Squirrel it Away!

Eat your Greens!

2011-10-08T08:28:00.008-06:00

Did you know that most americans don't eat nearly enough green vegetables? I never did until I made a more conscious effort to eat them. We all probably know they have massive amounts of vitamins and minerals in them, add much needed fiber, and iron, and are a super food. I try my very hardest to eat 2 servings of something deep green every day. The health benefits are amazing and once you acquire a taste for them-- they really grow on you. So I thought I'd share a few of my favorite ways of eating them. Like most changes in our diets- once you learn a few good ways of preparing something it's fairly easy to add them to the normal rotation. Most greens can be fairly easily interchangable.. don't have spinach, use chard, no chard, try kale! And keep in mind too that other dark green vegetables have many of the same benefits that the dark leafy greens have-- things like broccoli, asparagus, green beans, and all kinds of cabbage are all terrific add ins if you just can't quite make the leap to leafy greens yet.

Braised Chard

Braising is simply a method of cooking something:

The idea is that you start off with a small amount of oil ( I use olive oil), in a large flat plan (skillet), add your ingredients to be braised, cook them for a short period of time and then add a small amount of water and a lid and steam them to finish cooking. My favorite way of braising chard involves a bit of wine as the liquid (I use a white wine, cause that is usually what I have on hand), and some red onion. The wonderful thing about Braising when done properly is that it leaves some texture in the greens, so you aren't eating squishy, slimy greens-- they still have some crunch to them and a much nicer mouth feel. One other thing about braising is that it can be done lightning fast! You could do spinach or other greens this same way too.

Here is the basic recipe:
1 bunch of fresh chard, stems removed and discarded and leaves chopped coarsely (2 inch squares?)
2 slices of red onion thinly sliced, or diced, whichever you prefer
1 T. olive oil
2-3 Tablespoon of cooking liquid ( this can be bone broth, wine, water)
salt and pepper to taste

In a skillet cook the olive oil till hot then add the red onion on medium low heat, once onion is mostly softened add chard and stir while cooking for about 2-3 minutes, Add liquid and salt and pepper, then put a lid on the chard and cook on low for about another 2-3 minutes.

Creamed Spinach

This one is a food network recipe I've taken and made my own. This was my gateway dish to greens...It is one of the first ways I learned to make spinach that appealed to the family and while it's more work that I usually like to spend on a side dish it makes a large batch so I usually make it into a few smaller containers and then freeze what I don't use that night for the family. *for best results freeze without baking and without the crunchy onions and to reheat- thaw, top with onions and then bake.

And if the crunchy french fried onions don't make the nutritional cut for you-- originally when I made it they did, but now that I've looked at the ingredients-ick! Hydrogenated oils, nasty sugars, etc... It's really good with a carmelized onion on top or roasted onion rings on top. To save dishes and a bit of work-carmelize the onion for the top first in the same skillet you use to start the recipe in , then set those onions aside till the end.

Oh -- and I never use the amount of chili flakes she calls for I think that 1/4tsp to 1/2 tsp is just fine!
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/sunny-anderson/creamed-spinach/index.html

Pasta with Chard

The folks over at Earthbound Farms have several recipes on their website for Chard -- but I've tried this one and know it's good. When we made it we left off the pine nuts (allergies) and added a pound of cooked italian deer sausage.

http://www.ebfarm.com/Recipes/recipeView.aspx?rID=282

Green Soup with Ginger

Heidi at 101 Cookbooks never fails to create something that is completely different and unique and yet tasty to boot!

I blended mine in the vitamix and I did remove some of the peices of ginger before doing so -- (In the past I've made soups using ginger chunks, they tasted fine when you ate them chunky, then once you blended that ginger up it was well-- nasty!) Allthough I don't think this one would be too strong if you left the ginger in it. I also made mine with beef bone broth instead of the vegetable broth as part of the bone broth challenge. I liked mine with a bit more lemon juice this morning and a drop or two of tamari. The ginger was soothing to my morning pregnant belly and I got my daily bone broth and my daily greens!!

http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/green-soup-with-ginger-recipe.html

Auryvedic Spinach with Red Onions, Shoyu and Balsamic Vinegar

A while ago in my boredom I checked out about a dozen cookbooks from the library and in one Auryvedic cookbook I found this great recipe for Spinach. It's nothing fancy the flavor combinations are so different and savory that I have to share it with you. It's so simple I didn't write down the recipe which is a shame because it was perfect.

Basically in a skillet you cook a handful of red onion, diced in a couple of T. of olive oil. Then add in as much spinach as will fill the large skillet, salt and pepper it lightly, and stir it until the spinach is lightly cooked but still has some decent texture. Then you add a tiny bit of shoyu or tamari or soy sauce if you don't have shoyu or tamari sauce, and the same amount of good balsamic vinegar, sprinkle with some coarse celtic sea salt and serve! It's truly one of my favorite ways of eating spinach.

speaking of Balsamic vinegar.... it pairs so nicely with spinach that I can't leave my favorite salad recipe out.

Spinach Salad with Balsamic Vinegar
The paragraph above the recipe for the Balsamic Vinagrette outlines my favorite spinach salad here:

http://laurablog72.blogspot.com/2011/01/2-salads-and-dressings-that-make-them.html

And of course there is

Kickin' Coconut Chicken Soup

http://laurablog72.blogspot.com/2009/03-kickin-coconut-chicken-soup.html

Green Chicken with Cheese

2 cups of cooked chicken ( I make huge batches of chopped, cooked chicken and keep them in the freezer for this and other recipes, so I always have them on hand.)

1 large bag of fresh spinach

1 1/2 cups of cheddar cheese

Grease a 9x13 baking dish with a little bit of olive oil, sprinkle the chicken on top, add the cheese to the top of that and bake in the oven at 350 degrees until the cheese is melted.

Green Smoothies

This isn't so much a recipe as it is one more way I get greens into my kids. I call them monster smoothies and at first when they are getting used to them I didn't use alot of spinach in them because to be honest I was a bit fearful of ruining a good thing! But I'm continually amazed at how much green stuff I can fit in these and still have them be palatable. If the color bothers you--get a dark colored cup and a lid so you or the kids don't see it-- you will never know the difference.

In mine I put whatever I can find in the fridge -veggie wise, zuchinni, cabbage, believe it or not lettuce works, carrots add sweet-but you need a pretty serious blender to really deal with them well, cucumbers, avacadoes-(good fats), a handful of spinach, kale, or chard, tomatoes and a peice of two of fruit- pears are great, berries are good, kiwi, banana, pineapple chunks, frozen or fresh, you get the idea. Then I add a little bit of liquid, usually coconut milk since I'm not currently eating dairy, you could add unsweetened plain yogurt or cows milk, or apple juice is usually what I have on hand. Then I add raw, fresh eggs- 1 or 2. Or some protien powder, a drop or three of stevia liquid, some Chia seeds, my vitamin D liquid, and some liquid trace minerals I have. Often times if I'm feeling super hungry that day I will add in some melted coconut oil too to this.
If you want to do just the veggies, fruit and juice or milk, that's fine too. The idea is to get the veggies into your body-- so I suggest start small, less veggies and work your way up as you get used to the idea of a green smoothie-- even though it normally doesn't taste like vegetables if you make it you know what is in it and I feel like when I first started doing it there was a bit of a learning curve with my mind telling me it didn't taste good -- or was weird, and really if I closed my eyes and forgot it had cabbage and spinach in it.. it tasted fine, it was a kind of a mind game. - sort of like eating liver-- I know I like it, when it's fixed in the many ways I like, but my brain still objects to eating something that is supposed to be yucky tasting.. weird what our cultural norms will do to our food tastes.

More experiments in sugar free canning!

2011-07-31T21:30:00.004-06:00

Summer Solstice Preserves - (my way)

Every year I have a friend who emails me when her sour cherries are ready for picking. It's a good trade really -- I email her when I have iris bulbs to share- which is often, and she calls me to get cherries! In the past years I've canned up goodies with sugar in them- danish cherry sauce, summer solstice jam, canned pie filling & cherry jam. Since going on a low carb diet and almost completely removing sugar from our diet I have been a bit stumped as to what to do with my beloved sour cherries this year so my pitted cherries have patiently been waiting for me in bags in the freezer.

So I finally pulled a bag or two out of the freezer and made a stab at a sugar free version of my old favorite summer solstice jam. The original recipe is from Ball's Complete Book of Home Preserving and it calls for both blueberries and sour cherries with a hint of lemon. While my end result was a bit more sour than the original recipe - I think it's still quite passable. Instead of sugar I used primarily stevia- (my usual sweetener of choice), some xylitol, which takes the bitterness off the stevia and in the end I felt I had to add some sugar to get a good tasting end product. You'll see it was about a cup in the end, which spreads out over 8 half pint jars, meaning there is around 1/8 cup of sugar per jar. Hardly enough to count really. You could easily make this with honey, or other sweeteners, but I find honey changes the flavor of the end product which I wasn't willing to give on on this one. I was using pomona pectin which is now the only pectin I use -- so I was easily able to make a double batch, (not something I recommend using any other kind of pectin). And of course since pomona doesn't contain sugar, and doesn't require sugar to jell it is very forgiving for those that want to use other sweeteners! And now for the recipes -- below is the original, and my version. Like I said before - -I would prefer it a bit more sweet.

the original recipe is as follows:

Summer Solstice Preserves
Makes about five 8 ounce jars (when using less sugar your yields will be lower due to the lower amount of bulk in the pot)
3 cups halved pitted red tart cherries
1 cup blueberries
4 1/2 cup sugar
2 T. lemon juice
1 pouch of liquid pectin
2T. kirsch or cherry brandy

Summer Solstice Preserves My Way

Makes eight 8 ounce jars

6 cups of pitted red tart cherries
2 cups of blueberries
1 cup of sugar
4T. lemon juice
1/4 cup xylitol
4 tsp calcium water (this is part of the pomona pectin)
4 tsp pomona pectin powder
8 1/2 tiny tsp of KAL brand powdered stevia

Mix together everything but the sugar, xylitol and pectin powder in your jelly pan or large stockpot.
In a separate bowl mix together the sugar, xylitol, and pectin powder well.
Heat the pan of fruit until it is hot through and add the sugar and pectin mix, turn heat up and stir often and well until the mixture starts to jell. If you do the traditional test with a spoonful of syrup in the freezer --this will give you a good idea of whether you have cooked it enough or not. If it jells when cold, it is fine to pour or ladle into your hot prepared jelly jars.

* Note that if you were to make the original batch a double batch you would use 8 1/2 cups of sugar compared to my one cup!!
**I didn't add the kirsch or brandy as I'm pregnant and we didn't have any on hand but if you wanted to, you absolutely could, In the past I've added amaretto with good results as well. Almonds and cherries -- mmm.. a marriage made in heaven.

This recipe was particularly easy to convert as it was for 4 cups total of fruit, when converting to use pomona pectin use the ratio as listed on the included charts- for the type of fruit you are using, for example I was using primarily sour cherries which have a ratio of four cups of fruit to 2tsp of calcium powder, and 2tsp of pectin. If I were using peaches or other berries the ratios are different. When doubled that meant that 8 cups of fruit would require 4 tsp pectin and 4 tsp of calcium water. (calcium water is made from the calcium powder that is included in the box of pomona pectin by simply mixing water with the powder in the correct ratio and I store this in a small jar in my fridge.)

Oh -- and lesson learned, (blush) don't mix the pomona pectin powder into a small amount of liquid directly or it will stiffen up like jello and become lumpy and then you will need to put it into the blender to get it thoroughly incorporated before adding to your fruit. By the way you can do this -- it's just easier to mix it into a powder at first. It's easier to mix it into a dry product like xylitol or sugar.

Liver- 2 ways!

2011-04-26T09:09:00.004-06:00

While many people don't care for the flavor and texture of liver, it's something I grew up with and enjoyed greatly. Ours was always deer or elk liver harvested from the meat my father and brother hunted, and it was a treat we looked forward to every year after hunting season. Mom would mix it with sauteed onions or mushrooms and add a can of the quintessential kitchen standby, cream of mushroom soup. That was before we knew it had MSG and really wasn't nutritionally something we wanted to consume, but it was quick, easy and tasty, and it made me love liver! DH loves liver too-- but mostly chicken livers, (I"m so lucky to have such a willing eater) he used to grab the deli ones that are fried, in the grocery store. So-- that said, we are trying to get more liver into our diet, because as you might know organ meats are so nutriously dense that they are not to be missed! When prepared correctly they can be quite tasty and are incredibly affordable as organ meats go. Here are my two favorite ways to prepare them.

I recently found this recipe and it's terrific. The garlic and lemon make the perfect tasty flavor to contrast with the liver and when eaten with a side of sauteed onions or mushrooms they are really good. Cut up in smaller peices I think the texture is less noticable. So before serving to little ones I'd chop them up small. Follow the directions closely -- dry the liver on paper towels before you put it in the pan and do it dry like it says-- it works!

http://www.food.com/recipe/stolen-garlic-chicken-livers-110936

The other one is from one of my favorite regional cookbooks and includes the great creamy sauce I've grown to love, only without the toxicity of a can of Cream Of Mushroom soup. It's from the Colorado Cache Cookbook.

Chicken Livers in Sour Cream

1/2 cup butter
1/3 pound of fresh sliced mushrooms
1 large onion, sliced
1 pound of chicken livers
salt and pepper to taste
1/3 cup dry sherry
1 cup sour cream

3-4 servings.

Melt butter in skillet. Add mushrooms and onion and saute until onion is limp. Add chicken livers and saute for 1 minute. Cover and cook slowly for 15 minutes. Stir in sherry and sour cream and heat, but do not boil. Serve over rice or patty shells.

A Few Of My Favorite Things

2011-04-13T20:51:00.005-06:00

singing in a quiet little chorus..."Raindrops on roses, and whiskers on kittens.." I've been on a quest for the past 3 or so years to make our diets more healthy. To subract the things I know we shouldn't eat and replace them with things I know we should. When we eliminated soda we added sparkling water and grape juice or water and teas. Over the years I've changed alot, and much of what we eat now we never ate before! homemade yak jerky (in picture) As my husband and I are losing weight we've decided to do it by eliminating alot of the carbs we previously ate. I'm not following any specific plan-- mine is more of a Laura's version of Atkins. I've taken some of the things I liked about Atkins - full fat(good fats that is), high protein, low carb, and modified some of what I didn't like -extremely low carb induction, and artificial sweeteners and modified those things too. Sort of a real food, lower impact, version of Atkins. I must be doing something right cause I've lost two dress sizes and about 28 pounds since the end of January, and even more importantly I finally have energy and feel good, feel like going for daily walks - even if I don't most of the time, feel like getting up, feel like doing things!! I have more weight to lose of course, but like all things it is a proccess. And part of this proccess involves finding new foods to replace the ones we previously knew and loved. Breaded steaks, pasta, rice, fruit salads, potatoes, ww bread, tortillas, pb & J, biscuits, cornbread, muffins, pizza crust, well -- you get the idea. In order for this to be a lasting change we have to change the way we think about food, the recipes we use and we have to adapt. I thought I would share with you some of the things that help me, keep me sane and make me happy when I think a raised, glazed doughnut sounds good to me! Below I've listed some of my favorite snack ideas and recipes. I'll follow with more as I discover them but for now this is a peek into what I'm eating lately. *I'm using net carbs which are grams of carbs, then subract the fiber from the total (if using artificial sweeteners you also subtract the sugar alchohols cause they aren't digested.) For snacks: Nuts- They have crunch! and they are convienient- however because of the cost we are trying to limit them some. I have started soaking them to make crispy nuts ala sally fallon style, and found that if I put a spice mix on them before drying in the dehydrator they are fabo! And different -- which is good cause I am a girl who likes variety. Cashews have too many carbs for a regular snack but in a mixed nut variety they are ok.. here you have to watch out for the hydrogenated oils, dextrose, flavorings, etc.. but plain raw nuts that you soak and dehydrate ala sally fallon style are terrific for you!! Olives - Oh how I have fallen into deep love with good kalamata olives. 5 of them have 1 gram of net carbs! So I can eat 10, feel like a darn queen and not feel bad at all. Again, they have terrific fats, so they are more filling than you might think. MIM - Recipe is here: http://www.atkins.com/Recipes/ShowRecipe905/Muffin-in-a-Minute-(MIM).aspx What you say is a MIM? it's a muffin in a minute. Seriously it takes a minute in the microwave to make it. Very cool thing and extremely versatile. I adapt the recipe to fit my rules and put a tiny scoop of KAL Brand Stevia in it. I also will add pecans or walnuts on top before putting it in the microwave and I put half the cinnamon it calls for in it. I've also made a savory version by subbing out savory spices like garlic for the cinnamon and leaving out the stevia. They are incredibly filling. Celery or thick sliced cucumbers and this awesome tuna salad- http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/tuna_caper_spread.html I used to eat it with crackers, but I haven't perfected making my own low carb crackers, yet. Again-- good fats, when made with whole fat cream cheese and lower mercury tuna -- like chunk light, and best yet--inexpensive. Makes a good lunch too. String cheese- or really any harder cheese like cheddar etc. - convienient again -- which is a real lifesaver. 1 gram of net carbs - I try to find the higher fat variety whenever possible. Jerky - any kind without alot of sugar and MSG or crap added to it is good. I made a boatload of Yak Jerky and we've been working on that now for a while. Deer or Elk would be fine too. Making your own isn't too hard really. Yogurt- Full Fat or at least 2% Greek is my favorite- plain. I add 2-3 drops of liquid stevia to the yogurt stirred in, and then a topping of my choice. Things I like are my own super low sugar apricot homecanned syrup, homemade strawberry syrup- made out of frozen, thawed, strawberries and a bit of stevia in the blender, or a handful of fresh or frozen blueberries or blackberries. Celery sticks and Peanut or Almond Butter- Unsweetened nut butter of course, the oil on the top kind, not the one with hydrogenated fats added in to make it stay together. Salted is my preference, chunky or smooth depending on my mood. Half an apple with or without nut butter - the apple alone is 8 grams of carbs so I don't have this very often. But it satisfies my crunchy and sweet cravings. Strawberries - 1/2 cup has about 4.1 net grams of carbs in it, meaning 1/4 cup will have about 2. Hard boiled eggs- mashed with butter and salt and pepper and microwaved for just a few seconds till warm. Quick, satisfying and good fats! Sometimes I make a batch of deviled eggs to snack on or even just peel and dip in salt and pepper to eat. Bacon- often I will simply fry up 2-3 peices of bacon - no carbs. I get the best kind our budget affords us- but I look for nitrate free, no MSG as a minimum standard when I can. 5 cherry tomatoes- 2.4 net grams of carbs nitrate free lunchmeat- with cream cheese spread on it and wrapped up - not entirely the best nutrition but, it has some fat and some protein to keep me till the next meal and it's quick and easy, and there is something to be said for that. 1/4 cup blueberries- 2 net grams of carbs Drinks - instead of eating something I will often times drink something. Here are just some of my favs:

water with a squeeze or slice of fresh lemon.

sparkling water (fav brand is la croix) with a squeeze of lime or lemon and some stevia. 1-2 drops of liquid.

HonestT's stevia sweetened tea. -- a yummy treat.

unsweetened almond milk- chocolate flavored with a tiny amount of stevia

hot unsweetened chai tea - add 1 T whipping cream and a drop or two of stevia you'll have a drink that reminds of a coffee house drink.

or for a measly 4g. net carbs this shake in the blender:

Blueberry Shake

1/4 cup blueberries 1/2 cup of unsweetened coconut milk 2 T. whey protein powder or other low in carb protein powder stevia to taste. about 2-3 drops of liquid or 1 tiny scoop of powder And on a rare occaision I will eat a Atkins PB cup, Diet Dr. Pepper, or a Dreyer's low carb ice cream bar. -- No, they don't really meet my qualifications for nourishing food - but I'm a realist and I understand that while in a perfect world everything I eat will nourish my body - sometimes that just isn't the case. Since I have yet to find a suitable substitute for those things - these will do for a few months. Considering I"ve never in my life (other than a short stint in high school) consumed any kind of artificial sweeteners of any kind -- I'm figuring a few months of occaisional use until I figure out good substitutes is ok. *** I've mentioned here about good fats and how fat is part of my "diet". I'm a firm believer that eating fat doesn't make you fat or raise your cholesterol or harm you in any way. The folks at Weston A. Price, Cheeseslave, Nourishing traditions etc.. can explain it far better than I can, but there is a reason fats are referred to as essential fatty acids.. it's because they are essential to our good health. They help regulate blood sugar, nourish our skin, keep us satiated after eating, and are essential to many systems of the body--one of which is the endocrine system and without them we would be well in poor health. By good fats I am talking about minimally proccessed animal fats, as close to raw as possible if we are talking about dairy fats like butter and cream, good coconut oil, high quality nut oils like walnut oil, avacado oil, olive oil, and I'm sure there are others I'm not thinking of right now. When "dieting" good fat is even more essential because it helps to regulate your blood sugars and also keeps you full. (When I say good fat I'm not talking about canola oil, corn oil, hydrogenated oils, others, those I don't feel are good for you at all.) Of course I'm not a professional and I"m not a doctor or anything like that-- but those are my beliefs and I would encourage you to research and look into what you are eating and how it affects your body.

Cleaning out the fridge 101

2011-04-07T22:02:00.007-06:00

Ok, so I know what you're thinking? "I clean out my fridge - why do I need a lesson on that?" Open up the trash and dump, wash out the containers, clean it, put back any food we'll still use. "that's not hard... " But... Part of my strategy for using food and not wasting food involves rotating food and using it, reusing it, and remaking it. So I thought I would show you all what I do regularly (on a good week at least twice). Since most leftover food is only good for about 3-5 days, 7 days max I regularly go through and use up stuff in order to minimize what I throw away.

I do throw things away. My goal is to throw away very little, if any. You see -- I once read that people throw away over 25% of all the food they buy. Meaning if you spend around $400 a month on food you will most likely throw away $100 in food a month. That's $1,200 a year -- well in my world that's almost a vacation. And that's not even considering all the labor, transportation, water, etc.. that were used to get that food to you. Wasteful in my opinion and when I think of my Grandmother who lived during the depression and how careful they were with their food and money I'm certain she'd be rolling over in her grave and shaking' her head in disapproval. I resolved a long time ago to change my ways and cut our food budget and not wasting food is just one of the many things I've done.

Here is the basic process-

**To start with, when I clean I have a menu plan for the week previous and the coming week, a pen, and paper handy. I can check and see when we had the meatloaf so I know how old it is, or see do I need fresh celery for next week, also I can add anything to my shopping list or menu for next week easily.

1. Pull it all out and check it for condition. (notice I didn't say dates) condition is everything. Slimy, stinky and moldy all go away! I'm not wanting to make anyone sick. I do this shelf by shelf so I don't have everything out at once.

(Know what the dates mean and if you can stretch them)

For example: Cheese is an exception here. I will carefully cut away any mold and repackage chunks of cheese that has mold and mark it or remember it to use it quickly. I still have a block of asiago cheese with a sell by date of November 2010. We are still eating it and it's fine. Hard cheeses, and cultured milk products that are unopened last well past the sell by dates and we eat them regularly. Notice I said cultured milk products -- not plain milk. Cultured milk has good bacteria in it that protect it for longer - so things like sour cream, yogurt, buttermilk, even cottage cheese are usually good past the dates. The date on milk and most things in fact- is a sell by date. It is the date that the store must sell the product by. Food doesn't magically turn to poison once it reaches the sell by date. Milk should be good if stored properly for a week past the sell by date-but of course our senses are more accurate than any date stamped on a product. I tell you all this because I think it's important that people know. And let's please acknowledge that common sense is important here too..slimy, discolored, stinky and moldy are all bad. And obviously if someone in your house has a weakened immune system err on the side of caution and toss it.

