WIS, WWA | one more week of phoning it in
What I Spent
By the time I write my next WIS, WWA post, a lot of my big time-consuming stuff will be all done. But for the next week, you can be sure I will be phoning it in on the dinner front, just as much as I did this week. 😉
I didn't really grocery shop this week because...busy. Busy, busy, busy.
- $14 at Domino's
- $40 on a Dinnerly box
- $30 on a Hungry Harvest box
- $20 on takeout
So, $104 for me.
What We Ate
Saturday
I picked up a pizza from Domino's.
Sunday
Zoe ate some leftover pizza and I made myself a green salad topped with chicken.
Monday
I made a batch of this broccoli noodle soup and we had some fruit on the side.
Tuesday
Zoe and I had an appointment to go to, an errand to run, and then we picked out a Christmas tree, so we opted to stop for some fast food.
Wednesday
Leftover broccoli noodle soup. And some cut-up apples.
Thursday
I made a Dinnerly meal, which was sort of a deconstructed stuffed shells dish with spinach. We just had some grapes on the side.
Friday
I have two more Dinnerly meal sets of ingredients here so perhaps I will make one of those.
WIS: My husband did get himself a stress pizza one time this week, but I did not grocery shop, so we spent only 13.95 on food this week.
WWA:
Fri: It was the first night of Advent, so we had chocolate and cheese for dessert! But first, we ate real food: salad (red cabbage, apples, raisins and dressing) and homemade New York style cheese pizzas. These were tasty and pretty cheap, but significantly more work than our usual focaccia, so I don't think we will make them all that often.
Sat: We made our gingerbread train on Saturday, so we sampled some candy while making it. Then we had scrambled egg tacos with black beans and jasmine rice, topped with salsa and Monterey jack cheese. We also had bok Choi salad with dressing and dried cherries. Then we had more candy for dessert in the form of advent chocolate.
Sun: salad (red cabbage, raisins and balsamic vinegar dressing), marzetti using a half lb of ground turkey, a 12 oz bag of elbow noodles, half an onion, a few poblano peppers, some leftover tomato sauce and leftover tomato paste. Easy, cheap and satisfying dinner. We decided to start tearing apart our gingerbread train tonight along with our Advent chocolate and cheese calendars. December is a very treat heavy month!
Mon: salad (red cabbage, spicy guacamole and small tomatoes), assorted leftovers: eggs, peppers and beans, cabbage and tofu, jasmine rice, tortilla chips. We had more of the gingerbread train for dessert along with our advent calendar chocolate and cheese.
Tue: celery, apples and roasted red pepper hummus, an Ethiopian cabbage and potato recipe that ended up tasting more like Indian food because I used my Indian spices. It was pretty basic with just cabbage, onion, carrots, potatoes and turmeric and cumin for spices. I also added a half pound of ground turkey and a few poblano peppers to the recipe because I wanted to use them up. It took longer to be ready than the recipe stated, but other than that, it was good and I would make it again. We had more gingerbread train pieces and advent calendars as dessert.
Wed: sweet and spicy kale, leftover cabbage and potatoes, garlic naan, train remnants and advent chocolate/cheese for dessert.
Thu: First night of Hanukah and Advent continues. It just keeps raining treats! We had a spicy mix salad (with dried cherries, orange pepper, feta, walnuts and balsamic dressing), matzo ball soup, and sauteed chicken breasts with onions and dried apricots, then more chocolate.
Tonight: well, my husband saw a latke focaccia recipe (latcaccia? Folatke? Folatcckia?), so we might try that, but neither of us slept very well, so maybe we will just have a frozen pizza, and maybe some lefties too. And, of course, the chocolate...but no more gingerbread train. I used the last of the candies and cut up the one remaining ice cream cone tree to make what I am calling strawberry sugar cookie overnight oats. I will let you know what we think of it.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
@Becca,
I like that you also eat with spices a lot, plus you have interesting salads. I like taking a peek at your menus!
We all want to go eat dinner at Becca's house!
@Becca,
Love your meals. I'm in a rut!
