My Dollar-Stretching, Cabinet-Clearing, Clean-The-Food-Up Project For March - Day 6 - 3/6/14

Good Evening, Dear Friends!

Day 6 of My Dollar-Stretching, Cabinet-Clearing, Clean-The-Food-Up Project For March is over and as it continues I'm beginning to think that some progress, at least, is being made. 

Here's today's report...

DAY 6 - Thursday, March 6, 2014 -

* The morning started with omelets made with eggs, fat-free turkey, and 2% cheese slices. (John had an all egg white omelet as usual. I think I've got enough yolks right now to make a batch of homemade noodles!) :)

* For lunch it was last of the barbecued turkey, leftover mashed potatoes, and a lovely spinach salad served with red wine vinegar. For dessert we had butterscotch pudding with served with Redi Whip on top. (It was so yummy!)

* In the afternoon one of our daughters-in-law and four of the grands were here and grandson, Jed, brought Grandma's attention to the fact there were still, indeed, more of last year's pecans. They were in a big bowl...cracked, but not yet picked out of their shells...so, while we visited, granddaughter, Lizzie, helped me and we got them picked out, jarred, and put in the freezer. We got almost a full pint AND there is still a bag of whole, uncracked pecans left for me to work on. I am so THANKFUL! Between those, and the fresh, vacuum-sealed pecans that a friend gave us recently, I've got enough nuts to run us til fall.  

* For supper I made Roasted Vegetables With Lentils, sausage, and French bread. I didn't follow the recipe for the roasted vegetables exactly. I just used what vegetables I had on hand...yellow onion, sweet potatoes, carrots, and cabbage. It turned out really nice and so good. This has actually become one our favorite cold weather foods.

* Snacks today included string cheese and rice...but not together. ;)

Well, that's it for today! We've got company coming next week, so tomorrow I'm hoping to be able to put next week's menus together and solidify our holiday plans. (Holiday as in our annual St. Patrick's Day get-together with family and friends. Technically, St. Patty's Day is a week from Monday on the 17th, but we always get together when our daughter from Kansas City has her days off and can make it down. This year our get-together will be on Wednesday the 12th.) 

So...anyway...well...I guess I say good night for now and I'll see you all tomorrow! Good night! Take care and God bless!

All My Love,
~Rebecca

My Dollar-Stretching, Cabinet-Clearing, Clean-The-Food-Up Project For March - Day 5 - 3/5/14

Good Evening, Friends!

As Day 5 of My Dollar-Stretching, Cabinet-Clearing, Clean-The-Food-Up Project For March continues I am surprised by the number of meals that were hidden in the refrigerator and refrigerator-freezer alone. They're not quite empty yet, but, they're getting there! 

Here is today's progress report...

Day 5 - Wednesday, March 5, 2014 -

* Today was such a busy day and all the busyness started as soon as I rolled out of bed. I'm working on several things at once and will share more about those things in the days ahead, but I got so busy with housework first thing this morning that I forgot to eat breakfast. For some reason John didn't eat breakfast, either, so at mid-morning we both took a break and had a brunch of sorts. We each grabbed our choice of the dwindling leftovers...little bits of this, that, and the other that we found lurking in the fridge...and called it good. I finished up the last of the cheesy spaghetti, but I don't remember for sure what John chose. Whatever it was it was one more thing finished off and gone! :)

* By mid-afternoon John was out and about running errands around town and I had worked up quite an appetite. I decided to go for the last frozen container of any kind in the refrigerator-freezer. I wasn't quite sure what it was, but, fortunately, it turned out to be something quite yummy...leftover barbecued turkey! I heated it up and made a sandwich out of it and had a few tablespoons of Greek vanilla yogurt for dessert.

* For supper this evening I had a real treat! Half of a roast beef sandwich, mashed potatoes, and brown gravy; John had the rest of the barbecued turkey and a deviled egg. 

* For snacks we had cold cereal with bananas, I had the last boiled egg, and a slice of block Colby cheese.

Well, that's it for today. I can't help but think that I must surely be boring everyone to death, but I'm doing this as a challenge to myself more than anything else, but am hoping that I might inspire someone else along the way, so...I will continue with Day 6 tomorrow. Good night everyone! Have a wonderful evening!

All My Love,
~Rebecca

My Dollar-Stretching, Cabinet-Clearing, Clean-The-Food-Up Project For March - DAY 4 - 3/4/14

Good Evening, Dear Friends!

Day 4 of My Dollar-Stretching, Cabinet-Clearing, Clean-The-Food-Up Project For March is over and, boring as it may be, we're still working on cleaning up those leftovers.

To be honest, even though the last of our six children married and moved out almost a year ago, I'm having a hard time cooking for just two. I still cook like we've still got a houseful of children in the home and am often glad I did because, oftentimes, one of the children and their families will drop by and it's always nice to have something to serve up in a hurry. But, at other times...it's like...the leftovers go on and on without end, but...I promise...end they will and we'll be on to newer, more exciting progress reports as the month goes on. For now, here's today's report on the clearing out and cleaning up progress of Day 4...

