It's been a tasty, productive week here in my kitchen. This really is the perfect time of year for me to attempt a challenge like this; autumn is when I feel most creative and industrious. Today I'll try and recap a little of that for you here. Please join in the comments to share how things are going in your kitchen!
{To this salad I added chopped, leftover sweet potato fries and brown rice patties.}
It took no time at all once I put a little challenge on myself to get in gear and make some changes. I had a great week in my kitchen!
The most important thing I did to keep on track this week was to stay one or two steps ahead of things in my kitchen. This isn't too far off from my normal practice, but I made a concerted effort to not stray from the plan, organization-wise. Keeping our next meal in the front of my mind helped me to mentally organize what I need to take care of.
For instance (it's Saturday evening right now), after I'm done writing this I need to soak two varieties of beans for tomorrows dinner. I'm also noting that we're all set on almond milk for another day so I don't need to worry about that. Some venison sausage needs to be taken out of the freezer too, it will become (along with those soaked beans) an incredibly good soup for tomorrow's dinner. And there will be plenty leftover for to freeze two quarts. I'll prepare the soup in the morning before we head out hiking and visiting with Emily's girlfriends.
{Bean, Sausage and Kale soup - recipe next week}
I'm also thinking about breakfast tomorrow - it's a toss up between baked apple crisp with nut cream topping or oatmeal sundaes (a big pot of steel cut oats on the table with various fruits, nuts, sweeteners, toppings, etc. to 'build your own sundae'). I know we've got all we need for either of those and will be able to whip up one or the other no problem come morning.
Planning is key to stretching our grocery budget. And this week I noted that beans and greens were the best bet for my money most days of the week.
We appreciate beans for their nutritional density and low expense. In addition, I'm loving the beauty of head lettuce this week. We eat a lot of vegetables and local head lettuce is in abundance still. At our co-op it is about $2.00 a piece right now, and they are huge! It's such a good value! Between having huge salads for lunch (with a hefty scoop of beans or some other hearty protein such as a broken up brown rice pattie), and salad with our dinner, a $2.00 a day investment for the three of us has been an easy way to ensure plenty of fresh food.
There are plenty of other fruits and veggies happening, but for some reason the ease and value of head lettuce has stood out this week, and is something I wanted to share with you.
{Soft Ginger Cookies}
Some of the meals/snacks we enjoyed last week:
Tossed Salad (with hard boiled eggs on top) :: Heidi Swanson's Quinoa Patties topped with Apple Butter (I subbed brown rice for quinoa this week) :: Fruit Smoothies w/ homemade almond milk :: Pumpkin Muffins :: Huge salads for everyone w/ a big scoop of leftover brown rice on top :: Peanut Butter and Jelly on homemade bread for Emily :: Sliced fresh apples and pears for snacking and with meals :: Popcorn :: White Bean, Kale, and Venison Sausage Soup :: Sweet Potato Fries :: Chickpea and Sweet Potato Moroccan Tajine, served over Israeli Couscous :: Roasted Chickpeas :: Baked Apples with Nut Cream Sauce :: Blueberry Pancakes :: Green Smoothies :: Fruit Smoothies :: Roasted Chicken :: Ginger Molasses Cookies :: Salads, did I mention salad? So many salads. ::
Money spent this week - $147.54
Bringing my total so far to - $230.87
Remaining budget, approximately - $170.00
I'm not too worried.
I shop at the beginnig of the week, according to the calendar I've got two days left to shop for this month's groceries. Technically, I'm about $30.00 over where I'd like to be right now, but we are very nicely supplied so it should work out fine.
The only items I'll need to by for the next twenty days are fresh vegetables, maybe a dozen eggs, and a little dairy. We have plenty of pears, apples, and frozen bananas. I stocked up last week (hence the higher bill than anticipated) on grains, beans, maple syrup, nuts, seeds, etc. We are all set on dry goods, and there is venison in the freezer for the once every few days my husband and daughter require some animal protein.
{Molly's Roasted Chickpeas}
I have a feeling I'll run out of frozen berries and hemp seed, and I'm pretty sure there won't be room in the remaining budget to purchase too many of those. We'll see, nothing catastrophic is going to happen to our bodies if we are a week or two with out our powerfully nutritious berries... we'll be just fine.
These are such random notes and thoughts, probably more for my benefit than yours. It's been a long week, I don't feel terribly organized with my thoughts this morning. My husband is home for the day so I'm going to wrap this up to spend time with him (painting our house... so romantic!)
Chickpea and Sweet Potato Tajine
This fed the three of us plus I was able to freeze a quart for later.
This recipe is based on one that a reader left in the comments of the Crock Pot Post (so many good ideas in there). I've omitted the chicken, added sweet potatoes and used the stove-top. Though you could put all of this in the crock pot just the same.
This recipe works for me on a budget because I already had the spices and dried fruit on hand.
Ingredients:
3 cups vegetable stock
3 Tbsp. flour
4-6 cloves garlic, chopped
1 1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1 1/2 tsp. ground coriander
1 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. ground turmeric
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. cloves
1/2 - 1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 large sweet potato, peeled and diced
2 - 3 cups cooked chickpeas
1 14-oz can diced tomatoes
1 large onion, diced
3/4 cup dried apricots, chopped
3/4 cup dates, chopped
1/4 cup golden raisins
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/3 cup chopped nuts or pumpkin seeds
couscous or whole grain, prepared
torn flat leaf parsley
1-2 tablespoons olive or coconut oil
Directions:
- In a large saute pan or wide stock pot, saute the onion in oil for a few minutes, unitl softened. Add garlic and saute one more minute.
- Separately, in a large bowl, whisk flour, broth, spices, salt and pepper. Add mixture to the pan along with peeled and diced sweet potato, dried fruit and chick peas. Add canned tomato. Bring to a boil, stirring, then cover and reduce heat to a simmer.
- Simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally so the flour does not stick to the bottom. When potaoes are tender, remove the lid and simmer uncovered another 5 minutes to reduce the liquid a bit. This will help to further concentrate the flavors. Adjust salt and pepper if needed.
- Serve over whole grain or couscous. Top with fresh parsley.
Next week I'll share the Bean, Sausage and Kale Soup recipe - it's gotten rave, put this one in the recipe box, reviews around here.
Takeaways for me this week have been:
- The value of head lettuce.
- Looking ahead to the next meal, always.
- Think "indulgent" once per week (roasted chicken for us one night), and inexpensive for the other six nights.
- One pot meals (like the recipe above) are indeed a wonderful thing.
- Hearty salads for lunch with usually some sort of leftover from dinner on top of the grain or bean variety.
- Having Adam's lunch prepared the night before is really helpful.
- Popcorn for snacking, as always.
- I've finally begun saving the almond meal (collecting in the freezer) from making almond milk.
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How are things going for you? Do you have any recipes or dollar stretching tips to share? Feel free to link to your blog if you'd like in the comments if you've written a post about your grocery challenge.
