Definition of insanity

You've probably heard this -- the definition of insanity is repeatedly doing the same thing over and over, but expecting a different result.

I feel like that is what I have been doing for the last couple of years. Same thing, same thing, but expecting to feel differently about it all. With awareness, and in response, I am trying to create a different path for my life. This has led to me taking classes and preparing for a career. It is also what prompted me to turn over some of the dinner-prep tasks in our house to other members of the household. And it has led me to judiciously use more prepared foods.

I am trying to listen to my body and my spirit. Always making everything from scratch is tiring. There are some good shortcuts available in convenience foods, such as the frozen pie crust that I used last week. I'm making burritos for dinner tomorrow night, and using canned refried beans. I know that I could make refried beans and save about 50%. But just knowing that I can wait until the late afternoon to start on dinner prep frees my mind to pursue something else for the entire day.

Other areas where I am simplifying include the holidays. Christmas gifting will be greatly simplified this year. And I really am okay with that. I've asked each of my children to tell me one thing, just one thing, that they'd really enjoy receiving this year. If I happen to also buy or make something else, that will be a bonus. We all have so much stuff, anyway. There's no need to add to the piles and piles of belongings. Fewer gifts, overall, mean less wrapping paper and ribbon, which also means less clean-up on Christmas day. Fewer gifts mean a simpler credit card statement in January. We may spend nearly as much as previous years, but the statement will be simpler to audit for errors. Fewer gifts mean more time to spend relaxing during the season, and on Christmas. Fewer gifts may also mean fewer headaches for me. Fewer gifts mean less waste in the garbage for December, less gasoline used to get to stores or have merchandise delivered to me, and maybe less of a sense of greed. Fewer gifts mean greater appreciation for the abundance that we already have. Less gives us more.

What I've discovered is that I don't feel like less of a mother, wife, homemaker, friend, sister, etc. On the contrary, simplifying my daily work has given me more energy to really be present with the people in my life. Just something I was thinking about.

Cheap & Cheerful

The week. My husband cooked one night last weekend and made curried potatoes and fry bread, and my one daughter who loves cookouts organized another hot dog roast, the other night. We are moving towards more egalitarian cooking roles in our family. My life is changing and it's time for our household roles to change, too. Here's what we had for dinner this week:

Monday  (daughter cooked) -- pasta and pumpkin, cole slaw

Tuesday -- baked squash, tossed salad, scrambled eggs

Wednesday  (leftover night for two) -- squash, microwaved potatoes, apple slices, baked apples, leftover-filled frittata

Thursday  (family dinner night) -- pot roast, carrots, potatoes, tossed salad and pumpkin pie

Tonight -- some leftovers from last night, but maybe not the meat. I think I'll freeze the leftover roast and use in burritos some night next week. For protein tonight, you guessed it, more eggs to go with leftover veggies, salad and pie

I was pushing eggs on the family this week. I have about 2 more dozen that need using quick, or else I should freeze them. Serving for dinner seems easier in my mind than freezing, right now. Eggs were cheap, with that last major stock-up, so it makes sense to just use them for the protein source in dinners for a while.

I hit the grocery store at just the right time on Tuesday morning. There was an entire grocery cart filled with marked down produce. I bought a few bags of tomatoes, apples and squash, for $1 per bag. I even got a small bag of Asian pears for $1 -- a rare treat for us.

For Thursday's dinner, I was looking for a homey dessert and thought of pie. I had a can of pumpkin in the pantry, and the rest of the ingredients for a filling, but the thought of making the crust sounded like more work than I had time for. So I bought a frozen pie shell, at 75 cents each in a package of two. While 75 cents is a lot more than making crust from scratch at 43 cents each (in this post I calculated my cost for pie pastry), I figured that a homemade pie using a commercial crust was still a bargain, compared to buying a dessert.

That's it for my week. How was yours? Do you buy ready-made pie crusts? If so, do you prefer the frozen ones or the pastry in the refrigerator section of the store? For me, the frozen ones were less expensive and already in a pan, so I went with those. I hope you have a great weekend! See you Monday.

"Instant" egg salad sandwiches, using deviled eggs

This has been my go-to lunch or breakfast for the last several days.

I made a large batch of deviled eggs three days ago, to use surplus eggs. I think they make a great snack; and having them all ready and waiting encourages other family members to eat the eggs. Anyways, I discovered that having deviled eggs all ready makes for very quick sandwiches.

For one 1/2 sandwich (that's all I ever eat, it seems), I take 1 slice of bread and spread it with mayonnaise (not necessary, but that's how I like my sandwiches). Cut the bread in half.

Then, plop a deviled egg onto one of the halves of bread.

Squish the other half slice of bread onto the egg. And voila, one egg salad sandwich.

One of my daughters thought this was a great way to use up leftover deviled eggs, you know, after a picnic or large family dinner/brunch. So, I thought I'd share, as it works so well for sandwiches in a hurry.

