Monday Menu Planning

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One week till Spring Break and then we start a Disney countdown followed by Summer Break countdown. I need the motivation to make it through.  This week we have four scheduled nights of baseball games so that will keep us on our toes!  You will notice that we have lots of left-overs on the menu this week as the refrigerator is full and I dislike food waste. 

Breakfast- Saturday-Bacon and eggs.  Sunday-biscuits   Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday Friday– find it (breakfast burritos,bagel thins (previously purchased on sale) oatmeal, omelets, cereal and milk, , sausage, pop-tarts, and eggs.

Lunch- Saturday- bagels Sunday-Olive Garden   Monday- crackers  Tuesday,  Wednesday, Thursday- left-overs.  Friday- eat out.

Dinner- Saturday- Left-overs Sunday- Left-overs Monday-  Pepper steak and rice (Pepper steak is left-overs) Tuesday-Game food or eat on the way home.   Wednesday-  Chicken sandwhich and French Fries, using homemade buns. Thursday- Spaghetti   Friday-  Left-overs to round out the week.

Sunday Garden Update

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Today is one of the most important days of the garden season….. We moved the squash and cucumbers to the outside garden beds! Cucumbers are small but…

Yellow Squash is next

Zucchini is behind the garlic

Finally, these Loofa’s just were attaching themselves to the old sprinkler system.

Sugar snap peas are out front

The cosmos are growing and in the very back we have SUNFLOWERS!

The tomatoes and green peppers are still in the greenhouse for another week at the least.

Another 36 marigold plants are ready to plant as well. Along with another 6 loofas. I gave 6 to the neighbor today as well.

I transplanted some volunteers to the Greenstock on Friday night which is a good thing because a frost killed the others in the beds on Sunday morning.

And last but not least we added soil to all three of the potato containers

I am hopefully that we can finish planting out the garden next weekend or at least the following week. Then it will be time to take a break while we watch things grow before harvesting and preserving!  I am hopeful that our hard work will pay off with lots of fresh produce and veggies!

5 Things Friday

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  1. Sometimes your body needs a day to rest and recharge.  Take that day! I ended up at home all day today. I did get alot accomplished but I also needed the downtime. My goal is to have any more down time on Sunday, since I am a whole day ahead.
  2. I am back into making sour dough full-time. I did a little research, ok I read alot of post on Facebook and have been able to get some of the best bread, buns and biscuits EVER!  I am going to attempt bagels next with what I have learn.  I am very hopeful it works out!
  3. We have planned a Disney trip! Yeap, the 3 parks in 3 days for $267 caught my attention and after some strategic planning. We are going to make a long weekend over Memorial Day and enjoy!
  4. The newest chickens have been the easiest so far!  We introduced them to the coop and after just a couple of days, they are getting into the roast at night!!  We are hopeful that both are hens.  I would like to add another 2 to the flock this year but I really don’t want to deal with the baby chick stage.  I am hoping to purchase some around 4 weeks old in June but we shall see.
  5. The weather is seriously bipolar. We had 85 plus degree temperatures last weekend and today’s high was 52* with rain.

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As I put up our weekly calendar, I realized that this may be the slowest and easiest week this Spring. I don’t have any meetings after work, and we only have 3 games to attend this week!  I have two weeks until Spring Break!

Breakfast- Saturday-Bacon and eggs.   Sunday-fresh sourdough bread!   Monday Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday Friday– find it (breakfast burritos, bagel thins (previously purchased on sale) oatmeal, omelets, cereal and milk,, sausage, pop-tarts, and eggs.  I would like to make a fruit bread this week or baked oatmeal, but we shall see if that happens.

Lunch- Saturday-Beef enchiladas made with Taco rice. (not a hit) Sunday-Longhorn   Monday-, Wednesday, Thursday- left-overs.  Friday- eat out.

Dinner- Saturday- Zach and Lily fixed steak and fettuccine alfredo, it was awesome! Sunday- Sandwiches including egg salad and chicken salad I made. Monday- Creamy basil chicken pasta (new recipe)  Tuesday- Cheeseburger pizza, Wednesday- Sloppy Joes on homemade buns Thursday- Hamburger helper in instapot   Friday- Eat after the game.

Pantry Challenge
1. Use at least one “meal/meat portion of the meal” from the stand-up freezer each week. (This is where most of the meals are)   chicken thighs for Monday.

