1. Cook from scratch. Once you learn to do this nothing will be out of your reach.
2. Utilize scrapes. Use carcasses (bones) to make stock or broth. Any bones will do. You may raise eyebrows when you ask for the Thanksgiving turkey carcass.
3. Stop eating out so much. Take one day a week plan meals and do prep ingredients for them. Dump and go meals are awesome.
4. Eat breakfast at home. Seriously! Making bowls or burritos are easy.
5. Save leftovers. Pasta bakes are excellent for this. Kimmie does a Chicken Parmigiana. She uses Popeye’s chicken. It’s spicy and awesome.
6. Pack your lunch. Pinterest is free. Use it y’all.
7. Batch cooking. Have stuff ready to pull out of your freezer and there’s dinner.
8. Freeze sandwiches. Kimmie gives tips for freezung sandwiches with mayo.
Here’s a sample tips. What do you do? Let’s share.
Confession: It’s late in the afternoon around four and I am having issues with my sinuses. Yeah! We keep going from Spring to Winter and back again.
These desserts are a great way to bring Summer in. Bright crisp flavors of lemons. Strawberrys galore. I can’t wait. I know this is shorter than my usual.
With summer around the corner, no one wants to be in a hot kitchen. So below will be 17 meals you can throw in the crockpot and return later for dinner. Leslie did a really cool layout. The meals are categorized by the protein. I know genuis right.
BEEF: Korean Short Ribs. This sounds delicious. Usually I find Korean Cuisine a little to spicy. However, this is the opposite. You could add half of the chili flakes and about an half hour before serving add more if desired.
CHICKEN:.Slow Cooker BBQ Peach Chicken Thighs with a Cayenne Kick. Sounds incredible! You could add liquid smoke for a nice smoky flavor.
PORK: Hawaiian Pork Dump Dinner. Only four ingredients. Yeah! Pork shoulder, pineapple, soy sauce, and brown sugar. That’s it. Simple.
These are the ones that appealed to me. How about you?
Even though we currently having winter type of weather here in Michigan, we still need to orep for Summer. Which is the season I am looking forward to now. Seriously! It could start at any minute. Below are some fruit salads that caught my eye. Enjoy!
STRAWBERRIES, BLUEBERRIES, & RASPBERRIES: Berry Fruit Salad looks delicious. This would be a wonderful healthy dessert. Save the decadent desserts for special occasions.
TROPICAL FRUIT SALAD: Pina Coloda Fruit Salad isn’t exactly what you would think. It has pineapple, two different types of grapes and strawberries. Despite the name there’s no alcohol.
FLUFF RECIPES: Banana Split Fluff Salad. This is basically a banana split without the ice cream. Sounds delicious, but a little heavy.
CHEESECAKE DESSERT SALADS: Strawberry Banana Cheesecake Salad. This salad would be heavy but delicious.
This video will be looking at the 1950s portion sizes and overall lifestyle. Here’s what I found, they were busy. Not by today’s standard of busy. Dad goes to work, kiddies go to school, and mom cleans and preps the house for the family’s return. Mom didn’t just set around waiting for the motivation to clean. NO! She had a set list and a set amount of time.
Meal Planning.. This was done each week or month just whichever worked best for the family.
Inventory. Mom always knew what was in the cabinets and what was on sale which could be added to a meal.
Cook at home. Mom always cooked at home. Rarely was dinner out. That was a treat. Even when they did, it was the proper portion, not like today.
Clean. Mom cleaned every day. Sweeping/mopping, vacuuming, and dusting. Until the kiddies were old enough to have chores then her load got a bit lighter. Especially during the summer.
Outside activities. During the summer mom was busy with the kiddies once chores were done. Or she would take them outside while she hung laundry on the line. Get your laundry done and watch the littles. Kill two birds with one stone.
Garden. In the 1950s, families still kept gardens. It was the same as the Great Depression where a great garden yield was life or death. Just to help cut the cost of food.
We’ve talked about school lunches before. They were balanced minus the raw chicken nuggets. I have a 1954 Better Homes and Garden cookbook with a section with suggested lunches. (Also, suggested breakfast and dinner.) Family life in this period included Dad. Below are some links because this video has gone on long enough.
FULL DAY OF MEALS FROM THE 1950’S | VINTAGE RECIPES | COOKING FROM SCRATCH. (2019, July 28). YouTube. Retrieved April 16, 2023, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yazKb0W4D58
Watermelons are one of the top selling Summer fruits. Next to Strawberries. When I was looking for today’s post yesterday this caught my eye. It combines two things I love: watermelons and canning. Yes! This jelly would be like have quailty watermelon year round.
