Category Archives: books

A menu for the week, sort of…

Posted in books, budgeting, budgets, California, cooking, home stuff, Uncategorized by

Last night we did do the Kirkland meatballs with Rao’s sauce. I threw a few egg noodles in, too. It was good. NO salad because I didn’t feel like making it. The humidity is awful, and we are not used to humidity here in Northern CA. I think today is about the same. There are some clouds that are keeping the heat in and the humidity high. Ugh…

So, I have some chicken defrosting so one night will be something with that.

I have 1 pack of tofu, so I’ll do something with that, maybe a tofu scramble, so that the veggies get cooked( don’t want the horrible parasite!).

I have some shrimp in the freezer, so maybe a shrimp scampi-type thing.

I might open some home-canned pintos and do a nacho-type thing. I’ll have to check what I have. I know I don’t have any corn chips because we were doing low carb. Maybe I’ll just do bean bowls. I do have some taco meat in the freezer I could pull out.

Past that, I have no idea. I probably should pull out some cookbooks and get some ideas.

I’m mostly home today and need to do a sweep through the house. Plus, I need to mop. Then the plan is to go over to the pet bookstore and maybe the nursery. After that, find some lunch.

I read two of Marcia Muller’s books, which take place in SF. I like her writing. These were not new at all. I think one was from 2006. A quick read and entertaining. Next up are two Stabenow books. All these I picked up at the pet bookstore. They are $2 a piece. Cheap entertainment.

I haven’t had any off days, which I’m pleased with. I’m still only getting 2 bottles down in a day, but that’s way better than before. Also, tracking my 02 has been good. Overall, it’s all in a good range.

This week, I plan to go to the pool and the gym in Roseville. I’ll probably tack on a Trader Joe’s stop as well. I don’t need anything from Costco, so I’ll skip that. Ok then, I’m going to go pick up cat puke!!

Thankful Thursday

Posted in books, budgets, California, cooking, reading, Uncategorized by

Well, let’s see,

I’m thankful I woke up.

I’m thankful for a cup of coffee

I’m thankful the garbage goes out today.

I’m thankful to be alive.

So, after a dreadful day and a night from hell, I asked AI about my fatigue. A couple of things,

not enough hydration,

a low viral infection

needing more sodium or salt

So with that in mind, I drank an electrolyte drink and made the teriyaki chicken into a soup with a ramen flavor pack.

I always wake up at the same time and do the same thing for an hour or so at my desk. Check the news, check blogs, check my bank acct etc. So it’s too early to tell if I am again fatigued.

If by 7:30, I feel ok, I plan on going to the pool. Thursdays are early days, so the pool closes for lap swimming by 8:45, so it means up and go. I don’t need anything from the store, so unless there’s a small thing, I can go over to Winco for it. I do need some cottage cheese.

I feel a bit adrift these days and feel like I need to add something to my life. Maybe walking a little later so it fills in the morning. I think partly that since I have some osteoarthritis in my hips, etc., I’m moving more slowly, so I can’t do what I used to do, and then I have gaps that seem like I’m not doing anything. If I have books to read, then I feel more engaged, or if I give myself specific tasks to do. I do write a daily list of things, so maybe I need to expand that to one or two more small things.

Well, on that cheery note, I say adieu.

Simple Sunday

Posted in books, budgets, California, cooking, meal planning, Uncategorized by

I hope you all had a nice 4th of July. I did my walk and then a few extra things. I must have felt good enough that I painted the front door. It’s been on my list forever, and I guess it was the right day. I might start doing all the window trims as it is the same color but we’ll see.

My daughter got out an old grow light of Barclay’s, and I put it near my orchids as it is full spectrum. Hopefully, that will encourage a few spikes. Growing orchids has been a fun hobby and a challenge since I tend to overwater. The light purple one that I had spiked is still going strong. I love that orchids keep on and on.

