Eliminating the Grocery Store Challenge - Day 15: Using Food for Medicine?

I have not been writing regularly for the last week. I debated on whether or not to share here, but decided to go ahead. But first, let me back up a little bit. Every time we make the resolution to avoid doctors and hospitals except for absolutely unavoidable situations, something always go wrong. Every. Single. Time. And it is extremely discouraging and frustrating. We try to eat healthy, which should increase our immune systems thereby decreasing our chances of getting sick.

The first time we vowed to avoid the whole medical thing, we were told that I might have cancer. A routine exam had not come back with the good results we had been counting on. Six months and several procedures later, I was cleared and it was determined to not be cancer. We were back on the road of health. And life went on.

We again determined to try to treat our family with "alternative" medicines - basically meaning things like food, essential oils, and over the counter products. My three year old started having asthma attacks - the only one out of six kids. Sigh. I was frustrated, but we did what we needed to do and about a year later, feel that we have that back on track and are managing our health fairly well.

As part of my research for eliminating the grocery store, I have been looking at expanding my garden to include more medicinal types of plants, like chamomile, peppermint, lavender, etc. For thousands of years, people took care of their health challenges through prayer and the natural products that God made - as in plants and minerals. And I wanted to start an apothecary type of medicinal pantry. I should have been prepared. I should have remembered. But of course I didn't.

About a week ago, I started to have trouble with my bladder. I thought it might be either an infection or kidney stones. I started to use my extremely limited home remedy knowledge, as well as some ideas that we gleaned from the internet, in an effort to manage this issue myself. I should mention that it is an extremely painful one too. The pain became unbearable which led us to suspect a kidney stone. I have had these in the past and actually had to have some blasted about six years ago, so I know that sometimes you simply cannot ignore these. And so the round robin of appointments has begun.

Thus far, we know that I have at least one kidney stone, but I need to have more tests done. Additionally, we discovered that my bladder is not emptying completely. No amount of proper eating or herbs can fix this apparently. So I have to have surgery so that the urologist can take a literal look at what is happening and hopefully, be able to fix it.

I'm frustrated because I want to become as self-sufficient as possible, and I see this as a failure on my part. I'm frustrated because I don't know why this is happening now. I'm frustrated because I have so many things that I want to figure out, like how to make bagels and homemade cereals. I'm frustrated because nothing I have on hand can ease the pain - short of drinking enough alcohol to make me unconscious. Not a viable option in my opinion. I'm also frustrated because it is so hard to think and concentrate, much less type when pain is radiating through your body or your so doped up on medications that stringing two words together becomes work in and of itself.

So, if you miss my posts, you now know why I am on a bit of a hiatus. I promise to try and come up with some more great and helpful tips and meal plans and things for you. But in the meantime, I have to do what I can do just to get through things one day at a time.

Be blessed.

Eliminating the Grocery Store Challenge - Day 14: Think Outside the Cookbook

Did you ever notice that recipes and meal ideas are everywhere? There are shows dedicated to cooking, blogs featuring everything from crock-pot to freeze ahead and more, and then there are other sites like Pinterest. All with ideas. We are no longer limited to cookbooks or family recipes or even how our ancestors cooked to come up with good food for our families to eat. Case in point: Meatball Sub on a Stick. The recipe and mouthwatering picture for this showed up in my newsfeed on Facebook. And I admit that it caught my attention. It sure did look good. And I was pretty sure the pickier eaters in my family would love it. So I decided to save it for a rainy day.

Today was that rainy, well, okay, foggy day and I was willing to give it a try. Here is where experience and knowing what works comes in handy. Sure, I could have followed the recipe exactly as written. Or, I could modify it to use what I already had on hand or include what I learned the hard way. This particular recipe called for ground turkey, bread crumbs, seasonings, and Pillsbury breadstick dough. Experience has taught me that ground turkey meatballs are not popular in my household. I have better success with it if I mix it with something else. So my first replacement was ground beef for turkey. Second, I have made meatballs and meatloaf enough times that if I forget the eggs, it forgets to stick together and I ended up with crumbly meat. I'm not sure why this recipe did not call for eggs, but I made sure to put some in. Like I said, I know what happens if I forget them! Finally, I am not a big fan of convenience food items like Pillsbury. I would much rather make my own dough, so I made a rich combination of a sourdough egg bread. Very rich and filling.

