Thanksgiving mealplanning!

When I was a little girl, I used to dream about making Thanksgiving dinner for my whole family. Not the potluck kind, the kind where I do everything myself and wow everyone with my culinary skills and my ability to keep it all together.

Most little girls dream of fairy tales and weddings. I dreamed of stemware and poultry.

Last year, I did a pre-Thanksgiving dinner for my parents, who were in town the weekend prior. Emily and Kirby were still living in Del Rio, and Emily's friend Ann was in town as well. 

Last year's spread: Brined fresh turkey, sage and apple stuffing, gravy, cranberry orange sauce, sweet potato casserole, whiskey glazed carrots, mixed mashed potatoes

Emily was just starting to show with Lily in this photo. On actual Thanksgiving, it was just the four of us, and we had a much smaller turkey dinner. It was nice, and I had a blast arranging all the recipes. But it wasn't the same, since most of our family wasn't there.

But THIS year, we've convinced my mom and Mikey, Art's parents, Charlie, my Aunt Cathy and my Grandma Jean to all come down for the actual turkey day! And, believe it or not, they're all DRIVING the 24 hours from Dayton to Del Rio. Better them than me!

My brothers and their respective girlfriends, Dawn and Jamie, are currently on sibling probation for their absence. I will forgive them on Christmas. I think.

Anyway, here's what I've got on docket for this week, Thanksgiving recipes included. Links up where available!

Sunday:

• French onion sliced steak with Grueyere sauce and green beans Do you think they have Gruyere cheese in Del Rio? No. I'm using Swiss.

Monday:

• Roast chicken, broccoli with garlic, sweet potato biscuits

Tuesday:

• dinner out at one of the two non-chain restaurants in Del Rio (there's a third, but it's inedible)

Wednesday:

• Thanksgiving prep:
• Brine the turkey. I am extremely picky about my turkeys. I refuse to buy a frozen one, which means I can't get my turkey in Del Rio. The past two years we have ordered a free-range turkey from Whole Foods and driven the 6 hours round-trip to San Antonio to get it. Worth it!
• Make mashed potatoes and refrigerate (recipe: potatoes, cream cheese, salt, pepper.)
• Make stuffed mushroom stuffing and refrigerate separate from reserved mushroom caps for tomorrow's appetizer
• Make Roasted butternut squash soup and refrigerate
• Breakfast: Pumpkin Pie Smoothies
• Dinner: Braised chicken (Side note: This is from my old blog, and I wrote it just a few days after Art proposed. Ah, memories.)

Thursday:

• Breakfast: Art's pumpkin pancakes, turkey bacon, eggs
• Appetizers:
• Stuffed mushrooms (my own recipe... someday I'll post it!)
• Brie en Croute
• Thanksgiving dinner:
• Roasted turkey
• Gravy (someone else is doing this, maybe Grandma Jean. Gravy stumps me)
• Sweet potato casserole (Art's mom's recipe)
• Cornbread dressing with sausage and apples
• dinner rolls from the Kitchen Bible (best cookbook ever!)
• Roasted asparagus with tomatoes and parmesan
• Mashed potatoes
• Cranberry-orange sauce
• Dreamy apple pie with hard sauce
• Traditional pumpkin pie (made with PW's pie crust)

 I hope you all have a wonderful, blessed Thanksgiving!

Mealplanning for cheapstakes

The Bulls are on a budget.

A really, really tight budget.

Like, living off of less than one salary budget.

Without going into too much detail, the real estate market and the stock market have not been especially kind to us. And neither does getting invited to 23485834758924 weddings, showers, etc. with air fare at $500 a ticket or more.

Anyway, in short, our grocery budget just got cut in half. Or, I should say, my grocery budget just got cut in half. I refuse to compromise nutrition for cost, so I'm having to find ways to really stretch a buck while still eating healthy meals.

When I cook, here are things I keep in mind:
- MUST be high in protein and fiber
- MUST be delicious
- MUST not contain eggs or dairy other than cheese
- SHOULD be low in calories, fat, and carbs (side note: I'm never getting rid of my Oxford comma.)
- SHOULD be able to be brought for leftovers without reheating

I don't always stick to these guidelines, but most of the time I do. We eat a lot of chicken and vegetables, and only eat pasta once in a blue moon. I find almost all my recipes online, at either Gina's Skinny or The Foot Network. Sometimes, when I really want to splurge, I go to one of my cookbooks (The Kitchen Bible is my favorite!), Rachael Ray, or Pioneer Woman. I try to plan meals on Sunday and do my shopping the same day. I buy everything I'll need for the entire week so I don't have to go after school. I post the meals on a white board on our fridge, along with appointments and times Art will be home (if I know in advance, which I rarely do!) so I know when to have dinner ready. I don't include breakfast because we never really sit down to breakfast. I don't really love breakfast food and I can't eat eggs, so I usually just have some oatmeal or a protein shake and Art fends for himself.

Here's what we're eating on my FIRST week back to work! (No kids yet - they'll get there next Monday! Yikes!)

SUNDAY:

• Dinner: Crock Pot Santa Fe Chicken over salad greens (Caveat: This is the first time I will ever use a slowcooker. Will blog, for sure.)

