Another beautiful day outside my window. I love fall! Growing up in southwest Florida we only had 2 seasons, hot and hotter. I never saw leaves changing color except in pictures. I never saw yards covered in freshly fallen leaves. Heck I hardly ever had to wear a sweater in the winter! That reminds me of a picture my husband took of me last winter. It was snowing (very lightly) and I was wearing a pair of shorts, a t-shirt, a jacket, socks and flip flops. Okay, not the most fashionable choice but sometimes there are just "Florida" things you cannot take out of the girl!

Yeah, I rock the socks and flip flops!!! Those socks are actually MADE for flip flops. They have a separate compartment for the big toe. I bought them at Little MissMatched for the express purpose of wearing them with said flip flops! Sometimes my feet get cold (actually almost never) but I hate having them cramped up in "real" shoes.

MOVING ON....
I said yesterday that I was going to go back to monthly grocery shopping. I sat down and made a master list of meals, side dishes and desserts. This took FOREVAH!!! But, now that it is done, the next months lists should go a bit easier. I say "should" but anyone who knows me knows that I rarely do things the easy way! After I got all the meals together and written down, know what I did? I went and searched for MORE recipes. I am such a glutton for punishment! Anyway, the list is done and now comes the really hard part...making the shopping list. Aaahhhhh! I dread that part. Shopping for the month (correctly) means that I take a complete inventory of what I have on hand in the pantry and take each ingredient list and see what I need to buy and how much of it I need to buy. I really haven't found an effective way of doing that . I do think that maybe I will do a spread sheet kind of thing and then tally up how much of each ingredient is needed... We'll see.

On the food front, yesterday I made up some beef and bean burritos with homemade tortilla shells and put them in the freezer for later. I really think I will ask for a tortilla press for Christmas because I haven't figured out how to keep the dough from shrinking so much. I also made a batch of Pancake-Sausage muffins for the freezer.(MOST of them made it to the freezer!) YUM! This morning, I made 2 big batches of waffles and pancakes for the freezer. It makes me very happy to have stuff ready in the freezer for anytime I may need or want it. Once I shop Thursday, I will spend Friday and Saturday cooking stuff and freezing it. That accomplishes 2 things. One, I have a freezer full of meals and, two (this is the important one), it keeps me too busy to have to help the boys build the hunting houses. Not that I am opposed to helping but I really cannot stand the nail gun. That thing terrifies me and makes me incredibly anxious. My father in law shot a nail that ended up going through his hand and ever since then, I am NOT going near that thing.

Menu for today:

Breakfast
Waffle for me
Cheese toast for the munchkins

Lunch
Chicken Almondine
Carrots

Dinner
Pork Chops w/Apricot Sauce
Mashed Sweet Potatoes
Green Beans
Applesauce

Enjoy the day!!!