Last Week's Thrifty Moves

Sunday morning was a little different for me as it was one of the rare times when I work on a weekend day.  However, sometimes that is needed and I am happy about the fact that it will be overtime pay, which is truly the only time when I get paid what I am actually worth! Ha!  Plus I was able to work from home so that too was a bonus.

I got up and got started first thing that morning and was able, while waiting for things to load and finish, to fit in my Sunday chores.  I even got the hearth and fireplace spring cleaned!  Whoo hooo!  Once work was finished up at 12:30 I had the rest of my day to myself.

I wasn't much in the mood for meal prepping last week so instead I made two large meals that we could work off most of the week.  I made a 9" X 13" pan of lemon chicken and a 9" X 13" of asparagus and broccoli florets and roasted them in the oven.  I also made up a 9" X 13" pan with a sausage, mushroom, bell pepper and onion egg casserole that I topped with some leftover cheeses I had lying around in the refrigerator.  Both meals made for loads of good leftovers and I was able to use the chicken to top salads with a couple nights as well.  Very easy meal to prepare last week.  Unfortunately I forgot to photograph any of it.

Wednesday the youngest and I picked sour cherries from our next door neighbor's tree.  We picked enough to make a pint of cherry pancake syrup.  Normally I pick more and make jelly too, but we don't need the jelly, as we still have quite a bit in our pantry, so just the syrup this time.  It turned out very nice.

One pint of cherry pancake syrup

I simmered the cherries for about 20 minutes with a little bit of water and mashed them with a potato masher to render out all of their juice.  Then I put this through a sieve to separate the liquid from the solids.  Once that was done I was left with a cup of nice red juice.  I gave the remaining solids to the chickens.  I put the cup of juice into a pan with two cups of sugar and brought it to a boil.  That was it.  Super easy.  Pretty too.

Thursday I made a pan of stuffed bell peppers for dinner.  We had plenty of leftovers for another meal and a couple lunches.

Friday I put in a long day at work and again that meant more overtime.  I worked from 7:00 in the morning until 9:00 that night.  I packed two lunches and plenty of water to take with me, but only needed one as the company provided dinner for us.

When I got home from work my oldest had a BIG surprise for me.  She had bartered cleaning services for a brand new Mr. Coffee coffeemaker.  It is pretty darned fancy and I could tell she was not only excited about it, but really proud of herself.  It has been a long time since we've had an actual coffeemaker in this house.

Isn't is pretty?

Saturday afternoon my girlfriends came over to play pinochle.  Everyone brought stuff and we were able to put together a nice little salad bar.  I had plenty of veggies in the crisper drawer to add so no needed trip to the store.

I did not do any grocery shopping last week.

I made some foaming soap solution for the hand soap dispenser in my bathroom.  I used a tablespoon of shower gel I had and mixed it into a cup of warm water, then poured it into the dispenser.

Plenty of leftovers to keep us going for a few days

We fed our kitchen scraps to the chickens.  I picked dandelion greens and milk weeds for the chickens too.

I composted dryer lint, onion skins, banana peels, avocado skins, egg shells and coffee grounds.  We set out a full recycle bin and a nearly empty trash can at the curb for the weekly pick up.

How was your thrifty week?