WIS, WWA | very late, after a foggy morning!
I am seriously late getting this post up. See, it was a beautiful foggy morning when I woke up, so then I went for a walk.
I freaking love going for walks on foggy mornings because everything looks so magical.
And this is particularly true when it's a foggy and sunny morning.
Which it was today.
Then right after my walk, I needed to go pick up my parents from the airport (they'd been visiting family out west).
And then I needed to eat breakfast and shower and do laundry and one thing led to another and now it's 2 pm!
What I Spent
I spent $81, at Aldi and Safeway.
What We Ate
Man, I am having a TERRIBLE time remembering what I made this week. I even started typing this up backwards, starting with the end of the week (that usually helps!) and I am still struggling.
I know I could have fixed this by writing down what we ate, but, alas, this was a week when I did not plan a menu ahead of time. I flew by the seat of my pants the whole week.
Saturday
Ok, even after looking at my grocery receipts, I cannot for the life of me remember what I made on Saturday night. No one else here can remember either.
On the upside, this means that this meal was not terrible, because we would remember it. But it also was apparently not fantastically delicious either. Ha.
Sunday
We had bratwurst in buns and sautéed broccoli.
Of note: I bought Aidell's mango jalapeño sausages and I was so excited because those are my absolute favorite, and I can almost never find them! They are not inexpensive but they are so good.
Monday
I made a pasta and sausage dish, which we ate with a salad and some toasted ciabatta rolls.
Tuesday
This is the night the girls have their evening class, so we ate at various times. Some of us had pasta leftovers, some had ham sandwiches, and Zoe had French toast!
Wednesday
I made chicken burrito bowls (rice, cheese, chicken, lettuce, tomatoes, etc.) and we had some fresh fruit on the side.
Thursday
We had enough leftovers from the burrito bowls to eat them a second night. Yay!
Friday
It is a beautiful day today, so I'm thinking maybe I could grill something for dinner tonight.
We have a running joke in our family that I only grill on days when the weather is terrible (it does seem to rain almost every time I plan a grilled meal!), so grilling on a warm and sunny day would be quite an experience. 😉
Welcome to the forgetful club! This week, I wrote it down:
- Jackfruit curry over rice (twice)
- Salad (twice)
- Eggplant parmigiana
- Roasted almonds, olives, crackers and cheese
- Popcorn and fruit
I always have a hard time remembering what we had for dinner during the week!
Saturday: I cannot remember!
Sunday: taco takeout from local restaurant to celebrate our daughter's birthday
Monday: chicken patties and fruit
Tuesday: quesadilla using leftover meat from the taco takeout
Wednesday: chicken pot pie
Thursday: Shepard's pie
Friday: Probably homemade pizza
I slow-cooked a 5-pound chuck roast last Friday and smoked a 12.6-pound brisket Monday, so practically all our big meals have been built around them.
Roast with oven-roasted potatoes and carrots, roast with homemade bread and corn, last little bit of roast as an ingredient in stir fry (I actually fried the roast in tallow as Kristin-with-an-i is always doing and found that to be quite satisfactory; I don't love tallow so maybe this is finally a use for it).
Brisket with baked potatoes; brisket with penne in a something-like-French-onion-soup sauce and peas; brisket with something carb-y (?? but what??) and broccoli.
Though we still have a couple pounds of brisket left, I might freeze it and instead tonight I think we'll burn a stick pile and just roast hot dogs. I say "just" but that's always a bit of an adventure in trying to get kids to focus on eating, lol.
The planner I'm using this year has a line each day where I can write down what we had for dinner that night and it's one of the many things I love about my planner. (I used to write it down on the monthly page to keep track. This is more convenient.)
Saturday - Tacos
Sunday - We celebrated my birthday at my parents' house and my mom made a seafood FEAST! It was even complete with Red Lobster cheddar biscuits! I requested cheesecake for dessert and it had strawberries on top. Yum! For dinner I threw together a quick pizza, but only had to make one since the adults were still kind of full from lunch.
Monday - Chili and baked potatoes
Tuesday - I had planned a meal that needed to bake for over an hour, but it was so nice that we stayed after school to play at the playground until after 4:00 so we switched to paninis, chips, and broccoli with cheese. This was our first outdoor dinner of 2022!
