WIS, WWA | I did do some cooking!
This week I did not fly anywhere. But I did spend an entire day doing a Hershey Park trip with Zoe and Lisey, so I have not exactly been giving up on the summer adventuring. 😉
I will be back to more of my homebody self once school starts and I have to be a more responsible person again. 😉
What I Spent
I spent:
- $70 at Safeway
- $42 on takeout
So, $112 for me this week.
What We Ate
Saturday
We got back from Wisconsin late on Friday night, and I spent Saturday trying to get my life back in order after two weeks away. Unfortunately, I did not get to the grocery store!
Lisey was out at dinner, but Zoe and I got takeout subs together.
Sunday
I made skillet-baked ziti, and I have no idea what we had on the side. Ha.
Monday
A nice thing about feeding only three people: leftovers! We finished up the leftover baked ziti on Monday night.
Tuesday
I tried a recipe from Cook's Country for sriracha chicken sandwiches.
The components are a sriracha-lime mayo, shredded chicken dressed with a fish sauce/lime juice concoction, some quick pickled veggies, and cilantro.
The girls and I thought these were tasty, and I will be making them again!
Wednesday
This was the day we went to Hershey Park, and when we got back at 9 pm, we stopped at Chipotle and got burrito bowls.
Thursday
Lisey and I ate our leftover burrito bowls (neither of us can usually finish a whole bowl in one sitting!) and Zoe had another sub made with the leftovers from Tuesday.
Friday
I have a pack of chicken thighs in the freezer, so I think I'm probably going to use those for something. Maybe this Thai curry?
Saturday - out to dinner at a nice restaurant for my birthday (no kids so served as a date night as well!)
Sunday - went to visit my grandma in the afternoon and wasn’t sure what time we’d be home so I hadn’t really planned anything. Ended up just cooking some pasta, opening a jar of sauce and microwaving some frozen meatballs for a quick meal.
Monday - baked ziti
Tuesday - Mexican chicken and rice salad
Wednesday - balsamic chicken skillet (using tomatoes from our garden), pearl cous cous, steamed broccoli, crescent rolls
Thursday - forgot to defrost my last remaining half jar of pasta sauce for chicken Parmesan so I made a frozen stuffed crust pizza instead. I served it with steamed green beans from our garden, cucumber from my coworkers garden and an avocado that was at perfect ripeness (so I knew would be too ripe by tomorrow)
Friday - pasta sauce is defrosted now so we’ll have chicken Parmesan, butter noodles and a spaghetti squash given to me by the same coworker (I’ve not made spaghetti squash for the kids before, I think they’ll enjoy seeing it become spaghetti after cooking)
@LB, spaghetti squash is so fun for kids to cook and separate!
WIS: This is hard to say because I did not grocery shop this week, but I did send the husband and the teenager to Walmart for milk and orange juice while we were on vacation and they came back with so many bags of stuff!!! Yikes! Their total bill was like 190.00, but I would guess only about 30.00 of it was actually food. They did get the milk and juice, and also a bunch of snacks because apparently they are picky about vacation snack foods and turned their noses up at what I had packed. They had fun though, and this is why normally I'm the frugal shopper, so one high bill won't kill us. I just found their receipt and added up the "food" items and it came to 47.30 because candy is crazy expensive! Oh well.
WWA:
Fri: Salad, coleslaw, fish and chips and mushy peas but the fish was just fish sticks and the peas were not that mushy because I had no potato masher in the vacation house. It was all tasty though.
Sat: salad, leftover peas, spaghetti and meatballs in tomato sauce topped with mozzarella and asiago cheeses, and Texas-style garlic toast. This meal was super easy to throw together and everyone loved it so much they have asked for me to cook it occasionally at home. So I guess my husband will get more cooking breaks in the future. 😉
Sun: This was a crazy big spread of food because this was the day I grilled but I forgot to take a picture! From memory, it was grilled hotdogs and hamburgers with choice of sliced cheese, grilled green onions, sauteed peppers, sliced tomatoes, chili for hotdogs, salsa con queso, sour cream, assorted condiments, leftover peas, carrot and celery sticks with ranch dip, some salads my mom brought, and watermelon sticks.
Mon: watermelon sticks, California mixed vegetables, dinosaur chicken nuggets, French fries, Mac and cheese, and a noodle salad my mom made.
Tue: cubed watermelon, grapes and cherries, leftover California vegetables, leftover spaghetti and meatballs with mozzarella and asiago cheese on top, assorted leftover bizarre side salads from my mom that needed to be eaten up.
Wed: quartered peaches and apples, halved baby cucumbers from my mom's garden, and we microwaved the last of the leftover chicken nuggets and fries, the last of the leftover spaghetti and meatballs and the California vegetables. This was all very lack luster, but since I had just got home and spent the day packing, driving, and unpacking with a trip to a nature preserve and picking up my farm share in the middle, I was super tired and very hungry and probably would have eaten all of this frozen.
