Tag: food

Garden Update

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn gardeningLeave a comment

On Thursday I was feeling marginally better thanks to Donny giving me two wonderful back massages. I’m thinking it’s my psoas muscle so I’m just going to have to wait it out and try not to overdo it which if you read this you will know this is extremely hard for me.

On this morning Donny found several chickens in the already damaged pumpkin patch. They were all happily taking dust baths and no plants survived. We headed to Jake’s Feed Store to pick up more pumpkin seeds. I am right at the tail end of them being ready for Halloween, but I’m just going to take that chance.

I zip tied the little fence together to make it stronger and then we put up the hard chicken wire and regular chicken wire and zip tied that to the fence. I replanted seeds, gave them a good water and crossed my fingers that the chickens couldn’t get in.

Because I was already sweaty and gross I decided to go ahead and think out our side garden that had gotten overgrown. Our sunflowers had to be staked up along with several tomato plants and zinnias. As always there was morning glories that had to be taken care of.

It’s always sad when the summer garden is coming to an end.

Even though the tomato and cucumber plants are looking worn out we are still getting produce from them. I found this cucumber hiding in the mess.

We aren’t doing a winter garden so I decided to plant more pumpkin seeds on one side of the enclosed garden just to be able to see something growing.

Watermelons are still going strong. They take up so much space, but we have 4 in the purple bed that are still going strong. We had 5, but Donny was checking one and it fell off the vine.

The two baby pool also have watermelon growing. Donny found one hanging on the fence that needed an immediate sling. I found an old run pad and zip tied it to the fence and our metal rooster.

We’ll see if this will even work. The hot Texas sun may burn up a lot of my plants, but watermelons love it.

We’ve had a lot of luck with our sunflowers this year so I also planted some more seeds just to see if they will grow. These are the last blooms of the ones that we grew earlier.

We also cannot forget about our pollinators. They need water also. I had gotten the flower bird bath and over the summer it had gotten rust spots. I spray painted it, washed the stones and put a plastic planter water catcher in it.

TCB

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn gardeningLeave a comment

On Donny’s two days off we were taking care of business outside. I started on Wednesday by washing the windows and the house. White siding on a North facing house means washing it every 2-3 months. I found the perfect combination to get it done and it’s whiter than it’s ever been.

I like this Castile soap so much better than Dr. Bronner’s. Look how clean it got the house.

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Since it was such a beautiful day I decided to go ahead and clean out and wash the car.

We consistently have cat paw prints all of the hood every morning.

And just because I love to torture myself, I weeded the enclosed garden. That was a workout in itself, but it looks so much better now.

Thursday we wanted to go get more strawberry plants. I looked online at all of the big box stores and the nurseries around town, but they are apparently out of season. We had some spots in the purple planters that needed filling. We found some bell peppers at Home Depot. We have some bell pepper sprouts going, but we really like bell peppers so hopefully these will grow some.

And because neither one of us had our glasses on, we ended up with three bell peppers and one Jalepeno. Oh well, we like those too.

Oh, and Home Depot did have strawberry plants. They were $15.98 for one medium sized one. Not worth it. We have 3, but next year we want to plant about a dozen. We are getting berries off of them though.

On Friday Donny realized that something, probably a cat, had been digging in the raised bed that didn’t have the fence around it. Our goal that day was to find affordable fencing. I got the black one that’s around the other bed at Dollar Tree. I knew there wouldn’t be any left there so we went’ to Family Dollar to try to find it there. No luck, but they had some great pots on sale and the cutest solar mushroom. We left empty handed and headed to Home Depot. Our plan now was to get small pickets and just build our own little fence. Well, Home Depot doesn’t carry the small pickets so since Lowe’s is right next door we headed there.

We found some! They were a bit more expensive than my Dollar Tree ones, but not too much. Also Lowe’s has THE BEST oops paint selection. I found a gorgeous purple color that had no price tag. I told the worker that I really love their oops paint and I use to to just paint random things and I really needed this paint for a mural I want to do. He came back with a $10.36 price sticker and that was a deal because the other oops paints were over $17.

