This Was Our Menu For The Week 04/12/20 - 4/18/20

No pizza order last week!  We did get takeout twice, though.  My goal for this week is no takeout or delivery.  We’ll see how it goes.  We picked up a fairly large grocery order from Wal-Mart on Friday evening, so I  have no excuse not to cook, and I definitely want to make sure the produce doesn’t go bad.

Sunday: It was pretty chilly here, and very rainy and stormy, so soup seemed like a good choice.  I made my version of Olive Garden’s Pasta e Fagioli soup, and it was delicious.  I also made a loaf of Italian Herb bread in the bread machine.

I made a buttermilk pie for dessert on Sunday that we enjoyed through most of the week.  I know it’s not pretty, but it’s so good.

Monday: Cheese Enchiladas.  I used this recipe, but halved it.  We also had refried beans with our enchiladas.

Tuesday: This was when the takeout started.  I had Thai food, which I love, but Nick is less crazy about.  Nick had Arby’s, which I refuse to eat.

Wednesday: We had burgers and milkshakes from the McDonald’s drive-thru.

Thursday: Cheese Tetrazzini.  It’s not the prettiest dish, but it was so good.

Friday: Taco salad.  We were actually able to get lettuce on the grocery order, which was a nice change from the last few.

Saturday: Nick made pancakes for breakfast.  I love pancakes, but mine are absolutely terrible.  Nick’s are really good, and these were even better than usual.  There is no picture of the pancakes because I was too busy devouring them.  We had leftovers (taco salad and cheese tetrazzini) for lunch and dinner.

Breakfast was mostly cereal, with one day of egg sandwiches, and one day of this Dutch Apple Pancake, which I did an experiment on.  I read recently that oat milk works the best in baking if you’re not using regular dairy milk.  I wanted to test it out, but I wanted to do it on something fairly low stakes.   We were out of milk by Friday morning, so I gave the oat milk a try in the Dutch Apple Pancake.  We’d had it before, so knew how it was supposed to taste, and it wouldn’t waste a lot of ingredients if it was bad.  It was fine.  Neither one of us could tell any difference.  I feel fairly confident now in using oat milk in baked goods if we’re out of regular dairy milk.  That should help limit our grocery trips/orders a little more.

I think I may have finally figured out a system for getting produce right now.  I’m trying to only do grocery orders every two weeks, or even a little longer if we can manage it.  That makes it a little tricky with things like fresh produce and milk.  The oat milk experiment mostly solved the milk problem, so that just leaves the produce problem.

There doesn’t seem to be any particular pattern with what’s available as far as produce, so I’m learning to be a little more flexible.  I put a variety of produce on the grocery order, knowing we wouldn’t get all of it.  We were able to get lettuce, spinach, yellow squash, zucchini, onions, strawberries, asparagus, a couple of tomatoes, cilantro, cauliflower, carrots, celery, and a very tiny head of broccoli.  We weren’t able to get cucumbers, parsley,  butternut squash, raspberries, green beans, or any shredded broccoli or coleslaw mixes.

My plan is to use the things with the shortest shelf life first, then move on to the things that will last a little longer, and then to probably use some frozen veggies the last few days before our next grocery order.

So what about you?  Have you changed the way you shop for groceries?  What produce have you been able to get, or not been able to get?   Have you tried any successful substitutions?

A Late Menu Post Week of 4/5/20 - 4/11/20

So much for my plan of posting a menu on Saturday.  Last week wasn’t a stellar cooking week or blogging week. 

I don’t have a lot of food pictures, so I’m supplementing with some more pictures of blooms from the yard, because they’re gorgeous right now.

I did a little better with breakfasts than I did with dinners, so let’s start there. 

I made this apple pancake dish one day.  We had cheese grits and eggs another day.  Friday was a holiday for both of us, which meant Nick was home from work and I wasn’t working from home, so we had a nicer than usual breakfast of scrambled eggs with feta and dill, toast, and asparagus.  My sister gave us some pineapple papaya ginger marmalade from Costa Rica from Christmas, so that’s what I had on my toast.  It was delicious.

