Tag Archives: Meals

Garden, Saving Money

Thriving In My Thrifty Week–March 20, 2023

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The most exciting thing I did all week was plant part of my garden. We had a few really nice, warm days and I thought it would be worth a try to see if I could get in there. I could, in only one section, but it was enough! In fact, even the area closest to the camera was still too wet on that day.

I planted 5 rows of Maestro shelling peas for freezing and a small section of Oregon Sugar Pod II snow peas. I plant succession plantings of those every few weeks and we usually have them from spring until fall each year to eat fresh.

I planted a row of Early Wonder Tall Top beets and a row of beet seeds Rob saved last summer. They are likely the same kind, but I’m not exactly sure since I did have another kind in the garden last summer, as well. I do know they are viable, because we tested them by wetting a paper towel and sprouting a few on the windowsill.

There is an entire row of Danvers carrots, with a tiny section of a random variety and another whole row of Rob’s saved carrot seeds. Last summer, I was able to can quite a few carrots from our garden, and I planted extra this year in hopes of doing the same.

A mixed row contains Wild Garden Mix lettuce and Butter crunch lettuce along with a few French Breakfast radishes and cilantro.

One more row holds Lakeside and Bloomsdale Long-Standing spinach. I hope to freeze some of that.

Of course, I had lots of help. All-in-all, between the adults who took him out, he was out for at least 6 hours on that day. He loves it out there.

The part of the garden you see Malcolm in, as well as another strip on the other side of the planted strip are too wet to plant yet. Since it started raining and hasn’t stopped yet, it will likely be quite some time before those slices are ready, but it’s still way too early for the main crops anyway. It’s just so wonderful to have some early crops in so the constant drizzle can water them and they can grow this spring.

My little lettuce and green onion starts did survive the snow. I’ve added in some Baby Boc Choi, Lyon chard, Rainbow chard and more lettuce to that raised bed.

I also got some work done in flowerbeds. I worked especially on the one that contains my herbs and around the blueberry bushes. There is SO much left to do, but I’m so glad I was able to make a good start.

Work continues in the greenhouse and soon there will be tons of fresh veggies growing to make soups like this one. This is a vegetable soup I made from preserved veggies and we’ve been enjoying it all week.

I hit the jackpot at Safeway this week while shopping. Pork chops were 77c/lb. I got 2 huge packs.The meat man put out some pork roasts he wanted to unload right as we walked past, also for 77c/lb. I got one of those. Shrimp was about $4/lb. I got 2 lbs. Containers of peanuts were 67c each. Rob found a coupon for $1 off 2 containers. We got 4 containers for 17c/each. I got some breakfast sausage, lemons, oranges, bananas, 1/2 and 1/2 and 16 ounce shredded Tillamook cheese (2), a box of ramen for my nephew, plus a few other items. I used Bottle Drop money, downloaded coupons and only had to pay $18 out of pocket.

Later, I went to Fred Meyers (Kroger), and got cheese for $1.29/6-8 oz., Easter candy for 33% off, cottage cheese for $1.50/16-oz, sour cream $1.50/16 oz., sherbet, and a few other things.

Most of the food items were frozen or put on the pantry shelves to be used later, but we did use one of the packs of pork chops and ate some peanuts.

I’ve got most of what I need for Easter, now, so I will just add a few more items and be set when that comes along.

I’ve cooked soup, Asian meatballs, rice, pork chops (Rob BBqd), home-baked fish sticks, tomato soup from a box and toasted cheese sandwiches and salads. We’ve eaten lots of leftovers, as well. When I made manacotti for the college group last Tuesday, I made lots for us, as well, so we just finished that up. I make oatmeal constantly for my grandson–he will eat it any time of the day. So easy!

Since it’s been raining constantly since I did that garden/yard work, I haven’t been able to get out there in the past couple of days. I’m super glad I got out there when I did. I may not get another chance in the garden for a while, but am hoping for windows of opportunity where I can at least do some clipping and trimming on bushes that need it or edging with my shovel in a few places.

