Food Friday 5/22/15

Well, I still can't do my monthly menu like I want because of the budget.  Patience is a virtue, right?  I do have my meal plan and grocery list ready.  Hope I don't lose it before I can use it.  So, until I save up enough to do a big bulk haul, per week it is...

What's on sale this week? 
BL/SL chicken breast $1.98.  Ugh.  I know chicken is supposed to be so versatile, but I really am tired of seeing it on sale and in my freezer.  I think I need to pull out my old fashion cookbooks and try a couple of new recipes.  Yes, online recipe sites are nice, but nothing beats peeling back pages that have mixer splatter gluing them together, and not to mention I feel like one of those NAILED IT! pictures on Pinterest.  Those are hilarious until you see them on YOUR dinner table. I digress...
Hamburger/ground beef.  Sale, well if $3.48 is on sale.  Remember the days of $.99 per pound hamburger meat.
Bacon -probably 12 oz-for $1.98.
Hot dogs are on sale from under $1 to $3, depending on your tastes and budget.  Brats as well.
Whip cream on sale? Sounds like freezer fodder. 
Red potatoes.  Corn on the cob.  Vidalia onions.  Cucumbers (mine are growing nicely!).  Condiments. Pudding.  Fish sticks.  Berries. 

Okay, so what to fix.  Most recipes are coming from Taste of Home 1994.

Saturday lunch- FFY (fend for yourself) peanut butter, bologna, left overs, maybe fish sticks.  I have prom things to do for daughter so, whatever!
Saturday supper-chicken macaroni casserole, simple potato salad, baked beans (new recipe to try), peanut butter pie. (This may be overzealous for prom day too-we shall see.)

Sunday-pancake and pizza day.

Monday-Memorial Day-hot dogs, burger, chips, tea, left over potato salad and beans, coleslaw.

Tuesday-broccoli soup, egg salad sandwiches on homemade honey wheat bread.

Wednesday-western beef and cornmeal pie, tangy fruit salad

Thursday-Hot Legs, celery, carrots and ranch or blue cheese-seriously, legs are cheaper than wings and have more meat, right?

Friday lunch-spaghetti, garden salad, breadsticks
Friday supper-one pot patties, left over bread

LUNCHES:  Leftovers, bologna, fish sticks, pimento cheese. 

SNACKS: Rice crispy bars, trail mix, pudding (homemade).
Recipes:
Chicken Mac Casserole (Taste of Home 1994)
Cook 3 c. cubed chicken, set aside. Cook 14-16 oz box of macaroni, set aside. Melt 2 Tbs. butter in large pan, add 1/4 c. flour. Combine. Add 2 c. half&half and 1 1/2 c. chicken broth at once.  Once blended smooth, cook and stir until thickened. Cook 2 minutes and remove from heat.  Add 1/2 -3/4 pounds of Velveeta cubed. Stir in chicken, macaroni, 2 oz of pimentos, salt and pepper to taste. Add additional broth if needed (1/2 c. or so), pour into a 3-qt baking dish and bake uncovered at 350 for 40-45 minutes.  Top with some garden fresh parsley if you want.

Western Beef and Cornmeal Pie
Brown 1lb. ground beef and drain.  Stir in a can of Mexi-corn, 6 oz tomato paste, 1 c cheddar cheese, 3/4 c. BBQ sauce, salt and chili powder.  Set aside. In a large bowl, mix 1 c. flour, 1/2 c. cornmeal, 1/2 c. milk, 1 egg, 2 Tbs sugar, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp salt and 1/2 c. cheddar cheese.  Spread on bottom and sides of greased 2 1/2 qt baking dish or 10" skillet.  Pour the beef filling in and sprinkle with 1/2 c. cheese.  Bake uncovered at 400 for 25-30 mins.

