Food, Again (Imagine that) Week 4, Days 5 and 6

Yesterday we ate oatmeal for breakfast.  Dai and Phyllis routinely eat two bowls.  Lately Cress eats less than one. 

For lunch we all packed lunches.  Jason had leftover rice and beans.  Cress and I had crackers and peanut butter, apples, Persian cucumbers.  Dai and Phyllis had PBJ and their choice of produce. 

For dinner I made baked ziti.  With a lovely loaf of Italian here it seems a waste not to have pasta.  With it we had frozen zucchini.  There was some left that Dai took in her lunch today.  Cool, huh?  She thought it was cool because it was prepackaged produce.  Yesterday Cress didn't finish her whole apple either so I peeled it, cut it and packaged it.  The girls gladly took it as today.  Prepackaged really helps. 

Phyllis has not been eating her whole lunch at school so she finishes it at home.  But then she can't have her treat.  That may be too harsh but I was to incentivize her to finish at school so she is more reasonable at 3 PM.  But recess incentivizes her more. 

Today we had oatmeal again but made on the stove top - which I prefer.  For lunch Jason, Cress and I went to Baja Fresh.  Still under my $125 for the week though I have no idea how much it was as Jason paid.  We are moving into vacation mode as we had to Guatemala in mere hours.  :)

For dinner I do not know what they will eat.  Heather will be in charge until Saturday morning.  Then Jason's folks will take over.  I have plenty of food in the fridge.  Heather said she was going to bring chips and they would have nachos one night.  Dai is responsible for microwaving oatmeal each morning we are gone. 

Week 4, Day 4

This morning we had leftover pancakes and applesauce.  Making sure to consume leftovers is a helpful part of making your food budget stretch.

The girls had PBJ's made with leftover pancakes in their lunch and half and apple, half a bell pepper and dried apples.  They also each had a Skittles in their lunch.  Phyllis did not finish.

Jason had leftover baked ziti for lunch along with two apples and some of his bread.  Cressida had leftover baked ziti and bread, too.  She had a Persian cucumber while we were shopping to round things out a bit. 

I had a baked potato with salsa and sour cream for lunch. 

For dinner we had black bean layers.  The girls like that pretty well and I can do most of it ahead of time.  Each girl had two eggs on their first bowl - which was pretty good sized.  Dai ate a second bowl with only one egg and Phyllis ate a second bowl with no eggs.

I also shopped and talked to Heather about groceries for while we are gone. 

Groceries so far:  $29.85 plus Del Taco of $8.76 for a total of $38.61

Lucky's: $6.36 for green chilies
Costco: $9.78 for milk (5.39) and sour cream (4.39)
Real Produce: $13.71

• Cherry tomatoes $1.99
• Onions 1.79 pounds (3 medium onions) for $.90
• Beets 2.1 pounds for $2.08
• Garlic 3 heads for 1.32
• Persian Cucumbers 13 for $7.42

I also used my grocery money to buy Dai a new coat ($26.99 plus tax at Costco).  I found a decent one at Ross for $21.99 so I may make a swap.  I still need cream which will be another two or three dollars. 

I bought slightly less produce as I will not be here so Heather will have to cook it or if she doesn't it may go bad before we get back from Guatemala.

Heather said if she had the baked ziti recipe she would make hat, I also told her I had hamburger and chicken in the freezers.  She asked if we had rice or potatoes or mashed potato flakes.  We had the first two.  Dai will be responsible for making oatmeal for my kids while she is here.  Her kids will have cereal.  My kids are expected to pack their own lunches but I should make muffins before I go to make it easier.  So I will be under budget for this week (but need it for gas to Oakland) and will not do a menu.  I will make Beaker Soup tomorrow or Wednesday because I told Heather I would.  Jason started a loaf of rustic Italian last night.  He will stay up late to finish it tonight.  He started another to leave a fresh loaf for Heather.  We are setting the biga next to the fire to rise - warmest place in our house.  Currently it is 63F in the house.  We all have wool blankets on our beds (as well as other blankets).  We expect the heat will be on while Heather is here but we are, for ourselves, going as long as possible without it.  The fish all have water heaters.

Week 4, Day 3

For breakfast Jason made whole wheat pancakes.  We had fruit syrup that was already in the fridge with it.  Yummy! But we were late for church.  Has more to do with being up until almost 3 AM than the pancakes if were totally honest, though.

