WIS, WWA | I cooked exactly nothing.
What I Spent
I was gone for most of this week, skiing with my parents and siblings out in California at Lake Tahoe.
So, Mr. FG and the girls were at the helm in the kitchen, and they did quite a fabulous job. 🙂
I made a $75 Aldi trip before I left, and then while I was gone, Mr. FG bought another $53 of groceries while I was gone.
And then we spent $32 on subs when I got back, which brings our total to $160.
What We Ate
Saturday
This is the day I left, and they had Chick-Fil-A.
Sunday
Our kids really prefer Mr. FG's French toast to mine, so of course it was on the menu while I was gone. 🙂
Sonia says to let you know that they used coconut milk in the French toast, and it worked out just fine.
Yay! One more thing that's easy to make dairy-free for her.
They had bacon and OJ with the French toast.
Monday
I had left some pulled pork in the freezer for them, since Monday was a busy day and no one would have had time to cook dinner.
Here's the pulled pork recipe I use.
Tuesday
They ate orange-glazed chicken (from the ATK Quick Family Cookbook) with broccoli on the side. And also some ciabatta.
They tried frozen broccoli and they gave it a big thumbs down. 0/10, would not recommend. 😉
Wednesday
Mr. FG made strawberry grilled chicken salad wraps from Pioneer Woman.
Thursday
Mr. FG picked me up at the airport around 7:30 pm and when I got home, we got subs from Firehouse because it felt quite too late to cook anything!
Friday
I'm not quite sure what we're going to do tonight. Qdoba does have that Qdoba for a Kiss promotion today, so maybe we'll take advantage of that.
Because I have no idea what all is in the fridge at this point and I most definitely do not have a menu plan!
Your family is awesome! It’s wonderful that you do stuff (every year?) with your parents and siblings, and that your husband and kids seem to survive well while you’re gone Do you have any photos of ALL of your family, skiing or otherwise?
Oh, the second photo is my whole immediate family; my parents, two brothers, one sister, and me.
I don't have a recent photo of my all my sibling's spouses + the 17 grandchildren, though!
The only frozen veggie my family will eat is corn &spinach. The spinach has to be creamed. They r spoiled but I pay the price for the health benifits. I made a roast with brown potatoes & broccoli. Since the flu is visiting my house we r scrounging mostly. Will make sandwiches from leftover roast tonight
Looks like an awesome trip! And great that your daughter found another dairy free solution.
Saturday - French toast and bacon
Sunday - Mac & cheese
Monday - Mac & cheese
Tuesday - pork ragu
Wednesday - pork ragu
Thursday - oriechette with corn and bacon
Friday - a baked potato.
Lots of leftovers, so my husband sometimes has the leftovers for lunch and then cereal for dinner in the evening. He usually works in the evening.
Frozen broccoli is good roasted but any other way is soggy and gross. (I toss it on a sheet pan frozen and drizzle with OO.)
What temp do you roast it at on the pan, and how long do you cook it?
350 for 15 minutes or 425 for 10 minutes. I usually don’t time it closely and will toss it in with whatever else I’m cooking for the last few minutes. I don’t mind it underdone!
Frozen broccoli is great for broccoli cheese soup. (I usually use fresh because I live in broccoli country but frozen save some time.)
But what did YOU eat while you were gone? Exciting restaurant food or sandwiches in a condo?
I did not cook elk once this week. But I have a bag thawing right now. Dun dun DUN.
Saturday: Homecoming basketball game, which is the only sporting event we attend. The children ate hot dogs at the concession stand, my husband had some red chili nachos, and I had some cheese and nuts when we got home.
Sunday: Pizza made with bread dough I was dealing with anyway. Just one cheese pizza, although I did cook some diced bacon, which I mixed with anchovy paste for my husband and eldest son to sprinkle on their pizza. Highly unappealing to me, but they loved it. We also had a green salad.
Monday: A skillet of rice, leftover taco meat, cheese, salsa, and frozen corn.
Tuesday: Eldest son's birthday, which is the one day a year I cook seafood. Sauteed shrimp this time. I also made spaghetti alfredo and frozen peas. Traditional cheesecake for the birthday cake.
Wednesday: Leftovers and a very quick curried squash soup I made with frozen squash and frozen chicken stock.
Thursday: German-style sausage, mashed potatoes, green salad
Tonight: Leftover sausage, potato cakes made from leftover mashed potatoes, a couple of pieces of leftover bacon, and cheese. Plus more green salad. Almost at the end of the fresh vegetables--including lettuce, sad--from the last Outside World grocery odyssey, which means a lot more frozen vegetables for the next three weeks . . .
