WIS, WWA | just Aldi
What I Spent
Really simple this week: I spent $107 at Aldi!
Something that has nothing to do with food: you know how Chiquita is always sitting on my desk or worse, on my keyboard?
I moved her new cat tree into my office, and so far, it is working beautifully to keep her off my desk!
I hope this continues...she has a comfier place to sleep, and I can type without a cat in the way. 😉
What We Ate
Saturday
We had a late lunch, so Zoe and I both just had smoothies for dinner.
(Girl dinner?)
Sunday
We just had a frozen pizza.
Monday
Zoe was at work, and I made some mashed potatoes topped with roasted red peppers and some shrimp.
The picture looks very unappetizing but I promise it was delicious.
There's never good lighting for pictures by the time I eat dinner in the winter!
Tuesday
I thawed some roasted winter squash and made an eyeballed batch of soup by blending it and then adding a bit of butter, some salt, pepper, and half and half.
I also seasoned some chicken with a bit of leftover taco seasoning, cooked that on the stovetop, and added the rest of the roasted sweet peppers I'd made, with some half and half to deglaze the pan.
Wednesday
My breakfast for dinner meal of the week: whole wheat blueberry pancakes. Can't stop, won't stop. 🙂
Thursday
I made this mandarin chicken salad (a copycat of an old Wendy's salad, which is not even faintly authentically Asian. But it is delicious.)
Friday
I'm working a 7:00 am-7:30 pm tech shift at my hospital, so...probably just a ham sandwich when I come home.
I made a recipe of the Aldi copycat chickpea salad, though, which I packed for my lunch with some leftover chicken from last night. I also packed some cottage cheese and peaches. So my lunch is gonna be a nicer meal than my dinner. 😉
I do still have my lunch voucher from when I donated blood, but I think I'll use that when I'm at the hospital for clinical.
At clinical, we usually all gather in the cafeteria for our lunch break, so it'll be handy to use it then.
Lovely pictures as usual. That cat tree was a good investment!
Not keeping close tabs on our spend, but I did make use of several offers, and bought winter vegetables instead of imported greens.
Today will be chili beans with ground beef
Thu: chicory oven dish, and spicy chicken
Wed: millet with winter greens and banana
Tue: Brussels sprouts, potatoes, meat balls
Mon: marrowfat (??) with bacon and a salad
Sun: beef and Brussels sprouts and salad
Sat: do not recall
@JNL,
hm, the bananas were imported though!
@JNL, I was just about to ask you about the banana-growing industry in The Netherlands. 🙂
I love the cat tree ...
Week 1 of working FT. We spent 71.and change on Saturday at the grocery store. My partner works away on a rotating schedule , so I was flying solo most of the week, as he's gone back to work.
We Had supper on Sunday with my mother.
Lunches this week were mainly leftover, raw veggies, bagged salad, crackers, hummus, cheese
Monday -burger patties with roasted asparagus, sweet potatoes and yellow potatoes
Tuesday - BLT with a bagged salad
Wednesday fried potatoes with a shallot, topped with mixed greens, feta and 2 poached eggs
Thursday -chicken wings and raw veggies
Friday -??
I'm filling up a coffee card every 2 weeks with 20.00- 25.00 . I'm giving myself permission to go for a walk on my lunch break and buy a coffee, with a limited amount on the card, there's no room to buy "food", if I'm feeling unmotivated to make my lunch, I'll be giving up my coffee for the week. It may not be frugal for some people, but for me, this technique works.
WIS: a whole lot of nothin' 😉
WWA:
Fri: we, in fact, did not have focaccia this night. We had salad, leftover radish gratin and hotdogs on brioche hamburger buns. It was like we tore a page out of that Wacky Wednesday book, but dinner was still good.
Sat: a really pretty salad made of orange slices and watermelon radish slices, and finally focaccia, but definitely on the wrong night.
Sun: salad, a gigantic crock pot of cabbage soup with homemade sourdough bread on the side.
Mon: salad (marinated radishes and cucumbers), cabbage soup over egg noodles.
Tue: salad and cabbage soup over baked potatoes.
Wed: nachos topped with extra veggies in lieu of a separate salad.
Thu: salad, Mediterranean chicken, chick peas and apricots over rice. This dish always sets off the smoke alarm when my husband deglazes the pan, but it is so worth the smokiness. Yummy!
