WIS, WWA | In which I do very little cooking
What I Spent
This has been a seriously unusual week; I was in Dallas from Friday-Monday night, then home for three days, and by the time you read this post, I'll be on my way to my uncle's cabin for a week with Sonia and Zoe and a bunch of other relatives.
(I'm hoping to do the reader-requested interview with my dad on the way there today; I made a document with all the questions you guys wanted me to ask him!)
Anyway..my grocery shopping/cooking game has been pretty off this week, and it will also be off next week.
I'm sure I will cook and shop more regularly once school starts, but while summer's here, we are taking advantage of it. 😉
I spent:
- $21 at Lidl
- $13 at the airport
- $30 on takeout
- $31 at Aldi
So, $95.
What We Ate
Saturday
I was in Texas with my friends and we got chicken from Raising Cane's (a chain we do not have here out east).
Sunday
Still in Texas! Still taking excessive amounts of Snapchat selfies with my small friends!
My friend made Mediterranean meatballs with tzatziki and Greek tomato salad, and we ate it all over rice. It was kind of like a deconstructed gyro and it was delicious!
Monday
I was flying home from Dallas, and due to some flight issues, I had quite a few hours to wait to board.
So, I ate a $12 chicken bowl from the airport Moe's.
Tuesday
I made quesadillas for the girls and me.
Wednesday
Dinnertime was sandwiched in between some volunteer work (for me) and a work shift (for Zoe), so the girls and I stopped for fast food.
Thursday
I was busy packing and Zoe had an evening work shift, so I just picked up a frozen pizza.
Again: NOT AN AWARD-WINNING WEEK. 😉
Friday
We are gonna be at my aunt and uncle's cabin, so we'll be eating whatever is served there.
Not the most normal week here, either, and next week will be different, too. But your Moe's bowl looks delicious!
Saturday: My husband was at a men's thing with guys from church, so the kids and I went to Pizza Hut where they used their Book It coupons for a free personal pan pizza and I purchased one for myself as well.
Sunday: Grilled burgers, brats, and hot dogs while we hosted our church small group. My friends brought the rest to complete the meal.
Monday: My dad wanted to take us to a movie, so my mom took the kids and my husband and I used an Applebee's gift card before the movie. We did one of those 2-for deals and got steak with shrimp. Yum!
Tuesday: Random leftovers to clean out the fridge
Wednesday: More leftovers - brats and hot dogs this time. But we had just dug up the purple and pink potatoes from our garden, so we fried up some purple potatoes for dinner and also had snap peas from the garden. Plus a small container of leftover pineapple.
Thursday: Fair food!!
Friday: Hmmm.... Do I have to make dinner tonight? Hadn't thought that far ahead yet. Probably something that will use up stuff in the fridge because we're leaving to go camping on Sunday.
@Ruth T, I love that Pizza Hut is still doing that program! It was always exciting to read enough to earn a pizza 🙂
@Natalie J,
Right! Reading this brought me right back to 1993.
I didn't know that the program was around still...probably because there are so few Pizza Huts around here anymore. 🙁
@Jaime,
It's still around for schools and homeschool families during the school year, but any family can do it in the summer. It's called Camp Book It! I set the reading goals for my kids and it runs June through August.
WWS: $273
We ate has been marked by having to take our dog back and forth to the hospital and vacation Bible school for my son and a root canal for me. Cooking was just not really there.
Saturday….first trip to the vet and I honestly don’t remember what any of us ate.
Sunday…errands & church. Corned beef, cabbage, mashed potatoes and a creamy horseradish sauce.
Monday…bad news from vet and dog rushed to the hospital. Again no idea what folks ate but there was food in the fridge so we all managed. My husband and I grabbed dinner at a Thai spot.
Tuesday…hubby and son got takeout & the rest of us ate Burger King
Wednesday….rice, baked cod and a delicious salad cucumbers, a variety of tomatoes, bell peppers and red onion to use up fresh produce from our garden.
Thursday….another hectic day and more bad news. Leftovers.
