Rest of January

This month kind of got out of hand. We could have done better on the no spending. We did try our first attempt at pot sickers, which tasted good but fell apart. We used venison but some of the measurements were off so it was a little dry. When we did cook, we were great at getting inventive with our food. We tried to only buy fresh veggies as well as bread and cheese. We ate almost all our leftovers too. We are still trying not to go crazy with the spending for February,  but our pantry stores are low. What we know we won't eat, I am going to donate to the local food shelter.

We have been making progress on the final phase of our basement remodel. I actually unpacked a large number of boxes and put things away. It's been years since some of that stuff has seen the light of day. Some will go to new homes when garage sale season is here.

My parents are nearby this month,  so I have some cleaning to do before they come visit for the weekend.

Week 2 Recap

1/3/15 - in our house, Saturday is Mommy's day to sleep in. The Hubby made corn beef hash and sunny side up eggs for breakfast. The Kurig wasn't working so we had white Russians with breakfast.  We went sledding in the small window there was good enough weather to do so. Then we ventured out to find some new pants for my weed of a daughter and a new snow outfit. The one she has been using was two sizes to small. We caved at lunch and bought some McDonald's,  but stayed to the dollar menu and avoided the happy meal. At this point we planned on doing some grocery shopping, but the weather became an issue. For dinner we made mac and cheese with spam and canned peas. DD's choice.

1/4/15 - Sunday, Daddy's day to sleep in. Gave the kid some shredded mini wheats and I had the leftover hash. After a while, I woke up the hubby and then started on laundry and rearranged DD'S closet and dresser so she can start picking out her own clothes. Then we had some Ramen with frozen green beans for lunch aka in our house as slurpy noodles. Since we still needed to go grocery shopping for milk and a few other household items, we ventured out into the cold after nap time. We caved again and got Subway. Daddy split his with DD and I got a six inch. Avoiding the kids meal again. The we went to Walmart and got everything on our small list. The Hubby talked about replenishing some food items, but I stuck to my guns and said no. If we really like a meal, we will just have to remember when we talk about what items to stock our pantry with when this exercise is over. Some items were high priced so we still spent over $100. We didn't get anything that wasn't on our list, so feeling proud there. The bonus came when filling up my gas tank on the way home. I haven't paid under $25 to fill up a tank since 2004!

1/5/15 - I was running late today so I grabbed one of DD's gogurts for breakfast. For lunch, the hubby made us open face tuna melts with bacon weaves. So good. That was the last of the tuna. Hubby made brisket sandwiches from some leftovers. I developed a head ache shortly after dinner and went to bed.

1/6/15 - went out to lunch today. Then after DD'S dance class, came home and had leftover mac and cheese.

1/7/15 - had soup for lunch.  Hubby made a super yummy brisket and pulled pork chili from stored meet in the freezer.

1/8/15 - had leftover chili for lunch. Kidd and hubby had peanut butter and honey sanfwiches. Made chicken parm with a mix of remaining pastas from mostly empty boxes and the last of the chicken patties from the freezer. While we were cooking dinner, we thought about and made a list of what we want to stick our pantry with after the purge. Then we played some games with DD to help her learn her letters. We also tough her Go Fish.

1/9/15 - I had leftovers from last night. Dinner was corned beef that I cooled in the crock pot all day, with sliced and sautéed Brussels Sprouts.  DD even ate all her dinner in under 7 minutes. We played some go fish, then watched some Max Steel. DD told the hubby "Daddy get your but moving". Hubby replied with "is that how you are supposed to talk to me?" To which she replied "No. Daddy will you please get your but moving?" We both just laughed.

Catching up

It has been 1598 days since my last post. A lot can happened in 4 years, 4 months and 15 days. Let's do a quick recap from where we left off...

8/18/10 - When I wrote this post I was dealing with a lot of personal issues. Mostly, depression from dealing with infertility. We had been trying to get pregnant since early 2008. The longer it took, and the more problems that arose, the more the people around me were successful in getting pregnant. So when I heard about someone terminating their pregnancy, after announcing to their family they were going to be grandparents, I was furious.

Little did I know, only 4 months later, I would find out I was pregnant after a successful insemination.

8/6/11, 11:40pm - With a final push, my daughter takes her first breath in this world. An easy healthy pregnancy under my belt and I was ready for motherhood. I figure the lack of morning sickness and any other complications was the universe's way of apologizing for the hardships of trying to conceive.

Sleepless nights and troubles with my husband bottle feeding when I was not around to nurse the little one are all part of the parenthood package. I did have many blessings through the first year. My child, obviously,  as well as an abundance of breast milk. I had such a surplus,  I donated 930 ounces to The Mothers Milk Bank in Denver, CO to help feed premature and sick babies.

My Darling Daughter (DD) nursed until 16 months old. She refused my breast on Christmas eve 2012.  I have become very passionate about breastfeeding and encourage and support all the new mothers in my life. I highly recommend The La Leche League's The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding.

I received two promotions at work.

My husband started his own landscaping business.

We have traveled a lot more then usual: California five times, Daytona Beach, Seattle, South Dakota a few times, and most recently Texas for a cousins wedding. Family has visited us, even some that have not visited before.

Two of our close friends moved to the area from California, both living with us breifly. My parents are planning a move to be closer to us this year, as well as another school friend with her family.

My DD is now three and as stubborn as me. We're potty training, going to dance classes and crafting. She has every family member wrapped around her finger but seems to have a particularly special bond with her Uncle.

Now that we are mostly up to date, we can move on to why I came back to the blog. My husband and I, as most families are this time of year, are broke. One way we are working on tightening our belts is to not buy food, except staples/perishables like milk, eggs, bread etc. We plan to eat our way through our pantry improvising meals as we go.

12/30/14 - made diner with egg noodles, cream of chicken soup, canned diced tomatoes,  canned carrots, leftover onion from Christmas dinner. It was tasty and a hit.

12/31/14 - Made tacos for dinner with leftover brisket, taco shells from an office food fest (we don't buy the shells, we prefer fresh), salsa, cheese, sour cream, leftover beans from nachos. We did buy lettuce for this meal. These were super tasty.

1/1/15 - Breakfast was pancakes from the last of our bisquick,  we were out of our usual pancake mix, with frozen blueberries.
Lunch was homemade gnocchi from leftover Christmas mashed potatoes in a lemon butter sauce with mini bell peppers.
Diner was nachos using the last of the leftover beans, olives, cheese, salsa, sour cream. I paired it with a Republic Margarita with the tequila we picked up in Texas.

This will not become a food blog. I just want to record the meals we make from what is in our pantry to help keep me focused on the goal of curbing our eating out spending habbits, our health, and cleaning out our overstocked pantry and not wasting the money that went in to stocking it.

Happy New Year.