The Holiday Weekend Was A Good One

I got sooo much done this past weekend. I did another bunch of laundry at the Laundromat, but think I'm all caught up on the big stuff (sheets, blankets, pillows), managed to redo a couple of the flower beds (moving plants around), repotted some of the house plants, moved the lawn (both the 'old' and 'new' grass), cleaned the patio furniture (I am typing this on my patio on my old laptop!), re-organized my garden shed (again), got a trash run in, had a nice pizza dinner with some friends on Saturday, re-read two books I wanted to re-read, organized my bookshelves, did a mini closet purge, the list goes on and I feel pretty darned good about it. And the weather here was and is just FABULOUS-perfect Holiday weekend weather.

Lots of the stuff I did was all piddly little stuff, but things that I kept putting off and putting off, so my to do list just got longer and longer. I feel sooo much better getting a lot of the small chores done and out of the way. Something as simple as re-hanging a couple pictures and tidying my bookshelves make me feel really good. I did a long overdue purge of my skirt collection. Since my consignment shop sales have been painfully low, I packed it all in a bag and took the skirts I no longer fit into to Goodwill. I'll take the tax write off. I can't be bothered to wait for someone to buy my clothes at the consignment shop. My goal was to purge the skirts this weekend and purge I did. I did donate some nice skirts, but I've gotten so heavy that I don't fit into them. Instead of having them sit in my closet and REMIND me just how chunky I've become, off they go to Goodwill!

To counteract the chunky feeling, I bought a new bathroom scale and will go back to weekly weigh ins. The nice (read expensive) health club is running a summer special-12 weeks for $150. As I've said before, it's a doctors order that I lose weight. I was not liking the number I saw on the scale. I've gone back to walking about 1.5 to 2 miles a day with the dogs, but I need some sustained cardio (spinning, elliptical trainer, Stairmaster) and weights to jumpstart my metabolism. I'm not thrilled to spend the $150 for the twelve weeks, but this is a medical necessity. Just go check out Jennsylvania and Such a Pretty Fat and you will see where I'm coming from. I will also publicly declare that I will not be buying beer and wine~well at least, I won't be buying it to have with meals while I do the summer special. I finished the last of some really bad box wine this week (given to me, I did not buy it) and if I'm going to drink, it's diet tonic and all that gin and vodka sitting in my cupboard.

My cupboards are bursting with a lot of foodstuff. I have about 6 pounds of pasta, lots of dried beans, 8 pounds of rice (I bought a ten pound bag a while back) a bunch of stuff in the freezer and other assorted canned items. I'm hoping to do a few weeks of 'eat up the pantry staples' before I have to do a serious food shop. The month of April showed me I could survive on a food budget of $100 and I think I spent $105 total. Five bucks was for food for a forgotten pot lock. If I planned properly, I probably would have come in well under the $100. My "plan" is to really only buy things like fresh fruit and veg and some milk if I need it.

Meals I can make just off the top of my head from my staples

1) Pasta-with pesto, with tomato sauce, with a cheese sauce, with butter and cheese, -you get the picture
2) Beans: burritos, beans and rice, bean soup, enchiladas, baked beans
3) Chicken stock: can make chicken soup-regular, rice or vegetable
4) Veggie Burgers and Hot dogs-slap those babies on the grill, make a salad, use up the frozen French fries-quick easy dinner.
5) Eggs: Breakfast for dinner-pancakes, omelets, egg salad
6) Chicken Breast: Grilled, poached, with BBQ sauce, stir fried,
7) Chicken thighs: I love these on the grill period
8) 3 small Steaks: grill them for supper, slice up for steak sandwich, cube into a mini beef stew
9) Pizza dough- make pizzas regular and mini sized (take a mini to lunch), make a calzone (use up leftover veg and cheese).
10) Guava paste: on crackers with cream cheese is a great after dinner sweet treat.
11) Crackers: I have a boat load of crackers, I can eat them plain, have them with soup, put some peanut butter and jelly on them, eat them with cheese.
12) Curry Sauces: bean curry, chicken curry, beef curry, vegetarian curry

The list goes on…


I can plan at least two weeks worth of meals with just what I have in the pantry and fridge. As far as I know, I have no pot lucks planned that will require me shopping for additional food items, I can start on the food purge this week (I already made a really great macaroni salad for my lunches and sandwiches).

As weird as it sounds, having the extra time off gave me the time to just sit and "look" at my cupboards. No Costco shopping for at least two weeks!