Category Archives: Groceries

Fall 2017 Freezer Challenge Update

12 Friday Jan 2018

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When I kicked this off in November, I mentioned that my goal was to use things up but not necessarily stop shopping.  I’m attempting to meal plan around what I already have first and purchase what might be necessary to flesh this out.

So, how are we doing?

Meat:

  • 2 packages of breakfast sausage (1 meal for us)
  • 1 package of bacon
  • 6 packages (3-4 per pk) of chicken thighs with bones & skin
  • 1 5.5-lb package of chicken thighs with bones & skin (1 meal for us)
  • 11 8 packages (2-3 per pk) of boneless, skinless chicken thighs
  • 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
  • 9 packages (4-5 per pk) of thin-sliced chicken breasts
  • 3 lbs chicken wings
  • 1 pork butt
  • 1 package of pork tenderloin (thawing as I write for dinner this weekend)
  • 3 3-lb chuck roasts
  • 6 NY strip steaks – plain (we ate these with pesto last week)
  • 1 package (6-8 per pk) 4 of salmon filets
  • 4 lbs of tilapia filets
  • 7 5 lbs of ground turkey

This freezer does look better.

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I’d say meat went pretty well as roughly half of it got used up.  Considering it was the holiday season with special meals that don’t necessarily come from the freezer, this is not too bad.  The other categories didn’t go as well.

Ingredients:

  • 1 box of puff pastry This went with the salmon.
  • Partial BJ’s bag of sliced almonds
  • Partial BJ’s bag of walnuts
  • 7 1-cup packages of blueberries (these are ones we picked and I froze in vacuum bags)
  • 1 cup diced red pepper I made a batch of sous vide eggs with these.
  • 9 basil-in-chicken-broth cubes
  • 12 bags of egg whites, mix of 4-ct and 8-ct
  • 3 8-oz blocks of cream cheese

Miscellaneous:

  • ½ box of popsicles (not sure what is going to happen to this given that its about 20° outside now)
  • 8 13 loaves of banana bread (since counting I thawed 2 and sent them as school snacks) Yes, I did use some as school snacks.  But, I also got a container of yogurt for a Friday Freebie and this is my best use for yogurt.  So, I made some more!
  • 1 pan of sausage stuffing (was eaten for Thanksgiving)
  • 18 servings of butternut squash ravioli (I might be off on this count as I didn’t remove everything from the freezer, but its a lot.  These will be lunches for me.) I did eat a few, but I obviously didn’t count them all because there are still this many left!
  • 2 loaves of gingerbread
  • 1 package of fudge

I’m going to continue chipping away at this list, and like the pantry will provide another update in March before spring sports kick off.

Pantry Update – Jan 2018

11 Thursday Jan 2018

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At the beginning of November I did a clean-up and reorganization of the pantry.  At the end I listed a number of items that I needed to purposely use.  Now, to be clear, none of these are really expiring.  But, they are not necessarily things that we use frequently and they’ve been around a while.

 

So, here’s the list with updates.

Recipes:

  • 1 jar of pesto, 1 package of sea salt, 1 package of sugar in the raw – These came in gift boxes.  We can use all of them, it just needs to be conscious planning.  I used about a third of the pesto with steak.  People did like it so we’ll do that again until its gone.  Now that its open I should get this used up.  We haven’t touched the other items.
  • 1 jar of clam juice – This was extra left over from the first time I tried a recipe.  This recipe has been requested again so I should make it and finish this off.  It would use up one of the boxes of puff pastry in the freezer (coming on that list) also. Made it again to use this up.
  • 1 0.5 bag of marshmallows, 2.5 1.5 boxes of graham crackers – Leftovers from summer s’mores.  Its going to be cold this weekend, but ideally we’ll make s’mores one more time.  That would use up the marshmallows and some of the graham crackers.  I need some of the graham crackers for a key lime pie at Thanksgiving.  After that we’ll have to see.  Neither will keep well until next summer. We had smores on the last cold but possible night.  The marshmallows I’ll use up in hot chocolate because it is definitely winter now.  I also used a few graham crackers to make a crust for key lime pie.  We were not fans of the crust recipe though so I’m not sure I’ll make it again.
  • 4 3 pecan pumpkin quick bread mixes – We like this.  I just need to remember to make them.
  • 1 bag of Cape Cod potato chips – I found these on sale at Target over the summer so they should be eaten soon.  I’ve been thinking of meatball subs to use up the provolone in the fridge and I think these would go nicely. Yes, did this.
  • 2 single serve cups of pineapple tid-bits – I purchased a box of fruit cups that were half pineapple/half tropical fruit.  Tropical fruit flies, but nobody wants to eat pineapple unless I put it in pineapple upside down cake.  That will probably have to wait until after the holidays as there are so many fun holiday desserts to make.

