Menu Plan for the Week of 9/18/17

The leaves are beginning to change so it won't be long and we will be going on a little road trip to see the Fall colors. It wouldn't be the same road trip though with out some of my husbands wonderful smoked beef jerky. So on Saturday he got busy with the smoker and while he was at it he thawed some pork chops and put them in there too.  They are just so good!

So Sunday's dinner for last week was totally changed and it didn't bother me in the least!  We even have enough smoked pork chops for Tuesday's dinner!  I think I'll add a little bbq sauce on them when I warm them up to make them a little different.

I almost forgot that he also fixed the tuna for my friends day out last week.  I bought some sub buns for the tuna, brought chopped up watermelon, bottled water, and a cake pop for out little  picnic.  He also made enough for him and my youngest daughter.  Wonderful man.  Did I tell you that I love him?

My Menu for this week:

 Monday               Baked chicken in the crock pot with rosemary and thyme, mashed potatoes, corn

Tuesday               BBQ Smoked Pork Chops, potato salad (made from the leftover potatoes), sweetened carrots with brown sugar

Wednesday          Spaghetti and garlic bread (I made this from the two leftover sub buns and froze it)  

Thursday             Leftovers

Friday                 Chicken Pot Pie (I hope to make two of them up Monday night with the leftover chicken and freeze)

Saturday              Out to eat

Sunday                Fried chicken, fried cabbage, carrots seasoned with brown sugar, and biscuits!  


My tips for this week's menu:

When the husband decides to cook, encourage him.  Then, make sure you tell him how good it is!   Husbands same is true for the wives! 





 
What's on your menu?

Be sure to sign up for my daily email list and never miss a post!  Follow me on Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook,and Bloglovin where I share my frugal list, gardening, recipes, and more

This post has been linked to orgjunkie, Modest Mondays, 

My Frugal Ways this Past Week 9/17/17!

I bought bananas for 10 cents a pound at Aldi's. I made Banana bread (gluten free and sugar free). I will post the recipe soon.  

All of these cost a total of .69 cents.  There were good ones that could be eaten at the back of each bunch. 

I stopped at a garage sale and they gave all the clothes away for free.   I was able to find 2 pairs of pants and 5 shirts for the grandson.

I also found a box full of play pots and pans for the granddaughter. (I washed them this morning).  I also found her 3 dresses and bathing suit for next year.  Total spent $9.00.

We went on a frugal but fun date to a car show.   You can read about it here.  

I did the Kroger survey for extra fuel points.

I canned 6 quarts of tomatoes. I would like to can more but they are just not getting ripe.  It's warm but I guess that we are just not getting enough sun. Today I'm going to pick all that I can again and put them on the patio table.  They seem to ripen quicker that way.  

I was able to crochet a few dish scrubbies for oldest daughter last week.

My menu for this week is here. 


Goals

Watch my diet better.

Crochet dish scrubbies for me!

Finally can the sauerkraut.  I'm glad the cabbages are just fine out in the garden waiting on me.  

What ways have you saved this past week?

This post has been linked to The Prudent Homemaker,  Modest Mondays, 

Sign up for my daily email list and never miss a post!  Join me on Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook,and Bloglovin where I share my frugal list, gardening, recipes, and more!

2017 Frankenmuth Michigan Car Show

We went on a date last Sunday to the Frankenmuth Car Show. At just $5.00 a piece to get in, it was a fun and frugal date. 

You know car shows didn't start out to be my thing.  I started going just to keep the husband company and so I wouldn't be home alone. I have found there is always something to look at to keep me from getting bored. This time these grape vines growing on the hillside immediately got my eye. They were just loaded with beautiful grapes.

Then there are always so many nice people to talk to.  I always try to talk like I know something about cars.  Yes, I tell people, "can you believe those low miles?" or "you don't see motors like that anymore!" It helps to talk their language and then walk away quick before they realize you are a scam.

Then I start to  look for the unusual cars.  This 1914 electric car caught my attention right away. To think they had that idea so long ago.

The inside was pure luxury.   They rode in style that's for sure.  

Made by Detroit Electric.  

Here is another unusual one that we were attracted to, the Urban.  It seemed like a neat car to ride around town but for some reason though I could imagine clowns coming out of it.  

Then there were so many cars that were just in pristine condition. Some are very rare.  I'm always amazed at the trunk size.  Big places to put my groceries are always cool. Hang on I'll ask husband what kind of car it is.  

57 Fairline

To end the day we watched the boat, The Bavarian Belle,  go by and decided that we would bring the grandchildren up for a boat ride.  It would be very pretty ride when the colors change soon.   

As a bonus there were free giveaways!  We both received free tshirts after we took a car survey (I'm sure they will be contacting us soon). We also came home with 4 pairs of sunglasses and those things you put around your coke can to keep it cool (they will never get used but they were free).  

It was a great time!  

Sign up for my daily email list and never miss a post!  Join me on Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook,and Bloglovin where I share my frugal list, gardening, recipes, and more!


This post has been linked to The Saturday Sharefest,

Book Review: Hand Made by Melissa K. Norris

The links in this post may contain affiliate links.   When you order from something from one of my links I receive a small commission with no extra cost to you.  You can read my  full disclosure policy here. Thanks so much for helping support Vickie's Kitchen and Garden! 

