What We Ate ~ Week 20 ~ 2012

 

Asian Chicken Salad

But I did it a bit different.  I didn't add the noodles.

I just did almonds, cashews, and sesame seeds.

Still gave me the crunch I was after ......

Baked Potato Soup

Roast Cauliflower and Broccoli

Kids talked me into store bought (NASTY) pizza ...

I was going to do spanikopita meatballs but then decided to just do the meat and then in the end make it into a greek fried rice. I just did garlic, onion, chicken mince, greek seasoning, squeezed in a bit of lemon, added cooked rice and some soy sauce. Oh ... and two eggs. It was yum. We topped it with tzatsiki ...

Rory got home Thursday night ! He requested macaroni and cheese ! No way am I going to deny this man who has eaten 'lunch room' food for the past ten days a good home cooked meal ! So ... I shopped ! And I'll be shopping for three more dinners before he has to go back out to no mans land for another 10 days ! And then the kids and I will start eating out of the freezer, pantry again !

Went to friends place for dinner ... we had Raclette. So yum !  We bought some stuff to contribute but I don't have the itemized receipt so I'll just put the total amount in my calculations down below.

We had Indian for dinner with our friends who live next door.  

We ordered it from our favorite Indian restaurant up the hill.

What I had to buy this week: 

(and how much I spent)

Cinnamon ... $1.26
Pistachio's ... $7.98
Turkish Bread Rolls ... $5.55
Onions ... $1.89
Apples ... $ 1.79
Potatoes, 2kg ... $4.98
Sushi Rice ... $2.90
Gross Take Away Pizza ... $15.40
Cream of Mushroom Soup, 2 cans ... $3.72
Milk, 1L ... $1.99
Tasty Cheese, 1 kg ... $ 6.99
Kale, Bunch ... $4.48
Pasta Shells, 750g ... $2.99
Rice Crackers, 2 packs ... $4.00
Raclette stuff ... 2 french sticks, prawns, block of colby, block of gouda ... $24.17
Indian dinner ... $50.00

And the Sushi from last week's post but this week's budget ... I remembered that my parents and Rory's parents sent me birthday money that I have not yet spent.  I have decided that the Sushi Dinner and hot chocolates will be my birthday present to myself from them, so I will not take those two things out of the grocery budget this week after all !

Total .... $140.09

  $350.00 weekly budget
- $140.09 total spent this week
------------

$ 209.91     saved this week !   


Yep, I'm totally stoked with this !!

What We Ate ~ Week 19 ~ 2012

My husband has had to go away for work for 10 days !  Sunday night we took the kids to the beach to get fish and chips as a bit of a going away family treat.   It was dark by the time we arrived and though there was light on the playground, it was very dim on the picnic blanket ... it was lovely, but I didn't attempt a photo !

Buffalo Boneless Chicken with Roast Potatoes, Carrots, Pumpkin, Onion and Garlic 

Pumpkin Lentil Salad 

And I made whole wheat garlic bread sticks. I cheated though, I used my bread maker to make the dough and then just rolled them out, let them rise and baked them. Easy. And they were yummy !

Two Minute Noodles

Some days a Mama just can't cook a proper dinner !
(Did I mention my husband is out of town ?!)

Subway Sandwiches 

Sometimes it happens two days in a row ... 

and so we go out !

 

BBQ Meatballs and Roast Potatoes

Saturday was the hardest day without Rory here.  During the week we are busy with school, work, sports, music lessons, etc ... But Saturdays, we are used to spending the whole day together.   I was feeling a bit like we all needed something FUN on Saturday afternoon so we rugged up (it's cooling off here in Sunny Queensland) and headed out to the sushi go round !  We had a lovely dinner, just the three of us.  We followed our sushi with big hot chocolates from the coffee shop across the bridge from the sushi shop ... to warm us up !

