Week 35, Day 5

Breakfast: egg burritos

Lunch: leftovers and church bread.

Dinner: We ate peanut butter and crackers on the way to the beach for a bonfire with the Castros.

Dai made a cherry dump cake in the crockpot but I think maybe it wanted a smaller crockpot.  It was too sweet for the adults.  

Week 35, Day 4

breakfast: Lucky Charms - last day

Lunch: potato leek soup.  I made it with no cream and Phyllis noticed its absence.  Interesting to me. We also had snap peas.  I made this wheat berry apple fennel salad for dinner but decided to try some for lunch.  It was so good!  Definitely a keeper and I had been a little skeptical.  (So skeptical that while I was making it, I said to Jason, "We eat some freaky stuff, huh?")

Link here since it was so good.  I also printed it out.  I didn't have the parsley so I omitted that.  I also used three apples (they were small) and two celery stalks.  http://www.finarelli.com/recipes/apple_wheat_berry_salad.pdf

Dinner: Taco Bell because we were supposed to go to  a bonfire and we ate on the way, but then it got cancelled so we came back.  We had more cake and ice-cream tonight.  

Week 35, Day 3

breakfast: Lucky Charms - Dai's birthday cereal - I ate the rest of the salad from last night and am sure I smelled like onions thereafter.

Lunch:  the girls all took pot roast, cauliflower, celery and apples.  All the same - except the proportions of pot roast stuffs.  Phyllis wanted extra onion.  Dai wanted extra potatoes and in a separate container (lucky for her I have four insulated ones.)

Dinner:  Taco Bell.  Gilly and her mom went, too.  I had Gilly over to help her with her math after school and her mom picked her up about dinner time.

Dai made a chocolate pudding cake in the Dutch oven.  It was different than the one with which I am familiar but she felt so good making a cake - and on her birthday no less!  So we had that with ice-cream for dessert.

Prep ahead: potato leek soup.

Week 35, Day 2

Breakfast: Coco puffs - the last of them.  Phyllis was still hungry so I suggested apricots but she must not have been too hungry because she didn't take me up on it.

Lunch:  I made chicken salad today, but using a different "recipe.'  I am getting more apples from the CSA today and still have some to use up, so I did chicken salad with apples, Craisins (left over from the zucchini cookies) and celery.  The kids all took that plus 8 or 10 whole what saltine crackers. They will have to put together little sandwiches at school to avoid the crackers getting soggy if I made cracker sandwiches in the morning.  They also had celery with peanut butter for dipping, cucumber spears (Dai likes hers unpeeled, and apples (Cress is the only one anymore who wants it cut.)  I also gave the  each a fruit roll-up (leftover from Cressida's birthday party goody bags) for dessert.

After school snack: string cheese

Dinner: Taco salad and a tomato apple salad.  We still have loads of tomatoes so we have to get creative.  We also have a lot of apples since we got three bags in our CSA and had four left from last week - two of which went into the salad.  It is tasty - dressed with olive oil, lemon juice and red chili flakes.  Kaitlyn Schwab ate over again tonight.  She was giving Dai grief for picking around the onions in the salad.  She was one of the first to dish the salad and she got it before the chili flakes really kicked in, I guess, but on a second helping (after Dai and Cress said it was spicy) she noticed it.
Prep ahead: Jason prepared chard from this week's and last week's CSA.  I chopped CSA celery (from last week) and CSA cauliflower from this week and put them in water to make easy to stash in lunches.  I also roasted the hot peppers I got at work and the sweet peppers from the CSA.

Prep ahead: two pounds of black beans cooked for camping

Week 35, Day 1

Breakfast: today is Cressida's birthday and she picked Coco Puffs as her birthday cereal so the girls had that for breakfast.  I had a tomato sandwich and Jason had scrambled eggs.

Lunch:  Cress and Phyllis had gringa beans and cheese in their lunch.  Dai took the last two boiled eggs.  Each girl had cucumbers and an apple.  Dai also had prunes.  Cressida had a beet.  Phyllis had carrot coins in Italian dressing.  Jason packed himself burrito stuff but ended up carpooling after he had already put his veggies and beans in his tank bag.  So he had with him only cheese and tortillas so he made quesadillas for lunch.  I had the rest of the tomato salad and a peanut butter and honey sandwich (I had made it for Cress's lunch before she decided that she wanted beans.)

