Thrifty Thursday: Getting On the Right Track

Thursday:  I made bread and bagels today.  I had planned to keep Millie tomorrow and wanted to get those tasks out of the way.  

I placed the pictures from the shed in the room and like them there.  I looked at what fabric I had on hand to see if some might be a possible match to the comforter but it wasn't.  One is too blue and the other is too gray/green.   

Friday:  I made yogurt using half and half and some milk that wasn't fresh but still useable.  I got four pints of yogurt from the milk and creamer and used homemade yogurt as the starter.  I let it incubate all day and some of the evening.  The yogurt looked nice and thick when I tilted the jars.  I do not make Greek yogurt out of my yogurt so sometimes it's thinner and sometimes it's a little thicker.  I prefer it to have a little body to it and this appears to have just that.

I polished my toenails while doing Millie's nails for her today.  She wanted to use gold and frosty sea green.  I never know what she's going to choose, lol.  I opted to use the gold.  I like it.

We didn't eat supper before leaving home because John was performing.  We waited until we were back home to make him something to eat.  

Saturday:  I stayed home while John went to meet with Cody and Gary.  They changed the brakes on the Toyota.  They refused to take any money for the work they did.  We'll repay them with gift cards to some of their favorite eateries.

While John was gone, I cleared the fridge and sorted things out.  I noted what I needed to use this week and filled a container with dibs and dabs of things that would go into the pet bowls.

Sam stopped in to borrow some Ginger Ale.  Poor Isaac has a tummy bug.

John asked me to go out to lunch with him on his return.  We planned to drive to the town north of us and eat there.  It's a lovely drive and it feels like a mini-retreat.    

As always, we brought home half our meal.  And because we ate so late, we didn't have supper.

We picked up mail on our way up the drive.  The electric bill came.  It was surprisingly low for February.   We came in about $70 under what I'd budgeted this month. The extra will go towards another bill.

Sunday:  John wanted to get haircuts today after church.  

I had a text from Sam during church asking if we could bring the kids food.  He has the same tummy virus Isaac had.  I hope it isn't going to work its way through the house.  He wanted me to pick something up at the grocery so we did.  We got the gift cards we want to give to Cody and Gary.  I picked up the few items I knew I needed and had on my open shopping list that were on sale.  We did not pick up a meal for ourselves since we knew we had our leftovers from yesterday's meal.  

I didn't buy any food for the coming family weekend.  I decided to completely reformulate my plans and make all food only from what I have on hand.  Tomorrow I'll sort through the freezer.  Then I'll make a decision on what our meals might be.

I ran a full load of dishes.  John washed a load of clothes.

I made chicken sandwiches for supper tonight from the leftover rotisserie chicken.

Monday:  I cleaned up my bedroom yesterday and since it's still looking very nice this week I decided to focus on having a kitchen day.  

I emptied the freezer of the leftover bits of bread.  I had plenty of croutons, in the pantry but did not have breadcrumbs, so I shredded the bread and made crumbs, then toasted those until dry.  I got a full quart of crumbs.  I do not season mine.

I thawed the bananas and set the butter and eggs out so they could come to room temperature.  I will make the Banana Poundcake for our Family Day.

I boiled the rest of that carton of eggs for use this week.  The cooled water was used to water plants, as was the water used for blanching cauliflower.

I made a Shepherd's pie, chopped vegetables for the Chicken Curry meal, and cut up the rest of the rotisserie chicken to make a lovely Dill Chicken Salad.  I only have sweet pickle relish on hand but today, I didn't have any relish.  I did have dill pickles, so I chopped those and then added extra dill and some lemon pepper to the chicken.  I'm afraid it was a little salty but when I tasted it and exclaimed Sam said, "Oh add a bit of sugar it will be all right then."  I added about a teaspoon of sugar and sure enough, the balance of flavors was greatly improved.  I didn't realize that would work.  It pays to have a son who loves cooking hanging about in your kitchen.  Even if he doesn't eat chicken salad.

I blanched half the head of cauliflower.   I wanted to stop it from getting rusty or mildew as they are wont to do.  I had planned to cook it later, not use it raw in a salad so blanching will do no harm.

Now I am off to make my pound cakes.

Meals: Smoked Sausage and Toast

Dill Chicken Salad Sandwiches. This was a nice change from my usual chicken salad.  I'll do this again.  I also skipped putting a boiled egg in it. What I liked was the crunchy bite of the celery and the dill pickle.  The pickles I had on hand were small whole pickles which I picked up off the clearance rack at the local store.  I couldn't see how those pickles could possibly go bad in all that vinegar brine.

Butter Chicken w/ Onions and Cauliflower, Yellow Rice, Indian tomato and cucumber salad.  I didn't think I'd need all the butter sauce but used it as directed.  Well, I had loads of leftover sauce.  I did what I've done with other items where there was an excess of sauce, I took it up and put it in a jar, and put it in the freezer.  I'll use the remaining sauce for a second meal of Butter Chicken...And by the way, I looked up recipes online, and aside from Garam Masala I typically have the ingredients on hand.

Garam Masala is an herb and spice blend that I can make right here at home, or at least make a facsimile

The salad was especially nice.  I wanted to share the recipe with you.  I'll likely have this salad all throughout the summer.  I made mine ahead and let it sit in the fridge for 3 hours.

Kachumber Salad 

2 cups chopped cucumber

1 cup chopped tomatoes

1 medium chopped onion

1/2 teaspoon salt (you may need more.  The original recipe I read suggested adding it twice!)

1/2 teaspoon cumin powder

1/4 teaspoon red cayenne pepper powder

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon dried mint leaves

Juice of one lemon

Additional salt to taste

Mix well.  Refrigerate.  

