Grocery budgets and meal planning and snacks

[hooplady]

Just used instacart to get Costco and Aldi delivered. Impressed at the prices and ability to price compare: Aldi apples were cheaper than Costco! Next time though I will either get Costco chicken or do pickup if I’m getting chicken from Aldi. Suuuper unimpressed with the Aldi delivery. Raw leaking chicken was bagged on top of the apples. So now I’m down 3 lb apples, and had to bleach wipe everything else in that bag (thankfully all else was packaged).

That's why I don't like using Instacart for delivery. You're at the mercy of the independent shoppers, some of whom are better than others.

[Britan]

Just used instacart to get Costco and Aldi delivered. Impressed at the prices and ability to price compare: Aldi apples were cheaper than Costco! Next time though I will either get Costco chicken or do pickup if I’m getting chicken from Aldi. Suuuper unimpressed with the Aldi delivery. Raw leaking chicken was bagged on top of the apples. So now I’m down 3 lb apples, and had to bleach wipe everything else in that bag (thankfully all else was packaged).

That's why I don't like using Instacart for delivery. You're at the mercy of the independent shoppers, some of whom are better than others.

Yup, lesson learned. I may just use it for Costco, which is both further out and also more … standardized? in their packaging. The chicken is vacuum sealed and doesn’t leak, etc. At least for now, it will be nice to have at least one delivery option because schlepping every which direction all over town even just to pick up groceries while this pregnant does not sound super fun.

[TrMama]

Just used instacart to get Costco and Aldi delivered. Impressed at the prices and ability to price compare: Aldi apples were cheaper than Costco! Next time though I will either get Costco chicken or do pickup if I’m getting chicken from Aldi. Suuuper unimpressed with the Aldi delivery. Raw leaking chicken was bagged on top of the apples. So now I’m down 3 lb apples, and had to bleach wipe everything else in that bag (thankfully all else was packaged).

That's why I don't like using Instacart for delivery. You're at the mercy of the independent shoppers, some of whom are better than others.

Yup, lesson learned. I may just use it for Costco, which is both further out and also more … standardized? in their packaging. The chicken is vacuum sealed and doesn’t leak, etc. At least for now, it will be nice to have at least one delivery option because schlepping every which direction all over town even just to pick up groceries while this pregnant does not sound super fun.

Glad you found a workable solution. Grocery delivery will also be fantastic for the newborn period; and the "toddlers made us all sick" periods. Or so I heard from a friend ;-)

[2KidFIRE]

Just so that you don't feel alone, our current monthly average for myself, my wife and two kids (4 and 6) is ~$870 over the past three months.  And that's after working on cutting back!  The first six months this year the average was a staggering $975/month 0_0

The above is inclusive of alcohol, which I've never separated out into its own category (although maybe I should).  We'll continue to work on getting things down, since I dread the day when they are teenagers and what our budget will be then!

[Christof]

My Mom occasionally makes pancakes - for dinner.

Sounds reasonable to me… 🤷‍♂️ We live in Germany and at home we eat pancakes for lunch or dinner, never for breakfast. Pancakes for breakfast is something we have on vacation when we are in a hotel that offers them.

[seemsright]

Just so that you don't feel alone, our current monthly average for myself, my wife and two kids (4 and 6) is ~$870 over the past three months.  And that's after working on cutting back!  The first six months this year the average was a staggering $975/month 0_0

The above is inclusive of alcohol, which I've never separated out into its own category (although maybe I should).  We'll continue to work on getting things down, since I dread the day when they are teenagers and what our budget will be then!

My 11 year old girl is eating more than my husband and I combined. I swear she is a bottomless pit right now. The food is one cost...the constant growing out of shoes is another.

[Britan]

On mobile so quoting is hard…

1. Our $850/month lately does NOT include booze. Or pet food, which has also been impressively high lately. Looking back at this time last year though we were consistently spending $250-400/month. So yeah I’m sure we can do better.

2. Pancakes for dinner sounds amazing. I’ll have to try that some time. I think it would go over well with my son haha. Also, since I use a protein added whole wheat mix and use whole milk, if I hide some veggies in there (like all this butternut squash!) it will be a complete meal by itself haha!

