It's been a really long day, but here, as promised, is a photo of the ducks.



You can really see how much they have grown here. They tower over the chicks and they are not even fully grown, though they will be soon. They are so beautiful. It is hard to do them justice in photograph, because they don't let you get too close, but they are not just black. They have glittering dark green feathers mixed in.

We did not make it down to the farm store at Skagit River Ranch so that will go on the agenda for next Saturday. I've set the money aside. We did go to the Food Co-op and we became members. It costs $90 to buy a share (you can only buy one share) and that makes you a member. It is then $5 a year to keep your membership current. They do have a special program for senior citizens though where you can buy in at $3 a month until it is paid for. I thought that was great for people living on a fixed income. You can buy without a membership but it costs more.

We spent $156 on groceries there, but I should not have to buy too much else for the next while. Just milk and produce as needed. I bought a frozen duck. I've never made (or eaten) duck before, but I've been reading the Cook's Illustrated Poultry book (that's not quite the title), and it's got some great recipes in it so I will try it like one of those. It was a five pound duck for $20, free range, pasture-raised, and organic. So $4 a pound. Not bad. We also bought a locally produced chuck roast for dinner tomorrow. It was much less than the ones at the farm, so if it is really good we may just buy our roasts here and just get the other meats there. We'll see.

They also had ground elk, but I couldn't bring myself to spend $12 on one pound. I decided I didn't want to cultivate a taste for something that expensive. Though I was very curious to try it. If I knew someone who hunted it'd be on my list for sure.

I ground my own peanut butter. It was fun! Just peanuts and nothing else. I've never been someplace before that had a machine that wasn't broken. It smells so good and I love knowing exactly went into it. I will be making more peanut butter cookies with it this week.

I checked out all the flours and rices and many other things I didn't get to look at so closely when I went with the children. DH rapidly became a big fan of the place.

I need to plan my menu for this week still. It's half planned in my head, at least the protein dishes, but I still need to figure out the rest.

I spent a good part of the day cleaning and reorganizing the kitchen, but it's not done. It's not even that big a space, but there is a lot to do.

I need to bake tomorrow. I need to make hotdog and hamburger buns and also regular bread. DS uses the hotdog buns for his sandwiches to school. He likes them better than anything else. I also want to do another batch of peanut butter cookies and maybe some blueberry corn bread muffins. I found some great reusable BPA free bread bags at the store the other day and I think I will fill them all up with my baking this week. I want to make French bread mid-week for garlic bread, too. Busy busy I will be.

I'm still feeling off. Not quite sick, but not quite right. My allergies are really acting up and it was very hot today, 75 degrees (which is really hot here for May) after several yucky rainy days around 60. Weather swings like that always bother me. I still have the window open at 1:30 a.m. Yes, I know I should b sleeping. Insomnia.

So I didn't stick to my meal plan tonight, either. I made taco meat in the microwave instead and we had tacos and fruit and some lovely milk (the glass bottled organic stuff). I did feel up to making some easy peanut butter cookies, though. Well, I wanted them enough to make them, let's say.

They are so fast and so easy and this time I made them with organic peanut butter instead of Jif (only ingredient was peanuts). They were even better, and I thought the ones I made with Jif were fantastic. (And I'd still be using Jif if Costco hadn't decided to switch to Skippy which DS can't have due to his food allergies, but now we are out and I am not paying regular grocery store prices for Jif, sorry). Oh, and I made it with a duck egg instead of a chicken egg this time so that may have made a difference. (Not from our ducks, they are too young yet, but the food co-op had some and I wanted to try them).

I love my little three ingredient cookie recipe. Just one large egg, one cup of sugar, and one cup of peanut butter. Mix together sugar and egg, then mix in peanut butter, then roll into balls about an inch in diameter. Press down on them with a fork. If the fork sticks use a little water on it. I did not have a problem with sticking this time, though when I used the Jif I had to get the fork wet every fourth cookie or so. I think it was because Jif is creamier and has such a light texture and the organic stuff was denser with a heavier texture and more oil.

Anyway, bake for ten minutes in a 350 degree oven for softer cookies (they won't really look done but they are) or fifteen minutes for a bit harder (like if you were making ice cream cookie sandwiches). It makes about a dozen cookies. Well, I got 14. I guess it depends on the size of the balls you roll.

Today was payday and the money that DH never got paid in February was on this paycheck, so that was nice.

We've had an unexpected expense come up. We had to buy a new set of boxsprings for the bed. I wish to heaven we had never given away the old ones. They were solidly built and these junky ones that came with the new mattress are lousy. They've broken after not even five months use. They are just so incredibly flimsy. They are supposedly rated up to 750 pounds and DH and I are nowhere near that!

I am ticked because the only reason we bought the box springs is that the furniture store guy said it would void the mattress warranty if we didn't. Well...plbbbbtttt! Because without the support of proper box springs the mattress doesn't hold up, does it? The cross pieces in the box spring are made out of the thinnest, cheapest looking particle board. It might as well be cardboard. And of course the 90 day warranty is up.

So we bought an Eco-Lux box spring frame. We'll be out the $49 we spent on our Hollywood frame and of course the money we spent on the box springs. It had really good ratings and seems far sturider than anything else we looked at. Although anything is better than what we've got now. Since I don't trust regular box springs not to be junk now, this sort of thing seemed the way to go. I hope it works otherwise I'm not sure what we can do short of marching into a furniture store and demanding to see the guts of all their box springs.

Tomorrow DS is marching in the Ski to Sea parade and then I am hoping to make it down to Burlington to purchase some more meat at the Skagit River Ranch. I want to get 4 beef chuck pot roasts, 4 packs of bacon, 2 whole chickens, several pounds of hamburger, a pack of the spicier sausage, 4 ribeye steaks and some pork chops. I also want to ask them about how the pig thing works, if we'd have to buy a whole one or if you can do a half. They do have family boxes you can buy at certain times of the year that would be less than buying a whole pig, but I don't think we eat enough pork to make it worthwhile. Usually we have bacon, maybe sausages (though I prefer beef sausage) and hams. On occasion pork chops, but rarely pork roast (unless I'm making pulled pork for burritos). Of course this might taste so good it changes our minds. I do love the bacon and the polish sausages. I wish they made hot dogs. Ever since TJ's made a change in their hot dogs a few months ago I haven't liked theirs anymore.

If we don't get done with the parade in time to go down then we will go next Saturday. The farm store is only open on Saturdays.

Not much else going on. I did pay some bills, but I will try to detail them tomorrow (or technically today, being as it is past midnight).

I haven't been feeling great the last couple of days. Not sick, really, just...yucky. Today I didn't stick to my meal plan. I cooked, it's just that the idea of doing a complicated new recipe did not appeal. Plus, I realized I was out of soy sauce, so I couldn't really make the marinade. I ended up just doing bacon cheese burgers, corn on the cob, and nectarines. It worked well. We picked up soy sauce so we can make the Tropical Chicken Stir-fry tomorrow and bump the ribeye meal to next week. They are frozen so it's not that big a deal. Plus DS is doing a make up tae kwon do class tomorrow for when he was so sick, which means a stir-fry will just be easier than the other.

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I found this interesting booklet on meal planning:

http://nchstd.documents.s3.amazonaws.com/More%20Month%20than.... It's kind of a crash course for people who don't really know what they are doing. It wasn't exactly news to me, but I think it would be very helpful for someone who hasn't tried meal planning before and wants to dive in. It does require time though. I think this is more for families with a stay at home parent (and not of very young children, but at least preschool age and up, because some of it would just be hard to do with a toddler clinging to your leg or wearing a baby) or maybe one parent who is only working part time. I'd find it hard if I was working full time. Not that it's not doable, but it's probably not practicle in that situation. Also didn't really care for the breakfasts, because I don't like oatmeal (unless it's in cookies or bread or granola or Joe's O's), but it's not hard to plan breakfasts. And I liked the shopping lists. It's a good teaching tool really.

