Savings and Goals Journal #14

It was a busy week of garden work and preserving here at our house. I did take time to make a quick visit one afternoon to see my sweet little Mama. She lives an hour away and I don’t go to see her often enough. I’m going to work on that. I can share a ride with my daughter when she goes to visit her friend who lives nearby. I’d like to spend some time with my mom and help her get some things done around her house.

In the Kitchen

We were able to switch some of our planned meals from last week over to the upcoming week. We harvested several zucchini from the garden and used them to make Zucchini Pizza Boats one night instead of our planned meal. Grampy really liked them.

We did a major grocery haul and stocked up on canned goods and dry goods. We should be set for a while for those things.

I did some organizing in the pantry and made an inventory of our dry goods (flour, sugar, rice, oats). I don’t have space to store tons of extra but I feel comfortable with the amount we have. I will be watching the sale ads for good deals on meats next to stock up our freezer.

We froze and canned much of our garden harvest this week. We canned 7 pints of Cowboy Candy and one pint of the leftover syrup. The syrup can be used for marinades and things.

We chopped and froze 10 cups of bell peppers. I found an awesome chopper at a yard sale for $4.00. It’s like this one. I’d seen someone use one on YouTube, but I didn’t want to pay full price for one. When I found it brand-new at a yard sale earlier this year, I knew it was a good deal. It made the dicing go much faster and the pieces are all nice and uniform in size.

Grampy picked four grocery sacks of green chile and roasted it on the barbecue grill. He froze 8 quart-sized bags of roasted chile, and had some leftover to eat fresh this week. He is on his way to filling up his chile basket in the bottom of the freezer.

I canned five quarts and one pint of green beans for the pantry. I froze okra for using in gumbo later. We enjoyed fresh tomatoes. The Chocolate Sprinkles are our favorite tomato to snack on. I shredded and froze four cups of zucchini. I hope to have several bags of shredded zucchini in the freezer by the end of the summer. We will use it for making zucchini bread and zucchini-potato hashbrowns.

The garden is helping our grocery budget by providing fresh food for our meals and the extra in the freezer and pantry will feed us this winter.

This week’s meal plan:

• Monday: White Chicken Chili
• Tuesday: Leftovers
• Wednesday: Philly Cheesesteak Casserole
• Thursday: Leftovers
• Friday: Breakfast for Dinner: Sausage, Biscuits, Gravy, eggs, hashbrowns, fruit
• Saturday: Cubed pork with gravy over rice, frozen veggies
• Sunday: Tortilla Chip Casserole

In the Garden

We are drowning in cucumbers. There is no way we will be able to eat all we are harvesting. Grampy has several people he can share them with. I’ve never had good luck making pickles in the past, and we really only eat a few jars a year. I just wait until they go on sale. We do make what Grampy calls “Cucumbers and Onions,” which are kept in the fridge in kind of a vinegar brine he mixes up. I’m going to ask him to try to jot down a recipe. He usually just does it to taste.

We’ve harvested okra, zucchini, bell peppers, chile peppers, green beans and jalapenos.

It’s been very hot, and we are watering the gardens every other day. I usually go out early in the mornings and pull my daily bucket of weeds at the same time.

We are still waiting for the tomatoes to ripen for canning.

Home and Family

Grampy and I did a DIY project last weekend. Unfortunately, my grandmother’s dining room table that we moved in a while back is too large for my tiny kitchen. We tried to make it work, but it was frustrating due to the lack of space.

So, being the creative folks we are, we used the base from my small pine drop-leaf table and the tabletop from the table my daughter removed from her RV to make a table that fits our space. It’s not perfect, but it’s better. We can now seat four comfortably. Five would be better, but we would have to relocate our freezer and there is nowhere else for it to go.

One day I will have a home large enough to use my grandma’s table. For now, I keep it covered with a tablecloth and use it as a work table to do bookkeeping for my dad’s small business in my little office/studio.

I will begin decluttering again this week. I somehow lost my momentum, but I’m feeling inspired to continue downsizing our belongings. Having clutter around the house adds to the chaos of lots of people and pets in a small space.

I’m also working on solidifying my housekeeping routines. I love routines and consistency and when my children were small I had a cleaning schedule that I loved. I’m getting back to that since we once again have small children in our home and there is more to keep up with. One thing I’m adding is “Furry Fun Friday,” where I make sure to brush all the pets. I love the furbabies, but they do create extra housework with their shedding.

I would much rather do a little cleaning each day and keep up on things than have everything get out of hand and have to spend full days getting things back in order.

Have a wonderful week!