WIS, WWA | first one for 2023!
What I Spent
I spent:
- $70 at Safeway
- $25 on a Hungry Harvest box
So, $95 to start out 2023!
I know I need to do a large-ish grocery shopping trip soon, so I'm guessing next week's gonna be more than $95.
What We Ate
Saturday
We were all in various places for New Year's Eve; Zoe was with friends at a sleepover, I was puppy-sitting, and Lisey was at a New Year's gathering.
Sunday
I had a quesadilla for dinner and Lisey had some leftovers.
Monday
BLTs, because it was unseasonably warm out!
Tuesday
Sonia came over before our yoga class, and she and I ate mashed potatoes with fried eggs for dinner.
Wednesday
Zoe came back from her dog-sitting job!
I made a pot of clam chowder, and on the side, we had toasted cheese bread and some raw veggies and fruit.
That picture is from when I had posted the recipe originally...and here's a real-life, after dark photo of the soup from this week. 😉
Want to know something dumb I did? I finished the soup, served it up at the table, and then realized: I hadn't added the clams.
GAH!
Lisey said, "Well, I guess it's just potato soup right now." Heh.
I did add the clams once I realized my mistake.
Doubly embarrassing: this is definitely not the first time I've made this exact same mistake.
Thursday
I made a sort of southwestern green salad, using these chipotle chicken kebabs. I made the sauce that goes with the kebabs and used it as a dressing.
On the side, we had clementines and some toasted cheese bread.
Friday
I think we might do our weekly takeout night tonight, but that'll depend on whether Lisey and Zoe are both going to be here.
Just plain potato soup sounds better to me than clams, but I'm not a big seafood lover.
WIS: 107.36 @Aldi and 30.01 on a Hungry Harvest box for a grand total of 137.37. My goal with HH is always to spend just over 30.00 to get the free shipping, but not much higher, so I was super geeked out about my total this week.
WWA:
Fri: garden salad, pepperoni and cheese focaccia.
Sat: rice pilaf (with peppers, mushrooms and onions), cheese pizza and chicken wings from little Caesars.
Sun: black eyed peas (made in my new instant pot-they were kind of like a soup), rice pilaf, broiled tilapia over kale and tomatoes.
Mon: garden salad, fish and chips, leftover rice and some leftover fish and kale from the day before.
Tue: romaine lettuce topped with craisins and Asian trail mix, bell peppers stuffed with ground pork, rice and cheese.
Wed: spinach, blueberry, and feta salad, three cheese lasagna with sweet italian sausage.
Thu: veggie burgers topped with sauteed mushrooms and onions, tomatoes and spinach/arugula blend on homemade sesame seed buns.
Fri: focaccia and salad, I reckon.
Is pepperoni and cheese focaccia kind of like...pizza?
@Becca, for someone who doesn't like seafood, your menu sounds delicious to my seafood loving self!
@Natalie J,
Hah! Well, my people all like seafood and my husband loves it. He's the cook, so...also I make myself eat the milder tasting fish because I know it's good for me.
@Kristen,
Basically. He essentially uses the focaccia dough as a base for the pizza-allowing it to have a couple rises first. One overnight in a covered bowl and then another rise spread out on an oiled baking pan. Instead of putting sauce on it, he marinates halved tiny tomatoes in olive oil and spices and then presses them into the dough cut side up. Then he covers the whole shebang with cheeses (usually mozzarella and Parm) and pepperoni and then bakes it. He has also made the same recipe as just focaccia, but we all like it better as pizza.
Well, that sounds very tasty!
@Becca,
Just remembered the take out: 42.78 @Little Caesars and 5.92 @Starbucks, so I guess my food spending was actually 186.07 this past week.
Re: the clam chowder slip-up: That's not nearly as bad as the time I started a loaf of bread in the bread machine and forgot to add the yeast. Oof! Talk about bricks...
Anyway, WIS: $24 at Trader Joe's and $7 at the India Bazaar (where I found 4# of yellow split peas for $5).
WIA: Last week's Reduced for Quick Sale duck legs (which were delicious) with roasted root veg; some meatloaf out of the freezer with the rest of the root veg; and a shrimp curry to use up some cauliflower and other aging veg.
And lest anyone think I've forgotten how to use the bread machine (between the no-yeast brick and the Christmas Eve silica gel packet bread), I made a loaf this week with the recipe calling for potato flakes, and it came out perfectly.
@A. Marie, I've made sourdough bread and forgotten to add the sourdough starter, which is similar to your yeast slip up. We actually ate one of the loaves sliced very thin and toasted--sort of like melba toast--before giving the other three to the chickens. Major bummer.
@kristin @ going country, My chickens love my bread failures, too.
@A. Marie,
I can't remember if you are near an Aldi or not, but this is the time of year when they carry bags of dried black eyed peas as well as bags of dried split peas (both yellow and green). At my Aldi, they were priced at .99 per 1 lb bag. I didn't get any because I already have an embarrassing large amount of dried beans in my cabinet which I am hoping my new instant pot will make me excited to cook.
@Becca, your comment prompted me to check at one of our local Aldis, and split peas there are currently $1.29/lb. But I'll keep an eye on this in case of future specials.
Woot, I actually remember this week’s dishes!
Sunday: I made a big batch of pulled pork in the crockpot to use for my husband’s work lunches. I try to plan dinners that have three servings so one can be packed for the following day, but sometimes we want something for supper that just doesn’t make leftovers.
Monday: Since I worked late, my husband made the most delightful burgers. This was our quick and easy dinner for the week! No leftovers here, so pulled pork sandwiches for my husband’s lunch the following day.
Tuesday: Onions were on sale—3 lb bags for $2.50–so I diced one bag for the freezer and had the other caramelizing in the crockpot for six hours. The resulting goodness was portioned into ice cube trays for future soups, sauces, etc. My husband requested enchiladas for dinner, so I used some of Sunday’s pulled pork along with black beans and Neufchâtel cheese for the filling, then homemade enchilada sauce and a languishing wedge of cheddar shredded on top. After the enchiladas came out of the oven, I put in a loaf of yeast-free peasant bread, slices of which have been my breakfast most of the week. Enchiladas = lunch leftovers, so yay!
Wednesday: I added caramelized mushrooms to my crockpot mushroom soup recipe and, oh my gosh, I may never make this soup any other way again! It was served with a slice of the peasant bread for sopping. I made a small batch of soup since this was an experiment, so no leftovers = pulled pork to the lunchtime rescue.
Thursday: Cream of artichoke and potato soup in the crockpot. This soup is a household staple and a fail proof recipe, which means lunch leftovers, always.
Friday: I’m thinking creamy pumpkin pasta since I still have three Talenti containers of homemade pumpkin purée in the freezer. We need to get in our vegetables before my carnivorous husband takes over cooking duties for the weekend, as is our tradition. 😛
@N, Oh my gosh I want all of YOUR recipes-- your week sounds delicious! Especially the caramelized onions in the crock pot NEVER thought of dong that before.
