Yep, I'll be here. Today is already the start of a new adventure lol you see -- I woke up today with NO VOICE. Utterly delightful - especially when I just figured out that the homeschooling thing seems to go much smoother when I do the majority of the work verbally with the kids instead of a simple explanation and worksheets (which doesn't always go so well with my younger one...) Ah well.

So, spaghetti and meatballs is now *off* the menu (as well, we'll be here at home today - can't really take them to cooking class with Mom having a sore throat and no voice at all (so it's not real easy to hide that I'm not 100%)). Grocery shopping needs doing, so once DH loses the wicked headache he started the day with - I'm sending him out with a list and hoping for the best...

Kids have already had breakfast (none for me, but hey I can't be perfect every day lol!) -- I think we're going to keep today nice and easy as nobody's feeling great -- so still grilled cheese and tomato soup at lunchtime -- leftover pizza for the kiddos, plus soup all around at dinner time (not a bad idea for me anyway between sore throat of yesterday - and broken front tooth from the day before (I DID say it's been a great week, didn't I? LOL)) -- tomorrow we'll go with hot sausages and peppers for me and DH for lunch, mac & cheese as a side (for us) and meal for the kiddos (along with some applesauce and maybe some carrot sticks) I'd REALLY like to get more veg into everyone here.. and chicken parmigiana for dinner tomorrow...

Sunday I'll find something to inspire me I hope. This eating every day thing sure is tedious lol. What I need to do next (because I'm that kind of person) is get an "ideal" weekly list of what we should be eating - and plan meals that way. Red meat -- once or less per week, fish once or more... that kinda thing. Veggies with all the meals, or at least the non-breakfast ones-- and fruit much much more often than we do now.

LESS CHEESE (wow it pains me even to type the words lol!)

Thanks again ladies (And ChefSam - if you'd like to share the idea behind the crab avocado wrap, I am ALL ears!)

Happy Friday everyone

Ok - so today I pulled it together, sore throat and all, made a list, went to Sam's Club - and should be *done* for at least the next few days, other than having to go out at some point for fresh fruit as nothing there looked the least bit ok today.

Dinner tonight: Chorizo stuffed peppers for the grown-ups -- hot-dog rollups with baby carrots for the kiddos.. applesauce will be "dessert" tonight unless I get inspired to use up something else and make something better, but I wouldn't count on it...

Tomorrow: breakfast is eggs, toast and yogurt, fruit if we manage to get some before then... I might be persuaded to make a coffee cake (I have mixes in the pantry) but I wouldn't really count on that too much either lol. Lunch: hot sausage sandwiches with onions and pepers for DH and I -- kiddos will have leftover pizza with carrots and ranch... Dinner is going to be the chicken parmigiana with pasta.

Sunday: Pancakes for breakfast, Lasagna for lunch (I have some I made last month and froze, so it's simple enough to defrost and reheat) -- and dinner will be broiled kielbasa and rice unless I find something more inspired to do with the kielbasa...

Monday: (Are you proud yet Striving? No soda today either!) -- ceral for breakfast as we have an early cooking class for the kiddos, DH and I will have bagels at Panera while the kids do their class (it's our only *alone* time during the week lol) -- lunch on Monday will be grilled cheese sandwiches w/tomato soup, dinner will be the spiral sliced ham I bought today with some glazed carrots and scalloped potatoes..

Tuesday: Cereal again (early day again with Dr visits for the kiddos) -- and then we'll be out early in the afternoon for school pictures (yes, homeschoolers still do school pictures lol) -- so we'll probably just grab something out for lunch Tuesday (PLANNED meals out... wow!) -- and then dinner will be Chicken and Rice that I'll throw in the crock pot early in the morning so it'll be ready whenever we end up home for the day..

Wednesday: We'll do oatmeal for breakfast -- and then we have a homeschool field trip first thing, followed by meeting friends at the zoo - so we'll probably be eating out both lunch and dinner (or if we can manage it, a late-ish lunch followed by sandwiches or cereal whenever we get home) -- will kinda have to be a play-by-ear day as we'll be driving about 90 minutes to and from the zoo...

