It’s Week Four of October’s No Grocery Shopping Challenge! This week has been a challenge for sure as we have run out of more ingredients. I was confident that we had stocked up for the month, but we unfortunately did not get enough. This was a good way to show me what exactly I need to buy more of like carrots and onions, what we eat lots of like vegetables and ground meat and what we can do without like prepackaged, processed items like cans of soup.
The pantry and freezer are looking less packed and the fridge is starting to look bare which is totally fine because that way we can eat up “old” stuff before buying fresh stuff. If you would like to see how we got ready for the challenge, you can read it: here.
For our meal plans this week, we have been planning our meals each day. I like knowing ahead what I’ll be cooking so I can plan better than trying to figure it out each morning but it worked fine for this week. We had a busy week — organizing & reorganizing bedrooms and our craft and sewing supplies, going through things and either donating or tossing and some repairs going on this week and by the end of the week, we still have a furnace that does not work and a bit of a mess in our crafting area! So doing our meal plans each day worked for us this week!
We did pick up yogurt, milk, cream and lettuce earlier this week and did some grocery shopping Sunday, so we could have some fun foods like caramel or Candy Apples for Halloween and some fruit and veggies to eat! I share more of our grocery shopping below. We will do our main grocery shopping next weekend.
But first, this is what we ate this week!
Let’s get to it!
Week Four – This week is October 21 to 27
October 21
Lunch — Buttermilk Pancakes
Supper — Potato & Steak Gravy Stew, Peas and English Muffin Bread
October 22
Lunch — Pizza Stuffed Buns
Supper — leftover pancakes
October 23
Lunch — leftover potato & gravy stew and homemade perogies from the freezer
Supper — Southwest Mac & Cheese with toasted bread
October 24
Lunch — leftover Southwest Mac & Cheese
Supper — Homemade Tomato Soup
For the Tomato Soup, I removed the stems from our garden tomatoes and rinsed them. I dumped them into a small roaster, seasoned them with salt, pepper and garlic and roasted them for several hours. I let cool in the fridge overnight before tossing into the blender to puree. Then for the soup, I added half of this tomato soup base to a pot and added milk and heated it up. I added a splash of lemon juice, a teaspoon of sugar and some salt. Heat, but don’t boil. So delicious! You can also follow my recipe for Tomato Soup. It’s so delicious!
October 25
Lunch — Homemade Spaghetti Pizza & Garlic Sticks and Caesar Salad
Supper — Sourdough Waffles with Simple Bananas Foster
For the simple bananas foster, I sliced 3 bananas and lightly brown in a spoon of butter. Add 1 cup brown sugar, vanilla and stir. Add milk or cream and let it cook about 5 minutes. I add enough milk, about 1-1/2 cups, to create a sauce because we like the sauce the most! Serve on pancakes, waffles or ice cream. Refrigerate leftovers. Lasts about 1 day in the fridge.
October 26
Lunch — BLT’s on English Muffin Bread and Mămăligă (cornmeal mush)
Supper — treated ourself to restaurant ham & pineapple pizza as well as leftovers.
October 27
Lunch — Ham, Carrots & Peas, Homemade Mac & Cheese and bread
Supper — Baked Beans, and leftovers
For the homemade Mac & Cheese, after the pasta was cooked and drained, I added butter to the pot with flour and cooked that until the flour absorbed the butter. Then I added a spoon of cheez whiz (but you do not have to) and milk. I added enough milk to make a creamy sauce. Then I added shredded cheese and the pasta. Stir well.
Gravy Stew
Good food and a warm kitchen are what makes a house a home.
— Rachel Ray
Here’s the fridge after this week. Lots of room for fresh stuff and lots of leftovers to eat tomorrow!
We did pick up a few items before the end of the month, but really tried not to. We bought on October 24, one 1-L cream for $7.16, one 750g plain yogurt for $5.49 and one bib lettuce for $4 and one 2L next milk for $4.50. On the 25th, my brother brought bananas for the bananas foster he requested to have with waffles and tomatoes for our BLT’s. With my brother over, we ended up finishing the milk Sunday.
On Sunday the 27th, we shopped for a few items for our Halloween snacks and so we’d have some fruits and vegetables because I was starting to feel unwell. And like I mentioned earlier, we will do our main grocery shopping next weekend for November’s No Grocery Shopping Challenge because this has helped us greatly with our grocery budget!
This is what we bought:
2L Chocolate Almond Milk for $4.37, two 2L Next Milk for $8.74, 5lb carrots for $8, onions for $4, 2lb strawberries for $10, cucumber for $2.50, head lettuce for $3.99, 30 eggs for $10.20, 6 cosmic crisp apples (1.7kg) for $13.24 and 6 fuji apples (2.1kg) for $11.93 for a total of $76.97
Before we grocery shop next weekend, we will re-do our sheets for what we have in the fridge, freezer and pantry and meal plan for the next couple weeks so I know what groceries to buy and what to stock up on. I might buy extra carrots and chop them up and freeze since we go through so many, and in hopes of not running out.
It was a good week even though it was tough to cook when so many ingredients have been used up!
I am looking forward to meal planning and getting ready for November!
Do you like to meal plan? What are some must-haves for you?
enjoy from Our City Homestead to yours