Prepping for Pantry Challenge

I have been mulling over the pantry challenge and have decided to do it. I am making a list of items I can not do without for the month. These would be items I have to go to the store for or face mutiny from the other people at the house.

The list has been made and it is shorter than I anticipated. I can not ask the other people in the house to do without:

Nutella
Milk
Bread
Pepperoni
Snack Cakes
Yogurt
Blueberries

I realize dairy and produce were on her list of allowable items but knowing my inability to go into the grocery store for just these items I added them to this list. With that being said I made a trip to Winco in preparation for the challenge and purchased a month's worth of the items that would not spoil and 2 week's worth of the  milk and bread.

Let the challenge begin!!!

Over the Limit and New Recipe Fail

I left work last night a little earlier than normal so I decided to swing by the store and pick up some hamburger for the recipe I wanted to try. I realized after I arrived at work yesterday that I did not have any on hand, and really did not want to change the menu I made for the week since it used up most of the ingredients I had on hand looking to be used. Long story short, that stop put me over the limit this month

Target trip:
1 container sour cream
2 boxes of yogurt
2 pkgs cheese sticks
1 bag dog food

Total: $27.01


Sprouts trip:

~.05lbs ginger root
4 lbs mandarin oranges
3 lbs ground beef
muffins

Total: $14.09

I did get rebates back on these items and am nearly at the tipping point to get $40.00 back but again can not count it until it is money in the bank.

Feb Total: $228.87

Dinner as on the menu was supposed to be these awesome Shepherd's Pie Potato Skins but the skins on my potatoes started peeling off as soon as I took them out of the microwave so I ended up making a more traditional pie and served it with garlic bread. It tasted fine, I was just disappointed that it did not work in the potato skins for me.

I am contemplating a Pantry Challenge for next month. A friend shared a  post from Good Cheap Eats on eating out of your pantry for a month. I read her post on having a pantry challenge and think I could pull it off. As always the trick for me is staying out of the grocery stores and if I get my produce through the co-op that would limit my exposure to the store. I have enough stuff at home between the pantry, fridge and freezer to cook a lot of meals. She gave herself produce and dairy to be purchased which makes sense. If I do the co-op I would only need to give myself a pass for dairy. I am pretty stocked up on cheese and sour cream right now so I am thinking milk would be my only dairy purchase. The money I would save if I could just run in and get milk would go a long way towards either my student loans or towards taking the boys to Florida to visit my family.

I will confirm in the next couple of days if I am going to do the challenge, as I have just managed to get a menu down for the week and hopefully stick to it.

Books Feb 13th Through Feb 22nd

This post will go pretty quickly as I have been slowly reading print volumes lately. I have been wait listed for most of the audio I am interested in.

With that said since the last post I did finish Little Pink House and enjoyed it. It was very informative about both grass roots efforts to change laws and the current status of eminent domain. Until this morning this was the last audio book I had to listen to. Honestly out of almost sheer desperation for something to listen to while driving back and forth to work I picked up A Troublesome Inheritance which I will have to report on later since it just got off the ground.

As for print books I finished The Great Beanie Baby Bubble.  This was an interesting book on a crash in the collecting world that I can relate to since I was an adult during the bubble. After I finished it I tackled Fed Up With Frenzy. I finished this book pretty quickly and was really disappointed. I should have probably thumbed through the book rather than just going with the title. The book really should be 1001 craft projects to make you feel more like a slacker than pinterest ever could. I also can not understand how that many craft projects is going to make my life less frantic. This is one I should have passed on. Once I finished it Saturday I picked Blessing The Hands That Feed Us back up and I am determined to finish it. I stopped when I realized she had a prior novel but now that I have finished that one I feel free to read this one. It has been an easy read due to her writing style even though the subject matter can be very heavy. I go back and forth between actually doing a local eating challenge and just informally doing the best I think I can.

I am going to list some cookbooks that I have "read". Really I just looked through them to see if there were enough recipes that I want to try before I purchase the book. Cooking Light's Essential Recipe Collection : Slow Cooker: 57 Essential Recipes to Eat Smart, Be Fit, and Live Well. I was not sold on this book as the recipe I made for dinner on Saturday was the only one I was even interested in. Next was Southern Living Fix it and Freeze it/ Heat it and Eat it: A Quick -Cook Guide to Over 200 Make-ahead Dishes. This one was amazing and I have been looking for a copy to purchase.  The last one I checked out over the weekend was Every Grain of Rice. This is not one I will purchase. I really liked the explanations and text as well as equipment guide but there were just not enough recipes that my family would eat to make it worth purchasing.

