Author Archives: Nora

New Recipe – Fish Tacos with Guacamole & Pico de Gallo

03 Friday Mar 2017

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First, apologies for missing yesterday’s post.  We had a high wind warning and the wind did take out the power for a couple of hours.

After many months of listening to requests for fish tacos, I finally found a recipe I wanted to try – The Frugal Girl’s Not-Fried Fish Tacos.  I made the recipe as described and it was a real winner.  I even cut the fish fillets in half per her recommendation which made each piece the perfect size for one taco.  When I repeat it, I’ll probably skip microwaving the spices (not sure that actually did anything) and I’ll significantly increase the chipotle peppers in the sauce.  Some people thought the sauce needed more kick and we determined that the only people interested in the sauce were folks who would be ok with extra spice.

She recommended serving with guacamole and pico de gallo, among other toppings, so I made those too.  These were both recipes I’d made before and ones that seem to need some doctoring.

The guacamole recipe is from food.com.  It is very good.  I just find the full recipe is well over the stated six servings.  So, I basically halved it.  But, I rounded up the avocado and kept with two limes.  Pressing plastic wrap onto the surface goes along way towards keeping the brown at bay.

The pico de gallo recipe from Food Network needs even more doctoring.  Mainly, it produces WAY more than 4-6 servings.  I HIGHLY recommending thirding the recipe unless you are serving a LARGE crowd.  I also think it does well with a rest to let the flavors meld.  So, I try to make it in the morning if we’re planning to have it for dinner that night.

As you can see we also had flour tortillas, corn chips, cheese, sour cream, diced jalapeno, and lime slices.  Nobody uses all of those things, but different people enjoy different combinations.

Last Week’s Accomplishments – Unsubscribing

28 Tuesday Feb 2017

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A rainbow isn’t an accomplishment, of course, but it is nice to see.  Last week was vacation week and the weather was excellent.  We reached 70° one day and well over 50° for a few others, so all of the snow is gone.

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  • Being vacation week and mostly excellent weather we spent a lot of time outside.  The first half of the week there was still some snow.  This is the later part.
  • We went to one kid get together and one adult evening out.
  • We had two skating lessions and one baseball clinic.
  • We two of three spring soccer team assignments.  We have one of two baseball team assignments.  That only leaves the two kindergarten teams.
  • I finished cleaning out the office.  This was a big project.  But, it feels good to be largely done and the painter was able to do his touch-ups without things in the way.  A big part of this was parting with broken & unused toys.  I found four boxes labeled “out of circulation toys,” which means the boys haven’t seen those items in at least a year.  I tossed most of the broken items and I put most of the rest in the donate/sell pile.  I did keep about a box worth that are in between kids at the moment.
  • The painter finished his retouching.  And, the tile guy came to fix the cracks that had appeared as the house went through its first winter cycle.  Things are back to new!
  • I took 15 minutes to unsubscribe from most of the store emails I’d been receiving.  I was reaching the point where I was auto-deleting more emails than I was actually reading.  And, nobody needs daily emails from every store they ever shopped at.  So, I went through my trash folder for the past week and unsubscribed to most of them.  This has cut down my inbox dramatically.  In another month, I should probably do this one more time just to catch those that send emails less frequently.

 

Grocery Update & What We Ate – Week 8, 2017

27 Monday Feb 2017

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I feel like I was in and out of grocery stores all week.  No stop was particularly large, there were just a lot of them.

On Tuesday, I went to Wegman’s and Stop & Shop.  The first picture is Wegman’s.  Not all of this will be eaten this week (or next).  The fish is all frozen, for example.  Similarly, I intended to buy one pepper, but it was almost the same price as six so I got the larger pack.  I gave away two and we’ll plan to eat some extra salads to use up the rest.

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This is Stop & Shop.  So why both in the same day?  Wegman’s doesn’t carry Kraft/Cracker Barrel and we have tried their cheddar and found it not as good.  The don’t carry either diced tomatoes or Russet potatoes in as large containers making Stop & Shop’s unit price better, especially when both are on sale.  Blueberries were buy one, get one free.

