Alright, exciting news first…
In case you missed it on social media, I started a Youtube channel! After learning that I didn’t need a bunch of fancy video and sound equipment to make decent videos, I finally took the plunge and tried making my first video. It was easy, quick, and most importantly FUN! So, it’s decided, I’m going to make more videos!
Make sure to subscribe to the Budget Bytes Youtube Channel, so you’ll never miss a new video.
I’d LOVE to hear what you want to see in video format. Leave any ideas or suggestions in the comments below (remember, if you’ve never commented before, your comments will not show up immediately). I’m planning to stick to quick recipe demos, cooking techniques, and how-to’s.
Okay, now on to the real business…
Weekly Recap 10/7-10/13
After finishing the September Challenge on a high note, I decided to continue on with my $30/week grocery budget. It forces me to be disciplined, creative, mindful of waste, and to really think about my fruit and vegetable consumption.
Unfortunately, this week was pretty much a bust. But hey, disasters happen and I wanted to make sure to share my fails as well as my successes because both can be equally insightful. My big two areas of fail this week were fruit and vegetables.
I bought some lovely little tangerines that were a great price and a great size for single serving fruit, but after eating one and having to pick out 4-5 seeds per section, I found myself avoiding the tangerines the rest of the week. They’re still in my fridge and I’ll try to eat them this week to prevent waste, but I am not looking forward to it.
I also bought a bunch of root vegetables that I planned to cover in fragrant spices (similar to the mix from my Moroccan Lentil and Vegetable Stew) and then roast to sweet perfection. Well… first I had a brain fart and picked vegetables that were almost all the same color (white), which doesn’t make for an appetizing dish. Second, they were just bitter and did not taste good. No, they didn’t just taste “not good”, they were inedible. I’m not sure if it was the vegetables themselves, the spices, or a mix of both, but I literally could not eat them (and I can usually eat just about anything). They all went in the garbage, where they smelled so bad that I eventually had to take them out to the Dumpster to avoid gagging. Extreme, right? Hard lesson learned.
What I Bought
I’m going to have to start splitting my grocery photos into two photos… they don’t fit! Also, that’s matzo meal up there next to the eggs. It got cut off.
So, I had to stock up on just a couple staples this week: eggs, garlic, onions, baking powder, and milk. The vegetables that I bought for the “disaster” roasted vegetables were fennel, turnips, carrots, and onions (which were also used for my soup). The cost of the wasted vegetables was about $4.37, or 15% of my budget. Not terrible, but not great either. I hate throwing food away!
The real win for this week’s grocery trip was the sale on chicken breast. My local grocery store has this sale on a semi-regular basis, with prices less than $2/lb. (I guess they’re not too good at forecasting their sales and need to off them in a hurry?). This pack has three large breasts in it, I only used one, and froze the rest for later (quick tutorial on How to Divide and Freeze Chicken here).
What I Ate
This amazing (and easy) Matzo Ball Soup was the focal point for my menu this week and it served me well! I gobbled it up happily every day. I estimated 5 servings, but I didn’t divide them up immediately, like I usually do, and ended up getting about six servings out of it.
I found one lonely can of pumpkin purée in the back of my pantry from seasons past, so I had to make my obligatory, once per year Baked Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal. OMG I love this stuff. It makes breakfast time sooooo good and really gets me in that Autumn mood. :D And knowing that there’s going to be another pumpkin shortage this year (boooo!) made me enjoy every bite that much more.
Roasted Vegetables with Rice and Fried Egg: So, this is what I had planned as my “secondary” meal for the week, but as mentioned, it was a complete fail, so I had to fill in the gaps with items from my freezer, like my last few servings of Mexican Lentil Stew and African Peanut Stew. Plus, I made a small pot of rice to make a couple of these puppies:
Spinach and Rice Breakfast Bowls are great any time of day, not just breakfast! These are super simple to make and because I almost always have a little frozen spinach in my freezer, it was the perfect emergency meal to take place of my flopped recipe. Woot!
