Inordinate Amounts of Cheese

Last week did not kick off as expected. Saturday night, Tom and F. were puking simultaneously. Sunday, more of the same. I did not get sick but didn’t feel great. Not a great way to watch the Eagles win the Super Bowl, but we powered through. (Boys were OK.) This illness (which eventually affected the dog as well and lingered in us most of the week) threw a wrench in my meal planning, but we eked out way through the week:

Sunday: I made lemon chicken soup with egg noodles and veggies but no chicken. All ingredients were on hand. But no one seemed to want it but me (I thought it was great, honestly.) So they all just picked at whatever we had on hand.

Monday: More scrounging/grazing. Some of us had egg salad sandwiches, some had ramen.

Tuesday: Tom and T. to the rescue, serving up delicious baked chicken thighs and french fries.

Wednesday: Homemade cheesesteaks.

Thursday: More scrounging: chicken nuggets, mac n cheese, spaghetti.

Friday: Ordered pizza (from Nick and Joe’s, it had vodka pasta on top, so good!).

So, while the meals weren’t the healthiest, we got by. For lunches, I brought in leftover soup one day and bought a side salad with chicken (~$5) at work so I could add the chicken in. The next day, I ate the salad along with some tuna. Day 3 was mashed potatoes and cornbread from the cafeteria ($2).

There were two very exciting moments this week:

T. was accepted to San Jose State University! I had steeled myself for a rejection, I don’t know why. He was so excited. Not sure yet if that will work out or if he even really wants to go so far away, but it’s nice to be accepted.

Secondly, I sold a Texas Roadhouse gift card that we just have never been able to use. I sold it on cardcash.com. It was super easy to do and within two days I had 32.50 in my bank account (for a $50 card). Works for me!

Some other wins:

• Remembered to use a $1 coupon at CVS (emergency dog food run).
• Used a $15 off code at Chewy (a “we’ve missed you” code) for a big dog and cat food order.
• Called a cashier over to self checkout at Target and implored them to make my mangled $5 gift card work – and they did. F. survived this embarrassing encounter. We stopped in to get a new Brita pitcher. I wish I had looked into other options (not plastic, not Target) but our tap water sucks and I was finding myself drinking more soda to avoid it!
• Researched scholarships for T. and found one he should definitely apply for.
• Tom got me candy for Valentine’s Day… today, at 60% off. He GETS me!
• Cleaned Prego jars to use for leftovers. I really don’t want to buy Tupperware anymore. (My husband loves spaghetti so much, he eats it with Prego for the odd meal. I know he doesn’t like Prego better than my gravy.)

On Sunday I did a bit more organizing and cleaning, including cleaning more seed trays and cleaning out a vanilla extract bottle. For what, I don’t know. It looks like it could be a flask lol.

I also ordered $12 worth of seeds, after checking my local seed library options and coming up empty (sold out or haven’t started up yet).

Excited about the creeping thyme; I’d love if that could fill in various cracks and crevices all around the property.

All week I found myself ricocheting between “I’m giving up social media” and then going on and searching out more like-minded folks to follow, especially on Instagram. I ended up joining the Sustainable Living Collective, which has its own app and basically kind of mimics FB. Seems cool though I haven’t spent much time on it yet. Not sure I have mentioned it on here yet but I’m definitely enjoying the Pizza Friday newsletter from “Front Yard Veggies” on Substack. That author is very much into avoiding spending and making items yourself. And of course it doesn’t get any better than OG Katy over at the Non Consumer Advocate.

Yesterday afternoon, I made some chocolate chip muffins. That used up some sour cream and alll my chocolate chips.

Dinner was a mix of McDonald’s for some and cheesy bread with broccoli for others. We had friends over later.

Today (Sunday) I woke up . . .feeling sick yet again. I laid low in the morning. I was able to put together a ShopRite order for 5 pm.  In the afternoon I took N. and F. to Goodwill only because they were begging me and I felt bad because it had been such a gloomy, washout weekend. N. bought shirts to resell.  I bought F. a few shirts and found this gem for me:

Had to buy this for my 8-year-old self who could never find her name on anything. And yes I have been to Niagara Falls.

Also got a toy for my nephew. I spent around $23.

After that we hit Sprouts for ingredients for tonight’s dinner: the TikTok sensation “Tini’s Mac n Cheese.” It called for a criminal amount of cheese and heavy cream, but it lived up to the hype.

Served with some cauliflower and grilled chicken.

My ShopRite order had some out of stocks: most importantly eggs (not surprisingly) and meatball mix. I’ll have to run back out tomorrow.

All told I spent about $220 on groceries today. ShopRite had a couple good deals. I probably shouldn’t go to Sprouts, especially not with kids who want to add on stuff, but I like getting bulk stuff there, e.g., this time, paprika. I also like their deli turkey.

This morning I looked up who owns the ShopRite we use, and turns out it is a Brown’s ShopRite. Here’s more on the owner, Jeff Brown.  Seems like a good guy and someone whose business I can support without qualms.

Tomorrow, last day of the three-day weekend: bake more bread?