Thursday, September 29, 2011

It's been a good week

Though I am falling into old habits. I can't resist buying food when it's on sale AND I know I will use it. I'm restocking my freezer and today alone I bought a huge pork loin, 2 packages of pork chops and a big jumbo pack of pork sausage. Good thing we like pork!! Did I mention that yesterday I bought 2 packages of ground pork? EEK.

But how do I stop myself? Yes, all of it will be eaten of course. Especially with winter and colder weather coming. In fact, the loin will be used tomorrow and the ground will be used in a meal next week. The chops on Monday. But how do I resist stocking up on so much?

Does anyone do a scheduled eat from the pantry week? I came across some references to this over the last week and thought it was interesting. But scary too.

Anyway, we've done well eating leftovers and sticking to the meal plan.

I am borrowing a friend's waffle maker this weekend to make our own and freeze them. Has to be cheaper than buying them every week right? I'll be looking for waffle recipes, if anyone would like to suggest any.

Monday, September 26, 2011

A Hearty Fall Meal Plan

We have our meal plan for the week in place and have done all shopping needed. Came in at a nice price too! Under 100, always a win in my book.

The Little One had his typical Waffle for breakfast and then branched out into some greek yogurt. For weeks he rejected it, now he's back to it. Ahh toddlers. I ate some leftover chicken and rive burrito thing that The Husband had made for dinner last night. Yep, dinner for breakfast. What, you got a problem with that? Salad for lunch for Me and the Little One at some of it.

Dinner tonight is grilled Chicken Cesear Salad with toasted garlic bread.

Of course, none of this uses pantry staples. Oops. Yeah..Um, see. need to get back into that.

It's hard to try to rebuild the pantry and freezer though. I worry about spending the money, but then worry the kitchen doesn't have enough food. Hold onto the money or the food. It's hard sometimes.

Edit:
A friend dropped off three bags of apples. Anyone want to share some favorite apple recipes? Sweet or savory is fine.

Also, I suppose I should tell you the meal plan, huh? You know, what with the title of the post and all.

Monday: Grilled Chicken Cesar Salad
Tuesday: Irish Beef Stew with Guinness
Wednesday: Leftovers
Thursday: Shep Pie
Friday: Pork Loin stuffed with adobo chilis with beans and rice
Saturday: Leftovers

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Oops and welcome back

Fell off the wagon there a bit didn't I? Ahh well..back on.

With things crazy round here due to The Husband being home we're re examining our food budget again. We are making two dinners each night now. We took the friend up on their offer to cook them dinner each night and it seems to be working well. We're working out kinks, like making things more flavorful/spicy for them than we have. We erred on the side of less figuring making something too spicy can render it inedible. Now we know.

We're working on a meal plan for the coming week, based upon sales and what's in the pantry. Pork Loins are on sale and there is a rice and beans recipe that I have been eager to try. Plus that will use up some beans in the pantry. I need to work on a list of what we have again and then create this week's meal plan. I also have a feeling Shep Pie will be on the menu. The weather is turning cooler and I'm eager for hearty meals!

Thank you to those who have kept reading. And thank you to Becca for nudging me gently to get back to this.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Day 8 (on day 9)

Kind of a weird day yesterday. We took the friend up on the offer to make them food and they pay for some of our groceries. Win all around!! I got to go grocery shopping yesterday! This was very exciting. Momma is a happy woman. :) I have eggs and cheese and oh goodness lots of fresh veg in my fridge again. *sigh*

So, meals for yesterday. The Little One is all about the waffles for breakfast so we kept that up. I wonder what he's going to do when we switch to the bagels? Lunch was PB&J and he chowed that but then ignored dinner completely. The Husband and I had Philly Cheesesteak Sloppy Joes. They were..okay. They would need a good amount of recipe doctoring to make again and I don't know that they would be worth it. Eh..live and learn, right?

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Day 7

We're down to 1 egg. Just sayin'. *sigh*

Breakfast for me was a couple of eggs, salsa and a smidge of cheese. Coffee of course. The Little One is fighting something so he basically nursed and didn't eat a whole lot all day. Couple crackers, some strawberries from a friend at playgroup, a bite of a PB&J. No dinner..flat out refused. My poor boy. :(

The Husband and I are having the Eye of Round Steak and a Filet Mignon he found buried in the freezer under the 4 chickens. Oh and some baked potatoes of some kind. We nixed the Dinnertime Playdate due to what we thought would be bad weather but turned out not to be. Eh..can't win right?

Monday, September 12, 2011

This is freaking me out now...

This is my fridge tonight. I opened it a little while ago and there was an empty shelf. A completely empty shelf. This is not okay with me and makes my heart race a bit. While I assume some people think this looks like a perfectly fine fridge, full of food, blah blah..I see all that space that needs to be filled with food. Especially on the door...do you see all those unused shelves on the bottom??? BTW, I cleaned the fridge shelves under the guise of cleaning but really it was to rearrange all the food so each shelf had things on it.

Eh nevermind..there should be two pictures here but I can't get them edited properly. Maybe another day. You know..when it's even more empty and I'm losing my mind.



Anyway, here is what is left.


Protein:
Pork carnitas
3 meat roasts
4 whole chickens
chicken legs (2 bags, maybe 5-6 per bag)
chicken thighs (1 bag, maybe 5-6 per bag)
1 lb ground buffalo
1 lb ground pork
2 2 breasts size frozen chicken breasts
1 1 lb ground beef
2 pork spare ribs
bottom round steak, thin sliced, maybe .80 lb
short ribs (tiny serving)
eye round steak (tiny serving)
ham (like you'd get for Easter but not spiral sliced)

2.5 bags frozen peas
2 single sliced frozen zucchini
2 frozen bananas
1 package frozen plain bagel
1 package blueberry waffles (about 6 left?)
1 lb breakfast sausage
1 loaf whole wheat bread (frozen) (some slices gone now)
frozen blueberries
raisin bread (frozen)
2 bags strawberries (frozen)
frozen spinach (flash frozen to be individual leaves)

pantry:
basmati rice
elbow mac
organic beef stock
couscous
newmans alfredo garlic sauce
salsa (2 jars)
5 jars spag sauce
random few bites left boxes of pasta (probably 6-8 of these, all different)
mini farfafelle
orzo
manicotti (6 shells left)
hellmans 2
Newmans balsamic vinaigrette
peanuts
1 can crushed tomatoes
2 cans diced tomatoes
4 cans rotel
3 cans black beans
1 can cannelloni beans
small jar of pesto
1 tube tomato paste (now opened)
2 cans baked beans
1 can corn
3 cans green beans
3 cans peas
corn tortillas
flour tortillas
dirty rice mix
white rice
2 chicken noodle premix stuff (lipton side stuff)
chicken rice pre mix
2 bags of black beans
1 bag navy beans
1 bag black eyed peas
jiffy corn muffin mix
peanut butter


fridge:
strawberry jelly
peach jelly
1 lb butter
fresh cherry tomatoes were roasted to save from going bad
celery
lettuce
onions
cheese (cheddar, mont jack, provolone, moz, parm) This is getting very low
fresh cheese tortellini
carrots
5 eggs
BBQ sauce

Day 6

Today was a good day round these parts. I had breakfast of 2 eggs with a smidge of cheese and some salsa for breakfast while The Little One had some yogurt. The Husband stuck to coffee. PB& J on wheat bread with strawberry jam for lunch for The Little One. The Husband had the last of the leftover spicy beans. I ate some candy corn. *shame* Yeah I had pure sugar for lunch. Oh well. Does it count that I drank a boat ton of water with that?

Dinner was the hot dogs and baked beans.

It'll be PB&J for dinner tomorrow night so I need to come up with something more interesting for lunch tomorrow!

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Menu 12 September to 18 September

Monday: Hot Dogs, Baked Beans
Tuesday:
Wednesday: Philly Cheesesteak Sloppy Joes
Thursday: Cheese tortellini, sauce
Friday: Roast
Saturday: leftovers
Sunday:

This will use:
1 lb ground beef
1 onion
1 red pepper
provolone
hot dogs
1 can baked beans
Cheese tortellini
1 jar spag sauce
roast
potatoes
carrots
1 can tomatoes
onions


I need a picnic friendly dinner for Tuesday. Maybe PB&J? And I am blanking on Sunday. high of 70, low of 54.

I feel good pushing out a few meal ideas. I see The Husband having issue with the meatless option on Thursday but eh...oh well!

Day 5

You know, I'm gonna run out of days eventually. Hmmm....let's just add more to the to do list.

Food was good today. The Husband used up 5 of the eggs, found some thawed breakfast sausage that was totally fine in the back of the fridge and we enjoyed some Spanish omelets this morning for breakfast. Along with coffee of course. ;)

Lunch for me was leftover chicken cacciatore manicotti. The Little One had a totasted peach preserve and peanut butter sandwich with some of the frozen wheat bread. I think The Husband had some cheese???

Dinner for The Little One was some french fries supplied by a friend and then a few bites of noodles. I had the rest of the chicken cacciatore manicotti mixed with his leftover noodles. The Husband had leftover Spicy Beans, pork carnitas and rice. I think we did well eating leftovers today.

Still no Master meal plan. This is not good. Not. Good. At. All. I will work on this tonight. Promise.

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Day 4

Good afternoon all! It's been a busy day with a smidge of good news to counter the bad of yesterday. As of yesterday, The Husband will now have plenty more time to spend with The Little One. We'll get through, life gets busy happening when we make plans right?

So...in retrospect, this happening couldn't have come at a better time. I'm already in food saving/stretching mode.

In other news, I picked up American Wasteland this morning at the library. I got this book specifically because of Chapter 8 and how to not waste as much food in the home. This chapter specially got good reviews online so I was excited to read it. Want to know what's in the chapter? if you're going to buy a funky ingredient, use it twice in one week! How novel! How groundbreaking! How eye roll worthy. *sigh* oh and don't go grocery shopping without a list and while hungry. Avoid processed foods. Really? I already know and do all of that. Waste of time. Oh well. Maybe my little blog will save someone else time.

Now on to food for today.

The Little One had yogurt again and The Husband and I had coffee. I had a nice salad for lunch and The Little One had a PB & J with strawberry jelly. Dinner will be the burgers and fries.

I did get Perfect One Dish Dinners from the library and am hoping to get some inspiration. A Tamale Pie might show up on the menu soon.

Hmmm..we also got a half serious but might be more..not quite sure offer. Someone would pay for half of our grocery bill if we cooked for them. What do you think?? Should we pursue this? It certainly couldn't hurt to have half of our groceries paid for right now. Beh, they were probably only kidding.

Friday, September 9, 2011

Day 3

I feel good so far with this whole thing.

The Little One had yogurt for breakfast. The Husband and I had coffee plus I had one of the leftover chicken cacciotore manicotti. Yep...I've got nothing against dinner for breakfast. Besides, there is still plenty leftover for a meal later on. Then we had a salad for lunch and The Husband took another two turkey sandwiches. We are out of green pepper now. :( I let half of it go bad (slaps hand! bad bad me!). This will be easier when I don't have to think about fresh food spoiling.

Meal plan so far:
I'm going to add rice to the beans tonight. The Husband wanted to save the ground beef for burgers. So cooking up some rice, adding it to the leftover Spicy Beans, wrapping in tortillas and baking. Dipped in Salsa like a taquito.

Burgers for dinner tomorrow night, probably use up the half bag of french fries that are left. We also need to do burgers soon because we have a few burger buns.

Sunday is going to be leftover day to clean things out and start the week fresh.

Still need to get that overall meal plan going. otherwise more fresh food will go bad I am sure. ACK.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Day 2

The Little One had yogurt and a waffle for breakfast. The Husband and I stuck to the coffee and he brought 2 sandwiches for lunch. I had leftover beans for lunch. For The Little One, I made some noodles and sauce with some moz and butter for some good fats. I was proud of myself because usually there are leftover noodles but this time I cut the amount by about 1.3 and it was all eaten. YEAH for me for saving food!

I am making the chicken manicotti dish and will top with some of the moz and parm and provolone.

Oh, did I mention I have 2 open jars of spaghetti sauce in my fridge along with 2 open jars of salsa? Yep.

I really need to work on a long term meal plan for the dinners. Really need to.

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Food Today and plan for leftovers

Before this little twist arrived, I made Spicy Beans from Pioneer Woman for dinner tonight.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/08/spicy-beans/

First, holy wow, it's spicy AND good! I also made up a box of the Jiffy Cornbread because I had 2. In order to make my bowl not spicy enough to eat, I used some full fat greek yogurt (can easily be used a savory like sour cream) and some cheddar cheese. This means yes, I ate probably a serving of the yogurt that my son eats in the morning.

The husband will simply fill a bowl, add some cornbread and probably drown the stuff in Frank's Red Hot.

With the leftovers I am trying to decide if I should thaw a packet of ground beef or do rice. Either way, I want to roll up some tortillas and bake the whole thing. This would be dinner for Friday. The Husband will bring turkey sandwiches tomorrow and Friday. I'll eat some of the beans for lunch tomorrow and probably finish off the cornbread. The Little One will share with me for lunch tomorrow. Friday I'll do a salad to use up some of the fresh veg and The Little One has suddenly begun to love salad.

This leaves tomorrow for a meal for dinner. A friend suggested a crock pot Chicken Cacciatore using some of the chicken thighs, then stuffing it into the manicotti shells. It could be interesting! I'll get the recipe and update the food list.

Thursday
Breakfast:
Little One yogurt and fruit
The Husband and I coffee (sure it's not healthy but oh well)

Lunch:
The Husband turkey sandwiches
Me and the Little One leftover beans and cornbread and cheese

Dinner
Chicken Cacciatorre stuffed into Manicotti shells

Friday
Breakfast
Little One yogurt and fruit

Lunch
The Husband turkey sandwiches
Me and the Little One salad

Dinner
Leftover Beans re-purposed into baked stuffed tortilla shells. Dip into some salsa..almost like taquitos??

This would remove the following from the food list:

2 yogurt
some of the frozen blueberries
sliced deli turkey
8 slices of white bread
Some lettuce
Chicken thighs (on pack)
green pepper
onion
1 TBSP Tomato paste
1 can diced tomatoes
manicotti
Lettuce
onion
peppers
mushrooms
cherry tomatoes
cheese
some flour tortillas
rice or 1 package ground beef (If I do beef should I only use half of a pound to stretch? How good would the other half pound be good for and what would I use it in before it goes bad?)

Day 1

A little curve ball was thrown at me today which results in zero grocery spending money from now until, at the earliest, September 23. A friend suggested that I document this experience, so thanks Gill. I will. :) I think it's also a sign from the universe that the local library sent me an email today that my copy of American Wasteland : How America Throws Away Nearly Half of its Food (and what we can do about it) by Jonathan Bloom is ready and waiting for me to pick up.

Here's my list of food in the house. There might be a box of crackers or a jar of molasses that I've missed, but as this blog rolls on, trust me when I say no food will be purchased.

Assume full array of spices, flour, sugar, olive oil.

Protein:
Pork carnitas
3 meat roasts
4 whole chickens
frozen hot dogs
chicken legs (2 bags, maybe 5-6 per bag)
chicken thighs (2 bags, maybe 5-6 per bag)
1 lb ground buffalo
1 lb ground pork
2 2 breasts size frozen chicken breasts
2 1 lb ground beef
2 pork spare ribs
bottom round steak, thin sliced, maybe .80 lb
short ribs (tiny serving)
eye round steak (tiny serving)
ham (like you'd get for Easter but not spiral sliced)

2.5 bags frozen peas
2 single sliced frozen zucchini
2 frozen bananas
1 package frozen plain bagel
1 package blueberry waffles
1 lb breakfast sausage
open bag of french fries ore ida 1/2 bag left
1 loaf whole wheat bread (frozen)
frozen blueberries
raisin bread (frozen)
2 bags strawberries (frozen)
frozen spinach (flash frozen to be individual leaves)

pantry:
basmati rice
elbow mac
organic beef stock
couscous
newmans alfredo garlic sauce
salsa (2 jars)
5 jars spag sauce
random few bites left boxes of pasta (probably 8-10 of these, all different)
mini farfafelle
orzo
manicotti
hellmans 2
Newmans balsamic vinaigrette
peanuts
1 can crushed tomatoes
2 cans diced tomatoes
4 cans rotel
4 cans black beans
1 can cannelloni beans
small jar of pesto
1 tube tomato paste
3 cans baked beans
1 can corn
3 cans green beans
3 cans peas
corn tortillas
flour tortillas
dirty rice mix
white rice
1 rice premix (lipton stuff)
2 chicken noodle premix stuff (lipton side stuff)
chicken rice pre mix
2 bags of black beans
1 bag navy beans
1 bag black eyed peas
jiffy corn muffin mix
peanut butter


fridge:
strawberry jelly
peach jelly
2 lb butter
fresh mushrooms
fresh cherry tomatoes
celery
lettuce
peppers
onions
cheese (cheddar, mont jack, provolone, moz, parm)
grapes
fresh cheese tortellini
carrots
22 eggs
BBQ sauce
sliced deli turkey (about 1 LB)
sliced deli ham (About 1/4 LB)

Why do we have so much food? Because I live in fear of running out.

Want to suggest some meals? Please do! I'll document each days meals. Food for the Husband to take to work, food for Me to eat and food that the Little One eats.