I live, write, and garden in the PNW with my husband of 27 years, disabled daughter, college-aged son, and my 84-year-old mother. We have paid off $250,000.00 worth of debt (if you include the interest) in the last fifteen years and as of 6/12/2020 are 100% DEBT FREE!!!!I ended up having to swap today's dinner with tomorrow's. The bread was starting to mold. How DH and DS did not notice this at breakfast or lunch I do not know, but I noticed it, so out it went to the compost bin. There were only six slices left, the perfect amount for dinner sandwiches for me and the kids (DH is on his way back to Alaska), but sadly it had to go. I think maybe the heat is making it not last as long as it did when it was cooler.
So we had spaghetti with plain tomato sauce and hamburger (I didn't feel like taking the time to do meatballs or my special sauce) and fresh berries from the yard. No garlic toast because of no good bread. I didn't even make a vegetable, but no one was complaining. We like simple spaghetti even if we like fancy spaghetti more. Part of my brain was saying just go out to eat. I wish that would go away, but it does crop up a lot when I am tired, which I am really tired today. Fortunately I had my challenge to fall back on and made it through day four of no eating out just fine.
I will make a loaf of bread in the morning and we will have our sandwiches for dinner tomorrow. I ended up buying a yellow bell pepper today when I picked up a gallon of milk, instead of a green one. They had no organic green ones and the red ones were not very uniformly ripe. The yellow ones were perfect. So I will have yellow bell pepper slices on my sandwich tomorrow and later this week on my pizza.
The nice thing about planning out my meals for the week is that I can switch them around in a pinch when something goes wrong, like moldy bread.
I think I may can blueberry jelly tomorrow. I have to pick the bushes tomorrow morning before the birds (not our chickens, but wild birds) get them. They are loaded and they are too much of a temptation to the sparrows and chickadees if left too long.
Today I picked some blackberries. I am working towards filling up another gallon size baggy in the freezer. So far there is just today's pint. There are still a lot of red and green berries on the canes so I know they will get there eventually, but it may be a week or two before I have enough to make more blackberry jam. By then I am hoping that the Himaylayan blackberries that grow wild behind my chiropractor's office (and don't get sprayed) will be ripe and ready to pick.
Other than picking a few berries it was a pretty lazy day. I just didn't have the gumption to do anything much. I hope I'm not coming down with a cold. My throat was a tinge scratchy this morning and yesterday morning, but got better as the day progressed. It could just be allergies. It's been about 12 weeks since I've had a bad cold and I'd just as soon keep up that record since I had such a horrific fall and winter with illness after illness.
I did spend a lot of time going over the absentee voter's ballot. We have a lot of folks this time I knew nothing about so I researched them to figure out who to vote for. I also put together a documentation packet to send higher up the school's food chain. We are still getting the runaround by the lower level administration in regards to my son's concussion that another student gave him second to last day of school, so we went higher up. Don't know if it'll do us any good at all, but I'd like to at least know we are being heard.
Financially, I added $2.65 to the coin jar. Not really a money day otherwise.
Best Laid Plans--No Eating Out Challenge Day 4
July 31st, 2012 at 05:01 am
July 31st, 2012 at 01:21 pm 1343740915
July 31st, 2012 at 02:14 pm 1343744074
July 31st, 2012 at 03:11 pm 1343747513
Plain spaghetti with a simple tomato sauce is our go-to meal when we're tired, busy or broke. I never get sick of it!
July 31st, 2012 at 04:57 pm 1343753869
I think the bread goes bad from the humidity. Too bad there's no good way to estimate a bread slice's final days - the exit strategy for those would be drying the slice for bread crumbs and crostini. Mold needs the water, so removing the water thwarts the mold.
July 31st, 2012 at 05:47 pm 1343756869
Another suggestion when tired is to have DKs prepare dinner. It can be their choice or your supervised choice but it good for them to learn 'how to' and appreciate the effort mom puts into meal time.
Good on you for avoiding going out to eat. It would skew all your care and costs for organic foods.
July 31st, 2012 at 06:13 pm 1343758424
July 31st, 2012 at 07:55 pm 1343764532