Meal Plan Monday 04/17/23

Happy Monday Everyone

Boy, I'm already missing that lovely warm weather we had last week. We had rain yesterday, so it was a good day to cook & bake. Here's what we're eating this week:

Monday : Beef pot pie, veggies, salad

Tuesday : Pesto chicken casserole, mashed potatoes, veggies or salad

Wednesday : Same as Monday

Thursday : Same as Tuesday 

Friday : Something from the freezer & salad

Breakfasts : Bran apple muffins, raisin bread, WW toast, eggs or omelets, breakfast sausage

Lunch : Leftovers or protein from the freezer with salad

There's always lots of fresh fruit, veg & salad fixings available

The beef pie was made with leftover roast beef from the freezer. We will also have roast beef sandwiches or wraps (lunch) since the beef was too much for the pie. I can't refreeze the meat, so I'll just eat it for lunch. 

There's quite a bit of cooked food in the freezer for easy meals - beef burritos, samosas, BBQ chicken breasts, frikkadel, taco meat, fajita chicken and there's still leftover sausage rolls from last week that DS can have for lunch tomorrow. This girl ain't cooking until next Sunday again

Someone asked about my beetroot salad last week. Well, it's not exactly a salad per se. It's actually pickled beets, but has always been called beetroot salad. I'm guessing it came from the British. Canadians might use the same term too and/or know what I'm referring too. Koo has always been my preferred brand when I lived in SA. Store brand wasn't good enough for me...lol (my parents usually bought Koo - a very popular food brand in SA. Think Kraft or Heinz). There's a difference in the flavor - trust me :) My father always used to ask whether I'm eating the meal or salad, because my food would be covered in beetroot. Well, he was big on flavor (I get it from him) and always liked to kick things up a coupla notches. He'd add grated onion, a little vinegar, a bit of water & sugar to dilute and sweeten the tartness of the vinegar, to the beetroot. I still make mine the same way. When I can't find the jar stuff (from South Africa), I cook fresh beets in instant pot. Then add all my dad's fixings. I don't add pickling spice, because there's no time to wait on that pickling process. Another favorite of mine is pickled onions. If you like fish & chips, try pickled onions with it. So yummy. 

I've posted the Koo site's link so you can have a look around. There's some recipes to try (I have to try the phyllo beets). If you've never had samp (hominy) & beans, be sure to try it. It's a yummy, hearty meal. 

I have a busy week ahead of me - lots to do. Have a wonderful week peeps!

Odds & ends

Hi everyone

The weather has been great this week. I'm so thankful for warmer weather. My daffodils have started blooming. They're so pretty. The weather's so nice that I placed my lemon tree outside today to catch some sun rays. I bought 2 blueberry bushes on clearance at Menards last year & I'm happy to see that they survived winter. I just hope they keep thriving when I have to replant them after I move. I miss planting this year :( Just a few things that have happened around here. 

• Received a $20 Chicos semi annual reward. Of course they increased their prices again, so I'm hoping to find something that doesn't cost me any or very little OOP.

• Kohls has extra 50% off clearance again, so I used my $10 KC (monthly reward) to buy items to resell.

• Received another free item Q from BBW. 

• I've been waiting for a good Rakuten discount to purchase my new desktop. I knew that the retailer had 5% cash back before, but it was only 1% when I needed to make my purchase. I checked Rakuten & the retailer daily & last Monday saw that the computer was marked down by $80. I didn't even bother waiting for that 5%, because $80 off was a bigger discount. I went ahead and ordered my computer.

• Ordered an Easter gift & stir fry sauce from Target (the Korean BBQ isn't sold at my local store, so I buy it online). When I received the items, the entire box was filled with stir fry sauce. They packed 5 glass bottles into a plastic bag (no bubble or protective wrap) and then didn't even have proper filler for the rest of the box...smdh. One bottle was completely shattered (only the bottom of that bottle was left). Did online chat & they refunded my money. I threw out the stir fry sauce, because I wasn't going to risk using the rest without knowing if there's glass splinters in or on those bottles. Well, DS got a free $60 gift, but that was a huge mess to deal with. I could've done without it. Now I need to wait until I can find the sauce at another location, because I might end up getting broken bottles if I buy online again.

• Bought Nathan's hot dogs at Sams and when I got home, I noticed that the best buy date was for a week earlier. Ugh, this is the 2nd time I got expired meat from Sams (2 different locations). The crazy part is that when I got the package in store, I thought to myself 'check the date'. I wasn't wearing my glasses and DS was waiting with the cart on the side, so I didn't get around to checking the date. Yes, I'm one of those people who check expiration dates...lol I usually purchase the items with later dates. They refunded my money, but I needed the sausages to make sausage rolls for DS. Well, good thing that happened, because Kroger OM sausages (we love the smokies) were $1.99 each last week, so I paid 50% less for the same amount of sausages. 

• I purchased storage totes at Sams. I figure I'm better off buying totes instead of boxes for my move. This way I can still use the totes in future. 

• I found a house I really, really like in the neighboring town. It's listed by my realtor's agency, so I have the inside scoop. The entire house is beautiful - nicely updated (I'm a modern girl). I want a move in ready house. One thing I like about houses built in the 90s, is that the basements have ceilings. That house's kitchen is gorgeous too!!! All white & gray - clean fresh look - just the way I like it. My navy blue kitchen accessories will match perfectly. Kitchens & bathrooms are my favorite places in a house. I also love a good size closet. I NEED a large closet. Well, I've always wanted a walk in closet, so if I find a house with enough bedrooms, I will turn one room into a walk in closet if the bedroom doesn't have a big enough one. The downside. It's $80k over my budget :( Ugh!! I can't afford to spend that much right now. 