3. Oh man when my son(s) get to be teenagers, I’m sure it will be the Wild West of grocery budgets haha.

[hooplady]

1. Our $850/month lately does NOT include booze. Or pet food, which has also been impressively high lately.

Ugh, pet food has been its own challenge in the last year or so. Lower-cost options don't seem to be available so my spending keeps creeping up in this category as well.

[Morning Glory]

1. Our $850/month lately does NOT include booze. Or pet food, which has also been impressively high lately.

Ugh, pet food has been its own challenge in the last year or so. Lower-cost options don't seem to be available so my spending keep creeping up in this category as well.

My dog does well on the Costco store brand, but even that's gone up recently.

[MudPuppy]

We had good results switching from Purina ProPlan sensitive skin and stomach to Diamond Naturals Lamb meal and rice. Cut the price per pound by nearly half!

[Kayad]

Lots of great tips here already.

Regarding Safeway, check out their app.  We have Albertsons here (same parent company).  I never shopped there because it has the highest base prices in town, other than Whole Foods. Then I realized there are bargains to be had between the circular and the “justforu” app.  The app is poorly designed, but there are sometimes great deals ($10 off purchase of 75, for instance) (Though they recently redesigned and the deals dont seem as good)

A lot of things on your list I would never buy from there if not on sale (bread, berries, avo, zucchini, cereal, etc).

If you don’t have the bandwidth to only shop the sales & use their clunky app, almost anywhere else is cheaper.

[Britan]

If you don’t have the bandwidth to only shop the sales & use their clunky app, almost anywhere else is cheaper.

Agreed. Just that anywhere else is prohibitively far from me/in the wrong direction. It’s the “fun” part about living in a food desert. But I think delivery for now fixes that problem! :)

Re: pet food, it doesn’t help that one of our cats is on prescription for life and needs wet food in addition to dry in order to manage his condition (kidney related). Neither food is sold by Costco. And the other two pets, we’ve tried Costco in the past, but they just don’t eat in quantities that make Costco sizes reasonable to store in our little house and the excess attracts rodents. Plus, if one gets wet food, then they all boycott until they get some too, hah. We can afford to spoil them but it is a little silly. That’s a battle for another time though, haha.

[Heroes821]

This has been a fun thread to find.  Looks like a lot of effort has gone into succeeding here.  From our perspective we feed a family of 5 on $300 a month grocery budget. 12 8 and 4 for the kids.  We had it at $350 for awhile but even at $300 we have carry over month to month because we bulk buy Sam/Costco meats and do a lot of meal prep.

The fresh stuff is what really eats into the budget and meat of course, but generally we buy meat in bulk and meal prep once a month or two and stuff an entire stand alone freezer with meals.  Many of which are just ziplocs of crock pot meals that we can dump on low before leaving for work barely any actual cooking involved.

I anticipate that going up when 3 teens are around, and living in a Low COLA area is helpful, but Aldi and sales, and bulk meat has been key.

When we meal prep we like to go to restaurant supply stores and buy the giant cans of sauces, vegetables, etc.  They rarely have bulk meat cheaper than sams/costco at least the ones here but getting restaurant sized containers of other things before we meal prep has cut down on costs a lot. 

The kids also have a blast because there's so much to do that its a whole family day in the kitchen.

[Britan]

Awesome, so what I thought was a grocery shop that would last 4 dinners is now on day 7! But it’s about time to get more.

Breakfasts ranged from: oatmeal and cherries, “Cheerios”, butternut squash muffins (have a bunch left over frozen now to), butternut squash pancakes, banana pancakes. My son mostly just eats PBJ for lunch. Predictably not a fan of the healthy snacks - carrot chips, celery with ranch, etc. But at least I am! And dinners were: Serious Eats’ Kenji’s vegan Colombian bean soup, Colombian Arroz con pollo, stuffed acorn squash (thanks to a poster here!), mushroom chicken, garlic chicken, and pasta and meatballs tonight with frozen staples I still have from prior trips.

