Last week's meal plan went smoothly, and resulted in absolutely truckloads of leftovers, meaning that we didn't have to have peanut butter sandwiches for lunch every day.
The red cabbage/feta linguine was a big hit with all of us, probably because I put in around twice the feta it suggested. Next time I'll halve the recipe, however, because it made a gargantuan quantity, enough for three meals for the three of us. It didn't reheat particularly well, so I think I'll only make as much as we need.
The veggie burgers were a semi-flop. They tasted good, but the texture was too soft and they fell apart, even though I followed the recipe to the letter. Madly disappointed. I still have two leftover burgers in the freezer awaiting cooking. I'll probably make them some day when there's absolutely no other food in the house.
The salmon cakes were the week's best discovery, and I've made up an adaptation of the recipe I used. We liked them so much that we're having them again this week.
This week's meal plan:
Breakfasts: steel cut oats (had lots of those left over from last week) with plain unsweetened yogurt and frozen mixed berries, OR eggs on toast.
Lunches: good old peanut butter sandwiches, string cheese, fruit, raw vegetables.
Dinners:
1) Butternut squash and spinach lasagna rolls from Skinnytaste.com
2) Turkey, white bean, and pumpkin chili from Skinnytaste.com, with sides of brown rice and steamed broccoli
3) Chicken, rice, and mushroom soup from Skinnytaste.com (do you see something of a theme happening here?!)
4) Salmon cakes with sides of polenta and steamed broccoli
5) Hamburgers (Mr. B is going to make these, so I don't have a recipe) with homemade whole wheat buns and a side of steamed asparagus
6) Pan-seared cod fillets (also made by Mr. B) with a side of zucchini fritters from SmittenKitchen.com
7) Leftovers
The groceries:
Fruits and vegetables:
2lbs yellow onions: 0.95
2 heads garlic: 0.76
bunch scallions: 0.58
2.45 lbs butternut squash: 2.40
1 red pepper: 0.98
2 broccoli crowns: 0.86
1 .08 lbs asparagus: 3.22
0.4 lbs mushrooms: 1.19
1 bunch cilantro:0.48
1 head celery: 1.29
3 medium zucchini: 1.44
2.45 lbs nectarines: 3.14
1.88 Gala apples: 1.84
Dairy:
1 gallon Organic Valley whole milk: 6.68
Nancy's low-fat plain unsweetened yogurt: 2.43
Frigo part-skim ricotta, 15oz: 2.77
Tillamook Italian blend shredded cheese, 8oz: 1.98
Cheese Heads light string cheese: 2.48
Frozen:
10 oz spinach, supermarket brand 0.97
1 lb corn kernels, supermarket brand 0.78
8 oz frozen mixed berries, supermarket brand: 1.88
Bulk:
5 oz white/wild rice mix: 1.24
1.1 lbs whole wheat flour: 0.70
Meat:
20 oz free range chicken thighs: 4.28
1.5 lbs ground turkey: 3.98
2 fillets wild Alaskan cod: 4.15
1 lb lean ground grass-fed beef: 4.69 (bought it on the day of its expiration at half price! Yay!)
1 large can Alaska wild salmon: 3.08
Misc.
Hodgson whole wheat lasagna noodles: 1.48
Sara Lee multigrain bread: 1.98
1 large can pumpkin puree: 1.87
Total: $66.55.
Observations: I spent more than I usually do this week, but that's ok, it's still under my goal budget of $70. (I was rather enjoying keeping it under $60, but I'll allow myself this little slip-up.) This week, I was just so tired of roast chicken and then thinking up ways to use leftover chicken that my stomach heaved at the very thought. I do like my animal protein, so I splurged and got a few things we normally don't get. I was pretty pleased with getting some non-factory-farmed beef so cheaply--I regularly buy things that have reached their expiration dates, because I figure the dates are arbitrary and meaningless anyway. They probably put some date on it so that a fragile, 103-year-old person with a compromised immune system won't get sick from it (the same ancient person that the maximum daily dosage on bottles of ibuprofen is designed for, in fact).
I was pleased to discover the Hodgson Mill lasagna, which not only costs less than the white kind, but is higher in fiber. I was also pleased that I could get a supermarket-brand can of pumpkin that's cheaper than a name-brand variety as well as being twice the size.
I handed over my debit card with a brave smile, but to be honest, I sometimes wish I didn't care about feeding my family fruits and vegetables every day. Then I could REALLY save some cash. In my insufferably middle-class way, I'm quite sniffy about things like Hamburger Helper and boxed macaroni and cheese, but there's no getting around it, they're cheaper than the meals I make. They probably taste pretty good too, even if they aren't healthy.
Back to ranting: this week I found myself engaging in a Facebook spat over what poor people "should" eat. The people I argued against thought the poor "should" eat rice and beans, and nostalgically reminisced about the good old days when everyone ate whole grain and worked in the fields and was ever so much healthier (oh great, because everyone lived to a ripe old age in the nineteenth century and never got anything like rickets, malnutrition, terrible dental problems, etc?). There was even a comment with the old cliche "When I was in college I ate nothing but beans and never went to McDonald's..." which is so annoying I could barely dignify it with a response. Everyone in the middle classes has ideas about what the poor "should" do (be grateful and humble and endlessly respectable, and never, ever eat anything that isn't rice and beans, etc).
This project--feeding my family for less while still eating well--has been a fun challenge, and we're all pretty well-nourished from the meals we've made, if a little over-carbed these past couple of weeks. But the fact is that I can only do this because I can afford to buy the staples that make food taste good. If I run out of extra virgin olive oil, for example, I can get another $8 bottle without sending myself into overdraft. I can afford to disdain Hamburger Helper. I'm broke, but not destitute. I have no right to say what anyone else should and shouldn't eat.
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