Tag: food

Day #37 – Teamwork

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn 100 DaysLeave a comment

Always on Donny’s days off we have one day that’s just kinda spent around the house and one that is out of the house getting everything done that’s on our lists. I slept so poorly last night because the baby cat and the two daddies were basically having a rave in the other part of the house. At 3 am they finally settled down and slept. I ended up sleeping until 8:30 and was slow to move when I did get up. Donny had gotten the kids up because they had to finish some paperwork at the college. I ended up staying home to get dressed and get some things done around here.

When they got back I was ready and as it turns out we had to run up to the high school to get a transcript for Jackson. Next we needed paper towels so we headed to Home Depot. It was sort of a date day and we were just meandering around the store. One thing we were happy to see is all of the non computerized washer and dryers.

We have been contemplating getting a freezer so we headed over to look at those. The problem is that space is an issue. I’m just not sure where we would put one, but we did find this cool upright that can be a fridge or a freezer.

We also like the very small chest one also.

We’re not quite ready to pull the trigger yet because neither of us have any idea where it will fit. We headed to the paint area to see if there was any oops paint. The guy at the counter said I just missed a purple one and that was the last oops they had. Darn it, I love purple.

I DO know our next purchase and that’s going to be a light weight weed eater. The man helping us had to unlock the case because people just walk out with them and the employees can’t do anything about it or they’ll get fired. What a world.

Next stop was Dollar Tree because I had seen this cloches that I think will really work well for the pumpkin spouts when they go in the ground this weekend.

I also picked up the last bottle of the hair mist. It’s a duplicate of the one I got the other day. I scanned it through the Yuka app and it came back with a good rating. It smells SO good and really lasts.

That was the last of the errands so now it was chickens time. I froze some rinds from the watermelon I cut last night and they loved them. Donny was gathering the eggs while I changed out their water. We thought they weren’t laying much until Donny found a nest in the grass by the shed when we were hauling stuff out for the trash pickup. I think we have a snake under the shed because there were fang marks and some shells where he found them.

Tonight for dinner I made the hamburger cornbread casserole and it was so good and super easy. Here’s the recipe:

I always change the recipe if there’s something in it that I know one of us really doesn’t like. Instead of tomatoes I just added a can of tomato sauce. I also added more milk to the cornbread batter because it was way too think. I baked it for 20 minutes and the cornbread wasn’t done, but it was browned so I just covered it with foil and baked it for an additional 12 minutes.

We finally got our rainstorm. I noticed it was getting so dark. Our solar lights came on at 6:30 then the thunder started.

We needed the rain so badly.

But it made a nice little pond where I am working on the pavers. Hopefully it will dry out quickly.

At least our rain barrel will be filled again.

Day #33 – So Much Easier + Comfort Food

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn 100 DaysLeave a comment

The other day when Donny and I were cleaning out the shed I found this attachment that I was pretty sure went to the lawn mower. I had no idea what it was and Donny was ready to throw it away. I looked a little closer and realized it said what it was right on the side.

I knew we had the ability to mulch our grass, but I had no idea how to do it. Now I do. I didn’t know when I was going to be able to mow again due to my back and not being able to lift the grass bag, but this was a game changer. You can still kind of see the mow lines, but not nearly as bad as if I’d used the chute.

I got the mowing done just before a little storm blew through. It was a welcome respite from the very hot and humid weather. I actually love a good rain shower. The house darkens and it feels so cozy.

Tonight I decided to make Green Chili Enchiladas. I loved when my mother used to make this when I was younger. Anytime she had to bring a dish to an engagement this is what she would bring. To be perfectly honest, it was the only meal she really cooked since my dad did all of the cooking. There are a few things I would change in the recipe though.

This is what I used.

I would use Rotel instead of the diced tomatoes. I would also add chili powder and cumin to the meat while I was browning it. I used Colby jack for the cheese.

It actually turned out just like I remembered it. There’s enough left over to freeze and to also have for a few of Donny’s lunches.

For a side I just cooked some black beans in the instant pot. So easy! just add your dry beans, water, the caldo chicken power and badia seasoning. Really just add whatever seasonings you like. I cook on manual for 85 minutes with a natural release.

The leftovers are great on breakfast tacos or actually by themselves with some purple onion and cheese.

I snapped this picture this evening because we have been getting the prettiest sunsets lately.

Now I’m going to go check on Donny. When he was getting the eggs from the coop he got attacked by yellowjackets and they stung him 6 times. Even one right on the nose. We’re just going to load him up on antihistamines. Hopefully he wont’ swell up too bad.

