So how did the week fare?

As I predicted...I didn't follow the rest of the week's plan. The roast took way too long to defrost in the fridge and is still waiting for me to cook it. Probably for Sunday night dinner...Monday at the latest. Saturday wasn't a complete loss though...Michelle did cook chicken patties. She just added a whole lot more then corn to it. lol She always makes things fun for the kids. So what did the rest of the week look like?

Thursday... Alfredo egg noodles and boiled shrimp
Friday... Chicken fried rice
Saturday... Michelle make the a smörgåsbord of things....chicken patties, black olives, oatmeals, boxed mac and cheese, baby food (apricots with apples and pears), tuna on crackers, celery with peanut butter and/or ranch to dip it in. At least I think that's all they had...I could be wrong.

Now to think out a decent followable plan for the coming week.

Oh and Tom messed up my shopping gig here a bit. He went to Aldi's, bought a few things and then lost the receipt. He swears it wasn't more then $15 though. So I'll just add in $15 to the running total. I know he bought...

A case of canned corn
3 jars of instant coffee
2 loaves of bread
2 bags of nacho chips
1 bag of pretzels
a few bags of candy

Running total since 10/17... $1078.67

A chilly rainy day

I'm sitting here under a blanket, smelling the pot of bean and bacon soup Tom has simmering on the stove. YUM! It's a perfect soup day. I've mentioned to Tom and the kids what I've been doing here with my grocery trips. Tom, not doing the major shopping very much was shocked at how much I've spent in less then a month. I don't blame him I tend to look at the amount and say OMGosh too. But it takes a lot of food to feed a lot of people. In the grand scheme of things $250 a week isn't unheard of, especially for 12 people. Still, it's more then I'm used to spending or would like to spend ($0 would be nice thankyouverymuch lol).

$250/wk isn't accurate either since what I bought will be eaten over the next few weeks instead of when I bought it. I know I'll still be spending money those weeks, just not the huge chunks like I just did. Unless of course I fall into the common shopaholic trap of thinking it's ok to shop and spend since it's food. I know I've done it before and can easily do it now. I mean here I'd just bought a boatload of groceries and I was still checking out grocery ads on Sunday. Not a good idea. Especially when I saw the chicken breasts I bought for $1.69/lb last week on sale at the same store for $1.39!!! Boooo! (hmmmm I'm going into the dentist again on Friday...should I buy another few bags? lol) If I was comfortable with my pressure cooker I could buy a bunch and can it. Then I wouldn't have to worry about having freezer space. But I'm not yet. Guess you have to start somewhere. I'll think about it.

So yesterday we went off plan already. I never got spanish rice going so told the kids to have nachos and sandwiches. I think we'll have spanish rice on Wed and move the Shrimp alfredo to Friday, but not positive yet.

I think in the next day or so I'll be taking inventory. Then I can get an acurrate picture of how far what I've purchased in the last few weeks will last.

I'm sure if my head wasn't firmly attached

I'd be headless many many time in my life. As I said a few minutes ago I went shopping yesterday and stocked up on a few things. It's always a good feeling to be ahead of the game. Looking at my menu from the other day I realized my easy dinner was for Friday because of my dentist appointment. Well my appointment was THURSDAY! Luckily what I had planned is something Tom likes to cook. So the kids had venison soup minus the beans. I think I'll use the beans on Saturday since we didn't do any roosters in yet.

So today (Fri) will be Lemon Chicken with brussel sprouts and I'm sure something else

Saturday will be Bean with bacon soup and breadsticks

I'm debating on whether to run up to Save-a-Lot today (it's in the oppposite direction I normally go). My fridge and cupboards are getting bare, I could do with a restock. I think we're down to a quart of milk.

I went shopping and blew my menu

After Monday I didn't follow my menu at all.

Tuesday I left early for a baby shower and a night out (and a stop at the grocery store). I turned the fixings for potpie/pasty into chicken and rice soup which everyone said was yummy. :o)

Wednesday I fell off the menu planning wagon and went with super easy frozen honey battered chicken nuggets and tater tots.

Thursday found me going for the bags of frozen chicken products again. This time it was chicken patties. The kids micro'ed them then sliced them on top of a cheesey tortilla for chicken quesadilla.

Friday we were out on an adventure including a dinnertime stop for soft serve ice cream. So it cauliflower and dip, apples, micro'ed butternut squash (things we bought at a apple farm) and CORN.

Saturday the girls and I went out for the evening and had chinese buffet for a late lunch. We munched when we got home. The guys had nachos and whatever else they could find.

