August 11:
I've already counted this into the first record of this challenge, but I bottled the herbs I'd harvested last week.
Started planting the fall 2025 garden today. I had potato eyes (I let the pieces scab over), green onion in water and a celery end root here in the house. All of those got planted. Then I planted Blue Lake green beans, parsley, Japanese eggplant, carrots, zucchini and yellow squash.
Packaged the pork chops and chicken breasts I bought yesterday. I added 3 pkgs Bone in Skin on Chicken breasts. 1 pkg had 2 smaller breasts and the other two had one huge breast each. These will be on sale all month at Publix and I'm trying to get a package or two each week. The breasts are huge. The one we ate lasst week gave us two meals!
I put four 2 pc. packages of pork chops in the freezer.
I made granola and put 1 quart in the pantry.
I mixed up Make Your Own Brownie Mix from Eating On a Dime website. I made 1 pan for now, have 1 pint and 1 quart of mix for the future.
August 12:
We were out for a doctor's appointment this morning so I couldn't do anything here at home, but I asked John to run by our local grocer on our way back through town. I checked for discounted meats and came out with 2 sirloin steaks (2/$5. These steaks were just over 1.5 pounds each) and 2 Ribeye that I think were about 1 pound each. The Ribeye were $5 each. The manager rang me out and he only charged me for the 2 Ribeye, knocking the other meat down to 0! I've no idea why he was so kind, but I appreciate the savings to my budget.
I believe I should be able to get 2 meals off each of the sirloin steaks and each Ribeye will serve the two of us one meal. So I can count 6 meals for this little haul.
While supper cooked tonight, I mixed up chocolate chip cookie dough, made the dough into balls and flash froze. I put 4 dozen cookie balls into the freezer.
August 13:
What I did today was not even on my list for the day but it works toward the challenge for this month all the same.
I found a one pound roll of sausage in the pork basket, so I took it out to thaw last night. This morning, I made sausage balls. I got about 40 sausage cheese balls to go in to the freezer. These will be frozen uncooked and I'll bake a few when we want them. I used some of the shelf stable white cheddar that came in the school boxes as the cheese. I assumed this would be very salty like Velveeta but it wasn't.
I roasted all the beef bones and the vegetable scraps from the freezer this morning for about 3 hours. I then put them all in the stock pot and let them simmer for a few hours. Later this afternoon, I'll strain out the bones and scraps and put the broth in the fridge to chill so I can skim off any fat.
While I was making dinner, I had an extra pan of corn pudding which went into the freezer for future side dish.
August 14:
This morning, I skimmed the fat off the beef broth (not too much) and then I got my jars washed. Today's canning: 1 pint ham broth, 9 pints beef broth, 8 quarts cranberry juice.
I have more cranberries but not enough for four more quarts. However, cranberries will be coming onto market soon enough.
The jars I canned need to sit for 6 weeks according to all the sites I sourced for information on how to do this and then it will be ready to drink. I'll be curious to see how this stands up against bought juice. I used the 'easy can' method rather than the longer process.
I also cooked up egg roll filling and made 20 egg rolls this morning. I've got 14 egg rolls to put into the freezer. John and I ate egg rolls for lunch.
August 15:
Today felt very abundant in so many ways. I added all the sealed jars to the pantry this afternoon. My Amazon order arrived, and I went off to the grocery stores to pick up a variety of things. Like the canning I did yesterday, most all of the Amazon order has been added to my challenge lists already but...I said I'd purchased one box of oatmeal and apparently, I decided to get TWO, so 1 64-ounce box of oatmeal.
I went to the discount grocery today and picked up a 2 pound package of smoked sausage. This was divided into ? 2-pc packages.
At the same store I also bought 2 bottles of corn oil. I went down the spice aisle and picked up a 2-ounce container of cumin.
I've been eyeing prices on Chuck roasts. Publix has them for $7.99 a pound this week (the new 'sale' price!). The discount grocer had shoulder round roasts for $5.75 a pound. Shoulder roasts are very tender if they are slow cooked so they can substitute for Chuck Roast quite well.
I bought 4.75 pounds shoulder roast which I plan to divide into smaller roasts of about 1.75 pound and the rest will be cubed for stew meat.
At Publix this week I purchased 24 chicken legs. The family packs of 12 were BOGO. I'm not fond of dark meat as a rule but I do like legs in certain recipes. I'll package them into packages of four. I was surprised that the bone in skin on breasts was no longer on sale. Usually these sales last a month but this time they kept it going only two weeks.
5 pounds of grits
2 14-ounce jars Pepperoncini
1 can coffee (for emergencies)
1 jar instant decaf coffee
4 bars of Yardley soap. I got lavender soap for the kiddos to use when they are bathing and lemon verbena. This was a BOGO, too.
I feel like I've done a good bit this week and since I didn't take a day off last week I'll be taking at least the next two days off. It's a busy weekend ahead for us and I just don't have time to play in the kitchen as well.
August 17:
I took time this afternoon to break down the sausage I purchased on Friday and got it in the freezer in portion sizes. I had 7 packages and cooked one more portion for our breakfast this morning.
August 18:
I had no plans to do anything today, but I walked by the fruit bowl and noted that the peaches purchased on Friday had been bruised and were showing signs of getting ready to decay. I washed, peeled, sliced and vacuum sealed enough to make a cobbler later this year. That was 6 peaches that went into the freezer today.
I also gathered marigold and Balsam seeds which I have drying on the counter now.
I packed up Echinacea, Rudbeckia, Zinnia and Sweet William seeds to sow later in the fall. Well not the Zinnia, those will be sown next Spring.
Food Depot has a ham shank on sale this week for just 98c a pound (plus 10%) which is a great price. I'm contemplating this because I still have a bit of ham that I purchased at Easter last year. For the two of us it's a lot of ham. I can break down a Butt portion into portions better than I can a Shank portion. I may pass on this sale this week, but it is a good price.
August 20:
I've just ordered 10 cans each of Cream of Chicken and Cream of Mushroom from Amazon to go on the pantry shelves. I found a deal for 69c a can through one of the coupon sites this morning and ordered it right away. They will arrive tomorrow. This was a blessing to find because I'd just noted that I was low on these. I know the cans at Aldi are a little cheaper, but I often have a hard time finding cream of chicken at our Aldi and I don't feel the taste is as good as Campbell's. The Amazon Fresh Brand (formerly Happy Belly) is quite good.
I put two quarts of the Mixed Fruit Juice I made last week into the freezer.
John had said he'd go into town today to get some gas and a belt for the mower. I was going to ride along and check in at the local grocery, but he's made no move thus far and it's after 1pm. I feel like this week is ending up being a bust where food storage is concerned.
Sales have slowed at the grocery. I suppose next week they'll have Labor Day sales and things will pick up once more.
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