@JNL,
Thanks! Spices are the secret to making cheap food taste amazing!
@Becca, Love reading your meals, especially the salads. I make what I call Enhanced Salads with my own dressings and you have fun and unusual ingredients that inspire me.
@Becca,
Wondering if you and/or your hubby have an NYT Cooking subscription? I saw that latke focaccia recipe, too. They always have wonderful sounding recipes.
Your menus always sound so yummy, too!
@Liz B.,
Hmm, I don't think he has a subscription. I don't know where he saw it, but we didn't end up making it because it called for frozen hash browns and we don't have any, so I might buy some when I grocery shop on Tuesday since it will still be Hannukah then. He just made rice and beans tonight-an old stand by.
Thanks everyone for all the menu love! Like I've said before, even though I do know how to cook, my husband does about 90% of the cooking around here, but the salads are all me and I'm the ingredient getter (farm share buyer, grocery shopper, freegan food repurposer, random ingredient locator, occasional lazy gardener, etc). There have definitely been times (especially during the pandemic) where I thought "well, no matter what else life throws at us, at least we can still eat well." There's really some peace of mind that goes along with having such basic skill sets like cooking. I really think everyone should learn. It's so empowering.
@Liz B.,
My husband says the latke focaccia was in an email from King Arthur flour.
@Becca,
Oh, okay! I also get the King Arthur Flour emails, so maybe that's where I saw it too. Lol.
A little groggy here, our new cat thought I was up for good at 5:30 and mewed pathetically when I tried to go back to sleep. Thanks, Clark. But he's settling in well!
WWS: 290.77 at Kroger, $60 at Chik Fil A
Saturday/Sunday: homemade pizzas, per usual.
Monday: baked chicken thighs, roasted broccoli, rice
Tuesday: burgers and crockpot lentil soup (DH mentioned soup sounded better than salad), popcorn
Wednesday: Saint Nicholas Day. GIANT HAM, roasted potatoes, corn, green beans, rolls, chocolate "pie" (Selective Eater asked for a chocolate pudding pie with no crust or whipped cream....which meant a giant slab of chocolate pudding in a pie plate. No complaints from anyone.
Thursday: Clark came home! DH got Chik Fil A, which Clark was mightily interested in, but he is a Good Cat and did not steal any. He was rewarded with some chicken grease from the leftover baked chicken thighs, some treats, and yogurt.
Friday--will be leftovers from the Giant Ham, and whatever anybody wants. I'm tired.
@Karen A., My own Somewhat Selective Eater once told me he doesn't like pie, except for kind of the chocolate pie Grandma sometimes makes. But he doesn't like the crust. Sooo . . . that would be chocolate pudding with whipped cream, then? Yup, that's what he likes. 🙂 Easier than making a pie crust, anyway.
@kristin @ going country, It is nice when the Selective Eater makes things easier, rather than otherwise, isn't it? 🙂
Easy meals for us this week based on what we had around the house. Not sure what we'll plan for next week because we had a huge vegetable delivery today that will last us 3 weeks. I'll try out the vaccumsealing-bags on the leaf greens to see if they keep as well as we are led to expect. However cabbage and onion do not vaccum-seal well so perhaps I'll just move them to earlier in the rotation. I'll do meal prepping tomorrow morning - note to self to take the aubergine out of the garage and bring it into the house, as we have frost.
Sa - Enchiladas and salad
Su - Lentil soup and pea soup with breadsticks
Mo - Orzo and roasted pumpkin with feta sauce, roasted garlic and pickled lemon. I thought it was quite ok, eldest said it was better than he expected actually, husband saw, sniffed and declined altogether. Will not make again, onwards to new experiments.
Tu - Fried rice and veg, with chicken wings and sateh sauce
We - Freshly fried rice and veg with the leftover sauce and wings for the guys and eggs for me
Th - Pasta carbonara and chickory salad
Fr - Some porc and potatoes definitely, sprouts or beans for veg. Possibly and/and.
@JNL,
Ooo, enchiladas! We haven't had those in a long time. Thank you for the inspiration.
What if this coming week, you just planned to get take out every night? What if you made a list of all the places you want to go, cut the list apart, and each day draw dinner out of a hat? That might make the week less stressful, if you PLANNED to be not frugal?
@Jody S., ooh, I love this plan!
Hmm, I like that idea. I could just give up beforehand and maybe that would feel good. lol
@Jody S., yes, a Reward Week, because all the frugality should eventually have a point. And with all Kristen's coupons, deals, money-back apps, this will probably still be a very frugal version of a splurge.
@Kristen, Planned giving up sounds much more enjoyable than last-minute giving up!
@Ruth T,
I agree! Planned giving up for the win!
Saturday: Elk steak strips, fried and kind of sauced with onions and cream. Also mashed potatoes and frozen green peas.
Sunday: Elk stir-fry, rice, baked custard for the child with a bad sore throat. So many of those this semester . . .
Monday: I purposely made extra rice for use later in the week, which started with this night, when I made elk fried rice using the leftover stir-fry.
Tuesday: Spaghetti sauced with some of the garden tomatoes still ripening in their box in the kitchen, meatballs made with ground elk, and a salad with vinaigrette. The child whose throat still hurt had a fried egg and leftover mashed potatoes, as did the child who is not a fan of fried rice. Usually she would have to deal with it, but since I was coddling the sick child, she lucked out. 🙂
Wednesday: I got home later than usual from First Communion class with youngest son and quickly threw together sandwiches. We had bread I had baked the day before, and also, unusually for us, deli ham and salami, so sandwiches were foreordained. We had grapes with them. Very much a "Kristen with an e" kind of meal. And then anyone who was still hungry had yogurt.
Thursday: I was subbing at school, and had planned on baking the meatloaf I had formed with some of the meatball mixture on Tuesday. Then two other children were sick and stayed home with their dad, so when I got home, I made soup for them with some chicken I had frozen after I last roasted a chicken, leftover rice, Better than Bouillon from a jar, the last of the tomato sauce from Tuesday, and half a can of something called Veg-All we got from excess commodities. It's a mixture of canned vegetables. They weren't bad in the soup. Not as good as if I had made it with my home-canned stock and fresh vegetables, but perfectly acceptable for an after-work soup that was ready to eat 3o minutes after I got home. The non-sick ones had the meatloaf and leftover rice. And most of them had some of the soup, too, so I counted that as a vegetable.
Tonight: Something that can be made ahead, because we have church and won't be getting home until about 6. Well, at least some of us won't. Probably some sick ones will stay home, but I'll probably be there, so I'll make something ahead. Maybe goulash with some elk stew meat and sauerkraut. I just thought of that while I was typing. 🙂
@kristin @ going country, I remember Veg-All! My stepgrandmother would serve it as a side dish sometimes. And I think Peg Bracken had a recipe that called for cans of it and said it was tasty.
@Karen A., I'd never heard of Veg-All, but my mom used to buy bags of frozen mixed vegetables which sounds like the same thing. My brother and I used to sneak each other whichever veg seemed worst to each of us (I'll eat your green beans if you eat my lima beans), since we couldn't leave the table till it was GONE.
Frozen lima beans. THE WORST. I remember this from the 80s.
@kristin @ going country,
Veg-All was A Thing when I was a lot younger. It was canned mixed vegetables that came already seasoned with, if I remember correctly, things like onion and/or garlic (and probably MSG, ha). It was included in a lot of recipes for a while and popped up on its own as a side dish now and then. I had no idea it was still around.
@Suz, Oh, the frozen mixed veg with lima beans were the worst!
@JD, A lot of things like that end up in the commodities program. Yes, I think if has seasonings and things in the liquid, but I just scooped out the vegetables and left the liquid in the can. I don't think I would want to eat it on its own, but as a cheat for vegetables in a soup, it was fine.
@Suz, that's smart!
@kristin @ going country, Veg-All sounds somewhat like "Veggameatavitamix" (or was it ". . .vitamin"?) from I Love Lucy.
@Central Calif. Artist Jana, good old Vitameatavegamin!
