WIS, WWA | This bag is done for
What I Spent
I went to Aldi this week because I needed...everything.
And one of my bags, which is quite an old one from an in-store Athleta purchase, ripped as I unloaded my groceries.
When a bag is mendable, I will always take the time to do a repair. But this one was made of some kind of material that just disintegrated over time.
So, into the trash it went.
I spent:
- $156 at Aldi
- $6 at Safeway
Soo, $162. That's more than usual for sure, but I was out of a lotta stuff.
What We Ate
Saturday
We had French toast, bacon, and grapefruit for dinner.
Sunday
I was not particularly hungry at dinnertime, so I just had some butternut squash soup and some sauteed broccoli.
The soup is actually...butternut/acorn squash soup, because I had gotten both in my Hungry Harvest box.
Luckily, squash soup is very forgiving, so it all worked out fine.
Monday
A simple sandwich, made with buffalo chicken lunch meat from Aldi.
I'd never bought this before, and it wasn't bad, but it was giving only faint buffalo chicken vibes.
It was buffalo chicken flavored in the same way that sparkling water is fruit-flavored: BARELY. Like you gotta close your eyes and use your imagination a little.
Tuesday
Frozen cheese ravioli, jarred sauce, and a kale salad on the side.
I know I have said this a million times but seriously, try Gimme Some Oven's kale salad. It's such an easy way for me to get a huge bunch of kale eaten all on my own, and it keeps nicely for several days in the fridge.
Wednesday
I was on the phone with Lisey around dinnertime, and she mentioned recently making pancakes.
So then I obviously had to make them for dinner. 😉
Thursday
BLTs! With fruit on the side.
Friday
I am working overnight tonight (and I also worked overnight Monday night and Thursday night this week! Sadly, my unit had some gaps in night shift coverage and I got scheduled to fill them. BOOOO.)
Anyway: I will probably just eat a peanut butter and honey sandwich before I go in tonight.
Night Shift Kristen does the bare minimum in the kitchen.
Happily, I'm back on days for the next two weeks. Whew.
Saturday: Pizza and breadsticks while watching our first Christmas movie of the year!
Sunday: A hodge-podge. We had a church potluck for lunch, family pictures at 3:15, then had to drop a kid off for worship team practice at 5. We tried to stop for a quick, early dinner at Culver's between things... but as soon as we got in the doors my son said, "My stomach doesn't feel good" and then he puked all over the floor! Hadn't seen that coming! I took him outside, the other 3 people in the family got food and took it home to eat, then I had leftovers later. My son also ate later as it turned out that he wasn't germy sick, just overdid it on desserts at the potluck (he sat with a friend, not with us.) So that evening was more interesting than we needed it to be.
Monday: Chicken, stuffing, corn, and grapes
Tuesday: Hawaaiian sweet roll sliders and mango
Wednesday: Cool ranch crunchwraps
Thursday: Ravioli, asparagus, and Hawaiian rolls
Friday: Unsure!
Oh yeah... I don't have to make dinner tonight! We will be at a friend's surprise 40th birthday party and there will be pizza. Hooray for a night off!
What we ate:
Saturday -chicken thighs with mashed potatoes and some type of veggies
Sunday - lasagna soup with meat balls
Monday - ramen bowls
Tuesday - butternut squash lasagna with garlic bread
Wednesday - butternut squash lasagna with salad and garlic bread
Thursday - white fish with rice, salad and roasted asparagus
Friday - I'm thinking it will be nacho night.
The lasagna was amazing. I used up a bunch of odds and ends from the fridge in making it, including some tofu that I'd frozen. 100% will be made again. I struggle with eating tomato sauce these days, and this really hit the spot.
Happy Friday all!
WIS: Nada. Zilch. Between the Panera bounty from JASNA Panera and the fridge cleanout from my neighbors, there was no need for grocery shopping!
WIA: Soup time! I too made a squash soup this week, with two Honeynuts I hadn't gotten around to eating (seasoned with some dry mustard, ginger, and cumin; this was quite good and certainly different from my usual recipe). Then yesterday I made a potato and cheese soup with some of the potatoes from the fridge cleanout. Lots of Panera bread to go with the soups, of course.
And P.S.: Heartfelt thanks to everyone who offered condolences yesterday on the loss of my tree. So many of us seem to have favorite trees that we may have to form a Frugal Girl Tree Club, in addition to the FG Cat and Dog Clubs!
@A. Marie, do you use fresh ginger or dried powder?
@Elaine, I cannot tell a lie: The recipe called for fresh, but I generally don't keep fresh in stock, so I hit the easy button and used powder. Please don't tell the kitchen police. 😛
@A. Marie, I recently learned fresh ginger freezes great, no prep just toss it in freezer and grate it from frozen.
@A. Marie, your secret is safe with me. I use the powder, too.
@A. Marie, until we purchased the lots across the street, I did not have a favorite tree (we have 4 1/2 of woods on the property our house sits on). But there are walnut trees - I just love them. So many people hate them and cut them down. They are so good for the wildlife and soon I will be at least semi-retired and will harvest them. No nut beats black walnut in my book. Just have to figure out where I can let the hulls dry up and not have the squirrels run away with them!
@Selena, I have a few black walnut trees too--and one year I made an earnest effort to harvest, hull, and shell out the nuts. But I concluded that I was expending more calories getting into the nuts than we were getting from eating them. I admit they're good, though. (I understand that some folks throw the nuts into their driveways and drive over them a few times to get the hulls off.)
I also fondly remember hickory nuts from my childhood in Tennessee, which are slightly less of a PITA to get into. At least the hulls come off more easily.
@A. Marie, I have even more hickory trees on the homestead proper. I agree the hulls come off easier but the nut is smaller than a black walnut. I also have almost as many oak trees - those nuts are all for the wildlife.
Hickory trees are reticent to drop all their leaves during fall proper - nothing better than leaves on snow covered by more snow.
But are more than happy to drop twigs, small branches as well as branches when they darn well please. We had a good size branch drop last weekend - heated our home one night. Tis a never ending supply of kindling.
In my book, nothing wrong with expending more calories to harvest than to consume. My dad had friends in a family of 13 kids (ugh, just shoot me but it was the post WWII era - unlike the other large catholic family in his town, they did not get hit by polio in the 1950s). Their dad was not all that motivated (I'm being nice Kristen) but the mom would put the old enough kids in a circle to "churn" milk. And to crack/pick black walnuts as their property had an abundance of walnut trees which they would sell. She was 10 years younger than her husband and outlived him by 29 years. She lost her sight in your older years but remembered people by their voices. My dad is still friends with those still alive. Ya gotta love small towns - going to school with children of those who went to school with one/both of your parents. Full disclosure - I married outside "the pool".
We spent $167 for groceries last week, which is low for us. In the previous few weeks, we spent between $225 and $275 (for two people!). This is an area where I’d like to get costs down, but I’m particular about what we buy—I try to avoid additives, UPFs, etc—so I don’t know if it’s realistic to spend less. We do shop primarily at the lowest cost grocery store in our immediate area, and we do mostly eat at home.
Saturday—smash burgers, with pickles (the pickles I like are $8 a jar!) and cucumbers on the side
Sunday—American goulash
Monday—previously made and frozen chicken tortilla soup
Tuesday—leftover goulash
Wednesday—roasted chicken thighs, broccoli, and sweet potatoes
Thursday—leftovers from Wednesday
Friday—plan is for meatball subs with cucumbers on the side
@JaeFi,
I'm with you on the grocery shopping front. Add NON-gmo or bioengineered on that list too 🙂
@JaeFi,
I’m the same way, especially avoiding questionable oils and saturated fats. I figure at least we usually eat almost all meals at home, saving money that way.