Tonight: focaccia, for crying out loud because after three and a half snow days this week, life needs to make sense again!!!
Have a great weekend, everyone!
@Becca, I am not a big radish fan, but a friend has given me a couple of packs of watermelon radish seeds the past couple of years and they are fun to grow! They are also one of the most fun plants to save seeds from - it's very satisfying to get the seeds out of the little pods.
I don't know that I've ever seen watermelon radishes in stores. Not that I've gone hunting for them, but it's fun that you have them!
@Ruth T,
I came here to say the same thing about not being a radish fan....BUT, I first tried a watermelon radish when we were given a few in a CSA box probably 10 years ago. Life changing. 🙂 Well, maybe not, but it changed my mind about radishes. I love love love watermelon radishes. My local Kroger sells them, but they're kind of pricey....last time I looked (pre-pandemic), they were $3.99 US/pound. I have no idea what they're selling for now, but I need to take a look. Heck, I'll pay $4.00 US for a Sumo orange, so why not whatever it takes for a watermelon radish? 🙂
I’m going to the store at 8 with my sister. I haven’t been since before Christmas and the dairy is getting low. Question for you? When you say you made mashed potatoes is that cooking them and whipping them with butter and milk or cream? I ask because a friend uses the packages- even for holiday meals. I’ve never purchased them- probably a lot of sodium. She also buys jarred gravy.
@Nan Beckwith, the instant potatoes better half purchases are a) not high in sodium and are b) pretty tasty from a homegrown potato person I am.
Jarred gravy is also not a death knell - no MSG. And not all methods of cooking garners "drippings". And if one time a year, I suspect all will survive.
$70 on mostly odds and ends (batteries, meringue powder, diet pop)
1- snacks for dinner at Bunco
2- Christmas with my out of town grands and my son made a great stuffed pork tenderloin
3- 2 nights of eating the freezer: a previous dinner excess of short ribs and beans, pierogies, homemade apple sauce, and a little sour cream
4-grilled cheese and tomatoe soup
5- a pretty decent chicken curry frozen dinner. I really craved takeout but remembered I had this and it did the trick
6- tonight I’ll have one more night of the freezer leftover
I did a NY freezer organization and realize I’m quite pork heavy. Not sure how that happened but I want to start using that up and replace with more chicken
@Vallie D, what is "meringue powder"?
@Central Calif. Artist Jana,
I'm not Vallie D, but it's basically powdered egg whites with stabilizers. It's considered safer than raw egg white when meringue won't be cooked.
@Central Calif. Artist Jana,
JD answered correctly
I only use it for royal icing for decorating sugar cookies
Saturday: This was the day we ground elk meat, so I kept some out of the freezer to use for dinner. I made Salisbury steaks with it, plus mashed potatoes and carrots with maple syrup and butter. Very much reminiscent of cafeteria food, but way better. 🙂
Sunday: Tacos for Epiphany (the feast day of the Three Kings). Epiphany is the end of Christmas for us, and I do something like Christmas Day-lite: a celebratory meal with dessert and one more gift for each child with a couple of Lindt truffles. In the past, I've made tamales. I was too burned out on the kitchen this year to do that, but my daughter had requested I make corn tortillas, which seemed doable. I had a lot of pork butt left from New Year's Day, so we had pork soft tacos in corn tortillas. I remembered to get some avocado and lime, too, and guacamole definitely elevates tacos to something special in our house. For dessert, I used the gingerbread I had frozen a few weeks earlier when we had too many treats in the house. All I did was warm it up in the microwave and serve it with whipped cream. The perfect last Christmas-y dessert to end the season.
Monday: Back to work and school. I did not plan well for dinner. Luckily, I had some creamy chicken soup I had made Saturday to have on hand for my lunches or whatever, so we had that, salami and cream cheese sandwiches, and some ice cream that was a bit icy and needed to be eaten. Every part of this meal had cream in it. No complaints.
Tuesday: Hunter's pie (made with ground elk, so not shepherd's pie), chocolate chip/peanut butter/almond cookies
Wednesday: Another work day, but slightly more thought-out meal. I took out some meatballs I had formed and frozen awhile ago, plus some roasted tomato sauce from the freezer. These were baked in the oven and served with spaghetti. There weren't enough meatballs, however, so I also grabbed a small bag of leftover ham I had tossed in the freezer a week or so ago. That was combined with two microwaved and diced potatoes, fried in butter, and finished off with the last of the grated cheddar cheese from the tacos. And then raw bell peppers and radishes for a vegetable.
