A Little About How I Plan Meals

Slugmama asked yesterday what our meals were like on the $42 I spent on groceries last week. Good question, and reminds me that I used post my weekly meal plans here until I decided that, while I had the best of intentions, posted meal plans either cost me money or caused me to lie.

If I planned well-balanced and appealing meals with lots of variety, and stuck to them religiously, they often cost me more than if I improvised with whatever we already had on hand and used up all our leftovers.  While I'm perfectly comfortable serving chicken five times in the same week or serving leftover refried beans with spaghetti and meatballs, I'm not always comfortable publishing menus like that.

But if I don't publish menus like that, when they happen, then I feel like I'm lying.

So I just quit posting my weekly menus altogether.

Anyway, back to Sluggy's question (and my very wordy answer).  What are meals like around here on $42 a week?  Let's start with breakfast, because it's almost non-existent around here.  Shane doesn't eat breakfast most mornings.  Like me, he has little appetite that early in the day.  I have just recently been trying to put some food in my stomach in the mornings.  When I do eat, it's usually oatmeal with yogurt or just some buttered toast with coffee.  Kat is our only breakfast eater, and she usually has eggs, pancakes, occasionally a bowl of boxed cereal or maybe even a slice of pizza.  She might have toast or fruit to go with these.  I might actually make a traditional breakfast on the weekend about once a month.

Lunches are a little more substantial.  Shane makes his own lunches, usually sandwiches or whatever leftovers he can eat that don't require being heated first.  Kat will either buy lunch at school (a couple times a week, maybe) or I pack her lunch.  A typical lunch would be a half sandwich (turkey, tuna, pbj, etc.), some chips or pretzels, some fruit or veggie sticks, a string cheese or some yogurt and either water or homemade gatorade.  I either eat dinner leftovers for lunch or I snack on whatever is in the fridge throughout the day.  On weekends, we eat leftovers or I make a quick lunch of some kind, usually egg-based.

That leaves supper, which is the only meal I actually plan.  I plan my meals, usually on Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning for the following week, by first checking to see what we already have in the freezer or the pantry and basing meals (especially the main dishes) around what I find.  If chicken is the only meat in the freezer and dry beans are the only protein in the pantry, then those are the only things we'll have the next week.  This is not a big deal, because I plan for leftovers anyway.  After I have the mains planned, I fill in with side dishes which consist of a starch of some kind, a fruit or veggie I know that Kat will eat, another veggie that she might or might not eat (but must at least try) and maybe some extras like garlic toast or biscuits or a dessert.  I also like to serve homemade pickles and relishes as extras.

Then I make out my grocery list of things I need to "fulfill" these planned menus, checking my list against the Wednesday grocery ads to see if what I need is on sale. If not, is there is something that is on sale that I can substitute?  Finally, with some or all of the money I have left in my weekly grocery budget, I'll stock up on other sale items, especially meats.  These stock-ups will be used for future weeks' menus.  This is how I never pay more than $1/lb for poultry or sausage, $2/lb for pork, bacon, ham and most beef (except occasional steaks), or $4.50/lb for seafood.  The weekly ads start on Wednesday here, but any special sales usually start on Thursday or Friday, so I usually wait until those days to do my shopping. 

Another thing I do religiously is to cook big so that there are leftovers.  We love leftovers here, and it saves a lot of time in the kitchen.  My typical week will consist of three "new" meals, three leftover meals and one super-easy meal like sandwiches, fish sticks with mac-n-cheese, or a mystery-shopped pizza.  Occasionally we'll have a snack night or we might even go out to eat.

