I’ve decided to buy a rotisserie chicken this week. Work is a little crazy right now, and plus I have a lot of things I want to do with my life, and I seem to have a lot more hours in the evening when I don’t cook. I never think that I spend THAT much time cooking, but one evening recently I was listening to a podcast while I did, and I was in the kitchen for the vast majority of the hour and a half long podcast. So that was kind of a wakeup call. It wasn’t all necessarily active cooking time, but it was bits and blobs of time that didn’t allow me to get engrossed in anything. So I’m trying to think about simplifying dinners a little bit and seeing how that goes. Thus the rotisserie chicken: I can do a lot with that, and easily!

This menu could just about be called the “all chicken, all the time” menu, though in dramatically different formats that will hopefully keep us from being bored with it. Also, as per usual, I ended up with one recipe I didn’t make last week. Andy was out of town, so the chili mac lasted multiple meals, and I was satisfied with that, so I skipped one. Gasp! But it’s nice to be flexible sometimes.

Sunday
leftover pizza (my parents were in town this weekend and I have some goodies left from our meals out!)
veggies with hummus

Monday
crockpot chicken-barley-vegetable stew (I’m living on the edge and doing this sans chicken, since we’re having chicken a lot of other nights. The commenters seemed to think it was still plenty hearty.)
bread with cheese and salami

Tuesday
rotisserie chicken (straight up on a plate!)
sauteed mushroom (bought 2 portabellos for a breakfast strata and only used one.)
salad

Wednesday
shredded chicken nachos with mini bell peppers (with leftover rotisserie chicken, duh!)
chips and salsa

Thursday
crockpot chicken and dumplings (with frozen chicken breasts)
frozen veggies

Friday
beef and broccoli
frozen egg rolls or dumplings
fruit

Saturday
pork tenderloin with mushrooms (a recipe from the Whole 30 era that has become a fav)
saffron rice (A fun treat I bought on vacation recently.)
veggies

It’s a CSA box week, so I don’t know what all will be coming my way on Wednesday! Hopefully some veggies that will be a good addition to a couple of these simpler meals.

What’s on your plate this week?

I’m linking up with Organizing Junkie’s Monday Menu Plan!

I’m not a big “product junkie.” If I have fun money to spend, I’m MUCH more likely to take myself out to lunch or buy a fancy cheese at the grocery store than to buy a new shampoo. My makeup routine, such as it is, takes me about 4 minutes in the morning, and on the days I do anything to my hair I just blowdry it an straighten it. Any additional product seems to make it greasy! But occasionally I find an item I really like, and these are a few of them.

Covergirl CG Smoothers Concealer:

I DO wear concealer consistently under my eyes, because no matter how much sleep I’ve gotten, I seem to have dark circles. I recently bought this brand at Publix because it was on sale and I had both a store and a manufacturer’s coupon. It ended up costing me something like $2.99. But you know what? It goes on really smoothly and blends in easily so that I’m not tugging on the skin under my eyes with vigorous rubbing. (That is supposed to keep me from getting wrinkles later, right? RIGHT?!) And it provides a nice level of coverage. So who needs the department store makeup counter when you can buy this guy at Publix!

Osmo Clay Wax:

I acquired this at work. A salon that was discontinuing a line of products donated some stuff to our thrift store, and we as a staff were quite excited to try it all out. As I mentioned earlier, I tend to be wary of hair products, but a coworker of mine said she swears by hair wax, so I snatched it up. It’s really nice! If I put it in my hair while it’s wet and do a little scrunching, it helps the natural wave come out, and a tiny bit before I straighten it kept the flyaways to a minimum without making it gross.

I’ve also had a weird thing lately of wanting to have nice soap in the bathroom. I think what started it is the nice soap in the bathrooms at church. It is minty and moisturizing and I really love washing my hands there. On my quest I have tried Method's foaming handwash:

and Mrs. Meyers Clean Day in Basil:

and a lavender scented one from Trader Joe’s.

Unfortunately I haven’t loved any of them! We seemed to go through the Method really quickly because of how much it squirted out with each pump, and the Mrs. Meyer’s didn’t sud up very nicely. I was also disappointed that the only refill available on the Method was the unscented variety (though none of the scents seemed that strong in the first place).

So I’m still on the hunt for soap I like! Do you have a favorite hand soap?

And in the non-beauty-related product realm, Andy and I have really enjoyed these containers that my dad randomly bought us off of Amazon:

It holds a lot of salad, and it’s nice that the non-lettuce ingredients are kept separate. Plus the little dressing container holds the perfect amount of dressing and so far has been leak-proof.

