WIS, WWA | my birthday week!
What I Spent
Well, we didn't do a ton of grocery shopping this week because it was a pretty unusual week of dinner meals for us.
I made a $25 stop at Harris Teeter and Mr. FG did an $80 run to BJ's warehouse club.
So, our grocery spending was $105.
April Grocery Spending
Week 1: $115
Week 2: $156
Week 3: $145
Week 4: $218
Week 5: $105
April total: $729, or $145/week
What We Ate
Saturday
Mr. FG and I did a takeout date night, using a $15 birthday discount from a local restaurant.
Sunday
We were at my parents for a joint birthday celebration because my brother and I have birthdays that are one day apart. 
Although if you wanted to get technical, our birthdays are 1 year and 364 days apart. 😉
Monday
A small pause in the birthday thing; I made a chicken salad that was sort of a cross between a green salad and a typical mayo-based chicken salad.
And we ate it in pita breads.
Tuesday
This was my actual birthday, and I chose to get Panera takeout for my dinner. We had ice cream cake from a local shop for dessert.
Wednesday
It was unseasonably warm here, so I grilled some sausages and hot dogs.
In keeping with the warm weather thing, we had carrot sticks, celery sticks, cucumbers, and grapes on the side. Nice and cool!
Thursday
Since it was my birthday week (did I mention I had a birthday??), I had a free birthday offer from Chick-Fil-A and also, Mr. FG and I both had a free sandwich offer in our apps.
Lisey was with a friend, so since it was just the four of us, we redeemed all the free offers and got dinner for just a few dollars.
Friday
Last week, it turned out that Zoe's teeth were indeed way too sore for pizza.
She's adjusted nicely to her new brace/rubber band situation now, though, so I think we'll give pizza a try tonight.
Happy birthday! This sounds like a good week!
Spending was only $105 this week; $475 for April. I'll be happy if I can keep it around that for May.
Friday - either tuscan herbed chicken or hoison pork meatloaves, depending on what I feel like making
Thursday - frozen pizza, cucumbers & bell peppers with dill dip
Wednesday - pulled pork sandwiches, coleslaw and baked beans
Tuesday - chicken and peppers stirfry over rice
Monday - takeout from Red Robin
Sunday - tacos
Saturday - cheeseburgers, tator tots, and sliced veggies
Oh, I so love Chik-Fil-A. But I have a hankering for more Mexican food this weekend. I mean, when do I not. We ate:
Monday - Chicken Thighs over Zucchini Stuffing Casserole (this wasn't great this time around...)
Tuesday - BBQ Pork Chops in my small crockpot, skillet sweet potatoes
Wednesday - Turkey Sloppy Joes on whole wheat buns, coleslaw, NO chips!
Thursday - Crockpot Pork Tenderloin, green beans with new potatoes
Tonight - Orange Chicken, small serving rice, leftover green beans
Saturday - Probably a rotisserie chicken over a chopped salad
Sunday - Thai Chicken Lettuce Wraps {pick-up party at a winery for lunch}
Have a great rest of your birthday week - it ain't over! (:
That's a lot of birthday food. Nicely done.
Saturday: Bunless cheeseburgers, baked beans (probably my children's favorite method of my goal of working through the excessive dried pinto beans in my pantry), leftover rice, cucumbers with salt and vinegar, chocolate chip oatmeal cookies (and this is their favorite method in my goal of working through the excessive quick oats in my pantry)
Sunday: Pot roast and beef ribs with green garlic puree, garlic bread, roasted peppers and onions. pureed calabaza (squash), raw tomatoes, marshmallows to bribe two of my reluctant sons so I could cut their claws without too much drama
Monday: Scrambled eggs--some plain, some with salsa and cheese--leftover rice, pinto beans, frozen peas
Tuesday: Ground beef tacos, pinto beans, leftover cucumber slices, pureed squash, chocolate chip cookie bars that I actually made for the kids at school who are doing state testing this week but that my children of course got to sample
Wednesday: Steaks; pasta with butter, cream cheese, and green garlic puree; green salad with ranch dressing, pureed calabaza
Thursday: Some had leftovers, some had scrambled eggs
Tonight: My parents are arriving for a brief visit and wanted to bring us something for dinner. I think they're bringing rotisserie chickens and macaroni and cheese. Probably salad stuff, too, knowing my mom.
I say that if it's your birthday, you should milk it for all you can. Ha.
Have a fun time with your parents!!
WWS: $62 ($305 for April); WWA:
Sat: dinner at friends, we brought charcuterie plate
Sun: leftover charcuterie plate/leftovers
Mon: chicken sausage with zucchini fritters & yogurt sauce
Tues: meatballs and pasta with pesto; roasted cauliflower
Wed: "shake and bake" pork chops; roasted Brussel sprouts; mashed cauliflower/potato (partner has fond memories of Shake 'n Bake growing up, I never had had it, so I made a copycat version)
Thurs: Baked chicken thighs; mashed cauliflower/potato casserole; zucchini
Fri: no idea. This has been a week of no inspiration and grades are due!
