Garden Harvest August 20, 2012

I came back from a two week vacation and the new neighbor had apparently forgotten about our arrangement. The one where I looked after her can and then she would water my plants. Hurrumph!!!

They are pretty much all dead, though we are trying to rehab the jalapeno. This is the only thing I was able to pull off the plants when I arrived home Friday... Le sigh, it's a San Marzano, in miniature.

Hop on over to Daphne's Dandelions to see what others are harvesting this week.

I feel whole...

Little things and small joys 

Make me feel whole

I am sitting on my balcony

A cool breeze skimming my shoulder

Hot coffee in hand

A morning worthy of being whole

August 19th, The Weekly Shop

Today I did the main shopping for the week. I hope to make only minor additions to these groceries during the week and in time, not at all. I am new to this concept though, so, ya know, it'll take me a while. Most weeks I am shooting for $50. Holidays, birthdays, etc will bump up the budget at some point though, Le Sigh.

This week I went to Publix:

Publix Dry Pinto Beans $2.99
Canada Dry Ginger Ale $1.50
Ragu Pizza Sauce (x4) $1.49
Publix Milk $1.09
Purity Buttermilk $2.59
Publix Coffee $4.99
Publix Baguette $1.99
Publix Foil (75ft) $2.99
Lemon $0.67
Publix Mild Cheddar (8oz) $2.50
Publix Sour Cream $1.50
Bibb Lettuce $1.89
Romaine Lettuce $1.99
Sliced Button Mushrooms (8oz) $1.99
Collossal Sea Scallops (3) $3.15
BLSL Chicken $5.03
Steak $4.55
GRAND TOTAL $47.37 (before taxes)
Saved 3.22

Back in the saddle again...

This has been a wild ride. I have GRADUATED from school with my A.A.S. in paralegal studies. I start next week at A.P.S.U. to get my B.S. in Legal Studies. And in about two months I am going to start planning my wedding. I am excited!

Now, in the meantime we are living off of one income and we are calling the budget the "Greek Budget" due to some *ahem* country's unfortunate circumstances. We hope that our budget cuts will prevent us from being confused as..Gre... poor planners.

One of our single biggest budget busters in food and Alcohol. I spend a lot of $$$ in both of those categories. We are implementing several strategies to combat our over indulgence. 

The first is freezer cooking. I am working hard and for cheap to fill our freezer with both comfort and convenience foods. This is saving us money in two ways. By stocking the freezer with quick cooking convenience foods like taquitos or pizza bites I am keeping both me and The Fella from stopping for fast food, that saves us $! The second reason for stocking the freezer is to keep us from running to the store when neither of feels like cooking or we just don't have the stuff to pull together a meal without a trip to the store.

The second over indulgence is Alcohol. We are an extremely social couple, and on our own. We often meet up or meet friends for a happy hour. We celebrate with drinks, and we commiserate with drinks. However, we rarely do any of these at home. We are enforcing, or so we hope, dry days. We simply have to turn down an invite to happy hour and (not that we will go out often) but shall not purchase a drink with dinner if out. So that we are feeling totally deprived we will still have days we enjoy a drink or meet up with a friend, just more in moderation. And will try to go through the bounty of booze already in the house before adding more to it.

Back to Class I go...

Today marks a big day for me. Today is the first day of my last semester as a college student. You know, unless I decided to go back for another degree that is :)

It should be a pretty light summer. I have four class, yes a full time load, but nothing compared to the 6! classes I took last semester with an internship!!! Sometimes life has to slap you around like that, lol.

Anyhoo, I'm off, hope the world is wonderful today...
Cheers
Jamie Girl

Garden Harvest May 28, 2012

Keeper of the Jalapenos

I have been traveling for two weeks and I am so glad  to be home. The first thing I did was run to the balcony to make sure my dear friend Jen had not let the plants die. She called me about half way through the trip and confessed a brown thumb. I love her, but timing is not her strong suit.

Cayenne pepper, yum

Would you believe what has popped up in my garden while I was gone. So far I have harvested about 3 of these little guys.

Keeper of the lettuce

Weeks Harvest : 0.00oz
Yearly Harvest : 1 oz

Be sure to hop on over to Daphne's Dandelions and check out other gardener's harvests for the week!

Garden Harvest Monday 21, 2012

Today is a slightly unusual garden harvest post. We have a condo in Nashville were I have some items in containers and that is what I usually post. Today I am posting from the garden from the big house in Chattanooga. It is there veggies and flowers get planted in huge raised beds that surround the pergola with our patio furniture. There is something so nice about sitting out there, eating dinner amongst the gardens that it came from.

peppers

Just like in Nashville we have 4 different types of peppers growing. Those are to keep the fella happy and make lots of salsa, our favorite summer snack!

Asparagus

I plucked this asparagus as soon as I saw it. I can't tell you how much better it tasted than what we buy at the store. It is the very first asparagus spear I have gotten from the garden. EVER!

broccoli

I have four little broccoli plants growing. they seem happy but the step-kid doesn't seem to happy about what might happen if the broccoli comes inside the kitchen, GASP.

cucumbers

I took this photo on Thursday. This morning I counted over twenty blooms between the two plants. They are boston pickling :)

onions and tomatoes

We put onions in this year for the first time. Beside them are the tomatoes, romas. It really feels like we plant juust enough to come away with good salsa. sigh, problems man, problems.

rosemary

This rosemary plant is not mine. I didn't plant it nor do I really take care of it, short of the occasional hair cut for pity sake.If i were standing next to it in the photo it would come up to my shoulders. In the back ground you can see  where we eat many a summer meal.

Weeks Harvest : 0.4oz (1 asparagus spear)
Yearly Harvest : 1 oz

Be sure to hop on over to Daphne's Dandelions and check out other gardener's harvests for the week!