Has anyone started getting supplies for Thanksgiving yet? We are hosting and by hosting I mean Micah’s parents are coming. There will only be nine of us and five of those are under age 10 so I know we don’t need a major spread but at the same time… Thanksgiving! Food! Micah’s mom and I are trying to figure out the menu without having twenty dishes of leftovers. What are your must have Thanksgiving foods?
This week’s grocery trip is a little weird if you try to look at it and figure out what we are eating. Honestly? Most of what I bought will not be used for meals this week but rather I was stocking up on items that were a really good buy or things we were out of at home. I planned all our meals based on what we had in the freezer and cupboards so we could those great buys and start setting aside any extra funds for our holiday food budget. This helps make sure we don’t blow our budget on fun treats and special meals for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years!
It felt so weird to be back to grocery shopping this week! We only took a week off and I still couldn’t get my act together to make a list and menu on time. Thankfully I was able to figure it out before leaving the house on Friday morning but I know I could do better.
It’s birthday week around these parts (again) so we have two special meals. Both boys picked out their own meals without any suggestions. It’s crazy to me that they are old enough to have favorite meals for birthdays already. I’ve also got two birthday cakes to make when we get home from our trip. Do you do special birthday meals or treats?
Please tell me I’m not the only one that chokes a little bit when the grocery total is WAY higher than normal? It was even expected and planned for this week and it still made me nervous!
What is the deal with avocado prices? I miss buying bag after bag and eating it with a variety of meals. I can’t justify nearly two dollars per avocado! Thankfully our Walmart must have ordered WAY too many because they had a huge display marked down to $0.98/each. If I had had more wiggle room in the budget I would have bought more to mash up and throw in the freezer but I held off.
I had a moment of panic this week because I was checking prices in the Walmart app for wonton wrappers and it didn’t list any as available in our store. Um, what? They’ve always carried them! How can they not have wonton wrappers?? I just want to make some potstickers, people! Thankfully upon arriving at the store we found they did in fact have the wrappers in the same place they are always found. Phew! Crisis averted 😉
I split up our shopping into two days this week because there was a really great meat sale at one of the local grocery stores. I couldn’t pass up ground beef for $1.87/lb! I played with the menu and the grocery list until I was able to set aside the nearly $20 I would need to cover a 10 pound tube of ground beef. That should get us through for quite a while since we only eat a pound or two a month.
What do you make when you get in a food rut? It’s not that I don’t want to cook because I’d spend hours in the kitchen playing if I could but I just have no clue what sounds good right now or what I want to make. The kids always want breakfast foods but with our schedule I’m making most of their favorite breakfast items at breakfast time every week so I don’t want the same thing for dinner. I fall back on classics that we’ve been making for years when I’m feeling uninspired so we’ve got several on the menu this week. I think I need to spend some time browsing Pinterest for new ideas!
Here I thought we were really heading into fall but the temps are hitting summer numbers. We saw the 80s during this past week and they are in the forecast again this week. I want soups and warm me up comfort food but these temps think otherwise. Too bad, though! I’m just going to pretend it’s only 60* outside and eat my soup in a fuzzy sweater. Remind me later when I’m complaining of the cold that I rushed summer out the door.