WWA | (semi) normalcy coming soon
I should be moving into my rental not this weekend, but the next...so, these What I Spent, What We Ate posts should return to something a little more normal very soon!
Also, you know what? There's a new Aldi opening up very close to my rental! In fact, it's 8 minutes away.
(Did I just map it? Yes, yes I did.)
What We Ate
Saturday
Zoe and I headed to the mall to go prom dress shopping.
We DID actually order a prom dress in March, from Amazon (this is the dress), but it has still not gotten here. Sigh.
We figured we would need to do a brick-and-mortar option, so we got dinner at the food court and then dress-shopped. And we did find a winner at Macy's.
Thank goodness there are still some department stores around!
I feel like we should have some sort of prom-like occasion for adults as well because my goodness, there are so many lovely fancy dresses out there that would be fun to wear.
Sunday
We had a main dish salad...like, a green veggie salad with chicken, hard-boiled eggs, nuts, cheese, and so on.
Monday
Zoe and I met up with Lisey for an early birthday meal (since Lisey couldn't be here on my actual birthday), and we got pizza together.
Tuesday
I ate leftover pizza, and Sonia and Zoe ate frozen chicken nuggets and fries together. 😉
Wednesday
My brother and his wife came over for my birthday (his birthday is the day after mine, so we often celebrate together).
My mom kindly made dinner for us; shrimp tacos, Smitten Kitchen's roasted cauliflower, the classic orange jello salad that my family eats, and meringue shells with fruit and whipped cream for dessert.
(My sister-in-law and Sonia both have food allergies, so meringue shells were a good birthday cake alternative.)
Thursday
A class night for Zoe; I used another birthday offer ($15 off any purchase at a local restaurant), and she ate some leftover pizza when she got back.
Friday
Zoe has her prom tonight, and I'm meeting up with a cousin for dinner after I drop Zoe off.
Just FYI, "meringue shells with fruit and whipped cream for dessert" is a pavlova. They're amazing. Cooks Illustrated has a recipe which makes this amazing meringue that's chewy inside and crusty outside. They're so good I usually skip the rest and just have meringue. I don't make them often because I eat them in inordinate amounts but when I do, I often make Michael Ruhlman's aged eggnog with the yolks (and a quart of booze).
@WilliamB, I'm embarrassed to eat meringues in front of people. I too, can't get enough of them! Thanks for the cooks illustrated tip!
@WilliamB, I also completely love meringues — the only real exception to my "dairy is the only food group" policy.
@WilliamB, My mother's friend was the meringue maker for parties. I have done them once or twice. I should have a go at it again. They are so light an airy and sweet But that is a good idea to make the eggnog. I'll look that up. My son-in-law and I like eggnog. We have chickens.
Broken up meringue, cream and strawberries is known as Eton mess in England.
@Rose, "Eton mess"? The Brits have some weird names for desserts (or "puddings," as they'd say), don't they? I don't even want to get started on "spotted dick"...
Eton is a famous school, and supposedly people were eating meringues, strawberries and cream at a school picnic and they got crushed, so....
Spotted dick is not weird. It's delicious. It's just a very old name for a steamed pudding with currants, just as toad in the hole is an old name for a baked popover with sausages. Also good!
@Rose, yes, I know what Eton is (and have even been there). I'm just saying that these dessert names sound odd to an American ear--as does "gooseberry fool" (see below).
I wish gooseberries were popular here. They're so good. Also blackcurrants. Yum, I used to grow both but now don't have any. Must remedy that.
@A. Marie,
Do give it a try! It tastes delicious. It was the first sweet dish I made in my slow cooker, my family loved it. I've had it in the UK once, after a turnip, swede and yorkshire pudding mains. It was delicious, accompanied by a half pint of local brew. I am not a beer lover, but a half pint of local in a sunny garden is just wonderful. Or near the fire, in winter.
@A. Marie, Then again, we have slumps, grunts and buckles -- all pretty strange-sounding desserts, too.
Wow, Zoe looks stunning. As a long time reader, I remember her when she was just a tiny little girl. How shocking to see this picture. She's matured into a beautiful young woman (with excellent taste in dresses!).
Happy belated birthday, Kristen.
Wow! Zoe is definitely rocking the red carpet! I hope she has an amazing time tonight! I think a charity gala is the adult version of a prom. There are plenty of those in the DC area.
WIS: Giant: 47.88 (for 12 bags of pepperoni-we should be set for Friday focaccia for the next few months) Hungry Harvest: 26.20 total: 71.08
WWA:
Sat: Cobb salad, airfried leftover focaccia and an Aldi cheesecake. (It was my husband's birthday, so we had an easy dinner since he's the regular chef.)
Sun: Salad, stewed Asian flavored pork and carrots over white rice (This recipe ended up using two of the pork pieces from the pork loin I cut up, but I had it for lunch three days this week too. It was very good as is, but I told my husband that I think it would be even tastier and cheaper if he used only one lb of pork and subbed white beans for the other lb, so he said he would try that next time.)
Mon: salad with hardboiled eggs, bowtie pasta with vegetables and tomato sauce topped with shredded romano cheese. This used up an open jar of tomato sauce leftover from focaccia.