• I need to buy new luggage before I can get rid of my old luggage (I'm on a roll with decluttering & packing), but the new luggage is pricey. I don't have any travel plans. I'm just a planner. I like to have all my ducks in a row. The last 2 times I went to SA, my luggage was stolen. In fact, I saw a women lift my luggage off the conveyer belt, not check the tag and just hold onto it. I went over and asked her about the luggage & she just shrugged it off. Then it hit me that she was just gonna take my luggage home with her. I was so mad, because I flew to SA for my parents' funerals.
  
  This time I'm getting hard luggage & all kinds of security features (gotta love the digital age). I need new luggage in case there's ever an emergency with my family. If I need to travel to SA at short notice, I'll already have luggage available (I always keep our passports updated) and just go to my spare closet for new clothes. Easy peasy.   

• Since the weather was good on Monday, I decided to wear a new outfit. No more sweats for me.  I have a closet full of clothes, so I decided to treat myself (from my spare closet)...lol. This is what a $42 outfit looks like.
  
  WHBM Jeans - $1.99 after bonus reward discount
  Chicos Tunic - $10 sale
  Chicos denim jacket - $10 sale (I'm not much into florals, but the price was good. I like the longer length and frayed hem). 
  Skechers flats - $20 clearance
  
  The shoes isn't a perfect match to my outfit, but it's closest in color to the olive (which I have very little of). If you want comfortable shoes and/or you're a dog or cat lover, try Bobs by Skechers. A portion of each sale goes towards supporting dogs/cats.  I love this brand!! I've had a few pairs over the years. They are cute & comfy. Much better than Toms. I've never had Toms before, but I've seen them before and their insoles are nothing like the Bobs memory foam ones.
  
  DISCLAIMER : I'm in no way associated with Bobs/Skechers and don't earn any commission from them. The opinions expressed are solely my own. 

Today I decided to wear the same shoes & jeans with a white kimono top (mix & match). It was hot, so I painted my toenails and decided to wear sandals. I figured the sandals didn't go well with a cargo jeans, so I wore blue ankle jeans and a white eyelet tee. 

Sandals - FREE. I purchased these for vacation before the pandemic (black & brown) and added extra items to help cover my expenses. The items sold like hot cakes, so I ended up with 2 free pairs of sandals. That brand is hard to find now. 

WHBM laser cut jeans - $10 (paid with a xmas gc)

Chicos eyelet tee - $10 or $15 (paid with a xmas gc)

So today's outfit was basically free!

I've decided to take a break from stockpiling. It defeats the purpose of downsizing to move. So I'll redeem my CVS & RA rewards (Wags rewards are good for a year). It's not like we need more HBA anyway. I just need some hair color. 

That's all I can think of right now. I'll post my numbers when I get a chance. I'm just dealing with some personal stuff right now. 

Have a wonderful weekend peeps!

Meal Plan Monday 04/10/23

I hope that everyone had a good holiday weekend. It's back to school for us today. I woke up an hour earlier than usual and so did DS. I told him to go back to bed, because I wasn't ready to be up yet. Needless to say, I couldn't fall asleep again. 

It's been a busy day. I didn't do my regular cooking yesterday, because I needed ground beef. I only made muffins yesterday, so DS could have it for school. I hit the stores today and stocked up on meat products. Then I got to cooking when I got home. Here's our plan for the week:

Monday : Chicken a la king with rice and veggies

Tuesday : Ground beef curry with rice, veggies & beetroot salad

Wednesday : Same as Monday

Thursday : Same as Tuesday

Friday : Nachos, tacos and/or quesadillas with all the fixings. Take your pick

Breakfasts : Carrot gingerbread muffins, lemon pancakes, breakfast sausage, eggs, omelets, cereal

Lunch : Protein from the freezer with salad

There's always lots of fresh fruit, veggies & salad fixings available

I usually serve my Chicken ALK with yellow rice, but I didn't want yellow rice to go with the curry. Too much yellow for me...lol. When I got home from shopping, I fixed dinner and cooked 4 packages of breakfast sausage with onions & peppers. Kroger has the Johnsonville sausage on sale for $3.50 (lowest price I've seen in over a year and it's our preferred brand). Then I divided it into portions for the freezer. I always do this, cause I hate cooking in the morning. Now we can just heat & eat whenever we want sausage. I also marinaded the rest of the chicken breasts (from the package I used for dinner) & will bake that tomorrow. More freezer food. 

I found bags of green peppers (6-7 medium peppers per bag) for $1 at the produce market on Friday. I bought 5 bags, because that's a great price. They have $1 pepper bags from time to time. Tomorrow I'll clean and dice all the peppers (I bought colored ones too) for the freezer. Some will be frozen for omelets. I mix diced peppers, onions & a herb (parsley or cilantro) together and freeze. Just add to your egg and top with cheese or add more veggies. Easy Peasy. I'll also make sausage rolls for DS (bought the smokies that's Kroger weekly deal this week), since the oven will be on for the chicken. I'll also make some a pot of taco meat & beans, then make burritos for the freezer. I'll add a batch of fresh pico too. It's been a while since I made some. This way there's lots to eat when needed, instead of getting fast food. 

I have a sinus headache & I'm pooped. I'm going to have an early night. 

Have a great week peeps!