What I spent, what we ate | Snow Week
What I spent
It's a bit confusing to calculate my grocery totals this week because my shopping was all-over-the-place, due to the wintry weather we had this week.
All told, I spent $175.27, but I only have a photo of the $97 of groceries I bought in the middle of the week this week.
I found several packages of marked-down chicken and sausage, which was perfect because I needed sausage for my jambalaya. I frozen the chicken for future use.
I was super pleased to find these bags of frozen fruit marked down at Aldi. I often buy, cut, and freeze fresh pineapple for smoothies, but this is even better because there's mango too!
Spending Tally for January
Week one: $195.93
Week two: $189.22
Week three: $120.13
Week four: $175.27
January total: $680.55, or $170/week.
What We Ate
Breakfasts were green smoothies for Mr. FG and me, cereal/toast/smoothies for the kids. And lunches were our usual combo of leftovers or sandwiches.
I mentioned yesterday on Instagram that we drank hot chocolate from a homemade mix after sledding. It's a little hard to share links on a phone, so, here's the hot chocolate mix recipe. I forgot I'd posted it in a stream of consciousness post, so it's mixed in with some old photos of my kids, and photos of me pregnant with Zoe. Maybe I should give it a post of its own!
Anyway. Dinners were as follows:
Monday
It was Zoe's turn to cook, and she made ground beef tacos with me. We had guacamole, blender salsa and tortilla chips with those.
Tuesday
I meant to make jambalaya, but realized I had no chicken broth made. Whoops. So, I got my chicken bone stash out of the freezer and made some tasty chicken broth. It wasn't done quite in time for dinner, though, so I got a pan of stuffed shells out of the freezer and baked those.
I made two loaves of french bread to go along with that, but, um, I left the salt out by accident. The bread is barely edible without salt, even if you SLATHER it in butter, so I cut my losses and threw out the uneaten loaf and a half. So sad.
We had a green salad with our stuffed shells too.
Wednesday
I did actually make the jambalaya. Yay! It's one of my current favorite things to eat. I thawed some homemade applesauce to go with it.
Thursday
Lisey helped me make sloppy joes, and I made fluffy hamburger buns.
Friday
Last Friday, it ended up being just Mr. FG, Joshua, and me here, so we got a pizza from a local shop. I still haven't bought bread flour (I forgot about it until this very minute!) so we'll see what we end up with tonight. Maybe pizza subs?
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What did you eat at your house this week?
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P.S. Check back in tomorrow morning for my new once-a-month Saturday post, featuring a goal check-in and a list of what I've been reading/listening to/etc.
I'm sorry about the bread. I once lived inTuscany where the bread is traditionally made without salt. It took some getting used to. Now I dream of that bread. If you make that mistake again, keep the bread. You can still make bread salad or bread soup or pan-fried bread crumbs where the bread soaks up all the salty goodness around it.
Oh, man...it's hard to imagine wanting to eat that bread! It just tastes so empty.
If you were my neighbor, I'd have given it to you. 😉
I did that once...left the salt out.
But then I sliced it and slathered it with the butter, sprinkled some salt and garlic and it made amazing garlic bread and and you couldn't tell it was missing the salt in the baked bread. Croutons might have been a good save?
I did think about croutons, but given that the bread tasted so bland even when slathered with salted butter, I was hesitant to try croutons. I was worried I'd be risking the waste of perfectly good butter!
Ha! I know. I know. The big dilemma...risking the chance of wasting more precious ingredients. :o)
Now you know, if you butter it up, and season it well, including a sprinkle of salt on each of the already, salted buttered bread pieces, you can make a save.
Or, what about this...bread pudding? I know that's a tricky one because not everyone loves bread pudding, but there are several amazing recipes for pumpkin pie bread puddings that rival any great dessert on a given day.
And when it contains pumpkin...we count it as healthy and have it for breakfast. Just remember to add that extra dash of salt.
Ha! which means this is a great save for french bread that is just getting old....
xo
I was thinking it could be used for bread crumbs or stuffing.
