Grocery Plans for July

I was under-budget by $3.20 for the month of June, giving me a total of $128.20 for the month of July. We're doing okay on most of our basic supplies -- still have about 20 lbs of meat in the freezer, lots of pantry staples, and a garden which is producing. One of my stock-up items is the 50-lb bag of flour.  We'll run out of all-purpose flour by the end of the month. So far, I haven't found a really great price on AP flour and will wait and see if the price drops at Cash & Carry when the next ad comes out. I'll buy it when I really need it, as $13.09 is about $1 to $1.50 higher than I saw it advertised last. The other stock-up item is popping corn. I buy it in large bags at Cash & Carry

I'll be shopping at 7 stores this month. Grocery prices continue to rise, so to get as many good buys as possible, this is what it takes. I had to edit my list a bit. I had planned on buying cheddar cheese this month (as we're just now finishing off a bag of mozzarella), but mozzarella continues to be lower in price than cheddar by a dollar or two, so mozza it is.

The party peanuts may seem like an odd thing to add to my list, but when priced out per pound, the peanuts will be a cheaper source of quick protein than cheese. Plus I think they'll be a welcome addition for adding to recipes and snacking. I am still making rhu-sins -- gorp with peanuts and dried rhubarb could be tasty. The pretzel rods are for a 4th of July treat. I'm making white chocolate dipped pretzels, with red chocolate drizzle and blue sprinkles. I happened to have everything for this except the pretzels, so it seemed like a natural to me.

As you can see, I'll be under budget again, perhaps as much as $13. That amount is being set aside for stocking up later in the season or into early fall.

July Grocery List

WinCo

Lentils, 83 cents/lb, 5 pounds, 4.15

Raisins, 1 lb, about 2.67/lb

Bananas, 10 lbs, 42 cents/lb (or Walmart), 4.20

Country Farms

Watermelon 49 cents/lb, $5

Jalapenos for salsa, about 80 cents

Cash and Carry

Canned tomato paste, First Street #10, 5.89

Canned whole tomatoes, Simply Value 2.89 #10 get 2 cans (total 5.78)

Mozzarella, 10.69 until 7/7

Popcorn, 12.5 lb bag, 6.97

Carrots 10 lbs 4.47

Peanuts, First Street Party Peanuts, 52 oz. 5.49

ADM Hotel and Restaurant flour, 50-lb, 13.09 

Russet potatoes, 10-lb bag, 1.93

Walmart

Decaf coffee, Great Value 3.52

Garlic powder 3.4 oz for 98 cents (4.61 lb)

Chicken leg quarters, 5.98 10-lb bag

Fred Meyer, Senior Discount day

Butter, 2 lbs, Moovelous, 2.51 each, (5.02 total)

Milk, 6 gals, 1 whole, rest 2%, max - 12.90

Sprouts

Produce, misc $6 (2 times), $12 total, incl a head of cabbage, peppers, eggplant, cucumber

Couscous, 2.49/lb, 1 lb

Dollar Tree

Rod pretzels, $1

Total 115.02

Drop Cookies Using Broken Pretzels in Place of Nuts

Yummy, crunchy, and with a bite of salty with the sweet -- a new favorite of my family, the chocolate  and butterscotch chip and pretzel drop cookie. My fears that the crunch of the pretzels wouldn't hold up to the dough were unfounded.

I sampled cookies from right after baking (still warm and melty) to three days post-baking and I have to say, the pretzel pieces remained crunchy with every tasting. Immediately after baking, the pretzel pieces had the texture of nuts in cookies, slightly crunchy, but with a little give. As the cookies cooled and aged, the crunch became more pronounced. After the cookies cooled, I kept them in a Rubbermaid lidded container. I would assume that keeping them in an airtight container helped maintain the crunch of the pretzels. In addition, the pretzels with which I baked were very crunchy to begin -- I did not use stale pretzels.

Anyway, I am so happy with the results of these cookies. I plan on baking more and increasing the pretzel content in the dough by 50%. I'll also add 1 tablespoon of flour to the dough, as the cookies came out a bit flat.

I used both chocolate and butterscotch chips, but I also think these would be good with just one of the chips. The butterscotch chips adds to the salted caramel effect, and I highly recommended using them. The dough was to die for and I could hardly keep myself from eating dough until I was sick. I refrained, however, as I also wanted to get an accurate cookie-count for my "recipe."

Here's what I used, which was inspired by the chocolate cookie recipe on a small (6-oz) package of chips.

6 tablespoons salted butter
2 scant tablespoons vegetable oil (the substitution of oil for some of the butter was merely to spare butter)
scant 3/4 cup of granulated sugar
scant tablespoon of molasses (the molasses and sugar were to replicate brown sugar)
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup butterscotch chips
1 cup of pretzel sticks, broken into 3 to 4 pieces each
extra broken pretzels to press in to the cookie dough before baking

I mixed the ingredients as I would any other chocolate chip cookie dough, blending butter and sugar, then adding egg and vanilla. When fully creamed, add in salt, soda, and flour. Then stir in the chips and pretzel pieces. Scoop by large tablespoons onto a lightly greased baking sheet. This amount of dough made about 2 dozen cookies for me. Press additional pretzel pieces into the tops of each mound of dough. I pressed 3 pieces into each, but would press 4 or 5 small pieces the next time, as the dough spread in baking and the 3 pieces looked a bit sparse.

Bake at 365 degrees for about 10 minutes, or until browned. I used a mostly-light colored, insulated baking sheet in a non-convection oven. If using a regular or a darkened baking sheet or in a convection oven, the timing might be 1 or 2 minutes less.

If you try baking cookies with pretzels, let me know how the cookies turn out for you.

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers For the End of June

"wood" or "woodland" strawberries that I picked for lunch today
They're not as big as domestic strawberries, but more flavorful,
even when slightly underripe-looking. They grow wild on our property
 and are native to the Pacific northwest. Our wet springs favor
good production of these kinds of strawberries.
I'm picking a pint a day from a smallish patch near a wooded area.

Welcome summer!!
We have just this week gotten back to normal schedules and meals. So, here are our Cheap & Cheerful suppers for the week.