Thursday I'll be in most of the day -- so we'll do bacon and eggs, toast for breakfast -- tuna salad sandwiches (or tuna salad stuffed tomatoes if I get to the store before then) for lunch... dinner I'll be making pasta with my homemade sauce (I'll start the sauce in the morning, to eat at dinner time after slow-cooking all day) -- and then I'll use some of the leftover sauce on Friday to do homemade pizza for lunch as we have a "Day of the Dead Fiesta" with the homeschool group on Friday evening so we won't need to sweat dinner then....

How'd I do? Any suggestions?

I now have a plan. The tough part will be sticking to it... wish me luck

According to Canadian home nutritionists...Expiration dates are to be read as 'Best Before.' These dates were instigated to fulfil government requirements for certain products but extended to all to fulfil consumer demands. The best idea is to call the producer's toll free number to confirm the shelf life of their products before throwing out the never opened product.

A far more serious issue is where different components of a product originated. The issue of pet food was well publicized but thousands of products have off-shore components. Awhile ago the media warned about soya sauce and toothpaste as they can have additives that are proven carcinogens. Is the amount negligible? In China they fined a company who knowingly put bleach in baby powder formula to make it appear 'whiter.' Yeech!

I am determined to not buy breakfast or lunch at work this week. I made an egg bake today and have 15 pieces. I froze 12 and have 3 in containers ready to grab in the morning.

We will be having Thanksgiving here for 4 possibly 6 again this year. I love doing it. DHs DB and DSIL are not sure if they are coming. Will plan that menu so I can have DH pick everything up on sale. I am sure the sales will start next week.

Aldi's has butter on sale and some other baking supplies so I will shop there one night this week. I have been asked by 4 people if I am making candy this year so I need to get that organized. I don't think I will be taking a full week off. Maybe some long weekends. I don't have much vacation left.

DH called a little while ago and said - I've got dinner for you if you haven't eaten yet. :-) I hadn't cooked anything but did have something planned so he and I can have the pork chops tomorrow night.

i went grocery shopping today and spent a total of 5275.

food lion - 1573
2 kraft salad dressings 282 ea
1 nueman's own salad dressing 349 w coupon
10 pack fl oatmeal 235
fl yogurt 38
2 tomatoes 347

bj's
4 qts 1/2 and 1/2 179 ea
folgers decaf 959
snickers holloween variety pack 999
160 oz vinegar 339
34 qt koolaide mix 599

i'm finding that i like only going grocery shopping once/2weeks. it only takes about ten min longer/trip, so in the end i've saved almost an hr/2 weeks

mary

Good Job Mary on streamlining your shopping!

ChefSam: What did DH bring you? How are you fixing your chops?

Good job Frugal4Me on challenging yourself on not eating lunch or breakfast out. That's a great cost investment to be able to freeze 12 pieces and have three for this week. Nice going!

Cyd, I see that you're posting from China. That would make me more than a little leary. Thanks for the information.

Mischieva (((HHUUGGSS)))to you! I am so impressed with your work that you did over the weekend. You have a game plan set up with what works for your schedule. Good Job!

_______________________________________
I'm very impressed with my grocery selection and pricing this week.

For $35.86 this is what I bought

1 small package (31 pack) diapers.
1 container of kids chewable vitamins
2 cans dark red kidney beans
1 can light red kidney beans
2 cans chili beans
3.5 lbs of bananas
6 honeycrisp apples
1 loaf of whole wheat bread
128 oz of apple cider
3 cans tuna
1 green pepper
2 cans refried beans
1 package hot dog buns
3 individual sized portions of potato chips
1 can frozen concentrate o.j.

DH was gone this weekend, so the kids and I had more junk/fun food than normal.

Friday we had bbq chicken with mashed potatoes, green beans, and pineapple.

Saturday we had potato pancakes with peanut butter and juice.
Saturday we had hot dogs, baby carrots, chips, orange and bananas.
Saturday we had chicken cordon blue, sugar snapped peas, glazed carrots and baked potatoes.

