WIS, WWA | from the slopes
I have been in California this week with my family, skiing at Lake Tahoe, and I'll be back tomorrow.
Soooo, this is a week of ski eats. 😉 We are taking turns cooking, so this'll be a bit different than my usual reports.
What I Spent
I spent $0 at the airport because I barely had time to get from one flight to the other. I did buy some groceries here (mainly snacks to put in my ski coat pockets), but I don't have my receipt handy.
I did also spent $1.50 at Costco; see below.
What We Ate
Saturday
This may surprise you but...I had never had a Costco hot dog before! We did some grocery shopping after our flight, and we decided to just eat dinner at Costco.
Sooo, I had my inaugural Costco hot dog.
Will I lie awake at night craving it? No.
But it WAS a good deal for $1.50. 😉
Sunday
My mom made her cheeseburger soup plus some roasted broccoli. I didn't take a picture, but here's one from a previous ski trip.
And I made enough for a leftovers lunch for work on Monday.
Monday
It was my night to cook, so I made a double recipe of stuffed shells with sausage, and we also had a green salad and some toasted rolls.
Here's the recipe I use for stuffed shells, in case you want it!
Tuesday
My brother made grilled chicken burrito bowls.
Wednesday
Spaghetti and meatballs, with garlic bread, and roasted broccoli. I forgot to take a picture!
Thursday
My other brother and his wife made an orzo and chicken dish.
Friday
We are planning to go out for dinner and then tomorrow, I fly home! I will be glad to see Zoe and my cats (Zoe says Chiquita has been looking out the window for me. Ha.)
I hope you've had an amazing time! So cute about Chiquita!
I mostly ate pizza and gelato this week as I was in Florence. When I came home I had a mushroom omelette with a baked sweet potato and last night I had aubergine curry which Past Me had left in the fridge for when I got back. I had it with brown rice. Tonight I'll probably make mixed veg burritos with black beans and brown rice 🙂 I usually have crackers with hummus and avocado on the side.
A week of pizza and gelato sounds delightful. 🙂
It was! The only sad thing was that it was half a week, not a whole one haha! I was definitely craving some healthy food when I got back though 😉
Aww pizza and gelato for your weekly Menu Plan! haha How divine. What a cool little trip that must have been!
Enjoy your well deserved family trip Kristen! Such a good idea to take turns cooking, the meals all look so tempting.
My comment yesterday failed to publish, probably because I was travelling home by train and lost connection to 5G on part of the stretch.
I had been attending an all day singing workshop for which I took a day off and it felt like a mini holiday. My thankful was for feeling inner quiet sink deep into your whole being. I hope your trip this week will make you experience a similar "coming together of body and soul", too.
Love the way you phrased that about the inner quiet!
Ooh that looks fun! Enjoy the vacation.
Saturday: Tomato-lentil soup with garlic bread
Sunday: Broccoli and tofu stir-fry with rice, shredded carrot salad.
Monday: Brunch for dinner: pancakes, spinach/cheese crustless quiche, and fruit salad, with a leftover hard-boiled egg for the 4 y/o whom I knew would not touch the quiche.
Tuesday: Pasta and tomato sauce and sautéed frozen green beans with garlic. I followed tips I saw online and the beans came out not-mushy!
Wednesday: Baked-from-frozen chicken schnitzel and fries, plus cucumber salad.
Thursday: Pasta with broccoli, lemon, and parmesan.
Friday: Fish, challah, other details TBD.
This has inspired me to make broccoli and tofu stir-fry soon! I haven't had it in so long!
FYI, I use the sauce from Budget Bytes. I find one serving of sauce is good for one packet of tofu and a head of broccoli. I make it up in double batches and store it in a jar in the fridge, which makes things easier!
Nice! Love Budget Bytes!
I like the idea of everyone taking a night to cook on vacation - sharing the load is a good idea. It is vacation after all! (: This week I spent around $75 at the grocery store and forgot my partner card so I didn't save 10%... But I did eat fairly well!
M - kitchen closed, had Chik-fil-a filet and mac and cheese
T - Chicken thigh, asparagus, carrots (this made two meals)
W - Skillet pork chop, TJ saag paneer
TH - Taco bowl with taco meat, sweet potato, cottage cheese, avocado, tomato, hot honey
F - Tonight I am fixing a Bacon Cheddar burger patty with a baked potato and some brocc/cauli. And its meal prep day so I need to get in there and rustle up three lunches for work.
Happy (early) Valentine's Day!