The fence works perfectly and there has been no more digging.

We had to run to Walmart to pick up some groceries and I found, what Donny calls, my half dead pansies that I think I can revive. Well, I really didn’t have room for pansies anywhere and I really needed to get bigger pots for my cilantro, lavender and rosemary. That meant another trip to Family Dollar. How cute are these pots?

I decided that I DID really want the mushroom light. Of course, I chose yellow.

I just planted the pansies in the old pots. Plus some bachelor button seeds that I had picked up.

Donny made some pickles with some of the cucumbers.

We tried them today and they are so good. We did, however, cheat in how we made them.

The past few days have really felt like summer. It has been so hot, which I don’t mind if I’m dressed to sweat.

If you follow me on instagram then you have already seen this picture, but I found this baby eating the cat food. So cute!

Speaking of cat food, for the last week I’ve been making Mr. Whiskers an egg cooked in coconut oil. The first day he could finish it in one sitting, but he would come back for the rest. He’s now up to two eggs and he will patiently wait outside for me to cook them for him.

This morning I saw that it looked like he got into another fight. This time with a cat, but it opened the wound on his cheek. I slathered it in neosporin and will keep an eye on it.

Sorry this blog is so long. We’ve just been pushing hard these last few days and are worn out.

Galveston Day 1

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn VacationLeave a comment

Donny and I actually got an early start. We were on the road at 9:30. We knew that we couldn’t check into our Airbnb until 4, but we wanted to do a little sightseeing and arrive early enough to be able to do it.

The drive wasn’t bad at all. It took us about 4 1/2 hours. We could smell the salty air as soon as we got on the island.

We were ready for lunch and I thought that the Lucky Lounge did taco Tuesdays. They didn’t really have food, but we had some drinks. I had the first of a few Pina coladas that I sipped on throughout our trip.

Such a cool place and the bartender was so nice and was giving us recommendations of places we should check out. We definitely needed food. I had read about the Fish Taco Company. It’s off the beaten path but the reviews were so good I wanted to give it a shot.

The tacos were SO good. Donny and I both got the Captain Johnny Shrimp Taco. I don’t how it was made, but it was delicious. I really wanted to try to eat here again, but we just ran out of time.

Their logo is so cute.

When we were getting in the car to go check into the Airbnb, Donny said, “there’s your house”. It was the cutest house that was quirky and colorful and suited my tastes to a tee.

The location of our little apartment was perfect. We dropped our luggage off and decided to go walk around and see what there was around us.

This was a 5D theatre that wasn’t open. (since we were here mid week there were some things that only opened on the weekends) I googled it and the reviews were awful so I guess we weren’t missing much. We wandered into some Tshirt shops that were WAY overpriced. We saw the Beach Break shop and decided to check it out. The prices in this store were amazingly cheap compared to the others we had looked in. This store also had two sides and one side was a boutique-ish store. I really never get souvenirs. I don’t ever wear shirts of places we’ve been, it’s just not my style, but Donny found the cutest items for me and yes, I had to have them.

I absolutely love these pants!

and this purse is just the cutest thing.

We decided to walk down to Murdoch’s which is two souvenir shops with a big deck overlooking the waves in between.

It’s the building on stilts.

Another great place to get tshirts and whatnots because their prices are also really good. We grabbed a drink and sat in the rockers to enjoy the breeze.

If you’re counting, that’s my second Pina colada. 😉

We wanted to take a selfie and right as I pushed the camera button the wind almost blew my sunglasses off of my head.

Second try.

The place we were staying was a very short walk to Pleasure Pier. It’s not open during the week right now, but we weren’t planning on going there anyway. We did like the lights from the ferries wheel at night though.

