Recipe Savers: Chicken Enchilada Soup

Over the past 9 months we have dramatically reduced our grocery budget by shopping at Aldi... so much so, I've started to share my recipes, secrets and tips in a new feature called Recipe Savers.

This recipe comes from a blog I found via Pinterest when I was searching for new recipe ideas! I give you Lil' Luna's Crock Pot Green Chile Enchilada Soup which has become an absolute staple in our house.

I make a batch up, we eat dinner and then we FREEZE these in Tupperware containers, making a quick and awesome lunch for busy mornings. I've Mild-Out the flavors because we have a toddler at home, and lately he hasn't really felt like eating this meal, but i'm happy to feed him a quesadilla when we make this just to stock our freezer up!

I will admit, I've modified her recipe a little adding in more corn and rice because its just easier to use a whole can then less, but either way you follow it, its amazing and people tell me it smells soooooo good when I heat it up at work.

Instead of canned Green Chile sauce, I use this recipe from Mel's Kitchen. I've roasted my own green chili's before and it made it to die for...  but with a toddler, i just don't have the time to roast and peel these suckers and end up using the canned green chili's instead. For my Recipe and math below, you need a double batch of Mel's sauce mixture.

So how much does it cost to make? $14.92 at Aldi for 16 servings... $0.93 each... 

Sauce:

• 1 Cup of Chopped Onion ($0.25)
• 4 garlic cloves ($0.25 / Whole minced jar is $2.19 so this is generous price estimate)
• 6 tablespoons Flour ($0.05)
• 1/2 teaspoon Cumin (estimate $0.10 / Whole jar is $1.19)
• 1/2 a teaspoon Oregano (estimate $0.10 / Whole jar is $1.19)
• 1 teaspoon Salt (too cheap to count)
• 3 Cups Chicken Broth ($0.25, using this homemade version)
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper (too cheap to count)
• 4 cans of Green Chili ($0.55 each / $2.10 Total)
• 4 tablespoons of Oil: $0.20

Soup:

• 4 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded (about 2/3 a family packet at Aldi) $6.50
• 28 oz Chicken Broth already factored in above...
• Green Chili Sauce from above
• Cumin (already factored in above for an extra 1.5 tablespoons)
• Chili Powder (estimate $0.10 / Whole jar is $1.19)
• Onion Powder (estimate $0.10 / Whole jar is $1.19)
• Garlic Powder (estimate $0.10 / Whole jar is $1.19)
• Can of Corn (I use a whole can in mine) $0.49
• Rice - I just cook 1/2 cup to 1 cup of dry rice on the stove top and drop it in ($0.15)
• Cream cheese - $1.29
• (I don't add additional green chili's to the recipe), but if you want it spicy you can add $1.10)
• Block of Cheese to shred and top soup with: $2.89

It's just flat out tasty folks... 

Check out my other Recipe Saver Ideas:

$0.65 breakfast burritos 
$0.93 Broccoli Bacon Cheese Soup 
$1.27 Chicken Alfredo Bundles
$8.30 Double Crust Chicken Pot Pie (Serves 8)

Recipe Savers: Chicken Bundles

Over the past 8 months we have dramatically reduced our grocery budget by shopping at Aldi... so much so, I've started to share my recipes, secrets and tips in a new feature called Recipe Savers.

This recipe comes from the makers of Pillsbury and is their Creamy Garlic Chicken Bundles ... but its been adapted to my families taste buds.

Do you know, this FREEZES amazingly well... So much so that I make a double batch so we can freeze some and we have plenty of leftovers for lunches or a quick dinner. Even the toddler eats this adaptation.

I use this recipe to make my own Alfredo sauce from scratch... it's so much better and doesn't take much additional time. I also add Broccoli instead of bell peppers and do more veggies than the original calls for because we like our greens and I think it makes it taste better.

So how much does it cost to make?

$20.31 for 16 servings at Aldi... that's $1.27 each... which is enough for 4 meals 

Heavy Whipping Cream: $1.99 (I've gotten it as cheap as $0.49).

Chicken Breasts: 6.25 (2/3 a family pack, about 6 breasts)

1 lb of Broccoli: $0.79

Butter: $1.34 (2 sticks of the 4 stick box -- whole box is $2.69)

Crescent rolls: $3.96 (4 cans @ $0.99 a can)

Minced Garlic: $0.40 (Whole jar is $2.19)

Parmesan Block: $3.79

Bag of Spinach: $1.29

Dried Parsley: $0.50

Step 1: Cook chicken in oven. 350 for 35-45 minutes.