Tue: salad with hardboiled eggs, leek and potato soup and homemade sourdough doughnuts
Wed: salad, spicy tofu fried rice (used up the rice from Sunday) and a few leftover doughnuts for the kids.
Thu: salad, poached salmon with kale and tomatoes, sushi rice and nori seaweed sheets
Tonight: salad and focaccia (with pepperoni, but not the new stuff yet as we still have a couple rolls from the last more expensive stock up.)
Have a wonderful weekend everyone!
@Becca, Do you have a recipe you can link to for the doughnuts?
@kristin @ going country,
Hmm, I'll ask my husband what recipe he used. I know he used his new doughnut pans.
@kristin @ going country,
Ok, he says it was this one:
https://theflavorbells.com/sourdough-doughnuts-recipe/
@Becca, Thanks!
How is Zoe old enough for prom??? It seems they were toddlers yesterday
Funny that you mention a Prom for adults. Locally there is a non profit
organization that is putting in a
Mom Prom to raise funds.
I have very fond memories of formal dress shopping as a teenager. We had sororities in high school who used to put on formal dances - so much fun! I don't remember going to my prom, though...ironic, I know. P.S. I loooove that hanging lampshade! This week:
Monday - Chicken Alfredo Pasta with peas
Tuesday - Polenta with sausage marinara, green beans
Wednesday - Salmon, twice baked, red bell pepper strips, biscuit
Thursday - I heated up some leftover Sloppy Joe filling from the freezer and ate it on ciabatta with sweet potato fries on the side
Friday - Happy Hour with The Girl - I made Pioneer Woman's cheesy olive bread and we will have a salad with wine
Saturday - Freezer meal of some sort {wine club pick-up with Firstborn and The Girl}
Sunday - TBD at home {on call in the afternoon, hopefully a day to read and relax}
Next week I am shopping my freezer for dinner since it appears I have used up all of my storage containers with leftovers!
https://cannaryfamily.blogspot.com/
S: I made roasted radishes with spinach and chick peas, and my husband grilled chicken.
M: Pasta and vodka sauce
T: Maple-glazed pork chops and sweet potato-bacon hash with spinach fettucine
W: My Instacart order must have gotten mixed up with somebody else's, so we got a bunch of food I didn't order, and then they credited me for what I had ordered so I re-ordered that, so we ended up enjoying somebody's else's chicken wings, cheesecake yogurts, and pizza rolls for free.
R: Beef and bean chili with cornbread
F: Speaking of dress-up for adults, I'm going to a fancy-ish dinner a local college ministry puts on for its donors with a friend tonight. Husband and kids are trying to think of something to order in that they like that I don't.
S: If it's good weather, husband will make hamburgers and hot dogs. If it's not, we'll have foil-packet chicken, sweet potatoes and radish.
And, we got 2 heads of cauliflower in that wrong grocery order. That roasted cauli your mom made looks delicious! I'm going to have to try that.
@Lori,
This is my favorite way to eat cauliflower:
https://www.breadandmilkblog.com/recipes/u2ojcqawqvdgh4bdqjrz4d8w30d7jb
@Rebekah in SoCal,
Oh, man...that looks so good...
@Rebekah in SoCal Yum! And I’ve got scallions, too.
I spent $165 at Kroger this week.
Saturday…I planted over one hundred flower seedlings so my Mom graciously made dinner. We had fried chicken that I brined earlier, an Asian salad with mandarin oranges & cilantro, and rice with pigeon peas.
Sunday…leftovers
Monday…beef stroganoff, steamed broccoli with lemon, rosemary ginger glazed carrots and sliced tomatoes
Tuesday…leftovers
Wednesday…bbq chicken salad with beans, corn, jicama, avocado, tomatoes, cucumbers, tortilla strips & herbs
Thursday…leftovers
Friday….leftovers For some, chicken salad (made with the rest of a large package of chicken breasts)sandwiches for some.
I have a church conference this weekend so dinners are yet to be planned.
Happy Friday everyone!!!
I spent $160 this week. This is approximately 10 days of food, 3 meals a day for 2 people and 2 houseguests over the weekend. I cook dinner in the evening and we usually eat leftovers for lunch the next day.
Saturday - We had some errands in town, so we ate a late lunch at a lovely restaurant. (We were given a gift card at Christmas.) We snacked at dinner.
Sunday - Roast chicken, rice and Lima beans.
Monday - Steak, sautéed Brussel sprout, roasted potatoes (sweet and russet)
Tuesday - Mediterranean Fish with rice
Wednesday - I attended a memorial dinner and Hubby had a hamburger and French fries.
Thursday - Roast pork loin w/ mushroom medley and asparagus. Hubby had rice
Friday - There are the ingredients for a couple of different things. I’ll decide closer to dinner time.
Have a wonderful weekend!!!!
I wouldn't have even recognized Zoe in that photo if you hadn't already said it was her. I'm pretty sure "movie star" is what every girl who dresses for prom is going for, so good job on the dress! At our tiny school, students can start attending prom in 8th grade (otherwise, there would literally be about five kids there :-), and I was thinking that's a LOT of years of dress shopping/corsage buying.
