My Tireless Retirement - Week 93

 

Good Monday morning my dear friends.  We have another completed week in the books and for me it was a pretty good one!  I was able to meet up with a friend I hadn’t seen in a while and have dinner with him.  After bouncing around Idaho for a couple of months the BFF headed back home to Colorado and I am no longer an “AirBNB”, lol.  I got my housekeeping chores and laundry all caught up.  Plus, I was able to make plans with my next door neighbors for a little get together.  I’d say my life is pretty much back to normal, whatever that is.  Ha!

I made a quiche!

Sunday morning I did some baking to set myself up for the week ahead.  In the process I emptied out a few jars of home canned foods and used up some items that have been languishing in the pantry and fridge. 

 

We got a fair bit of snow!

We got quite a bit of snow last week, in fact schools were closed on Wednesday.  I called in “closed” (how badly do you need me?) that day too and with my supervisor’s blessing stayed home and did a fair bit of shoveling.  I certainly do appreciate not feeling like I have to make it into work no matter what anymore.

 

I made this garland to decorate my mantle

I know a lot of people have said they are having a warmer and dryer winter this year, however for us here in Idaho it has been rather normal.  We did have a warmer than usual fall, but our winter has been pretty typical for our area.  We had plenty of snow last week and over the weekend and super cold temperatures are ahead for this week.

 

Ways I Saved $$: 

I used up a lot of little leftover items when preparing my meals for the week.  I did not do any grocery shopping and only used items I already had on hand.  I did all of my baking for the week at one time so I only needed to heat up the oven once.  Kitchen scraps went to the chickens and there was no food wasted at all last week. 

I made a cabbage salad
The little nub of carrot I gave to the bunny

I was able to get all of my laundry for the week done in one load which saved on water, electricity and detergent.  I am thankful for my large capacity high efficiency washer and dryer. 

I made my own homemade foaming hand soap solution using shower gel I already had and refilled all three dispensers in my home.  I keep a Bath & Body Works foam soap dispenser at each bathroom sink as well as one in the kitchen that I had bought on sale and with a coupon.  I’ve been refilling them for several years now and it hardly costs me a thing. 

I repurposed a photo box I had emptied for storage of some sewing supplies, primarily in this case a pile of zippers.  I also used some scraps of cardstock I had in my stash to make labels for that box as well as the one I had repurposed a while back for storing beads.  Additionally I used some of those cardstock scraps and made two more labels for a couple other storage bins I had that were holding other supplies in my sewing room.  I think they turned out pretty cute.

 

REAL Food Meals I Prepared:

 

Strawberry rhubarb kuchen

A kuchen made from scratch and using up a jar of home canned strawberry rhubarb jam.  Over the holidays I had made some maple flavored creamer to try to use up some leftover evaporated milk I had.  I ended up not liking the recipe in my coffee so much, but I did enjoy it when I used it as the milk in my cornbread recipe the week before and again when I finished it off in the kuchen recipe as the milk that was called for.  The kuchen was delicious, it always is, and I cut and packaged half of it for the freezer so I can enjoy it later on in the month with my coffee or tea.

 

A delicious quiche that used up a half pint of pork sausage, some cheese leftover from New Year’s Eve, grated zucchini from the freezer, a quarter of a leftover onion and some grated carrots I had in the crisper drawer of my refrigerator.  I didn’t have any milk so I used some heavy cream powder and mixed it with water.  Half of the quiche was packaged up and frozen to be eaten later on in the month. 

Home canned chili with a couple of cornbread muffins I had made the week before made up a couple meals for me last week and I finished up the lettuce by making a salad to go with it.  I also sliced up the last pickle in the jar to add to that salad along with green olives, grated carrot and sunflower seeds.  When I ran out of lettuce I made a simple cabbage salad/coleslaw using my grandma’s recipe.

 

This soup was so good!

I also made a pot of delicious egg drop soup using home canned turkey vegetable soup I had in the pantry.  I added some soy sauce to the broth and then stirred in a well beaten egg after it was heated up.  As a side dish to the soup I made a small batch of fried rice using a packaged mix that I wanted to use up so that wasn’t exactly on the REAL food spectrum but it also did not go to waste and I have no plans to repurchase that item.

 

Last week I did indulge in a few more carbs than I usually do and was grateful it did not seem to affect me adversely in anyway.  They were scrumptious!  I emptied six pint sized canning jars and two half pints that will need to be refilled this year.

 

I hope you had a great week and I wish you all the best for this week ahead.  Stay warm, stay positive and stay thrifty! 

 

FYI - My retirement week runs from Friday through Thursday.