@N, can you share your recipe for cream of artichoke and potato soup? It sounds delicious!
@N, can you share the recipe for the peasant bread? I want to start baking more bread, but I'm a little nervous about most yeast breads.
@N,
Seriously, caramelized mushroom soup and the artichoke soup, I would love these recipes too!
@Liane and everyone, I'm running errands right now, but I promise to post recipes later this morning. (Waiting for a store to open right now.) I didn't expect to be so popular! 😛
@Millicent, and everyone, recipe dump ahead! Mind, my husband is on a hardcore low sodium diet, so I either nix the salt in recipes altogether (unless baking, of course) or reduce it to 10% of what’s in the recipe.
Onions in the crockpot: One tablespoon of butter, about the same of olive oil, then 2-3 lbs of cut up onions. Cook on high for 6-8 hours, depending on how hot your crockpot goes (“high” on ours is downright nuclear). It’s important to stir the onions every hour so the edges don’t burn.
Homemade enchilada sauce: https://www.budgetbytes.com/black-bean-avocado-enchiladas/ I skip all the salt, still delicious.
Yeast-free peasant bread: https://www.food.com/recipe/yeast-free-bread-67405. The salt stays here for chemistry! 😛
Mushroom soup: https://www.budgetbytes.com/creamy-garlic-mushroom-soup/ I skip the salt since I used canned mushrooms (which I rinse thoroughly), and I skipped the soy sauce this time because I added two of my frozen caramelized onion cubes (3/4 cup).
The cream of artichoke and potato soup recipe is my own, cobbled together using several online recipes vs. what we had in the kitchen several years ago.
Crock pot Cream of Artichoke Soup ~ 4 servings ~ 225 calories a serving
1 Tablespoon butter
1 small onion, chopped
1 15 oz can of artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon pepper
Pinch of salt
1 garlic clove, minced
1 large potato or two small potatoes, chopped
2 cups low sodium broth or water (add an extra pinch of salt if using water)
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 cup heavy cream (add at the end)
2-3 Tablespoons of Parmesan, Romano, or Asagio cheese (add at the end)
Dump everything but the heavy cream and cheese into the Crock pot. Cook on High for four hours or Low for eight. Roughly 1/2 hour from serving, turn off the crock pot so the soup can cool before blending (it will still be plenty hot, trust me!). Blend to desired consistency; for a thinner soup, add add more water (we're thick soup people). Once blended, add the heavy cream and cheese; stir until mixed completely. Serve and enjoy!
@Liane, recipes posted below! 🙂
@Danielle Zecher, recipes posted below! :). I feel you re: bread making. Yeast hates me, so all of my baking recipes are yeast-free.
@Millicent, recipes posted below! 🙂
@N,
Thank you so much! This all sounds deelish! I have a can of artichoke hearts that I bought for something else (which never got made), so I need to use it up!
@N, carmelized onions is the crockpot?! Genius. I am so doing that this weekend - thanks for the tip 😉
@N, thank you so much!
@Angie, I use the crockpot, too, for carmelized onions. When it is not frigid, I put the pot out on the back porch to cook so that the house does not smell like onions for three days.
My week was one of those hit the easy button times (in that I made vats of minestrone soup, chili, split pea soup, trays of pizza and we had variations of those all week. That way I mostly heated up food, rather than doing any cooking. Supplemented with salads and smoothies. The exception to the rule was the cinnamon rolls for the holiday Since I stole the Frugal Girl recipe EONS ago it has been a tradition to have the delicious and decadent rolls during the holidays-- and since it POURed rain for the past week, it seemed like a comforting thing to bake-- SO thank you very much for starting this winter tradition--Nothing better than eating hot cinnamon rolls in your PJs while the Rose Parade marches by on TV....
I love potato soup. Leave the ocean croutons out of mine, too...This week I ate:
Monday - Chicken Alfredo Pasta (leftover rotisserie chicken and a Knorr pasta packet, so fancy!), broccoli
Tuesday - Lazy Daisy Meatballs, rice, green beans
Wednesday - Leftovers from New Year's Day (froze the rest)
Thursday - Pulled Pork (the last bit from day after Thanksgiving) over 1/2 of a giant baked potato with cheese and sour cream, coleslaw on the side
Tonight - I'm not feeling what I planned, so I may pick up some take-out. Chik-Fil_A sounds good! Plus, I am tirrrreddd....
Saturday - I'm going to grill a small steak, have the rest of the baked potato, and the coleslaw
Sunday - Roast Chicken Thighs with some Spanish Rice, onions and peppers
Going shopping this weekend with my $50 list - wish me luck!
https://cannaryfamily.blogspot.com/
I forget so frequently to add the plumped raisins to my favorite muffin recipe that I added a big fat neon pink note to myself in the cookbook.
@WilliamB,
Oh, yes, I set them to one side to plump up and then - there they still are and the recipe is cooked. That's so frustrating to do that!
Definitely BTDT!
tgif…..WWA:
Saturday - NYE charcuterie board for 2, ginger ale instead of sparkling wine
Sunday - chicken cacciatore, risotto, butter tarts
Monday - went to a potluck, I took jambalaya
Tuesday - leftovers
Wednesday - spur of the moment guests so lasagna from the freezer, wine, garlic bread, store bought rhubarb pie & ice cream
Thursday - leftovers
Friday - planning on shrimp burgers & oven fries
Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend
My mother-in-law once made clam chowder with claim juice and no clams. We called it Clam Chowder Sans Clams. And we still laugh about it today.
My husband was sick and requested Black Bean Soup for Dinner on Monday. I didn't remember where the recipe was, but I remembered the ingredients and made it for him.
He's been eating leftovers for lunch.
On Tuesday we had the Cauliflower Pizza from Aldi. It's really good if you are looking for a low carb version of pizza.
Wednesday was Grilled Chicken Salads.
Last night Mexican Lasagna with enough leftovers to go in the freezer.
And tonight my husband will be making a pot of chili with leftovers going into the freezer.
I’m trying to be better about cooking at home which means having a plan - and having all the ingredients! Not my strength.
Sun-Leftovers
Mon-waffles and turkey bacon
Tuesday- pan fried chicken, rice and raw veggies
Wednesday-Tacos (usually Tuesday but was off a day this week)
Thursday- chicken/sausage one pot rice dish with steamed broccoli.
Friday- I think we’ll have easy chicken nuggets (splurging on the Just Bare brand from Costco), tater tots and raw veggies.
I’m was having a difficult time remembering this week’s menu. I realized that this is because I have put very little effort into food this week.
WIS
Approximately $42
$32 at Trader Joe’s
$10 at Publix
WWA
Saturday New Year’s Eve -
I cannot remember. We stayed in, but I can’t remember what or if I cooked.
