Wordless Wednesday

                                                                    Chinese Daisy

My favorite thing to do with...

                                                      A beautiful bowl of Roma Tomatoes

                                                    Make balsamic Roasted Roma Tomatoes

                                              First you cut all the tomatoes in half long way.

                                                               Then de-seed them  
                                                            

                               Then drizzle with 1/4 c olive oil and 1/2 Tbls balsamic vinegar
                                                           Then sprinkle tomatoes with
                                                         2 large cloves of chopped garlic
                                                                  2 teaspoons sugar
                                                           1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
                                                                   1 1/2 teaspoons basil
                                                                  fresh ground pepper
                                                     Roast at 450* for about 25 minutes

These are so tasty you'll want to eat them straight off the baking pan. My husband who doesn't like tomatoes loves these. I put them in the food processor to make a quick sauce and serve over pasta or grilled chicken. You could top with mozzarella and fresh basil for a nice appetizer.

Jen

What we Ate Last Week a little late..

I haven't had much time for blogging lately... lots going on. Hopefully I can get back into the swing of things.

This is what we ate last week

• Monday
•  Cereal
•  Really good deli style sandwiches
•   Spicy Chicken Curry over rice and a homemade coffee and praline cake... 
• Tuesday      
• Cereal
• sandwiches
•  Chicken thighs cooked in Marinara sauce over penne (really Yummy) 
• Wednesday  
• Pumpkin latte spiced bread
• sandwiches
• we had dinner at church, not my turn to cook. (breakfast for dinner)
• Thursday    
• Cereal
• leftover chicken thighs
•  leftover chicken curry
• Friday          
• Cereal
• Leftover chicken curry
• Sam ate a late lunch so I didn't need to make dinner, just snacked.
• Saturday       
• 
  
• Was a busy day and Sam had a big sandwich for lunch while I was at my sis-in-laws baby shower. I ate there. Chips, dips and cake. 
• We saw a movie that night and didn't eat dinner, we had popcorn.
• Sunday          
• Fried egg sandwiches
• Out for Chinese with friends
•  Chicken thighs cooked in Marinara sauce over penne, yes again. This was a pioneer women recipe from her blog it was so good I made it again for friends and served it with homemade italian bread and homegrown patty pan squash.

                                            With just two of us we have so many leftovers!

The 50 Cent Meal Challenge week six and what we ate last week

 The 50 Cent Meal Challenge is a joint effort between two sisters in different regions and with different challenges.  Tina lives in Ohio with her husband and son, and is learning to stretch her shrunken budget while trying to develop an old fashioned, basic approach to cooking.  Jen lives in New Mexico with her husband and they are Foster Parents who are learning the art of flexibility. They live on a single income and are joining this challenge for the sake of the challenge.  Tina and Jen are planning their family groceries on a 250.00 budget for 6 weeks.


                                                         September 19-25


This was the last week of our challenge. Did I make it or did I bust the budget? I don't even know yet! 


I came home from the conference in Alb with a horrible case of Bronchitis! And nobody was home to pamper me. So I spent the week on the couch watching t.v. sleeping and coughing. Not the best week. It was pretty good for the budget though cause I really didn't have an appetite at all for most of the week. I lived on cereal, orange juice and my mom brought me chinese and that lasted for 2 meals for me. 


Sam came home on Friday and I made Aussie Chicken for dinner and Panna Cotta with balsamic strawberries for dessert. So glad to have him home!!
Saturday we had cereal for breakfast and leftovers for a late lunch and had a late dinner with some friends at Denny's ( 41.00 included in the budget).


Weekly budget     41.66
Amount spent     -70.72
                                29.06 over budget


Did I make it????


Drumroll please......










I came in 2.57 under budget! 


To be fair the only reason I came in under budget is because we were out of town for a time and because I was sick. But those are the numbers.


I did learn a lot during this challenge. 

• I buy way too much unnecessary stuff. 
• It forced me to focus on not loosing produce (and other things)
• Cutting trips to the store makes a huge difference 
• bake from scratch (not something I love to do but saves tons of cash)
• I will stick to a set budget from now on, because I know I can do it!
• I really like challenges!

                     The 50 Cent Meal Challenge
                                                        Track Tina's progress 

The 50 Cent Meal Challenge week 4 & 5 and what we ate last week

 The 50 Cent Meal Challenge is a joint effort between two sisters in different regions and with different challenges.  Tina lives in Ohio with her husband and son, and is learning to stretch her shrunken budget while trying to develop an old fashioned, basic approach to cooking.  Jen lives in New Mexico with her husband and they are Foster Parents who are learning the art of flexibility. They live on a single income and are joining this challenge for the sake of the challenge.  Tina and Jen are planning their family groceries on a 250.00 budget for 6 weeks.


