A Leap Month of Little Joys and Satisfactions: Eating Well on a Budget

My budget for February's groceries is $125.94. This past week, I made my stop at Fred Meyer for Senior Discount Day, spending $31.34. I picked up 4 gallons of milk, instant coffee, boneless/skinless chicken breasts (Valentine's Day), 8 oz. mushrooms (Valentine's Day), 4 green peppers, 1 can of mixed nuts, 2 pounds of dipping chocolate, and 4 jars of peanut butter. Most of these items were on clearance. 

I have $94.60 remaining for February. I already used 1 gallon of milk for a batch of yogurt and 3 of the peppers in dinners this week. The mushrooms were marked down, so I'll cook them up this afternoon and freeze to save to go with the chicken breasts on Valentine's Day. I plan on using some of the melting chocolate to make mixed nut clusters for my turn at coffee hour treats at our church (and of course, a few for ourselves, too).

What we ate this past week . . .

Friday
tomato-basil soup (frozen chopped basil)
pesto focaccia (pesto made last summer and frozen)
deviled eggs (garnished with kale microgreens)
gingerbread cake

Saturday
bean and ham tacos in homemade fried flour tortillas
canned green beans
carrots sticks
leftover cake

Sunday
scrambled eggs
potato, carrot, and onion hashbrowns
orange wedges

Monday
curried pumpkin and peanut soup
cinnamon-raisin swirl bread
blackberry jello

Tuesday (daughter's day to cook)
vegetable, egg,hot dog, and tofu fried rice

Wednesday (other daughter's day to cook)
pizza mac and cheese
lentil sprout salad
orange wedges
cookies

Thursday
beef and bean chili
tortilla chips
carrot sticks
assorted leftover cookies


That was our week of suppers. What was on your menu this past week?

A Leap Month of Little Joys and Satisfactions: Homemade Valentine Charms

I was playing around with some gold-colored wire the other day and twisted these heart charms. I made a few and wondered what I should do with them. Then I thought to use them in packages of Valentine candy for my family members. 

I made jump rings out of scraps of the wire and attached these to the ribbon bows on the little bags. I think they're cute, and they were very easy to make.

A Leap Month of Little Joys and Satisfactions: Beautiful Blue Glass Jars Hidden in the Pantry

I was cleaning out the pantry yesterday morning and came across a 4-pack of these beautiful blue jars, hidden in the corner. I had bought them on clearance a couple of years ago for $6 (still had the price tag on the overwrap), stashed them behind stuff in the pantry, and plumb forgot all about them.

As I was making another batch of yogurt yesterday, (with all of my wide-mouth, quart-sized canning jars in use with sprouting), these came in very handy. Now, we'll have our homemade yogurt in these beautiful jars.

I was remembering something that my grandmother said to me -- beautiful belongings should be used or given to someone who will use them. So often, I hoard away those pretty little things, saving them for a "special occasion." Well, someday, all of my potential "special occasions" will come to an end here on earth. I might as well use these pretty things, now, to make ordinary occasions feel "special."

A Leap Month of Little Joys and Satisfactions: Cinnamon-Raisin Bread

I was making a 4-loaf batch of whole wheat bread dough anyway. So, I decided to make one of the loaves a cinnamon-raisin loaf to go with dinner last night. Easy to do and pleased everyone. Cinnamon-raisin bread always brings back very fond memories of my childhood.

A Leap Month of Little Joys and Satisfactions: Because Spring Means Flowers to Me . . .

I spied a tiny gleam of pink in this pot of primroses on the deck outside the bedroom. I knew I just had to help it along. I brought the pot indoors to clean it up and keep in a window to hasten the blooms. It doesn't look like much right now, but give it a couple of weeks.

We're expecting more snow this coming week. Stealing some blossoms from winter's grip brings me a lot of joy!

A Leap Month of Little Joys and Satisfactions: Coffee, Tea, and Herbs

Yesterday, I chose another easy cupboard to clean -- my tea and coffee cupboard. I have the usual tea bags, tea paraphernalia, and coffee (grounds and instant).

