Author Topic: Fire drill! Skip this week's grocery shop  (Read 105239 times)

swick

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Re: Fire drill! Skip this week's grocery shop
« Reply #150 on: January 05, 2013, 04:34:18 PM »
I am definitely putting the black beans on the plan for this week, thanks Jennie!

The breakfast rice sounds good too! I would have to make a plain batch, usually make it with broth and spices or use this totally awesome recipe from BudgetBytes: http://budgetbytes.blogspot.ca/2011/07/yellow-jasmine-rice-154-recipe-026.html her whole website is great and breaks everything down by price too.

Not great for sweet breakfast rice, but one of my go to breakfasts (I always make extra rice) is just rice reheated in a frying pan with a bit of oil, toss in some scrambled eggs and spices (I like smoked Paprika), a bit of cheese if you got it and it is a very tasty breakfast.

Thanks Jennie and Tamara for the blender ideas! We just got a Blendtec for Christmas but have been without a blender for so many years that ideas beyond the basic smoothie don't come fast...I love the Agua Fresca ideas!

Tamara, don't know how old your kids are, but maybe they could get involved in finding recipes to try or helping make some of their snack foods? That's how my mom started getting us involved in cooking from a super young age...also helping with dinners. If there was something new or something she thought we might not be keen on eating - she would let us help prepare it, we were so gosh darn pleased with ourselves we never even considered not eating it:)

kkbmustang

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Re: Fire drill! Skip this week's grocery shop
« Reply #151 on: January 05, 2013, 05:23:22 PM »
Anyone have some cheap and tasty breakfast ideas other then oatmeal?

I personally hate breakfast. So, for me, this is what I usually do:
-chai tea latte (Tazo chai tea concentrate from the grocery store heated with milk/soy milk and a little water)
-fresh green juice
-Ezekial 4:9 tortilla with hummus
-a scrambled egg in a tortilla with some fresh salsa
-Toast with nut butter and honey

kkbmustang

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Re: Fire drill! Skip this week's grocery shop
« Reply #152 on: January 05, 2013, 05:25:28 PM »

Thanks Jennie and Tamara for the blender ideas! We just got a Blendtec for Christmas but have been without a blender for so many years that ideas beyond the basic smoothie don't come fast...I love the Agua Fresca ideas!


You can also try blending fresh strawberries, coconut water and ice for a fresh fruit slushy. My kids love it.

swick

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Re: Fire drill! Skip this week's grocery shop
« Reply #153 on: January 05, 2013, 06:19:45 PM »
You can also try blending fresh strawberries, coconut water and ice for a fresh fruit slushy. My kids love it.

YUM!! This is definitely going on the list of must try!

I make my own Chai concentrate in the crock pot kkbmustang, it is super awesome to keep in the fridge.
I use this basic recipe: http://athomewithginac.blogspot.ca/2011/10/slow-cookin-sunday-chai-tea-concentrate.html

Except I don't measure the water, I fill the crockpot and double the rest of the ingredients. I also add whatever spices I feel like adding - star anise, cinnamon sticks, black peppercorns, lots more ginger... If you can get your spices in bulk at an ethnic store, it is much cheaper.

Tonight on the menu because I don't feel very creative is pantry Miso Soup (so called because I usually have all the ingredients for it) A couple of spoonfuls of miso, some chicken stock (or better then bullion and water) some of the TruRoot sprouted bean mix from Costco and some Barley, once cooked add some grated fresh ginger and whatever seasonings you like, I usually add Siracha and a dash of soy sauce and sesame oil.

Glad this thread is picking up again, I love hearing what everyone else is doing!

kkbmustang

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Re: Fire drill! Skip this week's grocery shop
« Reply #154 on: January 05, 2013, 07:49:43 PM »
You can also try blending fresh strawberries, coconut water and ice for a fresh fruit slushy. My kids love it.

I make my own Chai concentrate in the crock pot kkbmustang, it is super awesome to keep in the fridge.
I use this basic recipe: http://athomewithginac.blogspot.ca/2011/10/slow-cookin-sunday-chai-tea-concentrate.html

Except I don't measure the water, I fill the crockpot and double the rest of the ingredients. I also add whatever spices I feel like adding - star anise, cinnamon sticks, black peppercorns, lots more ginger... If you can get your spices in bulk at an ethnic store, it is much cheaper.


OMG Swick, I think you just changed my life. I am so doing this. At $4/box for the chai tea concentrate that lasts less than a week and $4 a pop at Starbucks, this is going to save me some major moula. I should actually add it to the how much has Mustachianism saved you in 2013 thread. Now I just need to do the calculations.....

swick

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Re: Fire drill! Skip this week's grocery shop
« Reply #155 on: January 05, 2013, 11:56:36 PM »
:D It's super tasty! A crockpot full lasts me about a week or week and a half. Enjoy!

swick

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Re: Fire drill! Skip this week's grocery shop
« Reply #156 on: January 06, 2013, 12:25:45 AM »
hmmm that might be an interesting idea to tackle in this thread...I have spent quite some time trying to find cheaper/healthier/tastier versions of packaged products that I use often.

