What I Spent, What We Ate | plus a slightly snarky story
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In case you happen to be new here: every Friday I write a post detailing what I spent on groceries and also what we ate.
I used to publish a menu plan, but I eventually decided it was better to chronicle what we actually ate, vs. what I aspired to have us eat.
It's a little more real that way.
Because let's be honest...it's easy to write things on a menu plan but it's a lot harder to execute!
What I Spent
I spent $119 at the grocery store and $25 on my Hungry Harvest.
(Get $5 off your first Hungry Harvest through this referral link.)
So I'm landing at $144 for the week.
March Spending
Week 1: $76
Week 2: $166
Week 3: $144
What We Ate
Saturday
I was at book club (discussing Educated. What a book!).
The girls + Mr. FG got some Chick-Fil-A for dinner while I was gone.
Sunday
We were at Mr. FG's sister's house for a birthday party for my mother-in-law. I brought...bread.
SUCH A SURPRISE.
I wanted to make it fresh after church, so I went with French bread, which is pretty quick as yeast breads go.
Monday
I made a new recipe from the latest Cook's Country; a recipe for penne with asparagus and pancetta.
Except I went to two stores and couldn't locate pancetta so I used bacon instead. It worked out fine.
(Try to remember a time when subbing bacon in a recipe did NOT work out fine. Nothing? I came up dry too.)
Tuesday
I tried a chicken salad recipe from the latest Cook's Country magazine and we ate it on croissants. We also had a fruit salad and veggie chips.
Funny story (in which I get slightly snarky.): years ago, someone left a comment informing me that serving veggie chips is not the same as serving actual veggies.
Which I found hilarious, because I just don't know of anyone who pours these in a bowl and feels like they are serving a salad.
Anyway, it became a running joke at our house.
"I was going to serve a spinach salad, but then I found these veggie chips in the cabinet!"
"Thanks for the salad, Mom!"
Wednesday
I was a little stuck about what to make for dinner, and Lisey suggested pancakes. Then I realized that maybe it was actually National Pancake Day, but alas, it was on Tuesday.
So we celebrated it with buttermilk pancakes, just a day late.
I also used up the rest of the bacon left from Monday's dinner and made Orange Julius.
Thursday
Zoe was on an outing with Joshua, Lisey was at her small group, Mr. FG and I went on an early date night, and so it was just Sonia eating at home.
She chose to have vegetarian pasta with some Hungry Harvest veggies.
Friday
It's going to be just Sonia and me here for dinner, so I will put my head together with Sonia and see what she wants to eat.
I'm putting my money on her choosing something with grits, polenta, or pasta...we'll see if I'm right!
What did you eat for dinner this week?
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WHAT????? Maybe that is what I have been doing wrong.. veggie chips... potato chips... lol
I have been fighting the NEVER ENDING sinus/cold so quick and simple has been the name of the game.. especially with 2 starting track this week... ( one of those still has to go to volleyball 2 nights a week also) and the older 1 heading into the last 2 weeks of musical practice/performance...
On Sunday I pulled out 2 packages of chicken breasts and poached them in broth in the crock pot. I diced and shredded the meat for future uses...We ate food the inlaws brought over for supper this night...
Monday- used broth and diced chicken to make a thick soup with lots of chopped carrots and yellow rice packets!
Tuesday- shredded BBQ chicken sandwiches, leftover cheesy potato casserole from Sunday.... ( I believe I made a huge salad and used buffalo on my chicken for a salad instead!)
Weds- Husband bought a baseball fundraiser coupon book from the neighbor.. it is the only one I like.. $20 and good for the next 12 months... I will easily save over $100 by using these!
Used a pizza coupon saving $8.00! (fed all 5 of us and the last 3 slices went into Thursday lunch boxes)
Thursday- woke up feeling miserable... tossed a frozen pork shoulder into the crock pot to cook all day and went back to bed... Shredded and served with buns and sauce choices... made homemade macaroni and cheese and seasoned canned green beans!
Friday- Feeling better... not idea for tonight.. really need to get groceries! lol
Educated. Yes! I read about it and thought, "Oh, no. This one will be BAD for homeschoolers." But I read it, and I loved how she didn't make all homeschoolers look bad. She had a horrible experience, but she didn't over-generalize about all people who homeschool, use alternative medicine, etc. What a strong lady to go through that and write a book about it without sounding hateful and bitter!
I agree. It was pretty clear that her "homeschool" experience definitely belongs in quotation marks, kind of like how her Mormon experience is also not at all representative of Mormon families overall.
"Educated" certainly was a book. I had a lot of thoughts on that one, but no book club to share them with. Well, except my husband, and his take on things is often VERY different than mine. It does make for some interesting discussions sometimes. I wonder how many co-ed book clubs there are?
