Oldie but Goodie Easter Game That Even Grown-Ups Like

Here's a family favorite Easter game that is easy to set up last minute and makes a good ice breaker in larger groups, Guess How Many Jelly Beans.

All that is needed is a bag of jelly beans and a glass jar. Count the jelly beans and fill the jar. Then guests get to guess how many jelly beans are in the jar. You can have all guesses be known to others in the group or you can have guesses be done by secret slip of paper. My family does the secret guesses version.

 Just throwing this out there in case you're looking for something fun at your Easter gathering.

My Birthday Work Party in Pictures

For my birthday, the one thing I really want from my family is help on an outdoor project. Last year, we spruced up our front porch. This year, I asked my husband and daughters to help me transform a space where you might come and look at plants or the pond in the background into a space where you might linger.

At the back of our lawn was this small patio inside a semi-circular garden. On a stack of blocks and pavers sat a large urn, which I filled with flowering plants each spring. The patio was too small to place more than a couple of small chairs. And the neighboring plant life was overgrown and weedy.

In one day, we would make significant progress. As I remembered, I took photos of our work as it went.

the urn removed and the pavers scraped of moss in the early AM

after returning from Home Depot,
additional pavers and plants unloaded from the car

a side view off the little patio, everything's overgrown and weedy

a peek-a-boo view of the pond behind this garden spot

a lot of work and the pavers added to enlarge the patio
(we need to fix the brick mow strip still)
two hydrangeas planted
one daughter sweeping, the other watering

the patio is now large enough for a new settee and 2 new chairs

we brought out the new table, too

a closer view -- it's beginning to look nice

with a pop of color from 2 lime green cushions 
(I sewed the cushions from a thrifted shower curtain 2 years ago)

We filled 2 hanging baskets with begonias
 and Creeping Jenny that volunteered in the soil last summer.
The baskets are hung from 2 canopy trees in the garden,
one on each side of the settee.

the done-for-now conversation spot

We'll continue cleaning up the vegetation in this garden. Today we pruned the azaleas, pulled weeds, cut down pop-up trees, and transplanted some daisies. There's a pretty little Daphne off to the left behind one chair from which I'll try to root a branch. I'll split the plant and move part to the opposite side of the garden. We also plan on moving some sword ferns to this area and adding bark or wood chips as a ground cover in spots to tame it visually.

The patio furniture was my physical birthday gift. I ordered it from Home Depot, delivered a week ago. It's been in the garage waiting for this spruced up space.

I'm envisioning us enjoying afternoons on hot summer days out here. This would be the perfect spot to curl up with a good novel or have a peaceful lunch.

Easter's Pink Tablecloth and Napkins

I could hear my mother's, my grandmother's, and my great-grandmother's voices in my mind as I dropped the linen napkins and tablecloth into the pink dye bath. "Thank you," they said. "Thank you for using our things and not letting them sit idle in a closet. And thank you for being brave enough to try and change them and make them your own."

Changing something like old linens is not without risk. Colors could streak. Stains could look more pronounced. The dye might take unevenly. It does take some courage to experiment, especially with a much loved item entrusted to me by a previous generation of family. I reminded myself that these family linens would not become any prettier in the dark of a closet. I might never use them in their original white rendition. So it was worth a gamble, I thought. (The post where I talked about plans to dye a white tablecloth and stack of napkins can be found here.)

I will say that I did everything I knew to do to ensure a good outcome. I used liquid dye instead of powder. I added the salt and detergent recommended on the label of the dye bottle. And I allowed the linens to agitate in the dye for the full amount of time. I also rinsed, and rinsed, and rinsed the linens. Initially, the pink was more intense than I'd hoped. Rinsing in hot water repeatedly brought the hue down to something closer to what I envisioned.

I'm very pleased with the results. The color took well, uniformly. I would try this again with other linens, should I have a vision in my mind for making an old thing "new." One of the bonuses -- there were a few faint stains on the original tablecloth. Dyeing it seemed to make those stains less noticeable. Of course, YMMV, should you try to dye handed-down linens.

March's skill-refresh serving me well in April: cook and prep once to use in multiple meals throughout the week

April is nearly half over already. It seems like just the other day I was finishing up my month of cooking every night. If you remember, one of my gifts for my two daughters' birthday was to take over their cooking nights for the month of March. While I did this as a gift to them,. it was hugely beneficial for me, as well.