2. Use at least 3 jars a week from the canning pantry. 1.Spaghetti sauce for Monday, 1-2 jars of sloppy joe mix, 1 jar of ground beef for Hamburger helper.
3. Use one item a week from the connivence freezer in my room.  Not this week…
4. Each Monday after menu planning provide a list of how I followed the guidelines for the week.  Done!

Sunday Garden Update

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Spring has sprung!  The temperature were above 80 for several days and we still have at least one spring frost left. But things are growing!

Tomatoes and peppers- maybe 2 weeks left before we plant but maybe one and half.

Marigolds are the smaller plants and more peppers!

These are cucumbers and squash that were planted last week!  I hope to get these plant at the end of next week. I am worried they may not last that long…..

I have an abundance of loofa plants…. not sure where they will end up but I have plenty!

Excited to see the potato plants are grow!

first planting of sugar snap peas

garlic

Asparagus bed

Radishes with a few carrots mixed it. My attempt to thin was not successful so I stopped!

See all the volunteers… I am thinking they are basil (actually crossing my fingers)

Volunteer cucumbers?

These are cosmos and Borge  all volunteer!

These actually came with the house 33 years ago.  Now I know I need to work on this bed! .

 

March in Review

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March has been a very busy and productive month. We have focused alot of time and some money on outdoor projects. Specifically, completing the deck and making the gardens a little more self-sufficient. I also have attempted to start all plants from seed. My goal for the year is to only plant flower starts.  We will see how it goes. Financially, we are still working on reducing debit by reducing our budget.  I think we may have hit the tipping point this month were we are spending less than bringing in. So I am hopeful that this will continue and gain traction in April. Spring break is late this year, so April begins the countdown to SUMMER!

Emergency Fund- Goal is $1000- We currently have $250 in this fund which is $50 less than February and $250 less than December. I have planned for our tax payment on April 15th, so I am hopefully this starts moving in the right direction.

Groceries- Goal $820 per month.   We actually managed to decrease the grocery budget in March spending $450.  One thing that helped was cash back from Costco.  We are also continuing to focus on using items in the pantry and freezers. My overall goal is to continue with this focus until June when school is out. I would love to keep the budget under $500 until then but we shall see.

Gas- Goal is $500. March total is $329.70 Unfortunately gas price took a huge jump on April 1st so this may be difficult to maintain in the future.

Blogging- For 2025- the goal will be 10 posts per month.  Woo HOO This is post number 13 for the month!   As busy as this month was I am really impressed with myself. I am hoping to stay above goal each month.

Debit- Goal is 200000 total debit for the end of the year! I am hoping to start moving the needle in the right direction.  Lily is also paying off her debit which should help.

Health/Exercise- Progress this month is that I had a doctor’s appointment and will be changing meds which will hopefully bring this to easier place.  Goal is 175 and exercise regularly. Blah, Blah

Reading through the Bible this year- Our church and myself are following “The Bible Recap” program and I have currently managed to stay on track for 90 days!

Monday Menu Plan

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This week may just be one of the most full for the Spring season. We have four baseball games to attend!  I am really starting to think about what I want to accomplish over this summer in regards to food preparation but this also means I need to make an effort to clean and organize the foods we have in order to make room for new items.

Breakfast- Saturday-Pancakes and sausage balls.  Sunday-biscuits and gravy.   Monday- Mini muffins- used up the last 3 packs for this.  Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday Friday– find it (breakfast burritos,bagel thins (previously purchased on sale) oatmeal, omelets, cereal and milk, , sausage, pop-tarts, and eggs.

Lunch- Saturday- pick a convenience food or left-over Sunday-Mexican at a small place in Welcome  Monday- crackers  Tuesday,  Wednesday, Thursday- left-overs.  Friday- eat out.

Dinner- Saturday- Flatbread pizzas Sunday- Salisbury steak, gravy, mashed potatoes, and green beans Monday-  Spaghetti and garlic bread.  Tuesday- Chick A Filet ,  Wednesday-  Hamburger and French Fries, using homemade buns. Thursday- Pepper Steak and rice.  Friday-  Cheeseburger pizza

Pantry Challenge

1. Use at least one “meal/meat portion of the meal” from the stand-up freezer each week. (This is where most of the meals are)   hamburger patties and pizza filling.
2. Use at least 3 jars a week from the canning pantry. We will use several jars including spaghetti sauce and green beans this week.
3. Use one item a week from the connivence freezer in my room.  We used sausage and convience items this weekend from this freezer.
4. Each Monday after menu planning provide a list of how I followed the guidelines for the week.  Done!