Anyway. Food.
Monday: Leftover taco meat in a skillet with rice and cheese. Plus cucumbers with salt and vinegar.
Tuesday: Ribeye steaks, mashed potatoes, sauteed mushrooms and onions, frozen green beans
Wednesday: Roasted chicken thighs, leftover rice, roasted broccoli
Thursday: Chicken salad sandwiches with the leftover chicken and fresh bread because I had to bake that afternoon (fresh bread is the best--if you ever brought anything else to a gathering, people would probably be mad at you :-). Also still-frozen green beans as a distraction while I was assembling dinner--my husband is gone for a few days with my middle son--and grape tomatoes with the sandwiches. Lamest vegetables ever, but enjoyed by the children.
Tonight: Meatless Lenten Fridays are here again. My plan is macaroni and cheese. If I don't manage that--still solo with the three kids, plus we have another family coming over to play today--then grilled cheese sandwiches. Or maybe tuna melts. Something cheesy, in any case.
I was so glad we were discussing it at book club because I had allllll of the thoughts to share after reading it.
My husband also had to hear all of my thoughts on Educated while I was reading it because I too had no book club to vent to. 😉
How funny, I’m about halfway though reading “Educated” as well!
Isn't it just so crazy? It's more nuts than any story you would make up if you were writing fiction.
Monday we had fish in a spicy batter that wasn't spicy enough for me although everyone else liked it, plus baked potatoes, wax beans and carrots.
Tuesday I baked chicken in BBQ sauce and served it with fries and spinach.
Wednesday we ate the last of the chicken with sweet potatoes and more wax beans.
Thursday is pizza night and I made ice cream pie with strawberry sauce for Pi Day. (So good!)
Tonight we're having turkey in a tomato and mushroom sauce and probably rice since I found part of a bag of rice in the cupboard.
Ice cream pie! Now there's a pie I could get behind. I'd only thought of cookie pie as an alternative.
We have a similar running joke about veggie chips. One of the first brands we bought had a huge banner running across the front saying "full serving of vegetables in every serving." We liked the chips but found the claim a little suspect so every time we eat them now, we always say no time to eat real veggies but don't worry, there's a full serving in the chips. If we feel like we need more vegetables, we just eat two servings! 🙂
Monday: tuna salad sandwiches and fruit
Tuesday: pasta with green beans
Wednesday: burgers, spinach/arugula salad
Thursday: chicken cutlets, roasted sunchokes, spinach/arugula salad
Friday: I am thinking omelettes. And maybe a side of veggie chips for nutritional value 🙂
Sat- at moms/dad cooking for them as she is laid up after surgery. It was pretty nice outside, so Hamburg, hotdogs on the grill, tater tots, onion rings, beans. (with the left over hamburger meat, that wasn't used, I made them meatballs in brown gravy, so my dad would just heat up during the week, and add the sides.)
Sunday- at mom/dad, as my sister and my mom is laid up after surgery, we had ziti out of the freezer, meatball/sausage/pork chops in the gravy.
Monday-homemade chicken pot pie, dd had pizza bites , son had quick chicken parm with left over chicken cutlet. I think I also had a salad. (after dd soccer practice, its that time again)
Tue- the boys had steak (only had two) I had some kielbasa, dd had tortellini, bake potatoes, corn. (dh shared his steak with me)
Wed- Chicken cutlet, butter noodles, mixed veggies.
Thursday- Bacon, egg, cheese sandwiches, some mac and cheese, cut up apples.
Friday- took gravy out of the freezer, think ravioli. (ds has soccer practice so we will eat before)
ugh my sister is not laid up, just mom.. me and my sister cooked...
This week was a successful no fast food week.
Saturday : mozzarella stuffed meatballs, tator tots, and broccolli
Sunday : adobo chicken burrito bowls
Monday : curried pumpkin lentil soup and rice
Tuesday : fish sticks, peas, and mozzarella sticks
Wednesday : pizza from the freezer and salad
Thursday : eggs, sausage links, cottage cheese and toast
Friday : going out with friends we haven't seen in years, so idk what we will be eating, but it'll be fun
Sunday and Monday-sesame chicken with broccoli over brown rice
Tuesday- Moroccan meatballs over couscous - so good!!
Wednesday- Grilled steaks with roasted potatoes for our anniversary
Thursday- Moroccan meatballs over couscous
Friday and Saturday- vegetarian pizzas with homemade pizza dough and homemade pesto
Total food bill was $78 this week, although this includes $11 in postage stamps. Not too bad, but a little more than we usually spend.
Sooo many veggie chip jokes running through my head now....