While cleaning, I also came across several baggies and jars of dried herbs from my garden. I now have 3 jars of dried lemon balm, 1 jar of dried peppermint, and a tiny jar of black currant leaves that I am now using for my tea. Mmm, delicious!

A Leap Month of Little Joys and Satisfactions: Baking and Spices

I cleaned out and organized the baking cupboard. I found 3 opened packages of white chocolate chips, which makes me think that we're not huge white chocolate lovers, here. I dumped them all into just one very full package. It looks like it will be white chocolate Easter bunnies this year!

I also found a baggie of ground ginger, which I dumped into the larger ginger container. This prompted me to dig out the candied ginger from the fridge and bake a gingerbread cake for my family. Joy all around with this cake.

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for the Last Bit of January

Last day of January -- wow! Did the month fly by or what?!

As I mentioned the other day, I spent $1.98 on groceries this past week on a bag of tortilla chips and a jar of salsa, bringing my January spending up to $85.10. That's $20.84 under budget, so I'll roll that excess over into February.

The meals for the week continued to use what we have on hand. Tasty but basic meals. Here's what we had for dinners this past week.

Friday
the week's various leftovers, combined with lentil-based minestrone soup

Saturday

Saturday
scrambled eggs
pasta with tomato sauce
carrot sticks
cookies

Sunday
turkey, potato, onion, carrot hash
cookies

Monday

Monday
meatloaf
brown rice
gravy made with meatloaf drippings, flour, paprika, oregano, salt, and leftover pizza sauce
canned green beans
orange wedges
chocolate-tofu silk

Tuesday (daughter cooked)
baked lentils (like baked beans, just with lentils, these were leftover from last week)
corn muffins (leftover from last week)
kale salad
pumpkin pie

Wednesday

Wednesday (other daughter cooked)
hot dogs
boxed stuffing
canned green beans
canned corn
leftover pumpkin pie for anyone who wanted some

Thursday

Thursday
corn and ham souffle
lentil sprout salad
roasted sweet potatoes
more leftover pumpkin pie


The daughter who cooked on Wednesday had a very tight schedule that day. I offered to swap nights with her, but she preferred to just get her night over with. When she has a busy day like this, she'll often ask me for some quick and easy dinner suggestions. I give her my best, easy and fast suggestions that use what we have on hand. While it's good to know how to throw meals together from scratch, I also think it's good to know how to improvise a quick and easy meal that hits all of the food groups, tastes great, and uses less expensive convenience foods.

On the non-food front, Thursday I swapped out the green bulbs in a strand of green and white adorning a bush next to the kitchen door with some red bulbs. That bush will be lit up in red and white for Valentine's Day. 

Also on Thursday, my housecleaning chore for the day was to clean the baseboards in the kitchen, hall to the garage, laundry room, powder room, and entry hall. These are the walkways that get the most foot traffic and so the baseboards become quite dirty. Washing breathes new life into them. Our baseboards are painted white, so dust and dirt really show. A good cleaning makes them almost look like they've been repainted. Cleaning baseboards in high-traffic areas is one of the best bangs for a buck in cleaning tasks, in my opinion. They get so dirty -- so a good clean-up makes a difference to me.

Have a lovely weekend!

Doing Spring Cleaning in Winter

Winter seems to be a better season than spring for me to do a major cleaning. In winter, I'm not working in the garden, creating holiday stuff, shopping, cooking, and baking in a frenzy, or vacationing. Everyone in the house is back on their regular schedules, so I'm not as busy with them, either. 

I am still a pretty busy person, however. So, I tackle the "winter cleaning" in small chunks. Each day, I take on a new task or work on a different area of the house. While I don't get that great "doesn't the house just sparkle" moment with cleaning in bits and pieces, by Easter I have cleared out the cobwebs and cleaned up all of the little messes and stains so my home is pleasing.

Yesterday, I tackled one small section of the kitchen, wiping down the appliances, cupboard doors, and counters, editing out unnecessary stuff, and touching up nicks in the paint on the door and drawer fronts.

a small scratch that also had a stain next to it

We have several tiny nicks in the surface of our painted cabinets. Nicks in light-colored paint appear like small dark marks. 

