WIS, WWA | Thanks for your patience
What I Spent
First...I am taking notes about issues you guys are noticing with the new design; I promise I will work on those once I finish this set of work shifts. 🙂 I appreciate your patience! And if I can't fix this stuff, I will just hire someone who can.
This week, I spent:
- $38 at Aldi
- $82 at Aldi (two separate stops!)
Sooooo, $120, and it was all at Aldi. 😉
What We Ate
Saturday
A friend treated me to some pizza and sent me home with the leftovers.
Sunday
Leftover pizza, reheated in the toaster oven.
Monday
Chicken quesadillas, with fruit salad on the side.
Tuesday
A repeat of Monday because there was more chicken to use up!
Wednesday
I made chipotle chicken salads with the express plan of using extras for my work lunches.
Thursday
I grabbed some homemade burgers from the freezer before work and put them in the fridge to thaw. Then when I came home, I just grilled them, and that made for a super quick meal.
Friday
I think I will make some French toast for dinner after work because I need something super quick!
Kristen, I was surprised by the new format, but it is easier to read, the print and background are so clean and clear. I also like that I can find older posts more easily once I got used to it. Also, I can click on "comments" and it jumps to the comments. 🙂
What I ate:
M: I made double batches of ground turkey/black bean chili and froze half.
T: Made double batch of chicken barley soup, froze half.
W: leftover chili (I've learned its kinder to my body to not eat it two days in a row, oof)
Th: Grilled salmon cakes and roasted broccoli, peppers and garlic
F: Whatever I feel like, its Friday and I'll be tired! Probably roasted sweet and yellow potatoes and Just Bare Chicken.
I also love being able to jump to comments, and the fact that there's not a click-to-continue in the comments. 🙂
The only thing I noticed about your blog was that the pages are super slow to load...
I had really high hopes this week for a couple of projects that did not pan out...so in addition to the $50 regular spend at HEB, I popped into Aldi in Pflugerville to check it out...and spent $99. I feel like the prices weren't lower so I probably won't spend the money to go back. But now I can say I tried it! I added some things to my freezer and my long term food storage. This week's menus:
M - kitchen closed, I got CFA on the way home (mac and cheese with a filet)
T - Roast chicken on a pre-packaged big dinner salad
W - Meatloaf for one, (freezer) corn casserole, more salad? I forget.
Th - Chicken drums with roasted potatoes, salad with orange dressing
F - will I make these crab cakes that I have had plans to do for several weeks? And maybe I will have green beans or peas as a switch from salad...
S&S - kitchen closed
Happy weekend!
We spent $244 at the grocery store, I don’t know why it was so high but I have noticed a high week is usually followed by a couple of lower weeks.
Saturday—I had Amy’s frozen lasagne
Sunday—meatloaf with roasted sweet potato cubes and canned peas leftover from Thanksgiving
Monday—chicken tortilla soup
Tuesday—leftover meatloaf and sweet potatoes
Wednesday—leftover soup
Thursday—scrambled eggs, butternut squash from the freezer, and toast with peanut butter, quick and easy!
Friday—pizza beans and Italian bread with butter, yum!
Happy Friday, everyone! We spent $146 ($134 at Walmart and $12 at a bakery). We dislike Walmart and miss our stores in Minnesota, so we have decided future grocery trips here in Arizona will be a two-hour roundtrip to Trader Joe's, the natural foods co-op and Target. Sadly there's no Aldi here.
- Salad (greens, vinaigrette, radishes, black beans, walnuts, raisins, cottage cheese)
- Baked potato and peas
- Nachos with black beans, avocado, cheese and salsa
- Had a late lunch instead
- Gelato (yup, that was dinner!)
- Walnut-mushroom-broccoli-rice casserole
- Pasta with broccoli, olive oil and parmesan
Hi, where are you in AZ? Aldis are popping up all over the valley, but only one in the East valley in Tempe. I'm in Peoria and there are 2 each within about 5 miles of me. But honestly, I don't understand what everyone loves about Aldi. I don't find them to be cheaper except on the loss leaders, though we don't buy meat, so maybe that's it?
Hi Rachel. We're staying in the southern part of the state. We're vegetarians so we don't buy meat either. In Minnesota, the prices at Aldi are significantly lower than other stores.
Hi, love your blogs. First time to comment. I do wonder when I see your grocery spending and what you eat seems very little, do you include other items in your grocery ?
