Cheap & Cheerful Suppers Even When I Feel Lackluster

I'm sorry I haven't been posting this week. I'm just tired. I usually catch a cold about this time of year, shortly after the holidays. This year I didn't. But the holidays still tired me. And its all caught up to me this week. When I'm tired, I feel lackluster and boring, nothing to blog about. I did keep track of what we ate this week, though. Even when I'm boring, I can still make note of meals and share those. 

I also included some photos from our yard and nearby. It's turned cold and very wet this week, with highs in the low to mid-40s and puddles everywhere. Despite the less-than-wonderful weather, I push myself to get outdoors each day. I would rather stay inside where it's warm and comfy. But getting outside, even when it's raining, is better for my overall mood.

My son and daughter-in-law gave me this hummingbird feeder
for Christmas and I already have a "regular" hummer visiting.
He/she visits several times per day.

Friday

Friday 

scratch pepperoni, mushroom, olive pizza (using up those olives that had been lingering in the fridge since Thanksgiving) 

roasted Brussel sprouts

gingered fig-applesauce

This was the evening we took down the Christmas tree. We always wait until after Epiphany, and then have to find a night that works for the whole household. We played Christmas music while eating our pizza by the Christmas tree one last time.

Saturday

Saturday

bean burritos

canned green beans

The garlic that I planted in October is just now coming up!

Sunday

Sunday

TVP, eggs, and vegetables over rice

mashed winter squash

pumpkin pie

The last couple of winter squash desperately needed cooking. So I split them into halves and roasted them.  We'll be eating winter squash as a side dish for lunches and dinners this week.

Monday

Monday

cheese and vegetable lasagna

winter squash

Last time I was in Fred Meyer I found some cottage cheese on markdown. Most of the containers were priced at 99 cents each. However, there were 2 16-oz containers priced at 50 cents each. I bought both. When I got home, my 2 daughters told me they don't really like cottage cheese. I'm lactose intolerant, so that meant my husband had to eat all the cottage cheese, unless I found a plan to use some of it. So I made a cheesy lasagna for the 3 of them and a vegetable, noodle, and sauce layered casserole for myself. I added some chopped veggies to the cheese filling -- garlic, chopped canned carrots, and some fresh from the garden kale. Yep! We've got some kale to harvest already, or maybe it's "still."

On my walk this week, I spied some snowdrops
peeking up through the soil in a neighbor's yard.

Tuesday

assorted leftovers, plus orange wedges and pan-fried potatoes

Our potatoes are beginning to sprout and go a little soft. I baked about 10 small potatoes in the microwave today. I enjoy these, sliced and pan-fried in saved bacon fat mixed with oil.

Wednesday

Wednesday

beef hot dogs

brown rice

beet salad

canned green beans

leftover pumpkin pie

No buns tonight, but rice tastes good as a starchy side. We're using lots of canned veggies right now. The beet salad was simply vinaigrette-marinated canned beets. I saved the beet liquid and may try making pink rice with it.

I have a peculiar streak that pops up from time to time.
The pink spots are rose petals from a bouquet of roses last month.
Instead of composting the flowers and stems. I scattered the
petals over one of the vegetable beds (cuz I thought they would
look pretty). Every day when I take the 
compost out, seeing the rose petals scattered
across the soil makes me smile.

Thursday

tuna salad

canned pineapple chunks

avocado wedge

applesauce-rice muffins (using up applesauce that smelled like it was fermenting and leftover rice, pureed with the liquids)

Do you get the blahs after the holidays? Or does life (and your mood) just pick up, post-holiday season, where you left off in early November? I hope your luster isn't lacking this month.

What was on your menu this week? Have a great weekend, friends!

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for Early January

Friday (pizza and movie night -- we watched Field of Dreams)
scratch pepperoni pizza
gingered fig-applesauce (home canned unripe garden figs blended with applesauce and spice)
cabbage and sprout slaw

Saturday

bean burritos in homemade flour tortillas

orange wedges

slaw

avocado

Sunday

bean and vegetable soup

Dinner sounds like a small meal today. That's because our main meal was a lunch-time winter tea. My daughters helped me put together a menu of scones, various spreads, egg salad sandwiches, tangerines, 2 pots of tea, mixed nuts, cookies, and homemade truffles. At dinner time, we all wanted a simple meal, and soup fit the bill.

Monday

scrambled eggs

grilled mushrooms

brown rice (topped with soy sauce and sesame oil)

mashed winter squash

roasted Brussel sprouts

This was the day I went to Costco with my daughter-in-law. You may recall, I bought mushrooms and Brussel sprouts. As you'll see, those packages last for a few meals. I got home with one hour to pull together dinner before one daughter had to leave for rehearsal. Eggs are pretty quick and easy. I pre-cooked the winter squash halves in the microwave before roasting them until done, along with the Brussel sprouts (on a different baking tray). I sautéed the mushrooms with garlic in butter and oil -- very, very tasty.

