This is the THIRD time I’ve contacted Lean Cuisine regarding. This has happened twice before. I take my lunches to work. At lunch time, I’m hungry. In to the breakroom I travel to unpack my Lena Cuisine Lasagna lunch and there is food outside of the container, on the sides and all over the inside of the box. Today it was a nice mess of frozen cheese and sauce that fell on the floor and junked up my hands. My eyes about rolled out of my head, as this wasn’t the first time, and it couldn’t have happened on a worse day. The last two times, they sent me coupons to replace my meal, which I am thankful for. Right now, though, as I am headachy, starving and consuming a possibly tainted meal, the idea of having it replaced by yet another free and possibly tainted mess of a meal doesn’t really do it for me, to be honest. The last two times I ditched the food, today I’m starving and willing to take the risk. I’m also about done purchasing from such a sloppy manufacturer.

I find that I’m able to pour myself into ONE task and do it well. Multiple tasks leave me in the center of a bunch of loose strings, and unordered, unfinished lists. One at a time I can do it like a pro: coupon, budget, clean, meal-plan. Try doing it all and I fall short. I wish I could create better balance because when one of those things is going well, the rest tend to be lacking. For example, I’m on a couponing bender. I find great deals, stock my shelves, am amazed at my abilities… but my house is a mess, my checkbook is scrambled and I can’t seem to put a meal on the table. Or, like this current run – I’m meal-planning, cooking, stocking my freezer… but my coupons are expiring, I need to balance my checkbook, and my house is a mess.

It’s frustrating. Maybe I need to cycle through and focus on one each week (since there’s about four). The problem is, I can’t clean once a month, or coupon once a month. Or balance the checkbook monthly (although that one might be the easiest to do). I need to find some order. Clearly. I’ll work on that.

In the meantime, I’ve been cooking, cooking and cooking, planning my meals and eating out way less (in the past week or so). That’s went well. I’ll focus on that.

Meatballs. Here’s some meatballs I made for this recipe for Meatball Minestrone Soup. The recipe called for some meatballs from Costco, but those ended up having soy protein in them (husband, allergy thing), so I made my own. I used 4lbs. of meat (3 beef, 2 pork), which gave me enough meatballs for 3 meals, including the soup for tonight. Having started this post prior, and now being in the post-eating stage, I can say a couple things about this meatball recipe:

1.) Do NOT sub the water for white wine, even if it sounds like a good idea at the time.

2.) This meatball recipe is WAY too bready for me. I’m going to have to get Frank’s nona’s recipe (again) instead of trying to do things “my” way. Her meatballs are the BEST.

Moving past the meatballs, the soup was a HIT.

It was super low maintenance with a fresh, tasty ending. I would serve this up for company, no doubt – it would be an easy make-ahead. I made this on a night that Frank was working overtime (he worked 4 last week). So glad I did. I grabbed frozen loaf of french bread from Costco (I freeze them and them zap them warm and crusty in the oven after defrosting – saves me many trips to the store for a loaf of crusty bread), served up the soup for the boys, and everyone ate.

So, yeah. Last week was a score as far as meal-planning went. On a busy Saturday spent 2 hours away for a soccer tournament, a lasagne made on one of my cooking sprees (I can’t find the dang recipe, either) came in handy. I took it out the night before, had the kids pop it in the oven as I was leaving the field, and they had a home-cooked meal while I went to book club. It was perfect. We didn’t eat out ONCE this entire week. Not even on pizza night Friday. It was a lot of work, but surely it saved time and money. There’s no way I could keep up with this every week though, which would be why it goes in  spurts for me.

“E” for Effort, though.

Yesterday we were going to have soup, but in the midst of all my planning, I overlooked that the fact that I needed to have started my dinner much earlier than one hour prior. You don’t know how badly I wanted to order out pizzas. So very bad. Instead I grabbed a box of frozen fish and made fish tacos. It wasn’t a huge box, and I happened to also have 4 chicken breasts leftover from my Monday madness cooking festival, so I used that as well. I also had a bag of coleslaw. Perfect! I managed to fit time in for a walk, and then I dug into dinner.

The coleslaw I made to go along with the tacos was very good, I have to add. I made it almost exactly to the “T” but naturally had to adapt with what I had and what sounded good to me. Note: These horrid pictures are brought to you by the letters i-P-o-d.

