WIS, WWA | sort of
I got back from my trip last night at midnight, and given the time zone adjustment, I had a very slow start to my day today!
I never type posts at 1 pm but here we are. 😉
I don't know quite what all happened food-wise while I was gone, so I'll just write this up about my own eating.
What I Spent
Well, I didn't really buy much of anything this week! I did buy a $6 coffee yesterday and a $12 sub (oh, airport prices!)
We ate a breakfast of eggs, bacon, oatmeal, toast, and fruit at the condo in the mornings, and that tided me over pretty well during the ski day.
I didn't buy any food or drinks at the ski lodges; I just stuff granola bars/nuts into my coat pockets for when I do get hungry, and drink the free water they have available at the lodge.
What We Ate
Saturday
My younger brother and I flew out to Tahoe on Saturday with my parents, and we all went out to eat the first night.
Sunday
My brother made a fancied-up version of a cheesy noodle casserole we used to eat when we were kids, and we made a green salad to eat on the side.
Monday
Leftovers from Monday, plus a big salad again. My parents are EXTREMELY regular salad-eaters. 🙂
My brother's salad always looks like this:
Actually, almost everything he eats looks like that. His breakfast eggs are quite the peppery experience as well. 😉
Tuesday
The rest of the crew arrived (my older brother and his wife, my sister, and my niece), and my mom made fish tacos with mango salsa.
This time we had broccoli on the side instead of a salad.
Wednesday
My mom made a spicy sausage and shrimp soup, which we ate over black beans and rice. And...we had a salad.
(No one was surprised.)
Thursday
This was my flying-home day. I ate a $12 Jersey Mike's sub during my five hour layover in Vegas, and by the time I got home at midnight, I still wasn't faintly hungry.
Friday
TBD! I need to go to the grocery store and get some menu plans figured out.
Orrrr actually, I should reverse that order. Menu plans, then the grocery store.
Sounds like a delicious menu that you all had!
Saturday - takeout taqueria
Sunday - we had a few days of unseasonably warm weather so my husband smoked some chicken wings outside, we had those with pasta salad and corn muffins
Monday - valentines dinner at home with the kids, we made shrimp fettuccine Alfredo, and chocolate pudding for dessert
Tuesday - impossible burgers, leftover pasta salad, steamed carrots
Wednesday - coconut rice pilaf, pot stickers
Thursday - chicken tacos, served with lime rice and corn
Friday - leftover rice pilaf fried to make fried rice, egg rolls
Here's what I can remember:
- Scrambled eggs with leftover pasta noodles added in. So good and filling.
- Homemade soup concoction
- Vegetarian meatloaf and broccoli
- Plate of veggies: carrots, green beans and mushrooms
- Popcorn and fruit
Love the airplane window shots.
I love, love, love getting a window seat. So good!
That picture of you all eating around the table - those servings are HUGE!
My husband is eating hospital food all week, and his pain meds have taken his appetite, so I can't even claim he ate this week.
With me going to the hospital every day after work and getting home late, my meals have not been the greatest, but I didn't eat out, so there's that.
What I ate:
I used some of the frozen leftover turkey to make my own version of turkey tetrazzini. I dumped lots of veggies in it and used cassava pasta.
I cooked boneless skinless chicken rubbed with a nightshade-free spice rub from this recipe which I really like and have used for a while now: https://promincproductions.com/blog/recipes/bbq-spice-rub-aip/
I cooked it in olive oil, then I cooked sliced zucchini and lots of onion in the pan after the chicken was done and removed. I made enough to eat this two days plus a lunch.
Another day, I cooked chops (with the same seasoning, ha) and then sautéed chard in the same pan. Same technique, different foods. I cooked enough chops for two dinners and two lunches. I ate the other chop dinner with leftover chard but I added applesauce to the meal that time.
One meal was homemade chicken soup leftovers from the freezer, plus an avocado/carob/honey "chocolate pudding" for dessert.
For a special meal, a sort of Valentine's Day meal, I cooked a steak in my grill pan, with raw veggies and fruit, because it was late and I refused to cook more than the steak.
I squeezed a few lemons from my Meyer lemon tree and made lemonade as a treat this week. So good.
@JD,
Homemade lemonade sounds mouthwateringly good!
Well, you need lots of calories to aggressively ski for a whole day. 😉 I almost never eat my entire meal at restaurants, but this time I did!