OK, so after rambling on for so long, here is what we ate for supper last week:

Chicken soft tacos with toppings, cream cheese corn with green chiles, salsa green beans, tortilla chips x 2
Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, lettuce salad, green beans with carrot strips and mushrooms x 2
Homemade pizzas (1 ham, 1 hamburger, 1 Italian sausage and veggie), lettuce salad, grapes x 2
Franks and beans over slices of homemade bread, lettuce salad x 1

And what we'll eat for supper this week:

Roast turkey, mashed potatoes with gravy, corn, homemade cranberry sauce, stuffing, lettuce salad x 2*
Turkey and veggie pot pie, lettuce salad, grapes x 2
Roast beef with potatoes and carrots, green beans, applesauce x 2*
Leftover roast beef enchiladas, Mexican rice, lettuce salad, applesauce x 1

As you can see, no one goes hungry around here.  :)


* Depending on how much meat I can get from the turkey, the roast beef meals may be bumped to next week, with more turkey meals in their place.

Our Leftovers Have Leftovers!

Hope everyone had a nice holiday weekend! I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm ready for tomorrow to arrive and for things to get back to normal.

We hosted a small crowd here for Thanksgiving...my daughter and son-in-law, my parents and my older brother. I like to send leftovers home with my guests so they don't have to scrounge their supper, so between the main meal and the leftover packages, an entire turkey was consumed.

Never fear...Shane deep-fried a second one so we could have our own leftovers. I wound up with about 12 cups of diced turkey, enough sliced turkey for a couple rounds of sandwiches, and 5 quarts of rich turkey stock!

Whether you still have leftovers in the fridge or you just want to plan ahead for the next turkey-centric meal, here is the list of dishes on my use-it-up list:

Turkey Stuffed Shells. The better the gravy, the better this dish will turn out. We enjoyed it a lot and although I cut the amount of filling in half, we had enough for two meals. (leftovers of our leftovers)

Turkey Nachos. I got the idea from the link, but when it came time to put it all together, I opted to use the seasoned turkey to build individual taco salads. It was a nice change from the turkey and dressing flavors.

Cold Turkey Sammies. I'm a bit of a purest when it comes to turkey sandwiches. All I want on mine is turkey, mayo and dill pickle slices. Shane adds mustard and cranberry sauce to his. Kat likes hers on leftover dinner rolls.

Turkey Enchiladas. I'll be subbing diced turkey for the ground beef in this recipe.

Turkey Noodle Soup. I'll be using some of the stock and some wide rolled dumplings to make soup.

Turkey Curry. Odd ingredients, but good reviews. Can't wait to try it.

Kentucky Hot Browns. A classic open-face turkey sandwich.

Turkey Pot Pie with Cranberry-Thyme Crust. I just found this recipe today and had to add it to my list.

Then, after all the bird recipes, I'm going to make a big juicy hunk of cow.

Stocked Up And Planned Out

I did something this weekend that I haven't done for quite a while. I made up an extended meal plan. I was feeling as if the freezers and pantry were stocked up and wanted to see just how well-stocked we are. I also wanted to plan specific (easy) meals around the day of and the days following my surgery on the 15th. I now have complete meals planned for the rest of October and main dishes roughed in for November.

Now, I used pencil and paper instead of chisel and stone, so I still have some flexibility. It will be easy enough to replace one chicken dish with another chicken dish if the mood hits me. I tend to overcook a little, so I planned for at least five nights each month to be "clean out the fridge" nights. If for some strange reason there are no leftovers on those nights, we always have eggs in the fridge for a quick sandwich or "breakfast for dinner" meal.

The summer months saw us going out to eat far more than usual (and far more than planned in our budget) so I've planned for only one restaurant meal in the next two months, on Shane's birthday. We'll also be eating away from home on the night of my daughter's wedding reception (they married in July in a simple ceremony, but are having their marriage celebration this month).

Planning meals for a week was been difficult for me lately, so you'd think planning for a couple of months would have been daunting. It wasn't, though. I was in the right frame of mind, had a free couple of hours and it all just fell together for me this time. Come December, I'll probably be doing well to get a full week's worth of suppers planned, but it's a good feeling to know that for the next several weeks, figuring out what's for dinner is going to be a no-brainer.

Meat As An Ingredient

One great way to stretch food dollars is to use meat as an ingredient instead of as the main entree. Small amounts of meat added to casseroles, soups, pastas, stir-fries, and skillets will satisfy the craving for meat without breaking the budget.

