Meal Planning and Grocery Shopping Trips – Week 47 of 52

Prerequisite Market Basket grocery shopping trip hot chocolate and donuts {for two} $3.88 {I don’t even think you can get a small hot chocolate at Starbucks for that!}. Puffy coats are optional, but highly recommended at this point in the season. 🙂   Also, who drinks out of a to-go cup without the lid on? If you ask me, that’s just asking for trouble.

What the heck are New Age Beverages? Anyone know?

Market Basket $48.58

The HH was responsible for getting the produce in the cart and had I know the grapes would have been $9.15, I think I might have passed on making Carole’s Creamy Grape Salad for Thanksgiving. But then again…. it’s so darn good maybe I would have just bought them anyway.

Side  Note: The HH accidental grabbed “seeded” red grapes. When I bit into the salad I bit down on something hard {the seed!} and then asked what kind of grapes he bought.

I BOUGHT GRAPES! Why?

And then I looked at the package and pointed out the label and then he totally FLIPPED OUT and for the next 10 minutes I had to listen to why would ANYONE sell grapes with seeds in them!?…. It was sort of funny. It never occurred to me I needed to tell him to buy SEEDLESS grapes.

But he made a steak and mushroom pie later that day so all was well with the universe.

And the next night, we had a nice beef stew.

Lucy for us the place where The Girl works, gave her a free turkey for Thanksgiving so we didn’t have to buy one this year.

It was so big {21 pounds I think} that wee pretty much ate leftovers for 3 days straight.

I made a big pot of turkey soup last night to break things up a bit, but ended up filling two quart sized baggies with bits of turkey in the freezer this morning because I’ve had my fill of turkey for awhile.

If you love a good custard pie, I highly recommend you bookmark, or pin my favorite Buttermilk Pineapple Pie recipe for next holiday feast. It is insanely rich and pretty much one of our all time favorite custard pie. Plus, it’s super easy to make ahead of time.

Parish Hill Creamery $36

And last but not least, the day after Thanksgiving, the HH and I took a mini road trip to Putney, Vermont to check out the Putney Open Studio Art Tour.  I have absolutely no idea how I came across the tour online {the internet can be magical that way} but at the last minute we decided to go and one of the stops {and our favorite!} we made was to Parish Hill Creamery to sample cheese.

I’m not sure what I loved more about the whole trip…. The cheese, the fact that we got to hand over our money to the actual people who made the cheese, or the fact that here were two people {husband and wife} who made their living doing something they loved and were sharing it with the world…. just steps from their home in a small out building with one cheese vat.

Life, it’s pretty cool when you slow down and stop to look around, isn’t it? Driving a couple of hours through the snow to buy cheese, is so much more fun than buying it off the grocery store shelf.

Wishing you the happiest of Mondays…

Peace Out,

~Mavis

Total Spent This Week $84.58

Total Spent in November $250.09 <– I blame it on the cheese and grapes! 🙂
Total Spent in October $218.57 <– Stocked up on cheese {Because cheese is life}
Total Spent in September $180.97
Total Spent in August $259.90 <– $30 on salami splurge in Boston
Total Spent in July $276.56 < – $38 Spent on Amish meat and cheese
Total Spent in June $206.47 <- Attempting once a month grocery shopping
Total Spent in May on Groceries $216.50 <- Included a stock up trip to King Arthur Flour
Total Spent in April on Groceries $169.98
Total Spent in March on Groceries $306.75 <– Apartment life, moving across the country and settling into a new house
Total Spent in February on Groceries $259.81 <- Living in an apartment and buying a lot of ready-made meals
Total Spent in January on Groceries $240.15 <– Packing mode and not cooking from scratch as much

Go HERE to read more Shopping Trip Stories.