I may not have been writing, but I’ve still been living the frugal, prepared and somewhat self sufficient lifestyle. I’ve got to write more about that, an update on how the family is doing, and all that jazz. But those things take thought, and honestly-I’ve just got to start writing again. So I’m starting with the easy stuff, which is actually publishing and talking through my meal plan.

Even if I haven’t been writing, I have continued to meal plan. Things have evolved over the years, so my original “how I meal plan” post really needs to be updated significantly so that it will reflect what I really do.

The quick rundown is this:

• Since Princess and Buddy are both in college now I’m only cooking for 2 most of the time (for those of you who have followed me a long time-Princess is graduating this spring and already has a job lined up in NYC. Feel old now?).
• I’ve continued to keep a very deep pantry, buy meat in bulk (ie a side of beef), and preserve a lot of food from my garden and purchases via canning, freezing, dehydrating and freeze drying
• I still stock the pantry then create my meal plan by looking at what food needs to be used up and what I have on hand, rather than choosing recipes then having to shop for ingredients
• Due to the price of luncheon meat (crazy right?) we’ve moved away from sandwiches for Yankee Bill’s lunches. I am instead freezing leftovers and soups and then pulling those out for homemade “mix and match” lunches. This helps because frankly I haven’t mastered cooking for 2.
• I’ve been cultivating a habit of making soup for lunch on Sundays. I can throw whatever in the crockpot before we leave in the morning for Christian Ed and church, and lunch is ready when we get home. I picked up the idea from Three River Homestead on YouTube. It’s extra handy since I’m doing intermittent fasting so I’m starving at lunchtime and glad to come home to a prepared lunch.

Now on to the plan!

Considerations:

• Tuesday is an errand day and I’ll be out. I’m not going to want to cook anything complex when I get home.
• Thursday I’m hosting a birthday meal for a friend at my house. She requested Seafood Newburg. (I gave up eating restaurant food for Lent, so if I’m having dinner with friends someone is cooking. In this case it’s me!)
• Saturday night we are out at a friends for dinner.
• Sunday we were invited to lunch after church, so we’ll just have our Sunday Soup as a light dinner.

What has to be used up:

• Cooked Beef Tongue (finally got brave and defrosted one from the freezer)
• Rice
• Sausage Gravy
• Carrots
• Leftover dressing from making Broccoli Salad
• Grilling Cheese (an impulse buy at the discount grocer)
• Pesto
• Cheddar Garlic Italian Sausages
• Pork Hearts (given to me from a friend who just did butchering)
• Green Onions (I had onions sprout in storage so I put them in water to sprout, now I have got to use up some of the greens)
• Pickled Red Cabbage
• Coconut Milk (a dented can)
• Eggs
• Hamburger Buns

The Meal Plan:

Monday: Beef Tongue Tacos w/ Refried Beans

I cooked the tongue in my crockpot w water with carrot, onion, celery, bay leaf & garlic over the weekend, peeled it and then stored it in the broth. So I just chopped it up fine and then cooked it in the taco seasoning like I would have ground beef. I did pick up some lettuce and tomato at the store. I shredded some of the block cheddar cheese I keep on hand. The refried beans were from a can but I jazzed them up a bit w/ some bacon & bacon grease. The resulting tacos were ok. Not fantastic, but quite edible.

There was enough meat left over to put it along with the cooking broth from the tongue in the crockpot to make a soup. I tossed in the leftover lettuce and tomato from the tacos, the leftover taco sauce and some of my dehydrated vegetables and cubed potatoes. That made soup to freeze for Bill’s lunches and to keep in the fridge for mine.

Tuesday: Bacon Onion Quiche w Coleslaw & Soup

The quiche and the soup were made on Monday. I had a sale purchased pie crust in the freezer, so I actually used it to make 2 quiches (one went into the freezer). Besides the bacon, cheese and a ton of the green onion tops cut fine with my kitchen shears, I defrosted two cubes of frozen lambsquarter (a delicious foraged green that most folks consider weeds) and used that in my quiche recipe (obviously with a regular crust instead of a rice crust). The leftover greens were thrown in the soup I mentioned above.

