This one will have to be short, but I did want to mention it.
I came from a family that ate cold cereals for breakfast. We were never allowed "sugar cereals" such as the obvious Froot Loops and Cap'n Crunch (not that we didn't try asking!) The selection was either Cheerios, bran flakes, or Wheat Chex, or something along those lines, with lowfat milk.
These days, I still occasionally crave a crunchy bowl of Wheat Chex, but cereal buying is one small area I've changed completely from my former practices. In the past couple years, I've been carefully reading labels due in part to blood sugar issues and also in wanting to be aware of what foods have preservatives and high fructose corn syrup.
It was an eyeopener that a lot of cold cereals touted as "healthy" have a lot of sugar in them...a lot.
The other concern is what we get for our money....Packaging, and very little else. If you lift the inner bag from the eye-catching cereal box, you basically get a small amount of actual cereal slumped forlornly in the lower half of the bag, and if you read the "serving size" it may vary from 1/2 cup portion to maybe 1 cup portion size. And though we all need to watch our portion sizes, you just don't get a LOT of cereal usually for the money spent.
I seldom see any cereal on the shelf in a family-sized box for less than 4 or 5 dollars. For a single grocery item, in our house, that's off my chart...and I'm feeling cheaper by the minute! I see a lot of young families cruising the cereal aisle ( and it's an entire aisle, yes) at the store and the children being asked what they want for the breakfast cereal.
Well, I'll cut to the chase. Except for the rare occasion, we just don't buy cold cereals any more. We either eat hot cereals or we make our own granola, or granola spin-off. We also just don't buy dairy much any more, either.
We use regular oatmeal...any kind that's on sale without any fillers and preservatives, for a lot of things. Instead of those little flavored packets that have nothing but a few tablespoons of oatmeal and a lot of artificial flavorings, we just make a quick bowl of real oatmeal and stir in real spices, sweetners, nuts, fruits, whatever suits. For days when we do want cold cereal with milk (those days are fewer and farther between), oatmeal is the base ingredient in granola I've made and kept in jars...and can be as simple as just the oatmeal and dried fruit or as complex as multiple grains/nuts/sweeteners/fruits/spices. There are limitless easy granola recipes online, and they are fast and easy.
Oatmeal is one of the ingredients it usually does pay to purchase in the generic label or in larger quantities if you eat cereal a lot. I have yet to do a comparison ounce to ounce with cold cereals cost-wise, but I KNOW it comes out to pennies for a serving of oatmeal, and a WHOLE lot more for boxed cold cereal.
There are plenty of other seed and grain options out there besides oatmeal too, especially for hot cooked cereals.
A sprinkling of dried cranberries or a drizzle of real maple syrup is so much more satisfying and healthy a flavoring than chemical flavor counterfeits that come in boxed cereals. I make up individual portion packets of oatmeal and dried fruits, with a pinch of brown sugar and cinnamon, for Jack to take to work for a warm cereal on those cold night shifts. Just open a sandwish bag, add boiling water, stir for a few seconds and let it soften about a minute...a better tasting hot oatmeal than any flavor packet. Add a handful of chopped nuts for added protein for those who like some crunch.
Anyway, avoiding the cold cereal aisle has trimmed our budget dramatically, but we don't have to go without REAL cereal...a few simply steps take hardly any additional preparation time, and are really worth the money saved.
Plus..there are a lot of other foods to have for breakfast...!
Any thoughts?
Showing posts with label Frugality. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Frugality. Show all posts
Friday, January 7, 2011
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Food Budgeting Part Four: Quantity and Bulk
This one seems the most obvious, right? Yet for the tighter budgets, bulk and quantity purchases have to be planned for carefully.
Quantity and bulk buying...we eased into this in the past few years. I felt as rich as a queen when I had that additional margin, no matter how small, in the food budget! I'd love to hear your own tips (and am enjoying the ones already shared in comments!) about your own bulk and quantity buying. Here are a few things we think along these lines at this point:
1. It's always best from a garden first. Our own garden, preferably! It's not always guaranteed, however. Crop failures are just a part of the vagaries of each new year, so the garden that dealt out copious zucchini and tomato bumper crops might not happen the following year. Or, like us, changes in circumstances might mean the LACK of a garden some years. Having preserved the surplus from past times of plenty always is a big help. Those seeds get a much better return for the money as far as quantity than a buck at the store does, usually, and you know what has gone into your food...and what hasn't. That said, it IS possible to have the $42 tomato plant if not keeping garden inputs to low-or-no-cost, except for sweat and elbow grease.
2. Farmer's markets, especially at the end of the day or when they're overrun with a particular crop...can be a real deal, and you get to know your local small farmers! Unfortunately, we have rarely had the chance around these parts to do exactly that. Our farmers market is on Saturdays, which is the day we don't buy or sell (Jewish sabbath) and we miss out on that particular opportunity in our particular town. But there are also produce stands we DO frequent. A couple notes on that...not all produce advertised as "field grown" or "local" always is. We've noticed that some folks here claiming "local" are really re-selling imported or trucked-in goods from other states, or pretty far reaches of our own state. And those field-grown tomatoes? Hmmm. I know sunripened when I taste it, and usually when I see it. But anyway, there ARE times you can get phenomenal surplus and in-season fruits and veggies in quantity at these stands and markets, and many ARE what they say they are :) You'll need to ask if they're sprayed...etc. Unless they say they're not, assume they are.
3. Ugly But Good Produce. I've heard it said local grocers will sometimes sell a person produce that is slightly bruised, etc...their produce that doesnt look "pretty" or has been pulled not for spoilage but for aesthetics. My own supermarkets adamantly do NOT do this. But it's still worth a try, for those who haven't asked your own grocer out there. Most buyers who have never gardened don't realize "pretty" doesn't always mean that much when it comes to edibility.
4. What You Don't Need Health-wise. When buying in quantity or bulk, we've had to learn what NOT to buy, especially if we've tailored a diet to exclude certain foods for health reasons. We are trying to stay away from white flour and some other dietary specifics, so for us it makes no sense to buy a 20# bag of all-purpose flour unless we're having a big baking extravaganza for gift-giving. For a person who is trying to feed a family gluten-free, buying wheat in bulk would make no sense.
5. Storage Considerations: Will we use it before it spoils, and can we prepare it further to prevent spoilage? Dried pinto beans will keep a longggg time. A lot of people further prepare their dried beans by canning them for easier use, to cut down on preparation time at mealtime. A 20# bag of potatoes will have a different storage need and time capacity. Different foods will require different types of further home-processing to keep them for the longer term...canning, freezing, dehydrating, pickling, cold storage, cellaring, etc. What works for our household, because of our needs and how we're set up isn't the same thing that will work for everyone else...we can push the envelope on some things, but we'll never have the same needs and capacity as, for instance, someone in a cold weather setting and much different climate. There are a lot of great resources out there to learn about stretching storage options, different types of containers and ways of storing, and so on.
6. Do we like it enough to eat it up? If you hate eating Great Northern Beans, have tried them in different ways and simply KNOW you'll never want to have them on the menu regularly, there is no deal so great to justify spending the money and taking up the storage space...unless you're out of food and other choices. When it comes to real hunger, honestly, you'll be happy to have them. But in any less dire scenario, have on hand bulk items you know you'll use or can and will easily barter for items you'll truly use. We learned that the hard way, too.
And along these same lines...
7. Will we really use it in time? Ooops! We purchase nearly a freezer-full of turkeys on sale...two years ago. I'm not sure how much turkey we THOUGHT we'd eat, but it didn't end up being nearly as much as was in the freezer. We are not yet set up to can with a pressure canner (that day will come, but hasn't yet...it's on the wish list), so a lot of perfectly good turkey went overly long in the freezer and became....dog food. That in itself isn't a waste, but was not our first intention. Will you be able to use/further process/optimally store your bulk purchases before they go bad? Just another consideration.
8. Is is really a better deal? Paying attention to the per pound or per ounce cost (which can be found on the shelf stickers, usually, for customer convenience at most stores) is important. Purchasing 18 eggs isn't a better deal if you can buy 2 containers of a dozen eggs at the same price for both of the same type egg. At a store where I shop, individual limes were selling for 16 cents apiece. Mentally, it's quick to tally the fact that ten of those would be $1.60. A bag of 8 limes cost $4.00....same type limes. We go through a lot of limes, and I could get 10 for the lesser price...it's a deal. But since I use them fresh and limes go bad within about a week's time, I buy what we need for a specific timeframe...a week. If I had my act together better, I could buy a slew of them, juice them, and freeze the juice in portions. But I'm out of freezer space at the moment, so that would be a waste of good limes. When sweet potatoes, which usually sell here for 99cents/lb went down to 25cents/lb during the holidays, I knew I could store them in cool closet space for longer storage, so I stocked up...and we still have plenty handy. Check the REAL price...the cost per pound or ounce, and do some simple math before deciding if that huge bag is really a better deal than several of the smaller bags of something.
9. Some discount stores selling big quantities will allow even further discounts for larger purchases. This is the case with Sam's Club, the only big discount store in our area. A case of chicken costs less than buying the same number of the two-hen packages would...same product, but by the case has a different price. It only makes sense if you can truly utilize and store that much chicken...but is a better deal if you can. This is the case for freezer purchases at butchers sometimes, too. Know what you're getting. If it's terrible chicken or beef, you're stuck with a lot of it, but if not, freezer specials can beat out other types of buying sometimes.
10. Doublecheck ingredients. We buy foods with no preservatives. I keep dried black beans on hand always, but like to have some backups of canned black beans handy (till I get my pressure canner!). HOWEVER, not all cans of black beans are created equal...I have to scrutinize the label. Only ONE brand (thankfully, the cheapest) lists the ingredients of beans, salt, and water. All the others have loads of preservatives. We have to be very careful to read ingredient lists. We do this anyway, as Jews, and it's been a real education seeing how much lard is in baked goods and other little surprises we find as we read the ingredients lists. Read labels (and try for real foods that require no labels)...the longer the laundry list of ingredients, the less it is really real food.
11. Shoot for the stars, settle for the best you can get. Ultimately, we want to eat foods that are completely non-genetically-modified, not chemically treated, are organically raised (that doesnt mean it has to have the "official" label, totally local, and most of all...from our own garden or pasture. In every new push, we try to take another step in that direction. But we're not there yet, and we recognize our limitations. Go for the purest, cleanest, simplest, most useful, most healthful. less "filler" and more "substantial," totally unprocessed and non chemical you can get for what your abilities are (I speak to myself here). I no longer accept guilt trips, inflicted on myself BY myself after seeing how far I still am from the mark. EVERY good step is progress. I remind myself that there will be NO new steps if we do not wisely use our pennies, and get out of the rest of our debt. The truth of that will not go away if I overspend or overreach my abilities. Doing my best FOR the best....is the best I can do right now. I can be a discriminating shopper on my way to even better choices down the road...I use wisely what I am given within the realm I can operate. So trips to the store...are no longer guilt trips.
12. Co-ops: got one? I don't, and I need one! If you can share the cost with others through a bulk-buying co-op, and it makes sense in your own budget, do! My friends elsewhere love the ones they're a part of...see what's in your neck of the woods!
13. Cowshares/goatshares/buying on the hoof....when looking for quantities of creamy delicious real milk, especially for your "pets," find a local farmer with healthy animals, clean site, and fall in love with food right where it comes from, even if you don't have your own animals yet. Purchasing a cowshare/goatshare guarantees you a good supply of the best milk, if this fits your budget. Also, co-raising a beef steer or other deals of "meat-on-the-hoof" and sharing the slaughter expenses (etc etc get creative) are options closer to the pasture for those who want larger quantities of beef, lamb, and goat meat. And if you're up to learning how to slaughter poultry, you might find a local farmer with some roosters that don't need to make it to maturity.
OK, so much for this ramble...I'm sure I've missed something somewhere...and I'm loving the feedback in comments! So...for quantity and bulk buying, whatcha got? What works, what's a disaster? I love learning from your expertise!
Quantity and bulk buying...we eased into this in the past few years. I felt as rich as a queen when I had that additional margin, no matter how small, in the food budget! I'd love to hear your own tips (and am enjoying the ones already shared in comments!) about your own bulk and quantity buying. Here are a few things we think along these lines at this point:
1. It's always best from a garden first. Our own garden, preferably! It's not always guaranteed, however. Crop failures are just a part of the vagaries of each new year, so the garden that dealt out copious zucchini and tomato bumper crops might not happen the following year. Or, like us, changes in circumstances might mean the LACK of a garden some years. Having preserved the surplus from past times of plenty always is a big help. Those seeds get a much better return for the money as far as quantity than a buck at the store does, usually, and you know what has gone into your food...and what hasn't. That said, it IS possible to have the $42 tomato plant if not keeping garden inputs to low-or-no-cost, except for sweat and elbow grease.
2. Farmer's markets, especially at the end of the day or when they're overrun with a particular crop...can be a real deal, and you get to know your local small farmers! Unfortunately, we have rarely had the chance around these parts to do exactly that. Our farmers market is on Saturdays, which is the day we don't buy or sell (Jewish sabbath) and we miss out on that particular opportunity in our particular town. But there are also produce stands we DO frequent. A couple notes on that...not all produce advertised as "field grown" or "local" always is. We've noticed that some folks here claiming "local" are really re-selling imported or trucked-in goods from other states, or pretty far reaches of our own state. And those field-grown tomatoes? Hmmm. I know sunripened when I taste it, and usually when I see it. But anyway, there ARE times you can get phenomenal surplus and in-season fruits and veggies in quantity at these stands and markets, and many ARE what they say they are :) You'll need to ask if they're sprayed...etc. Unless they say they're not, assume they are.
3. Ugly But Good Produce. I've heard it said local grocers will sometimes sell a person produce that is slightly bruised, etc...their produce that doesnt look "pretty" or has been pulled not for spoilage but for aesthetics. My own supermarkets adamantly do NOT do this. But it's still worth a try, for those who haven't asked your own grocer out there. Most buyers who have never gardened don't realize "pretty" doesn't always mean that much when it comes to edibility.
4. What You Don't Need Health-wise. When buying in quantity or bulk, we've had to learn what NOT to buy, especially if we've tailored a diet to exclude certain foods for health reasons. We are trying to stay away from white flour and some other dietary specifics, so for us it makes no sense to buy a 20# bag of all-purpose flour unless we're having a big baking extravaganza for gift-giving. For a person who is trying to feed a family gluten-free, buying wheat in bulk would make no sense.
