Its the End of Summer!

How did it get here so quickly? Today is the last day of summer. The garden is bare, except for the potatoes which need to be dug. Most of the food is put up (still have pumpkins to can). Time just seems to fly.

Course the normal stuff is happening. School has started for the oldest married daughter. Youngest will be heading out soon to start her culinary career. Just like the turn of the seasons, the life cycle is moving right along. The married daughter will be having our first grandchild sometime in May. As my Aunt says, "Its a good thing she is a multi- tasker!" as she will be doing finals, presenting her Honor's Thesis, performing her Senior Recital, graduating from college and having a baby all in the same month! :)

We can't know yet if its a boy or a girl, but I am quilt planning like crazy for this little one. In the meantime, in the last month I have bound 2 quilts, a table runner, a wall hanging, and pieced the younger daughters new quilt. When I have nothing to bind I have been crocheting too. Its almost like the nesting instinct when you are about to go into labor, I just feel like I have to be creative non-stop. I am not sure where this is coming from. Previously I would have told you I hate piecing and binding, but now I am wishing for something to bind every evening. So I am getting out my Double Wedding Ring quilt, which my Mom made for me, and I am going to work on that. It should be good for a couple of weeks of binding as it has a scalloped edge. I have some Christmas stuff in the works too, so its a busy needlework time.

We have had such a nice month food-wise. With the double order of Angelfood last month we haven't hardly had to go to the grocery store except for milk and lettuce. This month we are doing the bigger box option and it will be nearly the same. I forsee purchasing some meat this time, because I am hungry for some things that usually don't appear in the menu. But still, we are keeping our grocery bill much lower than it was a year ago this time, and more than 50% lower than 2 years ago this time. So I feel like we are making progress.

Last weekend was the Daughters of The King women's retreat. We always hold it at the Cathedral Domain, a wonderful camp on the top of a mountain. Everything is so real there. The air is cleaner, the grass and trees are deep green, the food is amazing, and the company is comforting. Spending time occasionally with women who have true hearts for Jesus is like quenching a deep thirst. Very satisfying. I am trying to be a better daughter, following through on my commitment to a life of prayer and service, but I fall miserably short most of the time.

We ran out of dishwasher soap the other day. Fortunately I had found a recipe online for making your own at home! Its one tablespoon of Borax and one tablespoon of baking soda per load. You can also use white vinegar in the "jet dry" rinse container. Its amazing how well it works. I happened to have Borax because I make my own clothes washing detergent (which also works really well). So now I have a plastic container made up of just dishwasher soap. I am going to the Dollar Tree and get another set of measuring spoons so that the ones I cook with are not always needing to be washed because they are being used to measure detergent!

Labor Day

Having a full freezer has been such a great thing :) I know I should be making a menu, but I have enough of just about everything to do me for the month, and I am enjoying saying....Hmmm I feel like having chicken/beef/pork tonight. Plus we are doing well with the balanced diet.

Due to my insomnia the doctor wants me to stop drinking caffeine. When he told me I just about cried. Literally. Though I cannot claim taste doesn't matter to me, primarily I drink caffeine for the "stay awake" effect, and to chase away the "lack of caffeine headache". So, I am trying to wean myself down from drinking too much of it. He, the doctor, tells me that anything consumed after noon is going to affect my sleep. That may be taking it a bit far, but I have moved more to water, and Crystal Light type stuff, the rare soda and less tea everyday. Those things, along with Ambien (pure golden stuff, IMHO) have let me get some rest. Its been wonderful.

Today I went out poking around the stores with my Mom. We live right here in the same town, and we don't see each other as often as we should. Even though I am 47 years old I think we are both still learning how to be Mother and Grown up Daughter :) We are doing well though.

Tonight we probably should be grilling out. Labor Day brings up those kind of thoughts huh? But I didn't want to clean the grill, and I was out and about so I didn't get the hamburger out early enough to thaw for tonight. So instead, using hamburger I already cooked and froze in portions, we are having sloppy joes, on Poor Man's Rolls , glazed carrots, roasted potatoes and seasoned broiled zucchini slices. Should be a yummy dinner, with plenty left over for lunch tomorrow. The bread machine is working away on a new loaf of bread even as I type.

Full Freezer

Thanks to the Angel Food order the freezer is full. That is a good feeling. So, with plenty of food for the month its time for some pre-planning. Yesterday I baked 4 kinds of muffins (for breakfasts), the Amish Friendship Bread, and a loaf of sandwich bread. Because the bread machine doesn't make large loaves of bread I will have to bake a new loaf every 3 or 4 days.

Speaking of the baking of bread, I recently learned a bit of science behind the process. Check out the handout for bread. You may have to scroll down a bit. If I make whole wheat bread I will definitely follow her suggestions for dough enhancers. There is a LOT to learn about self-sufficiency and working in the kitchen from this website. Check it out!

I have a big bag of apples and I am going to attempt apple butter in the crock pot today. I just love apple butter, and I think that would be a great thing to have when the snow flies, I am going to get out a liner for the CP and see how it works. I will probably do that on Thursday as I will be doing some part time work Tuesday and Wednesday. I think I want something easy for dinner those two nights, possibly in the crock pot. Once I have a menu today I will update this post.

Angelfood for September

There is a new offering from Angel Food Ministries in the month of September. Named the "Bountiful Blessing Box" it is 24 items for $41. This is an additional offering, not replacing the Signature Box which is 17-18 items for $31. I think this is going to be well worth the investment. There are 3 of us at home right now and I think we can eat diner for 14 days, plus lunch for Hubby for 8, just on the $41 box!

It includes:
28 oz. Fully Cooked Pot Roast (Pot Roast in Gravy with Red Wedge Potatoes, Carrots, Celery and Pearl Onions)
3 lbs. Family Tray Pack Split Chicken Breast
28 oz. Fully Cooked Broccoli, Rice and Chicken with Cheese Dinner Entree
8 ct. Bean and Cheese Burritos
1.5 lb. Hamburger Patties (4 x 6 oz)
1.5 lb. Center Cut boneless Pork chops (6x4 oz)
1.5 lb. Breaded Chicken Breast Nuggests
1 lb. Lean Ground Beef
1 lb. All Beef Sausage (liked smoked sausage)
1 lb. Crunchy Breaded Fish Wedges
1 lb. French Cut Green Beans
1 lb. Garden Pease
1 lb. Sliced Carrots
1 lb. Whole Kernel Corn
1 lb. Broccoli Florets
1 lb. Cauliflower Florets
24 oz. Natural Cut French Fries
1 lb. Pasta
25 oz. Pasta Sauce
6 oz. Corn Bread Stuffing Mix
5.5 Pancake Mix
32 oz. 2% Shelf Stable Milk
1 Dozen Eggs
6 ct. Fried Apple Pie Sticks

All this for $41! I will have to do some research to see if the Fruit and Veggie box is cost effective. The only item in the box I haven't ever purchased is the avocado, and we should try something new now and again. If the grocery store can't beat the price I will probably order that as well.

August 23-28

Well, due to out of whack medication my organization has gone out the window this month. Its kept me either dragging my knuckles or super charged. When I drag I sleep, and when I'm charged up I clean. So far I have a clean kitchen and a mostly clean living room. We have company coming on Thursday, so I want it all cleaned up and presentable.

In the meantime we have to eat, so here's the menu:

Dinners:

Chicken and dumplings (includes peas and carrots)
Taco hamburger Helper, salad
Oven-fried pork chops, au gratin potatoes, broccoli
Chicken pot-pie
Steak, dill potato salad, corn on the cob
Pizza -homemade crust and sauce, salad
BBQ chicken pie with cornbread crust, green beans, pineapple crumble


Angel Food arrives on Saturday. We ordered 2 boxes so we will have an abundance of meat and frozen veggies.

Lunches will be:

Leftovers, Ramen, salad, tuna croquettes, pasta salad, and pb&j

Breakfast will be eggs, oatmeal, grits, waffles, or whatever we scrounge up

Menu 15 - 21

Sunday August 15

Crockpot Chicken, Green beans, Yellow Squash and Onion Casserole

Monday August 16

We will be travelling during the day at lunch time, so this is an eating out day.
Dinner will be Pork Chops, Baked Potatoes, and Broccoli

Tuesday August 17

Left over Chicken, Dill Potato Salad, Corn on the Cob

Wednesday August 18

Steak, Rice with Peas and Carrots, Homemade Bread

Thursday August 19

Chef Salad for the Daughter
Hamburger Helper and Salad for Hubby and I

Friday August 20

Pizza night

Saturday August 21

Breakfast for Dinner: Pancakes, Eggs, Bacon, Fruit Salad



Tonight was Friday so it was pizza night. We ordered in though because I spent my day at the quilt shop. It was nice to be some place that was not home, and to do something creative for a change. Plus I needed to get my sewing machine looked at. It is old, but should hold up for a little longer. When its broken I may not have one for a while. In the meantime I am trying to finish up some of my UFO's.

Bread Baking

I have a bread machine and that is the only way I bake bread. I would love to have a heavy duty mixer with bread paddles, and counter space to knead dough, but its just not happening in this place. I have to admit I am still trying to figure out how baking it at home is cheaper than buying it at the store (store brand is usually $1 a loaf). But it does taste better, and if I can find a decent sandwich bread then I will drag out the bread machine more often.

Today I am baking a "rebel" bread. I call it that because the instructions say to ignore the recommendations of your bread machine maker and add the ingredients in the order they are listed. GASP! Ignore the rules? Well, there is a little bit of rebel in all of us :) The recipe comes from Allrecipes.com and is named Best Bread machine Bread Recipe.

I'll post tomorrow and let you know if its going to be "the one".

Chicken Pot Pie - the easy way

I just wanna say, dinner tonight was darn good. Yes, I fixed it, so I should have known it would be, but that is irrelevant. :0)

I pondered a few recipes today. Then I thought, surely there is something in the kitchen that I can throw together and make a meal. Yup. Last night I baked a bag of chicken tenders. Tonight I took 3 of those, and chopped them up very finely. Mixed with a well rinsed can of diced potatoes, frozen peas and carrots, dehydrated onion, a can of cream of celery soup and 1/4 cup of left over chicken gravy (from a mix), and topped with a bit of biscuit mix made a wonderful chicken pot pie.

