WIS, WWA | How did my stock-up week go?
What I Spent
I spent:
- $48 at Safeway
- $99 at Aldi
That makes $147 for me, which is not as much as I was anticipating!
Ohhh, but wait. I also spent $40 on a dinner with a friend. Good thing I spent so little last week. 😉
What We Ate
Saturday
This was the night I made the tomato soup I told you about on Tuesday.
Also: we had grilled cheese sandwiches. OF COURSE.
Sunday
I was at the free outdoor concert, so my dinner was a peanut butter and honey sandwich, plus some grapes. I am nothing if not fancy. 😉
Monday
I made a pan of baked pasta, using Barilla protein pasta, and some of my freezer challenge tomato sauce. I also used the Parmesan and mozzarella from the freezer. Yay me!
To add more protein, I also seasoned and sauteed some marked-down thinly sliced beef. And I had cucumbers with my meal.
Tuesday
I caught up with a friend over dinner, and I ordered shrimp and chicken with jalapeño mashed potatoes. It was super good!
Now that I'm looking at this bowl, it's reminding me of some of the bowls I make for myself when Zoe is at work and I can eat shrimp.
No wonder it looked appealing on the menu!
Wednesday
Zoe was at work, and I was heating up the last of the baked ziti when I realized I could catch a sunset at the park if I hurried.
So, I threw the ziti and my green salad into containers and drove to the park.
It was rather warm, but it was very windy by the water, so I was quite comfortable. 🙂
Thursday
I made a batch of skillet chili with cilantro rice for dinner, and then I packaged it up for my lunches for the next two days.
We also had some watermelon with our chili, and we added some shredded lettuce to the chili bowls (that part is not pictured!)
Friday
I'm at work today and tomorrow, and I have overnight oats made for breakfast, and chili-rice bowls packed for lunch.
Fun fact: I almost always write these posts in reverse, starting with the end of the week and going backwards. It's the only way I can remember what I ate. Do you do it that way too?
Also:
Yes, it works that way for me as well!
Plus this week I added some freezer challenge updates to my comments, which makes it easier to recapture. I am drawing a sad blank for the weekend meals.
This week week we had
Mon: Lunch: Banana bread using freezer bananas, and frozen orange zest, as well as some old walnuts. Best recipe ever. Diner: Storebought Butter chicken en cocoanut rice
Tue: Chicken Bonne Femme with freezer turkey instead of chicken
Wed: Homemade butter turkey over steamed bimi, and rice and beluga lentils, using freezer turkey, half a jar of tomato paste and frozen garlic, ginger, chili
Thu: Steamed potatoes and cauliflower with (freezer) pork chops
Tonight: leftover butter turkey and a spinach flan
Sat: dining out, with family
Sun: something tasty but easy, will dive in the freezer
I could not remember what I ate unless it was written on a note on my fridge - my days off all seem to blur together. I cannot remember what I spent, but it was not excessive. And I have not eaten out once this week!
M - quesadilla at home before bed
T - I had a Meal Simple from HEB that was Cajun Pasta, and I added green beans
W - A carnitas bowl with leftover pintos and some mole rice from the freezer with the rest of some shredded cheese
T - a Gyoza stir fry with green beans, onions, and 1/2 of an orange bell pepper
F - I have a leftover carnitas bowl I can top with the 2T of sour cream I have left and that will tidy up my fridge and freezer for the week
Happy weekend!
Woohoo on the no eating out!
Happiest birthday wishes tomorrow, Anita!
And Kristen, I found myself searching for stuffed animals in your grocery cart picture!
Aw thanks so much for remembering. The fam is actually going to a Broadway show and then to Bubba Gumps reward. Why r we not at synagogue, you may ask? Because I am too scared with all the heightened security. Crazy, I know but that is me.
Yesterday at hubby's procedure, the TV blasted 9/11 stuff, I couldn't read the books I brought. So, I went for a walk. I personally knew two people who were lost and the day was devastating. I read everything I could about the poor souls that were lost. It warms my heart that the children who were not born yet and lost their dads on that day are doing well. G=d bless them.
Not crazy! Take care, find joy in your special day and celebrate you in this life! Happy Birthday!
thanks so much. the show was GREAT. But I wanted to see Jon Cryer and he was not there. boo hiss.
Highlight dinner this week was chili (chili beans, if you're from parts of the South)! Big cheers to DH bc he thought of it and made it and cleaned up from it. Looking forward to it for lunch today. He said it's in honor of fall on its way and football season starting, so yay for all of that!
I do it that way as well!
This week's eats:
Saturday: Homemade pizza
Sunday: Pesto pasta
Monday: I got back late from cat-sitting and ordered Chinese food
Tuesday: Baked sweet potato with sauteed vegetables and cream cheese
Wednesday: Burrito bowl with black beans and jasmine rice. I had crackers with cream cheese and cucumber on the side.
Thursday: Aubergine curry with chickpeas and jasmine rice
Friday: Undecided. I'm thinking aubergine with pasta in a tomato sauce with cheese.
DH was on a business trip most of the week, so nothing memorable. We didn’t go out, and we spent less than $200, so that’s a win. For lunch, I have been using up these frozen burritos that our neighbor gave us that no one likes. They aren’t bad, just not particularly good either. They have air fryer instructions and we actually do have an air fryer at work. However! No one ever cleans it so it is encrusted in grease. I scrubbed the air fryer first. Then I put it to preheat. Did you know this joker wants 30 minutes to preheat? Then I read the burrito instructions. It wanted 18 minutes in the air fryer! How is this convenience food? If I had 48 minutes for lunch, would I be eating a frozen burrito? Anyhow, if you are in this fix, I ended up microwaving the thing for 60 seconds on each side then air frying for 5. It was at least crispy that way. Then I scrubbed the air fryer again, because my mom doesn’t work at my office.
I have a freakishly good memory for food, so I can actually usually remember what we had all week just based on what was going on that day, if I had to go somewhere, whatever. But when I write out my own food posts, I usually do part of it on maybe Monday, and then the rest Thursday, because I will forget details or anything too unusual. But sometimes I get to Wednesday or Thursday with nothing written and have to just remember everything. I suspect your photos help you remember, too? I don't take very many, so that's not much of a help for me.
Saturday: We went to a ranch wedding, at which we were fed ribs, baked beans, potato salad, salad, rolls, and giant cupcakes. It was all very good. Open bar, too, which was fun. 🙂
Sunday: My basil plants needed a trim, so I made pesto. Thus, pasta with pesto, Italian sausage, radishes, and pots de creme for Sunday dessert
Monday: We butchered eleven roosters this day, which is a disgusting, tiring job. I was in no mood to cook a big dinner, and no one was enthused about chicken. So I thawed some seasoned pinto beans and made rice for those. We had a link and a half of Italian sausage left, which I diced up and threw in there, too. Canned peaches instead of a vegetable.
Tuesday: Bacon cheeseburgers (on bread, because I didn't make buns), cucumbers, ice cream
Wednesday: Chicken-fried pork chops with milk gravy, mashed potatoes, sauerkraut
Thursday: I was subbing at school all day. So when I got home at 4:30, I just fried one tube of Walmart's premium breakfast sausage and added that to the rest of the pinto beans and rice. More ice cream. No vegetable. No one cared.
Tonight: I will be leaving around noon to drive 250 miles--one way--to a junior high football game. Whee. I won't get home with the football player until probably around 10 p.m. I'll make tuna salad before I go, so those at home can make tuna melts. I bet they'll finish the ice cream. I also bet there will be no vegetable. 🙂 The football player and I will eat somewhere along the way home. It will most likely also not feature a lot of vegetables. That seems to be the theme this week.
Happy Friday, everyone! We spent $0.
