Week 13, Day 6

Breakfast: I had nopales con huevos because I used up all my pre-chopped veggies before I left.  The girls had oatmeal.  Jason ate cold cereal at work.  He still feels pretty sick - he thinks it is allergies.

Lunch:  This was kind of weird.  We had popcorn and string cheese before we headed out to the library.  It was closed because apparently to day is Cesar Chavez Day.  So, we decided to go grocery shopping.  That took 2.5 hours.  By then we just took Phyllis home long enough to change into her MMA clothes and grab a second cheese stick.  When we got home, I made crackers with cream cheese and/or summer sausage for the girls.  Jason and I had a bit.  So, lunch wasn't a precise deal.

Dinner: chef salads - though not traditional.  I do chopped up lunch meat and parmesan.  On the salad we had radishes, cucumbers, grape tomatoes and green onions from that which we are growing in the window.  I also toasted two tablespoons of pine nuts - just enough for the two who want it, I thought.  But I still managed to nibble a teaspoon or so.  I chopped up measured turkey for Jason and I.  I chopped up ham for the girls.  Not a single girl ate meat on their salad - so we will use that for omelets tomorrow, I guess.  the girls are far more excited about that than they were about it on their salad.

I also grilled an onion and two pounds of asparagus on the George Foreman.  What a piece of cake - and such happy children.  Cress also had some leftover warmed cooked carrots.

While eating her salad, Cress pulled out a green onion and asked me what it was.  I started to tell her and she didn't flip out at all - she was excited to eat the onions we had grown.  Most kids don't like raw green onions - Dai says she doesn't pick around them and that they just fall to the side because they are so small - but it isn't uncommon for her to have some left on her plate.  Not tonight though.

Prep Ahead: chopped up bell peppers, broccoli and onion for future scrambles

Shopping:

Costco
Eggs	$10.49
Kleenex	$16.30
Flour Tortillas	$5.98
Lunchmeat	$9.99
Broccoli	$3.99
Ham Steak	$12.06
Lettuce	$2.99
Raisins	$7.99
Butter	$8.69
Almond Milk	$8.79
Green Beans	$4.49
	$91.76
Fresco
2 – Dried Chipotle Chilies	$4.98
Cilantro Bullion	$1.69
5 Mangoes	$4.45
Bananas	$1.06
Mini Bananas	$1.70
2 – radishes	$0.67
	$14.55
Grocery Outlet
2 - #10 can tomatoes	$5.98
7 – Olives	$5.53
Jicama	$0.99
Mandarin Oranges	$2.99
Apples	$2.99
Canned Corned Beef	$2.99
Cucumbers	$1.00
Asparagus	$3.00
Mini Peppers	$2.49
Split Peas	$0.79
Summer Sausage	$0.25
Cake Mix	$1.29
	$30.29
	$136.60

Wedding weekend

I was out of town for Nila's wedding in Michigan.  Jason was in charge and he did a great job of managing multiple children's activities - especially considering he wasn't feeling well.  He did Cressida's crazy hair day Friday (it looked amazing!), took Phyllis to her Primary party, took Cressida shopping for a birthday present and took the other two to see Frozen at Cressida's school - and that was all on Friday.  Saturday they did volleyball, Dai had to skip Chinese and then Cressida had a birthday party in the afternoon.

However, it was near the end of the pay period, so food was low and I hear they did some oatmeal, some quesadillas, bean burritos (I made beans before I left) and ate the roast which they were able to salvage and they said was actually pretty good.  I had put carrots and onions under the roast when I did that, too, but, like the roast they didn't cook up quite right.  Jason re-steamed the carrots, but apparently Phyllis ate the cooked onions as they were.  Granted, they are a sweet variety, but still - she loves her onions.  Her favorite is caramelized onions.  Tonight I am grilling some for her (and us) on the George Foreman grill.  

Week 13, Day 2

Breakfast: oatmeal

Lunch: sandwiches

Dinner: we tried to do a round eye roast, but it didn't quite work.  We used the high heat then turn it off and let it sit unopened for 2.5 hours.  But it didn't quite work out - apparently (and we knew this was a possibility before deciding to try it anyway) our oven doesn't seal well, so the heat doesn't stay in well.  In that case, they recommend keeping it on 170 and checking it every half hour.

So, we had Taco Bell, instead.  

Week 13, Day 1

Breakfast: Cress and Jason had breakfast burritos, I had a scramble and Phyllis and Dai had oatmeal

Lunch:  Jason took leftover green beans, soup and lentils (he decided that was too much).  Phyllis and Dai took ham on ciabatta and Cress had a PBJ on rainbow bread.

Looking back, I am pleased with how consistent I have been.  I am also realizing that the patterns may only get caught over years of this style blog - and I really have no interest in doing that - but it has been fun - and I will finish the year anyway.

The girls ate popsicles made of apricot "juice" really it is the sugar water in which they were canned and not really juice at all.

Dinner: taco salads

Week 12, Day 7

Breakfast: scramble for me, breakfast burritos for the rest and a jar of apricots

Lunch: Dai and Phyllis had ham on ciabatta.  Cress was home sick again but her fever is gone so tomorrow she will go to school.  She had PBJ on rainbow bread.  I had a chef salad (that is what I am calling it even though it isn't exactly.)  Jason had soup and toast.

Dinner: Soup and toast again.

I also made more popsicles out of the apricot juice from the canned apricots - my girls love those. Today it is raining so we might not have popsicles, but they are popular on warm days.  I got some new popsicle molds at Goodwill the other day, including four push up pop style ones  

Week 12, Day 6

Breakfast: We had cracked wheat cereal for breakfast this morning.  As Phyllis sat down, she exclaimed with happiness about the cereal.  Do you recall that a bit ago she didn't really like it?  That is what comes of not making a huge deal of it and serving it multiple times anyway.  I also gave Phyllis some snap peas on the side and Cress and Dai got a mango each.  I am having a scramble and will splurge on sourdough toast.

