A Week of Whole Food on $54

Thursday of last week I found myself with an empty refrigerator, two hungry teenagers and only $60 in the bank. So I headed out to Aldi and our local grocery outlet store, Go Grocery, with my reusable shopping bags, a basic list of items we were out of and calculator in hand. I had already seen the current Aldi ad and knew they had some great prices on fruits and veggies. It was tough to get past the first isle which is filled with all the "extras" that were not part of the budget; however, I did cave and throw 1 bag of kettle cooked chips into the basket. It is summer after all. After finishing at Aldi I hit Go Grocery for the 2.5lb bag of organic, uncured bacon I knew they had along with some chicken, ground beef and a $2 carton of ice cream. Again, it's summer, right? So my total grocery trip cost $54 and some change. Here is a list of my haul.

1-whole chicken 
1lb- ground beef
3.5lb- chicken thighs
2.5lb organic uncured bacon
4oz-goat cheese
3oz- sea salt w/ grinder
4 cans diced tomatoes
1 can black olives
1 package bagel thins
2- avocados 
4- nectarines
3lb bag gala apples
3- beefsteak tomatoes
4- zucchini 
3- summer squash
3-heads of garlic
1bag mini sweet peppers
2lb bag sweet onions
1 bag spinach 
1 carton of grape tomatoes
1 lg sweet potato
1 gal. Milk
4lb sugar
1 bag kettle chips
1 carton ice cream

The first couple things I made were breakfast frittatas on Saturday and Sunday with eggs & linguica I already had in the fridge. That was nothing more than sauteing what ever veggies I had, ( spinach, grape tomatoes, zucchini & yellow squash) with some onion then pour over scrambled eggs, grate some cheddar cheese then salt and pepper to taste. Place a lid over your pan turn heat to low and let steam for a few minutes until eggs are done to your liking. I used 5 eggs and about 1 cup of veggies to make 4 servings.

We have also been snacking on apples with peanut butter all weekend.