Kind regards, Ada from NL
Ada, I'm not Kristen but want to say welcome and that my grocery spending includes all meals, snacks and beverages, whereas only "what's for dinner" is recapped here.
Some things we ate this week (not all are suppers):
*Bible study night: Some at stew at study, and I made pizza for the homies.
*Potluck leftovers: I made pulled pork, a corn-bean salad thing, and my youngest made bread. I also made crockpot tapioca which did not turn out well, so I didn't send it. But we ate it at home. (I figured out what I did wrong, so I'll be trying it again.)
*burgers
*beef sirloin sliced up and stir-fried with peppers and onions cooked in a similar way, rice, and salad maybe? or broccoli?
*I made tortellini soup for my husbands' pastors' meeting this week. It was a lunch thing, but we ate it too. It's been on repeat for a few lunches.
*meatballs and gravy, sweet potatoes or white potatoes, salad, roasted beets
*Tonight will be bits-and-bobs. It will feature much cheese and crackers, sliced turnips, carrot and celery sticks, and ? ? Who knows? Maybe some pickles?
JodyS, your use of "bits and bobs" causes me to wonder if you read Mavis Butterfield, One Hundred Dollars A Month.
I thought I was mostly done with big cooking days now that the holidays are over, but I think I'm just in a phase of life where every day requires giant quantities of food. Sort of like how a couple of years ago I realized that the stretches of what felt like a too-busy schedule were melding into each other and that yeah, this is just what my life is like now. Welcome to my Extraordinary Feeding Phase, I guess. 🙂
Saturday: I made a 10"x15" cottage pie with lots of vegetables in the meat filling (I can hide pureed squash and finely diced greens in there along with the peas and corn), and it was entirely eaten except for one serving this night. There were also cucumber slices on the side.
Sunday: I had a bag of chicken leg quarters in the freezer that would not have been enough for our family as just chicken pieces, so I stretched those by simmering them to pull off and shred the meat and using it to make a kind of Spanish rice with leftover rice, a can of beans, frozen corn, tomato puree, spices, and cheese. For Sunday dessert, I used the last bag of frozen apple slices to make a crisp.
Monday: I found a quart jar of ram curry in the freezer that I bulked up with potatoes and collard greens. I also added sour cream to that at the end when I was heating it up. Rice to put the curry over, and I had also made garlic bread when I was baking sandwich loaves, so everyone ate that before dinner. And then after dinner, the children all found some kind of fruit to eat. We don't often have a lot of fresh fruit, but I had been to the store Saturday, so we had bananas, oranges, and apples to choose from.
Tuesday: Epiphany! a.k.a. the Feast of the Three Wise Men. This is the last day of the Christmas season for us, so I make a somewhat special meal for it. This year, that was lasagna. I also made a green salad with a vinaigrette, and my daughter made brownies for dessert.
Wednesday: Leftover lasagna, raw radishes
Thursday: Our priest is a frequent dinner guest at our house. He has seven siblings, and three of his five brothers were visiting him this week. All four of them came for dinner sort of last minute. In order to feed ten people, which included two men and six boys ranging in age from 11-21, I made one of the giant pork butts my husband had bought into taco meat. Also a pot of pinto beans flavored with the pureed juices, chili, onion, etc. the pork cooked in. My daughter helped me make a pile of corn tortillas (I didn't run out! there were two left when everyone had finished eating! yay me!), and I set out everything I had for toppings. Before dinner everyone ate a very large tray of vegetables with ranch dip, and after dinner there was a baked rice pudding, Lindt truffles, and some of the Walker's shortbread cookies my son got for his birthday that he was generous enough to share.
Friday: We have a enough leftover pork to make burritos, and I have flour tortillas, so I guess that'll be it. Probably carrot sticks or cucumber or something for a vegetable.
You feed your family so well! There was a phase of parenthood when I felt as though all I did was cook and clean the kitchen. Funny, it was difficult to stop making massive amounts of food when the kiddos went away to college.
When I first became an empty-nester, I can remember making many meals that we ate for days. I had no idea how to gaugehow much DH and I actually ate. However, I eventually learned that I did not have to make two pounds of pasta for dinner or 4 chicken pot pies.,
I have two away at college, and that leaves 8 of us here at home. It is hard to gauge sometimes, and it's a roller coaster depending on if the boys are home or not. When it's just the 8 of us, I can drop down to a single batch of muffins; that's something I learned 🙂
My husband and I joke that when the kids are gone (still at least a decade away), we're going to eat nothing but corn tortillas with beans and eggs. Sounds pretty good to me right about now. 🙂
@Kristin@GoingCountry, your ability to flex and accommodate many people just blows me away!
