Ouchy stuff and this week's lunch round-up (or how in the world do I cook while keeping my leg elevated?)

Monday, I was doing my good-for-me thing, out for a run, when my left foot slips and down I go. It's slick in places still (and may very well be for the next few months -- ack!) I landed on my hands and both knees. I just missed hitting my head and I felt grateful for that. I was also grateful that I fell forward, to take the brunt of the fall on four limbs and not backwards, which would have likely meant a cracked tailbone. I fell that hard.

Anyway, sitting there stunned for a minute, I checked out my knees. Nothing appeared to be loose in any abnormal way. It looked like I might just be bruised. So I picked myself up and finished off my run. It was a long-run day, so I put a lot of miles on my injuries. And really, my knees weren't hurting me in any appreciable way, so I thought, "wow, I lucked out there!"

An hour after getting home, I could not bend my left knee. I took a look and it was badly swollen. Frozen peas for half an hour, and lots of advil. But I still needed to get myself into the kitchen to make something, anything, for the next day's lunches, make dinner and get ready to take my daughter to a piano concert in the evening.

So the afternoon was challenging. I could only make one item for lunches. The family will have to fend for themselves for a couple of days. But this is what I made -- a large casserole dish of Pizza-mac.

Pizza-mac is cooked macaroni, tossed with some protein (I used cooked pinto beans and a diced pepperoni-like beef hot link), some veggies (I used a can of green beans, chopped parsley and some sliced olives), and all held together with pizza sauce, and topped with mozzarella cheese. Bake in the oven at 350 F until the cheese is melted and everything is heated through, about 30 minutes.

Pizza-mac is NOT gourmet, but good ole comfort food, and will fill stomachs for lunches this week (and breakfasts, I had some yesterday as my breakfast).

The rest of the lunch round-up will be:

• oranges
• pbjs
• last of the yogurt
• anything else anyone can find in the kitchen

As for Monday's dinner, I had a homemade pizza in the freezer, to go with the thawed frozen peas, and brownies from the weekend. Good enough!

The concert was really fabulous, but I couldn't keep my leg up, or even out of the way of the folks at the end of the row who kept needing to get up and pass me throughout the evening. Grrrr -- why on earth would anyone allow their phones to be on during a lovely piano concert?! (I glared at them appropriately every time they passed in front of me.)

It's not how I planned for my week to go, but I am able to take care of my knee, and other things, like budgeting and bill paying, nonetheless. Switching gears.


The good news on my knee -- it looks and feels a lot better this morning. I've got it wrapped in an Ace bandage for this week. I won't go for my Wednesday run, but will try for a walk at the end of the week.

Hope your week is going well!

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If you have to make a minimum purchase to buy a turkey at the best price . . .

. . . this is what I do.

Our grocery store's deal this year is spend $35, then buy 1 turkey at $1.19 per pound, and get a second turkey for free. If I find 2 turkeys that weigh about the same, then my price per pound is about 59 cents per pound.

But I have to make that minimum purchase of $35, to get that deal. For someone who only buys groceries at rock-bottom prices, this can be a challenge to spend $35 at a regular grocery store.

But I have a system/plan that works for us. The bath tissue that I regularly buy is this store's own house brand of Scott's 1000. It's not comfy tp, but I did some figuring several years ago, and this bath tissue, store brand, at the current price, is the best bargain for our family. (Here's the post I wrote on making that calculation.)

So, I let our household run very low on bath tissue in the weeks leading up to my turkey purchases each November. It got so low this month that I was redistributing tp from one bathroom to the next, so no one in the house would have one of those emergencies. Yes, it was dangerously low, in fact! I didn't mean for it to get this low, but it did.

And to make my $35 minimum spend at the grocery store, I do a major stock-up of bath tissue for the bulk of that dollar amount, buying the economical tp, as I have already calculated. 

Anyway, on Friday, I made the first of our turkey purchases, buying two 19-lb turkeys, plus 40 rolls of bath tissue, 4 dozen eggs, and 1 tiny treat for myself. I was 2 cents short of the $35 minimum purchase, so I checked out the clearance racks at the grocery store and found a marked down Hallowe'en treat for myself. It was a Russell Stover's candy, very yummy, and 39 cents.

If you need to make a minimum spend in your grocery store to get the deal, look around for what else the store might carry, that is well-priced for your area. Some stores allow the purchase of alcohol or gift cards to go towards the minimum spend. I had thought of buying another bottle of vodka for making more vanilla extract. Or, if you know you would like to give a gift card to someone at some point, you could pick that up now, and have that go towards your minimum purchase. Or, perhaps a major stock-up of bath tissue would work for your household, as well.

Happy bargain shopping!

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