Weekend Moving in the Right Direction and Some Misses

Saturday started out a little earlier than I had hoped and this time it was my fault. I needed to pick up my bountiful basket at 9:00 and meant to get up at 7:30 so I could get ready and get there on time. I accidentally set the alarm for 7:00 on a morning when even the kids were sleeping in! I laid there for a few minutes but Turbo heard the alarm and came to poke his nose on me and see if I was up. I went ahead and started the shower and let him out. By the time I got out of the shower Clark was awake running around. He and I went ahead and popped some biscuits in the oven for breakfast and continued getting ready. Once we had breakfast I headed out to pick up my basket.

After picking the basket up I headed to Winco to do some more shopping for this month and take advantage of some coupons and rebates I had.

Winco Trip:

1 container butter
1 gallon whole milk
1 pkg egg rolls
1 pkg shredded Parmesan cheese
1 pkg blue cheese
2 boxes snack cakes
2 boxes of fruit snacks
1 box popcorn
2 boxes cereal
2 cans refried beans
1 4-lb bag sugar
1 jar spaghetti sauce
1 bag croutons
1 bottle teriyaki sauce
1 can shave gel
1  Dublin cherry limeade

Total: $26.07

I had $8.25 in rebates among the apps I have on my phone.  I am not subtracting these from the totals yet as I have not got them back yet. Almost all the apps require $20 in rebates before I can withdraw the money. 90% of the time I leave it in my paypal account to pay the Netflix and Hulu bills.

Total for Feb so far:  $187.77 so I have $12.23 left to make it till Saturday!

After leaving Winco I ran by the gas station as I forgot it was my week to buy our lottery tickets for the office pool. I made the purchase and text messaged everyone a picture of the tickets before heading home. Once I got the car unloaded and the  rebates loaded I chatted with Phillip.   Phillip went to work leveling out the area where the pond used to be and we are planning on putting a new deck while I got dinner into the slow cooker. Dinner was Tiny French Beans with Smoked Sausage , which I made a couple of changes to. I had navy beans so that is what I used and also used beef broth instead of chicken since that is what I most recently made. It smelled amazing through the day and actually tasted good. The only thing I would change is to cut the cook time a smidge as the beans got pretty soft. Then I got the kids ready to head out to the library and the park. This was a part of my New Year's Resolution I was trying to keep. Meaningful time with friends and as much time outside as possible for the boys. We went by the library and then picked up lunch at the Wendy's drive thru before heading to the park. I texted a friend to let her know we were there so she could come chat and bring her son to play with Logan. It did not completely go as planned. A friend from Logan's pre-k class last year showed up shortly after the text was sent and they played the whole time almost exclusively ignoring his other friend. I understand his inability to focus on more than one person at a time but it did not make the situation any better. We had to talk on the way home from the park about the situation and including all friends when playing. Clark on the other hand was just having a great time getting filthy and eating mulch.

Once we left the park we headed home and Clark went right back outside to play in the backyard.  He really needed a nap and he was filthy so I brought him in, gave him a bath and snuggled a little bit so he would go down for a nap. . I was going to immediately get started getting stuff ready for the Just Between Friends sale but I needed a rest so I sat on the couch for a little bit but knew there was stuff that needed to be done. I checked on Logan who had shut himself in his room thinking he would be asleep but he was just in there playing. I made him a couple of sandwiches and then got to work cleaning off the "craft" table. I have a bad habit of setting everything I need to deal with on this table and in order to tackle any project I have to first clean it off. Before Clark woke up I had managed to get the dishwasher loaded and the table cleaned off as well as the items I needed to put in the tagging system pulled out. Clark being awake spelled the end of that chore. It was ok as it was getting close to dinner time and we needed to work on the laundry.  The rest of the evening was spent on these items and then we all crashed!

Sunday morning was church and lunch with friends. Once we made it home Clark was asleep so I snuggled with Logan on the couch for a few minutes and then went to work getting the stuff put into the tagging system. 138 items later and I still had most of the clothes to go. By this time Clark was awake so I took him into their room with me and worked on cleaning out his closet while he played. We then went into the front room and sorted the clothes on the pool table by size, season( this is the spring sale so they will not take winter items), things that I can not sell because they are stained, and items I want to keep.

