This Week on the Dining Table

It's the "Cook Once, Eat Eight Times" Edition--

No photo but I cooked Peanut Thai Chicken, a pan of Lasagna and a Meatloaf on Sunday.  I used up some odds and ends of shredded cheese bags, a jar of premade sauce, a box of lasagna noodles, a canister of bread crumbs, a jar of parsley, an old container of cottage cheese and 1 whole skinless boneless chicken breast and ground beef from the freezer.  These 3 dishes should give us the basis of 8 meal or so when all is said and done/eaten.   I'll probably have to throw some lasagna into the freezer too because we'll get tired of it(at least I will, Hubs could eat pasta 24/7).
I am loving doing a sort of batch cooking on the weekend when the electric rates are lower here. It frees up my week a bit and avoids that "it's 5 o'clock already and I don't have anything prepped for dinner" trap.

Onward to the meal planning!

Here's what was planned last week.......

1. Sunday--Bourbon Salmon, Mixed Veggies, Mac and Cheese
2. Monday--Chicken Parm, Veggies(Spaghetti for Hubs)
3. Tuesday--Chicken Fajitas
4. Wednesday--Bacon Mushroom Quiche(or another frozen pizza augmented with goodies)
5. Thursday--Shrimp, Cole Slaw, TBA?
6. Friday--Leftovers
7. Saturday--Leftovers

And this is what actually happened--

1. Sunday--Bourbon Salmon, Mixed Veggies, Mac and Cheese
2. Monday--Chicken Parm, Veggies(Spaghetti for Hubs)
3. Tuesday--Chicken Fajitas
4. Wednesday--Shrimp, Cole Slaw
5. Thursday--Frozen Pizza(dressed up)
6. Friday--Bourbon Salmon(again), leftover Mixed Veggies, leftover Cole Slaw
7. Saturday--Turkey Club Sandwiches

We needed to eat the frozen pizza as it wouldn't fit into the freezer so the quiche was nixed(besides, I used the mushrooms in the Fajita filling).  And we really didn't have anything leftover to reheat or repurpose as a meal so I ended up cooking every night.

7 meals cooked at home(7 new meals-if you count frozen pizza as a new meal).

As for my grocery spending so far for February.....
Added spending of $45.96 this past week.  That makes a running total of $288.24 spent in February and we have 6 days left in the month.  Between more cheap coffee and more Compleats for College Boy I know I'll go over $300 at this point, unless I advance myself some cash from March's budget.

Leftovers going into this week......Mac and Cheese and Chicken Fajita filling(enough for 2 Fajitas).
The Mac & Cheese came out dreadfully(a quick crockpot recipe using only 4 ingredients I tried) so I'll attempt to "fix" it this week. It was just a big gloppy mess so I'll make a roux and try to sauce it up.  If it can't be fixed it will get pitched.....I hate to do that but, like I said, it is dreadful!  The only other way I can think to "save" it is to breadcrumb it and make fried mac and cheese nuggets which will just make it more unhealthy(if that's possible lol).

And besides, who throws away mac and cheese??  lolz

I also have leftover smoked Pork BBQ too but that will get divided into two Ziploc bags and is going into the freezer for later as we are "bbq-ed out".

Here is this week's "food plan"--

1. Sunday--Thai Peanut Chicken, Rice, Broccoli
2. Monday--Meatloaf, Brussels Sprouts, maybe dreadful Mac&Cheese fixed up
3. Tuesday--Cheese Lasagna, Tossed Salad
4. Wednesday--Kielbasa on rolls, Saute Cabbage
5. Thursday--Fish, Potato Salad, Veggie TBD
6. Friday--Leftovers(Meatloaf)
7. Saturday--Leftovers(Lasagna)

This week will see 5 new meals cooked and 2 meals of leftovers(re-purposed into new dishes or not).
I cooked 1, 2 & 3 on the menu on Sunday(lower electric rates)and will reheat 2 & 3 on their days.  That just leaves 2 meals to cook fresh the rest of this week and they are quick and easy ones.

What I need to buy for this menu? Cabbage and Salad Greens.  We are also out of sour cream.

What is getting fixed and served at your house this week?

Was last week's plan successful, did you go off plan or did you not even plan what was going to be eaten last week?