After school snack: popcorn

Dinner: Pot roast with onion, potatoes and carrots.  We do more carrots than any other vegetable.

Prep ahead: I cooked two pounds of bacon in the oven for camping and cooked about a pound of black beans - also for camping.  

Week 34, Day 7

Breakfast: leftover oatmeal - except me  who had the last of the cream of wheat cereal because we used up the oatmeal.

Lunch: Jason took the last of the soup, celery and carrot sticks (I made them because he was headed out the door with no vegetables and a "But the soup is mostly peppers" comment) and banana bread.  Dai had a boiled egg.  Cressida had a PBH.  Phyllis had a turkey sandwich.  Cress had green beans, apple and a tomato.   The other two packed their own lunches after I left early to do the church audit, so I am not exactly sure what they had.  I had tomato sandwiches and banana bread with cream cheese.

After school snack: strawberries

Dinner: Tomato and cucumber salad and two boiled eggs each.  This salad was thinly sliced cucumbers and onion plus chunks of tomatoes.  The dressing was different but it called for sunflower oil, which I did not have, so I used the remnant of yesterday's dressing.  We also had cucumber spears.  It was just too hot to cook.  I think Jason wasn't totally pleased, but he didn't say anything.  Dai made the blueberry iced tea today.

Week 34, Day 6 - Mothership Tomato Salad Link

Breakfast: oatmeal (stove top courtesy of Jason.)

Lunch:  Cress had a turkey sandwich on church brad (she doesn't like this bread as well since it has poppy seeds.)  Phyllis had a peanut butter and honey (PBH) on church bread.  Dai had a boiled egg. Produce was carrots, celery, green beans and strawberries.

Dinner: Filet Mignon from our part of a cow. Jason grilled 5 steaks (since this was a last minute choice, thank goodness for the propane grill!) - 1 pound approximately.  Even Cressida could eat it - usually she has too much trouble chewing the beef.  We had true blueberry iced-tea. Seems to be the most popular all around.  I made a tomato salad to go with it. Recipe at the link below.   http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/jamie-oliver/the-mothership-tomato-salad-recipe.html

Last Wednesday I worked.  Teresa, one of my co-workers, brought in  a bag of tomatoes for Tin, another co-worker.  From her garden.  Different varieties and they smelled so god.  I asked if she cold bring some in for me the next day.  I was working for Melinda otherwise this would not have worked.  Wednesday night, Melinda called to say that she didn't need me after all.

Today, when I got to work, there were two big bags of tomatoes (ad some chilies also from her garden.)  But they had started to go bad.  So, I pulled over a trash can and sorted the good fro the rotten.  I washed the good and put them in a cardboard box and took them home.  (Irene, another co-worker was in the room while i did that and she said that she would have just tossed them all.)  It is over 6 pounds that I took home - I probably tossed at least much due to rot.  While the good hadn't rotted yet they will not last long.  I made tomato sandwiches for lunch and still had so much, so I decided to do tomato salad.  It had  vinegar, oil, garlic and red chili dressing (thank you, Teresa, for the red chilies!)  It was so good.

However, it was light apparently because  Phyllis got leftover oatmeal out to supplement the meal.

Prep ahead: Jason is making banana bread with some really overripe bananas today.  When she got home from school, Dai suggested that I toss them.  When Jason was opening the bananas to cook them down he moaned and Dai said, "Yeah, they're pretty gross."  He beckoned her over and said, "Smell that.  Does that smell gross?"  She replied that actually it smelled really good.

My kids are lucky.  We usually eat dinner together - and often breakfast and lunches on weekends even.  They get to eat real food.  Both of their parents cook.  They get organic or grass fed in some cases.  All of that will make them a bit of a food snob - but it allowed Dai to recognize that an ugly banana is not without its merits - as she smelled today.  

Week 34, Day 5

Breakfast: breakfast burritos - Jason's and mine had roasted peppers and tomatoes in it.

Lunch:  Dai had a tomato sandwich, Phyllis finished her hamburger from last night, Jason and I ate pizza - Cress wasn't hungry. (Again! her Primary teacher must give her tons of snacks.)

Dinner: I made a potato pepper soup.  I had hig hopes for it but it wasn't great.  In fact, Dai and Cress didn't east it.  We had leftover salad with it, too.

Week 34, Day 4

Breakfast:  breakfast burritos

Lunch: Jason had a burrito, Dai had a tomato sandwich, Phyllis was at Gilly's for a play date, Cressida had leftover cheese pizza

It was Cressida's birthday party so we had lemon cake and strawberry ice-cream at her party.  We finished the ice-cream (adults only) after dinner.

Dinner:  Hamburgers and salad with the Tervalons.  The salad was courtesy of the Tervalons who joined us for dinner. They had cucumbers, lettuce and tomatoes.  They actually brought heirloom tomatoes but I let them use our CSA cherry tomatoes so that we could have heirlooms on our burgers.   Then they had golden raisins, sunflower seeds and croutons as side options.  I had just got as a give away from a lady in the ward this set of three dishes that we used to put those in - which tickled me pick since I literally just got it the day before!  We had pickles, lettuce, onions, pepper jack, Swiss and heirloom tomatoes as topping options for the burgers.  Dai was at Alex Castro's for dinner.  Phyllis was still at Gilly's but she did eat some when she got home.

Week 34, Day 3

Breakfast: Microwaved oatmeal (have been doing it stove top most of the time since I prefer that texture,) CSA raspberries and hot chocolate.  The hot chocolate was part of motivating Phyllis to get up quickly for our family run.  The raspberries sometimes have worms.  I tried to check them all but I missed a few.  I actually don't mind (they are CSA not commercial after all) except the kids make a huge deal out of it.  Maybe I will just juice them all - then it won't be noticeable.

I have been trying to do juice every day.  I haven't done every day but several days lately.  Try to replace a meal with a juice.  Sometimes I do a juice in addition to food - which I am unsure is to good - extra calories and sugars, you know?  They say aim for 80% veggies and 20% fruit and try to do more greens than any other color.  Well, I am off on the greens.  Usually I do carrots, one or two apples and something else if I have it on hand.  I did tomatoes once.  I didn't think that was great with apples.  Last night I did beet greens, carrots and an apple after dinner.  I think I hit the 80/20 on that one but it wasn't great.  Phyllis liked it and I did drink it - I just didn't love it.  Today I did beet greens, three carrots, an apple and our remaining raspberries.  It was fine - though fruit heavy I guess.  Phyllis had some and seemed to like it.  Raspberries don't juice terribly well.  But that is my breakfast.  Of course, I am not watching it as well as I should at other meals, but yesterday I did just do the tomato salad at dinner because I wasn't hungry - probably due to the chips and salsa I had when girls had after school snack.

Lunch: Phyllis and Dai to took peanut butter on sandwich thins.  This worked out very well because there was only one church bread left and Phyllis used it for her turkey sandwich.  I have been making the turkey sandwiches on frozen bread which then thaws by lunch time but Phyllis said she keeps forgetting to ask me to toast it for her.  Okay, I can deal with that going forward.  Actually, Dai and Phyllis made their own lunches today.  Cress took CSA green beans, a CSA apple (cored and quartered), and some blistered peppers.  She also took what was left of the peanuts she couldn't finish yesterday.  Phyllis took  CSA green beans, a CSA apple (cored and quartered), and a carrot coined a tossed with Italian dressing.  Dai took CSA green beans, a CSA apple (whole), and a CSA tomato.

After school snack:  Only Cressida had snack because then other two were at Activity Days.  We had nectarines and she finished her lunch forester school snack.  While we were shopping for her school goody bags, we also bought Milanos - Dark Chocolate.  My favorite commercial cookie.

Dinner: I made pizza again because I need to use up the plethora of CSA tomatoes.  But I didn't have any fresh basil and Heather could only give me a little off her plant, so I did one cheese pizza and on margharita pizza.  I also made a salad but there was a lot left which is unusual.  I did CSA cherry tomatoes, CSA cucumber and romaine lettuce.  Daitarih was invited to Sweet Tomatoes with Erin Hoge so she did that for dinner.  

