WIS, WWA | $148
What I Spent
How about a gratuitous cat photo to start with?
the best spot to watch the birds
This week, we spent:
- $36 at BJ's
- $56 at Lidl
- $30 at Giant
- $9.50 at Little Caesar's
- $17 at Chick Fil A
That all adds up to $148.50, so, despite the takeout expenditures, I am not over my food spending number for the week. Whew!
Saturday
Mr. FG was at his parents' house helping them with some projects, so it was just the girls and me here at dinnertime.
Sonia had a ham and pasta salad for dinner, Zoe had mac n cheese, and I made a dish of zoodles with tomato sauce, parmesan, and basil for myself.
Sunday
Since we didn't do our date night on Saturday night, Mr. FG and I did so on Sunday night, when we went to Panda Express to take advantage of the Venmo $10 cashback offer.
Our meal only cost $7 after the cashback. Sweet!
Monday
I made breakfast for dinner, which included fried mush and waffles.
Fried mush has possibly the least-appetizing name of any dish out there, but it's so tasty! You should give it a try if you haven't already.
Tuesday
Sonia went over to my parents' house to get some plant cuttings from my mom (Sonia is in a serious houseplant phase right now) and she ended up staying there for dinner.
I had spent the entire day doing lots of productive things (blog work, studying work) but I did not do anything productive in the kitchen! So, Mr. FG and Zoe and I got fast food takeout for $17, and I called it a night.
Wednesday
I irresponsibly watched Singin' in the Rain with Sonia (see yesterday's post) instead of doing any dinner prep.
Then Zoe and I went to feed the shelter cats and we had only a small window of time between that and her youth group.
Luckily, Zoe said she would love to have a Little Caesar's pizza, so we picked one of those up on the way home along with some crazy bread.
Sonia can't do pizza, obviously, but she ate crazy bread with us plus a microwaveable hot and sour noodle bowl.
Thursday
I finished my bone terminology homework (woohoo!), and I had time to actually cook dinner.
I made a chef's salad, with bacon, hard-boiled eggs, and the last of a bag of shrimp.
I also tried a new recipe for garlic rolls from Cook's Country, and while these were beautiful, we all agreed that my trusty garlic pull-apart bread is better.
Friday
I had planned to make pizza tonight, but since we unexpectedly had Little Caesar's pizza midweek, I might swap this out for something else.
Saturday - takeout pizza
Sunday - Trader Joe’s orange chicken and fried rice
Monday - split pea soup and biscuits
Tuesday - mini garden turkey loaves, mashed potatoes
Wednesday - bbq chicken, roasted potatoes and asparagus, steamed broccoli, Texas toast
Thursday - salmon, pierogis, steamed broccoli and carrots
Friday - chicken and rice salad
@LB - Should we start calling it TJ Orange Chicken Sunday? We enjoyed ours also!
@Kathy L, haha we should, it’s so delicious and easy!
In no particular order ... Mexican skillet supper, Greek chicken sandwiches with homemade naan, neighborhood potluck where I took an apple cake (my mom's recipe. Yummy but calorie laden so it's best shared with a crowd), a tomato, veggie and ground beef soup with homemade bread, which has enough leftovers for us to use again tonight. Thankfully my family loves leftovers.
I always struggle to remember, but I think it was:
Friday - chicken wings & egg rolls
Saturday - I was home alone (one kid at a party, my husband & other son went out to eat after a late soccer game). I had wine, cheese & crackers & popcorn 😉
Sunday - kebabs & rice
Monday - egg roll in a bowl
Tuesday - leftover kebabs & rice
Wednesday - leftover egg roll in a bowl
Thursday - tortellini & baked chicken
I'm on the fence for tonight. Maybe gyozos & some sort of protein
@Hawaii Planner,
I believe your Saturday night meal to be the best one. 🙂
It's wild how hard it is to remember sometimes, isn't it?? How do I have this much trouble remembering something I ate in the last seven days?
