WIS, WWA | a cheap week for me!
What I Spent
I spent:
- $49 at Aldi
- $9 at Safeway
And that was it for me: $58!
What We Ate
Saturday
This was my second day of working my regular job at the hospital, and when I came home, I ate a ham sandwich, showered, and went to bed.
Sunday
Zoe had a cold and wanted some chicken noodle soup and a grilled cheese. I had avocado toast, though, because I dislike canned chicken noodle soup!
Monday
I have no pictures and also no recollection of what I made for dinner. And I am going to stop sitting here racking my brain trying to remember.
(I had to google to see if it's "wrack" or "rack" and apparently the latter is correct!)
Tuesday
This was a clinical day so I was at the hospital until 8:30 and I ate my packed dinner (I made a chicken/tortellini/veggie pasta salad). I'm still maintaining my streak of not buying hospital food. 😉
Wednesday
I made some potato and chorizo tacos with avocado (and sour cream, which was unpictured!)
Thursday
I made this mandarin chicken salad, which I haven't made in eons.
Here's what it looks like in the light of day (picture from my files):
And here's what it looks like with a phone snapshot after the sun goes down. Ha.
I have lots of extra dressing, which I will happily use on some greens (I often eat a little bowl of dressed lettuce with my eggs and toast in the morning).
Friday
I need to find out if Zoe will be here; I think she has plans with a friend, but I'm not clear if they include dinner or not. If she's out for dinner, I think I'm gonna make myself some whole wheat blueberry pancakes for dinner. 🙂
What I Spent: This was a no spend week. That doesn't happen very often. Whoopie!
What I Ate: Sunday I had dinner at my daughter's house. She made a delicious pot roast and sent me home with two plates of leftovers. Monday was homemade pizza. Tuesday was stew. Wednesday was a Mexi-Mix casserole gifted to me by my daughter. Thursday I made a chicken pot pie. Tonight, I am making a marinara sauce and serving it with spaghetti.
@Sandra, I am so looking forward to dinner invites and leftovers from my adult kids!!
Those kitties look sweetly demure (:
I've been averaging around $75, but that includes non food items as well. This week I added in a $15 bottle of calcium tablets. And trying not to eat out more than once, making it stretch for two meals. This week there was not all that much cooking:
Monday - kitchen closed. I got some grilled chicken nuggets and a small order of waffle fries on my way home from work at 7:30, because we were so busy I couldn't stop to eat what I had planned.
Tuesday - (freezer) Pasta and Sauce with the rest of a bag of frozen brussels sprouts
Wednesday - Taco Salad, and much later, a bowl of bran flakes...
Thursday - (freezer) Chicken Pot Pie, which was marginal in taste and full of salt, so I won't be doing that again
Tonight - Crockpot Chicken Drums, mixed greens
**Today I'm going to buy a dinner portion of Chinese food and split it between lunch and a weekend meal.
Agreed on the frozen meals...that's been my experience too. How something can have that much salt and still taste bland is wild!
@Kristen, butcher shop we frequent has homemade chicken pot pies. Very tasty and not full of corporate america sodium to make it mildly palatable.
Still bringing your own meals to the hospital - impressive!
Meals, random order, for the weekdays:
-pulled beans curry over rice
-potatoes, sausage, peas and runner beans, with lactose free apple crumble crumble for dessert
-lasagna
-chicken cordon bleu, with spinach and potato cubes
-tonight most likely steamed potatoes with mackerel and beetroot
I went for a shopping trip to our local Aldi, which is not very conveniently situated for me. However I liked what they have and plan to go there every month or so to stock up on items that I like and/or are cheapest there. We have expensive months coming up with replacement of a car, and cheap groceries will help regrow our savings fund.
I also reorganised the pantry ahead of the holiday season, with the purpose of not buying too much of one thing and too little of another. For the highest shelves I use baskets so I can take everything out at once, instead of pushing things to the back while rummaging. We'll see how that works.
@JNL, I love using baskets in my pantry! I use them for: pasta, school lunch items, potatoes, onions, rarely used baking items. It's so much easier to grab a basket full of unwieldy items than have a mess on the shelves. The baskets are all mismatched but do their job!
@JNL, @Geneva,
Baskets are so handy, yes, and also lazy susans (those spinner things?) for smaller items like spices.
@JNL, Pulled beans?
@Chrissy,
It's a kind of chunky stuff made of beans and peas. Vegetarian, but processed. Low sodium though and high protein. I bought some because they seemed versatile but we do not like the texture. I tried to hide some in the curry but in vain alas. Still 2 packs to go then they are done, sigh
WIS: about 100 @Giant on mostly cat food and about 250 @Aldi but at least 100 of that was boxes of chocolates for holiday gifts for coworkers, so not too bad.
WWA:
Fri: salad and focaccia.
