Preparing for the Big Day AND Another Week of Scenarios

Things are in full chaos mode at the Rational Living household. Sissy's birthday party (with 15 attendees!) is on Saturday afternoon, so we're in a frenzy of cooking, cleaning and crepe paper. But I squeezed out a few minutes to let you know how we did last week and what scenarios we are facing this week.

Last week we used 62 of our 64 red points and 125 of our 192 blue/green points.

We used 125 of our 193 miles.

We had a special treat on Tuesday when the Rational Living household was taken out to eat in honor of Rational Mama's thirty-f(*cough*cough*) birthday. We had a lovely dinner at the local Indian restaurant and the night was rather ration-friendly, since most ate vegetarian meals and we had plenty of blue/green points left to "pay" for the frozen vegetables that were used.

However, the dinner out got use thinking...during the weeks that we go out to dinner it doesn't seem fair to give ourselves the full amount of ration points, since we don't count our meal's points when dining out. So, since this Tuesday is our regularly-scheduled, no special event, only once a month, Rational Living household night out for dinner we are only allotted 13/14ths of our ration points: 59 red and 178 blue/green points.

With that in mind, here's our four scenarios for the week (that's the most scenarios per week so far!):

• Beef - limited availability, only 1/2 the normal purchase amount available
  
• Coffee - limited availability, only 1/2 the normal purchase amount available
  
• Canned fruit - scarce, available but at 1 1/2 the normal ration points
  
• Dried fruit - scarce, available but at 1 1/2 the normal ration points

As if the fruit issue wasn't challenging enough. Sigh.

Two recipes on the menu this week call for one pound of ground beef per recipe, so that will now be 1/2 pound each, to be extended by adding black beans. Tortillas also make another appearance this week. Since our town has had a thriving Hispanic population since the late 1800s we are allowing ourselves this treat, as they would have been available in local markets during the 1940's.

This week's menu:

Saturday: Sissy's Birthday Party! Homemade macaroni and cheese (historic recipe), coleslaw, broccoli casserole, relish tray and banana cake (historic recipe)

Sunday: Tacos and (canned) corn - special request for Sissy's real birthday

Monday: SPAM burgers and oven-fried cabbage (thanks to reader Carla for the great cabbage idea!)

Tuesday: Out!

Wednesday: Spaghetti marinara

Thursday: Cheese enchiladas and black beans

Friday: Hot dogs, saffron rice and carrots

Did you see that on Monday?!?! It's our first SPAM recipe! I have vague memories of having SPAM a few times as a child and being mesmerized by the thought of meat in a can. I'm interested to see how the girls react. I'll report all the gory details and let you know how the party fare is received.

Have a great weekend!

--Rational Mama