Friday….I’d love to tell you guys that I have a plan to make up for this week with dinner tonight but sadly I don’t. I have thawed a pork tenderloin and beyond that I don’t know.
Happy weekend all!
@Angie,
I'm sorry things are hard with your dog right now, sending prayers your way.
@Angie, It is so hard when a pet is hurt or sick. I hope things are better very soon!
Have a wonderful weekend!
We had slowcooker rendang with fried rice and homemade pickles
Leftover salad and burgers (no buns)
Cauliflower and potatoes
Leftover rendang with stir fry veg and fried rice
Today we will have soup, most likely, so I can empty the fridge of the last vegetables.
I want to cut down on meat and am pondering on recipes that do not feature soy, beans/lentils or "make believe meat" because the guys won't eat that.
@J NL, I have the same challenge with more meatless meals. My husband says he also wants to eat more meatless meals but also won’t eat beans, tofu, or any fake meat products. He will eat mushrooms though, which works to make things a bit heartier. Our meatless meals usually end up being pasta dishes since those are still filling without meat or meat substitutes. I have also made a veggie shepherds pie with just a lot of different veggies, and stir fries with lots of veggies. I also have settled for reduced meat, like I made enchiladas with only 4 oz of ground beef and then mushrooms, corn and cheese.
@LB,
I think lessmeat instead of meatless is probably the easier way to go. People who swear they don't like meat replacements will eat them when mixed half and half with the real thing.
Hi both,
Less meat does sound like the more sensible approach.
We did a slowcooker meatloaf the other day that did include ground meat but also carrot, zucchini and peas. The guys loved it and it made 10 servings.
Sadly my husband is not into pasta, either. He is getting to be more picky about his food (especially about the structure or bite of food) now we are getting older.
Meatless options are: curry with egg, cheese fondu (not too often - the carbs!) or grated cheese on veg. Also feta cheese or boiled eggs in salads.
This makes me think of a restaurant we visited on our holidays, that had a dish on the menu called Man Cave - ribs, steak and skewers! They had taken it off the menu but now it was back by popular demand! ( I had a vegan curry, also excellent)
@J NL,
I honestly think meat tastes better with added stretchers, but don't be like me and try to put all the stretchers into one dish! My family ate my "meat"balls but my husband said I should have called them zucchini-oatballs. Haha!
@J NL, would he consider Indian food? So many ways to cook vegetable curries, samosas, vegetable biryani…you could also do a quiche - lots of protein there. I make mine with no ham. Same with other breakfast for dinners- hashbrowns, French toast, eggs (scrambles w/potato, onion, spinach, bell pepper). Peanut butter is also a good protein source - you could do African peanut butter soup (sounds weird but soooo yum) or pb sandwiches (I do pb, pickles and chili sauce (also weird but yum). It’s bean based but maybe Mediterranean food like falafels or hummus sandwiches? Avocado sushi rolls? Potato tacos with rice and guac on the side?
@J NL,
We’re not vegetarian, but eat a lot of meatless meals.
Cuisines that are already plant forward, such as Indian, Mediterranean, Ethiopian are good places to start. We eat black bean burritos often.
We also use Kristen’s “put an egg on it” hack. Other egg ideas are quiche or crustless quiche. I modify this recipe by using milk instead of cream and cheddar instead of Gruyère. https://www.onceuponachef.com/recipes/crustless-broccoli-quiche.html#tabrecipe
This is a recent favorite. I found the chickpea flour (gram or besan) at my supermarket, but an Indian grocery would be good too.
https://camillestyles.com/food/chickpea-pancakes/
I also love Jake Cohen’s sheet pan gnocchi recipes.
Tomato feat https://www.instagram.com/reel/CXuJz5xANe1/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
Butter nut squash recipe https://www.instagram.com/reel/CUfq9NWhw5-/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
@S,
I love that term "plant forward!"
@All
Thanks everyone for your inspiration!
Several dishes here to add to the rota!
