WIS, WWA | I had a sandwich fail
See Wednesday's meal for evidence of my sandwich fail. 😉
What I Spent
I spent:
- $113 at Aldi
- $30 at Safeway
- $14 on pho
So, $157.
What We Ate
Saturday
We ate an assortment of leftovers and sandwiches.
Sunday
The girls were both out at separate places, and I got a bowl of shrimp pho after a hike.
Monday
I remember that Zoe was working, I don't remember what Lisey ate, and I know I ate a sandwich after I got home from some volunteering at an after-school program.
Tuesday
Breakfast for dinner! We had buttermilk pancakes topped with fruit and whipped cream.
Wednesday
I made ham and cheese grilled sandwiches with sauteed broccoli on the side.
My first effort was...boldly toasted. VERY BOLDLY TOASTED.
I redeemed myself with the next effort.
Thursday
I had planned to make Swiss Mushroom Chicken, but my afternoon ended up getting entirely away from me...so, um, we had boxed mac and cheese and cut-up oranges.
Friday
My brother and his kids are busy tonight, so I'm going out with my sister-in-law. And I'm leaving soup and butternut squash rolls here for my girls.
That should be more delicious than my butternut squash oatmeal from earlier this week. Heh.
Mac and cheese and orange slices sounds good to me. When I was a nanny, I often made boxed Mac and cheese for dinner, but I would throw in a handful of frozen veggies. Cheap, quick, easy, and the kids always ate it, so what's not to love?
WIS: 134.60 @Aldi and 44.56 @Taco Bell for a total of 179.16 this week. Am I the only one who gets unnecessarily annoyed at the steep price of crappy take out? That was for dinner for five people, but still. That one meal was a quarter of what was spent on food all week! Good grief.
WWA:
Fri: salad (mixed greens, mixed nuts and feta cheese) and pepperoni and mozzarella focaccia.
Sat: salad (mixed greens, pink strawberries and green pepitas) and the other half of the cheese and sausage lasagna from the week before.
Sun: salad (romaine, tomatoes, orange peppers and feta), jasmine rice, air fried Brussels sprouts, maple glazed tuna steaks and brie sourdough bread ring.
Mon: pink, purple and blue salad (purple lettuce, pink strawberries, blueberries and feta), tofu and bean chili with shredded Colby jack cheese and tortilla chips.
Tue: this was the taco bell night, but I still made a salad to go with it because 1. I need to eat vegetables that are not slimy shredded iceberg lettuce, and 2. Even at 44.56 it was not enough food! The salad had romaine, sliced carrots, sliced purple radish, pepitas, raisins and leftover Colby jack shreds.
Wed: spinach and tomato salad topped with shredded mozzarella, homemade chicken and dumpling soup and snowflake blue raspberry ice cream cones for dessert (a .99 clearance Aldi find)
Thu: salad (lettuce, tomatoes, pepitas, raisins, shredded mozzarella) and pasta carbonara, then we had buttered slices of sourdough bread because we were still a little hungry.
Tonight: not sure. Definitely salad and probably focaccia too, but we are out of pepperoni, so maybe veggie and cheese instead?
Happy FriYAY, everyone!
@Becca, yuuuum Taco Bell...I have recently discovered their fries, of all things. remember when you could get the bean and cheese tacos for 59 cents? Cheap thrills!
@Becca, we had a fast-food problem on the road over Christmas — in a town with only two take-out places and 40 miles from anywhere. I carefully made an order using the Wendy's app for $30, which I thought was great for six humans, but for some reason the franchise location was undersupplied — basically they should've closed. No burgers, no fries, no chicken nuggets. The other option was Subway. We shared sandwiches and it was still just short of $80. Insanity. Cold cuts! There is no excuse for that.
@Becca,
I am intrigued by this brie sourdough ring. I need to re-do my sourdough starter so for now I'd probably do regular dough but tell me if its more than what it sounds like.
I'm assuming roll out into a rectangle, place brie hunks on it, fold and seal, make ring shape, and bake???
Why I haven't ever thought to stuff bread with brie I don't know, but it sounds really good!
@gina, I love that your fam is having salad almost every day! You’re inspiring me to buy some greens with my grocery run this week. One of my favorites is salad greens w/ cut up pear, roasted walnuts, and cheese (I like blue cheese w/ this but the kids ball at that so we usually do a mild goat cheese or feta.
@Becca, take out food prices - oh my and yuck! We used to budget for fast food a night or so a week as a way to "buy sanity" for me, but now even that is out of the picture! Trying to increase my easy meal options, but having trouble with my picky eaters. Sigh.
@gina, I like Taco Bell, but my cheap go-to (bean burrito) used to be 79c, then $1.29, then 1.79, now $2.69!!! Can’t justify that! But special today was a chicken & rice burrito for $2, which was pretty good.
@Jaime,
What you're describing sounds tasty, but that is not what it is. Basically, he makes a ring of dough around the empty brie box, cuts the top of the brie rind off, snips cuts around the outer bread ring (like you do to make epi), then plunks the brie into the box and bakes the whole shebang. The recipe is from his cookbook "artisan sourdough made simple" by Emilie Raffa. I'm not sure I'm describing it properly, but it's super tasty, and everything from this cookbook is good, so maybe look for it at the library or used online? I would say it's even worth buying new if you are into sourdough baking. You could try what you were envisioning too and maybe report back.
@Laura,
That sounds amazing! I love fruit and cheese in salads!
@Dorinda,
Might I suggest Mac and cheese with a handful of frozen veggies tossed into the pasta water?
Also, when nannying, I would make those rice a Roni boxed rice packages and add frozen veggies to those as well. You could also add chopped hotdogs or shredded precooked chicken. I was vegetarian at the time, so I never bothered, but would probably add some meat now to boost the protein content.