Sat: salad,buttered noodles, crispy pan fried tofu, sauteed peppers and onions and chocolate pudding pie for dessert.
Sun: salad topped with leftover tofu cubes, leftover pasta.
Mon: salad, baked Brie ring, leftover pasta topped with pan fried chicken breast, sauteed Swiss Chard.
Tue: a salad made of random leftovers, cheese and black bean quesadillas with salsa.
Wed: salad, tuna steaks, baked potatos with broccoli and cheese.
Thu: salad and a sort of calzone using a loaf of bread that my husband felt didn't turn out the way he wanted. It was stuffed with bacon, cheddar cheese, peppers, onions and parsley and then baked again. It was very good.
Tonight: salad and focaccia, but my husband says he will make it sort of Tex-Mex flavored to use up some cheddar cheese.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
"Rack", really? My Google says they're interchangeable, and either is correct. I think I'll stick with "wrack". But, also, I'm old. LOL!
Happy Weekend, Kristen!
@Julia, the original meaning was "to put one's brain to the rack" - the rack being a torture device from the middle ages. I think Google has it wrong, although, modern usage being what it is . . .
@L, Do not get me started on modern grammar usage...I have seen people write "wreaking my brain" and it makes me want to scream just the tiniest bit. (Related: writing "sneak peak" instead of "sneak peek".)
One of my favorite search engines for word usage is Etymonline: https://www.etymonline.com/word/wrack#etymonline_v_45285
According to them: wrack (v).: "to ruin or wreck" (originally of ships), 1560s, from earlier intransitive sense "to be shipwrecked" (late 15c.), from wrack (n.). Often confused in this sense since 16c. with rack (v.1) in the sense of "torture on the rack;" to wrack one's brains is thus erroneous. Related: Wracked; wracking.
People have been messing these up since the 16th century! Ha!
Why, yes, I am avoiding schoolwork, how did you guess? 🙂
@Karen A., I love this stuff, too. Thanks for the exposition.
@Karen A., Modern grammar usage drives me crazy too, with internet grammar usage and poor spelling being an utter nightmare.
I will say I give major props to Kristen because this blog is not just interesting but her spelling and grammar are both excellent!
I credit my spelling skills to the untold number of books I read in my growing-up years! If you see that many words spelled correctly, it can't help but improve your own spelling. 🙂
@Bobi,
Many of my colleagues applaud AI for helping them write their emails, but I find it very annoying if my words are filled in for me.
@Karen A.,
Also related: "reign" vs "rein"
and
my pet peeve: "mute" vs "moot"
The point is "moot", not "mute".
I cannot lie, sometimes I type the wrong "reign" in and then I'm like, hold, up, wait, what am I really trying to say??
@ErikaJS, Word nerds unite! 🙂
@Bobi, that's something I noticed and appreciated right away, and it kept me coming back.
@Liz B., the one that grates on me is audible: people ask about my "murials". Ahem, the word is "mural". Sometimes I correct them and sometimes I just figure why bother.
@Central Calif. Artist Jana,
That would drive me bananas.
@Liz B., perhaps that why I sometimes introduce myself as "Jana Banana".
I've spent over $250. for food and animal food in the past 2 weeks, so I am glad we ate home almost every night this week. And probably this weekend too! Also I have been eating leftovers for lunch since I work from home.
Sunday - we were out running errands and stopped for lunch, intended. We ordered a pizza for takeout for dinner and some days during the week.
Monday - lunch was leftover pizza and dinner was beef stroganoff in the crockpot
Tuesday - lunch was leftover pizza and dinner was souvlakis made out of pork
Wednesday - lunch was pasta with leftover sauce and dinner was riced cauliflower stir fry; added shrimp for husband
Thursday - lunch was pasta with leftover sauce and dinner was unstuffed cabbage soup
Friday - lunch will be leftover riced cauliflower veggies and dinner will be husband wants to try and make wings and pizza a different way than he usually does.
Tomorrow I am scrapbooking with some friends, so I will tell my husband to have some meatballs on some bread from the freezer for dinner. And Sunday I will cook a ham that we have had in the freezer. Husband has been requesting ham and bean soup and I want some split pea soup in the freezer. And I see a batch of scalloped potatoes and ham for dinner next week too. And ham and egg sandwiches for breakfast too.
Sat- Husband smoked 4 racks of ribs all day and I made cheesy potatoes, vinegar based coleslaw, baked beans, lemon bars and brownies..
Sun- Leftovers cause I was tired( and that was the plan)
Mon- I am off duty and make the adult son handle Monday supper as that is his day off work.. He decided he wanted to order Little Caesars instead of cooking.
