Menu Plan Monday: Menu for Week of 1/17/17

Right, I AM working on getting the yearly goals post up, so hopefully that will be finalized and posted tomorrow (fingers crossed there as I've been busy).

So, in between working on the house, I managed to get the menu plan figured out for this week.  So, onto the menu plan!

Menu Plan for Week of 1/17/17

Monday:  Sloppy Joes (I rolled this over from last week as I had one night go sideways on me.  They actually turned out well and my daughter even ate them without complaint!).

Tuesday:  Pizza Night

Wednesday:  Leftover Sloppy Joes on home made bread (want to get them eaten since they were made with leftover meatloaf) with baked potatoes.  Dessert:  Sundae bar with two ingredient hot fudge sauce, strawberry preserves, golden syrup (from pantry), cherries (from pantry), and chopped up nuts (I'm thinking blue diamond almonds and some peanut free pecans).

Thursday:  One Pan Garlic Ranch Chicken and Veggies

Friday:  Pork Loin with Cabbage and Apples (use canned cabbage slaw and apples in fridge past their prime).   Dessert:  Grape Custard Dessert (might not be the exact name...it's from Alton Brown's new cookbook)...use canned grapes from pantry.

Saturday:   Picnic Chicken (recipe from "Fix-It and Forget-IT 5-Ingredient Favorites Slow Cooker Recipes"), potato salad (use frozen potatoes as base), freezer slaw (from freezer, obviously).

Sunday:  Leftovers 

And there you are folks.  My menu for this week.  How about you?

Monthly Goals Update and This Week's Goals

Winter is definitely here in full swing right now.  I'm not looking forward to the twenty below temps they're calling for this week (when your highs are going to be ten below you know you're in for an awesome week).  We're definitely getting some snow this winter too (as you can see on my back deck above there), so hopefully it'll warm up decently quick so the kids can enjoy some serious sledding sometime soon.  Today we're curled up under blankets, enjoying some hot cocoa and cherry pie and watching the snow fall. 

Looking at my list for last week, somehow I got like nothing accomplished on said list for the most part.  I DID get a couple of things done on it, thank goodness, but not as much as I'd hoped to get done.

I got the laundry folded, put away and most importantly CAUGHT UP!  I have been making sure, no matter how exhausted or cruddy I'm feeling to keep the laundry rolling and get it washed and put away in the same day.  Yes, I still have bedding I'm having to do, but it's slowly getting there in the caught up department as keeping on top of the clothes means I have one load of clothes per day, one load of bedding per day pretty much a given with my son and then I've been getting about two loads of bedding done on top of that, so I'm getting there.  Slowly but surely.

I didn't get my sewing done this last week just because my arms started aching worse at even the THOUGHT of it, but I did manage to get my bedroom really mucked out and looking good.  Amazing how much paper accumulates over a couple of years just from junk mail you put in a pile or papers that were important at the time, but once the year is over...not so much.  So, I got all of that weeded out and thrown away or filed into the "important to keep" category. 

Some things that weren't on my goals, but am proud that I've been keeping on top of is making sure all the dishes get done and put away and the table gets cleaned off and a new tablecloth put on everyday again (it gets hard keeping on top of my son when it comes to getting crumbs and things all over the table, so I've just found it easier to change out the tablecloth every day).  I've also been just mucking out and reorganizing the kitchen more to get it more streamlined to make my life easier (one of my goals this year...I've REALLY got to post those *laugh*).  I've also been proud to send my daughter to school with home made treats (like this week was cookie bars and rose hip fruit leather) instead of having to worry about throwing in some packaged thing that I really couldn't afford and the home made stuff probably tasted better anyway :).

And I managed to stick to my menu plan this week!  Only one day ended up getting kicked down the road because of my husband not feeling good (so we're having sloppy joes tonight instead of last night), but I feel really good about sticking to my plan instead of deviating.  The shelf I put up by the china cabinet with the materials I need from the pantry and things is working FABULOUSLY well so far, so yay for that :).

This week's goals...well there's a lot of sewing goals on here.  I want to get the towels and handkerchiefs sewn this week as we need them so I can throw out the truly "there is no saving these" thrashed ones (or, more likely with the old towels I'll be sending them out into the garage to be used as rags).

So, here are this week's goals.

