A blueberry story....

This is where I spent 2 hours this morning

picking 8 quarts of these
while my children played in the van because they didn't want to help.

Do you menu plan?

We are a one income family & my husband gets paid once a month. Needless to say, we have a tight grocery budget. One of the ways I've recently incorported frugality into our life, is to menu plan. I sit down once a week and plan what we will eat for dinner. Sometimes I even plan 2-3 weeks at a time. I look at the grocery store ad to see what's on sale, then go to my freezer & pantry to see what in there, & this time of year, I look at what's fresh from my CSA, my garden or at the farm market. Once I know what's on sale and what I have on hand, I start making a list of what I'll need for each meal. So, what does my menu look like? Here's a sample:

(I started this week on Tuesday with an easy meal, because I was out of town for the holiday.)

T ~ grilled cheese & tomato soup with applesauce
W ~ black bean chili w/ gluten free cornbread & fruit
> peach** cobbler for dessert <
R ~ grilled chicken & asparagus* & pears**
F ~ spinach* lasagna & salad* w/ pears**
Sa ~ country sweet chicken pizza w/ broccoli & onions
Su ~ hamburgers*** & macaroni salad w/ peaches**
M ~ cajun rubbed pork chops*** w/ roasted potatoes & onions &
applesauce.

I actually did another week & a half, but I figured you'd get the picture.
What do the * represent?
* = something from the CSA
** = something I preserved last year
*** = meat that I purchased in bulk straight from a farmer. (We buy 1/2 a pig & 1/4 beefalo ~ another way to save money.)

So, that is my menu planning strategy. I hang my completed menu on the fridge so I can readily see it. I just use a spiral notebook, but there are some worksheets that may help you plan easily. They can be found here. I also try to take out the meat I'm using to thaw in the fridge once I get things planned. If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment & I'll try to answer your inquiry. Happy Meal Planning!

Cleanup

I'm so glad today was rain free! I've been looking at my poor, neglected garden. It needed to be cleaned up in the worst way! So after supper tonight, Ian and I went out to work on it. I pulled out dead plants and Ian picked the stakes out of the weedblock. [Of course, the stakes needed to be transported in his dump truck :)]. It felt so good to be outside working in some of the last nice weather of the season/year. Maybe when it's time to plant next year, we'll have a new house to garden at! That would be nice, but I'm ok if that's not the case. How did you enjoy the day?

Weekly Recap

I decided that because I'm so busy and hardly ever home that I would do a weekly recap. Here's what happened this week:

1. I made applesauce. 2 different types of apples. Canned 11 quarts and 7 of them separated. Chucked them down the drain. Don't know what happened, but not pleased that I only have 4 quarts left.

2. We went to the apple farm in the dreary rain. The highlight of Ian's trip was that he got to "go into the apple frigerator which was only 40 degrees!". We got to pick Red Delicious apples which you can't use for anything but eating the way the Good Lord made 'em. I thought maybe I could replenish my sauce reserves with the apples we picked, but apparently not.

3. We had preschool open house, which we weren't supposed to bring the kids to (even though no one said otherwise). It's kinda hard not to when my mom is out of town and my friend Julie, who's my backup, is at open house with her kids, too!

4. I attended calling hours & helped with the funeral dinner for a young man who died way too young. His mom (mentor) & ex-wife (mops mommy) are part of our MOPS group. He had a motorcycle accident last saturday.

5. Today, I found fresh brussell sprouts at the farm market! SO excited! They are my new favorite food and taste great when roasted.

6. My aunt moved to Tennessee yesterday. The doctor told her she needed surgery to remove the cancerous spot on her liver. They don't believe it has spread, but she'll need chemo in 3 months as well. Please keep her in your prayers.

7. We are meeting with the mortgage broker from our bank tomorrow. We looked at a house we really liked last weekend and want to put our house on the market. Anyone want to live in the Wildlife Refuge? We'll see what happens. If this is in God's plans for us, then He will put everything into place. If not, then we will just keep praying and looking.

So, I'll probably just end up with another weekly recap next time, unless I somehow end up with a little extra time to blog.

Blessings for now!

Summer Harvest

Here is a recipe that uses veggies from the summer abundance.



Vegetable Quiche

1 unbaked pastry shell (9 inch)

1/2 cup chopped onion

1 medium chopped green pepper

1 1/4 cups chopped tomatoes

3/4 cup chopped zucchini

2 tablespoons butter

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

5 eggs

1/4 cup milk

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese



Line unpricked pastry shell with a double thickness of heavy-duty aluminum foil. Bake at 450 for 5 minutes. Remove foil, bake 5 more minutes. Remove from oven & reduce heat to 350. In a large skillet saute veggies in butter, salt & pepper. Spoon into crust. In a large bowl, beat the eggs. Add the milk & cheese; mix well. Carefully pour over veggies. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Let stand 5 minutes before cutting.

Summer Busyness

I cannot believe how fast summer is going! We took a trip to Northern NY to visit family for July 4th and then made our way down to visit more fam & friends in Ohio. Since we returned, we've been harvesting nature's bounty. I've canned jam a lot! and froze berries as well as eaten a ton of yummy veggies. Peaches will need to be canned next and I'm hoping to try my hand at my friend Joce's blueberry syrup. We are also planning a trip to Cape Cod at the end of this month. (Thanks to Keith's generous uncle, who has a house out there.) I can't wait to show the kids the ocean; Ian will be amazed! Pictures will follow.

dirt

5 years ago if you had said to me, "You're going to garden someday", I would have laughed at you!

Here I am, 5 years later and in my 4th year of gardening and 2nd year of canning.....

Funny how life changes you, isn't it?

I started my garden out of boredom. Just something to do while Ian played in the backyard. I hated digging in the dirt, so I started with some planters of veggies. The next year I had way too many planters, so we decided to put in a raised bed plot. Keith put together some landscape timbers and brought a bucket load of dirt home from the farm. (Nice, fresh pasture dirt.) I still kept some planters, but the majority of the plants were in an 8x8 plot. Not too shabby, I'd say.

Last year I expanded out of a love of gardening and also necessity. I had Keith buy more timbers, and he built an 8x16 plot. I went crazy. I actually ran out of room! So, I had the 2 plots and planters & then had to plant alongside the garage. (I helped with & gardened in my parent's garden as well.) I was in veggie heaven! I had one plant in particular that was interesting: my summer squash. It produced this:

A lovely siamese squash! I can't wait to see what we get this year. God is good to have blessed us with such an abudance. We canned/froze most of what we grew, but had enough to be able to bless others as well. As long as the animals stay away we'll be able to bless others again; but that's a story for another day. I will have pictures of this years garden along my summer journies. Until then........