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Wowza, what a week! I had a work trip and it mucked up our Dinner plan a bit. But overall I’m pleased with our pursuit of frugal eating. See what we ate and spent this week!

Did you try a new recipe this week? Let us know in the comments!

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

Monday

Breakfast: Sweet potato biscuit with sausage and egg

I baked a fresh batch of biscuits over the weekend. I used the Budget Epicurean’s recipe for sweet potato biscuits and I was not disappointed!

I defrosted a sausage patty from the freezer and cooked an egg patty. I just scramble an egg with a touch of whipping cream and cook it in a Mason jar lid. I steam the egg so it gets fluffy, not crusty.

I paired the sausage biscuit with THE LAST of the damned pomegranate. Although that pomegranate was $4/pound, I’m shocked to say it lasted me more than two weeks.

Who knew?

Snack: Matcha balls. Recipe here. 

Lunch: Leftover tomato cream sliders.

We put together these bad boys for dinner on Sunday night. This is hands-down one of my favorite dinners. Here’s the recipe. 

It’s supposed to be served on cabbage, but I prefer to do broccoli. If you’re looking for a freezer-friendly meal, this one is perfecto! I like to make extra servings to bulk up our freezer meal supply.

Dinner: DIY night!

We started something new for the May menu. Mr. Picky Pincher and I sometimes miss the days of single living, when we could fix ~whatever we wanted~ for dinner. It’s tough cooking for two people with very different tastes!

As a compromise, we added one do-it-yourself dinner to the menu once a week. Mr. Picky Pincher gets to cook whatever he wants, and I get to cook whatever I want.

Hubs grilled himself a steak with grilled zucchini and a salad as his sides.

I used this recipe to make a charred sweet potato and corn salad. I switched up a few things, though. I didn’t have spiralized sweet potatoes, so I just cubed them instead. Close enough!

I pulled corn from the freezer and used some pre-frozen homemade cilantro paste (recipe here) as the base of my salad dressing.

I’m trying to eat more salad and this seemed like a good (albeit carb-heavy) way to do it. This meal was SO tasty. Seriously, y’all, it had a perfect balance of smoke, sweetness, zest, and spice. Highly recommended.

Tuesday

Breakfast: Breakfast cookies.

Man, I made these breakfast cookies at least a month ago. I cooked a bulk batch and froze them for easy breakfasts. They’re so good! If you’re always on the go, breakfast cookies are where it’s at.

For this batch I used this carrot cake breakfast cookie recipe (it doesn’t taste like carrot cake, but whatever).

Snack: Hard boiled egg.

Lunch: Leftover sweet potato salad / chili cornbread bake

Mr. Picky Pincher didn’t have leftover steak from dinner. He grabbed a frozen chili cornbread bake meal from the freezer. Yay for no lunchtime takeout.

Dinner: Spicy peanut soba noodle salad

I get that this looks like spaghetti, but it’s actually Japanese buckwheat soba noodles. They have a better taste and texture than spaghetti. I love the taste of buckwheat, and it’s slightly healthier than other grains thanks to protein content. It’s also gluten free.

Anyway, I used this recipe for the noodle salad. 

I was skeptical about this one. I’m always nervous when I’m cooking anything Asian and the recipe says, “Add five tablespoons of Jiffy peanut butter.”

I did it anyway, and I’m so glad I did! This was a nutty and delicious meal! It was also a great way to sneak greens into my diet, which I always appreciate.

Wednesday

Breakfast: Oatmeal pancakes

I made one of my favorite breakfasts today: oatmeal pancakes. Here’s the recipe. 

I just whip up all the ingredients in my Vitamix and it comes together in a beautiful batter. It’s more work cooking pancakes from scratch in the morning than, say, pulling something from the freezer, but it’s worth it!

And it’s oatmeal based, which is awesome.

I decided to use nonstick cooking spray to cook these. I don’t know what happened, y’all, but the second I touched the nozzle, the spray WOULD NOT stop. I let out a “Marrghhhhaaaahhh!” as I tossed it facedown on a sheet pan. It emptied itself and now I need to buy more Pam.

