What I Spent, What We Ate | It's a fresh new month!
What I Spent
I made a teeny trip to Costco where I bought 4 pounds of butter ($9.99) and a two-pack of bread for our panini ($5.99). That totaled $16.
I also got a Hungry Harvest box for $15.
(Sorry, no picture of that! I still wasn't feeling well when it arrived.)
And then I spent $87 at Aldi and $42.61 at at non-Aldi grocery store.
All told, I spent $160.61.
Which is on the high side for me, but guys, our cupboards were a little bare after me being out of commission for a week.
So, I'm thinking this coming week is going to be a little more average.
At any rate, at least I'm healthy now and am back to cooking. No matter how much I spend on groceries, it's still way cheaper than eating out!
What We Ate
Monday
I made a shrimp, red pepper, and snap pea stir fry to use up the snap peas and green onions that came in this week's Hungry Harvest box.
We ate the stir-fry over Jasmine rice, and we also had fresh orange slices on the side.
Tuesday
This is the night I made our new panini recipe.
To go with that, we had sauteed green beans (from my produce box) and sliced pears (also from the box).
Wednesday
I spatchcocked and salted a an organic Aldi chicken, which I roasted along with some fingerling potatoes from my produce box.
And I made a green salad, using lettuce and tomatoes from my produce box.
Thursday
I tried a sausage and ravioli bake from my ATK quick cookbook and while it was fine, it was nothing super exciting.
As in, not crazy different than just cooking ravioli and pouring a jar of sauce over top.
Friday
I plan to make pizza, and I'm thinking maybe it'll be deep dish this time around.
I haven't made that in a while, plus I have some potatoes that need to be used up (the deep dish recipe calls for potato in the dough).
How about you?
What was on your dinner table this week?
Beaver tacos.
No, really.
My husband trapped one for the first time, and of course is going to use the hide, but we were wondering if they're good to eat. Almost anything CAN be eaten, it's really a matter of if you WANT to eat them. So I looked online and saw that beaver meat is supposed to be similar to beef. So I braised the meat in tomato juice, onions, and garlic, shredded it, and made it into taco meat. It's surprisingly inoffensive in taste--sort of like a cross between dark-meat chicken and beef--and my kids LOVE IT.
You just never do know.
Haha, I've never seen this meal pop up around here before.
So glad it was tasty!
My uncles used to hunt a lot, and went hunting a few times with the father of a friend of mine, who lived a few houses from me. I was at the friend's house one day to play, and they were cooking beaver that that dad had taken home from a hunting trip with my uncle -- in fact, my uncle had killed it with his bow. So they offered some to me, I bravely tried it, and it wasn't bad at all, in fact it was pretty good. Not that I plan to get anymore, though.
My husband also just forayed into the trapping game. He tried to convince me to eat raccoon and I just can't do it. I can't bring myself to eat the meat of a scavenger.
I will try beaver though now that I know someone has given it an ok!
We've never eaten coon either, despite the fact that we've had many opportunities. Not only are they scavengers, which means the meat will taste like whatever they eat, but even our dogs won't eat one when they've killed it. If our wolf-ish dogs won't eat it, it makes me wonder about edibility for humans. I mean, our dogs eat deer innards that have been sitting in the woods for days. But not raccoon. Not a ringing endorsement.
Yeah....that WOULD make me nervous! If it's not good enough for dogs, then it's not good enough for me.
Mrs. Daisy: I guess you don't eat wild pork, lobster, or crab either, then?
More generally, 99.99% of animals are safe for humans to eat. The exception is some organs of some animals - squirrel brains can be diseased and polar bear liver has toxic levels of vitamin A, for example. But we Western city folk have definitely gotten out of the habit of eating a really wide variety, that's for sure.
My dad and I eat squirrel together sometimes (they live out in the country). It's similar to dark meat chicken as well. Beaver, though, I've never tried.
Love this!
You rock. I would totally eat a beaver.
I did a fair job of sticking to the menus this week, except for Monday..
Sunday - picked up Chinese on the way home
Monday - Tilapia with sauteed peppers and onions, asparagus
Tuesday - One Pot Turkey Enchilada Pasta, spinach
Wednesday - Scrambled eggs and cinnamon roll bake
Thursday - BBQ beans with brisket sausage in my new crockpot, squash
Tonight I'm making a family fav when I was a kid: Pizza Meatloaf
Saturday, Hubby will hopefully grill - we have to see what the weather will be doing...
Sunday, I will put a turkey breast in the crock, and he will fix a salad and some instant mashed potatoes.
I need to go through my recipes binder and toss about half of them. I'm starting to favor a simpler approach to dinner and having fewer leftovers!
