Cheap & Cheerful Suppers This Last Week

first harvest of indoor radishes

Friday
pepperoni pizza, fig-applesauce, carrot sticks

Saturday
TVP meatballs and spaghetti, green beans, coleslaw

Sunday
spinach frittata topped with marinara, brown rice, steamed carrots

Monday
TVP, mushrooms, carrot greens in leftover beef gravy over slices of French bread, roasted pumpkin cubes and broccoli

Tuesday
tuna noodle casserole, garden salad (garden greens, lentil sprouts, indoor-grown radishes and their greens), chocolate chip bar cookies

Wednesday
chicken teriyaki over rice, steamed carrots, green beans

Thursday

vegetarian chili, cheese biscuits, carrot sticks

Breakfasts included oatmeal, toasty o's cereal, homemade yogurt, toasted homemade bread, peanut butter, roasted almonds, canned tomatoes, frozen blackberries and blueberries, dried prunes and cherries, juice, coffee, and milk

itty bitty carrots that I used in a large pot of vegetable soup

For lunches this past week, I made 2 large pots of soup, one garden vegetable and the other tomato-basil soup. We also used leftover cooked macaroni noodle, cooked rice, and pizza sauce, plus bread, peanut butter, cheese, peanuts, almonds, celery, carrots, cabbage, lentil sprouts, frozen and dried fruit, juice, yogurt, and milk. One of my daughters enjoys smoothies with her lunches and will often combine some yogurt, frozen blackberries, honey, and milk in a blender. We all like salads and combine chopped raw veggies with lentil sprouts and a creamy dressing for an easy slaw. I also just like simple meals, such as a meal of toast, cheese, nuts, and raisins.

We baked 2 large loaves of French bread, a pan of chocolate chip bar cookies, a batch of scratch brownies, and another batch of pumpkin-chocolate chip mini muffins this week. We seem to gobble up any and everything I bake.

Our meals are humble and very basic. I keep thinking that this weekly post must be boring to read. I sometimes wish I cooked more interesting meals. But this is the type of cook that I am -- basic, but meets our needs.

What was on you menu this past week?

My Week -- Mostly Good

Hi friends,

How has your week been? It's been a mostly good week, here. Wet and windy and all that brings to our area.

I was in the mood for chocolate chip cookies last week but didn't want all of the sugar and fat that cookies typically contain. So, I made chocolate chip mini muffins. The batch made as many mini muffins as the same amount of chocolate chips would make cookies. Only, I used more flour, less sugar, and less fat (and I used oil instead of butter). These were very tasty. I added a full tablespoon of vanilla extract and some molasses to boost the flavor of the batter, and whole wheat flour for part of the flour for added nutrients.

As it turns out, both of my green pumpkins are showing signs that they will turn orange. That's exciting for me. In total, we got 12 pumpkins and winter squash.

I thought I'd share an update on my indoor radishes. They really put on growth this past week. I think I'll start harvesting them for use in a toasted salad on Friday, where I'll use both the leaves and roots.

Believe it or not, I'm still harvesting fresh raspberries every few days. These are overbearing raspberry plants. They produce medium size crops in mid-summer and larger crops in fall if kept watered through summer. The small bowl above was harvested early on Thursday (Nov. 4). There are still more berries forming on the canes, which I expect I'll be picking in a few days. Depending on when cold weather sets in, I may or may not get 2 more pickings. (Or maybe not, keep reading.) We began this one patch with a single cane and will be moving some of the escaped canes to a new bed next spring to double our output of overbearing raspberries.

I'm still harvesting from the garden every day. I have Brussel sprouts, beets, turnips, kale, Swiss chard, green onions, cauliflower (that never flowered but I'm using the leaves), parsley, spinach, lettuce, and nasturtium leaves that I can pick, at least in small amounts. Planting several items in troughs and containers on the deck for a fall garden has worked out very well for us. The deck veggies seem to be doing better than those down below in the garden.

Late Thursday afternoon, a large tree came down onto our house, taking out the back part of the vegetable and raspberry garden. We've had some heavy rains and then Thursday had some gusty winds. The soggy soil loosened the roots enough that a big gust of wind was able to topple the tree. My husband and I spent an hour cutting away what we could and will work more on it Friday before hiring someone to finish the job. We're not even sure yet if there's significant damage to the roof as it came down onto attic space. One of us will go up to the attic to check for openings in the roof later today. While this was definitely not a good thing, our garden will receive more sun in spring and summer as a result of this tree coming down. Looking for the silver lining to this cloud. We've lived in this house for 26 years and have now had 8 trees come down unplanned, hitting the house on 3 of those occasions. You'd think we'd want to move to a treeless lot, wouldn't you?

I had another curbside grocery pick-up this week, again at Fred Meyer. This bag charge thing seems to be fluid. This week, no charge for the bags, and they were using plastic bags that were printed "Pick-up". I don't know if they were using up their old supply of plastic "Pick-up" bags so didn't charge me for them, or if the bag charge on pick-up orders only has been rescinded. I'll find out next time. Anyway, back to my order, I found eggs on sale for 85 cents/dozen in 18-ct cartons (with coupon, limit 5 cartons). I bought the limit, which came to 7 1/2 dozen eggs. This should last us a while. I also noticed that Fred Meyer's 5-dozen box of eggs was less expensive (and not on sale) than a few weeks ago, leaving me to wonder if egg prices are moderating a bit. 

A mostly good week. What were the highlights (or lowlights, as the case may be) of your week? Any interesting weather in your area? 

2 extra posts:

Getting More Servings of Fruits and Vegetables Into Each Day

Cheap & Cheerful Meals This Past Week

Cheap & Cheerful Meals This Past Week

Friday
sausage-pepper-olive pizza, spiced fig-applesauce, carrot and celery sticks

Saturday
TVP meatballs, marinara and spaghetti, sautéed kale, mini chocolate chip muffins

Sunday
eggs and sausage, pan-fried garden potatoes, steamed carrots, cole slaw, popcorn balls

Monday
Italian vegetable-sausage-lentil soup, scratch cornbread, spiced fig-applesauce, blackberry-rhubarb crisp

Tuesday
baked potatoes topped with kale in cheese sauce and bacon bits, pumpkin souffle, slaw salad, leftover blackberry-rhubarb crisp

Wednesday
pot roast with potatoes and carrots, cornbread, celery sticks

Thursday
chicken pot pie, cole slaw

Another week of all home-cooked meals. We must be saving some serious money without ever getting take-out or buying last-minute convenience foods. As you can guess, we're sliding into hearty fall and winter menus. We haven't had pot roast or chicken pot pie in many months, but this sure seemed like the week for those comfort foods.