Tomorrow is an experiment day. I am going to make Boston Baked Beans. I have never been a big fan of beans, and never made them from scratch. Fortunately dried beans are cheap so if they don't turn out to be our "cup of beans" then its not a financial crisis!

I am also going out and pick the few pumpkins that grew in the garden so they can be processed and canned. This fall we will have wonderful Caramel Pumpkin Pudding Cuupcakes ala Hungry Girl. They are wicked good, decadent, and fabulous warmed up for breakfast on a cold, snowy morning or with vanilla ice cream for a tasty dessert. Last year there was a pumpkin shortage, and some parts of the country had trouble getting it on the grocery shelves. I heard this was true, from Hungry Girl and on my next visit to the store I stocked up! Don't want to be without my pumpkin :0)

I am working on the menu for next week. Also we have coffee hour at church on Sunday. That means tomorrow I will be making coffee cake, fruit dip, and gathering/prepping apples. Might do one other thing, but not sure yet.

The garden, other than the pumpkins is pretty much done for the year. No beans, they just didnt grow. The corn was spotty, some of it apparently didn't get pollinated. The beets did pretty well. I may find a few more baseball bat sized zucchini, or a yellow squash here and there but that's all. Even the cucumbers were a disappointment this time. Thank goodness for the Farmer's Market and Angel Food!

Successful Pickles

I decided I need to get the dill pickles canned but I didn't want to heat up the house with the hot water bath canner. My cousin suggested that I put it out on the grill. It was, I thought, the perfect solution!. So the water went into the pot and out to the grill. I really didn't think it would take that long to reach a boil, but I had not figured in a nice breeze. The water was on the grill for 2 hours and never really got to a boil, even with the burner set on high. But after an hour I decided I would put the jars in anyway, because otherwise they would cool off too much to be processed. So in they went. And hour later, still no boil, but it was VERY hot water. Finally I decided these would be the most expensive pickles in town, having been processed on a gas grill, so I took them out and set them on the counter to cool. Every single jar pinged and they are good to go :) Some are chips and some are slicers. These were made with actual cucumbers, but the zucchini chips will come about soon. The Cousin sent me this recipe, from the Ball Blue Book:

Zucchini Pickles
2 pounds of Zucchini, sliced (8 small) 2 cups sugar
1 sm-med onion sliced 2 t mustard seed
1/4 cup canning salt 1 t celery salt
1 t turmeric 3 cups vinegar

Combine zucchini and onion; sprinkle with with; add cold water to cover. Let stand 2 hours. Drain; rinse and drain thoroughly. Combine remaining ingredients in a large sauce pot. Bring to a boil. Pour vinegar mixture over zucchini and onion. Let stand 2 hours. Bring all ingredients to a boil; reduce heat and summer 5 minutes. Pack hot vegetables and liquid into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch head space. Remove air bubbles. Adjust 2-piece caps. Process 15 minutes in a boiling water canner.


She made a batch of these and thinks they are wonderful. The zucchini is abundant, cheaper than cucumbers, and I am also going to try it as bread and butter pickles -- some day :).


Yesterday I did a baking day. I made a loaf of Irish Soda Bread, a batch of homemade brownies, a batch of chocolate chip cookies, and blueberry muffins. The Soda Bread was very dense. I don't know if it is supposed to be or not. Still its good as long as you have it with something juicy (soup, stew, gravy). Half the brownies and half the cookies go to the freezer for later, and the others are for lunches. It's hard to cut the food bill if we are always buying snack stuff while we are out and about. And to be fair, if there is nothing planned for lunch, the the Hubby has to forage - either at the grocery store or at a fast food place. Both are direct hits on the reduced grocery budget.

Today I made some homemade soup for the Daughter. diced tomatoes, carrots, peas, mushrooms, onion, barley and a bit of broth. She had it with cheddar garlic biscuits that we really good. Also, spent a bit of time browsing at Hillbilly Housewife today. She has a new budget menu up for $75. I think its supposed to feed 4 or 5. It is a little heavy on the fried food side, but similar to what we grew up with (I remember my mother saving the bacon grease to use to pop popcorn in, or fry cornbread).

Zucchini Recipes

Because the most prolific produce in our garden is the zucchini, I have been collecting recipes for this veggie from all over the net. I want them in one place so I am not constantly looking for that special one I saw but failed to copy. All links will take you to the site where the recipe is located, so you can also check out the other recipes and articles there. I have found a wealth of information at these sites, so they are worth spending a few minutes poking around!


White Zucchini Cake with Broiled Frosting

Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

No Fail Zucchini Bread

Veggie Minestrone (You'll have to scroll down a bit for this one)

Zucchini Brownies

Zucchini Apple Pie


I will update as I find new recipes.

Freezer Count

So far in the freezer:

1 quart of Blackberries
1 quart of Blueberries
4 quarts of Strawberries
4 quarts of Peaches
3 2.5 cup containers of beets
8 2 cup bags of shredded zucchini
3 2.5 containers of Peaches and Cream corn
2 2.5 cup containers of salsa - added August 2, 2010


Dehydrated:
3lbs of carrots
2 lobs of mushrooms (marked down to $1.99) added August 2, 2010

Also:
8 pint jars of Plum jam
7 jars of Dill Pickles

I will update this as things go in, then I will have a list of everything that's been put up so I can put it on the fridge and mark things off!

Regaining Equalibrium

This past week was a very difficult one for our family. The details are not for public consumption, but lets just say menu planning was completely NOT on my radar at all! So, just like every Monday, we begin again. As a reminder (for me and anyone else who happens to be following along), here is the basic plan:

Sunday BBQ/Grill
Monday Salad night
Tuesday Crockpot
Wednesday Church (make something to take for the meal)
Thursday Casserole
Friday Pizza
Saturday Baking Day and Leftovers Day.

Sunday: We had Baked Parmesan and Rice Krispie encrusted Tilapia with baked sweet potatoes, mixed steamed veggies, and sliced home grown tomatoes. Okay, *I* didn't eat the tomatoes, but the Daughter and Hubby did. Since the Daughter is now sticking to her vegetarian adventure I have been working hard to figure out how to feed us. It used to be I could throw a little bit of a lot of things together, call it a casserole, and everyone ate. Now I can't do that because we are eating meat and she doesn't want to. It makes meal planning much more challenging because I have to keep the meat apart from the rest of the meal.

Monday: We can't do salad tonight because this week we have a meeting to attend at dinner time. We will be in transit, so its sandwiches while we are on the move.

Tuesday: Even though today is Monday, I am loading up the Crock Pot with beef roast, potatoes and carrots. It will be ready to eat when Tuesday rolls around and will let Hubby have some of it for his lunch. Daughter will have mac and cheese (leftovers for lunch later in the week)with frozen veggies cooked with the pasta.

Wednesday: Church

Thursday: Casserole - Chicken, rice, mixed veggies, and cream of chicken soup. Served with fresh salad, tomatoes, and Poor Man's Rolls Daughter will have fish nuggets with her salad.

Friday: Pizza night! This will be my first attempt at homemade pizza - no Chef Boy-ar-Dee kit this time. We will see how it goes :) Of course, part of the pizza will be just veggies, but Hubby and I will have turkey pepperoni on ours.

Saturday: Will be bread making day, and I want to try some muffins for breakfasts. This is farmer's market day so there will be veggies to buy and put up. Most notably, corn (which didn't do so well in our garden) and green beans (if I can find blue lakes). I also need to put some apples up because I have a bunch of "simple syrup" to use. (The recipe was supposed to say 2 cups sugar/1 cup water but it was backwards and doubled... so I have all this sugar water left over to use up.)

Thursday Musings

Well, I was in the garden yesterday. Brought home a few cucumbers and a couple of zucchini. There is very little in the world better tasting than a fresh cucumber. Its just one of life's little pleasures.

Today was casserole day. I cut up a chicken breast and cooked it with dehydrated potato slices, a can of cream of mushroom soup and a soup can of water. It made a nice thick gravy to serve over biscuits. A mix of broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots helped round out the meal. Dessert, something we don't do all that much, was low fat brownie bites with SF chocolate pudding and FF cool whip. I am getting better with serving sizes because there should be 4 servings of pudding, and there was one left for Hubby to take for part of his lunch tomorrow.

Tomorrow is pizza day and I have no pizza making stuff. Instead I think we will have oven baked tilapia crusted with rice krispies,

I spent my day deep in laundry. I have nearly found both the floor of my kitchen and the floor of my laundry room again. It just builds up so fast. I have eliminated a few things along the way (unrepairable, irreparably stained, or no long fitting a body at our house), which is also a good thing. I am starting to think in terms of yard sale items as well. There's a lot of junk here that could live somewhere else and not truly be missed.

DOK Installation

I am happy to report that the Installation service went very well today. It was a beautiful and moving thing to stand with my sisters in Christ and add to our numbers. Horton did a good job with a difficult task. Its not easy to stand in front of your friends and tell them personal and intimate things. She managed gracefully, with sincerity and laughter. Sally's music was, as always, beautiful. Ann and I read the Old and New Testament readings, and Cindy did all her priestly things, including the blessing of the new members crosses. I don't know that I have the right words to express how I felt at the altar. There is something so fulfilling about sharing the love of Christ.

Our reception afterward was a hit. We had berry trifle, brownies, french toast, grenadine sandwiches, tomato and cucumber salad, and cordon bleu crustini. I was pleased to see the crustini and the salad were well received. I believe they will be permanent additions to my recipe book.

Baking Day

Last night we had spiral pasta with pizza sauce, turkey pepperoni, mushrooms, and a little diced ham. Sprinkled a little Parmesan on top and it was good. I had 1/2 a box of whole wheat/high fiber pasta, and a box of tri-colored which I mixed up. I put some aside for pasta salad today, and served the Daughter's first without the meat. The high fiber pasta was the trick because for the first time in ages no one asked for seconds, or went foraging in the kitchen later in the evening! It was filling, and okay on the taste front. All in all, I would rather have some pizza.

Today is my first designated Baking Day. I am trying to decide what to do. I would like to put several things in the oven at once and get the best use of the oven heat. I think there will be brownies or oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin muffins, and perhaps some bread in the bread machine. I will freeze half of the goodies, so we have them later. I found out that the zucchini bread will definitely go bad if you don't keep it refrigerated! So maybe I will do a batch of that as well and freeze it.