On produce sometimes you can simply cut away a bad spot or two, or peel off a few layers of slimy lettuce then rinse the head well to make it edible. When using produce with a moldy spot on it - I carefully cut away the mold or the soggy or soft part back to the good part, then I rinse off my knife with hot water, and cut a small piece of it to taste- if it tastes fine it goes into whatever recipe or dish I'm using it in. I've saved a ton of produce this way and since we rarely buy processed food-- that is where most of the waste is- in fresh produce.

2. After assessing the condition of the food- decide, throw it out, compost it, preserve it in some other way, use it quickly, or save it for later.

Throw it out:

I throw away anything that is too old. Moldy food, something I cooked or prepared that is over 5 days old or questionable in any way. Anything that is a meat product or has oil or grease in it. Those things can't be composted. Things that no one liked and I can't think of any other way to use them up also get tossed.

Compost it:

All my veggie waste that can't be used or frozen in some way gets composted. This is the slimy, moldy or nasty looking veggie waste -- not the good stuff.

Preserve it in some way:

All these things can be cut up and frozen with no further blanching or other steps required, so if they are going bad or looking uglier -chop em up and freeze em:

Onions

Bell Peppers

Hot Chili Peppers-if I have lots sometimes I pull out the food processor and blend em all up into a minced pulp that I then lay out flat in baggies and freeze. When I want some kick to add to something I just pull it out of the freezer and break off a little chunk.

Peeled Garlic

Berries of all kinds

Fresh pineapple

Fresh melons

Rhubarb

Bananas in the peel or peeled

Tomatoes-when these thaw you can simply pull off the skins as they thaw under running water.No blanching off the peels. I freeze mine from my garden all summer long and then make tomato sauce in the slow winter months.

Celery

Stone fruits like peaches, nectarines, apricots and plums

Ginger - I store mine in the freezer whole and simply grate what I need as I use it.

All of these things when frozen can be used later in recipes where you will be cooking the items. Or in the case of berries and stone fruit you can make sauces, smoothies, whatever with them.

For example: once you've frozen celery you can't use it in your tuna salad -it won't be crunchy but it's fine for soup or stock, or other dishes.

I just make a pile of what needs to be cut up and dealt with as I sort. Then I chop and package everything at once. Mushrooms can be frozen if partially cooked (sauteed) and most other veggies only need a slight dip in boiling water so that you can freeze them. Google blanching vegetables and you can see how to do it.

Many leftovers freeze really well. I keep a shelf dedicated to leftovers in my freezer. I have a bin for little tidbits. Leftover scraps of meat-- even half a chicken breast gets saved in a baggy labeled chicken, once I get enough cooked meat (2 c.) I cut it up and use it to make chicken salad, or add onion, garlic and barbQ sauce and make barbQ sandwiches, or use it on a lunch salad for myself. You'd be surprised how quickly it gets full. Leftover sausage, bell peppers, herbs, tomatoes, etc... all make great additions to a morning omelet or a quick catchall egg dinner casserole or frittata.

Many casseroles and soups freeze well. I put them in individual serving sizes and put them in a bin. Hubby or my girls or even I can pick through and find quick lunches or dinners.

Leftover veggies and spaghetti sauce can go into a soup making bag in the freezer. No tidbit is too small to use. Corn, mixed vegetables, stir fry veg's, beans, mushrooms, carrots, zucchini, or others are all good choices.

* A trick I learned from my Aunts - take the leftover pickle juice and toss in some firm fresh veggies, baby carrots, cut up carrots, cucumber, cauliflower. Then leave them to soak and not only does the pickle juice preserve them but it transforms them into something really tasty.

** Keep a bag of trimmings in the freezer for when you make broth. Say I have a bag of carrots and two of them have those hairy roots growing on them-- well those go into my bag in the freezer of ends and tidbits for making broth or stock. Veggies and trimmings don't have to be pretty for stock just free of mold. My broth making bag has onion peels (they give a nice brown color to the stock), garlic peels, ends of celery, carrots, old soft green onions, old herbs and herb stems, ends of squashes, potato peels, carrot peels, parsnip ends, all sorts of things. I collect them all month while I'm cooking. I save carcasses and soup bones this way too. The only things veggie wise that I don't add are anything moldy or slimy, and strong tasting vegetables-(broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, radishes) because of their strong flavor. Asparagus and lettuce I also don't put in.. but most other things go in the bag.

Many things can also be dehydrated if you use the oven or a dehydrator. It doesn't take long to prep a few things and pull out the cookie trays or dehydrator. Even spinach and Kale dehydrate and freeze well and if you dehydrate it -it works great in eggs or you can sneak it into smoothies or sauces, spaghetti sauce whatever.

Use it quickly:

Some things just last longer than others and you can usually tell if something is on it's way to being nasty or useless. Soft veggies that were once hard and crisp, wrinkled things, squashes or peppers with soft spots, that lettuce that sat too long and has a couple of pieces in it that are looking kind of brown. These all still have some life left in them. I have learned a couple of ways of using those things up.

If you have alot -- make a veggie soup for lunches or dinner, you don't need a recipe, just toss an onion, some garlic, and some oil in a pan- brown it up and add broth, leftover tomato or spaghetti sauce or just water. Then add the veggies and some salt and pepper and other spices to suit you-- maybe a can of cooked dried beans or even some meat and you 'll have made something out of nothing!

Make a fruit crisp- Just about any fruit works, chop it all up and add a crumbly topping - any recipe works or fix smoothies for snack, breakfast whatever..

Cut up raw veggies and make some dip, hummus, or dressing and serve it up on a big tray with any other remnants from your fridge-the last two pickles or olives in the jars, whatever and serve it up after dinner or before dinner as a snack.. You'd be amazed at what a bit of presentation and good dressing will do to make kids or adults slurp up veggies and clean out your veggie drawers in a flash.

Plan something using whatever is getting old for dinner that night and make it happen. Coleslaw or green salads are another great way to use up a smorgasbord of veggies that might not match otherwise.

Declare a leftover smorgasbord night! Open up the fridge and pull out everything that might be use able. Everyone can fill their plates with whatever they want from the fridge or make themselves something from the freezer bin of leftovers. Or if lots of what is leftover would be good on top of potatoes --cook a bunch and have everybody make their own topped potato. A Potato bar is a great way to use up a whole bunch of cheese and veggies and taco meat or chili quickly.

Save it for later:

Add whatever didn't get used up to the menu plan for the next few days if it will last long enough. My leftovers that I save get put in the front of the shelves and I remind my girls or hubby to eat them up. They get taken to lunch, eaten as snacks, or turned into other things. For example:

Leftover meats make a great meat salad- add some mayo or mustard, chop the meat really fine, add grapes, red onion, celery, boiled egg, chopped cucumber, some dill or capers, or pickle. Whatever combination you like and you have a cheap nitrate free lunch spread made of wholesome food and have used up something you might have thrown away. Know how to make your fresh produce last longer. I've never invested in these bags http://www.amazon.com/Debbie-Meyer-20317-Green-Bags/dp/B0011TMP3Y but I've heard great things about them. Or Tupperware and other companies have some containers that are supposed to help preserve your fresh produce. If you use limited amounts --those might be a good investment for you. Some things I've learned about produce are: Many things store better outside of the plastic bags they come home in, the moisture from the bags makes them spoil faster:

cucumbers

squash

yellow squash

tomatoes

bell peppers

hot chili peppers

whole cabbage heads

kiwi fruit

stone fruit

apples

oranges and other citrus

onions

garlic

mushrooms

*I store my herbs and green onions and salad in zip lock style bags with a dry paper towel added to the bag and find they last much longer this way. The paper towels can be composted or reused. Romaine lettuce lasts much longer than any other kind of lettuce. I buy heads, wash them and keep them in plastic bags with paper towels and they last a really long time in the fridge. I rarely buy any other type of lettuce. And .. as a bonus, romaine is also more nutritious than say- iceberg lettuce! *celery stores for a long time when wrapped in aluminum foil! *mushrooms stored in a paper bag will last much longer-- get them home and take them out of their box and plastic wrap and put them in a paper bag in your produce door. (I just learned this trick and man does it work-thanks to a good friend) *fresh herbs like parsley and cilantro I store like I would flowers in a vase-- with the stems in clean water in a cup or other container upright in the fridge. Clean out the water every couple of days and replace with new and they will last a really long time. Also asparagus stems store really well this way too. Or consider only buying the produce you know you will use and stopping more often at the store. A menu plan can really help here. I used to think I always had to have on hand fresh celery, carrots, potatoes, onions and garlic. Then I realized there were entire weeks when I never used those things and I was throwing away lots of them. So I started only buying celery when I had planned to use it fresh in something like a chicken salad. Most grocers will let you buy half a head of broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, or single celery sticks. If all you need for a recipe is a small amount don't buy the whole thing. Less money spent and less food wasted. Since onions and celery and garlic all freeze so well for cooked applications consider buying some when they are on sale, chopping and freezing them. Then you always have them on hand (and chopped!) don't have to buy them unless you want a fresh crunchy one for some reason. I find peeled cloves of garlic freeze great- Put them in the door of your fridge with the onions and bell peppers or store with your meat and/or veggies so they won't flavor anything else -- you can store them in a glass container, or double bag them if the smell and lingering flavor in the freezer bothers you or you have problems with them. I once laid bags of catfish into the freezer next to some pineapple I'd frozen. Um.. that was not a good idea... the pineapple had a weird fishy aftertaste..icky! 3. Wipe Everything down if needed. This one is pretty self explanatory. I use my pampered chef stoneware scraping tool on any stubborn sticky blobs, and hot soapy water, and dry it with a clean towel. 4. Put all the food away. Put the food that needs to be used most recently in the front of your refrigerator as a mental note to you to use it quickly. New food goes to the back of the refrigerator. I hope you've all found some useful tip here that helps you and if you have other ideas I'd love to hear them! I am of course a work in progress!

*about the picture- this is my cheese/ meat drawer after I've cleaned it out. The asiago cheese is on top so I will use it faster. The hard boiled egg has been labeled in pencil with the date it was boiled on it so we know how old it is, and it's on top too. (I boil a dozen as needed and label them and put them in the meat drawer for snacks, etc..) Any tidbits of meat in baggies get placed into the drawer, also any bites of chopped up veggies get put in there and any fresh chopped red or green onion,especially when I've cut and not used the entire onion. Mostly I use this stuff in omelets in the morning. When they are in the meat/cheese drawer I use them up first and they don't get lost in the big produce drawer.

Corned Yak!

2011-03-14T23:47:00.003-06:00

For the charcuterie challenge this month I made a corned Yak!

Yes, like corned beef only instead of beef I used Yak meat. I'm all about using what I have you know and yes.. I have Yak meat, so Yak it was.

The basic brining challenge for charcutepalooza this month was a chicken or pork, with the advanced challenge being a corned beef. In traditional form I broke rank and made mine Yak meat. As of writing this I have no idea how it was -- but it did smell good when I took it out of the brine and put it into a freezer bag.
:( sad face , sigh..
Yes freezer bag.
I know it's only three short days till the quintessential holiday intimately associated with corned critters of the beef kind. And in my delirium I mistakenly believed my adventurous family would be all about corned yak this year instead of corned beef. Alas.... I was mistaken.
Imagine my dismay as my family responded with sad sighs to my delightful cries that the Yak would be finished brining just in time for St. Patty's Day..so sad.
So tomorrow it's off to the grocery store I go to (gasp) purchase a commercially made "traditional" corned beef to serve for our St. Patty's Day.

Yes -- I have had my balloon deflated. My bubble has burst. I have no desire to photograph my beautiful piece of meat this month. I rinsed it, stuck it in the freezer bag and plunked it in the freezer. At a later date -- not perfectly suited for corned critters I will bring it out and wow them with it. They didn't reject it completely -- just insisted on eating boring old beef for St. Patty's Day. Horrified at the almost sacrilege of not serving beef, they insisted and I didn't want to not "ruin" the holiday meal, so I caved. If only I had known, I might have purchased a brisket a week and a half ago.

Here is how I did it in case you were wondering..

I dissolved 1 cup of kosher salt in 4 quarts of boiling water in a pan on the stove.
I stirred and waited for the salt to completely dissolve and then added all the spices.
I used my regular, usual homemade secret mix of pickling spices (3T.),
12 cloves of garlic, crushed,
and 8 bay leaves.
I also threw in a good sized sprig of fresh rosemary I had knocking around in my fridge and of course a lovely piece of about 3 pounds of Yak meat, all marbled and tasty looking.
Once the brine was cooled, I put everything in a 2 gallon Ziploc style bag inside my Kitchen Aid mixer bowl. (no problem that it won't be able to be used for about 2 weeks since the kitchen aid mixer is now a $300+ paperweight arranged decoratively on my counter top at the moment, we aren't talking about that.. ) and the bowl, bag and meat found a nice cool home in the extra garage fridge for about a week and a half.

Hmmm.. sounds easy doesn't it? -- yep it was! No nitrates, No MSG, no mystery spices.. just my style!

Honestly, I was extremely happy when I found out the challenge was brining because it's something I've never tried. Despite hearing often about other's wonderful brined turkey, and the virtues of brining lovely little chickens and such. I had hoped to be truly ambitious and brine a chicken and a pork product of my choosing, but I simply didn't get around to it. So hopefully after reading all the other posts and getting back my steam I will finally try my hand at brining a bird-like critter too! Oh how I love the change of pace and all the new things I"m learning to do on my own.

***Oh, and a special thanks to my good buddy Laura who on her bi-annual trek to my house the other day gifted me with her presence and the beautiful Charcuterie book that started this whole business of Charcutepalooza! Ah.. such good friends should be treasured .. So now I can charcutepalooza the right way!

Makin' Bacon!

2011-02-14T14:49:00.008-07:00

This is Yak Bacon pre curing!

And Bacon after curing!

I made Bacon! Yak Bacon nonetheless.

Doing the happy bacon dance here! Bacon by the way is on this low-carbers diet. Can I just tell you how exciting that is for me.. No we can't eat doughnuts, or bread, or chips, or potatoes, or tortillas, or.. :(.. But, we can eat hollaindaise sauce and Bacon! So-- the world is not all bad. Bacon makes it soo much better. It is my mantra. No I can't eat that, but I CAN have BACON! Even my carbnivorous vegetarian daughter will eat Bacon! What's not to love about those salty bits of goodness. Well-- besides the fat, which I love cause I know the fat secret, which is that you need fat, that fat helps your body and protects your cells, keeps you full, and maintains your blood sugar levels, (low fat folks sorry to say, but it's true..) but usually it's the nasty chemicals, nitrates, MSG, sugar, etc.... BUT if you make it yourself you don't have to eat that, and you still get to eat Bacon. Soooo COOL!

Ingredients:

Yak- A fatty piece 2 1/2 pounds big. (Which incidently will not last us nearly long enough!)

3 T. of Orsa or Real Salt

Rosemary -dried and crushed

Garlic Powder

Freshly ground black pepper

If you've followed Charcutepalooza you know how I did it, Salt cured in a bag in the fridge for 7 days, then baked at 200 degrees for a long time -till it reached an internal temp of 150 degrees. Then sliced thin, fried in cast iron , shared and devoured as bacon bits on salad, breakfast, yak snack, and finally rattlesnake eggs! Much to my husband's peppery-heat loving heart. And just in time for valentines day!

Here is one of our favorite ways with Yak Bacon!

Yak-laced Rattlesnake Eggs

(yes laced, this stuff is sooo good it's like cocaine in a completely legal form)

Not fancy just Fabulous! And even low carb!!

You will need:

Jalapenos- fresh, seeds removed for the wimps of the family-in other words, everyone but hubby. Split them on one side only leaving them with stems and insides removed or not as preffered.
Yak Bacon -enough slices to cover all the jalapenos you have, one slice of bacon per jalapeno. Or other bacon- if you have no yak bacon.. can't tell you how sad that thought is.
Cream cheese -enough to fill all the jalapenos you have.
Garlic salt to taste

Mix all the seeds (if brave), and the cream cheese, and the garlic salt together and stuff the insides of the prepared jalapenos. Then wrap with bacon slices and spear with toothpicks to keep them together while they undergo the broiling proccess. Broil on high in the oven till the bacon is crispy and the jalapenos skins start to turn a roasty toasty color of brown/black. These are perfect for the grill but recently it's been around Negative 10 degrees around here lately so we aren't grillin' em, brrr... but you can!

And as a quick update to what else I did with my 50 pounds of Yak meat-- well, here is a list and our ratings as it stands currently.

Canned Yak in water (cubes)

Canned Yak Vegetable soup

Yak Jerky

Yak Bacon

Yak Stew

Barbqued Yak Sandwiches (at my parents house for super bowl sunday)

Yak Roast

All of the above are delicious, delectable and not the least bit gamey as might be expected. What does Yak taste like? It makes beef look gamey. It's fatty and wonderful, and incredibly mild. And it goes extremely well with rosemary and a little bit of garlic, or thyme and salt and pepper and garlic.

And.. I still have more to use..so keep checking here!

This post is part of the February curing challenge for Charcutepalooza! Check my button on the right side of my blog for details!

Ways with Cauliflower

2011-02-11T14:07:00.003-07:00

Again here I am trying to use up a bunch of something. This time it's cauliflower. Low carb and delicious even if hubby would argue against it being cooked - I LOVE it. Here are some thoughts:

My old tried and true standby!! Oh how I love this recipe. Cauliflower and Sausage. http://laurablog72.blogspot.com/2009/11/menu-plan-for-week-of-november-1-7.html
Once cooked -this freezes terrific for a quick low carb meal.

This one from Epicurious looks good! I even have truffle oil on hand-- woot woot!
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Cauliflower-Soup-with-White-Truffle-Oil-100536 sadly I have no fresh chives from the garden yet, too cold still. But it looks good to me.

And -- who can go wrong with anything from 101 cookbooks. The simple cauliflower and spicy cauliflower and the hot pot recipe look tops there. http://www.101cookbooks.com/ingredient/cauliflower

Then -- all the suggestions for cauliflower at Kalyn's Kitchen. --YUMM..
http://kalynskitchen.blogspot.com/2005/04/vegetables-and-vegetarian-dishes.html

Warm Spiced Clementines

2011-02-09T09:58:00.010-07:00

This version of canned clementines has no refined sugar and a healthy helping of some of my favorite spices. Typically folks can fruit in a sugar syrup. If you know me, you know I'm not a fan of refined sugar at all and the majority of my canning is done without any, or with very little. This one I ventured away from my usual syrup for pears, peaches and apples and took a chance.

Here I go again, Breakin' the rules. With full disclosure of course.

The disclaimer and my logic:

My usual syrup is a watered down fruit juice (white grape juice) mixed with the lightest syrup you can make that is also watered down and canned as if it were canned in fruit juice only. Which means different processing times and hot packing the fruit. For more about that you can look here. http://www.pickyourown.org/sugarsolution.htm I stray somewhat from the USDA regs and rules on this one. Keep in mind that it is allowable to can fruit in juice or water only so this is only a slight variation.

**You normally when canning fruit in non sugar solutions need to use the hot pack method and also will want to add time for the different method. In this case - I did not hot pack the fruit- which you could easily do if you are concerned about the safety. I was envisioning super uber cooked clementines, which was not what I wanted here and being lazy, and knowing that these will likely be eaten well before the year is up. And I also canned separated slices, not halves as shown here. Which would mean that the insides of the fruit would be more fully heated in the canning process.

I've made some assumptions with my canning processes here and while I don't necessarily recommend or vouch for the safety of what I've done- I'm not an expert only a home canner. I think it's fair for me to tell you will happily feed this to my family without fearing our safety. If you differ in opinion then see my suggestions for more closely following with what the USDA says. But please let me run through the logic of what I'm thinking.

In canning you have two major concerns - they are spoilage and quality of the end product, and botulism. I've done some fairly extensive research on botulism- a deadly toxin found only in low acid foods. It cannot survive in high acid environments. It is deadly-- if you are canning low acid foods-- PLEASE, PLEASE use a pressure canner and proper methods. Citrus is NOT low acid. In fact it's one of the highest acid foods. Therefore the risk of botulism is Nil, or at least no worse than eating anywhere else. Most other forms of molds, and spoilage that occur in canned goods would also come with very obvious smells, tastes or visual signs. (botulism gives in many cases no signs) That said -- as long as you are aware of the visual signs-- in high acid foods, your only risk in terms of canning high acid canned foods would be spoilage. If something is spoiled it will have obvious signs- leaking, bulging, foaming, mold, or an off smell. That said -- as long as you aren't foolish about eating something that shows those obvious signs when canning high acid foods, using sanitary methods, clean jars and lids, boiling syrup, etc.. you have some freedom. If I wanted to I could test the acidity with ph strips to be sure but I am comfortable with what I've done.

The USDA does not endorse using most alternative sweeteners because they haven't done adequate testing to determine beyond any doubt that they are safe. And it's my personal opinion that the USDA has a responsibility to ensure that the methods they present are safe even for the "dumbest common denominator". I know that might sound harsh to say but many people will see the "rules" and not follow them at all. In some cases USDA overprotects us in order to prevent anyone from getting sick- noble yes, but not always necessary IMHO. In water bath canning the temperatures don't reach much higher than if you were cooking in most standard applications and in theory as long as the sweeteners -stevia and agave nectar don't alter the PH of the product substantially it "should" be safe. Testing by the USDA costs money and it will likely be a long time before it's done in regards to sweeteners like stevia, sucanat, and even agave nectar as they can't necessarily be copyrighted like Splenda can. Splenda has a vested interest in getting their product approved and since they will solely benefit from more folks canning with it I would in fact expect to see it get tested. So by using alternative sweeteners I am taking a chance. One that is not USDA approved. If you are more comfortable with doing what the USDA recommends -- you can do what I did- only hot pack your fruit-in the syrup copy the spices but use apple juice, water or a honey solution, and still get the same end result or similar. That would be completely within the USDA guidelines and absolutely safe without a doubt.

Why I don't like the other options:

Because apple or fruit juice is costly and somewhat will flavor your fruit although using white grape juice that is 100% juice in my experience does not taint the taste of the fruit. However, white grape juice still has a large amount of natural sugar in it and if you are glycemic that may not be a good idea. Water leaves your fruit tasting --well, watered down. And honey is again highly glycemic. I personally don't use splenda as I feel it is questionably safe. If you feel differently that's fine and I'm sure you could use it, but I don't. The syrup I've created is far less glycemic and my own personal preference. I've explained above that I feel my only risk is spoilage and therefore I'm willing to chance using the other sweeteners. But I do so -- with full disclosure. Also I want people to know that it's possible to can fruit with confidence without using refined sugar, as I do it all the time.

Be aware that once your fruit is opened after canning it has no preservative (sugar) and so it will spoil within just a few days even refrigerated. Which is why I did these in pints. Minimizing waste is always a concern for me. So-- on to the recipe!

First, I heated the syrup in a pan on the stove. And heated the water in my canner and the jars.

TIP*** I also heated the water for my lids till it boiled- then I pour it into my tiny crock pot and turn the crock pot on and add my lids to this-- this holds the temp of the water perfectly at 180 degrees! No reaching for lids across a hot burner of syrup!! **This is even mentioned in the Ball Blue Book and an approved method! Check yours with a thermometer to be sure as all crockpots differ slightly.

First I peeled, and separated several clementines- about 3 per pint jar. I packed the slices into the jars firmly because they will shrink up once canned. If you were going to hot pack you would add the slices to your syrup and heat them and then pack the jars.

