New Recipes! Salisbury Steak & Carrot Potato Mash

 

Homemade Salisbury Steak is one of those meals that is perfect for Sunday dinner, company or as an option for meal prepping.  I’ve made it a variety of ways over the years, but my most favorite is like this.

 

I finely chop up some onions and button mushrooms to mix into a pound of lean ground beef along with some garlic, salt & pepper, Worcestershire sauce and dried parsley.  

Once I’ve combined all of these things into the meat until it is well incorporated I evenly divide the mixture into four portions to pat out into patties.  

I let them sit until the meat is room temperature and then pan fry them until each side begins to brown.  

I remove them from the pan to rest and then in the remaining drippings I sauté some sliced mushrooms.  Once the mushrooms are done I sprinkle a heaping teaspoon of flour over the top and then stir and cook the flour for about a minute before pouring in two cups of beef broth.  

I love to stir in a tablespoon of dry au jus from a packet into the broth to boost the flavor. 

I will stir it until it begins to bubble and thicken.  

The patties go back into the gravy and simmer for about ten minutes.  Be sure to add in all the yummy juices too.

 

I love to serve Salisbury steak with my favorite mashed potatoes.  

I boil three or four peeled and cubed russet potatoes along with a peeled and sliced up carrot.  

Once they are fork tender I drain and mash the vegetables adding in a few tablespoons of butter and some whole milk to the perfect consistency.  

Perfect for meal prepping!

Then I serve them alongside the steak with gravy over the top.  Scrumptious!

 

My Tireless Retirement - Week 209

 

Hello my friends!  It was a lovely and very busy week for me.  I worked, I did some canning, I went to the No Kings Rally, I meal prepped, I ran errands, I hung out with a friend, I celebrated my 4^th Anniversary in retirement and I worked outside in the yard.  I feel very accomplished!

 

It felt really good to spend some quality time in my kitchen this past week.  I canned beef and chicken for my LTFS shelf and also some taco meat.  I even had enough taco meat leftover to make myself a nice taco salad.  Salads have been a big part of my meal plan lately as the weather is warming up.

 

I was able to leave the heating off all week and still feel very comfortable, even in the early morning hours when it is chilly outside.  Later in the day I was able to open windows for fresh air, which I absolutely love.  When I propped the back door open last weekend Stella was kind enough to bring a near dead mouse into the house.  Sadly for her, I promptly exited her houseguest.  She wasn’t very happy with me.

 

I worked Friday, Monday and Tuesday.  Wednesday and Thursday were spent canning and getting caught up on household tasks.  I also managed to get outside between rain showers and pull some weeds.  I cannot believe how prolific the milkweeds are this year, but the chickens are sure enjoying them.

 

It was a super awesome week this past week filled with a variety of different tasks and experiences.  I am super grateful for all I was able to.  What were you able to accomplish?

 

Narcissism

 

Narcissism is a personality disorder (NPD) that affects nearly one in six individuals meaning that we encounter people with NPD far more often than we might realize.  For the most part these encounters are fairly benign, but for some of us they are far more impactful.

 

I was raised by a narcissist, have worked with narcissists at various times throughout my career and had the misfortune (luck of the draw) of raising a narcissist.  Being raised by, and having raised, a narcissist is the most difficult thing to wrap one’s head around because of how much you love them.  Despite everything my parent put me through during my childhood and well into adulthood I still love that person very much.  However, despite my best efforts, even with the help of a therapist, that relationship ended about fifteen years ago.

 

Having a child with NPD is the hardest because you love them so much and you know that they will struggle their entire lives to navigate their way while they leave a wake of emotional destruction in their path.  Upheaval they don’t intend, broken relationships, missed opportunities and difficulties getting along with others are often their future.  Even harder is the fact that there is nothing you can to do to help them or fix it and you have to accept that.

 

I have found this book tremendously helpful

Radical acceptance is the only way to survive NPD, but once you do you are able to effectively move forward with clarity, understanding and the tools to love and deal with that person.  It is a lot of work, but it is possible.  Having a good therapist with NPD experience is extremely helpful.

 

When you work with someone with NPD you have options.  You can either gather the tools and use techniques to be able to work with them and accept all the bumps along the way or you can change jobs and get away from them.  Because of the varying degrees of NPD, moving along and changing jobs is typically the only way to survive a narcissist in the workplace.  Family members and spouses however, make it much harder.  That is where professional help becomes even more important.