Week 34, Day 2

Breakfast: oatmeal.  This is an odd thing about Cressida - she never finishes that last little bit mixed with the mostly-milk at the end of the bowl.  Cold cereal she eats all the cereal but leaves that little bit of milk, still.  I always remember drinking the milk at the bottom - the sugar settles there, right?  I have no idea why she does this but she has for a long time and I don't even try to get her to "finish" anymore because I am so used to it.

Lunch:  Dai had a turkey sandwich.  Phyllis took the rest of the Cobre Valley casserole and Cressida took the Indian food leftovers.  Cressida took also raisins, peanuts (she shelled yesterday at after school snack time but didn't have time to finish them,) and an apple.  Dai and Phyllis had half an apple each, carrot sticks or coins (Phyllis likes them tossed right in with the Italian dressing and this works sicne she prefers coins,) and celery sticks.  Dai also took pretzels.  Jason took bean and pork for burritos and carrots and celery sticks.  I also gave him the two spoonfuls of Indian food that didn't fit in Cressida's lunch thermos.  He was starting to make his lunch today and I told him that I would do it and he could go brush his teeth (he ate with us, too!)  He asked if that was just to avoid his packing a hlaf cup of cheese for his burritos 0 which he literally did yesterday.  No, it wasn't - I like to do it for him when I can, but I also gave him less cheese than a half cup.

After school snack: popcorn

Dinner:  Burritos with the remaining shredded pork.  Kaitlyn Schwab was over for a playdate so she stayed for dinner.  She is a joy to feed.  She is not picky.  I have gotten so used to feeding Castros that she is a welcome change.  We also had the grape tomato salad again but I used CS cherry tomatoes instead because that is what I had.  We used up the rest of the peach iced-tea that I made last night - just not as popular.

Prep ahead: Prepared blistered peppers using the CSA padron peppers.  Jason got an extra bag because someone didn't want theirs.  I also roasted the big peppers and pressure cooked the beets.  

Week 34, day 1

Breakfast: oatmeal with all the fixings

Lunch:  Phyllis took leftover cobre valley casserole. She likes got food better than sandwiches I think. She also likes the insulated bowls better tha the insulated thermos things. Dai and cress had telnet sandwiches on church bread. We are almost out  of the bread though.  Dai took a apple and carport both whole and some CSA cherry tomatoes.   Cress and Phyllis took cut up apples and  carrots (Phyllis prefers coins to sticks.) Phyllis also had celery sticks with Italian dressing and Cressida had CSA cherry tomatoes.  Jason took pork and beans for burritos. I took record beans with cheese and an apple.

After school snack: peanuts in the shell

Dinner:  I had one more container of commercially prepared Indian sauce - this was the tikki masala.  I pre-cooked some carrots, potatoes, and celery just a little bit.  Then I added the sauce and cooked a bit longer.  Heather had given me some rice that she had overcooked (she used her pressure cooker to do it for the first time and used the same amount of water as she does for regular cooking of rice) so we used that.  Free food!  We also had the last of our frozen parathas. I cooked them; he has always cooked them before and actually asked if I wanted him to take over when he got home.  Jason will pick up some more parathas since they aren't easily made and they go so well with Indian food.

I didn't feel the need to have a separate veggie since the curry was all vegetables.

week 33, Day 7

Breakfast: Jason, Phyllis and I had scrambled eggs with tomatoes and peppers.  The roasted peppers are now gone.  Cressida and Daitarih and Phyllis had oatmeal.  Yes, Phyllis had both.

Lunch:  Phyllis had refried beans with cheese.  Dai and Cress had turkey sandwiches.  Each girl had some plums - they are all but gone now.  All three had cucumber slices, using up the last CSA cucumber.  All three had broccoli with one dip or another.  Jason took refried beans and shredded pork for burritos.  He will have to go get tortillas, though.  He also has one small yellow squash cut into quarters, the last two pieces of the CSA broccoli and four carrots, peeled and cut into sticks.  He said, "This is a lot of produce."  It is, but I imagine he will eat it still.

After school snack:  I had kind of forgotten about this - but the girls didn't let me forget long. We had popcorn.

Dinner: cobre valley casserole per Phyllis's request. I had the other half pound of hamburger to use up from when I last made it so this worked out well. We also had seasoned cucumbers (vinegar, Lawry's, pepper) and steamed CSA squash that was probably from the week before last. 

