Back again

But I'm not going to even try to remember everything we've eaten since I last logged on here. Suffice it to say, we've had plenty, remained in a perpetually stuffed state, and nearly eaten our way into sugar comas. It's been a great Christmas! Over the past week or so, Daddy picked up some groceries for us, totaling $48.50, bringing the grocery money to $638.22.

Here's some food-related fun we've had in the last week or two:

Chocolate mints using THIS recipe.

Obviously, I decided to dip the mints instead of top them. One tip if you decide to do this recipe: Keep them in the freezer. I did most of the time, and they were delicious that way. But I also wanted to see how they held up out of the freezer. Well, they held up okay, but the chocolate got grainy...

The final result of our plum pudding adventures! Much to our surprise, it was actually pretty good! We just need to add more nuts and cook it somewhat less. Still, we were fairly pleased with the end result, especially since we've never done it before!

Four more days 'til Christmas!

Well, I remembered to check my receipts this evening! Daddy and I picked up some groceries while we were out and about Saturday - to the total of: $63.88, which brought the grocery money total to a whopping (or not so whopping) $186.72. Mama gave me this pay period's grocery money today however, which brings the total up to a much more comfortable $686.72.

While I'm here, here's today's meals:

Breakfast: Get whatcha want.

Lunch: Mama made beef hash with the left-over roast, potatoes, and carrots from last night. Oh, beef hash obviously implies cornbread as well, but I probably should include it for those who don't know (aka, Northerners). ;)

Dinner: Popcorn. Left-overs from lunch.

Getting in the Christmas Spirit

Majorly. Like, we're not doing a very good job of cooking meals...

Breakfast: Get whatcha want.

Lunch: Get whatcha want. (See?)

Dinner: Roast, potatoes, and carrots.

Just because we're not doing very well in the meal area of our lives it doesn't mean we've forsaken the kitchen this Christmas season. Nope, far from it. Claire was in there a lot yesterday fixing fudge and rice krispy treats for the folks in the band with them (and the studio folks, since they're in the studio today.). Yesterday afternoon, I fixed chocolate peppermints. Sorta similar to peppermint patties. Yes, they're good. I just need to get the rest dipped in chocolate... Perhaps, if I can remember, I'll post that recipe tomorrow.

For now, here's our fudge recipe (which is, in my opinion, the best fudge recipe ever!):

• 1 1/2 bags of chocolate chips

• 1 can of sweetened condensed milk

• Salt

• Vanilla

Melt the chocolate chips together with the sweetened condensed milk. We do it in the microwave. Mix in a little salt and vanilla if you want. Pour into a lined 9X9 casserole dish, refrigerate (or freeze, if you're like us and in a hurry to eat it!) until completely cooled and hardened. Lift the lining out of the dish, pull it off the fudge, and cut into bite-sized pieces. Enjoy! It's totally easy and incredibly rewarding!!!

We often change it up somewhat for what we're craving at the time. Sometimes we'll substitute chopped Andes mints for about half the chocolate if we're wanting minty fudge. Oh, yeah; it's good! Other times we'll do dark chocolate chips. I'm pretty sure we've even done white chocolate, milk chocolate, butterscotch, and peanut butter batches in the same way, but our favorites remain the semi-sweet, dark, or minty versions.

Catch up

So, I sorta kinda forgot about this blog yesterday... oops. I'll see if I can remember enough to get by:

Friday:

Breakfast: ... Nope, don't remember.

Lunch: Pizza crust French bread with butter. It was good. I'm thinking about doing that again today, but we'll just have to see how the day unfolds.

Dinner: I got 2 beef roasts (1 chuck, 1 rump) out of the freezer, too late to do roast, but not really knowing what I was going to do with them. So, I just started (early) cutting them up and trimming them up into bite-sized stew meat. Then I browned the meat and added some broth and about half a bottle of old wine. I browned/caramelized 2 cans of sliced mushrooms and 1 onion, and added those to the meat. Then I threw in 5 or so potatoes and 1-2 large carrots. After that I just let it simmer for 2.5-3 hours. Oh, of course there was the usual salt, pepper, and garlic powder seasoning. As I went along, my goal became to get as close to beef bourguignon as I could without it taking all day and making a huge mess. I am pleased to report that I think I came fairly close! Everyone like it! So, there's my recipe for a cheaper, easier, and faster Julia Child signature dish. I love that kind of cooking! I have a somewhat definite end result in mind, no recipe, and I actually end up hitting fairly close to my mark! YESSSS!


Saturday:

Breakfast: I think everyone probably had yogurt, but I'm not sure.

Lunch: Daddy and I were out shopping; we had Taco Bell.

Dinner: Daddy and I were still gone. We had Starbucks scones; the family had left overs from the night before.


Sunday:

Breakfast: Cereal? Yogurt? Get whatcha want?

Lunch: Chili, apples, and a cranberry dessert with a white chocolate sauce.

Dinner/Fellowship: I don't know that we actually did what we took to do, and, since I don't know what that was, all I can put here is... I don't know!


Monday:

Breakfast: I had yogurt. Not sure about anyone else.

Lunch: Left-overs.

Dinner: We didn't really have dinner actually...

Thursday's come and gone

And the big news is that we now have relatively fast and, more importantly, unlimited internet!!!! But that doesn't really have too much to do with what we ate yesterday...

Breakfast: There was a lot of stuff out (left-overs, eggs, cereal, English muffins, etc.), so I guess it was more of a find what you want, prepare it, and enjoy it. Mama's getting a little defensive when I post that it was a "get whatcha want" breakfast...

Lunch: Egg rolls. Costco had coupons for frozen hors dourves (making them a fairly good deal) when we went the other day, so we grabbed a lot of those.

Dinner: Chicken chili burritos, using the chicken chili we froze after our Reformation celebration. Ever seen puffed tortillas? I hadn't either until last night! ;)

Greetings

I have nothing interesting to say.

Breakfast: Get whatcha want.

Lunch: Last night's left-overs.

Dinner: Roasted chicken, roasted potatoes, and green peas.

Yesterday's Eats

Breakfast: Get whatcha want.

Lunch: Spanakopita and mini quiches - left-overs from our tree-decorating dinner.

Dinner: Vegetable beef... something or other. Claire made it.

Country Dinner: December 12, 2011

Breakfast: Left-over breakfast items.

Lunch: Pasta and cheese sauce, and left-overs.

Dinner: Country ham, red-eye gravy (not the official kind, I guess. No coffee in our version.), cheese grits, and biscuits; peanut brittle for dessert.

Delicious meat simmering in water after a quick browning. The water that the ham has simmered in is what we call red-eye gravy. SO good!

Saturday and Sunday

Saturday sure seems like a long time ago...

Breakfast: If I'm remembering things correctly, Daddy fixed grits, eggs, sausage, and bacon.

Lunch: ... I have pretty much no recollection of lunch. Which means it was probably left-overs.

Dinner: We set up our Christmas tree Saturday evening, so we had our traditional finger foods. We get the frozen hors d'ourves from Costco.

Sunday:

Breakfast: French toast casserole... type thing.

Lunch: Pot roast with pickles, salad, and mint brownie bites

Dinner/fellowship: Egg rolls

Friday's menu

Breakfast: Get whatcha want.

Lunch: I wasn't home, but Mama and Luke - who were the only ones home - had the left-over chicken pizza.

Dinner: Daddy fixed bacon-wrapped filet mignon! And salad, green beans, and scalloped potatoes. Oh, yeah.

I've put if off long enough...

Well, I didn't get on here and give an update last night, so I reckon I'd better do it this morning before I get too behind again. I just don't really want to know... You see, we went grocery shopping yesterday. It was one of the biggest grocery shopping trips we've had in a really long time, and, with it being Christmas and all, we were more inclined to impulse buy. I'm sure the total will be rather high. But first, the menu:

Breakfast: Get whatcha want. We were all rushing around trying to get away as early as possible.

Lunch: Mama and I had Taco Bell, conveniently located right next to Walmart. I understand the others had ruebens. Yes, I'm jealous.

Dinner: We didn't really have dinner, now that I think of it...

$425.79 is the sum of everything we spent yesterday. That was using some coupons, and our Costco rebate check. Ouch. The grocery total is now, according to this blog $253.43, but according to what I just counted $250.60. I think this is probably from the use of much of the change on the vending machines at Costco as we were leaving. I never got a total for how much that was. So, I'm going to blame this discrepancy on that.

December 7th

Well, we did good yesterday, and, if using leftovers is good, we did good today too!

Breakfast: I had left-over pumpkin bread. The others had eggs and whatever else they wanted.

Lunch: Left-over pizza.

Dinner: Daddy fixed steak, bread, and salad!

**Edit to add: Forgot to mention that Daddy picked up a gallon of milk for us. Cost $4. Brings the grocery total to $679.22.**

3 for 3! YEAH!

