Wednesday Snap Shot

-




Good morning! When I woke up this morning the house was cold. Then I thought of those in the Midwest and knew my version of cold is nothing in comparison. I'm praying for family, friends and all who are dealing with those frigid temperatures.

Hubby built a fire while I made the coffee and we enjoyed the warmth and crackle of the wood stove while we chatted and drank our hot cups of coffee. Now he's moved on to doing his things and I'm doing mine.

I had a very nice and quiet weekend. I was blessed with phone calls from all of my out of state daughters. I figured I spent about 7 hours on the phone over the course of the weekend. We all do know how to talk and catch up on life! :)

On Monday my local daughter came for a visit with the grandchildren. I always love that so much. We had a great day. Despite the windy cold weather we got out and went for a little hike. It was not to far from our house and previously I thought the area was an historical site. I recently picked up a book on day hikes in my area and was surprised to fine it had a nice trail to walk and lots of historical markers along the way. The area was a town that was flooded out in 1894. It was a lot of great history and a beautiful hike as well. My daughter agreed that not only did we all get some exercise but we did a bit of homeschool history as well.

Pictures from our walk:





Goals
I've been busy the last couple of days so today is an at home day and I have a few things on my to-do list:

~Finish up laundry – I started a couple loads yesterday and now need to fold them and get a couple more loads done. 
 
~Vacuum – or rather let my new Roomba do the vacuuming! One of my daughters and her husband gave me a Roomba for Christmas and I love it! I don't think I would have thought about purchasing one so it really is a blessing. Easy to use and they do a great job.

Here it is in action :D 

 


~Dinner preps - I'm making pulled pork sandwiches and coleslaw for dinner. It was supposed to be last nights dinner but hubby wanted a bbq instead. 

~House pick up

And getting out and walking, walking, walking!  :)




For the Love of Books!
I'm about half way through the Swiss Family Robinson and I'm loving it. Such a great book to read to kids (and adults too! :). I wish I had read it to mine. Lots of character building lessons and I love their reliance on God and references of their faith. I wish there were more books like this one written today. But I guess this has a lot to do with why it's a classic.


Projects
No projects to work on today. I have a few projects going around in my head. We'll see when I'm ready to start them.


Frugal Living Practices
One of the things I've talked about before is food waste. To me, wasting food is like throwing money in the garbage. I've done that as I'm sure we all have but my goal is to reduce this or eliminate it by working to use up what I have more responsibly. I've always looked at it as being a good steward of what God as blessed me with.

In light of that I wanted to share what I did on Sunday to use up food in my fridge and freezer. I made some chicken soup. I had a bag of chicken broth that had chicken meat in it in the freezer. I had made this with the bones of a rotisserie chicken a few weeks ago. After making and straining the broth I put the rest of the chicken meat in it and froze it.

I pulled this out of the freezer. I had about a cup of both brown rice and macaroni and cheese in the fridge and about ½ cup of leftover gravy. I also had a few sweet potatoes that I had planned to use in something else but decided they really could not sit any longer. I peeled them, chopped them and added that to the soup along with a little more salt and pepper.

I put it all in my Instant Pot and set the time for 7 minutes (the time needed to cook the sweet potatoes). The soup was delicious. 

It fed us for 2 nights and I have a serving in the freezer to send to work with hubby.  It was a frugal way to use up my food and feed us for 2 nights for very little money.  

These are the types of things that will help me lower my grocery bill as that is one of my goals this year.  


Fitness and Health
I'm doing better! Since last WSS I've been out 4 times and gotten my 10,000 steps. My goal is 5 times a week. I'll be out for a walk today again. The sun is shining. It's cold and windy but I'll bundle up and get out to enjoy the January fresh air and working on my continued determination to get fit. 
 

View from my Deck
As I said earlier my cold is nothing in comparison to some of you but for our area it's a bit chilly. It's currently 35 out. 

We've had no snow to speak of yet. I do see snow in the forecast on Sunday, but that could change.



Today's weather: High: 50 Low: 35



That's all for this week my friends,
Crystal

Comments

  1. AliceJanuary 30, 2019 at 11:48 AM

    Hi Crystal,

    Chiming in from Grand Rapids, Michigan where we are in the midst of the polar vortex! It is very cold with lots of bitter cold wind. 0 degrees but the wind chill is somewhere around -28 but forecasted to be up to -40 to -50. It continues to snow every day and we have to shovel or use our snowblower several times a day. Lots of closings including schools, businesses and government buildings. I've had Monday, Wednesday off and Tuesday was an early dismissal. Thursday will be closed also. Very slippery roads and white out conditions with lots of accidents. By Sunday it should start to warm up a bit.

    Alice

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. CrystalJanuary 30, 2019 at 11:56 AM

      Oh my word Alice! I can't even comprehend temps like that. Stay safe and warm.. Praying things improve very soon.
      Crystal 😊

      Delete
  2. KathyJanuary 30, 2019 at 12:21 PM

    I love how you're using up your food. I've been doing that too. So tired of throwing out good food. I read The Swiss Family Robinson years ago and had the same impression you did. What a good book! Stay warm. It's in the 20s here and going down to 7* tonight. Nothing like the Midwest but too cold for me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. CrystalJanuary 30, 2019 at 2:34 PM

      Brrrr.. even that is cold Kathy! Good luck to you on curbing in food waste. It takes a lot of thought but so worth it. Crystal :)

      Delete
  3. KariJanuary 30, 2019 at 2:50 PM

    Swiss Family Robinson was read to my 4th grade class by the most wonderful Nun (I was educated in a convent school), and I loved it for all the same reasons as you say. It is such a good way to teach children faith in God’s plan, and resilience and endurance, without it feeling like a heavy-handed lesson. Sr Matthew was an amazing woman, and her beautiful and simple faith in God and his goodness was a lifelong inspiration to me. I agree, it is a great shame more novels like this are not written now, not just for young people but for all of us.
    I also remember watching the Disneyland adaptation on television, and enjoying it very much!
    And Crystal I must thank you for your recent tip about buying a bag of small peppers rather than a single large one. I have hated the fact I seemed to be constantly throwing away half an unused slimy pepper. But after your suggestion I bought the bag of smaller peppers and it was perfect! No waste at all!
    Your soup sounds delicious too 😁
    Stay warm everyone!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. CrystalFebruary 3, 2019 at 1:37 PM

      Hi Kari! I loved reading your comment on Sr Matthew. I went to a Catholic grade school for a few years. My family is not Catholic, but my parents were looking for a good private school and they found one! I LOVED my years there and I also had a nun that was a big influence for me, Sr Pat.. still remember her incredible faith in God and encouragement to all her students.
      My children simply loved the old Disney version of Swiss Family Robinson.. they would watch it over and over. The movie is delightful, different from the book in some ways (as I know you know :), but nonetheless very enjoyable!
      Yay on no waste with the peppers! I love that too..
      Thank you for the comment,
      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 to
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