The Last Few Days

How was your week?

Mine actually went quite quickly! Sometimes I find that the short week after a long weekend feels longer than a normal week, but not this time! I'm guessing it has to do with the fact that I kept myself supremely occupied.

With Chad's changing eating habits (due to his new gym membership and therefore increased protein need/consumption) I decided to try my hand at making mini quiche. I had all sorts of random things in my fridge, including some of that moose roast from the weekend, and figured I could do a nice clean-up of the fridge while making a great, portable, high protein breakfast for him. I proceeded to throw in all sorts of veggies (including a small portion of homemade salsa I wasn't sure what to do with) along with the moose meat and popped them into the oven. They turned out awesome! Heed my warning though.....DO NOT forget to grease your muffin pans if you decide to make these. I used non-stick muffin pans and figured I'd be okay.

Worst. Decision. Ever.

I have been scrubbing and soaking those darn muffin pans for three days now and they're still not clean. I've heard that silicone pans are the ultimate way to go for baking eggs but since I won't be buying those any time soon I will be taking the extra time to grease my pans from this point on.

I also needed to use up some sub-par blueberries that I bought so I made a blueberry crisp while my the mini quiche were cooking. I had bought a flat of blueberries from a farm in the area - they always have great prices and last year their berries were to die for! This year...not so much. I bought the flat expecting to come home, wash them up, and eat them by the handful (baby was really asking me for blueberries last week!). Instead they were really sour and partially squishy. Abby didn't mind and ate them by the bowl full, but I just couldn't do it. So into a crisp they went. I also made banana cookies to use up a couple of overripe bananas I had sitting in my fruit bowl. It was a new recipe that I found online and they actually turned out to be rather delicious.

I had originally thought that I would do my meal planning on Tuesday but I became consumed with my baking endeavors so I did my planning on Wednesday. Let me tell you how good it feels to be organized for the whole month now! It feels AWESOME! It took me about three hours of planning, but I can officially say that I now know what we're eating for every night during the month of September. I took an inventory of what I had for meat, beans, sides, and canned goods and came up with meals for the 30 days of this month. I left blank spaces for veggies and will shop according to what is on sale/in season and fill in those blanks each week. I then made a grocery list of the dairy and produce I would require for each week so I'm all set and ready to go.

If anyone is interested, I can definitely go into more depth during a later post regarding how my meal planning process works .  

Yesterday I did my first shop of the month. According to my weekly grocery list this was the biggest (and most expensive) one that I should have. I sure hope I'm right....because I spent $45 yesterday and still have more produce to buy today - yikes! If you remember I set myself a goal of spending $100-$150 for the month, Somehow I hit almost half that in one shop. Talk about frustrating! Here's what I bought: 

It's the three different cheeses that really did my budget in, but I am planning on some of it lasting more than just next week. Plus, this and the rest of the fruits and veggies I buy today will last until the middle of the month so I still have a shot at keeping to my budget. Also, for you readers with keen eyes....yes, that is OXO in the picture. Not exactly a perishable food item, huh? I plan on making beef stew and at the last moment realized that I had no beef broth and didn't think that chicken broth would cut it. So yes, I cheated. But I plan on that being my one cheat of the month...everything else on my list fits with my rules. I hope you can forgive me.

So there's my last few days in a nutshell. On top of it all, I still found time to do laundry, sort through toddler clothes (she just keeps growing for some reason!? haha), clean the house, and spend some good, quality time playing with Abby. She's thoroughly enjoying puzzles and building mega block towers; she plays by herself quite a bit, but frequently grabs my hand and requests I sit beside her while she plays. I always have something on my to-do list, but I'm learning how to put my list aside and enjoy the play time while I'm still invited :)