Menu Monday

 

Brrr, another cold but sunny day. Other than going out and getting Harvey's prescriptions for the next month I have stayed home and worked around the house. I still have laundry to fold, and perhaps a bit of putting away in the sewing/craft room, but for the most part tasks are done for today.

So what are we eating this week.

Monday

Leftover jambalaya from Saturday. 

Tuesday

One package of leftover pork roast from Sunday. I was going to make a stir fry, but I think some pulled pork in BBQ sauce in wraps would hit the spot and use up some wraps and frozen veggies like peppers and celery. 

Wednesday

I have one Chicken Parma, and one Broccoli stuffed chicken so will get those out of the freezer as well. Probably served with sliced cucumber and some frozen carrots.

Thursday

I hope there is enough of the pulled pork from Wednesday to serve on open faced bread slices covered with melted cheese, or perhaps I will make some buns and serve. 

Friday

Potato soup, and egg salad or scrambled egg sandwiches. 

Saturday

Homemade pizza. I will see how the dough I made and froze works. If it does I will make some more to put in the larger chest freezer. 

Sunday

Roast chicken, roasted potatoes, roasted carrots.

Everyone have a wonderful evening. 

God bless.

Sunday Ramblings

 

The day once again started of a bit cloudy and pretty darn cold, but it has warmed up a bit and the sun is shining. We are in for a couple of days of cold weather and then a warm up until the end of the month. I am keeping my fingers crossed that the nice weather will last until Kris has been home for Easter, and Kurt gets off on his journey with his students to France and the visits to the Canadian beach, and graveyards of our fallen hero's.

Me, well the next few days being cold I will be staying home, working on the usual household tasks, and of course my projects. 

I should, in fact, finish the flimsy tomorrow and perhaps even get all the necessary items together to work on the ornaments. Those will be another item to add to the silent auction. The more that we have to bid on, the less likely we will need to pay for anything like the Friday night meal or the Saturday larger meal and rental of the building. 

There is also hope that I will be finished the rug for Kris before he comes home. I am about halfway finished the one border. 

Still I have many projects (well a number of them) on my list that I haven't even started yet......

The mini computer for my television has been ordered. Kris looked at the specs I sent him and said it would work perfectly for what I want. I also told him about my email problem and he is going to see if he can fix that as well. Hmm, I think I should have told him about the pictures on Gallery problem as well. Oh well I can manage with the old digital camera just fine for the next while though the camera on the phone takes much better photos. 

Work continues on the decluttering front and my hope to have a much simpler life by the time I am done. Perhaps by doing so we will be able to stay in our home longer as in looking at what the monthly condo fees are and the property taxes on said condos we would actually go through our cash reserves quite quickly..... I think it might be less expensive to rent an apartment in the city.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Saturday Roundup

 

I actually got a few projects down to the finish line or completed this week. As well as making some soup that we can eat for a few meals.

First off I used the leftover brisket and made a Vegetable, Barley Beef Soup.

This used up the broccoli in the crisper. While I am not sure I like this soup with broccoli, it at least used up something from the crisper as well as a couple of carrots.

I did sew the rug together and got it measured for the border or borders. Not done yet, but I see the end in sight to this project.

The four totes are sewn for the silent auction this summer. I may break down and do up a denim one later.

The first of the 2 1/2 inch strips have been added to the embroidered blocks and I have started pinning on the next two strips. Hope to get those done tomorrow and perhaps even begin to sew them all together. 

This week also saw me chopping and freezing celery and green peppers before they went bad. This is definitely going to be either use it or freeze it year so there is no waste. Groceries and the cost to get them are just to expensive to waste anything. 

I had to change the menu for tonight, but it does involve using up, or starting to use up some more items in the fridge freezer. There should be enough left from this meal to make us another meal, but we will see.

Hubby is busy putting together a set of shelves to use with the grow lights. He managed to find some on Facebook Marketplace for less than what it would cost to make them. He does need to paint the shelves though so as to make them a bit more waterproof. 

I hope to have some more finished projects this week and that would mean more checked off my project/goal list for the month.

Everybody have a wonderful evening. 

God bless.

A Simple Life

 

Life is so much easier now that I am moving closer and closer to a simpler way of living. 

I have always cooked most of my meals from scratch, not so much when we first married, but as my experience at the stove grew so did my scratch cooking. Now it is more just the way I do things. Today I will be making pancakes for our supper and as usual there will be no pancake mix used. I don't think I have ever tasted pancakes from a mix, I know my mom always made hers from scratch as well. 

Moving away from mixes, not only gives me control over the ingredients, but works out to be less expensive than cookie mixes, muffin mixes, cake mixes, and pie crust mixes. Mind you the way flour and sugar are increasing in price that could perhaps change. 

Decluttering is making room in my life for those things I love and passing on those that we no longer need to others who just might. Seeing empty spaces in my closet and drawers makes me happy. It also makes me wonder, why I ever gathered so many things to wear and why I have held onto things that no longer fit or suit the lifestyle I now live. 

I am now able to organize things a bit more. There is loads more to do but I am slowly getting there. Using things up in my craft/sewing room has been an eyeopener. I never realized how much I had gathered over the years. Right now I figure I will be able to be occupied with this for a number of years. The stash will make some lovely gifts over the next few years for sure.

I am hopeful that we will keep moving in this direction which gives us more time to spend together as a family, to enjoy our hobbies more, in fact to perhaps add a hobby or two that will come in useful in the future. 