Ok I have slacked off, I know, so here is the catch-up post of weeks 4 and 5.
Week 4 September 5-11

• Monday
• Pancakes
• leftover beans
• Chicken and rice casserole
• Tuesday
• Cereal
• Pb&j sandwiches
• Leftover chicken casserole
• Wednesday 
• Cereal
• Sandwiches
• Tuna Casserole
• Thursday
• Cereal
• pizza rolls
• Green chile enchiladas (I forgot to add the chicken..)
• Friday
• Toast
• tuna casserole
• leftover enchiladas
• Saturday I don't remember what we had!!
• Sunday
• cereal 
• Out for chinese ($8)
• snacked

The only thing I had to buy at the store this week was Milk 3.49, cereal 2.48,  bread 2.18 and mushroom soup 1.32 and a few other misc. items.
Total 29.47


Week 5
September 12-18
Sam left on the 12th and came home on the 23rd. I went out of town from the 14th-17th. So Monday and Tuesday and Sunday were the only days I was home. Monday and Tuesday was me and the three girls and when I got back it was just me.

• Monday
• scrambled eggs
• pizza rolls 
• chicken strips and mac and cheese
• Tuesday
• cereal
• pb&j
• Chicken nuggets and mashed potatoes and corn
• Wednesday I left for Abq. for our women's conference. We ate out the whole time so I couldn't really include that. I came back Saturday night.
• Sunday
• Out to Denny's with friends, their treat.

I didn't need anything from the store for monday and tuesday. But I did buy the house sitter a pack of cookies 2.98. 


Weekly budget          83.32
spent week 4&5      - 32.45
                                50.87 under budget


Amount left in budget 73.29






                The 50 Cent Meal Challenge 
                         Track Tina's progress 

Wordless Wednesday (kinda)

These hot air balloons were right outside my living room window the other day. 

 You could hear the flames and all they were so close.

The kids loved watching them float by.

The 50 Cent Meal Challenge week three and what we ate last week

      The 50 Cent Meal Challenge is a joint effort between two sisters in different regions and with different challenges.  Tina lives in Ohio with her husband and son, and is learning to stretch her shrunken budget while trying to develop an old fashioned, basic approach to cooking.  Jen lives in New Mexico with her husband and they are Foster Parents who are learning the art of flexibility. They live on a single income and are joining this challenge for the sake of the challenge.  Tina and Jen are planning their family groceries on a 250.00 budget for 6 weeks.

         

                  August 29-September 4

• Monday
• breakfast burritos (egg, potato and green chile and cheese)/cereal(shredded wheat)
• Leftovers from the weekend
• Leftover chicken from the weekend
• Tuesday
• breakfast burritos/cheerios
• Carl's jr. with the little girls(15.00). Sam had leftovers
• Sandwiches and chips and salsa
• Wednesday
• shredded wheat cereal
• Pb&j
• velveeta skillet dinner (bbq chicken)..not a fan    
• Thursday
• shredded wheat cereal
• leftover skillet dinner
• chicken pot pie
• Friday
• fried eggs sandwich
• Denny's (20.00) (just Sam and I)
• roasted chicken, mac n cheese and a veg
• Saturday
• scrambled eggs/granola bars
• fend for yourself and random leftovers
• snacked
• Sunday
• Breakfast burritos or scrambled eggs
• ham and beans with cornbread
• dump cake.. What? we had a late lunch..It has fruit in it...

This was a before shot of the dump cake, I would have took an after shot but it didn't last long enough!

Ok so I need to justify and rationalize all the eating out we did this week. Ok first Carl's Jr. We went there because we had an out of town appointment for one of our foster girls. So really that was not a fun thing it was necessity, right? Yes. With 2 hungry little girls, I'd say so. It was also a learning experience, only order 1 chicken strip meal for the girls to share and bring extra clothes for ALL kids even though they have been potty trained for years...cause you just never know and you might have to go to Sam's Club with a little smelly girl. Lesson learned! Ok Denny's. It was our date night only during the day. The kids had appointments and Sam had the day off. Perfect time for a date right. Well we couldn't see a movie so we went to Denny's. So technically that could come out of a different budget, say entertainment, but we'll count it. 