So one rule to stick with my plan...do not shop mid plan!!

As I usually do...changing things up...

Ok...so now I know...it's a good idea to take the meat you plan for dinner that night...OUT of the freezer in a timely manner. Not a few hours beforehand. The idea of having a meal plan is so you can be prepared and prevent the last minute thinking. But Noooo! Not me, I have to ignore everything.

The turkey breast was solid as a rock when it should've been thrown into the oven, covered in it's lovely bacon'ness. I grabbed it out of the freezer and threw it into the fridge figuring we'd have it for dinner on Wednesday instead. For good measure I grabbed some hunks of venison out to defrost for Friday's dinner. Yeah me! :o)

So what to have for dinner? I grabbed a gallon baggie of chicken and stock out of the freezer and threw it in a pot. After it thawed out a bit I realized it probably wasn't enough for everyone so grabbed another bag. Pat was here and was excited...it's his favorite. He made sure to walk out the door with a plate of it. Now what to serve it over? Not enough potatoes. Rice? We were suppose to have rice the next day so I didn't really want to go in that direction. Bread...I'd made 4 loaves of bread the day before and overcooked them just a tad. They weren't burnt, just dark. It was perfect for soaking up the delicious gravy. Dinner saved!

I even have enough chicken and gravy to make potpies. This morning the turkey breast still seemed a bit solid so I decided we'd make the potpies instead. I was going to cheat and use the last few boxes of packaged pie crust in the freezer. But again, they were still abit frozen when I wanted to make the pies. I don't really feel like making rice and burritos (no cheese or sour cream....blah!) So back into the freezer I go again...VODKA SAUCE!!! So we had Saturday's dinner on Tuesday, eating Thursday's dinner on Wednesday and having Tuesday's dinner on Thursday.

Yep, it's a good thing I make meal plans or I'd be going crazy at night trying to come up with meals! ROFL!

So let's see what the mix-up did...

Tuesday... Chicken and gravy over bread
Wednesday... Vodka sauce over Penne
Thursday... Bacon wrapped wild turkey breasts
Friday... BBQ Venison Sandwiches
Saturday... Figure it out later, might go grocery shopping

I almost followed my menu

On Wednesday I realized I made a fatal error in not buying milk Tuesday night. Not having much milk meant that I couldn't make my scalloped potatoes. I'll get a recipe up soon Noelle, it's fairly easy. This time I bought a boneless ham that comes in a loaf. It's not chopped ham quality but not top grade either....works well for dishes and for under $1.60/lb you can't beat it. Instead I browned up a 6+ lb package of ground beef I bought at Wegmans, put half away for a meal (probably chili) and made stroganoff with the other half.

Friday is when I failed. I had spaghetti planned. It's an EASY dish! I can just boil up spaghetti and throw on canned sauce. Or I can make it a bit harder and brown italian sausage in. I could've even made meat sauce with the burger I'd cooked on Wednesday. UB (Uncle Billy) let us know he'd bought steaks that needed to be cooked so that was going to be dinner. Then it was discovered that the charcoal was wet and time was dwindling (kids needed to be out the door). So they had sandwiches and/or cereal to tide them over until they got home. I'd broil the steaks after 9. Yeah right. I was dragging from my new cold and didn't see me making anything (I just wanted to go to bed even though I couldn't). Instead I texted Michelle and asked her if she'd ask her dad if he wanted to pick up $.99 Arby Q's for dinner. He agreed. Give me an F-!

Today instead of BBQ sandwiches (which we had last night) I was going to attempt to get scalloped potatoes in the oven. I just realized though that it's suppose to be warm and muggy today...not oven running weather. Besides I also forgot that UB has steaks that need to be cooked. So guess scalloped potatoes will be in the menu NEXT week. One of these days I'll hold to my written menu.

Menu revisited

As in classic form, I have to revise my menu already. Tom went camping Sunday night and bought some steaks to cook over the grill. For whatever reason they were never used. So I now have to make something with them before they go bad. Also I figured it was senseless to make up the delicious chicken and broth without using some of it so I'll add that to the menu too (freezing the rest for another meal or two in the future).

The two meals I'm booting from the lineup are the corndog casserole and Friday night's breakfast. The corndog casserole seemed to be a hit on LOK's Household board so I thought I'd try it last week....it was a hit at our house too. There weren't many people here to enjoy it. A few that missed expressed a desire to try it soon so that's why I added it to the menu this week. Unfortunately that means it's the meal I needed to buy the most ingredients for. That fact alone makes it the sensible one to boot from this week's line-up. Friday's menu is booted just for lack of wanting to have it or do the work for it. (takes a while to make pancakes for this house!)