Sewing Goals:

• Continue to work on mending comforters and requilting when I have time
• Mend daughter's teddy bear (she plucked the material in the hand and now there's a hole.  Kids.  What motivates them sometimes?)
• Sew new towels
• Sew handkerchiefs

General Goals:

• Sketch out embroidery designs onto pillow cases (also links in with yearly goals...promise I'll get to posting those, probably today or tomorrow :).
• Confirm PFD applications went through okay (already done)
• Get menu plan ready for this week (nearly done)
• Get massive order from Amazon put away when it gets here (they FINALLY shipped the majority of my orders that I ordered from my family for Christmas and they're supposed to be here today.  Just a LITTLE excited as things I need like paper towels are in this order!)
• Shovel off deck (we have a foot of snow on there right now and I have to walk over it to dump the garbage.  Oh and it's snowing again today so yeah...deck is getting shoveled off pronto here).
• Continue to work on cleaning master bedroom and getting things mucked out and better organized throughout the house.
• Clean out car well.
• Make appointment to get oil changed on car.

There are other things I'm hoping to get done this week, but I'm going to leave my list there to keep it realistic.

How about you?  Got anything planned this week?

Frugal Friday: Money Saving Weekly Recap

You know as money saving weeks go, this one actually worked out to be a good one, although it started out so depressing.

First thing that happened was me getting a bill in the mail from my husband's doctor office.  Basically my husband didn't realize what was and wasn't covered by insurance when he went in earlier in the year and we owe for a nebulizer treatment and then the follow up visit the week after that he didn't realize that the insurance was an 80.00 copay no matter what you went in for, so we owed money toward that as well.  I'm not looking forward to the newest doctor bill that the one doctor's office he went to will eventually mail us as they were convinced we had a 20% copay on doctor's visits so charged my husband a minimal amount, so we'll owe them another 45.00 or so when that finally comes back from insurance.  But, yeah, I've got to come up with 76.00 this month that I wasn't planning on to get the doctor's office paid off (nice part, though, is that they combined what we owed them previously with the new bill, so I won't be late paying them the 55.00 we owed them from last month).

Then my electric bill came in the mail and I just about had a heart attack as with how cold it has been, even WITH turning off the electric heat as much as I could, with the holidays on the bill where the kids were home for two weeks...the bill was over 400.00.  I cried.  I'll admit it.  I went on Facebook and went on a depressive rant, not knowing what else I could do to lower my bill, and found out that pretty much everyone in the area is in much the same boat just because of how cold it has been.  Somehow it didn't make me feel much better, but at least I felt like I wasn't utterly failing at trying to get my electric bill down as low as I could.

Bright side, I have two more weeks in the month to come up with the mortgage and my husband had a full week last week, so at least things are looking up at being able to make the mortgage next month without a full fledged panic attack (I hope).

So, let's get to the money saving things that happened this week, shall we?

1.  I went shopping yesterday and hit major, and I mean major pay dirt and that was after finding a really awesome sale earlier in the week!  I ended up spending over my weekly grocery budget by about 40.00 or so, but it was worth it for what I got for meat.  I was starting to panic as our freezer was getting REALLY empty when it came to meat.  We were completely out of pork with the exception of three things of pork ribs and we had exactly two packages of chicken thighs left.  Past that the freezer had a lot of vegetables and things from the garden and some beef and the one turkey I bought for Thanksgiving this year.  And that was IT.  I knew that I had to run into some super awesome sales on meat or we couldn't afford to buy much and I actually did! 

First thing I noticed this week was that Carrs had milk on sale for 2.76 per gallon with a limit of two per shopping trip.  I ran in first thing Wednesday to at least get that as cheap milk was definitely something I could use.  We didn't have much money, at all, in the bank to last us to Friday, but I decided to stop by the meat and see if I could get anything decently cheap.  Heh.  I ended up spending gas money I had been planning on putting into the car that day (I still had 1/4 of a tank of gas till Friday, mind you) on a whole ham.  I noticed that they had a certain type of ham on sale for .87 per pound, but the slot was empty.  So, I asked the meat guy who was stocking some steaks if they had any of the ham left.  "Oh," he exclaimed, "You want one?  I've got one left!  I'll be right back!"  and he practically skipped to the back and came out carrying what turned out to be a huge, whole, bone-in ham.  He put it in my cart and then I, in a kind of panic (not wanting to let a good deal like that go to waste as the ham would work out to be about 17.00 for the entire ham), texted my husband and asked him if he had anything that would cut up a ham.  I figured, worse came to worse, that I could ask the butcher if they'd do it for me, but us doing it worked better with my "I have no time as this was supposed to be a super quick trip" schedule.  Luckily my husband said, "Sure, we can do that" and I somehow managed to shove my prize into the fridge, taking up an entire shelf in the process *laugh*.