Our adventure of the weekend was a Pick your own farm. Not the most cost efficient groceries (but not worse than Safeway) but part of that cost was the entertainment of the toddler, haha. Now I just need to fill out our meals for the next few days. Produce we already have:

One HUGE cabbage
A bunch of broccoli
A ton of apples
Still have a red bell pepper and zucchini from last week (to hide in muffins, DS hates zucchini plain)
Edit: and one more acorn squash

Im thinking:
A chicken apple recipe + broccoli
A pork apple recipe + broccoli
A vegetarian cabbage apple bean recipe

Any other ideas to mix up the veggies we already have?

Probably will get delivery from Costco for the meats. Cheapest per pound and then I’ll freeze what we don’t use so i don’t have to buy as much in the future.

Will update on total costs for this week once I know them. DH also went to the grocery store during his workday to get a few things he wanted so we’ll see what that adds, too.

[Catbert]

Budgetbytes.com has a bunch of cabbage recipes: 

https://www.budgetbytes.com/20-recipes-for-leftover-cabbage/

[Kwill]

I've been wanting to try making apple bunnies, but it seems silly just for me.

[MudPuppy]

I've been wanting to try making apple bunnies, but it seems silly just for me.

Man is mortal. Let yourself have bunny apples.

[Kwill]

I've been wanting to try making apple bunnies, but it seems silly just for me.

Man is mortal. Let yourself have bunny apples.

Thank you. After I posted that, I actually went and tried making bunny ears on apple slices. It was harder than I expected, but I have a few apples left still to practise on later in the week.

[Britan]

Hah! Of course how could I forget budget bytes cabbage recipes. I think okonomiyaki is on the menu sometime this week now!!!

[seattlecyclone]

Definitely split up the cabbage into multiple meals! I like the stuff but anything that will use a whole one is just too much in my opinion. It's a versatile vegetable that goes really nicely in soup, stir fry, and even in pasta. Also sauerkraut and kimchi are fun and easy to make.

[Metalcat]

Cabbage can make multiple meals, but will also last more than a week, so you don't have to worry about too much repetition.

There are a few cabbage recipes in my huge recipe dump in my journal, but you can make soup, sauteed cabbage and noodles, shredded raw for the veggies in a bowl (bowl= a grain topped with veggies, a protein, and a sauce).

[seattlecyclone]

Today I cooked some cabbage with bell peppers as part of our taco night. Was yummy.

[TrMama]

Cabbage will keep in the fridge for well over a month. Just slice off whatever size chunk you think you'll eat over the week and leave the rest of the head alone.

We mostly eat it as slaw, but Yakisoba is a super easy recipe that uses quite a lot of it.

[GreenSheep]

Cabbage smoothies! No seriously, hear me out. The recipe calls for red cabbage, but other than a horrible color, I don't see why you couldn't use green cabbage. I make these all the time, but I've modified the recipe a bit for a sweeter, thicker smoothie:

https://www.accordingtoelle.com/red-cabbage-smoothie/

6oz soy milk (or any milk, or water, or yogurt -- adjust amount for your preferred consistency)
2 cups chopped cabbage (frozen is best)
1 cup frozen blueberries
3 pitted Medjool dates
1 frozen banana (peel first, then freeze)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

[jeninco]

Cabbage will keep in the fridge for well over a month. Just slice off whatever size chunk you think you'll eat over the week and leave the rest of the head alone.

We mostly eat it as slaw, but Yakisoba is a super easy recipe that uses quite a lot of it.

We also use cabbage in slaw: shred it or slice very very thinly, and mix with shredded carrots and serve with anything mexican-inspired. Feels like salad, doesn't get slimy when kept more than a week or so in the fridge. (The cabbage doesn't, I mean -- unlike lettuce.)

This: https://www.101cookbooks.com/coleslaw-recipe/  Also looks fantastic.

[K_in_the_kitchen]

Cabbage is a vegetable staple in our house!  I usually shred the entire head, then store it with a dry linen towel (or paper towel).

We eat sautéed cabbage as a side dish.  We mix sautéed cabbage into mashed potatoes for colcannon.  We eat sautéed cabbage as a breakfast side with with eggs.  We use sautéed cabbage in breakfast hash.  We add sautéed cabbage to casseroles.  We add sautéed cabbage to quiches and frittatas.

We put shredded cabbage in soups.  We stir fry cabbage and eat it with rice (also especially good if you stir fry the cabbage with bacon) -- can use various spices to make it Indian, Chinese, etc. Or we eat it over baked potatoes.

