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Did you guys have a great Valentine’s week? It was crazy as usual around the Picky Palace, but I’m very proud to announce that we didn’t eat out once this week. Huzzah!

See what we ate this week and how much it cost. Did you try a cool new recipe this week? Share in the comments! 

P.S. Be sure to check out The Picky Pinchers Cookbook! 

Monday

Breakfast: Breakfast meatball subs.

I know this looks like a regular ol’ meatball sub, but this one is made with breakfast meatballs. Instead of the standard pork-and-beef mixture, I made them out of homemade breakfast sausage with cheddar cheese.

I broiled some cheese on top for full effect. Normally I put bell peppers on there, but I ran out of time today.

Pro tip: Mr. Picky Pincher normally takes his breakfast to go. To keep buns from getting soggy in Tupperware, I always toast them and let them cool. The crunchyness prevents the bread from getting gummy. And it tastes better.

Lunch: Leftover chicken tikka. We cooked this meal on Sunday. This is the recipe we used, but neither of us were crazy into this meal. Bah!

Dinner: Spaghetti squash lo mein with scrambled eggs. We had pre-cooked frozen spaghetti squash in the freezer, and this meal was a perfect excuse to use it up. I used this recipe.

This was … okay. I think it needed more veggies or excitement to it. We were both hungry an hour after Dinner. As an upside, it tasted great and I tricked myself into eating squash, which is a win when you have the taste buds of a five-year-old.

Tuesday

Breakfast: Breakfast bagels with homemade sausage.

Mr. Picky Pincher and I made homemade sausage patties last weekend. Today was our chance to finally try ’em out in a bagel sandwich. I microwaved the frozen sausage patties and put them on toasted bagels with Swiss cheese and avocado.

This is normally one of our favorite meals, but y’all.

There is something weird about this sausage. The texture just isn’t right. You can tell by the picture that something is off with it. After some investigating, I think we mixed the sausage way too much and it turned into a strange meat-sludge.

So yeah.

It’s cool, we only have six pounds of this stuff.

I think we can salvage it by chopping the sausage finely and using it as crumbles.

Lunch: Leftover spaghetti squash. I confess I did a lot of snacking.

Dinner: Tomato cream sliders.

Hom nom nom. This is easily my favorite dinner. A few of you were asking for the recipe: here it is!

This is a keto recipe, although I confess I don’t think it’s the healthiest thing in the world. You fry the patties in butter.

Mr. Picky Pincher ate his patties on a bed of cabbage, and I opted for green beans I found in the freezer. I keep trying to get into cabbage, y’all, but it’s a hard sell. Green veggies are green veggies though, right?

Wednesday

Breakfast: Chai spice bundt cake.

Happy Valentine’s Day! For breakfast we ate the chai spice bundt cakes (recipe here) that I baked last weekend and froze.

Lunch: Leftover sliders. Mmmmm.

Dinner: Beef tenderloin in a red wine onion sauce with mashed potatoes and salad.

We got fancy today!

While I know it’s popular to go out to eat for V-Day, we HATE the crowds, long waits, and usually sub-par food. It’s also more affordable to do a nice V-Day celebration at home, even if that means buying more expensive ingredients. As you’ll see in the expense section of the post, we spend a good chunk of money on this meal.

The beef tenderloin cost $33 for three pounds. Yes, $33, with two 3’s. We’ve cooked tenderloin once before and realized it’s delicious and easy to cook! Although it was pricey, it was still cheaper than a V-Day meal for two. And we were able to eat plenty of leftovers the next day, making it even more affordable.

I used Alton Brown’s guide to cook the tenderloin. It’s come out perfect both times we’ve cooked it with this recipe.

I also made an on-the-fly red wine sauce for the tenderloin. I reduced some homemade blackberry wine with thinly chopped onions and butter. It miraculously came together in a delectable sauce that paired very well with the tenderloin.

I also made mashed potatoes and a salad with onion, cucumber, and parmesan.

PSA: Don’t put raw onions in your V-Day salad. It gives you onion breath. How romantic!

V-Day has always been one of my favorite holidays. Here’s how hubs and I celebrated each other while keeping it frugal.

Mr. Picky Pincher is an origami master. He made this beautiful, hand-cut tchotchke with my initial. It looks laser cut, doesn’t it?? It’s so badass! I’m displaying it on a shelf in my office so I can always look at it.

This was a more utilitarian gift, but it was still really flippin’ cool. Hubs ordered this rack and hangers so I could hang up my silicone baking items. It frees up space in our cupboard and means I can find stuff more easily.

