WIS, WWA | my first week back
What I Spent
It's been such a weird week as far as dinners go; Zoe was here a lot less than usual, and I ate out several times to use birthday coupons.
The result is that my spending is unnaturally low!
- $5 for my Tuesday meal
- $6.80 for my Wednesday meal
- $7 at Safeway
So, I've spent $18.80 on food this week.
Expect a higher bill next week!
What We Ate
Saturday
I got back from my trip with Sonia, and Zoe was out with a friend. So, I ate a peanut butter and honey sandwich on whole wheat bread. 😉
Sunday
Just me here again for dinner so I made a grilled cheese sandwich.
Monday
Zoe was here for dinner, and I boiled some tortellini, topped it with tomato sauce and Parmesan, and stirred some heavy cream into mine.
(I like pink sauce but Zoe doesn't!)
We had some fresh produce on the side.
Tuesday
Zoe was not here at dinnertime and I don't remember why! I remembered that I had some more birthday coupons that expire at the end of June, though, so I went out and used one.
I got a shrimp salad sandwich on a croissant, and I read my CPR manual while I ate. 🙂
My meal was free, but I left a tip for 30% of the value of the meal.
Wednesday
Zoe got a sandwich with a friend, and lucky me, I had another birthday coupon to use, this one for takeout at an Italian restaurant.
I got two soups: cream of crab, and pasta fagiole. I was delighted to discover that the soups came with some really good crusty focaccia bread and some herbed dipping oil. SWEET.
I ate the crab soup that night, and I have the pasta soup in my fridge still. 🙂
Thursday
I hung out with my sister-in-law (the treasure house one!) and we made a big salad with greens, shrimp, strawberries, goat cheese, and pecans, with a mustard vinaigrette. So good.
Friday
I might make something easy for Zoe and then I can eat my other takeout soup. 🙂
I think this is the actual, factual end of my birthday freebies for the year; I'll have to wait until next April to start living large again!
What a coincidence! My spending was unnaturally high.
WIS: $116.86 for “groceries” (mostly wine, but some salad stuff! I swear!) and my receipt says I “saved” $75.48. Really? Looking at the receipt it appears that only $2.39 of that “savings” was attributable to food. All the rest was due to bargain prices on some really lovely pinot noir. So I stocked up. Sue me.
And $71.82 (ouch!) for the Whimsical Wonderland Tea Party at the St. James Tearoom. It would have been $53.32, but once we got there we realized one of our group has a birthday the end of June so I suggested we split the entire bill by 4 instead of 5 so we could treat her. And it was lovely! Lovely food, lovely tea (3 kinds), lovely company, and a two hour “catch up” session because it had been a few weeks since we had seen one another, and several months (5 ½ to be exact) since one of us was in town. So very much worth it. Some “meals out” are really more celebrations and occasions than just a meal, and this was one of them. And way too much food, so desserts got boxed up and carried home to enjoy another day.
WIA: Other than Mr. Dodo’s Fig and Parmesan Salad (delightful!), Cheshire Cat’s Croissant Ham Sandwich, Nonsensical Skewered Meatballs with Aioli Sauce, Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dumplings, Traditional Cream Scones with Lemon Curd and Clotted Cream, the Mad Hatter’s Chocolate Top Hat, Queen of Hearts’ Deck of Cookies and the White Rabbit’s Strawberry Lemon Cake?
A lot of (savory, not sweet, kristin @ going country) quesadillas made with some shredded chicken I got for half price at Sprouts and some “better use this up” broccoli slaw, zucchini and yellow squash. Not whimsical but really tasty. And reasonably healthy. And a very old (like, eligible-to-collect-its-pension old) sweet potato, cut in half, brushed with olive oil, roasted, then stuffed with leftover spinach and feta cheese. Not whimsical, but edible.
@JDinNM, And I love that Kristen was eating heart healthy french fries while reading her CPR manual.
Hahah, ok, but I DID eat a salad for dinner last night. 🙂
@JDinNM, dinners out with friends and family is my favorite splurge!
@JDinNM,
We did a Tea this past week too! For my sister-in-laws wedding my husband and I stayed at an Inn & tea room. Ours was Wizard of Oz themed.