I love spatchcocked chicken. I take a baguette and cut slices about as wide as my pinky, line them up on a timed baking sheet, and then put the chicken on top. Then cook in the oven. All the liquid gets soaked onto the bread, and they crisp up into these amazingly satisfying gooey, crispy croutons.
So, the bread doesn't get soggy that way? Do you bake the bread to make it crispy after you take the chicken off?
Um, I know we had salmon patties with salad and green peas one night.
We had pasta and sauce to which I added Italian sausage that we hadn't really liked -- this was a good way to eat it up -- with salad on the side again.
We had broiled, seasoned catfish with hash browns, which I am trying to learn to make well from scratch. These hash browns were much closer to the mark, and oh, that makes two new recipes I made this week, since the salmon was a new recipe. I was going to add another salad but we decided we were tired of salads, so it was an odd meal. We don't normally eat fish and hash browns together, or just fish and potatoes, but it was good.
We had BLT sandwiches and an easy side of fruit and cottage cheese.
Tonight I'm thinking maybe chicken. I get off at noon today, so there is still time to pull out something and thaw it.
We didn't stick to our menu at ALL this week. But the good news is that we only resorted to take out on one evening (and we used a gift card!).
Monday - Breakfast - I FINALLY found the perfect pancake recipe!
Tuesday - family dinner at my grandfather's
Wednesday - french bread pizzas (from the freezer)
Thursday - dinner at our favorite restaurant
Friday - homemade sloppy joes
Would you mind sharing your pancake recipe?
Some weeks I can remember so easily.. others.. not so much! lol I do know one thing.. BEAVER was NOT on my menu! Kudos to you and your family for giving it a go though! lol Husband and I are getting over bad colds though so another week so grateful for random stuff in the freezer...
Thursday night.. not wanting to do much.. pulled a container of salsa chicken from freezer.. defrosted it and made nachos! Dumped a bag of tortilla chips on a baking sheet...covered in the drained chicken, a can of black beans, then cheddar and mozz cheese.. served with toppings and canned peaches
Weds- I tried a beef roast and veggies in the oven after work but the meat was not getting tender.. tossed that with more liquid back into oven to keep cooking and we ate the roasted potatos and carrots with a bag of Tyson chicken strips( emergency freezer items!), served with canned fruit.
Tuesday- kids finished the frozen chicken stuffed shells I had, husband and I made pork and sauerkraut paninis
Monday- pork and sauerkraut with apples in the crock- instant mashed potatos and canned carrots...
Sunday- pulled cooked chicken from freezer and reheated with bbq- served on buns with baked sweet potatos...
Tonight- mama leaving town for a meeting so ordering in pizza! Easy for all
I can never remember....
We had a pasta/sausages/cheese tomato casserole, we had Paleo chicken tenders, we had... hmmm.... I'm so bad at this!
We had grill-cheese one night. And pizza on naan bread.
Next week will be "interesting" because my husband and I are both doing week-long cleanses for different health reasons, but they are different cleanses (me : all sugars. Him : all sugar, grains, dairy, beans and certain oils), so meal planning will have to be inventive.
Sunday night: frozen pizza because I was just getting back into town
Monday: fried rice to use up leftovers in my fridge
Tuesday: roast
Wednesday: stuffed bell peppers
Thursday: Chipotle because it was nice out and the meal I had planned was a winter meal.
Friday: ground beef stroganoff, because we should have had it yesterday and didn't. It's time to be an adult 🙂
Saturday: Spaghetti
Sunday:???
Oooh, deep dish pizza--gettin' fancy. 🙂 Dinner was rough this week, but we made it work!
Monday: Minestrone soup. I needed to use up some green beans and this was the perfect excuse.
Tuesday: Chicken chipotle adobo tacos.
Wednesday: Asian lettuce wraps. Poor Mr. Picky Pincher cooked this since I pulled a late night at work. It didn't work out, so I grabbed some cheap BBQ. 😛
Thursday: Rigatoni brussels sprout butternut squash pasta. Deeelish!
Friday: Today we're grilling burgers. 🙂
I've had a yucky cold which just seems to be getting worse each day. In spite of that, I've dragged myself into the kitchen and cooked up surprisingly tasty meals every night so far. Grocery shopping wasn't well planned, but I only spent $50 this week. Hoping to be better next week and make a real meal plan and shopping list!
You get lots of gold stars for cooking while you're under the weather!
Your food always looks so delicious. I'm secretly jealous of Mr. FG. =)
Since I am 77 and my husband pushing 83, I try to make healthy choices. I roasted an
organic chicken ($15.37). Seems like a lot but wait: (1) a nice dinner almost holiday style,
(2) Sliced chicken sandwiches, (3) Chicken soup with vegetables (lots) . That chicken from
Sprouts lasts me for five days. Even able to give our aging Boxer snacks from it.