Lunch: Phyllis took a ham sandwich on her ciabatta.  Dai took peanut butter and honey on rainbow bread.  The both have veggies, but Dai has mandarins as well and Phyllis took caramel corn which Dai did not.  Cress has been running a fever so she is staying home today.

Dinner: soup and sourdough toast from the Sunday bread (there was ton!! of bread this week).  the soup with changes was not well received.  In future I will cook kala chana longer and not make vegetable broth.

Prep ahead: gringa beans.  That was my last chipotle chili.  I am also really low on dried cilantro - so I guess I should get some cilantro bouillon.  

Week 12, Day 5

Breakfast: oatmeal with peeled and cut up mangoes.  I also sauteed some vegetables, but I ate most of them and Phyllis had some.  She and Jason don't like mangoes.  Cress just loves mangoes.  I think, how lucky is she - I didn't eat a mango till I was an adult!

Lunch:  Cress has a fever and went to bed without eating.  The other two girls had leftover oatmeal and Jason and I had black bean tacos.  I made the black beans into taco beans only today.  I also sauteed more vegetables, but this time I added Old Bay seasoning - which was okay.

Dinner: black bean tacos

Prep ahead: There was a lot of extra bread today at church. So we got two loaves of sourdough. Phyllis got a bag of six ciabatta rolls.  She ate half with lunch and I sliced the others in half and lengthwise so they are ready for sandwiches this week.  They are now in the freezer awaiting consumption.  I pulled out the ham in anticipation of her not wanting peanut butter on them.

Since we got bread, I expect we will do a lot of soup this week.  Soup and toast..mmm...  So, I pulled out my two gallon size ziplocks of kitchen scraps and am making vegetable stock.  I have tried before and find store bought broth to be worth the money, but we will try it again since I learned I can use scraps!!  I also found some recipes recommending spices - including whole cloves, whole peppercorns, bay leaves and thyme.  Yes, I do not like thyme but they all recommend it so I am giving it a try.  I even added a dollop of miso paste - but I may regret this - we shall see.

Some of the scraps I included are carrots peels and ends, green garlic tops, wilted leeks, celery ends and tops, wilted herbs, a wilted celeriac, onions ends, zucchini ends, asparagus ends I trimmed off and the end of the butternut squash. I also chopped up a new onion and a head of garlic.  It is done now and seems a bit sweet - like too much carrot, maybe?

Last weekend, Dai picked some oranges from our tree.  I finally got around to juicing them yesterday. She was supposed to but she didn't so finally I just said, "Ok, dai, let's do this together. "  Our oranges are a bit tart so it wasn't well received so I made a smoothy pout of it, cream, honey, vanilla and ice cubes and then made that into popsicles.

I also used up a lot of the vegetables I chopped up for use in breakfast scramble so I chopped up more broccoli and onions for that.  I am out of zucchini.

We also made caramel popcorn using a different recipe - but it was twice the size of a usual so I only put half of it on the popcorn and put the rest in a jar for ice-cream or apple dipping or some such.

I also made beaker soup in advance - however some changes.  I had no barley so we used brown rice instead.  I used the new garbanzo beans.  They don't cook as thoroughly in the same amount of time in the pressure cooker so they were firm but not exactly uncooked.  I figured they would soften up in the crock pot - no, they didn't.  I used the homemade vegetable broth rather than chicken broth.  

Week 12, Day 4 - Saturday

Breakfast: we had a really early morning - Jason, Phyllis and Cress were cleaning the church at 8 and then heading to City Beach for volleyball.  Dai and I had Chinese, so we had to leave about the same time.  Jason, sweaty that he is, made breakfast burritos for us all to go so that we could sleep in as long as possible.

Lunch: I had a salad with parmesan, white dressing (the last of it) and chicken sandwich meat again. Jason and the girls used the last of the gringa beans for burritos.  We all had snap peas with lunch.

Dinner: I made peanut butter popcorn and chocolate coated popcorn and we ate that in front of Turbo and then Jason got McDonald's for dinner.  We shared a large fry.  I had two hamburgers.  Phyllis had two McDoubles, Cress and Dai each had one and Jason had two McDoubles and a cheeseburger.  Let's just say after all that junk food we weren't feeling so great.  As a plus, we started Turbo on Netflix and it came up in Spanish with english subtitle.  After we noticed, we decided it was fine - Cress could understand it and the rest of us could read it.  Oh, and while he was fetching dinner, we ate a lot of snap peas that we brought out during the movie.  Still some left though for lunches next week.  

Reminsicing

I was telling Jason about my last entry and reminiscing about the meals my mom made and other food experiences.

It brought up some other food stages - like I used to do whole chicken often and then do casseroles or enchiladas with the meat I picked off the bone.  We used to eat Beaker Soup a lot - like lunch and dinner up to five days a week with homemade bread - part of that was when Zack and Crys lived with us!  We have gone through a baked ziti phase, a Cobre Valley casserole phase and when we were in college we did a lot of chicken skillets.  I used to make enchiladas and macaroni and cheese fairly frequently - despite my not loving the macaroni and cheese - Jason does.  I now only make it occasionally - and as Jason pointed out it would be quite expensive in terms of WW points.  I did a lot of lentil soup (two varieties) for a brief stint.  Dai's favorite food was red lentil soup for awhile even.  I used to always keep sausage in the house - for pasta or otherwise.  I am not sure exactly what we did with it - just that it was one of the things I kept in the house regularly.  

Week 12, Day 3

Breakfast: Oatmeal for the girls with the rest of the bread from the last batch.  I was amazed as I pulled out those last bits of bread (we left the bag out last night to thaw) how soft they were - that is some good bread.  Soft like store bought.