This is what the final stacks looked like. I put the stained items in a pile to find a different home and the winter stuff aside to start tagging for the next sale after I get the stuff delivered for this one. At this point I called it a night and started on dinner. I went with easy and not so healthy. After dinner it was baths and kitchen clean up. We managed to get all of this done early last night so I sat down to make a menu for the week with the hopes of not wasting any food this week. This is what it ended up looking like.

I really hope to stick with this menu and hope it cuts time and stress this week. A couple of the recipes are new and hope they are tasty so we can add them into the rotation.  After a quick vacuum of the kitchen, living room and hall I mopped them and then got the kids off to bed. It evidently rained last night but I had no knowledge of this as I was sleeping so hard.

2 things I forgot to mention! I had a trade for some of the produce I knew we would not eat for baby wipes which was completed Sunday afternoon.

The other item was I scored my first ever prize from a claw machine! Logan always wants to try the claw machine at Winco because it has stuffed dinosaurs in it and the couple of times he has tried he did not get one. I have also never been able to get anything out of one but this was my lucky day, I got a dinosaur on my first try! I think I was more excited to have something drop in the bin than he was when I came home with the dinosaur.

Now I need to win another one for Clark although he really just wants whatever Logan has, he does not understand that he is missing one.

Scored A Great Stash with My Trades This Week

Yesterday Phillip set the pond form on the porch for trade pick up and I set out a slow cooker I was no longer using. Here is a picture of what I received in trade which are all items that were on my grocery list/usual trade requests.

In case you can not make it out that is a package of 5 toothbrushes on top of the toilet paper. The toothbrushes, toilet paper, paper towels, olive oil, apple juice, shave gel and vinegar were in trade for the form. The baby bath, baby toothpaste and loaf of bread were for the slow cooker. I am trading tonight some homemade items for 2 shirts and will try to remember to get a picture when I get home.

February Totals Thus Far and Menu

I ordered my first Bountiful Basket in a long time and added on the fondue pack which will give me more fruits and veggies. This was a $30.00 investment that should last the rest of the month. With this purchase and the Winco trips from last weekend my total is up to $161.70 for the month which puts me back under budget. The purchases for this weekend will finish out this month as the trip on the 27th will count into March.

Feb 10th: Can not remember

Feb 11th: Cooked a frozen pizza and made a garden salad to go with it.

Feb 12th: Pizza again, we were out late getting our taxes done.

Feb 13th: Grilled ribs, black beans and garden salad

Feb 14th: I used the leftover black beans and some flour tortillas with taco seasoned ground meat, grated cheese, lettuce and refried beans for tacos.

Feb 15th:  I made taco soup using the leftover black beans and taco meat. I added a couple of cans of beans, frozen corn and a packet of ranch dressing mix and cooked it on the stove as I forgot to put it in the slow cooker that morning.

Feb 16th:  I made crustless quiche to use up some eggs, ham and spinach I had on hand. I was not super thrilled with it because the spinach had a canned taste even though it was fresh. Could have just been me as Phillip ate all of it other than the bit I scooped out for me.

Feb 17th: The kids and I went to McDonald's as Phillip was meeting a friend who was passing through town for dinner.

Saturday and Phillip's "Holiday" From Work

I tried to get as much off my list as I could done on Friday night but really did not make a significant dent in it. We were getting our taxes done and so by the time I picked up the kids and got home it was too late to start projects. Saturday on the other hand was a day of accomplishment with a couple of lows. The kids of course woke up at 7:30am as the fact that they can sleep in escapes them.  I went ahead and got a shower before Phillip left with Logan for the Lowe's build. After the shower Clark and I shared a bowl of cereal and then got ourselves ready to run some errands. Before leaving the house I moved all the stuff on the counter away from the stove and then put the self clean on. We hit up the farmer's market first but were disappointed that most of the usual farmers were not there. I know it is not prime produce season but the cheese guy and the baker were not there either. After leaving there we headed to Archie's Gardenland to check out the available plant selection. Archie's is locally owned and usually carries a lot of native plants, again the nice weather has me jumping the gun on a lot of things. The selection was not what I wanted so we left and headed to the next errand which was the gas station. After filling up we went by Target to get Nene and Mimi a Valentine card. I also picked up cards for the boys and a small toy for each. After leaving Target and heading to the library Clark fell asleep so I just dropped the books in the outside drop box and then went by the drive through at Whataburger and picked up a kid's meal for me. I headed back to the house to find that Phillip and Logan were home. Phillip was working on homework and Logan was playing outside. I was able to get Clark to stay asleep as I moved him to the bed. Once I had him in the bed and the few items I picked up at Target brought in I changed into work clothes and took Logan with me to the drop off station for some more mulch. We got back home and then rather than finish the area I originally picked the mulch up for I cleaned up another bed close to the house. I had to dig up a shrub that was not doing well and move a salvia to a better spot. After that Clark and I started moving mulch from the truck ( he woke up just before I was ready to get the mulch) to the back yard wheelbarrow full by wheelbarrow full.