We really didn’t have plans for dinner. We had made a quick trip to Walmart and picked up some snacks and drinks and by the time we decided we were hungry it was after 8. There was a mustang car show in town so we walked over to where they were staging it. It was mainly the souped up racing cars, not the vintage ones that we prefer. Since they were at Fish Tales that night and according to Donny the restaurant was “walkable” that’s where we decided to have a snacky dinner. I didn’t want anything really heavy because it was getting late and because we had an early day planned for tomorrow.

There is a reason that we do not like to eat at chain restaurants, especially anything under the Landry umbrella. The hostess who seated us looked like she hated her life. No smile. no talking just laid the menus on the table and walked away. Our server seemed even more miserable. He took our drink orders (3rd Pina colada for the count) and we only ordered 2 appetizers, crawfish eggrolls and dynamite shrimp. The view was gorgeous minus the loud engine revving from the mustangs and the racing up and down the seawall. There were actually cheers from the other customers when a cop pulled one over.

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We waited forever to get our order. Our server came over and told us that the bartender was overwhelmed and that was what was taking so long. Did he not realize we had a direct view to the bar and the bartender was in no way overwhelmed. Plus there were hardly any people in the restaurant. Since I was once a server it was obvious that he just forget to put in the order. Honesty is always the best policy and it’s much more believable. When he finally brought our drinks and food, he just plopped the two plates down with no appetizer plates at all. I had to get up and ask another server for two small plates. The food was so bad. The egg rolls were mushy and the dynamite shrimp was so over breaded and the shrimp inside were hard as erasers. We couldn’t even finish the food. All in all it was an awful experience. we were not going to let that dampen the trip. We were just hoping that we didn’t get sick from the food.

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Do not eat here!!!

We ended each night with a walk on the seawall. The weather was perfect.

And as a post note, I have meant to get these Galveston blogs out so much sooner, but I was the last person in our family to get the dreaded, evil, awful cold virus. It hit me full force late Friday night and I stayed in bed with a fever, body aches and more congestion than I can ever remember having, all day Saturday and Sunday. I got a steroid shot today and am finally feeling a little more myself.

Lazy Thanksgiving

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Home lifeLeave a comment

Since either Donny or myself have always had to work the day after Thanksgiving we’ve never really traveled on this holiday. None of us really like traditional Thanksgiving food so for many years we’ve just always gone to Cracker Barrel. This year we decided to do something different.

I waited in the car while Donny picked up our order. Best decision ever. The food was exactly what we ordered. Everyone got what they wanted and it was so good. We watched football and napped. I had picked up a pumpkin pie so there was zero cooking on my part, which was greatly appreciated by me.

Jackson hit me up to go to the mall for some sales he had seen at Entertainmart. So we will be fighting the crowds in the morning. Are there still even Black Friday crowds? I can remember when it used to be a big deal to pick up the Thanksgiving day newspaper so you could scour the ads and make a game plan on which stores to hit first. Now it seems as though Black Friday starts the first of November. I guess we’ll see.

We did do a little bit of Black Friday shopping earlier in the week. Well, I wouldn’t really call it that because it was just some Halloween things at 80% off. The kids and I had to run to Michaels to get new portfolios for them because the ones I got them at the beginning of school weren’t holding up with their easels in them. You can always spot art students because they lug these giant things around.

Jackson and I are always looking for the Spooky Town houses. We found these to add to our collection.

Hannah also picked up a few things Halloweeny for her room. She likes all things spooky.

Unlike most people I’ve seen online I have not put our Christmas tree up yet. I did however get all of the boxes out of the shed but so far that’s it. I just cannot do it before Thanksgiving. It just seems so wrong to me. I’m hoping to get it up by Saturday or Sunday. We are all also worried about our kitten because she climbs everything and I don’t know how we are going to keep her off the tree.

And just because I thought our house looked cool in the dark when we drove up.

I hope everyone had a really good Thanksgiving.

