What I Spent, What We Ate | with a few fireworks photos
What I Spent
I spent $180 on groceries this week.
That's a little high, but it did include a stock-up trip to Aldi (which included an 18 roll pack of toilet paper. I really like being able to buy TP again!)
Week 1: $145
Week 2: $180
What We Ate
Saturday
Since it was the 4th of July, we had grilled hot dogs and sausages, chips, and cherries.
And I made homemade blueberry cheesecake ice cream for dessert.
Though there were no official fireworks displays to go to, we did paddle down the river in our kayaks, and there were lots and lots of people setting off fireworks from their docks.
Advantage: if you kayak to the fireworks, there's no parking lot jams on the way home.
Disadvantage: you have to paddle back home.
Sunday
I made a cobb salad + buttery bubble bread.
Monday
We had skillet sausage and orzo with red peppers, and we ate fresh cherries and grapes on the side.
Tuesday
I made grilled chicken gyros with tzatziki sauce, and we had watermelon with our gyros.
Wednesday
Chicken burrito bowls with mango/pineapple salsa (a current favorite of mine!), avocados, peppers and onions, lettuce, and rice.
I made the chicken with the same marinade I use in these chipotle chicken kebabs, and I just cooked the chicken on the stovetop instead of the grill.
We didn't have a side dish with the burrito bowls because they cover carbs, protein, fat, and veggies very nicely in one dish.
Thursday
I tried a new recipe; a pasta dish from the ATK Quick Family Cookbook.
(out of print, but there are always used copies for sale on Amazon.)
And since it's July, we had watermelon on the side again!
Friday
Sonia and Zoe are having dinner with a friend, so I think Mr. FG and I will do our takeout date night tonight.
And that works out nicely because tomorrow night is book club night anyway.
(We're discussing Into Thin Air this month, and since Sonia read it right after me, she's going to join our Zoom club meeting this time. 🙂 )
I love these posts! The firework photos look great.
I’m not from the US, and I have been very curious about something since I started reading your blog years ago. You often write that you have “fresh fruit on the side” with your savory dinners dishes, such as the orzo sausage skillet above. Do you mean you eat the fruit at the same time as the orzo?? Where I’m from we would have the orzo first and fruit for dessert, and ive always wondered whether Americans eat their fruit at the same time as the main course?
We generally eat the main dish, and then eat the fruit. So, kind of like you do, except slightly less formally?
Thank you everyone for indulging my curiosity!
We also offer fruit as dessert. 🙂
If I offered fruit at the same time as the main dish, the kids may never eat the main dish.
It is almost to the point where we offer bread as a dessert — same reason.
In my family, yes, we eat the fruit at the same time as the main dish. There may be times when fruit is the dessert and then it is served afterwards, but typically we would fill our plates with each dish and eat them in whatever order we each choose.
Sadly one Australian state has had a massive increase in Covid 19 numbers and the toilet paper stock piling etc has started again. My meals this week have been very uninteresting indeed.
Nothing real exciting but I made a key lime pie for the fourth. Just me staying at home so I had a piece a day and froze 2. It was outstanding- from brown eyed baker’s blog. Do you get to see Joshua? My local daughter and family are out and about too much for me to feel comfortable around them.
Saturday: Hamburgers, Chips, Salads and Fruit
Sunday: Turkey Club Sandwhiches, Fruit
Monday: Pork Roast, Chickpea Salad
Tuesday: Pork, Rice, Veggies, Hummus, Tzikki Sauce Concoction
Wednesday: Lemon Pepper Whiting, Rice, Salad
Thursday: Grilled BBQ Chicken Thighs, Corn on the Cob, Brussel Sprouts, Watermelon
Friday: Shrimp, Salad and Rolls
It's been so hot and humid that I really, really cannot get motivated for much cooking!
$0 spent on groceries, but I did get takeout twice ($36.06) enough for 5 meals.
