Pantry Challenge Day 16 and 17... I'm SORE!

 The white chicken chili on Monday was pretty good!!  Princess's boy was over, and he ate 2 bowls, besides the homemade bread we had with it.  I couldn't find a recipe that I had all of the ingredients to, so I improvised with what I had!

I had to work Monday night.  After work, I also had to meet with Princess's dad because she forgot her laptop there over the weekend.  Instead of driving over an hour to get it, he met me on my way home from work, about halfway between our towns.  I also got a new friend Monday night!  His name is Shadow.  He's a Holland.

I had been planning on leftovers for supper on Monday, but we didn't have enough so I threw together some cheesy potato soup.  There was only one bowl left after everyone ate! WOW!

Yesterday was Tuesday, so the truck came.  I went to see what there was to offer.  It was unusual that they had a TON of spices!!  I saw some ground cumin, which I'm currently out of, but somehow didn't manage to get one of those.  Some of the herbs and spices they had multiples of (big glass jars of ground coriander!!) but some they only had a 6 pack (like the cumin.)  I also got a case of plums, 60# of carrots, some red peppers, and part of a produce box (they only had 4 produce boxes this time.  I got a bag of potatoes, a bag of carrots, some pears, and a bag of apples in it... I shared the other stuff that had been in it) 

Yesterday I worked also. We had leftovers for lunch.  Princess requested some potato chips to go with the 2 containers of French onion dip in the fridge.  I also ran out of soy sauce a few days ago, so I stopped at the store and picked some up (farmer's market is in the store parking lot.)  I had some leftover rice in the fridge, so I made a fried rice for supper.  Generally when I make that, I put in mixed veggies, but I didn't know we were out of them.  I did have some plain veggies in the freezer though.  I added sliced carrots, corn, and green beans and made a pretty hearty meal.  I didn't have any meat to put in it but I did add 4 scrambled eggs.  It seemed to go over pretty well.

This morning I was pretty sore when I got up to do my workout.  It's been a while since I've been doing it, so I'm using muscles I haven't used in a while!  I chose just to do 15 minutes with MyFitnessCoach and it was recommended to be a "core" day, so I obliged.  I REALLY need to find my yoga mat - doing crunches and ball rolling on the hard wood floor is not comfortable!  My lower back has been aching all day.  I think it's a combination of the exercise and the canning.  I usually end up with some back pain during canning season with all the time on my feet.  The back problems go back to a car accident I was in my senior year.  But we'll talk about that another day.

Today was my day off, but I think I worked harder today than most normal days.  It was a canning day!!  I had 3 of my Cornish in my big roaster that had cooked overnight and made a BEAUTIFUL broth, and one cooking in my crockpot.  I peeled about half of one of the 30# bags of carrots and probably 10-15 pounds of potatoes, diced up 3 HUGE onions (I probably only needed 1-1 1/2) and blanched some sweet corn I had in the fridge from the last box.  (I also got a couple in this box).  I have to say.. I LOVE my Pampered Chef veggie peeler!  It makes peeling carrots SO EASY!!!

I put up 3 quarts of just carrots, 4 quarts of corn chowder base (onion, garlic, corn, potatoes, carrots, chicken stock), 7 quarts plus 9 pints potato soup base (onion, garlic, potatoes, carrots, and chicken stock), 9 pints of chicken, sliced up enough apples to fill 4 ice cream pails (2 were gallon sized, 2 were "family sized"), cooked down about 20 pounds of apples to make applesauce and eventually apple butter, and had a "family sized" ice cream pail of chicken stock left that went into the fridge.  It's getting too late to finish that up.

Chicken waiting to be canned

Even with all that I did there, I STILL have 45# of carrots and a case of plums left to process.  The sliced apples are for future use in apple pies and apple pie cookies (which I need to make tomorrow, along with bread for market and a birthday cake for Hubs!)

I admit, I don't always cook from scratch.  Today Princess wanted mac and cheese, and the boys wanted hot dogs.  I LOVE mac and cheese - but ONLY the blue box can do it!!

Supper we decided to try a chicken taco soup.  I still have a couple BIG bags of preseasoned chicken taco filling.  Princess thawed one out, and I improvised to make a really good, filling soup.

Recipe: 1/3 bag preseasoned chicken taco filling
2T taco seasoning
1 pint homemade Rotel
1 pint tomato juice

1 can whole peeled tomatoes

1 1/2 c frozen corn

1T paprika

2 c cooked beans

I also threw a little more chicken in there as I was deboning it.  Topped it with crushed tortilla chips, sour cream, and shredded cheese.  (One of these days I'll remember to take the guac out of the freezer too!!)

