Monday, September 24, 2018

Last Week's Thrifty Moves



This past week was another one of those that went by in a blur.  It was the beginning of the week and then it was over, that fast.  On Sunday I woke up to find myself feeling a bit under the weather, feeling extremely tired and it carried over into Monday.  Both days I rested as much as possible and went to bed early each night.  By Tuesday it had passed and I was back to normal.  Not entirely sure what that was all about, but very glad it didn't stick around.  The rest of the week was the usual stuff with work and school.

I made a big batch of homemade granola for my girls

I prepared all of our meals using items we had on hand.  On Sunday I pulled out sausage, turkey chili, pinto beans, chicken breasts and soup from the freezer and worked off of that making several meals that kept us fed for dinner and the next day for lunch.  I began by making two pans of lasagna, one for Sunday supper and one for the freezer for another time.  The girls enjoyed that for supper twice and lunch twice throughout the week.  Soup and chili was served up in between.  Wednesday I stir fried the chicken with veggies, removed some for me and then did the remainder as pan fried noodles with hoison sauce for the girls.  Thursday I made pepper jack cheese omelets for supper.  Friday and Saturday we finished up leftovers.

One lasagna now and one for the freezer

I picked tomatoes, carrots and green onions from the garden.  The hens kept us well supplied with fresh eggs.  Someone at work brought in tomatoes and someone else brought in pears so I was able to add some of that to our produce for the week, the pears are delicious.  Our HR manager gave me a pint jar of her wonderful homemade fresh salsa.  I love this time of year when my co-workers share the extras from their gardens.  There were loads of sweet treats and goodies at work too, but I stayed completely away from those.


Last week I downloaded vouchers for free admission into the Idaho Botanical Gardens.  Saturday was perfect weather for enjoying our little excursion.  I took full advantage of it and shot some photos of my oldest while we were there for her senior pictures.  My goal is to put together a little portfolio for her by the end of the school year in time for graduation.  We had a fabulous time!

My two favorite people in the world

A very delicious cobb salad for me

On the way home from the gardens we ran our errands.  I picked up some groceries at Winco, stopped at ShopKo to pick up cat food that was on sale, filled up at the gas tank at Fred Meyer and stopped into their grocery store to pick up some ground beef that was on sale for some meal prepping I had planned.  I also grabbed a couple other items on sale for Christmas gifts.  Shhhhh, don't tell anyone.  We even managed to fit in a quick lunch out at Red Robin using my birthday coupon for a free burger, which my oldest enjoyed for me.

Winco haul

When we got home I put away the groceries, started a load of laundry and took a small break while the washing machine ran.  Once I caught my second wind I was in the kitchen ready to get started on my meal prepping which yielded 15 substantial meals for the weeks ahead.  I'd say that was a pretty good prep!  Details on Wednesday.



How was your thrifty week?



6 comments:

  1. Whoa! 15 meals prepped, that's awesome!!! Go you!

    Aldi had cast iron skillets on sale this week for $12.99, so I'm pretty excited to start using that, I've never owned cast iron anything before. I picked up some thrift store books for my daughter, some for now and some for Christmas, and used a coupon at Walgreens to buy lipstick for 58 cents. And I finally used the last of that applesauce I'd accidentally pulled out of the freezer (instead of pasta sauce, which confused my poor husband, who texted me, wondering if he was supposed to eat that over his noodles. Whoops!) in apple waffles and apple muffins.

    I'm always so impressed at everyone who arranges their groceries and takes a picture. I'm usually exhausted (and in at least some mild pain) when I get home from groceries and am like, "Okay, putting all this away NOW!" Not to mention that my kitchen table is currently home to three pumpkins, five butternut squash, and a million pounds of apples, haha! (And I have very, VERY little counterspace to begin with, and half of what I do have is covered in three buckets of tomatoes, 2/3 of which are ripening- I'm dealing with the other 1/3 in a few minutes.) My kitchen was obviously designed by someone who had never cooked a day in their life!

    Your girls are so beautiful. :)

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    1. Cast iron is the best. You'll love it. I have my grandmother's pans which makes me very fortunate! My kitchen is tiny too, doesn't take much for it to get crowded. What a wonderful thing to have all that produce to put up. I'm hoping to expand our garden next year so we can more of our own fresh produce.

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  2. Nice work with the meal prep! Super impressive. I got back on Saturday afternoon from Japan, so I'm jet lagged & don't have much energy. We did a pre-prepped meal from Costco on Saturday, and my husband cooked on Sunday. It should be enough to get us through the work week, combined with a few freezer items.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you! Jet lag is rough. Glad you have some stuff in the freezer to make life easier while you recuperate!

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