Pretty little jars

I saved these two pretty little jars from edible treats.

They are nice enough to hang on to. But what should I do with them? Make some infused honey or spicy mustard? Too pretty to throw away -- what would you use these jars for? Lucky for me the label on the honey jar peeled right off. I'll have to work a bit on the other jar's label.

10 of my favorite freebies of recent weeks

1.  email -- you can send a message to anyone, no stamp, immediate delivery, for free!

2.  library -- it's not just that you can get some books at the library, but you can often get the very one book that you want. Case in point -- when my daughter and I were vintage shopping for business ideas a month ago, my daughter saw a book that intrigued her. She spent several minutes browsing through that book. I took notice, thinking I would buy this book on Amazon as a Christmas gift for her. When I came home, I looked it up on Amazon, then had a thought, "hmmm, I should really check the library's database for this first. I could still surprise her with the book, on loan." Sure enough, our library's system had the very book on the shelf in anther branch. I had it sent to my local branch and picked it up later that week. My daughter was thrilled to see that book sitting on the kitchen table for her.

3.  youtube -- and other video sites. I use youtube to find music that I hear on the radio and want to listen to again. I also amuse myself with funny cat videos and other junky stuff. When I'm in a serious mode, I use youtube for self-help and instructional videos. Free entertainment and self-improvement!

4.  e-coupons on the grocery store's website -- I can load coupons onto my loyalty card to use in store, without buying a newspaper to get coupons. Some of the e-coupons allow for multiple use on the same coupon/purchase (like 5 jars of applesauce or peanut butter, getting the discount on all 5).

5.  journals/notepads on digital devices -- no need for paper or pen. I can write till my heart is content.

6.  online sudoku games -- I use these as concentration boosters a couple of times per day. Once upon a time, I actually spent money on sudoku and crossword puzzle books.

7.  online bill paying, again no stamp, and stamps are getting pricey! Bonus, the payment is made immediately, preventing late charges when I am absentminded.

8.  free shipping with online shopping. Not only do I get to shop while still in my pj's, I save gas, avoid crowds, and on many items I get a lower price if I shop around.

9.  tap water to drink in restaurants. On a chilly day, I've ordered a cup of hot water to sip with a meal. And nothing quenches thirst better on a scorching day than a cup of ice water.

10.  Walking for exercise. No special equipment, except feet. You can walk indoors in wintry weather, or outdoors on trails in the local parks or just in your own neighborhood when the weather is pleasant.

11. bonus freebie, linked to above -- public parks, as playgrounds for kids, walking trails for all, picnic spot for alfresco lunches, or grassy expanse for games.


Your turn -- what have been some of your favorite recent freebies?

Cheap & Cheerful for the week

Saturday -- beef tacos, carrot sticks, salad

Sunday -- beef and potato hash, eggs

Monday -- scrambled eggs, brown rice, sweet potato souffle

Tuesday -- chicken-rice soup from the freezer (I prefer chicken-noodle, but chicken-rice holds up in the freezer better, I think), crackers, tossed salad

Wednesday (family dinner) -- roasted chicken (leftover and frozen from the previous week), mashed potatoes, mustard-glazed carrots, dinner rolls, baked apples

Thursday -- hotdogs in buns, canned corn, apple chunks and banana slices

Friday -- turkey curry over rice, using leftover turkey from the freezer

It was a busy week with a lot going on in our home. However, I did clear time from my schedule to make a nice family dinner on Wednesday (my son was over and said that the dinner seemed very autumnal). But the rest of the week was easy fixins', here. Tuesday was Senior Discount day at Fred Meyer, so I did a major stock-up on that day. There seems to be a flow to our grocery supply. I stock up and we eat like kings for a week, then the following week we eat like ordinary folk, and finally the end of the month we eat more like paupers. I'm not complaining, just noticing. It may actually be a beneficial thing, as many of the cheapest foods are pretty healthy, like beans and rice, carrots, or cabbage. I did well at the grocery store, combining coupons with Senior discount on store-brand items. No more 49 cents gallon milk, though.

How was your week? I hope was well and that fall is settling in beautifully where you live. Have a wonderful weekend!

Radishes: a good buy in the produce department

You get a lot in a bundle of radishes for just 79 cents or so. I bought this bundle yesterday (for 79 cents). I think most folks break off the red root portion and toss out the leafy greens. Those leafy greens are edible, too. Wash them well (they are often sandy), pluck off yellowing leaves, then chop and add the greens to soups or stews. That's what I did yesterday. I had a pot of soup simmering on the stove and I used some of the greens in the soup, and the roots in a salad.

Radish greens are peppery and sharp. However, that sharpness is masked well in soups and stews. And they're packed with vitamins K, C, A, B(s) and E, plus potassium, iron, calcium, and zinc.

Don't toss those leafy portions! Yet another vegetable that you can eat all parts.

