Frozen pizza shame

Normally my shame food is Cool Ranch Doritos. I haven't eaten any in about two months, and I'm proud of myself for that. When my metabolism freaked out during my premenstrual days, I ate two salads a day for a week. I could not get enough.

This is not me. Breakfast and lunch would be salad.

But then the weird processed food craving started... and I fed it frozen pizza. I bought frozen pizza because I had a coupon and found them on clearance...

And now I've been on a frozen pizza binge. And I hope publicly posting it ends it.

My favorite frozen pizza has been the California Kitchen roasted pepper with various gourmet cheeses. (I'm fairly certain the photo of two pizza slices is the California Kitchen roasted pepper pie.)

The worst has been the Market Pantry bacon cheeseburger one. The box makes it sound good, but what they don't tell you is that the sauce under the cheese and meat is KETCHUP. I'm not a huge ketchup fan. So that was yucky. They also neglect to mention the onions slathered across it. I picked most of them off before cooking.

Last night I ate the Archer Farms sausage, fennel and roasted pepper pizza as my dinner when I got home from work at 10. Not bad. The sausage was bigger and more flavorful than I expected.

The other one I liked was the Archer Farms goat cheese and arugula. (In the photo, it's the one with the large white circles of cheese.)

Early dinners

Since I've worked all weekend, and closing shift, we've had hot meals earlier in the day to get "real food" into me before I head to Target café.

Yesterday we had an early lunch of leftovers, including eggplant, green beans and vegetarian piggies in the blanket. For dinner, at 4 before I headed off, my husband made spaghetti and meatballs.

We froze some meatballs for later use.

Today, at noon, we're enjoying vegetarian and gluten free channa dal from a package to which I added loads of spinach and hearty brown rice. The beverage was Very Vanilla Silk.

Speaking of Target, I finished my work on time last night for the first time in ages. The dishwasher has been broken for about a month and washing piles of dirty cast iron pizza pans has been fun to say the least.

But last night I got done on time and could buy some household items. Sadly Target had no more canning lids.

But I did pick up the following:
- ocean spray 64 ounce bottle of cran-raspberry juice, on sale for $2.39
- Market Pantry pasta sauce, one traditional and one garden vegetable. $1.32 each. I have no intention of eating them. I don't use jarred sauce. They are for my father-in-law who read in Consumer Reports that the Target brand is the best spaghetti sauce. After he told me this four times, I'm buying him some.
- archer farms organic hibiscus tea, $2.99
- Tazo decaf chai tea bags, $2.99
- archer farms sea salt caramel hot chocolate mix, $4.49 (splurge but the child has to have something yummy for the occasional crisp fall morning)
- sugar, $2.69
- Silk vanilla almond milk, $3.19
- Silk very vanilla soy milk, $2.99
- Breyers waffle cone burst ice cream, 2 cartons on clearance for $3.07 each

Total: $30.51
Minus team member discount: -3.06
RedCard: -1.37
Tax: 12 cents
New total: $26.20

Reluctant Eggplant

Tonight's dinner is eggplant parm, except I don't want eggplant parm.

Frozen eggplant cutlets, Market Pantry basil tomato sauce, mozzarella and shredded Italian six cheese blend.

I haven't made bread lately so they'll be mo garlic bread.

I need a side to make this exciting. I got nothing.

Bagels and peaches

The interface still has some issues, so let's hope this works.

My budget goals for September are still on track! Since I found six dollars in my wallet this week, we counted some change and went for bagels. Yesterday we had ooey gooey egg sandwiches. Today we each had half a salt bagel, toasted, with cream cheese and the Market Pantry six Italian blend cheese from Target that I adore. And spiced peaches I canned August 1.

Now, this is my first 'opening' of stuff I canned without assistance, but if my family contracts botulism in the next few days, we know why.

On a serious note, the peaches smelled fabulous and my daughter ate almost the whole pint.

Archer Farms Peel-apart Fruit

It's no secret that I have an uncontrollable addiction to sugary candies. Gummy bears. Licorice. Gum drops. Fruit slices. JELLY BEANS.

I don't buy these things because I will eat them until I get a belly ache.

I was buying the Market Pantry golden raisin sours, which were high in sugar but not as bad as candy, and because they were infused with fruit juice they had a ridiculous amount of vitamin C. I haven't seen them in a month or so. Those and the Pétit Écolier cookies have disappeared from my Target universe.

Now as far as processed dried fruit items go, I like the Archer Farms fruit bars. They have a nice amount of fiber and vitamin C, are made with fruit instead of high fructose corn syrup. But just the bars, not the leathers.

They have a new product, pull-apart fruits that remind me of my favorite candy, Twizzler Pull and Peels. They are rather small, don't have nearly the vitamin content of the bars but they taste remarkably candy-like which makes them a healthy replacement for candy in my universe. The fruit bars have a grittier texture, so these are actually more pleasant on the tongue.

They are organic. They have no fat, 4% RDA potassium, 1 g fiber, 12g sugar, 2% iron, 10 % vitamin C.

Impulse buys at Target

All during work tonight, I kept thinking of how nice it would be to enjoy the bottle of Vouvray in the fridge with some fruit, or to make honeyed fruit with the wine. I kept thinking bananas, but what I really wanted was raspberries, though raspberries now hurt my teeth. And then I started thinking about yogurt and salad.

Now it's not often I crave healthy food so I thought it might be worth a dash through the store. Then I remembered I had $10 in gift cards. That did me in.

So I headed to the grocery section.

