My weekly menu plan -- it's definitely January here

Menu planning -- dull, huh? "Not so," says the one who couldn't drag herself to do this for literally years!!! The week was most definitely made easier by having my meals all figured out in advance. Busy days call for a plan of action.

We are in the midst of a freeze, here in the Pacific Northwest of the US. That means the outside garden is on a break, and my "garden" produce is coming from my indoor light garden. It's just a small patch of baby salad greens. But a wonderful treat once a week! I used the light garden lettuce this past week for the base of the avocado-citrus salad on Monday. It was delightfully fresh and made me think of spring.

How did the menu plan go? Well, for the most part, pretty well.

The thumbs up --

• having the menu plan on creative savv meant that my kids could look up what we were having for dinner, without asking me
• I could go online and quickly see what I needed to do for the next night's meal
• it meant we were even more on top of using everything up, including working through the freezer stash. I went through the freezers, pulled out all the dinner leftovers for Saturday's dinner, and breakfast leftovers for this morning's breakfast. And I now know what we have, and what we're needing. (It was a bonus to discover I have several containers of pasta sauce still!)
• it saved me the trouble of thinking what to have each night, and wondering if we had all the ingredients in stock
• my kids' help Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday gave me a bit of extra time to take care of other matters

The thumbs down --

• My one big glitch came on Thursday. I made an oversight. When planning that day's dinner, I totally forgot that I would be starting back to work this week, and Thursday is my day out of the house. My plan had me preparing 3 items for dinner, from scratch. I managed to get one item finished and another set up and ready for the oven, before I left for work. I gathered all my ingredients for the third and had them in one place.  Cooking that dish was made slightly easier by that bit of work in the morning. So, while it did work out, I was dead tired by the end of the day. I'll have to remember this for Thursdays.

This next week will be even busier, as I have a couple of afternoon appointments, along with work, volunteer work, dance classes, and driving the daughters to and from school every day. So most of my menu will be simpler items, though still scratch-cooked.

I'm still working from the freezer. I have 3 freezers here. I'm trying to empty one of them, so that it can be unplugged.

Shopping is minimal. We had a freeze this week, so kale and broccoli are gone for the time being from my menus. Frozen leafy greens will need to be purchased. I'm using fresh produce which is seasonal for winter -- cabbage, carrots, onions, potatoes, celery and mushrooms.

what I have ready and in the freezer: buns, cooked ham and turkey, pureed pumpkin and sweet potatoes

what I need to buy: soymilk or Lactaid, mushrooms, celery, frozen spinach

Monday

• turkey-noodle casserole, with homemade mushroom/celery cream sauce, served with carrot-pineapple salad and pumpkin snack cake (pineapple in freezer, double snack cake recipe for Tuesday, make extra cream sauce for ham/spinach on Thursday, cook extra noodles, and toss w/ EVOO for Wednesday's pasta with marinara, save some shredded carrots for tossed salad on Tuesday)

Tuesday (daughter make plum-apple sauce)

• French dip sandwiches on buns, tossed salad w/ shredded carrots, cabbage, and light garden lettuce, plum-apple sauce, leftover pumpkin snack cake (buns from freezer, snack cake leftover from Monday, save leftover beef for soup on Friday, make extra plum-apple sauce for Wednesday)

Wednesday (daughter chop celery, shallots and garlic)

• pasta with marinara, marinated lentil salad with celery and dijon dressing, leftover plum-apple sauce (marinara in freezer, make extra salad for Saturday's dinner)

Thursday (son help chop carrots and onions)

• ham and spinach in leftover cream sauce over toast, with roasted carrots and onions (take turkey breast out of freezer for Sunday) 

Friday (kids cook)

• vegetable-beef soup, biscuits, brownies (for vegetables in the soup, use carrots, onion, celery, potatoes, canned tomatoes in freezer, spinach in freezer)

Saturday

• oven roasted potatoes, leftover lentil salad, fruit salad, leftover brownies

Sunday

• roast turkey breast, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, sweet potato souffle, spinach

Citrus-infused vinegar cleaners -- all-natural, totally safe, and did I mention cheap?!

Are you looking for an all-natural kitchen and bath cleaning product, that is totally food-grade and can be used around food, on your cooktop, in the microwave, in the refrigerator, on your floors, in the bathtub/shower, on non-stone kitchen counters, on light switches, and many other places you put your food or hands, or you breathe?

I want what's safe!

I lost both of my parents to cancer, at far too young an age. Whatever I use to clean with, I want to be completely safe. When it comes to cleaning solutions, probably the worst health effects come from inhaling overspray, and ingesting chemicals which get on food/beverage/dish and glassware.

Here's a homemade cleaning solution so completely safe, I can spray it in my fridge, while food is still in there, and wipe down the shelves. I slide food items off to one side, spray and wipe. It's that safe. I don't wear rubber gloves while spraying and cleaning. I have no fears that chemicals will penetrate my skin. I don't worry about inhaling the overspray.


I use it as a spray cleaner in the tub, wipe out with a clean cloth, and don't bother with a rinse (in fact it's better if you leave this on the surface of the tub, it will slow the accumulation of soap scum). 



This product is my favorite for our vinyl kitchen floor. Mopping is a breeze. I have my handy-dandy Swiffer with dish towel cover, spray a 4 foot by 4 foot square of floor, and mop it up. I used to absolutely hate mopping. This smells so pleasant to me that I actually enjoy mopping now.



I'll be totally honest here. This is not a heavy-duty cleaner. If you've badly neglected your stovetop or shower, you'll need reinforcements for this cleaner. For that, if you want something super safe, no harmful chemicals, no ammonia, no fumes, etc, you're going to have to use some muscle, maybe a good share of baking soda, a scrubbing brush, a mesh scrubbie (like an onion bag), this cleaner, and perhaps some liquid dish detergent (but not mixed with the vinegar solution, but after the vinegar and/ or other cleaning solutions). 

