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Friday, February 7, 2020

A Leap Month of Little Joys and Satisfactions: Eating Well on a Budget

My budget for February's groceries is $125.94. This past week, I made my stop at Fred Meyer for Senior Discount Day, spending $31.34. I picked up 4 gallons of milk, instant coffee, boneless/skinless chicken breasts (Valentine's Day), 8 oz. mushrooms (Valentine's Day), 4 green peppers, 1 can of mixed nuts, 2 pounds of dipping chocolate, and 4 jars of peanut butter. Most of these items were on clearance. 

I have $94.60 remaining for February. I already used 1 gallon of milk for a batch of yogurt and 3 of the peppers in dinners this week. The mushrooms were marked down, so I'll cook them up this afternoon and freeze to save to go with the chicken breasts on Valentine's Day. I plan on using some of the melting chocolate to make mixed nut clusters for my turn at coffee hour treats at our church (and of course, a few for ourselves, too).

What we ate this past week . . .



Friday
tomato-basil soup (frozen chopped basil)
pesto focaccia (pesto made last summer and frozen)
deviled eggs (garnished with kale microgreens)
gingerbread cake



Saturday
bean and ham tacos in homemade fried flour tortillas
canned green beans
carrots sticks
leftover cake

Sunday
scrambled eggs
potato, carrot, and onion hashbrowns
orange wedges



Monday
curried pumpkin and peanut soup
cinnamon-raisin swirl bread
blackberry jello



Tuesday (daughter's day to cook)
vegetable, egg,hot dog, and tofu fried rice



Wednesday (other daughter's day to cook)
pizza mac and cheese
lentil sprout salad
orange wedges
cookies



Thursday
beef and bean chili
tortilla chips
carrot sticks
assorted leftover cookies


That was our week of suppers. What was on your menu this past week?

11 comments:

  1. Your meals look delicious again!

    We had discount rotisserie chicken with sweet potatoes and green beans on Sunday. Monday was leftovers from Sunday turned into shepherd's pie. Tuesday was homemade sauce with spaghetti. Wednesday was creamy pork chops cooked in the slow cooker with Asian veggies and brown rice. Thursday night was leftovers which was a little bit of spaghetti, leftover pork chops mixed with noodles for a stroganoff. I also made a bit pot of applesauce from some apples that needed to be eaten. I had made two batches of soup that was eaten for lunches during the week. One was a creamy chicken wild rice and the other was just a plain chicken and rice. That will be finished for lunches today. Now the fridge is empty and I need to get to the grocery store for fresh items. All the food I made was from diving deep into the big freezer where I found 4 containers of chicken broth and a big container of tomatoes.

    Alice

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nice and nutritious. Because we don't eat suppers, I'm concerned about our nutrition and food choices. We are creatures of habit and unfortunately the older we get the harder it seems to learn new habits. So this year, I'm making a choice to focus on fortifying our diet. Our doctor approved not eating supper. Also, we've started taking calcium supplements as well as multivitamins, coQ10 (because of statins). Nevertheless, I'm still choosing to fortify our diet with plain yogurt and fruit (frozen because it is cheaper) for snacks. Also, fish at least once or twice a week. We no longer eat salmon unless it is wild, instead Saba, which is a mackerel. My husband marinates and grills the fish, then freezes in portions. We ate lunch out twice, to use a Groupon and a gift card. Singapore rice noodle with gau gee, shrimp curry, and rice paper wraps. Lots of fresh vegetables and tofu everyday. We freeze leftovers all the time, so this week was frozen leftovers.

    Have a nice day,
    YHF

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is off-topic, but Lili, I had success today with your rubbing alcohol method to wipe down greasy kitchen areas! Thank you! I've been working on cleaning the kitchen/dining area today--it was sunny this morning so I think that made me feel extra motivated. I still need to do the floors but I'm taking a lunch break. This is NOT my favorite job, but .... it needs to be done.

    Meals. Hmmm. Monday was Thai chicken over polenta, Tuesday was roast chicken/potatoes/salad, Wed was smoked sausage soup with northern beans and popovers, Thursday was stromboli and strawberries, and tonight will be sloppy joes.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I am doing most of the cooking now that my son is working and going to school. On some days, he just doesn't have the time. So you would think I could remember what we ate this week. I do know that we had things based on what needed to be used out of the pantry. We had spaghetti one night because of an excess tomato products and another night, we had potato soup another to use up old potatoes. All good.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I am doing most of the cooking now that my son is working and going to school. On some days, he just doesn't have the time. So you would think I could remember what we ate this week. I do know that we had things based on what needed to be used out of the pantry. We had spaghetti one night because of an excess tomato products and another night, we had potato soup another to use up old potatoes. All good.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi Alice,
    Wow! your meals sound wonderful, and you've inspired me to thoroughly go through our freezers! Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi YHF,
    Your meals sound very healthy, indeed. I find that as I get older, I'm not as interested in eating a lot at dinnertime. I probably eat more midday than later in the day. Maybe this is more "natural," as we don't need to fuel our bodies for the evening. Your plan to fortify your meals sounds like it's going very well!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi Kris,
    that;s good to know that the rubbing alcohol worked well for your cleaning tasks. I used some to clean up a very messy shelf in the pantry that holds molasses as well as vegetable oil. It worked very well and made my job a lot easier than scrubbing with an abrasive. My kitchen floor needs a really good cleaning. Soon.
    Your meals sound yummy! I've got a large container of polenta in the pantry. I should try using it in non-Italian dishes, like you did with the Thai chicken. Thanks for the inspiration, Kris!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi Live and Learn,
    What's your son studying? I can understand his not having time to cook as often. The meals that you could remember sound like they were probably enjoyed by your family. Who wouldn't love spaghetti or potato soup?!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Lili, I kinda stumbled into using the Thai chicken over polenta, probably because it's what I had on hand at the time, (the chicken is cooked in a salsa/peanut butter sauce) and we absolutely love the combination. Serendipity!

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  11. I'm going to remember this, Kris. I have a lot of polenta, but am running low on rice.

    ReplyDelete

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