WIS, WWA | I THOUGHT I published it!
A funny thing; I did some painting this morning, went for a walk, came back, and checked blog comments like I usually do. And I thought, "Hmm, that's weird, there are no comments yet."
And then I realized it was because I hadn't published the post. Ahahahaha. Whoops.
So, here you go, for real this time!
What I Spent
- $76 at Lidl
- $35 at Aldi
- $20 at a local grocer
- $27 at Mod Pizza
That makes $158 altogether.
What We Ate
Saturday
Lisey and Zoe and I went to Mod Pizza for dinner; a nice chewy meal for Zoe prior to her wisdom tooth week. 😉
I downloaded the Mod Pizza app (to earn rewards, of course) and the app gave me this referral code to invite friends: KretKr8343
I have no idea what you or I get if you use this code when you sign up for Mod Rewards but if you give a try, do let me know! Hopefully, it'll get you a freebie of some sort.
Sunday
Zoe had a friend over, and for dinner, I made a chicken BLT salad, plus these breadsticks, and we had watermelon as well.
Monday
We had leftover BLT salad and breadsticks.
Tuesday
This was the day Zoe got her wisdom teeth out, so she was on the soft food plan all day. By dinnertime, she was able to eat some mac and cheese (although I purposely overcooked the noodles a bit, to make them nice and soft.)
Lisey was at the beach with her cousin, so that left just me to feed. I had one more $15 promotional birthday gift certificate from a local restaurant (oddly, it didn't expire until the end of June, even though my birthday was in April!).
So, I used it to order two bowls of soup. I ate the cream of crab one on Tuesday, with some leftover breadsticks and some watermelon.
Wednesday
Another day of soft foods for Zoe, and I ate the other bowl of soup (pasta e fagiole) with the last of the breadsticks and watermelon.
Thursday
Zoe was still not doing awesome on the chewing front, so I made cheese tortellini topped with tomato sauce.
Friday
I'm gonna play this by ear, depending on how Zoe's doing.
The post arrived as I soon as I came to visit you, Kristen. Wishing good healing to Zoe.
Monday - Chicken Biryani with cucumber-tomato raita
Tuesday - Roti/Chapati with a tangy/spicy shrimp indian dish, salad, and okra masala.
Wednesday - super snack-y dinner with leftover mobay cheese, toast, chips and salsa, and 2 mangoes
Thursday - My niece is visiting! Pesto pasta with summer squash and corn, and salad
Friday - we are going to picnic in Central Park. Probably will grab sandwiches from the deli.
Excited to be inspired by what y'all had for dinner!
@Samosa,
How do you cook your okra?
@Natalie J, hi! i ensure that the okra is completely dry (so no slime) - add oil to a pan, add okra, make sure oil covers the okra completely, spread it out evenly. I try not to touch the okra too much and toss when i need to move it around. cook on medium heat for about 10 minutes. Okra will be golden. I add cumin, any spices I like and add salt at the end.
I have also cooked okra in the air fryer/toaster oven and it's nice and crispy!
@Samosa,
Thanks, sounds tasty! Dumb question: Is your okra cut, or whole?
@Natalie J, cut! so they look like wheels 🙂
This one's easy:
Day 1: Salad
Day 2: Salad
Day 3: Salad
Day 4: Salad
Day 5: Salad
Day 6: Salad
Day 7: Salad
Garden lettuce is amazing! The heads I cut this week will reproduce more greens next week.
You ate way more veggies than I did this week!
I will get back on the veggie wagon this coming week.
@MB in MN, We were away last weekend for daughter's field hockey tournament and when we came back something had made off with all our lettuce. not just the leaves but the entire plants. I'm so disappointed!
@Leann,
That's a bummer! Were the plants big or small? We have to cover our lettuce with chicken wire tents while they're small, or else birds will pluck out the whole thing.
@Leann,
I vote squirrels! Those little @#$&*+@ ate almost every piece of fruit on my fruit trees before they were ripe! Plucked them off one by one and then took one bite and discarded them. I went out yesterday and harvested every piece of fruit that was left (a very small bowl, all green) and am going to make jam out of them or something. I hate squirrels so much.
