LOK Cooking Challenge - June/July

The latest LOK Cooking Challenge ends today and being the procrastinator that I am...I just completed it! LOL

This month's challenge is to provide a 3 course meal (appetizer, main, dessert) for 4 with ingredients purchased soley at a dollar store. You can't use anything from a cold case, only shelf stock.

I spied a can of Old El Paso Chickekn Cheese Enchilada Flavor Soup and thought...that would probably make a good base for a rice dish. I bought a can to take home for a taste test. It was a hit! It had huge chunks of chicken and veggies, perfect for a base. Eileen loved it so much she begged me to buy more so we can take it camping. So the challenge was on.


My purchases... $14.75
2 El Paso Chicken Enchilada Soup
2 sliced carrots
2 tuna salad kits
pouch of tuna
lg can diced tomatoes
rice
jar marinated garlic vegetables
bag of dried cranberries and golden raisins
orange marmalade
mango perserves
sharp cheese spread
chocolate frosting

Let me just say....Cooking for 4 is HARD! I'm now convinced Tom and I will be empty nesters with multiple freezers jampacked full of leftovers. I'll be making up care packages for everyone who stops to visit. It was so hard to gauge how much rice was needed for a main dish for 4. And the veggies, I kept thinking...that's not enough!

Appetizer



I had two options in mind when I bought my appetizer ingredients. I definitely wanted the jar of marinated garlic vegetables. It was what I was serving with it that I was wishy washy about...Tuna. I was leaning toward tuna cakes but I'm not a huge hot tuna fan. I decided to put out both options. So I took the tuna on crackers picture, crushed up the crackers into the tuna salad and added the additional pouch of tuna, formed it into patties and fried...tuna cakes!



Personally being the country bumpkin that I am, I'd opt for the super easy tuna salad on crackers, it wasn't half bad. It also made the meal a $1 cheaper (didn't need to buy the pouch of tuna). Most of the kids who were up when I did this liked the tuna cakes. They were so so on the marinated veggies which is fine by me...I'll eat the whole jar myself!



Main Dish



The veggie portion of this challenge gave me fits! Knowing that the rice dish was bland and orange/yellow in color I thought canned asparagus would liven up the plate. Thing is...I needed two cans to be what I deemed a reasonalbe serving. Can I serve hot asparagus without any butter or flavoring? Then I spied the canned veggies that were 2 for $1. Hmmm some glazed carrots might be yummy. Won't help me on the presentation but as long as it's good. I thought I grabbed an apricot perserves to glaze the carrots with, I grabbed the mango one instead. It worked, made it intersting and everyone liked it...Sean LOVES them!



I simmered a half pound of rice with 2 cups of water, 2 cans of soup, juice that I drained from the diced tomatoes and half the can of tomatoes. Being the cheese freak that I am, I didn't think the soup gave the dish enough cheese flavor to it. To fix this I decided to add a container of cheese spread to the dish near the end. I opted for sharp cheddar since I was making the dish on the mild side. The pepper jack or nacho might've been a better choice for this dish but the sharp worked out ok. This made TONS of rice for 4 people. It might have even been too much for my family as a side dish. People liked it well enough here (I had some as I wrote this out)

Dessert



I knew the base of my dessert was going to be pound cake. What I didn't know was what I'd serve on it. First I picked up a package of vanilla pudding cups to make trifle. Then a pouch of cherry dessert was in my hand (like cherry pie filling), then a can of lemon pudding, I decided to do something totally different then what we're used to. So I went dried cranberries and golden raisins plumped up in an orange marmalade glaze with melted chocolate frosting drizzled over it. I didn't want to be repetitive with the glazing but thought it was different enough in taste to be ok. A few of my kids aren't raisin lovers so they didn't go gaagaa over it. I liked it a lot and it served the purpose of why I made it...it was different then our normal.



I'd say the challenge was a success. Everything I made was liked well enough by enough people in the house to be ok to serve as a meal. I'm pretty sure I won't be running to the dollar store to get our next meal though.

Other entries...

Anne's
Michelle's
Annie's

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

Tye-Dye Duo over and done with

We roasted the 2 roosters tonight. I took a picture before we roasted them but forgot to take one before we cut it up for serving.



Never having had free range bird before I wasn't sure how much fat there would be. My thought was, not a lot. Instead of my normal olive oil I buttered the birds using real butter. Then I seasoned with onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper and into the oven they went. They smelled DELICIOUS cooking!

