What's been cooking at my house...

This week our budget allowed us to spend $73 to feed nine people. I decided to use ingredients I had on hand (since I happened to have mozzarella from the week prior)to make pizza!


I made combination for the adults. I had one hamburger patty-sized amount of ground beef I cooked up with some onions, a green pepper, and the rest of the pack of mushrooms I bought. This way here, the water from the veggies cooked out and didn't make the pizza soggy. I added some canned olives after slicing them as well. I put some cheese over the toppings so that they would not roll off. haha~


Saturday I made some boneless buffalo strips with pasta salad containing the carrots and celery which normally come with wings.



I had also bought some buttermilk for the first time ever (out of curiosity) the week before, so decided to make Ruthann's buttermilk pie pictured below, with my very first homemade crust (not too bad):

by the way, we found we liked the pie better the next day nice and chilled

Scones take very basic ingredients to make (other than butter which I buy in bulk and store in my freezer, so it was on hand), and since my pantry was stocked with powdered milk, we had all we needed to try something else new, and they were great!!
I also had some homemade strawberry and raspberry jam that my dear friend had given us for Christmas. Can you believe I still have some? LOL!! Here is a recipe for you to give a try.

So all in all, though my fridge is barebones now (considering there are 9 of us), we actually had more fancy food than usual, from having some surplus from the bigger shopping trip the week before. Having a well stocked pantry is a MUST nowadays in my opinion. We never know what to expect from week to week since my dh is commission only. I've learned to prepare ahead when able to do so. Really though, anyone can benefit from it.


Also...here is the car that my eldest son made with his dad for the AWANA pine wood derby.

Actually it was done pretty last minute due to dh's crazy schedule and hopefully Mikey will be more involved in the whole process next year! He didn't win, but his car did pretty well for about 60 or so cars participating, and this was their first year ever.