Tuesday

pot roast, potatoes, and gravy

grilled mushrooms

Brussel sprouts

mashed winter squash

I bought a chuck roast at Fred Meyer the week before. We haven't had pot roast in about 2 years, I think. I made a gravy, sautéed more mushrooms with garlic, and added some potato wedges to the pot in the last 20-30 minutes. The roast was large enough for 4 family meals. I froze half the cooked meat and used the other portion on Wednesday.

Wednesday

leftover beef from roast heated in salsa

corn tortillas

Brussel sprouts

orange wedges

A quick meal, using the leftover cooked meat and some salsa. In place of adding salt and water to the salsa and meat, I used some olive brine leftover from canned black olives, both salty and liquid to thin the salsa a bit.

Thursday

pancakes

bacon

pumpkin souffle

blackberries and blackberry syrup for topping pancakes

We still have mushrooms and Brussel spouts leftover from Monday's shopping. I'll be making a pizza with some of the mushrooms and serve a side of Brussel sprouts for tonight's dinner.  

I'm still cooking up fresh pumpkins and winter squash for both freezing and use in current meals. One pumpkin, upon checking earlier this week, was beginning to wrinkle and soften. So I cooked a large pot of pumpkin this week, using the skin-on technique for cooking and pureeing. Some of the pumpkin puree went into the freezer and some was used in Thursday's dinner. Lots of repeating ingredients this week.

Those were our main meals this week. What was on your menu?

Use-By Dates for Homemade Foods

We're all trying to avoid food waste these days. Well, many of us have been trying to avoid food waste for decades. It's just that right now, it's more expensive than ever to waste food that we've purchased. I wanted to show you something I do that helps in the war on food waste.

Commercial products have use-by dates printed on the container or package. Home-packaged foods, whether they be leftovers or a food you've made, lack these motivating labels. A while ago I began putting use-by dates on our refrigerated homemade foods, such as homemade soy milk, stock and yogurt, or containers with leftover cooked rice or oatmeal, or a quarter of a green pepper that may or may not get used before rotting, or the remains from an open can of veggies, or half a beaten egg, or reconstituted powdered milk . . . you get the picture. 

As I'm packaging a food for the fridge, I use a sharpie to mark a use-by date onto the containers themselves or onto a "label" I make out of a small piece of duct tape. I estimate use-by dates, erring on the side of caution. Mostly, these dates serve as reminders to use up the food soon. They also take the guess work out of remembering when a food was refrigerated, such as cooked rice or oatmeal. With a use-by label, I know when I need to use my home-prepared and packaged foods. 

As a bonus, Sharpie markings can be cleaned off of glass jars or wiped off of duct tape. I reuse the same piece of duct tape many, many times, that is until it loses its stickiness.

I was originally motived to do this when I found mold on the inside of a jar of homemade soy milk that had been sitting in the fridge too long. It pained me to have to throw that away. Unfortunately, I didn't learn my lesson. A few weeks later, I found some strained yogurt (to use as cream cheese) in a container  that had molded. You'd think I'd have done something at this point. But no. I'm a slow learner, I guess. Shortly after the yogurt molding, I found a jar of homemade pancake syrup that had spots of mold colonizing the surface of the sugary solution. I knew I needed to change something if I wanted to see less waste. That's when I began use-by dating foods that went into the fridge.

And it worked. We're seeing less food waste since implementing this small trick. Which reminds me, I need to use up a few foods soon. Time to make some soy milk-rice-oatmeal pudding with a side of olives and cooked beans.

My Trip to Costco

On Monday, my daughter-in-law took me along with her on her shopping at Costco. This was the first time in over 2 decades since I'd be in a Costco, so I was very curious about what I'd find there. I had a budget of $30 cash that I could spend. With the super large packages at Costco, I knew $30 would not go far. Here's what I bought and some price comparisons with my regular stores.

Brussel sprouts -- 32 oz bag, Costco $4.99 or $2.49/lb. This week at Fred Meyer -- $3.69 for 24-oz bag or $2.46/lb.

2.5 lb bag pitted dates, Costco $7.99 or $3.20/lb. I'm not certain on WinCo's price for pitted dates in bulk, but somewhere around Costco's. WinCo's bulk section is where I buy pitted dates.

brown mushrooms -- 1.5 lb container whole Baby Bella mushrooms, Costco $5.99 or $3.99/lb. Fred Meyer has fresh, whole Baby Bella mushrooms in 16-oz containers for $5.69.

40-oz uncured turkey bacon -- Costco price $10.59 or $4.24/lb. Fred Meyer has cured turkey bacon for $2.79/12-oz package or $3.72/lb.

So, some products were more expensive at Costco and some were less expensive. The bacon wasn't really an apples to apples comparison, as the uncured bacon is considered to be a premium product compared to cured bacon. Mushrooms were absolutely a better deal at Costco, over $1 in savings. I lost a few pennies on the Brussel sprouts and probably came out even on the pitted dates. (I'll be going by WinCo later this week and for my own curiosity, I'll be checking their price on pitted dates in the bulk bins.)