DAY 4 - Tuesday, March 4, 2014 -

* For breakfast John and I had farina (cream of wheat) hot cereal again with raw sugar and milk. (It's so good! When I was growing up that was one of my favorite breakfasts!)

* We had to go to Nevada today (the Missouri city of...not the state of) and pick up a few things for my dad. Instead of eating out like we normally do, we decided to save the money and pack a lunch. We took our little, insulated, cooler bag along and I packed it with two egg salad sandwiches, a few green olives, a few Greek olives, a couple of handfuls of Chester's, a can of Diet Cherry Pepsi (for me...John doesn't drink soda pop), insulated travel glasses with water, and two cloth napkins. We had done most of our errands before stopping in Walmart's parking lot to eat lunch, so I added two packages of Welch's Fruit Snacks that I picked up at the bread store for a quarter each. They were yummy! Berries and Cherries. :)

* For supper tonight I finished up the last of the stuffed pepper casserole and unstuffed cabbage soup; John had a dish of what he lovingly refers to as 'the regular'. (That is nothing more than pasta with marinara sauce. Being half-Sicilian on his mother's side, it's John's lifeblood. Seriously, he can...and usually does...eat 'the regular' two to three times a day!) :) 

* For snacks we had leftover crustless pumpkin pie with Redi Whip on top and cinnamon graham crackers with peanut butter.

That's it for today, folks! Will see you again tomorrow! God bless all here!

All My Love,
~Rebecca

My Dollar-Stretching, Cabinet-Clearing, Clean-The-Food-Up Project For March - DAY 3 - 3/3/14

Good Evening, Dear Friends!

Day 3 of My Dollar-Stretching, Cabinet-Clearing, Clean-The-Food-Up Project For March is nearly over and the refrigerator-freezer is practically bare!

My plan, as soon as I get it to the point that I want it, is to start moving a week's worth of food items at a time over from the deep freeze to the refrigerator-freezer and keep everything in constant rotation...using up what's on hand in the little freezer, moving over another week's worth of food, then refill the deep freeze with fresh food, meat bought on mark-down, bulk purchases from the local Mennonite and Amish stores, etc. I purchase all my grains (white wheat flour, whole wheat flour, whole oats, oat bran, popcorn, etc.) and spices from there and usually buy in fairly large quantities. I keep most of them in the deep freeze to preserve freshness.

Okay...on to Day 3's progress...

DAY 3 - Monday, March 3, 2014 -

* For breakfast this morning John and I both had farina (cream of wheat) hot cereal with raw sugar and milk.

* We had company at lunchtime and I just laid out a smorgasbord of leftovers for everyone to choose from...leftover Un-stuffed Cabbage Roll Soup, Stuffed Pepper Casserole, and Turkey ala King. While we didn't completely clean those things up, there's only about a half to a whole serving of each left. They will be gone by tomorrow. I made my daughter-in-love a grilled hot turkey and cheese sandwich along with a handful of Chester's Cheesy Puff Corn.

* For supper I used  up a package of white spaghetti (as a rule we do not buy white pasta, but it was a package that someone must have given us along the way at some point) and a half a package of 2% Velveeta-type cheese to make Cheesy Spaghetti and I served it with a nice fresh spinach salad and red wine vinegar. I made a crust-less pumpkin pie for dessert and served it with a swirl of Redi-Whip on top. Yum!

* I also went through my tea stock today. I discarded any loose-leaf tea that was in plastic baggies. These were given to me by friends over the years and many of them have accumulated in minute quantities. I didn't think that it would be wise to use these teas now because of the possibility of the plastic leaching into the tea oils and, besides, there was only enough in each baggie for a pot or two of tea, so I didn't feel too about about discarding them. I threw those away, kept all the teas that were in sealed bags, paper bags, and boxes, and developed a plan to use up all tea on-hand before buying more. I've got a LOT of tea on-hand and it will be MONTHS before I have to buy more! :)

Well...that's it for today. Nothing too exciting, I guess, but what I did nonetheless. You all have a great evening and I'll see you again tomorrow!

All My Love,
~Rebecca

My Dollar-Stretching, Cabinet-Clearing, Clean-The-Food-Up Project For March - DAY 2 - 3/2/14

Greetings, Dear Friends! 

So far...so good! I'm on day two of My Dollar-Stretching, Cabinet-Clearing, Clean-The-Food-Up Project For March and I can see great progress taking place already! Especially in the area of our refrigerator and refrigerator-freezer, which are the areas that I wanted to focus on first because of so many fresh foods that can go bad quickly and things that are frozen that don't have as long of a freezer life as those in the deep freeze. 

Here's a report of today's progress...

DAY 2 - Sunday, March 2, 2014

*  For breakfast this morning I had the second Breakfast Burrito as mentioned in yesterday's post and John had an egg white omelet.

