Eating the Freezer

Happy new year! One of the area that I am working on is using food storage & lowering our grocery bills. I call this "Eating the Freezer." We have a big French-door refrigerator full of food & an upright freezer crammed full of food in the basement. 

Sunday night - we had our own little food hangover on Sunday. Scott & I went to Costco on Saturday afternoon & bought a bunch of junk food. We usually buy lots of produce & very little processed food. Not Saturday!!! We bought coconut shrimp, ribs, wings x 2, pizza, and pot stickers!! The wings & pizza were eaten on New Years Eve. Sunday we ate leftovers from NYE night 

Monday we had the shrimp, ribs, rice, & veggies. (balanced diet right?!) Coconut shrimp with ribs was actually a tasty combo. I spent the day digging through months of paperwork, so quick & easy won out.

Tuesday I pulled a frozen roast out of the freezer. It was late in the afternoon & the roast was grass-fed beef. (I guess we're not supposed to microwave it because the enzymes are destroyed.) It thawed a bit & I browned the roast (salt, pepper, and flour) in a pan. Then I used the pressure cooker for 40" with veggies and broth. http://www.pressurecookerdiaries.com/pressure-cooker-recipes/how-to-cook-a-roast. The recipe was pretty good but there was too much juice. 

This post is getting long. To be continued...

Dinner last night

Nothing fancy, but I guess I have been slacking off in the dinner-making department. We had pork chops from Costco, salt & pepper on the George Forman grill heated to 170. (Yes, I use a meat thermometer.) I reheated rice, steamed some broccoli in the microwave, & made a salad with baby spinach, pomegranate seeds, & cucumbers. We had leftover gravy from turkey breast the night before & leftover homemade cranberry sauce from Thanksgiving.

We were sitting around after dinner & one of the boys said, “I think I must be dreaming. DInner has been so good the last few nights & I just don’t know how long this is going to last.”

P.S. He is the same kid who woke up with a splitting sinus headache, took some medicine, & threw up the entire yummy dinner.

Nice.

And then he was nice...

This morning I called tech support & was speaking with a young man about the problem. He was being a little condescending & I told him to stop treating me like I am stupid.

He said, “Listen, it’s very early in the morning & we’ve both just gotten up.”

My reply? “Um, no, I have been up since 4 a.m. with a barfing kid!!!”

He was very nice to me after that.

Birthday Blast

When we lived in Washington, the Simons lived around the corner from our house. Barb was my very first piano teacher. She was so nice & fueled my excitement. Yesterday, I was using the "birthday clause" to play the piano instead of cooking breakfast. I was thinking, "Wow! I am so glad I can play the piano & Barb helped me learn."

After church Scott received a phone call from Keith & Barb's son, Travis. He was driving through & asked if he could stop by & see us. We were so excited to see him - he was one of the young men that Scott worked with in our church more than ten years ago.

It's hard to tell that he has aged one minute. I remembered that I had a great picture of him somewhere & found the hard copy in my "People" drawer. I am grateful for good friends & for photographs & cameras.

Chocolate cake - yummy!

While I am not happy about this birthday milestone (or my not-so-great hair day), I am very grateful to have seen the passage of time - the progression of great youth into great fathers and mothers, husbands and wives. Family & friends have kids that I knew as babies & toddlers that are serving missions and getting married & having families of their own.

After dinner, we had a fireside at church about protecting our families (internet security stuff) & then we hurried home to share cake & ice cream & cheesecake with the YSAs. It was a happy day!

Heavenly Dinner - Enchiladas, Rice, & Guacamole Salad

Yesterday, I finally felt good enough (or maybe just hungry enough) that I planned & made a delicious dinner for my family. They are such great eaters & very appreciative that I should surely do it more often. (Oh yeah, the fact that cross country is finally over has given me several more hours per day that I am not in the car!) I shredded the chicken earlier in the day & had Chris brown the tortillas.

The best Best BEST chicken enchiladas ever: http://www.kevinandamanda.com/recipes/dinner/creamy-chicken-enchiladas.html - only variation was that Chris browned Costco’s fresh tortillas & we used whole milk instead of whipped cream.

Mexican Rice with Salsa (inspired by the Food Nanny):

1 cup chopped onion (frozen)

2 cups uncooked rice (from the hodgepodge bin)

1 cup salsa

4 cups chicken broth (one box)

Garlic & salt seasoning (small twist grinder) - garlic powder & plain salt would be great too

Throw everything in rice cooker & leave until finished. The salsa was a little spicier than we planned so we added a bit of sour cream.

