Tuesday, November 23, 2010

A Different Tuesday...

Today seems so different than most Tuesdays. On most Tuesdays we are full fledged into school studies. This morning I went with my mom to a doctor's appointment and I didn't feel so well this afternoon. Also, we have church tonight. So in just a bit our time is going to be consumed with getting ready to go and cooking/eating supper.

Do you remember the YouTube link I shared with you not too long ago? I now have another one for you! This lady is full of knowledge with running a large family household and she now has videos to help others. I am enthusiastically checking for updates daily. :) http://www.youtube.com/user/LindaSheppardAAFCS
I cooked a big batch of pintos in our electric roaster. This was one of the tips she shared. If you're interested then go check it out.

I am back to adding up our food budget. Remember all of those posts over the years with me sharing on how we keep our budget low and my sharing a break-down of what we consumed? Well beware. I am doing that again- beginning today. :) So our FOOD budget is $400 a month. That includes all three meals a day plus snacks and drinks. Basically, I'd like to keep it at $12-$13 a day. Can we do it? Yes, we can (Oooh, that almost sounds like an Obama chant. I did not mean so.) So far this week, here's what we have spent.

Monday:
Breakfast was a little odd. It turns out that this meal was a grab and eat meal. I had a piece of leftover cake and a milkshake. The others had leftover pancakes, pb&j and milkshakes. Total for this meal was $4.50

Lunch consisted of something new. I made a turkey soup with ramen noodles in it. The turkey was leftover from a church Thanksgiving meal on Saturday. I boiled and picked the turkey to get the bits of good left. Inside the turkey I had stuffed it with celery, onion and bay leaves. This went in the pot as well. Any gelatin from the turkey was thrown in the broth as well. Then I added two packs of chicken flavored ramen noodles. I also added a quart sized bags of green beans from our garden as well. Usually I am not a ramen fan, except for sometimes the ones in a cup that has the dried carrots and peas. Anyway this lunch was VERY tasty! The total for this meal was .40-tops!

In the morning I had put pintos and water in our electric roaster- about full. In our crockpot I had put in a 2-3 pound pork loin roast. These had been cooking all day. While the beans were completely ready in time for supper, I dipped some out and finished them off for supper. I added some rice(1 cup), shredded some of the pork, threw that in and then added some mexican seasonings. Once this thickened up, I stuffed them into tortillas with some cheese and stacked them onto baking sheets, heated them in the oven until the cheese was melted. We topped these with sour cream and hot sauce. Yumm! $5.50 for this meal.

Here's the rundown.
Bfast: $4.50
Lunch: $.40
Supper: $5.50
tea/coffee: .40
2 bag popcorn: .50
Total: $11.30


Today's breakfast was a little bit mixed too. Mainly we had fruit smoothies and granola. $3.00 The granola is homemade and very basic. Thus it is dirt cheap as well.

Lunchtime we had leftovers from last night's supper and a few more quesadillas from the pork roast. $3.50

Supper is going to be chili from the batch of pintos and crackers. This will consist of some deer meat that was given to us by a customer so that was free. I think I'll serve a basic salad on the side as well. $3.50

Today's total with an allowance for tea, coffee and a few sodas: $11.00

To be honest, I've had my fill of beans for another week. On to different things now. I will freeze the beans that were leftover for next week. ;) I am hoping that with any leftover money at month's end we might can go to a sit down restuarant. That's a definite rarity!

That's all for now as I am off to get us ready for church and get supper going.

UPDATE: I couldn't put myself to cooking the chili tonight so we had simple sandwiches. I froze the rest of the beans until next week. :D So today's total came out to $12.50 instead. I'll use the deer meat in spaghetti or something tomorrow.

2 comments:

Dana said...

Susan are you feeling better?

Anonymous said...

Dana, Yes I am. I've just had a whole lot of emotional stuff going on in addition to the daily work. I have good news now so I feel tons better. My mom had a biospy on a mass taken out of her jaw. It came back today as GREAT news. There wasn't any cancer. Glory to God! I hope you have a great Thanksgiving. :) Thank you for asking, darling.
Susan