Savings and Goals Journal #15

Another busy week has flown by. We are working away watering, weeding and harvesting the garden.

In the Kitchen

Grampy helped with a food distribution through the fire department where he volunteers. The volunteers were given a box of produce for helping. We received potatoes, cauliflower, honeydew, celery, onions, apples, carrots, dates, and lettuce. These are all things we can either eat fresh, store for a while or freeze to use later. It was a wonderful help to our grocery budget!

We made Harvard Beets for the Freezer (using beets we grew in the garden) using this recipe. These are a quick and easy side dish to warm up. They are kind of sweet and tangy, sort of like pickled beets only they are served warm.

Again we had leftovers stretch an extra day, twice. But I’m not moving the meals I planned but didn’t make to the upcoming week. In the coming week we are going to eat from the freezer. We have several leftovers that we’d frozen in single-serving portions for later, and I’d like to use them up before they stay in the freezer too long. I’m not planning any specific meal for any specific day. Everyone can just pick what they want and warm it up. Kind of like a self-service freezer buffet! 🙂

This week’s meal plan:

Foods available are:

• Pinto beans and ham
• Enchiladas
• White chicken chili
• Swedish Meatballs
• Taco Pinto Beans
• Chili
• Barbecue Chicken
• Turkey (cooked and cubed to make wraps or salad)

This may not be enough for the full week. If we do eat all of the frozen foods, we’ll have breakfast for dinner one night.

I have two whole chickens in the freezer, which I plan to roast and then pick the meat from the bones. I will use the bones to make broth to can (adding other bones I’ve saved in the freezer for this.) With the meat from the chickens, I’m planning to make several freezer meals. Right now I need to streamline the mealtime cooking since I’m also canning and freezing garden produce. Having meals in the freezer will save tons of time.

In the Garden

We harvested, beets, tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, green chile, jalapenos, okra, zucchini, and Fooled You peppers (which look like a jalapeno, but they’re not hot).

In addition to the Harvard Beets, the garden provided lots of goodies for the pantry and freezer. The zucchini made 8 quart-sized bags of shredded zucchini for the freezer. The okra was frozen. We ate tomatoes and cucumbers fresh. We saved the jalapenos to make Cowboy Candy when we have enough of them. We roasted and froze the green chile (5 more quart-sized bags.) The green beans yielded 7 quarts of canned green beans and two quarts frozen. We will make poppers with the Fooled-You peppers. I am so thankful for all the things we can put up for later. It is comforting to see the pantry and freezers filling with the food we’ve grown and preserved.

Home and Family

Grampy and I had a rare evening to ourselves as both the girls and the grandbabies were gone. We contemplated getting takeout and bringing food home. We chose instead to go to the store and buy sour cream and a bag of tortilla chips. We had all the other things at home to make taco salads. We also got a container of ice cream as a treat. Much cheaper than going out, and we have leftovers for another meal! We watched a movie on Netflix. It was a lovely evening.

I “repaired” our vacuum cleaner hose. It had split near the top. I wrapped the split area with duct tape and will try to limp it along for a while. It seems to be working. I am trying to put money back for a dishwasher and would really rather not buy a new vacuum right now. I am going to see if I can order a new hose.

I was visiting my stepmom’s mom the other day and noticed she had lily pads in her pond, and they had bloomed. I didn’t know those would grow here, and I’d never seen a real one. But it was so cute and different, I had to take a picture. It was a reminder that just little things can really brighten up your day!

Have a wonderful week!