Meal Plan Monday

Meal Plan Monday with Orgjunkie.com

The weather has been great this past weekend but it's, unfortunately, supposed to rain the beginning of this week.  Oh well, spring has officially arrived.  I lost 4.2 lbs last week.  I did really good with my eating.  We ended up going out to Chilis and then a movie on Saturday night so I'm up .5 of a lb.  Without that little escapade, I would've lost almost 5 lbs in one week!  Oh well, I enjoyed myself so I'm fine with that. 

On to this week:

Breakfast: Eggs/Omlettes and veggies
Lunch: Leftovers or salads (or leftovers on top of salads)
Dinners:
Sunday:  Burgers with Salad that we forgot to have last week
Monday: Shrimp with roasted veggies
Tuesday: Sausage somehow mixed with brussel sprouts or cabbage
Wednesday:  Chicken stirfry
Thursday: Sloppy Joes
Friday: Heading out to my parents for the weekend.  Probably staying until Monday so we can at least celebrate one day of Passover with everyone.

Crock Pot Wednesday

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  Im taking part in Dining with Debbie's Crock Pot Wednesday again. Of course, we cooked corned beef and cabbage today.  Here's what I do:

2-3 smallish potatoes
3-5 smallish turnips
2-3 carrots
2-3 stalks of celery
3-4lb corned beef
1 head of cabbage (for later)

Cut all the veggies into chunks.  Then put everything in the crock pot starting with the top of the list and going down the line.  Put in the seasoning package that comes with the meat.  Or, if you're lucky like me and didn't receive a seasoning package - just use a few tablespoons of Pickling Spice.  Put in enough water to cover.

Put the crock pot on low and let it go for about 10 hours.  Take out the meat and put it aside to keep warm.  Cut the cabbage into 4-6 pieces depending on it's size and then place in crock pot.  Put the crock pot on high for about 30-45 minutes.

You don't have to use turnips but I use them when I'm eating low carb because they end up tasting potato-y.  My husband still wants his potatoes though so I put them in as well and I just don't peel the potatoes so I can tell them apart.

I usally serve everything with home-made coleslaw.  I have to eat coleslaw with my corned beef and cabbage because growing up I hated cooked cabbage and my dad would make coleslaw just for me.  One day I'll post my coleslaw recipe cause it's really easy and really good.

I'll post my crock pot corned beef and cabbage recipe later today.  I just want to taste it first.  It's too late for anyone to make it today anyway because it takes about 10-12 hours.

Why is it never easy?

So we bought an extra freezer.  Yes, there is only 2 of us but stocking up when there is good sales would be nice.  We have a top/bottom freezer and refrigerator so everything is just crammed in there currently.  If you need something, it is always in the back of the freezer and everything falls out onto your toes.  Let me tell you, frozen meat hurts your toes. 

We had a store credit for around $40 for home depot from when we had issues getting and installing our new carpets last fall so we figured we would just go there.  They have a 5 cubic foot GE one that is a good size and good price - only $168.  We go in and it has a basket and a divider - perfect.  We buy it, worry about it fitting into my car, it fits perfectly, and then we fumble our way into the house with it. 

We got all excited and, of course, plugged it in right away.  All the while talking about how we need to go shopping and fill it.  I want to go to the Entennmann's outlet to buy some bread (and of course cakes and whatnot) to fill it with.  We should go to Costco too or BJs (yes, we have memberships with both).  It starts up and we look inside.  There's no divider. 

Of course not.  Why, oh why, would it EVER be easy?  If you've met me you know there is ALWAYS an issue.  For some reason, there can be 45 perfect boxes and I'll get the ONE that's messed up or missing a part. 

We went back to Home Depot.  The guy handed us the divider that was in the floor model.  But, wait, what's that little track thing?  We don't have a little track thing.  He opened another box - also no track or divider.  He thinks maybe they changed the model.  Why would you get rid of a divider in a big chest freezer?  That's a great selling point.  I want organization.  I don't want to throw stuff in willy-nilly and lose it all down there.  This is supposed to make my life easier not annoy me even more. 

They said we can have the dented and scratched floor model without a discount of course.  No, I want the new shiny one that I just purchased.  The guy was very helpful but there was really nothing we can do.  He told us to call GE once they were open again and hopefully they can send us a new divider and track because it should come with it. 

My husband (and I) called (a bunch of times) yesterday (we bought the freezer on Sunday) and apparently Home Depot is selling a different model than they have on display.  They had 10 in stock and they claim they are all exactly the same "D" model and not the "B" model which is on display.  They said they'll give us a discount on the one we have but I'm very torn.  I really would like that divider in order to keep everything seperate and organized but is it worth bringing back the whole freezer and spending a bunch more money buying one from a different store?  When we called GE, they could send us the divider (for $21) but they don't sell the track seperately so there would be nothing holding the divider in place - thereby making it completely useless. 

