Bad weather day

Well, sort of. Hubby is working from home today. He has been doing some work for his old boss and since they are calling for ice, he is able to get all of his work done from home. We had our home phone turned on today. Yippee!! I haven't had a phone, and it has been hard. One night dh ended working till almost 10, and I didn't have a phone for him to let me know. Now we have one and I already feel so much better. One thing about homeschooling, we can school during ice storms or not. We are at least getting the basics done and I will do our read aloud and history after lunch.
I have a hard time coming up with a menu that I will stick with. I might try my hand at stretchy beans. I am not sure if Robin at LentilsandRiceblogspot (she has stopped posting for a bit and taken her stuff off the blog) coined that phrase or not, but I think it is a great idea. You make a lb of beans go farther than one meal, usually 3. She really had great frugal and healthy ideas using her stretchy bean recipes. Here is an example of how me sticking with a recipe doesn't exactly work- I used 1 1/2 lb pinto beans and cooked them in the CP. I them made them into refried beans with some seasonings and a half pound of chorizo. Friday night we had burritos with the beans, a little cheese, sour cream, lettuce and salsa. Saturday I made the beans into nachos. There was still plenty left, so I threw two chicken breasts in the CP, add a bit of salsa and taco seasoning and let that cook while we were at church. I made Mexican rice when we came back and we had chicken tacos, Mexican rice and refried beans. There was still a little bit of those beans left, so I combined the leftover chicken and refried beans, and a can of kidney beans that I mashed into the bean and chicken mix. I spread this onto tostada shells and topped with a sprinkling of quesadilla cheese. So, I managed to stretch the pot of refried beans into almost 4 meals. We were feeding an extra kid for 3 of these meals, so I might have had enoough to make this 4th meal. I hope I can do at least one stretchy bean cycle once a week. Beans are cheap and nutritious, which is a plus for me. DH still doesn't have an official job and things are about to get really tight. Time to really get creative. :-)

Shopping success

We went to two different grocery stores today. We managed to go to Aldi and Save-a-Lot and were only gone for 2 hours. If hubby wouldn't have wanted to get something for lunch it would have been a lot quicker. I had something planned for lunch but we left a lot later because he got a few business calls before we left. So, what I had planned for lunch we are having for dinner. And what I was planning on tonight's dinner we will have for lunch tomorrow. We were going to have our leftover chili from Friday night's dinner on top of baked potatoes.
Here is what we had today
B-Fried oatmeal with homemade syrup (everyone loved it)
L- Taco Bell
D-Meat roll-up (bread made in bread machine with a meat mixture and a little cheese rolled up and baked) with a few veggies on the side

For around $225 today, I got enough food for dinners to last us until the end of the month. We will need to get more fresh fruits and veggies and dairy but I am hoping that it won't go over $100 for any of the other things we end up buying. The sides vary from fresh salads and frozen veggies to baked potatoes and canned veggies. Here is the list of dinner items I will be able to make for the rest of the month:
We will be having a special dinner since the Cowboys are in the playoffs- Chicken wings, little smokies, cheese dip and chips, and various appetizer items
Spanish Noodle Skillet
Nasi Goreng- a fried rice
Vietnam style Fried rice
Hamburger Stew
Chicken Cheese Casserole
Santa Fe Chicken
Potato Soup
Cheddar Chowder
Chili
Mexican Chili beans with chicken pieces
Barley Cabbage soup
Shrimp
Pork Chops two times
Calico Ham and Bean Soup
Roasted Chicken two times
Chicken with Honey Baked Lentils
Black Bean Soup
Homemade tortillas with beans and toppings a few times
Addictive sweet potato burritos, although I might reserve these for lunches

I don't have meals set for certain days mostly because I don't follow a menu very well. I end up with leftovers that need to be used or I forget to soak beans or I am out of an ingredient or .... I do much better when I just have a list of items I can make and go from there.
I need to go for now, my girls are waiting to play a game with me.

