In Ongoing Weird Shortages news: I cannot find Diet Rite (my mother-in-law’s preferred beverage) anywhere, and finally had to mail order it from WalMart. Orders for Lunchables, according to my grocery store, are no longer being filled by the distributor. When I ordered more Lysol from Target, there was a one-bottle-per-customer limit on the order.
Have you come upon any weird little shortages? I can’t even really work up a good froth of worry about this stuff right now. I just feel tired.
But! Meal planning waits for no woman.
This week is a weird week. I have two back-to-back nights of easy/crockpot meals. One night, my in-laws will be eating with friends. And then they are leaving Thursday, to return again at a currently unknown date for a currently unknown duration. Thursday is also Yom Kippur, but I don’t think we will be doing anything special for the holiday. We ate literally ZERO of the meals I had planned for last week, which is fine, and I guess I will put a couple of them back on the meal plan for this week. I feel kind of tapped out, honestly. But also not in the mood for takeout. But ALSO very hungry. Good times.
Let’s at least TRY to plan some meals for this week.
Dinners for the Week of September 13-20, Supposedly
- Crockpot Chicken Tacos: Guys, I spotted this packet of Old El Paso seasoning at the grocery store when I was looking for taco seasoning… and it has a recipe for slow cooker chicken tacos, using this very spice packet and a can of enchilada sauce. And an onion. Seems like it doesn’t get easier than that??? I’ve always been envious of simple slow cooker recipes like “throw some chicken breasts and a jar of salsa in the crockpot and voila! Dinner!” because I don’t like tomatoes. But this sounds just as simple???? We’ll see if it’s edible.
- Follow Up: This WAS edible, and good, and easy. The recipe calls for “sliced onions” and I would not do that again — instead I would dice/finely chop an onion and put it in with the chicken.
- Greek Chicken Chopped Salad: This sounds fresh and yummy. And we bought a LOT of feta from Costco so I need to find creative ways to use it.
- Follow Up: This was DELICIOUS. On a whim, I made homemade hummus and pita bread to go with it, and the whole thing was just SO YUMMY. The pita bread was a little tough, though, so I did not make note of where I found the recipe.
- Lebanese Chicken with Charred Cauliflower: This is one of the meals I did not make last week. But I do have a head of cauliflower that needs to be eaten.
- Steak and Potato Skewers with Rosemary Chimichurri: The steak is in the freezer, so it will keep indefinitely… but I do have peppers to deal with. Maybe I will roll them into one of the other meals and save the steak for… later. But what to do with the potatoes?
- Chili: The return of football season makes me crave chili. Maybe we’ll have it Sunday.
- Takeout? Leftovers, if there are any?: Any leftovers lately – and we’ve had a lot because I don’t know how to calibrate recipes appropriately for two extra people – have gone down the disposal. Well, I’ve eaten some of them, but I am only one person. But maybe I will force people to eat them by putting them on the meal plan. We shall see.
That slow-cooker taco recipe is one I will have to try! I buy that taco seasoning often and have NEVER ONCE looked to see if there was another recipe on it, lol!
I posted about our shortages. Apple juice, Gatorade (official shortage!) and mini pancakes are nowhere to be found!
Gatorade Zero Lemon-Lime has just ceased to exist at my grocery store. I have had to resort to buying PowerAde and my heart hurts every time. Why the shortage, Gatorade? What did I do to you? GZLL has replaced my Diet Coke addiction and I feel like this is a ploy to get me to drink plain water. I am on to you, BIG WATER.
I think it’s because we’ve taken to going to the store on Friday nights (HOT DATE NIGHT), but there is so much that’s not on the shelves. Guacamole, gluten-free granola, and Sea Salt NutThins were things we weren’t able to buy last week. I don’t know. I just shrug and move on. At least the Great Cumin Shortage of 2020 is over, I guess.
Lol – Big Water! 😂
The Great Cumin shortage of 2020 may be over, but the Great Mustard Seed shortage of 2021 is still going strong!