Oh at Sam's Club (smelly little girl in tow), I got some granola bars and apple juice and Milk. That was 16.05. I had to pick up a few odds and ends at Wal Mart for 11.68 for a total of 27.73, going over my allotted 25.63 by 2.10. Not bad. But then we had to go and eat out and that was 35.00. 

Weekly budget 41.66--this week 25.63
Amount spent                  -62.73
                              -37.10


Amount left in budget 105.74   3 weeks to go


         The 50 Cent Meal Challenge 
                  Track Tina's progress here

The 50 Cent Meal Challenge week two and What we ate last week

      The 50 Cent Meal Challenge is a joint effort between two sisters in different regions and with different challenges.  Tina lives in Ohio with her husband and son, and is learning to stretch her shrunken budget while trying to develop an old fashioned, basic approach to cooking.  Jen lives in New Mexico with her husband and they are Foster Parents who are learning the art of flexibility. They live on a single income and are joining this challenge for the sake of the challenge.  Tina and Jen are planning their family groceries on a 250.00 budget for 6 weeks.
                                                                 August 22-28
                          I blew it!!
 I did, I blew my budget! By 28 dollars and 2 cents! But we had company this weekend and lots of it. Eleven peoples worth!! They came to town for The Great American Duck Races. Yes, its a real thing. We race ducks. Our town motto is Pure water and Fast ducks. We even have a duck crossing sign.. And Remember when I said I might have a challenge within a challenge? Well I got one! On friday night I got a foster placement of three little cute girls. 


Oh and I bit the bullet and got 25 pounds of fresh roasted New Mexico green chile, they're isn't going to be a second picking this year because of the drought. So, see I HAD to. That was $12.


So this is what we ate last week..

For breakfasts we had breakfast burritos. I made a bunch of them on Sunday night and froze them so in the morning we can have a quick meal. They were potato, green chile, cheese and egg. Sunday we had pancakes. Lunches were sandwiches or leftovers.

• M-Green chile and cheese quesadillas.
• T-Eggplant parmesan (eggplant from the garden)
• W-leftovers with steamed zucchini(from the garden) 
• T-Curried lentil and brown rice salad with fried zucchini and green beans (veggies from the garden)

Time out... Lets take a minute and talk about the curried lentil and brown rice salad. We had an old friend over for dinner that night and I honestly forgot she was coming until she texted me at 1:00. Oops. So I "knew" I had all the ingredients for this salad and fresh veggies to make, she is a vegetarian. So, I procrastinate as long as I can before I start to make dinner....And it was a mess!  My flat leaf parsley was cilantro, my dijon mustard was stone ground mustard and my tomatoes were moldy! I used the stone ground mustard and left everything else out, it came out ok but could have been better if I had my act together!
Time in...

• F-Pasta primavera, green beans and bread (all store bought)
• S-Chicken makhani (Indian butter chicken), rice, corn, green beans a bread. (all store bought)
• S-Leftovers and friends brought over some fried chicken

Friday-Sunday is when we had all the company, 16 of us all together. It was nice, they are all like family. 


I did have to purchase some things I usually have a pretty good supply of like olive oil and Parmesan cheese. And I have some things left over that I didn't use over the weekend that I planned on which will help me stay on budget next week. Technically I have 25.63 for this week since I went over last week. We'll see if I can do it. 


Weekly budget 41.66
Amount spent -57.68
             -16.02 


166.37 Left in budget. 4 weeks to go. Yikes!


          The 50 Cent Meal Challenge
                          Track Tina's progress here

Wordless Wednesday

Okra Blossom

50 Cent meal challenge week one: What I ate last week

                             

 The 50 Cent Meal Challenge is a joint effort between two sisters in different regions and with different challenges.  Tina lives in Ohio with her husband and son, and is learning to stretch her shrunken budget while trying to develop an old fashioned, basic approach to cooking.  Jen lives in New Mexico with her husband and they are Foster Parents who are learning the art of flexibility. They live on a single income and are joining this challenge for the sake of the challenge.  Tina and Jen are planning their family groceries on a 250.00 budget for 6 weeks. 

                                                        August 14-20

This past week was the first week for the 50 Cent Meal Challenge and this is what we ate. 

We did have 1 foster child who stayed with us from Monday to Thursday, so there were 3 of us for part of the week. 

For breakfast we had cereal, toast or breakfast burritos.

For lunch we had leftovers, sandwiches or chicken salad sandwiches, mexican style.

