WIS, WWA | Instagram vs. Reality
What I Spent
Before we get to the spending...you know how people on Instagram do those Instagram vs Reality side-by-sizes, showing how easy it is to look good just by posing?
Well, here is the Instagram level version of some fried chicken I made (SLR photo):
And here's a less glamorous version (a phone photo):
Same food, different photos.
So, just a reminder not to compare the food you put on the table every night to what you see on food blogs. If you had a food photographer documenting what you make, your dinners would probably look pretty darn attractive.
On to the spending!
First, I dropped $111 at Aldi.
And then I needed some things at a non-Aldi store, and I spent $90 there.
That puts me at $201 for the week. But, since I didn't spent much the first week of September, I'm still on track for $150/week for September.
September Grocery Spending
Week 1: $99
Week 2: $155
Week 3: $201
What We Ate
Saturday
I had virtual book club, so we did not do our usual date night. Instead, we got takeout subs for all of us from Firehouse.
I always put in my phone number for the rewards, and now I have enough points for a free medium sub next time.
Sunday
I tried two new recipes from a Cook's Illustrated issue:
- Japanese fried chicken (what you saw at the top of this post)
- Parker house rolls
The two really do not go together at all, but hey, no one here cared.
The fried chicken was really good, and not too messy or difficult, as fried chicken goes. I liked that it called for chicken thighs instead of breasts; cheaper and also easier to not dry out.
Monday
I tried a Cook's Country recipe for spaghetti carbonara, and I don't know quite what I did wrong, but I had trouble with the eggs cooking too fast. They're supposed to make a creamy sauce, cooked just by the heat of the pasta, but my eggs clumped up.
Also, I have decided that I just prefer the taste of regular bacon over pancetta. Pancetta doesn't taste as good to me, and it costs more anyway.
So, if I try this again, I will cool the spaghetti a bit first, and I will use bacon in place of pancetta.
Tuesday
I did breakfast for dinner because I had some buttermilk to use up.
So, I made buttermilk waffles topped with whipped cream and fresh peaches from my box of bruised peaches.
In case you were as slow to realize this as me: whipped cream is actually a lower-sugar alternative to syrup. And it feels more decadent to me.
Whipped cream and fruit trump butter and syrup for me every time. And if it's less sugar, well, even better!
Wednesday
I grilled chicken sausages, which we ate on toasted buns.
For sides, we had a green salad and some potato chips.
Thursday
I tried a recipe from the latest Cook's Country for chili over rice, topped with cilantro-lime crema.
This was easy, tasty, and I will definitely add it to my rotation.
Friday
Well. My new oven is installed, so maybe I will give it a test run and see how it does with pizza!
What did you eat for dinner this week?
I often read that chicken thighs are cheaper than breast meat because thigh meat is more expensive than breast meat in Australia.
Our meals have been crazy this week. Nothing has made much sense but we have been fed and had nutritious food.
Bacon >> Pancetta
I've used bacon all these years as a substitute. Then I found pancetta at Aldi for a decent price so I decided to try it. So disappointing. Bacon is way better!
Meals this week were largely successful. We were all fed well and we are doing our best to eat leftovers as we have them to reduce waste.
Saturday - spaghetti, Caesar salad & garlic toast
Sunday - Leftover Spaghetti & sides
Monday - pork Tenderloins with a mustard and brown sugar glaze, yellow squash with onion & red peppers, homemade rice a Toni with okra...because we have a huge harvest of okra I am trying to thrown it in every dish that I can
Tuesday - leftovers
Wednesday - last of the leftover spaghetti
Thursday - onion braised beef brisket with roasted carrots, mashed potatoes, green beans and Gravy
Friday - we are having dinner with some friends and I am excited to get to learn how to make arepas from scratch
The weather is changing so quickly and often I check that out before I plan a meal! around supper time is when my kitchen gets the warmest in direct sun so if the a/c if off and there is a chance of humidity I don't want to be in the kitchen doing much! lol
Monday- marinated and had the oldest kid grill the chicken breast! Served with pierogis, garlic green beans and the last of a loaf of homemade bread.
