3 Day Record

A special moment in history.... we've eaten dinner at the table as a family 3 nights in a row.

Yes.

Night One (Saturday):  Moose steak & fried potatoes & green beans.  Hot cooked. 
Night Two (Sunday):  Stove Top, chicken tenders, rice & salad.  I cooked.
Night Three (Monday):  Spaghetti with jar sauce, leftover green beans & salad.  Nobody cooked.

Can we make it four nights?  No.  Because Hot works until 6:30 tonight and Sweet has football practice at 6:30.  Sweet will chow down on leftover spaghetti and the girls will pack a snack-dinner to take to practice.  The grownups are on their own... so eggs or salad or leftovers are the options. 

I'm very pleased with Hot for making the effort.... love you honey.... you make me happy.  (Especially when you do what I want...)

300. But not the Movie.

I've been toying with the idea of creating several 300 calorie "meals" and then just rotating 5-6 of them into my day every day.

Um, Homestead....

Yes?

Six times 300 is 1800 calories.

Yes.

Isn't that, well, a LOT for someone trying to drop a few pounds?

Yes. But, dear reader, you must remember I am an acception to every rule. I'm powering a small human with my chesticles.... I NEED those calories.

I'm a creature of habit. I can eat the same couple of things every week and be perfectly happy. So, in my ever-planning-never-doing mind I was lining out the things I eat most often:

1. Mountain High low-fat vanilla yogurt, fiber one cereal, chocolate sauce.
2. Tortilla, refried beans, cheddar, peppers, cherry tomatoes.
3. Veggie & cheese omelet.
4. Fried egg sandwich.
5. Toast with cheese.
6. Chai tea.
7. Coffee with 2% milk.
8. Apple with caramel sauce.
9. Spaghetti.
10. Caesar salad.
11. Chicken tender salad with cheddar and ranch.
12. Pita with olive oil and cheese melted on top. (Pizza!)
13. Tacos.
14. Wheat thins.
15. Avocado and cheese grilled sandwich.

So imagine my suprise when Prevention came out with a whole diet book about it!! Here's a preview of some of the menu ideas they suggest. I shoulda got on this... I coulda made a million.

Meal Planning Continues.....

Remember how I was meal planning this month?

Wanna know how it is going?

Great. I stayed outta the stores (with their wicked, wicked impulse buys) and stayed on task. I flopped and swapped a couple of times but mostly it worked out.

So we are on the next two week rotation.


M 11/16 chili (Want my super easy recipe that my picky kids will eat? 1 package moose burger, 2 cans kidney beans, 1 can tomato sauce, powdered taco seasoning, cumin, oregano.) I failed to make corn bread.
Tu 11/17 pasta & white sauce... using up the last sad bits of veggies in our fridge.
W 11/18 pizza.... fresh veggies on a boboli.
Th 11/19 baked potatoes & leftovers... this will go over, uh, not so well.... but I love a potato with salsa and cheese.... maybe I'll make steaks to satisfy the carnivors.
F 11/20 chx nuggets & ricaroni.... what? I didn't say meal planning would eliminate insta-food... just reduce the amounts consumed. A speed meal for a night we have lots planned.
Sa 11/21 calzones... mmmmm.
Su 11/22 dirty rice.... red beans and rice.... mmmmm.
M 11/23 tacos....taco salad is my favorite.
Tu 11/24 tomato soup & grilled cheese.... easy stuff easing into the holiday.... clean up leftovers.
W 11/25 fast food.... on the drive to the farm.
Th 11/26 holiday..... turkey from the Hutterites. Do you say "stuffing" or "dressing"?? And do you put it on the side or jam it up the bird's butt? My husband swore he hated the stuff until he had my mom's version..... ala stove top.
F 11/27 holiday..... leftover pie.
Sa 11/28 holiday.... leftovers will be getting scarce... my brother is there..... maybe spaghetti?
Su 11/29 holiday..... possibly more fast food driving home.....

Meal Planning for November

In honor of organizing.....

I'm a broken record when it comes to meal planning... I try and try and fail and fail and try again.... Here's where we are now....

Goals:
1. Eat more veggies
2. Create "deconstructable" meals so I'm not cooking two (or three) complete menus every night.
3. Use up stuff in the cupboards.
4. Start using more burger.
5. Grocery shop less.
6. Save money.
7. Save time.
8. Save stress.

I'm doing meal planner 101 over here.... Here's what is cooking for the next two weeks.
M: tacos
Tu: potato soup & caesar salads
W: pizza & salad
Th: chx tender salad
F: bean & cheese burrito
Sa: chx soup or leftovers
Su: white bean chili

M: spaghetti
Tu: omlettes & salad
W: steak and fried potatoes
Th: tomato soup & grilled cheese
F: pita bread pizzas
Sa: corn chowder
Su: salmon nuggets & leftovers

How did I do??