I really worked on my efficiency during March. I doubled up meals and meal components wherever I could. I planned ahead a week at a time. And I made good use of any leftovers that I hadn't planned on.

So, you may be wondering if I'm carrying any of what I worked on forward into April. Well, yes, I am! Last week I was cooking just for us three ladies at home. (My husband got back yesterday. He had a wonderful time with family.) I worked at not making extra work for myself for the whole week. One of the benefits of cooking for 3 women is we don't eat all that much. What I would ordinarily cook for the family of 4 seemed to last for 2 meals for 3 of us, with very little extra work. I only had full cooking last week on two evenings. My daughters each took a night. And last night we did a super simple hot dog cookout.

Now this week, I'm back to cooking for 4 every night. And throughout the week, I'm adding in bits of cooking for Easter dinner for 7. So I've been utilizing the skills I refreshed in March. 

This morning I baked the carrot cake cupcakes for Easter dinner. I frozen the unfrosted cupcakes in a doubled zip lock bag and will thaw and frost them on Saturday. While I was grating carrots in the food processor anyway for the cupcakes, I grated a few extras. Some of the extra grated carrot became a carrot-raisin salad for one at lunch today. More of the grated carrot went into tonight's tossed salad of lettuce, celery, and avocado. And the rest of the grated carrot is waiting for tomorrow's dinner, to be made into a carrot-raisin salad for the family. One chore of grating carrots will serve multiple purposes.

When I was searching the freezer for meat to cook for dinner tonight, I particularly was looking for a larger cut of beef, so there would be leftovers for a couple of nights. I pot-roasted a large chuck roast. I also baked the last of the russet potatoes (going wrinkly and need using anyway), and roasted two large parsnips. I also baked a rhubarb pie to serve as tonight's dessert as well as tomorrow's. But I unintentionally cut too much rhubarb. So I turned the rest of the rhubarb into rhubarb sauce (like applesauce in texture) to be added to Thursday's dinner. (Wednesday's dinner will be quasi-special -- my birthday. My husband's birthday is next week, so we'll do a big shared celebration later in the month. Anyway, no cooking on my part on Wednesday.)

For tomorrow's dinner, we now have leftover cooked beef, gravy, baked potatoes, and parsnips to go with that above-mentioned carrot-raisin salad. Dinner should be a breeze to throw together tomorrow. That will give me extra time in the day to work in the garden and to clean the dining room and powder room. I'll have some beef and gravy leftover after tomorrow's dinner. The rest will go into the freezer as the start of a beefy soup for lunch on Saturday. 

Working efficiently takes mental energy. I don't particularly enjoy meal-planning or work planning. But in the long run, it saves time and physical energy while producing meals for my family.

Our Easter Dinner Menu

the tulips that we planted last October -- they're looking pretty

Easter Menu

baked ham (in the freezer, bought on sale at Christmas)

roasted potatoes with rosemary and garlic (will have to buy the potatoes)

oven-roasted asparagus (will have to buy asparagus)

green salad, probably a kale, apple, and dried cranberry salad (all ingredients on hand)

pumpkin souffle (all ingredients on hand)

scratch dinner rolls, using refrigerator roll dough (all ingredients on hand)

carrot cupcakes, cream cheese icing (all ingredients on hand, cream cheese in freezer)

What I plan to do or make ahead:

• set the table sometime during the week
• make cupcakes and freeze this weekend or sometime during the week
• make cream cheese frosting on Saturday and frost thawed cupcakes
• make refrigerator roll dough on Friday
• assemble the pumpkin souffle on Saturday and refrigerate overnight
• pick and wash the kale on Saturday
• will need to go to the grocery store for the potatoes and the asparagus, probably on Friday

What I will do or make on Easter Sunday:

• bake the ham
• roll out rolls and bake
• roast the potatoes
• bake the pumpkin souffle
• roast the asparagus
• assemble the kale salad

We have almost everything we need for Easter dinner. Grocery shopping will be super duper easy. Yay! I've spread the work over several days. For me, that's easier and less tiring than doing everything on the holiday. I will have enough to do on Easter day in addition to cooking. We'll be 7 for Easter dinner this year.