Fish Taco Slaw (based of this Taco Slaw recipe)

Ingredients
1 14oz. bag of raw cabbage slaw (mine had shredded carrot mixed in – this one)
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced
1/2 red onion, minced
7 baby carrots, chopped
3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
1.5 limes, juiced
2 tsp. sugar
salt and pepper (to taste)

Directions
Place everything in a large bowl except for the lime, sugar, salt and pepper. Mix. Squeeze lime over mixture, add sugar, salt, and pepper. Mix again. Let it sit in your fridge for about 20 minutes before eating.

As a side, I made some Mexi-rice. It’s super easy and tastes yummy. Warm tortilla topped with half a fish filet and some slaw (I had sour cream on one, too) – add the rice, and yum.

Yellow Mexi-Rice
2 cups long grain white rice
4 cups chicken broth (broth and bullion works well here)
1/2 – 1tsp garlic (depending on your like for garlic – I used about 1tsp.)
1/4 tsp. turmeric
about 1/2 cup chopped cilantro

Directions
Heat broth to a boil; add garlic, turmeric and cilantro. Add rice and stir. Cover, and cook for 15 min. or until liquid is absorbed (see package for directions). After it is done, turn off the heat and let it sit for 5-10 minutes (I usually remove the lid for 5 seconds to let some steam go first). Remove lid and fluff. Eat!

Pair this with a gin and tonic and you’ve got a delicious summertime dinner. Might not want to give the kids a G&T though. We ate our tacos, and watched the Brewers play baseball. Perfecto.

I really, really appreciate that. For my budget, and for my own waistline.

Today I found this recipe for Salmon Melts (keeperofthehome.org), and knew it would make a quick dinner:

Take one can of salmon (I currently use Wild Pacific, though I wish I could afford Wild Alaskan Sockeye, a better choice), and use a fork to mash it up in a bowl with a couple tablespoons of mayonnaise. I also add some salt and pepper, and Spike (a healthier version of seasoning salt, made with lots of dried veggies), and garlic powder is good, too.

Take 5-6 pieces of bread (depends on bread size and how thick you spread the salmon) , and spread salmon mixture on them. Cover with sliced or grated cheese.

Put in the oven at 350 F to bake for about 10 minutes (I often just use my toaster oven to save energy). Allow to cool for a minute and that’s it!

I picked up a loaf of crusty bread from the store, had them slice it, and grabbed 1 more can of salmon (I already had one). Doubling the recipe, and using a 1/2 slice of provolone each, I made enough for all 6 of us to have 2 sandwiches (well, Franny had 1), and we had 1 left over. For my seasoning, I used Old Bay Seasoning in mine (I love that stuff). It was warm, crusty, tasty and hearty. Oh – and easy! On the side we had a pasta salad. I also had chips on the table, but nobody touched them. Shocking!

Once again, I’m blogging daily from December 6 to January 5. Live with it. They’re using a slightly different system this year and I hope I can get the hang of it before the end of the Holidailies run, but who is to say. I don’t think I like it already, but maybe it will grow on me.

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OK so pizza crusts in the bread maker– or rather, momma hasn’t done much of meal-planning since Thanksgiving and she’s flying by the seat of her pants. That’s probably more appropriate.

Wednesday I made a quick run to Costco while Sal was at goalie practice, and I worked hard not to buy for the sake of buying, but to be thoughtful in what I needed. Of coarse, that means I needed to recall just what it was I needed. Need, need, need. Noodle bowls. Ham. Shredded cheddar cheese… gum, sour cream, Sobe. I didn’t so much need the peeled baby carrots, come to find. But I picked up a HUGE bag anyway (sigh). I’ve been spreadsheeting it out to see what really IS a deal and what IS NOT a deal at Costco. So far it looks like I’m getting decent deals. Just don’t buy the vinegar there. Not a deal.

As I was walking the isles, I decided that I would be making pizzas. The huge bag of shredded mozzarella was calling me to make some pizzas and possibly a casserole. In the cart it went (I did end up making crockpot lasagna and I WILL post the recipe this week).

