Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Menu Plan Monday

I was supposed to post this yesterday but time got away from me and then I got tired and wanted to watch Moonlighting.

I'm proud of my menu this week and of how little money I spent at the store. :)

I found a new way of shopping, I buy all the ingredients for dinners first then the extra stuff. I'm surprised at how little I end up spending compared to going through the grocery store in a systematic order. Or shopping when I'm hungry.

Always a plus!

Menu Plan Monday is hosted by Laura over at I'm an Organizing Junkie. Go check out the plethora of menus and add your own!
==============================================================



Menu Plan

Monday: Grilled Cheese made with wheat french bread, tomatoes and green onions
sides: macaroni salad
$: 5.50
(helped that I had a big block of cheese already)

Tuesday: Macaroni and Cheese (homemade)*
$: 1.08

Wednesday: Chicken, Bacon and Mushroom Pie*
(will add carrots)
$: 13.90

Thursday: Steak and Mash
$: 14.40
(steak was a li'l expensive but there were a lot in the package so it's basically two meals there)

Friday: Mexican Scrambled Eggs*
$: 5.30

Saturday: Tortilla Soup
$: free as I didn't have to buy anything extra to make this.

Sunday: Quesadillas with chopped ham and green onions*
$: 6.05

Monday: Frozen Lasagna
(first night in new home - gotta make it easy)
$: 11.00

Tuesday: Hot Dogs
sides: chili
$: 5.80
(still taking it easy - got unpacking to do!)

Extras: Banana Chocolate-Chip Muffins*

*'d recipes inspired by Nigella Express by Nigella Lawson

Will showcase the chicken potpie later in week.

relax,
paulina

Friday, September 7, 2012

Theme Thursdays. Sticks and Scones

Theme Thursdays is hosted by Kayven at Reading Between Pages...

Each Thursday she picks a theme and we participators select a sentence from current-book-of-choice that fits said theme.

Theme Thursdays

This week it's about "walking" (stepping, running, etc...)

That being said, here is my li'l snippet:

"She came walking up the steps by the dentist's office as stealthily as a cat, and just as quietly."
Sticks and Scones, Diane Mott Davidson, pg. 286

I've been reading Sticks and Scones, my first Goldy Schulz, caterer/amateur sleuth, book.

I like the unique factor of the menu that Goldy is going to cook up is at the beginning of the book and that recipes are scattered throughout the story. (awkward sentence there but you get the picture)

I do not like Goldy. She is paranoid, snoopy and a major cop-caller. But I guess after being involved in 9 other murders and attempts-on-her-life (I'm only assuming here as this is the 10th book) I have to give her being paranoid.

I do not like that there is so much going on this book; who shot out her window? who stole the stamps? what's her ex-husband up to? (Oh, that's another thing, Goldy seems to have been married to an fidelity-challenged, abusive type of guy for an indeterminate amount of time. Why, Goldy, why did you stay so long? I've puzzled through that while reading.) is the castle haunted? is her now-husband cheating? And on top of all that Goldy has two luncheons to cater and some mysteries to solve, ahead of the detectives nonetheless. Whew! What a busy girl!

I do not like that the one recipe I was really interested in trying, Chicken Croquettes, was not in the book. I had to look that one up on allrecipes (which the kids ate up, by the way!). Although I am interested in trying out Huevos Palacios, basically a frittata with chili (which Tom, the husband, not Goldy made for breakfast).

With only 62 pages or so left, I will stick it and found out whodunit but don't know if I would pick up another.

Plus, I just gotta find out if that castle is haunted.

relax,
paulina