Back then, one package of Mac and cheese or one rice package was enough for dinner for me and two boys aged between 4 and 8, but I'm not sure nowadays. It seems to me that boxes have less product in them. I always need two Mac and cheese boxes for me and my three kids (husband won't eat it) and we always have other stuff with it too, so must be less pasta now.
@Becca, mac and cheese and hotdogs with a side of apple slices or carrots is our weekly Sunday lunch menu. That way I never have to figure out on my "rest day" what I'm cooking (and often the boys make that meal for me now!). I'm so thankful for that easy meal, but... I haven't tried adding the veggies in it. I might need to try that. 🙂 Thanks for taking time to encourage me and share ideas!
@Becca, My Mom would make mac and cheese with cooked macaroni and melted in Velveeta with a bit of milk. Don't know the proportions. Might be less expensive than boxes, or easier to control size.
@Becca, when we fast food it, I just usually get the cheaper Pizza Hut pizzas off the Deals section. There are three of us and one is a hungry teenage boy so this usually works. I just have to hold back and not add breadsticks or that nice cold soda! When I last got us all a burger fast food meal, it was so high that I promised Not Again. Life happens, so you know I will….
@Becca, I have noticed this about boxed Mac and cheese too. It seems to make so little. I usually add a bit more pasta from my pantry since there is plenty of cheese.
@Becca,
I'll check out that book. I want to like sourdough, and I usually do from the store, but when we did our own starter last January...I didn't love it. I'm thinking it might have been because I chose to do a whole wheat starter. Maybe, who knows?
@Jaime,
Definitely try it with regular AP flour, but make sure it's unbleached.
We leaned hard into the “Teenage Mutant Nina Turtles Pizza Cookbook” this week, not that that’s a bad thing. 😛 I tried a yeast-free pizza dough recipe that we now prefer over yeast dough, so much so that we used it twice in three days! https://www.budgetbytes.com/no-yeast-pizza-dough/
As always, any and all recipes have had as much salt omitted as possible in compliance with my husband’s medically required diet. If a recipe seems awfully cheesy, know that I cut the cheese (ahem) by 1/3 to 1/2 and/or use a low-sodium option.
Side note: The centerpiece of my husband’s work lunches for the week alternated between hard-boiled eggs and homemade burgers, with yogurt, fruit, and/or nuts on the side. He works a very physical job, so trying to keep him full while following the low-salt diet is always an adventure. Breakfast for both of us was oatmeal unless otherwise noted.
—Monday: BBQ Mac & Cheese, very much my own recipe and very much memorized—it’s my husband’s most frequent request! I adapted it years ago from an online pasta recipe he wanted to try, but everything in it (SO MUCH SALT, as in comical amounts even for a normal person) was a strike against his diet.
—Tuesday: Four Cheese, Four Bros Pizza! Mozzarella, Monterrey jack, Parmesan, and ricotta over olive oil and garlic, with black pepper. This one was made pricier thanks to using Kite Hill almond milk ricotta, which is very much its own flavor and a definite splurge ($7.50 on sale for 8 oz). Half the ricotta package went on the pizza, all other cheeses were cut back. We had salad on the side. My husband ate all of his half of the pizza (12” diameter, for reference); mine was both dinner and breakfast.
—Wednesday: Apple crisp in the crockpot, thanks to Budget Bytes. https://www.budgetbytes.com/easy-apple-crisp/ Salt omitted completely. This makes four servings and so made both dinner and breakfast. A scoop from the remaining half of the Kite Hill ricotta was served alongside each serving. We had salad on the side again.
—Thursday: Raph’s Rude Shrooms! Caramelized onions, mushrooms, mozzarella, Gruyère, ALL the garlic, and rosemary over NYC-style pizza sauce (sauce recipes are also in the pizza cookbook). Salt omitted completely from the sauce, cheese amounts cut down. Since this pizza is all about the mushrooms and onions, we counted that as our salad. 😉 My husband ate all of his half; mine was both dinner and breakfast.
—Friday: BBQ Mac & Cheese again—like I said, it’s my most requested dish! (I think the longest we’ve gone between requests is two weeks.) It’s trying to feel like January outside after a warm snap, and this dish is spicy, gooey comfort food, especially when he’s been working out in the cold.
This weekend will be a veggie gauntlet to make up for the week’s relative cheesiness and carbs. I’ve been craving roasted Brussels sprouts, so that’s definitely happening!
@N, who knew turtles could cook? Thanks for the enlightenment! 😉
@N,
As a dietitian who works with cardiac patients, I applaud your efforts to prepare foods that are low in sodium for your hubby's medical needs. It's sometimes extremely difficult to convince people to follow it - and I fully admit, making changes in the way you eat and cook is challenging at best - and even harder if they can't or don't cook. You're doing a great job!
@Bobi, they’re darn good at pizza, anyway! 😉
@Liz B., I wasn’t aiming for plaudits, but thank you so much! That’s just been reality in our kitchen for close to a decade. I have only posted WWA a few times because I feel like it’s unfair to not mention what we change in a recipe, but sometimes that gets both elaborate and repetitive. Minimal salt means we’ve become spice wizards, which definitely makes adjustments easier, more inventive, and more fun vs. “Ugh, how do I make this and not tank my husband’s numbers?!”
@N, have you/would you share the BBQ M&C recipe?
@Jenny, sure thing! I just had to remember where I’d written it down to save for a friend.
BBQ Mac & Cheese
Makes 4 Servings, or 2 Mighty Ones
½ lb lean ground red meat (hamburger, bison, or game meat works. I've even used leftover strips of low sodium bacon!)
