Pat's Paused Power Predicament

It's amazing to me how much we rely on electricity.  It's even more amazing to me that considering how much we rely on energy, Walmart (at least the one in our humble town) has not taken precautions to stay running for at least thirty minutes after a power failure. 

Since Madison was born and we decided to shop only once every two weeks, grocery shopping has become a big "E" Event for us.  We make a list, we check it twice, and then one of us gets baby doody (and duty, har har) while the other spends the next hour roaming the aisles of our local Walmart.  Well today was the big day, and Pat drew the short straw, so off he headed to the store.  About forty-five minutes later, our power went out.  It occurred to me that Walmart's power might have gone out as well, but I dismissed the notion, thinking, "surely they have enough backup generators to run the store during a power outage."  Sure enough, after another minute or so, Pat called to see if we had power. 

At first, we assumed he would be able to check out, but decided he had better put the cold items back since we had no way of knowing how long the power would be out.  Problem: the cold items were on the bottom of the shopping cart.  As he deliberated what to do moaned and groaned about what to do (love you, honey!), I heard (we were still on the phone)an announcement over Walmart's intercom.  Neither of us understood what they said.

Long story short, Pat ended up having to leave Walmart empty handed.  But here's the kicker: remember that list I told you about?  Yeah, well, he had filled all but four items.  Here, take a look:

Oh yeah, I also forgot to mention that we had nothing to eat in the house.  It had been two weeks since our last trip, and we had eaten even the last granola bar!  So he decided to stop by Little Caesar's for lunch.  No dice, closed due to power outage.  He went to Domino's and thanked his lucky stars that he had decided to get cash for groceries; if he, like usual, only had a debit card, that too would have been a bust.  So we ate our healthy lunch while we watched Madison watching the ceiling fan:

Pat was still a little upset about the huge waste of time and energy, but Madi helped him feel better:

A few hours later, Pat decided he wasn't going to let Walmart defeat him, so he went back for more punishment to show them who was boss.  And he came back victorious!

 The only downside:  Pat had, on the first trip, gotten all ten of my new favorite yogurt flavor (strawberry lemonade) and the last of my favorite body wash.  Of course, they weren't restocked by the time he went back, so I'll have to make do with blackberry pomegranate yogurt and just hope my current body wash holds out until they get a new order in.  Otherwise, I'll have to try something new, and I'm not really a fan of change.

What do you think?  Have you ever finished filling your cart, only to have to leave it all behind?  Are you as surprised as I was that Walmart couldn't sell us groceries fifteen minutes after the power went out?  Do you shop once/week, once/two weeks, every day, or somewhere in between?

-Kelli 

The Power of Parkay

Every (week)day, Pat and I eat the same thing for lunch.  Well, he's pretty picky, so his version is plain and dry.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.  Let's start over.

Every day, Pat and I eat turkey sandwiches for lunch.  My version has bread, turkey, provolone, and ranch.  His version has bread and turkey.  Isn't that exciting?!  Yeah, we don't really think so, either; however, cheap is as cheap does, and we are, if nothing else, cheap.

Needless to say, neither of us spends any time looking forward to lunch.  We just kind of eat it so we're not hungry anymore.  But get this: when we add one magic ingredient (okay, two magic ingredients, three if you count water) it becomes a pretty stinking good meal.  One of our favorites, actually.  Can you guess what it is?

 Yup!  It's spray butter buttery tasting liquid.  Yes, I'm sure it causes cancer, they test it on animals, and it single-handedly caused global warming.  It may or may not have been behind the levees breaking during Katrina.  But it tastes GOOD, it has zero calories, and I don't have to spread anything.  So we use it.  I just soak spray both sides of the bread and throw it in the frying pan to get a little toasty:

 Then I layer on 8 slices of turkey, a slice of provolone, and a generous amount of ranch, and stick it in the oven at 350ish until the cheese is melty (a very technical term, meaning not quite melted but much softer and warmer than its original cold and brittle state) and the bread is crispy-ish.

Before going in the oven.  Note: Aluminum Foil may also cause global warming, in addition to hating puppies.  But you also don't have to scrape the pan afterwards.  It's your choice.

 While the sandwiches are baking, I heat up some tomato soup(this is where the water comes in):

Dirty stove.  Judge not, lest you be judged.  Oh, and it's not quite as dirty as it looks; some of that is the paint scraping off.  Yes, I said paint. 

 Take out the sandwiches, cut into pretty wedges, and enjoy!

It tastes really, really good when you dip it.  But it's messy, so watch out for your white pants!

Here's the breakdown:
Cost per meal: $3.66
Calories per serving: 500(we each have 1 1/2 sandwiches)
Tastiness factor: 7/10-keep in mind here that I'm judging like they do in gymnastics, leaving room for a better than perfect dish.
Health factor: 6/10 (tons of sodium, but we use turkey breast, whole wheat bread, and we've gotta get some credit for the word "tomato", right?)

What do you think?  Do you use aluminum foil in lieu of elbow grease?  Do you risk spray butter?  Are you cheap enough to eat the same thing EVERY day?  Tell me it's not just us!

*Update: go check out the new page, Our Menu!  That's where I'll compile all our meal info.  Thanks!

-Kelli

It Took Ten Weeks, But...

...it finally feels like Madison is part of our lives.  As opposed to being our life.  And I'm pretty sure that's a healthier place for all of us.

To celebrate her ten-week birthday(yesterday), I thought it would be fitting to share her weekly pics up to now.

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I'm really glad I decided to go for this project.  It's my (very) loose take on YHL's weekly photo project for their daughter Clara.  BTW, this is the second time I've mentioned Young House Love here.  There's a simple reason for that: I think they are amazing.  If you haven't checked them out yet, you should stop reading this right now and go see what I'm talking about.  But then come back and finish reading and leave me a comment.  Go on, make my day!  No, really.  Leave me a comment.  Please.

-Kelli