My syrup includes:

8 cups water

8 tiny tsp. of stevia powder (the tsp that is included in the jar of KAL brand stevia)

1/8 c. of sucanat

1/4 cup agave nectar

-or-

by USDA- 8 cups of white grape or apple juice, or water

1/2 tsp of cardamon powder

1/4 tsp of dried ginger powder

2 large cinnamon sticks

1 tsp vanilla added at the last part of the process just before filling jars

**update, upon tasting the finished product I would double the spices next batch!

Boil this several minutes to develop the flavors and then pour onto fruit in jars using a canning funnel. Use the recommended methods of filling the jars including removing the bubbles with a bamboo stick or other tool. And fasten lids onto your jars until they are finger tight. Leave 1/2 inch head space. Process for 20 minutes. (this is for hot pack, fruit juice or water canned fruit) I adjusted this for my altitude and my methods- cold pack and between 4,000-6,000 ft. altitude.

Yakkety, Yak, Don't Talk Back!

2011-01-29T19:07:00.004-07:00

Wanna see my Yak? I bet you do!

I'm land locked -- planted squarely in the middle of the United States, not a Yak in sight. And yet, somehow I have fifty pounds of Yak meat in my garage. Odd, yes! I recently joined up for the challenge over at Charcutepalooza (curing and smoking meats on a monthly basis). Make your own meat! Well heck yeah, I'm there I'm up for a new challenge and learning some new ways to feed my family healthier foods, ones where I've been in control of the ingredients!

I'm a rule breaker-- I don't play by the rules all the time. The challenge has some rules-- which of course I've already broken. I may not always play by the rules, but I am honest so I'm just putting it right out there... Yak meat is not local. The rules I have thus far broken are as listed:

1. Buy the book Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing by Michael Ruhlman :
I've already broken that one-- we are completely broke, especially now that I spent all that money on the yak- and I've heard that Amazon is sold out of it. I still hope to acquire it but it may have to wait till my birthday or I can find it some other way.

2. Post about your experiences on the 15th of the month.
Breaking more rules! I missed the month of January-- Duck prosciutto. And... February is bacon--which I'm sad to report I may miss as well because, ahemmm... I couldn't pass on the yak meat. Can you blame me? Well, that and hubby looked at me like I was positively insane when I said I wanted to buy a pork belly on pay day. Thank goodness someone is there to rein me in! I know, he's right--- (shh, don't tell him I said so...) I could post about salt curing cabbage-- sauerkraut! But that's old news I just did that. There I go again, breakin' the rules...

I can’t wait-- I was so excited I had to blog about it-the yak that is. (The kids are getting tired of the yak jokes, happy snoopy dancing, and random high fives around here! - Yeah mom, its sooo cool that you have yak meat, no, I'm sure my friends don't wanna see it.

Let the rolling of eyes ensue.

3. “Let’s agree to use humanely raised meat, sourced as close to home as possible”:

You got me again! Yaks aren't native to Colorado nor are they farmed in CO to my knowledge. In fairness while Yak are not local to me, I do think I should get points for the way I got the meat. Its part of a sponsorship program for a local food charity that provides food to thousands of Coloradans every year. I got it for a great price as a way of raising funds for the charity. So while the meat isn't locally produced (It's from Canada- and I’m not!), it is benefiting the local community. And as to how humanely it was raised I can only imagine that yak's aren't farmed like cattle raised in tiny pens, and all hopped up on hormones to make them bigger, and antibiotics to keep them from getting sick despite their terrible living conditions. I don't know this for a fact -- because I'm certain that the person responsible for running this massive charity has more important work to do than be interrogated about the source of the meat. So that said-- I'm breakin' the rules but I'm ok with it, and there is my rationale.

Yep, I’m breakin’ rules right and left, but... I think I should get extra points because -- how cool is it to have Yak meat, I mean it just sounds fun to say. Yak Meat, Yak, Yak Yak, Yak Steaks, Yak Roasts, Canned Yak, Yak Jerky, Corned Yak?(after all St. Patty's day is coming!)

Do I HAVE to take a picture of the yak meat with my IPOD, Mom?

Poor dears they should be used to it by now....

The B girl affectionately says I have OCD, (Obsessive Canning Disorder) that’s me! I have fifty pounds of Yak meat in my garage. Now how many folks can say that! I'm a trend setter for sure! And the sheer rarity of it-- Yak Meat! Can you tell I'm excited? Did I ever tell you I'm one of those people who- when I do something I get tunnel vision and think of only one thing to the exclusion of most other things. You could say I'm prone to doing things obsessively. Oh and that I tend towards doing things in excess. (200 pounds of apples, 20 gallons of chokecherries, 6 kids, over 400 jars of home canned jars in our basement, hundreds of houseplants, "farming the back forty"-as my BIL affectionately refers to my garden – we live on a suburban lot, um..50 pounds of yak meat in my garage) yes excessiveness and me -- we are good buddies. And this yak -- he will be well loved! I have 3-4 days to figure out what to do with him or her while he/she thaws.

Got any ideas? I'd love to hear them!

Humming to self..”Yakkity Yak, Don’t talk back!”..hmm..wonder if they have that on itunes?..gotta run! I have much googling to do. Stay tuned and see what adventures I have with my Yak. I'll post back.

Changes are at foot!

2011-01-28T09:18:00.006-07:00

I am thinking today about connections, health, wellness and our emotions. My oldest DD is getting ready to sprout wings and leave the nest, separating herself from us and from me (swallow, that hurts to say). Anger, frustration and fear are tremendous motivators -- or they have been for me. Those emotions have led me to many changes in my life-moving out "on my own" and becoming a nanny, going back to school after my divorce, leaving unhealthy toxic relationships, ending toxic and damaging friendships, and of course with each of these changes comes new exciting, better, opportunities, inspiring people, and a better more "evolved" self. As we are inspired we gain knowledge, and as we gain knowledge what we are used to becomes unacceptable, and we sometimes experience anger, frustration and fear. Normally folks think of these emotions as negative, but they are valuable and in small ways essential to change.

Today I recognized those emotions in myself in so many ways and my relationship to those emotions. My life is always changing too-- as it should. The human existence to me is partly about change. It's about evolution, whether that is learning learning a new skill, or learing something about our personal biases and making a concious effort to change what we see in people around us. Similarly a health crisis can affect how we eat and nourish our bodies, and recommit us to exercise regularly. It is all a part of change. Many people set goals and are thoughtful this time of year. We think for a moment about the past years and things we desire-- the changes we want to make in the coming year. While I've not ever been one to make new years resolutions stick, change is something I know intimately as I imagine most of you do too. I think too-- of the way in which change occurs in our lives and how it manifests itself and how change is connected so intuitively to frustration, anger, and fear. If we fight those emotions off and stuff them down, they resurface because I believe we are divinely driven to evolve and become better versions of ourselves. They can become illness - weakened immune systems resulting in colds, backaches, distraction causing accidents. Call it stress, anxiety or what have you -- but I think of it as brewing change. It is as well our responsibility to attempt to make change with kindness in our hearts and forgiveness as that too enriches our lives. Kindness not only to ourselves but also to others. I may not always succeed at this -- but that is always my goal.

I am at this very moment so thankful for the many changes in my life- just one of them is my now and forever husband, and those babies who have grown and who I've had the honor of knowing. And I'm thankful too for the fear, anger and frustration that led me my husband to me in some small way. My previous experiences have made me the person I am and given me the appreciation of all I have now. Fear, Anger and Frustration have guided me wrongly in my life to hurtful words and acts, both to myself and to others, but they have often times provided the catalyst for good changes as well and have brought me many, many benefits too! I'm thankful today for the years of dreading the mirror, the many hours spent near tears in the dressing rooms of various department stores trying on clothes, and finally the opportunity to address what drives me to eat things I know I shouldn't. I know that sounds odd-- but truly it's all part of what has brought me here today. It's emotions that drove me where I am. Ready. (What terror that word strikes in me!), Ready to address my eating habits, and the weight that I've accumulated over the years over this voyage and the courage (dare I say it), to change it even in some small way.

I've thought for many years now about my weight. Sometimes I denied it, sometimes I was angry with myself, sometimes I blamed it on others. But mostly I feared it-- feared that I was incapable of changing it, (oh yeah I still have that fear deep inside me-it's what drives me to write this and not publish it-- see if I don't ever tell anyone I'm scared of this, then no one knows and if I fail this time, no one knows. But I will know. ) I feared that my resolve was not stronger than a Reese's peanut butter cup. And I feared that my time worn body wasn't physically able to be a thinner version of myself. Then I met those around me who successfully tackled their issues and I saw them do it and so -- I knew it was possible. And hoped that it was possible for me, and after much ruminating - I think I can finally see how.

Anger -- I am so angry that I'm here -- 218 pounds -- I'm angry at every one of them. But I will forgive them-- I have to you see! If I don't they will resurface because my anger is just one of many parts of me-- not a pretty one granted, but a necessary one. My anger, if not checked, recognized and dealt with becomes more pounds, or a backache, headache or stomach ache, harsh words, or worse. So I must forgive myself the pounds I've put on-- Whatever my motivation was, they are there and I can't wish them away. Neither can I wish away my anger-- but I can change what angers me, and how I deal with that. I have the power to change what I do with my anger!

Frustration -- goes without saying. Disheartening frustration. Small steps that then get sabotaged become frustration. However, it's with small changes that progress is made. In order to change I will have to embrace the fact that there will be times when I will take what feels like steps backward. When I do I will have the memory of 20 years of frustration to remind me that frustration is part of the process of change. It is what drives us to stop and reflect while on the path -- it's what stalls us and eventually what pushes us forward.

I resolve to publish this -- despite my fears, not so you can see it, but so that I can say I published it -- addressed my fear in a very small way, so I can put it to words and smash it into pieces and move on. And also I will publish it so I can look back on this day and remember why I'm doing this. I know there will be times when I may need to look back and remind myself why I want this. Because at my core I believe it is our divine right, pleasure and even responsibility to embrace change and become better versions of ourselves. Is a slimmer me a better me-- no, please don't misunderstand me, a slimmer me doesn't make me better, just by being more slim. A me who knows how to deal with her emotions in a way that doesn't hurt me or others is a better me! That's what it's about -- not the number, not the size, not the beauty of it -- it's the inner beauty that knows to speak up when appropriate about what makes her angry rather than hide in a big piece of cake, and stuff all that emotion deep inside her. It's the me that no longer needs to eat to cushion the painful blows of a bad marriage. A me who can see a problem, and find a real solution for that problem that doesn't involve destructive eating. I resolve to attempt kindness to myself and embrace forgiveness -- not just for myself but for everyone around me. I will search out forgiveness and kindness because forgiveness and kindness are higher guides to evolving. And they are the healers -- and healing is what we all need.

I'm sure you'll hear me talk about how I plan to lose weight and the changes I hope to make in the future. While I plan to keep this blog primarily about preserving food and making the most of the food you have, the home and all I do. I wanted you to know that it's all connected here. With me it connects -- health, well being, food, emotion, and all! Just like I am a part of my blog and writing about carrots are a part of my blog it all fits neatly here. And you too are a part of this -- that's what I love about the Internet -- just one more way to be connected to the world around you!

2 Salads and the Dressings That Make Them So Loveable!

2011-01-20T18:52:00.004-07:00

This post is part of Homestead Revival's Salad Dressing Recipe Exchange!

Can I tell you how strange it is to hear myself saying "I just am craving a great salad!".

Well-- let me tell you that is a truly strange feeling for me until this last couple of years. I've been gradually working towards eliminating all sorts of things from our diets and working on getting more veggies into our diets for all of us for a couple of years now and it's starting to take hold, and why not with salads as tasty and delish as these two salads.

The first is from the Moosewood Cookbook:
(can't tell you how many delectable things are in that cookbook- even for us non-vegetarians) It's there California version of a waldorf salad, and the yogurt avacado dressing is stellar! I was skeptical at first -- thinking , hmm.. .. well I'll make a half a batch and if I like it I'm not out too much. Then I proceeded to eat it all over the course of 3 hours! Now I make the dressing in full batches and freeze what I don't use for later to save me prep time, etc. Avacados freeze amazingly well -- by the way. And you can't see it in the picture because my avacado sat out while tending to toddler needs and got brown, but the dressing when made properly and promptly has a beautiful green color to it too. I'm sure if you want the original recipe as it's written you can find it. I find that with the proportions as written it is quite soggy and has too much dressing, so I wrote below what I do. The dressing I think would be great on any fruit salad, and even would be good on spinach salad with some red onion and strawberries.

California Waldorf Salad (My version):

Dressing:
Combine in a blender till smooth, use about half and freeze the rest or save for later.
1 cup yogurt - I use plain unsweetened, whole milk yogurt
1 small ripe avocado, peeled, pitted and mashed
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated lemon peel
2-3 tablespoons honey
1 lemons, juiced
(Fresh lemons make a difference here -- in many things I like to use bottled juice, but this is not one of them, and of course since you are going to eat the rind I like to get organic when possible.)

2 large apples, peel on, cored, and cubed
1 large orange or 2 tangerines cut up and peel off
3-4 stalks celery, chopped- I add more than the original to keep it lower in carbs
1/4 cup raisins
1/2 cup toasted cashews
Juice of one lemon to coat the fruit and veggies

Chop and combine the above ingredients except the cashews -- don't add those until you serve it. Add dressing and combine sprinkle cashews on top just before serving so they don't get soggy.

The second is a great stolen recipe from the book Saving Dinner the low carb way. The dressing that is.. is stolen. The combinations of the salad isn't - it's my own creation. Spinach leaves, some red onion strips, pecans, apple chunks and my personal favorite blue cheese! That and the terrific balsamic vinaigrette dressing. Which by the way is great on any salad. Especially with really good balsamic vinegar --that makes all the difference! So here it is - stolen contriband and all.

Balsamic Vinaigrette

1 T. dijon mustard
4 T. balsamic vinegar
1 tsp. sugar
1/4 cup olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced
salt and pepper to taste

Throw all the ingredients in a small jelly jar with a tightly sealing lid and shake it up really good. Shake before serving-- lasts in the fridge for a long time, allthough I always manage to use it up before it even come close to going bad.

Making my own sauerkraut the lazy way!

2011-01-13T16:23:00.012-07:00

I have a few friends who keep touting the good things about fermenting things the old fashioned way--beet kvass, gingered carrots, etc.. and it just never sounded that great.

Effervescent beets?

I could never get my family to like those and I tried making ginger carrots twice and um... ick! (I don't know if I was doing something wrong or it just is the inherent saltiness of fermenting that I never think of in combination with ginger and carrots. )

Then I thought of .. sauerkraut, well -- I love sauerkraut but the rest of the family sneers up their cute little noses at sauerkraut. With a chorus of "ewww..s". I however, grew up on sauerkraut, everyone in the house loved sauerkraut. Good sauerkraut. Our favorite brand was cosmic cukes brand of sauerkraut, my mom would buy it by the case from rainbow foods. I can't even imagine how expensive that kraut would be now-probably something obscene along the lines of 4$ a jar. But I do consider myself a kraut snob. No tin can sauerkraut--ick! Being the only one in the house that finds it edible creates a problem however. I can't quite justify spending good money on big jars of good kraut when I'm the only one who likes it. And the tinned stuff-- well it won't cut it. But do you know how much cabbage I can buy with $4? Well -- it's a lot!

Being that cabbage is cheap, that I can do. And salt-- yep got that too.. so I recently tried making my own fermented cabbage.

Now I know you're thinking I might have travelled down the wacko road now, you're probably thinking "isn't that a pretty lengthy terribly stinky process? ". Well the answer is -- NOPE!

not any more difficult or stinky than making coleslaw. Making coleslaw isn't wacky - you can make coleslaw can't you? And actually it's easier than coleslaw because there aren't as many ingredients in it. Four ingredients to be exact, three if you leave out the caraway or dill -- and if you are counting water as an ingredient.

Here is the process in a nutshell:

1. Chop up cabbage

(nothing monumentally difficult here, and to be honest I bet if you wanted to short cut this and just buy all ready cut up cabbage you could.)

2. Mix salt and either dill or caraway seeds into the cabbage

in a bowl and squish it up with a potato masher or I bet you could even do it in a Kitchen Aid style mixer and the paddle blade attached-- we just aren't talking about my KA mixer and how it doesn't work right now... :(. But either way this an excellent task for those days when squishing things and pounding would seem like a good idea--great for your stress if ya' know what I mean? wink wink.

3. Wait ten minutes ( I know you can do that!)

4. Put the cabbage into a clean jar with a lid-- squishing it down so it all fits.

A funnel makes it easier but you don't have to have one. (Oh and the jar just needs to be clean --not sanitized, hermetically sealed or anything fancy, just clean.) Make sure there is enough liquid to cover the sauerkraut if not add some water but leave about an inch of head space (that's canner speak for leave some room on top of the jar so it doesn't overflow.) (filtered preferably because the chlorine could make all the good bacteria die). And yes you want the good bacteria to live. They are your friends.

5. Set a small dish under the jar (in case it overflows)- And leave it alone on the counter or someplace warmish for four days with a lid on it. Leave it -- all alone for four days. This is when the magic happens! All the good bacteria come out to play and make tasty stuff. I am completely not interested in the science of it all -- but it's safe, and people have done it for centuries, and the salt or whey if you use whey is what protects it while the good bacteria have their party. More info on the science of it all can be found here.. http://www.rosicrucianfellowship.com/rays/lacto-fermentation.pdf

After four days you put it into the fridge and store it a long time (3 mo or so)if it lasts that long.

There ya' have it - 5 easy steps, four days of waiting, no stink, no wacko do it yourself stuff, and it's even cheap and better yet-- super duper healthy cause it has all that good bacteria in it! No fancy shmancy pickling crock, no lengthy process.. seriously 5 easy steps, tools you should all ready have in your kitchen, a canning jar-or for that matter, a re purposed jar and no big expense.

The recipe:
1 medium cabbage,shredded
1 tablespoon caraway seeds or dill weed ( I used caraway)
1 tablespoon sea salt ( I used 2T. of sea salt and no whey)
4 tablespoons whey (if not available, use an additional 1
tablespoon salt)

Follow the directions above and you will have delectable coleslaw!

So -- you might be asking what is whey? It's the liquid that gathers in your yogurt. It's also a by product of making cheese. If you take any plain yogurt with live cultures you can easily harvest whey.

Here's how to harvest whey in the simplest way I know how:

You'll need a jar or catching container or bowl, a paper towel, old clean knit shirt, or a few layers of cheesecloth (if you wanna go all chef-like), some sort of colander or fine mesh strainer, and some plain live culture yogurt.

1. Put the catch bowl on the counter

2. Inside that put the colander or strainer that is lined with the paper towel or other item

3. Fill the colander with yogurt

4. Let it strain a couple of hours in the fridge

5. The clear liquid that gathers in the bowl is the whey and can be frozen or used for lacto-fermenting

**There are of course other ways to do this but this is what I do. Oh yes - and so you know the yogurt left can be spread or used like cream cheese or eaten like a Greek yogurt so don't you dare toss it!

Go forth and make sauerkraut!

Using pomona pectin to make low sugar or no sugar jams and jellies!

2010-12-29T21:55:00.009-07:00

One of the reasons I first started canning was control. Control over the food we eat. I wanted it! I wanted to know what was in it, who handled it, how much sugar, was in it, and how that food was handled. And mostly I was hoping to be able to make our foods fit into my new standards for food, (no MSG, no artificial food color, and no HFCS, no fake fats) to begin with. Then as I canned happily, blissfully, and sugarfully I realized-

"yikes, there is a ton of sugar in this jam and what's that in the boxed pectin -- icky fructose, dextrose, etc.. isn't that exactly what I'm trying to avoid in prepackaged foods?"

So I switched to using "low sugar pectin" thinking I was improving our standards--until I glanced at the box ingredients while waiting for things to jell.

"Dang -- this has the same things in it!"

My childhood experience of eating way too much chokecherry jelly that had gone wrong and was now syrup (not that I'm complaining mind you- but Mom didn't love the sugar either - bless her wise heart). I knew that when you fiddle with the sugar amounts in jelled products they don't jell. Yes you can use homemade pectin..( a laborious process of boiling apples or other high pectin fruits to make pectin) but man that sounded too much like work. Grrrrrr........

And then there was pomona pectin http://www.pomonapectin.com/ And the angels sung in harmony and all was good with the world.

No seriously -- it's one of the most versatile and seriously adaptable products on the market. No dextrose, no sucrose, no sucralose, no aspartame, just food! And just what I had been looking for. Hearing good things about it on a canning yahoo group I decided to order some and try it for myself.

Here is what I've found:

It Works!

Beautifully, in most cases.

Using this basic guide and some basic knowledge.. http://pomonapectin.com/PDF/Recipe_Card_1.pdf I've successfully made all kinds of wonderful goodies using no sugar, low sugar, only natural sugars, stevia and a tiny bit of regular sugar, honey.. well whatever strikes my fancy really!!

Pomona Pectin is a two part product :

(don't ask me how it works -I never said I was a scientist.)

1. A pectin powder which you put into a small portion of whatever you are sweetening your jelly, jam or syrup with.

2. Another powder (a special calcium) which you dissolve in water and add to your fruit base before heating. (above is the pic of the liquid calcium - I store the excess in the fridge in a jar.)

You can convert any conventional recipe to fit pomona pectin or -- you can make up your own recipe. Here is the basic process. Take for example a simple strawberry jam:

On the pomona chart you find the section for cooked recipes - low sugar or honey. It calls for 4 cups of mashed fruit, 1/2- 1 cup of honey and 2 tsp. of pectin powder and 2 tsp. of calcium water.

So-- you would take the strawberries -mashed up, measure them out put them into your stockpot, add in 2tsp. of calcium water (calcium powder that you dissolve in water according to the package directions).

Then you dissolve (or in this case stir in) 2tsp. of pectin powder into 1/2 cup of honey-- you can add more after you taste it at any time in the process.

Heat the fruit and cook for the appropriate time, add the honey and pectin and taste it. Add more of whatever sweetener you want to your own tastes-- you have your minimum 1/2 cup of honey so you can add stevia, more honey, maple syrup, agave nectar, whatever.... you can add any extract or lemon juice or citrus peel, whatever to make it your own. then you continue to cook it according to the directions, as long as you don't increase the liquid too much that is.

It will thicken considerably as it cools-- it may not appear done like those other commercial jelling agents, so - to check this you can take a small spoonful of the jam and put it into the freezer. If after a few minutes it cools down and it is jelled enough for you -- jar it and can it like you would any other product using the approved methods by the canning police or USDA.

Now that you understand how the process works, let's start the fun!

To convert an existing recipe so you can fiddle with the sugars.. I would do it something like this

Blueberry Jam (original recipe)

1 1/2 qt. fresh blueberries, crush to equal 4 1/2 c.

2 tbsp. lemon juice

7 c. sugar

2 pouches Certo fruit pectin

1 tsp. butter

Pomona's recipe for a Cooked blueberry jam looks something like this:

Version 1:

4C mashed berries
2t Pectin powder
2t Calcium water
1/4C lemon or lime juice
1/2 - 1 cup of honey or other sweetener

In this case I would use the 4c of mashed blueberries so the ratio is right with the pectin

*Note I'm using a cooked recipe and comparing that to a cooked recipe -- you can also do freezer jam if you don't want to cook your jam, but the ratios are very different, so keep that in mind. Also, I'm using their information in regards to blueberries -- keep in mind different fruits have very different natural pectin amounts in them and so compare like fruits with like fruits so you get a properly gelled product. Apples will not jell the same as berries would.

So.. my "recipe" based on the original recipe would be like this.

Version 2:
4 c mashed berries- mix in 2 tsp. calcium water
2 T. - a bit shy lemon juice because we aren't using exactly the same amount of blueberries
1 tsp butter -- this is to prevent foaming at the end.. optional IMHO
and again I'd dissolve 2 tsp pectin powder in the 1/2 cup honey, maple syrup, whatever...**to start with and add as needed more sweetener of any kind.

TASTE AS YOU GO... that way you know you have a product that is meeting your needs.