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
½ cup chopped onion
2 big cloves of garlic, minced
2 teaspoons dried basil
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1/2 can (7-8 oz) salt free tomato sauce
1 TBSP sugar
1 TBSP soy sauce
2 teaspoons chili powder
Freshly ground black pepper
1 cup dried elbow macaroni or short noodle of choice
½ cup shredded cheese, any kind (Kite Hill almond milk ricotta ROCKS with this)
Directions
Heat a large pan or skillet over medium heat; stay at this temperature throughout. Add the beef and onions, cooking them together until no pink beef remains, about 5 minutes.
Once the beef and onions are cooked, add the garlic, tomato sauce, and spices. Stir together thoroughly, then add the macaroni. Stir thoroughly again, then add 1 ½ cups of water. Cover the skillet and let simmer. Stir every five minutes or so, until the macaroni is tender and most of the liquid has been absorbed--15-20 minutes depending on the thickness of the noodles. (I always use Trader Joe's oversize macaroni noodles, so it’s closer to 20 minutes.) When the noodles start gently sticking to the bottom of the pan, TURN OFF the heat. Stir again, then sprinkle the cheese on top. Cover the skillet, double-check that you TURNED OFF the heat, and let sit for 10 minutes. Serve!
First, Kristen, about your "boldly toasted" sandwich: My mother always used to say that "charcoal is good for the stomach" when this happened.
Now, WIS: $16.50 at our winter farmers' market at the Regional Market, $4 at Aldi, $41 at Price Chopper, and $17 at Wegmans.
WIA: In my most impressive effort of the week, I made a shrimp and turkey stock with some shrimp shells and turkey bones from the freezer. I then made a chicken and shrimp gumbo with the stock.
I also had a couple of salads that included my main indulgence of the week: smoked trout from the Regional Market. (One set of farmers who are only there in the winter sell trout that they raise and smoke themselves. Yum yum.)
@A. Marie,
My mom, similarly to yours, always says “charcoal is good for you” when serving anything a little toasty. I also have adopted this saying….
My boys both deny this fact often citing medical evidence which I soundly refute with by replying “incorrect …both your momma and granny say this and we are both still alive”. They dutifully scrape off the burnt bits off their toast. I just laugh 🙂 🙂
@Joanne in the U.K., If you rub two charcoaled sandwiches together the char will scrape off.
@Heidi Louise,
Rubbing two charcoaled sandwiches together is an activity reserved for those who don't have two nickels to rub together instead. 😉
If I burn one side, I generally burn the other so I've never followed the suggestion to just remove the burned piece and put on a fresh one.
I spent 93 this week.
We had smoothies and apple pie oatmeal one night. Homemade Burritos and salads two nights. Sandwiches and fruit last night. Pizza and a bagged salad tonight.
Very uninspired but we were fed.
WIS: Trucchi's $18
Friday: Instant pot lemon chicken with carrots and mashed potatoes
Saturday: Frozen pizza
Sunday: Rigatoni casserole with garlic bread from bread on the discount shelf ($1.50) & side salad
Monday: Left over
Tuesday: Left over
Wednesday: Trader Joe Mandarin orange chicken and fried rice.
Thursday: French bread ham & cheese grinders (from remainder of half price bread) I bought Sat.) (Easy meal after spending day with 4-year-old grandson)
I had gone to Trucchi's after a free talk at the library last week about soups. He served a sample of a tomato bisque. I am not a tomato soup/juice person, but I do like spaghetti sauce. The tomato bisque was very good. I bought ingredients on the way home. Have not had it yet--Think that will be tomorrow night. Tonight I am going out to dinner with my coworkers for our holiday celebration.
@JEG, We had your Wednesday dinner last night. It's a staple (favorite of my 16 y.o.), and a perfect meal to keep in the freezer.
My favorite meal that I remember is Alphabet Soup-- a big pot of it. I used a sirloin steak for the broth and lots of veggies (including cheap leeks and home-canned tomato juice). One of the veggies was cabbage, and I had purple cabbage I needed to use. That made for purple-ish ABC's when it was served up for lunch a couple of days later.
Mac and cheese from a box is so nostalgic - I have eaten lots in my day. Mostly as a kid or hungry college student. But also, it was hard to stay out of it when I made it for my kids! This week:
Monday - Tilapia, kale, garlic mashed potatoes
Tuesday - Grilled Chicken Breast, a small serving of rice, brussels sprouts
Wednesday - Patty Melt with onion and tomato, fries {made 1/4 pound patties and froze three of them}
Thursday - Rotisserie Chicken {froze 2/3 of it for future meals and plan to make broth with the carcass}, rest of the leftover masheds, kale}
Tonight - Coconut Shrimp, a baked potato, broccoli
Saturday - Cheesy Enchiladas, corn, and maybe the rest of that kale {I hate wasting it because it was pricey and I do like kale, but boy! was that a big bag of kale}
Sunday - Cranberry Gorgonzola Salmon Patty, rest of the brussels sprouts, rice
My grocery bill this week was $53, but that included a spur of the moment garam masala rotisserie chicken that I HAD TO try, and it will make three meals and a pint or two of bone broth.
Happy Weekend!
https://cannaryfamily.blogspot.com/
@gina,
Ooh, garam masala rotisserie chicken does sound good! How was it?
@Becca, it was good, not heavy on the seasoning. At $7.99 each HEB has pricier rotisserie chickens than Costco, but they were fresh and hot and perfect for me since I get so much out of them.
I have been known to strategically apply a rasp when I have sandwich fails like that.
@WilliamB, yup, that works--or a cheese grater or even a metal spatula to scrape off the edges. Sometimes those grilled sandwiches get away from you. 😉
This week we were hit by a stomach bug, so we lived on crackers and Powerade. But we're back to normal now and I'm excited to read about everyone else's delicious meals!