@Becca, me too. I first heard that term on NPR years ago and it best describes how we eat.
@J NL, We also really enjoy quinoa in our house. It is a good substitute when leaving meat out of Mexican dishes, and I also really like adding it to a green salad to make it a meal. It adds a little bit of variety when we are tired of pasta or beans, since we eat mostly vegetarian.
@J NL, I forgot to mention 2 other resources
https://cookieandkate.com
https://www.budgetbytes.com/category/recipes/vegetarian/
@S,
Haha! That so sounds like an NPR term!
I think your whirlwind summer is really shaping up to be loads of fun! Who doesn't want to get a break from cooking and have an uncle with a cabin? (: Wow - you can tell I need a vacay when things like this excite me. This week at my house:
Monday - Mole Pork Tacos with avocado, cheese, lettuce, onion (this was so, so good)
Tuesday - Bent Oak's "Taste of Turkey" - I had Turkish appetizers and wine and made new friends
Wednesday - (freezer) Mexican Rice Skillet
Thursday - Plans gone wonky - I made a cheesy French bread pizza thingy with meatballs, and had sauteed zucchini on the side and it was delish
Friday - Happy Hour at my daughter's apartment
Saturday - Grilled Pork Chop, twice baked, salad - busy day getting things DONE is planned
Sunday - TBD, but probably out {visiting my mother, taking her some wine and lunch}
Whew! Its so hot here that I do not feel like cooking at all!
https://cannaryfamily.blogspot.com/
WIS:
Nothing this week as we worked on eating down the fridge before vacation.
WWA:
Fri: warm kale and garlic salad, eggplant tapenade with sourdough discard crackers, pepperoni and mozzarella focaccia and pumpkin custard topped with whipped and sweetened ricotta cheese.
Sat: fruit salad (cubed Korean melon, cubed cantaloupe and blueberries), mashed potatoes with leftover kale mixed in, barbecued pork ribs, refried pinto beans and sourdough bread.
Sun: cubed watermelon, sliced cucumbers and sliced heirloom tomatoes, eggplant and zucchini casserole, pasta with tomato sauce and grated cheese, and whole pork chorizo sausages.
Mon: honeydew melon slices, leftover pasta, leftover eggplant and zucchini casserole, scrambled eggs and sourdough bread with butter.
Tue: watermelon sticks, sweet and spicy kale and Swiss chard with garlic scapes, chicken legs cooked in zucchini slices and Israeli couscous, sourdough bread with butter.
Wed: "thanksgiving on a bun": sweet potato turkey burgers topped with cheddar cheese, cabbage and apple coleslaw, and cranberry mayo on broiled garlic buns. This recipe was from struggle meals and it was really good. I only changed a few things. Will definitely make again.
Thu: leftover vegetable sides served cold (kale and swiss chard, zucchini and couscous, cabbage and apple coleslaw), ground pork chorizo and black bean rice and beans, grated cheddar cheese, and corn tortillas.
Tonight: some kind of kale salad and some kind of focaccia.
Happy weekend, everyone!
@Becca, You sound like such a great cook! I'm writing down some of your meal ideas! Eggplant tapenade? Yes, please!
@Elaine,
Thank you, but I have to give most of the credit to my husband since he is the primary cook. He made the eggplant tapenade and it was very good! I source all the ingredients and make the salads during the school year, but I have been cooking a bit more since I am home for the summer. I'm intuitive with cooking but somewhat out of practice, so my husband's fare is definitely much more consistent. My super power is to reimagine leftovers. 😉
Cottage pie topped with cheese and leeks, chicken fajitas, Instant Pot green chicken chili, pizza last night as the cleaning lady threw out the $20 steak I was saving....(sigh). Tonight probably ravioli.
@Rose, my sympathies on the steak. I got a bit steamed last week when my cleaning crew tossed a half pot of cold coffee; if they'd tossed a steak, I'd be looking for another cleaning crew!
@A. Marie, AND the truffle butter AND I did ask her to please not touch the fridge since what she throws out and what she keeps are inexplicable. Sigh.