<-- The finished lid organization project! I LOVE it! :)

Breakfast: Pumpkin bread... 'course it wouldn't get done, so it was more of a brunch at 9:00am...

Lunch: Tomato soup.

Dinner: White pizza (topping was: left-over alfredo sauce, pre-cooked chicken we had in the freezer, pre-cooked bacon we had in the freezer, and a bit of ranch mix, salt, and pepper. Garnished with still more left-over alfredo sauce and green onions.). That would have been just fine had I not dumped most of the topping into the oven as I was attempting to get it out... Thankfully Daddy walked in right at that moment, and we were able to save most of it. We still had it for dinner, so all's good. And it turned out much better than I was expecting!


Mama and Luke made spritz cookies today! They're Christmas must-haves around here!

Another Monday down

It's been rainy, and the temperature is, I understand, supposed to plunge. Ugh. Oh, well, we enjoyed the lovely weather this weekend!

Breakfast: Get whatcha want, as long as it doesn't involve eggs (grocery shopping trip supposed to happen on Thursday).

Lunch: Left-overs

Dinner: Claire made spaghetti and bread sticks.

When I was in town (Centerville) with Daddy this morning, I did pick up 18 eggs for $2.59. That makes the new grocery total: $683.22.

Sunday

We didn't do so great in the food area yesterday...

Breakfast: Get whatcha want. Or, don't get anything. <-- me...

Lunch: Roast with veggies, greens, apples and seriously awesome apple dip made from cream cheese and heath bits.

Dinner: Daddy, Kyle, and I went to a lessons and carols in Nashville yesterday afternoon. We got hot Krispy Kremes and hot chocolate on the way home. Yeah, that was awesome.

<-- Proof of hot Krispy Kremes! I snapped this picture because lately it seems like every time I want hot Krispy Kremes the hot sign's not on. It's a beautiful sight, is it not?

Confession

It'll come in a minute...

Breakfast: Part get whatcha want, part omelet.

Lunch: Broccoli soup. I do not like broccoli. <-- There's the confession.

Dinner: Roast, potatoes, carrots, and apples.

Today Daddy and I made 3.5 gallons of apple cider! *Joy!* Grammy and Granddaddy also brought a country ham by. They picked it up for us, and it cost $98, bringing the grocery total to $685.81. We now have pork in the freezer!!! Yeah, it's been a good day. :)

2 outa 3!

Yeah, man!

Breakfast: Get whatcha want. This was not one of the two...

Lunch: Baked sweet potatoes. (See that? NOT left-overs!)

Dinner: Homemade pizza! Made with homemade cheese, I might add.

Oh, I have dinner...!

That's kind of how I went around all day today. Remembering it briefly while I was in the middle of something else, and the quickly forgetting it again. So 'round about 12:45 this afternoon, I finally remembered it long enough to grab some meat out of the freezer and begin thinking through possibilities. The result was none too impressive... Still, we ate, and that's what matters.

Breakfast: Get whatcha want

Lunch: Left-over turkey-fajita soup

Dinner: Macaroni and cheese and grilled kielbasa

Wednesday

Breakfast: Daddy made us pancakes and sausage!

Lunch: Left-overs.

Dinner: Fajita soup with the rest of the left-over turkey and greens.

And I got paid! The new total is $783.81, but that won't last long. I have a feeling a grocery trip will be in order in the next week or so...

Wherein I try my hand a cooking again.

I haven't done it too much lately, what with crock pots and sickness.

Breakfast: Claire made some really good muffins!

Lunch: Left-overs.

Dinner: Meatloaf balls, mashed potatoes, and caramelized onions. Yeah, it was good.

Daddy picked some more groceries up for us. He spent $64.31, bringing the grocery total to $283.81. Rather low for right here at about the time to go shopping for Christmas baking, but I get paid in the next couple of days!

A slow and drizzly Monday

That's certainly what yesterday was like! So much so that I didn't feel like I actually got going until 3:30pm! I did a few things here and there, but it was just slow...

Breakfast: Get whatcha want.

Lunch: Ditto... (Told ya it was slow...) I had a clementine.

Dinner: Daddy made turkey pot pie with more Thanksgiving left-overs.

I'm excited about a little project that was partially completed in the kitchen yesterday! Towel bars were installed! They're going to help us organize the lids to our pots! The pots and lids were all together in the cabinet, and it was terrible trying to find the right lid and extract it without pulling others along with it. Hopefully these will add a cheap, simple, but significant measure of sanity to our kitchen life. 

We'll be adding one or two longer towel bars on the wall on the right; the plan right now is for those to hold our larger lids. I'm really excited to see such progress to our home organization!

Thanksgiving Weekend Recap

I hope y'all had a wonderful Thanksgiving; we sure did! We went to my uncle's on Thursday, and had delicious food, lots of laughter, and a good time with family. Luke enjoyed being with our cousins immensely too! Friday we went to Dickson to Grammy and Granddaddy's for pot pie, our traditional after-Thanksgiving meal. We played games, ate candy, and again, had a good time with family. Saturday morning Mama, Claire, and I threw the Thanksgiving left-overs in a crock pot and roaster, and then went to Nashville. We had a couple of Groupons for ThriftSmart!!! First, however, we had to find somewhere to eat lunch, and, you know what? There's nothing around there if you don't want McDonald's, pizza, or hole-in-the-wall Mexican. I felt like we were cruising Merced, CA again! (Obviously we don't go to that part of town very often, or I wouldn't have been quite so struck by it...) We ended up getting cheese blintzes and hot wings at IHOP. Weird? Oh, yeah. Bad? Not really. I didn't think so anyway, but I am dealing with a cold this week. We found some good deals at ThriftSmart - all the clothes were on sale for $1.99!

We had to make a couple of quick grocery runs this weekend; we spend a total of $27.97 on things like eggs and Kleenex - essentials. That brings the grocery total to something like $348.12.

Yesterday Was Steaming Day

Just FYI. We steamed the molded (like, put into a mold - not molding...) plum pudding for a really long time yesterday. Now, if I have this right, we let it sit for a really long time - 4 weeks or so. As I said before, this should be interesting...

Daddy grabbed a couple of items for us yesterday as well; he spend $9.74, bringing the total to $376.04.

Breakfast: I don't really remember. Probably get whatcha want.

Lunch: Left-overs or get whatcha want.

Dinner: Chicken noodle soup. Still battling sickness around here, mostly colds right now.

Tomorrow's Thanksgiving. I canNOT believe it! Wow, this month's gone by SO fast! Happy Thanksgiving, y'all! At this point, I'm not sure when the next post will be; got a busy weekend ahead!

Stirring Day

Did you know that yesterday was stirring day? We're making plum pudding this year. It's our first time ever doing that, so we'll see how it goes. But yesterday was stirring day. Only, yesterday was Sunday, so we're doing our Sunday "days" on Mondays. So TODAY was stirring day. Make sense? Anyway, we got our plum pudding started! Tomorrow we won't be using the oven, because that will be in there steaming for 8 hours! Like I said, we'll see. Now, on to the rest of our day:

Breakfast: Eggs and toast.

Lunch: Claire made cheese toast and pulled out left-overs. I had tomato soup and brisket.

Dinner: Claire's night! She made chicken fettuccine alfredo.

We also finally paid for the past two weeks of extended CSA baskets! It was $40, bringing the total to $385.78.

This post is primarily about yesterday's food

Creative title, no?

Breakfast: Get whatcha want, I think.

Lunch: We were given a rather large, pre-cooked brisket, so all we did was thaw it, and throw it in a crock pot to take to church. In addition to that we took green beans and apple-pecan cake.

Dinner/Fellowship: Well, come to think of it, we didn't have anything real. We did a taffy pull, and ate cookies.

Now, I forgot to mention a $12.93 trip to Save-A-Lot that we had Saturday evening. That brings the total down to $425.78.

Busy Day!

We spent the day finishing the living room renovation project!

Breakfast: Bacon and whatever else you wanted

Lunch: Bread, grapefruit... get whatcha want. What can I say? We were busy!

Dinner: Daddy, Luke, and I are the only ones home, so we had left-over chicken and rice soup (and root beer floats to celebrate the newly-finished project!!!).

And no one was home...

The house was empty yesterday. We were all busy, busy, busy! Claire and Kyle were in the studio with the band; they're beginning to record another album! Daddy was working, and Mama, Luke, and I went grocery shopping for some things we'll need for Thanksgiving. Of course, we did some other things as well. :)

Breakfast: Get whatcha want.

Lunch: Mama, Luke, and I had Chuy's!!!

Dinner: Popcorn.

We spent $178.01 on groceries yesterday. That brings the total to $438.71.

WHAT'S ON THE MENU!

For Thursday:

Breakfast: Get whatcha want.