My thoughts on shopping at Costco

You have to know your prices and package sizes for calculations. For example, turkey bacon at Fred Meyer comes in 12-oz packages, while the turkey bacon at Costco was sold in a bundle of 4 10-oz packages. So, to simply find the price per package for comparison wouldn't work. Costco does provide unit pricing, but sometimes the units are less helpful, such as price per ounce when I'm recalling price per pound from other stores on most food items. I would still need to multiply by 16 to get the per pound price for making comparisons. The inconsistent unit pricing is not just a Costco thing. I see this often in Walmart.

I was surprised at the limited selection within each category. At a traditional grocery store, I might have  a dozen or more choices in a category. Whereas at Costco, there may be 1 to 3 choices in a similar category. I'll use fresh mushrooms as an example. This week at Fred Meyer, there are 23 different kinds and sizes of packaging choices for fresh mushrooms (sliced, whole, brown Baby Bella, brown crimini, whole/sliced white, portobello, organic, shitake, mixed gourmet, 4-oz, 8-oz, 16-oz, 24-oz, or bulk). At Costco, (if I remember correctly) I had my choice of 3 types of mushrooms (white whole, Baby Bella whole, Shitake, whole) each in 1 size. With pitted dates, at Fred Meyer, they carry 5 choices in brands/sizes of whole pitted dates. At Costco, I found 1 choice for whole pitted dates. This limited selection reminded me somewhat of the selection at our restaurant supply, but is very different from traditional supermarkets.

My daughter-in-law tells me that Costco stores in different regions carry different selections. Some items in my area stores may not be available in other locations across the country and vice versa. I was surprised to find so much organic and natural/specialty foods. For example, Costco carries a ghee (clarified butter) baking spray. I've never seen this product before. They also carry Waygu beef, both the Japanese version ($99/lb -- yep, you read that right, almost $100 for a pound) and American Waygu beef (much, much less, but I'm not sure I read the package correctly, it may have been under $20/lb). My Fred Meyer doesn't carry Waygu beef products at all. Costco also had a large selection of packaged products that were made with alternative ingredients for specific dietary needs, such as gluten-free and keto friendly. 

Would I want a membership? For me, I would have too much envy of others who buy the items I would like to have, but are out of my budget. And I'm talking beyond the foods. I would love to have a good single-cup coffee maker, like a Keurig. However, even if I received a Keurig as a gift, the k-cups are pricey and out of my grocery budget. Even with a refillable k-cup, I wouldn't be satisfied, as the time-savings of having a Keurig would be minimized if I had to spend time filling and emptying the little plastic cups. I also saw a computer monitor that I thought was beautiful, as those items go. Every time I passed that section, I know I'd have a feeling of longing for that item, even though the computer I have is a laptop and having a separate monitor would negate the primary benefit of a laptop -- high portability. 

The shopping carts are huge. What makes a trip to Costco so expensive are the large packages of everything. I bought 4 items and spent $30. These were treat purchases. I wouldn't normally buy 1.5 pounds of mushrooms at a time. I would buy an 8-ounce package of mushrooms for less out of pocket, and we would eat lesser expensive foods when the mushrooms ran out. Ditto on the pitted dates. I'm guessing we'll go through those dates fairly quickly. If I were buying dates at WinCo, I'd buy a small baggie of dates. When we ate them all, we'd switch over to fresh oranges (which are inexpensive right now) or home-dried or frozen, home-grown fruit (which is basically free to us).

I enjoyed the time with my daughter-in-law and getting a peek inside a Costco. I'd love to go with her again in a few months, perhaps just before my husband's birthday. I did see some special food items that would make a great dinner at home for him, perhaps not the $99/lb Japanese Waygu steaks, though. 

I'm glad I got this chance. I now know what I'm missing and what I am not.

What I'm Grateful for Today

I'm grateful that peanut butter comes in straight and smooth-sided jars with large openings.

The other night, I had this strange dream. I had ordered a case of natural, chunky-style peanut butter online to be shipped to my home. I had gotten a stellar deal on this purchase. When the case arrived, I opened the box, and to my surprise, the "jars" were tall, narrow, plastic squeeze bottles. I could only imagine the squeeze nozzle would get blocked by a chunky-style peanut fragment on the first squeeze. So I set out to decant these bottles into a large jar. Only, the insides of the squeeze bottle were convoluted and ridged, like a cross between a Gatorade bottle, a plastic applesauce jar, and a Honey Bear honey squeeze bottle. I used my most flexible, narrow rubber spatula, but was only able to get about 2/3 of the peanut butter out of the squeeze bottle. And I was picturing myself scraping out the natural peanut butter from every single squeeze bottle in the case.

Fortunately, I woke up about this point. But I did find myself surprised by my initial thought upon waking, "I'm so glad peanut butter doesn't come in narrow squeeze bottles."

I'm writing about this today, in part to amuse you. But also, I was thinking about what I would do if this did happen to me. A sane person would simply return the case of squeeze-bottle peanut butter. But remember, I had gotten a great deal on that peanut butter. The frugal side of me wouldn't want to lose the "savings" of such a deal. I would get out the most flexible and narrow rubber spatula from the drawer and begin scooping and scraping as best I could. I would probably then try shaking the remaining peanut butter up with a liquid for making a smoothie or adding to a peanut sauce. I am certain that I would spend more time extracting as much peanut butter out as possible than my own time was worth. And I would console myself with the dollars and cents savings.