Step 2: While chicken is cooking, Shred the whole Parmesan cheese block in your food processor or by hand. Put aside 3 cups for the Alfredo (your making a double batch)... Melt 2 sticks of butter in a sauce pan and heat the 2 cup container of whipping cream... then add the 3 cups of Parmesan until it melts and combines well. Stir in some minced Garlic and add some Parsley flakes... set aside.

Step 3: Wash and chop broccoli into pieces (I include the stem -- I just peel the thick skin off with a peeler or a knife) and steam in microwave. Then dump in a food processor to mince. add in spinach leaves so they get finely chopped as well. Put in a large bowl with the remaining Parmesan you shredded and with some more minced garlic.  

Step 4: Take Chicken out of the oven and after it rests and cools, put it in the food processor to shred.  Add shredded chicken to bowl of broccoli and spinach. Mix. Add 1/2 the Alfredo sauce from the skillet, and combine.

Step 5: Take the crescent rolls out of the tubes and place two of them to form a square/rectangle buy pinching the middle seams together (4 cans = 16 squares). Cram tons of filling (Chicken, broccoli, spinach mixture) into them and pull in the corners so they close the bundle. Bake in the oven 350 for about 25 minutes.

Spoon remaining Alfredo onto the tops of the bundles before serving. 

  

I'll serve this with some sliced fruit normally since the veggies are inside, so I treat it like a casserole meal. Hubs normally eats 2 at dinner, I eat one, toddler eats about a 1/2 a bundle, sometimes more, just depends. It also pairs well with salad. 

Pair my $0.65 breakfast burritos with my $0.93 Broccoli Bacon Cheese Soup and the have these tasty chicken bundles for dinner ($1.27) and a single person has three meals for $2.85! Grab an apple ($0.34), a glass of milk ($0.32); dunk that soup with 2 slices of whole wheat bread ($0.18) and its only $3.69... Just saying...

Recipe Savers: Broccoli Cheese Soup

 Over the past 7 months we have dramatically reduced our grocery budget by shopping at Aldi... so much so, i'm going to share my secrets and tips in a new feature called Recipe Savers.

This recipe comes from 100 Days of Real Food and is one of our go to winter staples. Broccoli is one veggie I can get my hubby to eat regularly, so you'll probably see a lot of it on the blog.

Do you know, this FREEZES amazingly well... So much so that I make a double batch so we can have plenty of leftovers in the freezer for lunches or a quick dinner. The toddler doesn't get the concept of soup, so he normally ends up with a quesadilla and frozen peas on soup night, but we love this recipe. Below I just doubled the ingredients and I save time by making a double batch.

So how much does it cost to make?
$10.21 for 11 servings at Aldi... that's $0.93 each...

• Broccoli: $1.58 (Need 2 of the 1 pound packages, sold at $0.79 each) 
• Bacon: $2.79 
• Yellow Onions: $0.25 (About 1 cup)
• Chicken Stock: $0.25  (Homemade broth recipe)
• 6 tablespoons Flour: $0.09
• Cheese: $2.79 (1 blocks of Cheddar)
• Heavy Cream: $1.99
• 2 cups of Milk: $0.47
• Salt/Pepper: Too cheap to Count
• Oil: (still on a huge box from costco)

Pair that with my $0.65 breakfast burritos and your have dinner and lunch for $1.58! We normally eat it with a bit of bread to dunk, but its a meal on its own. 

Recipe Savers: Breakfast Burritos

Over the past 6 months we have dramatically reduced our grocery budget by shopping at Aldi... so much so, i'm going to share my secrets and tips in a new feature called Recipe Savers.

This recipe is actually my own concoction and is quickly becoming our breakfast go-to and morning time saver. I proudly present, Break Burritos!

Do you know, these FREEZE amazingly well... So much so that I make a batch of 30 at one time so I can freeze them and not worry about breakfast before work for 2 weeks!!!

So how much does it cost to make 30 breakfast burritos?
$19.47 at Aldi... that's $0.65 each

• Eggs: $2.37 (Need three dozen, sold at $0.79 each) 
• Sausage links: $2.85 (Need 3 packages of the frozen sausage links at $.095 each) 
• Yellow Onions: $0.90 (I got 4 small ones for $.90) 
• Cheese: $5.58 (Two, 1 lb blocks of colby jack, each $2.79)
• Burrito Sized Tortillas: $4.47 (Three packages, each $1.49) 
• Frozen hash browns: $3.30 (Need 2 packages, $1.65 each) 
• Salt/Pepper: Too cheap to Count

This process does take some time, so I normally do these on a Saturday afternoon when the toddler takes a nap and is insanely easier since we have a food processor (It's worth its weight in gold). 