@Leann, my vote for your garden thieves is (as usual) for deer and/or woodchucks. Grrrr!
@Leann, ugh! Thanks for the reminder to put out garden netting. Just yesterday I used my outside voice with the resident squirrel and rabbit; they must not understand swear words because they were unfazed.
@Natalie J, They were still small, we're in Canada and can't really plant outside until the end of May or we risk frost. And we were also late getting the garden planted. I hadn't thought of birds though! I may give another shot at it if I can get some plants.
@Becca, Eek, those nervy little rats! We don't really have much in the way of squirrels here so I don't think they are my lettuce thieves.
@A. Marie, Could be deer, moose, just about anything here, even black bear!
Yum! Soup! My favorite even without dental need!
WIS: 28.15 @ Hungry Harvest
WWA:
Fri: sliced pineapple, baked zucchini and radish rounds, pepperoni, tomato and mozzarella focaccia.
Sat: arugula salad, scrambled peppers and eggs, bacon, fried tofu cubes and grits
Sun: arugula and fennel salad with red apple and lemon juice, cheesy pasta bake baked in sun oven, chicken legs marinated in spiced-up yogurt and air fried, and fougasse (a crispy sourdough flatbread)
Mon: arugula salad topped with berries picked by my kids, chicken and potato curry and brown basmati rice
Tue: sliced watermelon, fettuccine with arugula, "meat"balls and tomato sauce, shake parmesan cheese. (I made the meatballs using a half pound of ground beef and planned to follow a recipe I found online to stretch them with a cup of ground oatmeal...then I decided to add onion and garlic scapes for flavor by blending them...then I figured since I had the blender out, maybe I should add some zucchini to get rid of a couple...um...then I needed to add FIVE more cups of oatmeal and a half container of shake parm just to get anything I could form into a meatball shape. YIKES! I ended up with A LOT, but I fried them in bacon grease and then simmered them in two jars of pasta sauce and they turned out OK, but very, very filling! Note to self: use only one meat stretcher next time...)
Wed: sliced cucumbers (sprinkled with salt, pepper AND ground papaya seeds-verdict: not bad, slightly sour, would recommend), cubed watermelon, leftover fettuccine and leftover meatballs and sauce, chocolate focaccia with strawberries, cream cheese and powdered sugar on top for a surprise dessert (We almost never eat dessert. The kids were very happy and not at all deserving...)
Thu: crudites: carrots, celery, cucumbers, and sesame sourdough discard crackers with cottage cheese ranch dip (I just mixed some ranch seasoning into the last of the cottage cheese and put in a bowl so as to pretend I am fancy.), leftover meatballs and sauce on homemade baguettes with shredded mozzarella cheese and tiny spicy globe basil leaves on top for garnish (I was putting on all the leftover airs...anything to clean out the fridge!)
Tonight: sliced cucumbers, watermelon, focaccia with garlic scape pesto and grilled tuna steaks. Hoping the pesto will burn through some more of the garlic scapes because I hate to waste them, but I am tired of looking at them in the fridge!
I'm planning to make the last of the meatballs and sauce leftovers into a soup and ask my husband to make fried rice with the leftover rice (which will use more scapes and green onion tops). We will eat the last of the chicken curry with leftover baguette pieces for lunch, and then our fridge will be free of leftovers. Yay! Reimagining leftovers is like my super power.
Have a great long weekend, everyone!
@Becca,
Chocolate focaccia sounds delicious! Do you follow a recipe, or did you just make it up?
@Natalie J,
My husband follows a recipe in his sourdough cookbook "Artisan Sourdough Made Simple" by Emilie Raffa. Most of his sourdough creations come from this book.
He has a checkmark next to the recipes he has tried and next to this one he has written "big hit!" 😉
@Becca,
Thanks, I'll have to check that out from my library!
@Becca, I bought a bag of garlic scapes from a farm stand. Used 1/2 cup in place of green onions in a quiche. Still have many scapes left. Ahem...Instead of making pesto I was thinking of dehydrating them and then grinding into powder.
I use Emilie Raffia's recipe for sourdough bread!