5. Storage Considerations: Will we use it before it spoils, and can we prepare it further to prevent spoilage? Dried pinto beans will keep a longggg time. A lot of people further prepare their dried beans by canning them for easier use, to cut down on preparation time at mealtime. A 20# bag of potatoes will have a different storage need and time capacity. Different foods will require different types of further home-processing to keep them for the longer term...canning, freezing, dehydrating, pickling, cold storage, cellaring, etc. What works for our household, because of our needs and how we're set up isn't the same thing that will work for everyone else...we can push the envelope on some things, but we'll never have the same needs and capacity as, for instance, someone in a cold weather setting and much different climate. There are a lot of great resources out there to learn about stretching storage options, different types of containers and ways of storing, and so on.
6. Do we like it enough to eat it up? If you hate eating Great Northern Beans, have tried them in different ways and simply KNOW you'll never want to have them on the menu regularly, there is no deal so great to justify spending the money and taking up the storage space...unless you're out of food and other choices. When it comes to real hunger, honestly, you'll be happy to have them. But in any less dire scenario, have on hand bulk items you know you'll use or can and will easily barter for items you'll truly use. We learned that the hard way, too.
And along these same lines...
7. Will we really use it in time? Ooops! We purchase nearly a freezer-full of turkeys on sale...two years ago. I'm not sure how much turkey we THOUGHT we'd eat, but it didn't end up being nearly as much as was in the freezer. We are not yet set up to can with a pressure canner (that day will come, but hasn't yet...it's on the wish list), so a lot of perfectly good turkey went overly long in the freezer and became....dog food. That in itself isn't a waste, but was not our first intention. Will you be able to use/further process/optimally store your bulk purchases before they go bad? Just another consideration.
8. Is is really a better deal? Paying attention to the per pound or per ounce cost (which can be found on the shelf stickers, usually, for customer convenience at most stores) is important. Purchasing 18 eggs isn't a better deal if you can buy 2 containers of a dozen eggs at the same price for both of the same type egg. At a store where I shop, individual limes were selling for 16 cents apiece. Mentally, it's quick to tally the fact that ten of those would be $1.60. A bag of 8 limes cost $4.00....same type limes. We go through a lot of limes, and I could get 10 for the lesser price...it's a deal. But since I use them fresh and limes go bad within about a week's time, I buy what we need for a specific timeframe...a week. If I had my act together better, I could buy a slew of them, juice them, and freeze the juice in portions. But I'm out of freezer space at the moment, so that would be a waste of good limes. When sweet potatoes, which usually sell here for 99cents/lb went down to 25cents/lb during the holidays, I knew I could store them in cool closet space for longer storage, so I stocked up...and we still have plenty handy. Check the REAL price...the cost per pound or ounce, and do some simple math before deciding if that huge bag is really a better deal than several of the smaller bags of something.
9. Some discount stores selling big quantities will allow even further discounts for larger purchases. This is the case with Sam's Club, the only big discount store in our area. A case of chicken costs less than buying the same number of the two-hen packages would...same product, but by the case has a different price. It only makes sense if you can truly utilize and store that much chicken...but is a better deal if you can. This is the case for freezer purchases at butchers sometimes, too. Know what you're getting. If it's terrible chicken or beef, you're stuck with a lot of it, but if not, freezer specials can beat out other types of buying sometimes.
10. Doublecheck ingredients. We buy foods with no preservatives. I keep dried black beans on hand always, but like to have some backups of canned black beans handy (till I get my pressure canner!). HOWEVER, not all cans of black beans are created equal...I have to scrutinize the label. Only ONE brand (thankfully, the cheapest) lists the ingredients of beans, salt, and water. All the others have loads of preservatives. We have to be very careful to read ingredient lists. We do this anyway, as Jews, and it's been a real education seeing how much lard is in baked goods and other little surprises we find as we read the ingredients lists. Read labels (and try for real foods that require no labels)...the longer the laundry list of ingredients, the less it is really real food.
11. Shoot for the stars, settle for the best you can get. Ultimately, we want to eat foods that are completely non-genetically-modified, not chemically treated, are organically raised (that doesnt mean it has to have the "official" label, totally local, and most of all...from our own garden or pasture. In every new push, we try to take another step in that direction. But we're not there yet, and we recognize our limitations. Go for the purest, cleanest, simplest, most useful, most healthful. less "filler" and more "substantial," totally unprocessed and non chemical you can get for what your abilities are (I speak to myself here). I no longer accept guilt trips, inflicted on myself BY myself after seeing how far I still am from the mark. EVERY good step is progress. I remind myself that there will be NO new steps if we do not wisely use our pennies, and get out of the rest of our debt. The truth of that will not go away if I overspend or overreach my abilities. Doing my best FOR the best....is the best I can do right now. I can be a discriminating shopper on my way to even better choices down the road...I use wisely what I am given within the realm I can operate. So trips to the store...are no longer guilt trips.
12. Co-ops: got one? I don't, and I need one! If you can share the cost with others through a bulk-buying co-op, and it makes sense in your own budget, do! My friends elsewhere love the ones they're a part of...see what's in your neck of the woods!
13. Cowshares/goatshares/buying on the hoof....when looking for quantities of creamy delicious real milk, especially for your "pets," find a local farmer with healthy animals, clean site, and fall in love with food right where it comes from, even if you don't have your own animals yet. Purchasing a cowshare/goatshare guarantees you a good supply of the best milk, if this fits your budget. Also, co-raising a beef steer or other deals of "meat-on-the-hoof" and sharing the slaughter expenses (etc etc get creative) are options closer to the pasture for those who want larger quantities of beef, lamb, and goat meat. And if you're up to learning how to slaughter poultry, you might find a local farmer with some roosters that don't need to make it to maturity.
OK, so much for this ramble...I'm sure I've missed something somewhere...and I'm loving the feedback in comments! So...for quantity and bulk buying, whatcha got? What works, what's a disaster? I love learning from your expertise!
Monday, January 3, 2011
Food Budgeting Part Three: Piggyback Meals
Ha, funny post title for a family that eats no pork? ;-)
Here's something I'm still learning, but that cooks like my grandmothers and most of the women today I know who have years of frugality under their belts are well-honed in...the art of making a few items into multiple delicious dishes. Or in our house, what's known as "using every part of the chicken but the cluck."
It starts with some goals such as utilizing those QUALITY foods that are really good for us, but that often we need to stretch into more than one meal for the sake of frugality or lack of waste. It means taking a few basic ingredients and using them as the basis for several very different dishes, some to be frozen, others to be assembled a day or two later.
We're not eating meat as often as we did last year, but even so, I'll give the example roast beef. I found that I got the best price per pound at Sam's Club for bottom round roast...a boneless cut of meat that I could get in a pretty good size for $2.68/lb. We do not have a good source for cleaner more organic meat...this was what we did as a second option. I decided to try reducing our portion sizes of the beef, but Jack still wanted some beef because of the physicality of his job and amount of time spent walking during his work shifts, about 5 or so miles of walking per 8 hour shift. Without some occasional beef, he ran out of steam a lot quicker.
My shopping corresponded with the weekend, so on Sunday, I filled up a big roasting pan with the roast seasoned with sea salt, garlic powder, and pepper and added around it whatever root veggies/tubers/squashes, etc, I wanted to roast along with it....it varied each time, but I really filled that roasting pan up and then sealed it off tightly with foil. As long as there were plenty of potatoes, onions, carrots, whatever else, in there along with the roast, it isn't necessary to add any liquids. I'd slow roast/bake it at 350F for several hours, since I'm usually home at that time, or while we ran errands if we'd be back a bit later. Instead of baking it till the roast was pull-apart tender, I'd take it out just before that stage, while it was still firm and slicing it would hold its shape.
Roast/Meal One...that night, was roast beef and some of whatever veggies we'd roasted alongside. Always can add a salad and/or fresh fruit to round things out.
Well, that was a big roast. I'd let everything cool in the pan. When cool, I'd take the veggies and bag them in a gallon ziplock bag or put them in a separate container of some sort and put them in the fridge. The roast got cut into 4 or 5 big chunks and bagged/contained separately, and refrigerated. The pan juices, when completely cool, got poured, scraped, into another container and also refrigerated. After a few hours of cooling, it will separate into a jellylike aspic and a layer of hard white fat.
What meals had I planned for the week? For meals involving meat, I already had it cooked, portioned, and ready to be put into use...just slice, dice, cube, or chop.
Meals Two through...a lot more: What meals can piggyback roast beef?
Shepherd's pie, roast beef sandwiches (hot or cold), BBQ, sliced beef w/sauteed mushrooms and gravy, curries, vegetable beef soup, chili, tacos, enchiladas, stroganoff, casseroles, beef in wine sauce, tostadas, beef and potato hash (breakfast), beef and beans (especially black beans, yum), stir fries, sloppy joes, spaghetti or other sauces, beef stew...and so on.
I'm sure you have your own beef favorites. The point is, the portions were already determined and the meat was already cooked...and it was very quick to arrange other meals from it. Or to freeze some of the portions to be used later in the week.
For the already cooked veggies, they became "fast" foods...the cooked cold potatoes easily are cubed or sliced for crisping in a skillet as hash browns to serve with eggs (fast!), to dice into curries, to cube and add to soups, to slice and reheat in a skillet and serve as a side with some melted cheese, etc. The cooked onions are pureed and added to soups or pan gravies...delicious!
The pan drippings, after being refrigerated, had separated into a hard layer of white fat (beef tallow) and a congealed aspic that is dark brown and very concentrated with all the seasonings and flavors. This is brown gold...it is beef bouillon times ten! I break off the fat, wiping all the bits of the brown gel back into the container, and throw away the fat (but if I were saving it for soapmaking, I'd probably at this point freeze it.) The cup or so of remaining pan drippings is THE seasoning I use as a soup starter, seasoning for a pot of beans, flavoring for some curries, and anything else you want to add a very concentrated beef flavor to.
I can get a week's worth of meals off that one roast, and I didn't have to slave at anything. The other good thing is that it's flexible...I have some basics already ready and can add the fresh veggies and fruits around it a-plenty, tailoring the rest of the week's meals more around seasonal things than being locked into this dish or that. After all...almost anything can become soup :)
I used the example of beef. The same goes for chicken, and depending on the cut or type of chicken (roaster, fryer, stewing hen, leg/thigh pieces, etc) it can further be used by boiling it or boiling the carcass and bones with some sea salt and optional veggies for an incredible chicken stock...which again can be used in most anything. It's amazing how much meat can be gotten off a single chicken and refrigerated and portioned for further meals, and the stock is lovely in so many things even without the addition of the meat.
The same goes for other meats and types of foods except those that spoil quickly, like fish. I hardboil eggs in quantity sometimes when I find a really good sale, to keep in the fridge for adding to cold meat salads, tossed salads, garnishing greens, dicing into soups, etc.
Baking or chopping up and leaving raw and then storing in the fridge quantities of veggies, or roasting large portions of winter squashes and pumpkins or sweet potatoes are also sometimes good for later use. I reheat baked sweet potatoes without the skins for use in curries and stews (pureed), as a side item (whipped with a tad of cream, maple syrup, toasted nuts), sliced and heated as a non-gluten base to serve chili or black beans over, or jazzed up a bit and used instead of pumpkin in my favorite pumpkin pie recipe, sans crust, for a sweet dessert.
Again...it's preference paired with necessity, but instead of a once-a-month monster quantity cookery (which I never mastered and have no space for) it's more of a weekly piggybacking of spinoff meals originating with a couple of quantity ingredients.
Yes, and I'm SURE most everybody but me has already been doing this! But it sure did simplify things for me, since I do like to cook most of the time but am not so enamored with it that I feel supercharged spending more of my free time there. I LIKE being able to reach into the fridge on a given week and knowing that I have ready portions to turn into a meal in about 20 minutes...and can then utilize my fresh greens and veggies and fruits around them and vary things a lot.
Now we're getting more away from using meats, but evenso, when I cook them, this way has now become a habit that seems to work for me pretty well.
What meals do you enjoy "piggybacking" and stretching to the Nth degree? Got any favorite spinoffs that have become your family's favorites? If we ever get a grill, THAT will become another "quantity" cooking type I'll enjoy serving "reruns" from :)
Here's something I'm still learning, but that cooks like my grandmothers and most of the women today I know who have years of frugality under their belts are well-honed in...the art of making a few items into multiple delicious dishes. Or in our house, what's known as "using every part of the chicken but the cluck."
It starts with some goals such as utilizing those QUALITY foods that are really good for us, but that often we need to stretch into more than one meal for the sake of frugality or lack of waste. It means taking a few basic ingredients and using them as the basis for several very different dishes, some to be frozen, others to be assembled a day or two later.
We're not eating meat as often as we did last year, but even so, I'll give the example roast beef. I found that I got the best price per pound at Sam's Club for bottom round roast...a boneless cut of meat that I could get in a pretty good size for $2.68/lb. We do not have a good source for cleaner more organic meat...this was what we did as a second option. I decided to try reducing our portion sizes of the beef, but Jack still wanted some beef because of the physicality of his job and amount of time spent walking during his work shifts, about 5 or so miles of walking per 8 hour shift. Without some occasional beef, he ran out of steam a lot quicker.
My shopping corresponded with the weekend, so on Sunday, I filled up a big roasting pan with the roast seasoned with sea salt, garlic powder, and pepper and added around it whatever root veggies/tubers/squashes, etc, I wanted to roast along with it....it varied each time, but I really filled that roasting pan up and then sealed it off tightly with foil. As long as there were plenty of potatoes, onions, carrots, whatever else, in there along with the roast, it isn't necessary to add any liquids. I'd slow roast/bake it at 350F for several hours, since I'm usually home at that time, or while we ran errands if we'd be back a bit later. Instead of baking it till the roast was pull-apart tender, I'd take it out just before that stage, while it was still firm and slicing it would hold its shape.
Roast/Meal One...that night, was roast beef and some of whatever veggies we'd roasted alongside. Always can add a salad and/or fresh fruit to round things out.
Well, that was a big roast. I'd let everything cool in the pan. When cool, I'd take the veggies and bag them in a gallon ziplock bag or put them in a separate container of some sort and put them in the fridge. The roast got cut into 4 or 5 big chunks and bagged/contained separately, and refrigerated. The pan juices, when completely cool, got poured, scraped, into another container and also refrigerated. After a few hours of cooling, it will separate into a jellylike aspic and a layer of hard white fat.
What meals had I planned for the week? For meals involving meat, I already had it cooked, portioned, and ready to be put into use...just slice, dice, cube, or chop.
Meals Two through...a lot more: What meals can piggyback roast beef?
Shepherd's pie, roast beef sandwiches (hot or cold), BBQ, sliced beef w/sauteed mushrooms and gravy, curries, vegetable beef soup, chili, tacos, enchiladas, stroganoff, casseroles, beef in wine sauce, tostadas, beef and potato hash (breakfast), beef and beans (especially black beans, yum), stir fries, sloppy joes, spaghetti or other sauces, beef stew...and so on.