Sunday New Year’s Day -
Traditional Southern New Year’s Dinner which consisted of pork loin roast, black-eyed peas, rice, green and cornbread. We had some fruit for the kids. We attempted Baked Alaska for dessert.
Monday -
We ate yesterday’s leftovers and other things.
Tuesday -
I was home alone. I ate a grilled cheese and some carrot sticks. I had been to a luncheon earlier in the day where I had had at least 5 servings of vegetables.
Wednesday -
I made bar-b-que pork sandwiches to use up the remaining pork loin and 4 bean salad
Thursday - I made tacos. I stretched a little beef by adding black beans and corn to the mixture.
Friday - We are celebrating Epiphany at my son’s house.I’m not sure what is on the menu. I’m sure I’ll be asked to bring something if not the whole dinner. They are having a little trouble adjusting to being new parents. I understand. So did I.
@Bee, how did the Baked Alaska turn out?
@Bee,
Will you one day tell us the baked Alaska story?
@JD, @Danielle
The Baked Alaska was a very messy experiment.
My sister-in-law asked if she could bring something to New Year’s Day dinner. I suggested dessert. I told her not to do anything too complex, but she decided to make Baked Alaska.My SIL arrived for dinner with a perfectly formed bombe of peppermint stick ice cream with a brownie cake base. She also brought along the ingredients to make the meringue.
After dinner, while I was rinsing the dishes, she gathered the older children together to finish up the Baked Alaska. (She was a first grade teacher for 30 years and is a professor of elementary education )
My SIL cracked and separated the eggs. The kids measured out the sugar and beat the mixture. Together they encased the ice cream and cake in the in the meringue and stuck it in the oven.
My niece set the timer for two minutes. After a minute and a half, the meringue on the top of the Baked Alaska had melted and was pouring out of the oven door. My husband ran over and removed it. The meringue mixture was coming off the sides of the cookie sheet onto the floor and smoke was billowing out of the oven. The smoke alarm started to go off as the entire house filled with smoke.
Within a matter of minutes, the kids had spilled sugar on the floor and gotten Meringue on the walls. There was melted meringue stuck to the counter tops and the floor. There was smoke all through the house and I was left with the messiest oven you have ever seen. My sister-in-law turned to me and said, “ I didn’t envision it quite this way.” I couldn't help but to laugh and it started all of us laughing.
The good news is the ice cream didn’t melt at all. I sliced what remained of the Baked Alaska, put it in bowls for the kids, and put chocolate sauce on the top.
There were two valuable lessons learned that day;
1. Take your time when making Meringue.
2. Things don’t always go as planned.
So this New Years my dear SIL didn’t make the perfect dessert. She made a really sweet memory -and a huge mess!
Happy New Year!
I think the memory is probably even better than a perfect dessert!
@Bee, I can't love this enough. Mess and all.
@Bee, Thank you for sharing this story! Your telling of it was just perfect and I could see the scene unfolding in my mind just like the egg custard scene in the movie The Family Stone. Hilarious. What a great memory 🙂
@Bee, I add my thanks to everyone else's for giving us the full story. And I'm glad your SIL was able to roll with it. My late SIL (DH's sister, who was really Martha Stewart's separated-at-birth twin) wouldn't have done anything of the sort.
P.S. I mean roll with it, not have disasters. She had a couple, to my knowledge--and I was always surprised there weren't little scorched places in her linoleum where she'd had meltdowns.
This story made me laugh at the end of an exhausting weekend. Thank you.
I have more than once made tuna noodle casserole and forgotten the tuna. Must be a canned seafood glitch. 🙂
Saturday: We had a glitzy New Year's Eve dinner in a restaurant! Of course, it was a very unremarkable dinner called Chubby's in Brady, Texas (stopover on the way home from the sea) and we went there because we could walk there from our motel, and none of us were too enthused about our food because all we wanted to be doing was eating our own food in our own home, but still. Out for New Year's Eve for the first time in . . . well. Decades.
Sunday: We always, always, always have the traditional Southern meal of pork for health, greens for wealth, and black-eyed peas for happiness. I inherited this tradition from my New-Orleans-raised mother, and I haven't missed a year in my life. So I planned ahead to ensure we could still have it, even though we didn't get home from our trip until 4 p.m. New Year's Day. I made the pot of black-eyed peas ahead and froze them. The night before we left, I made a big pork shoulder and froze the leftovers from that, too. I always have various frozen greens from the garden. So all I had to do was defrost the black-eyed peas, defrost and fry the pork, microwave the beet greens with some butter, salt, and vinegar, and make rice (my kids have assigned harmony to rice, since I always make it with this meal). Tradition upheld. And SO delicious after 2 days of road food.
Monday: Bunless cheeseburgers, potato soup (another kid with a sore throat! curses), leftover rice, green salad with ranch dressing
Tuesday: Meatloaf made about half and half with ground beef and bulk breakfast sausage, garlic bread, frozen peas
Wednesday: Carnitas tacos and rice pudding. I was gone at church until about 6 p.m., so I made another pork shoulder in the morning while the oven was on to bake a rice pudding that used some almost-fone-for milk, then when I got home, I fried the pieces of pork in its own rendered tallow and served it in corn tortillas with cheese.
Thursday: Pizza--one with some of the breakfast sausage, one just cheese. And green salad with ranch dressing.
Friday: We celebrate Epiphany (the feast commemorating the three wise men visiting the newborn Jesus and the end of Christmas) as a sort of low-key version of Christmas. I save one gift for my kids to open so they have one more time to enjoy the tree before I take it down tomorrow, they each get three truffles (instead of the many that are in their stocking Christmas morning), and we have a somewhat special meal with a dessert. Anyway, today is Epiphany. I made a lot of extra tamales this year for Christmas and froze a couple of bags of them, so we'll have those, plus the ice cream my husband bought yesterday.
@kristin @ going country, That's some impressive planning ahead to keep the tradition alive! Kudos!
@kristin @ going country, We are also doing Epiphany today, as we have since our oldest was a baby. Some years we've managed to have three cool presents for each kid, and cool activities, other years...well, this year, as my husband put it, we're falling over the finish line, and THAT'S OKAY. Hopefully the food will make up for it. With boys, food is always the key to a party. We got an absolutely enormous ham, and I'm planning a surprise pan of lasagna as a side dish (at least two boys had voted for lasagna, rather than ham). And we have a big pan of brownies hidden away. And our tree is still up! I will be playing Christmas music at some point as well.
Mmm, clam chowder sounds good right now!
Sunday: Lemony baked rice with cannellini beans, parmesan, and leeks. It was a new recipe and it was so good!
Monday: Homemade pizza. We're not hardcore enough to make our own dough, but maybe one day! We just use the balls of dough from the refrigerated section.
Tuesday: Leftovers, plus leftover tamales from the previous week.