I guess you could argue that this is a beauty product because it encourages you to take a healthy lunch to work, which keeps you looking your best…okay, stopping now…

Another week, another menu plan! I had a long day at work on Friday and will have a long day Monday with our annual fundraiser golf tournament. When I’m busy I’m especially thankful for a menu plan, because I don’t have to be creative at the end of a busy day. Getting takeout or going out is nice occasionally, but it’s not a panacea for getting dinner in our bellies. That said, on my way home on Friday (through horrendous traffic) I did stop and get a rotisserie chicken from Whole Foods, along with a couple of sides and a mini cheesecake. :-) Our “pumpkin party” went well on Saturday, and we have just enough delicious leftovers to contribute elements to a few meals this week! It’s also a CSA box pick-up week, so I don’t know what produce will be coming my way on Wednesday…

Sunday (the meal I didn’t make on Friday!) mushroom grilled cheese store-bought potato soup salad

Monday I’ll be fed all day at the golf tournament (one perk to working events), so these meals will be for Andy.

Lunch - pulled rotisserie chicken on salad greens Thai-style green beans (leftover from book club) pumpkin cornbread (left from party on Saturday–it was delicious!)

Dinner - leftover turkey chili cheese and crackers (I, uh, went a little crazy at the Trader Joe’s cheese counter.)

Tuesday It’ll have to be sandwiches for lunch since I’m not cooking on Monday! Luckily we have lots of sandwich meat because there were good sales several weeks in a row.

crockpot cheesy chicken and broccoli over rice frozen mixed vegetables

Wednesday It’s a two-crockpot-night week!

beyond easy pulled pork some sort of beans frozen veggies

Thursday Lunch should be delicious–leftover pulled pork in a wrap with avocado!

oven-roasted autumn medley corn

Friday frozen pizza - I’m out of ideas and I think I’ll be pooped by the end of the week!

Saturday out with friends (at one of my favorite restaurants, no less!)

What’s on your plate this week?

  I’m linking up with Organizing Junkie’s Monday Menu Plan!

I was recently at Whole Foods, the mecca of all things “granola,” and decided that I wanted to splurge on a nice botanical body lotion. So imagine my surprise when I strolled onto the personal care aisle and discovered an extensive display of 365 Everyday Value (Whole Foods’ house brand) lotions, body washes, and shampoos for only $2.99!

So much for my splurge! There was a wide array of scents available, and the ingredients list made the same claims as the much more expensive Kiss My Face brand (which cost $11.99). I was sold, and also curious: were there other items that are bargain priced at Whole Foods? I always think of Whole Foods as expensive, but this discovery got me wondering. So I did what any self-respecting blogger would do and headed back with my trusty notebook and iPhone camera to investigate.

What I found was that there is not a 365 brand option for every item available–BUT, for items where there was an option, it tended to be a very reasonable price. My theory is that Whole Foods chose to focus on producing only those items they knew they could do well and for a fair price.

I’ve been impressed lately with Kroger’s natural, organic line, Simple Truth, so I made a few price comparisons. Again, I did not find a Simple Truth brand option for everything, so I compared the next most reasonable option.

Whole Foods clearly wins the nut butter price wars. Neither the peanut butter nor the almond butter is organic, but they each list only nuts and salt on the ingredient list, which is pretty darn good in my book.

Whole Foods also wins in the Nutrigrain-esque bar category…by a whopping $3.00! (Now, granted, my buy-price with coupons for this type of bar is much lower, but I was trying to compare like with like. The brands I tend to buy are not this good for you. :-))

Similar differential on quinoa, the health food wonder-grain of the moment. Wow!

The price for organic olive oil at Kroger blew my mind (there was not a store brand):

I had to read the sign multiple times to believe my eyes, but unless my notes deceive me, a 33.8 fl oz bottle of 365 brand organic olive oil is only $5.99…twice the amount for half the price!

Other good deals of note at Whole Foods:

(The Simple Truth brand of organic chicken broth occasionally goes on sale for this price, but is not consistently this inexpensive.)

(I’m pretty sure even the regular Kroger brand oatmeal is usually over $3.00, so this price is a real coup!)

Notice the $3.99 price tag? That’s for 6.5 oz. 365 trail mix ranged from $4.89 to $7.99 a pound!

There was a 365 brand of coffee that was a great price at $10.99 for 24 ounces, but I couldn’t find any language on the package convincing me that it was fair-trade or shade grown, so as a self-proclaimed coffee snob I’d stay away.

