Nurturing Myself

I slept and slept, both yesterday and late into the morning. It took a bit of practice to get out of the bed.

Made a pot of my "cheater" coffee: the $1/can of cheap, generic crap with the yellow label with 1/4 can of good beans, ground and mixed into it. It's quite satisfying; I save money, but don't feel deprived of good-flavored coffee.

Fried some bacon ends & pieces. I get 3 lbs. for $3, and it's Farmer John: mapley, smokey, meaty chunks... not just fat and salt. Fried an over easy egg. Warmed up a cheese Danish from the 1/2 price box I bought on trash day. A most satisfying, flavorful and decadent breakfast. It's so nice to eat as much as I want of something, now and again, and not feel guilty. I ration food; I'm afraid to eat too much and have to go hungry at the end of the month. But I make myself one big breakfast each week. I have ten 1-lb boxes of cereals to eat; paid a buck each for them.

I decided I HAD to work today, in spite of the pain...or maybe because of it. I washed my Hoby sail with a blue plastic kids' tent I use to cover the washer. I washed work towels. I washed my bed cover. Two loads.

I'm hoping to slowly strip the bed for the rest of the day & put clean linens on it. My arms are so sore, it's going to hurt to shake pillows out of cases and tuck in sheets.

I watered my garden as I washed clothes, of course. The plants in the green house are very happy; some are recovering from the traumas of summer and are looking plump and glossy again.

Porkchop and my cats "helped," of course. So did my neighbor's cat, whom I call Bug Eyes.

I listened to Folk Roots on KUNM as I worked. Folk and classical music are the BEST for chores!

Straightened up the yard a bit.

Then, I started a pot of potatos to boil and put one of my $1/lb pork tenderloins in a bread pan and sprinkled Cajun seasoning and lemon pepper on it. I baked it an hour. I put a pan of mixed vegetables in a can of chicken broth in, too.

I made gravy with the pork juice and broth. I mashed the potatoes.

I ate about four bites of pork with a HUGE pile of taters and vegies. I ate the pork last. It's a trick: I don't load up on meat, but on meat-flavored carbs and vegies. I eat the meat LAST to trick my mouth into thinking it ate a whole pig. I still have the sensation of that pork on my tongue and upper pallet. Feels like I ate a LOT of meat. I could have eaten that whole tenderloin in one sitting. Thought about it, too. I've got 2 more in the freezer.

But I need that meat to last until the 8th of next month. I still have some frozen "dog food" burger, some fresh burger, too.

I've got $10 food stamps left. I'm trying REALLY HARD not to spend it this month. On November 1st, Halloween chocolate will go on sale at deeply discounted prices.

I HATE Wal*Mart. But they've put in a super center about 3 miles down the road and not far from the bus stop. Super center means they have a grocery dept. now. That means, they are REQUIRED to accept food stamps. No super center? No foodstamps, even though all wal*marts sell food items.

So, I'll go on Nov. 1st and buy as much chocolate as I can to freeze for baking, fudge making, etc. That way, neither wal*mart nor the chocolate manufacturers make any money off of me, and I don't have to feel guilty about the child slaves, because I'm not paying for their exloitation.

I rarely just buy a chocolate bar to eat "straight." Too expensive. But chocolate mixed with marshmallows is fudge. There's cookies. There's popcorn, pretzels and nuts, drizzled with chocolate. There's chocolate crepes with cream cheese. There's chocolate dipped frozen bananas....you get the picture.

Halloween is the first of my "chocolate holidays" for the year, the last being Easter.

So, I'm rationing my food very carefully this month for chocolate, next month and December for cheap: turkey, ham and, if I'm extremely lucky, prime rib. Also, Nov. and Dec. are good months to buy: powdered, brown and cane sugars, candied fruits, corn syrup, and lots of other baking goods.

Seems the only home cooking people do anymore is for Thanksgiving and the winter holidays. Stores will have sales on baked goods, to get guilty working mothers into the stores. And I'll stock up for the year.

So, for 3 months, I'll be stretching everything as hard as I can, so I can get supplies for next year and also get some TREATS!

Prime rib is my favorite, 4 legged food. Duck and goose are my fav. 2 legged...sometimes, THEY go on sale in winter! Turkeys will be so cheap in a few more weeks!

So, I'm eating up everything I can from my reserves, rather than buy anything new. I hope to have the freezer emptied of that last meat, the frozen breads, the strawberries I rescued from the trash last year. I want that freezer emptied for expensive meats. Sure wish I had another refrigerator. Utilities are included here, and it's winter, so it wouldn't need MUCH electricity under my shade tarps.

ANYway, I sure made a kick butt dinner tonight, and everybody got a taste of mashed taters and gravy. I've got enough left for 5 more meals.....and the whole thing cost me about $2.00!