Menu Mania

I just finished the April shopping list for Fix it & Forget it. This one was pretty laborious, as we are preparing six meals instead of four or five. And, several of the recipes have quite a few ingredients. But, some of the ingredients are to be used in more than one recipe, so that helps cut down on the shopping a little.

Most of the recipes are very easy to put together, and only one needs to be cooked before freezing. All of the prep should be a snap. We're making:

Marinated chicken (with onion and garlic)
Mozzarella-filled meatballs
Oven-baked breaded pork chops
Margarita pork chops
Mango cranberry chicken
Marinated flank steak

I can't wait to see how inexpensive this ends up being. And, we'll have margaritas while we cook!

Hot Cookin' Mamas

Saturday was our rescheduled date for our Fix it & Forget it cooking. We totally kicked ass on this one. We made:

• Maple Glazed Turkey Breast
• Chicken Divan with cheese and broccoli
• Chicken Cherries Jubilee
• Marinated Pork Tenderloin
  

I had made batches of Tortilla Soup and Pasta Sauce ahead of time, and shared those as well.

M did the numbers when it was all over and it cost us $38 per family. For 12 meals! $38!!! I had a hard time wrapping my brain around that, but there you go. And, K bought an extra ginormous bag of chicken breasts that will take care of two separate recipes for all of us next month. I can't wait to see what it ends up costing.

Here's a recap of what we had this month:

• Pecan Crusted Orange Curry Chicken. Wow. This absolutely blew us away. It needs a little more curry, but that can be arranged. I didn't tell H about the pecans, as he would have refused to eat it, but he LOVED it. Heh.
• Herbed Chicken. Mediocre. Sauvignon Blanc and herbs reduced for the marinade.
  
• Meat Loaf. Beef, turkey, pork in bacon lined mini pans. Phenomenal, especially when you take the loaves out of the pans before you bake them.
  
• Pork Chops and Apples. Meh. Good flavor but the apples needed to be juicier. I have one serving left and will dose it well with apple brandy.
• Pasta Sauce. The old standby.
• Chicken & Dumplings. D's recipe. Killer.
  

Yummy Smells

Today, I cook. I cook a whole lot. Fortunately, none of it is very time consuming or difficult. But, it's a whole heck of a lot of food.

We're meeting for the Once a Month Cooking next Saturday at K's, and I am bringing Pasta Sauce and Tortilla Soup. The Pasta Sauce is the same stuff that I always make, and the Tortilla Soup recipe is J's. Last week, J brought over two rotisserie chickens that I pulled apart and stuck in quart bags in the freezer. One portion of the chicken is in the soup right now. The soup is in the crock pot and will bubble bubble bubble along for the rest of the day until I put it in the serving bags.

The sauce is a little more laborious, but still fabulous. The onions, garlic, and meat are browning now (sausage, hamburger, pork, veal) and I'll add tomatoes, herbs, and wine to it shortly. It will need all day to reduce.

I've been craving Chicken Marsala lately, and will make some for dinner tonight. I'm also going to make extra so that I can freeze it.

It is a lot of work, but not in that it takes a long time to prepare. It just takes a long time to cook. Preparing it to cook is actually pretty quick. And, you do have to have all of the ingredients. That is always my catch.

New Austerity Redux

Back when all of the chaos ensued, we tweaked our budget to allow us to continue to live without my rushing out to get a potentially horrendous job. We made some major changes, and weren't sure how they would work out. It would probably be helpful for both of us if I looked back to see how well we are surviving.

1. Eliminating the housekeeper. This really killed me, because I love N. She's a wonderful woman that works very hard, and I know that quite a few of her clients were paring back as well. But, it saves us so much money. We're getting better about cleaning, but have plenty of room to improve. Back in January, I put together a schedule of small chores that could be done every day by both of us to keep the housework from becoming overwhelming. We never instituted it, and it would be helpful to revisit that.
   
2. Paring back our allowances. We both have our own personal checking accounts, in addition to our joint household account. So that we didn't have to account for every penny to each other or ask for money, we give ourselves an "allowance" every month. We have both trimmed ours back. I take food with me to work every day, and haven't really had a problem with the amount at all. Can't speak for H, but he hasn't said anything about it.
   
3. Not eating out. We used to go out at least twice a week. Now, if we go once a week it's a real event. It takes more forethought to have meals at the ready, but it is absolutely worth it. And, we're saving money on groceries because we're shopping smarter. The once a month cooking thing is making a huge difference as well. It will be interesting to see how the gardening works this summer.
   
4. Ironing H's shirts. Okay, this is where it fell apart. Theoretically, we could have saved at least $50 a month if I did the ironing. In actuality, I hate ironing more than just about anything else. I have had the ironing board set up in our bedroom for weeks now, and the same stack of shirts is still on it, waiting for me. I just can't make myself do it. So, we're going to take some of his shirts, like his good dress shirts, in and the rest will be hung up as soon as they come out of the dryer. Nice compromise. I think that I can keep the $ spent on it to under $30.
5. Alcohol consumption. I don't drink a whole lot, and I don't drink all of the time. But, I do love a glass of wine with dinner. It is much less expensive, though, if I don't (not to mention, many fewer calories). I don't buy any more than two bottles at a time, if that. Of course, working in a wine shop is much like being a kid in a candy store. I want everything. But, I take it on a day-by-day basis.
   
6. Spa time. I found a new hair salon and am paying half of the price for haircuts. I'm also coloring my own hair. Good thing that I was unhappy with the previous salon anyway.
7. Discontinuing services. We dumped TiVo, our home phone number, and the newspaper. We're still looking to trim $ wherever we can, but this was a big chunk right off of the bat.

It's certainly not perfect, and we still have too much debt and not the healthiest of money habits, but we're making great progress. Now, we just need to sell off all of the extraneous crap that we have sitting around in the house. THAT would make a huge difference both financially and emotionally.

Cooking Made Easy

A few months ago, D asked if she could borrow one of my freezer-friendly cookbooks. I'm a big proponent of making extra food so that I can freeze some of it. I like to cook, but my energy is rather limited and I don't want to spend a lot of time messing with it. I suggested that we take a Supper Thyme approach to it and work together on making meals. She loved the idea.

I've done both Supper Thyme and Super Suppers in the past, and they're great. It's wonderful not to have to do any prep work or clean up, and each month there are at least 12 recipes that you can choose from. The problem is that it's pretty expensive. For just 6 meals, or 12 if you divide them in half, it can cost over $125. Convenience and variety is great, but right now, money talks.

So, we got together with K and M to talk it out. We set a menu, created a shopping list, and put it all out on Google Documents. We raided our pantries to see what we already had on hand and didn't need to purchase. We looked for sales and hit Costco and Kroger. Yesterday, D, K, and I got together at K's house to prepare 5 meals in freezer ready packages. It took us just over 3 hours to get everything done. The amazing part is that it cost us less than $50 each... which translates into 12 meals for H and I.

We set the menu for next month, and I worked today to get the menu and shopping list posted so that everyone could access it. K and D have memberships to Costco, and D's husband works at Kroger. This way, with a month in advance, we can look for great sales and stock our freezers. This time was a little chaotic for everyone, and M wasn't even able to make the food prep, but that is to be expected for the first time. But, we learned a lot and it will get better in time.

The other lovely part is that we have a box of supplies that we can reuse (such as spices and big Ziploc baggies). That will certainly save money in the long run.

D also mentioned that they are interested in planting a communal garden. We'd all pitch in for seeds and plants, we'd all take care of it, and we'd all share in the harvest. Woo hoo!