At least my local Whole Foods does sell a packaged version of the coffee from my favorite local coffee source, Java Vino. The parents of the husband/wife team that owns it run a coffee plantation in Nicaragua, so you know that coffee is well-sourced! Not sure if this is nationally available, but I’d highly recommend it if so. (And its price isn’t bad either.)

Finally, rotisserie chickens were on sale for $5.00 the day I explored Whole Foods, down from their normal price of $7.99. $5.00 is a GREAT deal on any chicken–I think the ones at Kroger are normally $7.99, as well, but they are not “quality” chicken. The ones at Whole Foods are antibiotic free, etc, etc. At $5.00, I probably should have snapped a few up!

I’m a pretty committed Kroger girl, and I love using coupons, so you won’t find me switching all my grocery shopping to Whole Foods. But based on my survey of 365 brand prices, I’d say they live up to the brand’s claim that you can “fill your pantry without emptying your pocketbook.” If eating organic products is important to you, or if you already do a lot of shopping at Whole Foods, the 365 Everyday Value brand is a great option! And if I ever need to stock up on any of these particular items, the multiple-dollar savings could just be worth a quick trip over to the Whole Foods.

Have you found any grocery bargains in a surprising place? What’s your favorite thing to buy at Whole Foods?

 

***This post was in no way sponsored or endorsed by Whole Foods. They have no idea I even wrote it! I just wanted to share a frugal option that I I was pleasantly surprised to discover.

On Saturday I got a massage.

Y’all.

That hour was one of the shortest hours of my life.

The first time I got a massage was several years ago. My mom had been going to a massage therapist and when I was home for Christmas break one time I tagged along with her to visit one myself. I was really anxious about it because in my head I was naked on a table with some strange person touching all over me, and that did not sound appealing! Thankfully it was not like that at all. I enjoyed it then, but as I’ve become an “adult” and I live in “the real world,” the occasional massage means even more to me. Every few months, I get to a point where I can feel all the hours at my computer, all the nights of funny sleep, and all the commutes just scrunched up in my neck and shoulder muscles. I mean, I literally notice sometimes that my shoulders are up by my ears and I have to consciously tell myself to lower them. One time DURING a massage, the masseuse kept having to tell me to relax my shoulders, and I kept thinking, in a very un-relaxed fashion, “They ARE relaxed!!!”

Yeah, I carry a little bit of tension around.

It’s not like I’m a lady of leisure and I just go get massages all the time. It’s definitely a splurge for me, and I consider it a special occasion treat. I got one at the place where Andy and I stayed for our one-year anniversary, for example, and earlier this year I used some Christmas money to get another one. But I’m trying to include it on my list of things I do that I don’t have to do, because it really is so wonderful. After my Christmas massage, the masseuse told me she thought if she saw me again she could really get some knots out for me, so I made it a point to go back within the next month or so. Now, that was in, hmmm, maybe February? And I don’t think I’ve been since then (until this past Saturday). So I’m still working on it. But it is WORTH IT.

Here are some things that would have helped me feel more comfortable about my first massage:

• You should have the option to specify whether you want a male or female masseuse. Personally, I feel more comfortable having a female, so it's nice peace of mind getting to choose.
• You don't have to be completely undressed! I choose to leave on my underwear.
• But! No matter what, you are never fully exposed to the massage therapist. You'll likely be on the table under a cotton sheet and blanket, and for the most part all but the body part the masseuse is currently working on will be covered. And when it's time to turn over from your back to your stomach, (s)he will hold up the blanket, shielding you, and look away while you roll over.
• Bring something to put your hair up with so they have good access to your neck and shoulders. I forgot this once and it wasn't as nice! Similarly, take off all your jewelry. It just gives the masseuse better access to everything.
• Unless you're treating an injury or just have really acute tension, I would let the masseuse work everything out. You may not THINK you need a massage for your legs, but everything is connected and often massaging your legs helps work out something in your back. So don't rule anything out.
• Go sans makeup if you can. For some parts the masseuse may put an aromatherapy eye mask over your eyes, or (s)he may rub your temples with some essential oils. While having makeup on wouldn't rule these options out, I just know it would be nice not to worry about what it will look like afterwards.

My only complaint about massages is how oily I usually feel afterwards. I guess my skin is somewhat oily to begin with so it does not soak up all of that good massage oil. But if your skin tends to be dry I bet that would be a really nice bonus of the massage!

And actually, I guess I have one more complaint about massages: that they have to end.

Getting the occasional massage really works for me!

I’m linking up to Works for Me Wednesday at WeAreThatFamily.com!