We ate the leftovers from last weekend’s party.  For the beginning of the week, we feasted on deviled eggs, veggies, sweet and sour turkey meatballs, pickle rolls, chips, tortilla rolls, dipped strawberries, rice, and sandwiches.  There is still a little cheese left, but most of the rest has been devoured.

My oldest daughter had some baked potatoes left over from a party she had given.  She asked if I wanted them, and of course, I said I did.  I was surprised when she came in with a plastic grocery-store bag full of the largest potatoes imaginable!  They were all baked, and there were just too many for them to use up. It was quite a challenge for us, as well!!

I had baked potato bar one night with broccoli from the freezer, cheese sauce, and cottage cheese.  I tried the Tillamook cheese sauce mix in a package that I purchased last week.  It was $1.99 and I had a digital coupon for $1.50 off.  It was delicious.  There were 2-3 occasions when people ate a portion of a baked potato at a meal.  I fried one for breakfast one morning, and put in a few slices of kielbasa sausage.  With the last 2 potatoes, I made potato salad.  I included some hard-boiled eggs.  As you can see, it was almost devoured before I could even snap a picture!

Michaela ate many, many peanut butter sandwiches with no jam, honey-nut Cheerios, and about 1/2 gallon of milk in 2 days, if not more.  She likes milk.  And, there’s a new rule that she cannot have soda until after she drinks a full bottle of water.  So, she drank water, and in fact, drink more than the forced amount a couple of times.  That’s great.  We are still on water restrictions, and so I bought a bunch of bottles of water. They say the water is safe for anyone my size, but I don’t want to take chances with my health, Rob’s health or the children’ health.  So, I don’t panic if I use some in cooking or drink a little, but try to use other water for the most part.

Jake ate Cup-o-noodles, chicken flavor, aka instant lunch.  In fact, I just bought a new case of it last night, because he used them all up from my pantry.  We don’t go through many of those, except when he is here.  Frankly, we don’t care for them as much as he does, but I’m happy to get them for him if he wants them.  He drank a lot of apple juice, and ate as many frozen Otter Pops as he could con out of me or anyone else.  He also drank some water–very rare for him–declaring that he was not under 6 years of age and didn’t have any health problems.  He was being a silly little stinker at the time, smacking his lips and declaring how good the water was because one of the other kids had just told him to not drink it:), but at least he got some water down for once!

Rob and I ate out one night, as we wanted to have a date night, and we got to talk in peace:). We packed picnics the rest of the times we were out and about with a bunch of children, or just had them wait until they got home to eat. (I wasn’t very popular a couple of times, but I’m trying to establish healthier habits at the beginning of the summer that will hopefully last the entire 3 months!)  I want French fries to go back to being a treat and not an expectation.   So, there went some of the cheese slices, lunchmeat, bread, peanut butter,  fruit, various snacks and bars, and drinks, all for a good cause–children’s stomachs:)

Birthday week continues–2 down, 2 to go!  Today Ja’Ana wants pizza for her birthday dinner, so Rob will grab an inexpensive wheat-crusted one somewhere, and I will eat one of the gluten-free ones I made and froze last week.  Tomorrow, Rob is barbecuing for our little friend, Danait’s party, and so I’m making a large potato salad again today.   I will put green onions in it, again.  Good thing they are growing so well in the garden right now!  I will also pick lettuce today for salads and to take for the hamburgers tomorrow.

I grabbed a few grocery items last night, such as the Instant Lunches, and a bag of potatoes. All this potato salad means I’m really going through potatoes right now. It’s great that they are very reasonable! I only had to pay $1.99 for 10 lbs. That’s a lot of good food for the price. I will look through my fridge today, but don’t anticipate buying very many other groceries for a few days, at least. Having lettuce in the garden really helps, and I was able to get a bag of 7 small avocados for $2.49 last night.  We love them in salads and guacamole.  Patsy and I just ran into Grocery Outlet on our way home from her first high school youth group barbecue (yikes–she’s getting so old!), and I was pleased with what I found.  You just never know what they are going to have.