My point in sharing all of this is that you don't have to follow recipes exactly, to the letter. Sometimes experimentation can be the best teacher. You learn by literally getting your hands dirty what works and what doesn't work, like the eggs I mentioned. I don't have to have them in my bread, but experience has taught me that it makes a much richer, softer bread. And likewise, leaving them out of my meatballs and meatloaf just leads to a disappointing mess. Spices are always suggestions! If you like more heat, play with white pepper, paprika, cayenne, and cardamom. Prefer savory? Check out what butter, wine, sugar, and cracked black pepper can do. Pay attention to what everyone raves over and what you have to bribe your kids to eat. See if you can get them to describe what they don't like about something? Is it how it looked? Felt (texture)? Smelled? Or tasted. Maybe it's too salty or too sweet or packs to much of a kick. Playing with seasonings can also change completely the mood of the meal from warm comfort food to hot and spicy foods.

Get in that kitchen and start thinking outside the cookbook and your old standby recipes. See what you can do with what you are comfortable cooking to take it up a notch. I'm not much for science and chemistry - unless it involves food in my kitchen! Experiment and have fun. You might surprise yourself and actually look forward to making dinner each day!

Be blessed.

Eliminating the Grocery Store Challenge - Day 13: K-I-S-S Means Keeping It Super Simple

In my last post I shared a very basic menu plan with 42 dinner options. I did not provide any recipes but recommended that you search through your collection of cookbooks and look for simple recipes that will work for you and your family. Even the best laid plans will go awry if you make them too complicated. I have found that when it comes to simple recipes, older is better. One of my favorite all time cookbooks is The Way To A Man's Heart: The Settlement CookBook by Mrs. Simon Kander. This is the book I inevitably reach for when I am looking to create a replacement for some mass produced convenient item. The only caution with using old cookbooks is that they do not have oven temperatures! And some measurements are interesting, to say the least.

One of the grocery store items that I really loved was Bisquick mix. I mean, what is not to love about this mix? You can use it to make everything from pancakes, to waffles, to coffee cake, to shortbread. And there are even recipe books dedicated to using Bisquick! But this stuff can get expensive at almost $7 for about 12 cups worth of mix. I don't know about your family, but my family loves pancakes and so a 12 cup box is only good for two pancake breakfasts - forget about making any waffles, desserts, or other wonderful food. I needed to find a better option.

In my favorite cookbook was a recipe that I found I was able to use to make my own homemade version of Bisquick that tastes just as good and works just as well. I can make an entire Tupperware container full equivalent to the store bought 12 cup box for a fraction of the cost.

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Homemade Bisquick Mix

10 cups of All-purpose Flour
3 heaping tablespoons of Baking Powder
2-1/2 teaspoons Salt

Sift all of these ingredients together and put into a large storage container. On the side of my container, I wrote: 1 cup mix; 1 cup milk; and 1 egg. This is the rest of the recipe for making pancakes, the most common use for my homemade Bisquick mix. This mix can be used in all the Bisquick dedicated recipes too.

There really is not much difference between the homemade version and the commercial version. In fact, here is the listing of ingredients that is shown on the Betty Crocker website: Enriched Flour Bleached (wheat flour, niacin, iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), Partially Hydrogenated Soybean and/or Cottonseed Oil, Leavening (baking soda, sodium aluminum phosphate, monocalcium phosphate), Dextrose, Salt.

I don't know about you but I am not so sure I am comfortable with all those additions to the flour; or the use of soybean oil, especially since soybeans are now predominantly a GMO product. And I am starting to watch out for aluminum too. Making this mix myself gives me the control I want over what is ultimately being fed to my family.

By being willing to make this mix yourself, you can save a fair amount of money, especially if you use the mix a lot in a variety of recipes. A 10 pound bag of flour costs about $5.00. A whole container of iodized salt is usually around $1.00 and baking powder for around $2.00. This amount of the basic ingredients is enough to make the equivalent of two of the 96 ounce commercially produced versions of Bisquick, so we are talking about a savings of at least 50%. And since these are ingredients that I generally have in my pantry in bulk, I can refill my designated Bisquick container in just a few minutes.

