Look what was in the free pile at Kohl's!

Okay, just a joke. No real "free" pile outside the doors at Kohl's. but you know how many garage sales have free piles? I was joking with my daughters about the free pile at Kohl's last week.

I had a $10 coupon in my stack of mail waiting for me when I returned from my trip. Luckily for me, it hadn't expired.

So off I went to Kohl's, coupon in hand. And going into the store I looked down and spied 2 pennies on the floor. Of course, I stooped to pick those 2 cents up. You never know when you're going to need 2 more cents, right?!

I wandered the home section of the store, looking for good deals. There are these knobs/hooks that I like. I picked up one of them a few months ago, on sale and with a $10 off coupon. But I knew I wanted another to make a pair of hooks on the wall. And this must be lucky day, as they were on sale, again!

I picked up one, price-checked it on the price checker machine, and found I needed to spend about another dollar to use the full $10 off coupon. In checking all of the clearance items, I found a bath bomb for 60 cents. This will make a great gift. Then I found a couple of gift bags, one for Mother's day and another for Christmas. Double great!

So i took my purchases to the cash register. After the gal rang them up, the total came to . . . you guessed it! 2 cents! I reached into my pocket and pulled out those 2 pennies. In and out the door with no money spent. The Kohl's free pile.

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers beginning with an Easter ham

the bench on my front porch

Sunday lunch (we did our Easter family meal at lunch and scrambled for ourselves for dinner that night)

Baked ham
Homemade dinner rolls, using an overnight, refrigerator roll dough recipe
Marinated asparagus salad, with deiced roasted red peppers and celery (the only food item I bought especially for Easter was the asparagus)
Carrot sticks and celery sticks w/ bottled creamy Italian salad dressing (clearance rack) for a dip
Deviled eggs, olives, watermelon pickles
Pretzels and crackers w/ cream cheese, Craisin, pecan spread
Apple slices
Pecan pie
Rhubarb pie

Monday

Baked potatoes, topped w/
Sauteed kale, onions, ham dices, and smothered in
Cheddar cheese sauce
Steamed carrot chunks
Choice of leftover pie

Tuesday

Potato, egg, cheese, ham, kale and onion casserole, (made Monday as I made that night's dinner)
Fruit salad of bananas, apples, dried cranberries and almond slices
Last of the leftover pie

Wednesday

Ham and bean soup
Dinner rolls (using last of the refrigerator roll dough)
Cabbage, carrot and kale slaw
Rhubarb-blackberry sauce

Thursday

Kale and onion baked frittata
Oven-roasted sweet potato chunks
Brown rice with peas
Toffee bars

Just a short week this week. I didn't record the various menus from last week. Although I recall a batch of chicken enchiladas on evening, an easy rice bake another evening, and a ramen soup, made with 2 Cup of Noodles, some beaten eggs, frozen peas, shredded cabbage, onion powder, garlic powder and soy sauce made in minutes when we walked in the door returning from our trip. It was about 8 PM and my husband hadn't eaten yet. So, I made a pot of soup for the 4 of us and called it dinner.

When I make ham stock, I roast the bone first, then simmer in water. roasting improves the overall flavor. With this ham bone, I actually roasted and simmered it twice. After the first time, I picked off as much meat as possible. But a fair amount of fat remained attached to the bone. So I roasted it again, refrigerated overnight, and simmered in water the next day. I didn't get any more meat the second roasting/simmering. But I was able to make some pretty decent stock with the second round. And it rendered just enough fat to leave in the roasting pan for my oven-roasted sweet potatoes on Thursday evening. The second batch of ham stock is now in the freezer to use as a soup base for the next pot of bean soup.

Since returning from my trip, I've been trying to cook double batches as much as possible. My instinct is to cook just enough for one meal at a time. So this is mental work to overcome that instinct. But the end result is worth it, as I am gaining additional afternoon work time, on almost half of my days, for gardening. And now I have a few extra main dishes in the freezer to pull out on very busy nights. You may have noticed, Tuesday's casserole used very similar ingredients to Monday's main dish. I have baked extra potatoes, and sauteed extra kale, onion and ham. For the casserole, I sliced up some of the baked potatoes, and layered with the kale, onion and ham mixture. Then I poured milk and eggs over the top and some grated cheese. It was very hearty.

Tell me, what was on your menu this past week? Did you do an Easter ham, or do you have other Easter menu traditions at your house? We had pie for dessert on Easter. Does your family have a traditional Easter dessert?