Tuesday- salsa chicken and rice for taco salads or wraps
Wed-Beef roast in the crock pot with carrots, mashed potatoes and a side of steamed corn
Thursday- beef and bean chili
Friday- no clue
@jes, teehee, "racks of ribs" or "wracks of ribs"?
@Central Calif. Artist Jana,
The latter is how they end I daresay! 🙂
@Central Calif. Artist Jana,
Lol!!!!
WIS: $13.63 at Aldi, $13.39 at Price Chopper, and $29.50 at the grocery outlet.
What I Didn't Spend: I made 54 cents at Wegmans (because my NY State deposit containers covered my entire small purchase and I got change back). I spent $0 on the nine cans of Diet Coke I found on the curb, and $0 on the three loaves of Stroehmann bread I got for free at the Salvation Army. 😀
WIA: This week's best effort was another "evening at the improv" soup. I was going to use the chicken stock I made on Monday in a chicken noodle soup with dill, but Ms. Bestest Neighbor gave me some rosemary clippings from her plant, so I used some of the rosemary in a chicken and mixed veg soup that included half a cooked Honeynut squash. The squash dissolved beautifully into the soup. I added some orzo for bulk.
@A. Marie, Wow, this is heroic frugality…a new category I just invented.
@A. Marie, I use squash frequently in soup in place of tomato. I make chili with butternut squash or pumpkin.
@A. Marie, I’m dying to know how the Diet Coke ended up on the curb?! A mystery, I suppose.
@Kim from Philadelphia, a mystery it must remain. My best guess is that someone put the 12-pack carton with the 9 cans still in it into an unsecured pickup truck bed and rounded the tricky corner where I found the cans too fast--but who knows??
If this was a menu at a restraunt, I'd choose the chorizo potato taco! Looks delish!
Also, I haven't made yogurt in eons, but made your recipe yesterday. Thanks for the handy printable version!
We had:
1. Beans and bread
2. A reduced for quick sale-inspired meal. I used reduced meat and reduced green beans to make a Asian-flare sauce then served it over rice.
3. Pizza
4. Potato soup
5. Lentil/turkey shepherd's pie
And that's all I can remember and I already erased last week's menu plan off the board, so I can't look back at it for reference.
Caribbean marinated chicken breast with rice pilaf, Stuffed pasta shells, brats with tater tots, sausage and mushroom pasta bake, and tonight we're having chicken drumsticks with mashed potatoes. I don't plan to go anywhere this weekend other than to walk dogs so will do a bit of menu planing and meal prepping.
Saturday - I was catering and ate there while my family ate at home (I can't remember what they had.)
Sunday - Pizza and breadsticks and a movie!
Monday - Pork loin, peas and carrots, and mac and cheese
Tuesday - We were not "eating the rainbow", but we had turkey (my last one before I stock up on new ones this year!), mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, yellow pepper slices, and pineapple
Wednesday - Corn dogs, mac and cheese, and peppers
Thursday - BBQ pork, green beans, and peaches
Friday - We will see. I had ham on the menu, but forgot to get it out to thaw. We haven't had any Mexican this week, so maybe we should have tacos!
First, an announcement: I did indeed make the bull enchilada casserole last Friday, and it completely finished all the bull meat that I've been working on for four years. A small but satisfying victory. 🙂 In addition to that . . .
Saturday: Fish patties made with two bigs cans of tuna and one of salmon, garlic bread baked the day before while I was making bread, pickles, and pumpkin roulade. I make Jacques and Julia's flourless chocolate roulade every year for Christmas, and had been meaning to try a pumpkin version for a couple of years. My daughter's teacher had mentioned it's her favorite cake, and her birthday was Saturday, so I made two and gave her half of one. I used Ina Garten's recipe. I thought it was two sweet, but most of the family loved it. They didn't love it more than the chocolate version though, which is much superior.
Sunday: We had a guest with us for dinner, so it was rather more elaborate than I would typically do. Pork ribs; "butter-swim biscuits" (a new recipe for me, in which there is no butter in the actual dough, but the biscuits bake in a lake of butter and absorb it); maquechoux, a corn/tomato/pepper dish I have not made in years; roasted carrots; and the other pumpkin roulade.
Monday: My husband had been wanting to make the burgers he had made on his recent hunting/camping trip with one boy, so he bought ground beef, bacon, American cheese, and white bread and made Daddy Burgers. Basically bacon cheeseburgers on white bread with ketchup. A hit with the children, unsurprisingly. He also cleaned up afterwards, because when he told me what he was cooking, I indicated I would not be thrilled about the clean-up of all that frying. So he did it. Yay. We also had leftover maquechoux and carrots, and I had made baked rice pudding the day before just because the oven was on for so long to cook the ribs.