Just curious about those Lindt truffles: they sell by the singles for $1 each in our high-priced local independent grocer, conveniently located on the checkout stand for your impulsive pleasure. What are you paying for those little treasures?
I had to do math for this. 🙂 I bought the 15.2-ounce bags of assorted flavors on Amazon for $17, which comes to 47 cents per truffle. The bigger box of just milk chocolate truffles that I used to buy was slightly cheaper--like 42 cents per--but my family likes the variety. I only buy them for Christmas stockings and Epiphany, so it's a once-a year-treat.
I just noticed while I was looking this up, though, that I could get a 15.2-ounce bag of just dark chocolate truffles for $13, which would be 36 cents per truffle. Since most of my family prefers the dark chocolate ones, I can get that next year, assuming the prices stay the same. So thanks for inspiring me to do the math!
I like the new format.
WWS - This week I spent approximately $40.
$19 at Publix
$21 at Trader Joe's
This was after a very expensive week. However, spending has evened out, and I am back on budget. Unfortunately, I did have some food waste while getting back on track for the holidays.
WWA -
Saturday: We took an afternoon trip to a historical site. We ate leftovers. I had a taco bowl, and DH finished off the New Year's leftovers,
Sunday: Southern-style chicken and rice with a side salad.
Monday: Spaghetti and meatballs with spinach.
Tuesday: DH and I both had big lunches out, so dinner was simple. I think that I had cheese and crackers. He had a stuff backed potato.
Wednesday: Dinner Out. It was my husband's birthday, and we went to his favorite seafood restaurant. We shared appetizer portions or "sides" of our favorites: oysters, royal reds, salad, flounder, dirty rice, and GF fried shrimp. This was not included in our grocery budget.
Thursday: Sheet-pan Hawaiian chicken
Friday: Not sure. I'm going to a movie with a friend in the afternoon, so it will be something simple. Maybe leftover Hawaiian Chicken
Have a great week and bon appétit.
This week I spent $32 at trader joes and $12 at a specialty spice shop for groceries. I also spent $38 eating out.
Saturday/Sunday- chicken in wine sauce, rice and steamed broccoli.
Monday - bean and cheese burrito, handful of grape tomatoes.
Tuesday - I had to run some errands in the evening. I hate doing errands after a long day of work but it was unavoidable. I got hungry while I was out and got cheesy garlic bread and a drink at Mod Pizza.
Wednesday- Birthday dinner for a friend at an Italian restaurant. I had lasagna, salad and garlic bread.
Thursday - Hamburger gravy on toast with corn. So fancy.
Friday - leftovers.
WIS: $84, most of which was at Food Lion, with a quick $12 trip to Dollar Tree for crackers, almond milk and juice.
WWA: Leftover soup. Ham sandwiches. Big pan of chicken drums and thighs roasted in a mustard-y sauce that used up a long-open bottle of grainy mustard. Salads. Used up the last ground beef patty in a pot of spicy yellow rice with black beans. Chocolate-chocolate chip muffins for desserts.
Ruby, I'm glad to see another round of mustardy chicken--and I'm going to do some myself as soon as I can stand to eat chicken again. I've had it twice in the last week and suspect I might start growing feathers soon. (Cluck.)
I spent $94.
We had:
Saturday:breakfast for supper. Eggs, bacon, biscuits, fruit
Sunday: burritos with chicken, black beans, rice, corn, etc
Monday: I was gone all day so we did a quick meal of a baked potato with pork bbq from the freezer. Salad on the side.
Tuesday: swedish meatballs, mashed potatoes, green beans
Wednesday: DH was out of town so I had leftovers
Thursday: chipotle marinated chicken, rice, asparagus
Friday: I think we will have spaghetti
WIS: $112 at Wegmans and $29 at Price Chopper. The Wegmans total included a half and a whole boneless leg of lamb Reduced for Quick Sale after Christmas (which went straight into the freezer), plus a bottle of the expensive Muro 128 eyedrops I use for corneal edema.