I also ate out twice this past week. Once for dinner on Friday and again for brunch on Sunday. Dinner was at a really fun mix and match pasta place (Arabella Casa Di Pasta) and the serving was so big that the leftovers took care of one of my meals the next day. Sunday was kind of a crazy day and brunch happened much later than expected, so it took the place of both breakfast and lunch. I was so hungry by the time we ordered that I completely gorged myself and then my stomach hurt for the rest of the day and I didn’t eat anything else. :/ Ooops.
Summary
Moral of the story: roll with the punches. Things don’t always go the way we want, but a little preparation when thing are going well helps a lot when things aren’t going well (freezing leftovers of good recipe saved the day when I had a bad recipe). Luckily, this week is already going much better. :)
Till next week!
I think the reason that you’re getting your chicken so cheap is because it’s been previously frozen. At least that’s what it says on your receipt. If that’s the case, the reason it is cheaper is because you can’t refreeze it. If you are going to refreeze it, make sure you cook it first. You should not be refreezing raw chicken.
As long as the chicken has been refrigerated the entire time (never gotten above 40 degrees F–the “temperature danger zone”), it’s actually safe to refreeze. There may be a slight loss in quality, but it’s safe (according to the USDA).
Hi Beth,
Love , love , love your blog and now your new YT channel! Such good information on shopping and cooking solo to stay within budget…that’s a rare find. I’m currently transitioning into new cookware and loved your article explaining how you did your research to find your current set. Videos that show you using those pieces would be great..also any brand reviews would also be helpful. I am really struggling with all the cast iron enamel and stainless steel tri-ply choices out here..but I am narrowing the field.
I’m actually planning to make the Matzo Ball Soup this weekend; I’ve never had matzo balls. Also, I am going to make the Spinach Rice Breakfast Bowl for my breakfasts next week to take to work. Both look so yummy! Thank you for sharing!
Hi Beth, I wanted to make a request. Sometimes I have trouble recreating your recipes to satisfaction and I think it has a lot to do with ingredients chosen. It would be great if you list the brands that you use because they can alter the flavor significantly. For example, Goya canned Tomato Sauce has significantly more sugar and sodium than Hunts. Or MS.Dash Lemon Pepper has much less salt than McCormick lemon pepper. Anyway this would help me much.
I’ll definitely try! A lot of times I use the generic store brand, though, and I think the chain that I go to is only in Louisiana. :(
Ugh, it is so frustrating when you take the time to make something and it turns out inedible! Hugs of commiseration–I’ve been there many times! I just wanted to say thanks for the time you put in sharing about your food adventures. Many a night I’ve felt completely uninspired to cook and decided to scope out what you’ve been up to before I go the loser route and order take out. It’s often the little shove I need to raid the pantry and make something that’s good for me. Happy to see you’ve started the YouTube channel and cannot wait to see what comes of it! Cheers from Vancouver :)
Wow I was just thinking last night about how I wanted to message you about starting a YouTube channel. So weird lol. SO HAPPY THAT YOU STARTED ONE- cant wait to watch all your videos!!!
I know I’m going to love your YouTube channel. My only recommendation is putting text with each of your ingredients. When you add the can of pumpkin, add a text that says “14.5 oz pumpkin puree” or whatever the case is. I think linking to the receipt is great too, which I saw you did. I also love when the recipe is left in the comments.
I know it sounds really redundant, but I have a few favorite food blogs on YouTube and that’s what I love about all of them. :)
I’m with you about the seeds. I would rather not have watermelon/cherries/oranges than have to pick out all the seeds.
Hey Beth, long time lurker but first time commenting! I found your blog at the beginning of university and have been introducing everyone I know to it ever since. Just wanted to let you know that you’ve done a fabulous job with the video! Excited to see more :)
Does your grocery store not have a return policy? Couldn’t you “return ” the bad veggies/spices? I shop at Aldi and have had bad fruit and they exchange for another try and give me my money back.
