WIS, WWA | Frozen Chinese = disappointing
See Sunday's dinner report for more on that!
What I Spent
I spent $224 on groceries this week, and that was even without a Hungry Harvest box!
As we know, though, this always levels out; buy more one week, and then you have less to buy the next. It evens out over time.
What We Ate
Saturday
We had roasted chicken, toasted English muffin bread, and some raw produce.
Sunday
I pressed the easy button and we ate some frozen Chinese food.
My opinion is that the frozen Chinese food sides (crab rangoon, pot stickers, etc.) are usually better than the main dishes (lo main, General Tso's chicken). Somehow, the main dishes are routinely disappointing.
Which is a good reminder next time I am tempted!
Monday
I made baked ziti (I just remove Sonia's portion before stirring in the cheese), and we ate a green salad on the side.
Tuesday
We had bacon, French toast (I make Sonia's with coconut milk), and OJ.
Wednesday
I made pulled chicken sandwiches, which we ate with a green salad.
Thursday
Taco night!
Because Taco Thursday works just as well as Taco Tuesday.
Friday
My weekend plans are kind of up in the air; maybe we will do our takeout date night tonight.
Saturday-DD had a bd party early evening.., the rest of us ordered pizza. Busy day!
Sunday- over mom/dads end of summer, Hamburg's/hotdog, French fries/onion rings, milkshakes, I made a cake.
Monday- BBQ Chicken on the grill, butter noodles, corn
Tuesday-breakfast for dinner, scrambled eggs, breakfast potatoes, pork roll, toast.
Wednesday- DS/DH had taco's, DD and I had tortellini, I added peas and cottage cheese to mine.
Thursday- DS soccer game for school, we did take out, from a local Italian place.
Friday- I think we are going to do fish sticks and mac/cheese before DD scrimmage.
Takeout any day is good. Who needs alliteration for dinner?
And speaking of dinner! Here's ours.
Saturday: My husband took all four kids camping/fishing, so they had a bunch of random things I found that could be carried in a cooler (plus the fish they caught--hooray!) and I had a BLT with garden lettuce and tomatoes and fresh bread. At home. Alone. Which I ate while watching a movie. Highly satisfying.
Sunday: Rainbow trout brought home by the successful fisher-people, broiled whole and served with a butter/lemon/dill sauce. Amusingly, my husband cooked them with the heads on, and my almost-three-year-old daughter saw the fish head and was like, "Ooooo, eyes! I will eat them!" And she did. Just an example of the fact that food preferences are ALLLLL about nurture, because I, as a child raised on boneless chicken breasts, would NEVER do that. We also had roasted potatoes, green beans, and rice pudding for our Sunday dessert.
Monday: Brisket cooked the day before because I didn't know if they'd be bringing any fish home, bread and butter, celery sticks with curry dip, tomato slices with mayonnaise, mashed squash
Tuesday: Pork steaks with sauerkraut (hooray for huge cabbages in the spring, so that now I have sauerkraut in the fall!), roasted potatoes, mashed squash, green beans, chocolate cake. The cake was in celebration of St. Michael, because it was his feast day. So the idea is to make a devil's food cake (I just made a chocolate one and called it that), and then stab it with "swords," as Saint Michael did to Satan when he cast him out of heaven. And then, of course, you get to eat this cake. This a very popular tradition in my house of small boys. 🙂
Wednesday: Pork stir-fry, rice. A very quick meal after work using a bag of frozen stir-fry vegetables.
Thursday: Pizza pork (small pieces of pork stewed in tomatoes and a cube of frozen garlic scape pesto, with fresh basil added and then covered in asadero cheese, which is what we use in place of mozzarella) . There wasn't enough for all of us, so a couple of the kids elected to have fried eggs instead. They also had pasta with cream cheese (and butter and garlic powder), frozen green peas, and mashed squash.