Today, I need to get hot dog and hamburger buns for the party tomorrow, and a few tomatoes to slice, but have the rest of what I’m bringing.  My sister has been up with Harnet, gathering supplies for this party at least twice, and we have it well organized between the 3 of us.  It’s going to be very fun.  There’s nothing like cute little kids enjoying themselves to brighten a day!

This week, after looking around outside in the covered porch, I found a few items lurking around out there.  I also took a walk out into the muddy, muddy garden and found a few things.  I decided to use those up instead of buying more.  Novel thought:). LOL!

I baked a butternut squash we grew.  It had a few bad spots, but I cut them off, cubed it, and roasted it with olive oil, salt and pepper.  I used home-canned pickles.  I cooked burger from last year’s cow (there’s a bit left, still.)

We ate up the rest of the chicken I baked earlier in the week.  Rob made some pizza using some pre-baked bread crusts he found at Grocery Outlet for around $1 for 2 a while back.  He used toppings we had on hand.  I baked one of the gluten-free Costco pizzas I buy frozen.  I added toppings to the cheese they come with.  We cruised along on that for a few days as we made lots.  (Thank goodness I didn’t eat an entire pizza in one day!)

Last weekend, I went out and got a few things, mostly produce.  One thing I bought was a 15 pound bag of potatoes for $2.50.  So, we baked up a bunch of those. We’ve had those a couple of times this week.

Out in the garden, I found a nice cabbage, some kale and a bunch of boc choi.  The boc choi was a surprise, as it was hiding behind some other things and I didn’t see it until I got out there!  I finished up a head of cabbage I had previously picked, and was delighted to see that this one was in excellent condition.  On the covered porch, I found a small handful of potatoes, a couple of small squash and a few onions.  I should tidy the porch more often:).

That cabbage grew a lot since this picture was taken at the end of last summer!

I also cleaned out the small freezer above the fridge because I had the things all slide out and land on my feet one too many times.  I found a couple of mystery baggies of various meats and some other items.

So, I made a soup from pork(?), the potatoes, an onion, a bunch of cabbage, carrots, frozen beans, and some tomatoes.  I also dumped in some pinto beans that were also lurking in that freezer.

I cut up a bunch of cabbage and put it in a Ziplock in the fridge for coleslaw over the next couple of days.

I made smoothies from fruit I froze last summer.

Rob BBQ-D some steak from our new beef we recently received to see how it was.  It was amazing!  We had baked potatoes and canned green beans with it.

I also used up every avocado I had, which Rob got at Grocery Outlet for a very low price last week.  I made guacamole.  We had enough for 2 days of that, too.

The peaches and applesauce have really come in handy this week, since Lovana had 2 wisdom teeth taken out on Monday.  She had a really hard time with one of them.  So, she’s been eating lots and lots of ice cream, peaches, applesauce and mashed potatoes.  When I took her back to the dentist on Thursday, I got her a milkshake at Burgerville.  She is finally feeling quite a bit better today, and went to work for the first time since last weekend.  Good thing.  The ice cream is about gone:).  The triple chocolate, the chocolate chip mint, and the vanilla.  Trust me, she had a lot of willing helpers to eat ice cream.  So, you could say ice cream was one of our food groups this week.

I decided to skip my usual weekend shopping this week.  Instead, I want to use what’s in the fridge, home-canned and frozen items, cabbage, boc choi, kale and pantry items.  If it’s going to fall out of the freezer onto my feet, that’s it.  It’s going on the plate!  Later in the week, if I need milk or something, I’ll worry about it then.  I’m right on track for a moderate-spend month, and I’ll just leave this week’s money in it’s envelope in case I run out of things later this week.

I have been wanting to make a menu plan for a few weeks, but haven’t had time.  I’ve been too busy gathering, canning, and preserving for winter.  I will assure you, we have been eating never-the-less!  Now, it’s time to plan meals that use my preserved food.  I am not one to can/freeze food and then want to hoard it.  I figure I’ve gone to all that work, now I want to use it up!

