What’s for supper at your house this week?  

Last week we had Black Bean & Poblano Flautas, Santa Fe Pork Tacos and more.

Hello friends!  I hope that you are doing well.  We are well into summer here in Virginia already and I am lamenting the swift passing of Spring.  However we are having Florida weather, with thunderstorms every afternoon which makes Denton happy.  But it also makes for filthy floors from our resident 110 pound friend who thinks running as hard as he can through knee high mud holes is the best thing ever.  Here he is looking clean and content.

How are your temperatures right now?

Here’s what we ate last week:

Black Bean and Poblano Flautas.  This was one of our Hello Fresh meals and it was fantastic.  I will definitely be making these again.

Santa Fe Pork Tacos.  This was our second Hello Fresh meal.  Denton said that this was hands down the best meal we have eaten from these meal kits.  Now here is where everything comes down to your tastes.  Everyone else thought they were just fine.  Fine.  I actually thought they tasted sweet which was throwing me off, but Denton raved about them.  To each their own.  I think I would like to try these with beef instead of the pork to see if it cuts out that sweetness that I didn’t care for.  But the slaw was excellent on them.

Denton played with his new toy and we had grilled burgers with grilled zucchini, chips and raw onions and tomatoes.  Well, that’s what you had if you are me.  Everyone else just had burgers, chips and zucchini…..

Sloppy joes.  When you need something to put on plates in under 20 minutes this is always a winner in my book.

Creamy chicken with mushrooms and rice.  I’ve been wanting to try this after we had the Creamy chicken with spinach and artichokes, and I liked this much better.  

Subway.  Sometimes I just crave this 9 grain oat bread.  I need to find a local source to buy it here, or learn to make it myself.

I found a Tri Tip cut of beef at my local Food Lion and brought it home to Denton and his toy.  I had never heard of this cut of meat until we visited our family in California.  It’s really good.  I wish that this hadn’t had a sauce on it already, because I really didn’t like what Food Lion used and I know what the steak was supposed to taste like……

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What did you eat last week?  What are you planning to eat this week?  You can see all of my other What’s for Supper? plans here.  If you want to see what we are eating every night before I post it here on Monday’s, you can follow me on Instagram.

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Groceries

This past week I used the Walmart grocery pickup again and I still have nothing bad to say about it at all.  I pulled in, checked in with the app that I have on my phone.  A man came out within a couple of minutes, checked to see who I was and came back out in under three minutes and loaded it all in the back hatch of my Pilot.  He even asked if I wanted to put my eggs and bread up front with me.  I find this fantastic.

The only issue I’m having with this system is I can’t let go of my inner control freak and let them give me substitutions if they don’t have one of my items.  This week, I didn’t get one of the pizza’s I had put on my order and the variety pack of 32 ice creams that I had been dreaming about since I added them to my cart…..I actually didn’t need the ice creams, but I certainly wanted them.  I need to just try it and see what happens, but I do LOVE the Nature’s Own Butterbread……

I did however run into Food Lion to grab Pepsi because it was on sale 4 for $11.00 and this is when I found the Sweet and Smoky Tri Tip on sale.  Don’t buy the Sweet and Smoky version.  Just get it the way it came out of the steer.  Trust me, it tastes much better that way.

I am loving what this is doing for my grocery budget!!

June 9:  Walmart $84.55   |   Food Lion $19.09  Total for the week:  $103.64

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June ~ so far:  $166.18

May $513.19 

April $643.67

March $524.80

February $547.53

January:  $485.88

Fetch: if you use my referral code QF4TJ, you’ll get 2,000 points when you sign up.

How did your grocery shopping go this week?  Did you buy something yummy?

What’s for supper at your house this week?  

Last week we had Sweet Potato Fajitas, Beef and Cheese Tostadas and more.

Hello friends!  I hope that you are doing well.  We spent the last week finishing up what we could of the deck, putting together what I’m calling Denton’s new toy, but I can’t really call it that because I know I’ll use it more than he will.  It’s a gas grill, charcoal grill and smoker in one.  Keep in mind that we went to buy me a new griddle grill and this is what we came home with.

I think its going to be a good one though.  It took us TWO days to put the thing together.  I told Denton this is why I like to buy things at thrift stores and yard sales.  You just bring it home and all of that is already done.  We bought ours at Walmart, but it’s out of stock right now at my store.  You can also buy it here, but that price is INSANE.  That’s what we’ve done all week, what have you been doing?

