Grocery Haul for Two and a Recipe Review

Good morning/afternoon! We are back from Sacramento and getting into our regular life groove again. I'll share all about our trip and new grandbaby next week. We left Sacramento very early in the morning and were able to get home in time to stop and pick up groceries. It's about a 12 hour drive home and my brain was not in grocery shopping mode so I ended up forgetting a few things :). But nothing we can't live without until next week.

Our first stop was Winco...

I did remember to pick up the half in half, ha, ha.. I know my priorities, I must have it for my coffee. :) I also got milk, cereal, tortilla chips, oranges, tomatoes and cookies (which I'll put some of them in the freezer to last longer). Over on the right side of the picture is a small bag of pepperoni and a small bag of salami. I had pizza on my mind and picked it up from the deli.

I also bought a salad kit for our dinner that night when we got home. Unfortunately I was not thinking far enough ahead to get more greens for later in the week. I was happy to see when I got home that I still had spinach that was good and a little romaine lettuce that had survived our absence. And I have cabbage, so I know we'll be fine on the fresh veggies until next week.

In the picture I also had some deodorant that I bought but I don't count that towards my grocery budget. That is budgeted under "personal items". So the total does not reflect that purchase.

Winco Total: $24.00 (rounded up)

While I was in Sacramento I purchased food for my daughter to make her some meals for her freezer before I left. I'm not counting that as part of my grocery budget because that is budgeted under, “gifts”.

But we did pick up a couple items for us and I did not get a photo of those. We purchased apples and bananas and that total came to $3.00. We snacked on those while we were on the road.

Total for both Winco trips: $27.00

After Winco we went to Costco...

This trip I spent more than typical. I purchased 2 big cans of coffee (one regular and one decaf as my hubby drinks an equal mix of both). I got a big package of sub sandwich rolls (if I don't make pizza I wanted to make Italian subs), mixed nuts and Pub Mix that my hubby takes to work in his lunches. In my tired state I forgot to include a box of coffee pods in the photo..

I also purchased a frozen bag of wild caught salmon and a big ol slab of steak.

This is uncut New York strip steak. It's bbq season and I like to have steaks in the freezer. I'll show you below how I deal with this. By buying it uncut and cutting it myself I saved $1.50 a pound.

Our total Costco total was: $203.00

Since I've gone most of the year buying very little meat and our overall budget was low and we did a big restock of coffee, this grocery total was not a huge shock.

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One Pot Creamy Pepperoncini Chicken Tender Skillet
(Recipe Review)

I seriously loved this recipe! It was so easy to put together and had a huge amount of flavor. 

You can find the recipe HERE.

I started by cutting up my chicken, onions, pepperoncinis and measuring out the red peppers.

I cooked the chicken and onions in a little avocado oil and seasoned with salt, pepper, Italian seasonings and garlic..

When that was cooked I added the chicken broth, whipping cream and parmesan cheese...

I stirred it around to combine it all and added the pepperoncinis and red peppers. 

 

I served it with angel hair pasta and a salad. I loved how it went together so quick. 

The pepperoncinis and the jarred red peppers gave it a slightly hot taste so if you're not a fan of spicy and hot, go easy on them. I would not leave them out because I think they added a ton of flavor. So simply taste and adjust to your own liking.

I give this recipe a 2 thumbs up!

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Now for dealing with that slab of steak. It's really pretty easy. You do need a sharp knife or the job will torture.

I got out a couple of my cutting mats, removed the meat from the bag it was in and started slicing off steaks. You can do this according to however you like your steaks; thick or thin.

After they were all cut I wrapped each one in plastic wrap. I do this so I can easily pull out just the amount of steaks we want at each time..

Then I put the wrapped steaks in freezer bags and put them in the freezer..

It took me about 30 minutes to do all this and clean up. Well worth the savings and now I have 17 steaks in my freezer for either Tobin and I or I can pull out extras when we have company this summer.

That's all for this weeks Grocery Haul for Two!