Thursday: I was asked Tuesday if I could substitute this day, so I knew I would be at work. That's why I made a sausage and vegetable soup on Tuesday with the last of the chicken stock in the refrigerator. We had that with cheese quesadillas. A very comforting meal on a wretchedly windy and cold day. And easy after work. Oh, and the one son who had the math test had been saying for about three days that he wished we had some chocolate. So I let the kids all have a very small amount of chocolate chips. Happiness abounded.
Tonight: Chicken, I think. I have the big packages of leg quarters. Probably just heavily seasoned and roasted. Two packages of the chicken will make leftovers to use for curry tomorrow, which is handy. I'll make roasted potatoes, too, since the oven will already be at high heat and I'll be making cookies earlier in the day and can re-use the cookie pans for the chicken and potatoes. I need to cook one of the giant calabaza today, too (this is a local kind of winter squash), so that for a vegetable, plus some radishes or peppers for the kids, most of whom do not like calabaza. Sounds like a plan.
@kristin @ going country, I think you are positively heroic and magical with your ability to feed your family so creatively. I read your WIA in awe each week, and you do this while living in a small space with many people, working almost full time, and driving long distances. Impressive!
@Central Calif. Artist Jana, I feel the same. I practically hold my breath while reading the length and breadth of the foods her lucky family and guests get to eat under trying circumstances, in terms of getting ingredients.
@Central Calif. Artist Jana,
Same here. I always look forward to kristin's WIS, WWA. It makes me a little ashamed of myself, because I'm frequently too tired to cook dinner after work, so our meals are pretty lame. I only have myself and DH to feed (DS is very picky, so he usually gets something equally as easy, but not what were eating).
@Liz B.,
P.S. the feeling ashamed is on me, not Kristin with an "i". I find her WWA inspriational. 🙂
@kristin @ going country, adding to the chorus of kudos. While reading your entry today, I thought "I hope her kids know how lucky they are." The warm gingerbread with whipped cream brought back wonderful memories of my own childhood. Sadly, being a kid, I didn't know just how lucky I was.
@MB in MN, Thanks, everyone! My family certainly does benefit from my habit of thinking about food pretty much all the time. 🙂
Happy Friday. WWA:
Saturday - we had one last big family meal before some of our progeny left town -spaghetti with homemade sauce, garlic bread, Caesar salad, chocolate chip cookies
Sunday - pork souvlaki, tzatziki, leftover garlic bread, horiatiki salad
Monday - leftovers
Tuesday - grilled cheese, carrots, celery
Wednesday - cabbage roll soup from the freezer
Thursday - air fryer chicken drumsticks, oven fries
Friday - the plan is to out for Thai food
Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend
Provisions lower than last week but still a lot of pantry eating to go into the week. Last week Friday Thursday was a turkey, broccoli rice hot dish, frozen pizza and salad, vegetable and lentil dal, turkey meatballs and mashed potatoes, tortellini and spinach bake, and last night chicken thighs with leftovers. I have an ear doctor appointment so will stop at Aldi in way home with a carefully thought out shop.
Sometimes I do wish we had room for a nice cat tower, because Clark loves being up high and he loves blankets. He has to be content with a blanket on my very large desk, in front of a picture window. And his own mug of water. The sheer deprivation of it all.
WWA, There and Back Again Edition:
Before leaving for Florida, DH made a big container of tuna burgers, and I baked a bunch of turkey bacon, and we packed those and oranges in our coolers, and off we went. These were our road food. They keep very well and have protein and carbs.
Wednesday: Stopped at a hotel in Chattanooga, and DS#1 and #4 opted for TV dinners from the grocery store, cooked in the microwave in their room, and I forget what I had. I think I ate two tuna burgers. DH was fasting, as he finds he's more alert for driving when he does.
Thursday: Hotel in Valdosta, and I think the boys wanted tuna burgers, bacon and oranges, and I felt I needed some greens, so we walked over to Chipotle where I picked up a veggie bowl with beans. Hit the spot.
