Easy-to-Make Heart-Shaped Pancakes for Valentine's Weekend Breakfast

A couple of things, today. First, some photos of how I make heart-shaped pancakes, with Valentine's just around the corner. The full post showing two ways to make heart-shaped pancakes, right here. 

These are easy to make. You can pour the hearts out with batter, off of the tip of a large spoon, or cut hearts out of round pancakes with a cookie cutter. It's a fun, and free, thing to do for your loved ones on Valentine's Day, or the weekend before.

Or . . . . . . .

My "other" thing, heart-shaped pancakes are a definite item for our menu this weekend, at some point, because. . .

my son, Chris, and his girlfriend, Angie, got engaged this past week!!!

Using Every Last Bit of a Bundle of Celery

When I buy a bundle of celery, I do something, right away, that ensures the flavorful tops will not get tossed into the compost or frozen for making stock.

With everyone making their own lunches, now, I noticed on a few occasions that some leafy celery tops made their way into the compost bin. My reaction -- Yikes! That's real food that you are tossing out!

Anyway, I had to find a work-around on this one, as nagging does not inspire compliance.

When I get those bundles home from the store, I "decapitate" the entire bundle. I chop off the top portion, just beneath the main joint where the long stem meets the leafy branch. I leave all of the stems, in tact, on the bundle and unwashed. There are decay issues if you wash the bundle without pulling the stems off; and leaving the stems still attached to the bundle keeps them fresher, longer.

After cutting all of the tops off, I wash those parts, and chop to add to a pot of soup.

Problem solved.

Whoever Said the Bluest Skies You've Ever Seen are in Seattle was Not Here Yesterday

my front yard, yesterday

my back yard

A Game Changer

This was last night's dinner, spaghetti pasta, topped with meat and vegetable tomato sauce, braised red cabbage and carrots sticks. I deliberately made double the pasta and double the meat and vegetable sauce.

Our family has always topped the pasta with sauce, instead of mixing it all together. It is what I grew up with, and it is what I prefer.

In the past, I would have taken the leftovers and placed each separately into food storage containers. As of late, I've been packaging up these deliberate leftovers as a meal.

As I was cleaning up the kitchen last night, I put the pasta and sauce in a casserole dish, tossed together, then topped with grated cheese. Tonight, regardless if I am busy or not, dinner is made. All someone -- anyone -- needs to do is heat it through. It's the convenience of a Stouffer's-type meal, without the cost. And it did not take any more time to package the meal this way. This sort of thinking ahead, while I clean up the kitchen, has been a game changer for my meal preparations.

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for Early February

Friday

• pumpkin and ham soup
• breadsticks
• choice of leftover fruit dishes (canned pineapple, rhubarb sauce, stewed prunes)

Saturday

• brown rice, topped with
• curried lentils, black beans, almonds and canned tomatoes
• chutney

Sunday

• assorted sandwiches left over from a luncheon for which I volunteered on Saturday
• tossed salad made from veggies, also leftover from Saturday's luncheon
• baby carrots, leftover from Saturday
• grapes, leftover from Saturday (do you see a trend here?)
• canned cream of mushroom soup
• cookies, a Friday Freebie

Monday

• pastrami and melted cheese sandwiches on croissants (pastrami from freezer and croissants given to us over the weekend)
• vegetable-barley soup, using odds and ends from the fridge
• blackberry-rhubarb sauce from the freezer

Tuesday

• pastrami sandwiches on croissants
• a 9-cent packet of Top Ramen (on markdown, had a tiny tear in the package), split 3 ways (1 family member out, another didn't want any)
• cole slaw made with half green, half red cabbage
• cookies from Christmas

Wednesday

• leftover pumpkin-ham soup (frozen, from last Friday)
• crackers and bagel halves, with cream cheese
• baby carrots (given to us over the weekend)

Thursday

• blue corn tortilla chips (freebie), topped with
• canned refried beans (freebie), cheese and salsa
• carrot sticks
• canned green beans
• blackberry cobbler with whipped cream

I am still managing to get dinner on the table, daily, despite a busy week with my writing class. That's the good news. The bad news is that I'm using up my stash of packaged foods that make many of these meals easy. Oh well, the busy time will soon be over and I can prepare more meals from scratch again.

What was on your menu this past week? Anything yummy, or fast and easy? Who made something elaborate this week? Anybody else here, get through the entire week without buying any take-out?

I hope all is well with everyone. Have a great weekend!

