WIS, WWA | Whoops, I saved money!
What I Spent
This week, I spent:
- $7.58 at Safeway
And my goodness, I guess that was it. An inadvertently low spending week for me!
What We Ate
Saturday
Green salad + corn + shrimp.
Sunday
I came home from work and made the executive decision to call this dinner.
Smoothie:
And goat cheese on little toasts (both items from Aldi):
Monday
Blueberry pancakes, because we know I will shrivel up and die if I don't eat those at least every other week. 😉
I also had a bowl of cottage cheese on the side, to add some more protein.
Tuesday
I had some potatoes that needed to be used, so I made a little pot of mashed potatoes.
I sauteed some seasoned chicken tenderloins, then sauteed peppers and onions in the same pan, and used some broth and half and half to deglaze the pan for a sauce. And then I put it all on top of the potatoes.
And that's just basically a variation on my typical no-recipe one-person meal. Simple, but it gets the job done!
Wednesday
Leftovers from Tuesday, which made for an easy night.
Thursday
I just made a ham sandwich, which honestly has a respectable amount of protein.
20 grams from the ham, 6 grams from the bread, and 5 grams from the slice of cheese = 31 grams. Not too shabby for a sandwich!
Friday
I'm working the last four hours of my friend's shift because she has an event to go to....so I will make something for myself once I get home from work around 8:00 pm. Honestly, it might be another smoothie night!
This summer weather makes me just want to drink something cold through a straw.
Although, hmmm, I do have some kale to use up so maybe before work I will make some kale salad.
This is a great week for smoothies! Unfortunately for us, all of our straws got moved to the new house except for the one I happened to have in my water cup at the time. Whoops! We're in the last few weeks in our current house and I imagine that there will be lots of little things like that popping up. Flexibility!
This week we had:
Saturday - Fajitas
Sunday - Popcorn shrimp, cantaloupe, and broccoli with cheese
Monday - Chili cheese dogs, fruit, veggies, potato salad
Tuesday - Pizza rolls and bagel pizzas, plus I had a salad
Wednesday - Burrito bowls - gotta say, these were SO GOOD!
Thursday - Chicken salad and tuna salad sandwiches, baked beans, chips, and fruit
Friday - Southwest chicken alfredo and I need to find a veggie to go with it
There was zero oven use this week! If it couldn't be made in a countertop appliance or on the stove, it wasn't happening. It was even too hot for me to want to grill!
Sunday: we grilled steaks and asparagus and had fried potatoes and watermelon with our daughter and her husband
Monday: chicken salad sandwiches and fresh pineapple
Tuesday: tacos
Wednesday: takeout from Applebees; mine was too spicy...i ate about 1/3 of it and a breadstick and saved the rest for hubby's Thursday lunch
Thursday: Hubby had a men's dinner and I had a crispy chicken blt sandwich, fries and an ice cream cone
Tonight: pizza at camp
I really didn't want to cook at all this week; it was so, so hot.
WIS: Nothing, it was my off week.
WIA:
Goat burger and fries. GF bread instead of a bun.
I had a leftover burger so I just had it with varied fruit I had bought and picked; blackberries, strawberries and grapes. That night I'd had to do some garden work after work and my neighbor stopped to tell me he was going out of town for a funeral and asked me to keep an eye on their house, keeping me outside even longer, so I was wiped out from the heat and my clothes were wet with sweat. I had to shower before I could start preparing my meal, meaning I didn't even get into the kitchen until after 8. The burger and fruit were all I could handle.
I had a ham and cheese sandwich with sweet plantain chips again.
I made pulled pork in the pressure cooker, made "baked" beans on the stovetop and made a bowl of celery slaw. I had this one night and for several lunches.
I also made Guatemala-style tortillas from masa harina and had pulled pork with them and some of the slaw on the side. Blackberries for dessert.
I made egg drop soup with some of the last of the homegrown carrots and a couple of young green beans from the garden, to use up leftover chicken stock. Blackberries for dessert.
Tonight will likely be tuna salad.
@JD,
I'm curious, what are Guatamala-style tortillas? Or really, how are they different from other types of tortillas?
@Liz B.,
I don’t know that they are that different from other Latin American tortillas but they are different from the very thin flour ones and crunchy corn ones here in the stores. The corn is soaked and freshly ground and the dough has no salt or very little salt. It’s rolled into a ball in the palms and patted back and forth into thin patties not much bigger than the maker’s palm and is thicker than tortillas here. They were eaten as an accompaniment to every meal like a bread.
At least that’s how the women were making them in and around Panajachel.
