Finding Blessings in the Mundane

It's been a while since I've posted anything here. We've had several birthdays, a mini vacation and life has gotten busy, but a large part of the reason I haven't posted is because I've been in a food rut. I have one new recipe to share, but other than that we've been eating a lot of the same 'ole thing! Maybe this week I can take some of our boring items and breathe new life into them by coming up with new recipes. But I sure did think about the Children of Israel yesterday before supper. I couldn't imagine eating manna for 40 years! I expressed that opinion out loud and it became a topic of discussion. We thought about the children who were born during that time and how manna had nourished their mothers while they were growing in her womb as well as their growing years as babies and children. I bet they were smart. I bet they were healthy being nourished by food from heaven! I wonder if they missed having a variety of taste and color and texture in their diet? Last night I made a breakfast for my family. Pancakes. Sausage. Eggs. It took discipline to get the ingredients out and whip up those pancakes because I really didn't want to make them or eat them! But something happened while I was flipping and watching those pancakes rise all fluffy and golden. It made me feel good to serve my family something I made and something they enjoyed and thanked me for. It was good. It brought us together as we ate and talked and laughed the night before sending one of them back to college.

Three Meals Down... 2-13-12

This evening I decided to cook three meals at once to save time tomorrow and Wednesday. I don't always have extra time, but this evening I did. For dinner we had one of my family's favorite casseroles pictured above, sausage and potato casserole topped with onion rings and cheese, yum!

Potatoes.................$ .50
Sausage..................$2.00
Green Beans..............$ .60
Cream of Chicken soup....$1.00
Sour Cream...............$ .50
Cheese...................$1.00
Homemade onion rings.....$ .25

Total $5.85

We also had mandarin oranges and a little macaroni from tomorrow's casserole which I'm not counting the cost of today since I'll count it tomorrow. And the oranges were $2.00. So that was a grand total of $7.85!

Tomorrow I'm serving macaroni casserole and Wednesday's dinner will be spaghetti and meatballs. Thankfully, the majority of the work is done.

And...for Valentine's Day, we recently ate at a fancy restaurant (that wasn't crowded) and last night we had our "Poor Man Pancakes". My husband gave me roses, a card and chocolates tonight. I might do a little something creative to make our dinner special tomorrow, but I'm happy to share my delicious Macaroni Casserole with the man I love and have shared my life with for over twenty two years.

Ham & Swiss Muffins 2-6-12

I learned something about myself this weekend. I do not have time to make an assortment of foods just for the sake of experimenting with new recipes. If we are going to eat it I will make it, otherwise I'm going to experiment in real time, meal by meal as we eat! Tonight we had these muffins for supper as we hurried to baseball practice. It was a hit...no, an absolute home run! The thing I learned was that I'm going to have to double this recipe. Twelve muffins weren't enough for a family of seven...yes, I know, we are a family of 9, but two are away at college.

Ham & Swiss Muffins
1 egg, beaten............. 3 1/4 t. baking powder
1 c. milk...................... 1 T. poppy seeds
1/4 c. vegetable oil..... 1/2 t. salt
2 t. Dijon mustard....... 3 green onions, chopped
2 c. flour..................... 1/2 c. Swiss cheese, shredded
1/4 c. sugar................ 1/2 c. diced ham

Beat together egg, milk, vegetable oil & Dijon mustard. In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, poppy seeds and salt. Combine wet and dry ingredients. Fold in green onions, Swiss cheese and ham. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes at 400 degrees in greased muffin tins.

I find that the key to a pretty muffin is mixing the wet ingredients well, mixing the dry ingredients well and stirring them together just till they are well blended...don't over stir.

I still need to figure up the cost of these muffins. I wonder if I can put a price on the "cool" factor of eating delicious homemade muffins on the go?

I am accepting the challenge of a busy life! Now that baseball season has begun, each week we will have an evening, an afternoon, and a Saturday morning practice (that doesn't include games...I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it). The older 3 kids have decided to get involved in the youth group at our church on Wednesday evenings, and twice a month my husband and I attend a Bible study while the younger 3 kids go to AWANA's. My husband and I try to have a date night each week, too.

The seasons of our lives have been changing about as rapidly as the seasons change. That's okay with me as long as I can get a game plan going. This past week was full of strange meals. Monday was french toast and biscuits...a free for all, not sit down kind of evening meal after Monday night's baseball practice. Wednesday we had a snack between baseball practice and youth group and cereal for supper. And last night we stopped at Wendy's drive-thru on our way home from church.

Next week we don't have Bible study or AWANA's, so it will be a little less busy, but I'm planning to be prepared so supper can go smoothly, whether we're at home or on the road. I will be searching for ideas this weekend for kid friendly, nourishing, and healthy meals (easy to make and serve). And while I'm planning, I will decide if we will have our traditional heart shaped pancakes for supper on Valentine's Day (that was our poor man's dinner when we were first married).

Hopefully, my next post will exude order and peace...haha, we'll see! If I can't achieve that, maybe we will all just have a good laugh.

Unexpected Encouragement 1-30-12

I think my husband and I tend to measure success by some yard stick in our minds rather than by what we truly have accomplished. We never hit the mark we set for ourselves and that leaves us feeling discouraged. But every now and then, something makes me re-evaluate...

