WIS, WWA | I regret the Sam's Club trip!
What I Spent
I spent:
- $32 at Lidl
- $40 at Sam's Club (where I got the @#%! yellow jacket sting)
- $30 on a Hungry Harvest box
- $8 at Safeway
Sooo, $110 for me.
What We Ate
Saturday
I went to a cookout hosted by one of my nursing school friends; we cooked brats over the fire and made s'mores.
Sunday
Waffles, berries, whipped cream: a classic meal for Zoe and me. 🙂
Monday
I made some ground beef tacos for us.
Tuesday
More tacos!
Wednesday
Zoe met up with a friend who was having a rough time, and so I cooked myself some shrimp with peppers and a sweet potato.
I went a little too hard with the chipotle chili powder on the shrimp, though, so I had to blow my nose a lot of times while I ate!
Thursday
I had some soup and bread, and Zoe fended for herself after a late night shift.
Friday
There's an outdoor symphony concert tonight, so I'm gonna get there early and eat a sandwich before the concert starts. 🙂
Looks yummy!
We had:
- Fish sauce over rice
- Chicken, potatoes and naan bread
- Bean and rice burriot bowls
- Noodle stirfry
- Super ramen (ramen, but with extra veggie toppings and eggs)
- And I think we had sandwiches once...but that's all I can remember
@Katy, my daughter calls that "fancy ramen" but I like super ramen too!
Mmm, berries and whipped cream...
WIS: 123 @Aldi and 117 on wine (stocking up), so 240 this week.
WWA:
Fri: salad: lettuce, sliced strawberries, feta and poppy seeds, bacon, tomato and mozzarella focaccia.
Sat: bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches on homemade bagels, carrots and hummus.
Sun: kale salad with apple cider vinegar dressing, "eggles" used three mini waffle makers to make a mixture of eggs and leftover rice topped with diced onion, diced orange pepper, kale, diced avocado, feta and shredded Italian cheese.
Mon: leftover kale salad, baked ziti in the crockpot.
Tue: made an extra big salad of mixed greens, cucumbers, carrots and pepitas, sweet and spicy beet greens, chicken and black bean quesadillas with salsa and guacamole.
Wed: leftover salad, feta and tomato chicken sausage rice dish with Greek seasoning, ice cream cones for dessert with a hidden prune in the tip of the cone because now it's like a family joke to give a nod to prune cones.
Thu: leftover salad and beet greens, nachos topped with refried beans. This was the first time my husband had ever used canned refried beans since he has always made them from canned pinto beans. He was very startled by the can-shaped nature of the commercially prepared version. I was most amused. Homemade chocolate donuts for dessert.
Tonight: salad and focaccia
Have a great weekend, everyone!
@Becca, the prune tip is genius - much better than a marshmallow. And now I think I need a mini waffle make to do eggles!
@Becca,
Might need to try the egg/rice waffles. Interesting
We do homemade refried also. Got a can once since starting make our own and it was so bad. I classify it as one of those things that once you make it, you can't go back.
@Jaime,
The original recipe/idea I was copying used canned potatoes mashed up, and I had first thought to use mashed potato flakes, but the box I had was buggy. Ish. So I decided to use up some leftover rice instead. It seems to be a very forgiving recipe, so we will definitely be throwing it into rotation.
@Gina from The Cannary Family,
I suppose the prune could be considered practical. We did it merely for the $#!+$ and giggles. Ok...pun totally intended...
@Becca, This may be the first time I've ever seen a bleeped pun. Good one! 🙂
@Jaime, Trader Joes are awfully good.(refried beans)
Your week sounds so pleasant and calm (save for the drama of the yellow jacket!) I'm waffling about tonight's dinner, and am tempted to order pizza, but that taco sure looks good and I know I have ground beef in the freezer...this week I fixed:
Monday - kitchen closed. I had an almond butter sammie and some fruit at work
Tuesday - Tacos al Pastor, black beans
Wednesday - Poblano Sausage and Brown Rice Skillet with corn (just enough for three people with no leftovers)
Thursday - Chicken and Spinach Bake, no sides because I felt super lazy
Tonight - was going to be Burgers, skillet sweet potatoes, onions and peppers. But I'm pretty wiped out from yardwork yesterday and I have a full plate of things to do today so we shall see.
