What I Spent, What We Ate | Making up for last week
What I Spent
I got my $25 Hungry Harvest box on Saturday, as always. I was in Texas at the time, so I didn't get a good picture, but here's part of what was in the box.
(If you want to try Hungry Harvest, use code FRUGALGIRL5 for $5 off your first order!)
On Monday, I made a $21 stop at Aldi for a few things.
On Tuesday, I picked Lisey up from work and got bananas and smoked turkey ($14).
And on Wednesday, I made a bigger trip to Aldi and spent $49.26.
So, I'm only at $110 this week. Woohoo! That nicely makes up for the fact that I was over last week.
August Spending
Week 1: $176
Week 2: $110
What We Ate
In case you're curious, Mr. FG and the kids got pizza one night while I was gone in Texas, while the next night, Mr. FG made French toast for dinner. 🙂 And Joshua cooked up some bacon.
Monday
I made bacon burgers topped with caramelized onions, and I used up some Hungry Harvest potatoes by making potato cubes.
I can't for the life of me remember what else we had.
Watermelon? A salad? The world may never know.
Tuesday
I made a chopped salad with bacon, smoked turkey, lettuce, and apples, topped with a mustard vinaigrette.
I made a double batch of popovers (you don't even need a popover pan!) to go with that.
And I'm guessing we had watermelon, because we are eating watermelon all the time right now.
Wednesday
I made chipotle chicken kebabs with cilantro dipping sauce (so good! so easy! you should make some!), plus cream biscuits and fresh watermelon.
Thursday
Tortellini topped with pesto, plus cut-up cantaloupe.
Joshua got home later and he made a pot of homemade ramen for himself, using leftover grilled chicken, chicken broth from the freezer, a hard-boiled egg from the fridge, and some other veggies/noodles.
Friday
I'm trying to decide if I want to make meatball subs, regular pizza, or calzones.
Decisions, decisions....
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Ohhh my gosh those chicken kebabs look uh-mazing!!! I wish we had a gas grill so we could grill more on weeknights.
This week:
I was out of town for work Monday - Tuesday night, so poor Mr. Picky Pincher had to fend for himself. Poor thing has a tough time cooking when it's just him. 😉 He did groceries by himself and put a can of biscuits in our pantry ... they exploded.
I can't leave him alone!
Monday: I had Jason's Deli for dinner, which I ate in my hotel room. My company footed the bill for my $5 to-go salad, which was mighty tasty!
Tuesday: I did a five-hour drive home today. I was exhausted and sick of eating crap on the road, so I just had a yogurt bowl with fruit.
Wednesday: Today we had a real meal! Shocking. 😉 I cooked tomato bisque with fancy grilled cheese sandwiches with pesto.
Thursday: Mr. Picky Pincher's family came over and brought pizza.
Friday: Tonight we're making ground beef Mexican street tacos. Yum!
You actually can just broil the kebabs. If fact, that's how the original recipe was written. I just moved it on out to the grill.
So. Make yourself some weeknight kebabs, girl!
Good as pizza and french toast are, I bet your family is happy to have their daily meal-maker back home.
Speaking of daily meal-making . . .
Featured at our house this week, heavy on the vegetables because hooray for summer vegetable gardens:
Monday: Slow roasted pork shoulder, roasted carrots/onions/zucchini, roasted green beans, bread and butter
Tuesday: Italian sausage with peppers and onions, sauteed green beans, green salad, rice
Wednesday: Yellow curry with lamb and lots of vegetables, rice, green salad
Thursday: Baked ham, sauteed zucchini with tomatoes and garlic, raw tomatoes and kohlrabi, green salad, bread and butter
Tonight: Scrambled eggs, leftover rice, some vegetables from the garden to be determined later when I get around to it. In other words, cop-out dinner that features the only other protein besides meat that I can get away with in our carnivorous household. 🙂
I made two new recipes -- pulled pork and mac and cheese, each in the pressure cooker. They were good! Both recipes were in the ATK pressure cooker cook book.
Monday night was pulled pork with sides I can't remember. I used buns made from Kristen's recipe, which I had frozen, since we only use 2 at a time. They thawed nicely, wrapped in a dish towel on the counter.
Tuesday was boiled shrimp from a bag in the freezer, pressure cooked mac and cheese, which my husband asked for as he was curious as to how it would work, and homemade cole slaw.
Wednesday we had the pulled pork with the cole slaw and random leftover sides.
Thursday was tomato-basil soup from a box, the Whole Foods brand. I normally don't like tomato soup and can't make my own taste good to me even, but I like the Whole Foods soup. I grilled bacon and cheese sandwiches to go with it.
Tonight I'm not cooking, I'm going to visit family, and my husband will be on his own. Maybe he'll actually cook, but I'm not counting on it.
My grocery bill is under budget by about $20, yay!
I came back from a two-week vacation and spent gobbs of money at the grocery store 🙁 I have $30 to spend to get us through next week. I can do it though, because I stocked up on meats and veggies.
Monday: I made eggs in purgatory, and it didn't turn out. LO and I ate one meal and the rest hit the garbage. We ate all the eggs though-just threw the sauce away.
