Hitting The Shopping Jackpot

By the time 1:00 rolled around this afternoon, I suddenly realized I was starving.  I looked in the fridge and pretty much decided on the first thing I saw – which actually ended up working out well.  I heated up some of my mom’s leftovers from dinner the other night, which were some kind of chicken and green beans.  She had told me she’d roasted the green beans on the grill, but I had no idea what the chicken was marinated in.  I asked her later on and she said it was in Cajun spices and that she has more we can have this week.  Awesome!  It was so good.  I also had some watermelon (delicious!) and crackers + cheese on the side.

Plus one three of these that my mom keeps the candy dish stocked with. 

After lunch, Billy and I went to visit my grandmother and she was so happy to see us!  I don’t get to see her as often as I’d like since I’m only in town rarely, but it’s always great when I do.  I think she got a bigger kick out of seeing Billy though since I can’t even remember how long it’s been since he’s been able to get here and visit her.  She lit up when she saw him and asked him a million questions about baseball, school, his long hair, his tan… She even said she’d be a Yankees fan if they are the lucky ones that pick him up in the draft.  (We’re Red Sox people over here.)  It’s always good to see her smiling.

After our visit, I stopped at Marshall’s and pretty much hit the jackpot.  I hate to shop almost as much as I hate to spend money, and I usually get too bored or overwhelmed to actually find much that I like, but this time I found tons of good stuff.  I don’t know if it’s the lights in the dressing room or what, but I wanted almost everything I tried on!  I ended up with a couple dresses and shirts, two pairs of really nice dress pants, and a pair of awesome red/coral skinny jeans.  And the prices were all so reasonable that I didn’t even have a panic attack!  Go me!

After Marshalls I swung by the grocery store and had another positive shopping experience.  The prices are so much better in NH than they are where we lived in CT; I can’t even believe it.  I picked up milk, yogurt, fresh whole wheat bread, trail mix, cookies, apples, peaches, green + red peppers, green beans, spinach, and chicken for around $35! Who says you can’t eat healthy on a budget?!

After all that shopping, I was famished, and I told my mom I’d make the porkchops she had in the fridge for dinner.  To go with them, I made some of my homemade applesauce.  This recipe is seriously so easy – pretty much just like making mashed potatoes – and my mom loved it.  I wasn’t sure how much water to use this time and ended up having a little too much at the end, but I just drained some out before I mashed the apples and it worked out fine.

I breaded the porkchops lightly in cornflake crumbs and baked them in the oven, along with green beans that I sprayed with a little bit of cooking spray and sprinkled with Montreal Steak Seasoning.  My mom had a baked potato and I had a little bit of leftover rice pilaf on the side.

My mom mentioned how good the leftover applesauce (and we had a lot left over) would be on ice cream and I agreed (because I’ve obviously already tried that ) but we don’t have any ice cream in the house.  I think we’re both probably a little too lazy to go back out and get any, but you never know…