WIS, WWA | the dirtiest Pyrex ever
First up, here is what is possibly the dirtiest item I have grabbed from the abandoned house.
It's made by Pyrex and the internet says that people used to use this both for baking and as a jello mold.
I cleaned it up, brought it home, and then when Sonia saw it, she remembered the mandarin orange jello that is childhood favorite of mine.
And when I looked at the recipe, I realized that I could make it Sonia-friendly by just subbing whipped cream for the dream whip!
So, we are having this jello tonight, maybe even in the freshly-clean vintage mold. If we do, I promise I will take a photo so that we can have a satisfying before and after of this piece of Pyrex.
What I Spent
I spent $25 on a Hungry Harvest box, and $53 at the grocery store.
What We Ate
Saturday
I had planned to try that Thai red curry noodle soup on Friday, but it got bumped to Saturday.
Our verdict on the new-to-us recipe: it was good, but for some reason, the noodle proportion seemed a bit high (a problem I now see some of the commenters had as well.)
So next time I make this, I might actually halve the amount of rice noodles in order to ensure a more soupy experience.
Sunday
We had a fend-for-yourself type of night, largely because this was the night my sister-in-law and I did a big trip to rescue things from the abandoned house.
PRIORITIES, people, priorities. 😉
Monday
We had a rotisserie chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, and cranberry sauce, with steamed broccoli on the side.
Tuesday
This is the girls' class night, so we ate in shifts; some of us had soup, some of us ate ham sandwiches.
Wednesday
This was Sonia's birthday, so I made her absolute favorite dish, which is chicken katsu.
Thursday
We had a game night with my parents and my younger brother's family. My mom made soup, and we had a salad, plus cheesecake-topped brownies made by my sister-in-law (who is an expert dessert-maker).
Friday
We are having quesadilla burgers, a green salad, and mandarin orange jello.
My goodness by Friday I am always hopeless at remembering what I had made. Here goes.
1. I cooked corned (salt) beef. ON the first time we had baked potato, carrots, cabbage and onion stir fried with white sauce. The next time it was served with jacket potato, carrots, broccoli and cheese sauce.
2. Homemade pea and ham soup.
3. Chicken and black bean with rice.
4. Fillet steak with mashed potato and whatever veg I could find.
@Suzan,
What is the difference between a jacket potato and a baked potato? I always thought they were the same - that the name was just regional..
What games do you plan on game night?
@Dawne, I would recommend Telestrations (it is a combination of the old "Telephone" game and Pictionary) It is a hit for all age groups and you don't have to be good at drawing to play. Everyone we've ever played it with has gone out and bought themselves one.
My brother's kids are all pretty young (grade school and below), so...I played Candy Land with his youngest. And the older kids like to play Sequence, Pit, and Five Crowns.
@Kristen,
Game suggestion The Uzzle.
I bought it for our family Santa gift this past Christmas. It has been a hit in our house. Kids can play it along with adults (it’s for ages 4-??). You decide how long to play it. I just ordered 2 extra sets ( game only comes with enough for 4 players). If you or any other readers order use the code
Love20 for 20% off and they should also show for free.
That is the worst-looking dish I have ever seen, and I say that as someone who cleaned up dishes and pans after a housefire. Do they come clean in the dishwasher or are you washing by hand? If by hand, I hope you are wearing gloves! And maybe a hazmat suit. 🙂
My shopping last week came to around $100 for two week's worth of groceries. But that's for just me.
What I ate:
My kids gave me two birthday meals, bless them.
First was very tasty steak, asparagus, parsnip fries, mac n' cheese and rolls (the mac n' cheese and rolls were for four little ones who aren't excited by asparagus and parsnip fries).
Next was well-seasoned and cooked wild duck breast with fresh green beans and baked sweet potatoes.
I want to add that one daughter took me to a local pizza place for lunch on Saturday for my un-birthday , where I had a delicious, customized chef salad, made by a teen granddaughter who works there. It was delivered to my table with love and hugs.
On my own, I made:
A burger using cassava tortillas for the bun, along with more parsnip fries and fresh carrots pulled from my carrot patch.
On Shrove Tuesday, aka Mardi Gras, I had gluten-free pancakes and homemade sausage, because that's my Shrove Tuesday tradition.
On Ash Wednesday, I fasted through most of the day, but ended the fast with a frozen dinner from Paleo on the Go, which is AIP compliant. Since I also visited DH and got home quite late that day, a quick frozen meal seemed like the best idea.
Skinless/boneless chicken thighs baked in garlicky lemon butter, and sautéed Swiss chard also cooked with garlic. I like garlic. Applesauce rounded out the meal.
Tonight will probably be center cut ham slices from a local farmer.
So far, we have just washed everything by hand. I think this stuff would not come off without some physical scrubbing!