 

Narcissists can be absolutely brutal.  They are highly manipulative and emotionally abusive.  Some are physically abusive too.  One thing I can tell you is that dealing with and recovering from NPD abuse requires outside professional help.  It really isn’t something we can do on our own.  You also need clarity about what narcissism really is.  Once you have clarity you are better able to make practical decisions.  From there you can also begin to heal.

 

It is completely okay to say “I can’t continue to be in this situation anymore”.  It is completely okay to maintain minimal contact.  It is also completely okay to accept our limitations and to walk away if that is what needs to happen.  It is okay too, to still love that person.  It is hard, very hard, but at the end of the day we need to make sure we don’t sacrifice ourselves.  We need to make to love ourselves too.  I will all my best to those of you that find yourselves in this same situation.

 

Four Years In!

 

Today marks the completion of four years of retirement and the first day of year five.  So far, so good!  It has definitely been a journey, but a journey well traveled.  I am settling into retired life rather nicely, learning a lot about myself and enjoying my own company on the regular while I make my way through each day.  It has been a rather remarkable time in my life.

 

In reviewing my finances I was pleasantly surprised to see that my overall net worth has changed a bit from where I was when I retired in 2022 and for the better!  With careful spending and adhering to a budget I’ve been able to live rather well with the proceeds from my very part time job which has allowed me to continue investing and growing my wealth.  Hip, hip hurray!  By working an average of fifteen hours a week at my dream job I have been able to pay the utility bills, buy my groceries, clothing, fill my vehicles with fuel as well as maintain them and have some fun too.

 

I had a certain amount set aside to cover my expenses these first years while I waited to turn 62 and start collecting social security this year in September.  I also have an emergency fund, which I am fortunate not to have needed to touch.  I was able to use some of the extra money leftover from my retirement funds to buy the Subaru and complete repairs, pay my annual insurance payments each year, plus have a tree service come and remove a dying maple tree and prune my big sycamore.  By reinvesting other funds I have made enough to cover those expenses and then some so as of today I have not just broken even, but I’m ahead.  Because I have been doing so well, I was able to increase my Fun & Leisure budget this year and I am able to be a little more generous with my grocery spending as well.

 

Some of you have questioned the wisdom of taking Social Security at age 62 and suggest I wait, but I can assure you that the numbers have been crunched and I’ve met with my financial advisor to ensure this is the right decision for me, especially as my “break even” age is 79¾.  The pros far out way the cons.  Remember, finances are different for everyone and decisions in that regard need to be structured for each individual.  My plan is to wisely invest those funds and continue to grow my wealth so I am very comfortable with this decision.

 

Currently I do not have any big travel plans, but I do have some smaller scale ideas I am working on.  I plan to do more entertaining and going out with my friends this year too.  Other than that I imagine it will be business as usual.  I am rather pleased with how well things have been going.  With all of that in mind I am definitely ready for year five.  Time to get busy!

 

This Month's 2026 Grocery Spending - March

 

The grocery ads this past month were absolutely abysmal.  There wasn’t much in the way of good deals to stock up on for myself.  I did buy some boxed macaroni & cheese as well as a few bags of cereal for my donation shelf.  I used a Kroger gift card I had earned to pay for most of those expenses.  Other than that I stuck to only buying what I needed replacing items I was using to make my meals.

I added mac & cheese to the emergency/donation shelf in my LTFS

I made lots of healthy and delicious salads this month

My local Winco supermarket allowed me to pick up the bulk of my groceries, fresh produce and some dairy, for decent prices.  Trader Joes the following week allowed me to pick up a few more items to add to the pantry and LTFS plus a bag of carrots and a package of green onions.  I used my Christmas gift card to pay for my Trader Joes purchases.

 

Costco haul!

I'm excited to try these 😋

I made my monthly trip to Costco to finish out the month and picked up a short list of items.  I added a bag of onions that wasn’t on the list because the price was too good to turn down and I do use onions quite a bit.  They can also be diced and frozen so they make a great item to add to my deep freezer for quick meal preparation.  I was happy to add a flat of V8 juice to my LTFS.  I haven’t had that for a long time and I really do enjoy it.  I also added a box of fudge bars to the freezer.

 

Yum!