Saturday-egg and cheese burrito and fresh peaches
Sunday-burger, chips and pineapple
Monday-leftover bean soup, cornbread and watermelon
Tuesday-tacos and watermelon
Wednesday-chef salad
Thursday-taco salad and more watermelon
Friday-night idea yet
That should say no idea yet
2020: The year stocked toilet paper became exciting enough to warrant posting a photo of the shelves. (Not a joke, actually. Just a funny sign of the times.)
We went the entire week without eating game meat. It's like we're normal or something. Or like I don't want to make long-simmering elk chili when it's 100 degrees every day.
Saturday: Pork carnitas tacos with homemade corn tortillas, pinto beans. Not very patriotic, although I did have an inadvertent fire display when some of the grease from the frying meat got into the burner flame and shot up almost a foot. Fun. But not really. (No damage or injuries.)
Sunday: Pulled pork sandwiches with the leftover pork, kielbasa my brother-in-law brought with him, coleslaw, Grandma Brown's baked beans, leftover boiled potatoes, banana fake ice cream
Monday: Roasted chicken with pesto, roasted potatoes, leftover coleslaw, leftover baked beans, frozen peas
Tuesday: A package of beef labeled "chuck tender steaks"--also something my BiL brought--rice, steamed carrots and broccoli
Wednesday: Pre-seasoned chicken drumsticks from the clearance shelf of the meat section at the grocery store. I would never have bought these, but I haven't actually been to a store for, uh, five months and my husband, the resident designee for all trips to the Outside World, did buy them. They weren't bad, although there was no list of ingredients for the seasoning, so it could have been anything. I also made some potato soup mostly for my eldest son and his wretchedly sore throat, but also for the other three members of the family who all came down with a cold simultaneously. There was also leftover rice and frozen peas.
Thursday: Pork steaks with pesto, bread and butter, frozen peas. Plus some pretty sketchy Lipton "chicken" noodle soup in a packet for my eldest son again. Also something I would never have purchased myself (it has MSG in it, among other worrisome ingredients), but it was given to us by an elderly neighbor who gets the food bank deliveries and can't eat it all. It was a pretty pathetic soup--just broth and tiny little noodles--so I added some cooked pinto beans and leftover rice to it to bulk it up for him. He said it was okay. And I didn't have to peel potatoes or simmer soup, so we'll call it good.
Tonight: After frying the pork steaks, I set a temperature record of 88 degrees in my kitchen last night when we sat down to eat. It's going to be even hotter today, and I am NOT going to be doing anything to heat my kitchen further. Therefore, tuna salad and leftovers.
Kristin, you crack me up. We had fajitas for the 4th so maybe Mexican food is a new patriotic theme? My husband was cooking (he does that on the weekends) so I am happy to eat whatever he comes up with.
Glad nothing bad happened with your flambe food item!
I think tonight is the first night all week that I haven't busted out the crockpot to avoid heating up the kitchen. The weather has moderated, hooray! Oh wait, my son did make tacos on Tuesday (summertime is food prep training for my kids) but other than that, yup, the crockpot is queen.
We had less food leftover from July 4th than I thought we would - apparently we were really hungry people! This week:
Monday - (freezer) Sliced Brisket Sammies, Truffle Corn Chips, onions and peppers
Tuesday - Grilled Chicken, carrots, smashed red potatoes (make enough for two meals)
Wednesday - Lazy Daisy Turkey Meatballs, leftover red potatoes, chard
Thursday - Dr. Martin's Mix, sliced honeydew melon
Friday - Tortellini with beefy marinara, green beans
Saturday - Take-out
Sunday - Pizza, or those salmon patties we didn't eat last week
*This week I made a batch of Enchilada Sauce and some chocolate chip cookie dough for the freezer.
A note about my menus: sometimes I swap out a meal for another, but all of the food gets cooked and eaten every week! Cook's prerogative (:
How did you find your book club? I'd love to join one. Thanks!
I found out about this one because someone at my church hosts it! Which is not very helpful for you. Heh.
I know my local library sometimes has book clubs listed; I wonder if your local one might.
And maybe other readers have good ideas about how to find one too?
Our local bookstore also has bookclubs for different interests
That's a great idea!
MeetUp.com has book clubs listed. You may or may not have to pay a small fee - it's up to the group's owner.
