Cheap & Cheerful Suppers Plus Grocery Shopping for this Week

Groceries this week

Early Sunday morning, I stopped by Walmart before church. Among the things I needed (specific supplements), I bought 1 bunch of bananas, spending $1.14 for those.

Wednesday, after another blood draw (6th blood draw in 2 weeks) -- the lab was near the restaurant supply (we call it Cash 'n Carry, its former name, but now it's Chefstore). One daughter came with me for prayer support and in case I didn't feel right after the draw, and also to help with large boxes and bags. At Cash 'n Carry we bought 50 lbs of onions $14.09, a case of 9 4-lb bags of raisins $88.89, a gallon of olive oil $38.19, 1.25 quarts of sesame oil $17.69, 15 lbs of butter $3.09/lb, 12.5 lbs of popping corn $9.39, a carton of popcorn salt $4.28, 5 lbs of pizza cheese $11.99, and a 5 lb block of cheddar cheese $15.89. We'll be eating well this winter. I spent $246.77. I mentioned a while back that I'd be spending a lot stocking up for fall and winter. This was one of those shopping trips.  For the week, I spent 247.91.

When I got home from Cash 'n Carry, I noticed a few of the onions were definitely on their last legs. This afternoon I took some time to peel and chopped those onions for the freezer. I have a few more that I'll do this to, so none will be wasted (or so we hope).

Meals this week

Friday

Friday movie and dinner night. We didn't watch a movie because we got a late start. So we watched stand-up comedy instead. The night before, my daughter roasted a whole chicken. I reheated some of the meat and made a little more gravy with the leftover drippings. We had chopped tomatoes, spiced apples, roasted garden potatoes, and Swiss chard with this dinner. The laughter and good meal were what we all needed.

Saturday

Another chicken meal. My husband made flour tortillas and wrapped up seasoned leftover chicken. With the chicken wraps we had chopped fresh tomatoes and sautéed kale and garlic. Another meal that hit the spot.

Sunday

I simmered the chicken bones and my husband picked off as much meat as possible to make this really delicious soup. He added some canned pumpkin, the leftover chicken gravy, some stock and lots of garden veggies -- onions, carrots, celery, parsley, sage, thyme, potatoes, and green beans. It was very tasty. With the soup, he made scratch biscuits, also delicious.

Monday

A mixture of black-eyed peas and the last of the roasted chicken from last Thursday, some kale, chopped dried tomatoes, and lots of garlic and herbs over brown rice, with chopped russet apples on the side.

Tuesday

Swiss steak. Under the sauce of tomatoes and carrots is cube steak that we bought from the rancher. Very tender and flavorful. My family really enjoyed this meal. With it I served mashed garden potatoes (purple, red, and Yukon gold), and sautéed Swiss chard.

Wednesday

The Swiss steak made so much extra sauce that I had enough to make a soup the next night, adding the leftover black-eyed peas, some additional tomatoes, celery, more garlic, and garden herbs. I topped the soup with bottom-of-the-bag tortilla chips from a few weeks ago. I served this with scratch cornbread that I topped with cheddar before baking and baked delicata squash. I mixed up some brown sugar and set out salt, butter, and cinnamon for everyone to help themselves to top their own 2 halves of squash. I had 4 small delicata, perfect for splitting between the 4 of us.

Thursday

Tonight, one daughter is making ham fried rice for us, with chopped apples own the side. She taught today, so after she came home, she worked on dinner while I chopped onions. It was a lovely part of the day, catching up with her while we both cooked.

We are still using a lot of produce from our garden and mini orchard. This week, we used, garden onion, garlic, carrots, potatoes, green beans, celery, parsley, thyme, oregano, sage, tomatoes, apples, winter squash, Swiss chard, and kale in dinners, plus dried plums in breakfasts and lunches.

Our meals are humble, I know. But this is the type of cooking we really appreciate. Good basic foods prepared well is fine dining in our book.

How was your week? What were your favorite meals this week? Any special plans for the weekend? We'll be digging more potatoes, weather permitting. Then a few lovely autumn walks, and puttering around the house. A normal, wonderful weekend.

My Budget Autumn Decor

I've finally been putting out some autumn-themed decor this week, doing one room or area each day. This is the bay windowsill in the dining room. I've got our thrifted cornucopia filled with free pile faux fruit, berries and leaves plus one of our garden pumpkins, some collected-in-the-wild acorns, and the free pile candle holder plus free pile pillar candle (repurposed from the summer patio). It also 4 candle jars that I change seasonally.

I've shown you each season separately, but I don't think I've put them all together in one post before.

The jars are excess 1/2-pint jelly jars. My family doesn't eat nearly as much jam and jelly as they used to, so now I'm finding other uses for the canning jars.

The candles inside are battery LED tea lights from Dollar Tree, bought in 2016 or 2017. At that time you could get 4 lights in a package for $1. I'm sure they're now in packages of 2, and for $1.25. But I make them last by not leaving them on when its daytime and only turning them on for brief periods in the evenings. For October and November, I tied orange, red, yellow and brown plaid ribbons around each jar.

Just after Thanksgiving in late November, I switch out the autumn plaid ribbon for a green and red plaid ribbon. I don't retie the ribbons each time, but slide them on and off still tied.

For the Christmas candle jars, the spot where I use them is smaller, so I only use 3 candles. With the 4th jar, I fill this one with candy canes, as a budget holiday decoration.

Then when spring rolls around, the jars get a green ribbon, faux greenery, and raffia bow. These candle jars often come outside to the table on the deck during summer.

So that is some of my autumn decorating on a budget.