Day #32 – Meal Planning

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn 100 DaysLeave a comment

Lately I have been in such a cooking slump. In fact yesterday I just told everyone to figure out what they wanted on their own because I wasn’t making dinner. Yeah, it had gotten that bad. I just felt like we aimlessly went to the grocery, not really planning what I was going to cook. Today I decided that that was enough. Donny had an appointment at the DMV, so while he was gone I leafed through some cookbooks for inspiration. The two that I pulled recipes from were these.

The Altar Society is from 1980 and the vp-49 is one that we did when I was in the Officer’s Wives Club in 1987. I made a list of the 10 meals I wanted to make.

It helped that I cleaned out the fridge and freezer before making my list of what we needed to buy. I already had some chicken breasts for the fried rice and a pork tenderloin for the stromboli. We headed to Aldi to do some damage.

I was actually shocked that our total came out to right at $100. I think it helps that we don’t buy soda or many processed foods. Here’s what we bought.

This actually includes all of Donny’s lunches that he takes to work. I already had staples such as dried beans, rice and frozen vegetables. I’m sure we will have to buy more milk because we got through it like crazy. But just think about it. For, a little over since I had some meat already, $100 I can make over 10 family meals. That’s what we spend on ONE meal eating out for the 4 of us. It really does pay to eat at home.

Tonight I had already thawed out some pork that I was planning on cooking last night before I had my meltdown. I did feel bad so I made a Sunday dinner. I know it’s not Sunday, but it is for us because of Donny’s days off.

Pork cooked in the instant pot.

Potato wedges in the air fryer. So easy and good, Peel and wedge you potatoes. mix up oil, garlic power, onion powder, kosher salt and hot sauce. Coat the potatoes and cook at 375 for 20 minutes.

Cabbage because we had half a head left in the veg bin and I didn’t want it to go bad. I don’t know why the pic looks so overexposed.

Yeast rolls. These are a labor of love because they are time intensive with the double rise, but oh so worth it. I don’t eat bread so Hannah is always my guinea pig with anything gluten. She loved them and she worked at Texas Roadhouse which is the recipe I used.

I will say I feel better about cooking now that I have a plan. I’ll let ya know how each recipe turns out especially with my pickier eater son.

Did You Know?

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Home StuffLeave a comment

Our chickens didn’t lay many eggs during the colder months. That’s perfectly normal, but when it started warming up they started producing like crazy. We were getting overrun with eggs. We knew that it was time to start giving them away. I took them all out and did the egg test to see if they were all still fresh. We don’t wash them until we use them because it keeps the bloom on them and they stay fresh much longer.

We ended up having 107 eggs. We gave them to neighbors and co workers. We still ended up having too many so I decided to freeze them. Did you know that you can freeze raw eggs? The method I used was washing the eggs and then cracking them into silicon muffin pans.

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After they are in the cups you just sprinkle them with salt, this keeps the yolks thinner, cover them with cling wrap and freeze. When they are fully frozen, you just pop them out and store them in a freezer baggie. They can last up to a year.

I also made soy marinated eggs. They were so good.

I did a batch of pickled mustard eggs also but they need to pickle for about 10 days so I haven’t been able to try them yet.

I save all of my glass jars to reuse so if you happen to look in our fridge that’s what you’ll see most of. I use them for sauces, leftovers and pickling.

I also have a new favorite meal. I keep roasted sweet potatoes in the fridge at all times because they are a healthy snack and I eat them every day with fried eggs. If you haven’t tried it yet I highly recommend it.

It only takes about 25 minutes to roast a whole pan and they reheat well.

Use It Up

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Home lifeLeave a comment

I have not wanted to go to the grocery. Aldi has completely rearranged their store and it’s so confusing because items are not grouped together like they should be. I decided that we really need to use up what we have before I actually forced to go shopping. Because the weather has been absolutely beautiful these past few days we have been eating outside and I’ve been sprucing up the patio. The hens have been laying again so that means more meals using our eggs.

Dinner was a hit with everyone. I whipped up a ham and cheese quiche. I pulled some spiral sliced ham out of the freezer and I had cheese in the fridge.

We also had some strawberries and blueberries that needed to be used for something so I added sugar and some water and cooked those down to make a compote for waffles.

It does take a while for the berries to cook down, but it’s so worth it.

I just make the waffles while the quiche is cooking.

I found the best recipe for waffles.

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While I was cleaning out the pantry I found a can of sweetened condensed milk and made some cookies. I had never made these before, but they were so good.

I feel like I’m really late getting my seeds started, but I was able to get a plant table done. We got the mini saw horses at an estate sale last year. I had the boards so I just stained them all dark walnut. I plan on painting the saw horses, but I didn’t have enough paint.

I love sprucing up getting ready for summer. I try to use what we already have. I am planning some fun, funky additions to our little patio. It basically serves as another room since we tend to eat and spend a lot of time out there. I can’t wait to get started.