1. Leave your tortillas out on the counter so they get room temp (less likely to tear this way) and start to cook the hash browns in batches while you prep other ingredients. Salt and place in a good sized bowl.* 
2. Shred both blocks of cheese, set off to the side. (Food processor is your friend here. Just drop those chunks in with a shredder blade and bam... We end up with a little leftover cheese when all is said and done so cheese to your preference).
3. Microwave sausage packets, then stick the links in the food processor to chop up. These should be put in a LARGE bowl (you will add the cooked eggs and the onion here too, so plan ahead and save on dishes).
4. Once the sausage is out of the food processor, put the raw onion in and chop it up. Simmer onion on stove until just translucent. I use a little cooking spray and stir it around for a few minutes so they soften up. Then DRAIN the onion liquid. This is key to not have soggy burritos. Just take a couple paper towels and let the onion cool on them and pad them down before your dump them in with the sausage. 
5. Grab your three dozen eggs and scramble them in batches, then mix with the onions and sausage. (Don't forget to keep swapping out the hash browns when you are waiting on the eggs). Since the hash browns take the longest, once I have the egg mixture done, i'll start stuffing the burritos while the last batch of the hash browns cook. 
6. You should have three bowls now, Potatoes, Onion/Sausage/Egg, and cheese.
7. Take tortilla, Put in a few spoonfuls of potatoes, few spoonfuls of Onion/Sausage/Egg, and sprinkle cheese... Then tuck and roll.

Notice the "narrow" end on the fold... By folding it with the wider side to you and a narrow closure on the side farthest from you,  it helps keep the insides, inside and prevents taring! Also, let your tortillas sit at room temp while cooking... makes them easier to fold and prevents rips.  

After we roll them, I wrap them in full sized parchment paper and freeze 6 to a gallon sized bag.

When you want to eat one, pull from freezer, unwrap and microwave 2 minute on high with a paper towel underneath... let cool a minute or so, then eat. We like to drop a little hot sauce on ours as we eat (that way they are plain for the toddler).

We actually re-use most of the parchment paper for the next batch too. We just have a little clip in our kitchen and we hang them there so the frozen/water crystals from the freezer can dry off... same goes with the zip locks. When they are empty, I dry them off and then tuck the parchment paper in there when its dry.

Recipe Savers: Double Crust Chicken Pot Pie

Over the past 6 months we have dramatically reduced our grocery budget by shopping at Aldi... so much so, i'm going to share my secrets and tips in a new feature called Recipe Savers.

This recipe comes from one of my favorite blogs, 100 Day of Real Food and it's for homemade chicken pot pie. We add a bit more filling to the mix because I use a deep pan, and I also use 2 crusts because lets be honest, that's the best part... so in our home we refer to this as double crust chicken pot pie! 

Full cooking directions and original recipe can be found here: Homemade Chicken Pot Pie.

So how much does it cost to make? 

$8.30 at Aldi

• Pie Crust: (2 per package): $1.99
• Chicken Breasts: $3.25  (3 large pieces, roughly 1/3 the family package)
• Carrots: $0.25 (Sold in a 2lb package for $0.96)
• Celery: $0.25 ($0.69 for the hole thing)
• Minced Garlic: $0.40 (whole jar is $2.19)
• Yellow onion: $0.25 (bought 4 for $0.90)
• Parsley: $0.50 (Whole container of dried parsley is $1.19)
• Peas: $0.50 (Whole bag is $0.96)
• 4 Tablespoons Butter: $0.34
• Chicken Broth: $0.25 
• 1 Cup of Milk: $0.32
• Salt/Pepper: too cheap to count.

I rounded up a lot on these prices just to make things easier. Technically the broth was free because I saved the bones from a whole chicken I had roasted in my crock pot last week and followed this recipe with what I had on hand to make my own broth/stock so I'm estimating it was about a $0.25 for the carrots, onion, celery and parsley I chucked in there with the bones. 

I also cheat and use a store bought crust because to make it from scratch costs me $0.94 for each crust and since I need two to double crust this tasty meal, i'd rather spend $0.12 to save the dishes and the prep time. I do, after all, have a toddler. :) I also skipped the egg wash, but you could add that in there for $.08 since Eggs are typically $0.89 a dozen.

