The Week in Review – Week 3, 2018

23 Tuesday Jan 2018

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Another snow day! As you can see we didn’t have that much snow. And, many people debated the merits of a snow day. But, I watched more than one vehicle have trouble on the road in front of our house. Plus these things are so hard to judge, especially when they start in the early morning hours.

Apart from that, we had:

Three rounds of baseball for the oldest.
A birthday celebration for the youngest (now 2).
Three days of after school conditioning for the oldest.
Before school sports for the twins.
Skiing lesson for the twins.
Gym class for the youngest.
A GNO yoga night for me!
Math morning for the twins.
Two doctor appointments.
And one school meeting.

I’m not sure how many things we finished accomplishing, but we made progress towards many things.

Christmas & birthday presents continued to be assembled/setup/learned.
The last of the Christmas items got put away.
Some other misc boxes found their final resting places.
I picked out a new picture for the Dining Room. I still need to hang it.
I finished up the closet reorg for the youngest two. I think everyone should be set for clothes this winter, as long as we don’t go through the knees of too many more pants!

Grocery Update & What We Ate – Week 3, 2018

22 Monday Jan 2018

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Grocery Spending

This was a good week, for the grocery budget anyway. I’m not sure I fully made up for the previous overruns, but it is substantially lower than an average week so hopefully the month will work itself out.

I made three stops.

I spent $50.74 at Stop & Shop on Thursday, mostly on cheese (on sale) and milk. Blueberries were still buy one, get one free so I got another two of those also. Juice, beans, and potato salad were not on sale.

On Saturday, I made two stops. First, I spent $96.28 at Wegman’s. Yes, more milk!

Then, that afternoon I made a quick $58.11 stop at BJ’s. There’s a BJ’s (not my usual one) near the winter baseball site which makes it reasonable to stop in fairly often. It is not the healthiest collection, but we’re not going to eat it all at once either.

That brought my total to $205.13, nicely under the roughly $250/week target.

And, what did we eat?

Monday:
Fish tacos, guacamole, pico de gallo

Tuesday:
Spaghetti & meatballs, spinach salad

Wednesday:
Tacos (ground turkey)

Thursday:
Early: Hot dogs, carrot sticks
Late: Homemade pizza

Friday (I was out):
Take out pizza

Saturday:
BBQ chicken wings, baked beans, potato salad, carrot sticks/cucumber slices, biscuits

Sunday:
Chicken noodle soup, harvest bread

Salmon in Puff Pastry with Dill Sauce

19 Friday Jan 2018

Posted by Nora in Recipes

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Fish

Admittedly, this is not the prettiest dish to photograph. But, it is very tasty and very easy for something that looks and sounds rather spectacular. The dill sauce is not strictly necessary, but I find the dish rather dry without it. Added bonus – you can prep it in the morning and refrigerate until cooking it at dinnertime.

Salmon in Puff Pastry with Dill Sauce
adapted from Salmon and Rice Wrapped in Pastry with Dill Sauce

Ingredients (4 servings):

Salmon:
2 Tbsp butter
½ cup minced leek
6 oz chopped shiitake mushrooms
2 sheets frozen puff pastry, thawed
4 6-oz skinless salmon fillets
Salt & pepper

Dill Sauce:
2/3 cup clam juice
½ cup dry white wine
1 ¼ cups crème fraîche
3 Tbsp minced fresh dill
Salt & pepper

Directions:

Salmon, Part 1:

Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Add leek and saute until it just softens, about 4 minutes.
Add mushrooms, cover, and cook until the mushrooms release their juices – about 5 minutes.
Uncover, increase heat to medium-high, and saute until the moisture evaporates – about 5 minutes.
Season with salt and pepper.
Cook completely.

Salmon, Part 2:

Roll out one sheet of puff pastry into a 12-inch square. Cut into 4 equal smaller squares.
Divide the leek/mushroom mixture among the squares. Note: if you have eaters who would prefer not to have leeks/mushrooms you can just leave them out at this step.
Place one piece of salmon diagonally across each square.
Roll out the second puff pastry sheet to a 13-inch square and quarter.
Bring the open corners (upper rights and lower lefts in above picture) over the salmon and top with the second puff pastry piece, tucking its corners under. If possible, bring the small corners of the top sheet under also to seal the ends of the salmon. Note: it is not critical to do this, but the more sealed the better.
Transfer to a lined baking sheet.
Cover and chill for at least 30 minutes, or up to 8 hours.

