Day 29...

So close to the end...  One more day...  It actually wasn't too bad, however if we didn't have Wednesday's, I'm not sure we would have made it.  Maybe sometime we will try that (or not).

This weekend, we ate:
Brunch with friends (death toast and some sausage english muffin things that were tasty)
Dinner on Saturday was Barbeque chicken, corn and asparagus
Sunday morning we had eggs, grits, bacon, and toast
Sunday night was Spaghetti (with leftovers for lunches)
Monday night was Grilled Cheese and Tomato soup (one of my favs)
Last night was a Wachai Ferry Bag meal.. so that Hubby would have time to work on the yard.

I cannot wait until my ankle is recovered enough to help with the yard again.

Sloppy Joes...

Last night was as yummy meal of sloppy joes and ore-ida seasoned fries (baked in the oven).  I love a sloppy joe.

I have also been cleared to go back to the gym after my foot surgery so I was ravinous.  So I had 2 sloppy joes. 

Just to clarify my last post: If we know we are going to dinner with people on a Saturday night, we would not eat breakfast out that morning.  So our 8 times a month will include 4 Daniels and 4 other times as we decide to use them.  I will still eat out with my people for sushi or whatever...

No Pictures

Sorry there haven't been any posts or pictures for a few days.  We were traveling over the weekend (where we had to eat out twice).  Oh well.  We will finish the rest of the month sans restaurants and we were discussing how to limit ourselves eating out.  I think we will set a limit of 8 times a month.  That includes dinner on wednesday's at daniels, breakfast on the weekends, and eating out with friends.  I hope that most months will be less than 8 times. 

I will try to get back on the post/picture wagon...

I did have an idea that maybe I would do a different 30 day challenge every month... check back for more details on this...

Hot dogs

Since knew we were going out of town for the weekend we just had hot dogs and chips for dinner. Yummy and fast.

Frozen Bag Meal

So we got home a little later than expected and the grass really needed to be cut so we ate a frozen bag meal (dinner in 14 minutes) instead of what we were suppose to have.  The last few frozen bag meals we have had have been Wachai Ferry.  They are actually pretty tasty.  Last night was Spicy Shrimp and it was actually a little spicy.

I made up for it a little and made brownies for dessert using my perfect brownie pan.

As promised

Here is a photo of the blueberry muffins:

weekend...

So I didn't do a very good job of blogging or taking pictures this weekend.  However, I'll give an overview of the weekend.

Friday night we had Chorizo Strudels.  It was basically chorizo, onions, and peppers cooked and rolled into 4 phyllo dough sheets.  It was very tasty.  I wish I had taken a picture but I forgot.

We were also trying to find something to do on Friday that didn't involve food.  It is more difficult than you might imagine given my limited walking ability at the moment.  I didn't really want to go to the movies because that is like a 20 minute drive and you have to figure out what to watch.  It seemed a lot of hassle.  Hubby suggested shopping or clubbing (because we are such big clubbers).  We did find something to do: Crazy Glaze in FV is open until 9.  Once we got home I didn't really want to go out so we stayed in and played Yahtzee.  It was fun and relaxing.

Saturday we had burgers for dinner.  Hubby put Worcestershire, chives, cilantro, garlic powder, and salt in the meat.  They were tasty.  He also bought some of that new bacon cheddar cheese from kraft.  It is pretty tasty but not as good as having a actual bacon on the burger.

Sunday morning we had Smitten Kitchen's Corn Pancakes.    They are so good.  They have a lot of texture from the cornmeal and corn.

I also made the Smitten Kitchen's Perfect Blueberry Muffins.  I will take a picture of these tonight.

Last night Hubby made corn tortillas.  They are yummy and nothing like the ones you buy in the store.  We filled them with skirt steak, guacamole, and pico de gallo.  

All in all it was a good weekend.

Day 10...

So this is actually day 9 dinner... It looks very similar to Monday's dinner but it isn't the same.  This is chicken piccata and an orzo side dish with leeks, peas, and bacon.  It was good.  I have some leftover orzo today to go with my leftover smoked ribs.

Tonight for dinner we are having some kind of phyllo dough stuffed with chorizo, peppers, and onions.  I will post a picture.  Hubby found the recipe in one of our cookbooks.

No picture today...

We had left overs from Monday night so we could go out and do a little shopping.  But we went home first and ate.  That would not have happened in any other month.  We would have let the dogs out and gone out to eat.

No cooking tonight but there are still dishes for me to do.  Yay Dishes!

Day 7

Made it through the weekend not even really thinking about eating out.  I did not leave the house until Monday afternoon.  It was really nice!!

So far, I think the biggest struggle has been the dishes.  But when you are home for 3 full days cooking at least twice a day, you make a lot of dishes.  I did a load of dishes on Friday, 2 loads on Saturday, Eddie did 2 loads yesterday...  CRAZY!!  I guess we could pick easier items to cook but when you are home and have all day, you think of making crazy/complicated things.

Here's a picture of last night's dinner:

Pork tenderloin with a mustard sauce (I can't remember what is in the sauce) and risotta with peas and green onions.  It was delicious.

I also made the Smitten Kitchen's Peach Shortbread.   It was pretty easy and very tasty.

So far so good, 1/4 of the way through...

Biscuits and gravy

Stir fry

Sunday night dinner... Orange chicken stir fry with soba noodles.

Smokey, Smokey

Saturday's dinner was smoked ribs and wings. Ribs were delicious ad always. Wings needed more time to crisp up but the flavor was great.

Apple almond French toast

Bread from stick boy turned into French toast. Yummy!

Spinach quiche

From Mastering the Art of French Cooking... Yummy! We had this for dinner Friday night!

3 day weekend!!!

Lots of cooking to be done during the 3 day labor day weekend.

Things I know we are cooking:
Spinach Quiche (dinner tonight and leftovers for breakfast one day this weekend)
Stir-fry
Apple Walnut French toast (Hubby bought Apple Walnut bread from Stick Boy this morning)
Smoked something (probably ribs and wings, something he hasn't tried to smoke yet)

I will probably try to make some muffins and brownies... And of course I'll have all those dishes to wash.. Hubby was nice last night and did the dishes for me because I had to work and my ankle was hurting.  He did a good job too.

Nachos

Our first dinner... Nachos w/ ground turkey, homemade guacamole, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, cheese and sour cream. I also has jalepenos on mine.

August Tally

In an effort to see how much money we could save by eating in for 30 days, Hubby kept a comprehensive tally of how much money we spent in August eating out...

Before I put the number up, we did eat out more in August (traveling, dinner with friends, eating out because we won't for a month) than we do in most months and we paid for some meals for people we were with as well...

We spent $846 in the month of August eating out.  We are going to feel rich by October.

Today is day 1 but it is Wednesday so we will be eating at Daniel's tonight.  I will try to get a head start on my dish duties by the doing the dishes tonight so I start with a clean kitchen tomorrow. Cause Hubby is a good but messy cook!