Grocery Haul for Two and Red Lentil Soup

Happy Friday! It's time for this weeks grocery haul. The first stop this week was at Costco. 

 

I like Costco's romaine lettuce hearts. They're small and have very little waste compared to what I get at Winco. I also needed to restock diced tomatoes, salsa, ranch dressing and english muffins. 

I picked up another case of Vita Coco (coconut water). They have it on sale this month and I bought some last week. I wasn't sure if I was going to like it but found I LOVE it. I decided to get another case while it was still on sale.

I picked up a bag of frozen mango chunks for making smoothies.

I was out of chicken, or at least bone in, skin on type chicken. I love to use it for fried chicken, bbq chicken (both in the air fryer) and I use it to make soup/stock. I bought chicken thighs and chicken legs. The thighs were $1.29 a pound and the legs .99 cents a pound. That's a good deal around here.

The total for Costco was: $65 (rounded up)

The last stop was Winco....

I purchased my regular stash of fruits and veggies. I picked up a little pumpkin for $1.58. I'm not sure if I'm going to cook it up or not. It is currently sitting on my front porch next to my mums for a little fallish look :). 

 

I picked up 5#'s of hamburger because I was down to just 1# in my freezer. Half & half was on sale for $1.88 a quart. I purchased 2 of these. The date on them is in the middle of December so I know they will be used before that. I also bought milk and restocked our tortilla chips. 

 

Hubby was with me while shopping and was feeling hungry (obviously ha, ha!). They had their deli take and bake pizzas on sale for $5.48 each. I was going to make pizza but at that price we decided to buy them instead. One we ate that night the other went into the freezer. 

 

To go with our pizza we bought some sushi. Winco's sushi is actually pretty good and we both love sushi. That was our treat for the evening and we enjoyed a lot! 

 

Lastly was the frozen food. Two cartons of ice cream (mostly for hubby as I can't do much dairy without a lot of issues so I typically avoid it. Once in a while I'll have some but then deal with the consequences. Mostly they are swallowing and mucus issues, an ongoing problem due to my surgery in January). The frozen peas & carrots were on sale for $1 a package. I like to have them on hand for making chicken pot pie (which was on my menu this week).

The total for Winco was: $68 (rounded up)

Grand total for this weeks groceries: $133

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I missed blogging the last two weeks of grocery haul posts.  I'll give totals here to keep me on track with this series..  

Last week:  The grand total for Winco & Costco was:  $135

Previous week grand total for both stores: $146

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Red Lentil Coconut Soup (for the Instant Pot or stove top)

I think I've found a new love... red lentils! Different taste than brown lentils and very healthy. They have a lot of protein in them as well. I've made this soup twice in the last couple weeks and have plans to make it again soon. 

(Sitting next to my bowl of soup is a veggie wrap. :)   

The original recipe can be found HERE. I made a few changes based on personal preferences. I don't like my soups to be as thick as what I see many of them are. Lentils (and split peas) will thicken up as the cool and you end up with a bowl of soup so thick that you can stand a spoon up straight in it. Not my thing. So I added more water to the cooking process. With the extra water added I had no issues with this coming to pressure.

The other change I made was omit the curry powder. I do not like curry powder, at all. But if you are a fan of it, then it can easily be added.

I also used fresh ginger instead of ginger paste. I always thought ginger was such a pain in the neck to peel, until my daughter told me it can be peeled easily with a spoon.  That is how I do it now, and it's so easy.  After peeling I grate it to use in recipes..  I'm posting a short video to show you how I do it..

 

To make this soup you'll need these ingredients..

Spices, red lentils, diced tomatoes, coconut milk and water.  Very simple :)

After making the changes I wrote down the recipe, made how I made it...

Red Lentil Coconut Soup (Instant Pot w/ optional stove top instructions)

1 medium onion, chopped

1T granulated garlic (or chopped fresh)

1T ginger paste or grated fresh ginger

¼ t red pepper flakes (see ***NOTES)

¾ cup dried red lentils

1 can (approx 13oz) coconut milk, full fat

2 ½ cups water

1 can (14oz) diced tomatoes

salt and pepper to taste

In your Instant Pot combine all ingredients except diced tomatoes. Stir well. Add diced tomatoes, do not stir.

Put lid on IP, turn sealing knob to “seal”. Press “manual” and set timer for 15 minutes.

After time is up either wait at least 15 minutes for pressure to drop, or allow it to drop all the way on its own.

Remove lid and use a hand blender to make soup smooth.

***NOTES:

Soup is a bit on the spicy side due to the red pepper flakes, these can be omitted if you are not a fan of spicy.

If you like the taste of curry you can also add 1T curry powder to the soup when cooking.

If you're doing this on the stove top:

Add all ingredients into a soup pot, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 45 minutes to an hour or until lentils are soft. Use a hand blender to make soup smooth.

That's all for this weeks grocery haul!  Have a great weekend!

Crystal :)