Saturday: Dishpan Hands

I feel like I have done nothing today but dishes. Not true, of course (I also washed the countertop, the microwave -- I don't even want to know what that was -- the sheets, the towels, the kid's hair), but I have done them several times in the course of cleaning up the kitchen/cooking.

The six-year-old and I made carrot cookies today, from the Living on a Dime cookbook formerly known (when I acquired it) as Not Just Beans. We ended up adding another egg to the batter, because it just looked too dry when it was "supposed" to be done, and I knew there was no way it would stick together. The cookies taste OK (kind of like slightly carroty sugar cookies), but they still came out pretty crumbly. I'm not sure if that's in part due to the fact that we thought we had no more baking powder left after the first teaspoon (recipe called for two) and so used the substitution of 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar and 1/4 teaspoon baking soda. (Later discovered that we did, indeed, have a new container of baking powder in the cupboard where I told her to look - but it was in a different shaped canister than before. Regardless of the fact that it says "Baking Powder" on it in big letters.)

I also made cornbread to go with the ribs I threw in the crockpot this morning for supper.

Needed to have supper planned, because the day was broken up with dance recital dress rehearsal (and the accompanying doing of the hair, slathering on of makeup so she can be seen from the stage, annual motherly speech about how this is the only time she gets to wear makeup, etc.). Announcement from the backseat of the car: "My favorite part about dance recital and dress rehearsal is being up on stage in front of all those people!"

Also spent part of the day going through the mammoth pile of school papers that have accumulated over the course of the year. I think I have uttered several times recently that next year, we are going to keep up on the sorting and not let it all wait until the end of the year. The parental review of this sorting needs to stay in place, though -- she thinks we should keep way more than I think we should. But, on the other hand, she didn't think we needed to keep her report cards.

(Last) Week's Frugal Accomplishments

I haven't posted in a while, and last week shaped up to be more frugal than this week has so far. I enjoy reading the posts and comments on this topic at http://theprudenthomemakerblog.blogspot.com

Last week, I

- was better about meal planning/deliberately using up leftovers.

a) Turned some lunchmeat that needed to be used up into filling for turkey and cheese crescents with a can of crescent rolls that was in the fridge.

b) used blueberries (that had been in the freezer from a previous summer) that hadn't been used up in a recent blueberry pancakes meal, to make blueberry muffins

c) used some of sauerkraut that had been sitting in partially used jars in fridge to make German casserole (pork sausage -- from our freezer, sauerkraut, apples and onions are the basic ingredients)

d) used cream cheese that had been purchased on an earlier sale and in our freezer to make the cheesy enchiladas that someone else posted in these comments a while back (sorry, I don't have access to the recipe right now -- I did write down who it was but can't remember off the top of my head!)

- also used things on hand for food for end of the school-year celebrations and other events

a) brought strawberries and raspberries in the freezer from last summer as ice cream toppings for end of the year church youth choir party

b) used rhubarb from freezer and other ingredients on hand to make rhubarb coffee cake for potluck at final Girl Scout troop leader meeting of the school year

c) used strawberries from the freezer and Jell-O and sour cream that were on hand to make strawberry Jello salad for a church funeral luncheon

(I'm trying to increase the pace of using the strawberries and raspberries from the freezer somewhat, before it's time to go picking again and replenish with this year's crops!) I also did a little bit of chest freezer organization, so it's easier to find (and use!) the things that are in there. Right now, I'm using empty Girl Scout cookie boxes (the cardboard boxes that held several boxes of cookies) to contain the pork and beef from our meat purchase last year, so everything is not piled on top of each other. Some smaller items are in the plastic dishpans from the dollar store that we used for a Girl Scout activity. Now that the other cuts of meat are easier to find, I'm hoping to use them more -- and not just focus on the hamburger as much just because it was easy to get to!

