5 Things Friday

Posted on by
Reply

  1. We are still running our a/c with no end in sight. In fact next week, we are supposed to see temperatures reach 90*. I love summer and this warm weather is still extremely nice.  I know all good things must come to an end, but I am all about enjoying the last few weeks of warmth!
  2. We are starting to clean out the garden. I have been pulling a lot of dead plants and plan to go ahead and pull out the watermelon this weekend. I also have some lettuce cabbage and broccoli starting to grow as well.  I have been able to harvest green beans FINALLY!  Matt harvested 53 pears today as well. It appears that most have some bad spots, but I am hopefully to enjoy a couple and maybe even freeze a few.
  3. Lily has scheduled a couple of college visits over the next couple of months. I am excited but nervous as the expense of college is overwhelming for at least 3 more kids. I am currently encouraging her to stay at home and commute to college, but we shall see.
  4. Zach is enjoying playing football and all the kids have decided that high school football is a cool event. I am thankful that Zach is being allowed to play each game and so far a broken bracket is all the damage.
  5. After lots of research and debate, I have decided to purchase an electric/ digital canner. I am hopefully that this will take the scary part of canning away and allow me to preserve summer items for use all year long.  I also considered a dehydrator and freeze dryer but decided to try this first as it is a significantly less of an investment than the freeze dryer. Dehydrating is another option but I am currently using the green house to complete this on a small scale so purchasing equipment does not seem like the best thing to do right now!

Monday Menu Planning

Posted on by
Reply

This week has us on a more normal schedule. Zach has a ball game on Wednesday but we should be home the other evenings.  We do have a lot of things that need to be caught up on especially outside. The garden is on it’s last leg for the summer, so we need to clean out the beds and lots of weeds.  I did a bunch of meal prep on Saturday since we were stuck inside.

Breakfast- Saturday-Gravy and biscuits. Sunday-Cheddar Bay Sausage balls   Monday- Biscuits (steak for Matt and Zach).  Tuesday- Omelets Wednesday Thursday and Friday- find it oatmeal, cereal and milk, French toast sticks, bagels, breakfast burritos and pancakes.
Lunch- Saturday-leftovers Sunday-Kimonos   Monday-Salad Tuesday- left-pvers Wednesday- lunch out for me Thursday- salad Friday-leftovers

Dinner- Saturday-finishing up left-overs Sunday-Sausage Potato soup (decided we could start soup Sunday). Monday-Cheddar and Bacon burgers and fries. Tuesday- Stuffed green peppers.  Wednesday- Eating out after game. Thursday- Salisbury steak, mashed potatoes corn and green beans.  Friday- Grilled chicken and pasta salad.

Saving On Saturday

Posted on by
Reply

Today was a very rainy and dreary day.  The perfect time to catch up on some meal preparation and food preservation.

  • Matt and I took 2 packages of cube steak from our previous cow purchase, breaded and deep fried them. They will be used for steak biscuits for breakfast for the next 6 months or so.
  • I went ahead and meal prepped for the week. Stuffed green peppers, grilled chicken and bacon cheddar burgers are all ready to go.
  • Sorted through and combined items in the freezers in the house as well as the chest freezer. The plan is to purchase as little as possible over the next 8 months and use the food we have in our freezers and pantry.
  • Soaked and cooked a bag of black beans that Matt can use in his chill. (We have 2 cans of beans so this should last awhile.
  • Packaged up gravy from breakfast into can size bags for use with breakfast pizza. I purchased a single can of gravy to use and it was $2.09…. our breakfast left-overs saved us $5.

We debated but decided against turning off the a/c. The humidity is still really high, and it feels sticky outside.  I will continue to watch the weather and as soon as we are below 80 degrees consistently, we will open the windows.

The kids all caught up on laundry, which means less stress for me.

Remember it is the small things that add up!

5 Things Friday- Labor Day Fun

Posted on by
Reply

  1. We spent last weekend (Labor Day) in Florida!  We left at midnight on Friday night and returned Tuesday at around 8:30pm.
  2. We spent around 3 hours Saturday at Melbourne Beach.  This was very different from what we are used to but it was awesome. I did manage to get out and jump a few waves myself.
  3. This trip could have centered around food. Saturday night- David (Haley’s husband) made some of the best steaks I have ever eaten. Sunday morning, we enjoyed breakfast at a local breakfast place in their new hometown. Sunday night we ate at “Hoop De Do Review” amazing does not begin to cover the food and entertainment. Monday- breakfast at Ohana’s.  We also eat alot at the “Mickey’s Not so Scary Halloween party.”
  4. We attended “Mickey’s Not so Scary Halloween party.”  It was fun but not something I would recommend or even plan to do again.  We did collect enough candy to get us to Halloween!
  5. The weather was extremely hot!   I don’t think I can remember when I sweated so much. I did manage to burn my feet in the sand on Saturday. Sunday night was as storm that left the camper sounded like a tin can.

