Dinners

I think we all know what they say about the best laid plans. There have been some rearrangements made to my dinner menus already. Last Saturday I did use the slow cook feature on my 'instant' pot and turned the roast chicken carcass into chicken stock. I cut up the chicken and put almost all of it into the stock and filled up two quart containers for the deep freezer. I figure these can become the basis of a couple of different versions of chicken soup (thinking a white bean and kale and possible a chicken tortilla soup for December).

The last container went into the refrigerator. Youngest son H's girlfriend M was in a cooking/baking mood and brought over a large container of homemade Baked Potato soup and some Hot Chocolate cookies she experimented with. Both items were delicious and it was nice to eat a dinner I didn't prepare myself.
Sunday I pulled the soup stock out the refrigerator. I brought it to a boil and added some egg noodles and this was dinner along with the brioche dinner rolls I'd picked up from Aldi. I love trying the new 'fancy' items my Aldi gets in.
Saturday I as in a baking mood myself and made a pumpkin roll as per a request from youngest son. This was dessert on Sunday.
Monday I made a chicken salad sandwich using the chicken I'd set aside from the roast for this purpose and ate this along with carrots & celery sticks in the car on the way to my night job.
Tuesday I had a hair appointment to touch my color and had enough time afterwards to run through the McD's and get a sandwich and drink off the dollar menu before going in to work.
Wednesday I unexpectedly got asked to stay at aftercare and work. I luckily had some chicken tenders left over from lunch service and paired those with carrots and celery sticks and apple slices, eaten in the car on the way to work.
Tonight I am back on my menu plans making myself some baked tilapia!
Being prepared but also flexible enough to roll with the changes is certainly a stress reducer.

Edited to include the rest of the week:
On Thursday I more or less followed my dinner plan. Tilapia it was but instead of just baking it with lemon I decided to do an old favorite, Horseradish crusted tilapia. I mixed together mayo, horseradish, parsley and bread crumbs and spread it on the fish. Toasted additional breadcrumbs in butter and sprinkled them on top then baked the fish in a 425 degree oven for 12 minutes.


And finally I was asked to work Aftercare today so a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and celery sticks await my drive into the cleaning job later on.

Menus for the rest of November

I've prioritized this because I think if I can organize this one small area of my life it will help with my stress levels. I hope I'm not just being delusional here. I am planning these meals for just myself. The sons' schedules are so erratic and their social lives so full that I can no longer count on them being home for any dinners. We have a whole week off of school the week before Thanksgiving so I will have time to make a real dinner instead of the sandwich-in-the-car meal I plan for when school is in session during that time. I've already volunteered to make the squash and a pie for the holiday spent at my sister's home as is tradition. 

11/11: Homemade chicken soup with drop dumplings (I roasted a small chicken on Thursday and last night made soup stock from the leftover carcass). Brioche rolls.

11/12: Lamb chop, parsley potatoes, peas with savory

11/13: Chicken salad sandwich (using some of the roasted chicken I set aside), baby carrots

11/14: Peanut butter and jelly sandwich, apple slices (eaten in the car between hair appointment and cleaning job)

11/15: Slow cooker swiss steak (put in crockpot before work), steamed rice, green beans

11/16: Baked tilapia with lemon, white and wild rice, salad

11/17: Salad of spring greens, shredded carrots, tomatoes, Kalamata olives, feta cheese, chicken with lemon vinaigrette, roll

11/18: Mini Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, brussels sprouts

11/19: Pork chops, homemade applesauce, rice pilaf, California blend veggies

11/20: Grilled salmon, baked sweet potato, salad

11/21: Country beef stew with veggies, dinner roll

11/22: Spaghetti with marinara sauce, salad

11/23: Thanksgiving Day

11/24: Salad of chopped kale, sliced apples, dried cranberries, blue cheese, pecans, turkey with apple cider dressing, roll

11/25: Mom's macaroni and cheese, salad

11/26:  Chicken paprikash with drop dumplings, green beans

11/27: roast beef and provolone sandwich, celery sticks

11/28: tuna salad sandwich, baby carrots

11/29: Pork adobo over steamed rice, green beans

11/30: Salad of spring greens, shredded carrots, roasted beets, goat cheese, pecans and chicken with poppyseed dressing, roll