Tomorrow's plan for supper is meatloaf patties with potatoes and glazed carrots, and Friday is enchiladas.  I do have to pick up some tortillas for the enchiladas...

So now, where am I for the pantry challenge budget?

Monday: Spent $2 at the Dollar Tree to get some GOOD coffee creamer.  (I made some homemade and it just isn't the same.  I'm going to keep trying, but it's nice to have the good stuff around too)

Tuesday: Spent $7 at the local store, and hubby spent $5 at the other store on his way home.  I got 2 bags of chips and a bottle of soy sauce, he picked up a loaf of bread and 2 jars of pb. (Since the pb is on sale right now 2/$3, it told him to pick up some more - maybe a dozen jars - this week.  This will not come from our grocery budget, but our stock up budget since it will be going into storage.)

Total spent this week so far: $14.  Looking good to me!

The Weekend Pantry Challenge Days 13-15

 As always, the weekend was busy and full of projects.  Saturday we went to town to pick up some lumber for the new rabbit pen that Hubs is building.  I also wanted to stop at the hardware store because they had canning lids last time I was there.  (If you didn't know, there's a canning lid shortage going on right now and no one knows how long it's going to last.  And since I sell canned goods at farmer's market, and can a ton for my family, I need to be sure I have enough!!)  There were still a lot.  I got 15 packages and a new funnel since my backup funnel cracked. As I was standing by the checkout, some old lady came up to me and asked if I was buying ALL the canning lids.  No, I told her, there are still plenty on the shelf.  Well, she said, where can I find them? I don't see them anywhere.  I told her to go look in the canning aisle, where the rest of the supplies are!!  The tone of her voice really irked me.  I was making small talk with the clerk and told him I can for a living and my family.  He said he's noticed a lot of newbies canning this year and noticed the shortage, and was happy he could help me.

We spent some time looking for a new percolator since my decided to die.  For spending less than $10 on it, it had lasted about 3 years.  I don't drink coffee every day, but I've noticed on days that I do, I get a LOT more done.  Maybe I should drink coffee every day.....  After checking Home Depot and the hardware store, I hadn't found one yet.  I even checked at Walgreens when I picked up pullups (and forgot to pick up prescriptions 🙈). One last hope, we went to Bomgaards.  I was in luck!!  They had 2 left in the camping section!!

On my hunt several people asked me, why a percolator?  I have a few different reasons: 1) I think the coffee tastes a lot better.  Maybe because there's no paper filter to run it through?? 2) I don't have to depend on electricity any time I want coffee.  I have a gas stove I can light with a lighter, or I could set it on the wood stove in the living room or over a campfire if I needed to. 3) Every time I buy a coffee maker, it breaks in no time at all. 4) My Opa always made his coffee in a percolator, so it's sentimental.

Since we were in town so long we stopped at Perkins for lunch.  It's my go-to eat out place if we have time.  I prefer to not eat fast food if at all possible.  Plus the kids will eat pretty good there!  Scraps got half a sandwich, soup, and a piece of pie, and Monkey had "cakecakes" (pancakes) and French fries.  Hubs and I got sandwiches and fries.  I ended up eating half my sandwich, the meat off the rest, and a few fries. 

Once we got home, hubs worked on the barn and I split some more wood.  Man that's a workout!! The boys helped haul wood from the back side of the barn to the front, then loaded our gorilla cart with everything I split and put it in the mini storage shed closer to the house.  It's a lot easier to walk a few feet to get the wood in the snow than across the yard!!

Since we were so busy, I didn't plan supper, so we ordered steaks and burgers from the legion.  Once a month our local legion has a steak fry, and we like to be able to support them.

Sunday was "house" day for me.  I worked on cleaning the kitchen, doing laundry, washing bedding, and baking.  No one ate breakfast until after 1030, so I didn't even bother with lunch.  I did put a chicken in the crock pot to cook down, which I'll use today for lunch.  Scraps took out some goat ribs to put on the smoker for supper (I'm still learning how to use it) and they came out pretty good considering I didn't do the best job butchering the goat.  I served that up with a Knorr cheddar broccoli rice, homemade bread, and some sweet corn I had frozen a month ago.

I baked a TON for farmer's market... 3 mini apple pies, a batch of garlic chive rustic bread, 2 batches of regular rustic white bread, 2 pans of apple pie cookies... and I took a recipe for dinner rolls a friend gave me and tried it out as mini loaves.  YUMMY!!  I'll have to make some for tomorrow's farmer's market since I won't even be able to take it today (my family already ate a whole loaf at supper!!)

