Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for a Late January Week

Friday

• lentil and vegetable soup, using whatever veggies I could find in the fridge, plus canned green beans, canned tomatoes and some macaroni pasta
• freshly-baked French bread (it came out of the oven 5 minutes before serving, can't get much fresher than that!)
• tangerines
• blondies that my daughter made, late, late, late last night (love those night-owl university students!)

Saturday

• hot dogs
• a pasta and nut sauce
• canned green beans
• cole slaw

Sunday

• ham and corn pudding
• yam casserole, topped with mini-marshmallows
• cole slaw

Monday

• leftover ham and corn pudding
• leftover yam casserole
• candied pineapple slices, sauteed in butter and brown sugar

Tuesday

• 10-minute turkey pot pie
• canned cranberry sauce
• olives
• blackberry-rhubarb sauce (from the freezer)

Wednesday

• leftover lentil and vegetable soup, topped with cheese
• garlic toast made from leftover French bread
• dried cranberries

Thursday

• baked turkey bacon
• pancake squares
• stewed prunes

So, another week gone. I don't know if you've noticed, but there's a repeating pattern in my menus. Friday I always make double of everything. I freeze half, and on the following Wednesday, we have a completely leftover meal. Sunday, I also double-batch most of dinner. Then on Monday we eat leftovers.  Thursday is always an easy breakfast for dinner menu. And my husband now always cooks on Saturday. This routine greatly reduces the amount of time I spend cooking dinners.

The other area in which I am really saving time is grocery shopping. I stocked up pretty well in the fall months. I'm now using those supplies for the bulk of our groceries needs. I have another busy weekend ahead of me (volunteering all day on Saturday), so I don't think I'll have time for any grocery shopping this morning, after my appointment. We are running low on eggs. So be it. I can save time by skipping grocery shopping this week, then doing a big stock-up next Friday, when I won't have other weekend obligations to follow through on. 

Do you ever find yourself facing this sort of decision -- shop now and have ample supplies, or, delay shopping another week and save 2 hours? It is a way to save time. One of my delightful daughters offered to "help" with the grocery shopping. It was sounding great until I realized that her list consisted mostly of Cheetos and Doritos, while mine consisted of the "boring" foods like eggs and whole wheat flour. I did make a promise to do a huge shopping trip the first week of March, and maybe some Cheetos will make it into that shopping trip.

Anyway, I'm wishing everyone a great weekend. If you live where there's a storm, I hope you don't have to go out in it, but can sit by a window and just enjoy the view. Snow is always prettier when I don't have to drive in it.

The 10-Minute Turkey Pot Pie

This really takes more than 10 minutes, if you count the time to originally roast and chop the turkey, make the gravy and mix the pie pastry. And of course, the time spent baking.

However . . .
on the day that I assembled and baked it, that's all the time I had in order to throw it together and begin baking in the oven.  So, in that sense, it was a 10-minute pot pie.

Before those 10 minutes, I had frozen turkey chunks in gravy, from Thanksgiving And, I had pie pastry in patties, in the freezer. To get from here to finished product --

Early in the day I found the frozen turkey and pie pastry, and set out to thaw.

About 45 minutes before dinner, I emptied the turkey in gravy into a glass deep-dish pie plate, peeled 3 carrots and chopped quickly, then added to the turkey in gravy, along with water.  I microwaved all of this for 3 minutes.

While  the turkey, gravy, water and chopped carrots were in the microwave, I peeled and rough-chopped 3 potatoes. I added the potatoes to the carrots and turkey, then microwaved for another 6 minutes.

While that was microwaving, I washed and chopped 2 long sticks of celery and rolled out the pie pastry.

Once the potatoes were about half-way cooked, I added some dried onion flakes, a little more water and chicken soup base, along with the celery, plus some canned peas.  I stirred this all together, and topped with the rolled-out pie pastry.

I was in such a hurry that I didn't even slash the pie neatly. But instead, with one hand holding the pie about to go into the oven, I quickly used the other hand to make 5 slashes into the top of the pie. It didn't seem to matter that it wasn't "pretty".

The pie was baked at 375 degrees F, for about 25 minutes, while I worked on another project. My hands-on time, the day of baking the pie was really just 10 minutes. 10 very rushed minutes. --  but 10, nonetheless.  

Things that saved time -- 

• I used dried onion flakes in place of more time-consuming process of chopping fresh onions, then sauteing in fat before adding to the turkey and vegetable mix.
• I used about 1 heaping teaspoon of chicken soup base to boost the flavor, instead of "fiddling" with the seasonings.
• I had pie pastry in single-pie patties in the freezer, ready to use after thawing. And I only used one crust for the pie, on top where it matters most.
• The turkey that I froze, right after Thanksgiving was already in chunks, and in a seasoned gravy.
• My vegetables were roughly chopped. If I'd wanted to save even more time, I could have left the peels on.
• I mixed the pie filling in the baking dish (a glass, deep-dish pie plate), the same dish that I microwaved part of the filling in, before placing in the oven.

A Day Trip to the Beach

I had to go to the beach two days last week, for a class that I'm taking. I thought you might like to see my pictures. Enjoy!

p.s. I brought my own coffee, and parking was free, because I didn't mind the walk down the hill. It would have cost $4 to park in the lot, below.