Friday: We arrived in Florida! Dropped the boys off to get settled in the house and headed to the trusty Winn-Dixie for groceries...only to find out it was closed and an Aldi planned for the space. Hmmph. Went to Walmart for non-perishables and then Publix for produce and meats and dairy. I cooked up about 5 pounds of ground beef, in crumbles and in burgers, to use for meals. The boys had tortilla crust pizzas, I had a salad. Publix had lovely produce.
Saturday: Trip recovery day. Our usual meals in Florida are tortilla pizzas, and DS#4's favorite, fried egg grilled cheese sandwiches. So he and DS#1 had sandwiches for lunch and pizzas for dinner.
Sunday: DH took DS#4 to Disney, while I and the oldest stayed home. The usual fare for dinner, except I puttered in the kitchen and made a delicious roasted carrot soup.
Monday: MORE pizzas, salad for me, and the carrot soup was even better the next day!
Tuesday: DH and DS#1 were at a conference all day (the main reason we came down), and DS#4 had, I think, mac and cheese and also fried egg sandwiches, as I was cleaning out the fridge before leaving the next day. I had a strange leftover dinner, roasted some carrots and used up the last two corn tortillas and beef for tacos. (We tried to see manatees at a canal, as it was cold and they're supposed to come in there when it's cold, but no dice.)
Wednesday: Heading home to beat Winter Storm Cora before it hits Georgia, Tennessee and Kentucky. DH made more tuna burgers on Monday, we made more bacon and stocked up on mandarins (DS#1 was on a citrus kick and I swear ate a whole bag on Sunday by himself!). Wednesday night we stopped in Macon, in a very nice hotel, and while DH planned the next leg DS#1 and I went out to get TV dinners and Chik Fil A (for DS#4). Google maps showed a very nice looking ChikFilA by our hotel, but lo, when we got there, they were closed for renovation, even though Google had declared the drive-through still open. Hmmph. So we drove around for 20 minutes but snagged our objective and we all settled in.
Thursday: Texted the kids at home to let them know we were pushing through and coming home that day, after assessing the storm predictions. DS#3 offered to have taco stuff ready for dinner, and very delicious it was after a 9 hour drive. He even made homemade tortilla chips!
Tonight will be, probably, celebratory homemade pizzas with real crusts, brownies, and I'm going to try out the carrot soup on the rest of the boys. Happy to be home, even if it is 18 degrees and snowy outside and a few days ago I was collecting shells on a beach!
**The kids at home were left with full provisions and made, variously, beef stew, tomato soup, mac and cheese, and pizzas.
Sorry for the novel-length post, but I am always pretty pleased with us for not eating out when we're traveling, save for a random Chik-Fil A meal or (in my case) a $10 dollar Chipotle bowl. The groceries were more expensive down there, but restaurants would have been even more, so it always feels good to eat at home while not "at home"!
@Karen A.,
Groceries in Florida are expensive. When I hear prices in other parts of the country, I’m envious. On another note, I hope you enjoyed your trip and had beautiful weather.
@Bee, We had a great time! I basically always want to just walk on the beach and luckily my youngest loves the beach too. We explored a bit of the Indian River for the first time and that was lovely. As long as DH's yearly conference is in Florida in January we hope to keep going to Indialantic.
@Karen A.,
Valdosta is mighty close to my neck of the woods!
@JD, I hope the storm isn't too bad for you folks! We stopped in a Walmart in Tennessee on Thursday and it was mobbed!
@Karen A., What a lovely thing for your child to do! I'm sure it was so nice to have those tacos when you got home!
@Ruth T, I try to tell anyone who is in the weeds with very young children and feeling exhausted...someday, if you play your cards right, you'll have kids who will willingly cook you up some dinner. The trick is to teach them to make something they really like themselves. And dangle the carrot of "whoever cooks doesn't clean up."
WIS: $70 at Price Chopper (about half of which was for vitamins and supplements) and $65 at Wegmans. I was stocking up after the recent snows. But the Wegmans tab included two luxuries: a bag of the Sumo oranges that Lindsey raves about (3 lb. for $7.99 after paper and electronic coupons) and a small boneless leg of lamb Reduced for Quick Sale at $3.99/lb.
WIA: The two highlights were a NYT "Easiest Chicken Noodle Soup" made with stock and ground chicken from the freezer (which I shared with my next-door neighbor), and the leg of lamb (which I roasted yesterday and will probably dine on for several days; I love lamb but don't often buy it because of the cost).
