Twice baked sweet potatoes with chicken...

Twice-baked Sweet Potatoes with Chicken

This was an off-the-cuff experiment, and they were fabulous and very filling!  I'm putting recipe here so I can remember how next time!  I didn't serve anything with these, but a salad would go nicely.

Ingedients:

2 or 3 frozen chicken thighs

2 or 3 strips bacon

2 large or 3 medium sweet potatoes

2 Tablespoons butter

1/4 cup sour cream

1 Tablespoon Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix

1 teaspoon of Tajin seasoning

1/2 cup Monterrey Jack cheese

Directions:

Lay the frozen chicken thighs side by side in bottom of slow cooker.  Lay strips of bacon across the tops of the chicken.  Set on Low for 4 hours.

When the chicken has been cooking for 3 hours, flip the chicken and bacon, so that the bacon is resting on bottom of slow cooker, and chicken is on top of it, and continue cooking for remaining time.  Wash and place the sweet potatoes on a foil lined baking sheet.  Cover with foil, and place in a 350° F oven for 50 minutes.  (Rather than individually wrapping the potatoes, the bottom and top covers simplify the preparation later.)  At the end of 50 minutes remove from oven and set aside the top layer of foil.  Pierce the sweet potatoes to be sure they are cooked through, if they are, place them on what was the top layer of foil, then pick up the foil and potatoes and place over the first piece of foil on baking sheet.  This is just to make sure that any sweet juices that leaked from the potatoes during baking won't harden and make potatoes stick to that first layer of foil.  Let sit for a few minutes while you use a fork to shred chicken and bacon,

Slice one long side of each sweet potato and scoop out most of the flesh (leaving about 1/4 inch to line the skin) and place flesh in a medium size bowl and mash.  Add the remaining ingredients (except for the chicken/bacon) to the bowl and stir to combine.  Add the flesh back to the skins, top with shredded chicken and bacon, and sprinkle a little more cheese on top.  Return to the 350° oven for about 10 minutes or till heated through and cheese on top is melted.  Enjoy!

 

A minor home project...

 

I have hated the dated look of these vanity lights since we moved in thirteen years ago, but they've never been a real priority.  Never really found anything else that could be configured for our need.  Though this mirror (shown above) only has one bar of lights, the other vanity in the room has a bar like this, and then another on the perpendicular wall.  So for the three light bars, there are 20 or so bulbs.

I found these socket inserts.  They screw into the light bar, and they have a swivel extension that allows the bulb to be oriented downward.

I replaced the round bulbs with Edison bulbs.  It's a small change, but is a slight update.  I'm living with it for awhile, trying to decide if I want the chrome fixtures removed from the wall and painted more of a bronze color.  Thoughts?

Frugal Friday File 2024, January 26...

1.  Right before the end of the year, I added "stop using 'baby' carrots" to my 2024 Bucket List of Hopes.  Not because of any scary article I've read, but because I'm retired now.  When I was working I fell back on some conveniences that I don't really need to rely on anymore.  After doing a rough price comparison at my grocery, it seems that I can save 1/3 to 1/2 of what we spend on carrots by buying old-fashioned, unprocessed, whole ones.  I'm retired; I have the time now.  And they taste better!  

2.  The new grocery credit card is doing its job so far.  We've only had it since the new year started, and the rewards (5% back on store brands, and 1.5% back on all other purchases) already amount to $15.33, and the $50 sign-up bonus for charging a certain amount within initial period has already paid into the account.  This really highlights just how much we spend on food...approximately $600 so far this month, and $75 of that was for meals out.

3.  After a week at home trying to stay warm, when the sun started shining, I went and did some impulse shopping at Dollar Tree (so it wasn't too much of a splurge).  I bought some Betty Crocker sugar cookie mixes and some Rolo candies to pop on top of the cookies after they come out of the oven, a small tin of shortbread, a lip balm, 2 pair of socks, and a few other items.  Some of these were to include in a birthday box I was mailing to a friend, some of them were for Valentine treats, some of them were for the pantry.

4.  When I mailed my friend's birthday package, the postage cost more than anything that was in the box.  We've been exchanging birthday boxes of goodies for years, and never anything big.  My favorite thing she ever included in my box was one of the coffee cups from her set of dishes; when I use it I feel like I'm sitting in her kitchen. 