Are you hosting Easter festivities this year? Or are you joining someone else's meal? How are you making this holiday easier for yourself? Can you suggest any ways I can make my own Easter dinner easier on me?

Why I no longer strive for 100%

Remember your school days? On assignments, tests, and quizzes we strove for 100%, but would also be very happy with a 90 or even 80? Remember how we decided we had done well if we made a high mark?

Real life just isn't like that, at least it doesn't need to be. Early in my frugal marriage I worked to do everything 100%. I hung all of our laundry to dry. I cooked with all of the most inexpensive ingredients.  I always, always batched my errands. I really didn't leave any room for less than 100%. This is an exhausting an unsustainable way to live, unless you have a houseful of helping hands.

Now that I'm trying to eat better, the least expensive foods are often not the best ones for my health. A meal of potatoes, macaroni, and bread might be cheap, but would wreak havoc on my energy levels and weight. Likewise, eating only bananas, cabbage, carrots, and onions (the cheapest veggies year round for me) would leave me nutrient-deficient. Seed oils and margarine may be cheap fats, but I'm trying increase less processed fats, like butter. But butter comes with a hefty price tag.

As I was mixing the batter for a batch of scratch brownies the other day, I considered using all butter. not only would the brownies taste delicious and buttery, but I wouldn't be using any seed oils. However, as I said, butter is expensive.  My recipe calls for 1/2 cup of butter, vegetable oil, or margarine. 1/2 cup of butter is one stick or 1/4 pound. At close to $5/pound for butter at our local Walmart, using all butter would add over $1 to the batch. Meanwhile, the same quantity of vegetable oil would add just 25 cents to the batch. Hmm, use vegetable oil (a seed oil) and save money or use butter and choose a better fat for my health. But the choice doesn't have to be either or. I can do good for my health and my wallet and use half butter/half oil. A lot of cooking choices can be made in that same way. That same batch of brownies called for vanilla extract. I have both real vanilla extract and artificial vanilla flavoring on hand. Real vanilla extract is sooooo expensive, even the homemade variety. But I'm trying to avoid unnecessary chemicals in my foods. So as I added ingredients to the batter, I thought about which way to go on the vanilla. The recipe called for 1 teaspoon. Save money or eat better? But I decided to compromise. I used half imitation vanilla and half real vanilla.

In both cases with the brownie ingredients, the choices I made  saved me half on the expensive components. That's a 50%-er. back in our school days, a 50% on anything was a score one would be afraid to bring home to our parents. But in real life, saving 50% on some of our costs is substantial and in the long run, can add up to significant savings without compromising excessively on quality.

We try to eat organic produce, when the price is almost the same as non-organic. But for the most part eating organic is very expensive. Years back, one of my sisters-in-law confessed that she spent about $1000 a month on food alone for a family of two young children, herself and her husband. When I began to probe how her grocery bill could be so high, she told me they ate only organics. I've never been able to afford to spend that much on food. The idea of the "dirty dozen" fruits and vegetable list is akin to my 50% philosophy. If one choose organic for the 12 worst offenders and eat traditionally-grown produce for the rest, you'll be doing yourself a lot of good without spending too much on foods. My approach to the "dirty dozen" list to to grow as much of the produce on the list in my own organic garden, and not worry about whether or not something purchased is organic.

I've talked about hanging some of our laundry to dry. I don't hang everything. For one, I don't have the hanging space to hang it all. But also, hanging laundry is time and personal energy consuming. But I do hang about 50% of my clothing part of laundry. I choose the pieces that most benefit from hanging to dry. Cotton pjs, socks, and undies -- maybe a no on hanging to dry. Shirts and dress jeans -- definitely yes on hanging. So I spare some of my clothing the high heat of a dryer, but get the ease of using the dryer some of the time. Again, I'm saving about 50% on my heat drying.