Tonight: I made some curried split peas yesterday that turned out to be too highly-flavored, so I think I'll turn that into a soup today with carrots, potatoes, chicken stock, and sour cream. I have to bake bread, so I'll make some garlic bread. The fall planting of lettuce is big enough now that we can have a salad. I also cleaned out my small freezer yesterday and found a small bag of gnarly elk pieces my husband insisted I save, so I'll make him a chili stew with those and some already-cooked posole (also found in that freezer) for those who don't like curry. I thought I was done with the elk, but it wasn't done with me. Dun dun DUN.
Ugh. That should've been "Tacos any day are good." Although takeout any day might be good too. I wouldn't know . . .
Re your kid eating fish eyes---the first time I made moose head soup for my San Francisco reared husband was the last time. I was raised on that quivering gelatinous concoction known as head cheese, so moose head soup was nothing to me but he could not get past it. He'll eat moose meat but the head is too much for him.
Sunday: Had one of those "I don't know what to do!!" days that ended up meaning chicken in the Instant Pot. It was alright but the best part was that it wasn't take out and didn't cost much.
Monday: Cider braised pork chops with cooked apples, stuffing, roasted carrots etc.
Tuesday: Hamburgers, fries/tater tots and salads. This was the kid's request and she doesn't often make special requests so why not?
Wednesday: Worked emergency OT until 7pm so the wife and kid ate without me. I ate some french toast and some bacon and fruit when I got home.
Thursday: Cleaned out the fridge.
Friday: My wife is making spaghetti sauce and I'll probably just eat leftovers and such.
There was a pork roast in the crock pot, homemade pizza, taco bowls, ham and piles of roasted vegetables, chili made out leftover taco meat, and leftovers night. An Aldi just opened yesterday about 5 minutes from my house, so our grocery bill is about to get a lot smaller! The closest one had been about a 30 highway drive away, so many of us in our little town are ridiculously excited about this. 🙂
Yay for an Aldi! Woohooo!
Mon: chicken curry in slow cooker. Yummy and a new recipe ( keeper)!
Tuesday: harvest skillet with kielbasa yellow squash and sweet potatoes
Wed: frozen pizza
Thursday: salads for dinner. A few choices
Friday: fajitas and chips n salsa
Salmon with tomato gratin, sautéed kale
Potato and leek soup
FIFI=find it fix it or leftovers!
veggie fritters with salad
Vegan Mac and cheese with steamed broccoli
FIFI, yes again. We have plenty of leftovers to conquer!
We don't eat out often as we have multiple food issues, same with frozen foods, so I cook 3-5 main meals a week, that have been doubled to serve as lunches and then FIFI nights. No leftovers means we will eat breakfast for dinner. We also don't segregate our foods, so we will eat mashed potatoes or salad for breakfast while eating pancakes for supper.
Sunday: takeout pizza and wings since we were tired from working at camp & doing yard work at home
Monday: grilled pork chops, rice, peas
Tuesday: breakfast sausage, pancakes & coffee
Wednesday: kraut, noodle, onion, sausage dish (yum!!) and sauteed zucchini
Thursday: salad, lasagna & regular bread plus garlic bread. We were feeding a crowd of 9
Friday: probably hot dogs and fries
One bag of frozen Chinese food is never enough to feed everyone in my house so I have to buy a couple bags. It ends up being an expensive and high in sodium meal. I can't remember what we ate this week but I managed to get a meal on the table each night so I am thankful for that!
That's what I've found too; so then I start to wonder: Is this actually cheaper than takeout? Not by as much as you'd think.
I add extra food to my frozen Chinese food. There's always too much sauce and bulking it up with my food (especially veggies that are a little old) is inexpensive.
Heads up that if you have a Trader Joe’s nearby, their frozen Mandarin Orange Chicken is REALLY good - tastes just like takeout and only $5 for a bag that I think has 5 servings.
Oh, good to know! We do have one about a half hour away.
Their sweet and sour tempura chicken is really good too!
Or one serving for a hungry guy
My menu got changed a bit, but we still ate basically what I had planned.
