WIS, WWA | What even is dinner?
I realized that three of my dinners this week were actually breakfast. What can I say? We do what we gotta do when time is short.
What I Spent
I spent:
- $47 at Aldi
- $0 at Safeway (I had to include that. Ha.)
So, for this week, I'm clocking in at a mere $47.
What We Ate
Saturday
Work day!
I made a grilled cheese sandwich and ate some pears with it.
Sunday
A post-work bowl of raisin bran. 😉
Monday
My friend Mia was here visiting, and we had chicken burrito bowls with cilantro lime sauce. So good!
Tuesday
Mia wanted to go out for dinner as a thank you for the lodging. 😉 I got some panang curry with chicken.
Wednesday
I made a salad with the last of the burrito bowl fixings, and Zoe had a scrambled egg burrito.
Thursday
I made some pancakes after work, because raisin bran can only be dinner so often, you know? 😉
Friday
I probably will cook up the last of the pancake batter after work and call it good.
Luckily, I have tomorrow off, and I will spend at least part of the day prepping food for the Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday shifts.
This week's eats from my parents' place:
Saturday: Cheese and onion quiche with mashed potato and green beans.
Sunday: Leftovers.
Monday: I went out with a friend and we ate dinner in a pub. She got a vegan burger and I got a halloumi flatbread with mixed veg and sweet potato fries on the side. The wrap would have been better with less red onion and more halloumi, but the sweet potato fries helped (as did our cocktails!).
Tuesday: Frozen pizza and fries with some side vegetables.
Wednesday: Veggie burgers, mashed potato and peas.
Thursday: I stayed at my sister's place and ordered a halloumi salad and fries.
Friday: I think my dad will make mushroom omelettes.
On groceries we spent over 400.00 that includes a turkey and a ham. My partner paid for them, and the girls came with us too. We did earn 30.00 in points, which I'm saving for a full restock in the fall.
Meals this week include:
cheese tortellini with vodka sauce and Caesar salad
Sweet and sour pork with rice - we had peppers, onions and pineapple in the sauce. He saw the recipe on Instagram. 100% will make.again. it would be great with tofu or chicken too.
Taco Bell inspired crunch wrap - again another Instagram meal... He used 1lb ground beef, plus other veggies. We had it with salad. Another hit.
We also had a variety of frozen flat bread pizzas and salad another night.
We did have A&W on Monday night. That was about 50.00 for 4 people.
Today we are joining my family and we are having hot cross buns, fish cakes and homemade beans for lunch. Supper will be fish, potatoes and veggies.
My SIL calls their dinners "tea & toast". She makes substantial lunches. It's an older person thing related to digestion. We also tend to eat that way, though not always.
Fun fact; evening meals in England are often referred to as 'tea' because in the past, a main meal (dinner) would be eaten at lunchtime so in the evening, people would usually drink tea and eat something light such as toast. These days, we mostly eat our main meal in the evening and call it dinner, but tea is still used interchangeably as a name (ie, 'what are you having/cooking for tea tonight?').
Well, that's very regional and class related. As a Londoner I would only have "tea" if it were a sandwich, but my posher friends would be having "supper".
I've heard supper too, but my mother is from London and also calls it tea. I'm sure it's class related as you say though.
K D, I've taken to eating a very light evening meal (if any) myself, for the reason you mention: I too am an older person, and I find that I do better GI-wise if I don't eat much late in the day.
I can definitely relate to this! The meals I report here are lunches. Dinner is a light snack.
Here in the Midwest US, some (usually older) folks call lunch "dinner" and their evening meal "supper". Other times, "dinner" is interchangeable with "supper", meaning an evening meal.. Word nerd that I am, I find things like this utterly fascinating. 🙂
In Maryland my older family members call the evening meal supper and call holiday meals served in the middle of the day dinners-ex. Easter "dinner" is served at 1:00-I always thought it was a hold over from farming days. The younger generations do the same-I think to make sure we all show up at the right time for food.(We eventually get the ones married in to the family straightened out)
When I was a kid I had a friend who called her evening meal tea and her later evening snack supper (we were only about five, so I guess her mum served tea at five or six and the snack of cheese on toast was probably around 7-7:30). Just to add to the confusion of it all!
My parents are both from the midwest, so in my growing up years, our evening meal was supper for sure. Dinner was only a big noontime meal, such as a Sunday dinner or an Easter dinner.
Saturday - We grabbed a couple of Little Caesar's pizzas to eat in the car on the drive home from our short spring break trip. They only had two that were hot n ready: a pepperoni pizza, and one of those 4-in-1's that are 4 different kinds of breadsticks. The kids really loved the 4-in-1 and it was gone in a hurry.
Sunday - My in-laws made lunch for my husband to celebrate his birthday, so I didn't cook at all that day! We had roast beef, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, and apple pie with ice cream.
