First, I have great news! Cakes slept through the night! She went to bed at 7:00, and woke up once around midnight. She cried for about 5 minutes, and then went back to sleep on her own. After that, we didn’t hear a peep from her until 6:30 this morning.
I cannot even tell you how happy this makes me. I still woke up several times during the night, because I’m accustomed to being woken up, but eventually I’ll get used to sleeping through the night again.
In other news, I’ve been for 10 days! YAY! It was really hard to give up at first, but now I’ve gotten into a new pattern, so I really don’t miss it. In the morning, I have a cup of coffee, which helps prevent the horrible caffeine headaches. I started keeping a glass, gallon jug of water in the refrigerator, so when I’m thirsty throughout the day, I have ice-cold water to drink (I can’t drink water unless it’s very, very cold). When I’m craving flavor and bubbles, I make a “fizzy drink.” I buy Sam’s Choice-brand seltzer, which is just sodium-free carbonated water, and mix it with a little bit of 100% fruit juice. The seltzer is only 64 cents for a 38-ounce bottle, so I keep several bottles in the garage (taking advantage of natural refrigeration).
Moving on to the pantry challenge…
I’m still baking bread about every other day, so we haven’t purchased any bread at the bakery outlet.
I keep a week’s worth of labeled bread mix baggies in my freezer, which makes regular baking a snap.
I just put the liquid ingredients in the bread machine pan, dump in the baggie, add the yeast, and start the dough cycle. It takes all of 5 minutes.
On Monday, I made Swedish Meatballs over egg noodles. This used up the last package of ground turkey patties that we didn’t like. I crumbled them and combined them with a 3/4-lb package of ground beef. For dessert, I made my famous Oatmeal Crumb Cake. I was rummaging through the pantry, and I discovered a half box of cinnamon Teddy Grahams, leftover from when Bee had to take snack to kindergarten. I ground them in my food processor, with the intention of making a graham cracker crust, but I only had about a cup of crumbs, which isn’t enough. Instead, I made my oatmeal cake, topped with graham streusel and drizzled with powdered sugar icing. My husband said, in all seriousness, that it was the best cake he ever had!
On Tuesday, my husband had a meeting at 5:00, so he ate leftovers, and the kids and I had a simple supper of turkey hot dogs and fruit.
On Wednesday, I used a package of leftover, cooked beef roast from the freezer to make Beef Barley Vegetable Soup, and a side of Sweet Scratch Cornbread. I’ve been making this soup for years, and every time I serve it to guests, I have to pass out copies of the recipe. It’s just excellent.
Yesterday, I cooked a 5-pound package of chicken breasts in the slow cooker, and made Creamy Chicken and Rice Casserole, with a side of mixed veggies, and a loaf of fresh bread. This casserole is very rich and cheesy, and we really liked it. It also used up some Christmas-sale-purchased Velveeta.
This morning, I made a batch of Hummus for our lunch, because I had a package of pita bread in the freezer.
My homemade hummus is so delicious (my husband calls it yummus!) that we’ve been known to eat an entire batch in one sitting. Very bad for my hips, but totally worth it.
Tonight, I’ll make Stir-Fried Chicken and Noodles with yesterday’s leftover chicken. This has a spicy-sweet sauce, and it’s a nice change from traditional stir-fries with rice.
In all, a very delicious and successful week!