We eat cabbage in salads.  We make a cabbage salad with olive oil and apple cider vinegar.  We make traditional cole slaw.

We top tacos with shredded cabbage, and do the same with burrito bowls.  Heck, I have a kid who eats shredded cabbage as a raw vegetable snack with no dressing or dip.

It's rare for me not to have a cabbage in the house.

[CodingHare]

Posting to follow.  Our food bill has skyrocketed over the last year.  $700 for two adults the last few months.

A big portion has been our over reliance on meat as a main dish.  We are cutting back our meat consumption on weeknights (to save on cost for me, environmental reasons for my SO).  Our goal is to save it for eating out and special occasions.  Luckily my SO and I love beans and don't mind the downstream effects, as it were.  Oh, and alcohol was taking up quite a bid of budget, and we are also reducing that in favor of less liver destroying drinks.

Some things I am okay with spending more on, though.  We buy the grass-fed milk and the local free range eggs.  I can really taste the difference though.  The cheap milk tastes sour and off to me by comparison.  My SO can barely taste the difference, amusingly.

Regarding easy veggies:  My standard veggie side is the Costco Normandy Style frozen veggies.  Put them right on a sheet pan straight out of the freezer, toss with olive oil, salt, pepper, and whatever spice goes with the main dish.  425 degree F oven for 30 minutes-ish and you have a healthy side that took 5 minutes to make.  Goes great on rice.

[Metalcat]

Posting to follow.  Our food bill has skyrocketed over the last year.  $700 for two adults the last few months.

A big portion has been our over reliance on meat as a main dish.  We are cutting back our meat consumption on weeknights (to save on cost for me, environmental reasons for my SO).  Our goal is to save it for eating out and special occasions.  Luckily my SO and I love beans and don't mind the downstream effects, as it were.  Oh, and alcohol was taking up quite a bid of budget, and we are also reducing that in favor of less liver destroying drinks.

Some things I am okay with spending more on, though.  We buy the grass-fed milk and the local free range eggs.  I can really taste the difference though.  The cheap milk tastes sour and off to me by comparison.  My SO can barely taste the difference, amusingly.

Regarding easy veggies:  My standard veggie side is the Costco Normandy Style frozen veggies.  Put them right on a sheet pan straight out of the freezer, toss with olive oil, salt, pepper, and whatever spice goes with the main dish.  425 degree F oven for 30 minutes-ish and you have a healthy side that took 5 minutes to make.  Goes great on rice.

check out the massive recipe dump in my journal if you need more meat free ideas

[K_in_the_kitchen]

A big portion has been our over reliance on meat as a main dish.  We are cutting back our meat consumption on weeknights (to save on cost for me, environmental reasons for my SO).  Our goal is to save it for eating out and special occasions.  Luckily my SO and I love beans and don't mind the downstream effects, as it were.  Oh, and alcohol was taking up quite a bid of budget, and we are also reducing that in favor of less liver destroying drinks.

Some things I am okay with spending more on, though.  We buy the grass-fed milk and the local free range eggs.  I can really taste the difference though.  The cheap milk tastes sour and off to me by comparison.  My SO can barely taste the difference, amusingly.

We've backed off on meat significantly here, which is how we ate before we had children (and at various times when they were growing up), although I have some in the freezer I'll cook when they are here over Christmas break.  It's part personal preference but I can't deny that it helps with the grocery bill.  Like you, we prefer grass-fed dairy and organic free-range eggs (preferably pasture raised).  I often buy imported cheese to make sure I'm getting something made with quality milk, preferably raw and grass-fed.  I buy grass-fed butter, and cream without any additives or stabilizers.  My goal is to buy food without any added food chemicals at all, and zero industrial oils or other highly processed ingredients.

I'm with you on the taste of grass-fed dairy versus conventional!  My poor milk drinking kid is away at university and he's complained about how bad the milk tastes -- here at home we typically bought Organic Valley Grassmilk.  But he says that the milk there is also worse than regular California milk.

[CodingHare]

check out the massive recipe dump in my journal if you need more meat free ideas

Ooh will do!  I am struggling to get ideas beyond pasta and bean soups right now!