Well, the spices are things I’ve had in my pantry for some time, so that wouldn’t work and I don’t know if I’d feel okay trying to return vegetables that were already cut up and cooked. I wouldn’t have a problem returning some bad fruit or something that was still mostly whole, but just not in this case. Plus, I’m not exactly sure what made it so terribly disgusting! Hahaha
Love the video Beth! The oatmeal looks fantastic!
Tangerine juice is delicious! I would definitely just juice them and then strain the juice. Tangerine margaritas are especially scrumptious!
I love that you’re starting a channel Beth! The only thing I’d suggest is adding the ingredients and their quantities as a text overlay as you add them as well as paraphrased instructions, such as “Preheat to ____” and “Stir”. Otherwise, in order to feasibly make the recipe, one would have to have both the video and the site open at the same time, which wouldn’t work if you’re cooking with your phone as the cookbook (which is what I do 99% of the time). Someone whose cooking Youtube channel I watch often is Maangchi (she makes delicious Korean food…I mostly just watch and drool lol), and her videos are a bit more long-form, but I’m sure you could combine similar elements with the short-form style!
Good for you for tossing the failed veggies! Waste stinks, but no need to torture yourself with bad food. I also made your baked pumpkin pie recipe this week–so yummy and autumnal!
One time our CSA box had a beautiful hard squash. I proceeded make our favorite dish with layers of pumpkin, stale bread, tomatoes, onions, and olive oil. My first mouthful was terribly bitter. I tasted the pumpkin skins I peeled off, just a touch with my tongue was all it took to taste the bitterness. I told the farmer and it turns out it was a volunteer squash that had reverted back to one of the hybrids. Yuck. I now always taste it before using.
Can I ask: how did you prepare the fennel? Was it part of your root vegetable mix? Because that may have been the cause right there.
If you ever buy a mix of turnips/related veggies again: we kind of live off them here in the winter, and I can recommend preparing them either like you would a potato hash (fried in a pan with some oil), or just sauteeing with some chicken stock and a little bit of honey.
Seconding the fennel comment. Fennel is really a vegetable that needs to be sliced thinly and used sparingly.
The only other white root veggies I see in the pic are the turnips. In my experience, turnips have a strong flavor and if you’re roasting them, it’s best to use them as an accent among some blander root veggies than as the focus.
I sliced the fennel thin, then tossed it in with the rest of the veggies I was roasting. I’ve prepared it like that before and it was yummy, but now I’m eyeing the turnips. I’ve never roasted those before, only added them to liquidy things like soups and stews. :P
Have you seen Food Wishes with Chef John?
Nope, what’s that?
Oh do go check Foodwishes it, either the website or the YouTube channel. His approach to cooking is very similar to yours – creative and fun. I’m not affiliated, just a fan.
Beth i think its only fair that in tribute to this fantastic blog and how far its come that you do a video showcasing your infamous, delicious, simple, easy to customize, and savior of many struggling artists and scraping students alike, the Italian Wonderpot!
These kinds of cooking videos are very ‘in’ right now and I love that you’re starting one, especially with your niche in this field, but I would strongly suggest superimposing text of ingredients, cooking times, temps, etc over each of your steps in the video. Honestly, more important than audio, even. Makes it easier to be shared on social media. And more accessible!
And it’s awesome for people like me who read Budget Bytes at work (naughty naughty) and can’t have the sound on!
Love the video, and the site, as always. It has been my saving grace for years now! My request for a video would be my favourite happy time food introduced to me by you. .. Dragon noodles!
I remember one time I was making a double batch of this muffin recipe my grandma had given me and it called for mayo but I didn’t have quite enough so the only thing I could think to sub for it was yogurt. That was a very bad idea. The muffins did not turn out. I had made these muffins a bunch of times so it was disappointing.