@A. Marie, I also bought a bag of 5 Sumo oranges this week for the Trader Joe’s price of $5.99. They are slight smaller than the oranges that are available to purchase individually, but so much less expensive at only $1.20 a piece as opposed to the $3+ Sumos. I wish I could ship them to Lindsey.
@Bee, and @ A. Marie,
That's a steal on those Sumos!
Here in Ohio, they're $3.99 each at my local supermarket. I know Lindsey pays significantly more than that.
I wrote my menu down so I could participate this time:
Saturday: broccoli cheddar bacon soup
Sunday: We were invited to dinner at our daughter's house. She made chicken alfredo and we took a salad and bread to share
Monday: leftover soup and turkey meatloaf. We had soft foods as DH had dental work that morning.
Tuesday: Breakfast for dinner - sausage patties, eggs, fried potatoes and toast
Wednesday: turkey enchiladas
Thursday: takeout pizza
Friday: tonight will be a spicy sausage, penne pasta dish that is a favorite of ours
Have a great weekend, everyone!
It makes sense that she would want to be near a window! This week at my house:
Monday - I made a pot of turkey soup - Thanksgiving is now officially OVER, ha ha
Tuesday - 5 Ingredient Cranberry Chicken over(freezer) masheds, side salad
Wednesday - Taco Salad Bowl with added chickpeas and protein tortilla chips
Thursday - Steak for One, zucchini
Tonight - Rotisserie Seasoned Chicken Breast Strips over Asian chopped salad
Saturday and Sunday - kitchen closed, but I have freezer meals for both days
I went shopping yesterday and filled up my pantry and freezer to the tune of $166. Ouch.
But I had zero canned or dry goods and now if we get some crazy weather I won't have to worry about groceries.
Chiquita probably just wanted to be able to look out the window. Moving the cat tree lets her do that in perfect comfort.
WIS: $84, divided between Aldi (2/3) and Food Lion (1/3).
WWA: Homemade pizza made with the refrigerated dough from Aldi, which was very good and so fast. Ham with fresh fruit and vegetables. White bean soup with a side dish of roasted sweet potato cubes. Veggie burgers with oranges as a side. The stand-by of protein shakes, rye crackers, Laughing Cow cheese and fruit for snacky-type meals.
I'm sure Chiquita enjoys having that window view.
WIS - nothing, this last week was my "off" week for shopping.
WIA - this will be easy.
I made a pot of beef-vegetable soup in the pressure cooker- it had mushrooms, celery root (celeriac), carrots, celery, onion and lots of garlic. The meat came from two very meaty soup bones. I ate this a few times, with bread and butter or fruit as sides.
I made a leg of lamb (hello, A. Marie!) roasted with mushrooms and white potatoes. I ate this a few times with various sides including beets, cranberry sauce, and komatsuna greens. My usual beef rancher also raises a few sheep, and I bought a half sheep last year.
Except for one night when I made tuna salad (with shredded veggies as always), this is what I ate all week.
Of course, this was also my lunches. I'm lucky that this doesn't bore me.
Tonight: That depends on how tired and chilly I am after work then grocery shopping.
@JD, I wish that my beef-raising friends did sheep too. But I'll be lucky if they stay in the beef business for another couple of years (they're in their mid-70s and feeling their age). They used to do pork, but gave up on pigs a few years ago.
@A. Marie,
My current beef rancher is the second generation and has nearly raised the third, so I hope they will continue for a while. They also have a few hogs and chickens, but mostly it's cows, many, many cows. They practice organic, sustainable farming and hogs and sheep are an important part of it.
Friday: Trader Joe’s tortellini, the last of a jar of red sauce (frozen), and the last few pieces of focaccia.
Saturday: My husband’s dad’s family gathered for their annual holiday meal. It’s always a potluck so I made a batch of Krumkake. The meal was at 4pm so we might have popped a frozen pizza in the oven for a late-night snack.
Sunday: Turkey Cheeseburger Soup
Monday: Sausage and Veggie Sheet Pan Dinner
Tuesday: Chicken Noodle Soup
Wednesday: Pot Roast with veggies
Thursday: Fish and Chips with fruit
My goal this week was to use up as much as possible in the fridge before heading out of town. I also worked on finishing up all the little snacky odds and ends leftover from the holidays – most of those made it into my son’s lunches without complaints. I’ll have a big shopping trip when we get back from our trip, but nothing will go to waste!