Frosted brownies for an October treat

These are some brownies that I made for an event last year. I thought I'd post the photos, in case you're looking for anything cheap and easy, but with wow! factor. I used  this recipe for the scratch brownies, but baked them in a conventional oven at 350 F, for about 22-25 minutes.
As you can see by the photos, you don't even need to pipe straight lines!

When brownies had cooled, I frosted with scratch
orange-colored buttercream frosting

I made a small bowl of dark cocoa icing and put it into a small
ziploc bag. I snipped a tiny bit off the corner of the
baggie to make a "piping" bag.

I piped concentric circles on the orange-colored frosting.

Then I "drew" out from the center in all directions,
using a toothpick. 

After creating this weblike design, I piped a
spider in the center of the web. See top photo.

September 2017 Grocery Spending Journal

Aug. 31 (I'd already tallied August when I decided to go out to Cash & Carry. So here it is in September.) I've wanted strawberries for the last few days, and avoided buying any at the regular grocery store, so those will be on my list today. We need other produce, too, plus mayo, ketchup, and I'll pick up some other sort of prepared or almost prepared supper item, for later fall and winter. So what did I end up buying? I bought 16 bananas (49 cents/lb), 12-ct bag of hoagie rolls ($2.72), 12.5 lb bag of popcorn ($5.87), 2 5-lb bags of frozen peas ($3.89 each), 1-qt frozen cranberry juice concentrate, to make 1 gallon ($1.99),  13 oz chili powder ($3.99), institutional-size bag Uncle Ben's cornbread stuffing mix, enough to make 47 servings ($13.49), #10 can refried beans, it's about 110 ounces, or just over 7 lbs ($5.15), 1 gallon mayonnaise ($6.79), 5-lbs shredded mozzarella ($10.77), 10-lbs carrots ($3.59), three 106 oz cans of crushed tomatoes ($2.90 each), two 19-oz blocks firm tofu ($1.59 each), box of 2 gals milk ($4.87), head of Romaine lettuce ($1.49), head of cauliflower (88 cents), 114-oz can of ketchup ($3.15), 4-lbs strawberries ($6.28), 15-dozen case of large eggs ($12.98). Total spent -- $106.39

You probably don't have a calculator in hand right now, so I'll do some math for you, to give you an idea of the price per "normal" package on a few of these.

peas-- 78 cents/lb
juice concentrate to make 64 oz cranberry juice cocktail -- 99 cents
chili powder -- $4.91 lb
refried beans -- 75 cents for 16-oz can
mayo -- $1.59/ 30-oz jar
ketchup -- 66 cents for a 24-oz bottle
large eggs -- 86 cents/dozen

I didn't always get my "best" price per unit on the items I bought (like milk, I can do better buying on Senior Shopping Day at FM), but overall I got very good prices on most items, compared to my best prices, and definitely saved over running to the local grocery store for an item we are out of. I can make refried beans from scratch for about half the price of canned. But this purchase is for convenience, at a time when I don't have freezer space to big-batch cook beans. My one splurge item was the cornbread stuffing mix. If I pick up some chicken or turkey sausage, the stuffing mix and sausage combo will make a quick supper.

Sept. 5. Senior Shopping Day at Fred Meyer. I bought a lot (long cash register receipt), but my spending wasn't too terrible. Here's what I bought: 5 half-gallons whole milk (89 cents each), 4 one-lb boxes whole wheat pasta (90 cents each), 5 15-oz jars natural peanut butter ($1.34 each), 10 new-crop gala apples (88 cents/lb), 2 46-oz jars of natural, unsweetened applesauce ($1.70 first jar, $1.97 second jar -- worked out to 63 cents/pint), half-gallon organic soy milk ($2.25), 3 packages of meat hot dogs (80 cents each), 2 8-oz cartons of marked down mushrooms (99 cents each), RXbar snack bar (free with coupon), Oreo candy bar (free with coupon), 7 loaves of bread (80 cents each), 3 packages of flour tortillas (89 cents each), 1 can decaf and 1 can regular coffee ($5.39 each), 5 marked down bananas (39 cents/lb), 17 non-marked down bananas (49 cents/lb). Total spent -- $50.86.

Coffee is still expensive this month. October and November usually see coffee priced at $4.99 a can. I will stock up my winter supply when I see that price. Most of the bread went into the freezer. 7 loaves is about what we use in a month. If I run out of bread, I will bake some from scratch. I use both whole wheat and white flour pasta. When I find whole wheat pasta below $1/lb I buy some. For white pasta, I look for 66 cents/lb or less. Last winter I bought a bunch of white flour pasta for 50 cents/lb. We're still using that buy.

Sept.9. A Saturday, out running errands with one daughter. We stop to pick up a rx at Fred Meyer, and buy 12 more gala apples, at 88 cents/lb. Spent $4.03

Sept. 10. Same daughter wants to return a purchase she made, so I give her a ride, and on the way we stop, again, at Fred Meyer, this time mostly for a gas fill-up on the car (using a 40 cents/gallon discount), but also go inside for peaches/nectarines, on sale at 88 cents/lb. I bought 12 nectarines for $5.22.