This recipe yields us at least 2 dinners and about 2 or 3 lunches depending on how hungry the toddler is. Generally we will pair this with it a simple salad or just eat it by itself if its a crazy night.  Aldi carries bag Cesar salads with dressing, croutons and fresh Parmesan for $1.59 so even if you just grab a bag salad for a side, that's a full and complete dinner with leftovers for less than $10!

Now, if you are purchasing all the ingredients for the first time and need to initially buy each individual item (assuming you start with a bare kitchen), it will cost more. I buy my chicken in the family large packs to save some money and just freeze the leftover chicken and use it for a meal the following week, if that's not your style, you can simply buy a smaller package. You'll pay a bit more per lb, but not outrageously so because this is Aldi. Leftover Celery and Carrots can be toddler treats with ranch or peanut butter or used to flavor stock for future recipes; and who can't use a small jar of minced garlic? I know I could, lol. But in all reality, if I used the full purchase price and not just the amounts I used, we're looking at $22 and that includes a whole gallon of milk, brick of butter, and around 4 lbs of chicken. 

But the key to less waste and money savings is to properly store items to use in later meals, or plan your meals for the week to use the other ingredients while still fresh. 

What we ate in January

I finally don't feel like a stranger in the kitchen anymore after this month and it feels so good to get back in there and explore. I've not only been able to reclaim my kitchen and some old stand by meals that have become staples, but I'm so thankful that my little goober is letting me try a bunch of new recipes as well. This little guy likes flavors and spices and seems pretty happy with what I've been able to work out over the last month and I'm grateful to see COLOR and VEGGIES in our meals once more.


I'm feeling great and by cooking more from scratch the scale has been my friend so far as I've entered into third trimester land.  (I even got a high five from my doctor at my last visit for only gaining 2-3 lbs in a month which was my appointment goal and far better than the 8 or so that happened the month before!!)

The only snag has been my new work schedule which started a couple months ago. I work 8-5pm four days a week now and 11-7pm on Saturdays... and while I've finally adjusted to sleeping in a bit and not automatically sitting awake in bed at 4am, SCB still gets up at 5:30 am for work... and since he's a 7-4 pm kind of guy, he's normally home by 4:30 pm or 5:00 pm starving for dinner since he's in charge of making his lunch for the day... and I don't get home until around 5:30 with all the stupid stop lights. (I'm only about 10 miles away from my work, but it still takes me 20-30 minutes to get home because of all the traffic lights at 5 pm...sigh....)

Now I've always been a morning person. Sleeping in has always been 7, maybe 8 am max, even while pregnant... So this month I tried something new and I've been getting up at 6 am so I can prep, chop, or pre-do dinner so it only takes me 20-30 minutes to get in on plates by the time I get home... and THIS HAS BEEN A LIFE SAVER because we aren't eating at 7pm and when I'm tired from work and don't want to cook, its less daunting because all the prep-work has been done! It's just toss it in the oven, or cook it in a pan and everything is measured and assembled as much as humanly possible. 

So what have we been eating?
In an effort to really cook from scratch to save us some money, I've been going though some blogs and Pinterest to get a few ideas. I made a whole chicken in a crock-pot from one of my new favorite food blogs... 100 days of Real Food... It was pretty darn tasty. Now it wasn't like a rotisserie chicken from Costco since those are roasted and tend to get a bit crispy and awesome on top... but for cooking it from home in a crock-pot it was definitely a winner.

Since I bought two organic chickens from Costco earlier this month, we still have another whole chicken in the freezer which I plan to use next month to revisit a recipe I tried in December that I loved (a good spicy chicken enchilada soup).

So what did that roasted chicken become? After I took the chicken out of the crock pot, I shredded everything and made a really large chicken salad for dinner for me and SCB put his Chicken into some flour tortillas for an impromptu chicken taco dinner meal since he isn't big on salads as a main dish... but its nice that I can plan a salad for me as long as he can get some kind of taco fixings for him.

After dinner, I finished shredding the chicken and I decided to toss all the bones and skin back into the crock pot with the juices from the chicken and made some homemade stock in my crock pot. Since I've been looking for new recipes and cooking more, I found a few that call for some type of stock and if I'm paying so much already for a whole organic chicken, you can bet I'm going to get everything I can out of that expensive sucker... including stock.

