September 2022 Frugal Chatter; Almost Fall and Harvest time !!!

[SassyAshley]

Did not get as much done as I had planned.

I am not sure what is up, my tummy started acting up earlier this week and I figured it was just my tummy adjusting. We ate out more on this trip than we normally do and even when we ate in, they were quick meals, mostly prepared just need to cook/heat and serve. My tummy cannot handle a lot of eating like that. But by the end of the week I was feeling better.

That was until this afternoon and all of a sudden my tummy was not happy again so I curled up on the couch with a bowl of rice, a cup of peppermint tea, under my blanket watching true crime shows.

We had planned homemade pizza for dinner, I have been craving it since I got back. The night I got home we ended up ordering pizza, I had taken stuff out for dinner but could not figure out why I was feeling so off. I did the conversion wrong, I thought I had been up 24 hours, nope it was over 30 hours. So we ordered pizza but it just is not the same as homemade pizza, homemade is now my preferred pizza.

Well the dough was in the bread machine, I chopped the veggies for the pizza and Mom grated all three cheese for the week, parmesan, mozzarella and cheddar. So that got done but nothing else. Oh well, tomorrow will be my kitchen day.

I want to get some baking done, will take some to work to share and then I think I will focus on veggie prep/ingredient prep so dinner can come together quickly. I will chop all the veggies we need except for the Yellow Onions and Mushrooms, not a fan of pre prepped Yellow Onion (make the whole fridge smell like onion) or Mushrooms (they dry out) so those two items I will cut the night of. Might even pre make my Sauces so I just need to add them to my dishes.

[SassyAshley]

Good Morning Everyone,
I was so proud of myself, I remember to turn off my alarms today. Since I use my cell phone as an alarm, I am notorious on long weekends for forgetting to turn my alarms off. I remember but then woke up wide awake at 4:30 this morning.

Oh well, up and ready to get this day started. I am having my cup of tea well I scroll through Pinterest and decide what I want to make today.

I have lemons and ricotta I need to use up.

As well, I need to prepare for the week. Technically I am overbooked this only because I have one trainee that did not fit into my schedule this week but all and all I think it will be a good week. But I want to have food prepped and ready just in case things go upside down on me.

Lots to get done, looks like it will be a kitchen day.

Happy Holiday Monday Everyone

[coupon girl]

Happy holiday monday.I woke up at 4.15 and i have a splitting headache .
Laundry to do today and may start a new puzzle .

[Giseledta]

morning all. feels like fall out there. i have a bit of stuff housework wise to get done today... prep for tomorrow . plan out the week a bit...
movie with hubby this afternoon.
chicken pot pie for supper. cooking extra chicken for wraps for oldest for her work lunches

i need to start working on the weekends grocery list.

i have 1 crochet project - gift for dc parent to finish. and another to compleate. i suspect the 1 might take a bit longer but hopefully i can finish it this week. then on to mini pumpkins for the dc

my mom keeps mentioning that she thinks it will be a early winter... tad concerning...

any hoo. have fun all

[SassyAshley]

@Giseledta I heard according to the farmer's almanac they are predicting the first major snowfall will come the first week of November in Ontario

I am not ready, I am ready for fall but not winter.

[lilo0003]

Morning all, DH and I are driving down to see my father in law today so that’s likely all I will get done today, but my list for the week is heavy and the return to work is going to be intense. This is the 1st time in my 25 years I did not check in at all so I have a lot waiting for me. I used to spend a day of vacation reading email and we generate a lot of email so it was hard to stay away and I am sure I will start early Tuesday just to get the tough stuff out of the way.
Older son will make carnitas for dinner and since he will have the instapot out I will do some beans tonight. The house is nice and cool but the warm weather returns Thursday for us.

[walkonby]

Happy holiday monday.I woke up at 4.15 and i have a splitting headache .
Laundry to do today and may start a new puzzle .

Good morning back at ya @coupon girl ! If I ever woke up with a headache there is no way I could focus on a jigsaw puzzle.....you are a super human ...ha ha Hope the darn thing went away.
It's a baking morning here trying to use up some of the kiwis and peaches. Pulled 2 loaves of kiwi banana bread from the oven and stuck in 6 full sheets of phyllo pastry, each of them buttered, sugared, sprinkled with spices and " pecaned " stacked all together then cut into 6 squares and each square topped with 1/2 peach, sliced into 1/8" pieces and fanned out.
Still have lots of phyllo left....ugh, maybe I'll invent something using up the wrinkliest apples in the fruit bin.

[Frugalbigmama]

Morning! It is a hoody day for sure!!

Tried out the new coffee maker. Love it! Made eggs and rye toast for breakfast. Now will tidy the kitchen and then toss a load in the washer to hang to dry. (Just want to keep up on the laundry and my fav zip up hoody is dirty.)

Dinner tonight- Leftover pasta from last night.
Tuesday- Shrimp/veggies/rice
Wednesday- Steak dinner (oldest is coming for dinner)
That's all I have planned so far.

Have a $5 porch pick up today. They already sent the e-transfer

Have a great day!

[SassyAshley]

Did not do as much as I had planned today, I had some issues getting focused because I just wanted to do it all. At one point I had 3 different muffins, 3 different cookies, a loaf and a cake I wanted to make. Yes, overkill but I think it is because it has been so long since I baked.

Instead I only made one batch of Muffins - Lemon Ricotta Muffins. No cookies, no loaf, no cake.

I made a batch of Whipped Greek Yogurt, I added some Lemon Dessert Seasoning we have, my plan is to top with Blueberries.

Prepped the veggies for the week, Carrots, Celery, Cucumber, Napa and Green Onions. I used the slicing blade on my Counter Top Grater for the Carrots and Celery, made it so easy and fast. I tried the Napa on the slicer but it did not work.

