WIS, WWA | a Friday off
Hello, everyone! And a happy Friday to you.
What I Spent
I spent:
- $90 at Aldi
So, the last three weeks have been $80, $75, and $90. I cautiously anticipate a stock-up week at some point soon. Ha.
What We Ate
Saturday
I worked, ate a late packed lunch (chicken lo mein), and then had some yogurt with fruit when I got home.
Sunday
I heated up some leftover ham and Swiss sandwiches in the toaster oven (on the air fry setting) and ate them with a salad.
Monday
I made some chili over rice, topped with cilantro lime sauce.
I did a bang-up job of getting my homework and food prep done, so after dinner, I squeezed in a quick park trip to see the sunset. 🙂
Tuesday
Shift ⅓: I had egg bites for breakfast, a chili/rice bowl for lunch, and then a bowl of cereal for dinner while I read blog comments. 😉
Wednesday
Shift number two, which was a lather-rinse-repeat for all three meals.
Thursday
Shift three! Also a lather-rinse-repeat. 😉
Friday
In shocking news: it's Friday, and I am not at work. This hasn't happened since early April; having such a streak is surprising in a job where shifts are usually all over the place.
In non-shocking news: I do not have big Friday night plans. I will likely be in bed by 9:30 pm as usual. Ha. I don't know what I'm going to make for dinner, but I will figure it out at some point today.
Do we feel like pancakes? POSSIBLY. 😉
Happy Friday, everyone! We spent $135 ($44 at Aldi, $64 at Trader Joe's and $27 at Target).
-- Mashed potatoes and lentil stew
-- Chickpea-cucumber-tomato-edamame salad
-- Pasta alla vodka, bread stick and watermelon at a graduation open house
-- Oatmeal with raisins, walnuts, peanut butter protein powder and soy milk
-- Salad: spinach, radishes, sunflower seeds, raisins, cottage cheese, and homemade vinaigrette
-- Penne pasta with broccoli and Parmesan
-- Lime tortilla chips with black beans, corn, tomatoes, jalapenos, salsa, cheese and Kristen's cilantro lime sauce
WIS: $0 -- I'm using up what I have on hand.
WIA: I didn't keep track. What I know is I finished up a pack of five Hebrew National hot dogs, a can of pork and beans which I doctored up and baked, cucumber/tomato salad, granola with raisins and walnuts, two slices of pepperoni pizza, and I can't remember what else.
Today I'm making chicken noodle soup from scratch. Also thinking about quesadillas or fajitas. Or an omelet or Welsh rarebit.
Those protein bagels in your cart are a big hit in our house – my son just had one for breakfast!
Friday: Brisket Sandwiches. The brisket was already in the freezer and I thought we had buns in there too but I ended up having to make some. We paired that with tater tots and fresh veggies.
Saturday: Husband smoked Dino Ribs (really big beef ribs). We had those with smoked green beans and husband’s first attempt at rosti.
Sunday: My favorite restaurant hosted their first ever Pasta-Fest. We had an assortment of pastas, delicious ice cream, but the best thing there was a smashed meatball sandwich.
Monday: Spinach Feta Chicken Meatballs and an orzo, white bean, artichoke, lemon pesto dish. I had a jar of TJ’s lemon pesto sitting in the pantry since last summer and I finally took the plunge and tried it.
Tuesday: Chipotle chicken burrito bowls. Husband bought the bag of chipotle chicken from Costco and it is delicious! We paired it with cilantro lime rice, black beans, salsa, cheese, and sour cream.
Wednesday: A mish-mash of potatoes, onions, orange bell pepper, cooked beef from the freezer, and a whole bunch of spices.
Thursday: Chicken Vindaloo over rice, green beans, mini naan
They're surprisingly good, I thought!
I appreciate you two commenting on the bagels being good! I thought about leaving a comment to ask. I saw them in my Aldi the other week and debated getting some, but didn't. Maybe next time!