And, boy, am I glad my mother never found out about Veg-All. As it was, we rarely if ever ate a vegetable that didn't come out of a can or a frozen food package.
@A. Marie, same here. Made me think I hated all vegetables. It was a thrill as a young adult to discover all the veggies that can be eaten raw, and how good some of them are if only lightly steamed or if roasted.
Frozen lima beans, the bane of my childhood in the 1960s and 1970s. Oh, how I hated them. My oldest sister inexplicably loved them. Once when I was an adult, I happened to be visiting my parents at the same time as my oldest sister (whose birthday it was) and her children. My sister picked the dinner menu and it included lima beans. I quietly passed the bowl but my little nephew said, “Aunt Meg in SoTX isn’t eating any lima beans! How come SHE doesn’t have to eat any lima beans?“ Busted and shamed, I took the smallest amount possible and pushed them around my plate. Yuck.
When a body is that busy, it’s almost like “every time I blink, it’s Friday again”…
WWA:
Saturday - chicken noodle soup made from a frozen carcass
Sunday - moussaka, dessert of crepes with Nutella, whipped cream and raspberries
Monday - went to a holiday party
Tuesday - leftovers
Wednesday - grilled cheese, an apple
Thursday - potatoe pancakes over dressed arugula with sour cream and dill, smoked salmon, donuts
Friday - planning on black bean quesadillas
Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend
I'm back to cooking four days out of 7 and figuring it out on the other three. Works so far. This week:
Monday - kitchen closed - I made a grilled cheese and ham sammie with a fried egg inside of it
Tuesday - Crockpot pintos with ham hock, corn muffins
Wednesday - Black Truffle Alfredo Chicken Pasta, honey ginger carrots
Thursday - Pan Fried Pork Chops, sweet potato skillet cubes, Italian green beans with bacon, and I made a Jell-O cheesecake pie with leftover cranberry sauce as topping (this was all very yum)
Tonight - Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas, leftover pintos and I will meal prep for the next three days
Saturday and Sunday - kitchen closed - the prep goes into play
Happy Weekend!
https://cannaryfamily.blogspot.com/
@Gina from The Cannary Family, Your menu sounds wonderful, especially the Tuesday meal!
Hey, we're on the phone it in team over here too! My kindergarteners were in multiple Christmas performances this week, plus it's the end of the quarter so I need to finish their assessments and everything amongst the crazy.
Monday: Penne with sausage and peppers, to use up the slightly sad bell peppers from the fridge.
Tuesday: Cream cheese chicken, which is a crock pot meal, over rice. Cut up apples on the side.
Wednesday: Preschooler's choice, which this time meant ramen and salad with ranch.
Thursday: I was at my school for dinnertime, so preschooler and husband went to Carl's Jr (the "star restaurant", and the preschooler calls it), and played in the play place.
Friday: Leftovers
Saturday: Church Christmas party, we're bringing brownies.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
@Natalie J, I forgot to mention that while my husband and preschooler were at Carl's Jr, a friend brought me (at school) a sandwich from the local Jewish deli, and to say Happy Hanukkah!
@Natalie J, I have peppers that need used up and had not thought of penne with sausage and peppers. That sounds good! Thanks for the idea.
@Ruth T, you're welcome! Our recipe also includes diced tomatoes, balsamic vinegar, and a little brown sugar. It's tasty!
Family Fare $38.37
Dominos $13.54
KFC $4.23
What we ate---
● We switched last Friday steak to leftovers & had steak & garlic mashed potatoes on Saturday
● Domino's teen had sub & I had pasta
● leftovers
● teen had pizza rolls, I had cereal
● pancakes
● grilled cheese sandwich
● teen had popcorn & cereal snacks all week
● not sure as teen sick since yesterday after finishing finals so I will probably have homemade chicken & mashed potato bowl
Hmmm......
Thursday, leftover Chinese
Wednesday, Chinese
Tuesday, chicken cacciatore
Monday, mushroom-barley soup (so good!)
Sunday, leftover chili
Maybe I'll make chicken tostadas tonight. Yum.
