Menu Plan Monday

This week is pretty much up in the air as far as our meal plans. For those of you that are regular readers, you know that my stepfather is terminally ill. It looks like today or tomorrow will be his last day with us.

Out of town family members are coming in. We are not sure where everyone will be staying or when/where we will be eating or how even how many will be at the table. So I threw my regular menu plan out the window and am just focusing on having 3 simple meals per day. It is tempting to not plan anything, but in order to keep from frequenting the fast food restaurants and getting take out, I put together a very simple menu.

The beauty of this menu is that the meals for any day of the week can be swapped and used on another day; lunches and suppers are also interchangeable.

For example, if we have a houseful of company on Saturday night I'll whip up a bunch of pizzas that night instead of Friday. Or we will have a big spaghetti supper that night or maybe the bean soup. Whatever doesn't get used will be put into the freezer for a later date.

Breakfasts

Monday-- Yogurt & Fruit

Tuesday-- English Muffin with Peanut Butter, milk

Wednesday-- Oatmeal, milk, fruit

Thursday-- Fruit and Cottage Cheese

Friday-- Yogurt & Fruit

Saturday-- Yogurt & Fruit

Sunday-- Scrambled Eggs with Cheese, English Muffins

Lunch

Monday-- Tuna Salad, Carrot Sticks
Tuesday-- Tuna Salad, Cucumber and Green Pepper Slices
Wednesday-- Turkey Sandwiches,
Thursday-- Beef Stew, Bread, Salad
Friday-- Spaghetti and Meatballs, Salad, Bread
Saturday-- Bean Soup in the crock pot, Bread, Garden Salad
Sunday-- Will probably have a family lunch/dinner out


Supper

Monday-- Quick & Tasty Mexican Casserole
Tuesday-- Leftovers from Monday
Wednesday-- Beef Stew, Bread and Salad
Thursday-- Spaghetti and Meatballs, Salad, Bread
Friday-- If at all possible, pizza
Saturday-- Same as lunch -- soup, bread, salad
Sunday-- Leftovers from meal out


This post is linked to Org Junkie.

How to Make Easy Homemade Refrigerator Pickles

Cucumbers are very much like zucchini. You plant just a few plants and then before you know it you are overloaded with cucumbers. We are in the overloaded stage and have been for the past 2 weeks. We had plastic grocery bags filled with cucumbers tucked here, there and everywhere on the kitchen counter. This weekend it got so bad that I was moving cukes every time I needed to prepare a meal so I had to do something. So, I made a triple batch of refrigerator pickles.

These homemade refrigerator pickles are perfect thing to make if you've never canned anything before. Not only are they easy, they are remarkably tasty; so much so, that I seldom make the cooked kind of pickles anymore.


Ingredients

1 cup distilled white vinegar
1 tablespoon salt
2 cups white sugar
6 cups sliced cucumbers
1 cup sliced onions


Directions

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, bring vinegar, salt and sugar to a boil. Boil until the sugar has dissolved, about 10 minutes.

Place the cucumbers, and onions in a large bowl. Pour the vinegar mixture over the top. Transfer to jars and store in the refrigerator. * Do NOT keep these in the cupboard!


I've had good luck with these keeping a long time in the fridge. That much vinegar probably keeps about anything from spoiling. Please note, the photo above shows 3 batches of pickles. Once batch makes 2.5 pint jars very tightly packed.

How Cheap is Homemade Pizza?

Ever since we got married, Friday night has been Pizza Night in our house. My husband looks forward to pizza night more than you would ever know. It just seems like a fitting end to the work week. Plus it's nice to have a night off from cooking. Every once in a while George asks if I'll make something else on a Friday night and sure enough, like clockwork he calls mid afternoon to see if I can switch back to pizza. Funny guy.

When we first married, we used to order pizza from the "local" pizza shop. When you live out in the country, you can forget all about the convenience of delivery. You have to hop in the car and drive over there yourself -- even in crummy weather. And then the pizza is lukewarm by the time you get it home because most of the time the pizza people put your order in right away instead of waiting 10 minutes so you can get started on your way to pick it up.

A couple of years ago after the umpteenth time of driving on icy roads to bring home a cold pizza I asked myself "would I rather be driving or cooking?". Cooking won out hands down so I started making homemade pizza for our pizza nights. Wait! What about my night off from cooking? I'll get to that in a minute.

Although we switched to homemade pizza because believe it or not, it is actually more convenient to make dough from scratch, assemble all of the toppings and bake the whole darn thing than it is to drive to get our pizza, we also save a bundle of $$ by making our own pizza. Just this week I ran the numbers and discovered that while our homemade pizza is not quite as cheap as I thought it would be, but it is still a whole lot cheaper than pizza parlour pizza and it's a whole lot tastier.

Here's my recipe and the cost break down for how we most often make the pizza. Please note, I usually use 1/2 whole wheat flour and add in flax seed meal which increased the cost. Because most people probably won't do that I didn't include it in the cost calculation:

Easy Peasy Pizza Dough

*This dough is enough to make "pan pizza" (thick) crust for 2 large cookie sheets or two 16/18 inch pans. When I make this much dough, I also have enough to make 2 personal size thin crust pizzas for me too.

Pizza Dough Recipe

9 Cups All Purpose Flour (1.19)
1/2 Cup Olive Oil (.72)
4 Tbsp Yeast (.54) ----You can also use 2 individual sized pkgs too
2 Tbsp sugar (.03)
2 tsp salt (.01)
2 and 2/3 cups of water (?)
______________________
Total Cost for Crust: $2.49

Instructions

Mix 4 cups of flour, the yeast, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Heat the water and olive oil together until the mixture reaches 120 -130 degrees. Pour into the flour mixture and stir until well blended. Add in 2 to 3 more cups of flour and mix well. Turn out onto a flat surface and knead in about another cup to 2 cups of flour until the dough "turns". Shape into a ball and place into a large greased bowl. Cover and let the dough rise to about double in size.

*A word about kneading dough: If you've never done it before, don't worry! It's very easy and does not take very long at all. Don't be afraid of the dough or making pizza from scratch! While it's difficult to explain the movements you need to make to knead dough, basically it is just squishing and folding the dough over on it's self with the heels of your hands all the while adding in a bit of flour each turn. Here's a good Utube tutorial on how to knead dough.

Preheat your oven to 425 or 450 degrees. It is very important to have your oven preheated for this.

Once your dough is risen to double in size punch it down to knock out all the air bubbles. Take it out of the bowl and divide into however many pizzas you want to make. (This much dough makes two very large cookie sheet sized "pan style" pizzas. You could also use 16 or 18 inches round pizza pans. If you do not like pan style crust you could probably get 3 thinner crust pizzas of the same size. I'm not sure of this because my husband would revolt if he didn't get thick crust pizza:) Roll the dough, or press with your hands (my preferred method) onto the greased cookie or pizza pan. Allow the dough to rest for 10 to 15 minutes.

Top with your families favorite toppings and bake for about 25 - 30 minutes or until the cheese is starting to get browned and the crust looks done.

What about prebaking? Sometimes I prebake the crust for about 6 minutes, sometimes I don't. The only difference is that the crust is a little softer if you don't prebake, but it's still thoroughly cooked.

Our Toppings of Choice and What They Cost

1.5 Cans Pizza Sauce (we like a lot $1.78)
2 lbs cheese (6.00)
2 cups of cooked ground beef (2.00)
1 sm can mushrooms (.74)
1 sm can pineapple (.64)
1/4 jar of green olives (.50)
1/2 medium onion (free from garden)
1/2 medium green pepper (free from garden)
tsp of basil, oregano and fennel seed (.35)
_______________________________

Total Cost for Toppings $12.01
Total Cost for Pizza Night: $14.50


Please note: I usually use 1/2 whole wheat flour and add in flax seed meal which increases the cost. Because most people probably won't do that I didn't include it in the cost calculation. If you are looking to make your homemade pizza even cheaper, you could use vegetable oil in the crust, reduce the cheese and just do veggies for toppings.