Wednesday - Grilled brats and hot dogs, grilled asparagus, sweet potatoes, and pineapple
Thursday - Our final outdoor meal of the week. BBQ ribs, cauliflower with cheese, pineapple, and peas
Friday - Lentil soup (shout out to Karen for submitting this in your post asking for frugal recipes!) and FG fluffy homemade hamburger buns. We'll just eat them as yummy rolls tonight, then I'll use them as buns for another meal tomorrow.
I spent $40 @ Publix, $138 @ Costco, and $182 @ Walmart this week. Ouch. The majority of this expense was restocking our pantry with staples in light of sales, rising prices and shortages. I will continue to look for sales on meats and stock up as we can so that we are eating well for the lowest prices.
Saturday - Stewed Chicken with egg noodles, green salad and pineapple
Sunday - I bought a rotisserie chicken from Costco and we had that with rice, roasted asparagus and a green salad.
Monday - Leftovers
Tuesday - Spaghetti, garlic bread and green salad
Wednesday - Leftovers
Thursday - Corned Beef Roast, Cabbage, Carrots and red potatoes
Friday - Leftovers
Saturday - I will finally be unpacking the majority of my kitchen so something simple will be had like burrito bowls made with pinto beans stewed in the crockpot all day.
Happy weekend all!
I love the foggy/sunny pictures.
Sat: Chili
Sun: Takeout
Mon: Chicken Pot Pie
Tues: Sloppy Jos, mac & cheese, and Budget Bytes Cucumber & Mango Salad
Wed: Potato Soup and beer bread
Thurs: Leftovers
Fri: I have no idea! I'm hoping for inspiration between now and dinner time.
Aldi here in Germany announced that for some 400 products prizes will rise substantially! ☹
@Lea,
prices not prizes of course
Tonight: salad with grilled chicken. Red leaf lettuce, apples, candied pecans, craisins.
Last night, steak, baked potatoes, broccoli for Son, baked potato with broccoli and cheese sauce for me.
Wed night: sausage tortellini soup.
Tuesday night: leftover chicken vindaloo
Monday: white chicken chili
also, if you like fog, Kristen, you need to come visit. It doesn't come to my town on little cat feet. You can't see more than a few feet in front of you, sometimes.
I would love to visit Long Island! One day. 🙂
I'm glad you went for a walk before posting. Enjoying nature when it is most beautiful is more important than many other activities.
@Rebekah in SoCal, And there is a sound of fog, or lack of sound while out in fog, that adds to the feeling.
I'm gonna go ahead and guess that at least one of your two mystery meals was sandwiches. 🙂 People often ask me how I can remember everything I made during the week, and really, it's because I actually keep track in an ongoing post draft all week (and on that topic, I realized this week that I have posted every single Friday for almost exactly FOUR YEARS now). Probably I would not remember otherwise, even though I do have a remarkable memory for food.
And speaking of which!
Saturday: Lots of leftovers, because my refrigerator was way too full. Also sauteed green beans and raw cabbage.
Sunday: Spaghetti and meatballs, roasted peppers and onions, fried mushrooms, chocolate-covered peanut butter balls
Monday: More leftovers.
Tuesday: Very basic tacos made with ground beef and microwaved corn tortillas with cheese.
Wednesday: AND YET MORE LEFTOVERS. Also a selection of different-colored carrots (yellow, orange and purple) that my kids did a taste-test for. Yellow lost.
Thursday: Some leftovers, plus pasta with pesto (green!), and some green cookies from a kit that my sister gave us for Halloween but I never got around to making. I left the monster eyeballs off the cookies, and that made them plain green cookies for St. Patrick's Day.
Tonight: Tuna melts, green salad.
A sandwich is an extremely good guess. Let's go with that!
@kristin @ going country, love the taste test!!
--Irish Coddle, which we used to eat when I was a kid but I had never made for my husband before. Bacon, sausage, potatoes, onions, parsley all layered and then some liquid added and slow cooked in the oven at 300 degrees for 2 hours. I like it okay (I am not a bacon fan) but my husband LOVED it, so after the first night I surrendered the leftovers to him and I ate perogies. That took care of Sat/Sun/Monday.
--Tuesday and Wednesday, vegetarian borscht (to make up for the meat heavy coddle)
--Thursday, mushroom filled crepes
--Today. Husband brought home too many strawberries ("but they were on sale") so we are having strawberry soup and British style scones for dinner. We eat this in the summer and it was 13 below when I got up, so it is out of season, but those strawberries are not going to waste. (Well, maybe to waist...)