We've backed off on meat significantly here, which is how we ate before we had children (and at various times when they were growing up), although I have some in the freezer I'll cook when they are here over Christmas break.  It's part personal preference but I can't deny that it helps with the grocery bill.  Like you, we prefer grass-fed dairy and organic free-range eggs (preferably pasture raised).  I often buy imported cheese to make sure I'm getting something made with quality milk, preferably raw and grass-fed.  I buy grass-fed butter, and cream without any additives or stabilizers.  My goal is to buy food without any added food chemicals at all, and zero industrial oils or other highly processed ingredients.

I'm with you on the taste of grass-fed dairy versus conventional!  My poor milk drinking kid is away at university and he's complained about how bad the milk tastes -- here at home we typically bought Organic Valley Grassmilk.  But he says that the milk there is also worse than regular California milk.

Ironically I was raised vegetarian, so this should be easier for me!  It's funny how much of grocery shopping is just a habit you get into.

Organic Valley is what we buy too!  We also buy European butter.  It will be pried from my cold dead hands.  Most of our canned goods and cereals are store brand because I can't taste the difference.  That's my breaking point on food purchases.

[Britan]

So far we’re at about $250 for the month, which is about on pace for my target for $500 for the month. We haven’t made significantly many changes to what we’re buying (lol I did get fresh organic berries, organic quinoa and organic brown rice because the latter two were only available at Aldis in organic). But the main difference is Aldis. Even with a delivery charge and tip, we have significantly saved over Safeway. I’ve built comparison carts in instacart. Safeway is literally twice as much as Aldis here!

The only other real change is having 1, maybe 2 vegetarian or vegan meals in a week. Ironically (or is it?) these have been the biggest hit with my toddler. Last night he looked at the chicken I made, burst into tears and declared, verbatim, “Momma throw it in trash, time for dog walk” ;_; Brutal. But vegan Colombian vegetable soup? Huge hit.

Im sure longer term we could do even better, especially once I can actually drag myself all the way to Aldis and not pay the delivery fee and tip. But that will be a goal for once we have all survived the 4th trimester. For now, I’m just glad I’m still able to stand long enough to cook as many meals as I have. Our eating out budget is looking pretty padded now too because I’ve made so many home cooked meals lately. :)

[K_in_the_kitchen]

So far we’re at about $250 for the month, which is about on pace for my target for $500 for the month. We haven’t made significantly many changes to what we’re buying (lol I did get fresh organic berries, organic quinoa and organic brown rice because the latter two were only available at Aldis in organic). But the main difference is Aldis. Even with a delivery charge and tip, we have significantly saved over Safeway. I’ve built comparison carts in instacart. Safeway is literally twice as much as Aldis here!

The only other real change is having 1, maybe 2 vegetarian or vegan meals in a week. Ironically (or is it?) these have been the biggest hit with my toddler. Last night he looked at the chicken I made, burst into tears and declared, verbatim, “Momma throw it in trash, time for dog walk” ;_; Brutal. But vegan Colombian vegetable soup? Huge hit.

Im sure longer term we could do even better, especially once I can actually drag myself all the way to Aldis and not pay the delivery fee and tip. But that will be a goal for once we have all survived the 4th trimester. For now, I’m just glad I’m still able to stand long enough to cook as many meals as I have. Our eating out budget is looking pretty padded now too because I’ve made so many home cooked meals lately. :)

I agree that Aldi is a game changer, especially compared the the national supermarket chains.  But I'm simplifying and want to be able to walk for our groceries, so we're shopping at  Sprouts.  Aldi just doesn't have enough to be our "one" store.

I had two vegetarian pregnancies.  With the second one I spent nearly 3 months on bedrest and we literally had takeout or convenience foods every night.  DH was already working full time and our oldest had just turned 1YO went I went on bedrest, so there was no time for cooking.

It will be nice to have that padded eating out budget for the last couple of weeks and/or right after birth!

[TrMama]

Good work! That's a great reduction.

Toddlers are the best. I just love how honest they are. You never have to ask how they feel about something ;-)

[Britan]

I agree that Aldi is a game changer, especially compared the the national supermarket chains.  But I'm simplifying and want to be able to walk for our groceries, so we're shopping at  Sprouts.  Aldi just doesn't have enough to be our "one" store.