Friday
egg drop soup made with quinoa, Swiss chard, carrots, onions, seaweed, and eggs
crackers (leftover from reception)

Saturday
scrambled eggs with garden Swiss chard, garlic, and cheese
fresh bread and butter
carrot sticks

Sunday (Father's Day cookout)
smoked sausages in homemade buns
pasta and broccoli salad (both pasta and broccoli leftover from reception)
asparagus (daughter bought for us)
caramel nutty bars
s'mores for anyone wanting them
orange-lemonade and lilac lemonade
sparkling cider (son and DIL bought for us)

Monday
leftover pasta salad, with added cucumber and green pepper
leftover asparagus
rice sauteed with beet greens, radish greens, onions, garlic, and chopped almonds
eggplant baked in layers with mozzarella, Parmesan, tomato sauce, herbs and garlic
wild strawberries
caramel nutty bars

Tuesday
lentil salad -- cooked lentils in a vinaigrette
fry bread
sauteed Swiss chard

Wednesday
I had an egg scrambled with Swiss chard, roasted onions, and mozzarella cheese.
garden strawberries
toasted whole wheat bread
The rest of the family had a pizza which my daughter bought, plus garden strawberries. (I had to go to a meeting, so I ate early.)

Thursday
sloppy Joe's made with flat cola, ketchup, canned tomatoes, onions, green pepper and spices, served on
commercial buns
tossed salad with garden lettuce and Swiss chard plus cucumber and radishes, dressed in homemade mixture of plain yogurt, mayo, garden herbs, garlic powder, salt, cheese powder popcorn flavoring, vinegar, and oil


My family has rather ordinary tastes. All of us were thrilled to have sloppy Joe's last night, and especially thrilled that it was the version made with flat cola and served on commercial buns. Oh, those little thrills!

We're enjoying quite a bit of produce from the garden right now. I think we've had strawberries each day for the past week and a half. The Swiss chard is nearly done. It's actually begun the process of bolting, but I am picking the leaves off of the very tall stalks, daily, before pulling the old plants up to plant lettuce in that bed.

The lettuce that I planted in April is now doing well. The leafy green lettuce is big enough to pluck individual leaves from every other day, and the Romaine planted in May is growing quickly. I don't buy salad dressings, but tend to just mix something up in the bottom of the bowl before I add the greens. We enjoy both vinaigrettes and creamy dressings. Having plain yogurt on hand is a jump-start for creamy dressings. I mix some plain yogurt with mayo along with herbs and salt, and voila - tasty, creamy dressings made in minutes for just a few cents.

We also now have snow peas to use. I'll be making some sort of Asian dish for tonight's supper, using snow peas and Swiss chard from the garden, along with carrots, onions, garlic from the store and the leftover dipping sauce rom the egg rolls 2 weeks ago -- probably fried rice, as that is such an easy one-dish meal to make.

We have eggs galore, so many of us have had an egg or two with toast this week for breakfast. Lunches have been a combination of leftovers, homemade yogurt, peanut butter or egg salad sandwiches on homemade bread, salads, ramen, or pots of soup that I make in the late afternoon just for lunches.

We've just about finished off all of the desserts and treats from my daughter's reception and Father's Day, so I think I'll be baking this weekend. I've been thinking about trying a drop cookie recipe, using butterscotch chips, chocolate chips, and broken pretzels in the dough, or maybe turtle brownies, consisting of brownies topped with caramel and broken pretzels in place of nuts. I'll post how they turn out.

I am making small steps at getting ahead with the produce by freezing small amounts of strawberries to use in leaner produce months. It's just a tiny step, but my thinking is any movement in a positive direction is a good thing.

What was on your menu this past week? I hope that you had a good week and are anticipating a relaxing weekend!

Hose or Bucket?

In the past, I've opted for using a garden hose to wash our car, a small sedan. I use a shut-off nozzle, so the hose is not running continuously. However, I'd say that the hose would run for about 5 to 6 minutes for one wash. I'd like to add that according to several estimates, my water use for using a hose is below the national average by as much as 5 minutes of run-time.

The average garden hose uses about 10 gallons of water per minute. For my use, that means that I was using about 50 to 60 gallons of water each time I washed my car. The other day, I chose to use a bucket, 4 rags, liquid dish soap, and water. My bucket holds 3 gallons. I filled it 2/3 full 3 times, for a total of 6 gallons of water and did not use my hose at all. I used 1/10th of the total water to wash my car compared to how I would use a garden hose.

My 3-bucket method worked very well. The first fill included a small squirt of liquid dish soap. You really only need a tiny amount of soap, otherwise you end up using more water to rinse the soapy bubbles off of the car's surface. I used rag #1 to dip into the soapy water and wipe/scrub onto all of the painted and glass surfaces of my car (I didn't wash the wheels or any of the underside of the car). By the time I had made 1 circuit, my bucket of water was empty. I set rag #1 aside. For the second bucket, I filled it with 2 gallons of clear water and used rag #2 to wipe/scrub away dirt and some of the soap. When my bucket was empty, I had made a little more than 1 circuit around the car. I set rag #2 with rag #1. I then filled my bucket with 2 more gallons of clear water and rinsed the car once more, using rag #3. The car was clean enough by the end of this water. I used rag #4 to dry the entire car, beginning with the windows first, as they will spot if left to air dry or streak if the rag isn't dry enough. The whole process took about 20 to 25 minutes and left me with 4 dirty rags. I didn't use any extra water to rinse out the rags, but added them to the cleaning rag pile from house-cleaning that will be washed with bath towels this afternoon.

Despite the huge water savings using a bucket instead of a hose, there are circumstances where a hose would be very useful. The most obvious to me is if you live in an area that uses salt on the roads in winter. To protect the underside of a car, you'd want to use your hose to rinse the undercarriage at the end of the winter season. However, using a bucket and rags for the remainder of the car would save additional water.

The cost of water keeps rising in my area. You'd think living where it rains a lot that we'd have low water bills. We don't. When averaged out over the course of a year, our water bill is our highest utility bill, higher even than heat. Our supplier recently switched to a tiered-use system of billing, meaning that over a certain amount of use, we are billed at a higher rate. That hits families and large households hard, as naturally, the more people using water on one bill would result in a greater water usage. To compensate, our family is very careful with water use, asking everyone to take shorter showers, running the dishwasher and washing machine only when there is a full load, using low-flush toilets, allowing our lawn to go brown in summer, and using rain water and kitchen waste water to water our gardens. I want my car to look clean, but I don't want to use so much extra water that it pushes our month's use into the next tier. For this summer, I'm choosing a bucket.

Substituting Pretzels for Part of the Nuts in Baked Goods

So, I had heard of this years ago but never tried it until last weekend. I didn't have enough mixed nuts for some caramel nutty bars, so I used broken pretzel sticks for about 1/3 of the nuts called for in the recipe.

The above are bar cookies: a shortbread cookie base topped with mixed nuts and pretzel halves in a caramel sauce. I baked them the day before Father's Day and covered with plastic wrap overnight. The next afternoon, the pretzels were still crunchy, despite the fact that I live in a somewhat humid climate. I don't know if they'd keep their crunch for an extended period (week or more), or if pretzels would stay crunchy in a drop cookie dough or other dough where they'd be surrounded by a wetter mixture while baking. But they worked great in this application. The cookies were delicious. Everyone thought that the addition of pretzels was actually a bonus and not second choice.