Next week I will plan better. It kind of snuck up on me, this being the first week. I planned to go shopping for table decorations for my in-law's 50th wedding anniversary party but the Daughter woke up sick. I think its a UT infection. So she is guzzling cranberry juice and lemon lime soda, and I am doing laundry and working in the kitchen.

I am also dehydrating today. I have chives to dry and I think I will do some diced carrots too. That will be handy this winter for soup, and I have a bag of carrots just sitting there wishing someone would use them. Because of dental issues no one here can eat raw carrots unless they are grated up, and I am just not up to another grating day quite yet.

I will head to the garden tonight when Hubby gets home to check on the produce. I hope to find enough cucumbers and tomatoes to do the Tomato and Cucumber Salad for church tomorrow. My Cousin is talking about making pickles out of zucchini, which sounds like a plan to me because we have plenty of those!!

Of Peaches and Syrup

I am not sure my peaches turned out the way I intended. I was trying to make a light syrup, which I thought meant it would be slightly thick. Not so much. So, I added more sugar, and though the recipe said to stir until it dissolves, and then take it off the heat, I also added 1/2 a bag of light brown sugar, and let it boil a while. Finally I gave up on thick and put the peaches in freezer bags with some of the syrup and got them into the freezer. I have a quart and a half of the syrup left! Its going into the freezer and I will use it over some other fruit. Maybe for apple pie?

Today its been peaches and laundry. Mac and cheese for lunch, but we had eggs and toast (plus bacon for me), for breakfast. Its pizza night but I don't have a Chef Boy-ar-Dee mix so I think we will do something else.

I have decided to try something with my menu planning. Now I have assigned each day a certain type of meal.
Sunday BBQ/Grill
Monday Salad night
Tuesday Crockpot
Wednesday Church (make something to take for the meal)
Thursday Casserole
Friday Pizza
Saturday Baking Day and Leftovers Day.

I think this will make things a little easier. Time will tell.

The Farmers Market

Its a beautiful thing. Even early in the season, all those lovely vegetables and fruits, lined up waiting to go home with someone. I got Yellow squash 3 for a $1, cucumbers 3 for a $1, 5 lbs of little red potatoes for $4, 4 onions for $1, a gorgeous cabbage the size of a bowling ball for $2, and 14 ears of peaches and cream corn for $4. We will eat like kings this week!

The other great find of the week was at Kroger. They had grain fed sirloin beef roasts for $1.99 a lb!! For $20 I got 9 nice big steaks and a good 1 1/2 lbs to cut up as stew meat. That is cheaper than Angel Food (per pound) and with the Daughter not eating meat, those 9 steaks will feed the Hubby and I 9 meals with no problem.

So, now its time to put the food away!


UPDATE: Okay...I have 1/2 the cabbage shredded, with carrots and onion and the slaw dressing is cooling on the stove. I have 6 bags of shredded zucchini (2 cups each, pre-measured for bread). Honestly, this is my first foray into zucchini bread, but I am thinking I can flavor it any way I want (chocolate chips, peanut butter, fruit, etc). That should make good muffins in the fall too. Once I get the slaw put up I will start on the peaches. They are a little more time intensive since they have to be blanched, peeled and pitted, cut up, and the syrup has to be made. I may run out of freezer bags and containers.

So today looks like a productive day. Its just about 11 am and I have accomplished a lot. Still need to water the garden, later when it cools down, get the chives and carrots into the dehydrator. Then I am going to take a nap before church.


2ND UPDATE: Shew! The coleslaw is all in the freezer. I made 2 batches, because the head of cabbage was so large. Even so, with a huge cabbage, l lbs of carrots, and 2 medium onions, I have 6 24 oz. containers of freezer slaw. Still have not tackled the peaches or the corn...but I am wearing out! They might have to wait for tomorrow.

I have no idea why the time stamp is not coming up correctly. I am in Eastern time and I just posted at 2:37 PM EST. Strange.

Productive Weekend

Well, lets see. I have frozen 3 pints of beets, 4 quarts of strawberries, and now I have peaches to put up, zucchini to shred and freeze for bread and soup later and freezer slaw to make. Not bad huh? I will probably make more zucchini bread. The first batch was good, but I ran out of brown sugar and I believe it needs what is actually called for. The recipe can be found here.

The freezer slaw, a wonderful recipe, was posted by a fellow quilter named Andi on the MQResource website.

Here's a good recipe if you have some fresh cabbage you would like to save for another day:

1 med. head cabbage, shredded
1 carrot, grated
1 green pepper, chopped
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 tsp salt

Toss together, let stand one hour

2 cups sugar
1 tsp celery seed
1 tsp mustard seed
1 cup vinegar
1/4 cup water

Combine in saucepan. Boil one minute. Cool until lukewarm. Pour over cabbage mixture, stir until combined. Freeze in covered container. Thaw about 45 minutes before serving.

I can vouch for it -- its yummy! I don't put the green peppers in because I don't like them, but feel free if they are your thing :)

Sunday we are having a reception after church to welcome our new members of The Daughters of The King. I am going to take a couple of different things: Zucchini bread with flavored spread (not sure yet which flavor but probably a cream cheese thing), Cordon Blue Crustini, and a cold tomato and cucumber balsamic salad. I think that will be good food to celebrate adding sisters to our membership!

I worked in the garden this evening. Becca and I have found a way to separate the green beans from the Johnson Grass... the bane of my gardening existence! There were even a few beans on Mom's half runners! We pulled a few more beets for Becca to take home, and several zucchini for me to shred up for the freezer. We have lots of green tomatoes, and several miniature cucumbers on the vines. Oh, there are a few pumpkins too. I look forward to those. I want to can them up the winter. the potato vines died away but we do have some small red potatoes. Hopefully they will rest easy until we are ready to take them out of the ground.

I also hit a sale at the JC Penny outlet and for $5.50 I got 2 dress shirts and 2 pairs of pants for the hubby, a pair of jeans for the youngest daughter and a pair of khakis for the oldest daughter! Pretty sweet! We (Mom and I) also found 4 pair of twill pants for my brother so he has some nice work clothes also. Gotta love a bargain!

Tomorrow is up early, hit the farmers market before hubby heads out to work, shred and preserve all day along with laundry and planting a few blue lakes in the garden up here. I hope that they will take. We should have enough time for them to grow before the season ends.

Ta-ta for now!

Rotating Taste Buds

I have heard that your taste buds completely "rotate" out every 7 years. This is why your parents tell you that you will like something better when you grow up -- you might indeed! This explains why I like squash now, tomato sauce stuff hardly at all, and onions are now friends. It also explains strawberries. I just sugared and Fruit Fresh'ed 2 1/2 containers of fresh strawberries... and man are they yummy!. They went into the freezer, along with 2 pints of blueberries. They will be wonderful when the snow flies. If I find more on sale I will put them up too. Now that we have the small chest freezer I can do that :)

Checking in

Well we are on Thursday and I thought perhaps it would be a good idea to check in and see how the menu is going. Frankly, after 2 days of barely being able to move, we haven't done so well! (I pulled a muscle in my shoulder and its been excruciating!) However, we have hit a few things. I fixed the steak and made a big salad on Tuesday night. We took bread, cheese, and salad dressing and made our meal of it at the drive-in (it was sneak peak at Eclipse night.) We did have BBQ, but we had stir fried veggies with it. I think that was Monday. That night the daughter had some stir fried veggies and cottage cheese with sliced tomato. Several days she has had fish nuggets as part of her lunch. Breakfast has been pretty much a wash, except for one day when we had scrambled eggs and toast. I had bacon also that day.

Tonight we are doing taco salad. I have tortilla chips, sour cream, and plenty of lettuce and tomato (for everyone else) I had a package mix to make spinach dip with sour cream (which I also had). That will be my sour cream on the taco salad. We will also have some California style veggies tonight or tomorrow because I have been using them to ice my shoulder. Wow it helps so much! Or I may just mark this bag and keep refreezing it to use on my shoulder and chalk it up to a $1.00 food loss.

That brings me to something I wanted to mention. The shelves of mix packets at the grocery store can be a real boon to someone on a budget. Gravy mixes usually use water (not fat) so you can have a bit of gravy and not blow your diet. They also help add flavor to beef stew, if you don't happen to have a packet of beef stew helper on hand. And, gravy is not just chicken or beef flavored. I have used gravy mix to do white gravy for biscuits and I have seen pork gravy as well. If you have the means you can buy "meat and bag" mixes also. They come with the bag, you add the meat/veggies and seasonings in the package and some liquid, close the bag with a tie, and bake. All the seasoning is there. We also use taco seasoning occasionally. This is a small investment (between $.33 and $1.00 each) that give us a break from the same old flavors.

Last night, due to my shoulder pain, I just couldn't make supper. My IBS was also acting up. Hubby made us "customizable rice" :) Basically every one got a bowl of rice and we added what we wanted to it. He fixed his with a beef bouillon cube and steak seasoning and I have to tell you it was fabulous. Mine was plain - a little salt and butter. The daughter loves cinnamon and butter on hers. It was not the healthiest meal we have ever had, but it was meatless for all and filling. That it helped my IBS was the biggest plus for me.

Tomorrow is Friday, and should be pizza night. We don't have a pizza mix, and I think I want to have a baked potato bar dinner. I have plenty of potatoes from Angelfood, some chicken fajita meat, gravy mix, sour cream, shredded cheese... possibly those CA veggies... LOL. The daughter wants mac and cheese. I am searching for a recipe that uses a Velveta-like product to make the sauce. If I find one that turns out to be yummy I will post it.

The Angelfood has arrived. I bought 2 regular boxes and one grill box. Total cost was $84.00 and it included:

2 dozen eggs
2 large bags of chicken breasts
2 lbs of breaded fish nuggets
2 lbs of lean ground beef
12 rib-eye steaks
4 pork chops
4 turkey medalions wrapped in bacon
2 frozen mac and beef entrees
2 lbs of frozen mashed potatoes
2 bags of frozen vegetables with peppers
2 lbs of chicken fajita strips
2 boxes of smoked sausage
6 lbs of Idaho potatoes
2 cans of spaghetti sauce
2 lbs of spaghetti
2 lbs of rice
2 quarts of shelf stable milk
8 honey buns

Not too shabby I think :). I had to send some of it home with Mom to tuck away in her freezer because mine is now full. Since the daughter is not eating meat now, I think that we will not have to purchase meat for the whole month of July! There will be a few trips to the farmers market for fresh fruit and veggies though. At least until the garden starts producing.