August in Review

Posted on by
Reply

August is a very slow moving month around here. Not that we don’t have alot going on but it was 5 long weeks of anticipation for all the fun scheduled in September!

Groceries– budget amount is $200 NOT Met! $974.87 I did not include Amazon so I am going to realistically say we spent $1050 this month. Groceries are continuing to rise. My goal is to spend bare minimum the rest of the year, whatever that may look like.

Auto/ Gas. My goal is $400 a month. NOT met! $ 587. Uggh no explanation or ways to really reduce this.

Cash Envelope system- This worked well for us!

Blogging- 15 post per month. This is post number 17f or the month. I am going to guess that this is the first time EVER to post this often. Probably not going to happen again but hey once is good!

Exercise days- 2 days…….. I just want to feel well!

No Spend Days-Did not keep count again!

Posted on by
Reply

This is the first full week of school for all the kids and my second week of work. Last week seemed to work well and we managed to eat at home every night!  So we are doing a repeat with different food. I am thinking that some of our weeks will start to look very similar due to use the food we already have on hand. I have even thought about going back a couple of years and doing repeat menu plan.  Just might be fun to see if our taste and preferences have changed.

Breakfast- Saturday-BLT. Sunday- Made to order omelets Monday- Homemade everything bagels Tuesday- Zucchini bread Wednesday Thursday and Friday- find it oatmeal, cereal and milk, French toast sticks, bagels, breakfast burritos and pancakes.

Lunch- Saturday-leftovers Sunday-Christos   Monday-left-over Tuesday- chicken salad Wednesday- left-overs Thursday- Summer lunch, Friday-eat out.

Dinner- Saturday-Chips and dips Sunday- Youth group dinner Monday-country style steak, mashed potatoes, fried squash and green beans Tuesday Taco Pasta Wednesday- Chicken fried rice Thursday- Hamburgers and FF Friday- Genghis grill for Zach’s birthday

Every Bit Counts Challenge- It made sense for me to include this with Menu planning as they are both food related. Things are busy and crazy, but I did manage to get a couple of things done. This is likely the last week of preservation as most things are slowing way done. The goal is to continue to harvest and use items as we can!
Tuesday August 23rd frozen bananas
Wednesday August 24th Salas
Thursday August 25th- shredded zucchini
Friday August 26th-
Saturday Augst 27th-
Sunday August 28th-Dinners prepared and tomato soup for lunches
Monday August 29th- Froze a gallon bag of tomatoes. .

5 Things Friday

Posted on by
Reply

  1. School officially starts Monday. Lily is a senior at Davie County High School and completed her second year at DDCC for her associates degree. Kendall is a freshman at Central Davidson High School and Zach is a 7th grader at CDMS.  3 kids at 3 different schools.  I am starting my 5th year at Davie County Schools.
  2. We have a couple of quick trips plan during the month of September. Both are going to be using the camper. This makes things much much easier as we can pack in advance!
  3. The first week back at work full time has been busy and stressful. I am hoping to establish a good routine over the next couple of weeks.
  4. Zach will be playing in his first football scrimmage tomorrow…not sure how I feel about it.
  5. We are finally getting green beans and cucumbers from our garden!!!! Been waiting all summer for these!

Monday Menu Planning

Posted on by
Reply

This week, I have changed and hopefully improved our menu planning and preparation.  In addition to planning the menu, we tried to prepare as much as possible. For example, I made the mashed potatoes for dinner tonight yesterday and reheated in the oven.  The goal is to reduce the amount of time it takes to get a meal on the table to 30 minutes each evening.  It worked really well today!  This is my first full week of work, Lily’s second full week of school and Zach’s second week of football practice.

Breakfast- Saturday- Big breakfast of sausage, bacon, eggs and toast. Sunday- Biscuits with choice of meat or sweet. Monday- Find your own. Tuesday- Homemade everything bagels.  Wednesday Thursday and Friday- find it oatmeal, cereal and milk, French toast sticks, bagels, breakfast burritos and pancakes.

Lunch- Saturday-Left-overs Sunday-East Coast wings   Monday-I had a salad Tuesday- left-overs.  Wednesday- sandwich Thursday- Summer lunch, Friday-eat out.

Dinner- Saturday-Chips and dips Sunday- Tomato soup or Matt’s chill Monday-Beef stew with mashed potatoes and squash.  Tuesday Chicken Sausage Alfredo.  Wednesday- Egg roll in a bowl Thursday- Stuffed green peppers Friday-Breakfast Pizza

Every Bit Counts Challenge- It made sense for me to include this with Menu planning as they are both food related. I knew this would become harder as I started back to work. It is also harder as the garden has slowed way down as we approach fall.

Tuesday August 16th 8 cups of diced tomatoes
Wednesday August 17th Dried spices
Thursday August 18- Batch of medium salsa
Friday August 19-
Saturday Augst 20th- We finished on a new cabinet for the kitchen a
Sunday August 21st- 2 bags of cabbage for Future Eggroll in a bowl dinner
Monday August 22nd- 4 cups of Diced tomatoes.