Divide and conquer. That was today's strategy. My daughter and I ran errands and got groceries. My hubby and son stayed home and finished up our to do list (some cleaning and some man work).
My pre-challenge grocery weekly average was $175. Today I spent $24.39 on cleaners and toiletries (including expensive allergy medicine). I spent $1.49 on impulse items. I saw a loaf of Italian bread and thought it would go great with lasagna tonight. I spent $10.16 on gossip magazines. Now on to food. I spent $113.17 on food. After adding in their surcharge and taking out my coupons, I spent $152.11 out of pocket. A little higher this week but for a good reason....we are having company stay with us. Yay! This is a savings of $22.89. My pre-challenge weekly restaurant average was $80. This week we ordered in from a local Italian place and went out to Olive Garden. We spent $90.17. Oops. This is over by $10.17. Taking that overage out of our savings brings our weekly total savings to $12.72. Our grand total savings is $4,329.20 in 308 days. It feels like it has been slow moving for the past month or so. Oh well. It will pick up soon!
I decided to alter our lasagna recipe tonight. I knew I could include black beans with the filling and no one would notice it. I put a block of cream cheese, about a cup of black beans, and a few spoonfuls of homemade spaghetti sauce into the food processor. I spread the mixture onto cooked lasagna noodles. Next I added a sauteed mixture of onion, mushrooms, spinach, and garlic that was cooked with white wine. I seasoned the veggies with adobo and garlic/wine seasoning. After the veggies, a little bit of mozzarella cheese went on. I rolled up the lasagna noodles. I put a little sauce in the bottom of a cake pan, set the rolls on top, then put more sauce on them. I topped the rolls with american cheese, pepperoni for the meat eaters, mozzarella cheese, and romano cheese. I baked the lasagna rolls at 400 until warmed then stuck it under the broiler to brown the cheese.
My daughter made her special garlic butter to go on the Italian bread. She added parsley, salt, and pepper. I forgot to get it in the picture though. Tonight was also the first night that we got to eat green beans from my garden as a meal. Delicious. I let everyone build their salads and choose what items they wanted. We chose from lettuce, baby kale, arugula, pea shoots, peas, carrots, green pepper, and green onion.
How did dinner turn out? Everyone said the lasagna was really good and nobody could taste the beans. Score!
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