Frugal Friday! Weekly Meal Plan

Goodness, I cannot believe that it is Friday again. This week has been ridiculously busy and it pretty much flew by. We made some good headway on our diet/nutrition/exercise plan, and I started using livestrong.com to track my calories because it has a much larger database than the government one. It's super-easy to track my meals now, which should make it easier to succeed...But I digress. You're here for my cheap-o meal plan. So here it is!   It's not very diverse because we are so short on cash, but it's nutritious and keeps our bellies full, so we're thankful for it.  Enjoy, and as always, if you want a recipe leave a comment, and I will get back to you.

What-I-Made Wednesday: Spaghetti Squash!

Here I am again, faithfully posting! Aren't you proud of me? ;)  (shameless, I know. LOL) It's time for me to share another recipe for What-I-Made Wednesday. Today's selection from the meal plan is Spaghetti Squash. This is a new one for me, so you are going to see photos of the inaugural squash-ing.  As you know, we're trying to shed a few pounds while staying healthy AND spending very little. That is a tall order, but I'm committed to it.  Having spaghetti squash instead of regular pasta is an excellent way to do all of that. It's only 33 calories per cup as compared to 222 calories in regular spaghetti, it is full of all sorts of vitamins and minerals, and it's pretty cheap. Even down here in the waaaaaaaay-south, it's only $1.88 /lb. The squash I used tonight was only about 2 pounds, so it wasn't very expensive. 

I didn't know how to cook a spaghetti squash, so I went to my trusty advisor Pinterest. I typed in "how to cook a spaghetti squash" and lo-and-behold there was a plethora of options.  My favorite was a link to a you-tube video with a microwave method! Yay! I love that I didn't have to heat my house up in the 90 degree weather. So I will share that link with you so you can share in my happiness.  Here you go!

Basically, you just take your spaghetti squash, stab it a bunch of times (like when you cook a baked potato) and put in a microwave-safe baking dish. Stick it in the microwave and zap it for about 12 minutes for a 2 lb squash, rotating it halfway through. Let it stand for 5 minutes or so and then slice the end off. Slice it down the middle and split it open like so.

Remove all the seeds and stringy guts parts from the center, and then use a fork to shred the inner flesh of the squash. It'll look like spaghetti. Surprise! :)

And that is all there is to it, really. I had some beautiful pasta sauce made with ground turkey in my freezer from last week's spaghetti night, so I thawed that on my stove top while I was microwaving the squash and making the steamed broccoli.  So, I added my sauce to my squash, topped it with a little grated Parmesan, plated my broccoli, and capped it all with a beautiful slice of Texas Toast garlic bread.

Yum! That's a good dinner anywhere folks! I have to tell you, that 4 hours later I am still full, and that just doesn't happen with pasta. DH really liked this too, and actually asked if we could switch permanently.  Yep! :)  If you would like my recipe for my pasta sauce with lean ground turkey, leave me a comment and I'll gladly share. Enjoy!

Frugal Friday: Meal Plans for Next Week

Friday is my grocery shopping day. That means we went from our empty pantry and feezer to nice and full today. This makes me happy. :) On Thursday nights I take time to plan out my grocery list and meal plan according to sale items and what I have in my kitchen. I know that some people look at multiple stores and store hop, but I just don't think it is wise for me because we live paycheck to paycheck.  I stick with one store that offers us gas reward points for using their store card, and the rest I get at Sam's Club. My weekly budget for 4 people is 100 bucks. That has to cover food and toiletries/laundry items. Down here in the waaaaaaaaay-south it is very expensive to live. Housing and food prices are ridiculous, so 100 bucks really doesn't go as far as you might think. I am very careful about what I purchase because it is important that my kids get as much nutritious food as possible.  So here is my weekly meal plan. If you want a recipe, just give me a shout and I'll get it to you. :)

So there you go! Enjoy!

It's "What-I-Made" Wednesday!

Can I hear some applause? I am actually posting twice in a row! woohoo!   :)  Okay, now that I am finished patting myself on the back, I can fill you on the title of my post. Like I said in my post yesterday, I got a nice little organizer for my blog and was able to come up with some ideas for posting regularly. I thought it might be nice to share some of the recipes I made in the past week. I enjoy blogs like those, so I figured "why not?" 
As I have mentioned in the past, Pastor's don't make a whole lot of money and we actually bring in a whole lot less than most. Because of that I have to use all my magic-frugal-wizard skills to make sure we can eat healthfully AND on the cheap. Now, I'm not saying it's always possible to have perfect meals. Sometimes it's not. I have a big ol' box of Ramen noodles in my pantry for when things get tight. That's when the kiddos get the nutritious stuff and DH and I just fill our tum-tums with those dorm-room staples. :) But anyway, God is good and right now, though we're down to our last 3 bucks until Friday's paycheck, we have exactly enough to eat well. 