Comfort Food

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn RecipeLeave a comment

The snow and ice seems to have skirted us. It’s still very cold and rainy, but luckily nothing too bad. It’s days like this that I like some good old comfort food. Tonight I decided to make Chicken and Dumplings. It’s a good stick to your ribs kind of meal. I have the copycat version of Cracker Barrel’s pinned to my board on Pinterest. This is my favorite Chicken and Dumpling recipe.

No matter what, when I use flour, baking soda/baking powder, I ALWAYS sift it. Sometimes the soda or powder can get clumpy and if you get a bite with a clump it is SO bitter.

The dumplings call for 3 cups flour, 1 T baking powder, 1 1/2 tsp salt and 1 cup + 2 T milk. just mix that together, roll it out into a big rectangle about 1/4 inch thick and use a pizza cutter to cut it into squares.

Cook your chicken breasts (or whatever chicken you like) in 6 cups chicken broth. I only had 2 cups so I used to bouillon cubes. You would think just boiling the chicken in water would be enough, but you really want that chicken flavor. Add 1/2 onion and some celery. Cook it partially covered for about 30 minutes or until the chicken is done.

Remove everything but the broth. Bring it to a simmer and add the dumplings. Make sure you add quite a bit of flour to the dumplings when you roll them out. This makes the gravy. Simmer for 30 minutes. Add the shredded chicken and that’s it. I add a lot of pepper once it’s cooked, but I find I don’t need any extra salt.

It was so good.

The other night Jackson wanted shrimp Po boys again. I found this shrimp at Super 1. It’s breaded raw shrimp and I just pan fried it.

It was SO delicious! I only cooked half of the bag and there’s plenty left for the next meal. I think it was $17.49 for the box, but if you think about how much a shrimp dinner is at a restaurant, it’s a good deal.

Reinforcement + LJS

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Home lifeLeave a comment

Lately some of our chickens have been very bad. There are 3 ring leaders that insist on flying over the gate and running amok in our yard and all of the neighbors’ yards. I spend a lot of time during my day herding chickens back to their yard. Donny and I spent a lot of the day outside. I was taking down the Christmas lights and he was adding more insulation to the coop because we are supposed to be getting some colder weather later this week. Those 3 chickens plus some other followers in the group kept getting over the gate. Donny realized what a pain it was to be wrangling chickens multiple times. He brought out more chicken wire to raise the gate area even more. We thought that worked until one of the chickens flew right over it. I had had enough. I decided to do whatever it took to keep them in our backyard.Donny told me, “you can be serious?’. Oh, but I was. All it took were 2 brooms and a rake plus several zip ties. I also got our scarecrow out of the shed and made sure to chase the chickens around waving it and growling loudly. I figured if they were scared of it they wouldn’t come near it. This is how it turned out.

Donny’s first reaction when I was finished was, “what are the neighbors going to think?’. I told him I didn’t care because I was sick of chasing chickens. Let’s cross our fingers that this works. Let’s hope the HOA is okay with it. Ha had, just kidding, we could never live with an HOA because I’m pretty sure we would get fined every day and/or kicked out.

Hannah treated her boyfriend to dinner since tomorrow is his birthday and she has to work tomorrow night. Since they were already going to eat we decided to try out our new Long John Silver’s. I know, I know, most people think it’s gross, but it has a special place in our hearts here in Longview. You see almost 2 years ago it was not doing so well and they were going to shut it down. That’s when our Facebook group “All Things Longview” went on a mission to save it. And save it we did. Several months ago they completely tore it down so they could build a new store that wasn’t grimy and greasy like the old one. The brand spanking new LJS opened a few days ago and I’m happy to say that we had to wait in the to-go line for quite a while. Even the inside was full and there was a line in there also.

The food was actually SO good. Everything tasted so fresh and it wasn’t overly greasy. I was quite pleased. They also got the order 100% correct. Go LJS! I hope you stay this busy.

Breaking It In

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn Home lifeLeave a comment

Today we woke up to fog rolling in. It was just a foggy muggy start to the day.

We hadn’t planned on really doing anything, Donny and Hannah were both off. We decided, at almost 1:00, that we should make breakfast. I decided to try out the big griddle for bacon and sausage and the smaller round griddle for french toast.

I think I may have had the heat up too high because the house filled with smoke from the bacon although it turned out good. I love the smaller griddle to make french toast. We kind of had a mess everywhere. One thing I love about cast iron is that the clean up is pretty easy. Just scrub, scrub, scrub and if something is stuck on, use salt.