Next month is Jane Austen but July is awfully hot for hot tea so 🙁
Would love to see a post on how you get so many good birthday freebies!
Well, basically I just always sign up for reward programs with restaurants and stores! All the companies know my birthday now.
This is not a good strategy for privacy-concerned individuals, but I am not such a person. lol
That shrimp salad looks so good!
Sunday: We were supposed to try a new grilled chicken recipe, but we got the news that a friend had died that afternoon. So it ended up being a "pull out a bunch of snacks and fridge stuff and eat until you're full" dinner
Monday: Still not feeling up to big cooking, so spaghetti and jarred sauce
Tuesday: Preschooler's choice has been moved to Tuesday, so we had mac and cheese
Wednesday: We tried the Vietnamese grilled chicken along with a smacked cucumber salad, and they were delicious!
Thursday: Leftovers
Friday: Date night! We'll be getting Puerto Rican food
Saturday: Leftovers, clearing out the fridge for next week
Have a good weekend everyone!
I'm so sorry to hear about your friend!
@Kristen, thanks. He was a mail carrier, and they had a tribute yesterday where 30+ mail trucks paraded by his house, and each mail carrier gave his family a rose. Lots got out of their trucks and hugged the family, as they were his friends. It was a nice tribute 🙂
@Natalie J,
Awww, what a lovely tribute!
This week was a blur. Let’s see what I can remember: $98 at Aldi for my little crew, but that was spent yesterday for next week, so I don’t think it really counts as this week’s spending. I bet last week was about the same because I’m pretty consistent.
Saturday-leftovers from the freezer with a side of fruit and veggies
Sunday-stir fry from the freezer section with fruit and veggies on side.
Monday-homemade pizza and salad
Tuesday-I can’t remember
Wednesday-crockpot chicken and potatoes with green beans. My dog snuck 1/2 of the chicken off the cutting board in the 10 seconds I was out of the kitchen to help the kids with something, so I just had potatoes and green beans. He wasn’t even ashamed of stealing it, but that’s okay because he’s old and perfect in every other way.
Thursday-I snacked because kids were at dads.
Tonight will probably be leftovers or a salad.
This week we've been mostly living off a large order of Chinese food my son picked up in NYC on Tuesday. Out here, there is only mediocre Chinese (so sad) so it was exciting when the boy could bring us really good stuff from the city.
There was also the inevitable pizza while the kitchen cabinets were being painted and they were wet. Again, shoutout to Amy Howard One Step Paint--amazing.
And there was a Brefix for Dinner night (that being the way my son pronounced it while aged two), with omelets, bacon, and cheesy hash browns with peppers and onions. Yum.
Daughter is gone tonight to NYC for a concert; I might make Swedish meatballs for me and my son. This weekend, probably banh mi sammiches.
@Rose, ooohh! Banh mi sounds super good right now!
@kaitlin, Dinner's usually around 5:30. Start driving! Heh.
WIS: $12.5o at Price Chopper and $13.50 at Wegmans.
WIA: As previously noted, I haven't been cooking much for myself lately, thanks to the kindness of various neighbors and friends since DH died. Probably the standout "carry-in" dish was what the bringer called a "turkey and black bean pie," though I'd call it more of a casserole with polenta rounds (I think) on top. Anyway, it also included cheese, corn, tomatoes, and peppers, and was utterly delicious. I only just finished it off and was sorry to see it go.
And now that I think I can start cooking for myself again without ruining dinner, I'm concentrating on cleaning out the freezer. The couple who sells me the annual 1/4 steer (which I share with other friends at my cost) has let me know that the steer will be ready earlier than usual this year.
@A. Marie, the dish you liked so much may be this one:
https://www.seattlepi.com/lifestyle/food/article/Cook-It-Turkey-and-Black-Bean-Pie-with-Polenta-1253863.php
@Ruby, yep, that's the one. Thanks for the link.
That is a very low spending week. And a lot of sandwiches. 🙂
Saturday: I was gone at a kids' rodeo all afternoon, so my husband fried some cod fillets and we had those as sandwiches, with leftover baked beans and coleslaw.