We recently moved from Oregon to South Carolina and have been staying with our daughter and son-in-law until our house is ready later this month. It's been fun to cook meals together and hang out with them in their new home.
Saturday - pasta with brown butter shrimp and salad
Sunday - pizza and caesar salad
Monday - french onion soup and bruschetta
Tuesday - Taco Tuesday at a local spot
Wednesday - pasta with vodka cream sauce, roasted veggies, and focaccia
Thursday - hot sub sandwiches on homemade buns and chips
Friday - not sure - we are headed out to spend a few days with my husband's family
Sounds like you did great to me, everyone was fed.
I loved seeing your cat.❤
Hi there -
I'd like to learn more about the fried mush. It reminds me of what my grandmother called "hot water cornbread" - which cornmeal mixed with hot water to your desired consistency and then fried in corn oil, in a pancake shape. I like to add a little frozen corn to the mix and after frying, a nice dollop of butter.
Here's a post all about fried cornmeal mush! https://www.thefrugalgirl.com/breakfast-week-fried-mush/
It does sound similar to what your grandma made, except I cook the cornmeal first, chill it, slice it, and fry it.
Monday: American Chop Suey...everyone in my family loves this and there is always enough for at least 4 lunch portions as well! We had it with salad and also some cut up veggies.
Tuesday: Quesadillas with chicken, black beans, cheddar and queso fresco.
Wednesday: Kielbasa and frozen pierogies, with salad and applesauce.
Thursday: Meatloaf, orzo, spaghetti squash and salad
Tonight: One daughter has work and will eat at work. The rest of us may get a pizza or possibly sandwiches.
Saturday: Shepherd's pie, green salad with vinaigrette
Sunday: Stew meat tacos (I just make taco meat with stew meat, because I'm still trying to use up the last of the many packages of stew meat from our previous steer), chocolate-covered marshmallows
Monday: Leftover shepherd's pie or tacos. I had a salad.
Tuesday: Leftover stew meat, pinto beans, bread and butter, leftover broccoli, and some graham crackers spread with the last of the dipping chocolate from the marshmallows, because I needed a bribe so I could cut my boys' hair without a ridiculous scene
Wednesday: We've decided that our answer to Taco Tuesdays will be Steakhouse Wednesdays. Okay, not really. It's just we really did have a steakhouse kind of dinner on a random Wednesday because I found some packages of New York strip steak and filet mignon near the top of the freezer when I was rummaging for dinner. Buying an entire steer means that all our beef, from liver to filet mignon, costs us less than $4 a pound. So we can have filet mignon midweek without it being a big deal. It was a big deal, though, because man, those were good. I topped them with a thyme/garlic butter and made some oven fries (with rendered chicken fat from our last meat chicken--yum) to go with them. Truly a spectacular meal. Happy Wednesday!
Thursday: Yet MORE of the taco stew meat that will not quit. To make it a little more enticing for the children, I made some flour tortillas for them. I've never made flour ones--only corn--and of course they were good. Very similar flavor to biscuits. Tedious to roll out, though. And we STILL didn't finish all that stew meat. I think it multiplies in the refrigerator overnight.
Tonight: My husband took the two older boys scouting for next weekend's elk hunt. They'll camp overnight on the mountain. They took pre-cooked hamburgers and potatoes to warm up in their campfire, along with a bunch of other campy-type food (cheese, bread, peanut butter, beef snack sticks, oranges, nuts, and of course marshmallows) so who knows what they'll actually eat. The younger two can choose their dinner. I suspect they will choose pancakes. I will finish that stew meat, as God is my witness.
@kristin @ going country, This post was pretty humorous - some leftovers - like that stew meat just won't quit!!! 🙂
@kristin @ going country
I'll be looking forward to all the elk meals!
Monday- Tacos,retried beans, jicama and orange salad
Tuesday- Grilled chicken and sausage, salad, peas, pear tart
Wednesday- homemade chili, tortillas, and fruit
Thursday- spaghetti and meatballs, corn, garlic bread
Tonight we will have grilled salmon, baked squash (I have several kinds), salad, & something fun for dessert (???)
