Food Waste Friday

Inspired by The Frugal Girl, I have started tracking our food waste.

For the first time in I don't even know how long, there is no food waste this week, courtesy of some furious baking and a little less grocery shopping last weekend.  I love that!

Gratitude Sunday... in pictures

A busy and wonderful weekend, filled with clean laundry, some rain, some homebaked goodies, and some finger painting.

Food for Baby

Finger painting under the trees

Banana bread and zucchini muffins

Food for Baby

Beautiful peaches from the farmer's market near my office called for cooking a little batch of food for my little boy.  I cooked 4 peaches, but I imagine you could do more or less as well. First, slice the peaches into eights.  (Don't worry about peeling yet) 

Next, place the peaches in a steamer basket over about an inch of water.

Steam the peaches for about 5 minutes until soft, but not falling apart.  Take the steamer basket out, cool the peaches, and peel.  The peels should come off easily.  Place in a blender.

 

The peaches are a brighter color, and the edges were slightly pink.  Blend until the right consistency for your baby.

Feed to baby, or store.  You can save home-made baby food in the refrigerator for three days, or freeze for two-three months. 

Food Waste Friday

Sliced Jicama...  I bought the smallest one I could find for a specific recipe, but still had tons left over.  Next time, I have to find what else to do with it before I buy it.  Any ideas?

Monday Menus

This week's menu planning is more a lack of planning really...

Monday: Leftovers
Tuesday: Grilled Chicken Breasts, quinoa, zucchini
Wednesday: Salmon with tomatoes and mustard
Thursday: Pork "Fried" Rice
Friday: Indian Food (from the freezer)
Saturday: Steaks on the Grill

Gratitude Sunday

I can come up with a very long list this week, as every week. I continue to be blessed by a wonderful family, good health, a job, a home, and all the other things we easily take for granted.  This week, I am especially grateful for

• A visit from my always amazing Mom and Dad.
• A new Bible - the Busy Mom's NIV - a gift from my brother who could never guess how much his sister needed inspiration and guidance these days.  It is beautiful, and pink, and full of nice study guides.
• The smiles and laughter of a lovely little boy as he plays with his grandparents.
• A freezer full of food for him - bags of frozen milk, little cubes of squash, sweet potatoes, peas, and zucchini.
• The bounty of summer - including beautiful tomatoes for making gazpacho... 

Food Waste Friday- pickles I failed you

I had every intention to make my husband a jar of his favorite pickles with these cucumbers... I bought them from Whole Foods, and shudder to think what I paid for them.  I wouldn't have minded if they were pickles, but now they are just moldy trash.  I couldn't find my recipe, then I forgot... Carelessness.  Must be less ambitious I suppose... There is no excuse for the strawberries at all.  None.

August Goals

It  has  been August for a whole four days already and I haven’t given that much  thought  to  our monthly budget or my mini goals for this month yet – yikes!

Finances:
1. Budget Meeting: Will happen on Saturday morning.  No excuses.

2.  Monthly  grocery  budget:   I keep shooting for $600 (last month I even tried for $500!) and missing, so try, try again.  This month we will try to feed  two adults and one infant (who now eats rice cereal thankyouverymuch) for $600.  I will aim for $300 (or less!) at Costco, which will give us $50 per week for fresh things.  Watch this space for upcoming reports.

3.  Pack  Lunch  Daily:  this is definitely easier if I plan well (and if I don’t  answer  my  phone from 11:30 until 1 when friends call – I have been tempted to go out even when I did pack lunch.)

4.  College  Savings:  Baby  S  has  a 529 account now – I’m waiting on the paperwork to do our monthly contribution, and then this goal will be done!

Home
1.  Reduce  the  papers: I have not made much progress.  My goal will be to spend 15 minutes (I will set a timer) after dinner each night.

2.  My  Closet:  I’m  still wearing very little of my clothes.  One’s needs change  post-baby!   I’m  not  ready to give up on my clothes yet, and will have  to  focus  getting  my  work  wordobe in order as it’s back to formal business wear after Labor day.  Double UGH.

3. The Baby’s Closet: my goal or this month is to clean out and recycle the 2-3  old  laptops  in  the  top  of  this closet so I can pack away all the newborn-6 month clothes, as well as my maternity clothes.

In other finance goals:
Personal  Spending:  I  think  we  have  figured  out a system for personal spending.   We  have  opened two new FREE checking accounts – one each.  We will  each  have  $30 from our paychecks (every two weeks) direct deposited into said accounts.  Thus we get $60 per month to spend on whatever with no questions  asked.   For  now,  I’m not putting our clothing budget in there yet, although I think that would be a really good thing eventually.  I just think  $60  is  probably  not  enough, but maybe I have not become ruthless enough  yet.   Then  again, I haven’t spent more than $60 on clothes in the past  3  months!   Maybe  we could also make this gift money eventually, so that  if I want to save my money to buy my husband an iPhone, he can’t make me not do it (hehe.)