Veteran's Day week lunch round-up

Ack! I got totally sidetracked on Monday. Not one single item made for the brown-baggers to take for their lunches! But I did make my standard 5 loaves of whole wheat dough for sandwich bread. And I sidelined 1 portion of that dough for a dozen homemade cinnamon rolls. Mmmmm, those were at their absolute best right out of the oven, all warm, sticky and very cinnamon-y (what do you think, is cinnamon-y a real enough word?). And they reheat in the microwave very well!

Anyway, Tuesday was a holiday for 3 of the 4, so I had a bit of a reprieve on making lunch items. I'm still struggling with what to make for lunches for Wed., Thurs., and Fri. of this week. It's looking like lot of pbj's, plus some:

• tomato-vegetable soup (the garden is coming to a close with the cold temps this week, so will use what still looks good, and add it to some of the very large batch of marinara sauce that I made on Saturday. That should make a quick, easy and flavorful soup.)
• more homemade Greek yogurt (I got a deal on whole milk last week. I love how creamy Greek yogurt turns out when I use whole milk for the base yogurt -- and the higher fat content is good for my daughter who still needs to put on a few lbs.)
• pumpkin-praline granola (did you know that Dollar Tree now has pecans in stock? Not a bad price per pound, either.)
• fresh oranges and bananas (Cash and Carry has 40-lb cases of navel oranges on for $16.98 this week, or 42cents/lb -- great price.)
• more baked apples (nearing the end of the apples from our orchard -- they've been fantastic this year!)
• mini strombolis (using canned biscuit dough, marinara sauce, mozza, olives, onions and peppers)

As the school year progresses, I notice that my daughters get up later and later each morning, leaving no time to make breakfast or lunch for themselves. These ready-made items are a huge help. And I know that I'm saving them some of their pocket money (hard-earned from cleaning dorm rooms this past summer), as I no longer provide any of that for them.

I hope that your week is going well!

"Now there's something I didn't know that I needed!"

Picking up a few things at Dollar Tree yesterday afternoon, I noticed an end-cap on one of the aisles with Christmas-themed chair seat pads, like for kitchen chairs. I had a flash of a thought, "oooh, I don't have chair pads in a Christmas-y fabric. Maybe I need a set!"

Fortunately, it was only a flash of a thought, and my better sense took over immediately. But it did make me think about how many products are marketed, that we've never even thought we may "need", but are persuaded by marketing/advertisers that we do indeed "need" these items.

Maybe you would like some chair pads in a nice red and green poinsettia fabric. That's okay. But what annoyed me was I had never even thought I might want some sort of seasonal chair pad before. Just the sight of them made me think I could use some.

This time of year, I receive stacks of catalogs with all manner of Christmas decor items. Several years back, I saw some Christmas bed sheets that I felt I "just had to have". Fortunately, again, better sense prevailed and I skipped them altogether. I've found that it's just best to toss those catalogs into the recycle bin without ever opening them.

I must confess, I've even been tempted to buy Christmas sweaters in the past. If you like them, and will wear them, that's great. But many of these impulses to buy seasonal items are often regretted by me later. I'm really not a Christmas sweater-type of girl. (I do have a couple of nice red sweaters (plain, red sweaters), and I do wear those on or near the holidays.)

While keeping the commerce wheel spinning is important for our economy and keeping folks employed, what I feel is excess begins to bother me after a while.

I'm not against having "stuff". For myself, I only want to own the stuff that I really want to have, long term. I have a true minimalist brother-in-law. He says that "stuff" begins to "own" him after a while. "Stuff" needs to be maintained, housed, dusted, repaired, etc. He'd rather not spend his time taking care of his "stuff". He's got a point. How much time and space do we want to devote to our "stuff"?

I guess I really don't "need" those Christmas-themed kitchen chair pads. Our backsides will simply have to deal with our regular chair pads -- they are sage green, after all. Maybe our behinds will still think that they are Christmas-y.  ;)

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