My 2021 Challenge

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alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: My 2021 Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

My Amazon order came the other day. I had ordered blue corn tortilla chips and gluten free Almond crackers. Also ordered an 88 Fluid Oz bottle of ALL detergent and two steel muffin tins. They came close to weighting 2 lbs. For some reason someone in their warehouse decided it would be ok to put everything in the same box without any kind of packing materials. The packing box also had been damaged with one corner being dented in. Needless to say the crackers and the tortilla chips were crushed. I contacted Amazon and they are going to send replacements. I made nacho's with the tortilla chips but had to eat them with a fork since they were nothing but crumbs. The crackers were also mostly crumbs or broken into multiple sections. I will use them when I make salmon patties.

I have been working on my inventory and relocating items for better organization. I thought I was organized but I guess I am not..lol.

The other day I made a Walmart curbside pickup order primarily for pork roast for Teddi as well as a small meat stock up for the month. As mentioned before they were out of a some things I wanted. The pork roast they subbed in for Teddi, with my permission, was Horrible!! I am not one to buy roasts and did not know that the sub they mentioned was primarily a joint with a huge slab of fat. After baking it I had a lot of difficulty in removing the meat from the bone to try to cut up the little knobs of meat. I weighed the fat and bones and they came to almost 2 lbs! Why anyone would buy this cut of meat I do not know? It t was a total waste of money. I had my aide go to Walmart on Tuesday and she was able to find 2 of the small boneless roasts that I use for him. She said they did not have much of a selection in the pork department. Also the chicken strips they put in my order were too close to the Sell by date. ie the very next day. I am going to have to bite the bullet and go in and shop for myself when it comes to meat products. The rest of the order was fine.

Currently I am doing ok with what I have in the house although before the end of the month I will need some dairy and maybe fresh veggies or fruit. My aide brought me a mixed variety of fruit cups (6) single servings, from one of her other clients. Also 2 small boxes of single serve raisins from her grandkids school lunch's from their summer program.

Today I made Irish soda bread using a gluten free pizza crust mix. The company that makes the mix had a recipe to make the subs. I am waiting for it to cool down. It smells good. I hope it tastes as good as it smells. I even have some KerryGold butter from Ireland to smear on it. Yum. I am suppose to eat butter made from grass fed cows for my leaking gut and their butter is so yummy.
Janet Alliesmama
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: My 2021 Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

The gluten free Irish soda bread made with a gluten free pizza crust mix was good. Not authentic but still a nice change since I am out of bread. The only thing is it made a lot and it is way too many carbs for me as a diabetic to be consuming so I will be freezing some for later.
Janet Alliesmama
HappyDaze
Posts: 4186
Joined: Tue Oct 15, 2019 11:11 am

Re: My 2021 Challenge

Post by HappyDaze »

alliesmama4 wrote: Sat Aug 07, 2021 8:41 pm The gluten free Irish soda bread made with a gluten free pizza crust mix was good. Not authentic but still a nice change since I am out of bread. The only thing is it made a lot and it is way too many carbs for me as a diabetic to be consuming so I will be freezing some for later.
Janet, that Irish soda bread sounds yummy - I love how you think "outside the box" and come up with so many goodies to make! It's a shame about your Amazon order - but at least they will replace the items and you can use the smashed ones for other things.
"All his life he tried to be a good person. Many times, however, he failed. After all, he was only human. He wasn't a dog."

Charles M. Schultz
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: My 2021 Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

HappyDaze wrote: Wed Aug 11, 2021 4:16 pm Janet, that Irish soda bread sounds yummy - I love how you think "outside the box" and come up with so many goodies to make! It's a shame about your Amazon order - but at least they will replace the items and you can use the smashed ones for other things.
Thanks Sheila.

Well the crackers came in the mail and were ok. The blue corn tortilla chips were thrown in a box with 4 cans of tuna.. Sooooo half of a bag of crumbs.. I will not be ordering anything that fragile again. I am only saving a few pennies buying from Amazon. Not worth the aggravation. I did not bother to notify them not worth the extra work.
Janet Alliesmama
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: My 2021 Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

I am writing this in between storms. I am so over summer and storms. We had a heat index of (108 F) (42.22 C) before the storm rolled in around 3:30 PM. Teddi and I made a quick trip out to the mailbox before the storms started. I stopped to pick up a few peaches that were on the ground. Also checked some on the trees. I am hoping to start to can some of them this week-end. I will can some as fruit in a light sugar base and will make some peach chutney. Also want to make a few 1/2 pints of peach jam. i rarely eat jam but it would be nice to have a few jars on hand. I like to buy or make plain yogurt and add a tablespoon of all fruit jam to it. I cannot stand store bought yogurt with fruit already in it. It is just too sweet.