Saturday: My daughter and I went on an adventure to one of our far-flung mission churches. Before Mass, we went to town to get milk and happened to see Talenti gelato layers. So we bought that and shared it and that was our dinner. 🙂 I had left marinated lamb chops at home, which my husband cooked for the male contingent. They may have had bread and butter with it. I know they had ice cream. I doubt they had a vegetable.
Sunday: Salisbury steaks with milk gravy, mashed potatoes, frozen corn or caramelized cabbage from the freezer, rhubarb crisp with vanilla ice cream
Monday: Leftover beans with ham and rice, leftover corn or cabbage, peanut butter cookies
Tuesday: Chicken and rice with caramelized onions (it is very handy having caramelized onions in the freezer), green salad with vinaigrette, the first watermelon of the season, yay!
Wednesday: Jalapeno/cheddar sausage or leftover chicken and rice for those who don't like sausage or spice, rice cooked in pork juices, raw radishes or bell peppers, more watermelon
Thursday: Cottage pie, green salad with ranch dressing, and ice cream with chocolate syrup
Tonight: I have several chicken leg quarters that have been in the refrigerator since Tuesday, so I'll probably just roast those with barbecue-ish spices, perhaps actual barbecue sauce. Maybe cornbread, as the oven will be on anyway. Some kind of vegetable. I will obviously be winging it. As always.
I think you once mentioned preparing caramelized onions in a slowcooker? If it was you, could you share the recipe? Id like to give it a try!
Nope, wasn't me. I don't have a slow cooker.
"I doubt they had a vegetable" hahahah, this made me giggle.
To be fair, the girls had ice cream for dinner with nary a vegetable to be seen, so I guess it just wasn't a vegetable day for our family.
Not every day has to be a vegetable day. I think our bodies can average things out. 😉
Genetics are the driver IMHO. Case in point - my better half eats a far better diet than I (there isn't a veggie he doesn't like) and also gets more exercise. Yet my A1C is over a point lower than his (mine is under 5). My overall cholesterol is a little higher (yet well under the current "magic number" which again IMHO is no guarantee you won't have a heart attack) but my good cholesterol is higher/both bad ones lower than better half. When it comes to genetics, there isn't a lot one can do. I will also say given your ethnic background, the "magic number" ranges for total cholesterol might be totally off.
Relevant to yesterday's comment . . . My fourteen-year-old son was putting on his socks to go fill the horse water just now and said, "I've been on my socks, I'm putting on my shoes." "So I said, "You can wear your snazzy sneakers or whatever you choose." And then I recited the entire book and he did the Pookie Dance. Made my day. 🙂
When I see the clock at a certain time (6:08), I always think of birthday monsters. "Oh look!" they shout. "It's 6:08! Your present opening can't wait!" They rush you down before you're ready, and use your breakfast as confetti. 🙂
I've spent a low amount the past few weeks also. This week was $72.
We ate:
Saturday: burgers/homemade fries/salad
Sunday: grilled bbq chicken with grilled corn and salad
Monday: chili and cornbread
Tuesday: smoked sausage with potatoes and green beans
Wednesday: leftovers
Thursday: we got chicken tenders from the grocery deli because we happened to be at the grocery at dinner time and were starving. Had sides at home (leftover corn and salad)
Friday: I was going to grill out pizza, but it is too hot so not sure what we are doing.
WIS: $23 @ Scratch & Dent store for 5 lbs of fancy gouda, avocados, 3 gal vanilla ice cream, watermelon, grapes and a pineapple.
Sun - burgers, various salads, baked beans, Sunday Sundae bar
Mon - Chicken Suizza , street corn, baked beans
Tue - green salad, devil eggs, leftover hamburger patty
Wed - bbq ribs, green salad, watermelon
Thur - carne asada tacos, watermelon
Fri - garden salad with leftover carne asada meat
Sat - Grad party on the beach, Hot dogs, chips, fruit kabobs.
Wow, that's quite a haul at the Scratch & Dent store!