WIA: Best effort this week has been a chef's salad with boneless/skinless chicken thighs. I sauteed the chicken with some of the spice mix Bailey dog's parents gave me for Christmas; this mix is really for combining with olive oil for dipping, but it was amazingly good on the chicken! And I have enough leftover chicken to do the same thing again today.
I think I only spent about $15 because this past week was my off-week for shopping. This weekend I will shop for 2 weeks. I’m shifting from shopping every other Friday to every other Sunday since I am no longer in the city on Fridays (when the office closes early) but I am on Sunday for church. Plus I don’t want to shop after a full day of work on the days I do work and get home so late. In my own little town we currently only have Walmart and a small independent chain with “discount meat” and unknown brands for groceries. Winn Dixie closed and an Aldi is coming in. Town folks aren’t very happy about that.
WIA: sale purchased smoked salmon on a bed of lettuce with green peas, capers, pickled onions.
Venison chili with slaw on the side. I had that twice.
Garlic butter oven-cooked chicken wings with a salad and fruit.
On a wing kick, I guess, I thawed out some turkey wings that had been around a while and roasted them. Slaw and roasted zucchini for sides.
I tried dried whole English peas instead of split peas as a soup with the Christmas ham bone, marjoram, and onion, with carrot and celery added nearer the end. I liked it.
Tonight will be sale shrimp from the freezer. Sides TBD.
JD, your pea soup sounds divine. And in case anyone was wondering (trust me to bring Jane Austen into almost any discussion), JA probably ate a lot of pea soup. Her friend and Chawton Cottage housemate Martha Lloyd included not one but two "pease soup" recipes in her Household Book--one evidently for winter and one for summer. The summer one includes some unexpected veg, such as cucumbers and lettuce!
I don't mind the redesign! Looks fine to me.
Sunday: Soy/ginger tilapia with rice and broccoli.
Monday: Pasta bolognese (freezer) and peas. I had mine with spaghetti squash, which no one else likes, so they had regular pasta.
Tuesday: Pancakes, eggs, and fruit.
Wednesday: Takeout pizza, a weekly fixture.
Thursday: Takeout sushi! A stay-cation indulgence.
Friday: Unsure. We have some food that needs using, so we'll see how interested I am in cooking it! I'll commit to boiling the sweet potatoes for challah, though.
We spent about $200 at Harris Teeter and maybe $50 at Food Lion which is really low for us. We were focused on using up holiday leftovers. This year I want to really focus on using what we have and not keeping such an overstocked pantry. This is a big shift for me.
Saturday - Fish (some leftover from NYE), roaster carrots, and fries. I declared I wasn't cooking and this is what the kids/husband made.
Sunday - My husband made split pea and ham soup with leftover New Years Ham and a ham bone we were gifted. We brought this to his parents and most of it was gobbled up.
Monday - I made milk braised pork shoulder with fennel and polenta from the Chef and the Slow Cooker. It was a bust. The meat was really bland and now we've got loads of it to eat up. Good news is it tastes like nothing so we can add any sauce we like to it. A lot of work for a meh dinner.
Tuesday - Leftovers / fridge clean out (no one wanted the pork!!)
Wednesday - Tofu with sweet potatoes, roasted broccoli, shiitake mushrooms, and a tahini sauce from Smitten Kitchen.
Thursday - Polenta bowls with leftover vegetables, chorizo, and eggs for some.
Friday - I am going out for Mexican and margaritas and not concerned about what the family will eat!
Do you think the tech people will be able to bring back archives? I like looking back at old posts.
This week unintentionally ended up being a week of pasta!
Saturday: I got back from England that day and had aubergine with mushrooms, pasta and a jar of pasta sauce.
Sunday: Mushroom omelette and a baked sweet potato.
Monday: Veggie burritos and homemade garlic bread.
Tuesday: Spinach, cream cheese, mushrooms, onions and garlic over pasta.
Wednesday: Chilli mac and cheese and more garlic bread.
Thursday: Leftovers.
Friday: I'm thinking another kind of omelette.
WIS: $64.46.
WIA: Pan-seared Mahi Mahi with roasted asparagus, Jasmine rice and Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuits (from the mix); spinach and mushroom quiche with side salads; ham and cheese omelets with leftover asparagus (and biscuits!).
Friday: At home date night with take-out sushi
Saturday: Chili Con Carne, biscuits from the freezer
Sunday: Cabbage and chicken soup, biscuits from the freezer. Husband cooked dinner and it was nice to have a night off!