Thursday evening my husband went to dinner with a client. There were eight people, and all were asked to tell a little about themselves. My husband loves using this time to shock everyone, "...and, I have SEVEN kids...". The man sitting next to him, who is single and a doctor turned to him and asked, "Are you moonlighting? Do you have another job? How do you afford so many children?"

Thank you, doctor! That is all I needed to hear. You made my day! You gave my job and the difficulty of keeping our budget from unraveling the validation I needed. Today I will remember the doctors words and, with a smile on my face, I will enjoy our frugal living.

Eating Cheaply 1-30-12

With the end of the month so near and all the expenses of December and January so great, it feels like our meals are a rotation of macaroni, hot dogs, and spaghetti. Last night, just to change it up and after a heavy lunch of macaroni casserole, I made grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup out of spaghetti sauce. I figured out the cost was between $3.00 and $4.00 total!

My husband went to a men's retreat with my dad Friday and Saturday and the kids were already spending a couple of days with my parents. I know my husband ate like a king and my kids love their Grammie's food, so they were well taken care of. When they got home Saturday evening, I had been organizing the house all day and I didn't have a lot of time or creativity left in me for fixing supper so I threw some chicken lunch meat (1.00) into the food processor along with 3 ounces of cream cheese (1.00), and a dollop of yogurt (pennies) and had my oldest daughter (at home) put that mixture into croissants ($2.00) and roll them in butter and breadcrumbs ($ .50). Even though I didn't have the right ingredients for the recipe I usually make, they turned out to be really yummy. The cost of Saturday supper was $4.50 plus chips and apples so it was a total of $7.50!

I know my children get tired of seeing some dishes appear more than once a week during the lean times, especially the ones they aren't super fond of. I get tired of them, too! But I'm so thankful that God has indeed given us this day our daily bread.

Cereal Treats 1-24-12

The first complaint of the day was "Mom, we don't have ANY cereal!" At that, I pulled 4 boxes of cereal out of the pantry. Yes, they were each almost empty. There wasn't a bowlful in one box. Fortunately, we have an overflow shelf and there was more cereal. Problem solved! But what to do with all that "extra" cereal?

Today, instead of grumbling and throwing away the extra little bit at the bottom of each box, I emptied them into one bowl and it turned out to be enough to make something akin to the rice krispie treat. I looked up recipes for rice krispie treats and found one with marshmallows, butter, honey and peanut butter so I melted all those things together along with a little chocolate and coated the cereal. Then, I pressed it into a small greased dish and put it in the fridge. At snack time, we had this delicious snack. I didn't think to take a picture till after we had devoured the big squares. How do you put a price on this snack? We have cereal that would have been thrown away and marshmallows that were given to me. Manna for my family?

Chips and Guacamole 1-24-12

Normally when I buy avocados they aren't ripe for several days and then I keep forgetting to check them until they are almost rotten! But that wasn't the problem this time...this time, I forgot the chips. So I did what any desperate person would do at 10:30 p.m. No, I didn't send my husband to the store, I made them! First I made the flour tortillas, which takes a little time because the dough has to "rest" so you can stretch it easily. It also helps to have someone flattening out the dough while the other person cooks them. After we made the flour tortillas, we cut them in quarters and fried them in a little olive oil. These are THE BEST chips ever!! They're super cheap, but a little time consuming. But, my avocado was running out of time and I really wanted some guacamole. I doubt the cost of this snack equaled $2.00.

Macaroni Casserole 1-22-12

We had a macaroni casserole for dinner Friday evening that was just like this one with one exception, we chopped up little pieces of honey ham and added them. It reminds me of Christmas. Macaroni is such a comfort food for me!

This is one of those casseroles I have to estimate on the cost...


Noodles $1.00
Milk $ .25
flour (practically nothing)
butter $ .25
cheese $3.00

Total $4.50

With meat $6.50


I also added a little cinnamon, allspice, salt, pepper, and bread crumbs which might bump the cost up 50 cents or so. Either way, it's a cheap and delicious meal that my family loves! It makes the house smell like Christmas or Thanksgiving or a cold winter day. Yummy. I'm making this casserole again so soon because it is going to a potluck with my husband and two kids. Although I looked for the ham at the 99 cent store today, they didn't have it. Oh well. I still think it will be a favorite tonight.

Now I need to figure out what the other three of us will eat tonight.

Evaluating 1-21-12

For the past two days I've been evaluating what direction I should go with my blog. At Bible Study the question was posed, "Why did Jesus talk more about money than heaven and hell combined?" I think a good answer, even though it might not be complete is that we identify with the subject of money because it pertains to our daily life. Whereas heaven and hell are places we've never been and can only imagine. The more we talked and studied, the more concerned I became about the subject of my blog. I know for sure that it's relevant. I don't want it to make me feel defeated or prideful based on whether I failed to meet my expectations for the day, or I exceeded my expectations for the day. I know that some days I'll feel like a hero and other days I will feel like a failure because it has already happened. So, I'm going to try very hard to just use this as a food diary, while telling the story of my life, and try very hard to remember that my value as a person, wife and mom are not wrapped up in my success or failure. This post is short because life is calling quite loudly in my ear right now...