Tangy Fruit Salad
Drain 20oz can of pineapple chunks, reserve juice.  In a small bowl mix juice and instant vanilla pudding mix and 1/4. c of Tang or other orange instant drink.  In a large bowl mix pineapple, can of mandarin oranges, can of fruit cocktail, 2 sliced bananas (slightly firm), 2 apples cut into bite-sized chunks (or pears), 1 c. sliced strawberries. Fold juice mix into fruit.  Refrigerate for a while before serving.

Trust and Obey

One of my favorite hymns since I began going to church 40 some-odd years ago is Trust and Obey. 
I learned it on the clarinet and the one-handed piano version that the untrained musician does. Sometimes it will just pop in my head. But what about the words...hmmm, something has been amiss.

Almost four years ago, I prayed that the Lord show me clearly my path.  So many choices, so much confusion as to what path I should take.  I got my answer in what I would call a supernatural way.  I woke up in the wee hours of the morning-about 3am and opened my bible.  There was a whole chapter that came alive.  I read and heard every instruction that God was giving me.  I wrote it down verse by verse and how it applied to me.  And I worked on it: quitting a stressful, well-paying job, investing time at home in wifely and motherly duties.  Then I doubted. I needed to do something else because this seemed a bit hard.  I got another job and a different position and another position over the course of three years.  Nothing was giving me peace.  When I stopped and looked around one day, things had changed, definitely, but not for the better.  The finances weren't better, the health wasn't better, the peace at home wasn't better; everything had deteriorated.  From the wooden deck to the checking account to the marriage. You name it, it had not maintained, let alone prospered.  I have still struggled with "helping" the family by getting a job or even going to school and get a career to secure our future as I could get a job more than likely being the main bread-winner, but... Time to get that little green journal back out and read my instructions again! Or even call mom-she knew it all along too.
TRUST and OBEY!!

Trust and Obey

Hymn Writer ~ John H. Sammis, 1846-1919

Hymn Music ~ Daniel B. Towner, 1850-1919
Stanza 1:

When we walk with the Lord

In the light of His word,

What a glory He sheds on our way!

While we do His good will,

He abides with us still,

And with all who will trust and obey. 
Refrain:

Trust and obey, for there's no other way

To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey. 
Stanza 2:

Not a burden we bear,

Not a sorrow we share,

But our toil He doth richly repay;

Not a grief or a loss,

Not a frown or a cross,

But is blest if we trust and obey. 
(Refrain)
Stanza 3:

But we never can prove

The delights of His love

Until all on the altar we lay;

For the favor He shows,

For the joy He bestows,

Are for them who will trust and obey. 
(Refrain)

Stanza 4:

Then in fellowship sweet

We will sit at His feet,

Or we'll walk by His side in the way;

What He says we will do,

Where He sends we will go;

Never fear, only trust and obey. 

Tuesday To-Do 5/19/15

Yep, I predicted it.  My list has gone haywire.  Broken toes, bruised / if not broken foot on the other side, summer death cold and cough, PMS, bunny deaths, chicken deaths and burials, healing cats, moving animals, fortifying fences and gates, bee swarms, new bees.  Oh the list is neverending! 


 Let's see what we can recover.
INSIDE:
Finish last week's chores.  Clean kitchen corner. Organize the green baker's rack. Reorganize the living room bookcase.
This week:  I will be happy just to finish the above list, let alone the routine chores.
OUTSIDE:




Finish last week's list:  Straw the ducks.  Wash the house and the feed shed.  Hubby did an amazing job this week (picking up my slack!) putting up our newspaper tube, fixing the truck, clearing all the overgrowth around the house, fixing the lawnmower, fixing the goat gate, and so much more.  Most of what I could do is snot and cough. Well there was the dropping of the drawer on the top of the foot and kicking the 8-pound weight in my daughter's floor to break my toe.  That is accomplishing something, right?
This week:  Lots of garden chores to do.  Plant, sow, till, weed, water, fertilize.  This is going to be the bulk of my home focus.  I say home, because my financial aid for school went through.  I actually had given up on it.  Of course...Anyway, I will be starting school a week before daughter's graduation and all of those festivities that continue, not to mention prom and being poor, I have to try and fix her hair and nails.  Just not fair sometimes, but hopefully, Lord willing, I will be able to do adequately. 