Mukilteo Lighthouse Park, from the hill in "old town", where the parking is free

rocks down below the lighthouse -- there's a bench right above the rocks

the backside of the lighthouse -- what you'd see if you were out on the Sound

I hope that guy is not going to dive, swim, crab or jump!!

the ferry that goes over to Whidbey Island, from Mukilteo

the water was unbelievably clear -- they say that's due to rain diluting saline

just the view from the beach, while I sat on a large log

Baking the Whole Package of Turkey Bacon

As we've discussed, breakfast for dinner has been on my supper menu this month. At the end of December, I bought several packages of turkey bacon, marked down to $1.39 per package. I've specifically targeted BFD nights for my busy evening of the week. Searing bacon in a skillet takes too much time for an evening when I have a meeting that I'm scrambling to get to.

So, I've been baking the bacon. My mother's 1957 cookbook has instructions for baking pork bacon in the oven, on a rack, in a jelly roll pan, at 400 degrees F, for about 15-20 minutes. This does work very well, and is a great way to avoid the painful grease splatters, while standing at the stove, cooking bacon.

What I have in the freezer right now is turkey bacon. So, I was curious whether or not turkey bacon would also bake well. I really loved how easy this was.

• I didn't use a rack, just laid the pieces out on the a jelly roll pan, close together.  Even turkey bacon shrinks up. I was able to fit about 12 slices, at one time, onto the jelly roll pan.
• And I preheated the oven to 375 degrees F (not 400 F like for pork bacon)
• I baked for about 15 minutes, until they looked done.
• I was able to bake the whole package in two batches, one right after the other.
• Leftover cooked bacon was kept in the fridge for a couple of days. It can also be frozen, and quickly reheated, one or two strips at a time.

I didn't line the baking sheet with anything. But you can, if you want an easier clean-up. And I didn't grease the pan. I've heard that oiling the pan, first, will result in crispier turkey bacon. I may try that this week. But you don't need to add oil, unless you are baking the super lean variety of turkey bacon. The regular turkey bacon doesn't stick to the pan.

What I liked most about this method is that I didn't have to tend to it, while it cooked. When I microwave bacon it goes from not quite done to overdone quickly. And standing at the stove takes time away from other, more desirable, tasks.

Cooking for One: Lunchtime at my House

Since it's just me for lunch at home, five days a week, I find it difficult to get motivated to stop whatever I'm doing, and cook myself a proper meal. I've come up with four types of lunches, for me that are working.

• the "desperately hungry, but no time to stand in the kitchen to cook, and don't want to wash any dishes" lunch. This consists of a slice of whole wheat bread, spread with peanut butter (natural-style chunky is my fave), and then topped with additional peanuts. It's really quite tasty and filling. The bonus is I don't put this on a plate, but use my cloth napkin from the table, and the only other thing I dirty is the knife used to spread the peanut butter.

• meal on a plate (or in a bowl, just not in plastic or food storage containers). When I'm serving up dinner, if there's enough leftover, I serve myself an extra plate or bowl of whatever is on the menu that night. I cover this serving and put it in the fridge. At lunchtime the next day, I reheat my meal in the microwave. It's ready in 1 minute, with zero fuss. I don't even have storage or reheating containers to wash. My plate, or bowl, goes into the dishwasher. These are my favorite lunch meals. They are better than commercial, frozen meals, in that I get to eat my good cooking, and on good dishes, not out of plastic.

• almost-instant soup for one. Earlier this month, I bought a bunch of ingredients from the bulk section to make almost-instant soups. These are the same ingredients that I bought to make soup mixes to give as Christmas gifts. I bought dried onion flakes, a bean and tortilla soup mix, chicken soup base powder, dried cheese tortellinis, dried vegetable soup mix, and some Parmesan cheese. I combine various ingredients in my pot, along with extra chili powder, cumin, oregano, basil, garlic powder, salt and water, and cook. With some of the soups I make, I also add some canned tomatoes, or tomato sauce, and/or, top with the remnants of a bag of tortilla chips that I've stashed in a cupboard. These are delicious and I look forward to making them for myself. The hands-on time is under 5 minutes, and cooking can take 30 or so minutes, but I can be doing something else during that time. The cost per bowl of soup is about 35 cents.

• hot dog from the freezer or an egg, scrambled or boiled, along with some sort of starchy side dish, such as a corn tortilla, slice of bread, or a leftover baked potato. Not at all fancy, but it's enough to fill me, something I will enjoy eating, I always have this on hand at home, and it keeps me from getting take-out when I'm coming home from appointments or running errands.

If you're at home, every day by yourself, how do you manage your own lunches?

Cheap & Cheerful Menus for a Mid-January Week

Thursday's quick and easy supper of eggs, bacon, bagels and stewed prunes

Friday
Leftover-palooza
We needed to eat through a bunch of leftovers, so I changed up the menu for tonight's dinner.

• leftover rice and lentils from last Saturday, mixed with leftover black beans from a week ago, and canned tomatoes, from the can I opened last Sunday, some salsa, and some black olives, heated in a skillet with beef fat from the freezer, and some oil (to mute the beef fat flavor)
• leftover stewed prunes from Thursday, mixed with 1 banana, sliced, for fruit cups, for 3 of the family, and 1 dish of leftover blackberry-rhubarb sauce for the other person
• steamed broccoli, the last crown of broccoli, bought a week ago and needed cooking

Saturday

It was my husband's turn to cook, again. I was gone for the afternoon and came home a few minutes before dinner was ready. He's doing okay with the cooking, by the way. He asked for suggestions, on Friday. I gave him a couple of suggestions. He decided to choose his own path.

