Shopping Trip

 

Saturday was a busy day for us.  We ran a few errands -- including a trip to the library.

We ground grain, inventoried the freezer, did laundry, and a few other household chores.

I ran out of steam by late day and I sat down with a cookbook I borrowed from the library.

There were several recipes I wanted to try and they called for some items I don't normally buy -- such as ramen noodles, boxed potatoes, etc.

 

I'm still working on adjusting to cooking for two people and sometimes three.  I find buying fresh produce in bulk like I used to do is just not working well.  While I've never been a big believer in using tons of mixes I've decided to incorporate some in.  I think that it will help me with meal sizes and will also have the added bonus of helping me have quick meals on hand.  My daughter, who has no desire to cook from scratch, is more likely to help cook if mixes are used so that is another plus.

 

I used my freezer inventory, my pantry supplies, etc. to make out a fluid menu plan for this week...fluid because I will do my best to use up leftovers and that may require some tweaking.

 

However, from my menu plan and freezer inventory I came up with a simple list:

 

Dollar Tree

3 family sized boxes of Au Gratin potatoes

1 large box of broccoli and cheese rice

1 soy milk carton (for my husband)

1 package of chicken ramen noodles

1 package of beef ramen noodles

 

Neighborhood Market

3 Sam's Choice 2 liter sodas

1 box of Stevia packets

1 large box of Bisquick

2 boxes of Jiffy Cornbread Mix

2 cans of evaporated milk

1 box of marked down bran flakes

1 box of marked down cornflakes

1 jar of marshmallow crème

1 turkey ham

5 lbs of boneless, skinless chicken breast

 

I spent in total $47.86 so not too shabby.  This leaves me with about $77 of my budget left for this week.

 

The chicken was $10 of it and is for a family meal.  My sister and her boyfriend are coming Wednesday and I am making a casserole for the main dish.  (I'm sure it won't take all of it, but I wanted plenty.)

 

As I try the new to me recipes I'll share how they go.

Plans are a potato and ham casserole, ramen noodle stir fries, broccoli cornbread, corn casserole, a chicken and rice casserole, and a few other recipes from the cookbook.