Saturday- potato or chicken noodle soup, salad, homemade breadsticks
Sunday- pickety bits (charcuterie) and probably leftover soup
I did a better than average job of meal planning using my AnyList app for both meal planning and grocery shopping so we managed to do no takeout which is highly unusual for us. Our garage freezer is acting up so we are going to have to purchase a new one so I’m cleaning it out this weekend so who knows what interesting foods are on the menu for next week. I do know I have several racks of ribs to use up…
@Beth, I LOVE jicama and wish I could grow it because the stuff that reaches us in Fairbanks is often large and pithy. When we go out of state, I often come home dragging a bag of jicama with me.
@Lindsey,
I have never even thought of trying to grow it but it might be fun to try! I placed a curbside order at a grocery store and the jicama was quite large but delicious- nice and crisp.
I came home last night and found that what I had planned to cook for my husband's dinner had been cooked for him for lunch, so there went those plans.
Instead, we had a single serving store-bought freezer lasagna for him, and leftover chicken tenders and assorted skillet-cooked vegetables, also leftover, for me. I wasn't very inspired to do much else.
Before that we had:
Cassava pasta for both of us, with from the freezer leftover tomato spaghetti sauce with ground beef for him, sauteed kale, garlic and onions with crumbled up leftover seasoned pork patty for me. I would have made a salad for him, but he's still in dental work mode, and salads are just too difficult for him.
Homemade beef stew from the freezer.
Seasoned pork patties, the aforementioned skillet veggies, and his late mother's version of corn pone, which isn't too far from fried mush.
Homemade chicken tenders made from boneless thighs, baked beans from the freezer, and cucumbers.
Baked beans from the freezer (we finished them), pulled pork from the freezer, and I don't remember what else.
Fall Harvest Soup, a new AIP recipe, which is the one I also ate for breakfast all week.
Since, thanks to my daughter, I now have the meat portion of my shopping covered, I expect to spend less the rest of this month. I will enjoy that while I can!
My husband had a hankering for pastrami sandwiches and bought the fixings for those, so he had sandwiches with plums, sweet bell peppers and chunks of cheese on the side. I ate variations on peanut butter or cheese sandwiches with grapes on the side. For me, lunch is my big home-cooked meal: this week it was a veggie-packed black-bean & chicken chili with an ancient grains mixture on the side. Frozen berries and grapes topped with yogurt for dessert. Yum.
I don't comment often, but those pics of the fried mush called out to me and reminded me that I have some leftover grits in the fridge that I can fry. And I made that TOH recipe for pull apart garlic bread recently when we had company. They raved about it! (Although I did use frozen bread dough.)
I always enjoy your posts (and the comments) so keep up the good work!
The pull-apart bread is better than these rolls mainly because the pull-apart version has those nice crispy edges.
And thank you for the encouragement!
Saturday - The kids has pizza at a birthday party and my husband and I had taquitos, chips, and salsa for a late dinner.
Sunday - Ham (my last one in the freezer from Easter), cooked carrots, and pineapple
Monday - Sloppy joes and chips before a make-up soccer game and since most of my kids weren't really hungry for dinner at 4:45 I'm glad I didn't put much effort into it
Tuesday - Ham and potato soup with crescent rolls
Wednesday - Rice and bean burritos with chips and salsa
Thursday - Date night! My in-laws got McDonald's and took the kids to a park and my husband and I used a gift card at Red Lobster
Friday - Dinner will be in the van on our way to a weekend getaway at the cabin. I'm packing sandwiches and other food so we don't have to stop for takeout - saving both time and money!
We had beef stsew with braised red cabbage on Mon, another stew with veg burgers and sweet potatoes on Tue, sausage and red beetroot on Wed, chicken cacciatore over rice yesterday, and odds and ends today. Tomorrow I will be eating out with an aunt and the guys will fend for themselves. For Sunday I'm not sure yet, but I'll probably prepare something for the first days of the next week already. We'll have a new freezer delivered in a few weeks or so, so we'll make use of what we have in the freezer rather than stock up in it.