Day #88 – Best Enchiladas + Best Stain Remover

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn 100 DaysLeave a comment

Yesterday was the first day of Fall so, of course, we donned our jackets and went to the orchard to pick apples and have hot cider. After that we lit a fire and had streaming hot chili. That would be my dream, but we live in Texas and it was in the 90″s so we are still in shorts sweating our butts off. Hopefully before it officially becomes Winter we will have a few days of Autumn.

Anyway, I did not make a meal plan for this week. It was getting time to start dinner and all I had were chicken breasts defrosted. I went into my cabinet pantry and found a large can of green enchilada sauce. Mexican food it is. I got out my Instant Pot and started some pinto beans that I’d make into refried beans. I cooked them for about 90 minutes and then put the two chickens breasts on for about 30 minutes. I seasoned them with my powered broth and my badia seasoning. Then I added garlic and onion powder, paprika and cumin. After those cooked I shredded the chicken and added some of the broth to make it juicy. I got my pan out and added oil and put the tortillas in for about 5 seconds each. Added some of the green sauce to the bottom and rolled the chicken up in the tortillas. I poured the rest of the green sauce on top and added shredded colby jack cheese. Popped it into the preheated 350 degree oven while I made the rice.

I don’t like chicken enchiladas. I think it’s because I don’t trust restaurants to take out all of the fat. Same reason I don’t ever do chopped beef sandwiches at a BBQ place. These were probably some of the best enchiladas I’ve ever had. The green sauce was just what they sell at Aldi.

The two chickens breasts make 12 enchiladas. I don’t know why but I always seem to make enough beans to feed our whole street. We don’t do the canned refried beans because to us they taste metallic and these are so easy to make. The rice is just my go to mexican rice that I always make.

They were so good I had to have some for breakfast.

For being a spur of the moment, what the heck am I going to make for dinner meal it’s now one of our favorites.

Donny found that the employee that quit had an accident in one of the chairs in the clearance area. Donny had been off all week so he wasn’t sure how long that stain had been there. We went to Walmart and got this stain remover.

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It’s in the automotive section.

He didn’t know if it was going to work, but he sent me this picture.

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Holy stain remover Batman! Neither one of us could believe how well it worked. So If anyone needs this miracle product you know where to get it.

Day #55 – Kitchen: Ambient Lighting, Helpful Hints, New Curtains

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn 100 DaysLeave a comment

Yesterday I thrifted the new lamp for the kitchen. I also went back that same day and picked up this owl light. It used to be a wax melt warmer in it’s heyday, but since the bowl part didn’t make it to the thrift store, it’s now just a cute little owl light.

It’s made a huge difference in our night time kitchen.

Since I had moved the elephant lamp to the top of the cabinets, I put the little lamp I got yesterday in its place.

I was getting tired of the battenburg lace curtains on the dining nook’s window. You can see a part of them above. I remember that I had seen some lace ones at the thrift store while I was shopping yesterday. I grabbed Jackson and we went to see if they were still there. They were, but I knew I’d have to cut them off to get the right length. I cannot cut a straight line to save my life. Low and behold, right next to them was a lace tablecloth. I knew I could make this work better. I just folded it in half and draped it over the jute rope I had been using for the curtain rod. Curtain rope?

So much better because more light gets in. I would have never put anything curtain-wise if we hadn’t put the chicken coop right in front of the window. I’m using “we” loosely here.

I do think the creamier color is just better suited more than the stark white.

Since we have such little space I needed to ways to help with some of the issues I was having. I hated the recycling just sitting on the table until someone decided to take it out to the bin.

I just put a washtub on a plant stand and now we just carry the whole tub to the bin.

I use a new kitchen linen everyday. It would either pile up by the sink or pile up on the washer until I did the next load. It would drive me crazy.

Just nail a basket to the wall and problem solved.

I’m pretty sure I have the Chicken Fried Rice recipe in one of the other blogs. I made it again tonight because It is just that good. Gavin, Hannah’s boyfriend, had dinner with us. I doubled the recipe and we have leftovers to eat on tomorrow. I’m already thinking about it.

