jan 19 grocery challenge

grocery bill:

about $55 (damn those chips & pretzels)

menu plan:

breakfast

english muffins, butter, peach jam, OJ, coffee

lunch

tuna sandwiches, apples, yogurt, goldfish crackers, hummus, baby carrots, pretzels, etc

dinner

spin pie (rice, cheddar & spinach pie, a recipe from eating well sometime last year), chili (my own awesome recipe), stuffed peppers (with the leftover sausage stuffing from last week), roasted red pepper gemelli & salad (leftovers)

shopping list:

OJ

coffee (have decided i will need to exempt coffee from my budget though)

sandwich thins

pickles

olives

lettuce

apples

garlic

onion

a ton of bell peppers

brown rice

canned beans, corn & tomato sauce

frozen spinach

cheddar cheese

pretzels

tortilla chips

side note: i hate when i buy a product that isn't quite what i wanted but is on sale, only to have it not ring up at the sale price. grrrrrrr! stuff like that (plus, let's be honest, laziness) is one reason i quit buying substitutes for my preferred products just because they are on sale.

brown butter gnocchi

another recipe from cooking light, this one from the jan/feb issue from the superfast cooking section. and it certainly was fast! the recipe claims 6 servings, but they would be pretty skimpy portions. we'll get 4 generous or 5 normal servings out of it, i think. overall this turned out ok, especially the toasted pine nuts (yum), but didn't blow us away. i think a little lemon would give it a boost, so may spritz some on the leftovers.

 

pinched from the trash house

while walking the dog one morning, i happened upon this poor forlorn little stool abandoned in the trash house.



the seat cover stained & torn, i assume the owner gave it up for a loss. but the frame was sturdy and non-wobbly, and upon flipping it over, i saw that the seat was attached with four little screws. which suggested that with a little time, some elbow grease and a new fabric swatch, this guy had a new life ahead of him. so i dragged him to my stairwell, stashed him behind a bush, and continued walking the dog. eventually he made his way up to my landing, where he hung out for a bit.

a few days later, i made it to the fabric store and browsed through the remnants for anything interesting. the shiny chrome frame made me want to either add some cool texture (i was thinking some faux cowhide could look awesome) for contrast or emphasize the smooth shine with some vinyl.

finally i happened on some light tan, creamy poly suede. win! less than a yard left on the roll, $12. mine.

today, i decided to take the stool apart. i undid a few screws and the seat came right off. the frame was super clean, no rust, so i just wiped it down with disinfecting wipes. then i began removing the 80 bazillion staples holding the old seat covers and white vinyl in place. this took over an hour. i used a tool that looks like the nail-puller end of a hammer but has a screwdriver handle, plus a pair of needle-nose pliers. the seat itself is a particle board, which means you have to be gentle with the tools or they will leave deep gouges in the seat. once all the staples were removed, i used the old white vinyl as a rough pattern and cut pieces of batting (which i had on hand from another project) and fabric. i have plenty of faux suede left over for another use (i am thinking i might do a pillow cover at some point). i used spray adhesive to reattach one circle of meshy looking stuff to the seat bottom to help prevent the particle board from dissolving into dust everywhere. then i stapled on the batting, followed by the poly suede and finally the other meshy circle to finish it off. reattached the seat to the frame, and we're done! i think it looks great. this guy is now living it up in my craft room, at least for the time being.

 

stuffed acorn squash

i found this recipe in last month's cooking light in the budget cooking section (feed 4 for less than $10).

the recipe was supposed to make 4 servings and suggested a whole small squash per serving, but the squashes at my store were larger than the recipe called for, so i figured on half a squash per serving. the filling part of this recipe is really really awesome, but we were both disappointed with the roasted squash. it was difficult to eat, a bit dry and just didn't seem to meld well with the filling. which was outrageous, did i mention. on the plus side, the recipe (as made by me) made 6 servings of filling. i think next time around, i will peel, dice & roast the squash then serve alongside the filling instead. sean also suggested the filling would be great in stuffed peppers, and i agree, so if we still have filling left by the weekend, i'll pick up a couple red peppers on the next grocery trip. otherwise, i'll probably stuff it into a couple of tortillas that are hanging out in the fridge and pretend they are burritos.

jan 12 grocery challenge

grocery bill:

about $50.50 before tax (forgot about that, darnit!). we'll call it good.

menu plan:

breakfast

english muffins, butter, OJ, coffee

lunch

PBJ sandwiches (PB & homemade peach jam in pantry), apples (leftover from last week), yogurt, goldfish crackers, hummus (all from costco), baby carrots, pretzels, etc

dinner

stuffed acorn squash (recipe from last month's cooking light), brown butter gnocchi (recipe from this month's cooking light), roasted red pepper gemelli, chilean squash (both leftovers from last week)

shopping list:

english muffins (on sale, bought extra for next week)

butter

OJ

bread

1# italian sausage (only used 1/3#, froze the rest for later)

2# prepared gnocchi

green beans (for zoe)

tuna (on sale, for lunches next week)

garlic

onion

2 acorn squash

2# broccoli

celery

baby carrots