We could list the products we do use often, the chai tea concentrate is a great example - and see if anyone makes a homemade version they could share...

kkbmustang

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Re: Fire drill! Skip this week's grocery shop
« Reply #157 on: January 06, 2013, 09:17:11 AM »
hmmm that might be an interesting idea to tackle in this thread...I have spent quite some time trying to find cheaper/healthier/tastier versions of packaged products that I use often.

We could list the products we do use often, the chai tea concentrate is a great example - and see if anyone makes a homemade version they could share...

I think that's a great idea. I'll start. Granola. It HAS to be super easy. I'm still recovering from back surgery, so standing in the kitchen for long periods is out of the question. We buy 2-3 boxes every week for the Hubs to eat on his yogurt. I'd estimate it costs about $2.50 per box at Aldi.

swick

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Re: Fire drill! Skip this week's grocery shop
« Reply #158 on: January 06, 2013, 10:25:36 AM »
Got you covered :) This is the basic recipe I am still making and actually have in the oven right now. Super easy and you don't have to go and stir it ever 10 minutes while it cooks so should be easier on your back - hope your recovery is quick and easy!

Now it would depend on the ingredient list as to weather it would be cheaper then Aldi but there is lots of flexibility - it calls for butter but you could use coconut oil or grapeseed oil, calls for maple syrup but you could use any other liquid sweetner, calls for almonds and cashews but you could use any nuts/seeds. I usually add some chia seeds for extra nutrition. I also sub some of the nuts for fruit - Hubby's fave is candied orange peel and crystallized ginger.

My hubby loves granola and eats it every day - with milk on yogurt, as a snack. This would be disastrous for our budget but I have been making it from scratch and I recently came across an AMAZING method for making granola super easy - without having to stir the pan in the oven! http://www.bojongourmet.com/2010/06/stolen-granola.html

It is easily adaptable to whatever bits and pieces you have to use up.


caligulala

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Re: Fire drill! Skip this week's grocery shop
« Reply #159 on: January 06, 2013, 10:56:18 AM »
I got the America's Test Kitchen DIY cookbook for Christmas and it has SO MANY things you can make from scratch instead of buying packaged. I don't know that many of them save you any money, but they do eliminate any weirdo extra ingredients. So far I've only made the graham crackers, but they were incredibly easy and the kids gobbled them up. I priced them out as about the same as aldi, but much higher quality ingredients. Huge recommend on this book.

And I'm really happy this thread picked back up too! Since we don't have a car, I ordered fruits and veggies and a few other needs from our local organic delivery service this week and I was pleasantly surprised at how reasonable the prices were. All our past orders have been supremely high quality, so I'm excited for delivery day on Wednesday. We've been eating A LOT more fruits and veggies lately (new year's resolution, and a highly enjoyable one) so maybe we can avoid the regular grocery store altogether this winter until our CSA starts in spring. They also deliver local non-homogenized milk for a very reasonable cost around here, $6.59 a gallon, so that saves us a lot of annoying trips or breaking down and getting the cheap RBGH laden milk from Aldi.

Oh, and last month we crashed and burned at the end of the month with a big stock up trip to Trader Joe's. Our monthly average last year for all food was $700 a month, so for 2013 I'm going to try to get us back to $600. I've decided to ignore all those posts yelling at people that their $500 a month grocery bill is completely out of line because it is a higher priority for us to have really good, responsibly grown food. Bottom dollar cost is secondary. Our other new year's resolution was to be less wasteful, so hopefully that will help with the budget.

kkbmustang

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Re: Fire drill! Skip this week's grocery shop
« Reply #160 on: January 06, 2013, 11:56:11 AM »
Got you covered :) This is the basic recipe I am still making and actually have in the oven right now. Super easy and you don't have to go and stir it ever 10 minutes while it cooks so should be easier on your back - hope your recovery is quick and easy!

Now it would depend on the ingredient list as to weather it would be cheaper then Aldi but there is lots of flexibility - it calls for butter but you could use coconut oil or grapeseed oil, calls for maple syrup but you could use any other liquid sweetner, calls for almonds and cashews but you could use any nuts/seeds. I usually add some chia seeds for extra nutrition. I also sub some of the nuts for fruit - Hubby's fave is candied orange peel and crystallized ginger.

My hubby loves granola and eats it every day - with milk on yogurt, as a snack. This would be disastrous for our budget but I have been making it from scratch and I recently came across an AMAZING method for making granola super easy - without having to stir the pan in the oven! http://www.bojongourmet.com/2010/06/stolen-granola.html

It is easily adaptable to whatever bits and pieces you have to use up.


I am so making this next week. Thanks!

sheepstache

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Re: Fire drill! Skip this week's grocery shop
« Reply #161 on: January 06, 2013, 12:11:59 PM »

I make my own Chai concentrate in the crock pot kkbmustang, it is super awesome to keep in the fridge.
I use this basic recipe: http://athomewithginac.blogspot.ca/2011/10/slow-cookin-sunday-chai-tea-concentrate.html

Except I don't measure the water, I fill the crockpot and double the rest of the ingredients. I also add whatever spices I feel like adding - star anise, cinnamon sticks, black peppercorns, lots more ginger... If you can get your spices in bulk at an ethnic store, it is much cheaper.


Thanks, Swick, enjoying some now!  Tasty!  ps. what size crockpot do you have?

swick

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Re: Fire drill! Skip this week's grocery shop
« Reply #162 on: January 06, 2013, 01:57:34 PM »
I use my 3 qt. crockpot for the chai, glad you like it!

Caligulala - Sounds like a book I would love, will have to check it out.

We too have been struggling with trying to keep our spending down on groceries while excepting the fact that everything costs more where we will and we do want to eat as healthy as we can. It's our plan this year too to waste as little as possible.

Perhaps we could start a speadsheet like the "money saved in 2013" thread but instead count pounds of food that was rescued from the garbage can and what we used it in? Might be a fun record/ source of inspiration...anyone interested?

kkbmustang

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Re: Fire drill! Skip this week's grocery shop
« Reply #163 on: January 07, 2013, 01:15:41 PM »
Swick-

I'm drinking my chai latte now. It's better than Starbucks! Am so loving this recipe. My store didn't have the cardamom in seed form, only powder, but it still tastes amazing. 

Many, many thanks!

swick

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Re: Fire drill! Skip this week's grocery shop
« Reply #164 on: January 07, 2013, 01:30:42 PM »
Awesome! :D glad you like it! "Better then Starbucks" is nice praise indeed!

kkbmustang

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Re: Fire drill! Skip this week's grocery shop
« Reply #165 on: January 07, 2013, 05:30:03 PM »
We had a little mishap with the scrolling of the grocery list on the phone yesterday by the Hubs, so we didn't get any fresh produce yesterday (our normal grocery shop day). So, tonight for dinner we winged it. We had pan-fried tilapia, frozen corn and some leftover rice.

The boy is taking antibiotics and he asked for the pill form instead of liquid. Well, when I got home with the pills, they were too big for him to swallow, so we've been mixing the powder in with smoothies and slushies. Given the grocery shopping debacle of 1/6/2012, we only had one apple and one orange. No frozen berries or fruit of any kind. So, using my Ninja, I  pulverized the apple and orange to a liquid, added 1/2 can of coconut water and ice and made an apple-orange slushie. It worked like a charm.

Now, for being creative packing lunches: the girl got a cheese sandwich on wheat bread with apple sauce, pretzels, nuts and water. The boy got PB&J (the very last remnants from the peanut butter jar) on wheat with apple sauce, pretzels, buts and water. The Hubs got a cheese and spinach sandwich on wheat, leftover corn, nuts, pretzels and dried cherries, the rest of the baby carrots, hummus and crackers. Since I'm at home/work at home, I can improvise accordingly.

Nothing like an inadvertent half-completed grocery run to keep you on your toes.

In other news, did anyone who shops at Aldi notice they are expanding their selection of Aldi organic products? I was really excited about that!

swick

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Re: Fire drill! Skip this week's grocery shop
« Reply #166 on: January 07, 2013, 05:56:25 PM »
Wow! Sounds like you had the opportunity to get super creative with your lunches!

On the slushi front...I just discovered that Chai concentrate, your milk of Choice and some ice makes for a pretty awesome blended Chai latte! Might be another option to help those pills go down.

N

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Re: Fire drill! Skip this week's grocery shop
« Reply #167 on: January 07, 2013, 10:34:22 PM »
I didnt skip my shop this week, but I did walk to the grocery store with the kids today and bought 37$ worth of produce and noodles to get us thru this week. I only bought what was strictly necessary, that would be eaten this week.

I took some meat out of the freezer. I had 3 lbs of chicken thighs and legs, and I put them in the crockpot (all by themselves, nothing else) and cooked them all afternoon. Took them out, deboned and shredded the meat. Set aside all the liquid that came out. Put the bones back in with water and mirepox, cooked that all night until I just took it out and strained it. Used half the shredded chicken to make creamy chicken with noodles for dinner. Used up the ends of a couple of lettuces for salad.

That chicken cost me 89c/ lb (at a real butcher shop,it was on sale and good quality) and I got about 1c chicken fat, 4-5 c stock, and enough meat for two meals. (more actually, because there was a meal leftover from dinner that I can eat for lunch this week)

Another small victory is that I did not make cookies today. I planned to, however, we still had a few odds and ends of baked treats, and if I made cookies, they would get eaten first, and then the other stuff would have been too old to eat. As it stands, we all polished off the other stuff and I can make cookies tomorrow :)


kkbmustang

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Re: Fire drill! Skip this week's grocery shop
« Reply #168 on: January 07, 2013, 11:05:36 PM »
Wow! Sounds like you had the opportunity to get super creative with your lunches!

