Meal plan for April 30th – May 6th!
Good morning! I’m not sure how the weather is where you guys are, but yesterday was just perfect around here! It wasn’t all that sunny, but it was warm enough to be outside without any extra layers. I ran errands while my old piece o’ crap car was once again in the shop, and ended up walking about 4 miles to hit up the post office, fabric store, and Goodwill. Where I picked up this beautiful glass milk bottle, which was the perfect vessel for some kale blossoms.
While I was off doing that, Troy and Jack were using a sawzall (what, toddlers and power tools? Something wrong with that combo? It’s pretty typical in our house) to the old bushes in our front yard. We spent the rest of the day mowing the law, weeding, making repairs to the house, and planting new bushes! They’re blueberries! So not only will they be beautiful to look at, but we can eat them.
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| Before. The bushes were overrun and smelled like urinal cakes. They also attracted flies like a dead body. |
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| After the removal, but before the weeding. |
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| After. Each of the bushes will only grow about three feet tall. |
The evening brought cool weather that was too cool to be outside, but the day had been too fun to be confined to the table. We ended up having a picnic on the living room floor as we introduced Jack to Star Wars!
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| So in to the scene that he couldn’t even finish his bite! |
Before I talk about our dinners, I wanted to briefly talk about our breakfasts, snacks, and lunches since I did get an email from a reader this week.
Breakfasts on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday is oatmeal that I make at home and then we eat at work. Tuesdays and Thursdays are smoothies on the way to work/preschool.
Lunches for Troy and myself are leftovers from dinner the night before. If we’re light on leftovers, we grab pints of leftover soup that I store in the freezer and pair with slices of cheese and some crackers. We also take carrots each day. Snacks are typically pistachios, almonds, and a/or a piece of fruit.
Monday:: Roast chicken, salad (from the garden), and mac and cheese from the freezer.
Tuesday:: Mostly meatless burgers, kale chips, and home canned fruit.
Wednesday:: garlic cheese pasta (new recipe) with leftover chicken from Monday, salad from the garden, and home canned fruit.
Thursday:: Soup from the freezer, grilled cheese sandwiches, and home canned fruit.
Friday:: School event for Troy.
Saturday:: chicken fried steak, salad from the garden, and maybe some other veggie to combat the heaviness of dinner!
Sunday:: Dinner at my parent’s.
This week I spent $15.39 at the grocery store* (a relief after my $500 shopping bill last week!!!!), $12 on organic eggs (3 dozen), $3.50 on a half gallon of raw milk, and $30 (estimated) at Costco. We’ll hit up Costco later today, and will need organic carrots, avocados, organic olive oil, and vanilla extract. Yep, we make our own vanilla, but for things that I serve Jack uncooked (smoothies, yogurt, etc.), I don’t feel comfortable giving him flavored vodka!
Grocery store purchases: artichokes, bananas, garlic, natural ham lunchmeat from the deli, and a pineapple.
You guys are always eating artichokes, how do you cook them? I never now what to do with them
Oh we do so love artichokes! There are plenty of ways out there to cook them, but I prefer the lazy method.
Cut the butt off, and then steam them in a big pot with a metal steamer insert until you can peel off an outside leaf. If we have small chokes, we put them in the rice cooker with the steamer insert it came with.
Have you ever eaten one before, or just don’t know how to cook it? Cause if you’ve never eaten one before, there is a special way to do it.
My God – your blog should be renamed “Frugal by Choice, Cheap by Necessity, Cool by Default”! I really enjoy reading all you do for the environment and your family all while sticking it to the reality that our society has become! I want to be like you! But at 53 it’s a little difficult to re-train not only myself but my family, too. I would love to see a blog topic on how the rest of us silly people can take baby steps to be more sensitive to our bodies, our environment and our wallets! Do you have any thoughts on that? I mean, if there were just one or two things that would be do-able, in your opinion!
I am being much better at menu planning and using left overs to make new meals. I’ve always canned but never really canned anything my family liked so I am shifting that mindset. If nothing else…salsa! It kills me to pay $7.00 for a stupid bottle of tomatoes and peppers!
My best accomplishment is scouring the clearance table at Lowe’s for reduced perennials, annuals and shrubs to feed my incessant need to plant rather than buy at full retail. It’s become a game!
JL
Ha, thanks for that compliment!
I feel like I’ve written a few posts on that topic, but a newer “mini version” might be a great idea. Click on the label “Frugal Girl’s Guide to Going Green” on the right-hand column of the blog. There are a few posts in there that you might enjoy!
And I hear you on canning! For the longest time I canned what I thought I should can, but we rarely ate it. Same with gardening – I always grew things that I thought I needed to grow, and they rotted in the garden. This year is my year for doing only what we’ll eat and want!
Have you checked the alcohol content of storebought vanilla? McCormick’s Pure Vanilla Extract is 41% alcohol, less than vodka but more than 0%. You don’t have to get it very hot to drive off the alcohol. Just get it warm. However, I doubt you will harm him since he would only ingest a smidgen of what you put in a smoothie and share with him. But, he is your child. Just my two cents.
Goodness, I never thought of that. I’ll have to read my label and check it out!
I just started boiling off the alcohol in our vanilla for P’s yogurt. It makes the vanilla a little thicker and tastes awesome! If you have a gas stove do a small amount at a time, alcohol flames are a pretty blue, but a change your pants kind of situation when the vapors ignite!
Is that my magic ingredient in P’s “night time sleep sauce”? HA! I’ll try it!