Tuesday: Chicken drumsticks for the children, leftover ribs for us adults who are not enthused about drumsticks, rice I had made the day before for a sick kid and then heated in the skillet of bacon and beef grease left from making the hamburgers, some of the GIANT kohlrabi my sister had brought from her Colorado farmer's market when she visited, a little leftover rice pudding and the lemon jello I had also made for the sick kid.
Wednesday: I held back about a pound of ground beef from the burger meal to make burrito filling this night. By stretching it with an equal amount of cooked pinto beans from the freezer, there was almost enough for our family of six plus the extra kid eating with us this night. We also had more kohlrabi, and then to satisfy those who wished there was more meat, I opened a can of peaches and gave them those with cottage cheese.
Thursday: We had a taste test to determine if the Gorton's battered fish fillets are enough better than the Food Club fillets to justify the much higher cost. Verdict: Not really. Two of the five people eating them (I don't much care for fish, so I didn't taste them) actually preferred the store-brand ones, which were larger and somewhat firmer. The ones who liked the Gorton's fillets said if the store-brand ones were baked longer and got crispier, they would be fine. So, store-brand for us from now on, I guess. I also supervised one boy in making roasted potatoes--since he was hanging around anyway while I was making dinner and potatoes are one of his favorite foods--and we had a green salad with a vinaigrette. Also oatmeal/almond/chocolate chip cookies for dessert.
Tonight: I'm baking bread today. I'm thinking I'll make pizza since I have some roasted tomato sauce I made yesterday from the slowly ripening green tomatoes. Since everyone is here, I'll make two full half-sheet-pan pizzas, one cheese, one pepperoni. I might put the rest of the garden's bell peppers on half of one. Or I might not, since I suspect only my husband would eat that one. (I would if I ate the pizza, but it's not a good idea for me.) I also always have to make a ranch dip for pizza now, so I'll cut up some more of the giant kohlrabi and that can also be dipped in the ranch.
@kristin @ going country,
Good job finishing that bull meat!
@kristin @ going country,
If you don't have a flag you should get one and raise it to celebrate the last of the bull meat. I think this occasion deserves it.
@kristin @ going country, NO BULL!
@kristin @ going country, You've given a whole new meaning to the expression "No Bull!"
@kristin @ going country, is it a relief to have the bull gone, or is there a feeling of "oh no—no back-up meat in the freezer"?
@kristin @ going country,
Another heroic frugality award winner; cheers to you.
@kristin @ going country, I love macque choux. I make it in the summer with fresh corn and all of the other plus okra. It's summer on a plate!
Ha! No more bull!
It is an AMAZING victory to have finished the bull. Color me impressed.
@kristin @ going country, yay for having finished the bull!
@Central Calif. Artist Jana, Both, I guess. We are getting low on meat --until we butcher the two lamb rams, plus there are two more elk hunts to go--but the bull meat just required a lot more effort than other kinds of meat.
Sweet kitty girls! And yay! for the power of meal packing.
WIS: $105, divided between Aldi and Food Lion.
WWA: Leftover pot roast with carrots and sweet peppers. Ham with fruit, cheese and GF bread. A quinoa-based casserole with red beans and ground beef. More of the big batch of potato-white beans-sausage soup I frozen in individual serving containers. Fruit, nuts, cheese sticks and peanut butter toast on non-cooking nights.
Such cute cats!
This week I had a roast dinner on Sunday and various pasta meals on other days, as well as some veggie chilli with yoghurt. Tonight I'm making tacos.
I wanted to participate this week, so I kept my meal plan so I could post....
Sunday: chili with either cheese (me) or oyster crackers (hubby)
Monday: Mashed potato bowls, pumpkin muffins with cream cheese frosting for dessert
Tuesday: mini pizzas (in the air fryer since my oven igniter quit working and needed replaced)
Wednesday: Orange chicken with rice, corn. (hubby fixed oven igniter tonight)
Thursday: Turkey meatloaf, scalloped potatoes, green beans, brownies for snack
Friday: tonight is going to be weiner wings and french fries.
I'm proud of myself for improvising and using my air fryer for Tuesday and Wednesday meals until my oven was fixed and especially for not getting takeout.
@Gina, OK , enquiring minds want to know..what, pray tell, is a WEINER WING?LOL
@Cheryl,
You boil hot dogs and then butter one side of bread (butter side down on cookie sheet pan) and lay a half slice of cheese diagonally on unbuttered side, put hot dog on top of cheese and bro g the sides of bread up and use toothpicks to hold onto hot dog and bake in oven probably 350 degrees until bread is crisp and toasty and cheese is melted. So yummy!