It will give us time to go out and forage in the summer and fall, something we did in the past, but it has gone by the wayside as we filled our days with busyness and work. 

Life is meant to be enjoyed not rushed through. As we age and the years pass with what seems to be speed, this becomes even more important. 

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Thrifty and Frugal Thursday

Thrifty and Frugal

The snow arrived at about 6:35 am. At times it was so heavy I could not see clearly down the hill to the gas station in the valley right below. Poor Harvey couldn't check out gas prices today and I was in a bit of a rush while out so didn't check for him. The wind has picked up now and the snow is blowing around. Should be some lovely drifts tomorrow.

So what thrifty and frugal things have I been up to this week.

1.  Adding vegetable scraps to the bag in the freezer. Hope to make veggie stock very soon.

2.  Baked bread and have a loaf in the freezer.

3.  Working on projects to use up all those bits and bobs of fabric and yarn.

4.  Paid the bills online (including the extra car insurance, just had to make up a nickname so I could tell the difference between policies).

5.  Darned a pair of my socks.

6.  Continued the decluttering.

7.  Either using leftovers for another meal or freezing them for use later on.

8.  My exercise has been walking around the house.

9.  Used saved water to water the inside plants. 

10.  As usual hung two loads on the lines downstairs.

11.  Downloaded some more free reading material onto my ereader.

I did go out and do some errands today before the worst of the storm hit. I got our allowances which will be handed out on the 15th and picked up a few items at the grocery. I also picked up the mail and we got a few more necessary forms for our taxes. 

Everybody have a wonderful evening (or late afternoon).

God bless.

 

Midweek And Actually Staying Calm

Hello fellow bloggers. Here it is the middle of the second week of the month of March. Amazing. 

I think I should probably make something clear. In trying to clear up my fridge freezer, I am really not running low on food. I have an upright meat freezer downstairs, and a chest freezer which I use for baking, ready meals, broths, veggies and fruits. 

When I talk about trying to clear out my fridge freezer, it is to use up such items as leftover bags of roast chicken, roast beef, roast ham and roast pork. I usually package those roast leftovers up into meal sized bags to be used to make many more meals. I will be making a roast pork, a roast chicken and a roast beef this month and so will be bagging up the leftovers and putting those into the fridge freezer. I don't think the fridge freezer will ever be truly empty. 

I thought I would get two totes done today, but actually only managed one. Piecing together interfacing took much more time than I thought, and then cutting all the interfacing for all the totes took up a bit of time as well. 

Also, I had to spend some time on the phone getting back into my SaskEnergy account. For some reason I was not being allowed in and not getting notified as to what our bill for the past month is. Everything is great now there, if only I could get the pictures from my phone Gallery to the computer..... Sighs, will continue to work on that. 

I woke up to snow on the ground this morning, just a dusting, which melted away during the afternoon. Tonight the temperature will drop, and the forecast is calling for snow. 

Friday should be good so I will head out early and get the banking done and the one bill paid that needs to be paid in person for some odd reason. I first got this insurance online and paid for it online for two years so I can not for the life of me figure out what has changed. 

Off to visit you all.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Tuesday Tidbits and Stuff

 While the sun is out, it really is not as warm as previous days, and of course snow will be coming. 

I spent most of today after tasks working on my projects. The rug is ready to be sewn, but I am making some knitted sides as the stripes are not matching up quite the way I would like and so the sewing together will be slightly different than I had hoped. 

My embroidered blocks are done and ready to be fashioned into a flimsy sometime very soon. 

I next got all the parts, except for the interfacing, ready to sew the totes together.

I will need to sew some of the pieces of interfacing together in order to use up the smaller bits of interfacing. There are 4 totes to be fashioned over the next few days. 

I never shared what I purchased for the pantry this past week. Mainly because my darn phone is not allowing me to upload the photos to my gallery on the computer. Meaning I had to find the old digital camera and get it up and running once again. 

This time I picked up some cans of pineapple and 2 bottles of sauce. One bottle is plum sauce and the other is honey garlic. 

Harvey has put together his grow lights, and is working on the shelving unit. Today we got our new doorbell, and that is installed now as well. 

Me, well I have been checking out Amazon for a wagon. I think I just might have found the one I will purchase. It is a bit expensive, but will carry enough from the grocery store that I would purchase. The only problem I can foresee is that one place I shop at is quite a distance away. But perhaps I can arrange it so that on that occasion I drive once a month to pick up all that I need. 

I have also been checking out a new mini computer for the television as the one I have on there now can not be updated any longer, and the software on it is not supported. Soon I may not be able to use it at all. Probably order this item first as there is still ice and snow on the ground, and then Kris can install it for me once he gets home for Easter. I will use the money in my savings envelope for this purpose as there is still time to save for our trip and for the family reunion. 

My fridge freezer is emptying nicely. However what with the pork roast this Sunday I will be adding to it once again. Most of what is in there now are carcasses for bone broth, a couple of stuffed chicken for a meal, two pieces of salmon fillets, a package of frozen brisket and some frozen chopped veggies. There are lots of frozen veggie packages as well. I would enjoy getting it totally empty and by the end of the next couple of weeks that will be within reach. 

Now I just need to remember to use things up in there in good order. The same can be said for the meals in the chest freezer as well. Having ready made meals is great and very frugal, but if you don't use them it can be a problem.

Now I am off to start supper where I will be using up some leftovers from the fridge. 

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.