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Administrative, Breakfast, Casseroles, Finances, Informative, Main Dishes, Meal Plans, Soups

Weekly Eating – 7/30/18

August 5, 2018 BudgetEpicurean 2 Comments

Hey y’all! Welcome to the series Weekly Eating.

Here is where I’ll talk about the week’s meal plan versus reality, what we ate for the week, and how we did budget-wise. I hope it gives readers a behind-the-scenes look into our life through the lens of food, and it’s also a way to keep us on track with meal planning and grocery budgeting.

Feel free to share your wins and lessons in the comments below!

Last week I got a big ol box of tomatoes from Whitaker Farms. This weekend I finally got the time to make a huge batch of my easy peasy blender sauce, and canned 2 huge quarts and several pints. I LOVE homemade tomato sauce so much! The sweetness and complex flavors of locally grown organic tomatoes just can’t be beat.

And since I’m visiting my sister this weekend (more about that below) and she recently learned she has an intolerance for gluten, soy, and corn, I am bringing her a jar of sauce (because I know exactly what is in it) and tried my hand at a new gluten-free noodles recipe using almond flour and tapioca flour. I have no idea if these noodles will hold together or taste good, but at least I tried!

Monday:

Breakfast – fruit smoothie with watermelon, local peaches, banana, and blueberries + flax & amla

Lunch – half batch of tuna salad as lettuce wraps, plus some raw veggies and hummus

Snack – cut up fruits

Dinner – I did a crazy clean-out-the-fridge veggie burger with a Turkish twist. I had some roasted beets, leftover cooked potatoes, pinto beans and brown rice. So I tossed it all in the blender with spices and some flax to bind it, and make it into 8 patties, which I lightly fried in coconut oil.

I had some leftover pita bread and tzatziki sauce, and stewed some fresh veggies and cashews in Za’atar and curry powder. It turned out AMAZING all together! Cleaning out the fridge is a great frugal strategy, veggie meals can be truly outstanding, and it prevents food waste, all things that I love.

Tuesday:

Breakfast – Peaches & Cream oatmeal. 1/ cup oats, 1 cut up peach, 3 diced dried apricots, 1 cup almond milk, handful of walnuts. The walnuts added a bit too many calories, so I won’t use them again.

Lunch – leftover shrimp and broccoli fettuccini

Snack – more fruit!

Dinner – Wheat penne with the homemade sauce <3 I steamed some broccoli and cauliflower on the side.

Wednesday:

Breakfast – another round of Peaches & Cream oatmeal, sans walnuts

Lunch – the rest of the curry vegetables and brown rice. Cauliflower, bell pepper, onions, garlic, and fresh tomato. YUM.

Dinner – Chipotle was giving away free guac today only, so of course we had to jump on that! Chipotle is definitely both of our favorite ‘eat-out’ places. The flavor cannot be beat, and I’ve tried to make the chicken and the rice. It is never quite right.

Thursday:

Breakfast – cheerios, because sometimes I just don’t wanna

Lunch – leftover Chipotle. Another reason I love them is because it is almost always enough for 2 meals for me, so basically like half price and I get to eat it twice in a row.

Snack – no way, more fruit?!? 🙂

Dinner – The boy had a tiny bit of ground beef left from making himself burritoes for lunch, and I was craving some warm soup to go with the icky rain. So I tossed together a cup of rice, some stock from the fridge, frozen mixed veggies, and the beef. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 30 minutes. Boom, easy peasy and super cheap comfort food.

Friday:

Breakfast – fruit smoothie with watermelon, pineapple, cantaloupe, and cherry juice, plus frozen blueberries and banana

Lunch – canned soup from my desk at work, because I didn’t have any pre-made leftovers today.

Dinner – on the road!

The Weekend

I’m driving to Ohio this weekend for a wedding shower.

Yup. I agree with you, I am crazy.

It’s about a 10 hours drive both ways. But family. Ya know.

I packed a cooler with some road snacks, granola bars, PBJs, bottled water (re-useable bottles, don’t worry). Hopefully I can make it without giving into temptation for fast food, but who knows. I’m going to give myself grace and roll with whatever happens this weekend. Plus my mom doesn’t know, so it will be a total surprise to her. I can’t wait to see her face. 🙂

Food Total: $27.03

This week I did not go to the grocery store at all! It went by in a blur actually. I meant to go Wednesday but then it was monsooning. Then I was going to go Thursday, but the rain was even worse. So we scrounged and figured it out and it worked out. The produce delivery box was more than enough to get us by combined with what’s in the pantry.

