Taxes & Simple Meals

Hello, friends.  Last week, I gathered some of our butternut squash, and made curried butternut lentil soup for a dinner.  I decided to prep the rest of the butternut squash, made a crumble with half, and froze the rest.  Kale was harvested for a salad.  All but one broccoli died during the cold temps, but I was able to harvest some small shoots from it this week, which were blanched and frozen.  I received a Rakuten cash back check for $19.74.  A box of groceries was dropped off at the local food pantry.  All of it was picked up at grocery markdown or Dollar Tree.  I filed my first dental claim with Medicare, after a cleaning.  I don't know if they'll cover any of it, but it's worth a try.  I see a holistic dentist, who doesn't take insurance, so we'll see.  

I picked up a 2L bottle in our ditch, and plan to recycle it as a wintersown container.  I'm not happy about all the trash that gets thrown in our ditch, but at least this can be re-used.  A jar of crowder peas was pulled from the pantry, for a dinner with brown rice and salad.  I finished working on our tax prep, and we dropped it off at our tax preparer.  That's always a load off my shoulders.  Veggie scraps were taking over the freezer, so I pulled out 6 1/2 gallon bags and simmered them on the woodstove, then canned broth the next day.  I baked another round of chocolate chip cookies for J.  The peas have started coming up in the garden.  I plan to resow lettuce and parsley this week.  We were surprised to run out of rainwater last week.  After just a few days, the toilet is already staining orange.  There's a good bit of rain in the forecast, so we hope to soon be back on rainwater.

My sister and I spent a day together.  We did our usual thrifting.  Other than a vest for myself, I bought a canister for the shop, and several needed kitchen items and a pretty, sunflower needlepoint I'll make a pillow with for the skoolie.  We also went by a discount grocery, where I got four containers of dijon mustard, 2 quarts of organic apple juice, and seven dried organic fruit snacks for $11 and change.  My niece's house is our meeting point, and I dropped off a spider plant baby for her while there, which was mentioned when she and her Mom were at my house recently.  All the homegrown broccoli was pulled from the freezer for a simple dinner, which we had with potatoes and rutabaga.  I started the 28-day raw food cleanse on Saturday.  He does say if you feel the need for cooked food, to have some steamed veggies, then you can pick it back up.  I'm going to be easy on myself, and if I want cooked food or just want to stop at any point, I figure that any part of it is better than not doing it.  I know with the 9-day one I usually do, I'm usually jonesing for potatoes after about Day 7.  We'll see how it goes.  Wishing you a most lovely week.