Sandwich question: Do you ever have leftover sandwich filling? What do you do with it? I like the idea of sandwiches for dinner, but I rely on leftovers for lunch and sandwiches generally don't seem to pack very well (the bread never holds up). But I'm debating doing sandwiches anyways and have a backup lunch ready.
@Natalie J,
When I take sandwiches for lunch, I either pack the filling and bread separately or I butter the bread inside, edge to edge, first, to help keep the filling from soaking the bread.
@Natalie J, I toast my bread if I'm taking it for lunch. Also, keeping the juicy items, like tomatoes, in separate containers helps. It's pretty easy to assemble at lunch.
So the question is, did anyone eat the boldly toasted (made me laugh) sandwich? Because I totally would have scraped it and served it.
Saturday: Leftover pork from the large pork shoulder I had cooked a couple of days previous, bread and butter, green salad with ranch dressing, cookies I had made to use up an open can of condensed milk
Sunday: Braised chicken and potatoes, frozen green peas, ice cream
Monday: Leftover tamales (from the big batch I had made before Christmas, part of which I froze and steamed for Epiphany on Sunday). I had very sadly forgotten my lunch at home when I went to work, so I had my lunch chicken soup and cheese for my dinner. It was delicious.
Tuesday: Sirloin steaks, garlic bread, carrot sticks with curry dip (mayonnaise+sweet curry powder)
Wednesday: Chicken quesadillas for the kids--flour tortillas with cheese, leftover chicken and salsa. Various leftover meats and tamales for my husband. Various raw vegetables from the Misfits Market box I got this day (first one in many months--I don't know why I'm so reluctant to start getting them again after the garden is done). And I sauteed some of the green beans from that box with leftover chicken and had that with a microwaved sweet potato from the produce box.
Thursday: My husband was home with the three younger ones. He made them buckwheat pancakes. I was at teacher meetings at school, and then the basketball games. I raided my son's classroom snack box and ate some of his Cheez-its in between the two things. Then, while my oldest son had a concession stand burrito after his game, I grabbed a Larabar from the teacher's workroom. And for dessert, when I got home I ate the cold, leftover bites of pancakes from my other childrens' plates. The Life of a Mom. 🙂
Tonight: I think bunles cheeseburgers, oven roasted potatoes, maybe steamed broccoli and carrots. But I just woke up, and my dinner plans tend to morph over the course of the day, so we'll see. There will be food, though!
I took the burnt sides off of the two sandwiches I was making, added a fresh slice of bread to that side, and a fresh piece of cheese, and finished the sandwich.
But the boldly toasted pieces? They went in the trash!
@kristin @ going country, When I've burned one side of a sandwich I often peel the burned part off and forge ahead with the unburned piece, using another piece of bread to remake the sandwich.
@kristin @ going country,
Does your husband make the buckwheat pancakes just substituting the buckwheat flour for AP flour?
I am getting buckwheat flour in a grain share I purchased that I am picking up next month. I've only made noodles once. Pancakes is something I had not thought of.
@Karen A., Yeah, I just use a butter knife to scrape off the burned parts and serve it. And I am totally going to tell my kids next time that charcoal is good for the stomach. 🙂 (Some people believe it is, anyway. Witness the popularity of activated charcoal products.)
@Jaime, Pretty much. He used to make them all the time as sourdough pancakes--starting it the night before--using the buckwheat flour, which I think is better. It somewhat mitigates the unique flavor of buckwheat, if you're not accustomed to it. Also, we would more frequently serve them with sour cream and jam than maple syrup, for the same reason. Buckwheat flours vary greatly in the intensity of their flavor. Some are very dark and strong tasting, some not as much. We also really like cream of buckwheat cereal. We buy it online.
@kristin @ going country,
Thanks for the tips. I think I will have to try it.
@Jaime, buckwheat is used in the making of Russian blini, so you can look up tons of recipes on line. I grew up eating them so American pancakes taste sort of bland to me. And our pancakes were savories, not sweet at all.
@Lindsey,
I'll check it out. I am much more a savory person than sweet.
WWS: $7, Star (loss leaders); $4 Market Basket; $50 Mystery Shop groceries (will be reimbursed).
WWA:
Sat: ramen using homemade pork stock from carnitas and homemade chicken stock mixed with miso & ginger, topped with egg, Asian pork from freezer, roasted broccoli.
Sun: chicken and dumplings, roasted broccoli
Mon: pork carnitas over giant salads
Tues: see Sunday
Wed: out to dinner for work: oysters, caviar & grouper
Thurs: see Sunday
Friday: mystery shop on long commute home from work apartment (different state from home Tues-Friday)
I spent about $78 at my budget grocery store; this is generally unheard of, food prices here are through the roof, even at my cheaper budget store (I saw broccoli at $4.69 and lettuce was $4.49, I went into shock!). Most of the time I'm in the $130+ range a week, and that's for only 2 people. I have been uninspired of late (6+ months!) when it comes to my cooking, I meal plan and then don't feel like making what I planned and just wing it with the ingredients into something simple. I'm hoping my cooking mojo comes back. (I generally love to cook).
Monday I made Leek and Potato soup. This lasted for a couple of meals, plus I had some for breakfasts which was lovely.
Tuesday I made Smoky Beef Stroganoff with Cremini mushrooms. That also lasted a few meals. Also cucumber slices and wedge tomatoes on the side.
In between, I also made salami sandwiches for me, and HB got Corned beef sandwiches (toasted).
I was thinking of Kristen while I was shopping, in regards to whipping cream (35% cream), no shortage here. My store had it on sale: $7 for 1L (usually $7.79): and $2.49 for 473mL (usually $4.49). And since it has a long expiry (well into February), I bought a few. We love it in coffee, and HB adds some to his cereal with milk.
$264 total at the grocery store this week. I am pretty pleased with the steps we've taken to overcome rising food prices. They're not as bad here as other places, but we've noticed hikes in things. My husband is a great shopper.