It's never ever easy.

The final outcome is that we're keeping the freezer.  My husband found a bag of something to return at Home Depot that he just forgot about that was around $15.  Plus, when we went back to speak to the manager, he was incredibly nice and gave us a $50 discount.  The freezer ended up costing us $69.99 with tax out of pocket (I'm counting the $15 as found money since who knows when we bought that). Honestly, I can figure out a way around a divider for that price!  I figure I'll buy a plastic bin or something to put in there.. might help with organization anyway.

Meal Plan Monday

Meal Plan Monday

I haven't done a meal plan in weeks.  My waistline and wallet are none too happy about that.  I decided I'm going to (try) to eat low carb for the next few weeks.  I don't have any set amount of time.  We are going to try to have a baby so some weight loss defintely couldn't hurt right now.

Hopefully the weather will be nice so we can grill a lot this week because I really miss the grill.  Even if the weather is bad, my poor husband will probably be out there with a rain coat grilling away anyway.

Breakfast: Eggs/Omlettes and veggies
Lunch: Leftovers
Dinners:

• Sunday: Buffalo Wings with blue cheese and celery/carrots
• Monday: Hamburgers with salad
• Tuesday: Enchilada Chicken Casserole (this is one of our favorites) 
• Wednesday: Corned Beef (of course) and cabbage, potatoes (turnips for me), and carrots
• Thursday: Hot dogs w/saurkraut and cole slaw
• Friday: Shrimp w/ butternut squash (haven't figured out how yet but I know it'll be something like that)
• Saturday: Fajitas

I quickly picked up chicken wings for last night but really need to do a real food shopping which I'll probably do tonight or tomorrow.  We have a ton more space now (more about that tomorrow) so I have to stock up some.

Florida

I'm back!  I got back at 9:45 Sunday morning and proceeded to not really nap and then go about my day.  I had only slep from 1-5am the night before because it was a 7am flight.  I was tired.  I think I'm getting sick too since my lovely little niece sneezed and coughed on my face the entire week.  But, according to my sister, "she's not contagious".

It was nice to see my grandparents, I just wish it were a longer trip.  Honestly, my grandparents aren't doing too well.  My grandmother is 81 and is going for tons of tests to figure out what is wrong with her.  She's convinced it's cancer and just wants to take a bunch of sleeping pills and end it all.  My grandfather, 87, will not take his pills even when you remind him 10 times.  He has decided that he is smarter than medicine and that a little pill can't possibly fix him.  "How does a little pill know where to go in my body?  If I don't take my pills my finger won't fall off, I'll be fine"  Meanwhile, I spent hours arguing with him about how medicine is a good thing and does help him. 

He's diabetic.  He's been on insulin for a good 15-20 years.  Without which, he would not be here today.  See, medicine is a good thing.  He's also in the early stages of Parkinson's and has a bunch of other pills to take.  He's 87, this is normal.  He doesn't think he has Parkinsons.  Because, of course, when he takes his pills, he's okay.  So he stops taking his pills.  He couldn't leave his bed at all on Friday because he hadn't taken his pills since Tuesday.  He continued his insulin because he wouldn't dare miss a meal.  The man can tell you the 3 meals he missed in his lifetime (as a kid, during the war, during a surgery.. for real). 

Anyway, my sister and I got mad.  It's almost as though he has decided because my grandmother can't take care of him for once in their 60+ years together, he's just not going to take care of himself.  This way she is forced to do it.  My mother even sat him down to make sure he understood what was going on with my grandmother.  He "doesnt understand what the big fuss is all about".  He won't drive my grandmother to her dr appts, granted he shouldn't be driving at all, but still a ride to a 3 hour test would be nice.

Okay, I think I've ranted enough for now.  Maybe tomorrow I'll talk about the fun things we did while there??

Going to Florida

I'm headed down to Florida tomorrow so I won't be here for the rest of the week.  I'll be back on Monday.

My mother, sister, and niece are flying down tonight.  My grandparents don't know that I'll be coming tomorrow.  Hopefully, it's a happy surprise!  I think it'll be nice to have just the ladies for a few days and I haven't seen my grandparents since the summer so I'm really looking forward to that.

Unfortunately, my grandfather is getting up there in age and my grandmother also may not be doing too well.  She was supposed to go in for cataracts surgery in the middle of February but they "found something" when she was doing her preliminary testing.  They did a bunch more tests but have supposedly found nothing. 