There is no need to find fancy, complicated recipes - unless you like that sort of thing. Me, I prefer quick, simple, and flavorful. And the more I save, the better.

Be blessed.

Eliminating the Grocery Store Challenge - Day 12: A Meal Plan Makes A Difference

I took a break for a couple of days to answer some direct questions that I was asked. I really couldn't see a way to tie those two posts to my efforts at eliminating the grocery store because I recognize that not everyone is at the same point in this journey as I am. I am sure that many of my newest readers have not even considered eliminating the grocery store as an option, in part, because they are simply trying to survive week after week with families to feed and a limited amount of funds. And I totally understand that. Our economy right now is really hard for so many people. Decisions are sometimes made between food to eat and gas to get to work to get that next paycheck. I decided that I would take a step back for a minute and do something that I should have done when I started this process. Whether you are trying to shop on a week to week or month to month basis or whether you are working at eliminating the grocery store, a meal plan makes a difference.

For the family living paycheck to paycheck and shopping week to week, having a meal plan can help you determine what to buy in bulk so you can stretch those dollars that you are spending a little bit more. Sometimes the difference between a one pound box of spaghetti and a two pound box is around a dollar, give or take a few cents. So you spend the extra dollar on spaghetti noodles this week so that you have two extra dollars to put towards something else the next week, like upgrading your flour purchase from a two pound bag to a ten pound bag. The adjustments will be slow and incremental but eventually you can start to have a pantry of staples like flour, sugar, beans, rice, etc. This is the process that I used to transition my grocery shopping from once a week to once a month. Be patient though, because it does take time.

It is my humble opinion that shopping once a week only helps the grocery store because it seems to create a dependency on what is on sale that specific week. You either eat a week of the same thing (yuck!) or you end up buying the higher priced items needed to complete the meal. Let's say, for example, spaghetti sauce is on sale for a dollar a can. And hey, the store is really nice and even has spaghetti noodles on sale for a dollar a box. You think, score! But then you go buy hamburger and it's up fifty cents to a dollar a pound. You just eliminated any savings you might have had. Once I started using a meal plan, I was able to buy only the sale items, when on sale. Since I shopped once month, I would stock up on spaghetti sauce and noodles when they were on sale and put it in my pantry. But I would not buy the meat until it was on sale. And then I would buy two or three of the huge family size packages and break it up when I got home. Shopping once a month also gives you what appears to be a larger amount of money to work with - even though it really is just the accumulation of the funds that you did not spend the previous four or five weeks.

When I decided to try shopping only once a month, I wrote down every single item of food I had in the house. I then put together a meal plan that used what I already had. I made a list of what I absolutely had to have to finish the meal plan. That was my first shopping list. For the next month, I avoided the stores as if they carried the plague except for absolutes like milk or bread or eggs. Nothing else could be purchased. I then repeated this process at the end of the month. What did I have in my pantry, what did I need to make the meals for the next month, etc. Eventually, I developed a meal plan that was good for six weeks.

Here is a copy of that meal plan for your use:

I should explain that this meal plan does NOT get used like a calendar. Even though it has seven boxes, please do not assume that it represents a week. It just happened to be the most that I could fit on one page. The way to use this meal plan is to play a kind of tic-tac-toe. In other words, once you make a meal, using up the items in your pantry, cross it out. You know you made it; you know you used the ingredients you bought for it. This will ensure a bit more variety for your family, because, oh my goodness, if you use this as a calendar, your poor family will end up eating beef for six days in a row! Not good. I do have sides listed, but these are more of a recommendation and some are seasonal. So, we may have a salad or we may not. Like I said, you can use this, or you can create your own. I'll explain how to do that next.

Create Your Own Meal Plan

Obviously you can create your own meal plan like I explained above in the monthly shopping paragraph. But there is another way in which you can go about this whole project. Let's assume that you don't really have a whole lot in your cupboards or your refrigerator other than spices and basics like flour, sugar, etc. Okay? Good.

Step 1: Write down everything that you do have, no matter how meager it is, in your pantry and/or cupboards. Estimate how much flour, sugar, etc.

