Dreamseekers and Company

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4 (frequent use meals)
February’s Shopping Trips

This month (4-week cycle, really), as with the last 24+ months, I spent under $200 on my groceries. That doesn’t count the $25 per month I save every month towards summer produce, which I preserve and use all year long. (applesauce, canned pears, homemade spaghetti sauce, etc.)

This month, I’ve been struggling with morning sickness. Oh bleh! But worth it! But anyway, the goal was to spend as little time in the kitchen as possible and to avoid any foods that I deemed bad-smelling. No fish this month – OH MY GOODNESS, that just sounds awful. Maybe next month. 🙂 We were blessed by a meal from a friend and by some muffins from another… did I forget anybody? Let me just throw out a huge, heartfelt, at least one more time, THANK YOU to my friends and family who have been so full of love and support for us. It is so good to not be alone. We are so blessed!

So, not counting the chicken dinner brought by our sweet friend Mindy (you know who I’m talking about, Gretchen! Your mom is AMAZING!) – here is the photojournal of our meals:

1. Teriyaki Chicken Sandwiches

ok ok – that’s from google.

Here’s what they really looked like at my house this month:

Cookin’ leftovers – because I forgot to take pictures the night they were fresh.

2. Spaghetti

That’s right – wonderful comfort food! Made with homemade spaghetti sauce. It was alright. Need a better recipe next year.

3. The Ultimate Salad

This wasn’t on our list to eat, but for some reason we had a bunch of salad fixings. Anyway – take your lettuce and top it with: carrots, celery, boiled eggs, cheese, bacon, cucumber, broccoli, tomatoes, nuts. Oh yum! And serve with focaccia (sp?) bread.

4. Baked chicken, potatoes and broccoli

Ok, so this doesn’t look so tasty, but it was pretty good. Imagine it with more barbeque sauce all over it.

5. Nachos

Simple food. Pretty good too. Corn tortilla chips, home-cooked beans (cheaper and tastier too because I throw in random yummy things like tomatoes), sour cream, salsa (home-canned), fresh cilantro:

6. Quiche

Basic quiche recipe in homemade crust plus spinach, bacon, cheese and stuff. 🙂

7. Pulled pork sandwiches

These taste better than they look. 🙂 And they drip with bbq sauce that you continue adding. Can’t seem to put too much on there. (I just cook a pork roast in the slow cooker with a ton of bbq sauce. Then shred and put on bread with cheddar cheese and more sauce) That’s white cheddar there. Also, these are better and even more hearty on homemade buns.

8. Pork chops with Rice & Veggies… turned into Teriyaki Beef and Snap Pea Stir Fry

Why? Because I didn’t actually have any pork chops in the freezer like I thought. Dagnab-it! This turned out really tasty though. Pulled some sliced cheap steak out of the freezer (bought some really cheap steak a long time ago and pre-sliced it just for stir fry), grabbed some snap peas from last summer’s garden out… cooked it up with onions… slathered with teriyaki sauce… decided to add a can of pineapple bits… it was pretty good, actually! Served on rice.

9. Chicken alfredo

This is always good. ALWAYS. I threw in the rest of my frozen spinach. Still good.

10. Soup and Bread

Soup from my home-canned supply. Just a simple chicken soup. Added noodles and extra broth. And my mom baked me a loaf of bread. Mmmmmm
:

11. Chicken rice casserole

I am totally out of vegetables except for one unwanted can of green beans. I found some carrots and onions and put them in my chicken rice casserole. It was alright. I forgot to take a picture until it was ALL GONE except for this bowl I wanted to show you the casserole in all its glory, but it was eaten so fast that this is all that was left:

12. Tacos
No picture – oops.

13. Frozen lasagna from last month
No picture – oops again. But it was delicious!

14. Steak, rice, veggies

T-bone steaks – yum! The kids get just a little. 🙂

Desserts and snacks

And don’t forget the chocolate chip and butterscotch chip cookies. MMmmmmmm. No picture – sorry!

Are you looking for Part 1?
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4 (frequent use meals)
February’s Meals
February’s Meals Photojournal

Ok gang – Here is everything I bought this month. No joke.
Coming in a couple days – a photojournal of all of this month’s amazing morning-sickness friendly meals! 🙂 I do have next month’s menu written out and my grocery list made… I’ll probably share the menu with you but I won’t track stuff unless you really want.

Made my big Winco trip today with no kids. Made it through the morning sickness – yah!
02/02/12 – Winco
Total on groceries $125.30