So now my menu looks like...

Tuesday... Beef and gravy over shells, canned green beans
Wednesday... Homemade chicken and rice soup, biscuits
Thursday... Spaghetti with Italian sausage, homemade garlic rolls
Friday... BBQ venison sandwiches, canned corn, macaroni salad
Saturday... Meatball Subs, salad (maybe pasta salad...haven't decided yet)

Shopping list now looks like...
---------------------------

Salad fixings
fruit for snacks
milk
margarine
bbq sauce
refill water containers
bread for sandwiches for lunch (if I'm lazy and don't make my own)

Let's see how long this one lasts lol

Catching up...how last week really went

PHEW I'm behind and I had to wrack my brain to remember what we had. The kids helped me out too.

Tuesday we ended up at my parents' house for dinner so we ordered pizza. That moved the thawed meatballs to Wednesday. Thursday we went bowling as a family and were starving afterwards, so ordered Little Ceasar's Pizza in the van. I also stopped for a few things at the grocery store on Thursday including $1.99/2lb bag of chicken nuggets. Hence all the nuggets in the menu after that. Friday being our everyone out the door night. Saturday my SIL came over and we grilled out. YUM!

Tuesday.... Pizza
Wednesday... Sweet and Sour Meatballs
Thursday... Pizza and chicken nuggets
Friday... Chicken nuggets
Saturday... cookout...Burgers, hotdogs, veggies, chips

Sorry, no recipes up yet.

Life got in the way and I didn't have the time or energy to get on and blog. Unfortunately I don't have a choice about whether to feed anyone or not, so we still ate. lol My menu was totally blown though from Tuesday on down.

Tuesday I went to make spaghetti and Michelle mentioned the cocktail weenies. I think we finished them up...unless there's a pkg hiding in the back of the freezer I can't see. So we had BBQ weenies instead of spaghetti.

Wednesday BIL gave me money to order a 50pc box of chicken from Walmart. Everyone LOVES WM's fried chicken. 50pcs usually lasts us for a meal, lunch/breakfast and maybe a snack here or there. We didn't have everyone here and got home late (so everyone had ramen noodles earlier in the evening). I think the person making the box of chicken was VERY generous with his counting too. I've never had a heavier box of chicken in my life! We had chicken for almost the whole rest of the week.

Thursday was Chicken and Macaroni salad made with medium shells. YUM! We hadn't had mac salad in a looong time. Now I'm wanting potato salad too. lol

Friday was chicken and whatever else you could find in the fridge.

Saturday was chicken and gravy. I'd had it defrosted in the fridge already and we had to eat it before it went bad. I had also started a batch of venison chili before the defrosted venison went bad.

Note to self....

After figuring out the menu and posting it...READ IT! I had an original menu made up with Tom and Michelle picking up a few things for me on Sunday. They forgot some things and I was determined to NOT go anywhere until Wednesday (when Michelle has to go to work) so I had to redo the menu even before I posted it.

Unfortunately my brain didn't reorganize and I didn't look at my menu before I made dinner last night. Looking at it now made me realize...I messed up! Granted it wasn't a big mess up but it negated all the refiguring I did.

So instead of Spaghetti we had Bean Soup and it was yummy! Even Sean liked it. I think I'll just shift everything down one day.

Sunday... Steaks, baked/grilled potatoes, sauteed broccoli normandy
Monday... Bean soup, bread
Tuesday... Spaghetti, bread, salad
Wednesday... Turkey and gravy, mashed potatoes
Thursday... Venison chili, cheddar biscuits
Friday... Scalloped potatoes and ham
Saturday... Pizza

I realized I forgot to add some things onto my grocery list....
Mozz cheese (pizza)
Potatoes (Scalloped potatoes)
Canned Tomatoes (crushed, puree, whole) (chili)

Since I intended this place to be my online recipe book I guess I should try to include recipes. I'll try to get some up today

And we have a revision once again.

The lasagna rollups were a hit. I used ma's Canelloni filling as a base. I'm going to post the version I made after I'm done here.

Tom came home Friday night with a treat for us....mahogany clams! Woohoo!! We fired up the 18qt roaster and steamed away. He bought enough of the little buggers that we all had as much as we wanted. Served with real butter...YUUUUUMMMM! Granted I'd prefer if they were littlenecks but that would've cost us a mint.

