No to do list on paper this week, just the list in my head as this week is a different week but I’ll have more in that later.
Before After
One of the jobs on last week’s list was to straighten this bookshelf. I thought it was going to take a long time but it only took 5 minutes.
It’s a tall shelf, taller than the door. My husband built it several years ago to fit a funny space in a hall.
My mother lives in a retirement community and her meals are provided but she isn’t crazy about all their meal choices
So yesterday, I cooked foods that Mom cooked often when I was young- and took them for her lunch.
Goulash which is ground beef, onion, elbow pasta, canned tomatoes and tomato sauce- very simple but delicious
Creamed potatoes- I know it is a double starch but that’s how we always ate it. My Dad loved potatoes and they were a budget food.
Apple salad- no exact recipe but it’s diced apple, cheddar, celery and pecans with a light dressing of mayo, sugar and vinegar.
Banana muffins
I like to pack foods that need reheating in these Tupperware containers. They are hard and won’t break, have handles for easy holding and don’t get hot in the microwave.
After lunch, I drove my van through a car wash. My husband bought us monthly subscriptions and I could get my van washed everyday if I wanted to.
It’s really weird as you have to put your vehicle in neutral, it’s dark and noisy in the tunnel and the car wash tracks move the vehicles along.
But it does a great job and I do like having a clean vehicle.
Other meals this week are from Every Plate. I ordered ours with a deal our daughter shared with us.
I will caution you that I’m a very experienced internet shopper but Every Plate has a website where I ordered before I even knew I had ordered.
But is OK and I will be very cautious if I ever use their website again
Below is the food they sent and it all was fresh and high quality
The 3 meals recipe cards
And the spicy shrimp I cooked compared to their photo- I added tomatoes and onions to the salad and I didn’t eat a full serving of the shrimp.
It was good but was far from spicy
There have been some comments I need to respond to and I will do that soon.
Hope you all have a good week
❤️ Rhonda
Your shelf looks nice and neat.
ReplyDeleteSo sweet to fix you mom some of her favorites. I grew up on double starches. Mashed potatoes and noodles or dumplings in the same meal. Doesn't bother me a bit - and some things just seem to go together.
I have never ordered from any of those food places. That shrimp does look tasty.
The double start, it made me laugh, because I was just reading a cookbook on our trip that the author said we should bring back double starches. That would be OK with me!
DeleteI like that tall bookcase. I've never ordered food from any place like that. I've ordered from Schwann's but stopped since 2020, the quality was starting to go down and their service was getting spotty. A few times I was expecting a delivery and they never showed up. So I'm giving them a few year space so they can hopefully get their act together.
ReplyDeleteMy mom made goulash too. I make it a bit more spicy than my mom made and we enjoy it. That shrimp dish looks good.
Thank you, I really like that bookshelf too. It holds so many books and it’s fastened to the wall so it is not going anywhere. I’ve seen the Schwan truck around town but I’ve never ordered from them. What advertising I’ve seen for them, it seems rather expensive compared to grocery stores.
DeleteThose meals look really good. Too bad the shrimp didn't have a bit more kick.
ReplyDeleteI bet your mom enjoyed the meal.
God bless.
She did enjoy the meal very much. I thought the shrimp would have more kick to it, but I’m sure some people liked it that way. We all have different taste, don’t we? It was a tasty meal.
DeleteWhat a great idea about fixing your mom some food. My MIL complains about the food in her assisted living, but if we take her food, she ends up staying in her room, rather than actually going down to eat with other people, so we try to limit it for that reason. But, it's a great treat now and then.
ReplyDeleteMy mom is doing lots of activities at her retirement home, but she never has got back into the routine of going to the dining hall after the Covid shut downs. I don’t take meals over there every day, usually once a week.
DeleteHi Rhonda! It's always nice when a task you were dreading turns out to be easy. That's so sweet of you to prepare some of the meals your mom loves. That goulash looks so good! I wouldn't mind having some delivered to my door either.!
ReplyDeleteHugs
Jane
If you lived closer, Jane, I would bring you a meal.❤️
DeleteIsn't organizing something satisfying, even if it's a bookcase that took just five minutes? I have a list of organizing projects that I want to complete this winter. The other day I finished cleaning out all my cut-out recipes (out of magazines and newspapers - I had a lot!) - threw a lot away in the recycling bin and then organized the rest in an expandable file organizer with tabs for each category.
ReplyDeleteYou are so sweet to make those favorite meals for your mom. I'm sure she greatly appreciates it. My mom used to make goulash when I was growing up, but I never liked it! She called it "Gourmet". She still likes it and makes it once in awhile for herself.
I tried one of those food delivery programs one time...can't remember the name of the one I tried. Might've been Hello Fresh. Anyway, a friend of mine gave me a coupon code for a week's worth of free meals. I tried it and we didn't like it. The food was indeed fresh - that was the only good part. But everything came in plastic wrapping; a lot of the products were things we don't eat (canned or pre-packaged foods with "bad" ingredients); and there were never any leftovers, which we rely on because Brian takes leftovers to work for his meals. Oh well, at least it was a free trial!
It did surprise me that I had put off cleaning up that bookshelf and then it only took five minutes. I felt kind of silly and wondered what I had waited for, but we both know some organizing jobs we think will be quick and then they end up taking two days. I may try another meal subscription if I find a really good deal on it, who knows? I didn’t really like having that food that I had to cook, I tend to be more flexible than that, but it was fun for a one time thing.
DeleteWe grew up on goulash as well, though we made ours a bit differently. It was one of the first dishes I learned to make. I haven't made it in years.
ReplyDeleteWe tried Hello Fresh for a few weeks during the shutdown and we did like it. There was only one recipe we didn't eat and tossed in the trash it was so bad. It's more expensive than making it with our own ingredients, but cheaper than eating out, which no one was doing then, so it felt a little special during that time. I kept several of the recipe cards to recreate the dishes - they added some variety and we tried some new things with them, so I'm not sorry we tried it out.
I haven't washed my car since right before my uncle's funeral on NYE, but it sure needs it now. I like the idea of a car wash subscription! When Layla was a toddler and was with me at the car was for the first time, she was scared of the loud noises and our apparent captivity in the stall. As the car was covered in the multi-colored soap bubbles, I was able to get her to stop crying by telling her that the car was being covered in unicorn poop. She laughed, and still all these years later, we call it unicorn poop. I imagine she always will. ♥
When JJ and Elizabeth were little, they did not like the car washes either. And it is a weird feeling, it’s dark and noisy but I really like that subscription and I go through the car wash whenever I am near it.
DeleteWhat were the foods on the menu that were marked in blue? Things she does not like? The kielbasa and peppers were not things I would eat at all.
ReplyDeleteThe car wash that pulls the car through scares me so! Tommy has to be in the car with me or I won't go.
Yes, the foods in blue were meals she preferred not to eat. That car wash is a weird feeling, but it gets our car so clean and it’s really fast so I’m learning to just relax and go with the flow.
Delete