We ate out one night, but the rest of the nights, my mom cooked dinner for us at the condo. It's nice to be a kid again for a few days! Ha.
I'm still in the stage of life where it blows my mind when I see moms take a vacation that doesn't include their children. The freedom! The relaxation! (Note: I totally love my kids. But the thought of being able to do a grown-up only trip feels exhilarating.) That's great that you got to have the time with your family and that everyone at home took it in stride.
Saturday - My 6 year old's birthday party day! Friends party at lunchtime had chicken nuggets, strawberries, blueberries, ice cream, and a princess castle cake. The cake was intense and huge. My husband said, "I didn't know you could make such a fancy cake." My family came over to celebrate at dinnertime and we had pot pie and more fruit/ice cream/cake.
Sunday - Meatloaf, broccoli with cheese, leftover cake (that cake probably could have fed 50 instead of the 12 or so it fed)
Monday - Quesadillas and guacamole
Tuesday - Plan A was to eat at a cafe using 2 free kids meal coupons to celebrate on my daughter's actual birthday. Since the poor girl left school with a fever and sore throat, we switched to Plan B vegetable beef soup and bread with butter.
Wednesday - Cheeseburgers, corn, and macaroni and cheese.
Thursday - Finally got to use those cafe coupons! Dinner out for the 5 of us for $16! But during the course of the meal my 1yo threw up all over herself and the floor and I had to take 2 trips to the potties with the other kids and I didn't even get to finish my food before the older kids had to leave for swim lessons and it was a great reminder of why we don't eat out. 🙂 At least my panini was delicious and I had spare clothes for my 1yo.
Friday - Taco salad and pineapple
Sunday- butternut squash ravioli with kale and a sage brown butter sauce- part of a free Hello Fresh box!
Monday- apricot glazed chicken, with roasted potatoes, and broccoli -part of a free Hello Fresh box!
Tuesday- teriyaki steak with broccoli and wasabi mashed potatoes- part of a free Hello Fresh box!!
Wednesday- teriyaki steak with broccoli and wasabi mashed potatoes- part of a free Hello Fresh box!
Thursday- spaghetti and meatballs with homemade bread
Friday- spaghetti and meatballs with homemade bread
Our week was very cheap on groceries, being 4 of the meals came from a free Hello Fresh box my sister-in-law gave me. I think we spent around $60.
Oh! We love frozen broccoli! Just don’t overcook! In the off season Frozen broccoli is so much healthier/better than what is on the shelves in the grocery stores. Any broccoli on the grocery store shelves in the winter was grown who knows how far away and has been on trucks for weeks if not months! The frozen stuff is harvested literally on the field and frozen within minutes of picking! Please try frozen again!
Overcooked frozen broccoli is seriously the worst. And although microwave steaming works, stovetop steaming is several steps better in the flavor department. It's too easy to overcook with boiling, though, so I don't recommend that.
Still spent zero for the year on groceries. I have about $16 left on the last gift card from Christmas. Then it will be back to freezer and pantry eating as much as possible. Can't wait to plant the garde in a few months. Here's what we ate.
Saturday - tacos.
Sunday - Italian sausages with peppers and onions and garden salad.
Monday - bacon and eggs and toast.
Tuesday - leftovers and salad.
Wednesday - bacon wrapped venison steaks with baked potatoes and garlic bread ( made with leftover hot dog rolls).
Thursday - Valentine's Day dinner with the husband since he was going to be picking our daughter up from college on the 14th. The meals were so big we both had lunch for the next day.
Friday - Fried egg and bacon sandwiches on English muffins using the last of the bacon. The eggs are from our neighbor's chickens. Surprisingly, they're still laying a lot even though it's winter.
So glad you got to spend time with your parents and siblings - skiing at Lake Tahoe!!!!
Obviously Mr FG and the girls survived so you’re doing all the right things!
Here's what this vegetarian ate this week:
Sunday: Restaurant leftovers (I always bring my own take-out container and put from one-third to one-half of a restaurant meal into it)
Monday: Hmm... don't recall
Tuesday: Pumpkin bisque to which I added leftover rice (tasted better than I expected it would)
Wednesday: Chopped greens with beets, walnuts, parmesan, and a splash of both olive oil and red wine vinegar
Thursday: Lasagna to use up veggies such as spinach, mushrooms, zucchini, carrots, onions, etc. Made the sauce from tomatoes I froze from last year's garden
Friday: Oven-roasted potatoes topped with fried eggs; orange slices
A great reminder: we are leaving in a few minutes for a restaurant and I will now bring my container for leftovers.
