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.