Step 2: Ask each and every family member what some of their favorite meals are. Include them in the process. Trust me, it helps them to actually eat what you cook, especially if you are transitioning from in-the-box processed foods to homemade, as in made-from-scratch foods.

Step 3: Chances are your family will give you 8 to 10 meals. You now need to come up with the rest. I happen to be an avid book collector, and cookbooks are, to the chagrin of my husband, a huge part of my collection. No, really. I have something like 100 cookbooks in my kitchen. Anyway, you want to start perusing through the cookbooks looking for feasible additions to your meal plan. Now, what defines a feasible addition: something that is easy to make, not time intensive preparation-wise, does not require anything that you are not completely comfortable doing, and that does not require any crazy weird special ingredients.

Step 4: This next step is to write down every ingredient that you need to make every single recipe, even if it is only one tablespoon of flour. I used Excel to do this. One column held quantity; the next the type of measurement; and the third the description of the item. Just keep adding ingredients line by line by line. It will be a beast of a spreadsheet. You can do it manually. If doing it manually, only put three ingredients to a page, like flour, sugar, and salt, for example. And then under those headings add the quantities for each recipe. I would suggest putting them in alphabetical order so it is easy to manually manipulate.

Step 5: By now you should have your meals listed and all the ingredients. Here is where it gets fun, and I am saying that sarcastically because in all honesty, complicated math just gives me a headache. We have to create our MASTER pantry list - the one that has all the ingredients that we need to make every single meal on our meal plan. To do this, you first have to reconcile teaspoons, tablespoons, and cups to determine the total that you need of each ingredient for a month. I am going to use butter for an example.

Let's say that over the course of the month you need 18 tablespoons, 4-1/2 cups, and 1 teaspoon of butter. If you look at the funky wax paper on a stick of butter, you see that 8 tablespoons equals 1 stick. And 1 stick equals half a cup; 2 sticks equals 1 cup; and 4 sticks equals a pound - the unit of measurement in which butter is sold. With me so far? Good. So 18 tablespoons, divided by 8 equals 2.25 sticks of butter. We need to add to that the 4-1/2 cups. Each stick is half a cup so we simply add 4 to the 2.25. This means we need 6.25 sticks. Since butter is sold by the pound, as in four sticks per box, we then need to divide the 6.25 by 4. This equals 1.5625. Now, I don't know about your store, but I am pretty sure that my store won't let me split boxes and sticks of butter. So, on my MASTER pantry list, I would write down 2 pounds of butter. I am sure you are wondering about the single teaspoons. A teaspoon is actually only 1/3 of a tablespoon. Obviously, since I have to buy more butter than I need, I am not going to worry about it too much. The best way to approach this is to always start with the smallest measurement and convert up to the largest. Use google to determine how many cups of say, flour, are in a 2 pound, 5 pound, or 10 pound bag. The best way to type this in the search box is to enter it as a formula. Let's say your monthly total of flour came to 18 cups. In google, you would type "18 cups = ? pounds flour". Go ahead. Try it. I'll wait for you.

Still waiting......

So, did you find out that 18-19 cups equals about 5 pounds of flour? Good. See how easy that was? As for items that you need cans of, you will have two choices: you can keep track of the number of cans by size that you need, such 14.5 ounce of this and 19 ounce of that; our you can calculate the total ounces you need for the month and then buy the larger, and usually cheaper per ounce cans. However, if you decide to go bigger and thus cheaper, you absolutely must have a safe way to keep and store the remaining quantity. Let's say you need a total of 48 ounces of tomato sauce. You can either plan to have all of your meals requiring tomato sauce in pretty quick succession so as not to waste any or determine to save the excess in your freezer until you need it. Whatever you do, make sure it is a safe choice!

Now, get back to work and finish doing your MASTER pantry list. I'll wait for you. I promise I won't go anywhere.

Alrighty, then, you get all that math done? Good. Now, onto the last step.

Step 6: The final step is write out your SHOPPING LIST, so compare the list that you made in step one of everything that you had in your pantry with your MASTER pantry list. Let's go back to our butter example from step 5. We had determined that we needed 2 pounds of butter. But you have already determined that you have one pound in the refrigerator. Awesome. On your SHOPPING LIST you are going to write down 1 # Butter. If you are using Excel, it is even easier. Add an On Hand column to the spreadsheet and then using a formula, have it automatically calculate the difference between what you need and what you have. Just make sure that the units of measurement are consistent. In other words, entering 4 when you have four cups of flour won't work if you need 4 pounds. Make sense?

