WIS, WWA | Hello, July!
What I Spent
- $25 on a Hungry Harvest box
- $20 at Harris Teeter
- $72 at Aldi
- $20 at BJS
- $20 at Sprouts
And that adds up to $157 to start July off!
What We Ate
Saturday
We tried a pizza place near us that we'd never been to before and I ordered arancini as an appetizer because I was curious what it would taste like.
My verdict: tasty, but not so tasty that I will bother making the dish at home, because deep-frying is a pain.
After dinner, we went to Dairy Queen for a cone.
Sunday
We had ham sandwiches because summer is a very good time to have sandwiches for dinner.
Other good times: fall, winter, and spring
Monday
I made a green salad topped with brined and grilled chicken, bacon, hard-boiled eggs, crunchy corn kernels, and some veggies.
We had homemade French bread on the side.
Tuesday
Lisey was out with a friend and Sonia and Zoe were headed to a sleepover. So, the two of them ate a quick grilled ham sandwich and some watermelon before they headed out.
Wednesday
I made a sausage and penne pasta skillet meal, which we ate with a salad.
Thursday
Sonia had a mid-afternoon dental visit that turned into a four-hour excursion because of storms and a tornado warning (the dentist didn't want to start drilling in Sonia's teeth only to have the power go out!)
Anyway, on the way home, I stopped at the grocery store, picked up two bags of frozen ravioli and a bag of cherries. We ate the ravioli with a jar of pasta sauce, with cherries on the side.
Not an award-winning meal, but we were all fed, and it cost way less than takeout.
Friday
I had thawed a chicken to cook last night, but obviously, I didn't do that. So, I think I will grill it tonight instead.
WWS: $45 Market Basket; $18 Aldi. WWA:
Sat: Nephew took me out to eat (first ever at 27 years old!).
Sun: I cannot remember. Maybe it was too hot to eat?!
Mon: Roast Chicken Pan Bagnat with Olive Tapenade and Goat Cheese (made with leftover chicken - Saveur.com); home fries with leftover new potatoes
Tues: chilled cucumber-buttermilk-yogurt soup; cherries (perhaps we all bought cherries at Aldi's this week?)
Wed: summer greens spanikopita (thanks to dad's garden! & seriouseats.com); chicken sausage
Thurs: pasta with homemade garlic scape pesto with shredded chicken and zucchini
Friday: leftovers
This week’s food:
Slow cooker french dip sandwiches-always nice to have a slow cooker meal for the night of a root canal :o/
Tortellini with sausage and marinara
Grilled chicken with mashed potatoes
Breakfast for dinner
And our weekly dinner out-the family had a local Chipotle-type burrito dinner
Happy 4th to all!
The crunchy corn kernels sound interesting! I'll have to see what I can find online - we regularly add corn to salads (specifically a copycat bob Evans wildfire salad and taco salads).
I just spent 200 at Aldi but that included at least 11 meat items. And then had a few more grocery items to get at Walmart.
As hubby is planning to quit his job soon, I plan to start keeping closer track of my spending. (He's retired military and currently working a job that is aggravating a previous injury and not helping his stress level dealing with rude customers. After a break and some work on our house which has been put off he already has other offers to pursue!) Thanks to your blog I have the basics of how I plan to do that. 🙂
Saturday: Loose breakfast sausage cooked with pasta sauce, fried potatoes, frozen green peas
Sunday: Sausage-y meatloaf, leftover curried split peas and potatoes, roasted garlic, roasted carrots, some random greens from the garden (collard and sprouting broccoli), baked custard
Monday: Beef stew meat (I cook it until tender, then fry it like carnitas), garlic bread, collard greens, frozen corn
Tuesday: I made a stew for my husband with some ram meat, green chile, lots of onion, and garlic, and literal lumps of tallow mixed in. Because that's the sort of stew he likes. The rest of the family is not such a fan, so the rest of us had leftover meatloaf, fried potatoes, frozen green beans, and an unusual mid-week dessert of pots de creme.