What this is, is a general kitchen and bath cleaner for daily and weekly use, when you're doing a wipe-down of surfaces. It's the kind of cleaner I grab for wiping fingerprints off of the fridge door. It's good on stainless, porcelain and enameled steel.

And it's cheap!

So, what's this amazing cleaning solution made from? Vinegar, orange peels, whole cloves and water. Vinegar is the age-old household cleaner. It's readily available, non-toxic at 5% acidity, inexpensive and it works. The orange peels and cloves vastly improve the aroma and add cleaning power. This has a very pleasant orange-spice scent, with a hint of the vinegar (which dissipates when dry). I can mix up a 40 ounce bottle of this solution for about 40 cents.

Some chemistry of how these three ingredients boost cleaning and disinfecting 

Citrus peel contains a component that works as a degreaser and solvent, limonene. Limonene is the compound in orange peel that manufacturers use for fragrance in perfumes and cleaning products. It also works to dissolve oils.  

The orange oil found in the peel, is used in "green" pesticides, especially with ants and termites. The oil not only kills these insects, but will block the pheromone trail that ants lay down, preventing new ants from "finding" your house.

The addition of cloves to this concoction is primarily for scent. However, cloves do have minor antiseptic, anti-fungal, antiviral and antimicrobial properties.

Vinegar, itself, is antibacterial and antifungal. It kills approximately 80% of mold varieties. And when used as the final rinse on bath/shower surfaces, vinegar will slow the recurrence of soap residue (rings and scum). And it's a mild solvent and degreaser. It can also be used to destroy ant pheromone trails.

This cleaner is super easy to make

you'll need:

peels from 4 oranges
1 tablespoon whole cloves
about 2  1/2 cups white vinegar

Score and peel 4 oranges, and add to a 1 quart canning jar.

Add about 1 tablespoon of whole cloves to the jar.

Fill with white vinegar and cap.

Top off the vinegar a couple of times in the next day or so, as air bubbles come to the surface, exposing the orange peel. 

Store in a cupboard, pantry, or on a non-stone countertop (vinegar etches granite, marble and quartz stone products).

Wait 10 days to 2 weeks, 

then strain through a couple of layers of cheesecloth, a piece of muslin or a paper coffee filter. 

For most purposes, mix 50/50 with water and pour into a spray bottle. For very stubborn dirt, like the inside of the oven door, spray or pour, full-strength on the opened door, wait 15 minutes, come back and wipe.

Two warnings

1) Do not use vinegar on any stone surface, such as marble, granite or quartz (Silestone). Vinegar can etch the surface and cause permanent damage. Best to use a mild dish soap and water for stone. 

If you are unsure if this will harm your surface, read up on cleaning info for your particular surfacing. If vinegar is okay, then this product will be safe.

2) Do not add bleach to this solution. Mixing vinegar and bleach will release toxic chlorine gas, damaging your mucus membranes. If you do feel the need to use both a bleach-based product and a vinegar one, rinse between the change in product application. A rinse will eliminate your risk of waging chemical warfare upon yourself.

Lemon vinegar is also lovely

Later in the year, as spring approaches, I like the house to smell of lemons. A lemony aroma lifts and energizes me. I'll be making a lemon and herb infused vinegar for my spring cleaning in early March.

Do you make your own household cleaners? Do you do so for "greener", healthier products?Or is saving money your motivation for making your own cleaning solutions? 

Now can you guess what I was doing yesterday? I cleaned the kitchen and bathroom, of course!

1/12 Just an update -- a reader emailed asking if she could add some castile soap to this recipe. I looked into it, and the answer is no. When you mix vinegar and any soap (castile or otherwise), they work against each other. Here's the explanation and link to read more. 

 "In great part it’s due to the fact that vinegar is an acid and the castile soap is a base. They will directly react with each other and cancel each other out. So, instead of getting the best of both (the scum cutting ability of the vinegar and the dirt transporting ability of the soap), you’ll be getting the worst of something entirely new. The vinegar “unsaponifies” the soap, by which I mean that the vinegar takes the soap and reduces it back out to its original oils. So you end up with an oily, curdled, whitish mess. And this would be all over whatever it was you were trying to clean – your laundry or counters or dishes or whatever." (source lisa.drbronner.com)

Also, I don't advise mixing this vinegar solution with liquid dish detergent. It won't be dangerous, but you'll lose some the cleaning power of the vinegar and the detergent. Dawn dish detergent, for example has a ph of 7.44, which makes it a base. White vinegar has a ph of about 2.0, an acid. The acid and the base will neutralize each other, possibly rendering the solutions less effective. The detergent will still have it's surfactant properties, but you'll have better cleaning results if you use a detergent first, then follow up with a rinse of the vinegar solution.

Thanks TJ, for the question. Hope that clarifies things.

If you enjoyed this post, consider subscribing to creative savv. I'd love to share more about my creative and fun-filled life with you.

Glam-up the Dinner Table: Wrapping a Bottle Like a Wine Steward

We're still a month away, but a Valentine's dinner date at home comes to mind when I think of wrapping a bottle, restaurant-style. This would also be a lovely addition to a dinner party at home with friends.

It's just one of those things that you can do that costs absolutely nothing, but it elevates your dinner table from standard to fabulous!

My own bottle was free -- a repurposed cider bottle. I use it for filtered water (plain and flavored). A practically free beverage wrapped in a napkin I already own. Glamour for pennies.


Here's how:

Take a dinner-size square, cloth napkin (between 15 inches and 16  1/2 inches square) and lay it on the angle, like a diamond.

Fold up the bottom corner to not quite the halfway point on the napkin if folded on the diagonal.

The napkin should be about 1 inch longer than the bottle is tall.

My best tip would be to roll the bottle up in the napkin as tightly as possible, much like swaddling a baby. Line up the base of the bottle with the folded edge of the napkin. Begin at one side and roll across the napkin.

Roll the bottle as tightly as you can, almost stretching the napkin as you roll.

The bottle should now be completely rolled in the napkin.

Stand the bottle upright, holding onto the rolled end.

