I was mistaken... NEXT week is our Really Busy Week! So here's a Friday assortment!
Butternut Squash
Last year I grew my own butternut squash, but my 1' by 4' vertical patch only yielded 10 half-sized squashes (which is actually quite impressive, but not enough to last through the winter). So I bought like 20 full-sized butternut squash at a produce auction for $0.60 each. What a bargain!
Well, last week I had about 10 rotting full-sized butternut squash to do something with. We ate a lot of squash. I also froze several of the squash, so we'll be eating squash for a long time.
The good news: I've discovered a lot of ways to eat squash. My favorite way is to cube it up and roast it in my air fryer/Instant Pot Crisplid. I like the Crisplid for some things, but I don't recommend buying one. It's not even big enough for three of us, let alone an average-sized family. But I still use it because I bought it, and it makes some fantastic squash!! If I were to buy another air fryer, I would buy the biggest model I could find.
The roasted cubes can be added to a lot of meals, or served as a side. In addition to that, I'll also cook some squash with potatoes and mash it all up for a squashy mashed potatoes. It's actually pretty good if you keep the squash at 40% and the potatoes at 60%. Half squash and half potatoes makes the mix a little too... squashy.
There are still some rotting butternut squash in our garage. But I got to thinking...
Is it worth 30 minutes per squash to salvage $0.50 worth of produce? Probably not. So this year I'll take care not to buy as much, and I may end up throwing a few of them on the compost pile during our Really Busy Week.
Bedroom Updates
Over the last 6 months, I've been slowly working on improving our daughter's bedroom. It now has new paint, a rug that I like, some exercise elements, a music element, and I'm working on zippered bedding similar to Beddy's (but a fraction of the cost). I've tried to stick with a Montessori-style design to make things easier for her to use and be responsible for.
One element we added this week was a shelf for her toys. She already has two small shelves, and she's really taken ownership of one shelf, organizing her books and small toys. The new shelf is actually a cloth diaper shelf that my husband made for me several years ago:
Butternut Squash
Last year I grew my own butternut squash, but my 1' by 4' vertical patch only yielded 10 half-sized squashes (which is actually quite impressive, but not enough to last through the winter). So I bought like 20 full-sized butternut squash at a produce auction for $0.60 each. What a bargain!
Well, last week I had about 10 rotting full-sized butternut squash to do something with. We ate a lot of squash. I also froze several of the squash, so we'll be eating squash for a long time.
The good news: I've discovered a lot of ways to eat squash. My favorite way is to cube it up and roast it in my air fryer/Instant Pot Crisplid. I like the Crisplid for some things, but I don't recommend buying one. It's not even big enough for three of us, let alone an average-sized family. But I still use it because I bought it, and it makes some fantastic squash!! If I were to buy another air fryer, I would buy the biggest model I could find.
The roasted cubes can be added to a lot of meals, or served as a side. In addition to that, I'll also cook some squash with potatoes and mash it all up for a squashy mashed potatoes. It's actually pretty good if you keep the squash at 40% and the potatoes at 60%. Half squash and half potatoes makes the mix a little too... squashy.
There are still some rotting butternut squash in our garage. But I got to thinking...
Is it worth 30 minutes per squash to salvage $0.50 worth of produce? Probably not. So this year I'll take care not to buy as much, and I may end up throwing a few of them on the compost pile during our Really Busy Week.
Bedroom Updates
Over the last 6 months, I've been slowly working on improving our daughter's bedroom. It now has new paint, a rug that I like, some exercise elements, a music element, and I'm working on zippered bedding similar to Beddy's (but a fraction of the cost). I've tried to stick with a Montessori-style design to make things easier for her to use and be responsible for.
One element we added this week was a shelf for her toys. She already has two small shelves, and she's really taken ownership of one shelf, organizing her books and small toys. The new shelf is actually a cloth diaper shelf that my husband made for me several years ago:
Within five minutes of securing the shelf, she already had the baskets, dustpan and wooden bowl sitting in the cubbies, Montessori-style! I didn't even encourage her to do that.
She loves cleaning up her room (when I help her) and organizing and arranging her toys. I'm hoping that the different room elements I'm working on will allow her to be more independent and confident.
That's about all for now!
-Bethany
She loves cleaning up her room (when I help her) and organizing and arranging her toys. I'm hoping that the different room elements I'm working on will allow her to be more independent and confident.
That's about all for now!
-Bethany
RSS Feed
