WIS, WWA | $14, $15, $16
What I Spent
gratuitous kitten photo
I spent:
- $14 at BJ's
- $15 at Aldi
- $16 at Weis
- $7 at Giant
So, $52 total.
I did not do this on purpose, but I realized my first three receipts are in numerical order, quite by happenstance!
If only I had spent $18 at Giant, it would have been perfect. 🙂
What We Ate
Saturday
I just threw a bag of Trader Joe's frozen orange chicken in the oven, cooked some Jasmine rice, and cut up some produce.
Sunday
We were at my parents' pool and we grilled bratwurst there.
Monday
I am trying to get my iron levels high enough to donate blood, so I put burgers on the menu.
We had raw veggies and watermelon on the side, plus some potato chips left from Sunday.
Did I store the extra watermelon half with my silicone cover??
Yes, yes I did!
Tuesday
I sautéed a bag of frozen sea scallops from Aldi*, toasted some Italian bread, and sautéed some Hungry Harvest asparagus.
*advantage of having only two diners: a $10 bag of sea scallops is enough for dinner!
Wednesday
I made a green salad topped with brineraded chicken, mandarin oranges, blueberries, and sugared almonds.
And we had toasted Italian bread on the side.
Thursday
Sonia did her math placement test (college algebra or pre-calc, here she comes!) and we decided to celebrate with Chick-Fil-A takeout, which is Sonia's favorite.
I had plenty of money in the grocery budget to cover it. 🙂
Friday
I think I am either going to try a recipe for an Asian noodle dish or an orzo dish, both of which look super easy and quick.
Right now I wish I lived in the USA as I love that blender.
This week I had planned what I wanted to cook. Ove the week we have had beef stew, cottage pie, hamburgers with homemade patties, fish cakes are on the plan as well.
I realized as I was writing up my own Friday Food post that this week we ate ram meat, bull meat, AND rooster meat this last week. The moral of that story? Excess males don't last long. 🙂
Saturday: I pressure-cooked some bull meat, and then used some of the liquid to make a gravy. Also we had mashed potatoes and green beans.
Sunday: Roasted chicken, roasted potatoes, cucumbers (from the garden! yay!) with salt and vinegar, and, at eldest son's request, tricky "flourless brownie cookies" to which I added one too many egg whites and created what looked just like cow patties. Tasted okay, but definitely not the sort of thing you eat with your eyes.
Monday: First day back at work at the school, so definitely leftovers. I used the leftover chicken and its juices to make chicken and gravy--weird that I made gravy twice in one week. I hardly ever make it normally. Half my children LOVE it, half don't. We also had leftover mashed potatoes, bread and butter, and frozen peas.
Tuesday: Our neighbors brought us two roosters, which I pressure-cooked, then stripped the meat and mixed it with salsa, garlic powder, vinegar, and chile powder to make taco meat. We also had pressure-canned pinto beans and carrot sticks.
Wednesday: Work again, so leftovers again. Some had barbecue beef made from the last of the pressure-cooked bull--kids as sandwiches, adults just the meat--some had leftover chicken tacos. My youngest son had both, because he's in one of those alarming eating phases where he's eating more than anyone else in the house, despite only being six years old. We all had raw carrots and cucumbers (from the garden! yay!), and then the kids all had bread and butter and apricot jam when the eldest son got home from football practice.
Thursday: An atypical work day as I was subbing for another staff member. So . . . leftovers. This time the last of the roasted chicken mixed with two bags of frozen stir-fry vegetables, soy sauce, vinegar, garlic powder, and peanut butter to make stir-fry. I had made rice Tuesday just for the this meal, so it was fast.
Tonight: Lots of stir-fry left, which will make the two stir-fry-loving kids happy. Some chicken taco meat for the two who aren't so enthused.
@kristin @ going country, As I read “Ou neighbors brought us two roosters” I had a mental visual of two happy roosters strutting around … then the next line, “which I pressure cooked …” - oh my goodness, if you could have seen my face the second that mental image changed!!
@mkmitch, Oops. Sorry. I didn't mean to cause distress. This all seems so normal to me now, I forget how abnormal it is to most people.
@kristin @ going country,
The cow patties, the roosters, the truncated lives of "excess males" -- just laughing through the whole thing! Thank you!
Going from cooking for 6 to cooking for 2 is a huge change! Another area where I imagine it's helpful to have the change be gradual.
Saturday: Cheeseburgers, summer squash puffs (kind of like hushpuppies), green beans, and corn on the cob.
Sunday: Pork roast, macaroni salad, and zucchini for lunch. Pizza for dinner.