Today is open, and I’m thinking about what I’d like to do. It’s been nice being home and not thinking about going out to do anything. I do like structure and a schedule, at least of some sort.

First, I’ll go for a walk as it’s cool out and there are some great cloud formations. Next week still looks good temperature-wise, and then it creeps back to the 90’s.

I want to plan out some dinner ideas, being on the low carb. It does take a little more planning to not just fall back on pasta or potatoes. I know I’ll pull some chicken from the freezer and maybe the ground turkey. Last night we had steamed broccoli and a souper cube of meatloaf I had made a while ago. It was ok, not great. I think that had some breadcrumbs in it, so not totally low-carb. I’ll continue to assess as this goes along. So far, it’s not terribly difficult except for maybe the bread or bagels.

I do need to hit up Costco for romaine lettuce, as I’ve been using that to make turkey or ham roll-ups with cheese. Not too bad, and I like the crunch. I also want to buy some squash, and they have a big bag of both zucchini and yellow squash. I could try the sliced zucchini lasagna. I don’t want to overthink this and keep it simple.

I didn’t do a whole lot yesterday and was kinda tired all day. I finished a book on my Kindle that I’ve read numerous times and is one of my favorites: Meg Wolfe’s series. They are some of my favorite books to reread.

Today, after waking and having breakfast, I’ll see if I want to go to the Auburn gym. If I go to Maheny gym tomorrow, then I could skip today. I’ll wait and see how I feel in a bit.

We finished watching Project Hail Mary last night, and it’s a great movie. I’d definitely recommend but it’s long, so we did it two nights. It’s on Prime.

Frugal Friday

Posted in books, budgeting, budgets, California, cash envelopes, home stuff, Walking by

Mostly a frugal week since I didn’t go anywhere for 4 days due to feeling lousy. Then on Wednesday, I went to the pool. Before that, I got gas, and it had gone up quite a bit from my last fill-up. Costco gas is still the cheapest, but yikes, $5.69!!

After the pool, I went to Costco as I mentioned and spent a little over $200. I took out non-food and wine, so the food cost was around $100. Non food included batteries, an orchid, and I think something else. Wine was my favorite, Kendall Jackson, which is $9.59 at Costco. Oh, and I picked up that Rose for Mother’s Day and the most expensive thing was some steaks for Mother’s Day and for the freezer. I think the pack had 6 pieces of thinly sliced rib-eye. My daughter and I will likely just share a piece, and the other counts as LTF for the freezer.

My food total so far is running around $300, so not too bad. I don’t need anything, so it may just be a small Winco trip or something.

I ordered propane and put that on the CC. I’m slowly getting the card paid off, but then something like this happens, and I need to charge another $257. Oh well, I’ll get there. sigh:(

I haven’t really been doing active cash envelopes. Most of what I get, I just use for groceries. I guess I need to try to do better, especially for annual bills. It does help when I have the envelopes even a bit filled. Well, I have a few months with just a few annual bills. Next month is the truck DMV, but my son will pay for that as he’s the one using the truck, so it may give me a chance to fill some envelopes for fall. Having lost 1/3 of my income after B died is definitely a factor. sigh:(

Well, today I plan to go to the gym and the library. I have a book to return. I don’t have any holds, so I may just browse the new items. I want to keep up with my weights as I feel they really do help. I’d like to find a new walking path for when I’m down there, so I may look at RPR (Roseville Parks and Rec) trail maps to see what is close to the gym. Sadly, the only paved trail up here is the park I walk at. Auburn has another paved trail at a park, but it’s not in my normal route. The MV park is so well used by so many people, and they come from all over because it is paved. I’m at the stage of life where I’d be concerned for my stability on an unpaved path unless I used my walking sticks. I have been taking them with me even to this park because they give me an added sense of security. It’s tough getting older.

Rain is back!

Posted in books, bread, budgeting, California, cooking, home stuff, simple foods by

I woke up to rain and did not walk. I may use the treadmill later just to get some steps in.