• brown rice
• refried beans
• fried corn tortillas and salsa
• carrot and celery sticks, plus bleu cheese dressing

Sunday

• chili made with a chicken breast, that I had thawed the day before and wasn't used, in place of turkey as I'd planned, simmered with canned tomatoes, green peppers, onions, pinto beans and seasonings
• scratch cornbread
• tangerines
• cookies (these ones, but I didn't get around to dipping them in white chocolate

Monday

Mostly a repeat from Sunday's dinner

• leftover chili, stretched with lentils today
• leftover cornbread
• smoothies of orange juice, cranberry sauce and pumpkin

Tuesday

• baked potatoes, topped with a diced hot dog and mushrooms, sauteed, then cheese on that (this was surprisingly good)
• baked butternut squash, simply seasoned with butter and salt
• winter veggie slaw, of red cabbage, green cabbage and julienned carrots

Wednesday

• ham slices from the freezer
• leftover baked potatoes
• leftover butternut squash mixed with leftover pumpkin puree
• marinated lentil salad, in mustard vinaigrette
• watermelon pickles
• blackberry-rhubarb sauce from the freezer

Thursday

• eggs, scrambled in ham fat, with mushrooms, onions and green pepper, topped with cheese
• turkey bacon
• stewed prunes
• bagels with cream cheese

Another quick and easy week of dinners. I attempted to put some order back into the pantry this week. We still have such abundance of everything that it's impossible to find anything in the pantry or the freezer. But I'm working at it. My plan is to have made a significant dent in the freezers by the end of February. I think we need to eat more ham and blackberries to make that happen.

What was on your menu this past week? Anything particularly yummy, or easy? I hope that everyone who was under the weather last week, is feeling much better, this week. Enjoy your weekend, everyone!

Tipping the Jug

You know that you're in a frugal household when the sight of upside down, empty containers, propped over bowl and pots is a normal thing.

Of course, the amount of liquid that can be drained out of an "empty" jug is in direct proportion to the size of the container to be emptied and the viscosity of the liquid. A larger container holding a thick liquid will yield a greater volume of resulting liquid than a smaller container of a thin liquid. The photos, above, are from a 7.5 gallon container of vegetable oil that was presumably empty. I left the jug propped, upside-down, over a bowl for 6 hours and it yielded about 2 tablespoons of oil, enough for salad dressing for a marinated lentil salad.

Above the mixing bowl, I propped a gallon-size jug of molasses, again, presumably empty. After draining for about 4 hours, it yielded about 3/4 tablespoon of molasses, enough to make 1/4 cup of light-brown sugar, out of white sugar, for a batch of bread.

Of course, you do have to be creative in how you prop your jugs. Sometimes, I can just leave them resting against something else on the counter, like the crockpot. Other times, I have to wedge the jug partially inside a cupboard, as with the molasses jug, if I don't want the jug, itself, sitting in the ingredients, like this bread dough.

Will 2 tablespoons of oil make or break us financially? No, probably not. But it's the principle of it all. I paid for all of the molasses in the jug, not 1 gallon less 1 tablespoon of molasses. I want to use every last bit that I've paid for. And sometimes, tipping the jug gets that last bit out, that I need for a recipe, meaning I can still make what I had planned, without a last minute dash out to the store.

What do you think? Do you prop jugs upside down to get every last drop? Do you think it's worth the effort?

Winter Salad and My Little Tool for Julienned Carrots

I'm hungry for fresh foods, like salads. Something with texture to contrast the soft squashes, potatoes, and yams. Something with crunch in contrast with canned green beans and canned peas. Tender leafy greens, like fresh spinach and lettuce are expensive this time of year So, I'm turning to slaws.

Last night, we had a delicious and crunchy fresh salad of red cabbage, green cabbage and julienned carrots. For a dressing, I used some bleu cheese salad dressing that I bought on markdown for 79 cents per 16-oz bottle, mixed with a little mayo and vinegar.

I have this handy-dandy tool, my step-mom gave to me last year, that juliennes carrots as easily as peeling them.

You peel your carrot, and then run this tool down the length of the carrot to produce a multitude of shreds in seconds. I didn't think I would like this tool as much as I do. But it makes such quick work of julienning carrots that I've become a big fan. The initial shreds are as long as the carrot. For salads, I chop the shreds into 2-inch pieces.

It's called a julienne peeler, and places like Amazon and Bed, Bath and Beyond sell them. It's good for making veggie "pasta" out of zucchini and eggplant, as well as julienned carrots. For veggie "noodles", leave the shreds long.

Anyway, I'm not trying to sell anything, but just wanted to share how delighted I am with this tool.

Feedback on My Handcrafted Christmas Gifts and the Display Soap

As of this past weekend, I have, now, given all of my Christmas gifts. (Yes, the holidays did stretch out well beyond December, for me.) The feedback that I received, post-Christmas, consisted of some pretty good reviews. When giving hand-crafted gifts, I choose recipients who I am confident will appreciate receiving hand-crafted items because they either never craft anything, or they do some crafting, and so understand the work involved. So, that said, here are some of the comments that I received.

From a recipient of spa items -- "wow, you made this?" This individual was particularly delighted with receiving items that I had made, and specifically so, because they were beauty items. A long conversation followed, about how to make a variety of things. And my second-hand information was that she was very impressed with the packaging of the items.

I bring this up because Valentine's day is just around the corner and a sweet little envelope, made from a sheet of a favorite love poem, could contain a handwritten note or card, or homemade treats, to someone special, for very little cost.

Another gift recipient was blown away that you can actually make soap, easily. I explained how melt and pour soap is combined with extra ingredients, then poured into a mold. Most of the people to whom I give hand-crafted soap have no idea that melt and pour soap base exists. So it's always exciting to see their face or hear their voice when they realize that I made the soap. That makes it worth it.