Sunday: We ordered pizza from Papa John’s.  It was supposed to be a no contact delivery.  It was not.  So, we won’t be ordering from them for the foreseeable future.

There were a few nights of not really making dinner, so we had leftovers, PB&Js, and cereal.

Wednesday: Creamy chicken tacos.

Thursday and Friday: Cubed steak with carrots and gravy over rice.  There was a fairly large package of cubed steak in the freezer, and we had a lot of carrots on hand, so this lasted us for a while.  Somehow I managed not to take a single picture of it. 

I didn’t make any dessert last week because Nick’s mom mailed us cookies.  They were so good!  Chocolate chip for Nick and Oatmeal Scotchies for me.  I don’t make good cookies, and Susan makes wonderful cookies, so it’s always a treat to get hers.

And now for some yard pictures since this post is a little short on pictures.

One of the many azaleas currently blooming.

The lilac bush.

Another view of the lilac bush.  Can you tell I really like the lilac bush?

What did you eat last week?  Have your cooking habits changed at all during COVID-19?

What We Ate Last Week: 3/29/20 - 4/3/20

It seems like quite a few of us are turning to food for comfort right now.  Bijoux made the comment on one of my recent posts that we’re living for food now.  That certainly seems to be the case for us. 

It also seems like it’s hard to find some items in the stores right now, leading to some creative substitutions, and a lot of people are cooking much more than they’re used to. 

I think reading other people’s blogs involves a certain amount of voyeurism, in a totally non-creepy way.  It’s nice to get a peak at how other people live, and it’s especially interesting right now, when everyone’s world seems to have shrunk down, to get a little peak into someone else’s.  To that end, I thought I’d share a weekly menu post.  The Frugal Girl does a weekly menu post every Friday, and I enjoy reading those.  It’s also a great way to get ideas when you’re drawing a blank on what to make for dinner. 

So here’s what we had:

Sunday: I haven’t been handling social distancing and some other things very well.  I’m following the rules, but I’ve also spent more time than I care to admit wallowing in fear and sadness.  That means I kind of let a lot of household chores go, so we spent all day on Sunday getting the house back in good shape.  We were pretty wiped out after that, so we ordered pizza from Papa John’s, and had a no-contact delivery.  We’re both still working our normal hours, so we also tipped a little more than usual.

Monday: Potato Soup and Beer Bread.    We’re running a little low on all-purpose flour, so I made it using the self-rising flour version.  I did still add some salt.  It was just as good as usual, so whichever method you choose will be delicious.

Tuesday: We still had lots of potato soup left, but wanted a little break from it, so Nick made calzones for dinner.  He makes really good calzones! 

Wednesday: Broccoli cheddar soup and leftover beer bread.  I made a few modifications to the recipe.  I always add more garlic, and a few sprinkles of cayenne pepper to this recipe.  I’ve made quite a few recipes from this site, and overall we like them, but they do lean a little more toward the bland side, so I recommend adding a little more seasoning than the recipe calls for.  We also don’t have much shredded cheddar cheese on hand, so I substituted Velveeta cheese instead.  I didn’t think to measure, and just added cubes of Velveeta until it looked good.  I think it can work with varying amounts, it just depends on how indulgent you want it to be.  The recipe calls for fresh broccoli, which is what I’ve always used.  Our neighbor has used frozen broccoli, and says it works well.  She’s a great cook, so I’m inclined to trust her on that.

Thursday: The chili I posted about here.

Friday: Leftovers. 

Saturday/Today: I think we’ll probably be having chicken tacos. 

I also made this apple crisp, and we’ve been enjoying it all week.  In case you can’t tell, I definitely use food as a coping mechanism.  This has plenty of butter and sugar, so it’s great comfort food. 

Breakfasts have been egg and cheese tortillas or cereal.  Lunches are pretty much always leftovers from the day or two before.

So what about you?  Are you eating more comfort food lately?  What did you eat last week?