I'm happy to see you're having fun with your family. You deserve it.
I second this! I have been concerned at tbe lack of family mentions, concerned that your personal issues might have adversely affected your family relations. So happy to read today that that is not the case!
I'm glad you've had some skiing fun with your parents and sibs, Kristen--and that you seem to get on with all of them so well. Not all of us can say the same. (My parents are long gone, but my sibs and I are a mixed bag, to put it mildly.)
Now, WIS: $71 at Price Chopper.
WIA: The usual nothing too spectacular. My best meal was a chef's salad topped with some Lake Erie smoked whitefish, a gift from the Bestest Neighbors.
And I also confess to some food waste this week (see my #4 in Tuesday's FFT re: the cleanout of the fridge and freezers). But better a little food waste than food poisoning!
Fun! It's always nice eating what my family cooks on the rare occasion we do something like this because they have similar tastes and cooking styles to mine, so I get to eat food I like without having to cook it. 🙂
Saturday: A child asked for stir-fry, and as I had leftover pork and the fresh vegetables (this time, bell peppers, carrots, onions, and frozen green beans) to make it, that is what I did. Also rice, of course, and in that I used some of the liquid from making the pork shoulder.
Sunday: Steaks with caramelized onions and parsley/garlic butter, mashed potatoes, green salad with vinaigrette. For dessert, we had a birthday taste-test of seven different kinds of Oreos. And now every child has had a taste test for their birthday. We did root beer, Pringles, ice cream, and Oreos. I don't know if we'll do this every year, but it was fun this year, anyway.
Monday: Various apportioned leftovers after we got home right at dinnertime from a basketball game. Handy. And more Oreos, of course.
Tuesday: Barbecue meatballs and cornbread made ahead and re-heated in the oven by my eldest son before I got home from First Communion class with my daughter. Also raw peppers and radishes. And more Oreos, because buying seven packages of Oreos means literally hundreds of Oreos to be eaten. My children were not sad about this.
Wednesday: The now-16-year-old's birthday meal request was lasagna and chocolate cheesecake. He couldn't have picked a heavier meal, I'm pretty sure, which is, of course, why it appealed to him. Teenage boys are like that. I also threw some raw radishes on plates, as that is his least-disliked vegetable.
Thursday: I had been planning to just have leftovers of the night before, but then we had a guest join us for dinner who doesn't eat gluten or much dairy. I was at a basketball game until dinnertime ('tis the season), so I needed to make something ahead. I pulled the last of the ham out of the freezer, made rice with the rest of the pork-braising liquid, and used those things, plus lots of caramelized onions, green peas, cream, eggs, and a little grated cheddar to make a casserole. Then my husband just stuck that and the leftover lasagna in the oven when he got home from his school bus run and they were hot when I got home. I had also made a green salad ahead of time, and there was leftover cheesecake and a few crispy rice treats from the many I had made for school Valentine's treats.
Tonight: We have leftovers of both the lasagna and the ham and rice casserole, so everyone can choose. And I do not have to go anywhere today, YAY.
I don't know, that birthday meal sounds pretty good to me 😉 I don't know what that says about my palate lol!
Oh, it was delicious. It's also the sort of meal where my sons inevitably eat second or third servings and then end up regretting it. But they do not leave the table hungry, to say the least. 🙂
I love the taste test idea! So fun! And relatively inexpensive.
Not so much with Oreos. That was like $35 worth of Oreos.
Kristin, totally worth it as I'm sure it will be a fond memory for your children. My childhood memory of just one flavor of Oreos is pretty keen, what with the twisting of the cookie, gnawing off the filling with my front teeth and eating the chocolate wafers. Then we kids would all open our mouths to show off our black teeth and laugh hysterically.
But for entertainment for a whole family? Still pretty affordable!
I love the lasagna and cheescake combo - just a bit of cheese accompanying your cheese, you know!
My husband and I demolished two boxes of Girl Scout Cookies this week. One of my favorite things about this time of year.
-Mary
Cheese, cheese, and more cheese. I see no issue. 😉
How wonderful to have a real, actual, factual holiday with your family and do something wonderful like skiing! This is food for the soul, never mind the food for the stomach!
Sunday: super bowl party at a friends house....we took subs. We had a spread of homemade pizzas, subs, veggies and dips, chips, cookies, cupcakes, etc.