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I added $6.98 cents to the coin jar. I picked up a prescription for $25. We filled up the gas tank on the van, $57.16. We did a major stock up run to Costco so I shouldn't have to go there for a couple of months, and picked up six LED lightbulbs there, batteries, toilet paper, and of course groceries.

I got really annoyed at a lady there. She was trying to squeeze between me and the shelves instead of going around DH and I. There was not room to do this and she was practically shoving her cart into me. I was probably less than gracious about it because I was having a bad pain day in my leg which always makes me walk slower. I walked even slower at that point. I get cranky when I hurt. She huffed loudly and finally just went around us. I wanted to tell her off, but I bit my tongue. People are rude enough at Costco without me adding to it.

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Spent $10 on two foam swords for the kids. I probably played with one of them more than was seemly for an adult, but it was fun to whack something today. Very stress relieving. This was actually an expense for school.

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Here, have a photo of the half grown chickens roosting in the coop. I will try to get a photo of the ducks up soon.



Oh, and here's a photo of the damage my mother "didn't" do to our older car. The suction cup dent remover does not work to pull it out, either. It cost $5.

So for the past two mornings I have had the most delicious homemade omelettes for breakfast. They are very simple, 2 eggs, 1 tbsp of sharp cheddar cheese, one green onion, 1 slice diced (by me) Canadian bacon, salt and pepper and butter for cooking them in.

I haven't done a price break down on breakfast in a long time, so thought I would. Since these eggs are pasture raised organic eggs from Camano Island they aren't the free ones from our chickens, they are $3.99 a dozen (I was shocked to find a price so low for these at the Food Co-op), which works out to 33 cents each. My batch of scallions was .39 and it had 12 in it which works out to 3 cents. The Canadian bacon was additive free and $5.99 for six slices (ouch) so was $1. I used maybe 2 cents worth of butter and 25 cents worth of cheese. The cost of the salt and pepper is negligible.

So:
$1.00 Canadian bacon
__.66 2 eggs
__.03 Green onion
__.25 Cheese
+_.10 Butter
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$2.04 total

Hey, that's not too bad considering the additive free meat. But once the new chicks start laying and there are enough eggs to not have to supplement with store bought, and when my green onions that I planted from seed are big enough to harvest, the cost of this meal will drop to $1.35. Pretty good for a meal rich in protein. Pancakes and eggs are still cheaper, but not by too much. Muffins and eggs are even cheaper, but still, it's not too bad.

The same omelette breakfast in our local Mom and Pop diner would come to $5.99 plus tax and would not have organic ingredients in it. So, not too shabby indeed.

I meant to post this yesterday, but the internet ate my entry and I really didn't feel like doing it all over again, even though the bulk of it was just copying and pasting from a Word document. I made up my menu plan, actually I made up three week's worth of menu plans yesterday. I also spent some time exploring new recipes. I found quite a few that sounded delcious at

www.owlhaven.net.

Monday:
Cod fish
Baked sweet potato fries
Cole slaw
Cantaloupe

Tuesday:
Fried Chicken
Mashed Potatoes and gravy
Broccoli/cauliflower
Strawberries

Wednesday:
Ehtiopian Sloppy Joes http://youvegottotastethis.myrecipes.com/taste_this/2010/12/... (I may end up using stew beef in this instead of hamburger and making it more of a stew)
Naan bread
Green beans

Thursday:
Tropical Island Chicken Stir-Fry (the original recipe for this came from Taste of Home and then was adapted by Kristen at http://www.thefrugalgirl.com/2010/04/easy-frugal-cooking-tro..., but I am further adapting it and changing it into a stir-fry. It was just a grilled meat dish before.

Friday:
Ribeye steaks
Corn
Cole Slaw
Leftover fruit (whatever needs using up)
Milk

Saturday:
DS is marching in the Ski to Sea parade and I don't know how long the day is going to be and we were hoping to slip down to Skagit County and get some more grass fed organic beef and bacon. So we might actually make our usual Sunday potroast today as we can stick it in in the morning and have it be done when we get home. Along with it we'll have canned corn and green beans.

Sunday:
If we have potroast on Saturday then we'll have bacon cheeseburgers, fried potatoes, and cole slaw.

Well, I clearly made too much spaghetti on Monday because there is still a good batch of noodles and sauce sitting in the fridge. Normally the kids eat it after school for snacks but this time it just appears to be sitting there. So I got to thinking about it. My first thought was freeze the sauce and don't worry about the pasta, everything says pasta doesn't freeze well. But that thought doesn't go over well with me, because I am trying to use up all my food, not just throw it out because I don't know what to do with it.

Then I thought, wait a minute. Lasagna freezes great and it's pasta. And I see prepared frozen spaghetti and mac and cheese all the time when I go down the frozen food aisle at the grocery store. Maybe plain pasta by itself doesn't freeze well, but what about some kind of casserole. And then I remembered something I used to make back in our low income days after a huge pot of spaghetti was getting boring. Leftover Spaghetti Pie!

I don't think I ever really had a recipe for this, I kind of just threw it together. I'd grease a pie plate or a square glass baking dish with butter (because everything tastes better with butter) and I'd dump the leftover spaghetti in. I'd take a butter knife and kind of cut up the pasta into more manageable chunks. Then I'd mix in about a pound of cooked ground meat.

I used to be in the habit of making up five pounds of hamburger at a time and keeping some in the freezer in one pound bags for busy days, so I'd just grab one, give it a quick thaw in the microwave, and dump it in with the spaghetti. I'd then dump in the leftover spaghetti sauce (unless I'd mixed the sauce and pasta when we ate it). Usually about 2 cups worth (or if you don't have sauce made up 1 16 ounce jar's worth). I'd mix it around until it was all evenly distrubted and then I'd mix in some hard cheese like parmesan or romano, sometimes both. Maybe 1/2 a cup or so in total. Then I'd cover the top with mozzarella and then sprikle some extra sharp cheddar cheese on top of that.

I'd bake it in the oven for about 30 minutes on 350 degrees and out would come a beautiful, browned, bubbly casserole. So that's what I'm going to do with my leftovers. Only without cooking it. I will cover it with aluminum foil instead and put it in the freezer, take it out one night next week to thaw and bake it for dinner the next night.

I had planned for dinner tonight to be meatball subs, but the kids were hungrier than I expected last night and ended up eating all but 2 of the meatballs. Which normally wouldn't be that big a deal, it takes exactly 7 minutes to make them, cooking time included since I make them in the microwave. I could easily have made up another batch of meatballs, but the buns I had been planning to use up had little mold spots on them this morning. They were perfectly fine when I looked at them last night, but not this morning. Well, I do have bread rising, but my afternoon is too full to make buns this afternoon. I will make them tonight after supper.

I am a little miffed at myself for not getting the buns used up in time. These ones happened to be store bought, and they were made in the bakery, not on the shelf. I did that to avoid as much of the junky stuff as I could, but that also meant few preservatives and I didn't even think to store the buns in the fridge like I do with my homemade ones. *sighs* When I throw out a bun or two that I make myself it is not nearly so expensive. I mean, I don't like wasting food, period, but if I have to, ten cents worth is much better than $1.50 worth (there were five buns left out of a twelve bun package), you know?

