Finding my Fragments this week

 

Pot Roast Dinner
It's on the menu.

The last several weeks we've been sustaining on a whim and a prayer, meal-wise.  It's been HOT!  We've been busy (too busy)!  And we've started going to Sam's Club wayyyy tooo much!  (As in weekly! What in the world?!)

So it's time for a menu and to Find My Fragments.

First, The Fragments

Buns and bread (hamburger and hotdog; rye and wheat)

Fruit and Veg (thawed frozen strawberries and peaches, grapes, bing cherries, little bit of rhubarb, grapefruit sections and lemon sections; carrots, celery, romaine, bell peppers, sweet potatoes, russet potatoes, onions & garlic, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes)

Dairy (sour cream, yougurt, shredded cheddar, block cheddar and mozzarella, fresh mozzarella, Feta, cream cheese, milk.)

Leftovers: Homemade pizza, baked beans

That is pretty good.  Not a ton to use up.  

The only items I feel unsure about is the fruit.  If they are still good I will probably make smoothie packets for future breakfasts.  My fault for thawing them all instead of partially thawing and portioning them out.

The Feta has been in there a while; need to double-check it and use in salads or scrambled eggs this week.  

The fresh mozz I accidentally froze.  I have a feeling it will be grainy when thawed so will use it in a cooked pasta meal.

( And later, back at the Farm....)

It's a week later; how did I do?

This week on the grocery buying front... I did a walmart trip for other things and got the stuff I didn't get at Sam's.  A smaller pack of romaine; Brie cheese because I was hungry and I love it; Gala apples because they were a good price and I couldn't find any local strawberries; and the usual stuff for Farmer's lunch (single serve mashed potato cups and peaches.)  So that added to our monthly shopping bill.  

Fragment usage:  

The old hamburger buns got tossed.  No idea why I didn't use them up, even if just crumbs.  They must have been a good kind with less preservatives because the store brand last "forever."  So far the hot dog buns seem ok as does the bread.  Other than that there are a few blueberry muffins from this morning that he'll take in his lunch. 

Dairy:  I ate up the frozen fresh mozzarella.  It was fine.  And I finished the Feta today on my salad. Brie was eaten one night as part of a cheese, crackers and grapes dinner.  The milk is all ok yet as well as the yougurt and sour cream and block cheeses.

Leftovers:  We still have that homemade pizza.  I'll probably have some tonight and Farmer will get some tomorrow for lunch or I'll freeze it for when I have nothing for his lunch.  The baked beans he will eat tonight.  We've added in some of the roast that I made and there is some cheesy potatoes left that MUST be used up.  He'll eat the roast in sandwiches but he's had that twice in the last few days.  I think I'd better freeze that as well.  And the potatoes.  They'll reheat ok.   

Fruit:  I haven't used the fruit and truth be told I'm a bit scared to look at it.  But I will later this afternoon and freeze it as smoothie packets with the almond milk that I think may be getting close to date.  Smoothies for this week's breakfast with raisin toast.

MENU(S)

Last week I didn't make one but let's see if I can remember. 

There was the Mississippi Pot Roast (IP) and Cheesy Potato Casserole (AF),  Chef Salads, Grilled Cheese Sandwich and Cheese-Crackers-Fruit, and we ate out twice.  I'm missing a day.  It must have not been very exciting of a meal.

Here is this week's menu:

Sunday:  AF night (Him-Corn Dogs with baked beans & chips; Me-Leftover Homemade Pizza with salad)

Monday: Spaghetti, meat sauce, salad, Butter Sticks

Tuesday: Taco Tuesday (which means anything Mexican related): AF Chicken Fajitas, onions & peppers, rice and beans

Wednesday: French Toast, Bacon & Fruit

Thursday: Sloppy Joes & FF for Him; Grape-Pecan-Chicken Salad on greens for me.

Friday: Date Night

Saturday: Shrimp &/or Fish Sticks, rye bread, cole slaw, fries or hash browns

Sunday: 4th of July - Grilled burgers or hot dogs, baked beans, pasta salad, chips, ice cream

This is all Pantry food.  I will only have to buy cabbage slaw this week.  We have everything else including snacks.

The Ohio kids are coming July 8th so we'll need to do a haul on the 5th.  I will be asking them what they want for meals.  Last year we ate only one meal out and it was wonderful.  Some of their favorite places are not open for inside dining yet so we'll cook here.  You know we have PLENTY of food here so we'll only need produce and milk, cereal and bread stuff.  I'll be sharing our menu later.

I'll be cleaning out the upper freezer to see what's lurking up there to be used but that's a Finding My Freezer Fragments for another day.

DISAPPOINTMENT

As you know, we butcher our own beef and I usually get local chickens & pork as well.  This year I'm eating up the chicken we have in the freezer and will get more next year.  We had gotten a hog in the spring and stored most of it in DS2's freezer.  We'd had a few meals of it, chops and sausage and all 3 times I've feel bad afterwards.  Not sick-sick but not right either.  Putting 2 & 2 and 3 together, we figured out the meat must have been tainted.  Not sure if it wasn't chilled fast enough (my guess) or what but it's not good.  Ds mentioned he felt sick also.  So, **big sigh** we decided to throw it out.  I absolutely HATE that but you can't mess around with food poisoning.  Since we have our own land, we took what we had here and after unwrapping it, tossed it in a gully up on our other farm (just fields and timber.)  I'm sure the coyotes had a feast.  We'll need to get the rest from Ds's and toss it in a few weeks too.  Farmer contacted the butcher we used to take our pork to and got a butcher date in 2022(!!) for another hog.  The person who processed this hog did such a great job in early 2020.  He does this on the side but has a nice facility.  I think he got too busy because all the bigger processing businesses were booked up and maybe pushed the envelope a bit too much in chilling/freezing.  I'll miss not having chops for the next 6-9 months.  We do have about 10# of bulk sausage from the previous hog that I'll save and use in sausage gravy.  We buy bacon and ham so we'll be ok with that.  Just such a disappointment to waste all that meat.

That my menu & fragments for this week.  We are on Grandbaby #9 watch this week into next.  Little #4.  And with the Ohio Bunch coming, it'll be a wild time around here for a few weeks.  I'll try to pop in and share what we do and what we eat and share a photo of the new one.

Prayers going up for the Pacific NW and the heat.  

Stay hydrated and have a wonderful & safe 4th of July!

Until next time,

Kay