What's for dinner?

Boy, I sure wish that someone would end Jet lag savings time for good. This turning the clocks forward & back wrecks havoc on my body. I was bright eyed & bushy tailed at 5 am! This normally lasts a week no matter which way we turn the clocks. So, I decided to be productive instead. 

I cooked all our meals for the week - I do this every Sunday anyway & washed all the bedding. I still need to fold & pack everything away. By 2pm I was ready for a nap. So that's exactly what I did. I did it a little later, but I got my nap. The problem with me napping though, is that I always feel exhausted after I get up. It takes me a few hours to get back on track and then I'm wide awake by the time bedtime rolls around. This is why I rarely take naps. 

Here's our menu plan for the week: 

Monday : Chicken alfredo & big salad

Tuesday : Spinach, feta & artichoke quiche, salad & veggies of choice. I added artichokes, cause I love it. I was out of roasted red peppers, so I just used some fresh diced orange peppers. Let's hope it tastes good. There's also leftover BBQ chicken breasts if we want to add more protein. 

Wednesday : Chicken burritos, mexican rice, pico (I forgot to get avo for guac). I'm pulling some fajita chicken from the freezer. I'll cook some beans in the instant pot. Add cheese & southwest corn and make our burritos. The rice is compliments of Knorr...lol

Thursday : Leftovers buffet

Friday : DS will have takeout and I'll eat whatever leftovers are available. I usually cook too much 

Veggie sides : Carrots & peas, broccoli, butternut

Breakfasts : Carrot ginger muffins, breakfast burritos, omelets, bagels. The muffins I made today were huge. I was too lazy to get out another muffin pan (I only have 2 large muffin pans and then 3 regular ones. The large ones were both filled) to make regular muffins. So I filled every cup to the brim and the muffins are humongous!...lol. They turned out great though. Fluffy & moist. I don't always feel like baking, but DS prefers muffins over the Aldi cinnamon raisin bagels. So I just bake different flavored muffins every week. 

Fruit : Bananas, blueberries, kiwi, oranges, grapes, apples

Kroger had the 18ct eggs for $1.99 this week, so I bought the max limit of 5. I stocked up on Kraft cheese at the Meijer sale 2 weeks ago, so the logical thing to do was make quiche. I already had all the ingredients, so that was easy. 

I was going to buy the El Monterey frozen burritos at Target last week. I had it in my cart, then put it right back. I reminded myself that it's just junk & that I already had fajita chicken in the freezer and all the fixings to make my own burritos. Which will taste far better anyway. Convenience food is so tempting sometimes, but I know that I don't enjoy it most times. I don't know why I buy the burritos, because I don't even eat the whole thing. I mainly eat the filling, then dump the tortilla, cause it tastes horrible. 

I just realised that there's no potatoes on the menu, so I might make my own hashbrowns. I can stir in some onions and peppers.

I've been feeling a little down lately. Everyone's been talking about Thanksgiving & Christmas plans and I don't even know what we're gonna do or where we're gonna be. I'm still house hunting. I found an almost perfect house - it checked most of my boxes. The price was a little higher than my budget. I would've paid the price, except it didn't have a front porch. I need a porch (nothing big) so I have somewhere to place my outgoing mail (online sales orders) for the mail carrier. I can't have that sitting out in the snow & rain. Otherwise, I'd have to drive to the Post office every day to drop off mail. That's a waste of time & gas for me. The other thing was that I absolutely hate having the kitchen sink in an island. Who the heck puts a kitchen sink in the middle of the room? That pushes my blood pressure through the roof because, (from a design point of view) it doesn't make sense. That's worse than no front porch. As much as I liked the house, my gut was screaming Noooooooooooo! For some reason, I just didn't have peace about this house (it sold yesterday). The house was perfect otherwise, so I don't understand why my instincts were in overdrive. However, years of experience has taught me to always trust my gut. The house is a big purchase for me, so I want to make sure I find the perfect home. 