@JaeFi, Grillo's pickles?
I was surprised not to see Chiquita anywhere in that grocery photo. She must've been sleeping. 🙂
Saturday: I made a kind of Spanish rice skillet that had ground beef in it. And I made butterscotch pudding to use up some of the extra milk we ended up with.
Sunday: Leg of lamb roast with potatoes, carrots, and onions; cucumbers with salt and vinegar, chocolate pudding. The lamb was supposed to be for Easter this year, but I couldn't find it in the freezer at the right time. 🙂 So, Easter in November, I guess. It's the last lamb in the freezer until we butcher in a couple of months.
Monday: I was making pizza for a family with a new baby. We had pizza pretty recently, so I wanted to do something different for us. I made calzones. This is the first time I have ever made them or eaten them. I didn't like them as much as pizza, but that might have been my fault. We also had raw radishes and cookies.
Tuesday: After heating up the leftover calzones in the oven, I topped them with more sauce and cheese and that made them much better.
Wednesday: Oldest kid was gone, younger kids had a party at school and weren't very hungry. I made some fried eggs with leftover rice and then middle son and husband had the leftover lamb and potatoes.
Thursday: Spanish tortilla, Snow's clam chowder, raw radishes
Tonight: We're leaving for the airport in a few hours to fly to New Orleans. I am bringing some food, but I don't have enough physical room in my bag for all the food it would take to keep my sons happy all day. We have a couple of hours in the Dallas airport, so I suspect we'll get something there. I'm already giving myself pep talks about how it's vacation; we've saved for this; it's okay to spend money. 🙂
Not food related but when first Meijer offered reusable bags many (25?) years ago I bought them. I still have and use them. The original ones were good quality. Hubs went to a conference where they gave out Leeds bags made of recycled cotton. Very nice bags I will use for groceries.
We are leaving for New Zealand in four weeks (will be away for about 5 months) and focused on eating what we already have in the house. WWA:
Saturday - a turkey dinner version of a shepherds pie I had made with thanksgiving leftovers and frozen. I also made an envelope of turkey gravy to put on top. It turned out rather well.
Sunday - a small on sale (limit one per customer) prime rib roast from the freezer, baked potatoes, and frozen corn
Monday - last of the turkey pie
Tuesday - made toasted sandwiches with leftover beef, sautéed onions, and melted cheddar cheese
Wednesday - added the last of the roast beef and corn to chickpea and pasta soup from the freezer, bread
Thursday - fried chicken, oven fries, Caesar salad (for a break from freezer-based meals)
Friday - the plan is for a shrimp and noodle stir fry
Wishing all a happy week ahead
@kj, This is off-topic and completely nosy of me, but I'm dying to know what your situation is that you can stay in New Zealand for 5 months! Even if I could get that much time off work, I don't think I'd be able to afford to stay abroad that long. 🙂 That's so cool you get to be there for 5 months.
@Natalie K., no issue…DH is a scientist (biology professor) who is collaborating with a lab at a NZ university, so a lot of the expenses are paid through that avenue. I am newly retired and tagging along with minimal additional expense (own flight, etc). Dog is on vacation with my mom and a friend is staying at our house while we are away. I agree it’s so cool and am especially looking forward to seeing penguins and albatross ?.
@kj, what an AMAZING opportunity!!!!! I’m so excited for you!!
@kj, I am also so excited for you!!!
@kj, it sounds like a wonderful trip! Enjoy!
@Natalie K., What a wonderful opportunity for you!! Safe travels!
I see your purchases but I don't see any stuffies. 🙁
WIS: $169, divided between Food Lion, Walmart Market, and Ollie's Outlet. I bought no fresh meat, but stocked up on canned goods, frozen fruit and veg, cheese, and baking stuff. We were out or near out of everything.
WWA: Leftover meat loaf. Sweet chili pork with veggies. Turkey pasta with butternut squash, green beans and green peas. Homemade TVP burgers. Homemade mocha protein smoothie with frozen sweet cherries. Homemade gluten-free chocolate walnut brownies for dessert.