I keep a small clear bin on my desk with her name on it, and add things as I find them throughout the year.  We share a love of card making, so anytime I accidentally buy duplicate supplies, or intentionally want to share a favorite something, I pop it in her bin on my desk to go in her next birthday box.  We gift wrap each item, and it is so fun to both give and receive.  It doesn't cost a lot to make someone feel special.

5.  All meals were made at home this week.  Still managing to squeeze toothpaste out of a flat tube.  Reading library books.  Used styrofoam from packing material, cut in odd shapes, to create a drainage area in the bottom of a plant pot.  

On the menu this week: 

Saturday:  Fish sandwiches, coleslaw, leftover mac-n-cheese, onion rings

Sunday:  Sunday supper at Kasey & Beau's

**Monday:  Quiche with Hashbrown Crust 

**Tuesday:  Carey had leftover potato soup, I had avocado toast

Wednesday:  Virginia's Taco Soup

**Thursday:  Kale & Quinoa Salad, roasted beets/sweet potato/onion/bell pepper/chick peas

Friday:  Sausage w/ carrots/onion/bell pepper & Mushroom Rice

(**designates meatless meal)

What I'm reading Wednesday...

Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning by Liz Cheney

Mom is relegated to furniture...

It is absolutely ridiculous when I make myself sit still so that Rudy can have a good nap!

I think it may be time for me to make one of these...

I don't know who to give credit to for this idea, but whoever they are, they are brilliant!  Of course, everybody in my family has short legs, so ours may not be comfortable for a larger dog, but it might be worth a trip to goodwill for a used pair donated by a taller person.  :)

If I have any success, I'll let you know.

 

Just another manic Monday...

I actually got pretty much done today.  Sometime after midnight, I finished making my menu for the week and placing our grocery order.  Then after some sleep, I packed a box of birthday goodies for a friend.  I stopped at WalMart to pick up some potting soil, then picked up the grocery order.  I dropped off a library book and picked up two more.  I mailed the birthday package.  I stopped by my old office to pick up a plant that I wanted to repot for them.  I came home and put away all the groceries that needed refrigeration and then repotted the plant.  I returned the plant to the office.  I came home and cleaned the bathroom, and then read a chapter in one of my new library books. I put away all the rest of the groceries, started supper, then loaded the dishwasher with all the supper-prep dishes and handwashed a couple of things I don't like to put in the dishwasher.  Whew!

 

Quiche with Hashbrown Crust recipe by bellyfull.net

Apologies for the photo (actually for a lot of photos lately).  It's the dark days.

I saw this recipe on Instagram a day or two ago and thought I'd give it a try.  I made this one a little differently than the recipe that was given.  Hers had sausage, and I wanted to make it meatless.  Mine is so full of vegetables that I didn't even bother with adding a salad or separate vegetable to accompany it.  

The crust is easy.  I bought a bag of shredded potato which equaled about the 3 cups that the recipe calls for.  You just add a quarter cup (half a stick) of melted butter, the hashbrowns, and salt and pepper, then press it into a pie pan.  The author of the recipe said to grease the pie pan, but I just melted the butter in the pie plate in the microwave, so considered it greased.  Baked at 375° for 30 minutes.

I sliced an onion, a bell pepper, mushrooms and sauteed them till tender; then I added halved cherry tomatoes and a couple of handfuls of baby spinach to the pan and removed the pan from the heat.  When the crust had baked, I added the vegetables to it, then poured on the mixture of eggs, cream, shredded cheese, salt and pepper evenly and baked at 375 for an additional 30 minutes.

I liked it.  Carey sad he preferred a traditional pastry crust, but I was trying to really ramp up the vegetable content.  I don't think he has caught on yet that we are eating more meatless meals this year...at least he hasn't said anything.  ;)  I think tonight's quiche puts us at 5 meatless meals so far this month, which beats my goal of 2 per month.  And actually probably more, because some of the leftovers we've been eating were meatless as well.

Comfort food on a cold day...

Potato Soup w/ Cheddar Bay Biscuits

I wasn't feeling great yesterday.  When it came time to start supper, all I wanted was soup.  So I made a change to the menu.  Potato soup comes together so easily.  It was never something we had at our house when I was growing up.  A former brother-in-law taught me how to make it when I was about twelve.  It was so easy, I never wrote it down, and never forgot it.  And I never make it without thinking of him.

Frugal Friday File, January 19...

 

1.  Carey has been keeping the fireplace going (during waking hours) to augment the heater usage during the cold snap.   Free wood harvested from our own trees damaged in last year's ice storm.