-- Frito scoops with corn-black bean-feta dip, red grapes and pumpkin-raisin bread
-- Salad (leftover from previous day's restaurant lunch)
-- Skipped dinner after large restaurant lunch
-- Assemblage of jasmine rice, edamame, chickpeas, soyaki sauce, sriracha sauce, peanut sauce (restaurant leftover) and cilantro (had this twice)
-- Pita and hummus
-- Popcorn and fruit
My method for remembering what I ate is maintaining a draft email titled Frugal. This is where I document everything on an ongoing basis. I have three sections: thankfuls, WIS/WIA and everything else. Then when it comes time to post a comment, I type out the rest of the words in the draft email before copying/pasting into your blog. If I didn't maintain this document, I wouldn't be able to comment near as much.
WIS: Approximately $150, mostly at Food Lion, though there were side trips to Ollie's Oulet, Dollar Tree, and Walmart Market. The total was so high due to some stocking up of several items for DH.
WWA: DH had sandwiches with carrot sticks, cherry tomatoes, sweet peppers, pickles, and plums or grapes. Gluten-free protein crackers and chocolate pudding as treats.
I made a delicious fish pie from elements of two Jamie Oliver recipes (mostly his Freezer-Raid Fish Pie) and ate that for three meals. The fourth serving was frozen for another day. Had several meals of a strawberry protein smoothie with crackers, peanut butter and a tangerine as a side. Jell-O and graham crackers as a treat.
Oh how I love that you are so close to water. The sound of waves is so relaxing. We have a lake nearby where I ride my bicycle but I am so focused on getting in the miles (I am participating in the Great Cycle Challenge this September to raise money for children's cancer research) that I never stop and sit. This is a sign that I should. 🙂
Well, first of all, I missed Thankful Thursday, and I have so much to be thankful for -- mainly that I finished my Paxlovid regime and started feeling better. This was definitely a case where the cure was worse than the disease. But I do understand that Paxlovid was protecting me from getting a form of covid that could send me to the hospital, or worse, so I'm grateful for that.
My meals this week were just nibbles when I felt like I could eat something. I didn't spend anything on groceries except for a box of crackers I ordered from Amazon.
I am planning on a real breakfast today of eggs, toast and applesauce. I don't know what I'll have after that. I'll have to see how I feel. One of these days I will need to get groceries, but I'm still gathering my strength.
so glad you are better. covid is so awful.
Beth, I followed your journey, sending you healing wishes along the way. What an ordeal! So glad it has ended and ended well. I also hope there is some immunity from catching it again, as you always hear about that good consequence.
I do the same. I sometimes consult my meal plan, if I remember where it is, but we all know that the plans you set for the following week before you go grocery shopping are not always what winds up happening!
We had a tough week--nothing bad, just adjusting to back-to-school with a baby in tow.
Friday: I was sick and we were fed by my parents. I think we had salmon and various vegetables.
Saturday: Everyone was cranky and no one wanted to cook, so we got sushi.
Sunday: I was feeling better. We had a friend over and I made herbed roasted chicken with fries and a salad.
Monday: Pesto pasta with peas.
Tuesday: Homemade ready-to-bake frozen schnitzel, not-homemade frozen fries, and broccoli.
Wednesday: Mr. B was working late; I made pancakes and they were terrible. I was in such a rush that almost all of them were underdone--yuck. We ate what we could from the pancakes and had eggs and fruit. At night, Mr. B went out and got Thai food for us grownups.
Thursday: I made pizza and it was terrible. Oh, well. At least the ingredients aren't expensive. And I made broccoli, which was good.
Today: Rosh HaShanah starts tonight! Wishing everyone all sweetness. We're going to my parents' for dinner. I'm bringing the honey cake 🙂
Happy New Year, Meira!
I hope you have a lovely dinner tonight after a bumpy week!
Happy New Year and the start of the High Holidays! 🙂
Have a great celebration!
