Day One: The Back of the Freezer

For the last 8 months, I've had a batch of Giada DeLaurentiis' sundried tomato and basil pesto. I heard that pesto freezes well (ok, I didn't really :hear: that...one of the Top Chef contestents mentioned it one season - the episode where Casey and Dale win the Bertolli challege with Rocco DiSpirito - why do I remember that?), so this summer when we were getting bushels of basil, I decided to make some pesto & freeze it.  It's been sitting in the back of the freezer ever since.  So when we needed a Meatless Monday recipe, I turned to the freezer burned tupperware in the WAY back of the freezer. I warned Steve that it might not be good, but he told me to proceed, so operation  boil water began.

Surprisingly, it was great!  We had rotini with the pesto, fresh grated parmesan, cucumbers and balsamic vinaigrette (Shout out to Bob Bruschi!) and garlic toast (Is there an italian meal that doesn't require garlic toast?)  Here's how it looked:

Will has been on a food strike recently (we think he is channeling his inner Gandhi.  If he starts walking towards the beach to collect salt, we're calling the doctor), and he gobbled it up! 

He ate so much, that we decided to treat him to dessert, which is a RARE treat in our house.  I'm happy to announce that he very much enjoyed his first s'more!  Despite the picture evidence below, he did actually get some into his mouth.

Steve liked them too:

Not to be forgotten, Emma just hung out laughing at all the stickiness:

Unlike James Franco & Anne Hathaway's Oscar hosting, I think I can classify our trip to the back of the freezer as a success!  As for tomorrow, we will be taking a trip to Greece - OPA! - with Lazy Greek Chicken!  Am I lazier than the recipe? Will we end up eating boxed macaroni & cheese instead?  Stay tuned!



On the Menu

Here's the menu for this week's pantry raid:
Sunday: we're going over my inlaws for my sister in law's birthday, so dinner is taken care of!

Monday: Meatless Monday! Pasta with organic sundried tomato and basil pesto (here's the recipe) that I made last summer when our farm share gave us bushels of basil. It's been in the freezer for 8 months, but pesto supposedly freezes well so it should be ok.

Tuesday: Breakfast for Dinner! Bacon, Egg, and Cheese Sandwiches on Biscuits with home fried potatoes and fruit.

Wednesday: I have a meeting at work that starts at 5pm, so that means that Steve is on his own.  Realistically, this probably means leftovers.

Thursday: Greek chicken (here's the recipe) with garlic mashed potatoes and broccoli. 

For the record, I will always leave Friday and Saturday off the list.  I NEVER want to cook on Friday, and Saturday we usually get together with friends and I can't plan ahead because we never know how many people will be joining us.

I can already see a difference in our shopping list this week.  It's only 12 items!  Cucumber, chicken breasts, sandwich bread, one red pepper, jelly, 1/2 gallon milk, garlic bread, fruit, olive oil, goldfish crackers and marshmallows (yes, kind of an impulse purchase, but we just noticed that we have tons of hershey bars - I know, random! - and graham crackers, so it' looks like there are s'mores in our future!).

I'll post the final grocery bill total tomorrow!
Have a great day!

What the Hell Did You Buy? (or...Why I'm Here)

The 2 most obvious questions one must ask when starting a blog are:
1. Who are you?
2. Why would anyone want to read about your life?  (aka. Why are you here?)

I'll attempt to answer both.

Question 1: Who are you?
Well, as the blog name states, I'm the Real Housewife of Chesterfield. Ok, I'm not actually a housewife.  I work as a public school teacher, at a job that I LOVE.  Here are the cast of characters in my crazy life:

Me (obviously): The Real Housewife of Chesterfield
My husband (also a public school teacher): Steve (he is headlining Real Husbands of Chesterfield on BRAVO)
My 2 year old son: Will (aka. the Real Son of Chesterfield)
My 8 month old daughter: Emma (aka the Real Daughter of Chesterfield)
I won't tell you everything about myself - I can't give it all up now! You'll have to read on to find out what makes me tick!

Question 2: Why are you here?
This blog was inspired by a $160 grocery bill.  That’s right: $80 at Trader Joe’s plus $80 at Shoprite = major backpedaling when I got home.  Did I mention that we aren’t the Duggars with their 19 kids?  It’s me, Steve, Will and Emma.  That’s it.  Oh, and Emma doesn’t yet eat table food.  So really, it’s just 3 of us.  $160 was way over the top (although now I'm hearing from others that this type of bill is pretty normal.  Well, it's not for us - we budget $75 a week for food.  Plus, without the bill, there is no blog).  So in an effort to be frugal, and see how much we really can live without, we have decided to embark on this strange journey of sorts.

Our self-imposed rules:

1.   We will clean out our pantry. And by clean out, I mean eat our way out.  We have WAY too much food, and it’s going to go to waste if we don’t eat it.  Plus, I can’t find things, and then I end up buying things that we already have. So…we’re going to eat what we have first.

2.   Of course, we will need to buy some foods.  We'll still need to do some weekly shopping: milk, yogurt, bread, peanut butter, fresh fruit & vegetables (unless we already have an appropriate canned or frozen alternative).  Bottom line: Steve and I will try to live off what we have without altering the kids’ diet too much.

3. I'm not going to do this experiment at the expense of our children's health. So we will still be eating as many healthy meals as we can.  What it does mean, is that we might get some kooky combinations.  I'm going to try my best to step out of the box, try some new versions of foods, and still keep things healthy (and edible). The first couple weeks might be pretty normal (read: boring) but I'm sure as the boxes of pasta become few and far between things are going to get VERY interesting.

So that's about it. I'll also write about my life from time to time, and what's going on in it, but I'm going to at least attempt to have the food vein running through this.

I hope you enjoy coming on this gustatory voyage with us!