We had half of a red pepper that needed using up, so Friday's usual pepperoni pizza morphed into a sausage and pepper pizza. I also had about a dozen or so olives lingering in the fridge, so those were chopped and added to the toppings. Spiced fig-applesauce made it to the menu twice this past week. This seems like a successful way for me to use up some of these preserved green figs and their syrup. My husband does a good job with TVP meatballs, so that job went to him on Saturday evening to go with spaghetti, tomato sauce, and sautéed garden kale.

Sunday was Halloween and we wanted something quick and easy for our dinner so we could get right to making popcorn balls. (We give out packaged candy but save the popcorn balls for ourselves.)  Eggs and breakfast sausage make such a quick and easy entree. On Friday I had browned 2 meals worth of Italian sausage when making a pizza. I used the second half of this cooked sausage in a soup on Monday, when I also made a double batch of cornbread to be used on Wednesday to go with the pot roast.

Breakfasts also reflected more cool weather cooking with a batch of crockpot Cream of Wheat and another batch of crockpot steel cut oats. We also had yogurt, bran cereal, various frozen and dried fruits from our garden, carrot sticks, canned tomatoes, applesauce, cheese, toast, coffee and milk.

It was get-it-yourself for lunch this week. We all made our own using cabbage, carrots, celery, lentil sprouts, cooked lentils, rice, bread, peanut butter, cheese, eggs, frozen and dried fruits, juice, popcorn, tomatoes, greens from the garden and dinner leftovers.

I only baked a few time this past week, making cornbread, fruit crisp, mini chocolate chip muffins, and 2 large loaves of French bread. The popcorn balls satisfied our sweet tooths, as did a microwave s'more set-up in jars on the counter (graham crackers, mini marshmallows, chocolate chips to be assembled and microwaved).

What was on the menu at your house this past week? Are you finding more comfort foods making it into your meals?

Getting More Servings of Fruits and Vegetables Into Each Day

spinach, carrot, and beetroot powders

A while ago I mentioned I was working at getting more servings of fruits and vegetables in each day. I think this is a challenge for many of us. And yet, as I get older, it seems more important than ever to try really hard to eat more produce for health and digestive benefits. So I thought I'd share what I've been doing that is really helping with this challenge.

I've been doing this for the last couple of years, with the past six months finally reaching what I think is a good amount for my body. I estimate that I consume about 6 full servings of fruits and vegetables each day. To get there, I have 2 key moments every day that help put me over this threshold.

The first key moment comes with my first meal of the day. I eat 3 small to medium servings of fruits and vegetables with breakfast each morning. I'm not a huge breakfast eater. If this meal looks small, keep in mind that I eat small to begin the day then add a snack mid-morning if I'm working physically. 

typical breakfast: carrot yogurt, prunes, canned tomatoes

So, this is a typical breakfast for me. The yogurt has 1 tablespoon of carrot powder stirred in, plus vanilla extract and honey for flavor. Those are home-dried prunes equivalent to 3 full plums. And the small dish of tomatoes is a few tablespoons of canned diced tomatoes doctored up with dried herbs and onion flakes. This is a sample meal. I switch up the produce depending on mood and availability, eating fresh cherry tomatoes, fresh berries or plums, frozen berries, carrot sticks, pumpkin puree, or other dried fruit. I have yogurt with breakfast almost every day. I rarely eat grains for breakfast. But when I do, it's something like Cream of Wheat or oatmeal and I stir in some fruit, grated carrot, or pumpkin puree. In one of the shows I watched on WWII in Britain, they were making muesli and adding a lot of grated carrot, chopped apples, and raisins to the oats. This is the sort of way I eat grains at breakfast, with a lot of fruits and veg mixed in. Breakfast done, and I've had 3 different fruits/vegetables in about 2 1/2 servings.

The other key moment where I sneak in extra fruits and veggies is my afternoon drink snack. I use this as a work-out recharge and endurance drink. It's fruit juice with vegetable powders mixed in. Beets have been shown to increase endurance in athletes, so I always add beet powder. I also add spinach powder, and depending on the juice, I sometimes add some carrot powder as well. My two favorite combinations are orange juice spiked with beet and spinach powders and apple juice with beet, spinach, and carrot powder mixed in. 

orange juice with beetroot and spinach powder

I drink a small juice glass of this as I work out each afternoon. Each glass contains about 5 ounces of pure fruit juice and 1 teaspoon of beet powder, 1/2 teaspoon of spinach powder, and 1-2 teaspoons of carrot powder when using apple juice as the base. I top this juice-powder combination with a little water to thin the taste. And I save myself some time by making a large glass bottle full, enough for several days of the week. If you're curious, the juice with veggie powder mixed in is not as sweet as plain fruit juice and has a mild fruit and vegetable flavor.

So, for your information, 1 teaspoon of beetroot powder is roughly equivalent in nutrition to 1 whole beet, 1/2 teaspoon of spinach powder is roughly equal to 2  1/2 tablespoons of fresh, chopped spinach leaves, and 1 tablespoon of carrot powder is equivalent to 1 large carrot. So, in my juice drink, I am getting 1+ servings of fruits and vegetables in a quick and easy refreshment. I could just drink a large glass of fruit juice, but by mixing in the veggie powders, I am getting more vegetables and greater variety than I might otherwise eat.

With these 2 moments in each day providing about 4 servings of fruits and vegetables, whatever else I eat at lunch and dinner puts me way over the 5-a-day that's recommended and into the 6 plus territory. I typically eat 1 small to medium serving each of fruit and vegetables at lunch and about 2 servings of produce with dinner. Like everyone else, I have "off" days where I just don't eat as much produce at lunch and dinner, but I do try very hard to eat my 4 at breakfast and afternoon snack.

a cup of frozen blackberries,
good thawed with a honey drizzle

We all know that fruits and vegetables can be expensive in the grocery store. My garden really helps with these foods. In winter I grow lentil sprouts and this year am growing radishes and other greens under lights indoors to supplement our usual purchases of celery, cabbage and carrots, veggies that are always on the less expensive side. I also buy bananas, fruit juice, and sometimes oranges (in season) and apples to provide variety when we're getting tired of frozen garden and foraged fruit in the off season. Remember all of those blackberries we foraged and froze? We're definitely eating a lot of those now.

So, these are the 2 things I am doing to make sure I eat more fruits and vegetables each day, produce-heavy breakfasts and super-charged juice in the afternoon.