@Becca, I can never have enough garlic scapes. My favorite is to cut them into inch-long segments and saute them in olive oil until they're slightly browned and soft. They taste like garlicky roasted green beans.
@kristin @ going country,
Hmm, that's a good thought. I might try that.
@Becca,there's an old Quaker Oats meatloaf recipe. Basic mix is only 1 lb ground beef, 1 cup oatmeal, 1 egg, and 1 cup tomato or V-8 juice plus spices of your choice. I've done this basic recipe with ground turkey or chicken as well as half Italian sausage and half ground beef. To make it "fancy" I start by putting a thin layer of meat mixture into my load pan and then adding veggies and meat in layers -- thin long slices of zucchini, eggplant if you like it, fresh tomatoes, carrot shreds, thinly sliced onions, mushrooms, cheeses. Bake at 350 for about an hour, drain juices and beef fat at least twice, and let sit at least ten minutes before serving. All it takes is the TA-DA when you slice it for the reveal!
@Jean,
Ooh, I like the idea of revealing zucchini slices! Though I suspect my youngest might groan, haha!
I never like to share my totals, because they feel very large compared to everyone else's, but I was very pleased with my in-store savings at Kroger due to nabbing deals and coupons. On one trip I knocked 30 bucks off at the checkout! I love when the total goes down as you check out.
Monday was my grandma's homemade mac and cheese recipe (tweaked a bit), and steamed broccoli. I make two pans of it, and one pan got some leftover cooked ground beef mixed in.
Tuesday was Taco Tuesday. I even splurged and got hard taco shells, which my youngest adored. I sometimes make spanish rice in the rice cooker, but I was out of tomato paste so I just chucked some olive oil and fancy garlic salt in with the rice while it cooked and it was delicious.
Wednesday was chicken stew in the crockpot, and we boiled pasta for everyone to put in if they want.
Thursday was a hot day, so we had sub sandwiches, chips, watermelon, grapes, and hardboiled eggs.
Tonight is salmon burgers and fries.
@Karen,
Don't feel bad about your spending! Everything is so expensive right now, especially meat, which is why I fed my children two zucchinis mixed with 6 cups of oatmeal and called it meatballs! 😉 There was a half pound of beef in there too, but my husband said I should have called them zucchini oat balls. Ha!
@Karen, no judgment here! Maybe this will make you feel better about your spending: in June I spent almost $700 for a household of two 60+ vegetarians. (The dog has her own budget line item.) Granted, we have a lot of food on hand heading into July. That figure doesn't include restaurant spending, which was also off the charts.
@MB in MN, I've been keeping my head in the sand. It's probably time I checked Mint. I just know that every time the cashier gives me the total, I wince internally.
@Karen,
I continually spend $150+ per week for two adults. Food is so expensive. I cannot even imagine how much I would be spending if my children were still young and at home. During that season of my life, I felt like all I did was cook, grocery shop, and clean the kitchen. I have friends with teenage sons who say their groceries are running between $400-$500 a week.
Also, I live in an area populated by expensive grocery stores - Whole Foods, Publix, Trader Joe’s and Fresh Market are within 3 miles from my home. Aldi, Costco, and Fresh Field Farms are a 35 to 40 minute drive from my house. With gas prices as high as they are, I am constantly trying to determine if I would save enough to make the drive is worth it.
@Karen, please don't feel bad. I bet I spend the same or more for 2 seniors. Food is high now, we r on low salt diets due to health issues & they take out or lower salt &charge more. We never eat out due to sodium &have groceries delivered. Plus eat all fresh fruit &vegetables so the grocers love me.
@GOLD Colleen, and everyone else who commented, thank you! I usually end up spending between 300-400 each week. There are six of us, two teenagers, one adult kid, and my youngest is in elementary school. We eat all our food at home, with very rare (2× a year) exceptions. So put in perspective it's not that bad. Right?
We also have some dietary restrictions, too, and Colleen you're right, they charge more for taking stuff out!