I'm sure you have your own beef favorites. The point is, the portions were already determined and the meat was already cooked...and it was very quick to arrange other meals from it. Or to freeze some of the portions to be used later in the week.
For the already cooked veggies, they became "fast" foods...the cooked cold potatoes easily are cubed or sliced for crisping in a skillet as hash browns to serve with eggs (fast!), to dice into curries, to cube and add to soups, to slice and reheat in a skillet and serve as a side with some melted cheese, etc. The cooked onions are pureed and added to soups or pan gravies...delicious!
The pan drippings, after being refrigerated, had separated into a hard layer of white fat (beef tallow) and a congealed aspic that is dark brown and very concentrated with all the seasonings and flavors. This is brown gold...it is beef bouillon times ten! I break off the fat, wiping all the bits of the brown gel back into the container, and throw away the fat (but if I were saving it for soapmaking, I'd probably at this point freeze it.) The cup or so of remaining pan drippings is THE seasoning I use as a soup starter, seasoning for a pot of beans, flavoring for some curries, and anything else you want to add a very concentrated beef flavor to.
I can get a week's worth of meals off that one roast, and I didn't have to slave at anything. The other good thing is that it's flexible...I have some basics already ready and can add the fresh veggies and fruits around it a-plenty, tailoring the rest of the week's meals more around seasonal things than being locked into this dish or that. After all...almost anything can become soup :)
I used the example of beef. The same goes for chicken, and depending on the cut or type of chicken (roaster, fryer, stewing hen, leg/thigh pieces, etc) it can further be used by boiling it or boiling the carcass and bones with some sea salt and optional veggies for an incredible chicken stock...which again can be used in most anything. It's amazing how much meat can be gotten off a single chicken and refrigerated and portioned for further meals, and the stock is lovely in so many things even without the addition of the meat.
The same goes for other meats and types of foods except those that spoil quickly, like fish. I hardboil eggs in quantity sometimes when I find a really good sale, to keep in the fridge for adding to cold meat salads, tossed salads, garnishing greens, dicing into soups, etc.
Baking or chopping up and leaving raw and then storing in the fridge quantities of veggies, or roasting large portions of winter squashes and pumpkins or sweet potatoes are also sometimes good for later use. I reheat baked sweet potatoes without the skins for use in curries and stews (pureed), as a side item (whipped with a tad of cream, maple syrup, toasted nuts), sliced and heated as a non-gluten base to serve chili or black beans over, or jazzed up a bit and used instead of pumpkin in my favorite pumpkin pie recipe, sans crust, for a sweet dessert.
Again...it's preference paired with necessity, but instead of a once-a-month monster quantity cookery (which I never mastered and have no space for) it's more of a weekly piggybacking of spinoff meals originating with a couple of quantity ingredients.
Yes, and I'm SURE most everybody but me has already been doing this! But it sure did simplify things for me, since I do like to cook most of the time but am not so enamored with it that I feel supercharged spending more of my free time there. I LIKE being able to reach into the fridge on a given week and knowing that I have ready portions to turn into a meal in about 20 minutes...and can then utilize my fresh greens and veggies and fruits around them and vary things a lot.
Now we're getting more away from using meats, but evenso, when I cook them, this way has now become a habit that seems to work for me pretty well.
What meals do you enjoy "piggybacking" and stretching to the Nth degree? Got any favorite spinoffs that have become your family's favorites? If we ever get a grill, THAT will become another "quantity" cooking type I'll enjoy serving "reruns" from :)
Food Budgeting Part Two: One For the Cart
Thank you for sharing your grocery budget ideas and challenges! We all have similar needs that overlap, despite differences in our situations.
Donna, I need to learn from YOU...you're already doing these things and I'm not sure anything here will be very groundbreaking as far as a new approach! Everyone who sends in their tips ads to the collective wisdom here...thank you!
One For The Cart
Remember the practice of coffeemaking where a certain amount goes in per serving and then lastly another scoop gets added "for the pot"? When it comes to groceries, we can adopt a "one for the cart" practice which, for a lot of us, is something that can slowly add up if we apply it to our weekly (or whatever increment) food gathering, especially if you shop at the store. If you're fortunate enough to not have to shop at the store for most of your food needs...I want to be you! (and hopefully am working my way there) But for now, my world includes storebought items.
My former mother-in-law always grew a huge garden and was a study in cooking the best homemade meals ever for her husband and six ravenous boys. She canned, froze, preserved, pickled, baked, knew her local butcher by name, and could sniff out a sale better than most. Years ago, I'd look at wonder at her fully-stocked shelves located not only in her kitchen but also overflowing into storage areas such as the basement. While being really frugal, she and her husband had the money to buy extra quantities of staple goods and storage foods, a lot of times at Big Box stores or through mail order, or to stock up when there were really good sales at local shopping centers. She recycled her glass jars to hold a lot of the overflow, and she had quantities of nearly everything from dried beans/lentils, rice, flour/grains, every sort of home-canned good, canned goods from the store, spices, herbs, liquors (mostly for making tinctures for her herbs, teas, freezer items, personal care and hygiene products, etc. She leaned hard in the direction of keeping all those things natural and organic as possible.
But in those years, for my own family of three with one car and a slim income, our budget was so to-the-bone that I shopped weekly for THAT week alone, it was difficult to buy ANYTHING in extra quantities for building up a reserve, and most small reserves quickly became depleted of necessity when we'd have company over or cook foods for celebrations and holidays. Plus, I was purchasing a lot more processed foods back then...things like canned soups, breaded meats, boxed cereals, flavored individual packets of oatmeal...etc etc. That's changed today.
I was always so frustrated not to have some good reserves at hand to select from then...a surplus to serve as backup and also inspiration for putting together meals not requiring a lengthy list of ingredients from the supermarket. Think of it...if every time you wanted to make biscuits or a baked item you had to make a separate trip to the store for EACH of the ingredients...over and over again...who would bake? There are some items most of us keep on hand so we don't have to...flour, baking soda/powder, salt/pepper/some spices, and so on. I needed to do that on a bigger scale than for biscuits, though...so I could make full meals from what we had on hand. This was VERY difficult for me to learn when the budget was so cut to the bone.
But thankfully, that's gotten better, mostly because we've cut out nearly all processed foods. This is really important as a first step for being able to purchase any reserve foods. I say nearly all processed foods because there are a few things I still fall back on for convenience or out of habit (one example, evaporated milk). WHAT I want to have in reserves has changed, too...now it's things that can make a meal without a laundry list of ingredients.
So what's One For The Cart? It's the one or two extras (cheap!) I make myself get when I have even as much as one or two dollars of wiggle room during a shopping trip to the store, namely my weekly trip for groceries. When I shop, since we're mostly getting fruits and vegetables that are fresh or frozen, I'll slip in long-storage items, a spice or two, or an on-sale "luxury" item (like a jar of olives, pimientos, honey, etc) to the tune of three or four dollars' worth to have as my back up. Or during the holidays, maybe that bag of chocolate chips that is marked way down the day before Thanksgiving, or the generic box of raisins and generic oatmeal. Voila...cookies ingredients for giftgiving during the year end holiday season...and so on.
(I know nearly everyone out here already does this...it's not rocket science. But it took me a long time to get the hang of it since we bought processed foods...the already-made cookies...for so long)
Certain places have better deals than others. This is where ethnic markets, discount stores and dollar stores, and sales items really count. Ethnic markets usually have spices and dried beans/lentils at MUCH lower prices than the regular grocery store, plus they have spice mixes. I'll write more on that later. Stores like Big Lots sell certain items at a huge discount in their food aisles, because in the middle of those boxes of processed foods there are things like garlic powder, Wasa wafers (that don't go stale!), imported chocolate bars, etc that are top dollar at the supermarket but are CHEAP there.
When I shop, I save the last dollar or two for an extra bag of those frozen veggies that are special or a bag or two of dried black beans, or the real vanilla extract that's on sale because it's the holidays....and so on. Are you good on frozen or fresh or canned produce, but always get short handed when it comes to spices? Make those your One For The Cart items the next few shopping trips and make a side trip to the ethnic markets and dollar stores to see how low you can go. The only way that's fun for me is if I hold onto a few of my dollars and make a fun sidetrip of it when out already running errands, not doing it when I'm flustered and in a hurry.
Most people probably already do this...so it's not so much a groundbreaking concept. It's just that I never really did it before. But buying those two extra bags of frozen limas and that couple cans of black beans here and there, and those little sacks of dried beans and split peas add up to MANY suppers of Veggies-and-cornbread, or soups, or hummus, or sides to a plate of fresh veg SO many times.
If you're organized, you can round out a really good collection of spices this way, a stash of dried beans/lentils, baking needs, soup ingredients, personal care items, paper goods, special celebration ingredients, brown bag lunch items, supplements/medicines, and so on...and can eyeball the stash to see which ones need to be re-stocked eventually.
Anyway, the One for the Cart is something I realized I now do instinctually, and was worth at least a mention. It's a way of having things on hand like that jar of roasted red peppers, some parmesan cheese, some olives, and so on that otherwise I'd be spending three times as much for (or in my case not using at all) to make a regular meal a little more savory, or to make sure there are backup provisions in case we're short one week...or on those night I accidentally scorch the soup!
I'd love to hear how you increase your reserve supplies without big outlays of cash, and what some of your favorite cart items are when you do :)
Donna, I need to learn from YOU...you're already doing these things and I'm not sure anything here will be very groundbreaking as far as a new approach! Everyone who sends in their tips ads to the collective wisdom here...thank you!
One For The Cart
Remember the practice of coffeemaking where a certain amount goes in per serving and then lastly another scoop gets added "for the pot"? When it comes to groceries, we can adopt a "one for the cart" practice which, for a lot of us, is something that can slowly add up if we apply it to our weekly (or whatever increment) food gathering, especially if you shop at the store. If you're fortunate enough to not have to shop at the store for most of your food needs...I want to be you! (and hopefully am working my way there) But for now, my world includes storebought items.
My former mother-in-law always grew a huge garden and was a study in cooking the best homemade meals ever for her husband and six ravenous boys. She canned, froze, preserved, pickled, baked, knew her local butcher by name, and could sniff out a sale better than most. Years ago, I'd look at wonder at her fully-stocked shelves located not only in her kitchen but also overflowing into storage areas such as the basement. While being really frugal, she and her husband had the money to buy extra quantities of staple goods and storage foods, a lot of times at Big Box stores or through mail order, or to stock up when there were really good sales at local shopping centers. She recycled her glass jars to hold a lot of the overflow, and she had quantities of nearly everything from dried beans/lentils, rice, flour/grains, every sort of home-canned good, canned goods from the store, spices, herbs, liquors (mostly for making tinctures for her herbs, teas, freezer items, personal care and hygiene products, etc. She leaned hard in the direction of keeping all those things natural and organic as possible.
But in those years, for my own family of three with one car and a slim income, our budget was so to-the-bone that I shopped weekly for THAT week alone, it was difficult to buy ANYTHING in extra quantities for building up a reserve, and most small reserves quickly became depleted of necessity when we'd have company over or cook foods for celebrations and holidays. Plus, I was purchasing a lot more processed foods back then...things like canned soups, breaded meats, boxed cereals, flavored individual packets of oatmeal...etc etc. That's changed today.
I was always so frustrated not to have some good reserves at hand to select from then...a surplus to serve as backup and also inspiration for putting together meals not requiring a lengthy list of ingredients from the supermarket. Think of it...if every time you wanted to make biscuits or a baked item you had to make a separate trip to the store for EACH of the ingredients...over and over again...who would bake? There are some items most of us keep on hand so we don't have to...flour, baking soda/powder, salt/pepper/some spices, and so on. I needed to do that on a bigger scale than for biscuits, though...so I could make full meals from what we had on hand. This was VERY difficult for me to learn when the budget was so cut to the bone.
But thankfully, that's gotten better, mostly because we've cut out nearly all processed foods. This is really important as a first step for being able to purchase any reserve foods. I say nearly all processed foods because there are a few things I still fall back on for convenience or out of habit (one example, evaporated milk). WHAT I want to have in reserves has changed, too...now it's things that can make a meal without a laundry list of ingredients.
So what's One For The Cart? It's the one or two extras (cheap!) I make myself get when I have even as much as one or two dollars of wiggle room during a shopping trip to the store, namely my weekly trip for groceries. When I shop, since we're mostly getting fruits and vegetables that are fresh or frozen, I'll slip in long-storage items, a spice or two, or an on-sale "luxury" item (like a jar of olives, pimientos, honey, etc) to the tune of three or four dollars' worth to have as my back up. Or during the holidays, maybe that bag of chocolate chips that is marked way down the day before Thanksgiving, or the generic box of raisins and generic oatmeal. Voila...cookies ingredients for giftgiving during the year end holiday season...and so on.
(I know nearly everyone out here already does this...it's not rocket science. But it took me a long time to get the hang of it since we bought processed foods...the already-made cookies...for so long)
Certain places have better deals than others. This is where ethnic markets, discount stores and dollar stores, and sales items really count. Ethnic markets usually have spices and dried beans/lentils at MUCH lower prices than the regular grocery store, plus they have spice mixes. I'll write more on that later. Stores like Big Lots sell certain items at a huge discount in their food aisles, because in the middle of those boxes of processed foods there are things like garlic powder, Wasa wafers (that don't go stale!), imported chocolate bars, etc that are top dollar at the supermarket but are CHEAP there.
When I shop, I save the last dollar or two for an extra bag of those frozen veggies that are special or a bag or two of dried black beans, or the real vanilla extract that's on sale because it's the holidays....and so on. Are you good on frozen or fresh or canned produce, but always get short handed when it comes to spices? Make those your One For The Cart items the next few shopping trips and make a side trip to the ethnic markets and dollar stores to see how low you can go. The only way that's fun for me is if I hold onto a few of my dollars and make a fun sidetrip of it when out already running errands, not doing it when I'm flustered and in a hurry.
Most people probably already do this...so it's not so much a groundbreaking concept. It's just that I never really did it before. But buying those two extra bags of frozen limas and that couple cans of black beans here and there, and those little sacks of dried beans and split peas add up to MANY suppers of Veggies-and-cornbread, or soups, or hummus, or sides to a plate of fresh veg SO many times.
If you're organized, you can round out a really good collection of spices this way, a stash of dried beans/lentils, baking needs, soup ingredients, personal care items, paper goods, special celebration ingredients, brown bag lunch items, supplements/medicines, and so on...and can eyeball the stash to see which ones need to be re-stocked eventually.
Anyway, the One for the Cart is something I realized I now do instinctually, and was worth at least a mention. It's a way of having things on hand like that jar of roasted red peppers, some parmesan cheese, some olives, and so on that otherwise I'd be spending three times as much for (or in my case not using at all) to make a regular meal a little more savory, or to make sure there are backup provisions in case we're short one week...or on those night I accidentally scorch the soup!
