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| garden veggie medley from Wednesday -- my favorite way to prepare veggies |
Friday
scrambled eggs topped with cheddar and salsa
oven-fried corn tortilla chips with salsa
garden salad w/ homemade dressing
blackberry pie
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| Friday's humble meal of scrambled eggs and chips |
Saturday
rice & lentils
sauteed garden greens
fresh blackberries
Sunday
vegetable, bean, and noodle soup, w/ homemade chicken stock
biscuits
fresh blackberries
Monday
brown rice
lentil and veggie curry
chocolate chip cookies
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| Tuesday -- the wedge in the left corner is a spaghetti pancake |
Tuesday
baked spaghetti pancake w/ beet greens, garlic, cooked noodles, egg, milk, and salt
(garden) acorn squash
(garden) chilled beets and tomatoes w/ ranch-style dressing
blackberry cobbler
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| Wednesday -- I pull chicken meat off bones before serving so that I can use the bones for soup stock |
Wednesday
baked chicken legs/thighs
brown rice
(mostly from garden) green bean, yellow crookneck squash, onion, garlic, basil, and canned tomato medley
stewed plums (last year's harvest)
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| remnants from Thursday's Mexican feast -- so good! |
Thursday -- a Mexican feast (complete with appropriate musical accompaniment courtesy of youtube)
chicken (leftover from previous night), homemade refried beans, homemade salsa, garden lettuce and tomatoes, and homemade salted, plain yogurt -- all piled high in a layered dip
corn tortilla chips for dipping
My favorite meal this week was Thursday's. This was my daughter's night to cook and she saw a photo online of something that looked good to her. She did her best to replicate it with what we had on hand. It was so tasty! When I look at what went into it, I can see that this was a very frugal meal, as well. Refried beans made from dried beans and bulk-purchased spices, chicken that was picked off of the bones after making stock from the previous night's chicken dinner, yogurt and salsa made at home, and vegetables from our garden.
The music was a last-minute grab off of the internet and created a festive atmosphere for the meal.
Some of our meals are extremely simple, like Saturday's rice and lentils or Friday's scrambled eggs. I don't think that family meals need to be "gourmet" or extravaganzas in order to be delicious. If I could afford to have a private chef who would cook gourmet meals for me, I might enjoy that part of the time. However, simple meals are also more than just satisfactory. They taste great, easy to make, and save us a bundle.
Low-budget meals could be quite dull. Keeping a vegetable garden is key for adding life to meals of rice and beans, simply cooked eggs, or chicken and rice. Almost all of the color in these photos comes from our garden produce. That color equates to variety in flavor, texture, and nutrients.
How was your week of meals? What were your favorites this week? I hope everyone has a lovely holiday weekend!
I have been trying diligently to use up what I have in the refrigerator and freezer so there is as little waste as possible. We were lucky in that my husband was in charge of his high school reunion (which was a pot luck). Because he was also the cleaner upper, he brought home the food items that were left. We enjoyed some fried chicken, watermelon, and salsa. I wanted to try using the leftover whey from some yogurt I made so I put it in a hot macaroni and tuna dish and it was really good. I had some leftover (about two cups) so I added that to some leftover spaghetti noodles and a little sauce, added some beef broth, zucchini and parmesan cheese and had a respectable soup. We're having the rest of that for dinner tonight. I also had some soft tofu in the freezer that had thawed so I melted chocolate chips and made a chocolate mousse. I made another batch of granola this week because my son eats it every morning and I love it too. We are hosting a BBQ tomorrow night for a daughter that is here from out of town so we're cooking up a turkey that I've needed to use from the freezer. I'll make salsa with tomatoes that need used up and other family members will fill in the gaps.
ReplyDeleteI just bought some peaches at Sprouts for 33 cents a pound and I thought I'd try making peach chutney. Have you tried that before?
Menus sound good as usual, Lili! I borrowed the scrambled egg part for one of my suppers this week - I just added toast. Replenished my lentils yesterday so will make a curry this week. Thanks for the ideas! Hope you have a nice weekend!
ReplyDeleteRuthie said...
ReplyDeleteI have been trying diligently to use up what I have in the refrigerator and freezer so there is as little waste as possible. We were lucky in that my husband was in charge of his high school reunion (which was a pot luck). Because he was also the cleaner upper, he brought home the food items that were left. We enjoyed some fried chicken, watermelon, and salsa. I wanted to try using the leftover whey from some yogurt I made so I put it in a hot macaroni and tuna dish and it was really good. I had some leftover (about two cups) so I added that to some leftover spaghetti noodles and a little sauce, added some beef broth, zucchini and parmesan cheese and had a respectable soup. We're having the rest of that for dinner tonight. I also had some soft tofu in the freezer that had thawed so I melted chocolate chips and made a chocolate mousse. I made another batch of granola this week because my son eats it every morning and I love it too. We are hosting a BBQ tomorrow night for a daughter that is here from out of town so we're cooking up a turkey that I've needed to use from the freezer. I'll make salsa with tomatoes that need used up and other family members will fill in the gaps.
I just bought some peaches at Sprouts for 33 cents a pound and I thought I'd try making peach chutney. Have you tried that before?
Hi Ruthie,
Good work on using all of those leftovers!!! So awesome!
I bought some of the peaches at our Sprouts, too. That was such a great price. No I've never made peach chutney, but it sounds yummy! I discovered our wild plum tree has a few plums on it. I used to make plum chutney from those plums. I'm thinking I'll use them in a batch of chutney this week or next. Good luck with your peach chutney! Sounds yummy!
Thank you, Shirley!
ReplyDeleteEnjoy that lentil curry. It sounds tasty!
I hope you had a lovely weekend.