Coleslaw was homemade with cabbage, carrot, green onion tops and homemade coleslaw dressing.

I baked the quiche, made the soup and did all the shredding on Monday, so when I got home at 4pm on Tuesday I just had to mix up the dressing and dinner was ready to go.

Wednesday: Pork Thai Curry with Rice & Thai Carrot Slaw

I’ve had a jar of “Thai Green Curry” powder in my spice cabinet for a long time. It has a recipe for making chicken curry on the side of the jar. I’m going to use the pork hearts cut small & sauteed in the recipe instead of chicken. To bulk it out with vegetables I’ll either pull a bag of frozen sugar snap peas, or a bag of stirfry vegetable mix (both made from garden veggies & frozen last summer-except I did buy frozen broccoli to add. I don’t grow that). I’m pretty sure I have some basmati rice on the shelf, but if not I’ve got a whole 5 gallon bucket of short grain rice that will do the trick.

The Thai Carrot Slaw is a new recipe. I wanted an additional side to go with the currty, and I have plenty of fresh carrots. Since I had regular slaw the night before, I was looking for something with a completely different flavor profile.

Thursday: Seafood Newburg in Puff Pastry Shells, Green Salad and Chocolate Cake.

I’m making the seafood newburg and splurged for some shrimp and mock crab legs. I’ll add in some freshwater salmon as well. Another friend is bringing the cake.

Friday: Cheeseburgers, Coleslaw and French Fries

I’m thawing ground meat from our 1/2 steer for the burgers. This will take care of those buns that need to be used up. I’ll use the leftover coleslaw, and make homemade french fries from my bulk purchased dirty potatoes this fall (and of course using the deep fryer, because if you are going to make french fries you might as well go whole hog). I’ll probably make Sriracha Mayo to dip the fries in. Mmmm. Not low calorie, but oh so yummy.

Saturday: Irish Birthday Party

It’s a theme party and they asked folks to bring a dish to pass. It doesn’t have to be Irish but they encourage it. So I’m going to make Colcannon, which is homemade mashed potatoes mixed with greens. I’ve got the bulk potatoes, plus tons of kale & lambsquarter that’s frozen, canned and dehydrated. So I’m not lacking greens!

Sunday: Soup

I’ll put together a pot of “leftover soup” from whatever we have on hand. It never comes out the same, but it’s never bad. It we are extra hungry I can always whip up some sandwiches-we always have tuna fish/ canned chicken on hand, grilled cheese fixings and PB&J

So there you go, my first blog post in FOREVER.

The post Meal Plan Monday 3/6 appeared first on Frugal Upstate.

I admit, there was a bit of a learning curve using it. Not so much and dehydrating – thatâ€s simple. Most things you either slice and dehydrate, or a few things you have to blanch briefly first then place on the dehydrator —Easy!

No, the learning curve was more in how to use the dehydrated product once it was done…but thatâ€s a post for another day.

Today, Iâ€m talking about dehydrating strawberries. I got a screaming deal at Aldis on strawberries this week. $.99 per quart! Thatâ€s almost a three dollar a quart savings over the price of strawberries in mid winter. I picked up 10 quarts, and Iâ€ll probably go back for more before the end of the week.

We ate some fresh, I made a strawberry rhubarb pie, did up some strawberry jam and strawberry rhubarb jam, and then it was time to do something with the rest. Quite frankly, they take up a lot of room in the fridge, and if you donâ€t use them up fast enough they have a tendency to spoil. But with everything going on, I didnâ€t want to spend a lot of time. So itâ€s my trusty Excalibur dehydrator to the rescue!