On the slushi front...I just discovered that Chai concentrate, your milk of Choice and some ice makes for a pretty awesome blended Chai latte! Might be another option to help those pills go down.

Might be my afternoon snack tomorrow!

Love this thread. If I didn't have an enormous need for fresh produce and stuff to make the kids' lunches, I'd just tell the Hubs to forget it and wait until next weekend. But, alas, I can't. There is no more fruit in the house, fresh or frozen, which is unacceptable. We can do without meat, I could improvise there, but produce not so much. Also, really do need something to make sandwiches for the kids' lunches (or salads for my girl).

We have enough fish for two more meals and could do breakfast for dinner one night and tacos/spaghetti with meat sauce another night. But we eat so much produce that not having it is a deal killer. All we have left is one bunch of kale, a few white potatoes, some carrots and the very bottom of a stalk of celery. Oh, and 1/4 bag of starting to get mushy spinach.

swick

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Re: Fire drill! Skip this week's grocery shop
« Reply #169 on: January 07, 2013, 11:24:14 PM »
Produce is definitely the tough one for us too, I am slowly getting better at figuring out how to stretch our veggies between shopping trips. If I do prep the day we shop it is okay, but after a four hour can trip and a whole day of shopping I feel unmotivated when after putting everything away.

I have found that getting a few Asian veggies and cabbages I can slice them thin, add some grated carrot and portion into freezer bags - this is a really easy addition to  soups  even makes a meal out of a pack of noodle soup if we really don't feel like cooking. about 10 minutes of chopping and packaging ususally will last me until the next shopping trip - even stretching it out.

I also have discovered if you roast a huge amount of root veggies (parsnips, carrots, beets) these freeze very well too. I make a quick soup with whatever stock I have on hand, whatever grain I have on hand (cooked Quinoa, rice, barley) and a bag of frozen root veggies, makes a really good stick to your ribs purple soup (from the beets)

Still looking for more ways to stretch the produce though!

kkbmustang

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Re: Fire drill! Skip this week's grocery shop
« Reply #170 on: January 07, 2013, 11:31:07 PM »
Produce is definitely the tough one for us too, I am slowly getting better at figuring out how to stretch our veggies between shopping trips. If I do prep the day we shop it is okay, but after a four hour can trip and a whole day of shopping I feel unmotivated when after putting everything away.

I have found that getting a few Asian veggies and cabbages I can slice them thin, add some grated carrot and portion into freezer bags - this is a really easy addition to  soups  even makes a meal out of a pack of noodle soup if we really don't feel like cooking. about 10 minutes of chopping and packaging ususally will last me until the next shopping trip - even stretching it out.

I also have discovered if you roast a huge amount of root veggies (parsnips, carrots, beets) these freeze very well too. I make a quick soup with whatever stock I have on hand, whatever grain I have on hand (cooked Quinoa, rice, barley) and a bag of frozen root veggies, makes a really good stick to your ribs purple soup (from the beets)

Still looking for more ways to stretch the produce though!

I'll have to try your root veggie stew.

Our family usually goes through the following each week: FRESH - 9 pounds of apples, 3 pounds of oranges, 1 pound of pears, 6 cucumbers, 1 bag of spinach, 2 bunches of kale, 3 heads of lettuce, 1 pint of grape tomatoes, 1 bunch of bananas, 4 lemons, 3 avocados, 1 small container of strawberries, 2 containers of raspberries/blackberries, 1 cantaloupe and broccoli/bell peppers/cabbage, depending. FROZEN - 2 bags strawberries, 2 bags corn, 1 bag peas or edamame.

N

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Re: Fire drill! Skip this week's grocery shop
« Reply #171 on: January 08, 2013, 10:43:14 PM »
keeping fresh produce all week here is hard too.
even if I could buy it all on one trip, its hard to fit it all into my fridge. we dont have a huge one, and its pretty much packed after shopping day.

as far as weekly:
1 bunch banana, 1 lb strawberries, 1 lb grapes, 1-2 lbs of apples, 1 lb clementines, and 1-2 lbs other random fruit of choice
2-3 lbs carrots, 1 lb celery, 3-5 lbs potatoes, 3-4 lbs onions, 1 lb mushroom, and a few salad veggies for me like cuke, bell pepper, etc
greens: 2 lbs broccoli, 1 lb green beans, 4-6 heads lettuce, 1-3 lbs leafy greens , a head of cabbage, sometimes brussel sprouts,
usually have frozen guacamole from costco that we thaw out, and salsa,
frozen corn, frozen peas,

if we juiced or did daily smoothies, itd probably double the fruit and leafies.

ideas for end of week/days before shop: frozen greens, frozen bag of mixed veg or stirfry veg, dried fruit, or frozen fruit (decent in a fruit salad)

as for us, so far sticking to planned menu, definitely should see us thru till sat/sun.

tmac

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Re: Fire drill! Skip this week's grocery shop
« Reply #172 on: January 09, 2013, 07:06:45 AM »
I love this thread. :)

I did a big shop on January 3 and am seeing how long I can go without hitting the store again. To help encourage this, any supplemental trips will need to be on foot or bike. I should have enough basic ingredients to get through several weeks, but I might run out of various supplemental items before then.

