Garage Sale Week
Garage Sale? Am I crazy? Most likely so. What sane person ever has more than one garage sale??
Every few years, I decide it's time to participate in the neighborhood garage sale. The sale happens every year on the first weekend in May. Here in South Texas, we have it in early May — before the weather gets too hot.
Except the weather did not cooperate this year. We hit 100 degrees either Friday or Saturday last week. Maybe both days. With high humidity. Worse, there are more 100+ days predicted for this month. None of that bodes well for the summer here. Last year we barely had any days with 100 degrees. I'm hoping that this May isn't a prelude for the rest of the summer!
After all of the craziness of the previous week, I wasn't sure having the garage sale was a good idea. We had more to get done than we had time for. In spite of that, we decided to make the best of it. My goal was to help as many things as possible find new owners. And, by that measure, it was a success. There's still many things needing new homes, but this was a good start.
Meal planning and prep were not high on our list, though. So I planned dishes that would provide ample leftovers. We also had an angel friend gift us dinner one night. So DoorDash delivered that meal.
What I cooked
Here are some of the dishes I made in the last week.
Cauliflower, Golden Beets & Carrots: Cut up the cauliflower into bite-sized pieces. Slice the carrots. Cut up the beets into roughly 1/2 inch pieces. Mix with olive oil, minced garlic, salt and parmesan cheese. Roast at 350 for 25-30 minutes. This dish made 8 servings.
Sugar Snap Peas: These are delicious and super easy to make. I started with about 2 pounds of Sugar Snap Peas. Washed them and cut off the ends, pulling the strings off as well. Heat olive oil, add garlic powder. Then add the peas and some salt. After about 5 minutes, add about half a cup of water to the pan, cover and cook for 10-15 more minutes. This dish made 8 servings.
Multi-colored Cauliflower: Wash and trim, if needed. Mix with olive oil, minced garlic, salt and parmesan cheese. Roast at 350 for 25-30 minutes. Made about 6 servings.
My point?
Even crazy busy weeks include mostly home-cooked meals. Sure, it took a bit of time to cook these dishes. But each dish was prepared just once and then provided several meals. It would have taken more time to go out to eat or even to get take out.
I'm not a stickler on ALWAYS cooking at home. I'm not that crazy. I prefer that most of my meals are home-cooked. Too often restaurants are more concerned with their cost than the food value. Cooking at home means I can choose healthy, traditional oils over the highly processed vegetable and canola oils that are used too often and are not the healthiest for us.
We did go out to eat on Friday night. Going out to eat on Friday night has been a tradition for the 28 years we've been together. Why should this Friday be any different?
P.S. No, we're not vegetarian. Hubby typically cooks the meats out on the grill. It's a good division of labor!
Garage Sale
By the way, I'm over the garage sale thing. At least until I forget about this one. It was a good start at decluttering. I still have no idea what to do with most of what is left, though.
Does anyone, local to me, need a 5-Drawer Lateral File Cabinet? 😻
You’re my hero! Our neighborhood has a garage sale every two years … I participated once… I’ll donate or gift forevermore! Too much stress and way too many thefts! Saving all the recipes … yummy stuff right there! Thanks kiddo! Neta Z