Monday - Back to school and normal life... pork chops, brussel sprouts, sweet potatoes, and veggies with dip.
Tuesday - Burgers, corn, caesar salad, strawberries
Wednesday - Salsa verde shredded pork that we made into tacos or put over rice
Thursday - My husband's actual birthday. I make beef stroganoff and peas for this meal every year. And since it's Dad's birthday, no kids are allowed to complain about the mushrooms. 😉 We had cherry pie and ice cream for dessert.
Friday - I had planned on beef stew, but now two kids are having dinner at a friend's church, and my husband might be going into church early for our service, so I'm not sure who all I'm feeding tonight. If it's just me and one kid, I'll probably have a salad and she will probably have chicken nuggets.
Saturday: Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, collard greens, still-frozen green beans for the under-18 crowd who don't appreciate collard greens
Sunday: I had made very plain chicken and rice for the child recovering from a digestive upset, and then I used that to make a burrito filling by adding salsa, pinto beans, spices, and cheese. Same vegetables as the previous night, and then baked apples and pears with cream for Sunday dessert
Monday: More of the plain chicken and rice, this time made into fried rice. We also had enough crepes left from the after-church breakfast that I could make a crepe cake. That's just crepes layered with jam --I used homemade strawberry/wild plum jam--and whipped cream.
Tuesday: I had made some baked beans early in the day and those supplemented all the leftovers I cleared out of the refrigerator. My older kids had the PSAT and state testing this day, and I had promised I would make them a treat. So I made crispy rice treats. Not just for the boys who were testing, of course. That would have been mean.
Wednesday: I was at a track meet, where I ate the salad I brought with me. Without a fork, because I forgot one. Whoops. I ate it with my fingers, which is why I elected to not put the dressing on it. I was eating it in my car, so no one saw me. 🙂 I brought a salami and cream cheese sandwich for the trackster to eat on the way home, and then he ate a lot of the honey-roasted peanuts I had bought at the store before the meet. My husband made bacon-cheeseburgers for those at home, and they also had some of the leftover baked beans.
Thursday: I had only an hour or so to make dinner between getting home from a trip to town and going to a school event. And after that, we had about half an hour to eat before going to the Maundy Thursday Mass in the other village. I used a can of chicken to make a cheesy baked spaghetti casserole that my husband put in the oven when he got home from his afternoon school bus run. That was hot when we got home, so I just put it on plates, we ate, and off we went. I had sneakily pureed collard greens into the tomato sauce, which meant I didn't even need to bother with a vegetable.
Tonight: We have some fish sticks still for our last Friday in Lent. I'll probably make mashed potatoes with cheese, too, and some vegetable. I went to the store yesterday, so I actually have vegetables. Maybe we'll have carrot sticks or cucumber with ranch dip.
Interesting - better half grew up Catholic and has no recollection of Maundy Thursday while I grew up Methodist and remember it distinctly (the name only, don't remember having a service).
My evangelical childhood church had a midday Maundy Thursday service!
Good morning, I just want to say how much I enjoy reading your blog and all the responses. It also encourages me to think, because even though I'm frugal there's so much room for more creative solutions.
I usually eat my big meal at lunch because I'm retired, but recently my son has moved back in with me for a length of time, and I am doing a little more for dinner. He's not a big meat eater, and I don't like cooking meat very much, so most of our meals are meatless. If my son wants dinner with me, we usually have some type of pasta, rice or potatoes, with a light sauce and two kinds of veg, almost always one of them being broccoli! My garden broccoli was so delicious that we ate everything, even the leaves and stalks! I do make chicken and dumplings with chicken thighs from Aldi. We live in the South so dumplings are fluffy Bisquick like my grandmother taught me. After we eat the all the dumplings, I take the remainder chicken and vegetables, add more stock and rice and I have a nice thick chicken soup for the next day. Thursdays our local creekside bar/eatery has half price burgers and they are the best burgers in town so I usually take him there as a thanks for all of the hard work he does with me. A fully loaded burger with a huge side of fries is $5.45. He gets a PBR (beer) which is BOGO and only $2.95! I drink water so the meal is ridiculously cheap for two people but I always leave a stiff tip because man, these people work so hard. A lovely meal and watching the sun go down over the water. I'm so greatful. If my son isn't around I'll just have cereal, grits or soup. I'm usually tired after all the work we do around the house gardening and general maintenance on a 100+ year old house.
I had pushed back on the idea of my son moving back in because I enjoy my independence, but I've started to realize that the only way he's ever going to buy his own home is either inheriting mine, (which right now is not an option to me! ) or staying with me and saving money for a down payment. Luckily I had completely finished the garage for an art studio (which sounded like a great idea but I don't use it enough because I garden all the time) and it has good facilities, as well as being ridiculously attractive. He is truly appreciative and doesn't mind the effort to reach his goals. Homes in our historic district run well over $400 a square foot, so even a teeny tiny house is out of the reach of a lot of buyers. I digress though. I hope everyone has a lovely weekend and many wonderful meals!