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On Thursday I went to Shaw’s.  Why?  There are many reasons.  (1) The boys prefer their store brand of oatmeal.  (2) No other store in our area carries either Taster’s Choice French Roast or Kraft pizza cheese, both of which we prefer.  (3) While other stores do carry this pizza dough, I can purchase many at a time here and freeze them.  They’re all the same price.  I also picked up swiss cheese that I had forgotten from Stop & Shop.  I got some additional jalapenos because I decided two wasn’t enough.  And I grabbed a can of beans for chili, which I was told had to have beans in it.

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On Saturday, I went to Stop & Shop again – different sale cycle.  Onions and chicken were buy one, get one free.  Orange juice was on sale plus I had both a store and manufacture’s coupon for two so I got an additional $2.00 off the sale price.  The cheese was on sale.  The tonic, mushrooms, and bananas we were just out of.

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Finally, on Sunday, I went to BJ’s.  My primary purpose was diapers.  (We’re enrolled for Amazon’s subscription service, but its hard to match use to auto deliveries so I supplement with BJ’s.  Our next delivery isn’t until Friday and we weren’t going to make it that far.)  I got our usual milk and bread.  Shrimp and tuna had coupons.  The stir fry beef was for dinner that night.  Interestingly, the nut bars were free with a coupon.  But, they actually saved me $2.00 on my bill because the coupon rang up to the full amount even though there was an e-coupon for $2.00 off.  We’ve never had them, but just taking them out of the store was a bonus!

 

It was school vacation week so we went a bit easy on dinners.

Monday:
Leftovers

Tuesday:
Spaghetti & meatballs

Wednesday:
Kids: Eggs
Adults: Homemade pizza

Thursday:
Chili
Corn muffins

Friday:
Kids: Eggs
Adults: Homemade pizza

Saturday:
Fish tacos
Guacamole
Pico de gallo

Sunday:
Beef & broccoli stir fry
Rice

Sausage Stuffing

24 Friday Feb 2017

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Part of what I most appreciate about this recipe is that it freezes well.  We can’t use the entire recipe at once, but I can put some in a foil pan and then cook it directly from frozen.  We enjoy this with ham as well as turkey.

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Sausage and Chestnut Dressing
adapted from the Williams-Sonoma Thanksgiving booklet, 2006

Ingredients:
1 box (16 oz) stuffing
4 Tbsp butter
2 yellow onions, diced
4 celery stalks, diced
½ cup white wine
2 cups prepared chestnuts, roughly chopped
salt and pepper
1¼ lb mild Italian sausage, casings removed
6 Tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley
3-3½ cups chicken broth

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 375°.  Butter a 3½-4 quart casserole dish.  (Butter multiple dishes if you’re dividing.  The above picture shows three roughly 8-inch square containers.
  2. Put the stuffing in a large bowl and set aside.  (I cannot emphasize LARGE enough.  You’ll regret it later if you skimp on the bowl.)
  3. Melt the butter in a medium saute pan over medium-high heat.  Add the onions and celery.  Saute 3-5 minutes until soft and translucent.
  4. Add the wine, stirring to scrape up the browned bits, for 3 minutes or until most of the liquid has evaporated.
  5. Add the chestnuts and cook for a further 2 minutes.
  6. Season with salt and pepper.
  7. Transfer this mixture to the bowl with the stuffing.  Mix.
  8. Using the same pan, cook the sausage until lightly browned and cooked through, about 10 minutes.  Transfer to the bowl with the stuffing.
  9. Add the parsley to the bowl and stir to combine.
  10. Stir in 3 cups of broth.  Add more broth if needed and season with salt and pepper.
  11. Transfer to the baking dish(es), cover with buttered aluminum foil, and bake for 20 minutes.  (If starting from frozen, the initial bake time is closer to 40 minutes.)  Remove the foil and continue baking until the top is golden and crispy, another 15-20 minutes.

A Month in Review

23 Thursday Feb 2017

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I usually post the accomplishments posts on Tuesdays, but with the standard holidays, snow days, and now school vacation week, things are getting a bit off.  So, rather than wait yet another week, I decided to post it here.

  • We finished up skiing lessons.
  • Our now 4 year old started skating lessons.
  • We hosted two birthday parties.  We attended two birthday parties.
  • We’ve had some contractors through for warranty work.
  • We’ve been to three doctor’s appointments.
  • We went to preschool family day.
  • The boys had their school valentine’s day parties.
  • I got more unpacking done.  I’m now down to 6 boxes apart from those in the unfinished basement.  Hopefully I can finish those off in the next few weeks.
  • The older three boys saw the LEGO Batman movie.
  • We took the oldest three plus the baby to the Museum of Science.  There were three things we specifically wanted to see: DaVinci, Chocolate, and Journey to Space.  We also stopped in at a few of the permanent exhibits.  Thankfully we got their fairly promptly after it opened because by the time we left at noon it was packed and loud.  A function of school vacation week, I’m sure.
  • I took the youngest boy to see the annual model train exhibit with his friend.

Next week we’ll be back at school, at least for a few weeks before April vacation.  After that it will be the spring stretch of chaos and then summer.  Time rolls on.

Grocery Update & What We Ate, – Week 7, 2017

20 Monday Feb 2017

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This week was one moderate sized trip to BJs and one small trip to the farm stand.

I went to BJs (again, despite a recent trip) on Friday.  Since I was pressed for time I took the photos in the trunk in two layers.  So, you’ll see I did buy some non-food items also.  But, it can be fairly summarized as lots of milk, bread, and chicken (actual chicken is under the nuggets).

Then, Sunday I went to the farm stand to restock green beans and broccoli.  I got harvest chicken salad (cranberries, pecans, and a yogurt binder) for lunch and snap peas because they were on sale.

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We ate in every night except Sunday, and largely from things already on hand.

Monday:
Chicken pot pie

Tuesday:
Tacos

Wednesday:
Kids: Pancakes* or leftover chicken pot pie
Adults: Homemade pizza

Thursday:
Spaghetti & meatballs

Friday:
Kids: Eggs
Adults: Homemade pizza

Saturday:
Ham
Sausage stuffing
Broccoli
Spinach salad

Sunday:
Out

*The boys are usually reluctant to have any breakfast item beyond eggs for dinner.  But, the preschooler had homework associated with If You Give a Pig a Pancake that included reading the book, coloring a pancake, and making pancakes.  So four of them (plus the baby girl) made an exception and one finished off the leftover chicken pot pie.  This was his once a year homework assignment.

With a Little Help from our Friends

16 Thursday Feb 2017

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We were very happy that everyone was able to get through the snow for the younger boys’ birthday party last weekend.  The forecast had been for the snow to start around 3 (after the party), but it started late morning and the roads were a bit tricky by the time the party started.  But, almost everyone made it, and things were actually a bit easier getting home because they’d gotten out to treat the roadways.  So, we burned off some energy before settling down for another snowstorm.  This one came with high winds.  While our power did not go out, we didn’t send the kids outside as much as usual in the snow because things were really blowing around.

Despite the snow it was a very social week.  The boys did much sledding as well as snow fort and snowman building.  Yesterday our friends brought us some Valentine mice for dessert.

Grocery Update & What We Ate – Week 6, 2017

13 Monday Feb 2017

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After a week off, I went to BJ’s and Target plus multiple trips to Stop & Shop and Wegman’s.

Monday was BJ’s.  It has been a while since I’d been, and I had a lot of coupons so it was a pretty big visit.  While I was over that way, I picked up some water, juice, and raisins at Target.

On Wednesday, I went to Wegman’s and Stop & Shop.  This was a stock up day.  I had intended to go to Stop & Shop, but we were forecast to get a lot of snow starting Wednesday night.  We did get quite a bit and after three storms and multiple snow days I’m glad I went to Wegman’s also.  For example, we ate all these eggs in one week!

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I needed to go to Stop & Shop to order cakes for the weekend.  I got a number of other items that were on sale also.  The cheese and herbs were the only items not on sale.

