Day 3 - So the first thing he wants to know.....

when in he comes in from school today....is if I will let  him go fishing in the neighboring subdivision's pond. 

Can you guess why??

Yep...you guessed it.  He's thinking about how he could get more food for his week of groceries!!  :-)

If you're just now joining us (welcome to our new readers that are visiting us from www.owlhaven.net where this idea started to begin with!)....what you're reading is Day 3 of a very interesting economics project.  I encourage you to read it here if you haven't already.

For those of you anxious to know how things are progressing....you've come to the right place. 

So we are on Day 3 of the Week of Groceries for $40 experiment....and after his consumption of a whole pot of stew over the first day and a half, I was a little concerned about how the rest of the week was going to go. 

Day 1 - http://www.leah-imjustsayin.blogspot.com/2012/02/it-all-started.html

Day 2 - http://www.leah-imjustsayin.blogspot.com/2012/02/progress-so-farthis-could-get-tough.html

In typical fashion....things were a little crazy this morning, and frankly, neither Destin nor I are used to him having to plan his dinner in the morning.  We talked about him throwing his chicken legs in the crock pot, and that's about as far as it got.  I walked back into the kitchen after taking him to school, only to realize that he had, in fact, forgotten. 

And it would have been soooo easy for me to throw them in the crock pot for him so that they could cook all day while he was at school, but if this experiment is to truly prepare them for real life, then I wouldn't have been doing him any favors by stepping in. 

So I didn't. 

And that was hard. 

But you know what?  He came in, and after asking if he could go fishing in the next few days (gotta' love that he isn't whining and asking for more money...but instead thinking of ways to acquire food for free), he got right to work on his chicken. 

For those wondering.....no.....I am not doing any of the cooking.  He is doing it all himself....asking a lot of questions, but that is to be expected, and I am welcoming them!

I found it interesting that when I told him that at this point the crock pot was no longer an option if he wanted chicken tonight, he opted to bake it in the oven rather than boil on the stove top.  Said he didn't really like the smell of boiling chicken...(me neither!)

All seasoned up and ready to go!!

And yes...that is just half of a package of chicken legs from Sam's Club.  I landed them marked down to $5.50 a few weeks back and let Destin purchase half of them from me for $2.25. 

He seasoned them with the "freebies" from my cabinet.  The standard three seasonings we use on just about everything!  Cavender's Greek Seasoning, Lawry's Seasoning Salt, and Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning.  

Can I just say that although baked chicken isn't pretty....(and don't lie...you know it ain't)....it tasted amazing!  No...I didn't eat his food...I tasted a morsel that he wanted me to taste, and I was so impressed!

 While it baked he microwaved a serving of frozen cauliflower and added a slice of cheese...and right before the chicken got done, he made two packages of ramen noodles.  (We have never used Ramen as a soup....so the liquid is all poured off). 

Day 3 dinner is served!

And let me just tell you....by the time he finished cooking he was so ready to eat!!  From the sounds he was making, you would have thought he was eating prime rib! 

And believe it or not.....he actually didn't eat all of the Ramen noodles.  He had a small serving left and informed me tonight that he is going to take them for lunch tomorrow along with a chicken leg. 

As things were cooking, he told me that he sure wished I had a cookbook of just seafood....which I did have and he just didn't realize it.  He looked at for a while, and I could tell the wheels in his head were turning as he asked me about going down to the pier with crab nets. 

Can I just tell you that I am so proud of him?  He hasn't complained once yet...although that may change when he comes home tomorrow and there are no more of the honey buns left.  He hasn't exactly rationed those very well.  But he does still have $2 left and he can always grab another cheap box of somethin' sweet if he really has a hankerin'.

I'm just sayin'.