Have you ever tried substitution broken pretzels for nuts in cookies or other baked goods? What was your opinion?

Stretching My Produce Money for the Last Two Weeks of June

I had set aside $5 for extra produce this month. Wanting to stretch that money as far as I could, I stopped at 2 stores on my errands yesterday, Walmart and Sprouts. In total, I spent $4.34. Here's what I got for my money:

3.32 lbs of bananas from Walmart at 42 cents/lb
1 eggplant, 88 cents from Sprouts
2 green peppers, 69 cents each from Sprouts
1 bunch of radishes, 69 cents from Sprouts

Just to note, with the radishes, the leaves can be washed and used as cooking greens, making this softball-sized bunch of radishes a pretty good deal at 69 cents.

I chose Sprouts and Walmart specifically because I knew I could get good produce prices by combing the two stores. Walmart and WinCo have bananas at 42 cents/lb, which is the lowest regular price per pound in my area. I had seen for myself that Sprouts' produce prices beat the other stores in my area on most other items. Sprouts has stores in 21 states and a website which has a search feature for items, allowing comparison of prices with other regular grocery stores. Here's a link to see if there is a Sprouts store near you.

The produce items that I bought are all foods that I don't grow in my garden. Currently, my garden is producing strawberries, rhubarb, kale, lettuce, snow peas, Swiss chard, and herbs. In addition, I also have frozen green beans and peas, plus canned corn, pumpkin, yams, and pineapple, and fresh cucumber, celery, onions, and carrots.

Artisanal Ketchup

"Artisanal ketchup: Hand-crafted in small batches, using a secret recipe known only to the chef. Locally-sourced ingredients are hand-stirred in an open kettle over a gentle flame, resulting in a premium tomato experience. Available for a limited time."

How much would you pay for artisanal ketchup? $6.99? $5.49? $4.99?

translations:

"artisanal" = anytime a recipe turns out homey, the artisanal label gets slapped on it
"ketchup" = okay, so this is ketchup-like, I'll give it that much
"hand-crafted" = yes, made with my own two hands
"in small batches" = it's not like I needed a gallon of ketchup, just 8 or 10 ounces
"using a secret recipe" = so secret, even I couldn't say exactly what or how much went in to it
"known only to the chef" = oops, I'm afraid the chef can't remember the recipe
"locally-sourced ingredients" = bought just down the street at Cash & Carry
"hand-stirred" = again, my two hands and one spoon
"in an open kettle" = we lost the lid to this pot a while ago
"over a gentle flame" = we have a gas stove
"resulting in a premium tomato experience" = yes -- this is how I'm selling it to my family
"available for a limited time" = we'll run out in a couple of weeks


Whenever my home-baked or scratch-cooked goods have that rustic look, I jokingly call them artisanal and hand-crafted. I've had my share of artisanal (AKA wonky-looking) loaves of bread and hand-crafted (AKA sunken) cakes. In our house, we eat the flops as well as the successes, but we do it with a smile and a laugh.


We were needing ketchup to go with sausages for last night's dinner. I was out of tomato paste, so I used canned tomatoes instead. Despite running the tomatoes through the food processor and trying to press the cooked product through a sieve, the result was a tomato product with a texture much like applesauce. I gave up trying to get something smooth and Heinz-like and just jarred the stuff in one of my fanciest glass jars and called it good. It worked just fine for our cook-out.

All joking aside, this does make me wonder about so-called artisanal products that sell for much more than standard ones. Surely, that must just be a marketing ploy for some of the food items that I see in stores.

(By the way, that's an artisanal hot dog bun in the photo, too!)

Easy Tahini

When I make hummus, if I don't have sesame seeds on hand, I just skip the tahini. But when I do have sesame seeds, I make a quick tahini which is delicious, enriches the hummus with creaminess, and adds depth to the flavor. I use hulled sesame seeds (the kind that are white), bought from bulk bins at WinCo or in the Hispanic section in packets, sometimes labeled "ajonjoli" (translation - sesame). 

To make about 1/4 cup of tahini (the amount that is usually called for in a hummus recipe that uses one 15-oz can of garbanzo beans), I buy about 1/2 cup of sesame seeds. If in the bulk bin section, I just eyeball how much is 1/2 cup. But if you need help with guessing quantities, 1/2 cup of sesame seeds is about 2.5 ounces or about 1/6th of a pound. 

If you buy the sesame seeds in a packet, after using what you need for this recipe, pop the remainder of the packet into a freezer bag and keep in the freezer. Sesame seeds are high in oils (the reason they make hummus so creamy), so naturally can go bad at room temperatures. Stored in the freezer, they'll keep for 3 years (or more). 

Making tahini at home
Into a dry skillet on Medium heat, pour 1/2 cup of hulled sesame seeds. Stir constantly until about 1/2 of the seeds are beginning to turn golden. Remove the pan from the heat, still stirring and dump into a food processor. Pulse and add about 1 to 2 tablespoons of oil (olive or vegetable). Continue processing for a couple of minutes, stirring down the sides from time to time. It's not critical that all of the seeds become butter, because in the hummus recipe, the next step will be adding the drained, canned garbanzo beans and processing some more.

To make hummus:

• After processing the roasted sesame seeds and oil into tahini, I add one 15-oz can of garbanzo beans, drained, with about 1/4 cup of lemon juice, 1 clove of garlic, minced (OR 1/8 teaspoon of garlic powder). I process until the beans are smooth.
• I add 2 tablespoons of oil (vegetable or olive), and about 1/2 teaspoon of ground cumin, then process for about 30 seconds. The hummus will need a bit of thinning to make it dip-like, so I pulse in 2 to 3 tablespoons of water, until the product looks both dip-able and spreadable.
• I salt the hummus to taste. For me, this is about 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon.
• I transfer the hummus to a shallow dish and swirl the top with the back of a spoon, then drizzle about 1 tablespoon of olive oil over the top. the drizzled olive oil both helps protect the hummus from drying out and adds flavor to each scoop of the hummus.

Other ingredients can be pureed into the bean mixture, such as roasted red peppers, roasted eggplant, browned onions, or roasted garlic to enrich the flavor. Chopped olives can be stirred in at the end, and the finished hummus garnished with additional chopped olives. Greek olives are especially nice for this, but canned black olives will also be tasty and a new dimension to the texture.

