Avoiding the grocery store

Last week I posted about the rising food costs and how we are changing some things to avoid a rising food budget crisis. While not all of us can have huge gardens, a milk cow or goat, chickens, pigs and such, there is always more that we can do to cut costs. Sometimes it takes more time on our parts, more time spent in the kitchen baking, canning produce you buy from a local produce stand or any number of other things.

For me, spending time in the kitchen is something that I love to do. Making bread is not a chore for me, baking cookies, canning peaches or making tortillas. Sure, it's work, but I'm not one that is turned off by a bit of effort to save some money to trim our budget. There are some things that I make that don't even save me much money, but it's worth it just to avoid buying what someone else has made...and the added items that ALWAYS end up in my grocery cart while picking up those items. Doesn't that just drive you nuts? You go to the store for milk and bread and end up spending twice as much on things you "forgot" you needed. In reality, MOST of those "needed" items are not really needed at all. You could easily do without them.

One thing that I thought about in reading comments left on my last blog entry about this subject was that not everyone CAN grow everything. I know I can't. Tomatoes are a favorite here, but something that I have struggled to get to grow well here. This year, I'm going to try a few "tips" I have read about, but I'm not going to count on growing enough to provide us with our needed total for the year. This is something that I watch for at local farms and produce stands. Even canning tomatoes that I've purchased from someone else is better than relying on an unsteady market to always have them on hand. Honestly, if I didn't can them myself, I'd be stocking up on canned organic tomatoes somewhere else...like Costco or where ever I could find the best price. Buying in bulk is what keeps me from having to shop all that often.

Network with local farmers, or others that are able to grow what you can't. Find a neighbor that has chickens, trade with them or buy eggs from them. Raise a few broilers for your freezer, or find someone that does...worst case, buy in bulk when chicken goes on sale. The key is to look at what you CAN do and work with that. For my family, I don't want the GMO food, the poorly raised meat full of hormones and the fillers that they feed the animals. So, we choose to raise most of our own...often at no better price than I could get on sale, but much better product for our time and money. I like knowing where my food comes from and NOT supporting a food industry that likes to play God...or feels that they know best what is "good" food.

I could easily go on and on about what you "could" do, or what we do here. Everyone has to work with what they have, make choices based on preference, limitation and availability in your area. The key is that you CAN do something, even if it's just a few things here and there. Not everyone can be self sufficient in their food needs, but for my family, that is a goal. My encouragement is to do what you can do. Trust in the Lord for what you can't...He's never let us down...we have always been provided for. We just feel that there is always more that we can do to be better stewards of what the Lord has blessed us with!

If you are feeling lost as to where to start, you know you need to cut back on spending, you can't grow a huge garden, can't raise a cow or a pig...start by looking at what you buy now. Can you make your own bread? What about skipping the frozen dinners? Make more of your meals from raw ingredients, not prepackaged mixes and such. I have found that many of the products I thought I needed....BBQ sauce, syrup, pancake mixes, bread, buns, tortillas, even chocolate syrup....can be made at home from things I already had in my pantry! Start by looking at what pre-made foods you buy now and try to find alternatives. It doesn't take a total change in every area of your menu, but most of what you "think" you can't make is easily made from scratch with ingredients you already have on hand. Sure, it may take a bit more time, but planning can help solve much of that problem. I'll be trying to share many of my family's favorite recipes, things that I make all the time that help me avoid the grocery store. If you are looking for something specific...leave me a comment and I'll see what I can find. :)

We are all in this together...and many hands (or minds) can often make light work in a tough situation!

Grocery Shopping and Filling a Pantry

I spent some time this week watching a series of videos on the forecast for the coming year as far as grocery prices go. The videos were found on the Backyard Food Production website. The information in these videos made me even more determined than ever to closely evaluate where my food budget is going, how I stock my pantry and what items I choose to buy.

Here, we have many opportunities to avoid the grocery store, thank the Lord! I, for one, do not enjoy shopping at all. avoiding the grocery store is often difficult with a growing family and especially with growing teenage kids. Our menu is already fairly simple, and our pantry is generally pretty full. My goal, of course, is to get to the point where grocery shopping is a once every few months ordeal, but for now I am limited to one or two big trips a month. That is HUGE, considering I used to shop weekly for our needed items.