So far, I've spent $166.50. I'm thinking that I need to find money in the budget to add to my current grocery allotment. I may raise October's grocery budget to $175 or $180.

Sept. 22. We're doing okay for the month. I'm almost out of fresh produce and milk, but otherwise okay. I'm out for a meeting, so decide to stop by Fred Meyer to pick up my freebies, as well as milk and bananas. I bought 14 bananas, at 49 cents/lb, and 2 half-gallons of whole milk. There is a sign that indicates a buy 1/get 1 free deal on the milk, so I'm thinking not too bad. when I got up to the cash register I discovered that the milk deal is actually buy 1 at 49 cents, get 1 free!!! (49 cents/gallon for milk.) I also bought 2 6-packs of cinnamon raisin English muffins on markdown, and my 2 freebies -- a tea latte in a bottle, and a shelf stable single serve meal (a pasta and chicken thing). I spent $4.81 cents. The milk deal was so great that I went back in and bought 10 more half-gallons, for a total of $2.45. my 2 trips through the checkout came to $7.26.

Total spent for the month -- $173.76

Sept. 23.  I thought I would be done for the month, but we were short on produce and one of my daughters expressed a serious interest in getting more, so we stopped at WinCo (I had a bag in the car so 6 cents was deducted from my total). I bought 1 46 oz jar of unsweetened applesauce for $1.98, 72-ct package of corn tortillas for $2.18, 1 package of bologna for 98 cents (daughter's request), some kool-aid packets at 10 cents each (daughter's request), 2 packs of top ramen for 18 cents each (again, daughter's request), 1/3 lb of baking cocoa for $2.38/lb, 1 1/3 lbs of bran for bran muffins, at 43 cents/lb, 1.36 lbs of raisins, at $1.79/lb, 1 large cucumber for 58 cents, 7 black plums at 78 cents/lb, 2 heads of Romaine lettuce at $1.48 each, and 1 quart of soymilk for $1.18. As it turned out, my daughter wanted more than just produce. Ha ha! Spending-wise we did okay. This is a cash-only place, so I knew I was limited to how much I could buy. I spent $15.97.

Total spent for the month -- $189.73

I started the month with a budget of $150, plus $45.64 in surplus from previous months, bringing me to a total of $195.64 to spend for the month. I have just $5.91 leftover. I will have to increase our grocery budget. I will try $175 for October and see how we do.

What I bought

Produce
52 bananas
10 lbs frozen peas
1 qt. frozen cranberry juice concentrate
10 lbs carrots
3 #10 cans of crushed tomatoes
3 heads of Romaine lettuce
head of cauliflower
4 lbs strawberries
22 apples
3 large jars of applesauce
1 lb mushrooms
12 nectarines
1.36 lbs raisins
1 cucumber
7 plums

Meat
3 packages hot dogs
single-serve chicken/pasta meal (freebie)
1 package bologna

Dairy
5-lbs shredded mozzarella
38 ounces of tofu
10  1/2 gallons milk
15 dozen eggs
3/4 gallon of soymilk

Pantry
12-ct hoagie rolls
12.5 lbs popcorn
13 oz chili powder
47 servings of stuffing mix
#10 can refried beans
1 gallon mayonnaise
114 ounces of ketchup
4 lbs whole wheat pasta
5 jars peanut butter
meal replacement bar (freebie)
candy bar (freebie)
7 loaves of whole wheat bread
3 packages flour tortillas
1 can decaf and 1 can regular coffee
2 packages English muffins
tea latte in a bottle (freebie)
72 corn tortillas
4 kool-aid packets
2 packages top ramen soup noodles
1/3 lb baking cocoa
1  1/3 lb bran

I learn a lot from looking over my lists for the months. For one thing, I can look back and see how much of something I bought as a stock-up amount. But also, I can see where I may be able to trim a little, or where we really did okay.

For this next month, we are out of oil and almost out of sugar. I don't know if I will buy the institutional size packages of these items. I'm not baking as much as I used to, so this size might be too much for our family, for now. In addition to those two items, I will need produce, peanut butter, coffee and tea. I'll also be stocking up on any great deals, such as raw nuts. Last fall, I bought a year's supply of whole, raw almonds. I keep them in the freezer and only pull out a couple of cups at a time. Coffee goes on sale in the fall, too. So when I find the large cans at their annual low price I'll buy close to a year's supply of that, as well. Time to fill the pantry, I guess.

I hope your spending kept you within your budget. Have a great day!

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for a glorious last week of September

Thursday's chicken
using this technique to cut a whole roasted chicken into individual servings

The weather has been very nice here, this week. I mentioned earlier that I spent a few hours at the beach on Saturday, just enjoying the quiet beauty of an autumn day. Then yesterday was so warm that I had the back door open for several hours.