We slice it and freeze it when it is done - it has made life much easier.  We used to just slice what we needed and wrap up the rest in a towel that we put in a bag and kept on the counter.  When Jason first started doing that he crammed it all in as few Ziplock bags as possible, but then it was hard to get the bread slices to separate when frozen, so now we use more bags.

Jason had a breakfast burrito and I had a scramble.

Lunch: The girls all have sandwiches with rainbow bread.  Seriously, just opening the container should make a person smile.

Dinner: We have thawed a New York steak and I will make veggies to go with it.  And maybe lentils.

When Dai heard we were having steak, she was happy.  We try to plan a meat meal one time per week - not due to health but because we have it and at first we were just forgetting to use it, unless it was hamburger.  Dai will not be here for dinner because she is going to a slumber party for Tara Buchanan tonight.  Jason said, "You'll probably have frozen pizza.  See how other people live."  Dai was totally baffled, and Jason had already left, so I explained that I thought it referred to the buying of prepared foods.  I pointed out we don't do that very often - mostly we eat beans, veggies, chicken, meat, eggs.  Phyllis chimed in that we don't even buy already cooked chicken very often.

I note, as I write that often times I discuss a lot of non-food things - like our activities for the day and realize it is because it impacts the food plan.  How very much food is shaped by our lives, or is it that our lives shape our food - or do we decide which way it goes?  Would someone in some palce where food truly is scarce or comparatively expensive, think I was making a mountain of a molehill and that I really had no idea how much food impacted life because it is so readily available and so easily bought and prepared?  I may buy less processed food than some but the food I buy is still processed more than others, in that it is already harvested, already butchered, etc.?

I also recognize that my kids are fairly cognizant of what we eat.  I read an article that talked about how the food we eat as children is the food that will still taste good to us as adults.  Link follows.   http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-5-stupidest-habits-you-develop-growing-up-poor/

The basic premise os that if we eat a lot of processed food as children, then we will continue to appreciate processed food as adults.  I recall eating these things for dinner as a kid:

Kraft Mac 'n' Cheese
Tuna Noodle Casserole
Spaghetti
Tacos
New England Boiled Dinner
Campbell's  tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches

I know we ate other things.  For example, I recall meatloaf which mom occasionally made and I did not like.  I recall lasagna being a special treat and seemingly taking hours to prepare.  And because of the divorce and mom's breakdown, I am pretty sure I wouldn't get the same list from any of my siblings - essentially we grew up in different households.

Oddly, we don;t eat any of these things in my house.  My kids love Mac 'n' Cheese and when we make it I think I will like it (and I do like a few bites) and then I end up with a headache - every single time!  Jason's mom made a homemade version that he loves, but I do not really.  So, Mac 'n' Cheese is rare in my house.

Tuna Noodle Casserole grosses Jason out.  I did make it once, just to see if it was in his head.  He is sure tuna fish shouldn't be hot.  He was very grossed out, so I have never made it again.

Spaghetti we do have occasionally, but I never put ground met in my sauce and my mom always did.  Jason's mom didn't.  When we were first living together I made it with ground meat and Jason was not a fan.  I thought it would be better with but he clearly didn't think so, so I really never did it again.  Occasionally, I have done it with meatballs.  Plus, Jason says it doesn't keep him full very long and Phyllis has the same issue, though she cannot put it into words that way.  More common pastas for us are cheaty pasta, baked ziti and, before, we used to do a lot of penne with spicy vodka tomato cream sauce.  We still do that last occasionally.

Tacos - we still do this but differently.  We use black beans rather than meat.  I also recall having a bowl of cut up tomatoes, a bowl of cut up onions, a bowl of cut up lettuce, a little bowl of grated cheese (we had to grate it because it was cheaper to buy it in blocks).  We used to have the Tupperware bowls and would try to match the colors of the bowls to the contents.  I found a picture of them on the Internet.  We had sour cream sometimes, but we almost always had guacamole.  And this was so prized.  There would never be quite enough for every one to have what they really wanted.  So you put a little dab on and that was that - maybe you would get a little dab on the second taco.  I recall observing Dad always got the amount I wanted.  Oh, and we had taco sauce - which we made with ketchup and vinegar.  We also make our tortilla shells differently.  Mom fried them in oil until just soft - my girls and husband like them a little more cooked (not me), so I have adjusted my cooking time. Also, lately, we have done them what we call taqueria style - just warmed in a dry cast iron pan until pliable.

Sometimes I still make New England boiled dinner.  I recall that there was never enough meat for every one to get the amount they really wanted.  To this day, i still love this meal. I have previously added sometimes two tins of meat (yes, we used the canned stuff when I was a kid and I still do though I am debating learning to cook the real stuff.)  Last time I saw it at the store and i thought about getting it and realized that really that little tin of meat is expensive like my mom used to always say.  That meat is the most expensive single thing in the pot isn't surprising, but that feeling of "wow! that is pricey," was new.  I didn't buy it - in part because we didn't already have all the other stuff without me buying it, too. I also recall this one took a long time - plan ahead like - and that it was most popular with my mom - as I think it is most popular with me in our house, too.

Dad loved the tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.  We would buy off-brand soups - except this one and maybe the beef and barley that dad also liked.  I think when he moved to the boat that he continued to enjoy and eat a lot of soup - but it was always canned isa my impression.  I never lived on the boat so I do not really know.  I actually love good tomato soup, but I make it from scratch.  Heather Castro and Ela Wunderli have both loved it.  I served it at an Activity Days "Dinner with Mom" activity.  I also have had it when we had friends over sometimes.  I make it when the tomatoes are at peak ripeness - in summer when it isn't great fun to stand over the stove, but the soup is really good so it is worth it.

So, I guess, we do eat similar things to when I was a child, but just different.  I wonder, will my kids revert to similar but more processed?  It is hard for me to imagine that is so, even if they find it hard to cook during college, for example.  Though, Jason and I cooked in college - but not always -we ate a lot of Del Taco, too.