Sunday we had oatmeal with juice.
Lunch was a frozen pizza with apples and bananas.
Snack was popcorn with apple cider.
Dinner was tuna sandwiches with salad and apples.

Striving,
Braised duck salad with endive and grilled pears.
Short ribs with winter veg and smashed (more rustic than mashed) garlic potatoes
Chocolate bread pudding with creme anglaise.

Went grocery shopping on Saturday and spent $27.04 and bought sandwich bread ($.79), French bread ($.99), 1 gal. milk ($2.29), 1 quart coffee creamer ($3.50), 4 cans of soup (4/$5.00), 5 packets ramen soup noodles (5/$1.00), 1 box pancake mix ($2.00), 1 pancake syrup ($1.99), 2 cans refrigerated crescent rolls dough (2/$4.00), 3 frozen burritos (3/$.99), and a pecan pie ($4.49).

Sat: Brunch - French bread with cheese
Dinner - crescent rolls, polish sausage, salad

Sun: brunch - French bread with cheese, guavas picked fresh from the garden
Dinner - spaghetti with meat sauce; water melon
Snack: pecan pie (DD), apple (me)

Today: b'fast - burrito & 1/2 chocolate muffin (DD); 1/2 chocolate muffin (me)
Lunch: leftover spaghetti; oranges; apple juice
Dinner: probably rice, chicken curry, cucumber salad

Ok - checking in here too. The good news: having a plan helps us tremendously to eat at home more and not skip meals. The bad news: getting sick (me) derails all the best intentions in the world.

We did in fact do the chorizo stuffed peppers on Friday while the kids had some of the peppers, and supplemented it with the leftover Pizza Hut pizza - so that was pretty ok. Saturday we had bacon and eggs for breakfast, then went to Sonny's BBQ for a late lunch as we ended up out running errands anyway -- and then dinner was pb&j for me, cereal for DH and the kiddos... nobody feeling particularly great. Keeping on that same theme, lol yesterday (Sunday) was toast for breakfast, Chili's for lunch -- and dinner was once again pb&j for me, and the kids and hubby having cold cuts, string cheese and snacks...

Today -- well, now I've got a fever to go along with my sore throat, but does that stop us? From cooking, sure lol but not from eating out. Yesterday believe it or not -- cold cuts/cereal and pb&js was the requested dinner -- I actually cooked my chicken and rice in the crock pot -- but by the time dinnertime came we were all still fairly full from lunch out - and nobody wanted it (see where it's disheartening? LOL Even when I do cook, it's often that nobody wants to eat...) -- so in the interest of making some things that appeal more to the masses -- we headed back out again today to Cracker Barrel for lunch (I am down to eating out once a day now... it may not sound like an improvement, but it most definitely is -- I haven't had soda in several days and most of the time I'm even drinking the right amount of liquid during the day now...) -- picked up a few more things to make this week's meals easier... going to continue trying to pare down on meals out - and work on what's in the house - tonight we're having the chicken and rice we didn't eat last night -- so that's certainly easy enough... just need to cook some white rice and heat up the chicken and sauce.

I need to spend some time tonight and rework the meal plan I had for this week - as now we're probably cancelling most of the *out* plans we had in favor of staying home, taking cold meds and resting up. On the plus side, everything that had a *soon* expiration date got used up last week, so no real waste (which is certainly new around here!) -- the only fresh (not frozen) meats which now need to be taken care of soon are the hot sausages (with peppers -- tomorrow!) -- and the kielbasa (which is good until November something... today we bought more pantry items, black beans, kidney beans, cream of mushroom soup -- staples which I used last week and felt the need to replace, along with milk (which is suddenly getting consumed like it's going out of style... means I'm doing good on getting the kids off soda and fruit juice, but have to make sure they don't overdo it..) -- and a few odds and ends (shampoo, laundry detergent)... all told $62something and I *may* not need to shop again this week.

This week's game plan: tackle freezer and pantry -- update meal plan, start thinking of new recipes to try to keep us interested in meals at home -- more veg, less cheese, less processed foods.

Nice job to everyone else here - you ladies are truly inspiring!
Tracey