Yesterday, though, was really nice and sunny for most of the day. My son took the day off and came up to weed eat, and he also did a bunch of tidying up in our driveway. Later, we got sandwiches at the store and had a nice chat. He’s a great person. He said his work schedule will be busy with a trip to San Diego and then his annual board meeting. He’s so lucky to have a job he loves as is my daughter.

My daughter wrote a novella for a contest with Wattpad. She let me read it, and wow, it was great. It’s a historical fiction set in 1926 in Philadelphia and is about a young gay artist. I encouraged her to, at some point, expand on it and self-publish or try to find a publisher, as it is that good.

Today, I’m staying home, unless I go to town to get some $ for my envelopes for the week. I need to get gas in the VW, too, so I could do that as well. I’ll see how the morning goes.

I got the new tag for the Santa Fe yesterday, and then I realized I hadn’t gotten the tags for the VW. I went back and double-checked that I paid it and what date that was. So it was March 12. We can only assume either it got lost in the mail or was stolen from our box. Our mailbox is on the street and accessible if someone wants to do that. Most of my mail comes to the PO Box, but the DMV is in her name, and she gets her mail at the street box. So I got online and ordered a replacement. I was pissed I had to pay $28 for it. My daughter suggested we get a locking mailbox for the street, so I think I’ll check Amazon for that. She’s also had 2 things recently that she ordered that said delivered, but weren’t in the box. So either the post office is screwing up, or someone is taking mail out.

I might switch out my meal plan tonight for beet soup. I had bought some beets at Winco and haven’t used them, so since it’s raining, it might be a good soup night. I grew up eating borscht and have memories of my great-grandmother BaBa eating borscht in her apartment in the Lower East Side of NYC.

I probably will start another sourdough loaf today, too. The cranberry pecan is now my favorite!!

A bit of catch up!

Posted in Blood test, books, budgets, California, cancer, cooking, decluttering, home stuff, Pantry by

The days have been busy, which is good.

I went to the gym on Sunday and then did some decluttering when I got home. I have a bag of books to take to the pet bookstore and a bag of odds and ends to go to Goodwill.

Monday, I continued decluttering out in the garden shed and a utensil drawer in the kitchen. I looked at things I’m not using, as I prefer to not have single-use things. I wrote out the menu ideas for the week too.

Mostly, using things I have in the freezer /pantry, which included using up the turkey chili, a box of cornbread mix, a jar of home-canned kidney beans, and some ends of cheese( cheddar and comte) to make a baked macaroni. Today I plan to prep what veggies I have and put them in glass containers. I have broccoli, beets, spinach, some lettuce, and carrots. I’m sure I’ve missed a few. My plan is to wash and put them in containers so I can see what I need to use. Too often, things in those new produce bags just get pushed behind things, and I don’t see them ( refrigerator blindness). To help, I ordered some containers from Amazon. They’re the brilliance Rubbermaid. Costco has these occasionally, but not right now.

We also had leftover Easter tofu, potato salad, and deli ham. I didn’t buy a ham since that would be too much for us, so I got some sliced ham, and it worked fine as a side dish. ( We mostly want the southern fried tofu with tartar sauce.)

Rest of the Week menu ideas:

BBQ chicken

One freezer meal

Bean burritos with toppings. This will use a can of refried beans in the pantry, and some of the toppings will use things up, too.

a pizza night

Orange chicken with rice and broccoli

TBD

After my labs on Monday, I went and got the Santa Fe smogged, so that’s done.

Tuesday, I headed to the pool, and it was quite mellow. I stopped and got some cash from the teller, as I want to give my son a few dollars to help offset the cost of the weed eater and the motorcycle class. I also stopped at Winco for spinach, broccoli, bananas, and a few other things. It was less than $40.

