One Week Leaves, Another Enters

As usual when I have made a meal plan, we/I veered way off course and we wound up having very few of the meals I thought we would have. I guess this is my norm, make a plan then do everything possible to keep from following said plan.

This was what was supposed to happen (in no particular order)

1. (TheHub) meat sauce over spaghetti, me same sauce over spaghetti squash (me), tossed salad
2. Meatloaf, broccoli, mashed potatoes (TheHub) cauliflower mash (me) some green veggie
3.Keto Fried rice, with broccoli and snow peas
4. Taco's black beans, rice (TheHub) no shells and cauli rice (me)
5. Cuban pot roast, tossed salad, green beans
6. Herbed chicken and mushrooms, braised cabbage, cucumber slices in yogurt and dill
7. Grilled tuna steaks, veggie kabobs, tossed salad



Monday: I have no idea what happened since I am writing this on Thursday and Monday is a blurry memory. My sister took Mom's treatment so I did not have to go . Woo hoo thanks to you Beloved Sister. She did call me first thing out of the hatch to remind me she needed to go to the dentist and needed me to take her. Then called me later, after I had dinner cooking in the crock pot because she remembered her appointment was not until Tuesday after 2. After 2 is a rather nebulous time and I thought it might be a good idea to call and confirm the time. Glad I did because it was after 2 but just a tad after. My note to myself is to call and confirm any appointment at any doctor or dentist that does not have me as their contact person and then remember to have Mom sign a release for them to contact me at her next visit.
Cuban pot roast, mashed potatoes (TheHub) cauli mashers (me) broccoli, rolls (TheHub)

Tuesday: Took Mom to the dentist and then back to her house to do her breathing treatment. after doing that and the rest of the chores she needs done or details she needs tending, it was after 5 when I got home. I did not really feel like cooking and had some leftovers that needed to be eaten.
Cowboy stew (used leftover baked beans) and au gratin potatoes (TheHub) Soup using random  leftover veggies and bit of leftover pot roast(me)

Wednesday: This was a miserable day. The rain poured and poured then poured some more. The only real upside was the temps were in the mid 60's. In addition to the rains the winds were blowing and occasionally the rain was falling sideways. ( I am summoning my inner Forest Gump here.)  I started out the day with my Wednesday morning class, then had several errands to run, including stopping at Mom's when the rain was pouring at its worst to check her basement for water. There was none, but she is hell bent on having a water issue, and every time it rains she wants me to come check it. Each time I got out of the car I got partially soaked and had wet socks and shoes from deep running water. By the time I got to her house I had made a series of stops so I was probably less than pleasant when looking for the phantom seeping water. I left her house and came home, changed socks and sweater, threw some chicken in the crockpot then left to run the last 2 errands before stopping at her house to do her breathing treatment. The rain was torrential when I arrived. The walkway from her driveway to her house is maybe 50 yards but by the time I got to her porch I was drenched. (The winds wrecked 2 umbrellas Wednesday!) When I left her house at about 5:30 the rain had stopped, so I was able to run the last errand of the day without dripping all over the store. It was so nice to come home to the smell of cooked chicken, knowing I had minimal prep to finish dinner.
Balsamic Herbed chicken, brown rice, (TheHub) braised cabbage, mini caprese skewers

Thursday: Thursday was a blissful stay at home day and I got a chore done that I had been putting off, but I wanted it completed in January. Now the auxiliary dining chairs have been cleaned and reupholstered. It is so nice to have a check by a project. Early this morning I put all the ingredients for a spaghetti sauce in the crockpot, cooked that sucker for 5 hours, then used an immersion blender to blend everything. I have been buying Rao's spaghetti sauce (works with Keto)  then adding herbs, spices and browned beef but Rao's is crazy expensive. Running the carb count and the cost, I wound up with the equivalent of 3 jars of sauce using about 4 dollars of ingredients. At 6.99 a jar, the savings are terrific.
Spaghetti with meat sauce (TheHub) cauliflower rice with meat sauce (I thought I had a zucchini to make zoodles or a pack of cooked spaghetti squash in the freezer but I didn't. This will not happen again!) garlic bread (TheHub) tossed salad. Grilled keto bread with 1/4 cup blueberries (me)