Thanksgiving Menu Ideas

You may have noticed by now that I love Thanksgiving, and get really excited about it.  It’s a holiday all about cooking for and spending time with the people you love.  What’s not to love about it?

Sometimes, though, searching for good recipes can be a little overwhelming, so I thought I’d share links for some of my favorites.  Some of them are my recipes, and some are from other places. 

Obviously, the turkey is the main part of the traditional meal, so here’s my turkey recipe: 

Practically Fool-Proof Turkey

And you can read about my various misadventures with turkey here, in case you’d like a guide for what not to do. 

Some might argue that the side dishes are the most important part of the meal.  Here are a few of our favorites:

Green Bean Casserole.  I can’t stand this one, but Nick loves it, and I think it’s one that most people have come to expect at Thanksgiving.

Creamy Slow Cooker Macaroni & Cheese.  It’s creamy, delicious, and incredibly easy to make.  It’s also very helpful that it’s made in the Crock Pot since that frees up more oven space. 

Heavenly Mashed Potatoes.  This link is actually to The New Southern Garden Cookbook by Sheri Castle.  I don’t feel right posting a recipe if the author hasn’t made it available online.  I highly recommend this cookbook.  It has lots of great recipes, but it’s worth having for the mashed potatoes alone.  I didn’t think I liked mashed potatoes very much until I tried this recipe.  They are out of this world good, which I suppose is why she named the recipe Heavenly Mashed Potatoes.

Kale Salad With Red Grapes.  Don’t let the fact that this sounds fairly healthy turn you off.  It’s delicious! 

Watergate Salad.  I think is technically a dessert, but it does have salad in the name, so classify it however you want.  No judgment here.

Speaking of desserts, it just wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without them.

Pumpkin Pie.  It’s probably the most traditional Thanksgiving dessert.  It’s also one of my favorites.

Cherry Crunch.  This was a surprisingly big hit last year at Thanksgiving, so I’ll be making it again. 

Apple Crisp.  This is delicious and easy.  Perfect for a day when there’s already a lot of cooking and baking going on.

Fresh Apple Cake.  This cake is amazingly delicious, and just seems like the ultimate dessert for Fall.  The link mentions cream cheese frosting, but don’t do that.  You’ll want to use the Browned Butter Frosting.  Trust me!

Browned Butter Frosting.  This is the end all, be all of frosting.  If you’ve never had browned butter frosting, do yourself a favor, and make it.  Right now!  It’s amazingly good!  It’s rich, creamy, decadent, has a slightly nutty flavor, and pairs perfectly with the apple cake.  

Hershey’s Perfectly Chocolate Cake & Frosting.  I can’t personally vouch for this one, since I don’t like chocolate.  I can tell you, however, that everyone seems to love it.  I make this cake (or the cupcakes) several times a year, and it’s always very popular.  

Apple Cake & Browned Butter Frosting on Back Left

Banana Pound Cake.  It may not be a very traditional Thanksgiving dessert, but it’s still delicious, and always a crowd pleaser.

So what about you?  What are your favorite Thanksgiving recipes?  Is there a certain dish that’s always on your Thanksgiving menu? 

Thrifty Thursday - Thanksgiving Dinner On A Budget

I’m always very happy whenever November 1st rolls around.  That seems to be when it becomes socially acceptable to start talking about Thanksgiving.  It’s my favorite holiday, so I start talking about it, and planning it, long before now, but at least as of today it seems to be alright with everyone else.

We’ll be hosting an evening Thanksgiving meal at our house again this year.  I’m still absolutely loving the fact that Nick doesn’t have to work the holidays anymore.  We’ll also be taking Thanksgiving dinner to the local hospice house for lunch.  I’ve been in touch with them, and they’ve said they’re happy for us to bring the meal.  I’m always a little nervous that they’re going to say no, so I’m pretty excited that they said yes.  They never really offer any feedback as to anything they especially liked or didn’t like, so I’m planning to stick with essentially the same menu and setup as the last two years.  I’m assuming it isn’t broken, so I’m not going to try to fix it. 

