December Meal Plan

I know when Christmas is, really, I do, but somehow this year I managed to forget all about shopping for it. I *usually* pride myself on how prepared I am months ahead of time. I *usually* buy gifts all year long when I see something that is a great deal or really fits a certain person and I keep them all in a box in the school room closet. Then if a birthday party or baby shower or whatever comes up, I can *usually* "shop" in the closet and I have at least half (sometimes way more) of Christmas purchased by the this time of year. Well, right now, I have exactly one present in my box. Maybe it was the move, maybe it was the toddler, maybe it was babysitting, but something happened and I am woefully unprepared.

There's no use grumbling about it, I just need to buck up and find some money. I can't/don't want to get a job and so I have to cut from somewhere. I am pretty good at sticking to a grocery budget when I feel like it, but ours has been a little, eh hmm, fluid, lately. So, what does Christmas shopping have to do with my December meal plan? I'm glad you asked. :-) Everything! Stick with me, I'll get there.

I work hard to have a well-stocked freezer and pantry most of the time and right now it is even more so thanks to the Thanksgiving turkey. I took the carcass home and picked the meat and made stock. How much could that possibly be? It was rescued from the trash, for heaven's sake!

Take a gander (see what I did there,like a bird. I'm clever, I tell ya!):

Here we are, just getting started

Yum, after several hours

and after several more hours. I got a total of about six quarts of boiled down stock, that I divided and froze most of (we've already eaten some and it is delightful!)

Look at all of that! I picked enough for five meals

Here is some, just chillin'

Add that to the chicken, vegetables, breads, and vegetable base already in the freezer and we are pretty stocked. Sorry, I got a bit distracted there. Where were we?

Ah, yes, the meal plan. I usually budget $100 per week for groceries, gas, toiletries, and incidentals. This month, I plan to only use half that and use the other half for Christmas gifts. It wouldn't be terribly difficult to do, but I don't want anyone to feel deprived and I also want to have a somewhat fancy Christmas Eve dinner (by itself costing about $65 to feed 7, but with leftovers for one additional dinner) so I am pulling from the freezer a bit more than I would normally do. Here it is, not necessarily in the order we will eat it. The number behind lists how many dinners we will get from each recipe.

1. Chicken, sliced potatoes, and salsa served with steamed vegetables - 2
2. Chicken pot pie - 3
3. Turkey soup with vegetables - 3
4. Vegetable soup - 3
5. Bean pasta with vegetable base and vegetables - 2
6. Frittata with peppers, spinach, and feta - 1
7. Tomato, basil pasta with beans - 1
8. Chicken thighs with rice in white wine sauce and roasted vegetables - 2
9. Spicy chicken curry - 2
10. Jambalaya - 3
11. Mini pizzas - 1
12. Salmon nuggets - 1
13. Chicken noodle soup - 2
14. Chicken and vegetable pasta - 2
15. Christmas Eve - 1
16. Christmas Day (at Doug's family) - 1

When I meal plan I don't add breakfast, lunch, or snacks. We eat those things, of course. :-) We make a lot of quick breads (pumpkin muffins, pancakes, biscuits, etc.) and some yeast breads (rolls, cinnamon rolls, etc.) that we use for breakfast and snacks. We also eat a lot of oatmeal for breakfast and  fruit for snacks. We always have peanut butter on hand to eat as sandwiches, with crackers, or on pretzels. There is also usually canned tuna. Mostly, we eat dinner leftovers for lunch and the numbers above take that into account.

Here is the Christmas menu:

Apps:

• Wasabi tuna dip
• Hummus with crudite and pita chips
• Crostinis with pesto, roasted tomato spread, and tapenade

Main:

• Salmon
• Beef tenderloin with red wine reduction

Sides:

• Roasted brussel sprouts, carrots, onions, sweet potatoes
• Mini latkes with sour cream
• Tossed salad (brought by Aunt Sue)

Desserts:

• Cookies (brought by Mom)
• Mini pies (pumpkin, pecan, key lime, cherry, apple)
• German chocolate bon bons
• Coconut milk bon bons

Can this all really be done for under $200? Yuppers! That is, assuming you have a stocked pantry as well as freezer and staples. I went shopping for the month last night and spent $140 and that included a new mini muffin pan, I have about another $40 left to buy of things that won't stay fresh until I need them if I buy them now, leaving me about a $20 buffer for things I'm sure will come up before January. I didn't allot any money for gas since I have a full tank and we can always use some of the regular household money for that. I also didn't allot any for toiletries because I have backups of everything we might need.