Really, I am not putting to many to-dos on my to-do list since I have so much to do...huh???  

Somewhat Silent Sunday 5/17/15

Free-ranging fowl

Beans FINALLY!

Maters!

The first cucumber bloom



Noontime lull

Time to weed the kale



Mad Max Nap

My moon valley pilea is blooming



Peas blooming late this season

One water bottle, 9 bunnies
I promise there are more water bottles!

Tomato and Pepper raised bed coming along

Food Friday 5/15

I have been thinking...oh no...it's true, it usually is not a good thing.  Can I blame it on YouTube?  Well, I am going to.  I have watched a few menu/grocery haul-related videos and am really interested in trying a 30-day menu, buying bulk groceries.  I know, as I have said, 10-day menus are sometimes pushing my limits, but I have got to try to stretch that dollar even further, especially with the end of the school year (and high school career for my daughter) and now I have to provide breakfasts and lunches everyday. 

And if that it isn't enough to mix things up, I really liked seeing the pictures of the dinners that some YouTubers put up.  Is that weird?  Is that where the "food porn" phrase comes from?  I can stop looking anytime I want to; I just don't want to... Of course, this will take some getting used to.  Obviously, I have not made it a habit yet of taking pictures so this is all you get from last week. 


Bean rice potpourri with iceberg and
garden lettuce salad

Umm, this was the grilled BBQ chicken, potato salad and cole slaw meal

If this is how it is going to look, we may revert back just to the written word.  I don't want to be responsible for you losing your appetite. 










Anyway, let me know what you think of pre-(not post) meal pics versus the pre-week menu.  I will continue to put up some recipes with the weekly meal pics, and I will also include how much a monthly menu cost me and if I like it.  I won't actually start that until next pay day though in preparation for the June month. 

Come on Noon!

If you read my last post, you know how I envied all of nature at noon with its stillness and warmth. 

Well, let me introduce you to the morning.  I would call this a DITL (day in the life), but really this is just from 4:30 until 6:30 am.

I hear my son's alarm going off so decide I had better get up and get everyone's lunches ready.  I have discovered that if they do it themselves they either go through our supplies twice as fast as they should or they don't take lunch at all and things get wasted-feast or famine.  I begin waking up by turning on a little iheartradio to a Vivaldi self-created station to ease into the day.  So I open up the lunch boxes to find an ooey, gooey, syrupy mess in the hubby's.  Really?  So let's start the morning by washing out the lunch boxes.  That explains why the red one was used instead of the blue for the last week.  (Rolling eyes.)  This goes smoothly; sandwiches and leftovers, grapes, peanut butter crackers, juice and cough drops for the sickly one, oats and more syrup-in an extra brown lunch bag-for the hubby.  I have time to clean up a little before they are up.  I consider making breakfast.  No, let's not spoil them, besides they have breakfast bagels in the freezer.  I put in a load of laundry and as the son comes out of his room, I remind him to leave some of his dirty clothes for me to wash.  I think that was positive groan I heard from his direction.  Ah yes, it was; there are clothes in the hallway now.

Shortly, everyone is doing the zombie walk out the door to work and school with lunches in hand.  I now have two loads of clothes in my basket and the sun is up.  I take the basket and set it on the rail so I can open up the chickens.  I decided that it would be a nice thing for me to do if I let the goats out to nibble on poison ivy and privet whilst I hang out my laundry.  I set my basket down and glance at the goats heading toward the greenhouse.  Nothing in there, let them be curious.  All of a sudden I hear a horrific squeal.  The bunnies!  I run as fast as I can in my muck boots and with a broken toe to find our cat on top of a rabbit...one of our bunnies!  Oreo sees me and takes off.  The rabbit runs back into the garden fence.  I trot back around to get in the garden and pick him up.  He does not move.  He is in shock.  I see a white rabbit also out and about.  I put the possibly injured bunny on top of the cage inside an old honey super that we help to hold down the feed bags to give them shade.  He does not move.  The white one, however, is not quite as ready to leave the green, green grass outside of his tractor.  Nonetheless, he goes.  I hold the other one a little while, examining him.  I see one little scratch on his ear, but no blood.  Nothing else external.  I leave him in the honey super and feed the others and also the chickens and ducks.  I come back move the tractor to a new patch of grass, checking for dips where they can escape out the bottom fence and fill one with a brick.  I put him gently back in the tractor. He remains still amongst the others. 