By the time I got the 3rd wheelbarrow full back there I had filled in the new area Logan wanted to also "help". They did a better job this time helping but it is still extra work with the 2 of them versus me doing it by myself.

Once spring is really here we will look for some shade loving plants and fill in the bed.

I had 3 more wheelbarrows of mulch to move and that filled in the originally intended bed a bit more.

I intend to put a few plants in this area but keep it mostly for the kids to play in and for the clothesline. If I had not filled in the other bed I would have had enough mulch but such is my life. The free mulch from the city ended up being really expensive as I my phone fell out of my jeans pocket while I was in the truck bed shoveling. It hit the driveway and shattered the back. This is when I found out that the Samsung Galaxy S6 is glass on the back as well as the screen. When I took a break from the shoveling I went in to let Phillip know. He got in touch with the company that handles our phone insurance and they got a new phone shipped out right away to my work address. So after that was handled I went back to clean the bed of the truck and list our pond on my trade group. We need to redo our decking and have decided to take out the pond and enlarge the deck so we can eat outside when the weather is nice. I listed the pond form and fish in my trade group and found a taker pretty quickly. Forgot to mention earlier in the post that Logan had purchased me a bird feeder for Valentine's and so about this time is when he insisted we fill it and hang it out. It is in a temporary home to satisfy him while I think about a good permanent location for it. After all of this I went inside to take a shower and by then it was getting dark so the kids came in and got their baths. I wiped out the stove but had followed this pinterest tip to clean the burner pans. Because they were soaking I went with a dinner that did not require the use of the stove top. We had grilled ribs, black beans that I cooked in the microwave and salad.  Clark loves ribs and I could hardly get it off the bone fast enough to feed him. After dinner I put the rib bones in the slow cooker with some celery and carrots to start a beef stock. I was able to get the kitchen and living room mopped before Clark was just too sleepy and I put him to bed. Once he was in bed I loaded the dishwasher, put up the leftovers and did some laundry. After making Logan's bed I headed to bed myself and snuggled with him for a little while before taking him to bed. Sleep came fast but was broken several times by Clark waking up fussy. I have to say I was not a good mother and was pretty short with him when he woke up for the 4th time. We made it through the night though and slept until we absolutely had to get up and get ready for church.

Church was fun for the kiddos and busy for me trying to keep them for going crazy. Our usual lunch group all had plans so we headed to McDonald's with Mimi and Nene. After lunch we headed home and the kids immediately went outside to play. I used this time to sneak out and deliver this month's collected donation to our adopted family. I also headed to Winco to pick up a few items I had coupons on  and then came home to upload some of the items for rebates.

Winco Trip:
~1&3/4 lbs grapes
~2&1/2 lbs bananas
1 pint blueberries
2 pkgs taco seasoning
1 pkg tea bags
1 bottle w-sauce
2 cans low sodium black beans
2 cans refried beans
~1&3/4lbs bulk baking soda
Total: 9.71

By the time  I got all of this taken care of I went outside to check on the boys and Phillip who was pulling up the deck. The batteries on his power drills were going dead so it was not going as smooth as he hoped. While he struggled with that I went around to catch as many of the fish as I could. The person who had arranged to pick them up just wanted me to set them out on the front porch in a bucket so she could swing by the next morning and pick them up. I worked on catching some and cleaning some of the sludge out of the pond until it was getting close to dark and then headed inside. For dinner I used the leftover black beans and some flour tortillas with taco seasoned ground meat, grated cheese, lettuce and refried beans for tacos. After dinner and baths for some very dirty boys the plan was to get some cleaning done but again Clark was having a hard time staying awake. He went to sleep and I again loaded the dishwasher, cleaned out the stock and put it up. Laundry is an almost every day thing so more of that was worked on. Bed again was a relished time with Clark sleeping much better.