Past the Sell-by Date

In case you find yourself in a similar position . . .

I just had not managed to whip and freeze all of the whipping cream that I bought on markdown in early January. Yesterday evening, while the soup was heating, I whipped up a pint that was six days past it's sell-by date. It still tasted fine. I'll whip one last pint tomorrow, to freeze for future desserts, and then I'll be all caught up.

Little Old Lady Habits

I call these my little old lady habits. There the sort of things that I do that I imagine a little old lady, living on a fixed income, does in the privacy of her own apartment to make the money stretch. Things like saving the used tea bag in the fridge, to use again for tomorrow's cup; or carefully washing a sheet of foil, to use again and again; or airing out a sweater after wearing, before folding and putting away to wear again next week, in lieu of washing with each wearing.

My little old lady (the who who lives in my head) does all of these things with grace and style. She may be reusing a tea bag, but her tea is drunk from a lovely tea cup. Her sweater may be old, but it is a beautiful and classic one, lovingly cared for to extend its life another decade.

What makes this little old lady so lovely is that with the money she saves by keeping all of her habits, she is generous at the red bucket during the holidays; and in church when a little more is needed for new hymnals; and with the homeless man on the highway corner needing money for a sandwich. She gives with all of her heart.

My little old lady habit, today, is how I portion out my butter. It's one of those quirky things I have done for years. As my bread is toasting, I take the butter from the refrigerator, measure my portion, and slice off.  I use about half-tablespoon of butter, total for 2 slices of bread. It's enough, without being wasteful of our dwindling supply of an expensive commodity. Most of the time, I am not terribly precise with measurements; but with my morning butter I am. I set the butter, in two portions, on the plate, and put the butter dish away while I wait for my toast.

You may call it a quirk or a little old lady habit. With my mind's eye, I picture a little old lady performing the ritual of morning toast-making, just in this manner. She's careful with her home-keeping supplies. She's never wasteful; but always manages to enjoy what she has. This is the little old lady that I hope to become.

January 2017 Grocery Spending Journal

Dec. 29 (I closed out December's budget on the morning of the 29th, so this goes into January's budget) QFC, next door to the tire place, when I got my tires replaced. We found almond "egg" nog (no egg, vegan) in quarts for 79 cents each. I bought 4 quarts. Also found 6 bananas on markdown, for 49 cents lb (still in fantastic shape, but had been separated from their bunches), and we bought 1 apple fritter to share, to have with the free coffee and popcorn, at the tire shop for our "breakfast". Spent $5.08

With the almond nog -- it was delicious, and I wished, later, that I had bought more. I can drink this non-dairy stuff, so a bonus for me. But the rest of the family enjoyed it, too. As I told my son, if you're willing to try something different, you can save a lot of money, and find new treats to enjoy.

Dec. 29 Fred Meyer, looking for a plant to take to my father-in-law. While there, of course I cruised by the markdown areas! We found whipping cream in pints for 99 cents each (I bought 6 pints). The sell-by date is at the end of January. I also found slabs of the Pillsbury sugar cookie dough (pre-rolled out sheets, for cutting with cookie cutters), I bought all 5 packages, at 55 cents each. And I found brown and serve dinner rolls for 89 cents, to serve on New Year's Day. I thought these were a bit of a disappointment. When you bake from scratch, you become selective concerning what constitutes a good bread product. total spent $9.58

I know, I could easily make my own cookie dough for sugar cookies. But this stuff is freezable. I get called every few months to contribute cookies to coffee hour at church. I knew my time was coming up, so I figured I could do heart-shaped cookies, just before Valentine's Day. This will be a time-saver, and probably cheaper than baking from scratch, given the price of butter.

December 31. We stop at a market to bring ice cream to go with the cake I baked for my father-in-law's birthday. Spent $3.99

January 3. Fred Meyer for Senior Discount day. Boneless, skinless chicken breasts are on sale for $1.47/lb. I bought about 9 lbs. I also bought a half-gallon of almond milk for $2.25, 4 bottles of bleu cheese salad dressing, on markdown for 71 cents each, a package of ramen soup for 9 cents (markdown) a head of cabbage at 49 cents/lb, a box of pumpkin spice tea on markdown for $1.69, a box of Yogi herb tea on markdown for $1.88, and a 100 bag box of generic decaf tea for $2.24. My freebies this time were a16-oz bottle of Ranch dressing and a bottle of some sort of nutritional drink Body Armor. I spent $25.66

Sometime in December, I bought some peppermint oil for making peppermint patties. I forgot to list this last month. I used a coupon at Michael's and paid $1.99

So far this month, I've spent $46.30.

January 6. I stopped at WinCo and bought 5 cans of Del Monte pineapple chunks for 98 cents each, 5 lbs of carrots for $2.28, some vegetable soup mix, plus tortellini to add to it, and bean soup mix for quick soups at home, enough for about 10 servings of almost instant soup for my lunches on super busy days, at a cost of $3.41, or 34 cents per lunch. I also bought 1  1/2 lbs of broccoli crowns at 98 cents/lb, 2 green peppers at 48 cents each, 5 dozen medium eggs for $3.98 (80 cents/dz), and 4 double-size, individually-wrapped fig bars for 98 cents. Can you tell that it's now lunchtime? WinCo is not near my home, but near where I had an appointment from 11 AM to Noon. Total spent $17.84

Also stopped by Cash & Carry and bought 10 lbs of carrots for $4.09, 1 #10 can of tomato paste for $5.29, a super large head of red cabbage (I'd guess it's close to 4 lbs), for $1.24, a package of 3 bundles of celery for $2.39, 16 bananas, at 47 cents/lb, 5 lb bag of mandarin oranges for $6.88, 25 lb bag of lentils, for $22.57. Total spent $45.13

January 8. At Dollar Tree where I find bags of Christmas chocolate candies for 25 cents each 5-oz bag. I buy 5 bags, to save for making s'mores. Spent $1.25

January 13. Fred Meyer to get a prescription filled for my husband, buy milk, get gas, pick up freebies, and use a $2 off coupon before it expires. Interesting thing, in our area this past week, with the big storm in Portland, the trucks that bring milk to our Fred Meyer stores haven't been able to make it, here. So, when I got to Fred Meyer, today, they were nearly sold out of milk, with exception to some skim milk. That was all that was left. So, I bought 7 half-gallons of skim milk, with the intention of blending it with whipping cream, which I have at home, bought on markdown, still good. The milk was 99 cents each, plus I bought 3 half-gallons of orange juice, same price. I picked up my can of refried beans (Friday freebie) and my bag of blue corn tortilla chips (Friday freebie). I also bought 1 lb of mushrooms on markdown for $1.79, and 4 bananas at 49 cents/lb. My plan with the $2 off coupon is to get myself some lunch. It was after 2 when I finally had time to take a break for lunch. I went to the deli and picked out some kale salad (56 cents) and chicken-cranberry salad ($2.30), plus I splurged and box an individual serving bag of Pepperidge Farms shortbread cookies, for $1.19 (I did refrain from buying soda pop, however, so I wasn't completely indulgent). After my $2 coupon, my lunch cost $2.05, not terribly bad, I think. Total spent at Fred Meyer, $14.43

So far, this month, I've spent $124.95

January 21. My daughter and I stopped and bought donuts, on our way to the beach, for my second day visit. Not the wisest money spent. At least I'll never wonder what a maple-bacon donut is like. Total spent $3.98 (yes, those donuts are almost $2 each!! Yikes!!)

Total spent for the month of January --  $128.93

I had a surplus of $60.13 coming into January. Add that to my budgeted amount of $190, and I had $250.13 to spend for the month of January. Having only spent $128.93, I now have a surplus of $121.20 to roll over to February.

What I bought:

Produce

26 bananas
1 head of green cabbage
5 cans of pineapple chunks
15 lbs of carrots
1  1/2 lbs of broccoli crowns
2 green peppers
#10 can of tomato paste
1 head of red cabbage
3 bundles of celery
5 lbs of mandarins
3 half gallons of orange juice
1 lb of mushrooms

Meat

9 lbs of boneless skinless chicken breasts

Dairy

4 quarts of almond eggnog
6 pints of whipping cream
2 quarts of ice cream
1/2 gal almond milk
5 dozen eggs
7 half gallons of skim milk


Pantry

1 apple fritter
5 packages of pre-rolled sugar cookie dough
1 dozen brown and serve dinner rolls
4 bottles bleu cheese salad dressing
1 bottle ranch salad dressing (freebie)
1 package of ramen soup
3 boxes of tea
an individual serving of a nutritional drink (freebie)
peppermint oil
instant vegetable soup mix ingredients, enough for 10 servings
4 individually wrapped fig bars
25 lbs of lentils
1 can of refried beans (freebie)
1 bag of blue corn tortilla chips (freebie)
2 individual servings of deli salad, plus an individual bag of shortbread cookies, using a $2 off coupon to cut price in half, for my lunch.
2 maple-bacon bar donuts

So, yeah, there are a lot of treat items in this past month's grocery shopping. That just shows you how effective stocking up on staples in the months of November and December can be. We had enough of the staples to get us through this month, so well, that we could afford a couple of treats.