Occasionally someone will mention the costs associated with feeding a crowd, or with cooking two separate Thanksgiving dinners, so I thought that would be a good topic for a Thrifty Thursday post.  I’ll just go ahead and get a few things out of the way. 

First, I’m not breaking anything down by specific prices or numbers.  This is mostly because I hate math.  I mean, I really, really, really hate math.  I enjoy blogging, so I’m not about to mix math in with it.  It’s also because it’s just not accurate.  A good price for something for me may be a terrible price on the same item for someone who lives in a different place, and an impossibly low, never going to find it priced like that for yet another person living in yet another place.  I think general guidelines are probably just easier for everyone.  And they don’t involve math! 

Second, I know a lot of grocery stores are regional, so I realize you may not have the same ones in your area that I do.  Again, it’s just meant to be a general idea of what works for me.  I’m only naming specific stores in case any of you have the same ones available.  I love Aldi.  If you haven’t shopped at Aldi, give them a try, even if you’re not hosting Thanksgiving.

Lastly, if you’re hosting Thanksgiving, do what works for you and your guests.  You may very well have different priorities.  Don’t get caught up in trying to make it look like someone else’s ideal Thanksgiving. 

All of that being said, here’s what we do to host Thanksgiving without going broke.

Start early.  This is the time of year when grocery stores start putting the things you need for the holidays on sale.  Pay attention to the sale ads, and get the things you need ahead of time, while they’re on a good sale.  You probably won’t find butter cheaper than you will during the next few weeks.  It’s also a great time to stock up on flour, sugar, nuts, and other baking essentials. 

Shop around.  If you’re fortunate enough to have a few different grocery stores near you, check everyone’s sale ads, even if you usually only shop at one.  There’s likely going to be some competition among them to get you in the door, so if time and distance allow, consider buying the best priced items at each store.  I typically shop at three different grocery stores every week to get the best prices on what we need. 

Remember the main parts of Thanksgiving Dinner are relatively inexpensive.  Fortunately for those of us who love Thanksgiving, the traditional dishes aren’t typically very expensive.  Most grocery stores will price their turkeys very low this time of year, especially if you spend a certain amount in a single transaction.  Potatoes and sweet potatoes are typically inexpensive anyway, and likely to be priced even lower leading up to Thanksgiving. 

Buy store brands, or shop at Aldi.  I typically never buy name brand flour or sugar, unless it happens to be on a great sale that makes it cheaper than the store brands or buying it at Aldi.  I think there’s some difference if you’re buying something already prepared (salsa, cookies, etc),but when it comes to ingredients, the finished dish seems to come out the same, whether you’ve used name brand ingredients or not.  I’ve been using Aldi brand cheese, evaporated milk, and pasta in my macaroni and cheese for years.  The same goes for their canned pumpkin in my pumpkin pie. 

I will say, though, that in my experience, Aldi isn’t the cheapest place to buy the turkey.  Overall, I haven’t been terribly impressed with their meat prices.  Here, Harris Teeter or Ingles typically have the best prices on turkeys. 

Look into the price matching policy at the store(s) you regularly shop.  Some stores have a policy that they’ll take competitor’s coupons, or meet or beat competitor’s prices.  Read the fine print, but that may be a way for you to get the best prices, and still be able to shop at your regular grocery store.

Be on the lookout for coupons.  Look for coupons in the weekly sale ads or papers, and pay attention to the fliers the grocery stores mail you.  Take note of the expiration dates, and any minimum purchase requirements so you can plan your lists accordingly.  A Publix recently opened near us, and they seem to be in serious competition with Harris Teeter, so we’re getting coupons in the mail from both stores.  My trick for remembering to actually use the coupons is to fold them around my debit card. 

Don’t serve appetizers.  I realize this one isn’t going to work for everyone, but it does for us.  Our style of entertaining is very informal; it’s what we’re comfortable with, and it’s what works well with our house.  We have a fairly small kitchen, and eating area as well, so we end up serving Thanksgiving (and most meals we host) buffet style, and we usually eat fairly quickly after guests start arriving.  If we say 6:30, people are usually eating by 6:45.  Buffet style makes it easier to get started if you’re still waiting for a few people to show up, so you don’t have hungry guests waiting around.  There’s so much food already, and since we’re not sitting around waiting, it works for us. 