While I will start most of our garden veggies from seeds this year, I won't start all of them from seeds. Over the years, I've found that some plants just do better with a nursery-started plant as opposed to my seed starting under lights. I'll be buying squash and pumpkin plants at Fred Meyer or Home Depot in another few weeks. Our short growing season means I can't just pop these sorts of seeds into the dirt and expect any fruit. And my home-started seedlings lack the hardiness to grow well and fast in our garden. If I want to harvest squash and pumpkin, I really do need to buy started plants. I certainly won't be spending next to nothing on starting my vegetable garden, buying some in plants. But I will be saving substantially on all of the other plants that I can start from seeds at home. I start most of my tomato plants from seeds under lights. But also, I buy 1 single well-developed tomato plant to give us some fresh tomatoes about a month sooner than my home-started plants. It's the best of both worlds for my garden. I start many plants from seeds, but also buy some nursery started plants where it makes a difference.

I guess what I'm saying is that in order to do the most good for my life, save the most money, and give myself a break from time to time, I routinely make compromises. Half this, half that seems to work really well for me.

Growing a Salad Garden in Storage Containers

I finished planting our container salad garden this week. Like last year, I've got 6 of these plastic storage bins filled with salad greens on a stand on our deck. The stand is just outside the kitchen door. Even on wet spring days, I can still pop outside to grab some salad greens for dinner without getting soaked. I'm guessing we're about 3 weeks away from first harvest.

I've been pleased with how well these storage containers have held up outdoors in our winters here. They are just ordinary storage containers that one might normally use for out of season clothing or sewing/needlecraft supplies. I have them tucked under the eaves of the house, but they still froze on our coldest nights. Yet, none have cracked, so far.

I didn't bother changing the soil this spring, but instead I added a handful of vegetable fertilizer to each container before adding the seedlings. Keeping my fingers crossed that they'll do just fine this way.

This afternoon I started a second batch of lettuce from seeds under lights indoors. These will be replacement plants at the end of May, when the current plants are about done or have all been harvested.

You may wonder, why don't I just grow salad greens in the ground with my other vegetables? We have quite a slug problem in our area. A single slug could decimate a young lettuce patch in a week, here. I only plant the most hardy of our vegetables in the actual garden.

So, growing the salad greens on the deck in containers (on shelves, no less) keeps the greens safe from the slugs, as well as provides us with greens a little earlier than if they'd grown in the garden.

A detour I didn't want to take

Hi friends,

I've been under the weather since last Wednesday. I woke up sick Wednesday morning with a bad cold. I was just starting to feel better when I caught another virus (different symptoms). So here I am today, tired, but on the mend. There are some nasty viruses going 'round that aren't covid or the flu. Unfortunately, we don't get to choose when we get sick.

I'm slowly catching up on all work. On the positive side, my week is mostly free for doing this catching up. My husband is visiting family out of town for a week. This will mean fewer distractions for me as I work.

While I'm really happy for my husband to be able to spend time with family, there's always a little part of me that feels left behind. My husband's family is spread out across the country. About once a year, he goes to visit a couple or three.

So, to help myself feel not so left behind, I try to do some special things for myself and for my daughters. Today, right after my husband was dropped off at the airport, I headed to the grocery store. In addition to restocking a couple of items in the pantry, I also bought a few special foods for the three of us, including some frozen blueberries, frozen whole green beans (the thin kind), bacon, some good coffee, and fresh strawberries.

You've seen my grocery shopping lists. I just don't buy fresh strawberries out of season or not for a celebration. So these will be a treat with breakfast in the morning. In the store, I perused the bakery section closely. There were some yummy-looking treats. However, I have these dietary issues. Then I thought I should buy some frozen blueberries and make some scratch blueberry muffins for my daughters and me, using my preferred ingredients. Add in the bacon and our breakfasts are looking scrumptious for the next few days.

I used the green beans in tonight's dinner. I made salisbury steaks and mushroom gravy to go with garlic green beans and steamed rice. The package of ground beef was too big for us three for one dinner, so I made enough salisbury steaks and gravy for tomorrow night's meal as well.

The kitchen now cleaned up for the evening, and I'm exhausted. I'll be back tomorrow, hopefully with more energy. Have a lovely rest of your evening.

My Simple Easter Wreath

I spent some time today getting our house prepared for Easter. We'll have guests before, on and after Easter Sunday this year. So I want our house to look like we're celebrating Easter and not just a "happy spring" look.

Here's the wreath I quickly put together today. I used an Amazon gift card from my birthday last year to order a faux square boxwood wreath and a large weathered white cross. Those elements arrived this afternoon.