Before we went camping over the Labor Day weekend, I bought a small ham that weighed about 2-1/2 pounds. My thoughts were that we'd eat it on sandwiches for our lunches while camping. When that didn't happen, I decided to see how far I could stretch that small ham by using it as an ingredient. In my opinion, ham isn't quite as versatile as ground beef or chicken, but it was still easy to come up with ideas. By the time that little ham was gone I'd made:

Au Gratin Potatoes with Ham (4+ servings)
Ham and Potato Baked Chimichangas (4 servings)
Spicy Ham and Beans over Rice (4 servings)
Ham and Cheese Quiche (4 servings)
Ham-Seasoned Green Beans (side dish - 4 servings)

And I still have enough left for ham sandwiches for lunch tomorrow. That's a lot from such a small piece of ham! All of our meals were filling, and none of us missed having a big slab of meat on our plates...not even Shane.

Here are the recipes, and pictures when I remembered to take them:



Au Gratin Potatoes with Ham


8 medium potatoes, peeled if desired and sliced
3 Tablespoons corn starch
1 teaspoon dry onion flakes
3 cups milk
salt and pepper to taste
1-1/2 cup shredded cheddar or co-jack cheese, divided
1 cup (or more) diced cooked ham

Place sliced potatoes in pan and cover with water. Bring to a boil and cook for three minutes; drain.

While potatoes cook, make sauce by placing cornstarch and dry onion flakes in a saucepan and adding milk gradually, whisking until smooth. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until sauce thickens. Remove from heat and stir in 1 cup of shredded cheese until melted and smooth.

Heat oven to 350°F.

Pour about 1/2 cup of sauce into 13x9 baking dish that has been sprayed with pan spray. Layer half of the potatoes in the prepare dished. Sprinkle diced ham evenly over potatoes and spread half of the sauce over all. Layer remaining potatoes and pour remaining sauce over, spreading to coat all potato pieces.

Cover with foil and bake for about 30 minutes or until potatoes are fork tender. Remove foil, sprinkle potatoes with remaining 1/2 cup of cheese and return to oven until cheese has melted, allowing cheese to brown if desired.

Makes 6-8 servings.



Crispy Baked Ham and Potato Chimichangas


2 cups (or so) of leftover au gratin potatoes with ham
1 cup additional diced ham
1 cup shredded cheddar or co-jack cheese
8 large flour tortillas
2-4 Tablespoons butter, melted
Taco sauce, salsa and sour cream as desired

Heat oven to 350°F. Spray 13x9 baking dish with pan spray.

Combine leftover au gratin potatoes with additional ham and shredded cheese. Divide filling evenly among 8 flour tortillas. Fold sides of tortillas to the middle and then roll burrito-style. Place seam down in prepared baking dish.

Brush rolled tortillas with melted butter. Use as much as you dare; the more butter, the crispier and flakier the tortillas.

Bake for approximately 25 minutes or until chimichangas are golden brown.

Top with salsa and sour cream if desired.

Makes 4 servings (2 chimis each)

NOTE: These are very good for breakfast as well.



Spicy Ham and Beans over Rice


1 cup dry beans of your choice (I used adzuki beans)
1/4 teaspoon salt
dash pepper
1/2 to 3/4 cup diced ham
cooked rice
chili paste, hot sauce, or picante sauce of your choice
other toppings as desired (shredded cheese, sour cream, ranch dressing, etc.)

Rinse beans with water; drain. Place in medium sauce pan along with salt, pepper, ham and enough water to cover by 1". Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until beans are tender. Time will vary depending on type and freshness of beans.

When beans are tender, taste for seasoning. The ham should make them salty enough, but add more if desired.

Serve hot over cooked rice, stirring in "heat" (chili paste, etc.) as desired. Top with additional toppings.