Here's my week:
Monday - Radiatore pasta and meatballs with arabiatta sauce in the Instant Pot and green beans.
Tuesday - Salmon patties, corn on the cob (in the Instant Pot), and rolls.
Wednesday - Bratwurst, leftover German sweet and sour red cabbage (originally made in the slow cooker), and hot German potato salad (made in the microwave - yes, I actually COOK with the MW!).
Thursday - I have a standing date for dinner on Thursdays with two friends. We had Venezuelan arepas pabellanos - yum!
Friday's plan (today) - Leftover sauerbraten, leftover red cabbage, and potato latkes with applesauce and sour cream.
Saturday's plan - I have standing dates on the second Saturday of the month for both lunch and dinner with two groups of friends.
Sunday's plan - Leftover pasta and meatballs remade into a baked casserole with cheese, and asparagus.
That's the plan!
Saturday - I made a huge pot of white chicken chili with loads of peppers from our garden, cannellini beans, and some chicken from the freezer. I also fried some corn chips to go with it and made some cornbread. Dessert was a homemade apple cake.
Sunday - homemade fried chicken, rice, glazed carrots with ginger & rosemary, crowder peas & buttermilk biscuits
Monday - leftovers
Tuesday - homemade burgers with lettuce tomato, onion & home canned pickles with sweet potato fries and baked beans
Wednesday - leftovers for some and a quick dinner out for the hubby & I at a local bbq spot…I had a chicken salad and he had pulled pork
Thursday - leftovers for some, pb & j for the kiddo
Friday - I am putting some ribs onto cook but they likely won’t be done in time for tonight so we will eat them later in the weekend. Breakfast for dinner maybe?
Enjoy the weekend!!
I am an x-ray tech and yet I do not remember ALL of the bony landmarks myself! I did however learn all of the names of the bones (many have two) and I soaked up as much medical terminology as I could in those two years and I use it daily, along with a huge amount on-the-job...So congrats on that - you will use it. This week we ate:
Monday - Rotisserie Chicken, chopped salad (this is becoming a go-to on Mondays)
Tuesday - Sushi, courtesy of The Girl (today was my 36th wedding anniversary..}
Wednesday - Turkey Tacos on corn/flour mix tortillas, refried pinto beans, avocados and lettuce
Thursday - Crockpot Cowboy Chicken, rice
Friday - Salmon pinwheels, sauteed mixed squash, Caesar salad
Saturday - TBD but probably take-out on the way home from Brenham {visiting my mother}
Sunday - TBD, but I will scare something up from the freezer to go with broccoli and maybe some pasta
Sunday - date night/anniversary dinner (our anniversary was during the week and we couldn’t go until Sunday evening) We went to a new Japanese steakhouse that opened up near us and tried it.
Monday - broccoli cheddar soup w/ grilled ham and cheese sandwiches
Tuesday - Sun-dried tomato sausage orzo
Wednesday - chicken and avocado quesadillas
Thursday - Salmon w/ mashed potatoes and broccoli
Friday - Sheet pan steak fajitas
congrats on finishing the bone terminology!
Last week was my "off" week from cooking, so I don't have much to share, but I just wanted to recommend the Cinnamon Rolls from Ambitious Kitchen: https://www.ambitiouskitchen.com/wprm_print/24328
Early on when we started dating, my boyfriend mentioned his aunts famous cinnamon rolls. This aunt has passed away, so I wouldn't be able to get the recipe from her. I tried making a batch, they were a resounding failure, and I didnt try again for the next 6 years. A few days ago someone recommended this recipe to me, and I had to try making them right away. They are super easy to make and so delicious! Im not a huge fan of cinnamon, but him and I devoured half a pan in one morning. Highly recommend!