Meal plan for November 4-10th
This post almost didn’t get written for two reasons.
1) We were sans power for almost all of Saturday. It was crazy windy in the Puget Sound area (if you’re looking at a map of Washington, the Puget Sound is that weird chunk missing in the left part of the state), and the power went out in the morning. In a mile in every direction, homes and businesses had power, but not us.
Jack and I escaped to my sister’s where she had heat, electricity, and a three year old to occupy Jack. And part of having electricity meant having access to digital music channels. The preschool dance party was a rager.
I stayed up until past midnight canning 60 pounds of apples (yield: 22 quarts of applesauce) and had a crappy night of sleep. 6:30 am, my phone rings. It’s Troy. Ding dong doesn’t have a normal life, and he forgot that I do. And normal people don’t work on Saturdays.
The phone call woke Jack up, and thus I was up for the day. He watched some toons in my bed while I tried to fall back to sleep, but it wasn’t happening. I was cheesed off to the nth degree.
Last week, my newest little goddaughter was baptized. It was a traditional Lutheran service (think lazy Catholics), and much longer and more formal than our own church. It was a lovely service, but Jack was pretty tuckered out by the end of it.
Later, the family and friends met up at a Mexican restaurant for a small reception. Troy, decided to keep Jack occupied by creating the freakiest tortilla mask that was a cross between The Elephant Man and The Man In the Iron Mask.
Halloween was a mixed bag. We were all ready to go out dressed as Hulk, and at the very last second, he decided that he needed to be a Power Ranger. Thank goodness multiple costumes are always in rotation in this house.
The second house we visited had a large dog that rushed out of the front door at Jack. Jack is realllllllly nervous around big dogs. It was a pit bull; something I didn’t realize until I had picked Jack up and he was wrapping himself around my neck.
The woman apologized and said she thought it was her husband. I wanted to ask her if her husband knocked on his own front door with a tiny fist while yelling “trick or treat”? If you have a dog, any dog, and it’s a day when kids come to your front door, take care of your damn dog.
After that, Jack was scared of most of the houses, and we had to call it a night shortly thereafter. So we were pissed.
Someone on Facebook asked me if I would have reacted the same had it been a Jack Russell and not a pit bull. The answer is yes. Jack is scared of big dogs, but even little dogs make him nervous. My sister-in-law’s three poodles still make him jumpy. So, yes, any dog that comes at my kid and makes him want to stop trick or treating would piss me off. Pitbull or chihuahua, it doesn’t matter. Lunge at my kid and you might find my foot in your ass.
When we got home, Jack said “the Candy Fairy will be so proud of me”. He had a decent amount of candy, and declared it “enough to power Candy City for a long time”. The Candy Fairy left him some action figures that he had picked out previously and emailed to the Candy Fairy.
I figure this is the last year the Candy Fairy can probably make an appearance at our house. Sigh.
Meal plan time! Reminder, I only plan dinners. My breakfast of choice has changed, and I’m now obsessed with homemade Greek yogurt with tons of cut up fresh fruit, and a homemade granola bar crumbled on top. It’s delicious and keeps me completely full and satisfied until lunch. Lunches are always leftovers. We rarely eat dessert during the week, and our dinner drink of choice is water kefir soda.
Monday:: I’m working late, so I’m going to find something from the freezer later tonight to defrost.
Tuesday:: Quiche, and Brussels Sprouts. Random combination, but it works.
Wednesday:: Salmon cakes and salad.
Thursday:: Dinner at my in-laws.
Friday:: Popcorn dinner. Yes, seriously we eat popcorn for dinner. It’s popcorn, leftovers, cheese slices, fruit, and cut up veggies. Everyone gets as much as they want, and no one leaves hungry. I adore Fridays because it is the easiest night of the week for making everyone happy!
Saturday:: Shepherd’s pie and salad.
Sunday:: Family dinner at my parent’s with extended family. The menu gets hammered out via email during the week – my dad makes the main dish, and we each contribute sides.
This week I spent about $35 at Costco, $3.50 for raw milk, and I have no idea how much at the grocery store (though not much is on my list). I plan to go shopping after church later today. With not having power yesterday, I didn’t feel the need to buy groceries and then bring them home to a kitchen without a working fridge.
All the pics of Jack are so cute! 🙂
Great post! I always enjoy hearing what is going on in your life! And something is ALWAYS going on!! You, GO, Girl!! Cute CUTE pics!!!
Two things:
Nothing makes me more upset that when the house gets woken up early on a weekend. My family all know that they better be nearly silent before 8 am or else.
Also, I have multiple pets (dogs and cat) and insist they are put away for Halloween. I put them all in a room where they can’t get out. Part of this is not to scare the kids, but also to not have them run away or have some kid who isn’t terrified try to grab or play with them. I believe this is the responsible thing to do for everyone involved. I also am adamant that pets on walks should be on damn leashes! I could care less if your dog is an angel – I do not want to deal with any issues because you couldn’t be responsible in the first place.
So happy I don’t live on that side of the mountains anymore! We live in Grand Coulee, get the fierce winds here but fewe trees to knock the power out. (I do miss all the trees and ocean, though.) In four years we’ve had maybe two outtages that only lasted a few hours. I still have all the flashlights around the house, just not sure where anymore! I used to keep a couple by the computer, on the nightstand, and even in my purse. On one of our anniversaries we had gone to a restaurant and wound up eating our meal by candlelight because the power went out! That was when we lived in Port Orchard which had outtages as bad as Seattle’s. I think three weeks was the longest one I remember. We, too, llived on Whidbey, in Oak Harbor. Another place we only went out of power for a few days. It doesn’t get as cold on that side for as long as it does here, I would hate to have the power go out very long here as our house has no alternative power source. It’s a rental and small so there isn’t a way to do anything. I cracked up at your “lazy Catholics”! My husband calls them Catholic light!
I to live in the PNW. Specifically South Whidbey. I like to see how you manage on your budget but wonder how your pantry looks. How would you manage in an emergency if you couldn’t get to the store or if the store was just sold out of stuff. When you live on an island you have to be stocked to the ceiling or suffer the consequences. We have a great store here but even the cashiers admit that if there were a real emergency the shelves would be bare in hours and this store is as big as most Safeways. Also how does your canning figure into your budget. Do you get that stuff for free or do you buy it.
Love your writing style. My style of communication is much like yours and gets me in trouble a lot. My best friend use to censor me around her kids when they were young. Now they just count how many cuss words I say during a visit.
I’m pretty good at holding my tongue around kids, but every once in a blue moon, something will slip out!
Yes, we have a pretty big storage of food in what Troy (my husband) calls the “zombie pantry”. Another reader once commented that theirs was called the Doom Room and I love that name too! A few posts that might interest you:
https://www.sustainablecooks.com/2013/02/quantifying-my-canning-output-well-kinda.html