Now, what about my night off from cooking? Honestly this was my one reason for holding out on switching to homemade pizza. As much as I enjoy cooking, I wanted one night off a week where I didn't have to do anything in the kitchen. Here's my secret. I do all this work from start to finish in about 30 minutes minus the baking time and the time it takes for the dough to rise. For that amount of kitchen time, we get a delicious custom made pizza that tastes better than my favorite pizza parlour pizza AND I don't have to cook supper on Saturday! We just put the whole second pizza in the fridge and reheat it either for lunch or supper the next day. It tastes so good you would never know you are eating leftover pizza.



I don't make homemade pizza because I'm a perfect little Suzy Homemaker. I do this on a weeknight; after I've worked all day, because it is easier (saving money is nice too). Homemade pizza does NOT take much time to make (nor does homemade bread for that matter). For me it really is less of a bother than driving to town and back. I also really like that fact that I can customize our pizza to suite our personal preferences. Every once in a while I will use one of the Walmart take and bake cheese pizzas and top that with whatever we have on hand for days when I am just not in the mood to cook a single thing. And every 6 or 7 months we will pick up a pizza to go from the local place just because it sounds good.

This post is linked to Frugal Friday.

Old Fashioned Family Tree..... I've Made an Interesting Discovery

I've always been the one that people would never dream of letting babysit their precious children. This is probably because I always joke about keeping them in a pet carrier, nailing down a top on their play pen and putting them on a leash. Of course I would probably* never do those things, it's just fun to tease.

Well, this week I found out I "come by these tendencies honest" to quote Jed Clampett. A little background information for you...

When I was quite little and being naughty, my dad would always tell me the story of how his mother tied him to the table leg when he was naughty so he wouldn't get into any more trouble. Then he would lightheartedly tease me that he would do the same thing. One time he even went to the shop and brought in a rope and pretended like he was going to do it. We had a hilarious time with him chasing his little Trixie that was shrieking at the top of her lungs all over the house. My dad was usually very serious and not much into playing with us when we little so these times were a lot of fun.

I always thought Daddy made up the part about his mother tying him to the table leg. This week I found out he did not.

On my way back from an appointment Wednesday, I stopped in my hometown and visited one of my uncles. I hadn't seen him since I was a little girl. He is the same age now as Daddy was when he passed away; 74. It was so good to see him, but that's a whole 'nother post.

Uncle Bud showed me all around his place and we looked over some old photos. In one photo he (Uncle Bud) age 3 or 4 was sitting on the ground near the front porch of their old farmhouse. On each side of him was a giant white rabbit. I was admiring his beautiful rabbits and noticed what looked like a clothesline tied to his waist. Upon careful inspection I discovered he was TIED to the front porch railing!

When asked about it, he laughed and said his mother used to routinely tie the little kids to stuff to keep them out of trouble "it was usually, just us boys" he said. Apparently my dad was not kidding!

I know, I know, today this mother would be in jail for child abuse, blah, blah, blah. My aunts and uncles grew up to be fairly normal, well adjusted adults that never gave into the temptation to tie their own children to anything as far as I know. I thought this was a hilarious piece of family history. And admit it, if you had 9 children wouldn't you be the least bit tempted to tie them to something?


Now that brings me to a couple of other stories that I always thought my dad made up.

1. Daddy had an old uncle that only took a bath once a year.

Growing up, my dad had an old uncle that wore long johns all year round and only took a bath once a year come July when his wife couldn't stand the smell any longer (any longer? What was she thinking?!) When it was time for his once a year bath he would strip buck naked and take a bar of soap out to the river behind the house and wash up and put on fresh clothing. We usually heard this story when we were whining about not wanting to take our Sunday night bath. He swore this was true with the same vigor as the he did the being tied to the table story. Once I even asked Mom if it was true and she said she didn't doubt it; and that my dad had some real kooks in his family tree. Somehow I took that last part as a compliment. As a little kid, I took great pride in thinking I came from a very unusual family.