Tuesday- our volleyball match was a bit later so I cooked up a package of ground beef and made half into taco meat for my son and husband and they made quick burritos.. I used a Korean flavoring kit and ate my meat over a bowl of lettuce and veggies instead of making lettuce wraps!
Wednesday- We went out to eat for the husbands birthday( Tuesday).. it was so nice to have someone else cook and serve- even had a gift card to pay for a third of it!
Thursday- went simple and cooked a box of pasta and served it with chicken patty parm patties and garlic bread.
Friday- I have a whole chicken thawing, a cake baking ( keeping the birthday celebrations rolling) and will figure out some sides later...
I appreciate your realness re: Online vs. Reality. I usually make a point of skipping straight to a recipe and avoiding the photos because I know my version isn't going to look like that, so why compare? Our kitchen rocks a 45-year-old Crock-Pot and 99 cent plates from Goodwill (I'm a klutz)--we're definitely not Instagram worthy. 😛 Functional over fancy wins in our house. Though we do have a Halloween candelabra on the table, so maybe we're a *little* fancy....
Monday--Beef stew in said Crock-Pot. Best $3.99 I ever spent at Goodwill. 😛
Tuesday--Leftover beef stew.
Wednesday--Banhwich take-out, my husband's traditional pay day request. Since we'd earned a free sandwich from previous visits, we splurged on Vietnamese iced coffees, too. Aaaaah....
Thursday--Mushroom, onion, and diced ham pizza made at home, sorta. I confess the dough was bought at Trader Joe's. My hands have lived a hard life (artist--hello, carpal tunnel!), so I avoid kneading at all costs.
Friday--Limp Veggie Stew. Time to clean out the fridge and dump everything in the Crock-Pot! I'll fill the stew out with the leftover diced ham and our remaining lentils.
Everyone should feel free to compare their food to the photos I post, which pretty much all look like your second one because I am a terrible photographer. 🙂
HOORAY FOR THE NEW RANGE!
And now, our food. Which featured . . . wait for it . . . elk this week.
Saturday: I took the very last bag of elk out of the freezer, and with the best bits I made elk bites (small slices marinated then fried in bacon grease with paprika, garlic powder, and salt). My eldest son and I also made some macaroni and cheese that didn't come out very well due to a mistake reading the recipe and some inferior cheese. Frozen peas for a vegetable.
Sunday: Elk chili made with several of the unidentified "mild" chilis from the nursery plants my husband bought that turned out to be quite spicy when cooked, rice, and a chocolate cake made by my eldest son for our Sunday dessert. He wasn't home in the afternoon to make frosting, so I just dusted it with powdered sugar before serving, and I actually prefer it that way. I'm not a frosting fan.
Monday: Chili mac made with leftover chili and leftover macaroni and cheese. I've never made this before, but it was a fast meal after work and I thought it tasted pretty good. My children did not agree. I also made some cocoa after dinner. Ostensibly for the children, who certainly enjoyed it, but really because I felt a great urge for cocoa myself. I make it with equal parts sugar and cocoa powder, a pinch of salt, milk, and a bit of heavy cream, so it really is like a dessert.
Tuesday: Tacos--meat made with the remainder of the elk chili plus some browned ground beef and extra roasted green chilis.
Wednesday: A fast skillet meal after work of the leftover taco meat+rice+cheese, and some carrot sticks. With this meal, the elk is officially and ENTIRELY finished up. It took almost exactly a year--although we went long periods when we didn't eat any--and now we'll be ready for more when my son has his hunt in December. If he gets one, that is.
Thursday: Pork stir-fry, rice
Tonight: Italian sliders (small hamburgers seasoned like meatballs) with roasted tomato sauce, garlic bread, mashed squash, roasted green beans, salad if I have enough lettuce in the garden
The Return of the Elk
Heh.
And The Exit of the Elk. Finally.
Just in time for ... a new elk. lol.
Or
Elk: The Next Chapter
Elk: A Sequel
The Chronicles of Elk
It's been a horrifically stressful time in my life .... thanks for letting me be silly and let off a little steam. 🙂
Congratulations on the demise of the elk!
