Menu Plan for January 17-23

This is week 3 of the "Eat from the Pantry Challenge," and I have not been very good about sticking to the $75 grocery budget for the month. So far this month, we have spent $61.22, which means in these last 2 weeks of January we can only spend $13.78. I am going to do my best to keep as close to $75 as possible.

The menu plan for this week includes the following:

Sunday: Roast beef (previously cooked, in the freezer), mashed potatoes, peas & carrots

Monday: Breakfast for Supper (Veggie & cheese omelettes, sausage, biscuits & jam)

Tuesday: Fettuccini Bolognese (ground beef) & salad with tomatoes & carrots

Wednesday: White beans & cornbread

Thursday: Quinoa & black beans with corn, roasted broccoli

Friday: Buffalo Chicken Pizza

Saturday: Leftovers

Menu Plan for January 10-16

As promised here is my menu for the week of January 10th:

Sunday: (Lunch) Daniel fixed broccoli & cheese stuffed chicken, rice, green beans, & honey-glazed carrots; (Dinner) Bean & rice (leftovers from last week) quesadilla

Monday: BBQ chicken, corn, sauteed zucchini, thumbprint cookies w/ jam

Tuesday: Salmon w/ mustard cream sauce, steamed broccoli, carrot salad, & quick rolls

Wednesday: Bean Night! Pinto beans, fried zucchini, & cornbread

Thursday: Chili from leftover pintos -- or Taco Salad

Friday: Pizza Night! Buffalo chicken pizza w/ whole-wheat crust

Saturday: Leftovers

I don't know about you but planning and writing out my menu each week really cuts down on the stress of worrying: "What will we have tonight?" Plus, it helps me vary my meals and make sure we get plenty of "colors" in our diet. I try to have a "green" (zukes, cukes, brocc, spinach, lettuce, peas, green beans) and a "red" ('maters, peppers), "orange" (carrots, peppers), or "yellow" (corn, peppers) every night although some nights that does not happen!

If you don't care about my menu plan, then, for your amusement, here are some cute pictures of Kate eating.

Week 1 Recap

Well, today marks the conclusion of the first week of the "Eat from the Pantry Challenge," and let's just say that it's been a challenge for me. There were so many good deals at the grocery stores that I had to forego, and I was so tempted!! However, we did survive and were able to make some yummy meals with what we had on hand:

Sunday (1/3): We had leftovers from the previous week.
Monday (1/4): Chicken Parmesan (leftovers in the freezer), corn, & salad
Tuesday (1/5): Fried tenderloin (deer), hashbrowns, & fried cabbage (not the healthiest meal, I know!)
Wednesday (1/6): Black beans & rice w/ tomatoes on flour tortillas & guacamole
Thursday (1/7): Black-eyed pea soup (with turkey sausage, carrots & celery)
Friday (1/8): Homemade pepperoni & mushroom pizza w/ whole-wheat crust
Saturday (1/9): Leftovers

Lots of beans equals lots of fiber...yea! I do need to work on getting more greens in our diet though.

I spent $30.66 at the store on yogurt, milk, creamer, fruit, vegetables, and granola bars, which was more than I had expected. However, I was under-budget on my household expenses by $10.67. Yee-haw!! So far so good but I do need to be careful not to exceed my $75 budgeted grocery allowance for the MONTH.

Tomorrow I will post our meals for next week: I am still waiting to see what produce Kroger will have on sale. I know the menu will definitely include zucchini since we have so much in the fridge and undoubtedly some more beans and fish. Until tomorrow...

Booking It!

One of the "mommy blogs" that I follow--Life as Mom--has inspired me to plan my reading schedule for the next few months. I am always reading at least 4 or 5 books at a time, but this schedule will ensure that I am reading a variety of books and help me keep track of what I have read. I have created five categories:

(1) Homemaking/Mothering
(2) Cookbooks/Food
(3) Spiritual/Devotional
(4) Classics
(5) For Fun

For the month of January, I am reading the following:
(1) The Hidden Art of Homemaking by Edith Schaeffer (Jessica at Life as Mom recommended this book and it is an excellent resource for Christian moms looking for ways to uncover and put into practice "hidden arts" such as Music, Gardening, Interior Decoration, Drama, and Art.

(2) The Use-it-Up Cookbook: A Guide to Perishable Foods by Lois Carlson Willand (I picked this book up at the library and it has given me some great ideas for different ways to use, not waste, the food I have in the freezer and pantry.)

(3) The Gospel According to Lost by Chris Seay (Thomas-Nelson sent me this book to read and review. I love the TV show but so far am not too impressed with the book. We'll see!) I am also reading two daily devotionals: Sarah Arthur's The One Year Daily Grind and Gary Chapman's The One Year Love Language Minute Devotional (So far...Awesome!)

(4) Charles Dicken's Great Expectations (I have never read this classic work, so I am excited about getting into it!)

(5) Murder in the Mews by Agatha Christie (Last year I started reading Christie, and let's just say, I'm hooked! I think I've read 20 of her mysteries so far and my goal is to read them all.)

What are you reading this month? Do you have any reading goals for this new year?

My Goals for 2010

1. Be in the Word and in prayer with God daily. Daniel and I plan to start each day together reading the Bible; I bought Gary Chapman’s The One Year Love Language Minute Devotional as a starting place. I am also in two other amazing studies (1 in Revelation, the other in I Corinthians) and want to devote more time to studying, listening and learning about the Lord and His plans for me.

