This Week In My Home

This week in my home...

I continue with the Freezer challenge:  




Did you ever decide mid-way through something that really you just don't care for it overall?  I've decided I'm that way about frozen green beans.  They just lose something in the fresh/frozen/cooked stages that can't be recovered.  So when I use up this lot of green beans I'm going to stick to having them fresh or canned but never frozen again.  Just my personal taste on this one.  John could care less.  Turns out green beans were never a favored vegetable for him at all.

I did make a tiny bit of room in the biggest freezer, but I've yet to clear them out and defrost.  That is going on my list even though I think it's a pipe dream this week.

I Plan Meals:  Spaghetti with Meat Sauce, Green Salad, Garlic Bread, Lemon Pudding

Spaghetti Leftovers
I planned another meal but we had so many leftovers John asked for a repeat meal today, too. We had this after church and it took me about five minutes to heat in the microwave while I made a quick salad.  Easy peasy.

Tuna Pasta Salad, Crackers, Mandarin Oranges
I wouldn't normally serve this in cooler months but John asked for it especially.  I'd planned to make tuna salad sandwiches or even a tuna casserole, but he wants this and seldom makes a request so I will indulge him.  I just need to get my grocery shopping done so I can have plenty of fresh colorful vegetables to put into it.  And olives.  Black and green ones.  Requested.



Roast Beef Hash, Green Peas, Slaw with Apples and Cranberries

Lunch Out (convinced this will happen on grocery day)

Chicken and Dumplings, Crisp Green Salad, Baked Apples

Meat Loaf, Mashed Potatoes, Steamed Broccoli, Corn Muffins

And just to let you know, I'm not at all sure about these menu ideas aside from the requested meal for John and the lunch out.  I really really had a hard time making a menu plan this week for some reason.  At least I've a guideline to work within!

I plan my work:

I don't know just how much time I'll have to work this week.  It's Harvest week which means grocery shopping has to go in to the mix of tasks to be done.  We've guests coming in to stay a few days/nights with us as they travel about visiting other family members. So mostly what I do this week will revolve around Harvest or company.

Get the bills paid, do banking, mail off bills, balance up the register, etc.

Grocery shopping.

Get the Christmas bins cleared out of the guest room and out to the shed.  Try to make the room look/feel comfortable.  Pull out extra blankets and such so they don't attempt to use the antique quilts. (Don't mind them using the antique quilts but the boy is 6'2" and the quilts are about 5' long.  That's a lot of boy left sticking out!).

Make Christmas cookies.  Batch one is done.  Realized I've no place at all to store the things.  Must remedy this before baking more but batch two and three and four shall all be mixed up tomorrow and frozen by spoonfuls if nothing else.

Sort out the toy box which is a right mess of things.  John suggested I should clean some of the toys and I haven't so I would like to get them out and wiped down and sort out the things in the box. There have been lots of donations and not any culling at all.

If time permits: get a Coffee Chat and Christmas decorating post up here.  Start working on winter outfits post.

Plan a little fun: 


There will be family here to enjoy and between visits, I hope to start my Christmas reading.  I have a group of small books I read this time each year and if I get a lot of reading time there are favorite Christmas scenes in other books I enjoy reading through (Little Women for instance). My current reading list:  The Quiet Little Woman  by Louisa May Alcott, Dickens' A Christmas Carol, No Holly for Miss Quinn by Miss Read, Jan Karon's The Snowmen and Esther's Gift (a boxed set of small books), Christmas After All, The Great Depression Diary of Minnie Swift, and Christmas Stories from the Heart, a compilation of stories from various evangelists.  There may well be others but these are the ones I've pulled out for now. Oh!  How The Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss, but I'll pass on reading it if I see the cartoon on TV at any time.


And because 'tis the season, I think some cocoa sipping and Christmas tree gazing should be thrown into the mix too.  This time is going quickly and I want to savor it.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don't you just love it when you have fixed a food for umpteen years and suddenly it never was liked very much? Sounds like a busy fun week. Enjoy! Gramma D

Sew Blessed Maw [Judy] said...

Hope you have an enjoyable time with your family/visitors.
I so understand the green bean thing.. I dislike the frozen ones too. I can eat can or fresh.
I had to laugh about the antique quilt and the 6ft 2in boy.. My son is about 6 ft 3in.. and our bed in the spare one, has rails ..He says that his feet get tangled up in the rails..lol
You have a busy week... take time to rest and take care of you too..hugs.

