Eat from the pantry

I have an enormous pantry. It's my mother's fault. Her pantry puts mine to shame. And, don't tell her you know, but sometimes, if I'm over there, and I'm out of an ingredient for supper, I'll just shop from hers. My stepdad seems to have caught on to my pilfering, and so I have to do it in secret. But, the temptation is just too great! There are all sorts of great things in there.

As there are in mine, too!

So, this month, I'm going to join Money Saving Mom and FishMama in their Eat from the Pantry Challenge. I normally spend $300 month on food ($150 every 2 weeks). So, I'm attempting to cut that in half and spend $150 this month. Those crazy children of mine still feel the need for milk and bananas, after all.

We had some car repairs back in November that depleted our emergency fund. We've been working on getting it back to normal, and this extra $150 will be helpful in getting us there.

Do you have a pantry that overflows? Join the challenge!! There are lots of other folks from all over joining in. And check back to see how we do as the month continues.

Restaurant style date night

A few weeks ago, we had a great date night that started out with Happy Honeys. I just left out the brandy from the recipe as written, and they were fun, seasonal drinks. They didn't really go with our meal, so we enjoyed them first, as we sat and laughed about something (I can't remember exactly what...but I'm sure it included my 3 year old).

Later on that evening, we enjoyed one of my favorite restaurant treats, shrimp cocktel! It's Mexican shrimp cocktail, and it is oh so good. I eat mine with saltine crackers, and Mike eats his with tortilla chips. Either way is really good. I even served these up in my large iced tea glasses to be more restaurant like (sometimes we eat it in bowls, more like gazpacho).

I had read recently to give tiny shrimp a try. Something about the smaller the shrimp, the more likely that they would cook through before the outside gets tough. Anyway...the grocery store had these tiny guys on sale, so I tried out the theory. It proved true for us. They were really tender and sweet.

And another date night comes and goes. But, I can't wait until the next one!

Merry Christmas!

 

Meal Plan, um, Wednesday

Late is better than never. At least in my world.

Friday: frozen pot pies (it was one of those days)
Saturday: take out calzones
Sunday: shrimp cocktel
Monday: chimichangas
Tuesday: pan fried steaks, mashed potatoes, creamed spinach
Wednesday: white chicken chili
Thursday: boeuf bourguignon, french bread