We had leftover ham from Epiphany on Friday, so some of that went on our homemade pizzas on Saturday and Sunday.
Monday: Leftover ham, storebought roast chicken and a turkey breast, mashed potatoes and gravy. I felt a little smug about having overbought gravy before Thanksgiving--I was out getting prescriptions and nabbed a brand we don't usually buy, and stashed it away. I am always worried about low stock before Thanksgiving. Anyway, my husband was making the mashed potatoes and said offhandedly that he'd forgotten to get gravy, but Lo! There were three cans in the pantry he didn't know about. Ha. Delicious meal. And it made space in the pantry.
Tuesday: Kid #2 made burgers and tater tots.
Wednesday: Kid #1 made hamburger stew, using some leftover beef from pizza night and burgers from Tuesday, but kindly leaving two whole patties for Kid #4 who doesn't like stew but does like burgers.
Thursday: Kid #3 made taco bar, and I used Kristen's trick of refreshing lettuce and enjoyed a huge taco salad. Normally I don't use lettuce up fast enough, but this trick works and I'm only sorry it's taken me 49 years to learn this trick! No more wasted lettuce here!
Tonight is ham and bean crockpot soup, with the hambone I saved from the very very large ham. The bone was so big I had to ask my husband to saw it in half to make it fit in the crockpot! It was a pretty fatty ham, less meat than we expected for its size. But there should be enough meat to flavor the soup. I'll make cornbread in the toaster oven as well. And probably a grilled cheese for Kid #4, who is anti-soup.
My dad would prefer his potatoes just the teensiest bit burned - like with a light brown edge. He would be sincerely happy whenever that happened which was rare.
WWA:
Sa Pasta with slowcooker ragu (froze a large portion for later);
Su Potatoes and cauliflower topped with grated cheese, and sausage. Pear tatin for dessert;
Mo Roasted beetroot with sausage;
Tu Baked beans with applesauce and bacon - easy meal;
We Shepherds pie made from last of leg of lamb (Christmas) and mashed potatoes and celery on top, with braised red cabbage and applesauce on the side
Th Home alone: an autumn flavour dish using up the following odds and ends: onion, mushrooms, chickpeas, a spoonful of bacon fat, the last few roasted red beetroots, a pear, topped with some Brie leftover from the holidays. I had yoghurt with the last spoonfuls of applesauce for dessert. A meal fit for a Queen in my opinion;
Fr not sure yet. I am considering millet with vegetable curry, almonds and baked bananas, but I also have a stray package of pancake mix that I want to use up.
Just listing our own dinners, our eldest had afternoon shifts and didn't get home until 10 pm. I made him cooked dinners all week just like we had unless there was a dish he doesn't like, then he had assorted leftovers I keep just for that purpose.
Sunday: Pasta with meat sauce
Monday: Scrambled eggs with mushrooms, sauteed broccoli
Tuesday: Hot and sour soup with chicken--a dud. Turns out we don't like it with dark meat.
Wednesday: Chicken stir-fry with bok choy, rice
Thursday: Pizza
Friday: We're planning to have meatloaf, roasted vegetables, green beans, and some leftover frozen latkes.
This is also the week that we bought a bread machine! It's now $3.50-$6.00 a loaf at our local store. Flour is $6.50 and a bag makes 5-6 loaves, and since we go through three loaves of bread a week, I'm hoping it'll be worth it.
I'm using a new to me tool (convection oven) and I have had a few of those boldly toasted sandwiches. So far not so bad I had to toss the sandwich. With the price of bread I can't afford that. I just scrape the black off. I like William's idea to use the grater (raspe).
A microplane or cheese shredder helps get rid of that charcoal. My dad loved things with a bit of black on them, although that sandwich in the picture might have been a little too black for even him.
I didn't grocery shop last week, so nothing spent there except about $8 for a stock up item I saw on sale while picking up a couple of snacks for my husband. I don't include his snacks in my grocery budget.
What I ate:
Let's see, I baked a pan of pork chops and roasted some broccoli at the same time, plus made a pan of honey carrots. I had chops with that and again with from-the-freezer collards and some fresh cranberry sauce. The chops made two lunches as well.
I ate some farm-made brats with sweet potato salad and a slaw made of carrots, celery, onion, and cucumbers. I had that twice as well.
One night I had chicken gizzards with carrots and spinach on the side.
I took out the leftovers of roast beef from last week and made a sandwich with gluten-free bread and had fruit salad on the side.
Tonight is TBD. I'll be grocery shopping after work today.
@JD, how do you prepare chicken gizzards?? Inquiring minds want to know.
@A. Marie,
I really like them fried with the cut up chicken, but they are kind of tough unless I parboil them first, and I usually don't take the time. What I do these days is to put them in water in my mini-crockpot and season the water with salt, my version of pepper (ganthoda powder) and whatever sounds good, like garlic or rosemary. I let them cook on low while I'm at work, then drain them (my dogs love the liquid) and either do a quick shallow fry of them with a little flouring to put a light crust on them, or just season them some more and eat them plain. I like the flavor of gizzards, so plain is not a problem for me. My doctor urges me to eat organ meat, and I find gizzards to be one of the easier options.
Saturday - 2 year old came down with a stomach flu so it was an exhausting day (so much laundry!) We got Chinese takeout
Sunday - a second exhausting day although she was feeling a bit better though. Big snack plate for dinner (cheese, crackers, fruits, veggies, basically what I would eat for dinner every night if i could haha) and a lot of garlic bread because I really wanted garlic bread.
