Menu, week of Feb 25

Monday

• steak & eggs; toast
• burgers, butternut squash, and broccoli
• sticky chicken, cabbage, carrots, rice?

Tuesday

• eggs, sausage, oranges
• leftover sticky chicken
• leftovers (just me)

Wednesday

• pumpkin custard with kefir or cream
• turkey sandwiches; apples; dilly carrots
• beef roast & veggies

Thursday

• leftover pumpkin custard
• soup? leftover meat, potatoes, zucchini
• “spaghetti” and meatballs; peas

Friday

• pancakes or blueberry crisp
• tuna quiche
• leftover “spaghetti”?

Saturday & Sunday

• ? leftovers (just me)

My rheumatologist called back with lab results this week and said everything looked great!  I of course celebrated by eating chocolate.  I’m going to need to work on reducing stress in ways that don’t include chocolate, but other than that I’ve got nothing but good news to cheer me. :)

It’s late now and I don’t feel like working budget stuff tonight.  I’m multi-tasking by listening to youtubes on fig propagation so I feel less bad about staying up late.  heehee

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Menu, week of Feb 18

Monday

• pancakes with mango puree; sausage; broth
• tuna quiche; fruit salad
• steak; sweet potatoes; zucchini; salad

Tuesday

• leftover pancakes
• leftover steak etc
• leftover meatloaf; baked potatoes; broccoli

Wednesday

• pumpkin custard; milk
• pb & j sandwiches; apples; dilly carrots
• leftover sticky chicken & veggies with white rice

Thursday

• leftover pumpkin custard; broth
• leftover tuna quiche & fruit salad
• lamb & lentil stew w/cauliflower & carrots; sauerkraut; muffins of some sort

Friday

• leftover pancakes; broth
• leftover lamb stew; sauerkraut; muffins
• burgers; broccoli; butternut squash

Saturday

• eggs and sausage; milk; oranges
• leftover lamb stew; sauerkraut; muffins
• ?

Sunday

• leftover pancakes
• leftover lamb stew; muffins
• leftover ?

Saturday and Sunday meals are a little iffy at this point but I am confident that inspiration will strike by the weekend and I will come up with something entirely edible to replace those question marks. :)

Snacks this week will be apples & peanut butter, milk (if I get more), maybe cheese, and maybe something naughty if I get around to making it.  I’ve been working a lot and can’t justify spending the time to make desserts but I have no problem treating myself to a whole bar of dark chocolate since it is easy and, you know, I deserve it because I’m working so hard.  *eye roll*  Clearly something must be done, and hopefully that something will be white chocolate chips and cookies.  With my work schedule this week, we’ll be lucky if I get those made…

Ok, time to talk budget.  This is not going to be a happy talk.  We are just about out of all veggie options – I’ve still got assorted squashes in storage in the garage and some tomatoes in the freezer, but other than that we are pretty much out of everything.  I’ll order a few things from Azure this month but they are out of frozen peas and most fresh veggie prices aren’t much better than at the local store.  I’ll order cabbage, carrots, and onions tomorrow but that means we still need enough veggies to make it through this week…so off to the store I went today where my brain nearly exploded when I saw how expensive the produce was!!!  I paid $8 for one bunch of broccoli!!!  Virtually nothing green was less than $3/lb.  O. U. C. H.  So I of course I bought some half-price Valentine’s chocolate to make up for it.  I’m sure the chocolate savings cancels out the hefty veggie prices.  heeheehee  I did get some canned salmon on sale as well and that makes me feel like I wasn’t so naughty after all.  We’ll be making some salmon dip or salmon patties one of these days soon.

Out-of-pockets this week include today’s grocery run at $57; potential milk purchase of around $10; and $8 or so for eggs.  This is right at budget.  I will also have my Azure order going in this week but don’t have to pay for it immediately so I’ll put that in next week’s budget talk.  The cost of these meals on this menu plus snacks should come in around $60 or $65, really depending on what I cook Saturday.  The lamb stew is super cheap and will help out a lot this week!!  So actual costs will be slightly under budget and I really need to work on squishing down those out-of-pockets.  No more chocolate, J.  If you want it you have to make it yourself.

Whew.  That was painful.

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Review: Chocolate Gelatin Pudding (GAPS)

Well, I did it!  Finally.  I’ve had this recipe open in a tab on my computer for…weeks.  I thought it would be a good chocolate-y dessert that I could toss together quickly, and boy did it go together quickly!   This is probably the easiest GAPS dessert I’ve made thus far.  However, it seemed more like chocolate Jell-O jigglers than chocolate pudding.  Maybe I needed to let them sit out to room temperature before serving?  Or perhaps a little less gelatin would have done the trick.  At any rate, it was very…chewy.