I keep a written menu on our bulletin board in the pantry. Ideally it is there so everyone knows what we will be eating this week, but it’s really there for me to remember if I need to thaw anything or if I need to prep the slow cooker the night before.
Friday: leftovers
Saturday: Pizza and salad at my in-law’s house (this was our first time at their new house)
Sunday: Dino ribs, poblano potatoes au gratin, salad
Monday: Brats, Greek chickpea salad, fresh veggies and dip
Tuesday: Chicken Caesar wraps, tater tots, watermelon
Wednesday: Buffalo chicken burgers, pickle pasta salad, watermelon
Thursday: Corn lasagna skillet
Party of one this week for various reasons!
Monday and Tuesday: pasta salad using up odds n ends and home grown fresh herbs. Side of cottage cheese
Wednesday: toasted English muffins with peanut butter and sliced bananas. I had a side of dried prunes. I love them.
Thursday: cereal with sliced banana and a small smoothie
Friday: going out for fish fry with friends.
Sat/ Sun : going to make a big batch of tuna or chicken salad. I also have some free to me corn on the cob.
The geese are flying south in formation where I live. Summer is over!
You had a pretty nice week, both food, wise and life in general wise 😀. I have a question not even related to any of the post. You often show us the water. It looks like a large body of water. Is this a lake or a river or a bay? So pretty I love living near the water. We also enjoy having impromptu picnics or just walking over and sitting to enjoy. We’re fortunate in that we live near a lake and a river, as well as many beautiful streams and ponds.
I live in a land of many rivers! So basically any water you see in my photos is some type of river.
Since I do a menu each week, I can usually see what we are, but I sometimes keep a running list on my phone to help me with this post.
My thoughts today, like many others, goes to the events of 9/11 and where i was. My son, then a highschooler, called me at work to tell me what was going on. My boss had a TV in his office and I turned it on and my coworkers and I watched news coverage. Our world was forever changed and it still brings me to tears for all those who were lost that day and their families and those who were lost in the following years. I will never forget.
WIS/ WWA this week
$55 at Walmart and $174 at Sam's, mostly on a stock-up of meat. So $229. Yikes.
Saturday – ???
Sunday – grilled ribeye steak, steamed broccoli, linguine noodles.
Monday – stuffed zucchini
Tuesday – hot dogs, cole slaw, oven roasted potatoes. (This meal did not thrill my husband, so he ate elsewhere. He hates hot dogs and I love them once in awhile.)
Wednesday – teriyaki chicken made in the microwave with onions, pineapple and green pepper, ramen noodles, egg rolls, green peas.
Thursday – leftover Mexican food from a lunch my husband ate out, leftover teriyaki chicken and sides
Friday – we will have pan fried skillet pork chops mixed with white beans and Rotel, leftover cole slaw, croissants.
WIS: $43 at Aldi, $58 at Price Chopper, and $50 at Wegmans. (I was doing some stocking up, too.)
WIA: The week's highlight for me was rejoining the Banana Bread Club. I made two loaves (one for Bailey dog's mom and dad and one for me), for the first time in ages.
Love the variety you manage: This week I made a veggie stir-fry with about 1/2 pound of hamburger as the protein and LOTS and LOTS of vegetables, which I ate Tuesday night, Wednesday night, AND last night. The dish included onions, garlic, some wax beans, carrots, bok choy, cherry tomatoes and zucchini, and it doesn't freeze well, so we eat it until it's gone. Still delicious but ENOUGH ALREADY for this week.
Saturday - takeout noght so we had dim sum
Sunday - I made the vegan mushroom stroganoff that was such a hit last time (and it was still a hit) My 6 year old helped me make it, her cooking skills are really coming along and she’s so proud to have helped.
Monday - Kids and husband roasted hot dogs over our backyard fire pit, I had a kidney bean curry with pita bread.
Tuesday - My mom fed the kids dinner, I had some roasted potato and radish soup from the freezer along with some toasted bread with peanut butter before attending a PTO meeting.