This week I made a solid menu plan, but I asked my kids what they wanted to have for dinner. Usually I just plan on my own, but this worked out well.
Saturday - Sloppy joes (fun fact: last year my kids didn't like sloppy joes at all, this year they're fine with them), tater tots, broccoli with cheese
Sunday - Chili and baked potatoes
Monday - 9yo's choice - Beef enchiladas and peaches
Tuesday - Turkey, potatoes that were reheated in the air fryer, and cucumbers with hummus. The cukes and potatoes were to clean out the fridge and the turkey was because my son requested a meal that includes turkey for later in the week, so it was a weird combo, but everyone ate.
Wednesday - 5yo's choice - Grilled ham and cheese sandwiches with tomato soup
Thursday - My husband and I went to a show and grabbed McAlister's to-go on the way. I downloaded the app and we got a free tea from that. I also grabbed a lemonade from Panera (yay Sip Club!) earlier in the afternoon to have for my drink.
Friday - 7yo's choice - Turkey broccoli fettuccine alfredo. I'll make this for the rest of the fam because he's so excited about it, but I'm attending a women's event at church tonight that includes dinner.
@Ruth T, two nights out in a row sounds like something that would make me groan. I guess I am as old as my years indicate.
Great idea to have your offspring choose the menus!
They're so few and far between that I'm pretty excited about it! If we hadn't been gifted the tickets last night, I never would have chosen to do two nights out in a row. But it was too good to pass up and I suppose it's good for me to be a fun, exciting person every once in a while. 😉
We're going to try this.... WIS: 7.29. Emergency bagel lunch when shopping last week, and some mandarin oranges from Target last Friday which were more expensive than I thought they would be, but still delicious.
Saturday - Dinner at my folks house- Lamb chops, potatoes, and asparagus.
Sunday - Leftover Sweet Potato Chorizo Skillet. I had to do Kristen's trick of filling in the rest to trick my brain, and then remember the other things that filled that funny night up.
Monday - Leftover Sweet Potato Chorizo skillet.
Tuesday - At partners house. We ate pancakes
Wednesday - Wrap with chicken and salad and Caesar dressing (boy that's a hard word to spell correctly).
Thursday - leftover frozen split pea soup.
Tonight - I am going to celebrate a birthday tonight at a local brewery.
Yesterday I stopped at a local small business farmstand and picked up a few items $21.
One was a loaf of sourdough bread. Admittedly it was expensive but it looked delicious.
And we used it for our lunch sandwiches. I like the farmstand selections but I do control myself because it's easy to spend a lot there--fresh breads, fresh cheeses, vegetables and fruits and a lot more. And I am only in that area once in a while.
Last Friday I stopped at Aldi's and picked up a pizza for supper
Saturday: I don't remember. I was out all day.
Sunday Grilled chicken and last potato roasted
Monday Leftovers
Tuesday: Grilled cheese sandwich
Wednesday: Fish chowder
Thursday: Short ribs with roasted honey butternut squash and beets
My freezer is starting to empty out.
I remember the last week of nursing school semesters was what I called "feral meals." I ate what was close, available and required minimal effort. Basically a toddler. My nursing degree is made of up mostly goldfish crackers and baby carrots. So props to you for even making dinner.
Sunday- I was at work so I think I ate some Italian wedding soup I meal prepped.
Monday- I went on a super long hike and was starving when I got back, so I ate popcorn and leftover shrimp cocktail and wasn't hungry for dinner when it came.
Tuesday- two cookies at a SoCal airport (the life of a flight nurse lol)
Wednesday- I was exhausted after flying all night and a 5 hr drive, so my husband picked up pizza
Thursday- I was running errands all day and picked up Greek food
Friday- leftover Greek food
Saturday- Hanukkah at my aunt's house. I am bringing salad.
I guess my feral meals haven't totally left me.
@Heather, I like the term "feral meals." My go-to feral meal while I was writing my undergraduate senior thesis was cottage cheese with ketchup. (Gag!)
@Heather, my nursing school meals were the cheap top ramen & a hot dog. Everyday! Ugh
@Heather, I love that these are looks at what actually happened instead of just grand plans. Real life!