This site shows how to extract the juice out of a watermelon. Hint: you don’t need a steam juicer. That’s what I thought at first. From there you mix pectin and sugar. Follow regular procedures for making jelly.
I said above that you would have watermelon year round. What to hell am I talking about? We have access to watermelon year round. How is the quality of the watermelon compared to ones you get from a local farmer? What about the cost? Yes! The local Kroger has watermelon year round. The quality isn’t the best. Whereas you go to a farmer’s market or roll up to someone with a truck load of watermelon is going to be far better. Just stick in in a cooler full of ice before cutting. Or cut it the day before you want to serve it. Plus, you jeep a local Farmer in business.
Summer is finally around the corner. Of course, this means kiddies will be home soon. Two things occur in this time: kiddies get bored and you can be two seconds from counting the strains of hair on your head. Or you can start planning fun adventures. Take this as an opportunity to teach your children about home making. Tablescapes are a great place to start teaching them about home making.
This Summer Watermelon Tablescape is beautiful. You could simplify this by using the three key colors in a watermelon. Green for the skin, white for the rine, and red for the inside. You can use black accent pieces for the seeds. If you go this path, serve watermelon galore. Drink, salad, kabobs, and dessert.
Even if you invest in the type of pieces in the pictures on the site, still serve up watermelon. Why not! I will ask you to do one thing? Consider buying from farmers. I mean pull up to a truck with a load of watermelons instead of a store. You will support local farmers. If possible, grow watermelons with your kiddies. I wish I had done this.
These meals are budget friendly in that they cost $1 per person. Hello! Yes please. When you can feed your family that cheap, you need to keep these meals close at hand. Below will be the ones that stood out to me.
PASTA WITH PEAS: Confession; I can’t stand peas. As a kid I loved them. Now they are a no go. Recipes like this are a road map with never ending destinations. Change the peas with what you have on hand.
INSTA POT CURRIED BEANS (RAJMA MARSALA): I have to admit this sounds delicious. If you’re like myself, you can alter the spice by sticking with the chili powder and dropping the dried chilies. Perhaps reducing the amount of Ginger.
HERBY GARLIC BUTTER PASTA SAUCE: Who doesn’t love pasta? You can still get about a pound at Walmart for $.98. I always have plenty of Italian seasoning on hand. And olive oil.
SPANISH COCONUT RICE: My daughter loves the Knorr Spanish Rice. This would be a nice break from the mass produced stuff. I doubt we would get the Vienna Sausage. If you keep Spanish style of Chorizo or Lingucia on hand they would be awesome here. You wouldn’t beed much. Maybe a quarter of a piece. Talk adding flavor.
Those are the ones that caught my eye. Which ones did you like the sounds of?
Minday afternoon Antonia (my daughter) and I a conversation about the difference between serving sizes now compared to the serving sizes of the 1950s. This a huge difference.
Example: In the 1950s a whopper meal of today would’ve been considered large. Cut the meal in half or go with with a whopper junior meal and that would’ve been a lunch in the 1950s.
This is from my Better Homes and Gardens 1954 cookbook. This page has a vareity of lunch box possibilities.
The family sat down together and had a meal. Each person took turns telling dad about their day. Being mindful not to dominate the conversation. I have to wonder if these things contributed to a healthier lifestyle. What do you think?
Summer is on the horizon. Or at least yesterday looked that way. As you are reading this, we are getting ready for more cold Artic temperatures. Below will be ones that stood out to me.
NO-BAKE PIES: I have fond memories of an cherry cheesecake my late Grams made every Summer while we visited her. I wish I had her recipe for it.
NO-BAKE CAKES: Peach Icebox Cake sounds delicious and complicated. Couldn’t be easier. One grahm crackers, whipped topping, peach pie filling anf nutmeg. Layer them in a dish and refrigerate.
POPSICLES: Who doesn’t love a popsicle? I found one for Watermelon Popsicle that looks like watermelons. It has watermelon, of course, coconut milk and kiwi (green). You put each layer in popsicle containers and freeze in layers.
SORBET: I perfer a simple mango sorbet. It’s simple and delicious.
ICE CREAM: Once again, I perfer a simple French Vanilla. It can be paired with anything. Cobbler, milkshake, or with a sauce.
There you have it. The frozen desserts we go for. I forgot ice cream cakes.
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