For dinner we had

• Monday-     Roasted Chicken with veggies and cucumber salad
• Tuesday-     Spaghetti, green beans and bread
• Wednesday Leftover Spaghetti
• Thursday    Fend for yourself night. We had a meeting, no time to cook. I think we ate more spaghetti when we got home..1 pound of pasta is a lot for 3 people..we won't have it again for a while!
•  Friday        Chicken stir fry with green tomato and jalapeno jam and green beans (using leftover chicken)
• Saturday     Cabbage and bacon, steamed zucchini and cucumber, tomato salad
•  Sunday       Went out for Chinese food after church and snacked the rest of the day. (Sam and I shared a plate, it came with rice and 2 choices of the main entree and 2 drinks for $8!! Yes $8. We love that place! And we even had leftover rice and 3 pieces of chicken.

For snacks we had chips and homemade salsa and popcorn.

I only spent 25.95 this week, I thought I spent 37.40 but I had some non food items on the receipts that I failed to deduct. 

 I only had to buy Italian sausage for the spaghetti, bacon and a few things for the green tomato jam (by the way it is really surprisingly tasty--you should make it) 

These are gorgeous green tomatoes from my garden (If I do say so myself) that I used to make the green tomato and jalapeno jam.

 But I must let you know that I have a pretty decently stocked pantry and freezers. I'm a sale shopper. My grandma was a shopper and if she saw a shirt that she liked, she bought one in every color they had. I'm kinda like that with food.  I am a stocker, but for this challenge I am only using my main pantry and freezer, just to keep it real.  And to keep it even more real I am posting a pic of my quickly straightened pantry.

                        Not a terrific picture but it gives you an idea of what I have to work with.
 This is the produce that we got from the garden last week. Can't wait to eat those butternut squash!                              
Having a garden  really cuts down our grocery bill!

                                    And we have these girls that supply us with plenty of eggs.

                                     The 50 Cent Meal Challenge

                    Track Tina's progress here

The 50 Cent Meal Challenge

The 50 Cent Meal Challenge is a joint effort between two sisters in different regions and with different challenges.  Tina lives in Ohio with her husband and son, and is learning to stretch her shrunken budget while trying to develop an old fashioned, basic approach to cooking.  Jen lives in New Mexico with her husband and they are Foster Parents who are learning the art of flexibility. They live on a single income and are joining this challenge for the sake of the challenge.  Tina and Jen are planning their family groceries on a 250.00 budget for 6 weeks. 

I think this is a really fun challenge that will really stretch my cooking skills and style, while still providing my family with healthy nutritional meals. I am a self taught "Cheft" who cooks with a gourmet flare. It will entail denying ourselves some of the treats we like, like Sam's (non-alcoholic) Ginger Beer and my ice cream. But there is nothing wrong with denying yourself things every once in a while. Its freeing in a way. 

My husband works full time and then some. I am a stay at home wife and my focus is taking care of our small homestead where we raise a garden and chickens and two dogs. We are foster parents and currently have no children in the home. But we never know when that will change. We are licensed for 6 so our household can go from 2 to 8 with just a phone call. So that may pose a challenge within a challenge. But I'm game. 

I have never had a set budget for groceries, I have tracked it and cut it down, but never a budget.  I tend to be pretty frugal but this challenge will without a doubt teach me a lot . 

My approach will be a little different from Tina's. I will shop weekly with the budget of 41.66. I have not done a total pantry/freezer inventory yet but through the challenge you will know what I bought and what I had on hand. 

Weekly budget     41.66

Amount spent     -37.40

                              4.26  UNDER BUDGET! 

Left in budget    212.60  Yikes! 5 more weeks to go!

          The 50 Cent Meal Challenge
              Track Tina's progress here

Green Tomatoes..

                                                       Of which I have a BUNCH!

They just aren't getting ripe! I think the New Mexico heat is just too much for them this year. But from the sounds of it there are a lot of people just not having a good tomato year. So, rather than having fried green tomatoes all the time, I decided to see what I could do with green tomatoes. I searched the internet and found some very interesting ways to use them. Like mock raspberry jam and green tomato and jalapeno jam. The green tomato jam peeked my interest and I decided to try it and much to my surprise it was amazing. And very easy to make!

First you pick one pound of green tomatoes

Aren't they pretty!

Next your  Mise en Place--everything in place

5 Jalapenos 

4 cloves garlic

1/4 cup cilantro and mint

1 inch piece of ginger

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

2 tbsp soy sauce

3 cups sugar

and of course

1 lb green tomatoes

Peel and dice tomatoes and set aside.

