Meal plan for July 1st – 7th
Oh sweet Jesus, it’s hot. Well, it’s Seattle hot. Anywhere else in the country would laugh at us, but with no ac, our bodies are not acclimated to this kind of weather. Our only defense mechanism is sweating and whining.
A recent walk to the beach netted us a lovely piece of drift wood and some old string. Troy, ever the crafty and creative guy, built Jack a bow and arrow.
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| My own little Katniss Everdeen |
Our garden is coming along decently now. We had four days of heavy rain last week, and then it started getting hot on Friday, and will remain hot for the near future. I’ve recently added four more blueberry bushes to our microfarm. There is a nice older man who sells fruit bushes at our local farmer’s market. He sells three year old bushes for $25 at the market, but during a recent trip to his house, he gave me four for $60, PLUS threw in a grape plant. Note to self: figure out how to grow grapes. That brings our blueberry plantings up to 12 total. Jack salivates just walking by them.
I felt so grateful for his kindness, that Troy and I decided to pay it forward. We have an old window ac unit that doesn’t work in our new rental. Our plan was to sell it for about $50 on craigslist. We were waiting for a hot week to post it, thinking it would sell better. Instead? We gave it to our neighbor who is a single dad and has a house that gets crazy toasty in summer.
Jack and I loaded it up in his wagon, and rolled it down to the neighbor’s. He didn’t know we were coming, and father and son met us at the door in only a diaper (son) and basketball shorts (dad); both were sweaty and looked cranky.
Ya’ll, you should have seen his face when I told him we were giving it to him. For free. I thought he was going to cry. He quickly got to work setting it up, and Jack and I returned home for dinner. He texted me that night saying the house was cool enough to sleep and he was so thankful for the ac.
I have never been so happy to “throw away” $50 so much before in my life. I wanted to tell our neighbor that he should really text Al, the blueberry farmer, but I just told him we were happy to help.
Meal plan time! Reminder, I only plan dinners, because breakfast is always smoothies or eggs with something, and lunches are always leftovers. We rarely eat dessert during the week, and our dinner drink of choice is water kefir soda.
Monday:: Grilled peanut satay, rice, and grilled veg.
Tuesday:: Salad and skillet garlic bread.
Wednesday:: Pasta salad and tears because it is supposed to be 90 degrees.
Thursday:: Fourth of July BBQ at my in-laws.
Friday:: Popcorn dinner. Yes, seriously we eat popcorn for dinner. It’s popcorn, leftovers, cheese slices, fruit, and cut up veggies. Everyone gets as much as they want, and no one leaves hungry. I adore Fridays because it is the easiest night of the week for making everyone happy!
Saturday:: If it has cooled down, we’ll make homemade pizza.
Sunday:: Family dinner at my parent’s.
We haven’t gone grocery shopping yet, but my list is very small. Fingers crossed it is a low bill.
What are you having this week?
Love the story of your wonderful act. Hope that you tell the blueberry farmer just what he started.
Oh I love reading stories like this of paying it forward! Thanks so much for sharing.
I used to work outside in the summer here in St. Louis (rough approximation: the boiler room of Hell, just with more humidity) and my go-to protein was hard boiled eggs. They are always a nice, cool solution that is filling without sitting too heavy on your stomach in the heat.
Thanks for the idea, Sara. I work outside on the eastcoast. Very hot & humid here! And I love boiled eggs. I usually put my yogart in the freezer the night before. By lunch time the next day, it is like eating ice cream.
I love your free grape plant/gift an AC story! You might like this story too. It reminds me of those Chicken Soup for Soul books 🙂
Cereal, sandwiches, and fruit salad are popular around here when it gets hot. And lots of ice cream . .
Here in Montana, it’s been in the 90’s for the last few days, with it expected to get to mid 90’s for the next week or so. I would love to do pasta salad (and might make some just for me), but the hubby says he doesn’t like cold pasta. Oh well.
I plan to cook up a few animals in the crock-pot so that we can eat salad with some sort of cold shredded meat on top.I have chicken and pig in the freezer, so that’s probably what it will be. Oh, and I may just heat the house up so I can make a big batch of bacon in the over.
Bacon is so worth it.
That is one of the many reason’s that I LOVE my crockpot. It does not get the kitchen hot like the oven would. Making stuffed peppers in them today 🙂
Great ideas for dinner. I am also in the Seattle area and my plans for the week are make a huge pasta salad to eat off of as well as regular salad and sandwich stuff. It is definitely a no cooking week.