Menu Plan Week 119 - Using What We Have

Can I tell you how happy/relived I am that it's finally Sunday? Seriously!   The weekend was busy and borderline rough in that I didn't get much sleep so far ... Friday night was a girls night out at Lauderdale By The Sea's Block Party ... 6 of us and then we ran into a few other friends. The band stops at 11pm (noise ordinance) so we all went to the Dive Bar ... which is exactly that. Spent a little too long there, and walked a block to the Boardroom and spent a little too long there. Luckily we were close to home and my neighbor/bestie called her daughter to come pick us up. Nothing like being 50 (almost 51!?) and stumbling in at 1:30am ... whoops.

Then Saturday night was dinner for another couple who are heading back west until they come back for the winter so we wanted to spend time with them before they left. You will be HAPPY to know that everything, beverages included, were already on hand and no special trip to the grocery store was needed. Bone in/skin on chicken thighs (freezer) with hubby's special lemon (fridge) and broccoli (used frozen) rice (pantry). I also made a cheese platter using some blocks of cheese from the fridge and opened up the hard salami I picked up from Costco a WHILE ago ... and the beverages were what we had on the bar already. I had my favorite peach vodka seabreeze and Hubby had his favorite, Titos and Tonic. Our friends brought their own (beer) which I was thankful for in that my beer stash is quite low. Not anymore, I am up 3 Coors light for the time being. My friends also brought over this new dip (that I will be making and sharing in a few weeks) and some bacon wrapped shrimp (again, I need to make this and share too!) ... the evening was fun, the boy hung out with us for a bit and they left at 1am. Ugh. Straight to bed we went.

Sunday morning I was up bright and early as I wanted to go see my dad ... which also meant I had to stop at the store to pick up a few things for him. I did ok, even better because I only spent $21 of the $40 budget I had given to myself last week ... so that technically gave me $59 for this week. I spent $10 at the produce store, $20 at Publix and $24 at Aldis. Actually, only $14 was mine at Aldis but there was a lady in front of me who's card would not swipe and she only had a dollar and change. So I just told the cashier to add it to mine ... poor thing started crying and praising the Lord ... it's been a while since I've done a random act of kindness and when something comes up without me having to think twice about it, well, then it's the absolute right thing to do. AND look, I still have $5 ;-)

Alrighty then. Are you curious about how the pantry/freezer/no spend challenge is coming along? It's coming ... slowly but surely. I really want to stay out of the store this week ahead and next week too ... preferably til May 1st ... we shall see. If I can just accept the fact that I don't necessarily HAVE to have fresh salad stuff, I'd be fine. Need to change that mind set, don't you agree? The Boy said 2 weeks is too long to stay out of the store as he grabs the 2nd to last container of protein powder (EAS LEAN, no less which he DOES NOT need, he just doubles the scoops he said) and the almost empty bag of frozen strawberries ... I guess that means that we are making some progress then :)

Here's what I'm looking to eat this week:

Sunday - Grillin and chillin with hot dogs (freezer), buffalo chicken sausage (freezer) with diced tomatoes, onions and shredded cheese (fridge).  Oh ... buns were picked up as part of the $21 trip last week. I WANTED to make the Oriental Cabbage Salad (coleslaw in fridge, rest of ingredients in pantry ... I need to remember to share this recipe!) but Hubby suggested the leftover rice from last night

Monday - Italian Beef in the crock pot. I want to start it Sunday night so I can get it out of the way for after work. Hunk of beef from freezer, balance of ingredients from pantry. Will use the ciabatti rolls from freezer (no, it didn't get made last week!) Will make the Oriental Cabbage Salad tonight and hoping to make the soup that will be re-posted Monday



Tuesday - Guess What Day It Is?? (name that commercial!) Taco Tuesday! Tacos, of course ... will use ground turkey in freezer, balance of ingredients from pantry and fridge ...


Wednesday - Taking an easy way out this evening and using a couple of bags of the Skillet Meals stuff we have in the freezer ...  I think it's Chicken Alfredo ...

Thursday - new recipe with chicken thighs and one dish oven stuff ... chicken thighs (freezer), asparagus (fridge), shrooms (fridge), onions, lemon ... one dish and I hope it's all that and more to share with you! This is the first day that Hubby is getting his back injections and I'm not sure what to expect ... I'm sure he will be just fine, but he's nervous which is making ME nervous ;-) I think it's the IV they give him beforehand to relax that makes him realize this could be serious business.

Friday - Thinking of burgers on the grill ... been in freezer, buns in pantry and I have lots of cheese and mushrooms so maybe swiss mushroom burgers are to be had. Will make a black bean and corn salad (ingredients in pantry) to go alongside.


Saturday - Hubby's choice ... I know that he will want to use what we have on hand. I think I have 5 thick cut pork chops in the freezer I might hand over to him to see if he wants to make stuffed pork chops ;-)  I believe we have ONE friend coming for dinner at this time ... that would be nice ;-)

What are YOU making this week?

Looking forward to sharing with Organized Junkie's Menu Plan Monday party ... go check it out!


Comments

  1. Isn't it great when a R A of K opportunity hits you between the eyes? XXX

    ReplyDelete

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