Friday: John and I had such a big day on Thursday (he golfed, I was out looking for sandals) that we did almost nothing at all on Friday except recuperate. We split the light housework between us and then enjoyed our leisure time. I read, went through magazines and collected coupons, recipes and ideas to clip. There was a lot of entertainment and value from that free stack of magazines I'd brought home from Mama's on Tuesday.
Dinner: Sweet and Sour Chicken. I cooked two boneless skinless breasts, put aside half the meat for this week's Southwestern Chicken Salad. I prepared the vegetables for this dish and chopped vegetables for the next day's dinner side dish.
Easy sweet and sour sauce: 1 cup pineapple juice, 1 tbsp brown sugar, 1 tbsp cornstarch, 1 tbsp catsup, cooked and stirred until thickened. This is good in a stir fry dish as sauce but equally as good for dipping eggrolls.
Cooked ahead making up a casserole dish of mac and cheese for tomorrow's meal. I had a bit of leftover cheese sauce and some leftover macaroni, which I set aside to make Tuna Mac salad for work lunch next week.
Saturday: Planning ahead the day before meant I had no hard labor on this day. Our meal was a matter of putting vegetables in the pan to roast and popping that and the Macaroni and Cheese into the oven. All I needed to do was serve plates and rinse when we'd finished eating. I liked having the day free of long meal preparation and clean-up.
Much cooler today. We opened windows in the morning and they stayed open until mid afternoon when the western movement of the sun really heated the house up. Nice to go most of the day without AC running.
Packed a lunch for John's extra shift tomorrow. Although on these extra days he likes to go out to pick up food, often he's so busy he can't. I don't pack as big a work lunch as I do on his regular work week but enough to keep him going if they are super busy for the day.
Sunday: Routine housework for me while John is working. Clipped and sorted coupons, wrote out menus for the week using my month long guide, took meats from freezer to thaw.
Washed and hung out clothes on line to dry. I wanted to bleach my bedding and tablecloth but alas no bleach on hand and no desire to go to town to buy any. Instead I relied upon the memory of a previous mistake: I'd tried to remove grass stains from a pair of khaki pants with liquid dishwasher detergent. That detergent bleached the pants...So I dumped the last bit of the bottle into the wash with the clothes, no more than I'd have used to do a load of dishes. Definitely got my clothing whiter. I let the laundry do a pre-soak in hot water before washing.
Worked until well past noon. I made a frozen pot pie ($.60 on sale) and a salad for my dinner for the day.
Made myself a treat mid-afternoon: ice cubes, milk and instant coffee went into the blender with a couple of tablespoons of sweetened condensed milk. Coffee frappe made right here at home. It cost pennies to make.
John called to say they were busy all day long. He'd thought he'd stopped to buy supper but on second thought, could I make him a sandwich? I had fixings on hand, put together a sandwich for less than $1 of ingredients. I'm sure he'd never have gotten off that inexpensively if he'd bought anything.
Monday: Not feeling prime self today. I did light routine housework and study then prepped dinner. I had leftover mac and cheese from Saturday. I did a makeover: cooked 1/2 pound of ground beef with pizza sauce and put on bottom of casserole dish, broke the cold mac and cheese over the top, topped with the last 1/2 cup of cheese sauce and put in the oven. Pastitio is very similar to this dish and that's what I called it. Made a salad with homemade croutons from a loaf of olive bread we didn't care for. Made great croutons for the salad.
Ran a full load of dishes.
Filled water bottles to keep chilled in the fridge. My bottles are re-used soda bottles made of PETE rated plastic.
The day was overcast and cool. We kept windows open until nearly 12pm today when it got too humid to stand.
Not feeling well I really wanted to go get take-out for supper, but John was against the idea. I found a quick meal I could prepare with little effort in the freezer (hot dogs and fries). Had leftover hot dogs which went into fridge to use later in the week, some for work lunch, some to stretch scrambled eggs or cheese toast for breakfast.
Emptied the last of the frozen fries into my baking pan. The bag was a sturdy zippered plastic bag, which I washed and rinsed and set to dry.
A mealy apple was upsetting to John, but I encouraged him to put in the freezer. True it doesn't eat well out of hand, but will do nicely to make jelly or applesauce with.
Tuesday: John went off to town extra early to get gasoline for the mower and to fill the truck, he came home bearing breakfast.
I did housework while he mowed.