Lessons Learned

Apparently I have far more food in the house than I even realized. We didn’t go to the grocery store this week and barely even noticed. I may be able to spread out grocery shopping to every other week soon, and just stock up on enough yogurt and bananas to get the boy through to the next trip.

Also I need to get back to batch cooking on the weekends again. I’ve been lax on planning and prepping, as summer is just plain crazy. We are definitely gone more weekends than we are here, and weekends are when I have the time, energy, and mental space to do these things. So I’ve been scrounging for lunch and snacks lately, and had a few ‘what the heck do I make for dinner’ moments. Those prepped “food, fast” meals are definitely required.

How about you guys? Did you have a learning week or an awesome week of wins?

Pasta, Soups, Vegetarian

Shrimp & Bell Pepper Linguini Alfredo. Bonus dessert: Peach Soup

July 18, 2012 BudgetEpicurean Leave a comment

This is a recipe I invented last year. I was in my apartment and starving. Red bell peppers had recently gone on sale, so I had about a dozen. Plus some pasta like most college kids, a jar of alfredo sauce, and half a bag of shrimp in the freezer. That’s how this came about, and it was so good, it remains one of my favorites.

It’s easy to customize too, you can use any kind of fresh veggies, and if you don’t want meat then you don’t need to add shrimp. Also you can flavor the shrimp with whatever you want. This recipe makes about 4-6 servings.

Ingredients:

1/2 lb linguini

1/2 lb shrimp, thawed

2/3 jar alfredo sauce

1/2 red, yellow and orange bell pepper

1 tbsp butter

pinch Thai spices

garlic powder

Step 1: Boil the noodles in salted water with a tbsp oil to keep the noodles from sticking.

Step 2: Add the butter to a frying pan, begin cooking the shrimp. Add whatever spices you like, and stir occasionally.

Step 3: Once boiled, drain the noodles and return to the pot. Add the alfredo sauce and mix. Set aside.

Step 4: Once the shrimp are pink, with a slight brown crust on both sides, add the diced peppers. Mix and put the lid on, cook for ~5 minutes or until tender.

Step 5: Once cooked, add to the noodles and mix everything well. Enjoy!

Bonus dessert: Peach Soup
From: Cooking for 2, summer 2008, pg. 25.
1 1/2 cups fresh peaches
1/2 cup plain or vanilla yogurt
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1/8 tsp almond extract

Blend all ingredients together until smooth, and refrigerate until serving. Add a dash of cinnamon on top. Makes 2 servings.

Peach soup: cold, sweet and refreshing!

Uncategorized

Urban foraging

July 3, 2012 BudgetEpicurean Leave a comment

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One of the many fringe benefits to going to walks/runs around the neighborhood is that I get to know where things are. If you just pay attention to your surroundings, there are so many interesting things to see! I am always on the lookout for a new source of free fruit, because the majority of people in a college town have no idea what a mulberry is, let alone will eat them. Therefore all the “wild” fruit goes to waste smashed on the ground or eaten by birds. I’ve heard that there is some law stating that any fruit which hangs over property lines is public property, but I’m not sure…
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Anyways, so I was jogging yesterday, and noticed a tree with dark purply-red leaves, with small smashed circles of pulp all around it. I stopped to inspect, and it was a plum tree! Tiny, golf-ball-sized reddish plums. I of course picked a few, and took them home to wash and try them. They were amazing! The flesh gave as soon as you bit into it, the outer pulp was sweet and soft, while the pulp closest to the seed was more sour and tangy.
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I had never had a plum like this from a store. And after 3, I did not get sick in any way, so I went back for more today! Just from what I could reach, and carry home, I got probably 4 dozen little plums. These will be great to snack on and take to the lake tomorrow for the 4th! And I feel no guilt, because judging from the amount of fruit on the ground, and the amount still left on the tree, even if the tree’s owners wanted some they will still find plenty.
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Another fruit tree I’ve found is a gigantic mulberry tree. This one was in front of a house for rent, and the porch was the perfect height to gather. The owner was home fixing it up, so I asked if I could pick the mulberries, and he said he didn’t even know what they are! Growing up, my grandmother had 8 mulberry trees, so our hands and faces were stained purple all summer long. I rushed home for a bucket and spent an hour re-living childhood…

Moral of the story is, get outside and be observant! You never know what free treats you may find.