Monday; hamburgers, sauteed squash, cottage cheese
Tuesday: grilled sausages ( i had philly cheesesteak sausage), baked sweet potatoes, applesauce
Wednesday: grilled chicken breasts, fried potatoes with onion, mixed veggies, birthday cake with ice cream
Thursday: Blt's and french fries
Friday: TBD....hubby is at a golf outing today and they have a steak dinner included, so I may be on my own...
Thanks for sharing your Marry Me chickpeas recipe, very tasty! We'll add it to our rotation. It takes so little time to prepare too-
This week we had lasagna again, and Sunday Salad, and steamed potatoes with beetroot and pork. Then I was away for work for two days. I skipped dinner in favour of fruit and buns one day, so I would have more time to work at the hotel. And then I had office BBQ the next day. Today will be chili, I can use up some veggies and it is cool enough for a one pot stew.
Yes, I love that it's so speedy! And I usually have all the ingredients here.
Because I didn't make many of these meals, it's going to be a struggle to remember what I ate. I was at a work event Sunday-Thursday.
-Pizza last night, after my flight home
-Grilled chicken & pasta one night
-Fajitas another night
-Leftover 1/2 sandwich from my lunch another night
-Pizza at work one night (2x in a week - - yikes!)
-Grilled chicken & rice (at home, before I left)
-Fried rice & teriyaki meatballs + crunchy noodle salad (also at home)
I like that you have simple dishes you can have several times. It makes life easier. And I could eat cereal every night for dinner. But I cook because I have a starving husband who's metabolism is twice what mine is. He's always hungry.
I spent $48 at Walmart
Sat – I tried a new baked casserole meal recipe I found on FB that had coleslaw mix, hamburger and spices. It was kind of like a deconstructed egg roll. We had it with fried wontons. We liked it. I'll make it again.
S – grilled strip steaks, sweet potatoes, leftover dill/cucumber/onion salad.
M – Italian brats baked with peppers and onions, boxed scalloped potatoes green ksalad
T– corned beef made in the crockpot, boiled potatoes and carrots.
W – baked BBQ’d chicken legs & thighs, green beans leftover potatoes from previous meals, cucumber kimchi.
Th – BBQ’d pork sandwiches, corn on the cob, sliced tomatoes from the garden, chips.
F – we will probably have baked salmon, coleslaw, something with eggplant since we have a few from the garden, and maybe rice.
Happy Friday! The cilantro looks so good in your photo, Kristen. I looooovvvvve cilantro.
WIA:
Sunday: Smash burgers, cantaloupe, and baked broccoli fritters. Didn't realize until too late that we didn't have leftover cooked white rice and panko crumbs. Subbed flour for the rice, regular bread crumbs for the panko. Tasted more akin to a biscuit. Tasty but not as light as the recipe intended. Next time I'll adhere to the recipe.
Monday: It was a celebratory meal so charcoal-grilled lamb chops, one prime ribeye steak w/mushroom & onions, steak frites, and asparagus. The men made the meal. 🙂
Tuesday: Hubby ate a leftover beef shawarma sandwich from Friday's meal. The shawarma was excellent on Friday. Leftovers were fine although they weren't as amazing as the original dinner. I had Aldi's white cheddar cheese popcorn because I wasn't that hungry.
Wednesday: I had leftover lamb chops and the few bites of steak from Monday's meal. Two dark chocolate covered biscuits from Aldi for dessert. Hubby had leftover homemade chipotle chicken soft tacos from, ahem, some days earlier. He reported that the tacos were delicious.
Thursday: Made a new recipe from Milk Street. Portobella mushrooms, shallots, tarragon, cottage cheese, and chicken broth (subbed for white wine) that made a sauce for pasta. Made a Caesar salad with it using Jacques Pepin's recipe. Brined Aldi's organic chicken breast using the brinerade that Kristen has shared. Quickly sauteed chicken in pan with butter and then let chicken rest. I sometimes have a problem pan frying chicken breast as it comes out rubbery. This was excellent. We have leftovers of the pasta and chicken. The chicken may become chicken sandwiches in order to use up two remaining sesame seed buns from Aldi.