Saturday-Northern beans, roasted potatoes, green peas, slaw
Sunday-leftover pasta
Monday-Turkey lettuce wraps, grape tomatoes, mandarin orange
Tuesday-leftovers from Saturday
Wednesday-barbecue pork and slaw on a bun, baked beans
Thursday-last of the pasta, peas, applesauce
Friday-waffles with strawberries
I appreciate the comparison photos - looks like different chicken, lol. I also love the bright vibrant flowers in a ceramic water jug setting the scene for your finished buns.
We are still doing salads for dinner so here is my lunch menu for the week.
Monday: chicken and provolone paninis (provolone panini for me) and baby carrots with hummus
Tuesday: chicken tacos for the meat eaters and lentil tacos for me
Wednesday: burgers, boxed mac n cheese, canned green beans (I only ate the mac n cheese and green beans)
Thursday: egg sandwiches and home fried potatoes
Friday: homemade pizza for lunch
TGIF!!
I got sad faces back on all of my labs, so I'm going to have to do better about what I cook going forward...but here's what we are eating this week:
Monday - Baked Chicken thighs with stuffing (to use up some cornbread), squash
Tuesday - Italian Sausage Eggplant Bake, green beans
Wednesday - Cheesey Olive Bread, tomato soup
Thursday - Chili Stuffed Sweet Potatoes with bell pepper, onion, and cheddar
Friday - Pot of lentil soup with ground turkey and lots of fresh veg
Saturday - a couple of meals I froze in smallish containers
Sunday - Stuffed Bell Pepper, cantaloupe
Dessert this week is dark chocolate peanut butter pretzel nuggets
Lets see what I remember! Yea for the new stove coming in!!!
Saturday- at mom/dads, we did take out from a Italian Place
Sunday- DD had a soccer game close to MIL-so we went there, breaded chicken cutlet, homemade mac and cheese, salad, leftover ice cream cake of DH.
Monday- Hot dogs, tater tots
Tuesday- Sausage peppers, onions, potatoes.. DS has naan pizza.
Wednesday- got sandwiches out. Dh and I shared a cheese steak, DS had meatball parm, DD had tortellini after soccer practice.
Thursday- BBQ chicken cutlets on the grill, butter noodles, corn
Friday- Thinking fish stick and mac/cheese, but that could change.
Let's see...
Saturday was tacos
Sunday was pea soup, breadsticks (made with Greek yogurt!)
Monday was supposed to be flank steak and blistered shishito peppers, but I forgot to marinate the steak, so we just had leftover soup and crackers and cheese (and I started the steak marinating!). It was also "back to school night" for my son's middle school but virtual, so that was... interesting!
Tuesday was flank steak, blistered shishito peppers, and brown rice
Wednesday was grilled chicken breasts, grilled corn, and candycane beets sliced and cooked in a cast iron skillet on the grill with everything else (basically roasted!)
Thursday was fried rice with carrots and leeks from the CSA box, scrambled egg, some edamame I have had in my freezer for a few months (needed to use up!), and some frozen corn (I was hoping to have leftover chicken and corn from Wednesday, but my kids were too hungry!)
Tonight will be pizza, then a bonfire with our quarantine family across the street!
Since the shelter in place has Mr Frugal been working or is he working from home? Do you factor his lunches in when grocery shopping or does he eat leftovers?
He's working from home, thankfully. We are grateful he can still work!
He sometimes eats leftovers, but this week, he made a batch of pasta salad and ate that for lunches. The ingredients for that do just come from my regular grocery shopping.
I think an interesting post would be on how the pandemic has changed people’s cooking and meal habits. I know now that I’m working from home and most of my my kids have to do distance learning sometimes I make our main meal at lunch time instead of dinner then we have our lunch leftovers for dinner when my husband gets home.
That is an interesting point -- I am definitely shopping just once a week and more mindfully, trying to minimize exposure to COVID. Making do and using more of what is lying around -- if we run out, oh well, pick it up on Friday and find something else in the larder.
