Toss Out Tuesday

Ok all, one of the major reasons I started this blog was for accountability. Something on-line that (hopefully) others will see. Something that I can post my successes and failures. Something to give me praise during the great times and encouragement during the hard times.

I admitted to you guys that food waste was a huge problem in our house hold. I want it to be my habit for January 2012 to not waste any food. Well I have royally failed. Not just a little. Like a ton! Here is a photo of some of the food waste for January.

Yes, this is a full sized trash can. It's our kitchen trash can. Yes, everything in that trash is food wasted. Yes, you can see that it is over 3/4 of the way full! Yes, this is a serious problem. Especially, if you knew that this was not our only food waste. We have also wasted 18 chicken breasts, 4 bags of salad lettuce, tons of produce, and much more.

I am completely embarrassed  by this waste. This just shows all of you how un-prepared I am, how slobified I am. How can I complete my goals, especially my financial goals if I am throwing away this much food? I can't. That's the truth. I have got to get this under control. That is why I plan to make Tuesday, Toss Out Tuesday. Where I will post pictures of what I have tossed out.

This will be my first post for Toss Out Tuesday. I am hoping that by having to post photos, I will be much more responsible about what I toss. I hope to stop buying to much for a weeks worth of produce. I hope to do something with that COOKED chicken on the stove. I have been boiling them 6 at a time and have let them rot on the stove top 3 times now! I hope this will some how encourage others. I can bet your waste is no where close to mine but I hope that you can still reduce your food waste.

Are you up for this challenge with me? Do you have a food wasting problem? This is a judge-free zone. Please post your great times (for encouragement to others). Please post your hard times (so you can be thankful for your great times).




I have linked this post to:
Tip Junkie
Sugar Bee Crafts
reasonstoskipthehousework.com

Menu Plan Monday

Our breakfast always seems to be the same. I have a home made sausage, egg, and cheese wrap. Caleb has toast or a bagel with peanut butter. Joel has just finished his pump (he's on a night time feeding tube drip). And I'd be lying if I said Jimmy ate something. That only leaves me guessing lunch and dinner, Ever Day Of The Week! I am so bad at thinking ahead. Ok, I guess I don't have to think much about lunch since we always end up having left overs from the night before. So I am trying out this meal planning thing that everyone always raves about.

Monday - Taco Salad I ended up making this and will post a more detailed recipe this week. But it was GOOD!

Tuesday - BBQ Pork

Wednesday - Grandpa Bills Chicken and Veggies over biscuits

Thursday - Lasagna

Friday - Salad

Saturday - Cream cheese, Chicken, and pasta

Sunday - We normally have a late breakfast around lunch time which pushes back our "lunch" to dinner so we will have left overs.

I am linking up over at orgjunkie.com



What are you having for dinner this week. I am always open to suggestions and ideas. Please post a link to your blog below or just post what you are having :)

Weekly Goals

Last weeks goals and results:

Family/Mothering Goals

1) Finish reading Mummies in the morning with Caleb

This is our before school book series. Meaning, we only read this when we are early for school (which is every day because if we don't have reading time, we have a melt down). We would have this finished but there was no school on Friday or today. So I think we'll be done with this Tuesday.

2) Family game night 1 time this week

This became a few times this week. I am not complaining :)

3) Read with Caleb 3 times this week

Personal Goals


1) Finish reading Animal, vegetable, miracle By Barbara Kingsolver Almost done. I promise!

Done and returned!

2) Drink 5 glasses of water each day.

3) Ride stationary bike 1/2 hour 3 days this week

I actually road it 5 days this week and I went to the gym 2 days!

Home Management Goals


1) Make weekly menu so we don't waste any food this week

Didn't make menu AND we wasted more food! I need to get going on this.

2) Get Windows painted at our other house

My husband did this and they look great!

3) Put 25 items in the good will bucket

Business Goals


1) Continue entering times and meals daily.

The program I use was down for maintenance so I was unable to do this.

2) Do a Fire drill.

3) call Minute menu so I can print off my parents tax forms

This weeks goals:

Family/Mothering Goals

1) Finish reading Mummies in the morning with Caleb. Start the next book in the series

2) Find a place for Joel 1st birthday party

3) Make morning muffins with Caleb

Personal Goals


1) Get to page 93 in Julie and Julia

2) Drink 5 glasses of water each day.

3) Ride stationary bike 1/2 hour 3 days this week

Home Management Goals


1) Make weekly menu so we don't waste any food this week

2) Get right paint color for bed room

3) Put 25 items in the good will bucket

Business Goals


1) Continue entering times and meals daily.

2) Do a Fire drill.

3) call Minute menu so I can print off my parents tax forms




What are your goals this week? I would LOVE to hear about them. Please either post them below or post a link to your blog. I will check them out for sure!

Recipe to try this week: Taco Salad

At ever pot luck we have at church, there is an elderly lady who brings this amazing taco salad. For years I have eaten it and hoped for seconds but of course, there are none. It's always the first thing to go at the pot luck. It's just that great. So today I did something I had never thought of before. I facebook messaged her. And what luck, she messaged me back with in the hour! Now, on my list of things to do this week includes getting the ingredients for this Taco Salad. Here is her official message:

Six ingredients for my easy taco salad: lettuce, taco seasoning, nacho chips, Mexican chili beans, taco shredded cheese, and 1000 Island dressing. Do drain the beans, crunch the nacho chips, add the dressing just before serving.

