WIS, WWA | and also Chiquita
What I Spent
I spent:
- $69 at Aldi
- $40 on a Hungry Harvest box
So, $109 for me.
What We Ate
Saturday
Hibachi over rice, with yum yum sauce, OF COURSE.
Hibachi without yum yum sauce would be rather sad!
Here's how I make my inauthentic hibachi.
Sunday
Leftover hibachi. 🙂
Monday
I made the quesadillas I mentioned in my freezer report.
Tuesday
I made chicken katsu, which is not at all a traditional 4th of July food.
But I wanted to take pictures of the recipe for you guys since many of you requested the recipe.
A post is forthcoming!
Wednesday
I tried this one-pot chicken sausage pasta recipe, with a few changes: I used hot Italian sausage, light cream instead of heavy cream (the store was out of heavy cream!) and I used more spinach than recommended.
I also didn't chop the spinach because spinach shrinks down to nothing when you cook it anyway.
Verdict: it's a good recipe, but I kinda thought it would be better if it was spicier! Maybe I needed hotter sausage.
Thursday
Leftover pasta, buttttt I added sliced jalapenos to my serving when I reheated it and I thought it was way better that way. Your mileage may vary if you don't like spicy food. 😉
Friday
I'm gonna try to use up some of my last few freezer foods. Wish me luck!
Hearty meals this week as the weather is cold and wet -
Sat - leftovers bobotie and rice
Sun - slow cooked beef cheeks, mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli/ cauliflower
Mon - Mac and cheese with bacon
Tues - Nigella’s Spanish chicken , roast potatoes/ chicken/ onions/ chorizo tray bake with broccoli added for the last few minutes
Wed - sausage/ spinach and pasta cheesy bake
Thurs - restaurant meal
Fri - homemade fish burgers and coleslaw
Adjusting to cooking for just 3 of us but still have teenage son at home so leftovers often eaten as snacks by him.
Aww, Miss Chiquita is so cute.
WIS: 111.16 @Aldi
WWA:
Fri: sweet and spicy kale, focaccia topped with cherry tomatoes, pepperoni, mozzarella and parmesan cheese
Sat: mixed greens dressed with balsamic vinaigrette and shake parm, Aldi take and bake cheese pizza, mermaid cones for dessert
Sun: spinach salad (with dressing made from leftover tomato marinade), bratwursts on brioche buns, leftover focaccia
Mon: leftover spinach salad, sauteed green beans, gnocchi topped with leftover Sunday gravy and mozzarella rounds and broiled
Tue: salad (Tokyo bekana, orange peppers, peanuts, craisins, spicy peanut butter dressing), assorted leftovers (brown rice, pasta, zucchini curry, sweet and spicy kale)
Wed: whole mini tomatoes, cabbage and ground beef with smoked paprika over brown rice, rose cones for dessert
Thu: smash burger tacos (toppings: diced tomato, diced peppers, diced onion, diced pickles, diced avocado, shredded Tokyo bekana, mustard/mayo sauce, chipotle cheddar cheese), watermelon
Tonight: salad and pizza
Have a great weekend, everyone!
@Becca, I'm intrigued by your "mermaid cones" and "rose cones." What are they?
@Elinor,
They are seasonal premade ice cream cones from Aldi. The rose ones are sold around mother's day and then they have mermaid and unicorn ones in the summer. I think there others at other times of the year, too. I like them because they don't have all the yucky chemicals that most premade ice cream treats have and sometimes I can get them steeply discounted when they go on clearance. Here's a review of them: https://www.aldireviewer.com/sundae-shoppe-mermaid-cones/
@Becca,
I've seen the rose cones at my local Aldi, but not the mermaid or unicorn cones. I've never tried them, as they are rarely, if ever, deeply discounted at my store.
@Liz B.,
Even at full price, the box is 3.99 and there are four cones inside, so...meh...not the cheapest ice cream, but at a dollar a pop they are cheaper than the ice cream truck so they make for a relatively cheap fun treat. The mermaid and unicorn ones are there now.
I think I have made that Sausage dish, for us it was just OK, I think i got it off of pintrest.
there is another one mozz chicken pasta, that is a family hit.