Wednesday: Preschooler's choice, which meant "Mac and cheese, apples, and popsicles!" I know you all are jealous about our middle of winter popsicles 😉
Thursday: Frozen sweet potato gnocchi. Easy and quick.
Friday: Leftovers
Saturday: Birthday dinner! We're going to a Korean BBQ restaurant.
Have a great week everyone!
One time I forgot to add a can of pumpkin purée to my pumpkin bread recipe! I couldn’t understand why the bread wasn’t as flavorful as usual. And then I saw the can of pumpkin purée sitting unopened on the counter. Oops!
We’ve been eating salads all week (lunch and dinner) except for one night when we had eggs and toast. Tonight we’ll have cheesy baked tomatoes and roasted cauliflower. We’re thinking of Mezeh for tomorrow night’s dinner.
You mentioned clementines, Kristen. That sounds good for an evening snack with almonds… so clementines are now on my short food store list today.
So then it was just...bread, I guess. Ha!
I love Mezeh. And normally I skip drinks when I am at restaurants, but I like the interesting drinks Mezeh has.
Two things:
1. I've been wanting to make clam chowder but know my family wouldn't be able to finish it in one meal. How long do you think it keeps? Does it reheat well? I'm a little squidgey about leftover seafood so I'm curious.
2. Because of you I've gotten more creative with leftovers. I was trying to use up a bag of "starting to be questionable" potatoes so I mashed a bunch but had a lot of leftovers. I tried the fried egg approach and it was delicious, and also made a taco bowl with potatoes as the base and it got 4 thumbs up! Thanks for the inspiration!
@Beth H., Kristen has a really really great potato bread recipe that uses up that mashed potatoes as well!
Oops! Those, not that!
We have definitely eaten it leftover for several days; the canned clams do not seem to go bad quickly at all.
And I am so happy to hear about your leftover work. YAYYYY!
@Beth H., This Christmas holiday I made clam chowder and ate leftovers for a week, and it was fine. However, I only reheated the amount I needed each time, and I made sure to keep everything properly chilled. I used canned clams in mine and they reheated okay.
Thank heavens adding the clams was a pretty easy fix. I made and rolled out crusts and used saved up little pot pie tins (my husband cooked pot pies a lot when he lived across the state for work) to make a completely homemade set of four little double-crust chicken pot pies for my daughter and son-in-law at the birth of their second baby. After the pies were baked, I opened the refrigerator and found the cooked, cut up chicken in a bowl; I had forgot to add it to the pot pie filling. I was so mad at myself. After much inner debate on whether to leave it or not, I opened up those pot pies, made another double crust, added the chicken and some cream to the filling I scraped out of the little tins and made one big pot pie in a 9" pie pan and baked again. They said that was one of the best pot pies they ever had. Good, but I hope I never do that again!
Last week I spent just over $90 for two weeks. I'll shop again next week, and it will be for sure higher, mainly because I'll also receive two farm orders next week.
What I ate:
New Year's day was the traditional meal of black-eyed peas, greens (collards this year) and smoked, sliced hog jowl. My mother always insisted on hog jowl on New Year's Day, and I can't imagine anything else, now. Normally there would be cornbread, but I can't eat much of it at a time and I don't like it after it's frozen, so I just skipped it. That also saved me from giving in to the temptation to enjoy my dad's favorite "dessert"- pieces of cornbread heavily smeared with a mixture of molasses and softened butter.
Chicken breast cooked with carrot, apples, onion, prunes and coconut milk, from A Squirrel in the Kitchen. It's made to be cooked in a crock pot, so it's easy. I cut the recipe down to make only one dinner and one lunch out of it and used the small pot.
I cooked a chuck roast in the crock pot with cabbage, onions, mushrooms and seasoning. I had that twice and will probably have it tonight.
It warmed up earlier this week, although it was back in the 30's last night. I made tuna salad on a warm night, to include shredded carrot, shredded celery, shredded cucumber and raisins. This was my first time of adding shredded cukes to the tuna salad and I discovered I like it that way. I had fruit and a little cheese on the side. I had this twice, too.
Saturday - For our New Year’s Eve dinner, I made shrimp Alfredo and failed chocolate pudding (first time making it from scratch, I burned it, will stick with instant jello pudding from now on!)
Sunday - my husband smoked a beef roast, I made Au gratin potatoes (from a box), steamed green beans and Irish soda bread
Monday - ground turkey and mushroom stroganoff
Tuesday - leftover beef roast, roasted red potatoes, steamed carrots, buttermilk rolls
Wednesday - spaghetti and meatballs (jarred sauce, meatballs from freezer so an easy night)
Thursday - chicken and rice salad
Friday - cleaning out the freezer so a mix of things I found. 2 Italian sausages, 2 smoked bratwursts, 4 pierogis, variety of biscuits/rolls, steamed green beans
@LB, Don't give up on the pudding! I had a family-joke incident when I was a teenager and burned the pudding that was supposed to go into a pie. It was many years before I tried again, but I make it all the time now (mostly the cornstarch versions, but occasionally with egg yolks if I have some left over to use), and it is SO MUCH BETTER than packaged pudding. You can do it! You just have to keep it pretty low and not walk too far away from it.
and keep mixing! That's how you avoid lumps. Stay with it. It's so so much better than instant. I make mine with egg yolks.
@kristin @ going country, thanks for the encouragement! I will likely attempt again (maybe ensuring I have a backup box of jello though for disappointed kids haha) The other downside was the amount of scrubbing required to restore the pot after, I almost thought it was a lost cause.
@Rose, thanks! I did mix constantly so at least it was burned pudding with no lumps. I made it with cornstarch, maybe I’ll try egg yolk next time.
@LB, ah, temp too high. Medium is fine--once it gets thick turn down to low and cook one more minute. Want my recipe? It's easy. Also, when you're mixing together the dry stuff in the pot, make sure to get into the corners.
@LB, When I make pudding I set up a book nearby on my Kindle, so I can read while I whisk; I always use a flat whisk, so it gets into the edges of the pan. It takes a longer time than instant but is so good! Especially if I use 1 part cream to 3 parts milk. Try Smitten Kitchen's chocolate pudding recipe, it's very good.
This one is a super simple chocolate pudding...maybe give it a try next time you feel brave enough to attempt again? https://www.thefrugalgirl.com/how-to-make-chocolate-pudding-from-scratch/
@Karen A., I use the SK chocolate pudding recipe, too.
Mom’s Choc Pudding
2/3 C sugar
1/4 C cornstarch
1/4 t salt
1/3 C cocoa powder
2 1/2 C milk
4 large egg yolks
2 T butter, cut into pieces
1 t vanilla extract
Mix dry stuff in a medium sized pot. Make sure to get in corners. Whisk in milk. Keep egg yolks separate.