Success and Failure:
1. Veggies: I'm trying to do the what the dietician's suggest. A normal size dinner plate, half fruit & veggies and half protein and carbs.... as opposed to our usual MO.... a giant vat of spaghetti and a fork. Sweet will eat "carrot salad" which is, um, cut up carrots and ranch. Tuff likes salad with ranch and peppers and cucumbers and carrots. I'm just trying to get in the habit.... baby steps.
2. Deconstructables: So far so good. On pizza night I make two pizzas (and I broke down and got boboli crusts... which everyone seems to love), one cheese and one something else... this week was my m-i-l's specialty... italian sausage (moose), green pepper, onion, black olives and mozz slices. Most of the meals I've picked are pretty easy to make kid-friendly and the kids are getting more adventurous. The potato soup (from a mix) was a battle until they tried a bite... now they love it. If it is going to be a real battle I can always fall back on chicken nuggets.
3. Use up stuff in the cupboards. Mid-October the school did a food drive (so far we've done a food drive, a hat/mitten drive, a change drive, sold chocolates & coffee and donated extra tissues, glue stick & ziplocks to the classroom.... getting tired....). Anyway. The food drive was good for getting rid of a few mistakes... like the kettle corn.... apparently no one in our house likes kettle corn. But the food drive made me clean out a bit and realize that, yes, canned goods DO expire.... so we systematically started eating everything in the cupboards and only replacing the things we like. I know.... this is basic logic for some of you but it was a revelation for me. Also... sweet heavens... toss the cake mix that expired in 2006. Wow.
4. Start using more burger. We ran out of cow a few weeks ago with the exception of a few carefully hoarded packages of hamburger. My f-i-l got a moose. We have lots of burger and sausage now. It is amazingly good. I haven't tried the steaks yet... talk to me after next Wednesday.
5. Grocery shop less. Can't tell if this is working or not. We did the usual Costco run and a grocery store stop and I think I have everything for all these meals and lunches.... I'm sure there will be more stops but it feels good to know all the basics are in the house. I spent $122 at Costco (including lunch) and $42 at the grocery store (including squeeze cheese and tomato/basil Wheat Thins.... we're practicing our letters with after-school snacks this week).
6. Save money. It isn't like we can get take-out where we live so I won't be saving much there but hopefully less time in the stores means less impulse buying (yes, I DID buy squeeze cheese this week and I am properly horrified by it...) and planned meals means planned leftovers for lunch so less stops at the local market by Hot for lunch.... we will see. I made "pizza rolls" with the leftover pizza stuff last night and everyone took those for lunch today.
7. Save time. Less shopping.... the end.
8. Save stress. Less "5:05 oh shit" moments. Fewer "chicken nuggets & fend for yourself" nights. I am going to try to put the "more cooking" stuff on Mondays & Wednesdays when I am home all day for the next few months and most "I have to actually cook this" stuff will be on the weekends. Getting off work at 3:00 every day sure makes cooking easier. Friday foods are usually things we can eat on tv trays while we watch a Friday Night Movie. (This week: Ghostbusters)

Fall Comfort Foods

Elle just asked me for some meal inspiration. Which is a switch because I'm usually bugging her for help with school lunch packing or ideas for dinner......

Things are a bit chaotic here....

1. I'm still recovering from being sick (so tired) and I smacked my head yesterday (don't ask.... cleaning behind the pellet stove and that blessed elk mount.... need I say more??). So just getting things done is a challenge right now.
2. I'm putting things away from the evacuation pile and the wedding pile. And catching up on laundry... a challenge with no working dryer and below freezing temps outside.
3. We got our first real storm. It is cold here. Right around freezing. So we did the "dig out the winter stuff" from the shed.... it is all piled in the dining room. And I ordered some stuff from Land's End... mittens and hats and such. Sweet really needs a new winter jacket. He has one but it isn't very high quality or warm. And Tuff really needs new boots. And everyone needs those little liner one-size-fits-all knit gloves. Plus some heavy winter socks, and long underwear tops and bottoms. More shopping. Ugh. Paid Sweet a dollar to search for garden hoses under the snow and a dollar for every one he hauled to the lean-to for storage. Bought enough bags of pellets to get to the weekend... hopefully I will have time to take the pickup and get a ton this weekend.
4. Hot is on a diet. No carbs. He swears it works for him. I've been eating some sugar (leftover wedding cake and cinnamon rolls) this week but I finished that up last night so I'm back on the wagon. The no carb thing makes dinner interesting. It seems wrong to make big vats of pasta and eat it in front of Hot. On the other hand.... I could eat an omlet every night and be happy.
5. My "to do" list is multiplying exponentially. Paying off doctor bills from this summer, doing school stuff (fundraisers, book orders, math homework, reading homework, finding library books, checking out the teacher's Amazon wish list....), dealing with cold weather stuff (I must put plastic on the windows this weekend and blow out the flowerbed sprinklers and finish putting porch pots in the garage.... so much for my plans to put my flower beds to bed nicely...), the broken dryer isn't helping, trying to feed everyone healthy-ish but cheap and easy, oh my... it overwhelms sometimes.

