Bagel Day

Today my daughter and I pooled our resources to buy an $8/bakers dozen of bagels.

Came home and husband cut them all in half for freezing. Each family member gets half a bagel per serving. A bagel packs a lot of carbohydrates and calories so half is perfect for a sandwich, a pizza bagel or peanut butter toast.

Today we hadn't had breakfast and we were out running errands so we made egg sandwiches around 11 a.m.

Mine:
- 1 from-the-farm egg
- Morningstar breakfast strips (veggie bacon)
- velveeta (a gift)
- spinach dip
-buffalo blue cheese dip
On half a toasted jalapeño bagel

Bagels and peaches

The interface still has some issues, so let's hope this works.

My budget goals for September are still on track! Since I found six dollars in my wallet this week, we counted some change and went for bagels. Yesterday we had ooey gooey egg sandwiches. Today we each had half a salt bagel, toasted, with cream cheese and the Market Pantry six Italian blend cheese from Target that I adore. And spiced peaches I canned August 1.

Now, this is my first 'opening' of stuff I canned without assistance, but if my family contracts botulism in the next few days, we know why.

On a serious note, the peaches smelled fabulous and my daughter ate almost the whole pint.

Sandwiches and salad

Got an applewood smoked ham quarter for $3 at Target. It's certainly not a quality ham or a big ham, but it's sliced for sandwiches and has 1.66 pounds. I heated it with water in the crock pot.

We made sandwiches on bagels from NY Bagel & Deli in the 25th Street shopping plaza, leftover mozzarella from Calandra's in Nazareth, and that kale-zucchini-cream cheese dip from Lost Gourmet at the Pheonixville Farmers Market yesterday.

We served with an Asian style salad that began life as a Fresh Express Very Veggie with some greens and sorrel from my garden, dried peas, dried pineapple, cucumber and Newman's Own Ginger Sesame dressing.

Meat Bagel with sesame sautéed asparagus

For lunch today I fried some beef hot dogs in the skillet, with lots of asparagus spears from the freezer.

I cut the dogs in half length-wise so they would lay flat on a open-faced bagel sandwich, each sandwich requiring 3/4 of a hot dog sliced in this manner.

The meat itself was a gift from a friend.

I toasted a half bagel for each of us, put ketchup on it for the child and husband (horseradish mustard for me) and put the slices of meat on top. Then I sprinkled on some shredded "Mexican blend" cheese and warmed it slightly in the microwave.

I removed the meat from the skillet (it had been cooking with the asparagus) and added about a teaspoon sesame oil to it. I also sprinkled four color pepper and garlic salt on the asparagus and cooked it until thoroughly hot and brown on one side.

Despite the perceived kid-friendliness of these open-faced sandwiches, my daughter thought they looked awful and smelled worse. She picked at them for a half hour and then announced she didn't like the beef knotwurst or whatever it was.

I have the only kid in America who loves meat, loves sausages, loves bacon, but hates anything remotely hot dog-ish.

Houseguests and harvests

I had a houseguest for the holiday weekend, and this wasn't the kind of houseguest you sit around and cook for. This was the kind of houseguest with whom you go out gallivanting.

Because it was my best friend Shannon who now lives in Virginia, where quality Italian is scarce and Northern treats like bagels not made with any sort of authenticity, the first item on the agenda was one dozen bagels from New York Bagel and Deli.

Ah, bagels. Feast of carbohydrates. Flexible superfood.

When I had gestational diabetes, I couldn't even look at a bagel without my blood sugar spiking.

But half a bagel with melted cheddar cheese is a fabulous snack reminiscent of a soft pretzel. Tuna melts on a bagel could stop my heart. My crock pot spinach dip or hummus on half a toasted bagel... Egg sandwich on a jalapeno bagel... Cinnamon raisin bagel with some sort of nut butter for breakfast.

My husband made me an egg sandwich on a jalapeno bagel with tomato and basil feta. That was amazing.

But now the holiday picnics are over. The houseguest gone.