Sunday: Cube steaks cooked goulash-style (tomato, onion, paprika, sour cream, mashed potatoes, sauerkraut, asparagus, raw cabbage, baked peaches and rhubarb with cream
Monday: Pizza (one with pepperoni and onions, one cheese), a salad entirely from the garden, yay! (lettuce, beet thinnings, snap peas, asparagus, and dill, parsley, and green onion for the ranch dressing. Also a rice pudding for dessert.
Tuesday: The reason I had made the rice pudding is because the oven was on for a long time the day before to cook a big pot of black-eyed peas. We ate those this night, with leftover pizza and raw cabbage. Weird combination, but all eaten.
Wednesday: Sloppy joes on homemade buns, green salad with herby ranch dressing (yay garden lettuce!), canned pinapple or peaches
Thursday: A can of commodities pork fried in butter with garlic powder and paprika, rice, leftover black-eyed peas, raw cabbage
Tonight: I have a pork picnic shoulder in the oven already, along with a baked custard. This way I can get it cooked before it warms up too much in the afternoon. I'll probably pull the pork apart and fry it in the rendered fat with spices. I might make some spaghetti for the kids to go with it, and my husband can have leftover rice instead. And a salad, because it's definitely garden lettuce season.
Hm, not a lot of cooking happened at my house this week!
Monday: My birthday! We had Thai takeout.
Tuesday: Mr. B was at a conference and we had scrambled eggs and cut veggies.
Wednesday: Mr. B's birthday! We had sandwiches while he was out at his regular wednesday sports, and then he got a takeout burger and I got a side of fries to have together later.
Thursday: Scrambled eggs for the toddler, I was out at a departmental dinner, and Mr. B got takeout sushi.
Friday: Salmon, broccoli, and if I can summon the energy I'll make aloo gobi.
Saturday - we went out to dinner for my oldest’s preschool graduation! What’s funny is at my kids current ages (5 and 3) going out to dinner is not considered fun or a “treat” by them (having to sit at a table without much to do, not being able to get up, having to wait for food) so my son actually said “can we just go home and you cook dinner?” We did find a restaurant that was enjoyable for them, very casual, near the airport so they could see airplanes as they took off, they got milkshakes and very good Mac n cheese so in the end, they enjoyed it.
Sunday - husband had to work so I took the kids to Taco Bell (this they very much enjoyed because we eat outside and they can run around all they want)
Monday - bbq meatballs with cheese grits, steamed broccoli
Tuesday - creamy lemon parmesan chicken, steamed broccoli and carrots, breadsticks from freezer
Wednesday - ground turkey and mushroom stroganoff
Thursday - Costco chicken Alfredo
Friday - chicken quesadillas and corn
@LB, my preschooler loves Zupas, but that's only because they serve a chocolate covered strawberry with each meal. If she found out that we could eat that at home, the allegiance would be gone haha
@LB, that's so funny about your kids and restaurants! I can totally picture it. 🙂
That was a truly low-spend week, Kristen.
I didn't shop at stores this past Friday but I stocked up on boxes of frozen sweet potatoes, blueberries and cranberries from Azure plus sweetened carob chips, so $71, but it will last a good while. I will shop today and get two farm orders over the next few days, ouch.
WIA: I made a meatloaf and with it had beets and garden greens. I ate meatloaf three times - I made a big one and I like meatloaf.
Chicken pot pie, made with the skinny old chicken. It turned out to be delicious. I meant to eat this more than once at night, but I kept taking it in my lunch instead as a treat.
Twice I had farm-made beef summer sausage - so good - and had sliced squash and sliced cucumber from my yard on the side, with some homemade ranch dressing. Strawberries and cream for dessert. It was easy, light, and good.
Tonight I haven't decided yet. It depends on how tired I am - we had some loud weather last night.
Friday: We did a late trip to Costco and made a cauliflower crust frozen pizza when we got home.
Saturday: Date night out at a restaurant we’ve been wanting to try for ages!
