Thrifty Thursday: Bits and Pieces

 

Friday:  Yesterday's meals: We skipped breakfast

John had frozen Chicken Fried Rice.  I ate Chicken Shawarma and Rice Pilaf from dinner the other night.  I followed my meal up with Strawberries and John ate an apple.

Cheeseburgers, Baked Beans, French Fries, Lettuce and Tomato Salad, Bread and butter Pickles.

We went to tend to Caleb while Katie had a doctor's appointment.  They brought home a pizza and we shared lunch with them.

After we left Katie's we headed to the eye doctor's office where John got his eyeglasses adjusted again.  They fit better now and hopefully will for a long while.  He was so unhappy with his glasses that he was ready to order another pair.

We went to Lowe's to get potting soil and mulch.  When Katie heard that was my plan she looked up items at the store location where we were going and told me which was the least expensive option.  I saved quite a bit on the mulch because of that.  I couldn't find the soil we'd looked at so I chose another item.  I also bought two pots of basil and one of Peppermint.  John used his military discount to get 10% off our total. 

We combined more errands while we were out.  We dropped off mail, took a package to the Fed Ex depot in town, picked up an item I was out of at home, and paid the electric bill. 

I watered plants on the patio from the buckets we keep out there to catch rainwater.  Unless we get some rain soon, I'll fill those buckets with the hose.

Meals today: Breakfast sandwiches from the freezer

with Katie and Cody

Everything Nachoes.  Nachos topped with leftover chili from the freezer, guacamole, lettuce, tomato, green onions, pickled red onion, and a drizzle of taco sauce and Ranch dressing.

Saturday:  I knew we'd be gone at lunchtime today, but we'd want supper...and there's dinner tomorrow to consider. I took food from the freezer to thaw while we were gone.   When we got home I got supper in the oven right away.  

Supper proved to be more than we could eat.  I put half the meal away.  Not a problem.  It will do just fine for supper on a busy night.

Lesson learned today.  John wanted 'a little something sweet' and I picked up two Little Debbie items for us at the gas station where he stopped.  Never again.  The cost of each item was the same as it would cost to buy two whole BOXES of Little Debbie treats.  

Meals:  Croissants, Yogurt, and Berries for me/Bagels and Cream Cheese for John

Taco Bar at Katie's 'Taco 'Bout A Baby' party

Pork Chops with Sour Cream Potatoes and French Fried Onions, Collard Greens, Pickled Red Onions

Sunday:  I've just put the fig tree on the steps to take advantage of the rain we're getting.  The other plants were being hit by a mist but the fig tree was not getting any water.

We stopped at the gas station on our way home from church.  I almost had enough left in the gasoline budget to cover the fill-up.  I don't expect to make as many trips, so this should carry us for two weeks.

I made dinner when we got home.  Even though it meant waiting to eat, I put a whole chicken and vegetables in the oven.   I put away the leftovers so we weren't tempted to pinch bits off it.

I pulled dessert from the freezer, already pre-cut into portions.

I put together three more outfits and hung them in my closet ready for any need to leave the house.

I had John wash my white sneakers yesterday and pre-treated them with stain remover.

Meals:  Sausage and Cheese toast.

Chicken with Vegetables, Cucumber/Tomato, Chickpea Salad, Lemon Pie.  I diced potatoes, cut carrots into sticks, onions into strips, and cut zucchini into thick rounds.  John ate potatoes and onions and I had the other vegetables as my portion.

Sandwiches, chips, fresh fruit

Monday:  I made bread today but did not get to bagels.  I didn't want to deal with shaping dough and boiling water around a little girl.

I painted a chair using spray paint I had on hand.  It looks so good, that I changed my mind about making it a plant stand and will keep it on the porch as a seating for the children.  I wanted to get more painting done but it looked too much like rain this morning and I was afraid I would push my luck.

I swapped some potted plants around in the back flower bed.  I used a few of the six-pack plants I purchased a couple of weeks ago to add to a hydrangea I've nursed from infancy.  I moved the hydrangea around the back where it can sit under the eaves and get more moisture.  The mint will move to the front patio, where it can get morning sun and afternoon shade, which I've read recently is best for its needs.  

Meals:  French Toast, Scrambled Eggs

Tortilla Pizza

Chicken Noodle Casserole, Spinach, Fresh Bread, Lemon Pie.  This casserole was bland.  No idea why but it lacked.  Oh well.  Every recipe is not a keeper!  The spinach however was cooked with garlic and most excellent.  Wish there'd been more of that!