I looked at my menu plan to figure out what day would be best to swap with. Normally I would just do the next day's meal, but tomorrow's meal is much more labor intensive because there isn't a ton on the adgenda tomorrow and I can easily accomplish a more elaborate meal then. Tonight DS has tae kwon do so I need a meal that is faster to get on the table, which was why I had planned for leftovers. The easiest meal to swap out with will be Saturday's, which I planned to do beef tacos on. I can make a pizza on Saturday instead and make the tacos tonight. Technically I could make pizza tonight as I have dough in the freezer, but we just had it the other night and I really am not in the mood to have it again this soon. So tacos it is.

I found two super easy recipes the other day for fast lunches that I might do on the weekend with leftover chicken. Variations on a theme, really. One is a bacon, chicken and cheese quesadilla, and the other is a wrap with chicken, bacon, cheese, baby spinach and tortilla. DD said she would be interested in the wrap to take for lunches to school, so she might have that on Friday. I buy these mixed salad greens that I really like that have baby spinach in them. I am not a huge fan of baby spinach so I usually pick it out and have the kids eat it anyway. I mean I'll eat it if it's served to me in a restaurant or if there is a chance it will go to waste if I don't, but it's just kind of...eh to me. The kids love it. So it works pretty well most of the time.

My daughter mentioned last night while we were sitting at the dinner table how happy she was that we were eating real meals again and how much better the food is. We got a lot of takeout when we were sick, but we've gone many days now without getting any. Part of the takeout problem was that I just did not feel good enough to be cooking, but part of it was I had no meal plan and I basically could not even think one out. It's one thing to robotically follow something that was already planned out when you are ill and another to come up with it in the first place. It's like all common sense dribbles out your ear when you're sick with a head cold.

I think I should probably come up with some simple fixings to keep on hand for easy meals on days like that and have myself a list of them made up so I can just open a document and go, "Hey, I have that. That's easy. I can do that," instead of going what's the healthiest option I can get delivered through my car window? Or worse yet, the one that involves the least amount of driving.

I know my focus on eating cleaner, healthier, more humanely raised food gets very blurry when I am sick. I wonder if it's true of vegetarians or other people that eat a certain way as well. Most of the time you are good and you eat according to your ideals or whatever, but do you just say the heck with it and go for the cans of Chicken Noodle soup and toasted cheese sandwiches from your childhood when you just feel rotten? I need to get better at this, but part of it is still new to me.

Not too much else in the financial arena. I will make a small credit card payment today of $87.50. I accidentally charged something on the wrong card and need to get the balance back to zero.

1. Colored my hair with an old box of hair dye that has been kicking around for 2 years. It was bought back when it was $5.99 a box. It looks great by the way, though it is not the color it said on the box. I colored dark reddish brown hair with some grey something called Brazilian Bronze. No. Copper maybe, but definitely not bronze. So I've got a bit more red in my hair than usual, but it works.

2. I stuck to my meal plan and made spaghetti and meat balls with from scratch sauce, even though I wanted to get take out burgers from Boomers. I have enough sauce left for both the leftover noodles, meatball subs tomorrow and to make a lasagna later. And I immediately froze what will go for the lasagna as soon as it cooled. In the past I've left it in the fridge too long and ended up throwing it out. That was a while ago, but I am guarding against it in my effort not to waste good, organic, wholesome food.

3. Picked up two cook books from the library that I really wanted to buy. I did not see them at Goodwill when I went there on the weekend. They are The Cook's Illustrated Cookbook and The Cook's Illustrated Complete Book of Poultry. One is a doorstop. The other is pretty hefty, too. Neither book has photos so I'm glad I did not buy them. I like photos with my recipes. To me the word illustrated means they should have photos. There are a few drawings, but they are a drop in the bucket. I am still going to read them as they came highly recommended, or at least the first one did, at a blog I have started reading in the last week.

4. I started reading a new (to me) blog at

www.thefrugalgirl.com. I'm working my way through the backlog of posts (she has almost four years worth) and I really like it. She has similar values to mine and is homeschooling her kids. I don't homeschool anymore, but I did for several years and I still have the mindset, so I am really enjoying her and she is so cheerful and upbeat, which is nice. I was actually looking for frugal recipes with meat and she was one of the choices and then I was like, hey, what else has she got, and then I was totally sucked in. She has good ideas and reading her stuff is really encouraging me to stick to my meal plan.

5. Took a walk. Free exercise.

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In other news, we have a nesting pair of what I think are chickadees living in the bird house on our back porch. I moved our recycle bins to the other side of the porch so as not to disturb them. They built a nest all last week. It was fun to watch them being so industrious. I think they are either Boreal or Mountain chickadees. It's more likely they are Boreal as I don't know if the Mountain ones stray this close to sea level, though there are still a lot of foothills around us.

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On Saturday evening I found Navi dead. She was the white hen. I don't know what was wrong with her. There was no sign of trauma, she was just on her back, feet up in the air and stiff as a board. She hadn't laid in a week and we think she might have been backed up with the eggs still inside her. I hope not because that is a horrible way for a hen to die, but it does happen.

If one of them had to go though, she was the bully in the henhouse and it was better it was her than any of the others. The flock is much more harmonius now. We buried her and gave her a little funeral. The chickens and ducks are very much pets, albeit working pets.

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My diet and exercise are going well and I am losing weight again. I'm sure sticking to my meal planning helps with that a lot. I am generally feeling better, but my face has broken out like a teenager at the worst part of puberty. I think it's just the fact that I haven't slept well in a few nights. I know it's not sugar or high fructose corn syrup because I haven't had any in ages. I do not think it is fair for people to have wrinkles and zits. Like karmically unfair. I'm going to bed early tonight.

Okay so breakfasts are pretty much the same around here for the kiddos. Usually pancakes and eggs for the boy and peanut butter toast or leftover something or other for the girl. She doesn't like to eat too much first thing in the morning.

Lunches for the kids during the school week are turkey and roast beef sandwiches for the boy and either ham or turkey wraps of some sort for the girl. They have their choice of taking yogurt and fruit (kiwis and pineapple chunks for either or an apple for the girl). DS usually gets hot lunch on Tuesdays (chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans and some sort of fruit), which reminds me that I need to write a check for $18 for the rest of the year. I want the account bottomed out. I don't like to run it with a balance over the summer, even if I know he will just use it next September.

I am going to make myself a low carb meatloaf tomorrow for my lunches this week. I am only eating high carbs once a day right now at dinner time. It's just eggs, parmesan and romano cheese, ground beef, green onions and garlic. I'll probably post the actual recipe and amounts with photos tomorrow. The camera is fritzing still, so sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't and I haven't made it to buy a new one yet. I will have a salad of mixed greens with the meatloaf.

I will probably do up a batch of taco meat, too. I often eat leftover taco meat on lettuce with cheese for breakfast when I am too tired to make myself eggs or sausage. I may also make and fry up some lamb sausage patties after lunch for breakfasts, too. I usually eat cucumber slices with my breakfast if it is not taco meat on lettuce.

So dinners:

Monday--Homemade pizza with prosciutto, hamburger (this will be the leftover hamburger patty I made yesterday crumbled up), onions, red peppers (at least on my portion), mozzarella cheese and a bit of cheddar, and pepperoni. Salad. Milk.

Tuesday--Spaghetti with meatballs. I am going to make my fancy from scratch sauce and make extra meatballs for the next day. Leftover broccoli and cauliflower will be the veggies unless I eat them for lunch, then they will be fresh instead. Milk.

Wednesday--Meatball sandwiches. I have some homemade hamburger buns to use up. I will save out some of the spaghetti sauce and use the leftover meatballs for this. Green beans. Milk.

Thursday--oven baked chicken, from scratch mashed potatoes and gravy, broccoli and cauliflower. Canteloupe. Milk. (I will save some of the boiled potatoes before I mash them for tomorrow).

Friday--Bacon cheeseburgers with fried potatoes using the saved boiled potatoes. Green beans. Milk.