My husband ended up using a brand new 12" saw blade and put it in his sawzall and we cut up the ham today.  I originally was going to just cut the ham in half and make two hams, but quickly decided against it as it would make HUGE hams, for one and for two whenever I make a ham we have a bunch of leftovers and I end up refreezing the meat, which makes it kind of watery and grainy when I cook it again.  So, I asked my husband to cut the ends off and make small hams and we cut 1" ham steaks from the center of the ham.  So, instead of 2 big hams we got 6 ham steaks and two hams out of the one ham, which will last us a lot more meals...and we won't burn out on ham having to eat one all week long or something.  The final cut up results are above (and bonus shot of my 10 boxes of canning lids that came in the mail yesterday *laugh*).

I then went shopping yesterday and the week got even better.  I went in to get just the essentials for the week when it came to feeding the son and I stopped by the meat section.  I found pork loins were on sale for 1.18 lb!!!!  I got three (wish, in retrospected I'd just shot the wad and bought more, but I was trying to be conservative with my money :) and they were about 4.00 a piece each.  Then I found that they also had giant bags of frozen chicken leg quarters.  10 lbs per bag.  For 5.00 per bag!!!!!  I got three bags.

Then in the reduced meat section I found packages of pork chops.  They were reduced and they were also on sale this week buy 1 get 1 free.  So I grabbed two packages marked that they were part of the sale.  When I went and checked out and looked at my receipt I found that the computer had taken the mark down on the meat (30% off of both packages), but had also deducted the ENTIRE full priced amount off of the free package of meat.  So,  two packages of pork chops (6 meals worth total for us) ended up costing me 4.00 after mark downs and sale. 

So, between that and a couple of packages of cod marked down, life on the meat front was good this week!  Now to make it stretch as much as I can :).

2.  A blog reader was nice enough to send me a copy of "The More With Less Cookbook" as she had an extra copy and I've been having a lot of fun reading through it, getting ideas, bookmarking recipes and the like.  She also sent me, in the same box, a "Fix it and Forget It" cookbook with five ingredient crock pot meals, which has been really neat to read through as well.  Thanks, Amanda!

3.  I mended yet another comforter this week (the holes don't seem to end with those).

4.  I found that the new pillows that I got for my husband and I with my family's gift cards just weren't a good fit for either one of us.  The pillows were fluffy and supportive, yes, but mine was overly fluffy and not supportive in the right areas and my husband likes his pillows nearly flat anyway, so I found that the pillows were getting shoved up against the head board and not being used.  Instead of letting them go to waste, I went up and checked the kid's pillows and found that I could trade out a couple of their really flat pillows with one of the new ones.  Both kids are very happy with their new pillows.  Double bright side is by trading out pillows I have a couple more kind of flat pillows that I can stack around my arms and try to stop them from hurting at night.

5.  As you probably gleaned reading the above comment I said, "arms".  The stupid bicep tendonitis has decided to try and spread to my right arm as well.  I was kind of in denial about it as the pain started like it did in my other arm, but finally yesterday both arms were giving me a LOT of grief and the loveliest part of it was when something in my arms pinched a nerve in my bad shoulder, which gave me a heck of a headache all week.  I refuse to be too inactive with all of this going on, though, as I know from experience with my left arm that if I don't use the arm and try to rest it the pain just settles in and gets worse, which is NOT going to happen with my dominate arm.  No way, Jose.  I can't let it happen.

I've been taking shots of apple cider vinegar with ground ginger and tumeric in them a couple of times a day  on top of ice and heat packs and my husband massaging me a couple of times a day. Thanks for the advice on the ACV shots, Dorothy!

6.  I was on Amazon and checked their daily deals and found a lightening deal on a laundry system that is supposed to work as well as laundry detergent (but doesn't require that you use any in the laundry), has lab reports to back up that, in fact, it does work as well as laundry soap, and it has a lifetime guarantee on it.  It's based around magnets of all things, but it made sense when I read about it as basically they'll attract anything with metal in it and will basically work as another solvent on dirt that way.  I ordered it as it was 20.00 down from 70.00 (I used the birthday check my mom sent me to pay for it) and had really good reviews from people (and the creators were honest saying that pre-treatment soaks for heavily soiled clothes and things WERE necessary with the system and weren't acting like it was magic, which was a nice change of pace from some other systems out there).  I am hoping that it will work for my son and hopefully improve his eczema.  Fingers crossed.  If I had a dime for everything I've ever tried for him that didn't work, I'd be rich right now, but if it does work it'll be worth it for sure.  And hey, it has the potential to save me money on laundry soap too, so double bonus.

