Wow. It’s hard to believe that this is the last week of the All You Grocery Challenge! It’s been a great way to keep me accountable in how much money I am spending on food each week. I really didn’t think the $25/person per week would keep me on my toes as much as it has.
I think one of the biggest challenges has been watching out for those little expenses that add up. Wes told me yesterday that he refrained from buying a can of peanuts while he was out shopping because he didn’t know if it was in the budget (poor guy).
I guess this could also be seen as a benefit. It’s certainly good to improve our communication about money spent. While we are always careful in our spending, it’s also easy to let things slide at times. But now, we’ve had to think ahead about our week and whether we need to budget for eating out or other food expenses. It’s been good, although I think Wes is looking forward to splurging on those peanuts next week!
So, here is where we stand. We spent almost exactly $75 last week between groceries and grabbing some spiedies at the Spiedie Fest. (Gotta love the prices at those events…sheesh!)
But here’s the good news. I didn’t even follow my meal plan last week! It just ended up being on of those weeks where burgers and leftovers and our free Tyson Skillet Meal were so much easier for me. So all of my menu planning (and grocery shopping!) is done for this week. This is good because it’s Griffin’s birthday on Saturday and we are going to surprise him and take him to Chuck E. Cheese’s. (Shh…don’t tell!)
That being said, I have a dilemma that I thought you all might be able to help me with. Being the novice gardener that I am, I went a little gung-ho with the basil this year and it now looks like this:
What is a girl supposed to do with all of this basil??!!
My sister plans to come help me make pesto this week. Any good recipes? Any other suggestions?
HELP!!!!
I like to dehydrate some to use dried in recipes later. I leave it whole to dehydrate. It’s so much better than the dried stuff you buy.
You might want to heck out veggietrader.com
I just read about them, you can trade or sell excess produce with other home gardeners.
Thanks, everybody! I KNEW you all would help a girl out!
I have the same problem – the other week I cut enough pesto for 12 CUPS of basil leaves! I searched and searched for ideas, but most basil recipes use only a little bit, except pesto. I ended up making 3 kinds of pesto and freezing them – regular pesto from cooking light, sundried tomato pesto (no cheese), and creamy pesto (uses silken tofu and you would never guess it has tofu).
The other thing I did was make sundried tomato basil bread. I threw a ton of basil in there and it was so good. If the pic you posted is all of your basil, once you cut it and strip the leaves, you’ll probably have 2 or 3 cups, which is enough for one big batch of pesto. When you cut it, leave about two sets of leaves on each stalk and it will grow right back and you will have the same happy problem again soon!
you can wash it and then freeze it to throw in pasta sauce!
Tomato, basil and mozzarella sandwiches!!!
Honestly start giving it away as a gift with a recipe card. That stuff is expensive at the store and I’d be thrilled if someone gave me some fo free!
Do the pesto! Pampered Chef tends to do a number of dishes with pesto and I love to toss it with chopped tomatoes, left over chicken, a little cheese and garlic salt. You can’t go wrong putting it in the freezer for later.
Make LOTS of pesto. If you freeze it in an ice cube tray, you can pop out 1 cube at time and it wil be about enough for 1 lb of pasta.
Or, put leaves on homemade pizza with some tomato slices and cheese. YUM!