He also bought steaks which we'll grill on Saturday. It was a really decent deal, 5 pkgs for $20. I think it amounted to 13 steaks, might be 11 (too lazy to get up and count them lol). We'll serve it with sauteed broccoli normandy and baked/grilled potatoes. Lucky for me Tom does all the charcoal grilling (I only do gas lol)

Now to work on a plan for next week that I can stick too!

I don't know how I did it

I messed up the turkey! I wasn't home at all on Tues so decided to cook it last night, cut it up and stick it in the fridge then it'd be ready for the next day's dinner. (number of days in the fridge were getting too many to wait another day) Everyone kept saying the turkey was done and I kept putting them off. I checked it and saw the doneness gauge on the turkey had popped (I hate those things!) so I stuck it with my meat thermometer. It immediately went up to 190...oh great...a dry turkey. I took it out and let it cool so I could handle it. When I went to process it, it wasn't done! UGH! So I threw all the pieces back into the roaster and stuck it in the oven. Eventually I started dozing off and knew I'd never stay up until the turkey was done. So I turned it off and thought to get up really early and take care of it. I never got up! This morning it was still warm but dried out. :o( So my yummy slabs of moist turkey for sandwiches became turkey salad and the broth gained a bit more meat then it normally would. Not what I wanted but I made do anyways.

Of course you know a revision is coming. We resorted to the meal in a pinch...chicken nuggets. That means Fri meal has to change too. Now I think it'll look like...

Tuesday...Chicken nuggets and baby carrots with dip
Wednesday...Turkey salad, rolls, salad, green beans
Thursday...Lasagna rollups, bread
Friday...Pizza
Saturday...Venison stew, biscuits

My birthday

Tom was fretting over the fact that we didn't have any cake mix in the house for my birthday cake. He must've asked me 20 times if I'd find him a recipe for an easy cake online. Then the concern was dinner. I informed him that Pizza was on the menu today and I'd make the crust which only takes a few minutes, everything else was in the fridge. He went out back for a while and came in with some money. Seems BIL decided he wanted me to get some things at the store. I was informed to get LOTS of steak and some snacks...other then that, I could spend the money as I saw fit. And I did! Not only did I spend that money, but I spent some of our's too. oops! Michelle was laughing because I was throwing things in my cart that I had in there earlier in the week but decided we could do without (like blueberry muffins lol)

For my birthday dinner I bought...
Steak - bought 2 huge roasts and sliced into steaks myself
Mushrooms,
stuff for a HUGE salad (also have enough for a few more meals)
Vanilla ice cream (Michelle bought toppings for sundaes)
Birthday cake (was going to buy mixes but Michelle twisted my arm on getting this instead)

Other things I bought...
Starburst candies
Blueberry muffins
cream cheese (for bagels and various dips)
velvetta cheese (cheese sauce for EVERYTHING lol)
milk
orange juice
green grapes
frozen strawberries (sundae toppings, smoothies and parfaits)
vanilla yogurt (smoothies and parfaits)
honey roasted peanuts
various chips and pretzels

We were all able to stuff ourselves full of whatever we wanted and had leftovers. The kids cleaned up in no time flat (amazing what you can do when you work together). Michelle had the sundae bar set up really nicely. We had gummi worms, reeses pieces, strawberries, bananas, sprinkles, crushed up cookies, assorted mini marshmellows (fruit flavored), hot fudge, chocolate magic shell, and canned whipped cream. YUMMMMMM! We never ended up eating the cake until Sunday night because we were stuffed from the sundaes.

How last week played out....

Revisions to the menu continued through the whole week. We ended up not eating ANYTHING that was planned. What we ate looked like this...

Wednesday.... Bologna sandwiches and Chicken nuggets
Thursday....Penne with Vodka Sauce (my mom fed us)
Friday....FFYS (fend for yourself) night....cereal, sandwiches, nuggets, leftovers
Saturday... Venision...backstrap, baby carrots and dip

It helps to have other people feed your family when you're trying to save money. lol Of course not having to do the work wasn't half bad either. We ended up at my parents' after Carrie's TODAY study appt. I HAVE to get my mom's vodka sauce recipe. She says it's easy. At first I didn't think they kids would like it but they all ate it, even the kids who don't normally like sauce on their pasta (preferring butter and parm cheese instead)

Friday I ended up running around as usual and I said I'm not cooking for get whatever you want out of the fridge. There was ONE pkg of chicken nuggets left when dinner was over. (originally were 9 of them) The older kids needed to bring something to eat to church with them on Sat and finished it up. We had chicken nuggets so much this last week that I REFUSED to buy anymore this weekend, even though they were on clearance for $3.99 again (3 - 20oz pks). I did end up buying Seafood Salad that was on clearance 2lb container for $3.99. I can't make it for that price. Everyone LOVES it and the container goes amazingly far.