I had two vegetarian pregnancies.  With the second one I spent nearly 3 months on bedrest and we literally had takeout or convenience foods every night.  DH was already working full time and our oldest had just turned 1YO went I went on bedrest, so there was no time for cooking.

It will be nice to have that padded eating out budget for the last couple of weeks and/or right after birth!

Yeah that’s the trouble for me with Aldi. The one closest to me is meh in both selection and safety. The next closest is not bikeable. Hence delivery. And it didn’t have a number of things I needed in stock so I did have to fill out the end of my list with Safeway. But getting 3 things from Safeway vs the whole list helped. How is sprouts for price? One opened near the Safeway recently but I just kind of assumed it would be same price or more, I’ve never been.

At least I just gotta make it like two more weeks and then we have grandparents to help with cooking for awhile!

[K_in_the_kitchen]

Yeah that’s the trouble for me with Aldi. The one closest to me is meh in both selection and safety. The next closest is not bikeable. Hence delivery. And it didn’t have a number of things I needed in stock so I did have to fill out the end of my list with Safeway. But getting 3 things from Safeway vs the whole list helped. How is sprouts for price? One opened near the Safeway recently but I just kind of assumed it would be same price or more, I’ve never been.

At least I just gotta make it like two more weeks and then we have grandparents to help with cooking for awhile!

I find Sprouts to have good produce prices for the most part, good prices on their store brands, and mostly good prices on the bulk foods I might be interested in.  Most of the other foods are high priced, but also without much to compare with in other stores.  The grass-fed dairy and pastured eggs cost more less the health food store.  Sprouts also has high quality produce, something Aldi is hit or miss with.

I've never been much of a national supermarket chain shopper -- we have a large regional chain with more than 150 stores, which makes them competitive in pricing and they have always been a better value than the national chains.  I shopped this chain plus the local health food store for more than 25 years, before Sprouts opened.  I've only had Aldi for a few years, and the one in my city opened five months before the pandemic hit.  Sprouts is a 10 minute walk (closer to 15 if it's hot or we're walking dogs who want to stop and sniff often).

[MudPuppy]

I find that my local Aldi has a poor produce department and I’m better off at Walmart for almost everything Aldi sells.

I like Sprouts for their cheeses and their produce, but not impressed with spices or bulk staples. They have good options for “fun” groceries like frozen meals and bulk treats.

[K_in_the_kitchen]

I find that my local Aldi has a poor produce department and I’m better off at Walmart for almost everything Aldi sells.

I like Sprouts for their cheeses and their produce, but not impressed with spices or bulk staples. They have good options for “fun” groceries like frozen meals and bulk treats.

I typically order spices and bulk staples from Azure Standard or Essential Organics, but I'll buy sea salt from the bulk bins at Sprouts, or small amounts of legumes I don't usually stock up on if I need them for a recipe.

For us Sprouts is where we get produce, dairy products, and eggs, and then a few pantry staples.  I like that they carry whole milk mozzarella for pizza and an organic salsa without an additive likes citric acid or natural flavors.  I'll pick up gluten free flour if I need it for my boys.  The only frozen foods I buy there are organic hash browns without additives, fire roasted sweet potatoes (which are the closest I get to convenience fast food), and pre-made gluten free pie crusts.  But most of the time 95% of what we buy is perishables.

[Britan]

Man, I still have all this cabbage and I’m the only one who will willingly, knowingly eat it. Any ideas for hidden cabbage recipes? I’ve though of hiding it in muffins, which is what I’ve been doing with broccoli stems (because I paid by the pound dammit, I paid for those stems!) but cabbage might be a bit more intense?

Had to buy more milk today, and will need to get a few more things in the next few days… at least we are good on meat for quite awhile, thanks Costco! But I’ve been primarily cooking so our take out budget item is also doing really great!

[Metalcat]

Man, I still have all this cabbage and I’m the only one who will willingly, knowingly eat it. Any ideas for hidden cabbage recipes? I’ve though of hiding it in muffins, which is what I’ve been doing with broccoli stems (because I paid by the pound dammit, I paid for those stems!) but cabbage might be a bit more intense?