Thu: sliced tomatoes and cucumbers, air fried okra, scrambled eggs with peppers, toast with butter and jam and sourdough discard crackers.
Tonight: Hmm...maybe focaccia since we are easing back into normal routines?
Venison, french dips, fried rice, citrus chicken legs, Salisbury steak.....and no idea for tonight. 🙂
Chicken karahi (Pakistani dish), pepper steak, steak fajitas with the steak I didn't use the night before, Jamaican mac and cheese (with scotch bonnet peppers and honey), pizza (was one of those nights) and tonight, Instant Pot red chicken enchiladas with our glut of tomatoes.
@Rose, do you have a recipe you're willing to share for the chicken karahi?
@Danielle Zecher, Sure do! It's also great for using up a ton of tomatoes. I useless boneless chicken because I'm lazy like that. It's delicious and easy and you can adjust the spices. We always have things hot at our house.
https://fatimacooks.net/chicken-karahi-recipe-pictures-tips-authentic/
I actually don't understand people who won't share recipes. My mother was like that. Not with me, of course, but with others--she didn't give out our family cheesecake recipe. Why, for heaven's sake? Truthfully, my mother was famous for her cheesecake, and I had a three-tier cheesecake made by her for my wedding cake, and so did my sister.
@Rose, thanks, it looks great! I like to use boneless chicken, too.
@Rose, I know! It's high praise if someone asks for a recipe! It irritates me when people are all secretive about a recipe. I sometimes think some people do it for attention because they want people to beg for it.
@Rose, My eyes bulged out at a three tier cheesecake for your wedding cake! I did not know such a thing existed and it makes me wish I was planning a wedding!! Cheesecake is what I would eat if I only had one meal left in my life.
@Rose, I’m a “creative cook” and I have been accused of not wanting to share my recipes. The problem is I can’t. I do try and tell someone how to make things, but I cook by sight, smell and instinct. I don’t even use a timer. I cook something until it’s done. I add a little wine to the sauce. How much butter I use depends if I’m on a diet or not. I’m big on substituting.
I have tried to start measuring and writing down my kids favorites for them without much success. The good news is they cook like I do. I do own many cookbooks but I primarily use them for inspiration.
@Bee, I do that a lot too, but it's more because I'm lazy than anything else. I measure spices into my hand instead of using measuring spoons. And sometimes a sauce just needs something and I start putting random bits in and then can't replicate.
Re the wedding cake, it was a real pain. Of course she needed some giant springform pans and then had to support the layers with wooden dowels, etc. This one is my sister's. --topped with apricot jam, decorated with vintage ribbon and a vintage topper. https://ibb.co/k9VmjfN
@Bee, I cook that way most of the time, too. If someone asks, I'll try to give them my best guess or pay attention and write it down the next time I make it. Fortunately, my husband is really good at accurately guessing the measurements for things, so I can sometimes get him to watch me cook and write down the amounts. The people that annoy me are the ones who act like their recipe is the secret recipe for Coke or something and make a big deal out of not sharing it.
@Rose, OMG, that cake looks good!
@Rose,
That's a very pretty cake!
@Bee,
Frankie from Struggle Meals says Italian grandmothers cook like that and when asked how much of something to add, they say "quanto basta," which, he says, just means "the right amount."
@Rose, Even very late in her life, my grandmother would complain about her cousins on her mother's side. She claimed that when she would ask the Tessmers for recipe, they would leave out an ingredient.
That's not the same as not knowing the measurements.
@Becca, The absolute absolute best recipe I have ever seen for Italian red sauce is the one given at the end of "Italianamerican," Martin Scorcese's very affectionate documentary about his parents. It's on Youtube--watch it--worth the time. But Mama Scorcese is somewhat cavalier about amounts. If you make it--with the sausage and the veal and meatballs and so on--you will have the best tasting sauce of all time, I guarantee it. So delicious. Thanks, Mama Scorcese.
Try it, folks. Seriously. (I have never used the lamb neck bone, though. No idea where to get it.)
https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/member/views/scorsese-sauce-meatballs-50128425
@Lindsey, ME TOO
@SandyH, Remind me next week if you like and I'll dig out my mom's. Warning, though, my mom is one of those less is more people especially when it comes to desserts, as am I. If you put chocolate into a perfect cheesecake, you're in trouble with us, heh. My mom's absolutely perfect apple pie contains Rhode Island greenings, white sugar and cinnamon and that's it. It's not too sweet and many people say it's the best they've ever had. Key is to be picky about your apples and don't over-sugar.
@Rose, Danielle, and Everyone.
Oh, yes; the people who won’t share their recipes leave a bad taste in my mouth about everything they do after being stingy. Happened recently.
