Psst, I make money on some of the links in this post at no cost to you. It keeps the lights on around here. Amazon links are affiliate. 

What a week! Mr. Picky Pincher spent most of his days touring New York City with his parents, so I was largely left to my Picky devices when it came to food. See how I tried to live lean on our pantry and freezer stock 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: Tacos

Is there anything so heavenly as a taco in the morning sun? I think not. Tacos are one of my favorite easy, budget-friendly meals. 

Snack: Blueberries. I like sticking my hand into a pint of blueberries and stuffing them in my mouth in one go. #Sophisticated.

Lunch: Leftover lasagna.

Mr. Picky Pincher was in New York City this week! On Sunday evening I was fresh out of cooking-for-one ideas, and lasagna was the first thing that came to mind. Mind you, I normally hate lasagna. Why I chose to make it today, I’ll never understand.

I filled the lasagna with a homemade ricotta and spinach mixture. I didn’t take out ground beef, so I kept it vegetarian. I topped each layer with the filling and our Homemade Marinara Sauce. I topped it with way too much cheese, so I did find myself scraping it off. Which is a lot for a cheese fiend, y’all.

This was okay, but it wasn’t the best thing I’ve ever made. It didn’t help that I hate lasagna!

Dinner: Chicken taco soup.

Today was an asskicker at work. I was still on phone calls after hours, so I heated up a leftover serving of our chicken taco soup. I muted myself while I slurped up the soup with gusto. Mmmm.

Tuesday

Breakfast: Pancakes.

I was really Jonesing for pancakes today. But guess what? We didn’t have any milk. In my half-awake state, I poured coconut milk into my batter, thinking, “Eh, what’s the difference?”

There is a difference, friends! The pancakes were fully cooked, but didn’t brown. They stayed an odd shade of white with a matte finish.

While the pancakes tasted okay, they were 100% weird. The only thing I changed was the coconut milk, so that had to have been the culprit. Oops. I topped the pancakes with blueberries and a pineapple I got for free at HEB last week.

Snack: Babybel cheese. I picked up a giant pack of cheese at Costco on sale. They’re great snacks!

Lunch: Leftover chicken taco soup. Luckily we had two portions of chicken taco soup in the freezer, so this worked out great for me!

Dinner: Artichoke cheese croissants / Taco Bell.

Oof. It was another rough work day. I put together this quick dinner of croissant dough filled with chopped artichokes, garlic, and cheese. These actually would have been good, had I not burnt them! I was fiddling with Zap and Sophie shenanigans and forgot all about my poor croissants. Ugh!

I tried to eat them by dipping them in our homemade marinara sauce, but to no avail. These were toast. I picked up two cheap-as-hell drive thru tacos at Taco Bell. Sigh.

Wednesday

Breakfast: Breakfast sandwich

I kept it simple today by making a breakfast sandwich. I steamed an egg and paired it with pre-cooked bacon on a sweet potato biscuit (biscuit recipe here).

Snack: Popcorn. I make popcorn every now and then and store it in the pantry for easy snacking. It’s much cheaper and healthier than butter-laden Orville Redenbacher.

Lunch: Scrounge! I have no idea what I ate today. I’m sure it was a snacky kind of meal from odds and ends in the pantry.

Dinner: Tortellini

This was my favorite meal of the week! Recipe here. I used up frozen tortellini from our fridge, as well as spinach from the fridge. I tossed in tomatoes from my in-laws’ garden for a pop of freshness and crunch. You can’t see them, but I promise they’re there!

Thursday

Breakfast: Yogurt bowl

I pushed the easy button today. I topped my homemade yogurt with blueberries, pineapple, hemp seeds, and almonds. If you can’t tell already, I was trying to eat my way through the blueberries and pineapple.

Snack: Viennese whirl

I baked these cookies last weekend and froze the leftovers. Today I treated myself to a cookie for my mid-morning snack.

Lunch: Tortellini

Dinner: Mexican restaurant.

Hubs came back home today! After being in NYC for a week, he was ready for some good Tex-Mex food, so we obliged his cravings. The food didn’t turn out to be very good, though, so we sadly walked away sans leftovers.

Friday

Breakfast: Dutch baby

I love me a giant, fluffy pancake! Well, I didn’t really get a fluffy pancake today. I still haven’t gone to the store, so I shrugged and used coconut milk in this recipe too. It technically makes a Dutch baby, but it’s a weird one. It’s not as fluffy, flaky, and crusty. Good to know!

It still tasted fine, so I ate it topped with, you guessed it, more blueberries and pineapple. I’m trying to eat through the pantry without buying much, hence the repeat fruit offenders.

Snack: Chips

Lunch: Chikfila

Mr. Picky Pincher has today off of work to recover from his travels. We’re grabbing Chikfila for lunch to keep it nice ‘n’ easy.

Dinner: Pumpkin chicken quesadillas

Although we ate out for lunch, never fear! We’re cooking one of our favorite home meals, pumpkin chicken quesadillas. Recipe here. It’s like a healthier version of a quesadilla that uses much less cheese.

Grocery Costs

Let’s see what we spent this week!

On sale: $1.20

Coupons: $4.87

Total: $28.08

Total budget remaining: -$14.45

Goals for next week

Welp, there goes the budget for the month! See ya later, money. Boo.

I’m actually proud that we spent just $28 this week. I would hope our total would be low after stocking up so much in the first week of May. I’m not thrilled about going over budget, but there’s not much we can do now!

I’m adjusting our meal plans to account for being over budget. That means there’s gonna be a little less excitement with our meals, but I’m trying to keep us as close to budget as possible.

Next week will be less crazy around here, so I’m hoping we won’t feel the need to eat out, either.

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

The post What’s for Dinner? May 18 appeared first on Picky Pinchers.