The majority of the rest of the Chicken went into my homemade chicken enchiladas... which we paired with crock-pot re-fried beans...  Over all I found I preferred the enchiladas as leftovers... SCB asked me to leave them blander than normal... so I didn't put in the green chili's I normally would have.... and in my opinion it was sad unflavored event).... But it did make for a few lunches and dinners so the fact that it gave me a kitchen reprieve during the busier days of the week was welcomed... and it also helped that SCB did help me get through the leftovers as well because they were more suited to his "pallet" of blandness....

We also ended up using the leftover re-fried beans to make some homemade bean and cheese burritos for dinner for some busy nights since we had 3 hour pregnancy classes that started right after work almost, so a quick and easy became a nice motto for Monday night dinners.  Next time I make the beans I'm going to freeze half the batch since we tended to get sick of burritos before we could finish them off and ended up chucking some out... and in hindsight it would be nice to have some on hand to avoid opening a can of re-fried beans for just a side dish since SCB now thinks the can ones aren't that great anymore.

Some of the rest of the shredded chicken also made it to a couple of salads for me to take with me to work during the week too so it was $11 well spent for an organic chicken!

Later in the month I took some of that homemade chicken stock and made some homemade tomato bisque soup....

Now I will be honest... SCB will not eat tomato soup at all, let alone for dinner... So when I wanted to try this recipe out, I knew I was going to need to be creative. The week before I actually had made some homemade Broccoli Cheese Soup which was so tasty with homemade bread and yielded a HUGE pot that after leaving a couple portions for lunches for the week, I was able to freeze some containers of soup.. The soup was so good, SCB told me to make it a regular rotation. (Win!) So since I wanted to try the tomato soup recipe, I just pulled some broccoli cheese out of the freezer for him and I asked him to just try mine at some point during the meal... The verdict?

He will now eat tomato soup... because of that recipe... and I feel like I won an amazing battle in the kitchen because I LOVE TOMATO soup and now I can have it without making 2 separate dinners! Give a man a choice and a back up and you will be surprised what they will actually try! The best kitchen rule we ever made was if I make something and its too gross to eat, he always had permission to tell me the truth and go buy a $5 pizza from Little Caesars instead... and to this date, I think he's only had to do that 2 or 3 times in 3.5 years of marriage and one time I told him not to bother trying dinner cause I thought it was gross and made the pizza call myself!

What's great about both of the soup recipes is that they yield enough for us to have dinner that night and put around 4-6 containers of soup into the fridge or the freezer for meals and lunches (that's 4 total dinners worth)! With the baby coming around the corner, you can sure bet each time I make it I'm dating and labeling containers for quick dinners for the chest freezer.

Now not everything we ate was as complicated and totally from scratch or a brand new recipe.

Some of our favorite standbys made it back onto our plates. We made "korean beef" which is one of those meals that I enjoy and SCB tolerates since he's not a big Asian fan...

"Laura Pasta", which is always a favorite for SCB that I'm not too thrilled with but since he's a casserole man at heart I make sure to make it for him occasionally when he's needing a lunch time swap for his peanut butter and honey sandwiches ...(yup, most weeks he takes leftovers or peanut butter and honey sandwiches to work).

Tuna Melts became a Sunday staple tradition as I created a new house rule that SCB has to take care of feeding the family on Sundays to give me a day off since I feed the family the other 6 days out of the week...

Now the first week was a little hard on him because he expected me to help be his kitchen buddy and chopper... but now he understands how much I appreciate this "gift" on Sunday so he takes care of making them and I don't complain about eating them and they are always tasty on homemade bread :) especially when you get to sit on the couch while they are being made.

Shrimp Pea Pasta came back into action as another of hubby's favorite meals... (I swear I spread the pasta options out more throughout the month)... Its a pretty simple dish to make... Greek yogurt, peas, shrimp, Parmesan cheese, salt, pepper...

Spinach Bites are always a hit and tend to make it into the meal plan at least twice a month and are great for lunch leftovers since I tend to use more onion and spinach than the recipe calls for to help stretch everything out and get a few more bites. (again, these become the main entree... if we want more than just the bites and milk for dinner, we heat up a baked potato or something).

Broccoli Fritters also get mixed in at least twice a month as a main entree. It helps that Broccoli is the one vegetable my husband never complains about eating and I have to thank his mom for that one!

Hubs also asked me to try and make a homemade Macaroni and cheese...  While it was pretty tasty, I didn't have sharp cheddar so I used the Colby jack we had in the house so it wasn't as cheesy but it made the cut and next time I make it I'll make sure we have some sharp cheese in the house!

