Hello ——-To do list, CVS deals, no meat recipes

Good Monday everyone

My husband was out of town for a few days, helping his family in Arkansas.  

He brought me these pretty yellow roses ❤️

And if you look in the background, I did order more fabric and sewed a curtain for the dining room window to match the bench cover. 

Here’s my to do list for the week.  I didn’t decorate it this time.  

Even though it’s plain, it will help me stay on track.  

I’ve gotten back into weekly couponing at CVS.  

It does take planning, as many things do, and I think it’s very worth my time and fun too. 


Above is what I bought this week.  It was $109 before all deductions and just $22 after deductions and I got a pile of CVS extracarebucks to spend next week.  

Below is how I planned out my purchase plan.  I clipped the items I wanted to buy  from the sale paper and glued them onto a sheet of paper. 

This makes it easy to spot the correct item in the store. 

I try to always buy items that are on sale, offer extracarebucks, have coupons and if possible, also that I have CVS personalized coupons for.  Personalized coupons, called CRTs in couponing lingo, are coupons that print from the CVS red box or at the bottom of a CVS receipt.  

I also only buy items I know we will use, but I made a slight exception to that this week as I got some new vitamins that were free after coupons from Sunday’s paper.  

 Below I did some rough figuring to determine the actual amount I should spend.

It was pretty close,  I guessed $25 and it was a little less.  

The deductions circled in green are paper coupons either printed from coupons.com or from the newspaper. 

The deductions in Red are CVS CRT coupons, app coupons and extracarebucks from last week.  See how quickly they add up? 

Next week, I’ll start with $31 in CVS money.  


Meal prep

3 grands spent the night here this weekend, so before they came, I did some meal prep. 

In the crockpot Lentil Taco filling is cooking.  I mixed up pancake batter for breakfast.  It’s always nice to have a salad in the fridge. 

For fruit, I cut up a watermelon and put it in 2 containers and the rest is on the divided tray with plums and strawberries.  



I am still eating no meat and I like it just fine. 

I hesitate to call it vegetarian as I have used a few animal products we already had on hand when I started leaving off the meat.  And we definitely are not eating Vegan. 

Lentil Tacos are one of my favorites 

Slow cooker lentil tacos

1 cup chopped onion

1 cup brown lentils, rinsed 

1/2 t garlic salt

1 T chili powder

1/2 t oregano 

2 t cumin

Black pepper as desired

1 can of green chili and tomatoes- Rotel, 10 ounce or so (I used Aldi ones) OR 1 cup salsa 

2 cups water

2 bouillon cubes- vegetable bouillon would be vegetarian but I used chicken as that’s what I had 

Put all the ingredients in a slow cooker, stir, cover and cook on high 4 hours, until the lentils are tender. 

I had to add about a cup of water halfway through.  

So plan to check on the lentils a couple of times during cooking.  

You want the lentils to cook and not dry up but the finished dish should not be juicy.  

My crock pot cooks fast and yours may not cook as hot as mine.  

I served these on lightly fried corn tortillas with traditional toppings like onion, tomatoes, lettuce, salsa and sour cream.  It would be good in crunchy shells or flour tortillas too.  

While the flavor is almost identical to beef taco filling,  the texture is different.  

I don’t think you can fool anyone with this but they really are so good.  

We like them a lot and they are very easy and thrifty.  

One batch of these made enough filling for 3 meals of tacos for the 2 of us, making 6-7 tacos each time.  

Black Eyed peas are another favorite.  

Black eyed peas 

2 cups dry BE peas, washed and drained

1 diced onion

3 celery stalks, diced

1 1/2 t paprika

1 t thyme

1 t parsley 

1 t oregano

1 1/2 t Cajun seasoning like Tony Chacheres 

1 T dry chicken boullion- I would use vegetable to be vegetarian but I already have this in my pantry 

If desired 1 t Tobasco

Put all in a slow cooker and cover with water and another 2 inches or so

Cover

Cook on high- in my crockpot it takes 4 hours 

Serve with hot rice 

I made it simple batch of lentil soup but it was very blah.  I plan to try a more spiced up version next time. 

We also really like red beans and rice with no meat.  I’ll share that recipe soon.  

Today, I’m cooking a batch of refried beans in the crockpot and will serve them with quesadillas and green salad.  

We’re not eating meat but we aren’t eating anything people would call too weird either.  

Have a good week everyone ❤️

Eating differently- no meat?

Good morning 

I hesitate some to write this post because people can have very strong opinions on this.  

First, I want to say I am not anti-farm nor do I think animals have more rights than people.  