Monday: spicy italian sausage with pepeprs & onions, pierogies, peas
Tuesday: Pulled pork sandwiches, pickled cucumbers, steamed broccoli
Wednesday: fish, macaroni & cheese, squash
Thursday: frozen pizza
Friday: tonight will be sloppy joes & fries
I live an hour from Tahoe, and this week was very nice. There's a big storm coming in, so you made it just in time. Did you fly into Reno? It's my favorite place to be.
Yep! Reno was our landing spot. And that's where we hit the Costco. 🙂
It looks like the snow cover after next week's storms is going to make for some amazing skiing. We were just a LITTLE too early.
I spent 114 at Kroger grocery pickup.
( saved 68 in the app. This does not happen often).
Fajitas and all the fixings 2 days
Baked spaghetti steamed veggies salad 2 days
Ham and cheese quesadillas with air fryer veggies 1 day
Cereal for supper with blueberries and bananas. 1 day
Nothing fancy but we ate at home!
I love that you are participating in Olympic activities during the Olympics!! (Yes, I know that you do this every year, but it sounds fun to connect the two.) I have a friend that has been cooking a meal from a different country every night of the Olympics. I knew she was fun before, but her awesome factor went way up in my mind after this.
This week we ate:
Saturday: French bread pizza
Sunday: We had family over to celebrate my daughter's birthday before the Super Bowl. She requested Cool Ranch Crunchwraps, Tex-Mex dip, and frosted brownies with ice cream.
Monday: Garlic parmesan chicken tenderloins, pineapple, kiwi, and french fries
Tuesday: Vegetable beef soup and rolls
Wednesday: My daughter's actual birthday! She wanted her favorite foods... chicken tenders, mashed potatoes and gravy, macaroni and cheese, and California veggie blend (because I asked her to throw a vegetable in there somewhere!) We had ice cream cake for dessert.
Thursday: More garlic parmesan chicken tenderloins, leftover pasta salad from work, peas, and some really delicious green grapes
Friday: Not sure yet! I'm shipping the birthday girl off to camp for the weekend, so we will probably eat something she doesn't like. Maybe spaghetti and meatballs.
WIS: $40 at Aldi
WIA: I neglected to write it down, so I'm going on my faulty memory here. I don't know for sure which day I had what, but this is what I had for my main meal:
Broccoli cheese soup
Spaghetti with meat and mushroom sauce
Granola with milk, almonds, and dried cranberries
Peanut butter and pickles on whole wheat bread
Grilled cheese on whole wheat bread, sliced peaches
Sausage gravy and biscuits
Tonight I am going to put together something wonderful from the perishables in my fridge, because I'm traveling tomorrow.
I crash the grandparent hosted “teen ski week” in Lake Tahoe this week as well. Haven’t skied in 17 years (last family trip, 10 years ago, I was pregnant and the designated babysitter). I’ve followed your blog for most of those 17 years, and we too fly home tomorrow. You have been an inspiration and model in so many ways. Thank you for your blog and your positive perspective! This week I ate all the things and didn’t have to cook! I cleaned the kitchen and did laundry as my contribution.
Lake Tahoe - FUN!
Happy Friday, everyone! We spent $86 ($17 at Safeway, $40 at Trader Joe's and $29 at Barrio Breads). Dinners were:
- Salad loaded with crunchy veggies and toppings
- Vegetable tetrazzini
- Baked potato and broccoli
- Popcorn and fruit
- Nachos and squash tartlets
- Roasted vegetables
- Focaccia, brie, green olives and grape tomatoes
That sounds like fun! And what a good idea for everyone to take turns cooking.
I spent $0 on groceries this week; I'll buy some next week.
What I ate:
Friday I made pumpkin pasta sauce to go on gluten-free pasta.
Saturday I had leftovers.
Sunday I had the last of the pasta & sauce plus some chicken nuggets.
Monday I had some homemade chicken pot pie from the freezer.
Tuesday I made potato biscuits to go with canned beef stew.
Wednesday more chicken pot pie.
Thursday I made a box of Daiya gluten- and dairy-free mac and "cheese", which is surprisingly similar to the normal kind. I don't know how they get it to taste so cheesy. I mixed in some diced tomatoes and smoked sausage.
Friday I'll have leftovers.
I just want to say welcome to Tahoe! It’s just up the road from us and you’re flying out just in time cuz we’re going to be walloped by a colder, windier set of new storms. 1 to 5 feet being predicted w big big winds! Stay well!
I know!! I saw that next week is FULL of snow. So the week after that is probably going to be great on the slopes.
