Sunday Sunshine: Birthdays & Goals

This week our home has been graced by family and friends, many the same who gathered on these days a year ago following the birth of our daughter.  This week we celebrated her first birthday.  She is healthy, learning things a mile a minute and such a happy little girl.  I can not imagine my world without her!  I am blessed by those who have supported us through this first year and are an active part of her life.  I'm especially blessed by the love and support and good relationships with family.

This week also has brought more sunshine and budget goals that were met.  My front porch and sewing area are stacked with supplies for bean bag chairs and I'm happy to get some sewing time this afternoon to work on them.

Tomorrow is a new month, new goals, new challenges.  Today, I have all that I need.

Eat from the Pantry Challenge Wrap-Up

So back at the beginning of the month, I took on the Eat From the Pantry Challenge. This is the first time I've taken part of this type of challenge and I have to say, it was a great experience.  For me, having my goals in mind as I was making decisions regarding our groceries throughout the month was a huge challenge.  It helped me to make decisions against impulse items and against purchases of things I would normally stock, but that we really didn't need right now. I set four specific goals and here's how it worked out.  Check back tomorrow for my February Kitchen Goals!

Goal #1: Shave $50 off the Grocery spending for the month.

Success! At the end of the month, we were under budget on groceries by $51.48

Goal #2 - Only 3 grocery stops after the big shopping at the beginning of the month.

I ended up with 4 grocery stops including a quick stop for milk and a quick grocery store stop for snacks while we were out for an unexpected chunk of errands.

Goal #3 - Batch Cooking once a week.

Success! The first couple weeks it was replenishing my baked goods in the freezer, then the Corned Beef & Cabbage stew, Minestrone, Marinara & Lasagnas.

Goal #4 - Split extra grocery money between our local Food Pantry and Summer Produce Fund

Done and Done

Calzones

Freezer Friday: Italian Cooking Day

I'm more of a "cook some extra" every week rather than a "take a full day to fill the freezer" batch cook.  On Wednesday, I started HV Marinara with the plan to make Lasagnas.  That went off beautifully.  I had one large Lasagna that went to the fridge to be used for a family gathering on Saturday.  Two small Lasagnas ended up in the freezer alongside three containers of Marinara. 

I had planned to have pasta and meatballs for dinner.  But, as I finished up the Lasagnas, I had extra cheese filling.  I decided that Calzones would be the perfect destination and a much better dinner choice!  So I whipped up some dough, added sliced up meat and baked them up.  I rolled the dough a little too thin so they leaked but they were delicious!

I will post the Lasagna and Calzone recipes next week - for today is Birthday Cake Day - GBaby is 1!  Next week I do plan a Chicken cooking day including broth, "cream of" soup mix and Chicken Pot Pie Filling.  Stay tuned!