I'd love to hear how you increase your reserve supplies without big outlays of cash, and what some of your favorite cart items are when you do :)
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Food Budgeting Part One: Think Real Food
Happy New Year to all!!!
This can be our best year ever...yes, a lot of us in this country and elsewhere are having to be creative about how to make lemonade of lemons, but the nice news is that with some practice it's not only possible, but empowering..AND...plus around here we love lemonade :)
I've decided to break this post into segments instead of my usual monster post, and this week will be putting my mental notes here in black and white, beginning with the subject of some things that ARE working for me as we've already been (of necessity) cutting things way back from our former food budget and eating habits that dovetail with that budget.
I'll start with something near to my heart: Nutrition.
It's near to my heart not because I've mastered good eating habits, nor am I a svelte 120 pounds, nor can I fit into my jeans from 25 years ago. I've lost some weight the past year, yet have a lot of pounds to continue losing and am on medications for health problems I still need to solve.
But here's the deal...despair and relinquishment are not the same thing as acceptance of current limitations, and they leave no room for some very simple steps that can, and will, continue to return both me and my husband to good health.
And that is not only our goal, it is our continued Resolution...every month of the year.
So, what, if anything, have we done right the past couple years in that category, seeing that we still have so far to go?
Well...a LOT...we've changed a lot of habits and spending to nurture it, and have seen results. And no, we're not perfect and don't have our act all together. But we love to learn and I wanted to share a little of that changed perspective so that others staring down the barrell of a very short budget don't feel powerless to rise to the challenge...I've felt overwhelmed in the past and have been so encouraged seeing how others solve some of the particulars for their families. Just sharing a bit of what seems to be working for ours...
First, we keep one particular goal in mind: Cost.
A lot of people rationalize spending money they don't have because they're told (all the time) some version of the phrases "your health is worth any price" or "this (supplement/procedure/membership fee/etc) is worth it because of the health problems it will save you from later that would be much more expensive to address."
There are a lot of holistic supplements and treatments Jack and I would glady participate in, that probably WOULD hasten some of our goals more quickly, if not for the cost.
But here's the COSTLY lesson we've learned, and thankfully adopted in the past couple years: If you don't have the money, DON'T think the only door to eating and living healthfully is closed...there are many doors. Just because the money is not there does not mean we're out of options. This goes for successful lifestyle changes, treatments of medical problems, prevention, and selecting good nutritious foods on a very tight budget.
I had to preface all the other post for this week on this subject by emphasizing that. GOOD NUTRITION DOES NOT HAVE TO BREAK THE BUDGET.
I'm not a guru on this...we've learned slowly and are still learning.
We've had to slaughter some sacred cows because of this, as well. We've had to relax any purist mentality in some areas that are still important to us, but that have to be revised at this moment IN ORDER to facilitate our financial ability until we can reach our goal of EVENTUALLY being more self-sufficient and closer to some of these goals....such as
1. Eating foods grown locally by small farmers and individuals rather than from the Big Box stores...near to our hearts, this one.
2. Eating 100% organic, non-pesticide foods
3. Eating mostly foods grown by us
4. Eating according to the seasons...seasonal produce, etc.
Here are the goals that supercede those, for the time being:
1. Being consistent about good eating changes
2. Stockpiling or otherwise storing extra foods that keep easily for long term storage and are nutritious
3. Staying away from all or most processed foods
4. Making it myself in my own kitchen
5. Coming up with ways to make my own "fast" foods so not everything in the kitchen is time-intensive
6. Making the nutritious meals taste good...otherwise we won't get used to them and continue eating them
7. Varying the basics enough that meals with similar ingredients are still appealing even though we eat them a lot
8. Thinking of survival, simplicity, and self-sufficiency even with every store purchase: training ourselves to do with very basic ingredients that we could grow if we wanted to or had to
9. Eliminate preservatives. If something we buy has a label, choosing the food with no preservatives, additives, food coloring, etc.
10. Eat for the Cure. Learning what foods will best support our own particular genetic weaknesses (mine are tendencies for upper respiratory problems and blood sugar issues, Jack's would include high blood pressure) and making them standard fare instead of "bite the nail and swallow the bitter pill" types of cures.
11. EDUCATE ourselves and DO IT OURSELVES.
I was in a grocery store the other day and saw a girl in her twenties walking down the aisle, and had a flashback to my young (broke!) days. In her cart were a variety of boxes and flavors of Ramen Noodles, a lot of pasta, and processed food that price-wise was inexpensive. I ate like that when I was in college, and it wrecked my health for years. Not that I'm immune to an annual blackslide into a box or two of Kraft Mac and Cheese, but my mindset is very very different now, of necessity.
I'll go into this further in my next post, but I just wanted to state that the MINDSET before even budgeting on a very minimal amount of money for food NEEDS to be THE HIGHEST FORM OF NUTRITIOUS FOOD FOR THE MONEY. And THOSE things, thankfully, are the most basic foods...fresh vegetables and fruits, dried beans/peas/lentils, tubers, longterm storage vegetables like winter squashes, quality seeds/nuts/ and some grains. Preservative-free sweeteners.
A lot of people have this down pat. Others, like me, have had to come a long way, baby.
So....making nutritional goals is first before a single dollar gets spent.
BUY REAL FOOD. Food that remembers where it came from, preferably the straight up raw ingredients. That's the goal. Anything else, truly, is not exactly FOOD, really, because the more processed those ingredients become before reaching the kitchen, the more they are a substance.
The most basic elements of our meals are akin to the most basic elements of our budget...sticking to what is essential, not loading up with non-essentials.
That's part one...mindset, before spending a single cent. More ramble tomorrow...I have no idea how many point there'll be, but at least I'm breaking them up a bit :)
Got food budgeting advice? We're all ears!
This can be our best year ever...yes, a lot of us in this country and elsewhere are having to be creative about how to make lemonade of lemons, but the nice news is that with some practice it's not only possible, but empowering..AND...plus around here we love lemonade :)
I've decided to break this post into segments instead of my usual monster post, and this week will be putting my mental notes here in black and white, beginning with the subject of some things that ARE working for me as we've already been (of necessity) cutting things way back from our former food budget and eating habits that dovetail with that budget.
I'll start with something near to my heart: Nutrition.
It's near to my heart not because I've mastered good eating habits, nor am I a svelte 120 pounds, nor can I fit into my jeans from 25 years ago. I've lost some weight the past year, yet have a lot of pounds to continue losing and am on medications for health problems I still need to solve.
But here's the deal...despair and relinquishment are not the same thing as acceptance of current limitations, and they leave no room for some very simple steps that can, and will, continue to return both me and my husband to good health.
And that is not only our goal, it is our continued Resolution...every month of the year.
So, what, if anything, have we done right the past couple years in that category, seeing that we still have so far to go?
Well...a LOT...we've changed a lot of habits and spending to nurture it, and have seen results. And no, we're not perfect and don't have our act all together. But we love to learn and I wanted to share a little of that changed perspective so that others staring down the barrell of a very short budget don't feel powerless to rise to the challenge...I've felt overwhelmed in the past and have been so encouraged seeing how others solve some of the particulars for their families. Just sharing a bit of what seems to be working for ours...
First, we keep one particular goal in mind: Cost.
A lot of people rationalize spending money they don't have because they're told (all the time) some version of the phrases "your health is worth any price" or "this (supplement/procedure/membership fee/etc) is worth it because of the health problems it will save you from later that would be much more expensive to address."
There are a lot of holistic supplements and treatments Jack and I would glady participate in, that probably WOULD hasten some of our goals more quickly, if not for the cost.
But here's the COSTLY lesson we've learned, and thankfully adopted in the past couple years: If you don't have the money, DON'T think the only door to eating and living healthfully is closed...there are many doors. Just because the money is not there does not mean we're out of options. This goes for successful lifestyle changes, treatments of medical problems, prevention, and selecting good nutritious foods on a very tight budget.
I had to preface all the other post for this week on this subject by emphasizing that. GOOD NUTRITION DOES NOT HAVE TO BREAK THE BUDGET.
I'm not a guru on this...we've learned slowly and are still learning.
We've had to slaughter some sacred cows because of this, as well. We've had to relax any purist mentality in some areas that are still important to us, but that have to be revised at this moment IN ORDER to facilitate our financial ability until we can reach our goal of EVENTUALLY being more self-sufficient and closer to some of these goals....such as
1. Eating foods grown locally by small farmers and individuals rather than from the Big Box stores...near to our hearts, this one.
2. Eating 100% organic, non-pesticide foods
3. Eating mostly foods grown by us
4. Eating according to the seasons...seasonal produce, etc.
Here are the goals that supercede those, for the time being:
1. Being consistent about good eating changes
2. Stockpiling or otherwise storing extra foods that keep easily for long term storage and are nutritious
3. Staying away from all or most processed foods
4. Making it myself in my own kitchen
5. Coming up with ways to make my own "fast" foods so not everything in the kitchen is time-intensive
6. Making the nutritious meals taste good...otherwise we won't get used to them and continue eating them
7. Varying the basics enough that meals with similar ingredients are still appealing even though we eat them a lot
8. Thinking of survival, simplicity, and self-sufficiency even with every store purchase: training ourselves to do with very basic ingredients that we could grow if we wanted to or had to
9. Eliminate preservatives. If something we buy has a label, choosing the food with no preservatives, additives, food coloring, etc.
10. Eat for the Cure. Learning what foods will best support our own particular genetic weaknesses (mine are tendencies for upper respiratory problems and blood sugar issues, Jack's would include high blood pressure) and making them standard fare instead of "bite the nail and swallow the bitter pill" types of cures.
11. EDUCATE ourselves and DO IT OURSELVES.
I was in a grocery store the other day and saw a girl in her twenties walking down the aisle, and had a flashback to my young (broke!) days. In her cart were a variety of boxes and flavors of Ramen Noodles, a lot of pasta, and processed food that price-wise was inexpensive. I ate like that when I was in college, and it wrecked my health for years. Not that I'm immune to an annual blackslide into a box or two of Kraft Mac and Cheese, but my mindset is very very different now, of necessity.
I'll go into this further in my next post, but I just wanted to state that the MINDSET before even budgeting on a very minimal amount of money for food NEEDS to be THE HIGHEST FORM OF NUTRITIOUS FOOD FOR THE MONEY. And THOSE things, thankfully, are the most basic foods...fresh vegetables and fruits, dried beans/peas/lentils, tubers, longterm storage vegetables like winter squashes, quality seeds/nuts/ and some grains. Preservative-free sweeteners.
A lot of people have this down pat. Others, like me, have had to come a long way, baby.
So....making nutritional goals is first before a single dollar gets spent.
BUY REAL FOOD. Food that remembers where it came from, preferably the straight up raw ingredients. That's the goal. Anything else, truly, is not exactly FOOD, really, because the more processed those ingredients become before reaching the kitchen, the more they are a substance.
The most basic elements of our meals are akin to the most basic elements of our budget...sticking to what is essential, not loading up with non-essentials.
That's part one...mindset, before spending a single cent. More ramble tomorrow...I have no idea how many point there'll be, but at least I'm breaking them up a bit :)
Got food budgeting advice? We're all ears!
Monday, July 6, 2009
Herbed Potato Soup
We eat a lot of soup around here, and no complaints :)
I've found that especially after a long work week, though I love special dishes for certain dinners, there's nothing quite as satisfying...and simple...as soup and some great snuggling with my hubby. It's a great slow AND fast food, and can be tweaked to what's on hand in the kitchen fairly easily. Couch time on the fly equals a date, to us, so I made us some comfort food and we caught a bit of Good Neighbors and Foyle's War (thank you, inter-library DVD loans). Soup's one of our favorite easy eats...this one featured the potato, and was easy.
I don't have a regular blender or food processor, but do have an immersion blender (those stick blenders you can make smoothies with right in the container). If someone has none of those, a handheld potato masher would do the trick pretty well, too, but the potatoes would have to be peeled ones only or you'll have big pieces of skin in there.
This is just a basic potato soup, very unscientific as to proportions of this and that. I like the combination of flavors rich with basil. Ingredients can be adjusted to include ones that are on hand, and bits of this and that. Here's what went into mine this weekend...
Rich Basil Potato Soup (ha, it's just potato soup with basil and some spices)
Several white or yellow potatoes (6-10) depending on size and preference, scrubbed and cubed (mine are unpeeled)
Several carrots, chopped
Several celery ribs and tops, chopped
Onion, chopped
One red sweet pepper, chopped
Large can chicken stock
Spices:
Dried or fresh basil, lots
Garlic powder
Parsley
Pepper and Salt
Cayenne
Dash of oregano
Few dashes hot sauce
Add later:
Several dabs of real butter
Whole milk
Cook all ingredients together, covered, in heavy soup pot, except spices and milk and butter, till all veggies are tender. Add a little water if there's not enough liquid just to cover. Stir to make sure nothing sticks.
When all is cooked tender, put stick blender down in pot and blend ingredients till desired consistency...I like it almost, but not all liquified. Turn down heat to low setting, and stir in butter and enough milk to thin soup to consistency you desire (I'm generous with the milk).
Add spices, adjusting to your own taste. I prefer a lot of garlic and basil and enough cayenne to warm the tastebuds. Heat a while longer, stirring frequently, then serve. This does even better after cooled and refrigerated overnight to allow flavors to mingle.
I like to serve this in bowls very hot with some shredded cheese added to each bowl just when serving, or with hot cheese toast.
This is a keeper now...we liked this well enough to have it added to the Tried 'n True category, mmm :)
For further experimentation, I'm thinking of making this with the same ingredients next time, omitting the basil and oregano, and adding chopped spinach and parmesan.
Update: Did the spinach number with the next batch, and froze some...we'll see how well it stands up to freezing. It was good but not as good as plain potato-cheese soup or the basil version above.
Good ol' potatoes...the poor man's riches! :)
I've found that especially after a long work week, though I love special dishes for certain dinners, there's nothing quite as satisfying...and simple...as soup and some great snuggling with my hubby. It's a great slow AND fast food, and can be tweaked to what's on hand in the kitchen fairly easily. Couch time on the fly equals a date, to us, so I made us some comfort food and we caught a bit of Good Neighbors and Foyle's War (thank you, inter-library DVD loans). Soup's one of our favorite easy eats...this one featured the potato, and was easy.
I don't have a regular blender or food processor, but do have an immersion blender (those stick blenders you can make smoothies with right in the container). If someone has none of those, a handheld potato masher would do the trick pretty well, too, but the potatoes would have to be peeled ones only or you'll have big pieces of skin in there.