Monday: Chili cheese dogs, summer squash casserole, and green beans.
Tuesday: The day where I let my oldest pick her last fun summer thing to do. We went swimming at an indoor pool, got dinner at the cafe (I got a steak and cheese panini with a salad), then had swim lessons. Tired kids at the end of the day!
Wednesday: BBQ chicken thighs, leftover squash casserole, corn on the cob.
Thursday: Our last day of swim lessons. I had a tomato sandwich. The kids had lunch meat, carrots, cucumbers, and peaches. My husband found some hot dogs and chicken nuggets after the kids went to bed. Slim pickings! I'm going to the store later this morning.
Friday: Burrito bowls and fruit... probably grapes.
So true! Imagine if my kids were quadruplets and they all left for college at the same time. That would be quite a shock.
@Ruth T, loooove tomato sandwiches only if tomatoes are home grown or very ripe
@Stephanie, My tomatoes have just started coming in!! 🙂
Even though we have been empty nesters for over five years, I still struggle with cooking for just the two of us. Many of my favorite recipes make more servings that we need or can eat as leftovers before I get sick of them. And some days, it just doesn't feel worth cooking.
Sunday: Chicken alfredo from Costco
Monday: Pepperoni pepper penne with garlic bread on side
Tuesday: Salmon patties, mashed potatoes, green beans and watermelon
Wednesday: Leftovers and fend for yourself night
Thursday: red beans and rice, watermelon on the side
Friday: Undecided but likely homemade pizza
Monday...Had to use cabbage from garden up so ground venison, cabbage, canned tomatoes, onion, peppers over rice.
Tues..chicken fried venison with gravey and rice (my 2 Littles don't mashed potatoes)
Wed..Make your on sub sandwiches and watermelon.
Thurs..Roasted chicken thighs, roasted fingerling potatoes from garden, watermelon.
Fri..Leaving for weekend huckleberry picking camping trip. Hot dogs, mac salad and sandwich fixing for the next 2 days.
Another week of batch cooking over here. I spent $175 at Costco this week on lots of pantry items - flour, oil, salt, tuna, canned chicken, walnuts, pecans, crackers, peanut butter, coffee & a few other things I can't remember off the top of my head.
We ate pork chops that I stewed in the crockpot, beef stew, rice, fresh corn sauteed with a variety of peppers from the garden and onion, steamed cabbage, a large green salad, corn on the cob, walnut muffins with golden raisins, & sausage balls.
I have a large batch of chili beans cooking in the crockpot now and the plan is t enjoy some this evening and freeze the rest for use later.
Today is Friday and the hubby has been working overtime like crazy so we may have a little take out this evening and just chill or I may make us some chili and a baked potato and just chill. We will see how the evening goes.
Happy weekend everyone!
I am just a one person household and find it extremely tedious to only cook for me.
@Jaybee Martin, me too!
I rarely (not sure ever) answer the question of what we eat because we have SO MANY nights of leftovers. I have found that I tend to cook 2-3 times a week, then we have leftovers the other nights. Thankfully, both my husband and I don't mind eating the same thing over and over. I know I could freeze things (and sometimes I do), but this seems to work for us. As you said, it's hard to just cook for two when I'm used to cooking for five!
What we ate last week:
Sunday--Enchiladas (leftover from when our kids visited a couple days earlier) and salad
Monday--Leftover Fiesta (little bits of this and that to clear out all leftovers)
Tuesday--Adobo Chicken stir-fry (leftover from when we had Adobo a few days earlier) and egg rolls (frozen from Sam's Club)
Wednesday--Talapia, quinoa, and broccoli with cheese
Thursday--frozen pizza (Wal-Mart sells a self-rising small pizza for $2.98--the two of us eat half and save the other half for another time) and we had carrot sticks with that
Friday--leftover pizza and carrot sticks
Saturday--hot dogs, chips, and carrot and cucumber sticks
@Debby, We LOVE leftovers, too, and happily eat the same thing over and over, though I must say your menu looks delicious and far more varied than ours 😉
I guess it’s an adjustment on both ends of the child spectrum, after several years of just cooking for my husband and I, I found it an adjustment once my kids weren’t babies and needed to eat with us. They aren’t picky eaters but certain dishes just didn’t work as well for a family of 4 (or required too much time/focus which isn’t possible with two toddlers around!) I’ll have to make sure I save all the recipes we used to enjoy and bring them back out in 20 years when it’s just the two of us again!
Dishwasher was broken for most of the week so lots of sheet pan and one pot meals to try to reduce dishes!