I hope your husband (and you!) have a better week coming up.
Ha. My parents are also Constant Salad Eaters. I kind of am myself, but more as the main dish for me, not as a side dish so much. Anyway.
Saturday: Beef pot roast, boiled potatoes, roasted beets, still-frozen green beans for the children, and baked apples because my Misfits Market delivery the week before arrived COMPLETELY frozen, and I had a bunch of apples in there. They were fine cooked, though.
Sunday: My eldest son's birthday meal--shrimp, Italian sausage, spaghetti alfredo, baked fennel (that was not part of his request, but I must have a vegetable), and chocolate cheesecake. I think this can probably go in the running for World's Heaviest Meal.
Monday: Leftover shrimp, scrambled eggs and bacon, leftover potatoes, raw tomatoes and radishes
Tuesday: Leftover cafeteria hot dogs (part of my job at the school this year is helping the cook clean up from lunch, and she often gives me leftovers to take home if there aren't enough to make into another meal at school), the leftovers from the Not-Grandma-Browns baked beans I froze a couple of weeks ago, leftover scrambled eggs, bread and butter, raw tomatoes
Wednesday: Spaghetti made with the extra I cooked and refrigerated plain on Sunday, plus a sauce made with tomatoes I had cooked with the pot roast pureed with cottage cheese. Also two cans of secondary commodities pork--sounds gross, but is actually literally just pork and water--fried with spices and some of the tomato sauce. And some sauteed green beans
Thursday: Ground beef taco meat, homemade corn tortillas, and we had lettuce and tomato, which is an exciting taco night at our house.
Friday: Well. I was going to make a skillet meal with rice and leftover taco meat. But my husband is at this very moment skinning the ram and announced that this time, he would skin the head so we could roast it. So we might be having a roasted sheep's head tonight. Prayers are appreciated.
@kristin @ going country, I had just put some Cheerios in my mouth when I got to the ram’s head...I’m just happy I didn’t choke! Bet the boys will like the idea.
I saw a pinterest that explained how they roasted the cow's head or part of it with garlic and salt. Then you shred it and use like taco meat. I have tried it with check roast. Would this do for ram's head?
@kristin @ going country, my 3 year old has been requesting to eat frozen vegetables still frozen lately, glad to see he’s in good company.
@kristin @ going country,
Oh, my, goodness. When I was 13 or 14 we lived in Italy (military family) and we took a two week roadtrip one summer all over Europe including France. While in Paris, my family purchased a roasted chicken super cheap at a street cart and took it back to our room for supper. We couldn't figure out why there was not much meat on it (or why it was so cheap), until one of us flipped it over. It was a sheep's head. lol My younger brother, mother and I would not eat it which made my father quite angry. haha Over the next few years, I did go on to eat many, many things I'd rather not have in order not to make hosts/hostesses feel bad. But that night in the hotel room I just could not bring myself to peel off any meat around those eye sockets! I think your kiddos are a lot less picky than I was back then though and will see it as quite the adventure!
@Sharon Sorrels, One of the things I have learned over my many years of cooking strange meats is that ANYTHING can be made into taco meat. Even beavers. My husband took charge of the sheep's head, though, and roasted it at high heat, so it wasn't shreddable.
@Karen, My children ate the eyeballs. Oh yes, they did. I, the child raised on chicken breasts in the suburbs, didn't eat any of it except for a small taste of the cheek meat, which was fine. It was really just too grueseome for me. I am careful, however, to keep those sorts of things to myself so I don't influence my children's adventurous spirits.
I bow to your children!
@LB, In my experience, almost all children love frozen produce, be it fruits or vegetables. The cold makes them less strong tasting, I suppose.
@Shirley, Oh yes. They fought over the eyeballs.
@kristin @ going country, Eyeballs were on the menu a couple of times during my years overseas. I was EXTREMELY careful not to be in the position of consuming them!
Sounds like you had a really fun week! This week we ate...
Saturday: A rice pilaf and chicken dish that my mother-in-law made. I know we had side dishes, but I don't remember what they were.
Sunday: Frozen pizzas and pizza rolls
Monday: Chick-fil-A on our drive home. I got the spicy chicken southwest salad and it was so good!!! Especially after all of the heavy food I had eaten in the 24 hours prior.
