Groceries and Meals

We've been doing pretty good with our meal planning and groceries lately. The holidays have meant more parties and dinners and such to go to, but we just build that in at the beginning of the week. My freezer is looking MUCH better as we've been planning more things specifically out of it. Thankfully it's at a point where you can a) open it without things falling on you and b)in a pinch if someone brought us a freezer pie we'd have a spot for it. Major improvement!
The last two weeks I've ended up spending $85 pre-tax, which is $10 over my goal. Both weeks I've gotten caught up in dog food, which is $16/bag (he eats organic). The first week I needed dog food, last week it was a good deal with a coupon, so we'll have dog food for quite a while. It will realistically be about 6-8 weeks before I need to buy more, so that should work out well. I've noticed our other big spend each week is on dairy. With Lilli's being "special" (lactose free), plus my milk, we end up easily spending $15 a week on milk, which is a pretty big chunk of a $75 budget.
Overall it's been a great exercise for us in not buying frivolously and keeping more $$ in our pocket this holiday season!
Some recent recipes -

Modenese Pork Chops - We had a nice thick cut from our CSA left in the freezer. We were careful not to overcook and it turned out really nice. Nothing superb, but good. I just don't love a pork chop. We had a salad, mac n cheese and some delicious homemade bread a friend brought me as a Christmas gift with it. Yum-o.

We did another crock pot chicken using this brine recipe. It was extremely tender but not super flavorful. I think we're down to just one more whole chicken in the freezer. I do have a new appreciation for the value and versatility of the whole chicken now, plus some great ways to cook it.

These chicken crescent squares were delicious and super easy. We made 2 cans of crescents with it, I think otherwise they would be way too stuffed. We also some Oscar Mayer carving board meats (in the lunch meat section) as the meat in it, and that turned out great.
Aren't those two so precious? She's into telling us everything she loves right now (big kids, Rudolph, Santa, milk, various food items, shoes, etc) and she'll tell us she just LOVES her Pippin. HA!