March 30-April 5 Menu Plan

Hubby is gone until Friday night, so I created a menu plan that will feed the three of us. I'm not going to worry about a sparkling house today, although I have family coming to visit! Maybe tomorrow...

Sunday: Egg Burritos
              Wings, Sugar Snap Peas, Carrots
              Steak, Zuchinni with onions and garlic, mac-n-cheese
Monday-Friday: Oatmeal or Toast
              Leftovers or PB &J
              Leftovers or Freezer Meal made in crockpot (pretty big meals)
Saturday: Soft Boiled Eggs and Toast
             Quesadillas (usually with leftover meat and veggies)
              Baked Chicken, Green Beans, cooked Carrots

A no hassle week with lots of veggies shoved in there! ;)  Shouldn't cost a lot

Peppers in the Garden. Dead or Alive?

Cover on Pepperocinis and Tomatillos. Not even weighed down

Peppers in the Garden. Dead or Alive?

As we have now received frost and rain sprinkles, I'm officially declaring Bakersfield to be in the winter season. Most people have four seasons. Bakersfield only has two: spring and summer. I'll call it winter since I know this will drive most people crazy.



Either way, the frost has landed. It has turned many plants, including most lawns, an ugly brown. Ick. So, Ms. Busybody here at the Bako Depot (me aka Mommy), has put "pull plants from garden" on the to-do list since I've got the (small) greenhouse built.



I had a little extra plastic sheeting that I didn't want to just throw away or fold for next year. What did I do with it? I threw it over my pepperocini plants and tomatillos since they are still blooming. Seriously? Yes. Their little yellow blooms are still budding in the middle of November.

Pepperocinis. Full of peppers and still producing...

I don't have any idea as of why they are still producing when it's between 50-60 degrees during the day. Maybe they are waiting for the 80-90 degree weather to reappear soon? Or maybe it's because I asked them (yes, the plants) why they are still producing this late in the season.

The Anaheim plants produced small and sparse peppers this summer and then abruptly lost all its leaves. This left us green sticks out of the ground. I figured they would come back this summer, but no. Those Anaheims decided to be little stinkers and wait until November to even think about producing more peppers again.

Anaheim. Tiny peppers during summer. No blooms until recently.

 

Heck, my zucchini plants are still producing as well. They have blooms, but no veggie. That's fine. I guess I'll wait until all the tomato plants, zucchini, and peppers turn that ugly brown. I'll just have to continue and monitor them until I can bid them adieu.

Zucchini. Wilted blooms and wrapped around itself.

Fridge to Freezer...a well worn path

We spent a lot at the farmer's market last week. Then we went to Costco and a grocery store (well, hubby did). Major drain on the grocery budget. However, the pantry, fridge, and freezer are stocked, ready to go. Glad I didn't go with hubby to Sacramento or Bishop this past month! Don't get me wrong, I love Bishop and sometimes Sac, but I am really trying to save money overall. That didn't happen whatsoever when hubby and the kids grocery shop with me.

Luckily with it being fall, apples are in season. My kids love anything with natural sugars aka fruit, so when I saw apples with no food wax at the farmer's market, we bought some! They only had two varieties to choose from: pink lady and gala. I'll take pink lady apples any day.

So how did I get my fridge, pantry, and freezer full? Ok, I lied. The freezer isn't quite full, but the fridge is. I hate having food packed in the fridge. I love being able to see the light and how dirty my shelves are. We don't really need to buy all the extra food especially with hubby gone. So I froze the squash, zucchini, bell peppers, and potatoes for when he returns. Potatoes O'Brien sounds really good...

Today's project was to get the store-bought tomatoes into the fridge. Hubby bought some vine ripened tomatoes that weren't quite ready, so they sat in a paper bag. I'm glad I checked that paper bag today since I completely forgot about them! There was absolutely no room in the fridge and the only thing to do was to remove the extra veggies and freeze them.

They say you should eat colors of the rainbow!

It wasn't hard It took me maybe an hour to get all the chopping and bagging. Bell peppers are the easiest thing to freeze. You wash, chop, bag, and freeze. This time I tried something different. I put the seeds inside snack sized baggies and froze them for next year's garden. I probably saved between $3-$6 right there.


The squash (and zucchini), I froze without blanching. Looking at the reader's comments at http://pickyourown.org/, squash can be frozen without cooking it at all. Easy peasy! Another slice, bag, and freeze method. Another quick and easy way to save my precious food. The only catch is you have to eat it before 4-6 months in the freezer.

Glad I don't have to toss these

 The potatoes, I figured since hubby isn't home, I might as well freeze them. You can't freeze raw potatoes, so I half cooked them/simmered them and let them cool. Then I drained them, bagged them, and froze them. It's a little different than the website: http://www.best-potato-recipes.com/freezing-potatoes.html, but we'll see how they turn out since they are cooked before frozen.

Food for the chickens

There you have it. Another opportunity to not waste food, but to save it for later. Maybe I should buy some stock in Ziploc...

Thanks for reading!