Anyone who says eating on a budget can't be delicious and nutritious is full of baloney!

Ella

We are mostly moved in! 

Here are the girls using the secret entrance (through our bedroom) to the sun/playroom. 

I wasn't so sure I would like nearly black walls in the kitchen, but they are really growing on me. The kitchen is small, but it is so nice and we have a big built-in hutch in the dining room to provide additional storage.

I know it needs some decorating!

Beautifully remodeled bathroom

The sun/playroom. It leads right into the kitchen and the deck. I love this space!

This is the study, aka the dressing room and office. It still needs some rearranging, but we love having a space outside the bedroom to get dressed so whoever is lucky enough to get to sleep in can do so in peace.

This isn't a good picture, but it is Doug's favorite spot in the house. From here you can see all of the downstairs rooms if you stand just right.

And now, for the biggest room of the house - Paige's. This is the sleeping area. At one time our house was a duplex and the upstairs was a one-bedroom apartment. Levi got the bedroom and Paige got the living room/kitchen areas.

Continuation of Paige's room, this will be her art and changing area.

Our beautiful deck that overlooks the fenced-in yard

So, there it is, well most of it anyway. :-) We love, love it!

lapsed hippy

i'm embarrassed... i try, i really do. i try to be environmentally conscious. i try to do the right thing. but, sometimes i need BLEACH

and CHEMICALS

So, here's the deal.  I try to clean with natural things - lemon juice, and baking soda, and vinegar, and salt, and in a pinch, oxyclean, but the truth is that sometimes, particularly if you are a lousy housekeeper like me, those just won't work. :-(

To tell you the truth, I use the healthy things first, but about two or three times a year, I get crazy and buy some stinking chemicals. I just did it and, as it turns out SoftScrub with bleach works great. (not sure how i feel about saying that...)

So this is what I use: vinegar and baking soda mostly, then Seventh Generation cleaning supplies and dish soap, then for Doug's work clothes, every few months I soak them in blue Dawn. If you have never had the pleasure of cleaning restaurant clothes, let me tell you, it's a treat. Then, I admit, some SoftScrub and when all else fails (trash cans and diaper pails mostly) good ol' bleach. In the background there is Dr. Bronners. We use that for hand soap and sometimes baby soap when the California Baby isn't handy.

Does this make me a bad steward of this beautiful planet? maybe. There have been periods of my life where I would absolutely hate myself for "breaking" and buying the chemicals and think I had irreparably damaged the earth and my family, but, now, meh. I'm okay with doing MY best, not someone elses.

Photos in the Round

I don't think I've ever acknowledged how much I love the eclectic, yet organized photo display that my reluctantly artistic husband created. If I were to plan this photo, I would place the pillows more carefully and have Doug put down his phone, but even ignoring that, look how cute our house is!

A Pretty Good Day aka I'm a Domestic Goddess

Fact: I am a lousy housekeeper
Fact: I'm pretty darn lazy
Fact: I'm a good mom
Fact: I can be fun to be around
Fact: I'm a pretty good cook

All of those things are equally true, I just didn't want anyone to think I was all depressed and down on myself so I added in some good things. :-)

The great thing about being a lousy housewife is that even the most minimal effort makes you look pretty good and from there, domestic goddess is right around the corner! My poor sister has to do something pretty spectacular to get the kind of appreciation the most basic act gets me. Take that, perfectionism!

Anyway, what did I do today? Went shopping and did things I love doing. Yeah, it's almost that simple! Goose and I went to the little local farmer store place (that, wonderfully, is just around the corner from our new house!) and bought yummy and delicious goodies. In addition to some lavender and rosemary to put in a big pot that I keep planting things in and then killing :

Goose helping - look there are even bugs and plants on her shirt, I totally didn't plan that, but boy, does it make me look put together!

I got veggies for a pasta primavera tonight and a whole box of "almost done for" peppers. I love having diced peppers in the freezer for quick meals, so I don't care if they are starting to wrinkle a bit.

Look at my beautiful bags of diced peppers!

Lucille also cuted herself to a couple of almost free peaches and a lime. (read: picked them up and started eating before I could stop her) The guy there was super nice and knowledgeable, I just can't tell you strongly enough how much I love friendly people!

I should mention that a big help in achieving the domestic goddess status came from the fact that Lucille slept until 10:00 today and then took a nap this afternoon after terrorizing Target and the market. So I was well rested AND had some alone time with the knife.