Lana said...

I got tickled about the quilts too!

I never liked frozen green beans until I started sauteing them in olive oil with a bit of chopped onions. I really like them that way and occasionally buy them just for that dish.

I have to report that we asked some visitors at church out for lunch today. Maybe you all remember that it was something we wanted to do this Christmas season. We hit it off with that couple and felt like old friends by the time the meal was over. What a blessing! They said that they are taking us out next time so I think they felt the same! We find it hard to meet people now that the kids are all grown. We came away from that meal so refreshed and look forward to seeing them again!

I need to make menus tomorrow but I do know what we are eating tomorrow so I have a start. Hubby found that he had a $25 Longhorn Steakhouse gift card on his wallet that we had forgotten about. We decided to use that Wednesday night and then go to the drive through Christmas lights. Our tree is finally up and we enjoying the lights. :)

Anonymous said...

I got some really good bags of fresh green beans this summer. I ended up dehydrating most of them. Hubby does not really like green beans..I do but I can sneak them in soups and such and have a bit fresh for me now off and on.
Know what you mean by quilts too short for use. I use one sideways at the foot of our queen bed for extra toe warmth.. Looks pretty and gets used. I love to look at it! :-)
Thanks for the book lists you include in your posts. I away find new authors or titles. I mean it. Thank you. Have you ever thought of adding an Amazon button for books? Many bloggers do. It gives them a bit of income. Just a thought.
I feel my home is about to run out of space everywhere right now. Decoration boxes, presents for so many people, cookies and such. Stacks way too many places. Where to put the next group! I wish I could give some of them now. :-) It is such fun to see the faces on people when you give them something. Don't you sometimes feel that you get more out of giving then when you get something? Such fun!!! :-) Better go...Sarah

Karla said...

Oh I am with John on the leftover Spaghetti. I LOVE Spaghetti with a good sauce but I don't get to eat it much as Brad is not a big fan of it very often. The tuna pasta salad sounds very delicious! I know what you mean about the menu planning sometimes just not being inspired. I struggle with that and it seems every single week I do make a plan - it rarely gets adhered to because Brad wants something different. But the one week I don't make a plan - it's all chaos! LOL

I wanted to ask you a question about storage containers for your fridge/freezer. I know you must have a lot of storage containers since you do so many meals and put up so much in advance. How do you organize/contain all of those containers and lids? I'm always on the lookout for a better system!

Sparkiedoll said...

Can I recommend (if you haven't already discovered them) 'The Diary of an English Provincial Lady' by EM Delafield. Also 'One pair of hands' by Monica Dickens (G.Granddaughter of Charles Dickens. Another 'must read' in the English domestic genre is by 'Nella Last Housewife, 49'. I'm sure you would love these books, I've read them many times! Having read your Christmas reading list I've just bought The
Great depression Diary of Minnie Swift for 1p plus shipping from the USA. I've never heard of it but am sure I will enjoy reading it. Best wishes, Rose (UK)

sparky136 said...

I don't like frozen green beans, either. They seem mushy to me. However, I do freeze leftover beans that have been cooked. I add them to soups or just heat and serve,

Kathy said...

Hope that you have a great week!
I agree about the frozen green beans; I much prefer fresh and canned.
I requested the Great Depression Diary of Minnie Smith at the library, and I look forward to reading it. We try to watch the same Christmas shows each year...Peanuts Christmas, The Grinch, Rudolph, Frosty, and I have to watch A Christmas Carol with George C. Scott although the one with Patrick Stewart is good too. oh and A Christmas Story.
We still haven't decorated for Christmas yet, but hope to get our tree this week. Looking forward to seeing how you have decorated your house this year. You are so creative.

Mariana Cisowska said...

Oh the green beans.. ;)
I have to say that I totally agree with you - never freezing green beans again, and never buying them frozen either, no matter how good the deal is.
I actually have 2 bags in my freezer that I purchased probably 5 years ago (yikes), they are the best to use as cold packs, they have been frozen and de-frozen so many times I can't even remember. They even made it with me when I moved! They surely are a constant in my freezer, always there. Never to be eaten.

Rhonda said...

About frozen green beans, the only ones we like are the whole ones from Aldi. They do need cooked awhile, not mushy cooked, but more than just heated