Stayed pretty close.....

to the original menu plan for last week. I didn't get pictures of all the meals though.

Sunday's dinner: pork ribs, peas, garlic italiano rice a roni
Monday's meal: We started with salad.....

and finished with pasta with sauce and texas toast garlic bread.

Tuesday started with another salad. Meal was sliced turkey served over sliced french bread, peas and garlic mashed taters.

Wednesday we ate at Big Boy on the way home from Shawn's work. I had the Big Boy & fries special that came with a drink. Shawn had the soup & salad bar.

Thursday's dinner was pork steak that I coated with potato chips left from Christmas that I crushed up. We also had green beans and pierogies.

Friday's dinner I didn't get a picture of but we had breakfast for dinner. We had "dunker" eggs, bacon and toast.

Saturday I cooked a whole turkey and then stripped it. I have two good size bowls of meat. I separated white and dark meat. I also have two bowls of homemade stock. For dinner we had: turkey, cranberry stuffing, peas and cranberry sauce.

We mainly ate off what we had this week and I know it helped having a plan.

This coming week was a bit harder to plan as I'm starting a new job. I'll be working in the afternoon/early evening so I have to come up with different meal ideas.

A small step to help

What's for dinner?

Part of my plans for the new year include planning a menu for the week since we are trying to eat healthier. I'm also trying to trim our grocery budget some. I made my menu yesterday after rearranging the kitchen cabinets to determine exactly what we had. We have almost everything on hand for this week's menu. I do have to pick up a few items but should be able to keep it under $20. Our Saturday dinner will look like a holiday meal. We didn't cook big meals for Thanksgiving or Christmas. We got a turkey for 84 cents/lb. I know it's not a great price but I'm interested in seeing how far I can make it stretch. I got 4 meals and 64 oz of HM stock from a whole chicken I cooked on NYE.

This week's menu:

1/4 - Pork ribs, roasted garlic rice a roni, peas
1/5 - Pasta w/sauce, salad, pudding
1/6 - OnCor Frozen Turkey Meal, mashed taters, peas
1/7 - Pork Steak, Pierogies, green beans
1/8 - Breakfast for dinner
1/9 - CORN
1/10 - Turkey, stuffing, mashed taters, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce

1/11 - Turkey a la king (or similar creation)

I hope to post pictures of dinner each night. We'll see how that goes. Shawn thinks I'm weird to take pictures of our food. He has asked me before when I was taking pictures, "Does everyone need to see everything we eat?".

A New Year

First, I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year. I hope that everyone's 2009 is better than 2008.

I've been absent for a few weeks. I recently received some medical news that put me into a funk. I'm coming out of it now. I'll know more about the situation in about 6 weeks.

In just under 3 months, I'll be having to get my Vitamin D levels rechecked. Normal levels are 25-30. I'm at 9. I'm currently taking 50000 units of Vitamin D once a week for 12 weeks. They will then check my levels and see where it is.

Other than the Vitamin D issue and the other issue my physical came out pretty good. I do need to lower my total cholesterol as I'm at the very top of normal. I also need to bring my HDL (good) up some and bring the LDL (bad) down although my levels are not horrible.

I have a family history on both sides with high blood pressure but my reading in the office was 110/80. Granted, I rarely cook with salt and try not to eat high amounts of sodium.

Diabetes also runs on both sides of my family especially my mother's. My fasting blood sugar though was 82.

All other tests came out fine. My weight is high but I knew that going in. We did get a Wii as a family gift from Shawn's parents. We then got the Wii Fit. I've been doing my best to do 20-30 minutes on the Wii Fit total for the day.

I Hate Snow! Part 2

Well, here's an update to our snow storm. These pictures were taken just after 5 pm today.


The approach to our stairwell. This is after they had run the snowblower for the 2nd time today on it.

One of neighbor's vehicle buried under snow and plowed/drifted in.

I drive the Aztek that's in this picture. This was what I had to drive over when I came back from my appointment.

Another view of the cars. If I recall correctly, the one next to me that's covered didn't move all day.

Looking out my back door.

You can come get your snow anytime Shirla!

I Hate Snow!

I'm a GRITS (Girl Raised In The South). If we got as much snow as we've gotten here in the past two hours my hometown would be totally shut down. Most, if not all, of the schools here in Metro Detroit are closed today. They are forecasting 3" south of Detroit and possibly up to a foot of snow north of Detroit. We live right on the edge of the line that divides the 6"-9" section and the 9"+ section. This is what my fleece looked like after just a few minutes outside to take pics.

The back end of my vehicle. I should go out and brush it off but figure I will do that while I let it warm up.

My footprints on the walkway. We had 2"-3" at that time.

This pic is out the back door. This is my bistro set.

Video taken about 7:30 am. Snow had been falling for just over 2 hours.

I wouldn't mind this if I didn't have to go out in it. I have an appointment at 11 am and then will be picking up the kids tonight. Luckily, this system is scheduled to be over about 4 pm.

Who Made Mother Nature Mad At Me?

Ok, somebody got Mother Nature mad at me. I had an ugly commute home on Tuesday due to a snowstorm. We got about 3 inches from that storm.

Overnight until tomorrow afternoon we have a Winter Storm Warning up for our area. They are calling for 6 to 10 inches of snow tomorrow. I have an appointment tomorrow at 11 am. Luckily it's not that far from home.

I'll take some pics tomorrow as we're getting hit. Looking out the window now all I see is white.