Week 33, Day 6

Breakfast: eggs with peppers and tomatoes, except Dai had fried eggs.

Lunch: chicken sandwiches on church sourdough, blistered peppers for P and C, cucumber for P and D, Dai had carrots, broccoli for C, plums for all (from Larry's tree), I had the leftover salad Phyllis made and some refried beans with cheese.  Jason went to Wendy's.  His morning was crazy and he forgot to pack a lunch - but he did walk there - so that was good - and it is his money, so his call.  (I still have to pay bills - blech!)

Dinner: Margharita pizza to use up the rest of the CSA tomatoes.  I didn't have enough tomatoes to do both pizzas so I offered to do a cheese pizza but Dai and Phyllis really wanted margharita so Cress and Phyllis went to the store to get more tomatoes for the second pizza.  What a difference to have one with garden grown tomatoes next to one with store bought tomatoes!  We also had a grape tomato salad.  I bought grape tomatoes at Costco and then they started being a regular item in our CSA.  So, these were a bit old.  I found a very basic recipe with oregano, garlic powder, olive oil and rice vinegar.  I was halving the grape tomatoes when Jason came in so I let him take over.  He opted to blend the dressing in the Magic Bullet which I think was the right move.  The sauce was lovely to dip your pizza crust in.  We also had blueberry icd-tea.  I bought a fruity sampler some time ago and that is what we have been doing occasionally.  This one was well received - even by Jason.  It got wiped out at dinner - it doesn't always.  

Week 33, Day 5

breakfast: we had pancakes for breakfast at Lisa and Larry's.  Grandpa also fied and egg for Phyllis.

lunch: Grandma's Garden Pasta Surprise.  She used a variety of pastas from her cupboard, fresh pureed tomatoes, some herbs form the garden, ground turkey.  The girls loved it but I wished for more flavor.

dinner: we got home about 5:45 and had leftovers.  Leftover pizza or leftovers beans with cheese and there was some leftover blistered peppers and broccoli that we also had.  I was proud of us because we didn't eat on the way.

Week 33, Day 4

Breakfast:  Jason made eggs with peppers and tomatoes for everyone before Chinese class and they were so good.  Dai didn't like the peppers - so I ate hers.

Lunch: straight from Chinese we went to Larry's to drop off the dog and turn right around and go to the service for Garrett.  Because we got picked up about 10:35 and didn't get to Larry's until 2 (long drive!) we got Del Taco to go.

Originally the service was going to be potluck but then they decided to take care of the food so Jason had already started a seven layer bean dip so he finished it and brought the chips and dip to Larry's.

Dinner: We ate at the service which was roughly 3-5:30.  The girls actually went back to the buffet line by themselves a few times (Phyllis was bottomless) but they were dishing small portions and being very good about it - I could see it bothered Jason but they had tons of food and plenty leftover so I think Phyllis going three or four times was fine - plus it reinforced to take a little because you can go back. So that was dinner.  Some of the bean dip got eaten while we were gone.

When we got back to Larry's, Jason and I went to a movie.  We also got a Wendy's frosty and Weinerschnitzel corn dogs afterwards.  

Week 33, Day 3

Breakfast: I made oatmeal for the girls.  I was making eggs with peppers and tomatoes for Jason and asked Cress, the only one up at that time, if she wanted eggs (not with peppers for her) or oatmeal.  She replied "Oitmeal," which is how she says oatmeal - still.

I have been doing breakfasts more regularly and I think that is service with love.  I have often wondered about that - I help because it is my job, or because I want to do the right thing, typically.  And, I guess that is sort of true about breakfast - ideally a stay at home mom does that, but as I washed dishes today I just thought about how I don't need a thanks - I want him to be happy - but different than when I make dinner so he will have food when he get home.  I am not explaining it well.

I have this idea about replacing one meal a day with juice.  Then maybe eventually two.  In theory I could get to three and do a proper juice fast - but you have to be home to juice - and I am gone a lot. First day I did three carrots and two apples.  Next day I did three carrots, one apple and two small tomatoes.  That second day wasn't great.  Then I skipped a day - yesterday was wonky in general. Today I did a small beet, three carrots and an apple.  That was really good!