Tahini is an expensive product and for most of us, can only be used in a couple of recipes, so I don't think buying a container of tahini is a smart move, in most of our situations. It is so easy to make at home, buying only as much of the basic ingredients as you need at a time. For my situation, I don't think that I have ever bought commercial tahini. I've either made my own or just skipped that ingredient in a recipe. I want to add, if you are delaying making hummus at home because of the tahini, try skipping the tahini altogether. Sub in a little extra oil in with the garbanzo beans. The added oil would enhance the creaminess of the finished hummus. If you desire thinning the bean-iness of the hummus, then process in some browned onions or roasted garlic or red pepper. The results would be delicious and I think quite gourmet.

The Appetizer-Type Foods We Served: What Was Good and What Was Not so Good

First of all, so sorry that I've not responded to any comments, yet. I am trying to get everything back on track in the house and garden, working my side hustle, and recovering from a cold. However, a couple of you asked some questions that I definitely want to answer, so I will get to responding to comments in the next couple of days.

I think that I'm getting down to the very end of our reception descriptions, here. Yay! Finally onto to new topics, right?

I served 5 appetizer-type foods: a veggie and dip tray, a hummus and cracker tray (mentioned yesterday), smoked sausage and tater tot kabobs, frozen spanakopita, and frozen mini spring rolls.

The cold trays
I put together my own veggie tray, using broccoli crowns for making my own florets, baby carrots, a bundle of celery for sticks, and grape tomatoes. When shopping for the broccoli crowns, I specifically looked for ones who had a short stem and lots of individual side branches to the head, so that I would use practically all of the broccoli crown for the florets. This worked well. I bought 3 crowns, trimming about 1/8th-inch from each crown to compost (browning/aged-looking) and another 1/4-inch that wasn't needed as part of each floret (I ate these trimmings as I was cutting, so no waste there). We didn't even use one of the crowns, and had a lot of leftover broccoli florets. In the future, I would buy just one broccoli crown, if there were 3 other vegetables on the tray. I also over-bought on the baby carrots. I bought a 2-lb bag and used about 1 pound. Ditto with the grape tomatoes. I bought 2 pints and only used 1 pint. I bought 1 bundle of celery and used most of it, not in the veggie tray but in the preparation of the potato salad and chicken salad. If I didn't have use for the rest of a celery bundle, then perhaps I would have chosen a different 4th vegetable in place of celery, such as a sweet pepper to cut into strips. Anyway, over-buying seems to be one of my problems with planning. I had a packet of dip seasoning that had been given to me as a gift a couple of Christmases ago. I used that packet (Parmesan-Asiago dip) along with strained plain homemade yogurt (in place of sour cream) and mayonnaise to make the dip. Plain yogurt works well as a sour cream substitute in dips. The dip packet instructions called for a pint of sour cream. That would have cost me $1.74 at Walmart. In contrast, because I make my own yogurt, a pint of plain yogurt cost me about 30 cents. Savings of almost $1.50.

Since we had so many foods offered, I could have easily set out just one box/type of crackers with the hummus. So, I over-bought by 1 box. Lesson learned.

The hot appetizers
The smoked sausage and tater tot kabobs must have been pretty popular. After I set the tray out, I never saw any kabobs again, just lots of empty toothpicks. To make the kabobs, we used smoked sausage (the type of sausage that you might use in place of a hot dog on the grill -- fatter and more flavor than standard hot dogs. You could also use kielbasa.), frozen tater tots, and toothpicks. I had planned on making a dipping sauce, but I ran out of time and didn't think a dipping sauce would be necessary. I used 1.25 pounds of smoked sausage, cut into 28 chunks (not quite 3/4-oz each). I browned the sausage on a baking sheet in a 350 degree F oven for about 20 minutes, until looking lightly browned and a bit puffy). Meanwhile, in a 410 degree F oven (second oven), I browned about 30 individual tater tots on a baking sheet for about 25 minutes, or until browned and crispy. When both were done, I speared a sausage piece and tater tot together with a toothpick. I had thought I could bake the two items on toothpicks together, but at the last minute, 1 decided to bake them separately so that both parts would be perfectly cooked. The whole meat and potato thing must have appealed to a few of our guests and these were the only hot appetizer of which we completely ran out. The smoked sausage cost $1.75 and the amount of tater tots cost about 25 cents. Each kabob, then, cost about 7 cents.

The frozen spanakopita is an item that I have bought once before. I love these. They're pastry triangles filled with a combination of feta cheese and spinach. This product is part of an up-scale line offered at our local Fred Meyer. It's my understanding that other Kroger affiliates carry the Private Selection label. Selling for $5.99 per box, each has 16 pieces. I saved about 60 cents per box, using my Senior Discount, so each serving costs 33 cents. That's kind of pricey, I think. If my budget were even smaller for an event like we hosted, I would nix this item based on cost alone, yummy as it is. I bought 2 boxes and didn't bake up the second box. So, we have a box in reserve for another special occasion.

The frozen mini spring rolls were the items that I thought were not great. The flavor was good, but the texture was just so-so. The instructions on the box suggested baking the product. Well, baking them yielded a wrapper that was tough and crunchy, not light and crispy (as you'd have deep-frying the rolls). I thought it was a disappointment. I bought 2 boxes and only used 1. When I use the second box, I will at the very least, shallow-fry them in oil. I think the resulting texture would be much improved. I paid $4.98 at Walmart for 15 pieces, working out to 33 cents per roll. The package did come with a dipping sauce, so that was nice. However, at 33 cents per piece, I would give this a pass. 

Both of the frozen appetizers were over 4 times the cost of the sausage and tater kabobs, per serving. I think I could have saved myself a chunk of money and doubled-up on the sausage and tater kabobs.

I learn something with each event or party that I host. If such an event comes up again, I think I could pull it together for about $85 and feel like the offerings were good, simply by eliminating some of the over-buying, even more careful shopping, and skipping foods that were over-priced for the quality.

Making Hummus in a Hurry for a Quarter the Cost of Ready-Made

Hummus and crackers or veggies is a popular party food. It seems to pop up at most events that I attend these days. And I have to admit, I have in the past bought commercial hummus for a party, thinking that I didn't have enough time to make it myself. However, for this recent reception, even though I was very pressed for time, I found that I could make my own hummus, using a couple of ready-to-go ingredients, for 1/4 of Walmart's price for the Sabra brand of hummus.

For fast and easy hummus, I used my food processor, one 15-oz  can of Kroger brand garbanzo beans, drained, salt, vegetable oil, bottled lemon juice, dried chives, garlic powder, and about 1 tablespoon of olive oil for topping. I processed all of the above ingredients, minus the topping olive oil, until a smooth puree, then drizzled in some olive oil just before refrigerating. I estimate the cost of my ingredients to be about 75 to 80 cents, and my yield was greater than that which is sold in packages at the grocery store.  This was so easy to make that buying the ready-made hummus sounds like such a complete waste of my money now. I spent less than 5 minutes making this hummus, and about 2 minutes washing out the FP bowl and blade. $2.34 savings for less than 7 minutes of work.