We heard fireworks, but saw none. Our town cancelled the annual fireworks so these were just random fireworks from houses in the woods around us. It rained too much for a lot of fireworks, anyway.
Trying to think what we had this week...
Pork chops, twice. Once with limas and steamed honey-golden beets, and once with cauliflower cooked in broth and sprinkled with cheese, plus English peas.
Bacon, plus cabbage, mushrooms and onions cooked in a little of the bacon fat. Plus, honey carrots. I'm on a honey kick.
Hot dogs plus beans and cole slaw which were leftover from...
Fried fish, beans and cole slaw. The fish was given to us, and was nicely de-boned and filleted. So good.
Tacos, on flour tortillas for him, cassava tortillas for me, and I skipped the salsa.
Tonight is probably going to be a snack-y night. Cut up fruits, veggies, cheese, and an uncured version of little smokies. It's hot, I'm tired, and even my husband is saying I need to take a break from the kitchen.
A friend in Kansas City mentioned this week on Facebook that toilet paper was again in short supply there and gouging had commenced — an 18-pack for $30.
Our meals this week have been mostly thrown-together affairs. It's been two weeks in a row of unpredictable things. I'm pretty good at rolling with no plans in advance but I suspect the family is ready for some not-just-buttered-pasta-and-random-protein kinds of meals.
I did make a chuck roast one night. We tried a new locker, and I didn't realize I needed to specify that I wanted boneless roasts, having never had bone-in chuck happen to me elsewhere, and on top of that my in-laws requested 2½-pound roasts. I am already annoyed by my seventy jillion tiny bony roasts.
I too noticed that TP is back in stores (not that I go to stores much as my mask wearing wife usually goes in my place.) We actually have a really full freezer and pantry, so much that I don't really have much room for anything else. Yes, I know this is a MAJOR first world problem. 😉
Saturday: Had dinner with my family at my grandmother's house. We've been doing weekly get togethers there for a while so it's been a nice refuge for us all. We had chicken and our contribution was a 10lb bag of potatoes.
Sunday: I'll be honest in saying that I really don't remember.
Monday: I remember it being really hot outside so we kind of just did leftovers and cleaning out the fridge. I know I ate a salad but I don't recall much else.
Tuesday: Was supposed to make pulled pork in the Instant Pot but turns out it's not as Instant as they claim, especially when you have to read the directions a few times. So it was done too late for dinner. I ate salad and my wife and daughter ate spaghetti and meatballs.
Wednesday: Pulled pork, homemade fries and vegetables.
Thursday: Leftover night.
Friday: Possibly pizza but we'll see.
Sorry about your Tuesday, but it gave me a chuckle.
It's one of those funny in retrospect but in the middle of it I was a bit frustrated.
"Instant" is a complete and utter misnomer.
Yeah it's a pressure cooker which does speed things up but not that much. I had most everything prepped the night before but there's preheat time, cook time, cool down time, sauce reduction time etc. None of that was in the recipe's estimate or if it was, it was way off.
The food was still good but it wasn't "ready in no time!"
Your dinners sound lovely!! Do you have a recipe you can recommend for the chicken gyros? Thank you very much.
I used this one this time: https://www.recipetineats.com/greek-chicken-gyros-with-tzatziki/
But I think I like the Cook's Country recipe for pork gyros a little bit better.
I vote button!
Sunday-Ham salad, chips and watermelon
Monday-Oven chicken chili-lime fajitas on corn tortillas with homemade salsa and avacado.
Tuesday-can't remember!
Wednesday-Pork tenderloin and chips.
Thursday- Stove broke (sad face) so we had a cold pasta salad, crackers and veggies and dip
Friday-date night out!
I have not used the whole pkg of 18 rolls of TP that I bought the week before the insanity set in and during the craziness my daughter got concerned and bought a pkg of which she gave me 6, so I have those. I am just wondering what all those people did with all of that TP that they bought. Also, we found an old Johnny Carson Tonight Show from the 70s, I think, when his monologue caused a TP issue
I am fascinated by the blueberry cheesecake ice cream you made. That looks delicious!! Did you use the no-churn method or do you have an ice cream maker?