Saturday - Taco Bell
Sunday - beef tri tip, French fries, peas, canned biscuits
Monday - roast chicken, steamed carrots, steamed green beans, more canned biscuits
Tuesday - used leftover roast chicken to make chicken quesadillas, rice and corn
Wednesday - sheet pan garlic butter shrimp, steamed broccoli, pearl couscous
Thursday - one pot chicken and sausage orzo
Friday - sheet pan salmon, baby potatoes, carrots and last can of biscuits
I highly recommend the cookbook/blog Dessert for Two by Christina Lane! One of her books is called Dinner Just for Two. She’s got great small batch recipes!
Our kitchen renovation is fine and looks great! I didn't cook much yet, as we were still unpacking. We had pizza and salad for a couple days, then rotisserie chicken and salad or veggies from the garden. Then I made burrito bowls. We will finish those off tonight and tomorrow is make your own pizza night.
I only have 2 at home and for many years it was only one! But I grew up cooking for a family of 5. So I cook big meals and we eat them for 2-4 nights. Much easier during the school year when I get home too tired to cook. If I have to cook during the week then I prep everything for the midweek meal on Sundays.
We're in a busy phase of life, with my busy work season, two kids playing club sports, & the start of high school. Our menus are a bit repetitive & scrappy as a result.
-Grilled chicken & rice (my husband burned the rice for the first time in 15+ years, so that went into the garbage & we had fruit & salad instead) 🙂
-Salsa chicken burritos (salsa chicken from the freezer)
-Chicken wings with an amazing habanero mango sauce that my teen made, along with a caprese salad
-Chicken quesadillas
-Leftovers of some of the above
This week, I didn't plan and it was a bit more stressful! Lesson learned. I wound up using a lot of odds-and-ends.
Monday: Tacos (really just beef, lettuce, and pico de gallo because we didn't have other ingredients).
Tuesday: Udon soup. I use these wonderful dashi packets (like big tea bags) to make the broth. You steep it for three minutes in boiled water, and ta-da! Soup. In addition to noodles, I put in tofu puffs, a bit of carrot, any radishes that were still good, a tired green onion, and a pile of shredded lettuce from taco night.
Wednesday: Pizza. I've only recently started making it; it's so incredibly cheap and easy. I used jarred pasta sauce and rescued some mushrooms, part of an onion that I'd saved from taco night, a pepper, and the end of a mozzarella block. I didn't manage to use the eggplant and zucchini before they went bad and had to toss them. Boo.
Thursday: Udon again, using up the last of the broth packets. I immediately bought more; they're so great and don't have any artificial flavouring or shellfish. I was home during the day, so I also made a salad with cracked wheat, tomatoes, frozen corn, mozzarella cheese, green onion, basil, and balsamic dressing, which we ate for lunch.
Friday: Hmm. It's a busy day, so we'll have challah, frozen breaded fish fillets, frozen French fries, and green beans or salad.
Saturday - kids had frozen pizza from Costco, husband and I did an at home date night. Uber Eats had sent me a promo for $30 off of an order, so we gave that a whirl and ordered from a nearby shawarma place we love. Ordered $35 worth of food, minus $30 promo … plus taxes, fees, and tip, and ended up spending $20. Soooo, probably won’t do that again, especially without a promo!
Sunday - Cheeseburgers, grilled green beans (the string beans from Costco with garlic oil, salt and pepper = my most favorite thing), and grilled peaches.
Monday - Had ambitious, nutritious plans, but my husband had a work dinner I found out about at 4pm SO the kids and I had smoothies and popcorn.
Tuesday - Cobb salad with bacon, hardboiled egg, homemade croutons, and a ton of veggies … so good.
Wednesday - Tried a new recipe for creamy coconut chicken, which I made with rice and roasted broccoli and cauliflower. It was good, not amazing, and felt heavier than I thought it would.
Thursday - Husband had another work dinner and the kids requested breakfast for dinner as a celebration for back to school, so my 8 year old helped me make cinnamon rolls (using your recipe!) for dinner, which were amazing, and which we had with cheesy scrambled eggs and grapes. I usually freeze the second pan, but baked them all up intending to send the rest to the office with my husband to share … but he left for the office at like 5am so I didn’t get a chance to mention it! (Busy season for him …) So now I have to practice a lot of self-restraint to not enjoy all the baked goods by myself 🙂
Friday - At home date night! Frozen goodies and a bagged salad for the kids, and using a gift card to a favorite taco shop for me and the husband.