Homemade hummus keeps in the refrigerator for about 5 days, so this is an item that can be made several days in advance of an event. It can also be frozen, keeping for about 6 months at 0 degrees F.

Some Photos and More Comments From the Reception

Here's the dining room table set with most of what was put out, just before the appointed hour. As you can see, we used paper napkins, glass punch cups, plastic water cups, and fine china plates. I have dinner plates in 4 different patterns, from my great grandmother, grandmother, mother, and my own. I only put about 20 plates on the table to begin and replenished from a stack on the window seat. We used a combination of plastic and stainless flatware. The paper napkins and plastic flatware were leftover from last year's reception for my other daughter. It didn't seem to matter in the least that little to nothing matched.

Here is the soup set-up and part of the dessert selection. This buffet is in the dining room, against a wall. Both the soup and fondue needed placement against a wall, as they were both in crockpots. We used china tea cups in my mother's and my patterns. I washed all of the dinner plates and tea cups myself, after our guests had left. I actually enjoyed that moment, handling plates from the different generations in my family and reflecting on how many times each had likely been used. The kitchen was quiet -- it was just me and the sink of china dishes. For the cake, we did use plastic plates, as I had them from last year and could cut the cake into slices and set out with forks whenever I had a few minutes.

the soup, breadsticks, and shaved Parmesan cheese

the ham, Swiss, and Dijon sandwiches, held together with toothpicks topped with stuffed olives

the rosemary chicken salad sandwiches on croissants, spread with a bit of homemade cranberry sauce

cream puffs stuffed with shrimp and pasta salad -- chopped shrimp in the salad and then topped with a whole shrimp

a rose petal ice mold for the punchbowl. Rose petals float, so I found I need to make the ice mold in layers. Also, if I do this again, I will add fewer petals, as by the end of the event, the bottom of the punchbowl was swimming in petals.

the mold just released into the lilac lemonade

a double layer sheet cake -- scratch carrot cake, filled and topped with scratch cream cheese frosting. The cake was completed up to this point on Saturday morning, to decorate on Sunday afternoon.

fresh roses from my garden, with stem ends wrapped in a tiny bit of plastic wrap to decorate the cake

chocolate fondue in a thrift shop mini crockpot ($1.49 at Goodwill) -- one hour before the party, I poured one 12 oz package of semi-sweet chocolate chips and about 3 tablespoons of solid shortening (Crisco) into the pot and plugged in. Just before guests arrived, I gave it a stir and it was completely ready. I left it plugged in for the entire event.

These are the dippers for the chocolate fondue, and included orange segments, strawberries on wooden skewers, lady finger and tea cookies, marshmallows on wooden skewers, and pretzel sticks. The fondue set-up had its own place in the family room and proved to be quite popular.

I made a trio of meringues again just for this event.

a tray of chocolates on a paper doily. Looks fancy, right?

These are boxed chocolates that I bought on clearance for a couple of dollars per box right after Valentine's day. 

When I took off the Valentine's wrapping paper, I could see that the sell-by date wasn't until late summer (Sept 2019).

Finally for the desserts -- I had some large bags of jelly beans bought 3 bags/50 cents on clearance. I emptied 2 of the bags into 5 different teacups and placed around the house. This was a last minute impulse move and actually received a couple of compliments.

More tomorrow . . .

A Few Thoughts about the Reception That We Hosted

My daughter graduated from her university on Saturday evening (yay!), and we hosted the reception Sunday late afternoon into early evening. All went well-enough; I am exhausted, though. Today, I'll write up a few thoughts about our budget and some of the main items that we prepared. I'll continue again tomorrow with more thoughts. Later today, I'll get photos uploaded to my computer later and will post some of them this week.

On planning
Last year's reception gave me a lot of insight for planning an event, as far as spending and size. We entertained about 30 people, and we seemed to have close to the right amount of food, with nothing completely running out and not terribly too much leftover. In comparison, last year, we had a lot of leftovers, enough to eat for a few days and still have more to freeze for later. This year, we have enough leftovers for a couple of days of lunches and snacking, plus 2 frozen packaged items that I never baked up (one box of spring rolls, and one box of spanakopita) and 4 or 5 whole chicken breasts (I bought a family-sized pack to save on price per pound). I will set these items aside from my regular menu planning and use for a future special occasion, such as a potluck or hosting another gathering later this summer.

The spending
I met my goal to spend half of what we spent last year. At just about $100, it was still quite a lot. This was an amount which was budgeted separately from our grocery budget, so at least this doesn't impact any of our other spending. While $100 sounds like a huge amount to spend on a party, we did entertain about 30 people (that works out to about $3.33 per person). Plus, if we hadn't celebrated in this way, we might have spent nearly this amount to take the whole family out to a nice dinner. What is clear to me, though, is that other types of receptions, such as weddings, could be doable for a fraction of what caterers charge, given a low-cost or free venue, such as a home or church social hall, and some free-labor/helpers, such as family members. My two daughters were hugely instrumental in getting the interior work done, while my husband was a big help in getting the outside of the house looking tidy (he also did some cleaning chores in the house, too!). Of course, working from my own kitchen, I did use some ingredients that I had at home, but I consider the cost of those items to be a wash when weighed against the leftovers which will supplement our eating for the next few days and beyond.

The shopping
Learning where to buy different food items is an on-going process. New stores move into the area and old favorites either close or change their pricing strategy. I tried to buy most everything at what I thought would be the lowest unit price. However, I ran short on time and skipped a stop at Dollar Tree for crackers and pretzel sticks and opted for Fred Meyer on those items instead. I spent an extra $2 as a result. I also used Fred Meyer for most of the produce. I didn't pick up the strawberries until Saturday afternoon (one day before the event). After checking strawberry prices online, I went to Sprouts and bought 3 pounds, saving about $2.70 compared the the next lowest price in town for strawberries. If I had purchased all of our produce (lettuce, green onions, cucumbers, baby carrots, celery, grape tomatoes, oranges, and broccoli crowns) I may saved another $5 or so. Despite not saving as much as I could have, I did gain some valuable information that will affect my produce shopping for the rest of summer and into fall (maybe even year round) -- Sprouts has some really good prices on produce and I can take advantage of this for my regular shopping. Sprouts is a new store to my area, so I am just now learning what they offer at a good price compared to my other shopping options. For the other items that I purchased, I did well. I researched online where to find the best deal on particular items and shopped at a total of 5 stores, including Cash & Carry wholesale, Fred Meyer, Walmart, WinCo, and Sprouts.

