Myrtle The Bird & What’s Cooking 4/14/16?

Did I ever tell you the story about our bird, Myrtle?

Several years back the Z Man and I went on vacation at Myrtle Beach. When we arrived to our campsite Z Man noticed something across the way in the grass. It was this beautiful blue and white parakeet. I was on the phone with my Mom when I see the Z Man walking across the way with a shirt tied onto his fishing pole.

Yep, he caught the bird and probably saved it’s life.

So off we go to the store in search of a cage and food for the bird. We got the bird set up in a comfortable little cage and then we let the campground owners know that we had caught someones bird and that the bird was ok and hopefully the owner could come get it and keep the cage and food too.

We kept the bird with us all week. We would sit her cage out on the picnic table with us and people going by would say, awww they brought their bird to the beach with them, we brought our dogs and they brought their bird….. It was pretty funny, I mean it’s not like a bird needs to be walked and fed daily, she can pretty much take care of herself for a few days.

So, by the end of our trip, no one had come to claim the bird and now we have a bird named Myrtle.

What’s Cooking 4/14/16?

Breakfast: yogurt with granola
Lunch: salad in a jar
Dinner: bar-b-q pulled pork and ditalini salad – you can find the ditalini salad recipe here

I usually make a big bowl of ditalini salad as soon as the weather warms up and asparagus starts showing up plentiful in the grocery store. It’s a nice light side dish that goes with anything and reminds me that warmer weather is on the way.

Y’all Have A Great Day!

Till Next Time,

Lori

What’s Cooking 4/12/16?

This morning before I left for work I filled the crock pot with everything to make drip beef or Mississippi pot roast (they are both about basically the same recipe). But, instead of using beef I used venison and added a couple heaping teaspoons of bacon fat in it. Fat is good people, fat is good 🙂

I grabbed my breakfast and lunch and left the house without taking my omeprazole, L-Glutamine, coconut oil, or turmeric. We’ll see what happens. This could inadvertently speed up the weaning off omeprazole process. Yesterday I started taking an even lower dosage that calculates to 20mg which is half of my prescribed amount.

I was in a hurry to get the dinner dishes done, kitchen cleaned, and breakfast and lunches made last night so I could settle in and start on a few library books I picked up yesterday. Joel Salatin is an American farmer whose is the owner and operator of Polyface Farm in Swoope, Virginia. He is the author of many books regarding alternative farming, often calling himself a grass farmer, letting the animals do all the work of tending to the farming processes without industrial pesticides or fertilizers. He is doing it the right way y’all.

Anyway… apparently I was in too much of a hurry because as I was making my overnight oats, I forgot to put the tablespoon of maple syrup in them. I didn’t realize it of course till this morning….

Here is a picture of my breakfast and lunch for today (and my love for wide mouth mason jars, of all sizes) 🙂

But after my first bite of unsweetened overnight oats, I decided to save that till tomorrow when I can properly sweeten it and instead I went with this….

Honey wheat bread with peanut butter and jelly.

Breakfast: honey wheat bread with peanut butter and jelly and a apple
Lunch: salad in a jar with a creamy avocado dressing that I experimented with last night and turned out lovely.
Dinner: Z’s venison with mashed potatoes and roasted asparagus

Sometimes I include recipes sometimes I don’t… if you ever want one of my recipes just let me know and I’ll gladly share it. 🙂

Y’all have a great day!

Till Next Time,

Lori

Friday’s Frugal Five & What’s Cooking 4/8/16?

My hours at work changed this week, which means I go in earlier and get out later. It also means I work six days a week from now until the end of September. It doesn’t leave me a lot of time to get all the things done that I “want” to do, but I do look forward to the over time income. However, I’ve learned that if I don’t plan well and stay organized it’s easy for the extra income to get sucked up into little emergencies like what’s for dinner and such. Gotta have a plan!

