When Shannon fires up the smoker we have food for weeks. The trouble is that I need to make sure we eat it or store it before it goes bad. While we usually have sandwiches and pulled pork tacos, after a few days we have all had enough. This time I tried something different with the extra pulled pork and used it instead of ground beef in chili.

I had frozen the pork and pulled it out the other day for my chili; I made it the same as I usually do just with pulled pork. It was really good. I had so much chili that not only did we have it for dinner two nights, but I was also able to can six quarts for use later. I think that when I pull it out to use I will add some extra crushed tomatoes and chili beans since it is pretty thick, but I look forward to this easy, healthy meal when it is cold outside.

It has been a while! Good grief, I have not been my organized self in terms of meals since before Christmas, let's do this!

I am so ready for a little normalcy to my life again.  For those of you who have been asleep for the past month, we have been under the frigid vise of a polar vortex.  I was kind of trapped at home and I was basically okay with being there, but I did not make many trips to the grocery so our dinners were rather boring. 

The plan is to go shopping this evening and even if we are stuck at home for the next two weeks I will have interesting meals planned to feed my family.  

Here you go....

LINK TO FIRST WEEK OF RECIPES

LINK TO SECOND WEEK OF RECIPES

Now that Thanksgiving is over and we have a few weeks until Christmas we should focus on saving money and time and maybe a few calories.  

Make sure that you go out and buy all of your necessary items for the two weeks ahead of time so that you are not wasting time and money by visiting the grocery every day or every couple of days.  Stick to your list!! The biggest reason people spend too much at the grocery is that they buy things that are not needed, do not buy them.  I am telling you, I can buy enough groceries to feed my family of four for two weeks and spend around $100 - $150.  This amount includes organic milk and usually organic fruits and veggies, which always cost more.  

Do not be afraid to substitute in any of these recipes.  There are often nights that I will use different ingredients than what the recipe calls for and that is just fine.  Use ingredients that are low in fat, dairy products do not have to be the full fat versions and this saves a ton of calories.    If you do not like say black beans, but you do like pinto beans, well, use them.

Prep things ahead of time.  I cannot stress this enough.  I will chop and dice and slice ingredients a week ahead of time and then freeze or refrigerate until I am ready to use them.  Doing this makes coming home and preparing a meal much more enjoyable and leaves me with my sanity.

WEEK 6

WEEK 7

I know, the photo has nothing to do with Thanksgiving food, but I could not find one of my own photos that would work, I will take some good ones when I prepare all the yummies next week. I hope that some of the recipes that I am adding will inspire you to try something a little different and make your feast that much more feast worthy. 

Anyway, if you have been paying attention, you may have noticed that in the right bottom corner of each page of recipes there is a number.   Well, these numbers correspond to the table of contents that I have for each section of my cookbook.  If you are diligent enough and keep up with things you will be able to have a copy of everything.  I know, so exciting. Calm down, take a breath, it is only recipes.  I do promise you though that they are all fantastic and that if you keep up with me you will have a full binder of recipes.   In this OCD Binder is a section for everything!! OK , I am just going to start a page for all of this, I am doing it, you have convinced me.  Look for it!  I am always looking for more recipes to add to my obsession so please, if you have any that are worth sharing let me know. 

At some point I would like to make it so that it is an option for me to make some money off of this, but right now I am totally fine with sharing :) 


Link to Side Dishes #1 

Link to Side Dishes #2

Link to Desserts #1

Link to Desserts #2

Link to Desserts #3

Link to Appetizers

You are only getting one week of meals since Thanksgiving is next week and hopefully you will be eating lots of yummy leftovers.  If I have the time I will try to post some ideas for how to use those leftovers so you are not just eating turkey sandwiches every day.  

LINK TO WEEK 5 RECIPES

Two weeks are down and it is time for a couple more weeks of new recipes.  Did you try the first two weeks?  What did you think?  

I am going to the market for everything tonight so that I can make any preparations for the meals over the weekend.  I try to chop ingredients like onions and peppers and have them ready to go.  I often freeze the ingredients once they have been prepared (obviously you need to do this with some depending on how long it will be until you need them) and if I have extra of something I just go ahead and freeze that for later use.  

Onions are the worst for me.  I try to get them out of the way because no matter what I do I always end up with tears streaming down my face.  

I plan on updating this entry once I buy my ingredients and have everything in order, this way I can pass along any tips. 

Week 3

Week 4

11/10/2013

I managed to purchase all of the items necessary for these two weeks of meals for under $140.  Besides getting everything that I needed to feed the family, I also needed some Aleve (to help with all of the headaches caused by my Sweet Lily who seems to whine, cry, and have all-around bratty behavior about every 15 minutes), band-aids (for the "boo-boos" that always seem to need one), and extra organic milk.

Anyone who says that they cannot go to the market without spending a fortune on food is not doing a very good job when they make their list, and the key is sticking to the list.  I only bought 1 item that I did not have on my list and it was something that I had on it yesterday, but for some reason decided to remove.  

Most of the produce I purchased was organic, the bananas I got were not because the peel is removed before you eat them anyway.  I usually by the store brand for most of the things on my list, exceptions are peanut butter and bread (probably a few other things as well, but not many).  

One of the recipes calls for stew meat and I bought a roast instead and chunked it up myself once I got home.  Not only was this less expensive than the package of stew meat, but it will make two meals instead of one.  

I chop or slice peppers that I know I am not going to use right away and freeze them in bags so they are ready to go and will do the same with zucchini and other squash, tomatoes, carrots, you get the idea.  Having everything ready ahead of time just makes life so much easier.  Obviously I do not freeze any vegetables that will be used on something like a salad.

There you go, update after shopping.  Happy cooking everyone!

I have a serious problem when it comes to organizing things so they are exactly the way I want them.  This obsession with organization has led to me compiling a bunch of recipes into my own cookbook.  Recipes that I know I like, are relatively easy to make, and are easy to navigate.

Here is the basic layout:  Each page has five recipes on it so that you have five days of planned meals for the week and to the right of each recipe is a shopping list along with measurements.  I am about ready to start planning my meals two weeks at a time and I figured I would share this with anyone who cares.  Last year when I did this I would go to the market and buy the main components of the ten meals in one trip and ended up spending less than $150 each time.  I of course need to make small trips for fresh milk and produce, but planning things out really helped with grocery spending.  

So, this is what I plan on doing, I will post the two weeks worth of meals here ahead of time so you have time to do your shopping over the weekend.  If you do this with me let me know what you think about the meals and the process, things I can improve, suggestions for recipes, etc.   Make the recipes in any order you want, I used to stick to a set schedule, but realized that sometimes I did not feel like making what was planned.  Since then I just use the set recipes and make them in whatever order I choose.  

When using any of the recipes that I place on here remember that you can substitute ingredients.   If you do not eat ground beef then substitute ground turkey, chicken, or a vegetarian version; recipes are meant to be modified.   

I have other portions of the cookbook that focus on making your own mixes and spice blends for the pantry, desserts, sides, breakfasts, breads, and snacks, but I will begin with the meals. 

• Link to Recipes Week #1

 

• Link to Recipes Week #2