Master Lunch List

And here's the lunch list:

chicken tenders

spaghetti

leftovers

soup

deli sandwiches

peanut butter and jelly

tuna sandwiches (with homemade mayo)

fish sticks or fillets

bologna sandwiches (The mayo even makes these taste good!)

frozen pizzas (when they're a loss-leader)

hummus & pitas

fresh veggies and dip

burritos, tacos, quesadillas

grilled cheese

mac & cheese (from scratch)

chicken salad sandwiches (also from scratch - that mayo is amazing!)

Again, I'd love your additions to this list!

SDG!

Breakfast List, Redux

Wow! What a response to yesterday's post! Cool!!

Regarding how I use the list: well, Patricia, you're more organized than I am. Right now, I never know how much energy I'll have when I get up (still tweaking meds), so I put the master list on the fridge door and then star the things we have ingredients for (almost everything). Then we decide what we'll have when we get up; often the kids decide. I have one son who loves baked oatmeal, and I've told him that, if he wants to make it the night before and put it into the fridge overnight, he's more than welcome to. He hasn't done so yet.

My kids pretty much cook their own breakfast (unless I have the energy to make pancakes or something like that). My little girls fry eggs, the older girls keep the granola in stock, the boys are good at scrounging.

And I have the hardest time with leftovers. If we have them, they usually end up as lunch, but we don't often have them. For example, I made two large crockpots of stew Tuesday evening and there was none left when we were done. When I was younger, I used to eat cold pizza for breakfast, but we never have leftovers anymore, especially when we make it ourselves.

I forgot to add to the list farina (like whole wheat cream of wheat) and crustless quiche (which, I guess could count as egg casserole). I have some corn grits, but they're pretty old and stale and tasted pretty bad the last time I tried them. The kids scramble eggs and wrap them in a tortilla.

I can't believe I forgot waffles! I think because I'm trying to cut down on purchasing pre-made food, but we have a couple of waffle irons and can make a double batch to pop into the freezer for another day.

I have a great breakfast book: Breakfasts & Brunches from the CIA (the link is below). Some of the recipes are a bit involved, but they're pretty good and offer lots of creative tweaks. I'm getting hungry sitting here looking through it!

I love the egg muffin idea, only I'm a bigger fan of bacon egg biscuit sandwiches (Drew stocked up on canned biscuits the last time they were on sale, and when they're gone, there's an easy cream biscuit recipe on Cook's Illustrated's website).

Here are the recipes I'd love to have:

breakfast tacos and egg casserole (unless it's like quiche, in which case, I'm covered) from Renee
oven pancakes and toad in the hole from Patricia
wheat berries (proportions of berries to water?) and muesli (what's the difference between muesli and granola?) from Carolyn

Link:
Breakfasts & Brunches

Master Breakfast List

As promised, here's my master breakfast list:

bacon

eggs

toast

hash-browned potatoes (we purchase dried hash-browns at Costco)

oatmeal, Coach's or Irish

yogurt

granola

pancakes

French toast

coffee cake

banana bread

biscuits & gravy

fruit, canned or fresh

baked oatmeal

English muffins

non-English muffins

bagels

If you have any ideas to add to this, I'd love to hear them!

SDG!

Menu Planning

My friend Peggy just started a blog. She wanted to join in on Organizing Junkie's 'Menu Plan Monday'. I told Peggy I'd wait to link to her blog until she had a bit more experience and was more confident about her writing. And no, I'm not going to commit to a weekly post about our menus, but I though it might be interesting to give a snapshot of our next couple of weeks.

We shop big every other Friday and Saturday (after payday). We go to the store every three or four days through the rest of the two weeks for fresh produce, milk, eggs, and bread. I have a master breakfast list and a master lunch list. Each two weeks, I put a star by the meals we have the ingredients for and then we can flex depending on what's going on, who is cooking, and how much time we have.

I plan our dinners more carefully, assigning at least a main dish to each evening (sometimes sides too, if I think it matters that night), trying to take into account the ebb and flow of our week.  For example: we try to make Thursdays an easy meal since it's getting toward the end of the week and we're all running low on energy by then.  We also take into account different activities (fortunately, none are weekly; most are bi-weekly or monthly).  All this is in a Pages document that I print out and post on the fridge, with another to go into my calendar.

Sat: pizza (homemade)

Sun: we girls had our tea party and the boys were out at other parties, so we didn't plan anything

Mon: beef stew and biscuits (except that we've got the flu making the rounds, so we're making a run for the Border instead and we'll bump this to tomorrow since the meat was already defrosted (it's cooking now) - something else on this list will get bumped to next pay period.)