Over the weekend -- I have a hard time remembering what we ate, as I'm not doing the weekend cooking. I do remember a cookout on Sunday, put together by one daughter. We had hot dogs, homemade buns, pasta salad, green salad, deviled eggs and s'mores.

Monday -- frittata topped with basil, Parmesan, sliced tomatoes, garlic, along with garlic toast and leftover pasta salad

Tuesday -- casserole made from leftovers, tossed green salad, pickles

Wednesday -- turkey breast (cooked, frozen), gravy (frozen), cranberry sauce, green beans, cornbread stuffing, pickles

Thursday -- rosemary roasted chicken, applesauce muffins (I had 2 empty jars from applesauce to rinse out, totaling about 1/3 cup of applesauce), acorn squash (from the garden), green peas

Tonight -- we'll have leftover roasted chicken with vegetable fried rice for a simple dinner


It was a week of heat and eat, and from scratch but humble meals. And although the weather said "summer," most of these meals felt like fall. I suspect the weather will feel more fall-like later next week.

I'm working on using foods from the freezer, like the cooked turkey breast and gravy, whole chicken, and frozen vegetables. It will soon be time to stuff my freezer with holiday specials. We're near the end of the month, so I'll be finishing up my grocery tally soon. I did get an amazing deal on milk this month, really amazing. So I also have containers of milk clogging up space in my freezer right now. But those should be used within the next 3 weeks.

How was your week? Anything special on the menu? Have a wonderful weekend!

Does anybody buy pen refills anymore?

This came up in conversation a week ago, about how we'd buy refills for our retractable ink pens and reuse the mechanical part of the pen.

I have a very specific pen that I like. The ink flows smoothly and dries very quickly. This makes for very fast writing for me. I can write my notes faster with a smooth-flowing pen, and I don't smear the page, as the ink dries so fast. I've gone through a couple of 5-packs of these pens in the last year, spending about $7 per package, or $1.40 per pen. The other day, knowing that my last of these pens was running low on ink, I thought to check for refills on Amazon. Sure enough, this pen that I use has multi-packs of refills for a substantial savings per pen. I ordered a 12-pack of refills for $10.55, or 88 cents each refill. That's about 40% off the price of a new, whole pen.

It just got me to thinking that we have become so accustomed to treating our everyday products as disposables, when some of them can be reused, refurbished, or refilled. Anyway, I slipped a refill into one of my used pens and I'm back in business. Less waste, lower cost -- that sounds good to me.

By the way, several brands of pens do make refills. If you have a favorite pen, check Amazon or Office Depot to see if refills would save you money, too.

Many cooks in the house lead to leftover-waste

With several cooks in the house these days we seem to have more leftovers that go unused.  A cup of rice here, some soup there -- foods get put into containers with good intentions, then the original cook never eats them.

There was a time when I prepared every food that went into my family members' mouths. If I made rice and had leftovers, I made a mental note to use that leftover rice in the next day or two. Now, I'm not the only one making rice, or soup, or pancakes. Someone else's mental note does not get added to my mental list. What's the "head" cook to do?

I started with cleaning out the kitchen fridge. One of our issues was the large one-gallon jugs of condiments for refilling smaller containers were being left in the kitchen fridge. My usual place for these containers is the garage fridge. These large jugs can block the view of other foods. I'll just have to remind others to return the large jars to the garage fridge after refilling small containers. Another issue was opaque shopping bags used as wrapping for leftovers. While this is very thrifty to use a shopping bag, the opaqueness was contributing to overlooked leftovers. I found 2 and 1/2 pancakes wrapped in a tan shopping bag. I also found the brand new, but open, package of bologna in another, similar bag. I put both of these leftover items into see-through containers, and I labeled the lunch meat for use or freeze by date. My plan is to keep sticky notes and a Sharpie by the fridge, so that other family members can label their items, and either the opening date or a use by date.

It wasn't a lot of waste, but it was enough to be a wake-up call for me to encourage all family members to be responsible for the foods that they cook, and either consume them or freeze in a timely manner. I was able to use enough of the leftovers, along with frozen leftovers, to make a tasty casserole for Tuesday's dinner, which in the end was a time-saver for me. Nonetheless, I need to find some solutions to this "new" issue, now that there are so many cooks in the house. For breakfasts and lunches, we all seem to want something different, creating a lot of leftovers for the fridge.

Any suggestions?

From my late September garden

My vegetable garden was not terribly productive this year. However, I am finding a few things to bring in, anyway.

Two lovely orange pumpkins
These are pie pumpkins and will be cooked up later next month.

It's time to cut rosemary for flavored vinegar and drying for seasoning. I'll be baking rosemary bread in the next couple of months, too.

The basil is gorgeous. This is one plant and it looks like a bush. I've been using it as I can. But also, I have cut quite a bit for freezing. We love tomato-basil soup on a cold winter day.

Minced basil, along with garden tomatoes, was used to top a frittata for last night's dinner. Yum!

