Groceries

We spent only $150 on groceries this month.  What exactly did we eat?

We do tend to eat fairly low on the food chain as it is.  We will eat some meat, but not a lot.  This is a great time of year for soups, and we have eaten a lot of soups. 

Punjabi Style Black Lentils, from the Smitten Kitchen.  Needless to say, I kept the dairy OUT of the recipe.  Still, an excellent meal!  The leftovers from this went to work with me for lunch as is for several days.

Meatloaf.  I made a double loaf.  The leftovers were divided into 2 more meals:
1) Chili
The leftovers from the chili went into 2 meals: tacos and baked potatoes.

2) Cauliflower Baked Ziti from Delish.  Again, this was a very large dish, so it provided leftovers for lunch.

Quinoa Stuffed Acorn Squash Rings
A popular favorite in our house.  We're still working our way through the last of the bushel of winter squash that I picked up in October for $15 at the Farmer's Market.  We never have leftovers of this wonderful creation in our house.

Beef Stew
I made it following the recipe in the Insta Pot book.  It was beyond wonderful, and tasted better than it does when I make it in the crock pot and leave it sitting all day.  The leftovers served us for lunch over the weekend.

Baked Chicken
Another Instant Pot find.  I saved off the broth to make chicken soup.  The chicken itself was one very tasty dinner.  And one very tasty chicken salad.  And the rest went into a pan with some BBQ sauce to make pulled chicken BBQ sandwiches.  I served that with what I think was the last of the bushel of sweet potatoes we picked up in the fall from the Farmer's Market for $20. 

Lentil, Mushroom, and Sweet Potato Pie
Another winner! I found this one on The Kitchn's Website.   And yes, with this the last of the sweet potatoes were gone.  And then husband volunteered at the food pantry over the weekend.  At the end of the event, all of the produce needs to be given away or thrown out.  Long story short, we've now got even MORE sweet potatoes to work our way through....

Pancakes
For Shrove Tuesday.

Ratatouille
This used up the eggplant and other awkward "what do I do with this" vegetables from the produce box we got from our favorite farmer.

And then... husband stopped by to pick up eggs from one of our favorite farmers and came home with a 50 pound bag of white potatoes that he paid $20 for, and a 20 pound bag of onions that he paid $10, and a bag of the vegetables that are quickly turning bad- this farmer sells them for 50 cents a bag.  That's right, 50 cents a bag.  It's a big bag and it has a hodge podge of vegetables in it and weighs about 2 pounds, maybe more - and you get what's in the bag.  No swapping out.  I made a fabulous vegetable soup from that bag.  But now I've got a huge bag of white potatoes to work my way through! 

I think you get the idea - we cook with what's readily available as much as possible.  I'll stock up on big things as they go on sale.  And keep in mind, I'm cooking for 3 now, after years of cooking for 5  - and 2 of those 5 people were teenage boys who were active in sports!  I'm practically drowning in leftovers every time I cook because I am still cooking in the quantities I was cooking in when the boys still lived at home.