Going into February, we're running low on yeast, whole wheat flour, vegetable oil and eggs. I will also need some fresh produce to supplement the canned produce. our supplies of meat are beginning to go down, with exception to whole ham and whole turkey. Guess I'd better get the roasting pan out again!

How did your month's shopping go? Was this as lean of a month as you had intended?

Celebrating Success

I was so proud of myself on Friday. I had an appointment in the morning, lasting until just after noon. I got in my car to drive home, and I kept thinking about picking up lunch somewhere. After about 15 minutes (the drive is about 30 minutes), I changed my thinking from "where could I get something delicious, but healthy?" to "what could I make at home that would be fast, delicious and healthy?" Delicious seemed to be most important!

I did come up with something. And it was delicious. And it didn't cost me anything extra! I made a quick, 2-cup batch of soup with the bulk bin items from WinCo, a piece of cinnamon toast and a glass of orange juice. Easy, healthy and yummy!

I was so pleased with myself about that lunch. I have renewed interest in prudence with our spending. I was watching a video about a woman photographer from the late 1800s to early 1900s. It was not only the story of her photography, but also of her life and attention to detail. I have met my match in her, I am convinced. This woman was so careful in documenting all of her correspondence, all of her expenses and all of her income. Really remarkable. I was inspired by how she took life on, just as it came to her.

Her name was Evelyn Cameron. The title of the video is Evelyn Cameron: Pictures from a Worthy Life. It aired on Montana PBS in 2009, and may be available through your library.

I will continue to be thoughtful with my spending, opting for long-term goal realization over short-term enjoyment. And I'm celebrating my successes, one after another!

When was the last time you celebrated one of your successes? Tell me all about it.

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for a Late January Week

Friday

• lentil and vegetable soup, using whatever veggies I could find in the fridge, plus canned green beans, canned tomatoes and some macaroni pasta
• freshly-baked French bread (it came out of the oven 5 minutes before serving, can't get much fresher than that!)
• tangerines
• blondies that my daughter made, late, late, late last night (love those night-owl university students!)

Saturday

• hot dogs
• a pasta and nut sauce
• canned green beans
• cole slaw

Sunday

• ham and corn pudding
• yam casserole, topped with mini-marshmallows
• cole slaw

Monday

• leftover ham and corn pudding
• leftover yam casserole
• candied pineapple slices, sauteed in butter and brown sugar

Tuesday

• 10-minute turkey pot pie
• canned cranberry sauce
• olives
• blackberry-rhubarb sauce (from the freezer)

Wednesday

• leftover lentil and vegetable soup, topped with cheese
• garlic toast made from leftover French bread
• dried cranberries

Thursday

• baked turkey bacon
• pancake squares
• stewed prunes

So, another week gone. I don't know if you've noticed, but there's a repeating pattern in my menus. Friday I always make double of everything. I freeze half, and on the following Wednesday, we have a completely leftover meal. Sunday, I also double-batch most of dinner. Then on Monday we eat leftovers.  Thursday is always an easy breakfast for dinner menu. And my husband now always cooks on Saturday. This routine greatly reduces the amount of time I spend cooking dinners.

The other area in which I am really saving time is grocery shopping. I stocked up pretty well in the fall months. I'm now using those supplies for the bulk of our groceries needs. I have another busy weekend ahead of me (volunteering all day on Saturday), so I don't think I'll have time for any grocery shopping this morning, after my appointment. We are running low on eggs. So be it. I can save time by skipping grocery shopping this week, then doing a big stock-up next Friday, when I won't have other weekend obligations to follow through on. 

Do you ever find yourself facing this sort of decision -- shop now and have ample supplies, or, delay shopping another week and save 2 hours? It is a way to save time. One of my delightful daughters offered to "help" with the grocery shopping. It was sounding great until I realized that her list consisted mostly of Cheetos and Doritos, while mine consisted of the "boring" foods like eggs and whole wheat flour. I did make a promise to do a huge shopping trip the first week of March, and maybe some Cheetos will make it into that shopping trip.

