Menu Plan 11/24

Wow, has it been a week or what?  Grand kids and their mom have been sick, I have been sick, youngest daughter, Miss Zebra turned 18 this past Friday and had a party in the back yard...man cave...what ever you want to call it, and we had our Thanksgiving this past Saturday.

If you are visiting from Organizing Junkies page for Meal Plan Monday, welcome.  I do my planning a little differently for the blog, I post what we had for the week as opposed to what we are going to have.  Still trying to organize a system that will work for me with my crazy home life.  I love all the inspiration on the MPM links and I love all her other info about organizing, storage, time management and such. So, here we go.

I have to say, I can't remember what all I cooked this past week, will have to do better about that, but know that I did cook at home. I take that back, Tuesday hubby got stuck at work late and I had one of my stupid little heart episodes (at least no emergency room this time) and since I was all by myself I went over to the Crest Bar and Grill.  Tuesday is there Minestrone night so I had a bowl of that with a baked potato on the side.

On Wednesday,  I do remember making Chile relleno quiche.  Hubby loved that one.

All I remember about Thursday was spending most of the day, literally hours of the day, defrosting and cleaning my deep freeze and fridge.  I had to make room for all the stuff I intended to make ahead and get a jump start on the turkey dinner.  OH MY GOSH!  I bet I bagged up and threw away at least $200 worth of meat and vegetables all freezer burnt and I knew my family would not touch it. It makes me physically ill when ever I do that, feels like such a TOTAL waste of good money.  Something I am DETERMINED to change.  More about that later.

As I said, Friday was the party, we had pizza and cake.

I don't normally buy bakery cakes likes this, but since it was her 18th birthday, I splurged.  She's worth it.  I was however very disappointed at how dry and crumbly the cake texture was.  Especially for the reputation that particular bakery has as being the best in town.  Costco cakes are WAY better.

Saturday, I got up early, did my grocery shopping (three stores I walked through) for the Thanksgiving meal and for the house for the next week.  I am proud to stay I stayed with in my budget.  We got paid on Friday so it worked out great.  Except for the fact that either I have some new ailment going on or I am so terribly out of shape that I can barely function.  By the time I did the shopping, put it away, did the cleaning and cooking, I was one done chick.  I honestly can't remember hurting so bad before.  I was actually limping by feet hurt so bad.  To add grief on top of all the work I was doing, I found out (when we cut in to the turkey) that my stove is not heating correctly.  I had it set on 350 degrees, the turkey was still raw, the sides were not cooking, so we ended up eating an hour and a half later than planned.  EEK GADS, I have so much food left over.  Seems by then no one was much in the mood to eat, two of my kids were having stomach problems as well.  On the menu for our Thanksgiving dinner...a few days early...was turkey, dressing, gravy, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, fruit salad, pistachio salad, buttermilk pie, cranberry sauce and a relish tray with Hawaiian rolls.

Sunday I slept in, did dishes, hubby helped me do the laundry, played computer games, and took some boxes to the storage unit.  We had lunch at Wendy's...since it is in the parking lot of the Home Depot and we had just finished up a little shopping in there...OH MY GOSH it was totally HORRIBLE.  I ordered the Asian chicken cashew salad...first they didn't give me any dressing, then there was not a single cashew in it.  Will not be going back there. Hubby grilled steaks for supper and I made seasoned new potatoes, and we grazed on left overs.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you have a very happy Thanksgiving Day.

Last Weeks Hits

Everything just kind of fell apart around here, and I do mean everything, as far as cooking, cleaning and organization.  The goal this week is to get back on track and hopefully do a mini cooking session for the freezer as well.

I wanted to get back on track with posting to Meal Plan Monday over at Organizing Junkie, but don't have a plan for the week as yet.  So...I figured maybe I would just share some recipes I tried this week that were hits.

Maid-Rite Copycat - or Loose Meat Sandwich.  OH MY GOSH!, this was crazy good.  I had never heard of these, guess they are a mid-west thing.  The ingredients sounded like something the hubby would like, I am focused on trying some new things, so I gave it a whirl.  It is a hit, the only change we will make is eating them in a tortilla instead of a bun.

Authentic German Potato Salad - Really great for a little bit of a change.

Here are few other dishes.  Don't have recipes for them, but can tell you how to make them.

Honey Buttermilk Bread...okay, so it stuck to the top of the bread machine, but it was still good.

Cheese enchiladas, Spanish rice, pinto beans and Frito salad.

Fry bread tacos.

Ham steak, sweet potatoes and green beans.

If you live here in central to southern California, enjoy the fallish weather and pray for needed rain.  If you live in the rest of the country...stay warm and safe.  Thanks for stopping by.