Since I am somewhat organizationally obsessed, I like to organize my shopping list by types, such as: produce, dairy, meats, frozen, baking, spices, etc. so that I am not running back and forth in the store. Be forewarned, this type of shopping will require two or three carts and about three to four hours, depending on how fast you walk, can maneuver the carts through the store, and know where things are. If at all possible, take an adult friend the first time or two to help push the second cart and avoid taking your kids at all costs if possible.

I know that there is a lot of information here and that it will seem overwhelming at first. Simply break it down and do a step or two over a few days or weeks. You can change it up every few months or simply replace those meals that were not as "successful" as you had hoped. You can also take a weekend and make ahead of time as many meals as feasible to store in your freezer. Obviously not all recipes or meals are conducive to this type of preparation, but doing those that you can, will make your meal preparation that much easier.

Do you think that this approach will help you? Or are you simply going to use my meal plan for your family? I'm interested in your opinions and feedback, so let me know what you think by commenting below.

Be blessed.

Can You Feed a Family of Six All 3 Meals for $60 or Less? And What About Gluten Free and Dairy Free?

Apparently my last post was a bit popular. I'll be honest. I usually get a few page views a day. And by a few I mean 10 or less. And really, I'm cool with that. I mean, I just started this thing and was kind of seeing how it would go. You know what I mean? And today we had a whopping 261 page views. You know what that means? People really want to know how to spend less to feed their families. Yesterday's post was an effort to try and help a friend. Today I was asked for two variations: (1) can I make the dinner menu gluten and dairy-free. I'll be honest. My first response was "not a chance". Anybody that has read my posts knows that my family has a love affair with carbohydrates and cheese. No, really. I am married to an Italian and I am German. What is there not to love about pasta, potatoes, and cheese. However, I thought about it a little bit more, and I came up with a solution. I think. You will have to let me know. (2) Can I add breakfast and lunch? Yeah, not at the $50 a week, but I think I can do for $60. So, let's have a look at what we can do.

The Original Meal Plan for $50 (Dinner Only)

Here are the meals that I originally posted that I would make this week if I only had $50 to spend on groceries.

• Sunday: Roasted Chicken with Peas and Instant Potatoes
• Monday: Chili with Cornbread and Honey-Butter
• Tuesday: Chicken Pot Pie with Mixed Veggies
• Wednesday: Meatball Soup with Homemade Biscuits
• Thursday: Bean Enchiladas with Spanish Rice
• Friday: Homemade Mac & Cheese with Chicken and Green Beans (on side)
• Saturday: Beef Stew with Homemade Dinner Rolls

The Gluten and Dairy Free Version

In all honesty, I did not make a whole lot of changes to upgrade it to a gluten and dairy free plan, as you can see:

• Sunday: Roasted Chicken with Peas and Instant Potatoes
• Monday: Chili with Cornbread and Honey
• Tuesday: Chicken & Rice Casserole with Mixed Veggies
• Wednesday: Meatball Soup with Homemade Gluten Free Bread
• Thursday: Enchilada Casserole with Spanish Rice
• Friday: Chunky Potato Soup
• Saturday: Beef Stew with Homemade Gluten Free Bread

That still sounds pretty darn good to me! The next step is to create our shopping list and really, I only made a few minor changes. I have looked up the price for each thing on Wal-mart's website. Prices that are estimated are marked with an asterisk (*).