@Rose, I would also be interested in your Mom's cheesecake recipe if you were inclined to share. That is one gorgeous wedding (cheese)cake. I'm okay at pie baking although I struggle with the amount of fruit when assembling one. Is the filling going to be too little? Too much? The pies have always turned out but not without some angst. I follow recipes too. Bought peaches from the Peach Truck so will be baking them into pies/cobblers this weekend.
@Rose,
I'll bite on the cheesecake recipe too. My youngest has requested cheesecake for his birthday this month and I finally decided it was time to buy a set of springform pans because my people keep requesting cheesecake and I keep needing to borrow a pan. I don't have one recipe I follow-just use whatever looks good online and then wing it and alter it like crazy when making. I guess they are turning out ok though since they keep asking for it. I think it may have more to do with me depriving them of regular desserts. 😉
@Rose,
I had a great aunt who refused to share recipes. She was the meanest person I have ever met, but boy howdy, could she cook! She made an absolutely divine pound cake and took that recipe to the grave.
I later found out what an incredibly difficult and heartbreaking life she had. Now I think that maybe she was actually a very kind person and she was too hurt to express that so she did it through food. Maybe she couldn’t share the recipes because they were too private, it would be like journaling through your grief and then passing out xeroxes of your journal at the family reunion. I don’t know. Sadly, her bitterness kept anyone from getting close to her.
@Tarynkay, How very sad for her, and how sensitive of you to try to understand her now. It sounds like her kitchen was where she could be powerful and in control in a life where those perhaps weren't possible elsewhere?
In a chapter of a book I read many many years ago was a story that stayed with me about an older woman who would not share her recipes with her relatives. It turned out she couldn't, because she was illiterate. She learned cooking by doing as she grew up and baked by habit, not even using standardized measuring tools. Another character helped her reverse engineer-measure the ingredients so she could share them, without letting anyone know she couldn't write then down herself.
Did Kristen have sandwiches and/or leftovers this week? Why, yes. Yes, she did. Haha!
Almost every night!
@Kristen,
Life is so good for those of us who are easy to please. 🙂
Your summer sounds relaxing and fun at the same time. #summergoals This week's meal were nothing exciting, and as of next week, I'm on an more limited grocery budget so I will be getting very creative!
Monday - Salmon Burger Patty, salad with avocado
Tuesday - Grilled Chicken, Turkish White Beans
Wednesday - Tuna on a bed of salad greens with lemon vinaigrette and chopped apples
Thursday - Italian Sausage and marinara spaghetti, green beans
Tonight - Lemon Pepper Chicken, brussels sprouts, squash (using up veggies before they go bad)
Saturday - I'm going to be out and about all day, so its a freezer meal and the rest of the salad greens for dinner
Sunday - Dinner with my daughter (she's doing a pasta dish) and Selfcare Sunday
Happy weekend - can August be halfway over??
https://cannaryfamily.blogspot.com/
Back to school! Well, not for the students yet, but I've been back since Monday. Which means my capacity for remembering what we ate has gone down significantly haha. Let's see how it goes!
Sunday: Grilled chicken and corn on the cob. I made a new BBQ sauce recipe last week, and we had enough leftover to do another batch of grilled chicken. So good!
Monday: Curry chicken sandwiches on croissants
Tuesday: Tofu and ground beef cooked with an Omsom bulgogi packet, on top of rice or in lettuce wraps. I want to try some of their other flavors now!
Wednesday: Mac and cheese (toddler request) with fruit and veggies on the side
Thursday: Leftovers
Friday/Saturday: We're going to the lake for the weekend! Which is terrible timing considering school starts on Monday, but I didn't realize it when I agreed to this group trip in March. But it should still be a fun trip 🙂
WIS: $65.86 at Aldi. I think this is our lowest weekly grocery total in a couple of years.
WWA: Sunday night we did a rare thing and went to a venerable local hippie restaurant that does thin crust whole wheat pizza for $2.65 a slice, and then walked down the street to a cupcake place that has palm-size meringue cookies for 75 cents each. Cheap and delicious.
For the rest of the week, lunch is as usual our big meal. I alternated between homemade salmon patties (made with canned salmon) with veggies on the side or Aldi veggie patties with a little barbecue sauce on top and veggies on the side. Both entrees eaten with tangerines and graham crackers. (I eat like a kindergartener.) My husband had a lunch plate of cheese, crackers, fresh veggies, plums, and nuts. For suppers, I had a small bowl of fresh fruit salad with some cottage cheese. Not sure what he ate.
@Ruby, Are you enjoying the tax-free groceries in TN as much as I am?! I’ve done a couple big stock ups. Every little bit helps
@Diane, I did not even know that was going on! I don't follow the news at all (obviously). We have to do a major stock up this weekend, as the freezer is getting somewhat bare and I need to sock away some more canned goods for winter. Thanks so much for the great news!
@Diane, I’m always stunned when I visit a state that taxes groceries and medicine.
