Category Archives: Eating

Chomp it up.

menu plan Monday

Three days of the dinner

Menu Plan Monday logoI got a little carried away with my menu planning this weekend and ended up with nearly four weeks’ worth of meals. This is a good thing; it means I’ll have to do very little thinking for the next few weeks. Maybe.

This week turned pretty busy all of the sudden, so the menu is almost entirely different from my original plan. Hopefully I’ll be able to stick to the rest of the four-week plan a little better.

Monday: Spaghetti
I’d intended to have something other than spaghetti every now and then for our weekly pasta night, but so far that hasn’t panned out.

Tuesday: Fish stick po’ boys.
Yes, again. I bought a gigantic bag of fish sticks, and we’re trying to shop as little as possible this week.

Wednesday: Curried coconut chicken
Our friend Don’s birthday is this week. He loves spicy foods, so we’re having this in his honor. Plus, he’ll be over for dinner. So I thought I’d make something other than fish sticks for him.

Thursday: Dining with the in-laws

Friday: Date night
This is a rare occasion these days. I scored some free tickets to a play, though, so we’re going out. We might even have dinner at someplace other than Sonic. I’m excited about it. Even if we do end up at Sonic.

menu plan Monday

Tried and true? Or in a rut?

** In non-menu planning news: I wrote a review of “Autism’s False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure.” It’s on my reviews page. You should go read it. **

Menu Plan Monday logoI’ve fallen into a rut again with the menu planning. I think chicken taco soup has been on the menu for the last three weeks. (To be fair, though, we didn’t actually have it last week.) My future sister-in-law gave me some back issues of Rachael Ray magazine, so next week we should be trying something new. For this week, though, it’s five days of standbys.

Monday: Chicken taco soup

Tuesday: Moe’s. Our local Moe’s has a kids night on Tuesdays, so we’re going to let Poppy have a mid-week quesadilla.

Wednesday: Fish stick po’ boys

Thursday: Spaghetti

Friday: Pizza

Eating

The price of tea in China

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There’s an interesting poll over at Titus 2:3-5 this week. ET’s food budget has been through the roof, and she’s wondering if the price of groceries in her area is comparable to others.

Our primary method of keeping the grocery bill low is by shopping at a discount grocery store. There’s a great one here that sells mostly organic goods. We take our list there before we go to the “regular” grocery. I’m not so good at remembering how much things cost (or anything else, for that matter), so I’ve enlisted some help from Rockford and our friends Don and Carrie in filling out this list. Carrie is a CPA, so this is probably pretty darn accurate.

  • A gallon of milk … $2.50 at the “cheap store” or $3.89 at the regular store
  • 5 pounds of potatoes … $4 at the regular store, on sale
  • Price per pound of … apples, 99 cents at the farmer’s market; oranges, $1.50 a pound (we rarely buy them because they’re too pricey); bananas 39 cents a pound at the cheap store, 69 cents elsewhere; grapes $1.29 a pound on sale.
  • A head of lettuce … $1.39 at the regular store
  • A cucumber … 69 cents
  • Tomatoes … 99 cents a pound at the farmer’s market, $2.98 at the regular grocery
  • 2 pounds of carrots … $2 at the regular store
  • A box of mac ‘n’ cheese … 99 cents on sale at the regular grocery
  • About a pound of frozen corn … $1.29 at the regular grocery
  • Two 1-pound “blocks” of coffee … $4 at the cheap store
  • 12 double-rolls of toilet paper … $7 on sale at CVS (regularly $11)
  • A pound of ground beef … $1.98
  • A pound of chicken … $1.98 (Sam’s Club and the cheap store)
  • A pound of pork chops … $4
  • A pound of butter … $3.30 at the regular store, $2.50 at Aldi
  • A package of cookies like Oreos … 99 cents at the cheap store
  • A can of beans … 59 cents
  • A can of diced tomatoes … 89 cents
  • A pound of spaghetti … $1.29

    How does that measure you with your neck of the woods?