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Friday, November 8, 2019

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for Early November


Before I get into meals for the week, I want to inform other Fred Meyer 55+ shoppers about the bonus discount shopping day next week. Tuesday, November 12, 2019 is another discount day for 55+ shoppers. Yea! I scanned the ads and both house-brand eggs and sugar are on sale at a good-enough price (w/the 10% discount) to warrant buying a couple-month's supply. I'll be at their doors bright and early on Tuesday.


Okay, so for this week -- I shopped at our produce stand's clearance sale last Friday, and spent $26.64. Then over the weekend, I stopped in at our Walmart Neighborhood store to pick up canned pumpkin, vegetable shortening (Crisco stuff), garlic powder, decaf coffee, and frozen orange juice, spending $28.83. On Tuesday, I went to Fred Meyer's first Senior Shopping Day and bought butter, cream cheese, milk, powdered sugar, and my freebie (packet of mashed potatoes), spending $38.21. My total for the month of November, so far, is $93.68. (Grocery list for the month is in this post. I updated it a little to reflect upcoming purchase of sugar, eggs, and milk.)

While we've had frost, the kale in our garden is still doing well. In addition, we have indoor lettuce, lentil sprouts, and very, very soon, kale microgreens. I still have apples, winter squash, and a couple of tomatoes from the garden available to use, plus all of those blackberries. I think we're doing very well on produce.

This week

Friday

Friday
winter squash soup, using assorted squash from our garden
pigs in blankets (hot dog bites in scratch biscuit dough)
cabbage, kale, radish green, and apple slaw


Saturday

Saturday
lentil and vegetable soup
cheese toast
leftover trick-or-treat candy


Sunday

Sunday
eggs with greens and cheese
brown rice
roasted butternut squash


Monday

Monday
this curried pumpkin-peanut soup from Live and Learn's site
Yorkshire pudding
orange wedges
garden salad of lettuce (grown in the window), lentil sprouts, garden tomato, and radish greens


Tuesday

Tuesday (daughter's night)
lentil curry over brown rice
blackberry cobbler


Wednesday

Wednesday (other daughter's night)
walking lentil tacos, which are basically tortilla chips topped with taco fillings
orange wedges
leftover blackberry cobbler


Thursday

Thursday
kale and onion frittata
lentil sprout and brown rice stir-fry
oven-fried sweet potatoes wedges
homemade gingersnaps


The curried pumpkin soup (Monday) was such a hit. I make this 2 or 3 times per fall and it's always loved. My family loves curry, so I doubled the curry powder (maybe even more than doubled) and added a bit of garlic powder. Since this was the main source of protein in this meal, I also doubled the peanut butter, using crunchy and not smooth as we only have the crunchy right now. It was delicious! Check it out - link's in the menu above.


Breakfasts this week
We enjoyed more homemade whole wheat toast and homemade yogurt, plus oranges, apples, and homemade peanut butter granola. 

Lunches this week
Lunches this week were more catch as catch can and included leftovers from dinners, peanut butter sandwiches, fruit, carrots, baked squash, lentil sprouts, and eggs. 

Snacks this week
I made a couple of batches of popcorn in a pan on the stove this week. Popcorn is such an easy snack to make and satisfies my salt cravings. We also tend to snack on the same foods that we have for our lunches. When I roasted some butternut squash earlier this week, I noticed that it disappeared between meals. We also snack on our share of foods like cookies, leftover cobbler, and mugs of cocoa.

So that's what we ate this week. What was on your menu? Did you have a meal that was your favorite?

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!!





10 comments:

  1. We haven't made the pumpkin-peanut butter soup for a long time. It's cold today and we may have snow soon, so it's the perfect weather for it.

    My favorite this week was fried potatoes, onions, sausage, butternut squash, and green beans. Not the most calorie friendly, but sooo good.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lili, wanted to let you know I have made your cabbage patch soup twice. Once with ground meat and once with sausage. I don't use a lot of meat, just enough for husband to see some. It is delicious and so easy to make. Thanks for the recipe.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I finally got around to making the pumpkin-peanut butter soup a few weeks ago and I really liked it!

    Monday was a favorite meal for us--I splurged on pork ribs (50% off) and made them in the crockpot. I haven't made them before and was pleased with how tender they turned out. Right now I have bread in the oven and the smell is sooo homey and good. We are definitely in the middle of soup weather around here! I think my family considers bread to be the main dish and soup as the side dish.

    Happy weekend!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Live and Learn,
    Oh yum, your meal sounded really delicious, A few meals a week like that couldn't hurt. I know my family would really enjoy potatoes, sausage, and squash.
    Your recipe for pumpkin-peanut butter soup is really a good one. It's not only delicious, but very simple, too. I need more recipes like that.
    Snow already? Fall is passing so quickly.
    Have a good weekend, Live and Learn.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi Cheryl,
    I'm so glad that you enjoy the cabbage patch soup. It's one of my favorites, too. I don't think I use a lot of meat in it either, just a little for flavor and texture.
    Have a great weekend, Cheryl.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi Kris,
    Yum! Your pork ribs sound so tasty. What kind of sauce did you use for them?
    Ha ha! If I had to guess, half of us consider bread to be the main course with a little soup for dipping, and the other half goes for the soup first. But you're right, homemade bread is so delicious and makes the house smell so good. Bread and soup is a great combo for cold weather.
    I hope you have a wonderful weekend, Kris!

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  7. The sauce was an amped-up BBQ sauce. Many recipes called for finishing them off under the broiler, which would have been good, but I didn't want to take the time or have the extra dishes to wash. No one seemed to mind.

    ReplyDelete
  8. BBQ on the ribs sounds yummy, Kris. I bet they were a huge hit.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Lili, have you ever read the blog "Hope and Thrift?" She (Jane) is not blogging regularly now but all the archives are still up. One of my favorites! Just recently, she popped in and said that they are on track to spend $600 on food this year! They keep a garden; too, and she does a ton of canning. It's she, her hubby and an adult son. She also has a lot of thrifty ideas for life in general.

    Joan

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hi Joan,
    Thank you for the suggestion. I'll check out her (Jane's) site. I know we could never spend just $600 in a year, but I am guessing they do things that could help me save on our own grocery bill. Thank you!!

    ReplyDelete

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