The size of the drumsticks and thighs surprised me. Those two guys gave us a lot of meat even though I left a decent amount on the carcass when I carved them. (planning on making stock with them). My concern that the kids would balk at the idea of eating the roosters and the taste of it were for naught. Everyone that ate it, liked it. I choose a thigh and while it was very tasty, it was also a bit tough. I can see why people cut their chickens into pieces. The thighs and drumsticks are definitely geared more toward stewing. Then again maybe these birds were a bit older then I'd like my roasters to be. (we don't know how old they were) Also I'm considering not allowing my meat birds so much freedom...but not sure about that yet.

Anyways back to the roasted roosters. Immediately after dinner I took what was left and put it in the crockpot with the carcasses and pan drippings. I'll let it cook on low until the morning when I should have a pretty meaty crock of broth.

Menu... June 27 - August 2

Sunday... Grilled cheese and tomato soup
Monday... Roasted yard fresh roosters (see here for an explanation), mashed potatoes, sauteed zucchini
Tuesday... Spaghetti with Italian sausage, homemade garlic rolls
Wednesday... Chili corndog casserole, tossed salad
Thursday... BBQ venison sandwiches, canned corn, macaroni salad
Friday... Breakfast for dinner...pancakes and scrambled eggs
Saturday... Meatball Subs, canned green beans

Shopping list
--------------
Salad fixings
4 boxes cornbread mix
4 cans chili
1 pkg real bacon bits
fruit for snacks
bread for sandwiches for lunch (if I'm lazy and don't make my own)
milk
refill water containers
margarine
bbq sauce

Being done with logistics

I'm now left to think about the below exercise in "frugality". I know that the main purpose of the article was to show that ANYONE could feed a family reasonably with $100 (albeit boring with lots of rice, potatoes and beans lol).

I still can't help thinking on how I could've done it better and cheaper. Especially since that allows for more fruit and veggies. I deliberate chose certain cuts of meat. I didn't want someone's bias against certain parts of the chicken to go against me. So instead of getting $.99/lb thighs which are much moister then breasts in most situations. I opted for the breast which most people see as superior. The one place I didn't do that was in the canned tuna. I just don't care for albacore and you're only going to splaster it with mayo anyways (hmmm forgot to add that to my shopping list...oops!)

The 3lb bag of chicken could've easily made 3 chicken breast meals. Afterall a reasonable serving of meat for an adult is only 4oz. So a family with 2 adults would use 8oz, a 4yo and toddler maybe another 4oz but I'll even give them 6oz. That's only 14oz for a meal! So in reality they only needed a pound of meat per meal, not the 1.5 pounds I gave them. They could make it go even further by using the chicken in a casserole or as an ingredient instead of the main portion.

Buying in bulk really does save. My theoretical $300/wk for my family will buy a lot more food per dollar then their $100/wk. I had to decline the use of some meat in the ad because the cheap price was for 3lbs or more. Fine for my family for a week...not so much for a family of 4. Unless variety isn't something they're striving for...Are they ok eating Italian sausage 4 days a week? lol If they did the experiment for a month and allowed the family to buy things one week to save for a different week, it would've been even easier to do.

The same goes to say for shopping the sales and having a stocked pantry/freezer and shopping at a discount store (or multiple stores) which of course weren't allowed in this project. I still couldn't help but think...Man! $2.00 for a dozen eggs! I can get them for $1.25 at the convenience store! That's a whole nother dozen of eggs with change to spare.

The problem is, even with all the right knowledge at your fingertips. Unless you have a desire or drive to do it....it is a hardship. Not to mention it's all perspective. What's my easily doable and yummy menu is someone else's impossible time constraint inferior menu. To some countries it's a banquet fit for a king.

Dusting off the cobwebs!

And what brings me out? Well for one thing I need to get back on track with my food planning, especially now that my kitchen is nice and clean and I can work in it! The main motivator though was this article over at MSN...Can a family eat on $100/wk

I had to laugh at the stereotypes in this article...sick of beans, rice and puffed rice. I'd LOVE to have $300/wk to spend on groceries. (my family=3x family of 4 so 3x the budget) I'd even love to have $300 every 2wks to spend. Things are so tight here that on paper I have ZERO food money. Granted I always seem to find enough to get us by with. Usually it's pocket money, overtime and robbing Peter to feed Paul. So I can't complain. Still I decided to try my hand at this gimmick.