The process for dehydrating strawberries is simple. Remove the tops, rinse, then slice and put in your dehydrator. I like to do them at a very low temperature (100F-105F) to preserve as many of the nutrients and as much of the color as possible.

While this isnâ€t difficult, slicing up six or so quarts of strawberries takes some time. This is where I have a great tip for you! Did you know you can slice strawberries with one of those little egg slicer gizmos your mom used to have in the drawer?

Now Iâ€ve had an egg slicer for years with the little wires going across, but they always seem to break eventually. About a year ago I picked up an egg slicer that has actual blades instead of wires (itâ€s similar to this egg slicer gizmo on Amazon). Itâ€s a little bit bigger and more bulky in the drawer, but it works a whiz for slicing strawberries. And mushrooms. And kiwis. Plus I use it for eggs – I really like using it when I make egg salad.

Iâ€m a lazy dehydrator-Iâ€ll just leave it running all day and check it in the evening. If they arenâ€t dried enough by then Iâ€ll just keep it going overnight. If you are trying to completely dry something for storing, you canâ€t really over do it-once itâ€s dry if you keep going it just stays dry. You canâ€t “overcook” it.

Todayâ€s slices were just put in the dehydrator, but I figured folks would want to see a finished product:

This is whatâ€s left of strawberry slices I dehydrated almost two years ago. I vacuum sealed them in that quart jar and then stored them in a cupboard in my unfinished basement. (Light, heat and moisture are the enemies of dehydrated food!) Once I open the jar to start using it, I stick on a mayonnaise jar lid (you know those fit regular mouth canning jars, right?) and it goes onto my dehydrated food shelf in the pantry.

Yes. I have a few dehydrated things.

How do I use the strawberries? They taste great as a nibble plain. You can toss them into granola or trail mix dehydrated. You can rehydrate them in water and use them in cooked items or over yogurt. They wonâ€t be as plump as fresh when you rehydrate them, and the texture is a bit chewier, but they are still very tasty.

The post Dehydrating Strawberries appeared first on Frugal Upstate.

I guess that’s why I like watching vintage videos so much.  They can really give you a peek into what things used to be like.  A highly edited and idealized peek to be sure, but still–they shed such light on what life was like.  This video “Our Community” by the Encyclopaedia Brittanica Films (1952) really is a glimpse of life.  It shows life in the city of Milwood by following Richard, a young boy, through his day.  The 12 minute film really highlights the connections between all the people and jobs that come together to make a community work:

Ok, who knew that they ever used helicopters to deliver the mail? That’s amazing!

I really enjoyed not only seeing all the scenes of people going about their daily business, but also the message behind this film.  Today it seems like society tells us that life is all about you–what makes you happy, what you feel, what you need.  But back in the 50’s people talked more about what was important for a community, what it took to be a good citizen, and how we all are interconnected and effect each other.  That kind of philosophical difference subtly influences so many things. . . and I personally think we’ve lost something as a society when we started ignoring the importance and duty of being a good citizen and an active part of a community.

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Wondering what TV Thursday is all about, and how to best watch YouTube Videos on your computer or TV? Check out my post “TV Thursday & Tips“.

The post Our Community (1952) — Vintage Video Thursday appeared first on Frugal Upstate.

When I was a kid (which isn’t all THAT long ago folks) we lived in an area that cable TV wasn’t available.  Sure, plenty of my friends had it by the time I was in Jr High, but we lived on a stretch of road in rural Maine that the cable company for some reason had decided it wasn’t worth running the cable on.  So even if my folks had been the types who would have spent the extra cash on cable (and that wasn’t a guarantee even if it had been available), it wasn’t an option.

That meant we had four TV stations growing up.  That was counting PBS.  There just wasn’t a lot of kids TV on.  So when a cartoon or a claymation special was on during prime time, by golly you were excited and happy to watch it.  And as each of the major holidays rolled around, there were always one or two special TV shows you could count on.  Here Comes Peter Cottontail was one I always loved, especially because poor Peter, once he had been tricked out of becoming the new Chief Bunny by Irontail  (the mean bunny who detests children and wanted to get even with them for accidentally cutting off his tail) had to use a time machine and go through all the holidays of the year.

