Wednesday Snap Shot

-



Wednesday Snap Shot will have a little different look for awhile. When I'm back up and running again, I'll return to the previous format. 

 **************************


Good Morning! How is your week going? I'm kind of slow going this morning, still enjoying my first cup of coffee. 

Yesterday was a very long day. Hubby and I headed north to go and visit his mom and her husband. It was the first road trip I've taken since my surgery. It was a very nice trip. We got home late and I was exhausted, but it was worth the trip for the visit. It's about a 4 ½ hour drive each way to see them.

They are doing great on their little homestead. They still have their goats (that she milks daily) and chickens and my mother in law is busy getting her garden underway and planting her seed starts. I got an updated picture of them...




My weekend was also busy. My daughter Sierra and her fiance, Rex, came to visit over the weekend. It was very nice to see them and she and I have all kinds of wedding ideas floating across our minds. It's nice to have plenty of time to think and prepare.



Goals
Today I have several goals I want to accomplish. I have meal preps to do for our dinner and some leftovers that I want to get packed up and in the freezer for hubby's future work day meals.

My bird feeder is a mess right now. The seeds got wet and then started to sprout and I've not had time and energy to get it cleaned out. Plus I want to move the feeder. It's too close to the house and my kitchen window. Every time I walk by the window it scares them away.  And my cats sit on my back porch near the feeder and are a little too interested in the birds! :) It's not like I'm trying to bring the birds in for their hunting fun. So I'm going to move it to the front yard and away from people and cats. I also need to make a new batch of hummingbird food and clean their feeder. The birds should be happy once again by the end of the day.


Steps, Steps, Steps
With so much rain (way above the normal for us) it's made it hard to get out and walk. Today is actually supposed to be dry and who knows, maybe even sunny out.. that would be a nice change. If it stays dry I plan to get out and walk. I've done my Leslie Sansone walks and that is great but there is nothing like getting out and enjoying the outdoors to get my steps in.


Frugality
Over the weekend I had some leftovers to work through. I had a small amount of black beans, rice and hamburger from a previous meal. Not enough to serve again and I had company here so I needed more then normal anyway. I put the beans and rice in a saucepan and added a little water then added some extra canned beans and spices and a can of chili and had a brand new meal.. a nice hot pot of chili for everyone. I served it with tortilla chips and a salad. I made mine into a taco salad..




It all gotten eaten up and my leftovers were put to good use.



View from my Deck
It's still quite overcast but I have hope it will burn off today and the sun will shine. It's been a while since we've seen the sun around here. 

 


Today's High: 59 Low: 39

Where oh where is spring? I know as I see news articles and comments made by friends that I'm not the only one who is having a hard time finding spring. 

What about you? Is it looking like spring yet in your area?


That is all for this week! Hope you are having a fantastic week!

 

Comments

  1. GinaApril 18, 2018 at 12:03 PM

    Hello! Sounds like a nice trip to see family.

    Spring is slow to come to mid Missouri as well. It's really starting to get to everyone. Lots of the grumpies everywhere. LOL. Yesterday it was nearly 70 but today another cold front is moving in and the wind is strong and getting colder. At this point, I'm ready for sweating and I promise not to complain when its baking hot. Our trees are slow to bud and we even got a few snow flakes last weekend which is really unusual.

    I used some leftover taco meat a few ways recently. I made spaghetti with it in my instant pot. That was good! A few peppers just added to the meal. Last weekend, I made a batch of dough and made a variety of freezer hot pockets for reheating for my lunches at work. I used a dabble of taco meat and some cheese in two of them. That was yummy. Today, I had one that I made with frozen broccoli florets and cheese. And so easy! I loved that one even more. Definitely making more of these.

    Take care. Glad you are on the mend! Love your posts. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. CrystalApril 27, 2018 at 12:57 PM

      Hi Gina! I feel as you do.. no complaining when the hot weather arrives 😀

      I love your hot pocket idea!! I think I may give that a try. What a great is of leftovers.

      Crystal 🙂

      Delete

Post a Comment

All messages are moderated. After approval your message will be posted. Thank you for your comments!! Crystal :)

Popular posts from this blog

Canning Chicken Noodle-less Soup

-
Image
Today was one of those busy days that it seemed I was moving from the time my feet hit the floor until this evening.. But, I got so much done and that is a great feeling! :) One of my accomplishments today was canning 14 jars of chicken noodle-less soup. I call it “noodle-less” because you can’t can noodles. They end up falling apart. So I canned the chicken, veggies and broth. When I go to use the soup I will bring it to a boil and then add a handful of noodles (any type of pasta will work) and cook it until the noodles are done. Because I plan to add the pasta after the fact I wanted to make sure there was enough chicken broth to do this. So I only filled my jars about half to two thirds with chicken and veggies and then filled with chicken broth. Here is how I did this…. I started off with 2 chickens that were a total weight of about 10lbs. I put them in my 14 quart stock pot… I then added 2 gallons of water.. And 3 tablespoons salt.. I brought this ...
Read more

Canning Cabbage

-
Image
I had 4 large heads of cabbage that weighted about 25 pounds. We had some really hot days and I figured I better get the last of them picked soon. My daughter Sierra and I ended up processing 3 of them yesterday and I have one left for a meal on my menu this week. I made pickled cabbage and then canned up the last of the cabbage. Here is the recipe for the pickled cabbage (according to how I made it)… 8 pounds cabbage 1 large onion 1 ½ red peppers 1 lb carrots ¾ cup salt 9 cups water 12 cups white vinegar 10 cups sugar 1t mustard seed 1t celery seed Slice cabbage thinly. Slice onion and peppers. Grate carrots. Mix all veggies together in a very large bowl. Sprinkle with salt and mix in well. Let sit for 2 hours to soften veggies. Rinse veggies well.  In a large stock pot (mine was 14 quarts) combine water, vinegar, sugar, spices. Bring to a boil. Add cabbage/veggies. Bring to a boil. Fill hot pint jars with veggies using a slotted spoon. Fill jar with brine...
Read more

Canning Beef Stew

-
Image
In my last blog post I shared that I had bought 10 pounds of beef roast. I cut it all up and used 4 pounds in 2 crockpot freezer meals ( http://homesteadinghomemaker.blogspot.com/2012/02/two-more-crockpot-meals-for-freezer.html ) . I used the other 6 pounds of meat along with potatoes, carrots, onions and celery to can beef stew. Here were the general proportions I used in canning 7 quarts of beef stew.. 6# beef 2# potatoes 2# carrots 1# onions 1# celery After I cut up the meat and got the freezer meals done I moved to the beef stew. I peeled and cut up the potatoes and carrots. I chopped up the onions and sliced the celery. I pulled out 3 quarts of veggie stock from my freezer to use for liquid in the stew. You can use beef or chicken stock or you can use water. I did not add anything to thicken the liquid as usually thickeners don’t hold up in canning. You can thicken the broth after it is opened if you would like. I added 1 teaspoon salt to each of my ...
Read more