Food Diary for 1-18-12

I'm not a morning person, so we keep breakfast easy with a bowl of cereal or a granola bar. I figure we spend about $1.00 per person based on how much I pay for a box of cereal, a box of granola bars and a gallon of milk.

My oldest son had baseball practice today and I was sure that would mess up meal time, but it didn't. So we kept the plans for gumbo.


Breakfast Total $3.00

Lunch
tuna $2.40
crackers $ .25
leftover pizza $0.00
yogurt $1.00
carrot salad $ .50
baked potatoes $ .50

Lunch Total - $4.65

Supper
2 boxes of Gumbo mix $2.00
extra rice $ .50
2 packages of sausage $2.00
2 tubes of biscuits $2.00
left over spaghetti $0.00
milk $ .50
Supper Total $7.00

Grand Total for the day $14.65

My family food diary for today 1-17-12

Today we sent our two oldest daughters back to college. That is not a normal, everyday family activity! When we said our good-byes I told my daughters I wasn't going to cry because I expect to see them again soon. Not crying is unusual for me because everything makes me cry, but today it was one of my sons. I think it's so sweet to see my kids showing that they impact each other deeply and how much they will be missed. I know it's not a good habit of mine, but I immediately think of chocolate chip cookies to make a person feel better. Don't cookies make everything better? Especially cookies with chocolate in them! Since it was morning I thought breakfast at McDonalds would put a smile on his face. And it did! In fact, everyone suddenly felt cheerful and somehow all of my children knew where the closest McDonalds was!

So my food budget for today started out a few dollars more than I had anticipated. We spent $8.00. But, lunch was great because we had left-over chicken which I turned into chicken salad. I don't count leftovers in the price of a meal because it's already been counted! This is how our day added up:

Breakfast Grand Total - $8.00

chicken salad - free

12 slider buns - $2.00

chips - $1.00

grapes - $2.00 (approximate, I didn't weigh them)

V8 fusion - $1.00

Lunch Grand Total - $6.00

supper menu:

spaghetti sauce $2.00

frozen meatballs $2.00

angel hair pasta $1.00

sourdough bread $2.00

olive oil & spices $very cheap/didn't use much

juice $2.50 (approximate)

One of the kids babysat today, so she had a lunchable:

$1.00

Supper Grand Total $10.50

Grand Total for the Day:

$24.50

Divided over those of us who ate (I exclude my husband for breakfast and lunch), it equals very close to $1.30 per person per meal. This makes me feel pretty good. Some days I'll do better and other days I'll do worse, but I'm just glad to know that we stayed close to the dollar mark and had pretty healthy meals. Plus, we're going to have left over spaghetti very soon!

Realities of Life 1-16-12

One thing I've discovered since I started paying close attention to what we spend on food is that we eat all the time! And, not only that, but life throws curve balls all the time, too! All curve balls aren't bad, they just make you adjust your plans. For example, this morning, my older children wanted to meet a former teacher at Starbucks before they head back to college tomorrow. When the next two children heard this, they wanted to go too because this beloved teacher is also a mentor and a friend and she is much loved by all my children.

But Starbucks costs so much money! This morning we will divide and conquer! This morning my oldest daughter will pay for 2 coffees and I will pay for 2 coffees, and they will eat granola bars instead of the wonderful food of Starbucks. Still, that's just expensive in my book. But, when I consider the mentoring, sharing, and the imparting of wisdom that will take place, $20.00 is a small price to pay.

Even though I'm keeping track of what we spend on food, sometimes it's not really about the food. I want to keep the perspective that physical food nourishes the body, but wisdom from heaven is the food that nourishes the soul. Am I investing in the souls of my children? Am I laying up treasures in heaven by investing in this breakfast? Yes! This morning four souls are going to be nourished by a caring, loving and godly woman. I may never fully know the impact of this morning's meeting, but I know it's manna for my family.

The Beginning - 1-12-12

Several years ago I started shopping at the 99 cent store for groceries. It was an adventure to see what we would find from week to week. We might eat sandwiches for days and days because a loaf of bread and a package of lunch meat were a dollar each. Ramon Noodles are 6 for a dollar, spaghetti sauce, noodles, and frozen meatballs...99 cents for each item! That's when the idea hit me that we would shop at the 99 cent store first and go to other stores to fill in the gaps. Food at the dollar store might not sound very appetizing, but name brand items cost double or triple if I buy it somewhere else. Of course, I have to pay attention to produce, items come and go, and a few things cost less at Walmart, but all in all, my experiences have been good enough to keep me coming back each week.

This blog is not about shopping at the 99 cent store. It's about feeding a large family some yummy and healthy food on a tight budget. It's about coming together at mealtimes without the stress of overspending.

This year I decided to make a New Year's resolution to keep a diary of the cost of our meals. I love telling my husband and kids, "Hey, the cost of this meal was $7.50!" But I want to consistently make our meals, save money and serve it with love. So, this is my attempt to keep myself accountable!!! We'll see how it goes...