When I went from cooking for four to two (just me and my youngest now) I was always over cooking! But I adapted and now the challenge is cooking for one when it is just myself at dinner. That’s when leftovers or eggs are a lifesaver. I admit cooking for one is tough and I don’t like that much.
Cooking for two can be a challenge, and when my husband worked across the state and was only home on weekends for over a decade, I had to cook for one, most of the time. At first I was daunted, then I realized I could cook whatever I and I alone wanted to eat, and suddenly a whole new world opened up to me :).
Somewhere in the week I think I have changed some meals from what I originally planned, and now I'm not sure I even remember what they were, but here goes:
Cassava spaghetti with tomato-based sauce for him, spinach, mushrooms and garlic for me.
Pork steaks with roasted beets and broccoli sautéed in the pork pan drippings.
We had the pork steaks and beets as leftovers one night, but I subbed green beans and onions for the broccoli, which we had eaten up.
De-boned and skinned chicken thighs cut up into tenders, with a chopped salad on the side.
Pressure cooker chuck roast made with potatoes (for him), carrots and onions, and a green on the side that I've forgotten.
Leftover chuck roast with same roasted veggies, and leftover green beans and onions on the side.
Ha, I remembered.
Fri.: Spaghetti and Meatballs.
Sat.: Leftovers and random fruit/snacks.
We started the week off very badly, with lots of takeout/delivery on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. 🙁 I have no real excuse, other than poor planning/Door Dash delivers almost everything we like now.
Wed.: Chicken sandwiches (your brinerade recipe, grilled on the George Foreman) and fruit w/ honey vanilla cottage cheese dip.
Thurs.: Spinach Pie w/ more fruit and honey vanilla cottage cheese dip.
Tonight will be creamy chicken tacos. The chicken is already in the crock pot. 🙂
Thursday - Grilled Fish (for my family members, quinoa salad for me), pita, white nectarines and Trader Joe's pasta arribiatta
Wednesday - Buttered Noodles for the kids, left overs for us
Tuesday - Taquitos and Guac
Monday - Cheesy Zucchini bake
Sunday - Vegan Gumbo over Cauliflower Rice (there was fresh okra at the market!)
Saturday - Breakfast for dinner - hashbrowns, omelettes, and berries
we usually have some sort of raw veggies and fruit on the side too.
Monday: smoked salmon egg salad
(summer treat!) fruit chips
Tuesday: no cook tomato sauce. With garden tomatoes and fresh herbs with hot pasta
Wednesday: lemon pepper chicken tenders with zucchini fried rice
Thursday: dominoes
Friday: Greek quinoa salad ( tabouli inspired) and grilled salmon
Saturday: grilled chicken Caesar salads with h/m croutons
I alternated between stuffed squash, pasta with marinara sauce and rice and bean burrito bowls all week. French bread, peas and carrots, pineapple and watermelon were my sides.
As always, I so appreciate the kitten pics. Thank you. This kitten's puddy paws are especially delightful.
Right? Kittens are just too cute.
Hi there. I have a question: How do you feed your family for a week for only $52? I have my husband, me, and three little girls ages 1, 2, and 6. Our weekly budget is $135. That includes baby items, paper products, toiletries, and cleaning products. I never feel like I have enough money. I think part of that is that we eat a lot of fresh produce and some fish. But I rarely or never buy prepackaged snacks or cereals, juice, lunch meat, or beef. I don’t usually buy extras or splurge items; I pretty much stick to the budget and grocery list. I menu plan and stick to the menu plan. I eat almost every meal at home with the younger two girls. My husband always takes his lunch, and my daughter takes her breakfast and lunch about half the time. (The rest of the time, she eats at school for free; everyone can.)
What am I doing wrong? I don’t want to feel like I’m always scraping the bottom of the barrel, but that is how I’m feeling. Thanks in advance!
Oh, my usual budget is $150/week. But that never gets spread very evenly...some weeks I am way over that budget, and some weeks I am way under.
This week I was under because I didn't do a big shopping trip; I mostly used ingredients I already had in my fridge/freezer/pantry. So probably next week will be a much higher grocery week for me.
I just know that over time, it almost always averages out to $150/week.
Kristen - Iron levels are tough to raise just through eating alone. Eons ago, blood work found I was anemic. Hearing the less than optimal side effects of typical prescription iron pills, I went to a local health food store. They recommended Enzymatic Therapy's Ultimate Iron. According to the reference book the owner used, I was to take 6 of them each day. They were a deep green color, a coated capsule, and I took 2 at each meal. My doctor was shocked when the bloodwork 6 weeks later showed a significant increase in my hemoglobin levels. I was shocked at the difference it made in how I felt and other physical benefits. I continued to take them for a year to boost my venous system. I've recommended these pills anytime I hear someone says, "I'm anemic."