I was on call this week and like to think I dodged a bullet when someone doesn't call out. (: Even though...I would have happily worked and earned the $$ as my sleeplessness is making it hard to rest anyway. This week:
Monday - kitchen closed but I seem to remember eating when I got home...no memory of what
Tuesday - Big Grocery Shop - spent $265. Dinner was the last of the freezer pulled pork, onions and peppers, corn. I bought all of the stuff for what I'm fixing for Thanksgiving, and some extra meats to portion and freeze. I ran the crockpot overnight with a pork butt roast, thawed some frozen pre-cooked breasts to slice, and made a vat of turkey taco meat. So even when I hate to cook, I will still have freezer portions of cooked protein that take little time to thaw and top a salad with. (:
Wednesday - Fruited Chicken Salad on brioche bun, low salt kettle ships, then a wine tasting where they fed us cheese and crackers!
Thursday - A burger and fries, made with stuff from my freezer
Friday - I'm not sure yet...its my birthday! I was supposed to do mini meatloaf, but I don't feel like cooking at all.
Happy Weekend!
@Gina from The Cannary Family,
Happy Birthday!!!!
@Gina from The Cannary Family,
Happy birthday! Wishing you a birthday season filled with fun and visits with your favorite people.
@Gina from The Cannary Family, Happy Birthday! I say on your birthday, you shouldn't have to cook at all! That's the rule around here, anyway. 😉
@Gina from The Cannary Family, what @Karen A. said! Happy birthday, and treat yo'self!
@Gina from The Cannary Family, enjoy your special day!
WIS: Ouch, right at 170, but it included a beef ranch order and a regular farm order that offers venison on occasion.
WIA: Well, I forgot my menu, and I'm drawing some blanks here. I'll do my best.
I got pulled pork from the freezer and had it with carrot-raisin salad (an old childhood favorite) and green peas, then later with the salad and garden greens.
I made a skillet scramble of eggs with leftovers of Lebanon bologna pieces, chopped broccoli, and chopped mushrooms. Topped with cheese and green onions from the ones I have re-grown. Not my favorite dish, but not bad at least.
Pork chops, oven cooked with lots of seasoning, with zucchini and some leftover cabbage.
We grilled venison and ground beef at work, with Sonny's barbecue beans and mac and cheese, so I had a salad of lettuce, sliced cherry tomatoes, cut up olives, blueberries and cucumbers.
That's all I can remember. Tonight will be leftover pork chops and whatever vegetables I decide to cook.
@JD, Carrot raisin salad is a childhood favorite of mine too. I think it had walnuts also. Thank you for the happy memory.
We had:
-Butternut squash soup x2
-Sesame chicken + rice x2
-A very (and non-fun) work day where I had zero energy left to do anything. DS19 made pasta & I baked Bare chicken from Costco. It was a real phone it in dinner, but worked fine.
-DH was at dinner with a friend, so I had a hodge podge of leftovers of the above
We are picking up DS18 at the airport for Thanksgiving break (woohoo!), so it will likely be something quick & easy. Maybe taco salads (taco meat prepped in the freezer).
@Hawaii Planner, I like that “phone it in dinner”! Using it! 🙂
Cereal for dinner anyone?
Nooo! Night shifts. Ugh.
I spent way more than usual this week: $152.67, at 4 different stores. This spend is totally not reflected in my dinners this week. Oh well. Some of it is for holiday items/baking supplies for the upcoming season though.
Saturday: snacky plate with a deviled egg, pickles, olives, cheese and crackers.
Sunday-Tuesday - swiss chicken casserole and assorted veggies.
Wednesday - tacos
Thursday - I toasted up some cranberry walnut bread I made last weekend and had it with a pot of yogurt on the side.
