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| Crystal Karges Nutrition |
Meal planning has been a big help both staying on budget, and reducing my 5:00 annoyance over what to figure out for dinner. I still think of the plan as more a guide, but I have actually stayed truer to it than I would have imagined I could. Below is the plan for the week of February 14th to 20th.
Sunday: Stuffed chicken breasts, wild rice, salad
Monday: Gyros, with cucumbers, tomatoes, and onions with French fires
Tuesday: Chili and hot dogs
Wednesday: Chicken pot pie or chicken and dumplings (depends on my ambition)
Thursday: Apple cheddar sausage meatballs, au gratin potatoes, garlic green beans
Friday: Frozen, Take and Bake, or Take Out pizza
Saturday: Chicken, broccoli, rice and cheese hotdish, drop biscuits
The reality:
Sunday: Stuffed chicken breasts, mashed potatoes and green beans
Monday: Gyros, with cucumbers, tomatoes, and onions, salad
Tuesday: Leftover Gyros and roasted potatoes for DH, I had hummus, cucumber, and olives on bread with the potatoes. I had eaten a late lunch, and there was enough leftovers for two gyros and DH is hungry enough to eat both.
Wednesday: Chili and hot dogs
Thursday: Frozen pizza, and later chips and salsa
Friday: Chicken cordon bleu (the frozen ones) au gratin potatoes, steamed mixed veg
Saturday: Chicken, broccoli, rice and cheese hotdish, beer bread (made with an out of date cider) The bread was mediocre-had a strong smell and heavy taste. It might be the fault of using an outdated beer. It was better with the maple butter I mixed up-also might be better doused in syrup like corn bread. While I used up the beer rather than throw, I feel like I wasted the other ingredients.
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| This hotdish is always a favorite... |
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| but the cider bread will likely not appear in my kitchen again. |
After Sunday, I sort of dialed in the rest of the week, using convenience, frozen meals, and leftovers.This week I think the following will do nicely with a mix of cooking and pulling items form freezer. Thursday is a couple new recipes inspired if not followed exactly, from the LA Cookbook. Martha sent me links to a couple chicken dishes, so may give them a try if I have the ingredients.
Sunday: Lasagna and French bread (either finding HP's son's recipe or found this simple version on line No Knead French Bread
Monday: *Bean Soup and egg or tuna salad sandwiches on leftover French bread
Tuesday: Taco Tuesday, *taco ground beef with rice and refried beans
Wednesday: Hamburgers with tots, fries or wedges
Thursday: Lettuce leave wraps; chicken bites with a fruit, pepper, and onion salsa, pasta tossed with tomatoes, olives, and feta cheese (likely I won't use feta)
Friday: Likely in need of a leftover night or may splurge on take out, but would prefer to defer extra take out for next month when daughter is home
Saturday: Spaghetti *Bolognese with salad, probably garlic bread (freeze portion or one of the French bread loaves for this)
*Items already prepared-freezer assets.
In the last week I spent a grand total of $11.44 (or DH did when he stopped for me), but I am rounding to make tracking easier. Going into these last week of February, I have spent $305 of my super low $350 challenge, with a $45 balance. This has been everything spent on household and health and beauty (some expensive things here), household and pet supplies, and groceries. It does not include any take out food, but does include DH's fun shop. Grocery list for the week, easily enough in the budget to cover. There's even a cushion to get DH a treat like ice cream, and me some more bubbly water.
- milk
- bread
- eggs
- deli meat
- sliced cheese
- spaghetti noodles
- hamburger buns
- possibly Tator Tots (though I looked at the remains of the 10# bag of potatoes bought not even two weeks ago, and I think we need to use up as much as we can)
- mandarins/clementine's
- apples
- bananas
- leafy lettuce like bib, or romaine (for wraps and salad)
- red, yellow, or orange pepper
- can diced tomatoes
- soft spread
- margarine sticks
- +dishwasher detergent
My $350 budget challenge has actually proven easier than I thought. It helps when you still have a fairly decent pantry, even if it was getting low to my husbands standards. Considering $18 of this spend was batteries for two scales that still do not work (the batteries can be used for other things and were multi-packs), three months worth of both DH and my vitamins, my prescription refill, and it was a dog food month, I think I did well. We also had minimal take out so far, but all suppers were cooked at home. I'll wrap up the full budget next Sunday, knowing March will be a normal budget of $400 groceries, and $100 Household, health, and beauty. We'll need many household items that we didn't need to buy in February, and our daughter will be home starting with the 26th. What's on your menu? Any new recipes to try in your house?
