Homemaking on the Homestead

  Good Morning! This week I shopped at both Winco and Costco. My first stop was Costco.. I picked up a rotisserie chicken, french bread, ranch dressing, Aidells sausage, and granulated garlic. I saw that they had fish sticks on sale and picked up some of those. Costco's fish sticks are the only brand I buy. They are the best tasting fish sticks I've found. Normally the bag is $11.99 and were on sale for $7.99. I also got more coffee filters. Last week I picked up a 100 count at Winco because each time I'd been at Costco they were out and I didn't want to run out of them. This week I saw them and picked up the pack of 400 cone filters. They are a better price at Costco. Now I should be set for quite some time with coffee filters.  I also saw these jars of alfredo sauce.. They were 15oz each making them a great size for a meal for two. The 4 pack cost $6.99 making each jar approx $1.75.  Total for Costco This week: $57 My next stop ...

Good morning friends! I hope you are having a good week. I've been busy since I checked in with you last Wednesday.  I've gotten several things done around my house which always makes me feel good. I was out hiking again with my son, which I'll share about below.  We had a crazy thing happen on Sunday evening. Hubby and I were sitting in the living room chatting and all of a sudden we hear a big THUD and then the sound of shattering glass coming from our bedroom. We both jumped up and went to see what happened. The window above our bed had been broken by a large bird.  We didn't see the bird but he left a lot of feathers behind. Maybe it was the glare out at that moment that caused the bird not to see the window? I'm not sure. But it left broken and shattered glass all over the bed. We carefully removed the sheets and bedding, moved the mattress out of the way and then hubby removed the pieces of glass, one by one.  We got it all...

Good morning! I can't believe it's the last week of March.  Anyone else think this month has flown by? Maybe I just think that with every month :).   This weeks menu had a few change ups, I guess it's always good to be flexible. I did my own thing with some chicken, Franks Wing Sauce and a packet of Ranch dressing mix. It turned out really good.  I mixed the Ranch dressing with about a 1/2 cup of flour and dredged my chicken pieces in it. I had about 2 pounds of chicken legs and thighs.  In a 9x13 pan I put 1/4 cup melted butter and 2T avocado oil in the bottom and laid my dredged chicken pieces in it.  I baked them for 30 minutes at 400. Pulled them out, flipped them, and poured Franks Wing sauce over them. Not a lot, did not measure, just lightly covered them. I let them bake for another 15 minutes, pulled them out and spooned the juices over the chicken and let it cook for another 15 minutes until it was kind of sticky and a bit ...

Happy Friday!!  This week I went to both of my regular stores, Costco and Winco.    My first stop was Winco.. The regular fresh veggies and fruit. I wanted grape or cherry tomatoes but they were so expensive this week so I picked up a few roma tomatoes instead.    Half and half was on sale for $1.88 for a quart so I bought 2 of them. The date on them was the middle of April so I know I'll use them up before then. The cheese was also on sale for $6. Each bag was 2lbs. Unfortunately when I got to Costco they had their Mozzarella for less than $3 a pound..  Oh well, I tried! The Mexican cheese blend is one I've not tried and Costco does not have that.    Last week I stocked up on canned beans only to find them a better deal this week at .48 cents a can. I was out of canned cream of 'something' soups so I picked up a few of those as well as the green chiles. I see some Mexican food in my fut...

Good morning and happy first day of spring!! Spring makes me happy :). Winter is done now in the PNW and warmer days have taken over and I'm loving it. I'm a little later this morning in getting my Wednesday post out. I took care of a few chores before sitting down to write my post. Before I started I went out on my deck to take my weekly picture. I'm glad I waited because I was met with this lovely site.. We get a little family of deer that like to come and graze on the grass occasionally. It was sweet to see a couple of them this morning.  I've had several things going on in the last week and feel like life has been so busy.  As I shared last week my daughter had her baby and I've spent time taking her meals and rocking my newest little love.   Towards the end of last week my Hubby had a work related conference he had to attend in Seattle. It was a one day conference so we decided to expand the time.  We left early in the m...

Good morning! Last weeks menu was all over the place. I was so busy in so many directions and we were out of town as well. The BBQ pork was delicious... I served it with tater tots and a salad.  We had that for 2 nights instead of making it into pulled pork sandwiches. We also had a bbq and I didn't get the full meal picture but I served it with french bread and salad.. And that is where the pictures of our meals ended. Hubby and I were out of town for one night and ate out and the following night we got home late and picked up a take and bake pizza and a salad on our way home.  Over the weekend I pulled out a couple freezer meals and on Sunday Hubby had another freezer meal and I had a salad.  I did make the potato hamburger and bacon casserole for my daughter. She said they all loved it and ate almost the whole thing. I also made her some pulled pork and chili (her after baby meals).  ******************* So th...