But she's been with me for a long time and she puts up with me too.
@Rose,
Sounds like you need to super glue some baby latches to your fridge!
(also it's summer in the Hamptons and finding a new cleaner is NOT easy)
@Becca, DEAD.
A whirl of gaiety indeed. Family cabin trips are the best. I have many fond memories of going to MY aunt and uncles cabin in Wisconsin with family. Have so much fun!
Saturday: Leftover meatballs or meatloaf, rice, curried split peas I took out of the freezer, apricot popsicles made with equal parts runny yogurt and apricot jam (also sort of runny, as the apricots were too ripe to have enough natural pectin to gel, and I didn't use purchased pectin)
Sunday: About once a year, my husband feels moved to build a grill and spend half a day grilling pork ribs. This was that fateful day. I made rice and a green salad with ranch dressing for sides, and blender pots de creme for dessert.
Monday: In the morning I made a chuck roast with carrots and potatoes and re-heated it at dinnertime. There were also some raw snap peas.
Tuesday: Chopped up all the meat/potato/carrot from the night before and fried it for a sort of hash. I added some frozen green peas to it, too, for an all in one meal. Another batch of apricot popsicles for dessert.
Wednesday: A big pan of scrambled eggs. Also leftover rice and curried split peas, corn tortillas and cheese, and hash, all of which got distributed among the family according to preference. And then the excitement of some canned peaches. (Which really are exciting to my kids, because we rarely have them.)
Thursday: I made a pot of black beans with two pigs' feet my husband had grilled with the pork ribs that didn't get soft enough. I also took out of the freezer a container of ground beef taco meat and one of my husband's very spicy venison posole. So there were tacos and black beans for the kids, and then my husband ate the posole with the pigs' feet. I had also taken half a zucchini bread out of the freezer, so there was dessert yet again. A banner week for dessert.
Tonight: I have quite a lot of black beans left, so I might use some of the processed bull meat to make soft tacos with corn tortillas again. Or I might make a sort of chicken taco soup with the soup chicken I have in the freezer from the last rooster I processed. TBD.
Sunday: Grilled marinated chicken, cucumber salad, rice pilaf and corn on the cob. In the summer, we almost always grill on Sunday.
Monday: It turned out that some friends of my daughters were here for dinner-time so I had to change plans to make a meal that would feed 7 instead of 4 people. I thawed some hamburger patties that I had made a few weeks ago and put in to the freezer for a situation like this! We grilled the burgers (added cheese to some) and had the burgers on buns with chips, watermelon, cucumbers and carrot sticks.
Tuesday: Tortellini and pesto, which was the planned meal for Monday
Wednesday: Older daughter covered a work shift for a friend, so she ate at work. The rest of us made quesadillas. The planned meal had been chicken fajitas but we decided it was too hot to make that, so we used some of the components to make the simpler meal of quesadillas.
Thursday: We were hoping to eat at the Farmer's Market, but there were thunderstorms. So, we made an improvised "caprese pasta salad" with mozzarella, basil and some cherry tomatoes that my neighbor gave us and a light dressing. It was good.
Friday: We will get subs before going to see a performance of Mamma Mia.
WAH! 160 dollars spent this week. Needed to stock up on olive oil, maple syrup , honey and protein powder. Plus the usuals.
Lots of salads from the garden.
Grilled salmon Patties x2
Leftover shredded chicken from freezer x2
Black beans many ways! I made a big pot on Sunday. I haven’t made dried beans in a while ( slow cooker) and forgot how delicious they are.
Saturday - takeout dim sum
Sunday - I made my husband’s grandmothers recipe for chicken and dumplings with sour cream gravy. I had let my kids each choose whichever vegetable they want at the grocery store and my daughter chose purple cauliflower so I made mashed cauliflower as well (my son chose a Chinese eggplant, haven’t used that one yet, I’m not particularly experienced at cooking any type of eggplant, maybe a stir fry)
Monday - bbq chicken burrito bowls
Tuesday - ground beef and vegetable enchiladas
Wednesday - leftover sloppy joes from the freezer, tater tot’s, steamed broccoli
Thursday - pasta and meatballs, garlic bread
Friday - alphabet soup and leftover garlic bread
@LB,
Chinese eggplant is not as bitter as other varieties so you don't need to bother with salting it. We sometimes roast it and then add it to pasta sauce-adds a nice sweet/smoky flavor.