One funny thing -- we actually eat the recommended serving of cookies/crackers, etc., in fear of running out before Friday. Cookies and crackers are our downfall so we really portion them out -- never happened before 🙂
I think that would be interesting too. I do tend to eat heavier lunches and lighter dinners when I work from home. Also I am much less of a slave to my recipes because I am not running out for just a few things so I substitute or leave things out. I know a lot of people have always cooked like that but its new for me. And its kind of freeing.
So how is the new stove? Is there much of a learning curve? I replaced a 20-year old stove with a new one and thought I'd never get used to it, but I finally have the buttons and dials in my brain and muscle memory.
I loved to make Parker House rolls - or any rolls, really. I so miss wheat.
What we ate: the "It Rained All Week Edition."
In no particular order, we had-
Pork chops, with roasted beets and seasoned, steamed broccoli
Fried chicken thighs ( It must be the week for them) and a big salad
Smoked ham steak from a farm, with braised cauliflower and garlic, and steamed zucchini and onions
From the freezer GF boom-boom shrimp, with a salad
Steak, baked white potato for him and baked sweet potato for me, and some kind of side veggie
Burgers, last of the frozen onion rings (GF for me) and last of the corn on the cob. I successfully made cauliflower bread to use as my hamburger bun.
Spaghetti with parmesan, meat n' spaghetti sauce for him. Zoodles topped with seasoned meat, onions, capers and pesto for me. Leftover salad for him.
Tonight depends upon what I find at the store. Sales are still not very good, and occasionally, even though advertised, sale items are not available. I go to the stores with a blank menu and lots of hope. I also still see some empty spaces in shelves, and with hurricanes and tropical storms, that gets worse.
I’m glad you’re doing ok. I thought of you when I saw the weather reports this last week.
Monday I made Mexican Lasagna - use turkey meat and add taco seasoning. Then use corn tortillas instead of noodles. And cottage cheese mixed with eggs for the middle section. Serves 8 and freezes great.
Tuesday was hamburgers, oven home fries and veggies. No rolls.
Wednesday was left over Cajun red beans and rice from Sunday. A recipe I’m putting in the rotation.
Thursday (last night) was a veggie pizza from the frozen section of Aldi. Horrible. Luckily there was 1 piece of Mexican lasagna that I didn’t freeze for my husband. Has anyone eaten good pizza from Aldi?
Friday (tonight) will be white bean chicken chili with frozen chunked chicken meat.
We are huge fans of Mexican lasagna here, too. We use beans instead of meat and add lots of taco seasoning. Yum.
Maureen we have tried several from the frozen and not liked any of them other than a deep dish that they carried for only a short while. We have been buying the ones that are refrigerated -buffalo chicken and the cheese garlic breads (ours has 3 bacon, cheese and parmesan cheese) and those are really good we take them when we go to friends cookouts. Really good on the grill.
F-steak sandwich with onions and peppers & side of apples & cauliflower
Th- Yum Yum chicken on the grill with Aldis cheese bread veggies on the side
W-frozen Margarita pizza that was not very good. We normally get from Aubrees and it is soooooo good.
T- cheese tortellini & meat balls
M- salads, spaghettios with ground beef.
Hubby is a has to have meat at every meal kind of guy. Drives me nuts cuz I don't eat that way. This co-covid cooking is for the birds. When we are home for all meals making 2 different meals is a pain. Now we only do dinner together. He is on his own for breakfast and lunch.
We bought a new grill on Monday so we've used it 3 times this week.
Tonight we had sausages, marinated lamb leg chops, grilled onion and tomato, green salad, bread and butter.
Thursday we had roast marinated chicken drumsticks, roast zucchini, capsicum, and onion, and homemade oven fries, and rice.
Wednesday we grilled sausages for two, I had a lamb steak, and my daughter had a porterhouse steak with bread and butter, zucchini cooked with onion and garlic in butter, and home fries.
Tuesday nobody was really hungry so 3 had tuna with rice and 1 had a sandwich.
Monday we had sausages, salad, bread and butter.
We ate homecooked meals all week:
Minestrone from homemade broth
Watermelon and mint salad, and sausage, with baked potatos
Ovencooked cod with carrots and mustardsauce with steamed potatoes
Leftovers of said meals, with frittata,
Tonight I'll make a curry
We have had a few weeks of uninspired meals, and I am trying to make a little more effort again.
