Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for the last of June

Friday

Leftovers for 1 (chili, bread and vanilla-rhubarb butter, tossed salad, carrots sticks and peanuts), dinner out with GF for son, and my daughters and I had a girls night out at Five Guys. Totally out of character for us, but we enjoyed it immensely.

Saturday

Scrambled eggs, topped with cheddar, salsa, chopped canned tomatoes and ground chipotle pepper
Rhubarb crumb muffins (scratch, Jayne's recipe)
Mustard glazed carrots (added mustard, brown sugar and butter to saucepan, after steaming carrots)
Tossed green salad from garden

Sunday

Roasted chicken leg quarters (the ones I bought for 49 cents/lb in 10-lb bag at Albertson's), canned tomatoes, salsa, black olives and seasoned with a mix of chili powder, oregano, garlic powder and salt, over
Brown rice
Sauteed kale, from garden, in saved ham fat from freezer
Fresh berries from the garden

Monday

Chicken and rice enchiladas (using the chicken left on the bones from the night before, mixed with leftover rice, for the filling, topped with scratch enchilada sauce from Belinda's site, topped with cheese and olives)
Green salad from garden, with homemade vinaigrette
Blackberry-rhubarb gelatin, using bulk gelatin, sugar, and wild blackberries, garden rhubarb

Tuesday

Garbanzo bean and pumpkin soup (pumpkin from the free pumpkins last fall, pureed and kept in freezer, plus homemade chicken stock, garlic powder, shallots and cumin, pureed with cooked garbanzo beans)
Garlic toast (on homemade hot dog buns from the freezer)
Green salad from garden, with homemade 1000 Island dressing
Fresh raspberries from the garden

Wednesday

Brown rice and yellow split pea pilaf
Deviled eggs
Salad of greens, garbanzo beans, black olives and vinaigrette
Poached plums (frozen plums, stewed briefly in their liquid, a bit of water and cherry extract)
Bran muffins
Brownies

Thursday

Cheese souffle
Pasta and veggie salad
Watermelon
Leftover brownies


I finally tackled that 10-lb bag of frozen chicken leg quarters. I broke it up into 4 portions, each portion has 2 leg quarters, which is about right for making something like enchiladas, or chicken in a sauce over rice.

And you'll notice that 3 of us actually ate out in a restaurant this past week. I was needing a girls' night out, my husband would not be home till almost 10 and my son was gone for the evening. So just us girls went to Five Guys. It was good, yeah, but I'm okay if we don't do that again soon. Two days later, us girls had more time together during the afternoon, and that time, we chose to bring sandwiches to the beach, along with iced tea, for an al fresco lunch by the Sound. And honestly, I enjoyed that just as much as the burgers and fries from Five Guys. Every so often, I need to stick my toes in the water to see if I'd like to go in. (That's me, every once in a while, eating out just to see what I am or am not missing.) Anyways, I didn't have to cook that night. Yay!

Also, still a lot of eggs and beans. I've come to really enjoy preparing eggs for suppers, as I don't have to think too far in advance, the way I do if I need to thaw meat or soak beans. And my family doesn't seem to mind all of the egg meals. So, alls good with that.

How about you? What was on your menu this past week?

A mop does not have to be pretty to work

I've seen those pinterest pages with very nicely done Swiffer-style mop heads that can be washed and reused. They're neatly sewn and look so professional. For a while,  I felt like my sad-looking mop head was put to shame. (Yes, I do sometimes catch a case pinterest-envy.) Then I realized, there are some things that don't need to look pretty to be functional. And to me, mop heads fall into that category. So, stand tall, old-rag-become-mop head. You're doing a fine job!

This is my reusable mop head. I fell into the same trap as many, and about 15 years ago bought a Swiffer because "it would save me so much time". For many years, I used rubber bands to hold rags onto the Swiffer. That did work. This past January, though, I got serious about mop heads (said, tongue-in-cheek). I grabbed one of my old pre-married life towels and turned it into a mop head that didn't require rubber bands.

I took a hand towel, folded it over, then folded this into almost thirds, measuring against the Swiffer head. Next, with my sewing machine I straight-stitched the ends to hold everything in place. I did this all rather hurriedly and spent at most 5 minutes. I didn't even bother with trimming the ends. I used an ordinary sewing needle, and my machine is nothing fancy, but it was still able to sew through all the layers of towels.

To use it, we slide the Swiffer into the opening and just line up the edges so the Swiffer is centered in the folded and stitched towel.

I didn't blog about this at the time, as I wanted to give this mop head a chance to prove itself. Six months of weekly mopping, and it's still holding up fine. The stitching hasn't broken. The mop heap still slips onto the Swiffer and stays on.

When my husband mops, he'll hold the whole thing under the kitchen faucet. When I mop, I spray the floor with a bottle of vinegar and water then mop. After each mopping, we put the mop head through the washer and dryer.

Part of me was expecting to have to mend this by now or have trouble keeping the mop head on the Swiffer. So far, no troubles.

Even if she isn't the prettiest of mop heads, she's doing a fine job.

The beauty of making this mop head with an old towel is that I have no shortage of old towels. When this one falls apart, I'll be able to make another.