My sister and I were talking and we're really hoping that that is the actual truth and not just our grandmother lying so we don't all get worried.  The women in the family have a known history of doing this (lying about medical issues so people don't worry).  When I was 16, my grandmother went in for heart surgery.  No one told my sister or me because it was my prom weekend and she had a work cruise that weekend.  We both yelled at them that we need to know these things and not be left in the dark because, really, what if something had happened?

Anyway, I'm hoping for the best and just looking forward to seeing my family.  The nice weather and no chance whatsoever of snow really do just add a nice little bonus to this trip.  I'm not looking forward to flying home on a 7am flight, but, it saved $150 over going at 10am, so it just made sense. 

Hope you have a good week!

Meal Plan Monday

There's no meal plan today.  I'm flying down to Florida to visit my grandparents on Wednesday evening and not getting back until Sunday so it would just be two days of meals.  More about my visit tomorrow.  For some reason, when my husband is alone he doesn't stick to a meal plan.  He doesn't cook too much so, knowing him, he'll probably end up at a friends house for a day or two or his parents and then make mac and cheese one night. 

For some reason, I did end up going food shopping this weekend to pick up some fruit and ended up spending $40 on random fruits and veggies.  Of course, while shopping, I completely forgot about my trip.  So, it looks like I'll be cooking with a lot of vegetables either tonight and tomorrow or chopping and freezing stuff.  No big deal.  The stuff will probably last until I'm home anyway. 

Food Waste Friday and Weekly Recap

Food Waste:

I had to throw away a big head of broccoli.  It was turning that weird light greenish color it turns before it goes completely bad.  I did end up using most of the stalks in tonight's dinner so it wasn't a total loss.  I also ended up using a whole bunch of other random leftovers in tonight's dinner so that cut back on waste this week. 

I foresee having to throw away a serving of the baked raviolis because it just wasn't that great.

Weekly Recap

We did pretty good with the meal plan this week.  I completely stuck to it Sunday-Wednesday.  Wednesday in the crock pot I ended up throwing in chicken breasts, red peppers, and this bottle of mexican green sauce (the rest wasn't in English - but it wasn't enchilada sauce).  Kind of mojo-y, kinda just good.  We served that in corn tortillas and it was tasty. 

The baked ravioli wouldn't been better if the ravioli was fresher.  I honestly don't know how long that bag has been sitting in my cabinet.  It was okay. We each had leftovers for lunch and there's still another serving.

Thursday I ended up not making the jambalaya cause I wanted to use up leftovers.  Took leftover pork chops and sliced, broccoli stalks, green pepper, pineapple salsa, green beans, butternut squash (as I said, any random veggie that was in the fridge) and threw it all into the wok.  Added an egg, rice, and soy sauce and we had a lovely fried rice for dinner.  Great way to use up leftovers. 
As for toinght, baked tofu is on the plan but we'll see how that goes...

Crock Pot Wednesday

It's that time of week again.  Crock pot day.  I got this recipe from a friend a few years ago and adapted it to our tastes.

Taco Soup:
- Ground beef or turkey (cooked)
- Diced bell pepper (red, green, or both)
- Diced/Seeded Jalapeno (or a TB of jarred diced jalapeno)
- Drained can of corn
- Drained can of black olives (roughly chopped a bit)
- Drained and rinsed can of beans (I usually use black, but friend suggests any bean)
- Can of crushed Tomatoes (sometimes I use a can of diced tomatos)
- 1 pkg of taco seasoning
- About 32 oz chicken stock

Toss everything into the crock pot and stir.  I have a 6 qt crock pot so this is usually fine.  Sometimes, I'll throw in an extra can of tomatoes.  It's very easy since pretty much everything is in cans that I normally have in my pantry anyway.

I normally cook on low all day (about 7-8 hours).  When I get home if I want it thicker, I just put some in a small put and make a corn starch slurry to thicken that small pot up and then dump that back into the whole crock pot.  If you don't know how to make a corn starch slurry don't worry - just read the box it'll tell you how :)

I usually like it very thick so I make it much thicker when I get home.  Sometimes, I'll take a can of creamed corn and thicken that and add it back into the pot.  You could also probably use an imersion blender a bit to make it thicker.  Serve with some shredded cheese and sour cream.  If it's really thick, grab some chips too.

Jury Duty

So, I was called in to jury duty on the first day because I'm just lucky like that.  I drove out to the court house and parked in a random parking lot.  My first thought: There should really be more signs.  There were signs telling me where not to park but not where to actually park and no signs actually telling me where to go in.  Considering, we can only get called for jury duty every six years, it's not like anyone is an old pro at this point.

