Testing...1-2-3...Testing

Is this thing even on?

It is?  Well that's good.  I think.

I'm sure you are wondering what has happened to me.  If it makes you feel any better, I'm wondering the same thing.  Should I have just wondered that out loud?  Hmm, probably not...

I know, I know, it's been a while.  Yes Judy, since February 2nd - I heard  ya...  It just seems like a lot has gone on around here, and yet there's not really anything big enough or exciting enough to say.  For example, we got new tires on truck!!  How exciting for us, but do you care? I'm going to go out on a very short limb and guess that your answer is a resounding no.  So as you can see, clearly exhilarating yet not news worthy.

Oh I know!  My friend's daughter talked to me!  She's six.  Almost seven.  Like, she'll be seven in three weeks.  I know what you are thinking, and yes, it's an extremely ginormously exciting thing!  Absolutely fantastical I tell ya!  Four years...F-O-U-R years!  That's how long I've known her and she's never said a word to me...unless you count that time I made her cry (which is technically a *vocal* sound) because I sat next to her at a baseball game.  But she did - she talked to me!  I nearly passed out.  I danced a jig!  I giggled unabashedly!  But you don't know my friend's daughter, so you don't know how much of a big deal it all was.  Again, not something worth writing a blog post about.  Actually it is, but......well, you catch my drift.

We've had no breaking news on Kelton's school career.  He isn't peeing on the playground anymore, or telling the teacher (who is a very good friend of mine) that she isn't his boss.  He hasn't spit on any more classmates or thrown any more fits because he isn't winning Candyland (because as we all know, Candyland is just so enthralling...)  We duct taped him to the wall worked out all those kinks, and he's doing absolutely fantastic!

Jordan.  Jordan is growing up a bit too fast for me.  It seems that deodorant is necessary?  Already?  Now?? He's 9!  For the love of all things chocolate, when did this happen?  Tell me, do they make little boy deodorant? It's over in the slightly-bigger-than-a-baby section, right?

Otherwise, the only other thing that is worth mentioning is I'm scheduled for surgery. Yup, you read that right.  Sur.ger.y.  I had my pre-op appointment today.  I guess it seems more official having had this appointment.  I mean, it's called a "pre-op" appointment for a reason.  The last appointment I had was the Hi-nice-to-meet-you.-What-do-you-say?-Want-me-to-cut-you-open-and-fix-all-the-yucky-stuff?-Do-you-trust-me? appointment.  I guess the abbreviated name would be a consultation, but that sounds so...clinical.  Anywho, that was over a month ago.  So now I'm good to go.  Surgery on the 24th, and David gets to take two weeks leave to take care of me.  Well, more like he gets to take leave so that a responsible adult is available to feed the kiddos more than pop tarts and Mini eggs.  Oh yeah, he's getting his dream vacation, folks.  I know he'll cry when his leave is over - and it better not be tears of joy!

So there you have it.

You have been brought up to speed.

Scary exciting, isn't it...

**P.S.  I guess David has the same meal plan for the kids as I would have from Percocetland, so they're pretty much just screwed.  He'll just make sure they don't get too hurt.  And I think he mumbled something about taking the time and "mentally regrouping." I'm not sure what that meant.  In the past, I think it's had to do with being in the garage?  Any ideas?

Menu Plan - February Edition

I swear....wasn't yesterday Christmas?  So its impossible that I'm writing "February Edition" in the post title.  I'm not ready to be doing the meal plan again so soon.  I'm serious!

I'm giving the monthly plan another try.  I liked being able to see multiple meal choices and choosing based on how our schedule looks, and I enjoy the flexibility it provides.  The only thing I'm gonna strive for this month is one soup each week.  David said he'd eat soup all year round, but I have a harder time with it when it's 100° outside (in the shade!)  So we'll enjoy them while it's still cool outside.  Also, I only have 20 meals "planned", allowing for leftover nights, unexpected changes to our schedule, or the Superbowl.  Some are carried over from last month since we didn't get to them, and I'll link the recipes when they make it on the weekly planner.

1.  French Toast Casserole
2.  Taco Rice
3.  Meatballs and gravy over rice
4.  Pancakes
5.  Homemade Pizza **planned for this week
6.  Mexican Lasagna
7.  Turkey Bundles
8.  Crockpot Broccoli Beef over rice
9.  Sausage Tomato Soup
10. Ham
11. Baked Potato Soup
12. Cheesy Chicken Soup
13. Meat Mix **planned for this week
14. Crockpot Taco Chicken and rice
15. Basil Garlic Sausage and Potatoes **planned for this week
16. Sloppy Joes - could be Baked Joes **planned for this week
17. Pasta e Fagioli
18. Chicken Enchiladas
19. Chicken and Fish - I don't eat fish, but the boys love it and I have some in the freezer
20. Pork Noodle Soup **planned for this week

Swing by Orgjunkie for more menu plans and recipes.

Introductions are in order

Meet Mutley, the newest member of our family!  She's a 10 year old girl who was in need of a forever home, and she picked me. She's doing great, and seems quite happy to be home.  She'd been at the SPCA since August, when her family had to surrender her because they were having to move into an apartment and couldn't take her with them.  (It's sad that that is a recurring story these days.)  Mutley was a staff favorite and was considered "too good" to be in a kennel, so she spent her days lounging on her own special bed in the boss's office - so you know she's a special girl!  The staff was funny - they thought we were joking when we said we were there for her!  They didn't want to get their hopes up that she'd be adopted, only to be disappointed again.  So when we said we'd take her, there wasn't a dry eye in the place!  They were making phone calls to say "Mutley is being ADOPTED!" and let people know to come say goodbye to her.  So, I'd say we've lucked out and got ourselves an awesome addition to our family!!

