Crazy Times.

So, I finally get my kitchen back up and running and here I am sick as can be.  So...this is going to be a short little posting just to make myself stay more current with my blog.  Hopefully.

First of all, my bulb garden (the store's word for it) is doing wonderfully. 

It smells so good when I go through the front door now.  Not sure just which one, or if it is a combination of several, but the flowers fragrance really is divine.  They are all still alive, except for the yellow tall ones (well the plant part is alive, the blooms have died off) and for me that is something.

The weather is starting to warm up finally and EVERYTHING in the town is budding, blooming and erupting with pollen and signs of life.  We have all been under attack from our allergies, not to mention this cough and flu crap, so we just keep passing it back and forth.

The menu planning has been going pretty well.  It has been fun finding all the gizmos I had put away for when I had my kitchen back. I was selling Pampered Chef, things got really crazy around here with the kitchen remodel, holidays, travel and illness I haven't been able to do much with it, trying to figure out if I want to continue with it, considering I am my best customer.

 

 This is called a "salad chopper".  You put a bunch of lettuce or spinach and stuff in a bowl, use this like a pair of scissors to chop up everything, right in the bowl. I saw a video where the demonstrator placed the chopper blade part straight in a can of tomatoes and just cut/chopped away, very interesting. However, I have to admit, I have not used it like that yet.  I had a small bunch of green onions that I needed to slice for a recipe I was making, and I really hate chopping or slicing those little buggers, so I tried this gizmo on a whim.  It worked WONDERFULLY!  I will definitely be using this to chop those onions from now on.

Now this little gadget is called a julienne peeler.  Also from Pampered Chef.  I LOVE this thing. Those are zucchini and carrot strips in the bag, ready for stir fry.  This thing just peels off a layer and cuts it in to strips at the same time.  I will have to experiment a bit and see what other veggies this thing works on.

On the subject of menu planning.  I have come to the realization that my current schedule is such that posting the menu plan for the coming week is just not going to work.  One of the posters to the MPM site list what they did have for the week and that seems to work well.  I will be trying that next week.

Thanks for stopping by, come back and visit often.

Week 6 - Kitchen Remodel

So, here we are in to week 6 of the remodel.  Still about two or three weeks to go.

 The neighbor surprised me while we were gone for Christmas and installed the new window.  Still have to do some trim work on it but man is it nice being able to look out and see things once again.  Last week we had some warmer weather during the day, so it was nice to be able to open the window for a change and let some fresh air in.  Well, fresh as can be for our area. Ha Ha

We are slowly getting there.  The stove in the photo has been replaced.  The dishwasher is hooked up and working so I can at least wash dishes.  Still have to take them to the bath tub to rinse them off. LOL  The vent has been replaced as well.  This past Tuesday the guy came and did the final measure for the counter tops.  That paper work hit the New Year holiday, so was finalized this past Friday.  I was waiting for the call from Home Depot, knew that I would have to go pay a bunch more before they could start on them.  I originally paid for a color A price (A being the lowest price) and top mount sink.  Decided however to go with an under mount sink, which is an additional charge.  Then changed my mind several times on the color, ending up with one that was in color D price range (the most expensive group) but was on sale for the color B price, so knew that I would have to pay about $400.00 difference.  Well, after he did the measure, found out my designer measured heavy, then find out that the price of the counter top has gone down even more, I ended up getting about $25.00 refunded.  YIPPEE!

I had purchased a Hamilton Beach Toastation (is a toaster oven with a slotted toaster on top) thinking it would save counter space having two devices in one so to speak.  It was great when I first used it, the first few times actually.  Toaster slots worked well, had to do two cycles to toast a bagel, so was okay with that part.  The oven part worked great the first few times, then, the door quit working and became very difficult to open or close.  Best I can figure out, the brackets that move the shelf in and out as the door opens and closes was not made of metal strong enough to endure prolonged (more than 3-5 minutes) of higher heat temperature.  It would warp or bend just enough to keep the door from functioning.  I took it back and purchased just a toaster over.  Half the price, works ten times better.  Now to figure out if I am going to keep the big Faberware Toaster oven that I originally bought.  It works really well, has a rotisserie function, but am having a devil of a time finding bake ware to fit in it.  It is really too large for the regular toaster oven bake ware, but about a half inch short of smaller pans for a regular oven.  I guess I really should take it back and get my money back, but am really wanting to try that rotisserie function first.  OH MAN, would it be great to be able to cook rotisserie style chicken at home.  Although, they are really cheap to buy already cooked from Costco.  At under $5 bucks, can hardly buy the hen and spices for that.  AND, they are sooo good.