All looks delicious! You're food pictures are always so inspiring!
1. Bean, meat and rice bowls
2. My family had beans and rice one night when I went to a ladies' night at a Mexican restraunt.
3. Pasta bake, garlic bread and roasted veggies
4. Greens, beans and cornbread
What can I say, it's been a bean heavy week! But they're cheap, healthy and we love them!
Also, I've been enjoying your homemade yogurt recipe. I make half vanilla and half plain. I tried using it to make overnight oats, delish!
WWS - I have been eating down the refrigerator and the pantry, so I only spent roughly $50 week at Trader Joe’s. I also spent $30 on takeout sushi
WWA
Saturday - I had homemade cream of chicken vegetable soup leftover from Friday night. DH had the last of the blackeyed peas, rice and ham. We both had leftover GF cornbread.
Sunday - We had family dinner out at BIL house for my nephew’s birthday. We had take out barbecue.
Monday - There was a single GF pizza in the freezer. I doctored it with some burrata, spinach, chicken sausage and fresh tomato.
Tuesday - It was my husband’s birthday. Although we had planned dinner out with family, many in the family were not feeling well, and it was bitterly cold (for us). We had takeout sushi instead and will go to his favorite restaurant this weekend.
Wednesday - I made chicken piccata, rice, and roasted tomatoes and green beans.
Thursday - DH made a large pot of beef stew which we will also have for dinner this evening.
Enjoy your weekend and bon appétit.
Pantry Freezer January continues. 70 dollars spent at Kroger pickup.
Sunday: oven bbq chicken strips rice corn
Monday and Tuesday: split pea soup with a hambone from freezer and cornbread
Wednesday: turkey slices from freezer. Mashed potatoes. Sautéed cabbage
Thursday: bisquick pot pie with turkey Cottage cheese. Canned pineapple tidbits.
Friday: tuna noodle casserole
I will have to restock fresh fruit and vegetables this week and we are low on bread products. I did make granola this week. I have lots of random nuts in freezer.
Good Morning, All.
I looked over my budget for last year. I use Dave Ramsey's Every Dollar. It is the easiest way for me to keep in the bright light of reality. So I thought I would share in the interest of transparency what I spent on average monthly for food.
Input Costs:
California
Empty Nesters with one son in college
I don't purchase alcohol
I include all grocery products
no pets
Groceries: $444 a month
Restaurant: $426 a month
I am pretty proud of the grocery bill. I chose to have a high-ish restaurant bill because of a few factors:
1. I retired this year in June and have traveled all over and will continue to do so this year.
2. When we are with my son, eating out is the big "activity/entertainment" and he eats like any slim 22 year old boy - like a horse. We also take his roommate with us.
3. My incredibly hardworking farm worker hubby works 12 hour days/ six days a week. The one luxury he allows himself is a meal out in a fun location. I won't take that away from him. Sometimes, I eat before and have a salad or appetizer when I am with him more for my food plan reasons.
I am happy with last year and hope to keep the budget about the same this year.
If you have an solid monthly average I would love to hear it. Great if you could give me area and number of mouths.
@Mary Ann, two empty nesters in Maryland. My grocery category includes only edibles and drinkables, so wine goes here but no paper towels.
$580 on food and $432 on eating out. My husband loves to take out friends and most of all treat kids and grandkids.
My spending tracking effort started with Every Dollar. It makes budgeting fun.
Kristen, how do you roast red peppers? Or can they be bought already roasted? In a can? Frozen? I am completely ignorant here.
@Central Calif. Artist Jana, Not Kristen but I buy them in the supermarket. They’re in glass jars where other vegs in olive oil are located. Often in the Italian foods department.
@ErikaJS, love red roasted pepper pasta. What do u make with them?
WWA:
Sunday: nachos with leftover Cuban pork after our kids went to bed
Monday: Sam’s club takeout pizza because I was doing late afternoon grocery shopping
Tuesday: sausages, oven fries, broccoli
Wednesday: potluck at church! I brought crockpot pasta
Thursday: beef stew, salad, homemade sourdough bread
Friday: homemade pizza!
We spent a lot on stocking up this week, as we were out of town during the holidays. It adds up, when you are basically out of everything!
