Category Archives: Every Bit Counts

Menu Planning Monday

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This is a hard time of year for me. I am attempting to balance the usage and benefit of prepared meal with continuing to bring things in from the garden and not wasting stuff.  So far, this first week of school is extremely busy but so is this season of life. 

Breakfast- Saturday- Biscuit King Sunday- Strawberry Baked Oatmeal Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday Friday– find it (breakfast burritos, muffins, oatmeal, omelets cereal and milk, French toast sticks, sausage, pop-tarts, and eggs). 

Lunch- Saturday-Salsa and chips   Sunday- Gregg’s (local restaurant) Monday- eat out Tuesday,- salad Wednesday eat out or leftovers Thursday- salad. Friday- eat out. 

Dinner- Saturday- Mi Cancun (yes 3 meals out this weekend).  Sunday-Pizza crescent rolls, Monday-Salsa chicken and Mexican rice. Tuesday- Hamburgers, chips and cantaloupe Wednesday- Spaghetti, Thursday- Arby’s on the way to the ballgame   Friday- pepper steak and rice. 

Every little bit Challenge
Tuesday- Wax Peppers (1 cup for next year)
Wednesday- Enchilada Sauce- this puts me over a year and close to 2 years supply.
Thursday- nothing -no time
Friday- Baked oatmeal prep
Saturday- canned pears
Sunday- I made lunches and planned dinners for the week.
Monday- 2 bags of squash casserole. 

Menu Planning Monday

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All good things must come to an end. I would classify this summer as extremely busy but good. I needed and enjoyed the 10 day break to Florida but now I must return to work this week.  I am hoping that all my busyness and hard work pays off with an easy start to the school year.

Breakfast- Saturday- Breakfast in the camper Sunday- Bucees on the way home. Monday, ,Thursday Friday– find it (breakfast burritos, muffins, oatmeal, omelets cereal and milk, French toast sticks, sausage, pop-tarts, and eggs). Tuesday- Bagels. Wednesday my plan is to make Baked oatmeal with hopefully preparation of at least 12 dry mixes on Tuesday night.

Lunch- Saturday-left-over from Yak and Yeti.   Sunday- Cracker Barrel Monday- Squash Lasagna Tuesday, -Wednesday, Thursday- salads and pasta salads

Dinner- Saturday- Ford’s Garage.  Sunday-snacks in the Tahoe Monday-Squash lasagna. Tuesday- Pasta Salad Wednesday-Pork chops with green beans and squash, cucumber salad.    Thursday- Eat on the way to the ballgame    Friday- KFC bowls

 

Of course, I did not complete the challenge while in Florida, but I have been strong so far this week.  Sunday- bread crumbs, Monday- Squash lasagna for freezer. Plan for making Enchilada sauce and canning this week as well.

5 Things Friday

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  1. One of the areas that I have been struggling with getting and keeping the house clean. For the past many years, I have been paying different kids to complete cleaning around the house. But currently, both the girls are working pretty much every day, so no time for cleaning.  One purchase we have made is robot vacuums’. One for the upstairs, main area of the house and a second for the living room which is down a set of steps.  Matt is in charge of emptying these. It is getting easier to remember to turn them on and I think we have been able to remove all the things that they get caught on.
  2. Our house projects are getting completed. The bathroom and deck should be completed before the end of August. We have decided that we need to have a couple of additional electrical outlets installed including one dedicated for the camper. We still need to order and install a new front door.  One last project will be once the bathroom is done, we are planning to build shelves in the closet area.
  3. I am feeling a bit overwhelmed today. We are heading to me returning to work full time and I still have several things on my personal list that I want to tackle this summer.  I am waking up without an alarm and trying just to do the next right thing. I am actually looking forward to the trip to take Lily as this will force me to just stop and enjoy the ride.
  4. My garden has been so crazy this year.  I have been able to harvest and preserve many items but June was extremely dry and July has been the wettest on record.  I am planning to post pictures because I think my garden looks more like beginning of July instead of the beginning of August. That is not a bad think but may mean lots of preserving even after I return to work.
  5. I had not planned to participate in August in the “Every Bit Challenge”  I return to work in the middle of the month and with our trip at the first of the month I did not think I would be able to preserve much at all. However, that has not been the case so far. Yesterday, I made 3 bags of grilled chicken, 5 bags of cubed chicken and 6 bags of shredded chicken. Today, I canned 5 quarts of broth and made 6 bags of tomato sauce.

Bonus List of Every Bit Counts Challenge list:
3 chicken and broccoli casseroles
20 pints of salsa
45 quarts and 12 pints of spaghetti sauce
4 quarts of baked beans
4 cheeseburger pizza bags and dough
3 cheeseburger Pies
30 omelet bags
chicken spinach lasagna
2 million Dollar Spaghetti Pies
6 bags of squash casserole mix
Frozen blueberries
Frozen bananas
4 pints of strawberry syrup
15 quarts and 3 pints of beef broth
21# of canned shelf stable ground beef. These are in pint jars so approximately 1# per jar.
4 meals of Sloppy Joes canned in addition to our lunch for Saturday as well.
30 Salisbury steaks cooked and vacuum sealed in the freezer.
30 Cheddar Bacon Hamburger patties
38 Regular plain Hamburger patties!

Every Bit Counts Challenge

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This week has definitely been focused on filling the freezer and pantry for next school year.

On Monday, I went to my favorite farm stand and purchased 4 20# boxes of “canning tomatoes”. In addition to the tomatoes, I also purchased a couple of jalapenos, yellow squash and cucumbers.  Total spent was $65. I also had a trip to Costco where I grabbed 3 roasteries chickens and 3 large bunches of bananas.

Monday evening with the help of everyone, I started the first batch of spaghetti sauce, made a double batch of salsa and got 3 chicken and broccoli casseroles in the freezer. The salsa ended with 10 pints of salsa on the shelf.

Tuesday/ Wednesday the focus was on making and canning the spaghetti sauce.  In total I canned 45 quarts and 12 pints of spaghetti sauce. I am so excited to get this in the pantry!

Today, I was in need of a slower pace day.  I did manage to get a tray of bananas in the freezer.

The goal for Friday, is another batch of salsa, at least one batch of baked beans on the shelf and I have 10 pounds of ground beef in the refrigerator that needs to be cooked and turned into future meals.

The countdown is officially on until the end of my summer!

Saving on Saturday

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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

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  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.

5 Things Friday

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  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. The weather has been so hot!  We reached 100 degrees today!

Monday Menu Post

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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

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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!