So many things

Sometimes I feel as if I am a juggler with one arm and a billion balls in the air. There are just so many things I need to do, want to do, or would like to do and just not enough time. The looming holiday season is not helping.
I then step back and take a deep breath and try to prioritize. But it is hard because I find myself so overwhelmed that nothing gets done. 
Case in point the weekends. With working two-three different jobs from Monday to Friday the weekends quickly get filled up for me. I need to find a way to balance out the week days. Mondays and Tuesdays are a loss. I work my school cafeteria job and then immediately segue into my aftercare job followed by a short drive in the car to my evening cleaning job. The best I can do on those days is remember to take my meds and my vitamins,  make a sandwich to eat in the car for dinner and get plenty of sleep.
My goal is to organize the three hour free time window I have on Wednesdays to Fridays as well as my weekends. All I've been doing so far is using that time to make myself a meal to eat before going in to clean, sometimes unloading and reloading the dishwasher, running the vacuum cleaner, or throwing in a load of laundry while also trying to get in some relaxation in front of the tv or with a book. I've decided to start scheduling myself tasks to complete on these days. But most days? I find myself doing nothing but watching tv. Sigh. So I have come up with this plan:  Wednesdays I will vacuum and clean my bathroom before sitting down. Thursdays: I will complete any errands that may need to be run as well as give the kitchen a quickie clean. Fridays: I will do at least one load of laundry.
And now the weekends. Right now I am in the midst of a plan formulated by some family members who are insisting that despite legal advice to the contrary we clean out my recently deceased sister's home. The whole thing is fairly complicated but to simplify it a group of us as well as the attorney my remaining sister consulted feel that once anyone in the family has taken anything they need or want and we have donated a bunch of stuff as we all agreed to do we should leave the rest and let it be taken over by the bank. She left too many debts for the estate to yield any kind of profit and not a single one of us is legally responsible for any of it. However as in most families there is that one strong minded individual who thinks their plan is better and is vocal enough and forceful enough to get the person who is nominally in charge to go along with it despite themselves. That person is insisting we totally clean out the house (and believe me this is like an episode of hoarders in there) so that their friend can appraise it and see how much it would be worth to sell. Frankly it is in horrible condition. Nothing has been done to the place in years except for filling it up with everything and anything. And the debt owed on it is really going to be more than what it is worth. But here we are spending every Sunday for the last month chucking crap out of the place and it never seems to look like we are making any progress. Seriously. I've seen episodes of Hoarders with less stuff. And now the drama queens are insisting that we finish this project by Thanksgiving because they "can't enjoy" the holiday unless this is done. Whatever. So for the immediate future my Sundays are going to look like this : Church, family brunch, cleaning crap out of this nightmare (ugh), dinner and an evening spent either catching up on work I've brought home or if I am lucky relaxing and doing something I call fun.
This leaves me Saturdays to schedule in anything else relaxing and fun  as well as errands and chores. I feel stressed out just typing that sentence. I've concluded that Saturday mornings I will run any errands followed by cleaning the house. Leaving late afternoons and/or evenings to do fun stuff (fun stuff also includes collapsing in a chair and sleeping in front of the tv). Today I am going to shower and get dressed, run out to the wholesale club to pick up a case of envelopes I need for the cafeteria job, run in to Target for a couple of small items and then return home to clean house. Tonight (or Sunday evening) I may take in a movie. I want to see the new Murder on the Orient Express.
Oh and I still need to get some menus put together because meals have been really hit or miss this last week.
And I am trying to train for walking a 5K on Thanksgiving morning that I registered for. LOL. See what I mean about that juggling act?

