Weekly Menu and Job Plans

I feel under the weather.  Not a thing I can put my finger on, but I've decided to take it easy until I start to feel more energetic.  There's plenty I want to do and plenty more than needs to be done, but I have learned the hard way that pushing often leads to a lingering illness rather than a day or two of just not feeling well.  Fortunately the house has held up very well over the last few days and requires only minute attention.

This week's menus will start with the meal we had today, Monday.  I will be shopping for groceries on Thursday and not a day too soon.  I am still struggling with this short pay period at the end of each month and the reduced grocery funds.  I am so grateful for my pantry as that has helped a good bit, and it surely a good indicator that  a pantry's important in a household.

Turkey Fricassee, Salad, Broccoli rice Casserole, Biscuits
When I cooked the turkey breast Saturday, I put a whole apple and whole onion in the cavity of the breast, then poured over about 1 cup of apple juice.  It adds a different taste to the turkey  meat and a rich color to the broth and is a nice change.  I used some of the broth to make the gravy today.

My Frugal Week - April 19 - 25

Saturday:    I had menus for the weekend all worked out. The best laid plans of mice and women who think they should have a plan...Before Friday evening had finished up my husband announced his desire to have steak.  Which was not part of my planned menu.  So I rearranged my menu and settled happily back thinking I had a great alternate plan.  And then I got a text from my youngest son saying he would be down to visit on Sunday which changed my plan for that day.  Never mind.  I rose to that challenge, too.

Breakfast was easy and simple.  Warm coffee cake, cubes of cheddar cheese, and half a banana.  John brought the banana home Friday.  He said he'd bought two Thursday while he was at work and ate only one.   I considered it a happy bonus addition to my foodstuffs this week.

The Housewife

The Housewife

My days are days of small affairs,
Of trifling worries, little cares-----
A lunch to pack, a bed to make,
A room to sweep, a pie to bake,
A hurt to kiss, a tear to dry,
A head to brush, a bow to tie,
A face to wash, a rent to mend,
A meal to plan, a fuss to end,
A hungry husband to be fed-----
A sleepy child to put to bed.
I, who had hoped some day to gain
Success-----perhaps a bit of fame,
Must give my life to small affairs,
Of trifling worries, little cares.
But, should tomorrow bring a change,
My little house grow still and strange-----
Should all the cares I know today
Be swept, quite suddenly, away,
Where now a hundred duties press
Be but an ache of loneliness;
No child's gay ribbons to be tied,
No wayward little feet to guide:
To Heaven then would rise my prayers:
"Oh God, give back my little cares!"

by Tramp Star

Coffee Chat - I Said I Would

Oh Hello!  Do come on in.  I'm a bit ready for company so I'm glad you could stop by.  There's some gingersnaps with a bit of lemon curd filling.  Sounds tasty, doesn't it?  I made a cocoa ripple coffeecake Friday before the weekend, but it's all gone now.  I'd suggest we go outdoors but it's quite warm out there which  is nice but isn't if you've been working all morning and a good portion of the afternoon, too.  We had quite a cool spell end of week  and weekend.  I didn't expect that and was quite shocked to read the weather reports and even denied they could possibly be right.  Well for once they were right. 

I had all day last Sunday alone here at home and I spent it cleaning, getting ready for Passover, planning how to use the last of the products that contained yeast.  I decided to have toast for supper that night and to make French toast for breakfast, which took care of half the loaf of bread that we had on hand.  In the end, I threw out the other half loaf and 1 packet of dried soup mix I'd bought to make a dip for chips.  I was very proud that I'd managed to use so many things and that I'd kept a watchful eye on my pantry and hadn't overstocked those items.

The cleaning was a little more detailed than usual but that was because I just felt I needed to be thorough.  The cleaning reaped far more dirt and crumbs than I might have imagined it might considering I do housework daily.  I was surprised, but then again, I shouldn't be.  I did say I was being very thorough, so I cleaned under the stove top and under the oven, dishwasher and fridge, places I normally swipe out about once every few months, not daily.

Meal and Jobs Plan for April 20-27

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Spring, spring, you're so lovely, and so very fickle...It keeps us on our toes.  Shall we need heat today or Air Conditioning?  A little of both?  None of either?  It has been lovely, really and there's the bonus of getting to wear both some of my favorite winter things and some of my favorite summer things.  We had inches upon inches of rain earlier last week and then finished the week off with a few more inches, as well.

Planning meals has taken on a whole new twist.  I plan to make salads for supper and the temperature drops so I dig about in the freezer for frozen soup to heat.  I plan to grill and it pours rain so we pan roast.  Apparently spring this year is all about being open to change.  I need the practice, so I'm trying to go right along with it all.  

Adding to my planning woes: my freezer stock of meats is very low.  I hope we get to restock this next pay period.  I have set some money aside to use for this.  I have no idea what the prices will look like this time around.  Needless to say, I've already planned unnecessary items to be cut out of that usual purchase budget.  And then there's the new normal of one short pay period each month, there's the added challenge of not stocking up and decreasing the grocery budget for that pay period by half what we'd normally spend.  And no, we don't get to make it up on the healthier pay period.  Nothing quite like forced cooperation in lowering an already tight budget is there?

Lena asked last week about Red Black and Blue salad: Tomatoes and lettuce, slices of cooked roast or steak, blue cheese crumbles.  With sour dough croutons this is a tasty warm weather dish.  We didn't have warm weather this past week, nor the roast I'd meant to make, so this dish got bumped from our menu as well.

Just five meal plans this week.  I'll be on my own two days this coming week.

My Frugal Week: April 12-18

Saturday:  I didn't have time to prep foods for today due to our commitments yesterday.  No matter.  I did have an easily prepared meal in the freezer.  I thawed and heated spaghetti sauce.  It took a minimum of preparation to make our dinner.

We had our supper this evening on the back porch.  It was so nice to sit there in the shade, listening to the birds, catching the slight breeze and eat our meal.  It was what we dreamed of when we sat on the covered patio at the sandwich shop early last Spring.

In the interest of being nearer the temperature we expect to keep the house this summer we bumped the thermostat on the AC up by 2 degrees today.    We also did not turn on the heat at all this morning, choosing instead to put on sweaters until the sun warmed the house.

Harvest Day - Pay Day

I've been asked to share our Harvest Day.  I thought I'd done so already but it must have been over on the old Xanga blog.  So I will explain our process to you.  First let me say that we didn't always refer to it as Harvest Day.  It was pay day, just like it is for almost everyone else, but it occurred to us one evening that John sows the seed of time and labor into his job, I sow the same into our home and what money comes into this house is a harvest of our efforts.  Hence we renamed it Harvest Day.  It's been a great reminder of why we do all that we do and of the importance of our roles.

John works as a paramedic.  He puts in some long hours. Our goal has been that he will work only regular hours.  Many of the folks he works with in his unit also work 2nd and 3rd jobs.  That is not what either of us want.  Believe me, during our early married years he put in plenty of hours and we made a lot of sacrifices as a family for this job.  Now that he's nearer an age to think of retiring in the next 5 or so years we're not nearly so interested in amassing hours as we are in learning to live on what we might reasonably expect our retirement income to be.