I'm also reminded of something I learned about old bread recipes. A hundred years ago or more, yeast was weaker and not as reliable. Since salt kills yeast, bakers back then used much less salt than we do - no more than a teaspoon per loaf. We would have found that bread quite bland for that reason.
I sympathize with the no salt bread problem. I am afraid I have made that mistake more than once!! I have a neighbor with chickens, so at least it isn't wasted.....or maybe it is, because I have never actually seen them eating it....haha.
Since groceries is currently our largest bill each month and I lost my job Monday. I have to start really being frugal while food shopping! I'll me paying extra attention to these blogs 🙂 thank you!
I am so sorry about your job!
I've done that with bread too! Ugh. You could salvage it by turning it into a breakfast casserole or french toast casserole or something like that.
My hesitation was that it tasted awful even slathered in salted butter, so I thought it might be beyond the help of a breakfast casserole!
I never put salt in bread but if you could not eat it you could always make a bread pudding. Soak the bread in just enough milk to make the bread moist and squiggy add honey or sugar to taste beat in 1 egg and a nob of melted butter. Add mixed. Spice to your taste and dried fruit place in an oven at 350F until a knife comes out of the pudding clean. Slice and enjoy hot or cold.
We calculate our spending monthly, and this month we spent 500$ for groceries and 2 restaurants outings (with Groupon), so it was a good month!!
What we ate this week
- Orzo + chili (not a winner!)
- Thai curry on rice
- Rice and chili (better!)
- Chicken fried rice
Lots of rice this week!!
Tonight will probable be omelets for the kids and a small racquelette for hubby and I (date in!)
And my kids are so used to ear me say we are having leftovers for supper that my 6 year old asked me yesterday : " Do we have enough leftovers to invite my friend for supper?" !!!
I have to say, we have really curbed our eating out since we added up our totals for the last 4 months and were floored at the amount we ate out. We did well, only eating out once so far this week and that was because yesterday we were rushed and had to leave to go to Memphis (an hour drive) for my spouse's night class. I went along for company. I didn't have time to make lunch so I stopped at Moe's with a BOGO burrito coupon. Man, we each had a HUGE veggie burrito and chips for $7! TOTAL!
I wanted to go to the grocery in Memphis to see if anyone had some reasonably priced cumin! The Aldi here has been out for 3 weeks and I'm not paying $5 an ounce at Kroger if I can get it somewhere like Aldi where it's $1 for nearly 4 oz.
I want to tell you, I went to two Kroger's, Aldi, Whole Foods, and an International Farmer's Market before I found some that wasn't highway robbery! I finally found some at the IFM and it was 6 oz for $3. Luckily, they have very good $1.19 tofu as well so I got a couple of those. I think I probably spent any savings on gas but...you know, at least now I know!
I've been making pizza on flour tortillas that I keep in the freezer. It's not as good as making the dough yourself, but it makes for a quick meal in a pinch.
I love seeing the stuffed animals back in the grocery pics!
I remembered this time!
What type or name of chicken sausage do you use in the jambalya? There are so many flavored ones out there and I am not sure which ones would taste good in the recipe.
Thanks!
Mary V
I've used Aidell's Andouille sausage before, but plain smoked sausage works fine too, if you prefer less spice. Smithfield or Johnsonville might be a brand that you'd have?
I only have $200/month to spend on food. I need some suggestions for meals, I can never make it til the end
That is a hard place to be! Perhaps this post from my friend Angela will be helpful: http://www.groceryshrink.com/top-15-economic-survival-foods/
Thank you Kristen for sharing this link. I too have a VERY limited food budget and it is so hard to go shopping. This article confirmed that I have been doing some things right and there are some things that I need to tweak and rethink. What do you use to grind your whole wheat and where do you buy the whole wheat grains/berries? That is something I have been wondering for years.
Oh, sorry about the bread! but great looking week otherwise . . .
