Fabulous Food and Freezing Finds

FIND #1

We got a flier for Albertson's the other week that included some coupons. One of them was for pork loin for $0.99 per pound. Since the pieces were all quite large, I got $40 worth of meet for under $10.

FIND #2

Since there is no way that we could eat a 10 pound piece of pork even with several guests, we cut a little over half of it into several roasts to freeze. I used the remaining 4 lbs to make an apple roast pork recipe I had run across on the internet. The cooking method was nothing special; I cooked it in the oven and then shredded it. The gem of the recipe was how to freeze the leftovers!! The instructions are for freezing single portion sizes. Since I always struggle with there being way to much food for the two of us, this was the major attraction of the recipe. I sprayed a muffin tin with non-stick spray, filled the cups with the shredded meat and juice, and popped the tin in the freezer. Once frozen, the individual servings can go in a plastic bag, and Andy can pull them out whenever he likes.

FIND/THOUGHT #3

I think the muffin pan method will work well for chicken broth, among other things. As I was cleaning up in the kitchen, I realized that my mini-loaf pan would also work and be PERFECT for casseroles. Andy gets so tired of having to eat the same thing over and over because there is so much left over, even in a small pyrex pan. I can't want to put these to use again!!

To say the least, I was proud of each of my finds. By the time I'd finished, I was ecstatic!!

Soups

Andy's cousin Emily came over for a few days to help me make him some soups. I like to make a whole bunch at once so that I am able to use up all of the ingredients like carrots, celery, green onions, and herbs. I had how I only need one of two of them for a recipe and the rest go to waste. Even when I plan really carefully for the weeks meals, we aren't able to finish off the rest of the stuff. So, I make a whole bunch of soups to use up most of the leftover vegetables. I hope that sometime in the next year I will be able to find a used upright freezer for under $200 so that I don't have to play tetris when I get something from or put something in the freezer. After a week's worth of cooking and many games of tetris, he has a freezer full of soups that should last him several months. This variety should keep him happy.

Carrot Soup

Blueberry Lemonade Soup

Zucchini-Potato Soup

Creamy Cucumber Soup

Tomato & Bread Soup

Delicious Sausage Soup

Minestrone

Hearty Bean & Vegetable Soup

Chilled Avocado & Mint Soup

Remodeling our great room

Before moving back to our house, we had about two months to fix or change anything and move slowly. We made the decision that we wanted to change the flooring in our great room from carpet to laminate wood flooring. While we were at it, we switched out the baseboards for a larger and nicer design.

Since we wanted to spend less money on the project, we decided to do the work ourselves. We thought that we had tools we could borrow from others if we didn't already have them. Unfortunately, we found that many times what we had or borrowed didn't work as anticipated. So, Andy got a bunch of new tools including a table saw, reciprocating saw, (larger) nail gun, air compressor, and shop vac. Here are some pictures of his new toys that we are oh so glad that we purchased after getting over the sticker shock.

Those two were part of a package deal. He was really excited that the air compressor has a removable chest and is on wheels!

Do you see that big grin??

This buddy is my friend. I don't remember having used one but quickly found out that it was worth its weight in gold (well, maybe not at $1000+/ounce). I can't imagine our mini construction project with out it.

So, over many weekends, interrupted by other small projects, we put the floor in. I laid out the flooring pattern, Andy made the cuts, and we worked together to put in the pieces. Andy finished the quarter round and transition pieces once we moved in to the house.

Before:

During:

We removed the carpet, and Andy worked hard to rip up the carpet tacks and baseboards.

We readied the concrete foundation and laid down this black plastic with the help of friends.

Then, the foam underlayment went down and I started laying out the laminate pieces.

Finally, we are making progress!!!

However, each time we would make good progress, we would find that there was something wrong with a current or previous row. So, we'd have to remove that part to figure out what was wrong. It was two steps forward, one step back. But then finally we were finished with the flooring and moved in to the house.

Finished project:

Great room and kitchen

Living room

Dining room

And now that we've finished that project and have all of these wonderful tools, clearly, we need another project...can't you hear Andy groaning... At least the other projects on our list are smaller and are not immediately necessary.