I did not make the sauce for the Eggroll in a bowl or the rice, will do that the night I make it.

Found an older pepper that needed to be used so decided on Chicken Enchiladas for dinner. Will be making a Ranch Salad on the side.

There were some hand dishes that needed to be done, did those plus washed as I went so the kitchen is clean.

Emptied the dishwasher but did all the dishes by hand so it is empty and ready for the week to come.

Feeling really good about this week. Feeling on top of things and ready to go.

[cath007]

Wishing you all a very good week

[lilo0003]

We brought another car load from my father in laws. They moved the entire kitchen into their retirement apartment and have not even made a cup of tea. So we have taken it all and the kids have picked what they want and we will post the rest on the freebie site. I came home With a massive amount of makeup samples so I picked what I wanted and have already posted the rest. This was not on my to do list for the week but since my dining room table is covered with all of it I will have no choice.

[barbis9]

Productive morning.

Meal plan is done, not 100% sure we will stick with it, I did struggle a bit with it. A lot of good meals but just worried if things get busy some meals won't happen but such is life. Here is my plan:
*Homemade Pizza with Side Salad
*Baked Lemon Chicken with Rice & Veggies
*Slow Cooker Pepper Steak with Rice
*Eggroll in a bowl with Rice
*Chicken Parm with Pasta and Salad
*Instant Pot Alfredo with Chicken and Veg
*Taco Pie with Salad
*Pork Chops with Baked Mushroom Rice & Veggies
*Homemade Burgers with Air Fryer Fries & Salad
*Balsamic Chicken with Mashed Potatoes & Veggies

A lot of salads but I have romaine to use up, plus some lemons and cooked pasta.

No idea what tonight's dinner will be.

Went down the basement and moved furniture around. Most of the shelves are now accessible in the basement so if Mom wants to move stuff from the main floor down to the basement we can. All of the shelves still need to be organized but that is a project for another day.

Another reason to move the furniture was, it was blocking the closet which was where we found some mold after the flood. I did not empty the closet but moved some stuff around and I do not see anymore mold, good sign.

Question:
For anyone using a dehumidifier, how often do you have to empty it?

In the summer and I think it is because of the humidity. On the hot humid days we have to empty it about every 24 hours. Mom is saying it is because we have another leak but I cannot find any water in the basement.

On hot humid days it gets emptied every 24 hours, not so humid days - every few days.

[Ciel21]

The trouble with emptying dehumidifiers that are not in basements where one can roll the unit over to the floor opening and tip the resevoir over is yes, they are heavy when full. The taller white Danby that Bro used to run often in the basement-he was notorious for leaving it on for hours after he was done in 1-2h downstairs. When that unit was in use near kitchen, it was a major thing to empty that tank. Had to bail some of the water out to make it possible for me to heave tank over bathroom tub or kitchen sink. The smaller black Danby unit (the recalled one) was easier to empty but felt flimsier. Mom would run the black dehumidifier (parked behind the chair we use by the phone) while cooking a steaming pot of something but she could not empty that tank when the chime rang on. Guess who usually came to deal with the situation? I love that our kitchen window has an upper section to open as a vent but for two years I've been commenting to Mom it's time to get it changed for side opening window as with age, both of us are having issues pushing the top part closed.

I do not miss the heated plastic smell from the black unit nor the funny plastic odour of the taller white unit!

Sat-what a humid day! I decided it was time to try using the hair trimmer for a DIY cut to make the lower back of my head not so dripping wet. Well, the cut does not look the best but I managed to get 3/4 of the hair off. Will need to visit a salon to get an even all over trim as there were three areas I could not do on my own. Irony-I recycled the salon haircut coupons like 4 days before the haircut. Oh well--ladies, consider getting a 1" trim to get heat relief! Every bit helps when sleeping at night is fragmented with pain issues or darn humidity. We'll have some more humidity this week.

BTW, I did see that the CNE Foundation raffle's grand cash prize for the 50/50 draw was $183K (thanks Twitter). That means the raffle must have sold $356K in tickets! The jackpot was $18K when I bought my $10 batch of tickets. No, I did not win any cash or prizes!

[Ciel21]

Mom and Bro left for their two week trip abroad today. I was rather furious with their last minute shopping forays on Friday and Sunday (they had 3 months to get ready but crickets for weeks until a few days ago). Bro said Friday's return from Niagara took 3h to get home. I rather enjoyed a long respite from them but was kind of freaking out when they did not get back by 5pm. Sunday, Bro ventured to local Costco-no carts. Any shopper returning a cart in the parking lot was met by another shopper wanting a cart. He did not shop at the store. Mom managed to get some baking supplies and plus some prepared meats and breads (at Fortinos/Food Basics) to have in the fridge for their return later in month. I have packed the loaves into the freezer (I had to removed my 3 bags of frozen fruit to make a compote/puree) along with some muffins and meats (leftovers still good but not if left in fridge for two weeks).

Bro managed to get a haircut on Sat after a family event was over. He did ask me what did I do to my hair...?

I started to get into organizing mode once family left for the airport. I heated up a Hungry Man turkey meal to celebrate being queen of my domain for two weeks... A lot of recycling and garbage bags will be ready for Wed collection. I expect to get a lot of upset when family returns, but some things were overdue to be pulled and packed. Now I have to figure out where rest of items will be stored. Goal is to restore ironing board to its usual spot soon, once I MacGyver a breakdown of frame of item that must leave. I still have a few small things to bag for the garbage bags (added item to my shopping list as I've almost used them all up).

[Ciel21]

I have enjoyed reading of SCers daytrips and vacations! This summer, I have relied on Johnny Strides' walks/ebike vidoe trips in Toronto to help pass the time this summer and feel like I am on-site (without the footache).