Cheap & Cheerful Suppers in Mid-Winter

Mid-winter meals -- lots of meat, lots of potatoes, and lots of comfort foods. There was meat in our meals 5 of the 7 nights and some of the lunches. 

We're using near the end of fresh produce from the fall, homegrown and purchased (potatoes, turnips, pumpkin, and onions). As that's not nearly enough for family meals, we're also digging through the freezer for vegetables, using canned vegetables and fruit, and filling the gaps with winter staples like oranges and cabbage.

Friday (Friday movie and pizza night -- we watched A Prairie Home Companion)

scratch pepperoni pizza

mix of frozen broccoli and Brussel sprouts

orange wedges

As I was going through the deep freeze a week ago, I came across a mostly empty bag of Brussel sprouts and a mostly empty bag of broccoli. Either one alone wouldn't be enough for all four of us. But the combined bags were just enough. I have extra pizza cheese this month. One daughter had been staying at the house where she was dog-sitting for 10 days. Her sister was visiting her one evening and they wanted to bake cookies together, but didn't want to use the dog-mom's supplies. I traded them a bag of chocolate chips and a stick of butter for a 32-oz bag of shredded mozzarella one daughter had leftover. She had bought it to make pizza for her theater cast and crew and didn't need as much as she'd bought. I think I got a good deal. They think they got a good deal. We both won! Looks like Friday pizzas can continue without extra shopping.

Saturday (sorry, no photo)

bean burritos (sprouted pintos, seasoned and wrapped in scratch flour tortillas

roasted pumpkin cubes

Cole slaw

We continue to use the fresh pumpkins that we bought at the end of October and that grew in our garden. I've got them in the cold storage room (about 52 degrees F) and they're doing okay. I've got 3 left and will try to use them in the next couple of weeks.

Sunday

TVP "meat" balls with pasta sauce over spaghetti

frozen spinach and onions

My husband cooked tonight and this turned out to be very tasty. To make the TVP "meat" balls, he rehydrated the TVP, stirred in seasonings, oil, flour and an egg, then baked them. Other times, we like to fry these in oil in a skillet on the stove.

Monday

meatloaf with gravy

brown rice

roasted pumpkin cubes

sautéed cabbage and onions

I mentioned in the comments earlier this week that I've stopped using egg in meatloaf. It seems to hold together okay for me. This meatloaf was made with 12- ounces of ground beef, 1 slice of homemade whole wheat bread, some water, some tomato juice, salt, minced onion, garlic, and oregano. And again with the roasted pumpkin.

Tuesday

roasted chicken and gravy

roasted root vegetables (last of garden turnips, onion, canned beet root, canned carrots)

chunky hash brown potatoes

I'm so grateful that I bought several whole chickens last fall when I found them on sale for 99 cents/lb. We used one of these chickens for Thanksgiving dinner instead of turkey. They're pretty large (6 lbs or so), and provide a lot of servings. I cooked the last of the fresh turnips I dug in October. They kept just fine in the fridge these last months. We are out of fresh carrots and fresh beets, so I added canned ones near the end of the roasting time.

Wednesday

leftover chicken and gravy

pan-fried potato slices

Cole slaw

Thursday

leftover chicken in tomato sauce 

assorted pasta shapes or brown rice

sautéed cabbage and onions

One of my daughters cooked dinner tonight. She picked apart the roasted chicken from Tuesday and made it ready for making stock. Are chickens getting bigger? The ones I've been buying seem to be a pound heavier than what I used to find at the store. So far, we've had 3 family dinners and 1 family lunch with this chicken. There is enough meat left now for one more family meal, plus there will be stock with bits of meat for making soup. 

That's it for this week. What was on your menu? Do you find you eat more meat in winter than other seasons? Or is that just my family?

Wishing you a wonderful early February weekend!

A Dozen (Soon-To-Be) Flowering Plants for Basically Nothing

Happy February! Putting January in the rearview mirror is always a joyous event for me. Days are getting longer. The sun is getting stronger. And flowers are just beginning to peek out, some on their own and others helped along.

On my midday walk Wednesday, I spotted two houses with pots of primroses near the front doors. These pots looked so cheery. I wanted the same for my front door. The last time I was at Fred Meyer, they were selling primroses in the outdoor section for $1.79 per 4-inch potted plant. So tempting -- to have some outdoor flowers in late-January or early February! 

a dozen small plants rescued from their overly shady spot

I was ready to head out to the store and pick up a few plants when I remembered the primroses in my own yard. In particular, I had long ago planted several white primroses around the base of a new shrub. Over the years, the shrub has grown and now almost entirely shades out the struggling primroses. Well, what do you think a frugal person like me would do -- go to the store and buy new ones or lift and move the struggling ones to a better location, this time into my own pots by the door.

I used rumpled and used Christmas gift wrap to catch the mess of repotting

If you guessed that I would dig up the white ones in my own yard, you know me well. That's exactly what I did. I lifted a dozen tiny plants and put them into new soil in individual pots. I've got the tray of them up against the south side of the house, where they'll get more sun, be sheltered from harsher conditions for the next week or two, as well as size up a bit before replanting. I'll be cleaning up the outdoor pots in the coming days, readying them for planting the primroses.

I used fresh potting soil (not quite $1 worth). So my total cost for a dozen "new" primrose plants was about half-price of what it would have cost to buy a single plant at Fred Meyer. I can't wait for them to bloom!

Although it's great to save money and use what I have on hand, I do admit there is one downside. The plants at Fred Meyer were already blooming. I'll have to wait 2-3 weeks before I see blooms on my plants. But I remind myself, blooms at the end of February are better than no blooms at all.