I am slowly moving to autumn meals, so I put mushroom, apples and nuts on my errand list.
I cooked over the weekend for the first time in ages (my family nearly fell over in shock). We had a higher protein spaghetti with marinara jazzed up with pork sausage and portabella mushrooms and fettuccini alfredo sauce with the same jazzing up for the household member who can't eat tomatoes.
That made leftovers, and the alfredo sauce, of which there was a lot, made awesome stuffed baked potatoes.
The next day I made a pot roast with carrots and onion and got the gravy to come out perfectly. So there was leftover pot roast eaten as is or hunks of the beef sliced cold and made into sandwiches. Sides on the first night were cheddar-herb corn muffins and baked apples.
When all the leftovers ran out, we had one night of a frozen pizza and one of delicious ham sandwiches with chips and fruit,
Wow! Your family really scored this week! This is great -
For the carbonara did you temper the eggs with pasta water before adding it to the pasta? Just before draining try adding one or two ladles full of hot water held a couple of inches away from the eggs, drizzle in while stirring the eggs. Drain pasta, return to pan add egg mixture. Beef bacon is also a (lower salt) alternative for those that dont eat pork. Hope this helps, it's a favorite at our house.
*That's hot pasta water*
I did, but my pasta water had cooled a bit before I stirred it into the eggs, and I'm wondering if that's the reason for my failure. Like maybe the water did not bring the temp of the eggs up enough.
I much prefer bacon to pancetta too. I usually make it this way:
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/spaghetti-alla-carbonara-recipe-1914140
never had a problem with the eggs cooking.
I like the taste of bacon a whole lot better than pancetta too! Luckily, it is also more frugal, which makes me like it even more. 🙂
Carbonara took me a couple tries, but definitely worth it!!!
Thanks a lot, now I am hungry! Fridays are pizza days at my house too.
Hi,
One thing that surprises me is how little you guys eat. My husband ( and kids) is used to a soup or starter, a main dish with 2/3 sides and a salad then a dessert. I think this is pretty standard where we live.
Oh wow, so you make a lot of different dishes for each meal. Do you spend a lot of time cooking each day, then?
Thanks for the beginning of this post. I am working on NOT comparing things (and me) to outside things (and others). This helps keep it in perspective. Your blog does a good job at that in general. I am so grateful for your blog, Kristen.
I am so glad my blog is not making you feel bad when you read it!
The food photography thing is a tricky one; if you are sharing a recipe, of course you want to make it look appetizing. Regardless of how good a recipe actually is, if there's an ugly photo accompanying it, it's hard to convince someone to use the recipe.
So, appetizing food photography is useful, I think.
But then it can be easy to forget that most food photography is pretty staged, and that few of our plates look quite that fancy. When I need to photograph a food, I often make a plate specifically for photographing; I dish it up more carefully, use a better plate, etc. If I'm making something just to eat it, I scoop it up and dump it on the plate much less ceremoniously!
First of all, I'm so impressed by all the great cooking out there! That Limp Veggie Stew - almost choked on my coffee. That's a weekly staple here, but never put a name to it. This has been a canning week for me. I'm just about to the end of the tomatoes. I've done marinara, chunky marinara with mushrooms, celery & onions, chunky sauce with hamburger, plain tomatoes, thick tomato sauce. Also canned a couple pints of saved bacon grease. I have some saved ham pieces in the freezer, so I plan to make a big pot of lentil soup to can - while the canner is still in the kitchen. Meals? Guess what - we had spaghetti one night, and leftovers for lunch the next day. Made tomato soup out of some marinara Tuesday, with grilled cheese. Wednesday was our 15th anniversary, so we had a beautiful take-out pizza (so romantic). Thursday night was leftover pizza, with chunky marinara on top & mozzarella. Tonight we're going out to dinner, then to listen to music with friends. Next week, apples!
I make a deconstructed carbonara that is super easy and also delicious - I wish I could remember where I got the idea from - but it serves us well for a quick and easy "pantry" meal. Instead of beating the eggs and adding the pasta to them, I just do over easy friend eggs so when they're mixed into each person's bowl, the yolk makes a nice sauce, then add crumbled bacon and a tsp or so of the bacon fat to each bowl to add even more deliciousness to the mix.
