September Home Cooking Challenge - Page 8

[Nutter]

Originally Posted by Nutter

I realized when looking at our bank account today that the months when I plan our meals in advance, I make 2-3 trips to the grocery store, and spend about $300 CAD for DH & I. BUT... when I don't plan... I'm at the grocery store 8-12 twelve times, spend between $400 & $500 CAD, don't eat as well, and am more stressed about "what to cook tonight?!".

I'm pretty excited - so far this month we've spent about $200 on groceries/meals and I don't need to buy much to manage through the next 8 days. That $200 includes a few splurges on foods that my early pregnant stomach will tolerate and wants.

[surrogate]

Tuesday: Mushroom Steak with gravy and potatoes
Wednesday: Chilli

tomorrow...idk, gotta dig through the freezer..prob corndogs lol

[Keeta]

Tonight it's stuffed pattypan squash...and I'm thinking pasta with pesto. With salad. And possibly garlic bread. Yeah.

Tomorrow it's use-up-the-veggies stir fry night. Probably with soy curls.

Friday it's going to be something involving Pinto beans, because I've got some soaked in the fridge!

[Alyantavid]

Tonight is the stuffed zucchini I've been wanting to try all summer. I'm not quite sure what all will go into it yet. And baked potatoes.

[vm9799]

on the menu today....

breakfast: bagels, fruit, oj

lunch: dh & kids packed, me at home

dinner: grilled ribeyes, au gratin potatoes & green salad

[Alyantavid]

My stuffed zucchini turned out really well! I used a box of spanish rice I found in the cupboard, some leftover sausage, onions and cheese.

Tonight is pizza night. I am going out to lunch with a friend today but it's the only time I've gone out all month and it's for her birthday.

[vm9799]

tonight is my kid's school carnival so we'll be eating our dinner there....which means a night off of kitchen duty for mom! and after a night of not much sleep and a day of constant running (so far), it's a welcome relief.

[Alyantavid]

Tonight is fried potatoes and onions with sausages.

And I felt horrible after having lunch out yesterday. That's pretty common for me since I rarely eat out, but sometimes it's nice to not have to cook every single day. Guess I learned my lesson though.

[Keeta]

Last night was (leftover) rice and pinto beans, topped with some shredded cheddar and avocado.

Breakfast today was roasted fingerling potatoes with cippolini onions, shallots, garlic and fresh thyme with sun dried tomato and mushroom omelet.

Lunch was leftover buffet!

Dinner tonight will be homemade pizzas.

[butterflies]

Fri night we were feeling really lazy and in the past, we would have just ordered take-out. BUT we managed to clean out the fridge and put together leftovers for everyone.

Tonight dh is making mussels- yummy!

Unfortunately he shopped at Whole Foods instead of TJ's today because he was "in the neighborhood". That probably cancels out what we've saved by not eating out this month.

But I can tell we're developing some good habits-- like packing adult lunches when I pack the kids' lunchboxes every morning. That's a big improvement right there.

[maciascl]

We were gone all day yesterday so we packed a lunch but ate out for dinner.

Tonight we almost ate out again since it was 110 here today, nothing was sounding good, and I am completely out of dinner ideas. I managed to throw together a box of sesame ginger rice, a Quorn & broc stir fry, and a box of frozen spring rolls.

Tomorrow FIL is taking us out for DS2's birthday. YAY!

[vm9799]

had a busy weekend!

saturday we had wings and oven fries for dinner.

sunday we had white bean chili and garlic toast.

i also baked pumpkin spice muffins w/homemade cream cheese frosting. YUM!

tonight's dinner is leftovers.....we have so many in our fridge that it's time clean it out!

[Alyantavid]

We did get takeout last night. It was my dad's birthday and he requested pizza from a local pizza place so we got that. But I did bake his cake (and the frosting) from scratch.

Tonight, I'm not sure. We normally go to my mom's but we're not this week so I'll have to see what I can put together.

[Keeta]

Last night was chicken-fried tofu, smoky greens and skillet-sizzled cornbread.

[maciascl]

Originally Posted by Keeta

Last night was chicken-fried tofu, smoky greens and skillet-sizzled cornbread.

Care to share your chicken-fried tofu recipe?? DH would be quite happy if I could make something like that!

[Keeta]

Originally Posted by maciascl

Care to share your chicken-fried tofu recipe?? DH would be quite happy if I could make something like that!

This is the recipe I used last night, which was pretty good (7 out 10 stars). It's gluten-free, which is kind of hard to find. I think some kind of combination of this recipe with the previous one is going to be my next endeavor. The nooch is tasty, but a little overpowering; and I know that the cornstarch will give that nice crispy/crunchy coating that was missing. But the seasonings are good overall.

Tonight was chickpea patties with a little improvised white wine-lemon pan sauce, green beans, and mac and cheese (from a box but doctored a bit).

[Alyantavid]

The boys had leftovers and dh and I just kind of grazed last night.

Tonight we're having roast with carrots and onions and mashed potatoes.

[Alyantavid]

Ok, last night we went to my grandma's house for a bday dinner.

Tonight, leftovers or out. We're grocery shopping a few towns over so we won't be home early enough to cook.

[Keeta]

Last night was portobello stroganoff. Tonight will be more leftover chickpea patties, this time with mushroom gravy, mashed potatoes and...green beans from the freezer? Or maybe peas. Or broccoli. Some green thing from the freezer, anyway.

[Alyantavid]

We finished up September by getting take out.

So how did everyone do? We had 2 dinners out and a few lunches. I went grocery shopping twice and spent right about $300.