Friday: We made it to my sister's house in Colorado right at dinnertime. I was going to pick up a pizza, but as my kids never eat in restaurants--my daughter is seven years old and has eaten in a restaurant less than ten times--I thought it would be fun to do that. We went to a local pizza place near the university that makes "Monster" pizzas. They're 28 inches. I got one of those, and my boys were in heaven. I even got them all fountain drinks, which is pretty much unheard of for me. Vacation and all.
Saturday: My sister got tamales from a place near her work, so we had those, plus a vinegary coleslaw. She also had a lot of leftover cake and cupcakes from her birthday the week before, plus some random jello, so there was a selection of desserts.
Sunday: My sister made a pork shoulder into carnitas in the crockpot, so we had burritos, leftover coleslaw, and ice cream.
Monday: There were lots of leftover tamales and carnitas meat, so we had that. Plus everyone got to have one each of Samoas and Thin Mints, because nary a night must go by without dessert on vacation. 🙂 My children had never had Girl Scout cookies. They were very excited to taste them.
Tuesday: We left this day and got home at 5 p.m. I had stopped on the way to get milk, and also got a package of boneless chicken thighs. I just sauteed those with spices, made some rice, and then cooked some sliced cabbage in the pan with the chicken.
Wednesday: I had an entire brisket in the freezer--14.5 pounds--that I thawed and cooked all at once, in three pieces. With that, I made mashed potatoes, sauteed cabbage and carrots cooked in the same skillet the chicken had been in the night before because there was still lots of spiced grease in it, and we had cherries.
Thursday: Ram steaks, curried split peas, leftover rice or mashed potatoes, collard greens (from the garden--they're about the only thing the grasshoppers aren't eating), and more cherries.
Tonight: I have enough brisket to have sandwiches, so I made some buns yesterday when I was making bread. I will also make coleslaw from one of the small cabbages in the garden, and we have more cherries I brought home from the farmers market in my sister's town.
@kristin @ going country, you probably know this, but if you ever get to an Aldi store, they sell cookies under the Benton name that are knockoffs of Girl Scout cookies. I normally don't buy snacks like these but they're pretty good and affordable.
My Aldi used to have these but doesn't anymore! I thought they'd discontinued them entirely. Weird.
@Molly F.C., I did not know this. I was curious to see where the nearest (always relative for me) Aldi location might be, and I discovered they actually have no locations at all in New Mexico. So I'm unlikely to be able to try these anytime soon. 🙂
Oh, I love making smoothies for dinner in the summer! Great reminder, Kristen.
In no particular order (as I don't remember), this week's dinners included:
1. Ham, mozzarella and basil flatbreads + salad
2. Lettuce wraps with rice and edamame
3. Bean burritos, rice + salad
4. Roast beef, potatoes + salad
5. Ratatouille + rice
6. Leftovers from all of the above
7. Tonight is still up in the air. Maybe shrimp salad + COTC + salad
We're eating lots of salad as the lettuce is finally ready in our garden. I have no excuse for all the rice we've consumed this week. However, my husband has request we not have more rice tonight-lol.
Big spendy week for me, coming in at $160! But I did have lots of digital coupons and I mostly ate at home. I have officially gotten my cooking mojo back. (:
M - Salmon patty, corn on cob, zucchini
T - Chicken Broccoli Alfredo, peas
W - Sweet Potato and pulled pork skillet, salad
T - Turkey with Chicken Rice-a-roni (will not repeat, ugh), corn on cob, small salad
F - I have two chicken thighs in my mini crock with green salsa, and am thawing out some refried beans with chorizo. My plan is tostadas. Might treat myself to lunch out!
Happy last weekend of June!
Ohhh, it's so nice when you re-find your cooking motivation!
Kristen,
I'd love to know what salad dressing you used in Saturday's salad.
This one was the chipotle dressing that came in a salad kit, which I know is quite unhelpful. 🙂
Funny you should mention Safeway and saving money. Last night I had dinner while shopping at Safeway and just about everything on my list was on sale. For example, melons were $8 each or 3 for $6. Watching the price drop after I entered my club number was like winning the lottery.
@WilliamB, whoa, extremely good sale on the melons!
We went to the farmer's market and purchased fresh vegetables so most of our meals were made using those up, especially the $16 bag of shelled peas I bought.
This week we had:
Saturday: frozen pizza
Sunday: lady peas, sautéed cabbage, corn on the cob, sliced tomatoes, and cornbread
Monday: lady peas, sautéed cabbage, fried squash, and biscuits
Tuesday: loaded baked potatoes, sliced peaches, and watermelon
Wednesday: frozen chicken chunks, rice, sliced tomatoes and watermelon
Thursday: lady peas, fried okra, corn on the cob, and cornbread
Friday: undecided but maybe homemade pizza
Sunday: Big family dinner at my parents'. Fish, potatoes, roasted veg, salad, bread, and fruit and pavlova for dessert.
