How’s it going in the food department where you are? Are you finding what you want and need? How are your stores managing the crowds? It’s a mixed bag here – both in terms of availability and safety.

I successfully made it two weeks between big shopping trips and am now stocked up and hoping to not have to go again for a month. I have never spent so much money at one time at the grocery store and it feels strange! I was still able to find everything on my list, although sometimes I had to buy more expensive versions of things, like canned organic green beans instead of regular, but I’m thankful to get good quality, healthy food.

I shopped at Costco, Aldi and Whole Foods this week. The one thing I would have liked to have more of are eggs. Every place was low in stock and so I didn’t buy very many. Just for reference, we usually go through 3 dozen eggs a week. If not for intermittent fasting, we’d definitely be coming up short in that department. I used to eat eggs for breakfast/lunch every day and now I generally only eat them on days the family has leftovers. But my husband still eats eggs everyday. This is the one thing we will probably run out of before the month is up.

The big score this week was fresh chicken at Costco. Additionally, I was also able to pick up two pounds of grass-fed ground beef at both Aldi and Whole Foods. I don’t feel like I’m hoarding, yet I’m still able to procure what my family needs. I even found some convenience foods I’ve been looking for, such as frozen gluten free chicken nuggets.

Self-control was on full display on my most recent shopping trip and I’m quite proud of myself. Since all this pandemic stuff started, I’ve bought way more treats and other items not on my list than I care to admit. The one splurge this time was a bag of “healthy” marshmallows from Whole Foods for our upcoming backyard campout and obligatory s’mores. We don’t have a fire ring, fire pit or anything similar, but I trust my two Eagle Scouts can come up with a safe way for us to have a little backyard fire.  I already have some good chocolate (of course!) and will make homemade graham crackers. Actually, we might use chocolate chip cookies instead. I’m making a batch to give to the kids’ teachers and could easily make extra. Everyone loves s’mores made with chocolate chip cookies!

Let’s get to the meals, shall we? First, a recap of last week’s meals and then I’ll preview the upcoming week. See the previous quarantine meal plans here and here.

Monday we made Chicken Pot Pie, Instant Pot style, live on YouTube. You can catch the replay here.

Tuesday was Hillbilly casserole in the Instant Pot. Recipe coming to the website soon and on YouTube a little later. Roasted cauliflower was our side dish. This is my favorite way to eat cauliflower. If you haven’t tried it, please do!

Wednesday brought Tuna salad, apple slices (apple sauce for me) and gluten free macaroni and cheese. Yep, I ate the mac and cheese too. That’s what quarantine life and sore teeth will do to you!

Thursday: Lasagna! I finally made this for my husband. It’s one of his all-time favorite foods and I really wanted to make it with the sauce from our first date restaurant, but they didn’t open until 5:00, meaning we would end up eating dinner around 8:00 if I used their sauce. Then I realized I had never written up a recipe for lasagna, probably because I’m too lazy to write down all the ingredients! So I made it from scratch, documenting meticulously so I can publish it for you. It was the best lasagna I’ve ever had. This is not my favorite food, but this version was so good that I went back for seconds! And then thirds! I was so stuffed, but I can’t eat it leftover so needed to get my fill!! My family ate salad with their lasagna, but I made a green smoothie that I drank over two days. I’ve had a hard time digesting raw vegetables lately so I’m having to be careful.

Friday was kid’s cook night and we had my daughter’s favorite, General Tso’s Chicken, broccoli and rice stick noodles. It’s a pretty labor intensive dish, but she did an amazing job. Didn’t complain about cutting the raw chicken, battering it or anything. And it was delicious! This recipe calls for rice wine vinegar, which I didn’t have so I used half white vinegar + half rice wine and it was perfect. Just wanted to share that in case you ever need to make that substitution as well.

 

Saturday was a new recipe: Thanksgiving-inspired shepherd’s pie. I used ground turkey, celery, carrot, onion, etc. and topped with a combination of mashed potatoes and mashed sweet potatoes. It was good and hearty, but needs some tweaking before publishing. You’ll probably see this one in the fall.

Sunday was lots and lots of leftovers because each of these dishes this week made a lot and my children decided not to eat a ton. (I think they were eating a lot of snacks late in the afternoon and I decided to let it go.)