I am so glad you are being spoiled for your birthday.
@Kristen, happy birthday to Sonia, and @JD, happy late birthday to you!
And I too am impressed that the Pyrex dish came clean with only physical scrubbing. In fact, I was surprised to learn that it was Pyrex; I thought at first glance that it was aluminum!
@A. Marie,
I thought it was unglazed stoneware at first!
@Kristen,
I can't imagine the color of the dishwater after cleaning that.
My kids did a great job!
Wow, your menus this week sound great and that Pyrex mold is a FIND. This week at my house:
Monday - (freezer) Buttermilk Baked Chicken, masheds, side salad
Tuesday - Take-out to save time! I had the slammer meal at Short Stop which is basically a chicken sammie with gravy, cheese, and jalapenos. They also give you fries and an apple pie. Decidedly not healthy but so good! {evening counseling session}
Wednesday - Wine Wednesday with The Girl got cancelled...I ate a pork chop, with onions and peppers, some green beans, and a sweet potato at home and it was really good
Thursday - Fried Chicken, power blend grains with veggies (I originally planned tilapia, but I am taking it for lunch Friday instead)
Tonight - Turkey and dressing freezer meal, a frozen green veggie
Saturday - TBD but I am picking up my wines from recent pick-ups I missed, and bringing The Girl along so she gets tastings}
Sunday - One Pan Chicken and Rice with olives and lemon {decorate for Spring!}
Its been a roaringly hard week and I am so looking forward to the weekend!!!
I'm loving the old treasures you've found! I can't wait to see the cleaned up Pyrex.
Sunday I think we had grilled salmon, salad and potatoes.
Monday we had to eat up the rest of the roasted potatoes so we had those with crab cakes, some popcorn shrimp and a salad.
Tuesday was homemade pizza, some roasted cauliflower and a small salad
Wednesday we had pulled pork tacos with beans and rice, slaw
Last nigh we had pasta with roasted cauliflower and mushrooms. It turned out great! Also a salad.
Tonight we're either having leftover pasta or maybe some sort of chicken tacos.
I've been buying more produce at Sam's because, even though the amounts are larger, it seems to last longer than most of what I buy at the grocery store. Has anyone else noticed this?
Monday - Leftover pizza from the weekend
Tuesday - seared chicken cutlets, casarecce pasta with homemade pesto, and sweet kale salad
Wednesday - a quick first cook on my new Blackstone griddle before the husband went out of town - burgers with toasted buns (FG recipe), Aldi fries, peas
Thursday - homemade sloppy Joes on toasted buns, leftover fries, corn (saving a bit of corn and peas to try fried rice on th Blackstone)
Friday - not sure yet, possibly fried rice, maybe some other pantry staple.
Happy birthday to Sonia!
Saturday: Smothered burritos at the basketball game concessions stand. Our school does do very good concessions food.
Sunday: Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green salad with ranch dressing, no-churn vanilla ice cream
Monday: Leftovers, garlic bread, raw cabbage
Tuesday: Beef stew, cheese
Wednesday: Tuna salad sandwiches, tomato soup, Cheetos Paws (courtesy of our neighbor, who is incapable of seeing my children and not giving them snacks), custard. Half the family was sick, and in our house, illness always means a custard.
Thursday: Leftovers.
Tonight: Not sure. I was supposed to go to a hotel for my one-night-every-few-years off, but I'm still waiting to see if my husband is going to be recovered enough from his illness to handle all four kids. It's a Friday in Lent, though, which means no meat, and both husband and eldest son are proficient omelet makers, so even if I am here, I think I'll delegate the omelets to someone else.
My fave is just cottage cheese, orange Jello - straight out of the packet, coconut and pecans. Mix it all together and try to make it last a few days.
WWS: $33 (will be reimbursed for a mystery shop), so $0 out of pocket. WWA:
Sat: eggplant schnitzel with roasted red pepper & capers (Rachel Ray/Food Network); beet salad; roasted potato peels
Sun: tofu red curry with carrots, broccoli & red peppers; rice
Mon: broccoli and cheddar quiche; salad with mustard vinaigrette
Tues: I ate on the road
Wedn: leftover chicken provençal
Thur: meatball & tortellini soup from freezer
Fri: lemongrass chicken thighs with Sriracha-Brown Sugar Sauce (Modern Proper); rice; roasted cabbage; sliced cucumbers with Ippudo dressing
Well, that is a VERY frugal week for you!
Happy Birthday Sonia! I really need to make chicken katsu- I think it would be a hit at our house. Last week we had:
Saturday- takeout from Chic-fil-A
Sunday- appetizer night- this week was chicken taquitos from the freezer with chips, salsa, guacamole
Monday- soup from the freezer with homemade sourdough bread, fruit plate
Tuesday- chicken Caesar salad with homemade croutons, Greek yogurt parfaits with mango & toasted coconut
Wednesday- grilled pork chops, green beans, rice, fruit
Thursday- chicken Parmesan, spaghetti, spaghetti squash, wedge salad
Friday- pizza night
83 dollars spent this week!