I’ll eat them eventually:

  • 10 5 single serve packages of plain oatmeal – These are leftover from when I needed pregnancy snacks.  I need to finish them off, maybe some light lunches.
  • Dates, whole & chopped – I just need to remember they’re there.
  • 3 2 single serve brownie mixes – These came from a Friday Freebie coupon.  There were four in the box and I had one.  It was ok.  I will eventually eat the rest, but they’re not tasty enough to actually spend money on.

Kids snacks:

  • Ritz crackers, veggie straws, Ruffles potato chips – These are leftover summer pool snacks.  These are all open and therefore need to be eaten soon.  I will probably just send them to school as part of lunch/snack. Still need to remember the Ritz crackers.
  • 6 pk chicken ramen – I bought these as snacks for the oldest.  I need to introduce them to him, but he hasn’t been snacking as much as one might think for his size/age.
  • Whole almonds, whole cashews – The boys used to snack on these, but they haven’t recently.  I cook with cashews occasionally so I’ll just need to plan to use these up.  Not sure yet what to do with the almonds.
  • Coconut oil, dried apple rings – I had planned to make granola with these, but haven’t.  Maybe I will actually get around to that.
  • 2 packages of plain, microwave popcorn – Sounds like a snack for the kids, maybe with a movie on a cold winter day (like the holiday tomorrow which is supposed to be awfully cold relative to recent weather). Used for a movie one on of last week’s bitterly cold snow days.

I don’t feel like I need to add more to the list at this point.  There are a few perishables that we need to consciously eat through:

  • 1.5 packages of English muffins – I rarely buy these.  But, did bite when it was buy 1, get 2 free.  I realize I could freeze them if necessary.
  • 50 lbs of Russet potatoes – These were under 20¢/pound last week plus I had a few on hand already.  Again, I know they can be stored for a long time, but I don’t have a properly temperature-controlled space for long-term.  That being said, we usually eat 3-4 pounds of potatoes with a meal so it should not be a problem to use them.  Mindfulness really.
  • 6 lbs of yellow onions – I was almost out and these were buy 1 get one free.  So, more that I would normally buy, but its winter and lots of soups/stews/etc. call for onions so we should be able to use them up too.

Tomorrow I’ll update the current freezer situation.  I’ll plan for a final update on both again in March before the catch as catch can meals of the summer sports season begin.

Grocery Update & What We Ate – Week 1, 2018

08 Monday Jan 2018

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This week did not get us off to a budget-friendly start.  But, it did include the (roughly) monthly trip to BJ’s so it was never likely to come in low.  Target is one thousand for the month, or a little under $250/week.

Let’s finish off 2017 first, though.

I started on Tuesday with a very small, $12.22 trip to Wegman’s.

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Wednesday was the big day.  I had planned to go to Target and BJ’s – last day for the BJ’s coupons and Target is almost next door.  This got done.  First, I spent $36.30 at Target.  The Hershey’s bars were $0.10 on clearance while the holiday M&Ms were $1.90 each.

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They I hopped over to BJ’s and spent $176.63.  That brought my total to $225.15 right there.

Then, because we were forecast for 8-12 inches of snow on Thursday (and I had a bit of extra time before the preschool pickup) I decided to make two more small stops on Wednesday.

I grabbed $22.85 of mostly produce from the farm stand.  Apparently I forgot to take a picture of this, but it comprised a bag of broccoli crowns, green beans, three pears, tomatoes, and dinner rolls.

Lastly I snuck in a very quick $35.14 at Stop & Shop.

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And we settled in for the storm.  Turns out we beat the forecast with 17 inches of snow and temps in the single to negative single digits over three days.  Wind chills reached into the negative 30s; not typical for us at all.  Since we did not lose power or have any significant issues apart from staying indoors, we did a fair amount of cooking and ate much of what you see above.

On Saturday, I decided to venture out for another small – $22.55 – trip to Wegman’s.

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On Sunday, I attended a GNO at the mall during which I purchased $23.97 of clearance holiday foods.  That brought my total to $329.66 for the week; $176.63 at BJ’s and $153.03 elsewhere.