Lunch: I am still making the girls' lunches.  Cress wants to make her own but there simply isn't time. Today I made every girl a chicken lunch meat sandwich on the sourdough we sliced and froze from church on Sunday.  It is important to clarify salad versus lunch meat because Cress loves salad and is less thrilled with lunch meat in general.  Phyllis and Cressida had broccoli (one with green dip and one with mayonnaise), blistered peppers (Phyllis ate several this morning also), and raspberries.  Dai had cherry tomatoes instead of blistered peppers and she had green dip for her broccoli.  Phyllis and Dai also had pretzels - I use the tiny containers for those.  Jason took the Cobre Valley casserole.

I had beets with goat cheese and baked potatoes with sour cream and salsa.

Dinner: I made pizza - two actually.  A pepperoni and a margharita pizza.  Phyllis and Cress made a salad.  They used CSA lettuce, a half a cucumber and some CSA raspberries and some CSA strawberries. The ingredients was Phyllis's idea.

There had been a worm in one of Phyllis's raspberries and two in Cressida's, so they carefully checked each one before putting it in the salad.  Phyllis chopped the lettuce and then put it in the salad spinner but she didn't individually wash each leaf - so it was a bit gritty (more of an issue with CSA lettuce than commercial lettuce.)  Still, her enthusiasm is appreciated and now I know what I need to teach her.

Prep ahead: cooking pintos tonight (Jason actually started them) so we can take bean dip to Garrett's funeral tomorrow.  I also used CSA pickling cucumbers to make the cucumbers in vinegar and water with seasonings that Jason loves.  

Week 33, Day 2

Breakfast: Jason and Cressida had oatmeal made by me.  Dai and Phyllis had eggs made by themselves.

Lunch:  Cressida had a peanut butter and honey sandwich with CSA cherry tomatoes, apples, and prunes.  Dai and Phyllis had two boiled eggs, pretzels, apples, cucumbers and a nectarine (in a container so it wouldn't get squished.)  They also each had a cookie from the slumber party batch - I am not a fan.  Jason had a nectarine, an apple and two boiled eggs.  I ate an egg burrito.

Dinner: Cobre Valley casserole and a tomato basil salad with oil and balsamic vinaigrette on top.

Prep ahead:  Cut up CSA broccoli for lunches.  Pressure cooked the CSA beets.  Roasted the CSA peppers from this week and last.  Made blistered peppers using the CSA padrone peppers.  (And they are pretty good which I feel lucky about.  I also feel committed to cooking what we get, which thankfully this week was a little light.)  Made shredded pork taco meat n the crockpot.

Week 33, Day 1

Breakfast: waffles with stewed strawberries.  I also did a tomato, carrot apple juice.  I gave some to Cress, she drank it but didn't ask for more.  Yesterday I had done to apples and three carrots - that was delicious.  I shared with Dai and she would have had more gladly.  Today I tried for more veggies - three carrots, two small tomatoes and one apple.  Nowhere near as tasty - but then I guess that isn't the point.

In my waffles I got a chunk of baking powder.  Yuck.  Like makes me want to be sick.  And it wasn't clearing with water, so I brushed teeth and it still kept interfering with me enjoying my food.  I have got to remember to ALWAYS sift the baking powder!

Lunch: Burger King - we were out shopping, it was the last day of summer and... (I know!!)

Dinner: leftovers.  Jason and I had leftover potato leek sup.  Phyllis had leftover chicken salad on a sandwich.  Dai  and Cressida had leftover oatmeal.

Week 32, Day 7

breakfast: leftover pancakes given us by Heather Castro (but there were only four so we also did oatmeal and cut up the rest of the prunes

lunch: Phyllis, Cress and I ate Jack in the Box because we went from my yard duty training straight to Raging Waters.  But I got us all waters - even me.  Dai was already there because she went earlier with Heather.  They had pizza.  Jason ate with Hiral - no idea what.

dinner: leftover soup.  Kaitlyn Schwab ate with us and she had two bowls - man, I love feeding her!  Dai has a bunch of friends over - most are staying the night but some just stayed for a couple hours.  They made chocolate chip cookies.  Tara has the recipe memorized, but something didn't seem quite right because there was a lot of oil left in the bowl.  We also had ice-cream with chocolate syrup and whip cream.  It was homemade and they didn't complain but I over whipped it - that is what I get for reading while trying to make whipped cream.  