Menu plans

What Did We Eat? February 23, 2019

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At the beginning of the week, we ate leftovers from things we had cooked last weekend. The fridge was starting to look pretty bare of anything that could be grabbed in a hurry, so I cooked a big roast with carrots and potatoes. I put the last of a jar of horseradish sauce, mixed with some powdered onion soup mix on top. It came out wonderful. I went ahead and froze one small container of sliced beef for later, since it was a large roast.

I made some chili-mac with beans I had cooked last weekend, and froze the rest.

We made taco bar for the college age kids at church. I made a big crock pot of refried beans, and some really, really good Pumpkin Spice Bars.

I still have several cans of that pumpkin Rob got for 10c/can over a year ago. I wanted to find a use for one of them, and I know I’ll make the recipe again.

We had lots of salads, a sandwich or two, bagels and cinnamon sugar toast for the kids.

I made soup on the day my mom came over with a jar of the beef stew mixture we canned last fall, a pint of green beans and a pint of tomato juice. I added some water and spiced and it turned out great. She brought some muffins.

I made lemon-poppyseed muffins to put in the freezer for people to pop out for quick breakfasts.

Menu plans

What Did We Eat? October 26, 2018

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I tried a recipe for French Onion Chicken.  It was from Cooking Light magazine, but I did tweak it a bit.  First, you cooked a lot of onions.  I used a little bit of butter, a small amount of beef broth, and about 4 huge onions and used a non-stick pan.  I used even less butter than the magazine called for and no cooking wine.  They got nice and cooked in about 15 minutes.  I put 1/2 of them on a baking tray, and the other 1/2 I used to make some French Onion Soup. I used chicken thighs I got on 30% off instead of the whole chickens that were called for.  I put down a layer of cooked onions and some carrot sticks (my addition) and laid the thighs on top and sprinkled them with fresh thyme.  I did not make herb butter and put under the skin, although I’m sure it would be delicious.  We don’t need those extra calories around here right now.  I decided to set my oven at 425 degrees.  That was hot enough for me, even though the recipe called for 450.  Then I baked them until they were done, about 40 minutes.  (They were not super cold as I had returned from the store and made them a little while after that without putting them in the fridge for hours as would normally happen.).  They were really, really good.

I made French Onion Soup with the other 1/2 of the onions.  It was good with little pieces of bread (some regular and some gf) with cheese slices melted on top.

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I made another batch of zucchini muffins, with a cinnamon-sugar topping. Everyone liked those!

We have had lots of vegetables–tons of salads, canned green beans, carrots, cherry tomatoes, etc.  My aunt gave us some low-calorie salad dressing that Rob has been loving.

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I used some of the last zucchini I will be getting.  There is a tiny bit left, but the bushes look like they are dead or dying, and the fall rains have finally started, so they won’t get better:). I’m trying to use up the garden odds and ends while I still have them.  There are still cherry tomatoes and a couple of cucumbers out there, at least there were a couple of days ago.  I’ll bet they are cracked after all this rain we’ve had yesterday and today.  Their days are numbered, too:)

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I made baked pear slices with cinnamon sugar and raisins.  They were great!

I went out to breakfast with a couple of friends, and had an omelet.  It was good.  I ate half for breakfast, and the other half several hours later for a late lunch.

We ate many other things, of course, but those were the most exciting ones!

food preservation, Garden, Menu plans

What Did We Eat? August 10, 2018

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Last Friday, I did not find time to do my normal weekly shopping.  I was too busy with canning and taking care of kids.  I didn’t seem to be out of very many things, so just kept cooking with what I had, and had Patsy make a list on the whiteboard of things when I ran out of something.  I rolled the weekly grocery money over for another time, as I know not buying groceries is not sustainable, and I will need to re-stock sooner or later.

I ran out of some things I wasn’t expecting, such as baking powder and baking soda.  Thankfully, there was some in the camper, and I just continued cooking up a storm.

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I soaked and cooked a large amount of pinto beans.  Most of them, I froze for later.  I made a small batch of chili from the rest.