Actually, I have several small appliances that I am waiting for my counter tops to come in and the back splash installed to determine what I will be leaving on the counters.  Once I have that figured out, I will then determine where to store the rest and then possible get rid of some.  I am a gadget obsessed hoarder to be sure.  I have grills, waffle stick makers, processors, pressure cookers, rice cooker, steamer, I even have a slider grill that I have used twice.  It works really well, as I love those little burgers, but it is heck to clean up and since I am the only one that likes them I just wait until we eat out to have them. I swore I wouldn't buy any more such appliance gadgets, but during Christmas Walmart put out there odd little things, like chocolate fountains, for customers to purchase as gifts.  NO...I did not buy the fountain.  Thought about it, but knew that it would sure be a bear to clean.  I did however buy a doughnut maker (makes four cake doughnuts) because it seemed healthier than fried ones.  But then I bought a funnel cake fryer.  I will be taking it back, no one eats them around here, we are trying to cut back on fried food, but it is so cute in it's little blue size.  Besides, Miss Z would probably have fun using to make up some funnel cakes during a super bowl party or something.  If I ever get counter tops and sink back in the kitchen.

Oh, and we won't talk about the new deep fryer and bread maker that I bought and hid in the RV until the kitchen is finished.  I know it is terribly wasteful, but I did buy them just because I wanted new stainless steel ones for my kitchen.  I know, fried food, but some times a girl just has to have her fried okra and tater tots are so much better fried than baked. 

We have all been sick with the crud, even the grand babies - poor things, and thought we were getting over it, had a few nice days, then BAM! it has all come back.  Miss Zebra is done down with it in a huge way.  I am still, after four weeks of this battle, coughing like I smoke and those coughing fits lead to little accidents which lead to a load of pants being washed each night.  I am really seriously thinking about wearing a pad, if it weren't for the fact that the stupid things break me out.  Bad enough during "that time" but just not wanting to add fuel to the fire so to speak.

Since I only have a partially functioning kitchen, my meal planning has been put on hold.  While I can cook anything I want now, cleaning up and prep work is holding that back.  Am cooking very simple things, not many pans, not a lot of prep.  Hubby was sweet and has temporarily gotten me a piece of plywood over the dishwasher, so that helps some, plus we needed it to keep the dishwasher from tipping when we opened the door.  I took some old shelves and have then placed around the stove, they are not very big, but it at least gives me something to work on, leave a spoon on and such.

I am still in a quandary as to where to put everything back in the cabinets.  Not to mention all the Pampered Chef serving ware I went a little crazy on when it hit the clearance price. I have way too much stuff and as I posted earlier, the new cabinets are only 12 inches deep where the old ones were 15.  Makes some of my platters not fit and I am having a hard time figuring out where to put plastic left over dishes.  That is in the works for today, to empty a few more boxes of kitchen ware and then take what I am not using to storage for a time.  You see, I have two children going in to an apartment possibly in the fall and I just can't let go of some of this stuff until I see if they will be needing it or not.

Thanks for stopping in,  please come back again.  If I can get myself organized, I will be posting at least once a week here.  That is the goal anyway.  See you next time.

Week Three of the Great Kitchen Remodel

Well, week three has come and not much head way has been made.  We are kind of at a stand still waiting on some things.

My appliances have all arrived.

Stove and microwave have been installed.  Microwave is awesome.  All kinds of pre programmed settings for snacks and a kid's menu setting (chicken nuggets, hot dogs, French fries, frozen sandwich) as well as a snack setting (nachos, chicken wings, potato skins, cheese sticks).  My favorite is the soften/melt (for chocolate, butter, cream cheese) and the defrost.  Of course it has a popcorn (all though all the popcorn packages state to not use the preset timing), pizza, potato and veggie (love this for frozen veggies) sensor setting.  I am just glad to cook something...anything...in the kitchen once again.  I have the old microwave set up in the garage, but man is it cold out there.

