Stuffed Burgers

One day soon I shall blog about my culinary adventures in Djibouti and Yemen. I fell in love with freshly made cantaloupe juice, could have survived on bread and butter (in temperatures so hot the butter melted on your plate) and decided maybe I'm not so fond of Ethiopian. The Yemeni cuisine was worth returning for-- never have I eaten somewhere where the spices were so effectively used in a dish. I now believe I have never had a true saffron rice, the blend of saffron (which did more than merely turn the rice yellow) and the touch of clove really did tease the palate.

Oh, look at that. I did blog about the food. My true lament is that I did not bring home honey from Yemen. The color was so richly yellow it almost appeared orange. We had a small bowl of yogurt with this honey at our hotel and it was so simple and fulfilling. I miss it. Painfully.

I brought home American sauce as a joke for my family, purchased in the Nougaprix in Djibouti. I thought it was Thousand Island dressing and my husband confirmed it on our burgers tonight. Thousand Island without pickles. That works for my husband as he loves Thousand Island but hates pickles.

So, last night we finally went grocery shopping. We bought $155 worth of food (90 items) at Aldi. For the first time in months my freezer and fridge are full.

My husband made burgers tonight, stuffing the centers with feta and mixing fresh spinach into the ground beef. Good stuff. Served with leftover sides-- mashed potatoes, candied sweet potatoes and corn bake.

Friday night splurge

Money is still really tight and I have not had money for groceries. Before today I'd spent $4.24 on groceries this month.

Today was payday so while I may be robbing Peter to pay Paul I allocated $15 for an Aldi's trip for junk. Yeah, I said junk. Processed junk with some sort of vegetable matter. 

This is what I bought, total $15.11 cents. And we're not eating it all tonight. 

Tonight's dinner:

Chicken stuffed with broccoli & cheese, jalapeño poppers and mozzarella sticks.

Back to the shopping:

- cheese puffs, 99 cents

- generic cool ranch Doritos, $1.19

- jalapeño poppers (one pack cheddar, one pack cream cheese), $1.99 each

- mozzarella sticks, $1.99 

- frozen chicken stuffed with broccoli and cheese, 3 individual portions, 99 cents each

- organic spinach & feta pizza, $3.99

Zombie cupcakes

In a coup of marketing, Aldi combined a box cake mix, with skull cupcake cups, and pink icing mix for brains. My in-laws bought a box, but I have to admit my husband really wanted this.

How we entertain ourselves as the wind of hurricane Sandy hits eastern Pa.

BLT

My husband made BLTs for lunch: bacon purchased at a local farmer, tomato given to us from someone's garden, lettuce and spinach on a bagel (mine was everything) that my mom brought from Dunkin Donuts. Of course, I had horseradish instead of mayonnaise.

Served with a side of sweet potato chips from Aldi.

Post Aldi sandwiches

Sometimes, my hormones go crazy and I want greasy junk. Today it was pizza and cheesesteaks. Yes, I wanted both.

Instead, I went to Aldi. Why should I spend $30 for take out if I can find something just as appealing (and junky) in the grocery store?

My daughter had a craving for sandwiches and while I'm not an advocate of cold cuts, I thought roast beef slices could satisfy both of us.

I bought some staples and the replacement for our pizza and cheesesteaks. This wasn't meant to be healthy, or unprocessed, just healthier and less processed than cheesesteaks and pizza. And cheaper!

I spent $48.75.

My haul:
- three 15 ounce cans of pumpkin, 99 cents each
- can of pineapple chunks, 89 cents
- big bottle of canola oil, $2.69
- jalapeño kettle chips, $1.79
- dates, $1.99
- canned diced chicken breast, $1.79
- jar of mayo, 1.99
- chunk tuna in oil, 79 cents (oops. Wrong one)
- chunk tuna in water, 3 cans at 64 cents each
- Lebanon bologna, $3.29
- roast beef lunch meat, $2.49
- wavy potato chips, $1.39
- sweet potato chips, $1.99 (very impressed with the vitamin A content)
- dozen eggs 78 cents
- 20 count 6" tortillas, 2 bags $1.49 each
- mini croissants, $2.49
- fresh spinach, $1.69
- English muffins, 99 cents
- sliced Gouda and sliced havarti, $2.49 each
- 3 zucchini in a box, $1.69
- jalapeño poppers, $2.49
- oats, $2.19
- half gallon of vanilla almond milk, $2.49

Naughty parents

Daughter went to her Mimi's. This meant husband and I can have a junk food from Aldi and movies from the library might.