7.  It snowed last night and today, which my daughter took great advantage of and went sledding today in the back yard.  She's hoping her best friend can come over tomorrow and go sledding with her and so am I.  We're hoping to have some fun in the snow because the weather report is calling for it to be REALLY cold next week...like twenty below cold.  My electric bill is already giving me hives and the weather hasn't even hit yet *flinch*.

8.  My husband ended up getting sick to his stomach earlier in the week, probably due to eating gas station food as he was trying to save money on his lunch (he had to leave earlier than normal so I didn't have time to pack his lunch) and even though he wasn't feeling well, I just made him some plain pasta for dinner and made the regularly schedule menu plan item for that night anyway.  My daughter and I ate the manicotti and then ate leftovers the next night as well as my husband wasn't up to eating what had been on the menu.  Overall the menu plan will be 1 day behind schedule, but for the most part I've been able to stick to it pretty well this week.  The new system is working out really well for menu and meal prep, so woohoo for it working so far!  It has made it so I can function and get dinner on the table despite not feeling great at all the last little bit.  Organization will set you free ;).

9.  I am still watching "Full Steam Ahead" on You Tube.  Watching this one has taken me a lot longer than my previous binge watching of the farm series Alex, Ruth and Peter did just because I've been so busy with things around the house, but I'm enjoying watching it for sure.

10.  I cut up some old computer print outs to use as scrap paper.

11.  Spent more time reorganizing this week (more on that later).  It was free, allowed me to declutter a LOT of areas in the house (especially my "catch all" bedroom) and is making me feel a lot happier in my space because of it.  My husband is happy with the progress as well and he's actually helped neaten up a few areas to help me get room to vacuum and things.  So, yay for progress!

And there you are folks.  Some of the ways I saved money this week.  How did you do?

Menu Plan for Week of 1/09/17

One of these weeks I'll actually get this up on Monday.  In the meantime, though, let's get to this week's menu plan.

First, I wanted to share the cookie recipe I made that I put fig jam into the middle of (as well as the raspberry the recipe calls for).  It was this one and I have to say that when we first got the cookies all put together and put the sugar on top...they were weird.  Good, but weird.  My husband called them "ponuts" as a cross between a pie and a doughnut and actually...he was spot on.  That's kind of what they tasted like.  Now, if you leave them overnight and eat them the next day?  The moisture from the jam absorbs into the cookies and all the flavors meld and they just...they're really good!  We've found ourselves kind of addicted to these *laugh*.  Just a warning though?  This dough was awful to work with.  If you let it sit in the fridge and it sets up it takes FOREVER for it to work it's way back to a workable state and the dough is so soft that it loves to fall apart.  But, if you can get it to work it's worth it :).

I'm planning on working into more "variety menu plans" probably next week as this week I have a pinch nerve in my shoulder and I've had a constant headache for four days straight due to it.  I'm still getting stuff done because I refuse NOT to, but it's making being creative on the menu planning front kind of hard as thinking is at a premium the last little bit.  And with all the stuff I'm working on getting done around here this week, I just wanted to keep the menu plan kind of simple for the sake of my energy levels and sanity.

So, here you are folks.  This week's menu!

Menu for Week of 1/09/17

Monday:  Baked lemon pepper fish, lemonade (from the lemonade concentrate from the pantry...the lemonade came out tasting good once reconstituted), french fries (for son) and tatar tots (for the rest of us).

Tuesday:  Tacos (leftovers from Sunday)

Wednesday:  Pancakes with choice of syrup (rose hip syrup, blueberry syrup or pancake syrup, from pantry), grilled ham (leftovers from Christmas from freezer), sliced pears.

Thursday:  Easy to stuff manicotti, garlic toast on home made bread

Friday:  Meatloaf (use combo of ground turkey and ground beef), mashed potatoes and gravy, corn (from freezer)

Saturday:  Creamy Tuscan Garlic Chicken (use evaporated milk instead of heavy cream, use diced canned tomatoes instead of sun dried tomatoes, use some spinach from freezer instead of fresh).

Sunday:  Sloppy Joes (use mainly beans and veggies for mix, but add a bit of leftover meatloaf for added substance), fruit cocktail.

