Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for mid-spring

Friday

Swiss chard and radish green quiche
Brown rice
French bread
Oven-roasted carrots
Brownies

Saturday

Hummus on fry bread
Carrots and celery sticks
Dried cranberries
Brownies

Sunday

Roasted hotdogs and homemade buns
Green salad
Rhubarb-blackberry gelatin
Leftover pasta salad from lunch
S'mores

Monday

Grilled ham and cheddar on rye sandwiches
Cole slaw
Leftover rhubarb-blackberry gelatin
Cheesecake "bites" (one of two slices of cheesecake given to me, divided 5 ways)

Tuesday

Ham and egg fried rice, with cabbage and radishes
Rhubarb-blackberry sauce

Wednesday

Radish green and ham quiche
Pumpkin bread
Garden salad
Leftover brown rice

Thursday

Spaghetti and meatballs
Garden salad
Toasted garlic rye bread
more Cheesecake "bites"

Such a busy week. Making meals was not high on my priority list. But I got it done, nonetheless.

The garden is beginning to look really amazing. The lettuce is larger than I've ever grown. So we've been eating a lot of garden salads. The nights that we don't have a green salad are not because there isn't lettuce to pick, but because I just don't have time to pick, wash and dry the lettuce. On Thursday, I picked lettuce, twice. Once for lunch for two of us, and a second time for dinner. I'm on the second round of radishes now. When these are all pulled out, I'll need that space for another vegetable, so these are our last radishes. Any that didn't form roots were still used for their greens. Next week, we should begin to use the fresh spinach.

I didn't have a favorite meal this week, for what was eaten. But I did have one favorite dinner for where it was eaten. One of my daughters had a performance on Wednesday evening. So I met up with the other daughter, on campus beforehand, and we had a picnic on the grass for our dinner. It was a sunny late afternoon, and such a pleasant spot for a picnic. The company, the location and the entertainment to follow were what made that meal special.

How about you? Were there any special suppers this past week at your place?

This is the week I get all of those remaining "Easter eggs" into the freezer

These are the eggs that I bought the week before Easter, for 99 cents per dozen, at Target. there was no limit, so I bought 20 dozen. Yes, you read that correctly, 20 dozen. I have this teensy problem of when I see a bargain, I get a little bit carried away, and really stock up. So long as I can do something to preserve the item I've stocked up on, it won't go to waste, and will save money in the long haul.

But, I've got to get all of the eggs that I bought into the freezer in the next couple of days. They're a bit passed the sell-by date. So . . .

I've been freezing eggs, one at a time. In a muffin tin, lined with squares of plastic wrap, I've frozen some of them. There's one egg on the far right that got a little messy, when the plastic slipped into the tin before I filled it completely with egg. I straightened the plastic, as best I could and continued filling. It'll be a bit harder to remove from the tin than the others, but should be okay.

I've also frozen bunches of eggs in containers, 3, 4 and 5 at a time. This is the simplest, and will be just right for many recipes. I mark the tops of the containers, so I know if there's salt or sugar added, how many eggs, and when I froze them. And if what I need is 3 eggs, but all I have is 4-egg quantities, I can thaw a 4-egg container, measure out 3 eggs (3 tablespoons per egg), and keep the last egg in the fridge for a couple of days, until needed. Thawed eggs remain "safe" for cooking, about 2 to 3 days in the fridge.

I've frozen eggs as pre-made, individual slices of frittata -- great for breakfasts or quick lunches. I use parchment paper to separate each portion. (They do tend to glom together, when frozen, due to the moisture.)

I've frozen eggs as loaves of pumpkin bread. A 2-loaf batch uses 4 eggs. Pumpkin bread freezes nicely. I'll be making several loaves of pumpkin bread this week, both to use the eggs, and use some of the pumpkin.

And I've frozen eggs as ready-made dinners, in the form of quiche.

My daily goal is to freeze about 1  1/2 dozen eggs, in some form or other. If I stick to this goal, I'll have gone through all of the eggs that I bought the week before Easter, giving me a nice supply of usable eggs for cooking and baking, as well as some ready-made items in the freezer.

Anyone else out there still using up eggs from the pre-Easter stock-up? According to the USDA, eggs remain safe to use in cooking for 3 to 5 weeks post the sell-by date. For more information on freezing eggs, here's a post I wrote a couple of years ago.