I am off to a rocking start!
Of course it helps that I started with a fully stocked larder and refrigerator.
My first goal this week was to spend under $50, including meals out.
My second goal this week was to use stuff up.
We did well on both counts, though not perfect, as we went over by $12.91.
Snacks and drinks at Patrick’s Moon Township: $21.42
Grocery shopping: $29.24
Farmers market: $12.25, for apples, apple cider, a butternut squash, sweet peppers, four garlic bulbs
Total: $62.91
What I made in my kitchen: guacamole, lentil soup, applesauce and apple muffins, marinara sauce, beet and feta salad. We had a friend in from out of town, and although we talked about ordering a pizza on Saturday, when I looked in my refrigerator, I decided against it. Instead, we had veggie chili burritos, salad, and the aforementioned beet salad. Sunday we had lentil soup and grilled cheese for lunch.
This week I have to use two small eggplants, whatever is in my CSA box (pickup is Thursday evening), potatoes, a ton of carrots, butternut squash, the rest of that marinara sauce.
I had to throw out half a head of cauliflower. I tried really hard to get over the slug I discovered on it — it comes directly from a farm, after all — and I couldn’t do it.
Recipe ideas:
Carrot soup
Eggplant parmesan
Strawberry and banana muffins
Next week’s goals:
Grocery budget (not including formula): $125
Formula: $25
Costco food budget: $100
Let’s go see how everyone else did!
* Emily Levenson
* Dairy-Free Cooking
* Test Kitchen Tuesday
* Acquired Tastes
* Fit Flexitarian
* Warm As Pie
* Katy Rank Lev
* My Inner Healthy
* Little Blue Hen
* xox, b
* What da Health?
* Project Food Budget 2.0
* Ignition Nutrition
* A Nice Heart and a White Suit
* Because Hobbies Happen
* Primary Focus Health Coaching
* Chicken Tender
* Fresh…A New Chapter
* Whole Living Gal
* Chandeleah
Red Pen Mama 
sounds like you are doing great! love that you realized you had plenty of food to make an easy dinner. i felt the same way with our house guest last week. too much food in the house to go out! and it was better anyway. 🙂
Thanks. Yes, veggie chili burritoes were definitely the way to go. Actually, the beet and feta salad would have been plenty for me. So tasty.
Love reading this! You are off and rolling…and I’m reminded why I was doing week-to-week (instead of two weeks at a time – crazy!): using up the CSA veggies in my fridge. Back to the drawing board for me – I’m going to look up the muffin recipe of yours, though.
The muffin recipe is tried and true from the moosewood cookbook I have. I think muffins are going to become a weekly staple for us!
I hear you about the formula. I had to supplement my milk with my first child and couldn’t believe what that was doing to our budget. I am very hopeful that I won’t run into the same problems with this next baby so we can avoid that expense (which isn’t negotiable or reducible, etc.).
I supplemented some with my girls, especially after they were 5-6 months old, but BF’ing and my boy never caught on. I am ready to wean him to milk, but I’m going to go one more month on 100% formula, then slowly switch it out for (local, organic) whole milk. It will make a *huge* difference in our budget!
Checking the fridge before I went shopping – I somehow totally missed that step. And so consequently went way over budget. It is definitely a happy day when the formula is replaced by milk.
I have a shopping list saved on my computer for staples, but I really do have to start checking the fridge and pantries in my house before I send my husband out. Two things happen: I end up with 10 containers of something I don’t need that much of (lemonade comes to mind), and I don’t get ingredients for meals I want to cook. So then he has to go back to the store (frustrating for both of us), and we go over budget. This project is helping me find the flaws in my current operating system. 🙂