The entire family contributed to a dinner fit for this 95+ degree Pennsylvania day...
My husband made Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. We heated some leftover sausages from his mother's 4th of July Picnic. And my daughter and I went into the garden and harvested the first vegetables from the garden: green beans! We washed them and cooked them, leaving them still al dente and I thought they were fantastic.

My daughter, who never likes fresh green beans, didn't like these "very much" either, so I let her dip them in Wegmans Ginger Sesame vinaigrette dressing.

They disappeared.

Tuna bagels

We only had toast for breakfast this morning, and then my daughter and I went off on an eight-ish mile bike ride... When we got home, my husband had prepared tuna on bagels with melted cheddar (daughter got half a bagel, husband and I got 3/4 each). After that and some water, we had bananas and I had a cup of tea.

Garlic Bagels

I had no ideas for lunch when I left to take my daughter to her kindergarten class. When I returned, my husband had come home from work and made garlic bagels with cheese and veggies. He had gone to the bagel deli over the weekend and he thought we hadn't had garlic bagels in a while.

So he toasted them in the toaster, then layered with colby jack cheese and sprinkled with mixed vegetables and garlic pepper. The mixed vegetables were carrots, green beans, lima beans and zucchini, odd for a bagel topping but hot and edible.

And to top it all off, he kissed me afterwards! Garlic or no.

September grocery shopping

We needed some serious food. Normally I would wait until tomorrow to keep the August tally more within budget, but with my daughter and I both starting school today shopping seemed like a way to keep us both occupied.

I took my daughter to New York Bagel and Deli in the 25th Street shopping center for her "before school" breakfast. We spent $5 on bagels. She picked blueberry with blueberry cream cheese and I had jalapeno with egg and cheese. I had $7 left and a baker's dozen bagels in $8 so I couldn't out my change and came home with a stash.

Then we went to Giant. Blue needed greens. We needed fruits and veggies. I had a $4 off $45 purchase coupon.

I spent $80, which considering I had no list and couldn't be real thorough with sales/prices... is good.

We bought (in 30 minutes):

• Motts no sugar added mixed berry applesauce (has actually vitamin C, many others don't), the individual servings, which I normally don't advocate. $1.89
• Minute Maid no sugar added Apple Strawberry juice boxes (10), $2.79
• Hunt's Fire roasted diced tomatoes $1.09
• Bush's black beans, two cans at 83 cents each
• Berio Extra Virgin Olive Oil, big bottle, on sale for $5.79
• Whitehouse Applesauce, I forget the funky flavor, but similar nutritional content to Motts, $1.89
• Barilla whole wheat pasta, five boxes, at $1 each
• Peaches packed in pear juice, 15 ounces, 2 cans, 99 cents each
• Pears, packed in juice, 3 cans, 99 cents each
• Kidney beans, three 15.5 ounce cans, 59 cents each
• 16 ounces cashew butter, $5.24 (normally $7)
• petite diced tomatoes, 14.5 ounces, 2 cans, 65 cents each
• box of raisins, $1.77
• canned chunk pineapple, 99 cents
• black olives, $1.27
• small cans of no salt added tomato sauce, 4 cans, 35 cents each
• 16 ounces of pasta shells, 2 boxes, 75 cents each
• two pounds bananas, $1.32
• 2 pounds broccoli, $2.49
• 2 pounds gala apples (4 apples), $2.85
• pint of blueberries, $3
• prepackaged very veggie salad, $2
• prepackaged greens for Blue, $2
• strawberries, $2.49
• Pillsbury ready made pie crusts, 4 crusts, $4.70 - $1 coupon = $3.70
• Light and Lively Cottage Cheese, $3.49 (big one)
• Very Vanilla Soy Milk, 64 ounces, $2.85
• 32 ounces vanilla yogurt, $1.79
• 16 ounces of Wisconsin cheddar, $3.65 (damn it, I thought this was on sale for less than $3)
• dozen extra large eggs, $1.19
• soymilk, 64 ounces, $2.39
• tampons, $2.50
• Suave Kids Shampoo/Conditioner/Body Wash in watermelon, 22.5 ounces, $2.74
• 15 ounces of lemon juice, $1.49
• Canola cooking spray, 5 ounces, $1.50
  
• Kidney beans, big can,