Desserts:  Chocolate chip cookie bars (just kind of a "grab if you want" type of dessert), vanilla pudding (Thursday), cherry pie -- using one jar cherry pie filling from pantry (pad out filling with buttered bread crumbs...old WWII rationing trick that works pretty good)...Saturday.


And there you are folks.  My menu plan for the week.  I'm hoping to get my feet wet making things like steel cut oats in my new pressure cooker this weekend for breakfast, but we'll see how my head and me in general feels :).

Monthly Goals Update and This Week's Goals

First, thanks for all the advice on the ranch dressing and all of the nice feedback people have been giving me about the blog.  I really appreciate it :).

I have to say as weeks go this one was productive if nothing else.  The one thing I didn't get done was doing my post on what my yearly goals are going to be this year (I've added and deleted a few as I thought of them and finally I THINK got my goals figured out), but I got some other things accomplished.  So, let's get to those!

This week was kind of a Domino effect to get  things better organized.  See, it started with the cabinet above.

By the way, notice the lack of a hood vent?  Yeah, the previous owners literally just took a hood and butted it up against the underside of the cabinet and didn't bother to put a vent anywhere, so I really don't have a hood to speak of...unless I want to blow smoke into my face when I grill steak on the oven top.  At least I have a window in the kitchen right? 

Anyway, this cabinet being kind of awkwardly placed (obviously) I had actually started out with my cookbooks up in the cabinet.  Well, then I found myself stacking new books when I'd get them in other places, including a bookcase by the deck door in my kitchen, and then the books kind of started getting stacked under my coffee table because I wasn't sure where to put some books that didn't really belong with a certain subject and such.  In short it became kind of a mess and I got tired of the stacks of books around the house.

So, I decided the best place to put the books was going to be in the china cabinet on the bottom shelf (because I can't really put books anywhere else in the china cabinet because of the glass shelves held in place with tabs).

So, that led me to having to move my collection of Blue Cornflower Corelleware because I needed the space they were (really crappily, honestly) stacked.  So, the loaf pan and the tea pot (both of which I use quite often) went up on top of the oven where the cookbooks used to go and the rest of the Corelleware ended up here...

Which the picture doesn't do how nice it looks justice, really, but you get the idea.  I moved the things that were on top of the cabinets in the corner to other places on top of my kitchen cabinets and voila.  After about a day's worth of work I got my cookbooks moved *laugh*.

And bright side the pressure cooker is right at home above the stove now and it will be nice and sequestered there.

Today I spent most of the day rearranging my son's room, for what, the seven millionth time in the last five years?  In this case I had three main objectives.  One:  Get the small dresser I had in his room for sheet storage OUT of his room because he was wrecking it by standing on it all the time.  Two:  Move his barrel somewhere more protected so he wasn't constantly knocking it into the wall when standing on it (the paint on either side of his bed is definitely showing the wear and tear he's subjected it to).  And three:  Move his bed out from under the fan so that he couldn't mess with the fan all the time (he loves to turn it on high and then his heater cycles constantly.  Um, no).  So, I jammed his barrel into the corner of his room, with a piece of plywood I had on one side of the barrel against the wall and then on the other wall I placed a large amount of folded up cardboard to act as a buffer for the wall.  I then placed a piece of yellow flannel I had in my material over the top of the barrel as one more layer of protection for the wall.  As a further deterrent to not stand on the barrel I grabbed the lamp I normally use for extra light when sewing and put that in his room (he loves lamps).  Remember.  Sacrifice for your children and then one day when they want to put you into a home you can lay on the guilt and shame to dissuade them ;).

I moved the sheet storage dresser into the living room/dining room area for now until I can figure out somewhere better to place it.

I also removed the extra mattress we were letting him bounce on and put it down into the den so that I can move it out into storage (in preparation to taking it to the dump on the Valley clean up day later in the year) after I put the Christmas decorations in storage for the year (it's been too cold for my wussy butt to go and mess around in the storage van lately).  The mattress was just one more obstacle to get in my way when vacuuming and it blocked the closets, so it had to go.

I was wondering what my son would think of everything when he came home from school.  If the happy shrieks I heard from upstairs and the fact that he hasn't been out of his room since he came home...I'd say he's content.  I even managed to get all of his bedding cleaned well and put back on his bed before he got home from school, so he wrapped himself up in his furry throw he got for Christmas and has been having a blast.  He was so cute I had to include him in the picture *laugh*.