Patsy was in a cooking mood.  She made gluten-free calzones one day, and tamale pie casserole the next.  Both recipes were very good, and used items we had on hand.  She got the recipes from Pinterest, and enjoyed looking at all the choices before she chose those recipes.  She picked wild blackberries from my sister’s house and made a crisp with them.  She also froze a few more for later.

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I needed to cook a bunch of food for the college-age group at church.  They have a retreat this weekend.  The leader asked the ones of us who regularly cook for their Tuesday night dinner/Bible Study/worship time if we could each sign up for a meal, cook the food ahead, and then send it along so that all that had to be done on the retreat was warm food up or put the finishing touches on it.  It needed to be enough for 30 people.  I made 5   cake-sized breakfast casseroles with hash browns on the bottom, eggs plus 1/2 and 1/2 filling, with ham and cheese on top. To go with it, I made 3 loaves of zucchini bread and sent 5 cantaloupes for them to cut that morning.  Then, I made gluten-free zucchini muffins, gf brownies and 3 tiny gf spaghetti pies and sent small quantities for those who needed that option.  While I was at it, I made our family a spaghetti pie, some brownies, and some zucchini muffins.  It was a cooking marathon for sure! (I will be reimbursed for the food I bought for that project, except what I had on hand and donated.  I would have paid them to take the zucchini-ha, ha!  Seriously, I was glad to find a use for more of this bumper crop!)

My excellent helper, Jake, helped me shop for the college-age food.  He carefully checked the 2 dozen eggs I bought for the casseroles/baking.  He found a broken one, and then proceeded to march over and inform a near-by worker about this discovery, stressing how bad it was that they had a broken egg in their cooler, and so on.  The worker was very patient, and agreed that it was bad, and assured him it would be taken care of.  He had fun shopping with me, and later in the day, we discovered that he likes gf yellow zucchini muffins.  That was a pleasant surprise!  He ate them for 2 days straight.  I hope he likes them next week, too.  I’ll make more.  I’m not short on zucchini!!!   (I think I’ve picked at least 60 by now…)

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Garden produce played a large part in my menu plans this week.  These cherry tomatoes were picked at my sister’s house.  She has a LOT!  I am getting a few from my bushes, and plenty of regular tomatoes.  I picked and served corn a couple of times.  The earliest variety of corn I planted is almost finished. Boy, was it good, but I only had space for a small square area of each planting.  The green beans are still putting out a handful every few days, but are almost finished.  I ended up freezing a few quarts, and we ate beans a couple of times.  I picked the last of the lettuce that was ready and am waiting for the next succession planting to get big enough to eat.  I have 2 more small plantings growing, and a third that just came up to take me into the fall. IMG_7605

There were enough cucumbers to make a few quarts of dill pickles, to add to the 2 batches of sweet pickles I’ve made so far.  Today, there should be more that need to be picked and processed.  I keep picking the dill heads off as I make pickles, and so far, there have been enough.  The plants keep making more smaller flowers, and so sometimes I have to put 2 small heads in a jar, rather than one big one, and I also add in some leaves if I think the flowers weren’t enough.  It’s working so far, but I may need to plant more dill next year.  Most of these are volunteers anyway, but the plants are getting hit pretty hard.  I’ve made an awful lot of those zucchini dill chips…..:)

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The peach tree in our back yard has been providing us with plenty of peaches.  I made more jam and keep freezing more every few days.  We are eating sliced peaches frequently.

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We spent yesterday up at my sister’s farm.  The menu was taco bar, watermelon, and birthday cupcakes for our friend, Harnet’s, birthday.  Everyone brought something, and we had a lovely time eating, visiting, and taking turns helping at the u-pick peach stand, as they were open for business!

Yesterday morning I ran out to the store very early, as I was down to about 1 cup of milk.  I ended up spending $30 on whole wheat bread, milk, celery, baking powder, baking soda, grapes, garlic, and a few other things.  I was very pleased that I only needed that many groceries after 2 weeks!  That garden is really paying off:). We will do the same this week as we did last week–just make a list as we run out of things while focusing on eating garden produce. I would not be surprised if I went back to the store in a few days to re-stock a few items, but I’m not sure which day.  I’m just setting the extra money aside and will go to Costco one of these days for a few things I usually get there.  I like to get 5-dozen packages of eggs there, and am getting low.  My sugar supply has also taken quite a hit with all the jam I’ve made, and I’m going to get 25 lbs. either there or at Cash and Carry.