My motivation for cooking seems to run parallel to the day length. WWA:
Saturday- slow cooker sausage tortellini soup
Sunday - bit under the weather so had chicken noodle soup from a packet
Monday - roast chicken, mashed potatoes, glazed carrots, brownies from a mix
Tuesday - leftovers
Wednesday - broccoli soup from freezer, premade vegetarian spring rolls
Thursday- pork souvlaki, “grilled” pita, tzatziki, Greek village salad
Friday - undetermined, probably take away
Wishing everyone a little sunshine this weekend
WIS: $94, 2 adults. I'm continuing the slow stock up for Thanksgiving, and this week that included pumpkin pie fixings. All I have left on my list now are Brussels sprouts, and a bag of potatoes, yeah me.
WWA:
Sat- Student Cafeteria before a college theater event. It was inexpensive at $12 a person, if not memorable food wise, but it was fun to be surrounded by so much energy!
Sun- Southwest Black Bean Soup + Cheese Bread
Mon- Pioneer Woman Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, broccoli
Tue- Sun leftovers
Wed- Grilled salmon, rice, asparagus
Thur- Mon leftovers
Fri- Meeting friends for sunset and drum ceremony at beach, and will get dinner, probably fish tacos, from the really good cafe on the sand.
Spending: $35, $32 at Aldi, $3 at the local grocery store. I have a lot stuffed into my pantry, so we're trying to eat that down (along with the freezer).
Eating:
I was sitting here trying to remember the end of last week, but it's just gone. I know we had chicken alfredo (twice), celery sticks with peanut butter, pb & j on my class night, noodles with spaghetti sauce (twice), and tonight we're getting pizza. I'm trying to use up the pasta and sauce that we have in the house, so we're going to be pasta heavy for at least another week.
I didn't shop last week - that will be today.
With my sister here, we did "cook once, eat as many times as you can."
We made a sheet pan meal with a large spatchcocked farm chicken. We used cut up parsnips, sweet potato, carrot, celery, mushrooms and onion. We had this for two dinners and I packed it for a couple of lunches at work. She brought her own lunch supplies to make her favorite wraps and sandwiches and she eats out on my porch listening to the birds while my dogs snooze at her feet. She enjoys that.
We cooked a pan of huge farm pork chops and in another sheet pan roasted broccoli and cauliflower. We ate that a couple of evenings, too.
We had grilled cheese sandwiches with cut up cucumbers and homemade ranch dressing last night. We had hot dogs with cut up cucumbers and ranch another night, with something else that I can't remember.
Tonight depends on what we find at the store, how late we run, and how hungry we get. My sister is used to eating out much more often than me; she eats at inexpensive places and almost always it is for lunch, but I don't eat out hardly ever, so I try to compromise with her some when she's here.
Good work keeping alive your habit of brown bagging, especially during a stressful
Week.
@WilliamB, amen to that!
Great job, Kristen ☺️
WIS - $55 @ Trader Joe’s, $35 @ Whole Foods for a Total of $90
WIA -
Friday - Filets, sweet potato, and broccoli
Saturday - I had a pork tenderloin in the crockpot, but it didn’t get eaten. My son and DIL called. They were going to take the kids to the Pic in the Park and wanted us to go along. The timing didn’t work so we ate popcorn for dinner! Spending time with the kiddos is much more important than food.
Sunday - pork, steamed rice and roasted brussel sprouts with apples.
Monday was a no-cook night. DH ran an errand for my sister who just had oral surgery. He picked up fried chicken which I can’t eat but he loves. I think I ate cottage cheese and fruit.
Tuesday - the remaining pork was made into pulled pork. We ate this along with sweet potato fries and spinach salad.
Wednesday - DH was not feeling well and went to bed at 6. I had gone to Whole Foods that day for some specialty items. While there, I picked up stuffed grape leaves and falafel which I had for dinner. DH doesn’t like this sort of thing.
Thursday - Snapper Provençal with rice and an Avocado -spinach salad.
Friday - I haven’t gotten that far yet.
Have a great weekend and bon appétit!
@Bee, You so made the right choice on Saturday. I envy you having the kids nearby enough to get together without planning and a lengthy car ride.
@ErikaJS, I am blessed to have them nearby. I hope that I won’t have to bear it any other way. My other children are not nearby.
Hmm, I seem to recall that you said you were flying by the seat of your pants this week, but this looks pretty great to me! Those skills carry you through the more chaotic weeks 🙂 We are having a surprisingly meat-heavy week.
Sunday: We came back from Ottawa in time for dinner (my parents were babysitting at our apartment,) so I cooked up some homemade frozen chicken katsu, and my dad (a pescetarian) had salad, cheese, and bread that he'd brought. Making the frozen katsu was a big pain in the you-know-what, but it was totally worth it!
Monday: I found some freezer-burned raw meatballs hanging around, so we had spaghetti and meatballs, and frozen peas and corn on the side.
Tuesday: Hard-boiled eggs, smoked salmon, bread, a tiny amount of mashed butternut squash (it was already cut, leftover, so I just cooked it in the microwave and added butter, salt, and pepper,) and carrot sticks.