Happy November 1st

one of a dozen popcorn balls

Hi Friends,

I hope you all had a lovely weekend. Our family continued with a favorite fall activity and made popcorn balls on Halloween, following the recipe in the post in this link. Last night, we worked roasted peanuts into the popcorn balls. But I wanted to also say that sometimes we make our popcorn balls for Christmas, and then we work roasted almonds and pecans into the popcorn balls. Nut-filled popcorn balls are a very tasty way to do our holiday sweets.

our November dinner plates

And then this morning, I woke up and it was November. Suddenly, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's don't feel so far away. One November 1st tradition in our house is getting out the "turkey" plates. Away go the sunny, floral plates and out come scenes of autumn and winter on our dishes. It's a task I enjoy with the changing of the seasons. 

November 1st is a significant date for another special reason. It's my mother's birthday. She would have been 84 years old today. I don't think we ever stop missing our mothers after they pass away.

On another note, I'm making plans for Thanksgiving dinner already. I have a frozen, bone-in turkey breast and the fixings for family favorite casseroles and a couple of pies. I'll have my work cut out for me later this month.

How as your weekend? We had more trick-or-treaters than I'd planned for. I can never guess correctly in advance. I bought some of each family member's favorite candy, hoping for a few leftovers. Oh well. At least we had our yummy popcorn balls. Have a wonderful evening!

My Week: It's Definitely Fall Now

Last Friday, I made a Walmart pick-up order in the morning. The parking lot was about half full, and I was the only pick-up while I was there. They were out of a couple of items on my list and made substitutions with more expensive brands. Our state has implemented a plastic shopping bag ban in stores and all stores must now charge a bag fee. This went into effect on October 1. My family and I have since made pick-ups at a few different stores and have had differing experiences with the bag ban. With pick-up orders, most stores allow the option of not using their bags and having the employee transfer the merchandise to your own bags, avoiding the bag fee. The information for a bagless pick-up is not always easy to find on the order form. At Walmart, I have so far avoided the per bag fee, by ticking the bagless box on the form. However, they've continued to use bags and not charge me the fee. At other stores, I've either paid a per bag fee or had small numbers of items transferred to boxes or bags set up in my trunk. 

In the evening that same day, we had our usual pizza and movie night. We watched Beetlejuice, which seemed appropriate for the Halloween season.

Saturday was a day of puttering. I got quite a lot done and felt productive. I had been thinking about using the preserved figs and decided to try pureeing them and mixing them with the last of a jar of applesauce. I used our smoothie blender to get a good puree. There wasn't much applesauce in the jar, so this was mostly green figs. The flavor was flat and color was a little off-putting (pale green applesauce), so I doctored it up with about 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and 1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger. We all enjoyed this very much and I plan on making another batch to go with tonight's dinner. I think this would be a good solution for other fruits that don't seem popular in my household that we wouldn't want to waste. I have some pears in the freezer that I've been avoiding, but now think I'll puree and mix it with applesauce.

I made a delectable pot of tea over the weekend, using 1 cheap black tea bag and some lavender from my garden. I've mentioned this before, black tea with lavender tastes a lot like Earl Grey tea to me. I was able to get several mugs of tea from that pot.

I potted the tomato cutting that I rooted in water and have noticed it now has some new growth! I don't know if I'll be able to keep it alive long enough to actually grow a tomato or two, but I'll give it a shot. not only can I see new growth, but there are also the teeny tiny buds just beginning to form. This just might work . . .

Also this week, I picked the last 2 green pumpkins. One of the pumpkins has a slight yellow cast under the green skin. This one may ripen fully to orange, given time. The other pumpkin I'm not so sure about. I'll wait another few days to see if it, too, shows signs it could ripen before deciding if I should cook it as a green pumpkin or wait. I took a long length of vine with each pumpkin, with the hope that a long vine would continue "feeding" the fruits for a couple of days. Both pumpkins are sitting in a south-facing window, not that that would help with the dark and dreary days we're having this week, but a little extra light nonetheless. So, my morning ritual of going out to the pumpkin patch to check on my pumpkin babies has come to an end for this year. 

My new morning ritual is to check on my radish babies. The radishes are not only growing greens, but several radishes are now developing red, bulbous roots.

Later in the weekend I watched the Christmas edition of Victorian Farm. This was very interesting. The crew celebrated Christmas in the Big House -- the landowners home. Everything was much more elaborate than the humble celebration shown in a previous episode, from gifts, to gift wrap, and the foods eaten. I have made plum pudding before and may try it again this year. My recipe for plum pudding looks a lot like their recipe for Christmas pudding.

I packed up most of my collected seeds, using repurposed envelopes from solicitations for donations. We get a lot of requests for donations to various causes. I save the inside envelopes for purposes just such as this -- something to hold small items.

My new computer arrived, and I can't believe how much easier this is to use! I should be able to do some things with this blog that weren't possible with my last computer. I answered a lot of questionnaires to earn enough for this new computer!

On Wednesday, a bunny managed to get into a fenced area where the Brussel sprouts are growing. I spent a good hour fixing the fence. Fortunately the bunny didn't do too much damage to the sprouts. He did, however, manage to clean out the Swiss chard in another bed. Oh well, I can let a little garden produce go for nourishing our cute critters. I will, however, work on fencing for all of the beds before planting in the spring.

Our natural gas company is now sending out audits where they compare your natural gas usage to that of similar homes in the area. It didn't surprise me that our usage falls very low in comparison to other homes. We do keep our home on the cool side and we try to take shorter showers. While their comparisons were interesting, I think that their analysis doesn't take some things into consideration. The utility company doesn't know how many people live in each house (more heated showers or loads of laundry) or how well insulated each home is. In addition, some folks need to keep their homes warmer in winter. I don't think a utility company should be guilting some folks about their natural gas use.

My baking this week included 2 large loaves of French bread (instead of sandwich bread, for a change of pace), blackberry and rhubarb crisp (using frozen fruit from the summer's garden and foraging), no-egg pumpkin snack cake, and a batch of brownies. It seems to take a lot of baking to keep my family full! I also made a batch of yogurt on Thursday. I'm still using decedents from the same original yogurt as my starter, freezing a few cups of freshly-made yogurt every other month.

More baking, a garden coming to completion for the season, the furnace running daily, and lots of rainy days -- this definitely feels like fall is here.

What have you been up to this past week?

Two more posts this week:

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers For the End of October

Making Instant Cocoa Mix

Chilly Weather Calls for Some Hot Beverages: Making Instant Cocoa Mix

The weather is turning, we're all wearing sweatshirts and fleece jackets indoors, and cups of hot cocoa have been on all of our minds lately. This last week it was apparent that now was the time to start up the instant cocoa jar for the season. I make instant cocoa by the quart for everyone to help themselves whenever they wish.