@Karen,
Honestly, 300-400/week sounds about right for your size of family. I am feeding 5, and I find that I usually spend 300+ every time I set foot in the store, no matter what my list says! My neighbor tells me she spends about 450/week at Aldi and she's only buying for 4 plus her two kids get free lunch at school, so it's really not just you. Prices are just very high right now.
I have found a couple tricks that work for me to keep my spending lower if you're worried about your budget. Maybe they would help you too?
Number one is that I always shop Aldi primarily. It's not the cheapest for every single thing, but it is for most things. I also limit myself to what will fit in one cart and I go by myself. "Helpers" are generally anything but when it comes to sticking to the list!
My other trick that I started during the pandemic is going only every other week. If I'm not there, I can't spend. It took some adjusting at first, but now I've found a good rhythm where I usually get a produce box on the off weeks and that helps me have enough fresh fruit and veggies, and I also have two farm shares in the summer. The shares average out to about 50/week, but I paid for them back in February, so that helps keep my summer spending seem artificially lower. Basically, I'm averaging about 900/month for a family of 5 give or take and we eat almost exclusively at home too. For milk, we've been using powdered once we run out of what I bought, but if you really want fresh, you could always order groceries on your "off" week and then pick up so you limit the impulse buys to only your big shops.
Sunday: Stuffed pepper skillet. One of our favorites, but we hadn't made it in a little while. It was a nice reminder of how good it is!
Monday: Korean beef lettuce wraps. My toddler won't eat them together, but she'll demolish the lettuce and beef separately haha
Tuesday: Pizza and salad. A neighbor recommended a pizza place we hadn't tried before. It was tasty, but a little more than we usually spend on our weekly pizza. But definitely on our list for future splurges!
Wednesday/Thursday: Eating leftovers out of the fridge in preparation for our trip.
Friday/Saturday: Going to Idaho for the weekend!
@Natalie J, That’s how I do tacos and salads for my toddlers, everything separate and they love it, mixed together and they won’t eat it haha
@LB,
I accept it, but I don't understand it haha
An idea for Zoe is steamed meatballs. They can be very soft, especially if they're mixed with grated potatoes.
or meatballs boiled in broth or sauce. I always chuck my meatballs in my spagh sauce raw.
Saturday - drive thru (Jack in the box)
Sunday - chicken wings on the smoker, corn on the cob, macaroni and cheese from the freezer
Monday - chicken tacos, corn
Tuesday - Smoky chicken corn chowder with bacon
Wednesday - one pot beef and mushroom stroganoff (made with ground turkey instead of beef)
Thursday - minestrone from the freezer and jiffy corn muffin mix
Friday - taking my little ones to get their Covid vaccine today (yay finally!) so will make their favorite for dinner to make up for the shot: pasta and marinara sauce
@LB,
Yay for the covid shot! I was excited to take my girl to get hers too.
Last night: deconstructed chicken wonton soup.
Wednesday: Son's birthday, restaurant which cost an unconscionable amount
Tuesday: BBQ chicken and saffron rice
Monday: steak and potatoes
Sunday: sweet and sour chicken
Tonight, zero idea. Maybe chicken enchiladas, that sounds good.
WIS (I actually made notes this week!): $9 at Wegmans, $42 at Price Chopper, and $22 at the Thursday Farmers' Market.
WIA doesn't have much to do with WIS this week, since (as noted throughout the week) I had dinner with the Bestest Neighbors on Monday night and have been eating a soft diet similar to Zoe's since my molar extraction on Tuesday (soups out of the freezer, eggs, etc.). Boring but thrifty. I plan to live dangerously tonight and have some Farmers' Market asparagus and broiled tilapia.
I so enjoyed the post about herbs and spices. It made me remember the sea bass someone gave me and so I pulled out my tarragon, shallots, butter, and lemon. Sadly I had no wine, cream, or grainy mustard but the tarragon made deliciousness aplenty to mmmmm and ahhhh overtime. Nothing else I ate this week really maters.
@Tiana, speaking of maters, does anyone grow brandywines? I really miss those.
Monday travel day - Wendy’s on the road. Strawberry frosty is good!
Tuesday - grilled fish. Couscous. Frozen green beans.