I used florist wire to attach the cross to the wreath and also to make a hanging hook on the back side. It was quick and easy, the way I like decorating to be these days. And I love how it turned out. I hung this wreath above the fireplace in the family room.

I also wanted to show you my spring bulb flower planter. I put this together a couple of years ago, scavenging all of the plants from other spots in the yard and potting them in an old, cracked, and moss-covered azalea pot, with a free-pile bird figurine. I love how the moss just grows on pots here. The flowers in the pot are grape hyacinth, a pale yellow primrose, a violet primrose, and a lone daffodil. All of the flowers are just now looking wonderful. A completely free spring flower bowl.

Do you decorate for Easter? Any favorite Easter decorations?

March 2025 Grocery Shopping

It's the last day of March and I don't think I'll be going out grocery shopping this evening. So, I'll tally up our grocery spending for the month and close this chapter.

March 2  My husband and I went out to lunch after church. We split a 3-entree/1-side Panda Express meal. We chose Broccoli Beef, Kung Pao Chicken, Orange Chicken, and Chow Mein for our side. They gave us 2 fortune cookies when they saw we were sharing a single meal. It was more food than we could finish. My husband took the leftovers in for his lunch the next day. We decided if we do Panda Express for a lunch together again, we'll split a 2-entree meal. Spent $13.04 While technically not "groceries," the meal did feed us, and we would have eaten something at home. And I took the lunch out of the grocery cash envelope.

March 5  Walmart for 1 package turkey snack sticks, canister onion powder, applesauce, bunch bananas, barbecue sauce. Spent $12.15 at Walmart. Then I went across the street to Grocery Outlet to pick up beet root powder. I add beet powder to my daily smoothies. Spent $9.99 at Grocery Outlet.

March 7  Town & Country for 2 bottles of sparkling water  to take to my brother's on the 9th. I was at Town & Country picking up a couple of birthday gifts for my two daughters -- items they'd both noticed when we were here together in February. The sparkling water is good for the price. Spent $4.00 on the water.

March 8  Fred Meyer for cucumber, grape tomatoes, package of chicken breasts to make an Italian chicken salad to take to my brother's on the 9th. The Italian chicken salad I brought contained cubed cooked chicken breasts, halved grape tomatoes, chunks of cucumber, shavings of Parmesan cheese, in a homemade herb and garlic vinaigrette. It was pretty tasty. We had leftovers later that night that I stretched with some steamed broccoli and more cheese. While at Fred Meyer, I was also buying pantyhose and hair accessories, gifts for my daughters for their birthday. Spent $10.63 on food.

March 12  WinCo for 2 canisters cocoa powder, frozen peas, frozen spinach, frozen broccoli cuts, gallon milk, block cheddar, block mozzarella, about 1 pound pepperoni, vanilla flavoring, 2 cans tuna, bulk peanut butter, bag of dried dates, bulk chili powder, bulk instant dry milk, 5 lbs carrots, celery, 1 head cabbage, 2 avocados, 1 red and 1 green pepper, 3 lbs apples, 2 lbs tangerines, bunch bananas, about 1 lb Roma tomatoes. Spent $73.00

March 22. We went to Starbucks to celebrate our 38th wedding anniversary. We used gift cards that had been gifts to us, so no cost for the celebration.

March 24  Walmart for 36-oz bag chocolate chips, frozen mixed vegetables, frozen broccoli cuts, frozen peas, gallon milk, uncured beef franks, 3 packages turkey snack sticks, small block cheddar, 3-lb bag tangerines, 5-lb bag carrots, celery, 4 Roma tomatoes, couple bunches bananas, natural peanut butter. Spent $53.86

March 27 WinCo for a whole chicken, 6 avocados, 3 large tomatoes, bulk raisins, bulk flax seed meal, bulk flaked coconut, bulk table salt, bulk peanut butter, block of cheddar, block of mozzarella, 4 cans tuna, 2 canisters cocoa powder, 1 jar regular coffee, 1 jar decaf coffee, 5 jars applesauce, 1 package dried dates, 1 bag pork sausage links, 1 bag turkey sausage links. I spent $92.58

At WinCo, a new brand of chicken caught my eye, Just Bare. No antibiotics, no hormones, no steroids, and they're raised on family farms. The price worked out to just over $2.00 per pound for a whole chicken, with no neck or giblets. I usually toss the neck and giblets, so that makes the price per pound more competitive with the Foster Farms that I often buy ($1.48/lb). Foster Farms has gotten really sloppy in recent years. I sometimes find a couple of livers in the cavity, adding weight to the chicken, parts that my family won't eat. Anyway, the whole chicken was clean just out of the package.

