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This is my last week with my daughter home. I loved having her home since November 20th, but she is ready to be back at school, back with her friends. With the limit on seeing people and mixing with other households, she didn't really see many friends from highschool when home. Her college friends will essentially become her new bubble/household. She's leery about going back to her Dining Services menu, as the quality changed with a focus on more canned and frozen ingredients to avoid food waste should the college need to be shut down. With learning how well they combatted the break out in the fall without closing the campus, maybe there will be more fresh food cooking again, and her options will be more varied. Regardless, she has some requests for the week, of which I will make extra and freeze a few meals for her to take with her. I'll also sent her with a loaf or two of pumpkin bread, and a bit of fresh fruit for her first week back. She also wants to bring some grains back, mainly couscous and quinoa blends. Basically, I'm not thinking budget but indulging my kid, who potentially we won't see unless we travel up for a day like we did in October, until her break the week before Easter, so likely March 27th or 28th.
After she goes though, the pantry challenge is on! Those lurking items will be used up. I'll rotate items that fell to the bottom of the freezer and make sure nothing goes bad. I' starting that today. I have a strawberry bread braid bought for a fundraiser that I took out to thaw and will be baked this morning. We'll eat some for breakfast and I'll bring it along for a treat after walking with my friends. I froze about 4 cups of turkey broth after Thanks giving and it is taking up a lot of space, so part will be used for stuffing and part for a veggie drawer clean out soup, using up any lurking partial pasta boxes. Here's what we had last week.
Sunday-Fend for your self after large lunch at MIL
Monday-Philly cheese steak sandwiches, DH, pretzels buns and leftover bits DD2 and me
Tuesday-hamburgers, wild rice soup
Wednesday-Crock pot pasta with assorted vegetables and mozzarella
Thursday-frozen pizzas, popcorn shrimp DH and DD2)
Friday-TJ Mandarin orange chicken, rice, and steamed veg
Saturday- Turkey meatloaf, mashed potatoes and corn
Possibilities for this week , subject to change based on whims and preferences.
- Curry with rice, naan, and Palak paneer (will freeze two portions for DD2)*
- Cheddar, apple sausage balls, rice pilaf, green beans*
- Meatballs in mushroom gravy over noodles
- Penne pasta with red sauce, loaded with vegetables, and garlic bread with cheese
- Goulash with steamed vegetables
- Chicken cordon bleu, mashed potato, and green bean hotdish
- Tacos/fajitas with rice, beans
- Chicken wings, homemade potato wedges
- Tuna noodle and cheese hotdish with peas
- Take Out
*Meals that either DH or DD2 is not a fan of, so may make both on same night, then have leftovers.
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| Daughter was hungry for pizza yesterday so use it up lunch. |
I believe I have all the ingredients for a dump cake to make for Saturday, DD2's favorite to have an early birthday celebration as her birthday is the 14th. We'll get Take Out that night, her choice, as well. If she goes back on Saturday, well move that to Friday. I'm not setting a spending goal for the month, but will use January as a place to get my grocery spending bearings-see how much I can use up, how much I can restock with lower cost items, while still not driving to multiple stores. I plan to continue the get in/get out shopping. I see a lot of soup in my future menus, and will do sandwiches (widely defined) for DH on the side, which should keep him happy. The soup will keep me filled for lunches as well. Are you doing any sort of January challenge in your kitchen? Who like me are trying to tweak both their eating habits and budget?
I will definitely need to pick up fresh groceries but i would like to use up some pantry items, especially things I bought during the beginning of the pandemic when stuff was hard to come by. Menu this week includes chicken pot pie, tuna noodle casserole, and a soup of some kind. I saw someone cook steak in the air fryer and it looked amazing so I might just have to pop into Sam’s club and get some. I don’t think I will renew my membership that expires in March so I would like to get in there a few times, if it’s ever not busy. I just don’t shop like I used to-it was entertainment to walk around and sample things but now I’m in and out and limit myself to Aldi and Walmart for the most part. JoAnn
ReplyDeleteAfter a quick fridge clean out, we had almost no fresh fruit and I hard boiled the remaining eggs. There were a few other quick items I needed and the local grocery really adds up fast. I think the kid will want a lot of comfort foods and there were two good prices on mushrooms and pie crusts, so will do something she really likes with those. We haven't had a Sams since it expired after our middle child's graduation-so no membership since 2010. It was out of the way for us-they still would all be out of the way unless I stopped on my way hoe for work and we didn't buy enough to justify with the older kids off to school.
DeleteSounds great Sam. Definitely indulge your daughter while you can. You know my main challenge for the month but as always I'll be trying to keep grocery and other costs as low as possible at the same time.