My hand-knit dish cloths were also well-received. This recipient happens to be the person who taught me how to knit, in the first place. So she could appreciate my progress in knitting, as well as the beauty of the pattern used.  I hope they give her many years of good service.

The stand-out comment that I received on the homemade soup mixes was again, about the packaging. Several  people in the room commented on how the packaging looked like something they might see in Williams-Sonoma, possibly due to the coloring (red/white twine, combined with black/white label). In any case, I took that as quite a compliment. 

I received good feedback from two of the recipients of the birdseed ornaments. Again, the families to whom I sent these were impressed that they could be made at home.

I gave a family these individual packages of homemade cocoa mix. I deliberately chose this gift for this family, as I knew they didn't bake many desserts or treats from scratch in their house. They do cook fabulous meal items, however. Baking and other sweets isn't their thing. We had a bit of a conversation about how I made these, combining milk powder, cocoa powder, sugar, chopped chocolate, and adding the candy cane and marshmallows. In their house, at the beginning of winter, they have often bought boxes of different flavors of cocoa mix, such as raspberry cocoa, peppermint cocoa. I've seen these boxed assortments at Cost Plus, at holiday time. This family was delighted to receive the cocoa packages, and informed me the following week that they had all enjoyed them, already. (That's always a good sign when something you've made does get used or consumed.)

And finally, the "display soap". At the very end of the holiday season, I needed a couple more hand-crafted items. So, I made a small batch of molded soaps for two different recipients. The comments that I received cracked me up, on these. Upon receiving, the wife repeatedly said they were too beautiful to use. And I kept reassuring her that they should be used. A week later, the husband told me that they had put the soaps "on display". I just imagined the conversation in their home when that happened, because I recall similar "discussions" and "instructions" in my own home, growing up. You know, when you have fancy soap in the house, someone is the self-appointed "guest soap monitor". As a kid, we weren't supposed to use the guest soap in the guest bathroom. If we really needed to use the guest bathroom (which we were discouraged from doing, but sometimes is a necessity), we were often followed to the bathroom door by my mother, as she would shout out instructions through the guest bathroom door to "don't use the guest soap! That's for company! Use the soap in a dish under the sink." We'd oblige, inferring how important this must be to my mother, as why else would she interrupt some important work in the kitchen to inform us to keep this guest soap pristine. So, the "display soap". 

I did tell our friends to please, use this soap. I can always make more. It really isn't a piece of art, but something to be used. I hope they have all gotten over this feeling like they need to keep the soap pristine. I'll find out when I visit their home, someday. 

I've thought of a twist on this gift, just for these folks, a soap-of-the-month gift, where I deliver a new and different bar of guest soap to them, every month, for the year. Maybe that would take the need-to-save-this-forever thinking out of receiving the soap. Hmm, maybe that could be a retail gift package -- the soap-of-the-month club.

What was my takeaway from my hand-crafted gifts this year? Presentation seemed to really matter. Maybe I have a lot of shallow friends and family. From the product, itself, to the wraps and packaging, how it appeared was the first impression. The other takeaway for me, if I were to seek employment in retail production, I might really enjoy working in the design of packaging.

Pancake Squares

Oh my goodness! I think I've really ventured out into the territory of laziest mom of the year, with this one. But it worked!

I love the idea of pancakes for dinner on a busy evening. But what about when you don't even have the time to flip pancakes on the griddle. I had a meeting to get ready for and go to on Thursday evening. I thought about leaving the batter and griddle, hot and letting everyone make their own, as they came in the house. However, the last person to come home, sometimes doesn't even walk through that door until 8 or 8:30. I didn't want to leave pancake batter out on the counter for 2 hours, and the griddle going the whole time. So, while I got ready, the pancakes cooked themselves, and they didn't need flipping. How's that for efficiency? They tasted great, everyone had their share, and I was able to make dinner with less hands-on time.

• jelly roll sheet pan, with raised edges
• oven at 375 degrees F
• 2 tablespoons oil and butter combined, for best flavor, for ease you can just use 2 T oil
• pancake batter that uses about 2 cups of flour, total, enough to make pancakes for 5 adults

Have your batter ready to go. Once the baking sheet and oven are hot, you want to pour/spread it all in the pan, quickly. If you are baking pancakes for more than 5 or 6 people, you'll want to use 2 jelly roll pans, to ensure the cakes are not too thick.

Begin to preheat the oven to 375, with the pan and butter/oil in the oven. When oven is hot enough, the pan will be, too.

Take the jelly roll pan out of the oven, once hot, and use a metal spatula to spread the oil and butter over all of the bottom of the pan. Pour the batter into the pan, spread as needed. (It doesn't need to come all the way to the edge of the pan, but close to it.)

Return to hot oven and bake for 15-18 minutes or until baked all the way through. Cut into squares and serve.

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for Early January

Tuesday's Quick and Easy Dinner

I'm taking shortcuts, where I can and enlisting help from family, each week. I'm busy with other pursuits for the time being. Besides, it was time for a break from intensive meal preparations, ongoing since 1987.

Friday

• lentil, vegetable and ham soup
• pumpkin muffins with cream cheese

Saturday
My husband cooked dinner for us tonight. He doesn't cook very often, but has agreed to help out once per week, for the time being. He did a good job, too.

• rice and lentils
• carrot and celery sticks, with Bleu Cheese dressing as dip
• cranberry, pecan and oatmeal cookies that I baked earlier

Sunday

• chicken, black beans and vegetables, over
• brown rice
• steamed broccoli
• cookies

Pumpkin, Ham and Sage Cream Sauce for Pasta

Monday
I usually make this dish with sausage. Ham was what I had, so ham it was. And it was still yummy. This is an excellent pasta sauce for an alternative to traditional tomato or cheese-based sauces.