WIS: I shopped at grocery stores last weekend and picked up larger than usual farm orders, so right at $275. Oh dear.
WIA:
I made a big batch of chicken shawarma and ate that three times this week, without any bread but with salads and fruit. The last time I made chicken shawarma the hurricane came and I lost almost all the leftovers to spoilage. Not this time, thankfully!
I cooked a small beef sirloin with garlic and had that twice with pan-cooked frozen root veggie combo with onions; also I had it with green peas, and sweet winter squash with cinnamon.
One night was one of my late nights to get home, plus I spent some time outdoors covering plants, so I had a quick goat burger on GF bread and cassava chips on the side. Easy button meal.
The rest of the ground goat meat will go into a meatloaf tonight.
@JD, I like goat meat, though I haven't had it anywhere except in Indian restaurants and the Caribbean. One vendor at our Regional Market has goat, though, so I'll have to try it again some time.
@A. Marie,
I enjoy it and found local farmers selling it a few years ago. My family turns up their noses at it, but one time my daughter came by the house while a goat roast was in the oven and said, "What smells so good?" I got her on that, but she still refuses to eat any.
Saturday - holiday party for my husbands company (first time they’ve had it since 2019!) so a lot of delicious food.
Sunday - we went to a tree lighting with my parents, they picked up dominos pizza for us to eat before the event
Monday - spaghetti and meatballs
Tuesday - creamy mushroom chicken with crispy onion (an unexpected hit with the kids), steamed broccoli
Wednesday - cottage pie (made with ground turkey though so not sure what that would be)
Thursday - cheesy chicken, vegetable and rice casserole
Friday - crispy parmesan chicken, pearl cous cous, roasted carrots
WIS: $83, mostly at Food Lion
WWA: My husband's doctor gave him a stern talking-to about his weight and a new drug line-up for his Type 2 diabetes, so this week was light meals at our house: lots of salads, whole wheat crackers, protein shakes, fresh vegetables, olives, fresh fruit, lower fat cheeses.
Hmmm, let's see...
- Sausages+rice+veggies
- homemade meat pie
- salmon+rice+veggies
- ground beef in sauce+mashed potatoes + veggies
- homemade pizza
WWS: I had a Christmas Party/baby shower at my house this week so my grocery store receipts are filled with extras. I would need to go through and pull out such things as Prosecco or the special order bakery cake. That’s not normally part of my weekly shopping.
WWA:
Saturday - Meat loaf and roasted veggies left over from Friday
Sunday - There wasn’t anytime to cook, We baby sat for my son and his wife. We stopped on the way home and bought a rotisserie chicken. We made rice and a salad to go with it.
Monday - Leftover Chicken and rice
Tuesday - Pot luck Christmas Party
Wednesday - More leftover chicken and rice. The carcass then went in the freezer.
Thursday - It was chilly, so I made a pot of vegetable beef soup. This is usually a use-it-up meal, but I lost my frozen assets when my refrigerator died in mid-November. Unfortunately it wasn’t super thrifty, but it was delicious.
Friday - There is enough soup for leftovers, but we will see what DH wants since he is back in town. He eats restaurant food all week and occasionally makes a dinner request.
WIS: $38.50 at Price Chopper, $5 at the bakery outlet, and $30 at the grocery outlet.
WIA: My main kitchen accomplishments this week were making the vast amount of turkey stock (9 quarts!), and the turkey minestrone with the stock, that I've described in earlier comments. I've been resting on my laurels since then. But I'm planning to go to Wegmans later today and get the smallest $1.49/lb. spiral-sliced ham I can find. If the definition of eternity is two people and a ham, one person and a ham may warp the space-time continuum--but I do love ham!
@A. Marie, I love it, too, and it freezes so well. I bought a small one and will serve it at Christmas dinner, then portion it out for future meals. Its really good in salads and scalloped potatoes, as well as breakfast tacos and sammies. The bone will make a nice navy bean soup!