Eating on a budget

Eating on a budget can seem difficult if you have never done this before, but it really isn't difficult. There are many different ways to do this too, so you have options on how you want to make this work for you and your family. One of the ways that many ladies are reducing their food budget is by using coupons and shopping sales. I have heard of some absolutely incredible deals this way. Since I don't do this, I won't cover that here, but you can do a search and find more information than you can possible read over the weekend. I don't save this way, mostly because I don't buy foods that you can use coupons for. There might be a few here or there, but not enough for me to spend my time on. I try not to buy prepackaged foods and those are where you find most coupons. When was the last time you saw a coupon for bulk dried beans or bulk whole wheat flour? I do have some coupons for Hodgson Mill products that I contacted them directly for, which is something that anyone can do. If you use a product and like it, see if the company will send you coupons for what you do buy. I have heard of many people doing this with success.
One of the main things I do that helps us feed our family of 7 for less than 350 a month is to shop at the cheapest stores around. For our area those 2 are Aldi and Save-a-Lot. We will be hitting both of those this weekend. I don't know if our food budget will have to increase since I noticed that prices had gone up on many products at Aldi, I guess I will have to see this weekend. I suggest that you find out what the cheapest stores are in your area and use them.
Something else that I do that helps are food budget stay low is that I don't use meat as the main attraction very often. A roast chicken can be served for one meal, the rest of the chicken stripped and put into some sort of casserole for another meal and then the carcass used for a soup for another meal. We use ground meat for a lot of our meals and not roasts or steaks. If there is a good sale on roast, we will have a roast with lots of veggies and rolls for a meal. I make sure that there is some meat leftover so we can have it in a gravy served over potatoes, pasta, or some sort of bread. I do the same with chili and various other meals. I try to find ways to make things stretch without skimping.
I will be posting a 2 week menu later and you will be able to see the kinds of foods that we eat that are delicious, relatively healthy and very budget friendly.

Menu plan Sunday?

I have a hard time putting up my menu on Monday since I do all of my planning on Friday and shopping on the weekend. When Monday rolls around, I am trying to get our schedule off to a good start, so posting about our menu just doesn't work for me. I plan on trying to get our menu for the week up on Sunday (or even Saturday if I have the time). This is also the tightest part of my month when it comes to eating, I don't usually have much money left for food and I always hope that I have enough left over and have planned well enough, that only a few essentials are needed.
Menu for the week of Dec 2nd thru Dec 8th.
Sunday-
Breakfast: Overnight coffee cake
Lunch: Out
Dinner: Taco Soup

Monday-
Breakfast:Leftover coffee cake
Lunch: Soup
Dinner: Pork chops, sweet potatoes, corn

Tuesday-
Breakfast: Oatmeal
Lunch: Pizza muffins and oranges
Dinner: Bean and beef bake and salad

Wednesday-
Breakfast: Scones
Lunch: Noodles
Dinner: Salmon chowder and Chicken alphabet soup (for those who don't like the chowder) and rolls

Thursday-
Breakfast: Hot cereal (I have to see what I have available)
Lunch: Leftovers
Dinner: Chicken Cacciatore with salad and bread

Friday-
Breakfast: Pancakes
Lunch: Creamed tuna and peas
Dinner: Nachos (really a dip with lots of beans, some taco seasoned meat, sour cream, salsa and cheese)

Saturday-
Breakfast: Leftover pancakes
Lunch: Creamy Pasta
Dinner:Leftovers - if there aren't any, I will make some sort of soup and bread

Menu for the week

Well, I came up with the menu for the rest of the week.
Today for breakfast we had Strawberries and cream farina. We had some strawberries from July 4th (they were the frozen kind that had thawed) so I chopped those up and added them when the farina had finished cooking. It was actually really good!
Lunch was toad in a hole with a little juice.
Dinner was Black Beans and Rice- with corn, red peppers and a little sausage. It was delicious!

