What I Spent, What We Ate

I so wish we had an aldi! we usually spend about $300 for a family of 6 (5 eaters) over 2 weeks. As you point out some weeks are more organized than others!

I shop on Fridays, so from last Friday:

Friday: Pizza - we make homemade pizza every Friday, cheese for the kids, and B and I switch it up for us

Saturday: Baked chicken, oven fries, and broccoli

Sunday: Split pea soup, no-knead bread (kind of like your batter rolls, only a bit more flour and baked in a 10" cake pan), cheddar cheese, plus ice cream for Sundaes on Sunday, another weekly tradition!

Monday: Spaghetti with homemade meat sauce (I make a sort of bolognese with carrots, onion, garlic, spices, canned tomatoes, and red wine, puree it, then add cooked ground beef from the freezer), bread, salad

Tuesday: Tacos with the Pioneer Woman homemade taco seasoning (I add 1/2 tsp corn starch), black beans, guacamole

Wednesday: Leftovers (I plan a leftover night into every week, and if we don't have enough leftovers, I make breakfast for dinner)

Thursday: Kids' nature-oriented Montessori school is having a bonfire/cookout to celebrate the Fall Equinox tonight, so we're going there and bringing Chocolate Covered Katie's Healthy Cookie Dough Dip and apple slices

B is going to Germany for a month for work, leaving on Saturday, so we're on our own for a while! I planned some of our favorite easy meals I can make without thinking too much so I can try to be more present with the kids when dad's away. I'm also switching from part-time to full-time work a week into his trip. Our evenings are going to take more effort on my part - B usually handles that time of day, when he has more energy than I do.

Next week's plan: Friday: pizza

Saturday: Dinner with the in-laws, I'm bringing Portillo's, they're watching the kids Saturday after church to Sunday noon so I can go bike riding with my usual group Sunday morning

Sunday: Homemade chicken nuggets, oven fries, broccoli, Sundaes on Sunday

Monday: Box mac and cheese, kielbasa cooked with onions (I like to mix this into the boxed mac and cheese, the kids don't like it, so I serve it separately), cooked carrots, applesauce

Tuesday: Soaked Oatmeal Waffles (original recipe from One Lovely Life, but I altered it quite a bit - 1/2 c. canola oil instead of the butter because I have a health issue that requires me to limit saturated fat, I use 1 T sugar instead of 2 because I don't like sweet waffles, and although it doesn't say to blend the oats after soaking, I discovered my more choosy child prefers waffles "without bits in", so I hit the wet ingredients with a stick blender before adding the flour mixture. I also separate the eggs and whip the whites, then fold in at the end to get that classic crisp-on-the-outside-soft-in-the-middle texture. To reduce the saturated fat further, I use a mix of 0% Oikos plain yogurt and homemade almond milk instead of the buttermilk. At that point, I can leave in the egg yolks with their important vitamins and minerals) Strawberries and whipped cream

Wednesday: Black bean soup, cornbread, cheddar, sour cream, chocolate pudding

Thursday: Spaghetti with sauce (leftover from the previous week in the freezer), no-knead bread, salad, chocolate pudding (my pudding recipe makes 6 servings)

Oh my gosh, those waffles look heavenly! I'd love to get a waffle maker once we have more room. :)

This week we ate:

Monday: Thai curry cauliflower with soft boiled eggs.

Tuesday: We were going to cook adobo street tacos, but instead got Raising Cane's while doing house renovations. Oops!

Wednesday: Aaaand the plan here was to have corn soup with a poblano puree, but we got Papa John's instead. It was a busy week; give me some slack here. ;)

Thursday: We ate faro with kale, walnuts, and asparagus. It was delicious, but I should have eaten more of it to fill up.

Friday: I visited my dad and had Red Robin. Yum!

I did not buy groceries at all last week, as we were gone part of the week. I did give our adult son who lives with us (he's in college) some money to buy microwave-friendly stuff for while we were away.

This week, I spent $85 on people food and $11 on cat food. Last week I made a chicken-pasta-veggie soup from frozen leftovers and the last-ofs from the freezer. That lasted four days and was very yummy. This week I'm making beef-barley soup for the Mister, who is sick with a virus, and took some frozen red beans, frozen quinoa and frozen veggies and turned them into a delicious supper dish for myself. We still have some frozen roast chicken and leftover frozen brown rice to turn into a meal to finish using the Fabulous Freezer Finds. :)

Without a doubt additional trips to get groceries equates to an increased spend here. I'm back to meal planning (it took a back seat over the summer holidays with us being out of routine) but had been popping by every day or so as I ran out of items (not good). Here's hoping this means a reduction in spend, but as I'm intending on spending more time in the kitchen making from scratch this should also have a positive impact on our spend!