Tuesday: Crunchwraps and pineapple
Wednesday: IP macaroni and cheese with peas
Thursday: Pizza and a movie since my husband had to work late
Friday: I have no idea. I wasn't able to get groceries until lunchtime today (I had planned to get them days ago) and what I had menu planned takes some prep with the food I just purchased. So I'll be winging it!
I'm trying to figure out what food group black pepper fits into. Ha.
Um. Pretty uninspired week here, meal-wise. Take and bake pizza from Aldi Monday due to my yearly kitchen scrub-down which resulted in me being tired. Such a romantic Valentine's meal. Tuesday we had Thai chicken over polenta. Wednesday was super dreary so I made nachos to offset my grumpy mood. Last night I had to scramble for a meal since I didn't have the ingredients I thought I had for the meal I had planned. Ended up with sweet and sour sausage over rice. Tonight I will make cheeseburger soup. I need to take a meal to another family so this is a two-fer. I'm baking bread as I type this. I'm in a blah mood lately and can't get excited about meals.
Sounds like such a fun week! The pepper - my husband used to mix it in his ketchup like that so he could dip his french fries in pepper ketchup! And, I really love to add a great salad to any meal - you can do so many things with salad. This week:
Monday - Bowtie Pasta with marinara (freezer meal), salad
Tuesday - Honey Mustard Chicken Bites, twice baked potato, zucchini
Wednesday - Wine Wednesday with The Girl (we had pasta and green beans)
Thursday - Tilapia, brussels sprouts, coleslaw with lemon vinaigrette
Friday - I'm going to make a burger and have a salad on the side
Saturday - Sweet Hot Pork Belly Cubes (which I have never cooked before, but they looked good in the meat case), chopped Asian salad
Sunday - Chicken Fajita Bowls with brown rice, black beans, avocado, salsa, cheese
**only one eat out meal for this week and it was lunch today - catfish Friday!**
I may be the only one - but I share your brother's view on pepper! I am not that excessive ha! But I have certainly taken the top off before!
Also been reading for a while - but first time commenter here! The pepper made me do it! 😉
My son spent $30--THIRTY DOLLARS--at a Nathan's in the Miami airport this week.
Reminds me of the Arrested Development joke: "I mean, it's one banana, Michael. What could it cost, $10?"
Yup. Enchiladas at the Vegas airport were over $20! GEEZ.
This was a meat-heavy week for us.
Sunday: Takeout pizza, shared with a friend.
Monday: Roast chicken breasts (overcooked by yours truly, oops), salad, and rice.
Tuesday: I was at my parents' and my husband got takeout sushi.
Wednesday: I made salad rolls which was a lot of work for something that wasn't enough food for my husband. Not doing that again!
Thursday: Chicken Pad Thai. So, so good.
Friday: My husband's cooking and I think we're having fish.
Pantry and freezer clean out continues! Meals are boring but we were all fed and I can see the bottom of the chest freezer! woohoo!
Saturday - my son got the 24 hour stomach flu so everyone fended for themselves. Some had toast, some had whatever they could find in the fridge.
Sunday - I made a huge pot of chicken noodle soup and everyone enjoyed.
Monday - Leftover soup
Tuesday - Errands for the new house resulted in no time to cook and I failed to plan ahead so take out chicken was had by all.
Wednesday - baked chicken, mashed potatoes, green peas, and the last of the corn from our garden
Thursday - Takeout again. Packing, Packing and more packing. Moving has a lot of hidden costs let me just tell you.
Friday - Spaghetti with garlic rolls.
I am determined to finish packing this weekend no matter what so who knows what that will hold on the cooking front.
Happy weekend!
WWS: $27 Market Basket; $190 (!!!) Costco. We don't have a Costco membership, so we only go every 6 months or so, so that isn't too bad... I guess... $32 Whole Foods (which will be reimbursed as a Mystery Shop).
Sat: grilled ribeye with garlic scape and herb compound butter; cauliflower purée, grilled red peppers
Sun: shrimp boiled with Old Bay & served with remoulade, savory butternut squash bread & some other snacks for Super bowl.
Mon/Valentine's day: homemade pizza that was not heart shaped, because we are lazy in daVille. I always make mined topped with scape pesto, mozz, broccoli & pepperoni.
