this was the plan for this week

sun
mac and cheese
salad

mon
ham and cheese sandwich
burritos and rice

tue
quiche, noodles and brocolli w cheese --- crab tetrazini
lasagne ---pork chop, rice and boc w cheese

wed
mac and cheese
salad w ham

thu
grilled cheese sand ----philly steak sand (out)
bean soup --- 1/2 turkey w bacon club sand (out)

fri
salad w ham
out to dinner ---- bean soup w ham

sat
pizza
lasagne

next week's plan (2/6 - 2/12)

sun
chili w rice and cheese
pizza

mon
ham and cheese sandwich
salad w ham

tue
quiche w noodles and corn
dilled salmon, peas and olives

wed
burrito, rice and corn
lasagne

thu
ham and cheese sand
salad w ham

fri
mac and cheese
dinner out

mary

@Mary- no anytizers next week?

lol

i'm giving mike a break from chicken

mary

Elizabeth, thanks for your explanations. I think you are correct that in some respects, you have options that not everyone does.

You definitely have much cheaper milk. A gallon where I shop, the cheapest I've found, is $3.99.

You have to pay for chicken feed, but that may cost less than eggs, which around here are around $1.50 per dozen.

I've tried to grow some veggies in our yard, without much success. It's more for fun than actual eating. I'll try again this year.

Since you and DH both work at home, or mainly, you not only save a ton of money not having to commute to a job (my subway costs when I was working were well over $2,000 a year; parking is comparable, or more, plus gas), you save time, which you can use for more from-scratch cooking - along with your helpers.

I buy some canned goods of various kinds, because they are so much cheaper than eating out, or the only way we can get things such as tuna. I do buy fresh vegetables, which we eat both raw (especially salads) and cooked. And I make any number of dishes from scratch.

I would never make tomato paste from scratch - that's one of the things I buy in a can - but I do use that and assorted other ingredients, from spices to chopped celery and green pepper, to create spaghetti sauce - I don't buy that in a jar.

The grocery chain I shop at used to have bulk bins in some stores. It was locally oned, but some years ago, perhaps on the death of the founder, it was sold to a company abroad. They've made many changes I don't like, and among them, have phased out the bulk bins. So things you can buy for 15 cents might cost me $3.00 and more, although there might be more in the container. I struggle to use up spices before they lose all their flavor and aroma.

I've sometimes avoided buying things because of the packaging. Whether food or cleaners, I avoid aerosols because so much of the price is for the container.

Yet I buy microwave meals sometimes, because they are good for occasions when I'm time-crunched, and still cheaper than ating out. Some of them are things I wouldn't, or couldn't, fix on my own, because doing so would be complicated, or I can't do it the way the experts can (such as Chinese food), etc.

Still, the bottom line is, YOU ARE FAR LESS LAZY THAN MANY PEOPLE, including me. There have been times when I'd rather not eat than go to a lot of trouble to fix things. I keep a few things in cans (sardines, for instance), where all I have to do is open the can and eat what's in it. This is partly another device to keep me eating healthy food at home. But some of it is lack of effort. When I read your posts, it doesn't sound as if you have a lot of down time, especially with four home-schooled children. You seem happy, though, and I'm glad!

I have a big, wide, lazy streak, but I'm trying to train myself out of it.

You are SO right on the commute costs; we haven't had a lengthy commute to deal with in over a decade (before that, it was 110 miles a day), and it's been a big lifestyle changer. Even before DH destroyed his shoulder, his commute was less than two miles. Big difference to most!

Mary--hee hee!

***

Tonight we did Salad Bar... I set out greens, shredded cheese, boiled/sliced egg, chicken, ham, celery bits, carrot slivers, olives, etc, and everyone built their own "deluxe" salad.

Right now, DD-14.5 is in the kitchen baking a cake for a funeral tomorrow; breakfast is going to be on the fly for everyone, as myself and the little girls head north for a friend's baptism service at 9 (we need to leave by 8:20), then back down here for the funeral at 11. DD-14 will stay here and head straight to the funeral herself. DH and DS are headed to pipe band practice with the band president at 7:30a, and they'll be back around noon.

Lunch will be sandwiches at home, and I'm not sure about supper just yet. I'm seriously considering adapting an idea I saw, where the mom printed out a set of fridge magnets with main dishes, sides, etc on them, and posted them in the kitchen. I have menu idea lists, but I'm not turning to them as often as I ought to. It's a February rut! I need to bring in some new flavors, I think.

So, I ought to hit the library tomorrow, and take out some cookbooks for inspiration, I think. I'm craving *different*.

Print out fridge magnets? How do you do that? Or do you mean print out recipes held on the fridge with magnets?

The kind of day you describe coming up, which I've had, too, is the reason I sometimes copy out and buy prepared food, such as something micrwavable or in a can. When DS was in elementary school, we had a half-hour between the time I got home and the time the parent-teacher organization met each month. We put canned ravioli in a safe dish and microwaved it, and had that along with a glass of milk. Surprisingly filling, actually.

Printing out fridge magnets: there are magnetic sheets that will go through printers, or the "labels" can be done out on cardstock, and self-stick magnetic tape added to the back. Having loads of independent magnets on the fridge would be tooooo inviting to the 3yo, so they'd need to be firmly attached to the individual dish cards.

I've never actually eaten canned pasta. We do use sandwiches as our go-to quick food, though. We usually have supplies for PB, egg, or cheese sandwiches at all times.

I admit to trying some canned pasta (might have been ravioli) once, many years ago. These days, I can't get my DD to even eat canned or jarred pasta sauce, let alone canned pasta! She will only eat pasta sauce when I make it from scratch, with fresh tomatoes. Otherwise, she'll have her pasta plain, with butter and salt.

We did have spaghetti on Thurs. p.m.

Yesterday, we had hamburgers and fries from a fast food place ($7.00 spent from this month's "eating out/entertainment" budget of $25)

I'll be going grocery shopping this weekend to buy milk, bread, fresh produce, etc.

A couple of times I bought "fresh" pasta at the grocery store, along with sauce to go with it. Many times more expensive than the canned ravioli. That's the only pasta I've ever eaten out of a can.

I recently saw something in the fresh-food section, which looked kind of like ravioli; it's a type of tortelloni, which we've had before. This one has mushrooms in it; we've also bought the kind with chicken; both have spices. And we eat them boiled but plain, so we can savor the flavor, which I think would be obscured by sauce.

Mac & cheese with ground beef for dinner.

I also baked 2 batches of muffins for b'fasts/snacks for the week - one batch with fresh blueberries, the other with apples and walnuts.

Put out a whole chicken and some ground beef to thaw. Not sure yet what I'll make with the chicken, but the ground beef, I want to brown with onions, bell peppers, potatoes, grated carrots, etc., and use as a filling for pastries. They'll be good for lunches and snacks during the week.