Today...

Today, I'm going to be like this pancake maker and focus on only one thing at a time and see it through to completion.

This pancake maker was part of the breakfast set up at the hotel we stayed in recently. I was totally fascinated by it and we had a few more pancakes than we really needed just so I could watch it work.

Home again

This past week, Ward and I spent most of our time worrying, waiting, and comforting while we were spending time with my mother, who was in the hospital. Things were not simple. Because of complications, she was in three different hospitals and ended up in a hospital 150 miles from where she started. I felt like we were playing chase with her as we followed her on her circuitous route to different hospitals. However, now she is back in her hometown hospital and stable, and we're back at home. Things are looking up.
 

Lucy couldn't wait for me to empty my suitcase when we got home.

Thankful Sunday, January 13, 2013

I am thankful for my teaberry plant.

Several years ago, I bought this teaberry plant because it reminded me of a childhood favorite--Teaberry gum. When I want a pick-me-up, I break a leaf and inhale the wonderful aroma.

Food Waste Friday and True Food Confessions, Jan. 11, 2013

 It's time for Food Waste Friday, when the Frugalgirl encourages us to post pictures from the previous week of wasted food from our household. This accountability hopefully will help us to be more careful with our food and maybe save some money. Also, I am using this public forum to encourage us to eat out less which includes better meal planning. You can follow how we are doing in this endeavor by reading True Food Confessions.

This Week's Food Waste

 
I did a clean out of the condiments in the refrigerator door and found these things that were long past their shelf life. Out they went.

 This Week's True Food Confessions

We have been traveling this week to help my mother who is in the hospital, so we have been eating out. Therefore, we're not quite back to "regular" eating. Maybe next week.

Menu Planning

We had a good menu plan this week.

Menu planning. I'm for it. I just don't always do it. It's not because I don't know how. It's just that, well, I'm not exactly sure, but I just don't do it. Very often. Unless, I'm feeling guilty about how we've been eating. Then we have a plan, unless we don't. As you can see, I have a confused relationship with menu planning.

My first menu planning came while I was growing up. My sisters and I were usually responsible for fixing supper after my mother went back to work and meal planning was not complicated at that point. Every meal had a meat, starch (usually potatoes), a green vegetable, a yellow vegetable, bread and milk. Our house was well stocked with vegetables from our huge garden and venison from my father's hunting, so it was easy to follow the plan.

Also, during those years, I remember an assignment in eight grade to plan meals for an entire week. Every meal I planned was well balanced and included something from every food group. Also, the calories added up to the appropriate amount for the day. I think that was the most complicated and complete meal plan I have ever seen. So I learned menu planning in the early years, both in a simple and complicated way.

Then I grew up and lost menu planning somewhere along the way. I think it started when we lived in New Orleans, home of fantastic food, both expensive and inexpensive. We ate out a lot and loved every minute of it.  However kids came, we moved to Texas, and the need for menu planning became necessary again. Plans during this time were sometimes written down and sometimes not but depended on easy to fix things for young kids--especially the ever-hungry Wally.

Another move landed us where we are now and it's where we've done most of our meal planning as a family. We've had family meetings and made up plans for weeks and months. We've made each person responsible for a day of the week. We've checked the ads and planned around what was on sale, and we've made plans from what was in the pantry and the freezer. We've assigned each day of the week a different type of food and planned within that structure. We've also used premade meal plans with shopping lists, and we've done a lot of last minute cooking.

However, my favorite way to plan was a way that Wally used for a while. He would take a cookbook and open it randomly. Each of us got to choose what we wanted from between those two pages. Then he would open it randomly to the next two pages and the next person would get to choose. We ate a lot of interesting things when he used that method.

So what does all of this mean? Menu planning. I'm for it. I just don't always do it. It's not because I don't know how. It's just that, well, I'm not exactly sure, but I just don't do it. Very often. Unless, I'm feeling guilty about how we've been eating. Then we have a plan, unless we don't. As you can see, I have a confused relationship with menu planning.