LATER

Actual dinner was New York steak, CSA butternut squash (it has been on our counter a really long time) and carrots and lentils in olive oil.  The lentils was okay but not great.  Jason was pleased to see lentils, which surprised me.  He said he was raised on lentils - often eating lentil soup.  I have made lentil soups before but that was not what I wanted this time - I was looking for a side dish.  Guess I will keep looking.  Jason did the steak on the stove instead of BBQ, this time.

Prep Ahead: I pressure cooked balck beans today - I need to do pintos soon, too.

Shopping:  Lettuce @ Costco $3.99

Week 12, Day 2

Breakfast: Cress had oatmeal and toast (using the last batch of bread which isn't quite gone), Jason had a breakfast burrito and I had a scramble.  Dai and Phyllis had oatmeal.

Lunches: Still had peanut butter crackers.  We have not yet sliced the bread.  Even when we do, we want to use up the old bread first.  Jason had a burrito but he had so many WW points left that I think he should take two for lunch in future. Technically, he worked from home today, but you get the idea.  I had a salad with parmesan, my white dressing and turkey sandwich meat.  It was good!

Dinner: Taco salad - used the leftover black beans - and it was a close thing because there was only a quarter cup of beans left.

Both Jason and I ended up with WW points at the end of the day.  But I didn't feel like eating anything - popcorn maybe but not enough so we just left the day with some points.  I think Jason needs to watch his more - because he feels it more.  It didn't help that he ate 8 points worth of chocolate and till ended up with points left.

As I was grinding the wheat for bread yesterday - I did  a batch with very coarse grain in the middle.  Supposedly it helps keep the stones cleaned.  Then I sifted out the cracked wheat and reground the rest with the remaining wheat.  I left the cracked wheat in a bowl near the grinder.  Dai saw the cracked wheat on the counter today and asked if we were having cracked wheat for breakfast tomorrow.  I told her more likely Saturday - and she was bummed because she won't eat with us because she will be at a slumber party.  The other girls eat it (Cress prefers red wheat she says to white wheat, so lucky her) , but it isn't their favorite.  Dai loves it, though.

Shopping:

Costco
Lettuce	$3.99
Brussels sprouts	$5.49
Green Beans	$5.99
Cream Cheese	$6.99
Eggs	$7.49
Snap Peas	$4.99
	$34.94

Jason bought flour tortillas at Costco for $2.99

Street vendor guy $8 for mangoes

Then I did a bunch of shopping for Activity Days for which I need reimbursement because it came out of the food budget - about $25.

Week 12, Day 1

Breakfast: Dai and Phyllis had oatmeal and Cressida had a breakfast burrito and I had a scramble.  Eating all together would be nice, but in the mornings, it is hard.  Cress has to leave between 7:10 and 7:15.  The older two don't even get up until 7.  I have to drive the carpool to San Martin on M, T, W mornings.  I do not get back until after 8 and the other two need to leave by about 8:35.  I explain this because I realize that I regularly say who had what but I am not the kind of mom who does custom orders.

Lunches:  Cress and Phyllis have peanut butter on those "healthy" crackers.  Dai had a peanut butter sandwich.  She was surprised because she thought we didn't have bread which wasn't exactly right, we didn't have much and often said, we need to make bread - that is true.

Dai asked if we could make rainbow bread on Sunday, but we didn't.  I told her we could do it Wednesday or something, but then I realized she won't be here this evening - so I am unsure.  But even if I make it on my own, I think I will do rainbow just for fun.  Or maybe one of the shapes inside.

I had grilled chicken on salad (with parmesan and my white dressing) and Jason had burritos.

Dinner: Grilled chicken on salad.  We had it with parmesan and each could choose their own dressing.

Prep ahead:
I did make rainbow bread, but learned a couple things.  I remembered how hard it is to get the bread to take color.  Also, the extra process of kneading in the coloring probably means I should have kneaded it less time in the mixer - didn't seems quite as soft when it came out.  We haven't cut it yet, though so we shall see.  

Week 11, Day 7

Breakfast:  scramble for me, breakfast burritos for the girls plus Phyllis had oatmeal after her burrito

Lunch: soup for kids again - i had leftover chicken salad with celery sticks and way too much popcorn - and seriously had the munchies today

Dinner: leftover soup - the rest of it - we will definitely not do it with noodles again.  we are having soup bc after school toady, Cress asked, "Can you make bread so I can have a sandwich tomorrow?"  I told her we could do sandwiches when the soup was gone - so  she said, "Can we have it for dinner then?"

I chopped up more celery today, too.

Week 11, Day 6

Breakfast: I had a breakfast scramble, the girls had breakfast burrito

Before school today, Heather gave me a big box of crackers from Costco that a parent had brought to the tournament but only a little bit was gone.  She kept one stay-fresh package and said, "These are too healthy for anyone in my family except me."  Then Dai doesn't like them, either, but she announced it just as I finished telling Jason, which struck me as really funny.  Cress likes them plain or with peanut butter but Phyllis likes them okay with peanut butter only.

Lunch: soup - trying to get it finished up but the girls are not big fans

Dinner: taco salad - needed three heads of lettuce bc watching what he eats, Jason wants more salad

Shopping:

Walmart
Popcorn	$4.98
Fels Naptha	$0.97
Twix fun size	$1.08
	$7.03

Week 11, Day 5

Breakfast: scrambles for Phyllis and I - burritos for the rest of the family

Lunch:  The girls had sandwiches on their bread from church.  JAson and I are doing weightwatchers.  He had a burrito, I think and I had turkey lunchmeat, celery and string cheese - hard to get used to that again.  When I got home Jason asked, "What do we eat?"

Dinner: I made mixed bean soup but added the star pasta Dai and I bought - it really thickened the soup and didn't add anything of value.