My weekend

We had such a beautiful weekend, here, in Seattle. As usual, one daughter came with me on errands. We made a detour to the beach for a couple of hours and sat in the sunshine, talked, walked along the shoreline collecting shells, and enjoyed the peace of an autumn day at the beach. Summer days at the beach are filled with lively families; but autumn days are quiet. Even the families who were also there on Saturday were quietly enjoying the sand and water.

The tide was very low which makes finding shells in good condition a lot easier. We also saw the largest jelly fish that we've ever spotted in Puget Sound waters. In addition, this particular beach seems to be a good spot for watching the harbor seals. It never fails that while we are there, we can watch at least one harbor seal bobbing through the water.

Sunday was equally peaceful and filled with sunshine. My daughters put together a cookout for the family in the evening. After dinner we made s'mores, but not with marshmallows. We used circus peanut candy instead (it's what we had). Circus peanuts are a semi-dried marshmallow. They actually do puff and soften when roasted over a fire, just not as much as a regular marshmallow. The resulting s'more is very tasty, although not at all gooey.

And today the rain is back. It's also the first day of classes for my daughters. One daughter is a part time student, primarily focusing on her senior project, which is an art show in the spring. The other daughter is completing her requirements for the other half of her major field -- education. She's taking a couple of classes and student teaching this year. And speaking of said daughter, she overslept a bit, and now I'm driving her to the transit center. I hope you all had a lovely weekend and that your week is off to a great beginning. Be back tomorrow!

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers when the house feels cold!

Over the weekend we had rice and garbanzo beans, cooked carrots, chicken and cheese burritos and frozen peas.

Monday--
I had simmered the carcass of a roasted chicken last week, and frozen the broth and scraps of meat for making soup. Monday was just the kind of day where soup would be appreciated -- the skies were dark, it looked like rain could begin at any moment, and the house did not warm much at all (63 F was the warmest it got in the main areas of the house).  The menu for Monday -- chicken soup to go with leftovers from my volunteer work over the weekend (tea sandwiches, potato chips, cookies and fruit).

Tuesday--
Tuesday I roasted my last whole turkey. Roasting the turkey is a decision that no only affects the menu, but also impacts the household heat. The Friday before, I checked the weather forecasts and it looked to be rainy and cool this week. I had no idea how chilly it would feel in the house, though, so I was very appreciative of something so large that needed a long cooking period. Dinner on Tuesday was roasted turkey, gravy, cornbread stuffing, frozen green beans, cranberry sauce from last week.

Wednesday--
With a roasted turkey this week, Wednesday would be a good day for easy leftover cooking. There was cooked rice in the fridge, from the weekend, turkey, gravy and cranberry sauce from the night before, and frozen peas done in the microwave to round out the meal. With the turkey carcass, at this point I had pulled enough meat off of some of the bones to start a crockpot of broth overnight, with leg, thigh, and wing bones. This will reduce my work on the main turkey stock-making day, on Friday, and maybe the rest of the turkey bones will actually fit in my small-ish crockpot, and cook overnight Friday into Saturday.

Thursday--
I forgot to use up the cranberry sauce yesterday, so that's a priority to use up. Lots of leftover turkey, and a bit of gravy. I made stock overnight, so I will make a bit more gravy with a cup of it. The rest of dinner will sound a bit odd, but it works, and uses leftovers. So, Thursday dinner menu -- turkey, gravy, cranberry sauce, potato chips, steamed carrots, tossed salad that included lettuce, cabbage, tomatoes, garbanzo beans, and cooked green beans. It was all good, even it the combo sounds strange.

I baked bread today, which helped warm the kitchen in the late afternoon, opening the oven door to release all of the heat after baking.

Friday--
I have the rest of the turkey carcass to cook up today. I think that I'll use whatever meat I can remove from it in a turkey curry, or a Moroccan wrap, using spices to help hide the heavy flavors of dark meat poultry.

What was on your menu this past week?

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Parenting lessons from some distracted and privileged teen girls

One of my daughters works in housekeeping during the summers, where she cleans up after guests who have stayed for conferences and workshops. While I know that everyone can be absent-minded at times, some groups leave behind more of their belongings than others.  One particular group, while different individuals each summer but same basic group, leave behind an amazing amount of nearly-new condition belongings. The demographics for this group include, teen, female, and privileged enough to afford a couple of weeks at a dance workshop. Among the things left behind this year there was a beautiful sweater in like-new condition, a leotard, a brand-new, still in sealed packaging tube of mascara, and many other  items.

We were talking about why this group leaves behind belongings that any young girl/woman would covet. Our conclusion was that these young girls and women must feel that their belongings can easily be replaced, without any financial hardship to them individually. We are guessing that their parents pay for all of their needs, and may also provide a healthy allowance for wants. If the girls/women have summer jobs, the money they earn may be mostly for discretionary spending. To them, the amount they earn in a summer job, or is given to them by parents in the form of allowance, must be enough to cover replacing lost belongings, without any extra labor on their part. However, for their parents, I imagine having a child who left behind that sweater that they "just had to have", or the new mascara that they needed money to buy, must be confounding and infuriating at times.