We had:
Korean beef & rice
Chicken shawarma x2
Grilled chicken
Baked fish
I had a protein bar before a late soccer game, and DH had the rest of the fish
I made a big pot of zuppa toscana soup last night for dinner (yum)
For tonight, I think I'll be having leftover soup. DH is out of town, so I have to maximize my soup eating opportunities.
I’m always impressed and enticed by your meals in the face of school, job, family responsibilities. Add to that, keeping up with the daily grind of a blog that so many depend upon. A second blog now. So much is packed into your day.
Also love the kitty tower, which is clearly a hit. I wonder if Chiquita will calm down in general now?
I need to work backwards to remember what we ate 🙂
Thursday: Chicken and eggplant stew over rice/Chickpea stew as the vegetarian option
Wednesday: Tacos with ground lamb and beans, shredded cabbage, avocados, tomatoes, bell peppers.
Tuesday: Cafe Rio takeout burritos as I had to drive out to the airport
Monday: Butternut squash soup, sausages
Sunday: Salmon cakes (from leftover salmon, tofu cakes as vegetarian option) with lemon dijon sauce, roasted potatoes and broccoli
Saturday: Baked salmon, baby potatoes, green beans (Tofu as vegetarian option)
Tonight I'm thinking we will have pasta with sausage, and any veggies still in the fridge.
I do love breakfast for dinner. I'm back at work in person, and while I did not succeed in bringing my lunch every day, we did manage no takeout.
Sunday: Chicken katsu and a vegetable (can't recall what, maybe baby carrots?) from the freezer.
Monday: Tomato-lentil soup from the freezer, grilled cheese, hard boiled eggs.
Tuesday: Mr. B made beef stew.
Wednesday: I got home early and made soy/ginger tilapia, rice, and cucumber salad.
Thursday: I came home early again (yay!), so I defrosted bolognese sauce which we had with spaghetti and edamame on the side.
Friday: Mr. B is out (Jamie Oliver is in town and Mr. B is going to a book signing with his friend and they'll have dinner together,) so the toddler and I will have mac and cheese, and cucumbers on the side. And ice cream for dessert.
My grammar is all over the place...Jamie Oliver will NOT be joining Mr. B and his friend for dinner haha! But I hope they enjoy, and as a bonus there will be a new cookbook for me to look at. I love reading cookbooks.
I had two cats growing up and both of them spurned the cat trees my parents got them! The sofa, our laps, or whatever we were in the middle of reading was always preferable!
WIS: A bit of prep for a snowstorm here with extra milk and some matches and fire starters so $232 @ Kroger this week. I tried a more frugal fire starter that worked really well....dryer lint in a toilet paper roll. I think this will will be the last batch of fire starters I buy.
Saturday: Pot Roast with mushrooms and onions, mashed potatoes & green beans
Sunday: Homemade Chicken noodle soup
Monday: Leftovers
Tuesday: Spaghetti & green salad
Wednesday: Leftovers
Thursday: we hit the easy button and got takeout pizza; some days you just need a break
Friday: We have 3 inches of snow here which is rare for GA so Turkey Chili is on the stove and we will enjoy that with baked potatoes; there will be cocoa and hot cider, a roaring fire all day and lots of games, cards, a snowman, some sledding....cheers tot he weekend ahead my friends!
This week, we enjoyed:
- Popcorn and fruit
- Restaurant meal: Salads and spinach ravioli (husband had eggplant parmesan)
- Margherita pizza
- Veggies and dip; guacamole and chips
- Spaghetti squash with marinara sauce
- Sandwich of cheese, lettuce, avocado, sunflower seeds, mayo, mustard
- Salad
Saturday - Smoked sausages on buns, peas, potato salad, and the yummiest strawberries - shocking for January!
Sunday - My MIL brought hamloaf with her from PA and I made it for our last full day with my in-laws. (I got a meat grinder for Christmas and am hopeful that I can make my own hamloaf someday.) We had broccoli, sweet potatoes, and fruit on the side.
Monday - I was catering and ate there, though I made a smoothie right before work because I knew it would be a late dinner. My husband and kids had leftovers.
Tuesday - Crunchy onion BBQ chicken, pineapple, strawberries, and peas and carrots
Wednesday - Tortellini carbonara with peas
Thursday - We found out Wednesday night that our kitchen faucet was leaking and I was already behind on dishes, then my kids had friends over after school on Thursday and I decided that I was no longer making dinner. We had Little Caesar's pizza and the kids were thrilled.