Shopping

At first I was logging what I bought, where and how much it cost.  Ultimately, I decided that was stressing me out more than it was worth.  So I quit.  I still think what we purchase is interesting to analyze, but not this way.  It just wasn't working out for me.  It didn't make me smile, but I did stress about accuracy, how do I track coupons that are off the total, etc.  If it doesn't make you smile, chuck it.  I mean, if it doesn't make you smile at least occassionally, right?

Week 32, Day 6

Breakfast: I didn't make Jason's breakfast today - I am no  longer waking at 6:30, which is a bummer since school starts Thursday and necessitates a 6:30 wake up.  I cut up some golden plums given to us by Mark Owens' parents on Saturday.  we also had oatmeal with brown sugar, milk and raisins.

Lunch:  I made Jason a lunch, though- burritos with jack cheese (we are out of the normal kind), salad with green dressing, two plums and a container of tomatoes and sour cream for his burritos.  we had baked potatoes and sour cream.  Plus sour cream and butter, of course.  We also ate the last two CSA pickling cucumbers.  Of course, we did not pickle them.

Dinner:  potato leek soup - I cleaned and added three weeks worth of CSA leeks.  It is a huge amount of soup.  We will have it for days.  We also prepared the CSA green beans - we had two weeks worth, but I had used some of them already.  We did them sauteed with garlic, smoked paprika and lemon juice.  So good!  Usually almond slivers are there, too, but Jason wasn't feeling it, I guess.  He made them - I made the soup.  

Week 32, Day 5

breakfast: breakfast burritos and strawberries

lunch: chicken salad sandwiches on church brad - but we had some leftover that we froze

dinner: Jason had bean burritos and we had leftover rice with just salt and pepper and butter.  totally lazy and so good.

Week 32, Day 4

Breakfast: Jason made us breakfast burritos.

Lunch: we went to one of Jason's high school friend's parent's home (Mark Ownes) and they made us homemade pizza.  It was actually pretty good - one was sausage and pineapple and that was what I ate.
Dinner: We stopped at Fenton's on the way home.  We got three sandwiches and split them.  Leanred only one of my kids like potto chips so get the fruit salad next time.  Then we split two big ice-cream cretions amongst us.  

Week 32, Day 3

Breakfast: I made Jason breakfast again.  I asked him if he wanted eggs or oatmeal.  He said eggs.  I think he will always say eggs.  But I didn't ask two or three like i did yesterday.  I made him two, thawed some sandwich thins for toast and served it with lemon tea and broccoli.  He has a bit of a sinus thing right now and I know he likes tea when he is feeling blech.  It has been a special joy these last few mornings getting up early and making him breakfast and lunch.

The girls and I had leftover rice cereal.  I also put out a plate of cut up CSA steamed broccoli, CSA carrot sticks and the rest of the CSA cherry tomatoes from last week - just a few left.  When Jason saw me putting it together he asked, "Arranging for our vegetables to disappear?"  Of course! But I must say they ate less than expected so far.  Of course, it is only 10 in the morning.  Munchies start coming on about 11, I would guess.

Lunch: I packed Jason CA steamed broccoli, CSA carrot sticks, gringa beans and rice and cheese and three of the zucchini cookies.  I know when school starts this will stop but it has been nice to do.  I think he likes it, too.  We had bean burritos for lunch.  This batch was pretty spicy.

Dinner:  Indian food - about which Dai was so excited.  I had bought some sauces at Costco and today we made the vindaloo.  I put CSA carrot chunks in it that I had previously steamed until not quite done.  I also briefly sauteed some CSA green beans that were cut into chunks and then added those.  We also had a salad - basic kind: CSA lettuce, CSA cherry tomatoes and cucumber plus I cut up some CSA green beans (uncooked) and added those.  I also added one of the little CSA chiles - we don't knwo what kind but green and not jalapeno.  That gave it a little kick.  It was servedover white rice with a paratha per person.  