For starters, I made bean soup from dried beans in the pressure cooker, using the ham bone from 2019's Christmas ham. It turned out well. I'm glad (limited) bean eating is back on my menu.
I made shrimp jambalaya.
For a birthday, we had the honoree's request: chicken and dumplings, green beans and sautéed squash and onions.
We had hamburgers, fries, and jicama/celery/carrot/apple salad.
We also had leftovers two nights.
Tonight is whatever looks good and is fast to cook. I'll get it, whatever it is, when I go to the grocery store.
On the cooking front this was a really easy week around here.
Saturday we had friends over and I made a pork roast, rice, a big pot of great Northern beans, okra and tomatoes, collard greens, and a delightful pumpkin cake.
On Sunday we had a true sabbath and ate whatever could be scrounged from the fridge.
Monday I roasted a large pan of boneless, skinless chicken breasts which we ate with rice, okra and tomatoes, collard greens and a green salad.
Tuesday I diced some of the remaining chicken and added a rotisserie chicken, green beans, corn, mushrooms and an assortment of other veggies and herbs to create a huge pot of chicken and wild rice soup. We enjoyed this with fresh bread & butter and homemade applesauce.
Wednesday and Thursday I took the last of the chicken breast and made chicken salad with grapes and herbs. We ate sandwiches and soup on both days.
Tonight I am thinking that pizza may be making an appearance in our house. It is Friday. I am cleaning my oven and looking forward to a restful but productive weekend!
Take Care Everyone!
Tried having a clean out the freezer/pantry week this week... We had a small family camping trip last week (just my family + sister and BIL) and our spending was way too high for that. ($200ish)
Spent $17 on groceries this week though, so it really does balance out.
Monday: frozen lasagna + green beans
Tuesday: meatballs and roasted potatoes
Wednesday: tofu, broccoli, cauliflower stirfry with rice
Thursday: meatloaf, carrots, and mushrooms
Friday: either frozen pizza or bratwurst + coleslaw depending on how the day goes
The dumplings from Costco are not bad. my kids enjoy them and they've been great to add on hand to add to an Asian dish or on days I need a quick lunch.
https://www.bibigousa.com/products/products/steamed-dumplings-chicken-vegetable-6-pack/
True -- i really like the frozen dumplings but the entrees are meh. Maybe the veggies are not as crisp and fresh?
Bad Week -- we got take out a couple times (Arby's, Pollo loco)and I only remember "cooking" a very whatever tofu miso bowl with brown rice, some kind of chicken (?) my husband's doctored frozen pizza, and last night it was tuna sandwiches and salad. Salad or broccoli with each.
The only plus -- my groceries this morning were only$69 and change -- amazing! Next week will be more, I'm sure, but it's only 2 of us so we should not be going too far over.
Happy weekend to all!
I spent a small fortune at Trader Joe's last week as evidenced by some of my meals this week.
Saturday- I made garlic butter steak bites with TJ''s roasted red potatoes with peppers and onions and salad.
Sunday - I tried Cook's Country sweedish meatballs in the crockpot with mashed potatoes and salad. The meatballs were good the first day but so much better the second day!
Monday - leftovers from Sunday
Tuesday - grilled turkey and cheese on rye with a cup of TJ's unexpected cheddar and broccoli soup. Finally, a prepared cheddar and broccoli soup that tastes good to me.
Wednesday - homemade nachos
Thursday - tacos
Friday - Patio dining at a fancy restaurant with friends. Ordinarily, eating at this restaurant would be outside my budget. But since it is literally the second time I have eaten out (excluding takeout) in 7 months, I thought I would splurge.
How many recipes do you work with in your recipe rotation?
I really have no idea!
I think tacos are appropriate to eat any night of the week. 🙂
Saturday - Ribs, purple potatoes, and broccoli with cheese.
Sunday - Cheeseburgers, green beans, kiwi, and chips for lunch. Pizza for dinner.
Monday - Tacos... where I was reminded that one pound of meat is no longer enough for my growing family.