• pumpkin, ham and sage cream sauce, over
• whole wheat penne pasta
• tangerines
• cookies

Tuesday

• chicken fried rice with veggies (chicken leftover from the legs on Sunday, rice leftover from Sunday's dinner, too -- relatively quick to prepare)
• grilled canned pineapple slices
• cookies

Wednesday

Last Friday, I made double the amount needed for dinner that night. I froze half for use tonight, Wednesday. I'll be doing this every week, for my current menu plan (next 8 weeks). Wednesday is one of 3 easy nights per week for me, now. Okay, who am I kidding, they're all easy nights, these days!!

• leftover lentil and vegetable soup
• leftover pumpkin muffins and cream cheese
• rhubarb-blackberry sauce (from end of summer, and in freezer)

Thursday

I have a meeting tonight, so it shall be a quick and easy meal -- breakfast for dinner.

• turkey bacon (bought on markdown 2 weeks ago and kept in freezer)
• pancakes
• stewed prunes (prunes from the freezer, last summer's harvest)

So far, I've only made a couple of adjustments to the meal plan that I made at the beginning of the year. I substituted canned pineapple for the blackberry-rhubarb sauce, on Tuesday, as the sauce wasn't thawed completely, yet, and I thought grilled pineapple would go well with the Asian inspired dish. And I served steamed broccoli on Sunday, in place of canned green beans. Something fresh is nice in a winter of canned vegetables.

Cooking is going well. I get enough of a break from preparing dinners on several nights per week, that when I do have to cook the full deal in the afternoon, it's not such a burden. And none of the changes that I've made are costing us anything extra.

How was your week? Anything special on your menu this past week? Who else does breakfast for dinner on a regular basis? What do you serve besides pancakes or waffles, when you make breakfast for an evening meal?

Have a wonderful weekend, all!

Financial Responsibility of My Adult Kids Living at Home

We are living in a generation of young adults still living with their parents. For many of these YA's, it's a matter of necessity, either familial/social structure or financial.

Sometimes, a young person has a schedule that is adaptable enough to help an aging or ill parent, by living at home. Other times, the social structure of a family is welcome to a YA, as marriage is increasingly delayed in this generation.

Mostly, though, the need is financial. A young person might be trying to launch a non-traditional career. (I know a young man who is trying to get his music career off the ground, and lives at home with his parents.)

Or, a young person might be paying off hefty student loans, while still in the early years of a career. (I know a married couple that had to move back in with her parents, to help them pay off combined student loan debt.)

And if your young adult is living in a large metropolitan area, rents can exceed a young person's ability to earn.

I looked into rents for my 2 daughters, near their campus in the city of Seattle. These are not fancy-schmancy apartments. I first checked 2-bedroom units, knowing they might want a private and quiet spot for studying, each. At $1300 and up per month, that was out of the question for us. I checked the 1-bedroom apartments. This would be moderately doable. Not ideal, but okay. The 1-bedroom units that I found began at $1100 per month. So, I was curious. What about studio apartments, in someone's basement, or above their garage? I found a studio apartment, attached to someone's home, for $1000 per month.

We're not talking luxury, here. These are bare bones, just starting out apartments. Many are in sketchy neighborhoods. Heat and electricity is extra. A lot of young adults, just starting out can't afford rent in the city.

Young adults still living in their childhood homes, aren't all lazy bums, sitting on their parents' couch all day, eating Cheetos and playing video games. There are some real reasons for these YA's to need to bunk in with Mom and Dad, well past the age when we would have felt that was acceptable for us, at their age.

So, how is a parent suppose to financially treat their 20-something kids living under their roof? This is what we've chosen with our own grown kids.

To Pay Rent or Not Pay Rent

My son has a stable career, now. He lives at home with us. He benefits from both financial and social/familial support in our house. He is saving to buy his own place, in the area. I would imagine he will be ready for that step, soon. In the meantime, he's been paying us rent since he landed his first career position after university. This is expected of him, not for us, his parents, but as part of being a responsible adult. He pays all of his own bills, otherwise, such as his car and insurance, any incidentals he may need, etc. He even goes on his own vacations, now.

Our daughters are still in college, full time. They work, full time in summers and part time during the academic year, depending on their course load for each quarter. They don't pay "rent" per se. However, they each give us the majority of their summer's earnings, every year, which is put into their university fund.

We, their parents, provide room and board, all school-related expenses, including bus to/from campus, family vacations, and many incidentals, such as laundry soap, shampoo, school supplies, admission to academic-related events and shows.

But they pick up the tab for clothing, cosmetics, hair cuts, movies out, gifts for others, transportation to non-school events, and food other than what I provide at home or family dinner's out. They haven't received an allowance since they turned 18.

Yeah, it's a hard reality. You celebrate your 18th birthday, and suddenly you have to foot the bill for all of the fun stuff in a young person's life.

After they graduate, they will be welcome to continue living with us, here, as they embark upon their career journeys. But they will be charged rent, as their brother has been, scaled to whatever they can earn in their chosen fields.

I think it's acceptable for a parent to financially help out their young adult children, by allowing them to live at home. But I also feel it's beneficial for the young person's emotional development, to charge rent and have their YA's paying their way, so to speak. There's a way to help our kids, without stunting them, emotionally. Requiring some financial responsibility from them, scaled to their abilities, is the route that we have chosen for our own YA's.

