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Sunday, August 11, 2019

My Frugal Kitchen: What We Ate This Week

We did not grocery shop this week as we had plenty of food at home. All meat in this week's menu was bought earlier in the summer on markdown and frozen for later use. 

Here is a list of what I planned on making for dinner this past week: 
 
1. Chicken 
2. Tacos 
3. Pork Tenderloin 
4. Hamburgers
5. Spaghetti
6. Pizza
7. Grilled Chicken

Drinks Available:

1. Water
2. Iced or herbal tea, sweet or unsweetened
3. Lemonade
4. Green Tea
5. Grape or Orange Juice

Breakfast Options for this week: cereal, oatmeal, eggs & toast, yogurt, and fruit options were grapes, cherries, peaches, cantaloupe, and blueberries. Yogurt parfaits were also an option.   

And here is what we actually made for dinner this week: 

Sunday: This was a busy day in the kitchen this week. I set chicken out to thaw and decided to make a special chicken dish using some marked down half and half we bought this week. I also had some yellow squash I needed to use and made a squash casserole. I also made a blueberry peach crumble using this recipe from McCormick. 

Here is the recipe I made with the chicken: 

Creamy Garlic Chicken

Ingredients:

2 or 3 large chicken breasts
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons butter divided
1 whole head garlic cloves peeled
1/2 cup chicken broth or stock
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
2 cups half and half
1 pound linguine

Seasoning: 

2 teaspoons smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 cup flour
Salt and pepper 

Instructions

To make the seasoning, combine flour, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, oregano and basil in a small bowl; season with salt and pepper, to taste.

In a gallon size Ziploc bag, add chicken, olive oil and seasoning mixture, shaking to coat thoroughly.

In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta according to package instructions; drain well.

Add the olive oil and 1 tbsp of the butter to a skillet over medium-high heat.

Once the pan is hot, saute the chicken for 4-5 minutes/side or until it's nice and golden. Take the chicken out of the pan and set it aside.

Reduce the heat to medium, and add the rest of the butter to the pan. Let it melt and then add the garlic cloves.

Cook them for 3-4 minutes, stirring often, until they're lightly browned on the outside.

Add the chicken broth, lemon juice, and garlic powder to the pan.

Let it bubble for around 4 minutes or until the liquid is noticeably reduced.

Stir in the half and half and add the chicken back into the pan.

Let it cook for another 5 minutes or so, until the sauce is reduced and the chicken is cooked through.

Monday: Took Italian sausage out of the freezer to thaw and made spaghetti for diner. This was served with a side salad and garlic bread.

Tuesday: I took one of the pork tenderloins we bought on markdown and made that in the Instant Pot and served it with mashed potatoes and green beans with onions. 
 
Wednesday: My daughter wanted hamburgers, but we were out of buns, so we compromised. I made hamburger steaks with homemade gravy that really turned out to be Salisbury Steaks.  These were served with Mashed Potatoes and Green Peas.

Thursday: We had Homemade pizza and I made a side salad to go with it. 

Friday:  We still didn't have any hamburger buns, but did have some bread like Texas Toast so I made Patty Melts for dinner. These were served with Potato Salad and cucumber slices with ranch dressing for dipping. 

Saturday: Grilled Chicken Salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, french fried onions, cheese, and romaine lettuce. 

Let's inspire each other with our dinner menus. What was on the menu in your home this week?

 Belinda 
~ Living within our Means ~ 

18 comments:

  1. Oh, I love patty melts! And your chicken recipe sounds delicious.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you, Nana. I love patty melts too. My daughter LOVED this chicken recipe, so I'll be making it again.

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  2. Reading your Wed? post about a lack of hamburger buns, I immediately thought of a common site up here in New England: burgers on toast! I saw that you did use some Tx toast come Fri-just an idea. Nice, varied menu.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you, Carol. That's a great tip about the toast. :)

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  3. Your menu looks delicious. As for us, we had:
    -Tacos
    -Keto friendly chicken alfredo served w/cabbage
    -Keto broccoli/chicken ranch casserole
    -leftovers of all of those dishes
    -And, yesterday we had carnitas nahcos. We all wanted to go to a Mexican restaurant, but made a quick grocery run & put that together instead.

    My husband is making Persian kebabs & rice tonight. Yum.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you so much. My daughter loves anything Alfredo, so she would love your chicken Alfredo dish. Kudos to you for going to the grocery store for stuff to make carnitas nachos at home and save the money. The Persian kebabs sound good too and terrific that your dh is making them.

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  4. Monday - Tacos
    Tuesday - Chicken Marsala
    Wednesday - Hamburgers
    Thursday - Ate out (I had something to do so my brother and youngest nephew took my mom out to eat)
    Friday - I took my mom to get her done so we ate out
    Saturday - Ate out (this was just one of those weeks)
    Sunday - Pizza

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Awww...that was sweet of your brother and nephew to take your Mom out to eat. I totally understand weeks like that, they happen to all of us at times. The rest of your menu sounds like dinners here. Tacos, Hamburger, and Pizza are always winners here. :)

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  5. Whenever I get a patty melt outside of the house, they are always served on toast never on a roll. I love patty melts and not many places serve them anymore.

    Nice variety of meals. My meals are nothing to brag about last week so I will keep them to myself. I like the recipe for the crumble. I always have blueberries in the freezer. Thanks.

    Have a good week!!

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    Replies
    1. Thank you, Mary Lou. We have a locally owned restaurant that makes a great patty melt. My dd ordered one at Red Robin one time and told me it wasn't very good and didn't compare to the locally owned restaurant one. And you're right, not many places serve those anymore.

      The crumble recipe is a good one. I hope you have a good week too.

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  6. It all sounds good. For the next three days all our meals will be called "Surprise Delight!" We had several unexpected expenses come up this month (already) and my husband and I are trying to not take any money out of our savings. So, until payday Thursday, it will be eat what we have and make do. The pantry was already low, but we will be fine. Its amazing what you can do when you really try and look. We might have some mismatched meals, but that's okay. Our bellies will be full and our pantry and freezer are getting cleaned out and that's why I have the food storage-to eat it when we need it! :)

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    Replies
    1. Definitely MamaHen! That's why we have food storage too. A lot of our meals were mismatched this summer too, but we didn't go hungry and that's why we do what we do. Kudos to you for making do this week. :)

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  7. You make me hungry! I'm always looking for new ideas and I haven't had squash casserole in a long time. I may have to make some this week.

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    Replies
    1. Sounds good, Penny. I love the squash and onions together like that, they are so good. I need to make a hash brown casserole soon too. We love that as well.

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  8. Your garlic chicken sounds wonderful and with just a few modifications I can make it keto compliant! Thank you so much for the inspiration and recipe!

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    Replies
    1. You're welcome, Anne. We really liked it, I combined two different recipes to make it. Thank you for reading. :)

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  9. Love squash/onion casserole any day of the week. Breakfast, lunch, or supper, it is a good side dish. Twitch a little and it is a main dish. Yum on everyone's dishes.
    memphis-metro

    ReplyDelete

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