The lay-out
Once again, I spread the food stations around the house somewhat. The main area used the dining room table and the buffet in the dining room. The buffet is up against a wall, where I have electrical outlets, so this is where I set up the crock-pot of soup. I set up the mini crock-pot of chocolate fondue (along with the dippers) in the other main gathering room in our home, on a table up against a wall. Like last time, I set up the kitchen table with small platters of items, plus a bottle of water and cups. I also set out a small plate of veggies and dip and some sweets on both a coffee table and a side table in the main gathering room. We encouraged guests to use the living room, family room, dining room and kitchen. A few people found spots to sit for the entirety, but most folks milled around a bit, moving from room to room, with the dining room and family appearing to be the most congested. In our house, the dining room is directly across the hall from the family room, so I think proximity to the dining room influenced most folks to move into the family room. This is something for me to consider the next time we host a large event -- set up the main food station in close proximity to the seating area that I want guests to enjoy.

The individual items: sandwiches, potato salad, and soup
If you remember, I said I would be making 3 kinds of sandwiches. The first, ham, Swiss, and Dijon on homemade French bread to which we added lettuce and green olives, made about 35 small sandwiches. This is the variety of which we have the most leftovers, perhaps enough for lunches today and dinner tonight. We also made chicken salad on mini croissants. I used 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, celery, green onion, rosemary, mayonnaise, salt, and pepper for the salad portion, plus I added a smear of homemade cranberry sauce to the inside of the croissant. I made 24 of these sandwiches, and at the end of the evening, there were 2 of these sandwiches remaining. I had about 2 cups of the chicken salad leftover after filling the croissants. I set this out in a small bowl on the table for anyone who avoids breads. Most of that was also eaten. The third sandwich variety was a shrimp and pasta salad in a homemade cream puff. For the filling, I used about 12 ounces of extra-small shrimp, chopped into smaller pieces (I would have used salad shrimp, but Walmart only had the extra-small, 1 cup of small pasta, cooked, mayonnaise, lemon juice, green onion, and spiced fig jam. I cut the top mostly off of each cream puff (leaving a small bit attached), then filled the hollow and popped the top of the cream puff back into place. I made 23 of these sandwiches and we had 2 leftover. Because these were filled with a seafood item, I put about 8 or 9 out at a time, and refilled the platter as needed. That may have slowed down the consumption of these a bit, in contrast to the other varieties for which I put large platters out just as the guests were arriving. Three of us made 82 sandwiches in 1 and 1/2 hours and had about 20 sandwiches left over. The average, then, was 2 sandwiches per person.

For the potato salad, I had a hunch that we would run short of time, so we prepared a semi-homemade version. I bought a quart of prepared potato salad from the refrigerated section of the grocery store. To this, we added diced celery and chopped green onion. We topped the now-improved commercial salad with hard boiled egg wedges, paprika, and a bit more green onion. I really think this looked and tasted homemade, yet we out-sourced the troublesome task of getting the potatoes cooked just right without becoming mushy. One quart of potato salad was just about right for 30 people, considering there were several other side dish items from which to choose.

The tomato-basil soup was a huge hit -- I received several compliments on the soup, regarding flavor and texture. My thinking is that a lot of people simply don't make soup from scratch anymore, so this soup may have seemed different and special to anyone more accustomed to Campbell's. I used canned tomato paste, canned tomatoes, lemon juice, sugar, dried basil, garlic powder, onions, salt, oil, and water. I began the soup with browning some onions in oil. Once browned, I pulsed them through the food processor to reduce to a chunky puree. I followed this up with pulsing the canned tomatoes, just until it was mostly puree with a few small chunks remaining. The small chunks added texture to the final soup. The remaining ingredients I added to taste, yielding just over 3 quarts of soup, in total. I made the soup a couple of days in advance and then put it in the crockpot about 5 to 6 hours before the reception to heat it thoroughly, setting the crockpot to High. We have about 1 cup of the soup left over. I added a small toppings bar of short breadsticks, and shaved Parmesan. While the soup could be sipped, I also had plastic spoons set out. The soup was served help-yourself style from the crockpot, with a bunch of china tea cups and a ladle. Although I tried to use washable/permanent flatware, dishes, and cups, tea cups are on the small side, so I do think the plastic spoon was a good flatware choice, as they were lightweight and less likely to topple out of a small and shallow cup. I washed 17 cups at the end of the evening, so the soup was interesting to just over half of the people, with some folks enjoying "seconds" on the soup. Considering that soup was just one component of the spread, 3 quarts was just barely enough for 30 people.

More thoughts and some photos tomorrow.

Thank You! And the Menu for the Reception

Thank you, all of you, for your wonderful soup suggestions. After reading so many thumbs-up for a tomato-basil soup, that is what I decided to go with. I make a pretty good tomato soup using canned tomato products, and right now, I happen to have canned tomato paste and canned whole tomatoes in stock. I'll use a combination of dried and fresh basil (I only have a small amount of fresh basil right now). In addition, I picked up some short grissini (breadsticks)  and shaved Parmesan cheese for the cups of soup. I think this will work out well and add another dimension to the reception.

Okay, so here's the full menu:

Tomato-basil soup (in the crockpot), served in cups, with breadsticks and Parmesan

3 kinds of sandwiches

• ham, Swiss, and Dijon on homemade sliced French bread
• shrimp and pasta salad in homemade cream puffs
• chicken salad with homemade cranberry sauce on mini croissants

A large bowl of potato salad

3 kinds of hot appetizers

• mini veggie egg rolls (frozen item - Walmart)
• spanakopita (frozen item - Fred Meyer)
• smoked sausage and tater-tot kabobs on toothpicks

A tray of homemade hummus and crackers (Dollar Tree)

A veggie and dip tray

The dessert buffet will have:

Mixed nuts

Boxed chocolates

A platter of meringue cookies

Homemade carrot sheet cake

A big jar of jelly beans (bought on clearance priced at 3 bags for 50 cents)

chocolate fondue in a mini crockpot, with plain tea biscuits, whole strawberries, marshmallows, orange segments, and pretzel sticks for dipping

Lilac lemonade and water for beverages. I was going to add a tea, but now with the soup using up the cups and crockpot, I'll skip tea. 

Two days before, I'll make the hummus and prepare a veggie tray. I'll be able to make the chicken salad, potato salad, and tomato-basil soup the day before. The morning of the reception, I can make the shrimp salad, assemble all of the sandwiches, and frost the cake (already baked and in the freezer). 

I think that there is enough variety that anyone with dietary restrictions should still be able to find a lot that they can eat. Any suggestions? 