I spent $270 that day, and my previous spend for the full month was $800 for the 5 of us. :-/  If I could cut even $100 out of that, I'd be thrilled. $200 or more, and I'd be over the moon.

We shall see...

nofool

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Re: Fire drill! Skip this week's grocery shop
« Reply #173 on: January 09, 2013, 12:22:56 PM »
This is such a great ongoing challenge! This month, I am trying to survive on a $75 grocery budget (I'm single, no kids). It's been forcing me to be more creative with recipes and to use up all those pantry staples and frozen food that's been sitting around before I start buying more stuff.

So far, I've spent $20. That should take me until next week before I have to buy more eggs and a loaf of bread. Might need to pick up some more meat at some point, though, which will take a chunk out of my remaining budget. If only I was more of a vegetarian...

swick

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Re: Fire drill! Skip this week's grocery shop
« Reply #174 on: January 10, 2013, 12:29:01 PM »
The first thing that strikes me is how little actual veggies we eat compared to those who have posted...not for lack of trying, we do stock up when we do our large trips...but most of the produce we can get in town is aweful and there is a lot of waste, even when you are very careful about what you buy...lots of things get frozen in transit ot becuase we are the last store in the line we get the most beat up and older stuff.

So far this month we have spent 33.20 which bought us:
4 l of milk - 5.99
900g Cheese  - 9.99 - on sale
3 pack of peppers approx 1.2 lbs - 3.99 - on sale
Yogurt - 2/5.00 - 5.00 - on sale
18 eggs - 4.99 -on sale

a small bunch of green onions and some sesame seeds don't remember prices off the top of my head.

We have been using up a lot of staples but I think we might be doing a large trip next week (first one since early November) We are definitly missing our fruits and veggies. I will be shopping with a meal plan and a list though!

swick

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Re: Fire drill! Skip this week's grocery shop
« Reply #175 on: January 17, 2013, 03:55:57 PM »
How is everyone doing?

Made a happy discovery today that you can make a very good dairy-free London Fog in the blender:
1 cup of brewed Earl grey, 3/4 tbs coconut oil, splash of maple syrup.

*I am not responsible if you decide to blend hot liquids and it goes horribly wrong*

This is awesome because Milk so so expensive and I have been trying to reduce how much we buy. Wondering if the same will work for coffee - then we could pretty much stop buying milk all together.

Today I am making a new batch of granola (going to try some gingerbread flavours) and some Lentil Soup using our huge supply of red lentils and some frozen homemade chicken stock.

Tripcode

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Re: Fire drill! Skip this week's grocery shop
« Reply #176 on: January 18, 2013, 10:31:25 PM »
Nutella+ peanut butter+ oats+ yogurt+ thawed frozen berries

Cannot get enough of that mixture.
It's my breakfast and or lunch  at least 3 days a week

swick

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Re: Fire drill! Skip this week's grocery shop
« Reply #177 on: January 21, 2013, 11:39:37 AM »
Just wanted to share:

http://www.alaskafromscratch.com/2013/01/08/crockpot-refried-beans/

Made these beans for supper last night and Hubby said "They are just like canned re-fried beans, but a million times better!" which is a good things since I hate canned re-fried beans as they taste like can to me. They are as good as the beans we use to get at a little Mexican place before moving, so we are both totally impressed! These will become a  staple. We did have to cook our bean for 10.5 hours on low

Platypus

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Re: Fire drill! Skip this week's grocery shop
« Reply #178 on: January 22, 2013, 10:39:43 AM »
http://www.annies-eats.com/2010/01/06/brown-rice-with-black-beans/

This is on the menu for tonight! And for work lunches over the next several days. Cooked up the black beans from dry over the last two days. I love cooking beans for the better taste and the savings, but I miss how uniform they look when they come from the can! I think I cook them at too high of temperature (high on my crockpot) because a lot of the beans are broken up, even though they aren't overcooked?