I'm planning a menu for this coming week ... need to be a bit more disciplined or our savings from the freezer pantry challenge will be $0 !!  Didn't do too bad this week though ...  (even with our eating out)

What I had to buy this week: 

(and how much I spent)

Butter, Organic, 250g x2 ... $8.98

Eggs, Barn Laid 12pk ... $4.00
Feta, 600g bucket ... $11.99
Chips, Salt and Vinegar, 175g ... $2.99
Chips, Red Rock Deli Sea Salt, 185g ... $3.48
M n M's, Coconut, 200g ... $3.89
Salami, 18 Slices ... $4.75
Cheese, Tasty, 500g ... $3.99
Bread Rolls, 6 ... $1.35 (ON SALE !!)
Egg Nog, 600ml ... $2.69

SUBWAY sandwiches ... $20 something

Total .... $48.11 (+ subway)

  $350 weekly budget
- $68.11 total spent this week
------------

$281.89 saved this week !

Our pay week goes from Friday to Friday so the Sushi will come out of next weeks budget ...

Eating From The Pantry & Freezer Challenge Begins

Today I start the Eating From The Pantry & Freezer challenge ....  I'm pretty excited to be taking part in this.  I did take an inventory of EVERYTHING in my fridge, freezer, & pantry.  I was going to write it all out and share it with you but that was going to take a LOOOOOONG time and I decided I'd rather spend the rest of my day off finishing my book ... it was so great ... I'd recommend it to EVERYONE !  Which book ?  Read my review to find out !

But back to the challenge ... 

Here's how I've decided to do it.  Instead of telling you what I do have, I'll tell you, in my regular weekly WHAT WE ATE posts what I prepared for that week.  I will tell you, for each meal, what I had to buy and give you a total of what I spent.  I mentioned in my original post telling you about this challenge that our grocery budget is $350 a week.  I nearly died when I read in Keeper of the Home's post that she spends $450 a month !!  I always forget how much more expensive food is here in Australia !!  But, it is what it is and my goal (even though Stephanie who is hosting the challenge says we shouldn't make this our goal) is to spend as little as possible for the next four weeks.  

I have a fair bit of meat in the freezer, I have a little bit of fish, I have flours and sugars and rices and pastas.  I have spices coming out my ears.  I have a garden full of herbs.  I have a few cans of beans and tomatoes.  I have one loaf of bread in the freezer and then I'll start making my own.

Alrighty then, here we go .....

A New Challenge & Pearl Cous Cous

I mentioned in my post on Sunday that I was going to start feeding us out of what we have here.  I said it like this:

Every now and then I decide that we need to try and eat out of our pantry, freezer, fridge and garden. There are often a few factors that go into my deciding this. One is that sometimes when we are extremely busy, I feel like planning a menu and then going to the grocery store could send me over some sort of imaginary 'edge' ! Two is when we've made a large purchase (like putting solar panels on our house!) and not shopping for a week would help pay for them. Three is when I look into my pantry and freezer and see that what's in there could probably feed a family in Africa for a month. And so, I get creative .... 

Then yesterday I was looking around on the internet and I stumbled upon this challenge ! It starts Monday and I'm going to join them !  It goes for four weeks and basically it's about eating out of your freezer and pantry in an effort to save money.  Tomorrow I will make an inventory of what I have in the house ... I will share that with you.  At the end of each of the weeks (I'm going to do the whole four week challenge) I will share with you what we ate (as per usual) but I will also share with you what I had to buy (I do plan to keep feeding my family fresh fruit, veg, milk etc ...)  and how much I spent each week.  My grocery budget, including toiletries, is $350 a week.  I do pretty well keeping within that most weeks.  I'm very interested to see how much I can save over the four week challenge !  And also what interesting meals we will come up with ...

Tonight's meal was just something I threw together in a hurry.  It was nice.  Simple. Easy.  I had all of the things in my fridge, pantry and garden.  I made it in the afternoon and refrigerated til we were ready to eat.  It was only the kids and me tonight.  Had Rory been here, I probably would have grilled some chicken to go with it.

Pearl (Israeli) Cous Cous

1 Roasted Red Bell Pepper, chopped small

1 Tomato, chopped small

1 Spring Onion, sliced

A couple spoonfuls of sliced black olives

A small handful of salted capers

Garlic, chopped,  to taste

Juice of 1/2 a lemon (or more to taste)

Boil cous cous according to package instructions.

Sautee garlic in olive oil til golden brown. (maybe 1/2 tablespoon of oil)

Drain cous cous.  Mix cous cous with other ingredients, including oil you cooked the garlic in.  Squeeze lemon juice on top and mix. 

Can be served hot or cold.

PS ... If I'd had feta in the house, I would have put that in too ...