Back to the pizzas. Now that wrestling season has started (and winter soccer trainings, indoor soccer leagues), life has swung back into crazy gear again. The plus is that Frank coaches and all 3 younger boys are in wrestling at the same time. The not-so-plus is that Dante is just finishing up wrestling (for high-school, they use the same mats as the youth wrestlers), and needs to come home just as Frank is arriving with the boys for their mat time. That means I have to go pick up Dante. Before the youth wrestling started, I’d have dinner ready to go when Dante got home (ravished), and we’d all sit down to eat. Now that we’re on different schedules, it isn’t so easy. It’s only 2 days a week, though, that that happens, so I can’t complain.

Basically what I’m saying is, even though all the boys are occupied, it isn’t a real down-and-dirty “work time” for me because I’m running around in between cooking dinner. Last week on one of those days, I thought I’d be all Ms. Smarty Prepared and start a pizza crust in the breadmaker before I left, come home and start up some pizzas. That would have all been find and dandy had I not set the bread to “Quick Bake” instead of the “Dough” setting.

I didn’t actually realize that was the problem, not right away. I thought that maybe there was simply something wrong with my bread maker. I mean, it is a little bit on the older side. But I had made calzone dough in it not too long ago, so I couldn’t figure what went wrong and why my bread maker was so warm. The kids munched on the “bread” and said it was good (they were just hungry). I turned into Maniac Mom, panicking, stressing, hyper-cooking. Refusing to change directions. We were having pizza if it killed me. And it nearly did.

I worked on mixing up a dough that didn’t need to rise or be beaten, thinking that at least they could start on that, and if nothing else worked, their bellies would be satisfied. But, in tandem, I also put another batch of dough in the machine. Well, that’s not true. I intended to put a batch in, while the kids hovered, squawked and asked questions that my brain had to work to answer. Everyone asking me questions and getting in my way makes my head start to sputter and blow smoke. The distractions caused me to add the ingredients to the machine in a fashion that would have rendered yeast-less dough. I had to toss that batch.

Next attempt went fine, although I realized I screwed up the other no rise/beat dough, adding double the yeast. At this point I was about ready to glug down some spiked eggnog and go lay in a snowbank somewhere. Forget dinner.

The first pizza to arrive on the table was the no-knead. Pepperoni and banana peppers. No picture.

Second pizza was another no-knead (still waiting on the bread machine to finish its job). Italian sausage and banana peppers.

Third pizza was with the “regular” knead-and-rise dough, though I didn’t quite let it rise all the way because we were hungry and I was sick of playing pizza-maker. I used half the dough on 1 pizza and the rest I put in the fridge.

They were all OK, but I prefer the knead-and-rise dough. Frank liked the sausage and pepper one, but got horrid heartburn from it. Sal liked everything. They must have all liked the pizzas enough because what they didn’t eat for dinner, they ate the next day. Every time I make homemade pizzas I wonder why I don’t do it more often. Story of my life.

I made a breakfast pizza with the remaining dough. It was also a hit.

Again, Bowzer wondered when he would get his.

Don’t judge us because we don’t take our dog to the groomers. All the boys have long hair at some point.

Wrestling started today for the boys. They were pretty excited. Frank’s one of the coaches. Now that he’s on first shift it is so much easier. I don’t know how we made it through last year with him on second, the boys all needing to be somewhere at the same time, and me with one car. Thankfully I had a casserole frozen and ready for evenings like this. It takes some planning, but it really is helping us to stay in better shape financially. Just knowing that I had dinner semi-prepared, in the oven baking was peace of mind. I used this Cheesy Beans & Rice Casserole recipe one day after making a load of kidney beans and having nothing to do with them. So glad I did. Everyone liked it, and we had enough for leftovers. My kind of meal.

Spicy Red Rice

2 tablespoons oil or bacon grease

1 cup long grain white rice

1-1/2 teaspoons chili powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon each oregano

1/4 teaspoon cumin

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/8 teaspoon cayenne

1 tablespoon dry onion

Dash red pepper (optional)

Dash black pepper

8 oz can or 1 cup chopped fresh or canned tomatoes

2 cups water

I double it for our family. Generally I heat the rice and spices in the oil for a few minutes, and then add the water. Simmer for 20 minutes, remove from heat. I take the lid off for 30 seconds to allow the steam to escape, but I’ve yet to see a rice recipe that calls for that. Doesn’t stop me, though. I let it sit a while before fluffing.

We’ll eat this the first night, sometimes with sausages mixed in, but usually as a simple side. Last night we had the rice, warm tortilla chips, corn (from Costco, organic and frozen – very good) and tilapia. Decent dinner.