I have lots of canning jar. I had some of my own and my DSIL gave me hers when they sold the farm. I already have a lot of rings and have been slowly buying lids when I could as a fill in with some of my Amazon orders. There had been a shortage of canning items during the pandemic so added slowly to my stock when I could and the demand was not so great. So really there will not be any more expense to make the food other than a few bits to make the chutney.

I noticed that one of the limbs on my pear tree is so heavy with pears it broke the homemade rope I had crocheted for it. I will have to remove some of the pears and make more rope. The excess pears will be thrown out in to the woods for the critters. They have been doing a great job eating the fruit that has been dropping. However there are too many pears to be culled and left in the orchard.

There are a lot of wild grapes. They still need to ripen but they are so fragile not sure if the strong winds we are having with the storms will allow them to stay on the vines. Anyway I hope to do some more harvesting of fruit this year if my old body can keep up the pace.

The internet repair tech showed up today. He was mad about the poor care I have received in the past. He called his company in my presence to tell them that the 2 other tech's did not do their jobs. He could not do anything today since he has to have the utility company come out and mark the area for safety. They cannot come until Aug 18th and he is so short of help he is not sure when he can reschedule. He is covering two states, 5 districts. He said people do not want to work. They work for a couple of days and quit because they do not want to drive any kind of distance. Today he was in northeast IL before coming here to me in Southwest IL. Then he had to go in to Missouri to another town a couple of hours away and then he had to come back to southern IL again all before being able to make it home by 8:00 PM tonight during all of these storms. Feel sorry for him that there are so many people who do not seem to have any kind of work ethics anymore.

I am off to take a muscle relaxer and some pain medicine and hope to sleep tonight. I did not get to sleep until after 3:00 AM this morning.

Teddi has finally calmed down since I have given him 3 doses of the botanicals. The storms arrived hours ahead of time and sort of snuck up on us.
Janet Alliesmama
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: My 2021 Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

The storms yesterday sort of cooled us down. It is ( 85 F ) (29.44 C ) and feels like (87 F) ( 30.55 C) but that is still hot. Although when I was checking my peaches it was nice in the shade. Later, early evening, I will go out and cull a lot of the pears that are too heavy for my pear tree. It is in full sunlight and does not give a lot of shade since it is still a young tree. Over the week-end I will look in the basement to see if I have any rope. If I do not have any rope I will crochet some extra heavy yarn to tie the branch up. I will have to wait for my aide. I am getting too old to be out on a ladder tying up branches by myself.

While checking my peach trees realized that some of the branches are dead and I will take some yarn out to mark them for winter when I will do some pruning. During the winter, when everything is dormant it is difficult to tell what is a living branch and one that is dormant. I may have to call in a professional to prune my apple tree. It is too tall for me to even try to prune it and the branches are too many to allow for good growth of apples.

For breakfast I finished the last of my sausage gravy over one small square of the Irish soda bread I made the other day. I have been storing it in the freezer and pull a small amount from time to time. I had some last night with my chili.

For lunch I had some of the blue corn tortillas with chili, cheese, and a few pickled jalapeno peppers. I have been chopping the jalapeno's into smaller pieces to get more mileage out of my last jar of pickled jalapeno peppers. I actually like getting a smaller bite of them more often from time to time instead of getting a whole slice in a random bite. So I will continue to chop them. A little bit more work but saves money and actually more enjoyable eating. Although I had to eat the nacho's with a fork due to poor packing from Amazon.

Dinner is going to be a quick stir fry of chicken breast. Then add the last little of a free zucchini. I also have some free onion that I will cook with the zucchini. Then add a can of stewed tomatoes and serve it all with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese.

Mid afternoon snack was plain yogurt that I mixed with some kind of chocolate spread mixed in. My aide brought it to me from a giveaway. It was different. Not something I would buy however it satisfied my sweet tooth. There was only enough for one serving. So tonight for my dessert follow dinner I will have some plain yogurt mixed with 1/2 of a fruit cup that my aide brought to me from another client. So grateful she thinks to bring me the extra things that no one wants to keep. I will keep the other half of the fruit cup and have it with yogurt for my 9:00 PM snack.

Today my aide brought me a lovely pink summer top that one of her clients did not want. It looks new and she said it was but the lady decided she did not want to keep it. She said If I did not want to keep it to just put it in my own donation box.
Janet Alliesmama
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