Meal plan for September 2nd – 8th
I stayed up late last night canning. I haven’t done much canning this season yet, and I forgot how big of a mess it creates! My kitchen got filthy, and I only got two lousy quarts of tomato soup. During a cold night in winter, I won’t know if the soup I am eating came from a huge marathon night, or just a night spent making two quarts. But I will know that it is warming our tummies and making a great use of stuff I grew myself.
I’m picking baskets like this every threeish days.
We’re getting between four and five eggs a day as well. The fall crop of the raspberries is ripening to the tune of about 1/2 cup a day, and we get about 15 small strawberries as well. We’re on the tail end of blueberries and blackberries, but the sun is still shining most days, and we still need the windows open to feel comfortable.
This time of year is magical. I love it, and I always look for a pause button so that I can just stop for a bit and enjoy it just a few moments longer.
Last week Troy needed to drive to Oregon, so we swapped cars. I gave him my nice and clean Civic with a full tank of gas, and was given a disgusting and filthy Ford Ranger in return. With less than 1/4 of a tank. Charmed. He also thought it would be lovely to lock the canopy so that I couldn’t put stuff in the back. It also happened to be our Azure Standard drop day, so poor Jack was covered in stuff the entire way home.
Getting in to my Civic the next day felt like I was slipping in to a luxury vehicle.
Saturday found Jack and me alone. Per usual. We kept busy mowing the weeds lawn, redoing a rocking chair for Jack that I found at Goodwill. It involved spray paint, and there was a bit of an incident with that…more on that later this week. Jack was a great helper yesterday, and I am pretty sure I didn’t tell him that he was driving me nuts once!
Meal plan time! Reminder, I only plan dinners. My breakfast of choice has changed, and I’m now obsessed with homemade Greek yogurt with tons of cut up fresh fruit, and a homemade granola bar crumbled on top. It’s delicious and keeps me completely full and satisfied until lunch. Lunches are always leftovers. We rarely eat dessert during the week, and our dinner drink of choice is water kefir soda.
Monday:: Grilled zucchini with spicy chicken sausage and Walla Walla sweet onions. Heaven.
Tuesday:: Working late. Everyone is on their own.
Wednesday:: Pizza. And not just any pizza…take out pizza! I am working stupid late on Tuesday, and Jack keeps asking me to get a pizza from Little Caesars. $5 and I don’t have to cook? I can get Jack to stop bugging me? $5 well spent.
Thursday:: Homemade gyros.
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:: Oven-fried chicken, coleslaw, and biscuits if the weather isn’t really hot.
Sunday:: Family dinner. I typically bring bread, an appetizer, or dessert. Mom and dad provide the main dish, and the cousins and my sister fill in with veggies, sides, or desserts. I LOVE Sundays!
This week I spent $9.82 at the fruit stand, $3.50 at the farm for raw milk, and $29.50 at the grocery store.
What are you having this week?
Ha! I had too look up what you meant by ‘biscuits’ for a meal (my being a Brit!). Over here biscuits are sweet, crispy-crunchy affairs you dip in your cuppa (tea) – which would’ve made a very odd diiner!! I like the sound of your transatlantic scone-like unleavened bread. Sounds a bit like the “cobbles” from a UK cobbler (a savoury stew type of dish; not a dessert like your peach cobbler [which I think we’d call crumble anyway!!]) Any chance of a recipe?
It’s amazing how different one language can be when it comes to food, innit? 😀
*dinner* not diiner – Doh!
Yes, we do things just a bit differently, don’t we? Is it true that baking powder doesn’t really exist in the UK?
I have a mish mash of biscuit recipes that I make in to “my own”…perhaps I’ll do a post on those soon? This recipe makes a pretty tasty biscuit: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/JPs-Big-Daddy-Biscuits/Detail.aspx?event8=1&prop24=SR_Title&e11=big%20daddy%20j%27s%20biscuits&e8=Quick%20Search&event10=1&e7=Home%20Page
I just canned 25 lbs of tomatoes and am spending the weekend outside of Yakima… I am trying to be realistic about what I can bring home (to the south sound) but wow it’s hard when everything is so fresh and cheap! I have been researching tomato soup recipes for canning and am not having much luck. All the trusted sources say even with a pressure canner you shouldn’t use butter and thickener. I notice your recipe archive doesn’t have canning instructions with your recipe. Can you share what you are doing?
Oh Yakima is like a siren’s song to me!
I put the tomatoes through my foodmill and “sauce” them like I was just making a basic tomato sauce. I can it with just that and 1 tblsp of bottled lemon juice per quart for 40 minutes in a boiling water bath, or 25 minutes in my pressure canner at 11 lbs of pressure.
Then, when I want to serve it, I melt a bit of butter, add the flour, and then open the jar and combine. Add a bit of baking soda, a pinch of sugar, salt, and pepper, and heat through.
I do NOT can the soup with the flour or butter mixed in!
Awesome. That makes way more sense. My in laws recently purchased an orchard here. I am like a crazed hoarder after the commercial pickers have left! 🙂
I’m guilty of giving the car to my hubby with almost no gas. Oops. Of course, he gets to drive our brand new truck to work everyday because he drives way less then we do, so I don’t expect him to complain much.
I just bought 25# of tomatoes that I am going to attempt to preserve in some way. Mostly I just make some sort of marinara sauce (with zucchini and whatever other veggies I have on hand) but I think I might try to make diced/stewed tomatoes to freeze for the winter. I may get crazy and try canning them.
We have sliced ham (from a real ham, not deli meat), ground lamb, and ground beef in the fridge. I need to pick up eggs (which will cost me $16 for the 4 dozen we plow through each week). Also, I’m sure there is a frittata in our future.
That’s as far as my planning has gone. We just signed a lease to rent a small (528 sq ft) house with a small yard, so we will be moving over the next 2 weeks. Might be a good time to rely on the meals I have frozen!