The combination of the first partial week of the year and the snowstorm cancelling many things enabled many family dinners.

Monday:
Early: Leftover rib roast, mashed potatoes
Late: Take-out Chinese

Tuesday:
Meatball subs, tater tots, carrot sticks

Wednesday:
Leg of lamb, baked potato, green beans, rolls

Thursday:
Beef barley soup, beer bread

Friday:
Early: Macaroni & cheese, brocolli
Late: Homemade pizza

Saturday:
Pork carnitas, pico de gallo, corn

Sunday (I was out.):
Take-out pizza

December 2017 Grocery Review

01 Monday Jan 2018

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Happy 2018 to everyone!

With Christmas and New Year’s Day falling on Mondays, I decided to take last week off but start this week fresh.  Similarly, while I did go grocery shopping both of the last two weeks, I’m not going to go day by day.  I’ll share some pictures (all mixed together) and summarize December.  In the same vein, we did some traveling this past week so I’ll lay out the Christmas menu and leave it at that.  Plan for a more standard Monday post next week.

The above shows a mix of Wegman’s, Stop & Shop, and the farm stand (a couple trips to each).  This coming week I’ll be heading to BJ’s and Target at least.  We’ll see how the week goes with snow in the forecast for Thursday and Friday.

December TOTAL: $1,025.89

  • Stop & Shop: $131.01
  • Wegman’s: $477.05
  • BJs: $142.88
  • Other: $274.95
    • Local: $148.57
    • Star Market: $13.50
    • Trader Joe’s: $9.97
    • Target: $0
    • Other: $0

This was a good month, especially when one considers the significant meals often involved for Christmas, Christmas Eve, holiday parties, etc.  We did host Christmas day and got two nice prime rib roasts, but otherwise we had no especially significant holiday food expenses.

Christmas Eve: Salmon wrapped in puff pastry, pan fried potatoes, spinach salad

Christmas Day: French onion soup, Prime rib roast, gravy, mashed potatoes, carrots, green beans, mushroom & wild rice stuffing, gingerbread cookies, pumpkin pie

Grocery Update & What We Ate – Week 50, 2017

18 Monday Dec 2017

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After a moderate week last week with no grocery store visits, I made a lot of stops (for me) this week.  Thankfully, none were too huge, but there were a lot.

I spent $53.78 at Wegman’s on Monday.  The dark bag that’s hard to see is cucumbers for the preschool holiday party.

Then, on Tuesday, I spent $11.31 at Stop & Shop, mostly to grab things that were on sale that we prefer from that store.

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On Thursday, I spent $13.50 at Shaw’s on nine boxes of oatmeal that I didn’t take a picture of.

On that same trip, I stopped at Wegman’s again for the big shop of $98.20.

Finally, on Saturday I spent $30.21 at the farm stand for some items for our early Christmas get-together.  I also picked up some items for dinner that night.

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That brought me to exactly $207 for the week.  Not bad at all!

We had evening activities on Monday and Thursday, as well as a few quick-fix dinner requirements.  Plus the Christmas party covered Sunday lunch, so that was planned to be a lighter dinner.

Monday:
Early: Hot dogs, carrot sticks
Late: Homemade pizza

Tuesday:
Shepard’s pie, green beans

Wednesday:
Early: Macaroni & cheese, brocolli
Late: Homemade pizza

Thursday:
Early: Turkey, green beans
Late: Tuna noodle casserole

Friday:
Early: French toast
Late: Homemade pizza

Saturday:
Pork tenderloin, sauteed Brussels sprouts, pan fried potatoes

Sunday:
Meatball subs, carrot sticks, pasta salad

A Review of Stop & Shop’s Recipe for Korean Stir-Fry with Pork and Asian Noodles

15 Friday Dec 2017

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Korean Stir-Fry with Pork and Asian Noodles

I’ve been trying some new recipes while we are between baseball and soccer seasons.  First, right off the bat, this is a recipe we would try again.  That being said, I think some comments and modifications are in order.

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Some notes about us, because that may affect how you perceive the comments:

  • We don’t eat many stir frys.
  • We’ve never had veggie noodles.  And, I’m the only one here who really likes sweet potatoes.
  • I haven’t cooked these noodles or with Korean BBQ sauce before, but those both seemed well within our reach.
  • I am a zero pepper person, though most of the family would prefer things spicier.

