Wordless Wednesday

Posted on July 24, 2024 by Sheila

Saving on Saturday

Posted on July 20, 2024 by Sheila

Finally an entire day at home to focus on not only cleaning and finding my house again but on preserving and preparing food.

The first way I saved today is that I have managed to plan and cook three meals for today and breakfast for tomorrow. We also did some refrigerator clean out and that saves us food for the chickens.

Next I focused on chopping a bunch of veggies. These will be used for salads for lunches next week as well as in preparation for my preservation project of the week.

I was able to fry up 4 # of sausage, one pound is for breakfast in the morning and the other was used in the 20 omelet bags that I prepared. I also made 10 bags using bacon crumbles. I decided to use up the Nutrional yeast I purchased several years ago by placing a tablespoon in each of the omelet bags. This should add cheese flavor without the diary in addition to just clearing out my pantry.

We were able to wash and hang out our bed sheets between Friday and today which saved money on the electricity bill. It also eliminates the need for fabric softener or scent beads as well.

I made a menu plan for next week that I will share on Monday as well as just generally straighten and clean parts of the kitchen.

I caught up on the laundry which is a major accomplishment.

Matt with help from Zach did some auto repair which did not save me money but did save both Kendall and Zach money.

The kids were able to use our shredded paper in the chicken coop which will become compost as well as reduces the smell.

Not bad for a Saturday spent in my nightgown!

5 Things Friday

Posted on July 19, 2024 by Sheila

I think and hope that we are at the end of the busy season for the summer. Last weekend was the county swim meet and this week, we participated in the VBS put on by our church. I have continued to attend medical appointments so things are still not at a summer’s pace. I am hoping to begin catching up by doing one ‘extra thing” a day. Today. I cleaned our bathroom, it was nasty. I still need to hand mop the floor but at least it is a start. I have 3 weeks left before we head to Disney.
The replanting of most of the garden two weeks ago has gone well. I also was able to spend a little time and give the tomatoes a good pruning. So far I have been able to can 13 quarts of spaghetti sauce. I am hopeful after the pruning I will be able to double this for 26 quarts from our garden. I am also planning on buying a couple of boxes of tomatoes to make into spaghetti sauce as well as salsa this year. We haver several watermelons and cantaloupes growing but the deer have decided they like my garden as well.
I spend some time and money on Prime Day this year, with the majority of my Christmas shopping completed. I also am planning and actually have already started to wrap the presents as they arrive! This worked well last year so I am hopeful it will work well again.
I am working on putting away extra meals and trying to prepare for an extremely busy school year. I focused on bread this week! I have 4 pizza crust in the freezer along with 6 loaves of bread. EVERY BIT counts.
Zach completed the written part of Driver’s Education this week and is hopefully that he will be able to get the driving part completed before school starts as well. Kendal is over half way finished with her hours required to get her license. Her goal is September 12th.

Stocking the Freezer

Posted on July 8, 2024 by Sheila

I am finally feeling like I am caught up to my summer! I am starting to get some items in the freezer and canned up in preparation for next school year.

This weekend I pulled the sour dough starter out of the refrigerator and made a batch of loaf bread and a double batch of bagels. I want to try and get a couple of batches of pizza dough made this week as well. I have probably 5 loaves already in the freezer and this is one of 5 or so batches of bagels. I would like to get another 5 batches of bagels in the freezers along with another 5 loaves but time will tell if that is possible. I don’t see that happening this week as we have the County swim meet on Friday and Saturday, everyone has eye appointments on Wednesday, I have 2 doctor appointments and my mom has at least 1 this week. Next week is also busy as our church is hosting VBS with everyone volunteering to work in the evenings.

For dinner on Saturday, I was able to pull out and make the remaining steaks from the cow we purchased two years ago. Steak is a treat and always appreciated. When looking for the steaks, I found 16 pounds of hamburger from our previous cow as well. I let it unthaw for 2 days before canning 8 pounds/ pint jars for future use and made the remaining 8 pounds into taco meat. I used 1 pound to make taco rice bowls for dinner this evening and will have 8 easy and quick meals in the freezer as well. I would typically the taco meat but I am out of pint size jars and instead of purchasing I put in the freezer for now.

That brings my current total up to 20 meals! This is 1/5 of my goal but this summer it just feels awesome to get things accomplished!

I am also working on not wasting food by repurposing leftovers! I currently have 2 jars of spaghetti sauce in the refrigerator, I want to wait until I have at least jars to water bath can at a time. My goal for the summer was to get 52 jars canned. I am seriously doubting this but I will do what I can and see what happens!

5 Things Friday

Posted on July 5, 2024 by Sheila

Things have not slowed down the first week of July. I ended up attending 3 additional medical appointments with my mother. But I have started to catch up and feel like although I don’t have alot of free time, I am making progress on my summer goals and projects.
The floor has been finished and I will have everything back in place by Saturday. I am still in negotiation with Home Depot, so I am reserving the story and pictures until everything is settled.
I was able to make progress on preparing meals ahead. I made a chicken spinach lasagna and 2 million Dollar Spaghetti Pies in those are in the freezer.
Garden update- My garden has been struggling. The squash bug won their battle and I ended up pulling up, spraying with bug spray, adding a couple new bags of soil and replanted both the squash and zucchini. We attempted to go organic but that was not successful. We are starting to get some tomatoes but they are not the prettiest. I also feel like I am throwing out just as many as we pick. I did make my first full batch of spaghetti. My goal is to can 52 quarts of spaghetti sauce so still a long way to go.
The weather has been so hot! We reached 100 degrees today!