Had to buy more milk today, and will need to get a few more things in the next few days… at least we are good on meat for quite awhile, thanks Costco! But I’ve been primarily cooking so our take out budget item is also doing really great!

blended soups, it mushes up nicely in soup and then if you blend it, they won't even notice it, and you can put a TON of cabbage in soup

[PMG]

Shredding it also helps it “disappear” even if you aren’t blending.

[Britan]

Man, I still have all this cabbage and I’m the only one who will willingly, knowingly eat it. Any ideas for hidden cabbage recipes? I’ve though of hiding it in muffins, which is what I’ve been doing with broccoli stems (because I paid by the pound dammit, I paid for those stems!) but cabbage might be a bit more intense?

Had to buy more milk today, and will need to get a few more things in the next few days… at least we are good on meat for quite awhile, thanks Costco! But I’ve been primarily cooking so our take out budget item is also doing really great!

blended soups, it mushes up nicely in soup and then if you blend it, they won't even notice it, and you can put a TON of cabbage in soup

Ooh, good idea. I’m making chicken noodle soup tomorrow because we are ALL a little sick. I may toss in a couple of leaves and blend it in. Made blended broccoli cheddar tonight and actually got my toddler to eat a tiny bit of broccoli!

To PMG: my toddler has been refusing to touch anything with visible cabbage, even shredded really small. :( The more invisible, the better at this point. He’s pretty good about some other veggies, but cabbage just isn’t his thing. I don’t totally blame him (tho I LOVE a good cole slaw) I just… have most of a giant head of cabbage left.

[PMG]

Yeah… you’ve got a challenge for sure!

[APowers]

Does....anyone like sauerkraut? Dead simple to make, and is a very different taste profile than "cabbage".

[Sugaree]

Does....anyone like sauerkraut? Dead simple to make, and is a very different taste profile than "cabbage".

Only in hot dog sauce.

[MudPuppy]

I tolerate it on a Reuben, but one thing I’ve been meaning to do is to try it again in a few different contexts to see if I can make friends with it as an adult.

[TrMama]

Man, I still have all this cabbage and I’m the only one who will willingly, knowingly eat it. Any ideas for hidden cabbage recipes? I’ve though of hiding it in muffins, which is what I’ve been doing with broccoli stems (because I paid by the pound dammit, I paid for those stems!) but cabbage might be a bit more intense?

Had to buy more milk today, and will need to get a few more things in the next few days… at least we are good on meat for quite awhile, thanks Costco! But I’ve been primarily cooking so our take out budget item is also doing really great!

blended soups, it mushes up nicely in soup and then if you blend it, they won't even notice it, and you can put a TON of cabbage in soup

Ooh, good idea. I’m making chicken noodle soup tomorrow because we are ALL a little sick. I may toss in a couple of leaves and blend it in. Made blended broccoli cheddar tonight and actually got my toddler to eat a tiny bit of broccoli!

To PMG: my toddler has been refusing to touch anything with visible cabbage, even shredded really small. :( The more invisible, the better at this point. He’s pretty good about some other veggies, but cabbage just isn’t his thing. I don’t totally blame him (tho I LOVE a good cole slaw) I just… have most of a giant head of cabbage left.

Ironically, my picky kids were much happier to eat raw vegetables than cooked ones. They still don't care for dip. It's counterintuitive, but try just handing him a whole cabbage leaf. He may surprise you and it's way less work to just serve them raw. My kids also like cabbage because I tell them it'll give them gas. Farts are hilarious.

Also at that age repetition counts for a lot. Keeping putting small amounts of whatever you're eating on his plate.

I really liked the book "French Kids Eat Everything". The points I took away were:

Feed them when they're hungry. For me that means serving dinner later.
Serve the salad first
Explain to them that taste buds "grow up" too. They'll like <food> when they get older. This makes liking lots of different things something they'll strive for so they can be grown up.

