Aug 17, 2015

Life Gets Crazy Sometimes.

My life has been so chaotic the past few months, almost a year now, that I had not even realized how long it had been since I posted.  I will be getting back on track with that soon.  Actually I am working on getting every thing cleaned up and back on track with planning and cooking and cleaning and such by September 1.  That is the goal anyway.

I made Chicken Gyros with Tzatziki sauce for lunch yesterday and they were a hit. It was really cheap as well as being very quick and easy.  I cheated a bit and bought the sauce already made from a vendor at the farmer's market.  I am going to try and make a batch next week as it looks simple and would be much cheaper.  So, total for meal $2.93 for four servings - not including the sauce - which is about .73 which is pretty darn cheap.

 I had scored a big purchase of mark down meat at the local grocery store. Spent less than $50 and have enough meat for around 22 meals, depends on how the left overs go, may even be more.  I pulled out the foam tray and bagged up in recipe portions using my vacuum sealer.  Left the price and weight tags in it for two reasons: 1. I can know what the meat is, and 2. I can know how much it weighs and the price I paid so I can figure cost of meals better. Fixed just over a pound of chicken breast, had half of it left over, will use it later in the week for chicken enchiladas.

So far, the menu plan is still a little sketchy as I am trying to get adjusted to new schedules for everyone around here.  The grand babies (am daycare for them during the week) started preschool three mornings a week now.  Youngest daughter gave up her temp job and is now only working her primary job which the hours change a lot in.  Next week I will post what I actually made.  Tonight we are having something out of ground beef.  I have it fresh but need to use it as it has been in fridge for a couple of days already.  Was going to make burgers, but hubby had that for lunch - so did I but we won't tell him that.  Thought about tacos, a favorite around here, but we had mexican last night.  I would love to have some spaghetti, but hubby doesn't like pasta.  He may just have to eat the sauce on bread - which he usually does - or just have cereal.  I have some handmade pasta from the farmer's market, so may make stroganoff.  Who knows.

I am hoping to get the house all cleaned up and do a little purging so I can make room an get rid of clutter. Now that we are fully in to our new hobby of cowboy action shooting, also known as SASS or Single Action Shooting Society.

You have no idea how much room I need to store these old west clothes and matching accessories. Guys have it lucky, pair of pants, shirt some suspenders and they are good to go.  Women, we have hats, purses, frilled up dresses with thousands of yards of fabric, corsets, petticoats and that is just for a dinner party.  To actually shoot (we compete in SASS sanctioned shooting competitions), it is a plain skirt and blouse, maybe a corset, then leather holsters and ammo belt on top of that.  The clothing is expensive and I hope to be making some for myself soon.

I am not as bad as a hoarder on the tv shows, but getting alarmingly close.  I have two storage units and once our weather cools down a bit I am hoping to get rid of at least 30% of it and go in to one unit.  Would really help save some money.

Well, thanks for dropping in and hopefully will be seeing you next week.  If you need some help with planning meals, check out all the great cooks linked up to Meal Plan Monday each week.