Saturday, August 31, 2013

Party Time!

You'd never really know it by my blog, but I'm kind of a social person.  I just happen to be way too busy in real life to be too terribly social.

I wasn't always brought that out in me.

On Wednesday, hubby and I decided to have a weekend BBQ - spur of the moment.  Three days in advance is spur of the moment for me.

It's not a particularly big BBQ - I don't have the energy for that.  Just a handful of folks from work or the neighborhood.  So, here's what's on the menu:

Hot dogs
(no, none of these are local/ organic/ grass fed...I don't have quite the time for the extra shopping stop these days)

Panzanella salad
Homemade hummus and carrot sticks
Homemade salsa and chips
Wine, beer, tea, bubble water
Corn on the cob
Salami and cheddar and crackers
Ice cream

And I might make a box of organic mac and cheese for the kids.

Saturday, August 24, 2013

A Regular Schedule, and how it helps with eating frugally

There are many ways to eat frugally.

There is the "Pantry Principle" (Amy Dacyzyn) - keeping a stocked pantry full of food purchased at rock bottom prices and eat from it. 

There is shopping a few times a week, and buying ONLY what you will eat that week (nothing goes to waste).  (Less is Enough follows this mode).

There is very carefully buying in bulk and planning your meals a month in advance based on this.  This is a strategy used by The Grocery Shrink.

There is heavy use of foraging and collecting free food (at the end of a farmer's market or discards from a grocery store) - 100 Dollars a Month and Penniless Parenting.

And there is simplifying by eating foods on a regular schedule.  This would be the Frugal Healthy Simple method when kids are little and work time is big.

This is really how I've been working lately.  Now that I'm full time, I don't have that extra hour at the end of the day to clean and chop.  Pretty much, if I don't prep it over the weekend, it doesn't happen.

So my regular schedule has many parts to it:
1.  Shop at Fresh and Easy on Friday afternoons, after picking up the baby (it's a few blocks away).
2.  Make TJ's baked chicken tenderloins and steamed broccoli (pre-cut and washed) on Tuesday.  Sure, this meal is on the more expensive side compared to some ($3 for the chicken and $2.29 for the broccoli), but it's easy and predictable.
3.  Make some kind of meat in the crockpot on Wednesday (after we've run out of leftovers from the week) with a frozen vegetable (by Wednesday, the CSA veggies are gone).
4.  Wash all CSA veggies on the weekend.  Steam, roast, freeze, whatever is needed.
5.  Make bread on the weekend (bread machine).
6.  2x a month, cook up a pound of beans.  3/4 of the time, this is refried beans in the crockpot (which turn into bean and cheese burritos in the freezer).  Sometimes, it's another bean.
7.  Make a salad or casserole for Sunday night potluck, which can be eaten during the week if not finished.
8.  Hard boil 1/2 dozen eggs for salad or snacks, once a week.  Twice if my hubby gets into them.
9.  Lunch: I eat the same thing every day.  Salad.  I'm trying to lose some baby weight.  It's not really working - I lost 7 lbs, but if I don't count calories, I stall.  And with the job and the lack of sleep (molars - I have had exactly one 7+ hour stretch in the last 7 days) - it's not happening.  But at least just eating salad keeps the weight in check.  If you eat the same thing every day, you aren't buying many items, and you are less likely to waste food.

Try to check out the freezer once a week and use up things that I put in there, thinking they'd be useful at some point.

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Stay at Home Parent advantages

That's what is on my mind today.  I've been working pretty hard to lose the baby weight.  I took part in my own little "diet bet", aiming to lose 7 lbs in 30 days (I lost 7.2).  I haven't decided to start the next round, mostly because I'm feeling busy and overwhelmed.  Full time job, husband, 2 kids - counting calories to 1500 a day and squeezing in exercise.  I kinda need a break.  And I have PMS.  And I keep thinking that if I weren't working, there would be a lot more time for all of this.

Last weekend was another banner cooking week.  While I cannot seem to find the photos, I can give you a list of what was on the menu.  We actually didn't finish all of the leftovers until Friday.  It's a good thing I made so much because my spouse had a day trip one day - didn't get home until 9 pm.  It's nice to be able to heat food up in the microwave those days.  Who am I kidding, I do that a lot.

Last week's menu:
Broccoli ramen slaw.  Frugal (the slaw mix was $2 for 2 lb).  So, ramen isn't the healthiest thing, but I never use the flavor packet.  I ate this for lunches and took it to our neighborhood pot luck.  Total cost for this dish (1 lb of slaw, 2 ramen packets, dressing, cashews) was $2.

Sausage, onion, potato egg casserole.  Also took this to the pot luck, brought most of it home, had it for breakfast.  Total cost for an 8 inch pan: $2.12.

Pasta salad with pesto, roasted tomatoes, and chicken:  1 lb pasta, plus chicken, probably less than $5.  We ate this all week.

I also poached 6 lbs of chicken in the crockpot.  I totally overcooked it.  Definitely destined for casseroles.  The cooking time seemed too low in the recipe.  Whoops.

I had to laugh at the kiddos this week.  My son's friend was having tacos for dinner.  She was complaining that she wanted to go out for burger.  Then my son started complaining that he didn't want  his favorite chicken,  he wanted tacos.  Anyway, 7 year olds.  Always want something else.

So back to the stay at home parent advantages.  (with regards to food anyway)  When it comes to feeding your kids - HUGE advantage. I am always impressed with the amount of cooking that The Prudent Homemaker gets done with homeschooling her kids.  But the trick is - she's at home.  I am not at home.

The baby is now on a lot of table food.  But still, 1/3 of his meals are "baby food" purchased in bulk in jars.  1/3 of his food are "snacks" that are simply more expensive than regular food: crackers, freeze dried fruits.  The rest of his food is table food - bits of chicken, steamed potato, string cheese, fruits.  I haven't been all that great about introducing new foods like my SAHM friends.  It's just easier to buy the freeze dried raspberries and whole wheat crackers.

Today, in an effort to change that a bit (let's face it, home cooked food is way cheaper), I have bread in the bread machine.  Most of the bread we buy has seeds in it - he's too young for seeds.  I did give him a few bites last weekend of our storebought seeded bread, and let's just say his digestion was way off.  It may have been due to something else, but I'm not taking chances.

I am going to make it a goal to make and introduce one new homemade food per week.  Bread, beans, lentils, rice, other cooked vegetables.