Friday - not 100 percent sure but I am meeting friends for lunch at a pizza and sub place and suspect I will have leftovers for dinner.
I love buffalo chicken lunch meat. I hadn't seen it at aldi, but I will look for it now. I usually have to buy it at the deli.
I spent: $75.49 and then we ate a meal out (but that is in a different budget line at my house).
Saturday we went to a Christmas craft market with the family. We went to cracker barrel on the way home.
Sunday: pork chops, corn casserole, okra
Monday: homemade tomato soup with a play on a pizza braid that was different cheeses and garlic in the crust…like a fancy grilled cheese
Tuesday: chicken enchiladas and black beans
Wednesday: leftovers
Thursday: turkey (I made a small turkey to have dripping and broth for next week), mashed potatoes, asparagus
Friday: we plan to have hamburgers and salad
I keep a stash of reusable bags in my trunk for grocery shopping and most of them I have had for years longer than my son has been alive. When one of them needs to go into the trash it does make me a little sad. I don’t use them when I go to two specific stores because I get paper grocery bags there to use for my recycling bin.
Friday: My husband and I went on a double date with friends to a fantastic sushi place. My son had a box of mac and cheese (he received a huge variety pack as a birthday present and is always excited to eat a box).
Saturday: Pizza from our outdoor pizza oven. It was the last warmish day of the year (low 50s) and we had a very early dinner (sunset was 4:30) so that we could enjoy pizza in the backyard. We did have leftover pizza later in the evening as well.
Sunday: Lasagna Soup (which used up lots of odds and ends) for the adults and my son had pizza at his training class.
Monday: Sweet and Sour Chicken, Jasmine Rice, Green Beans. This is one of my “husband is out of town” recipes that my husband said he wanted to try. I knew he wouldn’t be a fan because it would be too sweet for him – I was correct and he had leftover lasagna soup.
Tuesday: Unexpected dinner party! My parents left to visit my sister on Wednesday and I asked if they could stop over to pick up a few things to bring to her house and as a thank you I would cook them dinner. Then my best friend called at dinner time to ask if we wanted to meet for dinner, I told her to come over instead but bring a rotisserie chicken. So, we had the planned pork tenderloin, roasted potatoes, horseradish sauce, and red cabbage but added a rotisserie chicken, a huge bowl of mashed potatoes (I was feeding two 15 year old boys), salad, and two mini loaves of French bread. Not surprisingly, we had almost no leftovers.
Wednesday: Pasta alla Vodka – new recipe for me and very fun to make.
Thursday: My husband made chili! He has his office chili cookoff today and wanted to give the flavors a chance to meld overnight. I made jalapeno cheddar biscuits to go with.
That "close your eyes" sentence made me LOL. 🙂
On Saturday and Sunday I was at volleyball tournaments so I ate commissary food. On Saturday, a hot dog, on Sunday, popcorn, along with a peanut butter sandwich I sneaked in illegally.
Monday - Mexican fried rice with chicken and black beans
Tuesday - tuna noodle casserole
Wednesday - chicken salad on croissant (at coffee shop)
Thursday - pasta salad with artichokes
Friday - today I'll finish up the tuna noodle casserole.
Happy Friday, everyone! We spent $127 ($47 at Aldi, $35 at Fresh Thyme, $22 at Trader Joe's and $23 at Target).
- Vegetarian cashew chili
- Vegetarian egg roll
- Vegetarian stir fry
- Homemade cream of mushroom soup and toast
- Melting cabbage and brown rice
- Raw veggies and dip; pumpkin bread
- Veggie pizza
Those darn plastic reusable shopping bags are so unreliable! At least your bag wasn't filled with glass containers that broke in the parking lot. Like you, I prefer cotton bags because they last for decades and can be repaired. Back in my sewing days, I found a great pattern and made cute shopping bags for gifts, sometimes even recycling bed sheets. Interestingly, Aldi has a new style bag on sale for $4 - it is basically a bin or light weight box that folds flat. I bought one yesterday to neatly store my other bags in the trunk of my car when it's not being filled with groceries. It costs a lot more than $4 to make a cotton bag if you need to buy the fabric.
