What I Spent, What We Ate | Too hot for the oven
What I Spent
After weeks of not doing a bang-up job of grocery shopping, I did actually do an honest-to-goodness shop.
The upside is that we have more food in the house. The downside is that I spent $212, which is more than usual.
(Apologies for the lack of a grocery photo!)
July Spending
Week 1: $189.96
Week 2: $212
What We Ate
Monday
I grilled citrus-marinated chicken, and I made a chorizo/potato/spinach side dish, pictured below.
Tuesday
I grilled some chicken sausages from Costco, and I cannot remember what we had with them!
Wednesday
I had a haircut at 6:00, so I made a pan of chicken enchiladas for the kids to throw in the oven while I was gone.
Thursday
The kids ate buttermilk pancakes early before we went to rehearsal. And after rehearsal, I made a pork chop and some potato cubes for Mr. FG. Plus sliced kiwi.
Friday
I know this is nothing to those of you who live in the desert but, it's been in the mid to upper 90s this week, which means it feels wayyy too hot to turn the oven on to 500 °.
So, I'm thinking maybe I should dust off my grilled pizza recipe. I may end up melting while I grill, but at least the heat will be outdoors.
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I've been sick this week, but it hasn't stopped us from doing well on the grocery front. We ate:
Monday - cold pasta with artichoke pesto
Tuesday - grilled ribs served with a Cook's Illustrated recipe for bok choy (a whim)
Wednesday - leftover ribs with boxed mac and cheese
Thursday - I had leftover mac and cheese and bok choy, and made hubs leftover chicken from Sunday remade with some Nando's peri peri sauce, steamed rice, bok choy, and a salad
Friday - we are on the "no oven" bandwagon. I might make eggplant sauce for pasta, if we don't do our usual carbonara
Congrats on staying on the grocery bandwagon, sick or not.
Kristen, I'm in Florida, and I can agree that the heat, humidity and lack of cooling down at night makes this a miserable time to cook in the oven. I'm using the crockpot and stovetop as much as possible, but when I use the oven, I use my convection oven/microwave -- it's so much smaller and heats and cools faster because of it. I bought it years ago just because I could use it as a regular oven for small things as well as a microwave.
This week was all cooked at home as usual:
We had grilled bacon and cheese sandwiches with chopped salad, cottage cheese and fruit.
We had tacos one night.
We had barbecued chicken, stovetop beans and fried cut corn with fresh tomatoes from our yard.
We had veggie night, with steamed and mashed butternut squash, which was incredibly sweet and delicious, sautéed chard, and fried eggplant slices from our home grown eggplant.
Tonight I'm eating with my small group at a friend's house and my husband will cook for himself, probably indulging in a little shrimp.
I'm amazed! I remembered what we ate!
Ooooh I love all of the grilled recipes this week! That chicken looks absolutely divine.
Unfortunately our menu has not been working out this week! It's been one miss after another. Boo!
Monday: King ranch casserole. We used week-old cooked chicken in this, and it actually made Mr. Picky Pincher sick. I think we made pasta instead.
Tuesday: Spaghetti squash lo mein was the plan. But we went to look at a house and then picked up dinner for our family. We had the spaghetti squash for lunch on Wednesday, but it wasn't seasoned very well.
Wednesday: One pot pasta. Sighhh. What's usually our most reliable dish did not turn out very well! We had to use a different pasta, so it just wasn't the same, and for some reason all of the spinach clumped up on us.
Thursday: We were supposed to have hot dogs, but it turns out we ate all of them last weekend! Oops! So we broke down and bought fried chicken, which means we didn't meet our goal this week of not eating out.
Friday: Tonight we're supposed to have BLTs for dinner, and I am hoping that they are delicious!
BLTs can't help but be delicious, right??
My husband grills extra on the weekends for us to use during the week so we ended up with a lot of chicken dishes and sausage with various sides...
I know we ate chicken with potato wedges and blueberries, chicken/shrimp in a basil cream pasta with bread, and sausage, chips and cucumbers from a friend's garden. There is a day missing in there that I can't remember for the life of me!
Made chocolate chip zucchini bread with the surplus of said vegetable from the garden and tonight might be more chicken with salad and tomatoes from the garden.