Monday Menu Post

Posted on July 1, 2024 by Sheila

This weekend, we cooked and celebrated Kendall’s birthday! The month of June was very busy and I don’t feel like I was able to even start with preservation and preparation for next school year. But that is going to change this week! I am back on track with meal planning and preparation.

Breakfast- Saturday- Bacon, sausage and pancakes, Sunday-Cracker Barrel. Monday- Tuesday, Wednesday, – find it (breakfast burritos, muffins, oatmeal, omelets cereal and milk, French toast sticks, sausage, pop-tarts, and eggs). Thursday- my plan is to make Dutch Boy pancakes. Friday- Baked oatmeal with hopefully preparation of at least 12 dry mixes.
Lunch- Saturday-Chicken salad and spinach dip. Sunday- Left-over pizza Monday- left-overs Tuesday, -Wednesday, Thursday- Leftovers or wraps
Dinner- Saturday-Pizza from Dominos Sunday-Kendall’s party Monday- Red Robin for Kendall’s birthday. Tuesday-Pasta Salad (left-over) Wednesday-Baked Spaghetti with one in the freezer Thursday- 4th of July – probably hamburgers and hot dogs Friday- Left-over baked ziti.

Gardening Update

Posted on June 17, 2024 by Sheila

As you probably realize I got very little behind last week. So my plan for this week is to catch up to the point that I am only spending about 15 minutes a day in the garden. The first thing I wanted to tackle was the blue berries.

I ended up spending over an hour between harvesting and weeding the beds this morning (Monday). I was rewarded with

I have frozen most of these. But the kids told me they have also really been enjoying eating them fresh off the bushes.

Every Bit Challenge
1. Half a gallon of blueberries frozen.
2 One extra meal in the freezer for next year. I also made two additional meals for this week as well.
3. I was able to make some sautéed zucchini and squash for dinner as well as I added 3 more bags of squash casserole mix to the freezer.

Not a lot but hey EVERY BIT COUNTS!

Sunday Garden Update

Posted on June 9, 2024 by Sheila

I had actually debated even doing an update this week, but my excitement changed my mind. We have blueberries! And I mean I have frozen at over a pint, and we still have some for fresh eating!

In the ugggh department, we are in a battle with the squash bugs already! I have killed at least 10 and we have thrown every single egg I could find into the chickens, The other thing we are doing to coffee water.

I spent some time pruning tomatoes, and we are starting to see some small tomatoes. I am so very hopeful for a huge tomato harvest this year. The pepper plants are growing and we have eaten the one and only pepper we have. I am hoping for lots more in the coming weeks. We have green bean plants in three separate locations with several blossoms. The cucumber plants are different. Some are growing, others just appear to have stopped. I am losing hope but will continue to wait. .

Every Bit Counts Challenge
Last week was really busy and I have been struggling just to keep up. But I was able to add a couple of things.
I cooked and froze 3 bags for squash casseroles.
I made and canned a couple of pints of strawberry syrup.
We have at least 4 gallon bags of frozen strawberries.
1 pint of frozen blueberries.

Thursday Thoughts

Posted on May 30, 2024 by Sheila

One of the big things happening this summer is home repair and renovation. Because I am available during the day to watch and move things, it makes sense for most of this to occur in the summer. We started a line of credit this Spring to help make this easier and more efficient. So far we have painted the hall bathroom and hallway and installed a new shower rod. We have purchased a new cabinet and faucet with a plan to install this week. A new toilet will be installed when the floor is replaced. The floor in the hall, dining room, kitchen and laundry room is scheduled to be replaced on June 18th. The goal is to repaint the kitchen and dining room prior to the flooring just for convenience sake. We already have the paint for this but I don’t think it will happen this weekend. We also have received a quote to have our shower room fixed and expanded. This is likely going to occur in June as well. We will be having our old deck replaced as well. We have scheduled to have the septic tank pumped on June 20th. The next item on the list is to replace the front door. I am not sure if there is anything else we will tackle as this is most of our “dream” items. Except for a “garage” on the front.

I have been focused on slowly starting to build back up our freezers and pantries. I am trying to complete one item a day. Sunday- frozen bananas (another 3#), Monday- beef broth (15 quarts and 3 pints), Tuesday and Wednesday- survived life. My goal is to get a gallon or more of strawberries frozen tonight.

We are starting to get some squash from the garden as well. It is always a good side dish but I would also like to get some bags of squash casserole in the freezer or better, yet I will have to see if I can them!

The summer count down is officially 11 days but I have 9 workdays left!

Garden Update

Posted on May 26, 2024 by Sheila

We have reached the point of the summer garden that is both scary and nice. Everything has sprouted and is growing well for the most part. So, we wait until we started getting fruit. It is scary because who knows what harvest we will get. But I am hopeful that we will get a huge harvest.