Without further adieu, this week’s meal plan:

Monday: Ham soup

• broth made from Christmas ham bone – needs to get out of the freezer because it’s a large, round container
• ham “steak” purchased on last trip to Whole Foods
• veggies: onion, celery, carrot, mushroom, zucchini (could use any veggies you like, though)
• rice (use potato or cauliflower rice too)

Tuesday: Hotdogs, buns, salad

• When this pandemic started, my local Whole Foods was out of all hotdogs, bacon and packaged sausages, which I thought was strange, so the last time I went and they had hotdogs, I snatched them up. They’re not a bad choice when you buy grass-fed all beef dogs from a reputable brand like Wellshire or Applegate.
• Buns! Yes, hotdog buns require their own mention in the menu, because we don’t usually have them. These were an impulse buy back at the beginning of quarantine and have been in the freezer waiting for their day to shine. Why are buns so significant? Because every time we have hamburgers or hotdogs, my kids’ first question is, “With buns?” Ninety-nine percent of the time, my answer is, “No,” but this particular day is their last day of Classical Conversations (their homeschool community class) and their final exams so it’s a celebratory meal.
• Salad because we have fresh greens right now and I’m not shopping for another month (I hope) and have to eat first what will go bad first.
• We’ll also probably go out for ice cream because that’s how we celebrate around here.

Wednesday: Tuna salad or maybe tuna noodle casserole

• I have canned tuna from my last shopping trip to Costco – this had been in short supply early on during the pandemic, but I’ve seen it at all my local stores lately. It’s a great, shelf-stable protein source.
• Whether we have tuna salad or casserole depends on the weather (warm weather = salad; cold weather = casserole) and also my mood. Let’s be honest, somedays I feel like a lighter meal and somedays I want comfort.
• I put in new Invisalign trays on Wednesdays so my teeth are always sore and I want to eat something soft, which is why this meal is scheduled for today. I used to schedule my meals based on what activities were on the calendar for that day and since now there are no activities on the calendar, my only determining factors are the weather, my mood and my teeth!

Thursday: Burgers, sweet potato fries and okra

• These are all ingredients I have right now, with the meat and okra taking up space in the freezer and it’s a family favorite meal. Simple, delicious and nutritious.
• Now that I think about it, we’ll probably have a fresh vegetable instead of the okra since it will last (frozen) compared to all the fresh produce. Hmmm…will see what kind of mood I’m in come Thursday. You’ll have to come back next week to see what we ended up eating. 🙂

Friday: Kids cook day again: Crazy Crust Pizza (recipe coming) and veggie platter

• This is the easiest pizza in the world (we had it two weeks ago as well) and I want my kids to know how to make pizza rather than just ordering it. You can control the quality of the ingredients, keep it gluten free (no cross-contamination) and it’s way cheaper.
• A veggie platter with ranch is always more fun and Friday night-ish than a salad!
• Just a note: When I asked my son what he wanted to learn to cook for his next cooking lesson, this was his reply (I told him it had to include ingredients we already had and he helped me with the groceries so he knew what was available.): “Ribs or steak.” Um, no. I’m not spending money on expensive cuts of meat right now, bucko!

And as we head into the weekend, things are a little up in the air. Some weeks, we’re having lots of leftovers (like this week) and others we have none. So one weekend day will probably be for leftovers and if we don’t have any, I’ll come up with something else.

We’re also planning to go get takeout one night. But let me tell you a little story. I hope this encourages you in some way if your children are not perfect either (or it may terrify you). My children are 13 and 15 and I still have to remind them every. single. day to brush their teeth and wash their faces. They are both getting breakouts (and I sell Beautycounter skincare so this is a personal affront to me!), one has braces and the other has “weak enamel.” So it’s super duper important, as if it weren’t anyway, that they brush and floss really, really well. I happen to have naturally bad teeth and want to spare them all the dental work I’ve had to endure. Sooo…..I started them on a sticker chart/reward system again just like we used to do when they were toddlers. Yep, they have a sticker chart for their teeth and face washing. They have to come show me their sparkling little faces or they don’t get a sticker. With the accumulation of 20 stickers, they get a prize. Now, if you can do math at all, you would realize that a minimum of brushing teeth twice a day and washing your face once a day would earn three stickers per day, meaning you get 21 for a week. I won’t tell you how many weeks it took them to accumulate 20 stickers, but they have finally done it and their prize is take-out from our favorite Chinese restaurant that has an extensive gluten free menu. (for local people, it’s Goji Bistro in Cary – I’ve never been sick after eating there and the food is delicious) The problem is that their restaurant is about 30 minutes from our house so we are waiting for a warm night so we can pick it up and have a parking lot picnic so we can eat it while it’s fresh.

And that’s our meal plan for the week. I just found out, as in right now, as I’m putting the finishing touches on this post, that I passed the National Board Certification exam for Health and Wellness Coaches. Woo hoo!!!! It was a very difficult and tricky exam and I’m so relieved that I passed and that the waiting is over. I took the exam in February so it’s been a long wait to find out my results. So we will be celebrating this week for sure! Not sure what that will look like, but I’ll post it here. I may make myself a favorite dessert. Hmmmm….decisions, decisions.

Here’s a little beauty for your week – a peony from my garden, that thankfully survived a couple really heavy rainstorms. Thank you, Lord, for all the beauty around us right now!