Face the back of the rolled bottle towards you, with the bottle standing up. There should be an outside "point" towards you.

Holding the rolled end securely, gently pull the top outside point of the napkin down and fold over the rolled napkin. This is what secures the rolled napkin around the bottle.

Finish peeling the outside point down, then fold the inside point down and over the outside point.

Turn the bottle around, and your bottle wrap is complete.


If you have done origami or napkin folds, then wrapping a bottle may feel familiar. Practice a couple of times. It took me a few tries to get it tight enough.

While a wine steward can wrap a bottle with the bottle standing upright, I find it easier to wrap a bottle while its on its side.

If you need to wrap an opened bottle of wine (such as a red wine, to allow to breathe), you can make the wrap on a dummy bottle, carefully slip the wrap off the bottom, then slide up the new bottle. Otherwise, wrap a sealed bottle (such as a chilled bottle of white wine or sparkling cider), or wrap a repurposed empty bottle for water (wrap the bottle, then using a funnel, fill with chilled filtered water).

                                     __________________________________________

You may wonder, "what's the point?" A bottle wrap keeps the bottle's contents from dripping on a nice tablecloth, and absorbs condensation from a chilled bottle.

Why I like to wrap the bottle -- I do this with repurposed bottles, used for drinking water (both flavored and plain) on a dinner table. My repurposed bottles are nothing to write home about, and this just adds a bit of glam.

My raging passion: managing leftovers

Our kitchen freezer. It's a jumbled mess, isn't it?
Good thing smorgasbord night is scheduled for Saturday!

I am passionate about leftovers!

The notion of using it all up, getting all the bang there is for my buck, waste not, want not -- really gets my juices flowing. Perhaps this explains why I am just so passionate about using our leftovers. I don't want to think that I've just dumped $3 or $4 into the compost bin. Those leftovers are food that I paid for. I can't really make you as passionate about leftovers as I am. I think it's one of those things that I was born with.

But I can share techniques that others, and myself, have used successfully, to minimize throwing out leftovers. There are several techniques for managing one's meal leftovers that actually work for families, meaning, food does not go to waste, it gets eaten! Here are some of the more successful techniques.

1)  The big bucket in the freezer

With this technique, all savory leftovers go into a bucket stored in the freezer. At the end of a couple of weeks, when the bucket is full, this is thawed, dumped into a stock pot, and vegetable or meat stock added for an interesting soup or stew.

Those that use this method tell me that their "bucket soup" is indeed tasty, contrary to everything that I had thought about this idea. Just a suggestion, though, you may want to be discriminating in what goes into the bucket. Brussels sprouts, fish patties, curry, Italian sauces, and refried beans might not be the best combination for a soup!

2)  The pack-it-up-for-next-day-lunch plan

This plan is highly successful for many families. Whatever is leftover from dinner goes into individual containers, to be taken to work or school for lunch the next day.

(In our house, as I'm packing away leftovers from dinner, I may ask the family if anyone wants some for lunch the next day. But our rule is, if someone forgets to take their leftovers in next day, then I am free to do what I want with them. We had a lovely coffee cake with stewed prunes swirled into the top the other morning, because someone forgot to take their container of prunes in with lunch. Or perhaps they didn't really "forget"?)

3)  The freezer fix

With this technique, all leftovers are packed into freezer containers and kept frozen until needed. Sometimes they are then used as lunch items, or quick snacks in between meals. Other times, a mis-matched set of many leftover containers become a smorgasbord buffet.

(This is actually how we handle the bulk of our leftovers. Both breakfast and dinner leftovers get packed for the freezer. Once every fortnight, I cull the freezer for all savory leftovers, heat them and set on the counter for everyone to pick and choose what they want. This was the favored meal by our children when they were small, as they actually got the chance to choose what went on their plates. I often will round out these leftovers with pickles, olives and bread and butter.

We also do a breakfast leftover feast about once every couple of months. We don't accrue breakfast leftovers as rapidly as dinner ones.)

4)  The leave-it-in-the-fridge-and-plan-for-its-use plan

This plan will work for many families. They pack their leftovers into refrigerator containers, and plan for their use later in the week.

Many of these families have a designated spot in the fridge for leftovers. Some even place a tray on the shelf, making it clear that "this spot is for leftovers". In some houses, these leftovers are fair game for any hungry soul. In others, the cook knows to keep an eye on that spot and make use of these items very soon.

(I store leftover cooked rice and beans in the fridge, with the goal to use them all up by the weekend. If there's any left by Saturday, at lunch I make a pot of soup or casserole using it up. Our Saturday lunches tend to be rather motley. But so far, I've not yet sent anyone to the hospital with my motley Saturday lunch cooking. That's a sign that I'm doing pretty good, don't you think?)

5) The "make them eat it all" program

With this program, you simply force-feed your entire family everything that could possibly be wasted. Of course, this could be considered child abuse in some districts, as well as may lead to a number of eating disorders. So, I don't heartily advocate force-feeding anything but geese.

A variation of this program was in force in my elementary school. The lunch room monitors roamed the room, enforcing the "clean plate" rule. I'm afraid this rule and its enforcement didn't so much to encourage good eating habits, but instead brought about very creatively devious behavior. Did you know that you can fit an entire lunch into an empty small milk carton? Believe me, it really all fit.


There really isn't a single perfect, one-size-fits-all plan for managing leftovers. We each need to find the method that works best for ourselves. But if your current plan isn't working for you, give consideration to one of the others. And for the record, even the best of plans fail from time to time. I had to toss almost half a jar of green tomato pickles last night. The liquid was murky and thick. I am not sure what happened. Maybe you're not supposed to keep an opened jar of homemade pickles for 2  1/2 years. Now to go find something good for lunch in the freezer!

Making compostable (or disposable) tea bags

My favorite tea blend does not come in prepared tea bags. To make a pot, I have 3 choices, use tea balls, use a tea strainer, or fill empty tea bags. You can buy empties from places like Teavana or Amazon, for about $3-$5 for up to 100 bags, or you can make your own from coffee filters.