@Bee, we live close to the Georgia state line, which has no state tax on food, and there are times when it's worth the trouble to drive over there and do our shopping.
@Diane,
There's no tax on food or medicine here (Maryland) but I guess there is on soda and it must be fairly new because recently I've been looking at my receipt and thinking "what did I buy that wasn't food? Oh...must be the seltzer." I don't think it was taxed before, but maybe it was and I never noticed.
@Ruby, I live in Bristol - which if right on the TN/VA line. It is more convenient for me to shop in TN, but I go to VA for the lower tax: except this month!!
No shopping last week, but tonight will see me hitting the stores.
I ate enough leftover roast beef and veggies and leftover sheet pan chicken and veggies recently to last me a while. So for variety one night I had chicken-topped salad with homemade ranch dressing, and another night I had chicken and cooked carrots and something or other. I froze the other chicken leftovers, as that was enough.
I thawed out a big package of ground beef, so I banged away at it the rest of the week: No-bun hamburgers with carrots/broccoli on the side two nights, skillet meal of ground beef, cabbage and onion one night, and cassava spaghetti with seasoned ground beef, a little broth, and yes, okra to top the spaghetti one night. I cooked the pods whole in the ground beef and broth, and while I wouldn't do it every time, it actually came out pretty well. My okra plants are putting on steadily now, so I'm finding new ways to cook okra.
Roasted butternut squash and onion galette with a side salad
Egg and vegetable fried rice
Grilled chicken, sautéed broccoli, salad with mixed greens, beets, apples, walnuts, queso fresco, and garlic onion dressing
Burrito bowls with rice, pork, cowboy caviar, avocado, lettuce, and chili lime sour cream/mayo sauce on top
Spam musubi and stir fried veggies
Brought potato salad and chocolate chip cookies to a cookout, they also had burgers and chicken and corn on the cob and mac and cheese.
Mushroom stroganoff with pasta and a side salad.
Tonight we are going to have beer battered fried fish, potato pancakes, roasted cauliflower and zucchini, and cole slaw.
@Becca, were you celebrating Spam musubi day on August 8?
This is an off the wall question, but it relates to food. Backstory: dh and I had COVID 8 months ago. It took away completely my sense of taste and smell initially, but I am back to about 25% smell and 50% taste, but that is mostly in sweet things. I am diabetic so that's not as great as it sounds. Also, I am that woman who lights a candle or has a wax warmer going every day. I can't even smell perfume I spray on myself. Come to think of it, 25% may be generous. 🙂
The real issue is that some things I can taste do not taste the same or even right, if that makes sense. I used to saute chicken thighs almost every night and build a meaL around them. Now, they taste weird. Before, I tolerated tuna, now I eat it daily. Frustrating, but I'm definitely eating less. Has anyone dealt with this? After my 3 C-sections, I had this for a few weeks as it's common after most surgeries, but after 8 months, I'm beginning to wonder if they will ever come back.
Fwiw, meals for me for the last 4 months have been a bowl of Rice Kris pies for breakfast, tuna salad on wheat bread and a bowl of Teriyaki Beef noodles - Nissin brand for dinner. I had never bought these noodles in my life, but after buying things to try and see if I could taste them, this was a jackpot for me. Not good healthwise, but they taste good and I'm calling that a victory. Any advice would be appreciated.
@Jennifer,
This is not covid-specific, but my grandmother had a head injury that damaged her sense of taste and smell and she found she could taste onion-flavored things like sour cream and onion potato chips. She used to say "oh! I can taste these! No one else can have them! They're all mine!"
So, I'm thinking maybe you could try onion powder or garlic powder/salt and see if those register for you? If they do, they're pretty cheap and easy to add to just about everything. You might also try buttermilk powder or nutritional yeast as a cheap flavor enhancer. Finally, if packaged noodles are registering for you, maybe msg is what you're tasting? You could try adding it or even the flavor packets from those super cheap ramen noodles to your regular dishes.
@Becca,
Also, and this is covid-specific, ask your doctor about steroidal nose sprays or any other treatments to help regain your sense of smell/taste.
@Jennifer, it took my husband nearly 18 months to close to fully regain his sense of smell. We had a running joke about how great it was that he could scoop the litter box without flinching during that time.
He could also smell oniony-spicy things first. I made something with lots of onions in the slow cooker and he came running into the kitchen to tell me he could smell it cooking.
@Jennifer, Barb Stuckey has a great book on taste (and the senses) and how they work in the body. We are born with the taste of sweet only. A few weeks to months later, we develop the taste of salty. Bitter, sour, and umami develop after that.
There is a chef, Grant Achatz (Chicago: Alinea & Next) who had radiation on his tongue for cancer. He lost all sense of taste. Then, he regained the taste of sweet first, followed by salty, etc.