** I've found when using stevia, if I keep some other natural sweetener in there too-sucanat, honey, whatever, and sub out 1 tiny tsp (tiny one that comes in the jar of stevia) per 1 cup of fruit I'm usually spot on for sweetness level.. that said I would ALWAYS start shy of that-- and work my way up testing as I go because if you get too much stevia, you get a nasty, nasty aftertaste. .. ick. So-- if I were to do this recipe I would start with 3 tiny tsp of stevia, and about 1/4 cup of honey, then add as needed. Tart fruits obviously will require more sweeteners.

Now let's say you wanted to make a lemon blueberry jam.. which as I'm writing this I'm wondering to myself-- "hmm, wonder if I have enough blueberries in the freezer to make some?" Anyway, it might look like this:

Version 3:
4 c mashed blueberries
1/2 cup lemon
1 tsp lemon zest
2 T. limoncello
1/2 cup agave nectar ( I like that it doesn't alter the flavor of things it sweetens)
stevia to taste
2 1/4 tsp. pomona pectin powder
2 1/4 tsp. calcium water

I increased the amount of the pectin and calcium water a bit because I added some liquid in there.

Perhaps you want to make a blueberry syrup... take the original recipe we came up with and the only change you would make is to use half the pectin and half the calcium water.

Want to double it, triple it, quadruple it.. as long as your pan is big enough you can do it!!

The other spectacular thing about Pomona Pectin is that you can double and even triple or quadruple recipes successfully. Try THAT with your boxed sure-jell!! I know I've done both. Sure-jell doesn't work, Pomona Does!!

As long as you keep in mind the natural pectin levels of what you are using and match them similarly to the chart-- you are golden.

If it doesn't gel up when you do the spoon test I suggested above you can simply add more calcium water to your base and dissolve some pectin powder into a smaller portion of your base or more sweetener. I advise against adding more pectin powder straight into your jam without first integrating it into something else -- it globs up and you will be whisking your brains out to get it dissolved if you do.. not that I know this from experience or anything..lol

2 other important things to think about
1. I've had to start canning my jams, jellies, etc in only jelly jars or smaller because I've found that once open these items don't last nearly as long in the fridge as their full sugar counterparts. So keep em from sliding to the back of the fridge. (previously I canned jelly in pint jars)

2. Because there is no sugar or very low sugar in these jams and jellies I also would not fiddle with using low acid items in my jellies or jams as sugar can act as a preservative. That's my own personal take on things -- you may differ, but I would consider it an added risk of botulism and would compensate by using high acid like citrus juice or vinegar or keep the sugar closer to what the original recipe calls for, while sugar won't appreciably change the acid level it will act as a preservative.

I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have about using pomona pectin or canning with low or no sugar. I have no training in canning safety, nor am I a safety expert, but since most jams and jellies are high acid and because they use fruit I feel comfortable with the safety of altering the sugar content.

**I don't advocate using Splenda as it's chemically based and toxic IMHO, but I suppose you could if you wanted to, I just couldn't begin to tell you how to do it.

What does 438 jars look like?

2010-12-28T11:01:00.007-07:00

Not to toot my own horn! But....

I've had a busy summer, apparently I've been more busy than I thought. Here's the proof. I've canned over 438 jars of goodies this year.

Stored in front of this shelf to the right are my boxes for empty jars-- once they are full of empties they get stored with my empties elsewhere. I also have shown my basket for carrying things up and down the stairs that I will use when I do my canning.

Here they are! Well at least this is part of them.

These are full cases -- green chili -under the stockpot, applesauce, peaches in white grape juice, pancake syrup-apple maple, tomato soup in pints, and out of view to the left of the green chili is a stack of 2 cases of apple butter and a case of apricot pancake syrup.

And just a close up view of the metal shelving unit where I store my soups-out of view above these shelves, juices - for making jelly and syrup later, and peaches, apples and oddball items leftover from last year's canning that need to be used up soon.

And possibly the best part is-- it's ALL REAL FOOD! Most of it organic, or at least very little chemicals in the growing process, and all local. No additives, MSG, mystery "spice mixes", refined sugars, icky mystery starches, and convenient to boot!

This is all just part of what I do to save us money and ensure that our food is the highest quality possible! This year most of it's been done without any refined sugar or miniscule amounts. I hope to blog more about using pomona pectin, and avoiding refined sugars in canning in the future as I know there are lots of folks out there hoping to avoid or remove those things from their diet. You may be asking what can you can? Besides just jelly and jam-- well check this out. I made a list of what is in my "inventory" so you can see the variety. Things with low or no sugar are starred. Much of this was gleaned-- pears, plums, crabapples, billberries, apples, apricots, chokecherries- making it all that much more affordable!! I did buy a box of apricots, a box of pears and 2 boxes of peaches from a local grower- but the remainder is what I've gleaned or grew myself.

Home Canned since summer of 2010.
December 27, 2010

Jellies and Jams: (69 jelly)
6 jelly jars peach preserves
6 jelly jars orange jalapeno jelly
12 jelly jars apricot jam*
8 jelly jars chokecherry jam*
14 jelly jars apple pie jam*
11 jelly jars plum crabapple jam
6 jelly jars cranberry jam*
6 jelly jars sugar free strawberry jam*

Butters: (76 jelly) (3 pts)
6 jelly jars pear butter*
60 jelly jars and 3 pints apple butter*
10 jelly jars ginger plum butter *

Sauces: (49 jelly)
11 jelly jars asian plum sauce
18 jelly jars maple apple syrup*
21 jelly jars apricot syrup*

Other : (3 jelly) (110 pts) (16 qts)
3 pints pickled jalapenos*
4 pints of zuchinni corn salsa*
6 pints and 3 jelly jars peach salsa*
14 quarts and 8 pints chicken stock*
72 pints green chili smother*
17 pints and 2 quarts tomato soup*

Canned Fruits: (43 pts) (46 qts)
4 pints spirited apricots in amaretto
6 quarts sliced apples in juice*
9 pints pearsauce*
30 pints applesauce*
18 quarts canned pears in white grape juice*
22 quarts canned peaches in white grape juice *

Canned Juice: (2pts) (21 qts)**no sugar here-- I will use these to make syrups and jellies once I have available jars.
7 qts crabapple juice
2 qts and 1 pt bilberry juice
12 quarts and 1 pt. chokecherry juice

197 jelly jars, 158 pints, 83 quarts
438 jars total

This post is my contribution to Real Food Wednesdays which can be found here: http://kellythekitchenkop.com/2010/12/real-food-wednesday-122910.html

Dairy Free Fudge!

2010-12-22T14:16:00.002-07:00

Normally I am the anti sugar advocate of my house- rationing, and waging war on sugar for my masses. But around the holidays I soften and want to share and enjoy some of the vices and traditions of the past. Making fudge is one of those allowable evils this time of year. Other than the sugar for the most part fudge isn't completely void of nutrients and life isn't much fun without the occaisional treat here and there.

Making fudge has never been my strongest suit. I can't tell you how many grainy or rocklike fudges I've made in my life. Oh yes, I know there are many intracacies of making fudge and it's a technique that requires all sorts of precision and proper timing. Don't scrape the sides with the spatula, don't over heat it, don't under heat it, blah, blah blah.. Enter reality, enter distracting kids, enter my personality which is so NOT precise, or timed in any way shape or fashion and you get -- welll, less than great fudge. My mother makes fantastic fudge- yummy, perfect fudge, she even made up her own recipe and when she makes it, it's delightful! I use her recipe and it's well.. dissapointing at best. This year I decided to venture out of the family recipe book, off the back of the package and into the internet for my recipe. I found this one http://www.skaarupfudge.com/CrazyMamieRecipe.html-- and low and behold it worked!! It even appeals to my use what you have nature and offers both a recipe using creme and one with marshmellows in case that's what you have. I had creme so that is what I used and I left out the artificial butter flavor-ick. I used the paranoid version and cooked it for a minute before adding the creme and cooked it 8 minutes but think I might cook it longer next time as I like a more firm fudge in general-- but it was good, not grainy, not solid, dry and cracking-- just fudge! It was perfect, lovely and it even tastes very similar to my mother's fudge-which is also made with both semisweet and milk chocolate chips. The technique allows for some fudging with-- which is of course right up my alley.

Thoughtful mother that I am, I can't imagine making fudge and not having anything to offer to my wee dairy free ones that resembles what we are eating. I've seen some recipes for dairy free versions -- using bags of dairy free chocolate chips-- OUCH! Those things are $3.79 a bag and only have something like 9 oz. in them... so trying a recipe using two bags and some super expensive dairy free products in addition to that and having it fail gets pretty pricey. In all likelihood just about anything chocolate that I would make they would happily devour even it was horribly inedible or quite ugly in appearance, but at some level I'd like to have something presentable AND affordable and somewhat close to my nutritional standards so when I stumbled across this cheater fudge recipe I was elated! The original recipe uses butter and real milk -- but I think the coconut oil is the perfect substitution in it and the milk is easily subbed out and better yet-- making it doesn't use large quantities of terrbily expensive products! Nothing weird or extensively toxic, so even better.. (ok, I'm not saying that powdered sugar is health food perse, but at least it isn't super modified soy and chemicals-- this is fudge afterall, not breakfast..) And even better it's EASY to make-really, REALLY EASY!

Super Quickie Fudge
Based losely off a recipe in - Colorado Cache
Made with my alterations to make it dairy free!!

1 pound of powdered sugar (3 1/2 cups)
1/2 cup cocoa
1/4 cup milk ( I used coconut milk -- sure soy, almond or rice would also work)
1/2 cup of coconut oil (original recipe called for butter or margarine here)
1 T. of vanilla extract

Mix powdered sugar and cocoa in a 8x8 in dish. (Next time I would do this in a bowl --then scrape it into a wax paper lined 8x8 dish so I could pull it out and cut it easier.)Pour in milk and place coconut milk on top. Cook in the microwave for 2 minutes. Remove and stir every thing together. Add vanilla -(could add 1/2 cup of nuts here too). Stir until blended. Place in fridge or freezer until it cools --then cut and serve!

Is that easy or WHAT? AND it tastes great.. I don't even have to feel quilty about "making" the wee ones eat the less yummy fudge!

Sausage for the freezer!

2010-12-03T12:08:00.008-07:00

Sausage making comes once a year at our house(some years twice if we are really lucky-once for deer and once for elk). Much to the joy of the household predator (our dog) and the sighs of the children, and our aching muscles. While I dread the amount of hours spent slaving over the kitchen aid and all the work involved, I can honestly say that I wouldn't do it any other way.

The frugal side of me loves that others pay to have someone else make their sausage but we do it and it doesn't cost us anything except for spices, bags to package and the meat to mix in, and the cost of the grinder and the scale -- which have long since paid for themselves. I love knowing that there is no mystery "spices-code for MSG", no nitrates, no refined sugar, no dairy, no soy, no hydrolyzed soy anything .. it's terrific! Just food in our food! That's by far the best part, and it's perfectly seasoned to our palates!

My recipes are designed for use as a frozen bulk sausage, not for smoking, etc.. that's a whole different type of thing. We don't make them into links because well -- I'm lazy and the sausage tastes the same to me in links or in chunks. We could of course do that with a larger sized casing- I prefer the natural casings-they tear less, IMHO. And then of course they would be frozen once stuffed into the casings. (one more step, again, lazy!) And the other downside to casings is that it's an additional cost (not much mind you, but still-cheap and lazy that's me), and they take up more space in my all ready stuffed freezer.

To start you need really clean elk or deer meat, (no hairs, etc..)and a selection of other items to help in the process, other than the spices and basic ingredients here are some tools you will need.

good food scale (what foodies kitchen isn't complete without one anyway)

food grinder (we use the kitchen aid attachment)

several large bowls-at least three, more is better

saran wrap

lots of latex or rubber gloves

clean working surfaces (empty all counters around the grinder and cover the wall facing the grinder with newspaper for easy cleanup)

small bowls for mixing spices (check to make sure you have enough of everything, sausage uses large quantities and you won't want to run out)

small skillet for frying sample batches

good sharp knives

cutting boards

plenty of fridge space or a cooler full of ice to keep ground meat cool while grinding.

box of saltine style crackers

packaging materials and sharpie permanent markers or good sticky stickers or masking tape.

***** Remember you will be working with raw meat, and something you and your family will be consuming so cleanliness is important. Floors, your hands, all tools, and kitchen counters should be immaculately clean. and kept clean. When handling the raw meat we use latex or rubber gloves. Keep your hair tied back, etc.. Keep your meat in the cooler unless you are working with it, and keep it covered.

Here is the step by step:

1. Once everything is assembled and cleaned, put together the grinder and glove up. Have your bowls handy. Cut the meat in small enough pieces to fit easily into your grinder. Keep the kinds of meat separate. We grind all of our deer meat first then grind our pork meat. No need to clean the grinder in between uses because you will be mixing it all in the end.

2. Once everything is ground we measure out batches of meat with the scale. Then we mix the spices in a small bowl or mug for each batch. We label the bowls with what kind of sausage they are and how many batches are in the bowl, if we are doing more than just one batch at a time.

3. Gently mix the meat in each batch together a bit without the spices added, then run it through the grinder again with the finer attachment. While it grinds have someone gently shake the spices into the catch bowl over the meat to evenly distribute them throughout the batch - this makes the job of combining later much easier. Also if you have seeds in your sausage it keeps them whole -- if you grind them the flavor can get stronger as they get crushed.

4. When you are done grinding the meat clean out your grinder with crackers -- run the crushed up crackers through your grinder-- if you want to make a gluten free product figure for some loss on the last batch and grind the cracker mess into a small bowl separate from your bowls with your batches in them.

5. Once all your batches are ground twice and your grinder parts are clean, mix -- use clean gloves for this for each type of sausage.

6. Once each batch is mixed try cooking a tiny patty of it in your fry pan. Don't skip this step! Trust me you don't want 13 pounds of really really nasty chorizo in the freezer taking up space for the next two years... (ask me how I know this!) It's much easier to add some salt, or garlic or whatever, or fix a salty batch, or a batch with WAYY too much of something now--than later after it's all packed up and in your freezer. I usually save back a bit of meat to mix in just in case.. even using TNT recipes I've made a few times, there are always some adjustments needed.

7. Make and label your packages and bags. Labels are easier to do before the meat is in your bags.

8. Using your scale pack the sausage into bags and lay as flat as possible. If you squish everything nice and flat it's very easy to store them once they are frozen solid. I use a box or cookie sheet to flatten and freeze the meat then once it's frozen solid I store it like old vinyl LP records upright in boxes in my chest freezer. I can easily fit 40-60 pounds of sausage in our freezer along with everything else if I use this method. (We pack our meat now in 1 1/2 # packages due to feeding 8 on a regular basis)

If you need to walk away from the grinder for a short amount of time, cover it with a big plastic bag to keep any contaminates (interested pets,insects, or toddlers) out.

** For safety when you are not sitting next to your grinder -- UNPLUG IT. Curious kids and pets have gotten their arms, etc.. stuck in running grinders-don't let that happen to the ones you love. Even for a minute UNPLUG IT!

In our house one of us grinds while the other mixes and measures spices by batch. Normally we make about 3-5 batches of the breakfast sausage, and about the same of Italian sausage, some andouille sausage (Emerril has a good recipe), some brats, some chorizo, some plain ground meat, and whatever else strikes our fancy. Last year it was jalapeno garlic sausage. Of course this all depends on how much meat we have, but the possibilities are endless and if you don't hunt-- you could still make your own all pork, chicken, beef or other meat sausage!

Basic Breakfast Sausage

7 lbs of lean meat (venison) & 1 1/2 lbs of pork butt

(We do around 7 1/2 -8 pounds of meat total (mixed pork and deer) per batch.) If you get the spices/ratio right on this recipe it is out of sight, but if you use too much meat and not enough spices it's not nearly as good.

4 T. salt
1 3/4 tsp pepper
3 1/2 tsp. dry sage
2 1/2 tsp. ground thyme
2 1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 1/2 tsp ground dry ginger
1 tsp crushed red chili pepper flakes- you can of course add more or less- this seems to be the right mix for us though.

**If you plan to put this in casings you may want to add a little water to make the texture better for stuffing. Grind your meat once, then combine meats & grind again. Combine all spices and as you grind the meat-sprinkle on the spices in layers, then it's very easy to mix up with gloves, and package for freezing.

16 pounds of carrots!

2010-12-02T19:19:00.014-07:00

How, you may ask did you end up with 16 pounds of carrots?.. well, there is a food co-op type of thing I go to most weeks and we get an odd collection of food every week including lots of fresh produce. For $55 we get a wide selection of food and pay to support a local food bank and feed hundreds of Colorado families --keeping the ministry in business. What a great deal! Most of the time we get a wide array of great natural products and alot of organic produce, and even meats! I will most often come home with around $100 - $150 worth of food. The only catch is-- some of it needs to be used right away, and is sporatic at best as to what we get and don't get.
So-- 16 pounds of carrots. Here goes...

**I will be eating lots of this salad (which is my submission for Real Food Wednesdays)
http://kellythekitchenkop.com/2010/12/real-food-wednesday-121510.html

Carrot Salad
(dairy free)

6 carrots grated, peel if you like
2 or 3 oranges-- peeled and chopped
canned coconut milk -full fat and no sulfites(enough to
moisten the salad) *I mixed this in the blender first before adding to the salad
agave nectar or honey to sweeten to taste (used about a tsp.)
1/2 cup of raisins

Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl,
and serve cold.

We will be eating carrots sticks for snacks and at dinner as side dishes

**I will be making bags of 2 c. shredded carrots and 1/2 c. of applesauce for the freezer to make these muffins

Carrot Raisin Muffins – dairy free

2 cups unbleached white flour (I use 3 cups of white whole wheat flour instead of ap, and pastry flour)
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
1 cup sugar -( I sub stevia and sucanat- 3-4 tiny tsp of stevia compound and 1/4 c. sucanat)
1 tsp cinnamon
½ cup raisins
2 eggs ( I add 3)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup rice, coconut or almond milk
½ cup applesauce
2 cups of grated carrot

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Add raisins. Make a well in the center and all the liquid ingredients. Stir just until blended. Pour batter into papered muffin cups. Bake 25-30 min or until toothpick comes out clean.

**I will be trying carrot ginger soup like this one.. ? http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Gingered-Carrot-Soup-5811

I will be looking for a great, healthy (ww with low sugar) recipe for carrot bread or carrot cake and freezing bags of carrots to make that easily, with some alterations of course.
Maybe this one: http://www.food.com/recipe/whole-wheat-zucchini-or-carrot-bread-325250
this one looks perfectly suited to my vitamix-- vroom vroom.. http://twoheadsoflettuce.blogspot.com/2009/02/whole-wheat-carrot-bread.html

**I may try my hand at pickling carrots -- loving the lacto fermenting!! My saurkraut and pickles are the BOMB!
These recipes look yummy to me..
ginger pickled carrots http://kellythekitchenkop.com/2010/03/i-love-fermented-vegetables.html
or
dilly ones! http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2010/08/lacto-fermented-dilly-carrot-sticks.html

I may dehydrate some -- all though I allready have some dehydrated shreds in a jar, so this will likely be a last resort. (Easy, you just shred and dehydrate and add to anything with liquid)

Or this salad looks good too -- with nuts and oregano. http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2008/07/savory-carrot-salad-with-roasted-nuts.html

or for this one .. I know just the right balsamic vinegar that is in need of being used.. yumm...
http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2008/02/savory-carrot-salad-2.html

I may vitamix them with an apple or some ginger to make carrot juice.

Or Alton Brown's firecracker recipe??
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/firecrackers-recipe/index.html
Nope -- too much sugar on second thought.. ick!

Or perhaps I'll break out the pressure canner and can some of these orange carrots.. allthough I'd likely use sucanat and stevia instead of the sugar

Oranged Carrots

Orange juice gives extra flavor to the carrots.
7 lb medium carrots
5 c orange juice
1 c water
1/2 c lemon juice
1/4 c sugar
1/2 c packed brown sugar
2 Tbsp grated orange peel
Salt as desired

Wash and scrub carrots gently. Peel or scrape carrots and cut into 1/4" slices.In a large saucepot combine orange juice, water, lemon juice, granulated sugar and brown sugar. Bring to a boil over medium high heat.Add carrots and return to a boil. Boil 3 minutes.Pack carrots into prepared jars leaving a 1" headspace. Ad orange peel to jars, using 1 tsp for pints and 2 tsp for quarts. Add hot cooking syrup to cover. Add salt if desired, using 1/4 tsp per pint or 1/2 tsp per quart. Check for air bubbles and adjust headspace if needed.Process pints for 25 minutes and quarts for 30 minutes at 10 lb pressure. Adjust pressure according to altitude and style of canner.Makes: 6 pints or 3 quarts

oooo-- hadn't even thought of looking at 101 cookbooks.. this salad looks super yummy
http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/carrot-dill-white-bean-salad-recipe.html

roasted carrots? http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/001529.html

And -- I have yet to check my most favorite sugar free and LLL cookbooks for their mutations on carrots!!

Or-- there is always here ! http://www.plantea.com/carrot-recipes.htm

Silly me, and I thought I would have a hard time finding things to do with carrots.

Any other ideas !! I'd love to hear 'em..

Hot, Spicy and Sweet!

2010-10-22T11:26:00.003-06:00

Here is my attempt at preserving peppers. I found a yummy sounding recipe from my dear Aunt in TX, and modified her recipe to what I had on hand, and then of course cut the sugar and added some Cardamom. Oh man the result is tasty! The cardamom just mellows the tanginess out a bit and finishes it quite nicely I think. Here's the Original Recipe(From my Aunt Roberta)

Texas Orange Jalapeno Jelly

2 to 3 jalapeno peppers, seeded and minced

1 jar (4oz.) pimentos, well drained.

5 T. minced green bell peppers

1 1/2 c. freshly squeezed Tx. Orange Juice

1 c. white wine vinegar

6 1/2 c sugar

1 (3 0z.) pkg of liquid fruit pectin

Jalapeno Orange Cardamom Jelly

(My revised version)

2 fresh jalapenos, seeded and minced (vitamixed with the vinegar)

1 roasted red bell peppers, drained and minced

5 T. minced green bell pepper

1 1/2 c. freshly squeezed orange juice-simply orange brand- I'm lazy

1 c. white wine vinegar

2 1/2 c. sugar (seperated, 1/2 cup sugar mixed with 1 1/2 tsp. pectin powder)

2 t. calcium water

1/2 tsp. cardamom

This recipe uses pomona pectin. A fabulous little product I've been using to make sugar free and low sugar, jams, and jellies all season. You can get it here http://www.pomonapectin.com/order.html

Mix everything together in a large stockpot except for the pectin powder and 1/2 cup sugar. Combine well and heat to boiling, boil one minute and then add the pectin powder and sugar mix to the pot. Return to a rolling boil and then boil one more minute. Can according to the directions in the ball blue book or as listed here. http://pickyourown.org/pepper_jelly.htm

As you can see above the finished product is quite pretty. As the jelly cools you can turn the jars over so that the peices of pepper mix into the jelly instead of stay on top.

Shopping to save money!

2010-10-16T09:53:00.005-06:00

So a friend asked me today to make this my blog post – you asked for it, here it is!

My shopping rules to save money!

This mostly relates to groceries and how I shop the sales and my own personal rules I’ve set for myself. Of course nothing is in stone, but I have to say most of these things I don’t sway from for the majority of my shopping.