I had about 4 cups of rice leftover from the meal so last night I put 2 pounds of black beans in to soak overnight. Today before work, I rinsed them and threw them into the crockpot, covering them with water, adding about 1/8 cup dehydrated onion, 1 T. dehydrated garlic, a bit of black pepper and a bay leaf. I let that sit on low for about 6 hours, then kicked it up to high for another 2 hours when I got home from work.

After that, I removed 3 bowls full of beans and some liquid (about 2.5 cups each) to freeze for when I need black beans, and added some sausages in to the remaining beans. This cooked for a couple hours. After it was done I removed the sausage. The beans I fished out with a slotted spoon and mixed in with the leftover rice. I put that in a small casserole and topped with a bit of cheese, set it under the broiler to melt the cheese.

Dinner was the sausages, rice and beans, corn, warm tortilla chips. It went over well, and was a very cheap meal to eat. The sausages were from Costco (it was a 12-pack that I split over 2 meals), as were the chips (priced as a substantial savings over bying the same chips at our large grocer).

It is so nice to be able to sit down at the table with the kids to a warm meal. I feel spoiled!

The past couple days I’ve intentionally “shopped the freezer” to whip up a couple of meals. Tomorrow I head back to Costco, and possibly the regular grocer (time allowing) to pick up some items for some of the meals I have planned.

This all makes up for the complete glutton-fest I had today as I stopped by my favorite little restaurant to get my Peruvian chop bowl with cilantro rice and arepas, spending $10. Thankfully it was enough food to allow for 2 lunches for me. But still it was totally unnecessary. Old habits are hard to break.

After the beans cooked on low for a good 9 hours, I finished them for 1 more hour on high, then transferred the majority over to a skillet where I heated them with some canola oil, garlic, pepper and and onion. After they were a bit mashed and bruised-looking, they were ready. We ate them with heaping plates of warm tortilla chips, shredded cheese, sour cream and cilantro rice. Yum.

However, a few days later I was at a loss over what to do with the remaining beans.  I had already made chili recently, and having more beans and rice probably wouldn’t cut it.  Instead I put the beans (about 4 cups or so worth) into the bottom of my cast iron pot.  I added about 1 tablespoon of minced garlic, 1/2 cup of water, and a package of Hidden Valley Ranch seasoning mix while heating it  a bit on the stovetop, then added 1 package of beef sausages on top*, lidded it and put it in a 350 degree oven for 2 hours.

We went to pick up the kids at the mall and run a few errands, and by the time we got home the house smelled delicious. The sausages were plump and tasty, the beans were delicious. We had baked potatoes on the side (made earlier in the crockpot). I love it. Tonight, with all the running around we did, could have very easily spent $30-plus a night of pizza, burgers or take-out because of poor planning. But a little bit of thinking had me using up some beans I would have possibly tossed out, and putting a meal on the table for much less than one that was store bought.

*These were Usinger’s beef dogs purchased from Costco. They come 12 to a pack, divided into 2 packs of 6. Because they were large, I cut them in halves to make 12 servings. I do this quite often because, for some reason, eating 2 halves rather than 1 sausage makes it seem like you’re eating more. It’s much easier for me to give some of the boys 1/2 a sausage and then give them seconds, rather than start with the whole thing. This isn’t necessary for all of my children, but there’s a couple that prefer quantity over quality.

1.) New bowls (Goodwill find… been spending too much time there lately). We eat a lot of pasta, casseroles and the like. I’ve been looking for some simple bowl/plates (like pictured, the size of a salad plate, with indentation) to serve our one-dish meals in. We generally use salad plates for dinner (perfect size,  helps with portion control), and these looked to hold just the right amount. A bit of a rim to keep the contents in, or hold bread on. Perfect. $1.99 each. A little pricey for my tastes, but the ones I’ve been looking at in the stores were double or triple that. I got 6 of this style and 2 of a different style, .99/each for those. Mixing and matching is fine by me.

2.) Crockpot lasagne. Mmm. Nice and easy – and ready to eat when I come home. Saves me money. It is one of our staple meals now.

5 scrambled eggs

1/4 of what was left of a “seasoning” bag of frozen veggies (chopped onion and peppers).

Dinner for less than $3 bucks. Hel-lo. (And NO complaints!!!)