As you probably know, taste is sweet/sour/unami, bitter, salty. Aroma is tied to olfactory (so if you eat a Jelly Belly without breathing you will only experience if it is sweet or sour, etc. but then when you take a breath, you will then perceive if it is strawberry, lemon or popcorn flavored).
I'm wondering if for the Nissin noodles, you might also be getting a big hit of umami, which you can also get if you sprinkle some MSG on your food (you can buy it in some stores—it looks like sugar or salt and gives great mouth-feel/depth. It is also the chemical equivalent of umami). You might try sprinkling some crushed Szechwan peppercorns as well in place of salt. They give a bit of tingling (might also be in those noodles that you like!) and a chef with whom I work was doing a research project on using these peppercorns to reduce the amount of salt (say on french fries).
I'm so sorry that you have this lingering side effect. Of all of my fears around getting Covid, losing taste/smell was the most frightful.
@Jennifer,
My mom has suffered from lost taste and smell since March/2020 from Covid. Her doctor told her yesterday that Alpha Lipoic Acid has helped many of his patients. It is found in the supplements/vitamin aisle. She started on it this morning, we'll see.
@Jennifer,
I have no advice to give you - but I have a friend at work who caught Covid back in the summer of 2020. Her taste has come back somewhat, but like you, some foods she used to enjoy taste foul to her....or, taste foul one time, and then taste fine the next (and vice versa). Sometimes, she can't taste the actual flavor of the food, but enjoys the texture (like the creaminess of, say, fruit flavored yogurt). She was a picky eater before this happened, and is also concerned about developing an eating disorder - like binging on a food while it tastes good, because "next time" she tries the same food, it might taste foul.
I'm sorry you're experiencing this, and thank you to all who have offered suggestions. I'll pass them on to my friend.
@Jennifer, My husband and I had covid a month ago. Our stomachs growl and we eat. However, we don’t really enjoy it. We seem to be eating a lot of plain chicken and rice. I am taking some steroids now and this has improved slightly. It must have something to do with all the lingering inflammation in the body following the virus.
@Becca, my ds works for a nasal specialist so ill definitely ask him about a spray. I always put lots of garlic salt on my chicken and it hasn't helped yet.
@Blue Gate Farmgirl, I will definitely look into this. Thanks.
@Liz B., I was not a picky eater, per se, but find I am eating less because its such a hassle and not as satisfying as it used to be. I am really just thankful for the few things I can eat happily now.
@Jennifer,
I'm glad you have some things you can eat! My friend has kept up a great attitude.....she has some foods that have stayed consistently tasty to her, and she keeps experimenting to find what works and what doesn't.
The sriracha chicken sandwiches look good! I just logged into ATK and saved the recipe. 🙂 You seem to be much better than I am at finding their recipes that don't take an insane amount of time and/or work.
Sat.: My sister was in town and we went out for a late lunch with her, so we weren't very hungry at dinner time. We had ice cream.
Sun.: We had a late lunch and spent the day working on various projects around the house, so just didn't eat dinner.
Mon.: We had a major water issue at our house and ended up being without water for about 36 hours. So we opted to go out for dinner.
Tues.: Salt Potatoes.
Wed.: Budget Bytes Garlic Noodles with Beef & Broccoli.
Thurs.: One-pot veggie pasta.
Fri.: Leftovers!
@Danielle Zecher, I love budget bytes, but haven't tried that recipe yet. How was it?
@Natalie J, it's one of my favorite recipes from Budget Bytes! It's so GOOD! And it works with lots of different vegetables. I don't care for large chunks of broccoli, so I usually substitute a bag of broccoli slaw. I've also used squash, zucchini, or spinach. I also reduce the butter by about half; otherwise it seems greasy to me.
I make a double batch and we eat the leftovers for a few days.
WIS: $13 at Wegmans and $17 at the Thursday Regional Market Farmers' Market.
WIA: The most enjoyable thing was the Smitten Kitchen tomatoes and cannellini recipe recommended by another commenter--to which I kept adding things for two or three days, finishing up with some rather stale seasoned croutons from the back of the pantry. This addition was amazingly good; it was sort of like eating bruschetta with a spoon!
@A. Marie, that was me! And I'm going to write in a note next time to also add croutons!
@bettafrmdaVille, thanks for both the recipe and the reminder!
@bettafrmdaVille,
Yes, thanks for the recipe. Always lovely when people are willing to share recipes.
It a was very warm and I did not feel like cooking at all. So we heated some leftovers from the freezer on one day and fended for ourselves on another. By then I was feeling guilty about the produce in my fridge, so I pulled myself together and in the evening cooked ahead some potatoes, and rice, and pasta for future days, and we ate (complete blank here, I cannot for the life of me recall!)
Yesterday our eldest cooked a delicious meal because I had to work late. For lunch today I had the leftovers and tonight we will be having cooked ahead pasta salad and potato salad (with greens of course). Unless the guys really want nachos before the avocado's go bad and in that case I can can keep the salads in the fridge for tomorrow.