Sure, I could buy instant cocoa packets and for less than homemade instant cocoa costs. However, commercial instant cocoa has very little nutritional value. For example, Swiss Miss packets make an 8-oz mug of cocoa and provide 1 gram of protein. 1 gram! 2 tablespoons (1 ounce) of liquid milk have 1 gram of protein. That's how little actual milk is in each packet of Swiss Miss. Sugar and corn syrup are the number one and two ingredients in Swiss Miss instant cocoa. According to the box's label, there are 23 grams of added sugar in each serving of SM. That's about double what my homemade mix contains. So, by making my own instant cocoa mix, I boost the protein content and cut the added sugar content in each cup.

I used to mix this in a bowl, but I've gotten lazy and have discovered that I can mix it up in a quart canning jar and save myself from having to wash a bowl. I don't often follow an exact recipe, but follow loose proportions and taste the dry powder as I go. One quart of instant cocoa mix reconstitutes into about 8 mug-size servings.

My ingredients:

• instant powdered milk
• baking cocoa powder
• powdered (confectioner's) sugar
• salt
• mini chocolate chips

For each mug's worth of cocoa mix, I use about 1/4 cup of instant milk, 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder, 1. 1/2 to 2 tablespoons powdered sugar, and a pinch of salt. So -- about as much instant milk as cocoa powder, sugar, and salt combined (maybe slightly less on the sugar). 

I layer these ingredients in the canning jar in half-jar batches and stir the first half-jar batch before adding the second half-jar batch and stirring. I taste the dry powder and when it tastes "right", my mix is about done. At the very end, I toss in a handful of mini chocolate chips then stir and shake the jar to distribute.

To make a mug of cocoa, use a scant 1/2 cup of mix to 8-9 ounces of hot water. 

The chocolate chips are definitely an extra ingredient. But I know one daughter especially enjoys their addition. She tells me that the cocoa tastes like truffle cocoa with the chocolate chips.

Pricing of ingredients

My best local price these days on instant powdered milk is at a Kroger affiliate, lower than Walmart. I buy cocoa powder at either WinCo ($4.48/lb) from the bulk bins or Walmart ($3.96/lb) in 8-oz canisters. I think the WinCo cocoa powder is slightly better and has a slightly richer flavor than the Walmart cocoa powder. By the way, Kroger cocoa powder costs between $4.58 (on sale) and $5.18 (regular price) in my area. I pick up confectioner's sugar when I find a good price, and I buy several bags as it keeps for years. Currently, Walmart's confectioner's sugar is 2 cents cheaper per pound than Kroger brand. Walmart and Kroger's house brand of mini chocolate chips cost $1.98 to $1.99, respectively, for 12 ounces. If I didn't have mini chocolate chips on hand, I would use regular chocolate chips and hand chop them into smaller pieces. The smaller chips melt better in a mug of hot water. As always, it pays to shop around, stock up when you find a good price, and work from the perspective of the Pantry Principle (Tightwad Gazette).

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for the End of October

Friday
Homemade pepperoni pizza, beet salad (using canned beets), sautéed garden greens, pumpkin cookies

Saturday
Refried beans and cheese, rice, homemade flour tortillas, carrot sticks, Cole slaw, fig and applesauce (pureed green figs in syrup with applesauce plus cinnamon/ginger)

Sunday
Spaghetti and TVP marinara, sautéed garden greens, steamed carrots

Monday
Kale, bacon and egg quiche, roasted carrots and potatoes, blackberry-rhubarb crisp

Tuesday
TVP & beef meatloaf, rice and gravy, pumpkin soufflé, autumn garden greens salad, blackberry-rhubarb crisp

Wednesday
Lentil-vegetable soup, garlic toast, no-egg pumpkin snack cake (this recipe)

Thursday
Easy chicken-Brussel sprout leaf (tastes like broccoli) Alfredo over cooked pasta, carrot sticks, leftover pumpkin snack cake

So, I found another way to use my less-than-popular-with-my-family preserved green figs. I pureed some figs with their syrup and mixed into applesauce then spiced up with cinnamon and ginger powder. This was very good and got high praise from my family. some thought this was even better than the cake I made with pureed figs.

The beet salad was simply drained canned beets dressed with oil, vinegar, salt, pinch sugar, pinch ground cloves, and dash black pepper. My family enjoys this and it's super easy.

We are almost out of fresh eggs. So I've moved on to using frozen eggs whenever possible. Last week, I thawed a 6-egg container of eggs (mentioned in this post) for some baking I was doing. These are eggs I froze in 2020 while egg prices were still low. Thawed eggs will keep in the fridge for about 3 to 5 days. So, I try to do whatever egg-using baking I can within this time period. I made an extra batch of pie pastry for the freezer (1 egg), a batch of brownies (2 eggs), and a batch of muffins (1 egg) during the previous week. That left me with the equivalent of 2 eggs that were thawed and needed using ASAP. Sunday afternoon I made a 2-egg quiche to serve for Monday's dinner. You read that right, a 2-egg quiche. That doesn't sound like much protein at all. So I "fortified" it with cheese and 8 slices of bacon (saving some bacon to break over the entire baked quiche at the last minute). Eggs have increased in price about 60 cents per dozen in my area. I have several dozen in the freezer from 2020, bought at the lower price. I'll continue using the frozen eggs while I watch for a sale. In addition, I'll use my no-egg and low-egg recipes as much as possible (such as the no-egg pumpkin snack cake).

I used some of the bacon fat to oven-roast carrots and potatoes to serve with the quiche. Very tasty!

On Tuesday, I stretched 8 ounces of ground beef with rehydrated TVP for a meatloaf that served all 4 of us. Meatloaf stretched with TVP is more crumbly than regular meatloaf, but we enjoyed it just the same. I used the fat drippings from the meatloaf to make a gravy to pour over both the meat and rice, flavoring the drippings with thyme, beef bouillon, onion powder, and black pepper.

One daughter made the lentil-vegetable soup for us (following a recipe that I use) and the other daughter made the easy chicken-brussel sprout leaf Alfredo (following some rough guidelines I jotted down). As much as I can, I'm trying to make sure my daughters learn how to cook mostly from scratch, so they can cook for themselves in their own homes some day and not spend a bundle on convenience foods. So when they cook for us, I try to find easy and relatively quick recipes. We'll see if it works this way for them.

The pasta in Thursday's dinner was plain old elbow macaroni. Spaghetti noodles and elbow macaroni are the least expensive pasta shapes in my area, especially when bought in economy sizes.

So, those were our dinners this past week. What was on your menu?

My Week -- Glorious Autumn

It's been a mostly beautiful autumn week, with a few warm and sunny days for talking long walks to see all of the gorgeous leaf colors. On one walk, I came across these remarkable mushrooms. I had no idea brightly-colored mushrooms existed in real life. Many of the yards in my neighborhood are littered with wild mushrooms/toadstools this year due to our very wet late September and early October.