Tues: muffuletta sandwich, sliced cucumbers
Wed.: chicken baked in milk, farro, roasted Brussels sprouts
Thurs. homemade gyros on homemade pita; tzatziki, Greek salad
Fri: socca with shredded zucchini, topped with homemade ricotta, roasted broccoli, pumpkin seed oil, and pumpkin seeds.
Growing up we probably had salad 5 out of 7 nights a week. Now that we are mostly work-from-home, salads are a go-to lunch.
We had school vacation so things were a little off of the norm! Older daughter was in Iceland until last night.
Sunday: We were traveling to Boston for a few days. We stopped at Trader Joe's and got some snack things for a Super Bowl supper.
Monday: We were still in Boston and went to a ramen restaurant. Super delicious! This was a treat because we do not have ramen in our area.
Tuesday: We came home fairly late and with few groceries in the house. My husband and I had some tomato soup and open face grilled cheese toasts. My daughter had buttered noodles and an apple.
Wednesday: Italian beef sliders. I made the beef in the crock pot and we assembled little sliders. Carrots and cucumbers on the side.
Thursday: Ravioli with tomato sauce, garlic bread and salad.
Friday: Daughter is home and wants Mexican, we usually order a local take out on Friday, so this is perfect.
Saturday: I was planning to make pizzas but younger daughter asked if we could have chicken-wild rice chowder and rolls, so maybe I will change plans. We have all the ingredients for both.
This week's food chore was to clear the goeduck out of the freezer. We had goeduck chowder for three nights and fried goeduck one night (think fried clams, which goeduck technically is). I had had the forethought to package them individually (these puppies averaged 2 lb each), so I offered the unsuspecting neighbor two of them and she was happy to try something new. Thus end my goeduck adventures for this year. They are a pain to clean, you have to blanch and then peel off the outer layer to get an edible piece of meat, and they can take a long time to cook to tenderness. I remind myself that they can live to be 140 years old or more so who knows how old mine were, maybe they developed their outer skin for a century so of course it will be tough (said to self while cleaning and cursing them). For the next two nights we had hamburgers and salad and tonight I am making pizza. The desire for my usual Friday filet 'o fish was crushed to death by nearly two weeks of eating salmon and then goeduck so that we have more room in the freezer.
@Lindsey, Wow, I'm glad I came late to this conversation so I got to see all the details about ram's heads and goeduck...! Thanks for introducing me to a new food item (if anyone else told me I might have thought they were messing with me : )
That is a lot of pepper, wow!
This week's meals were:
- Cookie & Kate's Lemony green pasta with peas and ricotta & fruit.
- Salad
- Grilled Mediterranean veggies with mushroom risotto.
- Falafels, hummus, salad and toasted French bread.
- Salad, coconut/lime quinoa and more hummus
- Beyond meat chicken patty with bbq sauce over salad.
- Pizza, garlic toast and salad.
We eat a lot of salad too.
Vertigo edition! WAH
Cinnamon brown rice
OAtmeal
Wheat chex with bananas
Peanut butter on wasa crackers
Chicken and rice
Hubby mostly on his own this week!!
Oh no. Mr. FG had a terrible bout of vertigo in 2019 and oof, it was just awful. I hope you are feeling more balanced soon.
If I remember correctly, we spent $101 on food at the grocery store plus $12 and some change at Aldi just on sandwich bread , as it was time to restock the freezer with bread.
For supper, I ate two slices of toast with cheese, an apple and a cup of decaff tea every night. Lunch, which is my big meal, was a variety of delicious leftovers, muffins, tangerines and iced tea.
You visited Nevada!! It was fun to read this because I lived in Vegas for 8 years and Reno/Tahoe for 7 years. And then I’ve been back multiple times every year since! It was like I kind of visited with you! I can even picture that jersey mikes inside the terminal in Vegas!
Ohhh, fun! I have skied at Heavenly three times now; such a lovely view from both sides of the mountain.
Your parents sound like my kind of salad-eating people! 😉
WWA:
Sun: leftovers and salad
Mon: stir fried orange pork with peppers, salad
Tue: leftovers and salad
Wed: peppers and beyond sausage stir fry on buns, cantaloupe
Thu: potato and leek soup, ham and cheese sandwiches on sourdough bagels, salad
Fri: focaccia with mozzarella and ricotta, watermelon and steamed broccoli
WIS
Aldi: 155.86
Hungry Harvest: 68.35
Total: 224.21
So far I'm not really seeing the savings of switching back to Aldi yet, but I think I'm overbuying a bit out of the excitement of choosing my own produce again. I'm also out of the habit of shopping so I ended up adding a few things to my Hungry Harvest order after forgetting them at Aldi.
My neighbor told me today that she routinely spends about 350.00/week for her family of four right now, and she also shops almost exclusively at Aldi, so I think there's also a bit of price creep. She buys more meat and prepackaged items than I do, and I buy way more pricey produce than she does and tend towards hoardy stocking up, so it's a bit tricky to compare.
I was trying to remember what things cost about two years ago at Aldi, and no individual items on my receipt really stood out to me as higher priced now, but maybe my memory is covid-fuzzy. Kristen, I wonder if readers would find it at all interesting to see you compare the prices of things you routinely buy between then and now? Presumably you have a sort of record from your blog? Although I think it's been a long time now that you haven't posted pictures of the groceries like you used to with all the hidden stuffies. Tell your young people that I miss those pictures!
Wait, I forgot. One of those leftover nights was actually a spaghetti with jarred tomato sauce night! Think it was Tuesday. The sauce was leftover though from the previous focaccia night, so maybe it still counts as leftovers. I also eat leftovers for lunch almost every day and sometimes for breakfast too, so I have much love for the lefties as I like to call them. There were, however, no leftovers after the spaghetti night because my children will eat spaghetti until they explode
@Becca,
Aldi has def price creeped in my area. I still like shopping there because the store footprint is small and cashiers are fast!!
@Stephanie,
I agree about price creep at Aldi. The price of milk has gone up significantly, but it's still cheaper than my local national chain grocery store. The produce, steel cut oats, yummy Italian bread, and pretzels that I typically buy at Aldi have gone up in price (I'm sure there are other items, too, but those are the items I can think of off the top of my head).
@Liz B.,
Hmm, yeah maybe the milk was more expensive, but I honestly can't tell because for the last year and a half I was ordering milk from a dairy for delivery and it was way expensive, so Aldi is much cheaper than that. I did notice that the organic milk was twice the price of conventional at Aldi, and although the farm milk was more expensive overall, the difference between conventional and organic was less, so I splurged on organic more often. My hours at work are going to decrease next year, so I will need to start paying more attention to prices.
I don't think I have any specific records of prices, sadly; just some grocery totals! But things are definitely more expensive, and that's true at every store, not just Aldi. It does still seem to me that the prices at Aldi are pretty hard to beat, though.
Zoe, my youngest kiddo, turned 16 yesterday, so yes, it's been a long time since the stuffed animal grocery photos. Sigh. How time flies!
@Kristen,
Sixteen!?!?! How is that even possible? And happy belated birthday, Zoe!
We too are regular salad eaters! Probably four or five times a week ...
Sunday was the Superbowl so we had brats, baked beans and slaw plus some veggies and dip.
Valentine's Day we had hassleback potatoes, crab cakes and roasted Brussels sprouts.
Tuesday we had pasta with meatballs and sauce
Wednesday was teriyaki shrimp tacos
Thursday I made a simple turkey meatloaf and we had that with roasted veggies and salad.
Tonight we had leftover pasta.
We had meat/ meatless dinners with braised veg and potatoes on most days. Yesterday, when storm Eunice battered homes, trucks, and trees I felt restless and uncomfortable so we settled for pea soup from the freezer, ultimate bad weather food! And today was a busy day taking stock of our damage, which needs repair with priority to prevent leaks. It could have been much worse though. I made quick and easy pizza.
Tomorrow will be cod and salad, and I need to do something creative with a sweet potato.
Three days we took a vacation to a water park with some friends of ours. We had takeout pizza one night, went out for burgers the second night, then Tuesday I made pulled pork carnita tacos which we ate with cowboy caviar and chips and fruit.
Had leftover pork in burritos with cheese and beans and lime crema.
Made bibimbap with leftover pork and sautéed veggies and a fried egg
Picked up a nasty cold on vacation so hubby picked up chick fil a because I was napping instead of cooking
Today we are using up the last of the pulled pork by mixing it with bbq sauce and putting it inside of pillsbury crescents. Will serve with a side salad and some cole slaw