Starting Over

It has been 15 months since I last posted. So many things have gone on and changes have been made. Last January I ended up in the hospital following an episode of chest pain. I was checked out, kept overnight and released with orders to get a stress test the following week. I failed that test miserably and ended up back in the hospital where I had a heart catherization. The good news is that my main artery looks fine. The bad news is that something is going on with my heart. After more tests and ruling out a lot of stuff my cardiologist determined that like a lot of other women I have microvascular heart disease (also called Syndrome X) which means the small vessels .off my main artery are clogging. And my cholesterol numbers were ridiculous. And I have unstable angina. So now I am on daily meds for these issues, as well as nitroglycerin for the angina attacks.  It could have been much worse and at my six month checkup my cholesterol was excellent and the meds are doing their job. My doctor was also very pleased with the 62 pound weight loss I had accomplished since starting my job at the hospital.
And that brings me to my other large change. The hospital job was increasingly stressful which led to an uptick in the number of angina attacks I was having (stress can bring them on) resulting in one large attack which left me pondering if this job was worth killing myself over. I sat myself down, did some praying, crunched some numbers and decided that it would be best to find something with less hours and less stress.
I was lucky that within a week I had another position with a different company all lined up. The good news is that it is strictly part time, M-F, no weekends, no holidays. It is still cleaning, but this time offices and mostly I just do detail dusting as well as a few kitchenettes. No pulling trash, no restrooms, no floor work. And since it is a headquarters of a fairly large company, most of the time there are no people to contend with. The bad news is it is less money and no health insurance benefits. But I am a master at belt tightening and am currently looking at insurance options.
In addition to that I have also picked up two three hour shifts at school in the aftercare program. This combination as well as what my son J donates to the household budget as well as the young lady who is renting a room from me throws in means we are doing ok.
Oddly enough I seem to do better with less money. I was wasting money like mad when I worked at the hospital. And I haven't had a single angina attack since changing jobs.
Socially I am enjoying the freedom being unattached has given me. Youngest son H and I have become movie buddies, seeing a ton of stuff over the summer on the $5 movie day as well as splurging on matinee prices. And I added Netflix to our monthly budget and the two of us have enjoyed some binge watching of various shows on that as well. It is so nice to have to time to enjoy this entertainment again. I have also increased the amount of walking I am doing and have signed up for my first ever 5K walk on Thanksgiving Day! The cleaning job and the occasional stroll on the treadmill at home are my training for this!  I had my 40th high school reunion over the summer and had  a wonderful time (spent quality time with my kindergarten BFF too) and reconnected with a high school friend who lives locally and I have seen her a couple of time since then. I am still spending a lot of time with my friend and neighbor V going on antiquing/flea market afternoons (lots of looking  very little buying) as well as just hanging out with a good glass of wine or bottle of water on her front porch in the summer and cozy living room now that the weather has gotten colder.
 I am anticipating the birth of another grandchild in March. Miss E who is already 3 is going to be getting a sibling. As a family we have been blessed beyond belief in that my special needs grandchild B recently had a surgery that is a real game changer for her, allowing her to become far more mobile than she was previously. We have had a couple of weddings, a niece and a nephew both getting married within the last year. And my brother-in-law B who is still fighting cancer continues to be with us all.  Sadly I lost my first sibling this year, my sister E passed away this October. Still struggling with this.
And now for my goals, I am getting back to blogging obviously but also  menu planning and regular grocery shopping with a list and a  budget. With my new job set up I have three days a week where I have a 3 hour break between jobs allowing me to relax a bit at home (or do errands or chores) as well as have a cooked dinner, two days a week I do the aftercare so dinner is a quick sandwich meal in the car on the way to the cleaning gig. And with every weekend off I can plan some great meals for that time. It had gotten to a point where I was eating out almost every meal I wasn't eating at the hospital or school. The occasional meal out is  now the rule. Getting back to basics here is my goal. More time spent with family and friends as well.

July Menus

After reviewing what I have on hand and thinking about it while working last night I sat down and made a list of dinner menus for the rest of the month. Yesterday I grilled one of the eye round steaks, cut it into strips and made a dinner salad with spring greens, cucumber, grape tomatoes, Kalamata olives, the steak and blue cheese with a greek vinaigrette dressing. Dessert was fresh grapes.
Tonight I have a pot of Gail's Pork Adobo simmering on the stove as well as some basmati rice steaming. Some whole green buttered green beans will round this out and I will pack up my portion to take to work and leave the rest for the kids.
The remainder of the meal plans are as follows in no particular order. I have noted when it is planned for a night off from the hospital (I have 3 more this month), I am using planned overs, and trying a couple of new recipes (which I haven't done in months):
Grilled chicken breast with balsamic glaze, California blend veggies
Grilled Tuscan seasoned pork chops, mashed potatoes, broccoli
Shepherd's Pie, peas
Pasta carbonara Florentine, salad
Herbed eye of round roast, mashed potatoes, candied carrots (night off meal)
Beef stroganoff (planned overs), egg noodles, beets
Asian Summer salad, fresh fruit
Lemon Chicken scallopine with gremolata orzo (new recipe), green salad
Grilled Asian pork tenderloin (new recipe), white & wild rice pilaf, snow peas (night off)
Grilled Asian pork tenderloin salad with Asian vinaigrette (using planned overs)
Pork lo mein (using planned overs), egg rolls
Pan seared barramundi fillets, Israeli couscous, asparagus (night off)

July Groceries & Food Supply review

I did some actual grocery shopping the other day at my two favorite stores, Aldi and BJ's wholesale club. At Aldi I spent $85.92 and I brought home a watermelon, a large box of 'single origin' K-cup coffees (Brazilian, Peruvian, Costa Rican & Ethiopian), a small box of hazelnut K-cups, a box of elbow macaroni, a box of frozen Angus burgers, a pack of snow peas, 3 zucchini, a bag of breaded chicken strips, a bag of crispy tortilla strips for salads, a bag of French fried onions for salads, a bag of grapes, 1 pint of grape tomatoes, two bags of spring greens, a seedless cucumber, 2 lbs sweet onions, 1 pint mixed tomatoes, 1 bag of spinach, 1 bunch of bananas, 1 bottle of balsamic glaze, 2 quarts of lowfat cottage cheese, 1 jar dill pickles, 1 jar bread and butter slices, 1 bottle three cheese vinaigrette, 1 bottle garlic vinaigrette, 1 container of coffee creamer, 4 lbs. sugar, 1 bottle light balsamic vinaigrette, 2 boxes of biscotti, and a box of continental assortment cookies.