Oh and we found the missing movies we couldn't find (well most of them), so yay!!!

So, goals for this week are going to be kind of mixed.

General Goals:

• Get PFD's filed for year (done!  I got it done yesterday).
• Get Christmas decorations moved out into storage
• Get extra mattress moved into storage
• Get rest of Christmas decorations taken down in preparation of going into storage (got that done today too)
• Continue to go through things and figure out what can be donated to used stores
• Get laundry folded and put away (no comment on the sheer amount of clean laundry that needs to be put away at this point...everything took a back seat to making Christmas gifts so I'm behind.  Bad). 
• Start working on reorganizing master bedroom.

Sewing Goals:

• Continue to mend comforters (got a couple more holes mended in some comforters today...getting there).
• Sew handkerchiefs
• Sew kitchen towels

And there you are folks.  My goals for this week.  How about you?  Up to anything this week?

Frugal Friday: Money Saving Weekly Recap

This was a week where saving money was really easy, since we didn't have any to spend.  This coming week is going to be the same.  So, saving money was a necessity.  So, here's what I accomplished this week.

1.  My mother-in-law gave me a 25.00 Fred Meyer giftcard for my birthday, so I went in today armed with it, a list, and a plan to get off as cheaply as possible for groceries.  I had to get back to school stuff for the kids since they start back to school Monday and all, so I tried to think of ways to get off as cheaply as possible.  Overall, since I needed milk and things, I ended up spending 9.00 out of pocket on groceries this week (after the gift card had been applied).

While at Fred Meyer I also got my freebies I had saved up from Freebie Friday and a bonus free coupon that was on the digital coupon site when I loaded the tortilla chips onto my card for the snack bar (seen above).  The ranch dressing only had one day left on it and luckily they at least had the lite ranch in stock today, so I grabbed it.  Oddly enough I'm like, "Man, what do I do with ranch dressing?" as we're far from fanatics with it.  I've read recipes where you can use the powdered ranch dressing on potatoes and things.  Can you use the actual dressing on potatoes and stuff too or not?  Anyone know?

2.  I have spent a good portion of my time this week cleaning and reorganizing.  It's free, helps me feel good about the house getting more organized and it makes things easier to find (which is doubly nice).

3.  I started my baking today and got some cookies made.  They were sandwich cookies that required jam for the filling and half of the cookies I filled with fig jam, hoping that they would taste kind of like fig newtons (my husband loves those cookies).  And hey, it paid off :).  Tomorrow I will make chocolate chip cookies to put in my daughter's lunches and bread to send my husband into work with chicken sandwiches next week.

4.  One of the canning groups I am a member of on Facebook posted up a deal where Amazon was having a really good deal on canning lids (1.44 per box of wide mouth lids).  I used some of the giftcards my family sent for Christmas to get 10 boxes and some spring loaded tongs (the lids were an add on item).  That pretty much used up the rest of the giftcards my family sent, but it was worth it as I kept thinking, "Man, I'll so use those lids!"  And I will.  The tongs will definitely be used as well.

5.  I've been taking advantage of free Kindle books on Amazon to read things late at night when my son's not sleeping.  So far I'm taking advantage of just the free cookbooks, but am looking forward to expanding my horizons to other types of books later on.

6.   I cleaned out the rest of my cupboards in my kitchen that I have been meaning to clean out for ages and luckily managed to find some items that I had been planning to buy.  I managed to dig out a box of instant miso soup of indeterminate age that doesn't have an expiration date on it anywhere, so I'm HOPING the soup is still good, but since it's powdered I'm kind of hoping it's like Ramen noodles with the shelf stability of uranium about. 

6. I printed off some free "Finding Dory" coloring pages from Disney Movie Rewards for my daughter to color.  She loves the movie, so I thought it might give her something fun to do.  This break has been kind of disappointing on the fun front because after my daughter and the rest of us got over the colds we had the weather hasn't been very nice.  We've gone from getting snow (which is good since we wanted to go sledding in the backyard) to frigidly cold (which stinks)

7.  I mended a couple holes in some comforters this week.  Next week I'm hoping to get to the redoing the quilting of said comforters to hopefully extend their life a bit.

8.  I took the leftover fruit the kids got in their stockings for Christmas and made fruit salad to go with dinner tonight by mixing it in with some leftover canned peaches.  Worked great :).

And there you are folks.  Some of the ways I saved money this week (other than not going anywhere and such).  How did you do?