I mixed a tiny bit of each paint until it looked about right

I used some acrylic craft paint and a craft paint brush to dab on a tiny amount of paint and camouflage these little nicks.

The scratch is much less noticeable, I think. Other nicks look much improved, too.

I'm very happy with how well this worked. While these things may seem insignificant, I like to take care of them as I find them. That way, the jobs don't pile up and seem overwhelming. Plus, it just makes me feel better about my house when I think it looks nice.


note: yesterday's cleaning was a bigger job than I take on most days. The day before, my cleaning task was to wipe down all of the light switches in the house with rubbing alcohol, and the day before that was to clean the washing machine. So don't get the idea that I spend lots of time cleaning every day.

The Wrap Up for January's Groceries and February's Grocery Plans

I can scarcely believe that the month is nearly gone! We're doing great on groceries this month. The only food that we ran out of was whole milk for homemade yogurt. We finished off the last batch of yogurt a week ago. So, I will have to wait until after Fred Meyer's Senior Discount day on Feb. 4 for more yogurt. We have plenty of canned vegetables (green beans, corn, tomatoes, yams, pumpkin), oranges, carrots, a whole hubbard squash, lots of frozen green veggies and berries, flour, oats, canned tuna, eggs, cream cheese, and butter/oil, with some meat and some milk to get through February. As I mentioned before, February is month 2 of my coasting months, using the supplies that I stocked up on in the fall.

I spent another $2 over the weekend. For the month of January, I spent $85.10, leaving $20.94 in the budget to roll over into February's allocated budget of $105. This, with the surplus from January, will give us $125.94 for our groceries in February. 

There are only a couple of special food days in February. The first one is Superbowl Sunday. I like to have something fun and snacky that day. This past week, that $2 ($1.98 actually) was spent on a large bag of tortilla chips and a 16-oz jar of salsa -- both special sales w/coupons. I'll use those on SS.

I also like to prepare something nice on Valentine's Day, so I'll be looking for a nice meat option, such as beef or boneless/skinless chicken breasts. In addition, I bought red-wrapped truffles on clearance after Christmas for the sole purpose of using for Valentine's Day. I think they'll be a hit.

For the rest of the month, we will rely on our basic stores with the following additional purchases:


Fred Meyer Senior Discount Day, Feb. 4
Smidge n Spoon sugar, 10-lb bag, $4.47 Fred Meyer

Fred Meyer milk, gallon, $1.79 ea, get 1 whole, 2 2% ($5.37)
meat for Valentine's day (boneless chicken breast or beef) -- budget about $4.50

Walmart

bananas, 10 lbs, 42 cents/lb
tofu, $1.44

cabbage, 2 heads, 58 cents/lb

1 jar decaf instant coffee, $3.57

Cash & Carry/ Smart Foodservice
Gulf Pacific long grain brown rice, 25-lb bag, $11.95

Simply Value 32-oz vanilla extract/flavoring, $3.05

First Street shredded mozzarella cheese, 5-lb bag, $12.79
russet potatoes, 10-lb bag, $2.45
onions, 25-lb bag, $8.69

WinCo
$2 of bulk dry milk powder
$1 of bulk dry coffee creamer
$1 of bulk onion powder

The dollar amount for this list comes to $64.91. That leaves me with $60.93 for anything else I may need in February. 

I checked my sugar supply and I have about 10 pounds remaining, so no urgency on that item after all. I'll set my errands to take me to the complex where Fred Meyer is located on Tuesday, then pop in, get milk, and check for Valentine's meat and markdowns. There's enough in the budget for me to continue looking for clearance deals and special sales to stock up on.

It's a very lucky thing that my family and I have such simple tastes when it comes to food. 

My Favorite Way to Eat Soy: Chocolate-Tofu Silk

For 4 small portions (this is rich):

1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips
7 to 8 ounces of tofu (silken is smoothest, but firm has more protein)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 to 2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon of milk

In a microwave-safe bowl, melt the chocolate chips.

