Shelftember

I participated in Shelftember again. 

When I did go to the store (which wasn't very often), I stuck to my shopping list. Because I spent less money on bulk snacks at Winco, I was able to spend more on chicken and ground turkey (not super expensive but not the best deals, either).

I took some of that new chicken and my friend, Stephanie, and I got together to make Instant Pot meals again. Honey Garlic Chicken- it's a favorite.

 

Jeremy came back from his Twin Falls fair with ripe bananas so of course I made chocolate chip banana muffins. Then I pulled corn tortillas, rotisserie chicken, cheese, and spices out and made taquitos. Shelftember! 

 

I baked a lot of bread during the month, including sourdough. I think I'm making progress on figuring out how to do it successfully.

 

I did have to send Jeremy to grab some bread at the store one night because I didn't have any bread to make sandwiches for a trip we were taking. It was better for me to sleep that night than to try to bake bread and let it cool and cut it. I had to get up really early the next morning in order to drive down to Southern Utah (more on that adventure later). Safety is most important. I was too tired to drive home so Jeremy did have to stop at a gas station to get a caffeinated drink and something to eat. But again, we had saved money on other groceries during the month so in order for him to be safe while driving, while I kept dozing off in the passenger seat, it was worth the money.

 

As I mentioned before, I got sick the end of September so we ended up spending more money on groceries than I would have liked the end of the month because Jeremy had to get pizza a couple of times for me as I was getting my appetite back and didn't have energy to make meals. Before I got sick, I was also getting what sounded good for Jr. because he was sick before me.

Oh well. It started out as a good Shelftember. 

Girls' Night Out?

October 4 was Buster Keaton's birthday so I wore my bow earrings while Nichole and I had bonding time.

We found out an event we were going to go to was canceled so we went to the grocery store to pick up some snacks for us. Since it was National Taco Day, we thought about buying taquitos then realized taquitos are easy to make and we had all the ingredients already at home. Shelftember was still having its effect on us. Yay for shelf cooking!

So we went home and had bonding time making taquitos together while watching a movie (besides all the chatting while driving and shopping together). Of course we ate some of the snacks we got from the store.

We wanted to watch In the Good Old Summertime because it had Buster Keaton in it but we didn't have access to it, so we started watching You've Got Mail.

Back to talking about National Taco Day- before we left for our girls' night we tried taco flavored potato chips to go along with our Italian Baked Sliders from A Season of Family Meal Plans, volume 3, by Jordan Page.

Nobody in the family was impressed by the chips but the sliders were so good.

I am getting so much use out of these cookbooks.

It turned out to be good mother-daughter bonding time. Simple but quality.

P.S. It was also World Smile Day. There were definitely things to smile about.

Bluebird of Happiness

September 24 was Bluebird of Happiness Day.

 

I found it. I found the bluebird of happiness. 

And isn't it so cute?

Total coincidence that he wore so much blue that day. He even had a blue shirt under his jacket.

This little bluebird is happy visiting a local library.

 

This little bluebird went for a walk around the neighborhood where we heard several scrub jays, which are blue birds.

This bluebird is happy when he's helping.

Another recipe from A Season of Family Meal Plans by Jordan page while doing Shelftember.

Honey Mustard Pork Chops

Used pork chops from the freezer, lettuce (which my bluebird helped with) for salad before it went bad, homemade dough sitting in the fridge to make garlic rolls.

Holidays, Shelf Cooking, and Bonding Time

September 10 was Ants on a Log Day. We had fluffernutter sandwiches and ants on a log. See my blog post for September 14, 2020 for an explanation why we celebrate with fluffernutter sandwiches on that day. We didn't have any marshmallow fluff so we used real marshmallows. #shelftember

 

Other Shelftember foods we had near that time:

Start with a box pasta meal. Add cooked pasta, some extra seasonings, and cooked bacon from the freezer. It stretches a lot farther. That's shelf cooking!

 

Sometimes I forget that something as simple as beans and rice works for a quick lunch.

 

Homemade bread, spinach before it goes bad made into a salad, casserole from the freezer (tortellini casserole from A Season of Family Meal Plans), and a banana.

 

My husband has always been better at throwing things together to make a good meal. He knows how to do shelf cooking. He took my leftover black beans and some polish sausages and veggies and made some yummy yummy food. He's awesome.

September 11, we remembered.

September 12 was National Video Games Day. I had every intention of playing video games that day but by the end of the day I was too tired. Sigh.

It was also Hug and High Five Day and National Chocolate Milkshake Day. 

Jet helped me make cornbread muffins to go with our dinner of Sausage Veggie Skillet (with extra zucchini because it was cheaper than yellow squash) and rice-n-cheese (instead of orzo-n-cheese because we have rice, not orzo). Both those recipes came from A Season of Family Meal Plans, volume 3, of course. Our chocolate milkshakes were yummy.

September 13 was the Anniversary of The Animaniacs premiere in 1993 so we listened to Animaniacs music. It was also Roald Dahl Day so I put on music from Wonka.

After after school snack of parfaits to celebrate International Chocolate Day and National Peanut Day (and quoting the movie Shrek about how ogres, onions, and parfaits all have layers), I let the kids have the kitchen for Kids Take Over the Kitchen Day and they made pizza. 

September 14 was Eat a Hoagie Day so I made hoagies/buns for people to use and it was National Parents Day Off but I really don't remember what Jeremy and I ended up doing, if anything. I did get a picture late at night of the moon and clouds.

September 15 was Double Cheeseburger Day and National Linguine Day. We had spaghetti with sauce (it had hamburger in it- well, ground turkey, tee hee) and two types of cheese (double cheese, tee hee). #shelftember

September 16 was Cinnamon Raisin Bread Day and National Play-Doh Day. I was complaining about not having time to make play doh and Jeremy pointed out that I played with dough in order to make cinnamon raisin bread which tasted so good by the way.

 

September 17 was Monte Cristo Day. Did you know there is a Count of Monte Cristo musical? I found out when I tried to get Alexa to play music from The Count of Monte Cristo while I was making food and it put on songs from a musical. Fun. I decided to do something new this year and made Monte Cristo Slider Sandwiches from sixsistersstuff.com

Yumm. I made more later to freeze so we could pull out sandwiches when we wanted them.

 

September 18 was National Cheeseburger Day. So we pulled hamburger out of the freezer (ground turkey) and made smothered beef burritos from... you guessed it... A Season of Family Meal Plans, volume 3.

Of course walks, snuggles, and other kinds of bonding have continued. I love my family.

My parents made a quick trip to Utah for my dad's 60th high school reunion. They stopped by to see Jet and me one day. I love my parents.

Timpanogos Storytelling Festival

Jeremy's big balloon build was for the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival at Thanksgiving Point. This year was the 35th anniversary. Jeremy and Debbie were asked to do a balloon scene based on James Christensen's, "Tales Beneath Timp," the artwork that represents the storytelling festival.

I love how it turned out.

We as a family were able to go to the storytelling festival. I spent most of my time at the "family tent," which is not a surprise. Children's stories, puppet shows. 

That tent was also near the Secret Garden where they were holding Dungeons and Dragons games. They had a dragon outside that Jet absolutely loved and wanted to keep going back to see. So cute.

We celebrated Play Outside Day and World Beard Day at the festival on Saturday, September 7.

Since it was Shelftember, we packed meals and snacks for the day.

Nichole and I dropped the boys and Jeremy off at home before coming back for a little bit more storytelling fun. The boys had salami sandwiches for dinner at home for Salami Day.

While I was listening to more stories, Nichole took some time for hand sculpted pottery.

Jeremy went up with some other birders to see some Flammulated Owls that night.