I hope everyone had a great Christmas holiday spent with friends and family! My husband and I had a fantastic Christmas this year. My in-laws got me a great cube shelf and I've been organizing all my yarny things in there. Today I've got nothing on the agenda other than that, actually. :) I'm also wishing for snow now since we got snowshoes as well. I can't wait to try them out! We got so many great gifts, but it ends up stressing me out trying to find a place to put them all. This week I'm going to go through my closets and try to find some extra room.

We got SO MANY food gifts this year that I was hard pressed to buy much other than fresh veg and fruits and to restock some pantry staples. My husband's grandfather gave us a milk crate full of delicata squash he grew this year so I'm excited for that. I found a great recipe using it in my new Thug Kitchen cookbook!

I just tidied up my fridge a bit and ended up making a quick vinegrette by pouring leftover greek olive juice into a jar of leftover oil from my husband's stuffed sweet peppers. A nice save! I also peeled and refrigerated what clementines we had left on the counter. My husband hardly eats them because he bites his fingernails and has a hard time peeling them. Now I figure they will get eaten before they go bad! I also have leftover homemade foccacia from Christmas Eve and leftover fruit salad from Christmas day, so that helped with the budget as well. We ran out of toothpaste Christmas Eve night (oops...I almost never let that happen!) so we've been using baking soda mixed with peppermint extract instead. We both like how clean it makes our teeth feel so we think we'll stick with it awhile. Our shower gel ran out so we are back to the neverending Irish Spring bars. I bought a 30pk I believe at the warehouse club and we both didn't end up liking the bars much but I'm determined to use them up!! House taxes are due, plus we want to buy a new sink for our bathroom and replace the skirting in the spring so I am trying to save as much money as possible over the winter. I'm glad we're having a mild one so far because it helps our oil last! Anyway, onto the meal plan and budget.

This week at the grocery I spent 37.53$ out of my 50$ budget. We may need coffee later in the week (they didn't really have much for deals this week) so I've got some extra if I need to pick some up. I bought;

1x canned organic pumpkin
4 pk canned tuna
1 x canister of raisins
10 pk tortillas
1 pk shredded cheddar
1 pk meatless breakfast patties (okay, that might've been a splurge...)
2 x pineapples
1 pk mushrooms
1 pk organic greens
2 x cucumbers
1 big ol' cabbage
1 red onion
2 x avocado
1 pt grape tomatoes
1 bunch bananas

I also had enough stamps on my card to get a free knife and I picked the 7 inch santoku.  I didn't need any but I figured it would make a nice gift, so into the gift box it went. Some of our gifts from this year went in there too, to be regifted.

And here is the menu for the week (the days are different from the last plan because of the holiday)

Sun - a big salad (needed after all the treats this week)
Mon - vegetable barley soup with leftover foccacia
Tues - huevos rancheros bowls
Wed - roasted delicata squash with couscous
Thurs - (NYE) not quite sure. most years we go to my parents and play board games. I have some spring roll wrappers in the pantry so I may try to make those.
Fri - pineapple fried rice
Sat - english muffin pizzas (Saturday is always pizza!)

I guess I bought the cabbage on a whim as well. It stores well and I was just craving veggies after a week of overinduldgence.

Now, off to put on sweatpants on this dreary rainy day and spend some time with my yarn. :)