2.  I haven't left the house all week.  No gasoline used.  I have done some online shopping, but only for necessary items.

3.  I placed an order for stamps before the price goes up on the Sunday.

4.  We are almost out of dishwasher detergent.  Carey bought the last ones which were a different type than I had purchased in the past.  I got to wondering about the plastic wrapping of the pods he purchased and wondering how safe that is.   I found information stating that the wrapping dissolves and does not stay on dishes.  But then came across info that the dissolved wrapping, when drained into the water system takes their microplastics downstream.  I found some from TrueEarth that are not wrapped in plastic or packaged in plastic.  I ordered an individual order to see how I like them.  

5.  I've been using Sheets Laundry Club brand of laundry sheets for quite awhile now, and I do like them.  I like that there is no plastic packaging, and the box is completely recyclable, I love the small package and the ease of use, and the fact that it is less expensive than liquid detergent.  But upon reading a comparison of laundry sheets, I came across HeySunday, which is a little bit less expensive, and it has a longer lasting scent and higher rated stain removal.  It's not available through Amazon, so I went to their website and subscribed for the lower price since it said you could unsubscribe at any time.  

On the menu this week:

Saturday:  Slow-cooker bbq drumsticks, mac & cheese, baked beans

Sunday:  Hamburgers (homecooked)

Monday:  Kale Salad with roasted vegetables and salmon

Tuesday:  Sloppy Joes, coleslaw, leftover mac & cheese

Wednesday:  takeout fried chicken

**Thursday:  Roasted Vegetable Penne

**Friday:  Potato Soup w/ Cheddar Bay Biscuits

(** designates meatless meal)

Throwback Thursday...

Fifty years ago.  This is me in 1974.  Man, I loved that sweater!  My mother knit it of a variegated yarn of light pink to deep maroon.  And the pattern worked out such a cool design; the top looks like just variegated yarn, but just beneath what you can see in this photo it worked into large stretches of the individual colors being grouped together, so there were large areas of the individual colors.  

She also knit one just like it in a different color (cream to deep gold) for my best friend.  Sadly my best friend and I had a falling out over a boy before my mother finished that sweater, so I got to wear that one too.  😂  My friend and I eventually figured out that besties trumped testes, but by then I couldn't give her a used sweater.

I absolutely loved the special things my mother made for me.  Besides just knitting, she was a fabulous seamstress.  I went through a phase where I wanted to wear ready-made clothes like my friends.  I think it hurt Mom's feelings, but she bought me a dress that I wanted.  Then the very first time I wore it to school, another girl wore the exact same dress.  That had never happened to me before, and I never wanted it to happen again.  LOL  We were both happy again when we went back to the old way of doing things. 

What I'm reading Wednesday...

Mrs. March by Virginia Feito

Mrs. March is the wife of a celebrated author.  One day an acquaintance asks Mrs. March how she feels about him basing the main character of his new book about her.  Since she had not even imagined that he might have based it on her, and she wouldn't want to be compared to this character, it sends her into a paranoia of how others see her, what they think or perhaps know about her.  

 

Oh, Rudy...

Remember about a week ago when I thought Rudy was crowding me on the sofa?

I was mistaken.  NOW he is crowding me.  Nosing his way under my laptop is just taking things too far!  😂

Remember that seen in Fatal Attraction where Glen Close told Michael Douglas, "I'm not going to be ignored, Dan!"?  

Yeah.  🙄

 

Monday's Salad Supper...

Tonight's supper was kale salad with wild rice, roasted vegetables, and salmon. (And avocado, because I love avocado with any kind of salad).  

I've been craving kale lately, which seems healthy, but doesn't play nice with one of my meds.  I'm trying to incorporate it into lots of dishes, so as to have a constant(ish) level to counterbalance.  It is SO good with a hot salad dressing poured over it, and adding roasted vegetables and a grain.  I'll put the dressing recipe at the end of this post.

The roasted vegetables included butternut squash, carrots, beets, red onion, and mushrooms (both white and baby bellas).  The firmer vegetables I cut a little smaller than the mushrooms.  I put them all in a single layer on a foil lined baking sheet and drizzled on olive oil, salt and pepper, and about a tablespoon of soy sauce (to harmonize with the soy in the kale dressing) and tossed them by hand on the baking sheet.  I popped them in a 425° F oven and let roast for about 20 minutes, then stirred and returned to oven for another ten to 15 minutes.  When I took the vegetables out of the oven, I put the salmon in at same temperature setting.

