Meals and Deals

Sitting here waiting for the expected snow or sleet to commence. My son just got home from a jiu jitsu tournament so I’m glad it held off a little. My daughter was supposed to go to volleyball today but is nauseous/slightly feverish. I wish she wasn’t ill but… no volleyball means I showered, baked bread, cleaned and sanitized some of my seed starting trays, did a load of laundry, and went food shopping, all before 2:30. And enjoyed it all.

Last Sunday I didn’t make it to the store, so I did a ShopRite delivery on Monday. Taking the time to look at their circular in the app (which I don’t usually do) yielded some deals. Chicken legs for .97 per pound? Yes please. A big box of Goldfish for $6 — I haven’t seen that price in years. (My kids still love them.) Big bags of Herr’s pretzels for $2 each (Tom’s favorite). And a 30 oz jar of mayo for $4.

I did, on Sunday, mix up some Italian seasoning out of the herbs I had on hand. I had run out. Lunch was the dregs of the pot roast and potatoes. At night, I sewed a hole in F’s sweater, which led me to ruminate that I really need to teach all the kids to sew.

Sunday dinner was at Friendly’s with Grandmom M.

Monday: fish patties with mashed potatoes and carrots. I mixed up some tartar sauce (mayo, relish, lemon juice), something I haven’t done in forever.

Tuesday: a quickie version of shepherd’s pie whipped up by Tom, before heading to a multi-school spelling bee to cheer on F.

Wednesday: chicken parm and angel hair, made by Tom (jarred sauce).

Thursday: F had a friend over and they were baking cupcakes for a bake sale the next day. It was probably after 6 pm when they were done, and the kitchen was a mess. Old me would certainly have ordered food, but instead I cleaned up and made cheesy garlic bread and broccoli on the side.

Friday: Tom wanted Chinese. It was just me, him and F, so it wasn’t much.

Lunches: two days I brought salsa chicken (cooked in the Instant Pot) topped with cheese and crumbled tortilla chips. Friday I bought a salad at work.

It was a week of free sweet treats. I brought home a box of Girl Scout cookies after someone sent our department a whole bunch as a thank you. My mother sent a over a little Trader Joe’s cake (I popped it in the freezer). And there were free treats at work all week to celebrate the Eagles, but I limited myself to a pack of peanut butter Kandy Kakes (or is it Tandy Kakes?).

The big news of the week was that T. received his first college acceptance. That was very exciting! He received a partial scholarship and some offers of loans, but not really sure what’s going on with the federal student loan system and its future 🤨

Let’s not forget young N., who is making money on Depop selling clothes. Among other items, he found a fancy brand sweater at a local thrift store and quickly resold it for more money. Safe to say he has caught the reselling bug. He’s deep in the bins at the Goodwill outlet store as I type.

Today’s grocery shopping was pretty basic. Milk, butter, yeast packets (not sure yet if I should spring for a big package), carrots, potatoes, lettuce, cucumber, onion, some gnocchi to please F. A giant tub of ketchup, to keep it cheap, after flirting with the idea of making it myself. Freshly ground coffee (12.99/lb, comparable to the Starbucks I had been buying). Chicken nuggets, apple juice, and some marked-down seasoning packets. Turkey Hill ice cream was two for $5. And finally, small cans of Coke, on sale. My great weakness.

I went to Sprouts and Acme. I skipped Target, feeling pissy about them.

F. and I had sandwiches from Wawa for dinner, as it was just us. Afterward I turned some apples into apple pie filling to eat with the ice cream later, and threw some others into the Instant Pot to make applesauce (on the slow cooker setting). It was satisfying to cross “apples” off the inventory list as they had been there a while.

Tomorrow we will scatter to various Super Bowl festivities so I don’t have to worry about dinner. I do need some more ideas for the rest of the week. All’s I’ve got so far is the chicken legs.

The van currently will not start and I am pretty sure I am going to sell it. But I’m not in any hurry. Tom has been able to drop me off and pick me up at the train station (or young T. does) and we have been able to share his vehicle on the weekends thus far.

Hopefully tomorrow I can get the rest of the seed-starting stuff cleaned and maybe actually start some seeds. Maybe (if I have any left) I can hit my hair with my coloring conditioner (a temporary hair dye). My grays are getting on my nerves, I won’t lie.

Looking forward to another week of buying as little as possible, followed by a three-day weekend!