Week 32, Day 2

Breakfast: made eggs for Jason this morning before he left for work/  Also toasted a thawed but previously frozen hoagie roll so he could use that as toast.  We also ate white peaches given to us by our neighbor Steve, but I am not sure who gave them to him.  There are a lot - but it negates the need to ration out our Cotsco ones.  We weren't rationing well really, we ate nine by the end of yesterday and only bought them the day before that.  Rice cereal for the girls using bornw rice.  I made white rice to go with black beans layers or Indian food or something and fed the girls the leftovers for breakfast and Dai told me that she really prefers brown rice for cereal - so there you go.  I made my heart so happy! What kid prefers brown rice?!  Don't they all like smooth and soft and processed?

Lunch:  Taco Bell - yes this is a pay period with less than our full budget, but Dai paid me back and we used her money.  (She owed me for library fines.)  I got waters for the girls and soda for me, but then I refilled it with root beer and the girls shard it as we walked to Nob Hill to get flour.

I also made wild berry iced-tea.  It is pretty good.  I prefer red for hot tea but fruity is just great for iced-tea.

Dinner:  Quinn's - we ordered an appetizer sampler.  We learned Phyllis loved calamari.  Cress not so much.  Dai ate a couple things but mostly filled up on peanuts.  We ordered a Doodaa plate - rice, black beans, and veggies with avocado and corn salsa.  Cress and Jason ate most of that.  We ordered a calamari only plate and Phyllis and I ate that.

We had planned to go to Quinn's.  I had planned to do burritos.  But we made cookies right up until it was time to go - so we didn't get to do that - which costs us quite a chunk of change.  Poor prior planning produces piss poor results.  But, still I am glad we went - we also got to meet Abuela's new beau, Bret.

Prep ahead: snicker doodles, a zucchini chocolate chip cranberry cookie (made with CSA zucchinis from when we were gone but Lane had stashed them in the fridge for us, sour cream sugar cookies.  I was babysitting the Castro girls and it just seemed a good thing to keep us busy since it was going to be 4 hours!  The day before when Alex was here we did painting and beads (she made a lovely earrings and necklace set that I think is good enough to wear - in fact her mom wants to borrow it) so I planned to do this today and Alex was game.  It is amazing how competent the kids are in the kitchen - so nice to see.  The zucchini recipe is one I printed a long time ago and put it in my binder to try.  But I never quite got around to it then totally forgot it.  But today, we planned to make Grandma Mickie's chocolate chip cookies (my girls haven't had them but they know daddy would love them since he grew up on them) and I was searching my binder for that recipe when I fund this one.  Since I never did find Mickie's recipe, we made that.

Also steamed the broccoli before going to bed.  We had picked up the CSA but left it on the table to deal with after Quinn's - which was really pretty minor sorting.

Week 32, Day 1

Breakfast: oatmeal.  I even got up and packed Jason a lunch and made him breakfast.  I made three batches because Jason and I were up early.  Then Phyllis was up and then Dai and then Cress and I didn't want them to have to have cold oatmeal.

Lunch: PBJ for Dai and ramen for the rest of us.  Peaches and peanut butter and celery, too.  I packed Jason leftover soup and a salad and a peach.

Dinner: breakfast burritos but with potatoes and peppers.  I roasted them under the broiler and then pt them in a paper bag to finish steaming then pulled their skins off and tossed with potatoes and baked them.  The potatoes were crunchier than last time - which pleases me not at all.

We also had raspberry iced-tea today though not exactly with a meal just throughout.  It is a popular flavor.  We tried lemon once and that was not a popular one so we left it for Jason for his use since he likes hot tea.

Prep ahead: Lane left a half pound of hamburger in the fridge so I fried it up with some onions in the pressure cooker and then added the gringa beans seasonings and then beans and water.  I will finish preparing it tomorrow.  I suspect we will have burritos for dinner.  

week 31, day 7

Apparently the two days before our trip to Germany I didn't record but I will tell you we ate a lot of leftovers as I was preparing to be gone for 10 days.  Germany - well, I didn't bother recording and then, even though we got back on Monday, we ended up staying there because Garrett Trongo (Jason's nephew) was being an organ donor that day - so Tuesday then.

Breakfast: oatmeal and/or eggs.  I made oatmeal and Phyllis made herself eggs, too.  I made eggs for Jason and I befre he left for work.

Lunch: tomato sandwiches on sandwich thins

Dinner: Carrot, fennel and wild rice soup with toast