Shell Mac with Broccoli and Mushrooms
Today's meal was adapted from "Family Feasts for $75 a week" by Mary Ostyn. She suggested adding shrimp which my family doesn't care for so I added a half package of imitation lobster instead. While this was tasty, I will only make this one more time (to use up the remaining half package of imitation lobster) as the price came in at double my daily amount. I justified this because there were leftovers but it's still a bit of a splurge meal on our current budget.
12 oz shell pasta (.60)
2 cups chopped broccoli (.65)
1/4 cup butter (.25)
1 cup sliced mushrooms (.80)
1/4 cup flour (.03)
1/2 tsp garlic powder (.05)
2 cups milk (.16)
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese (.65)
1 tsp dried parsley (.05)
1/2 pkg. imitation seafood (1.15)
Cook pasta, add broccoli to the pasta for the last 5 minutes of cooking, drain. Saute mushrooms in butter, add flour/spices, stir in milk, add cheese, pasta, broccoli and seafood, combine/heat through.
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Three days into September and a big chunk of the $60 is already spent! I thought I would ration it out evenly, week by week, but a local grocery store had a couple loss leaders I couldn't pass up this week--$1/lb peanut butter and boneless/skinless chicken breasts, $1.35/lb lunch meat and cheese, $1.69/lb pork loin and of course a Labor day sale on Pepsi for my husband. I hear that collective gasp, SODA? In a frugal budget?!? Yup, for this month anyway, one can a day while he weens himself of the addiction :) I made myself a pitcher of tea today, which I normally don't care for, but will learn to enjoy as a cheap source of caffeine. The rest of the money I spent at Aldis for perishables; milk, eggs, bread, spinach. I'll do better at posting receipts and such next month, for now I'll give you my running total.
Remaining Balance: $21.05
Frugal tips from this shopping trip:
If pork loin goes on an amazing sale, check and see if your butcher offers free cutting service. I have mine cut the loin into chops, and sometimes they're also willing to grind a portion of it for me if their machines aren't set up for beef at the time (something about cross contamination). Ground pork gives great flavor and texture to meatballs and meatloaf, and if you buy it as a pork loin and have it ground it is often cheaper than ground beef.
Right now there's some printable coupons available from Hormel that made this an extra good deal for me, you can get yours here: http://hormel.com/updates/coupons/
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