Friday: We were supposed to go to the lake Friday as soon as TheHub could leave the office. Meanwhile I was going to Mom's to do her breathing treatment, but when I was ready to go she wanted to take a nap. Fine, I just asked her to call me when she woke. Of course she didn't and at 4:30 I finally called her. She had been awake a couple of hours but forgot to call me. Great! TheHub was not able to leave early so I called him and just suggested we wait until Saturday. Then I suggested we go somewhere and get a drink. (Mom used to drive me to chocolate but I can't do that on keto. I can have a martini though, so that night she just drove me to drink.)  Since we were going out to drink anyway we decided to go out to eat too.
Seafood Cobb Salad (me) , gumbo and half my salad (TheHub), martini

Saturday: We woke, did a few chores, packed and headed to the lake. We would have most of the day thereSaturday then drive home Sunday just before dark. We walked into the house and noticed it felt a little cool, like cold. I figured I had just turned the heat down too low when we left the last time we were there, so we bumped the heat up, unloaded everything then waited for the house to warm. It never happened. Evidently there is something wrong with the heater. Called the repairman who naturally was not working on a Saturday. I suppose I will be going to the lake one day this week to meet whomever can work on it. Did not have that in my plans.  The house was too cold, so we did a couple of chores down there, ate lunch, repacked, and came home. I had taken 2 frozen hamburger patties for our dinner and they were nearly thawed when we got home.
Hamburger patty with grilled onions, rice (TheHub) cauli rice (me), green beans, leftover braised cabbage.

Sunday: Our Sunday School class was not meeting today because there was a church wide meeting about what was happening in the church. We opted to skip it and services this week. TheHub mentioned he needed to go to the office for a few hours so we decided instead of having dinner tonight we would just have a huge brunch when he came home.
Southwestern omelet, sausage, bacon, keto blueberry pancakes (me), egg nog pancakes (TheHub) fruit compote (TheHub)

And now that this week is done it is time to think about the coming week. How close will I stick to what is planned? Who knows? Right now they (whoever "they" are) are predicting snow and very cold temps Tuesday and Wednesday. I am pretty sure "they" are wrong. We never get snow when "they" say it is coming. We get snows that surprise "them". I am pretty sure "they" are in collusion with the local grocery store owners. I have been reading my facebook feed posts and am laughing at the panic to get to the store for bread and milk. We don't drink milk and we have a partial loaf of bread. I am relatively sure we can survive a dusting of snow.

In no particular order
1. Chili, cornbread, coleslaw
2. Meatloaf, broccoli, mashed potatoes (TheHub) cauli mashers (me)
3.Tacos with all the fixings, black beans, rice (TheHub) Taco salad (me)
4. Seared scallops, tossed salad, baked potato, rolls (TheHub) grilled keto bread (me)
5. White bbq chicken, green beans, coleslaw, caulitater salad.
6. Chicken noodle soup, cheese toast (TheHub) chicken fake noodle soup, cheesy keto bread (me)
7. Bookclub night. TheHub will fend for himself.

We will see how the week goes I guess. Meanwhile I have spoken with the HVAC guy, arranged Mom's weekly medical appointments, called about a couple of routine business questions (mine and hers), Marie Kondo'd the drawers in my dining room buffet and 1 kitchen cabinet and am heading to the lake for an unplanned Monday adventure right after I have my morning coffee.

I found this online and thought I would share. I have mixed feelings about Marie Kondo. I love some of her ideas but she is like a little tiny demon living inside my head who just will not leave me alone.


"I would totally watch a horror movie starring Marie Kondo where she breaks into a someone's home and forces them to burn all their books and kill the family members that no longer spark joy."