Here’s what we ate last week:

Sweet Potato Fajitas.  This was one of our Hello Fresh meals.  It was okay.  I like sweet potatoes.  With a lot of butter and brown sugar.  I didn’t really care for them as tacos.  Ahem.  I think this meal would have been fantastic with chicken.  I’ll try that and let you know what we think.

Soup beans with salmon, roasted potatoes and onions, and Mac and cheese.  My favorite meal.  Ever.

Beef and Cheese Tostadas. This meal was our second Hello Fresh of the week.  It was REALLY good.  Hayden pointed out that it was awkward to eat.  We all finally just picked them up and ate them like a hot dog.  It worked.

Hot dogs without my yummy chili, broccoli salad and chips.  A quick and easy meal that was yummy.

Creamy Lemon Chicken with Spinach and Artichokes with rice.  This was a recipe that I altered from Martha Stewart.  It was really good.  It was also very filling.  I’ve never had artichokes which is why I wanted to try this, and they were – okay.  I use that word a lot when I’m not sure if I actually like something.  I’m planning to alter this recipe even more and I think I would like it better.

Tuna sandwiches, pickles and chips.  Easy peasy and always delicious.

Chinese!  My favorite.  After spending 357 hours in the blazing heat putting the grill together I declared that we were having Chinese.  We haven’t had this meal in – I had to go look it up – since the last week of April.  I think I showed great restraint. 😕 

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What did you eat last week?  What are you planning to eat this week?  You can see all of my other What’s for Supper? plans here.

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Groceries

Last week I tried out our local Walmart pickup feature and I have to say:  I LOVED it.  I added things to my online list during the week as everyone added them to our whiteboard in the kitchen.  On Tuesday night before I went to bed I finalized the order and paid for it after I chose the time I wanted to pick up the entire order (Wednesday between 11:00 am and 12:00 pm), and on Wednesday I received a text at 10:45 am letting me know my order was ready.

I left my office, drove over and parked in the designated spot.  I literally put my car in park and a woman popped into my view and cheerfully asked if I was there for a pickup.  I gave her my name and she said “We’ll be right back”.  I picked up my phone to call Denton and the back hatch of my Pilot opened and two people started loading in my groceries.  The whole process took approximately 30 seconds.  Again, I loved it.

The only issue I had wasn’t really an issue and it was my doing.  I specifically asked not to have any substitutions.  I truly love Nature’s Own Butterbread and I didn’t want to chance it being replaced by something else.  Since I stated that, when they didn’t have the pizza I asked for they didn’t give me an alternative.  That isn’t the end of the world, so I may actually try the substitution thing this week.  We’ll see what happens.

After all that, I HIGHLY recommend it if they have it in your area.  I also forgot to mention that it’s free.  My favorite word.  Have you tried it yet?  How did it go?

P.S.S.  Did you happen to see how much I spent on groceries this week?  This is a good thing for my budget!

June 2:  Walmart $62.54

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June ~ so far:  $62.54

May $513.19 

April $643.67

March $524.80

February $547.53

January:  $485.88

Fetch: if you use my referral code QF4TJ, you’ll get 2,000 points when you sign up.

How did your grocery shopping go this week?  Did you buy something yummy?

What’s for supper at your house this week?  

Last week we had Thai Ginger Curry, Trattoria Tortelloni Bake and more.

Hello friends!  I hope that you are doing well.  We spent our weekend clearing off our very neglected deck, pressure washing and just doing general things that normal people do on a regular basis.  We however are not normal and wait until things are way beyond the point of no return to buckle down and get things done.  Sigh.  At least the nasty portion of this segment of the back porch drama is behind us.  Now onto staining and waiting, staining and waiting……

Here’s what we ate last week:

We are continuing our food experiment with Hello Fresh.  This was Thai Ginger Curry.  I’ll give you an in depth review of what we thought of this meal and why, but the short answer is that I won’t be making it again. 😆 

Busy, busy, and busy.  I hate that word.  I have streamlined our lives so that I can avoid saying those words most days.  I’ve learned to say the word no, kindly, but still.  I have cut out all of the chaff from our lives and still there are days that we can’t avoid being busy.  So on those days, I say a thankful prayer that I can go through a drive through and buy dinner to save our sanity. Hello Fresh:  Trattoria Tortelloni Bake.  This was yummy.  The cheap, homemade garlic bread is all mine though.  I’ll tell you all about it!

Potato soup, bacon, and biscuits.  Comfort food for my whole family.

Quick, fast and in a hurry food.  Spaghetti and garlic bread.