Tuesday:  I have accomplished so little today.  I made the bed and breakfast and tried to get Millie settled before I went to the chiropractor.   Once home, I made lunch.  Millie went to "nap", which means she went to the guest room and played with the door shut and I headed right to my chair to work on emails.

I didn't want to cook today but I made all three meals.  I took advantage of what I had on hand and did not stop to pick up take-out, but oh the temptation!

I'm on a mission to use these older foods that are in the freezers and cabinets.  I had noted two half loaves of bread in the freezer yesterday, one Raisin Swirl and one Killer Dave.  I used the Raisin bread to make cheese toast for breakfast this morning.  When John used the last of the loaf I made on Friday, I pulled out the Killer Dave bread.  I'll bake bread tomorrow, but we can make toast with the other bread tomorrow.

This evening I put frozen Calzone in the oven for an easy supper. I made us a salad to go with them and I chopped one of my homegrown carrots.  The tops were still so pretty and green.  I have loads of 'parsley' in the cabinet already that I've dried from carrot tops over the past six months.  I don't need more.  But they were sooo green and pretty!  I decided to toss the leaves into our salad.  I figure if it's edible dry, it's edible green.

Raisin cheese toast

Chicken Patties, French Fries, Biscuits for John and Millie (from the freezer, more using up)

Calzone, Tossed Salad

I have planned my menu for Saturday:  We'll do tacos for lunch, along with Yellow rice, Salsa and Chips, and some refried beans.

For the evening meal, we'll have sandwiches.  I'm going to cook a small turkey breast and a pork butt.  I will slice the breast meat and make Pulled Pork Barbecue.  I'll serve that with pickles and chips.  

I have made Banana Poundcakes and might make two lemon Meringue pies since I have all I need on hand.  We picked up graham crackers on Sunday when we were in the store.

I will need to buy: tomatoes, taco shells and tortillas, hamburger buns, a bag of chips and maybe a jar of pickles. I'm going to see how many pickles I have in the fridge before I put that on my list though.

I got a Stitch Fix box today.  I'd forgotten that was scheduled.  It was a disappointment though I did score a pretty yellow sweater that will be perfect with the dress I am wearing to the wedding.  It was on sale (!never have I seen them ship an item on sale for a subscriber!).  I can easily handle that out of my allowance.  The rest of the items will be returned.

I played on Pinterest this evening.  I was looking for inspiration for my wardrobe and found some new pins to add that inspired me.  

Wednesday:  Today I cooked the turkey breast and the pork butt.  I rendered the fat from the butt and will save the broth and fat that cooked from the meat as it slow-cooked.  The cat and dog will enjoy the crackly bits...My Great-Grandmother would have made a pan of crackling bread with those. 

Why was I rendering fat?  I've read repeatedly lately of all the good vitamins contained in Tallow and Lard (and I suppose in Schmaltz, too).  I find this all very interesting because my great-grandmothers cooked with lard, tallow, and schmaltz.  It was fat and they thought fat was good for you.  They lived into their latter years without changing their diets, too, continuing on as they'd started out.  I remember when Mama started WeightWatchers in 1975 all fat disappeared from our home.  She kept a can of Crisco to make biscuits, but that was about it.  When I married, I didn't cook with fats, either.  

When John and I started life together I decided to swap margarine for butter and buy only olive oil because I'd read so much about the health benefits of using both.  Like Mama, I kept a can of Crisco to make biscuits, cakes, and pie crusts.  

Now here we are full circle.  I can buy rendered lard, tallow, duck fat, and all such, but today I had fat on hand, I thought, "Why toss it away when you can make something with it?" So here I am rendering fat.

I sat down today with the checkbook and brought it up to date.  And then I looked at the pile of bills, all of which are due before the next pay period, and sighed.  I started writing checks.  Then I figured up the checkbook again.  I had set aside money for several of those bills and the one or two that came in which I hadn't expected...I found I had enough 'extra' to pay those bills.  That extra came from bills that were less than I'd forecasted they might be.  I couldn't help but say a very heartfelt prayer of gratitude.

I made my big dinner for midday today.  The Cottage Pie made so much that I split it between two pans and froze one for later.   The meat and vegetable mixture seemed too thick. I had some leftover spaghetti sauce in the fridge, so I added that.  It turned out really good. 

I took luncheon meat from the freezer to thaw.  John will enjoy his bologna sandwich for supper tonight, I know.

Thursday:  I had a short grocery list for the Family Day gathering and I stuck hard to it today.  I bought what I said I would for that.

Did I buy extra items?  Produce and canned green beans.   

Most of the produce I bought was from the clearance rack at the back of the store which overflowed today.  I purchased squash, zucchini, mangoes, red grapefruit, blueberries, tomatoes, and limes for less than $7.  I bought oranges and apples that were priced at $1/pound from the regular produce.  I find the children often will eat a piece of fruit if they see it.

In the meat clearance section, I found beautiful ground beet for $2.19 a pound for 1.5-pound packages. I thought I'd get six of those, use the lesser-priced meat for taco meat for Family Day, and put the extra package in the freezer.  

I told John that while the store wasn't busy, I noted this.  The younger patrons walked around the aisles and ignored the clearance sections.  Older women like myself stopped there first and bought what they liked the looks of first then filled in with regular-priced items to make up the difference.  

We talked it over and decided that it's both an age-related thing, most of us older folks being accustomed to looking for bargains but it's also a sign of the times thing.  Instead of just looking it over casually, the active shopping is going on in the clearance sections first.  Each of us needs to find the 'extra room' in our budget.

When I got home today, I cooked the ground meat up and seasoned it for tacos.  When it's cool, I'll put that in the fridge and hold it for Saturday.  Tomorrow I will do the last of my prep work.  My goal is to have to only heat and eat on Saturday.

That's my week.  What did you do to save money?

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