Makes 4 servings



Ham and Cheese Quiche

3 or 4 large eggs (I like firmer quiche, so I used 4 eggs)
3/4 cup half-and-half or milk
1 cup shredded cheese, such as cheddar or co-jack
1 cup diced ham
2 Tablespoons finely chopped onion
1/4 teaspoon salt
dash pepper
dash nutmeg
1 8-inch or 9-inch pie crust (homemade, refrigerated or frozen)

Heat oven to 350°F.

Break eggs into large bowl and beat well. Whisk in half-and-half until well-combined. Stir in remaining ingredients and pour into unbaked pie shell.

Bake at 350°F. for about 40 minutes or until knife inserted near center of quiche comes out clean.

Serve hot or at room temperature.

Makes 4 servings.



Ham-Seasoned Green Beans

2 cans green beans (or equivalent frozen)
1/4-1/3 cup diced cooked ham
2 tablespoons finely diced onion
pepper to taste
pinch of sugar

Drain one can of green beans, but keep the liquid from the other. (If using frozen, add enough water to cover all green beans by about 1/2 an inch.) Add remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to very low, cover and simmer for about 10 minutes.

Beef Pot Pie from Leftover Roast

The roast I made on Sunday is stretching a lot farther than I expected. Some folks might see this as boring leftovers, but I see it as almost-free meals and a break from the kitchen. I love to cook, but I enjoy a break from it now and then.

Sunday we ate the meat as traditional roast beef with potatoes and carrots. On Monday I used some of the meat, veggies and broth to make a beef pot pie. We ate pot pie again last night, so I'll be moving the steak dinner I had planned to next week's menu. There is still a large piece of pot pie left that I'll probably eat for lunch today and tomorrow.

I still have some meat, veggies and little broth left in the fridge. I think the potatoes and carrots will end up in my "soup jar" in the freezer, but I'm not sure what I'll do with the bits of beef. I'm thinking of adding it to some tomatoes and fresh basil to make some kind of beef bruschetta, or I might use it to "beef up" the meatless pasta dish I have planned for tomorrow night.

Meanwhile, here's the "recipe" for the pot pie. It's more method than recipe; I just threw things together and estimated how much as I was writing it down for the blog. I used my "never fail" pie crust. It has an egg and a tablespoon of vinegar in it. I'm not sure just what they do to enhance the crust, but it truly never fails.


Annie's Beef Pot Pie

Filling:

1 stick butter
3/4 cup flour
4 to 5 cups beef broth (leftover from roast beef*)
Kitchen Bouquet or other browning sauce (optional)
1 cup cooked potatoes and carrots (leftover from roast beef)
2 cups chopped cooked roast
odds and ends from fridge (I had about 1/4 cup green beans and 1/2 cup corn)

Melt butter in a large saucepan. Add flour and cook, stirring frequently, for several minutes until flour just starts to brown.


Add beef broth, stirring constantly. While continuing to stir, bring to a boil and cook for 1-2 minutes or until thickened. (I find it helpful to remove pan from heat to do the stirring, then return it to the heat to cook and thicken it.)


Stir in cooked meat and vegetables. The filling might look a little pale at this point. Stir in browning sauce to achieve a more appetizing color. Set filling aside until crust is made.


Line a 9x13 glass baking dish with crust. Add filling, then top with crust. Seal edges and cut vents. Bake at 350°F for about 40 minutes or until crust has browned as desired. Remove from oven and let sit for 5-10 minutes before cutting.


Crust:

2 cups flour (I used 1/2 cup whole wheat flour and 1-1/2 cups all-purpose)
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup cold butter, sliced into pieces
6 tablespoons ice cold water
1 egg
1 tablespoon white or cider vinegar

Combine flour and salt, then cut butter into flour until mixture resembles small crumbs (I use a food processor for this).

In a small bowl, beat egg with water and vinegar.

Add egg mixture to flour mixture, stirring until a soft dough forms. Roll dough on well-floured surface.

After making pie, collect any scraps and leftover dough together. Wrap with plastic wrap and freeze for future use.

