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| Uppuma (Indian Style Cream of Wheat) |
This week, I am combining what would have been two posts in one! Meal plans and grocery shopping. They do go hand in hand, don't they?
First, a review of last week's meal plan options. This was my meal plan for the week of July 14 -20:
Brunches: Egg salad sandwiches; Tuna salad sandwiches✔; Uppuma (Indian style cream of wheat)✔, fruit salad and/or yogurt; salads waffles or pancakes✔?
Dinners: Yellow rice, chicken curry, pappadum, tomato chutney✔; Breakfast for dinner (scrambled eggs✔, ham, toast or fried potatoes), ham chicken fried rice✔, ramen noodles with chicken and vegetables, hamburger patty with oven baked potato wedges and salad, Leftovers✔ and/or something different (Chinese food)✔.
And here's how it all worked out:
Monday:
Brunch: 2 Manzano bananas
Dinner: 2 Scrambled eggs (I usually have 1 scrambled egg with toast or something, but, on this day, I just had 2 eggs; it was after my CT scan and I was too stressed to feel hungry)
Snacks/desserts: Plum, crackers and peanut butter
Tuesday:
Brunch: Tuna sandwich, mango
Dinner: Rice, chicken curry, tomato chutney, pappadum
Snacks/dessert, Boiled cashews, yogurt, chocolate cake
Wednesday:
Brunch: Ham sandwich
Dinner: Tuna salad and crackers
Snacks/dessert: Mango, boiled cashews
Thursday:
Brunch: Uppuma (Indian style cream of wheat which is a savory dish)
Dinner: Ham sandwich; microwave "baked" sweet potato
Snacks/dessert Mango. yogurt and granola
Friday:
Lunch: Chinese food (Combo plate: fried rice, noodles, barbeque pork, jalapeno chicken).
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| Chinese Take Out |
Dinner: Leftovers from lunch
Snacks/dessert: Nectarine; chocolate cake
Saturday:
Brunch: Leftover Chinese food
Dinner: More leftover Chinese food
Snacks/dessert: Cereal, boiled cashews, nectarine
Sunday:
Brunch: Pancakes, some with syrup and some with lunu miris (sambol)
Dinner: Chicken fried rice, using the leftover yellow rice I had cooked earlier and some of the jalapeno chicken from the Chinese take out:
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| Chicken Fried Rice |
Snacks/dessert Cherries, yogurt and granola, a chocolate
Well, I didn't quite follow the plan, but, it worked out well.
Moving on to July Week 4 (7/21-7/27).
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| July 20 Groceries |
I did a little grocery shopping on Sunday at the Armenian store and I bought some salmon steaks, cherries, and strawberries.
The salmon steaks were on sale for $5.99/lb. and I bought just over 3 lbs. I will cook and freeze most of it for when my daughter comes home. The cherries were $1.99/lb. and the strawberries were $1.50 per container. My grocery total came to $23.42.
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| July 20 Grocery Receipt |
My July grocery budget is $100 - $40 overspent in June = $60.
Spent to date = $14.82 (on 7/12) + $23.42 (on 7/20) = $38.24
Balance left in July grocery budget = $21.76
With just 10 days to go, I think I'll be able to keep to my July grocery budget. We shall see!
Moving on to this week's (July 21-27) meal plan options -
These are the meal plan options for July Week 4:
Brunches: Egg salad sandwiches; tuna salad on crackers or toast; uppuma (again; I enjoyed it when I made it earlier); burritos (from the freezer); waffles or pancakes; leftovers
Dinners: Rice and curries (salmon curry, dhal, moringa curry, tomato chutney); fried rice; hamburger patty with salad and corn; ramen noodles/soup; leftovers.
Snacks/Desserts: Fruit, crackers with peanut butter, yogurt and granola, cereal, chocolate cake
I am really going to try and stick to these meal plan options, this week. Let's see if I do!
How about you? Are you making any meal plans this week?
You're doing great with your grocery budget for July. I think you will be able to come in under budget this month. Not sure what is on the menu this week except squash, cucumbers, and green beans from the garden.
ReplyDeleteThank you, June. I need to ignore the grocery store ads and avoid shopping for the rest of this week! :D
DeleteHow lovely to have cucumbers from the garden! I've tried to grow them (from seed) and nothing happened.
When is your daughter moving back? Great deal on the salmon and smart move to stock up on it at that price.
ReplyDeleteAnne, my daughter is moving back on August 1st. I plan to increase my grocery budget as of August and I'll probably grocery shop in the early afternoon on August 1st to get half and half and a few other items.
DeleteThe Chinese food did you very well! Mr FD doesn't like having leftovers the next day - the day after that is fine, but not two days on the trot! I don't mind personally. Can I ask: is "the Armenian store" run by Armenians, or does it stock Armenian products, or is it just a nickname, like "the corner shop" (or a less politically correct name that I used to use in the 80s, without ever meaning to be racist, "the P--- shop", referring to people from Pakistan)(I am very ashamed now that I ever used this term!)
ReplyDeleteI tend to get tired of eating the same thing after a couple of days but, I don't want to cook every day, so, leftovers it is. I'm glad that my daughter will also eat leftovers without any fuss.
DeleteThe Armenian store (not its real name) is grocery store which was founded by an Armenian American (it is now owned by a company, I believe); they started out catering mainly to the Armenian community in my neighborhood. They still have a lot of Armenian/Russian/Middle Eastern products but, they also have a large variety of produce that most regular supermarkets don't carry and their prices are very reasonable. I normally shop at a lot of ethnic markets, including the Sri Lankan store (owned and run by a Sri Lankan American family) where I go to buy Sri Lankan food products and another market which carries a lot of East Asian groceries. Covid put a stop to that as not all stores offered online ordering and pick up, but, I am now slowly getting back to grocery shopping in person.
I would like to find an ethnic store in our nearest town but I don't know if it would survive. One of our two grocery stores surprised me recently with a bin with cans of sprats from Latvia, and another time they had honey cookies from Ukraine.
ReplyDeleteEthnic stores do better in areas with a large ethnic community to support their businesses, don't they? I'm lucky to live in a city where there are many different ethnic stores. That wasn't the case when I lived in Wisconsin. :)
DeleteWell done on sticking to the budget. It looks like the deals you got in previous months paid off.
ReplyDeleteYou have awesome food.
Thank you, Lyssa. You know me; I stock up when things go on sale/on offer, and then, plan my meals around them. :)
DeleteSuper deal on that salmon. I'm sure you were pleased to get that price. And good deals on the fruit too. I hope the store was calmer than the last time you went. ;)
ReplyDeleteI thinking you were able to make your July budget. I always have faith in you and your financial efforts.
Thank you, Debra. I was happy to get the salmon at that price. Yes, the store was much calmer! LOL.
DeleteI did manage to come just under budget in July, by just a few cents! :D