My son moved in with me for awhile too to save money to buy a house in our high priced area. It’s so hard for young people now. But he did it!
Jennifer, I love that you eat stalks and leaves from your home grown broccoli! I've been doing same with bought broccoli and cauliflower for a few years. I couldn't throw stalk or leaves out now, even to compost. Interesting the social expectations around what we consume/discard.
WIS: $265, mostly at Food Lion. It would have been $30 more, but Food Lion is generous with various paper and digital coupons and customer rewards cash. In light of what rising fuel costs will do to grocery costs, I was stocking up the pantry.
WWA: Chili with toast. Roast pork barbecue made in the slow cooker with baked potatoes. Strawberries, grapes and fresh red & yellow peppers on the side. Chocolate pudding and muffins for dessert. There also were sandwiches and protein smoothies for those who wanted them.
I spent very little this week (about $42), but I need to get a few things today (probably $30 worth or so).
Saturday: grilled steaks, baked potato, and salads
Sunday: kids came for grilled pizza
Monday: sliced the leftover steak thinly and had burritos
Tuesday: butter chicken
Wednesday: I had lunch out with my older son and wasn't hungry, so I made DH some tortellini with sauce and a salad
Thursday: pulled pork from the freezer over tots with asparagus
Friday: maybe tuna casserole. Haven't decided yet.
We spent $91 - $14 at Trader Joe's, $1 (not a typo!) at Target, $38 at Aldi, $18 at Cub, and $20 at Tare Market.
- Salad (mixed greens, edamame, homemade croutons, homemade vinaigrette)
- Vegetarian Reuben sandwiches (substituted sauteed mushrooms and red cabbage for the corned beef)
- Marry Me Chickpeas
- Roasted vegetables with seven-spice seasoning
- Peanut butter and jelly sandwich, cutie
- Homemade tomato bisque and salad
- Concoction of leftover wild rice, roasted butternut squash, steamed broccoli and Kristen's cilantro lime sauce (we make the sauce once a week and use it in or on all manner of things)
I’m dying to know what was $1 at Target!!!
A can of diced tomatoes! 99 cents to be exact.
First, Kristen, thanks for "normalizing" less-than-spectacular meals. As noted in earlier comments, I'm eating a lot of those myself these days.
Now, WIS: $35 at Aldi and $9 at Wegmans.
WIA: Last week, I bought the smallest Easter special half-ham I could find at Wegmans, and I've been noshing on that for various meals (ham sandwiches, chef salads, etc.). I've also frozen a couple of pounds of the meat, plus the very meaty bone, for future use in soups and so on.
And here's my Thankful Thursday, a day late: I'm thankful as always for Dr. Bestest Neighbor, who, in his 90th year, conducted his Seder Wednesday night with his usual verve. I sat on his right as assistant and clarifier. Dr. BN likes to go off the Haggadah script with various interpolations, and I signal to the newbies (we had three this year) who are struggling to follow along in their Haggadah booklets when this is happening. I do this instead of Ms. BN because this drives her bonkers--and, besides, she has to sit at the end of the table nearest the front door to let Elijah in. 🙂
A happy, holy Easter to you and a Chag Pesach Sameach (Happy Passover) to Dr. and Mrs. BN!
I love breakfast for dinner sometimes, but my husband is not a big fan. I'll sometimes make a Bisquick Impossible bacon pie or a potato fritatta and go heavy on ham.
I spent $74 at Walmart; $13 at Kroger and $40 at Edwards Food Giant (a stock up on some meat), so $127.
– Sat – we had pizza at a family gathering.
– S – grilled strip steaks, steamed frozen green beans, cornbread stuffing.
– M – gyros sandwiches with onions, tomatoes, taziki sauce, oven roasted potatoes, avocado slices.
– T – brats with peppers and onions, buttered penne pasta, cucumber salad.
– W– pork roast, haluska, leftover cucumber salad.
–Th – chicken broccoli divan made with rice (so a complete dish), sliced tomatoes.
– F – we will have leftover pork made into BBQ sandwiches, coleslaw, chips.