The Grocery List

• 1 - Whole Chicken, approx. 3 pounds (bigger is better in this case); $4.00*
• 1 - Bag Frozen Peas; $0.88
• 2 - Box Instant Potatoes, $1.98/box; $3.96
• 1 - Family Pack of Ground Beef, approx. 5 pounds; $15.00*
• 1 - Can Kidney Beans; $0.92
• 1 - McCormick Chili Seasoning Envelope; $1.00*
• 1 - Hodgson Mill Gluten Free Cornbread Mix, $2.80/box; $5.60
• 2 - Bag Frozen Mixed Veggies; $0.88 per bag; $1.76
• 1 - Can (14.5 oz.) Diced Tomatoes; $0.88
• 1 - Can Beans (Pinto, Navy, Black - your choice); $0.92
• 2 - Bag Whole Grain Rice; $2.00/bag; $4.00
• 1 - Can (19 oz.) Enchilada Sauce; $2.28/can
• 1 - Bag Frozen Green Beans; $0.88
• 1 - 1 Pound Package of Beef Stew Meat; $3.00
• 1 - 10 Pound Bag Potatoes; $4.00
• 1 - 1 Dozen Eggs; $1.88

Do you see the differences in the grocery list compared to yesterday's post? Basically, I eliminated all the dairy. Yep. All of it: no milk and no cheese. I increased the box of instant potatoes by a quantity of one. I also increased the amount of ground beef needed by two pounds. The biggest shock was the gluten free corn bread. Huge difference between $0.56 per box and a whopping $2.80. I thought my budget was toast! I increased the bag of rice to two bags as well as increased the potatoes from a five pound bag to a ten pound bag. And I added a large can of enchilada sauce. Now, for preparing the meals. I confess, I did go over the dinner budget of $50...by a whole $0.88. I can live with that. I mean, prices vary around the country so I am sure your exact total won't match mine. But we should be super close. Like $0.88 close? I think so. If you really need it to be below the $50, replace the enchilada sauce with two cans of diced tomatoes and blend those with your own seasonings for the replacement of enchilada sauce. In other words, with a little bit of tweaking, you can do it.

I'll be honest, everything from here to the breakfast heading has been quite literally, copied and pasted from yesterday's post. Hey, it's easier than typing the whole thing all over again. I just made a few tweaks so that it was relevant to the upgraded menu. Fair? Good.

To make this meal plan work you need to roast the chicken the first day, eat what you can, and then boil the heck out of it to get the rest of the meat and some broth. I get about six quarts of broth from one tiny little chicken. You need about 2 cups worth of meat that you can set aside. It doesn't have to be pretty, it can be the dark meat and small pieces. These "leftovers" will be used in the chicken and rice casserole. Also, make sure to save any leftover veggies that you have throughout the week as these will be used in our beef stew.

I am not telling you how to roast your chicken, cook your peas, and make instant potatoes since I think that is pretty self explanatory and basic. However, if you have any questions, just let me know.

The hamburger needs to be split in thirds - one third will be used for the chili; one third for the meatball soup, and the final third for the enchilada casserole. I did not put tomato sauce on the list because you can use anything for the tomato in chili ranging from tomato paste to tomato sauce to diced tomatoes, etc. I have even been known to use a $1.00 can of spaghetti sauce a time or two. Okay?

The chili is basically ground meat, seasonings, something with tomatoes, water, and kidney beans. You can make it thin; you can make it thick depending on how many you have to feed. Now, one box of cornbread does not go far; if you can spare the $0.56, grab a second box. You're family will thank you, even if you pay for it in all pennies. I think honey-butter is the best topping for cornbread, but since we are going dairy free here too, you can just smear it with a little bit of pure honey. If you have chili powder and other "hot" spices at home, skip the seasoning packet and make your own. Really, it is super easy and there are all sorts of recipes online for how to make it.

Chicken and rice casserole is simply rice mixed with meat, veggies, and gravy. Since the grocery list calls for long grain rice, which is supposed to be naturally gluten free, cook the rice ahead of time. Then mix it with the rest of the ingredient. Use the cups of chicken from the first night and make your own gravy using the homemade chicken broth and instant potatoes until you get the thickness you want. It's that easy. Use one of the bags of frozen veggies since the other is for the meatball soup. But only use as much as you have to for your casserole dish. You want a nice full dish, but you want to save some of the vegetables for your beef stew if you can.

Meatball soup is really just soup made with meatballs, a can of diced tomatoes, and a bag of frozen veggies. Pretty simple and filling. Fortunately, homemade sourdough bread made with spelt flour, while a little bit more work, can be done. I made my own sourdough starter and we eat quite a bit of homemade bread; I just happen to use a mix of flours that are not gluten free.