Tues: chili, cornbread, salad

Wed: French dip, carrot sticks (I'm going to try to make this from scratch instead of buying deli beef.)

Thurs: flat iron steak pitas (kind of a pita/fajita tweak, more Greek than Mexican)

Fri: croques monsieur (Drew and I may be out on a date night and this is pretty easy for the kids to make.)

Sat: pizza (homemade, natch!)

Sun: turkey, stuffing, asparagus (The turkey was free at Thanksgiving and tucked into the freezer; I'll use leftovers later in the week and the rest of the meat will be used as lunch or dinner next pay period for one of our favorite easy meals that my Mémère Bert used to make, chicken sauce (pronounced the French way: the au has a long o sound), and I'll boil up the carcass for more turkey broth for the freezer)

Mon: stir fry chicken (or turkey) w/veggies and homemade teriyaki sauce

Tues: acorn squash soup & blt's

Wed: turkey pot pie (made from turkey leftovers)

Thurs: omelets

Fri: spaghetti

We actually eat pretty well.  Last year, I came down with Epstein-Barr, which, in combination with severe adrenal fatigue, hypothyroid, and extremely low iron reserves, pretty much knocked me out.  My wonderful husband took over the meal planning and shopping, but we ate a lot of boxed mixes.  

I've been under a naturopath's care and am feeling much better.  Since I've got more energy, I'm up for more cooking and we're eating better (both taste-wise and health-wise).  The best part is that, as I make more and more from scratch, we're saving lots of money.

I consider myself a bit of a gourmet.  I'm also pretty picky about what I put into my mouth (certain ingredients and dishes are forever banned from my kitchen).   We purchase the best ingredients (when it matters, butter: yes; flour: not so much), but we're spending much, much less.  My goal isn't to drive our grocery budget down as low as it can go (we aren't planning on eating beans everyday for two weeks to cut the budget), but to purchase the best quality ingredients at the best price.  We're also keeping our nicer meals for Sunday and eating more simply during the week (also helpful for the budget!).

Later this week, I'll post my master breakfast list and my master lunch list.  They really aren't anything special, but having them written out is quite helpful.

SDG!

Norms & Nobility, I

I'm currently rereading Norms & Nobilityas part of my plan to continue to educate and challenge myself regarding the specific vocations to which the Lord has called me.

It's going slowly, but that's a good thing.  I'm taking more time to contemplate what I'm reading - multum non multa, deeper instead of more.  A few years ago, I found it quite helpful to blog through my notes from CiRCE and I think I'll do the same for N&N.  This isn't an overtly Christian book, but much can be gleaned.  

From Chapter 1: 'Virtue is the Fruit of Learning':

The purpose of education is not the assimilation of facts or the retention of information, but the habituation of the mind and body to will and to act in accordance with what one knows.

While Mr. Hicks has just quoted Aristotle, I'm reminded of 'be ye doers of the word, not hearers only,' and 'for him who knows what to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.' 

Later on, as he develops the idea of the purpose of education by comparing the life of pleasure, the practical life, and the theoretic life (or the life of the mind):

The life of pleasure eventually fades and exasperates the pleasure-seeker because it is not a life that is sufficient unto itself.  Pleasure demands a never-ending list of luxurious accessories, the acquisition of which wears man down with work and worry.  In the end, the pleasure seeker becomes preoccupied with what he lacks to complete his picture of happiness; gratification never catches up with his desire, and consumption consumes the consumer.  By the same token, the practical life falls short of completeness.  The wealth one acquires in a business is a useful thing, but as such, it exists for the sake of something else. […]

Dr. Hicks then goes on to elaborate on the theoretical life, or the life of the mind.

So we arrive at the theoretic life - not to be confused, as Professor Burnet (1976) warns, with the contemplative or passive life.

'What Aristotle calls theoria is emphatically an activity.  The fact is that he includes a good many things in it which we are too apt to regard as wholly different, things of which we fail to realize as he did the fundamental identity.  In the first place, scientific research is theoria, and no doubt Aristotle was thinking chiefly of that.  But so too is the artist's life, so far as he is not a mere artificer, and so is all enjoyment of art and literature. So too is the life of the religious man who sees all things in God.'

Aristotle defends the theoretic life as the true end of education and the source of happiness.  One does not require more than the bare necessities in life to achieve happiness in thought, nor is the active life of the mind dependent upon inherently unequal endowments of nature.  One need be neither strong nor handsome, well-born nor gregarious, nay, not even brilliant to participate happily in the theoretic life. […] [T]he theoretic life is the life of virtue, so long as we mean by virtue all that the Greek arete expresses: the life that knows and reveres, speculates and acts upon the Good, that loves and reproduces the Beautiful, and that pursues excellence and moderation in all things.