Sunday: Cajun Chicken Pasta
Monday: Chicken Gyro Rice Bowls
Tuesday: Trout in the air fryer, Caesar salad, poblano potatoes in the slow cooker
Wednesday: Impromptu date night at a newly opened Asian Mall. They have a grocery store and lots of restaurants all in a former sporting goods store. We’ve been wanting to visit since it opened this winter but they have been so busy (for good reason) that it is hard to find parking. The middle of the week was the perfect time to visit!
Thursday: Mississippi Pot Roast, leftover poblano potatoes, Caesar salad. I also made a small pot of mashed potatoes to eat with the leftover pot roast for lunches on Friday.
@Kristen - $18.82! Wow. I wish my spending was that low. I did a huge stock up run at Costco and I audibly heard my wallet say 'Ouch!'
WIS: $431 @Costco and $54 @ Publix
Saturday: Beef stroganoff, corn and peas
Sunday: Teriyaki chicken thighs, basmati rice & broccoli
Monday: Baby Back Ribs (I start these in the crockpot and finish them in the oven - delicious!), Mashed potatoes, Green beans, Homemade biscuits
Tuesday: Sweet Italian Turkey Sausage, Angel Hair with a creamy red pepper tomato sauce
Wednesday: Leftovers
Thursday: I had to take my son to a last minute doctor's appointment so he and I ate takeout from Costco & those at home had baked chicken drumsticks with leftover mashed potatoes & green beans
Friday: I have not a clue yet but it will be something easy. Today is the last day of Cub Scout Camp and amidst that I have had a highly stressful week with many other family issues.
Cheers to rest and laundry, batch cooking, gardening & hopefully some well deserved pool time this weekend!
Our (tent) camping trip got cut short due to unanticipated “very high risk” smoke levels, so this week’s menu contains a lot of repurposed (still frozen/cold) food that we took camping. WWA:
Saturday- baked drumsticks, peanut noodle salad
Sunday- chicken curry, rice, naan (the only dinner actually eaten while camping)
Monday- fettuccine Alfredo with chicken (made by my daughter and waiting for us when we got home late that night)
Tuesday- grilled steak, air fryer French fries
Wednesday- smokies, green salad
Thursday- toasted BLTs
Friday - planning on fish tacos
Wishing everyone sweet, fresh, and clear air.
Re: A question regarding Wednesdays blog about feeding 2 people (in my case). I did not make it to Wednesdays blog in time to ask this question.
I am okay with preparing food items that I can freeze the leftovers. The problem I'm having is with salad type items that have (vinaigrette) dressings on them, such as Barley salad, Asparagus salad, bean salad etc. My HB is not a fan of these types of salads, and mostly snacks on cereal when he's hungry. I can eat the salads for a good 3 days and then I am done, and then it goes into the compost, i.e. food waste. Some recipes I can halve. Any thoughts on this would be most welcome, thank you.
WIS: $70.58 + $24.85 (laundry detergent, a 4.45L jug) + $58.18. A bit of a spendy week for me. These dollar values include Canadian 13% tax. Most foods are not taxed, just processed items of which I get very little, and hello laundry detergent I'm looking at you!
WIA: in no particular order because I stick mostly to the menu plan but not always to the day planned.
Salad for dinner, with vegetables and a sliced boiled egg on top
Sandwiches: salami for me and Ham for HB, possibly for a couple of meals, with a vegetable side.
Schnitzel with roasted potatoes + a veg (don't recall). Leftovers the next day.
Pizza buns.
Pasta with "roasted red pepper & tomato sauce", canned green beans (sometimes I just have to do the easy.....)
Sides included pea salad with celery.
@Linda in Canada, what if you store it separately, and then mixed the portion together when it's time to eat it? That's what we do in our house due to food preferences (people can just put in the parts they want to eat), but ingredients generally stay good longer when they aren't mixed with the vinaigrette. And vinaigrettes can basically stay good forever in the fridge, depending on the ingredients.
@Natalie J, that's what I do, too. The base is usually romaine, but I change up the other ingredients and dress it right before I eat it. I also do one head of romaine at a time, which isn't a whole lot.