This is just a basic potato soup, very unscientific as to proportions of this and that. I like the combination of flavors rich with basil. Ingredients can be adjusted to include ones that are on hand, and bits of this and that. Here's what went into mine this weekend...
Rich Basil Potato Soup (ha, it's just potato soup with basil and some spices)
Several white or yellow potatoes (6-10) depending on size and preference, scrubbed and cubed (mine are unpeeled)
Several carrots, chopped
Several celery ribs and tops, chopped
Onion, chopped
One red sweet pepper, chopped
Large can chicken stock
Spices:
Dried or fresh basil, lots
Garlic powder
Parsley
Pepper and Salt
Cayenne
Dash of oregano
Few dashes hot sauce
Add later:
Several dabs of real butter
Whole milk
Cook all ingredients together, covered, in heavy soup pot, except spices and milk and butter, till all veggies are tender. Add a little water if there's not enough liquid just to cover. Stir to make sure nothing sticks.
When all is cooked tender, put stick blender down in pot and blend ingredients till desired consistency...I like it almost, but not all liquified. Turn down heat to low setting, and stir in butter and enough milk to thin soup to consistency you desire (I'm generous with the milk).
Add spices, adjusting to your own taste. I prefer a lot of garlic and basil and enough cayenne to warm the tastebuds. Heat a while longer, stirring frequently, then serve. This does even better after cooled and refrigerated overnight to allow flavors to mingle.
I like to serve this in bowls very hot with some shredded cheese added to each bowl just when serving, or with hot cheese toast.
This is a keeper now...we liked this well enough to have it added to the Tried 'n True category, mmm :)
For further experimentation, I'm thinking of making this with the same ingredients next time, omitting the basil and oregano, and adding chopped spinach and parmesan.
Update: Did the spinach number with the next batch, and froze some...we'll see how well it stands up to freezing. It was good but not as good as plain potato-cheese soup or the basil version above.
Good ol' potatoes...the poor man's riches! :)
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Bucketville Update
Quickie update on the status of the backyard bucket garden since The Three Freezes.
1. All citrus --- seem A-O.K. There was some blossom loss, so the harvest this year may be scant.
2. Tamarinds --- appear to be a complete loss. I think we had about a dozen of them. We will be leaving their brown remains undisturbed, however, in hopes there will be some sign of life coming from the roots up (we don't know), but we will plant 2 bush beans per bucket beside them in order to not waste so many pots (well, buckets)
3. Lychee --- Again we think they're all dead. Like the tamarinds, we will plant 2 bush beans per bucket right beside their remains, in hopes a few may revive. I have less hope of this with them, however, since they were much smaller and more tender.
4. Gynura --- These died back to a brown paste, but amazingly, there are signs with some of them of new leaves coming from the root, yay!! We'll let them get some more oomph and then trim back the brown stuff and let it mulch itself.
5. Papayas ---Weeping, mourning, gnashing of teeth...The 8', two 6', two 4', and rest of the 30 plus papaya plants all appear to be casualties of the freeze. These plants simply hate cool weather but can't withstand those lower 30 temps. We plan a trip to visit the reknowned "papaya man" in Sarasota to see how he manages to have so many fruitful plants in such a small space in his backyard...he and his wife eat only food that they grow, and most of it is fruit, namely papayas. We just really need to know how to keep ours alive without ultimate pampering, since they're SO hardy all the other times of year here and seem to thrive on punishment that would kill most other plants.
6. Malanga --- remember those plants that look like elephant ear plants, with the starchy taro-ish root? They're our pleasant surprise! We did cover them loosely during the freezes, but not with much fuss. They got good and frozen. And the green leaves did die back...BUT...they've all reappeared! This makes them a GREAT keeper for us, and means we can concentrate on propagating a lot more of them. They send out side shoots that Jack carefully separates and starts more from, with seeming success at this point, yay! This is a much-underutilized crop for this region, and just really doesnt make it to the markets locally in large quantities. We've noticed a lot of market malanga comes from central or south america, but we're not sure why since it's very hardy here. Note to selves: Grow it!
7. Sunflower starts --- another surprise. I'd started some mammoth sunflowers from seed in the salad bins, and they were already about 4" tall when the first freeze hit. They survived all three freezes with no problems...uncovered! That really surprised me. I guess our day temps get warm enough to keep them from going under, but for whatever reason, their night-temp cold-hardiness is duly noted! :)
8. Mustard, komatsuna, and radishes did not die back, and were not covered. Yay!
9. Carambola/Starfruit tree sapling --- may be a complete loss :( It was so hardy during those hot, hot days. We'll still keep it watered and such till we know if anything choose to sprout from it in the weeks to come.
10. Jujube sapling --- did not like the freezes, but is greening up again since. Let's see...here's hoping!
11. My cocoplum bushes --- wahhhhh :( All 6 are either dead or having a dickens of a time deciding to hang in there. They are brown and crunchy, but were green and loaded with fruit before the 3 freezes. Double wahhhhh :( We'll see...
12. Bush Cherry --- It may make it, but it's so stressed. Part of it died back to completely brown, but a couple places at the bottom stayed somewhat green. Let's just see... (sigh!)
13. Western soapberry saplings --- these went dormant in early winter and are deciduous. I suspect they'll survive the freezes and will leaf out when they decide spring has sprung. Again, let's see...I still have hopes for them :)
14. Mangos --- it hurts too much to admit we may have lost them all, especially the beautiful 6' Carrie mango we brought onto the porch for more protection. The ones grown from seed by Jack, in pots, all seem to be lost. The Carrie is brown and crunchy...let's see if it decides to put out growth at all.
15. Pineapples --- these are all starts from crowns, and all have turned yellow and mostly limp, but are still with us. Let's see if hot weather revives them at all. We're hoping they will, but are not giving them any special treatment since we want to know what will remain hardy to our locale, and which things aren't our best choices. They've been troopers so far, so they may hang in there and if so, we'll keep propagating more.
16. Yerba Buena mint --- This one takes a licking and keeps on ticking. In fact, it seems to have GROWN during the freezes! It's not a particular plant, not finicky. So we need to find all the ways to best use it...it's a keeper for sure.
17. Feverfew ---another of the herbs that has just grown great guns during hot and cold. I need to find out how to utilized it...it's great!
18. Rosemary ---it revived during the cold, and hangs in there in the heat. I'm lovin' you, rosemary!
19. Thymes --- I have a couple that have done great during hot or freeze, and they're keepers. If we're able to move to our homestead, they'll have a spot of their very own, possibly in an area with birdhouses near the house. They continue to be one of my most favorite :)
20. Basils ---nah, they hated the freeze, but withstood the cold up till that time. I'm not worried, though...we let them all go to seed in the fall and there will be enough volunteers coming up all throughout the other plants' pots they'll be back :)
21. Cassava/Yucca --- These did ok till the freeze, then they died back. I don't know if the root is enough to restart more in the spring when it gets warmer. We're leaving it there just in case. We had barely started our experimentation with these, but they should be hardy to this area...let's see.
22. Coffee tree saplings --- They hated the freeze. I'm not sure how they'll do...they're struggling right now. They're up on our back porch protected from extremes, but Jack's more invested in their survival than I am. If they don't thrive, frankly I want to stay away from things needing babying. But he's right in that we have no mature tree cover right now, and if we did, they might be totally in their element. So, we'll see. If they don't thrive, I'll try my hand at growing chickory or romaine in order to have a coffee substitute (from the dried or roasted, ground roots)
We have a lot next door that is complete concrete-tough hardpan. Our great neighbor with horses down the street has been giving us (free!) liberal truckloads of stable cleanings, which usually is a mix of manure/wood waste/straw. Jack has spread 1/4 of the lot with it to a depth of about 6 inches, and two more loads were just delivered. He's also been leveling our existing lot (the one our house is on) with this mix, too, which will decompose over the very hot summer, and has been mulching the front bed and under the trees, etc.
Collecting boxes of the quantity and frequency needed to layer on the lot next door over such a big area is more than our work schedules can accommodate just now, so it's going to have to remain manure&shavings on top of hardpan, and we're trying to figure out how to grow something in that.
I really want us to grow a large quantity of a few plants there, ones that will make great green manure even if they don't succeed well the first year for a harvest. (but that will stand a good chance at both). I want to plant pink-eye purple hull peas, okra, a couple different bush beans, and bush green beans there. It takes an awful lot of purple hull plants to bear enough of a crop for a good harvest, so I hope we start with those and that they do well. The problem is all that manure and wood chips/straw, and the fact there is very little available soil to sow directly into (the hardpan is sand, sand, sand). That said, I think we may start with a section, mark it off into rows that can be planted at least 3 deep (wide rows), make narrow furrows with a broomhandle and tap out some lines of topsoil mix right in those furrows to get the seeds off to a good start. I have no idea if this will work, but tilling it all in will require renting a tiller and will jumpstart all the weeds that lurk over there, plus we'll be battling that stinking concrete-hard soil. I'm thinking layers of biomass at this point will more quickly transform the soil than any tilling will. And though we just don't have the time to layer carboard over it, etc, maybe just adding green manures to the layer of manure&wood/straw may encourage microbes and worms...let's see!
I still feel us holding back. There is still a semi-detachment in our efforts till we know for sure how long we'll be here, or whether our homestead will come together elsewhere. That's our unknown, so THE first priority is what it has been the last two years...getting out of debt.
Here's my mindset on what we should grow:
1. Keep what's done well for us now...all things we thought would do well in our zone. Those that THRIVE are at the top of the list to keep, propagate, and utilize. We want to only add in other plants we think have this potential.
2. We need to grow what we can use for our diet, ultimately to eliminate the need for the store for essentials. I see our needs being
A. Fresh greens
B. Shell Beans
C. Green beans
D. Potatoes, malanga
E. Medicinal herbs
F. Other---tomatoes, okra, summer and storage squash (in other years, these will be farther up the MUST HAVE list)
G. Fruits
This year, I think we can work on trying A, B, C & D on a small scale, hitting that learning curve. This is "on the side" when not working at our jobs.
So far, all our attempts have been full of surprises, setbacks, and pleasant successes. It's on a very small scale. But later larger scales will be based on our best successes during these days and their limitations. Some things such as fruit trees are a matter of time...they take time to mature and fruit on a bigger scale. But we're having fun trying :)
And those are our simple goals at the outset at this point in 2009.
1. All citrus --- seem A-O.K. There was some blossom loss, so the harvest this year may be scant.
2. Tamarinds --- appear to be a complete loss. I think we had about a dozen of them. We will be leaving their brown remains undisturbed, however, in hopes there will be some sign of life coming from the roots up (we don't know), but we will plant 2 bush beans per bucket beside them in order to not waste so many pots (well, buckets)
3. Lychee --- Again we think they're all dead. Like the tamarinds, we will plant 2 bush beans per bucket right beside their remains, in hopes a few may revive. I have less hope of this with them, however, since they were much smaller and more tender.
4. Gynura --- These died back to a brown paste, but amazingly, there are signs with some of them of new leaves coming from the root, yay!! We'll let them get some more oomph and then trim back the brown stuff and let it mulch itself.
5. Papayas ---Weeping, mourning, gnashing of teeth...The 8', two 6', two 4', and rest of the 30 plus papaya plants all appear to be casualties of the freeze. These plants simply hate cool weather but can't withstand those lower 30 temps. We plan a trip to visit the reknowned "papaya man" in Sarasota to see how he manages to have so many fruitful plants in such a small space in his backyard...he and his wife eat only food that they grow, and most of it is fruit, namely papayas. We just really need to know how to keep ours alive without ultimate pampering, since they're SO hardy all the other times of year here and seem to thrive on punishment that would kill most other plants.
6. Malanga --- remember those plants that look like elephant ear plants, with the starchy taro-ish root? They're our pleasant surprise! We did cover them loosely during the freezes, but not with much fuss. They got good and frozen. And the green leaves did die back...BUT...they've all reappeared! This makes them a GREAT keeper for us, and means we can concentrate on propagating a lot more of them. They send out side shoots that Jack carefully separates and starts more from, with seeming success at this point, yay! This is a much-underutilized crop for this region, and just really doesnt make it to the markets locally in large quantities. We've noticed a lot of market malanga comes from central or south america, but we're not sure why since it's very hardy here. Note to selves: Grow it!
7. Sunflower starts --- another surprise. I'd started some mammoth sunflowers from seed in the salad bins, and they were already about 4" tall when the first freeze hit. They survived all three freezes with no problems...uncovered! That really surprised me. I guess our day temps get warm enough to keep them from going under, but for whatever reason, their night-temp cold-hardiness is duly noted! :)
8. Mustard, komatsuna, and radishes did not die back, and were not covered. Yay!
9. Carambola/Starfruit tree sapling --- may be a complete loss :( It was so hardy during those hot, hot days. We'll still keep it watered and such till we know if anything choose to sprout from it in the weeks to come.
10. Jujube sapling --- did not like the freezes, but is greening up again since. Let's see...here's hoping!
11. My cocoplum bushes --- wahhhhh :( All 6 are either dead or having a dickens of a time deciding to hang in there. They are brown and crunchy, but were green and loaded with fruit before the 3 freezes. Double wahhhhh :( We'll see...
12. Bush Cherry --- It may make it, but it's so stressed. Part of it died back to completely brown, but a couple places at the bottom stayed somewhat green. Let's just see... (sigh!)
13. Western soapberry saplings --- these went dormant in early winter and are deciduous. I suspect they'll survive the freezes and will leaf out when they decide spring has sprung. Again, let's see...I still have hopes for them :)
14. Mangos --- it hurts too much to admit we may have lost them all, especially the beautiful 6' Carrie mango we brought onto the porch for more protection. The ones grown from seed by Jack, in pots, all seem to be lost. The Carrie is brown and crunchy...let's see if it decides to put out growth at all.
15. Pineapples --- these are all starts from crowns, and all have turned yellow and mostly limp, but are still with us. Let's see if hot weather revives them at all. We're hoping they will, but are not giving them any special treatment since we want to know what will remain hardy to our locale, and which things aren't our best choices. They've been troopers so far, so they may hang in there and if so, we'll keep propagating more.
16. Yerba Buena mint --- This one takes a licking and keeps on ticking. In fact, it seems to have GROWN during the freezes! It's not a particular plant, not finicky. So we need to find all the ways to best use it...it's a keeper for sure.
17. Feverfew ---another of the herbs that has just grown great guns during hot and cold. I need to find out how to utilized it...it's great!