Saturday and Sunday - kitchen closed. I will do small meals at work.
Happy Weekend!
I'd agree, no bargains are worth getting a yellow jacket sting!
WWS: $385 at Kroger. We spent a little more than that, but it was for the food pantry, so not included in WWA.
Saturday/Sunday: homemade pizzas. For our Sunday dessert I made homemade vanilla pudding pops, per the youngest's request. My popsicle mold makes ten, so those lasted through the week for a bit!
Monday: DH made Stouffer's mac and cheese and we also had a bunch of leftovers to choose from.
Tuesday: I made chicken shawarma for the first time in a long time and splashed out on basmati rice, hummus, and lots of salad stuff to go with it. Very well received!
Wednesday: We had salad bar and burgers made to order, and the rest of a bag of fries in the freezer.
Thursday: Cat shelter night, taco bar night.
Tonight DS#2 is making lasagna, one regular, one vegan.
@Karen A., My popsicle mold was my MiL's, and it only has four. So when I make popsicles, my kids get the actual popsicles, and the rest of the "popsicles" are frozen in a pie plate and cut into wedges. Messy to eat, and I keep thinking I should get a six-popsicle mold, but I hate to just throw out the one I already have. But then, if I got a six-popsicle mold, I could use both and then have ten like you do. 🙂
@kristin @ going country, The one I got, I found on Amazon and while it can be a little annoying to use at times, it was made in the US, which was what I was looking for. If you got that one, you could make 14 popsicles and have even more popsicles! 😉 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07VX9S4SF/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1
WIS: $437 (includes a $180 bulk buy/stock up)
WWA: Sat: Kielbasa w/ loaded baked potato pierogi
Sun: It's been a long week of early wake-ups...Sat, Sun, Mon could have any of these meals on these days and one meal I clearly have forgotten
Mon: Beet/ginger pasta and kimchi sausage (also some vegetable i forget)
Tues: Pasta w/ chicken, asparagus, and ricotta
Wed: Take-out mexican from TGTG app- quesadilla, burrito, rice, refried beans and black beans
Thurs: Garlic scape stir-fry w/ Chinese pork over rice
Fri: We have some swiss chard and some bread to eat so probably some pasta dish or steak w/ morrels
Last week of school. Retired after 30 years!! Lots of cleaning out. Throwing out. Packing up. Giving away.
We did not eat out but have no idea what we ate. I ate a lot of cheese and crackers and nuts and apples.
Last night I made salmon and asparagus.
Enjoy the Symphony!
@Stephanie, CONGRATULATIONS! I hope you really enjoy your well-earned retirement. Though I bet it won't really hit you until school starts back in the fall and you're not there. 🙂
@Stephanie, Congratulations!! You did it!! I hope you enjoy a blissful summer!
Woohoo!! Congrats on the retirement!
@Stephanie, I join the chorus of congratulations on your retirement!
@Stephanie, Congratulations and happy retirement!
@Stephanie,
WOOHOOO! Congratulations! Have a wonderful, relaxing summer!
WIS: $26 at Wegmans, $25.50 at Price Chopper, $34 at Ollie's, and $38 at a local farm-to-table restaurant (where Grad School BFF knows the owners).
WWA: The highlight was our light but elegant lunch at the restaurant: Grad School BFF had a personal pizza with artichokes, tomatoes, and a bunch of other good stuff, and I had a superb cream of spinach and asparagus soup and the house salad.
Saturday: We had leftover shepherd's pie and lamb steaks, so I divvied that up and filled in with bread and butter and raw produce.
Sunday: We had guests over for dinner, and I knew it would be hot in the afternoon, so I made almost everything ahead while it was still cool--pork shoulder, garlic bread, baked beans, green salad with vinaigrette, strawberry/rhubarb pie with vanilla ice cream. Then an hour before they arrived, I learned one of the guests is avoiding gluten. So I quickly made a pot of boiled potatoes to replace the bread. He still tried the not-gluten-free pie, though, because it's hard to resist a homemade pie. Next time this particular guest comes, I'll make a custard so he's not tempted.
Monday: We had leftover lamb steaks and pork, plus leftover potatoes and leftover carrot and kohlrabi sticks from the appetizer the night before, so that made for an easy meal.
