Four Fabulous Sucesses to Report

So, I chose dine-in (my home) over carry-out on the following recent occasions:

1. Friday night we had 11 kids (including ours) over for dinner and a movie and kept 10 of them over night. We ate pasta, garlic bread, salad and a veggie side. We went through two loaves of Italian bread that Don had garlicked up and closely watched as it broiled; it was a hit. We also went through almost 2 lbs. of pasta. Still, the whole meal for 13 people only cost us about $6. Amazing, I know. Way cheaper, and more delicious than any of my local fast food establishments.
2. Saturday we went to my daughter KC's amateur photography debut. She won second place in a local photography contest. Usually, we would celebrate by going out for ice cream or something fun like that. Well, we did go to the show where her photo was displayed, and we got to admire her image along with other entries. But, when we finished we came home for treats. I think it cost us about $2 for all of us to drink our fill of chocolate malts.
3. Saturday evening was date night. We planned an outing but needed to eat before we left. I made a delicious masaman curry with saffron rice. I'll share the recipe later. The kids were thrilled that I made enough for them as well. They ate in the basement in front of a movie (they were ecstatic because that is a rare treat in itself) and we ate by candle light at the dining room table. I made food for all 6 of us with leftovers to feed us another entire meal. Again, this meal came in under $6.
4. We fed another family along with ours for Sunday dinner. Now, I don't know that I should count this in my not eating out brags yet, because we never eat out on the Sabbath. But, we did experience a miracle with this meal and I wanted to share it. Don made a great Sicilian soup. Bren and I made Penne Fra Diavolo (penne with a spicy sausage sauce), we served it all with home made Italian bread (whole wheat), corn, salad and KC made a fancy sparkling beverage (cranberry juice and sprite). The amazing thing is not that we that we had enough food for 10, but that we had enough left overs for two additional meals, one of soup and one of pasta. I'll need to make more bread, but what we had was enough to supply kids with lunch today. Amazing, huh. And, the price tag on this mondo meal is somewhere around $6.50.

Tune in later this week to see how all these leftovers are going to help me with my no more grocery shopping goal, keep me out of restaurants and fast food joints and further bless my family. It's going to be great.

This is KC's winning photo, Autumn Rose, minus the matting and frame she artfully chose that made this picture stunning.