Sunday Garden Update

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It is definitely Spring, we have lots of things growing.

These are Raspberry plants, I have purchased 9 so far and may have two that are actually growing.

We added two apple trees, replaced a pear tree a second time and attempted a peach tree a third time. All of the new trees have buds and these established trees are starting to bloom.

We actually have eaten a couple of Asparagus stalks, and the rest will grow and go to seed as this is our second-year growth.  The picture really does not show how tall they are. Interestingly we have something growing in the bed in the front of this picture. I tried to thin out the radishes yesterday, but I may have just killed half of them if they don’t perk up I will

I tried to identify, and it said a butterfly bush, but I am thinking either loofas or cucumbers.

I may have overplanted the loofa as I have 15 growing in the greenhouse!  This should at least provide a years supply of sponges.

Snap peas from the first planting have started to shine, 3 broccoli plants that have survived begin transplanted and some very small spinach is also starting to sprout.

Tomatoes and peppers are really enjoying the greenhouse!   I am watering every other day or every third day depending on my schedule. The current plan is to plant these our the week of Spring Break which is three weeks away!

This year is the first time I have attempted to start Marigolds from seeds. I currently have 36 small, tiny plants less than 7 days after planting!

No potatoes yet!

I am probably most excited for this tray. I started cucumbers, squash, zucchini and basil all from seed yesterday!  This is also the last tray that I will be starting inside as we start planting outside in 3 weeks!

 

Saving on Saturday

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Today, we spent most of the day outside working on projects. I am hoping that we have only 1 more full Saturday of outside work and then things go slow down or at a somewhat maintenance level.

These are our two new chicks; they are approximately 8 weeks old and were hatched and cared for up until now by Zach’s agriculture class. As I talked about yesterday, the chicken run needed some repairs and some more predator proofing.  I purchased 50 feet of poultry wire at Tractor Supply on Thursday night for $20.00.  We, Matt myself and Zach worked hard on getting this net installed. We used the metal wire from the poultry netting to connect the existing netting, We also went around and found all the wood at the bottom from different areas. I am very happy with the result and the overall cost was $20. I also spent some time picking up and cleaning out around the chicken coop itself.

Next up we worked on completing the deck project from last summer.  I knew we need some type of barrier for around the outside of the deck as it is elevated off the ground and I don’t like fighting to keep it neat and tight.  We purchased two 16-foot cattle panel pieces for $47.00 We used a grinder to cut to size and they turned out PERFECT!  We have to cut and place both end pieces, but these will take some more time and energy that we were out of!  They will be finished hopefully next weekend!

Productive but exhausting Saturday!

 

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1. I did not post a garden update last week. On Sunday, we went to the movies with friends and so I was not home most of the day. I did have pictures, but this week has shown a lot of growth and change so I will just share an update this Sunday.  I did start 42 ish marigold last weekend and have been amazed that we have over 50% germination even before the 7 days.
2. The weather continues to be on the improving side. We had a frost on Wednesday night/ Thursday morning. And the high today is supposed to be 78*
3.  My chicken math! Over the last 6 months, we gave away a rooster, lost one chicken to a predator and lost another to natural causes. That leaves us with 5 total hens. We are getting 3 eggs a day but honestly, I would like to be getting at least 6 a day with more in order to store. So we need at least 4 if not 6 additional chickens this spring/summer to keep us happy with eggs! I also think this is the best time to get chicks as our older 3 chickens are 3 years old, the younger 2 are 2 years old so this should be a good time to add so that our egg production stays steady. So yeap we need 6 chicks!
4.. Zach is currently taking an Agriculture Class in which they are incubating and raising chickens.  They keep the chicks at school until they are ready to be outside without heat lamps!  This is the perfect time for us to get these as we can work on integrating into our flock. We are picking up 2 chicks today and likely another 2 in a month!  We made a run to Tractor Supply to purchase some chick starter and a new watering container as we can’t seem to locate ours!
5.Last Fall we lost a chicken due to a failure in the wire cage.  I decided last night that we would go ahead and add a layer of poultry netting around the bottom of our existing chicken run. In the past when we have had smaller chicks, we have added cardboard because the current wire has a large enough opening that smaller chicks could escape.  By adding the poultry netting this will eliminate the need to add cardboard when we get additional chicks as well as a layer of protection!   We are planning on installing the netting as well as finishing up the deck this weekend!