Planted Salad Veggies

Today, I planted two kinds of lettuce and some spinach.  I have a cucumber thicker than my thumb and two squash almost as thick as my pinkie.  Half of my zucchini plants aren’t looking so good.  One looked done for and another was almost there, so I pulled those two up.  I moved a third one to a different spot in the bed, thus making room for my new salad veggies.

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A Week of Jogging

This past week, I’ve been jogging twice a day, for at least 5 minutes at a time.  When I felt up to it, I would also do workouts from the Runner’s World Beginning Running Program.  That involved jogging 1 min./ walking 2 min. 10 times (30 min.) one day and walking 30 min. the next.

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Works for Me Wednesday – Jello Singles

I made banana pudding with the Sugar Free, Fat Free Vanilla Jello Singles.  I also used whipped cream, bananas, Nilla Wafers, and of course, milk.  You add a Jello Single to 1/2 cup of milk.  Then, you stir for 90 seconds and let it sit for 5 minutes.  If you’re doing more than one serving (in separate cups), it’s much easier to just make a normal batch of pudding (4 serving box).  Plus, without the added bananas and Nilla wafers, there didn’t seem to be much pudding to eat.

So, will Jello Singles work for me in the future?  Yes, if I want to have pudding at work.  They’ll also work if I’m the only one wanting pudding at home, provided that I add wafers and bananas.  I suppose that if you’re on a diet, the chocolate pudding singles with mini chocolate chips and fat free whipped cream would work.  Also, I can see kids bringing them to school, drinking half of their milk, pouring in the pudding single, and shaking their milk carton to make pudding.

Here are some pictures.

For more Works for Me Wednesday ideas, see Rocks in my Dryer.

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Completed Tops (3 Done)

Here are some pictures of the three long-sleeved tops I’ve completed.

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Cooking Pictures

Remember all of those tasty dinners I’ve been going on and on about?  Well… here are some pictures!!!

I’m also including a picture of my menu.  I printed the calendar on Cindysporch.com.

Beef roast going INTO the oven

Delicious, cooked beef roast

Look how nicely it slices! It didn't fall apart! I used a rump roast.

Pork tenderloins going INTO the oven

Pork loin ready to eat

The one failure - my fault completely... I accidentally combined two recipes. Don't combine lemon rind, dill, and basil. Yuck. (Either that or I just don't like the taste of dill.)

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The Freezer Clean Out

This past weekend, in preparation for a shopping trip to buy groceries in anticipation of cooking delightfully-delectible dinners, I realized that I didn’t know what was hiding in the depths of my freezer.  Thus, I printed a Freezer Inventory from Organizedhome.com, took everything out of my freezer, organized it, wrote down what I had, and put everything back in the freezer.  I have a basket on the left for meat and a basket on the right for vegetables.  I put the fruits in the shelving on the door.  I stacked pizzas on top.

I was surprised to find that I had 3 bags of cooked chicken fajita meat, a pound of raw shrimp, and two bags of tortillas.

I divided my Freezer Inventory (I printed two pages) into meat, vegetables, fruits, and other.  Here are some pictures.

My freezer at the beginning of September

Freezer October 19

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Fabric Messiness and Progression

When making several blouses at once, and being quite busy at work, so that you’re extremely lazy in the cleaning department at home, I’ve noticed that I tend to have piles of fabric pieces.  Here are some pictures.  I’m also including an “assembly line” neckline/interfacing photo, as well as a pic of all 8 fabrics.

On the left, we have neck pieces.  In the middle, we have sleeves.  On top, we have bodice pieces.

These look like bodice front and backs, pinned and ready to be sewn together.

Here is a picture of assembly-line attaching of fusible interfacing.

All 8 silky fabrics (necklines)

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Bread

Recently, I made a loaf of bread.  I made the dough in the bread machine, then transferred it to a baking pan.  After letting it rise some more, I baked it in the oven.  The recipe is from Money Saving Mom.

The bread was very tasty and a good texture.  It was delicious with sandwiches.  Plus, it was simple to make.  I loved that the ingredients were not too complex.

I would like my bread to rise higher.  Any suggestions?

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Enjoying the New Cookbook

I actually turned down going out to dinner so that I could eat beef roast leftovers!  My new cookbook is great!

The Spicy Shrimp were yummy.

The beef roast with potatoes and carrots – fantastic!

I made the pork tenderloin with honey-mustard sauce.  I haven’t tasted it yet, but it looks delicious!

In regards to clothing, I’ve finished two long-sleeved tops and one pair of long pants.  I’ve heard that a cold front might be coming later this week, so I need to get my act together and sew some more!

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Menu Plan Monday – October 20

I’m back with a menu!  It’s all because I got a new cookbook!!

This week, I’m using recipes from my new cookbook, Pat and Betty’s No-Fuss Cooking.  The recipes incorporate a Reynold’s product, such as aluminum foil.  I haven’t been able to find large oven bags at grocery stores (only turkey size), so I’ll use foil packets for those recipes.  Also, some of the recipes feed several people, such as the beef roast (3 pound roast).  I’ll cut the roast in half, and then freeze one half and cook the other. I’ll cook leftover roast in empanadas (cut uncooked pie crust into 4 pieces; top with beef, peppers, and cheese; cover with more pie crust; seal; cook in oven about 10 min.).  Delicious!

I made the Spicy Grilled Shrimp (p. 57) this weekend.  They were fantastic!  I made a marinade, marinated the shrimp, and then cooked them in my grill pan.  It was super easy!

Monday – Today’s Beef Roast p. 119

Tuesday – Shortcut Salsa Chicken p. 96

Wednesday – Church Dinner

Thursday – Pork Tenderloin with Honey-Mustard Sauce p. 131

Friday – Lemon Pepper Tilapia p. 76

Saturday – Everyday Favorite Chicken p. 173

For more menu ideas, go to orgjunkie.com.

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Sewing Saturday – More to Sew

I went to JoAnn Fabrics to buy suiting material for four pairs of long dress pants.  After much contemplation and comparison of patterns, I decided to make the long version of the pattern I used for capris.  With the fabric 40% off and also the use of my 15% off-the-entire-order teacher card, it came out to about $10 per pair of pants, which is a much better deal than what I’d find at Kohl’s (pants on sale for $22).  Plus, I’ll be making pants with elastic waists, so they’ll fit me over time, as I often fluctuate between two sizes of clothes.

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Eager to Cook

I have a new cookbook.  It’s called, No-Fuss Cooking.  It uses recipes from the Reynold’s Kitchen, including tons of foil packet cooking recipes.  This is how I prefer to cook, so I was very excited to find a recipe book. The recipes are super simple, often requiring only meat, veggies, and seasoning.  You put the ingredients in a foil packet and throw them in the oven.  Yup, it’s that simple!  Since many items cook in foil packets, the ingredients steam in the bags and there’s little clean-up.  Plus, most of the recipes appear to be low-carb, because you’re cooking meat with veggies.

This month, I couldn’t think of what I wanted to cook (ahead of time), so I didn’t make any menus.  I knew that I was sick of making the same thing over and over again.  Now, I’ve got a great book of recipes, so I’m going to make my menu for the rest of the month!

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