YUM! Sept 6, 2010

Cajun meatloaf, butternut squash and apples and Betty Crocker instant mashed potatoes.

This is working pretty well so far...

Food Inventory
I am at the end of my third week and I love knowing what our menu is in advance. I have menus designed for the next 6 weeks. I am working around my pantry items, (oldest first) freezer items and the things that are on sale and a great deal. I have been keeping up with my inventory so far, marking things off the list as we use them and adding the newest items as I get them. The idea was to shop less and I have ....but not as much as I thought I would. I just can't pass up a great deal. It is still saving us in the long run. Today I picked up 3 racks of baby back ribs for $2.79 lb. One for our dinner today and two for the freezer. Hey, I couldn't resist that price!

I actually did some sewing last night and I have everything set to sew again today and tomorrow so I have something for Design wall Monday. I have been such a slacker in that area lately. It's time to get busy again.

Let me tell you, this Raspberry cream pie was really good!

Confessions of a food hoarder

My name is Diana and I'm a food hoarder!

I'm not sure how this problem came to be exactly but a problem none the less. I consider myself a good bargain shopper and nothing I like more than getting a "deal" on something. In fact, I never buy anything for full price. NEVER! Especially groceries. Groceries go on sale regularly but it is cyclical. So for that reason, I buy more than just what I need so I have it on hand when I need it again and don't have to pay full price. I have always shopped this way. It has always worked for me but sometimes I get so disorganized I don't know what I have on hand and buy even more.
We are pinching pennies right now with me being laid off ......again. So I decided to start using up our excess and plan my menu for the week around what we already have. Great idea right?
To do that I needed to know what I have...so I did an inventory. OMYGOSH!
Can you say excess?
Oh I have the staples like this
But how much tea does one need? That whole lower shelf is all tea! (kool aid is in the green container)

Some of the excess:

• 26 individual bags of microwave popcorn
• 24 boxes of jello gelatin
  
• 10 boxes of jello pudding
• 13 boxes of rice mixes
• 24 packets of dry soup envelopes (like onion and vegetable mostly used for dips)

And lots more! This is just in the house, we keep our EXTRA food out in the garage.
We have two large red racks with food. This is the first one:

• 4 boxes graham crackers
  
• 3 boxes Bisquick
  
• 12 cake mixes
• 9 cans of frosting
• 4 boxes brownie mix (there would be more but we make these a lot)
  

We have

• 8 jars BBQ sauce
• 6 enchilada sauce
• 8 gravy
• 6 Alfredo sauce
• 20 cans tomatoes
  

• 12 cans fruit
• 15 cans tuna
• 8 mushrooms
• etc, etc
  

• 
• 6 jars peanut butter
  
• 8 jars jelly and preserves
• 64 boxes of pasta (lots of variety)

That doesn't include all the cleaners, shampoos, etc.
WHY do I need 10 bottles of dish soap?
My freezer is the same way. I figure with the exception of fresh produce and some meats we can last for months without spending too much on food. This should get us through the lean months ahead. That is the plan anyway!

In the mean time I have spent a lot of time deciding on my menu for the next month and enjoying it. Mark thinks I'm a bit nuts but that is ok with me.

Honey Mustard Chicken

Another winner and easy to make.
This is my favorite dinner and I make it a lot. The asparagus was a bit soggy. I usually always steam it fresh but it was super cheap a few weeks ago so I tried blanching and flash freezing and then using the food saver and put them in the freezer. They were soggy. I don't think I will be doing that again.


What is on your design wall? This is on mine.

A little organization and Dinner

Mark got home around 1pm today and he spent a large part of the day picking up the yard and burning sticks and twigs and general clean up. What a difference that made. I officially moved my sewing machine into the quilting room and set it up near my big work table. I had it on the tv table in the dining room and had extension cords all around plugged into the iron, sewing machine and light and well.....I tripped yesterday and almost...I said ALLLLLMOST, sent my Janome 10000 flying! Oh, I don't know what I would have done then. I have hopefully solved that problem by getting rid of all the cords and tripping hazards. That was a close one!

Yep, another dinner to blog about.
Since Mark was such a good man and cleaned up today, I made him one of our favorite dishes. Szechwan Beef:

Yes, we like spicy food in this house. This recipe is very flavorful using lots of spices for the marinade.

Jess approves:

A hearty dinner before his trip

Well Mark and Jess are at work. Mark is going away for a long weekend but leaving right from work so I won't see him until Sunday when he comes home. Who knows if Jess will be here tonight or not. That's ok, I'll just do my own thing.

I plan on sewing and quilting a lot in the next few days.

I made a nice hearty dinner last night. This one I make often. It couldn't be any easier. First, I peel carrots and scrub red potatoes and rough chop them up, I add any other veggies I want like fresh mushrooms, green pepper and onions. This time I added broccoli because I had some. I fill the pan up like so:
Hint<I use tin foil in pan for easy clean up>
Then sprinkle with olive oil and season with salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, and parsley, red pepper flakes are optional and just stir it up to kind of coat it, then rough chop up some Italian sausage links and throw those on top like so:

Pop it in the oven for about an hour and 15 minutes, or until carrots and potatoes are done. I usually take it out and stir it once after about 40 minutes.
This is a nice hearty meal and easy to prepare. We love it.
Plated up:

Oh, and then I made a pineapple cake for dessert and to send with Mark on his trip.
I had some for breakfast today:

Sunday Dinner

We had a szechwan Chicken stir fry tonight.....here are the veggies:

Plated up!

This was awesome!


This however was not so awesome:You guessed it....the border on a customer quilt. I give up!
I am NOT A MAGICIAN!