Oh, thank you for the recommendation! I will give those a try if my current pills do not do the trick (I ordered some this week.)
Still eating stir fry every night, fresh from the garden veggies plus some sort of protein from the freezer. I also made an angel food cake from scratch, for the first time, and it turned out terrific, so we have been eating that with raspberries or honeyberries from the garden. So, we have purchased only milk and halvah from the grocery store, although tonight he is having a burger and I am having my weekly Filet 'O Fish. Right now we are staying out of restaurants again...we've now lost three people we know to Covid so are back to being very cautious.
When I was trying to get my iron up the Red Cross recommended baby spinach salad! YUM!
I have been cooking for 2 for a while now, my girls being 40 & 37, married with families. It is less expensive $$-wise and calorie-wise to cook for 2 than to go out or take out for 2.
1 chicken breast for 2; just 2 burgers for 2; 1/2 box of pasta and some sauce. A small loaf of Italian bread can last 2 meals; 1/2 bag of raviolis. Leftovers can be for lunch or even dinner. I have even cut the mac&cheese down to 1/4 recipe.
Fri: haddock bites & potato skins
Sat: I don't remember.
Sun: Birthday celebration for my granddaughter
Mon: Burgers
Tues: Chicken
Wed: pasta with spicy tomato pesto
Thurs: takeout pizza (Thurs is almost 3-year-old grandson daycare)
Wow -- that may be the finest WIS total ever -- nice!
Decent week:
Cannot remember the order but ate in every night except for Wednesday -- Pollo Loco salad and bowl (with $5 off) clocked in at $10 dollars. Otherwise, we had lovely beef hamburgers and salad and watermelon 2 nights in a row; turkey spaghetti bolognese with using up pantry and freezer items) twice, and turkey burgers with big salad. There was steamed broccoli in there somewhere . . .
Happy Friday!
I'm already noticing the difference in the amount of food I need to cook as well as the increased amount of leftovers now that my son is at college. I think it will take a little while to get into the swing of things but luckily my family likes leftovers--I foresee more smorgasbord nights in my future! I definitely prefer to cook for other people so I think I will have similar struggles when it's just two people in our household. Sounds like a topic for a future post! 😉
Monday--"the last supper" with my son at a restaurant in his college town; Tuesday--tacos; Wednesday--chicken salsa verde with rice; Thursday--homemade mac & cheese; Friday--taco chicken bowls (which we served on a plate so I guess I need to re-name that meal).
I've always wanted a Vitamix blender so I could make smoothies, even with fruit peels and not hurt the motor!! Thank you for my entry!
We are at T minus 6 days until our first empty nest day. The house is much quieter already and I have been wondering about cooking vs eating out also. And how soon will I cancel the Costco membership? Enjoy your last few years.
great me3sl suggestions
I didn't quite understand about the contest. Each person should just comment/enter once, right? Do/can you verify that somehow? On other blogs, I've seen things get really crazy with people trying center dozens of times, and sometimes that's encouraged, but other times, it's cheating. If someone else was here and used my computer, does it show my IP address? Or theirs, if they are suing their own email account?
If someone entered on your computer, then yes, it would show your IP address under their comment.
Generally speaking, it's pretty obvious on my end if someone is doing this; like, a slew of comments from the same IP address. That's generally not going to happen organcially!
It really is an adjustment to cook for two after the kids are gone. I've found I still cook too much. It is easier, though, because one child was vegan, another was vegetarian and the third was the pickiest eater on the planet. It seemed like some nights you could not please everyone. But, I wouldn't have traded those family meals for anything. I look forward to those rare times now when we can all connect around the table.
Spent $72 grocery shopping this week, including food for my husband's motocross race this weekend.
It's been really hot and humid here, so I kept cooking/baking time to a minimum. Here's what we ate:
Saturday - Take out cheese pizza from our local parlor (our once a week support local business meal).
Sunday - while grocery shopping, I picked up fresh-made sushi for the vegetarian and chicken french, potatoes au gratin and sauteed greens for me and the hubby.
Monday - bagels with cream cheese and fresh figs
Tuesday - BLT with onion rings.
Wednesday - BBQ chicken breasts, rice and steamed broccoli.
Thursday - Italian sausage with peppers and onions and corn in the cob.
Friday - hot dogs, fried potatoes and pears.