Been pushing myself to work through my backlog of pantry items before I stock up, so that I'm rotating my supplies better and so I'm actually buying things I KNOW we will use. I have a lot of beans laying around, and still a lot of bulgar too. Anyone have suggestions for using up bulgar other than as pilaf? Would it be good as a substitute for barley in soup?

swick

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Re: Fire drill! Skip this week's grocery shop
« Reply #179 on: January 22, 2013, 01:43:03 PM »
You can use Bulgur for so many different things! Kibbeh, soup, bread, stuffed veggies, breakfast porridge. I don't have any recipes off the top of my head, but if you do a search on Tastespotting for Foodgawker you will come up with lots of ideas. Otherwise Turkish or Middle Eastern recipes will often have bulgur too.

tmac

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Re: Fire drill! Skip this week's grocery shop
« Reply #180 on: January 22, 2013, 02:54:09 PM »
I'm on a mission to use the things that have been sitting around forever (bulgur wheat being one of them, which is what reminded me!) so tonight is an attempt using tahini -- tahini and peanut noodles with chicken and veggies. I also have some dried chick peas and will attempt hummus again.

I haven't done a major shop since the beginning of the month, and there are things I'm running out of -- meat, for example. The two small chicken breasts in tonight's dinner are the last animal protein in the house. After this, it's all veggie/bean dishes until February. Unless there's a revolt from the peasants, I think it'll be fine. We're on and off vegetarians, so I doubt they'll even notice.

Regrets: I bought hamburger buns the other day because I didn't plan ahead to bake.

Victories:
* We ran out of beer and wine last night, and DH casually said we could go without until February. That's pretty huge.
* At this moment, we're on track for a monthly spend of $500, compared to our usual grocery bill of $800-900.
* An on-sale chicken I got early in the month came out of the freezer yesterday and became dinner and 8 Mason jars of really nice stock...

Wait! I have another chicken in the freezer! Whoo-hoo! I forgot I'd purchased two of them. Yes! That totally just made my day. :D

swick

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Re: Fire drill! Skip this week's grocery shop
« Reply #181 on: January 22, 2013, 03:08:04 PM »
Awesome Update tamara!

Sounds like you are having lots of success at your house - especially with getting the family on board, that is great!:)

The tahini/peanut stirfry sounds great! One of my favorite recipes for tahini when I want to do something other then dips, is this recipe for Halvah shortbread. I have made it with whole wheat flour and it is great!

http://homecooking.about.com/od/cakerecipes/r/blc78.htm

"Sundays At Moosewood Restaurant" is a great collection of international recipes I use quite often when I am stuck for new ideas. I got ours second hand, it does come up from time to time.

Don't you love finding goodies in the freezer you had forgotten about/didn't know you had? I discovered two steelhead fillets that I didn't know we had and had a lovely supper a few nights ago  - all done on the stovetop which is great given our oven is currently out of commission.

How is everyone else doing?


tmac

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Re: Fire drill! Skip this week's grocery shop
« Reply #182 on: January 23, 2013, 06:02:29 AM »
Thanks for the link! I think I'll try that recipe for our dessert this Friday night. I Googled pastry flour, since I don't keep that on hand, and saw that you can use a 2:1 mix of AP flour and cake flour, so that'll let me use some of the cake flour that's been hanging around as well. :)

Platypus

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Re: Fire drill! Skip this week's grocery shop
« Reply #183 on: February 03, 2013, 06:21:13 PM »
How's everyone been doing lately with their pantries and their meals?

I've been hooked on making soup lately. I feel like I've accomplished a small victory every time I remember to soak beans the night before I want to cook with them, since I used to end up buying cans of beans a lot last year. Experimented with spicing with turmeric in my last soup (white bean + barley + vegetable) and really enjoyed the results!

Working off of our Costco trip last month, a lot of chicken breasts and ravioli needs eating.

swick

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Re: Fire drill! Skip this week's grocery shop
« Reply #184 on: February 20, 2013, 12:26:45 PM »
Popping in for an update and to see how everyone else is doing:)

We haven't been doing as well as we would like this month. Both been sick with colds and our oven broke. As we are renting Landlord would like a repair guy o come look at it. Turns out there is only one in town, and he is on vacation.  We really haven't had the energy to do too much cooking so we have been living on smoothies - and we have ordered take out twice this month (which we might do, maybe 4 times a year normally)

How is everyone else doing? I need some inspiration for relatively easy stove top meals, please and thank you!

FI@2022Jem

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Re: Fire drill! Skip this week's grocery shop
« Reply #185 on: February 20, 2013, 03:37:21 PM »
Swick- this would be a good time to use your slowcooker if you have one!  Stir fry and pasta are my go-to low cost stovetop meals

I have been good with groceries but have fallen off the wagon with my spending a bit... so easy to justify when you *need new pillowcases/and a fitted sheet... but I will have to find some savings elsewhere!

We are lucky to have access to an avocado tree and we are just starting to get avocados (they are very hards still but should soften up in a few weeks) so I look forward to guacamole, avocado toast etc. while we have them!  Does anyone know if you can freeze and/or preserve avocado somehow?

