January Food Spending Week 2, Meal Plan January Week 3

*I am taking part in Precious' MONEY SAVING CHALLENGE again for 2012.  You can find her blog FRUGAL MAKES CENTS and a list of other participants and their blogs  HERE.

Check it out.  You might find some new ideas for incorporating frugality into your life there!*


I love searching around for old photos and advertisements featuring kitchens from years gone by.  These are mostly the kitchens from my youth in the 1960's or earlier.  

Today's kitchen......or rather today's appliance in honor of my Birthday, a 1959 Electric Range!

Ok....this ad is actually a 1958 Range.....here's the 1959 one.....

Now I don't think I could stomach a Pepto-Bismol pink kitchen but I truly would have loved to have had a TURQUOISE one!  Not blue, not sea green but true up turquoise.  Like this yummy GE range.  And notice Mrs. Tweed Jacked Pencil Skirt Suit also has those cutting edge metal cabinet doors in matching turquoise!

Back the year I was born they touted these new fangled Electric ranges/ovens as so space age and modern.  No more open flames of gas.  "Keyboard Cooking" was the buzz word. Dials and push buttons with numbers for accurate temperatures.  Automatic timers that were easier to set than a clock.  The oven door was removable for easy cleaning.....well, that was a nice feature but who the heck cleans their oven anymore??lol

This fashionable Cooking Machine's cost started at $149.00 in 1959.
Gulp.....that wold be $1,130 in today's dollars! 

Enough of that, onward to the Meals and Food Spending. 8-)


Last week's meal plan is in the books.  Here is what actually happened....

SUNDAY--bucket of KFC *weekend special for $11*, coleslaw, mashed potatoes, biscuits

MONDAY--Mac and Cheese, Broccoli

TUESDAY--Subway sammies

WEDNESDAY--Kielbasa on rolls, Onions, Ginger Carrots

THURSDAY--Grilled Pork Chops, Beets(leftover), Mac and Cheese(leftover)

FRIDAY--Breakfast for Dinner(Eggs, Pancakes, Meats)
SATURDAY--Fish, Wild Rice, Peach Salad

Except for the bucket of chicken we bought on Sunday and the Subway sandwiches for 3 of us(Hubs was sick), the rest of the food served was already here.  The only thing we needed last week was milk.
Therefore, the food spending was low last week.  1 trip to Weis for Juice and Nestle's Quik where my Catalina didn't print.  Then there were my trips to CVS stores to stockpile Finish dishwasher detergent.
Trips to Rite-Aid also but no actual money was used. ;-)

In all, I spent $39.86 last week at the grocery/drug stores.

I used 26 coupons(25 at CVS on non-food items, 1 at Weis on a food item).

2 Weeks in and I've spent $149.73 of my January food budget.  $150.27 left for the month.

Going into Week 3, we have 1 piece each of kielbasa and salmon leftover.  Since everyone is off of work/school and home today, I am counting on these to be scarfed down for lunch.

This week's menu.....

SUNDAY--Chinese Take-out *I wasn't feeling too well

MONDAY--homemade Pizza, carrot & celery sticks w/dressing

TUESDAY--homemade Chili, Cornbread

WEDNESDAY-- Sloppy Joes(with ground turkey or chicken), Rolls, Green Beans

THURSDAY--Baked Potatoes with Toppings, Mixed Veg.

FRIDAY--Chicken Divan
SATURDAY--Spaghetti Carbonara, Salad

Items needed for this menu are rolls and salad greens.  I have everything else on hand.
The grocery store ads look pretty pitiful this week as well, since it's the "store brand" week here.
I might stock up on salmon this week as somebody had a good deal on it....can't for the life of me remember which store it was.lol  I'll pretty much be staying out of the stores this week at any rate.

My menu might change if A-Daughter want's me to fix a favorite food since she is leaving to go back to school next weekend(yay!lol) or if B-I feel worse than I do now......I think I'm getting the flu or it might just be a cold.
bleh.

So what is everyone else eating this week?  

Sluggy

Roasted Seasoned Potatoes a la Stockpile Recipe

The family had a yard work day on Sunday. The weather was nice, a tad cold but nice, so we donned the work clothes and set out to get the garden beds ready to plant. We pulled up weeds, raked up undecomposed leaves and such from the beds & did some weed whacking around the dog run and pool. There was also the end of last year's dirt pile to move so we could level & reseed the now grassless spot where it had sat. We also had a new pile of dirt delivered last week that had to be dumped into various garden beds. The compost also needed work as it had sat unattended all winter.



After a few hours of work, we called it a day and I had the task of feeding the ravaneously hungry crew. Besides the steaks I bought the day before to grill out on Sunday, I had been so busy with the yardwork that I hadn't prepared any other dishes to go with the protein....heck, I didn't even have ANY IDEA of what to serve with the steaks. So I opened the pantry door and peered in to see what stockpiled items would 'speak' to me.



The vegetable dish was easy, as I had some frozen boxed mixtures to choose from. The carbo dish was the hard one....I had some potatoes I needed to use up but baked potatoes would take too long and I didn't want to fry anything since I was on outside grill duty.
A box of Knorr dry soup mix caught my eye and I took it from there, making it up as I went along.



I washed & peeled the potatoes. Then I cubed them, placing them in a big stainless steel bowl.


I poured in about 2 Tablespoons of EVOO=Olive Oil, and tossed them in the bowl to coat.

I sprinked on 1/2 a packet of Knorr Leek Soup dry soup mix, shaking the potatoes so they were coated evenly.

The Knorr Soup Mix was a find from a Big Lots at $1.00.

Then I shook on McCormick's Salad Supreme(a salad topping seasoning mix)& one of their Grill Mates mixtures called "Hamburger". This had salt, pepper, chili flake, garlic, etc. in it. The Salad Supreme has Parmasen Cheese in it, among other things. I sprinkled on each, while tossing the potatoes to coat evenly, using about 1 Tablespoon of each.

Then I lined a cookie sheet with foil and turned the potatoes out on it, spreading them evenly. No need to spray the foil, as the EVOO on the potatoes will keep them from sticking to the foil.

I roasted the potatoes in a 400 degree preheated oven for about 22 mins. or until the chunks were cooked through and they were golden in color. (Smaller pieces will cook quicker-larger pieces will take longer, so YMMV.)

And here they are! My photography isn't the best but even with my skills with a camera, they looked good enough to eat!lol

The family gobbled them up in short order and gave them 2 thumbs up.

The potatoes were inexpensive, as potatoes usually are....about $1.00 for 7 spuds.

The Soup Mix was $1, so the half I used was .50¢.

The McCormick Seasonings were $1 & $.67 a bottle, respectively, on sale and with $1/1 Qs. I used approx. 1/4 a bottle each, so .25¢ & .17¢=.42¢ for both.

EVOO was .13¢ a tablespoon, so cost was .26¢ for 2 TBs.

$2.18 total for 6 generous servings or .36¢ per serving.

I thought this dish was fairly successful. It was tasty without resorting to mashing and tons of Butter & Salt....not that there's anything wrong with Butter & Salt.lol

It's Monday night and I STILL don't have my Menu Plan done for this week!

*sigh*

Maybe a refreshed brain in the morning can deal with this chore. I'm just too beat to think up anything good tonight.

Off to rest my weary bones.....

Sluggy