Wednesday: Husband had more of his stew. I made myself a bowl of soup with odds and ends. The kids had pasta and ome beef ribs I cooked until tender then fried to get crispy. We all had frozen peas. And how annoyed am I that it is July, I have vegetation exploding all over the garden, and yet nothing to pick for eating right now? Very annoyed. I have about a two-week gap between the spring and summer vegetables that I will have to be more careful about bridging next year.
Thursday: Coincidentally, I also made the lowest-effort meal possible this night due to a dentist appointment! I went myself, and was pretty tired after the all-day affair of driving (180 miles roundtrip) and doing errands, so I just heated up a jar of pressure-canned bull meat with barbecue sauce and made sandwiches for the kids. They had still-frozen peas. My husband had the last of his stew. I had the last of my soup. We all got to choose from fruit for dessert, because the city I went to had the fruit stand set up with cherries, peaches, plums, and apricots.
Tonight: It's cool enough, and I was at the store to get asadero cheese yesterday (our mozzarella substitute), so it's a pizza night. I'll have a salad, because pizza is not a great idea for me, and also I have stuff from the store to make a really good salad. I'll let everyone else have some salad, too. 🙂
It's been sooooo long since I had a Dairy Queen cone....
I had bought steak on sale and froze it, so we had that one night plus small white potatoes ( I will eat white potato but very rarely) and cut up carrots.
My husband's caregiver kindly fried our homemade chicken tenders for us, so I wouldn't have that to do when I got home. She also cut up raw veggies for us as a side. It's so nice to come home to a cooked meal!
Homemade chicken pot pie made with leftover chicken and leftover nearly everything else that went in it.
Thawed out some ground beef, so, hamburgers, mini-ears of corn and something else, then another day, tacos with our own spinach and tomatoes (no tomatoes for me) from our plants. Corn shells for him, cassava ones for me.
Sandwiches! Tomato and bacon for him, no lettuce, on skillet-toasted bread. Cheese and bacon for me, on cassava tortillas. Homemade pear sauce from the freezer, chips for him. The caregiver fried the bacon for me before she left.
Gifted to us venison cooked with onions and spices (leftover, pulled from freezer), over cauliflower rice, with asparagus on the side for me. He isn't fond of venison, so he ate more of the tomato pie that his caregiver made him for lunch.
An aggravation. I bought two nice-sized zucchini last week, and used one right away. I was going to use the other one the other day, four days after purchase, and it was moldy and slimy! Definitely some food waste there.
Saturday-potato soup, cornbread
Sunday-ham, sweet potato casserole, green beans
Monday-omelette, toasted skinny bagel, cantaloupe
Tuesday-burrito bowl, peaches
Wednesday-leftovers from Sunday
Thursday-black bean, rice and cheese quesadilla, banana, strawberries, blueberries
Friday-probably baked potato and salad
Monday-Butter chicken, big salad
Tuesday-Cajun Chicken pasta, cut up orange peppers
Wednesday-Pasta sauce and spaghetti, big salad
Thursday (Canada Day)-Adobo moose and rice, big salad
Friday-Something cool, don't necessarily want to turn on stove....pasta salad, maybe!
Happy July 4th to you this Sunday!
@Jenni,
And happy Independence Day July 1 to you, Jenni! Adobo moose!!
This is the second week that we have been irresponsible in terms of eating balanced meals. Neither one of us can seem to get in the mood to be adults.
Sat/Sunday/Monday: potato salad. Just that. We both love my potato salad and it was hot so that is all we ate for the entire meal.
Tuesday/Wednesday: grilled tuna and cheese sandwiches. Cherries.
Thursday: mac and cheese with crab thrown in. Cherries.
Friday: While digging in the freezer for the crab, I found an elderly Safeway pizza. We are having that but dressing it up with mushrooms, more cheese and caramelized onions that I made months ago and parked in the freezer for future onion soup that was never made.