Using one small basket coffee filter (for a coffee maker that brews 4-6 cups), I can get 3 bags, making my price per 100 bags about 35 cents. My sewing machine sits out in the guest room these days. I can whip up about a dozen bags in about 15 minutes.

Why bother making my own bags to save a few dollars? Well, because it's just the kind of crafty-craft thing that I love to do. Also, I can make my own bags really cute, to give as fun, little, "I'm thinking of you" gifts, or put out when friends come over. And, I usually have coffee filters on hand, these are very easy to do, and I have a very large supply of loose tea, both traditional tea, and herbs that I grow in summer for my own herbal concoctions. Finally, I'm lazy and don't always want to wash out a tea ball right on the spot, to make my cuppa.

I cut my coffee filters into wedges, but obviously you can cut them into rectangles, if you want them to look more commercial. Wedges are a way to use all of the filter. Larger filters will also work, and would be ideally suited for making your own full-pot tea bags.

In these photos, I used bright green thread, so you could see my stitching. But for the rest of my bags, I use white, all-cotton thread.


To make your own tea bags:

take 1 coffee filter (basket-type, for 4-6 cup maker), fold in half. You'll have a semi-circle.

Fold this into thirds. Crease it well.

You now have a filter, creased into 6 sections.

Cut the filter on every other section crease, into 3 pieces total.

Fold each section into a wedge, along crease line.

Stitch 1/8th-inch, or so, from edge of paper, along rounded bottom, and up one side, to 1  1/2 inches from the point of your wedge.

Fill with 1 1/2 to 2 teaspoons of loose leaf tea (I prefer 2 teaspoons).
Turn the point down about 1/2-inch.

If adding a string (not necessary, but makes bags easy to remove from cup of tea, and gives the opportunity to do something creative with the tag), take about 6 inches of cotton string and tie a knot in one end. (Cheap source of cotton string -- the string that holds an extra large flour or sugar sack closed. Otherwise I use either crochet yarn/string or kitchen string. You could also probably use white cotton embroidery floss.)

Place this knotted end, under the folded down point of the bag.

Finish your stitching along the unsealed edge of the bag, with the point down, and catching the string in the stitching.

Complete with a tag on the other end of the string.

Some tags that I've made

2 construction paper flowers, glued together with string in between, and labeled on the back side with type of tea

small folded piece of scrapbook paper, rubber stamped with initial of recipient's name, string knotted and stapled, catching the string in staple

a button from my button box, square knot tied to end of string

as these bags are "fan-shaped", going with that theme, a fan-shaped piece of scrapbook paper, glued to string on underside

Just a note:  Coffee filters are not quite as porous as tea bag papers, so these bags "inflate", hold air, and float upon adding boiling water to cup. I haven't tried it, but I suspect that the bags would burst, if microwaved in a cup of water. I have seen some brands of tea bags do that. Just a warning, if you need to reheat your tea, take the bag out first.
          
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Next time, on As The Tea Leaf Curls, my homemade, reusable tea bags, totally free, and quick to make.

(Didn't I tell you that January is the month that I actually have free time, and like to do all sorts of fun projects? Oh, never a dull moment in my humble abode!) 

Just 8 minutes

Did you know that you can jump start your metabolism in just 8 minutes of exercise in the morning, each day? You still need to get in some cardio and strength training later in the day, but an 8 minute stint of brisk walking will rev your body's engine to burn off those Christmas cookies and treats.


Getting fit is one of the most popular New Year's resolutions. But for most of us, when we fail to see results quickly enough, we lose interest. "There goes the plan to get fit this year : ("

But just 8 minutes of exercise will start your metabolism for the day, give you energy and a healthy glow, and create the mind-set to make healthier choices throughout the day. Both fitness guru Jorge Cruise, and diet expert David Zinczenko, recommend 8 minutes of exercise as one of the first things you do every day, to boost your metabolism.

8 minutes, you say? When I heard this, I jumped on board. I can do 8 minutes in the early morning. This is a lifestyle change that I can follow through on. 8 minutes of walking around the block. 8 minutes on the rebounder. 8 minutes of a 10-minute Tony Horton video (that's not even the full 10-minute trainer!). An 8 minute bike ride through the neighborhood. Even 8 minutes of lifting hand weights, while I sit in my favorite chair, watching the AM news. Can you break away from your home, family and routine for 8 minutes in the morning?

Getting fit is a lifestyle orientation. Making this goal for your body is not something that you do for 4 months until swimsuit season, then figure, "hey, I did it!" and slip back into old ways. A lifestyle change is something you choose to do for life. For me, 8 minutes is totally doable.

It's been a week now, since I began my 8 minutes. I gave myself Sunday off, but have stuck to it every other day. The big test was back-to-school on Monday. Would I get myself up and out early enough for 8 minutes? Would I have enough time before driving my daughters to school? What about how dark it is so early, would that be a problem? Guess what? It was easy. It turns out, 8 minutes is something I CAN spare. So, I guess we'll just see in a month if I'm still making this a priority. It's hard to tell with me. I hope I can keep to it.

How about you? Did you resolve to make health or fitness a priority in your life this year? Tell me what you're doing to further that goal. Maybe you're ahead of the game and already living a fit lifestyle. Share with me how you keep yourself motivated to continue on. 

P.S. There's a free 10-minute workout on the Dr. Oz website, designed by Tony Horton. It's very doable. He offers suggestions on how to make the exercises more and less difficult, as you need. It's what I do for exercise when the weather is too miserable outside. But for now, while the weather is favorable, see you around the block! ; )

Are you a starter, a plodder or a finisher?

What's your project work-style?

I'm a starter. My husband is a plodder. We are lacking a finisher in our house.

Starters get the ball rolling. Plodders toil on keeping the project going. And finishers come along and cap it all off with an ending. While we are all a blend of all three of these work-styles, most of us tend towards one style, more than the other two.