Monday Phillip was off work but I was not. I got up as soon as the alarm went off and headed outside to try to catch more fish as I hated the thought of any dying. It was dark and the latern I had was not really helping so I went ahead and headed in to get ready. After I managed to get another load of laundry on and everyone ready I headed out to catch more in the light. I was able to get most of them as they  were schooling up. Phillip went ahead and scheduled some appointments in the morning so I took Clark to the sitter and Logan to school. I again headed by Winco on the way to pick up Clark because a coworker had brought me more coupons.

Winco Trip:
1 box snack cakes ( was hungry)
1 tube chips ( again hungry)
1 Dublin Bottling Works cherry limeade
1 container salt
1 packet ranch dip mix
1 can ro-tel tomatoes
1 can black beans
2 cans pinto beans
1 can kidney beans
2 containers Nutella
 Total: $9.44
 
By the time I picked up Clark ( Logan had gone to the store with the sitter's husband and son to shop for suits) and headed home Phillip had completely disassembled the deck and put the board on the curb for bulk pick up as well as took the pond apart and dug up the form. He was in the middle of trying to hang a new light fixture when I arrived home but soon let it be until he had more alone time to work on it. I started dinner and about this time Larry (the sitter's husband) brought Logan home and so we sat down to dinner. I made taco soup using the leftover black beans and taco meat. I added a couple of cans of beans, frozen corn and a packet of ranch dressing mix and cooked it on the stove as I forgot to put it in the slow cooker that morning. While the boys were in the bath I scanned my items and uploaded the receipts for rebates. With all of this excitement we called it an early night.

Books Jan 30th Through Feb 12th

I finished listening to Wisdom of Our Fathers and it was a really, really good book. I recommend it but warn you it will make you cry! After that I listened to Imperfect Justice: Prosecuting Casey Anthony which just made me angry. I followed the case at the time and the book just reinforced my belief that she got off with murder. Goodreads recommended the book her attorney wrote and I think I may read it just to see what he has to say. Once these were finished I started listening to a book on CD that has been on my currently reading list for a couple of years. Little Pink House is the story of Suzette Kelo and her neighbors who took their city and it's development board to the supreme court in an attempt to keep their homes. It has been really interesting and I should be able to complete it today. There is not another book on tape or mp3 in the wings waiting so I may have to hit up the library tomorrow.

In print I finished The Girls Who Went Away and just felt a sadness for this part of our history. Many girls who are now seniors and their children were profoundly affected by the way we treated them. Progress has been made but I think we could still do better and I hope we do.  That book was heavy so I chose a couple that were lighter after it. My yard is a huge project plan for me as I am trying to get it looking decent with native plants so I chose another gardening book next. The Shade Garden really was not the gardening book for my plans. It had some beautiful pictures and plans but it was not written with natives in my area in mind so I will not be buying it. After that I went back to The Great Beanie Baby Bubble and hope to finish it by tomorrow so I can get it turned in and off my list!

I am down to 27 books on my currently reading list now and feel like I can get them all knocked out in the next few months!

I Am Too Old for This No Sleep Business

Admittedly I waited until I was older to have children which was honestly not planned but happened. This has led to many things that would not have happened had I been even 10 years younger.....like the mood I am in when I do not get sleep.

I am a 10 hour sleeper meaning if I let my body takes it's natural course I would wake up completely ready for the day after 10 hours. I have rarely been able to capitalize on this but getting 7-8 hours works also and keeps me going although a little slow in the morning. All of this is of course before the munchkins appeared in our lives. I feel lucky now if I can go 4 hours at a stretch and this last week it was 2 hours. Clark was having trouble breathing through his nose and this kept waking him up which of course meant I was up trying to soothe him and let him sleep upright on me. A week of this made me extremely testy and short with everyone. A friend told me of a study where researchers tested the scent babies put off and the reactions of adults. Evidently our reflex to sniff babies especially on the head awakens our protective responses.  This and them looking so darn cute especially when they are sleeping soothes the cranky mama!