I love that you have a youtube channel now. I would agree though with the previous commenter who suggested talking. I am blind and so the video was just a lot of really upbeat music to me, which was very nice, but I missed the main focus of the video which was the demonstration of preparing the recipe. Haha. Love your site though and have made a ton of your recipes. As for kitchen fails, we all have those from time to time. I get what you are saying though about not wanting to waste stuff but if the veggies smelled and tasted that bad… whoa.
OMG! Its the theme song from dead like me. I don’t find many people that know that series.
I don’t know that series either. :D Hahaha, it was just one of the free choices from Youtube’s library. Hahaha
I hope the videos will be helpful to people, but it’s not a format that works for me, so I hope it doesn’t become the focus of your efforts!
Nope, don’t worry, it won’t! I plan on using it as just fun supplements to the blog material. :) The blog will always be my main focus.
first, i love these weekly budget posts. But I have a quick question. Why do you always shop at rouses? There are so many options, winn dixie, ideal market and save a lot. It seems like it would be frugal to check the weekly ads of all stores and shop the best prices.
I’ve wanted to check out Ideal Market for a while, and I’m just not a fan of Winn Dixie. The easiest answer is that Rouse’s is less than two blocks from my house and I like their selection. :)
I also have the same problem with tangerines, so I usually prefer to buy clementines or navel oranges. If you don’t want to waste them, you could always juice them and use a sieve to remove the seeds. Tangerine zest would also be a lovely addition to dishes.
Loved the video! My suggestion would be some audio of you speaking and kind of explaining the steps as you go.
Love the video! The main focus is the recipe and technique unlike a lot of recipe videos where the first five minutes is the host talking and talking, then you can’t really see the actual food being prepared all that well. Looking forward to more!
I’m so sorry this week didn’t work well for you. I enjoy your weekly recaps so much, but I guess we all have those moments in the kitchen!
I don’t know if this will help, but instead of eating the tangerines make a curd out of them. Yum. Or strip the fruit of their “zest” and freeze the zest for later uses.
Dunno. Otherwise, good luck with the seediness. Always the worst surprise in citrus fruits!
Oooh, I like that idea! I love curd.
About the videos, I can say just one thing… MORE! I’ve already subscribed :))
Congratulations on your Youtube channel. I watched your video and really liked your format. I always wondered why you didn’t have a channel you have a great following and I see nothing but success for you in this endeavor. Hope to see another soon!
Excited to try the pumpkin pie oatmeal recipe. I was trying to find a healthy pumpkin pie recipe for my daughter’s breakfast as she is super picky all of a sudden. I don’t tend to have milk on hand but have tons of yogurt. Can I completely omit the milk and only use yogurt? I have both regular and greek. Thanks!
I’ve used yogurt in my baked oatmeal before, but always in combination with milk. I’m not sure if the yogurt will have enough moisture to plump up the oats, but I haven’t tried it so I can’t say for sure.
You could try making some tangerine sorbet if you still have enough left! I love the flavour of tangerines but I’m not a fan of eating them, so making sorbet with them was such a great discovery for me. Cheap, easy, delicious and you don’t need even an ice cream machine for sorbet.
The video was great by the way, a nice fast tempo, though not as informative as an actual recipe. Perhaps listing quantities is a bit much for a quick recipe demo but showing the ingredients might be good?
Love the video and I subscribed to your YouTube channel! I’m going to have to make that oatmeal this weekend, what a great idea for my take to work breakfasts for the week!
I’ve had misses like that with vegetables or meals during the week; you gotta just roll with the punches.
Love your hair by the way, super cute!
Thank you so much for sharing your experiences! I want to try this for two people; do you recommended doubling weekly allowance to $60?
I think that’s a good place to start and then if you find it easy or just too difficult, you can adjust it. :)
I don’t watch videos/vlogs very often, so I’m not much help there. But I love the weekly recap!!!
I liked the format of the video. I know that you link to the recipe several times, but I think what might help is flashing the name and quantity of the ingredient on the screen whenever you add something new. A viewer familiar with baking/cooking may know what you’re adding, but a beginner might not.