Final Thoughts

It was an adventure. I really enjoyed looking for and trying out new recipes. Paul and I both noticed a difference in how we felt because of the variety of foods we were eating. We felt healthier and more energized. We used to eat ground beef 3 days in a row and not because we love it, but because I would never think about dinner until the last minute and we always have ground beef in the freezer. The planning has been great for me too. It is so much less stressful when you know exactly what you are cooking for the week. I will continue to make a weekly menu from now on. As far as the budget goes, I stopped adding up the receipts after week 2, so I will be interested to see what the final total adds up to be.

In my mind, I came out on top even if the budget was blown. I cooked for 30 days straight. I included a vegetable in every meal; I made a meal from each category every week, and I used several new recipes many of which will stay in my recipe box until I die.

Here are my top 5 favorites from this challenge

5- Russian Chicken

4- Spinach and Mushroom Frittata

3- Pork Chop Casserole
2- Spaghetti and Meatballs

1- Easy Cheese and Chicken Enchiladas- they were excellent, but really it is because it was the meal that taught me about steam bags.

Here are Paul's top 5:
5-Appetizer Night(Taco dip, BLT Dip, Dog Food Burgers)
4-Stuffed Flank Steak
3-Pork Chop Casserole
2-Easy Chicken and Cheese Enchiladas
1-Buffalo Chicken Casserole

The toughest part of this whole challenge was the actual blogging. I loved sharing my thoughts; but since I am not from the typers, it would take me, on average, about 45 minutes every night to post. This cut into some serious TV time, but more importantly it cut into my time with Paul. He would sit on the couch and rub my feet while I typed, but I still felt like I was robbing him of quality time together.

The Grocery Bill: $216.31. Bummer. In my defense, I set a $175 DINNER budget. As it turned out, this $216 covered the majority of our Lunch budget too because we often had leftovers for lunch. I would guess that my total monthly grocery bill was about $325. Not too bad. We could have spent that easily just on take out and restaurants alone over the course of a week. So at this, I failed. Oh well.

Will I blog again??? It is undeniable that I had a blast doing this and the support from all my friends and family has made it all worth it. But, our scale tells us that something needs to change if I am to continue this journey. We both gained a few which is really shocking to us because we thought we were eating healthier by balancing our meals. I guess we may have let our portion control get a little out of hand :).

So...

I will blog again, but this time all my meals will be waist friendly and 400 calories or less per serving. I was a faithful Weight watchers follower after both of my children were born and found great success each time. Therefore, I have a few of my favorite WW recipes in mind for the next challenge, but nowhere near enough for 30 days.I'll look at Cooking Light and ways to adapt my existing recipes, but I'll still need help. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE send me some recipes to help create the menu. There will be some new rules though. Look for them soon in a future blog.

Due to Mother's Day, I will not even consider starting until Monday. One, I'm a mother and cooking isn't allowed on Mother's Day :). Two, our obscene Mother's Day eating ritual is too good to be missed. Pizza, grinders, and Booby's...oh my!!

Truthfully, I'll probably take a week off to gear up for another 30 days of cooking.

Thanks again to everyone who read this blog and supported me through this process. I could not have survived 30 days without you!!! Let's hope the next challenge is just as fun and rewarding as this challenge was.