I recently cancelled my CSA delivery.  ALthough I LOVED it- it's too expensive right now.  I also have a new job and drive by a farm stand now so it is cheaper to stop and pick up produce there on my way home.  There are not as many organic options, however, a lot of the produce is local and very fresh. 


tmac

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Re: Fire drill! Skip this week's grocery shop
« Reply #186 on: February 20, 2013, 04:19:38 PM »
I would leave my husband for an avocado tree, I think. The idea of it makes me weak in the knees. :)

I overspent on groceries early this month, but we really did run out of just about every staple item known to man, all at the same time -- hot sauce, spices, flour, butter, hamburger, tomato paste, rice, oatmeal, you name it. The good news is that my freezer and food pantry (otherwise known as "the coat closet") are still quite full, so my next shopping trip should be much reduced.

AND we got our Costco AmEx reward check, which should completely cover my March trip. We'll only need to spend an additional $200 to feed us for the whole rest of that month. Psyched!

FI@2022Jem

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Re: Fire drill! Skip this week's grocery shop
« Reply #187 on: February 20, 2013, 09:47:43 PM »
lol- about the avocado tree!  It is very temperamental and we only get avocados a few months of the year.  some years huge crops- other years the birds get them all!  So if you had to pick, maybe keep your husband for 9 months, then give him up only when you're getting loads of avocado... hahaha!

Also, LOVE that hot sauce is considered a staple!



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Re: Fire drill! Skip this week's grocery shop
« Reply #188 on: February 26, 2013, 01:56:06 PM »
spent less than £5 over two weeks (milk, bread, cream, garlic, pineapple, naan). lots of baking from cupboard staples and eating up freezer meals. used a few bits that have been lurking in my store for a while which is always good. certainly going to try harder with my usually food shopping now, writing a menu for the fortnight really helped with not wanting to go out and buy things. i've baked more than usual and tried lots of new things which was also good fun.

caligulala

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Re: Fire drill! Skip this week's grocery shop
« Reply #189 on: February 26, 2013, 08:54:46 PM »
Regarding bulgur - my favorite easy meal is this: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/bulgur-lentil-pilaf-with-tahini-herb-sauce-recipe/index.html I made it today. So tasty and you can add whatever you want to the pilaf, really. I also make a bulgur, coconut milk and lemon breakfast thingy from 101cookbooks.com. I love bulgur!

We've actually upped our food budget to $700 a month. We started getting a sort of CSA delivery every week. It's such a blessing since we don't have a car now. We're getting non-homogenized organic milk from a local dairy delivered and it is so nice to not have to schlep 4 gallons of milk home in the stroller on slushy roads every week. We've cut back on Costco to about once a month as a result.

My husband is out of town this week, so we didn't entirely skip our delivery, but I did get smaller boxes than usual and am eating down everything in the fridge while he's away. I put "eat all the food" on my to do list this week! I have to say, it is amazing how much cleaner the house is when I'm not cooking. I'm so used to doing all the baking and making prep-heavy meals now that I don't realize how much time I'm devoting to it. I've always liked cooking, so it's nice to have part of my "job" be making yummy, very veggie heavy meals!

tmac

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Re: Fire drill! Skip this week's grocery shop
« Reply #190 on: February 27, 2013, 06:15:54 AM »
lol- about the avocado tree!  It is very temperamental and we only get avocados a few months of the year.  some years huge crops- other years the birds get them all!  So if you had to pick, maybe keep your husband for 9 months, then give him up only when you're getting loads of avocado... hahaha!

Also, LOVE that hot sauce is considered a staple!

Hot sauce is not only a staple. It's the FIRST staple. Life grinds to a halt when we run out. There are only a three things I will rush out to the store for: TP, coffee, and hot sauce. ;)

Good to know about the avocados. I'll keep my husband around for a while so I can figure out the whole timing of it, and then he'll be around to plant it for me.

Last night was a bit of a food victory for me. I've just started a new PT job which has me out of the house on Tuesdays. When I got home, my daughter was in a panic over a math fair project that needed an intervention. So dinner was at significant risk of becoming take-out. But no! Morning crockpot to the rescue! A few frozen chicken breasts, some frozen diced tomatoes, a cup of salsa, and some seasoning. Add brown rice, tortillas, sriracha, and a salad, and we were good to go! Yay! And even my youngest pronounced it delicious. I think next time I'm going to make it with beans, rather than chicken, and see how it goes.

Tonight is pizza night, like every Wednesday, so I'll be scouring the fridge for pizza-worthy leftovers. I'm thinking I'm going to give a chili-salsa-chicken pizza a go for myself, and the others will probably stick with cheese, sauce, ground beef; add olives and onions for DH.

Regarding bulgur - my favorite easy meal is this: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/bulgur-lentil-pilaf-with-tahini-herb-sauce-recipe/index.html I made it today. So tasty and you can add whatever you want to the pilaf, really. I also make a bulgur, coconut milk and lemon breakfast thingy from 101cookbooks.com. I love bulgur!
...
My husband is out of town this week, so we didn't entirely skip our delivery, but I did get smaller boxes than usual and am eating down everything in the fridge while he's away. I put "eat all the food" on my to do list this week! I have to say, it is amazing how much cleaner the house is when I'm not cooking. I'm so used to doing all the baking and making prep-heavy meals now that I don't realize how much time I'm devoting to it. I've always liked cooking, so it's nice to have part of my "job" be making yummy, very veggie heavy meals!