The only nonfood items I picked up this month were a box of the snack size food bags at Winco  and a box of organic lip balms on sale at Costco.  Admittedly, the lip balm was not a need, but I wanted to try it.  I also can use some of them as gifts if I choose.  Total spent on nonfood items was $14.27.

 

My total spent on food was only $87.53 and I was rather pleased with that.  The gift cards and Costco rewards helped out a lot too.  Did you have any good sales at your stores?  Were you able to stock up on anything this month?

 

My Tireless Retirement - Week 208

 

Last Friday was an absolutely lovely day.  With sunshine and warm temperatures I enjoyed a relaxed morning because I didn’t need to go into work, if you can call it that, until 4:30 in the afternoon.  When I did show up for work, it was to take a group of seniors out to dinner and then to the theater for a live performance of Austenprov.  It was rough, let me tell you.  Not!  To add some drama to the drama however, our bus doors had a switch malfunction which I had to sort out on the fly.  I managed to outfox the faulty switch and get the doors to close.  My group of seniors was rather impressed with my killer improvisation skills and they let me know.  It made me feel pretty darn good, I must say.

 

I carefully created a short list of needed items for yard work and gardening this year and instead of wasting fuel and going to Wal-Mart (which I hate) I did an online order with FREE shipping.  In less than twenty four hours my items arrived and I was able to get right to work.

 

I have pulled A LOT of weeds!

Saturday and Sunday were just as lovely as Friday and I enjoyed the weekend by puttering about the house tackling small tasks, doing a mini meal prep for the week ahead and taking loads of time to enjoy my fur and feather babies.  I was able to get my fruit trees sprayed before the leaf miners and tiny moths take hold and lay eggs.  I dug up another big pile of weeds for the chickens too.  I spent a fair amount of time outdoors, which I love.

 

Chicken salad 😂😂

Monday and Tuesday I worked for a few hours in the afternoon.  Sadly, it seems the toxic one is struggling to keep her $h!t together.  My “heart to heart” talk with her the previous week seemed to do absolutely no good and to be quite honest, I wasn’t expecting it to.  At the end of the day I know there is little I can do and it is completely up to her to make the changes necessary.  I am just going to sit back and wait to see what happens.  Thankfully, this month I am scheduled to work very little with the toxic one and next month she has several vacation days scheduled.  Whoo hoo!

 

In order to maintain my sanity and still get to work at my dream job I have been strategically plotting out some much deserved time off and got those days scheduled off.  Along with that my supervisor has been scheduling me to do more senior activities with less time with “you know who”.  I think I’ve come up with a good healthy plan for me to personally deal with this situation.  Boundaries have been established and I am holding the line.  The cost of holding the line, however, is putting up with her increased frustration.  I do believe, in the long run, it will be worth it.

 

One of the things I’ve been enjoying when I stop and take a break or come home from work is the television show The Equalizer starring Queen Latifah.  I watched the original series back in the day and wasn’t sure if I’d enjoy this newer one, but it turns out I really do.  I love when I can discover a new to me series I can sit down, relax and enjoy.  It feels like a big reward.

 

Because I am focused on cutting back this year I got resourceful with a little repair project.  My beloved Pampered Chef egg slicer I’ve had for nearly thirty years broke.  The little plastic nubbin that is part of the hinge broke off so it made it hard to operate with just one hinge.  My initial thought was to hop on eBay and see if I could find a replacement, but then I got the idea to go through my can of miscellaneous screws and see if I could find a short stubby screw.  I drilled a small hole and after screwing in the stubby screw it created a new “nubbin” and now my egg slicer works perfectly once again.  Money saved, nothing added to the landfill, I used up a screw that had been lying around in the garage, but more importantly I’m back in business!

 

With the change in weather I am still able to keep the main heating off in the house.  I didn’t even need the fireplace, but one morning to take the chill off.  I also layered up when it was chilly in the morning, but for the most part the house has been quite comfortable.  I’ve been able to open the doors and windows and let the fresh air in on several occasions.

 

Grilled tuna sandwich (low carb sourdough bread) 😋

It was a really good week.  I was able to get some good sleep, keep up on my housekeeping and laundry, eat good healthy food and accomplish quite a few tasks around the house.  I was conservative and resourceful bringing in far more money than what ended up leaving.  I call that a win!  Have any of you done some conserving of your resources lately?  Have you done any repairs or fixes to avoid having to replace something?  I’d love to hear about what you are doing around the house these days.