It's funny, last night my boyfriend asked me what I'd planned for dinner, I told him Chicken Parmesan. He said "I feel like we should be eating more healthy." I offered to make him a marinated chicken breast baked in foil with some rice and green beans. He said okay. Ten minutes later he said he wanted Chicken Parm! Lol...we both LOVE our comfort food. Since I write so much about food and recipes, I'm going to make separate pages for the actual recipe and just add the link to my blog post! I'll put an index on the right side bar for easy reference. I'll try to make pages for all of the previous recipes too. Blogger is quite buggy of late, so if anyone notices any funny business, can you let me know?
I mentioned yesterday that it was bitterly cold outside and look what Jack Frost did to my window! Kind of nice! The sun is very deceiving though!
Do you complain to companies for their sub-par products? I'm sure I'm not the only one who's noticed the quality of everything nose-diving while the ease of returns sky-rockets. Companies don't care about quality control anymore, they'll just replace it or refund you too easily. When I had my bout of food poisoning a few weeks back, my boyfriend went to the store to get me soda crackers and this was what came out of the box. They might look okay, but they are burned and they smelled and tasted burned too! All 4 sleeves of crackers...so I wrote to Premium Plus and within minutes I got a reply "Send us your address and we'll mail you a coupon for a free box". I responded, "Would you like me to keep the burned crackers to send back to you for quality control?"...8 days later, no reply. At least we didn't waste our money because we'll get a free box, but it left a bad taste in my mouth both figuratively and literally! I do get lots of freebies with a gentle complaint though, so I'm thankful for that. One time all of my garbage bags came in the box unsealed at the bottom...what joy to find out the hard way that your garbage isn't sealed lol...I was pretty upset that day, but Glad sent me a $10 coupon for their products.
The meal planning is done!!! Now today I have my list of ingredients and have to write my shopping list for tomorrow! I'm throwing all caution to the wind and I'm planning meals until the week after Easter...that's 41 meals including a few special days like Easter and our 4-year anniversary! I love challenging myself. I know that I'll have to go out for fresh stuff a few times during the next six weeks, but not having the pressure to drive hours to the big towns to grocery shop makes life so much easier! Now I have to enter all of this into my handy little shopping and menu journal!
41 meals! What an accomplishment! I have noticed what you're saying about sub-par products, even in restaurants! I hate complaining, especially when it's face-to-face, gives me so much anxiety! But you're right, the refunding comes very easily.
ReplyDeleteHi Rachel :) Thanks! :) Oh gosh, if and when we go to restaurants, I'm the same...I find it very difficult to complain but when I do, it's really like I'm kissing up to the waiter or something...but honestly, every time my bf and I have gone to a restaurant lately, we're always disappointed with the food or we get upset stomachs after. He told me he'd rather eat my cooking, which is a really nice compliment!
ReplyDeleteThat is a nice compliment!:) Haha I know what you mean about kissing up to the waiter, it really feels like groveling! We've been disappointed with several places lately too, but cooking at home is a good solution!:)
ReplyDeleteThat is quite an accomplishment to plan out 41 meals. I have trouble figuring out what to have an hour before dinner.
ReplyDeleteI am totally loving your blog. The mix of recipes and stories about your days are wonderful and I love your dogs :D x
ReplyDeleteWow! That's a lot of meals. I guess when it's down to just Hubby and myself I might be able to do that. I still have kiddos at home, although one is working on moving out.
ReplyDeleteHey, Kymber told me I should come by and take a look at your blog. I'm glad she did, and look forward to reading it frequently.
ReplyDeleteNot surprised you didn't get an answer on the quality control offer. People seem to be as complacent with poor customer service as they are with substandard products. As long as they get something free it is ok. Pity because the system will never change back to one of pride in production until we stand up and say "not acceptable just good enough won't do". Another good reason not to rely on faceless corporations for our food. You are setting the bar of incentive with your blog.
ReplyDeleteHello~. Kymber sent me this direction. She can vouch for me, we're good people, ha. I am going to read back through your blog and catch up. Looks great!! Thanks and keep up the good work!!!
ReplyDeleteHi Rachel :) I LOVE cooking at home! Though we have found ONE diner about a 20 minute drive away where the owner does all the cooking herself, all comfort foods, go figure we love it lol...
ReplyDeleteHi Starting Over :) I don't think I could survive if I didn't have a plan. I wasn't always like that though, but since I stopped working, I need more structure and being organized makes me feel more relaxed!
ReplyDeleteHi Yarrow :) Thank you so much! I'm so glad you're enjoying my blog :) I'm about to check both of yours out! :)
ReplyDeleteOh gosh Kristina, if I had more than the two of us to plan for it would be a disaster. I read that one of your kiddos is planning the big move. I hope it's a good experience, you take such care of everyone it might be hard to leave the nest :)
ReplyDeleteHi Harry :) Thanks for visiting :) I'm glad you're enjoying my blog. Kymber is so sweet for her blog post, I wasn't expecting it :)
ReplyDeleteHi Goatldi, complacent and poor customer service is reality now. I actually find myself overly-grateful when I get a nice customer service rep. Thanks for the nice words :) It's really a shame...I remember the beautiful furniture my grandparent's had and lament that I can't find such quality anymore. That's why my boyfriend and I hunt the bazaars, flea markets and garage sales, just in hopes that we'll find something of quality! I hope the birds don't mind burned crackers for a snack because Premium Plus certainly isn't interested in getting the box back! :)
ReplyDeleteI've never managed to make 41 meal plans! Kudos to you for putting in the time and effort that takes. Do you ever have to move planned meals around because of leftovers? We like and eat a lot of leftovers so sometimes I find a particular prepared meal goes farther than I thought it would. I hate to waste food (our good food!) so I'm not sure my menu plans wouldn't fall apart if I planned too many of them in advance. Not to say I don't admire the heck out of you for being able to do it the way you do. I'm interested in reading more about them. You go girl!
ReplyDelete(Sorry I've been so slow on commenting here. I've just been off my routine [who said off my rocker??!] and struggling to get back in the flow of it.)
Hi 1st Man :) Thanks for visiting! I just checked out and followed your blog :) We're all so similar, former city people turned country folks, I love it! :)
ReplyDeleteHi Mama Pea :) I'm off my rocker too so you're in good company :) I hate when my routine gets messed up, I'm just starting to get back to it after the last few weeks! The meal planning, it's really been a lifesaver for me. When I started doing this, I found that it was fun to plan everything and then I found I had so much more time throughout the month because all I had to do was consult my list in the morning, thaw what I needed and planned when to start! But yeah...I do have 4 days of "leftovers". It happens, it also happens that we don't eat dinner sometimes because of a big brunch or something. The only meals that are set in stone are the holiday ones, like I have something for St-Patty's day and then Easter, I also celebrate the seasons, so I have something planned for Spring Equinox. I have to admit though, I felt quite kafluffled the first time my meal plan wasn't perfectly followed lol...but I eased up a bit! I'll write more about it as I go along, but really it's all about the planning stage that helps me the most.
ReplyDeleteHope shopping day went smoothly :)
ReplyDeleteHi Nik :) Yup, it went really well!
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