I had $20 in my wallet and spent $18.11. Now keep in mind, this is a grown up naughty fest, not a family meal.

- black pepper and sea salt kettle chips, $1.79
- sweet potato chips, $1.99 (will be shared with the child)
- crunchy cheese curls, 99 cents (can be transformed into magic vegetable topping later)
- tortilla chips, $1.19
- pirate's booty (cheddar flavor) $2.29 (for the child)
- jalapeño poppers, $2.49
- crescent rolls in the can, $1.49
- shredded Parmesan, $1.99 (for spaghetti some day)
- take and bake cheesy breadsticks, $3.89 (and I froze half)

Make your own quesadilla night

The make-your-own quesadilla bar had the following items:

- chicken
- black beans
- cheese
- black olives
- fresh spinach
- buffalo blue cheese dip

For the top, a variety of salsas to choose from:
- Archer Farm raspberry
- tequila lime from Aldi
- mango salsa from Aldi

Aldi ramble

My daughter's school has given her two hearing tests in the last two weeks and the little love failed them both. Today she had her regular appointment with her "ear doc" who is actually a physician's assistant at the allergy practice I go to, and he used to work for an ENT. Because she had pressure in her ears and two failed tests, our "doc" thinks it's time to head to the ENT. We go Wednesday.

Meanwhile, my daughter may be going as vegan as possible. It's always seemed to help in the past.

My husband has off work today so he's run me ragged with home repair and errands. We have $52 to make it until next Friday, and he's scheduled for a haircut in the a.m. He wanted to head to Aldi, so I gave us a budget of $25.

We spent $22.37.

I noticed Aldi has 14 pounds of cat litter for $3.99. That's cheaper than Target's 27 pounds for $8.89 but with my discount it's close.

We bought:
- 2 pounds green grapes, 2.98
- bananas, 43 cents a pound, $0.99
- wheat ritz-style crackers, $1.79
- regular ritz-style crackers, $1.69
- broccoli crowns, $1.49
- cornbread crackers, $1.49
- pumpkin pie pop tarts (yes, I've lost my mind) $2.69
- carrots, $1.39
- 2 bags flour tortillas, 99 cents each
- spring mix, $1.29
- Parmesan Romano cheese, $2.39
- 4 cans mandarin oranges, 55 cents each

Manly Aldi trip

My husband was lamenting that he couldn't go to Target tonight because the child would be home in bed. Apparently we're low on half and half.

I pointed out he could go to the store now. He liked that idea. I suggested he head to Aldi and gave him a budget of $10-15 dollars. Our first food shopping of September!

He spent $11.42.

He bought half and half, 2.5 pounds of hamburger meat, 2 broccoli crowns and a bag of potato chips.

He's making me broccoli-hamburger pasta.

Meeting our pledge/budget

Budgets stink.

They remind me of struggle and how often I don't meet my goals. They rub it in that as soon as things get decent the car breaks or you fall and smash your month or someone gets cancer... You know, life.

It's been ten days since we pledged not to eat out, not to buy fancy coffee (the kind to brew at home) and sacrificed daughter's dance lessons to try and maintain financial stability. I think we've done admirably.

I had a hunger scare at work last night, having eaten my protein bar, and talked myself down from a $4 snack (I had a coupon) to a $1 cookie and a 68 cent clearance organic vanilla milk. The combo was $1.46 after my discounts.

As mentioned in last night's post husband splurged on a bottle of Gosling's blackrum ($14)and a bottle of Vouvray ($12) which will probably be our indulgence for September. We also got a $4 movie.

But it's depressing because our mortgage took 40 percent of our income this month, with groceries and medical combined making almost 30%.

