Wednesday, August 1

[Cheryl]

Good morning!  I think I have the date right, but how is it already August? . Tomorrow is my oldest daughter's birthday.  Time seems to be flying by!

It is raining at my house and I am enjoying watching it out my kitchen windows.  I love rainy days, always have since I was a little kid.  I don't care for storms, but I love the rain.  The sound of the rain makes me want to curl up with a book and spend the day reading.  Too bad I have other things to do. 

I got my meal plan made.  I was able to figure out almost an entire month's worth of meals using the freezer items.  I always leave a few days open for leftovers or a change in plans.  I was glad to get that little job completed.  Now wish me luck in putting it into action.  My problem with trying to eat down the freezers/pantry has been restocking when I see good deals.  This time around I will have to stay out of the stores.  We need to replace some of our savings we have had to dip into recently, and cutting the grocery budget for a little while is an easy place to start.

Well, I heard my washer has finished the first load, so I need to go switch the laundry to the dryer and start another load washing.  Enjoy your day, everyone!   

[Alice]

Hi Cheryl,

Happy August!

I hear you about trying to use freezer stuff but yet finding good deals to fill it right back up again. That's totally me! But it would be silly to NOT take the good deals and when you need that exact same product to pay the higher price at a later date?  I do that all the time with meat. Boneless, skinless chicken thighs at a reduced price now instead of full price a couple of weeks from now and I'm going to get it now.

I do have a big turkey in my freezer that I am not looking forward to eating. I just don't like turkey but it is there and it shouldn't wait until Thanksgiving because it has been in there a year and eight months. I think I'll pull it out tonight and roast it this weekend.

My daughter's boyfriend's birthday is tomorrow and the other daughter's birthday is Sunday. Neither one will be in town to celebrate so we'll have to do those by WhatsApp. It is the time in our lives that the kids aren't always home for their birthdays and neither are they home for OUR birthdays.

Tonight we're having a corned beef casserole. We've been eating leftovers the last couple of days and they were delicious. I had a casserole in the freezer that I made last week that we had last night. I call it leftovers but it really wasn't.  My refrigerator is just about empty. We finished off the lettuce and the cheese are about gone too. We do have a lot of fruit but my kids rarely eat that. I'm trying to push that a bit by offering a variety but they don't want it. I love it. I had a cantaloupe, cherries, peaches, plums and blueberries. I have a big bowl for lunch.

I wish I was better at putting a month worth of meals into a meal plan. It is such a long time for me to plan in advance.  I just look into my freezer and pull something out and that's the base for our meal. I am pretty good at coming up with ideas very quickly so maybe that's why too much advance planning doesn't work for me.

Alice