Tuesday: Breakfast for dinner-pancakes, eggs, bacon
Wednesday: bacon-wrapped chicken breasts, green beans, mashed potatoes
Thursday: Sour cream Mexican chicken over rice, with avocado, tomatoes, lettuce, and onion
Friday: I set out some chicken breasts and a sirloin steak-we'll grill those, use up the rest of the mashed potatoes and some veggies from our freezer and call it a night.
It's been a tougher than usual week at my house (lots going on) but somehow I've made it work, I guess.
Monday: Leftover steak from the weekend.
Tuesday: Tacos using ground turkey.
Wednesday: Leftover taco meat and rice made into sort of shell-less tacos.
Thursday: Cut up some chicken to make chicken tenders which I pan fried. Also had potatoes and veggies.
Friday: Bible study and we're not hosting so we don't have to worry. We may be quitting this as it's getting too difficult unless we start hiring a sitter. Unfortunately it's the only socialization I get outside of work. I don't really have friends around me any more so it's nice to have but it's just too difficult to handle. Life is tough when you have a toddler. How people can handle multiple kids is beyond me.
I remember thinking the same thing when I only had one. Now I'll four in October. The nice thing about having multiple kids is that the older ones entertain the toddlers. I'm not saying that's the only reason to have lots of kids, but it is nice to have built-in play groups.
I can totally empathize. My family had the same situation, you are not alone! It is just a season and it will pass...just doesn't seem like it when you're in the middle of it! I will pray for stamina for you.
Your food looks so yummy as always! I like how you always start your post with a box of veggies. It looks so healthy! I love it when Mr. FAF is in the kitchen cooking something delicious for me too. ^.^
This week so far.................
Monday - Meatloaf, mac and cheese, string beans, peaches
Tuesday - Pot roast, potatoes and carrots, some kind of fruit (?)
Wednesday - Oven baked crunchy chicken, mashed potatoes, applesauce
Thursday - Turkey hot dogs in wheat buns, brown bread with raisins, oranges, coleslaw
Friday - Crock pot rotisserie chicken, rice, salad, fruit
Saturday - Leftovers!
Sunday - No idea!!??!!
Happy Weekend!!
Another weird week. Lots of meetings. And the DH was out of town a couple of days.
Monday: Chicken breast, couscous, corn on the cob, a few green beans, and roasted zucchini
Tuesday: Meeting day for me. Soup & salad at Olive Garden, skipped dinner (DH out of town)
Wednesday: Bible Study at a nursing home. Did you know that most nursing homes will provide you a meal for $5-6.00? Our group ($6.00 per person) stayed. Their lunch (which is their main meal of the day) of the day was beer cheese soup, stuffed pork loin, awesome mashed potatoes with the skins, zucchini, their own nutty homemade bread, a drink, and cherry bread pudding for dessert. I skipped dinner. It was awesome. A friend loaded me up with more zucchini, tomatoes, green peppers, and cucumbers.
Thursday: I copped out, after band rehearsal. I picked up a couple of sammishes, and we had those with a salad I made with corn off the cob, tomatoes, onions, and cucumbers. I used my cole slaw dressing recipe. That was really a good one.
Today: I'm going to use more veggies and make a nice pasta sauce. And I should make some zucchini muffins.
Let's see, we've done steak a couple of nights with grilled veggies. One night we just felt like eating veggies so we did that (basically a fridge leftover night), then last night, Hubs asked if I'd like to get a burger, so we did that. Our LO seemed to enjoy looking around the restaurant but he wailed the whole way home. It was super stressful! Maybe he's trying to help me keep being frugal by not eating out 🙂
Ok sorry for the double comment but in answering your question I forgot what I was originally going to comment! It seems like Joshua is becoming an adventurous chef! I think learning to cook is a great gift that parents can give their kids. Also, I think I'm going to make these chicken kebabs for our Adoption party in November! Don't worry - it will still be 80 degrees here in November so it's acceptable grilling weather 🙂 Thanks for the recipe!
Oh, girl! I grill all winter long. I think kebabs in November are perfectly acceptable even if it's not 80 degrees. Ha.
Wow those burgers and kebabs looking amazing!! I need to get that recipe for sure!
I can't remember every night, but I know we did turkey loin and croissants with leftover veggies and beans, homemade pizza pockets, homemade pizza, and the kids had scrambled eggs with toast when we went to our small group last night. Now I'm feeling burgers though...
Monday-50% off pizza for O's winning big.
Tuesday-pork chops and roasted veggies
Wednesday-random leftovers and free Chick-fil-A sandwich for son on the way to evening activities
Thursday-chicken curry
Friday-turkey burgers and green beans
Saturday-tacos with ground turkey. (It was on sale very reduced, so I bought a lot...I see kofka and meatballs in the future too)
Haven't totalled the receipts yet, but I spent $30 at farm stand, $40 at grocery store today and I think another $20 earlier in the week.