ReplyDeleteShe might have a few other requests besides curry, so we will wait to fully determine what she wants.
DeleteYour menu sounds yummy! My challenge is to use up some items in my upright freezer so that I can defrost it. I missed defrosting it in the summer due to concerns about food availability. It desperately needs it. Also will use up lurkers that have been in there awhile. I am not too concerned about using pantry items up although I have identified items that were bought as might need during COVID shutdowns that we normally never buy that need to be used up. One example is triple berry muffin mix that I used this past week to add to breakfast for dinner meal.
ReplyDeleteLike you, I have some lurkers as well. I just thought of a muffin mix-needs to be baked one morning.
DeleteI picked up a small notebook this year to keep my grocery lists and have the date and total spent so that I can keep track of what is actually spent. We have a lot of local food markets selling local meat and veggies so we usually do quite well money wise.
ReplyDeleteAnything bought local is sure to have better taste as well, so more value for money. I hope your system works well for you.
DeleteOur food budget was a major fail in 2020, so I'm working on it this year. It's a bit hard, as my husband does the majority of the shopping. (I've tried to take over, but he will just go out & buy more things he thinks we "need.") We have a list & he sticks to it ~75% of the time. That 25% adds up. Anyway, I do have things to use up in the freezer, and always try to have a menu that incorporates fresh new meals, with freezer leftovers. When we have a menu for the week made entirely out of freezer leftovers, people complain. ;-)
ReplyDeleteFor this week, we're having my favorite chicken curry, tacos, and a couple of new recipes. I have a bonus cooking day this week (Monday) as we don't have work that day as an unexpected 2021 bonus from our employer.
I'm sure adding two week day meals and snacks for two people changes budget drastically. I've had less rogue shopping because my husband didn't do any of the shopping when the pandemic started as I figured one less place for him to be exposed. Since summer he has done a few stops, but he too is quick-in and out, and no wandering.
DeleteI would indulge the daughter, too. Since my health is the focus for now on, eating less detrimental to my health items is my goal. That will impact the spending, too.
ReplyDeleteFor my meals, I am starting with fruit and veg, then protein, and carbs to be the smallest part. And move more.
DeleteI am doing a no-spend January, which includes grocery shopping. I set a goal of allowing myself in the grocery store twice this month. The no-spend is only for me, however. The kids/husband are not on board. What does this mean? If DH takes a kid down to get a coffee (to support the local stand) or order takeout from their favorite Mexican restaurant, I will not partake. (If I say I don't want anything, DH is less likely to order.) I have a lot of meat in the freezer, as well as pasta which needs to be used. As far as toiletries, the kids should be all set from Christmas, but if there is something they need, they know to ask me if I have one on hand...which usually I do in my gift bin. I may, however, break my rules if I find an excellent deal on something in the ads or on my store visit--for instance any meat we eat below $0.99/lb would be an exception to my rules.
ReplyDeleteWe do better on my challenges if I don't require others to be fully on board, and allow flexibility if there is a great deal. While I'm not publicly setting a spending challenge, I'd sure like to keep below $400, including food, household, and prosomal.
DeleteI am working on a pnatry challenge. Mostly because we need to use up some things bought during quarantine. Canned soups, meats, etc that need to be used and possibly replaced.
ReplyDeleteI will continue to buy milk, eggs, bread and fresh items.
I will have used up all the crema of mushroom soup I finally found this fall with stroganoff or tuna noodle hotdish, but there is others. My pantry is ample but not full, but I didn't do a large shop in December and do not plan to in January either.
DeleteI need to do a "use it up" challenge also as I really need to empty my freezers and take stock. Still, you can't go wrong with soup can you!
ReplyDeleteI love a good mug of soup, particularly on my days when I can't take a real lunch break. If I have multiple frozen portions, all the better.
DeleteI made that same strawberry braid from fundraiser but was not impressed with it,
ReplyDeleteWe have been eating for breakfast slightly warmed in microwave. I have two more in the freezer thankfully one is cinnamon one apple. I am also trying to go through the freezer.
I could live on soup and sandwich. Try to make one soup a week in winter so I usually freeze some of it. My husband gets tired of eating the same thing. I don't. Sounds like you have a good plan. I enjoy your blog¡!!!!!!
I thought the strawberry bread was much better than the garlic braid we bought with same fundraiser-that was flavorless. This sort of tasted like a convenience store Danish pastry-not horrible, but for $11, I think I agree-not impressive. Thanks for reading-sounds like we will both enjoy a lot of soup in our months ahead.
DeleteYou inspired me this evening to go through the freeze and shelves and make a meal sole from 'things we already had' nothing was purchased in the making.
ReplyDelete