I should note here, that I assumed that if you are interested in this gluten free meal plan, that you would have the necessary gluten free flours that can be used. I unfortunately am completely useless at providing guidance on this issue. Please make sure that any flours that you use are plan approved or on a list provided by your physicians. (Sorry, I need to state this but I would hate for someone to eat what I suggest and then get sick.)

We could only afford the one can of diced tomatoes; you can use it with the chili or with the meatball soup.

The night that you are making the enchiladas casserole you will need to make the whole bag of rice ahead of time. Long grain rice takes at least an hour. Some of the rice you will use to make spanish rice; the rest you will blend with your can of beans and one-third of the ground beef purchased to stretch it out a bit. Season the Mix everything with the enchilada sauce and any additional seasoning you desire. I recommend baking it for about 30 minutes so the sauce can season everything else during the cooking process. Quick, easy, filling, and delicious. Okay, so not authentic Mexican, but it still sure tastes good when you are on a budget.

To make the chunky potato soup, simply peel and cut into quarters about half of the potatoes in the ten pound bag you bought. Put them in a crock pot in the morning along with enough of your homemade chicken soup stock from the first meal, to cover the cut up potatoes. Add more soup stock, seasonings, and instant potatoes until the soup has a nice creamy consistency with chunks of potatoes in it.

And finally, the beef stew. Fry up the beef stew meat in some olive oil. Throw it in a stock pot or crock pot and liberally coat with instant potatoes. Pour in some more of your chicken soup stock (trust me, no one will know the difference), and the remaining half of your bag of potatoes. I don't peel mine because I'm lazy; you can peel them if you want. Cut them into fairly big chunks and throw them in with the meat. Cook on low for several hours (high if using a crock pot and dinner is in 4 to 6 hours; later than that? Put it on low; earlier than that, put it on the stove in a stock pot). About an hour before dinner, throw in any leftover veggies you might have from earlier in the week.

What about Breakfast and Lunch?

I came up with a few breakfast and lunch options, all for about $10. Sorry, but these are not gluten free. I was completely and totally at a loss for those two meals. Anyway, first let's update the grocery list to include:

• 1 - Jar of Peanut Butter; $3.00
• 2 - 1 pound bags of carrots; $1.60
• 2 - 1 pound canisters of oatmeal; $4.00
• 1 - 1 half gallon of milk; $2.00

Basically, you would need to add at least half a gallon of milk if you chose to follow the gluten free plan; otherwise, you already have milk if you follow the original meal plan. It's hard to me to account for variables. I am sure you understand the limitations of my capabilities here.

So, breakfast options would be: oatmeal; texas style french toast made with homemade bread; and depending on how many eggs you have left after making your meatballs, you could have hard boiled eggs for breakfast with some homemade toast or as a side for lunch. So you do have some options, just not a lot.

Lunch would basically consist of peanut butter sandwiches made with homemade bread and carrot sticks or any of the leftover soups. Chances are, you would have some; I always seem to have at least enough for one more meal.

So, if you make yesterday's meals with today's breakfast and lunch, you would not need the half gallon of milk and so your total for the week would be....drumroll please.....$58.09. Yeah! See me do the happy dance in my chair. Yes, siree, bob, we figured out a way to feed the family for $58.09.

And for my gluten free and dairy free readers, the total would be $61.56. The killer for the budget, in my humble opinion, was the ridiculously expensive gluten-free cornbread. I mean, we are talking about a five-fold increase! I did look into it very, very briefly. As in, I googled whether or not corn was gluten free. Surprisingly, it said yes. So, could you get away with the cheaper $0.56 box? If yes, then both complete meals plans would be within the $60 budget.

And that would be really cool, in my humble opinion.

And now, with those queries satisfactorily answered, I hope, we will return to our regularly scheduled postings about eliminating the grocery store. After all, if we can eliminate it as much as possible, then the $50 or $60 a week can be spent elsewhere. For me, it would be at either a bookstore or a quilt shop. For my wonderful husband, either a car dealership or the hardware store. Either way, the money is going to go out to somebody. As you know, we need to continue to be good consuming Americans, now don't we. (Reader note....if you missed that, check out the archives. Someone actually thought that eliminating the grocery store was un-American. No, really. You've got to read my response. I personally thought it was epic. Well, classic. Anyway, I thought it was good.)