To help keep me sane, I generally would do one week of meals that were different and required more prep and effort and I would follow it with a week of less cooking by doing a casserole type meal or a pasta that would yield more leftovers so I could rest up a bit. I found it really helped me to be "super and awesome" for a week and do more veggie centered dinners that took more time so the next week I could be lazy and get by with pasta and a couple of days of "leftovers"...

We did try one more new recipe and I loved it and SCB tolerated it... but agreed to eat it as long as their were "side" dishes like his favorite mash potatoes... or other things like Zucchini strings... but all hail Parmesan Cauliflower Bites!!!
 
Now I didn't have 100% of the correct spices, and it didn't seem to matter, but these were tasty goodness and it got another veggie into our home that I had pretty much given up on after a disaster with my last cauliflower recipe...


Mix in a few things like Meatballs, date nights, and some frozen fish and veggies from our freezer stash and you have a pretty good idea what we managed to eat and cook in January for dinner.

Groceries in January

I closed the month out and calculated our total...We ended up spending $370.82 on groceries in January... I was able to save and enter almost all of our recipes (I'm missing around $20 worth of groceries), which is good since I haven't been keeping track like this for some time.

It wasn't the $300 we wanted to spend, but as I mentioned earlier, we had a pretty bare pantry to start with... and it wasn't a perfect month since we were getting back into the habit of cooking and budgeting at the same time. Since February is a shorter month, I'm hoping we can keep things better in line and under $300.. If not we might need to revisit our grocery plan for 2014. Last year our average was $340 a month, but I think with more scratch cooking we will be better off in the long run trying for $300 a month. If we can't make it work in February, i'm going to bump it up to $350 since we are buying almost entirely organic at this point but we shall see.

It would have been slightly cheaper and closer to $350 but SCB asked me if he could have some nice roast beef and provolone cheese for sandwiches since he's been packing leftovers or peanut butter and honey all month long... and there was no way I was going to deny him that simple request when he's been trying to be much better about packing lunches with what is in the house. We also were re-stocking and took advantage of some great sales.

I'm really proud of the fact that we didn't really toss too much if any produce away. A few stalks of celery, some cilantro and some heavy whipping cream that was bought last month were the only items to get tossed out and not used up or frozen, which is awesome for us. Sure we had a few snags, but as the month went on I got smarter and remembered some of my tried and true tips and tricks.

After the bacon mishap, I made a point of wrapping and freezing the leftover package in the amounts I need for some of my recipes so we won't need to go out and buy it again next month when I make more soup. I froze some of the leftover cream before it would go bad again since I bought it from costco in bulk since it was cheaper and I wasn't buying organic anyway since I couldn't find organic in the store...

Someone also suggested we try to go to 1% or 2% milk since we can't find a good price on organic fat free milk so I think I might start price checking those options at Costco and see if they beat the $5.99 a gallon I found at Trader Joes that has a decent shelf life if we can keep it longer than a week before its gone... and speaking of Trader Joes, I also figured out I can get a better deal on Greek yogurt by picking it up at trader Joes on my lunch break then grabbing it at sprouts so hopefully that will save us a few dollars. I also tried to sweeten the plain Greek yogurt with some honey since I normally toss in some granola with it when I have it anyway... It was really good and it actually cuts out a lot of sugar so now I can say bye bye to needing to buy vanilla flavored yogurt as well and can just buy one type.

I'm missing a few receipts to record, but I got most of what we bought in January:

Dairy:

Yup... over $100 on dairy including 6 gallons of milk for only 2 people and the belly goober...  But we have been using more dairy as healthy protein options when we cook more vegetable center meals.

Fruit:

$31 ish... We kept it pretty basic for the month and ate banana's, apples and oranges for the most part so we could buy organic for the most part.

Earlier in the month I splurged on some black berries which I really enjoyed :) and SCB loved the clementines, which since they were a "peel" type of fruit we didn't get organic.

Veggies:

Again, mostly organic here as well. Its weird to think we bought 7 lbs of onions in a single month!

 Grains / Bread / Pasta Etc.







The one and only loaf of bread I hope we have to buy all year... it was just so sad...

We did some stocking up thanks to some good sales at Ralphs... 10 boxes of cereal and 18 boxes of pasta (some whole wheat some regular)

The chips were for our weekly preggers classes so SCB had some snacks on hand.

Meats/ Proteins


Mostly organic poultry plus a weeks worth of awesome sandwiches for SCB as a nice treat.

Other: