Save Your Money- Buy Our Groceries: Vol. 20

2 people, 5 days, 70 bucks or less

For more info on this series of posts, click here!

THIS WEEK’S MENU

Breakfast

• Chili Egg Breakfast Tacos

Lunch

• Escarole, Fennel and Chicken Sausage Stew

Dinner

• Chicken Piccata with Roasted Veggie Pasta

Snack

• Brie and Pears on Crackers

THE GROCERY LIST  (for 2 people)

This week requires you having some leftover chili in the freezer, as most of us do at some point, and we needed to use ours STAT.  If you don’t, make it easy on yourself and grab a bowl of take out chili from your favorite place.

• 3 yellow onions
• 1 large zucchini or a few smaller ones
• 1 large eggplant or two small ones
• 1 fennel bulb
• 1 bunch escarole
• 3 ripe pears
• 11 lemons
• flat leaf parsley
• garlic
• 6 sweet Italian style chicken or turkey sausages
• 5 80z. skinless, boneless chicken breasts
• 6 cups chicken broth
• 2 15oz. cans cannellini beans
• 1 28oz. can whole tomatoes
• 1 small jar of capers
• eggs
• milk
• parmesan cheese
• brie
• pasta (any kind will do!)
• 20 small corn tortillas
• large yummy flat crackers (we like ak-mak)
• 1 inexpensive bottle sauvignon blanc

WHAT WE ALREADY HAD AT HOME

• salt
• pepper
• olive oil
• cooking spray
• leftover chili
• flour
• dried basil
• dried oregano

PREP ON SUNDAY

Escarole, Fennel and Chicken Sausage Stew

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 onions, halved and thinly sliced
• 1 fennel bulb with the stalks cut off, thinly sliced
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic
• 6 sweet Italian chicken or turkey sausages, casings removed if they have them and cut into chunks
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 2 cups water
• 2 15 oz. cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 bunch of escarole, roughly chopped

Heat oil in a large saucepan or dutch oven over medium high heat.  Add onion, fennel, garlic and sausage; cook 7 minutes or until sausage is browned and everything is tender.  Add broth, water and beans.  Cover; bring to boil, and cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Stir in escarole; cook 4 minutes.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Store in the fridge for the week.

Roasted Veggie Sauce for the Pasta

• eggplant(s), quartered and sliced
• zucchini(s), halved and sliced
• 1 onion, cut into 8 wedges
• olive oil
• 1 28oz. can whole tomatoes
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic

Preheat oven to 425.  Toss all your veggies in a bowl with a hefty drizzle of olive oil and some salt and pepper.   Divide everything between two cookie sheets or two roasting pans lined with tin foil (for easier clean up).  Roast veggies in the oven for 25-35 minutes or until everything is very tender and starting to brown.  Don’t worry if a few bits get charred, because it’s even more delicious that way.   Remove from oven and set aside.

Heat a drizzle of olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat and add the garlic.  Cook for 1 minute; add the tomatoes, and mash each with a potato masher to break them up.  Add the roasted veggies and stir and mash until everything is as smooth or chunky as you want.  Add basil and oregano, stir and reduce heat to low.  Cover and cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Store in the fridge for the week.

BREAKFAST- 15 minutes

Chili Egg Breakfast Tacos

• 2 eggs
• 4 corn tortillas
• milk
• salt
• pepper
• cooking spray
• 1 cup leftover chili, reheated
• hot sauce

Heat spray in a non-stick skillet over medium heat.  Whisk eggs with a splash of milk, salt and pepper in a bowl.  Pour into the hot pan.  Let set for about 30 seconds and then stir with a spatula rubber spoonula until scrambled to your liking.  Remove eggs from pan and set aside.   Heat your tortillas in the pan until they warm up and soften a bit.   Divide eggs and chili between the tortillas and top with hot sauce.

LUNCH- 5 minutes

Escarole, Fennel and Chicken Sausage Stew

• 2 heaping cups of stew
• parmesan cheese

Reheat, divide between 2 bowls, top with cheese and eat!

DINNER-  30 minutes

Chicken Piccata with Roasted Veggie Pasta

• 3/4 cup of roasted veggie sauce, reheated
• 8oz. pasta
• 1 chicken breast, cut in half
• salt
• pepper
• 1/8 cup flour
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/3 cup sauvignon blanc
• 1/3 cup chicken broth
• juice of 2 lemons
• 1 tablespoon capers, rinsed and drained
• 1/8 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley

Put chicken breast halves between plastic wrap and pound with a mallet until about 1/4 inch thick.   Sprinkle with salt and pepper and coat lightly with flour.   Fill a pot with water and salt well.  Bring to a boil and add pasta.  While you do that, heat olive oil in a skillet over medium high heat.  Add the cutlets and saute 2 minutes.  Turn over and saute 1 minute.  Remove cutlets from pan, add wine to the pan and bring to a boil, scraping all the brown bits off the bottom.  Stir in chicken broth; bring to a boil.  Cook until broth mixture is reduced to about 1 tablespoon.  Stir in lemon juice and capers.  Pour sauce over chicken.  When your pasta is done, drain well.  Serve one chicken cutlet with half of the pasta and half of the sauce.  Sprinkle with parsley.

SNACK-  no minutes

Brie and Pears on Crackers

Eat some!  We like to slice the pear and brie thinly and make little open-faced sandwiches with everything.  Use about half a pear each day and rub the exposed half with lemon juice so it doesn’t brown by the next day.  Store the unused half in the fridge.