Yesterday, I welcomed fall with a beautiful pot of Barley Beef Vegetable Soup. I love soup so much. It instantly transports my mind to images of pumpkins, changing autumn leaves, cool temperatures, and that wonderful fall smell that I enjoy so much.  So even though it's still near 90 degrees here in the waaaaaay-south and the humidity is about 100%, I just lived in denial made the soup anyway.  Here is a picture of that little pot of heaven:

I know: the picture is wicked-dark (you like my New England-speak there?) but I'll work on that in the future.  The recipe is pretty simple and the results are oh-so good. I encourage you to try this one. It is very high in nutrition but low in calories and cost. The 4 of us ate it for lunch yesterday, dinner yesterday, and we'll have it for lunch today too. :) The soup actually freezes very well, but I forgot to soak the beans for the meal I had planned and therefore had to feed everyone soup again. My bad! No one minded though, because this soup is so good.  Here's the recipe:

2 boxes low-fat, low sodium beef broth
2 small cans V-8 juice
1 beef bouillon cube
1 can of water
1 bag frozen mixed vegetables (sans Lima Beans...yuck!)
1 small onion, chopped
2 Tbs veg. oil
1/2 lb extra lean stew beef
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1 cup Barley
a sprinkling of Mrs. Dash Table Blend
a generous dash of dried Basil (I don't always measure. sorry)

Cut your stew beef into 1 inch cubes, and slice off any fat they might have left on it. Add your veg. oil to your soup pot, and heat on medium high. Add your beef and cook it until cooked through, stirring often. Add your onion and cook it until it is translucent, then add your garlic. Next, throw in  your V-8. Tomato products are fabulous for helping you get the beef off the bottom your pot. Then add in your broth, water, bouillon, spices, and veggies.   Once that comes to a boil add your barley. Reduce your heat to medium and let the whole thing simmer for about 40 minutes. Make sure you leave your wooden spoon on top of the pot so it doesn't boil over. :) When the barley is cooked, the soup is ready. Let it cool a little and enjoy. Mega-nutrition in a tiny little package.

Enjoy the soup, and if you are lucky enough to be above the Mason-Dixon today, enjoy the beautiful fall weather for me.

So...I'm not good at this yet. :) Let's catch up.

If you are one of the few who follow my Blog, I offer my deepest, most heart-felt apologies for not posting anything in about a millennium.  So often I say to myself, "Self, you need to get on there and update that blog you crazy nerd." I inevitably agree with myself, but obviously I do nothing about it. Truthfully, there has been so much going on in our lives that I really can't share with the online universe yet. So, it was a little taxing to try to come on here and try to mentally sift through it all and find something I could tell you about.  I'm sure you are now wondering what spurred me to finally pop on here. It was the lovely email I received from Erica over at  Confessions of a Homeschooler. Among many others things, she offers these beautiful little planners and organizers for Blogging, and today's email sent me a link to the 2012 and the 2013 versions. It was inspiring, really. (You can get them for yourself and check out her great site here.) So now, armed with a plan and a schedule in my home organizer (my giant pink binder that pretty much keeps this house running) I have come up with some ideas for posts this month. But first, I have to take care of business...I owe a book review to the wonderfully kind and patient folks over at Bethany House. Hopefully, they'll let me continue reviewing their books despite my tardiness.

 So, finally, I give you my thoughts on "To Love and Cherish" by Tracie Peterson and Judith Miller. 

The book is described as following on Tracie Peterson's website :

When Melinda Colson's employer announces they'll be leaving Bridal Veil Island to return to their home in Cleveland, Melinda hopes her beau, Evan, will propose. But Evan isn't prepared to make an offer of marriage until he knows he can support a wife and family. Evan works as the assistant gamekeeper on Bridal Veil but hopes to be promoted soon.
Letters strengthen their love, but Melinda remains frustrated at being apart from the man she wants to spend the rest of her life with. Then she learns of a devastating hurricane in Bridal Veil and knows she must give up her position as a lady's maid and make her way back to Evan.
The destruction on Bridal Veil is extensive, meaning every available person is needed to help with cleanup and repairs. Melinda finds a new job on the island, but Evan seems even busier than before, meaning she still never gets to see him. Has she given her heart to the wrong man?
And when Melinda overhears a vicious plot against President McKinley, who is scheduled to visit the island, is Evan the one she should turn to? Will Melinda and Evan ever get the chance to stand at the front of a church and promise "to love and cherish"?

This book is the second in the Bridal Veil Island series. I didn't read the first book, "To Have and To Hold" but "To Love and Cherish" was written in such a way that it didn't really matter. The setting was the same but the characters were all different, so I wasn't lost in some previous plot, nor did the authors have to rehash the plot of the previous book. I like that. It annoys me when the first half of books I'm reading are catch-ups to other books...but I digress.  I felt the characters in this book were very likable, though they seemed fairly modern to me. They presented interesting points of view on marriage and how men and women see things differently.  The thing I didn't like about this book was that I didn't get the sense of history I usually get from Tracie Peterson and Judith Miller's work. There was certainly some mention of historical markers, but I was a little disappointed that there wasn't more. Over all, I did enjoy the book and if I were to have the chance to read the third book in the series I would certainly do so.


And that's it for today folks. The littlest one just woke up from her nap and is now snuggled up in my arms. That is wonderful for my mommy-heart, but it makes it super-hard to type with any kind of accuracy or speed.  My plan is to post more tomorrow. If I do, make sure you cheer for me. :) What an achievement it would be!