Meal plan for March 9th-15th
Ok, so as promised, here is my total spend on groceries last week:
Grocery store:
- $3.56 salami for Troy (vomit)
- $5.07 for good quality Canadian bacon for Troy and for our pizza last week (Troy doesn’t think pizza is pizza without meat)
- $.18 for dried parsley (bulk spices for the win! That filled up my whole spice jar)
- $.42 for dried dill (bulk spices)
Total: $9.23
Costco:
- $7.39 for Life cereal (the only cereal my cereal hating child will eat, and Troy likes it for a bedtime snack)
- $4.29 for salad
Total: $11.68
Total for the week: $20.91
Total left for the month: $79.09
We also spent $15.59 for a liter of the cheapest vodka on earth, but since we aren’t drinking it, I didn’t include it in the grocery total. It’s for a batch of homemade vanilla extract for Christmas gifts, so the price came out of our Christmas budget.
If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, you’ve already seen the photo of the three female peacocks that were grazing for bugs in my yard last week.
The momma and her ex have been mainstays in this neighborhood for probably 15 years. Last spring, the momma showed up with three little ‘cocks (hee hee), but some time last summer we noticed only two babies were left. Sad day. They weren’t around too much in the winter, but now that the sun is shining often, we’re seeing the momma and her babies out and about more and more.
The peacocks are excellent for pest control, and never damage the crops so they are welcome additions to my micro farm. If only they would pull some weeds while they’re at it. Do you see all those green spikes by momma peacock’s butt? Those are tulips that are usually coming up at the end of March/beginning of April. My dad carpet bombed the garden with bulbs and wildflower seeds before he and my mom moved out in 2007. Every single year I pull out all the tulip bulbs after they’re done blooming, and declare it “at last the end of the tulips”, and BAM the next spring 20 more pop up in the exact same spot.
I’m not anti-tulip at all, and would actually plant some myself in the fall if I wasn’t so lazy by the end of the harvest season. I just hate these tulips because only about 20% of them actually have flowers. The rest are just leaves that are total teases and look like weeds. You know, because all the other weeds currently living in my garden would get jealous.
Can you see the strawberry plants in the background? I planted 25 bare root strawbs last spring, the chickens got about 10 of them, and the rest of them have totally grown and covered that part of the garden in a strawberry carpet. I can’t wait to see what June is like in our yard! We’ll probably still have to go to the u-pick farm this year to get enough for jam, but the fresh eating should be excellent on the “upper 40” of the micro farm. As in the upper 40 feet. Cause this place is small!
I worked yesterday from 6:45 am – 4:45 pm. It was a gorgeous 60 degree sunny day, and I was stuck inside being resentful. Troy and Jack had boy day, and when I got home, Jack said “daddy gave me three fruit rolls (natural fruit leathers from Costco), two root beer suckers, and a chocolate milkshake. My day was AWESOME”. He then acted like a cracked out meth head for the rest of the night. He had a total breakdown at bedtime because he wanted the Seahawks pillowcase off of his pillow to just sleep with the bare pillow. He is a total sweatball and loses about 3 pounds of sweat every night. We told him he could, but then five minutes later he was sobbing because he wanted the pillowcase back on because “I need a decorated pillow mommy”. Oy, I’m not good with these erratic mood swings. Most days I feel like I actually did birth a little girl. I have no idea where this drama comes from.
Meal plan time! Just a reminder that I only plan our dinners for the week. For breakfast we tend to eat the same things (homemade Greek yogurt for me, a sandwich for Troy, and whatever Jack’s heart happens to desire that morning), and lunches for the grown ups are leftovers of what we had for dinner the night before.
Monday:: Spaghetti, salad, and brussel sprouts
Tuesday:: Chicken gyros, brussel sprouts, and roasted carrots
Wednesday:: Taquitos, black beans, and salad
Thursday:: Grassfed burgers, a new side dish I’m trying out, and roasted sweet potatoes
Friday:: Homemade pizza, and salad
Saturday:: My nephew is spending the night and has requested popcorn and pizza (but don’t tell him we’re only making popcorn). We will then take him to church the next day and he will spend 60 minutes yelling “I am WHISPERING AUNT SARAH”.
