Can you guess what this is?

These are the things I took out of A's backpack.  He was having a rough day and said, "mom, sometimes I feel like running away".  He was even packed and ready to go.  I'm glad to see he had clean socks and underwear, along with a couple of notepads and a pen- he likes to make lists of things he does or sees.  He also packed a bingo card from a Mario Bros birthday party he attended recently, and a tile that he was given by the primary leaders in our last ward.  He's such a sweet kid.  Instead of him running away, we've been having snuggle time.  

Fajitas

This month, I went to Costco and the grocery store and spent most of my grocery budget.  I actually went on October 27th or something.  Pretty bad to spend most of your November budget before the month even starts, but I've decided it won't be all that difficult to stick to my budget, even with Thanksgiving.  I made a month schedule for dinner every night (including leftover nights, although my Mister has been eating leftovers for lunch so often lately, that we may have to come up with alternatives to leftover night...), based off of things I have in the pantry or freezer.  We also have some tomato plants growing in the greenhouse, which yield a tomato here and there.

Tonight's dinner was one I wasn't sure about throwing together out of the pantry/fridge/freezer, but I haven't been to the grocery store since October 27th.  (I get milk delivered every week)

I partially defrosted a buffalo rump roast, sliced it, then cut each slice into strips (cut against the grain to make the meat more tender).

Once the meat is cut into small strips, place it in a pan and cook- I don't know if it was the fact that the meat was still partially frozen, but it ended up with a lot of liquid (not a lot of fat though- buffalo is very lean), leave the liquid because it makes the meat nice and juicy without having to add anything to it.  Once the meat is cooked, add onions and multi-colored peppers (I had bags of chopped peppers in the freezer- some from the garden and some leftover from a family party a couple of months ago).  Season with garlic, chili powder, and a little cumin.  Cover and turn on low to simmer until peppers and onions are cooked.

I served the fajitas on corn tortillas (I keep a package in the freezer, and take out however many I need and defrost them in the microwave) with sour cream, shredded cheese, salsa, spanish rice (my easy spanish rice is just rice cooked with some tomato sauce, chili powder, garlic and salt), olives, lettuce and tomatoes.  Avocados would have been nice, but they're not really a food storage sort of food.

These were really easy (aside from cutting up meat- I don't like handling raw meat, though having it partially frozen makes it a little less disgusting), and the kids even liked most everything (they didn't like the peppers, and would have complained about the onions, but didn't notice them).  Writing this post and looking at the picture is making me want more- they were really good.  Maybe I'll have leftovers for lunch tomorrow too...