WWA, still travelling;
Saturday - a perfectly less than average riff on tandoori chicken, rice, and frozen samosas in our Air BNB
Sunday - sautéed shrimp on pesto linguine at a restaurant
Monday - lost the day due to time change
Tuesday - chickpea coconut curry and rice from the freezer, papadams and chutney when we arrived back at our temporary home
Wednesday- malted flakes cereal
Thursday - beef koftas and pita bread from the freezer with tzatziki and fresh veggies
Friday - we had (today is Saturday for us) bacon, scrambled eggs, hash browns (that look a lot like tater-tots), toast, tomatoes
Happy long weekend wishes to all
I bought for a nice Easter Sunday meal: .69 a pound spiral ham with a $50 purchase ( which was easy to hit at Grocery Outlet.) I cooked Boston Baked beans for the first time ON A STOVE. Usually I use my instapot but that was busy making home made yogurt. I had one box of banana walnut muffin mix. I'll add home grown walnuts. Voila! feeding 4 for under $5.00. (Mom is in charge of salad.)
Split pea soup is the lunch for the week.
I taught at the Music Academy last night so dinner was Bare Bone Chicken Broth in a thermos.
I have an appointment with a nutritionist on April 29th. My weight loss effort has completely stalled despite weight training and various food plans. I have only 2 goals before that: I will log EVERYTHING into My Fitness Plan so I can run a report to give her at that meeting. Even if I totally go crazy, as long as I log it, I will have met the goal. The other criteria is I will not weight myself for the month. It is an instrument of torture for me considering my ptsd with food issues.
Sending you peace and success with all your goals! One step at a time 🙂 xoxo
I actually wrote things down this week, so I'm not straining my brain!
WIS: $20 Food4Less, $4 Target
WIA:
Saturday: creamy chicken and bean soup
Sunday: chicken biscuit, peas
Monday: veggie fry-up with chicken
Tuesday: veggie bowl (leftover veggies on mashed potatoes)
Wednesday: avocado toast, prunes
Thursday: veggie tacos
Friday: tonight I plan to make mac and cheese combined with carrots, broccoli and cauliflower
-Friday: a big salad at a brewery in Zion after a hot & challenging day of hiking. Oh, and a glass of wine!
-Saturday: we walked to a pizza shop & picked up pizza & boneless wings for dinner
-Sunday: DH made barbecued chicken & rice
-Monday: leftover chicken & rice
-Tuesday: I went out to dinner with a couple of friends & got the French dip sandwich & the best fries. Brought 1/2 home for DS20, who finished off the rest for his late dinner after a work shift.
-Wednesday - I had the leftovers chicken on a salad. Yes, it was a lot of chicken & I didn't care. I hadn't meal prepped (out of town) & it was delicious & easy.
-Thursday - surprise, surprise, the last of the chicken + DH made potstickers at DS20's request
The rest of the chicken is in the freezer, for another week when we have no actual prepped food. 😉
Saturday - My daughter had a friend over for a play date and they wanted to roast hot dogs for dinner over our backyard fire pit so we did that. They also roasted marshmallows and made s’mores. I ate some tikka masala I’d made earlier.
Sunday - A neighbor invited us to the fundraiser for their school and my daughter really wanted to go. There was a taco truck there so we picked up burritos for my husband and son, my daughter wanted sushi so I got her veggie sushi at a grocery store, I ate cauliflower soup and toast at home.
Monday - I made a veggie and rice casserole, with broccoli, carrots, peas and corn. It used to be a chicken, veggie and rice casserole but I omitted the chicken and it was still eaten by everyone, a victory in slowly transitioning the family to meatless.
Tuesday - My day to work late so my mom fed the kids, I had chickpea salad on toast, topped with sliced avocado.
Wednesday - We had a Girl Scout meeting from 5-6 (and I’m the leader) so I ate two small dinners on either side of the meeting: a black bean and avocado quesadilla before the meeting and toasted banana bread with peanut butter after. The kids had bean burritos before and a lot of snacks after.
Thursday - An assortment of frozen dumplings from Trader Joe’s along with steamed broccoli and carrots for the kids. I had more chickpea salad on toast, this time topped with cooked Swiss chard, sliced tomatoes and balsamic glaze.
Friday - salad night for the adults, with falafel on my salad, chicken for my husband. The kids will have mozzarella sticks, steamed veggies and biscuits.
$10 for 50# potatoes that will get shared with the kids.
Sun - fam dinner potluck
Mon - tacos
Tues - salad
Wed - Swedish meatballs, egg noodles and mashed potatoes, cabbage salad
Th - soup, sour dough focaccia bread
Friday - Fish and chips
Sat: chili from the freezer
Sun:bbq chicken and roasted veggies
Mon: repeat of Sunday
Tues: spaghetti with sauce from the freezer
Wed: salmon rice veggie bowl
Thursday: leftover spaghetti
Fri: tuna melt, homemade pickles
I have a question and it's totally unrelated to food, but I must ask.
Do you keep a cat litter box next to your bed in your room? We have one very similar, so I noticed it in the background?
Oh no that’s in my spare bedroom! Lisey’s old bedroom 🙃. And I move it when guests stay with me.