Wednesday: I was working overnight, so I had takeout that my supervisor bought, and I think the home crew had frozen pizza.
Thursday: I was proud of this one. I slept all day and once I woke up, decided just to order takeout...but then I went across the street and bought a piece of salmon and cooked some rice, plus we had some fruit around. Way cheaper than takeout.
Friday: Mr. B is grilling us some steak, just because. We don't do that often, but it sure makes for a special treat!
Happy weekend everyone 🙂
@Meira@meirathebear, this might sound like a stupid question, but where does an apartment-dweller grill? Mentally I have you in a highrise with a tiny balcony, and I guess the grill could be out there. . . makes me twitch with my overwhelming need for lots of outdoor space (having grown up in an orange grove and later an olive grove, in a house of course).
@Central Calif. Artist Jana,
I can't speak for Meira but we use a grill pan on the stove.
@Central Calif. Artist Jana, fair question! Our building has some common areas, and one is a terrace with grills that you book through an online portal. We are not allowed grills on the balcony due to the fire risk. But we're hoping to move to a rental house in the summer, and then maybe get one of those little sphere grills.
@Meira@meirathebear, I hope you find a rental house next spring so you can be grilling without reservations in the summer!
Sunday:
Pasta carbonara with green beans
Monday:
Homemade sweet potato fries
Marinara sauce with ground beef
Broccoli
Tuesday:
Made stir fry with veggies, noodles, tofu
Wednesday:
Potato/cheese croquettes from the freezer (IKEA purchase)
Spinach soufflé made with feta & cheese, eggs, white sauce
Last of the tomato beef gravy
Green beans
Thursday:
Oven-baked potatoes with olive oil, salt and garlic powder
TJ chicken nuggets for the kids
Spinach soufflé leftovers
Water cress salad with apples, almonds and feta
Friday:
I have some TJ pizza dough in the fridge that I should use up, or I'll save it for tomorrow and will do takeout instead.
What I spent: $0 this week, although I'll have to buy groceries this weekend.
What I ate: lots of leftovers. I had gluten free pasta with homemade sauce and lentils mixed in for protein last weekend. Then there was Spanish rice with chicken and diced bell peppers topped with a homemade "cheese" sauce made with nutritional yeast - first time I've tried making my own cheese substitute. It was pretty decent. I also ate leftover ham and potato soup from the freezer with freshly made biscuits, and last night there was tortilla soup, also from the freezer. I was out of tortillas and tortilla chips, so I cooked some pasta to add to the soup.
Tonight I'll have pasta with lentils in tomato sauce again, if the sauce thaws in time.
Saturday - made some pasta with jarred sauce and meatballs for the kids, cannot at all remember what I ate
Sunday - the kids were at a play date and the host made them some pasta and reheated leftover pizza. My husband picked up sushi for the two of us.
Monday - penne alla vodka
Tuesday - impossible burger for husband, quinoa burger for me, chicken patties for the kids, steamed carrots and peas
Wednesday - I was at a conference for work, the hotel gave me a $15 food and beverage credit each day so I used it to order two hot appetizers during happy hour which was $16 and were filling enough for dinner.
Thursday - the conference hosted a dinner this night which I attended
Friday - driving home today, I know the kids will be on me though since they haven’t seen me for 2 days so will need to make a very fast, simple dinner, maybe teriyaki chicken with rice and a veggie.
Friday: Costco pizza slices – I’ve given up planning dinner on Costco nights because it never works out as planned.
Saturday: Dinner Party! We hosted 12 people: crab cakes, veggies/hummus, meat/cheese, steak sampler, mashed potatoes, ranch mushrooms, asparagus, cheesecake with strawberry topping. We have a variety of steaks in the freezer from our ¼ cow purchase. Everyone was able to sample different cuts and seasonings while keeping it to less than one steak per person.
Sunday: Steak sandwiches (leftovers!), cauliflower/corn/poblano sauté, fresh fruit
Monday: Pasta with butternut squash sauce, Italian sausage, and spinach
Tuesday: Potato and Short Rib Soup
Wednesday: leftovers
Thursday: Chicken Enchilada Rice Bowls
Still struggling to get my food bills down. The rest of this month is no travel so I should be able to cut the bleeding with restaurants.
This week:
1. Hibiscus tea from 10 year old leaves. I made a simple syrup to go in it.
2. Homemade baked beans using a hamshank and Instapot. I have 5 frozen portion left. They will go with the Hebrew National Park hot dogs I got on sale for 2.25 at Grocery Outlet. Hubby loves this meal.
3. I also picked up 4 pounds of Kerry Gold Butter at G.O. for 2.50 a pound. I am making brownies to use up sweetened condense milk that will go bad.
