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Monday, August 22, 2016

Rescuing disposable containers and knitting in color (not at all related)

This time of year, I begin saving those disposable containers that look like they have good gift presentation potential for fall birthdays and Christmas/New Years.


Here are two sizes of containers that I recently rescued. The larger ones had some bakery stuff from Costco in them. I rescued those from our church's monthly tea. I was thinking they might make nice boxes for "spa day" kits, with hand-knit spa cloths, some hand-crafted soaps, some bath tea and maybe a spa candle. I'm thinking I could nest all of the items in a bed of shredded pastel-colored paper (great use for used wrapping paper that may look too shabby for reuse).

The smaller containers are sized about right for some hand-formed truffles. Again, these might look nice nested on a bed of shredded paper.


Not for gifts, but rescued nonetheless. These next two plastic containers should be good for packing lunches. The smaller one on the left is just the right size for a handful of sunflower seeds and raisins. And the one on the right is a coffee jar. Remember when those were made of glass? Well, now they're plastic, which is good and bad. The bad, plastic doesn't look as pretty for kitchen storage. The good, plastic is lightweight and non-breakable, which makes it a great item for packing someone's lunchtime salad for a backpack.


As an avid coffee drinker who never bought into the Keurig equipment, I also acquire a fair number of coffee cans. Fred Meyer's cans now have silver lids. I can see these cans decked out in white, silver and blue gift wrap, and holding a homemade batch of some snacky giftables, like Teresa's candied popcorn.

And the unrelated bit . . .

After knitting several natural-colored spa cloths, my knitting life was beginning to feel like it was all too neutral. The knitting version of living in black and white. I switched over to my lavender-colored yarn, and not only did the knitting take on more beauty for my eyes, but I swear I could smell something perfumey, from time to time, while I knitted away. Funny how our brains can do that to us. Anyways, spa cloths look nice in colors, too.

Friday, August 19, 2016

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for mid-August

Lazy lasagna before baking


Friday

peanut butter sandwiches
apples
bananas

Saturday

Vegetarian Mexi-lasagna
Apple wedges
Garden green beans

Sunday

Leftover Mexi-lasagna topped with enchilada sauce
Green beans
Fruit salad of blackberries, apples, pears and dried cranberries in jelly "dressing"

Monday

Herb-crusted pork roast
Pasta with marinara sauce
French bread with pesto
Green salad with homemade vinaigrette
Fresh blackberries

Tuesday

Black bean, brown rice, cheese burritos, with leftover enchilada sauce in place of salsa, rolled into homemade flour tortillas
Garden green beans and carrots
Fresh blackberries

Wednesday

Kale frittata topped with mozzarella and homemade marinara sauce (using some of the eggs I froze when I got a great deal in batches of 6, garden kale, onion and garlic powder)
Homemade French bread (fresh and soft!)
Rhubarb and blackberry gelatin

Thursday

Lazy Lasagna
Garden green beans
Leftover rhubarb and blackberry gelatin

I've been making French bread for our daily bread, this month. It's faster and has fewer pans to clean up than my sandwich loaf. So I can make bread on days when I will only be home for part of the day. I can start a batch at 3 PM, and have fresh bread for dinner at 6:30 to 7:00. I do 2 loaves at a time, and this is enough bread to get us through about 3 days. French bread is a good homemade bread for busy days/seasons.

Another time saving thing I've been doing for busy days, lately, is throwing together casseroles in the morning, then baking in the late afternoon. On Saturday, I had an event to go to during the afternoon, so I knew I would walk in the door and have to get dinner on the table with little time. In the morning, I made the Mexi-lasagna, which was leftover rice mixed with cooked black beans, some seasonings and oil, then layered in a casserole dish with corn tortillas and cheddar cheese. It was quite good, and I'd made enough that there were leftovers for the next night. On Thursday, I got to go to the zoo with one of my daughters. Her employer puts on a family day each summer, at some venue in the Seattle area. This year, it happened to be the zoo, where my other daughter works. So, first daughter and I spent the afternoon at the zoo and met up with the second daughter when her work day ended. It was a super fun day, but I also knew I'd have to put dinner on the table in a matter of minutes, after coming home, so I made a lazy lasagna casserole in the AM, to be baked when I walked in the door in the evening.

How did your week go? Is summer winding down for you? Are you busier than normal? Or is summer still at it's usual pace? I feel like we're cramming in every last bit of summer fun and work, these days. So, not a lot of spare time.

Have a great weekend!





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