I rubbed my whole chicken with salt, pepper, sage, thyme, paprika, onion powder, and garlic powder. The chicken was delicious, and the seasonings added flavor to the meat and to the drippings, which I used for gravy.

I didn't include what we bought for my daughters' birthday celebration picnic or pie in the grocery spending, as those come out of a different budget. But, if you're interested, we spent about $60 total for those foods and slices of pie in the pie shop. (We had tap water to drink with the pie.)

My daughter bought me some candy this morning, she said because I did a last-minute favor for her. I told her it was unnecessary to buy me anything. But it was very sweet of her. Some candy -- no cost to me.

Total spent for the month of March -- $269.25

What I bought:

1 restaurant lunch out for two

4 packages turkey snack sticks

chicken breasts

whole chicken

sliced pepperoni

uncured beef hot dogs

1 bag pork sausage links

1 bag turkey sausage links

6 cans tuna

2 gallons milk

3 blocks cheddar

2 blocks mozzarella

bulk powdered milk

vanilla flavoring (artificial vanilla)

3 containers natural peanut butter

bulk chili powder

bulk iodized salt

2 bottles sparkling water

36-oz bag chocolate chips

flax seed meal

coconut flakes

4 canisters cocoa powder

1 jar coffee

1 jar decaf

2 bags frozen peas

1 bag frozen spinach

2 bags frozen broccoli cuts

1 bag frozen mixed vegetables

beetroot powder

bulk raisins (about 2 pounds)

2 bags dried dates

onion powder

6 jars applesauce

10 lbs carrots

1 head cabbage

2 bundles celery

8 avocados

1 red pepper

1 green pepper

3 lbs apples

5 lbs tangerines

3 bunches bananas

a couple pounds tomatoes

1 cucumber

grape tomatoes

You may have been wondering, "why all the cocoa powder? Why all the peanut butter?" The smoothies I make with beet powder -- the cocoa powder and peanut butter cover up the flavor of the beet powder. But beet powder is a good food for me. And I like to get a little beet powder in every day.

I don't know if you can relate . . .

I went grocery shopping this morning. It's the end of the month, I'm about out of cash for groceries until the first. This morning's shopping was at WinCo, where they only accept cash, debit, and checks. I don't carry a checkbook with me, and I don't have a debit card. So I have to bring cash to shop there. I brought all of the cash I had in the envelope at home. 

I also needed to stop and get gas with some of that money. I could charge gas, but I would be paying a higher price per gallon if using credit. So I bought $20 in gas on the way to WinCo.

I had counted how much cash I had on hand before leaving home. But I wasn't making a strong enough mental note on the amount, just that I had enough to buy a week's worth of groceries for us and get $20 in gas.

Once in the store, and seeing some of the prices on foods, I was motivated to add up the cost of what was in my cart and count the cash in my purse several times. I knew it would be a squeaker. I even used my calculator and the in-store scales to calculate how much my bulk items would cost. I swapped out some cheaper brands here and there. But I also bought a couple of more expensive versions of items on my list, because I felt the quality would be better. With those particular items, quality was a value for us. I didn't get the breakfast sausage that my husband requested, and I didn't stock-up on the applesauce that was on sale. I knew the final total would be tight, based on the amount of money I thought I had in my purse.

As I placed foods onto the conveyer belt at the checkout, I purposely left a few items to the very end. These were the things I felt we could most live without. My plan was as the cashier rang items up, and I could see the subtotal along the way, I would cut-off the purchases when I thought we'd exceeded the amount of cash I had with me.

I felt a sigh of relief when I could see that the total was below the amount of cash in my purse. As I pulled out the bills to count out to the cashier, I realized that there was a $20 bill stuck to another $20. I actually had $20 more than I had thought!

