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Saturday, February 6, 2016

Happy Chinese New Year!

the back side of the envelope -- the flap tucks in to close it
the front side of the finished envelope


Friends of ours have invited us for a Chinese New Year dinner tomorrow night. I asked my son's girlfriend about how she celebrated Chinese New Year when growing up. One of the things she told me about was making a gift to children (and unmarried young adults) of money, in a red envelope.

So, I set out to make a couple of red envelopes. I bought a square of scrapbook paper, and followed the instructions on this youtube video for an origami envelope. I practiced once first, on a square of newspaper. I thought it was quite easy to do. Also, I thought it might be a good solution for other gift envelope needs, like a gift card, or a homemade coupon-type gift.

not tucked in, the small item or cash slips into the folded up lower edge
The paper was on sale at Jo Ann Fabric's for 50% off, so it only cost me 39 cents each. If I had red paper at home, I would have just used that. But as I was at Jo Ann's anyways, and found the scrapbook paper on sale, this was a pretty good deal.

Just thought I'd share. And happy Chinese New Year!


Friday, February 5, 2016

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for the first week of February

veggie enchiladas

Friday

bean and ham soup (pinto beans, ham stock from freezer, dices of ham from freezer -- Christmas Day ham)
homemade whole wheat bread and butter
leftover pumpkin pie (from freebie pumpkin, scratch pie crust, frozen eggs, marked-down milk -- it was a bargain pie)

Saturday (today is housecleaning day, so dinner needs to be simple, and not messy!)

baked potato bar (I had scrubbed extra potatoes earlier in the week, so that part was already done), toppings included:
   chopped kale, sauteed with diced ham and onions in the bacon fat from making bacon bits
   Cheddar cheese sauce
   bacon bits
oven-roasted, canned tomato halves
leftover pumpkin pie

Sunday

pumpkin pancakes
scrambled eggs
oranges


Monday

turkey and vegetables topped with biscuits and baked (inspired by live and learn's comments about shepherd's pie topped with biscuits instead of potatoes)
grapefruit gelatin (brought by my son's girlfriend)
leftover pumpkin pie

Tuesday

ham (from freezer)
mashed potatoes (from freezer)
frozen green beans


Wednesday

homemade mushroom and black olive pizza (dough from freezer, quick sauce of tomato paste, water and dried seasonings)
vegetable medley of canned tomatoes, onions, frozen green beans and garlic powder
blackberry cobbler

Thursday

veggie enchiladas (filling: diced firm tofu, spinach, onions, chili powder, garlic powder, salt, tomato juice sauteed in oil for a few minutes, rolled up in corn tortillas, topped with enchilada sauce -- easy recipe for enchilada sauce, here, in the comments, from Belinda at the Frugal Workshop -- then Cheddar cheese and olives. Baked at 350 F for about 25 minutes.) I made just a small batch of enchilada sauce, in the skillet that I fried the tortillas, then sauteed the veggies/tofu. I thinned the enchilada sauce with some tomato sauce, as I didn't quite make enough to cover all of the enchiladas. Still quite tasty!
Spanish rice & black beans on the side


I relied on a lot of quick to fix meals this past week. Some of the dinners came from the freezer stash of me-prepared foods, others were just simple things like pancakes. I bought 9 pounds of frozen spinach yesterday, so spinach will feature heavily as the veggie for a few weeks. I am down to just 1 pumpkin and 1 butternut squash, both in the fridge.

My favorite meal this week is a toss-up between Monday's turkey and vegetables topped with biscuits and baked, and last night's veggie enchiladas. Both of those dinners were just what I needed at the moment.

Looking back over the week, we seem to be lacking beef and chicken meals. I'll have to incorporate a few of those next week.

What did you eat this past week? And what was your favorite meal?




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