Weird dream. But it did make me think about the efforts I'd likely go to save food and money. What would you have done? Would you have returned the case to get a refund, or would you have tried to scrape the peanut butter out of the strange bottles?

Cheap & Cheerful Meals for New Year's Week

I haven't posted on our meals for several weeks. It's been a very busy month. Life is getting back to normal for us. Are you back to regular routines, too?

I didn't take photos for several days in the middle of the week. You'll just have to use your imagination.

Friday
homemade pepperoni pizza

mashed acorn squash mixed with pureed pumpkin

orange wedges

Saturday (New Year's Eve)

frozen egg rolls
frozen sesame chicken (with peppers and broccoli added by me)
sesame and vegetable noodles
steamed rice
tangerines
pumpkin-spice cake

We watched The Bells of St. Mary's starring Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman. You may know this, in It's a Wonderful Life, there's a scene where the cinema marquee in Bedford Falls displays the title of The Bells of St. Mary's. We watch It's a Wonderful Life every year and have noticed the marquee. So this year we decided to finally watch The Bells of St. Mary's. We all really enjoyed the movie. 

Dinner was easy by design -- to give me an easy meal on a holiday evening.

Sunday
roasted brined whole chicken and gravy
scratch dinner rolls
frozen peas
watermelon pickles
leftover cake
sparkling water

Saturday afternoon I cleaned the chicken and made a brine with water, salt, sugar, and garlic powder. I brined the chicken for about 24 hours. About an hour before roasting on Sunday, I pulled the chicken out of the brine and drained it, then put it in the oven to roast. The resulting chicken was tender, juicy, and flavorful. My two daughters made the rolls from one of my mom's recipes. They did a fantastic job, and we've been enjoying the rolls all week.

Monday
leftover chicken and gravy
leftover dinner rolls
more frozen peas
more watermelon pickles
last of the cake

Monday's dinner was a complete repeat of Sunday's, reheating leftovers. Again an easy meal for me to prepare.

Tuesday
leftover chicken in last of the gravy over brown rice
canned green beans

One of my daughters put together dinner tonight. She worked as a sub this day, so I suggested a super easy meal for her. 

Wednesday
chicken enchiladas, using leftover chicken from Sunday 
avocado slices
apple wedges and peanut butter

My other daughter made dinner this night. I had suggested she make chicken nachos, but she wanted to learn something new and asked about enchiladas. The enchiladas were delicious. The recipe for the sauce comes from Belinda at Frugal Workshop. In the comments section, Belinda provides her recipe for the sauce in answer to my question. I told my daughter to make 1/4 recipe for the enchiladas for our family of four.

Thursday
chicken, vegetable and noodle soup
leftover dinner rolls
tangerines

And . . . the last of that whole chicken that I roasted on Sunday. We got 5 meals and an extra couple of quarts of stock (now in the freezer). To the chicken meat in stock, I added broken spaghetti noodles and frozen veggies from my garden (celery, carrot leaves, spinach, chives).

We're back to Friday, and we'll do either pizza or lasagna tonight and hopefully watch a movie.

I hope you all had a great week. What was on your menu this past week? Have you been working through holiday leftovers, too? Wishing you a wonderful weekend!

Making a Small Vial of Cake Decors Last for Years

 

Our New Year's Eve and New Year's Day dessert was a scratch pumpkin-spice snack cake, topped with vanilla buttercream frosting, bits and globs of white chocolate (leftover from drizzling onto some cookies for Christmas), and edible gold stars. I bought the star cake decors in 2019 for about $5.75. 

Every year, I make some sort of New Year's treat, scattering the gold stars over the top. I've made chocolate-tofu whip topped with the stars, homemade chocolate-frosted donuts topped with stars, frosted chocolate cake topped with stars, and this year a spice cake topped with the stars.

It only takes a teaspoon of stars to add sparkle to a family dessert. At this rate, my little vial of stars will last us another 3 to 4 years. That works out to about 72 to 82 cents per year for our special New Year's homemade treat. If $6 for edible accents sounds pricey, consider that as accents, I use them sparingly and get a lot of mileage out of a tiny vial.

How My Family Does Gift Selection Now

I've been describing some of my favorite gifts this week and last, and one of the aspects that may strike some of you is that I was very specific in what I was hoping to receive. Up until the last couple of years, I would have thought that requesting specific gifts would sound like putting in an order. Perhaps if only one or two people in a family were this specific, they might seem a bit pushy about gifts. 

In our own family, making our "lists" evolved over a few years. I have to thank my daughter-in-law for this, as she is the one who pointed out that she would really like to give gifts that she knew we would use. For several years, I casually asked my family members if there was something they really wanted or needed. It was last year that we solidified our method for formal gift wish lists.