At BJ's I spent $65.90 and brought home a whole center cut pork loin, a whole eye of round, a porterhouse steak, a bag of mini fresh mozzarella cheese, and two large jars of peanut butter.

I cut the pork loin into a roast, a bag of pork cubes (which I am making into Pork Adobo for tonight's dinner), and 13 pork chops which I individually wrapped with plastic wrap before putting into a ziplock freezer bag. With all the coming and going around here these days this allows me to take as many as needed for any given dinner out of the bag at one time. I cut the eye round into a small roast, a tiny bag of beef cubes for shish kabobs, and seven steaks also individually wrapped like the pork chops.

Because dinners are either portable and going to the hospital with me with leftovers for the kids or just for one or two people (work schedules vary so much between us these days that I don't remember the last time we were all home for dinner together) this will last a long time. In the freezer I have a couple of bags of frozen blsl chicken breast & tenders, some bone-in chicken thighs, about 1/2 pound of shrimp, some salmon & barramundi fillets, a pork tenderloin, two racks of pork ribs, several packs of bacon, some breakfast sausage, hot dogs, chicken sausages, cheddar brats & a whole cooked smoked turkey, as well as assorted bags of frozen veggies, some frozen egg rolls, and a ton of frozen beef burritos that middle son J got for free from a neighbor who moved out and cleaned out his freezer before moving (these come in handy for lunches & a quick something the kids can make themselves). In the pantry I have a ton of canned, bottled, and boxed goods. Dinner salads being a staple of mine these days we are heavy on salad dressings of all kinds. Aldi has been offering a large variety of these items and I've been stocking up when I see them. We also have a nice variety of fresh produce still although a small stop for carrots and more spring greens will be made within the week.

What we don't have these days is junk foods (except for popcorn which I always have around). The cookies were an unusual purchase because I generally bake but youngest son H requested some and with the temps expected to peak around 100 degrees this week I bought instead of baked. Same with the biscotti.

And now for the meal planning......

Six Months

  I'd like to start by thanking Carol of Ctonabudget for her email. It has inspired me to pick myself up and get back to blogging. It has been quite a journey. I had my carpal tunnel surgeries in January and all went well. I returned to my school job right away because daughter E who was working with me could do all of the heavy work. I returned to my hospital cleaning job on the 8th of February. That surgery was a miracle. No more numbness, no tingling, no pain. As per my doctor's instructions though I continue to wear the braces while I sleep.

I signed a new school contract in May and got a raise! School starts Aug. 24th this year and my youngest son H will be my assistant this school year since daughter E is returning to school herself and H's classes are all late afternoon-evening. I also received an excellent review and a merit raise at the hospital! On the financial front things are looking up.

I also took a week's vacation in June and went to North Carolina with my friend Valerie for a few days to visit a mutual friend we sold Pampered Chef with several years ago. While there we splurged and spent a day at the Biltmore Estate (www.biltmore.com) which was fascinating. Definitely a place I want to return to.

Other than these exciting things life has been mostly work and trying to come to terms with no longer being half of a couple. My head knows this change was for the best (X was emotionally abusive, controlling & demanding & manipulative) but my heart is still sad (I loved him in spite of his flaws), especially since he has clearly moved on and replaced me with someone else. On the upside I haven't had to see or talk to him in months, on the downside his "charming" sister ( my oldest son's motherinlaw) loves to talk about him and how awesome his life is every chance she gets. I would avoid her too but I promised my son that since we share a granddaughter I will not do that. So I struggle on.

I have been making positive changes, returning to weekly Mass attendance (even though it means sitting with son's inlaws as well as son, his wife, and granddaughter), spending a great deal of time with my friend Valerie who has been a rock, spending even more time with my grandchildren who live here, reading more, watching tv, going to the movies, the zoo, the parks with the kids & grandkids. I'm even spending more time with my extended family.

My biggest change has been my appearance. Over the last 11 months I have dropped 55 pounds. I am 21 away from original goal weight. And I feel fantastic.

I hate to admit it but my organizational skills have taken a hit though. The house has become sloppy, I've stopped menu planning and I barely go grocery shopping. All things which I am determined to change. I began yesterday by de-cluttering and giving the house a complete clean (except my bedroom which remains a mess). I will be making a menu for the rest of the month including meals which I will take to the hospital with me. I grocery shopped over the weekend as well. I will do a separate post on that.

I keep telling myself one step a day forward.