Prep ahead - I cooked black beans for taco salad in the future and gringa beans for Jason's lunches

Week 11, Day 4

Breakfast: Jason made omelettes for Phyllis and I with onions, broccoli and celery in them.  Mine had no cheese.  Dai, Jason and Cress had breakfast burritos.

Lunch:  Dai and I ate at Boiling Crab for her "video lunch" as we are calling it.  In 5th grade they see a video at school on puberty and get a little goody pack of pads and a calendar.  They are advised they should talk to their parents, too.  They get a little card that says how parents  might choose to talk to their kids, reminding them that they are excellent resources for their kids.  One of the suggestions was a meal out to discuss it - and Dai wrote me a little letter asking for said meal.  She only wanted me and I asked if she had specific questions, or just generally wanted to tell me about the video.  She said she had specific questions.  Her question?  Really, just when did I start because they said often girls start about the same age as their mothers.  But, she was remarkably grown up every time she said "period." Ay, ay, ay!  We plan to do that with each girl after what they dubbed at school "The Video of Doom." Jason took Phyllis and Cress to Taco Bell after volleyball.

Dinner: Steak and asparagus and pinto beans.  We also ate homemade peanut butter popcorn and ate it while we watched a TV show right before bed.  I love that stuff!

Shopping:

Fresco
Star Pasta	$0.25
Angel Hair Pasta Roni	$1.25
Nopales	$1.49
Lentils	$1.36
Garlic	$0.89
Apples	$2.99
Zucchini	$1.22
Black Beans (21 lbs)	$14.64
Grape Tomaotes	3.96
Asparagus	$1.98
	$30.03

Prep Ahead:
Cut up celery and put it in water
Cut carrot sticks and rounds and put them in water
Cut up green garlic from the CSA, broccoli, celery,  and zucchini for tossing in breakfast scrambles, etc.  

Week 11, Day 3

Breakfast: pancakes for the girls and I had two poached eggs (made in the microwave)

Lunch: Dai had a field trip so she couldn't take containers and since we are out of peanut butter - Jason made her chicken salad.  The other two had gringa beans and cheese.

Dinner: Today was Cressida's DIME program at San Martin.  They rolled it into Loteria.  They had a taco stand as part of their fundraising - so we got some food there.  I had Lucas Castro because he was in DIME but Heather couldn't go and Heather had Phyllis because she had MMA and didn't want to go and needed to be picked up before we would get back.   So, I fed Lucas some food there and Heather fed Phyllis pizza.  Phyllis said she was still hungry when we got home because she only had two pieces of pizza and I told her she could eat again in the morning.

Shopping - because it is payday!!

Costco
Toilet Paper	$16.30
Milk (2 gallons)	$6.59
Pads	$14.13
Broccoli	$3.99
Whip Cream	$5.69
Sandwich meat	$6.99
Celery	$3.29
Onions (10 lbs)	$7.99
Mandarin oranges (5 lbs)	$6.79
Romaine Lettuce (6 heads)	$3.99
Eggs (5 doz)	$7.99
Sour Cream	$4.39
Carrots (5 lbs)	$4.79
Peanut Butter (2 pack)	$10.99
String Cheese	$12.79
Egg Whites	$8.69
	$125.39

That is enough pads to last a really really long time - but it is sure a lot of money right now, huh?  I also really debated salted nuts and would like to have bought popcorn but they didn't have the 94% fat free kind that I like.  

Week 11. Day 2

breakfast: pancakes

lunch: pasta salad (boy! the girls sure complain)

Dinner: Dinner: pasta salad - gotta use it up and the kids only complain about it - Jason was a softy and let Cress have leftover gringa beans.  

Week 11, Day 1

Breakfast: pancakes - and it is my last day of Roma for awhile since I am out of nondairy creamer. And I don't care for it black.  But we are half way done with our "lean" week.

Lunch:  Pasta salad for Phyllis and the bean soup for Dai and Cress.

Dinner: gringa bean burritos - even Gabriela Castro ate one if that tells you exactly how not hot they are.  

Week 10, Day 7

Breakfast: pancakes - reheated from last night (but we didn't freeze them because we knew when we would be  using them so that was easier.) Lots of applesauce used again.

Lunches: Phyllis and Cress took pasta salad.  Dai took the bean soup from last night.

Dinner: burritos - last night I actually soaked the beans in advance and then started the gringa beans cooking this morning.  My girls asked if I had changed the recipe because it was "less spicy" and I explained it was, I think, due to brown chipotles instead of red.  They asked if I could keep getting that kind and I said not if I could find red, because they are smokier.  

Week 10, Day 6

Breakfast: cracked wheat cereal but we have no milk, some people used Jason's almond milk.

Lunch: Cress took leftover salad with grilled chicken, Phyllis has a burritos with leftover beans and Dai has leftover pasta.  Jason has burritos, of course.

Dinner:  Mixed bean soup - a completely new recipe.  It calls for 12 ounces of dried bean mix - I cooked a pound of mixed beans (black, pinto, desi garbanzo, white beans) - and used some of it for a pasta salad I am making and the rest for the soup - maybe more maybe less than what it called for.  It called for 8 cups of water and I used 8 cups of chicken broth instead.  It called for a teaspoon of thyme (yuck!) so I used a teaspoon of oregano instead.  I also added diced carrots, frozen corn and used a pound of ground hamburger rather than half a pound.  Looking at it, it would be thin, so I am glad I used a little more meat.  Since I used chicken broth, I also omitted the salt.  The link is below.

I realized that is meat 5 days in a row which is very unusual around here - the first two days had bacon (not much but still), then we had steak, then grilled chicken and today hamburger.

http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/mixed-bean-soup

We also made corn bread using powdered milk and lemon juice for a buttermilk substitute.

For the dinner prayer, Cressida actually thanked Him that we could have something new.  I am so glad that new doesn't equal bad to my kids.  It actually was well received in general.