So, last Friday, I did make the pumpkin-shaped sugar cookies. And then on Saturday, my two daughters helped frost and put candy corn eyes and noses on each. My frugality sometimes intersects with my sense of humor. As I was making the frosting, I teased my daughters that I was planning to make a pastel orange icing, you know, to save on food coloring because I'm cheap. My daughters joined the joking around and suggested we just put a thin scraping of icing on each cookie, so thin that some cookie crumbs come off the cookies and onto the knife. As you may have guessed, the icing was neither pastel nor thin on the cookies. It was a fun afternoon in the kitchen with my girls.

Also on Saturday, both daughters helped me pick all of the crabapples. This was a poor year for crabapples. Perhaps the blossoms were badly timed with wet weather and bees couldn't pollinate. That happens.  Anyway, we got all but the requisite few left for critters. (I always leave a couple of pieces of fruit on our trees for critters so they're not too disappointed when they come along later.) I simmered the crabapples in water to extract the juice while we decorated cookies. The kitchen-y smells were definitely autumnal.

Our crabapples are not only tart, but astringent. I've tried a variety of ways to use them. Mostly, I make jelly and that's always appreciated. This year, because there were so few on the tree, the yield of juice was only about enough for 3 or 4 small jars of jelly. Instead of making jelly, I decided to save this juice for adding to commercial apple juice to make a hot cider. 

On Monday, I finally got around to making the spiced cider in my crockpot. In addition to commercial apple juice and a couple of cups of the crabapple juice, I added lots of cinnamon, cloves, and some of the spiced heavy syrup from canning green figs. (Another use for this heavy syrup -- bonus!) The hot spiced cider was a hit with my family. I froze the last pint of crabapple juice to make spiced cider another time this fall.

We had a bit of orange frosting leftover from the cookies just sitting on the counter for a few days while I pondered how to use this up. In the meantime, it hardened to a crust on the inside of the bowl. By Wednesday, I knew I either had to use it or wash the bowl. I was baking a pumpkin pie for that night's dessert and thought, "why not." I soaked the inside of the bowl with the milk I'd planned on adding to the pumpkin filling until the frosting was soft enough to dissolve into the milk. I then mixed this sweetened milk into the filling, cutting back on the sugar called for in the recipe. I saved a bit of sugar and didn't waste the frosting. And, yes, the pie was delicious. 

In the garden

Over the weekend, I collected dill and lettuce seeds this week. Some of the dill seeds will be for planting and some will be for cooking. On Thursday, I picked and dehydrated the final batch of oregano, sage, and rosemary for the year.

With the crabapples and figs now harvested, I just have the 2 green pumpkins and 1 winter squash, some carrots, beets, turnips, and lots of greens left in the garden. I check on my pumpkins daily. The weather next week looks like it will turn cold enough to warrant picking them before Thursday. They may or may not ripen indoors. We'll see.

In a normal year, after harvesting the crabapples, I would move on to picking cranberries. However, this year, there are no cranberries at all. The spot where I once picked 3 quarts of cranberries has grown too shady. Last spring, I took a cutting off a cranberry vine and rooted it. This plant will go under and around the blueberry bushes once I top off that soil later this fall. 

Back when I was harvesting the last of the tomatoes, I noticed one of the plants still looked surprisingly healthy. Being a curious person who likes to experiment, I cut off the last 10 inches of a branch and plunked it into a jar of water. This branch has now rooted in the water. I plan to pot this cutting in soil and see what happens. I imagine it won't survive very long without long, warm natural light. I may put it under the lights which are currently dedicated for the radish greens. Gardening experiments are always fun and cheap entertainment.

Indoor gardening

I keep one jar of lentil sprouts in the just-started stage and another jar in the ready-to-eat stage at all times. We've all taken to making Cole slaw with both cabbage and lentil sprouts to have with our lunches. A fresh batch of sprouts takes about 5 days from initial soak to full-grown. So, I'd say sprouts are a very quick produce item to grow at home.

My radish greens continue to grow well under the lights. The longest leaves are about 3 inches right now. I think my most mature batch will be ready in another 2 or 3 weeks. After we enjoy the radish greens, I'll try some spinach under lights.

Free internet shows

I found 2 more historical farm shows that are interesting -- Victorian Farm and Edwardian Farm. The cast and format for both shows are the same as for Wartime Farm. These historical shows are not only interesting, but they've expanded my view of what domestic hardship entailed in the past as well as provided a helpful tip or two. I can also appreciate the simpler values of times in the past. If you had food, weather-appropriate clothing and shelter, there was little more one could want. If the Farm series shows sound like they'd interest you, I've found episodes for free on YouTube, TubiTV, and Daily Motion. 

Our beautiful autumn weather is giving way to cold rains in the next day or two. The weekend looks to be very rainy. Should be a good time to check out more episodes of Victorian Farm.

What were the highlights of your week? Have you ever seen colorful wild mushrooms/toadstools before? I think these ones are poisonous, but they sure are fun to look at.

Cheap & Cheerful Meals for a cozy week in this post.

Cheap & Cheerful Meals: Cozy Dishes for Autumn

Simple meals are some of the best meals. This week we ate some of our favorite comfort foods, some smothered in cheese sauce or gravy, and others sweet and spicy like pumpkin pie or hot cider. All delicious and I could eat them all again.

Our menus:

Friday
pepperoni pizza, grilled canned pineapple, celery sticks, chocolates

Saturday
corn tortillas, refried beans, cheese & salsa, sautéed cabbage, carrot sticks, frosted cookies

Sunday
chicken in gravy, garden potatoes, steamed carrots, Cole slaw

Monday
baked potatoes topped with kale in cheese sauce and bacon bits, pumpkin soufflé, watermelon pickles, spiced cider

Tuesday
beef and bean chili (with the very last of the garden peppers), cornbread, carrot and celery sticks

Wednesday
chicken and vegetable soup, toasted cheese sandwiches, pumpkin pie

Thursday
rice and beans, sautéed Brussel sprout leaves, pumpkin pie

Breakfasts included yogurt, stewed prunes, frozen blackberries, fresh tomatoes, raisins, apple cider, eggs, toast, granola, toasty o's cereal, smoothies, milk, coffee and tea. My usual breakfast these days is a small cup of homemade yogurt with carrot powder, honey, and vanilla, some fresh tomatoes, and either frozen blackberries or stewed prunes.

Lunches included homemade bread, peanut butter, cheese, leftovers, frozen berries, fresh tomatoes, cabbage, carrots, celery, lentil sprouts, homemade dip, yogurt, eggs, potatoes, rice, and homemade desserts and treats. 

Again, another week of simple but comforting meals. I'm not sure which dinner I enjoyed most, perhaps the baked potatoes topped with kale and cheese sauce, or maybe it was the chicken and vegetable soup with the pumpkin pie, or just maybe it was the chili con carne or pizza. Now I've done it. I'm getting hungry again. 

What was on your menu this past week?

My Week: Still No Computer

Hi friends,

I am still without a computer this week. Please forgive any strange autocorrects. I finished harvesting all of the green, unripe figs and preserved all of them as whole, sweet figs in spiced heavy syrup. As I made each subsequent batch, I grew a bit horrified by how much sugar these were using. So I’ve figured it would be wise to use this syrup as part sugar/part water in future baking. I began by trying out a spice snack cake recipe. This actually took care of 2 problems in 1 go. Not only did I use some of the syrup, but I also used some of the preserved figs in a way that my family loved. I puréed a half-dozen figs in some syrup and used in place of puréed pumpkin in a snack cake recipe. I then cut the sugar in half and subbed syrup for water in the recipe. The cake was delicious. Even my sometimes picky husband said the cake was very good. On Saturday, 1 daughter and I will pick all of the crabapples. I’ll extract the juice, using some in jelly and some mixed with commercial apple juice and spices for hot spiced apple cider.

Remember last week when I mentioned my green pumpkin in the garden? Well, guess what? I found a second green pumpkin hiding under a shrub at the edge of the pumpkin patch. So I may end up with 2 green pumpkins to experiment with. Such a pleasant surprise!

I don’t know if you know this, but the leaves on Brussel sprouts are edible — not just the sprouts. I’ve been mixing these leaves with other garden greens this month. Then Wednesday, I used only Brussel sprout leaves as a sautéed leafy green veggie. The leaves have a nice texture, neither tough nor too chewy, but still a substantial and satisfying texture. Brussel sprout plants can yield more food in leaves than sprouts in many varieties. Yet many people throw away the leaves.

The photo at the top of the post is of my indoor radish green operation. I’m growing radish greens under lights to use in salads and cooking in early November. The “pots” were made with gallon plastic milk jugs. I cut off the handle and spout, leaving a 4-inch or so base in which to fill with soil and plant with seeds. I used a corkscrew to puncture drainage holes in the bottom before adding soil.

What I like about using milk jug bases as planting containers —they are free, and they are square in shape. I can fit more planting area beneath the limited lighting space using square pots compared to traditional round growing pots. They seem to be doing well. I add a new pot of soil with seed as we finish drinking a jug of milk. I need just 1 more empty milk jug to fill out this growing space under the lights.

The Weather

The weather experts say this October has had temps more like what we typically see in November. I believe them. To combat the chilly temps, we’re all dressing in layers, plus I’m keeping a pot of hot tea in the kitchen all day for anyone needing a quick warming up. I make a large pot with 1 teabag of black tea plus a tea ball of herbs from my garden that I dried in summer. One of my favorites is peppermint and black tea. The other herbs I use in tea are black currant leaves and berries, lemon balm, cherry stems, and lavender— all are delicious on their own or when blended with black tea. And all of the herbs are free to me from my garden.

I’m also keeping myself physically active, exercising whenever I feel a chill during the day. I encourage all of my family members to move more when they’re cold, too. This winter is expected to be an expensive heating season. So we’ll be doing what we can to stay warm without breaking the bank.

A funny aside on the cool temps — the activity monitor on my phone added a new activity category. At the top of the info is a listing for “downhill snow sports distance”. I’m not sure if I accidentally enabled tracking of my snow sporting activities or this was added by some algorithm, but I find it entertaining every day as I track my steps.

The Bunnies

Despite the chilly and wet weather, the bunnies return to our front and back lawn every afternoon. They are so adorable! I totally forgive them for munching on my garden this summer. Watching the bunnies is our free entertainment each day.

Seed Collecting

One quiet, rainy afternoon, I sat down to remove seeds from the pods I’d been drying indoors. My work went something like this. With my mug of tea and a large piece of junk mail spread on the kitchen table, I brought several containers of various pods to pop open. One daughter entered the kitchen seeking a snack and asked, “whatcha doing?” Me: I’m getting next year’s garden seeds for free. Daughter: Cool. Next daughter enters the kitchen: What’s going on? Me: These are next year’s seeds. I’m popping open the pods to get them out. Daughter: Can I help? Me: Sure, just put the seeds in this envelope. Husband hears us girls gabbing in the kitchen and comes down for tea: Is this a party? Me: Just getting next year’s garden seeds, all for free! We popped open radish pods, bean pods, and pulled nasturtiums and spinach seeds off the dried vines — an idyllic sort of afternoon.

I have now collected seed from nasturtiums, radishes, spinach, green beans, bell peppers, petunias, and marigolds to use in next summer’s garden. These seeds are in addition to the seed potatoes and garlic cloves that are ready for next year.

This afternoon I’ll be baking pumpkin-shaped sugar cookies to frost and decorate Saturday afternoon. This is an October tradition in my family that goes back over 30 years for us. I almost skipped them this year then received a special request to do them again. I don’t really need a bunch of frosted cookies around, but maybe my family does for their sentimental value. Traditions — the things, rituals, and activities that uniquely bind each family together.

How was your week? Does it feel like fall in your neighborhood yet? What were the highlights of this past week?

Have a wonderful weekend, friends!

One other post — Cheap & Cheerful Meals

Cheap and Cheerful Meals for Mid-October

Brussel sprout leaves — I choose those that are about 3 to 4 inches in diameter. I shred them horizontally before cooking.

Friday

homemade pepperoni pizza, sautéed immature summer squash, winter squash and pumpkins with garlic and onion, tossed garden salad, chocolates

Saturday

chicken in gravy, baked garden potatoes, coleslaw, carrot sticks, fig spice cake

Sunday

refried beans & salsa, homemade flour tortillas, steamed carrots, sautéed Swiss chard, fig spice cake

Monday

tuna noodle casserole, tossed garden salad (lettuce, spinach, beet greens, kale, lentil sprouts), banana bread

Tuesday

baked potatoes topped with kale in cheese sauce and bacon bits, curried peanut, sprouts and cabbage salad, carrot-raisin muffins

Wednesday

meatloaf, mashed potatoes and gravy, carrot-raisin salad, sautéed Brussels sprout leaves

Thursday

kale, onion, and cheese quiche, rice and leftover gravy, canned green beans

Breakfasts included scratch waffles, toast, homemade granola, cream of wheat-type hot cereal, homemade yogurt, frozen blackberries, frozen plums, fresh tomatoes, milk, coffee and tea.

