Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for Early March

So, here we are, the time in the season when I'm both scrounging in the freezer for remnant from last summer's garden and using up canned goods that I bought in fall. There's not a whole lot in the garden to harvest just yet. But what I can find, I use. Almost all of our meals were cooked at home this past week. My husband received a free lunch for a work Zoom meeting one day. The way they work it is they send him a voucher to use to have something delivered. He chose Taco Bell. The rest of us ate all of our meals cooked at home. When you eat your own cooking for long enough, you really do come to prefer it. I've reached the point where I'd really rather eat home-cooked meals than anything else. It helps tremendously that the other family members take a night per week, so I don't have to cook every night. 

My two favorite meals this week happen to be the two meals that I remembered to take pictures of. The pot roast dinner was so delicious. And of course, pizza is always a favorite for me.

Here's what we ate this week:

Friday

homemade pepperoni pizza, fig-applesauce, sautéed turnip greens and onions

I made a triple batch of pizza dough on Friday and froze two portions. To use, I thaw on the counter then press onto the baking sheet and allow to rise. Works great and I can throw together a pizza with less work on two of the three days. The fig-applesauce is more of my sweet, canned green (unripe) figs pureed (smoothie blender to the rescue) with some applesauce, ginger and cinnamon. 

Saturday
homemade Mexican -- oven-fried tortilla strips, refried beans/salsa/cheese, carrot sticks, radish green and watercress salad

My husband made the Mexican this night. I buy large bags of corn tortillas, keep in the fridge, and use them over a two to three -month period. My husband made chips by brushing with oil and baking until crisp. I cook large pots of pinto beans and freeze the cooked beans in 1-qt containers for easy refritos with the help of a potato masher and some seasonings. Again more garden greens for a salad. We're able to have garden greens (indoor and outdoor ones) 4 or 5 days per week now, although we're currently limited to radish, watercress, turnip greens, and kale.

Sunday
lentil and vegetable soup, cheese biscuits -- easy dinner for a Sunday evening.

Monday
pot roast and gravy, steamed carrots, brown rice, radish green and watercress salad, vanilla-rhubarb sauce

It had been a while since I'd cooked some beef. I found a small roast in the freezer and pot roasted it with lots of gravy, some onions, a bit of tomato paste, and dried garden herbs. It was delicious! I poured the gravy over the carrots, meat, and rice. I have just a small amount of rhubarb left in the freezer from last summer. Our garden rhubarb is about 1 month away from use. Time to use up all of the frozen stuff.

Tuesday
beef and vegetable soup (using leftover pot roast & gravy plus radish greens, canned carrots canned green beans, canned tomatoes, onions, garlic), scratch cornbread, rice pudding topped with raspberry jam

The soup was easy to make as well as tasty on a cold evening. I had about 1 cup of cooked rice leftover from the previous night. I baked a rice pudding (egg, milk, sugar, rice, salt, vanilla, nutmeg, cinnamon) in the oven with the cornbread. There was just enough for 4 servings. I topped each serving with a generous spoonful of homemade raspberry jam (last summer's garden berries).

Wednesday
tuna salad on bed of watercress, crackers, carrot sticks, tomato-macaroni-cheese bake

One of my daughters made dinner for us this night. We needed to have some tuna in our menus, so I suggested this to her. She's not a fan of tuna casserole, but does like tuna salad. So I picked some watercress to put scoops of the tuna. We both agreed that the dinner needed some more "heft," so she also made a tomato-mac-cheese bake.

Thursday
hummus, freshly-baked French bread, radish green and red cabbage salad, carrot sticks, no-bake cookies

My other daughter made dinner this night. She loves making hummus, so I pulled a qt of cooked garbanzo beans out of the freezer for her. She also used lots of the frozen chives we still need to use up. (The chives in the garden are coming up now.) The no-bake cookies were my baked treat for this week. I don't know if there are variations on no-bake cookies. I made the butter-milk-sugar-cocoa powder-peanut butter-oats-vanilla ones. Always a hit! I hadn't made these in years. My family was pleased.

Breakfasts for the week included: homemade cinnamon rolls, toast, crockpot Cream of Wheat, crockpot steel cut oats, yogurt, orange juice, apples, bananas, raisins, blueberry muffins, eggs

One evening last week, I made a batch of roll dough and made overnight cinnamon rolls. Basically, I set the rolls in the pan, cover, and refrigerate overnight. The next morning, whoever gets up first pulls them out of the fridge and they rise enough to bake in about an hour to an hour and a half. Fresh-baked rolls in the morning. The leftovers made great snacks all week. I use my crockpot for both steel cut oats and Cream of Wheat for easy hot breakfasts. Despite having cinnamon rolls, blueberry muffins and hot cereal available, some family members still prefer a traditional breakfast of eggs and toast. So that's always available, but they have to make it themselves.

Lunches and snacks included: several soups made with the smoothie blender -- tomato soup (using canned tomatoes, tomato paste, chicken stock, seasonings pureed), carrot soup (canned carrots, chicken stock, onion powder, seasonings), broccoli soup (frozen broccoli, chicken stock, onion powder), various leftovers, toast, peanut butter sandwiches, cheese, apples, oranges, eggs, carrots, celery, cabbage, radishes, raisins, bananas, canned pineapple, popcorn, scratch brownies, cinnamon rolls, no-bake cookies, saltine crackers

So, that's what we ate this week. What was on your menu?

Gardening Wednesday and a Little Reminder for Those Who Preserve Garden Produce

self-seeded watercress

We had brilliant sunshine today, but man oh man was it cold out. So I worked for just a short time outdoors. I first scavenged some watercress for a salad for tonight's dinner. Watercress self-seeds all over my garden area. Each March we have watercress for a couple of weeks, all free, no work on my part except to pick. After picking greens, I hauled compost to two beds, pulled some weeds, then came back indoors. Indoors I replanted some additional onion seeds, as my first batch of seeds from 2 weeks ago only partially sprouted. I think I'll need more than 7 onions next fall.

The other thing I did today, related to gardening, was add a page to my gardening journal. I told you last time that I had a page that detailed which seeds I planted, when, and how much. This new page is for making note of which seeds I'll need to collect from my plants for garden 2023. So far, I've found I'll need more kale, red lettuce, beet, carrot, parsley, and pole and bush bean seeds. Carrots, parsley, and, to a limited extent, kale are biennials, and I have those growing in my garden from last year still. Those will go to seed in mid-summer. I'll be able to collect bean, lettuce, and beet seeds late summer from this year's plantings. In previous years, I haven't thought about which seeds I needed to collect until late in the season, sometimes too late. I'm making more of an effort to be organized with my garden this year.

Also garden-related, I've been prepping for summer preserving. Several weeks ago I found 2 more trays that fit my 25-year old dehydrator on eBay. This expands my ability to dehydrate by 50%, which should help me get through more produce and hopefully not have some of the fresh fruit become overripe waiting for spots on the trays. The new-to-me trays were used, but clearly not nearly as used as my own. The plastic is so white compared to my old ones, which have yellowed. As you can see in the photo on the box, this model is designed for adding trays (original came with 4). I hope to find another couple of trays eventually.

In addition to the dehydrator trays, I've also bought the lids I'll need for preserving. The past two years I waited till later in spring to get lids, which meant I had a hard time finding the lids only. There appears to still be a lot of supply right now. So, just a little reminder to order any you might need for this year soon. 

That's it for today. I hope you all had a great Wednesday and are moving on to a lovely Thursday. Enjoy your day!