Wednesday - bean burritos, Spanish rice and corn for the kids, I had a bean, sautéed cabbage and tofu burrito.
Thursday - veggie and shrimp dumplings and fried rice for the kids, I had brown rice with Bok choy that I’d cooked in the leftover sauce from the Korean cucumber salad I’d eaten earlier in the week.
Friday - I’ll make Swedish meatballs and steamed broccolini for the family, I will likely have soup from the freezer with a toasted half bagel and hummus.
Thursday - Husband had poker night so he brought in some pizzas and kebabs, which we all ate
Wednesday - girls wanted to try Buldak (spicy korean ramyeon-type brand) noodles so they had that and I had a field roast sausage, a sliced red pepper with dip and cleared out some napa cabbage that was in the fridge by making a salad. I used a lemon pesto from trader joe's as a dressing. It was pretty good.
Tuesday - one daughter had taquitos. Another had some crispy tofu with bibimguksu (cold korean noodle salad).
Monday - we met a friend from out of town at a mexican restaurant for happy hour
Sunday - Homemade pizza with cantaloupe and garlic green beans on the side.
Saturday - potato curry, rice, and dal
Friday - Gochujang eggs over rice & yakisoba noodles for the one who didn't want to have that.
Very Korean-inspired week at our house, apparently!
I procrastinated on schlepping to town to stock up.
Sunday family dinner wood fired pizzas, green salad, grilled peaches, fresh corn ice cream.
Monday - BLT, zucchini fritters, chopped salad
Tuesday - freezer challenge mixed meat stir fry
Wednesday - sous vide ribs finished on grill with plum bbq sauce, coleslaw, cornbread, corn & apple slab pie
Thursday - mystery freezer meat prepared carnitas style. Green salad, freezer pintos, Pico
Friday - salmon, baked potato, chop salad
Saturday - spending the day with my friend who survived, not unscathed, during the attack on the Pentagon. Celebrating his Alive Day.
You sure do work a lot of Fridays!
Yes I doooo. They tend to be short staffed on Fridays, so there I am.:)
It was a very yucky work week for me, but only one more week until I drop to part time! And, I'm ecstatic about it. 🙂
What did we eat last week?
-Some sort of leftovers on Friday.
-I made a sheet pan BLTA salad on Saturday
-We had an early dinner/late lunch on Sunday after a 10 mile hike. I had 1/2 a cheeseburger & some wine. DH had grilled oysters.
-DH made chicken & Persian rice on Sunday, which we had for dinner 2x over the week
-I had one work dinner out
I think we are having a frozen pizza & salad tonight, because I'm exhausted!
All in, I spent about $125, mostly at Aldi, with a few meals out. Two people, all meals.
This is what we ate:
2 pizzas-one homemade with Aldi dough, another on Domino’s deal
2 meals-Pork chops/rice/fresh veg
5 meals from rotisserie Chx
Chx sausage/veg stir fry over rice
Out: McD snack, ice cream and Chik fil A one meal split
Breakfast-protein bars/milk/fruit for son, coffee/overnight oats for me
Lunches-leftovers or pb protein bagels for son with fruit
As sides we have: apples/pears/bananas/peaches/salads/little tomatoes
We mostly drink water or sparkling water.
I accidentally ordered two loaves of homemade sourdough instead of one and I did consider freezing one, but I pressed the easy button and so we had:
• Avacado and over easy eggs with lots of cracked pepper toast. There is a local farm stand that has amazingly delicious and affordable avacados and I take full advantage of this. Repeated.
• BLTs on said sourdough. Repeated.
• Vegetable fried rice
• Snack plates. I had some random potatoes so mashed them and ate alongside some nuts, fruit salad, yogurt. Basically odds and ends
• Pho
On a side note: the local fruit stands here have been packed with tiny white pomegranates and a variety of oranges and I have been making a simple salad of the two several times a week. It's been a treat having something that I usually only have around Christmastime