18. Rosemary ---it revived during the cold, and hangs in there in the heat. I'm lovin' you, rosemary!
19. Thymes --- I have a couple that have done great during hot or freeze, and they're keepers. If we're able to move to our homestead, they'll have a spot of their very own, possibly in an area with birdhouses near the house. They continue to be one of my most favorite :)
20. Basils ---nah, they hated the freeze, but withstood the cold up till that time. I'm not worried, though...we let them all go to seed in the fall and there will be enough volunteers coming up all throughout the other plants' pots they'll be back :)
21. Cassava/Yucca --- These did ok till the freeze, then they died back. I don't know if the root is enough to restart more in the spring when it gets warmer. We're leaving it there just in case. We had barely started our experimentation with these, but they should be hardy to this area...let's see.
22. Coffee tree saplings --- They hated the freeze. I'm not sure how they'll do...they're struggling right now. They're up on our back porch protected from extremes, but Jack's more invested in their survival than I am. If they don't thrive, frankly I want to stay away from things needing babying. But he's right in that we have no mature tree cover right now, and if we did, they might be totally in their element. So, we'll see. If they don't thrive, I'll try my hand at growing chickory or romaine in order to have a coffee substitute (from the dried or roasted, ground roots)
We have a lot next door that is complete concrete-tough hardpan. Our great neighbor with horses down the street has been giving us (free!) liberal truckloads of stable cleanings, which usually is a mix of manure/wood waste/straw. Jack has spread 1/4 of the lot with it to a depth of about 6 inches, and two more loads were just delivered. He's also been leveling our existing lot (the one our house is on) with this mix, too, which will decompose over the very hot summer, and has been mulching the front bed and under the trees, etc.
Collecting boxes of the quantity and frequency needed to layer on the lot next door over such a big area is more than our work schedules can accommodate just now, so it's going to have to remain manure&shavings on top of hardpan, and we're trying to figure out how to grow something in that.
I really want us to grow a large quantity of a few plants there, ones that will make great green manure even if they don't succeed well the first year for a harvest. (but that will stand a good chance at both). I want to plant pink-eye purple hull peas, okra, a couple different bush beans, and bush green beans there. It takes an awful lot of purple hull plants to bear enough of a crop for a good harvest, so I hope we start with those and that they do well. The problem is all that manure and wood chips/straw, and the fact there is very little available soil to sow directly into (the hardpan is sand, sand, sand). That said, I think we may start with a section, mark it off into rows that can be planted at least 3 deep (wide rows), make narrow furrows with a broomhandle and tap out some lines of topsoil mix right in those furrows to get the seeds off to a good start. I have no idea if this will work, but tilling it all in will require renting a tiller and will jumpstart all the weeds that lurk over there, plus we'll be battling that stinking concrete-hard soil. I'm thinking layers of biomass at this point will more quickly transform the soil than any tilling will. And though we just don't have the time to layer carboard over it, etc, maybe just adding green manures to the layer of manure&wood/straw may encourage microbes and worms...let's see!
I still feel us holding back. There is still a semi-detachment in our efforts till we know for sure how long we'll be here, or whether our homestead will come together elsewhere. That's our unknown, so THE first priority is what it has been the last two years...getting out of debt.
Here's my mindset on what we should grow:
1. Keep what's done well for us now...all things we thought would do well in our zone. Those that THRIVE are at the top of the list to keep, propagate, and utilize. We want to only add in other plants we think have this potential.
2. We need to grow what we can use for our diet, ultimately to eliminate the need for the store for essentials. I see our needs being
A. Fresh greens
B. Shell Beans
C. Green beans
D. Potatoes, malanga
E. Medicinal herbs
F. Other---tomatoes, okra, summer and storage squash (in other years, these will be farther up the MUST HAVE list)
G. Fruits
This year, I think we can work on trying A, B, C & D on a small scale, hitting that learning curve. This is "on the side" when not working at our jobs.
So far, all our attempts have been full of surprises, setbacks, and pleasant successes. It's on a very small scale. But later larger scales will be based on our best successes during these days and their limitations. Some things such as fruit trees are a matter of time...they take time to mature and fruit on a bigger scale. But we're having fun trying :)
And those are our simple goals at the outset at this point in 2009.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Turkey Thyme
Please excuse the naked poultry...there were no fig leaves available.
This is one of the fat young birds we purchased loads of when they went on sale during the holidays in 2008...and they still cook up great!
Of course, there came a point where we had a hard time saying the word Turkey, thinking of turkey sandwiches and all the many other incarnations for leftover turkey meat, even though noone around here seems to tire of cranberries.
But the herbs survived the freezes (we won't mention all the plants that didn't) and the rosemary was too good to pass up (it's actually beginning to bloom!)...the thyme sprigs were dried in bouquets still hanging upside down from my impromptu drying rack (a metal 3-fold standing screen), and begging to be used. Is there anyone out there who doesn't like the scent of rosemary and thyme?mmmm
I don't have a roasting pan or anything big enough for a turkey....note to self NEXT year if we decide to re-stock the freezer, "Get Pan..."
Lest anyone think cooking a turkey is rocket science, a big thawed turkey CAN be wedged securely upside down into a stockpot, doused with a cup of water, massaged with sea salt, tickled with garlic, adorned with herbs, sealed with foil, and baked till fork-tender at 300F...... to great success. All while you run errands with the hub and then come home to the house smelling like Thanksgiving dinner.....ahhh :)
Some day maybe I can say each of those ingredients was raised and nurtured by our very hands on our very own farm. But till then, I'm happy the herbs came from only a few feet from our back door, and that the sale meat we bought 4 months ago is still pulling its weight in trimming back the weekly food budget considerably.
Small steps.
Just a reminder to myself that even those DO add up, though...and are sometimes delicious :)
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Something Seedy...
Homemade seed packets are easy to assemble and are a lot of fun to make! For more, I wrote about it today at Women Not Dabbling in Normal...
Happy seed saving and recycling fun!
Monday, February 2, 2009
I Want to Know Mrs. Adelia!
Mystery solved!
And you're realllllyyyyy going to love this :)
Last year I followed a blog link to another blog where the author had written a post called The Queen of Frugal: Lessons from Butterberry Farm. Which one is the greater hook...the term Queen of Frugal, or any place named Butterberry Farm??
(happy sigh!!)
The post was the first in a series where the author wrote about a woman she met (at her Farmer's Market) named Mrs. Adelia, who, it turns out, is truly a frugal queen. You have to read the post there to understand, but she and her family live SO truly simply, but very very well. And you won't believe how little actual money they spend. It had the ring of authenticity of someone who's BEEN living a way I am headed towards but still find elusive in many ways.
I hope you enjoy discovering Mrs. Adelia yourself. Here is Kendra's Blog entitled Handprints on the Wall...a wonderful blog, and here is where Kendra begins her series about Mrs. Adelia entitled Lessons from Butterberry Farm. If you want to read it chronologically, start at the bottom of that page at the oldest entry, and read upwards.
Enjoy!! :)
And you're realllllyyyyy going to love this :)
Last year I followed a blog link to another blog where the author had written a post called The Queen of Frugal: Lessons from Butterberry Farm. Which one is the greater hook...the term Queen of Frugal, or any place named Butterberry Farm??
(happy sigh!!)
The post was the first in a series where the author wrote about a woman she met (at her Farmer's Market) named Mrs. Adelia, who, it turns out, is truly a frugal queen. You have to read the post there to understand, but she and her family live SO truly simply, but very very well. And you won't believe how little actual money they spend. It had the ring of authenticity of someone who's BEEN living a way I am headed towards but still find elusive in many ways.
I hope you enjoy discovering Mrs. Adelia yourself. Here is Kendra's Blog entitled Handprints on the Wall...a wonderful blog, and here is where Kendra begins her series about Mrs. Adelia entitled Lessons from Butterberry Farm. If you want to read it chronologically, start at the bottom of that page at the oldest entry, and read upwards.
Enjoy!! :)
Friday, November 14, 2008
Cookies and Ramblings
Don't you love those 5-ingredients-or-less foods that can be put together in a jiffy and turn out great?Here's an easy recipe I tried this week for peanut butter cookies called Best Peanut Butter Cookies Ever, and I love it...no flour, no milk, and really delicious. (I think I could even back off the sugar amount some, which I'll be trying for my next batch.) Here's the link... and here's the easy recipe:
INGREDIENTS
2 cups peanut butter
2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 pinch salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.
In a medium bowl, stir peanut butter and sugar together until smooth. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the baking soda, salt, and vanilla. Roll dough into 1 inch balls and place them 2 inches apart onto the prepared cookie sheets. Press a criss-cross into the top using the back of a fork.
Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
These were seriously the best peanut butter cookies I've had. You have to remove them carefully with a spatula to cool...careful or they'll fall apart. After they cool, they keep their shape really well. The comments section at their website states that regular peanut butter works better for this than hand-ground, for whatever reason.
On to other things...this is a rambling post and it'll be all over the place. I apologize in advance :)
Continuing to Make It at Home
Right now, since my regular job has not picked back up all the way, I'm at home more (yay!), which I really prefer. I've been trying to contribute to our budget, especially with the reduction of incoming money, by making nearly everything from scratch and really tightening the food budget a lot tighter. I still would like to get the numbers lower, without sacrificing nutrition.
We don't have optimal nutrition at the moment in this scenario.
We're working within our limitations. Yes, I know there are those out there with very good arguments for why it costs less overall and is preferable to buy everything organic. I'm sorry, I just don't have the sources or the income for that, so our answer to this will be to supplement what we can do right now with our OWN garden produce, something over which we have more control.
Our strategy is to slowly and deliberately begin substituting one for the other...our own home-produced foods to replace the store-bought ones.
Prices Still Climb
Has anyone noticed the price of simple things like rice and beans? It actually made me angry...I went to the store prepared to pay the prices for dried beans that I'd seen a year ago. We seldom eat beans, which is now changing, and I seldom had the need to buy dried beans. I'm used to their being the cheapest thing going as far as staple items. The price now compared to then is simply ridiculous....I really had a moment right there in the grocery aisle...I just stoood there and got really, really mad. (not something I usually do...)
So, I'll deal. You can believe beans and cowpeas of different descriptions will be on my garden list for next year.
Anyway, we hope to transition to our own garden produce, supplying our own staples, growing our own meat and dairy animals, and purchasing or bartering for organic supplies, including bulk purchase co-ops in the future...this is part of our Plan.
At the moment, I'm at the base of the learning curve.
I didn't realize how much we relied on processed foods to fill in the gaps, till now. Here at the very bottom of the learning curve, I'm having to learn for the first time how to bypass instant gratification. Yes, I cooked a lot at home. Yes, I used to cut corners. I still will on days I have to work, or if I'm not feeling well...I'm not a purist on this, nor am I critical of other families doing what works best for them. I'm just documenting my growing process here...which, for me, is more of a Growing Up process.
I've been pretty spoiled, even when I thought I wasn't...
While someday I hope to only cook using my own homeground grains, sugars that aren't processed white cane, and etc., at the moment, till I get some of those tools (grain mill, etc) and get set up for it or find better sources, I still do use them. I've experimented with the store-bought whole grain flour, and in comparison with the freshly-ground-at-home ones, there's just no comparison. Same thing for white sugar. There are my goals, and at the moment, my reality is in the early parts of transition. So regular unbleached white flour and white sugar are still here in my kitchen for the time being.
Reminding Ourselves of How Far We've Come
Debt-reduction is our Job One. All other things right now as far as the To Do list come second. It's easy to think we're making no progress whatsoever, as we trudge onward in this process of getting out of debt, locating a piece of land (and all the other stuff that comes with that), selling off a couple vacant residential lots we can't use (nothing is selling in our area right now, as you can imagine), scratching our heads over how (time, resources) to invest in doing for ourselves right where we are...namely, coaxing a garden from hardpan and all that entails...we just can't spend more money without careful planning, and it's difficult to decide when that same money's needed for more than one goal at a time.
For instance there's a real opportunity right now to purchase frozen turkey for $.79/lb. One small turkey could contribute largely to our meals in different ways for about two weeks, maybe more. Normally, the cheapest sale on meat of any sort (besides pork, which we can't have) is $1.99/lb, and the cheapest ground chuck normally runs $3.69 lb. And that's for what Jack and I term "the nasty stuff"...totally processed Big Ag chicken or beef...something we're trying to get AWAY from eventually. Oh, have I mentioned I just about can't take the chicken anymore? It tastes like bleach and chemicals to me, and I am trying so hard not to have to buy it anymore. We're incorporating more vegetarian meals as a result.
Anyway, turkey at $.79/lb is a real find for us, but we don't have freezer space. We can pick up a small freezer right now at a reasonable price, but of course that money doesn't come from a void, and is earmarked for other things. However, the impact it would have right now in SAVING us money on our meat and grocery budget is a real consideration.
Buying, to Save?
We seldom make snap decisions, and this is no exception. We've deliberated now for two weeks, "sleeping on it." We did decide to go ahead and get the freezer and to stock up with holiday turkeys on sale, and other items reduced for the holidays.
And here's what got cut from the budget...holiday gifts. All of them.
Happy holidays to us...we'll have something to put affordable food into and cut my grocery budget down down down, and pay those remaining debts off off off :)
What Gives
I'll write more another time about how our gift-giving and holiday celebrations have changed dramatically in the last few years...that's been our choice, frankly. This year, everyone in our household is working, and all of us have been very up-front about our financial goals. We have discussions and updates regularly, and encourage each other in these areas...so let's just say none of us is unaware of the big steps we're all taking in many areas. That takes the ouch out of adjusting to other changes such as reducing our holiday budget, and the pressure off of the rut we'd gotten into with gift-giving. A rut of gift-giving?? Is that a bah humbug sentiment? :) No...I'm not on a high horse here and not critical of others' gift-giving fun at all...in fact, I quite enjoy seeing the happiness others have with the fun of it all. And I do anticipate future years in which we'll have the extra to embellish family times with some extra indulgence in that area. We'll really be able to enjoy it then, without feeling stressed!
I am saying this:
1. We have no TV (we have a set for watching movies, but we have no TV reception or cable...none.) We see no ads. We don't know what we're missing! :)
2. We're giving ourselves the gift of being debt free. We're not willing to halt that, even momentarily, because we want to be FREE more than any other want.
3. We have what we need, and a whole lot of what we want.
4. We have more than what we need, and are still having to get rid of Stuff. We don't want to replace Stuff with More Stuff.
5. There are some tools we need to live the lifestyle we want, better. We try not to get caught up into thinking we can't live this life without those tools. As we Reduce, we only Replace with things that are Essential.
6. Holidays can be celebrated without gifts. If we don't think so, we've lost out on something very fundamental. BEING WITH our loved ones is the point...THAT is the gift. It's taken me a lot of years to "get" that.