Now for a menu. I have discovered that I don't like being told (even by myself) what I have to eat on a given day. Maybe its the rebel in me, but some days I just don't feel like eating whats on the menu. So, since I have to eat what I have, eventually all the planned meals will get eaten. I am just going to do a list of breakfasts, lunches, and dinners... and except for Friday night, which is ALWAYS pizza night if I can manage it, we will pick and choose as our tastes dictate.

Breakfasts:

oatmeal
toast
grits
eggs and bacon
sausage biscuits (we have these frozen from the previous shopping trip) - primarily for the Hubby to eat on his way to work.
pancakes
cereal and milk

Lunches:
Sandwiches (lunch meat, cheese)
vegetable soup
grilled cheese
salad
fish nuggets (for the daughter)
carrot and celery sticks with dip
stuffed peppers for hubby
Pasta salad - veggies, hard boiled eggs, whole wheat pasta, Italian dressing, Parmesan cheese
Hamburger mac entree (for Hubby's lunch)


Dinner:
baked chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, baked apples
Pork chops, rice, broccoli
baked potatoes - sour cream, shredded cheese, chives, fajita chicken
pizza - turkey pepperoni, mushrooms, onion
BBQ chicken, roasted potatoes, salad
burgers, oven fries, stir fried veggies (zucchini, yellow squash, carrots)
steak, baked potatoes, broccoli/cauliflower mix

I have low fat brownie mix and a couple cake mixes if we want dessert. Also a great recipe for Chewy Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies.

I have made one attempt at cleaning out the fridge. It went well but I didn't really have time to wash out the drawers, etc. I need to do that so the produce stays nice. Also I bought some "forever bags". These are bags that do not trap the gasses that veggies, bread, meat and fruit let off as they age. If they are not sitting in these gasses they stay fresh longer. I usually have to pay through the nose for them, but I found a great deal at Big Lots (25 bags for $3!!). So, I am hoping that the food will last longer. That means fewer trips to the grocery and frankly less opportunity to blow the budget :)

Its been a while, huh?

Well, I was working, we had family visiting, and nothing was normal here for about 2 months. The youngest child had prom, graduated from high school, the oldest moved to a new place, and my brother's family came from Alaska to visit. This means that all the cousins showed up too, and we had a wonderful time. There was a lot of BBQ, and sweet tea made, and many meals of "bring what you've got, and we'll put it with what I've got", LOL. I am so glad they came.

My temp job has hit a wall and there is no work. Now the Congress is fighting unemployment extensions (which they should, fiscally its a bad move) so I am a little freaked out about how we will pay our bills when that is no longer available. I am reduced to 'work at home" schemes, mystery shopper jobs, and whatnot. After 18 months I cant even get a job interview, let alone become gainfully employed again. And heaven help us when the folks in the Gulf have to start applying for benefits because they will need them for a LOT longer than I have at this point. Their way of life is just destroyed.

In this midst of all this, we are raising the monster garden from Hades. Its huge. Its so much work, and the heat and humidity have been so oppressive that I can't hardly breathe when I go out there. Becca has been up a few times to stay and since she is right there she can get out in the early morning and late evening and weed. I am always waiting on a car to come home, or the rain to stop, ... its just been very frustrating. And we are not yet to the never ending harvest part. I know its coming, and I know that its beneficial to us to harvest everything we can get our hands on. Still, other than the fact that we will be able to visit while we pick, shuck, cut, can, bag, etc, I am not looking forward to it. I am, I guess, basically lazy. However, what does the Bible say? Neither does a man work, nor shall he eat... or something like that. So...

Saturday is Angelfood day. I have forgotten at this point what we are getting! Its been that kind of crazy time here. However, I am making a grocery list of staples, preparing to make bread again to get us through, and buying up dry milk so we can still cook even if we don't like it to drink. I know we are getting 2 regular boxes and 1 grill box. So we should be good for meat for a while. Plus I have 5 lbs of hamburger frozen at Mom's just waiting to come home and be made into something. The youngest has decided she wants to be a vegetarian, naturally since I have all this meat, so I am trying to accommodate her by cooking more veggies, and making things that don't necessarily include meat. I have been cruising recipes that are specifically vegetarian, thinking we could use them as side dishes while she uses them as main course items.

**** Brief Pause****

Just got back from a run to my brother's apartments. We had to put an AC unit in the 3rd floor apartment. I can't tell you how proud I am of what he has done with that place. He's a good landlord, takes care of things in a timely manner, and has really made apartments homes for those who rent there. Its amazing what he has accomplished.

Anyway, last night we did the "foil package" thing. Salmon brushed with Dijon mustard, zucchini/potatoes/Vidalia onions with seasoning sprinkled on and a small dollop of margarine, and saffron rice. It was pretty good stuff. Surprised me, I will admit. I don't know why the daughter will eat fish and not consider it meat, but anything that gives us protein and still meets her criteria is good with me. Guess we will be eating more seafood (just when it goes sky high because of the mess in the Gulf huh?).

So tomorrow I will have the Angelfood here and put away and I can work on some menus. Will post again soon ;)

Menu and Grocery list

A trip to Walmart later I am reminded that A) for the things I buy I can shop cheaper at Kroger, and B) you should always shop alone -- other people expand the list LOL!.

I knew this, but... sometimes you gotta go with the flow. So here's the menu:

All Week:
Breakfast: Cereal and Milk
Lunches: sandwiches, salad, fruit... or leftovers


Monday, May 24, 2010
Dinner: Cream Cheese Crockpot Chicken

Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Dinner: Casserole [cooked, chopped chicken, water chestnuts, mixed veggies and left over squash casserole (made with stuffing mix)], chicken gravy, green beans

TO DO: Marinate cornish hens and move to fridge for Thursday. Bake pineapple upside down cake for Wed. night.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Dinner: Church... take pineapple upside down cake.

Thursday, May 27, 2010
Dinner: Grilled cornish hens, veggie skewers on the grill, saffron rice.

Friday, May 28, 2010
Dinner: Baked Pizza Pasta ( rotini, sausage cooked and crumbled, mushrooms, pizza sauce, cheese), broccoli, brownies.

Saturday, May 29, 2010
Lunch: Orange scented Carrot Soup, Popovers
Dinner: Burgers on the grill, Grilled Corn, oven fries.


Shopping Trip:

Toilet Paper $6.18
Mixed Veggies $1.00
Broccoli $1.00 x2
Carrots $0.98
Cream Cheese $1.62
Mushrooms $2.98
Zucchini $1.02
1 Orange $0.64
Corn on Cob(3) $0.57
Lettuce $0.94
Water Chestnuts $0.94
Vidallia Onions $3.09 --- Yes that's expensive, but worth ever morsel :)
Ckn Noodle soup $0.98 x2
Tomato soup $0.48 x2
Cr. of Ckn soup $0.78 x2
Ckn Broth $0.48 x 3
Pineapple rings $0.98
Ckn Breast $6.48
Milk gallon $2.48
Cake mix $0.98 x 2
cake mix $1.16
Sour Cream $1.14
madarin oranges $0.82
Trop. fruit salad $0.98 x2
Ajax dish soap $0.97
trash bags $2.47
Coke $0.99 x5
Dr. Thunder $0.66 x2
magazine $4.49
nail polish $2.00
------------------------------
total: $67.53

So, yes, we spent more than I intended. No, we didnt buy much in the way of meat, just chicken. But we have hamburger here already. Yes we bought mostly name brand pop, but it was on sale so it was worth it. And it will go to work with us this week so there wont be so much vending machine purchases.


Tonight we have hamburger helper, some broccoli, and whatever else i can scrounge up on commercials. Cause lets face it... tonight its all about LOST!!!!

May 23 - Catching up

Going back to work completely shot all my good intentions about menu planning. We have been in the midst of "catch as catch can" for several weeks now. I even got busy and failed to order Angelfood! Now I have to be really careful, as I don't have all that cheap food to count on.

What I do have is a good deal of rice, enough potatoes for several meals, 3 or 4 boxes of pasta, a couple of cake mixes, and a few "add meat" meal helpers. So we will not go hungry, even though I can't spend much at the store.

We are making a grocery trip so there is a list in the making. When I get back I will tally the total up and get a menu on the screen. Definitely time to start using the crock pot. Not just for convenience but because the weather is warming up. I love to grill out and slow-cook when its hot.

Back in a bit with more info!

Menu May 2-8

Okay, as promised here is the new menu:

Monday May 2
Breakfast: crock pot breakfast casserole
Lunch: Salisbury Steak (AF) and mashed potatoes with peas for Hubby and Daughter; Salad for me
Dinner: Broccoli cheese soup (made using the shelf stable milk from AF), ham and cheese muffins


Tuesday May 3
Breakfast: crock pot breakfast casserole
Lunch: Sandwiches and left over soup
Dinner: Pineapple chicken in the crock pot with rice and broccoli


Wednesday May 4
Breakfast: Cereal and milk
Lunch: Salisbury Steak and mashed potatoes with peas for Hubby and Daughter; Salad for me
Dinner: Church

Thursday May 5
Breakfast: Cereal and milk
Lunch: Sandwiches, cupcakes, fruit
Dinner: Maple Dijon Chicken with sweet potatoes and green beans


Friday May 6
Breakfast: Cereal and milk
Lunch: Sandwiches, cupcakes, fruit
Dinner: Pizza

Saturday May 7
Breakfast: Cereal and milk
Lunch: Crock pot fried rice
Dinner: Burgers, grilled, oven fried potatoes, slaw

Sunday May 8
Breakfast: Cereal and milk
Lunch: Pork Chops, pasta salad, melon


Not sure about the following week. I am going to start using the crock pot more though. Not only will it save on heat in the kitchen but man I am whooped when I get home and I don't wanna mess with cooking!

I have been perusing the recipes at A Year of Slow Cooking for ideas. She's got some interesting stuff there, including things like how to make Rice Krispie treats in the crock pot!! I guess you just never know until you try right?

May 1- Derby Day

Though it has never happened before, its possible that the Derby will be rained out tomorrow. We are supposed to get a big soaking rain which may make the race impossible. Already there have been tornadoes in Arkansas and Missouri (I think). Flood warnings are out for Sunday afternoon through Monday morning.