I haven’t gotten my kappa light chains back yet, but my other labs are all about the same. We’ll see:)

Update: just got them and they did go down 2 points. Not a lot and I hoped for more, but I’ll take it.

Today, I plan on getting the thrift stuff organized and put in the back of the car. Then I’ll go to town and drop some stuff off. I do have a big bag of books to go also.

I got the notice of the Fair Plan being changed, so that was good news. But paying for the new auto insurance added to my credit card balance, so be it for now. I just don’t have the income to pay it from my regular accounts. I think the only other annual bills coming up are DMV for Rubi and the truck in June. That’ll give me some time to concentrate on paying more of the CC stuff over a few months. sigh:( Still, I’m thrilled the auto insurance was reduced from the Allstate quote.

The rest of the week is open, so I’ll figure out whether I’ll do another swim or go to the gym. Because of gas prices, I’ll pick one or the other.

These are roses from the back yard area and the California poppies are in the front of the house.

Midweek Musings

Posted in Blood test, books, budgets, California, cooking, home stuff, library by

Yesterday was quite busy but productive. I had my labs and then went upstairs at the facility I go to and had my annual wellness appt with my PCP. It all went well. I asked about my blood pressure being inconsistent, and he said we could up my Lisinopril a bit. So I’ll think about that.

From there, I decided to get a Starbucks using a gift card and then drove down to the gym. I was on the fence about going, but decided to do it. I had a few books to drop off at the library, so that motivated me. After that, I went into Winco for some veggies and odds and ends.

When I got home, I unloaded( my daughter was still home, so she did this for me) everything and chilled for a bit. After I recouped, I set out to do the kitchen zone and got that done.

Today, I have my eye scan with Dr. Dan. I’ll specifically ask not to be dilated, which should be fine as this is a retinal scan, not for glaucoma. I get this scan every 6 months to check the macular pucker.

After that, I plan on getting the VW smogged, but will wait to see how I feel after my appt. I have time yet, so it’s not urgent. I also need to go to the bank for my printout for LLS. My grant is almost depleted, so I’ll have to wait to reapply in July, but it’ll run out of money by May. You can’t apply till the grant year is over.

I used the BBQ yesterday afternoon and need to clean it up today. Plus, I need to start pruning the wisteria a bit. It already has some buds, but I can work around most of them to remove the dead branches.

Spring has sprung here. How is it where you live?

A few odds and ends

Posted in books, budgeting, budgets, California, camping, cash envelopes, home stuff, Uncategorized by

Yesterday, I went to the gym and the library. I got a couple of books to read. I haven’t started them yet, so I can’t say yet, but I’ll give them a try. Then I went over to Winco and did a small shop. I wanted some navy beans and molasses to make some Maine Beans from a cookbook I have. I also got some salad mix and a few other salad things.

Then I came straight home. Today, I’m staying home since tomorrow I need to go to Roseville for infusion. I want to wash the cat blankets and do a few odds and ends of tidying. Plus, I need to mop the floors. I’ve been using the iRobot vacuum almost daily, and it does a great job. But I still need to mop. So that’s on the agenda.

Tomorrow, after infusion, I plan to go to Costco, mostly to get a few things but to cash my rewards. It’s not a lot, but it’s something, and then I don’t need to go get extra cash. I still need to fill some envelopes, but I generally don’t have too much extra to do that. Some envelopes are more important than others, such as fun vs auto maintenance. So I’ll keep adding what I can to the important ones.

I had a nice visit with my son yesterday as he came up after work. He has a regional meeting in Chico today and tomorrow, so he’ll be gone. He expressed some interest in taking the motorcycle class at Sierra College, and then he could use the Triumph. In reality, he could just have it, and I’d sign it over. Although the insurance would probably be higher. So it’s something to consider. Although I’d worry about accidents because with motorcycles, 99% of the time, it is other drivers.