For lunch we are having baked ziti.  It wasn't ready when we got home from church which was kind of a bummer but Dai (who stayed home ill) and Jason had been thinking PBJ's so this is better even if later.  I am also cooking the beets but I am not sure they will be done for lunch - maybe dinner.  I had a Gouda and one of Steve's cookies as an after church snack. Jason made whole wheat hearth bread which we may also eat with lunch.

Beets weren't quite done so we had sliced bell peppers instead.  And that bread was AMAZING!!  It was from Peter Reinhardt's Whole Grain Breads book that I checked out from the library.  I was going to return it because Jason hadn't looked at it but he asked me not to and boy am I glad.   He said that recipe needs a brotform pan (on his Christmas list) but I kind of don't want to get him cooking stuff this year.  But it was good even iwthout the special pan.

For dinner we had oatmeal and beets.  Dai also had a PBJ on leftover pancakes.

Week 4, Day 2 (two days after Thanskgiving)

We had peanut butter and toast and bananas for breakfast.  Dai said it wasn't enough food and we had been having that too much lately.  I told her I would make her an egg when she finished if she was still hungry. (She also had two donuts at her Girl Scout event that morning.)  She did end up eating an egg. 

For lunch we had rice and beans - Zatarain's to the rescue (and Jason who made it.)

Dinner was turkey soup and Thanksgiving leftovers at the Tervalons.  We took some crackers and jalapeno dip to share.  Nicole made a fresh pumpkin pie, too. 

I have not done a meal plan or shopping yet.  Monday is really busy so I think I will have to wait until Tuesday to shop.  Then on Wednesday we leave for Guatemala and the kids will have a sitter - so I am not really sure how much food we need.  I need to check with the sitter, I guess.

Week 4 - the Day After Thanksgiving

Today Week 4 starts, but I hadn't really thought about that until later - much later.

For breakfast I fed the girls cold cereal.  Phyllis and Dai wanted vanilla soy milk rather than milk.  Lisa had asked if there was anything particular she should purchase for our visit and I asked for milk.  But the girls were so excited to get vanilla soy.  They drank it at meals and had it on their cereal.  Then Larry made eggs and potato pancakes.  They need more salt or maybe I eat too much salt.

For lunch they had half a peanut butter and banana sandwich at Grandpa and Grandma's house.  This was because they wanted to go have ice-cream across the street.  But Jason and I did not eat.  We grabbed Del Taco on the way home.  That was $8.67.

We had leftovers at the Tervalons.  Their food was wonderful. 

Week 3, Day 6 and 7 - Thanksgiving!!

Yesterday Jason made crepes for breakfast.  He did not have to work and he was telling Dai that all he knew was we were not having oatmeal when crepes were requested.  Jason makes crepes right, too.  He had four pans going.  He never flips them - so nice.  I eat them with powdered sugar and lemon juice.  Dai tried a couple that way.  The other kids just plain or with powdered sugar.  Jason had toast and scrambled  eggs - not enough crepes without making more batches - he originally made a double batch anyway.  Kids also had applesauce.

We took a walk in the AM to go buy the Thanksgiving pie ingredients.  No, I am not counting those as part of my budget.  Jason got us donuts, too.

We had leftovers for dinner but Taco Bell for lunch.  We were in Fremont at City Beach doing rock climbing and the girls wanted to keep going.  That was $19 - which would technically should count as an overage.

Today we headed out to Larry and Lisa's house early.  I was about read to just buy food on the way but good old Jason was gathering up bananas and that got me into the right frame of mind.  I made toast with peanut butter for the girls.  I also sprinkled it with cinnamon sugar (a real treat for them.)  Jason had buttered toast.  I had cinnamon toast.  He is definitely supportive of keeping on budget and that was really it for today for us.

We had Thanksgiving dinner with Jason's folks.  Now the girls are decorating a big house with Grandma.  

Week 3, Day 5

Today we have eggs and toast.  We used the bread Jason made yesterday.  Dai and Phyllis both took their eggs over easy - and yes, they know what that means.  Cress is over medium.  Not that long ago she was an over hard and Phyllis was sometimes.  Dai never has been.

For lunch we played restaurant.  The girls did chores to earn "money."  I made a fancy looking menu and they got to order.  I served and took payment.  Ice-cream cones were $2 of the play money so they had to order accordingly - except we told Cress hers would be on the house.  She put her full energy in but just isn't as fast.  They asked "What's on the house mean?"