Menu Monday

 

The house is quiet once again. Both Kurt and Kris left for their respective homes this morning. Both probably hit snow about 20 minutes from here, Kris more than likely hit even more snow once he got to the city. We, fortunately, only got rain. Lots of rain and lower temperatures which could cause some freezing overnight. Now a pretty dense fog is moving in so there will not be a nice sunset here.

I can now go back to cooking for two once again. Going to be difficult for awhile as I rev things up to cook for 4 (two whom eat enough for probably 4) and now have to try and cut back. I also have lots of bits of salad leftover as well. 

So here are my menus for this week. We are invited to a birthday celebration that includes dinner on Saturday so the menu will of course change once again.

Monday

The leftover filling from my stuffed cabbage and ground meat buns made into a casserole. Served with the leftover yellow beans from yesterday's supper.

Tuesday

Leftover turkey made into a casserole, serving with sliced cuke and sliced tomatoes. Should be enough left for another meal this week.

Wednesday

Soup and sandwiches. Kurt gave me the idea to make some of my processed pumpkin puree into a soup. Should make a very nice change. Sandwich wise I think I might make some tuna melts.

Thursday

Leftovers from Tuesday, and I will serve them with mixed veggies.

Friday

Lazy Perogy Casserole, with fried onions, and sour cream.

Saturday

Out at the birthday celebration. 

Sunday

I will make what I had planned for Saturday. Spaghetti and meat sauce. I will try and make a marinated salad for this meal. The roast meal will be made on Monday.

Surprisingly there was not that much meat leftover from the turkey. I got a freezer medium bag for each of the sons, a freezer medium bag for us, plus a bag containing the legs and wings for us as well. This really surprised me and makes me wonder if the listed weight was wrong. Might have to pick up an even larger one for Christmas this year. 

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Friday Weekly Roundup

 

I haven't really managed to get much done on projects this week so once again no pictures. 

Instead I have been busy baking bread, baking buns, freezing leftovers, and getting ready for our Thanksgiving dinner. Add in a few necessary appointments, bill payments, and a bit of gardening processing and the week has been pretty full.

This isn't to say I haven't been doing work on projects, I have. Just not able to spend as much time as I wanted on them. I think that I just may be looking forward to the cold weather and staying at home more and working on all those projects.

More organizing and tidying of the sewing/craft room has taken place. I managed to get a whiteboard up in there and have listed the projects I had set aside, some new ones and many smaller ones. I do have to make some labels for a couple of containers next which will be put on the project list, as well as cutting strips and getting more weaving ideas down as well. 

Life, while perhaps not as slowed down as I would like it, is at least a bit more relaxed. Well at least as relaxed as I can possibly be at this stage. Decluttering is removing items from the house that no longer serve a purpose, or I can no longer use. Tidying the sewing/craft room is allowing me to see how much I actually have to work with, baking and cooking are filling my freezer with wonderful meals, Kurt and Kris will be home this weekend, as will our grandkitty. Life is good and I know we will all be okay.

This weekend we will dump baskets and pull things out from the larger planters. Not sure if we will store away and cover the deck furniture, but we will definitely be making a start on getting ready for the winter months. The garden is coming to an end, and I am continuing to process what I can when I can. 

Everybody have a wonderful evening. 

God bless.

Thrifty and Frugal Thursdays

 Thrifty and Frugal

I am trying my best to be both thrifty and frugal, but think I could be falling behind on this due to some pretty large expenditures this month and next month. Heck from now until the end of the year there are some pretty big expenditures. 

Also, since I turn 71 this year my RRSP's here in Canada have to be turned into RIFF's. I really was not paying attention or I would have moved a few more into my Tax Free Savings Account. Just goes to show one that "You snooze, you lose" is quite true. 

Our furnace still has not been turned on. Instead I have been turning on my electric fireplace to take the chill off the front rooms in the morning. By the time an hour goes by the temperature has risen and I can turn it off.

I was surprised by the air conditioner coming on a few times. Finally realized it was because the oven was on getting pumpkins processed, bread baked and pies made. I will open some windows tomorrow when I bake the birthday cake, and cookies. That should help keep the air from coming on.