@Gina from The Cannary Family, thanks for the suggestions, and I will certainly be using several of them. There was a good ham and bean soup recipe in NYT Cooking this week--and I'm sure I'll be making my traditional split pea soup as well. (Split pea was the only soup my DH complained I didn't make enough of!)
@Gina from The Cannary Family,
For fans of it like my DH, don't forget one can make deviled ham.
@JD, I absolutely loathe ham--the texture--but I like deviled ham fine.
Half of our week was vacation, the other half was the beginning of EAT IT ALL BEFORE WE MOVE. Our closing date is over a month away so we have time to eat down most of what we have in the house. We are moving within our town so we don’t have to eat everything in our house, but the less we have to transport the better.
Friday: Japanese restaurant at the resort (my favorite night)
Saturday: Steak restaurant at the resort (my husband’s favorite night)
Sunday: My parents made chili and cornbread so dinner was ready as soon as we got home. And there was leftovers for lunch the next day. Best housesitters ever!
Monday: My son had leftovers that my parents left in the fridge. I pulled swordfish steaks from the freezer and made a side of tomato butter pasta for myself and my husband while my son was at practice.
Tuesday: Cilantro Lime Chicken and Lentil Rice Bowls
Wednesday: Low Country Boil Packets
Thursday: Leftovers
My week is more of an "I was in Tokyo on a work trip, and here's what was available" and also ignores entirely what the other folks in my household may have eaten.
Last night was 100% a phone it in night. I don't sleep on flights, and hadn't slept in 36 hours by the time dinner rolled around. I had DS16 pick up Greek food on his way back from soccer practice. So, I ate a delicious gyro bowl.
Other Tokyo meals included:
-A really not great lounge meal (chicken, potato salad & a mini sandwich), because the airline screwed up my meal selection & I ended up with the tofu squares dinner. I don't recommend. Tofu on its own can be okay, but I'd describe this as a wet cardboard vibe. I did, however, then take advantage of the ice cream sundae, which was delicious.
-Ramen. So much ramen. We went to the ramen museum, which I highly recommend. Downstairs, they have numerous mini ramen shops, representing ramen from around Japan. We opted for the Okinawa ramen shop, and it was the best ramen I've ever had. So delicious.
-I ate at the hotel lounge one night, after light snacks at a work event. This really means cheese & crackers, some nuts & champagne.
-I had a team dinner, and we went to a wood fired pizza place. One of the courses was a tuna pizza. The pizza itself was delicious, but I've learned that I'm not a fan of tuna on pizza. I was also expecting chicken, based on the visuals, so tuna was quite a surprise.
-I was exhausted one night & had Shake Shack (chicken sandwich & fries)
-Another night, I had room service. It was nothing great, but I think it was some sort of salad & a side of fries. Because, it had been an endless work day.
I'm hoping to put an actual menu plan together & I desperately need to sort out dinner for tonight. DS16 has an away soccer game, so need to factor that in as well.
You live such a cool life! How awesome to be in Tokyo for work.
But also: exhausting.
@Kristen, it usually sounds good but means long flights + the hotel + the office, but this was either a blessing or a curse, as I was in Tokyo for an extended trip, which included the weekend. I made the most of it, and got around much more than usual, including taking the train, seeing some gorgeous leaves, exploring Ginza, etc. As context, have been to Tokyo 20+ times, and have never explored before, because my schedule doesn't typically permit it.
And yes, so exhausting! If I was a plane sleeper, this would be a different situation.
One of my volunteers at the museum was an engineer whose company had sent her to Paris about 10+ times. She suggested that we take a trip together on her miles—to Paris (among other places). Because she had seen virtually nothing of the City of Light.
Kristen, you took the time to actually make soup and to prepare a Dinnerly meal?? Remarkably disciplined! I would have been eating string cheese and sliced apples, perhaps rounded out by crackers (probably stale), and then topped off by a robust handful of chocolate chips.
WIS: $9.32 @ scratch and dent, $94 @ Costco, $39 @ Grocery Outlet
We shop every 3 weeks or so. The scratch and dent store was mostly purchasing fresh mozzarella @ .49/container, triple threat hornet/wasp/yellow jacket trap pheromone for next year .99/ea. and gourmet starbucks coffee @ 2.50 ea K cups for christmas baskets.