@Lindsey,
I'm intrigued. Would you share your strawberry soup recipe, please?
Sunday (Made my own takeout) - Bourbon Chicken and Veggie Fried Rice
Monday - I had a medical procedure and knew I wasn't up to cooking so we had Frozen Pizzas
Tuesday - Sheet Pan Supper, I had Salmon and the rest had Chicken Thighs with various roasted veggies
Wed - My husband grilled Sausages and we had rice along with it
Thurs - I made chicken sandwiches and fries
Fri - Date night - going out to a restaurant in St. Augustine.
I'm a big fan of taking moments to enjoy (like foggy mornings) if you can squeeze it into your schedule. Sounds like you had fun.
Hmm. Meals. Mac and cheese tonight .... apricot chicken over rice last night .... I know we had ham and navy bean soup with bread at one point because we ate the leftovers for lunch today .... tuna casserole .... oh yeah, now I remember, we had corned beef on rye that my husband made one night, but it wasn't on St. Patty's Day--that was when we had Chinese food. Apparently we aren't wedded to eating holiday food ON the actual holiday.
Can’t believe no one said corned beef and cabbage! We had that yesterday with enough leftover for Reubens tomorrow. Both the corned beef and cabbage were bargains at my grocery this week.
@Carol g, we did that meal last weekend while my son was home from college. Our corned beef on rye sandwiches were made from the leftovers. Corned beef was expensive where I live, but my husband had one squirreled away in the freezer.
77 dollars and some change ALDI
Sunday: roast carrots potatoes onions ( half price roast!)
Monday: leftover roast
Tuesday: oyo late night at work I had Turkey and Gouda on wasa crispbreads hubby had last of roast
Wednesday: spicy ground Turkey bowls - ground Turkey fresh jalapeños thinly sliced zucchini and green onions with spicy stir fry sauce from Trader Joe’s over brown rice ( really good!!)
Friday: veggie pizza and salad from a bag
Saturday: hubby brought home smoked pork and kraut from a school fund raiser ( leftovers!)
@Stephanie, thanks for putting OYO on my radar. Had to look up the meaning. When I was growing up in the 60s, my family had "Free For All" on Wednesday nights. That would be FFA in today's lingo!
Oh my, it was a week for meals. I was out of town over the weekend, and my planned afternoon Sunday flight turned into a very late night, thanks to a bunch of flight cancellations. As a result, it was a scramble all week.
Friday - I was out & eating at a lovely supper club on vacation. No clue what the kids ate
Saturday - likewise, eating out at one of my favorite restaurants, while on vacation. Still unsure of the boys/husband eating
Sunday - Saw burgers in the fridge, so assuming this is what my husband made
Monday - I had a "pi day" celebration at work, and they gave us gift cards for pizza delivery. So, pizza delivery it was
Tuesday - leftover burgers
Wednesday - baked chicken & salad
Thursday - it was my son's birthday, and the birthday person always selects dinner. I was unexcited when he asked for takeout pizza & boba, but here we are.
Friday - tonight will be leftover takeout pizza for the kids. I'll make a salad & smoothie, because my clothes won't fit if I keep eating this much pizza!
I can't remember exactly what we spent at the grocery store last weekend except that we were a little over budget. What we ate: Breakfast for supper on Saturday (pancakes, bacon, eggs and applesauce). Sunday I made a large meatloaf, salads and baked potatoes. That meal made leftovers for my husband's lunches through Thursday. I had homemade black bean-veggie-chicken chili with quiona on the side for lunch all week. Supper was nuts, fruit, cheese toast, and other very light things.
Ooh, it was foggy on my way onto work and not nearly as pretty...but sunny skies are ahead for the weekend and I. can't. wait! This week:
Monday - (freezer) Mexican Lasagna, salad
Tuesday - Burger and fries - a craving
Wednesday - Pork Chop, veggie quinoa, corn
Thursday - Chicken Fried Rice a la The Girl
Tonight - Shrimp Linguini Alfredo, salad
Saturday - Garlic butter steak bites, sweet potato, green beans, roll
Sunday - TBD, but I'm thinking Mexican food...
Happy First Sunday of Spring!
Butternut squash ravioli and butter sage sauce, three cheese ravioli and marinara sauce, roasted cauliflower.