Hanging as much as possible on the lines downstairs. 

Washing only full loads in the clothes washer, and in the dishwasher.

Eating leftovers for my lunches.

Saving all meal leftovers to use in another meal or two if possible. 

Still using up yarn and embroidery floss.

Working on finding out what needs to be repaired before winter hits. 

Using as many appliances to cook as possible.

Still researching meatless meals online. 

Did not purchase birthday cards for Kurt and Kris. They usually just take their birthday money out and throw away the card. So I saved quite a bit today.

Still combining as many errands as possible.

Everybody have a wonderful evening. 

God bless. 

Tuesday Tidbits and Stuff

 So, I was slowly getting better, until this morning. Woke up and my back is killing me. Not because I have done too much, rather because of the upcoming weather.

While the next couple of days are going to be just lovely, the Weather Network is forecasting snow starting Saturday night, Sunday and even part of Monday for my area and for Kris's city as well. Kurt will have even more snow fall on his town/city (I never know what to call Drumheller). It is a good thing that I really hope to have any outside errands done by Thursday, I can then stay home and rest my back as much as possible before the visit begins.

This also means that I can no longer put off getting things done outside. I will need to do a bit each day and hopefully when our sons are home I can get them to help with the clean up of flowers and furniture. Though the deck furniture might need to wait until everything dries once again before being covered and stacked.

I have been working in 15 minute bits and then changing position. That could mean moving from standing to sitting, sitting to walking and doing a few stretches as well. 

I have also been going over our budget to see where cuts can be made. As long as the stock market is going crazy we will be losing finances. This means we will need to get creative on meals, driving, water, power, and energy (natural gas). Most will not be hard to cut back a bit on, but considering winter is arriving and we are never sure about the weather or temperatures the heating portion of my planned frugality could definitely take a hit. One thing I do know is that even more appliance cooking will be taking place, the oven will be filled completely as will the dishwasher and washer. I may even hang a bit more on the lines downstairs if at all possible. 

Supper tonight is soup and grilled sandwiches. I only used about 1/2 the cauliflower, so there will be another recipe to use the remainder this week. Just not sure what.

Everybody have a wonderful evening. 

God bless.

Menu Monday

 I have made a few changes to the monthly menu already, and here it is only the 5th. Changes will use a few items up in the fridge freezer, and fridge itself. The reason being is that we had leftovers that took a couple of days to get through so main courses were moved a couple of days. 

Monday

The leftover ham I was going to use on Sunday is being used tonight. It will be diced up, and mixed with some frozen peas, finely diced onion, sliced fresh mushrooms, and the cheesy macaroni from last night to make a warming casserole.

Tuesday

Soup and grilled ham and cheese sandwiches.

Wednesday

Some smoked hamburgers on buns with pickles, cheese and whatever spread we want on them. I will make some fries to go along and cut up a cucumber and tomato (or tomatoes) as sides.

Thursday

I pulled a pizza from the freezer and will add some toppings to it. Mushrooms, ham, cheese, onion and some green pepper strips from the fridge freezer.

Friday

Making probably Glace as it can be warmed up as Kurt and Kris arrive home. If they do not want that I am sure there will be sandwich fixings and probably some leftover soup.

Saturday

Harvey is going to smoke pork chops, I will make a potato salad or coleslaw, and there will be corn on the cob to munch on as well. Dessert will more than likely be a birthday cake as both celebrate their birthday the end of next week.

Sunday

Thanksgiving. I will be making a turkey, stuffing, salad, mashed potatoes, mixed veggies, and gravy. Dessert can be cake or pumpkin pie with whipped cream or ice cream. Turkey leftovers will be packaged up and both Kurt and Kris can take some home with them when they leave on the Monday. 

I have noticed as I cleaned and organized the chest freezer that I am out of turkey and chicken bone broth and so after Thanksgiving I will be using the carcasses I have in the fridge freezer to make some replacement broth. 