Second, I think what people eat is their own personal choice and I truly don’t care what they decide to eat. 

I have been dieting all summer.  I’ve spent 2 months following The Trim Healthy Mama plan and 3 weeks following Keto.  Both plans center around protein at every meal, and mostly from animal products.  In all that time,  I lost 10 pounds but was not happy with meals as I truly don’t enjoy eating meat.  I’ve been eating meat all my life but I’ve just got tired of it. 

So for now.  I’m not eating meat.  

I am eating a little dairy and eggs. 

So after some research, I learned it’s called “ovo lacto vegetarian” 

For now, I’m not concerned about GMO or organic, I see there may be some benefit in it, but for now,  I am not convinced.  

My husband is being a great sport about it. He’s enjoying the meatless meals I’ve prepared and has also enjoyed a little meat along the way.  

Grands have been here for meatless meals and they ate and never noticed a difference.  

I did not purge our kitchen and get rid of all animal products,  we will be reasonable about this and not wasteful, nor did I go out and purchase a bunch of specialty products.  I did buy more beans.  We still have a big freezer with many meat products inside,  they will get cooked for company in the future. 

And because I am trying to lose weight,  I am also avoiding sugar and refined grains as much as is reasonable.  

For breakfasts, we've eaten eggs most times. 

 Below we had eggs with hash browned sweet and white potatoes, and my husband had some precooked bacon from our freezer. 



I had a biscuit with all fruit jelly and an egg 

Another egg and toasted seed bread 

Hot tea with scrambled eggs on toasted seed bread.  

Sugar free, fat free vanilla  yogurt mixed with a tablespoon sugar free peanut butter and a tablespoon sugar free chocolate chips is so good, it’s called cookie dough yogurt in the keto and trim healthy mama world.  I really like it and it keeps me full till the next meal and it can be mixed up in a minute.  

I’ve also enjoyed eating fruit whenever I want- melons, berries, pineapple, apples and bananas.  



On to lunches and suppers, 

Naked okra, hash brown sweet potatoes, fresh fruit and some Tillamook cheese for protein.  


Black eyed peas and rice- 

Zucchini noodles mixed with a few spaghetti noodles topped with homemade sauce and cheese, sautéed spinach and onions and fresh fruit.  

At this meal, my husband skipped the zucchini noodles and only ate spaghetti noodles.  He is not a fan of “zoodles”

Red beans and rice with naked okra 

We’ve had fried rice several times.  This meal had bigger pieces of scramble eggs in the fried rice for protein,  

Below was an impromptu meal with 3 grands.  We had cheese quesadillas with fresh fruit, veggies and yogurt for the children.  I made my quesadilla on a low carb tortilla while the others were on flour tortillas.  

Below  was a meal when 2 grands were here- I set out peanut butter sandwich ingredients but nobody ate them.

The fried rice, made with the eggs stirred into the hot rice to cook them, was a big hit.  

Another meal with 2 grands here was bean and cheese burritos.  I put canned refried beans and grated cheese in tortillas, folded them up and heated them in a skillet with a bit of butter.  We liked them that night.  My son came by the next day and reheated the 2 leftover burritos and he liked them too.  

One day, we were in Oklahoma City and we ate at a Golden Corral, a buffet with lots of choices.  I had a salad topped with sunflower seeds, Mexican beans and cornbread and several vegetables.  My husband had a huge salad, some vegetables and 2 chicken legs.  We both skipped all the desserts.  

Another day,  I was gone all afternoon and hadn’t planned supper.  So I stopped at Walmart and got a bag of Italian salad mix and 2 Digiorno thin crust pizzas, one was spinach and the other pepperoni.  These were small pizzas, maybe 8 or 10 inch.  It cost about $11 total and was cheaper than eating out.  I really liked the spinach pizza but it was different from traditional pizza.  My husband is a big spinach fan but he didn’t like it, he did like his pepperoni just fine.  

For snacks,  we’ve had sugar free pudding, nuts, a few peanuts mixed with sugar free chocolate chips, and fruit.  

Our verdict? After 8 days,  I’ve lost 3 pounds and I feel really good.  

Someone at church commented to my husband that he was looking thinner but I don’t think he has weighed.  He was happy for the compliment. 

This way of eating does take planning but it can be very economical.  

We plan to stay with it and see how it goes.  

I do have a warning if you’re thinking about looking into this way of eating. 

Vegans use no animal products at all and some of them are such purists and activists,  they are not very “nice” or subtle.  You might come across some disturbing or very rude things looking for vegetarian info.  

I’ll post some recipes we like later if anyone seems interested.  

However you choose to feed yourself and your family, happy cooking to you ❤️