Monday: Taco salad
Tuesday: fend for yourself night. I had an 12 hour work day.
Ash Wednesday: Fancy cheese sandwhiches. Celery and cream cheese with bagel seasoning and mixed nuts.
Thursday: slow cooker red sauce with ground Turkey sausage, microwave polenta, and salads.
Lent Friday: Cheese pizza and salad from a bag.
Sat: leftover red sauce and polenta. A sheet pan of need to use up roasted veggies. Salad.
Sunday: We had a frozen pizza because we had been at a ski meet for my daughter and it was longer than expected. It's good to have a pizza in the freezer for times like this.
Monday: Turkey meatloaf with rice pilaf and green beans and cranberry sauce. I made a large meatloaf so we would have plenty of leftovers for sandwiches.
Tuesday: Tortellini with pesto. It was the last container of my homemade frozen pesto from the summer. It was delicious but we were all sad. Usually the homemade pesto lasts until April.
Wednesday: Marinated broiled chicken with little baked potatoes and a salad. My grocery store had only these very small russet potatoes (3 inches) so I decided to bake them and they were quite good.
Thursday: Meatball subs and raw veggies. Lots of leftover meatballs for another use!
Friday: We will probably order some take out, which is our Friday thing.
Kristen - Have you posted your chicken katsu recipe? It always looks so good! I searched your blog to no avail. Could you please post the recipe (again?) or post a link to it? I would be very appreciative! I honestly don't remember what I ate for dinner all week (it's been that kind of week) with the exception of last night. Last night, and with no shame, I had a mini bundt cake for dinner. Because I asked the boss of me (which is me) and she said I was allowed. LOL
Oddly, I have not posted it! And I just looked and can't find it online. I will add it to my to-do list.
@Kristen, please please please!!
@sfeather, That sounds like my kind of dinner! 🙂 I had Girl Scout cookies for dinner recently!
Baby has decided that nighttime is for snacking and parties (gah!) so I cooked less this week and finished up some of the stuff in our freezer.
Sunday: Vegetarian chili and cornbread, plus our dinner guest brought muffins for dessert.
Monday: Leftover chili.
Tuesday: I was at my parents and we had pierogies.
Wednesday: Spaghetti and meatballs (from the freezer.)
Thursday: Chicken meatloaf from the freezer, mashed potatoes, and prewashed spinach served from the box with vinaigrette that I make in batches and leave in the fridge.
Friday: We are headed to my in-laws for dinner tonight.
Next week I'll have to start restocking our freezer with easy meals, as I'm going back to work in a few weeks and it'll be good to have some dinners pre-made.
I bet it will be so satisfying to clean that dish! When my brother bought his house it had been kind of abandoned; there were no treasures, it was just filthy. The kitchen was a horror show; the oven was literally caked with at least a quarter-inch layer of grease, and the fridge wasn't much better. It was so satisfying to clean it up, even if I did have to send him to the store twice for more cleaning products!
Monday: Chicken and rice casserole, minus the mushrooms, which meant my youngest ate three bowls and there were no leftovers!
Tuesday: made to order sandwiches (like fish and grilled cheese) and fries.
Wednesday: Ash Wednesday, so we had tuna burgers and fried rice.
Thursday: Hamburger stew in the crockpot
Tonight: Lentil soup
WIS: A hideous amount of money: $182. Of that, $132 was people food. However, we were stocking up on everything except fresh meat, which I did not bother to look at because we had stuff in the freezer that needed to be used.
WWA: A huge pot of delicious tomato-basil spaghetti sauce pumped up with sweet Italian sausage, served over some store-brand pasta that actually hit its best by date in November but tasted just fine. This made a lovely Sunday night supper for us. Dessert was a pan of brownies. My husband ate leftover spaghetti for lunch for four days, when I claimed the remainder to make two lunch plates for myself and popped it in the fridge.
We don't eat much for supper: He had a little bowl of pistachios every night, and I had cheese toast with an apple and a cup of tea.
Replying to myself to correct something: I popped it in the freezer. We'd be dead by now if the spaghetti had been unrefrigerated all this time.
I spent approximately $170 to feed two people —Gulp. This did include a ticket to a luncheon and the food to host a club meeting at my house on Tuesday night. Standard spending was closer to $95, but there was cross over
Saturday - chicken taco salads.
Sunday - too tired to cook after yard work. DH had a stuffed baked potato, and I had tea and toast.