We did chat about the whole camping thing. He doesn’t see the van idea working, and probably he’s right. I think after my daughter and I go down to Santa Cruz at the end of the month and I get to go to New Brighton Beach, I’ll be able to judge whether hotels may be what I do 3-4 times a year. I would like to plan some longer trips that Barclay and I never got to, and one was going over to the Oregon coast. So if we do hotels, in a way that would be easier than trailering. I guess I still miss the whole experience of sleeping in my own bed, cooking my own food, etc. Plus, waking up at a campground is very different than waking up in a hotel. Adjustments, changes, and being open are probably what I need to focus on.

Menu Monday

Posted in books, bread, budgets, California, cooking, meal planning, Uncategorized by

We did really well last week, and I made most of the meals planned.

Last night I made a chicken parmesan because I had defrosted a pack of Costco chicken. I had to run down to the store for panko as I didn’t have any. Then I made a batter and fried the chicken breasts. I cut them in half first, but it was still a lot. They were really crispy when I took them out of the pan, but after I finished them in the oven with tomato sauce and mozzarella, they didn’t hold their crispiness. Any ideas? Maybe I should have just heated up the sauce and plated it right then?? Have you made chicken parmesan, and how did you keep it crispy? I followed the NYT recipe.

Anyway, probably leftover chicken today, and I may do some spaghetti on the side.

Tuesday- I want to use up some souper cube beans, so beans and cheese enchiladas( frozen).

Wednesday- tilapia and some side dish. Maybe a macaroni and cheese.

Thursday- Freezer cube meal. I still have some chicken and rice cubes.

Friday- I might make homemade pizza, although we had pizza this past Friday, so I may do something else. I do have leftover mozzarella, though, so ??

Saturday- something easy, maybe just some sandwiches.

I finished watching the first season of True Detective. It was absolutely great. Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey were incredible. It’s on AMC, so if you have prime you have to add it. Each season is a different crime and detectives.

I didn’t read anything this week except a Mauve Binchy book, A Week in Winter. It was okay. I don’t have any holds at the library, so I might look at what’s new and put a hold on something.

I have another admin thing to do to change our Home insurance policy over to just my name. It’s showing Barclay as insured even though I’m on there too. So I guess I’ll brave the phone and see if I can get it changed. I do hate doing these things.

Like I said the other day, I’m not going to the pool because of the parking issue, but I will try either tomorrow or Wednesday.

Menu Monday

Posted in books, bread, budgets, California, freezer cooking, meal planning, simple foods, swimming by

I did really well last week with using things up from the freezer. Last night we had Z’s chili with the homemade Rosemary Meyer lemon sourdough I baked. It came out great BTW. I have one more chili in the freezer, but I’ll wait on that for a few weeks. This loaf had nice spring and is delicious.

Tonight I have some frozen chicken to use. I’m leaning toward a casserole of chicken rice and some veggies. The NY Times recipe calls for the rice to be uncooked, so I’ll do that, and it’ll be easier.

Tuesday- I’m thinking burritos with frozen beans and adding cheese, etc.

Wednesday- I think this will be burger night. I have the beef defrosting in the fridge. I plan on using Frugal Girl’s recipe. I probably need to get some lettuce, but I can do that if I go to the pool this week and go across the street to Winco.

Thursday- I think spaghetti or ravioli with meatballs and a salad. I have a #10 can of tomato sauce, so what I might do is make up a big pot of marinara sauce and freeze it in portions. That would use up the can, and I’d have sauce ready to use.

Friday- We might order a pizza. I used up the frozen one< Home Run, which is a Detroit-type pizza. It’s good, but too big for us, so I won’t buy that again unless it’s the mini ones.

Saturday- TBD, not sure what I’ll pull from the freezer, maybe some tilapia.

My son is coming over to work on the barn some more. He took a big load to the dump last time, so he doesn’t need to do that this time. But he is working on decluttering things in there, which is great. Then my daughter and I are going to the pet bookstore and maybe get lunch or some sandwiches to bring home.