Well, on Mother's Day, I chose to eat apricot sweet rolls for dinner. Just sweet rolls. It was heavenly.
So no judgment on your potato salad night!
Lindsey, just potato salad sounds like an absolutely perfect meal to me!
WIS $34 (in the last 1+ week)
$37 Shaws
$30 Aldi
WWA
Saturday: Chili that I made earlier in the week.
Sunday: Homemade pizza. I had a ball of basil dough in the freezer from our biweekly harvest box. I also had some sauce, different cheeses and fresh tomatoes to use up.
Monday: Pesto turkey burgers
Tuesday: I had enough sauce in the 'fridge for pasta. As I was late getting home from my new job, this was nice.
Wed: The Sr. Center had a zoom wine tasting event. We picked up our bag of 4 2-oz bottles for the tasting. I was invited to join a group of friends at their house to do it together. There were cheeses, crackers and fruits to enjoy. Some of the cheeses were made by one of the guests. I like that kind of dinner. The presenter of the zoom program gave a history of each country and area where the grapes of each wine were grown. I really enjoyed that type of presentation.
Thurs: Chicken, baked potato, corn.
I looked in my freezer today to determine what we will eat this week. I need to work it down. Your meal earlier in the week of sausage and pasta is one idea. And I have burgers (turkey and beef), chicken, pork chops, bacon. I also have marinara and pesto. I think we can eat just fine this week.
Also, again this week was ice cream for $1.97. I bought a box of ice cream bowls. I know I have to go to the local ice cream stand (small business) but a kiddie size, which is what I buy, is about $3 now.
Everyone have a safe and fun 4th.
In no particular order, we have had goulash, tacos, Tikka masala chicken on rice, sheet pan sausage supper, and tonight I will make a crockpot chicken recipe. Still deciding which one but leaning towards apricot chicken. We have lettuce and snow peas from our garden so that's been our main side dish. Hubby and kids picked ridiculous amounts of sweet and sour cherries. I love them but they don't always love me! Had what will possibly be our last picking of rhubarb so I made a crostada yesterday which is oh so summery! Hubby will grill this weekend and bought supplies for homemade ice cream.
I spent $96 @ Kroger and $82 @ Costco. There were some convenience foods thrown in and take out this week as Mom was down with a sinus infection and only managing the bare necessities. Life. I confess that I have no memory of what we ate this week 🙁
I know my husband made dinner Wednesday and we ate takeout last night. My brain is a fog with Mucinex and steroids and next week just has to be better.
Happy 4th of July all!
@Angie, Ugh! Sinus infections are the worst! Feel better soon!
Monday: watermelon and cereal (we spent the day at the beach so weren’t really hungry at night)
Tuesday: bagels with lox and cream cheese
Wednesday: shredded cabbage salad with hard boiled eggs and mixed seeds.
Thursday: bagels with lox and cream cheese
Friday: pizza (it might be the takeout kind because it is so hot).
Monday: I'm honestly not sure. I think we did sandwiches or something simple.
Tuesday: BLTs, chips and raw vegetables
Wednesday: Fried chicken tenderloins, fries, various vegetables
Thursday: Curry rice. My daughter ate leftovers as she doesn't like it.
Friday: We're going out tonight. I'm not sure if we're getting fish out or something else.
Your love for sandwiches makes me smile. 🙂 And I'm glad you mentioned your french bread! I think I'll make some tonight since it's in the mid-70's and that feels like cool-enough-for-the-oven weather these days.
Sunday: Grabbed a couple of frozen pizzas from Aldi since we were gone all afternoon/early evening. They were cheaper than the take n bakes (though still yummy) and 2 was enough for our family of 5.
Monday: Turkey pot pie - 90% ingredients from a freezer cleanout!
Tuesday: My aunt and uncle from Massachusetts were passing through and we all met at my parents' house for dinner. I brought nothing, but helped my mom prep some of the food.