MONDAY:

• Lunch: Leftover Santa Fe chicken salad
• Dinner: Garlic Lover's Roast Beef, steamed veggies, roasted herb mini potatoes

TUESDAY:

• Lunch: Beef Carpaccio
• Dinner: Thai Coconut Curry Shrimp over brown rice

WEDNESDAY:

• Lunch: deli sandwiches
• Dinner: Roasted herb chicken, Garlic Cheddar Biscuits

THURSDAY:

• Lunch: Leftover shredded chicken topped with bruschetta
• Dinner: Turkey Burgers with Zucchini, steamed veggies

FRIDAY:

• Lunch: deli sandwiches or leftovers
• Dinner: 1/2 frozen pizza (just for me)

SATURDAY: 

• Lunch: leftovers (just for me)
• Dinner: Lean Cuisine (just for me)

SUNDAY:

• Lunch: Lean Cuisine (just for me)
• Dinner: Scallop Piccata on Angel Hair

And for my sweet toothed husband... Black and White Chocolate Chip Clouds

What are YOU making this week?

Essential find.

So this morning at 9 a.m. I was on Pinterest, as I often am at 9 a.m., and I discovered this blog.

Stop. Are you on Pinterest? You should be. My name is amyellebull. Go find me.

Ok. Resume.

Anyway, I found Healthy Mama, Healthy Baby and, although the blog seemed like it would be of no use to me, she has about 7 million recipes for freezer meals! HEALTHY freezer meals with LITTLE OR NO sodium!! She spends about 3 hours one day a month just cooking and prepping for freezer meals for the entire month. I can't tell you how useful this is going to be for Art and I once the school year starts. I've shied away from learning how to use a crock pot because the only recipes I ever saw consisted of pouring a can of salsa or some kind of soup over chicken and letting it cook. I mean no offense if you cook this way, but that kind of thing just isn't my style. I'm perfectly content to spend 2 hours roasting a whole chicken and making everything from scratch if that's the healthiest, tastiest option.

But with these recipes, I can have healthy and tasty and easy! I cook mostly every day, but sometimes I run out of time or Art comes home too late, etc., and we have to resort to frozen pizzas, breakfast for dinner (ugh! I don't even like breakfast for breakfast!), or going out. I love that I have some new options now, and I totally love the idea of spending a few Saturdays (when we can't go out to the lake anymore, of course) immersed in cooking, and the rest of the Saturdays immersed in sewing.

Anyway, just thought I'd share! :)

Lazy mealplanning

I have a whiteboard on our refrigerator that I use to write important things for the week: when Art's going to be on cross country, when we have special plans like going out of town, when to expect Art home for dinner, etc. I try, really, to also put up what's for dinner that day, but due to math deployment (I'm back! More on that later) it's fallen by the wayside. Let me, however, tell you the main difference between my husband and me:

When I'm out of town, Art eats grilled chicken and steamed vegetables and works out twice as much.
When Art's out of town, I eat egg drop ramen, frozen pizza, and cereal and sew twice as much.

There. Now that mystery is solved.

Anyway, in my free moments today between working on things for my classes and trying to organize the house a little, I decided what we're going to eat this week, at least until Friday when Art goes--you guessed it--cross country. But when he's gone, I'll try to eat grilled chicken and steamed vegetables and work out twice as much. I really will.

Here's what's cookin' at the Bulls' this week...

Monday: Honey Butter Baked Chicken with Mashed Sweet Potatoes Sweet potatoes are in season in Del Rio right now and I know they are super healthy, so I bought a ton. This, combined with roast chicken, which should probably be named the Bull Family Dinner Standby, sounds delicious.

Tuesday: Venetian Shrimp and Scallops I can only buy shellfish frozen around these parts, but the frozen fish case at the commissary had some bay scallops that looked better than what I usually see at the Walmarts, so I bought them. I'm planning to serve this over basmati rice.

UPDATE: Made this last night (7/26), but, to make it healthier, served it over steamed spaghetti squash instead of rice to 86 the carbs. Have you discovered spaghetti squash yet? I live and die for pasta and actually don't miss it when I sub spaghetti squash. Try it! Oh, and I didn't add saffron. Who, pray tell, can afford saffron?! It was a killer recipe.

Wednesday: Chipotle Smashed Sweet Potatoes To accompany something on the grill, possibly pork chops or a pork loin? Maybe chicken breasts in the oven if Art comes home late, because I'm one of those wives that can't start a gas grill without fearing for my life. Our next one will be charcoal so I can feel like a contributing member of our marriage. What's that, you say? Lighting a gas grill is twice as easy as lighting a charcoal one, and if I can light charcoal, my silly irrational mind is the only thing stopping me from lighting a gas one? Yes, I know. I do everything backward. I also don't know how to use a crock pot, make pancakes or correctly sew on a button, but I bake my own bread and taught myself how to quilt. Hi.

Thursday: I don't have a plan for this day. Sometimes we hit one of the two sports bars in town for dinner on Thursdays, and sometimes we scavenge.

Then, it's just me and Peanut for the weekend! In an interesting turn of events, I'm taking the 8-12 mathematics exam on Saturday morning, just in case I'm teaching high school this year. Many things are up in the air right now with my job (fortunately, one of those things is not whether or not I'll have a job, I just don't know where or what yet!), so I'm kind of just reaching out for some insurance. C'est la vie!