I decided I'd use a store fairly close to NYC so it couldn't be said that prices were too low where I lived. (plus I don't advertise the location other then Central NY). I picked a Price Chopper in Middletown, NY. I also decided I would try to have some meat in almost each meal. I did fairly well. I even managed to do a no cook/take out dinner of pizza! For the things that weren't in the ad I OVER estimated according to what prices I pay at the Wal-mart near me. I think I was generous with serving sizes since the article featured 2 adults, a 4yo and a toddler. There'd be leftovers with my menu but I only counted on one lunch with them. The milk amount might be weird as we don't drink it with meals. I tried to compensate for that. So here's my menu, food cost and shopping list...

Breakfasts
Scrambled Eggs with ham steak/Toast
Egg sandwiches with ham slices
Yogurt/toast/grapes
PB toast/Cantelope
Oatmeal/grapes
Pancakes

Lunch
Tuna sandwiches
Ham sandwiches
Ham sandwiches
PB&J
PB&J
Baked potatoes
Leftovers

Dinner
Pizza/baby carrots
Raviolis with sauce/bread/spinach salad
Baked chicken breast/frozen corn/rice pilaf
Shrimp Alfredo/spaghetti/sauteed veggies
Ham steaks/parmesean egg noodles/frozen green beans
BBQ chicken breast/spinach salad/cornbread
Pork chops/sauteed veggies/mashed potatoes

1.50 - raviolis
1.50 - spaghetti sauce (know I can get it for $1)
6.80 - 6 loaves Friehoffer's split top bread B1G2F - $3.40/3 22oz loaves
2.00 - 2 bagged spinach B1G1F - $1.99
1.00 - margarine
2.00 - 2 european cukes B1G1F - $1.99
1.50 - Italian salad dressing
4.00 - parmesean cheese
1.50 - egg noodles
6.00 - 3lb bag individually frozen chicken breast
2.00 - 2 bags frozen veggies (corn & green beans)
2.40 - 1/2 lb cooked shrimp - $4.80/lb 71-90ct
9.00 - 3 gallons milk
1.20 - 1 lb spaghetti/linguine
5.00 - 12 slice deli take out pizza
1.00 - 1lb baby carrots
2.00 - 2 lb summer squash - $.99/lb
4.00 - 2 pkgs ham steaks - B1G1F - 12oz each (estimate original pkg price)
4.00 - 2 pkgs sliced deli ham - B1G1F - 12oz (same as above)
1.00 - rice
1.00 - boullion
1.00 - 2 pkgs cornbread mix
3.00 - 5lb bag of potatoes
3.00 - gallon OJ (loss leader...Great price!)
3.00 - 3lb red grapes - $.99/lb
2.00 - 1lb pork chops
4.00 - 2dz eggs
1.50 - 2 cans chunk light tuna
2.00 - skippy peanut butter
2.40 - yoplait yogurt $6/10
1.50 - oatmeal
2.00 - flour
3.00 - sugar
1.50 - jelly
4.00 - instant coffee
3.00 - cantelope
----------
$97.XX

With the remaining (and surplus I know I'll have from estimating) I'd add one or some of these....

bananas
bag of popcorn kernels
Brownie mix $10/10
Pretzels $1.00
tea bags (to make sweet tea)
bottle lemon juice (to make lemonade)


Funny...I don't see any puffed rice, no beans and only one yummy side of rice. So I have NO idea what this article is talking about!

Menu... May 25 - 31

Last week went along fine until Friday and Saturday. Friday we had sandwiches and leftovers...I think. I know we all ate lightly since there was a stomach bug going through the house last week. Saturday we were gone all day and night at the semi annual church soccer tournament. We bought the $.50 hotdog special for lunch and I brought salami for sandwiches with apples, chips, baby carrots and cookies. I'd missed the deadline to order BBQ dinners and was really regretting it...it smelled SO good!

This week is half way done and I think I can cob together the rest of the week, so shouldn't be too hard.

Sunday... 2 cookouts...first at my brother's and then finished the day at my sister's. Lots of burgers, hotdogs, bbq chicken, and whatnot.
Monday... Cookout here with the kids...steak, salad, watermelon, deviled eggs.
Tuesday... Spaghetti with sauce and Italian sausage, bread
Wednesday... Baked Ham, parm noodles, broccoli normandy
Thursday... Burgers on a bun, salad
Friday... Beef and broccoli stir fry, refried rice (might change to chicken stir-fry)
Saturday... Cookout at my parents for my mom's birthday.