Hand Made: The Modern Woman's Guide to Made-from-Scratch Living- Release Date October 3, 2017

From Amazon:

Do you wish you could slow down and create a home you and your family love and enjoy spending time in? Melissa K. Norris, author of The Made-from-Scratch Life and voice of the Pioneering Today podcast, offers down-to-earth tips and guidance to help you learn how to...

• bake old-fashioned recipes (everything from biscuits to shepherd's pie) with quick, stress-free steps
• grow, harvest, and preserve culinary and medicinal herbs (with DIY tutorials for soaps, salves, and balms)
• make your own cultured and fermented foods at home following simple instructions for buttermilk, sour cream, sourdough, and more
• simplify your routine and declutter your home with room-by-room guides and Depression-era wisdom

Open your heart to God-given rest and discover practical and tangible ways you can craft your home into a refuge for yourself and the ones you love.

My thoughts:

I love the good old fashioned wisdom and folklore that Melissa K. Norris delivers in Hand Made. Her recipes are good, filling, and simple. Great recipes that don't require a lot of ingredients and that anyone could make to help keep their family satisfied.  

Besides the great recipes Hand Made also has some great ideas to  help you get back to a simpler, stress free way of life like; how to handle cooking for unexpected company with enough food and grace, make inexpensive crafts for Christmas, and how to enjoy the things you have.  

I've already tried an idea out of this book and we loved it. Great read!  

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley.  I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed here are my own.

Sign up for my daily email list and never miss a post!  Join me on Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook,and Bloglovin where I share my frugal list, gardening, recipes, and more!

Menu Plan for the Week 9/10/17

The links in this post may contain affiliate links.   When you order from something from one of my links I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.  You can read my  full disclosure policy here. Thanks so much for helping support Vickie's Kitchen and Garden!




I have people that live in my house looking at my menu plan!  I have it posted on my refrigerator and I've seen the youngest daughter checking it out to see what we are having for dinner!  I think the husband must too because he just seems to accept what I've been putting on the table! That just cracks me up for some reason.   

The great thing about this menu plan is that we are saving money. We only went to the grocery store for milk and bread so far this week. I will go tomorrow for the items that are on sale but that is it. So it's working!  


Menu Plan:

Monday          Spaghetti and garlic bread

Tuesday          Hot dogs (we will use bread for the buns) and french fries

Wednesday     Soup beans seasoned with the ham bone, Cornbread, and corn on the cob

Thursday        Eating out

Friday             Hamburger Stew

Saturday         Leftovers

Sunday           Fried chicken, fried cabbage, carrots seasoned with brown sugar, and biscuits!  



My tips for this week's menu:

Post your menu plan on the refrigerator or someplace where everyone can see it.  

Remember who's coming to dinner!  This is my second attempt at making this menu.  I completely forgot who was coming on what days!   




What's on your menu?








Be sure to sign up for my daily email list and never miss a post!  Follow me on Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook,and Bloglovin where I share my frugal list, gardening, recipes, and more

This post has been linked to Menu Plan Monday, The Penny Pinching Party 

My Frugal Ways this Past Week 9/10/17!

The links in this post may contain affiliate links.   When you order from something from one of my links I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.  You can read my  full disclosure policy here. Thanks so much for helping support Vickie's Kitchen and Garden!

I received a dozen roses free for good neighbor day at our local florist.  I enjoyed them just a little while before I started giving them away.

In the garden, I canned 7 quarts and 8 pints of beans, helped dig up the potatoes (1 bushel), and hung up onions to dry this week.

I chopped up the rest of the ham and froze it for omelettes.  I also put some in the refrigerator for sandwiches.  


A couple of little things that I don't always mention every week:

I made foaming hand soap. This saves a lot of money.

I cut my SOS pads in half that I bought last week.  I feel better about throwing the rusted ones away when I do.  This is both frugal and green. 

I diluted my dish washing soap.  

My menu plan for the week is here.  

Goals:

I hope to be able to can more tomatoes and finally start making sauerkraut.

Have a good friends day!  


What ways have you saved this past week?


Be sure to sign up for my daily email list and never miss a post!  Follow me on Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook,and Bloglovin where I share my frugal list, gardening, recipes, and more

This post has been linked to The Art of Homemaking Mondays, Modest Mondays, The Prudent Homemaker, The Penny Pinching Party, Thrifty Thursday,  The Saturday Sharefest, 

This Week in Our Home 9/8/17!

It so cool yesterday that we ended up picking beans in our jackets! We broke up a half bushel and then decided to put the other in the porch for the night.  With the window open it's just like a refrigerator (in the 40's)!  Don't worry we let the cat back inside. We have to watch him though he is like an escape artist.  

The canner is already working this morning.  It's a lot of work but so worth it in the wintertime! 

We went to the Detroit zoo this past week with the tickets I won at the Welcome Center for Michigan last month.  I always put it for everything, then forget about it, and get surprised if I win.  

One of my favorite exhibits was the prairie dogs.  They were so cute plus then the kids could do this: 

They went in a tunnel then popped out of little tubes like prairie dogs.  So cute, but they were popping and turning so fast it was very hard to take a picture.  I wanted to yell, be still so grandma can take a picture!  They wouldn't have heard me though.  

Smokey keeping me company as I blog and listen for the canner this morning.   

I'm praying for Florida, Texas, and the fires burning in the west.   There has been a lot of disasters that have or are coming our way in the United States.   

Sign up for my daily email list and never miss a post!  Join me on Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook,and Bloglovin where I share my frugal list, gardening, recipes, and more!