Monday: Baked chicken schnitzel from the freezer and green beans.
Tuesday: It was SO HOT so we had poached chicken breast with vegetables and vinagrette. Sort of Salade Nicoise vibes, minus everything that makes it Nicoise lol
Wednesday: My mom was over. We got takeout sushi, which my grandmother very kindly sponsored. Mr. B and I are having a sad month, and our family has been supportive in various lovely ways.
Thursday: pizza from the grocery store, baby carrots
Friday: Mr. B will make us salmon, vegetables, and challah as usual. And ice cream for dessert.
@Meira (meirathebear.wordpress.com), hoping for comfort during this sad time <3
Adding on a hug as well. <3
Friday: Wandered around downtown Chicago with my son’s team. My son had tacos from a taco truck. I introduced a couple of the other parents to Nando’s. I had a couple of chicken thighs and a side of rice.
Saturday: The team met at a pizza restaurant for Chicago style deep dish pizza.
Sunday: We stopped at McDonald’s on the drive home because my son had a gift card that was burning a hole in his wallet. He had nuggets and fries. I stole a couple of each since I was still full from lunch.
Monday: Leftover chicken and rice that my husband made while we were away over the weekend.
Tuesday: Chicken Ramen Stir Fry
Wednesday: Ground Beef, Potato, and Sweet Pepper Skillet
Thursday: Red Beans and Rice (from the freezer) and homemade biscuits
WIS: vacation edition! About 750 @ Aldi last Friday on lots of vacation treat foods. This is a lot for us, but certainly less than it would be if we ate out for ten days.
WWA:
Thu: first night of vacation and I made breakfast for dinner: turkey bacon, scrambled eggs with sautéed veggies and clementines.
Fri: we made tuna melts on brioche sliders and we had these with salad and California veggies.
Sat: we grilled tons of food because this was going to be the least miserably hot day: chicken skewers, turkey bacon and shrimp skewers, peppers and onions, pineapple slices, and a bunch of chicken sausages. We had all this as options with the intention of having lots of leftovers and we also had mashed potatoes and salad on the side. We had s'mores for dessert.
Sun: I made spaghetti and put a few of the leftover chicken sausages in the sauce. We also had salad and broccoli on the side.
Mon: we had leftover chicken sausages in hotdog buns, along with salad and leftover veggies.
Tue: I made pizza dough for five small pizzas and the kids got to choose how they were topped and then baked them under my mom’s supervision to “surprise” us. One was tomato sauce, chicken sausage and mozzarella cheese, one was diced tomatoes, peppers, spinach and feta cheese, one was tomato sauce, black olives and grilled pineapple, one was tomato sauce, mushrooms, peppers, olives and cheese, and the fifth one was maybe just cheese and sauce-I can’t remember now. We had these with salad on the side.
Wed: turkey burgers with turkey bacon and cheese on brioche buns, corn on the cob and watermelon. We had tiramisu for dessert.
Thu: leftover turkey burgers, watermelon and grapes.
Tonight: since Breaderick Starter (Our Last Name) is taking a vacation in the fridge still, we will not have focaccia tonight. It will be either tacos or salmon burgers depending on how many I am feeding.
Happy summer, everyone!!!
@Becca,
Oh, wait! One of the pizzas had some leftover de-skewered chicken on it.
Yay I'm happy you popped in even on vacation!!
@Becca, I was thinking we hadn't heard from you in a bit- glad you've been busy having fun on vacation 🙂
@Becca, I've missed you and what you've eaten!
-We ate at DS18's graduation party one night (burgers, hot dogs, all of the accompanying salads + an incredible chocolate cake)
-We skipped dinner on Sunday, as we were all full from a huge brunch
-We had tacos one night
-I found leftover broccoli beef in the freezer, and served that over noodles one night
-DH & I had coconut shrimp & fried rice on a night that neither boy was going to be home for dinner
-Last night we had Korean beef, rice & watermelon, with tons of green onions on the beef, to use up our huge glut of green onions
As for tonight? I'm definitely not cooking, as I'm meeting a friend for a walk at 4. I'm guessing leftovers, or perhaps pizza.
Sat - home grilled butcher shop brats (they make them) and red potato w/egg potato salad.
Sun - dine out Mexican.
Mon - grilled cheese burgers, leftover potato salad/mashed potatoes & gravy (both for me, potato salad only for better half). Better half rounded out with some cottage cheese.
Tue - crockpot marked down to $4 round steak cooked in a cream of soup w/red potatoes and carrots that fed better half, me, meal for my dad, and one more meal (enough for me, better half would have to supplement)
Wed - better half found a marked down steak, of which I ate half. He had salmon, we split a huge baked potato. Enough leftover steak in the freezer for a steak, potato, mushroom/onion/garlic/peppers skillet.