Tried to spend less on groceries. Had dinner with Grown Up Daughter Sunday night (got to hear about boyfriend woes!) and tried to mostly eat what was here with exceptions for fresh stuff. Bought, Kale, Broccoli, Salad greens, tangerines, 1/2 price ground turkey, peppers marked down bin, etc.
Monday -- Lentil soup from stuff here except some 99 cent organic Kale
Tuesday -- 1/2 priced fresh tortellini with peas and sautéed shrooms, broccoli
Wednesday -- Ill-wrought turkey meatloaf (1/2 priced ground turkey) with broccoli, last of frozen fries from 1 -2 years ago? and salad. Just not great - tried a new recipe, added lots of stuff, meh. Have 2 mini loaves to use up -- sauce? sandwiches? will be meal next week, I fear.
Thursday -- rerun of Lentil soup, salad.
Friday -- Treat Night! Have a great weekend!
Try chopping the meatloaf up small and using it in a spaghetti meatsauce or shepherd's pie. Either of those should cover the flavor of the meatloaf, but still have it provide a satisfying meatiness.
That is a great idea -- I've been trying to figure something out so thank you! Maybe no one will notice . . .
Not a good meal week in my house, I'm afraid.
Saturday: McDonalds
Sunday: random things from the fridge
Monday: chicken and peas for me, not sure about my husband
Tuesday: Eggs and toast for me, not sure about my husband
Wednesday: leftover chicken and peas for me, not sure about my husband
Thursday: Green smoothie and some chicken for me, not sure about my husband
Friday: Hopefully we'll have some sort of chicken pasta dish.
As you can see, we've fended for ourselves this week (I'm pretty sure that my husband ate out for at least 2 of those meals). Also, I've eaten out for lunches twice. And we've thrown away a half-pound of raw shrimp, some soup that never got eaten, and an entire batch of rice. Yup, a very bad week indeed. Here's to next week being better!
It's hard to do well every single week. Looks like you did pretty well!. A lot of people would just go to a drive through but you made due with what you had MOST of the time. It's helpful for me to see that others have tough weeks too. So, thanks for your post!
FYI I threw away a whole pot of chili from last week because I didn't get it frozen in family sized servings in time and it had mold all over it. A crock pot almost full of perfectly good chili that would feed us for a few meals totally wasted.
We all have weeks like that sometimes...but the important thing is to just pick back and up and try again the next week. You won't always have weeks like this one!
French bread is great for bread pudding. I usually reduce the amount of salt in almost every recipe so I don't think I would have minded the taste. Actually, I think most foods are over-salted--funny how we all have our own preferences.
Happily surprised the animals are back in your shopping photo! I'd been missing them . . .
Your homemade buns look so good! Gonna try them soon. Hmm, so hard for me to remember...
Monday-Mustard Peach pork chops, mac&cheese, green beans, and a small peach cobbler-I used lean thin cut chops from a pork loin I had cut by the butcher so these are $1.60 per meal, the peaches were a gift for free that I got 2 years ago then cut up and froze.I have tons of frozen peaches and am so thankful for them. I used part of the peaches for my pork chop glaze and the other part for the cobbler. Mac&cheese was a FFD from Kroger. Green beans were $.49. This whole meal was around $3 including the milk, flour, sugar etc. for my small cobbler! I don't like to used canned vegetables but I do occasionally when everybody is "starving" at my house.
Tues- Tacos-everything I used in this meal was a reduced item.Ground turkey, tomatoes, onions, taco shells, and cheese. I think I figured up that this meal only cost us $4 to feed my family of four so I am proud of that.
Wed- Crock pot roast and potatoes with popovers-I was originally going to roast some fresh cabbage to this meal to be more healthy but I ran out of time.Good thing we had veggies for lunch. This was so delicious! I got a huge good cut of beef for roast for $9.I cut it in half and put one half in the freezer. I pretty much know how much my family will eat and they don't really like leftovers, which annoys me. I actually used a recipe for Yorkshire pudding popovers. This was perfect with the gravy made from the roast. The meal was less than $6.