Rule 1. Watch the sales!
I do what’s known as cherry picking. The stores sell items at a deep discount, or even a loss in order to get you in the door, knowing that if you come in to buy a special you'll usually buy the rest of your groceries there. Those super low priced items are called loss leaders. Generally speaking, the store with the best sales that week is the one that will have the highest prices on other items. I buy what’s on sale, stock up, and leave the rest. Grocery managers hate me ! But not everyone has to like me and I’m ok with that. I buy what’s on sale, only what’s on sale, and then I check the clearance bins and shelves and leave. Most stores have grocery flyers that come out every week, those specials are what helps me to plan my meals weekly. Ours start on Wed and end on Tuesday evening. The exception are Sprouts and Sunflower Market which have double ad day on Wednesday—so you get both week’s ads specials if you shop on Wed! Our ads come out on Tuesday or Wed, so that’s when I make my meal plan. In our area there are 3 major grocery chains, three local health food store chains and the usual Walmart and Target and a couple other places I regularly check. Oh and when I say stock up—I mean I buy enough to last us till the next sale cycles again -it's just something I've learned over time about how much to buy when the deep sales hit.
The other caveat I have here is—impulse buy items and snacks like cookies, ice cream, chips, etc.. keep in mind if you stock up on them, you will have more of them in your house and therefore eat more of them as a result..so if that’s not what you want, don’t buy in bulk on those items when they go on sale—better to use a coupon, buy it on sale and get one, rather than Buy one get one free (BOGO).

Rule 2. Know the game!
They have spent millions of dollars and hours figuring out how to get your money, so in order to beat them you need to spend a bit of time too. I know their game—endcaps contain impulse items that are generally more expensive than what is on the aisle—if it’s on an endcap and “on sale”, I’m almost always headed to the aisle to get the store brand that has a lower regular price. I know some things about marketing for example: Bakery items and impulse buy things, toys etc.. are where they zing you! Resist! Resist! Resist! The obvious and old adage about, have a list, don’t go hungry, get what’s on the list, etc.. those things are good to do. For me it’s a game—I want to beat them, be the rebel, ha ha you yummy looking cinnamon rolls you won’t get me- I’m here for the cheap grapes and that killer special on chicken! The music they play in the store is designed to make you slow down and shop for longer—there is a whole science of studying your shopping habits and the goal is to get more of your money. Ever wonder why they change the juice to aisle 3 instead of where it used to be—they know that if you have to look for it, you are in their store longer, and the longer you stay in the store, the more likely you are to pick up something you don’t need. Don’t be the rat in the maze, resist and stay true to the list!
Really good sales and loss leaders will cycle and the better sales will be the week after most people get paid—for example: look for the worst sales the first week of the month—grocers know you shop as soon as you get paid-if you wait a week to do the bulk of your shopping your dollars will go farther- especially on food you need (milk, bread, meat) vs. comfort items like chips, cookies and other splurges. Likewise – the really deep discounts are at the end of the month when most folks can’t afford to really stock up—be smarter, save as much as you can for the end of the month so you have more money when the sales are bigger. Before holidays get all your things for the big meal the week before the holiday. Thanksgiving sale ads end Tuesday night—Wednesday morning everything will be much more expensive. Most of the big sales are the week before. This is a great time to stock your freezer with celery, onions and potatoes as those will almost always be on sale before the holiday. Pick up an extra turkey, ham or other large meat to put in the freezer for later.

Rule 2. Watch the prices!
Bring a calculator, so you can check prices easily! This goes beyond knowing how to recognize a good price. Look at the unit price of things instead of the item cost. For example eggs on sale for 1.29 a dozen, or 1.99 for 18 eggs—do the math, per egg price what is cheaper. Sometimes it’s not cheaper to buy the big economy size bag of frozen corn, and instead cheaper to buy the smaller bags—frozen veggies are one to really watch. Use common sense though-if you are looking for sesame oil and the big bottle is 10 cents an ounce and the little jar is 20 cents an ounce it might not be best to buy the big bottle if you cook Chinese Food once a month it’ll likely go bad before you can use it all up. Oils and whole grain things can go bad unless you have storage space so don't overbuy on those unless you have ways of storing them. However, if you have a buddy who wants to share the bottle and the cost—why not? Watch at the register when they ring you out to make sure you played the game correctly and got the deals you were promised. We buy ketchup at Sam's club in the huge container -it's something like $3.68 for a five pound can. I open it, put it into saved containers and refridgerate them and we use that much ketchup easily before it goes bad. We have 6 kids though and two of them think ketchup is another food group.
Watch your receipt, check it over and go back if it’s wrong. At Albertsons recently I bought butter on sale, didn’t realize there was a limit on them so only the first two were on sale, I took it back to customer service to return the ones that weren’t on sale and they gave them all to me at the sale price. I’ve seen people ask at the register for them to extend the limit—they almost always do. Especially if you say --"I got three instead of two do you need me to run through you're lines again to get the sale price ? " Can't hurt to ask...

Also- know what a good price is..educate yourself! This only takes a week or two of watching, and checking prices. If you need to you can keep a tiny (5x7 is what I use for my meal planning and list making) regular price notebook in your purse with prices organized by store. Later in the week if you can’t remember who usually has the lowest regular price on bread and milk, and that’s what you need, then you can check your list after the sale ads.- I keep my list mentally, but some people find it helpful to keep it in writing. In general—soda, milk, bread, and chips are higher priced at Target and Walmart almost always. I’m sure there are other things too, but those are the ones I know about. Frozen juice is pretty cheap at Walmart, Target has the best price on coconut milk. Once you start paying attention to prices you’ll know who has what you use cheapest.

Say you don’t have cash to stock up on chicken but it’s on a steal of a deal – if you need something else anyway like milk, go to the store with the cheap chicken—Monday morning, Tuesday evening or Friday mornings often they are out of the sale chicken or other item, get a rain check and come back within 60 days when you do have money for that item. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve done that!

Rule 3. Use coupons

If you feel that saves you money and doesn’t eat at your time. For me since we don’t buy a lot of store brand items – the bulk of what we buy is around the outside of the store.. milk, juice, produce, meat, eggs and bread coupons rarely apply to me, but I do use some of them. Primarily I shop the ads and know my prices.

Rule 4. Whenever possible leave the kids at home.

I can get in and out of three stores in the time that it takes to do one store with the kids. So whenever possible I leave them with Grandma, a playdate, swap care with a neighbor, hire a sitter, go in the evening when my hubby or older kids are home. No arguing, no car seats, no surlyness, and I can move fast (spend less time in the store, spend less money). Don’t get me wrong- I adore my kids, but I simply find I’m more efficient and faster and save money when I don’t have them along.

Rule 5. Don't waste what you buy.

Use it up, freeze it, have a leftovers night, make soup, send it to work the next day, morph it into something else, but don't throw it away! Learn to make do and cook with what you have on hand, learn to cook without a recipe! I'll do more postings on that later.. Most people throw away 25% of the food they buy-- that's ALOT! Spend 500-1,000 dollars a month on food- you are likely tossing as much as $250 in the trash.

My system for going through the ads:

I try to keep a running list of what we are out of on the fridge or in my notebook. If there is something on my list I am out of and need the next week and it’s not on sale I buy one to get me through but know that it likely will be on sale soon if isn’t that week, so if it can wait I wait on buying it. I first clean out my fridge seeing what I might have already that needs to be used up, those will be the first meals on my plan for the next week. I make a short list from this of things that need to be used up-- Keeping in mind my rules and knowing my prices- Then I sit down with the ads and write a list organized by store – what are the loss leaders for each store, their price and any special notes, like a limit of two or a special weekend only sale, or I note if it’s a coupon. If something is super great sale and I know I want it I mark it with a star on my list. This takes me very little time—I only list what we regularly use that is a really good sale or any special sale items I think I might like to buy. This isn’t my shopping list, only a reference list. Then I make a menu, keeping in mind any activities that might impact meal time- ie, quick meal nights I do soup that can be prepped ahead or crockpot dishes or something from my freezer stock of premade meals. I start with the items that need to be used up first so for example – if I have a head of cabbage, three bell peppers and some lettuce that needs used up I might have salad the first night with a main dish(lettuce is most fragile), stuffed peppers or fajitas the next night, then sandwiches, brats or hamburgers and coleslaw the next night, say fresh broccoli and pork roast are on sale – so one night we’ll have a broccoli chicken casserole and the next night pulled pork sandwiches or pork roast with potatoes depending on what is on sale, or I have on hand. That’s five nights- you get the idea, then I go back to my menu and add side dishes. ** If you wanted to plan breakfast or dinner this could be done the same way. I go back through the menu and my list of needed items and make my shopping list. Most weeks I will stop at two stores- rarely more than that. Later in the week if we need milk, or bread, or something I can check my reference list see where it’s cheapest and if there is some other great sale I can take advantage of that too without having to make a special trip out to get the sale items. Dh will often pick up items we need and I can tell him we need milk, and it’s cheapest at King Soopers could you also pick up a cantaloupe they should be $1.

** For our evening meal I almost always serve a main dish or meat, two veggies or salads, one fresh or home canned fruit, and a starch like potatoes, rice, bread..This gives picky eaters more choices, and extends out my meals considerably and encourages eating more veggies and fruits. This doesn’t have to be fancy, it can be as simple as celery sticks, bagged fresh carrots, some applesauce, or baked potatoes.

Below is a list of my hard and steadfast guidelines for shopping:

1. Buy sale items that you know you will use whenever possible – when they are a really good price buy enough to last you at least 1-3 months, maybe more if you can reasonably afford it. (IF they are able to be frozen, or shelf stable and IF they aren’t something like cookies, or other snack type of items where you eat more if you have them laying around.) Try to buy 90% of your groceries when they are sale.

2. NEVER, NEVER, BUY MEAT UNLESS IT’S ON SALE

3. Boneless meats- pork chops, boneless skinless chicken breasts, etc.. if they are under $2 a pound, salmon if it is under $4 a pound as it is more of a luxury item for us, tilapia under $3 a pound, shrimp under $4 a pound.

4. Bone in meats – under $1 a pound. Pork and Beef Roasts, or bone in chicken breasts. Whole chickens I buy when they are about 57-89 cents a pound. I will buy 4-5 of them and cook them all at once and pick the meat off and freeze the meat in 2 cup packages for easy meals later. It's one more pan and no more oven heat to cook four than it is to cook one.

5. Cereal—cold cereal I only buy when it’s $2 or less a box.

6. Crackers- $2 a box

7. Potato Chips- Under $2 a bag, but only when it’s in the plans, since I don’t let my kids snack on these items or use them on a daily basis, I rarely if ever buy them.

8. Tortilla Chips- Under $2 a bag

9. Flour and sugar- during the holiday it goes on sale, buy as much as you can reasonably store.

10. Milk- $2 a gallon (organic milk isn’t in our budget right now, this is one item I will break the rule on but I can almost always find it on sale somewhere)

11. Lettuce- Same with fresh veggies like salad, etc..Buy what is planned for the week unless you plan to do batch cooking or canning. I don’t buy bagged salad or spinach unless it’s $1. Instead I’ve found that heads of Romaine lettuce last much longer and are a lot more durable yielding more food and having much less waste. For some reason that variety of lettuce is much more durable than any other variety, as an added bonus it’s also one of the more nutritious lettuces!

12. Fresh fruit- anything under $1 a pound—this varies depending on what time of year it is according to what is in season, providing you with good variety in your diet. If something is especially cheap like 2-3 weeks ago grapes were 57 cents a pound, we planned to use the extra I bought for snacks and to put out as our fresh fruit with dinner, took snack to K’s school, froze some (frozen grapes make yummy frozen treats instead of popsicles). Cut it up, use it up and what you don’t use, freeze for smoothies or other uses. Try not to overbuy and waste the food—think of how busy your week is, what you reasonably can do in a week. Most of what you get that is fresh you can’t reasonably expect it to last more than a week or so—of course there are exceptions but it’s a good general rule that most fresh produce won’t last more than a week. Exceptions are apples, oranges, hard squashes, just to name a few. If something is a really good sale – I might even go back at the end of the sale cycle to get more to last me the next week in addition to what I bought at the first part of the week.

13. Onions- buy them when the bags are on sale—3 #’s or so for $1 is a good price, I don’t buy when they are $1 a pound or more. When they go on sale, I buy a bag or two and go home and chop them all up and freeze them in freezer zip bags for easy use. Once frozen they are great for anything where you will be cooking the onion anyway. Fresh uses like in salad you would need to pick up a fresh one for. But then you can buy one, and store it.

14. Celery- Look for $1 or less a pound. Keep it wrapped in foil in the fridge. Buy it only as needed according to your menu plan. When you do buy it, after you use it fresh and before it turns bad chop up the remaining pieces and freeze them or make celery sticks and put them out at snack time. Ends and leaves can be used when you make chicken stock so you can put them into a ziplock bag and freeze them for later.

15. Potatoes- I try to buy them when they are on sale in bags- under $2-3 for a 10 + pound bag is a good price. If you buy too many, you can freeze what you don’t use by cooking them first.
(look in my archives for my freezer potato recipes)

16. Cheese-
Lately I'm lucky to get cheese for under 2-3$ a pound. It freezes fine if you grate it first and package in small bags.

17. Butter-
Lately prices have gone up and I can only get it for around $2-2.50 a pound on sale. Real butter can be mixed down with good quality olive oil or other oil to extend it out and make it softer and easier to spread. I've done as much as 50% oil/butter ratio without any trouble. This cuts the saturated fat and adds MFCA's which are so good for you.

18. Nuts -
I try to buy them in bulk, store them in the freezer -almond, walnuts and pecans for under $3 a pound is good.

19. Eggs-
Under 1$ a dozen and I buy lots! We use alot of them and when they are this low I buy and make breakfast burritos, etc..

20. Canned tomatoes, beans, and vegetables -- watch these items carefully for HFCS, added MSG, Sugar, etc.. I buy them when they are 2 for $1 or 3 for $1.

21. Because I do alot of cooking from scratch I buy almost all of my spices in bulk from a local health food store, the only exception is black pepper, garlic salt and cinnamon which I can find cheaper at Sam's club.
** A note about cheap vs. healthy food. I buy organic produce whenever I can-yes it goes on sale too and when it does- I'm on it! I don't buy organic meats (DH hunts and fishes so we get alot of our meat that way), dairy or other things for the most part. I do try to avoid GMO soy and GMO corn whenever humanly within my budget. I garden too -- organically so that saves us big bucks. I pay attention to the dirty dozen list of most sprayed foods. I glean fruit from others trees, vines and bushes and preserve it in order to get closer to our goal of mostly organic . I don't include much else in this list because this is primarily what I buy. Most condiments and premade snacks are junk. They are loaded with HFCS, bad oils, artificail colors, preservatives or MSG, I can my own soup, salsa, sauces, spaghetti sauces, etc.. with a pressure canner to avoid alot of nasties- our one vice is ketchup - I keep hoping they will make the big size without HFCS, but haven't seen it yet. Next year I hope to have enough tomatoes from our garden to make our own. For the most part I don't buy alot of other things- I've found by not buying it, we snack on other stuff. Popcorn, hummus and veggies, fruit, nuts, eggs, etc....You can change the prices to accommodate an all organic diet too. I just don't know what the good prices are for those products because I generally don't buy them. Keep in mind milk freezes so it could be made alot more affordable if and when you find it on sale.

Experiments with Stevia or "Finally a Banana Bread I like that meets my standards"

2010-05-24T10:26:00.006-06:00

I've been experimenting quite a bit with non-dairy baking for the wee ones and also with eliminating sugar from our diets and adding whole grains too.

Whole grains are tricky to get used to unless you've grown up exposed to them- I was, but the bulk of my family was not, so the dense texture bothers them. I found white whole wheat flour (flour ground from white wheat instead of red). It's much finer in texture and I find that I can substitute it cup for cup for AP flour in most recipes. Also I like to use whole wheat pastry flour, which is easier for me to get. Not every place in town has the white whole wheat flour-- King Arthur Fours makes a good white whole wheat flour and Bob's Red mill does too I think. http://www.amazon.com/King-Arthur-Flour-White-5-Pound/dp/B001HTL44O/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=grocery&qid=1274722573&sr=8-2-catcorr Sadly-- I've never found a WW banana bread that still tasted like banana bread to me-- the WW flavor always outweighs the mild banana taste I love so much. And I've found that in order to compensate by adding more banana then you have a loaf that is too mushy and moist, ick!

I like to use stevia in my baking instead of sugar. Previously I would sub out 1 teeny tsp of pure stevia extract in the powdered form (the size that comes in the jar)http://www.amazon.com/Pure-Stevia-Extract-Powder-3-5/dp/B000VRSR84/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=hpc&qid=1274722517&sr=8-1 for 1/4 cup sugar and add non fat dry milk (1/4 cup) to make up for the bulk lost by not including the sugar. I found that in most recipes you can make the substitution successfully. However, when you have dairy free ones that trick no longer works! In order to avoid the stevia aftertaste I've found that you MUST include a small portion of other sweetener in your baking. Here, I've used white sugar-- next time I'll try it with succanat, but you could also use agave nectar or honey if you prefer. I can usually cut all but 1/4-1/2 cup of sugar out of the recipe depending on the size of the batch. This one makes two loaves. Any less than two loaves is futile in my house-- the kids can devour a loaf in minutes flat! I've been experimenting further and found a different product http://www.swansonvitamins.com/SW924/ItemDetail?n=0 it's a stevia compound that is primarily stevia but also includes honey powder. Many stevia recipes are not written using the stronger straight stevia like the one I showed you at first-- they use tsp. as a measurement and if you use a tsp of pure stevia in anything you'll be gagging like crazy!! The stevia compound appears to be about 1tsp. of compound to 1 cup sugar- with 1/4 cup of other sweetener for a good substitution and then add 1/2 cup of some bulking agent such as eggs, banana, pumpkin puree, yogurt, or applesauce. Increase the liquid as well by 2T.

In order to make this recipe non- dairy I use either Spectrum's solid shortening or a good high quality coconut oil- but if dairy isn't an issue you can use real butter. I have a terrific recipe that uses buttermilk, but I simply can't replace buttermilk successfully -- I don't like all the non-dairy subs, they just don't cut it.. IMHO.

So here it is:

Good Enough Banana Bread

1c. + 2T. butter, shortening (spectrum), or coconut oil

1/2 c. sugar or other sweetener ( I've used honey, agave nectar or succannat)

2 tsp. stevia compound

5 large eggs

6 med bananas, mashed

2 tsp. vanilla extract

3 c. white ww flour

1 T. baking powder- aluminum free

1 tsp. fine sea salt like Orsa or Celtic

Blend together shortening, stevia, sugar and eggs till smooth. Add banana puree , vanilla, and in a separate bowl mix all dry ingredients together- blend with the wet ingredients and bake in a 350 degree oven for an hour in greased pans. Makes two large loaves of banana bread or enough to last an hour!

* this would be divine with chopped walnuts or sunflower seeds 1 c. should do it-- but at our house we get grumbles so I don't add it usually. If I want to add nuts I usually grind them up first so they are undetectable.

Most requested recipes !

2010-03-09T11:00:00.006-07:00

Here they are -- you asked for them and here they are !

Black Bean Wrap Filling
( Laura’s recipe-a thousand thank you's Laura!)

1 15 oz. can of black beans, drained, rinsed and
mixed with a pinch of salt and a squeeze of lemon
¼ cup of chopped red bell pepper, chopped fine
¼ tsp jalapeno pepper, seeded, ribbed and
finely chopped
3 T olive oil
1 T. fresh lime juice
¼ tsp. maple syrup
¼ tsp. sea salt
3 T. scallions, white and green parts, chopped
3 T. fresh cilantro, finely chopped
¼ tsp. ground cumin
1/8 tsp. cinnamon
½ cup salsa cruda—recipe follows but I made it
without and it is delicious.
In a medium bowl, mix all the ingredients together
except for salsa cruda. Taste, then add salt and spritz
of lime juice if needed. Spoon into a bowl and garnish
with salsa cruda or wrap in soft tortillas for burritos.
Serves 6.
Salsa Cruda:
1 ½ cup diced roma tomatoes
¼ cup red onion, diced
2 T. fresh cilantro, chopped
1 to 2 tsp. fresh lime juice
1 tsp. jalapeno, diced
¼ tsp sea salt
In a medium bowl, mix all ingredients, season as
needed for flavor. Let salsa sit for 30 min then taste
again, adjusting as needed. Makes about 2 cups.

*I make this without the salsa cruda part of the recipe-- it's spectacular inside whole wheat tortillas, with cut up avacado.

Yummy Artichoke Dip

1 (6.5) oz. jar of marinated artichoke hearts, drained and quartered
1 cup mayonnaise
1 ½ cups grated Parmesan Cheese
1 (8oz.) pkg. of cream cheese, softened
1 (4oz.) can chopped green chili peppers- juice and all

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a medium bowl, mix the artichoke hearts, 1 cup Parmesan, cream cheese and green chili peppers. Scoop the mixture into a pie pan or medium baking pan. Top with the remaining ½ cup Parmesan.
Bake for 25 min or until bubbly and slightly browned. Serve warm. Great served with crackers, bread slices, fresh broccoli, carrots or celery sticks.

*** This is a new favorite from Xmas Eve 2009! There are many mutations out there of this one – but this one is especially good and SHHH.. very, very easy. You can assemble it hours ahead of time and keep it in the fridge till time to bake-(if you do this be sure to add a bit of baking time to it coming straight from the fridge it will be colder and take longer to bake.)

Menu Plan for the week of November 1-7

2009-11-02T07:47:00.005-07:00

This week I'm challenging myself to a pantry challenge, well actually this is the second week of my pantry challenge. I go through my cabinets, freezer and fridge and use up things that are getting old. Stuff that I bought for a recipe, then never got it made, stuff I bought three of cause I thought I had none, only to find I had two more at home, anything with ice crystals on it...etc. Last week I used up a bag of beans and a ham bone dreg from the freezer, a whole chicken, some homemade deer salami sticks, brats, etc...The challenge basically is to purchase as little as possible and use as much as possible of what you have on hand. For this week's menu I bought a pound of bulk breakfast sausage, eggs, and I will likely need to buy salad towards the end of the week. I will need flour tortillas (I want to make breakfast burritos as I found two gallon size bags of Canadian bacon in the freezer this week that need to be repackaged and used up), fruit, butter, ketchup, parsley, yogurt and probably some milk, but will try to get by this week without buying much else. The one thing I might get extra are some chicken breasts which are on sale for $1.79 a pound for BS CB through Tuesday at Safeway since I am out of bagged cooked chicken at the moment and chicken taco meat. I'll also be cleaning out the pantry and using up canned Amy's soups, dried fruit and whatever other tidbits I find in there for lunches, etc.

Monday-

Sausage and Cauliflower (found old bag of cauliflower in the freezer--bought a pound of sausage at the store and we have on hand onions)

Sausage and Cauliflower
( a family fav from an old dutch cookbook)

1 head cauliflower
1 # bulk breakfast sausage (usually our deer sausage won't need to be drained)
1 onion
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Cut and Steam the cauliflower until it's tender. While that is cooking slice and saute the onion in some olive oil. Remove the onions from the pan and brown the sausage -- once sausage is cooked, add onions back in and nutmeg. Drain and add the cauliflower to the meat mixture. Mix well and serve. It's simple but delicious!

Butternut Squash (In pantry)

Biscuits (from scratch-using pantry staples)

Canned Fruit (from canned stores)

Tuesday-

Breakfast for dinner

(french toast or pancakes) & bacon or sausage & scrambled eggs (everything on hand- will likely buy eggs and flour tortillas to make breakfast burritos for the freezer.)

Wednesday-

Shrimp and angel hair pasta (both from freezer)

Veggie (from freezer-probably garden snow peas or squash)

Thursday-

Cabbage Rolls (from freezer meals)

Zucchini Parmesan Bread (using zucchini in freezer and Parmesan in fridge and pantry staples)

Parmesan Zucchini Garlic Savory Bread

3 c flour

6 tbsp parmesan cheese

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tbsp onion powder or 1/4 onion+ very finely minced

1 tsp garlic powder or 2 cloves very finely minced

2 eggs

1 c buttermilk or sour milk

2 1/2 tbsp sugar

1/3 c oil

1 heaping cup shredded peeled zucchini

3/4 c cheddar cheese, shredded/grated

In a bowl, combine the flour, cheeses, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. In another bowl, beat the eggs, buttermilk, sugar, fresh onion and garlic, and butter/oil. (if you powdered onion and garlic, put into the dry ingredients) Stir wet into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in Zucchini. Pour into greased and floured 9 inch x 5 inch loaf pan. Bake at 350degrees F for 1 hour or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack.