How our wish lists work

In late November to early December, we all put together our wish lists and circulated them through email. Some of us put together small lists for each person or group of people who would ordinarily give a gift, and some of us put together a master list that anyone in the immediate family could look over. With the latter, we touched base with the other gift-givers when we bought or were about to buy an item off someone's list (to prevent duplicates). 

Some of us offered links so others not only understood the listed item more thoroughly, but also provided simpler shopping for the giver. We've also gone off-list, using the lists as springboards for items not listed but that we believed would be appreciated.

When I specified what cutting board I most wanted, I decided to make the shopping easier for my son and daughter-in-law and find one that was reasonably-priced at a local store and that fit my wants. I was very specific, naming brand, size, store, and website. Sometimes the listed items were less specific, such as for my son. He said he wanted a bag of coffee beans that had an interesting label on the package. He said he enjoys having something interesting to look at in the mornings while making his coffee. His list gave me ideas, without detailed directions. I could shop anywhere whole coffee beans were sold, perusing the different packages, and know I would find something he would enjoy. (The bag I chose had a colorful drawing of an octopus on the label.)

Our wish lists were just that -- wishes. No one felt obligated to give any particular gift and no one had expectations of receiving a specific thing.

Pros and cons of wish lists

Pros

• less stressful shopping for the giver, knowing the recipient would use and enjoy the item
• saved a ton of time shopping, time that was used to refocus my attention on the spiritual part of Christmas
• for the recipient -- an opportunity to receive something that has been long-desired but either was out of budget or just hard to part with the money for the item
• easier to stay within our budget, as I wasn't shopping by emotion-sway, but by a list 
• no standing in a long line post-Christmas to return or exchange a gift that in some way was not quite right (size, color, duplicate) 
• in addition to simplifying gift giving, individual's lists helped us learn more about each other, about our needs as well as about what tickles us

Cons

• wish lists diminish some (but not all) of the element of surprise at gift opening time
• perhaps less of "me" put into the gifts I select, fewer opportunities for me to be creative
• for some people, a wish list may feel cold and calculating

When I select gifts for my family members, the underlying thought throughout the process is that I want to please them as an expression of my love. The looks on their faces when they unwrapped their gifts tells me that I hit my mark -- objective achieved. And that made me very happy.

What do you think about family members' wish lists for gifts?

My Favorite Gifts, pt. 3

I wear long-sleeved knit tops all winter. They move with me when I'm doing housework or working out and are easily laundered. Most of my current batch of around-the-house tops are 10 to 15 years old and wearing thin or developing multiple holes. I typically shop at Value Village for tops like these, because if the shirts are inexpensive, I won't worry about wearing them while I'm working in the home or the garden. 

What I don't like about getting new tops is the actual clothes shopping for myself.  So the best gift someone could get for me, with regards to clothes, is to do the shopping. And the best people to do this sort of shopping would be my daughters. 

I gave them a list of what I was looking for - long sleeves, t-shirt knits, slim fitting, tunic length, thrifted -- and asked for 1 shirt from Value Village or Goodwill. My daughters were beyond generous. They gave me a stack  of tops (5 to be exact) from Value Village and Goodwill. They did a good job finding shirts I would like. Some are 3/4 sleeves, so I'll be able to wear these in spring and fall too. And I love that my daughters bought these at thrift stores, both so I would be more likely to actually wear them (not "save" them) and that they saved money on my gift.

Grocery Shopping December 2022

Dec. 7. WinCo. 2 gallons milk ($3.27 ea), 3 12-oz packs bacon ($2.98 ea), 4-lb bag oranges ($3.98), bananas (58 cents/lb), 4 avocados (48 cents ea), large pack corn tortillas ($2.58), large bag frozen turkey breakfast sausage ($5.90) Total spent --$31.75

Dec. 9. Fred Meyer 1 jar decaf coffee, $4.99

spent for the month so far --$36.74

December 24. Yes, I went grocery shopping on Christmas Eve. This was not in my plans. However, we had a snowstorm followed by a big freeze. Our county doesn't plow very many roads, so we can't get out safely for several days following a storm (small sedan, no SUV, no 4WD). So this was the very first day it was possible to drive in about a week. Anyway -- went to WinCo. There were some foods we wanted for Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas Day meals, plus we needed more produce and milk. I bought 2 gallons whole milk ($3.17/gallon), 2 8-lb bags oranges ($5.98/bag), 2 lbs baby carrots ($2.48), 2 lbs mandarins ($2.98), head of cabbage (78 cents/lb), 4 avocados (48 cents each), 2 bunches bananas 58 cents/lb, frozen egg rolls ($6.01), frozen stir-fry peppers and onions ($1.82), dinner rolls ($2.28), croissants ($5.48). Total spent -- $46.93.  The mandarins, baby carrots, egg rolls, stir-fry peppers, dinner rolls, and croissants were our special holiday foods this year.

