Grocery Shopping on Monday

Today was a sunny day, with blue cloudless skies!  It was most welcome after the recent rain!  There is more rain in the forecast for later, this week, so the sunny days in between are even more appreciated!

I woke up at 9:00 a.m., today, and spent a relaxed morning, responding to blog comments, reading other blogs, checking out a few blogs that are new to me, and, making a card.

Brunch was a scrambled egg with katta sambol (spicy onion relish) and a small glass of orange juice (4 fl. oz. orange juice, diluted with another 2 fl. oz. of water, to keep the sugar content down and extend the drink!  Counts as 1 serving of fruit for me.)

In the afternoon, I went to the post office to mail a letter and then, to the Armenian grocery store:

2/11 Groceries

That's a lot of plastic bags, isn't it?  I do reuse or recycle these bags, but I think I need to sew myself some net bags with some of the tulle I have!  Just what I need - yet another project!  LOL!

I bought:

4 chicken drumsticks @$.59/lb = $1.00
1/2 lb. (approx.) shrimp @$4.99/lb = $2.87
1 lb. (approx.) ground beef (15% fat) @$2.99/lb = $3.66
3 bananas @$.49/lb = $0.47
6 oz. container blackberries = $0.99
2 Bosc pears @$.49/lb = $0.41
Snow peas @$2.99/lb = $0.21
1 cabbage @$.25/lb = $0.19
2 zucchini @$.39/lb = $0.24
Green beans @$.99/lb = $0.47
Total = $10.51

2/11 Grocery Receipt

The store has a full service meat counter and the butcher weighs out how much of something you want, so the amounts are not exactly 1 lb. or 1/2 lb., but I told him it was fine.  The ground beef, drumsticks, and shrimp are this week's specials.  Most of the produce are also this week's specials, except for the snow peas (which never seem to go on sale), the bananas (regular price), and the green beans (it was this week's regular price).

February grocery budget = $75 + $5 from January = $80
Spent to date:  $5.00 + $7.80 + $10.51= $23.31
Balance remaining in February grocery budget: $80 - $23.31 = $56.69

As many of you know, I don't meal plan, as such, but, I am thinking of making burger patties with the ground beef and baking or broiling the drumsticks with some sort of teriyaki glaze (I already cooked the shrimp for dinner).  I'll have these with some of the vegetables I bought today or what I still have in the fridge: 1 zucchini, 1 cucumber, half a bag of carrots, some broccoli, beets, and a whole head of cauliflower!

After I came home, I ate a banana, which counts as two servings of fruit for me.

However, by 5:00 p.m., I was getting very hungry!  So, I made myself a salad, with some canned tuna for protein:

Tea Time Salad

A mix of lettuce, a grated carrot (no cucumber, this time!), some blueberries, approx. half a can of tuna in water, and salad dressing.   Then, I had a cup of tea!

Dinner, tonight, was the shrimp.  I usually make a curry with shrimp, but, then, I want rice with it!  So, today, I decided to try making something else, along the lines of a stir-fry.  I peeled and de-veined the shrimp (the heads had been removed prior to being sold; the peels were boiled with a little water and given to  the garden cats as a treat!).

Lemon and flat leaf parsley from the garden

Then, I marinated the shrimp in some lemon juice, a little minced garlic from a bottle (bought at the dollar store), a little sesame oil, and a little soy sauce.

While it marinated, I made a stir-fry with a large carrot, the snow peas I bought, today, and some broccoli, cooked in a little regular oil mixed with a bit of sesame oil, and soy sauce.  I removed the stir fry to a dish and using the same pan, added a little more oil to it and dumped in the shrimp, along with the marinade.  While it was cooking, I crushed up the two dried chilies and added them, and, finally, I added the parsley, chopped up.  I am writing it all down, here, because I didn't really follow a recipe, just added ingredients as I went along, and I want to remember what I did, because, the shrimp turned out full of flavor and I want to be able to duplicate the dish for my daughter!  I am thinking some fresh ginger would go well with the shrimp, as well, and maybe a piece of lemon grass (although the lemon juice was sufficient).

Shrimp and Stir-fry

I had some of the shrimp and some of the stir-fry for dinner:

Dinner: Shrimp and Stir-fry

There's more shrimp (there were 15 shrimp in total) and stir-fry leftover for at least another couple of meals (with additional vegetables added to the stir-fry).  I am going to try cooking chicken, too, this way, with this type of marinade - I think it will be good (it'll be cheaper, too, than shrimp, and lower in cholesterol).

If I consider the salad as a serving of veggies and the vegetable stir-fry from dinner as another serving, then, I've had 2 servings of vegetables and 3 servings of fruit, today.  Well, I got my five a day!  But, I think, I am supposed to have 3 servings of veggies and only 2 of fruit, per day.  Oh, well, there's always room for improvement, as they say!

I washed the dishes, wiped the kitchen counters, microwaved the sponges to sanitize them, took the big trash cans to the curb for pick up, tomorrow, and took the kitchen trash out. 

Later, I video chatted with my daughter. 

Today, I am grateful for:
- A day of sunshine and blue skies
- Being able to run my errands without any problems
- Good deals at the grocery store
- Dinner turned out very well!
- Daughter is doing well

Looking over the Monday's to do list I posted yesterday, I didn't sew the curtains or do a load of laundry, and the only paperwork I did was paper crafting (card making), but, I did do the grocery shopping and took the trash cans out!  I also washed the dishes and wiped down the kitchen counters, which wasn't on the list.  So, I think I did well enough.

Tuesday's To Do List:
- Laundry
- Tidy the dining table
- Cook the ground beef and chicken
- Sew the curtain

How was your Monday?  Are you finding good bargains at the grocery stores?  What are your plans for Tuesday?