Groceries cost $286.40.
Dining was $69.42 (most incurred before the pledge.)
9-ish days to go.

Of the money spent on groceries:
$78 went to Aldi
$10 to the Easton Farmers Market
$45 to Giant
$3 to Nature's Way for nettle tea
And the rest to Target

The Great Pie Tasting

I went to Aldi and did some grocery shopping, bought lots of basics from flour to tortilla chips, baking soda to eggs. I spent $77 and got just about everything. I didn't see baking powder so I picked that up at Target today.

The interesting thing was that Market Pantry baking soda was 49 cents a box, which is the same price I paid for generic baking soda at Aldi. Who thought Target could match Aldi in price?!? With the Red Card Discount (and/or my employee discount that would be LESS than Aldi).

I also found individual packets of Sugar in the Raw Turbinado sugar on clearance for 75 cents a box.

We also picked up Muppets Take Manhattan for $4.75 (minus the two discounts)so I thought I'd but a bag of popcorn from the café. After all, I made it myself. I also bought one of each of the pie slices we sell: one Hershey chocolate, one Oreo cream, and one Mrs. Smith's strawberry cheesecake.

There're $1.75 each before discounts and I was surprised that all of them were yummy. The chocolate one was the most boring, but very creamy. The Oreo reminded me of cookies and cream ice cream. Both my husband and I thought the strawberry was the best and very flavorful.

Salsa festival

As I mentioned a while ago, Wegmans phased out their organic mango salsa and I haven't been to Wegmans lately to see if they rolled out their new salsa line.

We made nachos tonight with canned refried beans, cheddar, velveeta (a gift), and black olives on Archer Farms blue multigrain tortilla chips with flax seed. (These chips very much hurt my broken tooth, somehow chip ended up over there when I hadn't chewed on that side.)

I had a coupon for $1 off if I bought one 16-ounce Archer Farms salsa and one bag of Archer Farms chips. Hence the chips mentioned earlier. The chips were $2.99 before my discount(s) and coupon. The salsas were between $2.99 and $3.31 a jar. Odd price range.

I opted for two jars: one mild (raspberry with jalapeño, pineapple and red bell peppers) and one medium (corn, black bean & roasted red peppers with roasted jalapeño, red bell peppers and green chiles).

Both are tasty. Now the cheap salsa from Aldi has 10 calories per 2 tablespoons, 180 mg sodium, 2% RDA of vitamin A and no protein or other vitamins/minerals.

My favorite Wegmans mango salsa has 15 calories, 105 mg sodium, no protein, but 8% RDA of A and 15% vitamin C. Much more nutrition.

Archer Farms? Well...

The mild raspberry has 15 calories, 120 mg sodium, 1 gram protein, 4% vitamin A and 6% vitamin C. So it has some punch, but not like the mango. And the corn/black bean also has 15 calories, 220 mg sodium (holy cr*p), 1 gram protein, 2% vitamin A and 10% vitamin C.

Each year I plan my garden hoping to grow enough herbs and ingredients for homemade salsa. Hopefully this summer I'll learn to can and if I don't grow enough, I'll be visiting local farms and farmers markets. Let's make salsa!

Breakfast for dinner

I looked in the cupboards and in the fridge and felt uninspired. So, I started brainstorming with the family.

Soup. Something breakfasty. Pasta.

"Oh!" the child exclaims. "Breakfast for dinner."

Husband suggests omelets. I remember the fresh broccoli I bought at Target and all the cheese I have leftover from yesterday's spinach dip. And the last round of that HUGE bag of tator tots from Aldi.

Bingo.

Ingredients:
- leftover blueberry cobbler coffee in the carafe
- one teaspoon vegetable oil
- one teaspoon garlic powder
- two tablespoons fresh chives, chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
-1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons heavy cream
- 5 eggs, beaten
- ridiculous amounts of fresh broccoli
- 2 ounces sharp cheddar
- 2 ounces mozzarella
- tator tots

Preheat oven and cook tator tots while preparing eggs. In pan, spread oil, garlic and chives. Stir until chives are fragrant.