Wednesday- pesto making day made 8 batches and froze 6 batches. We had pesto fettuccine with diced tomatoes sliced black olives and slivered fresh basil leaves
Thursday- grilled fish leftover pesto fettuccine and Caesar salad from a bag. They were BOGO this week.
Friday- slow cooker Chicken Tinga flatbreads chips and salsa fruit
Saturday - tuna salad with Mayo and fresh herbs on English muffins. More Caesar salad and strawberries
Sunday- brats on the grill pasta salad Fritos and dip
I am pretty sure I wil blow everyone's grocery totals out of the water this week. We were out of everything and pries being what they are....I saved everywhere that I could but my oh my.
I spent $335 @ Costco and $115 @ Kroger. I bought no snack foods, sodas, or frozen meals This was all produce, meat, cheese, yogurt, milk...real food. Man oh man is it high!
Saturday...I cannot remember for the life of me what we ate.
Sunday...I roasted a whole chicken in the crockpot, made gravy and we had rice, green beans and yellow squash & onions - our first sizeable harvest from the garden. Woohoo!
Monday...I shredded the remaining chicken and used it to make a pan of enchiladas. We had rice and veggies alongside.
Tuesday...Beef stroganoff with leftover veggies and a green salad.
Wednesday...I made a large pot of pinto beans and we had leftover rice and veggies alongside.
Thursday....it was my Mom's birthday and she requested pizza and banana pudding.
Friday.....we harvested more squash and zucchini from the garden so I will cook those up, plus cucumbers in a salad, pintos and rice and some salmon patties.
Saturday....yard work for sure so I will thaw something for the crockpot and we will see how things shake out.
Happy weekend all!!
Between Father's Day and birthday and stocking up on a couple of things while they're cheap (tons of strawberries and ground beef in my fridge right now) I feel like I'm spending like crazy. If I'm honest, I have not yet totaled up my June spending. It's going to be rough.
Saturday: Our delayed Father's Day meal with my father-in-law. Since I already had brisket in the freezer, I made that - this time in the Crock-Pot instead of the oven (the oven one turned out better). We had asparagus and watermelon with it.
Sunday: Pork roast, zucchini, peach slices, and cauliflower with cheese
Monday: My in-laws bought us dinner at Sam's Club
Tuesday: There's Christmas in July, right? Well, we had Thanksgiving in June. Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes with gravy, and green beans
Wednesday: Date night! We used a gift certificate from Christmas to get awesome Mexican food. My in-laws got some frozen pizzas to eat with my kids and had fruit pizza for dessert.
Thursday: My youngest kiddo's birthday. She picked burgers, baked beans, and strawberries. Easy! We had cake and ice cream for dessert.
Friday: My original Plan A for Monday... Pork fried rice. We have a ton of fruit right now, so we'll have some kind of fruit on the side.
Saturday: A skillet meal with some of the bull meat plus potatoes fried in a lot of lard and butter (the bull meat has almost no fat and really needs some added to it), onion, paprika, chile powder, salt, garlic powder, and shredded cheese. I know we had a vegetable, but I can't remember it. Probably raw snow peas.
Sunday: Stew made with the bull meat, plus the liquid from pressure-cooking the bull meat, plus onion, garlic, green chile, potatoes, carrots, and some lamb's quarters I found. We had cheese with it, and brownies for Sunday dessert.
Monday: We got four roosters from our neighbor. Two were older and became stock and soup meat. Two were younger I roasted those, after salting them overnight and then marinating them with lemon juice. I also smeared the skins with butter and garlic. They were good. We also had garlic bread and roasted green beans.
Tuesday: It's almost impossible to strip the bones of a home-raised rooster, though, given the chewiness of the meat, so I dumped all the bones into a pot and simmered those to get the meat off and make more stock. I used that meat, plus the chicken fat I had saved from the roasted roosters to make fried rice. That has green peas in it, plus my kids ate a bunch of kohlrabi before dinner, so that took care of the vegetables.
Wednesday: A can of commodities pork fried with potatoes and some more lamb's quarters my son brought me, plus sauteed zucchini/tomato/onion, raw cabbage for my children, and one of the two remaining jars of applesauce I canned last fall. We always eat applesauce with heavy cream poured right on top, which is why I consider it a dessert.