What I Will Spend today: about $125 @ Costco for dog food, milk and supplements. Normally I would wait but I need to make sure we have mom's prescriptions as we are expecting freezing rain next week.
Super bowl: ribs, mac and cheese, potato salad, baked beans, veggies and dips.
Monday: veggies and dips and grilled ham sandwiches
Tue: dinner salad with rotisserie chicken
Wed: chicken thighs, roasted squash, green salad
Thurs: stir fry, rice and sumos
Fri : sea bass, oven fries,kale salad
Sat: white chicken chili, cornbread waffles, veggies and dip
Have a great weekend!
Skiing is so so so expensive, but I love it so much. I’m very interested in a budget breakdown of your ski trip. What you wore, and how much you think it cost (gloves, coat/ski pants, balaclava, base layer), etc. Where did you rent skis or do you own? Lift tickets?? Did you eat ANYTHING from the lodge or just survive off beef jerky and fruit leather for days? I always have to buy incentive hot chocolate/waffle/hot dog/chips/gatorade etc. for kiddos when they get whiney. But I stuff my pockets with as much as I can! Is there a cheaper/better way to do this? My husband’s family is about 3 hours from Lake Tahoe, and I want to try sneaking in a ski trip with a visit to them.
I am loving the image of little Chiquita watching out the window for you. That is so sweet! She will be happy to snuggle you when you get home.
WIS: Neighborhood-$45; Milk delivery-$21 Total: $66 (it's always a lighter week when I don't go to the farmers market)
WWA: Sat: Dinner out for a friends wedding activities- Chicken Piccata Gnocchi
Sun: Super Bowl-Rosemary lemon chicken wings, 7-layer dip, chili
Mon: Loaded fries w/ chili and 7-layer dip
Tues: Chili mac
Wed: Leftover chicken wings, 7-layer dip, mac and cheese
Thurs: Chicken, asparagus, leftover mac and cheese
Fri: Chicken enchiladas, corn, refried beans
So glad you get away and have fun with family. You certainly deserve it. The food looks delicious and I hope you had a great week away!
Hey, you're in my neck of the woods!!!! What resort did you ski? I have a mid-week season pass to Sugar Bowl. You were lucky. You got the only snow we have had for a month.
I just returned yesterday from my 7th Continent - Australia - NT. I had the local Barramundi fish and chips. The days before I was in Singapore and had versions of fishball soup. The broth was divine but fishballs and not going to be a do again for me. I am home to a empty-ish frig hoping to eat down from the pantry till March. I will need some fresh fruits and veggies to supplement.
We were at Heavenly all week!
I, too, have never had a Costco hotdog. People rave about them but, I mean, it's a wiener. How good can it be?
Glad to know you're enjoying some time on the slopes!
Looks like you've enjoyed things here in California!
Been pretty much having the week from heck (tried to file my taxes online, rejected SEVEN times, had to take the cat to the vet---and he was not happy about that but has forgiven me, my laptop refused to connect to the internet for a week, the dryer appears to have died, and woke up last night 15 minutes before I was supposed to be at work!!)-- so I decided to be kind to myself today. Bought some salmon from Market of Choice, shared a bit with the cat, and made two meals of it for myself. Got 90% of the clothes that were on the sofa hung up and folded (we have a washer and dryer in the park clubhouse so I didn't have to have wet clothes hanging all over the house). Replaced the laptop with one that was on sale at Wal-Mart, and am going to have some ice cream and then to bed with me).
Oh man, what a week of frustrations!
The 2025 FEDERAL INDIVIDUAL tax return associated with this email address was electronically filed with the
MeF Service Center on 2/15/2026 using a PIN as your signature for the tax return.
The Submission ID for the return is (redacted). It was acknowledged as ACCEPTED by the IRS on 2/15/2026.
EIGHT REJECTS.....turns out that because the IRS had not processed my very LATE 2024 return until January 2026...they wanted zero for the AGI. 8 rejects because I was giving them the ACTUAL AGI from 2024. I only figured it out by googling!! It's a wonder I'm not completely bald by now!!
I always like a Costco hot dog, so dependable.
Kitty waiting for you, love that.
I'm super impressed with your family's cooking! Also realizing that I have everything for "burrito bowls" in the fridge and will assemble them for tonight's dinner. Thanks!
Such a great go-to meal! And so flexible.
Do you happen to have a recipe for the chicken/orzo dish? That looks delish!
Thanks!
Here ya go! https://easyfamilyrecipes.com/creamy-lemon-orzo-with-chicken/