I have decided to cook more often based on frozen veg, if we have a long hot spell again. I do not want to waste food and nutrion wise, frozen is almost as good as fresh - and better than wilted!
But then we did not do takeout and I will give myself 10 points for that. And 10 more for having the foresight to buy some (sherbet) ice-cream for this week.
This week the family voted for nearly the same dinners as last week, with maybe one variation. Yes, I have my family vote out of a list of our tried and true dishes.
Monday: I honestly can't remember Monday. I could get up and go look at my menu on the fridge...aha, sub sandwiches, watermelon and chips, because it was a hot day and I was slightly migrainey still.
Tuesday: Taco Tuesday, with my signature unseasoned beef, the way everyone likes it (everyone who eats beef, anyway).
Wednesday: Hamburger stew. One of the kids kindly made this, so I could oversee lawn mowing. I always make the largest amount my crockpot can take, and even though I don't eat it (it has soy sauce in it, which I'm avoiding on my migraine elimination diet), and my youngest won't touch it, there are never leftovers. My oldest declared "I could eat this every day of my life and never get tired of it." High praise.
Thursday: Homemade mac and cheese, one pan with leftover ground beef, one without, asparagus, broccoli.
Tonight is salmon burgers, corn on the cob, and probably the last watermelon I'll splurge on this season, and leftover veggies.
All told I've spent $400 at the grocery this week. Some of that is things like toilet paper, laundry detergent and whatnot, but for six people, four of whom are males teenaged and above, on restricted diets, I think that's pretty good! Considering we eat no restaurant food, that's our total food costs.
@Karen,
400 is very good for feeding 5 young men and yourself, especially with food restrictions. Good job, you! I'm dreading when my boys are teenagers, but at this rate, I'm not sure they'll make it that far. Kidding...maybe...
@Karen, I had a 16 day migraine in July. I am convinced mine is all barometric pressure changes related ( & the occasional overindulgence of Chardonnay!). I started Emgality & haven’t had one since. It is nothing short of a Christmas miracle!!!
@Karen, for all those teenage boys u did fine. My husband &I r on low sodium diet &I spend about $200. A week for 2
@Colleen Gold, Isn't it annoying how they charge more for a food product that has something taken out of it?? I try to keep my sodium low as well, and it's tough.
@Diane, Oh my gosh, 16 days! The longest I've had was I think four. And yes, I think the barometric pressure is a factor for sure. Have you ever read Heal Your Headache? I hadn't heard of Emgality, will have to research that.
@Becca, Ha! Well, one of my sons, who is college age, actually eats one large meal a day, so he's not exactly raiding the kitchen all the time. And come to think of it, none of them are big breakfast eaters. But sometimes my poor husband is hoping for leftovers and there are none!
This was a week of travel and jet lag. WWA:
Friday - amazing piri piri chicken (we brought back the spices and will try to replicate), salad, local cheeses, olives in Anadia district
Saturday- cheeseburger, gelato waffle cone
Sunday - surprisingly good buffet in Lisbon airport hotel - beef, rice, yummy green veg medley, smoked salmon, salad, desserts
Monday - airplane food version of a chicken & veg stuffed pastry
Tuesday - finally home and too tired to cook, so take out pad Thai with tofu
Wednesday - rest of the pad Thai
Thursday - beef, bell pepper & onion fajitas (back to cooking)
Friday - probably going to be kielbasa, pierogis, raw veggies
Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend…
@kj, I buy a big jar of Nando's piri piri sauce online and make this: https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/piri-piri-chicken-359750
WWS: $42 fish monger; $13 Market Basket
WWA:
Sat: I did a mystery shop dinner; partner made himself a cheesesteak sub
Sun: roasted miso cod in a ginger cilantro broth. Served with rice and steamed summer squash (from the garden)
Mon: giant salads with grilled halloumi and tomatoes from the garden
Tues: grilled chicken thighs with herbs; summer squash and goat cheese tart (always gets rave reviews: https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/zucchini-and-goat-cheese-tart-3559843); tomato salad
Wed: dinner with parents/sister/friend: roasted salmon with cherry tomato & caper sauce; steamed summer squash; Caprese salad; crostini
Thurs: mystery shop dinner with my mom
Fri: mystery shop dinner with my dad
WWS:$0 - I did not go grocery shopping this week and am very glad to say that I may have reached the point where we are completely stocked up. I still want to can some more tomatoes for the winter but other than that we should be good to go.
WWA:
Saturday: LOTS of house projects were completed and cooking or even reheating energy was non-existent. Drive through burgers and called it good.
