



Breakfast- Saturday-pancakes. Sunday- Easter Breakfast at church. Monday-omelet Tuesday cottage cheese and blueberries, Wednesday biscuits with sausage and eggs. Thursday- fruit bread. Friday– German pancakes.
Lunch- Saturday-Sandwiches including chicken salad, egg salad and pimento cheese (this will be a lunch option all week) Sunday-Hamburgers and hot dogs Monday- Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday- left-overs. I made extra things for sandwiches and a double batch of pasta salad so we could use it for lunches this week.
Dinner- Saturday- Left-overs Sunday- Pasta – Eating out for Matt’s Birthday Tuesday- Beef short ribs, corn on cobb, Hawaiian mac salad, corn bread. (Beef stock needs to be made and canned from this) Wednesday-Salsa Chicken and Mexican rice Thursday- Chicken pot pie Friday- pork chops? and radishes and left-overs.
I did an update on our planting yesterday! All the plants from the greenhouse are now in the ground! Today, I am going to share pictures of our other plants. First up is potatoes

The potatoes are growing in fact we needed to add dirt for the second time. My plan is to keep adding dirt until it reaches the top and hopefully we have lots of potatoes this year!

Zach is currently enrolled in an agriculture class. He helped starts lots of plants, I spent $10 on plants but did not count that but considered it a donation to the school. Zach purchased 12 okra plants. I am afraid that we will be overran with okra but at least it was cheap and we can always share with the chickens.

We transplanted cucumbers last week, so far so good.

I also purchased 4 additional cucumber plants from the school.

Zucchini plants look the best a week later. Garlic is in the front

Squash plants are alive but small, must have missed that picture.
I had previously transplanted 6 loofa plants but I am afraid that they are not looking the best, but it may not be warm enough for them.

Sugar Snap Peas are growing, and we have a couple of blooms.
We placed marigold all around the garden and in both vertical planters. We planted both bush and climbing veins for green beans. I added cantaloupe in the front and watermelon in the back.
Now things just need to GROW!

I am actually going to do a series of post about gardening this week. One of my goals for this year was that I started all the plants from seeds this year! So far with a little help from volunteers I have been successful. This has amounted to a HUGE savings. Plant starts in my area are averaging around $5 each. I started some seeds back on February 16th, I was amazed at what actually I was able to grow. In the greenhouse, until today we had around 160 plants. The total before taxes is $800! I paid less than $5 a pack for seeds so even at worst we saved $775!

These pictures were taken just before pulling them out for planting. Next are the pictures after we planted. I will not be including these in the update tomorrow just for ease and space.

Tomato beds are BEAUTIFUL!

I also have a huge section of California wonder bell peppers. Planting took a long time probably close to 6 hours but I am so excited to have everything in the ground.
Tomorow will include pictures of the things we got planted out last Sunday as well!



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.
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!

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!