2. My dad was born on in the kitchen -- on the table.

We usually heard this story whenever the Mom and a visiting lady would get on the subject of labor and childbirth. I know the "in" thing nowadays is to have a natural home birth, but back then and in that area, only poor country people had their babies at home and my grandparents qualified as that. Besides, can you imagine riding in a farm wagon while in labor?! You would never make it to the hospital 12 miles away.

The story goes that my dad was born on a freezing cold day in December right on the bare wood of the kitchen table. His mother labored in bed, but as it became closer to the time to push him out, she ordered that she be put on the kitchen table to save on laundry. After all, birthing a baby does generate a lot of laundry. According to my dad she did this because: it was freezing cold and all laundry had to be done by hand (remember the old metal washboard -- try cleaning a messy quilt on that and then wringing it out by hand).

My dad's older sisters were still far too little to be of any help, his mother knew that she would not be up to doing the laundry before it needed to be done and they could not afford a hired girl to help. Her family lived quite a ways a way (by wagon) in a neighboring town so they could not be of any real help during this time. It was also a big deal to have my dad be born in the warmth of the kitchen. As it was in our own home, the kitchen was the warmest place. A water glass in a bedroom off the kitchen would be solid ice in a few hours. So keeping newborn babies warm was a very real consideration.

I'm betting you my dad was telling the truth on this one. Given the same circumstances I would've done the same thing.

Morning Glory

Morning Glories are one of my favorite vining flowers. This year I planted several different varieties. Here are a few of my favorites.

Menu Plan Monday

Monday

Pepper Steak, Mashed Potatoes, Tomato-Cucumber salad

Tuesday

Beef Stew, Salad and homemade bread

Wednesday

Chicken Fajitas topped with Guac, tomatoes, lettuce, salsa, cheese and sour cream

Thursday

Salmon Patties, Green Beans, Squash

Friday

Homemade Pizza Night

Saturday -- We will be going up north to the lake for a potluck. (Saturday is also my birthday, but the potluck isn't for that; it's just a fun end of summer get together) I'm not sure yet what I'll bring. Whatever it is, it will need to travel well for a couple of hour. Any suggestions?

This post is linked to MPM.

Chicken Preprep

A soft rain fell all morning and right now it is a breezy comfortable 72 degrees. This means it is finally cool enough to cook that 8lbs of chicken I stashed in the freezer last week. I love to keep precooked chicken and ground beef in the freezer; having the basis for a quick meal is a real lifesaver on busy days.

Here's how I like to prepare chicken for the freezer:

Get some large baking dishes; mine hold about 4-5 pounds each. Drizzle about a tablespoon of olive oil in each pan. Place chicken breasts trimmed of fat into the pan and turn to coat lightly with the olive oil.  Next it's time to season them. I use a variety of seasonings but here is what I used today:

2 Tbsp of Poultry Seasoning
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp black pepper

I combine all of the seasonings in a small dish and then sprinkle over both sides of the meat. Once the seasoning is on add a 1/4 too 1/2 cup of water or chicken broth to each pan and cover with foil. Bake at 375 degrees until no longer pink (usually about an hour).

Let the chicken cool thoroughly and then chop and place into freezer bags or containers.

Other seasonings that work well are rosemary (fresh rosemary is unbelievably good, but dried is good too), thyme, and sage. If I know for sure I'm going to use a whole pan of chicken for Mexican dishes I will season that dish with adobo chile powder, chipotle chile powder and cumin.

Freezer & Pantry Inventory

It almost sounds too simple, but one of my simplest money saving techniques is taking inventory of the pantry and freezer. I try to do this about once a month just to make sure I'm actually using all those good deals. After all -- a good deal isn't a good deal, if we don't end up using what we bought!