Monday - 4 year old came down with same stomach flu, laundry time continued! We had defrosted a bone-in turkey breast ahead of the weekend, with the idea my husband would smoke it and then the rest of my weeks recipes were based on using the turkey meat. We never got around to smoking it but since it was defrosted and I needed it for my meals that week, I somehow managed to get it roasted and carved, even while working from home and with sick kids, it felt like quite an achievement! It was just my husband and I eating that night so we had it with leftover Au gratin potatoes and leftover garlic bread.
Tuesday - everyone healthy again, yay! I made potato basque soup and served with some leftover rolls from the freezer
Wednesday - my husbands turn to catch that stomach flu. He didn’t eat, kids and I had turkey and cheese quesadillas and corn.
Thursday - Our new fridge was delivered and it was a bit chaotic, with some food in a cooler, some food in the old fridge in the garage, I wanted to get things out away in the new fridge but the kids were going crazy because anything new is very exciting for them haha I scrapped my original dinner plan and made a frozen pizza.
Friday - still have a lot of leftover turkey because I did not end up using most of my original meal plan! So probably turkey pot pie or a turkey and rice casserole
I use a table knife to scrape off the burnt parts of the sandwich, since that's what I grew up doing.
My mother-in-law's mother purposefully burnt her toast when her kids were little, so that she would have something to eat. But then my MIL got to liking burnt toast (she still toasts it more on the side of burnt). LOL They were extremely poor so I suppose she was just doing what she had to do to make sure she got a few bites to eat in the morning? It's kind of sad but funny.
January is eat from the freezer and pantry month with shopping limited to diary, produce, and the odd staple. We are mostly on track. WWA:
Saturday - chicken & veggie stir fry, rice, and store bought birthday cake (last visit with our young adults before they returned to their own home a thousand kilometres away)
Sunday - pork leg steaks, pan fried potatoes, and sauerkraut (these were all supposed to be used for sauerkraut soup but plans changed last minute), last of the birthday cake
Monday - I went out for dinner with work colleagues. I thoroughly enjoyed the company, the coconut shrimp, and sweet potato fries.
Tuesday - beef and two bean chili, tortilla chips
Wednesday - leftovers
Thursday - freezer meal
Friday - planning to make a sausage and veggie sheet pan dinner
Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend
Boldly toasted...LOL!!
WIS: $73.86 @ Kroger
WWA:
Saturday: Vegetable Beef Soup
Sunday: Leftovers
Monday: Leftover soup for some and my son got a sandwich from Jersey Mike's & I got a salad
Tuesday: I cooked chicken breasts in the crockpot with salsa & shredded them- we had chicken tacos with all the fixings
Wednesday: pot roast over riced cauliflower, sauteed zucchini & onions, and baked sweet potatoes
Thursday: tilapia, leftover zucchini & onions, riced cauliflower, steamed broccoli with lemon, leftover sweet potatoes
Friday: I am defrosting some ground turkey and we will have some chili for dinner tonight
This week we ate:
Monday: Leftover black bean enchiladas + berry/banana smoothies
Tuesday: Taco Tuesday w/ homemade black beans
Wednesday: hubby ordered pizza and zucchini sticks as I wasn’t feeling well
Thursday: homemade veggie fried rice w/ broccoli, green peppers, carrot, peas, egg, & peanuts. Veggie spring roles and peanut dipping sauce on the side
Friday: planning for sweet + sour stir fry over rice. We’ll make one pan w/ pork & one w/ tempeh for the vegetarians in our fam. Need to chop up bell peppers & onions sometime…
Trying to remember....
Last night, roast chicken. Son bought one of the "hand-fed by MIT PhDs, you need to take out a second mortgage to afford it" chickens. Along with stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes and green beans. I managed to eat small portions of each, which I count as a win. Will make the leftovers into soup for tonight.
Wednesday night, steak for my son, baked potato. Daughter fended for herself. I ate nothing.
Tuesday night, tortellini. I ate one tortellini and it hurt going down.
Monday, mac and cheese. Homemade--I've never had it from a box. I didn't eat any.
Sunday, takeout pizza. I had half a slice.
@Rose, your description of what kind of chicken it was made me laugh. 🙂
Friday – We attended my husband’s office holiday party!
Saturday – As a thank you for watching the dogs while we were out of town on Friday night, my husband and I took my parents out for dinner at a fun local restaurant.
Sunday – my dad left a whole smoked chicken in the fridge so I used it to make Smoke Chicken Tortilla Soup. I used the chicken bones to make stock for this soup only as I wanted to capitalize on all the smokiness but I knew I couldn’t use it for other soups.
Monday – Chicken Parmesan Meatballs over noodles. I left the breading off the meatballs because I knew there would be leftovers and I didn’t want them to be soggy.
Tuesday – Taco Tuesday! Paired with roasted cauliflower and black beans.
Wednesday – Shepherd’s Pie and salad.
Thursday – Butternut Squash Pasta and salad. We still have a few squashes left from our CSA. None of us love butternut squash, but I pureed it to use as a sauce and everyone ate without complaint. Maybe it was the pancetta in the sauce …
It seems like no matter how much I work on using all the odds and ends in the freezer and pantry there are always odds and ends. I guess it just means I get to continue flexing my food creativity muscles.
@Geneva, does your dad smoke his own chicken, or is this something you can buy locally where you live? I love smoked anything, so I'm curious.
@Geneva,
Chicken parm meatballs sound delicious!
WIS: $83.74. About $79 of that was for people food.
WWA: Pot roast with veggies that made plentiful leftovers through Tuesday. Wednesday DH and I ate out: salad for me, grilled salmon for him. Thursday: Roasted chicken drumsticks, carrots with coriander, baked apples, corn on the cob, Kraft mac and cheese, chocolate pudding. Friday: Leftover chicken, carrots and applesauce.
Every time you post about the swiss mushroom chicken I always say "I need to make that" and I always forget. Maybe this coming week...
