Menu Monday - Merry Month of May

Here it is, the last day of April.  It wasn't a bad month all in all and I'll review it a bit later but I've been busy so far planning ahead.  Writing out a lot of goals for the month (paint figures prominently, probably too prominently!) for the house and yard, personal goals.  Then too I've been busy doing yard work (nothing to show) and housework and decluttering. I think I finally found my Spring Mojo.

I also worked on planning menus yesterday.  I've just been so busy today that I haven't had time to post them.  I'm taking a breather now so I thought I'd get up to date.

Ravioli Lasagna, Green Salad, Crusty Bread, Easy Tiramisu
Frozen beef ravioli layered with sauce and cheeses will cook in the crock pot (it's already getting too warm for the oven to be on too long, ack!).  I bought a box of instant pudding just to make this dessert.  I could make it just as well with homemade pudding, but then it's less 'easy' than the name implies.

Chuck Roast with Vidalia Onions, Potato Pancakes, English Peas, Rolls, Fruit Cocktail
Mama made the best roast not too long ago and the key ingredient was onions and more onions.  I'll put the crock pot to use again with this meal.  The potato pancakes will be made from leftover mashed potatoes I froze two weeks ago.  I'll make extra English peas for salad later in the week and extra rolls for sandwiches.


Grilled Chicken, English Pea Salad, Rice with Buttered Vidalia Onions, Fruit Cocktail
Can you tell that it's Vidalia onion season?  I cook the onions in butter and a bit of powdered chicken bouillion and then serve over the rice.  English Pea Salad is a nice change from the usual: combine cooked peas, a diced boiled egg, some celery and onion, pickle relish and mayo. I'll make extra rice.

Roast Beef and Havarti Sandwiches, Corn on the Cob, Homemade Ice Cream Sandwiches
Leftover beef and cheese on homemade buns, corn from the freezer (bought two weeks ago, I'll microwave).  I used homemade chocolate chip cookies and the last of the Vanilla ice cream to make sandwiches.  I wrapped and froze.


Red Beans and Rice, Coleslaw, Corn Muffins, Fruit Crisps
I keep putting this dish on the menu and then we don't have it.  However, John and I agreed that we'd eat two meatless (or low meat) meals each week and buy our meats at that really nice butcher store.  That's the swap out for getting better quality meats.  I'll just freeze any leftovers of the beans.     

Grilled Chicken Salads, Crusty Bread, Molten Lava Cake
I don't expect we'll eat both breasts from the package of meat as they are so large.  I'll save at least 1/2 if not a full breast for the salads.  Seems like we're having a lot of desserts?  I'm making everything a single serve portion, so it's just one dessert for each main meal daily.  Often we save our dessert for a snack later in the day.

Taco Pizza, Guacamole Salads, Chocolate Ice Cream
Cornmeal Crust, taco meat, cheddar cheese, jalapenos (if you're so inclined), salsa...I'll make up  a batch of guacamole.  Some to top our salad, some for me to enjoy later with chips.  

Thrifty Thursday - The Last of the Pantry/Freezer Month

 My lovely African violet decided to bloom a couple of weeks ago.  Isn't it pretty?  I've been nursing these plants along for quite a long while now and had about given up hope of seeing a bloom but there it is...Now if the others would just follow suit!  Having these lovely blooms made it easier to not buy a bouquet last week when I shopped for groceries.

Friday:  Even though I included Friday on last week's Thrifty Thursday there were a few things I didn't note. We had a simple supper of fresh boiled corn and pan fried steaks.  John is the one who boils corn (I prefer to roast or steam) and he does an excellent job.  His secret is a spoon of sugar and NO salt.  I saved the water he boiled corn in to pour over my plants on the porch.  I know that sugar will not harm them and the water is full of good nutrients that the plants will use.

Recent Thrift Store Finds

 I've been wanting a buffet since I moved my dining table to the area designated for it three or more years ago.  I've looked and walked away with head hanging as one piece after another proved far far more than my hoped for budgeted amount of $150.  Ten days ago I listened when my inner treasure-ometer went off as I drove past our local flea market.  I found this buffet marked as part of a dining set which included a china cabinet with hutch, table with folding leaves, chairs and this piece.  The whole set was well priced and I truly expected this piece to be around my budgeted amount.  My feet tapped happily when the seller announced she'd take $65 for it.

Both of the cabinets hold a shelf or would.  The one on the left is missing the cleats that hold the shelf in place but we do have that shelf.  The small top right drawer is divided for silverware.  I've seen just loads of these buffets on blogs lately dressed in a new coat of chalk paint.  Not sure if I want to do that or not.  I'd like to live with the piece for a bit and get a feel for it.  

I am so happy to have it home. This will not be it's permanent resting spot.