This week, after watching these videos, I have spent even more time evaluating what we buy and why. I already make most of our food from scratch, but there is always more I can do. A few areas still could use some improvement...like pasta, crackers and lunch items for my husband. I buy very little ready made items, but still feel like I should be able to do more....always a work in progress.

Some of the things we have moved away from buying are:

• bread
• tortillas
• yogurt
• buttermilk
• kefir
• rolls
• hamburger/hot dog buns
• eggs
• beef
• chicken
• potatoes (this last season we were able to grow enough to last through most of February, this year we'll try to make it through spring)
• pickles
• pickled beets
• green beans
• blueberries
• raspberries
• oregano
• sage
• mint
• milk (part of the year anyway)
• jams
• syrup

So many things I want to add to our list of homegrown/made items. I'd much rather stock the ingredients to make much of what we use, eat and need than purchase these items already made. I've been "playing" with cheese making, having been somewhat successful with both farmhouse cheddar and mozzarella. Each time I make cheese, it gets better. In the months to come, I hope to perfect cream cheese, sour cream and feta. Being able to take these items off of my grocery list would be wonderful!

Another area that I've been looking at are cleaners and shampoo. I've made and used my own shampoo several times over the past year and liked it! As my family runs out of shampoo, I'm slowly transitioning us over to all homemade. I found some great recipes on a friend's blog. You can visit Freedom Acres Farm for recipes. They are so easy to make and have nothing "bad" in them like so many that you can buy in the stores do. As far as cleaners go, I am using more vinegar, baking soda and buying my dish soap in bulk from Azure.

Another area that I've changed is my laundry soap. I have been using Charlie's Laundry Soap since December. Even with our extremely hard water, this soap works wonders! I love it, can't say enough good about it. One 80 load tub has lasted me since the 13th of December. How's that for inexpensive. Best part is there is nothing in this soap that is harmful...it's just that, SOAP! I can't say enough about this product. I saved up and bought 6 tubs of it all at once to save on shipping. Those 6 tubs will last me more than a year...gotta LOVE that!

While this is not even close to EVERYTHING that I am doing, I wanted to share a bit with you. This has been a big part of my thinking this past week. I'm always looking at what I am doing and trying to do more, or at least be more efficient with what I am able to do.

Given the recent forecast for our food costs this year, I am working even harder to do a better job at what I do. My garden planning this year is different, my canning and preserving goals are changing a bit and my focus is on simplicity and efficiency in it all. This was a big part of my thinking even before I saw the videos this week. I've seen the prices in our grocery stores here rise at alarming rates over the past few weeks and months. It's frustrating, at best, when you are trying to feed a growing family with limited resources AND trying to be as health conscious as possible at the same time!

How have your shopping, cooking and budgeting patterns been changing? Is the economy affecting this part of your life or are you to the point where you are providing enough of your own that you don't feel it as much? I can't believe that for a minute to be very true of most people, you are either feeling it at the gas pumps, the feed store or even just in the little you do buy. We are all feeling the pinch. What have you changed?

Sauerkraut Recipe

I was asked by a reader of my blog to post the recipe for the sauerkraut I made this week. It is super easy and so far mine appears to be working great. I have 4 more days for it to work it's magic, so we shall see how it turns out. Anyway, here is the recipe....I would HIGHLY recommend that you order this cookbook, however! It's by a woman named Fran Gillette that lives here locally. I have three of her cookbooks and love them all dearly! The history in them alone is amazing. The books are not expensive and well worth every penny, I promise!

I didn't make the full batch of this, just used the 6 heads of cabbage that I had purchased for this recipe. I didn't want to jump into doing 40 pounds of cabbage if it was not something that was going to work well for me. Not that I don' t trust the recipe, but there is always that factor of "user error" you know. :)

Homemade Sauerkraut

40 pounds shredded cabbage
1 pound salt

In a very large pot or bowl, layer cabbage and salt. Mix well until the cabbage is starting to sweat or make juice. Pack into sterile, clean, wide-mouthed jars. Pack the cabbage down firmly until 1/2 inch from the top of the jar. Wipe off rims and place cap and ring on. Tighten. Line a large wash tub with newspaper and set quarts in the tub. Cover with a large towel and keep tub with cabbage in a warm to mild place. Jars will bubble and stew for approximately 4-5 days. Don't panic! This is OK! Jars will start smelling like sauerkraut as they work. When fermentation stops, wash off jars, rinse seals and lids; wipe lids. If needed add some water to bring liquid up to the neck of the jar; about 1 inch from top. Replace dry lids and seals. Process in a boiling water bath canner for 15 minutes. Ready to eat in 4-6 weeks.

