Moolie's "is it really that hard?" journal

[moolie]

LOL, that's why I usually make two

 

[moolie]

So last night we had Cranberry Sauce Pork Roast (crock pot roast all day sprinkled with garlic powder, salt & pepper with a can, or in my case jar of homemade, cranberry sauce poured over) with coleslaw. Yum! We sliced the leftover roast for pork & coleslaw sandwiches. Tonight is super easy dinner night--hubs or the girls always make our Tuna Casserole:

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Tuna Casserole

Cook 4 cups noodles (macaroni, butterflies, rotini) in boiling water, drain.

Stir in 2 cans chunk tuna (drain, then break up in can) and homemade Cheese Sauce (flour & butter roux, milk, 1/2 cup grated cheddar, 1/2 tsp mustard, salt & pepper) plus some frozen veggies (we like peas). Bake topped with cracker crumbs.

We usually eat this with carrot sticks or salad

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Bonus recipe I typed into the Is It Really That Hard thread:

Baked Beans

Soak 4 cups dry small white (I use Navy) beans overnight in cold water.

Drain and rinse beans twice with cold water, drain.

Stir into drained beans:
2 onions, diced
1/2 cup ketchup (or tomato paste plus a splash of vinegar)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 lb chopped cooked bacon (or ham)
1 tsp dry mustard
salt and pepper to taste
and enough water to cover--simmer in crock pot on low for 8 hours.

OR after soaking and rinsing, drain beans and add rest of ingredients then pressure cook at 12psi for 45 minutes. Perfect every time!

 

[Wannabefree]

I just needed the psi and time. That recipe looks good though. I have to premake my own barbecue sauce, so I'll have to tweek it, but thamks so much for the idea! Mine LOVE baked beans

 

[moolie]

My family gobbles it up like there's no tomorrow, they like it way better than the best canned stuff

So last night we had Tuna Casserole, and the girls made the veggies (carrot sticks, frozen peas) on the side rather than putting the peas into the casserole--they used Penne pasta:

Tonight is:

Chicken Enchiladas

1 lb ground (or leftover shredded) chicken or turkey
1 pint jar home made salsa
1 cup frozen corn
1 can (or equivalent cooked from dry) black beans
salt & pepper & taco seasoning to taste

Brown ground chicken, stir in remaining ingredients and warm through, divide mixture evenly amongst 12 tortillas and roll up, place in rectangular baking pan (I use Pyrex) and top with dabs of salsa/hot sauce and shredded cheese, bake til cheese is golden and bubbly

Made with:

Whole Wheat Tortillas

3 cups of whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup of warm water (may need a little more)
1/3 cup olive oil

Mix ingredients together in bowl, knead a few times, form into ball, let rest 10 minutes. Cut ball into 12 equal portions, roll each piece into round, fry briefly on each side till done.

Today I've got a busy afternoon ahead of me, so I just took half an hour to get everything prepped for dinner. I made 16 tortillas as per the recipe above (instead of 12, so they fit into my baking pan better once they are all rolled up):

Then I mixed together shredded roast chicken, a jar of salsa, and some frozen corn and popped it into the fridge to "marinate" until I'm ready to put everything together at dinner time (most of the chicken is under the salsa and corn, which are on top):

I forgot to soak my black beans last night, so I put them on first thing this morning and will rinse, then pressure cook them just before dinner to add to the chicken mixture before I roll everything up in the tortillas and bake it off.

 

[moolie]

Chicken Enchilada progress, I got 12 enchiladas--I've just put one pan into the oven to bake for about 15 minutes, the other two will get frozen for future meals. Hubs is chopping up carrot sticks and cukes and has made a pot of rice (easiest way to make rice is to put 2 cups rice to 4 cups water into a pyrex casserole and bake at 350F for 45 minutes):

 

[moolie]

The Enchiladas, rice and veggies got devoured--DD16 said, "it's been ages since we had this!"

Last night was tacos, a similar flavour to the enchiladas, but the girls helped me build our menu plan so obviously no one was bothered by that--and as with the enchiladas they got totally devoured. As always, there was a little taco meat leftover, so it's gone into the pot this morning with 2 pints of home canned baked beans and the leftover salsa from last night, to make "chili" for lunches today.

The girls have warmed their portions up and popped it into prewarmed (with boiling water) thermoses to go to school along with an orange, home made yogurt, and some banana bread. Breakfast is the usual hodgepodge as per the menu plan. Hubs took his in a pyrex dish to warm in the microwave at work along with some home made bread and an orange. I'll warm mine up at home at lunchtime, and I love to dip bread into "chili" like hubs does so I'll have a couple of slices with my lunch as well.

Tonight's dinner is super easy, as it is leftover Tuna Casserole and we'll just vary the veggies from last time--I'll make a salad with the leftover lettuce from the tacos last night along with whatever other veggies are kicking around.

 

[moolie]

So we've "cheated" on dinner a bit over the past two days, the girls had dinner with friends on Friday night before Youth Group, so hubs and I just had leftovers with rice. Yesterday we were at a wedding at church so didn't have to cook dinner. So we're two days ahead on dinners.

I've noticed that most of the participants in this experiment have noted days like these, and I don't actually think that it IS "cheating", because we're all average people and everyone gets invited to dinner with friends, or to weddings, or has the potential to find deals/free food. But I mention it just to track our actual spending.

 

[FarmerJamie]

Just remember to "charge" your budget when you feed others, too.

 

[FarmerJamie]

so do canning supplies, i.e., lids, figure into these budgets, too?

 

[moolie]

Just remember to "charge" your budget when you feed others, too.

Oh, absolutely

so do canning supplies, i.e., lids, figure into these budgets, too?

Great question, they will for me, since the best price locally on wide mouth lids is at $2.99/dozen Sobey's grocery store (they cost $3.99/dozen everywhere else I've looked). I also buy my pectin for jams at the grocery store, so that will be included as well.

I'm stocked up on everything else as I have been picking up jars for free/cheap off freecycle and kijiji for the past couple of years--I have over 400 jars at this point which is plenty for everything we can each year (definitely for now, but may pick up more if I see good deals come up--I think I'm addicted to jars!).

As for lids: my Gem jars all have glass lids and I have been buying packages of the reusable rubber seals ($1.99/dozen) every time I go to Canadian Tire for anything else, and I bought 20 packages of regular mouth lids from Dollarama in November and another 20 packages in January because they were only $1 each. They've now gone up to $1.25/dozen so I'm glad I got them when I did!

I can easily fit those lid costs into my budget for this current month if need be, total for all of the above lids is $23.88 for 12 dozen rubber seals and $40 for the regular mouth lids = $63.88 + $3.20 tax (5%gst) = $67.18