Lots of Yummy Food Pictures

Sometimes when I'm cooking, I take pictures of the food because it looks so delicious, and I'm sure I'll want to use it in a blog post at some point.

Then the pictures just sit on my memory card...Until NOW!

Here's the dinner I made when I decided I wanted to try making a whole ham in the crockpot. The ham was pretty tasty. The Cauliflower Gratin, not so much. I really like cauliflower, but I wasn't a fan of having it prepared this way. It still LOOKED good though, so I took a picture.

I took this while making filling for Quinoa Stuffed Peppers. I thought the pot looked so happy, so I couldn't resist snapping a picture! 

And here's a finished Quinoa Stuffed Pepper! I used this recipe except I left out the the water chestnuts because YUCK, and I doubled the black beans because YUM! These turned out to be pretty wonderful!

Chicken Fajitas

Chicken Stir-Fry

Chicken Fajitas again!

Hope you enjoyed these pictures of our food!

Ice Cream for Dinner!

  

Lest you think we are crazy health nuts...let me tell you about a summer tradition we have. Once a year, for the last 3 years (since Super B was 2), we have ice cream for dinner!

We actually got the idea from an episode of Jon and Kate plus 8 that we watched a long time ago. Anyway, it's a fun tradition, but this is the first time we've done it without going to Braum's or Andy's.

The kiddos loved it! (shocking, I know)

June and July in Review

Don't Worry! We're still here, and we're still dining in! We've just had a busy, fun summer.

$$ spent in restaurants in June 2012: $482.01
$$ spent in restaurants in June 2013: $182.62

Wow! We spent kind of lot this month. Mr. M had FIVE team meals! Plus we went to Oklahoma City for a day, and we went to a minor league ball game and bought refreshments. Oh well. We're still improving.



$$ spent in restaurants in July 2012: $315.95
$$ spent in restaurants in July 2013: $213.45

We spent 5 days traveling this month, so I think we actually did pretty well. Last year we went out of town in June, and you can see from the June 2012 total above, we definitely made an improvement this year! There were also a few team meals for Mr. M this month.

Leftovers!!

Since started this dining in experiment, I have become aware, that we used to waste TONS of food in the form of leftovers that never got eaten. We'd have a refrigerator filled with leftovers and still choose to go to a restaurant because nothing "looked good."

Not anymore!

We now eat about 95% of our leftovers, and I feel good about that because it's always nice to realize you're being less wasteful than you were before.

It's always a good idea to consider leftovers when you're making out your menu. For example, when I cook a whole chicken, I keep some shredded chicken and use it in a recipe later in the week. Or sometimes I make a lot of taco meat for taco salad and then use it in burritos later in the week.

Being diligent about eating leftovers also leads to some interesting lunches for me. One time (okay this happens most time I make spaghetti) I made way more spaghetti sauce than spaghetti. So, I present to you...

Toast with Spaghetti Sauce and Parmesan Cheese

Don't hate. It was yummy. :) Eat your leftovers!

Buying in Bulk

One of the things that helps me to successfully dine in is buying in bulk. This helps us save money by buying in larger quantities, and it also helps us make sure we always have a stocked kitchen. I buy in bulk both at a warehouse club and at regular grocery stores when there is a sale.

These are the things I buy in bulk at the warehouse club:

-ground turkey: comes in a 5 lb. container for around $13. I separate it into 1/2 lb and 1 lb amounts and freeze it.

-cheese, cheddar and mozzarella: comes in 5 lb. blocks for around $12 each. I separate it into 1 lb. sections and freeze it. Then I let it thaw and shred it to use in recipes.

-snacks: nutri-grain bars, fiber one bars, string cheese, goldfish, etc. the prices vary on these, and every now and then I can get them at the grocery store for less if I combine a sale and a coupon, but usually this is our best bet. If only our warehouse club sold healthy (as in actually made with fruit) fruit snacks!

-organic spinach: This comes in a huge container for less than $5. At the grocery store, a container half that size would cost the same.