Friday: TBD
You know what I did yesterday though? COMPLETELY FORGOT TO PUT THE CILANTRO ON MY LUNCH.
I had it there in the lunch bag, but I didn't add it on top when I sat down to eat.
I'm still a little annoyed at myself. 😉
Oooooh. I would still be thinking about that too. "My lunch was good, but it could have been better," kind of thinking!
Beautiful sunset picture, I needed that today. Thank you
Saturday - My daughters Girl Scout troop had their end of year field trip to an indoor play place followed my pizza at the restaurant next door.
Sunday - My experimental day for plant based recipes. I was slightly more successful than last weeks failed lentil sloppy Joes. I made a cream of broccoli soup using cashew cream and a plant based chopped salad kit. One kid liked the soup and disliked the salad, the other liked the salad and disliked the soup. I also served it with biscuits which they both liked.
Monday - My kids stayed with their grandparents most of this week so this was the night I drove them up there and I bought everyone dinner as a thank you. I had a beet salad, kids had French fries (I bought them other food too but all they ate were the French fries)
Tuesday - no kids to worry about feeding, what a treat! I had leftover lentil sloppy joes with some of the leftover chopped salad kit on top as a sort of coleslaw.
Wednesday - husband and I decided to take advantage of not having the kids home and tried a new Japanese restaurant in our town, it was very good. I had a veggie dragon roll, mushroom skewers and sesame balls.
Thursday - I went to pickup the kids this night and bought dinner again, this time for my parents and my MIL who also helped out with the kids during the week. It was in the upper 90’s of temperature so I got all the adults salads, kids again just had French fries and hardly any at that, maybe too hot to eat since they aren’t used to that type of weather.
Friday - I found a jar of pizza sauce in the freezer so I bought round pita bread and mozzarella so we can make our own pizzas. I made a “cheese” sauce out of Yukon gold potatoes that turned out really well so I’m going to try that on my pizza instead of the cheese.
Happy Friday, everyone!
This week's eats:
Saturday: I was in Switzerland and went out for pizza.
Sunday: I didn't have a meal as such that evening as I spent most of the day hiking and then got back to the hotel early. I wasn't very hungry so I think I just had a sandwich and some other snacky things.
Monday: This was the evening I got back. I bought a wrap in the airport and when I got back I quickly threw together some aubergine and spaghetti with a basil and tomato sauce and some cheese
Tuesday: Veggie burritos with mixed veg, black beans, brown rice and sauce
Wednesday: Spinach and cream cheese over pasta with onion and garlic
Thursday: Mushroom and cheese omelette with some salt and vinegar crisps (chips) on the side. I had some chopped veggies to make it vaguely healthy!
Friday: Veggie stir-fry with black beans. I bought an orange ice lolly for dessert 🙂
We continue to experience chilly and wet weather which influences our menu choices. WWA;
Saturday- DS#1 and his SO dropped in for dinner. We made waffles with maple syrup/whipped cream, breakfast sausages, bacon, blueberries, and strawberries
Sunday - beef bourginon, boiled baby potatoes, green salad
Monday - air fryer drumsticks, rice, Caesar salad
Tuesday - sandwiches with chips on the side
Wednesday- chickpea coconut curry, rice, cucumber and radish salad
Thursday - leftovers
Friday - shrimp is thawing for tacos
Happy weekend everyone
WIS: Farmers Market-$90; Neighborhood-$45; Wegmans-$13; TGTG-$4; Milk delivery-$21; BJs-$151 (some stocking up) Total-$324
WWA: Can't remember the weekend
Monday- Italian marinated chicken tenders and ratatouille
Tuesday- Leftovers from Monday
Wednesday- A made up dish of beans, pasta shells, and left over ratatouille cut up w/ added tomato sauce
Thursday- Lemon asparagus chicken meatballs w/ mushroom ravioli in a mushroom cream sauce, green beans on the side
Friday- Left over meatballs ravoili/pasta w/ a wedge salad
Even after all this time, I still expect to see a stuffed animal or a toy in the photographs of your grocery shopping. 🙂
Awww. Those were fun times with my kiddos. 🙂
I noticed that you use a toaster oven with the air fryer option. I have a microwave I was just wondering if the air fryer toaster ovens use less energy? I know microwaves use a lot. I got my microwave for free I just had to go somewhere and pick it up. It's a nice one. But in the future I'd like to know if it would be worth it to get a air fryer/toaster oven. For some reason I'm thinking that you talked about this in a past blog post. If it's easier to do the link that would be great too. I can reread it. Thank you.