Loved the photo comparisons -- wow! I feel better 🙂 And whipped cream trumps all. Always.
I did better on spending this week: $76.00, including TP and body wash. There are plenty of staples in the house and I need to use them up.
Saturday -- Discount fresh Pizza from the grocery deli -- $2.49 🙂 huge and we ate every bit.
Sunday -- First dinner out since March lockdown, with daughter, using a gift card for much of it. Brunch on a patio, everyone masked and far away from others. So enjoyed it! Salad for dinner later?
Monday -- chicken thighs in teriyaki sauce (made from a bunch of stuff in the frig), brown rice, salad
Tuesday -- Chicken thighs in weirdo mustard honey sauce, mashed potato, salad - we ate it 🙁
Wednes. -- Leftover chicken teriaki, rice and broccoli, cucumber/tomato salad
Thursday -- Leftover chicken in weirdo mustard sauce, mashed potatoes, peas, tom/cuke salad. It actually tasted better after a brief nuking.
Tonight -- Friday--Cheap takeout! like Arby's or Pollo Loco.
Have a safe and healthy week!
That's a great point about whipped cream!
Around here we had...
Monday: Chicken breasts, strawberries, grapes, and chips
Tuesday: Your ham and swiss roll up recipe (I was so pleased that the spicy brown mustard is only 89 cents at Aldi) and sweet potatoes
Wednesday: Tacos and strawberries
Thursday: Chicken pot pie and strawberries
Friday: Sheet pan dinner of brats, broccoli, summer squash, purple potatoes, and carrots... And probably strawberries in the side. (Why, yes, strawberries are on sale at Aldi this week!)
Breakfast casserole - 2 nights
Apple-bacon mac and cheese - 2 nights
Homemade pizza
Taco bowls
Pork loin brined in garlic and ginger - yum!
Friday is homemade pizza night. I ran out of bread flour and had to use AP flour, but my family isn't terrible critical and will gobble it up even if it's not the perfect crust. I think I'll keep them. 🙂
I really appreciate when you share that a dish doesn’t work out exactly as planned, Kristen. I have been working at cooking more, and feel less discouraged to know that this happens to even experienced cooks.
First of all, I like just butter on pancakes, and second of all, cream all the time everywhere, dairy, amen, and thirdly, YAY STOVE!!
In no particular order — because I know what leftovers I have and not what day it is —
Tomato soup, borderline bisque, made with tomatoes picked within the 15 minutes. So acidic I had to add a bit of baking soda to bring it down to edibility, but super good after that.
Barbecue meatballs with roasted potatoes and carrots and fresh bread.
Fried chicken patty sandwiches — not my favorite to prepare, because deep fried stink lingers so badly, but everyone enjoys them.
On nonconsecutive days, ham, and then ham sandwiches, and then scalloped potatoes with ham, and finally ham salad sandwiches. It was a good ham. Also enormous.
Saturday: Salmon, oven fries, tomato salad.
Sunday: leek hand pies (although I did use purchased puff pastry to make them), tomato salad, fruit
Monday: leftover leek hand pies, tomato salad, ice cream
Tuesday: Giant meatball sandwiches (from Budget Bytes site) on homemade Frugal Girl rolls, tomato salad, fruit
Wednesday: leftovers so same meal as Tuesday night
Thursday: homemade pizza, cuke salad, fruit
Friday: it will be the usual McDonalds fillet of fish. It is embarrassing how much I like them. And, as I believe I have said before, I hate Tina Fey for saying in some interview that she celebrates by ordering double fish on the sandwich. Until then I did not know that was possible and now I fight with myself every week not to order it.
I also LOVE Mc D’s fish sandwiches.It is a rare event I get to have one though. Gonna try to forget what you said about “double fish” being available!!!!
You can do that?!?!
I will be making pizza tonight with your recipe. My family loves it!!