Okay! Food!
Saturday: Carnitas-style pork, mashed potatoes, sauteed zucchini/tomato/onion, raw grape tomatoes
Sunday: I excavated the meat freezer and found a box of steaks on the very bottom. So we had two T-bone steaks and one ribeye steak. Also rice, asparagus (from the garden YAY!), raw cabbage (my kids don't really like asparagus), and a custard for dessert that got way overbaked because right after I put it in the oven my presence was requested at a dog and pony show. Actually, it was a procession around our ghost village with my daughter on the pony, youngest son on the old horse, dogs running around, and my husband, who needed another pair of adult hands to monitor that craziness. By the time we got back, the custard was overbaked. Still all eaten, despite it losing the lovely silky texture that custard is meant to have.
Monday: We were at church unexpectedly until 7 p.m. after being at school/work all day, and by the time I got home with four famished children, the best I could do was heat up leftover pork with barbecue sauce, leftover rice with butter, slice a cucumber, and call it dinner. If I had had an option to pick up food on our way home, I almost certainly would have taken it. However, I do not have that option, and this meal was faster tahn fast food anyway, so I guess it's a good thing the nearest fast food is 100 miles away.
Tuesday: I had to work again, so I went with quick-cooking breakfast sausage links. There were also leftover rolls from the school cafeteria lunch--the cook actually makes them from scratch and they are ridiculously good--frozen green peas, pureed calabaza (winter squash) from the freezer, asparagus (from the garden YAY), and some random chicken patties also leftover from school lunch that are most definitely not from scratch but are basically like giant chicken nuggets. My sons are getting into the phase where they eat dinner and then prowl the kitchen looking for more food, so they all ate one or two of these patties. Cold. This "phase" is going to last about ten years, so I guess it's just my life now. 🙂
Wednesday: Beef and bean tacos. I worked again, and this is about as much cooking as I'll do when I get home on the school bus at 4:45 p.m. One pound ground beef, one can black beans, a bit of already cooked onion, half a can of tomatoes hanging around the refrigerator, salsa, cumin, chile powder, all in microwaved corn tortillas with cheese. My husband and I ate some leftovers--steak and rice--and there were some raw radishes, too.
Thursday: Top sirloin steaks, spaghetti with pesto, leftover calabaza, leftover fried cabbage, raw cucumbers. Now that I've found that box with dozens of steaks, we'll be eating steak a lot more. Also, I have at least 10 packages of spaghetti and about 20 boxes of macaroni and cheese. We keep getting them from the excess commodities stuff--either from our neighbors, or from the lady who distributes the food, who is also a neighbor. I guess they figure we have kids, and kids eat a lot of pasta. We don't usually, but I guess we'll be starting. I usually throw away the packets of cheese powder from the macaroni and cheese boxes, though, and just use the pasta.
Tonight: I might get ambitious and make enchiladas with the leftover beef and bean taco meat. But if I don't find the ambition to make the sauce and do all the rolling and all, it might just be leftover meat in microwaved tortillas again. 🙂 Leftover steak for me in a salad, steak for my husband who can't eat a lot of beans. Some kind of raw vegetable . . . it'll all come together somehow.
@kristin @ going country, I love your Sunday dog and pony show!!
Zoe looks stunning! And the little glimpses of your new house look so charming.
WIS: $67.58. I had a $1.25 coupon for almond milk, which helped, and coffee was on sale, so I grabbed a can to add to the pantry stock. I scored two packs of organic chicken drumsticks, one for $1.83 and the other $1.87. Both were originally priced at $4.95 each.
WWA: The usual disclaimer: I cook a big meal on Sunday that makes leftovers for most of the week for my husband's lunches, as lunch is our main meal. I had planned to make a big pan of roasted chicken drumsticks and veggies, but had a pretty good case of side effects from the second shingles shot and spent Sunday, my planned cooking day, being feverish on the sofa. Husband had sandwiches all week. I had made blueberry baked oatmeal and black bean-chicken-veggie chili for my meals on Saturday, so that's what I ate.
Kristen, every time we move I map everything I can think of with our new future address! I love seeing how close we are to things!
This week was a little odd because one of our kids had his wisdom teeth out on Wednesday. So I was planning soft foods + regular foods.
Monday was chicken and rice casserole (oldest's birthday meal request), mixed veggies, and Smitten Kitchen's Best Cocoa Brownies for dessert.
Tuesday was the soon-to-be-operated on son's favorite meal (kind of like a last meal before having to eat pureed things): Burgers with fixings, french fries, coleslaw, California blend mixed veggies.
Wednesday: those who could chew had tuna patties and crockpot fried rice. Our patient had mashed avocado and yogurt.
Thursday: Leftover tuna patties, some baked tilapia, and my patient graduated to a really tasty roasted carrot bisque. I just roasted a 9x13 pan of sliced carrots with a bit of olive oil and salt until they were soft, then simmered them in about 4 cups of bone broth with additional salt and onion powder. I threw in some cooked cauliflower and carrots leftover from Wednesday, then pureed the heck out of it with my immersion blender. Probably a regular blender would have been better, but I don't have one. But it was really tasty! I told my son if he didn't like it I'd eat it, but he had two bowls.