Whisking constantly, cook over medium heat until thickened. Pour a bit into the egg yolks, whisk, and then whisk it all into pot. Cook 1 minute more until well thickened. Pour into bowl. Stir butter and vanilla into hot pudding. Put plastic wrap on pudding surface to prevent a skin. Cool.
leave out the cocoa and you get vanilla pudding. My mom frequently made up vanilla pudding topped with (thawed) frozen strawberries back in the 70s.
Thank you everyone for all the helpful advice and recipes! I am convinced to try again, especially since we all love chocolate pudding here. I will hopefully report back success on a future Friday comment!
@Rose, pudding used to be a great way to use up eggs and get that extra nutrition from them- but now eggs are so pricey and the final result isn’t that much better- so I just use starch or flour to thicken pudding, and save the eggs for actual egg meals! Also I usually put a scoop or two of cheap protein powder into my pudding,
This is a very good time to not use eggs...they're so expensive!
@LB, ooh! I highly recommend The NY Times vegan chocolate pudding. It is so delicious and couldn’t be easier. I modified the recipe a little, melt the chocolate in the water, reduce the sugar by a third, omit the spices and add a pinch of salt and instant espresso. I use my immersion blender. The Trader Joe’s bittersweet bar works fabulously.
WIS last Friday Shaws: $106
yesterday Thursday Trader Joe's $49
Friday: Frozen pizza that I bought at Shaw's for $3.50
Saturday: Homemade stromboli
Sunday: Instant pot short ribs
Monday: Leftover stromboli
Tuesday: Shepherd's Pie
Wednesday: Leftover Shepherd's Pie
Thursday: Toast and leftovers. I had an appointment for a haircut and went to TJs after because I was in that area.
I laughed when you said you forgot to put the clams in the chowders. Many years ago I made tuna noodle casserole for dinner--realized after we finished dinner that I never put the tuna in--we were kind of hungry that night.
I do like BLTs, no matter the weather.
Your chicken salad looks good.
Sat: We had our neighbors over for a combo late Christmas/NYE late lunch. I made chili and they brought all of the toppings (cheese, chips, sour cream, and green onions) and I made buttermilk pie and brownies for dessert.
Sun.: Black eyed peas, collard greens, corn bread, and hotdogs (hubby doesn't eat ham, so I did hotdogs for the pork).
Mon.: Egg Zaatar and tahini salad.
Tues.: Beef pot pie.
Wed.: Spaghetti and meatballs and homemade no knead focaccia.
Thursday: Cereal and/or leftovers.
I'm not sure about tonight. Maybe leftovers again since I think there will be enough. If not, something easy like canned soup or tuna and crackers.
WIS: $135 @ Publix & $36 @Kroger
WWA:
Saturday: We celebrated Christmas with my hubby's side of the family over lunch at a Mexican spot; I roasted some chicken and we had brown rice & tomatoes with it.
Sunday: Roasted Chicken, Brown Rice, Black-eyed Peas, & Mustard Greens
Monday: Leftovers
Tuesday: I made a big pot of chicken noodle soup with the remaining roasted chicken
Wednesday: Cheeseburger Salad - I know this sounds odd but it really was quite delicious and healthy
Thursday: Green Beans with onions, potatoes and roasted garlic chicken sausage; cornbread
Friday: Leftovers
Happy Weekend!
I have college kids still home. It felt like my grocery bill was 1667 dollars and all I did was cook!! Love em but whew!
I made numerous meals. Ham and savory bread pudding with mashed potatoes, bean soup with ham bone and cornbread, egg and ham strata for one brunch, grilled burgers, stir fry, pile! Of grilled chicken, homemade pizzas and can’t remember the rest.
@Stephanie, curious about savory bread pudding- are ham and mashed potatoes part of that, or a separate thing? Is it like strata?
And what about “pile!”??
I actually stayed out of the grocery store all week long... until today. I need to make a milk and hotdog sale run.
We were sick at the beginning of the week, so the kids ate lots of ham and cheese sliders on leftover rolls with leftover ham. Mr.A and I had chicken noodle soup.
Then I used up leftover potato wedges by dicing them up and turning them into ham and potato soup.
We had sausages and fresh potato wedges Wednesday night and then taco soup (frozen from a batch a month ago) Thursday night.
We'll probably do chicken fried rice tonight. Saturday we're scheduled to do homemade pizza with friends.
But... I have eccentric loner neighbors (mother and son) that we've been slowly befriending over the last ten years. The last three weeks have been an exhausting story of paramedics at my door to get their spare key, neighbors to the hospital, discovering they didn't have central heat or a working sewer, patching their collapsing ceilings, hauling out bags of trash, taking in their cat, and... now they might be coming home tomorrow, so I'm coordinating plummer and work team to get their sewer open and old (filth-encrusted) beds removed.
It'll be an interesting two days and we may just order Domino's.
@Dorinda, Wow! Let us name you the Best Neighbors in Town! Maybe even the whole county!
Ohhh, wow. That sounds like QUITE a situation with your neighbors. So kind of you guys to help!
@Dorinda,
You are a great neighbor! Order the pizza! If I was there I'd order it for you.
@JD,
Ditto. It’s so kind of you to help them. This is a difficult satiation to be certain.
@Dorinda, I am left open-jawed at your neighborliness! Extra stars for you in the book St. Peter consults at heaven's gate.
Thank you for your kind words and encouragement and prayers. We made significant progress today on getting ready for hospice and hospital bed to arrive at the house, but there's a lot more to go. Thankful for a friend who is coming by to help and for other friends who are picking up the replacement bed we found via a small "blessing" group I'm a part of.
And I would totally take you up on that pizza order, JD! Four Domino's three meat pizzas to feed the neighbors and us. Saturday. 5pm MT. 😉
This week there were no good sales at the grocery store so I bought nothing. Some things I’ll be making with what’s on hand, potato salad, coleslaw, chicken taquitos, guacamole, ?. Last nights family pasta pot had all kinds of mushrooms and some tiny whole tomatoes that burst in your mouth. They finally used up the giant bottle of vodka from Costco. That’s what happens when you buy liquor from Costco and everyone finds out they don’t like alcohol, lots of vodka sauce. Somehow it’s delicious!
@Tiana, oh. And reading everyone’s fiascos, I’ve been watching Coffee Time with John and Mama, and they use buttermilk to make cornbread and biscuits. I’ve been trying with gluten free flour and so far it’s just a sponge mess. Still tweaking.
I love potato soup and clam chowder so I’m onboard for either option! I’m determined to reduce our food costs in 2023 so I’m meal planning and have written the plan through end of January.
Things we ate:
Saturday-steak & lobster done at home which is what we always do
Sunday-black eyed peas, collard greens, cornbread
Monday-turkey white bean soup, homemade sourdough discard rolls, fruit
Tuesday-sourdough waffles with mixed berry compote and ham
Wednesday-chicken fajitas with refried beans and fruit
Thursday-black bean soup with masa dumplings, fruit
Friday-pizza which might be takeout but I do have ingredients on hand for homemade so if I have time to prep dough before dog training, I will.