Leftover ravioli
Pinto bean and fried potato tacos with cheese made with homemade spinach tortillas
Chicken & gravy, steamed veggies, salad
Banana waffles with maple syrup, bacon, orange/banana/peach/spinach smoothies
Chicken pot pie with crescents on top instead of pie crust because I just wasn’t up for making pie crust today
Hence the reason I always do this backwards!
Tonight: I prepped a zucchini and sausage lasagna this morning to have tonight with a salad. It was great.
Thursday we had chipotle chicken with rice and beans. I think the hubs made tacos. Also a salad.
Wednesday we had turkey meatloaf from the freezer with leftover hassleback potatoes and salad.
Tuesday we had salmon, salad and hassleback potatoes.
I have not idea beyond that!
I can't remember either. I am so bored with food.
@Suzan,
Me too! I have been uninspired. Between food costs being so high and the time change throwing off my body clock, cooking has seemed like a big, big chore this week.
The only meal of note was Thursday’s St. Patty’s Day supper with guests - Corned Beef (uncured, slow roasted) with carrots, potatoes and onions roasted in horseradish butter and steamed cabbage. Dessert was vanilla bean ice cream with green sprinkles and GF chocolate chip cookies hot out of the oven.
Next week DH travels so I’ll get the week off. I wish that he could cook.
Sunday-ate out at a local restaurant for Restaurant Week here
Monday-chicken tacos, rice, mango, broccoli
Tuesday-takeout from Five Guys as a bit of celebration of good news
Wednesday-stir-fry rice, stir-fry veggies, potstickers, mango
Thursday-sweet potato chili from the freezer, corn muffins, orange slices
Friday-took out turkey from the freezer (leftover from the holidays) and made turkey pot pie, also served with orange slices. In addition to the usual carrots, celery, and onion, the recipe included parsnips and mushrooms. And instead of crust, the topping was cheesy biscuits. It was delicious!
Saturday-planning turkey enchiladas with broccoli or zucchini plus fruit
WIS: Aldi: 187.26 Hungry Harvest: 30.40 Local Health Food Store: 35.42 Starbucks: (credit) -15.00
Total: 238.08 (but will be returning 16.00 worth at Aldi for pants the teenager rejected so will go down to 222.08 and I call that not too bad.)
WWA:
Sat: salad, leftover rice, leftover egg rolls, and lemon broiled asparagus.
Sun: salad, fish and chips and air fried brussel sprouts.
Mon: salad, arroz con pollo, frijoles y vegetables, topped with shredded cheese, mango and avocado.
Tue: salad, rice, spicy tofu and broccoli with a bit of tomato sauce mixed in.
Wed: salad, rice and chicken breasts in a pear sauce.
Thu: St. Patrick's Day feast: salad (all green), Reuben bites (frozen from Aldi-they were ok), colcanon (mashed potatoes with cabbage), Irish bangers fried with turkey bacon and onions, homemade soda bread with Irish cheddar cheese, homemade cherry cake. Husband practically killed himself making this spread and it was all so good, but then our youngest who is still suffering post-covid threw up the entire meal. The doctor says he cannot have anything greasy or heavy until his lymph nodes heal, so no more bacon grease for this baby. 🙁 Luckily we rarely eat heavy meals.
Fri: salad and focaccia (plus a pear for the barfy boy instead of second piece of focaccia)
Fridge is looking pretty stuffed, so I think it'll be leftovers tonight. Have a great weekend everyone!
We spent $191.53. We ate:
Saturday-mini wheats & a banana (didn’t feel well - still felt stressed from working too many hours during the past 3 weeks)
Sunday-pork chops, rice, salad, Victoria sponge cake filled with blackberry jam and too much whipped cream (will use the same amount of jam but a smaller amount of buttercream filling next time)
Monday-leftover pork chops, rice, salad, cake
Tuesday-oven baked arctic char with creamy dill sauce & chips
Wednesday-grilled cheese & potato dill pickle soup
Thursday-slow cooker corned beef, cabbage, potatoes, and Guinness (wished I had also made/bought a dessert, but alas there was none)
Friday-lasagna (purchased frozen from a local chef)
We eat salad for lunch most days, so I don’t usually worry about including veggies with dinner…
Partner spent $24.49.
I was completely spoiled as I spent the entire week in NYC eating at Japanese restaurants for work. I have never eaten so well, and I probably will never again.
sashimi, nigori, kaiseki, soba, udon, ramen, izakaya, katsu, yakitori, tempura & Japanese pancakes.