Starters are invaluable for their ability to have a vision and dive right in to any endeavor. Starters plan incessantly. They are the creative vision in a group, with their enthusiasm at it's peak in the early stages of any project.

Plodders are those who actually do the bulk of the work. Their special skill is the abiltity to keep on working, even when the job has become overwhelmingly dull to the starter. Without a plodder, endeavors would die just after inception.

Finishers are the ones who come along, have a vision for the end of a project, and just cap it all off. They like completion. Where a starter and a plodder like the project to continue, as it gives them continuity and a purpose with the work, the finisher has the unique ability to see that a finished job will provide the most satisfaction, and open the opportunity for future projects, thus beginning the cycle again.


If your household has only starters, then life and home tend to look like a bunch of piles of messes, many endeavors begun, but abandoned.

If you have only plodders, then nothing ever seems to get done. No one begins anything, so there is no work for the two plodders to continue on with.

And if your household has only finishers, there is nothing to put that finishing touch on.


For myself, as a starter, I love the beginning of anything. The new year is of particular delight for me, as my possibilities feel endless. I begin to drag about 1/3 into any project, and find completion extremely difficult. I'm enthusiastic, but lack discipline when it comes to the dull work, and have a strange desire NOT to finish any project.

My husband is usually drafted into the dull work around our house. He is especially gifted at handling the less interesting stuff. Because he can do this, we have managed some very large projects, like a large brick patio in our back yard. My enthusiasm would die an early death if it were not for his plodding ability.

Where we fall short is not having a finisher here. I tend to see projects as open-ended. I like that. It gives me freedom to continue creating and make changes with one endeavor. But I also realize that our lives and home would have an incomplete look in every corner, without a finisher in residence.

One of the areas I am putting effort into is developing some "finishing skills", envisioning the end. I need to find a reason to want something to come to completion, to find the motivation to do the work necessary to finalize a project. This part of the job is mind work. And I am finding that if I take the time to imagine life and home with a job totally done, then I can put in the work to see it through.

I do need some plodding skills, for the projects where the work team is me, myself and I. But I'll continue to rely on my husband for the joint projects.


Knowing what kind of person I am, with regards to projects, helps me to overcome my areas of weakness. I am hoping that my ramblings here can help you, as well. For me, just putting something down on paper, or reading someone else's idea on a subject, helps to clarify something in my mind, and propel me to achievement in an area I once thought not possible for me.

Have you worked on a project recently where you can identify which work-style you embody most? What ways did you motivate yourself to fill the gaps in your style? If you are a starter, how do you get yourself to continue on? If you are a plodder or finisher, what do you do to jump-start yourself into a project?

A return to menu-planning for January

Several years ago I menu-planned every week. My life was quite busy with 3 small children. Being organized kept me on the top of the rolling boulder, instead of underneath.

Somewhere along the way, my calm, thought out, once-a-week, menu-plan session, morphed into a caffeine driven, bleary eyed, madwoman on the highway mom, shouting out, "what should I make for dinner?", to the occupants of the back seat of the car, en route to said occupants' school.

Shocking as this may be, this current plan for securing a dinner menu, is no longer working terribly well for me.  Life has seemed more chaotic this year than any recent year, and I have slipped to the underside of the boulder careening down the mountainside.

And so, once again, I embark upon a scheduled menu-planning session, every weekend, to see if I can simplify meal prep in my kitchen.

One aspect of menu-planning has never appealed to me -- the idea of planning my meals, then going to the grocery store to buy all the ingredients. I tend to stock my kitchen with good deals, THEN decide what I can make from it all. So, my planning style reflects this.

My three kids help with dinner preparation, weekly. They have one night per week when they work together to make dinner, and each have a night as helpers to me. Kids of all ages can be a help in the kitchen. But once they are teens, they can do so much more than be assistants.

When they are "helpers" I set aside one specific task for each, so they can know what is expected of them, and follow through. If I just have them hanging around the kitchen while I try to come up with things for them to do, I find I often am moving as fast as I am thinking, and just can't come up with tasks that make them feel productive and truly help me. So, you'll see, below, that with each helper, I have chosen a specific task, at their level of kitchen skill.

Dinner prep takes longer for my kids, at this point, so I schedule them on a night when I know they have the time to spare. Most weeks, their night is Saturday, and they begin with dinner prep around 4 PM, for a dinner hour around 6 PM.

When kids or husband help with meal preparation it really means a lot to me. It says that they appreciate what I do for them the rest of the week. A lot like having a spouse who cleans the kitchen after dinner. That is a much bigger "thank you" than words, as you home cooks can attest.

I try to "double up" on work when possible, and make extras to be used later in the week (or even month) in another dish. And about once every fortnight we have a leftovers' smorgasbord. I am trying to make weekend dinners easy for me -- a nice break from the work week.

As I said above, I plan from what I already have in the kitchen. So, this week's dinners are heavy in ham and turkey, as we're using up holiday turkey and ham from the freezer. While we have plenty of fruit in the house, for veggies I'm down to just greens like kale, broccoli, mustard greens in the garden, salad greens under lights indoors, and a handful of carrots and potatoes. My shopping list is brief, however, for this week's dinners.

need to buy: onions, potatoes, cabbage, carrots, eggs

Monday

• ham, broccoli (or kale, depends on what's in the garden still) and cheese quiche, steamed brown rice, avocado-citrus salad (make extra rice for Friday's fried rice)   

Tuesday (daughter helper with veggies)

• pulled turkey sandwiches on buns, carrot sticks, oven-fried potato wedges (cut extra carrot sticks for roasted carrots on Wednesday, out of bbq sauce, will make a substitution w/ ketchup, soy sauce, onions and chili powder for pulled turkey, make double batch of buns with dough in bread machine over weekend, freeze other half of buns for next week)

Wednesday (daughter helper with fruit salad)

• ham slices, fruit salad, corn pudding, roasted carrot sticks (ham from freezer, corn pudding made with canned corn) 

Thursday (son helper with serving dinner while I take daughter to dance class)

