January's Pantry Challenge

Every January, I map out our menus for the month, partly to watch our spending after Christmas, and partly because it's a L-O-N-G month that requires a little more negotiation to make our income stretch. You can see what we actually eat each day right HERE.

When I inventoried our freezer to prepare for the month, I discovered that we've really been doing a great job of eating down the freezer - that is, using what's in there instead of buying more.  We had 2 steaks, 1 pound of ground beef, and a turkey in the way of meats.  Pretty slim pickins to last a month.  We had broccoli, green beans, bell peppers, corn and collards from past gardens, so we're pretty good on veg (except for fresh).  And the pantry was in decent shape with a range of pastas, rice, and baking materials.

So, I really needed to get some proteins for the month.  In the past two days, there have been 2 sales which afforded me the opportunity to get ground beef and chicken breasts for good prices.  This should enable us to eat well while keeping spending to a minimum.

Here's the list of meals, which may be shifted from day to day:
1 - Mom's lasagna, tossed salad, Pioneer Woman's Cheese Bread (on homemade Rosemary Olive Oil bread), apple pie (from a fundraiser earlier this year) and homemade whipped cream
2 - 15 bean soup with the ham bone from Christmas dinner  (this is a change from the initial menu)
3 - Queso, Refried beans, Pollo asado (also a change)
4 - Grill steaks, sausage & chicken, tossed salad, roasted potato wedges
5 - Open at the moment.  Either chili or leftovers.
6 - Back to Work.  Sticky chicken, collards, cheese & cracker salad, fried okra (purchased when Airman Son was home for Christmas)
7 - Breakfast for Dinner: cheese grits, bacon, eggs, fruit smoothies
8 - 11:  Mom is out of town at a conference.  It is the sincere wish that the guys will eat some leftovers, but if they go out, I will not be surprised.
12 - Back home.  Spaghetti and cheese bread.  Salad if we have the fixin's for it.
13 - Italian sloppy joes 
14 - Beef tips and whole wheat egg noodles, broccoli
15 - Frozen pizza
16 - BBQ chicken, collards, homemade mac'n'cheese (with butternut squash mixed into the cheese sauce), fried okra if I feel like making it
17 - Macho nachos
18 - Roast turkey, mashed potatoes, greens
19 - Burgers, homemade fries, baked beans, corn
20 - MLK Holiday, but ds#3 has a trip to the orthodontist.  Homemade tomato soup & grilled cheese sandwiches
21 - Open-faced turkey sandwiches, green beans
22 - Leftovers
23 - Melissa d'Arabian's Potato Torte, salad or leftover soup
24 - Tacos, Mexican rice casserole, refried beans
25 - Turkey Pot Pie
26 - Pasta fagioli
27 - Breakfast for Dinner
28 - Loaded Nachos (using leftover taco meat)
29 - Farfalle with sausage, tomatoes and cream (or maybe just tossed with some veg for Mom)
30 - Leftovers or frozen pizza
31 - WE MADE IT!  OUT TO EAT!!!!!

Here comes the New Year!

Wow... 2013 is already closing and a new year is coming quickly.
It's enough to make a girl's head spin.
But the promise of a fresh start, a blank slate, draw me in.
This year has been a sweet one, in many ways, and a very bitter pill in others.  I'm looking forward to a new beginning.

In January, we always do a Pantry Challenge.  I will also be out of town for much of the first week of the new year.  I'm mapping out our month, but here's what we're eating this week:

Sunday~ Leftover roast with pan gravy, homemade bread, mashed potatoes and spinach.
Monday~ Cleaning out some leftovers: leftover steak, leftover chicken (probably turned into salads), and a little Christmas ham
Tuesday~  NYE party; we're taking layered Mexican bean dip & chips
Wednesday~ My mom's amazing lasagna (she gave us a pan as a Christmas present!), salad, Pioneer Woman's decadent Cheese Bread using Rosemary Olive Oil Bread as the foundation! For dessert, apple pie with ice cream.

Thursday~ Sticky chicken, collard greens (from last summer's garden), cheese & cracker salad (a family recipe), and maybe another veg

You can see the collards in the back - that's what they looked like when they were picked from the garden!