Sunday: Chicken Kiev, green beans, butternut squash & green salad
M: Instapot Marinara using up homemade V-8, green salad & GF artisan bread
T: Elk steak on the bbq, green salad, baked potato
W: Breakfast for dinner
Th: Shopping day - Clean out fridge chicken stir fry over rice
F: Big work outside day - Chuck roast in slow cooker, oven roasted root veggies, cookies from the freezer
S: Leftovers ReDeux made into french dip sammies, oven fries and veggies with dip
I was visiting with former co-workers at a local hospital and they asked me to put on a self help de-stress clinic for their teams. A few years ago when the virus first arrived in the hospital and we were woefully prepared for the stress levels and substantial fatigue. I started looking into naturopathic and homeopathic relievers.
One very positive method was EFT tapping. Here is a great article and there are many youtubes on the subject. My favorite technique is dry brushing, self tapping and then a detox bath. When I worked at the VA - I was an acute care ICU nurse who specialized in GSW and burns. When we could not regulate the patient's autonomic response, we would utilize dry brushing and tapping. It had amazing results.
@Blue Gate Farmgirl, When I get a massage, if I remember (if), I will bring along a body brush for dry brushing. OMG, I love it more than anything. Tapping is good too.
I am enlisting my daughter to help me remember:
Friday: fried deer loin, roasted turnips and beets, and I think something else, but daughter disagrees.
Saturday: Chicken breasts, salad, applesauce, breadsticks, cake (a family birthday)
Sunday: Bits and Bobs, root beer floats (courtesy of my kids' aunt who likes to spoil them)
Monday: Half of us had frozen pizzas, half of us went to a Bible study and had spaghetti and meatballs
Tuesday: Deer heart chili
Wednesday: Leftover spiral ham (from potluck), cast iron baked potato things (I tried to make one of those pretty potato dishes in the cast iron magazine pictures), and broccoli
Thursday: roasted chicken, rice, green beans, and oatmeal raisin cookies (which my girls made while we were gone Christmas shopping).
And tonight: various soups we have in cans/leftover and freshly baked sourdough bread
@Jody S., your "deer heart chili" has me reaching into Parson Woodforde's diary again. He once casually tucked a sheep's heart into his pocket for a road trip snack on a ride from one country town to another. (NB: I wouldn't have liked to have been his washerwoman!)
@A. Marie, LOL! It's in chili because I cut it up quite small because I don't like the texture too much. The flavor is no different than the rest of the ground deer I also used.
But how was that sheep's heart cooked? That is so strange.
@A. Marie, My husband once casually left a deer heart in the back of our Subaru Outback. For like a week. I found it when I was cleaning out the back and pulled out a bag of something . . . squishy. Then I looked inside. Yuck. Luckily, it was very cold where we lived at the time, so it didn't smell. But still an unpleasant surprise. And my husband could not see the problem. He was saving it for trapping bait, apparently.
We've been doing planned give-up meals since I had my total knee replacement 4 weeks ago. Hubby has been working long, stressful work hours since my surgery (unfortunate coincidence), and neither of us had time to pre-make and freeze meals in advance. Fortunately, we've been blessed with lovely friends who have brought us meals....so, this week was friend-made chicken shawarma with homemade tsatsiki sauce/pitas/hummus and cucumber/onion/tomato salad, refried bean burritos (hubby made), Wendy's chili + baked potato, taco/rice/black bean burritos from Hot Head Burritos, and friend-made chili tonight. I cannot stress enough how much we have appreciated these meals, and I plan to pay it forward when I'm able.
Pork was $1.79 per lb so sliced chops for under the broiler. Made a beef barley soup. Eggs, bacon, and free biscuits.
Got lots of free bananas, desserts, and biscuits in free bread we get for cows. Cows do a run and dance for squash from the garden. Former cows ran for watermelon or bananas.
Made a free craft at library, a huge snowflake with 16 plastic hangers and zip ties. Fun to make and decorate it.