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Thursday, September 1, 2022

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for the End of August Through the First Day of September

Friday

Friday
sausage, mushroom, basil pizza
garden green beans
garden salad
blackberry pie

Our standard homemade pizza for pizza and movie night. We watched My Fair Lady, checked out from the local library.

Saturday

Saturday
garden vegetable and bean soup
homemade tortillas
leftover blackberry pie

My husband made dinner this night. He makes pretty good tortillas, so does them often as a starchy side. The soup used some chicken stock from the freezer, garden vegetables and garlic, canned tomatoes, and a store-purchased onion. It looks like a small dinner, but the slices of pie were huge.

Sunday

Sunday
TVP and garden vegetable teriyaki
tempura celery, zucchini, and green beans
rice

My husband cooked again this night. He loves fried food and I very rarely make anything fried. So he went with tempura. It tasted pretty good and wasn't too greasy.

Monday

Monday
blackberry-cheesecake French toast with blackberry syrup and fresh berries

Have you noticed all of the blackberries in our meals in recent weeks? I made a batch of blackberry syrup this afternoon. I had been thinking about making some French toast for a while as an easy supper dish. I added some freshly picked blackberries and the homemade syrup. Very, very yummy. I could eat this a couple of times a week!

Tuesday

Tuesday
grilled chicken legs
rosemary potatoes
sautéed garden kale
fresh blackberries

One of my daughters made dinner this night. She marinated the chicken legs in a homemade teriyaki sauce, then grilled them. Very delicious! The potatoes are instant mashed with garlic and fresh rosemary mixed in. More kale and blackberries.

Wednesday

Wednesday
scratch refried beans with cheese and salsa
garden green beans
fresh figs
mac and corn

My other daughter cooked fro us on Wednesday. She's very busy these days, so I suggested something on the easy side. I had the cooked pinto beans and corn in the freezer, She had a small container of cooked pasta she wanted to use up. And I picked and rinsed the fig and green beans for her. She added some of our fresh cilantro to the beans and that made them especially tasty.

Thursday

Thursday
meatloaf and gravy
rice
more sautéed garden kale and onions
fresh blackberries

One of my go-to's for using ground beef -- meatloaf. I made the gravy with the drippings from the meatloaf, but it tasted flat. I added salt, pepper, thyme, and chopped canned tomatoes to add some zip to it.



I've been marveling at all of the beautiful colors in the vegetable garden. This is the basket with Thursday's lunch soup ingredients as I rinsed them. There's bright green sorrel on the bottom, orangey-yellow pumpkin and squash blossoms in the middle, and topped with lavender-colored chive blossoms. I made a cream of sorrel soup with these. 

We're making plans for a cook-out on Labor Day. For us, cook-outs mean doing hotdogs over a fire ring in the backyard. I'll make buns, a couple of salads using garden ingredients (one garlicky with tomatoes, cucumbers, and basil, the other sweet and tangy with kale, apples, celery, and pecans with a mayo, lemon juice and jam dressing), a potato dish and s'mores for dessert.

Do you have plans for this upcoming weekend? Any last-of-summer BBQs or cook-outs? Or will this be a low-key weekend?

Wishing you a lovely weekend, whatever is in your plans.

10 comments:

  1. We are going to our son's house to finish the sealing of his deck. Not sure if I mentioned it but his deck was painted black with a rubber substance. He tried power washing it since it was flaking but no luck. He cannot afford a new deck so me, husband and son, flipped all the boards over, added new balusters then put on new board to rest your arms or put a coffee cup. We also replaced a few rotted board on the walking surface. It cost a lot less than a new deck and now it's time for the second coat of sealant.

    Meals this week were a pot roast with potatoes, onions, carrots and green pepper. Asian pork ribs with mashed potatoes and corn, spaghetti made with homegrown tomatoes, green peppers and onions. Grilled pork steak with mashed potatoes and green beans, red thai curry soup. Some of these had enough leftover for meals the following day. Oh, before I forget we also had pie! Cream cheese and fresh peach pie that was so delicious. I also made chocolate chip cookies for hubby.

    Alice

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That was a clever solution, Alice, to turn over the deck boards. I'm sure it was a lot of work, but cost effective.

      Delete
    2. Alice, you are so helpful to your children. That sounds like a lot of work. What an odd choice for your son's original deck. I'm sure it will be much nicer now.

      Delete
    3. Hi Alice,
      I completely agree on the cleverness of the work you and your husband undertook for your son's deck. That would not have occurred to me as a possibility. My hat is off to you!
      I hope you had a lovely weekend.

      Delete
  2. Another week of delicious and well-balanced meals, Lili. BTW, do you have any tips for drying figs? Our little tree is finally producing more than a handful.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Live and Learn,
      to dry figs,. I use my dehydrator. I cut the figs into lengthwise quarters, set them on trays with the cit side up and dry until leathery. I keep our home-dried fruit in the freezer, just in case I didn't get all of the moisture out. I love dried figs. We don't have enough to dry this year, but have in a couple of past years.
      Enjoy yours!

      Delete
  3. Are your son and DIL joining you for the cookout, Lili? Sounds fun!

    My college roommate is coming to a neighboring town with her son for a visit, so we will spend tomorrow together. That's my excitement for the weekend. I'll be done with quarantining/mask wearing tomorrow, so the timing is excellent. My husband bought ribs to grill out at some point over the weekend. Mmmm.

    Speaking of grilling out, I took advantage of the cheap ground beef prices and bought several pound's worth. My husband grilled burgers last night. I've also made mac and cheese, used this recipe for chicken, https://www.thefrugalgirl.com/the-best-chicken-brinerade/, and I think I might make cheeseburger pie (Bisquick recipe) tonight to use up some tomatoes. Seems like I'm missing a meal in here somewhere but I assure you that no one went hungry.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Kris,
      Yes, my son and daughter-in-law came for our cookout. It had been since the 4th of July since we saw them last, so this was a catching up visit as well as cookout. We have been picking as many blackberries as I can process, but there were still so many left on the canes, so the two of them picked a couple of quarts of berries to take home before we had dinner. It was a great, but late night for us.
      I hope you and your college roommate had a blast together. It sounds like a fun occasion.

      Delete
  4. Your meals are always so nutritious and varied! I always look forward to seeing what you all had.
    Here we had burgers on the grill, shepherd's pie, brisket that our son share x2, crockpot steak x2, BLTs, plus lots of cukes, corn on the cob and tomatoes. Peach upside down cake and melon were dessert. Sure gonna miss the fresh fruit and veggies but the season is beginning to wind down. Then we will begin to use home canned or frozen. We buy our beef from a neighboring farmer which makes it much more affordable and very delicious.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Linda,
      Your meals sound delicious! I know what you mean about anticipating the coming end to this season's garden produce. All of that good freshness has to end at some point. On the upside, I always remind myself that once our garden is put to bed for the winter, I won't have to work in it for several months.

      Delete

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