Successes:
1. I'm attending a free hands-on class at the library this afternoon on making painted-gourd birdhouses...all materials supplied free too. Love our library!
2. I seem to have been doing a lot of shopping online. Not great for the wallet, but I only have two more gifts and I'm done. I guess I can say the frugal part of this is that I didn't use any gasoline, and they all had free shipping.
3. We decided to have Chicken 'n Dumplings for Christmas Dinner for the ten of us. I bought three whole chickens on Tuesday. Rather than have to cook them and bone them all at once, I have cooked one every day, boned them, then packaged the meat and broth for the freezer. I will just move them from the freezer to the fridge a couple of days before Christmas to thaw. On Christmas I will just need to heat up the meat and broth and make the dumplings. Simple.
Chicken and dumplings is a favorite with my whole family, which is why we are having it, but it doesn't hurt that it is much more frugal than other traditional Christmas fare. And doing the majority of the work well ahead of time makes for a relaxing family holiday.
4. As usual we are making single-serving meals from each night's leftovers to store in the freezer for Carey to take to work. Since we have started doing this, we have almost no food waste anymore. And Carey rarely (as in I don't remember the last time) eats out while at work (not that that is much of an option where his job is located). I try to keep the freezer full with a variety so that he doesn't have to eat the same thing more than once in a week.
This is something that I used to do for my mother when she was alive as well. She hated cooking for one. She would lament that, "You can't make gravy from one pork chop." If she cooked larger amounts, she would end up eating the same thing over and over. We lived three hours away. After wishing I could cook for her more often, I decided I could. She had been buying lots of frozen meals from the grocery store, and washed and stored all the containers they came in. On one visit, I absconded with a huge stack of the plates/covers that were sitting on her pantry shelves. Then at home after supper each night, I would make a plate (or two or three) for her and put them in the freezer labeled. Then the next time I went to visit, usually once a month or so, I would pack a big cooler with all the frozen meals and deliver them to her freezer...and take more empty containers home with me for next time. It was perhaps the most appreciated gift I ever gave her. Most nights we would speak on the phone, and she would always tell me what she had for supper that I had cooked. :) And I felt better knowing that she was getting lots of variety in her diet.
But I digress...
5. I have really pared back on my hobby purchases. I think my craft room has achieved critical mess.
Frugal From the Kitchen This Week:
Saturday: friend treated me to a late lunch, skipped supper
Sunday: Sunday supper at Kasey's
Monday: Vegetable Quiche with Bacon
Tuesday: Old Fashioned Goulash
Wednesday: No Peek Chicken, green beans
Thursday: Meatloaf, Hot Potato Salad, corn
Friday: leftovers
(*not-frugal takeout or dinner out)
What a wonderful gift you gave your Mother, I wish I had lived close enough to mine to have done the same.
ReplyDeleteThank you , Janet. I am so thankful that I was able to do it for her.
DeleteThe chicken and dumplings sounds really tasty. We are having a fairly cold snap here in the UK and soup and stews with dumplings are just what we need. We had close friends for a celebration dinner last night so I am stretching the leftovers on the pheasant carcasses to make soup for lunch. It will also have the remains of the pearl barley pilaff in it to bulk it out. I’m hoping for a rich and satisfying broth to warm us after shopping for a few last gifts.
ReplyDeleteMy mum and dad are still cooking but on alternate nights. On a non cook night they have something on toast, an omelette or soup and sandwiches. Their appetites have diminished but they still try to cook balanced meals for which I am grateful. When they were ill last year I stocked their freezer up so they had plenty of choice.
Well, I suppose I’ll have to get out of bed and start the remains of the clearing up from last nights party. Keep well x
Your soup sounds wonderful. The pilaf will be perfect at adding flavor as well as the barley!
DeleteNice that your parents can share the cooking. And so nice to have a freezer filled by you...the shopping is my least favorite part of meal preparation!
That's a great gift idea for your Mom. I need to start doing that for Vic's lunches in the new year. It's our plan to go back to clean eating so what we have for dinner will be perfect for his lunch the next day.
ReplyDeleteI am thrilled that this eliminates nearly all food waste for us, and it is so much healthier for Carey.
Delete