Here’s our menu for Day 11 of the All You Grocery Challenge:

Breakfast: Confession time: We ate ice cream for breakfast. And it was glorious.

Lunch:

We had grilled cheese sandwiches made with homemade bread, along with grapes and carrot sticks.

Dinner:

I defrosted two of the steaks I froze last week and heated them up for a quick dinner, served with salad. I used the same seasonings on the salad as I did the day before, and it was great. Super easy and delicious dinner!

Here’s our menu for Day 10 of the All You Grocery Challenge:

Breakfast: I had Raisin Bran, Jai had a banana.

Lunch:

I found this great recipe for homemade tortilla salad bowls, so I decided to try that for lunch. You run the tortilla through tap water, shape it around a ball of foil, and bake. I also sprinkled Chipotle seasoning salt on top of the tortilla before I stuck it in the oven. I then layered the tortilla bowl with salad, flaxseed, a sprinkling of cheese, taco sauce, a drizzle of ranch dressing, and topped with more Chipotle seasoning salt. I served this with grapes on the side, and it was VERY good! The seasonings add so much flavor to the salad. And how’s this for frugal: The taco seasoning came from leftover Taco Bell packets!

Dinner:

For dinner I adapted this Split Pea and Ham soup recipe. I used one small onion, pulled fresh out of my garden:

I sautéed that in olive oil, then added one ham steak, half a bag of dried split peas, a little salt and pepper, and enough water to cover. The recipe doesn’t list any cooking temperature, which I thought was odd, so I just brought it to a boil and reduced the heat as it seemed appropriate.

Jai’s plate is empty because he was at a class during dinnertime – don’t worry, there was plenty left for him when he got back!

This was a very frugal meal. I served it with homemade bread, which I made with flour, salt, yeast, water & margarine – yes, margarine! I substitute it for butter and there’s no difference in taste. The soup was made with a ham steak that I got for .63 cents, half a bag of dried split peas – roughly .72 cents worth – and of course the onion that I grew myself. The most expensive part of this might have been the butter that we spread on the bread slices. Margarine is undetectable when it is baked into foods, but we find it very unappetizing as a spread – so we always use butter for that.

I never thought of myself as a big soup fan, but now that I’ve started making more of them from scratch, I realize that I really enjoy it – probably because homemade is more flavorful than anything you would get out of a can.

A friend also gifted us the ice cream and homemade crackers pictured above. YUM!

Here’s our menu for Day 9 of the All You Grocery Challenge:

Breakfast: Raisin bran

Lunch: There was a ton of leftover Almond Chicken from the previous day, so we split that and had grapes and carrot sticks on the side.

Dinner: We had quesadillas and salad – there was a teeny bit of pasta & ham casserole left, so I used it as a salad topping along with some flaxseed. It was good!

Saturday marked the end of Week 1 in the All You Grocery Challenge. Our allotment for the Grocery Challenge is $25 per person per week, a total of $50 maximum for our two-person household. I went shopping twice last week, and spent a total of $39.20 for the week.

Sunday marked the start of Week 2, and it was a busy day! First, we went to lunch with family, and spent a total of $17.75 on lunch + tip – I took a photo of the receipt with the tip as documentation, since obviously you don’t get a receipt for cash tips!

After lunch, I went to the store and picked up some groceries. Normally, I count the cost of coupons as part of my grocery budget, but apparently you do not factor the cost of coupons into your budget for this challenge. Household supplies and toiletries are also exempt. Bearing all that in mind, this makes Sunday’s total for groceries $8.23. That brings my running total for Week 2 to $25.98.

Here’s our weekend menu for the All You Grocery Challenge:

Friday, Day 6:

Breakfast: Raisin bran

Lunch:

OK, so how’s this for stretching leftovers – I had a little bit of meat pie leftover from the previous day, but not enough for a meal on its own. So I scrambled it up with eggs, one biscuit crumbled into pieces, flaxseed, seasonings, and served with orange slice. I honestly think you can use almost any leftovers in an egg scramble – this was very nice!

Dinner: We went to a party at a friend’s house, and the host served us a very nice spaghetti dinner. Yum!

Saturday, Day 7:

Breakfast: Raisin bran

Lunch:

I blended two bananas, frozen strawberries, frozen blueberries, and a little milk to make smoothies. I served these with egg salad wraps:

Dinner:

I made a casserole by cooking a box of Ronzoni pasta from the stockpile, which I spooned into a pan and tossed with olive oil and cooked, chopped ham steak. I then put about 8 carrots through the food processor, chopping finely, and added them to the dish along with shredded cheese and seasoning. I also served the last of the biscuits as a side dish.

Sunday, Day 8:

Breakfast: More Raisin bran – I have a big bag to use up!

Lunch: We met with family for lunch at a Chinese restaurant:

Dinner: We had a casual dinner of leftover casserole and salad:

Here’s our menu for Day 5 of the All You Grocery Challenge:

Breakfast: I had a small piece of steak leftover, so I chopped it into little pieces and scrambled it up with eggs, flaxseed, seasonings, and crumbled up biscuits. I like adding biscuit pieces to a scramble because they get nice and crispy and lend a good flavor to the dish.

Lunch: I reheated the rest of the potato soup from Day 4 and served it with a salad:

Dinner: I had pre-cooked beef cubes in the fridge that I had planned to utilize in a more elaborate dish, but I was absolutely exhausted. I had gone to the doctor that morning for my knee troubles and started two anti-inflammatory medications, so between the medicine and the fact that I’d only gotten 3 hours of sleep, I was toast. So, I decided to do a quick meat pie by putting the beef cubes in a pie plate, adding a stock cube, and covering the meat with rest of the leftover mashed potatoes.

I served the meal with biscuits, and used paper plates to keep cleanup simple!