I have forgotten the oats in my oatmeal cookies twice in the last few months. They were butter raisin cookies instead. Not nearly as yummy as oatmeal ones though and quite frustrating.
Happy new year!
@Liane, my sister’s not at her best in the kitchen (many other talents) so known for regular, old, not-good food, but especially for chocolate chip cookies without sugar. Once, she brought many, many plates of those to a big bake sale for a good cause, where they all sold. Later that night, we had some, and that’s when the omission was discovered! Oops! Lol!
It was a hybrid week of staying at a condo & then a hotel for a ski week, so some unusual meals. The ski area got 5' of snow in a week, so it led to some wild times & lots of snow shoveling!
-Pizza with salad, upon arrival in the condo
-Woke up to a huge snow storm, and made dinner between power outages. We had steak, garlic bread & caesar salad
-Changed to the hotel on the resort property, which means the planned meal of spaghetti & meatballs didn't happen. Instead, we all met up at the restaurant at the hotel. The adults finished skiing a wee bit earlier than the teens. 😉 I had a delicious cobb salad.
-Another night, we took the shuttle into the village & ate at an Irish pub. I had the most amazing potato leek soup, with sourdough bread. So. Delicious.
-And, had a night at a local Mexican restaurant, where I had fajitas.
-Last night I cobbled together grilled chicken (freezer), Trader Joes veggie fried rice, & a bagged salad that we didn't get to, but I kept in the cooler. I was worried about the dressing/cheese package, so I tossed that, and added my own.
Tonight is the only day forecasted for no rain, so my husband is going to grill burgers.
Completely unpopular opinion, but I am not a fan of creamy or potato-y soups. I love things with cream and anything a potato has ever touched but put them together in soup form....not my vibe. I am trying to do a bit of a freezer clear out. I made a bunch of seafood stock since I had all my shells leftover from the holidays and a huge bag of veggie scraps, so I need to make space.
Saturday- NYE!! My husband came up while I am at work so we went to a local pizza place in town. I had a cup of tea after and fell asleep at 9pm, it was glorious.
Sunday- I flew almost all night but I remember making veggie rice bowls w/ avocado and frozen dumplings at some point.
Monday- Another dead to the world day bc work. Baked potatoes with broccoli and fried eggs before my husband drove home. Simple and got the job done.
Tuesday- avocado toast and fried eggs
Wednesday- finally home. Made penne with frozen meatballs and sauce I canned this year. I was desperate to cuddle by the fire and be cozy.
Thursday- Continuing my freezer clear out. Rice bowls with veggies and avocado.
Friday- BBQ flatbreads with frozen sausage most likely. I had a bug bunch of overripe bananas in the freezer as well, so it might be muffin time.
@Heather, your opener makes me think of several of our kids who love noodles and love chicken, but put the two together and HOLD THE PHONE they will not touch it with a 10-foot pole. No idea. lol.
@Heather, so glad you didn't have to fly yesterday. The storm on my side of the Sierra was ferocious!
Your auto situation reminds me of when I make lentil curry. I jokingly say, “don’t forget the lentils. Don’t forget the curry.”
Even my good-at-finding-deals husband noticed the prices are way up the store. 5.99 for 18 eggs, ugh! I hope all the chickens get better soon so that comes down, eggs used to be a nice cheap(er) protein source for me.
We are having a big ham dinner tonight, so the other meals were kept fairly simple this week:
New Years Eve we just had our usual homemade personal pizza night and then stayed up with snacks to watch Ghostbusters 2 to ring in the New Year.
Sunday was pizza leftovers.
Monday: Dad's tuna burgers (he also made some chicken burgers with canned chicken, but said he prefers the tuna, for price and taste). We had so many chips from the holidays that we just had chips on the side.
Tuesday: Chicken and rice casserole. Mixed veggies on the side. Always a hit.
Wednesday: one of the kids made burgers and tater tots. I was wiped out with a vertigo/headache/something and was really appreciative of having older kids who are willing and able to cook.
Thursday: taco night, courtesy of another kid who likes to make taco night.
Tonight will be ham (the largest ham I have ever seen), cheese lasagna, and corn, three of my kids' favorite foods, apparently. Keto brownies for dessert (our kids aren't on keto, we just bake with xylitol, not sugar, and keto recipes are the best for this).
Yeah, eggs are crazy expensive right now!
@Karen A., that is a good price for the eggs. Where I am at is 8.99 for 18.... ughhhhh
@ellen, I was thinking the same thing. It's almost $8.00 for 18 eggs where I live.
@ellen, Yikes! That is crazy.
@Kristen, why are eggs so off-the-charts expensive?? I thought they were ridiculous last summer at $5 for 18, and now I am just afraid to even look.
I believe the main cause is avian flu, but there are probably some other factors at work as well.
Hopefully it will get better soon!
@Karen A., That's a great price for eggs. At store $17 for 18 eggs, $10for 18 eggs at Sam's club. We found local farmer that has fresh eggs but increased to $5 dozen jan 1
@Regina, I just came back this morning from our Regional Market, and all the farmers there are charging $5/dozen and up. I finally found the folks who will sell Grade B eggs (a little cosmetically blemished but still good), and even those are now $3.50/dozen (they used to be $2.50).
@A. Marie, according to some local chicken farmers, it seems that the chicken pandemic that caused egg shortages and the start prices ended a long time ago, but people don’t know that, so they aren’t lowering the prices much- some are increasing still! And when questioned, it’s often attributed to general inflation (cost of feed, gas/transportation, packaging, wages, etc.!) I’d say all prices are up by 10-25% approx, but eggs have gone from $1 a dozen to $4-6+ a dozen. However, actual chicken hasn’t gone up more than about 10%! So, I guess, since there really aren’t actual substitutes for eggs, consumers are expected to pay any asking price- but what is our breaking point?
@Jen, I meant startlingly high prices, not “start prices”.
WIS: $7.76 on hot and sour soup for my husband, whose cold has turned into a respiratory thing.
WWA: Ham, green beans, applesauce, cheddar-herb corn muffins, and ice cream for dessert. This was our New Year's Day meal, the only one I cooked all week as we are all still sick. The ham created leftovers for sandwiches with fresh fruit. We ate a lot of sick people food: scrambled eggs and toast, tea and hot chocolate, frozen soup from the freezer, crackers and peanut butter, apples and mandarins on the side.
I am feeling better and plan to go grocery shopping today.
I hope you all are 100% soon!
@Kristen, I think most of us are on the mend and DH had a televisit with his regular doctor this morning. She was highly critical of what a crappy job the walk-in clinic had done treating him, but he seems to have the right medications now.