Super Busy Week and Needing a Suggestion for Drinkable Soup

As you might guess, this week leading up to the graduation reception for my daughter is a busy one for me. We shifted the time of the reception from just an afternoon one to a later hour to accommodate some guests who are important to our family. This means that our gathering is crossing the dinner hour, and I want to include more substantial foods that can still be eaten while standing or off of a lap (no knives, finger foods are preferable). I've decided that in addition to serving small sandwiches and appetizers, I will serve a soup to be consumed from cups, ie. drinkable. The weather forecast suggests cool-ish temperatures, so a hot soup will work out fine. I'm looking for suggestions for a soup that does not require a spoon, but could be sipped from a cup -- no or minimal chunks in the liquid. In addition, I want the soup to be substantial enough to be filling. I could make it from scratch or partially from scratch the day before or the morning of. I'm all ears for suggestions!

Semi-Homemade Cup of Noodles

Somehow, my family got hooked on Cup Noodles instant entrees this past fall and winter. I had bought a case of them at WinCo, and their convenience for single-serve meals and snacks won our hearts. I'm talking about the styrofoam container of noodles and seasonings to which you add boiling water. It's not fancy. However, when I've just walked in the door, and it's about an hour after I normally eat lunch, these hit the spot in a hurry.

We ran out of them a month ago; but I still had most of a case of ramen noodle soup packets, the kind that make a pot of soup to feed 2 people. So, for the last several weeks, we've been making our own Cup Noodles in mugs, using part of a packet of noodles, some of the seasoning packet, additional dehydrated carrot pieces and chives from my garden. We add water to fill and microwave individual servings for a little over a minute. We top these with lentil sprouts or boiled eggs to make a quick but filling meal.

At WinCo, I was paying about 33 cents each for the styrofoam container Cup Noodle product. Ramen soup packets cost me about 20 cents each, when bought in a case from WinCo or 5-pack from Dollar Tree. We get about 2 servings from a packet of ramen soup. That's 10 cents per serving on the noodle and seasoning part of our soups. The dried chives come from our garden. The cost of home dehydrated carrot bits, fresh lentil sprouts, and one egg comes to about 15 cents, bringing the maximum cost for our homemade "cup o' noodles" to about 25 cents. It should be noted that our homemade version is a much more substantial snack or meal than the commercial product.

I don't know if anyone else makes individual servings of ramen from a packet, so I thought I'd share this in case it's helpful to someone else.

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for the Tail End of May

Friday (cost about -- $1.80)
pinto bean and vegetable soup (this was a delicious soup -- I made it early in the day and one daughter and I had it for our lunch, then the whole family had it for dinner. I used saved fat from Wednesday's meatloaf, as well as liquid from rinsing out the meatloaf pan. The flavor of the soup was wonderful. I added cooked pinto beans from the freezer, canned tomatoes, carrots, onion, chili powder, garlic powder, and garden Swiss chard.)
fresh-baked French bread
bread pudding made from the last of the failed batch of muffins earlier in the week, topped with homemade vanilla frozen yogurt

Saturday (cost about -- $1.35)
scrambled eggs with Swiss chard, canned tomatoes, and onions
carrot sticks
hash browned potatoes

Sunday cook-out (cost about -- $1.20)
hot dogs in homemade buns
cole slaw
s'mores

Monday (cost about -- $1.65)
pasta primavera (vegetables and herbs, tossed with cooked pasta, and topped with mozzarella)
focaccia
strawberry-rhubarb sauce

Tuesday (cost about -- $1.70)
bean and vegetable soup (made with ham stock and ham fat, so it had the aroma and flavor of smokey meat)
fresh-baked bread and butter
homemade vanilla frozen yogurt, topped with homemade cocoa mix

Wednesday (cost about -- $2.65)
spaghetti with meat sauce (using 1 pound of the super-discounted ground beef from a couple of months ago to make 6 adult servings --2 of which are for the freezer)
peas
vanilla frozen yogurt topped with homemade jam

Thursday (cost -- free)
We went to a design exhibit for a family friend. There were enough snacks to fill us all up, so no dinner was needed.

It was a busy week, translating into some very simple and last-minute dinners.

We used 1 pound of ground beef and 6 ounces of hot dogs for meat for the entire week.We also used about 1 cup of mozzarella cheese, which is as expensive as meat for us. We had eggs for dinner on 1 night and beans as the primary protein source on 2 nights.

I have to confess something (shhh, my family doesn't know this). I cheated a bit on the flavor of the strawberry-rhubarb sauce on Monday. I did add some frozen strawberries, but not much. To boost the flavor, I added strawberry Kool-aid powder. And yes, it was deliciously strawberry-y.

Breakfasts this week were steel cut oatmeal, homemade granola, homemade donuts, toast, butter, peanut butter, jam, yogurt, and milk. Lunches seemed to feature a lot of lentil sprouts and ramen soup and sometimes lentils in ramen soup. We also had leftover homemade soup, peanut butter sandwiches, eggs, carrots, rhubarb, yogurt, raisins, juice, and milk.

This is the last day of May. Consequently, my fridge is looking a bit bare. June's shopping is just around the corner, though, so that old Mother Hubbard look will soon vanish.

What was on your menu this past week? Do you have any go-to meals that you can whip up from scratch in 20 minutes or so? I expect this next week I'll be making extremely simple meals, as I finish up the preparations for my daughter's graduation shindig.

Have a great weekend!

Four Fortuitous Things Boosting My Buying Power for June

Don't you just love it when the things that you had wanted to buy anyway go on sale? Or when you think that you're all out of a particular needed ingredient, but then you find a stash of it tucked away? In one week, my grocery buying power got a big enough boost to allow me to buy more than double of one item for June. Here's what happened to make this possible:

• I had put marshmallows on my list for June, and then this weekend I found a whole bag tucked away in the garage freezer. When we thought we might have a mouse in the house, everything that was in a bag or other soft packaging in the pantry went into the fridge or the freezer. Apparently, a bag of marshmallows was amongst those items. We can use these for s'mores in June. Savings -- 96 cents
• My daughter made sugar cookies for the Sunday school class that she teaches a couple of weeks ago. After baking a bunch of them, she decided to freeze the rest of the dough. This weekend, she suggested that we use homemade sugar cookies (using this frozen dough) in place of graham crackers for June's s'mores. That'll work! Savings -- $1.68
• I had budgeted 49 cents per pound for a watermelon for June, with a maximum of $4.90. Over the weekend, Albertson's had watermelons on sale for 29 cents per pound. Even though it isn't June yet, I went ahead and bought 1 large watermelon. I spent $4.14 for that one. We won't cut into the melon until June begins. According to eatbydate.com, whole, uncut watermelons will keep for 7 to 10 days on the counter or 2 to 3 weeks in the refrigerator. At 29 cents per pound, our watermelon will be one of our primary fruits for the first half of June. Bonus -- I'll save the rind to make more pickles, following the recipe in this post. Savings on the melon -- 76 cents.
• When I first made my June shopping list, the 10-lb bag of yellow onions was selling for $4.84 at Cash & Carry and the 25-lb bag was about $7.50. I checked their website again this week, and the 10-lb bag is now $4.19 and the 25-lb bag is now $7.00. The previous 3 money-saving events/choices saved me $3.40. That savings will allow me to buy the 25-lb bag of yellow onions, spending $2.16 more than the budgeted $4.84 for onions. Plus, I will still have $1.24 leftover! I'll try not to spend it all in one place.