Monday - Steak and Broccolini
Tuesday - Party night at my house. I made a charcuterie board, and I had a king cake since it was Fat Tuesday. Someone found the baby and won the prize. My son fed Rescue Pup and DH while my girlfriends were at my house
Wednesday - Mediterranean fish topped with Spinach, Capers, tomatoes, artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers, and olives — mostly leftovers from Tuesday’s charcuterie board
Thursday - Homemade Sloppy Joe’s made with ground chicken and grilled vegetable salad.
Friday - Having dinner out tonight with extended family.
Wishing everyone a lovely weekend
Happy birthday to Sonia!
Sat/Sun/Monday: Spaghetti and meatballs.
Tuesday: Shrove Tuesday so sourdough pancakes for breakfast and I made so, so, so many that we ate them for dinner, too. The rest went in the freezer because I love to pop them in the toaster for breakfast when the husband eats his favorite gruel.
Wednesday: To my horror, I found a bag of turkey leftover from Thanksgiving. So, turkey tetrazzini.
Thursday: more turkey tetrazzini
Tonight it is my Filet 'o Fish, while husband is having bean soup that a buddy brought over because he made a ton and his wife would not eat it. If the husband hates the soup, there is always more turkey tetrazzini!
The week is a blur, but I do recall:
- Leftover 1/2 sandwich from restaurant meal
- Tomato soup
- Yogurt, peaches, pecans and cinnamon
- Veggie and tofu stir fry
- Plate of veggies: peas, potatoes and mushrooms
- Popcorn and fruit
That's a vintage Pyrex microwave ring mold/cake pan. They go for $20-30 on ebay.
I spent $78 at Aldi and $35 at Walmart
Monday: Queso chicken, Mexican rice, and pinto beans.
Tuesday: Meatloaf, au gratin potatoes, coleslaw
Wednesday: Chinese takeout cashew chicken
Thursday: homemade broccoli cheese soup, buttered french bread
Friday: Mexican
The mandarin/jello thing sounds good....but I just don't know if I can buy and use pudding mixes. Apologies. I grew up with a mother who scorned anything instant and would never in a million years make a casserole with a can of soup. In fact once she chided me for using store-bought ladyfingers in a trifle.
It's a heavy, weary load I bear.
I am loving the before and after pictures from your treasures! I hope to see the Pyrex transformation soon.
Saturday: Leftover chili over leftover tater tots and baked potatoes
Sunday: Ham, corn casserole, and broccoli
Monday: Cheesy scalloped potatoes with ham
Tuesday: Ham and potato soup with a side of strawberries. Weird, I know. But I went to the produce store and they had strawberries for $1.99 per CASE, so when you come home with 24 quarts of strawberries you have to have strawberries with dinner no matter what.
Wednesday: One pot ham and veggie pasta... with strawberries on the side
Thursday: Ham (nearing the end of it!), broccoli with cheese, and strawberries mixed with blueberries
Friday: Pizza and breadsticks. We watched our friends' 3 kids and they gave me all kinds of compliments about my pizza and breadsticks, so I had a wonderful time at dinner!!
We ate:
Meatballs and gravy over noodles with roasted veggie filled puff pastries.
Chicken patties with spicy mayo, salad, and roasted Brussels sprouts.
Turkey sloppy joes with baked fries
Imitation crab salad filled rice balls and salad
Turkey and rice stuffed peppers
BBQ meatballs and loaded baked potatoes
Costco chicken flautas and roasted broccoli
Also I want to add vintage Pyrex is the best and I’m so glad you saved it from the trash!
WIS:
Aldi: 191.52, Hungry Harvest: 30.05, Bon Chon: 78.08, total: 299.65
It was quite high this week because of the take out which was a necessary expense on a contractor-still-working-at-6:30-pm! night, and also the Aldi cost included a 15.00 random crap aisle purchase because sometimes marketing just gets the better of me. Capitalism is successful for a reason, I suppose, but I want credit for all the times I put something down and walked away...slowly, because I was stuck in the checkout line-darn their clever store layout! I think I need random crap aisle blinders, maybe I'll watch for them next week...in the random crap aisle...oh... 😉
WWA:
Sat: salad, sweet and spicy kale, spicy tofu/beans stir fry, Spanish rice, tortillas
Sun: salad, scrambled eggs with peppers, leftover tofu/beans, leftover rice, leftover kale
Mon: salad and leftovers
Tue: salad, frozen cheese pizza and leftover foccacia
Wed: salad, broccoli and two types of Aldi veggie burgers-quinoa and kale to taste test them. We were split about half and half, but candidly, I very much preferred the quinoa ones. We have a few other varieties to try on another night.
Thu: salad and take out (Korean fried chicken, French fries, popcorn shrimp, edamame and coleslaw)
Fri: salad, broccoli and focaccia with pepperoni, tomatoes and cheese
Tonight: salad, brussel sprouts and miso soup with tofu and eggs over rice noodles