I made 2 new-to-me recipes from ATK's The Best 30-Minute Recipe book this week: skillet lasagna and thai chicken coconut soup. While neither could compete with more labor intensive versions of these dishes, they were still pretty tasty, easy to make on a week night and I would totally make both of them again.
Saturday: Leftover pork chop with mashed potatoes and an artichoke
Sunday: Family potluck. There were ribs, enchiladas, a rice/bean/corn dish, ceasar salad, cornbread, coleslaw, and cantelope. I sampled everything except the coleslaw.
Monday: Skillet lasagna and green salad
Tuesday: I had major dental work that afternoon so dinner was cottage cheese and canned peaches
Wednesday: I was totally craving chicken nachos. My sore mouth was not especially happy with this choice so I mostly ate the chicken, beans, cheese and sour cream off the top.
Thursday: Homemade thai chicken soup with prepared (frozen) potstickers.
Friday: I stopped at Trader Joes after work and picked up a few things including their pepperoni pizza mac & cheese bowl. I intended to throw it in the freezer for a later meal but the cashier raved about it and so I fixed it for dinner. As frozen entrees go it was pretty good. I would buy it again.
This week was a blur! Kids start back to school this week and I hope that once the preschool I work at starts in September our work/school/sports schedules will all fall into a calming rhythm..lol
Mon- tossed a few huge boneless pork chops in a brine to defrost and we grilled them.. It was abnormally cool so we had windows open for a breeze so I pulled a bag of shredded potatos from the freezer and made a small pan of cheesy potatos... I believe there was salad...
Tuesday- every man for themselves...
Wed- I pulled a freezer lasagna out and that was baked and served with garlic bread and salad...
Thurs- hubby stuck on a work call and not doing TKD... I dropped the girl at VB practice and grabbed a bucket of KFC and sides for them ( the girl just got braces so mac and cheese and mashed taters for her!
Friday- grilled burgers and oven fries for the majority.. cottage cheese, watermelon and a carnation instant breakfast (sample that came in the mail) for the sore mouthed child..
We were in vacation so we opted to google a recipe and use the first one that had most the of ingredients that we had!
I don't recall which nights but we had spaghetti & baked meatballs with fried english muffins.
Marinated rib eye with seasoned potatoes.
Corn on the cob on the grill.
Marinated chicken- used the Amazing Chicken Marinade that one is definitely a keeper the chicken was delicious! I thought it was the oddest combination.
Mac N Cheese in the Instant Pot super easy and super creamy. I used Monterey Jack, evaporated milk & parmesan cheese. This would be a great spicy dish so I added some pepperjack to mine. We had various fruit and veggies at each meal too.
At the end of the week I was pretty pleased that we did not waste to much food.
Those burgers with carmelized onions look amazing! I came to your blog after hearing Mrs FAF recommend you. Glad I stopped by!
Cooks Illustrated's Sept issue has a short-cut recipe for Caramelized Onions. It involves starting the onions in water, and using a bit of baking soda at the end. I haven't tried them yet but it's CI.
Speaking of whom, I made a momentous decision: I will not be renewing my subscription. The magazine is still high-quality and enjoyable, but since I haven't been doing much cooking for the past 6-10 months, I'm not getting much use from them. If/when my cooking habits change, I can resubscribe. The completist in me is wailing; the rest of me is glad to regain the time and money.
I think.
Food this week was easy hunks o' meat, frozen dumplings, going out twice (!), and a frugal save of making mushroom-onion scrambled eggs using some leftover chopped onion before it went bad, and mushrooms from a lunchtime meal purchase. The pork loin, broccoli, and mushrooms were all fantastic but too much food. Omelets to the rescue!
You can always re-subscribe, should you change your mind. That makes it easier to take a break...knowing you can always go back.
My parents were in town last week, helping out with the kids, so they cooked. We had:
Sunday - spaghetti & meatballs, garlic bread + salad
Monday - green chicken enchiladas (my favorite) with homemade guacamole + salad
Tuesday - lasagna + bread + salad
Wednesday - bacon & cheese quiche + fruit
Thursday - leftover enchiladas
Friday - pizza delivery (we were out for most of the day)
Saturday - I made an oven baked chicken risotto, and threw in all of the leftover odds & ends of cheese that was in the fridge.
Sunday - my husband made Persian beef kebabs + rice + potatoes on the grill. . . Yum!
Can your parents move in with us? Yum!
Monday - Chili ( barely 60 in colorado! )
Tuesday - Mojito Shrimp and a cucumber, mango salad and coconut rice (Green Chef free test it out box)
Wednesday - Pesto grilled chicken and a salad (same as above) we enjoyed both but more work than I would normally do. Too much chopping of 12-15 ingredients in each) I know how to cook but umm..... I thought these were supposed to save you time and not so much.
Thursday - between appointments my 2nd day back at work and EVERYTHING takeout chinese
Friday - smoked salmon and Jambalaya (sp) at friends (soooo good to have foodie friends that don't have kids but love ours)
Saturday - random dinner of leftovers
Sunday - Spaghetti with a easy quick sauce and chicken italian sausage homemade ceasar salad and garlic bread.
Monday - chicken curry, quinoa, and steamed broccoli