The salmon was dry.  Maybe I overcooked it, or maybe it was because it had been in the freezer for quite awhile.  Carey doesn't like salmon, but he's been reminding me to use this since it was here.  Once the salmon was done, I assembled the plates starting with a bed of kale, topping that with some wild rice, topping the rice with baked salmon, then placing roasted vegetables and sliced avocado around the plate perimeter.  So, so delicious.  And enough left over to make two bowls for lunches, without the salmon, but just as filling and just as yummy cold.

Kale Salad Dressing (from Green Vegetarian Cuisine)

In a small saucepan, combine:

1/4 cup oil (I used olive oil)

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced or crushed

2 Tablespoons of soy sauce

1 Tablespoon of red pepper flakes

Simmer for 3 minutes over medium heat, stirring frequently.  Remove from heat and immediately pour over kale in a large bowl.  Toss and let it sit while you get other ingredients finished up.

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...

There's a chill in the air...20° F.  Rudy has a new coverup in case the power goes out.  We've already been 'requested'  to conserve energy by ERCOT (Electric Reliability Council of Texas)...the Grid managers.  

If the power were to go off before daylight, I would never be able to get him zipped back into this get up.  I guess he would just have to climb under the covers with us.

 

Little hugs from the universe...

I was making baked beans today, and I received what I call a hug from the universe.  Today's hug was by way of mustard.  I'll show a closeup:

Some people see sacred images on potato chips or tortillas.  I see random heart shapes in lots of places and things, and they never fail to make me smile.

 

2024 Frugal Friday File, Jaunary 12...

 

1.  I worked on Monday.  Money in.

2.  Prepared menu and grocery order.  Checked and rechecked what was already in freezer and pantry.  Took some things out of the cart that were wants, but not necessities.  Bought store brand when possible to take advantage of earning cash back, and used new grocery card at checkout.  

3.  Carey has been checking all door and window insulation as we are expecting high winds and low temperatures with ice within the next few days.  Should help to keep the house warmer, and cut down on mechanical heating waste.  I don't know that he found any gaps, so maybe we have been energy efficient all along.  I'm so glad he is conscientious, and skilled,  about these sort of things.

4.  Our library has started sending out emails to cardholders of new books that have just been acquired.  Two of the ones on this week's list are ones I really want to read, and I responded immediately to reserve them.  One is ready for pick up, the other shows that I'm #1 in line, so maybe it's just not ready for checkout yet.  Carey is going to be near the library tomorrow, so rather than me making a trip to pick up the book (or books), I am sending him with my library card to pick up for me.

    I also reserved several others from the website of a group of participating libraries that lends ebooks and audiobooks.  I'm not #1 on those lists.  It indicates that for two of them I will be waiting at least six months.  That's okay.  I have lots of things to read, so I can wait for free reading material.

6.  My grocery order included a shoulder roast which was on sale.  I will cube it this morning to put in the slow cooker for beef stew tonight; the stew meat was more expensive, and I don't mind cutting the roast down myself.  I also purchased some different cuts of chicken in fairly large quantities to get better pricing, and I will be vacuum sealing those in recipe-friendly quantities, and spacing them out in the bag so that they will thaw quicker.  

From the kitchen this week was:

Saturday:  Leftovers

Sunday:  Sunday supper @ Kasey & Beau's

Monday:  homecooked meal from the freezer

Tuesday:  homecooked meal from the freezer

Wednesday:  Chinese out

Thursday:  one of us had hot dogs, one had an omelet

Friday:  Beef Stew with cornbread

Throwback Thursday...

I came across this photo a few days ago.  This was not too long after we brought Rudy home.  He loved that monkey so much...he went through several of them.  That was back when stuffed toys lasted for awhile.  These days no stuffed varmint is safe; he must save us from them immediately.  

I bought him a stuffed bear for Christmas that was ridiculously expensive.  I bought it because the selling point was that it was indestructible; which made me think that it might last a couple of days.  It lasted about a half hour.  But once it had been eviscerated, and the squeaker and stuffing had been gathered up and safely discarded, he continues to be happy with the carcass.  Carrying it around, offering it to us for our admiration.

Sadly I bought one for my daughter's dog as well, and that one only lasted twenty minutes.