I also buy from Sprouts a large box of organic greens .. handfuls for salads, omelets and sandwiches. I made an organic apple 'cobbler': Peel, core and slice thinly about 8 organic apples (usually on sale at Sprouts). Simmer in large pot in water, vanilla and cinnamon. While simmering make toppings: 1 cup flour, 3 tables unsalted butter, l teaspoon baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Mix with fork and hands until looks like oatmeal; then add milk (about 1/3 cup). Knead into a ball and roll out. Apples should be ready (soft) drain and put into a large Pyrex pie dish. Sprinkle apples with some cinnamon, and a cutup teas of butter, dash of vanilla. Place rolled dough on top; dot with a teas butter, and sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake at 425 degrees for 17 minutes. While baking you can clean up the mess. Serve it topped with plain yoghurt flavored with cinnamon and vanilla, and fresh fruit (blueberries, etc). Important: No sugar used. If not sweet enough, sprinkle finished cobbler with Stevia. Note: I usually peel and slice apples while watching TV.
You can never slice up enough. Use also for your cooked oatmeal in the morning.
I buy organic and avoid all salty snacks and meat. The only seafood (we live far from the sea) is canned -line caught tuna .. a real treat, since it can be expensive. Our mornings are steel cut organic oats (buy bulk). To vary taste, I add different fresh fruits. I let oats soak overnight in one cup almond mild, one cup whole milk, 1/2 cup oats; 3 tablets of calcium.
Cook in morning at low temp while making coffee. Husband says it is best meal of the day!
I'm impressed! I hope I have the energy and ambition to cook and eat as healthy as you guys when I get to be your age. I'm much younger but my food choices are not nearly as good. I'm addicted to chocolate (among other things.) 🙂
Oh yes, I forgot! We love hot cocoa! I always have trouble heating up the milk, though!
As careful as I am and I WATCH, it burns a little. It doesn't change the taste because I
pour it fast in the cups, but GOSH! cleaning the pot is time consuming (and I rather be playing Scrabble on Facebook or quilting) Any ideas how to heat milk without scorching it?
You ladies are amazing. I am new to this blog and really, really enjoying it! I get stuck on old favorites that I can cook in my sleep, so I love your ideas! That home made pizza looks to die for!
I know I'm not sticking to the meal plan because I'm still not making one. I've so thoroughly burnt out on cooking that even meal planning is distasteful right now. Nor is there much to plan when the meal is "cook a lump of meat," plus simple veg and fresh fruit. This week's meals have included:
- Boiled shrimp, steamed broccoli (in the same pot, using a steamer basket), clementines.
- Beefy, broccoli-y mac & cheese, clementines (beloved family unexpectedly in town, needed quick and filling).
- Dumplings, raspberries, pick-your-veg (lettuce, tomato, carrots, bell pepper); eaten outside.
- Chicken gizzards, tomatoes and/or cucumbers, blackberries.
- Kielbasa, carrots and/or tomatoes, sliced apples.
- tonight will be either out or smorgesborg, because of a late-ish meeting.
I have a food waste to confess: my procrastination cost me 2-3 c. leftover turkey meat. That one still stings.
Gizzards? How did you prepare them please?
This time I just salted them lightly and baked at 350F till done - 15 min?? 20 min?? If I'm feeling fancy I cut out the tough connecting tissue between the lobes. The other way to cook them is to pan-fry them - they tend to get a bit tougher but it's a lot quicker.
I'm happy that this is our 5th week of not eating out any meals. We are doing pretty good. But I will be eating out next week sadly... Out of town. I do intend to stop at the grocery store to eat some meals in my hotel room like breakfast and snacks.
Anyways, this week was rough as I had a severe allegeries and couldn't cook as much. I just stuck to easy things that I could make with my eyes close since I couldn't open them. But we still ate in. Just found what we had on hand.
Sun: Spaghetti with meat sauce and green beans with garlic bread
Mon: Beef Tacos and avocado, cucumber, tomato salad
Tues: Sausage dogs and fruit and salad
Wed: Sausage dogs with fruit
Thurs: Crockpot Chicken and Bean taco meat plus I made homemade black beans and salsa verde. My husband end up making nachos out of it.