Tonight will be lentil soup for dinner.
I hope your wisdom teeth kid feels better soon! Zoe's due to have hers out this summer...our last time doing the wisdom teeth routine. 🙂
Love the hanging lamp, and so fondly remember prom shopping with both of my girls back in the 90's and early Ought's.
This week I spent $88 between 4 stores (Aldi, Trader Joe, Sprouts and a supermarket).
- Mon: Tortillini w/EVOO and parm cheese,, salad, garlic bread
- Tue: BLT's, air fryer sweet potato fries, green salad
- Wed: Pork chops and cilantro rice w/a lime-honey drizzle, sauteed green beans
- Thur: Slow cooker chicken curry, rice, naan
- Fri & Sat: Out with friends both nights. Fri for Happy Hour and Sat at a nearby craft brewery that also has terrific food. Side note that I love these type of fairly modest meet ups with friends. Plus both have scenic outdoor seating.
- Sun: Thur leftovers after we return home from a late afternoon theater event.
I hope Zoe has a wonderful time and is pleased with her dress. She looks marvelous. And I'm super happy that you can start officially planning your move, Kristen. It's good to know what the next step is.
Funny, I made meringue cookies last week for the first time in ages. I sometimes make them for dessert when I take meals to folks who are gluten free.
Meals included lentil sausage stew with soda bread, which will be dinner again tonight. Thai chicken over polenta. Mexican skillet supper with tortilla chips. Turkey barbecue sandwiches and potato salad.
I’m glad Zoe found a replacement dress that she liked. She does look great.
I also love that your parents have the “butterfly gold” Corelle plates. I grew up using those and my dad still has them at his house.
I am smiling because we had Eton mess tonight. It is made from broken meringue, cream and berries. It is a rare treat but it is good to be able to share with everyone.
Zoey looks elegant. I. hope she has the best time.
Once again our meals have been simple. We have had chickened mushroom soup, sausages various ways because I bought a bulk bag of them. We had leftovers form a lunch out yesterday. There have been sandwiches as well. Very simple food this week.
@Suzan, see my reply to @Rose above re: Eton mess and spotted dick. And I somehow left out gooseberry fool...
Sunday - takeout - Mediterranean
Monday - (breakfast for dinner) crustless quiche, cinnamon bread, turkey bacon, sliced oranges
Tuesday - salmon, baked potatoes, salad
Wednesday - homemade tandoori chicken, curried potatoes and peas, sautéed spinach with red onion and raisins, cucumber slices, naan
Thursday - (use up leftover Indian spices LOL) turkey kofta with coconut curry sauce, brown rice, coleslaw with lime dressing
Friday - chicken tenders, fries, coleslaw
Stunning look for Zoe and I hope it’s a fun night. One adult prom to rock a special dress is an opening reception for an art exhibit in a museum.
Can’t wait for the apartment images. Congrats on finalizing that major life event.
Wow, is it prom season already? Also, I'm a little surprised that homeschools have a sort of prom. Side note: Zoe would not have looked all that out of place at my school prom back in the 90s. Or so I assume. I didn't go to Prom ... or any school dances ... or any dates until my 20s ...
Saturday: Unexpectedly got asked for dinner from the parents of my daughter's friend. We stopped and picked up some things to contribute.
Sunday: Chicken that was supposed to be on the grill but we ran out of propane. I need to get some more and I still haven't. I cooked it in the oven instead.
Monday: Homemade pizza.
Tuesday: I had "an incident" that night so I know we ate dinner but I basically had to retreat for a bit. I can't remember what we had. I'm better than I was but I still have my days.
Wednesday: Cleaned out the fridge of leftovers.
Thursday: Wife was out with a friend so I took my daughter out for dinner for some daddy daughter time. It was nice and she mostly behaved for me (often she's difficult when out with just one parent.)
Friday: I think we're making sliders using some pretzel rolls I made. I've been slacking on the bread making around here but I'll be doing that again soon, I hope.
@Battra92, You always sound like such a good dad, with things like daddy daughter dinner outings.
I didn't go to my prom--it was only for seniors and you had to have a date and the guy who asked me was my good friend and I didn't want to go with him. The guy I did want to go asked someone else. Both guys turned out to be gay. The one I wanted to go with is a heart surgeon, and the one who asked me I'm still friends with, but he's a complete weirdo now so I avoid him. Oh, another guy asked me too, but he was too fat so I didn't want to go with him. Now we're still friends, and he's lost weight and is a hottie, but he's twice divorced with a schizophrenic son and lives in Tucson. Life turns out weird. I'm sure they're typing as a comment on some blog, "And the girl who turned me down is a bitter divorcee who lives by the ocean." Ha! Why I didn't just ask the boy I wanted to go with to go with me, I have no idea.
Neither of my kids went to proms either, even though times had changed so you could go dateless.
@Rose, LOL! 😉
@Laurae, I think the one who I wanted to go with, who's now the heart surgeon, didn't ask me because he was annoyed I had higher SATs than he did, and in fact I had the highest in the school, so I was named captain of the school academic quiz team and he wasn't. WOMP WOMP.