There are definite pros:

  1. This recipe is super easy.  The most time consuming thing was cutting up the pork.  Plus, it gives suggestions for preparation that can be done in advance.
  2. It is good and was accepted by all the kids.
  3. It’s quick, and makes a complete meal in one pot.
  4. The ingredients are not hard to find.  I did not buy all of them at Stop & Shop, despite this being their recipe.  I’m sure I could have.

But, I would change things up a bit:

  1. It needs more sauce, like double the amount.
  2. And, I think pretty much anyone could handle a spicier sauce.  They sell a spicy Korean BBQ sauce also which I would recommend.
  3. The sweet potato noodles felt a bit gimicky.  They tasted fine and were cooked properly, they just didn’t seem necessary.
  4. On the other hand, this could easily be made vegetarian by leaving out the pork.  You wouldn’t be missing much, but I would leave the sweet potato noodles in.

In summary: more sauce, possibly spicier, and leave out either the sweet potato noodles or pork.

**Stop & Shop is not everywhere within the US.  In the Metro DC area, for example, it is known as Giant.  Maybe other names elsewhere.

Freezer Challenge – Fall 2017

14 Thursday Dec 2017

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Like the pantry, the freezers need a refresh.  Now, this is not a freezer challenge where I’m not allowed to buy anything.  This is a “see what’s been in there a long time and plan a way to use it up,” mission.  So, I’m not auditing everything.  And, I’m not going to stop buying groceries either.

I actually did the inventory just before Thanksgiving and was going to write about it last week, but life got in the way and that didn’t happen.  So, here goes.

Meat:

  • 2 packages of breakfast sausage (1 meal for us)
  • 1 package of bacon
  • 6 packages (3-4 per pk) of chicken thighs with bones & skin
  • 1 5.5-lb package of chicken thighs with bones & skin (1 meal for us)
  • 11 packages (2-3 per pk) of boneless, skinless chicken thighs
  • 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
  • 9 packages (4-5 per pk) of thin-sliced chicken breasts
  • 3 lbs chicken wings
  • 1 pork butt
  • 1 package of pork tenderloin (thawing as I write for dinner this weekend)
  • 3 3-lb chuck roasts
  • 6 NY strip steaks – plain (we ate these with pesto last week)
  • 1 package (6-8 per pk) of salmon filets
  • 4 lbs of tilapia filets
  • 7 lbs of ground turkey

IMG_7354 (3)

Ingredients:

  • 1 box of puff pastry
  • Partial BJ’s bag of sliced almonds
  • Partial BJ’s bag of walnuts
  • 7 1-cup packages of blueberries (these are ones we picked and I froze in vacuum bags)
  • 1 cup diced red pepper
  • 9 basil-in-chicken-broth cubes
  • 12 bags of egg whites, mix of 4-ct and 8-ct
  • 3 8-oz blocks of cream cheese

IMG_7355 (3)

Miscellaneous:

  • ½ box of popsicles (not sure what is going to happen to this given that its about 20° outside now)
  • 8 loaves of banana bread (since counting I thawed 2 and sent them as school snacks)
  • 1 pan of sausage stuffing (was eaten for Thanksgiving)
  • 18 servings of butternut squash ravioli (I might be off on this count as I didn’t remove everything from the freezer, but its a lot.  These will be lunches for me.)
  • 2 loaves of gingerbread
  • 1 package of fudge

So, its not everything.  You will definitely see things in the pictures that are not in this list.  But, it is what has been around for longer than maybe I’d like and should be moved along.  I’ll plan to update this and the pantry status at the beginning of January so you can see how we’ve been doing eating things up.  In the meantime, watch the menus to see what appears!

Grocery Update & What We Ate – Week 49, 2017

11 Monday Dec 2017

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This was a good week.  Unfortunately, I’m in a rut of posting late on Mondays.  But, better late than never.  It will be brief, though because we have to eat early tonight.

I went grocery shopping on Wednesday only.  I went to Target and BJ’s.  Target first for $41.29 in food (plus some other items).  I don’t always take a picture of the Target stuff because its often just juice.  But, this time there was some variety.  Very happy to find the big packs of granola bars in our favorite flavor (vs multi-flavor) also!

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Then, I spent $135.44 at BJ’s for a total of $176.73 for the week!

Meals were a bit here and there with many post-dinner activities.

Monday:
Korean stir-fry with pork and Asian noodles (I’ll review this recipe on Friday.)

