April projects

I haven't been around in awhile because of this:

We got our house painted this month and had some siding replaced. We are installing a shower in the master bathroom so we covered the big picture window that was previously there.

We also finally got a swing set (this had been on the to-do list for awhile). I got one on Craigslist and the seller delivered and set it up (for a small fee). It was cheaper than new plus we didn't have to do any of the labor ourselves. The Big Girl loves it.

We are almost done with our guest room. The floor turned out to be a nightmare. After removing tons of ancient tile, we found several dips and cracks in the concrete that we are having to patch before we can lay floor.

I got my recipes organized and my last shopping trips have been simple. I have averaged about $100/week but I haven't blogged about them because they have been unusual weeks with some travel in there.

Tomorrow I'll figure out what my plans are for May.

Week of 4/5-4/11 and rambling about siding and shutters

$35.51 Meijer
$8.87 Kroger
$3.98 CVS (milk)
$58.52 Aldi
     =
_______
$106.88

Menu includes:
Mini pizzas (already ate these)
Red beans and rice (already ate this)
Pizza pasta with salad
Fish tacos with some veggie (broccoli maybe?)
Garlic lime chicken (never guess where I got this recipe...Saving Dinner of course)
Mustard pork chops (Saving Dinner basics)
Regular tacos (for small group which I believe it's my turn to cook for)

**Sorry, Grammar Police, for ending a sentence (actually a fragment) with a preposition. I promise not to haphazardly split my infinitives next. Except I just did.**

I don't really know what's wrong with me, whether it's the warm weather or what, but I have just not been that into cooking lately, especially when it involves turning on an oven. Plus, I'm a little discouraged by the fact that I had to go to four stores this week. Several nights this week, I have just wanted to have a peanut butter sandwich and call it good.

At least our house is starting to look good on the exterior. The bathroom window has been taken out and siding put up where it once was. The master bath didn't have any kind of device for bathing oneself, so we are putting in a shower now that there is a wall instead of a gigantic window there.

I'm trying to decide what color I want the shutters. Our siding will be a biscuit color so probably something fairly neutral like brown.

There's a house I saw and love that's all white siding (ranch style) with green shutters and a long porch. I wish we could have green shutters but that wouldn't really go with red brick. So brown it is.

Menu plan for 3-29 to 4-4

My favorite cookbooks of all time.

So here's the menu plan for the week:

Last week several meal plans got changed. We had a couple of sandwich and/or leftover nights that I didn't actually "cook" dinner.

Friday night: Sausage and tomato pasta (from Saving Dinner by Leanne Ely)

Saturday lunch: Leftovers and or/sandwiches

Saturday dinner: Pork fried rice (carry over from last week)

Sunday lunch (eat out or leftovers) Being Easter, I'm not sure what restaurants will be open so either way, I'm prepared.

Sunday dinner: Pizza We are getting together with some family that evening and they are ordering pizza so I'm bringing some little frozen Glutino pizzas. I was NOT a fan of the Trader Joe's so I'm glad I did a trial run last weekend. Also, I am contributing the dessert to this gathering: the ubiquitous "flourless chocolate cake". I might make something else for the gluten-eating contingent but it kind of stinks when you can't sample your own baking before putting it out there for consumption.

The flourless cake (more like brownies) recipe is all over the internet in variations and I can't remember where I initially found it but this one is most like it:

Flourless Chocolate Cake Recipe at Epicurious.com

I add a teaspoon of vanilla to mine and my recipe says to bake at 300 rather than 375 but I notice I always have to bake it longer so I'll try the higher temp.

Monday dinner: Mexican cheese soup This is a random recipe from a fundraiser book. This soup mostly consists of opening cans and therefore feels like cheating but Monday will be a busy day so I'm taking it.

Tuesday dinner: Stroganoff Finally making this. I think this has been in the rotation for a good three weeks now. This will be the week it gets made!

Wednesday dinner: Hash brown quiche (from another of the Saving Dinner author's cookbooks)

Thursday dinner: Garlic lime fish (from Saving Dinner)

Veggies are non specific to meals, except the avocado which goes with the Mexican soup. I got carrots, broccoli, salad, spinach, peas, cauliflower and zucchini.

Breakfast is cereal and yogurt with frozen fruit. I might make some gluten free pancakes to have for a couple of meals.

Lunch is leftovers or sandwiches, same as last week.



Cost breakdown:

$16 at Meijer
$83 at Aldi

Menu planning for the week

This recipe box was a hand-me-down from my grandma. It says Eureka Springs on the top. I'm not sure how old it is but I love it and use it nearly every day.

