Meal plan for March 18th – 24th
Scene: driving to preschool, 7:20 am, busy city street
Jack: Mommy, when we get to precshool, can I please have a hug?
Me: Absolutely buddy!
Jack: And, Mommy, can I please have a baby brother?
Me: Um, well, eh, hee hee, well, no, not right now.
Jack: But I really want a baby brother!
Me: Even if your Poppy and I were ready for another kid, there is no guarantee it would be a boy.
Jack: (thoughtful contemplation) ok, well, will you make me some pudding tonight.
Me: That I can do darling!
Saturday morning was quite productive for our little micro farm! I mowed the lawn before it started raining (I win!), weeded, and laid down some more cardboard in the non-main garden, and then covered it with straw. In my weeding, I discovered lots of worms under the straw I had laid down last fall; happy worms (I’m assuming they’re happy. Hard to tell since you never know if you’re looking at their face or their butt) means good soil. I’m so glad I started using the straw last year. It has made a huge difference in terms of limiting my weeding, and not having to hardly water during the summer. It’s pretty darn cheap too, considering my garden is pretty small.
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| The materials for my chicken coop that didn’t get started because Troy was sick |
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| Lilac tree (right) and mini dwarf apple (left). New blueberry bushes will be to the left. |
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| Blueberries that were put in last year |
My raspberry bed is coming along gangbusters! I started with six plants last year, lost three, and ended the season with three main canes, and a bunch of additional “bonus” canes. Well, weeding in-depth in the bed showed me that we have at least 20 little “volunteers” coming up. I can’t wait until we start harvesting.
In a moment of genius yesterday, we got Jack involved in house cleaning. I was cleaning the bathrooms, and Troy was doing the floors. Jack was bored and driving us both nuts. I asked him if he would like to wash the windows. Getting to spray something and pretend it was a gun? A big hit. He cleaned the bottom part of two big windows, and half of our sliding glass door. He was busy cleaning for 20 minutes, and we got to clean in peace. How could I not have thought of this before????
Meal plan! 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:: leftover roasted chicken (roasting it tonight, and we’re having leftovers tomorrow), salad, garlic bread.
Tuesday:: Cashew chicken, fried rice, and lumpia (from a friend!)
Wednesday:: Salmon cakes, onion rings, and salad
Thursday:: Dinner 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:: Homemade pizza. My nephew is spending the night, and we want to go for a sure winner.
Sunday:: Family dinner!
This week I spent $36 at Costco, $8.50 at the farm for raw milk and local eggs.
Whatcha all having this week?
Hey, I’ve been enjoying your blog for a few weeks – this is my first time commenting. I’d like you to tell me more about your cardboard and straw. Why you use it, when you lay it down, etc. I’m a newbie vegie gardener in the midwest and can use all the ideas i can get.
Also, how do spend only $36 at Costco?!?
Hi Jenny, welcome to the land of commenting reader! =D
You might find more info about the cardboard and straw here: https://www.sustainablecooks.com/2013/03/getting-my-birthday-present-five-months.html
Basically, it holds down the weeds and creates a mulch that allows you to reduce your watering over the season.
This Costco trip was mostly produce: a pineapple, kiwi, a tub of organic spinach, this “super food” mix they have (brussel sprouts, chickory, kale, cabbage, etc. that is all sliced up), and then some cheese.
Okay, I gotta ask from someone who can tell me…and forgive the dumb questions too. Why do you drink Raw Milk? What benefit does it give you? And is it cow’s milk? I assume you feed it to your son, correct? I see it advertised at a few local places, but didn’t know. I also see all the blurbs about the govt (which I am not certain is true…) adding artificial sweetener in our milk, which freaks me out. We drink Organic milk from Smiths, but would like to see your take on Raw? I looked in your archives and I didn’t see anything except where it’s listed as an ingredient or as part of meal, menu planner. Thanks in advance.
Not a dumb question at all! Many people feel that raw milk benefits their health. It hasn’t been pasteurized, so all the good stuff isn’t heated out.
For us, we noticed that Jack’s dairy allergy went away when we started making yogurt from raw milk. So we started making other stuff (ice cream, ricotta, etc.) and the issues he had with dairy were gone. A lot of people will claim that raw milk is either evil or like Jesus’ tears, but I know it just worked for our family. I don’t think it will cure cancer, but hey, some people do.
We’re not big milk drinkers (I’ll occasionally have a glass of chocolate milk, or make hot chocolate from it), so it primarily gets used to make yogurt and smoothies in our house.
The first time we bought it, we almost let it go bad in the fridge, because we were both so nervous to drink it. Surely, we’d drop dead from it, right? It wasn’t inspected by the gov’t and wasn’t manufactured in a large dairy. So scary, but we’re still here. ;-D b My farmer has four small boys, and I have to think that if they will feed it to their kids, they are very concerned about the safety of their product.
The two biggest reasons we like it are:
1) it tastes like milk should taste. Once you’ve had it, you notice that other milk tastes kind of boring.
2) It is more expensive for us than the organic milk (we used to do Smith’s delivery too!), but my dollars go directly to a family about 10 miles from my house. My money in a small way allows a family to make a living from their land.
Oh, and yes, it is cow’s milk!
The cows at my farmer’s farm are grazing and chilling in the pasture right by the barn. I get to see them and scratch their noses when I go in to buy my milk.
The little “store” is really a side room attached to the barn with a drop box for money, and a fridge full of milk in glass jars.