Getting ready for the weekend..........With a wee helper

hello everyone,  since we still had so much fresh produce, I decided to use while it was still usable.

I made a big salad to eat as we want to over the weekend.
I also made a sandwich topping box and added the last 3  pickle spears in one jar and some olives from another big jar because I know my husband likes them.

I think my little "helper" likes olives too 😍

We drink a lot of iced tea, always unsweetened.  I make it in a coffee machine.  

I put one gallon of water in a pitcher, then fill up the coffee maker tank with part of it. 

I put 6 small tea bags in the machine and brew it one cycle.  

Then pour the brewed tea into the gallon pitcher.  It keeps stored in the fridge for 3 days before I think it goes bitter.  

I also made some peanut butter and jelly "uncrustables" sandwiches for the freezer.  

I prefer to use a thin layer of smooth PB of each slice of bread, then jelly on one side and after the sandwiches are assembled, I cut off the crusts.  That's just a preference, not a necessity.
Each sandwich is sealed in a sandwich bag and then I corral all of them in a big zipper bag before I put them in the freezer.

Our little Jackson likes them. 

And some days with an almost two year old along, even making a sandwich can sound like a daunting task.  

Hope you all have a great weekend.  

I'm already planning my next post - a big commissary grocery haul.  

To dos, keeping produce fresh, bulk cooking and CVS

Hello - another illness bug came to visit me the end of February.  I was the only family member that had this one.  I did almost nothing for 5 days but I'm better now, and trying to get back on track.  

Today was a free day for me, no grandchildren or appointments,  so I wrote out a list of things that needed done at home and I added some more things as I thought of them,  

Because of the 2 bouts of illness in February and my husband being away helping his parents for a week,  we didn't use very many of the groceries we bought at the beginning of the month.
While we were sick, we mostly ate crackers, rice, jello, canned soup and easy to digest foods.



I store our clean, fresh produce in the fridge and I seal it in either plastic containers with tight seals or in plastic bags with the air squeezed out.
I've always thought our produce keeps a good while and this month, it really stayed nice.

These boxes hold mini peppers, celery and broccoli. 

Below are the receipts for when I bought this produce.  All were purchased the very end of January.  

Some was from Aldi and some was from a military commissary. 

More of the old produce- but still plenty fresh enough looking that I'll be using them,

A head of cabbage and 4 heads of romaine lettuce.  

I also straightened up the freezer and saw a lot of meat.  We didn't have much prepared meat so I pulled out ground beef and a roast.  

I cooked 1 pot of chili and almost 5 pounds of taco meat. 

The roast beef was cooked with pepperocini and beef broth in a slow cooker until very tender.  

I shredded it and then froze it in the broth and peppers it cooked in.  This makes a really nice hot sandwich filling.  

I ended up with 4 meal sizes of chili, 6 of Taco meat and 4 of pepperocini beef.  

Having meals started ahead of time is almost as good as having money or time in the bank.  They are really welcome on busy days.  

In the afternoon, I made a short  shopping trip to CVS

I used $10 in extracarebucks from last, some coupons from the CVS red box, $1 Xtra and $2 Fructis coupons from coupons.com 

After deductions, I paid $10.58 and got back $10 extracarebucks for next week.

Today is Andie's 5th birthday.  She was born a preemie and took a helicopter flight right after that to a big hospital.  She gave us all a scare but you would never know now she had a difficult beginning.  She is the tallest child in her class and smart as can be ❤
She's not lacking in the self confidence department either.

There was a Mardi Gras party yesterday afternoon at my parent's retirement home.  I took little Jackson and he celebrated like a Proud Cajun.  He put all those beads on himself.  

Let the good times roll ❤