I would add to that last paragraph: 'by the power of the Holy Spirit, because of gratitude for the Gospel of Christ, and to the glory of God'.  His definition of virtue reminds me of biblical fruitfulness.

I must keep reminding myself that it's not about how much I can cram into my children's heads, rather that I teach them (through example and precept) to act on what they know to be true, starting with the gospel from which everything flows.

Norms and Nobility: A Treatise on Education

Teriyaki Sauce

We had stir fry for dinner tonight, adding a honey teriyaki sauce that was sitting in the fridge.  But we didn't have enough of said sauce so we looked up teriyaki sauce recipes.  The ingredients were simple: soy sauce, brown sugar, fresh mashed ginger, and garlic.  We added the ingredients to the frying pan with the chicken and veggies and a bit of arrowroot powder to thicken it up.  I didn't really measure, just poured and flicked in ingredients; garlic and ginger were in jars in the fridge. That's how I often cook - a pinch of this … a dollop of that … taste it and see what else it needs.

The sauce was wonderful! We've decided that we don't need to purchase teriyaki sauce anymore. It tasted much fresher, not so chemically, and, of course, there were no preservatives. We might add a little honey next time, too.

Bon Appétit!

SDG!

Vigilance

'The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.'  

~Thomas Jefferson

While I don't often write about history, politics, economics, demographics, or current events, I am intensely interested in them.  There are much better-informed and more logically and eloquently-written sources for this type information and philosophy than I could be, so I won't try to fill a niche that's already being well-filled.  However, I will be writing about different policies that will affect us here at home and how we're planning to respond to them. 

As we see by the signs that a storm is coming and prepare accordingly, so we must keep an eye on our world, not so that we become frightened (after all, our trust is in the Lord and his loving sovereignty), but so that we can prepare.  Better to keep watch and prepare ahead of time when possible than to scramble and try to figure out what's happening when the winds blow, lightning strikes, and hail pummels you.

In light of our current president's economic views and his emulation of FDR (whose economic policies caused the depression of the 1930's to become great), our household is preparing for very hard times.  We're watching not only current policies, but demographic trends.  As we move through the next few decades, the Baby Boom will retire and, as is usual during that season of life, will spend less, which will lead to an almost permanent drop in the stock market as consumer markets are significantly reduced.  Life for our children and grandchildren will be very different from what we've know to this point.

So, what changes are we making in the day-to-day running of our household?

• We're cooking more from scratch.  (This includes the yogurt recipe previously posted, and making granola instead of purchasing boxed cereal - recipe coming soon! - baking more bread, making mayonnaise, and I've gotten our sprouts grower out again.) 
  
• We're working to get the garden to produce again.  (We started a compost bin this weekend - Arizona soil isn't so good and we'd rather use our own free scraps and yard waste than purchase compost.)
  
• We're sewing more of our own clothes (with fabric purchased at low prices on sale).  
  
• I'm going to study pattern-making to give us more flexibility in clothing design and save money on expensive patterns.  
  
• We've been using fountain pens for years, but we'll be purchasing more for the whole family (a bottle of ink can last for years and costs less than other pens which don't last as long).  
  
• We're cutting back where we can in order to purchase tools that will make our family more productive and less dependent on public policy (for example: a knitting machine, a clothes line, wood-working tools).
  
• We're learning new skills.  (The girls are learning to crochet; I'm re-learning to knit; I'm teaching the girls to sew; we hope to learn to embroider and draw and even paint; as well as the above-mentioned pattern-drafting, and Drew is teaching the boys wood-working skills.)
  
• We made many of our Christmas presents this year and will continue doing that for birthdays.
  
• Drew and I are going out for dessert for our date night, instead of eating dinner out.  We're also going to the movies less often.

We're not doing these things only for our family, but we hope that our preparation and work will put us into a position to minister to and help others.  Here's one example:

The new administration is planning to put into effect an energy policy called 'Cap and Trade'.  This will require local power companies to produce less electricity.  Our tax dollars will then be given to the electric companies so that they don't see a loss of revenue.  This will give us rolling blackouts and brownouts along with higher taxes.  We are working to save for solar power for our home.  When the rest of the neighborhood is sitting in the dark, we'll have light.  What an opportunity to invite our neighbors in, to share what we have, building relationships with them, and possibly having an opportunity to share the gospel.

The coming times will be challenging, but we hope to rise to the challenge in a joyful and faithful manner.

SDG!