What do you think? Would you (or do you) allow your young adult children to live with you? Would you charge rent? How long are you comfortable allowing YA's to live at home?

Evaluating the Budget at the Beginning of the Year

These roses have nothing to do with this topic, but I wanted to show them to you,
 anyway. I cut both of these in early December, just before the cold weather began.

I do this, without fail, every year, in the first week of January. Sometimes, it brings good news. Sometimes, it illuminates areas where I need to work harder. And sometimes it shows me that life can be full of storms.

One afternoon last week, I sat down with our budgets. Evaluating the budget requires a couple of hours. I look at each category, and check to see if we put aside enough money every month to cover each of the bills for their category. Then I make adjustments to the dollar amount in the various categories, according to their need.

I value this activity for a couple of reasons. After a month of holiday splurges, inspecting the budget refocuses my thoughts on sensible spending. And it serves as a reminder for those areas that I had planned on seeking to reduce spending. It's also a motivational tool. It shows me where we are doing this whole budget thing very right. I like to give myself a pat on the back, an "atta girl", for working so hard, year round, to squeeze a little more buying power out of every dollar. And then, of course, it serves as a tool for determining how much we need to adjust our tax withholding for the new year.

At the end of the afternoon, I have reset our new budget for the year, made changes to tax withholding and established new savings and preparedness goals for our budget.

So, how'd we do this year?

Most of the categories in our budget will remain unchanged, as we are on target with our setting aside funds for those areas.

In electricity, we have been slightly over-saving. Yay! I was able to cut that area down, by a few dollars per month, in 2017.

Our emergency savings, which would be used in the case of job loss, continues to grow, monthly. I never let a month lapse without putting something into that fund, even if it's only $3. $3 each month, for one year, results in $36. In 10 years, that $3 per month results in $360. While I try to put more into that fund, I don't consider $3 to be trivial. We began this particular savings fund in 2008. You all remember how unstable everything felt in 2008 and 2009, right? That was the impetus for this savings fund.

Heating -- we're doing well, as winter unfolds. We are spending a little into the surplus, set aside the previous year. We will hopefully end this heating season with another surplus.

For 2017, I have a new goal for our heating budget. We will attempt to set aside enough in savings to cover a complete winter's heating, in advance of the coming winter. In normal years, we have some surplus, monies put aside in the warmer months, combined with our monthly allocation in every month of the year. What I am working towards is a surplus that is large enough going into the heating season, with or without monthly allocations during the heating season, to feasibly pay all of our heating for one season.

This surplus heating budget will function much like our stockpile of groceries. It will cover us, in the event of a job loss or severe financial circumstances. Heat and food are the two recurring expenses which are vital to survival. (Our home is paid for. Otherwise, housing would be the third recurring expense, vital to survival.) So, we will set aside a small amount extra, each month, from now until November, and see how we do. Much will depend on how cold of a winter this one proves to be.

The main area in which I have been wanting to reduce some of our spending is the non-food grocery and household expenses, things like hygiene items, cleaning supplies, lightbulbs, batteries, postage stamps, kitchen items like plastic wrap and aluminum foil. You know that I don't buy a whole lot of those items, anyway. But I have been meaning to work at finding less expensive alternatives to the products that I already purchase. This goal pops up every single January. I hate that we spend so much on this category. Item by item, I am slowly (very slowly) finding new ways to buy the same or similar products.

A year ago, I discovered Cash & Carry's store brand of freezer bags. They're a better quality than Dollar Tree's freezer bags, so they can be reused a few times, each. And they're cheaper. Automatic dish detergent is another product on my list. I was close to being out of the Dollar Tree stuff, and our local DT store and their online store were out of stock of what I had been using from them. So, last month, I bought a box of Kroger dish detergent powder, using my Senior Discount. I paid less per ounce for the Kroger stuff (compared to Sun brand at DT). I'll see how it performs later this month.

I have significantly reduced my use of postage stamps, by using online, phone and auto-payment plans for everything from tuition payments to the garbage pickup service. It's only a little bit of savings. But several little bits add up to one large bit, over time.

So, the non-food grocery and household expenses category is one of my areas of focus, for this coming year. If I can just shave $5 off per month, that will be a savings of $60 per year, and I'll feel like I'm making strides in this area.

We have a few shuffles in the budget, as well, like moving monthly allocations out of savings for travel, and into savings for education expenses. And removing a savings for a new water heater entirely from the budget, and putting that money into savings for a new furnace.

That's about the short of my budget evaluations last week. Do you take time each year to go over your budget from the past year and reset the new year's budget? Does doing so help motivate you to stay the course? What areas of your budget have you been doing well in, and in which areas do you want to make some improvements?

Continuing to Use Our Holiday Candles

Dinner by candle light is such a pleasant experience. This time of year, the dinner hour is quite dark, outside. A little candle light is warm and welcoming.

These are the tapers that were on our New Year's dining table. While they are mostly burned, they still have some burning time left,  for my family's enjoyment. Instead of putting the candles aside (or worse yet, throwing them out), we've been continuing to use them, singly, on the kitchen table at dinnertime.

Dining by the light of these leftover candles is a lovely experience. It puts something to use that might otherwise not get used. And it saves us a bit of money on the electric bill by not using the overhead light during dinner.

Making really great ham stock

I know it's a bit late to be giving you my ham stock method, for use with your ham bone from New Year's or Christmas. Unless you tossed what was left of your ham bone into the freezer, to deal with later. In any case, you can mentally file this away, for use after Easter, if you wish.