On the child's part, some of this absent-mindedness is due to age, teenage distractions, and lack of having to pay for anything truly consequential, like rent, groceries, electricity. But I also think that some of this is due to being given so much, too freely. If parents will always replace a lost item, then why should a teen take any extra care not to lose belongings. I'm not bashing the parents, at least not a lot, as I had younger children once, too. I remember feeling very badly for my kids when they lost something that they cherished. And I remember patching up a stuffed toy repeatedly, after a child tore it up, through rough play. I also remember buying a replacement toy for another child, when the beloved one was lost. As the parent, we want our children to not feel the pain of loss of any kind. We want to stop the hurt.

When I was in middle school, I had a brand-new pair of blue jeans to wear at the beginning of seventh grade. This was the first year that girls could wear blue jeans to school in my district. I was running to lunch to meet my friends and I tripped and fell, and tore a hole in the knee. I was so upset about that hole -- my brand-new jeans! Even so, I still thought that my mom would replace them with a new pair. But she didn't. Instead, we went to the fabric store and she bought a patch in the shape of an orange. It was the only decorative patch large enough to fit over the hole. I'm sure that I begged and pleaded for new jeans, but she was firm. She probably wanted to make my hurt go away, but she was wiser, and likely on a tight budget, herself. I continued to wear the patched jeans, with the big orange, until I outgrew them. And the patch was a reminder of the loss I had felt when my new jeans were no longer pristine, and urged me to be more careful. This type of lesson was repeated throughout my childhood. A broken thermos meant that I had to bring a clunky old thermos with my lunchbox, instead of the cutesy one that was its original companion. A lost game token meant that we had to use a penny in the game set, when playing with three other friends, instead of the fun plastic token the game came with. If something was repairable, like grease stains on my pants from the bicycle chain, then my mother showed me how to repair or remove a stain. She didn't just do it for me. My mother was compassionate, generous, loving, but she was also wise enough to know that I needed repeated lessons on taking care of my belongings.

I do wonder about the young girls/women that my daughter cleaned up after. Will their parents let them feel the loss of the forgotten items? Or will the parents rush out to buy replacements? Perhaps the girl/woman won't even notice she left behind her like-new American Eagle sweater, or leotard, or tube of mascara she just purchased and didn't even own long enough to take it out of the packaging. Maybe I'm just being too hard on a age-group that is inherently distracted and forgetful. What do you think?

Roasting a whole turkey when I don't have a crowd to feed

Whole turkeys are a steal for meat, when bought during the holiday season, and stored in the freezer, even at the higher price per pound that we've seen in recent years. (I paid about 50 cents/lb last year for each of my turkeys.) But after the holidays, with only a small family to feed, we're not as thrilled with leftovers that last for weeks (I can get 8-10 family meals from a 20 lb turkey).  The last of the turkey is often the bits and scraps that we don't care for as much, like back meat, or the wings.

All that aside, I like the savings of having an extra whole turkey or two, for roasting during non-holiday periods. In the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, I clear some space in the freezer for one or two extra turkeys. Then when the turkey deals come out, I buy three turkeys, roast one for the holiday and freeze the others, raw in their packaging from the store, with no extra attention to wrapping. Over the years, I've only had one turkey ever have signs of freezer burn, and that was one small-ish patch on a turkey that had been stored up against a frost-free freezer wall (where the heat cycles on and off to keep the freezer frost-free), for over a year. I typically roast the last of my extra whole turkeys in September each year, just after the weather has cooled and heating the kitchen with the oven is welcome, but still long enough before our Thanksgiving that the whole turkey, then, still feels novel.


This week I roasted my last turkey from Thanksgiving 2016. To circumvent my dislike for several meals of what we think of as the inferior parts of the turkey in the freezer-leftovers repertoire,  I actually cut off and froze what we think are the best parts -- the breasts.

When the turkey was roasted and ready to carve, my first step was to carve off one and a half breasts, as close to the bone as I could. I wrapped these pieces and tucked them in the freezer. For our family, one and a half breasts is about 3 family meals, with lunch leftovers. I kept the breast pieces in half-breast slabs, to hold in juices and flavor.

When I made the gravy, I also froze 3 containers of it, ready to go. What tackling the turkey this way does is force me to use the less-palatable portions of the bird, in the early days, when we're still happy-enough to be having so much turkey. And it gives me ready to go options for some of the leftovers, like simple, sliced turkey in gravy. (Basically, I made three convenience meals for our family, with little extra work.) I will still have some of the smaller bits of meat to use in pot pies or soups, but we will plow through much of that today, tomorrow and Friday.

I thought I would pass this on in case you have some of the same sentiments concerning roasting a whole turkey in the non-holiday season.

