Angela

On Sunday we had hash browns, sausage, and eggs for dinner.
On Monday we had fried potatoes and sausage.
On Tuesday we had turkey sandwiches with leftover turkey from Christmas.
On Wednesday we had baked potatoes
Tonight we are having grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup

Tomorrow we are having a casserole where you fry some sausage (ground meat, like hamburger, only it's sausage) put it in a glass pan with raw rice, a can of tomatoes (or mushed up tomatoes if you have an abundance of those) a little water, seasonings (I like thyme, basil, paprika, salt, maybe some chili powder), and then chop up half a cabbage and put it on top.  Cover the whole thing with tinfoil and bake an hour if it's white rice, and two hours if it's brown rice.  Sprinkle cheese over the cabbage and put it back in to melt.

The day after tomorrow we are having fajitas if I can scrape up the coins to buy a couple of peppers.  I have to make homemade tortillas and come up with my own seasoning which is different every time.  I just use whatever meat falls off the bones when I cook up bones from my cows, pigs, or chickens (to make broth).  I always have sour cream on hand, even if it means all my utilities will be shut off.  It's important to keep your priorities straight!

After that I'll make meat pie with the rest of the meat that fell off the bones and some of the broth.  The rest of the broth goes in the freezer.  My favorite ingredient when I make meat pie?  Barley!  I add it to the veggies and broth while they are cooking.  I've posted this before (I make it a lot) but just to recap, you chop up whatever veggies are wilting in your pantry and fridge, boil them in whatever flavor broth you have (beef, chicken, or pork for me)(or bouillon cubes broth I guess)(or water, then strain the veggies and use a gravy packet) ANYWAY, Strain the veggies from the broth, save the broth, put the veggies and some cooked leftover meat inside a pie crust shell (so easy to make, like five minutes), make gravy from the saved broth, pour it in the shell too, then put another crust over the top and bake it until the crust is cooked, an hour for me because my crust is whole wheat and huge.  I cram my glass cake pan as full as I can without overflowing.

The day after that, it will be hamburgers with homemade ground beef, homemade bread, pickled beets, and tomatoes.

The veggies I am trying to use up right now are: cabbage, carrots, beets, tomatoes, potatoes, pumpkin, and butternut squash.  If anyone has a favorite recipe using any of those, let me know.  I bought fifty pounds of each and keeping ahead of them is fun!

Just for fun, this is what I do for pickled beets.  My family eats half a gallon within a month.
Wash the beets and wrap them in foil.  Roast them in the oven for three hours or so.  Put them in the fridge until you have time to peel and slice them.  Uh, then you peel and slice them!  Pack them in a gallon jar, or half gallon jar, or old pickle jar, or quart jar, or some kind of container that won't leak if it gets tipped, preferably not plastic because it will get stained.  In a saucepan, boil two cups of vinegar (I use apple cider vinegar), two cups of water, and two cups of sugar.  That's it!  Make sure the sugar is dissolved and pour it over the beets.  You don't have to wait for it to cool.  Leave them in there up to four months, but mine go way faster than that.  Then make another batch, using the same brine if you want, just reboil it.  This is enough brine to fill a half gallon jar filled with beets.  I'm going to make a gallon this next time, so I'll just double it.