Harvesting

How lame is it that I was excited about picking our first tomato today?  And it was just a tiny little cherry tomato.  Sad.  But we also picked 1/2 pint of raspberries and a couple of onions, so I guess that makes it a little better.  I was too lazy today to take pictures but just imagine the last pictures I posted, just fuller.

 In my last post, I mentioned my venture into Once A Month Cooking.  I have to say that we are all greatly impressed with how it all turned out!  Our grocery budget was cut by a few hundred dollars (yes, hundred!) and making dinner has been so simple the past few weeks.  I basically set aside one day when the kids were behaving, which usually only happens one day a month anyway, and went to work!  I had the hamburger buns mixing in the bread machine while I did my prepping and cooking, so it went smoothly.  I had a couple of days of spaghetti on the menu, so I just made enough for all of those days, divided, and froze them.  I did the same with the other ground beef dishes (like maidrites, etc.)  For my soups, I diced up all of my veggies and froze, along with meat for those that needed it.  For my pizzas, I make one batch of dough (bread machine) and one batch of sauce, each batch makes enough for two pizzas, then I package them up.  When I'm done I have a bag of dough, sauce, and shredded cheese.  Easy Peasy! 
I have not had to go to the grocery store at all for meals this month, only for milk, some fruit, and stuff for Jason's lunches.  And maybe a beer or two. :)  Like I mentioned earlier, I sit down with a calendar, write down a meal for each day of the month, and then make a list of ingredients needed.  To make it cheaper, I stuck to 7-8 different dishes and just repeated them throughout the month.  It saves alot of time and money to do it this way.  Then I divide my list into things I can order from my monthly Azure Standard order, which is most of my ingredients, and what I need to get from the grocery store, usually just meat, milk, and a few produce items.  When my Azure order drops, I take a day or two to whip up all of the meals.  Voila!
If you are interested in seeing my menu for July/August, shoot me an email and I'll send it to you.   You can copy my menu, and you've saved even more time! :)  I don't have any fancy meals on my menu, anyone can make these things people!