In separate bowl, combine eggs, cream, salt and pepper. Pour into very hot pan. Add broccoli, cover with cheese, fold when eggs solidify.

Serve with coffee, tots and a side of 50/50 Frank's Red Hot and ketchup for dipping tots.

Does this make 4 grocery stops in 2 days?

This month is rough since we just paid the car insurance. We had $5 left to make it a week until we both get paid. We're running out of food, so I finally admitted my loses and transferred $125 from savings to checking.

Prior to yesterday, I spent about $16 on groceries so far this month. I spent $100 in the last 24 hours.

Last month, I spent $280 but $60 of that was after making the commitment to remove dairy from child's diet.

In the interest of full disclosure, I spent almost $370 eating out last month. Much of that was due to a conference. I will try to reverse that trend this month.

This afternoon, I spent $24.37 at Aldi. I bought:
- 10 pounds of russett potatoes, $3.49
- 3 containers of frozen white grape raspberry 100% juice frozen concentrate, 1.24 each
- 64 ounces of plain soymilk, $2.39
- English muffins, 99 cents
- whole grain pasta, one package penne and one rotini 89 cents
- sugar, $3.09
- frozen blueberries, $2.99
- 2 cans condensed vegetable soup in beef broth (gravy for a shepherd's pie)
- great northern beans, uncooked, $1.98
- Graham crackers, $1.19
- 3 cans whole potatoes, 59 cents each

Shopping

Blogging from my iPhone is not easy, but the iPad is almost out of data so...

My mom, in addition to a $100 Wegmans gift card, also gave me $100 in a Target gift card. Very convenient.

The other night after work, I picked up generic Up and Up Zyrtec for my daughter and found a couple of bargains while I was at it:
- dole bagged salads were $2.24 each
AND
- lemons, normally 33 cents each, were a dime!!!!
I bought ten. Granted, these are small lemons and one lemon provides about 2 tablespoons juice (but that could be because I freeze them.)Frozen lemons are awesome for baked goods and sauces.

I tease that as long as I have lemons, butter and flour, we can eat like kings.
But then Came my boneheaded move. I bought two containers of fat free half and half. Dumb. Very dumb. Isn't fat free half and half MILK?

Today we went to Wegmans. We bought a variety of things we normally would consider a splurge and thus didn't get as much as we could have if pinching pennies.

I bought:
- wegmans fresh 1/2 and 1/2, 1.29
- silk pumpkin spice soymilk, 2.79 (a new favorite here)
- wegmans special frozen vegetable blends, one Ginger and garlic stir fry and one squash/spinach, $3.99 each minus $1 for a coupon
- wegmans spinach and feta peorogies, 1.69
- broccoli spears, 2 at $1.29
- health is wealth spinach munchees and pizza munchees, 2.99 each
- wegmans spirals and cheese dinner, 6 at 33 cents each
- Goya black beans, dried, 16 ounces, 2 bags at 1.29 each
- Campbell's soup at hand (six year old can prepare by herself),  one vegetable and one chicken and stars, 1.39 each
- Annie's cowgirl ranch dressing, 2.99 (most ranch has MSG so I buy natural since my daughter adores it)
- lump crabmeat in a can, 4.29
- beef stock, 2.49
- fasig's whole bean rainforest caramel crunch coffee, 5.49
- 24 pack of Cottonelle double rolls, 13.99
- stew beef, 4.43
- 1/2 pound of wegmans medium Brie, 6.11 minus $1 coupon
- dental tape, 1.99
- curl cream, 3.99
- bacon-wrapped ready-to-cook scallops, $7.64 minus $1 coupon
- 3 pain Au chocolat, 1.25 each
- baguette, $2
- eggroll wraps, $2.50
- broccoli slaw, $2

Total: $90.56

More pizza

Tonight we made pizza. Used the recipe for crust I devised in April for skillet pizza (tried to link above). Clicking pizza or le creuset below could lead there...

Only one cheese tonight: mozzarella

The sauce was Wegmans chunky pizza sauce (selected for its high vitamin A count).

Toppings: whole black olives from Aldi that we sliced ourselves, Morningstar vegetarian bacon and spinach (canned, a 'gift.')

Pre-holiday Aldi trip

To motivate myself to get out of the house and do some grocery shopping of the kind to facilitate food Christmas gifts, I called my dad and asked if I could come make dinner for my family, him and his wife. What fool could say no to that?

So, I headed to Aldi to get a few staples.

I spent $43.04 which surprised me because I thought I was closer to the $60 I had in my pocket.

I got:
- aldi's version of peanut butter captain crunch, $1.69
- graham crackers, $1.19
- animal crackers, 99 cents
- flour tortillas, 99 cents
- 2 big boxes of elbow noodles, $1.49 each
- old fashioned oats, $1.99
- 64 ounces soy milk, $2.39
- one pound salted butter, one pound unsalted butter, $2.29 each
- whole new potatoes in the can, 4 cans at 59 cents each
- small can of mushrooms, 50 cents
- four Anjou pears, $1.89
-Parmesan cheese, $2.29
- thin sirloin steak, 4 steaks, $6.34
- pint of heavy whipping cream, $1.59 ( I would have preferred plain old heavy cream but they didn't have any )
- aldi's version of dark chocolate little schoolboy cookies, $1.29
- brown mustard, $1.19
- steam-in-bag broccoli florets, 99 cents
- frozen peas, 89 cents
-semi sweet chocolate chips, 1.29
- frozen asparagus spears, $1.99
- large pitted black olives, $1.19
- marshmallow creme, 89 cents
- large eggs, $1.55

 

My stepmother ate broccoli!

I have had a difficult week, and for some odd reason I thought it would be a good idea to invite my dad and stepmom over for dinner on Friday night. My parents have treated me to a lot of meals and it felt like time to return the favor.

I haven't slept much this week, and our finances and my gumption for heading to the grocery store are not promising. I had eight thin pork chops in the freezer and thought I'd make a variation of my pork with apples.

Pork with apples and berries

- 8 thin pork chops, lightly browned in the Le Creuset skillet and arranged nicely in a large Pyrex dish

In the skillet, make the sauce:
- one cup apple cider
- one 1/4 cup brown mustard
- two tablespoons Dijon mustard with lemon and dill
- less than 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon organic four color peppercorn, ground
- 1 teaspoon country herb mix, a blend of sea salt, Rosemary, parsley,
Oregano, basil, mint, sage and thyme (I found it in a grinder at Aldi.)
- 1 fresh sage leaf, chopped
- 1 gala apple, chopped
- 1 cup mixed berries (frozen and crumbled before added to the sauce) These were blackberries, raspberries and blueberries

Boil until well combined

Pour over pork chops and bake in the oven about 30 minutes at 350. If they dry out, add more apple cider 20 minutes in. I had run out so I used about 1/2 cup white grape raspberries juice instead.

The crowd loved it.

I served with corn, a boxed apple walnut rice stuffing, wheat brown and serve rolls, a Beaujolais Villages and an invented recipe: buffalo blue cheese broccoli with cheese curls.

Now, my stepmom HATES broccoli. She loved this. I'm still shocked and complimented.

Buffalo blue cheese broccoli with cheese curls

Start with about 10 large spears of broccoli, cooked a little less than done. I used frozen Giant brand broccoli florets and they were still kind of cold, but thawed in the microwave.

Arrange broccoli in the bottom of an oven proof dish in a single layer.

For the sauce:
In the bottom of a small saucepan, combine on low heat
- about 1/4 cup 2% milk
- about an ounce sharp cheddar, crumbled
- about two ounces Velveeta
- about two tablespoons Archer Farms buffalo blue cheese dip

Cook, stirring constantly until melted and combined.
Pour on broccoli.
In another dish, melt two tablespoons butter and mix with about 1/2 cup Cheetos crumbs

Sprinkle on top of broccoli and bake in the oven at 350 for 15-20 minutes.

pre-Thanksgiving

I haven’t done any real grocery shopping since I started at Target. And let’s face it, while Target has some good stuff (especially in their Archer Farm brand) paying $2.69 for a bag of tortilla chips that I know I can get for 99 cents at Aldi... Well, I have to get back into routine. Mind you, those $2.69 chips are organic, have blue corn and flax seed and have a rich nutty flavor...