Though I would love to go to the Derby Party at my church friends home, tomorrow is my only weekend day to do laundry and clean house. Not that these are my preferred activities! This week of getting up early and working all day has been a real trial for my body. I'm just so out of practice that having a job to go to has really kicked my.... but today is Friday, and I am still awake at 11:30 pm. So I must be adjusting.

Because I have come home every day and gone to bed, there has been little in the way of menu discipline. However that is over. Tomorrow I will make up a practical menu, including all the breakfasts and lunches because we cant spend our money on fast food. Its a bit of a challenge for me as I frequently am on the road at lunch time and cant really juggle a salad or a cup of soup and the steering wheel. Yet I am not at all okay with a sandwich every single day! We will see how that gets resolved.

With the big rain coming again (it rained Monday through Wednesday constantly, and dried out a bit over yesterday and today) and flood warnings for Sunday through Monday I am wondering if our garden will get washed out. I sure hope not. It was a lot of work (specially for Becca). We do have all the seed we need except for corn, and we would have to buy the tomatoes all over again.

Today we had a case where part of the proceedings were sealed. It was very interesting to see how the law works when the public is not in the room. Fascinating. Every day is something a little different, which I really like. Also I may be able to stay in town on Monday and type, which I also really like. Travel all the time is tiring.

More to come tomorrow... during a break from Cleaning and Laundry!

Of Jobs and Courts

Well I had my trial run today as a court reporter. Its going to be very interesting. I go out again tomorrow, this time alone, and I am looking forward to it. It does make a change in my plans though. Now I have to specify what I am having for lunch cause I might have to take it with me. Tonight I am fixing beefy mac stuff for the Hubby and Daughter to take this week as lunch. I will make a ham sandwich for me, and while their beefy mac is cooking I will bake some cookies (pre-made Angel Food item). That will make a nice break. And I believe I will do some breakfast casserole in the crock pot so we can all have something warm in the morning. This spring rain is very chilly. It will be interesting as we have no cheese in the house. Improvisation will be the key :)

As this was my first day of work, the Hubby, who was off today after working 10 hours of OT yesterday, fixed dinner. We were off the menu but it was so nice to have someone else do it I don't mind. Apparently the breaded chicken tenders were not of sufficient quality for AF to send them out. They substituted 2 lbs of fajita chicken. Hubby used half of it in some Asian Fried Rice Chicken Helper. Should be an interesting fusion of East and South West.

The rain is supposed to continue tomorrow and Wednesday, then kick in again over the weekend. I hope we don't have a lot of weeds in the garden, as it will be muddy. The tractor turned the ground so very well that it will be ankle deep mud I am afraid. Here at the house we have some large interesting mushrooms growing around the square foot garden! The cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower are looking good though. Perhaps at some point I can post pictures.

Planting, chapter 1

We got a lot done today. We planted 9 rows of corn, 3 rows of beans, a row of tomatoes, a cantaloupe and 3 rows of white potatoes. We still have herbs, mustard and kale, zucchini and yellow squash, 2 kinds of pumpkins, and a mess of lavender to get into the ground. Once some of the plants come up we can put in the posts and string up the supports for the beans and tomatoes. This is of paramount importance to me because I just am not good at crawling around on the ground hunting for beans! Last year we had a LOT of rain, and the tomatoes suffered from blight. I am hoping having them up off the ground will allow them to dry out properly between rains and we can get some fruit. Lord knows that if we can get it all to harvest its going to be a major undertaking to get it all put up. I think I will start buying more jars every payday so I am ready for processing.

I came home, took a shower and a nap and have decided the garden hating has not yet begun. Maybe in a few weeks... LOL. We are going to lay cardboard between the rows once the plants come up so we can help keep the weeds down. We had a nice visit today with my uncle, mom, and Linda (a friend that Becca introduced us to).

The Hubby had to pull up the blog and check the menu to fix some dinner tonight. I am so grateful he was willing to do it because I was flat worn out. After my nap I have about enough energy to post and clear the email, then I am headed back to bed!

Of Gardens and Menus

Spent the day walking and planning the garden with my cousin Becca. Tomorrow we do a quick trip to Lowe's for a few last minute things, and start planting. Its an ambitious undertaking, and will quickly become something I dread doing. I hate the doing and the putting up, but I love the food when the snow is flying and the smaller grocery bill when I don't have to add all those canned or frozen veggies to the cart. I expect tomorrow night I will be exhausted!

At the moment we are planning:
Corn, 3 types of green beans, 2 types of tomatoes, red and white potatoes, pumpkins, watermelon, honeydew, yellow squash, zucchini, cucumbers, onions, carrots and beets. Becca is planting greens (mustard, kale, etc) and we are going to plant some herbs out there also. In the back yard here the cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower are coming right along, and the onions are looking good. I expect to have to purchase a flat of jars every pay day between now and harvest to put it all up, because the only think I prefer frozen is corn.

Here is the menu for the next week:

Tuesday April 20
Breakfast: cereal and milk
Lunch: Michaelina for the Hubby, school lunch for the Daughter, and salad for me
Dinner: Chicken and Cheese Biscuits, Chicken Gravy, steamed cauliflower, green beans

Wednesday April 21
Breakfast: cereal and milk
Lunch: Michaelinas for the Hubby, PB&J sandwich/fruit for the Daughter, hamburger/potato salad for me (grilling out with family)
Dinner: Hamburger Helper, green peas for Hubby and Daughter, salad for me

Thursday April 22
Breakfast: egg/hashbrowns/sausage torte
Lunch: Michaelinas for Hubby, chicken salad lettuce wraps for Daughter, Salad for me
Dinner: BBQ pork (AF), boiled/buttered potatoes, broccoli

Friday April 23
Breakfast: leftover torte
Lunch: Lunchmeat sandwiches, pudding, fruit for Hubby and Daughter, leftovers for me
Dinner: Pizza (mushrooms, sausage, pepperoni) before the oldest daughter's opera performance

Saturday April 24
Breakfast: oatmeal w/apples and brown sugar
Lunch: Breaded chicken tenders, oven fries
Dinner: Breakfast for dinner (biscuits, scrambled eggs, bacon)

Sunday April 25
Breakfast:
Lunch/dinner: Grilled cornish hens, saffron rice, something green (LOL)
Snack: Popcorn for movie night

Monday April 26
Breakfast: Muffins
Lunch: Sandwiches, Carrot sticks, pudding
Dinner: Pork chops (grilled/bbq), buttered boiled potatoes, green beans

Tuesday April 27
Breakfast: oatmeal
Lunch: Michaelinas for hubby, salad for daughter, chicken pot pie for me
Dinner: Chicken soup (homemade crockpot- carrots, peas, potatoes, celery, onion, mushrooms), poor mans biscuits

4/19 Surprise Surprise!!

Well with spring comes the need to garner some semblance of control over ones life. Happens every year. I think, well its time to start walking and eating a more healthy diet. Its time to get back on track with the finances. Its time to rebuild the emergency fund, organize the sewing room, clean up the yard. Every year I say it, sometimes I even attempt it, and every year I have let it go by the wayside. This year is different.

This year I asked The Hubby to get involved. We have a Wii, so we have agreed to use it every day and/or walk the neighborhood. This, plus the garden several days a week should help me get some much needed exercise and sunshine. I just feel dull and uninspired and I am over it. So its time to start looking at how to change it.

So I got on the Wii and much to my surprise, I have lost 5 lbs this month!!! I was sure that would not be the case! So... a little drop in the ol' BMI is good for the motivation.

We also have an annual tradition. Every year on Memorial Day weekend we have a BBQ. It happens to coincide with the youngest daughters birthday(and this year also graduation), and recently my niece and nephew from Alaska have been in the state during this time. As a result there is a major house cleaning effort to get ready for the party. Today we decided that we also want to have a big yard sale and get rid of a bunch of stuff that really needs to go out of our home. So... to further both events we are going to take a week for each room, clean, sort, determine what stays and what goes. This will let us get everything cleaned up and be ready for the yard sale (which will definitely happen AFTER the party).

I found my Weight Watchers books again. While I am not going to try to go all out with the program, there are some good recipes out there. Also there is an explanation of what a real serving looks like in the books, and we are going to start using that. Its a new dimension to menu planning, whoopee! (Yes that was a bit "snarky". This menu planning is really taking over my life some days.)

We did order Angel Food again this month. Pick up day is on Saturday. So we need to get some of the frozen stuff out of the freezer.

Updates:
Wii--30 minutes

Oops! Just realized its time to do another week of menus! Well I will try to get to that tonight, in the meantime dinner is Chicken Fried Rice (Banquet everything in a box for $3), fortified with some kind of additional frozen veggies. We have white cupcakes left for dessert with sliced strawberries and fat free cool whip. Should be good.

Thoughts on Lemonade Chicken

Turns out that I don't really like Lemonade Chicken! It sounded so good in the recipe but it smelled like Swiss steak while cooking and that little dab of ketchup really took over in the flavor profile. Even some strong sweet and sour sauce didn't really save the day for me. The daughter and hubby ate it without complaint though, so it just might be my dislike of tomato that is the issue.

Was a pretty day, but we have a frost advisory tonight so the garden must be covered up.

April 15th

Today is my birthday! Gonna have a good time...


Well ok, so the song doesn't translate well to written word, LOL! Really, the weather is beautiful, there is a Tea Party event in Lexington this evening I will be attending (who knew I would love being politically active?), and even though it is tax day I just don't mind so much.