But this photo makes me smile.  It's like they were playing a game of mirror...all those limbs thrown akimbo.  And Rudy's belly was pink and unblemished.  Now he has age spots on his tummy and all over really.  He has gray hair around his eyes and muzzle.  He's going to be eight in April.  

What I'm reading Wednesday...

The Professor's House by Willa Cather

A man who doesn't like change.  He builds a new house, moves into it, then continues paying rent on former residence because he can't bear to leave his shabby, old, uncomfortable study behind.

There's something I relate to here.

 

Peanut Butter and Banana Baked Oatmeal recipe...

 

Peanut Butter and Banana Baked Oatmeal

Ingredients:

3 cups old-fashioned oats

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 - 6 ripe bananas, mashed

1 1/2 cups peanut butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 1/2  cups milk

2 teaspoons vanilla

1/4 - 1/2 cup chocolate chips

 

Directions:  

Preheat oven to 350° F

Spray 9" x 13" baking pan with coconut oil spray (or some other light-flavored oil spray)

Stir together the oats, baking powder, and salt.

In a second bowl stir together bananas, peanut butter, brown sugar, milk, and vanilla. 

Add the oat mixture to the banana mixture and stir till combined.  Then stir in chocolate chips.

Pour batter into baking pan, and bake for about 40 minutes till golden brown.  

Let cool completely, then cut into 12 or more individual servings.  

Store in air-tight container in refrigerator (or I like to place into individual bags and store in freezer.  Remove from freezer as needed and and warm individual bar in microwave for about 1 minute.

********************************************

There is no flour or egg in this recipe.  The resulting bar is very moist.

The recipe can be halved and baked in a 9" x 9" pan, decreasing cooking time to 30 minutes

I don't know the nutritional values of these.  If you do, please don't tell me.  Since I'm not really a breakfast eater, I like to grab one of these out of the freezer for a mid-morning snack.  Makes a very portable take-a-long breakfast.

Freezer clean out...

 I cleaned out the freezer on Saturday.  I won't say there was no food waste.  But everything discarded had been way outdated and/or was freezer burnt.  Now instead of a jumble, I have an easy map to what's in there.

Top drawer left to right:  reusable ice packs, nuts (plus my little jar of garlic), frozen mashed bananas, ice cream

Bottom drawer left to right: fruit, onion rings/french fries, vegetables

Now, when meal planning, I can see what needs to be used up before buying something.  When I saw how much fruit I have, I decided that I need to have smoothies for breakfast every day this month!  I'm sipping today's as I type.  😋

Seven random thoughts on the 7th...

1.  Is anyone besides me thinking about unplugging till the election is over?  At least I'm not working much these days, so don't have to worry about accidentally rolling my eyes at client comments.  :)

2.  I had to cancel attending quilting at the library tomorrow.  Friday I got a call from someone at another local branch that needed to take a day off unexpectedly.  I love this branch and the people there, and I kind of owe them a favor, so was happy to do it.

3.  Cleaned out the freezer yesterday, and found I had what was needed to make a favorite dessert for granddaughter who is home from college.  Thought I would make it for Sunday family supper before she heads back to school.

4.  Rudy is loving the new sofa...and he's crowding me.  This is how I'm typing trying to type at the moment.  It's sweet and all, but in the summer, it will be too hot!  

5.  My Christmas present from Kasey in 2022 was an Aura picture frame.  It is digital and SO awesome.  She gave one to my mother-in-law a year or two before that, and I hinted heavily that I would like one.  I don't frame a lot of photos to display.  Now I just need the one.

With this one, you can send photos straight from your phone to the frame.  And not just that, but you can invite others to send photos from their phones to the frame too.  You can set the time for each photo to stay on screen, I think I have mine set for 15 minutes, then it switches to the next one.  It's really cool, and you can do all the setting of controls from an app on your phone.

Sounds like an add, it's not.  Oh, and if you are wondering why I am just now mentioning it when I've had it for over a year.  I just got around to setting it up.  It was really easy, so I have no excuse for putting it off so long.

6. Whoopee!  Tonight is Sunday night!.  Such a good night for PBS programs.

7.  I'm probably the last woman on the planet to know this, but I recently found a little sticky sleeve that sticks on the back of my phone. I keep my drivers license and my debit card in there, and now I don't have to carry a purse.  I always wear slacks with pockets, so I don't lay it down anywhere.  I'm going to have to add my food-expense credit card to it, and I hope it won't be too tight.