I have a surplus of yellow squash that I need to use up, though it is not a favorite of anyone except me here.
Thankful to avoid any take out this week, though it is tempting with the high heat outdoors. I am glad the humidity has not been as bad as it could be, though my husband got to work outdoors most of the week and he said it was still draining.
I always feel bad for outdoor workers at times like these. Especially roofers. I don't know how they do it!
I sympathize on the weird purchasing and having to catch up. It's been hard to get back into the swing of things but we're slowly getting there. I feel accomplished in that I've only spent $50 on groceries this month and the month is half over. Of course, that is because we've eaten out of the freezer and had some cheap (but healthy) meals.
Monday: We had friends over on Saturday and ended up with a lot of leftovers so we ate leftover "grilled" chicken. Well, it was supposed to be grilled but due to some downpours I did it on a cast iron grill pan (the kind that goes over two burners) and finished the cooking in the oven.
Tuesday: Very hot around here so we had grilled cheese and tossed salad night.
Wednesday: The wife made me corned beef and I had a baked sweet potato with it.
Thurday: Wife was away on business so it was corned beef sandwich with Swiss cheese. Essentially a Ruben without the nasty sauerkraut.
Friday: Bible study tonight so I have no idea what we're having. We may bring something but we'll see.
I agree with Liz above that the oven stays OFF. I broke that rule to make some Apple Bread pudding I saw on a Tasty video, because it used up some white bread and wrinkly apples, but for the most part, we are doing skillet meals.
Sunday - take out fried chicken with some instant masheds and green beans I had, because I had been at work for 12 hours...
Monday - Two cans of different beans (pinto and black) with chopped up leftover brisket from the freezer, garlic toast.
Tuesday - An extra dish of Chili Mac from the freezer, with a corn and zucchini side
Wednesday - Pre-seasoned chipotle chicken thighs from Wal-Mart cooked a la chicken and rice, but with quinoa, and a salad
Thursday - Tilapia with homemade Ranch seasoning, some sauteed onions and tomatoes, and a side of green beans with bacon and potato.
Tonight - I am going to get some meatballs to add to my homemade marinara in the freezer. I have dibs and dabs of pasta to use up, too. And, a salad.
I am trying to make more "dinners on the fly" using stuff we already have in the freezer and pantry. No more oven, no more casseroles. Focusing on a meat, a veg, maybe a starch, done. Our grocery bill is purty dang high, but this last stop was at Wal-mart and some non-grocery items were purchased.
Getting lots of ideas from the lists above!
I love reading what everyone makes each week....it gives me great ideas for when I am just stumped for the following weeks menu plan. The next 2 weeks I am going to try my best to do a "No Spend" period (minus fresh milk) to help catch up with some other expenses that have come up. I have a birthday coming up so two days I already have plans to be taken out to dinner to celebrate!
This weeks meals were:
Monday: Tacos with all the fixings and grilled corn on the cob
Tuesday: Chicken Stir-fry with white rice
Wednesday: Leftovers
Thursday: Pasta & Meatballs
Friday: Piazza & Salad
I have a habit of cooking "extra" so there will be leftovers for lunches and this week there seemed to be an abundance so I thru in a "dinner" to use everything up. I hate to throw anything away!
Macaroni salad!
90s is SUPER hot when the humidity is high! As it is here - so my sympathies 🙂 Now I must go dig up your citrus marinated chicken recipe!
I don't have that recipe up here...it's from the Cook's Country issue that just arrived last week!
I don't remember everything, I've fallen off the meal-planning wagon so it's scattershot. This is what I do remember:
- Pollo de Tinga, from the newest Cooks Illustrated. Meh. It's essentially chicken simmered in salsa. Theirs was fine, but not so much better than simmering the chix in a nice jarred salsa that the extra work was justified.
- Donburi (soupy Japanese scrambled eggs), from fresh, pastured eggs. One reason I made this super easy dish is that I smoked bacon and random pig parts yesterday. So hot!
- Breakfast for Dinner tonight. Some of that scrumptious bacon and Overnight French Toast with the remnants of the challah I made last weekend.
