waste-veggie-oil & food

i liked the pink background, but it was hard to read the text. plus it sort of reminded me of lingerie which is wierd. and now that i've put this new greenish one up, i'm starting to think that i've seen it somewhere else. hmm, well sorry if i've stolen your background... i really can't remember who(if any of my friends) has this same one. oh well! enjoy!

we just finished cleaning up and filtering vegetable oil down by our old house. yucky job! toby and elliana played in the sawdust barrels, built forts with the cardboard boxes and got very oily and dirty. the pump has been broken for awhile, then the sock filters broke too. so we haven't driven with wvo in a long while. so today was a victory! we finally filtered some and filled our tank! well, i'm being a little presumptious. some was filtered and the second batch is heating up right now. after our very important nap we will filter the rest of it which will fill the tank. :) we have made a commitment to not go into any more debt this year. (i.e. not planning correctly and having to use our line of credit to pay the bills at the end of the month b/c we ran out too fast) plus have a more organized budget which will help us pay off the rest of our school debt. so filling up with wvo will help a lot!

oh and this is exciting. there is a section in my new planner that david got me for christmas that helps you plan meals. i love to plan. :) so i decided what 5 meals we will make each week and repeat those for the entire month. only 5 meals becasue we like to eat out on friday nights and sunday nights we eat leftovers. all month but with the exception of pizza one tuesday and spaghetti the next tuesday. and hard tacos one thursday and bean & cheese burritos the next thursday. on the opposite page of the planner is a space to write you grocery list. so i wrote exactly what we needed for the next two weeks. (until the next pay check) everything for the meals, snacks, lunches, etc. Now get excited...i took my list to HEB and checked it all off as i went so that i didn't forget anything, and by being this organized i saved us $75! wow! now i realize that actually speaks negatively on how unorganized i was before. but i'm still happy to try this method! and its all meals that i've made a dozen times so i dont have to spend a lot of time reading recipes and we aren't tempted to go out or order pizza b/c we can't find any food in the house. so i'm proud. plus we saved so much money! and i'm sure i will get bored of this and want to try new recipes, but for now this is great.

Here is our menu for the month: we always cook big amounts so we can have leftovers or have friends come eat with us. so if something sounds good, let us know which day you want to eat with us! ;)

Mondays: Baked fish, fresh green beans, mashed potatoes

Tuesdays: our favorite homemade pepperoni pizza & salad/farm-beef spaghetti & salad

Wednesdays: chicken noodle soup, bread & salad (we just butchered several chickens so we have plenty of chicken right now. now i just said, "we" but i have nothing to do with the butchering. no thank you sir)

Thursdays: Crispy farm-beef tacos/bean and cheese burritos with chips, salsa and avocados of course

Fridays: restaurant woohoo!

Saturdays: mushrooms, tomatoes, onions, garlic & broccoli (maybe chicken) over brown rice & salad

Sundays: leftovers!

I know, most of you probably aren't interested in all this, haha. but like my friend ellie said the other day on her blog, it's therapuetic. now have a wonderful day.