Friday’s Frugal Five:

I purchased a new router for our internet service so the provider we use would stop charging me $10 a month to rent theirs. Got my first invoice after installing the router, and the $10 charge was still on the bill. So annoying! But, I called and had the charge removed. I swear I think they do this on purpose in hopes that we wont notice it or they know some people wont take the time to call and have it removed. Either way it’s frustrating…. I’m guilty of getting so annoyed with all the questions when I’m just trying to speak to a customer service person that I hit the “0” button on my phone like 1,000,000,000 times. It seems to work after about the first 5 questions and you’ve reached a moderate level of frustration.
I’ve set up my direct deposit savings for my overtime income to be automatically deposited. If I don’t see it I wont miss it and won’t be tempted to spend it.
Checked out 2 books of interest from the library prior to purchasing them to make sure they are what I wanted. I did buy the books as they are cook books geared toward the direction we want to go in changing our diet. Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon and Nourishing Broth by Sally Fallon. Both very good books that I’ll use for years. Yes, I could’ve continued to check them out of the library, but I’m sure over time these books will show much use with many food spots and dog eared pages, not something I would want to do to a library book.
I’ve been saving my used deodorant containers waiting to make my own deodorant. I’ll be making it this weekend, so I’ll let you know how it turns out. The true test of how well it works will be when I’m lifting 50lb bags and buckets at work this spring. I’m going to use a recipe of coconut oil and baking soda. I’ll keep an open mind because the goal is to get away from all the chemicals I’ve been putting in and on my body as much as possible. The recipe looks easy to just mix coconut oil and baking soda together well and put it in a used deodorant container. I may need to put it in the fridge to get it to set up quicker, and then of course store it in a cool spot.
Eat Dirt by Dr Josh Axe is another book I checked out from the library. It is a good book with a lot of valuable information in it about gut health. It is his opinion that we have become a germaphobe clean freak anti bacterial nation which has done us no favors for our overall health. And like the title says, he mildly suggest that we should “Eat Dirt” meaning for example don’t be afraid of the vegetables at the farm stand that still have dirt on them, because those are the ones that will provide us much more nutrition than those that have traveled thousands of miles. It’s a good read, and I suggest it to anyone interested in getting (back) to real food and good health. It also gave me fond memories of working in the garden with my Dad and remembering how he sometimes would pick a vegetable and take a bite out of it right there on the spot, then convince me to do it too. Dirt don’t’ hurt 🙂

As always, meals came from the freezer and pantry, except for those hamburger buns on Wednesday night. There were no meals eaten out or taken out this week, lunches were from leftovers, bills are paid, money is in the pickle jar and still breathing fresh air and loving it.

What’s Cooking 4/8/16?

Breakfast: overnight oats with dried cranberries, walnuts, sprinkle of cinnamon and a drizzle of maple syrup
Lunch: the last of the stir fry veggies with jasmine rice
Dinner: homemade pizza night

Here is a picture of yesterday’s (and today’s) lunch.

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How about you, what frugal fun things did you do this week.

Till Next Time,

Lori

What’s Cooking 4/7/16?

I was craving a good hamburger yesterday, so instead of chili last night I fried up some grass fed hamburgers in the cast iron skillet and made some fried potatoes to go with. I did stop at the store on the way home from work and picked up a pack of hamburger buns, which was the first pack of bread I’ve bought in over a month. Mainly because I’ve been wanting to make my own because what’s on the shelf at the store isn’t actually bread, it’s a bunch of ingredients that we can’t pronounce or digest. But, I have to say that those burgers were the best burgers ever! Maybe it’s because it’s not something we eat often or maybe it’s because I wanted one so bad. Don’t you love it when you have a craving for something and it turns out to be really really good, especially when you made it yourself. 🙂

What’s Cooking 4/7/16?

Breakfast: leftover fried potatoes with leftover sausage gravy on top

Lunch: leftover veggie stir fry with jasmine rice

Dinner: I made the chili last night and put it in the crock pot for the Z Man to put on today. Chili and cornbread for dinner.

I’m glad dinner is already made because I want to get my yoga in and I’ll be making yogurt tonight too.

Now, if I only had some interesting pictures for you to see! Here I’ll show you a picture of the squirrel in our yard.