As I sit here, blog-blog-blogging away, there is the wonderful aroma of breaded pork chops baking in the oven, and my whole wheat-pasta is bubbling away on the stove. I have my broccoli ready to cook – with dried cranberries to be mixed in (leftover dried fruit from what I bought for my son’s lunch…). I’m not sure what to expect taste-wise with the broccoli/cranberry mix, but the green bean/raisin combo turned out delicious yesterday. And again I lament the lack of lemon, but I must work with what I have…and now that I think of it, I may just mix the broccoli and cranberries in with the pasta so the pasta isn’t quite so bland…

Later: Dinner was ready within 35 minutes, including clean-up on anything that did not go into the dishwasher (so take that Rachel Ray!!). And the dishwasher stuff…well, isn’t that what kids are for??? 😉

I’ll admit last night’s dinner (and tonight’s as well) wasn’t anything fancy, but it was delicious. The chicken was cooked perfectly and emerged from the oven very moist…by the time the brown rice was finished cooking (just under an hour), the chicken was piping hot from the oven, and the roasted garlic and juices from the chicken added some neccessary flavor to the otherwise bland rice. I served broccoli and a salad with the meal to round it out nutritionally. Also, I put aside half of the rice to use with tonight’s meal. So far I haven’t decided if I am going to leave it plain (not really my choice) or see if I can dress it up out of the ingredients I have on hand from my shopping trip yesterday. I will admit, it sure would be wonderful to have something as simple as a lemon on hand about now!

Tonight’s after dinner results: Wild-caught Sockeye Salmon (thawed from frozen) – delicious and so much cheaper than getting it ‘fresh’ from the fish counter; Brown rice: I added some salt, pepper, mustard (okay, I cheated here and used some I had on hand) and olive oil; Green beans: I cooked them in the microwave and added raisins for the last 30 seconds of cooking time, then I added a touch of salt and olive oil. Surprisingly delicious!!! I gave my son some grapes (leftover from the chicken salad I made for his lunch), and I had a salad of lettuce and radishes…

So…I am guessing that I will end up going over a little for this week’s budget to account for stocking up on a few staples and things I bought which will last longer than this week. Already I have a couple of areas I could cut back on if I was in dire straights. I made a chicken salad for my son’s lunches this week, and to save money I could have done peanut butter sandwiches instead (and saved around $6-8). But he didn’t ask to be a part of this experiment, so I am trying to make it as painless as possible for him…Also, I bought the frozen sockeye salmon, which was $2 higher than other frozen fish, and there was some that was even less expensive…So there is around $10 right there which could be used for fresh salad ingredients and/or items to make fish tacos (corn tortillas and a slaw mix).

And there it is in a nutshell (ooooh, nuts….yum…wish I had some of those!!) for your reading enjoyment…