Pictures of Meals From This Week

Monday's soup: in crockpot ready to slow cook

 Ready to serve

Tuesday's leftovers have no pictures: mug of chili made from last of chicken soup from the week before, with black beans and chili powder added. Sandwiches filled with leftover frozen cooked chicken and sweet broccoli salad with bacon (leftover frozen, cooked). I substituted what  I had on hand for what I did not have that were similar to the recipes I used.

Wednesday's leftovers: Chili Tortilla Pie---leftover broken chips, onions from our garden, sour cream, and
leftover chili from Monday, thickened and made spicier. Leftovers of this went well with eggs for two breakfasts.

Thursday's leftovers: Hungarian Goulash---leftover soup (strained, broth saved) and drop biscuits from picture above,  with added paprika and sour cream.  Strained broth from this dish was lunch for me  yesterday.

This was a short leftover meal thread---4 days. Some things don't lend themselves to many meals. But I actually only spent $3.71 (for pastured chuck steak which was $6.98/lb. for 3/4lb. at $4.71 marked $1 off because the "sell-by" date was approaching) for those four days (for the main entrees) from this week's food budget. So, that's still a great savings.

I still have Mexican dishes in my freezer from Christmas Eve leftovers and three or four meals from the meatloaf leftover thread. When I call a meal a "freebie" I usually mean that it frees me up to not have to cook one or more nights. I got this phrase from my husband's Aunt Chris. When she cleared the table and found something unused, like a spoon or knife she would call out, "A Freebie!" meaning she did not have to wash it. But, I guess it also is free in that I do not spend any money on it during the week I am serving it! I like "Freebies" even more now!

Friday: Tonight, Gyros made with natural ground turkey. Picture to follow IF I can break through the ice in our driveway with a long-handled tool so I can get to my car and the store. I am out of ground turkey in my freezer.

Tonight starts with an initial meal in a short leftover thread that will end on Saturday. Any leftovers, however, will be revived again on Monday with a soup of course! All that will be left is a little of the seasoned fully cooked meat so if there is any left on Saturday I will not put it in Monday's soup but serve it in the bowls with the soup since the soup will be the initial meal in another meal thread for a few days. Always think ahead about how long you are keeping ingredients so you never end up with something spoiling your meals-----or your health.

Have a great weekend!
Kathi~

Today

I got my wall oven today.

It doesn't fit in the cabinet.
I can't get the tape residue off the stainless steel.
The door won't open all the way.
The door slams shut once opened and let go of.
Because the oven won't fit in the cabinet it sticks out taking up space in front of the refrigerator so that it can only be loaded and unloaded from the sides.
We have to open up the back of the cabinet so it will fit.
We have to put trim around the areas above and around the oven to hide areas that will be exposed
because of changing everything.
We have to add depth to the existing cabinet.
The electrical for the unit needs to be changed so it doesn't show.
And.....
Our dish washer latch broke.
Our vacuum cleaner stopped working a couple days ago.
The brand new ceiling texture in our bedroom and the upstairs foyer is coming down.
And there are other even smaller things that have caused us to be discouraged this week

Sigh.

I have a choice here.

I can complain.

I confess, I did complain earlier today. It made me feel worse, not better.
I can  question God, asking  why, when will things be better, why do these things never happen to others (ha!), what did I do to deserve........oh, don't go there. We know we deserve nothing and that by God's mercy, if  you are a believer,  you will not get what you truly deserve. Praise our merciful God!

I can cast blame---on the oven, on the person from whom we bought the oven, the manufacturer, the USPS, the weather, my husband, or the maker of the cabinet the oven will not fit into. But it will change nothing--- only my heart---making it bitter..

But, by God's grace I did not become bitter, mean-spirited or sarcastic about it. Okay----but I did not stay bitter, mean-spirited or sarcastic for long.

This evening the Lord brings to mind  Proverbs 17:22  "A cheerful heart does good like a medicine. But a broken spirit dries up the bones."

It is easy to have a cheerful heart when things are going well. But it takes the grace of God to be cheerful when things go badly----even when it is a lot of very small things.

My husband has always said  that if he bought a turkey farm, Thanksgiving would be cancelled. I don't really want to test this theory for fear it will become true!  We have laughed with friends and family at the seemingly endless stories of  all the small catastrophes that have attended our family. And who knows, maybe someday I will write a book about our experiences, as many have encouraged me to do. Our calamities certainly could fill a book! But for now, though they fill our life, we must guard our hearts. We must learn from our trials, be exercised by them, cling to God in even the smallest of them, learning what He has for us in them. He may be teaching us patience, courage, mercy---many things. We may never find out the whys. But these two things we always know----everything is for our eternal good (and perhaps for others) and God's glory. What a comfort this can be. And in the light of eternity and bringing glory to God things like ill-fitted ovens, broken dishwashers and vacuums these trials are very small indeed.

I expect and hope that tomorrow is a better day. But if it is not---we will pray, laugh and hopefully learn.
Goodnight.
Kathi~