Menu plan for the week:


Baked macaroni with carrots as side dish (from the book Saving Dinner by Leanne Ely. Highly recommend this book because even though it's not GF, a lot of the recipes are easily converted. Organized by season so as to optimize fresh food when possible.)

Pizza and salad
Husband is eating mini pizzas on Ezekiel english muffins. Big Girl and I are trying the frozen TJ's gluten -free pizza for the first time.


Quesadillas, avocado, and some vegetable. Maybe finish up the salad.

Another recipe-less recipe. Chicken, Monterrey Jack cheese, and corn tortillas. Apparently the Aldi corn tortillas are made with corn flour which is off limits on the no flour no sugar diet, but I have some from Walmart that aren't made with corn flour.


Stroganoff over rice spiral noodles and zucchini

My mom gave me this recipe from a book compiled by La Leche League members several decades ago. I have modified the original quite a bit to accommodate allergies. I'm using cubed steak because it was on sale and regular steak wasn't, cornstarch instead of flour as thickening, and leaving out mushrooms. I'm a little nervous about this one because it sort of stretches the bounds of substitution more than I'm comfortable with.

Pork fried rice and broccoli

This is the recipe I posted last week (see: How gluten turned me into a foodie)

Parmesan fish and asparagus

Fish+egg wash+parmesan cheese. Grill. The end.

Tacos, refried beans, and carrots (veggie subject to change depending on what's left in the crisper)

Those La Leche ladies of the 80's were some awesome cooks. Just saying. This is ground beef with a can of tomato sauce, onion, cumin, marjoram, salt and pepper. I find mixes way too salty and that a lot of them contain wheat.


Breakfasts: pretend rice chex from Aldi, frozen berries, plain yogurt (also with frozen berries), TJ's gluten free granola (cut with something less sweet). I might make some muffins.

Lunches: leftovers, peanut butter or lunchmeat "sandwiches" on rice cakes. Lots of fresh fruit (love that this is coming back in season!)

In addition to the ingredients I had left in the pantry and fridge, I spent $25 at TJ's and $70 at Aldi. It's not as low as I'd hoped for but with two somewhat different diets to accommodate I feel like it's okay. Two kids ago and before special diets, I used to get our groceries for $70-$75 and I have this fantasy that I'll somehow fall into a price time warp and spend closer to that amount again.

More spring resolutions

So back to my list of resolutions:

5. Organize our medical history. This has been bugging me for awhile. Any time I need quick access to records, I have to dig through tons of irrelevant stuff to find what I'm looking for. I want to have a file for each member of the family, organized by date, with the unnecessary weeded out. I think what's held me back is the fear of throwing out something important. I need to take time to find out what I should have as a hard copy and what can easily be obtained online.

6. Make more of my own bath products. I have to confess that I get fired up about doing this whenever I read a book/blog about green living, then I get swayed by finding a bottle of 25 cent conditioner. I love doing good things for the planet but especially in the early newborn days, my sanity and function as a mother seemed more immediate. As proud as I am of how nice and organized this is, I would love to be able to gradually replace with homemade. I made my own laundry soap a few weeks ago and it even gets cloth diapers clean so I think that's working out better than I hoped.

7. Be better about grocery budgeting. So here's another confession: I don't budget. I do have a set amount that I withdraw every month and use for "frivolous" things (kind of like an allowance). But on things like groceries, I've just been operating under the assumption that frugality is so ingrained in me that I'll instinctively spend within appropriate guidelines. I'm probably right, but I want to verify for my own peace of mind. Plus, I think this might help me be able to make meaningful splurges. For example, I have wanted to buy some chocolate covered gluten free pretzels for the longest time. But every time I saw them I would think, "oh, I'll just get those next time since I'm not sure where I am in the budget." Having no budget, that day never came. It might turn out I'm saving enough every week to justify spending $5 on pretzels every now and then. 

Hmmm while I'm at it, I can probably ditch the glutenated boxes of pasta. I have been GF since May of 2011. I wonder how old they are? I'm pretty sure the macaroni moved cross-country with us.

8. Speaking of cooking, I want to organize my recipes and menu plan. My husband occasionally goes on a no-flour, no-sugar diet which involves further restrictions than my everyday diet (most GF stuff has some kind of flour, whether corn or rice, and he can't eat either on this diet). Ideally, I would have 25-30 "regular" meals (meaning GF meals) and an additional 30 or so NFNS that I can swap in when needed. Some of these could definitely overlap. 

I really wanted to have 12 resolutions and focus on one a month, but since some of them are quite large and ongoing (reading and major renovations) I think I'll leave it at those eight. T-minus 3 days!

P.S. After previewing this, I think maybe I will go ahead and add a ninth: learn how to take good pictures! I took a photography class in college and really think I would have failed if not for a generous professor taking pity on me.