We got our sheep back from the butcher, so menus now will feature that. I'll call it lamb, even though this ewe was really too old. The meat doesn't taste strong like mutton, though, so lamb it is. 🙂
Saturday: Cheeseburgers made from two pounds ground beef and one pound ground lamb. By request, I smashed the meat very firmly when I put it on the pan, to make thin patties. This is WAY more of a pain than making thicker ones, though, both because I have to cook a lot more individual patties, and because smashing the meat makes it spit grease even more. Such a mess. The patties were good, though. I also made homemade buns, oven fries, and a green salad with a honey vinaigrette.
Sunday: I made up a casserole with bull meat, rice, and cheese. Plus some other random things. It came out surprisingly well, and all of my children like casseroles, which is nice. I also made a baked custard for Sunday dessert.
Monday: Fish patties made with two cans of salmon and one big can of tuna, spaghetti with butter and parmesan, and a green salad with ranch dressing
Tuesday: My husband hates to grill, but he loves grilled lamb ribs more than any other food, so he grilled those for the 4th. Since our meat came right from our property, I decided the rest of the meal should, too,. As much as possible, anyway. So! I had harvested a few potato plants earlier in the week. I boiled those potatoes and added a bunch of butter and salt to them. Green salad, of course, with a ranch dressing that included parsley and dill from the garden. I had made rhubarb/strawberry puree earlier in the day (we add it to yogurt), so I used that to decorate a flag cake and an extra cake I made because my only rectangular baking dish is pretty small and I had cake batter left over.
Wednesday: One cheese pizza, one pepperoni pizza since I was baking bread anyway and could steal the dough. I also made some lamb meatballs for me and cooked them in the juice I drained from a can of whole tomatoes to make the pizza sauce. And there was, of course, another salad. And ranch dressing, because about half my family likes it with their pizza as well as on salad.
Thursday: Leftover pizza, meatballs, and potatoes. I didn't actually serve a vegetable, but my kids ate all the carrot thinnings in the afternoon, so I counted that.
Tonight: My ambition is to make shepherd's pie with both lamb and beef, so I can make a big one and we can have leftovers tomorrow when I'm going to be gone all day. Also to make a smaller one to give to our new priest, who is quite young and just learning to cook. I haven't even gotten the meat out of the freezer, though, and making the mashed potatoes and everything still seems daunting at the moment, but I'm confident I'll rise to the occasion once I finish my coffee. 🙂
@kristin @ going country, I love the variety of meats that you had in the last week!
Your meals sound yummy as always! Looks like your new kitty is making herself at home! This week:
Monday - kitchen closed. I ate some HEB sausage focaccia pizza with a small salad.
Tuesday - I worked until 9 p.m., so kitchen still closed! I pretty much lived on beefy queso and cookies at work. I ate something small at home - cereal? Can't remember.
Wednesday - Dr. Martin's Mix. No sides because I wasn't feelin' it.
Thursday - Hot Roast Beef Subs, chips, cantaloupe, and I made rice pudding
Tonight - Crockpot Chicken Tacos, pico de gallo and shredded cheese, borracho beans (going to visit my college kid and I might talk him into Chik-Fil-A or Schlotzskys)
Saturday and Sunday - kitchen closed, but one of them is another focaccia pizza with a salad, and the other is a specialty ravioli with pesto marinara.
Happy weekend!
https://cannaryfamily.blogspot.com/
Is Chiquita making any progress in her efforts to "friend" Shelly?
WIS: $43 at Price Chopper and $25 at Wegmans.
WIA: I think that I mentioned last week making a lobster stock from several lobster shells donated by the Bestest Neighbors. I froze three quarts of this stock and made a gumbo with the rest, which I shared with a gumb0-loving friend. (His wife doesn't like fish or seafood of any kind, so he rarely gets any at home.)
Then yesterday I found another RFQS deal at Wegmans: four Cornish hens. I roasted these all together yesterday and will be using them in various forms of Cornish hen goodness for the next several days.
This short week actually felt short, which doesn’t often happen for me… WWA:
Saturday - grilled steaks, dill pickle pasta salad, Caesar salad, watermelon
Sunday - roast chicken, leftover salads
Monday - leftovers
Tuesday - slow cooker beef stew, baguette
Wednesday - everyone went out, so snacks for me
Thursday - sheet pan fajitas, was going to make agua fresca with leftover watermelon but just forgot
Friday - planning on zucchini ricotta pasta ( & agua fresca?)
Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend
Saturday - was visiting some friends and we snacked and talked all afternoon so I wasn’t hungry. My kids were with my parents and had pizza.