So back to the recipe request.... I went for some comfort foods.

Inspiration: Fall Comfort Food

From my mom: Scalloped Potatoes and Ham (I won't mention that you can redneck it and use hot dogs....)
From my aunt: White Bean Chili (This is actually a great crock pot potluck item.... you can tone the hot up or down with green chilies or habanera)
From my grandma: Porcupine Meatballs (serve with garlic mashed potatoes made in the pressure cooker....if you make enough you can have meatball sandwiches the next day)
From the internet: Cube Steak Sandwiches (serve with salad)
From my uncle: Pul Go Gi (We like it with plain rice)
From my friend: Chicken Enchiladas (Elle's recipe)

Up first.... Scalloped (Scalped) Potatoes and Ham....

Breakfast Ideas

We are coming to the close of our first whole week of school.

So far it has been an adventure. He isn't learning anything he doesn't already know and all they do is play all day. He loves marble chutes and snack time.

There is a kid in the other K-class that gets lost all the time.

He took his baseball glove for show-n-tell. The theme was "something that reminds you of summer."

I need more ideas for easy kid breakfasts (now that he isn't eating at daycare for breakfast). Tuff's favorite breakfast is chicken nuggets... the dino-shaped ones. I don't think Sweet will eat pop tarts.... maybe eggo waffles.... although he hasn't been much of a waffle eater since I switched to real syrup from the high-fructose stuff. I even disguised it in a Mrs. Butterworth's bottle but he still doesn't like the taste. We have junky cereal on Fridays. Cocoa Puffs or Lucky Charms. He likes mini-bagels with, get this, mayo. Ew.

Any ideas?

Maple Bars

My 4-year-old looked at me and said, "Mom, what's a maple bar?"

I loved maple bars when I was a kid. We got them from the local bakery on Fridays after story hour at the library.... hot out of the oven. And sometimes mom would bring home a dozen "just because" and we'd stuff ourselves with them. (Actually, I think we gorged on them because we knew dad would eat them all that night and none would be left in the morning... the man can midnight snack like no one I know...)

Chalk this one up to just another way I've failed my children.... and know we will be hanging out at the bakery counter some Saturday morning soon to get fresh, hot maple bars.

Yellow American.....

..... Cheese.

Yellow American Cheese is the bane of my existence.

There.

I said it.

My kids had never really had it until hunting season this year.

Sweet came home from deer hunting with his daddy... (What? You don't send your 4-year-old out with a heavy pack to hike for miles on end in search of food?)

"Mama, we had the coolest thing today. (This I expect.... excursions to the woods have introduced Sweet to all sorts of things... peeing on a tree, the smell of elk, the joy of a Snickers bar, the fun of a camp fire, how to make an air hanky, the fascination of MRE's and the exhaustion of a good hike.) Yellow Cheese. (Big deal, I think to myself....) It was called...... American. And it came in little wrapped squares."

He is, at this point, dancing around.... so excited he can't contain himself.

"And, mama, I brought some home to share with Tuff!"

Great.

So, from that point on, my kids were American cheese eaters. I gave in and started buying it in the giant five pound blocks at Costco. Do you know that stuff doesn't ever mold? Seriously. Scary. I will admit I believe there is a place in this world for sliced squares of yellowy-orange processed goodness.... camping, road trips, picnics.... just not in everyday life.

So mark this in the box of "things I said my kids would never...." and get on with it.

Pot Luck

So my mom, sis & I are making a little cookbook for my brother and future sis-in-law.

Some family favorites & some easy dinner ideas and such.....

Penuche frosting
Pul Go Gi
Beer-cheese soup
Porcupine meatballs
Chicken enchiladas
The amazing chocolate frosting
Ramen casserole
Fisheye salad
Stovetop stuffing
Taco soup
Spinnin' chicken salad
Ziplock omlettes
Calzones
Steak sandwiches
One Ton fried rice
Hamburger pizza
Pigs in blankets (aka weiner wraps)
Cukes-n-onions salad (vinegar, water, sesame seeds, soyo sauce.... refrigerate)

Just listing all the "family favorites" has me realizing something... we are damn weird people.