Of course Easter is first and foremost to me a Christian religious holiday, as a matter of fact the most important religious holiday for  the year, but that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy a bit of silly Easter Bunny fun.

So for today’s Vintage TV Thursday, here is the full 50 minute claymation movie:

If you are looking for something a bit quicker, I also found this 1962 1 1/2 min short about fashionable Easter Bonnets. Ah, back in the days when things were made by hand (like the ladies sewing in the start of the video) and women wore hats to church.

And of course if you want your own copy of Here Comes Peter Cottontail, you can order it on Amazon:

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Wondering what TV Thursday is all about, and how to best watch YouTube Videos on your computer or TV? Check out my post “TV Thursday & Tips“.

The post Here Comes Peter Cottontail — Vintage TV Thursday appeared first on Frugal Upstate.

But on to the menu. Here are the weekâ€s considerations:

1. Well the boy and I are in a community theater production that has rehearsals every night from 6:30-8:30, so dinner pretty much needs to be ready to go right at 5 in order for us to eat and get out the door. Tonight (Monday) and Wednesday in particular will be pretty tight because of being away from home in the afternoon.
2. Sunday I am hosting Easter dinner at my house.
3. I’ve got salad fixings in the fridge and some leftovers to use up. . . They will mostly be used as lunches, so that doesn’t effect dinner very much.
4. I my canning shelves are still relatively stocked. Plenty of jams & jellies, pickles, vegetables and fruit to utilize.
5. Yankee Bill and I are on the Weight Watchers Freestyle plan. It is working well and our weight is coming off in a healthy manner without us feeling hungry (Yay!). However it has changed our diet a bit–despite having a freezer with plenty of beef, pork and venison, I’ve been buying and using a lot of chicken breast and fish since those are “zero points” on the plan. We’ve also been eating even more eggs, soup and beans then before (although we’ve always eaten eggs soup and beans) as those are zero as well. I have found that it’s made it a bit harder to rework some of my leftovers into meals, as the easiest way to do that is to remake something into a casserole or put it in a sauce of some kind.
6. Usually my goal is to have one venison meal, one beef meal, one fish meal, one pork meal, one bean meal, one meatless meal and one soup meal per week. Because of the weight watchers, I’ve pretty much reduced it to one pork/beef/venison meal a week, one or more fish meals, and the rest chicken.

With all that in mind here is what I came up with:

Monday: Fend for yourself

I’m out with the boys at the mall, and hubs is home. I’ve got several homemade “frozen dinners” that are weight watcher compatible in the freezer, along with several different kinds of soup. Yankee Bill will warm something up for himself. The boys and I ate a pretty big fondue lunch, and will probably grab something at the food court before heading home (or hit McD’s on the way–I haven’t eaten there in forever. . . and actually I may just wait till I get home and have a bowl of bean soup.)

Tuesday: Lentil Soup

Part of the way I’ve been managing the Weight Watchers Freestyle program is to make sure I have plenty of zero point soup on hand to use for lunches and snacks. I’ve been making one bean and one chicken soup per week. Tuesday I’ll make a pot of lentil soup that we can eat for dinner and then will be available for the rest of the week. Usually I’d throw a ham hock or some bacon in, but to keep it to zero points I’ll just uses some ham bullion powder instead. We will most likely eat it with some type of bread or bagel.

Wednesday: Baked Salmon with Maple Dijon Sauce, Rice and Roasted Vegetables

I have fish in the freezer from my good friend who trades me the salmon her step-father catches for some of our venison. Perfect trade! Anyway, I usually cook it with a sauce made of yogurt and dijon mustard, but we’ve got a lot of maple syrup that we boiled up from our trees, so I thought that a sauce made of dijon mustard mixed with some maple syrup would be very tasty. The rice is from my bulk purchase, and the roasted vegetables will be a combination of butternut squash, carrot, onion and celery.