• pumpkin-ham soup, cornbread (make extra soup and cornbread for lunches next day), frozen fruit cobbler (do double batch for tomorrow's dessert)

Friday (kids cook)

• fried rice, with egg, ham, frozen mixed veggies, onion, garlic and cabbage (shred 4 cups extra cabbage for Saturday's cole slaw), plus leftover fruit cobbler

Saturday

• leftover night -- take all leftover containers from freezer for smorgasbord-style dinner, serve with cole slaw (cabbage for cole slaw shredded by kids on Friday, simple dressing)

Sunday

• turkey-cream cheese-cranberry sauce sandwiches, roasted squash, pickles (turkey, cranberry sauce and roasted squash from freezer)

So, what do you think about weekly meal planning? Is it something that works for you? Do you think it saves money? What do you do when you reach a day when what you've planned just doesn't sound appetizing any more? Or are you a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of cook? Do you enjoy the flexibility of choosing what to eat the afternoon of? I GET both sides, and just want to know where you fall with regards to planning a week ahead.

Flavored Water to Make for Pennies

New Years . . . resolutions . . . get healthy . . . drink less soda and more water . . . could do that . . . but water gets boring . . . enter flavored waters

So, those bottles of water with flavorings and vitamins added are all so tempting. Also a bit pricey, if you make them a habit. To get myself and my family drinking more water, while making it interesting in the process, I make my own flavored waters.

This time of year (in the Northern Hemisphere), oranges are a natural for flavoring water. They're economical, readily available, and easy to prepare for a pitcher of water.

I start with filtered water in a 2-quart pitcher.

I wash 1 orange with a drop of liquid dish detergent (you can also do a vinegar soak if you're concerned about any possible residue from dish detergent), and rinse well.

I slice off the ends of the orange, cut into thin slices, and add to the water. I allow the water to sit at room temperature for about an hour, then chill. Serve in about 2 hours. That's it.


And since I'm a waste not, want not kind of gal, when the water is finished, and I'm left with my water-logged slices of orange, I drain them in a strainer for 10 minutes, run through my blender, and make Sunshine Muffins (a muffin recipe that calls for a whole orange, peel and all). I used seedless, navel oranges. If my oranges had seeds, I'd have picked them out before pureeing.

My homemade flavored water tastes lovely, has some vitamin C (from the orange slices), and with my oranges bought on sale for 48c/lb, the two-quart pitcher of flavored water cost about 25 cents, including the cost of the filtered water.

I like to up-cant the waters to bottles with caps. After a few hours of steeping, I use a funnel to pour the water from the pitcher, into a repurposed cider bottle (a wine bottle would also look nice). This keeps my water fresh-tasting (doesn't pick up odors from the fridge) and frees up my pitcher for a new flavor. An up-canted bottle of water, wrapped wine steward-style in a napkin, is lovely enough to leave on the table through dinner.

Orange is my personal favorite this time of year. But there are so many other possibilities for homemade flavored waters. Here's a list of ingredients to start with:

watermelon (cut into chunks)
cantaloupe (cut into chunks)
raspberry (crush with the back of a fork)
strawberry (crush with the back of a fork)
blackberry (crush with the back of a fork)
grapefruit (slice whole)
lemon (slice whole)
lime (slice whole)
pineapple (peel and slice, or use just cores)
kiwi (peel and slice)
cucumber (peel, if waxed, and slice thin)
mint (crush with wooden spoon in pitcher before adding water)
rosemary (crush with wooden spoon in pitcher before adding water)
basil (crush with wooden spoon in pitcher before adding water)
thyme (crush with wooden spoon in pitcher before adding water)
ginger root (peel, then slice thin, crush gently with wooden spoon before adding water)


Try mixing an herb and a fruit, such as basil and lemon, or pineapple and mint. Mix a few fruits, such as crushed raspberries and lemon slices. Add cucumber slices to cantaloupe and kiwi. Fresh ginger root is a delightful addition to lemon flavored water. If your family would prefer, try doubling the fruit, such as two sliced oranges.

A few tips:
Crush berries before adding to the water. Peel waxed cucumbers, fresh ginger root slices, pineapple slices and fuzzy kiwis. If you have a whole pineapple, peel, slice and core to use as normal, saving all the tough cores for a pitcher of water. Crush fresh herbs gently with  a wooden spoon to release the essential oils into the water.

What if you don't have any fresh fruit on hand. Can you use canned fruit? Absolutely! The two canned fruits that work the best for this purpose are canned pineapple and mandarin oranges. Add these fruits to the bottom of a pitcher and crush with a wooden spoon briefly before adding water. The canned fruit isn't as flavorful as fresh, so the crushing extracts flavor to compensate.

Can dried herbs be subbed for fresh? I've only tried this with dried mint. What I did was place about a half-teaspoon of dried mint in a small dish with water, and allowed to sit overnight. The next day, I added the re-hydrated mint leaves to my pitcher of lemon water.

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Homemade flavored water is not only a penny-pinching alternative to commercial flavored waters, but there's less waste (plastic bottles -- see below), and there are no impossible-to-pronounce ingredients. And as a bonus, I can hardly keep up with the demand for this water. My kids drink about as much of it as I do. We are drinking much more water, and much less punch, soda, coffee and tea. (The only downside to all of this water consumption comes in the middle of the night!)

**Americans, alone, buy over 29 billion bottles of water per year, flavored and plain combined. To make all those plastic bottles, 17 million barrels of crude oil are used! And only 1 in 6 plastic bottles make it to the recycling center. Yeah, hard to fathom, isn't it?

December grocery money journal -- month end

(First half of December grocery spending is here.)