@Natalie J, and @gina: I love this idea. If I keep the ingredients separate and then just mix in what I want for the salad, for example the asparagus salad, I could cut up the leftover asparagus and use the red peppers in something like a vegetable stir fry. And for something like the barley salad, I could keep some barley separate and use it like with a casserole of some type. Brilliant!! Thank you so much!
This was a great week spent celebrating family but it also completely turned our menu upside down. No complaints here though!
Sat. - Birthday bash where we had a big spread of flautas and nachos. I brought Agua de Jamaica.
Sun. - Get together with family from out of town featuring brisket and poke bowls.
Mon. - Graduation feast included several platters of sushi, veggies, fruits, cheeses and cake.
Tue. - See Monday!
Wed. - Remaining Monday leftovers for me and McD’s for kids.
Thu. - Shrimp pesto and used some leftover cheese from Monday to make some cheddar bay biscuits.
Fri. - Pizza night.
Kristen, your salad looks delicious!!
Saturday: We had an early dinner at a graduation party
Sunday: Burgers, asparagus, and leftover macaroni and cheese
Monday: We were all over the place on Monday (I think the kids and I spent about 6 hours in the car because we had a summer camp drop-off, grocery pickup, speech therapy, and a very long vet visit all before dinner) and I was home long enough to grab a yogurt, cheese stick, and apple for dinner before heading off to church for a training. Dinner plans were scrapped and my husband found some hot dogs and macaroni and cheese for himself and the kids.
Tuesday: Kristen's enchiladas
Wednesday: Beef stroganoff and pass
Thursday: Pork roast, potato salad, oranges, and broccoli with cheese
Friday: Pork BBQ sandwiches, asparagus, grapes, and the remaining potato salad.
A grocery kudos to Meijer... I did the grocery pickup order on Monday because I really wanted a couple of big pork roasts, but when I got there to pick it up they didn't have them with my items and they hadn't listed it as out of stock prior to my pickup. They called me 15 minutes after I got home and told me they had the pork and I could pick it up anytime. I didn't have time that day, so I sent my hubby and kids Monday night to get them. Meijer didn't charge me for any of the pork! (It was about 17 pounds!) I was really thankful. They do a good job of working to make things right.
@Ruth T, I keep wanting a pork roast (really because I love pork gravy on sauerkraut so much) and keep forgetting to buy one. Writing it on my to-do list.
That sounds like a summer week of meals, to be sure. So much delish shrimp! This week I ate:
Monday - kitchen closed, and I grabbed a burger which was poor planning, except I got free fries for the next time I go because I filled out a survey on the receipt. Guilt managed!
Tuesday - Chicken and sweet potato hash, buttery rice - I totally forgot to cook the greens I bought..
Wednesday - Turkey Burger on potato bun, the rest of some curly fries in the freezer, sliced tomato, purple onion, cheese
Thursday - Trader Joe's Mushroom Ravioli, steamed broccoli
Friday - I made a big batch of southern ham salad, took half to my mother, and I don't want to waste the rest so I might just serve that on the rest of the potato buns. Plus, the high is 104 here today so I know I will NOT feel like eating a hot meal.
Saturday and Sunday - kitchen closed, and I need to go into the kitchen right now and meal prep for the weekend!
https://cannaryfamily.blogspot.com/
Low spend week. Toddlers WIC came in and that was roughly $50 worth of food spent
Monday - Pizza on a homemade crust, peppers and onions on mine, plain cheese on the rest
Tuesday - Chicken and biscuits, tater rounds
Wednesday - Chili dogs (plain chili for the kids)
Thursday - Air fried tilapia, roasted broccoli, peppers, carrots (pb sandwiches and berries for the kids)
Friday - unsure what I'll be making. It's been an exhausting day so I may just throw a frozen lasagna on
Sunday is always popcorn and smoothie night at our house!
Monday, I made sweet potato soup with red lentils. It was a sort of holiday because it had been gazetted as the Queen's birthday, but at the last minute the country revoked the holiday, but it was too late for many businesses to reorganize things and open up, so it was a holiday while not actually being a holiday!
Tuesday, I don't remember.
Wednesday, we had homemade flat breads and homemade pinto bean spread.