 

 

Wow, I thought we had covered this

Day #1 of Kelton's school career: things went well.  Since this is his first school experience, the fact that he "didn't want to" do some things wasn't any cause for concern for the teacher, yet she did let me know that we would need to talk to him about school routines and expectations.

Good to know.  So we had a little chit chat with him, and I think he understood.

Day #2 of Kelton's school career: better...and worse.  He didn't say that he "didn't want to" do something.  So that's good - the conversation seemed to have registered. 

Oh, and then she told me that he peed on the play ground.

Really?

I really thought we had established (you know, because we do live in a house, and not outside) that if you need to go potty, you go to the bathroom.

I guess Kelton missed that memo.

I can't wait to hear how Day #3 goes.....

Happy Birthday, Monkey

Five years ago, he looked like this....

Today he looks like this.

 

And he started school....

It's a pretty big day for him.

Why didn't I think of that?

I hate "duh" moments.  But I totally had one the other night.  I was sitting here at the computer thumbing through various money saving blogs.  I'd read so far and then I would click on a link to another post or blog, and before I knew it, I was 43 layers deep and had 2,743 savings tips swimming in my head. 

And then...

...there it was...

My "duh" moment.

I had read that it was cheaper to buy bone-in chicken breasts (on sale of course), and just de-bone them yourself.  Well, that part I knew.  I had planned on doing that this week since Safeway had bone-in chicken breasts for 99¢ per pound.  What I hadn't thought of was what to do with the bones when you are done removing the meat from them.....

Are you ready for this?  You could have your own "duh" moment here.....you boil them!  You get homemade chicken stock, and you can save all the meat that stuck to the bones. 

I'm serious, why didn't I think of that before?!

I bought 30 pounds of chicken for $30 ($29.58 if you want to get technical!), and saved myself $50 because it was on sale.  So far, so good.  I was eager to see how my new information would pay off in our favor.  David and I set up a little assembly line and got to work.  We had one bowl for meat (which turned into 2 bowls by the end of it), a huge pot for the bones, and another bowl (with a plastic bag for easy clean up) for the skin and fat.  You can see it up in the corner of the picture...

I'll admit, it was time consuming, but it didn't feel that bad since we were working together.  And the pay off would be huge (so I hoped.)  Well, right off the bat, I saved $50 just from the sale.  Had I waited for the boneless skinless to go on sale for $1.79, I would have paid out another $24 for someone else to do a little work for me.  I'd rather keep the money thankyouverymuch!

By de-boning the meat my self, what I got was:

• about 10 cups of chicken stock and I can pronounce every ingredient that went into it
• 5½ cups of cooked chicken that was stuck to the bones that I would have just thrown away - I can use that for soups, tacos, pizza ~ whatever I want.  I froze it in 3 packs - 2-2 cup packs and 1-1½ cup pack.  In case you missed that, I would have thrown away three meals worth of chicken!!
  
• 3 packs of chicken tenders about 1 pound per pack
• 15 packs of boneless skinless chicken breast, 2 per pack.

All that for less than $30 and a little work.  Yeah, I'd say that was a pretty good deal, and worth every penny saved!

Menu Plan - Jan 24

 

Oh my, the time is flying by!

We're still on track with the Eat from the pantry challenge.  As for the menu, I see that we will have meals that we won't get to this month, so I'm pushing them on to February's menu plan. I like having the menu done for the month, but it is time consuming to plan it all out.  It looks like I'll need to start this week trying to decide what we will be eating next month. 

Here is the recap of the monthly menu with the meals we've already eaten crossed out, and notations for this weeks plan.  Check out Laura's page for more menus and recipes.

1. Baked Spaghetti with Bread Machine Garlic Bread
2. Pulled Pork Sandwiches on homemade hamburger buns
3. Turkey Bundles using homemade crescent rolls
4. Homemade Pizza
5. Pizza Loaf
6. Sunday Chicken Dinner in the slow cooker
7. Mexican Lasagne
8. Pumpkin Pancakes
9. Chili Mac (freezer meal)
10. Philly Cheesesteak Sandwiches (freezer meal) on Italian rolls
11. Pretzel Dogs
12. French Toast
13. Meat Mix
14. Split Pea Soup
15. Herbed Pork Roast **planned for this week
16. Creamy Pork Potpie
17. "Wacky Mac" spaghetti with meatballs (this will be on the 26th as this is what Kelton has asked for for his birthday dinner. He's also asked for "strawberry cake with chocolate on the bottom and a cherry on top" for the cake, and I'm still trying to figure out how to accommodate his request!!) **Tuesday's meal
18. BELTs That's a BLT with a fried Egg on it...
19. Spinach Lentil Stew **planned for this week
20. Turkey tenderloin
21. Sausage Tomato Soup
22. Pork Noodle Soup **planned for this week
23. Italian Chicken Rice Soup (substituting turkey for the chicken)  **planned for this week
24. Crock pot broccoli beef
25. Kris Kringle Pancakes