Tuesday:  First thing this morning, I got busy in the kitchen.  I was making biscuits and started my bagel dough while most of the ingredients were out already.  

I stretched a bit of sausage (perhaps 2 ounces) to feed us both by making sausage gravy.   It's a heavy breakfast for a warm morning, but I served smaller portions.

I saw a new recipe for lemonade that looked easy and made enough for two.  The girl said it was called a "Shaker" in the Midwest.  She cut a lemon into small pieces, put it in a quart jar with 3 tbsps of sugar, put the lid back on, and shook it up.  Then she muddled the lemon pieces and after she'd thoroughly done that, covered it and shook it.  Finally, she added 1.5 cups of water, and 1.5 cups of ice and covered it to shake again.  I was dubious that only that much sugar would make a good lemonade but it did!  My lemons are HUGE, about the size of my hand, so I used just half a lemon instead of a whole one.  I love fresh lemonade.  This is far easier than making simple syrup and all of that business.  It made just two glasses for John and I.  Boy did it hit the spot after working outdoors this morning.

I bought a huge bag of French Fried onion rings months ago on one of those really good Amazon deals.  I opened the bag the other night and put the rest in quart jars.  I vacuum-sealed two jars, and still have a few bits left in the bag to use.

After breakfast I got the bagels made.  They turned out lovely. I put everything but the bagel seasoning on half of them.  

I bought a big container of Everything But the Bagel seasoning and though I use it diligently I didn't use it as quickly as I thought I might.  I moved the bagel seasoning bottle to the freezer so the sesame seeds wouldn't go rancid. 

After I'd puttered here in the house, I took myself outdoors to plant the vinca.  The cat had decided the box they were in was an excellent bed for herself and they were being smothered.  I planted them all...

After I'd finished that task, I sat on the back porch cooling down (oh humidity....how I loathe thee!) and decided that the porch needed to be rearranged.  I moved a few things around but have decided that needs more work.

Then I painted the little metal side table and an old plant stand that had been Granny's.  It will be pretty to use on one of the porches this spring/summer.

And of course that not being nearly enough hot work, I took the pot of coleus I'd rooted over winter around front to the patio, and planted more coleus in that pot (broken stems from the new pots) and then potted up the tomato, basil, celosia, begonias, petunias, and more coleus.  I still had to pot the mint, tomato, and zucchini I'd been given but I had enough  Sweaty, wringing wet with heat and humidity, dirty, paint-stained...That was about as much as I could handle.

Meals:  Biscuits, Sausage Gravy

Leftovers

Chef's Salad, Lemon Pie. When I was hospitalized years ago and put on a restricted diet, one thing they did at the end of each day was give me a small two-bite portion of a dessert.  That little taste of something sweet each evening was looked forward to and made the 'diet' bearable.  Seriously I felt I was missing nothing and I'm applying that same principle to my current eating plan.  I try to limit sweets hard but a two-bite portion once a day is a pleasure.

Wednesday:  I had Millie for a bit this morning, while Sam kept an appointment.  She didn't want anything to eat but asked for something to drink.  I am low on juice, but I had a tub of Tang and mixed her up a cup of that.  She gulped it down.  

After she left I was back outdoors.  Today I repotted a chrysanthemum that I'd shoved in the herb planter last fall due to lack of space elsewhere.  Several of the stems came off and I was surprised to find that they were separate plants with root systems.  I had plenty of chrysanthemums to pot up and I hope that they do well enough to become full plants on their own.  

I planted the tomato and the two zucchini.  Then I transplanted the sage from the herb planter to a pot. It held on through the winter but it never grew very well in the planter.  I hope it will flourish now that it has its own pot.  I removed the remainder of the plants (oregano and chives) and then added fresh soil to the herb planter and then replanted the oregano and chives.  I have a whole empty planter now that I would like to fill with basil.  I added fresh soil to the planter I had the mint in and then transplanted the mint plants and added in the new pot of mint.

After playing in the dirt, I came indoors and made lunch.  I decided to use the rest of the chicken to make sandwiches for our lunch.  After I cut away the breast meat, I tossed the whole frame in a pot and added onion, garlic, some celery, and carrots so I could make soup broth.  