Tuesday: Lamb chops, the garlic bread we didn't eat on Sunday, and raw produce
Wednesday: Pork sandwiches with the last of the pork shoulder, leftover lamb chops and potatoes, more raw produce
Thursday: Hot dogs, coleslaw, coconut water. I was in a city and didn't get back until a little after six, so I made the coleslaw in the morning. The kids insisted they weren't hungry when my husband asked at our usual (early) dinnertime. So then they were hungry when I got home and I ended up making the hot dogs. Good thing I had planned on such an easy meal. I had purchased two coconuts at the grocery store for my kids to try, so we drained out the water from them this night to drink and then put them in the freezer to loosen the flesh from the shells, per internet advice. I don't know if this has worked yet, so I guess we'll see. We used to eat fresh coconuts when we lived in Hawaii, but that was over thirty years ago and I have no memory of how we prepared them.
Tonight: It's been over 90 degrees all week at dinnertime, so the cooking has been minimal. Tonight it will non-existent because this is going to be the hottest day of the week. So, tuna salad, the other garlic bread we didn't eat on Sunday, and a choice of fresh raspberries or strawberries with cream. My kids like it when I have to go to the city a lot because then we have fruit. I would trade no fruit for no driving, but we might as well get something fun out of all those hours in the car.
Our first week of summer break! Woot!
Saturday - We had 2 graduation parties late in the afternoon and ate there. I got to try Greek food!
Sunday - We grabbed McDonald's on the way home from a minor league baseball game.
Monday - There was a potluck with a bunch of moms at church. I took veggies and chips. The rest of the family at home had sloppy joes.
Tuesday - My 10yo wanted to make dinner. She made (with my help) copycat Panera mac and cheese, corn casserole, fruit pizza, salad, and smoothies. It was delicious! Also a good lesson that it's ok to go a little simple. 😉
Wednesday - Pork roast, broccoli with cheese, and leftover corn casserole.
Thursday - Hot dogs, brats, asparagus, and peaches. Everything was grilled - including the peaches!
Friday - I think tacos. I have some cooked ground beef to use and my garden has some awesome-looking lettuce right now.
Pasta-riffic this week! I made a Greek style pasta salad with orzo, sun dried tomatoes, red bell pepper, cukes, picked red onion, chives and oregano from the garden and feta. That was two meals and then we had two dinners out of orecchiette with sausage and broccoli rabe. Tonight, maybe chicken culets and potatoes of some kind. All served with salad from the garden.
WIS: Approximately $85 at Food Lion and Dollar Tree. Our two nearby DTs have not raised prices on pantry staples, so I stocked up on Bell black olives, Saco baking cocoa, Gold Medal English muffins, and jars of Lucky Leaf unsweetened applesauce.
WWA: Leftover roast chicken drums and thighs with baked potatoes and salad. Salad with a packet of tuna crumbled over the top. Whole wheat spaghetti with a hearty marinara jazzed up with Italian sausage, mushrooms and olives. Cottage cheese with some herbs sprinkled on top served over a bed of homegrown sliced cherry tomatoes and cucumbers -- so delicious. Fried egg sandwich with cheese on an English muffin and cantaloupe as a side.
WIS: $115.89, but only $82.35 of that was for groceries. “Only”?! Geesh…
WIA: Chicken lettuce wraps (I use a recipe I found on the internet that pretty well replicates P F Chang’s and, while spicy, is considerably LESS spicy than the NYT recipe for Spicy Sesame Noodles I tried last week), Baked Red Snapper fillets with Mandarin oranges, cashews and ginger, and Air Fryer Snapper with Old Bay seasoning and roasted red potatoes and Brussel sprouts.