No. Why…?
These aren’t regular grocery items, but two things I’ve noticed lately are, one, I was looking at shower curtain liners in Target and there were a LOT of empty hooks. They had one kind in one size, and that was it. The other thing is that Trader Joe’s was completely out of the World’s Puffiest White Cheddar Corn Puffs, which was a sad day for me and my mom (we both love that ‘cheese flavored styrofoam’).
Our local grocery store is a small one, but the completely rebuilt and now much larger one opens this week (after about a year and a half), so I’m interested to see how they will be stocked now. They’ll be an improvement on the other one, no matter what!
Soy sauce. I have been unable to buy soy sauce. I had Target mail me one eventually.
WHAT.
The Husband and I were just discussing the state of lettuce quality lately. We have determined that the stores are just accepting whatever they can get just to have something to offer. Well, that’s our “professional” opinion anyway.
You’d think by now, things would have shaken out and returned to normal regarding supplies. It boggles the mind that we are still dealing with any of this.
Foaming bleach spray is gone and staying gone. Stupid regular bleach spray is plentiful. Rutabagas were on a huge display and yet mostly sold out (WHHHHAAAA…?) and weird empty shelves of certain cuts of chicken, fish, and carrots. Cinnamon tea is hard to find. Parmesan was sold out last week, so I got 2 this week. I’m thankful for these chickens laying eggs and the plentiful and oblivious deer in my neighborhood… and this baseball bat, if it comes to it. I mean, I HAVE thought about it for years every time the jerks eat my roses… I’m planting more wheat, and kale, and a bunch of other stuff… but also no way it will be enough?
But the deer batting plan is solid 😆😉
I make chicken tacos in the slow cooker by just…following the directions for beef tacos but substituting chicken for the beef. So: x pounds of chicken breast to whatever corresponding amounts of water and taco seasoning (this might not go over well if your family likes more variety/flavor in their meals). Shred the chicken when it has cooked through and…that’s it. (I usually make a big batch because it freezes well for future meals!) For some reason, this is especially yummy when eaten with homemade whole wheat tortillas. I was shocked! Normally my mouth prefers All The White Flour, but, for some unknown reason, I like the homemade whole wheat (or mostly whole wheat…there may be some white flour involved too) tortillas better than the white flour ones!
You are a genius! I have literally never thought of this before!
I noticed that my local Co-Op no longer carries my favourite stir-fry noodles. I usually buy them at Superstore, but Co-Op is my backup store, so what if Superstore doesn’t have them? Oh god, I can see myself hoarding noodles. I go for groceries tomorrow and if there are noodles, I’m going to grab so many packages.
I have so much sriracha in my basement for this reason. The heart wants what it wants!
North has decided to fast for Yom Kippur. If you’re thinking, oh, I didn’t know Steph’s family was Jewish, we’re not. They said they wanted to do it in solidarity with some of their friends. Thursday is their cooking night, so I offered to switch one of mine with them, but they said no. The current plan is for them to make lentil shepherd’s pie for us and not eat it.
Oh, and we can hardly ever find vegetarian sausage links anymore.
This is not a food item, but homecoming dresses – completely bazaar shortage. Nothing to buy. I have a very grouchy high school senior as a result.
I made an INSANE amount of cajun dirty rice last week and we are still swimming in it and it is now Thursday. Oops. I love it, but my insides don’t love me back (apparently), if I ingest it 9 out of 10 nights. I am making a turkey breast tonight and will offer dirty rice to any takers or baked potatoes to anyone who can’t do the rice. We leave tomorrow to drive to Omaha to visit Tank, so I plan to make a crockpot of pesto chicken and bring it in my giant thermos so we can eat it in the car at dinner time. Money saving and making less stops for fast food is my goal here. Next week I think I will make chicken tortilla soup. Just as my insides have recovered from dirty rice overload. I look forward to eating out while visiting Tank.