Scattered Sundays and Meal Plan for February 6th – 12th
Nothing ever good comes from a 3:20 am phone call. I’m just saying.
Earlier this week, my cell rang at 3:20 and the called ID said “Mom and Dad”. After saying hello, my Dad asked if I could please come downstairs and get Mom dressed because we needed her to be ready when the fire fighters got there. In a tone of voice that implied that he also needed to borrow a cup of sugar and some orange juice, he informed me that Mom was throwing up blood.
Neat!
30 minutes later, Mom was off in an ambulance and to the hospital. She was stuck in the ER for pretty much the whole day, and admitted later than evening for overnight observation. She was seen by a gastro and an internist, and the bottom line was the tumors on her liver are pushing on something in her stomach and is preventing it from digesting food. Yada, yada, yada, she is on a liquid diet for the foreseeable future.
To put some lipstick on this pig, the liquid diet is at least not restricted to just clear liquids. She can have cream and milk based things, smoothies, pudding, etc. I’m giving my Vitamix a workout, and trying to defy anything to not be “blendable”. Her current favorite is something I made last week. Someone in last Sunday’s blog post asked for the Crock Pot French Onion Soup recipe. Well, here yah go. It is so good and so simple, and every time I make it, I am jealous I didn’t develop the recipe myself. To adjust it to my mom’s needs, I ran my immersion blender through it to blend all the onions in to the broth.
Given my new soup making spree, I needed to refresh my homemade stock supply. I’m not much in to candles, but after smelling chicken stock simmering all day, I could totally see lighting a “Yankee Candle Chicken Stock” at the end of a long day. It is in my hair, and on my clothes. It smells amazing.
Are you participating in No Spend February? This week went well for the most part. We headed to the mall to return something and exchange my chipping dutch oven. Normally, we would have just stopped at gotten lunch or something, but I planned ahead and we ate at a table in the mall.
Have you ever been so disgusted with yourself for overlooking an easy solution to a big problem? We have this rug in front of the door to our deck that has been pretty gross for a few years now. My idea on fixing it was just pretending it doesn’t exist. We have these GroVia Mighty Bubbles laundry pods that I use for stripping cloth diaper inserts when they start to get a little stinky. I was doing a deep soak of (clean) diapers in our bathtub, and threw the rug in there just to see what happened.
Before:
After:
Every stain is gone, the white part is bright and the whole thing looks brand new. A deep soak for 6 hours, and then a rinse/spin in the washing machine and I hung it overnight to air dry. I couldn’t be happier with the results. Those laundry pods are also amazing for stinky clothes, like sports uniforms or coughmydadsnastyworkoutclothescough.
Bread defense
Meal plan time!
Monday:: Buffalo “chicken” fried tofu, rice, roasted broccoli, and a giant big ole’ salad.
Tuesday:: Black bean soup, grilled cheese, veggies.
Wednesday:: Grilled chicken, biscuits, giant salad, and roasted broccoli.
Thursday:: Beef stew, dutch oven bread, veggies.
Friday:: Popcorn and movie night
Saturday:: Leftovers, or pasta
Sunday:: Family dinner
A few weeks ago, someone on Facebook asked if I was going to start posting my grocery spending again at the end of these posts. I think I finally got my ish together enough to make that happen.
Fred Meyer: $34.23
The Powerbar was part of the Friday Freebie which you can download every Friday via their app. Their freebies go in four categories – things for Troy, things for me, things to donate to our community resource coordinator at church, and things that Santa will put in Jack’s stocking. The orange juice was originally priced at $4.99, but there was a $1.25 off coupon on the Fred Meyer app, and I got a $.50 rebate from ibotta. Bananas also had a $.50 rebate from ibotta. Jack and my nephew love the flavored yogurts, but I tell them I only love them enough to buy them when they are discounted because they are almost expired. The punks do not like homemade yogurt. My nephew is a pretty picky eater, but likes cereal. Done. I’m over breakfast battles.
Trader Joes $28.88:
Costco ($55.05):
Goodness, it looks like we eat so much cheese! A lot of it is for our Superbowl get together.
What are you having this week?
Hugs to you and your family. I hope your mom feels better soon.
I have a whole chicken and a pork roast in the fridge thawing that will get tossed in the oven/crockpot with random veggies and some potatoes. We’ll turn it all into meals as we need them (chicken and rice, shredded BBQ pork over potatoes, etc.). Breakfast is going to be eggs with mushroom and spinach, lunches will be salad with black olives and sauerkraut (that is made local and amazing!) and more random veggies.
Have you seen the newest milk alternative? It’s called Ripple. We found it at Target a few months ago and we love it. Even creamier than cashew milk with one gram of protein per ounce of milk vs. the one gram of protein per eight ounces for the nut milks. The chocolate is so thick it’s like pouring a milk shake. We cut it half and half with the unsweetened and it still tastes chocolaty and amazing. And, as an added bonus, it’s made from peas, so I get to tell people we drink pea milk 😀
Oh, and the Ripple website usually offers a coupon.
We are building a house and of course sold our old house before the new one was done so we did our pantry/freezer clean-out/only buy essentials LAST month. Right now we’re living with my mom farther away from our work and our kids’ school, so there has been some take-out and some Amy’s frozen meals for dinner. We’re supposed to move into our new house at the end of the month, so once we do a major Costco stock-up, we will be back to austerity and everything homemade again!
I’m so sorry for what you’re going through with your mom. She is lucky to have you and your blender on her side!
Random question for you – how do you soak your diapers with mighty bubbles? I’ve recently encountered some stink with my diapers and am looking for any advice that I can find! I’ve used mighty bubbles before but only in the washer, not in a bathtub soak.
I never have the same results in the washer as I do in the tub. I do 2/3 of my normal wash routine – cold rinse, hot wash with detergent, and then put just the inserts in the tub. I drop two Mighty Bubbles pods in and cover the inserts in the hottest water my tub will produce. I make sure all the inserts are submerged, and cover them with a junky towel. Every few hours I give them a stir or so. I soak for probably six(ish) hours total. Squeeze the excess water out, and then I do a warm rinse of the inserts in the washing machine. They smell amazing afterwards!
I have pocket diapers with microfiber inserts.
So sorry to hear about your Mom’s recent medical event. Scary for all I’m sure : ( Not doing the no-spend thing but your post reminded me that I need to keep focussed on using up whats in my freezer.
Was thinking of doing no spend feb & it was cemented last week when you mentioned yours. I’m doing a pantry challenge to help – eating from our cupboards & freezer. It’s always easy at the beginning. I have too much shoved in there.
So far I’ve spent nothing and even found things I can return to further help offset any groceries like milk I do have to buy.
Determined to save a lot this month to pay down medical bills.
Prayers & warm fuzzies for your mom 🙂