Friday-

Homemade Pizza (dregs of three small bags of pepperoni, cooked Italian sausage , Canadian bacon, sauteed mushrooms, red pepper, onion, pre-made crusts and frozen mozz cheese all from my freezer.)

Salad

Pizza Crust
3 cups of all purpose flour
2 ¼ tsp . instant or quick rise yeast
1 T. sugar
¼ tsp salt
1 cup water (warm)
4 T. cooking oil or 3T. and add 1 T. more water

In a mixing bowl, with a mixing spoon, mix together flour-2 cups, yeast, sugar, and salt. Add the warmed water and oil to the flour mixture. Mix until combined. Knead for about 5 min. Divide the dough in half using a knife. Cover and let it rest for 10 min. Roll out using a rolling pin to make two 13 inch circles. Place the dough in 2 greased (12 inch or 9x13 baking pans)
Cover and let it rise until almost doubled or for a thin crust don’t let it rise. Bake in a 375 degree oven for about 20 min or until cheese is bubbly.

Saturday-

Pork chops (pulled from the freezer--yikes these are icicles! may need to rinse the frost off and cook them in some sort of sauce to make them palatable)

Veggie or salad

Potatoes (from pantry)

Betty's Everything Free Pumpkin Pie!

2009-10-20T11:48:00.001-06:00

Everything Free Pumpkin Pie
just in time for the holidays!

With a premade gluten free pie shell this could be made gluten free! It's TNT and it's really good too.

DF/ Soy Free Pumpkin Pie

Use a Pillsbury pie crust or gluten free crust – premade – they have no soy or dairy products in them. This is a very convincing pie—most people will have no idea it’s different than the traditional.

1 14 oz. can pumpkin
1/3 cup agave nectar ( I would double this next time- or could sub 1/3 cup honey, and 1/3 cup brown sugar—if you use honey and brown sugar plan to cover the crust and let it cook longer—takes longer with honey to bake and set up)
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ground ginger
½ tsp. nutmeg
3 eggs
2/3 cup rice milk- w/ vanilla
3 tsp. tapioca flour
¼ tsp. xanthum gum

375 degrees for 45 min or until it sets up with a knife test just like any other regular pumpkin pie. Cover the edges of the pie crust for most of the cooking time and take the cover off for the last 10 min or so of cooking time to brown.

Why and How I plan menus

2009-10-20T08:02:00.005-06:00

Why and How of Menu Planning

This might seem pretty basic -- but planning my menus is the single best way I make the most of what we have and probably saves us the most money.

Here is what I do --

1. At least twice a week I check my fridge, just a quick check to take stock of what we have. Once before I menu plan and once mid-week. Leftovers really shouldn't last in your fridge past a week for safety reasons. (If there is a question about when we had something I can always check the menu plan from the previous week!)

Whole meat peices (things that aren't casseroles or soups) ex: a leftover pork chop get either cut up and served to my toddler for lunch, put into eggs in the morning, or put into a bag labeled "pork" in my freezer inside. ( I usually have bags for all kinds of meats-- beef, pork, chicken, etc...)

Leftover Vegetables like a few green beans leftover from an evening meal get put into a container for garbage soup in the freezer.

Casseroles or soups that are leftover -get pushed to the front of the fridge and either eaten as lunches or if there is enough leftovers I do a leftover smorgasborg night. (Pull all the leftovers out of the fridge and put them on the counter add a veggie or a fruit and everyone chooses whatever they want for dinner) Leftovers from this are usually tossed or if appropriate frozen for individual meals for later.

In addition to checking for leftovers -- I also check the condition of the fresh food. Things like mangos that when I bought them they weren't ripe --but now they are. ( I tell the fruit eaters of the family--"hey there is a mango in there.") If lettuce looks like it only has one day left I put it out that night to go with dinner or have it for lunch, or make tacos that night instead of what is on the menu. If avacados are looking like they need to be used up -- we make guac for snack. Something new I've started doing is making snack plates for the kids. I take a big platter and if the carrots need to be used up --that day I make carrot sticks, rummage through the cabinet and look for other snack items, etc.. so today the kids will come home and the beans leftover from dinner taco night will be on the plate heated up with tortilla chips and salsa, celery sticks, peanut butter for dipping, probably the remainer of the bag of crackers and some yummy white cheddar cheese we got from Thursday shopping and some cut up fresh pears and a cut up mango. That will be snack.

2. I always check my sale ads.

I do this faithfully and watch to see if meats especially are on sale. I refuse to buy meat unless it is a really good sale. In fact I rarely buy anything unless it's on sale to be honest. The key there is that when it is on sale - I buy quite a bit. This is only on things we need and use regularly- tortilla chips, refried beans, canned tomatoes or beans, flour, meat, frozen veggies and juices. Often if an item is on a really good sale--towards the end of the sale the store will run out. If I can't afford very much of the item right then I go ahead and go to the store and then if they are out I get a rain check and go back when we do have money and buy more than I would have.

I keep a good stock of extra meats on hand - and dried and canned goods. If fresh asparagus is on sale that week -- that will be a veggie one night on the menu. I plan around and buy what is in season and on sale.

So-- this week I dug around in my chest freezer and found these dregs --

a bag of beef gravy that was leftover from a meal- pretty old

a ham bone with meat - no date on it

a bag of leftover sweet and sour chicken meat that was slightly dry when I made it originally

From the fridge -

3 packages of celery-ranging in condition from fine and green to yellow and nasty,

2 bags of baby carrots,

lots of pears (they were 2 pounds for $1 this week)

2 older green peppers

a red pepper

a head of green cabbage

a head of red cabbage

3 dried up green onions

half a summer yellow squash

some refried beans

leftover eggplant pie that nobody liked when I made it last week (was going to give it to mom when she came by this week but as it turns out she has a watercolor workshop so she won't be by to get it and it won't freeze well.)

Some leftover meatballs and sauce -enough for Toddler and I to have lunch

some great cheese that is getting old

So-- here's what I'll do with it all.

last night was trash night soo--

I tossed out the eggplant pie in the trash

pushed the refried beans to the front to remind me to get them out for snack

chopped veggies

- green bell peppers were cut in half for making stuffed peppers and cleaned of seeds -- put them in my freezer bag so I can use them when I get enough to make a batch of stuffed peppers.

-celery (normally I would chop and freeze but I had two bags of frozen allready) One package got the ends trimmed off and put into aluminum foil in the fridge -it's fine for a week or two. One pack had a couple of yellowish ends--that got turned into celery sticks with the leaves and ends put into my freezer bag of broth making veggies, yellow stuff was cut off and tossed out-could have composted it too. One package was yellow and yucky -- I trimmed off what I could that was still good and put it into my broth making bag. Celery sticks will make it to the snack tray this afternoon- they are in a plastic container in water in the fridge. Might also put them out at dinner for an extra veggie.

-baby carrots will go out onto the snack tray, will also use some in clay pot chicken or the remade sweet and sour chicken on the menu for next week.

green onions -- went to the broth making bag in the freezer

red pepper will be saved for next weeks menu - can be used in the remake of the sweet and sour chicken along with the yellow squash?

leftover meatballs will be lunch for me and Toddler with some rolls from the freezer

cheese will get put out with the kids snacks -- but could just as easily get added to a casserole or put out before dinner as a snack or even cut up and set on the table for snacking during dinner, or --grated and then frozen.

pears will be cut up as they ripen and either eaten as snacks or put out as a side dish for dinner. (If we don't get to that later in the week they can be cut up and frozen for smoothies or pear bread)

The menu next week will include:

some sort of either beef and gravy over toast, rolls, or noodles

or a sheperds pie-- beef gravy, meat and veggies from the freezer or fresh, and then either cornbread or mashed potatoes on top and baked with or without cheese on top.

Ham and bean soup,

Sweet and sour chicken stir fry -- I'll probably add some homemade sweet and sour sauce, some chopped red pepper, some cut up yellow squash, carrots and some ginger and garlic to the chicken in the freezer and serve it over brown rice.

And something that uses cabbage?

As you can see- menu planning allows me to really use what we have on hand to it's maximum potential. Keeping me from wasting food! It's estimated that the average american family throws away about 25% of what they buy in food every year. That may not sound like alot but if you spend $400 a month and you're throwing away $100 of food away every month -- that adds up fast! And if you spend more like $1,000 a month -- well eek! $250 a month that you are tossing in the trashcan.

If I know what is for dinner --I'm much less likely to get to the end of the day 4 or 5 pm and need to go get takeout or go to dinner because everybody's got to run out the door for various events and needs to be fed. Nights where I know we have things during the day or at night I plan easier, frozen meals, crockpot meals,etc and the nights where I know it will be a slow night I can plan more elaborate meals. So I save money that way too.

Menu for Oct 19-22

2009-10-19T23:44:00.004-06:00

Menu for Oct 19-22
Since we do the bulk of our shopping on Thursday and often get fresh produce and never really know what we will get - I plan most of my menus later in the week.

Monday-
Turkey Mushroom Stew over Bisquits ( We finally got around to making this one! This had a great flavor -- I used thyme instead of tarragon, cause I don't really like tarragon all that well. I subbed some frozen mushrooms I had instead of fresh that the recipe called for -- it didn't thicken up like we would have liked, but I think if you made it with fresh mushrooms it would thicken better and that would be delicious!)
Cantalope
Leftover Spinach Salad

Tuesday-
Baked Ziti with Sweet Turkey Sausage (Robin Miller Recipe from Food Network)
Green Salad
Leftover Cantalope

Wednesday-
Cabbage Rolls
Baked or Skillet Potatoes
Fruit

Thursday-
Salmon Linguine
Salad or other veggie depending on what we get

Friday-
Breakfast Casserole
Waffles

Menu for October 12-17

2009-10-13T07:38:00.005-06:00

There were some changes in last weeks meal plan -- some things didn't get made so they will make an appearance this week again. Look in last week's menu for the recipes as most of them are there.

Friday-
Spaghetti and Meatballs
Spinach Salad

Saturday-
Fried Catfish (my version of an emmeril recipe) *was yummy
Roasted Asparagus
Rice Pilaf

Sunday-
No Cook Day -- everyone was sick so we stayed home and GMA brought us a tasty homemade soup

Monday-
Leftover Homemade Clam Chowder from last week
Leftover Sunday Soup
Rosemary Potato Bread
Cantalope
Garlicky Roasted Butternut Squash (put too much salt in for the amount of squash so it was kind of ruined :( Had I used less I think it would have been a good recipe. )

Tuesday -
Salmon Asparagus Quiche (recipe below)
Garlic Roasted Green Beans (these were so good that they are being repeated again-- recipe is in last week's menu)
Cantalope

Wednesday -
Turkey Mushroom Stew (Slow Cooker Cookbook--recipe in last weeks menu)
over bisquits (LLL cookbook)
Spaghetti Squash and Home canned fruit

Thursday-
Grandma Jean's Olive Oven Baked Sandwiches (kind of like a sloppy joe with chopped olives added and then baked in hot dog rolls with cheese on top-- check back later for the recipe I'll try and post it as my week allows me the time) This one can be prepped ahead of time and put in the fridge- then heated in time for dinner.
We Had:
Cooked Carrots
Eggplant Pie
Cantalope (3 for $1 at Sunflower this week)
and Italian Beef Sandwiches -- recipe below

Friday-
Hamburgers
Homemade Baked French Fries
Veggie
Leftover Salads

Saturday-
Sesame Chicken
Homemade Shrimp Potstickers (will post the link as the week progresses)
Crockpot Brown Rice (recipe below)

Italian Beef Sandwiches (Grandma Jean's Olive Oven Baked Sandwiches)

1 onion chopped
1 # hamburger
1 8 oz. can of tomato sauce
1/2 tsp oregano
salt and pepper to taste
1 sm can of black olives chopped
original recipe also calls for 2 tomatoes which I never add
1 pkg of hot dog buns - or whatever buns you have on hand or want to make
Mozzarella cheese for the tops of the buns- shredded

Cook the hamburger and onion in a skillet. Add olives, spices, tomato sauce, and tomatoes (opt). Spoon the mix into the buns and put in a greased 10x13 pan. Sprinkle cheese over the tops and cover the pan with foil. Bake at 325 for 30-35 min.

Mashed Potatoes in the crockpot!

2009-10-07T10:43:00.004-06:00

Mashed Potatoes in the crockpot.... ok so really how much easier is that? Making mashed potatoes is a pain in the neck in all seriousness, much to the chagrin of my DD Briana, who gets them once in a great while.(She loves potatoes of all sorts-- mostly the mashed variety) (And commercial easy preps just don't meet my standards of chemical free, and tastiness, besides being affordable in large enough quantitites to feed my crew.) Ah.. ha .. I'm betting right now you're nodding your head, saying, "Yep, it's a pain in the neck..chopping, peeling, and cooking in a big pot of water, which usually boils over, then you drain the water off -- lugging a big hot pot, then there is the mashing, either by hand or using the mixer -- and more bowls, etc... ICK! Who has time for that?! " HA HA .. my friend that is where you are wrong!
Enter the new and improved way of making mashed potatoes! You cut up the potatoes-- no peeling, put them in the crock pot with a few ingredients, then let them cook. Then pull out the hand blender, and add some milk, chicken broth or rice milk and woosh-- you have mashed potatoes. All in one pot, which doesn't require watching, which doesn't boil over! No colander to clean! And believe it or not they taste better than the ones made the old fashioned way because all the nutrients are still in the pot where you put them and they have been roasting in them most of the day. "It's possible for mashed potatoes to taste better, you are asking." (yes, it is!) Just think--No lugging a hot pot of boiling water. One dish and two hand beaters to clean and walla -- mashed potatoes-easy! I can even coax my girls to chop the potatoes if they happen to be home , so it's even less work! Seriously -- you have got to try this. The recipe is in the bottom of this weeks menu plan if you are so inclined, let me know what you think! -- Me-- I'm thinkin' we're having mashed potatoes alot more often!! (DD will be so delighted)
The recipe is from Home Tested Slow Cooker Recipes-- well worth the $2.42 at the thrift store!

Menu for week of Oct. 5-11

2009-10-07T00:15:00.009-06:00

Menu for Oct. 5-11

Monday
Sloppy Joes
Corn on the Cob
Leftover Salads from BarBQ on Sat

Tuesday
Bok Choy Chicken Stir Fry
Brown Rice (in crockpot)(recipe below)
Fresh Grapes

Wednesday
Sausage and Peppers
Rustic Garlic Crock Pot Mashed Potatoes (recipe below)
Roasted Green Beans (recipe below)this one is new this week!

Thursday
Asparagus Salmon Pie (recipe below)
Garlicky Butternut Squash (http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Garlicky-Baked-Butternut-Squash/Detail.aspx) trying this one new this week!
Green Salad
*** this changed to homemade clam chowder and rosemary potato bread-- OH Man was it ever good! (my 1st try at clam chowder from scratch too:))

Friday
Turkey Mushroom Stew (recipe below) new this week!
over Bisquits (from LLL cookbook)
Green Salad
Home Canned Fruit

Saturday
Spaghetti and Meatballs (from freezer stash)
French Bread
Green Salad

Recipes:

Brown Rice in Crockpot
3 cups rice
5 cups water
Put everything in the crockpot. Start it on high for about the first two hours then for the remaining 1.5 hours have the pot on low. Cooks beautifully with no burning or boiling over!

Rustic Garlic Mashed Potatoes

2 pounds of baking potatoes, unpeeled, cut in ½ inch cubes
¼ cup water
2 T. butter, cut into pieces
1 ¼ tsp salt
½ tsp. garlic powder
¼ tsp. black pepper
1 cup milk

Place all ingredients except milk in slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 7 hours or on high for 4 hours. Add milk to slow cooker. Mash potatoes with electric mixer until smooth.

Garlic-Parmesan Green Beans

1 14 oz. pkg of frozen green beans
3 cloves of garlic-minced
2T. olive oil
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
1/3 cup parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Put frozen beans on a cookie sheet w/ sides. Roast for 10 min to evaporate liquid and thaw beans. Remove beans from oven and change temp to 400 degrees.

Sprinkle beans w/ other ingredients and toss to coat w/ tongs. Roast for 10-15 min longer or until beans are tender and cheese has melted.
*** from The Everything Meals on a Budget cookbook.
( this one is a keeper! )

Asparagus Salmon Pie

1 pound of fresh asparagus
½ cup chopped onion
2 T. butter
3 eggs beaten
½ cup milk
2 T. minced fresh parsely
½ tsp basil
½ tsp salt
1 can of salmon (14- ¾ oz) drained boned and flaked
1 pastry shell –unbaked

Cook asparagus until tender. Drain well and cut into bite size pieces. Set aside. In a small saucepan sauté onion in butter. Set Aside. In a small bowl mix eggs, milk, parsely, basil, salt and salmon. Add sautéed onion. Place cut asparagus in pastry shell: top with salmon mixture. Cover edges of crust with foil to prevent them from browning too much. Bake at 425 degrees for 30-35 min or until filling is set. – 6 servings
I added a bit of swiss cheese to this and it was really tasty but it would have been fine without it too.

When made with butter and 1% milk, this has 20.82 grams of protein per serving and would count as a leafy green, a lean meat. Partial egg and milk serving as well –when made with cheese.

Turkey Mushroom Stew

1 pound of turkey cutlets, cut into 4x1 inch strips
1 small onion, thinly sliced
2 T of minced green onion w/ tops
½ lb. of sliced mushrooms
2-3 T. of all purpose flour
1 cup half and half or milk
1 tsp. dried tarragon leaves
1 tsp salt
Black pepper
½ cup frozen peas
½ cup sour cream (opt)
Puff pastry shells (opt.)

Layer turkey, onions,and mushrooms in slow cooker. Cover and cook on low 4 hours. Remove turkey and vegetables to serving bowl. Turn slow cooker to high.

Blend flour into half and half until smooth; pour into slow cooker. Add tarragon, salt and pepper to slow cooker. Return cooked vegetables and turkey to slow cooker. Stir in peas. Cover and cook one hour or until sauce thickens and peas are hot.

Stir in sour cream just before serving and serve over puff pastry shells, if desired. Garnish, if desired.

Menu for week of Sept 19-30

2009-09-21T07:36:00.000-06:00

Woo Hoo! Here we are planned till the end of the month.

Sat Sept 19--

Roasted Chicken, Baked Potato, and Green Salad

Sun- dinner at Gma's

Mon-

Sub Sandwiches, Carrot Salad, Potato Salad

Home Canned or Fresh Fruit

Carrot Salad

(dairy free)

6 carrots grated, peel if you like

2 or 3 oranges-- peeled and chopped

canned coconut milk (enough to
moisten the salad)
*I mixed this in the blender first before adding to the saladagave nectar to sweeten to taste (used about a tsp.) 1/2 cup of raisinsCombine all the ingredients in a large bowl,and serve cold.

Tues-

Chef Salads - pull out all the veggies in the fridge and chop them up, add a bag of precooked chopped chicken from the freezer, and whatever other goodies I can find, boil a few eggs and call it salad!

Sourdough Bread

Leftover sides from Monday night

Wed-

Chicken Stir-Fry

Brown Rice and Fried Rice

Thurs-

Spiced Roasted Chicken

Alan's Channa Dal

Curry Rice
Flatbreads and Hummus (unless the kids use the flatbreads again to make burritos-- then we will have hummus and veggies-seriously how do you mistake a flatbread for a tortilla?)

Alan's Chana Dal
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups chana dal
5 cups water
2 1/4-inch slices of fresh ginger
teaspoon of dried turmeric
1 head garlic
cayenne to taste
1 teaspoon whole cumin seeds
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon garam masala
tomatoes and onions (optional)
Preparation:
Check over and clean the chana dal and place in a heavy, coverable pot. Add water, ginger, and turmeric. Bring to a boil over medium heat, skim, and reduce to a low simmer (covered).
After an hour, remove the top and stir every 5 minutes or so for a total of 1/2 hour. It will have thickened up nicely and want to stick near the end. Remove the 2 ginger slices.
In another pan, prepare the seasoning. A little peanut or canola oil in a non-stick fry pan works well. Fry a head of garlic cloves (peeled and chopped), some cayenne, cumin seeds and salt. You can also add garam masala, an Indian spice mixture that varies by region.
Brown them all, then dump the whole thing into the simmering dal and clamp the lid on. Careful here, because the hot oil can splash you. Cook for a few minutes and serve over hot spiced basmati rice. You can also use tomatoes and onions.
Source:
Recipe by Alan Feldman.

Fri-

Beef Kabobs

Mushroom Rice -brown rice dish from freezer

Sat-

Burgers or Sausage Sandwiches

Homemade fries -- check my link -http://laurablog72.blogspot.com/2009_01_01_archive.html

Leftover Salads

Sun-

Likely duck legs-- possible scrounging- anyway it's a no cook night with just DH and myself and the little girls

Mon-

Beef and Veggie Pie -- from freezer stash of meals
Green Salad

Tues-

Catfish

(not sure of sides yet or how I will fix the catfish)

Wed- Sept 30

Chicken Salad Sandwiches

(not sure of sides yet)

Menu for week of Aug 17-23

2009-08-17T10:26:00.000-06:00

Monday --
Eggplant and Sausage Casserole from last week
(never made it)

Tuesday--
Deer Minute Steaks
Mushrooms-sauteed
Potatoes
Green Beans

Wednesday--
Mediteranean Pitas or Chicken Korma
Chana Dall
Hummus and dippers

Thursday --
Shish Kabobs
Mushroom Rice or noodles

Friday --
Ham and Potato Casserole

Menu for week of Aug 10-16

2009-08-09T22:06:00.000-06:00

I plan my menus according to what we get on our thursday shopping trips--so here's this week so far. This way I can use the fresh foods before they go bad and make the most of what we get.

Monday-
Spaghetti & Meatballs
Green Salad
Cheese Bread

Tuesday-
Eggplant and Sausage
* this one makes another appearance- yum..
http://laurablog72.blogspot.com/2009/07/menu-plan-for-week-of-july-19-25th.html
Cantaloupe
Rolls or Biscuits

Wednesday-
Taco Stuffed Peppers
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Taco-Stuffed-Pepper-Cups/Detail.aspx
I'm planning to use salsa in place of the taco seasoning and the tomato sauce.
Guacamole and chips-- (yep, still using up avocados)

Thursday--
Turkey cutlets or tenderloins
Stuffing
Squash
Potatoes

From the mouths of babes!

2009-07-28T12:06:00.000-06:00

My three yr. old the other day remarked while on a walk with her sisters--

"The stars come down to my heart."

Not sure what else can be said about that -- it kind of speaks for itself.

Menu for week of July 26- 31

2009-07-25T19:29:00.000-06:00

Sunday
Grilled Burgers and Brats
Homemade French Fries
Watermelon
Corn on the Cob
Guacamole-- (we will be eating lots of quac this week as we got 6 of them in our loving hands shopping trip on Thursday)

Monday
Asian Salad - probably with chicken or shrimp
http://jas.familyfun.go.com/recipefinder/display?id=50553
Home canned peaches or fresh fruit
* the salad was good but lacked something. As we made it in addition to what the recipe called for it had napa cabbage instead of the bok choy, chicken, mandarin oranges and some crunchy wonton strips we got at loving hands--next time we'll add more cabbage, some sliced almonds, some green onions, double the dressing recipe and add some garlic to it.. and maybe even some sarachi sauce or some chili garlic paste to make it a bit spicy. Then it would most likely be really good! lol

Tuesday
Sausage and Cauliflower
(This is terrific and super easy! )
Biscuits
cantaloupe

Sausage and Cauliflower
( a family fave from an old dutch cookbook)

1 head cauliflower
1 # bulk breakfast sausage (usually our deer sausage won't need to be drained)
1 onion
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Cut and Steam the cauliflower until it's tender. While that is cooking slice and saute the onion in some olive oil. Remove the onions from the pan and brown the sausage -- once sausage is cooked, add onions back in and nutmeg. Drain and add the cauliflower to the meat mixture. Mix well and serve.
It's simple but delicious!