I made it to the grocery store -- two of them -- and spent $83.74, which included $11.74 for a gorgeous marked down chuck roast that is right now in the oven becoming a pot roast with veggies. Since DH most likely has RSV, I did my shopping wearing a mask, just like in the old days!
Takeout night was Mexican. I was HANGRY all day long, so for the first time in a long time, I finished the whole thing (Alambres).
We had spaghetti (it was...soupy. Leftovers tonight.) Leftover butter chicken with rice and aloo gobi. And...? Maybe that's it. We had the butter chicken twice I think.
WWS: $20ish at Market Basket; $59 ShopRite (annual can-can sale!).
WWA: Sat - Raclette dinner at friends' house, with boiled potatoes, pickled beets, turmeric cauliflower, cornichons, proscuitto & Peppadew peppers. I made a lime curd & meringue tart (https://www.davidlebovitz.com/lime-meringue-tart/)
Sun: Roasted chicken with roasted potatoes, onions, carrots & buttercup squash
Mon: Roasted eye of round with roasted broccoli, buttercup squash fries (surprisingly good), horseradish cream & red wine & porcini gravy
My sabbatical & the Covid hybrid schedule are firmly over, which means I'm out of town at work apartment for half of the week.
Tues: chicken pozole
Wed: chicken pozole
Thurs: chicken pozole
Fri: going out to dinner with a friend with a gift certificate that I was given.
Are you tired of chicken pozole yet??
@BettafromdaVille, OMG I have to make raclette once I'm over being sick and can face food again. I'm hoping that will be soon.
@Rose, Aldi had kits for raclette! But I’d think buying the ingredients might be a better deal. It’s very surprising all the things that Aldi has now. I’ve shopped there for many years, when they were ugly warehouses for mostly off-brand canned and packaged stuff. It’s quite a weird experience to see how much they have changed! But I do miss those rock-bottom prices.
Hard to remember what we ate this week!
Monday: Tamales & cut up veg
Tues: odds & ends (1 kid wanted oatmeal, 1 a leftover tamale, beans + tortillas+ avocado for the rest. Apple w/ PB and crudités on the side.
Wed: burrito bowls w/ homemade black beans, peppers, cubed sweet potato, lettuce, rice, salsa, tortilla chips
Thurs: pearl couscous w/ carrot, apple, pecans, celery + cucumbers on the side
Fri: I’m working late to hubby is ordering pizza 🙂
So this year I am aiming to really get better w/ my finances and food. Food is my highest spender and that isn't going to change but I do waste more than I should so my spending is higher than it needs to be. We also have enough food to last months. We need to start eating it instead of buying more. Food is the one category that I don't limit but I do need to be more mindful. In that effort, I think I will list what I spent here instead of just what we eat. I always hesitate to put what I spent because it is largely excessive but I shop w/ my values and try to be frugal in other places so I never have to worry about food spending.
Anyway, Starting from the first so short week
WWS: Whole Foods $5.64 Milk delivery: 19 TGTO app: $28.99
WWA: Sat: We went out to a fancy expensive dinner. We do this a few times a year and it's been awhile so we figured new years eve was a good occasion. It was lovely.
Sun: New years day, we did traditional southern faire-Sea Island Red Peas and Carolina rice, ham, broccoli cheddar soup, collards, and corn bread
Mon: left-over from fancy dinner NYE-Roasted duck w/ cherry sauce, seafood risotto, and green beans
Tues: Pasta dish w/ lemon-garlic chicken, corn, and wheel pasta
Wed: Eataly pickup on TGTO had dinner mostly set for us. Bread w/ soft cheese, Bolognese (just needed to cook pasta), and left over broc cheddar soup
Thurs: TGTO pick up at farm store gave us a couple 1/2 sandwiches so we heated up so tomato soup to go w/ them. Then we realized they also gave 4 boxes of (2) tempeh stuffed pepper halves. We each tried a half and rest went in the freezer.
Fri: We got rolls in the TGTO order so I'm thinking we will pull frozen salmon burgers and rehydrate some cabbage for cole slaw on top and oven fries.
Hope everyone had a great first week of 2023!
@Jaime,
First off, if my math is right, you spent less than 60 bucks on one week...that is very, very reasonable! I think you are managing food spending splendidly. Secondly, what is TGTO?
@Becca,
For a short week yes it's good. Farmers market day is tomorrow though so that's usually my big spender. We shall see how things settle out but with more mindfulness I'm hopeful.
TGTO is a new app I just discovered that focuses on food waste. Restaurants and grocery stores (only a couple in my area, not chains) put up listing for "surprise bags" that you can reserve and pick up that day or the next. They fill the bag with the food that's left at the end of the night for Restaurants and food that is at/just past the expiry date so they can't sell but still good to eat. Its highly discounted (most bags i got were "worth" $12 or $15 according to the app but you pay $4 or $7). The catch is you don't know what's in the bag and if it's a restaurant it can be late pick up (8- 10pm).
I got a few this week:
$4- 2 pieces cake and 2 coconut pastries/cakes from brazillian bakery (I despise coconut so this one was a miss for me but now in know and I tried)
$7-6 large rolls, (3) 1/2 sandwiches, 4 boxes of 2 halves of tempeh stuffed peppers
$12-Eataly-1 gal milk, 3 soft cheeses, 1 loaf bread, 3 packages cookies, 1 container of bolognese, 1 gnocchi/ mushroom sauce (unfortunately it busted open and sauce all in the bag so didn't eat that one). Where as the bolognese was dated for that day and priced at $14 it was a steal.
So far it's been good...I can see myself using it atleast once a week for cheaper takeout or breads/pastries. I have a pick up tomorrow at a bakery and the butcher shop. Excited to see what we get.
@Jaime,
That sounded interesting enough for me to download the app just to see what would be available in my area. Do you mind if I ask who you are feeding? When I described the system to my husband, he said he would have loved it when he was younger and single and sometimes out later at night, but he wondered how useful it would be when feeding a family with young kids. I was thinking maybe have it as like take out leftovers that could be reimagined for dinner the next day, but he pointed out that it would be more valuable to a family if it were delivery instead of pick up. I'd be curious to hear if any other families of varying sizes tried this...like maybe it could work in teen families to have a new driver run out and pick it up? I don't know...what do you think? Maybe this is something I'll save for the empty nest years that will be here soon enough.
@Becca,
It's just me and my husband...no kids. I just hit 40 last month and he is 38 this summer.
We decided to not do restaurants this month so I have not tried any of them yet so I can't speak much to that except they are late pick ups so I can see where that would be difficult for people already settled at home after work or with kids. I figure we may try it some weekend night were we wouldn't mind eating a little later. I have seen one or two after lunch (so like 2pm) pizza pick ups though which would be more reasonable time wise.
Bakeries around here are 2-4pm pick up which isn't bad if you are running errands or flexible schedule.