Thursday: I had some already-cooked meatballs and chicken breast, so I heated those up (separately) with the pesto I had made earlier from the basil that was threatening to flower. We also had leftover potatoes and rice, so everyone got to choose their meat and starch. The adults had more zucchini. The kids had cucumber.
Tonight: I have more meatballs left, so I think I'll make spaghetti with pesto for the kids, and they can have the meatballs, too. My husband will finish the green chile/bull stew, with cheese, and I'll probably have a salad with an egg and cheese in it. I have a bunch of raw snow peas, kohlrabi, and carrot thinnings on hand, so that makes the vegetable choices easy.
Belatedly wanted to say that your TEAS grade was awesome!
WWA:
Saturday - ramen with chicken katsu
Sunday - bbq (on-sale and tasted better for it) steak and potatoes, summer berry “pudding”
Monday - black bean quesadillas
Tuesday - bbq smokies, crudités
Wednesday - spaghettini, homemade sauce, meatballs
Thursday - baked potato (I joined the dentally-challenged crowd…sigh)
Friday - maybe left over spaghettini? Partner & daughter are both away (separate trips) so it’s just me and the dogs (for the first time in years) so am going to just wing it
Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend
Thank you for the congrats! And so sorry to hear that you are on the soft diet as well.
Isn't it interesting how different-yet-same everyone's normal is?
For this week, I don't know my spending and frankly am unlikely to calculate the whole into categories because I'm not a budget kind of gal. I do know that June was astronomically expensive for us. We tried some new things as a family and between adjusting to new schedules and the way fuel is ... well, it was bonkers. Thank goodness for some degree of flexibility in spending.
I also didn't keep track of what we ate. We ate out twice, which is crazy-unusual for us. There's the better part of an enormous ham in my fridge that I need to pick away at and come up with new uses for before I freeze the remainder. One night I had cereal and I'm not even sure what the kids ate that night. Leftover something. Ha.
Happy healing to Zoe and happy end of TEAS to you, Kristen.
Kristen, Big congrats on your TEAS score and seeing the end of prep classes and the beginning of your career studies. Along with navigating a complete house setup from the ground up, you have a big slew of accomplishments this year. It’s so impressive and I don’t know how you manage it with what must be some big emotions too.
We were on vacation for a few days, so this is a mix of home cooked, & meals out:
Friday - steak at a very delicious restaurant
Saturday - steak again, plus some sort of fabulous potato dish, cheesecake, & wine
Sunday - cauliflower crust pizza & frozen chicken (late flight, so threw this together when we got home)
Monday - a chicken fajita kit from Costco (I much prefer our homemade version)
Tuesday - chicken enchiladas, from the freezer. My mom made these & left them for us in April, when she was visiting
Wednesday - barbecued chicken, over salads
Thursday - leftovers of the above
Friday - tonight we're having roasted spaghetti squash, topped with a tomato basil sauce, and chicken
Love seeing your grocery spending and your meals.. it helps ME with planning too.Eating AT HOME is the best way to save money right now..but. Like you,I use coupons when I get them for little treats out.
With grocery prices rising at an alarming i level, I am watching every morsel and considering baking bread again.. I have a bread maker and it doesn’t make the best bread so I am going to try some of your recipes and learn how to do my own bread. We do use at least a loaf a week, I make soup/bread meals often..so this should be a savings.. I have to study up on the flours to use..
thanks for taking time to share!!
PS:Did you get your brows done? I need some eyebrows..menopause took mine away!!!!!!
That is very thoughtful of you to see and notice that. The other day while I was on my walk, I was thinking something along the same lines, and I felt like giving myself a small pat on the back. In the 5.5 months since I left my house, I've mothered my girls through their hard times, got through my semester, helped Zoe with her classes, took care of homeschool record-keeping, taught Zoe to drive, got Zoe to prom, got her wisdom teeth taken care of, got her signed up for driver's ed, found a place to rent, moved, worked on furniture, took the TEAS, did my taxes, navigated a bunch of new tax stuff for my blog's money, probably cried a million tears, and worked on healing my heart.
