Doubters! The lot of you! Guess what I have managed to do this week? Oh no she didn't! Oh yes, I most certainly did!
WEEK ONE
Money spent on groceries - $97.20
Traders Joe's $57.61
Tony's Produce $34.61
QFC $4.16
Can I get a whatwhat!? Jeah! I know!
I just need to make this very clear! I am not one to run all over town looking for the best deal. At the heart of it, I am lazy. At first glance, I am very busy. And at the start of it, I am selfish with my time. So there will be no running around for me. I went to Trader Joe's because I knew I could get most of the basics for cheap and it would be good quality. I had chicken breast, prawns, and refried beans already in stock so I knew I could get away without buying any meat. I already had tortillas, potatoes, and cheddar cheese so I could just buy the basics. Yeah, I needed to go to Costco for peanut butter and sugar, but damn! On a Saturday?! Not happening. I will have to suck it up and go to Costco though for a few things because we use those things at such a rate, that it would become too expensive to not to. So there we are.
I went to Tony's because I was going to Target and I drove by and saw that a. they were open and b. they had some great deals on fruit. When I got there, Junior greeted me warmly and said he was waiting for me to come in. I have been bugging them about organic produce. Tony had his way of doing things and wasn't too interested. Junior knew that was the way things were going but only had a little wiggle room on the ordering front. They had way more organic produce and at decent prices. Sadly, Tony passed away this December of liver cancer. Junior said that his dad was sick and dead in 7 days and still couldn't seem to wrap his head around it. He is trying to keep the heart and soul of Tony's Produce yet at the same time follow his own vision and business sense. He is still in the grieving transition stage, but Tony's is still warm and welcoming and they had some great deals. I walked out with 2 full bags of produce for $34! I got Mangoes, Strawberries, blueberries, squash, kale, apples, cucumbers, cauliflower, salad mix and pears. My kids were so excited. They love Tony's. I told Junior what budget I was trying to keep and he said that if I wanted to get bulk he could get me great deals, like 40 pounds of bananas for $20! If I got that and split it with my BFF, I could freeze a lot for smoothies, bread, and pancakes. So if you got a hankering to make jam, but no produce, go see Junior.
My family's eating habits haven't changed drastically at all. I just had to approach my planning a little different. Instead of looking through my cookbooks and thinking, "what do I feel like?" I looked through my cupboards and thought, "what do I already have that I could add too?" I did give up my paninis this week, because I didn't get ham and cheese. So I have been just eating what has been leftover from dinner. And I didn't buy bananas. That will be next week. Often, we approach meal time with the frame of mind of what we are in the mood to eat. I am trying to change that paradigm and use what we have. It does help that our pantry is pretty well stocked. I mean, I have ground flax seed and wheat germ up in there. If that goes, I will be really impressed with myself. If I tell myself that I am a fabulous cook and it will be yummy no matter what, maybe that will get me to stop missing my paninis! (It hasn't really worked, but it is only Tuesday)
This is our meal plan for the week.
Day Breakfast Dinner
Sunday Scrambled Eggs Black Bean Enchiladas
Monday Pancakes and Strawberries Pancakes and leftover
enchiladas, mangoes
Tuesday Hot chocolate, toast, pears Chicken gumbo with
rice, cucumbers
Wednesday Jasmine Tea with blueberry muffins homemade mac and
cheese, kale
Thursday Breakfast burritos, apples Left over mac and
cheese, zucchini
Friday Cream of wheat with apples Baked Chicken breast
with panko breading,
swiss chard, roasted potatoes
Saturday Whatever my husband feeds them Leftovers, grilled cheese,
Left over vegies
Sunday I don't care because I will be on a plane to Puerto Rico! Adios!
I didn't write down lunch because the girls always have PBJ on homemade bread, fruit, and milk. Nothing fancy. Sometimes I have fruit leathers. Sometimes I have freezer dried fruit. Sometimes I have real fruit or carrots or applesauce. It is a sandwich, drink, and something that grows on a tree. Nothing else. If I am feeling nice, sometimes I will throw in a brownie if I made some. But that hasn't happened in a while because they have been getting on my nerves and I am trying to get into my damn bikini! Fara and I eat leftovers and salad and vegies for lunch.
I have squash and cauliflower that is not on the meal plan, because often I will sautee up some vegies as a snack or chop them up. I get sneaky and will make the vegies first and put it on the table while the rest of the dinner is cooking and they will just eat it because they are starving.
Here is the trick to vegies; ask your children which ones they want. They can't say they won't eat it if they said that is what they want. They may try, but it won't hold up in the Court of mamalolo! My girls wanted zucchini, cucumbers, kale, and tomatoes. And that is what I got them. Sliced cucumbers and tomatoes with salt is a favorite snack. Okay, brownies is a favorite snack, but this is a close third or fourth. Zoe will cook up her own kale so I let her.
I also buy frozen peppers and onions. They are perfect for so many things; gumbo, breakfast burritos, hash browns, soups. And I can't forget about the frozen blueberries, strawberries, and mangoes. They girls eat the frozen blueberries in a bowl as a snack. The strawberries are perfect for muffins and pancakes, which I make big batches at one time so the girls can just heat them up for breakfast. I am not, I repeat, I am not a morning person, but I refuse to buy cereal. The mangoes make great smoothies that can be made into Popsicles for snacks.
Next week will be tricky, because I won't be here and I will have to make sure that whatever my meal plan is, is something my cousin can follow. But I am not too worried. She is pretty fresh and is a tree hugging granola!
So I didn't do too bad. We will see if I can do it next week too.
Recipes of the week
Chicken Gumbo
put one can of stewed tomatoes, some frozen peppers, 1 cup chicken broth (I get the organic paste that you mix with water so it won't go bad in a week) and 2 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts diced in a slow cooker. melt 1/2 cube of butter and add 3 tbsp. flour to it and cook it up until it is nice and golden. add that to the slow cooker. Don't forget some basil, oregano, and rosemary. Cook on low for 6 hours. Serve over rice. (You can use prawns instead. Just wait until the last 20 minutes to add them)
Black Bean Enchiladas
I use about 10 corn tortillas. Heat them up in microwave. Fill with low fat refried Black beans and roll up. grease 9x9 inch casserole dish and make one layer of bean filled rolled tortillas. Pour one can of enchilada sauce over bean filled tortillas and top with Cheddar cheese. bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Avocado is yummy with these. In the morning I fry up an egg and put it over leftover enchiladas. yummy!
I buy the corn tortillas at Costco, separate them in freezer bags and freeze them. You can also broil these tortillas about 4 minutes each side for crunchy tortillas to make bean tostadas. Also, they are yummy topped with chopped leftover potatoes, scrambled eggs with onions and peppers, avocado and salsa. Now, I am getting hungry.
So with that being said, I am going to make some rice for my gumbo that is smelling up the house. I have been getting my butt whooped by my half iron man training, but that is an entirely different story!
Grocery List (for those interested)
Fruit
Kale
Salad mix
Avocado
Apples
Sugar
2 dozen egss
3 gallons of milk
2 cartons of butter
peanut butter
frozen peppers
frozen mango
frozen blueberries
frozen strawberries
salsa
pasta
rice
extras I bought that I knew I would use but didn't really need.
Parmesan cheese
fruit wraps
greek yogurt
sourdough english muffins
almond milk
wheat cereal
raw sunflower seeds