Also, acquired a free banana from quarterly meeting snacks at work (kid ate it); used graham cracker snacks passed out at church celebration for lunchbox snacks; and fed child on Sunday by delivering her to a classmate's birthday party after church. :)

She found a free kid's book in husband's Cheerios box; I registered her for before-school childcare for next school year during the timeframe when the registration is free (even if we need to change our timeslots later); and we found free downloadable printable invitations for her upcoming birthday party.

Earned $33 from this spring's consignment sale. Read free Kindle and library books, and watched a code for a free Redbox DVD rental for the family ("To the Arctic").

The 6-year-old and I also harvested dandelions, and made dandelion fritters, before I mowed (with a reel mower -- no gas expense required). 

Friday's Fave Five

I've missed a couple of these (that darned inertia ..), but am participating again this week in Friday's Fave Five, hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story.

 My favorites for this week are:

1. Ice Castle

Although I haven't (yet) in my life made it to the St. Paul Winter Carnival, they are hosting an ice castle at the Mall of America this winter -- through the middle of next week, or it might close early if temperatures are sustainably above 40 degrees (like *that's* going to happen this year). As part of my "embrace winter" philosophy this year, my mom, my daughter and I visited the Ice Castle last weekend. There were thrones, there were ice princesses, there were cool ice formations, and there was a little girl who spontaneously hugged me and thanked me for bringing her to the Ice Castle. It was fun.

2. Raspberry Chocolate Cheesecake

My husband and I (it was a joint effort; I made the crust, he assembled the rest of it) made the Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake Pie posted on MoneySavingMom this week for our family Valentine's dinner dessert, from some of the many raspberries we picked last summer. It was delicious. It's possible I'm eating some of it while I'm writing this blog post.

3. The "good china."

For that Valentine's dinner, we ate off the good china -- the kind that people used to traditionally receive as a wedding present. While we've regretfully never had occasion to use our full set (I think it's 12settings; I kind of rotate the ones we use for our small family), I still remember the fun of picking it out, still like my Forest Glen patttern, and enjoy using it. (Especially now that the six-year-old is old enough to use it as well, and has also expressed her appreciation for it.)

4. Family Game Night

While my mom was visitng last weekend, we had some fun with old-fashioned board and card games. I enjoy playing these, but my husband doesn't, so it's nice when we have someone else in the house to add another player.

5. Reading "Farmer Boy"

We're on the third in the Laura Ingalls Wilder series for our read-alouds. It's been a while since I've read this one, and I'd kind of forgotten how food-obsessed it is. It's fun to read about all of those things, and it's got me thinking of a few things to add to the family menu in the next few weeks (like maybe apples and onions, or some oatmeal).

Last (Couple Of) Week's Frugal Accomplishments

I didn't keep up with this last week, so here are my frugal accomplishments for the past couple of weeks. (This is a roundup hosted at http://theprudenthomemakerblog.blogspot.com.)

Earned $3.00 from an online survey.

Replaced six-year-old's broken tennis shoes on MLK weekend, using a 25 percent off coupon.

Used oil company credit card discount and/or grocery points rewards programs for discounts when filling car with gas.

Purchased complete set of Magic School Bus DVD's (a favorite of the six-year-old) while on sale on Amazon, for gift-giving occasions throughout the year (Easter, birthday, Christmas -- haven't decided how they will be divided up yet). This is my second "gift closet" (actually, it's a box) purchase of 2013.

Used coupons printed from Swagbucks at the grocery store, which will give me the discount stated on the coupon, as well as Swagbucks credit for each coupon used. Paired with grocery store sales. Also used a printable coupon from the grocery store (somehow, they had deleted my online account; when I reactivated it, they sent me a coupon.) This is also the grocery store with the gas points rewards program.

Took six-year-old grocery shopping with me; she got a free apple with a card received from the grocery store during one of their community events held last fall. (It's good for a free apple or banana for a child each time they shop with their parent through the end of February.)

Packed some lunches and breakfasts for work/school. (Sometimes, I just don't get my lunch packed ...)One of the few restaurants close enough to my workplace to go for lunch is McDonalds: used a coupon for a free fries and drink with 20-piece chicken nuggets meal at McDonald's. 20 nuggets is really too much for me for one lunch, so I saved half and microwaved them for lunch the next day, thus splitting the cost of the meal in half between two meals.

