On my lunch hour

I’m sitting here in front of the computer eating my lunch and thinking about groceries. I said awhile ago that I’d share about our grocery shopping because for some unfathomable reason, many of us are interested in each other’s grocery shopping.

Since Julia gifted me the Dream Dinners, I’ve been determined to get back on the creating frozen dinners bandwagaon. My quality of life goes way way up when I don’t have to worry about cooking every night (or telling Brett what to cook — since I’m the chief menu planner/grocery shopping and LIKE IT, that means directing him falls to me, too). My weekdays can get pretty stressful so marking one thing off my to-do list even before I get up in the morning is a HUGE HUGE sanity saver.

In mind of this, we’ve been doing a big shopping trip once every two weeks and then going out for produce and milk as needed. I still only plan one week’s worth of breakfasts, lunches and dinners but when I cook dinner, I make twice as much and then freeze it. This Saturday I was feeling the culinary ambition (must have been that heady Pepsi Cake) so I made six dinners to freeze. Altogether to feed us for two weeks, we spent $217 (remember we’ll head out sometime early next week or later this week to replenish our produce supply).

Our planned dinners (each are planned twice):

• Sesame Salmon
• Penne Pasta Bake
• Manicotti
• Peanut Chicken
• 5-Spice Chicken
• Stromboli
• Turkey Burgers

On Saturday I made the salmon (all you do is marinate it and then freeze it), which we will grill and we’re going to have it tonight. I used already frozen salmon fillets — you can dump the marinade in and then as it defrosts in the ‘fridge, it’ll marinade. Easy-peasy. We’ll have it with rice and vegetables (we eat a lot of brown rice around here because it the kids don’t like the main dish, they can always fill up on rice plus it’s cheap and nutritious). I also made the Penne Pasta Bake (whole wheat penne, pasta sauce, italian turkey sausage, cheeses) and then split it between two 9 x 13 containers. Freeze then either defrost to bake or bake frozen for a little longer. Same goes for the manicotti. I went ahead and splurged on the disposable baking dishes to save myself time & trouble. Every little bit helps around here.

Normally I make my own turkey burgers but the premade ones were cheaper than buying the ground turkey so I went ahead and got them. They’re pretty good.

Stromboli wi’ll be annoying because I’ll need to get out the bread machine to make the dough but then I’ll bake them and freeze one when it cools and serve the other that night. I could make calzones this way, too. I thought about buying the frozen dough but 1) it’s expensive compared to homemade; and 2) it was white flour with high fructose corn syrup. Deal breaker. Rats. Fortunately I have a great pizza crust recipe but my bread machine squeaks like Mickey Mouse caught in a thresher and I’m too cheap to thrift a new one so we all suffer and dread baking. (I really need to just get another one. They are ALWAYS at the thrift store, often un-used.)

The Peanut Chicken is a recipe that you cook then freeze, which normally I’d avoid but I’ll just make a double-match on a slower evening and then freeze half of it. Again, served with rice and vegetables or salad.

5-Spice chicken is the same thing, really. Freeze it in the marinade and then let it defrost in the sauce. Last week we tried a spicy lime chicken recipe that Brett and I loved (it’s what I just ate for lunch) but the kids thought it was too sour and spicy so we’re going to try these other recipes.

That’s it.

I usually buy those bags of frozen boneless, skinless chicken breasts unless the fresh stuff is a better price (sometimes it is and sometimes it isn’t). I’d like to get ahead enough that I could stock up when things are on sale but truthfully we’re close to our grocery budget bone and right now we can only shore up our pantries on a fairly small scale.

So that’s fourteen dinners and the pasta dishes make a lot of left-overs so that’s some lunches, too. I don’t plan lunches at all (or breakfast); I just try to have stuff on hand like sliced turkey, mac & cheese, etc. I buy a lot of eggs because both the kids will eat them hardboiled and Noah will scramble himself some if he’s hungry. Brett is also fond of hobo eggs.

I’m trying to think of what else about our shopping this time around. Hmmm. Oh — we went to Aldi’s and ended up doing the bulk of our shopping there. I have a love/hate relationship with Aldi’s; you never know what’ll be there so sometimes showing up is a waste of time. They’re owned by Trader Joe’s now so sometimes what they have is really good but you have to read labels. This time around their frozen chicken breasts & tenders and salmon were all priced right and we decided to try the turkey burgers (12 to a package). Also their frozen veggies and frozen fruit is really well priced so we got a bunch of that. And their canned goods — tomato sauce, etc. I was pleased to find jarred spaghetti sauce without sugar or high fructose corn syrup there for only $1.25 so that inspired the pasta dishes. Other Aldi’s finds: 100% grape juice, which we’ll turn into popsicles and whole wheat pasta, which they don’t always have.

We still had to head to our regular store for milk (because Kroger’s storebrand doesn’t have bovine growth hormone) and rice (because Aldi’s only had white) along with produce and italian turkey sausages. But we saved enough at Aldi’s that we stayed well within our budget and will enjoy wriggle room because of it.

So someone asked what we actually eat. Here are the basic answers based on what’s pretty much always in the cupboards/fridge: those dinners, left-overs from dinners, yogurt, cheese, crackers, pretzals, eggs, fruit, veggies (kids mostly eat carrots if it’s snacks and Madison likes frozen peas), dried fruit, frozen fruit, nuts, cereal with milk, cereal with yogurt (cheerios go great in yogurt), plain cereal, cereal-based GORP (raisins, chocolate chips, nuts, etc.), pancakes, waffles, muffins, cookies, mac & cheese, egg salad, tuna salad, oatmeal, popcorn, apple sauce, mandarin oranges.

I guess that’s it? I bake two or three times a week,usually to make something for breakfast that the kids then snack on. So a typical day (BJ asked)?

Breakfast: Brett and I usually have cereal or oatmeal. The kids have cereal, oatmeal or something baked (pancakes, waffles, muffins). On weekends Brett might make eggs and run out for these fancy turkey sausages we like.

Lunch: Left-overs, sandwiches, peanutbutter crackers, eggs along with some kind of fruit, yogurt or cheese

Snacks: Whatever I baked that morning (if I baked), fruit, yogurt or cheese. Basically lunch again. Popsicles. Whatever.

Dinner: You know, dinner.

Then on the nights we go running, Brett usually makes popcorn. And sometimes on the nights we don’t go running, too. Also in summer popsicles and occasional ice cream. In the winter, hot cocoa.

Ok. Back to work.