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Monday, July 19, 2021

Peaceful, Frugal Weekends at Home Are My Favorite Kind

It's just what they say, there's really no place like home.

I had one of those very pleasant weekends just spent puttering around the house and garden. I didn't go anywhere at all, keeping our household spending down.

I've been trying to do one thing per day toward putting away or growing food for fall and winter. So, on Friday I made red currant jelly, on Saturday I cut and dried thyme, and on Sunday I planted seeds for fall turnips.

Friday is our family's pizza and movie night. I made our favorite scratch pizza topped with cheese and pepperoni, with watermelon and broccoli on the side and rhubarb crisp for dessert. We ate while watching a free movie with the Roku.

Saturday, we were all home for the day and evening. I took care of some housecleaning and garden work. Dinner was TVP meatballs and spaghetti along with green beans and the last of the rhubarb crisp. Bargain meal. In the evening, I put in another online grocery order to be delivered to our home, filling my order with items that I found at great prices.

On Sunday, I again spent the day puttering, cleaning, organizing, baking, and enjoying the nice weather. In the evening we had a hot dog cookout. I made scratch hot dog buns in the afternoon to go with the dogs. We had carrot sticks, blueberries and raspberries from the garden, and canned corn to go with the hot dogs and buns. The four of us sat around the fire ring for a while after eating and just talked about life. Another budget-wise family meal.

Just a peaceful and frugal weekend on the homestead. How was your weekend?

13 comments:

  1. A productive weekend at home with family and no urgencies sounds wonderful. Glad that you were able to enjoy one like that. I had to work on Saturday, but Sunday was much like you described and I truly appreciated it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Live and Learn,
      Thank you. I'm glad that you had Sunday off from work and could just spend the day at home.

      Delete
  2. Sounds like a calm yet productive weekend at home! Love those! Ours was less frugal and calm, but it was for a planned event. For some reason, my introvert self had put together a group campout and picnic potluck about 6 hours away from here for folks associated with my favorite longer trail, the Ouachita National Recreation Trail. A big part of that was having a retired ranger who was instrumental in building some of said trail and is getting quite up there in years who had agreed to come talk and hang out with us. It was an honor to meet with him and we enjoyed the outdoor get-together with like-minded folks who also love and hike this trail. But I'm tired and glad to be home.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What a wonderful experience, Cat! I bet it was interesting to spend time with the gentleman who had so much to do with building that trail. He sounds like a very engaging ranger.

      Delete
  3. We had a crazy busy weekend. Ohio kids came for the weekend with their dogs, a friend of my other daughter was in town too. So we had a nice dinner then a drive out to Lake Michigan to watch the sunset. It was a full and busy weekend. Pray for my daughter and her husband because her miscarriage may be an ectopic or something else because her blood levels are rising instead of decreasing. More doctor appointments this week to find out what is going on. Stressful for them right now.

    Alice

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Alice,
      I'll say a prayer for your daughter. I can imagine your worry over this.
      The sunset over Lake Michigan sounds picturesque. I'm glad you had that time with family and friends.

      Delete
  4. Would you mind sharing how you make tvp meatballs? I have a vegetarian/vegan daughter that would probably enjoy those. She’s mostly vegan but will eat my eggs because my chickens are raised humanely and are happy lol. She also eats honey which some won’t.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Diane,
      No problem. I don't have an actual recipe, but will share how I make them. I hydrate dry TVP in water, drain off any excess, then add garlic powder, dry herbs, a beaten egg, and some all-purpose flour until the mixture will hold together. It's a little messy and it doesn't hold together like beef would. But I find I can form them into balls long enough to get them into a frying pan heated with some oil. I pan-fry them until the exterior is cooked and lightly browned. The combination of the egg and flour is what holds the TVP together. I hope this helps!
      I like hearing about happy chickens!

      Delete
    2. Thanks! I will pass this info onto her. She likes using TVP because it’s cheap, but has had mixed results with it. For stuff like meatloaf and meatballs she been using the fake ground beef but that stuff is $$$$$. She’s got beef no beef bouillon so my guess is she will use that as her liquid for the TVP.

      Delete
  5. I think I need my brain checked--I can't remember what I did. We went to church and then a meeting after church on Sunday. I had my power nap in the afternoon and watched my PBS guilty pleasure show Sunday evening. The rest of the weekend is a blur. Ha.

    I like a variety of weekend styles--sometimes I want to go out and be social and sometimes I'm completely happy to burrow into my nest.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Kris,
      What's your current favorite PBS show? I'm all for that kind of guilty pleasure. A brief nap on a Sunday afternoon sounds like a wonderful way to recharge.

      Delete
    2. I'm watching Unforgotten which is sort of a murder mystery program, so maybe not everyone's cup of tea. I like it because the focus is more on the investigators and the suspects to see how these kind of things affect people's lives, rather than on the whodunit part of it.

      Delete
    3. Oh, we really enjoyed Unforgotten! We're now on the Valhalla Murders if you like that type of show.

      Delete

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