My advice if you buy extra turkeys for the freezer, keep them in an interior spot in the freezer, away from a wall, floor or ceiling of the freezer, where the temps can be more variable. According to the USDA, a whole, uncooked turkey will be safe to eat, if kept at 0 degrees F, indefinitely -- "Food stored constantly at 0 °F will always be safe. Only the quality suffers with lengthy freezer storage." The agency goes on to say that, for best quality, however, use within one year. (for more info on food safety, visit the USDA site)

Putting up with a cold house now, so that we can have more heat when it's really cold out

I try to keep the furnace off until about the 10th of October. Last week I could hear it coming on, so I had to reset the thermostat even lower. I have a set amount of money to pay for heat for the entire winter. If this ends up being a colder winter than usual, I'll use all of that allotment, and have to divert funds from other areas of the budget. The last two years have not held any surprise extended cold spells, which meant that we did not have to go beyond what was set aside for heat. This doesn't mean that we are completely freezing these weeks. We are staying warm enough, with the help of basic frugal-living tactics. We are:

• putting extra layers on the beds
• wearing fleece sweatshirts and jackets around the house (and shoes indoors for me, too -- keeps my feet warmer)
• cooking soups more often -- adds a little heat to the kitchen while simmering, and heats our tummies when we eat
• drinking copious amounts of tea during the day
• using a portable electric heater for one room, when I am the only one home (electricity is expensive to heat with, but heating just one room with electricity is cheaper than running the furnace for an entire family-size home)
• I'll be using the self-cleaning feature on the oven next week. I'll time it so that it is in operation for the hours just before dinner. The oven is right next to the kitchen table, so it will heat the breakfast nook up well.

So far, we're doing well, but we haven't gotten to the colder days and nights, yet. Do you turn your furnace on later, to postpone shelling out a lot of money for heat, for as long as possible? Or is heat one of those priorities for your household. There are definitely circumstances where heat would be a priority. What tricks do you employ to save on your heating bill?

My weekend exhausted me, but I did take a few photos of my Dollar Tree autumn decorating

I volunteered, along with one daughter, on Saturday. We serve at these fund-raising teas/luncheons. My daughter is a waitress, and I am kitchen help. The two of us are typically part of the clean-up crew, too, so it is a full day for us. I come home pretty tired, and need to just have some tea and relax for a bit. But I did have work to get to, after a few minutes and some tea.  Sunday, I was still tired, so after church again I just sat and drank a pot of tea. In the late afternoon I put myself to work again.

Today, I still woke up tired, but am more like myself this afternoon. I took some quick photos of some of the items that I used in decorating, and wanted to share. All of these "projects" were as fast as putting groceries away.

The window clings -- the door to the kitchen is all glass,
with no place to hang a wreath.
Window clings work pretty great for my door.

My Value Village silver bowl -- I didn't even polish it. The
 "rustic look" is intentional, or at least that's my story. I cut the
 tags off of the Dollar Tree faux apples and put them in the bowl.

The door to the kitchen, just off the driveway -- a flower pot with
  spring bulbs that will over-winter in the dirt. I tucked the faux
 mums into the soil, added some cedar branches, the ornamental
pumpkin pick, and an outdoor Christmas bow. It looks festive
 and autumnal, and took less than five minutes to complete. Once
Thanksgiving passes, I'll pull out the faux mums and tuck in some clippings
 from my yard of holly and other winter greenery, for a Christmas pot.

When I find a suitable tray for the trio of candles, I'll show you what I did with those, too. Easy decorating on a dollar store budget.

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for an early September week

Again, trying to remember what we had from last weekend.

All I remember from Saturday was cole slaw, because I remember the bowl on the table.

Sunday -- lentil and cheese quesadillas, with carrot sticks
Monday -- pasta, meatball, marinara, spinach, mozzarella layered casserole, with steamed cauliflower core juliennes, and a tossed green salad (with lettuce cores, too)
Tuesday -- leftover pasta casserole (I made a lot), nectarine slices, frozen green beans
Wednesday -- pumpkin soup, French bread pizza sandwiches (using hoagie rolls)
Thursday -- family dinner: roasted chicken, stuffing, cranberry sauce, frozen peas, pumpkin snack cake (this cake, with the pumpkin variation) with butterscotch chip icing

The cake from last night was so tasty. I was in a hurry to get it finished and chose to use a butterscotch chip topping, by dumping a cup of butterscotch chips on top of the hot cake out of the oven. Only, butterscotch chips don't melt like chocolate chips do (see the sad photo of unmelted chips on the cake).

So I scooped them off the cake, and into a custard cup, and along with some Crisco shortening, melted them in the microwave in short 15 second bursts, for a total of about 30 seconds. Then stirred like mad until it was a nice melty mess.

I quickly spread the melty mess on the cake, and it set up very quickly. It was a little extra work, but it smelled and tasted autumnal.

What was on your menu this past week? The weather is definitely cooler, here. How fast it all changed! I'll be volunteering all day tomorrow. I hope you have nice plans for the weekend!