Donny and I had to run to Drug Emporium and when we got home Hannah was outside drawing on the chalkboard. We have now made her the official chalkboard artist and she will now be handling what goes on it.

I love it when she takes the time to do her drawings. I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next.

For 2025 I’m going to be doing a whole house clean out which means I shouldn’t have purchased what I did at Drug Emporium, but it smelled so good I couldn’t resist.

It’s a new line they are carrying and this was only the second tester I tried, but I knew right when the fragrance hit my nose that it was the one. It smells so good.

Tomorrow I am going to start the clean out on the kitchen. I need to find a place for the huge pot I just got for Christmas. I figured while I’m doing that I might as well do the whole thing.

Has anyone else started season 2 of Squid Game? We just started episode 4 and so far it’s been really good. I also want to recommend Black Doves. We were really impressed by it.

Retail

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn ChristmasLeave a comment

Hannah has her first retail job. She actually really likes it, but the holiday hours before Christmas day can be rough. Friday night she was scheduled to get off at 12:10, but ended up actually leaving close to 1 am. I don’t mind waiting for her to get out, but I had taken my supplements right before I left to get her, with not enough water, and ended up with the worst heartburn and nothing to drink. Then neither one of us could go right to sleep when we got home so it was a late night.

The next morning she had to be at work at 11:00, but since it was Saturday, and Donny has to do his store meeting, he needs to leave the house by 8:30. Since I was already up making breakfasts and lunches for everyone I decided to go ahead and bake some cookies. This is what I walked by into when I got back from dropping Hannah off.

Still hazy from cooking bacon even with the fan on.

This morning she had to be at work by 6 am. That means we got up at 4:30 so I could make her breakfast, bag up her lunch and get her there on time. We did make it, but I know we are going to be dragging by tonight even though I want to go look at Christmas lights. We’ll see how that pans out.

Because I was really tired yesterday, I made the easiest dinner. I had roasted some chicken breasts the night before. I cut up some carrots and roasted them with soy sauce, garlic powder and honey. I cut up the chicken breasts and heated them up in the Korean Chicken sauce we picked up at the Asian market. I cooked some ramen noodles, drained them and added the spice packets. It was so good. The whole family liked it. I don’t really like chicken so I just had the noodles, carrots and green onions.

I also went from not a single present wrapped to all of them wrapped. I do not like wrapping, but it had to get done. We only got the kids 5 gifts each. One big one and 4 smaller ones. I think they will love them.

And here’s one of my favorite Santas. I love weird art.

Only 3 more sleeps until Christmas!

New Fave + Dollar Tree Find

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn product reviewsLeave a comment

Around here everyone has “their” breakfast that I make them. Hannah”s choice is two sunny side up eggs with a sausage patty. Jack has two, either a breakfast on a Bun with sausage or a breakfast taco with sausage, egg and cheese. Donny has two slices of bacon, 3 scrambled eggs with cheese and hot sauce. I have never really had a favorite, must eat this, breakfast until now.

On my last trip to Aldi I picked up the thick cut Appleton bacon that I always buy. When I pulled it out this morning to make Donny’s breakfast I noticed that I had picked up the maple bacon. I always either get the peppered kind of just the normal one. I didn’t even know that this company even made maple bacon.

After I made Donny’s breakfast our house smelled SO good. I love the smell of maple. It’s just that cold weather cozy smell. After I dropped Jackson at school and walked back into the house I could still smell it. It’s like we had a maple candle burning. This, of course, prompted me to want some of that bacon. I am not a huge breakfast eater. I love breakfast foods, but I normally don’t eat in the mornings. Not this morning though. I decided that nothing would go better with bacon than some sourdough french toast with maple syrup. I was not disappointed.

This is 100% my favorite breakfast. Thank you, Aldi because everything came from your store. I cannot wait to have it again tomorrow morning.

On another note, I was in Dollar tree last week. Our dollar tree does not have a lot of products that I’ve seen people showing online. I don’t know if everything just sells out and I miss something because I rarely go into that store. When I was there picking up candy for the stockings I happened to walk into the kitchen side of the store and found this product on one of the shelves, completely misplaced.

I am extremely leary of dollar store beauty products, but this one checked all of my boxes.

And one of the best things is that it’s…

I don’t know why the picture is blurry, but you get the idea.

Now, all of this doesn’t mean a hill of beans if it doesn’t work, but this stuff really works. I just spray it on my hair, especially the ends, and blow dry. It makes my hair soft and shiny. I don’t like to use heat on my hair, but during the colder months, I can’t have a damp head or else I’m freezing all day. If you find this at your Dollar Tree it’s definitely worth a try.

And just because, here’s Monkey napping. She won’t come inside during the hot months, but rarely leaves the kitchen during the colder ones. Such a strange little cat.