Yesterday I did a freezer inventory and here's what I came up with:

2 lbs round steak
1 ham bone
13 pork loin chops
3 lbs ground round (uncooked)
1/2 lb ham
2 salmon fillets
2 pkgs Walleye
4 2 cup pkgs of cooked ground round
2 cups chopped red pepper
1 cup chopped green pepper
6 Green Giant Boxed Veggies
5 bags of frozen veggies
1 lb meatballs
2 cups seasoned rice
Assortment of hamburger buns
1 pkg of odds and ends for beef stew
8 lbs chicken breast


I've been mulling over some ideas of what all I can make with this. Here's what I came up with: Most meal ideas only need a few more ingredients from our pantry or garden so that's extra nice.

2 lbs round steak

2 meals of Pepper Steak served with mashed potatoes

1 ham bone

the first cool fall day and I promise you we will be eating bean soup

13 pork loin chops

Most of these will be grilled. I will probably make one meal of oven fried pork chops, too.

3 lbs ground round (uncooked)

Well, darn it all -- I don't always have the time (or ambition) to cook up all the ground beef as soon as it comes into our house. It's just so convenient to have this part of our meal pre-cooked. So, the first thing I will do is plan to use this meat on the days when I have more time to prepare a meal, or I will cook it all up at once with onions and green peppers and then season it for tacos or sloppy joes, we will get a meal or two out of it and I'll freeze the rest for a quick Sunday night supper. In my experience, freezing the meat a second time makes no difference in the texture or taste. We usually use it up in a few weeks so maybe that has something to do with it.

1/2 lb ham

This will be thawed and used as a pizza topping for our Friday night pizza night.

2 salmon fillets

When we are grilling up some other meat for supper one day, I'll ask George to throw these on the grill so they can go on top of a salad for the next day's lunch. I'll probably be able to get 4 salads out of this amount.

2 pkgs Walleye

Fish "fry" night. Will serve with oven fries and coleslaw.

4 2 cup pkgs of cooked ground round

Yea! I was so happy to know there is cooked beef in the fridge. This will be for busy weeknight suppers -- usually Mexican. Perhaps taco salad, or enchiladas or tacos. Or, maybe goulash or chili if we get a cold spell.

2 cups chopped red pepper

Will be used as a pizza topping and in garden pasta salads

1 cup chopped green pepper

Pizza topping and in any dish that involves ground beef

6 Green Giant Boxed Veggies
5 bags of frozen veggies

These are side dishes

1 lb meatballs

Used for a spaghetti and meatballs dinner

2 cups seasoned rice

Will be served next to grilled pork chops

Assortment of hamburger buns

Will use these for Sunday Supper sloppy joes

1 pkg of odds and ends for beef stew

Beef stew is calling my name....

8 lbs chicken breast

Drat, this is uncooked as well. It's been too hot to heat up the house with the oven lately. Once it cools off I will cook all this up. Most of it will chopped for various salads, casseroles and Mexican dishes. I plan to cut a pound of this into strips for fajitas and we will probably eat chicken salad once too. Thankfully, I did find a couple of cups of cooked chopped chicken in the freezer too, so that will be put to good use too.

What's in your freezer and what meal ideas did you come up with?


This post is linked to WFMW and Frugal Friday.

Menu Plan Monday

Our garden is producing a ton of terrifically fresh vegetables. This week's menu is filled with them.


Sunday

Chicken Taco Salad

Monday

Homemade Deli Sandwiches, Garden Pasta Salad

(Our homemade deli sandwiches are shaved turkey and ham piled high with shredded lettuce, tomato, cucumber, onion and green pepper slices on a whole wheat french bread loaf. It feels like you are getting one of those loaded down delicious subs from subway, only it's better and cheaper!)

Tuesday

Grilled Pork Chops, Baked Sweet Potatoes, Green Beans

Wednesday

Beef Stew, Tomato/Green Pepper/Cuke Salad

Thursday

Walleye steamed in foil packets on the grill.

This is a super simple supper: use two layers of heavy duty tin foil and create a little pouch large enough to hold 1 fish fillet. Add a drizzle of olive oil, 3 tablespoons of water, dill and a couple of lemon slices. Fold together tightly and cook over medium heat on the grill (usually about 15 minutes, depending on how thick your fish is -- you can peak in there and see if it flakes easily, if it does, then you know it is done.)