@Becca, that’s good to know, thanks for the tips!
I just want to say that I LOVE these posts, especially on the off/weird weeks. It's so nice that you're so honest and talk about things like getting a frozen pizza. So many frugal/budget blogs act like you're a complete failure if you go to a drive-thru or order pizza. Your honesty is refreshing. 🙂
It was not an award winning week here either. I think I cooked twice, but can only remember one meal (stir fry) and the rest was pizza/takeout/leftovers.
I know there are people who are more hard-core about this frugal stuff than I am; they really do not ever get frozen pizzas! But that's what sometimes needs to happen at my house, and particularly in my current circumstances, I'm gonna give myself grace about that.
I did not spend an exorbitant amount of money, and none of us starved. That's good enough.
WIS: $35 at Price Chopper and $38 at Trader Joe's. And in the spirit of full disclosure, about $17 (after electronic coupon) at Price Chopper was for an economy-size bottle of senior multivitamins, and about $19 at Trader Joe's was for beer.
WIA: As usual, my solo meals wouldn't impress Martha Stewart, except for this one: I used my first 5 Early Girl tomatoes and my first standard basil cuttings of the season in a quick fresh-tomato pasta sauce inspired by a MS Living recipe. (As I have said in the past, I have a love/hate relationship with Martha.)
@A. Marie,
I think if you've got beer and multivitamins, you've got your bases pretty well covered. I think even Martha would grudgingly agree.
@Becca,
Plus I remember when she ate in prison, so I bet she's easier to impress now, or at the very least, less judgemental.
@Becca, Martha probably has beer and multivitamins for breakfast!
Oh, and have you heard about her opening a restaurant in the Paris Las Vegas hotel/casino complex? This makes picking the theme of my 2023 Martha calendar for the Bestest Neighbors a no-brainer: "Martha Does Vegas."
I actually know Martha fairly well and she's nothing like she's portrayed. Really a fun, nice person. (The Hamptons. We all know each other, more or less.) also her French bulldogs are the nicest, sweetest dogs I've ever met, including my own.
@Rose, would love to know Martha as a neighbor. Just saying.
This week has been weird here too as 2 of the 3 kids have been gone to camp. Hubby had training out of town for 4 days. We've had several days of take out. It is what it is.
Sunday: burger King after we dropped 2 kids off to camp
Monday: eggs, bacon, toast
Tuesday: spent the day at the zoo with youngest who then went home with my sister to spend the night, so ordered Chinese.
Wednesday: went to pick son up at Grandparents house after eye appt (its a halfway point between aunt's and my house), ended up staying for dinner which was homemade BBQ pizza.
Thursday: was my birthday and youngest wanted to go to Bob Evans to eat so we did.
Tonight: picking 2 oldest up from camp, so probably ordering pizza.
Still recovering from Covid. Food tastes strange and nothing much is appetizing except ice cream. So we have eaten chicken and rice in some form for almost every meal. We occasionally break this up with a piece of toast, a bowl of soup, a piece of fruit or a scrambled egg. For those of you who have been through this, how long does this last?
@Bee, I'm sorry to say that there are still things I used to love--like rhubarb and bell peppers--that still don't taste good to me now, a year and a half after having Covid.
