January's Grocery Shopping Now Finished, Plus Another Retro Recipe

1962 Recipe and My Modified Version Using a Salad Kit as the Base

The above photo was Tuesday's dinner. I made a Mexi-tuna salad bowl, using the below recipe as inspiration. I've made the Guacamole Salad Bowl many times. It's delicious, and one of the few ways I actually like to eat canned tuna.

For Tuesday, I didn't have all of the "right" ingredients, but I did have enough to make a modified version of this main dish salad. I used 2 5-oz cans of tuna, 1 bagged salad kit (Dole's Chipotle Cheddar flavor that I got free with a coupon), some additional cabbage, 1 tomato, canned olives, additional cheddar cheese, some tortilla chips (bought with a coupon this week), some lentil sprouts, and additional mayo and salsa to stretch the dressing. I crumbled most of the tortilla chips into the salad as well as put a few on each plate. To round out the meal, we had mandarin segments and pumpkin pie squares with the salad.

I'm sure you've noticed, cans of tuna have shrunk significantly over the years. Did you know that the 5-oz on current can labels includes the water weight? Just below "5-oz" the label says "4-oz drained." To make a main dish salad for 4 adults, I find 2 of these cans necessary.

If I had had ripe avocados at the time, I would have mixed a half of one into the dressing packet that came with the salad kit and perhaps added a few of the seasonings in the recipe for Avocado Dressing. The recipe below is quite good, and I highly recommend it for anyone looking for a tasty tuna main dish salad.

This recipe was in my mother's cookbook. She clipped the recipe out of the July 1962 edition of Better Homes & Gardens magazine and inserted it into the cookbook's binder rings. I don't know when this began or ended, but in my mother's day, BH & G magazine accepted reader recipe submissions, which the magazine would publish in their monthly editions. The magazine suggested that readers clip these recipes and insert them into their own copies of the Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook. In case you're not familiar, this cookbook is published binder-style, so pages can be added or removed. My mother routinely clipped these recipes and filed them under their appropriate headings in the cookbook. Some of my and my mother's favorite recipes from this cookbook are from the reader submissions. 

Grocery Shopping for January

I hadn't planned on finishing the grocery shopping so early in the month with still another week to go. However, two in my family were heading in the direction of WinCo this morning. I suggested a grocery stop there to save gas. And so, I purchased what we'll need for the rest of the month. Here are the details of shopping for January.

For the month, I spent $297.21, which is not bad. Of course, I didn't buy very much meat this month, just a couple of items for variety. I did, however, need to buy several bags of soy milk powder that will last a few months. I was after the free shipping offer, hence the five bags and not just one.

This is January -- no garden, and we're beginning to run low on the produce that I froze in summer and fall. Although I try to stick with budget-oriented winter produce, it does add up. Other purchases this month are part of restocking our back-up pantry, such as the 2 of gallons of vegetable oil, 2 bags of organic flour, and 2 jars of mayo, replenishing what we've used in the last few months.

The rest of my list is pretty standard for my household. Here's what we bought:

Dairy/Refrigerated

5 dozen eggs

3 gallons whole milk

5 pounds of pizza blend shredded cheese
2 pound block of sharp cheddar cheese

2 containers of tofu

2 pounds of butter

Fruits & Vegetables

fresh

6 bags of apples
several bunches bananas
3 lbs mandarin oranges

10 pounds carrots
4 heads, combined, green and red cabbages

2 green peppers

4 avocados

4 Roma tomatoes

1 family-sized bagged salad kit (coupon item)

dried

dried fruit (dates and cranberries)

frozen

2 bags frozen peas
2 bags frozen spinach
3 large bags frozen  broccoli cuts

canned

3 cans green beans (coupon item)

Pantry

roasted peanuts
peanut butter powder
2 gallons vegetable oil
2 jars of mayo
80 oz jug of honey
2 bags organic flour
2 boxes bran flakes (coupon item)
2 bags tortilla chips (coupon item)
chia seeds
large canister of oats (coupon item)
5 bags of powdered soy milk

unsweetened chocolate
wheat bran for muffins
sliced almonds
flax seed meal

Meat

large pack of boneless chicken breasts

pepperoni

2 cans of tuna

There are some ingredients in this list for a 1940s treat that I'll be making next week. Can you guess what those ingredients are?