Friday~ lunch with my new daughter-in-law (long but exciting story), then a Mexican fiesta a la Pioneer Woman for dinner: queso, refried beans, and tacos (her menu calls for pollo asado, but if I serve my man chicken two days in a row, there may be a revolt!)

Saturday~ I'll decide after a trip to the Farmer's Market!

We'll be eating well this week, as I try to load up the fridge with food before I leave to go out of town, in hopes that my guys will eat this food instead of going out.  A girl can hope, right? :)

Check out Menu Plan Monday for more ideas and inspiration.

And Christmas is here!

When my 13 year old son said, "Mom, I can't believe how fast this year has gone," I knew that it wasn't just me.  As an adult, I expect for life to move quickly, but when a child feels it too, it gives me pause.

What can I do to slow it down?
How can I make it simpler?
What am I doing to treasure the moments as they come?

Christmas seems to have jumped on us this year with no advance notice.  I was sick on Thanksgiving weekend, which is usually when we purchase and decorate our tree and house.  The tree finally happened exactly 10 days before Christmas.  It came into the house 3 days ago.  It has two ornaments on it.

But we are happy.
Airman Son has arrived, and we have been enjoying time with him.
We will visit with family, and enjoy some quiet moments at home.
Even with the lack of decorations, I'm hoping it will be meaningful.

And what are we eating, you may ask?  :)

Sunday~ I went to the doc (AGAIN) and got big meds.  So no cooking... chicken from Publix, along with potato salad and baked beans.  I did buy a box of Annie's mac'n'cheese and made that, but that was all the cooking I did.
Monday~ the shot from the doc took effect. I feel MUCH better.  Airman Son arrives.  Beef tenderloin, twice baked potatoes, tossed green salad, rolls.
Tuesday~ going over to my parents' house to celebrate with them.  Mom's Lasagna!

Wednesday~  CHRISTMAS DAY!! Organic ham, pasta salad (hubby's request), Ellie Krieger's Maple Citrus Salad, swiss beans, crescent rolls, and chocolate cake for dessert (again, at hub's request).

Thursday~ Spaghetti.  Simple and comforting.
Friday~ Various leftovers from the week.
Saturday~ Airman Son returns to duty; I'll decide then what to cook.  Maybe some soup.

May your holiday be blessed with love and peace.

Visit Menu Plan Monday for more menu marvels!

Two weeks in the life

Busy.
Busy, busy, busy.
I'm trying to remind myself every day to stop and savor the moments.

Last week, we did eat, and actually stuck to our plan pretty well.
I just forgot to post it.
Sunday~ red beans and rice
Monday~ tacos
Tuesday~ pizza at school before the Straight No Chaser concert.  My chorus kiddos LOVED it, and it was so much fun!

A small group of my chorus kids ready for the concert.  Woo hoo!

Wednesday~ nachos w/leftover taco meat
Thursday~ beef tips w/gravy and egg noodles
Friday~ spaghetti
Saturday~ hubs decided he wanted to grill burgers, so I made some oven-roasted potato wedges to go alongside.

This week is, of course, Thanksgiving.  My family is traveling to see my brother in Orlando, but I am desperate need of some down time to rest, so we will be staying home.  It will be the first time in our married life that we have not been with extended family for the holiday.  I'm a little sad, but I know that my body needs the time.

For this week:
Sunday~ open-faced roast beef sandwiches (homemade bread and leftover beef from Thursday)
Monday~ lasagna (made with leftover spaghetti sauce from Friday)
Tuesday~ chicken noodle soup and sandwiches (rain is in the forecast)
Wednesday~ leftovers!  Gotta get the fridge cleaned out for all the Thanksgiving goodies.
Thursday~ HAPPY THANKSGIVING!  Hubs will smoke a turkey.  I will make stuffing, swiss beans, and maybe mashed potatoes (only because I know we'll eat them with leftover turkey).  We'll have pumpkin and pecan pie with homemade whipped cream, and then fall into a food coma. :)
Friday~ Thanksgiving leftovers
Saturday~ more leftovers!

And then it's December....life is whizzing by.  Count your blessings.  Be thankful.  Be blessed.

Share your menus at Menu Plan Monday.

Happy Veterans Day and a Menu for a Crazy Week

Happy Veterans Day!

My husband is a former Marine, and I have two sons who are currently active duty.  My brother is also a former Marine.  I am blessed to have many vets in my family and I'm so proud of their service.  Take time today to thank one.