Roughly chop herbs and veggies and puree in food processor along with vinegar and soy sauce.

Place the pureed mixture into a sauce pan and add the green tomatoes and sugar. 

Bring to a boil.

Simmer until thickens.

About 45 minutes.

I must admit that while it was simmering, I wasn't sure I'd like it too much. There was an overwhelming smell of soy sauce in the air. But as soon as it was done I tasted it and it was AMAZING! There is a slight soy taste but it is not overpowering and it packs a punch! I will definitely make this again.

For dinner I sauted some onion and patty pan squash and an okra from the garden and added about 2 cups of shredded chicken and added about a half of jar of the tomato jam and heated it through, it was really tasty. 

Wordless Wednesday

What We Ate Last Week and other stuff...

Monday we had Chicken Divan and Rice, our son came over and ate with us and then he and Sam headed over to the "other" house to work on the back porch. They are putting on a new roof.
Tuesday, Sam and I went out of town for the day and ate at Chick-Fil-A and just snacked that night.
Wednesday I made Salmon Patties, mac n cheese and green beans from the garden. Yum. Sam really liked the salmon patties, and even he was surprised. I love making things he wasn't fond of when he was a child and he likes them.
Thursday was the day I was putting up squash and got an overnight placement. I had planned on having leftovers but got the call for the kiddos, so I had to come up with something fast. I decided on BBQ chicken in the oven, mashed potatoes I so brilliantly made and froze and fried zucchini and yellow squash. The potatoes were almost thawed, the squash all but done and I check the chicken that I put in the electric roaster. Ok the roaster. I use the roaster whenever I can during the summer because it is SOO hot and the roaster doesn't heat up the house like the regular oven does and it used something like 71% less electricity. Anyway I open the lid and it was still frozen! The kids were hungry....I was hungry. I realized that the lid was letting some heat escape so I grabbed the random random blue towel of my dinning room table and draped it over the roaster.

It looked really bad but worked really well. I jacked up the heat and it was done in no time.
Friday we didn't got out on a date and I can't even remember what we ate so it wasn't anything spectacular!! I do remember there were cookies though =)
Saturday was church work day at church and the women got together to prepare the food that we are going to make for the Women's Conference in September. We are responsible for cooking for 200 women. Its gonna be fun. We are going with Argentinian food. Chicken with Chimi Churry, really yummy black beans, salad and homemade bread. So today we made the food so all the women (and men) can try it and see how it is prepared. So that was our big meal of the day. That evening I made zucchini fries coated in Italian breadcrumbs and panko. Very good. I also fried some green beans, I've always wanted to do that... and I'm not a fan. Black olives, yeah don't bread and fry them. Not so good.
After we were done eating I was doing dishes and Sam was working on tiling our bathroom counter (looks great by the way) and I got a call for another placement. Just one this time.
Sunday we had Ratatouille wraps again, per the request of my buddy Deanna. There that good.

Jen=)

My Yesterday....

This is how I spent my yesterday

Putting up all of this squash.
 (Please excuse my checkbook, the random blue towel  and the creme horn in the zip lock baggie.)

I planned my afternoon around this squash.....

But I only got this far, then I got a phone call from CYFD for a 

new placement of three kiddos.  

(Please excuse the wrinkle in the table cloth, the electric skillet
 and other random things on the corner of my table ;) )

                                                                           
                                 So I quickly cleaned up the massive mess I created while doing this....

Blanched zucchini, summer and patty pan quash  

 It turned out to be a great spot to stop because, as it was, I had to do some rearranging and take a chicken out of the freezer to fit it all in there. Guess what we are having for dinner tomorrow?? The rest of the squash was bagged up to give away to people at Sam's office, except for the four yellow squash and one zucchini, along with an onion I used to make the really tasty fried squash dish my Meema used to make. She started hers off with bacon drippings but since I am having to force myself to get off the couch to do the "couch to 5k running program," because I NEED too, I decided to go with good old Olive Oil.  If you don't think about the bacon fat you don't really miss it.... much.


                                Check this guy out. It got missed, I don't know how, but it did.
                                                           Don't think it looks that big??

                                                                      
                                                                          Look again.

                                        This is the same one put besides a normal sized Patty Pan.
                                                     That sucker weighed in at almost 3 lbs.

             Well it turned out the be a good night even though the bbq chicken I made for dinner took
                                              forever to cook, that story on another day.    

                                                                          Jen =)