Wednesday
Lemon shrimp with pasta
Not sure what sides we'll have yet

Thursday
Salmon Patties
Veggies of choice
Potatoes - pan fried or roasted

Friday
Spaghetti and meatballs
Green Salad
French Bread

Menu Plan for the week of July 19-25th

2009-07-21T20:49:00.000-06:00

Monday
Chicken Tacos (frozen meat-recipe to follow)
Cantaloupe

Tuesday
Eggplant and sausage casserole
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/eggplant-and-sweet-sausage-bake-recipe/index.html
***Yumm this is really good and a bit spicy -- we loved it though, made with our bland deer breakfast sausage, less chicken broth-- more like 1/3 cup.
Biscuits
green salad
cantaloupe

Wednesday
Southwest catfish fillets
http://uscatfish.com/?q=southwest-pan-fried.html
Cornbread
Veggies -- possibly corn on the cob

** We ended up having a different catfish meal -- check it out here -- super easy and almost no clean up! I used the yellow squash from the garden since the zuchinni weren't quite ready yet.
http://www.catfishinstitute.ca/2006/09/25/parchment-steamed-catfish-with-spring-herbs-and-vegetables
So --really it was
Parchment steamed catfish with spring herbs and vegetables
Red Potatoes- parboiled and then pan fried in olive oil and butter with chives and salt and pepper
Home canned peaches
*I'll definately make the recipe again, everyone loved it including the littlest one!

Thursday
Spaghetti and meatballs
Bread
Green salad

Friday
Greek salads-- I use a baggy of cooked chopped chicken and the dressing recipe from here-- doubled
http://www.realage.com/NutritionCenter/Recipes/Greek_Salad.aspx
Rosemary bread from Costco

Saturday
No kids

Sunday
Brats or hamburgers on the grill
grilled veggies
watermelon or cantaloupe

Too Too Yummy Not to Post!!

2009-06-14T23:24:00.000-06:00

Well -- my buddy Laura has done it again! I can always trust that she won't steer me wrong when she hands over a recipe. This one is too yummy not to share with you all, and I have to say -- I simply can't wait to eat it all week -- not likely it will last that long, but I can always hope. And wow-- would it ever make a terrific easy weeknight meal for the vegetarian and allergy ridden family. Best part is -- it could all be done ahead of time and just pulled out of the fridge in time for dinner. Now I'm thinking -- wow what a great summer meal this would be -- no heat in the kitchen! Add some chopped avocados, pre-cooked chicken, chopped lettuce, maybe some cheese, and you'd have a great evening dinner salad for those meat eaters too. OOO or on eggs in the morning!
Believe it or not -- I actually had everything on hand!! (I freeze hot peppers -like jalapenos -so I can have them handy for recipes and had the green onions and cilantro in the garden!) Black beans are a pantry staple and I used a yellow bell pepper instead of a red one.

Black Bean Wrap Filling

1 15 oz. can of black beans, drained, rinsed and mixed with a pinch of salt and a squeeze of lemon
¼ cup of chopped red bell pepper, chopped fine
¼ tsp jalapeno pepper, seeded, ribbed and finely chopped
3 T olive oil
1 T. fresh lime juice
¼ tsp. maple syrup
¼ tsp. sea salt
3 T. scallions, white and green parts, chopped
3 T. fresh cilantro, finely chopped
¼ tsp. ground cumin
1/8 tsp. cinnamon
½ cup salsa cruda—recipe follows but I made it without and it is delicious.
In a medium bowl, mix all the ingredients together except for salsa cruda. Taste, then add salt and spritz of lime juice if needed. Spoon into a bowl and garnish with salsa cruda or wrap in soft tortillas for burritos. Serves 6.

Salsa Cruda:
1 ½ cup diced Roma tomatoes
¼ cup red onion, diced
2 T. fresh cilantro, chopped
1 to 2 tsp. fresh lime juice
1 tsp. jalapeno, diced
¼ tsp sea salt
In a medium bowl, mix all ingredients, season as needed for flavor. Let salsa sit for 30 min then taste again, adjusting as needed. Makes about 2 cups.

**I didn't make the salsa cruda to go with mine-- just the filling. I have some really yummy organic salsa that needs to be used up in my fridge so I will be using that instead.

Enjoy !! -- Laura (who is now wishing she had made a double batch)

Menu Plan for the week of June 1, 2009

2009-06-01T13:51:00.000-06:00

Friday 5-29--
Homemade Chicken Nuggets
Cantaloupe
Homemade oven fries
Corn
Dairy free cupcakes for Kate's B'day

Saturday--
no kids, so no plan
(ended up with takeout pizzas-since we had the kids after all)

Sunday--
Sloppy Joe's
Pasta Salad
Green Beans

Monday--
Tacos (from pre made filling in the freezer), Tamales, Nachos and Guac
Cantaloupe

Tuesday--
Cabbage Rolls (from freezer)
Peas -(freezer-- gotta use em up)
crescent rolls

Wed--
Soup (veggie beef or potato) and Sub style Sandwiches
Watermelon or Cantaloupe

Thursday--
Grilled Chicken or Sticky Chicken (from freezer)
Sides

Friday--
Goulash
Dinner Rolls (from freezer)
Broccoli Side

Saturday--
no kids, no plan

Sunday--
no kids, no plan

So far it's looking like older kids will be with their dad most of next weekend -- so I'm withholding any real plans until we get that all figured out. We also will have a houseguest (friend of one of the kids' here who is a vegetarian from Wednesday on-- so a busy week!)

Common Sense isn't really all that common, is it?

2009-05-23T22:55:00.001-06:00

As I'm cleaning the kitchen this evening I'm wondering like many nights -- where did I go wrong? What happened to my bright toddlers who learned to walk early, learned to talk so early and proficiently, learned all those developmental skills like nesting, throwing balls, picking up cheerios with a pincher grasp. I know those same children knew those skills and many others and somehow they forgot them -- or maybe as DH suggests there is a teen stupid gene that rears it's ugly head making those lessons forgotten.

So really this is me just venting-- pardon me for a minute but how is it that when you make a cake mix the box and the bag end up in the trash but the little part of the bag you cut off remains on the counter?

Take for example the skill of nesting -- many places as a growing child that skill would be very useful. You know-- stacking things one inside another in a neat little fashion. The two year old -- she gets it- why is it hard for all everyone over the age of two. I'm putting away dishes tonight and I try to open the baking supply drawer-- try being the operative word here. I have to get something long like a knife to move whatever &!@#$% thing is stuck on the top of the drawer making it so I can't open it--so after about 10 min of my cursing and prying and coaxing the drawer and it's contents I find the problem. A set of nesting measuring cups that sits neatly in the front corner of the drawer -- has three of the 5 cups in the stack and the other two cups are the reason I couldn't pull the drawer open in one efficient smooth motion. Two were just thrown into the drawer randomly. Know I know all of the children in my house who put away dishes know how to nest items -- They have demonstrated it proficiently to the pediatrician at a young age-- and yet it's not possible for them to do this with some measuring cups in a drawer. Why is that?

Yet again I find an example of where the nesting skill would be very handy.. I turn around to see the leaning tower of dirty dishes spilling out of the both sides of the sink and all over the surrounding counters -- barely skimming the edges -dangerously teetering dirty dishes upon other ones-- small ones stacked on bigger ones and large dinner plates on a delicate balance of smaller bowls, cups and smallers plates. Now had they simply rinsed the dishes in the sink, and nested them inside of the larger dishes on the counter--bowls in one stack, plates in another and silverware say stuck in a larger dish someplace else--- dishes would have taken me about 5 or ten minutes -- as it is.. this job would take a good 20-30 min and if I was really lucky I won't break anything unpiling their jenga of dishes. That is -- once I get one side of the sink cleaned out enough to rinse dishes.

The clean tupperware type of dishes -- that nest and stack so neatly -- with the lids that fit on top of them -- well we just won't even go there! We'll just say the children have now resorted to putting them on the counter in piles since they can't even pit anything into that cabinet or much less open it without it all falling out on top of them.
Nesting I tell you-- it's not a difficult skill and yet my DH and I are the only ones except the two year old who understand how to do it!!

Let's take for example -- rinsing a dishcloth after using it to clean up spilled chocolate cake batter-- I've seen the children rinse a cloth many times and even ring it out in the sink -- and yet-- what do I find in the sink? 2 dirty dishcloths all soaking wet and nasty at the bottom of the stack of unrinsed dishes in the sink -- crumbs and little breadtie tags in them. And what else can I find but a large (one of my nicer ones) dishtowel all soaking wet with big blobs of chocolate cake batter all over it.. Imagine how lovely this would have smelled had I not gotten to it until morning. MMMmmm that's an appetizing thought. yummm... slimy, skunky, nasty dishtowels full of food and other lovely things on the bottom of the sink. Little treasures waiting for me. One day last winter I counted the dirty cloths I cleaned up at the end of the day -- just in the kitchen starting the day with one dry dishtowel and one wet dishcloth hung on the edge of the sink -- add 12. I counted fourteen total dishtowels and dishcloths that were unusable, nasty, dirty, stinky, towels that needed to be washed-- just from one day with 5 chilren. Now I know I've explained to them -- please look for the wet dishcloth on the counter or near the sink before you get out another one. Don't use the bigger dishtowels to clean up wet messes. Don't wet the corner of a clean dishtowel just to clean up a little mess that you can use to clean up with a smaller dishcloth or a sponge. When you spill some water on the floor don't get out a clean dishtowel to wipe it up -- use the one that is allready dirty and we've been using to wipe our hands on --the one right in front of your nose on the counter. When the cat vomits and you need to wipe it up-- please don't go get a clean dishtowel out and wet it and use it to clean it up and leave it in the sink-- for me to find. That's what God made papertowels for. And yet-- I have to tell these things to them repeatedly. FOURTEEN I tell you --in one day!!

And they wonder why I'm grouchy at times -- hmmm...

Baby Rebeccca Arrives!

2009-03-28T17:35:00.000-06:00

Welcome to the newest addition of our family! Rebecca Jo was born on Friday, 2/27/09 at 2:24am. Baby and Mom are both doing well. Rebecca weighed 6 pounds 13 oz. and is 20 inches long.

2 Great Dairy Free Uses for Grated Carrots!

2009-03-21T19:56:00.000-06:00

Carrot Salad (dairy free)

6 carrots grated, peel if you like
2 or 3 oranges-- peeled and chopped
canned coconut milk (enough to moisten the salad) *I mixed this in the blender first before adding to the salad
agave nectar to sweeten to taste ( used about a tsp.)
1/2 cup of raisins

Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl, and serve cold.
**This is really tasty and I plan to eat off of it all week, almost like dessert to me-- who is deprived of all sweets and other things at the moment!

Carrot Raisin Muffins (dairy free)

2 cups unbleached white flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
1 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
½ cup raisins
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup rice, soy or almond milk
½ cup applesauce
2 cups of grated carrot

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Add raisins. Make a well in the center and all the liquid ingredients. Stir just until blended. Pour batter into papered muffin cups. Bake 25-30 min or until toothpick comes out clean.

My new favorite breakfast!

2009-03-21T19:47:00.000-06:00

OH YUM!! I found a new favorite breakfast.

Start with 2 or 3 mushrooms-sliced and sauteed in coconut oil in a small skillet
Remove the mushrooms and set aside onto a plate.
Scrambled Eggs-- one egg, a little bit of water, hot sauce, salt, pepper and a pinch of dried spinach flakes.
Scramble the eggs in the leftover oil from the mushrooms --in the meantime, take an avocado, cut it in half and score one half of it, so it makes little squares.
Remove the cooked eggs from the pan-- put the mushrooms on top of your eggs, add some chopped up cooked chicken or turkey, and then scoop out the avocado onto the top of the eggs.

Menu Plan - week of March 2-7

2009-03-02T10:49:00.000-07:00

Here it is:

This week DH has a busy week at work with a project that may mean he isn't home for dinner alot, so it may actually change nightly.. but for now, here it is:

I rarely plan meals for Sunday night since it's usually just DH and myself and the youngest of the kids -- the older kids all go to their dad's house on that day -- so we just wing it or eat from the stash of leftovers in the fridge/freezer.

Monday -
Salmon Potato Cakes -- (yeah, I get to try adding salmon to my diet) - my normal recipe won't work cause it uses cracker crumbs so I will be trying the recipe below. We'll make a double batch since one would never be enough with our crew.
Brown Rice Pilaf
Chopped Cantaloupe

Salmon Potato Cakes
makes 4 large cakes (or 6-8 small ones)
1 can salmon (about 14 oz.)
1/2 cup mashed potato flakes
2 eggs
2 green onions, chopped
tobasco, to taste

Drain the canned salmon and flake with a fork into a large mixing bowl, add the remaining ingredients and stir to mix. Start with slightly less mashed potato flakes and add more as necessary to acheive the right texture. You want the mixture to be moist, but to hold together well enough to form patties. Form into patties. Heat a pan to medium high and add a bit of oil or cooking spray. Add the salmon patties to the hot pan. Allow to cook undisturbed for about 4 minutes, and then flip over and cook on the other side for about 3 minutes. The fish is fully cooked, so it doesn’t take too long.

Tuesday -
Black Bean Chicken Chili -- will plan to make a double batch of this since it's hubby's fav and I can eat it for leftovers too.
Cornbread
Carrots and Ranch

Wednesday-
Turkey & Gravy - full sized will make for lots of good leftovers ( I get to try turkey too this week)
mashed potatoes-- some with rice milk for me!
Veggies of choice

Thursday -
French Toast (buckwheat pancakes for me from the freezer)
Eggs & Bacon or Sausage
Cantaloupe

Friday -
Deer Steaks (last package --yumm) & homemade gravy
Baked Potatoes
Veggies of choice & Fruit

Sat -
Colin's Favorite Sesame Chicken
Fried Rice (from freezer stash)

Kickin' Coconut Chicken Soup

2009-03-02T10:04:00.002-07:00

My parents came over Friday and bless their hearts they brought this soup!!
It's not your run of the mill soup -- and for me being dairy, gluten, and soy free and on a super restricted diet-- it was a great relief to have something different and SOOOO tasty and even better was that I didn't have to make it. It was not spicy at all -- and nice and creamy. We left the tamari out since I can't do soy at the moment, but man it was really great. Oh and leftovers heat up perfectly well!!

Kickin’ Coconut Chicken Soup
2 T. oil—olive, coconut or butter
2 T. apple cider vinegar
6 garlic cloves
2” piece of fresh ginger grated
2 jalapenos (dad used serranos) –remove seeds if you prefer less heat
5 cups of water
¼ -1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
4 oz. shitake mushrooms, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 bunch spinach, stems removed, washed and chopped
1 small bunch of broccoli, chopped
4 small bunches of bok choy, coarsely chopped
2 cups of cooked chicken, cubed
1 14 oz. can of coconut milk
¼ cup tamari or soy sauce

Heat oil in a large stock pot, add garlic, ginger and jalapenos, sauté 2-3 min, stirring often. Add reserved broth, red pepper flakes and mushrooms and bring to a low boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20 min. Add red bell pepper and simmer for 5 min. Add chicken, spinach, broccoli, bok choy, coconut milk and tamari and simmer an additional 3-5 min, until soup is warmed through and the greens are wilted.

Hope you all enjoy it !

The Thrifty Oreganic: Introducing the Fridge & Pantry Cleanout Challenge!

2009-02-24T09:36:00.000-07:00

The Thrifty Oreganic: Introducing the Fridge & Pantry Cleanout Challenge!

Menu Plan

2009-02-23T11:50:00.000-07:00

Menu Planning is just one way I stay on track budget wise-- so here is the menu for this week for the family. Dinners only. Most nights I will eat something else of my own devising since my diet is awfully restrictive to subject the entire family to it. (chicken, elk, garbanzo and black beans, veggies, fruits, brown rice, buckwheat and some other gluten free flours and grains, olive oil and spices,vinegars, almonds, sunflower and sesame seeds and hopefully eggs after this week, no dairy, wheat or soy)
**My menu plan is much more flexible this week than usual because my daughters will be doing the bulk of the cooking and much of it depends on how much time I have during the day to get things done and how much time they will have since I remain on partial bed rest.

Sunday --
Homemade meatballs (from freezer stash) -made lots cause we had guests
Spaghetti and Marinara Sauce
Green Salad
Garlic Bread
Dessert -- Chocolate Cake (from the bread store)

Monday --
Sloppy Turkey Joes (we''ll be frying up 5 # of meat and packaging the leftover meat in 2 cup baggies for easy meals for later)
Broccoli Coleslaw with homemade dressing - I'll make this during the day if it's any good I'll post the recipe.
Homemade French Fries
Cantaloupe Chunks mixed with whatever grapes are still left in the fridge

Tuesday--
Mimi's Sticky Chicken (or crock pot chicken) -see recipe below
Baked Potatoes or Parslied Potatoes
Vegetable of choice from freezer or pantry
Any leftover fruit or other salads
*** yeah I can eat this dinner and won't have to have soup!

Wednesday --
Meatball Sandwiches (using leftover thawed meatballs from Sun night), hoagie buns from freezer, mozz cheese and sauce)
Roasted potatoes (if we have enough potatoes-- if not we'll have a green salad)
Canned Fruit -- peaches (home canned)

Thursday --
Chicken or turkey pot pie (gluten free biscuits on top for me --regular biscuits for the rest of the crew) -- or -- baked fish
and whatever veggies and fruits need to be used from Loving Hands
If we have fish -- we'll do some sort of rice dish too.
**should be ready to try a new meat so I will either add fish or turkey this week!

Friday --
Homemade Chicken Soup
Apple and Orange salad (cut up oranges and apples-- maybe bananas?)
Rolls or Biscuits
*** Yeah I can eat this again as long as I make some gluten free biscuits for myself!
We have our home visit with our midwife this night so I planned something that is easily expandable depending on who comes early for dinner!

Saturday --
Leftovers
Clean out the fridge night!!
************************************************************************

Mimi's Sticky Chicken Recipe
(my modified version)

Mix all of this together:

2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon paprika
3/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon onion powder (generous-- I make mine heaped)
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Rub the mix onto the chicken -- I use a whole chicken that's been cut up with skin removed, and add in some more drumsticks since those are so popular in our house.

If you were to do a whole chicken you could also add a chopped onion to the cavity-- and bake according to regular roasting instructions. I find the cut up chicken cooks more quickly on a foil lined cookie sheet in the oven-- at 400 degrees for about 45-60 min depending on how well thawed it is and how big the pieces are. Then there is very little cleanup! Leftovers of this make great lunches, etc...

**Freezer tip -- this is a terrific one to do in big batches, just triple or double the spices when whole cut up chickens are on sale and rub all the chickens down and package them in freezer bags laid flat -- then you have easy meals to pull out and bake! Breasts can be used too -- just cook for less time if they are boneless-- like 30-45 min.

Liquid Gold

2009-02-18T21:41:00.000-07:00

OK -- so maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, but I sure do find it handy to have homemade chicken broth around. As part of my diet for this pregnancy I have to avoid all MSG and anyone that knows anything about MSG knows that the common nuerotoxin is named many things and has many pseudonyms, and is in TONS of things you would never even think of. Chicken broth is one thing that is next to impossible to find without MSG. For more info check out this website -- http://truthinlabeling.com/ Even chicken broths labeled NO MSG have MSG in another form in them. Even some organic chicken broths have MSG in them. So the easier thing to do is to make chicken broth myself -- something I never really did much of before. I always used the bullion cubes that they sell at Sam's in big containers for broth-- but no more. And honestly it's pretty easy to make. So here's how I do it.
You'll need:
-A big pot for the stove-- the bigger the better (remember I feed 7)
-water to fill the pot
-chicken bones, turkey bones, beef bones, or a package of cheaper chicken drumstick or wings, or you can use more pricey cuts -- but the bones add nutrients and flavor so you should have some bones in there somewhere. **Chicken bones or other bones can also be frozen and saved for broth making when you have time for it at a later date-- I use mine straight from the freezer sometimes-- no need to thaw them.
-a bag of vegetable trimmings ( I keep mine in the freezer, asparagus ends, onions ends and skins, little bits of carrot peels, celery leaves and ends, potato peels, green onion tops, whatever.) --or -- an onion (skins on, root end cut off), a stick or two of celery and a couple of carrots-- no need to chop these any more than in half, or fourths. The more veggie pieces you have the better the flavor of the broth-- the onion skins lend some flavor but mostly color to the broth.
-herbs: Bay leaves-- dried (1 or 2), whole peppercorns -- maybe 3-6 (or you can use ground pepper you just won't have "pretty clear" broth), garlic clove or two --depending on how big the pot is, I use fresh parsley, thyme and sage when the garden is going, but in the winter I use dried sage, and some parsley.
-salt -- I add this as I use it, not while cooking. Salt intensifies as the broth cooks and I've found it easier to wait to salt it when I'm making the end product--soup, gravy, whatever.

Put everything into the pot and simmer it on the stove for about an hour or two. If you simmer it all day or very long you'll have cloudy stock and it really doesn't take long to get the flavor out of the bones and veggies. You can do it in a crock pot if that is easier but wouldn't leave it more than about 4-6 hours on low. I don't use mine cause it doesn't make as much that way -- I have big stock pots (22 qt ). Once it's done cooking I let it cool a bit and then pour it through a plain ol' colander into another pot or bowl and put it into whatever storage containers I want to use. Purists might shudder at the fact that I don't roast my bones before I boil them --(adds more flavor) and that I don't strain it through cheesecloth to remove all the little bits of stuff, but I tend to be more lazy than all that -- and find that for my purposes this is all I really need to do. You can freeze it in quart size containers, in ice cube trays -- for little bits of broth to use here and there, or in larger baggies laid flat in the freezer-- sometimes these spring a leak when thawing so that's not my favorite way. You can use it right away for soup. I really prefer to can mine and do it in large large batches so I have it ready to use with no thawing-- but that does require a pressure canner. If your broth gets thick like gelatin -- don't worry about it, just heat it up again and it will liquefy.
** Another tip ** If you refrigerate your broth for a few hours after making it and before freezing it, you can skim off any fat that might settle on the top of it and solidify.

Pickin' Chicken!