Anyway, once I successfully cooked the pancakes, I paired them with sliced organic strawberries.

Snack: Granola bar. I found some Nature Valley granola bars in the pantry. Score!

Lunch: Leftover noodle salad

Dinner: Fideo

I had to leave for a work trip this afternoon. The end of my week will be crazy, so food was up in the air for me. I snagged drive-thru Chicken Express and called it dinner, on the company’s dime, of course.

Mr. Picky Pincher cooked one of his favorite meals, fideo.

Thursday

Breakfast: Hotel breakfast! / Smoothie

Time to snag a free hotel breakfast! I don’t like being away from home, but I do like the free food that comes with it. I had a breakfast of potatoes, scrambled eggs, blueberry muffin, and oatmeal. Yum!

Mr. Picky Pincher ate the smoothie that he makes for himself most mornings.

Snack: Homemade chocolate bark

I made chocolate bark on Tuesday. I like having a variety of homemade snacks to travel with. It prevents unnecessary gas station candy bar purchases.

I admit this isn’t the best chocolate bark I’ve ever made. I MacGuyvered it with ingredients in the pantry. The chocolate is actually just candy melt chocolate (which we all know is just fake-chocolate). But I was desperate!

I melted the chocolate and sprinkled it with almonds, dried cranberries, toasted coconut, and coarse salt.

I loved the flavor combo, but the chocolate was just a weird choice. Hubs ate a piece and said, “What’s wrong with this chocolate?”

Sorry honey! Eh, whatever. It’ll do for settling sugar cravings on the road.

Lunch: Leftover fideo / Salad

My employer provided lunch today. The downside is that they’re really into wellness and healthy living. That means we usually eat something depressing, like salad. So yeah, lunch was salad, and I was hungry and hour later.

Dinner: Pork chops with glazed carrots and salad / Mexico night

For dinner my boss cooked everyone beef tacos.

I hate pork chops, but Mr. Picky Pincher loves ’em. He cooks pork chops any time I’m away. Today he made pork chops with glazed carrots and a side salad.

Friday

Breakfast: Hotel breakfast / SOS

More hotel breakfast for me.

Mr. Picky Pincher treated himself to SOS (shiz on a shingle) for breakfast. I’m not much for SOS, but he loves it, so it’s a perfect breakfast for when the missus is away.

Snack: Homemade popcorn

I cooked this popcorn on Tuesday and bagged it for easy snacking. It makes for a great roadtrip snack when you’re on a budget.

Lunch: Leftover pork chops / ???

Mr. Picky Pincher will eat leftover pork chops today. I’ll eat a lunch provided at my work headquarters.

Dinner: Fish with rice pilaf and salad / Takeout

Mr. Picky Pincher looooves fish. And I don’t.

Fish is another great meal just for him. He likes to pair it with rice pilaf and a salad.

I’ll be on the road coming home, so fast food is my only option, unfortunately. Luckily for me, though, it’ll be on the company dime.

Grocery Costs

Let’s see what we spent this week!

On sale: Don’t know! Sorry, I chunked the receipt.

Coupons: Don’t know!

Total: $46.19

Total budget remaining: Technically $2.41

Goals for next week

Welp, as you saw in the April budget recap, I was counting wrong on the grocery totals. :/

After looking at the numbers with hubs, I think we did come on budget for April, all things considered. I didn’t realize we put $16 of Zap’s food in the grocery category; I was also forgetting to deduct the taxes from our total for non-food items.

Also, I tossed the receipt. Gah!

Either way, I’m happy we were around our budget for the month.

For next week, I’m hoping we can stay on track with home-cooked meals. My work trip kinda mucked things up on the food front, but I don’t think we did too badly. We’re going to have to keep a tight ship in May since it’s a five-week month.

Let’s do this!

Also, If you’re interested in our grocery shopping system, I go over it in depth in this eBook.
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We want to know: How did you stay frugal this week?

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