Saturday I was at a friend's house for his birthday. He and his wife made the snacky food that we had. My faves were the yellow-tomato gazpacho and the "umami bombs": sous-vide steak, blue cheese, and balsamic reduction on toast.
Sunday I went shopping for clothes, which required fueling along the way. I don't like clothes shopping at the best of times and doing it hungry is just Right Out. We had half-sandwiches at Cosi; inevitably I had Cosi's equivalent of my friend's umami bombs - the steak & gorgonzola melt.
I must concur with GirlFriday - 90s in the humid east is a whole different animal from 90s in the dry arid west!
My go-to meal in the heat of the summer is salads. I bake a bunch of boneless chicken in the evening when it's cool enough to tolerate it, then I just cut it up and add it to the salad du jour throughout the week. I'm currently loving a recipe made with grapefruit, scallions and pepitas (pumpkin seeds with the hulls removed) tossed with olive oil & rice vinegar over a bed of baby kale & spinach. Grilled salmon would go well on that one as well. Seriously though, I just add some cooked chicken to any salad and call it dinner!
It is midwinter here. The weather is overcast and for my part of the world it is cool. But sickness has invaded. So from memory here goes. There were two nights at restaurants. The 15th was my daughter's birthday and she chose a vegan restaurant. It was very tasty. On Wednesday I went to the Polish club with a group. I hoped for a wonderful experience but it sadly lacked. We have had chicken burgers, blts and that is about it. No one has energy for anything.
Aww, I hope you guys are feeling better soon!
I know I cooked on Sunday because the husband was leaving for work trip the next day.. I cannot recall what I cooked though...
Monday I made BLT's for the kids and I, served with lots of fresh fruit.
Tuesday we went to the water park and took PBJ, pretzles, cookies and fruits. They were Starving but I made them suffer on the way home.. grilled the remainder of a package of beef patties and served with leftover bacon, fresh fruits and veggies...
Weds- It had cooled some.. since I watched the weather and knew this was coming I defrosted a meatloaf I had in freezer. baked that and served with corn and buttered noodles.
Thurs- kids are leftover meatloaf and fruit...I ate a bowl of mixed fruits
Friday- defrosted a pack of chicken breasts all day. After we picked husband up at airport I grilled them and left the kids plain.. I slathered our with a healthy portion of homemade pesto and sliced provolone! Served with steamed broccoli just cut from the garden and a box of couscous!
Freezers looking rather empty but that is great! Less spent on take out!
I wish it was in the 90s here in the West. Try more like 105 😉
This was definitely a bad week in meal planning. The weather always throws you for a loop.
Sunday - Out to dinner night
Monday - Swedish meatballs with stir fry zucchini from the garden
Tuesday - crockpot pulled pork with cabbage salad
Wednesday - leftovers
Thursday - went out to dinner AGAIN
Friday - grilled hamburgers and side salad
Thrilled that the hubby cooked M-F. We had salads and fruit at every meal.
Monday - Panini's using left over sliced turkey
Tuesday - Broccoli with noodles and cheese
Wednesday - Bacon but I don't recall what with
Thursday - used up rest of bacon with burgers and cheese
Friday - open house - someone made meatballs with sweet and sour sauce (Yum!!)
they also made a bean (we all thought it was chili but he said it wasn't) dish with hamburg, pinto beans, lima beans, tomato chunks & kidney beans it was delish!
Today - didn't want to heat the house up so I made a whole roaster in a pressure cooker then threw it on the grill for 10 minutes. It was so moist. We had cucumber salad, noodles and fried green beans.
Hi Kristen! I notice in your shopping posts that you typically have a range of items (frozen, canned, fresh). How do you determine which you buy? Do you typically go for fresh whenever possible? Or are there some things you always get that are canned and frozen?
I'm finding I'm not a huge fan of frozen veggies, and the cans take up a ton of space. But fresh doesn't have nearly as long of a shelf life and I'm going shopping more often than I like.
How do you balance these? Have you ever thought about it?
I pretty much never buy canned veggies (except for tomato products), and I rarely buy frozen ones either. Veggies are just better fresh!
I buy frozen fruit mainly for use in smoothies. And I keep a can or two of things like mandarin oranges around to throw in fruit salads or in green salads. And then other than that, I use fresh fruit.