Friday, March 16, 2007

Iron Chef Mom Finale

Here's a link to the rules of our challenge, in which an Aldi discount shopper faces off with a sales ad menu planner.

Drumroll, please...

The Sale Shopper's meals:

Grand total: $16.40

The Aldi Queen's meals:

Grand total: $15.38

A round of applause for Amy! The Aldi Queen takes the prize!

Thanks for sharing your menu-planning expertise with us, Amy. I loved going head-to-head with one of my favorite frugal friends.

I have a few conclusions I'd like to share, but they'll have to wait until I clean up the kitchen.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

I accidentally posted this on the message below, so allow me to repeat it here.

I would say you were both winners! Thanks for the great examples of buying and cooking frugally. :-)

Barb

Anonymous said...

Wow! Meredith, I am so impressed you both came up with such frugal, yummy looking menus and within about $1 of each other! Thank you to you & Amy for doing this, I really enjoyed it and feel inspired to pay more attention to the loss leaders again and to pine for Aldi's to expand to California (not likely I know!). My only question is about portion control...my husband is in the habit of eating a LARGE evening meal, for example when I make chicken drumsticks (a common ingredient at our house) he eats 3 or 4 and is irate if I haven't made enough for him to do so, no matter what side dishes are with it. Other readers, does anyone else have a similar situation--any hints?

Anonymous said...

I so enjoyed this challange! Yay to both you and Amy, you both are fabulous and what an inspiration!

Anonymous said...

I am so, so proud of you, Meredith! Thank you so much for tallying and linking this all up! You challenged me more than you can imagine to really do well this week. Now that I know how well I can do, I can't make any excuses :) You are a wonderful friend and I feel so blessed by your friendship!

Gena said...

I loved this challenge! I think you are both very creative with recipes and I applaud you both on your money saving meals. I will be adding these menus to my family dinner planner.

Anonymous said...

You guys BOTH deserve kudos, I learned a lot this week! Congrats!

PeppermintPearl said...

This was so much fun to watch!
You both have inspired me to do better in my own shopping and cooking. I'm tracking my own food costs this week and will be blogging about it too.

I figure between "cherry-picking" the sales ads and shopping at aldis, I can really get the food budget down!

Anonymous said...

I had a lot of fun following this challenge this week. I thought all of your meals looked great and sounded yummy! I appreciate you doing this with Amy. And I found a website I had not known about before (Amy's). Thanks so much!

Mrs. Damian Garcia

Luke and Valerie said...

I agree that you are both winners. So close! I feel so much more empowered now that I have 'seen' both your plans in action. Thank you both so much for doing this. Now I need you to point out the sales every week (basically spoon-feed me), then I'll be set.
:)
P.S. I bought a bunch of the Hunt's Organic sauce from Dollar Tree- It is delicious! Thanks to all who shared that tip.

Roberta said...

Alison~
As a young bride I made a lasagna (9x13 pan) with the intention of it lasting several meals. After I felt enough was eaten I put it away, before the meal was over. My husband was a bit miffed that I was controlling how many servings of lasagna he was entitled to have.

I grew up an only who could pick at her food, my husband grew up in a family of big hungry boys. I learned that I honor him with a good hearty meal, it blesses him and says "Thank you for working so hard for our family." I prefer to make too much than not enough, we can always have it as leftovers.

Roberta said...

Well done to both of you. Frugal yet far from plain.

DonnaB said...

I was impressed with both of you. Eating so well for so little was truly inspiring. All of your meals are gourmet compared to what I've been serving lately...I think I'll have to dial it up a notch!

Indie Pereira said...

Am I the only one whose Dollar Tree didn't have any organic pasta sauce? :(

Alison, as the one who eats a lot in our family, I'd be pretty annoyed if my husband tried to keep me from eating until I was full to save money. When we were first married, my husband prepared many of the meals and I felt a little uncomfortable telling him that I always left the table hungry. I'm glad that I got over that and that he doesn't make me feel bad about my need to eat more than the average person of my size.

Anonymous said...

What an inspiration you both have been. Thank you for all the time and effort you both put into sharing this with us.
I'm going grocery shopping Monday and will be using some of these recipes in my menu. I'm excited to see how low I can keep my grocery trip. I thought I was doing pretty good, but y'all have inspired me to aim lower.

Alexandra said...

What a fun competition this was, and a great learning experience! I agree, you are both winners. :)