Menu for the next two weeks

Okay, I thought that I would start posting my menu that I plan for the next two weeks and link my recipes if possible. My Mother in law expressed disgust over the cost of groceries lately and I totally agree with her, especially since she has more people to cook for (her father and my Father in law's mother live with them). So I can't imagine the cost of cooking for 4 grown adults. In anycase, I buy meats on sale. Right now I have a lot of pork and some chicken left from a stock up a month ago. Our local Wegmans has awesome meat sales- I mean something like 10 porkchops for $7 and 5 pork tenderloins for $8! I don't always stick to my budget at all, some weeks are over, due to not enough time to plan, etc. But one of the ways I try to cut down on expense is to meal plan two weeks ahead and often cook double for things that freeze well.

We do eat healthy, I adapt recipes to lower fat and we eat veggies as sides. But unfortunately eating healthy does cost more, it is so worth it!!

Week of 11/29
Sunday- Turkey potpie ( making 3 to freeze 2, cutting some of the butter and cream cheese)
Monday- Pineapple Pork Tenderloin (cut this to only 1 lb of pork and using frozen peppers to save money)
Tuesday- Meatloaf that I have frozen. This is made with ground turkey, it is a cookinglight recipe that I have adapted. So basically 1 lb ground turkey, cook some onions, garlic, and carrots for about 2 minutes, add egg, some bread crumbs or cracker crumbs (1 cup?), worcestshire sauce (1 tb), 1/4 cup ketchup in mix. Top with some more ketchup. I make mini loaves so they cook faster (so personal little meat loaves). They freeze super well and you really can put what you want in it.
Wednesday- Spaghetti with frozen ground turkey meat sauce
Thursday- leftovers
Friday- eggs and toast
Sat- Out/ Calzones that are frozen in freezer (pizza crust, variety of cheeses, and spinach)

Week of 12/6
Sun- Orange Apricot Pork Chops- all on hand, except for mandarins
Monday- Butternut Squash soup (frozen in freezer)
Tuesdsay- Ground Turkey Tacos
Wednesday- Sweet and Sour Chicken pasta (basically orzo, veggies, chicken, sweet and sour sauce- but the recipe is Betty Crocker)
Thursday- Leftovers
Friday- Perogies ( would love to try to make this myself, but for now the frozen kind)

Thank you

Thank you for my little tree hugger. Thank you for our family.

We had a wonderful thanksgiving with my Mom, Pete's parents and grandparents. Our entertainment was Celia of course! She was so good, not overly hyper and well behaved. My turkey turned out amazingly again this year. Yes that is one thing I will brag about, I can really cook a turkey. This year it was a 20 lber!! I brine my turkey and that makes it moist. Pete had to do the lifting of the turkey in and out of the oven this year though.

My Mom as usual did a great deal of cleaning, prepping, and cooking which allowed me to relax. My mother in law and Granny supplied many tasty dishes. At one point I looked at all of the food, and I thought how lucky we are.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Free Turkey

So The Meanest Mom (see the blog links on the side of my blog) commented on the Free Turkey at her grocery store. Well I didn't realize that this past Sat. was the last day for earning the money towards the turkey- otherwise I would have gone shopping. Why is that? I mean you can buy the turkey until 11/28, so why can't you earn your money for it until 11/27?? Oh and not everything qualifies for the points. Anything government regulated- like milk, eggs, etc. doesn't qualify. I actualy think that produce might not qualify either, but I am not sure. I budget and I spend likely around an average of $65 a week, with some weeks going quite over when we need things like toilet paper, laundry detergent, or I am making and freezing a bunch of meals. So this time it hurt me, I am $50 short.

So for the first time in years I have to buy my turkey. Oh and I can't find apple cider, the most important ingrediant in my turkey brining process. So Celia and I will be off to a local orchard today or tomorrow to see if they have apple cider. I will also be price searching to see who has the best deals on turkey, do they make coupons for turkeys??

So budgeting and eating less processed foods ruined the free turkey this year. Next year the free one is mine.

Just a little update

So nothing really new to report on the Celia front. She is still very cute. She is still making trouble at school. Everyone comments often that she is so smart, which makes me very happy of course! A new thing of hers lately is to make up stories which cracks me up.
I am enjoying the fact that she likes Gilmore girls. I love that show, absolutely love it but I haven't watched it really in like a year. I have had some rough days lately and I just wanted to see about 20 min. of it one day. Celia was playing by herself and so I turned it on. She never pays attention to shows like that but for some reason she started watching it. She came and curled up with me and started asking questions. "What is she doing?" or making comments "Hey Mommy, she has pigtails", etc. So today she pooped in the potty and requested Gilmore girls. There was 15 min. left, so I was more then happy to give her that! We settled down together and watched it. She was quite upset when it was done.
For some reason she is enjoying going to the grocery store lately and requests it. I only take her when needed, but it is funny. I was not happy with her this past Wednesday when we went though. She tossed a container of hummus out of the cart and into the aisle, it smashed and was all over the place. She then asked me for more hummus. I was quick to let her know that we were not getting anymore hummus.
So I will update at another time, with some pictures perhaps. Life has been busy and hard these past few weeks, I won't go into detail, but some thoughts and prayers are helpful. Actualy some thoughts and prayers are needed for friends who are going through a rough situation.

Thomas

I don't have a picture of him on my computer but sadly my Mother put her cat to sleep this evening. Thomas will be greatly missed. She had him since I was 19 I believe. In anycase he traveled with her to 3 houses total, 2 states. Thomas was a cat in a small animal shop at a Votech school where my Mom was a secretary for a number of years. She took him home on the weekends and during holidays so that he wouldn't have to stay there. Finally after awhile, they gave him to her. He was a funny little thing in the beginning, thought he was a dog for a long time I believe. In anycase, he was a cat that absolutely loved people and was never afraid of anyone. That is quite unusual for a cat.

So send some thoughts my Mom's way as she deals with an empty house tonight....

Boo

Celia had a great time trick or treating. We were not sure we were going to make it as she woke up feeling a bit crummy. It turns out she was just sleepy and a little tired of her cold. It rained about 40 min. into our trick or treating so we headed in. She loved going to the houses, just wouldn't talk to anyone once we got to the door.

I carved the pumpkin, no help from anyone else. I also roasted some of the seeds and they are tasty. Celia has an issue with getting her hands yucky and so does Pete, so no one would put their hands in the pumpkin except for me. Me, who actualy thinks it is quite relaxing to stick my hands in the gooey pumpkin mess.

Pete let me know that next year he is taking her out. We will see if that stands, she will have be 3 and so much fun. With the small amount of trick or treaters, the two of us could take her out together!!