Park House: Days: 9,10,11,12,13,14

Kowabunga!  Here is my post for the last weekish. 

January 9th: Fish and Chips.  The were good and an old standby. 

 January 10th: Chili.  Nathan was sick today and Darryl stayed home with him so he made the chili.  It wasn't quite the same as I mine, which isn't a bad thing and mine is in my head so it's not a recipe he could follow.   One thing that I use now for my chili and spaghetti sauce is the fake meat aka ground round.  Again we are watching our cholestrol over here so it's good when we can make our food vegetarian. 

January 11th I worked, so Darryl and the boys had soup and I had leftovers....

January 12th: Darryl made us a beautiful chicken stirfry.  We use hoisin sauce on our stirfry and I love it. 

 January 13th: Delicious roast beef dinner!  There was lots too, so we have leftovers.  One of the interesting things we do is mixed sweet potato and regular potatoes together to make our mashed potatoes.  Also makes them healthier.   I'm proud of us as we went to the science center today too, so it would have been very easy to buy a lunch there, but we prepared and brought some (although in hindsight not quite enough, thank goodness for the almonds in the car)


January 14th: Monday was a busy night.  I got home at 5:40 and Lucas had karate at 6.  It would have been a perfect night for drive thru.  But Darryl made some macaroni and cheese and I made myself a salad when I got home.  Healthier, even though it wasn't super healthy.  But better then fried food from McDonalds.   Lesson learned tonight, slow cooker meals on Mondays when I have to teach till 5 and Lucas has karate at 6. 

This week I'm going to try some new recipes.  I got a new Rachael Ray cookbook for Christmas, so my plan is to try two of those.

Jenn

Tuesday, January 15th

Woo hoo! Look at me...posting same day!! Mackenzie is at school late today helping with the Grade 8 student & parent open house so Paul introduced me to Chinese dumplings.
These are from the United Food Mart in town. The large dumplings are chicken & vegetable. The little ones are pork/celery and pork/napa (a type of cabbage). We dipped them in Chinkiang vinegar which sort of tasted like a cross between malt vinegar and worcestershire sauce.
The best part is that I liked them! They were delicious! It's well known that I'm not very adventurous with new foods so this was great!

Lori

Catch Up Post #3, Jan 12-14th

Saturday, January 12th-
Back on track!  Mackenzie was at a Party Lites party in the early evening so Paul made a lovely meal of herb-seasoned, baked pork chops, red potatoes and broccoli.  It was all ready when I arrived after dropping Mackenzie off at the party.  Having someone cook for me is SUCH A LUXURY!  I feel like a princess.  Gosh, he's a good cook!  A picture really is worth a thousand words so I promise I'll get better at taking pictures in the second half of this month.

Sunday, January 13th-
The freezer scavenging continues!  My freezer this time.  I found a package of Oktoberfest sausage deep in the freezer with some cheddar perogies from Costco.  I know it seems like we've eaten a lot of perogies this month (and maybe we have) but they're one of those foods that you sample at Costco, exclaim "Gosh, I love perogies! Why don't we eat these more often?" and then realize that you have 6 bags at home from previous Costco visits that are buried in the freezer.  Am I right?  I opened a can of Blue Menu French-cut green beans to have with the meal.  Though I love fresh green beans, I was raised with canned green beans and I have to confess...I love them!  I keep them on hand just for me because Mackenzie won't eat them.  Paul's a trooper though and gave them a shot.  He's such a good guy...he'll eat just about anything (just like Darryl!)  Is it a boy thing?

Monday, January 14th-
On Mondays I work all day and Paul teaches in the evening so we don't cross paths until bed time.  For my dinner, I dug some Creamy Noodle Tuna Helper out of the freezer (that I had previously made with canned ham instead of tuna) and had that with a big glass of milk for dinner.  Mackenzie ended up staying at school working on an assignment until 9:30pm so I had dinner by myself...not alone though.  Four furry faces stared me down just begging for me to drop a morsel of my dinner.

An entire second half of the month still lies ahead of us but I think I'm starting to get into the swing of things!  I'll endeavour to pull out my cookbooks (or Pinterest!) a couple of times and I'll do my best to try to remember to snap pictures of our meals!!

Lori

Catch Up Post #2, Jan 9-11th

Wednesday, January 9th-
This turned out to be an unusual but delightful night for us!  Mackenzie's friends have been raving about a party game called Cards Against Humanity.  It's much like Apples-To-Apples but definitely the "grown up" version (for those that don't know, my daughter Mackenzie is 18 years old).  Since it's sold out virtually everywhere, we took advantage of the free downloadable .pdf version on their website.  Mackenzie and her friend David sat on the floor in the living room cutting out all of the cards while Paul and I made nachos and mini pizzas.  We pigged out, had a blast playing the game and made a plan to play again sometime when no one has to drive anywhere so we could have a few drinks while we play.  What a fun night!!

Thursday, January 10th-
Fail. Mackenzie ordered Pizza Hut after an 8-11pm shift at McDonald's.  It's reallllly hard to get teenagers on board with the Eat at Home Challenge.  They always want instant food.  Paul and I caved and had some, too.  I hang my head in shame.

Friday, January 11th-
Friday's are tough.  We meet Ian's family at McDonald's for coffee every Friday.  For over a decade we used to meet at the Old Tyme Diner but in 2010 the owners decided they deserved to retire (can you imagine the nerve?!) and there aren't any other good diners in the area that are open late enough for us.  Unfortunately, when you're at McDonald's for coffee, it's hard to resist a hot fudge sundae while you're at it.  MORE SHAME!

Until the next catch up post...
Lori

Catch Up Post #1, Jan 6-8th

This month feels more like than the Amazing Race than the typical "back to work/school routine" kind of month that I normally have in January.  Don't get me wrong...it's been a great month with a lot of variety but there's simply no routine.  Day by day, week by week, month by month, I'm learning how to fly by the seat of my pants.  It's an acquired skill...one which I'm starting to see value in but haven't yet mastered.  For any of you who know me, you'll know how disconcerting it is for me to be doing anything that I haven't got a handle on...but you can teach an old dog new tricks!

Sunday, January 6th-The post-holiday let down lends itself to lean finances for us as it does for many families.  We've been digging deeper in the freezer to see what sort of leftovers can be brought out and used up.  Paul's Mom made a delicious split pea and ham soup over the holidays so we heated up the leftovers and had some cheddar & jalapeño perogies with it.  Yum!

Monday, January 7th-I started my new position as a veterinary receptionist full-time today so I didn't get home until late.  I pulled out some of my favourite home made chili (a Wendy's copycat recipe) and made some garlic toast to go with it.

Tuesday, January 8th-Paul made some wickedly good omelettes with the leftover ham & turkey in the freezer from Boxing Day dinner at his parents.  He paired with with some broccoli and fried potatoes.  You've got to love a man that cooks!  Yeah!!

That's it for now...

Lori

Day 11, 12, 13, 14

I'm not even sure I remember what we had for supper Friday night, lol.

It was....hmm...

chicken nuggets and fries. I had an appt at 6:15 so it was something quick with minimal cleanup.

Saturday night's dinner was at Kathryn's house and we had roasted veggies, baby potatoes and souvlaki pork from Costco. No one was especially crazy about the pork - it was overly spiced in my opinion. Veggies were AWESOME.  I love all veggies.

Sunday we had soup and grilled cheese sandwiches and tonight is taco night. Ole!

Halfway thru the month and going strong! I just keep thinking of all the money we're saving...and I bought Starbucks flavoured syrups to fake my own lattes.

As a reward I think I'll have to plan a dinner out somewhere. Maybe Bolero. We keep telling the boys we'll take them there one time.

Update

I am failing, BUT not at Eat at Home Challenge......just at posting.  I have a camera full of what we ate, just not downloaded.  Stay tuned.