As a treat for John, I took out the other half of the sirloin steak I'd used a portion of last week and made us a steak dinner. There were only three potatoes in my basket. I had to trim them a little to use, made them into a casserole dish we enjoy. I put leftovers in a container to have with one of my meals later in the week.
Salad was stretched with the use of the end pieces of our watermelon. I always find the flesh in the ends a little more 'green' and less sweet than the heart of a watermelon. They tasted so good in our green salad. I topped with feta cheese and used Catalina dressing.
We had real rain this afternoon. Wished I'd known it was coming I'd have set out the porch plants on the patio. Oh well. The dogs have fresh water in their water pans and the herbs on the back porch got a nice soaking rain.
We wanted a little something sweet. I remembered we had brownies in the freezer, which I'd forgotten to take on vacation with us. Nice treat to have with our afternoon coffee.
Made up the tuna mac salad for John's work lunch. Set aside a small portion for my own meal later tomorrow.
Found my bubbles in the kitchen cabinet behind some other things. I took them out to the front porch so I can use them now that the weather's better for bubbles. There's one thing about blowing bubbles, you must slow down and take your time to do it otherwise you get no results at all. It's very relaxing and will make a nice diversion for those evenings when the day has been tough and frustrations have mounted.
Wednesday: Went to Macon to see if I could find more of the bras I like so well. I needed to cull three from my wardrobe, but I've no complaints. Hand washing and wearing one day, allowing to air the next and swapping the bras off one for another in routine wearing has helped those three bras last a good year and a half. They were just now showing signs of hard wear and need of retirement.
Found four new bras in the style I like best. Had my rewards card in my wallet and got a free bra today since this made my sixth bra purchased over the past nine months.
I find tank tops very versatile. I use them in winter under shirts as an additional layer of warmth, wear them alone in summer or under a very sheer blouse for extra coverage. I bought another tank today. I get a lot of wear out of them for an average price of $10.
Mama and I went into Marshalls for the first time. I found two lanterns, quite large in a lovely sage green color which match two hanging basket planters I bought a couple of years ago on clearance from the BH&G collection at Walmart. I bought the lanterns at just $10 each a very good price having looked and priced for the past two years. I hung them from plant hangers on either side of the front porch entrance.
I've used my credit card to make all my clothing and home purchases the past week. I have enough in savings to cover all my purchases and will pay off the card promptly when the bill arrives. Now I see a need to slow my spending and increase my savings, but I've all I think I'll need to make it easily through the summer with my wardrobe.
On the way home this afternoon, I glanced over at the dumpsters outside of town. I spied a pretty green plant pot. I went back and discovered there were five of the pots, all plastic, in that lovely green shade, apparently five gallon pots that once contained knock-out roses. It happens the green is almost exactly the same as the Fern Green paint by Rustoleum and perfect for planters for the back deck where my Fern Green glider sits. I'll be planting them out this weekend.
Made Southwestern Chicken Salad for my supper tonight and John's work lunch tomorrow, using the chicken cooked late last week. I put the unused portions of black beans and corn in jars in the fridge. Will make Corn and Bean burritos with them tomorrow for the freezer.
Thursday: Temporarily out of the toilet bowl cleaner I prefer and all out of Comet, too. I used plain old bleach water (I keep a bottle of properly diluted bleach and water mixed for disinfecting) to clean the toilet.
Needed bread and milk...Luckily as near as the freezer in the craft room closet. They are thawing now in the kitchen.
Another cool morning so I've opened windows and am letting the house air while the day is cool.
Turning off the TV and just listening to the birds outdoors is so peaceful. What a nice exchange for not using the electricity for TV or AC.
Just made cookies from freezer cookie dough. What a convenience to reach in to the freezer and pull out a pre-mixed batch of dough ready to slice and bake. I will be restocking that this next week I think.
Leftovers for my dinner today. Hot dogs and potatoes from earlier in the week.
Sat down and made out a list of errands to run, a short shopping list for a few necessities, and looked over grocery sales/coupons to see if any too good to be missed deals were on. Even an easier day like today can be very productive in generating potential savings in the home.
Repotted some plants, and then scattered seeds in another couple of pots. I was so anxious to plant something today that I gathered up my seeds and plants and went to work using what I have.
Ran a full load of dishes in the dishwasher.
Used water I've saved over the week to water the newly repotted plants.
1 comment:
This is a beautiful buffet! Are you going to paint it as many people do or just leave as is? I know you are proud of it!
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