Impromptu food prep...

I was too hungry to bother with getting a beautiful photo, but this salad was delicious!  I'm trying not to grocery shop while waiting for new designated food-expense credit card to arrive.  And besides, I had perfectly edible and combinable things in the fridge.

I started with the bundle of kale I had left in fridge.  I washed it and removed stems, then rolled the leaves and cut the roll into narrow strips and placed those into a large bowl.  I made a dressing by combining 1/4 c apple cider vinegar, 1/4 cup olive oil, 1/4 cup sugar, 1 Tbsp honey, 1 Tbsp Teriyaki marinade, and 1 tsp red pepper flakes in a saucepan and heated over medium heat for a few minutes.  I poured the hot dressing over the kale and mixed thoroughly.

I had cooked quinoa that needed to be used up, some hard-boiled eggs, one very small sweet potato, one avocado, a few mushrooms that didn't get used in roasted veg earlier in week, and pecans in the freezer.  

I didn't want to take the time or trouble to roast the sweet potato (though that would have been very yummy), so I just popped it in the microwave for a couple of minutes.  I let it cool just enough to handle, and then peeled and diced it into bite-sized pieces.  I divided the kale onto two plates and topped each with half of the quinoa, and then divvied up everything else pretty evenly on top.  I poured the small amount of dressing left in pan over the top of the added toppings.

The improvised part was the hodge-podge of lonely ingredients I had, but also the dressing.  I had intended to use a dressing recipe from a favorite restaurant, the ingredients for which were apple cider vinegar, canola oil, brown sugar, soy sauce, and red pepper flakes.  I knew olive oil would be fine.  I was out of brown sugar, so thought I'd use regular sugar and a little molasses...but I was out of molasses so I used honey.  I was, quite shockingly, also out of soy sauce, so used the closest thing I had...some teriyaki marinade from a bottle in the fridge.  

My point is, that I am never afraid to play fast and loose with ingredients.  I try to keep close to the intended flavors, and it almost always works out.  Don't be afraid to improvise!

Frugal Friday File 2024, January 5...

 

1.  I was cleaning my glasses the other day, and they snapped in half at the nose piece.  I had seen the optometrist at the end of August (I did not get new glasses at that time as there was only minimal change in prescription from previous year), so I called their office and asked them to email me my current prescription.  My daughter has used Zenni Optical (.com), and recommended that I give them a try.  I picked out frames, sent an image of my prescription, entered my pupil location (that Kasey measured with a card for that purpose that she had received from them with her previous order), and clicked 'submit order.'  Total was $166, which I believe was about half of what I paid for my last pair purchased locally.  I'll let you know how they work out after they arrive.

Oh, and I'm wearing an old pair in the meantime.  Things are a little fuzzy, but I can read and get along.

2.  I applied for a credit card through our grocery store.  It will be solely dedicated to use for groceries and eating out.  I just need a simpler way to track our food spending.  It has no annual fees, and pays 5% back for store-brand purchases and 1.5% back for all other purchases.  Like our other card, this one will also be paid off monthly and not carry a balance.

3.  We've been sticking close to home this week.  I went to Wal-Mart on Sunday (5-ish miles) to get eggs, some composition books, and shampoo; to Kasey's (1 mile) for our New Year's black-eyed peas supper, and I drove to the office (2 miles) yesterday.  I think that is the extent of my outings this week.

4.  Have done well with using up things in the refrigerator.  Roasted vegetables used up a lot from the vegetable drawer.  I had made too much quinoa late last week for a salad, used the remainder in kale salad yesterday.  Ate leftovers for lunches and one dinner.

Also peeled a garlic bulb and separated and peeled all cloves and added to the jar of same that was already in the freezer.  I've always stored garlic bulbs at room temperature, but often they went unused before too late.  I find keeping them in olive oil too messy for me, so when I read that the peeled cloves could be frozen and taken out individually as needed and take just a few minutes to thaw enough to dice, I was all over that.

5.  We haven't been out to eat or picked up take-out.

On the menu this week: 

Saturday:  Spanish Rice

**Sunday:  Roasted Vegetable Pasta (meatless)

Monday:  New Year's supper at Kasey & Beau's

Tuesday:  leftovers

Wednesday:  Mexican Cornbread

**Thursday:  Kale Salad Bowl (with quinoa, hard-boiled egg, pecans, sweet potato, avocado, and mushrooms) 

Friday: home cooked meal from freezer