Stove has been very disappointing. First of all, picked this particular model because it advertised a free griddle.  When it was delivered, no griddle, is a rebate you have to send in.  Personally, I think rebates should be illegal.  Way too much time to fill out the forms, give them all kinds of information then wait and hope that you actually get it.  I am waiting on one from Kitchen aid now.  Any way, back to the stove.  So then, after learning I have to send in a special form from Home Depot (would have been nice to have gotten it when I bought the unit instead of an extra trip to the store to find out why I didn't get it) we found out while installing the stove last night that the inside frame was damaged on both sides. 

Enough so that the door won't seal for the oven so keeping any type of even temperature is out of the question.  Also, the little storage drawer will not open correctly either so it totally useless.  I have taken the issue up with Home Depot store manager, who pretty much told me I was out of luck because I accepted it that way.  I explained that I questioned the delivery guy about the drawer not working, he just told me it was because it wasn't level.  Then I was told because it had been longer than 48 hours there wasn't much they could do.  I explained that we found it with the 48 hours, but that they were already closed.  He then took me to the appliance department to see if it could be repaired.  I didn't say anything, but really wanted to when the store manager asked me if the stove still worked properly.  He kind of changed his tune a bit when the appliance guy told him that since the door was unable to seal, because of the frame damage, the heat would escape and could possibly catch the cabinets on fire.  I had not thought of that, very scary thought.

Finally, after over an hour of discussion, Maytag is sending me a new unit to replace the broken one.  It will be here next week.  At least then I will be able to cook, although I have no place to prepare the food, no place to wash the dishes and no place to sit down and eat the food.

We also ran in to a little time delay regarding a problem with floor tile.  Had to redo and then redo again differently.  Just had to wait for it to all set up before walking or moving any appliances or cabinet bases on it.  So, that delayed our counter top measurement, which delayed the counter top.  However, maybe it was meant to be.  Here is why.

I have to have the faucet when they measure for the counter top. I had originally decided to go with a stainless steel faucet and sink.  Then I found this one, then found those cabinet knobs to match.  Then I found out that I could get a brown sink.  So...since we had to delay the measure appointment, I took it as a sign to go ahead and get the brown sink.  It cost a little bit more because the counter top people offered a free one with the installation.  When you look at the big picture, it really isn't that much more money considering what I have already spent.  So, now there is no way to have the new kitchen going by New Year's day, but soon after.

Now that the floor is fixed and the appliances are here, hubby can finish up the installation of the cabinets.  Was waiting for the stove and dishwasher to arrive so he could see how much room he would need.  Once the dishwasher gets put in place, the cabinet next to it that houses the refrigerator can then be moved in place and attached to the wall.  I am looking forward to all the cabinets being finally installed so that I can start loading the cabinets.

I spent the whole day yesterday just loading the pantry.  I have come down with a stupid chest cold on top of everything else.  As I loaded the new pantry, expiration dates were checked and any date passed or that will expire in the next month or so was discarded.  An inventory was made of all products on hand so that I can start menu planning again.  Plus, I also placed a couple of empty containers in the shelves for future use. I spent a small fortune in storage containers, guess I am turning anal in my old age because I wanted all the baskets to be white, all the plastic containers to have the same color lids.  Also, all the trays are the same color in each drawer, although not all the drawers are the same.  In the largest drawer, I have a mesh expandable organizer for cooking utensils.  In one drawer I put a bamboo expandable divider for all the silver ware.  The rest of the drawers have black containers to hold the rest of my cooking utensils, knives and snacks.