So yeah, I don't know whether we'll be in our new home for Christmas or Thanksgiving or not. I don't even know what we're gonna do the holidays or my birthday. This is hard for me, because I'm a planner. I normally have everything ready (including Christmas gifts) by this time every year. Heck, I might have to buy my own birthday gift this year. My family said that we should just come visit for 3 weeks and enjoy some R&R with them. That will be really awesome, cause who doesn't love sun, sea, dining, concerts in the park, jazz clubs and tons of family time. It's summer there now & everyone's on vacation. Sounds like the perfect plan. Right? I figured that if DS & I are alone for Christmas, then it would make sense to visit my family. Then I looked at plane tickets & I'm like "No way!!! Not gonna happen!!" Ticket prices are really high now. I don't know why I'm surprised. It's the holiday season & Cape Town is a big tourist destination, so tickets are pricey this time of year. I checked tickets for February & it costs half of what it does now (not that I'm planning a visit in February. I was merely comparing prices). So a CT vacation is definitely out of the question, especially since I have to pay for a house & fully furnish it too! Vacation is going to go to the farthest corner of the back burner. I already feel like I've been bleeding money for months. 

I went to the dentist for a cleaning on Monday and they told me I need 2 fillings. Are you kidding me. They just gave me a crap filling a few months ago (that's another long story). Crap, cause I had so much pain (some from stress and some from the filling) that I couldn't even sleep at night. The filling will cost me another $485!! Hold on while I go pluck some cash from my money tree. We've used this dentist for years, but every time I go there, it's some sales pitch. This has been happening since he added new partners. They have a huge staff turnover (which speaks volumes) and partner turnover. So every frigging new partner wants to convince you to have more work done. Except, the narrative changes every time. There's always something different wrong...smh.

Over summer, my laptop bit the dust. I've had this laptop for around 6-7 years, so I didn't feel too bad about it. I searched for a new one, but never got around to purchasing it. I still have a desktop (which I need to replace too), so my laptop is a backup for work. Then last week, I saw that the price was reduced by $116. Perfect! So I bought the laptop. When DS saw my laptop, he wanted to use it. I can't blame him. When the pandemic started, we had to get him a laptop for online school, because his desktop didn't have a camera. As you all know, electronics were in high demand then. We finally found a laptop on Dell's website. We paid around $300 for it. A few short months later, we had trouble getting that thing to turn on. So I had to let DS use my laptop. His laptop would work sometimes and not turn on at all at other times. I watched youtube videos to try and fix it, but that meant I had to take the whole thing apart. So I bought him a new HP last year (that's my preferred brand). The new laptop was so small and one day I noticed that it doesn't even have a numeric keyboard. What on earth?! So he's been using that laptop. My new laptop is 14" (slightly smaller than my old one). It's bright red, but I'm just happy to have a nice new laptop that works great again. So I've decided to just buy DS one for Christmas too (before it sells out) and sell or donate his small HP one. As for the Dell. I have no words. We might keep that as a backup - just in case he ever has laptop problems. Or we should probably donate the Dell and keep the other HP. I haven't decided yet. I'm just waiting on a sale for the other 2 things he wants, then his Christmas shopping is done.

I also asked DH to wait until my birthday before transferring my vehicles to my name. I didn't know if I'd have to pay for new tags twice this year, if he did it earlier. So I had to get new car insurance and plates. 

That's just a few small examples of me having to spend money. However, I'm determined to make Christmas special for DS. Feeling sorry for myself is not going to help. I'm already working on a special Christmas project for him. He's gonna love it!! I'm also working on a Christmas project for my friend, but I don't know if she'll like it. I'm not even sure if I should do it. Christmas is my favorite holiday and I like to make it special for everyone. I usually get some 'bright' ideas for gifts/spoiling (I think outside the box & go all out) then I start worrying  (after I've already sent their gifts) about whether the recipients will like their gifts or not. So I don't even know if this is a good idea. It's the thought that counts, right? DS & my family are easy to shop for. I know them inside out & they always say I buy the best gifts, so hopefully my friend will like hers too. 

I need to go see my lawyer this week too. I need to get my finances sorted out. I'm getting things done. Right now, the biggest things to still deal with are the house & trust. I'm a git r done girl, so I know I'll get this handled in due time. If only more houses will go on sale in our town. I'm ideally looking to stay in the same city. We live in a nice city. I like it here, because everything is right on our doorstep. I have a select few neighboring cities that I'm willing to move to. This is one reason why house hunting is taking so long. I'm picky. I want to get this right. 

This 'menu' post has gotten way too long. Have a wonderful week everyone!