Thurs- Hamburgers with roasted spiral cut sweet potatoes. I only ate the hamburger patty with lettuce and tomato on top. I'm trying to cut back on bread some(except Wednesday I couldn't resist, lol). I got a new spiralizer on sale for veggies. Those potatoes were so good roasted. The little curly strings got kinda crispy so it had a "french fry like" appeal. Was too stringy to pick up and eat so we ate it with a fork kinda like a hash.
Friday- Hmmm, I have no idea.
1. Always smiling at the stuffed critters posing amongst the groceries.
2. Love clicking through to some of your older posts. I found a new hot cocoa "mix" from ATK-uses chocolate chips and heavy cream that you make into balls of ganache and freeze. Add milk and heat. Yummy, rich, and not too expensive.
3. You inspired me to take something out of the freezer for dinner. The unplanned meal could have let to unnecessary eating out.
Ooh, chocolate chips and heavy cream sound amazing.
http://www.americastestkitchenfeed.com/super-quick-video-tips/2013/12/diy-instant-hot-chocolate-in-a-mind-blowing-form-video/
I think I need some now 😉
Ooh! That looks good. I feel like maybe a homemade-hot-chocolate testing needs to happen at my house. I have another ATK dry mix recipe we could add to our lineup. And a vitamix version too.
The last time I forgot the salt in the French bread I salvaged it by cutting into cubes, shaking the cubes in a bag with olive oil and garlic salt and baked for croutons. We used the croutons in salads and soups. I was surprised they turned out as well as they did! lol
M--Chicken salad, rolls, fruit
T-- Balsamic Italian chicken (crockpot) over whole wheat rigatoni, fruit
W--Salads, topped with leftover chicken and mozzarella, Italian dressing, ice cream
T--Beef stew, rice, mixed berries
F--Veggie and cheese pizza, salads
Yeah, as the week progressed and the alarm bells for a blizzard was getting louder we hit the store too. We go through record amounts of hot cocoa during the aftermath of snowstorms here (it's the preferred currency for show shoveling) so that certainly was on the list.
We had roast chicken, chili, soups (thanks to the leftover roast chicken), nachos (using up the last of the ground beef and veggies), and a casserole. For breakfasts we generally ate our usual (cereal or eggs) but I did make homemade waffles and a breakfast casserole to use up the eggs and a few other dos and ends. Lunches were generally leftovers from dinner.
All in all, it went well. We were fortunate not to lose power and keeping the oven going helped to augment heating the main level of the house. It was also nice to have time to make some dishes that are a bit more time consuming than our two full-time jobs and sports/activity schedule can usually accommodate. I only had to go to the grocery store just this morning to replenish fresh greens, fruit and milk.
Thankfully, my son's school doesn't follow the county's lead on snow days so he has been back to school for two days now and he's happily taking leftovers in a thermos to school. Win win.
You know, after we shoveled, we were so hot and sweaty, no one wanted hot chocolate!
I had smoothies for breakfast every day, made from fruit what had seen better days. For lunch I brought to work either homemade soup or spaghetti squash and homemade vegan "meat sauce." For dinner, it was left-overs from the blizzard. Last night night we ordered in Indian food and got a great deal from Seamless (a food delivery service in NYC).
Yum! I need to come to dinner at our house.
This week was...weird. I may or may not have started a small grease fire on Wednesday which resulted in eating out Wednesday and Thursday. The other days were just eating up leftovers from the weekend. Next week will be better...and if not at least flame free (hopefully!)
Monday - tried this recipe: http://www.thekitchenmagpie.com/classic-beef-tomato-macaroni-soup, it was a success. Delicious and easy.
Tuesday - leftover beef-tomato-macaroni (there are only 3 of us at home right now - this recipe makes a lot. There were still leftovers after Tuesday for someone's lunch on Wednesday.)
Wednesday - ham & bean & kale soup in the crockpot, using the ham bone from Thanksgiving that's been in the freezer.
Thursday - leftover ham & bean & kale soup, plus hot crescent rolls (that were on sale) since this is the 2nd time to have leftovers for supper this week.