Funny story: you’ll see that there’s an Instant Pot in here as well (Amazon link here for the curious).

Hubs got it for me as a birthday gift (it’s in two weeks). The package came in from Amazon and had “INSTANT POT INSTANT POT INSTANT POT” blazoned on the shipping box, so it was pretty obvious what it was. Hubs was sad that the birthday surprise was ruined (sorry honey!), but we’ve gotten to play with the Instant Pot a bit.

Hubs whipped out the Instant Pot and made a pot of black beans in just two hours, which ain’t too shabby.

I opted for homemade-only gifts for hubs. He doesn’t have much of a sweet tooth, but he does love him some macarons. On Monday I made macarons filled with a plum and cream cheese filling. I wrapped them in paper and stored them in a Tupperware in the depths of the fridge so they wouldn’t be discovered.

(Sorry there isn’t a better picture)

I believe V-Day is about showing your partner what they mean to you. This year I opted to make a “love chain.” I wrote favorite memories and all the things I love about Mr. Picky Pincher onto scraps of paper, stapling them together into a huge chain.

We left it up for the rest of the week, ducking underneath it and chuckling.

Mr. Picky Pincher loves bath bombs, so I made him a set. I used this recipe and scented mine with tea tree, since that’s his favorite essential oil. And boy, do these suckers work! I know homemade bath bombs don’t always fizzle like the storebought ones, but these suckers are dangerous. In a good way.

I put the bath bombs in a Mason jar and did a very ~fancy~ wrap job with more tissue paper and a little bit of ribbon. It’s not the nicest looking thing in the world, but hey, it’s frugal and it gets the job done. 

After exchanging gifts, we cuddled up on the couch to watch La La Land, which we rented for free from the library.

Thursday

Breakfast: Tacos. The best breakfast ever! We ate the beans that Mr. Picky Pincher cooked the night before. Delicioso.

Lunch: Leftover tenderloin.

Dinner: Asian lettuce wraps. I love this meal. It’s flavorful and oh-so-easy to cook.

I browned ground beef in sesame oil, oyster sauce, and soy sauce. I made a homemade yogurt sauce (recipe is in the cookbook) and did a quick pickle in red wine vinegar for the cucumbers. It’s the perfect blend of sweet, salty, vinegary, crunchy deliciousness.

Friday

Breakfast: Yogurt bowl.

I meant to get fancy this morning and make a Dutch baby, but I had zero motivation. I did my weekly weight training workout and my legs felt like jelly. I opted for an easy peasy yogurt bowl. Here’s how I make my own organic yogurt.

Lunch: Leftover lettuce wraps.

Dinner: Pulled pork sandwich with berries.

I’m keeping it simple tonight. We made a huge batch of pulled pork a few weeks ago and froze it. I’ll take a pack out of the freezer, slap it on a bun, and call it dinner.

I like to pair my pulled pork with sweet-‘n’-spicy Wickles Pickles and it’s a magical experience.

Grocery Costs

Let’s see what we spent this week!

On sale: $1.93

Coupons: $9.65

HEB trip #1: $91.65

Costco trip: $55.13

HEB trip #2: $5.19

Total: $151.97

Goals for next week

Phew! We did quite a lot of shopping this week, due in part to our renewed Costco membership.

The first trip to HEB was our standard weekly grocery shopping. If you don’t include the $33 tenderloin, this HEB bill would have been under $60.

The second HEB trip was from hubs running to grab supplies to cook the black beans.

And speaking of black beans, that was one of the many things purchased in bulk from Costco. We got the organic black beans, bulk frozen cherries (for wine!), cinnamon, almonds, pesto, Snapea Crisps (a good snack), and eggs. We also stocked up on household items at Costco, like toilet paper and paper towels, but I don’t include those in our food budget.

It always hurts to buy in bulk, but we price checked each item purchased against HEB’s prices. For example, almonds are $2 cheaper per pound at Costco. The cherries were a damn steal at $11 for 4 pounds.

So even though our weekly total was higher than I planned, all of the numbers make sense. We shouldn’t need to make more unexpected trips to Costco; we plan on going once a month to buy bulk meat.

At any rate, it’s still my goal to keep next week’s spending as low as possible. I just made my grocery shopping list and it’s blissfully short.

Also, If you’re interested in our grocery shopping system, I go over it in depth in this eBook.

We want to know: How did you save or spend money this week?

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