@Elaine,
When I had chickens, I made several bags using feed bags, they hold a lot and are very sturdy. I also have made shopping bags using dog food bags. (Now I use the empty dog food bags as trash bags)
It is very easy to make bags from old t shirts, work well for produce and as gift bags.
Elk camp edition. 4 hungry guys.
WIS: $167 @ Costco, $43 @ restaurant supply, $18 @ Grocery Outlet, $70 @ WinCo
S - pork spareribs, scalloped potatoes, coleslaw, kale & apple salad
M - dinner salads w/leftover spare ribs
T - kale salad w/hot bacon dressing, rotisserie chicken
W - waffles, bacon and apple grape salad
Th - elk camp begins! Taco soup, cornbread waffles, blackberry cobbler... The hunters trickled in, ate out of the crockpot.
F - meatloaf, hamburger gravy, roasted broccoli, cottage potatoes, green salad, peach pies from the freezer.
S - chicken fried steak, butternut squash, green beans, chanterrelles mushrooms, Green salad and apple pie
S - beef enchiladas, pinto beans, Mexican coleslaw, street corn casserole, layered taco salad. Brownie sundaes. We had 32 for dinner!
Question --- is anyone else having problems with ads here? A google ad actually fills the screen and won't go away so I have to close the window and start over. That's when I use Microsoft Edge. Switching to Chrome seems to take care of the problem but all my settings are on Edge.
@Elaine, one day I had the same issue - repeatedly - with a Pandora ad. I also use Edge.
Your peanut butter and honey sandwich reminded me of my recent discovery of why people don't eat the crusts of their sandwiches--spread the peanut butter (and all other spreads) all the way to the edges, people! No more dry, tasteless crusts. I am now home from the hospital/care center and am eating crusts again.
@Linda Sand, I'm so glad you're home! I think the crusts are the best part.
Sunday: grilled beef/bacon pinwheels and we made them into hoagies
Monday: Turkey meatloaf, baked potatoes, squash, applesauce
Tuesday: Stromboli for hubby & pb & j for me
Wednesday: spaghetti with meat sauce & garlic knots
Thursday: chili with oyster crackers
Tonight: Hubby is going to bear camp and I am going to dinner with our oldest daughter and grandson. She invited me to go since her boyfriend is going to bear camp with my hubby.
Saturday: Went out for Thai with my cousin's family
Sunday: Gochujang Eggs (sounds crazy but so good with the jammy eggs)
Monday: Picked up chipotle
Tuesday: Rice bowls
Wednesday: Taquitos
Thursday: Homemade pizzas
All these with a salad and a fruit of some sort on the side.
That soup looks so good! All your food looks delicious, honestly.
Another gone-in-a-blink week.
Weekend: homemade pizzas, obviously.
Monday: On Sunday DH had pre-cooked burgers and oven-baked potato wedges, so all we had to do when we got home was heat those up. This made Monday much easier. I was away at aide class with DS#2, and DS#1 took M-W off to help out at home. He did DS#4's math and science work with him and generally kept on top of stuff.
Tuesday: DS#1 made pasta, and very good it was, since he found Jovial rice spaghetti for me, which is the best non-wheat pasta I've ever had.
Wednesday: DS#3 made taco night. With ground turkey, which we prefer, as it's less greasy than beef.
Thursday: My last lab exam day! DS#2 was home and made chicken drumsticks and mashed potatoes and peas. So good. Like a mini Thanksgiving dinner.
Tonight I believe DS#1 is making turkey stew, and I'll bake some chicken nuggets for DS#4, who dislikes most stews and soups.
Ah, the death of a reusable bag is always significant. Think of all the plastic or even paper bags that were replaced by your thoughtfulness!