Friday

Chicken Fajita Pizza

This post is linked to Org Junkie.

Why I Haven't Been Posting Much....

Regular readers know that I've been vary scare around here lately. So many of you have sent thoughtful emails asking how things are going and if I'm okay. Thank you so very much. It's so nice to know I've been missed.

The truth is I haven't had much enthusiasm for writing lately. I wish it was because I'm spending so much time outdoors enjoying our beautiful summer and the garden. That's usually why I tend to write less during the summer.

This summer is different for many reasons.

A couple of months ago my mother's companion of the last 12 years was diagnosed with terminal cancer. By the time Mike was diagnosed the cancer had already spread to many areas of his body.

When Mom called to tell me, she was at home alone, while he was in a hospital a hundred miles away undergoing chemotherapy with the hope of gaining a little more time. I hurried over as fast as I could. This January my mother lost her mom and now here she was facing the loss of her mate, most likely in the same year. On the way to Mom's I thought of what I could say or do that would comfort her. I kept thinking, what if it were my George that I was loosing and knew intimately there are simply no words that can make it hurt less. When words fail us, sometimes all we can do is share tears. We sat there together on the couch; as we cried I held her hand, praying she would feel all of the comfort that she'd given me the countless times she held my hand when I was a little girl.

We still have Mike with us, although his time is drawing near. I spend as much time as I can helping out. This isn't a situation anyone wants to face, but I think our whole family would testify what a blessing it is that we've all grown closer.

When you are looking that the last days on earth for you or a loved one, everything but the essential is stripped away. We find all the things we thought were so important aren't so important. All the things that we used to worry about just aren't worth the trouble. Oh, what a good lesson that's been for all of us.

And then I had surgery. On August 3rd I went under the knife to have this bariatric procedure done. As someone that's battled extra weight my entire adult life; I thought (and prayed) long and hard about doing something like this done for a long time. It was vitally important to make sure it was the right step for me. I'm a couple of weeks out now--I'm healing nicely, feel pretty good and am ever so glad I went through with it.

As part of the "thinking/discussing/praying/changing" journey I've been on with regards to this surgery I started a journal which I will type up this next week and put into a new blog to share with those that are interested. I'll put up a link to it just as soon as it's ready. Please note, nothing is changing on this blog.

Now that I've shared a lot of why I've been otherwise occupied this summer, I'm happy to let you know that this week's Menu is scheduled to go up shortly. There are also posts on our anniversary, spoiling our husbands and some great ways to start earning money now so we can pay cash for the Christmas season's expenses.

Take Care,

Trixie

Simply Fabulous Banana Cream Pie

Yesterday was my husband's birthday, so I made his favorite dessert in the whole world -- banana cream pie. Banana cream pie is the perfect summer dessert, it's fast, easy, cool, light and refreshing and best of all, you don't have to turn on the oven to make it!

My version is made with skim milk and sugar free pudding, but it tastes so good, you would never know.

Simply Fabulous Banana Cream Pie

1 10 inch graham cracker pie shell

2 3/4 cups of skim milk

1 small pkg of sugar free vanilla pudding mix

1 small pkg of sugar free banana cream pudding mix

3 ripe medium sized bananas

whipped cream (optional)

Slice the bananas and layer in the bottom of the pie shell. Empty both pudding mixes into a medium sized bowl. Whisk in 2 and 3/4 cups of milk until thoroughly mixed. Pour into the pie shell completely covering the bananas. Smooth the pudding mixture with a rubber spatula. Place pie in the refrigerator to set up for at least 3 hours. Delicious topped with a couple of tablespoons of whipped cream.

Here's the nutritional breakdown if you use skim milk and sugar free pudding mixes for a 1/8th of a pie serving size.

Calories 92

Fat 1 gram

Carbs 18 grams

Protein 3.5 grams

If you add 2 Tbsp of whipped cream you add 20 more calories, 1.5 grams of fat and 1 carb. Totally worth it if you ask me.

This post is linked to the Ultimate Recipe Swap, Tasty Tuesday & TMTT.