@Bee,
Oh, Bee! I'm so sorry you're suffering! I never lost my sense of taste or smell, but a mother of one of my students did. She said she retrained her nose by smelling a specific spice but I can't remember the name of it now. There are lots of studies on smell training to treat anosmia (loss of smell) so maybe look into it. It seems like the key is consistency like physical therapy, but for your nose. You could also try steroidal nose sprays in case it's lingering inflammation causing it, but check with your doctor because the steroidal nose sprays can create dependency problems I think. The only other suggestion I have is to make sure you get full sun exposure every day for at least twenty minutes. There is some research into vitamin D helping the body heal/resist COVID, and supplementation is recommended, but there is also some early indicators that getting it from the sun is better than supplements. Apparently some long haulers have improved in the summer months when they got regular sun exposure and then relapsed when the angle of the sun changed in fall/winter.
@Bee,
Also, this will seem weird, but try using hydrogen peroxide as a mouth wash. Don't swallow, just rinse and spit. The official advice is to dilute it first, but I use about a teaspoon full strength every night before I brush my teeth. It killed off whatever excess bacteria was living on my tongue and now my palate is much cleaner and things taste much stronger. Worth a shot since hydrogen peroxide is cheap. I originally started doing it to help heal canker sores because I had so many of them flare up after COVID and now I do it every night. I do still occasionally get canker sores but they go away in a day or two now, so I can even eat green grapes now!
@Bee, I had the weird taste/smell for about 3 weeks. One or two things are still a bit off (peanut butter hasn't regained all of the taste year...so it is a bit like thick slime which is awful).
I was told to smell certain scents or oils...things that are strong and that you should recognize. I smelled lavendar, peppermint, eucalyptus....those kind of things. Things your brain knows how they smell and retrain your brain to smell them. I do think it helped me regain my sense of smell quicker.
My sister in law hasn't regained all of her sense of smell after a year.
@Bee, I couldn't eat for weeks after having Covid. I couldn't drink normally either--basically I subsisted on gallons of water and a couple of ginger ales in the hospital. It was maybe a month before I could eat normally again. I still have long Covid but I can eat OK again.
@Bee, nearly everything gives me a burning sensation (not heartburn-like) and like I have been punched in the tummy once I start eating. Got CV around June 30. Badly attacked my throat. I am only eating twice à day now. No désire for citrus fruit or bread. Very odd and lingering...and I love to Cook, too.
Sunday: Potluck dinner with family, we brought cherries
Monday: Someone gave us a pack of turkey hot dogs (they didn't realize they were turkey, and people know they can give us unwanted food haha), so we had chili dogs
Tuesday: My daughter gets to pick what we have for dinner one night a week, so tonight was mac and cheese
Wednesday: Leftovers
Thursday: We tried a new BBQ chicken recipe from the cookbook Watermelon and Redbirds by Nicole Taylor, and it was so good!
Friday: Date night! Our friends have invited us over for a Harry Potter birthday party, so that's our date night this week
Saturday: Probably leftovers
WIS: $66.32 at Aldi. Would have been less at Aldi except my husband accidentally bought almost $11 worth of cherries. If he doesn't finish them this weekend, I will pit them and add to the bag of future pie cherries in the freezer.
WWA: Another blazing hot week. I made a delicious concoction of cottage cheese, chickpeas, sliced cucumbers, diced tomatoes, and drizzled Newman's Own sesame ginger dressing over it. Ate it with some Aldi organic baby carrots and two toasted corn street tacos. The pack was on the clearance shelf at Food Lion: 57 cents for a pack of 24. I'm going to miss them when I've eaten them all! DH ate an assortment of Aldi cheese, nuts, and crunchy fresh produce.
I really wanted to stop cooking forever but I'm just too cheap. Too cheap even to buy pre-made frozen food. I love Amy's enchiladas, but still too cheap. I use broth from rotisserie chicken to make copycat Amy's enchilada sauce and with the chicken and tortillas from dollar tree its good. Its cheap. Its easy. I have a kid who only likes eggland's best eggs. They are not in stores here anymore. They must have lost all their chickens during bird flu. I eat any egg so I get aldi's they seem to have the cheapest. A reader here recommended "The prudent homemaker" and I really like it. She has it down, very frugal. Local corn on cob is cheap right now. I made a tiktok recipe for corn ribs. It was fun and tasty. I found out recently that Taco Bell has gluten free options. Good to know, as its one of the cheapest options for food when traveling. I've been watching "what I eat in day" videos, lol. Statistics show chip sales have been outrageous since pandemic started. No one admits to eating chips.