I usually ask for honey for the sauce when I order chicken nuggets, and they always give me way too many packets. Saved the extra packets. Used a couple of them in hot tea when I felt the possibility of a sore throat coming on.

Successfully fended off the beginnings of a sore throat/cold with honey in hot tea, orange juice and a couple of straight tablespoons of apple cider vinegar. (I would have also used a free sample of Emergen-C, but it had solidified.)

Accepted leftovers of a pasta salad from a work meeting of some other department; ate for lunch the following day.

Used whole tomatoes from the freezer, a gift from a neighbor, in place of "stewed tomatoes" called for in a recipe for vegetable beef soup.

Used strawberries, picked last summer and frozen, to make strawberry muffins, which we ate with the vegetable beef soup, then packed in lunches and for breakfasts.

Used frozen shredded zucchini (also from last summer) to make zucchini bars, with cream cheese frosting (used the last of the cream cheese in the refrigerator purchased at Christmastime sales). Used as desserts/snacks.

Used the last of the molasses in a bottle to make molasses crinkles cookies with the six-year-old, letting her practice reading by reading the recipe out of the Betty Crocker's New Boys and Girls Cookbook (the original edition, which I have had since my childhood -- complete with the falling-out pages that we need to carefully tuck back between the covers).

Used three frozen bananas from the freezer -- each the last one from a bunch, which were going to turn bad before we could eat them, so I put them in the freezer --- to make Money Saving Mom's recipe for banana chocolate chip muffins. Have been eating them for my breakfasts.

And, the biggest frugal accomplishment of the past couple of weeks: completed refinance of the mortgage! Will save $160 a month in payments and, because of the timing of the refinance, will not have to make a mortgage payment at all for February!

Comestibles from the Kitchen

While, at the moment, we're in a season of not doing a great deal of decent cooking (everything either seems to wind down in May for the end of the school year, or gear up for the summer), there have been a few comestibles of note lately for one reason or another.

For one, I used up the beets that had been preserved in our freezer from last year's CSA produce boxes. My original intention had been to use them as borchst, but I think I missed the winter window for that. But, since I don't actually like beets, I needed to find another option. (I know: I don't like beets, but I do like borscht. Or at least, I have liked the borscht I've eaten that was actually made by Ukrainians. It's entirely possible that if I were to attempt to cook it myself, it would have been a different story.) I ended up making them into a Chocolate Beet Cake. It's similar to the idea of replacing some of the liquids in a cake recipe with applesauce, except this uses pureed beets. Some people might use it to hide veggies from their kids. I told the kid upfront; I just wanted to hide the beets (or at least the taste of them) from myself. It worked! I liked it, ate it, and now know of at least two useful uses for beets. (Plus, I got to use the Tupperware cake keeper my grandma gave me when she cleaned out her house: always a bonus getting to use some fun specialty kitchen item.)

We're still using up some other CSA stuff, too: some garlic went into a spaghetti and shrimp dish recently, and tomatoes got unfrozen (in boiling water) to be plopped into a cheeseburger pie. It's possible the tomatoes may have come not from the CSA, but from the generous neighbor. My attempts at growing tomatoes myself have been fails, so I didn't even buy any plants this year. Perhaps the neighbor will again be generous? I had intentions of using the raspberries thawed from the stash from last year's raspberry picking in some sort of recipe, but they got eaten plain. I find them rather tart served so, but apparently the kindergartener who complained after I quit putting them in her lunch (because she'd eaten all of them) disagreed.

And we've had a couple of fun opportunities to review foods, too. I received a free sample of Knorr Homestyle Stock from Smiley 360, and we cooked it up as part of the broth for a dish of pork chops baked atop stuffing mix (yes, this was back in the cold spring -- you know, a couple of weeks ago). It's little packages of dried broth ingredients that you reconstitute with boiling water. The idea, I guess, is to replace cans of broth. It does take up less storage space -- and I imagine would hurt less than a can if you dropped it on your toe -- but I'm not particularly happy about the relatively high sodium content in the ingredients list. When I do buy canned broth, I generally opt for the low sodium type. And the taste was just OK - I didn't find it spectacular, and I don't think the rest of the family even noticed. Still, it's nice to have some broth on hand (we have one more package we haven't used yet.)