Dinners have been:
A crock pot of white bean soup which later in the week I turned into a stroganoff over rice to stretch the leftover portion of it.Cornbread on the side and an orange,both times.
Beef Bourgainneau (spelling??) I had gotten a chuck roast ton sale,defrosted it, had potatoes and mushrooms to use up.Had regular onions, no little pearl spcialty onions,so in they went.Splurged on a $4 bottle of red wine at TJ.. some to use in cooking,some to drink with dinner!! Cooked this in the crock pot.. yummy smell!
Large BLT salad and fruit plate one night.
Angel hair pasta with sausage (we eat very little sausage,so I make one large link and cut it into slices, that serves 2 of us ,tossed with the pasta.Homemade sauce,defrosted.Greek salad on side.
WTS: (I have to change it to “what they spent” since I am temporarily avoiding the grocery store while on chemo.) about 200 bucks on specialty meats at Whole Foods, things like additive-free turkey pepperoni, kielbasa and bacon.
WWA:
Fri: salad and focaccia
Sat: salad, fettuccine with pasta sauce and shake parm.
Sun: tacos with chorizo and beans and lots of random veg toppings.
Mon: buttered noodles, sautéed red cabbage and sausage, boiled white potatoes.
Tue: salad and rice cake pizzas (why, yes it was the 11-year-old’s night to cook. How could you tell?)
Wed: salad, pasta fazool, sourdough brie bread ring.
Thu: salad and homemade ramen bowls.
Fri: salad and focaccia.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
I am fully in cold-weather mode, so we had:
Sunday: roast chicken with mashed potatoes & gravy, plus steamed broccoli
Monday: I worked (which means I don’t get home until 8) andMy older child has tech for theater (so doesn’t get home until 8:15! All week) so the husband and the younger child had leftovers. I also had leftovers when I got home.
Tuesday: I worked again, but this time husband and second child decided to make chicken nachos :). That sounded so good when I got home, I made the same.
Wednesday: Zuppa Toscana! With homemade stock from the chicken bones. The real reason I made roasted chicken - chicken stock for this dish! I was really excited to make it because it was my first time using frozen kale I’d harvested from my garden and stored. I matter it without potatoes because I’m diabetic, and extra sausage and kale. I also made high-protein breadsticks (Greek yogurt & self-rising flour).
Thursday: more leftovers in various forms, and no one complained. One reason I like cooking in te winter - eat leftover nights! Cold-weather food does better as leftovers.
Friday: I’m at a conference in downtown Chicago, and drove here after a 12-hour shift. I live/work about an hour away, so not too bad, but I was TIRED. Fortunately, my very last harvest of kale last weekend I’d made up into a balsamic-dressing salad on Tuesday, and kale only improves with time in dressing. I had packed that topped with leftover chicken, goat cheese, and pomegranate seeds, plus some toasted chopped pecans to put on at the last minute.
It was delicious, all cozied up in my hotel room by myself (iykyk, married with kids, how nice it is to be in a hotel room alone sometimes!), and it meant I had a quick dinner at the end of a long day, that didn’t spike my blood sugar, and didn’t cost $40+ (the hotel sells a kale salad that comes with candied pecans and other carb-focused toppings, and is at least that much with tax/tip!).
Tomorrow there’s a group dinner (I’m here with other people from my community), so something out at a restaurant.
@Biker Liz, so either you are on the IL side (I-90 all the way) or the IN side. I'm a bit more than an hour from the IL side. Chicago is a great town IMHO,
Sadly, this is as far back as I remember for food... my food just isnt that memorable
Friday: Bacon and egg for breakfast. Chicken, stuffing, corn for dinner.
Saturday: Bacon and egg for breakfast. Surprise Chinese food from a coworker. Later tonight, party at my friend's house. Food included.
Over the years whenever I saw a LL Bean or Lands End tote bag at garage sales, I grabbed them. I now have a collection of about 10, medium to large. They are indestructible and my Aldi bags.