Today we got grocery items from the local butcher store. Spinach we used in soup tonight, a small box of greens, loaf of bread, cookies, 2 garlic, a red pepper, 2 potatoes. Not bad for $6. In this case, it doesn't feed a family of 4 but it helps supplement other things. It does allow you to purchase more than 1 bag if there is more than one available so that would feed more people I suppose when its an option.
I feel like right now its a little trial and error. I am trying a bunch of things this week probably because its something new. I assume when I have a better idea of what the places are giving and what days they offer bags, I'll fit it in more of a plan...I mean I don't really need 4 packages of cookies a week but a loaf of bread or some vegetables can help here and there.
I was immediately drawn to the app because I'm really focusing on improving food waste and of course the discounted food is a plus. I think that if its something you want to try maybe just open the app every once in a while to see if there is something to pick up when you have available time and feel like going out. I do think what is offered right now is highly specific to where you live. Someone else on-line mentioned she only has bakeries on hers and when I punch in my parents town only a few things come up. Hopefully more businesses will participate as it becomes more well known as I think it could really help w/ food waste.
@Jaime,
Thanks for taking the time to respond in such detail! My interest is totally piqued, so I'd love to hear what you get in future WIS posts! I haven't seen any grocery stores in my area, but lots of restaurants-mainly pizza joints and bakeries, but a few others. I'm going to keep checking the app too and will let you know if I bite on any offers. Thanks again for all the info!
I had the flu visitmy house this week so my plans will be for next week. So it was a lot of eggs ,leftovers ,&soups for those eating
Only bought milk and subs this week, except for the potato chips I got doing several gas station mystery shops.
Saturday: Tacos
Sunday: cauliflower cheese soup
Monday: Tacos since we had a ton of meat mixture left over from Saturday
Tuesday: had guests so used a gift card I found and bought subs for each of us. I did not feel like cooking or cleaning up so took the easy route. I think I would not have done this if I had not had a gift card I found on the ground ages ago.
Wednesday: left over subs.
Thursday: coconut shrimp
Today: ham sandiwches for him, Filet-o-Fish for me.
We ate fruit every night for dessert or my new fixation with fruit smoothies so thick my brain interprets them as ice cream. I had so much frozen fruit in our outdoor freezer that this is really helping to clear things out. I am trying to spend as little as possible on food this month because our furnace breakdown when Mister left the garage door open and froze all the pipes that then burst and ruined the furnace ate up our entire emergency fund. AND it turns out that it ruined our washer, too, so we are on the lookout for a new one. At least it is a balmy one below zero today...
@Lindsey, the furnace and plumbing disaster was bad enough, but the dead washer is just the rotten cherry on top! I hope some angel in your circle helps you out with that.
@Lindsey,
Oh, Lindsey! A broken washer too? I hope you catch a financial break soon!
@Lindsey, another "Argh!" for the fresh disaster (the washer). I hope that the golden goose will lay some golden eggs at your house soon.
In January I always resolve to meal plan better. It works for awhile. Unfortunately every time I sit down to plan I seem to forget what food actually is. This week's menu was:
Monday: Steak and homemade bread. Also roasted potatoes.
Tuesday: Frozen pizzas that I picked up at Sam's. We like Red Baron better than Little Caesars, which is great because it's cheaper and also doesn't require going out.
Wednesday: Chicken, leftover potatoes from Monday, and salad. Plus raw veggies for those who didn't want salad.
Thursday: Instant Pot Beef and Broccoli, with rice.
Friday: We had lunch with friends so I'm going to easy mode dinner by using leftover chicken to make quesadillas.
Now I need to make next week's plan, which is going to be extra hardmode as school and extracurriculars are all starting up again.
Sunday-pork and peanut dragon noodles, oranges
Monday-beef and bean taco casserole, garden salad, oranges
Tuesday-leftovers
Wednesday-hot dogs, mac & cheese, garden salad
Thursday-leftovers
Friday-chicken broccoli rice casserole
What I spent---I had to look up on my spreadsheet:
$10 eggs from local farmer, sadly though price went up so only got 2 dozen instead of 3 for same price.
What we ate-
We ate mostly free for all except I dad actually cook whole meal one night.
My teen ate A Lot of Eggs--- 3 dozen, 4 boxes cereal, through the week.
Spaghetti with garlic meat (no sauce because I'm allergic & teen did not want) with mozzarella & homemade garlic breadstick/crescent style.
Chocolate chip cookies
Apple pie put into lunch box containers
Chicken Corn chowder soup with grilled cheese sandwich
I'm amazed you eat simple but spend so much.
I'm a little surprised that you consider $95 to be a lot for 3 people for a week's worth of breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, plus toiletries and cleaning supplies.
If you routinely spend less than that, that's awesome! And maybe you should start a blog. 🙂
@Kristen,
Kristen, I think this comment is out of touch with reality. Maybe it's made by someone who doesn't normally grocery shop or perhaps lives in a less expensive area? I think you are fairly local to me and you regularly spend way less than me. I'm hyper conscious of grocery spending, and I think you spend very little. Granted, I am shopping for 5 people, but even when you do take out, you spend less than me. We eat almost everything at home and I think our meals are fairly simple too, but ingredients just add up. I almost always buy our meat at half price, but the biggest budget busters for us are dairy and produce. I'm not willing to restrict our fruit and vegetable consumption though, so sometimes I just say "oh well, food costs what it costs."
WIS: $52 @ Costco, 36 @ Restaurant Supply, $14 @ Winco & $18 @ Grocery Outlet
Eating out of the garden/greenhouse: romaine, broccoli, chard, cabbage, beets & spinach.
Freezers full of beef, pork, fish and larder full of home canned everything.
WWA: New Years Day - appetizers and dessert buffet
Monday - tacos and fried ice cream
Tuesday - taco salad, peach cobbler for 2
Wednesday - Rotisserie chicken, green salad & roasted broccoli
Thursday - Chicken alfredo, green salad, fruit salad
Friday - grilled steak, salad and winter squash
Saturday - squash and potato gnocchi, freezer marinara, green salad
My mom gifted me a little planner at Christmas. I think she intended it for homeschool, but I’m going to use for meal planning. So now I can actually remember what we ate:)
Monday- eggs & pancakes
Tuesday- chicken tacos + cilantro lime rice+ homemade salsa
Wednesday- random night: my husband ate at work; the girls and I had roasted broccoli & mashed potatoes & beans from taco night
Thursday-pizza
Friday-chicken noodle soup with lots of veggies
Saturday-gf baked ziti & peas
Sunday-soup & pasta leftovers
Now I need to put some planning into next week:)
Homemade pizza, homemade falafel, eggs and potatoes, chicken and rice, pasta and cheese.and one night date night at home way after the kids went to bed burgers and fries for just the two of us .
We always have Friday night dinners together we try to have at least one other