Sunday:: Family dinner at my parent’s. This week I am contributing dessert; an apple crisp. I have the canned apple slices downstairs, and will just do a topping of oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, and butter.
I’m a bit annoyed at the amount of meat we’re having for dinner this week. I typically like a mix of meat and meatless meals, but I feel like this week is a bit meat heavy (that’s what she said). But honestly, I did some piss poor pre-planning this week, so it is what it is.
What are you having this week?
OOO la-la. How do you do your chicken gyros? (approximately)
Troy grills chicken breasts in his normal way (marinated in a little olive oil and Montreal Steak Seasoning), and then we dice it. I mix yogurt with dill, chives, parsley, and fresh garlic. Then just put it all on a flat bread and voila.
I like to do the same thing with chicken strips, and add pepper and onion strips, chopped tomatoes, sliced black olives and Tzatziki. So yummy! and we’re having it tommorow night.
I am on the right truck with my Grocery Challenge for now. I hope to continue like this!
I just spent an ass load at the grocery store on Thursday. Oh well, I avoided going out to eat to night (or as we usually do, hitting up the grocery store for frozen meals) and we just had spaghetti noodles with ketchup on it. High class, I know, but we love it.
Not a clue what I plan to cook this week. We just finished the homemade gluten free bread and I don’t have enough of the mix left to make more. I have a feeling we will be eating a lot of fruit with peanut butter (or almond butter for the kiddo) on it. And frozen veggies because I don’t have to pre-plan for those.
That is, as long as my kitchen sink drain gets fixed. Woke up this morning and after breakfast noticed the sink wasn’t draining. Check the pipes underneath but their are all clear. Grr. Waiting for a call back from the rental agency.
What store do you get your bulk spices from? The closest bulk place to us is in Nashville at Whole Foods, but I don’t recall the selection being that great for bulk spices. I did find out this week that we are getting a SPROUTS in our town, and I just about turned cartwheels. Thank goodness it’s not another liquor store or a pharmacy.
Fred Meyer. It’s a Pacific Northwest chain. I’ve only been to a few Whole Foods, but from what I remember, their bulk spice section as being pretty darn decent.
Never been to a sprouts, but based on your cartwheels, I assume it’s a great store?
“Sprouts Farmer’s Market” https://www.sprouts.com/ Considering the fact that everything else that goes in here is either a liquor store or a pharmacy, this is a big deal.
Eating tulip bulbs? I learn something every week when I read your blog and comments! I’d love to grow tulips but I don’t think they would fare well in Central Florida. However, neither does rhubarb and that didn’t prevent me from buying a rhubarb plant at Home Depot yesterday. I did inquire about a warranty and was told I could bring back the dead plant within 1 year with my receipt and get a refund so I’ll try it again (my first try last year, with roots ordered from an online catalog, was a failure of course).
I don’t have peacocks in my yard but for the past several days a pixillated woodpecker has been trying to peck at the old satellite dish that we still have on our roof. Cute… and annoying as heck because the noise reverberates throughout our old house at 7-8 a.m.
I posted my menu for the week here: http://imperfectlyfrugally.blogspot.com/2015/03/in-my-fridge-dinner-plan.html
I have to buy 3 things for it but otherwise I’m using up what I have on hand. I realized this morning that I had been a little cocky (he-he as you would say) by saying I had made menu plans through March. I actually stopped at March 22. So I’ll be spending some time this week planning a few more weeks in advance as I need to declutter my freezers. Starting in May I’ll be pre-cooking and freezing meals for my husband so he doesn’t eat crap while I’m in France this summer, and right now the freezers are full of uncooked food.
My spending total for March so far is $39.06. I’m trying to spend $50 or less per week on food instead of the $100/wk I had budgeted for the year.
Oh, girl! You do know you can eat Tulip bulbs, don’t you? You don’t want to over do it, but they are edible. Google it and see what “comes up” (snrrrk). I read somewhere that Audrey Hepburn and many other Dutch would have starved to death during the war if they hadn’t had Tulip bulbs to eat.
From 6th-9th grade, I read Audrey Hepburn’s biography about three times a year, so yep, I knew they’re edible. I still have that book somewhere. Of all the book downsizing we’ve done over the years, I believe it is still hanging around somewhere! 😀