This Week on the Dining Table

It's the "I'm Too Old to Do This Shit Alone Anymore" Edition.......

Well the Pepper Relish is done. 
 I made a double batch this year so there are 18 pints and 5 quarts in the garage(plus about a 12 oz. jar of extra in the fridge).
I used 6 of my purple canning jars, which make the relish look really dark and don't do anything to enhance the jar colors. lolz

And I am wiped out.  Relish making and canning kicked my ass this year and I spent most of Sunday recovering.  I am just too old to do all this by myself anymore.  Relish won't happen again unless I have at least 1 other person making it along with me in the future.  Daughter was too busy with work and school to help.(Hubs did wash my jars for me this year so that helped but it wasn't enough to keep me from overdoing.)

Moving on......

Onward to the meal planning!

Here's what was planned last week--

1. Sunday--Leftovers

2. Monday--Steak, Veggie Ka-bobs, Baked Potatoes

3. Tuesday--Manicotti, Salad, Garlic Bread

4. Wednesday--Chicken Fajitas

5. Thursday--Leftover Meatloaf, Brussel Sprouts, Noodles

6. Friday--Apricot Glazed Pork Chops, Mixed Veggies, Corn Casserole, Applesauce

7. Saturday--Crab Cakes, Fries, Cole Slaw, Broccoli

And this is what actually happened--

1. Sunday--Leftovers

2. Monday--Steak, Veggie Ka-bobs, Baked Potatoes

3. Tuesday--Manicotti, Salad, Garlic Bread

4. Wednesday--Chicken Fajitas

5. Thursday--Apricot Glazed Pork Chops, Sugar Snap Peas, Corn Casserole 

6. Friday--Teriyaki Grilled Chicken Thighs, Au Gratin Potatoes, CA Mix Veggies

7. Saturday--Leftovers

7 meals cooked at home, 2 of them nights of leftovers and 0 night of Take-Out.

As for the grocery spending.....12 trips to various grocery stores, bread outlet, Panera, produce market, Dollar Tree and farm stands bringing my weekly spending to $255.90 and my September food spending total to $360.80 with 18 days to go in the month.
Yikes!

I did a lot of stocking up on staples plus canning supplies and a splurge trip to Panera on Tuesday for discounted bagels.
With only 39.20 left in my $400 food budget for September I doubt I'll be able to stay under that amount.  I'll increase the budget as I need to but will keep an eye on the spending for the rest of the month.

Leftovers going into this week........manicotti, fajita fixings, 1 chicken thigh, zuke casserole, and 1 entire container of au gratin potatoes(I made double for "planned overs").

Here is this week's "food plan".

1. Sunday--Spaghetti w/Meatballs & Sausage, Salad or Zucchini Casserole Leftovers
2. Monday--Fajitas(using up Leftovers)
3. Tuesday--Mushroom and Onion Pork Roast with Carrots, Au Gratin Potatoes(leftover)
4. Wednesday--Crab Cakes, Fries, Cole Slaw, Broccoli
5. Thursday--Tacos
6. Friday--Homemade Pizza or Leftovers
7. Saturday--Leftovers

This week will see 7 new meals cooked and 0 nights of Take-Out and 2 nights of Leftovers.

The leftover manicotti, chicken thigh and zuke casserole will be eaten for lunches, the taters and fajita filling for dinners.

What we need to buy for this menu......Pepperoni if we have pizza this week.  We might need to eat more leftovers instead on Friday.

What is getting fixed and served at your house this week?

Was last week's plan successful, did you go off plan or did you not even plan what was going to be eaten last week?

Any great deals on food at your stores this week?


Sluggy

Living My Life with Relish

This past weekend we went down to Burger's farm stand.
It's a nice drive on country roads and the weather was wonderful.
We put the top down on Sonic the Hedgehog and rode off.

Other than being full of out-of-state tourists(our bad for going on a weekend!)it was a nice visit.

Beans, mums and fall squash.

 Lots of onions.

Sweet Italian peppers by the load!

Hubs even let me stop on the way home at the cemetery to snap some more photos to put on Find A Grave(aka F.A.G.).


Here's what I brought home from the farm stand.....

A couple of zukes, a red cabbage and acorn squash for $3 total.

25 lbs. of sweet onions for $10.....

And a bushel of peppers for $15. 
I got 37 peppers in this bushel so they cost me less than .50¢ each and they were HUGE!

Some of those peppers are destined for Stuffed Peppers and some are getting cut into strips and frozen for Fajitas this Winter.

As for the rest, add a few more ingredients and 2 days of cutting, chopping, stirring and processing and I now have this.....

14+ quarts of my Family Secret Recipe Pepper Relish.

My sister in-law is Jones-ing for some but she needs to return all my jars first!
Every year I give her some and she NEVER returns the jars.

This may be my last year making the relish however.
Even with getting the veggies cheap-ish it's expensive to make!
Having to pay for new jars each year is just one part of the expense but it's just not that.
It just takes so much out of me now physically to make this.
Two entire days of work alone.
If I had someone to help make it I would continue.

But it does look pretty and I have a feeling of accomplishment for now. 8-)

Now I need to find a place to put all this!

And then turn my attention to these.....

The tomatoes we picked this past weekend.

And these too that I found later because they were hiding under my Morning Glory vines. lol

I probably won't can the tomatoes as there isn't enough to make it worth the while.  I'll just cook em down into sauce and put it all in the fridge.
I had hoped Burgers had bushels of seconds for cheap that I could process and can but no such luck.

Tonight's dinner will be stuffed peppers with some of the peppers I didn't use in the relish.  I'll make a double batch for planned leftovers.  I'll also make a few more for the freezer.

Plus I need to cut the other leftover peppers into strips for the freezer.....if I can find room in there for them.

And I got a big order on Etsy this morning so I need to take a box up to the PO to get it weighed since my scale only handles up to 10 lbs.  The box weighs about 40 lbs. so I hope I can carry it!

Then it's off to grocery shop for the week.
Busy, busy day here.

Catch y'all later,

Sluggy