Let Them Eat . . . Peanut Butter

After paying for two unexpected prescriptions during the week, I found myself this morning with about $100 to spend on the week's groceries, and school is starting on Monday, which means 10 school lunches (2 children x 5 days). After last week's accomplishments, however, I set out with a confident heart and spent (wait for it!) $92.51! Granted, I didn't buy any meat except for four 1/4-lb. burger patties and 1 lb. lean ground beef for meatballs, so that helped, and Albertson's is now running their "10% off on Cowboys Game Day" special, which makes me follow football with more interest than I normally would. Oh, I don't dislike football, and I always associate football season with lovely golden autumn days, cool weather, and third quarter naps -- it's just not the entire focus of my life, except for the 10% off thing. I have to wear a football jersey to get the 10% off, though, but it's worth it.

Dinners this week are going to be kind of uninteresting, but I'll see if I can jazz them up a bit: hamburgers, spaghetti, chicken breasts (presentation TBD), seafood (tilapia and mussels), and nachos. Anybody who doesn't like it knows where the peanut butter is. School lunches will be kind of boring too, but all the basics will be there (sandwich, chips, fruit, dessert), so the kids won't starve despite inevitable protestations to the contrary.

Dinner tonight was an experiment. At some point a TGI Friday's frozen dinner had been purchased: Cajun Shrimp and Chicken Pasta. This seemed like a good night to try it out. It was surprisingly good, with only 280 calories per serving. The package served 2 1/2 people, which was pretty much correct. It satisfied two teenagers and one hot, tired mama, along with some garlic toast made from two-day-old Albertson's French bread. As a quick and good-tasting dinner, I'd recommend it and will probably buy it again. Wine recommendations? Whatever you have on hand that you haven't already labeled cooking wine!