Lunch: Apple salad.

Dinner: Tomato soup, sauteed mushrooms, and bacon! Although there weren't many mushrooms left... *guilty*

BTW, y'all, I learned a rather neat trick yesterday. I was making white chocolate haystacks (of sorts... we didn't/don't have salted peanuts or cashews.), and having issues melting the white chocolate chips. I decided to stop before I burned them and do a little research. Turns out, I probably had already taken them just a little too far, but if I added a little bit of coconut oil it would stir in and continue the melting process. This would probably work with vegetable oil too, but I read to use coconut oil if you wanted the chocolate to harden at room temperature. And, of course, I did. Well, it worked like a charm! I was SO happy to find this out; I don't know how many times I've dumped a batch of white chocolate because I thought I'd heated it past redemption.

Wednesday had come and gone, and now it's Thursday

True, no?

Things are getting done around here!!! Yesterday, Claire and Kyle moved everything out of the living room into the dining room, and they painted the living room ceiling! Today the walls are getting their turn. I did my best to keep the rest of the house running while Mama did school with Luke and bookkeeping.

Breakfast: Get whatcha want.

Lunch: Bread. I made fresh bread! and I was exhausted after doing so. It takes me forever to recover from stomach things...

Dinner: Seemed like a good day to do chicken soup of sorts again. We have a ton of greens as well, so I did the chicken and rice with greens soup again. That certainly was better for my stomach than the chili we've had the last couple of nights!

Daddy did some grocery shopping for us yesterday too. He spent $114.71, making the new total $116.72. I got paid today, so the current grand total is $616.72.

Tuesday

Has come and gone. I was still a bit weakish from the stomach bug, but I managed to eat some.

Breakfast: I had yogurt. Not sure what everyone else had.

Lunch: French toast. We had some bread that was beginning to go bad, so Mama did a large batch. We froze the left-overs. Never done that before, so we'll see how it turns out.

Dinner: Left-over white bean-chicken chili and apple salad.

Well, guess what?

I got the stomach bug Sunday morning. That meant I missed church, and I didn't eat anything. I did manage to drink a bunch of Powerade, and I'm so thankful for my wonderful friends who brought me some carbonated water! Thankfully, the stomach thing seems to last only 7-10 hours, so today I've been able to eat, although I'm very sore from yesterday. TMI? Sorry. All that said, I really don't know what's been eaten and what hasn't in the past couple of days. I think the church had spaghetti for lunch, and I believe I understand that we're going to have left-over chili for dinner tonight (well, those of us who can handle it...).

Please continue those prayers!

Quickly about today

Today was the biggest day in our church's Reformation celebration, so we were with some of our favorite folks all day!

Breakfast: Oatmeal

Lunch: Barbecue catered by Whitt's!

Dinner: Chili

As it's 10:45, I will be brief, but I wanted to ask y'all to pray for our church family, friends, and community. There's a stomach bug going around, and I'm sure the sick ones would appreciate prayers for a quick and full recovery. Also, there are several of us who haven't gotten it yet, and we would most definitely appreciate your prayers that we would somehow continue to avoid it and whatever other sicknesses are around.

Thanks!

Oops

I let too long go between posts, and now I don't remember everything... I'll do my best though.

Thursday:

Breakfast: ... ... ... Nope, I don't remember. It was probably another get whatcha want.

Lunch: Left-overs, I believe.

Dinner: Popcorn and bacon. Yeah, I didn't feel like cooking...

I believe it was also Thursday when I paid Daddy $30 for getting some essentials (if we got the stomach bug that's been making the rounds around here). $348.81 was the new total then, I guess.

Friday:

Breakfast: Get whatcha want... maybe?

Lunch: I was grocery shopping with Mama. We had sushi from Kroger; I don't know what the others had.

Dinner: White bean and chicken soup, salad, and cornbread

As I have implied, we went grocery shopping yesterday. We spent $117.38 (and determined - I think - that paper towels are cheaper at Walmart than at Costco). The total is now $231.43.

Okay, hopefully all that is more or less correct information. Yesterday evening started our church's reformation celebration!

This is gonna be quick

'cause I'm really tired, and I'm in the middle of a zillion other things right now.

Yesterday:

Breakfast: Eggs and toast

Lunch: Fresh bread (had to make another batch a couple days earlier than usual, and it looks like I'm still going to have to make a batch tomorrow! I guess this is a good thing.)

Dinner: Chicken and rice soup. There's been a stomach bug going around (thankfully we've managed to avoid it thus far.), so that sounded like an ideal dinner option. I threw in a handful of greens in for added benefits too.

Today:

Breakfast: I grabbed the last slice of apple pie almost as I headed out the door to help our wonderful neighbors harvest vegetables and put out row covers.

Lunch: I wasn't home, but those that were had grilled cream cheese and apple sandwiches.

Dinner: Mama made a beef vegetable pot pie ... casserole thing.

Catchin' up

Again. Sometimes life just gets too busy to post about what we've bought and what we've eaten! First off, Claire went to town Saturday morning to pick up some things at the co-op, so I sent some grocery money with her. She picked up some eggs, milk, and hot dogs for us a Save-A-Lot for: $17.95 making the new total: $378.81.

Saturday:

Breakfast: I don't hardly even remember Saturday, so I'm thinking it was probably another get whatcha want meal.

Lunch: Lunch was more official. We all sat down and had enchiladas!

Dinner: The band members had a gig at another band member's church, and there was dinner. We all decided to go! We had to go in the truck, so it wasn't the most comfortable ride ever, but it was good to be together as a family.


Sunday:

Breakfast: Get whatcha want, I think.

Lunch: We took potato soup/mash (oddly enough, we ran out of milk, so the soup wasn't very ... soup-like.), hot dogs, and apple pie.

Dinner: I don't think we had anything in particular for dinner. Apple pie, maybe...


Monday:

Breakfast: Daddy and I left at 6am, and I don't think we had anything to eat (though we did grab our favorite coffee concoctions on the way out the door). I don't know what the others had.

Lunch: Daddy and I and another good friend we picked up on the way went to my uncle's house to disassemble and haul away a tower he had in his back yard. Uncle Craig is, by profession, a chef, and he fed us very well on potato soup!

Dinner: Claire made stew, greens, and bread.

A forgotten purchase

Or rather, a purchase that I forgot to record: $50 for 5 bushels of organic apples (2 bushels of Jonagold, 3 of Mutsu - Mutsu being our favorite!)! We picked them up a couple of weeks ago, and we've been enjoying them ever since! That brings the grocery money total to: $396.76.

While I'm on, here's yesterday's menu:

Breakfast: Get whatcha want.

Lunch: Bread, apples, apple butter, etc. (We were deep in the middle of canning apples at the time.)

Dinner: Spaghetti, winter squash (cut in half, seeds removed, butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, a dash of nutmeg, microwaved for 10 minutes, baked until we were ready to eat.), and bread.

We got 14 more quarts of apples canned yesterday! That used up all our quarts, surprisingly. I'm guessing they're all being used with green beans. We may can some more, but they'll be in pints instead. We're also really hoping to do some cider, but our cider press needs a little work before then. So, we'll see, I guess! In the meantime, we'll have apple pies! I've got 2 in the oven right now, and I should probably go check on them...

Another day bites the dust!

I'm quickly running out of ideas for creative titles... in case you couldn't tell...

Breakfast: Mama made apple muffins! Yay! It wasn't a get whatcha want!!! Today's is though...

Lunch: Potato soup. Joint effort between me and Claire. We made enough to work for Sunday lunch too! (Or it will be when we add a bit of milk.)

Dinner: Yesterday was Thursday, therefore a band practice night, therefore it was just me, Daddy, and Luke for dinner. Having been in the kitchen all morning making cookies, bread, and soup, I didn't want to go back in there, so we had Hardee's. That was convenient because we needed to pick up some hot dog buns for Sunday anyway.

Yesterday I got $12 back for non-grocery items from our last Walmart trip, and we spent $4.31 on hot dog buns and onions at Save A Lot. The grocery total is now, hopefully, $446.76. Today we'll probably be working on more apple things.

Another day on the town!

Yesterday we went to Cheekwood! It was an absolutely beautiful day to do it, too!

Breakfast: Get whatcha want (and quickly!). We were on our way by 9:45 or so.

Lunch: Loveless Cafe. Very expensive, and only mediocre, but none of us had ever been, and it's a Nashville icon, so worth a one-time trip.

Dinner: Left-over creamy, poppy seed chicken.

Today is the beginning of the third month!

Being November first and all...

So, today:

Breakfast: Get whatcha want. Again. Perhaps someday we'll get better at "doing" breakfasts...

Lunch: Tuna salad on crackers + left-overs (if you wanted them)

Dinner: Creamy, poppy seed chicken and left-over turnip greens

Claire and I spend almost all afternoon up at the guest house canning apples! Yes, we finally got around to doing some of that! We had time to do 3 water bath batches, or 21 quarts. Still being relatively new to this whole canning by ourselves deal (without Mama and/or Grammy), we weren't entirely confident about what we were doing, but I'm staying optimistic and hoping that the jars won't burst or not seal. ... I exude confidence, don't I? Oh, well. The green beans worked, so perhaps these apples will too.

We canned them in a very light sugar syrup. Our method, step by step (you were anxiously awaiting this, weren't you?):

• Got the canners and sugar syrup heating up. We had one canner on a propane burner on the deck. The other canner and the large pot of syrup were inside on the stove.

• I started using the handy-dandy apple peeler-corer-slicer to peel the apples (the corer-slicer part isn't functioning correctly, but thankfully it still peels well!), while Claire mixed up the sugar syrup and prepared the jars.

• Claire cut the apples into eighths (unless they were really small, then just quarters), and cut off the cores. I continued peeling, and the pots continued heating up.

• Once the sugar syrup finally got to boiling, we added the apple eighths. Then we did more peeling and cutting as we waited for it to start boiling again.

• Once the apples in the sugar syrup were hot, we pulled out the jars (which we stored in the oven - set at 170* - after we washed them.), and started filling them. I usually tried to cover the final apple slices with a little syrup, but after seeing the final product, I'm not sure that was as good an idea as it sounded at the time.

• The canner on the deck had long since started boiling by this point, so we filled that canner up first. Takes 7 quarts to fill a canner, so once we got all those filled, we dropped the rack into the water, put a lid on the canner, and started the timer for 20 minutes. I'm thinking we'll try 15 minutes next time... IF today's have sealed.

• Then we repeated the steps above. Filled the canner on the stove. Then the canner on the deck again.

• We put our finished quarts on towels on a table. That way they won't leave sticky rings on the table, and clean-up's only throwing the towels in the wash.

So, that's what we did. We'll see if we like them, if they seal, and if they keep as the year goes on.

Monday, Monday

Breakfast: Get whatcha want... I should probably fix that...

Lunch: Left-overs.

Dinner: Claire made pumpkin soup, fried apples, turnip greens, and bacon.

Mama and I went grocery shopping yesterday afternoon. We didn't feel like store hopping too much, so we only went to Walmart and Costco. Oh, I also got paid, so that brings the total to something like $454.45.

Today we're beginning to can our apples, so I'm trying to come up with a quick dinner idea. Thankfully I've already got a quart bag full of frozen, cooked chicken out thawing; if nothing else, that'll turn into something pretty quickly.

This Weekend

Quick review, 'cause I need to be doing other things.

Saturday:

Breakfast: Get whatcha want, if I'm remembering correctly.

Lunch: Grammy Evelyn brought fried chicken, pimiento macaroni and cheese, scalloped potatoes, butter peas, and rolls!

Dinner: Left-overs, popcorn, and salted caramel mocha lattes.


Sunday:

Breakfast: Get whatcha want. Again.

Lunch: Roast with potatoes, carrots, and gravy, arugula salad, and apple cake with caramel sauce.

Dinner/Fellowship: Nachos.

Another day, another menu

Yesterday was another typical Friday. No gigs this week for the band members, so I went out instead! (Only for about 4 hours in the afternoon.) Thankfully, I'd already thrown most of dinner together, so the folks at home could finish it for me since Mama and I got back a bit after 6:30.

Breakfast: Get whatcha want. I believe I had left-over apple pie.

Lunch: Left-overs. I chose the chicken noodle soup.

Dinner: Roast, potatoes, carrots, gravy, and green beans. I browned the roasts (one of the huge 2-packs from Costco. One's for Sunday!), then threw them into a roaster with potatoes, carrots, and appropriate seasonings. I let that bake at 375* for an hour or two, then turned it down to 300* when Mama and I left for Columbia. Daddy finished preparing everything for me (have I mentioned that he's awesome?), and I'm very happy to report that the roast was very tender and, as far as roasts go, pretty moist! Success!

Thursday's Menu

For me, it was a little on the sparse side, but I was busy doing little things all the time. Not that that's a very good excuse for not eating well...

Breakfast: Get whatcha want. Again.

Lunch: Left-overs/get whatcha want. Again.

Dinner: Chicken noodle soup

I discovered a new recipe yesterday though! Snickerdoodle muffins! Yes, folks, you read that right: Snickerdoodle muffins. They're really quite good. Mine didn't come out as pretty though. I used muffin cups, so I could avoid greasing and flouring the tins, and mine deflated... Not sure why yet... No biggie! They still taste good!

For Wednesday

I just realized (and fixed) that in the last post, I called it Wednesday when it was really Tuesday. It's been a long week already... But here's yesterday's/Wednesday's/that-day-that-felt-like-Friday's menu:

Breakfast: Get whatcha want, I think...

Lunch: We didn't really have a formal lunch either. I believe I had yogurt, and the others probably had left-overs.

Dinner: Chili (with all the fixin's!) with a bunch of friends! Oh, and apple pie for dessert!

Today - Tuesday, day 55!

Today's been rather normal. I'm extra sore from the soccer game yesterday, but as far as I can tell that's the only abnormality.

Breakfast: Left-over apple dumplings

Lunch: Left-overs

Dinner: Sausage-y, mushroom-y, cheese-y casserole (Claire cooked, so I don't know what it was called.)

Also, Daddy went to Wally World and picked up some groceries. Spent $113.03. The grocery budget total is now: $247.29.

Yesterday's Menu

If I can remember it all...

Breakfast: Get whatcha want - I had the last piece of apple pie from Saturday! SO good!

Lunch: "Surprise" rolls, or pigs-in-a-blanket, or rolls with little sausages inside them, or whatever you want to call them.

Dinner: Chicken and dumplings with apple dumplings for dessert!

I just this morning got a receipt for some necessary household products that Daddy picked up for us from Lowe's the other day. The total was $10.89 bringing the grocery total down to $360.32.

Weekend in Review

Paid $250 for 20 organic, pasture-raised chickens, $10 for lunch in Murfreesboro, and $8 for vanilla beans. The grocery total is now $371.21 (I think).


Saturday:

Breakfast: Get whatcha want (maybe? I don't really remember... I probably had yogurt.)

Lunch: Daddy and I were in Murfreesboro, so we had Hardee's.

Dinner: Tacos with Tricia Ann and Jacob - fresh, homemade apple pie for dessert!


Sunday:

Breakfast: I had left-over apple pie

Lunch: Meatballs and slaw

Dinner/Fellowship: Bacon-cheddar bread and chicken enchilada soup

Quick Review of Yesterday

'cause I really don't have time for anything more.

Breakfast: Get whatcha want. Again.

Lunch: Left-overs. Again.

Dinner: Chicken enchilada soup. Again.

We weren't very creative, and we were very busy yesterday.

Cookies, Bread, and Purees - Oh My!

Lame attempt at a clever title, I know. Moving on! Yesterday was a very busy kitchen day for me, and if I had to guess, today probably will be too. The morning began with a batch of chocolate chip cookies (I use the recipe on the back of the Hershey's semi-sweet chocolate chip bags; I've found that to be our family's favorite so far.). Before I'd even washed the dirty dishes from those, I did a batch of bread. While the loaves rose, I caught up on the dishes, and even had a couple minutes to sit down! Once those when in the oven, I started dinner: Crock Pot Chicken Enchilada Soup. Then we had a brief-ish lunch interlude, and finally the real project of the day began: deal with the many butternut/honeynut squash we've acquired recently. But first, here's the menu:

Breakfast: Get whatcha want - I had yogurt.

Lunch: Fresh bread

Dinner: Chicken Enchilada Soup

Now the project description ('cause I know y'all are just dyin' to hear about the last 6 hours of my day yesterday). I combined my own meager knowledge with several online descriptions of ways to do this type of thing. I came up with the following, probably inefficient, way of doing it:

Dinner in the crock pot, squash in the food processor and microwave!

- Rinse squash, slice in half lengthwise, scoop seeds and string-y stuff out. (BTW, the disposal doesn't like squash seeds very much, so you might want to put them directly in to the trash or compost.)

- Place meat-side down (or skin-side up, if you prefer) in a glass dish

- Cover and microwave for 10 to 15 minutes, until it's soft.

- Scoop squash out of skin, and place in food processor

- Once the food processor is about half-full (or a little less), process until thoroughly ... unstring-y. I took each batch about 5 minutes in the food processor, and it came out about the consistency of peanut butter (for the honeynut - a bit soupier for the buttenut)

- Bag up and freeze! I did a gallon or so this way.

Insert clever title here

'cause I sure can't come up with one!

Yesterday's news: We got 6 dozen eggs for $9.74, bringing the total to $139.21, but I also got paid yesterday, relieving my mind significantly by taking the total to $639.21. Daniel, our friendly neighborhood trash man/farm hand/comic relief ;), also delivered 20 chickens! I haven't paid for them yet, but I will probably today. Our freezers are now packed, and I'm contemplating asking that our other chest freezer be hooked up. That way we could, if we wanted to, do more freezer cooking. It sure is nice to have meals in the freezer to pull out on nights when you just don't want to, or don't have time to, cook anything. Anyway, here's yesterday's menu:

Breakfast: Bacon and eggs

Lunch: Bread pudding!

Dinner: Kielbasa/smoked sausage with kraut and apples

Today, being Thursday, I currently intend to go make some kind of cookies in a few minutes and then follow that by making a couple loaves of bread which we will probably have for lunch. After lunch Mama and the band members leave me and Luke and head for practice. That means I should probably be figuring out what to have for dinner right now.

Playing Catch-up. Again.

Well, hello there! Life happens. Sometimes crazily. Monday we went to Nashville, and I was utterly exhausted when we got home. So no post here. Yesterday our internet was somehow exceeded. I swear it wasn't me. So again, no post here or anywhere. I didn't even check my email yesterday afternoon and evening. Catch-up time!


Monday:

Breakfast: Hazelnut-cinnamon scones

Lunch: Left-overs, as we walked out the door to go to Nashville (Cheekwood isn't open on Mondays; just FYI)

Dinner: Mama made delicious potato soup!


Tuesday:

Breakfast: Quesadillas and left-over hazelnut scones

Lunch: Quesadillas - they weren't left-over; Mama and Claire are just enjoying having tortillas and cheese.

Dinner: Stew - left-over from Sunday (fixed up)

Yesterday and the day before

My OCD will let me begin no other way than with "the day before."

Breakfast: Pretty much whatever you were willing to get and fix.

Lunch: Mama and I were at the Bell Buckle craft fair, so we had pulled pork with plenty of hot sauce. We're apparently barbecue connoisseurs 'cause we rarely find some we just absolutely love, but overall this was pretty good.

Dinner: I went, for the first time in a loooong time, with Mama, Claire, and Kyle to a Missionary Ridge gig. It was in Granville, TN this time (What? You've never heard of it? Neither have I; it's over towards Cookeville.). Anyway, I had a cheeseburger there.

Yesterday:

Breakfast: Daddy fixed breakfast burrito makings.

Lunch: Vegetable beef stew/soup (I actually didn't have any...), green beans

Fellowship: Cheese and wine for the men, fudge for the ladies (baby shower day!)

Got Soup?

Today was just another average Friday. The band members and Mama did have to leave for a gig this morning, and they're still gone. So, Luke and I, once again, were left to fend for ourselves for much of the day. Thankfully Daddy was able to get home earlier today!

Breakfast: Much to my astonishment, there were 2 Krispy Kreme doughnuts left this morning! So of course I had another fried doughnut for breakfast (don't judge me!). A little later in the morning Mama made craisin muffins. Luke and I have enjoyed those throughout the day.

Lunch: Luke and I had left-over Greek Avgolemono Soup from Tuesday. We supplemented with yogurt and muffins.

Dinner: The last of the frozen tomato soup. :( I have enjoyed knowing we had that available a little too much, I think. Still, on nights like tonight, when I don't want to cook, and I forgot to get meat out earlier, it's awfully nice to have on hand!

Forgotten Transaction

I was beginning to get rather worried last night. I totaled what I thought was what I had left in the grocery money, and realized... I don't have $190. Not a good feeling. I spent all my conscious evening/night trying to figure out what else we'd used the grocery money for that I'd forgotten to post here, and I could NOT come up with anything! Thankfully this morning Mama reminded me of a food co-op order that we'd picked up on a Sunday. After looking through the archives here, I believe I forgot to post that total. So, hopefully the correct grocery money total is now $148.95.

Thursday's projects

Breakfast: Fried Krispy Kremes! In case you haven't had the chance to try that, do. It's amazing; life-changing even. Of course if you've got hot Krispy Kremes eat them fresh, but if you've got some left over, there's no better way to use them than fried in a little butter. SOOOO good!

Lunch: Baked potatoes and sweet potatoes

Dinner: Lasagna and salad

Today's project was putting some lasagnas in the freezer. We have 3 in 9x13 foil pans in the freezer now! We used up one of those ginormous cans of tomato sauce too! Claire and I worked together to get them done quickly, and I think it only took us about 1.5hrs! I was rather proud of us. :)

This evening I made some of us salted caramel mocha lattes again. I had to make another batch of caramel sauce, so I snapped a picture and thought I'd share the recipe. We're going through that stuff really fast now that we've discovered homemade salted caramel mocha lattes!

• 1/2 cup of butter

• 1 cup of brown sugar

• 2/3 cup of cream

• 1 teaspoon of vanilla

Melt the butter. Add the brown sugar until it's combined. Stir in the cream, again until combined. Stir in the vanilla.

It's really a fast recipe to make, which is another reason we've been making it so often.

Also today we got 25lbs of bacon added to the freezer stash! Thank you so much, Jacob, for picking it up for us! (That took $96 from the grocery money, bringing the total to $190.98.)

My Daddy's awesome!

While we live in the middle of nowhere, Daddy works in Franklin. This is terribly convenient for us since he's wonderful and willing to make emergency grocery runs and Costco trips for us. He did this for me yesterday. He spent $138.22 making the new total $286.98. We now have Parmesan, butter, cheddar, and cream to use!

Day with the family

Breakfast: Eggs, bacon, and grits

Lunch: Mama, Claire, Kyle, Luke, and I were in Dickson with Mama's family. We had lunch at Sister's restaurant. I had a fried pork chop, cooked apples, mashed potatoes, and rolls.

Dinner: Grits and greens, and smoked sausage

The Missing Receipt!

Things have been straightened out now! YAY! Well, sort of yay. It means I now need to give a correctly updated grocery budget total. According to the receipt, Daddy spent $69.33 on the 5th. That brings the total to $425.20.

Day 41

Well, it's a Tuesday. That means two things (probably more, but two immediately come to my mind.): Kyle and I have Bible class at 9:15am, and we don't get home until 10:30 or so. Also, I'm in charge of dinner. Today these two facts collided, and I completely forgot about dinner until 1:00pm or so. So out comes the chicken. But I'm jumping ahead of myself; here's today's menu:

Breakfast: Breakfast left-overs from what I fixed Daddy and Luke this past weekend. After breakfast what ever was left was given to the animals. We value fridge space.

Lunch: Peanut butter and tortillas. I was hoping to have pitas and hummus again, but the pitas were already moldy. :(

Dinner: Greek Avgolemono Soup, Emeril's Sugar and Spice Acorn Squash, and tapioca pudding/custard (it didn't thicken very well this time for some reason...).

Now that I've had a chance to sit down for a few minutes, I've got a chicken to pick. Fun, fun. At least it means we'll have cooked chicken in the fridge or freezer for easy future use. Always gotta locate those silver linings, right?

Unexpected Grocery Shopping

I might add that I was unprepared too. Still, it's good to have some basics again, and hopefully we'll get a few more things in the next day or two. Yesterday we spent $196; that brings the total to $494.53, again minus the stuff Daddy got on his last grocery run. Yeah, I still need to get that receipt... Anyway, yesterday!

Breakfast: Pitas and hummus, cake, etc. Pretty much whatever we wanted and could find. I had yogurt...

Lunch: Left-overs.

Dinner: Beef stroganoff and green peas.

Sunday's Menu

Breakfast: Left-over pop tarts that Claire had made for their trip. Daddy made a frosting for them too.

Lunch: Chili, squash casserole, and pecan pie bars.

Dinner: Homemade pitas and hummus.

Another Saturday

Here's today's menu!

Breakfast: Egg... stuff, and French toast. "My egg stuff" is pretty much eggs with whatever I could find in the fridge (Left-overs for breakfast!). It had left-over sausage and mushroom stuff that Claire made Thursday, left-over turnip greens, left-over tomatoes from last night, cheese, and seasonings. It looked like mush; hopefully it tasted okay. I personally had yogurt (beginning to get a little tired of that stuff...) and bacon.

Lunch: BLTs with the left-over bacon and lettuce from last night. BLTs are always awesome.

Dinner: Daddy had a hankerin', so he supplied us with fish fillets and shoestring fries (which I generously seasoned, for the record).

And that wraps up today! See y'all Monday if all goes according to plan and I don't forget!

Busying ourselves around the house

Once again it was me and Luke home alone for most of the day. We were somewhat more productive today though. :)

Breakfast: I fixed Daddy and Luke breakfast while they were out milking. Eggs with cheese and fresh tomatoes, "biscuits" (it had been a while since I'd made them; they turned out tolerable, I guess...), and sausage.

Lunch: Fresh bread and butter!

Dinner: BLT's! YES!

After lunch, Luke and I did a lot of cooking for Sunday. We wanted to be ready in case Daddy wanted us for any projects tomorrow. The best part of this afternoon though was being in the kitchen with Luke and watching him work so hard. He washed a huge amount of dishes, and we were able to come into this evening with a clean kitchen! I'm proud of him, and extremely grateful!

They're gone again...

The band members and Mama are off once more. This time they're in east Tennessee for the Museum of Appalachia's Homecoming event. Neat event, if y'all are ever over that way this time of year. That's not the point though; the point is, when half or more of the family is gone, I don't feel like cooking. Or rather, I don't find the mess I make when I cook for "less than or equal to" 3 people worth cleaning up. So, here's yesterday's rather pitiful menu:

Breakfast: Eggs and bacon (They were still here at that point - besides, Mama did breakfast!). I had yogurt.

Lunch: Luke and I were home alone. We needed to go to town for some things, so we picked up a cheap-ish frozen pizza and had that once we got back. I splurged a little "for him" (I was feeling a little sorry for myself...) and got a small bag of those cheese puff things - not Cheetos, those would've been WAY better - and a box of cereal.

Dinner: Luke and I were still home alone. Neither of us are too keen on the clean up a normal meal requires, so we had popcorn. I had another yogurt as well.

Yesterday I spent $7.66 bringing the total to $690.53, minus however much Daddy spent on the grocery run earlier this week. I need to get that receipt...

Shopping Tip: Never go grocery shopping when you're feeling sorry for yourself! I barely made it out of the store without ice cream, candy, and cookies!

For Yesterday

Ugh. Behind again already!

Breakfast: Steel-cut oats

Lunch: Left-overs

Dinner: Chili. Mama made enough for Sunday too!!!

The day before yesterday, Daddy picked up some decaf coffee for our salted caramel mocha lattes. He also grabbed a couple packs of gum. That took $11. Daddy also got some groceries yesterday (we were out of cheese!!!), but I don't have the receipt from that trip yet. So the total, as of yesterday morning, was $698.19.

Uninspired

Have you ever had those days where you're just completely uninspired and totally unmotivated? Yeah? Well, I'm having one of those months. It's been pretty terrible. Nevertheless, Mama and I tried to work up menu ideas this afternoon. It'll be helpful, but not something we can work from 100% of the time. Still, I reckon it's a step in the right direction; perhaps one day I'll refine it well enough to feel good about posting it, or something like it, here. Anyway! Here's today's menu:

Breakfast: Eggs and left-over apple crisp

Lunch: Left-overs. I had yogurt.

Dinner: Tomato soup and bread.

I fixed salted caramel mocha lattes for the family this evening. Yep, they were good!

Day 33

Breakfast: Eggs and toast

Lunch: Rice and beans with smoked sausage

Dinner: Vegetable beef stew with bread, followed by apple crisp for dessert

Other food-related news: We ran out of coffee this morning. Not a good situation under any circumstances, but thankfully Daddy was going in to work anyway, so he picked up a couple bags today. We're down another $29.50 making the total $709.19.

Yesterday

I thought I'd better post since I sorta knew what went on yesterday. I'm hoping to get more involved in the food arena again later this week; right now, I'm still very tired and weak from the sickness.

Breakfast: Cinnamon rolls (homemade)

Lunch: Beans and rice, grapes, and fudge

Dinner/Fellowship: Chicken salad, s'mores

Speaking of s'mores, Daddy went to town after I posted the other day and bought the makings. So, the grocery budget's down another $20, making it a total of: $738.69.

An Explanatory Link

So, it's been a while; HERE'S WHY. And I don't have much idea of what's been used up around here in the way food stuffs. For the record however, I believe while I've been dealing with the illness, only $20 has been subtracted from the grocery budget, bringing it to $258.69. Oh, and I got paid again yesterday (found out the pay schedule is now going to be on the 15th and the 30th/31st, I believe), so that makes the true total (hopefully) $758.69! Woohoo! One month down, eleven to go!

Lord willing, I'll be back to posting as usual before too long, but I thought I'd drop in today and give a reason for the lack of posts.

Another day in town for me!

I feel like I've been... I don't know, wild, or something! I've gone to town twice this week, and I went once or twice last week! Amazing. ;) Mama and I cruised downtown Franklin today gathering decorating ideas. It was quite fun, but then, I love going to Franklin anytime just about! I've said it before, and I'll say it again, I'm really glad I'm not in charge of managing the family's fuel budget!

Anyway, all that said, I hope to be forgiven for not really knowing what's been going on around the house today.

Breakfast: Steel-cut oats

Lunch: Mama and I ate at Sapphire in the Factory at Franklin... at 2:45pm. Yeah, I'm not wanting dinner. At all. Needless to say, the French Dip sandwich I got was delicious, as were the "yam" (sweet potato, to translate for those of us who name the vegetable correctly) fries.

Dinner: TBD. I'm SO not hungry...

Reduce, Reuse, Re-fried Beans

Day 22, and all's well!

Breakfast: French toast made out of the left-over bread sticks from the day before yesterday, and eggs.

Thursdays are cookie days around here. I made Chocolate Crinkles today, and I'm pleased to announce that they're getting rave reviews despite the facts that they don't have butter in them and I chose to use up some of the whole wheat flour (soft white) we have on hand. I was particularly drawn to this recipe because it didn't use butter. I'm trying to conserve the butter we have, so that was a great plus!

Lunch: Macaroni and cheese! Gotta love something that starts with onions and garlic being sauteed in butter! There are some things that just need to be buttery, and sauteed onions is, in my opinion, one of those.

Dinner: Bacon, re-fried beans, and left-over macaroni. I made the re-fried beans from the Great Northern beans we had last Friday. Random assortment of edibles, yes, but one likes to use what one has on hand, you know.

Three week mark

Has it only been 3 weeks? For some reason it seems like it's been quite a bit longer than that...

Anyway, as I mentioned in the last post, we were in Nashville and Franklin for most of the day. While in town, we went by Cash and Carry. There I got nacho trays (or whatever they're called), restaurant black pepper, and garlic powder. That knocked off $26 from the grocery budget, bringing the total to $278.69.

Now on to today's menu:

Breakfast: Cream of wheat

Lunch: We celebrated my grandmother's birthday with her at Amerigo's.

Dinner: Again, we were still out and about. We more or less had Starbucks for dinner.

Trying out the new ground beef!

Breakfast: Toast... and whatever else we could round up. I think. Seems a long time ago.

Lunch: Left-overs. We've about cleaned out the fridge! Good thing we're heading to Nashville for lunch tomorrow!

Dinner: Spaghetti and bread sticks. The ground beef is flavorful, but not as good as when we did our own, I believe.

As I said, tomorrow we're off to Nashville!

Another day late...

Been busy lately, and haven't really wanted to blog. Still, here's a quick overview of yesterday's menu:

Breakfast: French toast and whatever else you want

Lunch: Tomato soup and grilled pimiento cheese

Dinner: Rib-eyes, mashed potatoes with caramelized onions, and green beans (Oh, it was SO good!)

Hopefully I'll get today's menu up later today.

Birthday Weekend!

Saturday was my younger(est?) brother Luke's and my grandmother's birthday celebrations (mine too actually, since my birthday was the week before). So the family gathered 'round for a delightful lunch and afternoon here at Belle Springs Farm. But here's the review:

Breakfast: Get whatcha want (if I'm remembering correctly... a lot has happened since then.)

Lunch: Hot wings and potato salad. Dessert was plain cheesecake (Cheesecake Factory brand, frozen, from Costco) topped with homemade white chocolate glaze/sauce and fresh raspberries and fresh raspberry sauce.

Dinner: Left-overs!

Sunday's menu:

Breakfast: Get whatcha want ... again. Yeah, I really need to work on that...

Lunch: Dirty rice (see Thursday's post), green beans (fixed Friday since Saturday was going to be so busy), and left-over cheesecake

Dinner/Fellowship: Left-over wings, hard salami, wheat thins, cream cheese, sweet-hot peppers (pickled)

"I never tire of eating beans, beans, beans!"

Yesterday's menu:

Breakfast: Get whatcha want... I think I had applesauce.

Lunch: Various and sundry left-overs

Dinner: Great northern beans and cornbread (a personal favorite)

Today we're celebrating birthdays with the extended family, so we're having more special meals!

BEEF!!!

We have some now!!! Like, 200lbs or so. And for a killer good price!!! The beef cost $192.18 to process. I have to confess that for that really awesome price, and the amount of meat we got, I'm almost tempted to say we'll never process our own beef again. However, I'd personally rather miss the fellowship and camaraderie we've always had at those times. Still, at a dollar or less a pound...

When Daddy went to pick up our beef, he also grabbed some bacon and sausage. That brought the total to $229.52. The grocery balance for this pay period, including the $34 from the last one, is now $304.69. As I said in the last post, we'll have some chickens to pay for, but after that, there shouldn't be too awfully many expenses... right? I hope!

Today in Review

Breakfast: Eggs with a homemade cheese sauce (now that we have cheese!) and a pound of that really good bacon from our processor.

Lunch: Tomato soup with fresh, homemade bread. I turned one of those ginormous cans of crushed tomatoes into potential tomato soup, pizza sauce, or meatless spaghetti sauce. I added sauteed onions, fresh garlic, dried oregano and basil, and salt and pepper and then immersion-blended it all together We ate some (with added milk and cheese, of course), and I froze the rest in 3 quart-sized freezer bags.

Dinner: Dirty rice with homemade bread. I tried to get rid of the rest of last week's loaf, but no one would eat it when there was fresh bread around! So, it also went in the freezer. It'll either get turned into bread crumbs or croutons, or it will be thrown out in a couple of years... Anyway! I made a very large batch of dirty rice, so what we didn't eat at dinner (which was quite a bit, since there were only 4 of us here) went into a crock pot for Sunday!

I also made a batch of chocolate chip cookies today. The Aldi's chocolate chips are decent, not great, but tolerable, but I don't care for the chocolate chip cookie recipe on the back of the bag. (My foodie side is showing itself again.)

Daddy made a Costco run for me today! He got 14 items for $107.62, and now we're ready to celebrate a few birthdays this weekend. ... Hopefully.

The balance I'm left with this payment period is now, I believe, $34.21. Well, at least we're positive, and hopefully in a couple of months this will be built up to more. I know that tomorrow we've got to pick up our beef (roughly $200 + whatever, if any, bacon we get from the same place), and sometime in the next week or so I think we've also got a chicken stock-up. Each of those will cut significantly into next month's grocery money, but after that we shouldn't have to buy meat for a while! It'll sure be nice to have a full freezer again!

Two Week Mark!

Mama and I left around 9:30 this morning. We hit Aldi's, Walmart, and Publix. We didn't get extremely good deals, but I am pleased with our accomplishments. Today's total is : $269.40 for 103 items.

We discovered that, of the three stores, Aldi's has the best price for cheeses. We also got eggs, chocolate chips, celery, carrots, and AA batteries there for decent to good prices. This week only Publix is running a special where you can buy one bag of Nestle chocolate chips and get one bag of Publix brand chocolate chips for free. That made the price of chocolate chips slightly better at Publix than the price at Aldi's.

We determined that Publix has the best price on mayonnaise (Sauer brand) and high-efficiency laundry detergent, but not much else. Walmart was the best and most convenient for most things.

There is still a Costco run to make before the end of the week, but there aren't too many items on that list. I'm hoping it won't be too cripplingly expensive.

All in all, I believe we've done very well. The list wasn't terrible, the prices were ... fair, and it's been a full month or more since we've done shopping like this. I certainly expected things to be far more difficult, long, and expensive.

We're still in the black!!! The current balance, I believe, is $141.83! AND I officially get "paid" again tomorrow (I think... or it may be Friday...)! AND we're going to pick up our beef on Saturday (along with some of the processor's delicious and inexpensive bacon, hopefully)!

While I'm here, here's today's menu review:

Breakfast: Old-fashioned oats w/ butter and brown sugar or rapadura

Lunch: Mama and I were in town, so we grabbed a box of granola bars. Those at home had ham and bean soup.

Dinner: Chicken pot pie, I believe.

Tuesday Review

Breakfast: Various and sundry left-overs (country ham, grits, etc.) with the option of doing your own eggs.

Lunch: Dinner for lunch! Country ham (that stuff has lasted us a lot longer than I thought it would!), mashed potatoes, and green beans.

Dinner: Creamy, poppy seed chicken casserole (I obviously don't remember the exact name...) with baked acorn squash and green peas.

Today, Mama and I are going to head out for the first "all out" grocery shopping we've done in possibly over a month. Surprisingly enough, the list doesn't really look all that bad. It's not the list I'm worried about though; it's that end total...

Overdue update

Just a quick one.
.
Sunday: Get whatcha want breakfast, roasts (w/ potatoes, carrots, and onion) and green beans and peach lazy man's pie for lunch, left-over pie for afternoon (planned on doing Sicilian ... pastries? or something like that, but it didn't work out).

Yesterday: I was in Franklin all day with some of my best friends, so I really have no idea what went on around home food-wise.

AND we're back!

Day 10!

Breakfast: Leftover country ham with cheesy, creamy grits and scrambled eggs

Lunch: Pizza followed by root beer floats

Dinner: Doughnuts/funnel cake (trial run for afternoon food for tomorrow - it was a success!), plus some roast (maybe?). Various members of the family are rather busy this evening, so it's kind of been grab what you want when you want it.

Again, nothing from the grocery budget! I'm pleased with how these 10 days have worked out so far. I'm giving myself what I hope is something of a "cushion of protection," saving a little something for celebrations and hospitality possibilities.

Review of Yesterday, Day 9

Again, I don't have much of an excuse for not posting this last night. I just didn't feel like it. I was tired at 10pm, and I was still suffering from caffeine withdrawal - day 3. Ugh. Here's hoping it doesn't show up again today!

Alrighty! The band members were off again yesterday, and Daddy was at work. That left me and Luke home alone. He did school; I posted here and on my personal blog (I guess this one's kind of a personal blog as well, but anyway.) and did various of other little things on the internet before making bread, cleaning the kitchen, doing laundry, and watching a movie. But all that's material for the other blog. This blog is for the food and budget things.

Breakfast: Biscuits with the leftover country ham + anything else you wanted and could find

Lunch: Fresh bread and butter

Dinner: Subway (Daddy was home at that point, and we were headed into Dickson to get materials for a project.)

Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner - Day 8

We were out rather late last night, and I was exhausted. So, I decided to wait until this morning to type this up.

Breakfast: Cream of wheat

Lunch: Baked potatoes

Dinner: Country ham and whatever we could find at the Iron Pitchfork competition at the Franklin farmers' market

I fixed a ton of country ham yesterday evening, so we're having that for breakfast this morning. We'll probably have it for dinner tonight as well, but hopefully I'll fix some grits or something to go along with it.

Another day, another victory

We survived and didn't spend any grocery money, so I'm considering today quite the success.

Breakfast: Leftovers/whatever you can grab

Lunch: Leftover soup from last night

Dinner: Potato soup and grilled smoked sausage

The frequency of the term "leftovers" is becoming increasingly embarrassing. I really ought to work on transforming those leftovers into something new and interesting; I've just completely lacked inspiration lately. I did start making lists of our favorite breakfasts today, but I was working with a major headache and therefore didn't get a whole lot done. One step at a time, and as long as it resembles a step forward, I'm happy.

September 6, 2011

Today! Quick review (because we're watching Tim Hawkins, which, you've gotta admit, is way more fun than posting about menus and budgets):

Breakfast: Steel-cut oats (homemade butter, rapadura or brown sugar, milk)

Lunch: Potato salad (good thing, too! The potatoes are going soft...)

Dinner: Chicken fajita soup - or something like that. (We have peppers to use up.)

On the way home from work, Daddy picked up some groceries for us too:

• 3 dozen eggs

• 1lb of Monterey Jack

• Tortilla chips

That took $10. That makes the total $411.23. Now, I'm going to get back to Tim Hawkins. :)

Labor Day, Day 5

Nothing special meal-wise was done by us to celebrate Labor Day today. We just got to enjoy being all together as a family (happening less and less these days), and our living room got demolished. Yeah, pretty much:

For breakfast everyone grabbed whatever they could find and/or whatever they wanted. Noticeably the leftover pecan pie and fruit crisp were finished. Also all our homemade yogurt. We need more of that now...

For lunch, we had rice with the leftover meatballs from yesterday. We also had No-bakes. Love those things.

Dinner was early and at Sonic. We had to go to Dickson (well, when you begin a totally unplanned project on the scale of the one we started...), so we hit happy hour. While in Dickson we stopped by Chappell's in the hopes of finding some decent Labor Day sales on meat. Didn't find any, so we came away from Dickson without using any grocery money. Fine by me! All I'll do is repeat that I'm extremely glad I'm not having to do the fuel budget!

We'll probably want something else to eat as the evening progresses. I suspect that the No-bakes will be finished off. After that, it's the same ol' "get whatcha can." I'm hoping to get into a little bit of the menu planning routine before too long. So far I've been really terrible at that. However, the good thing about these "get whatcha can" meals is that the leftovers often get cleaned out!

Weekend Recap

After spending about $80 Friday, I'm very glad to say that we didn't spend any grocery money this weekend! I did forget to add $6 for 2 dozen eggs to Friday's list of acquisitions.

Yesterday Mama and the band members were gone again. Daddy, Luke, and I had pancakes for breakfast, whatever we could grab for lunch (peanut butter and crackers for them, yogurt for me), and for dinner we had a frozen dinner that Grammy Evelyn sent home with us. Pecan pie was for dessert.

Today being the Lord's Day, we prepared most of today's food yesterday. Breakfast, however, was get whatever you want - if you have time. For lunch, Daddy and I prepared meatballs, green beans, and a pecan pie. For fellowship, I fixed a fruit crisp... thing. I threw in a bunch of blueberries, added a can of peaches and a can of apples, mixed in a little sugar and cornstarch, and added some sort of oat topping. Yeah, I wasn't really sure what I was doing. Hopefully it'll turn out okay anyway.

Day 2, On the road again

Boy, am I ever thankful I'm not managing our family's fuel expenses as well as our grocery budget!!! I'd be extremely tempted to confiscate keys!

Anyway, Daddy and I went into Nashville this morning. We needed to do some things for my grandmother and use her high-speed internet, so we took that opportunity to procure the following items that were getting precariously low or were gone completely:

• Sugar (25lbs for $14.29)

• Cheddar cheese (2lbs for $6.39)

• Coffee beans (2lbs for $10.99)

• 1 bottle of wine ($7.99 + $.74 in tax)

• Paper towels ($14.89)

• Toilet Paper ($17.99)

• (Tax at Costco was $5.49)

We one-stop shopped at Costco, so we probably weren't as cost-efficient as we could have been. The grand total for today adds up to $78.77. 6 items for $78.77!!! Ouch. Thankfully Daddy and I ate dinner at their expense. Free samples are the best! Even if they don't always taste that awesome.

I have $421.23 left for the next... 2 weeks, I think. (I'm still not exactly sure how this payment thing's going to work out...)

And so it began...

The first day of the challenge was yesterday, and I was busy, busy, busy doing things pretty much not related to it. Which is why I didn't blog about it last night.

In the morning we had left-over cake for breakfast. I'm not complaining!

Everybody was away from home for lunch:

• Mama and I ate a rather good turkey, brie, and apple butter sandwich with smoothies at House Blend in Dickson. I highly recommend both the sandwich and the Chocolate-dipped Strawberry Smoothie to anyone thinking of stopping by House Blend.

• Claire, Kyle, and Luke were in Centerville, so they went to Sonic. They had 2 or 3 Sonic coupons though which enabled them to eat for half the price they would have otherwise.

• Daddy was at work, but he'd taken left-overs in for lunch. So, Daddy wins!

Since most of us were away from home for a good bit of the day, dinner was a challenge. My challenge-conquering, go-to food is chicken; thankfully we still had some. So, the dinner menu became the quick, easy, and fairly cheap Greek Avgolemono Chicken Soup. Love that soup! Not the most appetizing-looking soup, but it sure is good! It's even better if you've got a handful of wild rice to throw in with the regular rice.

That evening we ladies went to the most recent Weston A. Price Foundation event in our area (On the Centerville square at the store front of Beeyoutiful which is owned by some friends of ours). We watched the "Nourishing Our Children" presentation, and learned about the importance of a diverse, but very nutrient-dense diet. All in all, I came away not feeling nearly as bad about our family's diet as I thought I would. Good milk, butter, cheese, and yogurt make up a not insignificant portion of our diet, and we're hoping to reintroduce more whole grains in the form of homemade breads really soon. Processed foods don't make up a whole lot of our diet, and we're considering gradually eliminating/reducing some of what remains.

So, yesterday was busy, and I was too tired to write this up last night. I might do better today, though today is also looking like a busy day. I know, I know, what day isn't? Still, I've been busier this week than I have been in months!

Assets: NEWS FLASH!

Hello, foodie friends and budget buddies! (Corny, I know; forgive me, it's been a long day.)

Today my sister, a good friend, and I canned a total of 61 quarts of green beans. That's 9 pressure-canner loads. That's from about 9:00am to about 6:15pm. That's what our extra house is for.

11 of those quarts are our friends', but the other 50 are ours. Yep, we doubled our stockpile of canned green beans. I'm exhausted (we were stringing and snapping our beans until 11:15 last night!) and my feet hurt, but it was a pleasant, productive time of fellowship. In my totally unsolicited opinion, fellowship is always sweeter when it is productive.

Day 1 tomorrow, and I still have no idea what we're going to have. I really didn't want to begin this journey falling down... Check back tomorrow or Friday to see how I weathered this potential crisis. ;)

The Challenge - Extra Challenges...

I thought it only fair, after covering many of the assets I'm starting with, to mention the extra challenges or, if you will, liabilities.

The most immediate and obvious challenge that I see is quite simply the fact that we love good food. Our tastes tend to run along the fresh, organic, expensive lines. For example, a family favorite is a fillet mignon with bacon and/or t-bone steak, garlic and sauteed/caramelized onion mashed potatoes, sauteed fresh mushrooms, grilled or steamed fresh asparagus with a garlic-butter sauce, and rolls. Are you drooling yet? I am! Like I said, we love fresh. We love meat (which is not cheap these days), and we love bacon!

We also adore sugar. Chocolate chips, sweetened condensed milk, and craisins are staples around here. I'm going to have to try to realign our mindset, however little I care to myself, to knowing full well that these items are not necessities.

I also face a couple of practical challenges that are somewhat more difficult to overcome. First, our grain mill is in about 3-4 different pieces. It still works, unfortunately (if it didn't, we'd have gotten a new one by now!), but you have to hold all the pieces together and feed the wheat in very slowly in order for it to continue to work. Budget-wise, I guess it's good that it still works, but the fact that it's broken is a huge deterrent to milling the 300-400lbs of wheat we have.

We, as I have probably already hinted at, live in "the middle of nowhere." Okay, not really, but the closest town that has any groceries is a good 20 minutes away, and the closest Walmart is 40-45 minutes. Costco, Target, and the coupon meccas (CVS and Walgreens) are even farther than that, I think. While in some ways this is good - we can't run off and grab a few groceries in 5 minutes - it can be inconvenient - we can't run off and grab a few groceries in 5 minutes. Thankfully, Daddy works in one of the more major middle Tennessee cities and, if it's absolutely necessary, can grab what we need on his way home. Going to try to avoid that as much as possible though!

Another potential planning and budgeting challenge is our love of hospitality. We often host families and groups around here, and it's always a delightful time of fellowship. We wouldn't have it any other way. Feeding large groups can be a budgeting nightmare though! However, of all these extra challenges, I think I'm looking forward to coping with this one the most!

Then there's also the fact that I essentially don't have any meal plans done... My fault, of course. I'm going through a more than usually uninspired phase, which probably means I should find some time to peruse my favorite cooking blogs, sites, and books. "Food and Wine" magazine (and maybe Epicurious.com) is strictly off-limits though! That sort of inspiration is way beyond the initial budget!

All of the "liabilites" are relatively minor compared both to what they could be and to the assets I have. So, I think we're good! The family's on board with the project - if slightly worried that I'll feed them on beans and rice or cornbread for the next 365 days, and the project officially begins TOMORROW!!! Yikes! (Where did this month go?!?!)

The Challenge - Assets, Part 5

I believe I'm going to make this the last post in the "assets" series. Wow! I am so blessed to be starting this adventure with all this!

First of all, I need to expand on part of yesterday's post. I mentioned that, because we're part of their CSA, we get a basket-full of fresh, organic produce from Beaverdam Creek Farm. What I didn't mention was that, being neighbors and friends, we occasionally go over and help them out. In return we get left-overs and "scratch and dent" produce. It really is a huge blessing! Just yesterday we brought home over 10 gallons of green beans! Hopefully we'll get around to canning them in the next couple of days.

Okay, so along with all the groceries I get to start with, I'm also beginning with a very easy family. Really the only food allergies we have to deal with are pecans and walnuts, and they're definitely easy enough to avoid or substitute.

On top of that, we're not really very picky! We've always had the "eat what's set before you" rule - often we didn't even have the option of not eating! This, I'm sure, helped expand our palates.

One of the biggest assets, I believe, is that we absolutely love "soul food," good Southern cooking! Thankfully this type of food is generally quite cheap. Southern cooking was, if I'm remembering some of my past research into it correctly, developed at least in part because they didn't always get the best cuts of meat, or have lots of seasonings. They used what they grew and what little they could afford. Generally, Southern cooking stretches over several meals pretty well, and the food is good, stick-to-your-ribs food.

Some other types of cuisine we enjoy are:

• Mexican

• Italian

• Thai

• French

• German

• Chinese

• Middle Eastern

• Classic American (Hamburgers, hot wings, and apple pie! Oh, yeah!!!)