Pantry Challenge Success/Keto Fail

As you know I attempt to make a meal plan weekly and follow it sometimes and sometimes just give it the old heave ho and move on to something in an entirely different direction. 

Though this is still my weekly meal plan blog, I thought it might be a decent time for a little explanation of why/how I format my blog posts, before getting into the actual meal plan part of it.

Sometimes I feel very sorry for those of you who read my blog. I love music and listen to it every single day. Then I decided to start incorporating it into my blog posts. Unfortunately for y'all, you get a sneak peek into how my noggin works, because I search for the first song that pops into my head when I am editing my posts. Obviously when the first item on my planned menu was Hungarian beef and potato soup, the only song that jumped into the active part of my brain was Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody. Conversely when I posted about cookies you were "treated" to Cookie Monster's C is for Cookies. All I can do is apologize to you for subjecting you to this, but even though my thought processes amuse/confound me,  I will probably continue.

And now on to the actual menu recap and plan for the week.

This is what was planned:

1. Hungarian Beef and potato soup Happier than a Pig in Mud

2. Leftover ziti and Chicken parm (Sunday lunch), tossed salad 

3. Chili, coleslaw, cornbread

4. Taco salad

5. Pulled pork sandwiches, caulitato salad, pickles

6. Take out

7. Orange glazed chicken, rice or caulirice, broccoli

Then this happened:

Monday: It was a cold, rainy day and I had to make a run to the lake to pack up a few more boxes before the movers would be there. By the time I left it was getting late and I wanted a quick meal that I could make in one pot and we could eat in one bowl. 

Hungarian Beef and potato soup

Tuesday: I woke to snow, oh crap, and I had movers coming to the lake. Laugh if you will, but we do not drive in snow here. There is no snow removal equipment, no salt, no anything to make snow driving safe. I had to be at the lake and when I called Kevin, my favorite mover, he volunteered to have his dad, who was a long distance truck driver to pick me up and take me to the lake to get the house opened so they could begin the moving process. We slid a bit until we got on the interstate and then the roads were fine. Luckily the lake place is just far enough south that the back roads there had no problems.  I was so glad because the driveway there would have been treacherous if it were iced over. After moving all day, and unloading an entire house of furniture into the basement of my current home I was tired. 

TheHub was not able to help with the move so he nuked leftovers for dinner. It was not a great dinner but all I really wanted was to eat, take a shower and go to sleep.

Leftover ziti and leftover chicken parm

Wednesday: After driving back to the lake place to clean it, then stating to tackle the odds and ends in boxes that were/are still all over the house, I forgot to take anything out of the freezer for dinner. While digging around for something to cook I found a package I had bought before Thanksgiving that kept getting pushed back farther in the freezer. Trader Joe's to the dinner rescue!  They come in a pack of two which I placed in small spring form pans and baked in the air fryer.

Odd isn't it, that even though I had to rely on a frozen entree cooked in the air fryer for dinner I still found time to make a pan of brownies in the real oven. What can I say except __ afterthought  and priorities!

Beef and Stout Pie, broccoli, brownies

Thursday: We closed on the lake place, turned the keys and codes over to the new owners. We were the last appointment at the attorney's office and had planned on picking up a celebration dinner, since one of us (me) will still not go into a restaurant. Even though I have been fortunate enough to have been through both phases of the vaccination, we still had three friends die in one week from Covid, and I take the disease seriously. Until there is more data on the effectiveness of the meds, I will not "feel free to move around the country". So our big celebratory dinner was standard take out fare.

Fish dinner from Jack's (local hamburger joint)

 

Friday: I was tired and still moving stuff, incorporating some into our house and getting donation boxes packed. I had already decided we would either have canned soup or go pick something up. TheHub did not want soup so we drove nearby to a BBQ joint.

Full Moon BBQ Stuffed baked potato or smoked wings and coleslaw

Saturday: TheHub worked all day, so I occupied most of the day unloading boxes and containers from the lake. One day I will be finished__maybe! At least I did remember to take something out of the freezer to make for dinner. In the process of unloading lake stuff I found a jar of sauce I had bought for the lake food stash. It was an easy addition to turn something plain into something tasty. Though it was slightly past its expiration date, I decided to live on the edge and use it anyway. I would like to report that we are both alive and suffered no ill effects from consuming out of date sauce.

Chicken with jalfrezi sauce over brown rice, broccoli, cookies

Sunday: This was supposed to be the day of rest and, by golly, I rested. I sat on the couch in the den and binged Call My Agent. Normally I binge listen instead of watching by running the sound through the Dot so I can hear it throughout the main floor of the house. Unfortunately the show is a French production with subtitles, my French is extremely limited virtually nil, and the only way I can keep up with the dialogue is to sit and actively watch/read. So I did. When I was through binging for the day I remembered I still needed to cook dinner. This was when having a pack of frozen ground chuck with taco spices already in the browned meat comes in so handy.

Taco Salad

Plans for this week:

1. Spaghetti sauce over pasta or noodles, tossed salad

2. Italian sausage with peppers, onions and tomatoes,  green beans

3. Lamb chops, tossed salad, mashed potatoes or caulimash

4. coq au vin, rice or caulirice, brussels sprouts

5. Cottage pie, coleslaw

6. Steak, tossed salad, broccoli 

7. Takeout

Additionally to the menu I need to make some sort of keto dessert and more keto dinner rolls.

Used for the week:

From the freezer: 

1 pack ground chuck

1 quart beef broth

Trader Joe's beef and stout pies (BTW I will buy more, they were really good)

1 pack boneless, skinless chicken thighs

1 pack browned taco beef

From the fridge:

butter

eggs

2 bell peppers

broccoli (I had a gigantic head of broccoli)

celery

almond milk

lettuce

tomatoes

sharp cheddar

sour cream

heavy cream

avocado

From the pantry:

onions

potatoes

herbs and spices

avocado oil

olive oil

brownie mix

brown rice

flour

sugar

brown sugar

baking powder

baking soda

vanilla

1/2 bag chocolate chips

jarred jalfrezi sauce

cereal

coffee

tea

salsa

leftover Tostito's 

sunflower seed

coconut

As I said before, I am not counting take out meals, nor the 3 bucks I spent on cookies and coffee for my sister and me, as part of the food budget. We have a separate T and E  fund that includes dining out. Pre-Covid we ate out every Friday night, and once a month we ate at a really nice restaurant. Since we have also done no travel, our T and E budget is still untouched except for our takeout meals, most of which are very inexpensive.

Food budget going into the week: 30.95

Purchased:

Oreos  3.28 (Moving day necessity)

bananas 2.73

Remaining in the 60 dollar monthly budget 24.94

Needed to buy for the coming week

bell peppers

cabbage

coleslaw mix

spaghetti noodles

lettuce

broccoli