Hello friends! It’s time for another weekly recap. I had a pretty low-key week as far as grocery shopping and cooking is concerned. I knew I wanted to take time to post about freezing leftovers last week, so I chose all easy recipes. I made two new recipes, Stir Fry Beef Noodles and Curried Red Lentil and Pumpkin Soup; and two old recipes, Hearty Black Bean Quesadillas and Focaccia Rolls.
I chose the Stir Fry Beef Noodles because I saw a photo of something along that vein on the internet and it made me drool, so I knew that had to go on the menu for the week. ;) The Black Bean Quesadillas were chosen because I needed to make them for a freelance project and I thought they’d be great to stock my freezer with for quick snacks (they’re already almost gone, LOL). The soup idea came because I have had a can of pumpkin sitting in my pantry for a while and I knew that I could make a really fast and simple Pumpkin Soup with it, but I wanted to throw a new spin on that old favorite. And oh those Focaccia Rolls. :) I have been making them a lot lately because they’re easy, cheap, and a nice little “extra” to make meals more filling. Plus, I thought they’d be nice to dip in that soup.
What Did I Buy?
My grocery list for the week, including pantry staples and ingredients needed for the recipes above looked like this:
Staples that I needed to replenish this week included: milk, eggs, oats, garlic, and vegetable flavored Better Than Bouillon. Unfortunately, they were out of vegetable BTB, so I’ll need to stock up on that next week (or whenever I need to use vegetable broth next). While I was at the store, I happened to remember that I was also almost out of soy sauce, and added it to the list last minute. Soy sauce is one of those things I only run out of once in a blue moon, so it’s easy to forget to check to make sure I’m stocked.
Rice noodles, beef, and green onion were for the Stir Fry Beef Noodles. Tortillas, black beans, cilantro, red onion, and cheddar were for the Black Bean Quesadillas. I put a question mark near the red lentils because I remember not being able to find them last time, so I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to make that soup this week. Luckily, Whole Foods had them in the bulk bins. Yay!
Here are the receipts for the two stores:
I checked the sale circulars before heading to the store, and there wasn’t anything spectacular or that I “had to have” in either one. There was a sale on cheese at my local store, but when I went to Whole Foods I found that their non-sale price for cheddar was $0.20 less than the sale price of cheddar at the other store. So, that was a win! And again, I took advantage of the loose carrots for $0.79/lb. at Whole Foods. This was especially great this week because I knew that I only needed ONE carrot.
When I got to the second store I was surprised to find a bunch of sale signs on products that were not in the sale flyer. I don’t know what was up, but I definitely took advantage of some of those sales. I needed tortillas anyway, but I went ahead and got a huge 30 count pack because it was only $2.08. I figured I could freeze the extra… if I didn’t eat them quickly, but I usually do. And to my surprise, a bunch of the Asian ingredients, including rice noodles, were also on sale! Lucky me.
I had a little extra room in the budget, so I picked up an extra jar of marinara sauce to have on hand for the second half of the Skillet Meatballs that I froze last week. I left the rest of the unused budget be, since I went way over a couple of weeks ago.
My total for this week ended up being $35.10.
Here is what the loot looked like:
I really didn’t buy a whole lot this week! But, I knew that I had those frozen meatballs if we needed them and I had $5 left if I needed to make an emergency second run to the store later in the week.
What Did I Eat?
I started the week off with this simple Stir Fry Beef Noodles recipe. It was fast, filling, and the leftovers were quite good. Definitely better than take-out! I’m always amazed at how far 1/2 lb. of beef will go. I love that I can order up any amount I need at the butcher counter, rather than having to buy a whole pound or two pound package off the shelf. I would have just frozen the rest anyway, but less “extras” to keep track of in my freezer is good.
Next I whipped up a quick batch of these Hearty Black Bean Quesadillas (my fav!). I cooked a couple right away, but then I filled, folded, and froze the rest for safe keeping (between sheets of parchment in a gallon freezer bag). These make such a quick snack or meal out of the freezer. Just toss it into a non-stick skillet and reheat over medium-low until the inside is melted and the tortilla is brown and crispy.
Also, I cooked the black beans from dry and only used about 1/3 of them for the quesadillas, which means I have about 2 cans worth in my freezer for future use. Excellent!
Later in the week I made this super simple Curried Red Lentil and Pumpkin Soup. I can’t tell you how much of a life saver easy soups like this are. I mean, even though I do this for fun, some days I still don’t feel like cooking, you know? This comes together in about 30 minutes, most of which is simmer time, so it’s almost effortless. This freezes great, too, so I stashed a couple servings in the freezer.
