Homemaking on the Homestead

Good Morning!! This being the last of the month it's time for my running weekly grocery average. I'll update you with that at the end of the post. This week I shopped at both Winco and Costco. I was out of several things and needed to restock.  The first stop was Winco..  There were the typical fruits and veggies. I was out of a few salad veggies so I picked up tomatoes (both roma and grape), some Yukon Gold potatoes, kale, spring lettuce mix, a cucumber, green cabbage and mushrooms.  I also picked up snacks; chips and cookies and some dairy. I bought a pound of Jimmy Dean Sausage, and it almost didn't make it in the photo.  I also bought a cake mix and a can of frosting to have in my pantry and a package of hot dog buns that didn't make it in the picture. When I got home from the store my son was here and he was helping me unload the groceries and put them away, he didn't realize I needed to take pictures first. Those items got p...

Good Morning! I hope your week is going great!  Did you enjoy the holiday weekend?  My hubby had to work it but we enjoyed Sunday with our oldest son here. Other than that, we had no big plans.  Other then the weekend plans the rest of the week since I was here last has been business as usual. My youngest son was here a couple of times for a visit and I chatted with several of my children. I was finally able to get the flight arranged for my oldest grandson to come out and stay with us this summer. I had to wait for dates from my daughter first.  Now for the flight home. There was no advantage to making a round trip flight for him and I was arranging for him to fly here with my son's girlfriend who will be in that area in June. Saved the cost of him flying as an unaccompanied minor and will give him a friend to make the long journey.    Goals Today's goals are pretty simple. I have a little housework to do and then I ...

Good Evening! I hope you've all had a great Memorial Day holiday today.  This post is out later than typical. I've had a busy weekend and no chance to blog until right now. So I figured it was better late than not at all.  Last Monday when I blogged I wasn't feeling any creative meal planning thoughts but I'm happy to say I got past that and this blog is fairly long with a lot of pictures. I hope it helps give you a little meal planning inspiration. The first thing I made last week was chicken alfredo. I had some frozen boneless skinless chicken thighs (about 1 1/2 pounds, I would guess). I put those in my crockpot and poured a 15oz jar of alfredo sauce over them. I put 1/2 cup of milk into the jar and shook it up to get all the remaining sauce and poured that over it all. I set my crockpot to "high" and let this cook for about 3 hours. When this was done I shredded the chicken up a little. I wanted to leave some meaty pieces in there. Also...

Good Afternoon! This week I only needed to make a quick run to Winco. If it wasn't for fresh foods I could have even skipped the trip.. oh wait, I needed half & half!  Nope, I had to go :D I still had quite a few veggies so I only picked up some spinach for salads. I also grabbed my weekly fruit, and a bag of tortilla chips.    For the pantry I picked up diced tomatoes, pickles and some taco shells. The diced tomatoes were on sale for .58 cents a can, which is a good price in my area.    And finally I picked up my half & half, a couple yogurts, milk and some frozen french fries and a bag of hash browns (which I didn't realize I had cut the bottom of them out of the picture :). That was all I needed for my week. It pays to have a well stocked pantry and freezer so not every week is a big expense.  Total from Winco and grand total for the week: $28  

Good Morning! I'm thinking at this point it may be afternoon for some of you. I am on the later side because I was distracted by several things. The morning is absolutely beautiful. The sun is shining (and we haven't seen a lot that lately), there's a nice breeze blowing and the outdoors was calling my name. I went and took some pictures by our pond because this is the time of year that the water lily's start blooming. I couldn't help stopping and taking a few pictures of the little wild flowers that are starting to show up around my homestead...   Of course my duck, Ping, saw me down there and had to come and visit me. He followed me up to the house and I gave him a little grain as a treat... Over the week I managed to get some kitchen reorganization done. I had 2 cupboards that weren't really holding a lot of important stuff. I made a new home for the items I wanted to keep and put the items I didn't want into m...