Between last weeks low spend, this weeks stock up of coffee and flour, my husband purchasing 3 whole chickens (bonus I guess is lots of stock), and the return of the farmers market after a 2 week hiatus...this was a high spend week.
WIS: Butcher shop-$34; Wegmans-$150; the Star-$2.50; Neighborhood Produce $31; Farmer's Market- $89; TGTO- $27; Local flour shop $33; Milk delivery-$20.50; Bean box-$38 Total: $425
WWA: Saturday: Linguini and clams (swordfish for husband)...I forget what was on the side
Sunday: Chicken enchiladas, corn & rice
Monday: Beef Stew (SK one posted on here last week with the mustard-Definitely a different take on beef stew but I liked it) and buttermilk biscuits
Tuesday: Leftover chicken enchiladas, rice and corn over lettuce with salsa on top
Wednesday: Leftover beef stew
Thursday: Mango-habanero chicken wings, marinated artichoke and pancetta pizza
Fri: some pasta concoction most likely with a cream sauce, mushrooms, marinated artichokes, and maybe spinach
*Becca, I was able to get a bakers dozen of local whole wheat bagels (retail $5.99/4 @ Whole Foods) for $4.99 on TGTO. Made a breakfast bake w/ some, ate some, and the rest will be croutons/breadcrumbs today 🙂
@Jaime,
Nice. Because my husband is so good at baking bread and bagels, etc I keep ignoring the bakery ones, but I bet he couldn't even make a dozen bagels for that price! Also...what I desperately want to see is a local Ethiopian place on that app. I would definitely drive out at 4 in the morning for anything on injera!!!
@Becca,
We haven't tried much Ethiopian food. I think once maybe did we go to a restaurant for it. My husband keeps saying he wants to go sometime so its on the list.
Let's see, we had:
-Barbecued burgers with fries, 2x
-Chicken curry with basmati rice, 2x
-Ground beef tacos, 2x
-Trader Joes orange chicken & fried rice (I'm trying to get rid of a bag of corn in the freezer, as I've discovered how much I intensely dislike it in any recipe where you can really taste the flavor. So, I used a small handful in the rice. It was just on the cusp of "too much corn", but worked fine, and will be my plan to get rid of the corn - in phases.
@Hawaii Planner,
Hahaha! Corn phases!!! Hahaha!
I toasted a sandwich worse than that once. For the rest of its days (many years later), the pan showed the outline of the bread slice.
DH’s week to cook.
Sunday-pizza (FG recipe!)
Monday-baked chicken nachos
Tuesday-ramen bowls
Wednesday-leftovers
Thursday-Mexican take-out
Friday-lamb burgers
Sides included broccoli, salads, and oranges.
On Saturday, we ate stir fry with oranges on the side. On Sunday, one kid at ate BSA and my husband took the other kid out for burgers while one kid and I hosted Girl Scouts for a Simple Meals merit badge. On Monday, we ate chicken, potatoes, and roasted cauliflower. On Tuesday, we ate spaghetti and mealballs with pears and broccoli. On Wednesday, we had basil balsamic chicken over lettuce or leftover rice with pears and fresh vegetables. On Thursday, I didn't get the soup on in time so we had chicken nuggets, corn, and blueberries. Tonight, we will probably eat leftovers or make pizza.
This week is the first week that I have really been hit with the price of groceries lately. I normally shop at Trader Joe's, which at least by me hasn't been hit too badly with inflation, and a few local farms. I went to Sprout's and Albertson's this week and woweee!!!
Sunday- my parents are trying to eat out their fridge and freezer before they leave on another RV trip, so they had us over for dinner. Barramundi, spanish style rice and avocado salsa/salad
Monday- I deep cleaned my fridge, freezer and all the kitchen pantries. So I was exhausted but everything is in much better shape. I hit the easy button and made flatbread pizza's
Tuesday- Worked on going room by room to start deep cleaning the rest of the house. Made rice bowls with veggies, avocado and some salmon gyoza I found in the deep clean the day before.
Wednesday- I had a doctor's appt on the other side of town and was offered spur of the moment OT from my job (which meant driving up to work a day earlier than intended), so it was a pre-bagged salad and some frozen pizza for dinner.
Thursday- had to be at work by 10pm so baked potato and broccoli at the crew house
Friday- We will see what the day brings but if I am home for dinner either veggie rice bowls or greens and white bean soup I brought with me
Saturday- whatever I didn't eat on Friday
I spent $61 at Kroger, $11 at Aldi & $15 at Frisch’s for a total of $87 BUT DH & I have the spending account cards from our health insurance now. They covered $39 of our food purchases so OOP food expense came to $48 this week. Although I may also have household & toiletry purchases with my food purchases, I only give the food $ here. These spending cards also cover essential supplies & OTC meds, so these purchases were also covered. In essence we have $100 per month to offset these expenses, plus other options also.
WWA-
Saturday- Salisbury steak, rice & broccoli
Sunday- grilled ham & Swiss sandwiches, French fries
Monday- chicken tortilla soup
Tuesday- leftover soup
Wednesday- crab cakes, baked potato, corn on the cob
Thursday- fried chicken sandwiches, pecan pie
Friday- DH has requested shrimp
WWA:
S: steak soup & salad, fresh cookies for dessert
M: homemade pizza (1 gf & 1 standard)
T: Steak, potatoes, corn & salad
W: leftover pizza and green salad
Th: grilled steak & green salad
F: Grilled Salmon, green beans, peas
S: Dinner with out of town friends - May go to the local cidery for smoked brisket or pork
Sunday: Salmon patties, roasted broccoli, coleslaw and apple pie
It was an off week for us. I spent $40 at King Soopers for milk and hotdogs and clearance tortillas. And I'll make a $50 Sam's Club run this afternoon.