I paid for my groceries and met up with my husband in the car. At that point, I related to him everything that had transpired with the cash in my purse and the cost of the groceries, and that I had skipped his breakfast sausage. I asked if he would still like that sausage. At first he said not to bother. But then I told him I would use that $20 to take advantage of the sale on applesauce and canned tuna, and go back into the store anyway. Of course, at that point he was thrilled to get his sausage and said "yes."

So, I unloaded my paid-for groceries and pushed the cart back into the store. I was able to buy 2 more cans of tuna, 4 more jars of applesauce, my husband's preferred pork breakfast sausage, and as a bonus, a bag of my preferred turkey breakfast sausage.

Even though I had that extra $20 in my purse the whole time, it felt like I'd been blessed with $20 extra worth of foods for my family for the week. 

I'll have more grocery money in just a few days, but I won't get back to WinCo for another 2 weeks. By that time, the sale on applesauce and tuna may be over, and I might have missed my opportunity to stock up on those items.

I don't know if any of you grocery shop on a strict budget, either imposed by your planning or by shopping only with cash. But judging by some of the comments from you, here, at least some of you will relate to my sigh of relief when it turned out I had more cash on hand than I had thought and could purchase everything and more on my list.

Weeds and Why I Eat Them

We've all heard stories from the Great Depression and how many folks resorted to eating weeds like dandelions in salads and sautéed. Eating "weeds" goes back a lot longer than the 1930s, however. In Medieval Europe, dandelions and other wild greens were used for medicinal and culinary consumption. Both traditional Chinese and native Americans used dandelions in herbal medicine.

three watercress plants pulled up from
the cracks in a walkway around the garden

What is a weed? One definition is a weed is anything that pops up where you didn't plant it. By that definition, my watercress is most definitely a weed. It pops up every year in early spring in the cracks of the walkway surrounding the gardens. In many regions, watercress is viewed as a weed, and an invasive weed at that.

I started my watercress with some rooted watercress from the produce section at the grocery store many years ago. I had made watercress and butter tea sandwiches and simply had more watercress than I needed. But it's now a wild plant and seeds itself where it pleases.

homemade blackberry vinegar -- wild blackberries
infused in white vinegar in the fridge for 3 months

Edible weeds have a reputation for being sharp or bitter in flavor, most likely why most Westerners don't eat them. However, edible weeds are often higher in nutrients than their cultivated cousins. In fact, In England during World War 2, folks were encouraged to grow watercress from seeds in a dish on their windowsills, as a major source of vitamin C. In addition to vitamin C, watercress and other edible weeds are very high in antioxidants, beta carotene, vitamin K, and many minerals.

tonight's watercress salad with 1 tangerine peeled and chopped,
a single serving of dried cranberries, and a tablespoon of "bacon" bits

So, while I have a fridge and freezer full of vegetables that I could choose to go with dinner tonight, I'm opting for my wild watercress. It will do my body a heap of good. Watercress has a sharp taste, so I prefer it raw in a salad, and dressed with a sweet vinaigrette, made with a fruity vinegar like this homemade blackberry vinegar, along with with sugar, salt, pepper and oil, or an orange juice vinaigrette, made with a small amount of orange juice, vinegar, honey, oil, salt and pepper.

Weeds also can be more tough than a green like lettuce, so when I make a salad with weeds, I slice it chiffonade-style, leaves stacked and sliced into narrow ribbons.

Besides the nutritional benefits, eating weeds is quite frugal. It's just important to only eat weeds that you know have not been sprayed with anything toxic.

Have you tried eating weeds? What were your impressions?

Early Spring Garden Produce

We're in garden hardiness zone 8b, which means the average extreme low temperature is between 15 to 20 degrees F in winter. Early spring is chilly, here, with a slow warm-up as the season progresses. And yet, we can still harvest fresh produce by mid-March each year.

I'll be sautéing these kale leaves to go with tonight's dinner.

The produce we're harvesting is limited in quantity and variety. It's  primarily the biennial greens that I planted last year that over-wintered and are now putting on spring growth, like kale, Brussel sprout greens, and parsley. These biennials will start to produce seeds by sometime in April. We'll harvest  leaves until I need that growing space, perhaps mid-April. 

I thinned these seedlings earlier this week to use as the base for a tossed salad tonight.