Hodgepodge Bin: I always have little bits & pieces at the end of the rice bags. I finally designated a canister for the bits & pieces. When we have rice, it is a mixture of jasmine, brown, white, converted, everything. When it cooks in the rice cooker (recent purchase from Costco), everything comes out nice & evenly-enough cooked.

Guacamole Salad: Heavenly!!! http://kitchenscoop.com/recipes/guacamole-salad/ . This salad is such a treat with heavy, saucy Mexican food. Delightful.

Three Things Thursday

Chris finally received credit for his time at the state cross country meet. He was #1388 & was entered in the scores as #1488. Easy solution, long & drawn out process. The school didn’t feel like it was a big deal, but Chris chased a sub-20:00 time all season & finally made it!!! Official time? 19:54. Perfect - a PR!!

Ryan earned a spot on the varsity team & was able to run at the state cross country meet. He missed out on a rite-of-passage though, PAINTING UP. It was about 40 degrees & windy & these kids are wearing paint instead of coats. Ryan loved seeing them along the course - they ran between different areas to cheer. Ryan ran a great race & got a PR.

Scott and Jared went trick-or-treating with Cody & Aydyn. They had a blast & collected A LOT of candy, enough in fact to sugar-ify an entire family for over a week. Ryan & Chris stayed home & did homework & handed out candy. Halloween is a lot more fun for the under-10 crowd.

Chris Ran STATE!!

Christopher was so happy to be able to go run at the state cross country tournament on Saturday. He had been trying to break the 20:00 mark for the entire year & was so happy to finally achieve this goal. We excitedly looked at the race results for his official time, but his score was not recorded. We are hoping the sometime soon everything will be corrected!

On Bureaucracy, Pneumonia, and Human Kindness

It has been a week since I was diagnosed with double pneumonia and pleurisy. I had already been in intense pain for another week prior. (Intense like nothing else except labor pains.) I have two antibiotics, mucinex, and pain pills. (The pain is mostly gone - Tylenol or Excedrin does the trick now.) I have been resting - a lot!!! On Sunday, I slept until 12:45 & then took another couple of naps. The rest is helping & I am definitely making strides towards getting better.

Today, I woke up and felt really good for the first time in a long time. I remembered that the car tags for the new green Honda expired last night. I didn’t want Scott or Chris to experience getting pulled over for tickets time & time again for expired tags. I didn’t have any other tasks for the day, so I decided to drive downtown, park close, & quickly take care of the chore. If you’re from anywhere else, you might be thinking that this is one-stop shopping. But we like to do things in a leisurely and infuriating manner. Go to the tax auditor & get your paperwork filled out. Next, go wait in another line to pay your money. Then, go to the DMV & wait (again) to get the sticker that says you paid your money & you’re registered. IT’S JUST THE WAY THINGS ARE. It’s a crazy system, but it’s like the bride that cut the end off the ham. It’s just the way it’s always been done. I stopped & bought a mouse for the frog on the way home (on the way, a few steps in, & on my way). One little task and I am very tired. It makes me wonder how people with chronic infirmities & disabilities maneuver this crazy system. I am grateful for the health & strength that I have taken for granted.

I really feel amazingly good. I don’t have a cough or fever or headaches. I just wheeze and rattle when I breathe occasionally. And I’m really, truly tired frequently. The house will survive - the cleaners come tomorrow! The bills will get paid, even if it takes a phone call or a yellow envelope to remind me. :)

Last week, a friend picked up the kids from school, delivered them home so I could check in on them, took Ryan to cross country, & then brought us dinner. Last weekend, another friend brought lasagna and a bag of frozen corn chowder from her freezer. On Saturday (a long day always), friends invited Scott & the boys to come over for dinner & a movie & sent home orange juice for me. Tonight, another friend brought soup and bread and cookies. Someone else offered to bring in dinner from a local Mexican restaurant. A mom from the cross country team offered to bring a meal. And a friend asked if she could come over, bring lunch, and chat. I have been sick enough times & received love & kindness from enough people, that I am not overly concerned about being able to pay back each of these sisters evenly. I hope that I can, but I know that I can pass along the love that has been shown to me. I really believe that love & kindness are a greater cure for illness than antibiotics. I am not saying that I could have kicked this bug out without antibiotics, but my heart is so much happier in knowing that people love & care about me. I am so grateful!!

Coming soon… picture posts from Key West, Halloween, & the SC state cross country meets.