I get there early (9:15 - didn't have to be there until 9:30), as usual, and sit down and start reading.  I left my cell phone in the car because the sheet said not to bring it in.  There's an old guy sitting a row or two away from me babbling on his cell phone really loudly.  Hmmm, why did I listen to the rules?  I could be roaming the internet right now instead of playing Sudoku.  Oh well.

Around 10, people are still wandering in and trying to fight their way out of it.  "Why do I have to stay all day?? This is ridiculous"  At this point, I'm thinking what's ridiculous is that you people won't just sit down and do you're jury duty that you have to maybe do once every six years.  Get over it and sit the flip down. 

We watch a movie.  I read my book.  I get called into a jury room around 10:30ish.  It's a medical malpractice case.  Okay, this could be interesting, call my name so you can interview me.  They interview six people.  After 2 hours, they knock out 4 people and replace them from the rest of us sitting in the room.  I haven't been called yet.

Lunchtime is 12:30-2.  Talk about a waste of time.  I'd much rather just get this all over with.  I contemplate going to law school cause the day starts at 9:30 lunch is 12:30-2 and then we leave at 4.  That's a nice work day!  Obviously, they have other work to do but in my head at this point in time, it sounds fabulous to be a lawyer or judge. 

We go back to the little room we were in before lunch.  They excuse 2 more people and take two more from our little pool.  Now it's 2:45 and they let 2 more people go.  There's only 6 of us left in the room (besides the jurors).  I'm getting kind of interested now because I have a chance of being picked.  I wouldn't mind being picked, I think it would be interesting serving on a jury (yes, I know I'm crazy).  But, really?  How bad is it to serve on jury duty?  Granted at $40 a day pay I definitely couldn't afford my mortgage if I got put on a long case but this one was supposed to last around 8 days.  Five of which my job would pay my full pay so after that I'd only get the $40.

Who could live on $40 a day?  Especially in NY.  What happens to those people who get picked for long cases (i.e. OJ trial).  My house would be foreclosed on if I was paid $40 a day for 8 months.  That's craziness.  My husband would have to go out and get a second job in order to pay all the bills while I sat on a jury.

Anyway, 2 people get immediately excused.  Two more get called up to fill the empty juror seats.  One gets excused.  It's down to me and an old guy.  We're joking around.  I told him he would be called first because my name is ALWAYS last.  He was called up.  He claimed he had sleep apnea so he would fall asleep on jury.  Why don't you go to a doctor and get that checked out?  If you have sleep apnea it means you're not breathing while you sleep - might be worth getting checked out instead of throwing around a diagnosis.  I don't know why it bothers my so much but it really does.  If you know there is something wrong with you, do something about it.  Don't worry about sleeping with a mask on - you'll get used to it and you'll breathe better.  My father has sleep apnea and sleeps with a C-Pap machine. 

So, I finally get called.  I figured I'm a shoe-in.  I'm the last person in the room and there's one seat left.  I sit down with the lawyers.  We joke around a bit.  They ask me where I work so I tell them.  The lawyer excuses me.  He knows the owner of the school I work for.  What?  I don't even know the owner, how does this effect me at all?  What bullshit!  If I worked for Staples, and the lawyer knew the owner, would that be a conflict of interested?? 

Yes, it probably would.  But I was annoyed.  I had sat in that room on that same case for HOURS and now I was chopped so quickly.  Couldn't they call my name hours ago??  So I go back into the main room.  Now, I'm worried that I have to go back into the main pool since it's only 3:30.  I don't want to be called into another room and then have to come back the next day.

Luckily,  I didn't have to.  I handed in my papers and got stamped and I'm good to go for another 6 years.  Maybe next time I'll actually get picked. 

Meal Plan Monday

It's already time for another Meal Plan Monday.  Here is the plan for this week:
Breakfast is cereal, waffles, or toast
Lunch is leftovers

Sunday: Baked ziti but instead of ziti I'm using mini raviolis, garlic bread, salad
Monday: Chicken "Glop" (yes, it's a terrible name but that's what we always called it growing up), rice, roasted butternut squash
Tuesday: Pork chops with pineapple salsa, steamed broccoli
Wednesday: Something in the crock pot but I haven't figured out what yet.
Thursday: Jambalaya with chicken and/or shrimp
Friday: Baked Tofu



I'm heading off to jury duty now.  Lucky me, I got called in on the first day.  I have a book and a sudoku book all set to go so hopefully that'll keep me entertained all day.  Some things say I can bring my cell phone, some things say I can't at all, so I guess I'll just leave it in the car.  It would be nice to be able to text or just roam the internet while I wait but oh well.  Hopefully, I don't get lost driving out there.