I also received a coupon from Kraft First Taste for their new Teddy Graham Soft Paws. It's a snack item in their Teddy Graham line, except instead of being tiny teddy bear-shaped graham crackers, it's a larger, bear (cub) paw-shaped softer pastry, with filling in either apple cinnamon or oatmeal raisin flavors. We tried the apple cinnamon, since the kid has decided that her growing palate now rejects raisins (grrr!). It was actually a pretty tasty little snack, had whole grains -- and was hugely convenient for packing in the lunchbox.

April Spring Doings

So, if I update once a week, can I call it weekly updates? I don't think so, since I'm still catching up on my remembrances of more than a week ago.

Lately, in our household: we learned a bit about how to use the library catalog to find books. This came at the request to "use the computer to find books about unicorns." We did a subject search, wrote down the title, author and shelving locations, and searched for and found the four titles deemed acceptable. (Our library system evidently has 76 children's books under the subject of "unicorn," but the catalog displays cover images, and some with jousting knights in stormy backgrounds were deemed "too scary.") So far, we've made our way through a Candy Fairies book, A  Valentine's Surprise by Helen Perelman.

After that library outing, we then attended our city's parks and recreation department's Animal Open House. The resident reptiles (turtles, lizards, etc.) of the Outdoor Center were on display, and additional animals were brought in for the day: a chicken, a couple of miniature horses, a raccoon (used in a demonstration by the city naturalist), a chinchilla. There was a display of pelts for the kids to feel and guess what they had come from, and a "quiz" game for prizes of a bottle of water or a box of Cracker Jacks. (I do think they could have geared the questions up a little bit from the toddler/preschool level for some of the kids. One of the queries was: "What color is a bluebird?") Nora also got her burning question of the day answered by the city naturalist: "Does anything hunt owls?" (Answer: "Other owls.")

It was kind of an animal-themed week, as it also included a kindergarten field trip to a nature center, and a special guest star at the Girl Scouts meeting: one of the other girls' family dog, who was there for a discussion about "how to take care of dogs and other animals." And we followed up the following weekend with a trip to the Minnesota Zoo to see the annual Animal Babies exhibit: bunnies, chicks, calves, piglets and excitedly hopping goat kids at the farm, a baby monkey clinging to its mother's tummy.

I spent part of a weekend this month volunteering at a fancy gala, too: I got to get dressed up and go to the ball -- to work the carnival games and sell the fundraising beads. :) The money from the event goes to support a variety of local charitable endeavors.

Nora and I made a pecan pie with the leftover pie crust from our Easter lemon meringue version and some pecans picked up on sale after Christmas. (I figured we should probably eat the pecans before they went bad. And we haven't attempted homemade piecrust yet.) I also baked some banana muffins for breakfasts this weekend with some bananas from the freezer. I've been in a bit of a menu planning rut lately, and I've kind of lost track of my freezer inventory, but I do need to see what other produce is in there that we should be eating down before the next season.

The weather this month has been alternating between lovely spring, and rainy. There has been some park time, but probably not enough. I did finally find a dry (enough) day to mow the lawn and trim the edges. I chopped off a bunch of dandelions in doing so, making the yard noticeably less yellow, but two full bouquets had already been displayed in a green vase indoors. I'm enjoying watching the birds this spring, too. I've seen wild turkeys wandering about on my drive to work, a ring-necked pheasant running across the street in front of my car in our suburb, robins hunting in our yard, chickadees perching in our trees, and a pair of purple finches sitting on our deck with nesting material in their mouths. And, upon our return from church choir last week, we helped the next door neighbor uproot some of the dozens of maple seedlings that had self-sown in her yard (with a brief discussion of how we'd end up living in a forest if we let them grow, and a suggestion from the five-year-old that we could turn our house into a maple syrup factory).