Menu... May 18 - 24

I've managed to go shopping a few times. I really need to get back into the habit of not running to the store for whatever. It's just so easy when I'm always on the go. Thing is it's a killer on the pocketbook.

Sunday... Hofmann hotdogs, salad and chips (Michelle's graduation - her choice)
Monday... Burgers on a bun, salad
Tuesday... Venison Fajitas
Wednesday... Grilled Chicken breasts, macaroni salad
Thursday... Grilled Steak, sauteed mushrooms, potato salad
Friday... Spaghetti with sweet italian sausage pieces, bread
Saturday... Pizza, leftovers, baby carrots and dip

Menu... May 11 - 17

Oh this is getting hard. For the first time in a looooong time the house is dangerously low on food. It's really unsettling for me to be in this position. I know that the amount of food and choices I have affects me emotionally. I have meat in the freezer thanks to the venison we were gifted this spring. It's the other stuff that is missing....eggs, milk, pasta, bread, veggies, etc.

I'm hoping that our stimulus check comes on Fri like it's scheduled to so I can do a major mega shopping trip. Hmmm it might be a good chance to do a 34 meals for $500 type of post again using 2008 figures. I keep wondering how things would compare between then and now (including our different eating habits). All I know is I am DYING for some roasted chicken!

Anyways...onto the task at hand...trying to squeek by until payday. I'm only planning until Friday though since it's payday and I have to be in the city. That means I'll most likely pick up some groceries.

Sunday... Take and Bake Uno pizzeria pizza (Tom's Mother's Day surprise...picked it up when he picked up Michelle)
Monday... Hot dogs and chips thanks to Uncle B
Tuesday... Venison Fajitas
Wednesday... Scalloped potatoes, bread
Thursday... Chicken Pot Pie, bread

(These things are almost definites since I have the main ingredients for all these dishes defrosted in the fridge right now. I may even get them all made today!)

Oh quick note! Don't count out your local convenience store for grocery deals. I ran there last night on the way home for milk (not too bad....used to be one of the cheaper places actually). I was amazed to find a dozen eggs for $1.49 ($.124/egg). Cheapest I've seen it at the regular grocery stores is Wal-Mart's 18ct carton (which are $.14/egg)

Menu... May 4 - 10

Things are tight still/again. I'm going to have to plan out of my freezer and pantry which are getting bare too. Guess that means preplanning and prep work to be expected.

Sunday...Grilled steak, mashed potatoes
Monday...Fajitas (with leftover steak added to venison), canned corn
Tuesday...Macaroni and Cheese, canned peas
Wednesday...Turkey and gravy over rice, cranberry sauce, biscuits
Thursday...Brunch for dinner...quiche, pancakes, canned fruit
Friday...Spaghetti with sauce, bread
Saturday...Scalloped potatoes and ham, biscuits

I guess I took a week off

Life got in the way and I let my food planning go. I don't think I can even remember how the last menu ended. Let me just say, it didn't resemble what I had written down. lol

I missed not having a plan to use last week. It really does help alleviate some stress. We actually ended up ordering pizza one day. Mostly it was due to being out of water but still, if I'd planned ahead I might've been able to avoid that.

So I'm working on my menu for this week. Hope to have it up REALLY soon.

Menu April 20 - 26

Michelle wanted hofmann hotdog again so we bought them on Monday. I'm not really sure what to call the stuffed steak except YUM! lol Pat sliced up a 6+ lb angus roast I had, sandwiched onions and spices between 2, rolled it, wrapped it in foil and then threw it on the grill for about an hour. I could see myself doing this with a LOT of added things (green peppers, mushrooms, zucchini, etc). I have to figure out more things besides chili to do with the venison in my freezer so I can start using it.

Sundy... Shrimp Alfredo
Monday... Hotdogs, potato salad
Tuesday... Stuffed steak, mashed potatoes, veggies and dip
Wednesday... Pizza
Thursday... Scalloped potatoes and ham, bread
Friday... lemon garlic bay scallops with rice and broccoli normandy
Saturday... ? Drew's birthday, cookout maybe, probably burgers and dogs

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

Menu April 13 - 19

It's spring break and I should be planning more then dinners but I'm not. Feeling lucky to just get the dinners planned. If I'd posted this Sunday like I'm suppose to, I'd have had a revision already. Gotta love a quick trip to Walmart to change things around. I was only grabbing a few things and came out of there $55 poorer. Michelle decided she wanted Hofman hotdogs (delicious Central NY regional thing). So she paid the pretty penny for them and I paid for the hot dog buns and tater tots to go with them. lol