-bananas: 3 lbs. for $1.48. Better price than the grocery store but I do still buy them at the grocery store sometimes if I'm going there anyway.

-bread: Sandwich bread costs around $4 for 2 loaves, so I just freeze one loaf until we're ready for it. Also tortillas, bagels, hamburger buns, are all available for a much lower price, so we freeze the ones we're not using.

-yogurt: Our club actually has several varieties of this. Lately I've been buying a 12-pack of Chobani Greek yogurt for around $11.

-spices: Taco seasoning, chili powder, garlic powder, and lots more are all available for ridiculously low prices when you compare them to the grocery store prices.

-frozen chicken breasts: 6 lbs. for around $10. These are really versatile, so it's nice to have a huge bag of them in the freezer.

These are things I buy in bulk at the grocery store if there is a good enough price:

-cereal: It's expensive stuff, so I very rarely buy it without a coupon anyway. If I find a great deal, usually by combining a sale with a coupon or a store coupon with a manufacturer's coupon, I stock up!

-canned goods: We don't use tons of canned items, but there are a few things we use pretty often (tomatoes, tomato sauce, beans, chili), so when I find a good deal on those things I stock up!

-rice, flour, sugar, etc. These things are available at the warehouse club, but they are available in ginormous amounts that I don't have room to store, so I buy them in the largest size the grocery stores carry. It's still a savings to do it this way, and that way I don't have to remember to buy them as often.

I realize that not everyone has the freezer and pantry space to buy in bulk. Remember my "pantry"? But if you can find it in your budget to buy a stand-alone freezer I highly recommend it! Not only for bulk shopping, but for bulk cooking too! We bought a used one, and it has made my life SO much easier!

Since this is a blog about eating, I won't go into the cleaning products and toiletries we buy in bulk, but that's a great way to save time and money too!

May in Review

$$ spent at restaurants in May 2012: $174.60
$$ spent at restaurants in May 2013: $61.76

Total lbs. lost by me so far this year: 22
Total lbs. lost by Mr. M so far this year: 39

In May of 2012, Mr. M was working out of the country for at least half the month, so that's why our restaurant spending was so "low" that month. In January I added up all the months from 2012, and as I was looking through May I was surprised that we had spent so little. Then I remembered why. I told Mr. M, and he responded with, "I know. I'm most of the problem." or something like that. But really that just makes sense. He's at work every day with coworkers who eat out often, sometimes five days a week, so the temptation is a lot greater for him. Anyway, I'm glad we still had an improvement this month. Mr. M had 4 team meals in May (at some pricey restaurants apparently), so that accounts for the $61.76.

Grill Cooking

Once upon a time (about 3 years ago) Mr. M and I decided to do a brilliant thing called buying a house that was built in 1954. Everything, including our Air Conditioner, was OLD!

Because of that, we've spent the last 2 summers sweating it out, especially since we were experiencing weeks of temperatures above 100 degrees.

What does this have to do with dining in??

Our old dinosaur of an HVAC system made it very difficult and sometimes unbearable to use our oven or stand over the stove during the summer. Cooking this way would heat up the house to between 85 and 90 degrees some days, so, needless to say, we had to improvise.

Enter our $20 charcoal grill.

This thing saved our lives! (there's a chance I'm being a little dramatic, but seriously we love this grill!)

Admittedly we also ended up eating out a lot during the summer too, but not this year!

Here's a list of things we've cooked on our grill in the past:

-Burgers (usually turkey, sometimes veggie, rarely beef)
-Hot Dogs (or Italian sausage)
-Pizza (we used this method)
-Chicken (we've done marinated legs, wings, and breasts)
-Corn
-Asparagus
-Zucchini
-Watermelon
-Cantaloupe

I'm sure I'm forgetting something!

Even though it's not super hot here yet, and we just got a new HVAC system (wahoo!), we've already used the grill a few times this year.

Here's a yummy dinner we had a couple of weeks ago.

 

We grilled Italian sausage and wheat buns and ate it with a delicious fruit salad!

A bonus to cooking on the grill is that your kids will probably sit on an OLD swing and look adorable!