Lots of Recipes

Last week was full of good food wins - lots of items used up and getting a bit creative/ trying new recipes.

Of course it started out with a good organize of the freezers. We have one big chest freezer downstairs and then our regular freezer drawer upstairs in our kitchen. I like to keep upstairs minimal with only a few fruits, veggies, frozen herbs and any items I know I’ll use up during the week. I took a mental inventory as I was cleaning and have some meal ideas for the future. We have used up all our homemade pre-made meals, except for one veggie soup portion I have frozen still.

Last Saturday I took three large ziplock bags of frozen vegetable straps (1 bags each of: carrot peels and ends; celery ends and leaves; and onion skins) and made 28 cups of veggie stock! I let it simmer all morning and then started to process of slowly freezing it all. I have a silicon ice cube tray that has marks for 1/2 cup and 1 cup portions so I was able to freeze a few different combos to have handy. 

On Saturday I also roasted my first whole chicken which I had gotten on sale at NoFrills a few weeks ago. I looked up a few recipes but this one (linked below) was highly rating but also a very simple recipe. I’m not going to lie: I thought the recipe was too good to be true. The chicken is only stuffed with celery then seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder and cooked for 1 hour 15 minutes (with a 30 minute rest time). Best chicken ever! Will definitely make the recipe again. We used it in a few different recipes during the weekend and week, G even made a buffalo chicken pizza on a flatbread that turned out really good.   

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/83557/juicy-roasted-chicken/

During my freezer organizing, I was reminded of the many many pounds of ground beef we own. So we used 8 pounds, making two different recipes. We made 4 pounds of kabobs to have for lunches during the week and 4 pounds of sundries tomato burgers, which we also had for lunches and meals throughout the week.

G had a few days off during the week so smoked a chuck roast (also from the freezer) which turned out amazing! I guess they call chuck roast the “poor mans brisket”, and it did remind me of a nicely smoked brisket. I’ll have to compare the prices next time we are in the city to see what the price different really is. 

We were also in the mood to bake this week. Monday evening I made a blueberry/cranberry skillet cake (recipe below). It was good, not too sweet, but I might add some nuts or granola next time to add a different texture. This used up frozen blueberries and a bit of the frozen cranberries I had in our freezer. It was a nice ‘healthy’ treat to have with my coffee each morning.

https://snack-girl.com/snack/blueberry-skillet-cake/

G had to feed our sour dough starter and made 9 loaves of bread with the discard and some of the starter. Most of these loaves will be frozen for later eating, which helps restock our freezer because we had no loaves left in there. 

- M 

Productive Weekend

Last weekend was super productive for us. It was beautiful weather: sunny, hot and hardly any wind! I focused on yard work while G plugged away at organizing his dad’s items in the garage. 

I got all the yard furniture and planters out of our storage shed. Gave everything a good wash. And then planted all the flowers I had purchased in the city last weekend. My regular flower bed has all my perennials - so I focus mostly on planters around my deck and patio. This is perfect because if we need to move before fall, I’m able to pick the planters up and move them to the new house. 

I also planted my small garden (again - in raised beds/planters from Costco so I’m able to move them). We decided to plant a few more peppers this year - 3 different verities to try out. I planted my usual combo of lettuce and spinach, but also am trying a bit of kale to see how that does. Another planter is full of snow peas, and I’m really hoping these do well because we love snacking on them! We are also trying to grow pickling cucumbers for the first time this year. I do have these planted in the ground so I only purchased three plants to grow up the trellis behind my flower bed. I’m hoping we can get a few harvests out of them before we would have to move. We’ve never canned pickles before and it’s something we want to get more into as G loves pickles! 

Besides those traditional garden plants - I made a small herb garden. We finally used up the last of our frozen rosemary from 2020 over the winter so I need to stock up the supply again if possible. I only have one rosemary plant so far but I hope it’ll do well. *fingers crossed*

That evening we had friends over for our first real fire of the year. I had purchased some smokies to cook over the fire and made a quick pasta salad. Our friends brought some potato salad and scones to have for dessert. It was a good thing she brought something sweet because we forgot to stock up on marshmallows! We had none in the house (not even any stale ones from last year, lol). Definitely on the grocery list now.

Last Saturday was the perfect day - I hadn’t realized how much I missed sitting around the fire until the late hours of the evening. It made me excited for summer!

- M 

Playing Catch Up

What a month and a half! 

Last time I had a chance to write it was all about my personal triumphs and finally, at the age of 31, learning how to drive stick shift. I won’t lie: although I love my SUV’s comfy ride, it has been nice being able to take the Mazda if it works out better. For instance, G had to replace the rear camera on the KIA (part ordered online and he did the work himself), and he was able to do that on one of his day’s off during the week instead of waiting for me to get home and rushing thru it in the evening. He also replaced the breaks, changed the winter tires, etc. My car has definitely had some nice maintenance lately! The only thing left for the next little bit will be some new winter tires come November. We have the money saved for that in our flex account so once we see a good deal in the Fall we can purchase them.

In other big news: our house is officially on the market! I’m glad we waited to start all the relocation madness until after our company left because it felt like our house was turned upside down. Kids are busy, lol. The exact day G drove them to the city to catch their flight, I came home and was in cleaning mode. That weekend we met with our real estate agent, signed the listing agreement, had our official relocation meeting later in the week and then scheduled a home appraisal. Good news is that the market in our small town looks WAY different than when we purchased and our home appraisal came back $45,000.00 more than when we purchased in 2016. We had quite a few showings so far but no offers. Seeding is in full swing in Saskatchewan so I’m hoping we will get even more action once the farmers wrap up.

We also learned from our relocation meeting that RCMP moves work a bit differently now. Most of our expenses will be covered, however, we need to pay up front and then get reimbursed. Last time we moved they dealt with payments and invoices directly. I’m glad I’ve been hoarding money once we knew this transfer was happening, that buffer will help with some of these costs.

My life is a little chaotic right now, we just got back from a two week visit back home. We flew into Ontario and then drove a Uhaul back to Saskatchewan. Luckily, we cut down our driving time by going thru the US. We took the scenting route thru Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (the UP) and indulged in pasties! My family would vacation in this area every summer and G has joined us on a few trips when we first started dating so it was nice to enjoy an area that bring back so many good memories.

The reason we brought a Uhaul was because we were clearing out G’s dad’s garage. He passed away very suddenly last summer, and G’s step mom sold their house and is downsizing. G took a lot of his dad’s tools, work benches, smoker, BBQ, etc. So that is currently all dumped into our garage waiting to be sorted.

That will be our goals this weekend: starting to organize and sort, I want to plant my flowers and garden, clean the windows, and organize our finances from after our trip. 

It looks like it’ll be a beautiful weekend for outdoor tasks, as long as the wind dies down here!

- M