Don’t serve alcohol.  Again, I realize this choice isn’t for everyone, but it works for us.  Cocktails, or even wine and beer, can get expensive quickly, so sticking with nonalcoholic beverages (tea, coffee, soda, etc) is an easy way to reduce spending.   

Plan your menu carefully.  I tend to go a little bit overboard when it comes to the Thanksgiving menu.  In all honesty, not serving appetizers is about the only scaling down I’ve done when it comes to the menu now that we’re actually able to host Thanksgiving. Obviously, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that, but some things to keep in mind when deciding what and how much to prepare are the eating habits of your guests, whether or not you want leftovers, and whether or not you’re planning to send leftovers home with guests. 

If most of your guests are vegetarians you probably don’t need 20 pounds of turkey.  If most of your guests prefer desserts other than pumpkin pie, you probably don’t need multiple pumpkin pies.  Don’t feel like you have to make something no one loves just because it’s Thanksgiving, or that you can’t make something everyone loves because it’s not a traditional Thanksgiving dish.  The important thing is that everyone is happy, able to spend time together, and enjoys a good meal.

If you’re the type to go overboard with cooking, and know you’re likely going to have enough leftovers to feed your entire neighborhood for a week, ask your guests to bring containers with them so they can take leftovers home.  And know that you probably won’t be cooking for the rest of the weekend. 

So what about you?  What are your tips for hosting Thanksgiving on a budget?  What are the must have parts for you?  What are you willing to skip? 

Thanksgiving Comes First & It Looks Like I Got My Wish

It’s definitely time for a new blog post since Thanksgiving is practically upon us and my last post is entitled “Happy Halloween”.  I’m not even going to try to figure out where all of the time has gone.  I’ve been meaning to share my Thanksgiving post for a while, and it just so happens to tie in (with only a little bit of stretch) Carrie’s awesome vacation giveaway.  Excellent!  Two posts in one! 

First, this week’s question from Carrie: 

“How do you feel about the holidays this time of the year,particularly the ever-melding of ThanksChristgivmasing that is continually being ‘pushed’ more and more each year?”

I love the holidays.  I didn’t get to celebrate them as child, so I have totally embraced them now.  In some ways I’m like a child when it comes to the holidays.  Granted, a child with a bank account and the ability to make Christmas goodies, but I think I have that level of enthusiasm.  I get truly excited over planning Thanksgiving Dinner, sending Christmas cards, shopping for gifts, and making goodies for everyone.  But for me Thanksgiving does come first.  I don’t get especially upset to see Christmas decorations out early, and I can never resist running to look at shiny ornaments in stores.  But I do think it’s sad that Thanksgiving is almost skipped over, or treated as an afterthought. 

I love Thanksgiving.  It’s possibly my favorite holiday.  I love cooking, and I love spending time at home with the people I love.  Thanksgiving gives me both of those things. 

I also see Thanksgiving as the beginning of the holiday season; not the beginning in the sense that it needs to be rushed through, but the beginning like in a great book you don’t want to put down.  It’s the first of the holiday gatherings, sometimes the first day you see some friends or family since last year.  It’s a time to look for the good things in your life that maybe you forget about sometimes.

Now, on to this year’s Thanksgiving and how I got my wish.  I have always wanted to cook Thanksgiving Dinner for a big crowd.  I truly love cooking, and I love having people over for meals.  It has never worked out for me to cook for much of a crowd on Thanksgiving before, largely because schedules conflict and people have so many different places to be on one day. 

Have you ever seen the movie Under The Tuscan Sun, with Diane Lane?  It is a truly wonderful movie, it’s happy, sweet, and has beautiful scenery.  Watch it, you won’t be sorry.  In the movie, she moves to Tuscany and buys a villa on a whim.  She later laments the fact that she bought a house for a life she doesn’t have, and goes on to say how she wants there to be family and a wedding in the house, and she wants people to cook for.  At the end she manages to get all of these things, though not in the way she meant/hoped/expected, and therefore doesn’t even realize she has gotten her wish, until one of the other characters says that it looks like she got her wish.