Gas was $3.89/gallon this morning.

spent for the month so far -- $83.67

December 30. Needed to shop for New Year's Eve. I went to Walmart, as they're about the closest store, and I really only needed a few items (didn't warrant driving all the way to WinCo). I bought a 4-pack of chicken egg rolls ($2.98), frozen sesame chicken ($6.48), 3-lb bag mandarin oranges ($3.98), and a 5-dozen box of eggs ($9.11). What really seemed surreal to me is the milk cooler was near empty and the eggs had a limit of 2 packages per shopper, whether they were small packs or large. Walmart's egg price was a good one compared to Fred Meyer. When I checked FM's price on 5-dozen boxes of eggs, it was $12.29, locally, or $16.29 in the city limits. I spent $22.55

Grocery Outlet is just across the street from Walmart. I popped in and found Adam's Natural Peanut Butter for $7.99/80 ounce jar. I bought 2 jars. Spent $15.98.

One daughter came with me to the store. She was looking for treat and snack foods for herself. She found a bunch of bargains at Grocery Outlet -- granola bars at 12 cents each, single serve package of M & Ms for 10 cents each, 6-oz bags breakfast cereal for 25 cents each and more. I don't buy these sorts of foods because I get frustrated by how quickly they disappear in our house. But I'm glad she found these bargains for herself. I'll bake some goodies for the family, and I'll feel better about how quickly they disappear. I can't explain why it bothers me to have a bag of chips disappear in an afternoon more than to have a batch of homemade brownies disappear in an afternoon. That's just me.

Gas was $3.69/gallon today.

Total spent for the month -- $122.20.

what I bought

4 gallons milk

36 oz bacon

bag turkey breakfast sausage

5 dozen eggs

20 lbs oranges

4 bunches bananas

8 avocados

2 lbs baby carrots

1 head cabbage

5 lbs tangerines

frozen eggrolls, 2 packages

frozen stir-fry peppers

frozen sesame chicken

80-ct pack corn tortillas

dinner rolls

croissants

160 oz natural peanut butter

1 jar decaf coffee

Most of what I bought this month were holiday foods. The frozen entrees are expensive and not part of our regular grocery shopping. But we enjoyed them, they made holiday meal prep easier for me, and it was less expensive to combine frozen items with homemade stuff than getting takeout for Christmas Eve and/or New Year's Eve. The package of croissants was huge. So instead of just leaving the remainder in the pantry after Christmas brunch to be snacked on during the week, I froze several to have for New Year's Day brunch, too. Doing so made spending $5.48 for the croissants seem not so extravagant.

I did my grocery shopping with all cash this month. Doing so kept me more accountable while shopping. I really did think through where I most wanted to spend my cash. And for a change, I lumped our holiday meals into the grocery budget. In previous years, I've had a separate holiday meal budget that was in addition to the grocery one. So I think we did well for our spending. I have one more month of low grocery spending to make up for stock-up spending in late summer, then I'll bump back up to a "normal" of around $225 to $250 per month. 

Happy New Year! 2022 is complete, and we're onto new adventures in this life.

My Favorite Gifts, pt. 2

Another of my favorite gifts this year:

A new set of measuring spoons.

I'd been using the set of measuring spoons that I bought at a closeout retail store some 37 years ago. (Anyone remember Pic 'n Save, later went by the name MacFrugals?) These were decent enough measuring spoons when I had good eyesight. Now I find I have to bring the spoons to a strong light source in order to read the measure. 

I know my photography is blurry, but imagine this image isn't blown up.
Also, I took this photo midday right next to a south-facing window.

New spoons -- much more readable.

So, I asked for some new measuring spoons that had a few features in addition to better readability. My needs: rectangular ones so every size could fit into narrow jar openings; flat bottoms so they would rest on the counter without tipping; and finally, stainless steel so they don't stain. The big selling feature for me, though, is I can easily read the measurement.

As I said yesterday, with my gift wish list this year, I wanted gifts that make my work easier.

Favorite Gifts This Year

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas weekend. The work and activity wiped me out for a couple of days afterward, but I'm recovering my energy now. 

My favorite gifts

I have to preface this with a comment that I typically request very practical gifts, especially gifts that make my life easier.

First on my list: an oversized cutting board

This is a 12 by 18-inch white plastic cutting board, 1/2-inch thick. It's a commercial cutting board. My family members bought it from a restaurant supply store. Restaurant supply stores typically carry good-quality, durable, basic kitchen tools at better than department store prices (for similar quality). 

This was an item that I was very specific about. I took measurements of my available countertop work surface, the interior height of my dishwasher, and my storage area for keeping cutting boards. I wanted as large of a board as possible, which would fit within those limitations. The standard sized cutting boards often leave me with a big mess of veggie bits that have migrated off the edges of the cutting board and sometimes onto the floor. I like a large working surface so all the pieces remain on the board until needed. 

To give you an idea on size, the above is a photo of my bread board (which is standard home cutting board size) placed on top of my new white cutting board. I have 2 other plastic cutting boards, one is quite small and used for small chopping jobs, the other is about the size of my wood bread board. I will continue using the other boards along with the new one. I usually choose the cutting board according to the size of mess I anticipate making.

Are your cutting boards large enough for your cooking style? I think some of us are just not so tidy when cooking and need larger surface areas for the different steps. (That's my way of saying that I'm a messy cook.)