Baking:

Preheat the oven to 400°F.
Bake until fish reaches 145°F, or about 30 minutes.
Serve with dill sauce.

Note: The inside will be VERY hot. If you have small children, cut theirs open to allow them to cool before reaching the table.

Dill Sauce:

Boil the clam juice and wine in a small saucepan until reduced to 1/3 cup, about 10 minutes.
Reduce heat to medium and whisk in the crème fraîche. Reduce to about 1 cup – about 5 minutes.
Remove from heat. Stir in dill. Season with salt and pepper.

Really, Wikki Stix?

18 Thursday Jan 2018

Posted by Nora in Product Reviews

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Wikki Stix

First, I actually like Wikki Stix. And, the kids like Wikki Stix. We’ve used them many times. And, they’re not paying me anything to say that.

For those who don’t know what they are, Wikki Stix are roughly footlong wax covered string. I’m not sure they would describe them quite that way, but it gets the point across. You twist and push them into each other to connect them to make 3D things. Or, they stick to paper for 2D art.

We got a pack for home recently that included this two-sided note.

The ONLY thing on this list that might work well is the first bullet about jar and bottle opening. But, the jar lid has to be pretty small to get enough of a grip and it might well just slide off.

I have never had a Wikki Stix stick well enough to hold watches, jewelry, or eyeglasses together. Those items need to go in a secure pocket until they can be repaired properly. A Wikki Stix will give you a false sense of security and probably result in a lost item.

My personal pet peeve was bullet 3 – sports equipment. If the grip is wearing out on your tennis racket/golf club/hockey stick/or other item with a replaceable grip, please do not use a Wikki Stix. It will not hold and then you will have a projectile which could be causing more damage. Just set it aside until it can be regripped or replaced.

Lumping bullets 4, 5, 6, and 9 together, Wikki Stix are not nearly sticky enough to secure anything, fetch something from out of reach (let alone when a little dust enters the picture), or organize metal objects. Maybe they are much stickier when they leave the factory. But, they are not that sticky when one first opens the package and they get less stick as they age.

Finally, the around the house and holiday categories are a mixed bag. Yes, they do stick to paper, but probably not long enough to trust an important date on a wall calendar to one. Gravity will likely win. Using them as twist ties seems sketchy at best. Securing a candle might work. And, as for wine glass identification, it is better than nothing.

But, I think the real point here is that this list goes overboard in the name of Recycling. It gives Recycling a bad name because it tries so hard to come up with obviously flawed ways to avoid throwing Wikki Stix away. “If the kids have outgrown their Wikki Stix” (and they are actually still sticky, of reasonable length, and reasonably straight), offer them to another family or preschool program. Attempting to do anything on the Recycling note will only result in frustration.

I think its too bad Wikki Stix feels a need to include such a note with their product. Some products should be reused/recycled. Some products should be replaced with reuseable/recycleable alternatives. But Wikki Stix are comparable to play dough. When they’re done they’re done and one shouldn’t feel bad about letting go.

The Week in Review – Week 2, 2018

16 Tuesday Jan 2018

Posted by Nora in Accomplishments, Family, Home

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To say not much got done last week is not exactly correct. But, going to the grocery store so many times really did eat into my ability to do much of anything else. I’ll have to turn that around this week.

We were able to get into a more typical winter weekly schedule though.

Our oldest had two sports conditioning session plus three baseball sessions.
The youngest had gym class.
Our twins had their first ski lessons of the winter after last week was postponed due to snow.
Our oldest went tubing on a school half day.
We continued enjoying / setting up Christmas presents. The younger boys have loved the space pod so far; hopefully it will last despite being made of cardboard.

We had a few very warm rainy days that washed away almost all the snow. So, we used that opportunity to take down the outdoor Christmas decorations.
We put away both the indoor and outdoor Christmas decorations.
I added a few candles bought on Christmas sales to a candle holder we already had for the top shelf in the living room. It had been looking a bit bare, but I think this fills it in nicely.

I’ve been working my way through the kids clothes, moving pretty much everyone to the next size shirts and tossing items with holes. I’ve also used some post Christmas sales to add a few necessary pieces. The older four are done, just have to finish up the younger two.