@Tiana,
Oh, hey, that was me! I'm so glad you like it! I can't eat beans often, but I do love her Rosemary White Bean soup. Try it, if you haven't yet.
@JD, Thank you! She has everything down to the penny, wow. I've noticed all the frugal blogs make everything look so pretty. I think if I had a blog it would be called " frugal ugly" or "how to live like a hobo in your house" ha! Embrace living poor, no shame.
She really does have lovely photography!
@Tiana, no problem with Egg-Land's eggs here in Central NY, so at least the problem isn't nationwide.
@Tiana, I officially will stand up and say "I eat chips." It's a problem. It's why I can't stock up on chips when there's a sale. I'll just eat them all.
@CrunchyCake, aha! an honest chipper!
I like em too
@A. Marie, thank you I will pass on the info and maybe the breakfast stink eye will stop
@Tiana,
I love watching grocery haul videos to see what other people buy. There's this one YouTuber I've been enjoying lately who really eats quite differently from my family in that she eats a lot less produce. That's totally fine because everyone is different and I appreciate that she knows that her family won't eat it and it's a waste of her money to buy it. I did, however, laugh very hard at one video where she contemplates buying a bag of apples on sale and decides against it because "the last time I bought these, no one ate them and they went bad." I like to get apples because they last longer and I try to go two-three weeks between shops, plus my kids just love them. I have bought as many as three bags of apples in one grocery shop and we still run out! I just cannot imagine apples going bad in my house! Soft fruit, maybe, but apples??? Haha! Lest you think me a complete health though, my children will also put away chips like it's their job. I have to hide them in my closet which incidentally is a broken temporary closet that is held up by a load-bearing column of maternity pants that no longer fit me. Pinterest-worthy, it is not, but frugal, it is.
@CrunchyCake, same here. I can't keep chips in the house because I want ALL the chips!
@CrunchyCake, chips are my kryptonite, and of course the most potent addicitve dose of my krytonite comes from the very expensive gourmet kettle chips...
Yay for cabin travel! I hope you enjoy your time with your family.
We had a weird week too because of our cabin travel, and again, I feel like it wasn't the most frugal because of take out on numerous occasions. I agree that when school starts, things will go back to normal.
Saturday--Leftovers. I had half a Sprouts sandwich leftover (those are the best deal--$5 for any sandwich on the menu, no matter how many fixings you add!), and my husband had some leftovers from a frozen Trader Joe's entree that was a meatless Korean dish that he put over brown rice.
Sunday--My husband left early for the cabin, so I was on my own. I treated myself to a burrito bowl from Chipotle. The best find there is that if you order a vegetarian meal, you get the guacamole for free! I usually order it on the side and also get a side of chips, which they don't seem to charge for. It's like getting a free order of chips and guac.
Monday--The rest of my Chipotle meal, which was perfect because I spent most of the day getting my classroom ready for the start of school and I was tired!
Tuesday--Toast with cheese, an apple, and crackers after another day spent in my classroom.
Wednesday--I left for the cabin and picked up Take n Bake pizza on my way that my husband ordered ahead of time with a coupon.
Thursday--Leftover pizza. It was a relief to not turn the oven on again! It is not as hot here as it is at home, but still plenty hot to have the oven on since there is no AC at the cabin.
Friday--I am going to try a new meal from an instagram account I found that is for 5 ingredients or less Trader Joe's meals. This one is for a pasta salad with tortellini, bruschetta, and fresh mozzarella cheese. Hopefully we like it because Trader Joe's ingredients are usually frugal, and this looks super easy to make!
@Jamie S., In regards to your Monday and Tuesday: Until I started working at a school, I had no idea how much of "getting ready for a new school year" involves moving furniture around. And heavy books and supplies. The in-service week before school starts is one of the most tiring of the entire year. Keep on truckin'!
