Day 14 - January 17, 2014: "Whatever needs to leave your refrigerator" Spaghetti

I will start this post by admitting that I hardly ever look at a calendar for the date.  I should, but I don't.  As a stay-at-home mom, it is much more important to know which day of the week it is, so the correct child gets sent to the correct school on the correct weekday with the correct books and uniform pieces.  So, I walked around all day believing it was the 19th today.  I found a great meat sale at a local store - $5 per package if you buy 3, so I bought ground round that would have normally been over $8, stew meat ($2 off) and a family sized package of chicken thighs (originally $14.40!).  The caveat: Everything but the chicken thighs had a sell-by date of January 20th on it.  I still had chicken breast in my refrigerator with the same sell-by date.  It was such a great deal though!  So I bought all this meat anyway, mentally prepping for a night of cooking several meals.  After tonight's dinner was done and tomorrow's dinner was in the oven, my husband casually mentioned that today was the 17th, and that someone with whom he went to elementary school had a birthday today.  I realize that this last piece of information has nothing to do with this blog, but I already made the effort to type it, so there you are: Happy Birthday Scott!
Anyway, the 17th... WHAT??  The 17th???  That means I have 3 (three) days to make the stew!  I have just been given the gift of time!!!

So, this is what we had for dinner tonight, before we threw it all into a pan and served it over spaghetti:

Spaghetti: $0.99
Mushrooms: $0.59 (Aldi Produce Pick)
1 Zucchini: $0.60
1/2 Onion: $0.15
1 Jar of Pasta Sauce: $2.00 (2 for $4 sale at our local grocery store this week; for that amount, I really don't want to spend the time to make the sauce from scratch)
1 1/2 pounds of Ground Round: $5.00
Total: $9.33

After browning the meat with the chopped onion, I added the chopped mushrooms and zucchini, then the sauce.  Served over cooked pasta, with some shaved Parmesan cheese on top.

DONE!
And, might I add: YUMMY!  The kids pretty much finished everything that was on their plates, my husband had two servings.  I added some crushed red pepper to mine.  I usually use spicy basil pasta sauce when I use the jarred kind, so I was missing the kick in this sauce.