Sunday the boys made Mac and cheese and hotdogs which is what we have every Sunday lunch.
Monday we were supposed to have leftover ham, green beans canned from our garden, and rice. But with all the EN events, I didn't have the mental capacity to even make rice, so we want to CFA and managed to feed the family for $27 which was mostly paid for by a gift card.
Tuesday I put the rice in the rice cooker at 8am on delay, so we had Monday's supper that night.
I met up with a church friend on Tuesday who spied my struggle and offered to bring supper on Wednesday. She shows up on Wed with Mexican Casserole hot and ready, a chicken pot pie to be baked for the next day, and a frozen lasagna to be used a future night. I was in tears and blown away.
Thurs we had the pot pie and I took leftover casserole to the EN.
Tonight... we'll probably make homemade pizza. I have some mozzarella cheese and pepperoni that needs to be used.
I'm thankful that the EN are getting into their new groove and hospice is helping take lots of things off my plate. But we're getting ready to travel as one of our missions team members unexpectedly passed away. So we'll see what that does to the budget and sanity...
Our meals this week were dictated by a GIGANTIC bag of spinach the husband brought home when I sent him out to get milk. He doesn't even like spinach or salads; he said he knew I liked it so thought I would be thrilled by a bag as large as a steamer trunk.
Sat/Sun: Butter chicken with chopped spinach in the sauce.
Monday: mac and cheese with chopped spinach in it.
Tuesday: salmon patties with chopped spinach in them.
Wednesday: Chili with chopped spinach in the sauce.
Thursday: tacos with the rest of the spinach in the meat.
Friday: filet-o-fish for me, canned hash (he loves the stuff, much more than fresh homemade hash)
We had fruit salad every night, too. A combination of fresh and frozen fruit, to use up freezer fruits before they get freezer burned.
@Lindsey,
Haha! You can freeze spinach if you can't eat in time. He's still a keeper! 😉
My grocery spending for January has been crazy low thanks to a high December, some gift cards, and cleaning out my pantry. Yay!
Fun parenting side note about last Friday's dinner. I was trying a new recipe called Bacon Cheeseburger Pasta. It was eventually loved by all, but the meal started with one of my children crying because she thought we were having bacon, cheeseburgers, and pasta. She loves cheeseburgers and was VERY disappointed when she got to the table. I guess I should make actual cheeseburgers sometime soon!
Saturday: New recipe for us... Tortellini carbonara. It was quick, easy, and everyone liked it. Definitely being added to the rotation! Though I don't think it's very healthy (cheese, pasta, more cheese, cream, and bacon) so we will definitely need to have broccoli or green beans with it next time.
Sunday: Pizza
Monday: Another new recipe. Chicken and vegetable wild rice chowder. I *really* liked this! I think it'll be my winter go-to meal for taking meals to friends because it's delicious and makes a lot. We had Hawaiian rolls on the side.
Tuesday: After getting home late from a library trip I scrapped Plan A and grabbed veggies out of the freezer to make vegetable beef soup. We had the rest of the Hawaiian rolls with it.
Wednesday: Halloween-shaped pasta with meat sauce with a side of broccoli with cheese.
Thursday: Baked chicken, sweet potato casserole (to use up some coconut and pecans from the pantry), and more broccoli with cheese.
Friday: Leftover soup and probably some FG French bread.
@Ruth T, Would you please share the bacon cheeseburger pasta and vegetable wild rice soup recipes please? Those both sound so wonderful.
@Nancy in eastern Washington,
Here's the link for the bacon cheeseburger pasta: https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/bacon-cheeseburger-pasta/
The chowder recipe is from a Better Homes and Gardens magazine...
1. Heat 2Tbsp olive oil in a pot or Dutch oven. Add 1 thinly sliced carrot, 2 thinly sliced celery stalks, 1 chopped yellow onion, and 2tsp dried sage; cook 5 minutes. Add 3 minced cloves of garlic; cook 1 minute. Add 1/4c flour and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Stir in 4c chicken broth, 2c milk, 3c cooked wild rice blend, 1c corn, and 1/2c chopped roasted red peppers; bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer (stirring occasionally) for 10 minutes.
2. Add 2c shredded chicken and cook, uncovered, until heated through, about 5 minutes.
3. Season with salt and pepper. Top with 2 slices of roughly chopped cooked bacon.
I had to pause partway through making the chowder because I hadn't noticed that the wild rice blend had to be cooked ahead of time! Whoops! And I made my own roasted red peppers instead of using jarred.
Enjoy!
@Nancy in eastern Washington,
I forgot to mention that there ingredients list says "8-oz packet" for the cooked wild rice blend. I think I ended up purchasing 2 small boxes of Rice-A-Roni wild rice blend for that item.
What I thought was hubs flu turned out to be Covid. By Saturday I had it also. So another crazy week.
Sunday-taken out earlier &had to be cooked. slow over cooked pork butt with baby Yukon golds on>ns &green beans with bacon dressing( amazingly low sodium)
Pot of chicken noodle &veg soup.
We ate the above the rest of the week
Avocados 2/1.00
Eggs 3.48 dozen
I’m in a food is really uninteresting phase, make a sandwich or thaw some soup.
Sunday, my 8yo son made pancakes and sausage for dinner while I was out shopping. Monday, my daughter got her 5yo shots, so we went to our favorite local chicken strip restaurant. My husband was out of town most of the week, so on Tuesday I made chili that we ate on 3 nights. Tonight I'm cobbling together ingredients for beef enchiladas (including homemade sauce) and avocado salsa. Tomorrow we will make homemade pizzas and freeze several for a birthday party next weekend.
Sunday, beef borgignon
Monday, potato chowder
Tuesday, leftovers
Wednesday, sandwiches and popcorn
Thursday, roasted brussels sprouts
Friday, tacos with hm refried beans