I will need to tighten the frugal belt a bit more, as I had an expense that is a bit higher than I thought it would be. Explanation tomorrow on that.

I am feeling much better overall, but still not totally myself. Not good as there is much to do before the holiday.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Weekly Roundup

 

I have had a busy week trying to get things in from the garden. I managed to get all the tomatoes picked and into boxes. They are ripening very slowly, but they are ripening. I am hopeful that there will be enough to make one batch of the condensed soup I freeze tomorrow. 

Also the freezer is slowly getting organized. I am pulling older items out to use up and make room for the new items I am putting in for the winter. 

Some pumpkins have been processed and the puree is frozen. Pretty sure another two will be ready this week so more for the freezer and some to get those pies ready for Thanksgiving. 

Been baking buns and bread, trying to stockpile for when our sons are home on the 9th.

Some of the plants have been pulled or cut down on the deck, more from the herb boxes will be done tomorrow morning. 

The sewing/craft room is getting more and more organized. I work perhaps 15 minutes a day in there and it is really making a difference. Of course there are things that need to be used and turned into something that can be used in the house or given away. Hence my knitting toques, and as of today I have 13 made and another on my needles. 

Embroidery on the other hand has kind of taken a back seat. I can't work on it when the day is dark and we have had a number of those. The days I could have worked on the block have been days I have been removing things from the garden, or processing things from the garden, or even baking. 

Grocery shopping on one day, and man things are really increasing in price. I did purchase a few items ($10.00 worth) for the pantry. I actually found canned potatoes finally so picked up a can of those, plus brown sugar, icing sugar and a can of evaporated milk. Doesn't seem like much for $10.00 does it? When I look at some of the items I have bought over the years I am completely shocked at how much things have gone up in price. However yesterday I noticed that our fuel price dropped $0.03 a liter. Not much, but man a welcome sight these days. 

I know I promised pictures, but forgot to keep track of all I did this week. Next week for sure.

Please forgive me if I don't get to visit you tonight as I really am not feeling very well. I have developed a really bad headache, and that is causing my stomach to do flip flops.... Not at all what I had thought my day would end.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Thrifty and Frugal Thursdays

 Thrifty and Frugal

My goodness the weather has certainly changed. We got a bit of frost last night and today we will get more. We are covering the ground cherries to see if we can actually get a crop or at least a few that we can dehydrate and use during the winter.

The usual frugal happenings on the old homestead. I am putting up whatever I can in preparation for the winter, heck pretty much in prep for whatever is going to happen.

Clothes are being hung on the downstairs lines as the weather has not really been good to hang items outside. 

Errands once again are being done together as much as possible. 

My exercise is still walking and I managed to get the same or just above number of steps all month. This month I will add another 1k to the total and hit all those the entire month.

Organized and tidied the sewing/craft room.

Organizing the chest freezer (that still has a ways to go). 

We were under total budget last month, but I am doing a bigger stock up this month so I am hoping to be at budget or just a tad under.

Moved money into the savings account. It wasn't a great deal, but it was something.

Using up all leftovers in other meals to feed the two of us, or eating smaller amounts for my lunch. 

Cooked some ready meals for the freezer.

Will be doing some baking to use up a few things in the chest freezer. 

Working on the yarn stash, and planning some sewing to use up some of my fabric. 

Used up some embroidery thread working on the quilt blocks. 

Mended a small shrug that I knit years ago and never got around to repairing.

Now the unfrugal things. Spent way too much on groceries today, and missed a few items off my list. My back got sore so I did not want to be heaving bread flour or sugar into the cart. I can manage until the next time I go shopping. I also bought a new hand mixer. I didn't price check with other stores, just picked up the one I liked in the store. My old one the beaters were starting to rust (it is about 40 years old) and I will put it aside to use when making lotions and potions. 

Our finances have taken a real beating this quarter, mostly because of what is happening in the world. This makes it even more important that I keep to my budget as much as possible. I also have an eye appointment on Monday and I am pretty sure I need new lenses. I just hope they can put them in the frames I already have. Frames are actually what cost the most for me. 

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.