I am sort of surprised I am not more exhausted than I am!
But maybe it is one of those things where you get the grace you need just when you need it. I'm thankful that I've had the energy to manage.
@Kristen, You never know what you're capable of until the rug is pulled out from under you.
I was always jealous of my great grandmother. I suppose that sounds crazy, but my mother worshipped her and, while I guess she was a nice lady, I dunno, she seemed like she was pampered all of her life etc. My mother recently told me how proud she was of me, how strong I am, "just like Nana." I'm thinking to myself, Nana wasn't dumped by her husband, her child didn't go to jail, the other one's a cutter, she wasn't chronically ill and of course she never worked, blah blah blah. So I guess I'm still jealous and a terrible person. It's not a Queen for a Day competition. I just always knew I came way down on the list of people for Mom.
Hugs to you, friend. Regardless of what anyone else sees, WE KNOW we've been through it, and that we hung in there when we really wanted to just sit down, cry, and quit.
Give yourself a big pat on the back from me. 🙂
You too. The helpful thing is our children and knowing we have to be there for them.
Isn't that the truth? You dig deep and somehow find some reserves even though you thought you were running on empty.
@Kristen, Yes, all of that long list was truly on my mind when I boiled it down to a few of your major accomplishments—and at such a hard time. And, you never stopped posting on your blog, which we look forward to mightily but which we would have forgiven, of course. I also don’t doubt that the several years before you left we’re not a picnic either. Awesome role model to your kids and to us.
You, too, Rose, also amaze me for your strength, and humor in the face of it. I always look forward to your comments. Ladies of a few generations ago had their own kind of strength but I think they would be shocked at what modern day women have to navigate.
@Erika JS, That is so nice to read, Erika, thank you.
I LOVE Mod Pizza! One just opened up near us, and it's so fun to make a custom pizza or salad there. What did you get for your toppings on the pizza in that photo? I'm always looking for new ideas to try there.
It's one of their seasonal offerings! I think this is called the Jasmine.
You look so much like your girls with that cute expression.
I have the day off work and made it to Aldi. Spent $84 and got almost everything on our list. Aldi does not carry the reduced sugar cranberry juice my husband drinks at breakfast or the cereal I prefer, but otherwise we did well.
What we ate: I had baked oatmeal for breakfast every day that used up some peaches and cherries my husband did not eat in a timely manner. My brown bag work lunches were composed of various leftovers. My husband ate roasted chicken leftover from our Sunday supper until last night, when we had Taco Thursday. Today we had a late lunch out in lieu of dinner: a burger for my husband and fish with sweet potato for me.
Maybe I’m missing something but where is Sonia? Is she not eating at home. I’ve been busy lately so I probably missed it. My apologies…just curious..always love seeing her vintage style on your posts.
Sonia decided she did not want to leave the family home, so that's where she's living for right now. But she's only about 10 minutes away from me and she often comes over for dinner/visits. 🙂
We were given 25 pounds of halibut from a fisher friend who is single, does not like to cook, and landed a huge halibut. We also had some salmon that needed eating, so this has been a fish week, with six nights featuring one or the other. (I love fishing season!) Halibut tacos, grilled salmon, deep fried halibut, halibut/salmon chowder, baked halibut with a sour cream and dill sauce and, finally, halibut pot pie. The greenhouse is producing cukes so we ate cukes every night except on pot pie night since that had tons of vegetables in it. Tonight it is steak fajitas, for a welcome change. Also homemade strawberry shortcake.
@Lindsey,
Fresh halibut may be one of the best things that I have ever eaten. When in Alaska a few years ago, I ate it every chance that I could.
I love that picture. It was worth you forgetting to post to see that photo, lol!
I took today off from work and have been busy at home, so I am laaaate in posting.
I was invited to dinner at my younger daughter’s house so I happily ate ribs, scallops, street corn salad and broccoli.
I cooked a chuck roast with carrots, onions, mushrooms and celeriac, which fed me twice and gave me three lunches.
Pasta with nomato sauce, zucchini and mushrooms.