Our electricity was off most of the day and I didn’t get the pork loin I had planned for supper into the crock pot – that’s the next meal- so I made sausage, biscuits and gravy, with frozen hash browns and runny eggs for supper.  It was so good.

The pork loin wasn’t doomed.  I paired it with mashed potatoes, green beans and corn from a can.  And crescent rolls.  Yum.

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What did you eat last week?  What are you planning to eat this week?  You can see all of my other What’s for Supper? plans here.

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Groceries

This weeks grocery budget went to our local Walmart.  I think the success of my grocery budget is dependent on my just staying out of multiple stores.  I succeeded this week.  Next week I know will be a different story.

I stuck to my list and quickly hunted and gathered what I needed and wanted, and made my exit as fast as humanly possible.  Our Walmart just started grocery pickup and I’m going to give that a whirl.  Let me rephrase that:  our Walmart did a version of grocery pickup.  You could place your order and then park your car in the parking lot, walk yourself into the Walmart to a pickup area and hope that an employee had your order ready when they asked you to be there.  The last time Denton did it, they made him hike over to a storage closet and get it himself.  hahaha.  So yes, I believe that my store is just now doing what the rest of the world has been doing for a year now.  You place your order, select the time you want to pick up your order and pull into the designated spot where a Walmart employee will bring it out to you.  I am very hopeful that this goes well.  I’ll let you know!

May 26:  Walmart $69.27

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May $513.19 

April $643.67

March $524.80

February $547.53

January:  $485.88

Fetch: if you use my referral code QF4TJ, you’ll get 2,000 points when you sign up.

How did your grocery shopping go this week?  Did you buy something yummy?

What’s for supper at your house this week?  

Last week we had Mushroom Hoagies, Garden Ravioli, Copycat Chick-Fil-A

Hello friends!  I hope that you are doing well.  We have abandoned springtime and vaulted straight into summer.  So now I am ready for fall.  Or at the very least, tomatoes.  Please.

Here’s what we ate last week:

Mozzarella & Mushroom Hoagies.  We are continuing our Hello Fresh experiment.  This supper was delicious.  I will definitely recreate this in the future.Garden Mushroom-Stuffed Ravioli.  This was very yummy too.  I am very glad that they include the cards; its makes it very easy to recreate the dish later.I have been waiting to try my hand at a copycat recipe for the Chick-Fil-A sandwich.  I don’t know why I waited this long.  This was hands down the best thing I made last week.  It was divine.  I can’t wait to make it again.

Taco’s with chips and salsa.  Yum! Soup beans with salmon, roasted potatoes and onions.  Delicious.  I made my homemade cornbread again this week.  It was really good.  I need to post the recipe.  

Denton has brought out his $25 yard sale find of a smoker for the summer.  Expect to see a lot more smoked meat in our rotation.  I’m definitely not going to complain.  He made ribs and a small brisket and it was delicious.  I made buttered potatoes, baked beans from a can and toast.  I think I’ll look forward to his weekly offerings.

The last meal of the week was whatever you can find.  Cereal, or….. Hot dogs on the fire.  

What did you eat last week?  What are you planning to eat this week?  You can see all of my other What’s for Supper? plans here.

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Groceries

This weeks grocery budget went to our local Walmart and Food Lion again.  How much tax do you pay on your food?  Or do you pay tax on food in your state?

I completely forgot to take a photo of my buggy or the conveyor belt.  My Walmart was INSANE on Wednesday.  There were at least 12 people PER LINE when I got to the front and not one single person in the self check out.  I always use the self checkout – I’m faster, it’s one less person I need to interact with, and again, I’m faster.  And I don’t crush my bread with the mayo jar.

Anywho, after I quickly scanned everything and shoved my bags into the buggy again, an ancient little man, quickly moved his buggy into the lane behind me and asked the woman eyeing us all if she could help him to check himself out.  He was so proud!  I think that’s awesome.  It reminded me of the time I asked my Mamaw Miller if she wanted me to teach her to drive my car.  She seemed so pleased that I would ask, but she had no desire whatsoever to learn to drive.  It may have been the fact that my little 1984 Ford Escort was a stick.  The things I would give up to relive one of those days with her.

I spent $140.58 this week on things to put into our belly’s.  I am hopeful that I can whittle that number down, but we shall see.

May 19:  Food Lion $45.87 and Walmart $94.71

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May $443.92 ~ so far

April $643.67

March $524.80

February $547.53

January:  $485.88

Fetch: if you use my referral code QF4TJ, you’ll get 2,000 points when you sign up.

How did your grocery shopping go this week?  Did you buy something yummy?

What’s for supper at your house this week?  

Last week we had Bibimbap, Chicken Wings, Shrimp and more.

Hello friends!  I hope that you are doing well.  It’s been quite cool here in Virginia.  I love it. Everyone I know keeps wondering when its going to warm up and I’m just over here praying that it stays SPRING for another few weeks.  Because you know Summer is coming and it will last until November. 😕

Here’s what we ate last week:

We are continuing with our Food Experiment each week with Hello Fresh.  It’s going really well.  I’ll post my thoughts on week two tomorrow.

Bibimbap two ways.  We had ours with ground beef and Liv’s had fried tofu.  We all LOVED this meal.

We have close friends who are from South Korea and when I told Yun that we had tried Bibimbap for supper earlier in the week, he showed up with his Mother in Laws for us to compare it to.  It was very, very, VERY close.  And Kim ran a Korean restaurant for decades. This is what I’m loving about Hello Fresh so far.  We can try new things and expect to get an authentic experience of what the food is supposed to taste like.  

Oh Crunchy Curried Chickpea Bowls.  The only fan in our house was Denton.  I ate mine but I am going to call this one a fail.  Hayden flat out wouldn’t eat his.  Liv ate the rice and the chickpeas.  So.  I don’t know if it was the curry, or just the overall mixture of all of things that put everyone off.  Denton loved the kale, the pickled cabbage and the rice.  But he didn’t like the chickpeas.  Nope.  I won’t be making this one in the future.

Chicken wings with crudite and chips and ranch.  Yum.  One of our favorites.  Denton informed me that we do not ever need to go out for wings ever again.  He seriously loves these.  Try the recipe and let me know what you think!

Totino’s pizza.  Some days are hard.  And those days you have frozen pizza.  Even if you didn’t want it.

Soup beans with salmon, sauerkraut and weenies, with roasted asparagus and potatoes.  My favorite day of the week, whichever day it falls on.  Or every day if it were up to me.

Tuna sandwiches with pickles and chips.  This is a weekly request from Denton.

Two types of shrimp with baked potatoes and my homemade cheap garlic bread with California blend veggies.  Oh, and our sauce.  Yum.

What did you eat last week?  What are you planning to eat this week?  You can see all of my other What’s for Supper? plans here.

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Groceries

This weeks grocery budget went to our local Walmart and Food Lion again.  It never enters my mind when I’m in Food Lion to take a photo of what’s in my buggy.

It always dismays me when I see what I’ve spent when I just run in to get a specific item.  I went in to Food Lion to get Dr. Pepper and pizza’s for the kids and came out spending $54.00.  However Denton pointed out that I paid $10.24 for wings (which I think is a rip off) for all three of us.  Which would have set us back around $80 if we had gone out for them.  And he likes mine better, so. 😀  I can console myself that I actually saved us $70 by overspending at the grocery store.  Do you have to justify things to yourself like I do?

Liv always has cauliflower wings which I have to hide from Denton.  They are SO good, and no they do not taste like chicken.  But they are delicious, lol.

May 12:  Food Lion $53.30 and Walmart $100.41

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May $303.34 ~ so far

April $643.67

March $524.80

February $547.53

January:  $485.88

Fetch: if you use my referral code QF4TJ, you’ll get 2,000 points when you sign up.

How did your grocery shopping go this week?  Did you buy something yummy?

What’s for supper at your house this week?  

We had Chicken and Dumplings, Gnocchi with Spinach and more.

Hello friends!  I hope that you are doing well.  We had a lovely week of Spring weather and yummy food.

Here’s what we ate last week:

We started our week off with what I’m calling my Food Experiments.  This meal was Gnocchi with Spinach & Heirloom tomatoes topped with Garlic Butter Breadcrumbs.  I LOVED this one.  It reminded me slightly of the Chicken and Gnocchi soup from Olive Garden.  I will definitely make this again.  My experiment is working! If you would like to try Hello Fresh at your house you can use my link and get $100 off.

Soup beans with salmon, roasted potatoes and onions.  My favorite meal of the week.  Every week.

Hamburgers with chips, pickles and raw onions.  Another favorite and a go to meal when I need something easy and fast.

Potato soup with bacon.  This time I served this with Everything Croissants from Walmart.  Have you tried them?  They were good, but this meal is ALWAYS better with my homemade biscuits.  I was just too lazy to make them and regretted it.

Chicken patties on buns, with pickles and chips.  

On Saturday I spent a couple of hours on the phone with Amazon trying to fix a problem I had with a pair of headphones I bought in December.  After that headache, I didn’t want to cook.  Dominos to the rescue.  Denton said he didn’t even realize that we had a Domino’s in our town, lol.  

On Sunday I made my version of Chicken and Dumplings.  Which I promptly forgot to post to my Instagram page.  I made some Cornbread salad to go along side with a side of cornbread.  Do you think I have enough carbs here?  I thought it was delicious!

What did you eat last week?  What are you planning to eat this week?  You can see all of my other What’s for Supper? plans here.

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Groceries

This weeks grocery budget went to our local Wal-Mart and Food Lion.  I needed to run into Food Lion to grab Coke’s and Doritos and while I was there I found hamburgers on clearance.  That’s the danger for me.  The clearance section of the grocery store.  But we had homemade burgers and it didn’t cost me $45.00 at McDonalds!  Win.

At Walmart, I stocked up on things that we were out of – milk, bread, peanut butter, apples – we go through SO many apples – pepperonis and pickles.  I use the method from my friend (she doesn’t know we are friends, but I love her Youtube channel; the world is weird now, isn’t it?  We can have friends that don’t even know we are friends, lol.) Kimmie from She’s in Her Apron.  Or maybe it was Jordan Page.  Either way, I like their methods.  I buy one for now and one for later.  This way it makes it easier to stock up.  We were also out of our dishwasher tablets.  I’ve used Finish for years now, and I’m afraid to stop using them.  They work great, but they are so expensive.  What do you use?

May 5:  Food Lion $35.94 and Walmart $113.69

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May $149.63 ~ so far

April $643.67

March $524.80

February $547.53

January:  $485.88

Fetch: if you use my referral code QF4TJ, you’ll get 2,000 points when you sign up.

How did your grocery shopping go this week?  Did you buy something yummy?

What’s for supper at your house this week?  We had Pulled Chicken, Taco salad and more.

Hello friends!  I hope that you are doing well.  Everything is blooming here, which is lovely and beautiful, however everyone in my house is either coughing, sneezing, or has itchy eyes.  I LOVE springtime, but the pollen needs a good washing away by a lot of rain.  Please.

Here’s what we ate last week:

We had speedy spaghetti with rolls that I popped into the air fryer at the last minute.  Yum.

Taco salad with a bean burrito covered in onions and cheese with a side of salsa and chips.

Pulled chicken on buns with garlic Parmesan potatoes and a side of Bush’s baked beans.

The next night we had appointments in town (Covid shots), so we brought home Chinese food.  My FAVORITE.  I completely forgot to take a photo, so you’ll have to trust me. 😛

I made quesadillas out the leftover pulled chicken.  They were sweet, so that was odd, but they were also delicious dipped in the red pepper sauce I made to go with them.  I’ll post the recipe tomorrow.  Famous last words.

I made a giant pot of white rice and we ate the Chinese leftovers.  YUM!  I use this pot to make my rice in.  I love it.  You turn it on, put the rice and water in and presto change-o it does all the work for you.  And it NEVER overcooks the rice.  It is well worth the storage space it takes up.  Here are some others that look amazing.

The last meal of the week was what I’m calling Experiment Number 01.  We’ve been debating for quite a while on whether to try HelloFresh and I finally put in an order.  Our first meal was Mediterranean Baked Veggies with Couscous.  It was good.  I need to write a separate post about the whole experience to actually let you know what we think about the experience, the food and the cost.  Fingers crossed I actually get that done.  Meanwhile, if you click that link above you’ll get $100 off.

What did you eat last week?  What are you planning to eat this week?  You can see all of my other What’s for supper? plans here.

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Groceries

This weeks grocery budget went to our local Wal-Mart.  I spent $163.08.  I stocked up on toilet paper, Puff’s Plus with lotion facial tissues – POLLEN – a new laundry hamper because I broke the handle on one of our older ones, along with a LOT of food.  It never ceases to amaze me when the total comes up  on the register.  I know that those people who monitor the self-checkout are laughing as they watch me stand there for a couple of seconds with my mouth agape.  Let’s hope that May’s number isn’t quite that high!

April 3:  Walmart $152.42

April 6:  Food Lion $17.41

April 9: Food Lion $122.25

April 14:  Walmart $94.25

April 18: Food Lion $12.26

April 21:  Food Lion $82.00

April 28:  Walmart $163.08

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April $643.67

March $524.80

February $547.53

January:  $485.88

Fetch: if you use my referral code QF4TJ, you’ll get 2,000 points when you sign up.

How did your grocery shopping go this week?  Did you buy something yummy?