Anyway, I'm wishing everyone a great weekend. If you live where there's a storm, I hope you don't have to go out in it, but can sit by a window and just enjoy the view. Snow is always prettier when I don't have to drive in it.

The 10-Minute Turkey Pot Pie

This really takes more than 10 minutes, if you count the time to originally roast and chop the turkey, make the gravy and mix the pie pastry. And of course, the time spent baking.

However . . .
on the day that I assembled and baked it, that's all the time I had in order to throw it together and begin baking in the oven.  So, in that sense, it was a 10-minute pot pie.

Before those 10 minutes, I had frozen turkey chunks in gravy, from Thanksgiving And, I had pie pastry in patties, in the freezer. To get from here to finished product --

Early in the day I found the frozen turkey and pie pastry, and set out to thaw.

About 45 minutes before dinner, I emptied the turkey in gravy into a glass deep-dish pie plate, peeled 3 carrots and chopped quickly, then added to the turkey in gravy, along with water.  I microwaved all of this for 3 minutes.

While  the turkey, gravy, water and chopped carrots were in the microwave, I peeled and rough-chopped 3 potatoes. I added the potatoes to the carrots and turkey, then microwaved for another 6 minutes.

While that was microwaving, I washed and chopped 2 long sticks of celery and rolled out the pie pastry.

Once the potatoes were about half-way cooked, I added some dried onion flakes, a little more water and chicken soup base, along with the celery, plus some canned peas.  I stirred this all together, and topped with the rolled-out pie pastry.

I was in such a hurry that I didn't even slash the pie neatly. But instead, with one hand holding the pie about to go into the oven, I quickly used the other hand to make 5 slashes into the top of the pie. It didn't seem to matter that it wasn't "pretty".

The pie was baked at 375 degrees F, for about 25 minutes, while I worked on another project. My hands-on time, the day of baking the pie was really just 10 minutes. 10 very rushed minutes. --  but 10, nonetheless.  

Things that saved time -- 

• I used dried onion flakes in place of more time-consuming process of chopping fresh onions, then sauteing in fat before adding to the turkey and vegetable mix.
• I used about 1 heaping teaspoon of chicken soup base to boost the flavor, instead of "fiddling" with the seasonings.
• I had pie pastry in single-pie patties in the freezer, ready to use after thawing. And I only used one crust for the pie, on top where it matters most.
• The turkey that I froze, right after Thanksgiving was already in chunks, and in a seasoned gravy.
• My vegetables were roughly chopped. If I'd wanted to save even more time, I could have left the peels on.
• I mixed the pie filling in the baking dish (a glass, deep-dish pie plate), the same dish that I microwaved part of the filling in, before placing in the oven.

A Day Trip to the Beach

I had to go to the beach two days last week, for a class that I'm taking. I thought you might like to see my pictures. Enjoy!

p.s. I brought my own coffee, and parking was free, because I didn't mind the walk down the hill. It would have cost $4 to park in the lot, below.

Mukilteo Lighthouse Park, from the hill in "old town", where the parking is free

rocks down below the lighthouse -- there's a bench right above the rocks

the backside of the lighthouse -- what you'd see if you were out on the Sound

I hope that guy is not going to dive, swim, crab or jump!!

the ferry that goes over to Whidbey Island, from Mukilteo

the water was unbelievably clear -- they say that's due to rain diluting saline

just the view from the beach, while I sat on a large log

Baking the Whole Package of Turkey Bacon

As we've discussed, breakfast for dinner has been on my supper menu this month. At the end of December, I bought several packages of turkey bacon, marked down to $1.39 per package. I've specifically targeted BFD nights for my busy evening of the week. Searing bacon in a skillet takes too much time for an evening when I have a meeting that I'm scrambling to get to.

So, I've been baking the bacon. My mother's 1957 cookbook has instructions for baking pork bacon in the oven, on a rack, in a jelly roll pan, at 400 degrees F, for about 15-20 minutes. This does work very well, and is a great way to avoid the painful grease splatters, while standing at the stove, cooking bacon.

What I have in the freezer right now is turkey bacon. So, I was curious whether or not turkey bacon would also bake well. I really loved how easy this was.