James Greathurst often comes over on Mondays for a playdate.  His mom said, "I have decided that I don't like coming to your house."  Why? "Because it makes me hungry."  Usually she comes while I am making inner because James has karate at 6.  But really, most of what I make she wouldn't eat anyway.  It might smell good, but it has olives, or is spicy, or has a vegetable she doesn't care for, etc. But it is nice to hear that it smells good.  Usually we visit while I prepare dinner - and it is actually very pleasant.

For dessert the girls had either Valentine's candy from their bags or a cookie from last night.

Prep ahead: I sliced up the celery and put it in water in the fridge.  I also peeled and cut up carrots in water for lunches.  I did some coins and some sticks because Dai prefers sticks and the little ones prefer coins.

This time I kept celery bits, carrots peels and carrot ends as well as some parsley or cilantro that had wilted in the fridge and am freezing them to eventually make a vegetable broth.

I also am preparing a pasta salad for the girls to take in their lunches this week.  The peanut butter is really low and I spent some of our grocery money on the iPad Mini - so I can use savings to grocery shop or we can try to work around until payday and hopefully have a good fresh start then - though we will be very low in supply, too.  Some things we are completely out of: black beans, milk, sour cream, cream, peanut butter (will be by the end of the week anyway), tator tots (not a true necessity) eggs (we will be by the end of the week.)

The link for the pastas salad is below but I used only half a teaspoon cumin and chile and used "some" of the beans I cooked.  I am unsure exactly how much.  Instead of tomatoes I used a can of rinsed tomatoes.  I used penne pasta because that is what I had and frozen corn in lieu of canned.  I steamed it first.  I didn't use chili flakes and found it didn't need salt and pepper really.  I debated adding finely diced celery, but passed.  I let the girls taste it tonight and they seemed to like it well enough.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/zesty-southern-pasta-and-bean-salad/

Jason is such a good sport.  He said he was willing to grocery shop as a family tonight or to work with the lean pantry.  Tonight he is also making pancakes for breakfasts during the week.  

Tea in an LDS Home

When it was cold, we were drinking quite a bit of hot tea - mostly Jason and I but the girls sometimes, too.  sometimes in the evening, Jason still makes us hot tea, but now we are drinking more iced-tea.  It goes well with dinner, or in my sippy throughout the day.  Phyllis rarely drinks it and Dai almost always drinks it and Cressida is hit or miss - often getting a glass poured that she doesn't actually drink (I do sometimes when I clear the table of anything that didn't get cleared already.)

Cressida particularly loves raspberry and Dai really loves honey vanilla chamomile (I think any chamomile would suit her really) and I have been making peach a lot lately.  I enjoy those fruity ones that I don't like hot as an iced-beverage quite well.  We have used up all three of those varieties.  While I love vanilla rooibos hot, it isn't great as iced-tea.  Next we have a different chamomile and then a lemon variety.  We also have an orange spice one, but I am hoping to save that for hot drinks.

I know drinking water at all meals (our previous usual) can be quite boring but soda or juice or milk isn't really a great choice either.  I hope in this way, I am helping my children make good life long habits.

We had the missionaries over recently - elders and sisters.  They all had water, but I did explain that it was chamomile so totally above board.  None of them had any.  They had water.  My the girls explained that the table cloth at the sister missionaries' table was water resistant so the water would bead on it.  Sure enough, the sisters poured out the last drops and played with them before the night was out.  

Week 10, Day 5

Breakfast:  today is time change day and Jason was sleeping heavily do I got up  and started the tator tots and the last three slices of bacon in the oven all on the same cookie sheet.  Then I showered and when I got up Jason got up and made breakfast burritos to order - Cress doesn't like bacon and Dai doesn't like salsa.  Really for burritos we only need about 20 tator tots - 4-5 per person but I finished off the bag.

Lunch:  Jason had made lunch for us when we got home.  He had cooked pinto beans and refried them and had chopped up a head of CSA lettuce and some grape tomatoes.  The one great thing about him not going to church is that he often has lunch ready or close to ready when we get home.

After lunch, Dai and I made Fudge Oatmeal Cookies.  In the cupboard I saw a can of sweetened condensed milk so I looked for a recipe for which we had the stuff - we are kind of low on stuff right now.  They are cooling right now.

Also, my friend Tanja Freeman and her husband, Bryan, stopped by after to pick up the composter that has sat unused in our backyard for quite some time now and the drilling tool for it.  She brought three baby leeks and some purple snow peas.  I set one aside to use for seeds and the rest became a small snack.  They make your teeth a little purple.

Well, it doesn't come across that well in the picture.

Dinner: Salads with grilled chicken.  Salad included a few leftover purple snow peas, two cooked beets, radishes, grape tomatoes, carrots, celery and cucumbers.  The lettuce was a head of romaine, some of butter leaf from the CSA and some spinach.  Cressida didn't have any dressing at all on her salad - which was amusing.  Heather brought a fruit salad that had fruit and Cool Whip.  We had cookies for dessert.  They are kind of shiny - and when Cress got hers she said, "Oh, I thought they were greasy."  

Week 10, Day 4

Breakfast: no Chinese today so we got to eat breakfast together.  I sauteed spinach and put it in a bowl. Then I sauteed tomatoes and Jason made omelette using that.  Yum!  Cress and Phyllis ate two pints of homemade applesauce and some canned apricots.  The first two pints Cress brought out, we tossed because they weren't full and looked darker at the top.  We didn't even need to open them to make the call, but when I was cleaning the jars one had mold - so good call.

Lunch: Dai and Cress went to Grandma Susan's house to help her garden and Phyllis and Jason had volleyball so I was home alone.  I cleaned a bit and also made lunch for them.  We had penne pasta with sun-dried tomatoes and spinach and pine nuts.  The recipe called for sausage but I didn't have it so we just didn't have it.  We also used the remaining four rolls - halved and toasted again.  Cress didn't eat much and Dai only ate maybe half a bowl - apparently they had two blueberry muffins each at Grandma's.

While they were gone, I also started unpacking the CSA stuff.  We had beets, which I pressure cooked, and beet greens attached to those, which I chopped and washed.  I also chopped and washed the mizuna, kale and chard.  Jason is making basic greens with it.  It was a lot - but it always cooks down to so little.

I also prepared creamy turnips - we had three bunches of turnips.  I have never made it before - so we shall see.

Dinner: Flat iron steak that Jason BBQ'd - the BBQ caught fire again.  Jason needs to address it or we have to go back to charcoal grilling.  Greens and creamy parsnips.  Phyllis loved the parsnips - not the greens so much.  The other two felt exactly the opposite.  All the girls had more meat - they thought it was great.  Cressida likes A1 but we just give her a little on the side to dip so she doesn't ruin the flavor of her steak.  Followed by milkshakes made with strawberry ice cream and some bananas that we have that need to be used up soon.  

Week 10, Day 3

Breakfast: the kids had oatmeal prepared in the microwave (I assume I have previously mentioned my preference for stove top cooked oatmeal)  I am now so low on milk - less than half a cup I would guess. And this will be a tight week because I used the grocery money to buy the iPad Mini and one day I bought lunch at school.

Jason had his birthday cereal and made me a spinach and tomato omelette because I requested it.  Isn't he nice?

Lunch: the girls had sandwiches with three produces - each different.

Dinner: Beans, again.  We had the other half a head of cabbage and I chopped up the CSA carrots and some store bought carrots (store bought were a lot darker in color).  Instead of corn bread we had rolls that someone made for us and left on our patio.  Fairly large - seven of them so I split three in half and toasted them with dinner.  We also bought ice-cream to eat today.  Cress didn't eat the beans again.  

Kids Comments

My food blog was up because I was intending to do today's entry.  Phyllis apparently sat in front of it and was reading it.  She asked suddenly, "We bought cake?!"  When I asked for further clarification, she said "At Foodmaxx."  So I clarified that was cake mix for Dad's birthday cake.

Then they commented on my picture - which is produce.  You can't really see it when I transfer it to a book, but online it is the background.  Dai said, "That looks about right for what we get every week - except the cucumbers."  It got me thinking about how they think of food shopping.  But when they get to college - a CSA will be more than they can afford let alone eat on their own probably.  So will they return to it when they have kids?  Will they shop at a grocery store and wonder why mom bothered with the additional hassle and expense of a CSA?  Will they be farmers market girls?  

Week 10, Day 2

Breakfast:  Jason had cereal (he is grateful for the almond milk) and made us breakfast burritos but Dai was still in the shower so she ended up making fried eggs for herself.

Lunch: sandwiches again - but this time Dai and Phyllis got the right ones.

Dinner:  Pinto beans, cabbage and cornbread - that sounds hearty right?  And kind of western and just down home wholesome to me.  Whole foods without much frills.

Today I ran around like a crazy woman.  At 3:30 I took Cress to gym.  At 4, I took Phyllis to MMA.  I stayed until 4:20 when I went to Los Paseos to get Dai from GATE.  Then, I left Dai at home while I went back to get Phyllis at 5.  Then I came home and realized that I needed to get something started for dinner.  I didn't have a full pound of black beans left so I started pinto beans cooking before I had to get Cressida from gym and drop Dai at gym at 5:30.  I came home and and looked online for something to do with the pinto beans that were about half way through their time.

I found this recipe to try.  While I diced garlic, I got Jason to slice the jalapeno peppers, after which also enlisted Jason in making cornbread.  I started slicing, thinly, the small green CSA cabbage and half the red CSA cabbage in our fridge.

The bean recipe is below.  I cooked them halfway, then stopped it and added the additions and then cooked it again.  Jason said it was smoky - and it was.  It had heat but wasn't really spicy.  It was so good with cornbread dropped in it to soak up the liquid.  The cabbage was just steamed but then I transferred it to a bowl with a tablespoon of butter.  That rocked, too.  I ate two huge helpings of cabbage.  It just really hit the spot.  Phyllis wasn't too excited about the cabbage (remembered nearly choking on it) but she did chop it smaller with a knife and eat it.

We have a lot of polenta and not much cornmeal, so Jason used the Magic Bullet to grind some polenta a little finer for the cornbread.  It was in a skillet and just perfect!

Cress doesn't really like bacon so she melted down (she was very hungry) and only ate part of her cornbread and some cabbage.  She was really excited to hear we were having it while I was cooking it, but I do not think she got to really appreciate it because of all the tears.  She told me she wasn't eating her soup.  As dinner was winding up, and Cress was gone, I think Dai also referred to it as soup so I said to Jason, "I call it beans and the kids call it soup."  Dai said, "It is soup" very authoritatively.  tomorrow's I will make thicker.

There is just one piece of cornbread and a little beans left for Jason for lunch tomorrow.  If Cress had eaten her beans - there probably would not have been enough for his lunch.

I was so thrilled with it, that we will do it again tomorrow.  I am soaking beans now.  I am only planning to use 7 cups of water.  I also sliced and diced my garlic.  We only used three jalapeno peppers - so glad I had them on hand.  Because our bacon was uber-salty, we didn't add any salt.  I used 5 slices of bacon, but I am totally interested in getting back fat sometime. (Phyllis asked, "Is the bacon cooked?"  We told her it was pressure cooked and she was satisfied that that explained why it looked different.)  I also used half a teaspoon cumin - who uses 1/8?  We also used four large garlic cloves.

Man - that dinner rocked!!

Ingredients:

2 cups dried beans, picked and sorted,
2 to 3 quarts of water
2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
3 to 4 jalapeño chile peppers seeds and membranes removed, and sliced into 1/8-inch pieces
Salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

Bacon slices, fat back, or other fatty meat to cook with the beans is optional - 1/4 pound fatback or 5 slices of bacon is a good amount to use
1/8 teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon chile powder
2 teaspoons paprika

Week 10, Day 1

Breakfast: Burritos except for Jason who had his cereal since I finally got almond milk yesterday

Lunch: sandwiches - apparently Phyllis ended up with the peanut butter and honey and Dai got the peanut butter and banana (not jam - actual bananas) sandwich.  They commented on it but they both said it was fine and they ate their sandwich anyway.  (Sometimes in the past they haven't.)

Dinner: I cooked black beans with the intention of doing black bean tacos, but I got a migraine and went to bed so Jason made taco beans and made bean burritos.

Lunches at School Notes

As  a side, but totally about food.  Phyllis hasn't been consistently finishing her lunch at school. Thank goodness they haven't figured out to just throw it away yet.  I told her to not get food off the tray until she eats all of her own.  Yesterday she ate less than half her sandwich and her pickles.  That was all. Then she did MMA/Jujitsu for two hours and while she ate a hearty dinner, she wasn't a wreck like I would expect on so little food.  So, I asked, what else did she eat?  She told me that someone gave her some of a brownie.  I am glad she was honest but also surprised that she wasn't a wreck.  Maybe the breakfast burritos just hold that much better than oatmeal?

When my kids don't finish lunch, I have them put the leftovers in the fridge, depending on what it is, or eat it for after school snack.  They don't get snack unless they finish lunch at school.  But she didn't have time to eat after school because I needed to go early to check out the MMA stuff, so she ate it before dinner and then ate her two big helpings of dinner.  

Week 9, Day 7

Breakfast: Breakfast burritos

Lunch: sandwiches (even me, kind of, since I had my Sunday bagel with cream cheese)

Dinner: leftover baked ziti, I finished the leftover greens (which saddened a kid because that was all there was) and canned green beans.  Two cans, but that was all I had.  The kids were bummed because they love green beans - and these are the cheap ones I got but they were fine.

Shopping:

Lucky - Almond Milk (half gallon)    2.99

That is a good price.  I also spent $20 on girl stuff.

Week 9, Day 6

Breakfast: Jason shared Cinnamon Toast Crunch but he was out almond milk so he and I had breakfast burritos (I do not like that cereal and he doesn't handle milk well)

Lunch: PBJ's for the girls and I, Jason had soup

Dinner: Baked ziti.  We had the elders and the sisters over so I made two batches - but we had most of one leftover.  One I made with the remaining two chipotle sausage (Jason loved it) and the other was meatless.  We also had a great salad.  Lettuce, sliced turnips, sliced radishes, cucumber, tomatoes and toasted pine nuts.  Someone gave us cookies so we did that for dessert.

James usually comes on Mondays for play dates.  He did again today.  His mom comes about 5:30 to pick him up but she can stay and visit until 6 or so.  Today, she mentioned that it was odd to her to put raw turnips in salad.  I peeled them and then cut it in half and sliced it - I offered her one.  She declined and I thought to myself that was part of why she had such picky eaters.  Then she said that actually she would have a bit of the next that I sliced - I had pulled out two.  Her Victoria didn't try it but James did - just a little bite, but it really showed to me how much modeling un-picky or willingness to try new foods behavior counts.

I also mentioned today to Jason that when I was a kid I tried to actually toss or mix the salad.  Now I never bother; I just layer it on.

Costco
Diet Dr. Pepper                               11.82
Corn Tortillas                                    3.19
Shredded Cheddar/Jack Cheese      15.69
Shredded Mozzarella                       13.99
Total                                                45.69

Yes, I feel a little guilty about the soda, but seriously, some afternoons I need a pick me up - but I am really trying to keep it to one per day.

Yes, I bought the mozzarella for dinner today.  So glad Jason worked from home, becuase then I could shop with much less stress.

Week 9, Day 5

Breakfast: Cress and Jason had Cinnamon Crunch Toast - Jason's bday cereal - because it is Fast Sunday

Lunch:  Jason had leftovers, Cress is "napping" because she threw such a fit about not helping unload before lunch

Dinner: taco salad

Prep ahead - Jason made sandwich bread - the homesteader whole wheat recipe we have found and liked - and is starting rustic Italian for tomorrow when we plan to have baked ziti

Week 9, Day 4

Breakfast: Cress and I got breakfast burritos the others got oatmeal because we are out of flour tortillas.

Lunch:  leftover soup, greens, salad and celery sticks.  I also made a smoothie with banana, pineapple and spinach.  It was my first pineapple peeling and I think I did pretty well for having just a knife.  Jason thought it was an elegant solution - in his life, you just ate the eyes.

Dinner: leftover soup.  I didn't eat it.  We made the second batch with dried carrots.  The first time we have used them and my hands itched like crazy that night.  Then after having soup for lunch they got worse - not that they had gotten better but it had been less severe.  But how can I be allergic to dried carrots?  Really?  Anyway, we might have a number 10 can of those to give away.

Jason and I went out for ice-cream at Cold Stone in the afternoon while our kids played at Heather's.  I also took a nap while she was babysitting and Jason looked for and found two leaks in the garage. Cress threw such a fit so I put her in GB's bed when we got there.  They will come over later for their date night.  We will watch Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 1 and 2.  Heather will make them dinner since they don't eat my soup and we will let them have cake with us.

Also we had Kahlua cake for Jason's birthday.  That plus his favorite cereal, a four pack of Guinness and a Trader Joe's Pound Plus 72% dark chocolate bar were my gifts to him.

I did some shopping

Costco
Spinach	$3.99
Chocolate Chips	$8.69
Bananas	$1.39
Grape Tomatoes	$5.99
Eggs	$9.59
Cinnamon Toast Cereal	$6.99
	$36.64
Trader Joe's Chocolate	$4.99
Jason for Gas	$14.00
Nob Hill – Guinness	$8.36
	$63.99

Yes - gas coming out of groceries because Jason is driving to his coaching these days.