We ate out twice this week. The first time was for a friend’s birthday. It was my first time having pho in forever! And because pho is always served in a massive bowl, I had two days worth of leftovers. The second was technically eating “in” but I’m counting it as “out.” My boyfriend surprised me and cooked for me one night: pulled chicken sliders on Hawaiian rolls, veggies and dip, plus apple pie and ice cream for dessert! That meal gave us a lot of leftovers. So, we snacked on the leftovers throughout the week and kind of had food coming out our ears. Thank goodness three of the four recipes I made are very freezer friendly!
After eating so many eggs last week I decided I needed to go back to my oatmeal every morning routine. So, I ate oats for breakfast most of this week (except the morning that I ate pho for breakfast… because pho is awesome any time of the day). My current favorite oatmeal concoction is peanut butter, brown sugar, and bananas. Mmmm.
Reflection
I’m not really a “snacky” type person, but it was kind of nice to have the vegetables to snack on and the other “extras” that were in my fridge this week. I might have to see if I can work some snack type foods into future weeks! Time to brainstorm on that…
If you feel like sharing your favorite snacks to keep on hand, please do! That will help get the wheels in my head turning. :)
Beth,
I have followed your blog for a number of years because many of the recipes suit our lifestyle. We live on a sailboat. Provisioning is usually done once every three months when we have access to car. The rest of the time supplies are what we can get where we can get it. So canned goods and one skillet meals figure predominently in our diet. For example, your chili pasta recipe works well for an offshore voyage. I make it using canned goods (substitute canned corn beef for hamburger) before we leave and hearty warm food is available easy for the first three days. Please keep up the good work. Connie-presently in the Exumas Bahamas where fresh vegtables are difficult to get but the fresh fish and sunshine are plentiful
All of the grocery stores near me have been out of Vegetable Better Than Bouillon for weeks! Plenty of Chicken and Beef BTB but no Vegetable…I’m starting to worry they’re discontinuing it or something :-O
They better not be! :P I doubt they’d discontinue it, though. It’s got to be way more popular than some of their other flavors (like ham or mushroom).
Lately my favorite easy on-hand meal/snack has been bread + peanut butter + dried cranberries. For a light lunch I’ll have two slices of dark rye bread (more fiber and fewer calories than regular white/wheat breads) with the peanut butter and cranberries on top, and an apple on the side. For a snack I’ll use the same peanut butter/cranberries but on Wasa bread instead (crispy whole grain flatbread, like a cracker), and just eat a half sized portion. Would be good on a rice cake too!
Another favorite snack is just melted cheese on toast, preferably sharp cheddar, with garlic salt and cracked pepper. Also an excellent light lunch with an apple. Because if I’m being honest, I always want to be eating Welsh rarebit but this is way easier.
I frequently have to work long days so I try to pack three easy, on the go snacks that won’t go bad if I don’t have time to eat them (which does happen– unfortunately Clementine’s get mushy in a backpack). I usually bring an apple, raw almonds, and a granola bar. Keeps me from buying snacks at the train station on the way home. I don’t like relying on granola bars because they’re usually so sugary, but Kind Healthy Grains are actually not too sugar laden.
I like to snack on fruit with tajin, orange slices, mango, cucumber, and jicama cut up with a nice squeeze of lime juice and a few shakes of Tajin it is so delicious and refreshing. Also I always have yogurt on hand usually the 2% fat Greek variety, the higher fat/ protein content will keep me full for hours, another good snack is a little cottage cheese topped with pineapple , slivered almonds a little salt and plenty of cracked black pepper.
Oh, thanks for reminding me about tajin! I’ve wanted to try that for some time. :)
I really like cheese, pretzel thins with pb2 and apple slices, frozen grapes, celery stuffed with cream cheese and a little southwest seasoning sprinkled on top. Sometimes some store brand cheerios and a little milk is nice, too. Trader Joe’s has fat free black bean dip that I eat with carrot chips (like baby carrots but flat slices!). Rice cakes smeared with Jif Whipped chocolate peanut butter is also amazing! I usually eat soup for lunch, so I am ready for some crunch by mid-afternoon :)
Oh, I love those carrot chips! My regular grocery store carries those, too. I like them so much better than baby carrots. :)
I love your weekly recaps! Starting in March I’ll be renting an apartment and feeding myself again (for the past few years my housing and meals had been provided by my job for most of the year), and I’ll need to get back into the habit of budgeting for food – besides living expenses (rent and utilities), it will be my most major expense. While I’ve cooked almost exclusively from your blog for several years (and just bought the cookbook!) it’s always been hard for me to stick to a real budget at the grocery store, mostly because I’m so tempted to try new things and often overbuy due to my enthusiasm for cooking (and figuring it’s still cheaper than eating out), so I find reading about your system and having it laid out really helpful and inspiring.