[Britan]

So I walked to the closer Aldis today for $17 worth of groceries. Not enough to qualify for free delivery and I couldn’t find enough things I needed to reach that minimum so I sucked it up and went to the closer one. They’ve definitely expanded since the last time I was there, and while the produce selection wasn’t super wide, everything looked fresh. There was an…”altercation” at the door as I was checking out, which is apparently pretty common at this location. But I just took my time bagging so that I didn’t have to walk right through the middle of a bunch of 6’+ tall men cussing at each other over who knows what to leave (they were literally right in front of and blocking the whole exit). There isn’t a bike rack to lock bikes to, so I’d have to walk, but it’s not far (unless you’re 9 months pregnant lol). All in all not a bad experience. Though I’ll likely keep instacart because of how much money it’s saved us from walking the aisles at Costco(!) so I might lean towards delivery from the further one if I need enough stuff at once.

I might just throw some raw cabbage at my son and see what he does. I tried cole slaw and he wouldn’t touch it though, haha. My overall approach with him for food is: he is offered what we eat for meals and he can eat it or he can skip dinner and wait to eat until breakfast. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ He’s a skinny little thing, but the pediatrician says he’s doing fine and to keep it up.  He actually does have a pretty wide palette: he likes mushrooms and salmon and whole unsweetened Greek yogurt and any nut variety including walnuts and pumpkin seeds. But that doesn’t stop him from getting picky about other stuff, and unfortunately the problem is I currently happen to have a huge amount of a veggie he doesn’t like.

[Christof]

Ironically, my picky kids were much happier to eat raw vegetables than cooked ones. They still don't care for dip. It's counterintuitive, but try just handing him a whole cabbage leaf.

Same here. Raw cucumber, carrots, broccoli, that works just fine. But cook it or add anything, even anything they like, and there's no way they eat it.

Does....anyone like sauerkraut? Dead simple to make, and is a very different taste profile than "cabbage".

Contrary to what many in the US believe, no, sauerkraut is not something we eat regularly in this German household. Sauerkraut is once or twice a year at max, and that's usually because it's being served and I hate food waste.. I rather have kimchi.

[Britan]

Went nuts at Aldi’s today, brought back $60 worth of groceries. I’m amazed how much that bought me.
This puts us at I think $337 so far this month, and we’re almost to the end.

The meal plan for the week is:
Colombian bean stew (smells like my grandmothers kitchen and my toddler actually eats all the veggies!)
Colombian tomato potato stew
Mushroom chicken with quinoa
Sweet potato and bean soup (I promised my brother I’d try some of his recipes)
Honey garlic salmon (another brother recipe)
Colombian arroz con pollo
If I need a break from cooking at any point, spaghetti and frozen meatballs with red sauce

Plus I’ve got breakfast plans for scrambled eggs, mini frittatas, muffins (chocolate, apple, banana Nutella, and berry-going to freeze a bunch for postpartum snacks), pancakes, French toast, oatmeal, and probably a cereal day or two in there.

Lunches are likely to mostly be sandwiches and leftovers though we have stuff for tuna salad, pbj, and lunch meat sandwiches. And I still have a lot of applesauce pouches, yogurt and frozen berries, apples, grapes, some fresh blackberries that were on sale(!), and soft granola bars. Oh and cashews. I always forget about those, no idea why as I love them.

ETA: oh and I started a journal where I’m going to keep my recipes and log how they were received by the fam. So If the toddler likes one, I’ll make a point to make it again. If they go well, I write them in my bullet journal, but I’m a disorganized mess and often lose it so it will be nice to have a backup on the inter webs.
https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/journals/wandering-aimlessly-in-the-urban-jungle/msg2919828/#msg2919828

[Sibley]

The interesting thing about Aldi is that because it's so local, your experience will vary widely. For me, I have an Aldi, a Strack's, and a Meijer that are reasonably distanced. Strack's, despite being more expensive has TERRIBLE produce. I've bought things that were molded the next day. Aldi's produce is fine, but often prepacked in larger quantities than I need. So I end up getting produce at Meijer mostly. My sister has gotten some specialty produce that the local Meijer doesn't have at Whole Foods, but I've never been there.

However, meat counters are different. I am suspicious of Meijer's meat quality based on experiences from more than a decade ago. I actually suspect that it's fine now. But I get meat from Aldi's mostly and its similar prices to Meijer. Strack's meat is good but higher priced.

I can't help with the cabbage. I don't like it so don't get it unless I'm making corned beef and cabbage, but even then if I'm making it for myself I'll do potatoes instead.