It’s a busy time of year, as I get all of this produce stored away for winter, but I wouldn’t trade it, as I enjoy it so much!  I will, however, not turn down a nap if I can ever carve out the time for one:). We’ll see what today brings.

Menu plans

What Did We Eat? May 17, 2018

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The beans were from the garden last summer.  The bread was part of a free loaf of French bread we won at Safeway’s Monopoly, which I sliced and froze after we won it.  The sauce was canned, purchased at Grocery Outlet for less than a dollar.  The meatballs were home-made and previously frozen for a quick dinner.  The noodles were gluten-free spaghetti, purchased for $1.47/box on sale in the past.

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I cooked a spaghetti squash today.  For lunch, I ate meatballs and sauce on spaghetti squash noodles.  For dinner, I chose the gf pasta.  There was enough of the meal for lunch for me, lunch and dinner for all of us, and lunch for Rob tomorrow.

I made split pea soup from the ham broth I boiled down last week.  Patsy ate tortillas by the fistful.  Thankfully, I got so many on sale a couple of weeks ago that the supply is still strong.

Rob barbecued both chicken drumsticks and hamburgers.  IMG_5111

We ate home-canned dill pickles, green and yellow beans, jam, peaches, applesauce,  salsa and home-frozen corn.

Snacks: I made apple juice popsicles.  Patsy made applesauce muffins.  Lovana made popcorn.

Breakfasts:  scrambled eggs, various odds and ends of sausages, leftovers, cereal, fruit, bagels (they were on a major bagel kick this week–they ate LOTS of them!)

Lunches:  Sandwiches, gf frozen fish sticks, salad, corn dogs, hot dogs, leftovers.  Rob takes leftovers every day in his lunch.  We cook extra in anticipation of this.  For instance, we cooked a whole pound of hamburger into patties, ate some for dinner, and he took the other one for his lunch the next day.  He cooked a family pack of drumsticks and we ate them for several days for dinners and then lunches.

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Plans for the week to come:  I need to do something with these reduced bananas.  I’m thinking banana muffins or banana bread.  The apples beneath them will become chunky applesauce with raisins and cinnamon.  They have been there for a few weeks and are not so crunchy any more.

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My sister had an abundance of tomatoes left over from last week’s brunch.  I have cilantro in the garden, which came up volunteer next to the compost heap.  I will get some jalapeños tomorrow and make Pico de Gallo.

I will continue to pull items from the freezer and cupboards to use for meals this week. If I get time tomorrow, I want to jot down a few ideas of things I or Rob can make in a hurry, as this next week is pretty busy.  It’s working pretty well to pre-make some things for Rob to warm up in the evenings, since I don’t get home from work very early.  The other thing I sometimes do is set items out on the counter with instructions.  He can cook extremely well, but is often tired and out of inspiration when he gets home from work.  So, if he can grab and microwave, or do some simple tasks and get dinner, it works well. For me, it takes longer to think up dinner than it does to cook it, at least a lot of the time!

I went to the store yesterday to get milk, and while there, shopped for the week, at least that was the plan.  I did not buy things for any specific recipes, but instead bought what was on sale or things on my list I ran out of this week, and I will meal plan around that.  One notable purchase was 3-2 lb bricks of Tillamook cheese for $5 each.  You had to buy 3.  Usually you have to beg to get 1 at that price, so I was delighted and got 2 cheddar and 1 Colby-jack.  Cheese lasts a long time, so I may go back and get more tomorrow, since I already have things on the list–(like half and half)–crazy!! I WAS JUST THERE!!!  The plan was to get in, get out and stay out until next weekend!!  So much for that plan.   I’d better be disciplined when I go back in that store!!!