$2.38 – Potatoes – 10 lb.
$6.58 – Carnation Instant Breakfast – attack against the morning sickness
$1.92 – Apple Cider Vinegar, Hy-top brand
2.66 – (2) – Pineapple Tidbits – Dole brand?
2.37 – 5lb. – White sugar
5.94 – (3) – Parmesan cheese – Hy-top
.44 – Salt – Hy-top
1.18 – (1) Frozen 100% Juice – Old Orchard – Cranberry Blend
3.54 – (3) Frozen 100% Juice – Old Orchard – Blueberry somethingorother
4.72 – (4) Frozen 100% Juice – Old Orchard – Other flavors, the scanner just scanned them all 🙂
2.94 – (2) Frozen 100% Juice – Welches – Grape, because I like it
3.93 – Vegetable Shortening – Hy-top (I don’t use it often, but sometimes need this stuff!)
2.56 – (2) Sour Cream (did you know the smaller tubs are usually cheaper per ounce?)
5.04 – (3) Yogurt – Lucerne (either Raspberry or Peach)
1.38 – 2lb. Dark Brown Sugar – Hy-top
10.96 – (2) 2lb. Medium Cheddar – Kraft
1.78 – 10 Mission Soft Taco Tortillas (they weren’t very cheap, but I’m sure I’ll be needing them so I grabbed just one 🙂
6.72 – (4) Yogurt – Lucerne (either Raspberry or Peach)
1.68 – pint Whipping Cream
1.78 – pint Whipping Cream (this brand had a longer expiration date)
1.97 – 18 Count eggs
4.57 – Chicken drumsticks (.97/lb)
3.13 – 1lb. Mozzarella Cheese (again, needed it and it was an “ok” price)
3.42 – 10.7lb. unbleached all purpose flour from bulk
3.17 – 5.19lb. Whole Wheat Bread Flour from bulk
3.68 – 6.26lb. white sugar from bulk
1.65 – 1.68lb. Broccoli (3 medium pieces)
3.92 – 1.23lb. yeast (enough for almost a quart jar full)
2.00 – 3.34lb. old fasioned oats (enough to fill one empty quaker tube container)
1.78 – Romaine Lettuce head (sadly smaller than I was hoping for; Winco usually has huge lettuce)
1.03 – .79lb. Cranberry almond granola to go on yogurt
.48 – Fresh cilantro bunch
1.97 – 2.16lb. white jasmine rice from bulk
2.98 – Ovaltine, Malt – how can I pass this up when it’s on sale?
10.74 – 1.96lb Walnut halves for in oatmeal
.57 – .65lb. tomatoes (token amount to make our tacos fancy)
.81 – 1.40lb. celery (for salads)
2.48 – (2) 8 oz. cream cheese – hy-top
.88 – 2lb. bag carrots (would get more, but we don’t eat them fast enough. Same with potatoes)
.68 – One little cucumber to make our salads fancy
1.00 – 1.72lb Bananas (4 bananas)
1.89 – 2.42lb. Braeburn apples (5 small/medium apples)

That’s it! I still need more bread and hamburger buns. I’ll need more lettuce or veggies before the month is out. If I see a good sale on something I always use, I’ll buy it. I’ve spent $125.30 of my $200 budget. That means I have almost $75 left for the rest of the month. I do actually have everything I need to make my meals for the next four weeks. All I’ll want is more produce and milk, but those are not must haves… just want-to-haves. (for us) I really wanted some squash to roast, but it was very expensive, so that’s why we have broccoli. 🙂 I’ll keep you posted on what we eat and how much I spend!

02/06/12 – Fred Meyer
Spent $16.80 on groceries

Bought:
$1.59 – 1 dozen eggs
$3.75 – 1 1/2 gallons milk (half gallons were on sale)
$11.46 – 10 loaves of bread (some $.99, some $1.25)

I froze all but one loaf of bread. I immediately made a cup of carnation instant breakfast with the milk. Go away morning sickness! (Actually, I am doing much better lately. Have my ups and downs during the day, but I’m moving again!)

02/07/2012 – Fred Meyer
$2.72 – 3 grapefruits and six apples

02/13/2012 – Fred Meyer
$6.15 after coupons and rewards:
2 pounds butter
Sprinkle cake mix for anna’s birthday in April
Gallon milk
18 ct. eggs
4.47 lbs. bananas (about 10)
.64 lbs. wheat bran from bulk

02/20/2012 – Fred Meyer
$9.26
4 tubs of yogurt
1 gallon milk

02/22/2012 Fred Meyer
25.87
12 lbs. of 80% lean hamburger at $1.99/lb
1 package of cream cheese for these awesome little cookie cheesecake things

I think I forgot a stop for ice cream – $5.00
I bought some taco seasoning off amazon – next time I will try cash n carry: $10.99
Bought something for $1.48 at Fred Meyer… have no idea.

Also – I bought most of the vanilla-making supplies out of my grocery budget, but I used last month’s surplus on that, so I won’t put it here.

Total for 4 weeks of February: 125.30 + 16.80 + 2.72 + 6.15 + 9.26 + 25.87 + 10.99 + 1.48 = 198.57

Woo hoo! $1.43 extra left over for next month! Which is good, because we’re out of ice cream and I’ll be stocking up on that if I can just find a good sale.

I hear you can get a full pound of vanilla beans for $25. That’s amazing! I got these beans, 10 for $5… and I bought 20 beans. I’m not going to do the calculations for how expensive this vanilla is… it’s fun to make, easy to make and I’m sure if you made it in huge bulk, it would be super-duper cheap to make. As it is, I think I’ll compete with Costco.

Ingredients in homemade vanilla:
1. Dry vanilla beans
2. Vodka (or other low flavor alcohol)

Directions:

1. Cut the beans in half lengthwise (you can see my beans were packed in sugar… yum). The bean on the right is cut in half.

2. Measure about 1 cup of vodka per 2-3 beans (1.75 liter of vodka is not quite as much as 20 beans calls for)

3. Put cut beans in glass jars (I had old snapple jars)

4. Cover completely with vodka

5. Let sit for a couple months

I plan on pouring out the vanilla and pouring fresh vodka on top of the beans. I think I can get two batches out of them… but we’ll see. If I can find some smaller, cute jars, this will make a good gift.

p.s.
Total cost – $12 for beans (including shipping)
$24 for mid-grade Vodka
= $36 for 1.75 liters of vanilla