Free Food, Decluttering, "Cream Of"

 Some turn up their nose at the idea of free food. Growing a garden is one idea. Getting surplus from friends or neighbors is good, too. 

Growing one plant in a container works for beginning gardeners or those without space or time or motivation. 

The years I picked up free produce for my chickens were good years. I also ate from that box as did Tommy, taking apples to his house. The owner knew I ate some of the stuff, acknowledged it to me, saying to eat all I wanted from the box he was dumping. 

Now, I grow free food in the window from scraps. Tonight, I saved lots of money by using window-grown onions. Just save the bottom of the onion after using the green tops. Put it in water until roots grow or grow longer. Mine had roots when I put them in water. Now, they can be planted in a pot or in the ground. I just reached up with scissors and snipped off all the tops.  Then, I used scissors to snip them into half-inch pieces. Green onions went into the chicken casserole even though they were not in the recipe. 

By looking for green onions still viable, I grow all the green onions I can use. I just keep cutting off the tops to use. Carrot ends are a good source of carrot tops, greens for flavor and nutrition. At some point I was going to plant them all in one a flowerpot on the porch. But, when I went out one night, roaches were all over the end of the celery I was regrowing for the tops. Now, water in a short glass container in the window works. I will put it in soil before winter because I think it might grow better. I don't know. 

CLICK HERE for a guide to growing 19 different vegetables from scraps.

Last night, I did not get my 7.5 hours of sleep, but that was my fault. I went to bed later than I would have, read longer and then wanted to get up at 10 am to watch Meet the Press. I love that show. So, I took a nap. I am okay with that because I did get my allotment of sleep I need.

The next-door neighbors have decorated their porch for Halloween, the first yard decoration I have seen for the season. The woman on the other side have four extra vehicles where the whole gang came to work in their mother's yard, clearing and hauling to the street. They also put up a huge trampoline in the backyard, right next to the chain link fence for her grandchildren. It looks dangerous to me if someone accidentally bounced off. Maybe they are not through and will move it out a bit or put up a mesh fence. My friend a block away has been lopping and moving the lopped limbs to the road. Everyone has been busy outside, it seems. The mild temps and lack of precipitation and low humidity have inspired people to spend hours working outdoors, it seems.

Tommy is watering the mums and last of the summer flowers. I need to store them somewhere over the winter so that maybe they will bloom next year. 

I have decluttered a bit more. Tommy has plenty of hangers, but he wants to keep every last one, all the hangers from dry cleaning. A few wire ones are good to keep, but too many is ridiculous. There was a pair of rubber rain pants in that box. He says they are too long, coming all the way above his chest. Well, they are about half the waist size he needs, too. So, those will go. That makes one more box empty. 

A basket of soups was retrieved from the back bedroom to replenish the kitchen supply. I think I will start making my own "cream of" soups. Even the healthy request type has enough sodium to kill a person. Now, there is a space in that room that was filled before. 

The chicken thighs were actually legs stuffed in closely, so I only saw round shapes and thought they were thighs. When I remove food from the freezer, sometimes I mistake what cut of chicken I have. There is sage and a bay leaf cooking with those in the crockpot. The breasts, rice, soup, and broccoli are in the oven. 

I put the chicken in first instead of last. Then, when I put in the soup and broccoli, I forgot the rice. It will be okay and the whole dish will cook, but I will have to add water and cook it all a bit differently since the rice went on the top. To top it all off, I forgot to put foil over the pan. THEN, I could not squeeze the foil tight because the glass casserole was too hot. There will be dinner and legs for the refrigerator for Tommy. 

Dinner turned out fine, delicious! 

There are recipes for the "cream of" mixes online. Do you have a different one? 

Have you taken advantage of less than torrid conditions to do outdoor work this week or do you have plans as the temps rise again?

What vegetables do you regrow from scraps?