Leftovers....

When you suddenly find yourself going from a family of 7 or more to a family of 1 or 2, cooking gets tricky.  There are ALWAYS leftovers.  You open a jar of spaghetti sauce and you have to eat Italian for a week!  We've all been there, right?  Well, that doesn't go over super great at our house.  Left overs may get taken for lunch once, but after that?  Then what?  Well, here's some ideas I have come up with.

Beef Burgundy one night makes great beef stew another night.  Just boil and add some potatoes and carrots!  Two menu items for the thought of one?! Yes please!

If you make home made chili, you can eat it as soup one night, and then put it on baked potatoes, in cornbread casserole, or on fry breads for Navajo Tacos.  They won't even know it's leftovers!

Too much french toast?  Make bread pudding!

Use that spaghetti sauce for something else!  It works great for pizza or Shepherds pie.  Hey, use those leftover mashers too!

Noodles left over?  If you use penne or bowtie pasta, you can make awesome casseroles or chicken pasta salad the next day.

Can't use that spinach or other dark greens fast enough?  Cram it in the blender with some fruit, juice, and yogurt, and pass it off as a smoothie.

Use heels of bread, old potato chips or dry biscuits in your meatloaf.

Use left over roast to make barbecue. Use left over barbecue to make pulled pork(or beef) grilled cheese.

Send those left over baked potatoes through a ricer or food mill and make gnocchi(it's stuffed pasta made with potato starch!)

Ok, that's all I can think of just now.  Do you guys have any ideas?

oh life!

So, here I sit, waiting for Hunk to come home from work, trying to entertain Muffin and just thinking.  So, here are some of my thoughts:

This mom stuff is TOUGH!  I never knew.  How did my mom do it?  I call her about every other day to ask her questions.  "um, Muffin's head looks leprous."  "What should I do when I find Muffin sucking on the dog?"  "How did YOU raise children that were well behaved?"  "Should I be worried if..."  Today I have a boy that needs held all the time because he has an ouchy mouth and a stingy rashy bum.  How do you moms ever get anything done with a cranky baby?  Don't get me wrong, I did stuff today.  Like, sit on the couch and watch "American Pickers" while I tried to calm and feed Muffin.  I worked on my awesome windows while he slept.  And what are we doing now?  Well, I am writing this and muffin has discovered a newspaper.  Best discovery since splashing!  Did I eat lunch? No. Did I exercise? No.  Do I have dinner in the oven for my hard-workin man? No.  Did I set up Visiting Teaching appointments, clean the bathroom, fold the laundry, or sew on my project? No.  ALL I did was strip half a window.  But really, is it?

Just because I didn't get everything on my list done today, doesn't mean I did nothing.  Muffin needed me today.  He needed a rock-a-bye, and more diaper changes than usual.  He needed the blowout scrubbed out of his shirt and undershirt.  He needed an extra snuggle with Mamma.  He needed to NOT be in his jumper on account of his poor bum.  So, do I feel bad about today?  Not really.  I wish the poor guy wasn't sick, but I am happy to take care of him.  I will trade good housekeeper for good momma any day. 

Sorry about dinner, love