The other greens that I can harvest this early are the tiny seedlings that I thin from the flats started under lights for this summer's garden, a mixture of lettuce, chard, kale, cabbage, and Brussel sprout seedlings.

I have 1 head of garlic left from last summer's harvest.
We'll use garlic powder, occasional purchased fresh garlic,
and cuttings from these two pots for garlic until this summer's harvest.

In addition to leafy greens, I also have chives that are up and ready to harvest and the leaves from garlic. In fall, I always miss a few garlic bulbs, try as I might. So in spring, I use those missed bulbs for harvesting leaves, sometimes called garlic chives. This year, I potted up all of the errant garlic in two pots, now sitting close to the kitchen door. My hope is by making the garlic chives more convenient to the kitchen, I will clip these greens often as I'm cooking this spring. And as I run out of fresh garlic, I am also near the end of our onions. It all runs out at once! I'm glad I have the "regular" chives to fill in until I buy another big bag of onions.

If you keep a produce garden, what items are among the first that you can harvest in spring?

When planning doesn't go as planned

One of the complications I came across with the previous batch-cooking and menu planning is I wound up with a couple of extra meals. Sometimes I find I have to use a fresh ingredient before it spoils and it doesn't go with the planned meals, or we don't have 3 or 4 people at home to eat an entire freezer meal, or we just want something else. Whatever the case, the last time around I did wind up pushing a meal or two from the old plan into the new plan. Which meant I didn't need to cook quite as much this time around, and I could push batch-cooking off one more day.

I cooked two weeks of meals in 2 days instead of all in one day, last Tuesday and Wednesday.

Here's what I cooked and how I portioned it for the freezer:

cooked 2.5 lbs ground beef with diced onions, cooked a large pot of chili con carne with most of the meat

• froze 2 cups of cooked beef and onions to use in beef and bean burritos
• froze 2 meals of chili con carne
• ate 1 meal of chili con carne

cooked pinto beans, about 2 quarts once cooked

• added some to chili
• froze rest of cooked beans to use in beef and bean burritos later in week

3 chicken breasts, simmered in water, froze some as is, cooked other 2 portions with veggies and seasonings

• froze one portion of diced chicken in stock
• ate 1 meal of chicken and dumplings
• froze filling for chicken pot pie

made double batch of pizza crust and double batch of pizza sauce and froze

• one pizza was made last Friday
• the dough and sauce are in the freezer for another pizza this coming Friday

I'll be making scratch hot dog buns and dinner rolls this Tuesday, to use Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday.

Here's how we're eating what I've cooked and frozen:

Monday -- We had hot dogs on my daughters actual birthday (a Monday), using frozen buns and hot dogs that I had intended to use the previous week. We also had tangerines and leftover birthday cake.

Tuesday -- chili con carne with scratch cornbread, plus a salad of tomatoes and lettuce from the birthday picnic

Wednesday -- chicken and dumplings with a salad of leftover lettuce/tomatoes, newly shredded carrots and chopped cabbage

Thursday -- just my husband and I for dinner. The meals I made and froze serve 4. Not wanting leftovers, I made scrambled eggs and bacon, plus baked potatoes, and steamed broccoli for dinner for 2.

Friday -- pepperoni pizza #1, green fig-applesauce, and steamed spinach

Saturday -- beef and bean burritos in homemade tortillas with fresh tomatoes and avocados, plus Cole slaw

Sunday --chili con carne over leftover cornbread with a side of buttered carrots

Here's where we are now. Monday -- baked potatoes,. topped with garden greens, cheese sauce, and bacon bits. I had previously thought to use the chicken frozen in stock in a chicken salad or chicken soup, but the rest of the package of bacon needed cooking/eating. So I switched to baked potatoes with toppings for the main tonight. We had pureed pumpkin as a side.

Tuesday -- hot dog cookout on scratch buns

Wednesday -- easy chicken and vegetable soup, using the cooked chicken in stock, seasonings, frozen mixed veggies and pasta, with scratch dinner rolls

Thursday -- chicken pot pie, using the cooked chicken and vegetable filling made when I cooked the chicken and dumplings.

Friday -- pepperoni pizza #2, vegetables on the side

Saturday -- chili con carne, leftover dinner rolls

Sunday -- tuna melt sandwiches, fresh fruit