Dang the time flies...

when you've had a stroke. Literally. I'm ten-thousand times better now, but still have a ways to go. I have thanked the ladies on the blog world who were inspiring me to get my act together who had no clue what they had done for me. Alana Jo at http://justniftythrifty.blogspot.com/ had inspired me to do a coupon notebook to keep my stuff organized and in one place. I had my stoke on a monday afternoon and had not been to the "store" for the week yet. So, our first stroke weeks menues were lacking to say the least. A lot of what was on hand and stuff from mom. No one complained. I should have told her to fix them green veggies. Aaaccck ! ala Lucy from Peanuts. Anyways, when the slew of seemingly dr. appts kinda of came to an end, hubby was able to pick up my book, my store ads, my internet printed lists from the stores websites and make a trip out. Plus take the coupons with him. Could not have been easier. Except when I was trying to text him to not forget such and such....I was thinking I was hitting the cellphone keys and not hitting them hard enough. Fortunately, he finally gave up and called me.

I also want to recommend take out short term disability insurance if you are able to. Was a relief when hubby and myself were both on FMLA. I wasn't able to drive and was very unsteady at first. It may not seem like a lot, but when zero is coming in, its a blessing.

I also need to email Dave Ramsey, I think he needs to rethink his emergency fund amount. In between office visit copays, er copays, more new meds, hospital parking garage fees, etc...it all goes very quickly. in less than 6 weeks. Now we also used this for grocery monies too. See paragraph above, zero in..... Maybe it should be divided out so much per family member, then if you need to do more, you can use from the other amounts set aside for different people. Times have changed from when he first published this wonderous idea of getting people out of debt. This just showed me that one thousand was not enough for us. As our savings egg was no where near hatched ! I think that will work for us. I plan on setting aside at least five copays per person in the house, excluding the fur people. Maybe ten. I talked with a friend at church, and she was asking me about the endless dr visit wagon. In her case it was cancer, way more drs to see in a very short amount of time. Just something to think about people. So now we start off this year even more in debt. Yeah me. {{sarcasm oozing here.}}

So, God willing, things will just have to be even more stretched to the limits. So tonight I had already set up the turkey carcass from Christmas in the stockpot to make soup with. Acutally mr turkey had been int he pot in the fridge since Christmas, but didnt' get good and cooked until today. But boy it hit the spot. Huge pot for probably under 3.00 total including the seasonings. The turkey was "free" when so many $45 purchases were made at Ingles grocery store chain here. So a couple of carrots, potatoes, bag of whole wheat pasta from Big Lots no less, rest of the left over veggies from Christmas dinner {no waste there}. Totally yummy. Especially with handful of those oyster crackers thrown in on top. Ingles was a regular stop as it was a right turn off the interstate, go one block and boom you are there. Relearning to drive was scary as all get out......So I'm a slow lane sally even still these days. And will always from now on I'm sure always merge into traffic at a stop light. Guess thats why all those stops added up to our free bird !

Sorry so long. Just been too long, promise it wont be too long any more. Now to figure out how to incorporate links into my paragraphs like the professional bloggers I read....and upload more pics....and add links to the sidebar.....

I love rainy days.....

with the rain today, the temperatures have dropped ! And with minimal airconditioning at the moment, that is a welcome treat. So, the kiddos have mac n cheese and chicken tenders for dinner tonight, I whipped up a sausage stew for hubby in the crock pot for his dinner.


One pound turkey kelbasa sausage, sliced
Roughly 3/4 pound cooked ground beef {last that was in the bag from the freezer}
Half a bag of precut onions
Half a bag of precut, carrots, onions, celery
Three cans of diced tomatoes with roasted garlic and onions

{{there may be a definate note of onions in this stew !}}

Once this gets all heated thru I will check it to see how much more liquid I need to add. The precut veggies were frozen. I will add some baked potatoes to have alongside.

Now, I'm wanting something sweet. Gonna look for a no bake cheesecake receipie.

Cya later !

Renee

Dinner Quickie: Beefy Noodles

Well, since I'm pretty well stocked up, I should be able to make fifteen to twenty meals out of what I have on hand before I run out of something necessary for just one more. Tonight's was another stab at my ability of guesstimate cooking and it turned out rather well.

One bag of egg noodles, cooked and drained
One pound of cooked ground beef, drained
One half of a medium yellow onion, chopped

4 beef bouillon cubes, dissolved in hot water

Cook the chopped onion in some olive oil with a bit of seasoning {like Ms. Paula I keep salt/pepper/garlic powder in a teacup near my stove top, I use it on pretty much everything} until they get soft.

Stir in the ground beef and mix together.

In the pot the noodles came out of: {cuz I don't believe in dirtying more dishes than necessary}

Stir together roughly equal portions of olive oil and flour. Cook a bit to remove the flour taste. Add the beef bouillon and say a 1/3 to a half cup of milk. Stir until thickened. Stir in the ground beef and onions. Toss in the noodles to coat with all. {{Forgot, I added a handful of dried chives to this step.}}

I didn't add any more seasoning as the bouillon is salty enough for my tastes.

Now, to figure out how much this entire dutch oven of dinner costs:

Ground beef was 1.90 a pound, and I had probably right at that amount. I try to freeze that portion when I cook meat up so, I don't have to use a hammer to break apart what I need; the noodles were about 1.20 for the bag. I have no clue how to guess at a half an onion from a three pound bag that cost about 1.10. And I'm not going to divide out the seasonings, oil, flour, and bouillon. That's just normal stuff I have on hand. So, say .20 for all of that. That's a total of $3.30 for the entire dutch oven pot full. Not to shabby.

Now that fed myself tonight and I will take lunch out now for tomorrow for myself. Hubby will probably eat the rest himself. And that is a whole 'nother story for another post......

Renee
=-)

Well, here goes..

This should be fun. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.