This makes me think of two songs: Kacey Musgraves'"Breadwinner" and Brynn Elliott's "Might Not Like Me."
@Rose,
LOL!! I didn't go to prom, either. The one guy I had a massive crush on had already graduated, and was dating someone else. There was no one else I wanted to go with, and no one asked me. Rumors had been flying that this one guy - who I barely knew - *was* going to ask me, but I guess he chickened out. (I can't blame him - I was not the most approachable teenager, lol).
Fast forward 40+ years, and I find out that several guys had a crush on me back then, but were too scared/intimidated/whatever to ask me on a date, much less to the prom. (Insert major eyeball roll here.) One high school friend posted a prom photo from back then - another friend in the photo had sported a silver tux to the prom (it was seriously satiny and shiny; remember, this was the late 1970s), which earned him many hilarious comments. Even he asked, "what was I thinking?". 😉 Ah, memories.
Not sure why this posted twice.
@Liz B., Oh me too, with the crush on me/intimidated etc. I'm six feet tall, was considered pretty, am also pretty sarcastic, was smart and also weird*. I can see how I came off intimidating.
*I would do things like write a physics lab in half-uncial calligraphy with a dip pen on parchment, with illumination, then roll it up, tie it with a bow and hand it in. Come to think of it, that was pretty odd. But I was bored and unchallenged in high school.
So pleased to hear you found a good place to live!
Sunday: We grilled thin sliced chicken breasts and some family members used them to make sandwiches and others put them on top of salad greens. We also had 3-bean salad and some leftover chips.
Monday: Chicken fajitas with lots of toppings.
Tuesday: Crockpot "Italian beef" with dinner rolls and a salad. People ate at various times due to afterschool activities, meetings, etc.
Wednesday: Turkey burgers for 3 family members and the one who came home late had leftover fajitas. I served carrot sticks and pickles with the turkey burgers.
Thursday: Younger daughter performed in a play and multiple grandparents came to watch. We went out to dinner at a pizza/pasta place. We shared several pizzas and 2 pasta entrees and a salad and had tons of leftovers. Both daughters were very excited to have the leftovers in their lunch boxes today.
Friday: Older daughter has work and will eat at work. We usually get take out on Fridays (often pizza) so we will see what we feel like getting. Probably not pizza because of yesterday!
Saturday: I think we will do a snacky/charcuterie dinner.
I spent $35 at Price Chopper and $10 at Trader Joe's. $15 of the Price Chopper order was for a 3-liter can of Filippo Berio EVOO on deep discount (still well within its sell-by date), which I'll be sharing with the Bestest Neighbors.
As usual, cuisine for one isn't much to write about, except that I think I did a good job of rolling leftovers over into new dishes. I had about two cups of broth left over from a chicken noodle soup I'd made (I have a bad habit of eating all the solids out of the soup first), so I used that plus a cup of rice to make an herbed rice dish, to which I added shrimp (frozen/thawed, previously bought at Price Chopper). This made a bit more rice than the shrimp would cover, so I added tilapia (also frozen/thawed and previously bought at PC) to the remaining rice and will be finishing that off for lunch today. Waste not, want not.
Zoe's dress is so similar to my oldest daughter's first prom dress! She was so petite and young-looking when she started high school she was accused of being a sixth-grader and I remember that her dress was a size 1/2. She looked very nice in her dress and Zoe looks very nice in hers. I love the photo.
My younger daughter wore borrowed dresses from older friends for most of her school dances. She even borrowed the dress she wore when she was on Homecoming Court.
Anyway...
When I shopped last Friday I forgot my list at home, so shopping was a little hard to do. I also had trouble coming up with a week's menu, and still have to make a menu for this coming week, whereas I normally do two weeks of menus at once as I shop.
What I ended up eating:
Friday night my sister was visiting and we ate at my daughter's. We had roast chicken, green beans, and roasted carrots and onions.
Saturday night we ate at the pizza place where a granddaughter works, and she made us lovely salads (which I ate carefully and took most of it home).
The rest of the week, in no order,
I had some ham and random leftover vegetables.
I slow-cooked a brisket and had mushrooms, peas, and something else on the side.
Brisket again, with honey-rosemary carrots and roasted delicata squash.
Tuna salad with onion, carrot, celery and raisins, plus applesauce made of older apples that I wasn't able to eat the week before when having to be on liquids.
Pork chops, leftover mushrooms and peas, leftover cabbage.
Tonight will be more pork chop but I haven't decided the sides.
Kristen,
Can you do a post about what you buy at Aldi. I live a few miles from one but every time I try to shop there I leave empty handed. (Maybe my Aldi is really small?) I thought it would be a good place to buy coffee but they only sell ground coffee. Our Aldi also doesn't seem to regularly stock certain cuts of meat.
Sure, I could do that once I get into my rental and get my booty back into Aldi on the regular!
@Rebekah in SoCal,
Hmm, my Aldi sells coffee beans. I like the organic ones from Peru in the white and teal bag.
@Becca, @Kristen,
Maybe it is just a small Aldi. I'd still be interested to hear what people buy there to save money.