Thursday: Chicken Picatta with Roasted Potatoes and Broccoli

I’ve been making a lot of different chicken “cutlet” type meals, mostly by pounding boneless skinless chicken breasts out flat and then either sprinkling on seasonings or marinating and then grilling them on my panini press (a Foreman grill would work the same). These can be eaten fresh as a meat entree, or put in the fridge for a nice sandwich later in the week. It occurred to me that these are very similar to a picatta chicken, so I think I’ll just go all out and make that–cutting down on any breading or oil/frying to make it more WW friendly.

Friday: Pizza Bagels and Salad

I love making pizza on Friday, but I don’t have much willpower when it comes to only eating a bit of it. So I figure if I make bagel pizzas instead (using the “Thomas Bagel Thins” which are only about half as thick as a regular bagel) then I’ll be automatically portion controlled. Add a salad for a side and dinner is done in a flash.

Saturday: Broiled Chicken & Vegetable Skewers with Noodles

I’ve got several low point (or zero point) store bought marinades in the cupboard. I’ll pick one and chunk up some boneless chicken breast into it on Thursday or Friday. On Saturday I’ll thread them onto skewers and broil them in the oven along with some skewers of grape tomatoes, onions and squash chunks. Usually I do a whole bunch of chicken and use it over the course of several days, not just for the one meal.

Sunday:Spiral Cut Honey Ham, Crescent Rolls, Twice Baked Potatoes, Asparagus, and Dessert

Easter dinner is at my house, and boy will it be easy on me. Besides setting the table and making sure the house isn’t a mess, all I’ve got to do is put a spiral ham in the slow cooker to warm up, and cook some crescent rolls that come in a tube (which my kids love). My sister in law is bringing the potatoes, my mother in law the vegetable, and my sister the dessert. I love shared family meals!

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Are you interested in learning more about menu planning? Check out my post “Why Plan a Weekly Menu” .

The post Meal Plan 3/26/18 appeared first on Frugal Upstate.

I think it is interesting that the film assumes that Jack pays for his school supplies and lunches out of his own allowance. I also love that it emphasizes the fact that sometimes you do have to have choices and can’t do everything fun you want to.

My favorite quote from this one:
“He knows buying cheap, unsatisfactory products is never thrifty”

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Wondering what TV Thursday is all about, and how to best watch YouTube Videos on your computer or TV? Check out my post “TV Thursday & Tips“.

The post Keeping a Budget: “Your Thrift Habits” — Vintage TV Thursday appeared first on Frugal Upstate.

This is a quick (1 1/2 minute), soundless film showing some of the blasting that created President Washington’s face on the Mount Rushmore memorial:

Kind of cool, eh?  It’s amazing what they did with the technology of the time.  It took from 1927 to 1941 to complete the sculpture.  Wow.

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Wondering what TV Thursday is all about, and how to best watch YouTube Videos on your computer or TV? Check out my post “TV Thursday & Tips“.

The post Presidents Day Vintage Fun — TV Thursday appeared first on Frugal Upstate.

One of the big changes in the 1950’s were the way the younger generations (“Moderns” as they are called in this film) view relationships and marriage.

The film “Marriage: Today”– Talks about some of the post war societal difficulties-lack of housing, slums, and inflation. I know when my own grandfather came back from the war as a young married man (with my Mom as a baby) they had to move in with his parents, not due to a shortage of fund, but due to a shortage of housing in NYC.  This generation also was a bit more cautious in some ways–having been born in the depression and lived through war. The film addresses these things and more, discussing how ladies now  had the opportunity to do meaningful work and support themselves, so getting married was more of a choice for this generation rather than a necessity.   “A voluntary state”.