Lunches incorporated spicy bean spread, peanut butter, yogurt, cheese, eggs, bread, crackers, potatoes, celery, cabbage, carrots, frozen berries and plums, fresh tomatoes, lentil sprouts, raisins, sunflower seeds, peanuts, and dinner leftovers. My husband likes to make pan-fried potatoes and eggs for himself, while my lunches often include various leftovers from my previous night”s dinners along with some fresh produce. My daughters both love smoothies, salads, fresh vegetables, raisins, nuts and cheese.

Snacks were any of the above plus stove-popped popcorn, black licorice (I bought a tub of black licorice for the month of October), baked goodies like banana bread and carrot muffins. Also, 1 daughter bought some fun-size candy bars for the family. Those went too fast to think about.

Our meals were fairly simple, but very tasty. One of my favorite dinners this week was Tuesday’s baked potatoes with kale, cheese sauce and bacon bits. This is a meal we’ve made every fall for the last 25 years and always happily returned to.

As you can see, we’re about finished with the summer garden produce, using remnants such as immature zucchini and other squashes as a vegetable on Friday night. Those plants are now finished for the year. Our fall garden is in full swing. We’ve been harvesting lots of greens and using those delicious potatoes that I dug several weeks ago. I hope to get another few weeks out of our fall deck garden, weather permitting. At that point, we’ll turn to produce that we preserved as well as commercial produce.

What was on your menu this past week? Any special fall meals that you enjoyed? Do you ever make baked potatoes as the main dish with toppings? I hope all your meals were tasty and easy on your budget this past week.

My Week: It’s been a challenge

Hi friends,

It’s been a challenging week for me. (Challenges are good, right?) I am writing this on my phone because my computer finally died. I was able to get an additional year from it that I hadn’t anticipated. So I do feel good about that. And, as fortune would have it, I ordered a replacement a little over a week ago, before the crash. Perhaps you’re aware, there’s currently a situation where container ships carrying goods can’t dock on both east and west coasts, leading to about a 3 week backlog of store inventory that can’t reach customers. Yep, I’m one of those customers. My next computer will be slow in getting to me. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I’ll have it before the end of the month.

Although I dislike the inconvenience, I’m already finding several positives to my situation. One, I’m finally learning how to best do things on my phone. Two, I’m spending far less mindless time online and more time in the garden. And three, this forced me to just take the plunge and buy that new computer. My old one had become a burden to use, and now I’ll have the joy of something that works well.

Back to my week of challenges. We had unseasonably heavy rain last Friday and Saturday. So much so that one of our fig trees began to uproot. Not at all in my plans, but Sunday afternoon I took a saw out to the garden and removed several of the heaviest branches on the leaning side. I’m not really that strong. Hard work. Now again, (working on that theme of finding the positives), this tree has overgrown its spot, so it did need some pruning. I got my work done well before planned.

Friday evening, I did make the sautéed grape leaves with a yogurt, garlic,and dill sauce. Update, while it tasted delicious, the grape leaves seemed tough to me. Maybe this is a dish that would work better with spring or summer grape leaves. Good to know, right? I did make another batch of stuffed grape leaves for our dinners on Monday and Tuesday which were yummy. Those may be our last stuffed grape leaves using fresh leaves this season. A few weeks ago, I froze several bundles of grape leaves to stuff in winter, however.

I pulled up the tomato plants, picking off all of the tiny, marble-sized green tomatoes for a batch of dill relish. I also found some immature cucumbers and zucchini to add to this small batch of relish. 

Thank you kind reader for the suggestion to make root beer beans. On Monday I made a large batch of root beer baked beans, using cooked pinto beans, green peppers, root beer, garlic, onion, ketchup, and salt. These were tasty and a fun way to use that last cup of root beer.

An adorable, but pesky, small red squirrel got into my fall deck garden and dug many things up, including an entire pot of baby lettuces and another full pot of tiny radish seedlings. I feel for the guy. He’s got winter coming up and I sense his nervousness stems from this quickening of approaching cold. He is adorable and I hope he has a stash of pine cones some place. I was able to salvage most of the pots and planters, needing to restart just the 1 pot of lettuces and 1 pot of radishes. I hope there’s still time for these two. I’ve got them in the portable greenhouse, so even with cold temps beginning next week, they may do okay and provide some baby greens.

I also began some radish seeds under lights indoors. I’m using the bottom halves of plastic 1-gallon milk jugs for “pots” as their square shape means I can fit more in the tray under the lights. I planted the seeds thickly for greens not roots.

I’m in the process of picking all of the green, unripe figs this week. The temps are expected to get chilly next week, so I am working as fast as I can in the garden right now. Most of the figs best suited for preserving unripe are on the second fig tree. This tree is also overgrown for its space. I am pruning this tree as I harvest. I’ve discovered that this is actually an easy way to harvest the figs- take off a branch then twist the green figs off.  This year, I’m turning all of these figs into sweet whole fig preserves. So far, I’ve canned just over 2 gallons of whole figs. My family doesn’t seem to enjoy the figs whole, so I’m planning on trying a fig purée in spice bread and as a sauce on gingerbread in the coming weeks. I love Alice’s (our friend here in the comments) saying with her own family— “I’ll get you to eat this one way or another.”! I’m going to take that approach with all of these preserved figs. When I finish harvesting all of the green figs, I’ll move on to the crabapples. Those will hold another week, even with cold overnight temps.

Yesterday, I planted next season’s garlic. Friendly,cute, but pesky squirrel would just love to dig those up. So I covered the patch with a piece of insect cloth, held down along all sides with stones. I hope this keeps him out of the garlic patch until they can put on spring growth.

I brought in all but the last pumpkin from the pumpkin patch. Some of these are still partially green. They’ll slowly finish orange-ing up over the next few weeks. I had a total of 8 pumpkins this year. The last 1 may or may not reach a stage of enough-ripeness to harvest before cold. I’m checking on it daily. Tonight will be the first night of the season with a low temp in the 30’s. Finger’s crossed my last one will mature this next week. Otherwise, who here has used a green pumpkin in cooking? Recipes? Ideas? Growing pumpkins is such a joy. These are my “babies”. When I need a good dose of cheer, I wander out to the pumpkin patch.

The bunnies continue to delight as well as vex me. So adorable, but they’ve had one too many snacks in the garden this week. I’ve been waiting for this one — they found the tall pots of carrots. They just been munching on the green tops, so I’m okay with them for now.

While this post may sound like all I’ve done is harvest, preserve and plant, I also took some time to put up fall decorations. The pot at the top of the page is my fall color by the kitchen door. I stuck several stems of faux flowers into the dirt, added a Dollar Tree autumn whirligig, and a DT mini pumpkin. I try to find new ways each year to display my holiday collections of decorative items. We all go in and out the kitchen door daily, so hopefully this will be cheery and it didn’t cost me anything to make this year.