Right now my schedule for my job requires me to snack pretty much all afternoon – rarely can I sit down to an actual “lunch” and I need tons of energy and protein. These are the snacks that I regularly have on hand:
Apples or bananas and peanut butter
Apples and cheese
Crackers and cheese and pepperoni (or crackers and hummus or peanut butter)
Trail mix (I make my own using ingredients from bulk bins)
Wraps (usually pesto or hummus and cheese and turkey sometimes with greens and tomato – are small enough to wrap up and throw in a sandwich bag – quesadillas or baked oatmeal would work too depending on leaving enough time to thaw)
Clif bars – I try not to rely on them because they’re expensive and I haven’t found a successful replica recipe yet but I figure it’s still less expensive than eating out!
Granola (sometimes with yogurt)
Milk and cereal (usually at night)
Basically my snack formula is a balance of carbs, protein, fiber, and fat – anything all carbs or sugar without enough protein or fat gives me a blood sugar crash.
Those black bean quesadillas are the recipe that introduced me to this site and they’re still a frequent lunch for me.
As for snacking, recently I’ve been obsessed with Ina garten’s rosemary cashews lately. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/rosemary-roasted-cashews-recipe.html
Argh, I don’t understand why grocery stores don’t include all their sale items either in the flyer, either! Makes it very hard to plan. Curious – I’ve seen in these recaps that your meals are always from your own site. Do you ever make recipes from somewhere else?
I’m not a snacky person either. Fruit is my go-to. I like Trader Joe’s Inner Peas for something salty and crunchy. I like the idea of hummus and veggies, but I don’t like hummus. :P This week I’m going to try making a version from white beans instead of garbanzo.
Trader Joe’s white bean hummus is really good!
Red lentils make a great substitute too, especially for roasted bell pepper hummus! (Found this out when experimenting for my husband who developed a chickpea allergy.) Just be sure to cook them with less water than you think you’ll need (I do close to a 1:1 ratio), so the hummus doesn’t end up soggy.
Ooh sounds delicious!
I rarely make recipes from other places, but only because I need a constant flow of new material for my site and I don’t want to cook more than I can eat. :) Man, so many people are recommending snacks from Trader Joe’s… I can’t wait until ours opens!
I used to snack twice a day, but now I don’t snack at all. Of course, now I’m trying to lose 5 lbs, so maybe I should go back to snacking!
When I did snack, it was always pre planned. Plain yogurt, cottage cheese, cheese, or an egg. Or fruit and nuts. Or veggies and dip. I had one of these in the morning and one in the afternoon.
I recently found a recipe for whole wheat banana muffins with a cup of puréed lentils in it. They are really good (with dark chocolate chips and dried cranberries) and they have lots of fibre and protein. A great mid morning snack for me as I eat yogurt with a bit of granola in it around 7am.
Very interesting! I never though to use lentils that way. :)
I’m watching my carbs, so I snack on cheese and veggies a lot, but my current obsession is soy pickled eggs.
I made the Stir Fry Beef Noodles last night but I didn’t notice until reading this post that I misread 1/2 pound of ground beef as 2 pounds! So we had some very beefy (but very delicious!) noodles. Whoops!
Pretzels and veggies with hummus, canned salmon mixed with avocado with pita chips, grapes, watermelon and feta salad, toast with cashew butter. I tend to want “crunchy” snacks.
I’m a “crunchy” craver, too! :)
During the day, I grab a handful of berries or almonds. For a quick evening snack, I’ll pop 1/4 cup popcorn kernels in a brown paper lunch bag for about 35 seconds in the microwave- easiest & best way to make popcorn! I usually toss the kernels in olive oil and pepper first. If I want something a little more hearty than popcorn, I’ll take 2 small corn tortillas, add one slice dairy-free mozzarella cheese and 2 pre-grilled frozen chicken strips. Microwave for 1 minute & serve with cayenne pepper sauce for a mini buffalo chicken quesadilla :)
Your blog is so inspiring! My hubby and I are on a $50 a week food budget, which we’ve been doing for about 2 years and it’s so liberating ! I recently had a baby girl and honestly part of the reason we could afford for me to quit my job was because of our low food budget. :) thanks for the inspiration
Kind Regards
Linda