The film then concentrates on the changes in the way couples are building their marriages compared to previous generations.  There are some really good general tips on how to be realistic about love and successfully strengthen a relationship.  Finally it ends with several situation where the couples have to deal with some minor conflicts maturely.

Again, I think despite it’s age, this film has some good, solid advice on how to think about love and how to stregnthen relationships.  I particularly like when the one guy says “People have to be able to go on liking each other for a marriage to be successful.”

Additionally, as always, I love all the “everyday people” shots through out this film–gives a glimpse of life in the early 1950’s.  It shows little moments of everyday life that really give a flavor of the times, if like me you are too young to have lived through them yourself.

What advice in this film do you find particularly relevant?  Do you think any of the advice has not stood the test of time?

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Wondering what TV Thursday is all about, and how to best watch YouTube Videos on your computer or TV? Check out my post “TV Thursday & Tips“.

The post How to have a good “modern” marriage — Vintage TV Thursday appeared first on Frugal Upstate.

Concerned about all the sugar and candy that kids get this time of year, or have some diabetics on your list of folks to cheer up with a bit of “extra” love (see what I did there?).  Then these “Extra Awesome” Valentines from The Crafting Chicks are just the ticket.

Minecraft might not the be newest thing, but boys and girls alike still love it.  That makes these Minecraft Valentines from A Grande Life a wonderful “gender neutral” choice.

Don’t miss out on the Valentines fun just because you are an adult.  STAPLE created these funny Valentines to share with your Coworkers.  I particularly like the one that says “You totally get me, and my IM’s during boring meetings.” –Ha!

Glow sticks are always a hit with the younger crowd, so why not combine them with these adorable Star Wars Valentines from Tips from a Typical Mom?  

For older kids and those not so inclined to enjoy “cute” we have another wonderful Star Wars Valentine from Pastiche Events.  Attach a small piece of candy or even use the blank space for a note–your choice!

Pencils are an all purpose small gifty type item-not only useful, but relieves you from any of the allergy worries that food can have.  Dress up some plain or even special printed heart themed pencils with these Valentines Pencil Flags from Yellow Bliss Road.

Who could resist these sweet little foxes on these Valentines form Jessica Sawyer Design?  Any little girl would love to pass these out to her friends.

The post 7 FREE Printable Valentines appeared first on Frugal Upstate.

In this 12 minute Coronet Film aimed at highschool students,  Jack tells Nora he loves her–after all, they’ve been dating for two months!  But Nora is a smart girl, she doesn’t rush into anything and lets him know that  she isn’t so sure.   Instead she goes home and asks her mother for advice.  How DO you know you are in love?  Her mom helps her understand that there are many different types of love, for family, for friends, crushes, puppy love, physical love (handled in a very gentle, 1950’s way) and then the true goal–mature love.

At the same time Jack goes home and talks to his older brother (who he shares a room with!).  His brother tells him “Love isn’t like the slush they give you in the movies.” The older brother even offers to double date with Jack and Nora so they can see how a real couple in love are together.

While of course there are some corny bits, I think this short film really brings out important thoughts about love that are as true today as they were in 1950.

How many people you know would have been better off if they had followed the advice in this film?  If they had considered the four basic questions that Nora’s mother gave her:

Are we really interested in the same things?
Do we feel at ease together?
Are we proud of each other?
Are we agreed on basic things such as religion, children and money?

I wish more young people today would think about these things before they decided they were in love.

. . . and as an aside, oh boy, the flowered wallpaper in Nora’s room is quite something!

So what do all of you think about Vintage TV Thursdays here at Frugal Upstate?  I’d love to hear your comments, what you are enjoying, and what you’d like to see more of.

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Wondering what TV Thursday is all about, and how to best watch YouTube Videos on your computer or TV? Check out my post “TV Thursday & Tips“.

The post How do you know it’s love? — Vintage TV Thursday appeared first on Frugal Upstate.