• I didn't use a rack, just laid the pieces out on the a jelly roll pan, close together.  Even turkey bacon shrinks up. I was able to fit about 12 slices, at one time, onto the jelly roll pan.
• And I preheated the oven to 375 degrees F (not 400 F like for pork bacon)
• I baked for about 15 minutes, until they looked done.
• I was able to bake the whole package in two batches, one right after the other.
• Leftover cooked bacon was kept in the fridge for a couple of days. It can also be frozen, and quickly reheated, one or two strips at a time.

I didn't line the baking sheet with anything. But you can, if you want an easier clean-up. And I didn't grease the pan. I've heard that oiling the pan, first, will result in crispier turkey bacon. I may try that this week. But you don't need to add oil, unless you are baking the super lean variety of turkey bacon. The regular turkey bacon doesn't stick to the pan.

What I liked most about this method is that I didn't have to tend to it, while it cooked. When I microwave bacon it goes from not quite done to overdone quickly. And standing at the stove takes time away from other, more desirable, tasks.

Cooking for One: Lunchtime at my House

Since it's just me for lunch at home, five days a week, I find it difficult to get motivated to stop whatever I'm doing, and cook myself a proper meal. I've come up with four types of lunches, for me that are working.

• the "desperately hungry, but no time to stand in the kitchen to cook, and don't want to wash any dishes" lunch. This consists of a slice of whole wheat bread, spread with peanut butter (natural-style chunky is my fave), and then topped with additional peanuts. It's really quite tasty and filling. The bonus is I don't put this on a plate, but use my cloth napkin from the table, and the only other thing I dirty is the knife used to spread the peanut butter.

• meal on a plate (or in a bowl, just not in plastic or food storage containers). When I'm serving up dinner, if there's enough leftover, I serve myself an extra plate or bowl of whatever is on the menu that night. I cover this serving and put it in the fridge. At lunchtime the next day, I reheat my meal in the microwave. It's ready in 1 minute, with zero fuss. I don't even have storage or reheating containers to wash. My plate, or bowl, goes into the dishwasher. These are my favorite lunch meals. They are better than commercial, frozen meals, in that I get to eat my good cooking, and on good dishes, not out of plastic.

• almost-instant soup for one. Earlier this month, I bought a bunch of ingredients from the bulk section to make almost-instant soups. These are the same ingredients that I bought to make soup mixes to give as Christmas gifts. I bought dried onion flakes, a bean and tortilla soup mix, chicken soup base powder, dried cheese tortellinis, dried vegetable soup mix, and some Parmesan cheese. I combine various ingredients in my pot, along with extra chili powder, cumin, oregano, basil, garlic powder, salt and water, and cook. With some of the soups I make, I also add some canned tomatoes, or tomato sauce, and/or, top with the remnants of a bag of tortilla chips that I've stashed in a cupboard. These are delicious and I look forward to making them for myself. The hands-on time is under 5 minutes, and cooking can take 30 or so minutes, but I can be doing something else during that time. The cost per bowl of soup is about 35 cents.

• hot dog from the freezer or an egg, scrambled or boiled, along with some sort of starchy side dish, such as a corn tortilla, slice of bread, or a leftover baked potato. Not at all fancy, but it's enough to fill me, something I will enjoy eating, I always have this on hand at home, and it keeps me from getting take-out when I'm coming home from appointments or running errands.

If you're at home, every day by yourself, how do you manage your own lunches?

Cheap & Cheerful Menus for a Mid-January Week

Thursday's quick and easy supper of eggs, bacon, bagels and stewed prunes

Friday
Leftover-palooza
We needed to eat through a bunch of leftovers, so I changed up the menu for tonight's dinner.

• leftover rice and lentils from last Saturday, mixed with leftover black beans from a week ago, and canned tomatoes, from the can I opened last Sunday, some salsa, and some black olives, heated in a skillet with beef fat from the freezer, and some oil (to mute the beef fat flavor)
• leftover stewed prunes from Thursday, mixed with 1 banana, sliced, for fruit cups, for 3 of the family, and 1 dish of leftover blackberry-rhubarb sauce for the other person
• steamed broccoli, the last crown of broccoli, bought a week ago and needed cooking

Saturday

It was my husband's turn to cook, again. I was gone for the afternoon and came home a few minutes before dinner was ready. He's doing okay with the cooking, by the way. He asked for suggestions, on Friday. I gave him a couple of suggestions. He decided to choose his own path.