I spent $42.56
We ate:
Saturday: Sloppy joes and a salad
Sunday: birria tacos/beans/salad
Monday: smoked pulled pork bbq/baked beans/coleslaw
Tuesday: bbq chicken/baked potato/green beans
Wednesday: leftovers
Thursday: spaghetti/salad/bread
Tonight: I'm not sure yet, but may grill out pizza
Saturday - takeout sushi and udon noodles
Sunday - creamy ham and potato soup (finally use the last of the new years ham!) and breadsticks
Monday - coconut rice pilaf and steamed bbq pork buns
Tuesday - a very warm day, it felt like summer so we had hot dogs, corn on the cob, and steamed broccoli
Wednesday - leftover coconut rice pilaf, fried to make fried rice, vegetable gyoza from Trader Joe’s
Thursday - my sons last day of kindergarten so he got to choose what we did for dinner, he chose going out to eat at a diner
Friday - today is my daughter’s preschool graduation, so she gets to choose dinner tonight. She hasn’t decided yet, my guess will be she chooses pizza or Taco Bell.
Happy Friday! WWA:
Saturday - made a stir fry with sad crisper veggies over ramen noodles
Sunday - we were guests at a BBQ where we took some appetizers. The food was fabulous.
Monday - went to a restaurant to celebrate DD graduating with her education degree
Tuesday - we foraged for ourselves, don’t recall what I found
Wednesday - made rice to go with red beans from the freezer
Thursday - grilled marinated pork skewers and Greek salad
Friday - grilled hamburgers on buns, maybe have oven fries to go with them (or not)
Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend
I have no idea what we ate except that for the last two nights we ate a prepared chicken enchilada bake from Costco and we will eat the rest of it tonight. (We’re empty nesters so it takes us a while to get through something.) $24 for a prepared dish is not particularly frugal but when you divide it by six people-meals, it’s still much better than eating out.
If you’re going to the concert I think you’re going to, I have friends in that orchestra.
🙂
My menu and my week has been out the window.
Thank you for all the kind comments yesterday. My apologies to A. Marie - my "Thankfuls" was supposed to be a separate comment, not horning in on her heartwarming comment, but I was writing on my phone to take things off my mind while waiting on yet another test to finish and... well, I hate writing on my phone. I usually mess up, even when I'm not in a stressful situation.
We are waiting to see what today brings. At least DH is improving - again.
I was supposed to grocery shop last Friday, but spent the entire day in the ER and ICU with DH, so nothing was spent. I think I mentioned that on Tuesday.
I ate, let's see...
Last night I ate my lunch at 5 pm out of a cooler, sitting in my car in the hospital parking lot, so my evening "meal" when I got home was grain-free cereal in milk with two big handfuls of blueberries off of my bushes.
One night I had steak because my son-in-law tipped me off to a real deal on steak. With it I had asparagus and, odd, but I liked it, fresh blueberries.
I fried gizzards and had the rest of the asparagus and some sweet potato with them. Blueberries for dessert.
Ground goat made into a skillet meal with cauliflower rice, carrots and English peas, with garlic and onion seasoning.
With the rest of that package of goat, I made burgers and had baked beans and pickled okra.
Another night I had eaten a late lunch, so I had cheese, fruit, and carrots with homemade Ranch dip.
Tonight I don't know, but I took a couple of things out of the freezer to be prepared.
@JD, My former MIL used to make a baked chicken with blueberries that was very good.
Friday: We were supposed to have dinner out with my son’s team after their game, but the game was moved to another location/town due to the weather. Instead my husband ordered pizza on the way home and it was delivered shortly after we got home. Unfortunately the pizzas could have used a little extra time in the oven so we cooked them a little longer at home. My husband filled out a survey and the manager of the pizza restaurant followed up with him and refunded our entire order – we didn’t expect it and would still order from the restaurant in the future but it was a kind gesture.
Saturday: I went out for dinner with friends, my husband and son made Philly Cheesesteaks for “Dude Night.”
Sunday: Fish with Tomatoes and Olive, Baked Zucchini Sticks. The boys struggled with red sauce on their fish but it was very tasty.
Monday: Cabbage and Hash Brown Skillet, andouille sausage
Tuesday: I made a Teriyaki Pork Roast but there wasn’t enough juice to serve it as I wanted so I pulled all the veggie odds and ends out the fridge and made Ramen Stir Fry with the pork.
Wednesday: Soup and sandwiches
Thursday: Chicken Quesadillas
I didn't spend anything this week.
I don't remember what meals were on which days, but I've eaten a lot of quick and easy things this week. Chicken salad sandwiches, hard boiled eggs with bread and butter, mashed potatoes with chicken and spinach, leftover pancakes, and last night I fried some sliced ham and an egg and had toast and jam with it. Lots of oranges and pineapple as well.
