4/365

Sundays... grocery shopping. It's amazing how much time we devote to food. Menu planning, grocery lists, coupon clipping, shopping at multiple stores, repackaging food, putting it all away... and that is even before all the washing, chopping, cooking, and storing.

Here's our list of dinners for the week:

- Hamburger soup* with bread-machine rolls
- Lentil soup** with outrageously easy big bread
- Crockpot potato chowder*** with Bisquick biscuits
- Crockpot chicken cordon blue with rice and steamed broccoli
- Meatloaf with mashed potatoes and green beans

*My changes: Add 3 cups of macaroni, extra 2 cups of water with 2 beef buillion cubes, and a generous squirt of ketchup for extra flavor.
**My changes: Start with 1/2 lb. bacon chopped up and fry in the pot, using the bacon grease in lieu of the original olive oil before adding the veggies. At the end of cooking, place 2 cups in the blender and puree, and pour it back into the soup for a thicker, creamier soup. Also, for the outrageously easy big bread, I use regular sugar instead of turbinado, and bread flour instead of all-purpose.
***My changes: omit the onions, and sub green onions for chives, add sour cream and shredded cheese as toppings as well.

Breakfast this week will consist of: Cereal and milk, pancakes, french toast, and zucchini-pineapple mini loafs in heart-shaped disposable foils.
Lunches will be: ham sandwiches w/ fruit, turkey sandwiches w/ fruit, "Octopus" hot dogs on beds of "seaweed" (green food-colored angel hair pasta with butter and parmesan) and edamame, bologna sandwiches with carrot sticks and celery.

Picture for the day:

How many hours can one guy spend playing Star Wars on the XBox?? He's determined to find out.