Its also new menu time, so here we go:

Wednesday, April 14 (yeah it was last night but I didnt get this posted in time)
Dinner was: grilled steak, potato salad, steamed broccoli and corn on the cob

Thursday April 15th

Breakfast: cold cereal and milk
Lunch: the daughter got it from the cafeteria, the hubby had Michaelinas, I had a sandwich
Dinner: marinated and grilled chicken, saffron rice, green peas

Friday April 16th
Breakfast: cold cereal and milk
Lunch: fruit salad, sandwiches, chips
Dinner: pizza with sausage, turkey pepperoni, onion and mushrooms with salad

Saturday April 17th
Breakfast: cereal and milk, Orange Julius
Lunch: Yakisobi mac and cheese with peas and carrots and ham added
Dinner: Lemonade Chicken (recipe below), rice, green beans

Sunday April 18
Breakfast: at church
Lunch/Dinner: pot roast (beef, carrots, potatoes, onions) cornbread, broccoli
Snack: popcorn


Not quite a full week, but thats as far as I have planned at the moment. I will add more as I get there :)

Lemonade Chicken

(recipe from Allrecipes.com_

Ingredients

• 6 (4 ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
• 3/4 cup lemonade concentrate
• 3 tablespoons ketchup
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 2 tablespoons cold water

Directions

1. Place chicken in a 5-qt. slow cooker. Combine the lemonade, ketchup, brown sugar and vinegar; pour over chicken. Cover and cook on low for 2-1/2 hours or until chicken juices run clear.
2. Remove chicken and keep warm. For gravy, combine cornstarch and water until smooth; stir into cooking juices. Cover and cook on high for 30 minutes or until thickened. Return chicken to the slow cooker; heat through.

What a Great Day!

So it was beautiful again today. We went to Sunday School, and Church. Both were edifying :)
Came home, took a short nap (necessity as I hadn't slept well the last 2 nights) and then worked on some sewing. Went to Richmond to see, follow me now, the married daughter's best friend's recital. She did a wonderful job, btw.

Home again and Skype with the family in Alaska. That is one slick program and I love being able to see and talk at the same time. Makes Fairbanks seem so much closer to Kentucky!!

The menu is all hither and yon. Because I was away from home on Friday night, the hubby and daughter had beans and franks (originally slated for Monday night- as in tomorrow). Then today we had lunch meat sandwiches or salad for lunch and really didn't eat any dinner. That is unusual here. I will have to juggle the other dinners and fit them in before menu planning again. And we HAVE to eat the salmon. Its frozen, so it won't go bad, but still. I keep planning it and I keep not fixing it! We like it just fine, so I don't really know why its such an issue.

I have discovered that yet again convenience costs more money. Eating cold cereal in the mornings is going to cost us in milk. However, since only the hubby actually drinks milk on purpose, and we could use the calcium, I am not going to fret this new development until there is no milk AND no money!

I read something interesting the other day. Another blogger mentioned that cutting portion sizes was really helping her budget. She got the amounts for a "regular" serving of different foods, and then started filling plates based on those amounts. The family ate less, but didn't seem to notice all that much, and they lost weight while staying healthy. This sounds like a good plan to me. Heaven knows we could use the weight loss at this house.

I know that it is spring finally. Not because the grass is lush and green, or the tulips have bloomed, or the birds are all back and raising a racket outside. Nope, its because I want to eat cantaloupe. Yup this is my "spring has sprung" craving. It is so strong that here I am tonight, wishing for something to eat ( having not had supper) and the only things that sound good are steak and cantaloupe. I have potato chips and I_ don't _want _them!!! Amazing huh?

I think instead of eating I will just go to bed :)

Nothing is Where I Left It!!

Well, I had occasion to visit Walmart for groceries today. I usually try to avoid shopping there because, for the things I purchase regularly, I can't save as much money as when I go to Kroger. Probably I should have gone to Save-A-Lot, but they don't carry my brand of toilet paper and I only had one check in my checkbook.

If you sew you probably know that Walmart is phasing out their fabric department. They used this as an excuse to rearrange everything in the freakin store! Not only that, they changed out all the shelves: white metal shelving is apparently "out" and black is "in". I am not sure what the psychological reasoning is behind that, but there you go. So there are chips and paper/foil products where the shoes used to be, and items have been rearranged on the shelves and isles. It makes shopping take so much longer when I can't find what I am looking for. The poor check out girl said, dutifully, "Did you find everything you were looking for?" Bless her heart, I laughed out loud. She understood, so I am sure I wasn't the only one with that reaction today.

The daughter and I had our day out. Most of spring break we were at home, but today we went to Nannie's house to play with the cousin. My girls were the first grandchildren on both sides of the house, and their cousins came along several years later. As a result, there is a big gap in their ages. However, my youngest has a real affinity for younger kids, so they play well together. We celebrated by going to Wendy's for salads. Good grief!! When did 2 salads with drinks start to look a lot like $15 ??? But it was a good thing. Sometimes you just have to spend a little money and time with a child. The rewards outweigh the cost.

So today at Walmart:

Cottonelle TP $7.97
Great Value 1% Milk, gallon $2.48 (saved $1 with store promotion)
2 bags of frozen Broccoli bits @ $.98 each
2 Tomatoes, on the vine $1.21
1 Cucumber @ $ .68
3 very small Yellow Squash $.67
1 small Zuchini $.68 (Just realized that the cashier rang this up as a cucumber.)
2 Hillshire Farms Beef Smoked Sausage @ $2.50 each (Coupon for buy 2 save 1$1.00)
10# Russet Potatoes @ $2.77
1 jar GV Light Mayo @ 2.18
sliced fresh Mushrooms @ $1.88
1 container of fresh Strawberries @ 1.50
1 large bag of Malt O Meal whole grain Cereal @ 4.42
1 package of Saffron flavored Rice @ $.66
1 can pineapple bits @ $1.16
1 can mandarin oranges @ $.82 each( rang up 2 but I only brought home 1-probably evens out the zuchini)
4 cans Chef Boy Ar Dee Pasta @ $1.00 each (coupon for $1 off a 4 can purchase)
1 tub Country Crock Margarine with Calcium @ $2.28 (Coupon for .30 off)
1 head of Lettuce @ $1.28

Total: 45.37, including tax.

Not bad all in all. The fruit will all go together in a container and be used for the daughter's lunch next week. That, along with sandwiches on fresh bread should be a good lunch. Also there are now plenty of salad options if she wants to switch it up.

Frustration

Well, I find that this is far more complicated a task than I had anticipated. Not only is it hard to stay on track with making and using the menus, but my spouse is spending money on food that I am not able to track. (Not fussing really, he is in the habit of picking up soda or chips, etc, and bringing them home, or spending money eating out when there are things here to take for lunch). I believe that I will have to focus first on the menus and shopping, and though I will continue to track the spending I do, I just have to admit that I am sure its not the complete and honest total. I have also come to accept that breakfast is a faster, easier, and better loved meal if there is cereal in the house. So after posting here I am off to hunt for cereal coupons. After all, this is MY project, not really his.

So to the menu:
Note: (C) denotes a coupon purchase, (G) denotes produce from the garden, * denotes an Angel Food purchase.
Wednesday April 7
Breakfast: Cereal and milk
Lunch: Left over chicken pasta salad from yesterday
Dinner: bacon wrapped chicken grilled *, cauliflower, peas

TO DO: Bake Bread, 2 loaves

Thursday April 8
Breakfast: Cereal and milk
Lunch: Sandwiches, sliced apples*
Dinner: Broccoli Cheese soup *, Bread sticks, low fat brownies

Friday April 9
Breakfast: Cereal and milk
Lunch: mac and cheese Yakisobi noodles (C) with ham and veggies added
Dinner: Pizza, salad

Saturday April 10
Breakfast: Cereal and milk
Lunch: Sandwiches, sliced apples
Dinner: Hamburger Helper, hamburger, leftover veggies (cauliflower, peas, corn)


Sunday April 11
Breakfast: cereal and milk
Lunch: egg salad sandwiches, pineapple,
Dinner: Salmon, grilled, Broccoli (C), Saffron Rice (C)


Monday April 12
Breakfast: cereal and milk
Lunch: Sandwiches (ham or turkey), salad
Dinner: baked beans (crock pot pork and beans*, hot dogs) , corn bread


Tuesday April 13
Breakfast: cereal and milk
Lunch: chef salad (lettuce, carrots, cucumber, ham/turkey, peas, green onion)
Dinner: Spaghetti *, sauce*, hamburger, Bread Sticks (C), green beans (G)

Menu 4/1- 4/15

This post will be incomplete when submitted, and then updated. Life has been very busy at our house and I haven't done my menu planning. I have my coupons, and I have plenty here in the way of food, but have been distracted by the nice spring temps. Had lunch with a friend today, a rare event that I would like to perpetuate, and planted early crops in the raised garden bed out back. Being that I am woefully out of shape, that was quite an adventure (getting up and down LOL). But there are now broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower planted. Turns out I have a left over carrot sprouting so I went ahead and planted another square foot of them, and the rest of the sq ft that was carrots last year. The onion sets went into a large pot on the back porch. I have more than I need, and the rest may go to waste... I hate that but is it more wasteful than growing them and never eating them?

Spent a little time with my Mom yesterday. We had lunch, wandered the yard to look at her flowers, and pondered family politics. I don't spend enough time with her. I need to fix that.


So tonight I want to make a major dent in the skirts I am altering, make my menus up and post them, and finally convince my family that clean, folded clothes belong in drawers and not hampers in the living room!! So I will be back with menus...I know you await that info with bated breath LOL!!


4/2/10
Yeah, so I didnt get back here and I didn't get a menu up. In fact, I didn't get it written either! So I will try to get that done tonight after a little with my Sims 3 (haven't played in months and I have a yen to build some houses). Today I went to Lexington with my Mom and niece. We hit the fabric store and two needlework stores. It was fun. I got out hamburgers to thaw for the grill. When hubby came home we went to the store for some "grilling meal necessities" and bought a few other things that were going to be on the list but were on sale today. So here's how it looks:

Kroger:

Ball Park Franks (2 pkgs) @ $3.49 (total cost with .75 coupon= 6.23
Sliced Kroger sandwich cheese $2.18
General Mills All Purpose Flour $2.69 (with store card-1.49, and coupon .75 =total cost $1.15
Lays Chips 2@ $3.21 (with store card -$1.98 each)
Yakisobi noodles 6@ 1.00 each (coupons $.50 off, total cost $3.00)
big K diet cherry cola 2@.79 each
A&W Cream Soda $1.50
Speed Stick Antipersperant $3.29 (store card discount final cost 2.00)

Total cost with no discounts: $32.44
Total cost with Store Discounts: $25.99
Total cost with Store Discounts and coupons: $21.49

So tonight we are having grilled burgers and chips. Next week is the daughter's spring break. So definitely will need to have a menu. I will do it and post shortly.