Thank you for sharing that
Cacio e pepe and carbonara are my go to comfort foods, so after much trial and error I have gotten at least decent-ish with making it (and I always use bacon too). Next try adding a little of the hot pasta water to the egg mixture to temper it before you mix it in. I found that the change in temps can cause clumps. I have also just said screw it and made a poached egg to mix in on top and that is delicious too.
I was going to recommend the same thing.. add a little pasta water to temper it or mix the egg/cheese first and pour in in small batches. I also found if you just used the yolk it was less likely to have cooked egg in the pasta and more of a creamy sauce texture
Total for the week: $110.52 (after several weeks of trying, the store finally had cleaning sprays in stock! Woohoo)
Going in reverse from memory this week, since I'm too lazy to look at the calendar for what we ate:
Tonight: probably another soup recipe - the temperature has dropped, so it is soup szn here
Thursday: smokey tomato soup + spinach and feta grilled cheese sandwiches
Wednesday: leftover vegetable stuffed lasagna rolls + broccoli
Tuesday: Vegetable pot pie topped with cheddar biscuits
Monday: takeout for a friend's birthday
Sunday: miscellaneous leftovers, a clean out the fridge night
Saturday: vegetable stuffed lasagna rolls + garlic bread
1. Air-Fried chicken tenders on lettuce
2. Crock pot Chicken , stuffing, and green beans
3. Fish sticks/ tater tots and homemade coleslaw
4. And I can't remember anything else, but we ate all week!
5. Take-out pizza tonight
This week We spent $51 at the grocery store. Here's what we ate:
Saturday - Hamburgers on the grill and french fries.
Sunday - Meatloaf and mashed potatoes.
Monday - Breakfast for dinner - fresh eggs and toast.
Tuesday - Birthday dinner for our eldest daughter (she picked the menu). Baked cod almondine, garlic potatoes, green beans, banana muffins and pumpkin pie.
Wednesday - Italian sausage with peppers and onions (from the garden) and pork & beans.
Thursday - BLT's with chips.
Friday - Chicken Shawarma pitas with french fries.
Monday (I forgot)
Tues: tortilla soup (with cabbage, tomatoes, fresh corn, onions, spinach)
Wednesday: teriyaki chicken with bok choy and napa cabbage and loto rice
Thursday: yogurt flatbread with early girl tomatoes and buffalo mozzarella
Friday: Chilaquiles
We camped for most of this week so we had lots of freezer leftovers:
Monday night - turkey burgers and some roasted potatoes I made before we left for our trip.
Tuesday - spaghetti and turkey meatballs, salad
Wednesday - chili and quesadillas
Thursday - Parmesan Crusted Tilapia (freezer fish), roasted veggies, and salad
Friday - I tried a new recipe for "skinny" chicken carnitas. They were ok. Nothing special but we've got plenty of chicken now to use for tacos, sandwiches, soups, etc.
Tonight is the hub's bday and we're having - Shrimp and grits, Caesar Salad, and sweet potato pie.
As far as spaghetti carbonara, I am not sure what the Cooks recipe says to do, but I always "temper" the eggs by adding increasing amounts of hot water to the, to bring up the temperature without scrambling them, before I add them to the pasta...
Congratulations on the new stove!!!
Thank you, thank you! I am so happy to not have broken glass on my stove anymore.
I recently tried a carbonara recipe for the first time and decided that I like chicken just fine with broth, onions and bacon, but the sauce was way too rich and too much work!
Our grocery bill is alarming, even with the garden and generous friends. I am grateful for delicious, plentiful food. This week we enjoyed eating:
- Vegan reuben sandwiches
- Veggie lasagna
- Stuffed portobello mushrooms
- Baked potatoes and green beans
- Cream of spinach soup
- Wild rice salsa salad
- Leftovers!
Hi there! I've been a reader here for a while and this is one of my first times to comment. 🙂 I decided to subscribe to Cook's Country because the recipes you make from the magazine look so good. Guess what I made last week? Spaghetti Carbonara....and my "sauce" clumped up too. I even tempered the eggs with some hot pasta water, just as the recipe recommended. We shared it with friends and they loved it!! Also, yay for a new oven and the tips that you can respond to IG comments on the desktop...IG is such a time-suck for me, too! Keep up the good work! Love, love your blog!