Thanks for that recipe. I love lentils, and have tahini and bulgur I'm trying to work through, so I'll definitely try it. Yeah, I always seem to have time to cook, but not so much time to clean up afterwards. Don't know why that is... :)

6birds

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Re: Fire drill! Skip this week's grocery shop
« Reply #191 on: February 27, 2013, 11:43:02 AM »
Done.

I double paid an investment account but just kept on rolling.

FI@2022Jem

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Re: Fire drill! Skip this week's grocery shop
« Reply #192 on: March 06, 2013, 07:54:38 PM »
How is everyone doing?

I just made a 1/2 batch of banana muffins to use up one very brown banana (googled the simplest recipe I could find and made with whole wheat flour and less sugar).  I just wanted to share that although I have not tried one yet (they are cooling) my house smells AMAZING.  I am not much of a baker, but muffins are easy enough and now I have snacks and/or breakfasts for a couple days. 


CNM

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Re: Fire drill! Skip this week's grocery shop
« Reply #193 on: March 07, 2013, 11:08:59 AM »
May I join this thread?

I realized last month how much food we waste at our house and it's disgusting.  I may not entirely skip this week's grocery shop (I ran out of a couple of pantry staples yesterday) but I'm going to try very very hard not to waste any food this month.  We were the lucky beneficiaries of some fresh fruit, veg, and cheese from some relatives that were going out of town (who didn't want their fresh food to go bad while gone) so I already feel ahead of the game!

My goal for today and Friday is to use up a few bananas that are getting quite brown and to make a batch  or two of baby food for the little one.

kkbmustang

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Re: Fire drill! Skip this week's grocery shop
« Reply #194 on: March 09, 2013, 10:51:15 PM »
Our refrigerator is the barest it has been in some time. We have oranges, a couple of cucumbers, a couple cartons of yogurt, flour and condiments. The freezer is getting equally spartan. And the small pantry: bottom half is nearly empty, top half is okay. Tomorrow is a limited trip to Aldi to refill on produce, dairy, meat and cereal.

We fell off the MMM wagon in February/early March and are getting back on it.

startingover

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Re: Fire drill! Skip this week's grocery shop
« Reply #195 on: March 10, 2013, 01:35:52 PM »
I'm in, but my Man is the problem.  He's a great mustachain but he has a hard time not buying food.  I make my own bread (making one now!), so I need to buy flour, and stamps.  We have everything else!  I might be able to go with out flour.  I might have a weeks worth.  I will buy stamps only on Monday.  The bread will last!  My Man and I are helping each other through those "silly" things we do!  ( I still buy cat food for $15 a bag! Lasts 1.5 wks)  Oooo!  We need cat food.  I will buy a cheaper brand to try on Wednesday, that't when I'll need it.  OK I'm in!!  No buying food.  This will help with the "no spending March" challenge!

N

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Re: Fire drill! Skip this week's grocery shop
« Reply #196 on: March 10, 2013, 02:31:09 PM »
starting over- whole foods actually has a very inexpensive version of cat food that I buy. I think its only 4$ a bag and you get a 10% discount if you buy a case, which is 6. trader joes also has an inexpensive cat food. just fyi.

startingover

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Re: Fire drill! Skip this week's grocery shop
« Reply #197 on: March 10, 2013, 03:37:44 PM »
Thanks, startingfromthestart!  We have a new kitten who can eat anything right now.  However, we have a 3 year old that has trouble with "cheap" food.  We are looking at the GMO's in foods.  Corn is one of the big bads with GMO's. 

Viv A. Stache

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Re: Fire drill! Skip this week's grocery shop
« Reply #198 on: March 10, 2013, 06:18:12 PM »
I'm in this week! We just got back from a long weekend away and I know there are some things that need to be used up. I need to spend $5 on milk though, for the 2 yr old.

CNM

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Re: Fire drill! Skip this week's grocery shop
« Reply #199 on: March 11, 2013, 12:06:02 PM »
This weekend was not bad.  I spent $45 on groceries, which is more than half of what I usually spend.  Then, I spent yesterday afternoon making and freezing baby food and prepping some lunches to take to work this week.  Now that I'm stocked up on somethings, I'm optimistic that I can cut next week's grocery bill even further.

On the food waste front, I made a new recipe last week that was disgusting.  I ended up eating 1/2 of it but, after mouldering in the fridge, I decided to toss it.  Sucks but at least I know not to try it again.  I may end up having to toss some baby lettuce that was given to us because it's already getting slimy.  So far I've been able to pick through it but that probably won't last much longer.