I bought:
- fresh express veggie lover's salad, regularly $2.99 marked down to $1.99
- 6 ounces of raspberries, $2.09
- 6 bananas at 17 cents each
- Market Pantry frozen peas, $1.02
- Market Pantry frozen yellow and white corn blend, $1.02
- Market Pantry frozen snap peas, 2 bags at $1.37 each. (these are the best!)
- very vanilla silk $2.79
- Chobani Greek style yogurt, 2 lemon, one black cherry, $1.29 each
- market Pantry rainbow sherbet, $2.99

Total: $19.53
Minus $10 gift cards
Minus $1.96 team member discount
Minus red card savings 38 cents
New total: $7.19

Market Pantry Broccoli & Beef

Today for lunch I made black bean burritos, but I totally ran out of steam for dinner. I feel like we have eaten way too much red and fatty meat the last few days, but we can blame the storm. And the fact that it's the end of the month. My freezer is still stocked with meat but we ate all the fresh and frozen veggies.

The final budget for August came in at $350 for groceries and $110 on dining out. My goal for September is to shave $100 off that-- from either/both categories. I think it's doable. We have lots of meat, juice and soup so this will help reduce the grocery budget. We may splurge for husband's birthday and go out...

Dinner tonight will be meat and processed. Against the grain of this blog. But my freezer has all breakfast food and nothing for a tired mom to whip up. I was thinking homemade pizza or spaghetti and then I remembered we had stuffed shells/ziti last night.

I chose Market Pantry broccoli and beef. It was on sale and I had a weak moment. Nutritionally it meets my nazi mom standards:
- low fat (4 grams total per serving, 1.5 saturated)
- adequate fiber (thank you broccoli, 2 grams per serving or 8% RDA)
- 25% RDA vitamin C
- 12 g of protein
- 10% RDA vitamin A
AND
- 8% iron

But before you ask, sodium is 870 mg or 36%.

Surprisingly, the ingredients look read-able. I'm not seeing MSG, but it does contain wheat.

 It was good. Non-offensive. More flavorful than I expected, but I like my Asian cuisine on the spicy side so I found this bland.

Pizza eggs

My daughter asked for fruit loops for breakfast. I let her pick any box of generic cereal from Aldi's aisle last shopping trip. I don't consider cereala real breakfast. Even with soy milk for extra protein I just don't think it has enough heft to really get you through the morning.

I gave my daughter some choices as to how to make it more acceptable. She chose scrambled eggs, which surprised me because she usually moans and groans when I make scrambled eggs. So to avoid disappointment, I made pizza eggs.

PIZZA EGGS

- dollop of extra virgin olive oil
- 3 large eggs scrambled eggs
- a sprinkle of papa john's pizza seasoning
- a sprinkle of parsley
- a couple tablespoons six Italian cheese blend from Target (Market Pantry brand)
- ketchup to taste

Combine eggs, seasoning and parsley. Lightly oil your pan and heat. Add eggs, scrambling to desired doneness. Reduce heat, top with cheese and ketchup. Let cheese melt. Stir and serve.

Bratwurst, sweet potato fries & pesto toast

Tonight was another rush home after day camp kind of day.

I got a loaf of my honey oat bread from the freezer. Once that thawed, I sliced and slathered with butter and coated with a generous layer of yesterday's pesto. I toasted these in the oven while the sweet potato waffle fries cooked.

Then I sprinkled them with the six Italian cheese blend from Target. And toasted some more.

I fried up some bratwursts and we ate the meat on the pesto toast as open-faced sandwiches.

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.

Broccoli spinach rice casserole

I made a quick casserole last night that my husband said was hearty.

Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cup brown rice (measured before steaming)
- 1 bag green giant steam in bag broccoli with premium cheese sauce
- 1 cup frozen spinach
- 3 Morningstar breakfast patties, torn into chunks
- market pantry six-blend Italian cheese

I started with 1 1/4 cup brown rice in the steamer. Prepare broccoli as instructed on bag. Pour broccoli and sauce into rice, add spinach and "sausage." Stir well. Sprinkle cheese on top. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

Green-laden ham sandwiches

Today's sandwiches made me wish I had more of everything for another round, but I don't. Sad.

-Archer Farm Seven Grain bread
-a hearty layer of Lost Gourmet's kale-cream cheese- zucchini dip
- lettuce, sorrel and spinach from the garden
- the last of the homemade pickles
- a handful of the market pantry six blend Italian cheese
- market pantry applewood ham slices

That was practically a Target/garden sandwich.

Honey-glazed double grilled cheese

Nothing soothes my soul like a grilled cheese sandwich. I bought Archer Farm multigrain sandwich bread at Target last night with this purpose in mind.

Ingredients:
- 4 slices Archer Farm Multigrain sandwich bread
- 1 stick butter, room temperature
- about four ounces extra sharp cheddar
- about 3/4 cup six blend Italian shredded cheese (Market Pantry)
- 1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon canola oil
- 2 tablespoons honey

Put your frying pan or skillet on extra low heat. Drop in the oil and grease pan with fingers or towel. Add one tablespoon butter. Add half the pepper evenly across the pan.

Butter one side of two slices of bread and place in skillet. Coat each slice with an even layer of about 1/4 of the shredded cheese. Cover the cheese with very thin slices of cheddar, covering all the bread. Add evenly the remaining shredded cheese.

Top with buttered slices of remaining bread. You, hopefully, will use less than half the butter. Sprinkle with remaining pepper.

Increase heat to medium and press sandwiches together with a turner. Flip once cheese has melted. Once almost desired brown color, drizzle honey onto the bread. Flip. Add honey to other side. Let first side cook for about a minute-- the honey will burn quickly.

Brown the other side and serve.