Thought I'd show you what's going on on my deck -- the frugal stuff

Welcome to my back deck. The deck is on the south side of the house and gets quite a bit of sun, even with a yard surrounded by enormous evergreens. 

This is the one place on the property that I can successfully grow basil. I plant this trough with basil, started indoors from seeds, every year. Before I planted out the basil, this year, I was planting the tomato plants that I started from seeds, and I had these 2 leftover tomato seedlings. Not knowing what to do with them, yet, I just popped them in the trough. They've grown well and now I don't have the heart to rip them out. So, to the left, a bunch of basil, doing well now that it has warmed, and 2 tomato plants to the right. Battle of the Mediterraneans. We'll see who wins out.

Also, due to being the sunny spot, I have a couple of heat traps on the deck. I can't grow peppers worth beans, in the garden, so I'm trying some pepper plants, started from seeds, indoors, in these large pots. I will be thrilled to get some peppers this year. I'm sure you'll hear about it if I get any.

 Over near the shadier side of the deck (though still sunny for half the day), I have this small area, marking the entrance to the sitting area.

In the large trough, I have English thyme, started from some old seeds (about 6 or 7 years old), indoors. Thyme is known to be difficult to start from seed in the garden, itself. So, I seeded these into a small container and kept under lights for early spring, and moved out to this trough about a month ago. The thyme seems be to doing well, so far. My other thyme is in the herb garden, in a pot. I never get quite enough thyme from that pot, so this trough will provide the rest of what I need.

Just in front of the trough is a terra cotta pot with a begonia plant in it. Begonias are not hardy in our area. They either have to be dug up in fall, and stored in a dry place for winter, or started new each spring. I bought 2 tubers and planted 2 pots of begonias a year ago spring. I didn't have time to dig them up, last fall. So one day before a heavy frost, I pulled the 2 pots into the garage, and just kept them there. I didn't water them until I moved them back outside in early spring. I didn't know if they would survive, but they did. Surprise, surprise. So, moral of the story is if you can't do the best thing for the plants, do the next best. The other pot doesn't look quite as good. It's suffered with an infestation of slugs. Every time it gets one little hint of a flower bud a slug comes along and chomps it down. I slug baited yesterday and hope to bring that pot back to full life again this summer.

And behind that spot is the sitting area. It's a pleasant place to sit in mid-afternoon, when the full heat of the sun  has passed.

In the back corner of the sitting area are 2 more troughs, one planted with rosemary, the other with lavender. In front of the troughs are the pots of geraniums that I brought indoors for last winter. The pink geraniums I brought inside, pots and all and kept in a south-facing window all winter. The white geranium, here and in 2 other pots, I dug up and put several into a pot together. Then in spring, I divided the clump of geranium plants and repotted. They were leggy in spring, so I trimmed them back and they've been doing well.

 

The rosemary, in the left trough, I bought as plants a year ago, spring, after unsuccessfully trying to start from seeds. In fall, I dug them up and potted in smaller pots to bring indoors for the winter. IN spring, I replanted them, gave them a trim to remove legginess and they've popped back to freshness, nicely. The lavender, I left in the trough (also planted last spring), as I simply ran out of time last year. I just hoped for the best, and pulled the trough right up against the house. It survived, and gave me a lot of buds to cut this year.

At the top of the steps to the patio, I have my 2 4th of July pots. At Home Depot, a month ago, I found some potted petunias on the clearance rack. In each pot were 2 red, 2 pink and 1 white. So, I bought 2 of those pots, plus a small pack of blue lobelia. I planted the all of the pink petunias and 2 of the red petunias in urns in the front yard. And with two of the deck pots, I planted red and white petunias, plus blue lobelia (red, white and blue). Sadly, I only have the one little flag, so I'll be keeping my eyes open for a second for the other pot. (I got this one as a freebie on the 4th of July a couple of years ago.)

The clearance pots of petunias did not exactly scream 4th of July to me. I had to think, a moment, how I could use the red, pink and white flowers. And as I also came for flowers for the front urns, it occurred to me that I could put the pinks out front, and the reds and whites on the deck.

Just below each patriotic pot is a pot of Asiatic lily, violas, and the mums that I bought at the end of last summer.

Again, I brought the pots of mums indoors for the winter, and kept in a sunny window, until it was warm enough in my plastic greenhouse on the deck, where I put them for March and April. I trimmed off their legginess, and am hoping for pots of blooms for fall.

And this is one of the white geraniums that I had dug up and put in a pot with several others, for the winter. they're in a small-ish trough which is too big to bring indoors, as is. So I'll have to dig them again this fall.

I'm guessing you see a couple of frugal themes, here. One, as much as possible, I start plants from seeds. It's the cheapskate way to grow veggies and herbs. Two, as much as I could, I brought flowering plants, which are supposed to be annuals where I live, into the house for the winter, so I wouldn't have to buy the same plants for this summer. And of course, three, I always check the clearance rack of plants at Home Depot for annual flowers. You just never know what you're going to find.

You know, you really should have seen my kitchen and living room windows -- filled to the brim with plants for winter.