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.

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.