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!

Challenge Continues....

Last night was a bit of a success.....I made some Mexican "Pizzas" which consisted of a corn tortilla topped with a homemade black bean dip, shredded cabbage, chopped tomatoes and some cheese. The kids had burritos with the same shells, beans and cheese. (Oh, and they ate leftover Chuck E Cheese pizza.....hee hee)

Preserving up a STORM!

I wanted to inventory the canned goods that I have made thus far so I can see how many I use up before next year (basically so I can keep track of what I needed more of/less of/etc.) Here's what I have got so far (in cans, this doesn't account for the frozen goodies.....I'll get to posting about those later!)

7 Jars Blackberry Sauce
6 Raspberry Jam
3 Whole Blueberries
1 Gooseberry Jam
1 Currant Jam
7 Strawberry Syrup
6 Strawberry Jam
8 Apricot Halves in Light Vanilla Bean Syrup
2 Apple Slices in Light Vanilla Bean Syrup

Challenge Day 3

Well, I am going out to dinner AGAIN tonight without the kids (this is a rarity, believe me!) But for lunch we were at the local art fair and B1 and I split a bean burrito from the Oregon Peaceworks booth that was quite tasty. B2 decided she didn't like the whole wheat tortilla and "spicey" beans so she ate off of the pistachio nuts, blueberries and Pirate's Booty that I packed for snacks.

Dinner will, once again, be from the leftovers in the fridge, so no rating again tonight.

Boy, I am getting off to a great start, huh?

Challenge Day 2

So......I went out tonight : ) to Mexican food with friends, leaving husband with children and thus absolving self of all responsibility feeding them! I did make them nice plates of grilled chicken breasts, whole wheat spaghetti with butter and steamed cauliflower. I don't know that they ate much of it though -- especially since I discovered a newly made (but not eaten) bowl of mac-n-cheese in the fridge when I got home.

As I wasn't home, there is no rating for today!

Roasting Coffee....the EASY way!

After month's of roasting my own coffee in the oven and creating a plume of smoke (that, for some reason didn't set off the smoke detectors.....which means we need to check their batteries) and a strong aroma in the house that lasted for hours, we decided to upgrade to a coffee roaster. After MUCH online comparisons and reviews I settled on the i-Roast2 as it seemed to meet all our needs and was in our garage sale money budget. I just finished my first batch and it is so glisteny and smells great. I have to wait until tomorrow to try it out!

Day #1 of My Challenge

Day # 1

Dinner Meal: Scrambled Eggs with cheese (Mommy/Daddy version also had bell peppers, greens and onions), Milton’s Whole grain English muffins or toast, Morningstar sausage patties, yellow cauliflower that B1 picked out at the Farmer’s Market this morning.

Mommy rating: Breakfasts are usually a hit with the kids, so I thought I started out easy. However, I had a moment of inspiration when I was cooking the kids’ eggs and I added some sautéed beet and radish greens to theirs. This was a mistake as B2 picked them all out and I had to feed B1’s to her so she didn’t see the “green stuff”……arrgghhh! So much for trying to be healthy!

Kid review (from eldest child (B1)): “I loved it. I didn’t like the green stuff. I would like to have it again without the green stuff. And my sister didn’t like the green stuff either. She said “Blech stuff” and spit it out!”

Locavore rating: 2/5 ingredients were local: eggs, cheese and veggies in scramble. English Muffins and Sausage patties were not local.