Grocery Update & What We Ate – Week 2, 2018

15 Monday Jan 2018

Posted by Nora in Groceries, Menus

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For better or worse, I was at a grocery store just about every day this week. Not super efficient. Despite this the weekly total came in at $265.33, which is pretty good. I didn’t make up for last week, but stayed on par this week. There’s a lot of produce too, which is what I need to use the items from the freezer.

On Tuesday I spent $64.16 at Shaw’s. This was my monthly trip for oatmeal, pizza dough, and pizza cheese. But, while there I discovered that they were having an unadvertised sale that brought Russet potatoes under $0.20/lb so I bought 30 pounds of those also.

On Wednesday I spent $83.54 at Stop & Shop. There was quite a bit on sale that was useful for us and it was a double gas points week. Yes, I’m working through what is in the freezer, but the roast was 50% off. I don’t have a bottom round in the freezer and this is a good price. Plus we haven’t had beef stew yet this winter and I have lots of potatoes, carrots, and onions to use.

I spent $45.90 at Wegman’s on Thursday. The primary purpose was diapers, which I had misjudged our usage of. The salad (center) was free and I picked up a couple other items that, combined with what we already had at home, can complete our meal plan through this Friday.

On Saturday I had to go someplace very near a BJ’s so I stopped in there for milk plus a few items that the other BJ’s had been out of on last week’s trip. Hopefully this will be it for another month as it came to $60.44.

Finally, on Sunday I had an errand that took me near a Stop & Shop so I stopped in for a few items that were on sale. I’ll probably visit Stop & Shop again later in the week for more blueberries and cheese (that this store was out of yesterday). I spent $11.29. With a coupon the pasta was $0.44/box. The blueberries were buy one, get one free.

So how did we use all of this?

Monday:
Chili, corn bread

Tuesday:
Early: Chicken nuggets, broccoli
Late: Homemade pizza

Wednesday:
Braised pork, mashed potatoes, carrots

Thursday:
Early: Hot dogs, carrot sticks & cucumber slices
Late: Welsh rarebit

Friday:
Early: Leftovers
Late: Homemade pizza

Saturday:
Beef stew, oatmeal bread, carrot sticks

Sunday:
Lemon chicken, pan fried potatoes, broccoli

Fall 2017 Freezer Challenge Update

12 Friday Jan 2018

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freezer challenge

When I kicked this off in November, I mentioned that my goal was to use things up but not necessarily stop shopping. I’m attempting to meal plan around what I already have first and purchase what might be necessary to flesh this out.

So, how are we doing?

Meat:

~~2 packages of breakfast sausage (1 meal for us)~~
~~1 package of bacon~~
6 packages (3-4 per pk) of chicken thighs with bones & skin
1 5.5-lb package of chicken thighs with bones & skin (1 meal for us)
11 8 packages (2-3 per pk) of boneless, skinless chicken thighs
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
9 packages (4-5 per pk) of thin-sliced chicken breasts
3 lbs chicken wings
~~1 pork butt~~
~~1 package of pork tenderloin (thawing as I write for dinner this weekend)~~
3 3-lb chuck roasts
~~6 NY strip steaks – plain (we ate these with pesto last week)~~
~~1 package (6-8 per pk)~~ 4 of salmon filets
4 lbs of tilapia filets
7 5 lbs of ground turkey

This freezer does look better.

I’d say meat went pretty well as roughly half of it got used up. Considering it was the holiday season with special meals that don’t necessarily come from the freezer, this is not too bad. The other categories didn’t go as well.

Ingredients:

~~1 box of puff pastry~~ This went with the salmon.
Partial BJ’s bag of sliced almonds
Partial BJ’s bag of walnuts
7 1-cup packages of blueberries (these are ones we picked and I froze in vacuum bags)
~~1 cup diced red pepper~~ I made a batch of sous vide eggs with these.
9 basil-in-chicken-broth cubes
12 bags of egg whites, mix of 4-ct and 8-ct
3 8-oz blocks of cream cheese

Miscellaneous:

½ box of popsicles (not sure what is going to happen to this given that its about 20° outside now)
8 13 loaves of banana bread (since counting I thawed 2 and sent them as school snacks) Yes, I did use some as school snacks. But, I also got a container of yogurt for a Friday Freebie and this is my best use for yogurt. So, I made some more!
~~1 pan of sausage stuffing (was eaten for Thanksgiving)~~
18 servings of butternut squash ravioli (I might be off on this count as I didn’t remove everything from the freezer, but its a lot. These will be lunches for me.) I did eat a few, but I obviously didn’t count them all because there are still this many left!
2 loaves of gingerbread
~~1 package of fudge~~

I’m going to continue chipping away at this list, and like the pantry will provide another update in March before spring sports kick off.