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On Saturday, I went to Wegman’s and Stop & Shop again in the break between storms.  The primary purpose of Wegman’s was to pick up wine and ingredients for our Valentine’s Day dinner (lobster thermador, which we ate Saturday night).  Yes, more eggs.  Bread for french toast.  Lollipops for the birthday party.  Meatballs, pork, tomatoes, and applesauce to restock.  Lobster, herbs, and raspberries for the dinner.

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At Stop & Shop, I picked up the cakes and celery for the dinner.  Eggos, OJ, tuna, and mushrooms were on sale.  The other items were just to restock knowing we would be at home with more snow.

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With all the snow, we did pretty well for dinners.

Monday:
Sous vide salmon
Pan fried potatoes
Broccoli

Tuesday:
Spaghetti & meatballs

Wednesday:
Sous vide steak
Baked potatoes
Carrots

Thursday (snow bound potluck with our neighbor):
Kids: Macaroni & cheese plus leftover steak
Adults: Chili

Friday:
Kids: Chicken nuggets
Adults: Homemade pizza

Saturday:
Kids: Eggs
Adults: Lobster thermidor, spinach salad, potato

Sunday:
Kids: Shrimp & broccoli
Adults: Homemade pizza

Brown Butter Brussels Sprouts

10 Friday Feb 2017

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We often have this with lemon chicken and pan fried potatoes.  I plan to post the potato recipe next week.  I tend to use whole Brussels sprouts, but I imagine shaved ones would be excellent also, just a different consistency.  You might not even have to steam those.

Brown Butter Brussels Sprouts
Adapted from Aaron McCargo Jr.’s recipe on Food Network.

Ingredients:
1 ½ lbs Brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved or quartered into bite size pieces
3 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp caraway seeds
Juice from 1 lemon
Salt & pepper

Directions:

  1. Steam the Brussels sprouts to your desired eating consistency.  They can be done in advance and brought back to room temperature.  I do not recommend refrigerating them after steaming.
  2. In a saute pan, melt the butter.
  3. Add the Brussels sprouts and saute until browned and warmed.
  4. Add caraway seeds and lemon juice.  Salt and pepper.  Stir and serve.

January 2017 Grocery Review

06 Monday Feb 2017

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So, the Super Bowl was last night as we live in New England.  Yes, I did watch it.  Yes, I thought about turning it off at halftime.  No, I didn’t.  I saw the end.  But, that’s the reason this post is going up so late.

Now for the subject at hand.  After a huge month of December, January was far more reasonable.  This makes sense as there weren’t parties to provide food for and I didn’t stock up on meat the same as in December.  Hopefully, things will stay more like this going forward.

  • January TOTAL: $791.38
    • Stop & Shop: $84.09
    • Wegman’s: $525.95
    • BJs: $120.04
    • Other: $61.30
      • Local: $16.65
      • Star Market: $44.65
      • Trader Joe’s: $0
      • Target: $0
      • Other: $0

After no grocery trips last week, I did make four stops this week.  There was a quick visit to Shaw’s for pizza dough, pizza cheese, and oatmeal (no picture).

On Monday I went to Wegman’s.  I must say the peaches have been a disappointment.  Very stringy and mushy.  I’m going back to the Dole pack from BJs after this one.  This was a bit of an expensive trip with all the cheese.  I was also disappointed to discover that milk prices are going up so the milk alone was about $7 more than last time.

Then, on Thursday I went to Stop & Shop and the farm stand.  The cider and deli turkey are from the farm stand.  Everything else is from Stop & Shop.  Everything was on sale except the jalapeno and the hot dogs so this was more of a stock up vs getting ready for the week shop.

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We did eat last week, though.

Saturday: gone

Sunday:
Spaghetti & meatballs

Monday:
Kids: Eggs
Adults: Homemade pizza

Tuesday:
Chili
Corn muffins

Wednesday:
BBQ chicken
Biscuits
Salad

Thursday:
Spaghetti & meatballs

Friday:
Kids: Chicken nuggets
Adults: Homemade pizza

Saturday:
Salmon with lemon-chive butter
Pan fried potatoes
Salad

Sunday (Super Bowl):
Homemade pizza