But I did want to share how I make ham stock, as I've now run into several people who have never roasted the ham bone, before the simmering part of making stock. Roasting the bone really boosts the smokey flavor of the stock.


After trimming away all of the good slices of ham to freeze, and cutting off any thick bands of fat to use for rendering, (as I showed how to do, in this post on how to render ham fat for use in cooking later) I roast the meaty ham bone in a 350 F degree oven, in a shallow baking pan, for about 20 minutes, or just until some of the edge pieces are browning.

I remove the ham bone from the oven and put it into my crockpot, still sizzling hot. In a kettle or saucepan, I bring about a quart of water to a boil. I pour this hot water over the ham bone in the crockpot, and top off with additional water, to cover the bone completely. (Boiling the water before adding to the crockpot gets the temp of the stock up to a simmer faster.)

Then, I just put the lid on, and set the crockpot to cook on LOW for 10-12 hours. I do all of this in the evening, so that my stock cooks while I sleep. It is then ready for me in the morning. Easy peasy, right?

The cooked stock is ladled into large containers and refrigerated for a couple of hours, until the fat has risen to the top and partially solidified. This fat is scooped out and reserved for cooking, in a container in the freezer.

Any remaining meat is picked off of the bone, and frozen in 2-cup amounts, covered in a few cups of the good stock. Meaty ham stock makes excellent lentil/bean soup, pumpkin soup, or potato soup.

I also freeze some stock, without meat, in 1 or 2 cup containers, for adding flavor to savory sauces or gravies, where a recipe might ordinarily call for water.

I made some really delicious lentil soup last Friday, with a quart of that ham stock. It was flavorful enough to not need much in the way of seasonings. (I did add some olive liquid and canned vegetable juice plus a pinch of salt, for flavor and to use those items that had been accumulating in the fridge.)

Just thought I'd share.

By the way, you can also freeze the thick bands of fat, to render for cooking fat plus cracklins', on another day. That's what I did, and when I have some time, I'll get to that rendering.

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for the first week of the new year

Friday

• leftover baked potatoes, topped with cheddar and butter
• leftover baked squash
• leftover applesauce
• leftover black bean and corn tortilla bake
• tangerines

Saturday

• leftover roll-up sandwiches from lunch with my father-in-law's birthday luncheon
• leftover smoked turkey soup
• tangerines
• Christmas cookies
• eggnog and juice

Sunday -- New Year's dinner

• ham
• mustard-glazed carrots
• au gratin potatoes
• dinner rolls
• olives and watermelon pickles
• a chicken wing and mushroom dish (brought by guests)
• a sticky rice dish (brought by guests -- my favorite, so yummy!)
• sausage and pineapple (brought by guests)
• a crab and vegetable dish (brought by guests)
• pumpkin cake roll w/ whipping cream
• ice cream (brought by my son's girlfriend)
• sparkling apple cider and tea

Monday

• leftover ham
• leftover au gratin potatoes
• leftover carrots
• blackberry cobbler with leftover whipped cream

Tuesday

• ham-fried rice, with cabbage, onions, carrots and peas
• leftover blackberry cobbler and whipped cream

Wednesday

• pumpkin-ham soup
• homemade whole wheat bread, butter and vanilla-rhubarb jam
• carrot sticks, pickles and olives
• leftover cobbler

Thursday

• potato and ham casserole au gratin
• canned pineapple chunks
• cole slaw
• cranberry-mustard

A lot of ham for the week, eh? And potatoes a few times in the week, as well. the potatoes that I had in the pantry were beginning to sprout. So, I've moved all of them to the fridge (along with 20 lbs of potatoes that I put in the fridge, immediately after buying in November). we're also now moving on to the frozen wild blackberries. I have about 15 quarts of frozen blackberries to use this winter. I made a double blackberry cobbler early in the week that used 2 quarts of the berries. The flavor and aroma is reminiscent of late summer.

While our garden produce is gone for several months, the dead of winter has its perks, too. I've been opening the jars of homemade jams and pickles, recently. I finished off one jar of raspberry jam earlier this week, and opened a new jar of vanilla-rhubarb jam. If you grow rhubarb, you might want to try making some vanilla-rhubarb jam this coming spring or summer. The flavor tastes like pie. Do you have any preserves from last summer? What are your favorites?

In addition to the spritely flavors from some home-canned preserves and pickles, I'm also just enjoying simple foods, once again. Whole wheat bread, cooked carrots, pumpkin soup -- just some very humble foods after a month of feasting. I'm guessing that many of us will agree on the welcomeness of humble meals, following the prolonged holiday period of gorging.

What was on your menu this past week? I hope your new year is off to a grand beginning!

How we look at the non-fun expenses, like repair bills, is a choice

If you "own" anything at all, in this world, then you know that at some point, that thing will need replacement or repair. It should come as no surprise. Everything wears out, eventually.

Our overall budget reflects this basic fact about earthly belongings. We know that things wear out and need fixing or replacing. Three years ago, we began saving for a new water heater. Just after Thanksgiving, this year, our water heater sprung a leak, all over the garage floor. It hadn't been functioning properly, anyway, for the past 2 years. So this was, indeed, no surprise. (That water heater was 20 years old.)

And then in another area, our mechanic informed us that our tires were worn out, at the legal limit for tread depth. We save for car repairs and replacement every year. It's built in to our budget. Cars are work horses for many of us. And with all of the service they give us, nearly every single day of the year, they do need maintenance, as well as repair, on a very regular basis. Brand new tires went onto our one working car last week.

