I Eat Mostly Vegetarian and My Husband Eats Meat — Here’s What We Bought and What We Made Last Week

Name: Sarah
Location: Upstate New York
Number of people in household: 2 (me and my husband, Brian)
Ages: We’re 38 and 35
Occupation: I’m a Marketing Director for a nonprofit, and my husband works in social services.
Amount Spent: $149.21
Dietary restrictions: I eat mostly vegetarian. My husband eats meat when he eats out, or cooks for himself.

I shopped at the big farm stand down the road and at my local Hannaford. The farm stand is open seasonally from May until December, so while it’s open that’s always my first stop. I shopped on the way home from work on Friday to see what I could get from my list before heading to the grocery store. I usually do my large shopping trips at Price Chopper, but I like to do my grocery shopping on the way home from something else, and Hannaford was on the way home on Saturday morning, after meeting a friend for a run. 

I usually try to shop for one week’s worth of groceries at a time and also use what’s already in the pantry and fridge. I try to buy what’s in season, and stick to my list as much as possible. The goal is to keep the the budget to $150 for the week. Once a month or so, we skip our weekly grocery trip and try to eat only from the pantry. That’s always a bit of an adventure.

I use Pinterest to keep track of online recipes I want to make, and have a small stack of cookbooks that I look through when I’m planning. We also get Bon Appetit in the mail monthly, and there are usually a few things I dog-ear from there. I know that Tuesday and Thursday evenings tend to be “fend for yourself” meals because my husband works late, and I have a book club on Thursdays. I try to plan on making new recipes on Sundays or Mondays when we have more time, and on Wednesdays we usually have a standing date with a friend to eat dinner and watch Top Chef, so I try to plan a fun meal for Wednesdays. We typically get takeout for dinner one evening over the weekend, and I like to make nice breakfasts for us on the weekends when we have more time to cook. 

The Farm Stand
It’s tomato season, and cucumber season, and corn season. What a great week to be at the farm stand!

• Broccoli
• 2 limes
• Lemon
• 2 yellow onions
• Garlic
• 3 avocados
• Red pepper
• Carrots
• Baby spinach
• Purple cabbage
• Two ears of corn
• Cremini mushrooms
• Cantaloupe
• 1 pint of blueberries
• 1 pint of  “bronze torch” tomatoes
• 8 pickling cucumbers
• Sourdough

Total = $48.24

Hannaford

• 2 packages of naan, $6.98
• English muffins, $2.99
• 2 packages of hot dog buns, $ 5.00
• Feta cheese, $3.49
• Ithaca Lemon Beet Hummus, $4.99
• Kate’s salted butter, $5.59
• Almond milk, $2.99
• Buttermilk, $1.99
• Heavy cream, $5.99
• Forager Cashewmilk Yogurt, $4.99
• Beyond sausages, $5.99
• Extra firm tofu, $1.99
• Field Roast Smoked Apple and Sage Sausages, $6.99
• 5-cheese tortellini, $8.49
• Diced tomatoes, $1.59
• Gatherer’s Granola, $5.79
• Stubb’s BBQ Sauce, $3.49
• Coconut milk, $2.79
• Cape Cod Potato Chips, $3.19
• Yasso Chocolate Fudge Pops, $4.49
• Polar Seltzer, $4.00
• Mexican cola, $5.59

Total: $100.96

Grand total: $149.21

Breakfast

During the weekdays it’s yogurt and fruit with granola for me, and English muffins with peanut butter for Brian. I also made buttermilk biscuits on Saturday for the weekend, because I was already buying buttermilk for a cake. 

Lunch

I like to make avocado toast, or snack lunches (hummus, veggies, cheese, and crackers) for when I’m working from home, and usually bring any dinner leftovers when I’m in the office. My husband likes cut vegetables and sandwiches. We have some cheese and turkey left over from last week for his sandwiches. The little pickling cucumbers are a favorite of both of ours this time of year, so I got plenty from the farm stand.

Dinner

• Saturday: We were having some friends over, so we got Beyond Sausages to grill. We also bought cabbage for slaw and we had potatoes (to make foil packets!) already in the fridge. I also picked up soda in case anyone doesn’t want beer.
• Sunday: Creamy Mushroom Tortellini
• Monday: Tofu with Peanut Sauce and Broccoli. I used this recipe for the sauce, but we cooked the tofu in the air fryer.
• Tuesday: Fend for yourself! The Field Roast sausages come in handy on nights like this. Brian had some sausages in the freezer from the farm stand too.
• Wednesdays: Coconut curry shakshuka with naan! I also picked up some feta to crumble on top.
• Thursdays: I had a pizza party at book club and I made this blueberry saffron cake, because the blueberries at the farm stand looked great. 
• Friday: I had planned on takeout, but we had a few ears of corn, so I used them up in corn and cheddar fritters. 

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