2. Find opportunities to serve others. One aspect of my own life that needs work is in my service to others outside my family. There are numerous widows/widowers and shut-ins at my church and many in our community who need to experience God’s love firsthand. What else are we called to do but to serve?

3. Exercise more. In December we slacked off on our daily walks at the park but have started back and plan to walk for at least 45 minutes every Monday through Saturday.

4. Eat better. More whole foods (whole grains, whole veggies and whole fruits) and less sugar. No more nitrites, MSG, or other fillers and artificial sweeteners. I want to instill healthy eating habits in Kate, and Daniel and I both need to watch our fat and sodium intake to keep our weight, cholesterol and blood pressure in check.

5. Read & write more. Take time every day to read, even if for just a few minutes, but ideally for an hour. Write: in my journal, on my blog, wherever. Just write!

6. Save more money & stick to our budget. We want to pay cash for land so we can build one day, and to realize that dream we need to be frugal with our income. My goal is to keep the grocery budget under $250 a month. We are currently debt-free and want to stay this way for as long as possible! This month we will be taking the “Eat from the Pantry Challenge” in an effort to clean out our freezer, fridge, and cabinets, creatively use what we have on hand rather than run to the grocery store, save money, decrease spending, and eliminate wastefulness. If all goes well, we may repeat this challenge several times throughout the year.

7. Find teachable moments with Kate. Of course we have been reading together since before she was born—although Kate does not like to sit still for very long—but I want to focus more on letters, numbers, Bible stories, art and music. Kids are sponges and I want to get that little brain of hers thinking and learning!

8. Clean, clean, clean! I love to cook but honestly I hate cleaning, and our house needs a major overhaul. I plan to focus on one room at a time to thoroughly clean and de-clutter.

9. Enjoy life. Spend more time together as a family. Love my husband and daughter, laugh, have fun, and not worry so much. Kate is growing so fast, and I don’t want to miss a moment!

Eat From the Pantry Challenge

I follow several money-saving and couponing blogs written by women who inspire and motivate me to be a good steward of the resources God has blessed us with. Two of my favorites are taking the challenge to eat only from their pantries and freezers for the entire month of January. Of course they will still buy fresh produce, milk and eggs, but they are limiting their grocery shopping excursions to 3 times in the month and their spending to no more than $75 total! WOW!

Let me just say that when I first read about this idea, I was filled with trepidation for them. One of the bloggers has a family of 8! How could she do it, I thought?! But then after seeing pictures of her pantry and freezers (notice multiple freezers), I started to think about my own pantry (or rather cabinets) and freezer and realized I too could do it. Check it out!!









Since I first started aggressively couponing and stockpiling food about two months ago, we have been bursting at the seams with food. We gave away a good bit during the holidays, but as you can see we could probably live off all this for quite some time.

My goals for this challenge are slightly different from Money Saving Mom and LifeasMom's. You can see their goals here. However, I do intend, like they do, to purchase the perishables we need 3 times a month, spending less than $75 total.

My additional more personal goals are as follows:

1. To make creative use of the foods in my pantry and freezer
2. To decrease spending at the grocery store and therefore also my dependence on grocery shopping and deal-finding, which has become an obsession of sorts
3. To increase my faith that God will provide because it is easy for me to be self-reliant in this area
4. To simplify my life

My concerns are that I will miss out on good stockpiling opportunities in the month of January and that I will not be able to come up with creative AND yummy foods from what I have on hand. However, I do have an amazing husband and mom who are excellent and resourceful cooks, so the latter qualm should be easily rectified.

Pray for my family and me as we take on this challenge. We may not be able to last the entire month, but even if we can do it for 2 weeks, I would be thrilled and our family blessed. I will keep you posted as to how it goes!

A Very Merry Christmas

Last year Kate was too young to enjoy Christmas. And while this year she still didn't truly grasp what was going on, she did appear interested in at least a few things about Christmas that I too find important:

She loved eating Christmas cookies (sugar cookies rolled out and cut into snowmen, candy canes and the like and frosted with red and green icing). Here she looks like she has a big slimy green booger sliding down her nose. Gross!



She also enjoyed tearing open the packages with Daddy's help. Most people who know me well know that I prefer wrapped gifts to bagged ones because I love the thrill of ripping open the paper. Guess I'm a kid at heart, too!



Kate hit the motherlode with gifts this year...not really from Daddy and Mommy as much as from grandparents and great-grandparents. Fortunately for us, she did get a lot of much-needed clothing and some great little books, CDs and puzzles.



But, most importantly, Kate had a blast with all of her relatives, especially her cousins and grandparents. Here she is sitting in her cousin Zach's new dunebuggie while Kaileigh keeps everyone in line.




This Christmas was so much fun, and I know as Kate grows older, future Christmases will be even more enjoyable. It's amazing how your whole way of thinking about Christmas changes when you have kids. Even as a young adult, I eagerly anticipated waking up on Christmas morning to see what "Santa" had brought. Now, as a parent myself, I (and Daniel) want to emphasize to Kate the value of the immaterial (family, friends, love and hope) and downplay the material (presents) to teach our children the true meaning of Christmas.

I pray you had a blessed Christmas and that 2010 is a wonderful year for you and your families!