All about week two...

Why are cameras such an issue for me?

My camera battery died in the middle of last week and I couldn't find the charger so I started using the husbands camera. Well he was gone this weekend, with the camera, so I haven't been able to blog. Today, miraculously I found the charger for my camera. On the desk I've been using all weekend.... Anywho, so now I have some photos to post. And the husband came home this afternoon with his camera, yey! But I cant find the cord for his to upload the photos... Sigh.

So last Sunday I made breakfast. That happens less than its been raining here in Texas lately. It was the husband's idea. Since we had bread and eggs I made this:

Then later that day I went to the store... what a fiasco! I was trying to stock up on real food and ended up spending $30 over our weekly budget of $60! Fortunately I had some leftover cash from our food budget from a few weeks ago.. but still! See its exhausting enough to read labels and make sure that you are getting enough food for the whole week since really there is no going out... let alone keeping a rolling total of what you are spending. I should have taken a nap when I got home....

But no. Too much to do. I had cheddar crackers to make, tortillas and of course dinner. Oh and Vanessa came over to show me her Renaissance Festival garb that she was giving me. I think I might actually have about 4 outfits now!

Well as it turns out, you shouldn't cook while tired. You may get frustrated. I found out that you can't make the cheesy crackers without cheese. And you shouldn't try and make the crackers and tortillas at the same time. I think I spent two hours fighting with those recipes. And probably at the same time boiling the cabbage for cabbage rolls. By the time I was done with that I HAD to take a nap. :)

Thanks to my nap, the cabbage rolls turned out great!

Monday we had leftovers. And Tuesday was awesome chicken night. 

Pan cooked chicken with sun dried tomato sauce. This recipe was originally for pork, but I always end up over cooking the pork. Chicken however is fabulous cooked this way and it is super easy. Heat up about 2 cups of chicken broth, 1/4 to 1/2 cup of Marsala wine, a cup or so of sun dried tomatoes and a few tablespoons of rosemary. Bring to a boil, then remove from heat. Meanwhile start some pasta. Then in a hot pan with a bit of oil brown the chicken breasts on both sides. Don't cook completely. Remove from pan. In the same pan, saute some onions and garlic. Pour in the chicken broth mix to de-glaze the pan. You can thicken the broth at this point with some cornstarch and water. This time I tried a bit of whole wheat flour and water. Wisk that in. Then add the chicken back into the pan. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes or so, until the chicken is done. Pour the sauce over the chicken and pasta. Sop up any leftover sauce with bread. Super yummy!!! I have pictures but I will have to post them later...

Posted later... oh and it looks like I made biscuits too, those were good too.

Wednesday I discovered the best quesadillas. Using the leftover chicken, home-made whole wheat tortillas, sauted onions (sauted mushrooms on mine) and cheese. Cheddar on his and swiss on mine.

Now by this point it had come to my attention that the husband was going out with the boy scouts on a weekend camping trip. And to my surprise he wanted to take "real" food instead of eating what they served. So he came up with a plan. 

On the way out of town he took tuna wraps. Then for breakfasts he planned on oatmeal with honey. Snacks were fruit and granola. Dinner was precooked real mac n cheese, ground turkey, cooked veggies and more cheese all ready to be heated, stored in a ziplock bag. Normally I would have sent him with a re-usable container, but with camping the bag was easier and I was letting him do whatever because he was taking "real" food!

So Thursday night I was busy! I decided that he would need some whole wheat sweetened with honey banana bread and some whole wheat muffins with bits of chopped frozen strawberries! I also had to make up the mac n cheese which fortunately I was planning on making that week anyway so I had everything I needed. I was by pure luck that I still had the frozen bananas for the banana bread.

Friday night I was on my own. So I made a quick salad with some home made honey mustard vinaigrette, and a fruit smoothie. So yummy :)

I didn't make it to the farmers market this week, I cleaned the house instead. But I did make it to HEB. And I kid you not, came under budget by $0.40. Crazy!!!!  Later that day I used the leftover cabbage from the cabbage rolls i made earlier that week and whipped up some cabbage soup. Which might have tasted just a bit better had it not been 100 degrees outside. But it was still yummy. (Clearly Texas does not know its Fall yet....)

And that brings us to today! The husband sent a text mid-morning saying that he was starving (he didn't pack much for today's lunch and everyone else got to eat pizza) So I got to work on Sheppard's pie!

Then later since we haven't had anything remotely related to cookies for about 2 weeks, I tried some no bake cookies with honey. The oatmeal sticks to your teeth a bit... but other than that they are pretty tasty. 

That other camera cord has got to be around here somewhere...