Sunday -
Monday - pasta sauce with ground beef and sausage over spaghetti. The recipe is my MIL, I didn’t actually have it written down, just a video of her making it with my son and instructing him on what to add, so I finally watched the video and transcribed it so I now have a written recipe
Tuesday - we hosted a 4th of july bbq, my husband made ribs, chicken drumsticks and sausage balls (new recipe he found) I made Mac n cheese, corn on the cob, fruit tray and veggie tray, other people brought potato salad, corn salad, and lots of dessert! It was a lot of fun, except my oldest came down with a fever.
Wednesday - the rest of our week, one or both kids had a fever and husband and I were taking turns working at home while caring for kids. We had leftovers from the bbq this night.
Thursday - leftover pasta sauce from Monday
Friday - not sure yet, I’m hosting my book club here tonight (one of those busy weeks!) I’ll be snacking at book club so maybe just some chicken nuggets for the kids.
@LB, "Busy" doesn't do it justice! It wore me out just reading this. ;-}
My menu got changed a bit, but that's okay since I didn't waste any food or have to run out and buy an ingredient.
I thawed a bag of chicken leg quarters and wings and made good old fashioned fried chicken. So good. With it I had green beans and squash, with fresh cherries for dessert. As usual for me, I had this twice as well as for lunches.
I cooked farm brats and had them with sweet-potato salad one time and mashed white (!) potatoes with pickled cabbage another time.
Pork chop, summer squash sautéed in olive oil with Italian seasoning and pan "charred" broccoli. I added my first okra pod big enough to pick in with the squash.
A hot dog with cut up cucumbers, fruit.
My daughter bought my meal at the pizzeria where my granddaughter was working - as usual, I got a salad, which my granddaughter makes with my favorite ingredients. This was a change to my meal plan.
It will change again tonight, because my daughter and granddaughter are taking an impromptu two-night trip this weekend, so I was gifted the fresh Gulf fish a co-worker had just given to my daughter. He had already cleaned and filleted it so all I have to do is decide how to cook it.
@Kristen....that photo of Chiquita. Oh my goodness. SO SO cute. Strangely enough I have been thinking of Chiquita whenever I am out and see a really cute cat toy. I miss having my kitties even though I love my pups just as much.
WIS: $46 & $31 at Publix. I anticipate another random spend this weekend too because we are out of milk and bread.
WWA:
Sat: We celebrated my Mom's birthday. I made New York Strip steak, Amish macaroni salad, caprese salad on crostini & oreo ice cream cake for dessert.
Sun: I am Naan pizzas with leftovers steak and caprese salad...yummy!
Mon: Homemade moogoo gai pan and jasmine rice - this was a lovely use of all the snowpeas and zucchini we are harvesting from our garden
Tues: Country style ribs, macaroni salad & green beans from our garden with baby red potatoes, watermelon
Weds: leftovers
Thurs: taco skillet with ground turkey
Fri: Clean out the fridge!
Friday: Homemade pizza and Caesar salad.
Saturday: ‘Dude Night’ The boys made breakfast for dinner (my son learned how to cook eggs, bacon, and hash browns) and I met friends for burgers and drinks.
Sunday: Ramen Noodle Stir Fry – finally found the perfect way to use the bok choy from the CSA box!
Monday: ‘Dude Night’ My son learned how to make hamburgers and tater tots and I met a friend for Mexican food.
Tuesday: Brats and hot dogs on the grill, Greek orzo salad, fresh veggies, strawberry shortcake.
Wednesday: Salmon, leftover orzo salad, roasted broccoli and cauliflower.
Thursday: White Bean and Kale Soup with leftover buns as garlic bread.
*Dude Night was created by my husband as a special, once a month night for just him and my son. My husband teaches my son how to cook a meal and then they watch a movie together. My son has a running list of things he wants to cook and movies he wants to watch.
@Geneva, I love that your husband & son have that night together, to learn to cook & watch a movie. What a wonderful idea!
WIS: In total terms, around $150, but only about 2/3 of that was people food. Due to a lashing rainstorm with thunder and lightning when I set out to do errands, all my purchases were done at the grocery story, which included pet food, birdseed, and cosmetics. The prices were actually pretty good!
