I hate shopping

For many reasons, I really dislike shopping.  Especially during summer break.  Not because I have all four of my kids home and have to take them with me (my kids are truly wonderful), but because they like to take their time and look at everything and insist that I push around that honkin' big race car cart that weighs 50 by itself.  It just takes a really long time and I feel like I've run a marathon by the time we're done (okay, I admit it.  I've never run a marathon but I'm always a sweaty mess).  So I've been avoiding going to the grocery store.  We ran out of food that I'd shopped for last time on Friday, but somehow I've been able to avoid going to the store by just being creative and using what we've got on hand: some pasta, a few pounds of ground beef, frozen spinach, cottage cheese...stuff like that. 

I thought I had enough things to make the stuffed spinach shells that I posted about here.  I went to boil the pasta shells and realized that there were only four left in the box.  I didn't want to go to the store.  Aside from gas costing nearly $4 a gallon and that we live a good distance from any store...it seems like I always spend way more money on those "quick trips" to pick up "one" thing.  So I really try to do enough shopping for two weeks in one trip. 

So what do I do when I don't have the ingredients that the recipe requires?  I get creative.  Pasta shells are just pasta, right?  So we cooked some spaghetti, layered it in a 13x9 pan, combined the rest of the ingredients together, spread those on top, and then topped with cheese and marinara sauce.  It wasn't nearly as good as the shells version, but it was still good and kept me away from the store one more day.

Yesterday, I still had no desire to go shopping.  I still had a couple pounds of meat...and then I remembered the recipe I'd seen in the friend magazine for dinner for dad meatball sandwiches.  I had everything for the recipe except for dinner rolls.  Thought about going to the store, but then remembered that I had yeast and flour, so I made my own.  They sandwiches were really good, but I wasn't a huge fan of the rolls.  They were alright, but a little dry, so I'm not going to post the recipe here.  Oh, and we substituted barbecue sauce for marinara sauce over the meatballs. 

So, there you go.  I was able to eek out two more days worth of dinners before having to go to the store.  Honestly, one of the biggest secrets for saving money is to just STAY away from the store!

The law of diminishing returns

I am not  an statistician.  Nor am I an accountant or an economist or whoever it is that uses this concept.  When I was in college, I bought a carton of raspberry sherbet, pulled out 3 spoons, and shared it right out of the package with my roommates.  It just seemed tastier that way.  In fact, when the sherbet was about halfway gone, I said with an ooey-gooey dreamy voice, "This just keeps getting better and better with every bite."  My roommate, who was a math major, quickly informed me that what I had just said was against the law of diminishing returns.  She then proceeded to explain to me that the first time you do something or try something, it is amazing!  But each time you do it, it looses some of that first time thrill.  So the 20th spoonful of sherbet should not taste as good as the first.  Makes sense, right?

I use this concept all the time now in my parenting, especially when it comes to fast food.  There was a time when we were both working, that we would go out to eat about once a week.  After a while, we got sick of fast food and then proceeded to "fancy" restaurants.  And then we got sick of the cheap stuff and would order the more expensive stuff and before we knew it, we were spending about $30 a meal (which is now my weekly grocery budget).  You know what the problem was?  We were doing it so frequently that it wasn't nearly as satisfying as it used to be.  We ended up digging deep into our pockets to try something new because the enjoyment of eating out was gone.  When I stopped working, we stopped going out to eat.  That was an adjustment for all of us.  But you know what?  By reducing the frequency of going out to eat, we've actually increased the enjoyment of going out!  And we spend less money.  It's now a treat and much more special.  For example, my sweet seven year old had the lead in the first grade play.  He worked SOOO hard at memorizing his lines and even had a solo in one song.  It was so stinking cute.  We decided to reward him by letting him choose a restaurant to eat at before the play in recognition of his hard work.  He picked McDonalds.  The kids shared a 20 piece chicken McNugget for $5 and two small fries.  He felt special and knew that we were proud of him.  If this was something that we did every week, it wouldn't have held that same special place in his heart.  So remember that next time you're tempted to go out to eat or start feeling bad because you don't have enough money to go out to eat as often as your kids would like.  STOP IT!  There's no reason to feel bad.  It's usually not good for you anyway, and when you actually do get to go out, it's more fun and more special, and your children will have fond memories of the occasions when you do go out.

New buttermilk pancake recipe!

I found a great new recipe for buttermilk pancakes.  The other one that I have on here is good, but these ones are pretty much divine.  AND they use 3 cups of buttermilk...something I have a lot of.  I got it on allrecipies.com, of course and here it is!  I put the batter into a ziploc baggie this time and snipped the corner.  I then made snakes (a huge hit) and the first letters of the kids' names.  It made a
TON of pancakes, so unless you want some for breakfast, too, you might want to halve the recipe.

Buttermilk pancakes II
by BURYGOLD

Ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons white sugar
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups buttermilk
• 1/2 cup milk
• 3 eggs
• 1/3 cup butter, melted

Directions

1. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, beat together buttermilk, milk, eggs and melted butter. Keep the two mixtures separate until you are ready to cook.
2. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. You can flick water across the surface and if it beads up and sizzles, it's ready!
3. Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture, using a wooden spoon or fork to blend. Stir until it's just blended together. Do not over stir! Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/2 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot.