Preserved Items Summer 2008

Here's the most up to date list of the items I have squirrelled away so far this year....

½ pts
1 BBQ sauce (A.V.M. recipe)
1 Apricot Vanilla Bean Syrup
5 Sweet and Sour Sauce (A.V.M. recipe)
4 Chutney (A.V.M. recipe)
7 Jars Blackberry Sauce
6 Raspberry Jam
2 Whole Blueberries
1 Gooseberry Jam
1 Currant Jam
7 Strawberry Syrup
5 Strawberry Jam
8 Apricot Halves in Light Vanilla Bean Syrup
2 sundried tomatoes
2 pickled carrots/celery

Pints
3 diced tomatoes
6 tomatoes
5 golden roma tomatoes
1 chutney
5 Sweet and Sour Sauce (A.V.M. recipe)
1 Chutney (A.V.M. recipe)
3 BBQ sauce (A.V.M. recipe)
2 Apple Slices in Light Vanilla Bean Syrup
1 pickled beets
1 sundried tomatoes
1 strawberry jam
1 whole blueberries
1 apricot vanilla bean sauce

Challenge done!

Okay, I didn't get around to posting the last couple days of the challenge. I also didn't have time to itemize each meal we had as much as I would have liked to, to be true to the challenge. However, I did come to the realization that.....(1) it is nice to not HAVE to budget so tightly each week (2) it would be difficult to stock up, and thus save money doing it this way (3) we don't eat too extravagantly anyways - with the exceptions of cheese and alcohol, mostly. Not that we are huge drunks or cheeseheads, but these 2 items would put us over the limit quickly!

My next blog mission.....to post weekly menus (after the week is over) so I have a record of what we eat. I often make things and would make them again, but I try so many new things that I can't remember them all (or where they came from) or if we liked them.

And then........coming soon......the eatlocalchallenge. I believe this will be in the month of October and I am looking SO forward to it. Lots of time to stockpile local foods in the freezer and pantry before then.

Budget Challenge – Day THREE

Well, our morning got off to an early start with 8 am dentist appointments for both of the kids. As a result, our day was a bit piece-meal food wise. The kids each had a yobaby yogurt before we left and some oatmeal. I just had coffee! When the appointment was over the little one had a banana in the car and then we had leftovers from the freezer for lunch. Pizza for the littles, tamale for me. Dinner isn’t looking a lot better since we have a meeting to be at that is at a park at 5 pm tonight. I’m off to search the freezer for something to take along for that one!

We did go to the park after the dentist today and picked a whole bowl of blackberries that I have freezing as well as some small apples (not sure what I am going to do with those yet!) And I have strawberries in the dehydrator right now (from our plant outside and a few from the produce bin this week!) That foraging has to contribute positively to the whole budgeting project!

Budget Challenge – Official Day TWO

Our milk, eggs and half-n-half (for coffee) were delivered today…..and I went to the Farmer’s Market......and Lifesource. I am fairly certain that I would have gone over budget today, but I had a $20 voucher for Denison Farms at the Farmer’s Market and most of the other stuff I bought went in the freezer for future use. It would be interesting to figure out how much is actually spent per week in our household, but I am such a stock-piler that it would be nearly impossible for me to figure out….and quite frankly that’s not what I want to expend my energy on!

Here’s what we ended up eating today:
Breakfast: Leftover waffles (husband) and cereal (me and kids)
Lunch: Kids – peace noodle mac n cheese/ Me – leftover salmon quiche from freezer
Dinner: Kids – black bean and cheese burritos/ Us – homemade tamales from freezer (reference in earlier post) with homemade guacamole, salsa and homemade baked corn tortilla chips – served with black beans from the freezer

I started making big batches of beans a while ago and freezing zip lock bags with amounts of them – black beans, white beans, pinto, garbanzo – they are great to take out of the freezer and use just like you would canned beans…..but cheaper and without the waste of a can!

Budget Challenge – Official Day ONE

So…..this morning started off with a bang! We were out of milk and eggs (I can’t remember the last time this happened in our house….it has been literally years!) And, of course, I forgot and promised the kids waffles for breakfast. So, thankful for the internet, I sat myself on the computer and did a google search for vegan waffles. I found several recipes that I had the ingredients on hand for and the kids chose this one……

Healthy Vegan Waffles – found from various sources on internet

* 1 ripe banana, mashed
* 2 cups water
* 1/2 cup uncooked oatmeal
* 1-1/2 cups whole wheat flour
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1 teaspoon cinnamon
* 1 teaspoon nutmeg
* 1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix banana and water. Add dry ingredients and mix, leaving lumps in batter (the lumps keep the waffles from becoming too rubbery when cooked). Cook on waffle iron. You can use the same batter to make pancakes. Serve with maple syrup. Can also add small berries (my little one liked them with blueberries)

Next time I make it I will omit the nutmeg and sub a little more cinnamon as I think I would like this flavor better. Overall, they were tasty though. My oldest ate a whole waffle and little one ate most of a waffle. I ate one too and, admittedly, they were strangely filling.

Lunch will be leftover whole wheat penne noodles with butter for the kids and green beans that I cooked up last night. I’ll have a slice of the salmon quiche and a salad.

Dinner: BLTs (with some added oomph – avocado and red onion) on Salem Sourdough Bread from Cascade Baking Company. Bacon is from Abundant Life Farms. Lettuce and Tomato from our CSA Bin and the avocado I bought at Roth’s yesterday. We will be having a green salad with pears and blue cheese with the sandwiches.

Dinner tonight....

Even though I am not starting the $$$ part of the budget challenge until tomorrow I thought I'd post what we are having for dinner tonight. The kids had a pear and some scrambled eggs with Tillamook cheddar cheese. The adults will be having a quiche that I just made with a frozen pastry shell, leftover salmon, a shallot and green pepper that I did a quick saute on, grated Tillamook cheddar and mozzarella cheeses, eggs, half and half, milk, thyme and basil from the herb garden and some salt and pepper. It's still cooking and in a bit I'll fry up a few red potatoes that I have from the CSA bin to go along side. I already ate a piece of homemade multi-grain toast with fresh raspberry jam, but might have to have another if it takes much longer!

Figuring out the Challenge.....

Since our produce bin arrives tomorrow I thought I'd start off the challenge then too! That way I can do menu planning and the budget challenge all at once. If only I'd penciled it out earlier today I might have stocked up more at Roth's than I did! (Cheating??? Perhaps!) But I didn't, so it is a moot point!

$60 weekly budget ($15 per person x 4 people)
-$20 (prepaid CSA Produce)
-$15 or $20 (estimate of pantry and freezer items already on hand….we are really well stocked!) $20 or $25 left to spend each week

Hmmm…..that’s not a lot. I spent more than that on wine and cheese today at Roth’s!

Oh, and then I remembered that we get a dairy delivery from the Dairy King each week. A typical order would send me to the limit, but we were planning to downsize the order this week anyway.....here's an estimate on the pricing for what we will be getting on Wednesday:

Gallon of milk 3.89
Eggs 2.99
Butter 2.99
Half and Half 1.99

Total: 11.86 ($12.00 for the sake of rounding and that I didn’t add on the gas surcharge as I can’t remember it…..)

So....that leaves me with (drum roll please!!!!!)

$8-$13 left to spend --- for the sake of simplicity I am going with $10 this week as I am planning to use a decent amount from the freezer and pantry too! I am going to begin the bugetary week on Tuesday (tomorrow).

A previous week….and today’s lunch

So a couple weeks ago I was really proud of myself for my menu planning and am still enjoying the benefits in the form of food in the freezer!

First day….I roasted a whole chicken with potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic and some fresh herbs. It was delicious and my littlest one loved it all too (added bonus!). After dinner I made chicken stock with the bones and salvaged the rest of the meat.

Second day….I made a chicken “stew” of sorts with homemade biscuits from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian (using my new biscuit cutter that the girls got me for Mother’s Day). The soup was fabulous and SO easy! I threw in some of the chicken, chopped the leftover potatoes, carrots and onions, added some curry powder, thickened with a little half and half and cornstarch (but it wasn’t very thick still!) and just let it simmer away all afternoon.

I also made up a batch of homemade tamales (my first time ever using soaked corn husks….although HTCEV also has a version where they are baked in ramekins and forego the husks altogether!) The corn mixture was easy to make and I filled them with chicken, zuchinni and onion (and some got a little cheese). I sampled a couple after they steamed and they were quite tasty! I froze 3 bags of them for future dinners.

So, after a couple delicious meals, I still have 2 containers of chicken stock in the freezer, a bag of chicken meat and 3 bags of tamales. Oh, and I am going to have the last of the soup today for lunch. Mmmm…..

Menu for the week - Part I

Since our CSA Produce share arrives on Tuesdays, I have learned not to meal plan past that day or else it all has to be re-written anyways....So, here's Part I of the menu for the week

Sunday: Leftovers (pizza from the party, veggies with hummus, squash saute and salad)

Monday: Scrambled eggs with grilled salmon, onions and peppers, fried potatoes from CSA, toast

Tuesday: Rataouille (or something similar) with eggplant, tomatoes, green pepper and onions - probably served with brown rice



Rest of the week - TBA!

Baby's Second Birthday!!!

We just finished up our Glamour Dog themed birthday party for my 2 year old (she chose the theme all by her "own self" as she says....) I tried to be as good as I could with the party fare, but having just come back from a week long vacation and having multiple family members still staying with us, it was hard to do! Here's what we had:

Take and bake pizzas (clearly not local or organic)
Strawberry lemonade (organic lemons, fresh strawberries pureed)
Water (from the tap)
Veggie tray (with all veggies from the Farmer's Market yesterday)
Homemade hummus
Cantaloupe and Blueberries (also from the Market)

Superbly delicious cake (from a friend who has an awesome local baking business....check out http://www.bittersweetbaking.com/ for more info!) it was triple chocolate with a strawberry cream filling and it also used local strawberries.

I'm not counting these in the "budgeting" cost as the cake alone would put me over, but.....hey, it's not everyday your baby turns TWO!

Food on a Budget Challenge

I was invited by the local Green Salem group to participate in a challenge of sorts...

Here are my self-imposed and self-developed rules (warning: I have always liked to change the rules as I go though.....):

$60 a week budget for the household ($15 per person for a household of 4- 2 adults and 2 kiddos)
On hand supplies do not count (all those frozen and pantry items will come in handy!)
Big long-term purchases do not count (as in the 1/2 a pig I have ordered for Sept/Oct....and I don't have the time or desire to figure out per piece cost, etc)
Buy local (first choice) organic ingredients whenever possible
Buy whole foods - not processed junk

So......that being said, it's hard to start this right now as we have been vacationing at a beach home for the past week and currently have 5 extra bodies to feed staying in our house. We went to the Farmer's Market today and stocked up on lots of fresh produce (peaches, blueberries, eggplant, green beans, tomato, cantaloupe, green pepper, cauliflower, and more that I am forgetting....) We're having a 2 year old birthday bash for my youngest tomorrow so have to feed 25 bodies lunch that day. I think we'll be starting the official challenge later this week!

Tonight we had some yummy salmon filets, sauteed zuchinni squashes with onion and garlic (from the meager garden we have), tomatoes, green salad and some delicious olive bread from (my personal favorite) Cascade Baking Company. You can never go wrong there!