Hi there! I hope most of you are off work and enjoying free time this Labor Day surrounded by family and friends. And, if you’re one of the unlucky having to work, well, I hope your day is going smoothly.

Yesterday I shared a few ways we’re trying to rein in our grocery spending, and you can be the judge to see if last week’s meals hit the mark. As I mentioned yesterday, we’re trying to utilize the slow-cooker more often, get creative with leftovers, and use our well-stocked pantry instead of buying all new ingredients for the week.

Monday:

Since Mondays are usually gym night for me, we make life simpler by using the slow-cooker. How did I not know “salsa chicken” existed before now? We literally put a package of boneless/skinless chicken breasts into the Crockpot, topped it with a jar of store-bought salsa (Mrs. Renfro’s—not bad!), and cooked it on low for ~8 hours during work. It was so tender and easy to shred, and we filled whole wheat tortillas (leftover from last week’s pork tacos!) and topped them with pan-roasted corn (canned) and leftover purple cabbage (also from last week’s tacos). We had canned black beans (spiced up with sliced onion) on the side. This was a delicious and filling meal that yielded plenty of leftovers for our lunches.

Tuesday:

The husband made linguine with zucchini, tomato, broccoli, and mozzarella. We often use whole wheat pasta, but sometimes we buy whatever standard pasta happens to be on sale. Store-brand pasta from our local Rouses were 10 for $10 (we just bought a few, though), so we took that route. Pasta skillets are a great way to up the veggie intake, and like most of our meals, we had plenty leftover for lunch.

Wednesday:

We had pork tenderloin, stuffing, and canned green beans. Pork is cheap, and these tenderloins come in a 2-pack, which means we freeze the second one for later. The bagged stuffing mix was something we’ve had in our pantry for ages, and we added chopped onion, celery, and bell pepper to dress it up (it wasn’t that great, however). We relied on canned green beans for an additional side. Leftovers were taken to lunch later in the week.

Thursday: 

We threw together some defrosted tomato/white bean soup (one of our go-to recipes) and grilled cheese—plus way too many tortilla chips on the side. 100% pantry/freezer staples.

Friday:

Brinner! We had scrambled eggs, toast, and bacon. And, of course, mimosas. All of this we had in our pantry/refrigerator.

I don’t know about you, but I think we did pretty well. We used up leftover vegetables that were about to go bad (and tortillas, which we almost always waste), made good use of our leftovers, and “shopped” from our pantry for each meal. While I’ll prefer fresh vegetables 99% of the time, you can’t deny the value in canned vegetables.

• What’s your go-to weeknight dinner?
• Have you ever had salsa chicken?
• Did you do anything special for Labor day?