Now, just prepping and freezing peppers isn't quite enough, I also prepped all of the veggies for the pasta tonight, including fresh basil, thyme, and rosemary from my YARD! Oh yeah! (okay, fine, I just bought the rosemary today, but it's still a plant and I picked the leaves, damn it!) Seriously, look at those red and yellow tomatoes, aren't they gorgeous! Plus, there are some mushrooms in that bowl that the guy literally was selling to the market while I was there. He harvested them today, there were still bugs and dirt on them for heaven's sake! How can you not love this kind of stuff?!?

Not pictured is the penne I boiled in chicken broth from the freezer and white wine I'll add (and drink) later

Now, all that is pretty good, wouldn't you say? But, wait! There's more!

Look, almost all of the dishes are done and one side of the sink is clean!

This is the type of half-ass domestic goddess crap I'm talking about! But seriously, I put some baking soda in it and wiped it for like a second with a washcloth then dumped some vinegar and... ta da! clean!

On Homophobia and Racism

I'm pretty liberal, progressive, tolerant, accepting...all those nice, fuzzy things. I'm also pretty proud of that fact and pretty proud that I am raising my kiddos to be the same. Every once in awhile, though I realize that, perhaps, I still have a way to go. This post is full of not-so-fuzzy admissions so please forgive them and know that I am just a little girl trying to make it in this big, crazy world.

If you would have asked me ten or even twenty years ago if I was supportive of gay rights I would have said, "of course, they are just like us" and I would have been happy with that answer. Here is the rub, though - those seemingly innocuous little words that break through to the real truth. They and Us. By using dividing words, I was showing what was deeper than my conscious beliefs. I thought I was accepting, I voted and talked and taught acceptance, but did I really, all the way down, believe that I was, perhaps, maybe, just a little, better than "them?" Looking back, I can't point to any examples, but I might need to admit that a feeling of superiority might have been there. I have had the privilege over the last year or so to get to know on a deeper level many homosexual individuals and families and with that familiarity has come an internal breakdown of walls that I didn't even know were there. I will say that I am much closer today to truly seeing We instead of Them and Us.

Now, what on Earth has gotten me thinking about all of this? Race. Specifically, the Trayvon Martin verdict. I am not going to get into that other than to say that I think the real travesty is not that the verdict was not-guilty or the act of violence in the first place. The real travesty is that Zimmerman apparently acted within his rights. The fact that the Florida laws allow a man armed with a vehicle, gun, and police backup to kill an unarmed person on foot is the real problem that needs to be addressed. Whew, for not getting into it, that was a lot said. Sorry.

It is no secret that I love our President, but there are definitely times that remind me just why and his impromptu remarks on the verdict are definitely one of those times. If you haven't seen them, it is totally worth the twenty minutes to do so. The gist of the speech is that we have room for improvement and until everyone can admit that, we are going to continue to have problems. There are still truths that African-American men, in particular, live that color how they see the world around them and unfortunately, too often, those are negative truths. The fact is that, even today, if President Obama were to walk down the street alone, many people would not let him get close enough to even see who he is because his gender and the color of his skin would blind them well before he was close enough to ID.

Much like the homophobia discussion, I thought I was well passed the race discussion. I have a lot of "checkmarks" in the boxes of race equality - I have black friends and co-workers, Tracy and I tried to adopt a black boy, I dated a black man, I live in an area with a lot of black people and knew that when I bought the house. But, I realized during Obama's speech that I still segregate in my thoughts. They and Us. When black teenage boys walk past my car while I am unloading groceries, I watch to make sure they keep walking. Would I do the same thing if they were white? I'm not sure, that hasn't happened that I remember (predominately black neighborhood, remember). I do know that I have had thoughts when getting to know and like a black man that he is different than I expected. So why do I expect black men to be "bad" and white men to be "good"? I know that at least part of the reason stems from a negative experience I had growing up, but to place blame there is really a cop-out and serves no purpose other than to slow my growth down.

What do I do with this knowledge? I don't know, yet. I'm going to spend more time pondering. I really, truly want to judge all people based solely on what they bring to the table as an individual, not on their physical characteristics or to whom they are attracted.  I welcome any advice!

Cabinet redux

So, what do you get when you combine

 $14 worth of lattice wood

and

 $4 worth of mis-tinted paint?

New cabinets!

Before

After

I'm pretty happy with them so far. After looking at all of these new houses, I got the urge to spruce mine up a bit, but didn't want to spend a lot of money on what will hopefully become a rental very soon. I am loving the grays and browns lately.