WWA: Salads, both green and fruit. Nuts, cheese, fruit. Cheese and tomato sandwiches. Ham sandwiches. Protein shakes made with frozen berries, almond milk, and ground flaxseed - sort of a super healthy milkshake. Thanks to a store coupon, we have an abundance of eggs and I made a light version of egg salad (1.5 yolks per 3 eggs and lite mayo) to have on rye crackers with homegrown cherry tomatoes -- bliss!
My husband & I had a lovely four day weekend, and our 16 y.o. was at a residential tennis camp, so it was just the three of us for most of the week.
Saturday - My husband also made a large batch of beef kebabs, rice & yogurt sauce for our family dinner, before we had to take the 16 y.o. to camp
Sunday - We'd planned to do a "date night" after we dropped the 16 y.o. off at camp, but decided to come home & hang out by the pool with a glass of wine instead, and grill steak. Our 17 y.o stopped by unexpectedly with a friend at dinner time, so I threw together a few sides, and we sliced the steak extra thin. 😉 We served it with: a loaf of bread I defrosted, my favorite summer peach/basil/fresh mozzarella salad & green salad. The teens had ice cream after dinner.
Monday - we went out to lunch in Half Moon Bay. I don't recall what we had for dinner, but something small after lunch out.
Tuesday - my husband grilled hot dogs, which we served with potato salad & green salad.
Wednesday - leftover kebabs & rice
Thursday - leftover hot dogs & potato salad.
Friday - it's unusual for us to have steak twice in a week, but my husband's cousin is driving from LA to visit us & stay the night. So, steak it is. We'll serve that with a caprese salad (garden tomatoes & basil + fresh mozzarella) & some sort of potato dish.
Sunday: We were at my parents' and they gave us salmon and roasted veggies. They also bought a lot of mangoes and gave us a bunch, I ate a mango for dessert every day!
Monday: Mr. B made baked ziti, but with whole wheat penne instead of ziti. We had it with salad.
Tuesday: Leftovers, and salad.
Wednesday: I was inspired by Kristin and used two frozen chicken breasts as part of a build-your-own ramen bowls for me, Mr. B, toddler, and my mom. It was good, but man, I always underestimate how much work those build-your-own meals are. Great for a crowd, but too much work for just three adults!
Thursday: Tilapia, rice, and asparagus.
Friday: We're going to our friends' for dinner, yay! They're ordering pizza and we're bringing a salad and some fruit.
My new-ish (last few months) frugal habit is saving all the half-nibbled apples that my daughter creates and making them into applesauce for her. We have some tired-looking cherries (we had a bag and then my mom gave us another) so I might make her some cherry sauce, this weekend. Sounds messy....
As usual your meals look delicious but I really want that pasta dish!
Meals we ate:
Friday- takeout pizza
Saturday- grilled burgers, potato salad, baked beans, watermelon
Sunday- grilled bratwurst, sauerkraut, potato salad, melon
Monday- takeout
Tuesday- husband working/daughter and I went to Longhorn for dinner
Wednesday- chopped salad with leftover breaded chicken from Tuesday dinner, leftover bratwurst, fruit
Thursday- rotisserie chicken, salad, sourdough bread, fruit
I went to Costco yesterday afternoon and loaded up on fruit, tomatoes, sliced mozzarella, prosciutto because our weather forecast is now HOT so we will be having lots of salads and fruit for the foreseeable future… I’m going to make chicken salad from the leftover rotisserie chicken and egg salad from the eggs I boiled yesterday. My husband gets tired of lunchmeat sandwiches but he will eat egg salad and chicken salad until they’re gone. We’ll have prosciutto with melon and a tomato & mozzarella salad with toasted sourdough bread for dinner for a night or two. We spiffed up our deck with new pads for the furniture, an additional blind for the side that needed it…and an outdoor tv (!)…we also have an overhead fan so even if it is hot, my people will eat outside willingly and I’m loving it…
1 - Anniversary dinner out. Tostaguac for me at a Mexican restaurant.
2 - Grilled chicken, homegrown snap beans, roasted potatoes.
3 - Turkey burgers (with some surplus garden kale mixed in), corn on the cob, roasted zucchini and tomatoes from the garden.
4 - Grilled burgers, watermelon, chips, plus slushies made in our ice cream maker.
5 - Black beans, tortillas, avocado, lettuce, homegrown tomatoes.
6 - Chik fil-a for some of us, leftover chicken, beans and watermelon for another.
