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Friday, January 17, 2020

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for a Week of Snow Days

the road in front of my house

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were snow days for the schools in my district. And Thursday was a delayed start for the day. That meant that my daughters couldn't teach for 3 full days and only taught an afternoon session for Thursday. When it snows here, modern life comes to a screeching halt. The road in front of our house (a main street through the neighborhood) was un-drivable for our small sedan, so I just stayed in for the week.

In case it's not obvious, I didn't do any grocery shopping for the week. So, my January grocery spending still stands at $81.02, total. I don't need anything, but I will watch for special deals and markdowns.

I failed to take photos this week, again. I'm still working at getting back into the swing of things. But here's what we had for our dinners all week.


Friday (we de-decked the Christmas tree tonight, so it was a "fun" sort of dinner)
homemade mushroom and black olive pizza
cole slaw dressed with homemade dressing -- mayo, vinegar, salt, pinch sugar, onion powder
trail mix of nuts, pretzels, raisins, marshmallows
chocolates from Christmas

Saturday
turkey hash with leftover Thanksgiving turkey, potatoes, onions, and carrots, topped with homemade ketchup
orange wedges
last of the trail mix

Sunday
scrambled eggs and ham
pasta with tomato sauce --canned tomatoes mixed with leftover homemade pizza sauce
cole slaw
orange wedges

Monday
baked beans, flavored with ham fat, onions, tomato liquid from canned tomatoes, brown sugar, mustard powder, and chili powder
baked butternut squash
orange wedges
homemade bread and homemade soft butter
cookies (the 49 cent ones, clearance Christmas cookies)

Tuesday (daughter's night to cook)
scratch pizza that she made and froze a couple of weeks ago
veggies and dip
apple pie -- Dollar Tree canned pie filling that is truly awful but made palatable with 2 more green apples, lots of lemon juice, cloves, cinnamon, salt, sugar, all in a scratch pie crust. (I bought a few cans of the DT pie filling last year and we discovered we didn't care for it. The doctored-up version was pretty good. I now have 1 can remaining.)

Wednesday (other daughter's night to cook -- she was very short on time so she asked me for ideas for a quick dinner. She was pleased that she could make this so quickly.)
scrambled eggs
toast
cole slaw
leftover apple pie

Thursday
Mexican rice bowls with brown rice, refried beans, canned corn, cheese, salsa, and plain yogurt -- very tasty
orange wedges
peanut butter cookies -- I had the dough in the freezer


Another week of home-cooked meals. With the cold weather, I baked something almost every day this week. That kept the kitchen warm, at least. It's supposed to warm up slightly over the weekend. I'm a weather wimp -- I've had my taste of winter; now I want to move on to spring.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend!



10 comments:

  1. Lili,

    Your week's menu looked wonderful to me. It is exactly how I cook!

    We had roasted chicken and sweet potatoes, ham and cheese quiche, instant pot wagon wheel pasta with sauce, meatballs and a block of boursin cheese (this is very good and we've made it twice in two weeks). We had thai vegetable soup, tater tot casserole, pork chops and scalloped potatoes. Last week hubby was sick so I made a huge batch of turkey noodle soup made with broth I cooked from the turkey carcass my brother gave me. It was the best soup. No baked goods for us but we did have sugar free chocolate pudding for dessert a couple of nights.

    We're getting a winter storm tonight and through the weekend. I did an online Walmart order yesterday and nothing unusual with that order and very pleasant people. I like not having to go into the store and gather my own groceries! And I don't get distracted by all the unnecessary things!

    Alice

    ReplyDelete
  2. Of course, it's not good when there is snow and are slick roads for people who have to get out for their jobs like hospital workers, but I think it can be good for the rest of us because it can be a forced stay at home. I find that I have a more relaxed attitude and can get things done I might not have considered before when I have an unexpected snow day. They are predicting snow for Saturday. We'll see if I have to go to work or not.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Your snow picture is so pretty. I'm excited about our snowstorm tonight, although it's supposed to rain for awhile tomorrow before it turns back to snow. Since I'm not working this weekend, I'm going to do what L&L has suggested--stay at home and snuggle up (as well as do some shoveling).

    In reverse order .... tonight was mac and cheese with spinach salad, last night I made chicken tortilla soup with tortilla strips. Wednesday was crazy so we had hamburgers which were left over from youth group earlier in the week and had been gifted to us (yay!). Tuesday was roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, and spinach salad, and Monday I made Mexican skillet supper. I tried a new cookie recipe so we've been eating cinnamon pecan sandies (which were a hit).

    Enjoy your weekend! I bet your girls liked having a few unexpected days off.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Alice,
    I can see how great online shopping can be and why you'd prefer this. The parking spots are always available and the times I did try the parking lot pick-up, they were quick to come out to my car.
    I love sugar-free pudding! I like the instant kind, not cooked, so I can make a single bowl at a time for myself. I'll have to check the price on those boxes again sometime. I know I could probably cook some up from scratch, using stevia or other non-sugar sweeteners. Maybe I'll give that a try. Your meals sound delicious, Alice> I'd happily eat at your house!

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  5. Hi Live and Learn,
    You're right. It is probably better to just encourage necessary workers to come in for their shifts and keep the rest of us off of the roads, when weather conditions are bad. I would imagine that if someone had a job in a hospital or other emergency service, they'd have already thought their own transportation through, like have a car that could drive on wintry roads. In the days we were stuck at home, the only cars I saw drive past were SUVs and crossovers.
    Hope you enjoyed the pretty snowfall.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi Kris,
    oh yum! Your meals sound very tasty. And I love that you were gifted some of the leftover burgers from youth group.
    Did you get the snowfall predicted? Ours is now completely gone. What a difference one week makes! I hope yours has been beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  7. For all you snow lovers out there, yes, we did get a double whammy snow storm! On Friday night into Saturday morning which was between 4 and 6 inches of snow. Enough for the snow plows to come through. It started with easy to shovel but then the temps increased so it got to be heavy snow. Then Saturday afternoon it started to rain/freeze/sleet which then turned into a night of snow into Sunday morning with round two of at least another 4 to 6 inches of snow.

    Monday was cold and most major streets were getting cleaned up but less traveled ones were still full of snow. Today, Tuesday it's very cold and crunchy outside but I hear we are going to have sunshine and then a warmup later this week.

    Alice

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi Lili and Alice--Alice, we basically get the same weather but as you know, a few miles one way or the other along the lakeshore can make a big difference, although it sounds like we got similar snow amounts this time. I'm chaperoning the HS winter retreat this weekend so I'm hoping some of the snow stays, as it's more fun if the kids can get out and do outdoor activities.

    Lili, I love the look of the snow. Yesterday my hubby was off for MLK day so we spent the day together (a big treat at this point in our lives) and one of the things we did was to take a walk/hike at one of the parks. We had snow flurries and it was so pretty coming down!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi Alice,
    it sounds like you got a fair amount of snow. It's very pretty to look at, but hard to work in. I hope you were able to stay in over the weekend.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hi Kris,
    Your day with your hubby sounds wonderful. I'm so glad for you!

    ReplyDelete

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