Monday: Instant Pot Baked Ziti with Spinach
Tuesday: Tandoori Chicken with Veggies and naan and yogurt sauce
Wednesday: Italian Sausage and Pepper Calzones, green salad
Thursday: leftover night – my son had a school concert so this was fast and easy!
Monday - I think this was a whatever night, some had cereal, some had leftovers.
Tuesday- cajun shrimp pasta with half of a bag of shrimp I found in a freezer cleanout, plus half a bag of random shell noodles I forgot were in the pantry. A can of chicken noodle soup for the shrimp/spicy hater.
Wednesday - used up a partial bag of chicken nuggets, tater tots, and green beans.
Thursday - Grilled cheese and tomato soup.
Friday - tonight is maybe frozen pizza night. There hasn't been a ton of motivation this week for creativity, but everyone is fed!
-We ate out one night (Saturday) on our last night in Las Vegas. We were at my favorite steak house & all of the food was absolutely divine.
-On the night we flew home (Sunday), I ordered takeout Greek food. The lazy (and expensive option). It was pretty delicious, at least.
-We had spaghetti & meatballs two nights.
-I made a chicken sausage veggie bake, and we had that two nights.
As for tonight, I will likely eat fridge leftovers, and I defrosted salmon for DH. DS19 is working tonight.
@HawaiiPlanner, it used to be that eating out in Lost Wages casinos was a great bargain because they figured if they could just get you through the door, you'd be tempted to spend money gambling. Is that still the case? (Never been there, but somehow retained that odd piece of information in my overloaded memory.)
I love the new format and have not noticed any anomalies while using my tablet.
Despite my best efforts, I ended up catching the flies from my mom. It hit me hard and 5 days later i'm coming out of it. Thank you past self for freezer soups and stews.
Sun family dinner - turkey and noodles, roasted broccoli, kale salad, sundaes.
Monday leftovers
Tuesday beef stew
Wednesday more beef stew
Thursday taco soup
Friday taco soup
Saturday split pea soup
Have a great weekend!
Blue Farm Girl, I know that you meant "catching the flu" from your mom, and I truly hope you're fully recovered by now. But as a retired copyeditor, I always appreciate a good typo--and I'm still giggling over "catching the flies"! Please forgive me.
Some kind of weird auto correct. I tested positive for type a flu and the gremlins wrote out flies.
Feeding kids these days is not cheap! This week we spent:
$68 at Walmart
$260 at Aldi
$15 at Family Dollar
That's pretty average for our family of 6. Boy, was I happy to see the kids go back to school this week. Two have free lunch at school, so it is noticeably more expensive when they are home. Some of that $343 was restocking after everyone had been home for a couple weeks.
I wanted to thank you, Kristen, for your post earlier this week on how to survive working long shifts. I've been nervous about this upcoming semester because I teach late classes, which means I don't get home in the evening until 8pm two nights per week. I leave the house every morning at 7:15am to take our daughter to school, so it's a long day and about the equivalent of working a 12-hour shift. I had the same schedule last semester, and I was getting tripped up by thinking that I don't actually do 12 hours of paid work during that long day, so I should't be so tired. And then I was trying to do all the same things I normally would when I stop work at 5pm. No wonder I was exhausted! Your account of how you treat those long days made me realize that I need to give myself permission to just eat and go to bed. No dishes, no long catchups with my husband, no laundry. Here's to a better plan for this semester!
Saturday - green bean casserole
Sunday - cinnamon raisin toast and peanut butter
Monday - yogurt with almonds, dried cranberries and granola
Tuesday - hamburger and fries at a diner
Wednesday - peanut butter sandwich (don't groan, but I like it with pickles)
Thursday - spinach salad with strawberries and mushrooms
Friday - tonight I'm planning on a tuna salad sandwich
I spent $8 at Jewel and $58 at Aldi.
I like the new look of the site. I see we can now be notified of comments which I've been missing forever.
WIS: Farmers Market-$80, Neighborhood-$29, Milk delivery-$21 Total: $130 Good start to the year
WWA: Sat & Sun: Can't remember
Mon: Cottage pie
Tues: Pasta w/ chicken and squash sauce
Wed: Buffalo chicken meatballs w/ mashed potatoes and broccolini
Thurs: Asian style marinade/sauce artic char with stir-fry veggies and noodles
Fri: Tonight was supposed to be date night dinner but feeling a little off so we will postpone until tomorrow and do chicken soup instead.