Thu - fast food at the one fast food restaurant that can cook fries.
Fri - on sale chicken-spinach ravioli “artisan” per the package enhances with jarred sauce, grilled Mediterranean chicken breast, likely mushrooms, and cheese.
Smoothies are an AWESOME idea for a light easy dinner on some of these hot summer nights. And a good use-it-up for produce as well. Love that!
Here is what I ate this week. It's hot and the farmers market is overflowing. Caprese salad is a summertime staple.
Sunday - grilled chicken, baked beans, watermelon, peaches, leftover broccoli.
Monday - Hoison garlic noodles, tofu, garlicky kale, shiitake mushrooms
Tuesday - I had a work dinner, the food was lovely but the restaurant's A/C was out 🙁
Wednesday - Chicken apple sausage, leftover baked beans and broccoli, caprese salad
Thursday - Sushi dinner out to celebrate 5th and 8th grade graduations
Fiday - Picnic dinner for the pool - caprese salad, cold leftover sausage, ranch dip with chips and veggies
Next week I need to eat more meals at home!
WIS: About $90, divided between Aldi and Food Lion, with one trip to Dollar Tree for shelf-stable milk, crackers, and frozen pizza.
WWA: Meatloaf, salads, frozen piazza, watermelon, cheese, crackers, fruit, nuts and protein shakes.
I need to try a no spend week once in awhile. But it seems like we always run out of a milk before I do my weekly shopping. I drink milk occasionally but my husband drinks a lot of milk.
I spent $84 at Kroger.
– Sunday – T-bone steaks, corn on the cob, leftover sauteed squash, dilled cucumber/onion salad .
– Monday – leftover pork loin, sauce and rice from Friday, green beans.
– Tuesday – too hot to cook fancy. We had BLTs with bacon cooked crisp in the microwave with lettuce and tomatoes from our garden, homemade coleslaw and chips.
– Wednesday – I caved in and turned on the oven despite our 106 degree heat index. I only used it for about 40 minutes to make a chicken casserole dish with cubed chicken, chicken stock, fresh spinach, tomatoes, orzo pasta and garlic/herb soft cheese served with biscuits and leftover coleslaw. I tossed in a little chili crisp into the seasoned chicken which perked it up a bit. Dish was very good and made lots of leftovers.
– Thursday – brats made with onions and peppers, an herby squash/tomato/cheese bake to use these veggies from our garden served with parmesan/garlic couscous.
– Friday – we may just eat Wednesday and Thursday leftovers (if hubby doesn't eat that up for lunch), or have a shrimp stir fry with peapods, onions, broccoli, carrots over ramen noodles.
– Saturday – we will probably have mushroom / spinach/mozzarella quesadillas and a salad of some kind or a doctored up frozen meat pizza and salad.
Stay cool, ya'll!
We needed our furnace at the beginning of the week (highs of 10 C) but today we are trying not to start the A/C. WWA:
Saturday - fancy reunion dinner with 40 classmates at an upscale restaurant with yummy lemon posset for dessert
Sunday - homemade French onion soup from the freezer, baguette
Monday - tacos
Tuesday - rice bowl with candied salmon, seaweed salad, cucumbers, Japanese seasonings
Wednesday - rotisserie chicken with baked potatoes
Thursday - big green salad, leftover chicken
Friday - will soon start a chicken curry to have with rice, papadams and likely some naan
wishing everyone a bit of respite over the week ahead
Kristen, do you ever make twice baked potatoes? They are also a dish you can add just about anything to, I had them twice this week.
You know, I rarely make those! Interestingly, I think of them as a "company food" because my mom mainly made them when guests were coming over. I think my brain has not categorized them as everyday fare.
@Kristen, Same here, we only had them once or twice at my aunt's house when we went there for Christmas--she also was a fan of roasting a whole head of cauliflower, intact--but the potatoes were so good. My mom never made them, but I have made them sometimes for our family around the holidays. Very good they are, too. I think I remember reading somewhere you can freeze them before baking them the second time.
I wonder if these were part of a typical “company” meal during that time period!
WIS : $28 @ Costco, $14 @ Winco, $9 @ scratch & dent
Sunday family dinner was waffles with fresh cherries, gobs of whipped cream and a nutella-ish syrup with sides of bacon and eggs.
M - pork noodles, Thai cucumbers and fermented Napa cabbage
T - Chicken fried steak, green salad
W - burritos, avocado, mango, cucumber, jalapeno salad
T - personal pizzas in the wood fired pizza oven. Invited the closest neighbors.
F - green salad w/boiled eggs, watermelon
S - my last full time shifts this weekend
@Blue Gate Farmgirl, Your waffles sound delicious!