The 10-lb bag of onions would have lasted about 2 months in our house. Buying the 25-lb bag means that I can delay buying more onions until sometime in the fall, freeing up a couple of dollars of grocery money for other foods this summer. And my price for onions dropped from 40 cents per pound to 28 cents per pound. Now that's a bargain!

Making Lilac Lemonade

The jar on the right contains lilac syrup. I made this a couple of weeks ago when the lilacs were in bloom in my garden. My plan is to serve lilac lemonade at the upcoming reception.

My first attempt at lilac syrup turned out very pungent, so much so that I diluted that batch substantially with additional plain simple syrup. The end result was pleasantly floral when mixed with lemon juice and water.

Lilacs don't naturally impart their beautiful hues to the syrup, so I dyed this batch with the blueberry juice from a thawed bag of blueberries. It's now a beautiful shade of, well, lilac. The carafe to the left contains lilac lemonade. I'll fill my thrifted punch bowl with lilac lemonade for one of two beverages.  We have some lovely magenta roses just beginning to bloom in our garden. Keeping with the floral theme of the lemonade, I plan on making an ice ring filled with rose petals. The second beverage will be a decaffeinated spiced tea, which I'll keep hot in my large crockpot. In addition, I'll also serve water in repurposed cider bottles.

Did you know that lilac blossoms are edible? I didn't until a friend told me just a few weeks ago. You can use the blossoms in scones, tea cakes, and poundcake. In addition to lemonade, the lilac syrup is also delightfully floral when added to a pot of plain black tea. The syrup keeps in the refrigerator for 2 weeks or in the freezer for several months.

Advance Preparations for a Big Party: The Cake

So, I'm working on menu items for the graduation reception for my daughter. I am preparing as much as I can ahead of time and freezing. I figure that if I do at least one thing toward the reception each day, I should be able to put this together as much from scratch as possible, without fully exhausting myself. The other day, I baked the cake part of a quarter sheet carrot cake and two dozen cream puffs (using the recipe in this post, but making 24 cream puffs instead of the recipe's yield of 12-15). I stashed both in my freezer. I'll frost the cake and fill the cream puffs the morning of the reception.

I was pricing sheet cakes at WinCo the other morning. Their quarter sheet carrot cakes begin at $19.98.  By baking my own cake from scratch, I believe that I will save at least $12, and I think it will taste much better.

I wanted to make my cake look as much like a bakery cake as I could, so that meant taking it out of the pan to frost the sides as well as the top. I baked the layers in a 9 X 13-inch rectangular pyrex baker. If you've ever tried to get an entire cake out of an extra large pan, you know that keeping it from cracking is a bit tricky. I followed a trick of my mother's and lined the baker with waxed paper.

My mother would grease and flour the sides and bottom of the baker, then line it with waxed paper, using one sheet across the length of the pan and another across the width. There would be overhang on all four sides. After lining the pan, she would brush oil lightly on the waxed paper, to ensure the cake would release without pitting. She allowed the cake to cool for 15 minutes in the pan on a rack. After this brief cooling, she would lift the cake out of the pan, using the overhang on the long ends as handles. After another 10 minutes of cooling, the cake would be carefully turned onto a large rack, and the waxed paper would be peeled off. I can tell you, this worked like a charm for me. I was able to get both layers out of the large baker without sticking to the pan or developing cracks.

Cheap & Cheerful Meals for Mid to Late May

Friday (cost: about $1.40 for 4)
bean burger patties, made with pinto beans, bread, egg, salt, chili powder, garlic, then fried in ham fat and oil
rice (mix of leftover brown rice and some freshly cooked white rice)
mushroom gravy (from a packet) over the bean burgers and rice
Swiss chard (from the garden), garlic, canned tomatoes

Saturday -- cook-out (cost: about $1.05 for 4)
hot dogs in homemade buns
cole slaw (cabbage from purchase around St. Patrick's Day)

Sunday (cost: about $2.00 for 4)
leftover ham, chard, and cheese quiche plus blueberry coffeecake from brunch
ramen soup with added dehydrated carrots and chives

Monday (cost: about $1.90 for 4)
baked pinto beans with diced ham
asparagus and green beans with cheese sauce (leftover asparagus and cheese sauce from brunch)
roasted potatoes, carrots, and onions
bread pudding (made with a failed batch of muffins), topped with leftover, hardened, homemade caramel sauce

Tuesday (cost: about $1.10 for 4)
Swiss chard quiche
bananas
oatmeal, rhubarb, white chocolate bar cookies

Wednesday -- rushed meal prep as I had to leave for an evening meeting (cost: about $1.75 for 4)
meatloaf
brown rice
peas

Thursday (cost: about $1.25 for 4)
carrot soup
ham salad sandwiches on homemade whole wheat bread (ham leftover from Easter)
homemade sugar cookies

Meals from this past week seemed very ordinary to me. Despite that, they did their job and we all were fed. Breakfasts continued to consist of homemade granola, overnight crockpot steel cut oats, yogurt, toast, juice, bananas, rhu-sins, peanut butter, bean spread, and milk. I didn't know until Thursday that I would have a large supply of eggs to work with, so eggs were not a common part of breakfasts. Lunches used leftover baked beans, sandwiches filled with bean spread, peanut butter, or egg salad, ramen, juice, milk, tea, bananas, rhu-sins, carrot sticks, lentil sprouts, cookies, and homemade frozen yogurt.

We had our family gathering for Mother's Day this past Sunday (instead of actual Mother's Day). My preference was for a brunch, as I like brunch foods. So, my 2 daughters put together a nice brunch, using mostly what we had on hand. They did buy asparagus and strawberries, however. The menu was a ham, cheese, and Swiss chard quiche, roasted asparagus with cheese sauce, blueberry coffee cake (using blueberries from the freezer), chocolate-covered strawberries, orange juice, and a large pot of tea. My daughters did an awesome job, making everything from scratch, setting a lovely table, and serving us all.

What was on your menu this past week? Have a lovely weekend!