All You Grocery Challenge Week 2

I posted about the groceries earlier. So now I'll chat a bit about what we ate this week. First, please let me know if you are great at taking food pictures, because I'm not. I need tips!

Anyway, besides photography, we did much better this week with food than any other time I can remember. It's not so much about the amount we spent but rather paying attention to how we spent and what we ate meant more wholesome meals and less food wasted. Plus, because I wanted to post some of our weekly progress, I tried harder to stick to the Menu Plan. Of course, I still did not do the dinner meals in order, but we've eaten most of what was listed. We were sick, except for hubby, and that's my excuse.

So we had Chicken Adobo on Tuesday. No leftovers from that!

Wednesday , I went ahead and grilled chicken, steak and salmon.
I used Mc Cormick Gril Mates that I got FREE from Winn-Dixie.

One night we had Lentil Soup. First I made beef broth with the bone from the steak and a package of soup bones. We split a 1/4 cow with some friends and I requested all the soup bones. The other families didn't want them. It turns out there is more meat than bones in some of them! So I used the meat bones for this dish. It is such a comforting soup!

We also made Pasta Salad with the grilled chicken. And ate it for lunch Monday. I made some more later with the grilled chicken and served it as a side a couple of nights.

And for tonight, I made beef stir-fry with leftover steak sliced into strips. I just added a splash of soy sauce and lemon juice plus onions and peppers. Then I stirred 2 teaspoon cornstarch into 1/2 cup beef broth and added this to the pan. I made spaghetti for Thursday's lunch and saved some noodles for stir-fry. The photo doesn't do it justice it's really good.

For lunch today we had grits, cheese omelet, and salmon. I'm sad to say that we'll be buying fish for a while. Since it's been too hot for fishing, we're going to eat more salmon while it's on sale for $2.99 at Food World instead.

Almost everyday for breakfast except one we've had cereal and sometimes yogurt to go with it. One day it was eggs and toast (we were out of milk). Lunches are hearty and dinner too, including easy chili. I made it from ingredients in the freezer and leftover spaghetti sauce. Except for Thursday when we had yogurt, animal crackers and juice drinks after going to the bookstore, I'm pretty happy with all the meals. One nightI didn't cook. I went out with friends to the Melting Pot and the kids had rice and ground beef made by dear dad. (I actually really like to have hot rice with beef seasoned with just a little salt. It's weird, I know. But that night I would not have traded fantastic fondue for anything!)

We'll see how next week will look. If anything I hope I'll learn to budget, plan and waste less because of this Grocery Challenge. They say it takes 21 days to form a habit and I only have 1 week to go before my new skills become permanent!