I found a blog who posted their version. It looks pretty similar with sorta kinda similar ingredients.

photo source

What I Ate Wednesday!

Although my camera was dead this week and we couldn't find the charger, I did manage to find it last night and get a photo of today's lunch. Because this is my first "What I Ate Wednesday" I hope that you'll forgive me for just the one photo but I want to get in on the party too!! At Meijers this week, there were some pretty great produce sales going on so we took full advantage of them. Strawberries were $2.00, we got some blue berries on clearance, black berries were just 50 cents and bags of salad lettuce were just a dollar! This week we have had smoothies galore and salad. Lots of salad. My favorite salad is super simple and super good. Just lettuce, feta cheese, sunflower seeds, and Italian dressing.

Also this week, we have had bananas, salad, hamburger helper, salad, bagels and peanut butter, and did I mention salad?

I will be linking up to a few blogs and will be posting the links below as I do so.

A Little Nosh
House Of Hepworths
Frugal Follies
Full Plate Thursday
A Glimpse Inside Blog
This Chick Cooks
Someday Crafts
Blue Cricket Design
Nap-time Creations
All The Small Stuff
Delightfully Dowling
Fire Flies And Jelly Beans
Some What Simple
Mom On Time Out

What did you have for dinner this week? Please leave a link in you comments if you have a blog. I would love to check it out as I am exploring new food options. (As you can see we are pretty boring in the food department.)

Daddy Takes on Kitchen Junk Drawer

Last night, I was helping Caleb with his homework and he needed the colored pencil sharpened. Jimmy got up and went to the junk drawer and starts looking.... and looking... and looking. Now I have to be honest, I love the man but he couldn't find a big red elephant in our living room (if it were in there) to save his life! So I was joshing around with him about not being able to find it and all of a sudden I hear a huge clash and clunk in the kitchen. I got up and went in there only to see everything out on the floor! Only to find out that it was intentional. He was sick of our junk drawer looking like junk and so he tossed it all out to clean it! Go Daddy!!

This picture was taken after a few minutes because I forgot to grab the camera! :)

And this was just most of the pile. There was more to the left that I couldn't fit in the picture. So Jimmy went to town and found the pencil sharpener and a few other things that were lost in there. Along with tons of batteries, box tops for Caleb's school and exactly 73 pens and pencils! Pens/pencils were the most lost item in our house and there were 73 of them in this tiny drawer?! Really?! Well, now I know where to look from now on. Here is a photo of our newly "remodeled" drawer.

Looks great huh? Did I ever mention that my husband is amazing? Well, he is! I am so thankful to have him.

I linked up to Clean and Scentsible, House Of Hepworths and Somewhat Simple as well so go check them out!

2012 goal - getting healthy goals Part 1

I really feel like a few of my goals fall into this category. So I will be listing them out and telling you why.

For goal #9 (my exercise increasingly goal) I am still on the look out for a plan that I can actually execute.
-Money saving mom has posted a nice one called couch to 5k but the weather is only getting colder around here.
-We do have a stationary bike that I plan to ride while the kids are napping. That way I can also get my reading in too!
-I have also busted out the Wii this week in hopes of checking my weight on the Wii Fit that my mama is letting me borrow.
-We also have the Kinect and last Christmas got an awesome zumba game for it. How ever, I can not figure those silly things out and have NO CLUE how to even start the game. I think some help from my husband might be in order.
-During the summer time, we do have a great bike trailer that turns into a jogger and I loved using that last summer! I am thinking that will get a lot of use this summer as well.
-I also have a membership to a gym for the classes only portion. I LOVED going but they don't have baby sitting and I feel like we have over used our baby sitters already with all the Dr's appointments for Joel. So unless my husband has the day off or something, this is really not an option. Also, up until now, I have had my child care kids most mornings and I can't just pawn those guys off. Again, I loved going and if they had baby sitting, I would go again in a heart beat but they don't.
- We have stairs.... a couple of sets.... not super thrilled about this one but I guess if all else fails, this could be a back up.

Right now I have my weekly goal set at just 1/2 hour 3 times a week on my stationary bike. I would love to increase that and get much more healthy this year

Goal #10 (Freezer meals once a month), I feel, will also help with this. I am Classic for last minute meal planning! I will make 1/2 of the meal only to find out that we can't have it because I am missing a critical ingredient (like chicken in the chicken pot pie). So what do we end up doing? Calling daddy on his way home and ask him to pick something up for us, or grabbing something while we were out running errands. This leads to some seriously unhealthy eating! By doing this, we are putting tons of, pardon my french but, Crap into our bodies... into my babies bodies! This needs to stop now. I was just talking with my mom today about picking more fruits and veggies during the summer and either freezing or canning them so we can truly enjoy locally grown "fresh" fruits and veggies all year round. We have just recently found the joys of fruit smoothies! So we we hope those stick around for good as well.