Asian Peanut Noodle salad with chicken
Thurs - Mahi Mahi Fish Tacos with spicy avocado sauce
Fri - out to dinner night
Sat - not sure but leaning towards pizza and house salad
I had a few bakery items I wanted to make that I never did like pumpkin scones and raisin cinnamon scones. Trying use up some buttermilk and canned pumpkin that I have. Hopefully this week...
I love your recipe shares this week. I love spicy so the shrimp tacos are up my alley. Thanks for posting your week.
I figure food splurges are relatively minor in the scheme of things. The splurgey pork that cost me $7 at the butcher today made a meal that would easily be $15 (each!!) at a restaurant. Enjoy the beef!
I agree
Mmmmm, enchiladas.... I have some shredded salsa chicken in the freezer, corn tortillas on the fridge and if I just get milk and cheese we're goin' to Enchiladatown!
Today I got some beautiful bone-in pork chops . I made orange-ginger pork, rice, Vietnamese spinach, and served the last of the fresh pineapple on the side.
We have homemade chicken stock and loose turkey sausage, so I'll make a big pot of minestrone tomorrow for Sunday dinner. I can (finally) put that frozen Parmesan rind in the soup pot. We'll have a salad on the side.
This was a dreadfully busy week for both of us, but we did manage to sit down to two work-night meals. One was chicken with marinated artichokes (jarred), GF pasta, and goat cheese. The other was Odds & Ends quiche, which used up the random veggies and cheese. The leftovers made two great lunches.
I'm comin' over! I can never have too many enchiladas.
I am new to your blog and would like to keep track of food going to waste, eating out too much and over buying at grocery store. Today is the first day of the grocery bill challenge for me. All savings go to college fund for daughter. Thanks for the info and support.