Weekly Wrap-Up

I'm still on the wagon.  :-)

 

Grilled, rosemary/olive oil pork tenderloin with mashed potatoes and a spinach salad with oranges, beets, walnuts dressed with an orange/balsamic/honey reduction.

 

The story is we were supposed to be having black bean/pumpkin enchiladas.  I was going to make tortillas, but then didn't feel like it.  We had red bells, so why not just stuff them?  I asked Ryan "Should I cook the peppers?"  He was all "Lemme get this straight.  You are going to stuff beans and pumpkin into a pepper and you are asking me if I want it cooked?" Me: "Well...yeah.  I'm going to put them on a bed of kale."  Him: "Oh...well....a bed of kale you say?" 

Why does he sometimes question these things?  It was delicious.  It wasn't just beans and pumpkin.  There was garlic and onions and cumin and probably some other stuff. 

Chicken/apple sausage with a baked sweet potato and a "I need to clean out the fridge" salad with vidalia onion dressing.

White bean and cabbage soup with garden tomatoes.



"Breakfast for Dinner Friday"= whole wheat, blueberry pancakes with some bacon I found in the freezer.

Two dinners are missing.  Tuna casserole (It didn't look all that appetizing in the picture I took.) and ravioli (I wasn't here when that came out of the oven.).

If you are following along with my challenge of only spending $100. per week on food, after two weeks I'm $9.32 over.  I was ahead, but then I went and bought a few packages of local meat at my friend's shop and well...I'll catch back up next week. 

That goal of making lunches for everyone?  Total fail.  I mean, we had food and they ate lunches, I just couldn't get myself together enough at 5 in the morning to prepare them.  Will try again next week.

Goals #1

I used to be really good at setting and achieving goals.  I either got tired or lazy, because mostly I've just been thinking about goals as I've aimlessly wandered over the past couple of years.

It's fall, back-to-school and the perfect time to get back on that train.

So, in that spirit...

Goal #1:  Start cooking again.  I'm not trying to get crazy with it, just get with it enough that we have some kind of dinner every night that comes from my kitchen.  This goal has an associated challenge.  I put us on a strict food budget (due to calculating how much money we spent on food in the last 30 days...appalling).  I determined the budget by trying to figure out how much money we would get in SNAP benefits.  Trying to figure that out for Maryland was a no-go.  The closest I could determine from other state calculators is we would receive $668. per month.  Honestly?  I think that's a lot. I dropped us down to $400 per month.  While Ryan is doubtful I can do it, I know how to cook, I have access to several grocery stores (financially poor people often don't), I have a stocked pantry and I'm creative.

In terms of actual cooking, I started with dinner last week.  Going to add lunch this week.  Breakfast the next.  Breakfast is hard.  Because I'm not a morning person and I get up and leave way to early.

So far, so good on the budget part.  I had $32.67 leftover from last week.

I should probably be upfront (for you people who are wondering "Does she think those meals are healthy options?") about the fact I'm not even really thinking about nutrition at this point.  I'm rationalizing that with the basic understanding nearly anything I could make is better than any of the take-out options and overly processed shortcuts we've been relying on.  I will say I didn't make anything out of a box this week.  Actual cooking.  :-)

 

Monday: Corn chowder with a kale salad and fresh pumpernickel bread

 



 

Tuesday: Beef and black bean burrito with garden tomatoes and avocado

 

 

Wednesday: Salmon patties, rice pilaf (I can successfully hide all kinds of good stuff in there. :-)  ) and peas

 

Thursday: Grilled kielbasa with onions, mushrooms and bell peppers

I decided Friday nights are going to be "breakfast for dinner" nights.  The decision came after I took a 4.5 hour nap in the middle of the day (after school) and wasn't feeling like I could be bothered with cooking anything (by then it was 9 at night).  I'm pretty brain-dead by the time Friday night rolls up and my kids never complain about breakfast for dinner.