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.