A new water heater and set of tires aren't cheap. While we had the money in savings, this did consume a big chunk of our readily available "cushion". And coming right at the holiday period, the comfortable and prudent thing to do was to curtail gift spending, as much as possible.

Receiving tires and a water heater for your main Christmas gift sounds depressing, doesn't it? But it doesn't need to be. How we see our world can be narrow and defeating, or it can be freeing and up-lifting.

I choose to see receiving tires and a water heater for Christmas, in a positive light.

The new tires are my and my family's safety on the road. Did you know that once a tire reaches the legal tread depth limit that it takes 2 extra car lengths, (at speed of 50 MPH) to come to a stop, in wet weather, compared to a tread depth at double that legal limit? [http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/2012/12/how-safe-are-worn-tires/index.htm; https://www.kwik-fit.com/tyres/information/uk-tyre-law]

Here in Seattle, it's no surprise that I drive on a lot of wet and slick roads. I had to make a long drive on New Year's Eve, in the dark, in active snowfall, in a small sedan, without 4-wheel drive. There were SUV's and trucks whizzing past me, making my visibility even poorer. But I had my new tires. Chances of a blow-out or a spin-out were greatly reduced, because of these new tires.

And do you know what else? The guy who put the new tires on my car, also cleaned my hubcaps! You know how dirty hubcaps can get, right? I now have clean hubcaps and new tires. Plus, I got a free calendar, a cup of coffee and popcorn for my daughters. Our safety and all of these extras were my Christmas gift this year.

Our old water heater wasn't putting out much hot water for the past one to two years. Every morning was a gamble as to whether or not my bath would be warm enough or so cool that I barely dipped myself into the water before shiveringly hopping out to towel off. There was never enough hot water for the whole family, so if hot water was important to each of us, we all allowed intervals to lapse in between each shower, bath or load of laundry.

With receiving a new water heater as a primary Christmas gift, what I really got was a reliably hot bath or shower, every single time. Every. single.time. my bath is just how I like it. I can luxuriate in hot water all morning long, if I want. Or at least not have any more chilly bath times. And the dishes are coming out cleaner from the dishwasher. There is less scraping and wiping, as the clean dishes are removed from the dishwasher. The other thing, our hot water is cleaner, too. No more sediment, no more flaking bits from the deteriorating dip tube. I no longer have to clean the kitchen faucet aerator screen, which had to be done a couple of times per month, to keep the wacky spray at bay.

It's all in how you look at things. Safe tires, hot water and no leaks can be viewed as awfully nice Christmas gifts, don't you think?

A tasty use for leftover cranberry sauce

The condiment with the ham is nothing more than whole berry cranberry sauce stirred with yellow mustard. I served this with ham the other night, and it was a hit. It's a sweet-tangy sauce, much like a honey mustard.

While I used yellow mustard, this would be yummy with Dijon mustard.

I blended about 1 part yellow mustard with 2 parts cranberry sauce.

It was delicious with ham, but would also be a good dipping sauce for chicken strips or pretzels.

A super simple use for leftover cranberry sauce.

Stewardship and how it is linked to frugality

One of the elements of my faith is the understanding, between me and God, that everything I have, has been given to me. And that I don't really "own" any of it, but have been entrusted to be a good steward of what's been given to me.

Fulfilling this role, as a good steward, has a few purposes. 1) it allows me, personally, to be more generous when giving to others; 2) it helps to protect resources for others in this world, now and in the future; and 3) being a good steward preserves what has been given to me, to use in times of greater need.

On Monday, I started this new week out using stewardship while managing my kitchen.

Specifically, I preserved every ounce of goodness that came out of our New Year's ham. In the bottom of the roasting pan from the ham, liquid accumulated during the cooking process. I scraped the fat off of the chilled liquid, and stored away in the freezer, to use in cooking later. And I froze the defatted liquid to save for making a ham and lentil soup, on Friday.

I also began menu-planning for the next several weeks. The months of January and February seem to be devoid of great deals in my local supermarkets. Since I am well-stocked in supplies, and I pretty much know what all I'll have on hand, for the next 2 months, this is an ideal time of year to menu-plan for a 6-week block.

I did my planning on my laptop. I have a Mac that came with Numbers (the application that provides a format for making charts). I used Numbers to make a 6-week calendar, and plugged in my meals.

I began with a blank table, like this. I selected one with an alternating colored/white pattern.

I then filled in the days of the week at the top, and numbered all of the colored blocks, for the dates of the months.

Once I had a blank calendar, I filled in my meals. I have a copy of this on the fridge, so family members can check to see if something in the fridge is slated to be used in another meal.

By planning out what I'll be preparing in the next 6 weeks, I can ensure that little will be wasted, meals for my busier days will be provided, with less work for me, and I can focus many of our meals on the inexpensive foods that I stocked up on, in the fall, allowing us to keep our grocery budget at its low level.

Creating a great year ahead

Oh my goodness! Were the holidays a marathon, or what?

I had a few gifts that I made near the last-minute, that I didn't show to you.

some individual packages of cocoa mix

jars of homemade vanilla-plum jam, in jars from Goodwill (20 cents/jar). tied up with raffia and twine

a small batch of guest soap

On New Year's day, we woke up to some snow on the ground and the sun shining. A stark, but beautiful, beginning to another year. We had our last holiday gathering in the late afternoon/evening, on January 1st, hosting another family for a belated Christmas dinner. Once the dinner dishes were cleaned up, the freshness of the new year could settle in with me.

In planning the year ahead, it occurs to me that great years don't just happen. We have to make the choices that make the year a great one. Here's to creating the best year yet, despite what happens all around us.

Happy New Year!!!