Dec. 19. Here I thought I wouldn't be getting down to Trader Joe's while my daughters are out on winter holidays, but I've now been there 3 times this month! Stopped in today for more bananas, and some croissant dough. Trader Joe's croissant dough bakes up into crispy on the outside, tender on the inside croissants. It's one of my favorite treats. I set the dough to rise on a baking sheet in the late evening the night before, then bake them in the morning. Croissants have been added to our Christmas morning breakfast menu, along with a potato and egg casserole (assembled earlier in the month), grilled ham and blueberry muffins. I wound up baking one of the casseroles the other evening for a quick supper, and found it to be bland. I'll pile on more cheddar, and top with salsa after baking, next time I bake one up. (What I ended up doing with those casseroles was spooning a small amount of salsa on top, added some more grated cheddar, then baked. They turned out quite yummy. I repeated this with the last breakfast casserole that I baked on New Year's Day, as well.)

At Trader Joes -- spent $5.13

I've been helped by my daughters getting meals this week. They took over for two dinners. One evening they made a teriyaki turkey over garlic noodles. The next, they prepared a delicious carrot curry soup, with kale, cheddar and ham biscuits on the side. Last night we had some of the pumpkin soup that I made, plus the leftover biscuits from the night before. I've been scrounging in the freezer for lunches this week. I found leftover lasagna, turkey pot pie, and an assortment of odds and ends for making soups, stir fries and quickie lunch-time casseroles.

Dec. 21. While out Christmas shopping I picked up a gallon of milk (to get us through the holidays),  some chai tea, canned pineapple, 2 bags of cereal on mark down (85c per bag), and also found Italian hot sausages on mark down, so picked up 2 packs, to slice and use as pepperoni on pizzas.

My current best regular price on 2% milk these days is Fred Meyer for $2.59/gal, 10c less than Rite Aid.

Today spent $12.86, total for the month so far, $177.62.

Dinner last night was an old stand-by that I haven't made in a long time, rice and beans. Sometimes I forget to make something as basic as that. It's just cooked rice, cooked pintos, sauteed onions and garlic, cumin, chili powder, salt and canned tomatoes. I top this with cheddar and salsa.

Dinner tonight is a canned food and leftover feast. A casserole consisting of 2 hot dogs, leftover rice and beans, more pinto beans, onions, chili powder and salt, plus, some fiesta corn (canned corn with green pepper, salsa and black olives), and an apple and raisin salad.

We're having Christmas Day dinner at friends this year. I'm bringing a green, red and white layered jello salad, cheddar cornbread, and a pumpkin cake roll. Two of those items I can prepare on Christmas Eve. So, Christmas Day cooking won't be too much.

The jello salad should be interesting. We'll see how it turns out. I have a bunch of blue jello in the pantry. My plan is to use yellow food coloring to tint it green. I'll add either canned pineapple or chopped green apple to that layer. The white is a cream cheese, plain gelatin, lemon juice and sugar for that layer layer. Then on top, the red layer, which I'll make with a cranberry, gelatin and sugar layer. I'm not even going to try and unmold this. It would be pretty, but in case it were to slide around, or part wouldn't set as well, I'm just going to leave this in a clear glass souffle baker. (The jello salad was a hit! I used canned pineapple in the green layer. The cranberry layer was also delicious. I modified a recipe from Joy of Cooking for a cranberry gelatin salad. The cream cheese layer was a bit bland. If I make this again, I'll add more lemon juice to the cream cheese and gelatin.)

Dec. 24. Picked up tortillas for burritos for lunch. Just brown rice, black beans, cheese, salsa and seasoned with chili powder and salt. A quick and easy lunch for the kids and I. ($2.89)

Dec. 25. Breakfast was delicious! Everyone loved the pineapple-banana drink concoction. I had saved the juice that canned pineapple is packed in from a couple of cans of pineapple, in the freezer. This morning, I ran the pineapple juice and a banana through the blender for a refreshing drink, instead of the usual oj. Cost for that drink -- 19c for the banana, as the pineapple juice drained from cans would have otherwise been poured down the sink.

Dec. 28. Made a run out to QFC for marked down milk. Bought 9 gallons of milk, 1 gallon of eggnog and a bunch of marked down bananas (39c/lb) for $21.58. Guess who's making yogurt this afternoon?! (Did a quick calculation and my homemade yogurt cost about 50c per quart! I made over 3.5 quarts. So for about an hours work, while doing other things in the kitchen, I saved about $5 from what I would have spent on the clearance-priced yogurt, packed in quarts.)

Month to date total -- $202.09

Dec. 29. Oranges on sale for 48c/lb. Stopped in to Albertsons for about 20 lbs, plus picked up 4 avocados (69c ea), 1 green pepper (50c), more tortillas, whole wheat pasta (88c for 12 oz., bought 9 boxes), decaf coffee, 1 bottle sparkling cider, ground ginger (bulk) and whole cloves (bulk). Spent $27.73, total for month so far -- $229.82.

Monday I have errands to run and will pick up a few last minute treats for New Years Eve.

Dec. 31. Last shopping of the year. Went to Albertsons, as I wanted more oranges, plus goodies for New Year's Eve and Day. Bought 9 pounds oranges, a dozen donuts for breakfast tomorrow (clearance rack for 1.99), pretzels, little smokie sausages, frozen egg rolls, and fresh veggies to have with dip. Our New Years Eve menu is mostly snacky things like the little sausages, homemade biscuits (my daughters make better biscuits than I do), veggies and dip, mixed nuts, mini egg rolls, chocolates, pretzels, cheese cubes, orange slices, sparkling cider and flavored water. I had a budget of $10 for this evening. So, while I ordinarily wouldn't buy so many pre-made snacks, tonight it's in the budget. Spent $17.36

While at the store, I noticed all their Christmas merchandise was 75% off. I picked up 2 bath and shower gift sets for $1.37 each, to go into my daughters' Easter baskets, a bag of Dove chocolates, foil wrapped in red and silver, for Valentine's candies, and 2 bags of chocolate Christmas candies, to be double bagged and stored away till next Christmas.