I'm attempting to enjoy spring as it's here (I did finally finish reading North with the Spring by Edwin Way Teale; for some reason, it took quite a while), but summer approacheth -- at least, in terms of planning kid activities. I need to get on that.

Dance class had costume/photo day this week (so they make sure all the kids are looking right for recitals), and they handed out the class schedule for next year already. I asked Nora if she was taking dance next year, and her reaction, in a tone of voice that assumed this was sooooo obvious, was "Yeah! Every year!" I guess there's an interest. (Which I knew: she frequently tries to teach me dance steps, and her dance teacher's evaluation sheet for her, with recommendations for next year's classes, said she's a natural dancer -- and "full of energy.")

And, oh yes, I also meant to write down: inspired by the litter we've seen blowing into yards in the April winds, Nora's current plans for her grownup years include being "a paleontologist, what digs up dinosaur bones, a mom, and someone who cleans up all the litter in the world."

This Week's (and Last's) Menu Plans (Last Half of January 2012)

I like keeping track of my weekly menu plans because it helps me in my planning, my using stuff from the freezer and pantry, and having a good rotation of meals. Since I do recycle the menu plan posted weekly on our fridge, however, writing it down on this blog gives me a record of it.

So that's why you get to read about things we already ate.

Saturday (Jan. 21): We had a few hamburger buns left over from the Sloppy Janes meal earlier in the week. And, since we were low (in other words: completely out) of ground beef, I bought a family pack from the grocery store on that week's run, and cooked part of it up for Saturday dinner as Sloppy Joes -- also using some of the canned soup I won from 5MinutesForMom  as an ingredient. The five-year-old and I had also made Strawberry Muffins (strawberries from our freezer, picked last summer) that day.

Sunday (Jan. 22): For the day before Chinese New Year, DH suggested we go to the buffet at the Chinese restaurant at our mall for our midday repast. For supper later in the day, the kiddo and I had Popcorn and M&Ms as we watched Barbie and the Diamond Castle -- acquired cheaply as part of our local Blockbuster brick and mortar store's sell-off as they go out of business.

Monday (Jan. 23): There was a call for a low-fiber meal this night, due to a required medical test last week for a family member who recently turned 50 (not me). That ended up being Crockpot Lasagna -- I used some of the hamburger I had browned and "onion-ified" on Saturday. (I browned most of the rest of the family pack and put it in the freezer, except for a a portion that I left raw and froze as hamburger patties.)

Tuesday (Jan. 24): We still had a bag of frozen Voila pasta and vegetables in the freezer -- it's a handy post-travel meal for us -- that I had purchased before the holidays. Since one bag really only feeds two of our family well, it was a good night to have it when only two of us were eating.

Wednesday (Jan. 25): A day of driving to appointments and errands. I put some Cranberry Chicken in the crockpot in the morning, using up the last Thanksgiving-era sales can of cranberry sauce from the pantry, and cooking up the whole family pack of chicken thighs from the freezer.

Thursday (Jan. 26): The Plantation Ham Pie  from a Quick Cooking collection used up the last of the cooked and shredded Thanksgiving ham from the freezer, plus a bag of frozen broccoli from the same source. I made up homemade "cream soup" (butter, flour, milk) for those ingredients. And I did *not* roll my dough up into jellyroll style: I just plopped it on the casserole. Might not have looked pretty, but it tasted fine. Since our grocery store's sales on cottage cheese (an ingredient in the lasagna) always seem to require buying two containers, we also had a salad of Cottage Cheese and Raspberries (from last summer's pickings, from the freezer).

Friday (Jan. 27): Pizza. 

Saturday (Jan. 28): I'd had a hankering for Chicken and Dumplings for a while, so I simmered up some turkey broth from the freezer, and shredded up the cooked but uneaten chicken from the family pack I'd crockpotted on Wednesday.

Now, we're up to this week.

Sunday: Indian restaurant, leftovers.