2009-02-18T16:18:00.000-07:00

I spent the morning pickin' chicken with my best friend!
My friend Laura and her son came for a visit today and while I try not to put my buddies to work when they come for a visit -- hey, who can resist the helping hands --especially on bed rest! By the way -- Thanks Laura! Chickens were on sale for .79 cents a pound the other day and since the only meat I can eat right now is chicken we are going through bunches of it. Much cheaper than breasts-- I sent hubby to the store to get three of them on Friday or Sat of last week, he put them in the crock pots with a chopped up onion, a celery stick, salted and peppered them and put some paprika on them-- then squeezed a fresh lemon over the top and tucked what was left of the lemon into the cavity along with the celery and onion. ( I also do the same thing with them when I roast them -- the lemon and the paprika provide just enough flavor that they aren't bland -- but they also aren't weird tasting later for using in other recipes. ) In the crock pot I don't add any water to the chicken -- just cook them on low until they are fully cooked. I've been eating off of one of the chickens most of the weekend, and into the first part of this week-- it's Wed now, but they needed to be picked and packed up for the freezer -- so Laura and I sat and visited and picked chickens. I got enough meat to make a nice big pot of soup, and then another 2 2 cup bags of chicken and a 4 cup bag of chicken, plus a little bit more for eating in the next couple of days! 2 cups is about right for making chicken salad for the family or lunches, or a casserole or most recipes for our family and equals about a pound. It doesn't sound like a whole lot of chicken but I have been eating it all day every day for 3 days now so -- it made a bunch. And the best part is that since last time I went to the store-- about 4 weeks ago just before I was on bed rest I got a rain check for chickens for .79 a pound so anytime this weekend I can have hubby go get another 3 of them and do it all again. That's one of my money-saving tricks by the way -- some weeks I don't have quite enough in the food budget to stock up on items that are on deep sale so if I happen to have a few things I need to get anyway -- I go ahead and go to the store-- close to the time that the sale expires, and often times I can get a rain check because they almost always are out of whatever item was on sale! Then the next week when there is money or I have more time to deal with the 20 pounds of chicken or whatever, I can stock up! Or really anytime in the next 30-60 days depending on the store. Sometimes it pays to be sneaky and opportunistic! Oh -- and speaking of chickens -- don't think I threw the bones out -- those will either be put into a pot tonight or frozen until I have time to chicken stock out of them.

Yikes! Bed Rest and the family budget

2009-02-12T12:57:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted much lately as you may have noticed, I've recently been confined to bed rest because of some complications that developed with my pregnancy, for a while it was complete bed rest and now I can be up about 2 hours a day, which has pretty dramatically cut into what I can get done in a day and how much money I can save us.. so for now we are using primarily from our stock of food that I always keep on hand in the house-- let me tell you - I'm learning how important my well-stocked pantry is!! As hubby is doing most of the shopping now- I'm also learning how to let go a bit and delegate. My older girls are learning how to cook -- since there isn't time in the two hours I'm allowed to have up to care for the toddler all day and cook dinner, do dishes, etc.. I'm planning meals using what we have on hand, being very thankful that I have a large pantry of food to use from, and thankful for all the helpers we have too! My BIL jokingly says he's coming to our house if the end of the world comes because he knows he'll still be able to eat here and I have been called a hoarder. But my back stock of chopped frozen onions, celery, mushrooms, and all the dried items and canned goods I have stored away have absolutely saved my family and myself a bunch of unnecessary work, and allowed us to exist on home cooked meals still for the most part. I'll try and post my menus for next week soon, seeing as I have lots of planning time available.

Fresh Celery, Onions, Garlic, and Carrots

2009-01-30T11:08:00.000-07:00

Four things I always used to end up throwing out but felt I had to have on hand for my weekly cooking-- Celery, Onions, Garlic and Carrots.
Currently it isn't such an issue for me since we have an extra fridge and I can store potatoes and onions in there.. but chances are -- if you were anything like me you spent a lot of time tossing nasty bags of onions, carrots, celery and even fresh garlic. If you cook at all from scratch you need these things on hand in the kitchen. Maybe not every week -- but most of the time you will find you need them. And -- they go bad before you can use them if you are anything like me. Here is what I started doing with them instead of tossing them to the garbage man every month.

Celery -- store it wrapped in aluminum foil. It lasts much longer than in the bag-- much, much longer. Menu plans help here -- know ahead of time what you will be cooking when you do your weekly shopping. Some things only fresh celery will work for -- like say in chicken salad, or as celery sticks, but if those aren't things you use a lot of why not considering buying only as you need it in small amounts for those items -- one rib of celery can be purchased from the grocery store the week you need it for chicken salad-- instead of a whole big package. If I do buy a large package of celery -- I use every bit of it, I take out what I will be using that week-- and leave that in the fridge drawer wrapped in foil-- then I chop the rest --reserving the ends and the leaves for my soup bag in the freezer. Then I either dehydrate or freeze the rest of the chopped celery in a Ziploc bag. Anytime I need it to cook with -- (the base of almost any good soup is started with onion and celery) I just pull it out of the freezer pre-chopped and toss in the right amount! And the best part is -- I save on time too. I don't have to pull out the cutting board, knives, etc, I don't have to wash the cutting board, knives, etc, and honestly it doesn't take more than one more minute to chop the whole thing up --than it does to just chop two ribs. Each time I want to cook from scratch it's ready and it doesn't go to the garbage man-- I'm saving money and time!! ** Once celery is frozen it will get limp and isn't good for things where you want that celery crunch-- but ... it's great for casseroles, soups, and sauteed.

Onions -- store them out of the plastic bag in the fridge if you have space. I buy the bigger bags when they are on sale cheap -- never more than $1 a pound. $1 a pound for onions is not a sale! Then I take them home -- take out the Cuisinart or my KA food slicer or even a regular mandolin or a knife and chop them all up at once. I save the skins and ends for my soup bag in the freezer. Then I package them in quart sized Ziploc bags and freeze them flat on cookie sheets-- label them of course and I keep one in my inside freezer all the time! I never have to pull out a cutting board to make anything with onions!! It's all done ahead of time. Sometimes I like to have fresh red onions for a dish or on top of burgers or something -- so those I buy one the week I need it and I have a couple of recipes that also use them in them sauteed, so I use the slices or whatever for burgers that week--then slice the rest of the onion and put it in a baggy in the freezer for later. I use freezer bags for onions or my vacuum sealer to keep the odors in a bit better.

Fresh Garlic -- It freezes well too!! I peel all the cloves at once -- or actually put a kid to work doing that-- then I freeze the cloves in a baggy kept in the door of the fridge--then all I have to do is mince it and put it in whatever dish I'm making. It just turns to a nice fine mush when you run it through a garlic press frozen! If you want -- you can buy a big package from Sam's of just the cloves and freeze those. I'd recommend freezing them in smaller containers --vacuum sealed and keeping them that way to avoid freezer burn.

Carrots -- the whole carrots are cheaper than the baby carrots usually -- but if you won't take the time to make carrot sticks or cut them up then don't waste your money on them. When I take stock of my fridge and move leftovers every week -- I pay careful attention to the condition of the carrots-- if they look like they are getting old--either drying up or looking more moist-- the precursor to the slimy carrots, then I plan for a carrot salad for the menu in the next few days or start putting them out for lunches, setting them out at dinnertime on the table with ranch dressing. Shredded Carrots are wonderful alone in a vinaigrette dressing as a side dish, they can be cooked up as a fresh side dish--with a bit of butter, orange juice and honey is my favorite way, or I often times make a carrot salad with shredded carrots, raisins, and apple or pineapple chunks--then a dressing of mayo-- a little bit and orange juice or even lemon juice-- you could add honey or sugar to that too, but I don't. There are tons of recipes for this salad out there -- just google and you will find them and the possibilities of what you can add to it are endless. Salads and side dishes extend out your meals and make it possible to feed your family for less. I've also frozen and dehydrated shredded carrots -- this way they don't need blanching before you freeze them! And they can be used for carrot cake, tossed into meatloaves, or muffins or even cookies, spaghetti sauce and pancakes. Just be sure to label them before putting them away in the freezer. ** oh and if you have kids they love to grate things like say, carrots!

2009-01-21T15:36:00.000-07:00

Frozen potatoes!

One of the things that oftentimes went bad in my house was a big bag of potatoes-- I bought them when they were on sale and then we maybe had them two times a week so they didn't ever get used up -- they sat inside on the floor of the cabinet and basically got rotten pretty quickly. That was -- until I figured out how to freeze them. Now I plan ahead after looking at the sale ads and buy a big bag or two of them ,or wait till I have a surplus of them around the house and then I do a potato day, afternoon or evening. I make my own french fries, mashed potatoes and even twice baked potatoes. Here's how:

Homemade Oven French Fries

Chop potatoes up like you would to make French fries, I leave the peelings on them --in part because I'm lazy and partly because there are more nutrients that way.
Toss chopped potatoes in oil-we use EVOO, and seasonings—I sprinkle salt and a little Cajun seasoning on ours—go light on the Cajun stuff if you have little ones who will be eating them.
Bake on greased or non stick cookie sheet.
400 degree oven for 30 min.
Let dry on paper towel or brown paper bags to absorb any extra fat.
Package and freeze once they have cooled.

To reheat from frozen or somewhat thawed—
Bake at 475 for 20 min—you may need more time if you have bigger pieces.

**I also like to make roasted potatoes in chunks-- with other spices, I chop the potatoes in a small chopped shape and then use spices like thyme, salt and pepper, garlic salt or garlic powder and rosemary. With the olive oil they are really tasty -- you just need lower cooking times and watch out for burning when you reheat them. These would be awesome for a brunch or as a side dish for any meal.

Twice Baked Potatoes

Scrub and rinse all the potatoes you are using. Put however many potatoes you want to make in the oven and bake them. (I start this step first then start chopping potatoes for french fries and mashed potatoes)

Bake Potatoes for Twice baked potatoes at 400 degrees for about an hour. Let them cool. Once they are cool enough to handle I cut them in half the long way, scoop them out leaving a bit of meat on the sides of them. The scoopings go into a bowl and I add any or all of the above in whatever amounts I feel like. ( You could of course use a recipe-- I just don't and I taste as I go) Sour cream, cream cheese, butter, cheddar cheese or other cheese would be good too-- Edam, Swiss, blue cheese, Fontina, milk, cream or half and half --whatever I have on hand, garlic-fresh or garlic powder, finely minced onions, bacon bits. Then I blend them up in my KA or with a hand mixer and scoop them back into the shells. I sprinkle some extra cheese on top of them and then lay them out on cookie sheets to flash freeze. Once they are frozen firm they can be sealed in a bag-- vacuum bag or just a plain freezer Ziploc works too. To reheat I usually don't thaw them first and just cook them at about 350 degrees for 30-45 min. I mark on the label the reheating info and the baking temp.

Mashed Potatoes

I don't really have a recipe again -- but this is one I would recommend you try one small batch, see how you like it and if you do then you can make more of them to freeze.. potatoes are one of those things that tend to change texture and some folks like them fine after they are frozen, others don't. Personally in mashed potatoes as long as they have cream cheese mixed into them -- I think they reheat fine. So I add cream cheese to mine -- something about it helps the texture IMHO. I could never make enough mashed potatoes to feed my group very many meals -- I have two girls who think they are a food group all to themselves, so in our house I don't make a lot and they are kind of a treat. But when I do I make huge batches and freeze them.

****The texture of the potatoes in the oven fries and the twice baked potatoes is something I think most everyone would like. Mashed potatoes sometimes are not as well received-texture wise once frozen and thawed. I personally don't like potatoes that have been boiled and frozen in soups, etc.. so for those things I put the potatoes in them before I heat and serve. Some folks don't care and think they are just fine. That said, the idea is not to let perfectly good food go to waste and to instead make sure that every dollar spent on food -- gets used to it's fullest! And that's how you really save your money.

Today's project - Apples

2009-01-17T15:43:00.000-07:00

I had a lot of apples rattling around in the fridge.. every week for the past three weeks when I've gone to Loving Hands I've come home with a 3 pound bag of apples-golden delicious ones. Add to that the back stock of apples I had already sitting around -- some apples I bought for Thanksgiving to make a pie with and never got to - and a bag of apple slices that needed to have something done with them and well it looked like applesauce time to me!

I took my corer and my teenage daughter, washed the apples with some vinegar water in the sink and let her core them while I chopped. Once they were all chopped I added a bit of water to them in a big pot on the stove --well two pots really and let them cook until they were all squishy and soft. We did that on Thursday -- but today I'm going to be running them through the KA attachment --the food strainer one and making lovely fine applesauce. I'm planning to can the applesauce -- but if you didn't want to you could just freeze it in Ziploc bags. I'm trying to make room for my after baby meals right now .. so cleaning out the freezer and emptying it -- is top priority for me.

If you find yourself overrun with apples -- but no time to make applesauce you could even cut them up, core them and then put them in the freezer until you do --or you until you get enough to make applesauce. The more different varieties you have -- the better it will be and the sweeter ones like golden delicious tend to make sweeter applesauce. If you didn't have a food strainer attachment -- you could leave the applesauce chunky, peel the apples and run them through the blender -- might need to add more water when you do this, or the food processor works too! If you peel and chop before you put them in the freezer bag -- then all you have to do is cook them up on the stove like you would a veggie and serve!
***Add cinnamon, sweetener of your choice--honey is quite good, or even some fresh frozen cranberries! --YUMMY..

Lunch on the Cheap!

2009-01-16T08:15:00.001-07:00

As part of my crusade to cut food spending I decided that we threw away way too much lunch meat. The kids for some reason never realized it was in the drawer, and I tended not to eat it and it goes bad fairly rapidly -- and in truth with all the nitrates, high sodium, and other added chemicals, etc..it's really not that good for you. So-- instead I decided to try to keep other things on hand for lunches that were more in line nutritionally with what I wanted the kids and I to eat. So-- no more lunchmeat, and also about that time we were going through two entire bags of potato chips a week. Even with my shopping mean and getting them for no more than $2 a bag.. that was still $4 a week on just chips, or $16 a month on potato chips-- without counting what we ate in tortilla chips every week.
So if you don't eat potato chips and you don't eat lunch meat, you're eatin lots of PB and J right? --well not exactly. Two of my kiddos have severe peanut allergies so that's not gonna work. First off-- the kids pack their own lunch the night before, before they have their evening snack. It's their job not mine and they know what they like so there is less waste-- they have of course been instructed in things like -- no more than one juice box a day, no you can't pack all cookies and no other things, etc... and for the most part they stick to it.

Things I keep on hand for lunches include:

*Lots of little thermoses-- we've had to change this policy recently but at first I bought bunches of short thermoses at places like the thrift store, goodwill, and garage sales so there was always something available for them to pack leftovers in. The kids did hotdogs for a while and lots of soup-- much cheaper than lunchmeat-- however, if you are doing canned soup-- there is alot of the same chemicals, msg (yummy neorotoxins) , etc.. that we now try to avoid. And we just won't even discuss the health benefits of hotdogs...lol (We have now switched to homecanned or frozen soups, meatballs and sauce, etc.

*Tiny little containers that seal well -- like 1/4-1/2 cup size for packing things like ranch dressing or peanut butter for dipping carrots, celery or apples in. --We've also had discussions about how it's not neccessary to fill the container with ranch dressing only enough to dip in.

*Plastic silverware-- when they return it I wash it and reuse-- but it's not one I harp on--bigger battles exsist.

*Meatballs- I make them up in packets of three or four meatballs with sauce --after spaghetti night with the leftovers, yep I just make them up the night we eat spaghetti-- that way they don't end up stuffed to the back of the fridge and rotten next week.
The kids can bring a bun and put them on it and make a sandwich or they can thaw some noodles-- yep those are in the freezer too in individual packs--easily thawed in a colander in warm tap water--seriously 2 seconds!

*Cheese and crackers

*Hard boiled eggs-- I boil at least a dozen a week -- maybe more now that I'm pregnant -- I label them on the end with a B --(some folks do the date)-- in water washable marker--using different colors each week so I know how old they are--should one happen to escape me and the kids. I keep them loose in the meat drawer--unpeeled. They eat them just as is--peeled, dipped in salt and pepper or with salt and pepper sprinkled on them, we make deviled eggs for snacks, or egg salad, or they love them mushed up with a fork and a tiny bit of butter, salt and pepper and then put in the microwave for about 10-20 seconds--covered!

*Egg Salad for sandwiches or my girls love to eat it just plain or with crackers

Egg Salad
6 boiled eggs--peeled and chopped fine with a pastry blender in a bowl
1/4 cup mayo
1 tsp mustard, dry
1/4 tsp salt
dash of pepper

mix it all together and walla ! Cheap great complete protien for sandwiches.

*Premade burritos -- this is one I learned from my mom-- you make up a big batch of burritos and the leftovers can be heated the morning of school and then cut into somewhat largish peices and smashed into a thermos.. they stay warm all day that way -- some kids can use a microwave at school and if that's the case you can just pack the burrito in some saran wrap and they can heat in the saran wrap and eat it that way --- about 1 min for heating time. I've taken this a step further and I make the burritos up with whatever is left over on taco or burrito night -- beans, cheese and meat and stuff em in a tortilla --wrap em in saran wrap and put them into a container or bread bag in the freezer so they all stay together and none of them become dregs on the bottom of the freezer when you clean it out.. label with a sharpie marker as to what they are and the date you made them.

*Chicken, Turkey, Tuna, Ham, Steak -- any meat -- salad.
You can chop in a blender or food proccessor or just chop finely any meat -- minute steaks are especially yummy in the blender with just mayo, if there are leftovers-- (my kids actually fight over the leftovers of those) -- But anyway! Mix about 2 cups of meat, about 1/4 cup of mayo-- I don't like much, some mustard if you choose, 1/2 cup of nuts if you like them, or celery, or pickle relish, a hard boiled egg or two--extends it out a bit more to make more servings. --- This one is one you can do the bulk of the work ahead of time-- you would just chop several bags worth of meat at the same time and then stick that in the freezer in baggies.

*Cheese sandwiches

*Spiral Sliced Ham and Sliced Turkey breast from the big bird. -- A big bird or a big ham will yeild alot of meat --both for casseroles, soups etc. and for lunch. If you use the cooking bags or make it on the weekend it isn't a whole ton of work to bake one.. just takes baking time, then you have to be on the ball enough to package it all up into a few days supply of meat in baggies and freeze those. I buy several hams, or turkeys when they are on sale for the holidays and cook about one a month if I can.

*Soups, Casseroles, whatever --frozen in individual servings so you can easily reheat-- quiche would be great this way --that's where all those containers come in handy.

*Homemade hot pocket style sanwiches-- I've never done them so I don't have a recipe -- but I keep intending to..lol

*Cups of unsweetened applesauce-- one of the few prepackaged things I buy. I buy them in bulk when they are on sale since they are shelf stable.

*Fresh Fruit-- whatever is on sale --kids are instructed to bring home anything that doesn't get used--even nasty bananas.

* Popcorn or pretzels instead of potato chips--cheaper and better for you.

*homemade quick breads-- apple, banana, whatever, slices can be prepacked and frozen

* drop cookies and bar cookies-- same thing frozen in serving size baggies for the freezer put them inside another container so you don't find them lost on the bottom of your freezer. You can make a triple or double batch of cookies next time you make them and package up half the cookies this way and let the kids eat the other half fresh or do a baking day.

*muffins-- homemade and frozen

*** Time saving tip! -- Egg salad, tuna salad and even PB&J freezes! Have the kids help you on an assembly line one night and make up a ton of sandwiches. I pack mine in the sandwich sized fold over or zipper bags -- then I put them back in the bread bag the bread came in and label the bags with premade address label stickers and/ or sharpie--if you use sharpie --do it before the sanwiches are in the bags. The night before the kids pull them out and put them into their bag in the fridge and by the time they eat them they are thawed and perfectly fine!

Hope this helps all who had requests for easy money saving lunch ideas! I'll try to keep posting so keep coming back for more.

How do you cut the food budget!!

2009-01-15T12:11:00.000-07:00

About two years ago -- After hubby complained that our food bill on average ranged anywhere from $600-$900 a month, I got to thinking.....

Well ok at first I thought, "How could I possibly save more money on groceries--it wasn't cheap to feed our family of then 7. What did he think I was -- a miracle worker?" At that time I cooked according to a weekly menu-- usually based on the sale items of the week or what I had available to me in freezer stock, made alot of our own cookies, quick breads, etc.. most every evening meal was cooked from scratch and I spent a good deal of time in the kitchen. If I didn't have a recipe I couldn't make it.. I was a good cook, but just not willing or able to "step out of the box" a bit to substitute out ingredients. If the recipe called for red pepper and all I had was green pepper --then it was off to the store! I envied those cooks who had the courage to cook without a recipe-- or were so daring to substitute a green pepper for a red one in a recipe.

After Xmas that year I was cleaning out the fridge and found several grocery bags of food that was all bad.. potatoes, onions, celery, lettuces, carrots, meat, etc.. and that didn't count the stuff I threw down the garbage disposal--several meals worth of lunchmeat, soups, main dishes, bits of pork chops, chicken breasts, etc.... All things I had bought thinking I would make -- this or that recipe with them -- and then never got around to it, lost the recipe, the kids decided that week they didn't like oranges--etc.. I sat down at the computer one day and got to thinking about how much food I'd thrown out -- maybe four grocery sacks full! And that was just the fresh produce. And then I thought about my Grandma Mabel -- how she had raised 6 kids -- mostly growing boys through the depression era. They had lost their farm, they had a garden but I thought to myself, "Man, she would be rolling over in her grave thinking how wasteful her granddaughter was!" It was then that I thought -- well, heck why couldn't I cut at least a hundred dollars off our budget every month? That wasn't so much to ask. So I set a goal for myself and -- thought back to things I'd seen her do and things I'd seen my aunts and mother do when times weren't so easy and the money had to come from somewhere -- and started applying that to what I did.

Today about two years later -- I'm so happy to announce that my food budget is down to around $300-$400 a month! That feeds a family of 5 kids -- ages 15, 13, 11, 9 and 2, and my pregnant self and my dear sweet hubby. Grandma would be so proud! So -- how did I do it? Well-- I'll tell you.

Coonlike Behavior and Hoarding

2008-09-23T12:02:00.000-06:00

Kate, Anna and I had great fun today picking plums!! We got a big 10inch round planter full of them-- plenty for fresh eating and some for sharing -- but not much else. I had hoped to have enough to make hoisin sauce, but the fresh eating will be nice all the same.
Kate started out the day in her usual coonlike fashion-- stealing the dog's water bowl, and running across the linoleum kitchen floor-- water slooshing out all over the floor and creating a hazard! She escaped with the bowl to her usual place -- the living room maple table -- where she promptly emptied the bowl onto the table -- and began her morning splash and sipping fest. For those of you who don't know -- she loves to pour out any drink or liquid onto a flat surface and procceed to drink from the puddle as if she were a dog or some other non discerning animal. This is her most favorite game -- and it seems like the only way to keep her from it is to put the dog's bowl up on the counter and wait for her to not notice it's there and then put it down again for the dog-- she enevitably finds the bowl again and theives it away..lol The only thing she likes better is dipping food items into the water and eating them -- thus why we call her our coon.

Another favorite game is the hoarding of toys and various other things-- whenever it is time to go someplace she grabs everything within her reach and insists on bringing them all with her -- she must have them all -- even if she can't possibly carry them -- her two year old arms know no limits! She must have them all -- and you must help her carry them all. The plums were a joy for her -- she filled her arms to the limits and carried them back and forth -- and it was pleasant two year old work, and fufilled much of her needs to hoard! The only thing better would have been a pail of water to plunk, dip, and pour the plums into! And of course to sip from. Anyway it was a good morning for her--

Eatin Big for Little $

2008-09-22T20:50:00.000-06:00

Planning weekly meals is just one way I stay on budget!

Here's my tentative plan for meals this week:

Monday:
Homemade deer andoullie sausage with roasted garlic, onions and yellow summer squash
Dinner Rolls ( from the bread outlet)
Fresh watermelon wedges
Sliced garden tomatoes
Spinach Salad with orange bell peppers

Tuesday:
Roasted Chicken
Roasted Corn
Fresh Green Beans or broccoli-steamed with cheddar cheese
Baked Potatoes or sweet potatoes for me
Canned Fruit or watermelon wedges

Wednesday:
Salmon Patties
Wild Rice
Broccoli
Canned Fruit
Possibly bisquits

Thursday:
Ham and Cheese Pie
Green Salad w spinach
Fresh Fruit -- probably watermelon since we have two big ones from LH this week

Friday:
Chicken Pasta Pesto Salad or Chicken and Noodles -using leftover roast chicken from Tuesday
Fresh made french bread or green salad
Fruit of some sort
Plum Gallete or Chocolate chip cookies

Saturday:
Bacon Lettuce and Tomato Sandwiches
Soup-- canned or from the freezer