We’re on week two of our $100 grocery challenge. I’m trying to get our grocery budget to a more reasonable amount. This isn’t easy to do when buying mainly organic with allergy-friendly specialty products mixed in. I touched on this during week 1, but getting our grocery budget more under control takes a serious commitment to planning. My command center on its own simply isn’t enough. I’ve started writing everything out in a notebook with approximate prices next to each item.
Adding the prices helps me see how far off I am and lets me know what, if any extras I can add in. This week we were closer to actually making the $100 grocery challenge, but still didn’t quite make it. Our grand total right now is $110.55. It’s going to go up a little bit as I forgot to buy a can of green chilis and we need them for fiesta soup. My guess is we end up around $120. That’s $20 less than last week! The other thing helping this week is that we don’t have a regular dinner planned for Sunday or Monday.
I have to attend a work conference in Boston and Erik and Ollie are coming with. We told Ollie we would take him to Lego Land when we attended the Food Allergy Heroes Walk in September and then we never made it to Boston due to a surprise appendectomy for Erik. This will be a quick trip, but the boys can visit Lego Land while I’m at the conference Monday. I’ll be fed through that, we will bring lots of food for Ollie, and Erik’s food will come out of our travel budget. If you haven’t guessed yet, I’m slightly OCD and we have different accounts and budgets for various things, one of which is for travel. It’s for sure helping our grocery budget for the week. Yes, I know it’s all the same in the end, but it makes me feel better so I go with it.
saturday:
Leftovers.
We were going to have sweet & sour chicken, but we have a ton of leftover chicken so we are using it up.
sunday:
No clue!
Perhaps Chipotle depending on what time we arrive in Boston.
monday:
No clue!
We will have deli turkey and grilled chicken strips for Ollie (along with one million snacks).
tuesday:
Crockpot fiesta chicken soup.
This is one of the soups that we never make the same way. Start with 2-3 cups of homemade broth, add 2-3 chicken breasts, a small can of green chilis, a can or two of kidney beans, a can of petite diced tomatoes, frozen corn, onion, garlic, and some spices. Cook on low 6-8 hours, shred the chicken, and enjoy! We like to top ours with avocado and crumbled tortilla chips. If you’re not dairy-free, of course, shred some cheese on top too.
wednesday:
hot dogs
It’s Halloween and we’re headed to my parents. We need fast, safe, and easy for a big group. Enter, hot dogs. I kind of want to make them look like octopus or fingers. I’ve seen both on Pinterest. We shall see! We’ll serve these with sweet potato fries, veggie chips, and some fruit.
thursday:
turkey burgers
We’re trying a new recipe that was shared in another group. These Thai turkey burgers! They don’t require too many changes either. We are going to skip the sesame oil and use avocado oil instead. I think we will have these with extra shredded carrots and cabbage, probably some random fruit too.
friday:
pasta
In particular, homemade sauce with brown rice and quinoa pasta and homemade garlic bread. This sauce is AMAZING. It packs in tons of hidden veggies in addition to the meat. We’ve also been making our own bread for a few weeks now. It’s surprisingly easy and quite delicious. We use a no-knead recipe from King Arthur Flour. Making our own sauce and bread does take a little more time, but we know it is nutrious and safe and it does also really help the grocery budget.
saturday:
maple mustard sheet pan dinner.
We made this meal from Healthy Seasonal a few weeks ago and loved it. It was a huge hit with all of us, even though Erik and Ollie don’t usually like mustard. This week we’re going to try it with chicken instead of chicken sausage and with cauliflower and/or broccoli added to the mix as well. It’ll help next week’s grocery budget as we should have leftover roasted veggies.