We ate...
Saturday: Chili dogs and watermelon
Sunday - Pork roast, potatoes, and pineapple
Monday - Pork BBQ sandwiches, cantaloupe, and chips (The main dish was supposed to be chicken but it didn't thaw in time. I was so close to having alliterative meals two days in a row!)
Tuesday - Grilled chicken leg quarters, pasta salad, and pineapple
Wednesday - I needed a break... So I left the house and ventured out on my own for a few hours (not super easy to do during a pandemic... it's not like you can just go hang out in a coffee shop for a few hours and it was too hot to be outside... but I needed to get out for a bit). I had a banana and leftover pasta salad after I got home and the kids were in bed. I think the kids had chicken nuggets... just chicken nuggets. 🙂
Thursday - Spaghetti, garlic bread, and roasted broccoli. I added ground beef, onions, zucchini, and summer squash to the sauce. It was so good!
Friday - Pork tacos and watermelon
I do have an ice cream maker; it's a Krups and we got it as a wedding gift. It's great for making small batches of ice cream. It IS a unitasker, but I just store it on my laundry room shelf when I'm not using it. That way it's not taking up valuable real estate in my kitchen!
This is the updated version of my 1997 Krups machine: https://amzn.to/2W8sf3r
Cook's Country recommends this one, but it's kind of pricey right now: https://amzn.to/3iProOW Oddly, CC said they paid $53 for it at the time of testing and that was only two years ago. Are ice cream makers more expensive because of the pandemic too??
That wouldn't have been the first thing to come to mind as a hot item during the pandemic but wow! You're right! That's quite a price jump. And I suppose it makes sense that demand would be up... It's a fun activity to do at home.
Perhaps I'll try her no-churn method for vanilla or chocolate sometime before I jump into the blueberry cheesecake kind.
With garden goodies and full pantry and freezer going strong (thanks to COVID stock-up), I spent $52 at the grocery store on fresh items I don't grow, dairy items and paper goods. Here's what we ate:
Saturday - We, too, had a 4th feast! Hots, Italian sausage or veggie burgers with all the fixings, potato and mac salads grilled veggies and a red, white and blue trifle for dessert. Used asparagus, zucchini, squash and onions from the garden to grill and wild blueberries and homegrown red raspberries for the trifle.
Sunday - Lettuce wraps using a PF Chang's knockoff recipe I found online.
Monday - Raspberry pancakes using the berries I picked from the patch out back.
Tuesday - Once a week we have been ordering from a local mom-and-pop restaurant to support them during COVID. We all chose something from the menu and I picked it up.
Wednesday - build your own pizza night with anything that sounded good from the refrigerator and garden.
Thursday - The summer heatwave that has been with us since the weekend hit peak! We had deli meat subs complimented with garden veggies.
Friday - Tonight it will still be too hot to heat up the kitchen by cooking. We'll be having chicken salad sandwiches and salad.
Paddling to the fireworks sounds divine!
Into Thin Air was a really good book. I read it years ago, but still remember feeling touched by Jon Krakauer's examination of where his own personal accountability lay.
I like the button. But either works for me! 😉
P.S. Your blog posts are a respite of safety and sanity in a frightening world these days. I appreciate you!
Yes, I thought that was very humble of him to include all that in the book.
So glad my posts are helping you through these tough times! <3
WWI: $86
WWA (working backward):
Friday: olive and ricotta ravioli with brown butter, kale & proscuitto; salad
Thursday: Grilled Greek shrimp; grilled zucchini; roasted potato skin chiplets (made with leftover skins from tortilla española); Greek salad (dressed with leftover olive vinaigrette)
Wednesday: Mediterranean Chicken salad with olives & capers, green beans; grilled red peppers and halloumi with scape pesto
Tuesday: Roasted salmon and cabbage with green olive vinaigrette sauce (Real Simple)
Monday: Grilled linguiça; grilled zucchini and red pepper; tortilla española
Sunday: homemade pizza, topped with scape pesto, pepperoni, broccoli, fresh tomato & mozz
Saturday: Grilled ribeye with scape butter; corn on the cob; marinated zucchini with ricotta and pine nuts, and mint (epicurious, subbed pinenuts for hazelnuts)
I often write my WIS, WWA posts backwards, starting with the end of the week. That helps jog my memory!