For the rest of the week we will have
Wednesday:
Salmon Patties, corn, mac-n-cheese and coleslaw

Thursday:
Cal zones with dipping sauce

Friday:
Egg Bake
Coffeecake
Smoothies

Saturday:
DH will be gone with the other men of the church helping a family with some housework so I am hoping to get a few things that would make the day special for the kids. I am hoping to make it a work day for us but also a relaxing fun day too. I have a friend that can take me somewhere if needed so I might see if she can get me to Aldi to buy a few things for the weekend until I can get to the store to get everything we need.

It is amazing to me that I can think of all kinds of things to blog about but when I am sitting here ready to post, I can't remember one thing. ~sigh~ Well, I have my menu up so that is something. Maybe I will remember tomorrow and post about something besides food.

Menu for the week and stuff

We had another busy weekend but this one surpassed most on being away from home. This weekend in Darboy was what is called Chickenfest. Our church had a little outreach there and a lot of church members volunteered to help. We have a tent that is called Changaroo. It is where parents can come and change their little ones. There are only port-a-potties (spelling?) there and no place to change a diaper. We also manned the first aid tent plus various places throughout the event. It was fun but expensive (when you have more than one or two kids) and tiring. We were there Friday night and most of Saturday. We came home Saturday for a break for a couple of hours and then went back and didn't come home until after 11:30. Part of the reason for getting home so late on Saturday night is because we parked at a friend's house and walked through their backyard- so we visited for a bit an the kids played. They built a fire and I sat around it for a little while because I was cold. It amazes me that it gets cold enough here to sit around a fire on a summer night. It was fun and I enjoyed being able to visit and I know the kids had fun. Sunday no one wanted to get up. We were all tired. After church the pastor invited a few people over for an impromptu cookout. We got home around 7 (I think) and put away some groceries and we didn't want to do much after that. It was an activity filled, tiring weekend. Guess what that means, the house isn't very clean and we are behind on laundry. The girls and I will spend part of the day cleaning the house and doing laundry. I am hoping we can get 3 loads washed, hung on the line and put away today. Our washing machine isn't doing very well (and neither is the dryer) but it might be possible. I am a little tired still but I am thankful I didn't have to get up this morning and go to a "job". The kids slept until a little after 8 and I had a little quiet for an hour or so. That was nice, although I sort of wish I would have slept longer myself. I will stop rambling and post the menu for the week. Take care and have a great week!
Monday:
CP Rotisserie Chicken
Potatoes, Salad and Mini Cheesecakes

Tuesday:
Sandwiches
Cabbage Salad and Beans

Wednesday:
Tuna Pasta Salad

Thursday:
Santa Fe Chicken with Rice
Chips and dip

Friday:
Sloppy Joes made in CP
Leftover Beans from T.
Coleslaw and French fries
I plan to have enough leftovers to eat some of this on Saturday

Saturday-
The other meal will be a picnic type lunch- I am hoping to go strawberry picking.

Computer problems fixed

DH decided that it would be best to get something to replace my computer- a laptop. It came in the mail yesterday and I am using it now. It is nice. I can go wherever I want and use the computer. I don't have to sit in one spot any more. Now I don't have any excuse for not blogging. ~smile~ Because of what my dh does for a living and his side business, this is something that he could really use too. (He builds websites and hosts a few small time radio stations)
I still need dh to get my computer up and get all of my important stuff off of there. At least they are important to me. I had a few things ready for the website on there and other things that I would like transfered.
I don't think I posted my menu for the week either so I will do that now and then hopefully get one of the posts that I have been thinking about on here tomorrow.
S-Eat out
M-Lasagna and salad
T-Pittsburg Hot links, beans and potato salad (my mother sent the hot links up from TX for dh for Father's day)
W-Stir-fry with egg rolls
Th-Pancakes, eggs, hash browns and sausage
F-Taco Joes, french fries and corn on the cob
S- BBQ chicken sandwiches, beans and coleslaw

I hope you all are having a great week. I am finally getting back on track around here with cleaning and menu planning which feels so nice.
Take care and have blessed day.

Menu

This is the time of the month that is hardest on us, it is the time when I don't get to buy groceries from the store and have to depend on what was previously bought. A lot of the time this is the least healthy and most frustrating part of the month. I do most of the shopping once a month and go once again (sometimes) another day during the month. I try to keep my "pantry" stocked and food in the freezer. So even if we have a lean month, I should be able to cook a few extra meals from there. Here is what I have come up with for this week:
Monday- Leftover chicken and potato salad and beans cooked in the CP
Tuesday- Chicken, broccoli and rice casserole with corn
Wednesday- Meatloaf, mashed potatoes and green beans
Thursday- Homemade pizza and bread sticks with marinara sauce
Friday- Egg Bake, breakfast potatoes and homemade wheat biscuits
Saturday- Bbq chicken sandwiches, coleslaw and beans

Breakfasts will be either oatmeal or granola. Snacks will be whatever we have, popcorn, smoothies or something I can make. Lunches will be mostly sandwiches- meat, tuna, egg salad and PB and J. I have pretzels to serve with the lunches. I still have some apples, applesauce and a few cans of fruit plus a few cans of frozen juice.
I know I need to plan better so that I make it to the end of the month without needing something to make it more nutritious. I do have whole wheat flour in the freezer and brown rice in the cupboard. I will also be making our bread and be putting flax in it and possibly making yogurt.
If my bread turns out then I will share that recipe. I will probably make a loaf a day in the bread machine but we will see. Sometimes my plans don't end up working out the way I had planned.

I hope that you had a nice and restful weekend and are ready for Monday!

Long time, no post- Plus a recipe we had today

Life has been busy around here. We survived the pine wood derby! This was our first time to ever compete in one and e did pretty good. One funny part is that my three youngest were the only three in their age category. So, needless to say, we came home with all of those trophies. The next group was a pretty tough group. My oldest took second and my oldest almost won a spot too, but her wheel feel off on the final race. It was pretty fun and I am pretty sure they enjoyed themselves. I didn't really see much because I volunteered to help in the concession. It was a wild and fun day and the gospel was shared with someone and of course, God wasn't left out of this event. When I look back on it, it was a worthwhile event for us to do as a church. While I was in the thick of it and it looked a little like chaos, I wondered how it would end up being. I am happy we were able to participate!
We tried a new lunch today. We are using the Prairie Primer for our curriculum and they talked about corn dodgers in one of the chapters today. I found a recipe, changed it a little bit, and made those for lunch. Here is the recipe if you are interested.
Corn Dodgers
4 C Cornmeal- I used two cups regular and two cups stone ground
2 1/2 tsp Salt
1 Cup Boiling water
3 T Coconut oil (you can use whatever solid fat you want)
1/2 C Sucanat (you can use whatever sugar you want)
1/2-1 C Milk
Fat to fry in- I used about 1/4 to maybe 1/2 Cup

Combine cornmeal, salt, and sucanat in a medium to large bowl. Put the solid fat in the middle of the cornmeal mixture. Pour the boiling water over the top. Stir. Add enough milk to make it wet but not too wet. Heat the fat in a skillet. I made dollops, a rounded tablespoon amount, and put into the pan. Cook until lightly brown and flip. Cook until other side is brown and drain on paper towels. Serve with syrup, ketchup or whatever you want.
The kids really liked these and so did I. I think I am going to add these to our menu on a regular basis.

Lunch

Lunch can be almost as stressful as dinner if we don't get a handle on it. Here is a sample rotating lunch menu that I have followed during the warmer weather months. As with anything, we can make it cheaper or more costly and healthier or not. I am working on changing some of the ingredients to fit our need for healthier foods, however, I don't see a problem with this. It should be pretty easy.
Sample Lunch Menu

Monday: Quesadillas and beans or guacamole with chips

Nachos with homemade cheese sauce and beans

Tuesday: Sandwiches- egg salad, tuna fish, chicken salad, PB and

Banana, Grilled cheese, and BLT

Wednesday: Ranch Pasta salad

BLT Pasta salad

Thursday: French toast and fruit

Pancakes and fruit

Friday: Snacks- Deviled eggs, cheese sticks, muffins, fruit, veggies and dip,

popcorn, cubed meat and cheese, smoothies, etc.

Saturday: Beanie weenies and fries

Manwiches and fries

Homemade burritos

2 Week Menu

Here is a 2 week menu that we will follow starting Sunday the 15th.
Sunday: Tostadas with homemade beans, some meat, tomatoes, lettuce and cheese
Monday: Cowgirl beans with whole wheat biscuits and corn
Tuesday: Vegetable lo Mein with a little chicken and homemade egg rolls
Wednesday: Black bean and sausage soup with cornbread
Thursday: Chiles Rellenos with rice and fresh tortillas
Friday: Egg bake, hash browns and coffee cake
Saturday: Bbq chicken sandwiches, coleslaw and beans
Sunday: Meatloaf, mashed potatoes and corn
Monday: Chicken Parmesan, salad, corn and peas or green beans
Tuesday: Entomatada de Pollo with avocados, lettuce salad and beans
Wednesday: Hamburger gravy or bread or biscuits with veggies
Thursday: Potato soup with cornbread
Friday: Whole wheat pancakes with sausage and sauteed apples
Saturday: Empanadas and beans

I will post a breakfast and lunch menu, but those don't have a lot of variety. Our grocery budget is less than $400 a month. Since we have switched to whole grain products and better sweeteners, I can't seem to get it back down where it used to be. I do my best with what we have. I am trying to get it down to $350 and then will see where we are with food choices. I mentioned in an earlier post that I don't shop sales, but I do stock-up on food that is on sale when I go shopping. I am out of ground beef right now but still have a turkey in my freezer and quite a few chicken pieces in there too. I try to use powdered milk for cooking. This saves the fresh milk for drinking. Fruit that is on sale goes in the buggy too so no expensive fruit or veggies. I am off to finish my grocery list so we can go tomorrow. Have a great weekend.

Meal planning

Well, I did some tweaking and came up with my daily themes and our next month's worth of menus. The themes that I ended up doing is: Sunday- Family meal (that will be things like roast chicken, pot roast, meatloaf, etc.) Monday- Mexican, Tuesday- Soup or Chili, Wednesday- Casserole or Crockpot, Thursday- Italian, Friday- Breakfast and Saturday- Oriental and misc. type meals. This may not be how you would do it, but I think this will work for us for a little while. It helps having things figured out, takes a lot of stress of me.
The next four weeks are a little different because my mom and sister are coming up from Texas and Easter Sunday will be in this menu plan. But for the most part what I did was come up with a two week repeating menu. We have one week of meals and then a second week of meals and then we go back to the first week. I have never done this before, but liked the way it worked out. Now, on to the meals. Week 1:
S- Steaks or minute steaks, beans (a recipe from Crystal at the family homestead) and baked potatoes
M- Taco Salad- this recipe uses the extra beans from yesterday's meal. And I plan on browning up a second lb of taco meat and two more lbs of plain hamburger meat.
T- Black bean and sausage soup with soaked grain cornbread
W- Dh's b-day- Sweet and sour chicken, pot stickers (also a recipe from Crystal) and egg drop soup
Th- Vegetable lasagna with homemade soaked grain breadsticks (the lasagna is from Kim at large family logistics)
F- Soaked grain pancakes (the same recipe I mentioned before) and homemade turkey sausage (a recipe from Maggie at Hillbilly housewife)
S- Bbq Chicken sandwiches, coleslaw and beans (the bbq is a recipe from Stephanie at musings of a mountain mama, the hamburger buns will be homemade and the beans will be the same recipe I used last Sunday from Crystal)
Now onto next week's:
S-Roast Chicken in the Cp, mashed potatoes, beans and salad
M-My b-day- Santa Few Chicken with homemade refried beans and the chicken is either over rice or with tortillas
T- Chicken tortilla soup
W-Ragout with corn and coleslaw (the ragout is a Sue Gregg recipe)
Th- Peppy Pizza Pasta (this is from Marilyn at Urban Homemaker)
F- Christmas Dinner-- We will be having "Christmas" with my mom and sister and will be having a dinner to celebrate it, including a roast turkey and stuffing.
S- Leftovers
These next 2 weeks will be repeats except for the Christmas dinner. All of these are pretty easy and frugal. Some need some prep, like soaking beans and grains and such, but nothing too hard.
I hope I didn't confuse you too much. This is a long post and it is time for me to start dinner. Before I leave though, I wanted to say that the sites I mentioned above I really like. Miss Maggie and Crystal's sites, are sites that bless me completely and their recipes are very pleasing. If you need to save some money, stop by www.hillbillyhousewife.com and www.thefamilyhomestead.com They are sure to give you some ideas. Hope you have had a good Friday! Off to make dinner and get ready for the weekend.

Menu Planning

Well, today has been pretty good. It seems though that the snow might be leaving us soon. We have really enjoyed winter this year and had a blast in the snow. We have never experienced winter like this and are a little sad at the thought of no more snow. Though it does give us something to look forward to next year. I better get with it and make molasses snow candy with the kids today. I guess it was also a good time to row Katy and the Big Snow. For us, this was a big snow, anywhere you walk there are at least a few inches of snow, if not a foot or more. I am sad and not ready for spring but it is time and I really do love spring. It is my favorite season, I love the new birth and new life that happens in spring. The birds coming out and listening to them chirp, the buds on trees that seem to come to life, gardens being tilled, etc. Since we are planning on moving to another house around town and moving out of the parsonage, we are going to attempt container gardening this year. I have never done this but for us to have a garden, this will have to be how we do it. This way, we get some fresh veggies and learn how to garden at the same time and it can come with us.
What I have been working on for now are menu ideas. I have done this many ways in the past but with our recent need to really change some things in our diet, I am going about this a little differently than I have in the past. I am making a list of meal ideas, things that are mostly frugal and okay for a diabetic. On a piece of paper I have headings like Mexican, Italian, Oriental, Soups and Chili's, Chicken, Beef, Casseroles, etc. This wouldn't be a bad idea for anyone to do and I think I should have done it this way in the past. I can just pick menu ideas at random, plan according to sales, or even do theme nights. I am thinking of doing the last two, sales and theme nights. Example: Monday- Mexican, Tuesday- Italian, Wednesday- Casseroles, Thursday- Soup or Chili, Friday- Oriental, Saturday- My choice and Sunday- Chicken or Beef meal. I am planning on making homemade pizzas be a regular Sunday night meal. Many times during the weekends I fizzle out and don't do well making meals. Having a plan and working that plan can help any area of our lives and this is definitely an area I need to work on. I don't know exactly how I plan on doing this and would like to do a breakfast night. Most breakfasts are oatmeal and sometimes eggs and toast or yogurt but no big breakfasts. My dh really loves big breakfasts but can't eat them early in the morning and he really enjoys a nice breakfast for dinner. I haven't totally finalized the plan yet or finished my meal ideas. This is something that might always be a work in progress. I will get some ideas from my dh and kids this week so I can have my list ready to go shopping this weekend. I will try and post my list soon that might give someone else an idea or two.
Gotta go finish lunch for my hungry crew.