Sunday: Tacos with homemade pinto beans, sour cream, salsa, lettuce & tomatoes
Monday: Leftovers
Tuesday: Takeout after many errands
Wednesday: Baked salmon with lemon & dill, warm lentil salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, red onion and basil from our garden (so, so good!), sauteed spinach with red onion & crushed red pepper
Thursday: leftovers
Friday: beef stroganoff, peas
Next week is heavy on appointments so I am going to attempt to batch cook and plan ahead this weekend as much as I can. Lots of garden/yard work in front of me after all of the rain we have had & lots of house projects still to be completed. Giving myself grace as long as we are fed.
Happy weekend friends!
Rough week here, but everyone was fed every night, so gold star for me . . .
Saturday: The last day of the county fair got rained out at the very end, when we would traditionally get our kids hot dogs at the concession stand for dinner. Instead, we came home and I made tacos with about a pound of uncooked ground beef from the night before and half a pint of pressure-canned pinto beans. Also cucumbers, hot chocolate with marshmallows as a consolation for disappointed kids, and then they got into their bags of parade candy while I was reading in bed after dinner and ate a LOT of candy.
Sunday: Pot roast, spaghetti with pesto, sauteed calabacitas/tomatoes/garlic, raw green beans for kids, chocolate ice cream sandwiches leftover from a social at the fair that the lady in charge sent home with us
Monday: Back to work for teacher in-service. Also back to football for my eldest son. I had baked half a dozen potatoes along with the pot roast the day before, so I fried those with the leftover ground beef and bean taco meat in butter with more spices. I did this before going to pick up the football player, and was going to add cheese when it was time to eat, but then I ended up sitting at the field for a very long time, so my husband just fed the younger three with the stuff in the skillet. Also some raw tomatoes.
Tuesday: I was at an off-site training and didn't get home until after dinner, so my husband gave the kids a combination of leftover pot roast, spaghetti with pesto, and calabacitas.
Wednesday: I made taco meat with some onion left from eldest son making himself a onion-heavy omelet, all the Roma tomatoes on the counter, and a bag of processed bull meat. Cucumber spears for a half-hearted vegetable.
Thursday: I had to stop after work to get milk at the tiny village store, and I got a rare-for-me package of flour tortillas while I was there to make a very fast dinner of quesadillas with cheese and the leftover bull meat. Also raw green beans and I brought home four of the giant donuts our nice team of tech guys at school had brought for us. They were from a city bakery, as big as a toddler's face, and covered in chocolate icing. My kids couldn't believe their luck. I don't remember the last time they had donuts.
Friday: No work for me today, yay! I have some pork chops in a pan simmering right now. They were frozen solid, so this is mostly to thaw them and cook them most of the way, so that at dinnertime I can fry them in bacon grease with spices to make them tasty and crispy. I will also make rice, and a tomato and cucumber salad.
We actually ate at home EVERY meal this past week until today. I can't believe it, that never happens.
Sunday- roast beef and baked potatoes
Monday - baked potatoes and sausage sandwiches
Tuesday- baked chicken breasts and broccoli
Wednesday- Shake and Bake pork chops and baked potatoes
Thursday- BBQ crockpot spare ribs and corn
Friday - we grabbed sandwiches while we were out running errands that took hours longer than it should have and I was starved. I'll have left over ribs from yesterday for dinner and hubby will have the other 1/2 of my lunch sandwich.
I'm honestly shocked about us not getting any takeout this week. That's a huge accomplishment. Here's hoping we can do the same next week.
This week has kicked my butt so I'll try to remember what we had, lol
Sat - Spaghetti (sauce was already made and frozen, so it was super easy)
Sun - Pork Tacos (cooked in the crockpot) with all the fixins'
Mon - Burger w/wedge fries (we ordered take out)
Tues - Pulled Chicken, Baked Potatoes, creamed corn and salad
Wed - Burgers (on the grill) and fries
Thurs - Chicken Parm w/fettuccini noodles and salad
Fri (tonight) - Skirt Steak and roasted veggies
I have been hungry for goulash, which my husband does not like. He wanted more cauliflower cheese soup, which I am tired of. My solution was to make a vat of each and he ate his for four nights and one lunch, and I ate mine for five nights. His soup used up more garden cauliflower and mine used some of my tomatoes, so we continue to eat out of the garden. Last night we had mooseburgers and tonight it is grilled salmon with our seldom eaten but much loved home made French fries. I hate the mess of frying and while we could have oven fries, they would not satisfy the urge for the real deal. However the mess is balanced out by the fact that eating goulash or soup all week cut down on dishes the other nights. SO many people on here make exotic (to me) meals but after a lifetime of cooking these days I lean toward easy and familiar.
I’m glad that you were able to enjoy some summer fun with your girls. You are making memories!
WIS - This week I spent $95!!!!! Woot! Woot! This may be the lowest amount that I’ve spent for some time. Every week there is something in the grocery store that absolutely shocks me. This week 20-ounce boxes of Cheerios were $7.98!
WWA - A bland menu because my interest in food - and cooking — has remained low.
Saturday - My husband cooked. He has a narrow repertoire. Hamburgers, French fries, and raw veggies.