Then I hear something in the greenhouse.  Brie has knocked over a stack of gallon pots.  I shoo them out of the greenhouse.  They seem to moderately behave as I finish putting the rest of the clothes on the line.  I grab a bit of feed to bribe them back into the fence so I can check my garden for rabbit damage.  Yep, some of my lettuce has been nibbled quite badly.  My newly sprouted beans seem to be intact.  What the?!?  Brie.   In the garden?  Exhale to slumped shoulders.  "Come on Brie, back to the..."  She jumps back over the chicken wire part of the fence and runs back toward the clothesline and runs into Mollie.  I grab both of their collars and head toward the gate.  The gate latch has been broken!  The girls escape and take off running.  I am sure from the outside it was funny to watch.  I cannot recall the next 10 minutes of running through the trees and poison ivy on the driveway side of the coop, tripping over the roots, rocks and stones.  My broken toe is now a bit painful, but as much as just wanted to let the dog have the goats, I had to finish this and reaffirm my authority. The queen bee shall prevail!  I had to literally drag Brie like a stubborn mule all the way around the shed to the goat barn.  I locked her in her stall so that I could try to temporarily repair the gate to hold them in.  I wasn't worried about Mollie, she will come back in soon enough.  She did, after hearing her sister in their stall throwing a hissy fit.  I fed the adult rabbits in their cages.  I was so thankful everyone had enough water to last until noonish.  I gave Mollie some sweet feed and grabbed the blue nylon rope hanging on the barn and proceeded to make a web trying to hold the gate shut.  A bit out of breath I went back in the house passing the digital clock on the stove.  6:29!  Good grief!  Come on noon!  I need some peace!

Practicing Peace

Warmer days are starting.  That means more to do in the morning and noon time.  Hanging out the clothes on sunny days to take advantage of the drying sun.  Checking the animals more often to make sure they are cool enough and have plenty of fresh water.  Water the garden, daily weeding and hoeing to ensure the best harvest possible in the fall.  Fixing things that have deteriorated over the cold of the winter. I spend mornings rushing about working on my to-do list. Inside chores and iheartradio go hand-in-hand to keep them moving along without too much thinking on my part. The washer is making noise, the ice maker runs and dumps the ice, startling me almost each time. Outside morning chores fill the air with sounds rustling bags of feed, birds and bees singing and buzzing, bleating goats, thumping rabbits, quacking ducks, meowing cat and clucking chickens, all vying for my attention to get theirs first.  

Yet, when the sun is straight up and shade can be a challenge, there is an eerie silence on the homestead.  As I was taking the dry towels off the clothesline, I noticed the stillness and silence, less the one cardinal sitting on the garden fence singing.  The rabbits were in their rabbit tractor, splayed out trying to stay cool.  One gets up and goes for a drink.  The cardinal then has competition with the clink-clink-clink of the water bottle nipple, but not for long as he lays back down with the others.  I see the chickens under the Leyland cypress trees resting in the deepest shade they can find.  I can see the goats settled along the shady fence line joined by a few younger pullets on and around them, seemingly enjoying the silence that causes me to feel a bit uneasy.  They all seem so at peace.  I think I will follow suit and go inside into the shade and practice enjoying the peace and quiet before the afternoon comes and brings with it a new set of tasks-noisy, rushed tasks.