*Instead of using the oven, I made the roast in the Crock Pot and had a LOT of broth since so little of it cooked away. You can use canned broth if necessary, but you may need to season the filling with additional salt, pepper, thyme, etc.

Weekly Menu - May 24 through May 30

I'm not here. I'm either enjoying the last day of my camping weekend or I'm packing up to get ready to head home, depending on the weather and our mood in general.

But through the wonders of Blogger's pre-scheduled posting, my menu is here, including another yummy-looking recipe from Pastor Ryan via the Pioneer Woman Cooks website. I'm looking forward to Wednesday!

There are also a couple of recipes from fellow Missourian, Heidi, at Tried and True Cooking with Heidi.


Sunday and Monday, 5/24 and 5/25: To be determined.

Our meals will depend on whether we leave the campground on Sunday or Monday. The night we return we'll just have leftovers from camping, since we always seem to take more than enough food with us. The other night, whether at camp or at home, we'll have some steaks on the grill, some kind of potato, and probably corn on the cob.

Tuesday, 5/26: Country-Style Pork Ribs on the Grill, Roasted Herbed Potatoes, Homemade Creamed Corn, Salad

Wednesday, 5/27: Cajun Meatloaf, Mashed Potatoes, Herbed Peas with Julienne Carrots, Salad

Thursday, 5/28: Firecracker Shrimp, Rice Casserole (from the freezer), Green Beans

Friday, 5/29: Pasta with Sauce (meatless, probably), Garlic Toast or Bread Sticks, Italian Brussels Sprout, Corn

Saturday, 5/30: Leftover Cajun Meatloaf on Toasted French Bread, French Fries, Salad

Weekly Menu - April 19 through April 25

Back in late November when turkey was on sale I bought a couple of extras. This week I'll be cooking one of them. I'll oven-roast it instead of having Shane deep-fry it like he did on Thanksgiving. Naturally, we'll be having a lot of turkey leftovers this week, too.


Sunday, 4/19 - Ham and Cheese Sandwiches, Chips

We were finally able to use our gift certificate to CoCo Key Indoor Water Resort that I'd bought as a family Christmas gift. We took two of Kat's cousins along with us and we all had a great time. We ate a late lunch there, so I kept supper simple with sandwiches and chips.


Monday, 4/20 - Turkey, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy, Green Beans with Julienne Carrots, Cranberry Sauce and (maybe) Homemade Rolls


Tuesday, 4/21 - Round 2 of the Turkey Feast


Wednesday, 4/22 - Turkey Panini (with lettuce, tomato, onion, olives, etc.), Salad, Turkey Noodle Soup

Thursday, 4/23 - Turkey and Black Bean Enchiladas, Salad, Mexican Rice (or this recipe)

Friday, 4/24 - Enchilada Leftovers

Saturday, 4/25 - Kung Pao Shrimp, Veggie Egg Rolls, Steamed Rice

This meal was on last week's menu, but I had plenty of leftovers from the Easter ham and didn't need to make it.

Two Meals from One - Fajita Soup

Last Friday I made some wonderful steak and shrimp fajitas for my family. Once I'd finished cooking the beef and shrimp in the fajita marinade and moving it to the serving platter, I saw that I had about a cup of very flavorful broth in the bottom of the pan.

Not one to waste all that flavor, I turned it into a nice fajita soup by adding this and that from the pantry and freezer.

Annie's Fajita Soup

1 cup fajita flavored broth (leftover from cooking marinated beef and shrimp in a large skillet)
3 cups water
1 cup cooked beans (pinto or red)
1 cup frozen kernel corn
1 cup cooked ground beef (or as much as you like)
1/2 cup salsa (or to taste)

Combine all ingredients and cook until heated through. If you like, you can cut flour tortillas into thin strips and stir into simmering soup to make noodles. Or add corn chips, then top with cheese, sour cream or guacamole.

Makes 1 quart of soup.

Impromptu Lunch

Asparagus is one of my favorite vegetables. It is in season and has been inexpensive at the grocery stores recently, so I've been buying it often.