Well, the main reason I like the toaster oven is for when I want something to have dry heat! I wanted a crispy top and bottom on my sandwiches, and that wouldn't happen in the microwave. So for me, it's more about a texture difference than an energy difference.
WIS: $87 at Food Lion and various small items at Dollar Tree and Ollie's Outlet that probably came to at least $13.
WWA: Chili, spicy pork and veggie stir-fry, and roasted chicken for DH. He had carrot sticks, cherry tomatoes, and sweet cherries as sides for anything not including vegetables. I made two semi-deep dish pizzas for DS and ate a small slice. The remainder fed him for two nights. I was not in the mood to cook for myself and either had veggie burgers with fruit or a chocolate-strawberry protein smoothie.
We are on vacation this week but have a kitchen in the cabin. I indulged in some premade food from Publix, but it was still so much cheaper than eating out all week! Haven’t done my tally yet. FYI-My son is a rather particular eater, so we don’t always enjoy the same meal.
Sun: pizza from the store
Monday: Salmon meal for one with noodles. I added salad, also from the store. My son had fruit and pizza.
Wed.: A restaurant for my bday dinner- a delicious beet salad and a tuna steak. My son had steak. We both had dessert.
Thursday: Pasta with avocado, tomato and chx. Dessert from the store, split. My son had all of the above, deconstructed. 🤣
Friday: Home Run Inn frozen pizza-best frozen pizza ever! We are going to get ice cream as our last dessert. We head home in the morning. Booooo.
WIS- $160. YIKES! This is high, but I had two meals out with friends (one planned, one impromptu after pickleball) and we've been missing Western food so this includes splurges (below).
• Ground pork, rice, and fried egg (krapow)
• Green curry over rice
• Pizza ordered. A huge splurge and 100$ worth it
• Egg, Canadian bacon, cheddar on English Muffins (also a huge splurge meal except egg).
• Chicken chalupa with salsa
• Snack plate- cheese (splurge), sweet potato, bell pepper, yogurt with pepitas, fresh bread and butter, pineapple, some nuts...
• Chicken burger, fries and a hot fudge sundae (splurge)
This makes me realize I have been really lacking in the vegetable department! Next week will be back to regular food/healthier for sure.
Better half found some sour dough English muffins which we've been when better half makes breakfast sandwiches (which we pretty much have for lunch). I prefer sausage but will eat bacon. Ham or Canadian bacon are out for me.
Late to the party, but here's my report anyway:
WIA: $46.50 at Ollie's, $44.50 at Price Chopper, $29 at Aldi, and $21.50 at Trader Joe's.
WIA: The usual nothing too memorable, except for a couple of salads featuring homegrown spinach and cilantro. But I regret to report this from Trader Joe's: My beloved naughty snack of plantain chips has undergone both a price increase and a size decrease. First the bag went up from $1.69 to $1.99, and then it went down from 8 to 6 ounces. Naughty snack no more, alas.
Dollar Tree locally has started stocking plantain chips, and also sweet potato and other root vegetable chips. What Dollar Trees stock seems to be heavily at the discretion of the store manager, so I always seek her out to give a thank you for healthy snacks.