4. Price checked milk and eggs between Sam's and G.O. Eggs are half the price at Sam's. I bought the 5 dozen. Milk is cheaper as well for my yogurt. Picked up a chicken while there.
@Mary Ann, Magic cookie bars (or liver and onion bars as we used to call them)
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/63959/magic-cookie-bars-from-eagle-brand/
another use for sweetened condensed milk.
Whoa, I’ve never heard them called that. What’s the story behind that name?
@Kristen - a name my mom coined due to how the bars looked to her. Don't ask me why but they were always known as liver and onion bars at our house.
Got curious about rack versus wrack. "Wrack" is a noun that goes with ruin as in "wrack and ruin", and it means violent destruction of a building or vehicle. I like "ruination" and now am wondering if that is a real word. (Yeah, I know we are supposed to be talking about what we ate and what we spent.)
@Central Calif. Artist Jana, so off topic. Have you have snow at your mountain cabin?
@Bee, probably, because we got rain today down the hill. The cabin is at 7800' and closed for the winter. The road is inaccessible in the winter. Thank you for being interested!
WWS: $470 I'm not counting stuff we bought for the food pantry or long-term storage.
And about $8 of this was my super-on sale turkey, 49 cents a pound, and I rummaged to find the largest one I could--15.6 pounds. Even so, I got turkey-shamed by a lady who was also rummaging around and already had 3 turkeys in her cart, along with some enormous slabs of meat. She told me that she was planning to come back later that week, because she had talked to "the guy" and he said they bring out the small turkeys now and the bigger ones later. She asked me how many people I was planning for, and I said six, and she said, "Oh...you might be okay, but you have to subtract five pounds for the bones, remember!" Then she went on to say SHE needed TEN, at least, because she had a hundred people coming.
My unspoken thoughts: Lady, thanks for giving me not-enough-turkey-anxiety, because my family loves turkey and thanks for hoarding the 16 pound turkey you bragged about finding when you already had three in your cart. Also, I don't even know a hundred people, and that sounds like my personal circle of hell.
Then later I thought, I'm being uncharitable; maybe she's planning Thanksgiving dinner for a soup kitchen or a homeless shelter. Then I felt as low as a worm. Oh well.
WWA: Monday: Tuna burgers and homemade tomato soup, courtesy of DH
Tuesday: Hamburger stew, mac and cheese, broccoli
Wednesday: Chicken shawarma, rice, roasted cauliflower, salad bar
Thursday: Leftovers and lentil soup---i cobbled this out of some pantry stuff and
it turned out delicious!
Tonight: Taco/Mexican night
@Karen A.,
Your turkey works out to slightly more than 1 3/4 pounds of meat per person (deducting 5 pounds for the bones. I'd never heard that before....is it *really* 5 pounds? Asking because I don't know. Heh.). That seems like plenty to me, unless everyone likes white meat and no one likes dark meat, like my family.
@Liz B., DH is a dark meat fan, DS#4 will eat at least one drumstick by himself (and he's learned how to pick the bones clean), maybe he'll eat more this year since he's growing. DS# 1 and #2 like white meat and some dark meat, I think DS#2 likes drumsticks particularly. DS#3 eats white meat. I love white meat. So I think we have a good balance. Thanks for doing the math for me! I would love if we had a lot of leftover meat...will have to have lots of sides as well to help with that.
@Karen A.,
I’ve had 30 before and my house was bursting at the seams. 100 people sounds like an absolute nightmare. My mind starts swirling. Does she rent the church hall? How many ovens and refrigerators would she need? Does she have it catered? I’m overwhelmed just thinking about it,
@Karen A.,
She sounds like she might be what I call a "church lady." Maybe she's planning some sort of thanksgiving-style church function. I cannot imagine hosting 100 people in a regular home...
@Karen A.,
Also, I think you'll have plenty of turkey, and what an awesome price you got!
@Karen A.,
You're welcome! I was thinking the same thing....growing up, my mom always made loads of sides (us kids helped with the prep), so there was always more than enough turkey, and turkey left over, too.
@Becca,
Lol, which always makes me think of Dana Carvey doing SNL's Church Lady. 🙂
@Becca, Thank you! And yes, afterward I thought she was probably doing something like a church function, except she said she was "having" 100 people, which sounded like having them over...oh well, not my circus, not my monkeys!
We have no pets right now for reasons and I look for your kitty images as my comfort pet substitute. And it works a bit, thank you.
Yikes, I totally forgot how blown-back impressed I am with packing meals during times of extreme stress. And they’re full-course fabulous meals, too! I don’t believe I’d have the grit to sustain it with what you have on your plate (yes on pun) these past few years.
So, you, Kristen, are not just a frugality award winner, but a frugality hall of fame inductee.
Aww, thank you Erika. You are such a consistent encourager!