This week we had:
Mapo Tofu, rice, and cantaloupe
Mediterranean bowls
skillet lasagna, garlic bread and nectarines
Taquitos and watermelon
Pizza at a friend's birthday party
Sheetpan nachos and strawberries
Ramen at a local shop to celebrate the end of the schoolyear
Thought others may find this interesting. Bon Appetit does a series called The Receipt that shows what one readers spends on food for a week (and gives a little look at where they live/what they make/ etc that influences their purchases). It's almost like a "meet the reader" and "WWS/WWA" in one.
https://www.bonappetit.com/story/food-diary-wine-chemist-55k-year-salem-oregon
@Marlena, I love that series! I've used up all my free bon appetit pages looking at them. I don't know if the free pages refresh occasionally, or if I'm just out of luck because I won't pay for a subscription haha
Hello this week we ate:
A little over $ 80.00 this week.
Sunday - Baked halibut, green salad.
Monday - Leftover halibut patties, roast potatoes.
Tuesday - Baked beans, cornbread.
Wendsday - Chef salad, leftover cornbread.
Thursday - Fried egg sandwich, strawberries and grapes.
Friday - Don't know yet!
Sunday: We had dinner with family, lasagna with veggies and ice cream. It was national rocky road day, so of course that was on the menu!
Monday: I went to my cookbook club at the library and ate lots of delicious food. I brought red curry chicken salad on lettuce wraps.
Tuesday: Preschooler's choice, she went with spaghetti.
Wednesday: Impromptu dinner with neighbors (summer is so great for those), hot dogs and brats.
Thursday: Thai turkey burgers with quick pickled carrots. A new recipe, but definitely a winner!
Friday: Pizza salad with marinated beans
Saturday: It's the local Asian festival that night, so we'll eat there.
Have a great weekend everyone!
@Natalie J,
I'm in a cookbook book club also. What book were you cooking from this month? We are doing Toni Tipton-Martin's Jubilee.
@Jaime, last month was Bon Appetit, it's at the library and they're trying to show people their online magazine program. Sometimes they do a specific book, sometimes an author, and sometimes just a general theme (last month was "pies" for example, both sweet and savory). How was Jubilee?
I went to the grocery store Sunday morning to get some fruit and something to serve--a blueberry loaf (which was very good at half the price of a local baker I like).
My husband's younger brother was stopping by--He never visits. And I saw the steak on "sale"--about a pound, which was just right for us. This grocery store puts its day-old bakery items at half price and one item is cheese bread. I picked up 2 loaves to put into the freezer. The steak, fruit, reduced priced bakery bread and a small coffee cake came to $40+.
Now, let's see if I remember correctly
Saturday: Macaroni pasta with vegetables
Sunday: steak tips and baked potato and
Monday: Pasta, sausage and sauce
Tuesday: Grilled cheese for me; egg salad for DH and fruit
Wednesday:: Burgers and fruit
Thursday: chicken with peppers, onions and brown rice.
WIPootG (what I picked out of the garden) strawberries, pea pods, broccoli, kale and garlic scapes.
WWA: Sun: bbq chicken, coleslaw, corn on the cob from the freezer, cornbread for 2
M: Pork chops, cottage potatoes, green salad, green beans
T: fajita tacos, watermelon
W: Veggie alfredo, fruit salad
Th: Pork noodles
F: hotdogs, bbq beans, veggies w/spicy ranch
Have a great time at the symphony!
@Blue Gate Farmgirl,
What are cottage potatoes?
It was a busy week, and I can't remember all of it, but:
-We hosted an impromptu pool party on Tuesday. DH picked up a couple of Costco pizzas, I cut up 1.5 Costco watermelons (which are huge), we supplemented with raspberries, chips leftover from another teen event, & popsicles.
-We had tacos x2
-DH grilled burgers on Wednesday, when my parents arrived for my son's graduation. I picked up Trader Joes potato & mac salad, to keep things easy.
-We had gyros after graduation on Thursday.
-I made chicken fajitas & guacamole on Friday, using up a bunch of stuff from the garden (green peppers, jalapenos, & cilantro).
-We also had grilled chicken one night + foccacia.