Your meals sound very delicious. I plan to make more vegetables next week. Somehow, I forget them more easily when I have more to do t work. Instead, I eat way more noodles.
Saturday: Rubens on homemade rye bread and homemade sauerkraut from garden gown cabbage
Sunday: Used leftover sauerkraut to make sauerkraut soup. Homemade ciabatta.
Monday: Leftover sauerkraut soup with fresh rolls.
Tuesday: perogies, oranges and cukes
Wednesday: leftover perogies with a fruit salad
Thursday: Homemade sausage egg mcmuffins, on homemade muffins and strongly spiced bear sausage
Friday: filet of fish!
I'd like to eat at your house!
I was in Lake Tahoe last week too!! What are the odds! ❤️ Hope you enjoyed it! Sunday was sure windy!
Oh, that's such a coincidence! And yes, my word, Sunday was windy. Only a few lifts were open, and we only lasted a few hours that day. It was just so, so cold because of the wind. And then the blowing snow made it miserable in spots too.
Sunday: spaghetti and meatbslls and garlic bread that my sister in law made and we ate with their family at my in-laws so no cooking for me! I did do the dishes though
Monday: bbq chicken & corn & oven fried potatoes
Tuesfay: Homemade bread and stuffed pepper soup and breakfast sandwich for Hubby and daughter had egg in hole
Wednesday: arbys
Thursday: tacos
Friday: we invited friends over for Valentines steak dinner with asparagus, green beans, twice baked potatoes and for dessert homemade chocolate covered strawberries and mini baked cheesecakes topped with cherries
It's hilarious how many people had broccoli this week. We also had broccoli. It's one of maybe three vegetables all seven people will eat.
Glad you had a great trip and that those at home carried on well enough. 🙂 I have my eye on a double-overnight retreat but it may be years before I can manage to get away for it. Hope it hasn't outlived its purpose for the organizer by then.
The only way to make frozen broccoli is seared a bit in the skillet, then a little bit of water with salt and pepper mixed in poured over to deglaze, then a lid on to steam. Delish and simple.
I roasted a chicken Monday night and served it with baked potatoes, green beans, and a choice of applesauce or sliced peaches with ice cream as dessert.
We had leftovers for a couple of nights, then I turned the remaining chicken into a chicken florentine casserole that was devoured. Stretch that bird!
I love frozen broccoli for roasting! So easy! 425 oven, for 25 min. No need to defrost. I drizzle a little olive oil and sprinkle salt and pepper over it. It's one of my daughter's favorite veggies!
We've been doing a bit of a pantry challenge this past month. I have a surgery scheduled in March, so we're trying to clear out the odds n ends beforehand. I've been trying to be more mindful of what leftovers we have and how to incorporate them into other meals. Sometimes it feels like a no brainer and then other times its a discombobulated plate of weird stuff.
Does Joshua ever come home for dinner or stop in for breakfast on the weekends? I always wonder if he misses being home with y'all! No cat shelter update this week? Did the large cat get adopted yet?!
How nice to be able to get away like that. It's good to just be one of the kids again for a little while, you are right. Siblings so rarely get to spend time together as siblings once they start getting married and having families.
I'm not too sure what we had, since I normally comment on that on Friday, but I can remember that I served steak and asparagus tips for Valentine's Day. I tried the Cook's Illustrated method that was in the latest magazine I got, that of flipping the steak over and over in a hot skillet. It worked, too.
A couple of nights I had my husband eat his delivered meals, so I could cook something I knew he wouldn't be interested in -- and broccoli was on one of those nights. I cooked bacon then sauteed the broccoli with garlic and onion in the bacon fat. I had something else with the broccoli and the bacon but I don't remember what. Another night I braved making chicken liver pate', made with lots of garlic and seasoning, which was pretty successful, because I've been able to eat the pate', even though I loathe liver. This recipe was from Mickey Trescott's Nutrient Dense cook book.
I decided to re-try beans in my diet with a mixed bean soup, but that didn't go well. Some of my dried beans were fairly old, and they never did get quite tender. Then it turned out that I couldn't tolerate bean soup all that well, so I ended up tossing the rest of that soup. I'm glad I started with a small pot of it. At least the cassava flat bread for me and the corn pone for him turned out well.
That's all I can remember. I did keep my grocery bill down some this past week!