* We had a couple of things in the fridge and freezer that I wasn't quite sure what to do with...a bowl of egg yolks leftover from John's use of egg whites and six jars of frozen turkey broth. I surely could have used both somewhere along the way to make turkey and noodles, but I wasn't sure how old some of the egg yolks were and the broth has been in the freezer for over a very long time. I was trying to decide on what to do with them when John came up with a great idea! He said that with the cold weather he was sure that the outdoor cats could always use a little extra, so why not scramble the egg yolks for them and, as an added treat, he'd use the broth to pour over their dry food morning and evening over the next few days. So...that's what we decided to do. I scrambled the egg yolks with a little milk in them this morning for the outdoor cats and, starting tomorrow, John will pour a little of the thawed and warmed turkey broth over the dry cat food before serving it up to the kitty cats that live in the shed. At least someone will get some use out of all of it and I will try my best to be more conscientious and use things up faster in the future. I hate it when things get away from me like that, but, unfortunately, it seems to happen more and more in days of late. :/

* For lunch today I had leftover Stuffed Pepper Casserole and John had vegetable soup. We both had a piece of yesterday's Banana Cake for dessert. 

* Tony and Crissy joined us for supper this evening. I used the last package of frozen, leftover, Thanksgiving turkey and served turkey ala king over rice and heated up a package of frozen whole wheat dinner rolls.

* For snacks we had slices of 2% Colby cheese and, later, peanut butter and graham crackers.

That's all for today, so I will see you again tomorrow! Have a blessed week ahead!

All My Love,
~Rebecca

My Dollar-Stretching, Cabinet-Clearing, Clean-The-Food-Up Project For March - DAY 1 - 3/1/14

As food prices and utility bills continue to soar I have a renewed determination to cut expenses and get out of debt. In February we were able to finally pay off another credit card...one that has held us in bondage for over 12 long years! It felt so good to finally be rid of that beast and lesson learned! NEVER use a credit card to get a cash advance if you can't afford to pay it back immediately!

Over the past few days I've been making an inventory of all food on-hand...in the refrigerator, in the refrigerator-freezer, in the deep-freeze, the cabinets, and pantry and I am making March's menus based on said items. My goal in March is to spend as little as possible on groceries and put the money that would have been spent on them towards more immediate needs. It is ridiculous the amount of food that is in this house. I'm used to shopping for a big family and now that it's just John and I...well...like I said...it's ridiculous! Anyway...I implemented my plan yesterday and I hope to give you a day-by-day account of my progress. 

So...here goes with Day 1 of My Dollar-Stretching, Cabinet-Clearing, Clean-The-Food-Up Project For March...

DAY 1 - Saturday, March 1, 2014

* Since we have our own chickens we usually have plenty of beautiful brown and blue eggs on-hand, plus a friend of ours, who also had an abundance of eggs, gave us a dozen of her white ones. Another friend had given us a small package of home-grown and processed bacon back quite some time ago, and at the time I cooked it, I took the leftovers, crumbled them, and froze them as bacon bits for salads and whatnot. I still had a small package of them in the freezer. I also had two tortillas left over from the last time I made chicken enchiladas, so, since my husband is careful to keep his egg intake to a minimum and, generally doesn't eat meat...especially red meat (he does eat it, but very rarely and very sparingly)...I decided to take those last two tortillas and use them in breakfast burritos for myself. I had one for breakfast on the 1st and had the second one for breakfast this morning. My breakfast burritos consisted of one tortilla, a scrambled egg, half of the leftover bacon bits, and a slice of Borden's 2% sliced cheese on each. 

* I boiled six of the white eggs to be used as egg salad and/or deviled eggs later in the week.

* I had 6 turkey hot dogs in the refrigerator freezer, a pint of leftover frozen chili, and four frozen hot dog buns, so, for lunch, I made two chili dogs each for John and I and served them with an on-hand, partial bag of Chester's Cheese Puff Corn. The other two hot dogs I will use in something later in the week. 

* For supper I used fresh green peppers and brown rice and made a Stuffed Pepper Casserole. As always it was DE-LICIOUS! :)

* For a sweet treat I used the last three over-ripe bananas and the last of last year's pecans to make a simple Banana-Nut Cake topped with powdered sugar. It was yummy, too, and it will last for several days...unless we have company and then it will be offered up then with tea. :) 

* I also used the last three frozen containers of bits of saved, leftover vegetables (green beans, spaghetti squash, tomatoes, peas, celery, etc...I do this...I use little freezer containers and just add bits of leftover vegetables to them until they're full, then I start a new one...when there are enough, I make soup with them), an open quart of home-canned tomatoes, and odds and ends of fresh vegetables from the refrigerator (fresh zucchini, a quarter head of cabbage, a carrot, etc.), and 3/4 of an already cut-into onion to make a small pot of vegetable soup. Part of it will be eaten throughout the week (my husband could LIVE on vegetable soup...he loves it!) and part of it will be refrozen for quick lunches for him later in the month. 

That's day one of my Dollar-Stretching, Cabinet-Clearing, Clean-The-Food-Up Project for March. My plan is to report today's progress to you tomorrow.

Have a blessed week ahead and, for those in the areas impacted by these terrible winter storms, stay warm and stay safe! God bless all here!

All My Love,

~Rebecca