I had a few spears in the fridge, and a Roma tomato that needed to be eaten soon, so I combined them for lunch. I broke the asparagus into pieces and sauteed it in a tablespoon or two of olive oil just until it began to get tender. I tossed in some diced tomato and a generous sprinkling of Cavender's Greek Seasoning (you could use seasoned salt) and some additional black pepper.

I had some leftover mashed potatoes in the fridge, also, so I warmed those in the microwave, then spooned the asparagus and tomato mixture over them. I topped it all with a generous amount of shredded cheddar cheese for both flavor and a calcium boost.

Although I don't usually think of mashed potatoes as a base for anything but gravy, this lunch turned out to be very flavorful and satisfying.

I think I will make the asparagus and tomatoes again, either serving them alone or as a light sauce for pasta.

Product Review: Debbie Meyer Bread Bags

I've had great results with the Debbie Meyer Green Bags I bought earlier this summer. They do such an amazing job keeping produce fresh, that I'm always dumbfounded when I see a review that says they don't work. I've been very careful with the 20 bags I purchased and I'm sure I've used them all more than the suggested 10 times and they continue to work as well as they did when I first bought them.

With the success I've had with the Green Bags, it should be no surprise that I have also purchased the Debbie Meyer Bread Bags. They are used in much the same way as the Green Bags. You can store one type of bread per bag (which are translucent white), folding under the tops of the bags. Although the directions say it isn't necessary, I clip the Bread Bags closed with a clothespin just as I do with the Green Bags.

So far, so good. I opened hot dog buns last Sunday, and today they are still soft and fresh-tasting.

A loaf of regular, store-bought oat bran sandwich bread also went into a bag last Sunday, after having been taken from our freezer and opened the previous Friday. I used the last piece today, a week later, and like the buns, it was still soft and fresh.

I put some bratwurst buns in another Bread Bag last Sunday as well. They had come from the grocery store bakery, and had been both frozen and thawed here at home before they went into the Bread Bag. They, too, still taste and look great. There are only two left, and I plan to use them as my "test subject" to see just how long they will stay edible. I'll update you on my experiment once it's complete.

What I haven't done yet is try the bags with any of the homemade breads I bake. Those will be the true test, as homemade breads tend to dry out and go stale more quickly, at least in my opinion.

The links here are to sites where you can order online, but I found mine at Bed, Bath & Beyond for the same price and no shipping charges. In case you're wondering, this isn't a paid advertisement of any kind. It's just my opinion of a product that works. Debbie Meyer Bread Bags get the Real Life Seal of Approval!

My Breakfast Today

What? I couldn't help myself.

And yes, I do put mayo on my burgers. Don't you?

Campground Cooking

The one thing you should count on when camping is that you can't count on anything! This seems to apply to campground cooking more than anything else.

Cooking at camp is a whole different beast than cooking at home. While almost anything you cook at home can be made at camp, if you have the right equipment, the method is different. Some foods cook faster over a fire or charcoal, while others cook more slowly. Timing needs to be adjusted accordingly. Hiking, swimming and other activities can increase appetites, while lazing around camp or spending hours in the hot sun can decrease it. So, food amounts need to be adjusted accordingly. An unexpected turn in the weather or just having too much fun to stop and eat can wreak havoc on even the loosest of meal schedules.

Just like at home, too many hot dogs or cold sandwiches get boring in a hurry. So I try to serve a variety of foods when we camp, without including too much junk food (although there is always plenty of that, too). I try to do as much as I can at home before we leave, including making meat into patties, portioning dry ingredients so I don't have to measure anything at camp, and making potato and pasta salads ahead of time. I have to admit, I didn't do as well as usual with the prepping this trip.

With all that in mind, here's how our weekend played out:

Friday night went just as planned. After we got to camp, looked around a bit and set everything up, we had a typical campground meal of hot dogs and bratwursts on the grill, some ready-made macaroni salad, some baked beans I made ahead, and chips and dip. We had soda, water and/or beer to drink. Yes, we take our own grill; campsite grills are often hard to adjust, broken or missing altogether.