Come back tomorrow, and I'll tell you about a couple of other favorite (and practical) gifts from this year.

BTW, my daughters loved the snowman-mittens gift. I love quick crafts that result in cute gifts!

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah, Friends

Wishing you all a very merry Christmas or happy Hanukkah. (I know, Hanukkah has now been celebrated  for several days already this year, but wishing a warm and meaningful rest of the week to you, friends.)

I will be spending the next 2 days cooking and cleaning, playing Christmas music obnoxiously loud, and generally getting the house ready for a visit from our son and daughter-in-law.

Those of you in the path of this incoming big storm, I pray for safety for you and your family. Stay safe. Stay warm.

Have a wonderful holiday weekend, friends. I'll be back next week!

Making Our Christmas Crackers

One of our family's Christmas Day traditions is the opening of the Christmas crackers. Some years, a box of crackers have been a gift to us. Other years, I've bought us a box. This year, one daughter and I decided rather last-minute to make our own Christmas crackers. (Here's the story -- my daughter and I were exiting a store together when another shopper came in and asked the clerk if they had any Christmas crackers left. The clerk replied that they only had the small ones left. As we were walking away, I suggested we make our own, and I gave some ideas of what we could use and what we could put inside for free. I honestly thought this would go down as another one of those ideas that never materializes. But I do love a good craft, especially one that sort of saves us money. I say sort of because we were on the path of just doing Christmas without crackers this year.)

onto the crackers . . .

We spent a couple of hours one afternoon and used only materials that we had on hand.

We began with the paper tube, made with a sheet of copy paper folded in half and rolled into a tube, securing with tape.

We needed items for filling, of course. So I started with simple, corny Christmas riddles. I found a page of them online, selected 6 that I liked, printed them out, and cut them into strips. I've folded each in half so the reader can take a guess themselves, as well as try to stump the rest of us.

We cut a bunch of tiny snowflakes to put in each tube.

My daughter and I dusted off our origami skills (and found some instructions online) and made a couple of creatures, a star, a heart, and a couple of flowers, using scraps of previously used gift wrap paper. Foil gift wrap works best for tiny origami folding.

And of course, a piece of chocolate tops off the list of filling items. It's not really about what is in the cracker, but the fun of discovering each thing. After all, I no longer have any of the trinkets from previous Christmas crackers. They're not exactly of the "keeping" tier of bits and baubles.

We tucked trinkets into each paper roll.

Then we wrapped each tube in tissue paper.

And finally, we tied the ends of the tissue in cuts of previously used curling ribbons and decorated each cracker with Christmas stickers that came free in the mail.

When I've bought crackers for our family before, I've spent between $10 and $15 for a box of 8. We made 6 of these crackers for pennies. Our costs were for 7 sheets of copy paper, a foot and a half of clear tape, 3 sheets of new tissue paper, and the 6 chocolate candies. The gift wrap for origami, the curling ribbon, and the stickers were all either free and new or previously used (basically free). Of course, our homemade crackers won't "pop" like boughten ones. But I think they'll be fun, nonetheless.

My Day in 10 Words

1. snow
2. sparkling
3. baking
4. tea
5. spices
6. laundry
7. peppermint
8. headache
9. cookies
10. mess

What 10 words would sum up your day?

Regifting a Gift Card

I was given a gift card Christmas of 2019 that I never used. One of my kids asked for a gift card to this very store for this Christmas. So, you can see where my mind is going. Why not just regift this gift card?

A couple of problems with regifting gift cards:

• wanting the gift card to appear to be brand new and not previously used
• wanting to increase the value on the gift card, if the gift card is a small amount
• wanting a new activation receipt with a current date to attach to the card, so the gift card doesn't look like something I had lying around 

I wasn't sure how much value was loaded onto this gift card, and I couldn't find the little activation receipt which would indicate the value and the date purchased. So I took the gift card to the store and asked if they could tell me the balance without destroying the scratch-off PIN area. No problem, the clerk said. She swiped the card to find the value. I wanted to add to that value to make it a bigger gift. Again, no problem. After adding some money to the original card, the clerk handed me a new activation receipt with the upgraded card value and a current date.

And now, as far as anyone could tell, this is a "new" gift card and not a leftover.

I don't know if all stores will provide a new activation receipt or will allow you to add value, if desired. But it's worth a call or visit to see if this is possible, if you happen to have a gift card that you'd like to regift to a recipient who you believe would appreciate the gift card. In my case, it's a family member receiving this gift card and would probably have no problem with me regifting this card to them. But I do like the card to look as much like a new gift as possible. 

Egg Substitutions: Which to Choose?

Another baking substitution post, and again, a substitution that I'm needing this month. I'm down to 2 dozen eggs to get through the end of the month. That sounds like a lot, but we have a couple of family holiday brunches coming up and lots of holiday baking to do yet. So, I'm considering where I can substitute eggs and where I should follow recipes exactly. So how do I decide which recipe merits an egg or two and which recipe can take a substitute, plus what substitute to use? Basically, I consider the function of the egg in each recipe.