The Wind Blew...Let's Have a Coffee Chat

Yesterday and today the wind blew and blew and blew.  It was not a day to hang clothes on the line.  They would have blown away!

So I puttered and piddled about indoors, sheltered from the wind pretty much, with two brief spells each day on the front porch where I sat while the animals ate their breakfast and dinner.  Trudy felt frisky as a pup in this cooler air.  When she feels young and puppy-ish again she also remembers that she loves me.  She leaned hard against my leg and sang to me.  I love her doggy songs.

I don't feel I accomplished a whole lot today but I worked steadily at things.  Saturday afternoon I sat down to craft a few cards. Yesterday morning I made about 8.  I ended up with 18 cards in all.  And I have about a dozen more laid out.  I need to get more card stock to make those.   I don't really need 18 cards but I enjoyed my play time.  And I will use the cards.  I kept thinking of various people I love as I made them.  They 'belong' to them now so I shall write a note and send them off, I think.  But not all at once.

I cleaned and moved books and bookcases and wondered again at my need to have so much stuff.  I suppose because so many I know are moving, I think about what it would be like to pack up my things to move.  I am overwhelmed at the thought.  When did I acquire so much stuff?  And how much of it am I really willing to part with?  That's the bigger question.  I am not a hoarder, but I'm no minimalist either.

Menu Plan Monday - Week 4 Pantry Freezer Challenge

It's the last week of my challenge and I've been wracking my brain all day long about what we'll eat this week.  It's not lack of things to make either.  It's having so much on hand I can't decide and that's still the basic pantry/freezer items being used, not the stuff bought fresh this month!

I spent the morning and part of the afternoon in the kitchen baking: Banana Chocolate Chip and Walnut Muffins, Chocolate Chip cookies, Homemade bread.

Today's dinner wasn't dinner but just plain lunch so I'll share the supper menu with you which isn't much either, lol.

Thrifty Thursday - Pantry Freezer Challenge Week 3

 Chinese Takeout...Terri style.  Homemade Chicken Fried Rice and Egg rolls...I figured I made 20 egg rolls for about $3.

Friday:  I meant to stay out of town today and certainly didn't mean to spend any money at all, but I did and I'm not the least bit sorry!

It all started with CVS who called to say our prescriptions were ready.  I'd have put off going but I knew I'd forget entirely by Sunday which would be my next opportunity to go.  I went to the drive thru window at CVS to avoid temptation.

Washed and vacuumed the car at the car wash in town.  It cost me $5 but for that price I also got the interior cleaned up.  That doesn't happen when I go through the automated wash at the gas station even if I choose the 'extras' package.  I also sprayed on wax to protect the car.

Went by another store in town and got two rose bushes for $5.  This seemed a reasonable expense for roses and I do enjoy them so much.  I think I'll pick up two more next week.

Found a comforter for our master bedroom.  It was reasonably priced, bed in a bag and will match our current drapes in that room.

Stopped at the local flea market.  I found the buffet I've been dreaming of ever since we moved the dining table into the proper dining area.  It was part of a set of furniture but I asked if they'd consider separating.  It took a phone call to the shop owner but she readily agreed.  And the asking price was low $75, $65 if I paid for it today.  I looked up similar ones online when I got home and I truly got a HUGE bargain on this piece of solid wood furniture.  John and I will pick it up on Thursday.

Made homemade corn dogs for our meal.  Since we use a premium hot dog brand (I like Nathan's) my savings isn't huge on this but I do control exactly what is in my hot dog this way.  Made enough for two meals.

Homemade Egg Rolls (Repost)

Homemade Egg Rolls

While the photos for this post are pulled from my Xanga archives, Egg Rolls were made in my home today.  I thought you'd like to see how it's done and share in my recipe for these tasty treats.

In the above photo you see many of the ingredients: slaw mix, onion, garlic, ginger root (on the cutting board in the foreground) soy sauce and egg roll wrappers.  Today I also included some frozen chopped oriental vegetables and red and yellow bell peppers that I'd diced. 

What's Needed Most...

Some of us are born in the country.  We like the city well enough, may even live there, but after a bit it starts to press in upon us.

This lovely brown-eyed girl is a country girl at heart.  The apartment complex where

she lives  houses as many people as her former hometown. Not in the heart of the city  perhaps, but close enough.  Busy highways intersect the area around her neighborhood. 

She loves her job and her new home and the friends she's made over the past few months.  But this weekend she said she had to leave the city.  She was tense.  Deep down tired.  The city, she said, is too full of noise all the time.  There's always something going on and you find yourself busy busy, running about at the same intense pace.  

She said she needed something....something the city can't offer. 

She needed open spaces...fewer people...room to breathe...that special brand of quiet that only the country can offer.