Homemade Laundry Detergent

Well, my cousin has been making this stuff for a while now. She says it saves her serious money & cleans as well as what she can buy in the store. I like the idea that I can control the scent and artificial color, both of which are problems are our house. So I decided to give it a try today, since the store bought stuff is just about gone.

I went to Making Homemade Laundry Soap to check out the directions. Then I headed out to the store and found:
Fels Naptha Soap $1.29
Washing Soda $2.16
Borax $3.89


I also purchased a bucket, with a lid, for $1.27

My detergent is setting up even as I type this. I do use Oxyclean spot remover when I have something really hard to get out. I also have some of that Crisco looking stuff that mechanics use to take the black grease off their hands. That is wonderful for grease splatters. But I wont know for sure how well it cleans the clothes at our house for a couple of days. I will post back with the results.

I also picked up a one dollar Cranberry Mandarin scented candle in a jar. It smells wonderful!!!
Like Spring :)

The best laid plans

Yeah so I haven't made bread or pancakes yet, and I was able to get AF so it altered the menu a little. The sun is shining and I wanted burgers for lunch. With some home fries, sprinkled with steak dust. Should be yummy. Laundry to do (always). I have decided to try to make my own laundry detergent. My cousin does it, and it is cheaper than what she can buy, cleans the clothes just as well (she has toddlers), and for us the lack of color or scent will be a bonus too. I just have to find a tub with a lid. I used to have several, so I know they are here somewhere!

And to top it all off, Hubby's weekend starts tonight, and UK plays UWVa tonight in the Elite Eight.

Life is good :)

Friday, 3/26 updated

Because I thought that I would not be getting any AF this month, I hit the grocery last night. Here's the damage (Updated):
1 bag hash browns $1.79
Pillsbury Grands Biscuits 2 cans @ $ .98 each*
Pillsbury Bread Sticks $1.25*
2 cans Turkey Chili @ $1.41 each
2 Yakisobi noodles @ $1.00
1 bag tortilla chips $1.00
1 can frozen lemonade $1.29
1 bag shredded cheese $2.29
Kroger brand Drink mix (Crystal Light type) $ 2.00
1 box rotini $1.25
Italian Dressing mix $2.19
1 box Saltine Crackers @1.25
2 cans of soup @ 1.00 each
Turkey Breast lunch meat (1 lb) $3.49
Ham lunch meat (1 lb) $3.49
2 rolls sausage @ $1.59 each
2.5 dozen eggs $2.99
Hamburger, store ground 4.62 (marked down 50%)
Hamburger, store ground 4.64 (marked down 50%)
Canola oil $2.99
Bananas $.65
1 Smoked Sausage $2.00
1 can beets $ .50

Total: 53.54

With store discounts and coupons my total saved was $8.89
*I had one coupon for $1 off 3 Pillsbury products (biscuits and bread sticks)
I spent $53.43. Also ordered my coupons from the grocery savings site. That was $5.45. That money gets me coupons for $54 off products. I really had to select carefully. Many things I purchase are store brands or generics, but there were quite a few things available to me that I do purchase name brand. One of them was Chef Boyardee pizza kits. Can't turn down a $1 off those, since I do the cheese kits and add my own turkey pepperoni. I ordered 5 of the coupons. I have till the end of May to use them, and that will keep us in pizza for quite a while.

While at the grocery, I ran into my friend Martha who heads up the AF endeavor in our county. Turns out they order a box or two extra, just in case, and I will be able to get one! I am very happy about that. So this meat should really carry us through for most of April with the AF meat added to it. I have separated the hamburger into 5 one lb. sections and 2 1/2 lb sections. Its in the freezer. This will let us have spaghetti twice, and we can either do burgers, Hamburger Helper, or casseroles with the other 5 lbs.

I found myself standing in front of displays and saying "Just because its on sale doesn't mean I have to buy it now." I have to tell you, its hard to walk away from a good deal. Perhaps if we ever get a freezer I will feel like I can do that.

In the meantime, my cousin and I are planning our garden. Over the next few months I will start buying up jars, lids, etc. I want to put up chili base again, lots of green beans, corn, potatoes, and onions. I want pumpkins to put up too, and beets even though I am the only one that eats them here!

Tonight is pizza night. I look forward to that pizza. Also I made the best oatmeal chocolate chip cookies! Here is the recipe from All recipes:

Chewy Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups quick-cooking oats
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; stir into the creamed mixture until just blended. Mix in the quick oats, walnuts, and chocolate chips. Drop by heaping spoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets.
3. Bake for 12 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

I used Country Crock margarine, and the cookies worked better that were chilled in the fridge than the first batch in the oven. They didn't look like they were completely done but set up beautifully. We will have these again, because I am always looking for a way to add grain to our diet. Oh yes, I use the long cooking oatmeal, not the fast stuff, because its what I had. seems to be fine.

Revised Menu 3/24

Ok, as promised here is the revised menu for the next week.

Tonight: assemble and cook breakfast casserole in crock pot

Thursday 3/25
Breakfast casserole (crockpot) [hash browns, eggs, chives, cheese, sausage]
Lunch: Broccoli cheese soup, crackers, carrots and celery sticks
Dinner: Asian Fried Rice (an all in one boxed Banquet meal), slaw, pineapple

Prep: Bake 2 loaves of bread (one for sandwiches, one for French Toast. They are small loaves, so its not as over the top as it sounds); Make pancakes (mix in syrup) and freeze in portion sizes

Friday 3/26
Breakfast casserole
Lunch: Peanut butter and plum jelly sandwiches, apple
Dinner: Pizza (Chef Boyardee), salad

Saturday 3/27
Breakfast: French Toast
Lunch: chef salad, banquet chicken pot pies
Dinner: Grilled chicken, squash casserole *recipe below, green beans

Sunday 3/28
Breakfast casserole
Lunch and dinner will be away from home--FIL's birthday party

Monday 3/29
Breakfast: pancakes
Lunch: pineapple and cottage cheese, sandwiches (turkey or ham)
Dinner: baked chicken and rice, mixed vegetables (CA mix), Baked apples

Tuesday 3/30
Breakfast casserole
Lunch: lunchmeat roll ups in tortillas, potato salad
Dinner: bbq shredded pork, fries, broccoli

That gets us through the week. Next month will be even more of a challenge as I was so busy getting ready for DC I failed to order AngelFood!! I am distressed but I will just have to watch the flyers and buy meat on sale. I still have plenty of rice and potatoes. Veggies are pretty cheap frozen and canned, and we will manage right along :)

Baked Squash (from Busy Woman's Quick and Easy Recipes):
5 cups cooked squash (I had an abundance of yellow squash last year. I shredded it and froze it, meaning to add it to vegetable soup but forgot. So I have plenty of squash LOL)

3/4 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1 (10 ounce) can cream of chicken soup
1 (6 ounce) box stuffing mix

Prehead oven to 375.
Place cooked squash in mixing bowl and season with a little salt. Add cheese and soup and blend well. Mix dressing according to package directions and place half dressing in spreayed 9*13 baking dish. Spoon in squash mixture and sprinkle remaining dressing on top. Bake uncovered for 30 minutes.

I will let you know if its yummy!

Weekend in Washington DC

Well, this weekend was a bit of a washout when it comes to the menu. Thursday evening, about 10:30 pm my daughter called with news that we could go with the 9 12 project to Washington DC to march on the Capital; and the tickets were very cheap to ride the bus. As a result, I hit the streets of Washington DC rather than staying home and working the menu. Politics aside, it was the most amazing event. So many people willing to give up their weekend and exercise their guaranteed God give right to peaceably assemble and share their opinions and desires with their elected representatives. Let me just say, there is no doubt we were heard by Congress. The problem is they chose not to listen. DC is such a historical city. The very act of being there fills my heart with awe and amazement at all that have come before, sacrifices made in the name of liberty. It gives me great hope despite the fact that Congressmen caved and the Senate Health Care bill passed.

So, today I have to take stock of the pantry and freezer contents, and create a new menu plan for the week. I will post them here later today.

Amish Bread for the Bread Machine

I tried a new recipe last night for bread. I love it! Now I have to figure out why it fell in the center, so this loaf doesn't have perfect bread shape. I also used bread flour, where previously I had used self rising flour. The taste and consistency are very different. I found the recipe on All Recipes website. You can use the link and peruse other great recipes, or just read on to see the one I linked to:

Ingredients

• 2 3/4 cups bread flour
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1 teaspoon active dry yeast
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 18 tablespoons warm water

Directions

1. Place ingredients in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select White Bread cycle; press Start.
2. When the dough has raised once and second cycle of kneading begins, turn machine off. Reset by pressing Start once again. This gives the dough two full raising cycles before the final raising cycle prior to baking.

A conversion offered by a commenter says:
Just to add a note, about this fantastic bread, 18 TBS is 1 cup + 2 TBS.


I sliced this for a tuna salad sandwich today and it was yummy. I did this on white bread/light crust setting, and failed to turn off the machine and restart for the 2nd round of rising. That might be the reason the center fell. Also, I just put one package of yeast in, and I think I should have measured it out... so next loaf I will do that.

Coupon Fun

Well, the coupon fairy has smiled upon me :) I went to the mail box and Kroger had sent me 3 substantial coupons for Cottonelle toilet paper! There are a few things I just prefer be name brand, and toilet paper is among those.

I also occasionally print coupons from the internet. There are a lot of websites that gather coupons in one place. I have found that they usually all have the same coupons though, so I don't visit multiple sites. I also get a newsletter from Pillsbury, Betty Crocker, etc. , and they sometimes provide coupons as well. Its nice to occasionally be able to purchase something name brand because the coupon makes it the same price as the store or generic brand.

Also, I recently heard an ad on the radio for a Nelson survey of grocery shopping habits. I called the 800 number and signed up. It was $7.95 to join (lets you waive the $99 sign up fee) and they sent me info this week. There is a website that lists all the coupons offered in my area. I select the coupons I want, and pay 10% of the worth of the coupon. So, a .40 off coupon costs .04. The good part is I only pay for coupons I will actually use. I can do this until I have used $2000 worth of coupons! I think that's a pretty good rate of return, and I don't have to purchase multiple copies of the Sunday paper, or spend a lot of time cutting out coupons. With this plan I have to think far in advance to ensure I have the right coupons for when the items are needed. It will either help or complicate, or both, the menu planning process.