It was SO easy to make this with the help of my food processor. I actually did mine in two big bowls. From 6 heads of cabbage, I got 5 quarts of kraut. I had to guess on the salt, just put a layer of cabbage and then sprinkled on canning salt and repeated until the bowls were full. Mixed it up with tongs and once it started getting juicy I packed it into jars. EASY! I just had a mess of cabbage everywhere....do you do that? Canning seems to be the hardest thing to do neatly for me. :) I found more cabbage that I had missed cleaning up the following morning...AFTER I had cleaned (or thought I had) the mess up the day before. :) Yes, I guess I am a messy cook. :)

If you decide to try this, let me know how it turns out and if you did anything differently. I'd also love to hear if you order any of Mrs. Gillette's cookbooks, you will love them! The best cinnamon roll recipe I have ever had is in them (I believe all of them, they are that good). Best pie crust recipe too. :) They make the perfect housewarming gift or wedding gift! Anyone that loves the country and loves to cook will love them. I sound like a commercial and no I am not being asked to say this or sell these cookbooks...I just LOVE them! I also love to see local business people succeed. :) I know most of you aren't local, but I'm sure you understand. :)

Adventures of soaking grains....so far, so good!

It seems as if I've spent every spare moment in the kitchen this week. Between my work for Gling, the gluten-free website I work for and my own personal cooking and baking, it's been a long week in the kitchen. Not that I'm complaining, mind you, I love both jobs. :) Creating tasty foods for my family and tweaking recipes to be gluten-free and tasty is always a good time. OK, not always, it really isn't fun to have a recipe not work, but for the most part it's all good times!

My newest adventure in soaking grains and flours has been a huge learning experience. I've had several successes and one failure. One thing I am learning is that I have got to get better at menu planning...like planning ALL of our food for the week, not just dinner. So, this weekend, that is what I'll be working on. I need to come up with a good plan for the next week so that I will know what grains or flours to start soaking when. So far, other than the flopped recipe, that has been my biggest hurdle. I am learning that planning ahead, something that I "thought" I was good at, is a must...oh, and I realized that I have not been planning as well as I had thought, either. :)

My biggest success, in my mind, was the soaked baked oatmeal! HUGE success in the fact that my oatmeal hating daughter LOVED it! YAY!! This mamma was thrilled at that statement. :) One less battle, gotta love that. Not only did my family love it, but I was also able to make it gluten-free and therefore add it to the list of recipes on Gling. That is always a huge bonus, being able to share something that my family loves with the gluten-free community is always a good thing! When we first started eating gluten-free, I struggled to find a good site to meet all of my needs for information and recipes. That is why I love my job with the website so much, I get to pass on what I've learned and get a bit of extra money for our budget as well. A win win!

My flop of the week was a kefir soaked sourdough bread. I don't know what I did wrong there. I'm waiting to hear from the friend that I got the recipe from and see if perhaps I missed something. We'll see if I can't get it to work next time. It's a recipe that her family loves, so I'm thinking I did something wrong.

I also have a sourdough starter that I'm using that I bought from Leeners several months ago and never got around to trying. So far, my first bread attempt was a good one! Very sour and very tasty. YUM! I am hoping to make sourdough pancakes this AM for breakfast and start another batch of bread tomorrow. Thankfully, so far, we've seen no ill effects from eating these soaked flours and grains. I am praying it stays that way. :)

Other than gluten-free goodies and soaked flours and grains, I've also been working on a bit of cheese making. Last night I started a batch of Fromagina. I bought the culture from New England Cheese Making Supply Company, I get all of my cultures from them. The selection is amazing and the prices are good too. This is the first time I've made this cheese, we'll see how we like it. I guess its a creamy spreadable cheese. Sounds tasty to me. :) I'll also be making mozzarella today as well and perhaps ricotta. I have several gallons of milk to get used up. Between cheese and ice cream, we'll be well supplied in dairy products this weekend. :)

Chicken stock...Oh my!