Saturday - dined out with my father - grilled chix sanwich w/fries for me. Dad had baked tortelloni (rare occasion he ate a side salad!) and husband had a philly cheese steak poor boy w/fries and a side salad.
Sunday - dine out Mexican
Monday - pan fried to re-heat gourmet hamburgers (from freezer) as well as the reset of the cut cheesy potatoes.
Tuesday - leftover Mexican enhanced with more veggies and cheese
Wednesday - tilapia and baked sweet potatoes
Thursday - mostaccioli with veggie/garlic enhanced meat sauce
Friday - stuffed pork pinwheel I think
Not sure why my bean question appeared twice twice but here goes. Sleep schedule all over the map even while being on vacation since Monday. Last week's Mennonite store visit was $58.50. That figures in to what I ate this week. And included the 7lb bag of brown sugar for holiday baking. Went to Hy-Vee to get milk and ice on Sunday morning after work. And two old fashioned donuts, one for now, w hot tea, one for the next day for breakfast. I know, I know. Yesterday, Aldi $58.17 which included split chicken breasts for chicken and noodles for our family dinner on Saturday. More on that in a minute. Also included ingredients for two 9x13 pineapple upside down cakes, one for the dinner and one for dinner at church on Sunday. (It was just as easy to make two as one.) Also included two big containers of peppermint puffs for one of the resident's at work.
I did look in my freezer for some chicken pieces and found the chicken carcasses of last years Thanksmas dinner, and pork shoulder roast that I had cut into chunks. Also strawberry preserves (to go with the rolls tomorrow).
Cooked the bones in a rough stock manner and strained it, added the cooked shredded chicken breasts to that. Was not seeing how I was going to get everything done in these two days when quick read on Facebook swapshop included someone made/is making homemade noodles. Whew! They are $10.00 for a very full gallon bag. The young lady brought those by this a.m. I bought two bags. I can still say I made homemade chicken and noodles.
So what I ate this week. Many lunches of sourdough bread (Aldi) and the deli meat sandwiches and grapes, sometimes chips. Two suppers of sliced turkey breast and Gruyre/Swiss shredded cheese quesadillas and grapes. Bowl of vanilla ice cream w hazelnut spread for dessert most evenings. Yesterday I got take away at Sonic for $10.00 and per usual was disappointed. Cooked the pork roast last night in the slow cooker w carnita seasonings for RTE meals/tacos with some Chinese cabbage slaw.
Making rolls today, really and truly.
I thought wrack was seaweed;)
I have a general question I thought you or a reader could help me with. Since you eat most of your meals at home and always have, how did keep your pantry and frig stocked? I am forever short what I would need and going to the store several times each week won’t work for me. Do you have any guidance on that subject?
Tell me more about what happens, and that might help us be of more assistance. What kind of things do you run out of?
Are you making a menu plan and then shopping based on the plan? Or are you wanting to keep your house stocked with oft-used ingredients so you can make whatever you want without a plan?
@Maryanne Cage,
I don't know if this will help you, but search the term "reverse meal planning" and you will find a basic outline of what my husband and I do. There are lots of good YouTube videos describing the concept, but basically, I keep the items we tend to use on hand at all times and then refill them as needed. Then my husband makes meals using just what we have. If we don't have an ingredient, he substitutes something else or just leaves it out. If I see an item we will definitely use on sale, I will buy more to stock up. And for some items like butter, I may only buy them once a year when I find a rock bottom loss leader sale. Then I'll make multiple trips, buy the limit, and freeze an insane amount like 40 pounds. My reasoning is that most recipes use basic ingredients for about 90% of the needed items, so if I always have flour, eggs, boneless skinless chicken breasts, cheese, butter, canned beans, spices, etc on hand, I have at least the basics for most meals we would want to make. Does that make sense?
Spend this week was $337 (for seven hungry people). That includes this morning's trip to Market Basket for $166 in groceries that will not be used until at least Sunday, but I avoid going there on the weekend.
M - beef stew, rye bread
T - tacos
W - chili, cornbread
R - three of us went to the football banquet, the rest had leftover tacos
tonight - homemade pizza
this is re the post re "blue" feelings. Had you taken into consideration how recently the time change was??? I recall there were a number of sort of blah challenges calling in for appointments on both ends of the time change scenario.
Oh, that is a good point!
I spent $87 at Aldi, and $40 at Walmart
Monday: Creamy Lemon chicken thighs
Mashed potatoes
Fresh green beans
Tuesday: Beef stew, cheddar bay biscuits ( mix). Homemade pumpkin pudding for dessert.
Wednesday: cooks night off ( made sure my mom had leftovers). I had a soft pretzel and a Claussen dill pickle. Hubby had leftovers.
Thursday: crockpot Red beans and rice with homemade bread.
Tonight: dinner out ( seafood) with a gift card!