We have an entire google doc with all of the dinners that we've had since the beginning of Coronvirus, back on March 13th! I don't know if your husband and kids weigh in heavily on meals, but my partner and I sit down every week to decide what we are cooking/having based on what we both want, balanced with the what is in the fridge/freezer now that we aren't going to the grocery store more than 1x every two weeks.
Decided I had to eat skillet sausage and orzo tonight. Of course no orzo in our picked over supermarket, but tubettini is close enough. I will be using Peppadew peppers because I love them so much. Mmmm.
Yay! Hope you enjoy your dinner.
The pasta was seriously picked over at my grocery store this week too.
Monday: chef salad with all the fixings
Tuesday: marinated pork cutlets On the grill, cherries, slaw
Wednesday: Avacado and cucumber salad grilled bbq chicken mashed potatoes
Thursday: pasta salad with garden veggies and herbs. Deviled eggs. Strawberries.
Friday: hot sub sandwiches , chips , cherries, and sliced apples.
I'm curious to hear your thoughts on Into the Air. I have it, plus a hundred other books I haven't read yet and maybe it'll spark my interest again. I know you share your thoughts on books but I can't find that anywhere. Could you link it or add it to the FAQ? Thanks!
I loved it! I never knew I was I interested in Mt. Everest until I read it! It is a sad tale but it is really eye opening to the physical, mental and environmental toll climbing takes. I also really enjoy Jon Krakauer's books in general, so I might be biased.
I think maybe people are stock piling again as virus numbers surge. Pasta and canned soups are in short supply in my neck of the woods. And I went to Costco last Sunday and there was a steady stream of shoppers making their way to the paper goods.
Saturday and Sunday - Hot dogs, potato salad and strawberries
Monday and Tuesday - I tried the America's Test Kitchen recipe for panang curry. It was good! I added chicken and cauliflower (the recipe called for beef) and served over jasmine rice.
Wednesday - cottage cheese and fruit
Thursday - Cold soba noodle salad from a local restaurant and eaten in park with friends for my socially distanced birthday picnic celebration. We had cupcakes too! Because what is a birthday without cake?
Friday - tacos
Let see how this goes.
Friday- (last Friday since I left it out) Mon/dad, we did a turkey on the grill, mashed, stuffing, sweet potato casserole, carrots. I brought brownies. mom made a peach cobbler.
sat- 4th of july- we went to my mil, hot dogs/ hamburgers, potato salad, mac salad, slaw, deviled eggs, (I brought the slaw and deviled eggs) coffee cake.
sunday- back to mom/dad- sausage/onion/peppers, kielbasa, hot dogs. potato salad, left over slaw, ice cream cones for dessert.
Monday- Belgium waffles.
Tuesday- bbq Chicken on the grill, noodles, corn.
Wednesday- dh/and I, ate left overs from the weekend. Kids had naan pizza's
Thursday- son in person Graduation from 8th grade, we needed something quick so we ordered pizza, my mom/dad and mil joined us.
Friday- cleaned all day, DS party tomorrow. Weather rained all day, we ordered Chinese. DD was at my moms and ate with her. (they made cookies for tomorrow.)
what a busy week!
Sunday baked chicken thighs, fried red potatoes, and six fresh ears of sweet corn that my Dad gave us.
Monday left overs from Sunday.
Tuesday I had soaked the rest of the big package of chicken thighs from Aldi in Buttermilk on Monday because I was craving fried chicken. I used gluten free all purpose Krusteaz flour with a bunch of my favorite spices. AMAZING! Used the left over fried potatoes and cooked up the other six ears of sweet corn.
Wednesday (today) left overs again because food waste makes me anxious.
Thursday is up in the air as I would like what is already cooked eaten up before making more food. However I am craving a creamy potato soup. I know it's warm out but I LOVE soup!