In a food processor, process the tofu until smooth. Add the vanilla, honey, and milk, then process to incorporate. Scoop the melted chocolate into the food processor and blend with the tofu mixture.

Spoon into small dishes, such as custard cups. This can also be layered in tall cups with fruit or fruit filling (such as cherry pie filling), cookie crumbs, or cake cubes for a parfait. Or, a double batch can be scooped into a pre-baked pie shell and chilled.

Garnish with shaved or chopped chocolate. Refrigerate for 2 hours.

Chocolate-Tofu Silk will likely be on our Valentine's dinner menu, in some form, with berries, if the budget permits.

Creating Flavored Coffee and Tea on the Cheap

I can buy this product and spend about $1 per cup of delicious, almond-flavored coffee.

Or, I can use my inexpensive instant coffee and add almond extract (plus a little sweetening and creamer) and spend about 10 cents per cup of tasty, almond-flavored coffee.



I can buy this product and spend about 30 cents per cup of flavorful vanilla tea.

Or, I can use inexpensive, plain tea bags and add a few drops of imitation vanilla flavoring, spending under 5 cents per cup of flavorful vanilla tea.

I also doctor up plain coffee with cinnamon, nutmeg, and/or vanilla for flavor. I brought a wonderful thermos of creamy, cinnamon-vanilla coffee with me when out the other day. Having this with me kept me from the temptation to buy a cup of coffee, as mine was as delicious as any coffee house coffee.

These tasty little treats costs pennies, but they keep me on my budget without deprivation.

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for Late January

This is the filling for Friday's turkey and dumplings. Doesn't it look colorful?
It's got turkey, mushrooms, onions, carrots, cooked squash, frozen spinach, barley, and canned green beans in it.

I spent $2.10 at Walmart this week on boxed stuffing mix, bringing my monthly spending up to $83.12. I have $22.92 remaining in January's grocery budget. There's only 1 week of January left, so I think we'll do fine with the budget this month.

Our meals were again all made at home.

Friday

Friday
turkey, vegetables, and dumplings
orange wedges

Saturday

Saturday
bean tacos, using fried homemade flour tortillas, filled with refried beans, sprouts, salsa, yogurt
carrot sticks
orange wedges

Sunday
ham from New Years
boxed turkey stuffing
roasted butternut squash

Monday (we watched a movie from the library with dinner tonight, fun times)
lentil vegetable soup (made a double batch to have again later)
toasted cheese sandwiches

Tuesday (daughter's night)
baked lentils (like baked beans, just using lentils because they cook so quickly)
mixed canned green beans and canned corn
corn muffins
apple pie

Wednesday (other daughter's night)
scrambled eggs
boxed stuffing
canned green beans
apple pie

Thursday

Thursday (the power went out just as I was serving dinner)
homemade ham and pineapple pizza (dough and sauce was frozen from another night, ham from New Years, canned pineapple)
slaw with cabbage and lentil sprouts, scratch dressing
carrot sticks
orange wedges
cookies


Last night's dinner was somewhat exciting. I had just taken the pizza out of the oven and was in the process of cutting it into slices. All of the side dishes were made and plated up. At 6:07 I called the family to dinner and before they could get to the table, our power was out. I scrambled to find flashlights, battery-powered candles, and a couple of wax candles/matches. I finished serving up dinner and we ate in very dim light. It was just over an hour when we had all finished eating, and the power came back on. We're very fortunate to live in an area where power rarely stays out long. 


This has been a difficult week for Seattle. Between Tuesday and Wednesday, there were 3 shootings in a very crowded part of the downtown area. This is very unsettling for most of us in the region. It's what everyone is talking about. When you read about a mass shooting in someone else's city, it never seems to register just how upset the entire population of that area will be, and for several days. But when it's your own city, the city where you may go often or just occasionally yet always feel safe, it feels so tragic and inconceivable. It also feels wrong to those living in the affected area that this news story fell off of the major national news sites' front pages. I know -- the rest of the world goes on. But for us, right now, this feels so sad and very confusing that this could happen here. 

Sorry, so off-topic. But I just don't feel right, right now.

I am wishing you all a good, safe, and secure weekend. Be back Monday.