I had made them on an evening my kids were gone and sampled it before they got back.  I had decided that it wasn’t something I would make often because I wasn’t a fan of the texture.  When the kids sampled them, they surprised me by asking if I’d make them again.  They really liked them!  In fact, my son (who despises coconut) didn’t even know there was coconut milk in the recipe.  He loved it as much as his sister did.  So I guess I’ll keep this recipe on hand to toss together when we are pinched for time but want something sweet and chocolate-y.

Verdict: I’ll make it again.  But I’ll need to work on the texture if I’m going to really like it.

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Menu, week of Feb 11

Monday

• cherry tart, hardboiled eggs, and milk
• leftover “spaghetti” and green beans
• ? kids will eat w/grandparents…

Tuesday

• leftover cherry tart, eggs, and milk
• leftover roast and veggies
• leftovers (just me)

Wednesday

• pumpkin custard; kefir if I didn’t kill it
• turkey sandwiches; apples; dilly carrots
• lemon chicken & veggies

Thursday

• baked apples, eggs, and fresh pork side
• chicken soup; blueberry muffins from freezer
• meatloaf, green beans, baked potatoes

Friday

• leftover baked apples, eggs, and fresh pork side
• leftover meatloaf, green beans, baked potatoes
• chicken hearts, rice, peas

Saturday & Sunday

• ? leftovers (just me)

My schedule will be getting busier as we head into spring competitions so I will be trying to get some extra meals into the freezer soon.  This week I bought a bunch of lamb bones though, so my freezer is packed!  Next week I hope to use some of those bones and figure out at least one meal to put in that freezer space.

I spent about $85 on food this week, with a few splurges (eek! why does chocolate have to be on sale now??).  With the chicken backs I bought last week and the lamb bones I bought this week, I feel like we finally have some possibilities for soup whenever we need.  I was happy to get them all for $1/lb, too!  Yay me.

Meals & snacks should have a cost of $65 this week.  Out-of-pockets were higher than usual but I really needed to stock up on soup bones.  And apparently we really needed chocolate.

I’ve got an appointment with my rheumatologist on Tuesday.  I had planned to do a month of Intro again before I went in for bloodwork to see what that does to my levels but it snuck up on me!   Last week I ate naughty chocolate ice cream, potatoes, and rice like nobody’s business and then had a few hives to show for it.  I am going to be a PERFECTLY good girl until Tuesday in hopes of a great panel this time.

Then I’m going to eat my chocolate. :D

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Menu, week of Feb 3

Monday

• leftover pineapple upside down cake
• tuna quiche and fruit salad
• chicken soup and blueberry muffins

Tuesday

• pumpkin custard w/kefir
• leftover chicken soup & muffins
• beef, turnip, & butternut hash

Wednesday

• leftover pumpkin custard
• okazu and muffins?
• sandwiches, apples, & dilly carrots

Thursday

• blueberry crisp
• leftover tuna quiche
• steak, baked potatoes, broccoli

Friday

• apple tart things? something along this line maybe
• leftover steak etc
• “spaghetti” and meatballs

Saturday

• leftover blueberry crisp
• leftover “spaghetti”
• beef roast and veggies

Sunday

• leftover apple tarts
• leftover roast
• lemon chicken?

Well, I got home from work today and decided I would either A) do my taxes or B) clean my house.  Then I ran to pick up milk, fawned over my new fig tree, and ate 1/2 pint of ice cream.  It occurred to me a few minutes ago that I had neither A) done my taxes or B) cleaned my house.  The logical solution to this was to remind myself that I needed desperately to blog.  Yes, I do.  So I am blogging now.  I’ll do my taxes and/or clean, um, later.

Upcoming travel expenses mean we’ll be keeping it lean for a good long while to come.  I just received a 5-gal pail of coconut oil and we have plenty of coconut flour, almond flour, and meat.  We still have lots of apples, too…heehee :)  We will be needing fresh veggies in the next week or two so I am hoping for some great weather so local growers can put out some greens more cheaply!

I bought milk today ($10.50) and will be getting eggs later this week ($6-8); I also grabbed some chicken backs and some local veggies at the winter market for another $30, so out-of-pockets this week will be close to $50.  I think the costs of all meals and snacks should be around $70-75 this week.  That’s right at budget.  I’ve found that my 11-year-old is starting to eat quite a bit more – not so much more at mealtime, but after meals and between meals he is always scrounging around for something.  That’s not like him.  I suspect a growth spurt is in the works but I also realize this may be the beginning of a very steep increase in consumption and my budget may feel it accordingly.  I will probably be purchasing more milk to help out snack-wise, which is bad news for my already overburdened refrigerator.  Maybe I should start praying for a nice, new, gigantic refrigerator!  Ok, maybe not gigantic.  Maybe just not tiny.  Medium.  Medium would be nice.

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