Wednesday: My 3yo chose turkey broccoli alfredo for her birthday dinner. Cake and ice cream for dessert!
Thursday: Cheeseburgers, asparagus, watermelon, and corn. It was just a steamable bag of corn, but I added some butter, salt, and pepper and it made it a lot tastier. I plan to do that again in the future. Leftover cake and ice cream for dessert.
Friday: Spaghetti, peas, and (now planning) french bread.
I just wanted to say that your recent posts about food waste have really been motivating me to take more advantage of the food in my kitchen. In anticipation of an upcoming vacation, I just used up three zucchini that came in my CSA. I made zucchini bread (one for us, one to share with a neighbor) with two of them. I was rummaging around in the fridge and found some grated mozzarella that also needs to be used up (which I noticed thanks to the clear glass container!), so I tried slicing the remaining zucchini into rounds, roasting them, and sprinkling them with the cheese. It wasn’t the most amazing lunch, but it feels good to clear out our refrigerator while avoiding wasting food. I’ve really been thinking a lot lately about how I can live more lightly on our planet, and I’m really working on reducing the amount of everything that I send to a landfill. I just wanted to let you know that I always find your blog to be encouraging and inspiring with this effort!
Oh, I'm so happy to hear that. Yay you!!
I should really start keeping track of what I make everyday. I find sometimes I get stuck and forget about yummy meals I have made in the past.
WWA
Monday: homemade chili (black beans, corn, peppers, onions) topped with cheese and served with chips
Tuesday: Steamed mussels (in a sauce made with cream, shallots, tomatoes, garlic and fresh parsley) accompanied by fresh French bread (mussels were $3 a pound!!! So reasonable) and we ate them out on the deck (it was a beautiful summer day, except for the wasps)
Wednesday: Cold roasted chicken with carrots, potatoes, onions, and fennel for dinner, with pistachio pudding Bundt cake for dessert
Thursday: Gazpacho for lunch and penne with zucchini pesto for dinner
Friday: brunch smoothies (dates, strawberries, raspberries, apply juice, mango, Chia seeds, kale and cucumber. Left-over cold roasted chicken with carrots, onions, potatoes, and fennel for dinner
@Millicent Borges Accardi, oops Wed was NOT "cold" it was hot roasted chicken LOL tonight we are having it cold--
Kristen, this was fun to read. I loved the sweet picture of you and Mr. FG, looked up arancini because I'd never heard of it (and I'm half Italian!), drooled over the pictures of your ice cream cone and penne pasta, was reminded of yesterday afternoon's storm because I drove home from work in it (scary), and laughed at your statement about when it's a good time to have sandwiches for dinner.
I spent $80 at Meijer & $100 at Sam's Club. A chunk of that was for a party we are having.
A friend gave us 3 small heads of cabbage so I made a huge batch of Cabbage Patch Kids (stuffed cabbage) and cole slaw.
I bought a roasted chicken that was meals for several nights.
Our son bought hubs a Black Stone for father's day so we got it assembled & we cooked roasted green beans, peppers, carrots, sirloin burgers. Another night fried rice with pepper, shrimp and chicken.
Sandwiches on the grill too. We had cherries, blueberries and salads with those meals.
Saturday - I spent the day visiting with friends and we were snacking all day so I wasn’t hungry when I got home, husband made Kraft Mac n cheese for himself and kids.
Sunday - pasta with braised pork, red wine, and pancetta
Monday - chicken in peanut sauce served over rice
Tuesday - creamy garlic mushroom chicken, steamed carrots and broccoli, roast zucchini
Wednesday - mini garden turkey loaves, steamed broccoli
Thursday - salmon for husband and I, chicken nuggets for kids (both have a fish intolerance), tater tots, broccoli, biscuits
Friday - bbq chicken, corn on the cob, broccoli, Texas toast
Last Saturday went from calm and relaxing to the world might end soon when we found a leak in some piping in our laundry/bathroom downstairs.. once the pipe was removed and repaired and the husband started to calm the rest of the terribly old, original piping cracked and the toilet started to leak.. so another run to Home Depot for more pipe items and a new toilet followed. I "soothed "the husband with unplanned date night at a local restaurant( subs and he got a beer).