• brown rice
• refried beans
• fried corn tortillas and salsa
• carrot and celery sticks, plus bleu cheese dressing

Sunday

• chili made with a chicken breast, that I had thawed the day before and wasn't used, in place of turkey as I'd planned, simmered with canned tomatoes, green peppers, onions, pinto beans and seasonings
• scratch cornbread
• tangerines
• cookies (these ones, but I didn't get around to dipping them in white chocolate

Monday

Mostly a repeat from Sunday's dinner

• leftover chili, stretched with lentils today
• leftover cornbread
• smoothies of orange juice, cranberry sauce and pumpkin

Tuesday

• baked potatoes, topped with a diced hot dog and mushrooms, sauteed, then cheese on that (this was surprisingly good)
• baked butternut squash, simply seasoned with butter and salt
• winter veggie slaw, of red cabbage, green cabbage and julienned carrots

Wednesday

• ham slices from the freezer
• leftover baked potatoes
• leftover butternut squash mixed with leftover pumpkin puree
• marinated lentil salad, in mustard vinaigrette
• watermelon pickles
• blackberry-rhubarb sauce from the freezer

Thursday

• eggs, scrambled in ham fat, with mushrooms, onions and green pepper, topped with cheese
• turkey bacon
• stewed prunes
• bagels with cream cheese

Another quick and easy week of dinners. I attempted to put some order back into the pantry this week. We still have such abundance of everything that it's impossible to find anything in the pantry or the freezer. But I'm working at it. My plan is to have made a significant dent in the freezers by the end of February. I think we need to eat more ham and blackberries to make that happen.

What was on your menu this past week? Anything particularly yummy, or easy? I hope that everyone who was under the weather last week, is feeling much better, this week. Enjoy your weekend, everyone!

Tipping the Jug

You know that you're in a frugal household when the sight of upside down, empty containers, propped over bowl and pots is a normal thing.

Of course, the amount of liquid that can be drained out of an "empty" jug is in direct proportion to the size of the container to be emptied and the viscosity of the liquid. A larger container holding a thick liquid will yield a greater volume of resulting liquid than a smaller container of a thin liquid. The photos, above, are from a 7.5 gallon container of vegetable oil that was presumably empty. I left the jug propped, upside-down, over a bowl for 6 hours and it yielded about 2 tablespoons of oil, enough for salad dressing for a marinated lentil salad.

Above the mixing bowl, I propped a gallon-size jug of molasses, again, presumably empty. After draining for about 4 hours, it yielded about 3/4 tablespoon of molasses, enough to make 1/4 cup of light-brown sugar, out of white sugar, for a batch of bread.

Of course, you do have to be creative in how you prop your jugs. Sometimes, I can just leave them resting against something else on the counter, like the crockpot. Other times, I have to wedge the jug partially inside a cupboard, as with the molasses jug, if I don't want the jug, itself, sitting in the ingredients, like this bread dough.

Will 2 tablespoons of oil make or break us financially? No, probably not. But it's the principle of it all. I paid for all of the molasses in the jug, not 1 gallon less 1 tablespoon of molasses. I want to use every last bit that I've paid for. And sometimes, tipping the jug gets that last bit out, that I need for a recipe, meaning I can still make what I had planned, without a last minute dash out to the store.

What do you think? Do you prop jugs upside down to get every last drop? Do you think it's worth the effort?

Winter Salad and My Little Tool for Julienned Carrots

I'm hungry for fresh foods, like salads. Something with texture to contrast the soft squashes, potatoes, and yams. Something with crunch in contrast with canned green beans and canned peas. Tender leafy greens, like fresh spinach and lettuce are expensive this time of year So, I'm turning to slaws.

Last night, we had a delicious and crunchy fresh salad of red cabbage, green cabbage and julienned carrots. For a dressing, I used some bleu cheese salad dressing that I bought on markdown for 79 cents per 16-oz bottle, mixed with a little mayo and vinegar.

I have this handy-dandy tool, my step-mom gave to me last year, that juliennes carrots as easily as peeling them.

You peel your carrot, and then run this tool down the length of the carrot to produce a multitude of shreds in seconds. I didn't think I would like this tool as much as I do. But it makes such quick work of julienning carrots that I've become a big fan. The initial shreds are as long as the carrot. For salads, I chop the shreds into 2-inch pieces.

It's called a julienne peeler, and places like Amazon and Bed, Bath and Beyond sell them. It's good for making veggie "pasta" out of zucchini and eggplant, as well as julienned carrots. For veggie "noodles", leave the shreds long.