7. Gifts don't have to be confined to holidays. We think most things are better when shared. Jack and I tend to be "giving" people anyway, and simple things such as homemade food, canned goods, handmade items are best when shared. Time spent together is still the greatest gift. A favorite meal together, singing songs, favorite music/movie/home movies/photograph albums/games...these are gratifying and fun. Making foods together...popcorn, caramel corn balls, taffy, cookies, a family recipe, grilling, a fish fry, a potluck buffet, a bonfire with roasted marshmallows or hotdogs...that's shared "giving" time that can't be replaced. My grandparents always had a wooden bowl of whole nuts, with nutcracker, and I remember lots of times the grownups would sit around and talk and crack nuts as they went. And don't forget snuggling with the kids or sweetheart, hugs, and reading aloud, or storytelling. I just don't know anyone who doesnt love a good story!
OK, I never know where things are going when I begin typing. This was quite a departure from Peanut Butter Cookies, ack!
I hope you've had a wonderful week, and will have a relaxing weekend.
As soon as I'm off the computer here, I'll be cooking up a storm and straightening some around the house for tonight and tomorrow. At sundown will come our weekly time of thanks, feasting, and simple comforts. It's not always an easy week, and it doesn't always end with a big meal or everything finished around the house. But it's always welcome, and a reminder that there's a new week for new starts just around the corner :) I do have some emails to catch up with over the weekend (says the procrastinator, lol) I'll especially enjoy re-reading all the wonderful replies to the Chicken Question post...so grateful for so many detailed answers... you have no idea how much this helps us get a more realistic idea for planning our own future! Thank you so much!
Quick Meal Recap
Some of our meals this week were Cabbage Rolls with Rice, Leftover Lasagne from last weekend, all sorts of things served with homemade bread, Tuna Noodle Bake, Cabbage and more cabbage with nearly everything, homemade cookies, red beans and rice with cornbread (and cabbage, what else, ha!). I'll get another batch of beans and rice going to slow cook in the crock pot for tomorrow's meals, make up some squash/spinach/noodle bake (sounds gross but it's delicious), and some beef enchiladas if my tortillas are still good to go. We have potatoes, so potato dishes will figure in largely for the upcoming week. I need to get a couple batches of breads going, too...some will be plain, and I'll probably try to use the calabaza I have in another batch and make it sweet, probably rolling it up with brown sugar and cinnamon for sweet loaves, mmmm :)
Jack treated me out yesterday at lunch to our favorite hole-in-the-wall Mom and Pop restaurant, where they serve homecooked food. I got my fish 'n chips fix there, and he had some corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes. I laughed when he was eating and he pointed to the cabbage and said "hey look honey...it's MORE CABBAGE!" heehee Obviously the man can eat it seven days a week ;-)
Kombucha!
As always, we're loving the Kombucha. Love, love, loving it! I don't even miss other drinks. It's kombucha, water, or sometimes milk. I'm noticing a difference in my health that I attribute to it, not the least of is more energy and a better sleep cycle.
Slow Mend
Jack is on Week Two of tendonitis in his right leg. Not much is getting done outside as far as the heavy stuff. So we're utilizing time together indoors, and there's been some fun in getting back to the drawing board (literally) in trying to finalize house plans/drawings. It's something we don't seem to get tired of, and we scout around online, too, for plan ideas. It's all budget-directed, so it's not the "dream house" of unlimited resources, but it's a lot of fun sharing in the formation of something that will hopefully serve us well, if we ever get to that point. That'll be the fun part of being out of debt :)
Bucketville/the Garden
We'll be getting into a bit lower temps here over the weekend. We'll be closely monitoring our buckets of semi-tropicals to see what we can do if they start looking puny. We have old sheets at the ready. The guava has fruits on it...hope it does fine. The soapberry tree babies look like they're going dormant. Hope they're not dying.
Ok, duty calls, gotta scoot. If I don't stop typing now, there won't be time for everything.
Have a great weekend, and shabbat shalom!
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Don't Throw Away Those...Onion Trimmings
Don't you love how those cooking onions shed their flaky, papery bits here and there? I seem to always find them lurking wherever I store my onions. I used to throw them away, but now I've stopped fighting the incoming tide, and I gather them instead.
Those dry outer onion skins are said to make a beautiful natural dye, ranging from pale beige to warm gold to golden brown. I think the mordant would be vinegar or alum, and in skimming the recommendations here and there online, it says wool takes the dye better than cotton. I have yet to try this, but it's on my Later On list of To-Dos. Meanwhile, I've got a 5 gallon bag full of the skins, and everytime I chop another onion, the skin goes right into this bag...
We're also experimenting with saving the trimmed-off roots...here's a pic of some just-trimmed onion and leek roots. We're just sticking them back into some pots with decent soil to see if anything sprouts from them. If so, we'll either have a perpetual onion, a smaller snack-sized onion, or compost...ha!
We did have some onions take root from the simple trimmed ends...not sure about the leeks yet, though. These leek trimmings remind me of sea anemones...
Here's one of the onion trimmings, replanted, with some regrowth...
Little bucket of experiments...
Here are a couple Jack brought in from the garden. They looked kind of rough, but after peeling down the top couple of layers, they were smooth and delicious underneath...we love fresh green onions with meals!
Uses for Onion Trimmings:
Those dry outer onion skins are said to make a beautiful natural dye, ranging from pale beige to warm gold to golden brown. I think the mordant would be vinegar or alum, and in skimming the recommendations here and there online, it says wool takes the dye better than cotton. I have yet to try this, but it's on my Later On list of To-Dos. Meanwhile, I've got a 5 gallon bag full of the skins, and everytime I chop another onion, the skin goes right into this bag...
We're also experimenting with saving the trimmed-off roots...here's a pic of some just-trimmed onion and leek roots. We're just sticking them back into some pots with decent soil to see if anything sprouts from them. If so, we'll either have a perpetual onion, a smaller snack-sized onion, or compost...ha!
We did have some onions take root from the simple trimmed ends...not sure about the leeks yet, though. These leek trimmings remind me of sea anemones...
Here's one of the onion trimmings, replanted, with some regrowth...
Little bucket of experiments...
Here are a couple Jack brought in from the garden. They looked kind of rough, but after peeling down the top couple of layers, they were smooth and delicious underneath...we love fresh green onions with meals!
Uses for Onion Trimmings:
The Papery Skins --
For natural dye-making. Yellow onions yield ochre and brown-toned dyes. Purple/Red onion skins yield dyes in the redder range. These are good natural dyes with vinegar or alum as the mordant. They are said to effectively dye wool. They are also used in some traditional and non-traditional ways to dye hard-boiled eggs for craft projects. I wonder how they do in paper dyeing?
The Tough Outer Skin --
The part you have to peel away because it's too tough to chop ...these are good (washed, of course) for throwing into a ziploc freezer bag along with other veggie trimmings...carrot tops, beet tops and tips...any other veggie bits to include in making soup stock later. When you have enough, it can all be boiled and then strained off after the stock is done.
Or, if you like, off to the compost pile!
The onion tops --
If they're crunchy and tender enough, they can be used like chives as spice or garnishes. If they're little green onions, leave on the part that's tender enough to be noshed on, and only trim the very tough parts off.
The toughest parts of the onion tops can be saved with other veggie trimmings for making soup stock (discarded to the compost pile after straining off the liquid), or thrown into the compost pile.
The roots --
Well, we're experimenting with simply replanting them in pots. We've not done enough to be able to tell if this will work well every time, but we've had enough survive to create little green onions, albeit rough looking ones, that can be peeled down a couple layers and trimmed to eat in-hand as an accompaniment to sandwiches, or meals like beans and cornbread...mmm!
Let me know if you use your onion trimmings in other ways, and I'll add it to the list :)
Let me know if you use your onion trimmings in other ways, and I'll add it to the list :)
Friday, November 7, 2008
Bread Head
I can't quit baking...I have some OCD thing going on with it just now. Maybe it's the tightening our belts thing, dunno, but I tried a new recipe for basic bread...still trying basic bread recipes to see which ones are our faves.
This time it was Suzanne McMinn's Grandmother Bread, a family bread recipe handed down through her generations...and so easy, too!
I'm not sure what I did, but after mixing up the basic ingredients I got to the kneading stage, and it was like I was new at making bread again. The dough stuck to my hands, kept getting slaggy, I added what seemed like way too much flour to get it under control and then worried if I'd added too much and if it would dry it out or make it heavy. The kneading was Bread Vs Baker, but I eventually won, though it never quite got to that "soft as a baby's behind" stage...not satiny, but still nice. I think my kitchen was too damp and humid just then because I had a lot of things going on the stovetop only inches away.
And so goes my learning curve! But lemme tell you, the bread is a genius and was good despite my amateurish attempts. I had to take a pic, but couldn't quite wait till it cooled...it was good hot with butter.If you like a good basic loaf that's good for about anything, this one would work...sandwich bread, sweet rolls, any number of things. We'll use it for different things this week (it made two large loaves), and it seems to hold up really well. Thanks, Suzanne, for posting your family's heritage recipe!
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Foraging: Pine Needle Tea
You DO want to try this, but not till it's strained. Those little guys are sharp!We were out walking yesterday, and there was a 3 foot pine seedling within easy access in the undeveloped wilder area. I clipped the end of one of its branches, since it was in an area that is never sprayed (and looked like it was in an area that might be mowed down before too long).
I'd read that pine needles make a great tea, and that the needles as well as many other parts of the pine tree were used by native populations as food in different ways. The vitamin C content of the needles is said to be really high. In fact, if settlers had drunk it during times of want, it is said there would have been no scurvy. Linda Runyon mentions pine in her foraging handbook. Anyway, I was curious!
I washed and trimmed some of the needles, and poured boiling over them, as seen above. Then I learned an important lesson...NOT to try sipping the brew while the needles are still in it (yeah, go ahead, I know everyone else has better sense! lol) I was aiming just for a sip, not a gulp, but two of those needle bits got sipped right up with the liquid and I just about had to have an embarrassing trip to the ER, only I'd not swallowed very hard and was able to REACH DOWN MY THROAT WITH MY HAND and pull the piercing little shards out (I can see trying to explain that one, ha!) Anyway, always strain the liquid to get all the needles out first (duh) before drinking. I have enough left, and I'll follow the instructions better next time around and steep them in a PAN of boiling water for 20 minutes.
But here's the exciting part...it was DELICIOUS! I expected a turpentine or stringent taste, but it was actually GREAT tasting...very light, sweet, fragrant...I couldn't believe it! Jack said when he was in the Marines and they had to do survival exercises out in the middle of nowhere (forage, etc), he would boil pine needles and it was really satisfying. He said if we do that, you can add a touch of sugar to taste and it tastes like a very mild lemonade (didnt taste like that to me...tasted very sweet without any sugar...nice flavor!
Here are the two precautions:
1. Make sure you identify the tree properly. It HAS to be a pine. Don't take chances if you're not sure, because there are evergreens (don't remember which) that are poisonous. And also make sure it's not in an area that has been sprayed with any sort of poisons or has poison ivy/sumac/oak growing anywhere nearby.
2. Though I LOVED this (I'd drink it every day if I could), I can't drink it till I'm, ohhhh, older. Seems that there's some strong anecdotal evidence that pregnant and nursing mothers should probably steer clear of it, as well as anyone who might be pregnant at any point...the tea is said to cause miscarriages within a very short time (hmmm...) if drunk while pregnant. Since we'd welcome a baby at ANY time were I able to have one, I'd just as soon play it safe in that department. But you can bet I'll be drinking it when I'm older. A nice and pleasant surprise :)
S-t-r-e-t-c-hhhhh
Whew, had to get creative with what we had in the pantry this past two weeks...took a hit at the bank, unexpectedly.
Here are a few things we had, and how we stretched them. Recipes to follow in later post, possibly...
Flour, eggs, butter, a dab of cottage cheese, dab of sour cream, two yellow squashes, a few yellow onions, bit of fresh spinach, little bit of Parmesan, powdered milk, tuna, canned cranberry sauce, evaporated milk, dry pasta, canned pumpkin, leg/thigh chicken quarters, shredded cheese...
Made bread.
Noodles Romanoff. (this was a big hit!)
Squash/onion/spinach/cheese noodle bake.
Noodle florentine soup (used leftover veggies for stock, chopped onion, water from boiling noodles, leftover noodles from other dish, rest of fresh spinach).
Homemade mac n cheese.
Made milk-less, egg-less chocolate cake using cocoa.
Homemade pimento cheese on homemade bread.
Cheese melt open-faced sandwiches.
Chicken salad.
Chicken and dressing, with can of cranberry sauce I found at back of pantry.
Tuna salad.
Had very small amount of ground beef (less than 1 lb)...doled it out in small patties, one at a time, for hubby for b'fast with cheese melt toast. Found another scant pound at back of freezer and made meatballs to go with pasta. Stretched the meatballs with breadcrumbs and stuff. Stretched leftover meatballs further by crumbling them and making stroganoff (more noodles, y'know)
There is a constant pot of soup going on the back burner...all leftover veg, meat bits, and noodles go into it. I doctor it with onion and sometimes a dab of Better than Boullion. It rounds off the corners of our meals.
Leftover individual serving applesauces and mango/peach sauce (from when his mom was sick and had to have those) were served on hot pumpkin bread spread with remaining cream cheese and topped with the apple/mango/peach sauce.
I have some chicken stock left, if it's still good. If so, it'll become chicken and dumplings since I still have a few pieces leftover chicken.
Veggies were incorporated into all the above. The only veg I had this week was cabbage, one or two squash, onions, and a bit of romaine, so we had a lot of cabbage sauteed in a touch of olive oil, other veg added in or lightly steamed.
I think I'm noodled out...perhaps rice will figure in this week? :)
I can't say we've done badly, but way way too much starch. The only fresh fruit we had this week was a few remaining apples. We really made them last!
Beverages were fresh kombucha...YUMMM :) or cold water. Hot tea, for curling up and snuggling with hubby.
I think we're still going to be stretching it for a while to come. As long as I have time to peruse cookbooks and figure out substitutions, I'm doing alright in the kitchen. Takes a LOT more time for prep for some things, other things not so much. We're not hungry, and the kombucha is really giving me more energy.
Time to stay creative!
What meals have you stretched this week?
Here are a few things we had, and how we stretched them. Recipes to follow in later post, possibly...
Flour, eggs, butter, a dab of cottage cheese, dab of sour cream, two yellow squashes, a few yellow onions, bit of fresh spinach, little bit of Parmesan, powdered milk, tuna, canned cranberry sauce, evaporated milk, dry pasta, canned pumpkin, leg/thigh chicken quarters, shredded cheese...
Made bread.
Noodles Romanoff. (this was a big hit!)
Squash/onion/spinach/cheese noodle bake.
Noodle florentine soup (used leftover veggies for stock, chopped onion, water from boiling noodles, leftover noodles from other dish, rest of fresh spinach).
Homemade mac n cheese.
Made milk-less, egg-less chocolate cake using cocoa.
Homemade pimento cheese on homemade bread.
