A Plan, a Fail, and Back in the Saddle

First of all please forgive me for not responding to the comments left on my previous post and for the lack of comments I have left on blogs I read. I have been doing a lot of things I don't want to do, I am tired and WAS  in the middle of a very blue funk. I promise it will not happen again. I am still going to have to do a lot of things I had rather not be doing, but I can see a light at the end of the tunnel.

 This week/month in addition to making a weekly food plan, I have a pantry challenge to try and use some of the food from my freezer. I set a very low budget of 60 dollars for the month for things like produce, almond milk, bread__things like that. I am also not excluding stock up items if some exceptionally good deals pop up, but if I find them they are supposed to go into food storage and remain untouched during this challenge. I use the word supposed to for reasons you will see one day two___Nobody's perfect!

This is what I had planned

1. Hungarian Goulash over either sautéed cabbage ribbons or noodles.

2. Salmon patties, green beans, mashed potatoes or caulimash

3. Fauxtato soup, tossed salad, dinner rolls (or keto fake rolls)

4. Eggroll in a bowl, rolls

5. take-out (naturally)

6. Mac-less  Mac and cheese, black eyed peas, cornbread, coleslaw

7. Tacos or almost tacos with all the usual taco fixings

And this is what we actually ate:

Monday: I was all set to begin this food challenge, using items I had on hand. Since I worked in the freezer, inventorying what was available, I was really cold and very glad I had the Hungarian Goulash I had made for last week still in the fridge. I love having prepared foods for a night like that, plus it was warm and comforting. Do not think we were not getting our veggies with the meal because I added tons to the goulash.

Goulash over noodles or steamed cabbage strips, dinner rolls or keto toast

Tuesday: I had to be at the lake place a good part of the day to take care of some business there. I knew I needed some vegetables, most likely for the next two weeks and knew I would pass the larger Aldi on my way home, so I planned to stop there. I left the lake much later than I had anticipated but decided to go ahead with my shopping. 

For this challenge I am allowing myself to stock up if I find some particularly good bargains. Low and behold, Aldi had their brats for 1.99 a pack (5 brats per pack) so I bought 3 packs to freeze for the future. 

By this time, it was drive time traffic and I got home even later.  I needed to make dinner but had taken nothing out of the freezer. Great it was just day 2 of the challenge and I already flunked the challenge.

Brats cooked in beer, coleslaw, rolls or keto toast

Wednesday: This was one of those days that just happens with nothing outside of the house to do. There was absolutely no reason for me to not cook whatever I wanted, except the day was nearly done and I had forgotten to take anything out of the freezer__again. Pantry to the rescue!

Salmon patties with dill sauce, green beans, mashed potatoes (or none) peanut butter mousse ( one of the very tasty keto desserts)

Thursday:  TheHub had been working  late all week and I must be a slow learner because I had been cooking things right before he got home so everything would be piping hot. Yeah, no more. Soup can stay warm in the crock pot forever!

Fauxtato soup, rolls or none 

Friday: Friday was the annual Cancer Society fundraiser which we go to every year. It has morphed over the years from a charity ball to a dinner/ art gala but this year it morphed even more. This year it was an online event, but they still provided dinner. They had a drive through, pick up, go home and reheat meal.  Kudos to IZ who catered it.

3  appetizers, salad, filet, sautéed veggies, scalloped potatoes (or none),  apple bread pudding (or none), 2 splits of wine.

Saturday: We worked at the lake for  while, came home and tried to do some straightening and rearranging of things. It got kind of late so we decided to grab take out.

Gyro salad or Greek salad

Sunday: Super Bowl Sunday. TheHub and I had a few things at the lake place to do next weekend, but we remembered we are getting our second Covid vaccination late in the week.I anticipate no real problems but I am a realist and abut half the people I know who have had the second round did have complications. We decided it might be better for us to get up early, head on down and go ahead and do what we needed to get done then scoot home to watch the game.  Son2 and DIl2 joined us for game watching and dinner.

Tacos or taco salad

And this is the break-down of how the week went

Week one food storage use:

From the fridge:

Hungarian Goulash (prepared for the last week of January but didn't happen)

1/4 head cabbage

2 Beers (left from Son3's visit)

Butter

Leftover coleslaw

Heavy cream

Cream cheese

Peanut butter

1 egg

1/4 leftover head of cauliflower

sour cream

1/3  bag tossed salad

8 ounces cheddar

2 ounces pepper jack

radishes

1 cucumber

1/2 container cherry tomatoes

salami (about 10 small pieces)

leftover salsa

From the pantry:

Elbow macaroni

Dinner rolls

2 onions

Canned salmon

Vanilla

Powdered milk

Swerve powdered sugar substitute

Potato flakes

4 pices Choc Zero 

coffee

tea

3 cans LeCroix

pork skins (I had a couple of bags before I started this. They are my keto essentials)

assorted herbs and spices

From the freezer:

Aldi zero carb bread (3 slices)

Green beans (summer garden harvest )

1 bag caulimash

1/2 bag cauliflower rice

1 bag chicken broth

2 packs ground chuck

2 keto chocolate chip cookies

Used from February purchases

taco shells

brats

Purchased last week:

taco shells .89

2 cucumbers 1.29

sour cream .89

3 lb onions 1.19

lettuce 1.29

2 avocados .98

1 bag slaw 1.29

2 dozen eggs 2.38

cooking spray 1.49 (did not realize I was totally out of it)

grape tomatoes 1.49

broccoli 1.90

2 heads cauliflower 4.78

whipping cream 1.55

pork skins .95

brats 1.99 (ouch)

bananas 2.37( Publix)

Aldi  tax was 26.68 

Bananas           2.37

                      29.05     Wowza!!! That only leaves me 30.95 until the end of February!

Meal possibilities for the week:

1. Steak, potatoes or caulimash, tossed salad, broccoli

2. Mac and cheese or Mac-less and cheese, peas, coleslaw, no corn cornbread

3 Egg roll in a bowl

4. Open face bbq chicken sandwich, cucumber onion and tomato salad

5. Philly cheese steak casserole

6. "Fried chicken" rice or caulirice, green beans, some sort of salad (undecided right now)

7. Take out

This is going to be a strange week here with a lot of running around getting some sort of order here before a big event that is happening soon. Will let you know as it gets closer. If we wind up doing take out 2 times this week I am fine with it.

Now go have a great week staying on plan, going off plan, or having no plan at all.