And that was my week. How was your week? What were some of the highlights? If you garden, are you nearly done with your harvest? Was it a good, fair, or poor year for your garden?

Wishing you a lovely October weekend!

Cheap & Cheerful Menu post in this link.

Cheap & Cheerful Meals for an Early October Week

Dinners

Friday

pepperoni pizza, sautéed grape leaves in yogurt-dill sauce, carrot sticks, chocolates

Saturday

refried beans, homemade tortillas, tomato wedges, carrot sticks, cole slaw

Sunday

lentil-vegetable soup, scratch biscuits, chocolates

Monday

root beer beans, sausage patties, roasted purple potatoes, stuffed grape leaves, tossed garden salad, preserved figs

Tuesday

Leftover beans, sausage, potatoes, grape leaves, plus blackberry pie

Wednesday

spaghetti with meat sauce, sautéed kale, cauliflower leaves and Brussels sprout leaves in cheese sauce, blackberry pie

Thursday

chicken in gravy, roasted purple potatoes, kale, apple, cabbage, raisin, and almond salad

Breakfasts included cream of wheat type hot cereal, carrot-raisin muffins, banana bread, toast, oatmeal, homemade yogurt, frozen blackberries, the last of the fresh plums, fresh tomatoes, coffee and milk

Lunches were varied this week and included cheese, peanut butter, spicy pinto bean spread, French bread, whole wheat bread, saltine crackers, raisins, tomatoes, leftover soup, cabbage, lentil sprouts, apples, bananas, lettuce, celery, peanuts, almonds, and graham crackers. We all seemed to put the ingredients together differently, with some of us making soups, some sandwiches, and some snack-y items like “ants on a log”.

We continue to eat from the garden, but more and more grocery store produce is entering our meals and snacks, such as the cabbage, carrots, bananas, and celery. I tried to keep snack foods available to everyone, making a batch of banana bread, carrot-raisin muffins, a loaf of French bread, a container of bean spread (puréed cooked beans, salsa, salt and oil), and some roasted almonds on the day I baked sandwich bread and a pie. I am constantly amazed by the quantity of food we eat each week.

What was on your menu this past week?

My Week, Making Tamales and Finding New Ways to Use Grape Leaves

the inside view of our homemade tamales, using our homegrown corn husks as wraps

Friday night I had made some stuffed grape leaves which gave me the thought that the same ingredients might also make a good soup. So on Saturday, I made a grape leaves, rice and beef soup, containing finely shredded grape leaves, onions, lots of garlic, dill weed, oregano, vegetable stock, beef bouillon, ground beef, salt and pepper. The soup differed slightly in ingredients, mostly the addition of ground beef. I really didn't know if my family would like this, but it turns out they loved it! So, the next day I harvested a bunch of medium-sized grape leaves, shredded them, and froze them in packets for soup in winter.

I made our year's supply of plum and apple chutney over the weekend, using our garden plums and apples, plus onions, vinegar, sugar, and spices. I'm looking forward to curry dishes this fall and winter. And I made sweet pickle relish using green tomatoes, green peppers, onions, vinegar, sugar, and spices. I picked over our tomato plants pretty well but didn't pull the plants out of the ground altogether. There could still be a handful of small greens ones developing which I could use to make a small batch of dill relish early next week.

We harvested our meager crop of corn for Saturday's dinner. It was tasty, but not much kernel development. I did, however, save the husks for making tamales. And I have the bonus of free corn stalks for fall decor. 

After shucking the corn on Saturday, I soaked the good parts of the husks in salt water overnight, then the next day I drained and wrapped them in a towel and refrigerated until I wanted to make the tamales. On Monday, I made chicken tamales. This was my first time ever making tamales. It wasn't as difficult or time consuming as I'd thought they might be. I followed a basic technique of making a meat, spice and olive filling plus a cornmeal dough. The meat I chose was b/s chicken breast. I simmered the breast in water, drained (but saved the liquid), then added seasonings and chopped olives. For the dough, I didn't have masa harina, so I used regular corn meal and it worked just fine. Masa harina is a grind of dried corn that is commonly used in corn tortillas. It's instantly binding and makes a good dough. Cornmeal is coarser, but when mixed with shortening and liquid from poaching the chicken breast, it held together enough to spread on the corn husks. I didn't use as large a quantity of shortening as recipes called for, yet that didn't seem to matter. BTW, I still had a pint of chicken poaching liquid leftover. I saved that for use in a pumpkin soup, along with some drained vegetable liquids after chopping green tomatoes, peppers, and onions for making relish. I save all kinds of liquids to add to the stock for homemade soup. I think saving cooking liquids and fats may be hallmarks of tightwads everywhere.

Speaking of saving oil, I don't know if you do this too, but when I use too much oil in roasting or sautéing vegetables (and it's clear there's a lot left in the pan after cooking), instead of wiping out the pan I put the oily pan in the fridge and reuse it the next day. So, after Wednesday's roasted potatoes and sautéed cole crop veggies, I put the oily baking sheet and skillet in the fridge overnight and reused them the next day. I laugh a bit because I think it would look strange to a visitor who might open my fridge and see "empty" but used baking/cooking pans. But I figure this practice is no worse than pouring the residual oil into a cup and storing in the fridge overnight. Again, I think this is just more testament to my waste-nothing mindset. Anyway, on Thursday I made a small batch of oven-roasted potatoes as a snack for us all, and the oily skillet was used for sautéing more garden greens.

I began sprouting lentils indoors again. Wednesday evening I set a 1/4 cup of dry lentils to soak over night. I drained the lentils Thursday morning, then left to do their thing in a jar on the counter. By bedtime on Thursday I could see the beginnings of sprouts emerging from the seeds. Looking good. Our garden bounty is beginning to wane a bit and I knew we'd want some cheap additional fresh veggies to add to October salads. Sprouting lentils is easy, doesn't take up very much kitchen space, and only requires the light we get through a window (for greening up the sprouts at the end of their growth). 

As I took my morning walk through the garden on Thursday, I thought more about the grape leaves. They'll be falling off the vines soon, so if I want to use more I should do so in a hurry. I picked a large handful and washed them to use with Friday's dinner. I'm planning on shredding the leaves, sautéing in some oil with garlic and onion, then tossing with cooked pasta, plain yogurt, dill, and additional minced garlic. Keeping my fingers crossed that this will be tasty.

And now here we are, back to Friday again. Tonight will be another pizza and movie night. It's my week to choose the movie and I've chosen The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. 

How was your week? Have you made tamales before? If you have, do you have any tips? 

Wishing you all a weekend of abundance!

One other post today -- Cheap & Cheerful Meals for this Last Week