Tom brought home another doe on Fri night. (he knows someone who hunts on a nuisance permit) He strung it up in the trees and we took care of it Sat morning. His brother was out of town for the weekend so I offered to help Tom do the dirty work. We took off the hide together and then Tom decided he'd go on his dump run before starting the butchering. I told him I'd start while he was gone and I did. By the time he came home I was almost done. I think I did pretty clean and quick work considering I had NO idea what I was doing (had never done or seen it done before). I was worried about getting grossed out and turned off to eating the venison. Instead it helped me accept it more readily. I think I had made it worse in my mind. Eileen said she was glad she came out and watched since it wasn't as bad as she thought it was going to be. We've talked of getting chickens and the main thing holding me back was the processing part of it. After doing the deer I think I can handle chickens just fine. And from there came Sat's dinner. :o) Gotta enjoy the choice cuts at their freshest.

It's a keeper....

Soda bread where have you been all my life!?! I don't know if we'll ever buy crackers again! Well we will because we like crackers for other things then soup/stew. It was the perfect thing to go with the stew. I substituted sour milk for the buttermilk and we had a little oven temperature mishap (my temp gauge is very easy to turn and tends to get bumped to different temps at times) but it was still good. Jake woke up this morning asking if there was any left. :o) I can't wait to make it again, this time with buttermilk.

I'm already revising this week's menu. Poor burritos are getting booted from the lineup once again. They are the classic...I have NO idea what to have so we'll have that meal. Michelle needed to run into the work and I stupidly ran in too. I keep telling her her job is costing me a mint! lol Of course I HAD to peruse the fresh meats section for clearance things and taaadaaa 3 - 3pks of Perdue chicken nuggets magically appeared in my shopping cart. So burritos will be replaced with chicken nuggets. Along with mashed potatoes and boiled cabbage that I never managed to make last night. The rest of the nuggets will see the inside of the freezer for another time.

Things that also managed to find their way into my cart... navel oranges, grapefruit, instant coffee, clearance bologna (pkgs were broke apart), Nestle crispy variety pk, Toberlone chocolates, Ferraro Rocher, and Emily's chocolate covered cranberries and almonds (DELICIOUS! and I only paid $3.99 for my pkg). The candy was clearance...mostly from Christmas. The first three will be added to Easter baskets. Emily's will be lucky to see the end of day. And I'll consider myself lucky if more find their way into my cart...although there were only a few left as of last night.

Shopping trip and menu revision

I ended up revising the rest of the week's menu.   I ended up having no tomatoes or spaghetti sauce for Wed night so had to switch things up a bit.  Michelle and I ran to the store after she got out of work for a few things.  I had the receipt and meant to post a list of what I bought but have since misplaced it.  

Wednesday....BBQ cocktail weinies, baked beans, canned sweet peas
Thursday....spaghetti and meatballs
Friday.... Eggs, sausage and toast
Saturday...Late lunch of spaghetti and sauce with a  later "snack" of venison

The venison was an unexpected but welcomed gift.  Someone Tom knows has permits and takes down damage causing deer.  He called Sat morning to say he had 2 small does for us.  Tom and his brother did the butchering and split the meat.   We bagged up the meat for the freezer.  Then cooked the backstraps/loins for dinner YUM!    They aren't very seasoned in butchering so things were a bit chopped up.  Most of it will probably end up as meat chunks with the larger hunks becoming roasts.   I was wishing they'd saved the hides, I'd love to try to tan them.   Tom thought it was too much work and he's probably right.  It just seems like a huge waste!  Maybe if we get more he'll allow me to have it.    

I bought a few things that weren't on my list from the earlier post.   Mostly it was 2 bags of apples, 2 heads of cabbage and 4 - 22.5 oz pkgs  of spreadable cheddar cheese.  Oh and a loaf of bread.  I haven't been so great about baking our bread.  Right now my excuse is that my dough hook for my kitchenaid seems to be missing.   I could do it by hand but I'd be lucky to have enough freehand time to throw things in the mixer.   I couldn't pass up the cheese they were 2 for $2.00!  Each pkg contains 1 container of chipolte and one container of smokey bacon.   I'm thinking at the very least I can use them to make mac and cheese.   I'll be looking for other ideas too, so share if you have them.