Thursday, I bought some odd looking premade hamburger patties and I made buns and coleslaw to go with them. Mince is over $10 USD/kilo, and the hamburger patties were $15 for 10 patties (no weight listed, but they felt heavier than the kilo of mince).
Friday was declared a holiday for the king's birthday! We had homemade pizza and leftover coleslaw. I made two big pizzas for our family of 7.
I have no idea what I'm making today. Hopefully something easy. I made granola last night while the oven was hot from making pizza, and I also baked sourdough bread, and I made a double batch of yogurt yesterday, and I made raspberry papaya jam earlier this week, so Saturday breakfast is yogurt, granola, and fruit.
WIS: 223.79 @Aldi, 40.83 on wine for a total of 264.62 this week. This included food for my class celebration so I'm happy with this total.
WWA:
Fri: celery sticks and hummus, cara cara oranges, bacon, mozzarella and Parm focaccia with grape tomatoes.
Sat: salad (wilted turnip greens, smashed strawberry sauce with sugar and tajin, sour cream), salty seadogs (hotdogs in brioche buns topped with Swiss chard and pinto beans, mustard and ketchup, soft pretzels from Aldi.
Sun: salad (lettuce, zucchini slices, pecans, dried cherries, shake parm, balsamic vinegar and olive oil), spicy Korean noodles, sourdough brie bread ring.
Mon: zucchini fajitas topped with salsa con queso and avocado.
Tue: smash burger tacos topped with chipotle cheddar cheese, tomatoes, onions, lettuce, avocado, pickles, and mayo/ketchup/mustard blend.
Wed: cherries, sourdough discard crackers, zucchini lasagna, ice cream cones for dessert.
Thu: leftover crudites from my class celebration (cherries, grapes, strawbs, bluebs, mandarins, cheese cubes, cucumber spears, carrots, grape tomatoes, mini peppers, hummus), chicken legs and veggie rice topped with avocado. A very colorful meal.
Tonight: leftover crudites and focaccia
Have a great weekend, everyone!
One teen was out of town this week, and the other teen was out with friends several nights, so it was a pretty casual week.
We had:
-Kebabs from the freezer + a meal delivery (freezer) dinner for myself x2
-Barbecued chicken & coleslaw x2
-we went out to eat at a casual Mexican place one evening, & I had soup. I was not impressed overall, & I don't think we'll be back
-We went out to eat for my husband's birthday last night. We split brussel sprouts with bacon & a salad, and then the 17 y.o, & I shared two different kinds of burgers (brought one home) & my husband had steak
As for tonight, we're flying to my parents house for my nephew's graduation. I think my husband & I will cobble something together at the airport lounge (passes are free with my credit card) & we'll likely buy something for the 17 y.o.
WIS: $135, which was all people food except for the half gallon jug of white vinegar we use in the laundry. It was a bit high due to buying an on-sale tub of protein shake mix, which was $20 by itself. Also stocked up on eggs.
WWA: It has been hot this week, so we had green salads, fruit salads, nuts, cheese, protein shakes, rye crackers with peanut butter, ham sandwiches, and mini ice cream sandwiches.
I spent more than normal, but we had a birthday celebration at our house. This week we ate slow cooker BBQ pork ribs, lemon orzo chicken, hot dogs (per birthday request), and lots of leftovers. I made 6 pounds of pork ribs, so there were many varieties of leftovers. We had ice cream sundaes for the birthday treat. Lots of fresh fruit and veggies on the side for each meal. I am currently making banana chocolate chip pancakes for dinner. Decadent, but we were up at 5 with basement flooding from rain (and I spent most of the day with clean up) so I feel like it's deserved.
I'm a day late ... but this was one of "those" weeks again where I shop for 80-ish percent of our food for the foreseeable future, in this case until school starts in seven weeks ... so WIS was 648.64 plus a little for the two stops for milk and eggs and bananas (and that sort of thing) that were not on the big day. If you do the weekly division, it's not so bad, but all at one shot it's a bit amazing.
Love your free birthday meals! I am sorry if I missed it, and if I did can you link me to it, but I'd love your list of all the places that offer free items. Thank you so much!