I usually plan one meal for each evening, and plan the leftovers for lunches and perhaps one night later in the week.  This week, I’m trying something a little different.

When I plan menus, it saves me time, money and stress.  Since I get home at 6:30, 3 nights a week, the rest of the family gets hungry before I get there most of the time.  Last week, I made chicken breast, drumsticks and turkey meatloaf on the weekend, and put them in the fridge.  Then, it was easy for Rob to grab what he wanted, make a couple of side dishes, and serve dinner.  The girls clean up the dishes, since it’s their chore, and they save me a plate.  Except for the night they didn’t, but that’s another story:)

I asked him how it worked, and he said it helped him a lot.  When he gets home from his job, he is tired, but has been trying to do at least 1 extra job around the house or shop each evening.  I’m all for that!! So, if dinner is cooked or in the Crock pot, it makes that do-able for him.  Because I have appointments for the girls both Wednesday afternoon and Friday afternoon, I will make sure the meals are pre-cooked those days, as well, or in the Crock Pot.

Sunday: We had ham and scalloped potatoes for our family Sunday dinner.  My sister hosted this week, and I made a small broccoli salad, marinated cucumber salad, and lettuce salad.  I used garden produce in all 3 salads, with only a few purchased items.  The garden is coming to an end, but there are still items out there, and I want to use them.

Food for Rob to choose from for the next few days and lunches for himself and the girls.  I will also use some for lunches during the week:

I cooked a roast in the crock pot while I was gone today.  He can serve it as meat on a plate, or take it in his lunch, or make a sandwich.

Spaghetti sauce:  I will make this and use it for lasagna one day, and spaghetti another.  I have a quart of tomatoes that did not seal and needs using up.  I also have zucchini from the garden, and I may make part of the noodles in the lasagna out of them.  I usually put a little chard in the sauce, too.

I am cooking up some taco meat right now.  If people are hungry after evening youth group, they can have tacos, if not, it will be a choice in the fridge.

I want to do a beef stew with carrots, since I have 4 gallon Ziplocks left from what we dug up.  I also have some garden potatoes and onions.

You may notice a lot of beef-based meals.  Let’s just say we had a LOT of chicken last week:)

I want to do either potato soup or clam chowder.

I have a loaf of rosemary potato bread I got from the day-old section when I visited Bob’s Red Mill.  We had some for lunch today, but will add the rest to meals during the week.  The non gluten-free ones in the family love having a treat that has wheat in it occasionally.  Since I don’t even keep a speck of all-purpose flour in the house, I don’t mind buying them things when I can.  I always have whole wheat bread for their sandwiches, but I don’t make it anymore.

I plan to make gluten-free foccocia bread.  I have a recipe that has zucchini and parmesan on top.  It’s good.  I will also make cornbread, as Rob is hungry for that.  If there is time, a batch of muffins would be great for breakfasts.  Of course, I can make any other baked item that comes to mind, if I have time.

In the garden, we still have purple beans, lettuce for salads, cucumbers marinading in the fridge, snow peas and raspberries.  The cherry and pear tomatoes are still producing well, but the larger tomatoes are not very prolific any more.  Still, I may get a few.  The basil and cilantro are great from the last planting I did.  There is chard and kale, and a few zucchini and peppers.  I have 1 head of lettuce from the store to mix with my limited supply of leaf lettuce, and can start buying a few veggies, if needed.  I think there will be plenty for this week in the garden, though.  We should use some of the preserved green beans if we run low on fresh produce.  There are an AWFUL lot of them out there in the shop:)  It’s so fun to look back on our summer’s labor, and just settle down to start eating it up!

Now, I will get busy cooking.  I will do a couple of things tonight, and likely the rest tomorrow.   I will continue searching this week for a great deal on Rob’s coffee pods, and butter for a price I like:)  Otherwise, I think we are set for a while.