Breakfast

Strawberry Banana Crepes

May 14, 2012 BudgetEpicurean Leave a comment

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I have always thought crepes were hard to make, so never tried it. But when my little sister took French and crepes became a common breakfast at my house, I saw that they were just as easy as pancakes, if not easier. You don’t even need a fancy crepe making machine, a regular frying pan will do.

So when I was searching breakfast recipes and found one for a smaller batch of crepes, I decided to try it. Not sure where I got the recipe from though, sorry. But it made 4 crepes, which is perfect for 2 breakfasts.

They also freeze well I hear, so if you wanted you could make a larger batch and freeze some. I had some left over strawberries and a banana that was turning brown, so strawberry banana filling was the best choice.

Crepe batter:
1/2 c flour
1 egg
3/4 c milk
1/8 tsp salt
1 tbsp butter

Filling:
4 Strawberries
1 tbsp strawberry jam
4 marshmallows
2 tbsp butter
4 tbsp cream cheese
1 banana, sliced

Step 1: Mix all the batter ingredients together. Mixing it in a large measuring cup is a good idea to make pouring easier. Then melt 1 tbsp butter in a frying pan, and pour 1/4 cup of the batter into the frying pan.

Step 2: Cook for about 5 minutes, the batter will start to bubble, and the bottom turns golden brown. To flip, use a spatula or get fancy and use your wrist to flip the crepe in the pan. Cook the other side until golden brown as well.

Step 3: For the filling, melt the butter in a smaller pan. Add the cut whole strawberries and cook a few minutes until soft. Add the cream cheese, strawberry jam, and marshmallows. Cook until everything is melted together.

Step 4: Take one crepe, fill it with the strawberry filling and banana slices. Wrap it up on both sides, and top with strawberry and banana slices. I drizzled chocolate syrup and maple syrup on top!

You can fill crepes with just about anything. I think of it as a breakfast food, but there are recipes that stuff it with veggies, meats, salads, all kinds of things. It can be used in lunch, dinner, or snacks. Just get creative!

Breakfast, Vegetarian

Hearty Fruit & Nut Toast

March 30, 2012 BudgetEpicurean Leave a comment

Breakfast is reportedly the most important meal of the day. I know I function best with a full stomach right off the bat. But we rarely have time to cook a well-rounded, 30 minute breakfast, enjoy it and clean up, and still get to work on time, right? So I came up with some better alternatives. You only need a few minutes to throw these together, and they are even portable (as long as you bring a napkin as well and maybe don’t mind peanut butter on your car seat…)

#1: Strawberry almond delight
Toast a piece of wheat/whole grain bread to your liking. Spread with 1 tbsp strawberry jam. Sprinkle a handful of slivered almonds on top.

#2: Elvis toast
Toast 1 piece of bread. Spread with 1 tbsp peanut butter. Top with sliced banana. (This one’s my favorite!)

#3: Mediterranean breakfast on-the-go
Toast 1 piece bread. Spread with 1 tbsp Greek yogurt. Top with thin slices of pear or grapes. Drizzle a little honey on top.

#4: Sweet treat
Toast a slice of bread. Spread with 1 tbsp Nutella. Top with sliced pear or other fruit.

These are just the ones I’ve tried, of course the possibilities are endless. Try blueberries and crushed walnuts with almond butter, or applesauce and raisins with some flax sprinkled on top.

The point is to try to use spreads which are low in fat and pair with at least 1 fruit and 1 type of nut if you can. Start every day this way and I’ll bet your mood and productivity increase, and your weight will likely decrease because you will be less hungry later on in the day!

Healthy, Salads, Vegan, Vegetarian

Spinach fruit & nut salad

February 22, 2012 BudgetEpicurean Leave a comment

Well as you may remember, I am eating healthier this year. Working out has been kind of off and on due to sickness, school visits, and I admit, laziness. I have been pretty good about eating better overall though. So today I decided to make a super healthy salad.

Spinach is one of the best greens out there, with tons of vitamins, antioxidants, and fiber. Then I added some fruit for natural sweetness, and nuts & seeds for healthy fats. The only thing that could make this better is some grilled chicken breast to top it off!