Monday: Crockpot Chili, using browned hamburger-and-onions from the freezer.

Tuesday: School restaurant fundraiser. I am being forced not to cook in order to support my child's education.

Wednesday: Spaghetti Carbonara. We have numerous garlic cloves from last summer's CSA sitting around in our pantry, plus one lone strip of bacon that's still residing in the fridge and hasn't gone bad -- yet.

Thursday: Two--Cup Corn Casserole. Pasta from the pantry, corn from the freezer, homemade cream soups -- and a wintertime hot comfort food.

Friday: Pizza?

Saturday: Apple Oven Pancake?
Those two might get switched up.

Menu Plan Week of January 16

So, you know how I said I thought we'd probably eat something last weekend? We did.

And I'm still doing pretty well on the eating from the pantry thing -- although I'm not being as strict about this as I have been in previous years (in part, because our January weather has been decent enough -- until now -- that going to the grocery store hasn't been as much of an ordeal as in other winters. I hate fighting the weather and the frozen fingers that have trouble manipulating the lists and the coupons).

What we ate on Saturday was "Mini Pot Pies," a recipe found on the Gooseberry Patch blog.
Ours were created with some cooked turkey from the freezer, the last can of cream soup from the pantry (I sometimes make my own, as it's basically used as an ingredient, but sometimes buy it if there's a really good sale), shredded cheese and refrigerated biscuits. We served them with applesauce. It wasn't a meal that took a lot of effort, but it was good.

We had our pizza meal last Sunday instead of Friday, because our family ended up needing to go to a memorial service for a former coworker of my husband's - who had been married to a woman I'd come to know through a church small group -- on Friday evening. We changed up our usual Sunday family meal out to Friday night, afterward.

This week, there are a lot of other things on the schedule, so the plans have seemed to come down mostly to "kid-friendly and fast" meals (sometimes I wonder if my own tastes have ever outgrown "kid meals"...).

Monday: Grilled Cheese Sandwiches and Tomato Soup (from the pantry).
Tuesday: Parmesan Chicken (chicken from the freezer) and Mashed Potatoes (from the pantry; a free bag of one of those bag mixes).
Wednesday: Sloppy Janes in the crockpot (hot dogs and buns from the freezer from summertime sales, mixed with canned beans from the pantry) and Cornbread (made with pantry ingredients).
Thursday: some sort of Pasta
Friday: Pizza.

I also needed to use up the acorn squash that had been sitting on the counter since last fall -- and were starting to turn more orange instead of green. I scrubbed them off and put them in the crockpot for a few hours with some water, which created easily sliced squashes with pureed insides. I froze some of the puree and used about a cup of eat to make Squash Muffins. The recipe called for raisins, which would indeed have been healthier, but my kiddo is currently on an anti-raisin strike, so I substituted chocolate chips in the hopes of persuading her to eat them. (It didn't work.) She also helped me make them -- we're working on her cooking skills this year. I've been finding a couple of them to be a nicely hearty winter breakfast, particularly when consumed with a cuppa tea.

Speaking of the tea, I've changed my ways on that as well. Since I take morning medication that prevents me from eating until an hour after I've swallowed it, plus have to get people up and going and to places in the mornings, on the days that I work outside the house, I end up eating breakfast at my desk. I had fallen into the habit of buying chais from the vending machine (I don't drink coffee). This month, I've finally begun brewing my own tea at work, using tea bags and an electric teakettle (a wedding present from 13 years ago). It did take me a few days to remember, first, a mug, then something to set the used teabag upon (I do reuse it a few times), then a container to actually pour the water into the kettle, but -- by the second week of January -- I've managed to shift the habit away from the vending machine and toward the kettle. I have bought one vending machine chai, and also treated myself to one from a coffee shop -- yay for gifts cards so I didn't actually spend anything out of pocket! -- but, overall, I've definitely reduced my daily and weekly spending in this area, plus it's probably healthier, too.

Visit orgjunkie.com for more menu plans (many of them posted in a more timely manner).