Tuesday:
Take out pizza

Wednesday:
Steaks with pesto, potatoes gratin, carrots, homemade bread

Thursday:
Early: Chicken nuggets, broccoli
Late: Take-out Indian

Friday:
Early: Pancakes
Late: Homemade pizza

Saturday:
Early: Chicken nuggets, carrots
Late: Out for the company party

Sunday:
Spaghetti & meatballs, spinach salad

November 2017 Grocery Review

04 Monday Dec 2017

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With Thanksgiving so early this year, we had a full week afterwards to finish off November.

I spent $92.94 at Star Market on Wednesday on pizza dough, pizza cheese, and oatmeal.  Yes, I bought the entire case of pizza dough.  And, yes, it went straight from the grocery freezer to my own.

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On Thursday, I finished out the month of November by spending $98.77 at Stop & Shop.

Then, on Sunday I started December by spending $65.88 at Wegman’s.  A couple notes about that trip.  First, the loaf of bread was free with store coupon.  It’s a new flavor.  I’m not sure if we’ll like it, but at free I was willing to give it a try.  Second, this is far more produce than I usually purchase at Wegman’s as I find their produce department hit or miss both for items and quality.  I did find everything I was looking for.  Hopefully it will all cook up nicely too.  Finally, the gallon of orange juice is for the preschool holiday party this week.

That brought me to a respectable $257.59 for the week.  Note, it overlaps November and December so it won’t all be included below.

November TOTAL: $1,323.59

  • Stop & Shop: $306.20
  • Wegman’s: $273.73
  • BJs: $376.10
  • Other: $367.56
    • Local: $148.57
    • Star Market: $169.72
    • Trader Joe’s: $0
    • Target: $49.27
    • Other: $0

A high month.  Two trips to BJ’s, two trips to Shaw’s plus a food intensive holiday will do that to you.

Meals keep moving along.  Unfortunately with the winter schedule we’re back to more split dinners.  But, fewer people are out late so there’s generally less busyness.

Monday:
Salmon “Wellington”, green beans

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Tuesday:
Early: Chicken nuggets, broccoli
Late: Homemade pizza

Wednesday:
Macaroni & cheese, green beans

Thursday:
Early: Eggs
Late: Steak, hash browns, spinach salad

Friday:
Early: Chicken nuggets, broccoli
Late: Homemade pizza

Saturday:
Grilled hot dogs & sausages, baked beans, chips, veggie plate

Sunday:
Tacos, corn, refried beans

Grocery Update & What We Ate – Week 47, 2017

27 Monday Nov 2017

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I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving, or weekend.

As you can imagine, Thanksgiving week is usually a big grocery week what with extra eaters and fancier menus.  This was true again, though not too over the top especially since one of my stops was BJs after Thanksgiving.

On Monday, I failed to photograph the Russet potatoes and five packages of sliced/shredded cheese I got for $12.49 at Stop & Shop.

On Tuesday, I spent $141.57 at the farm stand, mostly on the perishables for Thanksgiving.  We hosted a total of 14 people.  Having done this before, we have decided two smaller turkeys (12.3 lbs each this time) is a better option than a single larger bird.  The picture on the right are items we will use for Thanksgiving.  The picture on the left are things I bought while I was there for other meals.

That trip finished my Thanksgiving shopping.  But, since I wasn’t convinced we would make it through Thanksgiving without more milk, I spent $134.84 at Wegman’s on Wednesday.  Shopping Wednesday morning was not as crazy as I feared it might be.  $33.48 of this was for a cheese plate we did eat on Thanksgiving.

Finally, we ended up at BJ’s on Saturday which saved me a trip for this upcoming week, spending an additional $144.32.

This brought my weekly total to $433.22.  For this coming week, I’ll need to get pizza dough and milk at some point.  But, otherwise the above should cover it.

Meals went reasonably well this week.  Not too many double dinners, nor a major letdown after the big feast.

Monday:
Tacos

Tuesday:
Early: Take out pizza
Late: Homemade pizza

Wednesday:
Veal Parmesan, spinach salad

Thursday (Thanksgiving):
Turkey (x2), mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, Brussels sprouts, butternut squash, cranberry sauce, sausage stuffing, traditional stuffing, cranberry-brie bites, key lime pie, pecan pie, pumpkin pie, brownies

Friday:
Chili, corn bread

Saturday:
Turkey soup

Sunday:
Homemade pizza