Too much of a good thing?

Too much of a good thing?

I've spent almost $228 on groceries in June and I don't anticipate returning to the grocery store again until mid-July... Especially if my garden produces.

We spent $12 at Target café for family dinner-- while I pride myself on making the healthiest choices I can in just about any circumstances, tonight's dinner was a nutritional bust (though my daughter did have apples!)

I then went shopping, in one of those  moods where I disregard budget and stock the house. Unfortunately, I used my Target Red debit card to pay, completely forgetting that the water bill is due Monday. I assumed I could transfer the money from savings and it would be fine.

It might be-- I keep my savings in an online bank and my checking in a local bank. It takes 2-3 business days to transfer money back and forth. It also takes 2-3 days for Target to deduct the money from my account.

Fingers crossed. Borrowing money from daughter ($60), since she has an account in the same bank as my checking so the transfer will be immediate...

So, what are these deals I could not resist?

For daughter to take to camp:
- Johnson & Johnson baby shampoo, trial size, 97 cents
- cheap flip flops, $1
- travel toothbrush and toothpaste, 97 cents
- travel size bar of Dove soap, 97 cents
- travel size of hand sanitizer, 99 cents

For the kitchen:
- three small plastic tumblers, $2.61 each
- four large tumblers, $2.98 each

For the lady of the house:
- Two 36 count boxes of Playtex tampons, $6.99 each BUT with $2 off coupon AND a $5 Target gift card if you buy two
So, depending how you look at it, that's buy one get one free

Groceries:
- the one pound jar of roasted, unsalted cashews, $10.99
- club crackers, $2.40
- Market Pantry sandwich crackers, $2.74
- Fresh Express romaine lettuce, $2.49 (which I wouldn't need to buy if the darn tortoise would eat the lettuce in my garden)
- nasoya tofu, two one pound blocks of extra firm, regularly $2.75 on clearance for $1.39
- fresh broccoli, $2.29
- two large jars of JIF Natural peanut butter, $4.12 each, which was cheaper than Market Pantry creamy peanut butter
- Smuckers Seedless blackberry jam, the fruity kind, $1.67
- regular bag of brown rice, $1.17
- Barilla Plus multigrain angel hair pasta, $1.84
- Perdue chicken breasts, all sell by tomorrow, with $3 off coupons. 3 packages, normally $6.26, $6.42, and $6.62.
- New England Blueberry Cobbler coffee, (this is an expensive habit) $6.59
- Traditional Medicinal Breathe Easy Tea, normally $4.99, $3.99
- Archer Farms Chocolate Berry Earl Grey tea, $3.99
- peaches packed in juice, 2 cans, $1.09 each
- large can of tuna, $2.09 which... the cashier rang me up for two when I only bought one. The other can was chicken
- one pound of strawberries, $1.79
- bananas,  6 at 19 cents each
- Green Giant frozen broccoli with cheese sauce, $1.83
- frozen spinach, cut leaf, $1.27
I thought I bought two bags but the receipt only has one
- market pantry frozen snap peas, $1.27 (I bought a bag of these the other day and they were yummy-- didn't taste frozen)
- old orchard frozen cranberry juice concentrate, $1.47
- old orchard frozen apple raspberry  juice concentrate, $1.47
- Market Pantry frozen OJ, with calcium, $1.37
- one dozen eggs, $1.39
- quart of half and half, $2.14
- pint of heavy whipping cream, $2.29
- Archer Farms yogurts, four at 62 cents each
- Chobani kids honey-nana Greek yogurt, $3.49
- Chobani lemon yogurt, two at $1.29 each
- three 8 ounce blocks of cheese, one sharp cheddar, one extra sharp and one pepper jack, $2.49 each (I thought the sharp was on sale for $2.25)
- Breyers ice cream, $3.25 (regularly $4.19)
- Morningstar breakfast patties, two boxes at $2.99 each (regularly $3.69, though there had been a $1.99 sale that ended 6/16 and I missed it! )

Total: $158.03
Team member discount: $15.54
Red card savings: $6.87
Tax: $1.64
New total: $137.26
(and a $5 gift card!)

Pesto ravioli primavera

I started a cream sauce while browning beef kielbasa (which I divided into four segments and froze three of them) but I never got the cream sauce done... So, I made this:

- about 1.5 cups diced beef kielbasa
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
- 2 teaspoons flour
- about 2 tablespoons garden fresh dill
- 1 large leave sorrel
- about 7 basil leaves
- 2 cups peas
- 2 cups cauliflower, carrots and broccoli
- 2 packages trader Joe's ravioli

I put the butter in my Le Creuset skillet and browned the meat. I carefully pushed the meat to the side, added the oil, and incorporated the flour as if I were going to start a cream sauce. I added all the herbs.

Meanwhile, I cooked the ravioli and added the vegetables so it could all cook at the same
time.

The sauce smelled so fragrant I opted not to make the cream sauce after all. The family ate it all.

Sun pickles

Got this message today from a friend:

"My sister brought up "sun pickles". I thought, what fun. Think E and mommy would love it.

I have quart jars if you want to do this...

Use qt size canning jars. In the bottom of each jar place
1 piece of dill weed stem
1 clove of garlic

Now pack into the jar as many whole pickle cukes as you can. (Our mom used the little ones.)

Add 1 tsp kosher salt
1/4 cup vinegar
water to fill jar

Close jar with canning lid (got those too!) and put out in the sun for the afternoon.  You'll have nice crispy pickles. I don't know about long term storage. Ours never lasted that long.

I looked online for others.

Naturally knocked-up slices hers:
http://www.naturallyknockedup.com/recipe-dill-sun-pickles/

And this one from cooks.com uses a sun tea jar. That's a lot of pickles!
http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1836,144160-245199,00.html

there is many, many more on the web.

If you make them, blog it. I'll come over and help eat them!"

I was very much looking forward to this, and almost went out to the garage to look for my jars when I discovered with horror that my tortoise ate all but one of my 12 cucumber plants. Don't worry, she got the last one the next day. :-(

Insta-lunch

I had no plan for lunch, so I whipped this up:

- 3 wegmans Belgian waffles that my father-in-law brought
- organic maple syrup
- Morningstar breakfast patties
- raspberries
- strawberries

Broiled shrimp and salad with homemade croutons

We were given a bag of shrimp which I broiled, five minutes each side, and sprinkled with it's a dilly seasoning.

I had a chunk of homemade rye bread beyond its prime but not reduced to breadcrumbs or compost yet... So I had daughter slice it, oil it lightly and sprinkle it with herbs and heated at about six minutes at 475, flipped them, five minutes more and then turned them one more time.

Took a packaged salad I got at Target ($2.49)and added lettuce from my garden, sorrel, golden raisins, raisins and mandarin oranges. Topped with Newman's Own Raspberry Walnut dressing.

Peanut butter muffins

Yesterday I adapted this recipe for breakfast:

http://www.mrbreakfast.com/superdisplay.asp?recipeid=461#

First, I doubled the recipe. I replaced the sugar with honey, replaced the milk with 1 cup vanilla Silk, replaced about 1.5 cups of the flour with oats. I used 2 eggs and replaced the other eggs with applesauce.

Summer café

We have officially opened our summer breakfast café-- our little table by the front door.

Daughter had eaten breakfast with husband, zucchini bread from the freezer that I purchased at the library bake sale and canned tropical fruit salad she shared with the tortoise.

For "second breakfast," I made my rose tea and four slices of last week's hearty rye bread, toasted, two with margarine, one with cheddar and one with peanut butter and local raw honey. Cheddar for me. Peanut butter for child.