2017: The Menu Plan and Meal Prep

 A quick moment of triumph and happy today.  We went to the dentist for the kid's six month check up today.  Every dentist visit for the kids is just something I dread and panic about so much.  Why?  Because if they find cavities on my son they have to knock him out (he would never sit still to get a tooth drilled, period), and we've only ever had to do it once and it was still terrifying.  So, I just pray as I scrub his teeth every night that he inherited my husband's teeth versus mine (before the acid reflux my husband's teeth were perfect).  Well, not only did my son do really well today (he normally wouldn't sit still for the dentist and would fight him...thank goodness we have an awesome dentist who is always understanding and works great with him), but he sat still enough that they were able to get X-rays for the first time of his front teeth, they got a great look at his teeth and everything looks clean and good on him :).  And no cavities in either kid.  My daughter's two teeth she's set to lose are actually wiggling of their own accord and will probably fall out with no problems (we've had to have all of her other baby teeth pulled pretty much as the suckers just would NOT loosen for her).  So, it was a good day on the dentist front, even with me not doing great today :).

So, this post is actually really hitting close to home with some of the problems and stuff with menu prep tonight as I'm utterly crippled today, yet still having to function and get stuff done.  I'm typing one fingered with my right hand (and an occasional tap of the space bar with my left hand) as I did something to my bad arm last night (I think I slept wrong...just a hunch as I woke up the consistency of a human pretzel) and as a result my left side is utterly worthless to me today...it's one big knot of agony that is radiating along my back, into my neck.  And I've had to battle a migraine from the pinch nerve it's caused me all day, so yippee for being organized so dinner is taken care of tonight *painful thumbs up*.

The last bit the menu has well...not happened.  Even when I made a plan, something would come along (like me not sleeping the night before, not wanting to do prep work involved and just punting when it came to cooking), the menu would get screwed up, which would throw off other meals because I'd plan on left overs and things...and well it would just go down hill quicker than a luge team.  So, of course, lost opportunity got me thinking of ways to better improve how I did my menu plan and meal prep.  And I came up with a system, I think.

So, changes to the way meal prep and menu planning are going to be done around here?  I'm going to go through the menu plan and meal prep first and then move onto other items :).


Problem 1:  Pantry Configuration Leading to More Boring Meals

Root of Problem:  A hurt arm.  Due to hurt arm the idea of crawling around on my hands and knees in my pantry to get stuff off of my shelves to help with dinner prep has been akin to asking me to walk on broken glass some evenings.  As a result, I end up asking my daughter to go down in the pantry and get something as a side for dinner.  The result of doing THAT is we are blowing through canned peaches like they are going out of style, but still have plenty of other side items in the pantry (she's found she loves them).  So, I had to come up with another way to do things to make me more motivated to grab things to go with dinner.

Solution:  Empty the shelf in your bathroom that used to house soap bars and other small bathroom items, put those into a small set of rubbermaid drawers (like you'd put in your office on your desk kind of system), line the shelves with cardboard and shove the shelf next to your china cabinet in your hallway.  Then, go into your pantry on a good day and get the things you've marked off on your menu plan so far for the month that you want to make and pull the items you'd need for that.  Then grab a few sides to go with dinner for the week (the rest will get pulled from the freezer), a quick "punt" meal that you can put together quickly (Chicken Helper "Alfredo and Pasta" and a can of chicken) and you suddenly have a "grab it quick" shelf that is at least on the same floor as your kitchen.  As soon as I'm feeling better I'll go into the pantry and grab another box of pasta (I go through the angel hair with my son as I end up making him pasta with olive oil and Parmesan cheese at least twice a week) to stretch the chicken helper out for a few meals (an overlook on my part when I grabbed the stuff eventually).

 Problem 2:  Finding Inspiration to Make Meals Interesting

Root of the Problem:  Eating the same thing all the time.

Solution:  This one is still a work in progress, really, but I'm working on it.  Pinterest is a great resource, I've found, IF you have an idea of what you might want to make.  Looking up "Pork recipes" for instance, doesn't really net you much in the way of ideas.  Looking up, "Pork Fried Rice" and suddenly you have got a ton of recipes you could choose from.  So, for me, it has been trying to find things to inspire creativity that I can branch off of into different meals and different types of meals.