 What's needed can only be found along old state highways where cars are few and the views expand before you.

Where roads are two lanes, not eight...

And the pace is slower.  Where the skies can be seen for miles.

 and the views remind you that all of life is not made up of traffic and sirens and honking horns and people jabbering away on cell phones in restaurants and malls and grocery store.

 

Where paved roads are not always the order of the day and the dust of a country dirt road seems cleaner breathing than citified air.

Where landmarks are part of our past and bittersweet with memory.

 

And home looks the same as it did the last time you were there.

Where tails wag when you arrive...

 And faces light up...

  

And the cat purrs...

 

And a bed is dressed with a quilt, a bit of family history meant for comfort as much as for warmth...

It's good to be home...

to wake up in the morning and listen to the sounds of bird song and turkey gobbling in the woods and watch rabbits hop across the lawn.

This is what is needed most.

Frugal Kitchen Day

Homemade pastry dough with cooked ground beef, onions and potatoes made up Cornish Pasties.  Typically I'd make these larger 1/2 to full size of pastry but I wanted them small enough for John to be able to heat quickly and eat in a couple of bites.  This is important if you're a Paramedic eating at work.

This meat mixture is a good extension for ground beef.  I have grated potatoes and formed this into patties.  I cooked the meat mixture so I could drain off excess fat and water and have a drier mixture to go into the pastry.

 

My finished Pasties.  I put three in his lunchbox, the rest into the freezer for a future heat and eat meal.  

Thrifty Thursday -Pantry Freezer Challenge Month

I do have more recent photos of frugal work done in the house this week but honestly...My feet are killing me, the camera is in the kitchen and while I have to go back in a few minutes to check the milk cooling for a batch of yogurt, I just cannot bring myself to get up right away.  So this shall have to suffice even though it is last year's photo.  At least it applies to a portion of what I've done today: making yogurt.

Friday:  I bought food for Passover tonight but...I almost gave in to the worry and took along more food.  I decided to supplement my meal with sliced tomatoes.  I had plenty on hand bought Wednesday and it seemed the right touch.  And of course, we had plenty of food after all.  So glad I didn't make lots more to carry along.  As it was we brought home enough rotisserie chicken and salads for a meal for us and no more.

Envy...Incentive

It starts out innocently enough doesn't it?  Go over to visit a blog and see how clever someone is with their thrift store finds...and before you know it you're wishing your home was as nice as theirs.  Sure they saved a ton of money on decorating but the house is far better than your own.  And then you find a blog that features handwork and you wish your creativity was as well honed as theirs.  Or their numbers look better than yours and they've only been blogging for a couple of months.  You wonder why your blog hasn't the same number of followers.  Isn't your content as good as hers?

Once envy gets a foothold it's a pesky creature to route out once again.  You compare yourself to others on the street, you wonder why your pedicure never looks quite as nice as that one, why your food never tastes as good as another cook's meals,  and on and on it goes.

Menu Monday: Week Two of Pantry Freezer Challenge

I don't know about you all, but we had a GREAT holiday weekend...and I couldn't help but think in the midst of all the good things that next year will be even better because we'll have grandbabies toddling about to seek eggs.  I can't wait!

This week meal planning presents a bit of a challenge.  Because the Feast of Unleavened Bread falls into John's work week, I have had to figure out lunches that didn't require the sandwich meals he mostly prefers.  I can't blame him.  A grab and go meal is easier to eat when you may have to leave for a call mid-bite.  So I have that expediency to also figure in for lunches.  This week I decided my best bet was to plan dinners that transition well to work lunches.  I think I've done a fairly good job of it and I will be using things on hand already to make most of them.

I did put four items on my shopping list for this week to purchase and use right away.  #1 Nathan's Hot Dogs.  They are on sale and I'll buy extra to stock up.   Half a pack is all that we need to serve us both.  You'll see how I manage to make them work well as a pack and go lunch.  #2  Tortillas: A bread substitute for John's sandwiches.  I'll make wraps with them for him.  #3 Lettuce- I just plain out forgot lettuce last week when we were shopping.  I can't imagine why.  It's always on my list, sigh.  #4 Won Ton Wrappers: These have been on my list for weeks and I keep forgetting to check in the produce department for them.  I wanted to use some of the excess cabbage I have on hand to make egg rolls for the freezer and I've longed to try to make those crispy Napoleons and Springtime and berry season have rolled around...

You'll notice I'm not assigning days to this week's menus and for good reason.  John bought dinner when we ran into town for mower gasoline and pet foods today.  Mama is buying lunch for us tomorrow and Wednesday I'll be taking her to the doctor...I'll need to work on some of these meals this afternoon to 'work ahead' for John's lunchbox.  Depending on how the days go, I might end up serving some of these as my supper on these busy days ahead.