A burger with jicama and fruit.
An Amish bologna sandwich with maduros. Gluten free bread of course. Watermelon for dessert.
Pate’ from the freezer with jicama sticks and fruit.
Normally I would shop today but I am going after church on Sunday instead. Meals tomorrow will be interesting as I shop for two weeks and these two weeks are up!
@JD, I love, love, love jicama. An under appreciated vegetable, in my opinion.
Let's see...
Sunday night we had crab cakes, hassleback potatoes, and salad.
Monday (camp night 1) we had chicken and black bean burritos w/ slaw and chips
Tuesday (camp night 2) we had pasta from the freezer and salad.
Wednesday (camp night 3) we had pulled chicken bbq sandwiches with slaw and leftover potatoes.
Thursday we had grilled salmon, grilled corn, grilled baguette and salad
Friday we had pizza and salad.
Tonight I don't know what we're having...friends are coming tomorrow for an early birthday celebration / 4th of July celebration and we're having pulled pork sandwiches. So tonight will probably be fish of some sort.
Sounds like a soup and pasta kind of week and I am on board for that. I hope she's feeling better really soon! I veered madly from my published menu, so this is what I ate:
Monday - I made chicken and rice with some freezer rotisserie chicken and added carrots to it
Tuesday - Take-out from Short Stop, a local burger spot. {https://shortstopburgers.com/} I had the Chicken Slammer meal: fried chicken strips with cheese, cream gravy, and jalapenos on a bun. Fries and fried apple pie on the side. No regrets.
Wednesday - No memory of what I cooked
Thursday - Veggie enchiladas from Chuy's
Friday - I made a cast iron skillet meal consisting of two small chicken thighs, seared and cooked slowly and covered with Greek Lemon dressing, a zucchini, some garlic, and some ranch mashed potatoes with cheese. I could have licked the skillet it was so good.
Saturday - Plans are to eat a freezer meal of Taco Rice
Sunday - I will fix Steak Bites, tots, and broccoli, but I'm on call and if I have to work, I will likely put the steak back into the freezer and eat out!
Our meals are not anything special this week, but food on the table is the most important thing. We’ve started having the teens cook new meals each week to build their confidence with cooking. They were cooking the same couple of meals every time they made dinner. They did an awesome job! We ate:
-grilled hot dogs
-homemade pizza pockets
-smoked chicken with rice
-hamburger helper
-chicken enchiladas
Great score on your test!
Sunday: Older daughter ate at work. We used up some leftovers. Younger daughter had leftover pesto pasta, my husband made himself a burrito and I made a salad topped with some leftover roasted veggies and added a hard boiled egg.
Monday: Older daughter ate at work and the rest of us had grilled skewers. I made the skewers with chicken breast pieces, chicken sausage from the freezer, peppers and onions. I had enough pineapple leftover to put pineapple on some of the skewers. I also sliced up some cucumber.
Tuesday: We went out to dinner to a local Italian place to celebrate my younger daughter's birthday. The food is so good there and everyone brought home enough leftovers for their lunch Wednesday, which was perfect because we were leaving right after lunch to drive to NYC.
Wednesday: We were in NYC to drop off older daughter at a summer program and we met up with my sister and her family and went to a delicious taco place. It was actually very reasonably priced, especially for an NYC restaurant. I got a large fish taco, which was served with spicy slaw and mango salsa and it was $6.50.
Thursday: We stopped in CT to see my parents on our way home and they grilled burgers and had corn on the cob and watermelon for us. We also ate some snacky stuff in the car as we continued home.
Friday: I made 2 pizzas, one just cheese and sauce and one with bacon and pepperoni
We had a cookout so the some friends. Grilled chicken and peach salsa, brats on the grill, potato salad, watermelon, kale cabbage mandarin orange slaw, grilled veggies.
Leftovers
Cheesy egg muffins made with leftover grilled veggies and sausage.
Turkey & cheese & veggie grilled wraps with cut up fruit.
“Egg roll in a bowl” with ground pork, cabbage, carrots, bell pepper, celery, spring onion, garlic, sauce over rice
Seven layer salad and corn on the cob