Sunday - Stuffed baked potatoes
Monday - Chicken, rice, steamed carrots and sautéed Brussel sprouts
Tuesday- Black-eyed peas, rice and greens
Wednesday- Meat loaf, new potatoes and green beans
Thursday - Perlo to use leftover chicken
Friday - I haven’t decided. I need to go to the market and I’m not certain when we are going to take care of our grand baby. It will be tonight or tomorrow afternoon. Per the conversation yesterday, I think it’s so important for new parents to have time to rejuvenate especially with the first baby. So I take care of the my grandson on Wednesday mornings and once over the weekend. Besides, he’s adorable and I really enjoy cuddling him.
Have a great weekend everyone!
Your meals look delicious! Have you read about the sriracha sauce shortage this year?
It’s been extraordinarily hot (100 degrees +) here and our air conditioning was not working for a bit (thankfully fixed now) so we were eating takeout, salads, and fruit. A stand out meal was yesterday’s salad that I made from Rancho Gordo’s website-scarlet runner bean, spinach, and radish salad. It was delicious and I served grilled boneless pork chops, garlic bread, and melon with it. Today I’m having a big salad with more scarlet runner beans on it for lunch and I think I’d better order more of them from Rancho Gordo because they are delicious.
- I made pizza rolls for an out of town trip, but then we were gone for supper too, so we got Raising Canes for the first time. Definitely plan to try their copy cat sauce recipe!
- Lentil sloppy joes.
- Bean and rice bowls.
- Sandwiches
This week I just wandered around costco getting samples, I let someone else man the cart and pick the food. I did snag a 2 pack of gluten free pizzas and dumped it in. My share was 40 bucks for a week of meals. I've been doing some building this week and playing minecraft marathon in the evening, having what everyone else is eating.
I like this. There must be a catch.
Spent my usual $130 at Aldi and Kroger.
Monday: homemade chicken salad on wheat toast, with lettuce and tomato, chips, Claussen mini dills, and fruit salad.
Tuesday: Skillet lasagna, Caesar salad, garlic bread
Wednesday: ordered Chinese
Thursday: Rotisserie chicken, mashed potatoes, and zucchini casserole
Tonight: Mexican!
So happy to hear of you and your daughters' adventures this summer. So well needed, and now here comes fall.
We're back to six soccer practices/week, so things are pretty crazy. Most of our carpoolers weren't available for various reasons, so it was a lot of driving.
Saturday - flew home from Bend, and I made a couple of frozen Trader Joe options (orange chicken & stir fried rice)
Sunday - my husband grilled burgers, & I made fresh tomato paella to go with it. Needed to use up many, many fresh tomatoes
Monday - I made a double batch of a chicken curry recipe, which used up jalapenos, basil & cilantro from the garden
Tuesday - leftover burgers & paella
Wednesday - leftover curry
Thursday - salmon & the last of the paella
Friday - my son didn't have tennis, for the first time in forever, so we went out to a new Italian place. I had a mushroom & truffle white sauce pizza, that was delicious + beet salad. I'm the only one in my family who enjoys beets, so I try to order it when we're out.
Saturday: Steak, some kind of potato dish, salad
Sunday: ???Can't remember!
Monday: Mississippi Pot Roast, Mashed Potatoes, homemade succotash with fresh butterbeans and canned corn (leftover roast went into freezer for future hoagie sandwiches
Tuesday: Chicken Souvlaki, Rice Pilaf, Tomato and Cucumber Salad
Wednesday: Cubed Steak, Beans and Potatoes, Squash with onions, biscuits
Thursday: Tuna Casserole, Green Peas, Tomato Salad
Friday: Roast Chicken, 3 Bean Salad, Scalloped Potatoes
The only dinner I remember was the Wegman's pizza (mushroom & truffle), which turns out to be pretty good. Today (Saturday) I feel like I'm doing All The Cooking:
- Joe Yonan's Israeli-Style Mung Bean Stew, for Supper Club
- Joe Yonan's Lalo's Cacahuate Beans for lunches
- CI's Minestrone for later and for lunches
- babka, chocolate for Supper Club and cinnamon for Book Club
My fridge also has a lot of the good stuff: canteloupe, cherries, bell peppers, cukes; and some of the not-so-good stuff: gingery sticky-sauce meatballs where the meatballs are too dry (don't use 98% lean ground chicken) and the sauce is only OK. I'm going to mash it, add garlic sauce and maybe some catsup or tomato sauce, and serve over pasta, rice, or couscous cuz I'm too stubborn to waste food.
Yum!! Nice job cooking over there this week! That skillet ziti photo is making me drool . . .
I haven't read other comments... you knew those sandwiches were banh mi, didn't you? I LOVE these Vietnamese sandwiches!
Kind of a riff on a banh mi, right? These didn't seem completely authentic to me!