Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for the Late Garden Season

We're still using a lot of garden produce in meals and snacks, although much of what we're now using has been harvested and brought indoors and not as much is garden fresh. But the meals have been delicious and wholesome. Here were our suppers for the week.

Friday

Friday
taco salads -- tortilla chips, beef, beans, garden lettuce, garden tomatoes, garden green onions, cheese
plums and cookies for dessert

Saturday

Saturday

garden kale and tomato frittata

white rice

Sunday (sorry, no photo)

bean burritos

apple wedges

tomatoes

Monday

Monday

beef stir fry with garden cabbage and carrots

white rice

Tuesday

Tuesday

chicken pot pie, using garden pumpkin, green beans, celery, sage, garlic, parsley, and purchased onion, plus leftover chicken in stock

blackberry cobbler

Wednesday

Wednesday

more taco salads -- using the other half of the bag of tortilla chips, beef, beans, garden lettuce, garden tomatoes, garden green onions, and cheese

plums and blackberry cobbler for dessert

Thursday 

coconut lentil curry over brown rice

tomato wedges

Friends, can I ask you to pray about something for me. I'm sad, scared and worried about an upcoming dental procedure. I fractured a tooth all the way to the bone recently and saw the dentist today. She said there's no way to save the tooth, and I'll have to have it extracted. For those of you who pray, could you pray that I will have courage to face this. It will be months before I can have an implant placed in the bone tissue. I know others have faced this type of situation. Knowing that helps me. Are there dental procedures you've been faced with that have been especially difficult? I know others go through much more difficult situations. But this is what I'm going through right now.

Because I needed to distract myself from my lousy dental visit, when I came home my two daughters were around and they kept me company while I made our green tomato sweet pickle relish. We made 5 half-pint jars, enough for the year. I used small green tomatoes that wouldn't ripen indoors (the plants are blackening from blight brought on with the week of cold rains), a garden red pepper and a garden green peppers, 1 whole onions from the store, some spices, sugar and vinegar. I can't always get rid of the discouragements in life, but I can try to add some successes to bad days. It makes me feel like the good and bad are better balanced, rather than a strictly bad day.

Something just occurred to me, that I can add to the "good" side of the balance for today. Knowing that you friends are reading here really cheers me up.

Wishing you all a lovely autumn weekend.

You're still frugal even if you drop a treat item into your grocery cart, right?

I did my first grocery shopping since September 3 this morning. We have lots of food at home, so there was little of which we were running short. One daughter was free in the AM and wanted to pick up some personal things for herself. So it seemed as good a time as any to make a run down to WinCo (my favorite local store, but a good 20 minutes away).

I didn't have a lot on my list, some bananas, raisins, popping corn, peanuts, avocados, coconut oil, organic flour (no additives like barley), a gallon of milk, a jar of mayo, and oh yeah a pound of Swiss cheese for my husband and 2 packages of bacon for me. I spent $41.31 for the above.

Those last couple of items were definitely treat items for us. My husband loves Swiss cheese, but Swiss is never one of the less expensive cheeses at our stores. I like my morning bacon a few days a week. So these 2 packs will last until I decide we need more groceries, likely in about 3 weeks.

How do I justify buying treats like these once or twice per month and still call myself frugal? Being frugal is about the big picture. It's not about cutting corners in every area of spending and living a bare bones existence. It would be pretty hard to keep a lifestyle like that up for very long. It's the big picture. Are we living below our means? Are we saving for our future? Are we doing what we can to give others a little help? Are we paying all of our bills? Are we keeping up our house and car? Are we taking good care of our health? If we can say "yes" to all of those things, and there is a bit of change left in the piggy bank, then it's not only okay to drop a treat item into the grocery cart, but that treat will go a long way to stave off hunger for bigger, more costly splurges.

My family's experience has been that when we treat ourselves to small pleasures here and there, we don't feel the need to have a supersized TV, or the latest car, or a cruise vacation, or bling, bling, bling. We feel more satisfied in our daily life by having small treats, and then we can live beneath our budget, take care of our needs, help someone else with their needs, etc, etc. 

So yes, I think you can still call yourself frugal if you drop those occasional treat items into your grocery cart. It just doesn't need to look like there's a party at your house every weekend, judging by that same cart.

By the way, in the next couple of times I grocery shop, I'll be spending way more than that measly $41.31. I'll need to stock up on many items to get through winter, and that won't be cheap!