Logan's Surprise Day

The school district had a teacher in service day on Friday so  Logan was out. I knew this ahead of time and asked for the day off work without telling Logan. As the week progressed I let him know that Friday would be a surprise day. I planned on getting up like we were going to school and taking Clark to the sitter. Once Clark was dropped off the plan was to pick up Mimi ( Logan's great grandmother) and head to Dinosaur World for the day. He kept trying to guess where we were going while I kept talking to Mimi and checking the weather forecast. Logan's expectations were low and his guesses included McDonald's, Chick-Fil-A, and Rosa's Cafe. On the morning of the surprise he guessed a hotel.

The morning arrived to semi-nice weather. It was a little cool and would have been a lot nicer but the wind was blowing. The other snafu was Logan's eye was swollen and we needed to put some medicine in it and apply warm compresses. It looked like he had a sty and was really upset thinking it would keep us from our surprise. The swelling went down mostly by the time we were up and going. I called Mimi on the way and she was up and ready so we picked her up and headed to Dinosaur World although I still had not told Logan where we were going. Mimi kept him guessing the whole way there and he was really surprised when we pulled up. It was perfect that the first dinosaur inside the park was Logan's favorite the stegosaurus.

If the weather had been a little warmer it would have been the perfect place to spend all day. We had packed our lunch and they made it convenient by having picnic tables all through the park.

We finished up at the park by noon and so Mimi suggested we go to Fossil Rim so we could extend the day. She really loves spending time with the boys and I want them to have as much time with her as possible so on to Fossil Rim we went.

After leaving Fossil Rim we headed by NeNe's ( Logan's grandmother) work so they could visit. After a lot of playing with the shop dog we headed to McDonald's to eat. Logan was hungry but Mimi and I just had an ice cream. After all this fun it was time to take Mimi home and us head back toward our house. Phillip had picked up Clark from the sitter so Logan and I went to Winco to take advantage of some sales and use coupons (receipt is noted on last post). Once we were done there we headed home so Logan could recount the whole day for dada.

Avoiding Exposure

It seems as if I have been avoiding a posting. Business has really been the reason but I feel some avoidance because it has been so long and the business has kept me away. I am going to just do a quick catch up on the groceries and dinners and then post again later with what has been going on with us.

Winco trip#1:
1 pkg diapers
1 pkg wipes
2 pkgs fruit snacks
2 pkgs granola bars
2 gallons apple juice
1 Dublin root beer
1 pkg pistachios
2 pkgs honey buns
1 container Nutella
~1&1/4 lbs bulk pancake batter mix
~1/3 lb bulk raw turbino sugar
1 pkg little smokies
1 pkg breadsticks
2 pkgs butter
1 pkg bulk sliced cheddar cheese
1 pkg turkey lunch meat
1 pkg pepperoni
2 pkgs biscuits

Total $47.07

Sprouts Trip:
2 pints blueberries
2 pkgs chips
1 Rotisserie chicken
1 pkg muffins

Total: $16.84


Winco trip#2:
1 case diapers
1 pkg fruit snacks
1 pkg snack cakes
1 pkg moon pies
3 jars pasta sauce
2 pkgs frozen pretzels
1 pkg little smokies
1 gallon milk
2 pkgs biscuits
1 pkg cheese sticks
1 pkg blue cheese
1 pkg egg rolls
1 (100 oz) container laundry detergent
2 pkgs pecan rolls
1 lb strawberries
1 loaf bread
~.25 lbs gummy fish

Total: $48.61

Grand Total: $112.52 for the month so far so $12.52 over budget at this point.


Feb 1: Little Smokies in BBQ sauce with steamed white rice

Feb 2: A giant pot of Mac-N-Cheese

Feb 3: Rotisserie Chicken with garlic bread and garden salad. I immediately deboned the chicken and put the carcass, some carrots and celery in the slow cooker and started some stock.

Feb 4: Chick-Fil-A ( school fundraiser)

Feb 5: Logan and I had McDonald's as we were out of town

Feb 6: King Ranch Casserole. I halve the recipe as it makes a ton and also do not let it sit overnight as the recipe says because I never make it that far ahead. It did allow me to use 1 cup of the chicken stock I had made as well as part of the leftover chicken.

Feb 7: Fend for yourself night

Feb 8: Mexican chicken "Lasagna"  

Feb 9: Beef Stroganoff

February Here We Come!

As usual I started this month with high hopes for a menu plan and perfect dinners. We are 4 days in and we have not had a single "perfect" dinner.