Author Topic: Wednesday, May 15  (Read 1351 times)

Offline Cheryl

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1534
Wednesday, May 15
« on: May 15, 2019, 09:01:26 AM »
Hello to anyone out there reading this!   :D

I just wanted to check in and post about my day.  It’s never very exciting, but that’s ok with me.  I have been busy this morning cleaning out my refrigerator and dealing with some vegetables that have been hanging out in the crisper.

I have jalapeños that I’m making into poppers as soon as the cream cheese softens.  I cut up the rest of a large bag of carrots and froze them for soup time this fall.  I should have enough to last a year. Tony brought home three eggplants yesterday so I sliced them and have them flash freezing right now.  I also bagged up about 5 pounds of potatoes that I sliced into wedges, blanched, and froze overnight.  We try to keep some of these in the freezer instead of buying French fries.  Next up are the wrinkly grapes.  I don’t know yet what I will do with them, but don’t want to throw them out if I can help it.

As soon as I get my kitchen returned to some kind of order I will be folding and putting away all the laundry I dried on the line yesterday.  Normally I do it as soon as I bring it in, but my mother called me out of the blue yesterday and wanted us to go with her to my aunt’s house.  That took longer than I expected so I need to play catch-up today.

Well, that’s about it for me.  Just the usual piddling I do, no excitement around here.  Hope to hear from you all!
Cheryl in Alabama
Wife to Tony
Mother to Lana & Emily
Nana to Logan & Madilyn

Offline Alice

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 940
  • Married to Henry and we have 3 children
Re: Wednesday, May 15
« Reply #1 on: May 15, 2019, 11:17:00 AM »
Hi Cheryl,

Freeze your grapes! They are really good to just pop a frozen one in your mouth as a quick snack. Or put frozen ones in smoothies--any kind of smoothies by we use them in green smoothies! I just love it when I see people not throwing away food but instead find productive ways to use them later. I do the same thing. I just did some grapes the other day. I also froze a spaghetti casserole a couple of weeks ago so that is for dinner tonight. I have some frozen pizza from Aldi that we didn't cook yet so that is a free for all for anyone who wants pizza. I actually cut two pizza's in half so we could have two different kinds one night. That left us with two halves for another day. I bought some mini carrots at Walmart on Friday afternoon and when I opened the bag on Sunday they they were rotting already. That's the last time I buy produce at Walmart. I ended up sorting through them and roasting what I could and dumping the rotted ones. I am back to buying regular full size carrots. I feel like the mini ones do get slimy much more quickly.

We ran into some leaking issues on our backyard garage with two barns attached. What a bummer to have to replace the roofs on those things. It's not a do-it-yourself job due to how large it is so we're getting that done in the next day or two. Not how I would have liked to spend that money elsewhere.

I've been dealing with interrupted sleep for a while and I figured out what most of the problem is and that is my phone. It seems my three adult kids "come alive" about 8:30 pm and their communication with us begins about that time. They are all mostly living away and work most days so then they are ready to chat. I've just learned to turn my phone completely off so I don't hear any beeping or feel any vibration. I think that has helped tremendously. Even my work has some automatic alerts that they set to go off at ridiculous hours only for an update. Well, that gets turned off also. Now to deal with the overheating issues.

So that is it for MY update. Glad to hear from you Cheryl. I think we need to keep this forum up and running!!

Alice
Alice
Married to Henry
Mom to 3 kids
2 cats

Offline Cheryl

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1534
Re: Wednesday, May 15
« Reply #2 on: May 15, 2019, 12:21:36 PM »
Alice, I was just thinking yesterday how I like to hear the ways you use items you find in your freezer and all the good ideas you have for those things.  I did a major freezer cleanup last month and we are finally seeing the bottom of it.  My problem is I keep adding things to it before I get it completely empty.  I am not going grocery shopping this week.  I am determined to empty that freezer soon and defrost it.

Cheryl in Alabama
Wife to Tony
Mother to Lana & Emily
Nana to Logan & Madilyn

Offline Alice

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 940
  • Married to Henry and we have 3 children
Re: Wednesday, May 15
« Reply #3 on: May 15, 2019, 12:44:42 PM »
Yes, well, we do have a problem with freezer stuff right now. I have a deep freezer which I like better than an upright because I can stuff so much in there. But the negative side is finding stuff that falls to the bottom.

Here's my situation...I have a lot of frozen strawberries that we don't use a lot. We have a gallon and a half of ice cream that I used for my daughter's bridal shower and we're not really getting through that. Same with some sherbet. I have those two halves of a pizza (we didn't really care for Aldi pizza). My son makes breakfast sandwiches in bulk so he can take those to work and we don't touch those. I have containers of leftover meals ready for my son to take to work also. He works weekends and 12 hours days so he needs lunch and suppers. He has breakfast at home but he lives away from home when he works weekends since his days are so long. That's why he needs three meals a day for three days.

I have flour of various sorts in the freezer for pancakes, bread, etc. I have a couple pounds of ground beef and a couple pounds of rolled sausage for whatever. I have a lot of chicken legs and thighs that we stocked up on a while ago but no other meat at all. Veggies are mostly green beans and cabbage from dad's garden and some zucchini squash. There is some butternut squash puree and very few tomatoes. I have a lot of ham and some turkey roasts (boneless) that are similar to the big rounds you might see in a deli that is ready to slice. When I tried to slice it, it started to crumble but I do have a lot of thick sliced turkey frozen. It is these kinds of things that really need some creative thinking to put a meal together.  I also have some breakfast burritos that I make in bulk so anyone can grab a quick breakfast.

I am simply out of ideas for the "limited" stuff I have in my freezer. I have used all the meat and veggies and just haven't found good enough prices to stock back up. I really want a good juicy steak on the grill but meat is so terribly expensive that I cannot buy meat.

I have lots of rice and pasta in the pantry and a fairly decent pantry of stuff but it still needs creative thinking to put together something. I actually forbid going out to grab something (I'm such a mean wife and mother!) because that is the money better used to buy groceries.

I have also been on the freezer cleanup mode but when I see a good deal on something I buy it so I never see the bottom of my freezer either.  I haven't done a bit haul for a while with the exception of fresh things. I remember the days of shopping every other Saturday and I have a van full of groceries for my family of 5 (6 including an exchange student) but now it's only 2 1/2 each week. We can hardly get through stuff now before it starts to go bad then it's a quick "throw it in the freezer" time. Oh, and I rarely bake anymore either. I used to bake things every couple of days and now I bake once every couple of months.

Alice
Alice
Married to Henry
Mom to 3 kids
2 cats