We have a C-R-A-Z-Y week ahead.
Doctors appointments and out-of-town performances are going to make it hectic.  But we will survive, and we've gotta eat.

Sunday~ Sub sandwiches and homemade french fries (my guys were delighted with this).  Brownies for dessert.
Monday~ Happy Veterans Day!  So thankful for my hubby...being a Marine helped shape him into the man he is today.  Ds#3 has an ortho appt today, and they warned us ahead of time that it would be heavy-duty, so soft and easy food is on the menu.  We'll have chili.
Tuesday~ Back to work. Breakfast for dinner (we didn't have it last week).  Biscuits, eggs, grits, bacon, grapefruit.
Wednesday~ Dr. appt after work means a later-than-usual dinner.  Red beans & rice with cornbread.
Thursday~ Out of town all day. Roast in the crock pot with mashed potatoes made ahead of time.
Friday~ Another day out of town.  Boys will fend for themselves in the kitchen.
Saturday~ WHEW!  We made it! I will decide then. :)

On the budget homefront, I didn't do so well with not grocery shopping.  And my husband decided on Monday night that instead of coming home to have breakfast after a long day of rehearsals, he would take us out to eat so I didn't have to cook.  That was not great, but it wasn't terrible.  Hopefully this week will be a little better.  Even though I have some late evenings, hubby is mentally prepared and dinners should be easy for him to handle without feeling the tug to go out until I get home.

Share your menus at Menu Plan Monday!

Where did the month go??? November's First Menu...

October flew by.
And I'd ask where it went.... but I was there.
It was busy.  And crazy.
My baby boy turned 13.  Seriously.
And here we are....
November.

Hubs and I have had a heart-to-heart about finances and the toll that eating out takes on ours... so we have TWO meals planned out this month.  We had one already. 
The rest of this month, I will be cooking at home, as frugally as possible, as we attempt to pay down debt.

On Saturday, hubby grilled hamburgers and Italian sausages.  I used the remnants of the ground beef to make a few meatballs to throw in Sunday's spaghetti sauce to make it a little more than just plain red sauce.  I also made chicken stock from the carcass of a chicken I roasted last week, and there was enough chicken to make BBQ chicken sandwiches for lunch on Sunday too (plus leftovers for another night!) - LOVE a "free" meal!


So here's the menu for this week:
Sunday~ Spaghetti and pasta sauce with meatballs and sausage, served with Rosemary Olive Oil bread (I made two loaves of bread - one for later in the week to go with leftovers of this meal)
Monday~ Breakfast for dinner: biscuits, eggs, grits, sausage, grapefruit from our backyard tree
Tuesday~ Leftovers from Sunday's dinner before our All County Honors Choir Concert
Wednesday~ Roast w/gravy (leftovers from a huge roast that I froze), mashed potatoes, green beans from the summer garden (from the freezer)
Thursday~ Rain in the forecast calls for Soup!  Homemade tomato soup (and I even have homemade chicken stock to use in this soup.  LOVE it when the plan comes together!), grilled cheese sandwiches on Rosemary Olive Oil Bread.  YUM!
Friday~ Leftover smorgasboard, also known as "Must-Goes" around here
Saturday~  picking up an order of beef from a local farm, along with some fresh milk... so I'll probably make something with some of that. :)  This is the only shopping I plan to do this week.  We'll see how well I can stick to it.

Get inspiration for your menus at Menu Plan Monday!

Plan? WHAT Plan???

Our crazy busy lovely life.
It has been absolutely insane.
And I keep making a menu plan.... and we keep NOT following it!
Oh well....so we try again. :)

Sunday~ delicious lunch with dear friends, and none of us felt too hungry for dinner, so we munched a little and were happy.
Monday~ Spaghetti.  YUM!
Tuesday~ Hubs has a late meeting.  We will have beef tenderloin with mashed potatoes and broccoli when he gets home.
Wednesday~ Hubs is bowling, so we'll have leftovers.
Thursday~ Either pancake supper, or finish up our leftovers.
Friday~ date with my dad to see Chris Tomlin in concert.  The boys are on their own. :)
Saturday~  GREEK FESTIVAL! OPA!!!

What's cookin' in your casa?  Share it at Menu Plan Monday.