Any great deals on food at your stores this week?

Sluggy

The Past Weekend and Coming Attractions....Boring of Course!

I was all productive last weekend.....well, productive for me! 8-)

Hubs was in the midst of getting the pool ready for the season and had some patching to do on the liner.  The bear of the job though was repairing the rusted holes in the steel skin, the outer metal part of the pool.  Fixing these areas required him to remove the top supports/the edges on the pool and peel back the plastic liner to get behind the skin.
Everything was good until it came time to attach the liner back into the channeled rigid rimmy parts(technical term)so the liner didn't fall off the metal enclosure which is your pool.
So Sluggy, the mechanical, logical genius to the rescue to reconstruct how he had taken the whole shebang apart and put it back together again.....much like all the King's horse and men attempted to do with Humpty Dumpty after his plummet off a wall.
But unlike Humpty's friends, I was successful. ;-)
Oh and Hubs helped too......lol

We got the garden bed planted and I got the salad green gutters done earlier in the week.  I just hope the gutters are more successful this year, since all I grew last year was a crop of bumpkiss!  I also planted some old seeds I had here in the oak barrels in the backyard.  I didn't buy any new seeds this year and just used up what I had leftover from the previous years.  I won't be surprised if nothing actually comes up. lol

We got the front bed mulched.....ignore that square brick sitting in front.  It was there as a boundary marker for the mulch.  We still need to put some kind of a border up.

I got my little garden bed "doo-dads" put in as well.  Little snail items(I AM Slugmama after all....hello!  lol)
The snail stepping stone didn't come off very well in the shot....

 

This week, since #2 Son is finished with school until August and has time to help out around here, we'll be working on the back/side flower bed.
It needs serious work!!!  We don't call that area the jungle for nothing. ;-)

On a sad note, we discovered my little lemon magnolia tree died.  This was the tree Hubs bought me for Mother's Day 3 years ago(?).   Last year it took a turn for the worse after we experienced some rather wacky weather patterns and this past winter must have been too rough for it and it gave up the tree ghost.  We went to prune it back to try to save it this weekend and the trunk nearly snapped right off at the base.  It's that little stump in the upper center of the yard.....

This gives credence to the legend that I can't keep anything alive.....
R.I.P. little tree.
I'll have #2 Son dig up the stump this week and we can level and sow some grass seed there.

I also did a slew of baking/cooking this past weekend.....I made a coffee cake, a dozen muffins, a pan of brownies and a big bowl of macaroni salad.  If I was running the oven, why not get a lot of things cooked, right?
Sorry, I forgot to take pictures and most of it is gone thanks to #2 Son.
I did some of this in prep for a visit from Udy with a "J".  She was suppose to drop by on her way to family(either on the way or coming back from)sometime during the weekend.  I also had some adult beverages chilled waiting for her arrival, but alas, she never arrived.
Sluggy makes a sad face......

I guess warning her about the nasty dirty house was just too much for her delicate constitution.
Either that or she thought I'd hand her a broom and some cleaning products and put her to work.... ;-)

So I did some work in the garage in my free time this past weekend too.  Hubs inflated an air mattress we had out there(a leaving from the Daughter)to see if it would stay inflated.  It did so it's gotten a big dose of Lysol and will be deflated and stored in it's case and we can pick out the expensive air mattress with the built in electric inflator that we paid good money for put never held air enough to get a body through the night without pitching them on the floor at 3 am.
One more thing I can say goodbye too in this house....yay me!

Then I cleaned out the old freezer to get it ready for being picked up by the recycling company which is coming next week.  That will be another big item out of the garage and my life......go me again!!

This week I need to get all these boxes of cans/bottles/etc. of food I can't eat out of the living room to freecycle.  I was keeping them around to see if Judy wanted some of it when she came but I just have to get it gone now.
It's blocking my mental energy, ya know?

I am off in a little while for another dr. appointment.  This one is with my new primary doctor, my FIRST appointment with him.  He has officially been my primary for over 2 Months now and I have yet to see him, though I've had appts. with just about every other dr. in the area during this time. 8-P

So what's up with you in the next few days?
Did you do anything exciting over the weekend??


Sluggy