It’s week four and we made it! We made a month without grocery shopping, although we did shop a couple times for milk, we made it until the end of the month to do the main grocery shopping. It was a challenge for sure. We did this because we were simply spending too much money on groceries and did not have much of a food budget for January. This was actually quite helpful in using what we have on hand and being more mindful of meal time.
We did treat ourselves to eating out this week and though it was delicious, we decided that cooking our meals at home were much more enjoyable, more tasty and simply better, but it was nice to have it as a treat.
Let’s get to it.
Generally we try to eat up leftovers within three days, otherwise I freeze the meal for another day, depending upon what it is.
The week for our meal plans are running from Monday to Sunday, but we went to the end of the month for this week. Here is what we cooked this week.
Week Four – This week is January 22 to 31
January 22
Lunch — Oatmeal
Supper — leftovers
January 23
Lunch — Sweet and Sour Meatballs with Rice, Baked Beans (from the freezer), Coleslaw, Peas, Homemade Perogies and Bannock
Supper — leftover Dill Pickle Soup with Drop Noodles
January 24
Lunch — leftovers
Supper — I made a different version of Poor Man’s Meal – in which I sauteed cabbage, onions, carrot, and chopped wieners, served with Salad, Mashed Potatoes and leftovers from yesterday
January 25
Lunch — treated ourselves to take-out pizza
Supper — Cheesy Potatoes, Pasta and Salad
January 26 – Went Grocery Shopping!! Yay!
Lunch — Veggie Stir-Fry with Ramen Noodles
Supper — Tossed Salad with homemade croutons and pizza
January 27 – started Sourdough Starter so we can have sourdough bread as well as commercial yeast breads
Lunch — Bannock and Chicken Drop Noodle (Spaetzle) Soup
Supper — leftovers
January 28
Lunch — Cranberry Orange Bread and Poutine (which is fries with cheese and gravy)
Supper — leftovers
January 29
Lunch — Egg Drop Soup
Supper — Fried Ramen – like fried rice except with ramen, egg and assorted veggies
January 30
Lunch — leftovers
Supper — Pasta and Meatballs
January 31
Breakfast — Scrambled Eggs and store croissant (because I do not know how to make croissants!) and veggies
Lunch — Southwestern Veggie Tater Tot Chili Casserole
Supper — Teriyaki Chicken and Rice
And that is week four! It was a variety of meals but it was all delicious. At the end of each day, our bellies were full and that’s what matters most. Since we ran out of so many ingredients, we meal planned first to be sure we stuck to the plan and our grocery budget when we went grocery shopping. It would be easy to over shop or shop mindlessly, filling the cart with junk! This week really made me think about how often we ate out in the past and how much we actually grocery shopped. When we shop often, we do not even notice that we do it. It takes planning to stick with it. I am looking forward to gardening season and am starting to plan what we will be planting to help alleviate grocery shopping food costs. And, like I said last week, and the week before that — food doesn’t have to be fancy, it just needs to be good.
enjoy from Our City Homestead to yours