Fri: Lasagna with stir fried vegetables
TFG -
That pizza looked awesome! We made pasta one night, a "fancier" style oatmeal the other night (so cheap! but chopped up nuts, had fresh berries, cinnamon, bananas + dallop of peanut butter), chicek another evening with spinach leaves and tonight we'll make fish! Aldi is amazing, but for fish tonight - we may splurge at whole foods : )
-Lanny
My plans changed when I discovered a lovely roast and a pound of gd sirloin in my college daughters refrigerator. They needed to be cooked immediately. They traveled back home with me. We ate off the roast for three days . I tried a Bisquick recipe for a hamburger pie. !
onday: Meat loaf, sweet potato fries, cucumber and hummus
Monday: Meat loaf, sweet potato, cucumbers
Tuesday: Baked chicken with lemon pepper, sweet potato, lettuce salad
Wednesday: Chicken rice soup, whole wheat bread, lettuce salad
Thursday: Salmon, baked potato, carrots with hummus
Friday: pepperoni pizza
I'm trying to find ways to lower our grocery bill. We typically spend $180 each week on groceries, for just the two of us! We buy a lot of organic, grass-fed, or local ingredients, so that can really add up. I'm trying to cook at least one, more involved, recipe a week. We do a combination of easy meals (quesadillas, pasta, burgers) and leftovers the other nights. This week we made yummy sweet potato quesadillas.
Do you have a pressure cooker? It makes cooking beans uber quick! Today I made cranberry beans in the pressure cooker, using leftover beer and some water. They came out so well that I will eat them just as is (well, with some bay, salt, and vinegar) rather than as part of a recipe.
This week it was dark and gloomy here.
Stir fried pork with carrots and celeriac over rice, green beans
Pasta with carrots and onions, beet salad
Pasta with chick peas, broccoli
Pasta with goat cheese, peas, salad
We had friends over for dinner tonight and I tried two new recipes. Moroccan stewed chicken and an Italian chick pea stew with kale and mushrooms. Both were very good and since two families had to cancel last minute, there were lots of leftovers. I sent everyone home with food and there is still enough for us to eat it again tomorrow.
Monday - Frugal Girl tropical island chicken, served with yummy sweet coconut rice
Tuesday- Frugal Girl Mandarin chicken salad with leftovers from tropical island chicken
wednesday- hot dogs and chips with fruit
Thursday- I was feeling terrible but instead of takeout we had snack night - cheese and crackers with salami, meatballs, mozzarella sticks, veggie tray, fruits. Yum!
Friday- Frugal girl hibachi chicken with yum yum sauce. Thanks for the many meal recipes this week. They are all loved by my whole family, and there aren't too many recipes that fit in that category
Monday: Rissoto and herb chicken
Tuesday: turkey meatloaf and mashed potatoes
Wednesday: tacos
Thursday: Leftovers
Friday: a rare treat of going out for me and the hubs, and I ordered a pizza for the babysitter and our toddler.
Today (Sunday) I cooked up a mini-storm so I anticipate good things for dinner:
- Beef & Mushroom Stew with an amazingly tasty gravy.
- Cottage Pie insides (i.e., without the mashed potato topping), using a season mix of ground beef & pork that I had leftover from making burgers earlier this week.
- Cranberry beans, cooked in beer.
To use:
- Three on-sale chickens from Whole Foods to use. I aspire to Tea Smoke one and western smoke the other two ... let's see what actually happens. I have Thursday off so there's a chance.
- 1 lb chopped crimini. I may just saute them now and figure it out later.
As usual I can't remember what we have had in particular. I am grabbing meat from the freezer still and doing my best. A cyclone/ hurricane went through our state two weeks ago and fresh food has gone through the roof. Mum finally believes me that it can cost up to $200 (AUS) to feed our little family most weeks.
In the last week I have cooked a roast chicken and vegetables which fed four of us and has made three handsome sandwiches. The last maryland is in the freezer for the next time I make soup. We have had chicken and vegetable soup which did one meal and tonight I blitzed it to make cream of chicken soup. The leftovers will be frozen for another time. I have cooked a stew that made two family meal times out of steak from the freezer. I also make a concoction with tinned salmon, scallions, parsley, chilli, cheese, cream cheese and whatever seemed good at the time. This made lunches. I simple grilled it on toast. The result is great for me. The freezer is less full. My expensive spelt sourdough was not wasted. Not one scrap. My family is also learning that when I venture from the rules of the FODMAP diet I suffer.
I love reading everyone's meal times and what they cook.
I believe you about the high cost of food in Australia. I recently moved from the U.S. to PNG and we are fortunate to have a market with fresh local fruits and vegetables nearby and those are inexpensive. It's flour, sugar, and other packaged products that are expensive here.
These all sound amazing! Unfortunately, my husband is unbelievably fussy. He would only eat the chicken meal. I would however, eat them all! 🙂