Now, today, I have to pick which drawer I want to designate for foil, plastic bags, wax paper and such.  Depends on how all the cookware goes, may place that stuff in a hall pantry.  Now starts the task of choosing what to keep and what to get rid of.  I still have plenty of cabinets, some deep drawers and such.  Once hubby gets the set of bottom cabinets attached to the wall tonight, I will be able to see how many pots and pans I will be able to store.  I have surfed the internet and found some great sites that suggest the essentials needed for a well stocked kitchen.  I mean really, I don't need 14 skillets, 5 sets of pots and pans, 6 glass baking dishes and so forth.  I really need to downsize a bit.  I not only have 30 years of married life collecting kitchen ware, my Pampered Chef items and I now have what is left of my mom's kitchen ware as well.  You see, that gives me about 4 sets of mixing bowls.  I don't really like my metal ones, but hubby likes to eat cereal out of them for some insane reason.  Then, once I get my kitchen all back together, I will be looking in to purchasing a glass front china hutch or curio cabinet to display some collectable glassware.  This would be so much easier if I wasn't a border line hoarder.

Well, enough of a break.  Off to see how many boxes I can empty out by loading the new cabinets.  Thanks for stopping by, come back soon to see how the great remodel is going.

Cooking up Pink

The last few months have been totally crazy.  First of all, let me show off.

 My newest grand baby arrived.  Pink this time.  She was just hours old in this photo.

I am so happy, so thankful to God that everything turned out so well.  She was full term, healthy, and her mom is doing great as well.

Miss C arrived July 14, 2013 weighing 7 lbs. 12 oz. and 21 inches long.  She has lovely long fingers and long toes and a long little foot as well.  Not sure if the hair will be blonde or brown yet, but she has quite a bit.  After three grandsons, am so happy to have a grand daughter to dress up.

Life is still really busy around here with all the cleaning, remodeling and catching up I have to do from being sick and some dental work that went a little wrong.  We are soon to be heading out on our big vacation adventure as well.

We are hosting a small dinner party in August.  Since we are soon to start the kitchen remodel we wanted to have our turn as host since it will be a few months before it will all be worked over. It will be a kind of good bye to the old kitchen and then on with the new so when we host again the couples will get to see the before and after experience.  OH I AM SO EXCITED to get this project going.  I know it will take a long time as we are doing the work all our selves, but the savings will be well worth it since I am putting that savings toward some new appliances.  Hubby doesn't think I am capable of doing any physical work, but I will be PROVING him wrong because I can, if nothing else, be cleaning up behind him while he is at work.  My dad was the world's best handy man and taught me to swing a hammer and such so I know that I can be of help.  Besides, the new design is all in my head anyway.

Some of the cabinets will be repurposed for the new laundry room and storage/pantry room.  But otherwise, we will be gutting the entire kitchen and putting all new cabinets and countertops in, new back splashes and a new window as well.  Not much has to change with the flooring, but little does change we still have boxes of tile left over from when we did the kitchen floor so matching and repairing will be simple.

I made a Churro Cheesecake, which was very good but not much eaten.  I really need to work on learning to half a recipe or find somewhere to take the other half. LOL

I will be working on getting back on track with my budgeting and menu planning when we get back home.  My oldest grandson Mr. T has been visiting us for the last few weeks.  He lives in Texas with is his little brother Mr. W and his mom (my oldest daughter) and dad.  Since I normally get to see him once a year, for about 3 or 4 days, this month with him has been a real treat.  However, not being around him often, it is hard to know what he likes for meals so menu planning went totally by the wayside.  But, since I am really determined to start cut our spending...every where...and since I can make the biggest difference or cut the easiest with the grocery and household spending that is where I will start.  That and cutting out the eating out.  I am terrible about wanting to eat out because it is my favorite thing to do.  But I will just have to think about the big picture, which is the money saved, and I will be able to do it.  It is just insane that any more for our family to all go out to eat it cost close to $200.00 including a tip of course.  But, then again when we usually go out to eat, we usually go out with our oldest son and his family and usually pay for them as well.  Still, it is obscene to think that I am enjoying one meal for what I can feed us on for at the very least two to three weeks.  Healthier food as well.  I will also be taking advantage of the week before oldest daughter starts back to school that she can watch the little guy for me so I can do some bulk cooking sessions.  This has one obstacle to achieving, that is the freezer is stuffed with meat.  I am hoping that the spaced freed up by cooking the meat will generate enough space for the meals I am cooking ahead.  I have also purchases some aids in organizing the menu plans to make them a little more easily accessed.  I just need to make myself sit down, plan it and implement it.  That is my number one goal, actually doing it for a change.

Also forcing myself back in to weight management mode as well.  I plan to schedule some gym time, just like I would schedule a manicure.  I need to renew my efforts to control my portions, cut my sweets and boredom snacking, and get moving.  I am not taking all my recipes and such to menu plan, but will be taking some notebooks to work on creating cleaning schedules to actually make myself clean, and an activity schedule for my bible study, writing, computer time (blogging and facebooking) and sewing.  I find that I tend to get focused in on one thing or one project and neglect all else until I finish it.  In fact, I also get so easily distracted by one thing or another, that I wonder if I don't have adult ADD.  Have to add that I also have to get myself better organized as to my Pampered Chef business and getting my Etsy site up and running and actually some things to offer in it.  WOW, I am overloaded, but I need to be more productive and less Facebook gaming.

Got to go for now, so will be back in August and hopefully in full swing with all my sewing and crafting. Wish me luck and check back in August.  Thanks for stopping in and come back soon.

Trying to Move Forward?

It has been a really weird week around, weirder than usual.  Because of the holiday week end I just didn't get around to planning my menu and posting it over at Organizing Junkie's blog for MPM this week.  There are a little over a hundred that did post, so will spend this evening looking them over.

Last week's menu plan was followed about 50%, so not a total failure.  There were a few days that it just didn't work out to fix what was planned, and one night hubby took me out for a date.  Saturday the hubby went and played with some of his buddies so Miss Zebra and I amused our selves.  We stopped by the library so she could pick up a book, she came home with four.  Of course, since I was there, I picked up ten books and bought a stack of old magazines from the Library Friends room.  I was extremely pleased to have found a quilt magazine that had the very quilt I want to work on next in it.  I had tried to find that particular edition of the publication just for that quilt but it was out of print already.  Now I got it for .50 cents, so will have the detailed instructions.  Also grabbed up several Cooking Light magazines.  I was looking through the library shelves at some cookbooks, realized that several of those books are ones that I have been looking at on Amazon to purchase.  You see, cookbooks and quilt books are something that I am never sure of about purchasing because I never know if there are any projects that I would like to do, or recipes that I will make.  Since they were right there in front of me, I could actually read them page by page, I checked them out to bring home and look over.  I have this kind of rule, if I find more recipes that I like than I am willing to copy down, I buy the book.  Huge surprise of the bunch so far, The Red Hat Society Cookbook.  I bet there are at least 200 recipes in that thing I want to try.  I have ordered the cookbook.

Last night I tried the recipe for Squash, Corn Bread, Green Chile Bake.

This is all you need to make it.  Ignore anything behind the milk.  I believe it would be copyright infringement if I were to post the recipe, so I won't, but I will tell you it is one of the best things I have eaten in a long time and there wasn't much left.  The ingredients are: yellow squash, cornbread stuffing mix, diced tomatoes with green chile, onion, milk, egg and cheese.  You need a casserole dish and a sauce pan. I only had a can of stewed tomatoes with green chile so I pulled out my new Pampered Chef cutter that looks like a big pair of scissors but with double blades.  I put it right in the bowl of tomatoes, cut and cut and with in literally minutes, like about 2, I had diced tomatoes.

The results.

So delicious.  Although, I made a mistake and ended up adding too much liquid.  Now, I like a really moist mushy kind of dressing, more so than most around here, but had I made it correctly I think it would have set a little better and had a more defined texture.  I will be making it again, the family really like it, it was easy and quick, so will find out if my mistake made a lot of difference.  Did you notice that the casserole dish is blue instead of clear like the photo above?  You have to prepare the stuffing while the squash cooks. I cooked it in the microwave as I always do.  I am lazy about dirtying dishes so I just mixed it all in that same bowl instead adding it all together in a second dish.

Also, from that same cookbook, I made Kahlua Baked Beans.

There wasn't much of it left over either.  Now I didn't really care for them, but then I don't like coffee flavors or smell at all.  That being said, there was literally like three spoons of the stuff left and this makes a huge amount, and I halved the recipe.

On the menu last night was steak, baked potato, 7 layer salad, the squash casserole and the beans.  I made bread pudding for dessert, sent most of it home with my daughter-in-law.  More about the pudding later.  I also made a crazy good recipe that has been floating around on Facebook.  When I first saw the recipe, I knew that it would be perfect for using my Pampered Chef Brownie Pan.  Gosh, I am starting to sound like a commercial or something.  At any rate, here it is.  Beware, definitely not healthy.

 Take purchased chocolate chip cookie dough, the little squares, press each square into the bottom of each section of the pan. Smooth it out to cover the entire bottom to the edges.  Then place a peanut butter cup upside down in each section.  Cover each of those sections with brownie batter.  Bake in 350 degree preheated oven for 18 minutes.

I think my brownie mix was little too thick, but it worked out fine.  The recipe said nothing about greased pan, and I know that you usually don't need to grease a baking pan for cookies, but...since this was a brand new pan, and thinking of the peanut butter cup, and knowing that I always light grease a pan when making brownies, I lightly sprayed the pan with butter flavored cooking oil before I started.  They came out of the pan perfectly.

Naturally, since it was the first time I had ever made this recipe, I braved it...made the sacrifice...bit the big one and tested out the chocochip peanutbutter cup brownie, myself.  Yes...I did! It was a big risk, but I did it for my family.

One more little commercial.  The Pampered Chef has a beautiful glass trifle bowl.  It comes with a nice glass pedestal that it can sit on and a plastic cover.  I love that the pedestal is a separate piece to make it easier to put the tall bowl itself in the fridge.  I know that a lovely trifle or other layered type of dessert will truly look lovely in it, but there are other dishes that be showcased in the glass dish.

So, I started with lettuce, then spinach, hard boiled egg, avocado, bacon bits, tomatoes, green onion, English peas, grated cheese and then the dressing.  So...maybe it is a 9 layer salad technically, but it must of been good because my hubby really liked it, took the time to tell me he liked it and how well I did making it.  There was so much of it, that over half of it is still left over.  I told him that I was glad he liked it...we would be having it again the next day.  Which will be tonight.

Finally, for my bread pudding experience.  This is how it all started.  My aunt, lived on the farm all of her life.  Grew up on a farm, married a farmer, even when he retired from farming they still lived in their little farm house.  When ever my kids were smaller, especially my oldest two, they would ride along with my dad occasionally when he would go check on them.  Aunt Lola would most always make bread pudding for dessert.  And she made the best I have ever tasted.  No raisins or nuts, no gourmet flavorings, she was what you would call a home style country cook.  Old time cooking, most of her dishes were recipes learned from her mother, or what she cooked during the depression.  I have tried so many recipes, and some have been very close, but just not quite it.  So, I started really thinking about it.  Of course I was not in the loop, so to speak, to receive any of her recipes.  I am adopted so to that part of the family I am not really family.  I won't even begin to go in to that whole story.  I am pretty sure that the person that did go through her household things probably threw them in the trash because they weren't worth any money...even though I would have gladly bought them.   Back to the point...I started thinking about the recipe in a little different way.  Knowing what I knew about her, I started working on finding a recipe that was based on ingredients she would have had, probably on hand since they lived out of town a ways and she didn't like to drive.  Taking all that in to consideration I look for recipes that have what I would call "normal country" ingredients.  I am sure she had real butter and heavy cream, she always had thick sliced bread, lots of spices and fresh eggs.  I went to the farmer's market over the week end and found a vendor that was selling guinea eggs, remembered that Aunt Lola always had a lot of guineas.  In fact when I was young I got to go look for their eggs...for some strange reason I always though it was the best of times when I could find those eggs in the old out house.  At any rate, I bought some.  I used them in the bread pudding recipe from last night.  It was recipe I found in a collection online of depression era recipes.    I had TOTALLY forgotten how hard those buggers are to crack open.  I didn't get a photo of the dish, and while everyone said how good it was, I was disappointed in it.  Before I put the sauce on it, it was really dry and crispy.  Then I added the sauce and it became a soggy mess.  It tasted like icing soaked cinnamon rolls actually, which isn't a bad thing, just not the flavor I was after.  I think that bread pudding really needs to have some soak time, for the egg mixture to soak in to all the bread pieces.  Oh well, try again and again.

Finally, we used to have a tan, non-descript house, looked like all the others on the block, and in town actually. 

As you see, kind of ordinary. 

But now, hubby has repainted the whole outside of the house, the trim, and the garage door and front door.

Isn't it just lovely?  I am going to find a big metal Texas star to hang over the garage and a chilerista to hang out front some where.  A chilerista is a string of red chile peppers, hung up to dry as a means of preserving.  Growing up in New Mexico, I developed a fondness for native American or southwest style décor.  Have never really developed in to anything, but am thinking it is time to change that a bit.  Wait until you see the yard art I am going to make.  Not really in keeping with the southwest theme, but oh so whimsical.

Thanks for stopping by, feel free to leave a comment, and stop back by often.

 

Hit The Dirt Running...Fall Flat Fast

Wow!  Did I ever have the greatest of plans when I created this blog.  I hit the dirt running with all the grand plans for an organized simplified better running life and fell horribly bodily face first into four feet of life's dirt and gunk.  In fact, having to admit this a little  okay, a lot red faced at the moment, but I had totally forgotten that I had gotten this blog established and was already planning to create an additional blog for the cooking and the house stuff.  Yes, I know, I have visions of grandeur. Every one has to have their quirks.

So, with that being said, it is on to bringing the blog up to date.

The SAVING PLAN:  I have actually kept up with that fairly well until the last month or so.  I will be catching that up on Monday though.  Plans have changed and my daughter is no longer planning on going on the church trip, however the goal amount is still in place and will be going to the cost of my new sewing machine instead.  I am using some special funds to go ahead and pay for the machine now, but am going to use the saving plan to pay that fund back.  I also helped a friend of mine out with a small loan and am praying that it doesn't end up biting me in the butt.  At any rate, that part is still fairly on track.

On another front, MEALS, I have been doing some serious thinking about that as well. I have one large freezer to empty out and defrost tomorrow, then the freezer section of two fridges.  Once I have it all pulled out and can organize it, I will then know exactly what I have on hand.  The inventory of my freezer will be the last part I need to once again start the process of menu planning.  I recently caught some great buys on meat so they are really stuffed in there.  I know there is some items that really need to be thrown away as well.  I absolutely HATE wasting food, but there is things in there that are either A) Way past their prime, B) Freezer burnt beyond hope of ever having any usefulness, or C) Just will never be eaten by this family.  Brussel sprouts comes to mind.

Thanks to Facebook, I have a stack of printed recipes that is literally inches thick ready to try. Most of them are desserts, so won't end up daily on the menu as realistically I don't plan to bake a cake or such each night.  However, the way the family ate the blackberry cobbler I made recently I might have to plan on it all being gone the night I make it.  Along with the stack of print outs, I have about two months of recipes bookmarked, another few months of recipes copied to Word and saved in a folder as well.  Not to mention the metal file cabinet full of printed recipe pages that are all neatly organized by dish type (vegetable, salad, fruit and such) along with blank menus.  All ready for me to create menu plans.

So...why menu plan you ask?  There are several benefits of menu planning.  It makes meal time more organized because you know ahead of time what you are going to be cooking so the mystery is gone and you can work the meals around the family plans. Such as sports events, scouts, school events, meetings and such.  In my case, this means planning meals around the days I have the grand son, Mr. M.  Now, also in my personal circumstances, I don't really plan for each day as much as plan meals to make for a set amount of days.  Our schedule is so varied and subject to change at the drop of hat that it works better for us that way and plan meals that can easily be moved from day to day.  For instance, hubby some times forgets (most of the time) that he has a meeting or that we are going to a company dinner.  Then, there are the days when my medical issues kick in and make it totally impossible for me get a darn thing done, much less cook an extensive meal. I will join back up with Meal Plan Monday, but it will work best for me to post a menu of what we had the previous week as opposed to the majority of the group that post menu for the week to come.  On a side note, that is why I am planning on doing a small freezer session, once I can get the room in the freezer for it.  For me though, the biggest reason for menu planning is that it SAVES A TON OF MONEY.  Yes, you have heard it before, but it really is true.  I can cut 30 - 40 percent of my spending by planning out the meals.  Why you ask? Because I know what I will be cooking which cuts down on impulse buying.  Fewer trips to the store as well.  Also, with planning out the recipes for the meals, a person can easily take advantage of weekly sales and loss leaders.  For instance, your local grocery has put ground beef on huge mark down, and also have a buy one get one free or 10 for $10 of soups,  pasta sauces, pasta and rice.  There you have some cheap fixings.  In my case, I have now stockpiled enough inventory in my pantry and freezer that I will be able to use my budgeted grocery money for stocking up when I need to again and find a good sale.  Actually, I am pretty well set to just put the bulk of my budget in to savings for a couple of months.

The small kink, very small, to the whole plan is that my oldest grand son, Mr. T who is 10 years old, is coming to visit for a few weeks (about 6 actually) and we will be taking him with us to hubby's family's reunion.  We are taking our RV for this, and will then do a few days in Yellowstone as we head to Texas to take him home and then I get to my other grand son (and brother to Mr. T) Mr. W who is 3 years old.  I AM SO EXCITED about this.  That will be two full weeks away from the house so not sure how I will handle the menu planning for that yet.  Also, we will be on baby watch for our first grand DAUGHTER to arrive as well.  They live here in town, I get the big brother Mr. M during the day already while they work. Mr. M will be two in July and Miss C is expected in July as well. LOVING that since the other two grand sons live in Texas and I only get to see them about once a year.

Speaking of budget, I am making a few changes to ours.  For one, accountability is non existent at the moment.  I have gotten to the point now where I can actually start tracking not only our purchases but also the cash spending as well.  I can honestly admit, since I am in the mood to make some changes, that we spend a huge amount of money on eating out.  That has to stop and I am the guilty one that wants it most.  My hubby eats out every day at lunch with his job.  I can document what he spends on his own, but it will be up to him to change that.  We have done all we can to cut down our other living expenses so that is done as well. In fact, I used some inheritance I received to pay off our second mortgage in order to end that payment.  Of course, we are still putting that money out there in the form of improvements on the house.  New paint job to outside of house, new cable lines, pool equipment (which replaced what was original to the house when built in 1985), some new carpet in two rooms so far.  In the planning stages are two bathroom make-overs (gutting and new fixtures) and moving the current small laundry room (which will be turned in to a large pantry/storage room) out to a larger space in the garage and a total kitchen make-over.  The kitchen will be out of commission for close to four months.  I will still be able to use the stove and fridge, but not sure where I will put all my pantry and cookware stuff.  I am so looking forward to getting the kitchen done.

Guess that pretty much winds things up for the moment. Now hopefully I will be getting myself back on track over the week end.  Although, Sunday will be spent in a class to learn how to use my new sewing machine.  I have never had a machine that I had to learn how to use before.  I just looked over the quick start manual and starting sewing.  This machine however is a different matter.  It has built in quilting options, does regular sewing, built in embroidery stitches and comes with and embroidery unit.  Pretty sure I am going to be investing an additional $200 for a proper case for it as well.  At this point, not really planning on hauling this caliber of machine back in forth for sew-in sessions or quilt classes, but I will need some type of protection for the embroidery unit as I won't be using it on a regular basis.  However, once I learn how to use it, that may change.

So...the plan is to get the menu planned for at least two months, schedule or chart made to organize house hold chores, schedule made for doctor appointments, meetings and gym time, scheduling time for sewing as well.  With every thing going on over part of the summer, I will however have about a month with daughter Miss Zebra out of school and my daughter in law will be on maternity leave for a few weeks and I will be taking advantage of that time to hopefully jump start my two new business ventures.  One is Pampered Chef, the other is opening up an Etsy store for selling some vintage items as well as some hand made items (quilts, pillow cases, crochet and such).  I make a lot of items I donate to charity and with the change in the babysitting coming I hope to get some items stocked up until I see how the my time is going to work out this fall.

That is it, once again big plans, check back and see how I'm doing with it all.