@Rebekah in SoCal, maybe it's a SoCal thing...the few times I've been to Aldi, I haven't really found a ton to buy. There are are 'haul' videos on YouTube that might have some good recommendations. I don't go out of my way for Aldi; I just haven't found enough that I love there. Trader Joe's is a different story 🙂
@Rebekah in SoCal,
I buy almost everything at Aldi, and usually I break my list into four sections to make shopping quicker. My sections are below and I write the items for them in four quadrants on a post-it note. I also go in this order when shopping. If it's helpful, here's what I usually buy.
Produce (usually when you first go in)
I typically buy a lot because we eat a lot, so I buy fruit and veggies to eat as snacks like apples, strawberries, bananas, peppers, and tomatoes as well as salad boxes of various greens and salad fixings and some veggies to be cooked like broccoli, beans and asparagus. The only time I have been disappointed at Aldi's produce was with pears or avocados because those can both be tricky to time ripeness.
Pantry (the middle aisles)
I buy anything we are running low on and try to keep at least one package of the things we use in reserve in the pantry. I usually buy ingredients rather than prepared items, but this category includes things for baking like oil/sugar/spices, nuts/dried fruits for salads, condiments like mayo/mustard, breakfast things like cereal/coffee/tea and then dinner ingredients like tortillas, canned beans, pasta sauce, basmati rice, etc. And I buy seltzer for my husband.
Dairy/meat/fish (along back and side wall)
Every time I shop, I buy sliced cheese, shredded cheese and blocks of cheese as well as lunch meat and parmesan/mozzarella for pizza. I also always buy eggs, milk, cream cheese and Greek yogurt. Sometimes I buy bacon and butter, but I try to stock up when there's a sale and freeze it. I sometimes buy individually wrapped cheeses/yogurts but only as a treat like if we are on vacation. As for fresh meat and fish, I only buy the sales and if there aren't any good ones, I skip fresh meat/fish.
Frozen foods (usually right before the check out)
I don't always buy things in the frozen category (depends on how stocked my freezer is), but when I do, I buy things like rolls of ground beef, bags of chicken breasts, bags of fish fillets (salmon, tilapia, cod) or shrimp, prepared veggie burgers, fish sticks, frozen fruit (strawberries are cheapest, but blueberries are pretty decent too), and ice cream (I prefer the plain chocolate).
Things I notably do NOT buy at Aldi (at least anymore) are flour (I order in bulk from restaurant supply), bread (unless it's marked down, then I might buy something like naan and freeze it, but my husband bakes bread regularly, so I don't buy it except when we are on vacation), tofu (my Aldi supposedly carries it but it's always out of stock, so I usually add it to my hungry harvest order), pepperoni (because I buy a nitrate-free kind), and any really unusual veggies like parsnips, leeks or blood oranges or ingredients like sushi rice. Aldi has the regular stuff, so I use hungry harvest, my farm shares or the local health food store when I need something specific.
Sorry this is so long, but I hope it's helpful. We eat a lot of produce and not as much meat, and we cook mostly from scratch so you might find your results are different, but I tend to spend about 200.00/week at Aldi for five people.
@Rebekah in SoCal, I'm in SoCal also, in OC, and thebclosest Aldi's is about 8 miles away, so I go only bi-weekly. This is what I tend to buy there, generally all $1 less than my beloved Trader Joe's: Bread, graham crackers, cookies, eggs, oat milk, appkes, Clementine oranges, most produce except bananas, Greek yogurt, canned fruit, tomato and bean products, salsa, cottage cheese, PB, jam, condiments, deli meat and sliced deli cheese.
I do not care for their cheese, aside from the sliced version for sandwiches, nor their coffee or chocolate. There is a bit of a lack of taste in many of their products IMO, so when it really matters (i.e., cheese, coffee and chocolate!) I go elsewhere and pay a bit more.
@Rebekah in SoCal,
From what I have learned through talking to people on-line it is very hit or miss. Personally, I don't like them and do not understand how everyone raves about them. I have gone there maybe 3 times and each time the produce went bad so fast (faster than I have ever seen in all my years of grocery shopping). So I refuse to go there to shop. I also only know one person IRL that shops there and she goes the next state over.
That being said, I am in New England and back when I went there was only a handful in the state. Maybe if there were more stores then the produce would be better? Maybe they are better now than before? Maybe if I lived in another state? Maybe people here already have a favorite store so they don't thrive as much here?
Who knows.
All that to say, the stores vary quite a bit. Some areas they are great and some areas not so much. I am glad the people that do have the better stores have the access to cheaper food though, especially in these times of rising prices.
@Tamara R, - a rich tapestry of human experience! I LOVE the chocolate and I use their coffee -- but only for my Mr. Coffee. I do NOT like it in my French press.
Aldi cheese (sharp cheddar) is definitely more mild than at my reg. grocery store (shout out to Market Basket!) but I like the provolone.
I also think that Aldi chips rock.
Adult proms are so fun! I've been to a couple that were organized as school fundraisers, usually paired with a silent auction.
Wow…Zoe is absolutely gorgeous!