Friday - going to a hockey game and nothing is prepared so we'll see! We have a lot of eggs, and a bit of fresh spinach left, so if there's time I'll make omelettes.
Shopping was a little strange this week. I spent about $40 on milk, yogurt & fresh fruit, but we had 1/4 beef and 4 dozen eggs delivered which cost $730 and should keep us going for a long time. We buy our meat in bulk direct from a local farmer which makes grocery budgeting a little erratic. I have to look at things on more of an annual basis.
I've been known to salt my toast or bread for sandwiches when the salt has been left out. 🙂
Smoothies...my daughter got out the blender to make one last night for an after school snack. It's been a while, but I had some fresh mango from Aldi (.79 at my new favorite store!!) and some yogurt, and she had a delicious snack!
Had a good week, spent my budget as had to get extra stuff like nappies however as they were on special in Aldi decided to stock up.
1. M:Chilli con carne & rice
2. T: Burritos
3. W:Beef stew, potatos& veg
4. T: stir fry with rice
5. f: cooked ham with veg & potato
Used up leftovers for lunchs.. & my go to in time of need, eggs in their various forms..you can't beat them!
We have been eating a lot of Roasted Potatoes. Aldi had red potatoes for 99¢ a bag!
We have recently been revamping our budget (or...ahem...using one), so it has been interesting to see what we really 'need' verses what gets thrown into the cart when trying to shop with 4 preschoolers. This week we had: tator tot casserole, beef stroganoff (ground turkey from Aldi, less than $2/lb), hot ham n cheese sandwiches and leftovers. Today, I utilized our 'eating out' fund and spent a little of it on pizza delivered for lunch, which the girls took also in their dinner to parents night out at church. We went through a 5 lb bag of carrots that I peeled and cut and left in a bowl in the fridge for at will snacking, price matched cherry tomatoes .99 at Aldi, 2.58 at walmart and have almost finished 3 containers of those. Our girls do best with sides that are just straight up plain fruit or veggies, so we did a lot of the ones mentioned (sometimes when they want a snack close to dinner, I give them their vegetable early), plus oranges and bananas (all to counteract the heavy dose of comfort carbs served this week).
Last night, I made a chicken pot pie ( cooked out chicken pieces, 1 can of cream of chicken soup diluted with water, a bag of thawed mixed veg and a half box of pie crust dough for the top). Mixed it all in a pie pan and made a top crust. Cooked it for an hour. Everyone loved it.
Tonight was scalloped potatoes and ham from a leftover ham.
Tomorrow, we are helping the church with a spaghetti dinner so we eat for free. 🙂
Our meyer lemon tree has many lemons ready to go....I'll make a butter lemon cookie to die for and some lemon pound cakes for the ladies at church.
Kristen- sorry about the bread.
Kelly- sorry about the job loss. I feel your pain...We are very familiar with that and struggle as well.
We have purposefully made a salt free bread, but decided we prefer a low-sodium bread. So anytime recipe calls for salt in the bread, I add only about a 1/4 teaspoon and for us that is plenty, but we are used to a much lower sodium diet than we used to be. Restaurant food often tastes way too salty for us, especially our short time in Tennessee. California and Wisconsin isn't quite as salty. (Okay, I think Wisconsin restaurant food was even a tad saltier than California. But take out Chinese seems salty everywhere!)
Thanks for this reminder for me to post my meals on my blog. Will get to it shortly. 🙂
Between the baking post, this post, and the comments I feel inspired again! I am 4 months pregnant so I have been uninspired lately on what to cook for dinner and easy/ready meals just don't do it for us. Another dilemma has been that we moved into our house in June and the wall oven doesn't work and it was waaaaay too old to repair. So after months of waiting/shopping for a new oven and baking out of a toaster oven I am going to have an oven to cook out of tomorrow! (Queue the angels rejoicing) I am going to bake and cook like a madwoman. During Christmas we went on vacation and stayed in a place with a kitchen. It was 85 degrees out and I baked a lasagna. Everyone was so happy, including me. I can't wait to get back to that happy place again!
Yay for a working oven!