Homemaking on the Homestead

Good morning!  It's time for a look at last weeks meals and a plan for this coming week.  So pretty much I didn't follow my menu plan for last week, ha, ha! :D I try but some weeks don't go as planned.  Hubby wanted a bbq again and again. For 2 different nights he was in the mood for that and I won't argue if he wants to do the cooking :). I made a batch of potato salad to go with this meal. I used a little trick that I've done in the past. I used a 24oz bag of frozen hash brown potatoes. The type of hash browns are the little cubes, not the shredded.  I cooked them in my Instant Pot along with the eggs for 4 minutes. I've made it like this several times and wrote a blog post on it a few years ago. At the time I cooked the potatoes in the microwave, which works as well.  You can find my recipe HERE . I also cooked some frozen broccoli in the IP to go with the meal.  I had a couple slices of french bread that I finished off by adding them on ...

Good morning! :) I questioned if I even really needed to shop this week. My freezer is full, my pantry is well stocked, but, I did need some fresh fruits and a couple veggies.  It was a quick in and out type of trip that proved to be extremely frugal.  Yes indeed, that was all I needed for the week.  I still had half & half, from buying extra while they were on sale. I still had my regular salad veggies such as cabbage (red & green), peppers, mushrooms, spinach. The only thing I was out of was cherry tomatoes and cucumbers.  We had oranges from the large bag we bought last week so I only needed a few apples and bananas. The sliced pickles were still on sale and I use them in the wraps I make hubby so I grabbed a couple more jars. I was almost out of lunch meat for hubby's lunches and usually buy it at Costco. However it was not worth a trip to Costco for only one item so I picked up some deli sliced ham at Winco.  The price wasn'...

Good morning!  I've had a slow going morning. I stayed up late last night chatting with one of my daughters. We talked for over 2 hours and it was so nice. Well worth the late night and slow going morning.  It seems as though my week has been busy. Getting things done around the house, and time spent with family. My daughter Hannah came for the day to visit. I got to love and hug on my newest granddaughter.  She's getting big quickly and is so cute...   She's all full of smiles now :).  We visited and chatted for a bit...   ...and then Hannah and I took the kids out to run and play and we got a little hike in. It was the first dry day we'd had in a few days. The kids had cabin fever and so did we!  The sights and scenery around us was beautiful...   It all made for a very enjoyable day.  Goals Today I have a few household chores to take care of. I gave the bathroom ...

Good morning and happy Monday!  Here's a peak at last week's meals... The burrito casserole was so good! We had it for 2 nights and I got 2 more servings put in the freezer. You can find the recipe I used HERE . I had sausage and rice on my menu and wasn't sure what direction I was going to go with it. When the evening came I looked in my fridge and found about 2 cups of spaghetti sauce (this was left from a can I had opened the previous week when I made pizza).  I decided to do sausage and peppers with the leftover sauce.  I cut a pound of Aidelles sausages along with a few mini peppers and an onion. I fried those up until the sausages had browned and veggies were soft. I added seasonings (to taste), salt, pepper, garlic, Italian seasonings, and some Mrs. Dash (Italian blend).  Then I added the leftover spaghetti sauce and a can of diced tomatoes.  I let it simmer a bit to blend flavors and served it over brown rice and a salad on ...

Good morning! :) This weeks haul was a easy one. I only went to one store and that was Winco..  There was the typical fruits and veggies. I needed to restock most of my common salad veggies this week.  I picked up 6#'s of hamburger which I divided and put in the freezer, a couple of small packages of brown & serve sausage links for breakfast meals. We haven't tried these before and wanted to see what we thought. And a little container of sushi.   I also picked up cereal, salad dressing, half & half and orange juice. I like to keep a can on hand.  We don't drink juice often, but when I do want one I like to have it. I used the only can we had recently so was replacing it. I also picked up a pizza dough.   Winco makes their own pizzas which aren't bad, but they also sell their pizza dough. For $1.48 it's a nice option to making it myself. Especially considering we were having pizza that evening and I really didn't want to ...

Good morning! How's your week going? I'm still adjusting to my hubby's new days off. I woke up this morning thinking it was Saturday, ha, ha! :D Then realized it was Wednesday. My brain is working to make the changes. He had the same days off for 15 years so this may take a couple weeks to get into the flow. My week has been busy. We went out of town over the weekend to visit with my in laws who live in Port Townsend, Washington. It's about a 4 1/2 hour drive north from our place. It's a beautiful drive up there. The weather was cloudy and rainy at times but we enjoyed the little mini road trip. My father in law (my mother in laws husband), is having a birthday this coming week so we celebrated a week early with him. He's been an incredible blessing to our family and it was nice to spend time with both of them.  My sister in law was also able to be there.  It was a good visit.  My mother in law and father in law (he is lovingly a...

We've been out of town and I didn't get a chance to get this post up until much later than usual.  I only have a couple meals to share from last week. We ate leftovers a few times, and were not here as well. The chicken pot pie turned out really good...  You can find my recipe for this HERE . The only change I made was that I already had cooked chicken and broth in my freezer. They were from a rotisserie chicken I had.   We ate this for 2 nights and I had another serving to put in the freezer.  I made pizza and it turned out really yummy. I made an Italian Sub Pizza. Basically I put items on my pizza that you would put on an Italian Sub Sandwich.  I plan on making a separate post about this in a couple days.  The picture does not do justice to how good this tasted. :) We had this for 2 nights and no leftovers to be found! :D  That is all I have this week and now will move on this coming weeks menu plan.. Burri...

Good morning! :) I shopped at both Winco and Costco this week. I had a few non food items that I needed and a few extra items I needed to pick up. My first stop was Winco.. The regular fruits and veggies on the list. I still had cabbage, lettuce and kale and only needed a few other fresh veggies. I picked up a few things for the pantry, ketchup, mustard, grape jelly, olives, pickles and a jar of banana peppers for sandwiches and pizza.  I also was happy to find whole grain angel hair pasta... I prefer angel hair pasta to regular spaghetti noodles so this was a good find. They were $1.08 per box. This was a little more than white pasta which was .78 cents a package.  I also bought a couple boxes of au gratin potatoes.  I haven't bought these in years but thought it would be nice to have on hand for quick meal prep.  They were .78 cents a box.     I also bought a pound of ground beef, milk, half & half, egg...