For the past several months, every time I cook a chicken (well, almost every time) I save the neck and back to make chicken stock. It's amazing to me how quickly my stock of chicken stock has increased....pun intended. :) This past weekend we grilled two chickens. When I was cutting them up to put them on the grill I saved the back and neck (we actually did two chickens, so there were two of each...imagine that LOL). I put them in the crock pot, filled it with water, onion and garlic powder and let it cook away for two full days. This morning I shut it off, took out all of the bones and stuff and poured it all into my big stock pot. The meat and bones don't go to waste, I usually either pick out the meat and freeze it or just give the whole lot to the cats for a treat. This morning, the cats got a treat. :)

After it's all strained out and the stock is all that is left I let it cool until I can skim some of the fat off of the top. I like leaving a bit of fat in it for extra flavor, but not all of it. I then add a bit of water since it's so rich from cooking for so long and to help stretch it a bit further. Often, if I have time I'll also add onions, carrots and celery to the chicken when I cook it in the crock pot. This adds tons of flavor and even some rich color. This past weekend I didn't take the time to do that step, so the stock is not as dark as usual. It still works great to add flavor to rice or to use as a base for gravy or soup.

This morning I ended up with 7 quarts of stock from those two backs and necks. Not bad, I'd say! The picture above is bit pale....between the sun coming in the window next to the jars and the quality of picture from my cell phone, it looks much lighter than it actually is. I've made some stock that was as dark as the wood of my cabinets. Makes amazing gravy! At last count, I have about 30 quarts of chicken stock in my pantry now. If I hadn't used any of it, I'd have more, but it is there to use. :) I've also done beef and turkey stock the same way. HUGE money saver and so much better tasting and good for you, compared to the store bought. I also have pieces of our last round of butchering in the freezer to make into stock. That will give us an easy 14 quarts of stock if I cook it down long enough. I love homemade stock....full of so much good flavor! Yum!

Is it really Monday?

Oh my, what a weekend we had. I am still not ready for Monday and here it is 1:00 PM on Monday afternoon. :) We had a busy weekend in the garden and loved every minute of it...hard work and all. Today I've been busy in my kitchen making cookies, pie crust, hulling strawberries and cleaning up between it all. Laundry is also going, though it won't make it to the clothes line today with the chance of rain and colder temps we seem to be having. Huge bummer, I hate using my dryer this time of year but on days like today and a mountain of laundry threatening to take over the bathroom, I have little choice in the matter. It's amazing how fast the laundry piles up when we are outside working our buns off in the dirt. :)

My week is a full one with end of the school year obligations, baby sitting, my cooking and writing work, VBS preparations and an orthodontist appointment. In the midst of it all I have weeding to try to get to around the berry vines, plants and bushes. Also need to get a flat of marigolds in the ground and do some clean up in my front yard beds. So much that always needs doing and only so much of this mamma. We are truly blessed though and every task that needs to be done is a reminder of how many blessings we have. The mountains of laundry reminds me that we have a big healthy family that is active and works hard. The dirty dishes remind me that we have food to eat and healthy appetites. The never ending baking and cooking that I do shows me how much my job matters....just think what we'd be eating if I were to just open a can or a box for every meal or snack. All of the school books that fill my desk and the piles of papers are a good reminder that we have amazingly smart kids that rely on us for their education and what an honor it is to be the one that gets to show them this world and all that God intended for it to be for them. We live in a country (for the time being) that affords us the freedom to homeschool. To teach our kids what the Bible says about living a godly and productive life. We may not agree with many of the choices that our government makes or even the direction it appears to be headed, but we still pray as scripture teaches, for our leaders and trust that the Lord has a plan.

These are the things that I try to focus on when life seems to be getting busier than I can handle or when I feel like we are getting no where. Things are tough right now with my husband's work situation and the down economy, but we are blessed beyond measure! God is providing for us daily and will continue to do so in ways that we may not expect. Even in tough times, it's exciting to see how God will use them not only for His Glory, but for our blessing and benefit! How cool is that?!