Anyway, I'm not trying to sell anything, but just wanted to share how delighted I am with this tool.

Feedback on My Handcrafted Christmas Gifts and the Display Soap

As of this past weekend, I have, now, given all of my Christmas gifts. (Yes, the holidays did stretch out well beyond December, for me.) The feedback that I received, post-Christmas, consisted of some pretty good reviews. When giving hand-crafted gifts, I choose recipients who I am confident will appreciate receiving hand-crafted items because they either never craft anything, or they do some crafting, and so understand the work involved. So, that said, here are some of the comments that I received.

From a recipient of spa items -- "wow, you made this?" This individual was particularly delighted with receiving items that I had made, and specifically so, because they were beauty items. A long conversation followed, about how to make a variety of things. And my second-hand information was that she was very impressed with the packaging of the items.

I bring this up because Valentine's day is just around the corner and a sweet little envelope, made from a sheet of a favorite love poem, could contain a handwritten note or card, or homemade treats, to someone special, for very little cost.

Another gift recipient was blown away that you can actually make soap, easily. I explained how melt and pour soap is combined with extra ingredients, then poured into a mold. Most of the people to whom I give hand-crafted soap have no idea that melt and pour soap base exists. So it's always exciting to see their face or hear their voice when they realize that I made the soap. That makes it worth it.

My hand-knit dish cloths were also well-received. This recipient happens to be the person who taught me how to knit, in the first place. So she could appreciate my progress in knitting, as well as the beauty of the pattern used.  I hope they give her many years of good service.

The stand-out comment that I received on the homemade soup mixes was again, about the packaging. Several  people in the room commented on how the packaging looked like something they might see in Williams-Sonoma, possibly due to the coloring (red/white twine, combined with black/white label). In any case, I took that as quite a compliment. 

I received good feedback from two of the recipients of the birdseed ornaments. Again, the families to whom I sent these were impressed that they could be made at home.

I gave a family these individual packages of homemade cocoa mix. I deliberately chose this gift for this family, as I knew they didn't bake many desserts or treats from scratch in their house. They do cook fabulous meal items, however. Baking and other sweets isn't their thing. We had a bit of a conversation about how I made these, combining milk powder, cocoa powder, sugar, chopped chocolate, and adding the candy cane and marshmallows. In their house, at the beginning of winter, they have often bought boxes of different flavors of cocoa mix, such as raspberry cocoa, peppermint cocoa. I've seen these boxed assortments at Cost Plus, at holiday time. This family was delighted to receive the cocoa packages, and informed me the following week that they had all enjoyed them, already. (That's always a good sign when something you've made does get used or consumed.)

And finally, the "display soap". At the very end of the holiday season, I needed a couple more hand-crafted items. So, I made a small batch of molded soaps for two different recipients. The comments that I received cracked me up, on these. Upon receiving, the wife repeatedly said they were too beautiful to use. And I kept reassuring her that they should be used. A week later, the husband told me that they had put the soaps "on display". I just imagined the conversation in their home when that happened, because I recall similar "discussions" and "instructions" in my own home, growing up. You know, when you have fancy soap in the house, someone is the self-appointed "guest soap monitor". As a kid, we weren't supposed to use the guest soap in the guest bathroom. If we really needed to use the guest bathroom (which we were discouraged from doing, but sometimes is a necessity), we were often followed to the bathroom door by my mother, as she would shout out instructions through the guest bathroom door to "don't use the guest soap! That's for company! Use the soap in a dish under the sink." We'd oblige, inferring how important this must be to my mother, as why else would she interrupt some important work in the kitchen to inform us to keep this guest soap pristine. So, the "display soap". 

I did tell our friends to please, use this soap. I can always make more. It really isn't a piece of art, but something to be used. I hope they have all gotten over this feeling like they need to keep the soap pristine. I'll find out when I visit their home, someday. 

I've thought of a twist on this gift, just for these folks, a soap-of-the-month gift, where I deliver a new and different bar of guest soap to them, every month, for the year. Maybe that would take the need-to-save-this-forever thinking out of receiving the soap. Hmm, maybe that could be a retail gift package -- the soap-of-the-month club.

What was my takeaway from my hand-crafted gifts this year? Presentation seemed to really matter. Maybe I have a lot of shallow friends and family. From the product, itself, to the wraps and packaging, how it appeared was the first impression. The other takeaway for me, if I were to seek employment in retail production, I might really enjoy working in the design of packaging.