7 - I have some tofu and broccoli that needs to be cooked that I will likely pair with noodles. After some long-awaited rain last week, my vegetable garden has exploded and the produce is starting to pile up, so I will be sure to include something from the garden. Maybe okra and zucchini?
I feel kind of dumb asking this, but the recipe looks like a winner so I think I'd like to try it... Is the yum yum sauce the name of the sauce/marinade in the recipe or is it something separate that you buy in addition to the sauce in the recipe?
This week we ate:
Saturday: At lunchtime we hosted my 5yo's birthday party. She requested chicken nuggets, shells and cheese, and sour cream and onion Pringles. I added Mickey Mouse goldfish (to go with her Minnie Mouse theme), carrots and dip, and strawberries to the menu. I made a Minnie Mouse cake and she picked out sprinkle swirl and Superman ice cream.
Sunday: This was my little one's family birthday party. She asked for grilled chicken, mac and cheese, baby cucumbers, and fruit salad. She then made me proud by wanting pumpkin pie with homemade whipped cream for dessert!
Monday: Burgers, carrots, cukes, cherries, asparagus, and potatoes
Tuesday: Steak, fries, carrots, and smoothies
Wednesday: Grilled chicken, chips and dip, pineapple, and veggies
Thursday: Brunswick stew chicken casserole over rice with peaches on the side
Friday: Spaghetti with meat sauce. Since I'm having quesadillas for lunch instead of a salad today, we will probably have salad with dinner.
There's a link to the sauce in the recipe! It's something you put on top of the hibachi. 🙂
Ah! Thank you! I missed that link when I was looking at the recipe.
Your meals look good. I should figure out how to cook again sometime.
It was an expensive week:
$34 at a local grocery store, $44 on Thai take out, $107 at Aldi, totaling $184. We splurged on dairy free ice cream, cones and fudge because it’s summer and it’s fun to do that now and again. Also, I’m in a funk and preparing meals is pretty low on my list of priorities/ambitions. This will pass eventually, I think.
Saturday-chicken nuggets from the freezer. It’s becoming our thing for when the kids get back from their dad’s house. Predictable. Well liked. Easy.
Sunday- crock pot roast with potatoes and carrots
Monday- ribs leftover from a friend who cooked a massive slide of ribs, potatoes and veggies
Tuesday-brats and veggies
Wednesday-thai take out. We were all craving it and I napped late. It was worth the money this time. But I should learn how to cook it.
Thursday-chicken nuggets with veggies and fruit.
Tonight-beans and rice I think
My kids eat really healthy breakfasts/lunches and snacks, so I’m not as concerned when I have these dinner funks.
Kaitlin, I was in such a cooking funk for a long time. I think you are wise to give yourself grace. You're going through a lot! It's ok to have some funks; they will not last forever.
Love the food pics and recipes!
I’ve been enjoying a guy I found on YouTube videos who’s channel is called Sip and Feast. You all help me up my meal time repertoire!
I do not like cats. I am wildly allergic to them, as in if I sit next to a cat owner I can start feeling my lips swell. Thus, I am not sure if I dislike cats just because or if that came after experiencing an airplane ride as a kid where I had to be moved because the lady next to me had a cat in a carrier under her seat and I was soon unable to breathe. That being said, those pictures of Chiquita are just too stinking cute! Just for a moment I thought, "Maybe I could find a way to live with a cat."
Chiquita says that this is a high compliment. 😉
Such a hot, hot, hot week! We slogged to the nearest big town on Monday and spent $136 for the month's groceries.
Saturday - grilled steaks, grilled veggies and fresh cherries and ice cream
Sunday - Cowboy beans, fresh corn and watermelon
Monday - late lunch burgers, watermelon for dinner/dessert
Tuesday - Grilled homemade hotdogs, pasta coleslaw and brownies w/fresh ice cream
Wednesday - Steak salad
Thursday - Chicken Fried Steak, corn, salad and cherries
Friday - late lunch out with friends/leftovers for dinner with cherries for dessert
Saturday will be a big work day so breakfast for dinner
Kristen, is your yum yum sauce the same as the marinade/sauce in the hibachi chicken/shrimp recipe?
I am in the midst of a kitchen remodel. No sink or countertop.
We are eating grilled meats. Microwave sides. Fruit. And pretzels. ON PAPER PLATES
wah