Tuesday - Grilled chicken leg quarters, squash/potatoes, and corn
Wednesday - Pot pie and pumpkin pie! Mmmmmmm....
Thursday - Sheet pan dinner (brats, broccoli, asparagus, butternut squash, summer squash) and FG french bread
Friday - Date night! Our library had a number of "Spirit Days" in September and we participated in a lot of them and I won the drawing for a gift card to a local burger place! Yay! I got dino chicken nuggets for the kids to eat with Grammy while we're gone.
Idk if this helps, but I cook white rice and add it to the taco meat to stretch it. Or beans too, if you like them.
That's a great idea! I'm going to try it.
Similar to Jennifer's suggestion - red lentils work really well to stretch out ground beef further. They're small and break down easily and I like how they taste - as in, they're neutral and take on taco seasoning and flavouring really well.
And they take a lot less time to cook than the larger brown lentils. I'm a red lentil fan. haha
Yes! Taco Tuesday is too limiting, I love tacos all of the time!
Monday: Turkey and sweet potato chili with biscuits.
Tuesday: Various types of curry from the freezer, rice, and roasted cauliflower with lemon pepper.
Wednesday: Rotisserie chicken, sautéed squash, and baked potatoes.
Thursday: Some friends made chili for us. We’re now sufficiently “chili-ed” for a while.
Friday: It’s pizza and movie night, and it’s takeout pizza week!
We use a local Chinese place that is super small the food is so good. It is less expensive to buy there the portions are so large we get 2 meals for 2 of us out of it.
We have tried a lot of frozen Chinese and the only one I continue to buy is Aldi's Chicken Lo Mein. & Sam's Club Beef Lo Mein. We add more veggies and chicken or beef to it, if not hardly enough for 2 people.
Meatloaf & Stuffing tonight. Carrots on the side.
Burgers, cauliflower and Alfredo noodles Thurs. I bought the homemade noodles from Kroger and they are so good. Just like homemade without the work!
Cheesy Chicken and rice, biscuits with homemade jelly
Fried fish with chips all made on the grill = not a stinky house!
We did a huge stock up on Monday, so we are set for a few weeks besides milk, and produce.
Let's see
Monday we had taco chips. Most people call these nachos.
Tuesday I had my online cooking class, so we had spinach and feta frittatas, and zucchini muffins. I also cooked up some plain scrambled eggs because the frittatas were full of flavor and my children didn't care for them so much.
Wednesday we had chicken fries and mac and cheese.
Thursday we had shrimp alfredo.
Today breakfast pizza is on the menu, and I plan to use chorizo instead of sausage, but it will just be my youngest and me here, so I'm not real sure if we'll go that route.
Tomorrow we might grill, but my husband and I are planning to go on a day trip, so I'm not sure.
The only frozen Chinese takeout we like is the orange chicken from Trader Joe’s, and their frozen fried rice too. Not healthy but yummy!
Yes yes yes -- that's right!
If you like Indian food, Sukhi's is a really good brand. I discovered it at Costco but they now also have it in grocery stores, I found individual dinners at Albertsons. Taste fresh and delicious.
WWS: $53 (not counting eating out) WWA:
Friday: grilled chicken, rice, sautéed veg
Saturday & Sunday: Partner came to Hudson Valley and we stayed in work apartment for a "staycation." We ate out 2 nights in a row! Not terribly frugal, but it was only 2 & 3rd time eating in a restaurant since March 13.
Monday: leftovers from restaurant meals
Tuesday: leftovers from restaurant meals
Wednesday: farro & green beans with tahini dressing
Thursday: salmorejo & berenjenas con miel
Friday: homemade pizza and salad
Does anyone have good recipes for green beans? We are overrun with them.
We love them just cooked in some bacon grease with a little pepper. If I don't have bacon grease I'll put them in a pan with some butter, salt, and pepper or butter and a garlic herb seasoning. But bacon grease is the best. We're at the end of our green bean season and I will miss them!!!