I got Alton Brown's new cookbook as a Christmas gift and it has really helped to spark some creativity in me, not to mention gave me a bunch of recipes I wanted to try.  Reading his love of pressure cookers made me think more about pressure cookers and how much time they can save and then researching it online I decided I needed (not wanted, but needed) one as it will make dinner SO much quicker to cook when I just plain forget to do things like defrost the meat or want to make steel cut oats for breakfast one morning.  Not to mention perfectly boiled eggs and things.  I got my pressure cooker in the mail yesterday and have been having fun reading up online on all the different ways to use one and bookmarking recipes (now I just need my nice, strong and mechanically inclined husband to put it together for me :). 

I've found myself expanding my selection of things like spice and herb mixes and spices period the last bit.  I've found that having more things at my disposal actually does improve my chances of making a dish.  Oddly enough, I'll sub out main ingredients without much thought in a recipe (I promise not to review the original recipe stating that I changed everything and it still came out great, though ;), but when it comes to spices and herbs...those I consider to be important parts of a recipe that shouldn't really be messed with.  So, I'm glad that I am going to have more weapons in my arsenal when it comes to cooking dinner and making it interesting (IF Amazon ever ships a lot of them, that is *grumble*).

Problem 3:  Having Easy Meal Ingredients Available (Thus Making Dinner Easy on Busy or Stressful Nights)

Root of Problem:  Affording more expensive canned goods, such as canned chicken, even though I use it a lot and would like to buy it on a rotating basis. 

Solution:  Keep my eye open for good sales on chicken (whole or value packs of thighs and things) and not only freeze it but start pressure canning it too.  I've got two pressure canners at my disposal now that I got my dials replaced.  I really need to get my feet wet again and start pressure canning more.  I used to pressure can when I first got my pressure canner all the time, but when my son required me having to take care of him more and more I kind of just stopped doing it and my pressure canner became a glorified hot water bath canner for years.  Now that the kids are old enough that they are in school for a full day...it's time to start getting back to basics and trying to save money by doing things myself versus buying it from the store.  My biggest worry is having enough jars to rotate them constantly, but I'll quickly figure out if I need to invest in more or not over time.

I mean I have two big buckets full of beans alone.  I REALLY need to start pressure canning them instead of buying canned.

Which side not to me is to find my pressure canning manual in with all of my other books and start to brush up on proper procedures and things.

Problem 4:  Baking

Root of Problem:  Finding Time to Bake More Time Consuming Things

Solution:  This problem was one that I really had to think of for a bit in trying to figure out.  See, I'm kind of at this point where I really want to bake, but at the same time I don't want to bake too much, have tons of stuff in one week, gain ten pounds and then not bake for three weeks.  Don't ask where I could have come up with that scenario or anything.

I've tried freezing my baked goods, but have found that things like muffins...I end up being the only one who eats them out of the freezer and they eventually get freezer burned, so I'm determined to keep it small in amounts that I bake this year as well.  Things that can be stacked flat, or close to flat (like waffles), I'll probably make more of and freeze, but things like muffins or bread is just going to be made on a weekly basis as I need them.

One of the things I really need to start baking more of is whole grain breads.  I mean I love white bread, and I love the bread that I can make in an hour and all, but it's not the healthiest option and I have a ton of whole grain flours I'd like to experiment with.  I tried the bread machine recipe that my "made for bread machines" flours came with and baked it according to the directions.  The loaf comes out with the consistency of a brick.  A tasty brick, but a brick.  I have an awesome cookbook for breads that my dad gave me a lot of years ago and it has a really good bread recipes in it, but it's all done "the old fashioned way" so it takes a long time with the rises and things needed to make the breads. 

So, to combat the need for time to make baked goods and things, I've decided that a baking day is going to have to be on the weekend and is probably going to have to start early in the morning before my kids get up (for the sake of my sanity as my son needs my attention about once every two seconds or so).  I might not be able to sleep in, but I'll at least be able to get bread baked, muffins made and cookies baked for the week and things.  I think it'll work out alright if I can keep up with it.

Problem: Wanting to Eat Healthier

Root of the Problem:  Weighing costs with eating a healthier diet.

Solution:  Eat more meatless meals, especially utilizing beans and lentils and things more.  This will be cheaper if I can make it fly with the family as well.  The biggest issue is that I worry about my husband getting enough meat as his body, being active outside and things, needs meat or his mood and health are effected, so it's going to be carefully finding a balance so we're both healthier in the long run for it.

I will still be posting up my menu plans for the week to keep myself on task and to hopefully share some cool recipes as I find them, but yeah, that's what is going on behind the scenes around here this year.  How about you?  Menus going well, getting stale or never started?