I lost count of how much money I was spending by the end of the first row at Aldi. So I said the heck with it and went crazy. Apparently, even if I buy everything I want, it’s still only $100. Or in my case today, $102.20.

One of my goals was to lay off the cheese a little bit. I failed. Miserably. I got different cheese.

What did I get? Well, stuff for Thanksgiving and staples.

And a few impulse buys...

71 items...

• Clancy Hot & Spicy Potato chips $1.29 (when I was a kid I used to devour bags of Red Hot potato chips. That’s what these are trying to be. Blame PMS)
• Cheddar Jalapeno Kettle Chips $1.99
• Tortilla chips, two bags at 99 cents each
• Plain soymilk and chocolate soymilk, 64 ounces each, $2.39 each
• juice concentrate, frozen, 100% juice, white grape raspberry, 3 cans at $1.14
• butter, one pound unsalted and one pound salted, $2.29 each
• medium salsa, 2 jars, either 16 or 24 ounces, $1.69 each
• evaporated milk, 2 cans at 69 cents each
• big bottle of honey, $4.49
• five pounds of granulated sugar, $3.09
• premade refrigerated pie crusts, two boxes of two crusts each, $1.89 each
• thin pork chops, close to a pound, $3.91
• 2 small boxes of baking soda, 45 cents each
• 2 blocks of New York sharp cheddar, $1.79 each
• shredded asiago, $1.99
• macaroni and cheese, four boxes, 29 cents each
• sweetened condensed milk, one can, $1.29
• Rice stuffing, $1.29 (was curious to see what this was and if we’d like it. I can replicate it once I try it)
• Small wheel of American cow’s milk brie, $3.29
• brown sugar, $1.29
• split top wheat bread (to break into cubes for the stuffing) 99 cents
• Pitted dates, 3 bags at $1.69 each
• pint of heavy whipping cream, $1.59
• pitted prunes, $1.99
• chopped pecans, three bags, $2.89 each
• salt grinder, pepper grinder, $1.69 each
• tiny cans of tomato sauce, four cans, 25 cents each
• canned sweet potatoes in syrup, three cans at $1.19 each
• four cans of light tuna in water, 52 cents each
• two cans of whole potatoes, 59 cents each
• broccoli crowns, fresh, $1.49
• head of cauliflower, fresh, $1.59
• jar of minced garlic, $1.49 (I hate jarred garlic, yet once every two-three years I buy a jar because I keep running out of fresh)
• 4 cups of shredded mozzarella, $3.19
• flour tortillas, 2 packages, 99 cents each
• dozen large eggs, 89 cents
• small can of tropical fruit salad, 79 cents
• jar of mayo for my husband, $1.89
• a very large bottle of canola oil, $1.99
• sour cream, $1.19
• country spice grinder, $1.69
• Italian seasoning, $1.09

End of August trip to Aldi

Had $26 plus change to my name. So, I went to Aldi.

Spent $26.36 (and will need to go to the store before Monday to get bananas for Lil Miss's school lunch)

Got:
- 2 bags tortilla chips, 99 cents each
- Broccoli crowns, 1.39
- Graham crackers, $1.25
- Kid Cuisine chicken dinner, one, at $1.79 (we have leftovers for our dinner tonight that are spicy so we thought we'd spoil her with some processed junk)
- Hazelnut nondairy creamer, $1.99
- 2 boxes of baking soda, 49 cents each
- Spinach rigatoni or something like that, $2.99
- chopped pecans, $2.89
- apple juice concentrate, 92 cents
- harvest vegetables in the steam in bag, 4 servings, $3.49
- flour tortillas, 99 cents
- white grape raspberry frozen juice concentrate, $1.24
- evaporated milk, 69 cents
- chicken and dumplings soup, 2 cans, $1.39
- Eggs, 99 cents