Sunday... Venison Chili
Monday... Hofman hot dogs with buns, tater tots, salad
Tuesday... Sweet and sour meatballs, broccoli normandy, rice
Wednesday... Pizza
Thursday... Shrimp alfredo, bread, salad
Friday... Leftovers probably (may not be home for the day, then the kids run out the door at 7:30)
Saturday... Scalloped potatoes and ham, green beans, biscuits

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

Menu - April 6 - 12

Tom was so busy trying to fix the van he never had time to get the charcoal going. We ended up microwaving chicken nuggets (I THINK they're gone now), making nachos and/or ramen noodles. Basically a FFY (fend for yourself) night. Here's this week's menu so far...

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

I'll need a few things from the store this week. For the meals listes...mozz cheese (kids used most of what's in the fridge for "nachos", and potatoes. Then the regular stuff...milk, fresh fruit and veggies, eggs, etc. My fridge is looking pretty bare, a good time to clean it out.

Drew and Allison brought me a gift today, Amish Friendship Bread Starter, 2 batches even. (they figured one batch wouldn't make enough for our family lol!)

Noelle, eggs are our goto meal too. We go through tons of them every week. All the kids (except the 2 littlest) know how to and can cook their own eggs. They eat them whenever they get hungry and they think there's nothing to eat (meaning no bags of chips or cookies). lol They especially love it when there's a ton boiled up and ready to just grab and peel. Val's been wanting pickled eggs lately and I agree with her it sounds yummy. So I think we may be making up some of those this week.

Lasagna Rollups

Makes approx 22 - 24 rolls

Cook lasagna noodles according to directions and cool

Melt:
3 Tbsp margarine

Add to margarine then cook till bubbly:
1/4 cup flour

Mix and microwave 2 min:
1.5 cup milk
1 scored bay leaf
pinch nutmeg

Whisk warmed milk into margarine flour mixture. Cook until boiled.
Allow cream sauce to cool.

To the cream sauce add in...

3 eggs, beaten
2-3 pounds cottage cheese
1-2 cup parmesan cheese
1/2 lb grated mozzarella
1/8 tsp nutmeg
cooked spinach (I used one can, drained well)

Mix well to combine

Dump one can (26oz) of spaghetti sauce into a large lasagna pan (think mine is 16")

Lay out a lasagna noodle on the table and and spread filling on noodle (estimate about 1/4c for each noodle, didn't measure, just scooped with my hand). Roll noodle short end to short end. Place rolled up noodle in pan. When pan is full dump another can of sauce over the top. Add 1/2 can of water over the top and jiggle pan to incorporate. Top with shredded mozzarella cheese (about 1 pound I just grabbed handfuls out of a 5lb bag).

Bake for 1 hour in a 350° oven

Kids were asking to try a meat version...probably add some italian sausage next time

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!

Oh I hate when that happens!!!

I had to throw out a WHOLE 8qt pot of chicken and broth this morning!!!! It was one of the richest and meatiest pots I've ever made too. I just want to cry...it could've made at least 2 meals. All that money and work gone. Actually I haven't thrown it away yet, I'm not sure exactly WHAT to do with it. I can't dump it down the drain, can't throw it in the trash. I'll probably have Tom dump it into the weeds. Makes me wish we had animals that could be fed it.

So WHY do I have to toss it? Because I just got up and see it's sitting on the back of the stove. I hadn't bothered to debone the thighs, just threw them in along with the pan drippings which I never do...that usually goes straight to gravy. It simmered all day long and made it smell Yuuuumy in here. I'd turned it off around 3pm so that it could cool enough to allow me to debone it. (figured I'd do it after dinner) Sean was super fussy with a fever and I got stuck in my chair with him. I eventually decided sitting with him wasn't working so took him to bed. Shortly after climbing into the bed I realized the pot was still on the stove. I couldn't get up so figured I'd ask Tom to throw it in the fridge before he climbed into bed. I fell asleep before he came in!!! So the pot sat and sat and sat. And now 14hrs after turning it off, it's trash. :o(

Wish I could console myself with the fact that it's only $.49/pound turkey and we already got one meal out of it (turkey salad tonight), but I can't. It's just too much and would've gone so far. I actually sat here at first and tried to reason that it wouldn't be bad and I COULD use it. Of course nothing is worth that risk to my family's health, not even almost free meals. OK, take that back, if we were starving or going to starve without it, it'd be a different story. Thankfully that's not part of the equation today.