Good job on staying on budget. For the two of us, we spend about 500.00 a month for everything. Groceries, pet food, cleaning supplies and h and b items. That is with keeping my pantry fully stocked. I'm a believer in 2 is 1 and 1 is none so I replace any item that I use. We shop twice a month with maybe a fresh veg, fruit pick up in between in the fall and winter. Spring and summer we eat a lot of veg and fruit from our garden or from the farmers market. It is nice to know that if needed we would still eat well without shopping for a month or more. Have a great Sunday.
ReplyDeleteI spent the second half of January on a pantry challenge that extended into February, clearing out lurkers. March will be a normal, stock up, with a similar budget to yours $400 groceries, and another $100 for non-food items, but a separate budget for eatin gout/take out. I normally follow your theory to some extent as well, so March and April will restock and then in May, we are back to being a household of three until late August. Enjoy your Sunday as well.
DeleteThat's great that you were able to stay under budget, Sam.
ReplyDeleteI like menu planning because it helps me to use up all the items I have in the house.
Your menus sound so good. I was thinking of doing a Chicken Cordon Bleu, but after describing it to Bailey, didn't thin she would like it. I also thought abut doing Chili Dogs on our menus for the week. It has been a long time since we had those.
If ham and cheese inside chicken doesn't sound good, it likely wouldn't be enjoyed. Chili and hotdogs hit the spot last week.
DeleteThe pantry challenge is working fairly well here, but we have done take out a little more than normal. It is mainly because of things going on here that are not normal and will be taken care of sooner rather than later. I am tired of moving things though!
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine trying to cook and manage three properties.
DeleteGreat job Sam, I knew you could do it! I'm running late getting my menu plan up this week. I'm going to make a new lentil soup recipe today and I know I'll be making the chicken marsala recipe I sent you for this week. I need to check to see what else needs to be used up before I finish up the menu plan. Have a great week!
ReplyDeleteI'll start with Thursday's new dish- hubs thought it sounded good.
DeleteSTILL in the pantry challenge, though I DID capitalize on some sales. There is a brand of frozen pizza we not only tolerate, but actually like, and it was buy 1 get 1, eggs were $0.89/dozen, and BSCB were $1.49/lb, so I bought some of those as well. Our meals the past week were a roast beef dinner with all the fixings, cottage pie, risotto, barbecued chicken. The other days they were on their own, since I was out and about, which is a rarity. THIS week we have steaks planned for tonight, ravioli (and I'll bake some breadsticks) enchilada casserole with ground beef. Yesterday's treat was a Key Lime pie I made with limes that were turning brown, and a graham cracker crust that was lurking in my pantry. My freezer and pantry are still quite full. I may continue this to next month, when HOPEFULLY we will begin the process of getting our building permit. From there, it's (because my contractor is great) a quick build. The well/water availability, however, makes me realize why people complain about building. Once the county sends me the final piece of paper, I turn it over to the contractor, and have them do that thing they do so well.
ReplyDeleteHave a great Sunday.
Building again is good incentive for a pantry challenge. All your meals sound terrific.
DeleteI think I need to take a serious look at my pantry and use up the canned vegetables I bought. I normally never buy them but, I was afraid the pandemic and the winter might cause a supply chain trouble. Thankfully that did not happen.I had set out a small plastic rack in the balcony for extras and I intend to tuck it away after I use up the canned veggies.
ReplyDeleteI was like that with beans, but now just have what we'll use and replace.
DeleteI was curious as to how bread with cider would work out with it being quite tart and yeast-free.
ReplyDeleteIs there a reason why you buy sliced cheese? It's a very expensive way to buy it here, we buy cheese by the block. xxx
I'm sure I did something wrong. I've made regular beer bread which was fewer ingredients with good outcomes. The sliced cheese is for DHs sabdwiches, and a little more but not much. It's a morning convenience that cost anout 20 cents more a package, roughly 4 needed a month. I use block cheese for cooking at home.
DeleteI have never met a hot dish I did not enjoy.
ReplyDeleteStarch, protein, veg, binder, and topping- the universal recipe.
DeleteI tried a new Asian sauce for riblets and I thought it was awful. In fact the smell lingered in the house to remind me how awful. I have 7 more days of the pantry challenge which was not that hard condescending we were gone for 8 days. I will have to stock up on some veggies this Wednesday.
ReplyDeleteGood job, Kim. Staying to any plans feels momentous.
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