Jealous of your green beans. Ours are pretty much at the end of production. When I have a lot, I blanch them (3 minutes in boiling water, then into ice water) and then freeze them for winter, especially for vegetable soups. My kids eat them raw, although I think they're better blanched and then chilled for a kind of crudite with whatever dip you like. My favorite way to eat them is roasted with minced garlic. Or sauteed (in either bacon fat or olive oil) with garlic and diced fresh tomatoes. Next year I need to plant at least twice as many . . .
Our green beans only started producing the first week of September, so we spent much of August coveting the harvests by friends and family that we saw on FB posts! Thank you for the ideas, all -- I do have bacon grease in the fridge!
I love Green Beans Almondine. Just cook your green beans to desired tenderness. In a separate pan, brown butter and saute slivered or sliced almonds until brown, but not burned. Toss with the green beans. Delicious!
I also have a weakness for 70s style green bean casserole. I guess that says something about when I was raised!
We ate from the freezer:
Meatballs and roasted Brussel sprouts
Sweet potatoes,pork,salad
Tacos
Tonight corn chowder, several meals
Tomorrow hot dogs and beans
Forgot the rest
Purchase this week was milk
Tomorrow I will pick up a few deals at Shaw’s.
Saturday: garden garbage soup, using garden produce too small to freeze or can or dehydrate so used a few tomatoes, an ear of corn, a potato, zucchini, a leek and pesto in chicken broth. English muffins and applesauce.
Sunday: breakfast for dinner. Applesauce.
Monday: breakfast for dinner, this time using caribou sausage instead of moose sausage. Warm apple-honeyberry sauce with whipped cream.
Tuesday: French toast, which is sort of breakfast for dinner again. Can you tell we have chickens so a ton of eggs? Dessert was Reese's peanut butter cups purchased in a moment of weakness and too much time standing in the checkout line at Safeway.
Wednesday: red curry shrimp soup that used up the rest of zucchini and scallions and tiny leeks. Cheese cake bites made by a friend who wanted us to critique the recipe.
Thursday: Homemade chicken nuggets, salad, ice cream
Friday: Tonight is our anniversary so we are ordering take out from a family restaurant.
The worst thing about Friday menus is reading how much more varied everyone else's menus are. Although, at the same time, I have ended up getting ideas for future meals...
I loved your menu!-all the use-it-upping inspired me!
I think your soup sounds delicious!
Love the Garden 'garbage' soup idea! It sounded delicious, too.
If you can stock your pantry with soy sauce, oyster sauce (this may be harder to find in your area), sesame oil, corn starch and dry sherry, you'll find you can make the majority of chinese takeout at home.
I make a jar of this stir fry sauce at the beginning of the week. This is the sauce for using up leftover raw veggjes and proteins.
https://thewoksoflife.com/stir-fry-sauce-recipe/
And here's a legit General Tso recipe
https://thewoksoflife.com/takeout-places-general-tsos-chicken/
I'm not affiliated with that website. I just use that site for Asian/Chinese recipes, the same way I use your site for Western recipes. Both are easy and homemade.
Cheers!
This week I made a huge pot of pasta sauce, mini meatballs and hamburger patties from 1 kg of ground beef (that's about 2.2 pounds). So this week we have had spaghetti and meatballs, pasta with meat sauce, hamburgers twice and more spaghetti with meat sauce. There is one serve left. One other night we had steak and salad. After months of not eating beef it was a very nice change. This week I will be making a lamb curry and trying to use it different ways.
Let me see what if I can remember what we ate.
Friday: 2 had basa, 2 had salmon. 1 had rice and mashed potato, 1 had salad, and 2 had mashed potatoes and veggies.
Thursday: marinated turkey thigh roast, mashed potatoes and veggies.
Wednesday: bbq chicken kebabs, salad, rice.
Tuesday: Mcdonald's
Monday: grilled steak, sausages, bread and butter.
RV'ing at the beach this week, so meals are what I call 'trailer food,' i.e., easy to cook, easy to clean up.