Hubs DEFINITELY enjoyed the cookies. I gave him ONE to sample... the next thing I knew half the pan was gone!!!  I made a second batch with one extra for him - and still tried taking more off the pan.  I compromised and gave him a mini pie to take for lunch even though I had already packed some cookies.  I told him the cookies take a lot more work since I have to cook the filling plus make the lattice, where with the pies I can just add the uncooked apple filling and put a plain crust on the top.

Today I actually got up kind of early and started up on my Miracle Mornings and SAVERS again (If you haven't read The Miracle Morning, I HIGHLY recommend it!!  It works if you just DO IT!!)  I used to do it all in order because I just HAD to, but now I think I'll change it up again.  I started with my E and got the exercise done right off the bat.  IT FELT GOOD!! I did 36 minutes on the Wii Fit (don't want to overdo it right out of the gate!!)  Played a couple balance games, obstacle course, boxing, rhythm step.  My age based on the testing is 36 - works for me!

I followed up with my SAV - set my timer on my phone for 10 minutes and tried to clear my mine.  THAT was hard... had a million things running through my mind and just couldn't shut it down.  For A and V I decided to take the digital route. I found apps for both - a Daily Affirmation app and a Vision Board app.  I set them up and played with them a little.  I'm putting off my R a little.  I have an audiobook I'm listening to when I go to and from work.  But I might read a blog I recently found that I like so far... I'll report back on it.  And updating my blog here will work for my final S.

Lars wasn't impressed with being up!

For today's lunch, I'm planning on a white chicken chili with the chicken I put in the crock pot yesterday... Supper will be leftovers.  Working on the plan for the rest of the week (I foresee a lot of soup since it's supposed to be chilly!!)  And the Princess has a cold :(

30 Day Challenge - Day 2

For Day 2 of my challenge, I chose exercise.

I used to have a gym membership.  Actually, I've had memberships at a few different places.  Like many others, I start out strong when my membership begins, and then gradually ease off until it's a chore for me to get all my stuff together and trudge to the gym.

And I have a million excuses.

• I don't have a sitter.
• I don't like getting up early in the morning to use the gym before hubby goes to work.
• It's too late by the time we're done eating to go to the gym.
• I feel sick if I exercise after eating.
• I'm too tired.
• All the gyms are all the way on the other side of town.

You get the picture.  Plus shelling out $30 per month for something that is barely ever used.  Even if you pay for the full year up front - there are still other things I could better spend that money on.

So I decided that I could save the money and find a way to do it here at home.  My husband bought a Wii Fit for me a while back.  Unfortunately all the batteries for my balance board and the remote keep disappearing.  Gee, I wonder who could be taking them (Scrappy!)  The big problem isn't the kids borrowing the batteries - it's them losing the batteries.  We specifically shelled out the extra money for rechargeable batteries so that overall we would save money on batteries. So I haven't been using my Fit as much as I want to.

Instead, I've starting going walking outside.  I actually started making walking a priority on my birthday - April 22.  We were at the hospital with Scrappy at that time.  He had sinus surgery and then spent the next 2 weeks getting a CF tune-up.  Chubbers and I stayed with him at the hospital, but Chubbers couldn't be in the room while Scraps was doing his treatments because of his forced coughs.  I would take Chubbers walking usually 4x per day during treatments.  After we got home, I decided to try to continue.  I've walked the trail with my family and walked to pick Beau up from school and back.  

But our favorite is to walk the lake.

Our town is built around 2 lakes.  There is a route around a good portion of the main lake that has walking paths.  It's about a 5 mile walk in total.  Scraps has trouble with the hills, so we've been going the longer route and following the gravel one-way roads that hug the shoreline.  My goal is to do the lake 3x per week, in addition to the exercise I've been getting from coaching t-ball and baseball.  (I've been working just as hard if not harder than a lot of the kids out there.  Man are my knees and ankles taking a beating!!!)

I snapped a few pictures out on our walk today....

Getting ready to go

Snoozing - which is what he normally does during our walks.

Frequent water breaks

We were following a butterfly

Riding on the gravel.  To look at this, you wouldn't think we were in the middle of town.
There are houses on our left and water on the right.

Of course we couldn't just walk past the park without stopping to play.
That was fine, though, because Chubbers needed to eat.

Such a cutie, but always with a dirty face.

I try to get some kind of walking in every day.  Plus it's great for the boys to get fresh air.  I really need to do a battery round up so that the next time we have a thunderstorm like yesterday, I can still do my walking but inside.  I know I don't have to use the Fit, but since we bought it,  I should get my money's worth.  Plus it's more fun :)

In addition to saving money on the exercise, it's going to save on my hospital bills when I'm not sick as often too!!