PW I am NOT but I am Stubborn

As any of you who have read my blog for any amount of time know, Bart does the cooking. Period. And he is excellent at it. He makes really good food and does it for less than $10 a day per person, which is pretty good when you're talking about feeding 11 people, 8 of whom are boys ages 12-23. And this is doesn't include precise accounting -- it's just an average -- which means that when there is a friend over, etc., it's even more people eating.

This Wed and Thursday the floors are going to be redone, requiring us to eat out for 4 meals. (I'm sure that it isn't a REQUIREMENT, but I'm just not going to be trying to figure out anything by then). And then this weekend, because of multiple conflicting events, we are going to be in a hotel Saturday night and eat out some meals there.

Besides I love to make a point. Seriously. ANd one of the things that my kids say often around here is, "There's nothing to eat in the house." So, I decided that from Friday to Tuesday -- that's five straight days -- that we are not going out to eat and we are buying nothing from the store except for milk. I may have to break down and buy some butter, but otherwise I think we are going to make it.

Fortunately, Bart stocks up on things and we bought part of a cow with the Coffees so we have food on hand. It's just tricky not running out and grabbing the extras.... if you know what I mean.

So, how have we done so far?

Well, it started on Friday when for lunch the kids rounded up the last frozen pizza from the freezer and had the leftovers from the pasta salad bart had made the day before as well as some beans, eggs and tortillas -- the beans left from when I cooked on Tuesday night when Bart was out of town. Friday night we had spaghetti and made homemade breadsticks in the bread machine. They were fairly tasty actually.. even though we didn't make them quite right.

On Saturday for lunch we were at the parade so we had snacks at our friend's house -- thanks Tom and Chan for providing lunch. For supper I found a bag and a half of frozen honey bbq chicken strips and made mashed potatoes from a box. This morning I made brunch -- pancakes.... and tonight -- I'm throwing together a bunch of leftovers. We have some lasagna that was in the freezer and leftover spaghetti taht I'm combining to make a pasta bake or they can have grilled cheese and soup if they want to get picky -- plus there are a few beans left if someone wants a burrito. They will squeal.... but so what.

Then tomorrow my plan is to make homemade hot dog buns in the bread machine. There was a huge sale on hotdogs before Bart left and he's heading into "extreme couponing territory" so hotdogs abound. Since we have no chips, I dug through and found enough various kinds of serial and some shelled peanuts -- they have been shelled and I'm making a batch of chex mix....

I'll pull out some of that cow for dinner -- possibly hamburger helper -- there are three boxes of the same kind in the cupboard -- and throw together a fruit salad and chop up remaining veggies for a saladish thing I won't eat. Maybe I'll splurge and make a cake or something -- there are mixes for that.

ANd Tuesday? LEt's see. For dinner I'll throw cow butt in the crock pot and I think there are enough potatoes to bake them, though the kids iwll insist it is impossible to eat a baked potato without sour cream. I, however, will show them that it is possible -- unless they want to use the sour cream that is in the fridge that someone turned pink by dipping flaming hot cheetos into it.

Lunch Tuesday will be tricky -- we have one loaf of bread right now -- but if they don't all choose grill cheese tonight there is peanut butter and jelly and there's plenty of soup -- and possibly even some sloppy joe mix.

If I wanted to I could keep going for a few more days with what is here -- but I would definitely have to get eggs and butter to cook from scratch.

I don't mind doing this once and a while. I'm not Pioneer Woman by any strech of the imagination, but it's fun when I'm proving my point. ANd this time, I'm going to prove these kids wrong once and for all. "What do you mean there's NOTHING to eat in this house. Let me SHOW you how much there is to eat.

If ten people can eat 10 meals on nothing, we're doing pretty well. Watch me. ;-)

They are so lucky. Their father is leaving again on the 26th through the 31st and I'm going to do it again. If it does nothing else, it makes my kids miss their dad!