We had slow cooker Cuban pork, sweet potato soup (there are still snow piles here), rice and beans, chicken nuggets, and leftovers. We'll eat pizza tonight... and we'll go to my parents' for birthday dinner (pizza again) tomorrow. I definitely promised the kids pizza before I knew my mom was ordering pizza for her birthday dinner. We had whatever fruit and veg was on hand (i.e. I don't remember right now).
Cheesy vegetable corn chickpea fritters with spicy mayo dipping sauce for the adults and ketchup and ranch for the kids. Served with roasted potato wedges.
Burgers on the grill, fruit, raw veggies, and chips
Sushi for my birthday dinner
Refried bean and potato tacos with salsa, cheese, and sour cream. Corn & sautéed veggies on the side.
Tuesday was national pretzel day so we had homemade soft pretzels with cheese sauce. Ate them with bbq mini hot dogs and raw veggies & dip.
Pork tenderloin with red wine apple onion glaze. Roasted cauliflower, blanched asparagus and zucchini.
Split pea soup from the Easter ham bone with garlic bread.
I love pavlovas! I use the egg yolks to make lemon curd.
WIS: $11 Market Basket
WWA:
Sat. partner away, I ate mystery shop burger.
Sun. fish & chips; cabbage salad
Mon. chicken chilaquiles verde with a fried egg (food52 - delicious! I did cheat an use jarred salsa verde, and substituted feta)
Tues. lasagna from freezer, sliced cucumber, apple sauce oat bar (beyond the chicken coop website)
Wed. see Tues.
Thurs. pasta with cumin, thyme & butter, cucumbers, apple sauce oat bar
Fri. Mystery shop burger
Our Mom's have the same Corelle pattern dishes! Love to see them! The meringues look delicious!!
This week has been:
Beef and beans Chili with corn chips
Chicken mushrooms Alfredo sauce on pasta
Butter chicken and broccoli on rice
Naan pizza
Mexican salad+chicken drumsticks
Ribs and veggies
Saturday - We had a birthday party for my son so my husband bbqed ribs and drumsticks, I made baked Mac and cheese and frozen peas and corn (sons request), plus a platter of cut fruit and another of raw veggies. Cupcakes and chocolate chip cookies for dessert
Sunday - leftovers from the birthday party
Monday - salad night: big salads with chicken for the adults, cut up veggies and chicken for the kids, French bread
Tuesday - chicken tacos, corn
Wednesday - chicken and rice casserole
Thursday - impossible burgers, tater tots, steamed green beans and broccoli
Friday - spaghetti and meatballs, leftover French bread turned into garlic bread
Zoe looks absolutely gorgeous. I see what you saw
Super stoked for the new rental! I am glad you and the girls have a space. This week was a really weird food week for me. I went on a job "audition" (for lack of a better term) to be a flight nurse for med-evac transport, and the 24 hour shifts lend itself to some real interesting food/meal times. I took the job though, so I better get used to it.
Sunday- went to my nephew's 1st birthday party before driving up for my job. We had tacos at the party
Monday- Day 1 of a 24 hr shift. I was out of town, so I grabbed a pastry at a local cafe for breakfast and ate a handful for gold fish crackers at 9pm back at the hangar and tried to make myself sleep before the next call came in
Tuesday- got a 2am call for a pediatric transport to Stanford, so I ended up going out to breakfast with the crew once we dropped the little one off. Had amazing but $$$ plantains and black beans in San Francisco. I drove home after and was too exhausted to cook so my husband ordered us pho
Wednesday- made migas with leftover veggies and guac, I have too many avocadoes about to go bad
Thursday- wasn't really hungry after work so cheesy scrambled eggs with avocado and toast
Friday- I promised myself I will make and eat real food tonight so either cacio e pepe with kale or crab cakes (I have all the ingredients already)
Saturday- whatever I didn't make on Friday
Some kinda chicken some way every day
Some kinda broccoli and carrots some way every day
Some kinda quinoa every way some days.
Blueberries always
Apples green or red
Eggs in a pan no ham
@Tiana, I love this. It reads like a poem.
Let's see, it was a bit of a different week because my mom and I were at the coast for two nights for a quick little getaway (I haven't been ANYWHERE since before Covid started so this was very needed).
In no particular order I had:
Two nights of cheese/crackers and chowder at the coast with Mom. We packed lots of snacky things and ate these for dinner, plus added a bowl of local made chowder. YUM.
Chicken lemon greek soup with leftover baguette
Pesto pasta with green beans
Fondue and champagne to celebrate the King of Holland's birthday! (it's a long story but I got an email letting me know it was his birthday Wednesday and the people of Holland celebrate by eating cheese! Hah, you don't have to tell me twice. So I called my dear friend Moira, who is always up for a reason to eat cheese, and we made a fun dinner out of it. Moira contributed the fondue and bread and I contributed champagne to make it extra festive! I am of the belief that you should celebrate the little things because you really never know with life.)
Fresh caught halibut and rice
Tonight I'll have leftover soup, happy weekend all!
@Morgan, I'm with you on celebrating the little things. Cheers!
@Morgan, there's a fun post over at The Court Jeweller blog about this year's King's Day in The Netherlands. This year's event was held in Maastricht, and it certainly looks as if a good time was had by all. (BTW, this is an excellent blog for those interested in royal families of all nations that still have them.) Here's the link: https://www.thecourtjeweller.com/2022/04/royal-jewels-of-kings-day-2022.html#more-39329
And @J NL, I'd definitely be interested in your views of the current Dutch royal family. I can't help liking "Wax and Max" (as irreverent commenters on The Court Jeweller refer to the King and Queen), because they do seem to be (a) taking their jobs seriously and (b) having fun with them at the same time.
@Morgan,
I'm right there with you too. I am always celebrating things. Star Wars day and Cinco de Mayo this week.
Back in February, Mardi Gras. I live in New England...when I told my mom about my hush puppies, jambalaya, and king cake she kind of rolled her eyes and was like no one outside of New Orleans cares. She is wrong...I care and will celebrate every year lol
If there is a special occasion/holiday and a certain special food or dish is involved. I will make it and celebrate. It can be a great way to get out of your comfort zone and try new things or dishes you don't often have. 🙂
Spent $90 at Aldi, and $40 at Walmart.
Saturday night was my oldest daughter’s birthday. We (all her siblings and their families, plus my mom)contributed to the meal. Sandwich tray, pasta salad, chips and dips, cheese board, etc. birthday cake was raspberry mascarpone. My husband also grilled some shrimp for an appetizer.
Sunday: grilled burgers, leftover pasta salad
Monday: Asian chicken and broccoli, rice, and homemade veggie egg rolls
Tuesday: pork chops with dressing casserole, sweet potato, peas
Wednesday: cooks night off. I don’t remember what we ate!
Thursday: Fajita tacos, Mexican rice
Friday: Mexican food out
Zoe looks stunning! Hope she enjoyed the prom.
My prom was weird, to say the least. There were three kids in our graduating class (20 kids total. You had to speak Lithuanian to go there, so the pool of applicants in the U.S. was limited, made even more limited by the fact that it was a boarding school.) We were not allowed to date, and in fact the place was surrounded by 12 foot stone walls, so the nuns found us three boys from another boarding school to take us to the prom location---the living room of the main house. We wore dresses we had made. The music was provided by a nun quartet, two of them playing accordions, one a piano and one singing. No one knew any songs after about 1945, when their world in Europe exploded, so the six of us danced to a lot of songs that had been popularized, I later learned, by British singer Vera Lynn. Actually, it did not seem that weird at the time, more in retrospect. All of our parents had been in concentration camps or displaced persons camps, or in some cases both, before coming to the U.S., so our home lives were already a bit different from the mainstream U.S. family lives.
As to this week's meals: Sat/ Sunday, Polish white borscht (kielbasa, onions, garlic, potatoes, sour cream and a few spices). Monday, homemade burgers. Tuesday, a doctored up $4 pizza from the grocery store. It has a very crispy, almost cracker like crust that we both love and that is hard to duplicate at home. Wednesday, leftover pizza and a large salad. Thursday, breakfast for dinner. Today it will be Filet 'O Fish for me and two scruffy looking hot dogs unearthed from the freezer and covered with bean chili for him. We found a bag of Halloween Hershy kisses, also at the bottom of the freezer, so we have been having a few of those each night for dessert.
@Lindsey, I loved reading your post. It moved me & intrigued me in equal measures- like something out of a novel ❤️
I would love to have been a fly on the wall at your prom!
@Lindsey, what @Diane said about your post. My favorite detail may be the nun quartet.
@Lindsey, Once again, I love your stories. Do consider writing a book!
Happy (belated) Birthday, Kristen!
Oh my goodness, she is absolutely stunning! It's hard to believe she's already graduating. It seems yesterday she was a wee little cutie!
I know!
My brother and I have birthdays one day apart too! 4 years and 1 day to be exact.
My brother and I are one year and 364 days apart!
Zoe looks stunning, & I hope prom was amazing for her. The dress is a classic - well done.
I had three nights of evening work commitments (that involved meals out), so I'm honestly not sure what everyone else ate. For the nights I was home & based on the scraps I've seen in the fridge, we had:
-Green chicken enchiladas, with homemade guacamole
-Tacos
-Spaghetti & meatballs
-Chicken tikka samosas & wings (easy Friday night meal)
-Baked chicken & pasta
Kristen, I'm excited you'll be by an Aldi. We are moving soon, and I will be close to an Aldi too, and am very happy for that. I hope all goes well with your move to your new place.
So excited about your rental and being reunited with your kitty!! Zoe is stunning!
103 was spent this week at Kroger pick up.
Sunday- old timey breakfast casserole I hadn’t made in years ( made with a bag of croutons!)and fruit
Monday - left over breakfast casserole
And salad
Tuesday- grilled hamburgers honey skillet corn and salad
Wednesday-cereal and bananas
Thursday - pizza and salad
Friday- found two pie shells in freezer. Decided to make 2 quiches and used up bits of sausage veggies and cheese turned out great
Sat brunch - leftover quiche reheated in air fryer ( perfect!) Sat dinner- ham and cheese sandwiches ( leftover ham buns) and quinoa chips and salsa