I have never had Shake 'n' Bake either! My mom was a pretty diehard from-scratch cook so I didn't grow up eating many convenience foods at all. Which means they don't often taste that good to me as an adult.
Did your partner like the homemade version?
He did. What is not to like about breadcrumbs, some fat & herbs! I wonder if he would like the boxed stuff as much as he remembers... My mom was also a cook-from-scratch person. How I remember wanting Wonder bread and Oreos or Chips Ahoy while we ate the homemade herb bread and oatmeal raisin cookies.... My dad and uncle also made head cheese and wine, but that is another story....
We spent $116 at the grocery store, of which about $100 was food. For the month of April, we spent $477.24 on groceries. That's about $100 high for us, but we did some stocking up. In a couple of weeks, our second vaccinations will have fully taken hold and I'll be able to go back to bargain shopping at several stores.
Ah, I am so happy for you! It is such a lovely feeling to be done with the vaccines (at least for now).
I was very curious if you are still ordering your produce box. One company (two now) finally came to our area and I ordered for a while. I really liked it for the winter veggies but am finding for Spring/Summer the local Sprouts' (a small grocery store here) variety works better for us. We buy lots of veggies but not as much fruit other than berries. It was great for winter squash varieties. I may give it a try again come Fall but hope to support our local growers more as well in the coming months.
This week was just me eating at home, so:
I pressure cooked a beef roast with carrots, onions, mushrooms and peeled radishes. I ate that twice, I think, plus had it for some lunches. There is another meal left, that I'll have this weekend.
Butternut squash soup, from a squash I received for free. I don't really care for butternut squash, but I made soup and had it once or twice in the evening, three times for lunches, the last being today. I'll be done with it, then, whew. The soup's not bad, it's just that I never enjoy butternut. It's just something I can eat, period.
I cooked chicken and turkey backs in the crock pot and made cassave dumplings for "chicken" and dumplings, plus steamed kale on the side and a couple of small carrots from my garden containers.
And finally, because my husband refuses to eat lamb but he's not home, I had a big hunk o' lamb, well seasoned, with a large salad using some of our lettuce that I'd picked a little earlier, before it bolted.
I'm over budget for the month, but my shopping last week will cover the first week of May as well. Still, with the dismal sales I'm finding and rising prices, I expect I'll be going over a lot more, and will have to raise my budget. I know my farm food prices are steadily rising, but so are the farmers' costs to produce. I can't blame them.
This has been such an off week for us but here goes.....
I spent $106 at Kroger and $79 at Costco. This is a bit high but I bought some items that I don't normally buy for our upcoming vacation. Even though they are treats for us, I still bought them on a great sale - YAY! We are still working on eating down the freezer....there is a turkey dinner in our near future.
Monday - We had dinner at a friend's house...roasted pork shoulder with Adobo, salad with tomato, onion, avocado and cilantro, rice, and assorted raw veggies
Tuesday - Ritz cracker chicken casserole, frozen corn on the cob which was a staggering disappointment and all went directly into the trash, leftover rice, & mandarin oranges
Wednesday - We got a takeout from a local frozen custard place
Thursday - baked porkchops, red beans & rice, green salad, and oranges
Friday - I think tonight will be a clean out the fridge night
Saturday & Sunday - I will be prepping some meals for our upcoming vacation so we will likely eat from these efforts
Enjoy the weekend everyone!
Can anyone offer any great recipes for frozen pumpkin puree? I have approximately 8 quarts of it in my freezer and no clue what to do with it. The bags glare at me whenever I open the freezer door 🙁
I feed it to my dog, mixed with his regular food. Good for the digestion. Also, Kristen's Pumpkin/Sweet Potato Chocolate Chip muffins are yummy (for humans, not dogs).
Pumpkin bread!
I had a DELICIOUS pasta sauce made from pumpkin in Italy. Or, add ricotta and fill ravioli and serve with a brown butter & sage sauce.
Pumpkin crunch cake for something more decadent! It's fall-ish but my kids love it so I make it all year. Also it's not cake-like at all, despite the name.
I sub pumpkin puree half-and-half for tomato sauce in things like chili, vegetable soup, literally anything with tomato sauce in it. Depending on how loose the puree is (some pumpkins are super watery!) you may need to add a little water or broth.
My kids love these butterscotch pumpkin muffins - I cut the sugar in half and it's still great; have made them into regular sized muffins and bread too:
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/112976/mini-pumpkin-butterscotch-muffins/
Oh my, these look delicious
Pumpkin pudding cake!
https://www.simplyscratch.com/2017/10/warm-pumpkin-pudding-cake.html
Pureed pumpkin or butternut squash are a good addition to vegetable soup. I do it all the time. Or you could make soup, it's delicious. Google knock off Panera Squash squash soup. Happy eating!
Smitten Kitchen’s Winter Squash soup is amazing. I usually bake my squashes and then make the recipe.
That's such a nice picture of you both! Happy birthdays all around!
I very much enjoy that you and your brother have the same cute way that your eyes crinkle when you smile. So sweet.