This year my husband ended up moving to a different work schedule, which includes working nights the week of Thanksgiving.  We’ve always been able to work around his work schedule on Thanksgiving when he has worked days because he gets a long lunch break.  I just got up really early and made sure everything was ready when he came home for lunch.  With the  fairly long lunch break it worked.  It wasn’t ideal, but it worked.  Nights are a totally different story.  Trying to have Thanksgiving Dinner before he goes into work would be the equivalent of trying to have it for breakfast for most of us.  We can’t really have it during the day because that’s pretty much the middle of the night for him. 

I will admit I was really upset.  Like I said, I love Thanksgiving, and the thought of missing out on it didn’t make me very happy.  Then we decided that instead of complaining about it, we’d just have Thanksgiving Dinner another day.  It’s not so much the day as it is spending time with loved ones, and the food of course. 

So we chose November 3^rd as the day for our Thanksgiving celebration.  I know it was really early, but it’s what worked out with scheduling.  We decided to have all of the usual Thanksgiving foods, invite lots of people, and hope for the best. 

We ended up with a total of 15 people at our house.  It was, by far, the biggest holiday turnout we have ever had.  Most people seemed to like the idea of an early Thanksgiving, and a lot of people who will be out of town on Thanksgiving were able to come.  I finally got my wish, even if it wasn’t how I expected, and had a crowd to cook Thanksgiving Dinner for.  Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures.  I was so caught up in everything that was going on that I totally forgot about taking any pictures. 

Here’s our menu (in case you’re still looking for ideas):

Turkey (stuffed w/ chopped onions, slathered with butter, sprinkled with salt, pepper, and parsley and cooked in white wine and cognac)

Gravy (I’m from the South; it’s it own separate dish!)

Meatloaf (the traditional beef kind) I know it’s a little odd, but my husband doesn’t love turkey.  It’s a surprisingly big hit with everyone.

Macaroni & Cheese

Mashed Potatoes

Sweet Potato Casserole

Dressing

Rolls

Cranberry Sauce

Green Beans

Rice (cooked with some of the juice/onions from the turkey in place of part of the water and a packet of vegetable soup mix)

Corn Casserole (brought by Grandmother-In-Law; I have no idea how to make it)

Apple Cake w/ Browned Butter Frosting (You don’t need quite as many apples as the recipe says.)

Pumpkin Pie

Banana Pound Cake

Hershey’s Chocolate Cake (Do NOT use a standing mixer for this one.  I have no idea why, but if you do, you will end up with a chocolate volcano in your oven.  It’s not fun or pretty.  I have made this cake for years, and only ended up with the chocolate volcano twice; both times I used the standing mixer.  That’s enough proof for me not to try it again.)

Obviously, we had tons of food.  We tried to make sure that everyone had at least one favorite dish and/or dessert.  We also had a great time, and got to see almost everyone we had hoped to.  It was very informal, which is mostly how we do things.  We had the food buffet style, we borrowed folding chairs from a friend, and we all perched around the living room talking and eating off of paper plates (because we don’t have dishes for 15 people). 

We had a lot of leftovers to send home with everyone.  It’s easier to get people to take leftovers when you have Thanksgiving early, since they don’t have their own leftovers or anyone else’s.

There was also talk of passing the torch to the next generation.  Most of our friends are older than us.  Some are older than our parents, so some of them are beginning to slow down just a little bit.  My family doesn’t celebrate the holidays, my husband’s grandparents (who live locally) are no longer doing big holiday dinners, and many of our close friends aren’t as up for hosting a crowd as they used to be.  I am fine with picking it up. 

We will have to wait and see what next year holds, but so far we are liking the idea of picking a weekend and hosting an early Thanksgiving.  I do know that we’re not skipping over it in favor of Christmas!