Now I’m going to go finish cleaning the kitchen and then finish reading my book. It’s so good and I now I want to read all her other books.

Day #53 – Putter Around Sunday

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn 100 DaysLeave a comment

Yesterday the heat wiped me out! I was going to take today off, but there were some things that needed to get done. I had notice that the shelf I made out of the sign was pulling apart at one of the edges. A little e6000 and a heavy cookbook will hopefully take care of that. It has to cure for at least 24 hours though.

Donny makes fun of me because I have one laundry basket that is fine and normal and one that has cracks that pinch you if they’re not taped up. I like having two if I have a lot of laundry because it makes it go faster on all the transfers. Who cares if it has tape on it, they stay in the laundry room when I’m not using them. We had this conversation because I was taping the broken one up again this morning. It still works fine.

I have started writing all my recipes that I use often in my recipe binder. I’ve just been using an old scout notebook of Hannah’s.

I made a really good recipe tonight called Mission Trip Breakfast Casserole.

I did not use 2 pounds of cheese. That is a lot of cheese. I used two 4 oz blocks of sharp cheddar. I would also probably add 1 1/2 – 2 rolls of sausage. I only used 1 and I think it was a little sparse on the meat. Here’s what it looked like all stirred up.

After baking.

I think it was a hit because we only have 4 people in our family and I only had one small bowl of it and this is what is left.

I also left out the tomatoes. Jackson is not a fan of them.

In other cat news, Milo only will drink out of a glass whiskey tumbler. Since he has a large head, when it gets about 2 inches low he knocks it over. I tried to keep up with filling it up but it always ended up spilled. I found a bowl that he’ll drink out of and not knock over.

Baby Ruth is probably not going to let Hannah use her backpack because it’s her favorite place to nap.

Monkey found the plant water even though her water gets changed every morning.

Cats are so silly.

I also have a Wrigley update. They still haven’t given him shade, but I went out to play with him and he’s so clean. He hadn’t had a bath in 5 years and he’s like a different dog. He’s so energetic. It’s amazing what being clean and unmatted will do for a dog.

Day #48 – Grocery Haul (Aldi Editon)

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn 100 DaysLeave a comment

Last night I made a grocery list of everything I will need for my recipes for the next 10 days. I will always shop at Aldi first because they have the best prices for most items. When I checked out my total was $216 which is much higher than normal, but recalculating I actually have enough for 12 dinners, plus breakfasts and lunches. I also went way earlier than I normally do (10 am) and there was hardly anyone in the store. I’m always nosy about what people buy so I thought I’d share what my family uses.

I use the sausage patties for Jackson’s Bobs (breakfast on a bun). Both kids like making the chicken fries in the air fryer so that’s an easy lunch for them. I normally don’t buy tater tots or hash browns, but I need them for 2 recipes.

I only needed 1 large pack of chicken and a smaller one, but the smaller one was way more expensive per pound so I’ll have 2 more meals and that’s okay by me. Some people don’t like buying the rolls of ground beef, but the 80/20 from Aldi is actually really good. I’ll be using a large portion of it tonight for teriyaki meat loaf.

The kids love the hamburger pitas so I always get 2 boxes when they have them. The Angus burger patties make making burgers so much quicker and they are really good. Jackson saw a recipe for cream cheese honey burgers so we’ll give them a try.

We go through a lot of cheese. Hannah is the ham eater and she loves making wraps for a quick lunch.

We already had peppers, avocados, brussel sprouts, apples, strawberries and blueberries so I just needed a few fruits and vegetables.

I’m not a huge fan of the canned cream soup, but two of my recipes called for it so I picked some up. We are not eating the cat food, I’m not that frugal, but the kitten is still having wet food in the mornings.

I normally don’t buy bread, but I’m making more uncrustables for Jackson. We don’t go through that many corn tortillas. The chickens like them for their snack. Speaking of chickens, yes, I had to buy eggs. the chickens can’t keep up with our demand.