Pantry Update – Jan 2018

11 Thursday Jan 2018

Posted by Nora in Groceries, Home

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pantry challenge

At the beginning of November I did a clean-up and reorganization of the pantry. At the end I listed a number of items that I needed to purposely use. Now, to be clear, none of these are really expiring. But, they are not necessarily things that we use frequently and they’ve been around a while.

So, here’s the list with updates.

Recipes:

1 jar of pesto, 1 package of sea salt, 1 package of sugar in the raw – These came in gift boxes. We can use all of them, it just needs to be conscious planning. I used about a third of the pesto with steak. People did like it so we’ll do that again until its gone. Now that its open I should get this used up. We haven’t touched the other items.
1 jar of clam juice – This was extra left over from the first time I tried a recipe. This recipe has been requested again so I should make it and finish this off. It would use up one of the boxes of puff pastry in the freezer (coming on that list) also. Made it again to use this up.
1 0.5 bag of marshmallows, ~~2.5~~ 1.5 boxes of graham crackers – Leftovers from summer s’mores. Its going to be cold this weekend, but ideally we’ll make s’mores one more time. That would use up the marshmallows and some of the graham crackers. I need some of the graham crackers for a key lime pie at Thanksgiving. After that we’ll have to see. Neither will keep well until next summer. We had smores on the last cold but possible night. The marshmallows I’ll use up in hot chocolate because it is definitely winter now. I also used a few graham crackers to make a crust for key lime pie. We were not fans of the crust recipe though so I’m not sure I’ll make it again.
4 3 pecan pumpkin quick bread mixes – We like this. I just need to remember to make them.
1 bag of Cape Cod potato chips – I found these on sale at Target over the summer so they should be eaten soon. I’ve been thinking of meatball subs to use up the provolone in the fridge and I think these would go nicely. Yes, did this.
2 single serve cups of pineapple tid-bits – I purchased a box of fruit cups that were half pineapple/half tropical fruit. Tropical fruit flies, but nobody wants to eat pineapple unless I put it in pineapple upside down cake. That will probably have to wait until after the holidays as there are so many fun holiday desserts to make.

I’ll eat them eventually:

10 5 single serve packages of plain oatmeal – These are leftover from when I needed pregnancy snacks. I need to finish them off, maybe some light lunches.
Dates, whole & chopped – I just need to remember they’re there.
3 2 single serve brownie mixes – These came from a Friday Freebie coupon. There were four in the box and I had one. It was ok. I will eventually eat the rest, but they’re not tasty enough to actually spend money on.

Kids snacks:

Ritz crackers, ~~veggie straws, Ruffles potato chips~~ – These are leftover summer pool snacks. These are all open and therefore need to be eaten soon. I will probably just send them to school as part of lunch/snack. Still need to remember the Ritz crackers.
6 pk chicken ramen – I bought these as snacks for the oldest. I need to introduce them to him, but he hasn’t been snacking as much as one might think for his size/age.
Whole almonds, whole cashews – The boys used to snack on these, but they haven’t recently. I cook with cashews occasionally so I’ll just need to plan to use these up. Not sure yet what to do with the almonds.
Coconut oil, dried apple rings – I had planned to make granola with these, but haven’t. Maybe I will actually get around to that.
2 packages of plain, microwave popcorn – Sounds like a snack for the kids, maybe with a movie on a cold winter day (like the holiday tomorrow which is supposed to be awfully cold relative to recent weather). Used for a movie one on of last week’s bitterly cold snow days.

I don’t feel like I need to add more to the list at this point. There are a few perishables that we need to consciously eat through:

1.5 packages of English muffins – I rarely buy these. But, did bite when it was buy 1, get 2 free. I realize I could freeze them if necessary.
50 lbs of Russet potatoes – These were under 20¢/pound last week plus I had a few on hand already. Again, I know they can be stored for a long time, but I don’t have a properly temperature-controlled space for long-term. That being said, we usually eat 3-4 pounds of potatoes with a meal so it should not be a problem to use them. Mindfulness really.
6 lbs of yellow onions – I was almost out and these were buy 1 get one free. So, more that I would normally buy, but its winter and lots of soups/stews/etc. call for onions so we should be able to use them up too.