Sunday was miserably hot and humid and we were toiling in the basement repairing things so I pulled out all the chicken broth/stock from freezers and some chicken. Used my *instantpot* and defrosted/poached the meat. Made a pot of creamed chicken and veggies and quickly baked the last of a bag of frozen biscuits. Not the best supper for a wicked hot day but it was food we already owned.
This past week.. one day we had Keilbasa with broccoli and couscous...
One night I browned up a pound of ground beef and used a Korean seasoning pouch.. served with lettuce, chinese crunchy noodles and rice...
One night we went to a friends for *grilling during potential tornado"weather.. So loud and rainy but fun! I took my vita mix and margarita mixers lol
Ordered cheap pizza one night after husband used that as a bribe to calm down a melt down emotional teen girl..lolol Oh well I had not pulled anything out yet so that worked.
Friday husband took off work and we had date day! Used a Cheesecake factory gift card I had. Shared a slice of cheesecake that was comped by the manager when I complained about my lunch- server AND GM were horrified when they saw what the cook sent out- almost comical how burnt the veggies were on my plate! It was quickly replaced with a fresh and perfect plate of perfection!
Saturday we are going to friends 4th on the 3rd celebration and we are taking buffalo chicken dip and dippers...
Sunday- no clue
Oh wow, you had an eventful week!
I've started to make batches of salad mix on the weekends with store bought romaine mixed with my home grown kale and arugula. Not sure why it took me years to figure this out, and stop buying salad mix in those plastic containers!
I also brought home lots of fresh fruit and veggies from a funeral reception, so:
Dinners were:
Chef salad
Spaghetti with ground turkey, chopped mushrooms and salad on the side
Burgers, grapes, kale chips
Teriyaki stir fry chicken with lots of veggies and jasmine rice
Grilled cheese, grapes and veggies w/ranch dip
Egg salad and veggies w/ranch dip when the temp was in the 90s.
We spent $138, our most expensive shopping week in a month, but that was largely due to buying some big ticket items like a $16 box of laundry detergent, cat litter and bar soap in addition to groceries.
For suppers, we had one cheap meal at our favorite locally owned Mexican place. I made a huge pot of chili and cut up some fruit that needed to be eaten up quickly. Anyone not in the mood for chili had sandwiches with fruit, fresh veggies and pickles on the side.
Last week we were on vacation. Just got home last night and had takeout Chinese cause we had cleaned out the fridge before leaving for 10 days.
WIS: ummm... Probably a lot. But I honestly don't care it was our first real vacation in 3 years. I might do the math later.
WWA: delicious Maine things. Fish and chips. Blueberry pie. Lobster. Lobster rolls. Fried clams. Pizza from my childhood favorite and from a new place that was also delicious.
I just weighed myself and came home lighter than when I left so I guess my plan to walk or hike daily to counteract the extra calories worked.
Oh, fun! Where in Maine did you guys go? Mr. FG and I spent a night in Portland two weeks ago.
I'm commenting pretty dang late - I worked yesterday and Saturday was busy and it seems like I'm in some kind of terrible work time loop!! Anyhoodle, last week we ate"
Monday - Sunday's dinner of Skillet Meatballs and Beans that I was too tired to cook, carrots
Tuesday - Skillet Tilapia, sauteed peppers and onion
Wednesday -Cheese Enchiladas, brussels sprouts with carrots
Thursday - (freezer) Polenta and Eggplant Parm, salad
Friday - Dill Shrimp Salad on Toast, low salt chips, fresh fruit
Saturday - I have no memory of what we had...
Sunday - Grilled veggies burgers and the fixins' at my sister's house
Happy Belated Independence Day!