Speaking of menus, it has come home to me that I need to plan for a bit of junk food in this menu. Lets face it, sometimes potato chips or chocolate are just an absolute necessity to sanity. Not all the time, but sometimes. So I am reviewing the menu and the budget to see where we need to adjust. The goal here is to spend money wisely, provide nutritional meals, and not bore us to tears if possible. It may take a while to get all the wrinkles ironed out.

Life Laughs at My Plans

It is said God laughs when men make plans. If that is the case, I expect He has really enjoyed the last 48 hours.

I am not certain exactly where we went off course. Maybe it was the realization that the money spent by any member of the family on food was part of the budget and had to be documented? Or perhaps it was the unexpected job interview that kept me so focused on being prepared I failed to fill the crock pot with breakfast casserole. That one snowballed into everyone spending money on breakfast food, gas we hadn't planned for, and driving close to 3 hours round trip. I wanted to buy fast food and come home and nap, but I didnt. I came home and made a burger (with hamburger that I am sure was supposed to be in some other meal.) . I didn't rebound well from that change in schedule, and then we had to get to the candlelight vigil in Lexington at our congressman's office in support of his No vote on the Health Care bill. That required picking up the daughter, driving to pick up the Hubby, and then eating in the car at Sonic because that was the only way to get everyone in place on time. Hubby just let me know hes not feeling well, so church is probably not happening this evening. Fortunately I haven't cooked for 2 days so I can steal a meal not prepared for tonight.



So, nothing has happened per menu for 3 days. In fact, I am not sure if I still have all the receipts. I suspect we have spent a good $75, on either junk or meals out, just dealing with this week. Its only half over too!

Still, I am determined to get back on track. Tonight, I will make bread and I will fix the breakfast casserole. The dishwasher is running, and dinner will be thawing just as soon as I figure out what its going to be. (I don't keep the menu in my head, its on here. I have to go look and see what was on the list LOL)

There will be times like this again. Hopefully I can get better organized as time goes by and these situations will not throw such a monkey wrench into my plans.

SEC Champs and Menu Mar 15th - 27th

The University of Mississippi gave us a heck of a ballgame, but the University of Kentucky won the SEC tournament by one point in overtime! There were many many mistakes on our part, but we hung in there and hit a couple of crucial shots that saved the day. Those young men will be exhausted and have a week to recuperate before the NCAA starts. I hope during that time they will figure out how to consistently pick up rebounds, because that and the need to put the ball into the basket rather than toss it gently up and over will help them considerably in the next couple weeks.

Its been a gray and lazy day. We went to church. Hubby chanted the Psalms today, and did a bang up job, if I do say so myself (everyone else said so too!). Afterward we came home so I could make pizza. Once it was done and everyone had changed out of their Sunday clothes we drove over to Mom's house. Happy surprise, my cousin and her 3 boys were visiting this side of the state and were able to join us. A little later my sister in law and niece showed up too. My brother didn't make it till the game was just over, but it was good to have so many of us in the same place.

We dropped the daughter off at home, picked up the grocery list, and headed out for the store. It is now confession time. First, I knew the hubby was still hungry and took him with me anyway. This means we bought a few things I would probably not have purchased, and that contributed to exceeding the budget. However, I do not blame him. This menu planning and budgeting is new to us both, and I pretty much have a soft spot for him. If he asks for something I feel like I need to figure out how to work it in. He doesn't ask for much, and he's the one bringing home the money. Second, I didn't write out the menu first, building on what is already in the house, and that is how I mean to do this going forward. So this 2 weeks I will be working backwards. Third, I want to use more coupons. I have a few that I forgot to bring to the store, but I have a coupon keeper now, so I can keep them all together. I love coupons :) Finally, we did go over budget. By how much we will see once I list everything and add it all up. But I already know we went over.

I may find this $200 limit is too small. With 60 gone for AF, is that going to provide enough that $30 a week is all we need to supplement? I am doubtful, especially since gas went up about 35 cents a gallon this week. It doesn't take long for the food to start reflecting the higher transportation costs.

So, first store: Save A Lot
18 eggs $2.38
73% lean ground beef (almost 3 lbs) $5.66
Ajax dish detergent $ . 99
Bananas (1.70 lbs) $ .57
Flour tortillas $ . 99
Banquet Chicken PotPies (4@ .59) $2.36
40 oz frozen Chicken Tenders $4.99
Cr of Mushroom soup (2) $1.18
Cr of Chicken soup (2) $1.18
Cucumber (1) $ .89
3 lbs Golden Delicious Apples $1.50
Lettuce (1) $1.19
Light Ranch Salad Dressing $1.29
Light Mayo (32 oz) $1.99
8 oz Fresh Mushrooms $1.50
Peanut Butter (18 oz) $1.49
Frozen Shoestring Potatoes $ .50
Vegetable Shortening $2.99
Yeast (2 @ 1.19 each) $2.38
Tomato soup (1) $ .49
Vegetable soup (1) $ .59
Chicken and Rice Soup (1) $ .59
Mixed Indiv. Chips (12 bags) $3.29
---------------------------------------------
$40.98
We also bought a package of toilet paper to donate to the Episcopal mission house: $3.79. We decided this would not come out of our food budget.

Second store: Kroger
Cabbage (1) $ .94
Cottonelle TP $7.67
Bread Flour $2.69
Starkist Tuna $ .55 (coupon was for up to 2.00 off)
Kroger sliced cheese $1.50
Country gravy mix (2) $1.34
Kroger Instant Potatoes $1.85
Chef Boyardee Double Ch.Pizza $3.69
Kroger Baking Mix $2.28
1% Milk, gallon $2.19
Grands biscuits (2) $2.00
Kroger hamburger buns $1.19
Big K diet cherry cola (2) $1.58
-------------------------------------------
$31.52

Grand total: $72.50

So the goal was to stay under $60.00, which we did not do. On the other hand, a trip to one store is usually about twice what we spent, and so we did very well. There will not be another big trip to the store until the first of the month. We will buy more milk I am sure, and possibly eggs but that should be all.

Now I have to "make a plan", as we are fond of saying at our house. :)

Menu for March 15 - 20th

Monday:
Breakfast: Oatmeal
Lunch: for school- leftover pizza and salad, for home- lunch meat sandwiches, individual chips
Dinner: Spaghetti (pasta, sauce, 1/2 lb browned ground beef) broccoli, toast

To do: prep crock pot for breakfast casserole before bed, cook on low overnight; bake Lasagna and portion for lunches, bake bread

Tuesday:
Breakfast: Breakfast casserole (eggs, hash browns, leftover bread/cubed, sausage, green onion)
Lunch: for school/work lasagna and salad, home-tuna salad sandwich
Dinner: Chicken casserole (2 chicken breast tenders, cooked and shredded, 2c cooked rice, 1c frozen veggies, 1 can cream of chicken soup), put all in crock pot to heat, on low 3 hours.

To do: bake mini cupcakes

Wednesday:
Breakfast: Breakfast casserole
Lunch: for school/work lasagna and salad, cupcakes; home-tuna salad ( tuna, hard boiled egg, pickle, mayo) sandwich and salad
Dinner: Church *

Thursday:
Breakfast: Breakfast casserole
Lunch: left over chicken casserole, carrots and celery with ranch dressing for dip, mini cupcakes; home: frozen individual chicken pot pie
Dinner: Asian fried rice, cole-slaw

To do: Make Pasta salad for lunches

Friday:
Breakfast: scrambled eggs and grits
Lunch: Pasta salad (pasta, veggies, Italian dressing and Parmesan cheese)
Dinner: Hamburgers, buns, oven fries, green beans

Saturday:
Breakfast: biscuits and gravy
Lunch: Homemade chicken soup and biscuits
Dinner: BBQ ribs (AF), poor mans rolls, steamed cauliflower, pineapple rings with cottage cheese

To do: bake bread

Sunday:
Breakfast: cheese tortillas
Lunch: sandwiches
Dinner: rib eye steaks (AF), baked potatoes, corn and peas


Menu for March 21- 27th

Monday:
Breakfast: Oatmeal
Lunch: lunch meat sandwiches, individual size chips, carrots/celery
Dinner: BBQ meatloaf muffins, saffron rice, steamed broccoli

To do: bake pumpkin muffins for breakfasts. Bag carrots and celery.

Tuesday:
Breakfast: Pumpkin muffins and OJ
Lunch: Left over spaghetti, salad
Dinner: Chicken casserole (cook 3 chicken breast tenders, save one and broth for tomorrow, cooked and shredded, 2c cooked rice, 1c frozen veggies, 1 can cream of chicken soup)

To do: bake chocolate chip cookies

Wednesday:
Breakfast: cheesy tortillas
Lunch: left over chicken casserole carrots/celery, choc chip cookies OR lunchmeat and cheese sandwich, chips, carrots/celery, choc chip cookies; chicken soup (1 chicken tender, chopped finely, broth, cabbage, leftover veggies, barley)
Dinner: Church*

Thursday:
Breakfast: Pumpkin muffins
Lunch: left over chicken casserole, carrots and celery with ranch dressing for dip; chicken pot pie at home, cookies
Dinner: glazed salmon bake, Parmesan noodles, mixed veggies

To do: bake bread, cook pasta for tomorrow's lunch

Friday:
Breakfast: scrambled eggs and grits
Lunch: Pasta salad (pasta, veggies, Italian dressing and Parmesan cheese), choc chip cookies
Dinner: Chef Boy-ar-dee pizza with mushrooms, turkey pepperoni, sausage

Saturday:
Breakfast: quiche (eggs, cheese, gr onion, bacon, pie shell), pineapple
Lunch: Sloppy Joes, buns, salad
Dinner: BBQ pork (baked and shredded) (AF); potato salad,

Sunday (28th):
Breakfast: biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs
Lunch/Dinner: We will probably eat lunch on the go as we will be celebrating my Father in Laws birthday.


* Every Wednesday our church has a meal. In warmer weather we grill, and everyone brings side dishes to share. Once a month a group of local teens come and cook dinner as part of an outreach project we do to help prepare them with life skills. During Lent we have a soup and salad meal after church and prior to the Lenten study.

As for snacks we have popcorn, bananas, apples, some vanilla protein powder we add to smoothies (made with powdered milk, ice, and fruit).

So there you go. Two weeks of menu planning. As we go through the week I will post recipes.