In baking and cooking, eggs have 3 functions, to add moisture, add leavening, and act as binding ingredients. In most recipes, eggs will fill a couple of these functions. In cookie dough, eggs both bind the dough together, and they add leavening. In cakes and muffins, eggs add leavening and moisture. In meatballs, eggs serve as binding agents, but also can add moisture.

To give you an idea of why having just one all-purpose, egg substitute won't give you the best results every time, here are examples of different substitutes and how they can and can't work:

• applesauce as egg substitute. Applesauce will add moisture to muffins and quick breads, but it has no leavening power of its own.
• flax seed meal or soy flour, plus water. Both are great binding ingredients, but neither can leaven. 
• baking powder. It leavens doughs and batters, but has no ability to add moisture, in fact it can dry out some baking.

So, to simplify which to use, here's my list -- the general functions of eggs and which substitutes work best. 

***Important -- For most recipes, the best results will come from doubling up on your substitutes (2 substitutes from different categories, such as -- add a moisture sub and a leavening sub for muffins, or, add a binding sub and a moisture sub for meatballs).

Adding moisture (like for muffins, cakes, quick breads, pancakes, waffles, meatballs)

To add moisture to a recipe, for each egg, substitute 

• pureed fruit/veg like applesauce, pumpkin or banana (about 1/4 to 1/3 cup for each egg), or
• yogurt (1/4 cup) or
• silken tofu (1/4 cup) or
• 1/4 cup of mayo  

Adding leavening (muffins, breads, pancakes, cakes, cookies)

To add leavening to a recipe, for each egg, add

• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of baking powder. For cookies, 1/2 teaspoon is generally sufficient -- but see the cookie recommendation below*. For muffins, quick breads, and cakes, 1/2 to 1 teaspoon baking powder or the equivalent substitute of baking soda and vinegar. Using a moisture substitute in addition to the baking powder will compensate for the missing liquid from the egg.

In a 1-egg muffin recipe, you might substitute 1/4 cup of applesauce plus 1 teaspoon of baking powder. This would satisfy both the leavening power and moisture addition that eggs give to muffin batter.

For cakes, you'll have the best results if you use a 2-egg, or more, cake recipe, and only substitute baking powder for 1 of the eggs.

Adding a binder (meatloaves, cookies)

To add a binding agent to recipes which normally call for eggs, for each egg, add

• 1 heaping tablespoon soy flour, plus 2 tablespoons of water
• 1 tablespoon of flax meal, plus 3 tablespoons of water
• 1/4 cup silken tofu

All-purpose flour can also have binding properties, especially when used in conjunction with other egg substitutes, see below.

*I found with baking cookies, the following formula worked very well, for each large egg, whisk together:

• 2 tablespoons flour, 
• 2 tablespoons water, 
• 1/2 tablespoon oil and 
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 
• In addition, for cookies that we like slightly moist, like chocolate chip cookies, I substituted 1 tablespoon of applesauce for 1 tablespoon of the butter called for in the recipe.

Baking Substitution: Homemade Sweetened Condensed Milk

With holiday baking in full swing, I thought I would share this substitution recipe. I first stumbled upon this recipe when my kids were small and our grocery budget was smaller. I was perusing a Parenting magazine at the library when I came across a recipe for 7-Layer Magic Bars. I had had them once before, so I knew they would thrill my husband and kids. However, I didn't have some of the ingredients. This substitution recipe made the Magic happen in my house that year. I posted this recipe a few years ago, in 2019. It was useful to me then, and is now once again.

Homemade sweetened condensed milk works:

• in those bar cookie recipes (like Magic Bars) where ingredients are layered, then the milk is poured over all 
• in Tres Leche cake, a yummy south-of-the-border fruit and cream cake
• in homemade ice cream -- very quick and easy ice cream if you have some of this in the fridge)
• to make your own seasonal coffee creamers, just add spices and/or extracts 
• in candy-making, such as fudge 
• or for use in caramel sauce

While this recipe yields just over 3/4 cup of finished product (about 8 to 9 ounces), larger batches can be made to keep in the refrigerator for up to 10 days for use in many different baking/cooking recipes.

The savings -- about half the cost of commercial 

For a price comparison, Walmart's Great value brand of SCM is $1.94/14 ounces at my local store, or 13.9 cents per ounce. This year (2022), that's my best price locally. My homemade version cost me about 55 cents in ingredients (in 2022) for 8.75 ounces, and about 5 cents for the gas stove, for a total of about 60 cents, or 7 cents per ounce, about half the cost of the commercial product.

It Looks Like Mache (Winter-Hardy Leafy Green) Can Survive Snow and Freezing

About 2 weeks ago we had several inches of snowfall over a few days. Cold settled in right after, and the snow stuck around for a week. The snow on the garden beds was about 6 inches deep for that period. I am happy to say that the mache survived. I picked a large handful of leaves to add to a salad for lunch the other day, and there's still plenty out there. Between the mache, the Brussel sprout greens, and the kale, I'm still able to harvest greens from the outdoor garden several days each week.

We may have snow again next week. So we'll see how mache does with repeated snowfalls.