As I was adding vegetables, I recalled that I had about 4 pounds of baby carrots in the freezer from last summer's school lunch bounty that Sam shared with us.  I added some of those to my broth pot.

While cutting celery, I remembered my promise to myself to eat more fresh celery. I cut sticks to put on our lunch plates.  It was so good and crisp.  I must remember that this is a good snack as well as an accompaniment to a meal.

After lunch, John went off to mow The Manor House lawn, so I got busy in the kitchen.  I removed the chicken frame and vegetables from the broth.  Then I tossed the last few lasagna noodles from a nearly empty box in the broth to cook.  While I waited for the lasagna to cook to the al dente stage, I removed the meat from the chicken bones.  

I had two bananas in the fridge and kept forgetting to use them.  I looked up a recipe for an easy banana cake which I halved to make one 9 x 9 pan.  

By the time John returned, I'd made tonight's supper, had made and cooled and frosted the cake, had a glass of Gatorade in the fridge waiting on him, and had listened to more than half of a podcast.  I even swept the kitchen floor and did the dishes! Twice!

Meals: Grits, eggs, toast, bacon

Chicken Club Sandwiches, Celery sticks, and shared a candy bar with John.  The bonus of a smaller candy bar is they have fewer carbs and even less if you half them with someone.

Snack for me: 1/2 cup frozen blueberries.

Meatballs, Lasagna Roll-ups, Italian Style Green Beans, Banana Cake.  I served one roll-up with two meatballs which was plenty for us.  I have enough leftovers to make a second meal of the meatballs and roll-ups.  

Thursday:  John was off today to have lunch and I thought I'd run errands. I heard a rumble of thunder and left early, hoping I'd miss the rain enough to only catch it here at home on my return. Ha.

I dropped off mail and then headed to Ft. Valley to the discount grocery.  I am going to show pictures today of what I bought.  All but $5 of the $129 spent were grocery items.   There was a lot of clearance meat and produce to choose from today.  

I always try to have one 'Chinese' dinner in the freezer.  This week I got egg rolls and wontons which I'll fry as potstickers (2 meals).  There are Springer Mountain bone-in chicken breasts (4 meals), 1 package of country pork spare ribs (3 meals), and 1 package of pork chops (3 meals).  The pork was on clearance.  And the last item is a package of hash brown patties.

The highest price per pound for meat today was $2.59.

I bought a package of Suddenly Salad which got soaked and disintegrated.  Thank goodness they packaged the pasta in plastic bags!  John's favorite cookies (cheap duplex) Biscoff cookies for me, and his pork rinds.  Two packages of cheese, 1 package of cream cheese, spreadable butter, a 30 ct. sausage patty, 4 pounds of smoked sausage, and a bag of shoestring fries.  I also have 4 pounds of hamburger meat that was clearance at $1.59 per pound.

The broccoli, bananas, and iceberg lettuce were full-priced and ran around the same amount at any other store.  The rest of the produce was all from the clearance rack.  I got four HUGE navel oranges for $2, a package of cherry tomatoes ($1), 2 packages of baby bella mushrooms (75c), 2 pounds of Tomatillos (75c) a four-pack each of red and green bell peppers ($1 each), a head of cauliflower (75c) and four baking potatoes ($1).  

I got about two weeks' worth of food for us in this haul.  Of course, we won't eat all of this in two weeks.  The meat has been frozen, the pork rinds are half gone already and John's cookies won't last a week.  (Mine on the other hand would if John wouldn't then help himself to them, lol).  I'll use part of the peppers fresh and put the rest in the freezer if we don't use them all.

I do plan to make one more stop this week at Kroger where I'll get cheese for $4.99/two-pound blocks and a single half gallon of milk ($1.29) and blueberries for $2.99 a pint. 

My flower purchases were a 6-pack of red salvia and a 6-pack of variegated red impatiens.  That was a $5 purchase.  The salvia will attract the hummingbirds.  I can trim and root the impatiens all summer and create more plants. That's what I'm looking for this year: annual plants I can propagate and perennials that will return year after year.

Meals today: We skipped breakfast.

John was out with his friend.  I stopped at Captain D's and got fish from the value menu ($6).

The supper will be a mixture of broth and leftover chicken noodle casserole stirred together for Chicken Noodle Soup.  

That's my week...How did yours go?  Did you make savings anywhere?  Do you have a bargain purchase you'd like to share or a thrifty meal that was especially tasty?  Come share in the comments!

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