Of course I had to get a watermelon. I’m going to be so sad when they are out of season.

So that’s the Aldi haul. I think it was a pretty good deal for what I got. It also gives me peace of mind to know I have everything ready to go for dinners. Except, I forgot hamburger buns so I’ll probably just bake some. They taste way better anyway.

One thing I can’t get at Aldi is my laundry soap. Luckily Drug Emporium is right around the corner. Jackson and I ran up there and they also had my favorite popcorn on sale.

I am definitely shopped out now.

Day #46 – Sweet and Sour Pork Chops With Crispy Rice

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn 100 DaysLeave a comment

Today is Donny’s short day at work so Jackson and I decided to hit Walmart to grab some things that I only buy at Walmart. Unfortunately we didn’t realize it was tax free weekend and the last Sunday before school starts. It was a mad house!!! So basically I just recovered from that experience the rest of the day. I was excited to make the Sweet and Sour Pork chops I’ve had on my meal list for the last 2 weeks. Here’s the recipe.

Here’s the changes I made. I only had 8 thin sliced pork chops. I used sweet chili sauce, no brown sugar, half rice vinegar and half apple cider. I also 1 1/2 the recipe. I actually could have doubled the sauce. I did not simmer for as long as they said to. It was probably only about 30 minutes. They turned out so good!

I made crispy rice to go with it. I just made 1 1/2 cups of rice. (I don’t know how much that actually comes out to, but it’s 1 1/2 cups rice to 3 cups water). I let it cool and then put the rice in a big bowl and added 1 T of sesame oil, a lot of chili crisp because we love it. soy sauce (just use as much as you like). Stirred it all up and spread it out on a baking sheet. Pop it into a preheated 425 oven on the top rung for 15 minutes. After about 8 minutes give it a good shuffle and continue cooking. If it’s not as crispy as you like keep cooking in 5 minute intervals. This will definitely be one of my regular sides.

So so so so good! I also sauteed some broccoli in sesame and olive oil with a little soy sauce.

This will go into my meal rotation because everyone liked it. There’s something to be said for those 1980’s recipes, even if you have to tweak them a little bit.

These are two of the items I used. I got both at Walmart. I’ve seen the exact same chili crisp at the Asian Market, but it’s about 3 dollars more there. I eat the crisp on just about everything;

Day #45 – Best Chicken Fried Rice + Lil Helpers

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn 100 DaysLeave a comment

A few nights ago I made the best chicken fried rice. I made a huge batch. Hannah and I have eaten on it until now it’s gone. It’s so easy. Here’s how I made it.

In the morning make 1 1/2 cups rice. Put it in the fridge to really cool off.

When you’re ready to make dinner, cook 2 chicken breasts. I did mine in the instant pot. Then shred the chicken.

I just got a bag of mixed vegetables and cooked those and set them aside.

In a very large skillet or wok, heat some oil with a splash of sesame oil. Add a chopped onion and cook until transparent. Add the mixed veggies and cook for a little bit. Scoot all that over to the side and add 2 scrambled eggs. When those are cooked mix it all together.

Add the chicken and the rice and cook until the rice is a little browned. Add soy sauce. What makes it so good also is to add yum yum sauce once you’ve plated it. I’m going to make it again this week it was that good.

I manage to get all of the laundry done. I do not like putting mine and Donny’s laundry away when the drawers aren’t neat so I decided to go ahead and redo our drawers. I got some help with that.

Unfortunately they weren’t that big of a help, but it feels so much better to have everything where it needs to be. I still use the Marie Kondo folding system.

While I was doing laundry I almost had a heart attack because the neighbors dog came running up. I put him back in their backyard and tonight he got out again. He looks just like a coyote. I can’t tell you how many times I thought that’s what he was. He’s so sweet though and doesn’t even bother the cats at all.

I wish I could have gotten a better picture, but he’s still a puppy and hyper.