Friday - I have chicken to use up, so that'll be the main. Other than that, I need to go through the fridge and see what needs used first. Our calendar is completely blank for tomorrow, so I did a big grocery trip today and plan to make some freezer meals tomorrow.
I also loved that Wendy's salad. And yes, I think the only thing with a vaguely Asian aspect might have been the crunchy almost lo-mein-style topping. Ha! Could maybe rename it a clementine chicken salad and be closer.
The dressing was strong in umami as well, as I remember, but seemed pretty Americanized anyway. 😉
WIS: $0 on groceries, and $14.84 (tax and tip included) on a belated birthday lunch with two friends whose late December birthdays are the day after mine, so we all pay for our own lunch! And exchange presents and have a very good time.
So far in 2025, $9.96 on groceries and $14.84 on restaurants.
WIA: Nothing to see here! Just eating down never-ending leftovers of marinated London Broil with roasted smashed potatoes and sauteed asparagus, and roasted Delicata squash stuffed with wild rice and sausage; but “new” macaroni and cheese with corn muffins to break up the monotony.
@JDinNM,
I hope you had a happy belated birthday. Lunch with friends is a great way to celebrate.
@Bee, Thank you, Bee! These birthdays that fall in the week between Christmas and New Year's Eve get overlooked/forgotten, so we band together to celebrate! I remember back in grade school I missed out on having the birthday parties other kids had because no one was around/school was closed. So my Mom sprang for a 4th of July birthday party at an amusement park one summer to make up for it.
What I spent: $0 -- partly due to wanting to eat up what i have in the freezer and partly due to laziness. I just never made it to the store this week even though I had no tomatoes-- a staple in my house even when it's the middle of winter and tomatoes are mediocre at best.
Saturday-Senate bean soup from the freezer.
Sunday - Kevin's brand chicken in garlic sauce, pan-friend potatoes and steamed cauliflower.
Monday - filled up on snacks, so no dinner.
Tuesday - Chicken taco with no tomatoes. 🙁
Wednesday - leftover chicken in garlic sauce, potatoes, and cauliflower
Thursday - half of a turkey and bacon melt sandwich leftover from a restaurant lunch with coworkers
Friday - tomato-less chicken tacos again.
Looking forward to getting tomatoes, among other things, tomorrow!
Been eating down my freezer.
Made some chicken shawerma with a package of meat form trader joe, made home made tzatziki out of cucumbers fresh dill and yougurt I had in fridge. A Greek salad on the side.YUM!
Batch of hamburger cabbage soup with tons of other veggies served with rye bread I had purchased on sale.
Spaghetti and homemade sliced mushroom sauce with a link of sausage cut up in it too..I don’t like us to eat too much sausage so 1 link feeds 2 of us.Salad on side.
Dragon Lime Shrimp: A tasty asian recipe using up frozen shrimp from freezer with an easy to make sauce with ingredients I always have on hand. Over rice made in my rice cooker.
Made a batch of applesauce out of the dollar apples from the “almost done” bin at grocery store.
Cooking at home is fun,for the most part. I love my own recipes.. and I like to play music and set a nice table most evenings even for 2 of us… it’s a highlight of my day..(I’m retired!) But I like breaks now and then so today we are trying out the burgers at a new Farm Diner that a friend’s son and DIL have opened nearby..help them out, have a “date” and also a break from cooking. WIN WIN WIN.
Ugh cats on desk, keyboard or wherever. Not in my house - it really does not take much form them to get the message. I should rephrase that - when ALL in a household are on the same page (note - surprised my father's cats don't hate me - I do NOT put up with them on the desk as I am typing. My mother has been spinning in her grave for 2+ years now.
I separated the receipts but too late for me to "do the math".
Mushroom/Swiss stuffed chicken breast wrapped in bacon, jackets, carrots/red peppers/onions cooked with chicken
Dine out Mexican
Leftover Mexican/pizza
Fried bologna, chips/salad for me, who knows what he ate
Cheeseburger, chips/salad form me, omelet with cheese, ham, and peppers
Cheeseburger, peanut butter noodles (a bit much PB but a good first try)/leftover chili
Steak, salmon, pseudo jackets, corn