How a Montavilla Mom Navigates a Week of Unexpected Meal Plan Changes

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Welcome back to Rose City Receipts by Stumptown Savings! If you’re new here (welcome!), this is a regular feature where Portland-area residents take us inside their strategies for balancing grocery shopping, eating out, and staying on budget. Want to be featured in a future Rose City Receipts? Let me know!

Today, we hear from Liesl, a morning show DJ from the Montavilla neighborhood (and a neighbor of mine!). Liesl walks us through a week when unexpected schedule changes and a summer heatwave forced her to ditch her meal plan and make multiple extra trips to the store.

Who are you? Liesl
Where do you live? Montavilla (Berrydale Park area)
What’s your weekly grocery budget? Around $200 (this includes toiletries).
How many people are you shopping for? 3
What are your favorite stores? WinCo, Trader Joe’s, Target
What’s your top priority when it comes to grocery shopping? Price, quality, and taste. We have a few products we are fiercely loyal to, like WinCo brand cream cheese, Adam’s peanut butter, and Trader Joe’s California finishing EVOO.

I’m the main food planner and grocery getter in our house, and I cook our family dinners. My husband, Brian, handles breakfast, and everyone makes their own lunch. I like to cook seasonally with whole foods at a good price. We rarely eat out, so when we do, it’s usually because work, school, or soccer events get in the way of life.

The most challenging thing about feeding everyone is unexpected changes — usually due to weather and work surprises. This was ONE OF THOSE WEEKS! We made multiple unexpected adjustments, which meant extra trips to the store, changed meal plans, and a bigger-than-usual grocery haul. The bonus? Less shopping is needed for next week!

Weekly total: $308.45
Eating out total: $37
Groceries total: $271.45
Most-expensive line item: $8.99 EVOO
Least-expensive line item: $0.42 for a large ginger root
Number of grocery trips: 4 (Way more than normal!)
Stores visited: WinCo, Trader Joe’s, Chuck’s Fresh Market, Target

My workday is from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. in my basement, so breakfast is usually just black coffee. For my first meal, I almost always have a big salad with spring mix, cottage cheese, a boiled egg, sliced almonds, and hemp seeds, dressed with my favorite TJ’s olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

I made my meal plan and shopping list, but a miscommunication about who needed the car meant I had to push my grocery shopping to Tuesday. For dinner, we had black bean tacos with a chipotle lime cabbage slaw, topped with cheese, avocados, and a homemade jalapeño chutney (recipe below).

Monday total: $0

Shopping with this diary in mind, I noticed all the little flaws in my grocery list. I’d forgotten to add black beans after using the last of them for dinner. My rule is to stick to the list, but I found a couple of pantry staples at lower-than-usual prices, so into the cart they went.

Unfortunately, WinCo was out of fresh basil, and three of our planned meals depended on it. This meant adding a Trader Joe’s stop to my afternoon errands.

After unpacking the groceries, I made a quick salad for lunch using leftovers from last night’s tacos and some grilled chicken from the WinCo deli.

Later, I dashed into Trader Joe’s while my son and dog waited in the car (I found a shady spot and was quick!). I grabbed a basil plant, my favorite EVOO, and a few other staples. I also made an impulse buy: Crispy Jalapeño Pieces from Trader Joe's. I recently had something similar in a pre-made salad and wanted to try recreating it.

For dinner, I made a Caprese salad with homemade croutons and Gardein “meatless” meatballs, served with a creamy sauce made from whipped ricotta, cottage cheese, EVOO, and garlic.

Tuesday total: $229.49

My son had a sports physical in Vancouver near a Chuck’s Fresh Market, a store I used to frequent. Since we were next door, we stopped in. It’s my husband's birthday soon, and they used to carry a hot sauce he loves that I can’t find anywhere else. Success! I found the hot sauce and also grabbed a loaf of their jalapeño cheddar bread, which makes amazing grilled cheese.

The 99-degree heat from yesterday canceled my son's soccer meetup, but a conditioning session was added for tonight. I completely changed our dinner plans to get him fed quickly. I made open-faced fried egg sandwiches on the jalapeño cheddar bread, topped with microgreens and the new jalapeño crunchies. It was a delicious, fast dinner that made everyone happy.

Wednesday total: $23.96

I spent a long, hot 10-hour workday at a community event in Vancouver: the Open House Ministry (a homeless shelter for families) annual block party and resource fair. I had just organized donations for them (plus two other organizations/food banks) during our radio station’s Christmas in July Food Drive. They provided a free BBQ lunch, but vegetarian options were scarce, so I had a bun with cheese, lettuce, onion, tomato, and mayo.

By the time I packed up, I was too exhausted to cook. I asked everyone for their takeout orders from Thai Garden, a food cart in the pod at SE 102nd & Stark. They have the most consistently delicious salad rolls I’ve found in the city. We got enough for us to have for lunch tomorrow, too.

Thursday total: $37 (with tip)

I needed to use up the chicken in the fridge, so I made a curry chicken salad for lunch and served it in wraps.

Later, I made an unplanned Target run. I was out of LMNT electrolyte mix and still feeling dehydrated from Thursday’s event. My son was out of face wash and needed new socks for school. While there, I remembered we were also out of cream cheese and bananas. About $18 of the $49 total was for food and toiletries.

For dinner, we made personal pizzas on Trader Joe’s garlic naan. My son made his own pesto, and my husband and I used the leftover ricotta cream sauce from Tuesday’s dinner with our own toppings.

Friday total: $48.76

Saturday was a day of grazing. My son and his friends went to the PDX Adult Soapbox Derby, and when they came home, I put out snacks: sodas, popsicles, TJ’s Spicy Plantain Chips, hummus, and veggies. Later, we went to a birthday party with more grazing on cheese, crackers, and dips.

On Sunday, I planned to make a Thai Noodle Peanut Salad for dinner, but the family wanted rice instead of noodles. It’s an almost identical meal and honestly easier. I made my son’s favorite Crispy Tofu and served it with a spicy peanut sauce. The one dinner fail: I completely forgot to serve the rest of our fresh basil with the meal!

Weekend total: $0

I get a lot of eye-rolls when I mention my love for WinCo, but it’s employee-owned and you can feel that difference. I’ve been interacting with the same checkers and produce people for almost 20 years at the 102nd Ave. location. Their bulk section cannot be beat, with everything from Bob’s Red Mill flours to an amazing spice selection and on-demand ground almond butter. Overall, WinCo has the best prices on food, and that’s not just an opinion — I compare prices.

My best tip is to always look at the 7-day forecast and your family schedule when meal planning. During a heatwave, my goal is to never turn on the oven and to avoid the stove as much as possible. We eat a lot of salads, and if I must heat something, I’ll use the air fryer or rice cooker outside.

Liesl shared a few recipes for you all.

Ingredients:

Instructions:

This can be served with all kinds of things, but for this purpose, we had ours with a Thai salad.

Ingredients

Instructions:

This is a "follow your heart" recipe—start with the base and add the mix-ins until it tastes right to you. The key is the hint of honey.

For the Dressing Base:

For the Salad:

Instructions:

Don't waste the peanut butter stuck to the sides of the jar! This recipe turns it into a delicious sauce right in the container. This works best when you have at least 2 tablespoons of peanut butter left.

Add directly to your peanut butter jar:

Instructions:

There’s so much good stuff here from Liesl! I love how she manages to still mostly cook at home despite a hectic, busy schedule of work, social events, and having a child with after school activities! Also, I’m so glad to have another Montavilla resident (we’re actually in the same area of this massive neighborhood) and general fan of East Portland in here. 

Besides, Savers Club members already know: I love WinCo’s bulk foods section. Like Liesl said, it can’t be beat. It’s my go to source for most spices (though I can’t find all of them there), and I can get everything from wild rice to Lindt chocolate truffles from those wonderful bins. WinCo is worth being on everyone’s shopping list for its bulk section alone. 

Want to be featured in Rose City Receipts? Email [email protected] and share your grocery shopping approach!

Happy saving!
Bryan,
Founder/Publisher,
Stumptown Savings