Mon- Potato & garbanzo bean curry soup, naan, green salad
Tue- Repeat of Monday
Wed- Take out clam chowder & sourdough bread
Thur- Take out fish & chips
Fri- BLT's, kale salad
Sat- Trader Joe turkey meatloaf, grilled potatoes, green salad
Sun- Meatloaf sandwiches, kale salad
Back to fancier cooking when we get home.
We had:
Carnitas w/guacamole & pico de gallo
Egg roll in a bowl
Butter chicken with couscous & parmesan zucchini coins (yum)
Baked chicken & coleslaw
And, leftovers of those dishes
Sun- roast beef and potatoes in the crockpot
Mon- roast beef sandwiches and salad
Tues- I was teaching late so everyone fended for themselves
Wed- grilled chicken and pork chops, mashed potatoes, salad
Thurs- hamburgers on the grill with fries
Fri- hot dogs (another long teaching day)
Sat- veggie beef soup from a taste of home skinny slow cooker recipes magazine
We had one of those expensive weeks at the grocery store due to needing lots of stuff from the dairy aisle. We spent $140 - ouch.
Or me: Breakfast all week was baked oatmeal with fruit, using an Epicurious recipe. Lunch was leftover chicken and pork loin unearthed from the freezer, chopped up dosed with barbecue sauce and served over rice with veggies. Dessert was pumpkin bread made using a cake mix that had been in the cupboard a while. Dinner was roast chicken and sides for a few days, then ham sandwiches because I was tired. A couple of nights, I ate oatmeal with chopped apple for supper.
Re: your oatmeal for supper. I've gotten into a real habit of having oatmeal as a snack before bedtime. Not sure how that started, but I find it super comforting. I put lots of sliced almonds and raisins in, and sometimes a sprinkle of cinnamon.
As you mentioned apple, I've tried grating an apple into the oatmeal and it's really good. I peeled the apple before grating it. (Maybe it's just my old grater, but it was trickier to grate the apple with the peel on.)
We were slightly off menu last week, but the gist of it was:
Monday - Mexican Chicken Breast with avocado and green onion, cilantro rice
Tuesday - Tilapia, butternut squash
Wednesday - Pot of Beans (seasoned with bacon ends and pieces because I'm not a monster) with onions and peppers, freezer cornbread (we licked our bowls it was so good)
Thursday - Grilled Pork Chop, brussel sprouts with carrots
Friday - Grilled Chicken, baked sweet potato, zucchini
Saturday - Free choice all day - anniversary weekend begins!
Sunday - Likely we will still be full from brunch at a fancy place - we'll see
I love these posts! Thanks Kristen. I'm just posting what I can remember. haha
We had:
- Veggie burgers, fries and veggies - These veggie burgers were really good! Black bean chipotle burgers. A whopping 23 grams of protein in each big burger, which totally filled us both up. (They were store bought veggie burgers, and I'll definitely be buying them again.) Sauteed some onions and mushrooms to put on top. SO yummy.
- Chicken spaghetti with spinach and gluten free pasta - I LOOOVE spinach in spaghetti sauce! I also put in lots of mushrooms and onions. I had a bit of a red pepper to use up, so I chopped that up and put it in, too. We had this for three meals in a row...Good thing we like leftovers so much.
- Grilled steak and potatoes and spinach - This is a real treat for us, because I'm trying to cut back on red meat consumption due to a health concern I have. Anyway, we used steak spice on the sirloin steaks and grilled them up on our George Foreman grill. They came out perfectly! Our friend who bought us our grill as an anniversary gift told us we'd never have more perfect steaks than on a GF grill. I believe she could be right.
That's all I can remember. Must make notes, must make notes. haha
Today, I'm making a shredded chicken tortilla that was spice rubbed, marinated and then cooked in a finishing sauce that included hatch chiles/lime/garlic. Will add carmelized onions, tomatoes and cheese.
Other meals this week included pepperoni pizza, beef chili, chicken sandwiches, egg/pepper burritos, beef ramen and Tyson breaded chicken (scored bags for $2.10 each) with onion rings.