Here’s our menu for Day 4 of the All You Grocery Challenge:

Breakfast: I had about two bites of an Atkins granola bar that I got in the mail through a free sample sign-up. I didn’t finish it because it tasted rancid to me, even though it was months away from its best-by date. Blech!

Lunch:

Jai was going to be out at jobs during the early afternoon, so I packed him a lunch of leftover steak, carrots, and a banana:

Meanwhile, I had leftover steak & mashed potatoes with orange juice:

Dinner: Remember the pan of chicken that I made on Sunday? Well, I had a bunch of nice stock left over from it that I wanted to put to use. Since my decision to make soup was fairly last-minute, I didn’t have time to defrost any meat, so it seemed like a veggie soup would be the best way to go; and so I decided I would make a potato soup. Yes, more potatoes – what can I say, I’ve been doing a good job of using them up recently!

We didn’t have much milk left – I’ll pick some more up today – so I decided to Google “Vegan potato soup” to see if I could find a recipe that wouldn’t require milk. Sure enough, I found this recipe for Vegan Potato-Leek Soup and decided to modify it to fit what I had on hand. First, I sauteed garlic in a little olive oil, and then added four potatoes with the skins still on. I then added the leftover stock, which I had made by covering Sunday night’s chicken with two cups of water, one stock cube, wine, olive oil, garlic, seasonings, finely chopped carrots, and celery. I then added just enough water to cover the potatoes – there was a lot of stock, so I didn’t need too much water – and then added another stock cube and brought it to a boil. At this point I reduced the heat to simmer and cooked until the potatoes were fully done and could be easily broken up with a spoon. Then I poured the soup into my food processor a little at a time and blended until smooth, returning it to a low heat to keep warm until the next part of dinner was finished: Biscuits.

I had originally wanted to make bread bowls for the soup, but I ran out of time; so I decided to make biscuits instead. I wanted to try this recipe for drop biscuits because it looked quick and easy. I had never tried making biscuits this way before, and I got a little worried because the dough did not look very appetizing. However, they turned out just fine – the flavor of these is like cornbread, unlike the traditional sort of biscuit that I’m used to, but still good.

I was surprised by how good the soup was. Since it was an experiment, I wasn’t sure how it would turn out, and the recipe sounds very plain – but it’s actually very nice. I’m not usually a big soup fan, but I thought this was delicious and I would definitely make it again. And this recipe is certainly frugal!

Here’s our menu for Day 3 of the All You Grocery Challenge:

Breakfast: Raisin bran with flaxseed sprinkled on top:

Lunch: I scooped the leftover egg salad from Monday onto red leaf lettuce, and topped it with a little more flaxseed for a nice salad served with orange slices. (I was reviewing the flaxseed for Contest Corner!)

Dinner: I marinated 8 steaks that I bought earlier that day, using the ample supply of Weber grill mix in my stockpile, and made mashed potatoes to go with it – I chose to leave the skins on the potatoes, because the skins are nutritious and peeling the potatoes is also the most time consuming part of making homemade mash.

Jai wasn’t home when dinner was ready – our schedules always vary! – but I put aside a big steak and mashed potatoes that he ate when got home. We also had vanilla pudding for dessert.
I cooked way more steaks than we needed for this meal, because I wanted to freeze a few for dinners later on, as well as have leftovers for lunch today:

Yesterday was day 2 of the All You Grocery challenge – so here’s our Monday menu:

Breakfast: Raisin bran from the pantry

Lunch: We had egg salad wraps, which I made with 8 hardboiled eggs, relish, mustard, seasonings, and three tablespoons of whole golden flaxseed, spooned onto tortillas. The flaxseed is a product sample that I received for review on Contest Corner – I’m also giving some away if you want to head over and enter!

For dinner, I reheated the leftover chicken and vegetables from Sunday night. I LOVE leftovers on a busy weeknight!

Also, I rediscovered a forgotten pudding stash! I have a cupboard high above the sink that I don’t look in often, and I totally forgot that I had all these boxes of pudding and jello in there. How I could forget about chocolate pudding, I’m not sure, but I made up for lost time by mixing some up after dinner!

You may recall that I participated in the All You Grocery Challenge around this time last year. Well, it’s back for 2010, and I am participating once again! So what is this challenge all about? It’s a contest sponsored by All You magazine, challenging entrants to spend no more than $25 per person per week on groceries for a four-week period – click here for more details. Last year, I documented what we ate during each day of the challenge – sort of like a daily Coupon Funded Menu Corner! – and I intend to do the same this time.

So let’s start off by having a quick look through what’s in my pantry. I’ve been making a concentrated effort to use up what I have and clear out the pantry before my stockpile staples go bad, so I spent most of last month eating from the stockpile and emptying the cupboards. I hope to spend some of my grocery challenge budget fleshing out my stockpile with some good deals again!

I also have my budding little container garden, which I hope will be able to contribute to some of our meals!

The challenge began yesterday, so here is Sunday’s menu:

Breakfast: I didn’t eat breakfast because I was catching up on some much-needed sleep!
Lunch: Since I woke up late, I wanted something quick and easy – so we had a simple lunch of pasta with butter and garlic salt.

Dinner:

I used the last of my .99 cent chicken thighs for dinner. I prepared the chicken by drizzling it in olive oil and wine, and then added a stock cube dissolved in 2 cups of water. I chopped two potatoes and added them along with the last of my free organic celery and carrots, then seasoned the dish with chopped garlic, Spike all-purpose seasoning, and garlic salt (yes, I love garlic!). I had one ear of corn left, so I chopped it in half and added it to the pan as well, then covered the pan with foil and slow cooked it for about two hours, until the chicken was tender and falling off the bone.

Are any of you participating in the challenge? I’d love to hear all about it!