I know this wouldn't work for many households -- couldn't keep hidden, or too warm, so would melt/get gooey, or problems with bugs/ants. It works for us. I buy Easter and Christmas candy on mark down right after the holiday, and save it until the next year. Even if buying a year in advance would not work for folks, it could be possible to buy red and green wrapped/colored candies to use for Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day. I did see bags of red and green M & Ms on mark down. Some folks buy these now, separate the colors, and use the red ones in cookies for Valentine's and the green ones in cookies for St. Patty's Day. Anyways, these things I bought come out of our holiday and celebration budget, so aren't tallied into the groceries for the month.

Total grocery spending for December -- $247.18, $37.18 over budget, but I have a surplus to draw on from earlier months to cover that. My surplus now stands at $148.05 going into January.


Grocery deals to look for in January
No. Hemisphere fresh produce such as oranges, grapefruit, avocado, broccoli, kale, spinach, chard, collards, celery, carrots, cauliflower, cabbage

So. Hemisphere fresh produce such as green beans, eggplant, corn, sweet peppers, summer squash, cucumbers, melons, berries, plums, nectarines, peaches

diet foods of all kinds, including "healthier" breakfast cereals like Special K and Kashi, frozen dinners, yogurt

Christmas clearance sweet items which can be used out of season, such as small candies (M & Ms) that can be used in place of chocolate chips in cookies, chocolate bars/candies to be used in s'mores, packaged mixes for Christmas cakes and cookies, fruit cake candied fruits (some recipes for sweet breads to be served for Easter use fruit cake mixes) and holiday frosting -- check for a mark down area in your grocery store

the last couple of days of January, look for items marketed towards the Super Bowl crowd. Super Bowl Sunday is Feb. 3.  You'll find deals on soda pop, chips and dip, sandwich fixings, and snack foods.
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On the news yesterday they were saying that yes, we did avoid the dairy cliff, so that's a relief. No $8 gallons of milk in the US this next year. But they did say that still due to the draught last summer that devastated basic feed crops like corn, to expect meat, dairy and processed food (items containing dairy, corn or meat) prices to increase somewhat, just not doubled. So when you see a good deal on any of those items, buy what you can.

On the positive side, gas prices are expected to come down in 2013, not by much, but some, which we'll all agree is a good thing. Lower fuel prices *could* translate into a moderating effect on some of the draught-related grocery increases that have been forecast. In any case, lower gas prices for those of us who drive daily, will mean a bit of extra cash to offset any other increases.

I don't know about you, but I'm trying to just use what I have on hand for the next couple of weeks -- minimum grocery spending this and next week. I'll need eggs, some veggies, and lunch items like peanut butter and bananas. Otherwise, my pantry, fridge and freezer are plenty full.

With careful planning of meals, we should have more than what we'll need. It could mean a bit of repetition in our menus, but that's okay. Lack of restaurant-level variety in what one eats, is really a first world problem, now isn't it?

Do you find, as I do, that just after Christmas, the kitchen is still full of so many goodies, that there's no real need to spend a lot on groceries for a couple of weeks?

New year, new possibilities

Good morning to you! And Happy New Year!

It's January, and everything is sunshine and roses at my end of the universe!

January is that one and only month of the year that feels open to me. I mean, I actually have free time.

I spend time with my kids (as much as they'll take of me). I read novels. I peruse design, landscape and decorating books. I day dream about the garden to be planted in spring. I sit by the fire with a cup of chai tea, and just watch the dancing flames. I make candy, a thing I always want to do in December, but haven't the time. I craft like a crafting fiend (seriously, beading is addictive. I can stay up half the night working on a bracelet.) I cook those meals that take all day to prepare, like boeuf bourginon. I organize every closet that I'm allowed to touch. And I delight in the lengthening of days, each and every one of them, longer than the one before. Two extra minutes per day are supremely important to me.

There is a feeling of luxury of time that seems almost decadent to me in January. I slurp every minute up, dribbling a wasted moment with abandon on my chin. I am swimming in this abundance of free time. So many opportunities at hand, and finally the time to pursue some of them.

So far this month, I have spent oodles of time with my 3 kids, read one novel, emptied out one entire closet, made myself a bracelet, made a batch of candy (please don't tell my dentist). And in just a couple of nights, the new season of Downton Abbey premieres on my local PBS station. Oh, decadence, here I come!

The novel. I have two absolutely favorite authors, Jane Austin and Agatha Christie. I am a frequent patron of our library's large print section. I'd rather read the large print than put on glasses! Every time I go in to the library, I check for available novels by my fav authors, in large print. Anyways, the novel I read was an Agatha Christie.

My empty closet is in preparation for redoing all the organization in there. Our house has rather small closets. Go figure. It's a full-figured home, yet all the closet space is petite. Our home was built in the 70s. Perhaps they thought we were stepping into the future, when we'd all wear disposable clothing.

Making the most of our closet space really matters. I've allowed too many non-essentials to hang out in my tiny bedroom closet. As much as possible, I'd like to use what we have here (some shelving in the garage and attic), for increasing storage space. But I'd also like it to be attractive. I guess what I'm saying is, I don't want the stacked, cardboard milk boxes as my storage for blankets and sweaters any more. Sooooo, I'm trying my hand at very simple hammer-nail-wood thingy stuff. I keep telling myself, I can do this!

I spent one morning at the local closet and storage store, picking the brain of one of the employees. With pen and paper in hand, and a drawing of my available space, I was able to get some really great organizational ideas, for nothing more than the cost of time.

Candy -- why make candy in January? Aren't we all trying to lighten up after the holidays? Yes, I know. But it was just one batch. And the air is much drier here in January than December, which is better for most candy-making. And, and, and, you got me, no more logical explanations on why THIS was the time to make some candy. I just wanted some candy, without spending much money! So there, I blame my gluttonous side.

I have also been reading summaries online, of the plots and characters in Downton Abbey, so I won't be lost for a moment when the new season begins. This is one of my favorite shows. It's the best of all worlds for me -- soap opera-like character stories, beautiful costuming, and fantastic architectural sets.

2013 has come in with a bang for me! I am excited as ever for this new year. New hope, new possibilities, new design projects, a new garden, and new friendships and conversations.

Tell me, what are you most looking forward to in this new year? What's at the top of your list?