Tomorrow I’ll update the current freezer situation. I’ll plan for a final update on both again in March before the catch as catch can meals of the summer sports season begin.

The Week in Review – Week 1, 2018

09 Tuesday Jan 2018

Posted by Nora in Accomplishments

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I changed the title. Not sure this one is great either, but accomplishments wasn’t exactly right. Sometimes things just happen vs being “accomplished.” This is one of those weeks.

The most notable thing this week was the snowstorm. We had 17 inches, well over forecast and tied for tops in our general region. Couple that with very low temperatures and winds and it was pretty miserable for a few days. Two days off school gave us extra time to play with the Christmas presents, cook, and otherwise hang out indoors. Thankfully we had no water or power issues.

The boys built some snow forts big enough to hold themselves.
I made two batches of cookies which finished off my free container of yogurt.

I signed up the middle four for swimming lessons next session. We usually take the winter off since nobody really wants to come out of swimming with wet heads into a cold, dark world. Then we jump back in for session four before taking the spring session off to focus on baseball and soccer.
The first skiing and little people gym classes of 2018 were cancelled because of the snow. We also lost a baseball practice.
The second baseball practice did happen – still very cold, but the snow had let up and driving was ok by this point.
I picked up a few yard sale items for the kids.
I went to a GNO. It was a new restaurant that I’d heard many people raving about. It was fine, but I’m not in a big hurry to go back.
I got all the Christmas wrapping/boxes/etc. packed up for this week’s trash pickup. Our pickup was delayed two days because of the holiday and snow. Plus there were still high winds when they did pick up so I put out the minimum possible lest trash be blowing all over the neighborhood. I imagine the trucks will be very full this week.

Grocery Update & What We Ate – Week 1, 2018

08 Monday Jan 2018

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Grocery Spending

This week did not get us off to a budget-friendly start. But, it did include the (roughly) monthly trip to BJ’s so it was never likely to come in low. Target is one thousand for the month, or a little under $250/week.

Let’s finish off 2017 first, though.

I started on Tuesday with a very small, $12.22 trip to Wegman’s.

Wednesday was the big day. I had planned to go to Target and BJ’s – last day for the BJ’s coupons and Target is almost next door. This got done. First, I spent $36.30 at Target. The Hershey’s bars were $0.10 on clearance while the holiday M&Ms were $1.90 each.

They I hopped over to BJ’s and spent $176.63. That brought my total to $225.15 right there.

Then, because we were forecast for 8-12 inches of snow on Thursday (and I had a bit of extra time before the preschool pickup) I decided to make two more small stops on Wednesday.

I grabbed $22.85 of mostly produce from the farm stand. Apparently I forgot to take a picture of this, but it comprised a bag of broccoli crowns, green beans, three pears, tomatoes, and dinner rolls.

Lastly I snuck in a very quick $35.14 at Stop & Shop.

And we settled in for the storm. Turns out we beat the forecast with 17 inches of snow and temps in the single to negative single digits over three days. Wind chills reached into the negative 30s; not typical for us at all. Since we did not lose power or have any significant issues apart from staying indoors, we did a fair amount of cooking and ate much of what you see above.

On Saturday, I decided to venture out for another small – $22.55 – trip to Wegman’s.

On Sunday, I attended a GNO at the mall during which I purchased $23.97 of clearance holiday foods. That brought my total to $329.66 for the week; $176.63 at BJ’s and $153.03 elsewhere.

The combination of the first partial week of the year and the snowstorm cancelling many things enabled many family dinners.

Monday:
Early: Leftover rib roast, mashed potatoes
Late: Take-out Chinese

Tuesday:
Meatball subs, tater tots, carrot sticks

Wednesday:
Leg of lamb, baked potato, green beans, rolls

Thursday:
Beef barley soup, beer bread

Friday:
Early: Macaroni & cheese, brocolli
Late: Homemade pizza

Saturday:
Pork carnitas, pico de gallo, corn

Sunday (I was out.):
Take-out pizza