A Weekend, A Plan, A Promise.

Oh my! What a weekend it was! I had planned on posting Saturday. Then, Sunday I really was going to. So, here it is Monday morning. Let's recap the weekend, shall we?

It all started on Friday night when a very kind and lovely soul brought me the makings for Lemon Drops! Oh how my heart sang with delight. It was a great way to ring in a Fiesta Friday. We had a lovely evening surrounded by family and friends.

Saturday morning was a bright and early morning (just like every morning as the Minions tend not to sleep in). We were going to help a dear friend move into the house she bought. How exciting! I was a little worried that my showing up to "help" would be more of a hindrance as I was packing some childrens. But it out turned out pretty dang good. The Side o Beef is strong and awesome and was able to help move a lot of stuff quickly. The Big Kid is an amazing helper. I was so impressed with how she just got in there and started lugging boxes around. She is strong! Red was super good at helping to unpack toys, as was the Tank. Although the Tank mostly wanted to be underfoot, any foot in motion with a goal. Even Mommy moved some boxes and whatnot! Good afternoon.

By Four 'O Clock in the PM time, the minions were all ready to go over to Grandma's house, as promised earlier in the day, for a sleepover. The Side o Beef and I were supposed to be going to a birthday party but opted out as we were exhausted and not wanting to make the drive. We decided to go home. After slight discussion we realized that we had not been on a solo, one on one date for about (ummm) 7 months. We decided Sushi was in order and went and had an amazing and delicious little meal. Also, I decided dessert was in order and since I didn't have the energy to go home and make anything, we went out for dessert also.

Now this dessert deserves it's very own paragraph, maybe it's very own post! It was Raspberry Lemonade Cake and it was glorious! I am going to have to attempt to replicate (goal is that this will occur Thursday/Friday as there is no school). I will keep you posted on progress, as well as possibly post my first picture if it turns out!

Oh Sunday. We went to go get our Minions from Grandma's house pretty early in the morning. Technically it was nine, but due to the horrible idea of changing my clock it was actually ten. This horrible trick also made me think that I had slept in til 8 but then realized that it was still actually 7, but really still 8. Gah! The minions were happy to see us, quite excited really. But then things took a nasty turn at the mere mention of heading home. So we hung out. No harm.

While waiting for the okay to head home (from the kids) I managed to come up with this: My meal plan for this week (and next week!). Would you like to know what we will be eating our meals? Of course you would!

Sunday: Leftovers. Yup, I didn't want to cook last night.
Monday: Meatloaf, Twice Baked Potatoes, and Corn.
Dessert: Lemon Pound Cake.
Tuesday: Pizza and Salad
Wednesday: Rib Eye Steak in a Whiskey Cream Sauce, Mashed Potatoes, Carrots.
Thursday: Leftovers (cake making attempt day)
Friday: Fiesta Friday!! Taco Night (DUH!)
Dessert: Hopefully Raspberry Lemonade Cake.
Saturday: I think we may be going out again.
Sunday: Roast Chicken with Potatoes, Carrots and Onions.
Monday: General Tso Chicken (what will be my 1st attempt at making it homemade),
Rice, Broccoli.
Tuesday: Cake. I will be making Cake. Not sure what yet, but cake.
Wednesday: Cornbread Chili Bake (a whole meal for less than $5! This you will be
getting a recipe for!)
Thursday: Leftovers (that's a lot of food I will be making)
Friday: Fiesta Friday!!
Saturday: Meatballs, Mashed Potatoes, and Green Beans.

See? Nothing overwhelming difficult. Nothing overtly expensive. I try to keep our food budget down as much as I can. I have read that some people spend as much as $800 a month to feed a family of 5. Can you believe that? Most months I believe that I spend around $200-300 for our food. It is much easier to cut your monthly food budget if you do meal planning. Go even further with this if you base your meals off of the sales that are going on at the local grocery store and clipping coupons.

I already bought meat on sale last week and the week before. All I will need to buy meat-wise for these two weeks is the Rib Eye Steak (I promised Side O Beef that I would make this for him). Last week Fred Meyer had baker potatoes on sale for 10 cents a pound! I bought 20 pounds (in case you noticed we were eating a ton of potatoes during the next few weeks). I will be needing a few items to round out the meals planned, but I don't anticipate spending more than $20 this week. Honestly, Butter will be my major expense for the weeks, what with all the caking I am planning.

And there you have it. All in all, a very low key post. But the promise of excitement in the future. And isn't that all we really want anyway? After all, it is Monday morning. Let's not get too ambitious.

Peace Out Homies!
(Since I have a whopping 7 followers now!!)