@kristin @ going country,
Thank you for the encouragement! It is definitely a sweaty, furniture/book moving few days every summer. The custodial crew deep cleans our classrooms every summer (which I am super grateful for), but that means putting everything back together when they are done. Unfortunately, our in-service week is usually so full of meetings, that there isn't a ton of time to put everything back together unless you stay late after the meetings, which I've done plenty of years. Now that I'm in my mid-40s and not a young and spry new teacher anymore, I don't seem to have the energy to do meetings all day and then moving all afternoon into the evening! 🙂
We got a Raising Cane's in the Charleston, SC area. My daughter-in-law loves to eat there when she visits.
This time of year, the meals are always the same: go out to the garden and pick what looks good, add a protein, and make a stir fry. The husband prefers stir fry meals to anything else. I vary what sauces we use so it is not as monotonous as it sounds. Once in a while we do have a salad but the husband really prefers his vegetables cooked, while I like most produce better raw, so we alternate which of us is happier with dinner. No grocery shopping except for milk and a watermelon. The produce guy was there as the husband was strolling around looking for something ripe and Mr. Produce walked up and whispered that the watermelons were the best they had gotten all summer and they were on sale. He was right, it is the best one we have had all summer. The other ones have been so blah that I ended up dehydrating them for future snacks.
Not exactly a stellar week on the food front for us, either:
Saturday: I really can't remember...I think my husband and I had field roast sausages and rice. Don't remember what we made for the kidlets.
Sunday: Potato curry, rice, dal and roti
Monday: In n Out for them, rice,
Tuesday: Taquito Tuesday for them
Wednesday: chick pea pasta, breadsticks and fried ravioli
Thursday: Snacky meal: Mango, peanut butter toast, carrots, homemade hummus, bell peppers, cucumbers, cheeses
Today: Planning on making cheesy zucchini bake with a caesar salad and dragonfruit (it was actually reasonably priced this week!) on the side. Fingers crossed it actually happens.
Whew, I spent much of the day getting my DH's doctor and lab appointments accomplished. He's back in his room now and I have been able to eat my own lunch. It's a good thing I pack it and knew it was waiting on me, because I can guarantee I would have hit a drive through of some kind, otherwise. It was a rough morning.
Anyway,
I didn't shop last week, but here's what I ate:
Hamburger with carrots and homemade ranch dressing
One night I ate just sautéed okra and squash out of the garden, and it was yummy.
I made a big pot of beef curry stew and ate it twice for dinner (plus packed a lunch from it). The rest is portioned out in the freezer.
Pork chops with steamed carrots, and zucchini and onions cooked in the chop pan after the chops finished.
One night I got home after 8, so it was an omelet with spinach in it, with berries and jicama sticks on the side.
The rest of the chops that I had thawed, with more fresh okra and seasoned cauliflower.
@JD, I'm sorry about your rough day and week. (My DH is now past the point of being transportable out of the facility for anything except dire emergencies--but I well remember what an ordeal it was to get him to appointments in the recent past. Fortunately, most routine work can now be done for him in-house.) But all the same, you did more ambitious cooking than I did!
I always think JD does an admirable job of cooking under duress!
I feel like it was different eating week for us too and I'm having trouble remembering what we ate:
- À soup made of miscellaneous leftovers.
- Chicken tortilla soup
- Sandwiches
-Macaroni and cheese
I really can't remember what else we ate!
any chance for a bit of a recipe from your friend on the mediterranean meatballs and tzatziki . Sounds fantastic!
Here are the meatballs she made: https://allthehealthythings.com/greek-meatballs-with-tzatziki-sauce/
But the Greek salad she made on the side was more like this: https://www.loveandlemons.com/greek-salad/
We actually have Raising Canes in SC, and I’ve seen them in GA. I think you are a state or two north of me, so maybe you will get one in the future as they move up the coast. My teen loves their chicken for a quick meal on the run.