The main event this week was getting a big pork butt and making carnitas. (My 22-year-old daughter who's about to graduate college and become a high school teacher couldn't stop giggling when she saw the name of the cut of meat, so there's that, too.) Anyway, it was a huge hit, particularly with my husband. I'll be freezing a bunch tomorrow and making soup out of the liquid, which the aforementioned daughter realized smells a lot like tortilla soup, so we'll be doing a take on that. Looking forward to homemade pizza tonight.
Saturday/Sunday- we were away on a weekend trip so it was a mix of eating out and easy meals at the rental house.
Monday- clean-out-the-fridge smorgasbord
Tuesday- grilled burgers, cucumber salad, veggie chips
Wednesday- ham and cheese quiche, steamed broccoli
Thursday- pumpkin waffles, bacon, grapes, applesauce
Friday- homemade nachos supreme, cucumber slices, clementines, peach cobbler for dessert. Gosh I'm getting hungry.
A birthday WEEK is the best 😉 -- and freebies taste best!
I cannot remember the line up -- there were a couple of cauli-bread grilled ham and cheese sandwiches, many big salads with turkey burgers, etc., and one Pollo Loco takeout. My husband proposed this and I was weak. The other meals were eaten in or taken to work. Since B was away at work, we are celebrating my birthday tonight -- something yummy and not too dear.
Happy Weekend, all!
Sat and Sun: underwhelming corn and cuke salad refashioned into a tasty soup.
Sunday: Home fries and a salad. We both felt like a carb overdose so fries as the main dish it was. Oven baked so less lethal than the way we used to eat fries.
Monday: burgers in which I hid shredded zucchini that has been in the freezer since last September's garden was harvested.
Tuesday: Chicken Kiev, salad and strawberries.
Wednesday: tuna melts and cucumbers
Thursday: crab stuffed salmon, a new recipe (to me) from the Grandbaby Cakes blog.
Friday: filet-o-fish for me, chicken sandwich for him
Ooh! Hiding shredded zucchini in burgers? I'm intrigued! I may have to try that. I had zucchini in my freezer as well.
Hooray for grilling weather!
Sunday - We hosted my mom's birthday dinner. Aldi red bag chicken sandwiches, sweet potato fries, Arby's curly fries, salad, and pineapple. German chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream for dessert.
Monday - Vegetable beef soup and cornbread
Tuesday - Brats and hot dogs, chips, and green beans
Wednesday - Pork chops, shells and cheese, and peas
Thursday - Cheeseburgers, chips, mango, and corn (it ended up being a lot of yellow)
Friday - Fajitas and strawberries
What fun birthday outings you had!
Friday - we'd had a snack after golf with our friends so dinner was a very simple eggs, potatoes, and toast
Saturday - Grilled salmon, baked brown rice (Alton Brown's Recipe) and salad
Sunday - our friends had an anniversary dinner, so we took over french bread from the freezer and I made an applesauce cake using applesauce from the produce box
Monday - Pizza and salad
Tuesday - Fish tacos, rice and beans (leftover rice), slaw
Wednesday - Grilled chicken, roasted potatoes, salad
Thursday - one-pot pasta with mushrooms, green peas, and white wine
Friday - So far we're thawing fish and cooking brown rice. The rest is TBD!
I always love the free food for our birthday months. Red Robin used to be our favorite along with a scoop of ice cream from Baskin Robbins.
XOXO
Jodie
http://www.jtouchofstyle.com
ice cream cake is the best! happy birthday!
Saturday: BBQ with friends
Sunday: I made a big batch of Chicken Tinga which we had as tacos on Sunday with actual sour cream (rare treat), cheese, rice, pickled red onions, etc. Had enough for a few leftovers throughout this week. It's always such a winner and easy to make too.
Monday: pasta with cherry tomatoes, homemade ricotta, basil from the garden and a breadcrumb + park topping
Tuesday: German pancakes (they are kind of in the middle between American pancakes and crepes in terms of size and thickness). We had some with a filling of homemade ricotta and roasted mushrooms, peppers and onions; then we had some with Nutella.
Wednesday: my boyfriend had a friend over and they ordered pizza.
Thursday: various leftovers from prior days
Friday: I ended up skipping dinner, my boyfriend was out
Happy Birthday Kristen!
WWS
£76 grocery delivery
£11.00 takeout
WWA
Monday - leftover roast chicken stir fry with loads of veg and noodles
Tuesday- chicken fajitas
Wednesday- gammon ham - frozen leftover from last week, fried eggs and chips (fries)
Thursday- risotto with pancetta, peppers, sun dried tomatoes and lots of garlic
Friday - home made pizza
Saturday (tonight) takeout fish & chips, well I’m just having chips and curry sauce which is my favourite!
Sunday - will be baked salmon, roast potatoes, carrots and green beans and a sauce the provenance of which I am yet to decide!!
Next week’s menus to plan now, maybe using my new cook book’Vegan(ish) by Jack Monroe who is a food poverty activist here in the U.K. I hope there are some frugal and tasty items that are maybe a bit vegan(ish) 🙂