This week in no order:
I tried a recipe my daughter recommended, garlic steak bites with lemon butter zoodles. I really liked it, my husband really didn't. It may be because I used no-soy GF soy sauce, which tastes a little different. I plan to cook it again, but it will probably be just for me.
I made a cassava crust beef pot pie with the extra beef I bought. It wasn't actually steak, I confess, just chuck. We had the pot pie twice.
We had fried chicken with buttered cauliflower mash and green beans.
I fried some hog jowl and served it with corn pone and oops, cauliflower, because it turned out I did not have squash in the freezer, and the summer squash in the stores just didn't look good. I looked at three stores for good summer squash and gave up on it.
Tonight will be whatever inspiration hits me as I grocery shop after work.
I stocked up on some things, so went over budget a chunk, but my average for the month is still doing pretty good, although some over budget. Since I also have nearly cleaned out my freezer when I defrosted it, I'm having to re-stock.
"Try to remember a time when subbing bacon in a recipe did NOT work out fine. Nothing? I came up dry too."
I got one: using bacon in New England Chowda. The proper product to use is salt pork. Bacon is too strongly flavored; if you use bacon the soup tastes like bacon rather than chowder.
You know, I do agree with you there. I tried a clam chowder recipe with bacon and I really did not love it.
Is there anything that bacon doesn't work with?
Meals for the week:
Monday - We were at my mom's place and ate some of her leftovers plus a roast chicken
Tuesday - Roast chicken, brown rice, zucchini
Wednesday - Ground Venison, Brown Rice, Steamed veggies and salad... the leaf kind instead of the chips.
Thursday - We had stuffed peppers from Costco. Easy dinner for a crazy night.
Friday - Today I'm going to a neighboring city with the kids and probably will go out for supper... I'm thinking burgers!!!
Monday: spaghetti and meatballs
Tuesday: pot roast, cheese grits, carrots
Wednesday: leftovers: roast for me, spaghetti for husband
Thursday: Sub sandwiches and baked chips
Tonight is still to be determined. We may go out.
It's just my husband and I, so I batch cook a lot. Usually Sundays and then another meal in the middle of the week. Saturday we'd gone to the grocery store for a few things and they had some premade Asian pork loin marked down. It looked delish and I had bought broccoli and ended up not cooking it with the original meal plan so that became Sunday & Monday dinner-Asian pork with broccoli and rice noodles. Tuesday I made a big pan of chicken taco bake that we are still eating! It's sort of like tacos and lasagna had a baby-layers of spicy chicken, peppers, corn and beans in sauce with corn tortillas, cheese and sour cream (ok I used my homemade plain yogurt instead.). Tasty!
Those pancakes look sooo good. Just when I've been thinking of them, there's a mouth watering photo.....
Here's our food choices for the week-
Sunday- leftover roasted chicken & vegetables
Monday- ham & eggs
Tuesday- scalloped potatoes and ham
Wednesday- oven fried chicken & fries
Thursday- beef enchiladas & pumpkin pie
Friday- fish sticks & fish burgers, I had a rice cilantro burrito
Saturday- spaghetti and homemade bread
Kristen, I had to smile at your veggie chips comment. Inside jokes like that build bonds between family members and help them stay connected in a special way. In our family of four, we have a number of words and phrases that make all of us smile but would make no sense to others. For example, for some forgotten reason, we adopted a line from the old TV show "Happy Days." When Al at the diner asked one of his teenage customers how the fish was, the reply was, "Not so good, Al." To this day, that line is used as a response to anything from how was your day to have you read that new book yet and we all "get it." It makes me feel like a card carrying member of some type of fun and secret family club!
I just remembered that you bought all those clothes from Stitch Fix, can't wait for a preview.
Loved my first Hungry Harvest box! In fact, I shared a picture of it, and a bunch of my church and neighborhood friends have already signed up. I don't think many people realized they were delivering in Detroit! My kids seemed slightly disappointed that the produce was so normal-looking. I think they were expecting some truly weird items, like square apples or triangle-shaped carrots or something. 😉
Trying to remember what we ate last week...
Su: Ordered pizza
M: Pork chops with veggies and parsley vinagrette (I got ATK's Dinner Illustrated with a Christmas gift certificate and have loved everything I've made from there, including this one)
T: Homemade pizza and Kraft mac & cheese (per older daughter's birthday request)
W: Chicken mole with cilantro-lime rice and beans (another Dinner Illustrated)
R: Spaghetti and meatballs
F: Pasta and tomato-cream sauce
Sa: Lemony shrimp with orzo and feta (yet another one from Dinner Illustrated)
Last year I made my first corned beef and cabbage dinner, in the Instant Pot, and I'm doing that again today.
I just read Educated for my book club! What an unbelievable story! It was tough to read, some parts made me so angry!