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Chicken, berries, and milk were on sale this week — so I built my grocery list from there.
4) I buy the cheapest store brand most of the time. Unless it's something that I'm unable to use due to the peanut allergy or an item I absolutely love (or if a different brand is on sale), store brand it is.
5) I ask my kids to help me. Feeding kids is a challenge. They change their minds constantly, and they seemingly get new taste buds every meal. When I ask them to help pick out recipes (usually with them looking at pictures), I find that they are more excited to eat them. I will also let them pick what they want for their lunch, snacks, and fruit and veggies for the week!
6) I shop AT the grocery store, I am not THE grocery store. I don't supply endless options. I'm not going to overbuy produce that will end up going bad in the fridge without being used. I'm not going to be a vending machine for pantry snacks. My kids get to pick what they want their non-recipe veggies, fruits, and snacks to be for the week, and we usually pick two options for each category.
(Produce: limes, lemons, cilantro, guacamole, blood oranges, navel oranges, avocados, pomegranate, mint, lettuce, shallot, cucumbers, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, garlic, parsley, yellow squash, zucchini, raspberries, red pepper, green pepper Dairy: pepper jack cheese, sour cream, half & half, Parmesan, yogurt, milk Meat: rotisserie chicken, chicken thighs, ground beef, chicken tenders, Canadian bacon Pantry: salsa, black beans, white rice, arborio, tortillas, dijon mustard, chopped tomatoes, tomato paste, white wine, Panko, flour, sugar, angel hair pasta, oats, dried cranberries Misc: orange juice, eggs, tzatziki.
Today was a bit of painting.
One budget flop I did make this week was accidentally spending more than intended on the dried cranberries. Oftentimes, I will add things to my shopping list way in advance so that I don't forget to add them when it comes time to shop. A past version of me decided it would be a good time to stock the pantry with dried cranberries. However, I never took off the bulk purchase when I realized my plans had changed for the week, and I ended up spending $12 on dried cranberries. 🥴 I'm trying not to think about all the other things I could have added in.
I made my sourdough starter using flour and water awhile back. Although I didn't create the actual starter this week, it's one staple now in my house that we always lean on. Last week, I tried to give my 2-year-old a store-bought piece of bread, and she threw an absolute fit telling me she wanted the homemade sourdough. At the end of the day, it's shocking how much money I save each week by taking 10-15 minutes every few days (that's the pace in our house) to make a loaf or two!
I added some fresh fruit and veggies on the side!
Many Instant Pots have a specific 'yogurt' function — but mine does not, so I use these instructions. This process is extremely simple, but it does take patience. In terms of the budget, half gallons of milk were on sale for only $0.99, and the individual serving of yogurt was $1.25!
I also roasted a few chicken thighs and put the remaining thighs in the freezer for later in the week.
After lots of ideas of what I could tell them they were called, I ended up going with "they're purple and special, eat them." Seemed to work!
I ended up yielding about 2.5 larger containers, and I knew we would be set for the rest of the week!
While I baked the potatoes, I browned the meat and got all the various toppings ready.
Since most of us made burrito bowls Monday night instead of actual burritos, we had a lot of tortillas left, making it a perfect swap for my son.
The granola has such a subtle sweetness, which I love, and it only takes about 5 minutes to prepare. The rest of the time it takes to prepare is very hands-off with just baking and cooling.
A quick side note: I've also added oat butter into the yogurt bowl before and that is so creamy and a delicious addition. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get oat butter into the budget this week — probably because I spent $12 on dried cranberries I didn't need. 😒
I was prepared to have a lot of rice to utilize for the week, so while I made some to pair with the Greek chicken, I made sure to make double what I normally would.
I put everything into a storage container and placed in the fridge to set.
I still thought this was a delicious, cold breakfast — but I definitely enjoyed it more while it was warm!
I didn't have all the required ingredients for the exact recipe so I improvised with the leftover blood oranges, yogurt, and orange juice. The blood oranges turned the whole thing purple, which worked well because that just happens to be my daughter's favorite color.
I love prepping breakfast sandwiches, and making the eggs on a sheet pan is the ultimate trick! The eggs come out flat, which is perfect for stacking on a sandwich, and it allows you to easily assemble a large amount of sandwiches in a short amount of time. I used the biscuits as the bread component and wrapped them for the freezer for later in the week.
The ingredients were few, and steps were minimal.
My 4-year-old loved this meal. We had to tell her a few times to use her silverware because she kept digging in with her hands.
As I mentioned before, we love this stuff, and we keep a pace of a couple loaves a week!
When I make this again, I'd add a bit more liquid! This could be an alteration needed due to higher elevation, but thought I'd mention it.
Most important, we were able to help raise money for CHD research.
We are hoping for a prosperous garden this year so that we can rely more on our homegrown herbs and veggies!
I wasn't really sure how the noodles would play out, but I figured the lemon flavors would be a natural fit with the rest of the recipe. I thawed the chicken thighs I put in the freezer earlier in the week and got to slicin'.
Since I was also using the leftover pasta, I wasn't sure we had the full 8 oz the recipe called for. I knew adding in extra veggies would be a good way to bulk everything up!
I was really thankful I used the lemon noodles for this dish, because the bright flavors still shined through!