Saturday morning was a different story. We woke to a downpour. We quickly moved everything into the tent or under the picnic table to stay dry. Instead of the big breakfast I'd hoped to cook, we took off in the van for a while. Despite the rain, there were many homes around the lake holding garage sales, so we went to some of those. One church that was having a sale was also holding a fund-raiser biscuits and gravy breakfast, so we ate there. Good stuff!

After the rain, we went back to camp. The plan was to eat turkey and cheese sandwiches, but there were enough hot dogs and brats leftover from the night before that we ate those along with some bananas and some chips and dip. Soda, water and tea were the drinks.

We took a long hike Saturday afternoon and arrived back at camp starving. The menu was meatloaf patties on the grill, potatoes "baked" on the grill, and roasted corn on the cob.





To speed things up (we were hungry!), I used the camp stove to make chunky hash browns with bacon and chives instead of baking the potatoes, and I simmered the corn on the propane stove, too. Again we had soda, water and/or beer to drink.




We followed the meal up with some Jiffy Pop popcorn. The directions say you shouldn't cook it on a charcoal grill...






but as you can see, ours turned out fine that way.







Sunday's breakfast was going to be scrambled eggs (boiled in a Ziploc bag for ease), bacon and toast. Instead, I fell back on Saturday's plan for sausage patties with stewed apples and pancakes, with some good strong campfire coffee and milk. But somehow I forgot the pancake mix. I remember setting it on the kitchen counter at home, but it never made it to the campsite. So we had toast instead. There was plenty of apple juice left to go with our meal, too.

Our tradition at this campground has been to lunch eat at Becky's Cafe. It's at the top of the lake road on our way out. Becky serves the biggest and best tenderloin sandwich I've ever seen. For just $5.00, she'll serve a whole tenderloin, cut in half and placed on two plates. The halves are still plate-sized!! All that and a bag of chips, because frankly, it would be hard to find room for French fries. She also offers up great service. She must seat thousands of customers over the summer, but she'll remember you even if you're only there once a year! Sadly...we broke tradition this year by not stopping at Becky's. We were just too full from breakfast.

We headed up the road to my parents for a quick visit. Shane and I were still full, but Kat snacked on several things her great-grandma had on hand. I have to say camping must have agreed with Kat; I've never known her have such a good appetite.

By the time we got home Sunday night, we were hungry again. This is when I can really appreciate some good leftovers. We pulled anything and everything that was left in our coolers and chuck box, and had a buffet supper! The last of the leftovers was our lunch on Monday.

And Monday evening, after getting everything unloaded and unpacked? Well, we ordered a pizza, of course!

TV Dinners, They Really Can't Be Beat

Anyone remember that ZZ Top song? It's been stuck in my head for a week.

I'll be going back to work tomorrow, and I'll have just 30 minutes for lunch. Because of where I'll be working (IRS), there's no way I can get to my van, out for food and back through security in half an hour. There is a cafeteria on-site, but there's no way I'm going to pay government prices for a meal. Instead, I'll be taking my lunch.

Sandwiches are fine a couple of days a week, but I like a hot lunch, so I've been making up as many homemade TV dinners as I can. The one in the picture is pork loin with mushroom gravy and mashed potatoes. I'll add a cookie and a piece of fruit and call it a meal.

Most things freeze just fine, and I've learned that putting a little bit of plastic wrap right on the food will keep it from getting freezer burn or forming ice crystals. I just take the plastic off before I heat the food in the microwave.

When there aren't any leftovers? I keep cooked rice in 2-cup portions in the refrigerator or freezer. It only takes an egg, a bit of frozen mixed veggies and few minutes to turn it into fried rice. Cheap, filling and tasty.

By taking my lunch, I figure can save between $20 and $40 a week over buying my lunch in the cafeteria. My homemade lunches are practically free, since they are usually from leftovers I hadn't planned on having available in the first place.