Inspired Revisited

So it's been a while friends, but I'm back.

I wrestled with the idea of posting this, since I hadn't gotten any sort of comment on the last post, but I decided I would post it anyway.

Our shopping for the past week for groceries was all done in one day: Friday.

We went to 2 stores: Sam's and Whole Foods. (We go to Sam's to stock up on freezer stuff like fish fillets and chicken. And Goldfish for my husband, because he can eat a whole bag in one sitting...)

I've misplaced the receipt from Sam's, but the total amount we spent there (and mind you, this is for 2 weeks total) was $118 and some cents.

At Whole Foods we bought all of our fresh produce and the majority of our meet (and all the baby's food.) We spent $160 even, because we donated a dollar to the school gardening fund.

So in all, give or take, for two weeks of grocery shopping in one trip, we spent $278 and some cents. So, for a week in a household with 2 adults, 1 baby, 1 cat, and 1 dog we spent roughly $139.

So it's not terribly expensive to eat healthily on a budget. We got 3 different types of tofu (mainly for the baby to eat for finger food, but Jason seemed to like it cooked up with some sesame seed oil, soy sauce, red pepper flakes, and Sriracha sauce), a bottle of wine, 2 loaves of organic bread, 3 cans of coconut milk, 3 cans of pumpkin, a bag of frozen chicken thighs, and 3 different types of sausage. And those are just the bigger items.

I have a bit of a cold on, so this is all I can manage for the time being. It might not make much sense, but I'm blaming the Benadryl.

As always, enjoy your loved ones and your life with a Spoonful of Sugar.

It's All Greek to Me

Hello all! I thought I'd share one of my favorite weeknight dinners with you all. My husband was kind of dubious about this the first time I described it to him. In fact, it took me 2 weeks to convince him it would be a good, affordable dinner since all we would need to get from the grocery store would be chicken and lemons. (We tend to be unable to keep meat in the house for too long, since we're both such voracious carnivores.)

Finally, he conceded and off to the store I went. Now, we used boneless breasts because our favorite grocery store which is literally across the street from our house has recently changed into a much lesser entity. What was amazing and fantastic before is now mediocre...if that.

We used to be able to find many cuts of lamb and veal, now there is none. Where we used to find delicious, fatty chicken thighs, there are now only chicken tenders and breast. (And about that...what body part exactly is the damn tender? Like, seriously, we needed to make up a chicken part to serve to our children? Really...REALLY? Parents, let's get off our asses and broaden our children's food horizons.)

Anyway, the recipe is basically a Mediterranean style chicken "casserole" with rice. It's very delicious and flavorful, and you get a lot for what you spend. Especially if you're anything like my husband and you think that buying a HUGE bag of rice from a buy-in-bulk store is a good idea. (We don't have to buy rice ever again. EVER.)

You can also use pasta for this, but i like the flavor that the rice can lend to the dish, especially if you use Jasmine rice. (And just think, if you make too much rice, you can always make rice pudding!)

To make this dish you will need:

Boneless, skinless chicken (we like the thighs, but please use any cut you prefer)

Olive oil

Kalamata olives

Capers

2 cloves garlic

Half an onion

2 lemons

1/2 cup white wine (We tend to make recipes that call for white wine after my mother has made a visit. She loves the stuff, but no one else drinks it, so we use it for cooking. Last visit we made viener schnitzel with the leftover Pinot Grigio!)

Your favorite Mediterranean spices

Rice

So, in a skillet, lightly brown your chicken and then place the pieces in a glass or metal casserole pan. (We used a brownie pan...)

Heat your oven to about 350 or 400 Fahrenheit.

Into your casserole dish, add some capers and olives. If you wish, you may sweat the onions and garlic together in your skillet and then add it to the dish, but it's not necessary. Over the delicious heap of olives, capers, garlic, and onion, squeeze one of the lemons. I also slice the lemons and add a few on top. (It's kind of a to-taste thing. If you like lemon, use 2, if you aren't especially fond of it, just use one.)

Drizzle a bit of olive oil and white wine over top, then sprinkle with your herbs. (I tend to be a bit heavy handed when it comes to oregano. It's one of my favorites.) I also poured a bit of the juice from the olive jar over top, but that's purely up to you.

Place your delicious chicken dish into the oven for about 15-20 minutes, long enough for you to make your rice. Now, I'm going to assume if you're reading this, you know how to make rice. I won't bore you with those steps, because if you don't know how to make rice, you probably shouldn't attempt any great feat in the kitchen... Stick to peanut butter and jelly...

When the timer goes off, you're ready to serve. Place the chicken and some of the juices over the top of your rice, and enjoy!

That's it for now lovelies! Until next time, enjoy your loved ones, and your life, with a Spoonful of Sugar!