Saturday--Beef Tacos, sweet potatoes and whatever leftover cut fruit we have left and if none I will open up something else or we will do bananas.

Sunday--Beef pot roast, from scratch mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans. Milk.

There. I feel much better having a plan for the week.

I have had some serious food cravings this week. Yesterday it was a bacon cheeseburger, and today it was seafood. A good seafood dinner of lobster tails in a restaurant will set you back anywhere from $25.99 to $35.99 per person and that's assuming you're getting the regular 4 ounce one and not one of the fancier, larger ones, or a whole lobster at market price. Fortunately my favorite grocery store had an awesome seafood sale this week and they were selling 4 ounce lobster tails for $4.99. This is pretty much unheard of. I bought three of them. They were raw.

I have only made lobster tails a couple times in my life and that has been years and years ago and involved using the broiler. I wasn't really in the mood to heat the house up that high on such a hot day and the cookbook I used in the past was in storage, so I looked up how to cook them on the internet and I was very happy with how they turned out. It was also a surprisingly fast meal to get on the table, about 20 minutes from start to finish and that was without any help from the kids.

I started setting the oven to 450 and then I got out my lobster tails. They looked like this:



I took a good pair of poutry scissors and cut down the middle of the back of each tail.



You then have to open the cut and work the meat away from the shell and bringing it up on top of it, like how they serve it in restuarants. Remove the waste tube and throw it away and rinse the meat well. Put each tail in the middle of a piece of aluminum foil and dot the meat with butter. You can also season it now, but I like my lobster to taste like lobster and not meat seasoning so I didn't. I wrapped it loosely in the foil and then put each one in a metal cake pan.

I then started the water to boil for my broccoli and cauliflower and when the oven beeped I slipped the lobster tails inside and set the timer for 10 minutes. I quickly cut up my broccoli and cauliflower and rinsed it, then I took three leftover baked potatoes out of the fridge from a big batch I'd cooked earlier in the week and put them in the microwave to warm up (although 3 potatoes would have only taken 10 minutes of baking in the microwave and 5 minutes of steam time if they had been uncooked. When the water boiled I threw in the veggies and set them for 7 minutes.



I pulled out the lobster when it dinged and left it in the foil to stay warm, while I turned to my beautiful fresh pineapple and turned it into this:



I pulled the potatoes out of the microwave, split them and put butter on them.



Then the veggies were done so I drained them, and then put everything on the table. We unwrapped the lobster tails and they looked like this:



Although this meal might be pricier than most, I still came in at under $25 for the three of us (including milk), a savings of at least $50 if we'd eaten this food in the restaurant, more than that if we'd had drinks and not water. And that's with all the items I made being organic and the lobster being wild caught. Not bad if I do say so myself and everything tasted wonderful.

I will return to making meals that are much more frugal for the rest of the week, but sometimes it's nice to treat yourself, without going to the expense of a restaurant meal and this was my Mother's Day gift to myself!

...or at least it is if you can cook. And cheaper, too. I was majorly craving fast food today, but I absolutely had no inclination to leave the house or yard and even less inclination to spend money. So what to do when you absolutely must have that most evil of burgers (the one with bacon)? Why make it yourself. If you're lucky you'll end up with something that looks like this:



And maybe even tastes like it. I tell you that grass fed organic hamburger cooked in the fat from the bacon from the free range pigs, sprinkled with onion salt and meat seasoning on a homemade bun with organic sheep's cheddar cannot be beat. Not even by the best burger joint in town.

Of course you must have fries with that, right? So I took three leftover organic baked potatoes, peeled them and cut them up, sprinkled them with salt and pepper, and fried them in e.v. olive oil (not organic, even I can't justify that price!).

And again, if you're lucky they'll turn out looking a bit like this:



And then add some of these:



and a couple of these:



in the blender with some all natural french vanilla ice cream to make one of these:



Total cost? About $15. Amount I would have spent getting the same amounts and types of food of lesser quality for the three of us? About $30 (milkshakes are expensive!). And there's one leftover burger patty for someone's lunch tomorrow or to crumble up as a pizza topping.

I did a bit of food rescue tonight. In our effort to eat more organic produce (or just more produce), I sometimes find that I have overbought a bit (or even a lot). Tonight I went through the two produce drawers in the fridge to make sure everything was still edible. The strawberries were starting to look a tad past their prime so I pulled off the stems, cut them up, and put a little organic cane sugar on them. The sugar will act as a preservative and keep them edible for a couple more days. There is less than a cup, though, so I will encourage someone to eat them tomorrow.

I also found half a bunch of celery that was wilted. I cleaned and cut up the remaining stalks, putting the center most ones aside for the chickens. I find those ones flavorless (except the leaves which are great in stock). The other ones I put into a container with water. That will rehydrate them and they will be crispy and crunchy in less than an hour.

I performed the same trick with some limp carrots, peeling and cutting them up into finger length sections, and putting them into water. By morning they will be crisp again.

I had some rather sad looking oranges that have been in the frigde for...well, I don't remember the last time I bought oranges, but I know it was in the winter. I cut them in half. The wooden looking ones I set aside to give to the chickens and the ones that still looked like they were juicy I put on my citrus press and squeezed the juice out, so there is a quart of fresh squeezed orange juice now sitting in my fridge. We will taste it tomorrow and if it isn't quite sweet enough to be drinkable I will freeze it in ice cube trays to add to smoothies. I don't think I'll be buying a case of oranges from Costco again any time soon.

There was a canteloupe half that had gotten put into the drawer, which I figure DH did because no one else would. We (the rest of us) all know that cut melons don't go in the drawer because they can seep juice all over everything else. It was just beyond saving, not moldy but getting that tight look that changes the texture, so it will go to the chickens.

Sadly I found 2 cucumbers and a jalapeno pepper that could not be salvaged in any way, not even to give to the chickens.

On the bright side I didn't throw out any lettuce or meat. I've been staying on top of that much better. I'd like to get my food waste down to about 2%. I think it's at around 5% now.

I found a source of food dyes derived from natural sources, as well as colored sugars also colored from natural sources, things like beet powder and pomegranate. This means that I can once again make colored frosting for birthday cakes and decorate Christmas cookies with sugar sprinkles. This may seem like not much of a big deal for some of you, but we've had nothing but homemade chocolate cocoa frosting or homemade vanilla frosting on our homemade cakes for the last 4 years due to allergies to chemical tar-based food dyes, which is what things are normally colored with in the food industry.

I love the idea of having sprinkles and blue or yellow frosting and not having to worry about my child breaking out into hives. And I can make colored play clay again, which my kids (now 12 and 15) still love to play with. I could also, if I so chose, color a pitcher of homemade lemonade pink because there are some days when you just want pink lemonade. I can make green mashed potatoes on St. Patrick's Day!

It's just nice, when you are confined to making almost everything from scratch to have fun decorating opportunities again. The set was a bit pricy, for three primary color dyes and six colored sugars it was $54 plus shipping, but like all food dyes a little goes a long way and it should last for years. And sometimes it is worthwhile to spend a little bit more for a product that will enhance your life even if just in small ways.

The brand is called India Tree for anyone who might want to try it. I'll do another post about it once I've received it and used it, but I found very, very positive reviews for it.

So DH was going through his check stubs and realized one was missing for a date back in February. And his numbers were not adding up to where they should have been. So I checked with the CU and it turns out a paycheck was never deposited for that date. It was back in February and it was one of the two day paychecks. I was really sick then. That's the only reason I can think of that I didn't notice. Anyway, he's thinking the time sheet might have gotten lost in the shuffle of start up after a month long shut-down.

So he talked to his boss and his boss is going to figure out what happened there and how to submit for the lost time. The long and short of it is that eventually we'll get about $1000 net when they issue the missing paycheck that we weren't expecting. That would be enough to make the deposit on the grass fed beef and have a little left over for the freezer fund.

After having made cheeseburgers with bacon for lunch and beef potroast for dinner, trying three of the items we bought from the farm, I am very happy with our purchase of the grass fed, organic beef. The hamburger is so lean (5% fat) it doesn't make enough fat to fry the meat in, though. We ended up just frying it in the bacon fat for our bacon cheeseburgers, which was delcious though it took away from the 5%. The bacon was lean too, but being bacon still had some fat, but I was surprised at the much smaller amount of drippings.

The chuck roast was very moist and tender after cooking in the crockpot on low for 8 hours. It was incredibly flavorful. I am glad they warned us to not have such a free hand with seasoning because half of what I normally put on was all that was needed. In fact DH forgot to put seasoning on the bacon cheeseburgers that he made (they were out when I made mine, so he made his and the kids' when they got back) and he said it didn't even need the seasoning. I thought that might be from the flavor imparted from the bacon, though.

They also told us to take smaller portions than we were used to eating because grass fed, organic beef has more protein in it per ounce and it fills you up faster. So far I have found that to be true. I ended up giving the last few bites to my son because I wanted to have room for my fresh organic strawberries and my organic mixed greens. So even though it may be more expensive to buy it, the fact that you don't have to eat as much of it to get full, might help lower the overall cost a bit.

I am really looking forward to trying the steaks and the sausages over the next couple of days.

I want to get some meat from the other farm in Bow to try. This one was black angus but the other is chiangus a cross between angus and chianina. I know I like angus, and I know chianina is supposed to be wonderful but I've never had it. If they don't sell any steaks to try, I guess I will go with the first place.

So we are back from our trip to Skagit River Ranch. We bought $255 worth of beef, a pack of their bacon, a pack of their mild Italian sausage, and a dozen eggs (since our chickens still aren't laying enough to keep up with five people).

We got to see quite a lot of the animals as we drove in, there was a lot of acreage. It's almost funny to see chickens out in a pasture, it's not the idea of Americana farmer that I have in my head, though it should be.

We were greeted by a rooster, three hens and a dog who looked like he was mostly border collie who'd been rolling around in something as he had leaves and dirt on him. He smelled okay so not something else you might find on a farm! He was very friendly and had a tail that could thump you hard with his happiness.

We went into the little farm store they had that is open only on Saturdays and we got to pick out our meat. Since it was our first time there, the girl running the shop went to get her father, the farmer, and he talked to us all about his farming practices and how he'd started farming the healthy way after he'd had serious health problems.

It was interesting and I learned a lot about sustainable farming, pasture rotation, composting, etc. He is very passionate about it and isn't that what you want in your food producer? Someone who cares about the health of the land and the animals and their vitality?

I can't wait to try the beef tomorrow. We will be making cheeseburgers for lunch and having a pot roast for dinner.

In our quest to eat more locally grown, sustainable, and organic foods and still try to not break the grocery budget, I stopped by a local farmstand today. I got all of this:



for $6.09. Pretty food, huh? Except for the kiwis, everything was from my state, most of it from my county or the next county over. I can't even tell you how beautifully the green onions and celery smell. Quite often I shop with my nose, even with foods that most people won't normally think to smell. It's obvious to sniff pineapple and canteloupe, but did you know that you can tell how celery will taste by the smell? If it smells bitter it will taste bitter. If it smells sweet and fragrant and sort of like parsley, then it will taste exactly as it should.

I haven't made the menu plan for the week yet, but I will do that tonight. Yes, I know it's Wednesday. Today we are having leftovers, but I do need to make one up for the rest of the week. Now that I've got a bit more produce on hand, I know what I am working with.

Dinner tonight seems a little pricy at first glance but considering that most of the ingredients were organic, sustainable, or additive/preservative free and how many servings one gets out of it, a hefty 16, it's not bad at all. It provided dinner for four and will provide several lunches or after school snacks this week. DH and DD ate two bowlfuls, but DS and I were both happy and filled up with one.

Here's my price breakdown and ingredients list:

8 organic russet potatoes $3.12
1 pound smoked, additive and preservative free bacon $3.99
1 bunch organic scallions .38
1 gallon local whole milk $2.99 of which 8 cups are used in the soup and the rest was drunk at dinner
1 lb organic and sustainable local goat's cheddar $7.19
2/3 cup butter $1.50
2/3 cup flour .10
1 lb Daisy organic sour cream $2.50 (was on sale 2 for $5)

So total spent was $21.67. Of course the price can be brought down by using less expensive cheese (but it's what I had on hand) and bacon with junk in it and non-organic potatoes, but still, not bad for 16 servings.

It is best to start with everything premeasured and cooked. I like to do the bulk of the work the day before or even earlier in the week. The potatoes were baked on Sunday and the bacon cooked earlier today. Then before I started we peeled the potateos and cut them up and chopped up the scallions and bacon just before starting. It is easier to chop up the bacon when it is cold than when it is still hot.



To start melt 2/3 cup of butter in a pan.


Add 2/3 cup of flour.


Whisk together over medium low heat to make a roux.


Turn heat up to medium high. Gradually stir in 8 cups of whole milk, then stir in 1 pound of sour cream until it is absorbed and soup base is of a creamy consistency. Add in the shredded cheddar cheese and stir in until melted. Turn heat up to high and put in the diced potatoes and scallions. Cook for five minutes. Dump in bacon and cook for 3 more minutes.


Add in salt and pepper to taste. The original recipe I worked off of in the beginning suggested 1 full tablespoon of sea salt and a teaspoon of black pepper. I find that to be too much salt combined with the bacon, but just right on the pepper. And of course individuals can add salt and pepper at the table as well.

Spoon into bowls. Dinner is served.

It was nice to wake up this morning to the smell of chicken stock simmering away in the crockpot. You know what I like about making stock over making soup? When you make stock you don't have to peel anything, you just have to wash it. And you don't have to dice it, you just have to rough cut it. It was so nice to just cut the onion into 12 pieces and throw it in. So nice not to have to peel the carrots, too!

I will have to peel and dice for the fresh veg I put in after I strain it, but that's not a big deal. I am going to put more diced celery than usual in, though, because it's starting to look a little sad, and DS is going to take one cut up stalk with peanut butter in his lunches for the next couple of days.

I was looking at enchilda sauce recipes on the internet last night and then I thought, well this is basically the ingredients in my big bottle of McCorkmick taco seasoning with tomato sauce, green chiles and garlic added, so that is what I'm going to do. If it tastes weird, I can adjust it with chili powder and cumin, but I'm sure it will be fine. And I will add a bit of cocoa powder if I don't like the color. Cocoa powder makes it more brown and less tomato sauce color.

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Yesterday for the DEC challenge, I spent $14 on a haircut for DD. That was the only spending.

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I added $1.14 in change to the coin jar.

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I am getting a massage today as my hip and knee and low back got majorly tweaked last week, so I will spend $90 on that.

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I'll be making blueberry cornbread muffins and a loaf of bread today in the bread machine Mom loaned me. I haven't used it for more than dough before so hopefully it will turn out. It's a fancy machine, way more bells and whistles than my old one had, and I'll have to recheck the manual online to make sure I do it right, since she can't find her manual.

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I got to cuddle a duck last night. It just lay there in my arms and put it's neck right over my shoulder. So cute and sweet. Unfortunately I managed to slice my hand open on a metal screen. I am going to call the doctor because it looks pretty bad this morning and I want to make sure it's not infected. I cleaned it immediately and put antibiotic ointment on it, but it still looks nasty. It's in one of the worst places, too, on my right hand just beneath the webbing between thumb and first finger. Basically wherever you need to grip to open a jar, it's in the way and it hurts.

I never ended up getting a tetanus shot for the staple I stepped on. The doctor said since it was a clean, unused staple with no rust I was fine, and I have been, but this time I know there was rust on the screen so I guess I am destined to get that shot after all. If I had got it last week I wouldn't have to worry now, but oh, well. I'm sure it won't be completely covered, most vaccines are not unless you are a child. Stupid, but it's the way things go, sort of like how insurance doesn't want to pay for orthodontia in adults. I find it very short-sighted.

I am really liking having the whole week's menues planned out. Today since I knew I was roasting a chicken, I made sure I started thawing it out in the microwave at 3:15. It was a big chicken, 5.14 pounds and is one of the chickens we got for free last Thanksgiving when DH's work gave us that Safeway gift card. Which reminds me, there is still $9 and change on the card. Need to use that.

Anyway, I got it mostly thawed by 3:45 and then put it in a cold water bath to finish the thawing process because the inside was still a little frozen and I couldn't get out the neck and giblets. They had finished defrosting by 4:15 and they came out easily. Then DS and I rubbed the chicken down with extra virgin olive oil and massaged in basil, oregano, fresh ground sea salt and fresh ground black pepper. It went into the oven to roast side by side with the turkey legs.

We did up nine potatoes (the eight I bought and the one left over) for baking and they are in there, too so we can make efficient use of the oven and the gas used to heat it. The weather has turned quite warm so heating up the house less often is a good thing. We will have the four smaller ones tonight and the other five will go into the baked potato soup I make on Tuesday.

After everything was in the oven I went ahead and cut up two heads of broccoli and one head of cauliflower, which I will start the water boiling for fifteen minutes before the food is due to come out of the oven. There is enough there to serve them for 3 meals, though DD will probably filch some to take in her school lunch as she likes to eat it cold, but cooked. It is nice to have everything going and not have to worry about it again for another hour.

I know I'll have a bunch more prep to do tonight. I'll have to pick off all the chicken that is left on the carcass so I can make stock with the carcass and have meat for enchiladas tomorrow. I will also save some for quesadillas as DS likes to have that as a snack after school. I will also pick all the turkey meat off the bones and throw those bones in the crockpot with the turkey carcass. Doesn't matter to me if the stock is chicken/turkey, it all pretty much tastes the same. I'll also have to peel and cut up two carrots, an onion, two stalks of celery and all the celery leaves to throw in the stock with salt, pepper, and garlic. I was tempted to buy leeks yesterday but it was $2.49 for 3 and I thought that was too expensive and I could make do with the onion.

I never got around to roasting the chiles or making the chili. I decided I would have too much food on hand these next few days if I made it. So I will wait until Wednesday or Thursday to make it as the whole idea of meal planning was to not waste food and money, but to have plenty of good, natural, home-cooked food on hand so I'm not tempted to swing through the drive-thru after school.

That will give me a few days with the chicken noodle soup and the baked potato soup without adding in the chili to the mix. The chile peppers will keep up to a week and I was careful to pick out the best ones with shiny skin and no wrinkling so they are very fresh. I will keep an eye on them and roast them if they start to wrinkle before I am ready to make the chili. DH comes home Wednesday so then having some extra food around, it will not be in as much danger of not getting eaten.

I think I will make a lasagna during the first week of May. It's been a long time since I've made one and it'll be a nice change. I have noodles, organic diced tomatoes, organic tomato sauce, organic tomato paste, herbs, and plenty of cheese on hand so all I'd have to buy is the hamburger and onions. I think I will double the amount of onions and diced tomatoes I normally put in so I can lower the amount of ground beef. I usually use 3 pounds of ground beef to one 9x13 pan of lasagna and I'd like to see if I can get by with 2 pounds as I'll be buying the more expensive grass fed beef. A lasagna usually feeds us for 2 dinners, plus a couple of lunches for DH. Plus I always have sauce leftover when I make it so I can freeze some for some hearty spaghetti later in the month.

I am having far too much fun planning this out, but it sure is taking a lot of the stress out of what I'm going to cook and knowing how much money I can save while still eating organic as much as we can.

Oh, I have enough leftover taco meat from lunch for me to eat a taco with my chicken noodle soup tomorrow. Leftover management...who knew I'd get such a kick out of it this time around?

I never did make it to buy the chiles and other things I was going to buy the other night and I also decided I am too tired to make chili anyway. I am going to bump all my meal planning down a day and instead make spaghetti for dinner tonight. It's far less labor intensive, though I will char the chiles tonight.

We are going to go over to Trader Joe's in a bit to buy what is needed for school lunches and some produce and dried pasta. I was going to go tomorrow, but decided I just want to stay home tomorrow and have the most intensive thing I do be make the chili. I will have to go to Haggen to get the chiles though. I've never seen any at Trader Joe's. I'm lucky if I can find taco shells there. The most ethnic stuff they seem to have is regular sweet bell peppers, Naan bread, and tortillas.

So, list of stuff I'll be getting at TJ's is as follows:

8 potatoes
2 sweet potatoes
1 bag shredded cabbage
1 package additive free deli turkey
1 package additive free deli roast beef
2 pounds of Cappellini pasta
1 package of taco shells if they have any
1 bunch of bananas
3 packages of grass fed hamburger
1 package of additive free bacon
2 yellow onion
1 bag whole wheat flour

Then at Haggen I need to buy:
9 Anaheim chili peppers
1 jalapeno pepper
1 jug of orange juice
1 can of cocoa powder

I intend to stick precisely to my lists so I don't overspend but can have nice mostly organic food, and if I need to go back to the store later in the week I will. We've eaten lunch so we aren't going shopping hungry. I just wish I didn't have to take the kiddos.

So meal planning changes to:

Saturday--Spaghetti and Meatballs
(I will also be roasting some turkey legs to have on hand for my daughter who is always starving after school and wants protein. I will pick off the meat and package it up for her)

Sunday--Tacos for lunch, roast chicken, potatoes, broccoli/cauliflower, fruit for dinner (will pick off any leftover meat and throw the chicken carcass in the crockpot overnight with water and veg to make stock)

Monday--(My lunches this week will be egg noodle, veggie, and chicken soup made from the stock and chili and the kids will have sandwiches)
Dinner--Enchiladas made with leftover chicken, fruit

Tuesday--Baked potato soup (very hearty so will probably not add much in the way of side dishes, maybe some rolls)

Wednesday--Homemade cheeseburgers and fried potatoes

Thursday--Oven-baked chicken, sweet corn, green beans

Friday--Homemade pizza and leftovers that haven't been consumed for lunches.

I think that sets me up for the week nicely.

So I thought about it a lot and I'm wondering if I can't actually save money by going to the grocery store more often. I know that seems counterintuitive to everything we're ever taught about saving money on food, but hear me out.

The grocery store is pretty much on the way to/or the way back from everywhere I go and is a six block walk away otherwise. Often times if I am buying for a week or two weeks, I simply buy too much food at a time and it some of it does go to waste, mostly because it gets shoved to the back of the fridge and we lose track of it.

My thinking is that if we keep a sparser fridge we will know what is in there and easily be able to see all of the ingredients for meals. And if I buy my fresh fruits and veggies as I need them I won't overbuy. It will also mean they are fresher as they are consumed instead of maybe ending up a bit past optimum consumption time. Or so far past they have to be tossed.

If I go to the store with a list and stick to those items, it should go well. It will mean I can't let myself be distracted by good buys, though. Not that I won't still pay attention to the flyers and plan accordingly, but I do need to finish eating down what is in my freezer stash, so it doesn't matter if there is a good deal on potroast if I have 8 hams and more chicken parts than I can count. I think I will give myself permission to buy hamburger in the way of meat, but until the rest of the freezer is eaten down, no more meat on sale.

I noticed that I have several packages of stew meat in the freezer, so I am going to buy some chiles and make up some chili this weekend. So I can leave a little early to pick up DD from school, stop by the store, by only what we need, and get out. I think this sort of thing will only work if I go to the store by myself. Taking the kids, even taking DH, often leads to extras. DH might go for yogurt but he often comes back with cookies. I'm not against cookies, but we can make them perfectly fine at home with the ingredients on hand. And if I take DD right after school she is usually starved and she will often ask for a package of sushi from the deli, which I can't make myself, but is $5 a container. DS always wants a donut and it has hard to always say no. Easier to go without them.

Anyway, I'll try it for a while and see if it doesn't make a difference. Tonight we are having homemade cheeseburgers and fried potatoes with broccoli/cauliflower and strawberries for dinner. Tomorrow will be homemade chili, freshly made rolls, leftover broccoli/cauliflower and bananas.

On Sunday I am going to roast a whole chicken (rubbed with olive oil and sprinkled with basil, oregano, sea salt and freshly ground pepper) that I have in the freezer and we will have coleslaw and fruit smoothies made with the last of the strawberries and bananas and some frozen blueberries from our backyard. And then I will make enchiladas from the leftovers on Monday and figure out the veg and fruit based on what is left or if I need to buy some more. I have tortillas and the makings for enchilada sauce on hand already (except I need to buy more cocoa, but I need to do that anyway).

So my grocery list for today at the store is chiles, onions, cocoa powder, orange juice and milk. On Sunday I will go to TJ's for preservative free deli meat for school lunches. If I keep to those lists my costs for the week should be way down.

I ended up spending $14.52 yesterday after tae kwon do testing. DS was so tired and I was ridiculously exhausted at that point and so sore from sitting on those benches that I knew I wasn't going to want to stand and make something on the stove and it was already 8 p.m., so I gave in to temptation and took us through the McD's drivethrough and got a couple of combo meals. I can't believe how expensive they have gotten. You used to be able to get two full meals for $10 and now it's almost $15.

The thing is, it's been a while since I didn't just grab a bag of double cheeseburgers and a couple small fries and the free cups of water, so not only was there price shock, but there was flavor shock, too. I'm not sure what it is, but the taste of the bigger burgers was just really off to me. DS thought so too. Maybe we are losing our taste for it or maybe the smaller meat is different than the bigger meat patties. Anyway, I don't think I'll be buying combo meals there any time soon. Plus I think they charge more for the bottled water than for the sodas, even though they are supposed to substitute directly.

It was just a big disappointment. I think we'll stick with Boomers Drive-In for bigger burgers in the future. It might take longer, but the quality is so much better. Lesson learned, I guess.

I am feeling a bit better today than yesterday, but I am still going to take a nap today. I want to continue in this direction.

Oh, I also picked up a prescription last night so that was $3.35.

No spending to report today for the daily expenses challenge. One of the few positives about being so sick is that it really limits the appeal of going anywhere to spend money.

I need to figure out what to do about dinner though, because I forgot to put the roast in the crockpot. Maybe soup and toasted cheese sandwiches. I think I can about handle that. Or maybe DD will cook. She's feeling way better than me.

I changed which credit card the last autopay I hadn't transferred yet goes on, so that it won't go on the paid off card anymore. It is so nice to only have the one CC to worry about now. Well, we also have the AMEX, but that doesn't typically carry a balance as we just use it for gas, meals out, on vacation and the occasional times when I forget the checkbook, so I don't count it the same was as the BoA VISA. I am so looking forward to having the VISA paid off soon. Just a couple more payments.

I stepped on a staple today, not like the kind you use to hold papers together, but a more heavy duty one, like they use in construction. It was on the fairly small side of construction staples, but it still hurt like blazes. It didn't bleed too much, it was in the thick part of the heel, and I really don't like walking on it right now. Of course I did it too late in the day to go to the doctor for a tetanus shot (I'm due), but I will call tomorrow. You have 72 hours to get one after a puncture to be in the safe window.

I did not end up going to the store last night like I had planned. I had also only planned to only spend $10. And ended up spending $129.21 today. Well, I bought more cold medicine, and they had hamburger and pot roast on sale, and then they had chicken noodle soup and beef stew and chili on sale, and my pantry has been looking a little bare because anything we could heat and serve was pretty much used up while I was so sick (still am, but more functional now). And I bought milk. So...it's not like I went out of my grocery budget or anything, I've barely spent any of it this month so far, but it was a lot of unplanned buying. Staple buying, but unplanned.

I made tacos for dinner tonight. I didn't feel well enough to make the hamburger on the stove so I did it in the microwave with my Tupperware stack cooker, then added the taco seasoning. We use the big container of McCormick taco seasoning they sell at Costco and we use half a cup per pound. The directions say 1/4 cup but it is not enough for our tastebuds. We didn't have quite enough shredded cheese for everyone so I improvised with some Tillamoos. I do have some cheese I could shred but I didn't feel like standing there and doing it. Mom gave me all the lettuce leftover from the family gathering, so we used that for the lettuce.

This is the second dinner I have cooked this week that did not come out of a can. I made chicken last night. So I do seem to be getting back on stride a little, but I don't have the energy or strength to do anything big and complicated.

I have to take DS to tae kwon do tonight, tomorrow, and Wednesday. I really don't want to, but he still has to get two classes in before the make up test Wednesday. He's missed so much being sick. It's already been four months to get the needed classes in. Usually at his age it only takes two months. I think I may just sleep out in the car. I am so tired and the hard benches inside for parents are so uncomfortable.

I feel like all I have done for the past four days is sleep. My fever finally broke yesterday. A week at 101 is hard, but yesterday it was 99 and today it was 97.6 (my normal). I am still coughing a lot, but it's way up towards the base of my throat. I can read again (have several days worth of blogs to catch up on now!) for more than a couple of minutes at a time.

I have spent around $40 on Dayquil, Nyquil, and psuedophederine this week. They at least helped manage the symptoms. Until today that is all I spent in the last few days (for the daily expenses challenge). Today I ordered a XL pizza from Round Table which was $27.18. I'm still not much up for cooking. I managed a chicken stir-fry from one of my homemade kits in the freezer yesterday, but that about did me in. Mostly it's been soup and sandwiches around here, or anything that comes out of a can but doesn't have additives.

Hopefully I will feel good enough on Sunday to make a big batch of pancakes for the freezer. That would have come in handy this week as it only takes 30 seconds in the microwave to warm one up from frozen. Maybe I'll make a batch of blueberry cornbread muffins, too. That's real simple and fast and involves hardly any work on my part.

Mom is having a big get together on Saturday. Everyone will be here except my husband. My eldest sister, her son and his wife and their son, my older sister, her spouse and her four boys, me and my two kids. I don't know how much time I'll spend there, though. I can't be around my nephew's wife much as she is pregnant and I don't want to expose her to this. I'll probably hang around for an hour or two and then go back to bed.

Mom wants DD to make cookies. DD is probably still contagious with this same thing I'm getting over. I don't think that's a smart idea at all, and DD doesn't want to, but once Mom gets a thing in her head you never hear the end of it until it gets done. Of course if the whole family then gets sick it will be DD's fault. *sighs*

I filled out my jury question form and sent it in today. I listed all of my physical limitations and disabilities, as well as a list of the medications I am on that may cloud my thinking. I will probably still have to serve, but whatever. They can't say I didn't warn them.

Daily Expenses Challenge will henceforth be abbreviated to DEC for me.

DH took the kids to see The Lorax in 3D yesterday so that was $36. They got 2 pretzels at Auntie Anne's for $6.36. They got 2 bottled waters from the vending machine $3, and a bubble tea $4.25. This is what happens when I don't go with them, other money gets spent. But I was too sick to go and frankly didn't care that DH would likely have loose fingers. They had fun and I had peace and quiet.

DH spent $39.27 at Walgreens to get various medications--the dye free cough medicine and dye free allergy medicine for DH, some fake Excedrin PM for me since the real stuff is still on recall, all natural cough drops, and some ice cream for sore throats.

DH took DS to the after hours clinic last night and then to get a prescription for antibiotics, $15. He spent $42.50 at the grocery store and $38.78 at McDonalds for 20 double cheeseburgers and 4 fries. I can't cook right now, I can barely stand, so when people want something they can warm up a cheeseburger. DH is making dinners, though. DD feels well enougn now to help with dinner tonight, which means it may or may not be more elaborate than tacos or spaghetti.

Today is a no spend day. Nothing will be bought and no one will go anywhere.

I had even planned to do Chinese on Saturday, but I really didn't want to leave the house, even so I didn't have to cook. I made pizza instead. I put herbs in the dough this time instead of in the sauce, and toppings were ground beef, pepperoni, and onions. I used mozzarella for the main cheese, and then a sprinkling of cheddar for a flavor boost. It was really good.

Then for dinner on Saturday I made boneless, skinless chicken thighs on the electric grill. I put barbecue sauce on mine. We had fried potatoes and green beans to go with.

Today for lunch we had chili (me and DS) and soup (DD) with grilled ham and cheese sandwiches, then for dinner we had potroast, green beans, and corn. I remembered to put the potroast in the crockpot at the correct time for a change so we actually ate at 5 instead of at 7. I prefer to eat at 5 (or at least 6) since DD likes to go to bed at 7 as she gets up really early in the morning for high school.

It was really nice to have home-cooked meals again. While the kids were so sick (and me) we were getting an awful lot of take out. It was expensive, but also bloating, and just not as good or healthy to eat.

I bought a couple of gallon size Rubbermaid pitchers today to keep my filtered water in the fridge in. The regular water containers I haven't been able to find in a while and these will work well until I find them, and then I can use the pitchers for other things. They are the right size to fit with my Mr. Coffee ice tea maker, the old pitcher having gotten placed into storage who knows where when we moved. They will also work for lemonade or storing soup. I like using it for big pots of soup because then you just pour it into the bowls as needed and no need to dirty up the big ladel all the time.

I am trying to figure out what to make for dinner tomorrow. It needs to be relatively easy come dinner time. I am thinking about maybe assembling a lasagna earlier in the day so I can put it in the oven right before I go to pick up the youngest from school and then it will be ready at a good time.

We lost one of the chicks. It happens. Usually one or two don't survive. Mom went and got three new ones, one like the one who died and 2 white Leghorns. (Leghorns are excellent layers. One of our grown ones is a Leghorn and she is very dependable.) Hopefully they'll get along and all survive.

I did not make it to the CU I keep the safety net in this week. I meant to, but things just kept getting in the way. There have been various purchases made and I have kept saving all the ones and coins. I picked up hotdogs for Mom at Costco and she paid me back in cash, $11 for a $10.66 purchase. I put the whole eleven into the coin jar.

So including that $11, this week I ended up adding a grand total of $28.28 to the coin jar. I will have quite a deposit to make on Monday if I ever get over there. The safety net is getting pretty close the the $1000 mark.

So since The Market closed in Fairhaven, it took with it the only commercially sold source of Boar's Head deli meats, the ones without fillers or additives that my son can handle. We found out today that The Bagelry, a bagel shop in town that also makes sandwiches on it's bagels, uses Boar's Head meat, and if we put in an order the night before they will sell us just the sliced meat, as long as we buy a pound at a time. And it is at the same price as the grocery store we used to buy it at.

This is such a relief. We have really been struggling on what he will eat, because he has a very short list of what he will tolerate cold and of course there are no microwaves available to students at the middle school level.

Of course I will have to divide up all the meat and freeze most of it, as it has a three day holding time without the additives and preservatives. I'll have to be a bit more organized and remember to thaw as necessary. It's such a small thing, but it really will make my life that much easier.

I am really glad that we hit our deductible last month as yet another prescription has gone up. Thankfully out of pocket cost for it is now $40 instead of $100ish. What is up with the cost of prescriptions lately? This one was name brand but all the other ones were generics and I know it can't cost as much as they are raising it.

Did government benefits get raised this year? Seems like whenever they are prescription costs go up. *is annoying* My mother actually refused to go to the doctor when she thought she might have walking pneumonia because she wouldn't be able to afford the antibiotics. I told her I'd pay for it if necessary! I may grouse, but for that I'd put debt repayment to a lesser amount. Makes me worry about the old people in her position who don't have family members who could step in.

Oh, the payment hit the credit card so the new balance of it is $6,557.86. The interest had hit, too, but the interest hits should be a lot smaller now.

Got a thing in the mail from the insurance company. They want to go after the makers of a surgical mesh that went wrong in numerous patients, attaching improperly to organs and/or growing through them. I am one of those patients and my insurance company shelled out an awful lot of money for me to get it fixed.

So they want my info and I'm like, that's an awful lot of work for me to track down that I'd rather not be doing. The doctor who did the initial surgery retired years ago. I don't even remember what year I had the initial surgery in, unless it was done when I had my hysterectomy when I was 33. I vaguely remember trying to schedule that so they could do it at the same time, but can't remember if they did or not. It's been 9 years and I've had so many surgeries it all just blurs together.

I'm not really sure there is a record anywhere anymore, which is why I didn't pursue the class action lawsuit in the first place. (I guess I can check with my OB/GYN and ask him if that was done at the same time, then I'd at least have a date, and they might have the name of retired doctor to see where the records got to). Or maybe the hospital would know. Ugh. See? Work. Guess I will be on the phone a lot on Monday. Oh, joy.

I was hoping my laptop would be back from being repaired. All they have to do is replace the screen, so I don't know what it taking them so long. I am so sick of working on this cobbled together mess with this larger than life keyboard. *sighs* Plus the lack of mobility is also annoying. I can cope. I just don't want to have to. We get spoiled by our luxuries, don't we?

I skipped reporting in on a couple of days. We had tacos on one of them and take out on the other. Take out kind of defeats the purpose, but meals out don't come out of the same money as the grocery budget. Still, I was hoping to avoid it. Sometimes we give in though, and I'm not going to beat myself up about it.

Today I am making a pot roast from the freezer in the crockpot. We will have the last of the Florida corn and some leftover cole slaw and green beans. Maybe mashed potatoes and gravy, too, if I can convince someone else to peel them. My left hand hurts too much for that today (arthritis).

I am thinking about making chicken saltimbocca tomorrow. I saw the recipe on SBTV and it is very simple. I would substitute boneless skinless chicken thighs for the breast meat because that is what I have, but basically it's the chicken and you put a sage leaf on it and then wrap it in prosciutto, dredge it lightly in flour and fry it in a bit of e.v. olive oil. Then you take a bit of white wine (3/4 cup) and chicken broth (1/2 cup) to deglaze the pan and reduce it by 3/4 and pour it over the chicken. I would just use chicken broth as DS is allergic to grapes and thus wine.

I have some dried sage leaves and can take some prosciutto out of the freezer to thaw. The recipe calls for fresh sage, but now is not the time of year to harvest sage leaves from the plant. It could damage it in such cold weather. And if I don't have the prosciutto, but I think I do, I can use regular bacon or even turkey bacon instead without changing it too much.