Cheese melt open-faced sandwiches.
Chicken salad.
Chicken and dressing, with can of cranberry sauce I found at back of pantry.
Tuna salad.
Had very small amount of ground beef (less than 1 lb)...doled it out in small patties, one at a time, for hubby for b'fast with cheese melt toast. Found another scant pound at back of freezer and made meatballs to go with pasta. Stretched the meatballs with breadcrumbs and stuff. Stretched leftover meatballs further by crumbling them and making stroganoff (more noodles, y'know)
There is a constant pot of soup going on the back burner...all leftover veg, meat bits, and noodles go into it. I doctor it with onion and sometimes a dab of Better than Boullion. It rounds off the corners of our meals.
Leftover individual serving applesauces and mango/peach sauce (from when his mom was sick and had to have those) were served on hot pumpkin bread spread with remaining cream cheese and topped with the apple/mango/peach sauce.
I have some chicken stock left, if it's still good. If so, it'll become chicken and dumplings since I still have a few pieces leftover chicken.
Veggies were incorporated into all the above. The only veg I had this week was cabbage, one or two squash, onions, and a bit of romaine, so we had a lot of cabbage sauteed in a touch of olive oil, other veg added in or lightly steamed.
I think I'm noodled out...perhaps rice will figure in this week? :)
I can't say we've done badly, but way way too much starch. The only fresh fruit we had this week was a few remaining apples. We really made them last!
Beverages were fresh kombucha...YUMMM :) or cold water. Hot tea, for curling up and snuggling with hubby.
I think we're still going to be stretching it for a while to come. As long as I have time to peruse cookbooks and figure out substitutions, I'm doing alright in the kitchen. Takes a LOT more time for prep for some things, other things not so much. We're not hungry, and the kombucha is really giving me more energy.
Time to stay creative!
What meals have you stretched this week?
Home Comforts
Hot spiced pumpkin bread, just out of the oven, dabbed with real butter and drizzled with a couple swirls of honey...oh yes! I love making comfort food!My return to an outside job has been delayed again till next week.
I love being at home. I've been cooking up a storm, trying to stretch everything. Most things taste pretty good when stretched :)
Now, we're eating down our pantry. I discovered a few cans of canned pumpkin and wondered how I might use them.
Then I remembered Kathie's spiced squash bread, which can also be made with pumpkin.
I made it up, with a few substitutions based upon what was at hand (and what wasn't, such as cranberries or raisins) and one loaf was make per the recipe and with the other, I rolled the dough flat after the first rising, and spread it with butter, dark brown sugar and cinnamon, and rolled it back up into a loaf for the second rise ...
Both were delicious! The cinnamon one didn't last...my daughter made off with a sizeable hunk, and requests for more...
A house suffused with the warm fragrance of baking bread, cinnamon, and ginger...mmm!
Monday, October 27, 2008
Ongoing Projects At Hand
These will continue to be researched and added to, started or gathered together in order to start...some personal, some family
1. Begin attending a local place of worship. We've put this off for different reasons in the past, but now it's time to find a shul.
2. Stepping up inroads to land finalization and relocation.
3. Determining on paper the ACTUAL savings/costs, advantages/disadvantages of my returning to the job I had. Will weigh financial realities and compare money saved by more careful managing from home (all meals from scratch, really stretching our money, no gasoline expenses, pack all lunches/cook all meals for other family members, etc) VS. the cash. Will also weigh the health impact of working nights, and the reality of how much I can get done in a day here at home, etc.
4. Researching greens and crops that would last the winter here. Must get them in the ground. Plan to do floating row covers or something along that line if necessary during colder weeks.
5. We MUST start substituting grocery store items with our own homegrown/homeproduced. The only of these we're actually using on a daily basis are the fresh and dried herbs and the homemade kombucha. Oh yes, and the diabetes plant/gynura. It's a start, but it's not enough. Greens are top on the list for the immediate, also leaf lettuces and radishes.
6. More experimentation with unfamiliar but available plants, such as cooking young papaya leaves, clover, and others.
7. Need to weekly eliminate ANY storebought breads, with exception of maybe flour tortillas now and then, with my own homemade. Same thing with any sweet treats, occasional desserts. Do NOT plan on making these in large quantities, though, because we're trying to cut back, find our balance. We've lost a little weight just cutting back on them a bit and substituting other things.
8. Find tried and true soup recipes...ones I get asked to make again. Ones I have ingredients for without having to include half a dozen difficult ones. ( I really appreciate Lemongrass's recent recommendations...thank you, I look forward to trying them out!!)
9. Take the time to shop a few places for specific things. I can find real deals out there on specific items, but they're places I seldom shop for much of anything and don't think to go on my weekly grocery shopping. I'll be divvying up the food budget to make stops for these things since they're close by and it would save me maybe 1/4 of my weekly budget. Need to find somewhere with better prices for meat, even though we've cut back on meat quantity by about half.
10. Ultimately, to achieve reducing weekly grocery bill by half within a year's time. I am now spending half of what I spent last year weekly.
11. Increase my physical activity daily. I've lost some weight now, not much, but without trying, simply by getting more rest and eating better, eating more homemade...and, I think, by drinking such copious amounts of the longer-fermented Kombucha (not as sugary as the younger kombucha) I think it's something my body's been needing, and now I FEEL like doing more...yay!!
12. Begin planning the spring garden beds and order seeds.
13. Expand useful recipe base for things to make all meals last.
14. Find the many ways to use the pumpkins and winter squashes since the prices of these right now are really reasonable.
15. Don't know if I can achieve this one, but if so, great :) Can we find a small freezer by late November?? If so, I'd like to watch the sales on turkeys and get some. For now, it would feed us for a long time...till the day we can have our own (praying praying praying...) The prices are so stupid these days, it's maybe my onlyhope to find affordable meat in quantity.
16. Write the thank you notes I have procrastinated.
17. Declutter my desk area, my closet, the back porch. Keep floors mopped regularly (we have allllllll tile floors) Keep laundry folded right after washing. Empty a couple of piles in the garage to free up two more laundry baskets for that purpose. Oh yeah, and those dishes that keep replenishing themselves in the sink even after I've just gotten things back in order (grrrr...) :)
18. Keep saving our loose change for the Kiva.org/Doing Not Thinking Challenge.
19. Plan simple things for Hannukah. I have no idea what we'll do.
20. Make EVERY shabbat a special celebration in our week. Have the music, meals, clothing ready no later than Thursday, since it allllwayyyyyssss seems to get put off till Friday afternoon and then either gets rushed or otherwise goofed. I want it to be a relaxing time, a planned time, an oasis.
21. Every week study the Torah portion ahead of time, and read my Bible every day. I'll be concentrating on the version by Friedman...love his literal translation and brief yet historical insights in his Torah translation with commentary.
22. Do something with that neglected front flowerbed. (Update: Just started that today, whacking the bushes back with the HEAVY limb cutter since we don't have a hedge trimmer. My forearms are obviously out of shape. I got half of them done and my arms feel like they weigh forty pounds and feel like I imagine Popeye's do, ahoy!)
23. I ordered yarn...this, and this...for The First Time In My Life!!!!! (so excited) I'm SO NOT a thready sewing crocheting knitting person. But my daughter has a neglected Knifty Knitter set, and inspired by Warren's success making things with his KK, initially inspired by Angie's KK success here being modeled by the cutest pictures of her kids, I thought of the time I could be sitting beside my sweetie as we watch movies and in an hour or two I could have a real, homeknitted hat or scarf, or (as I get better) a longer project such as a throw blanket. So this project is underway.
24. I sketched some chicken pictures for possible red-on-white embroidering, or maybe applique? to make some squares throughout the winter for later assembling a quilt or other project...(y'know, when I learn how to sew??? lol)
25. We have honed hand-sketched house plans down to a few basic designs. Now I'm concentrating on trying to imagine what specific things we'll need to incorporate for ongoing real life activities...shelf space for fermenting, storage, kitchen arranged in best way for canning and food prep and large quantities of things needing to be cleaned and chopped, etc. Windows situated for best through-the-house airflow, some sort of passive design that encourages temperate interior during exterior extremes. Siting gardens and animals in relation to the house and our need to access them quickly yet not be too close. And so on and so on...
26. Will I Can??? I have a dozen quarts, new in the box, sitting there. I have a soup pot that could act as a hot water canner. This is where I got stuck with the kombucha, before taking the leap. I could start with something easy, like lemon curd. Or pumpkin pickles a' la Throwback at Trapper Creek, or Pumpkin Butter a' la Kathie. And yet I circle the project slowly and with trepidation. Hmmm...
27. Make my own laundry liquid/powder. Yep, another procrastinated project. I think cleaning out the cluttered corners of the laundry room would inspire me to get that underway.
28. Correcting my typos before posting on the blog. Yeah....right (lolol)
That's it for now...just needed to put this to keyboard so as to have the list handy! :)
1. Begin attending a local place of worship. We've put this off for different reasons in the past, but now it's time to find a shul.
2. Stepping up inroads to land finalization and relocation.
3. Determining on paper the ACTUAL savings/costs, advantages/disadvantages of my returning to the job I had. Will weigh financial realities and compare money saved by more careful managing from home (all meals from scratch, really stretching our money, no gasoline expenses, pack all lunches/cook all meals for other family members, etc) VS. the cash. Will also weigh the health impact of working nights, and the reality of how much I can get done in a day here at home, etc.
4. Researching greens and crops that would last the winter here. Must get them in the ground. Plan to do floating row covers or something along that line if necessary during colder weeks.
5. We MUST start substituting grocery store items with our own homegrown/homeproduced. The only of these we're actually using on a daily basis are the fresh and dried herbs and the homemade kombucha. Oh yes, and the diabetes plant/gynura. It's a start, but it's not enough. Greens are top on the list for the immediate, also leaf lettuces and radishes.
6. More experimentation with unfamiliar but available plants, such as cooking young papaya leaves, clover, and others.
7. Need to weekly eliminate ANY storebought breads, with exception of maybe flour tortillas now and then, with my own homemade. Same thing with any sweet treats, occasional desserts. Do NOT plan on making these in large quantities, though, because we're trying to cut back, find our balance. We've lost a little weight just cutting back on them a bit and substituting other things.
8. Find tried and true soup recipes...ones I get asked to make again. Ones I have ingredients for without having to include half a dozen difficult ones. ( I really appreciate Lemongrass's recent recommendations...thank you, I look forward to trying them out!!)
9. Take the time to shop a few places for specific things. I can find real deals out there on specific items, but they're places I seldom shop for much of anything and don't think to go on my weekly grocery shopping. I'll be divvying up the food budget to make stops for these things since they're close by and it would save me maybe 1/4 of my weekly budget. Need to find somewhere with better prices for meat, even though we've cut back on meat quantity by about half.
10. Ultimately, to achieve reducing weekly grocery bill by half within a year's time. I am now spending half of what I spent last year weekly.
11. Increase my physical activity daily. I've lost some weight now, not much, but without trying, simply by getting more rest and eating better, eating more homemade...and, I think, by drinking such copious amounts of the longer-fermented Kombucha (not as sugary as the younger kombucha) I think it's something my body's been needing, and now I FEEL like doing more...yay!!
12. Begin planning the spring garden beds and order seeds.
13. Expand useful recipe base for things to make all meals last.
14. Find the many ways to use the pumpkins and winter squashes since the prices of these right now are really reasonable.
15. Don't know if I can achieve this one, but if so, great :) Can we find a small freezer by late November?? If so, I'd like to watch the sales on turkeys and get some. For now, it would feed us for a long time...till the day we can have our own (praying praying praying...) The prices are so stupid these days, it's maybe my onlyhope to find affordable meat in quantity.
16. Write the thank you notes I have procrastinated.
17. Declutter my desk area, my closet, the back porch. Keep floors mopped regularly (we have allllllll tile floors) Keep laundry folded right after washing. Empty a couple of piles in the garage to free up two more laundry baskets for that purpose. Oh yeah, and those dishes that keep replenishing themselves in the sink even after I've just gotten things back in order (grrrr...) :)
18. Keep saving our loose change for the Kiva.org/Doing Not Thinking Challenge.
19. Plan simple things for Hannukah. I have no idea what we'll do.
20. Make EVERY shabbat a special celebration in our week. Have the music, meals, clothing ready no later than Thursday, since it allllwayyyyyssss seems to get put off till Friday afternoon and then either gets rushed or otherwise goofed. I want it to be a relaxing time, a planned time, an oasis.
21. Every week study the Torah portion ahead of time, and read my Bible every day. I'll be concentrating on the version by Friedman...love his literal translation and brief yet historical insights in his Torah translation with commentary.
22. Do something with that neglected front flowerbed. (Update: Just started that today, whacking the bushes back with the HEAVY limb cutter since we don't have a hedge trimmer. My forearms are obviously out of shape. I got half of them done and my arms feel like they weigh forty pounds and feel like I imagine Popeye's do, ahoy!)
23. I ordered yarn...this, and this...for The First Time In My Life!!!!! (so excited) I'm SO NOT a thready sewing crocheting knitting person. But my daughter has a neglected Knifty Knitter set, and inspired by Warren's success making things with his KK, initially inspired by Angie's KK success here being modeled by the cutest pictures of her kids, I thought of the time I could be sitting beside my sweetie as we watch movies and in an hour or two I could have a real, homeknitted hat or scarf, or (as I get better) a longer project such as a throw blanket. So this project is underway.
24. I sketched some chicken pictures for possible red-on-white embroidering, or maybe applique? to make some squares throughout the winter for later assembling a quilt or other project...(y'know, when I learn how to sew??? lol)
25. We have honed hand-sketched house plans down to a few basic designs. Now I'm concentrating on trying to imagine what specific things we'll need to incorporate for ongoing real life activities...shelf space for fermenting, storage, kitchen arranged in best way for canning and food prep and large quantities of things needing to be cleaned and chopped, etc. Windows situated for best through-the-house airflow, some sort of passive design that encourages temperate interior during exterior extremes. Siting gardens and animals in relation to the house and our need to access them quickly yet not be too close. And so on and so on...
26. Will I Can??? I have a dozen quarts, new in the box, sitting there. I have a soup pot that could act as a hot water canner. This is where I got stuck with the kombucha, before taking the leap. I could start with something easy, like lemon curd. Or pumpkin pickles a' la Throwback at Trapper Creek, or Pumpkin Butter a' la Kathie. And yet I circle the project slowly and with trepidation. Hmmm...
27. Make my own laundry liquid/powder. Yep, another procrastinated project. I think cleaning out the cluttered corners of the laundry room would inspire me to get that underway.
28. Correcting my typos before posting on the blog. Yeah....right (lolol)
That's it for now...just needed to put this to keyboard so as to have the list handy! :)
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