Have another question or idea for a post? Let me know. I admit, the marbles are few rattling around upstairs on some days. I blame it on the blessings that I have. What do you blame it on?

Be blessed.

Can You Feed a Family of Six Dinner for $50 or Less?

Recently a request was posted on Facebook looking for a menu plan for one week for $50. The economy is really tight right now and I can understand that wives and mommas are looking for solutions to real needs. Now, I am no expert when it comes to money, but I know how to pinch a penny at the grocery store and I know how to plan a fairly comfortable dinner plan. I think it helps that I really love food, too. The size of your family makes a huge difference too; in general, though, we eat way more than other countries by comparison. Sometimes when you are feeling deprived, check out the World Health Organization. I does wonders for the appetite, I tell you. Anyway, these meals would feed me, my husband, and our six kids. Some days, we would eat more than others, but it all balanced out. Now, one is married and one is off to college.

So, for starters, I am going to make some assumptions. I am going to assume that you have a few basics in the pantry, such as flour, salt, crisco, honey, baking soda, baking powder, and pepper. I will not assume that you have things like milk and eggs. This way, if you have milk and eggs but are lacking flour, the trade off should be about equal. Prices vary significantly around the country, but Wal-mart seems to be everywhere. I live in a fairly remote area of Wisconsin, so I am going to assume that our Wal-mart prices - for the Wal-mart located about an hour away from our home - is comparable to Wal-mart everywhere else. I will provide a grocery list for my meals; however, if you already have an item on the list, don't buy it! Use it to get something that I assumed you already had - like flour - or save it for the next week. I am also assuming that you are buying generics. And my final assumption is that you are not follow THM (Trim Healthy Mama) because we are carb heavy here. Sound fair? Okay, then let's get started.

The Meal Plan

Here are the meals that I would make this week if I only had $50 to spend on groceries. We eat according to Leviticus 11 so there is no pork or shellfish on the plan.

• Sunday: Roasted Chicken with Peas and Instant Potatoes
• Monday: Chili with Cornbread and Honey-Butter
• Tuesday: Chicken Pot Pie with Mixed Veggies
• Wednesday: Meatball Soup with Homemade Biscuits
• Thursday: Bean Enchiladas with Spanish Rice
• Friday: Homemade Mac & Cheese with Chicken and Green Beans (on side)
• Saturday: Beef Stew with Homemade Dinner Rolls

Doesn't that sound just scrumptious? I am sure that you are wondering how I am going to pull this off. The next step is create our shopping list. I have looked up the price for each thing on Wal-mart's website. Where prices are not available on the site, I put an estimate based on my 25+ years of hanging out at shopping stores. (Yes, I started at 15 as a cashier - that counts!) Prices that are estimated are marked with an asterisk (*).

The Grocery List

• 1 - Whole Chicken, approx. 3 pounds (bigger is better in this case); $4.00*
• 1 - Bag Frozen Peas; $0.88
• 1 - Box Instant Potatoes; $1.98
• 1 - Family Pack of Ground Beef, approx. 3 pounds; $10.00*
• 1 - Can Kidney Beans; $0.92
• 1 - McCormick Chili Seasoning Envelope; $1.00*
• 1 - Jiffy Cornbread Mix; $0.56
• 2 - Bag Frozen Mixed Veggies; $0.88 per bag; $1.76
• 1 - Can (14.5 oz.) Diced Tomatoes; $0.88
• 1 - Can Beans (Pinto, Navy, Black - your choice); $0.92
• 1 - Bag Whole Grain Rice; $2.00
• 1 - Package of Flour Tortilla Shells; $1.88
• 1 - Bag Frozen Green Beans; $0.88
• 1 - 1 Pound Box of Macaroni Noodles; $2.00*
• 1 - 1 Pound Package of Beef Stew Meat; $3.00
• 1 - 5 Pound Bag Potatoes; $3.00
• 1 - 1 Pound Boxes of Butter; $3.49
• 1 - 1 Gallon of Milk; $3.50*
• 1 - 2 Cup Bag of Colby Cheese; $2.48
• 1 - 2 Cup Bag of Taco Cheese; $2.48
• 1 - 1 Dozen Eggs; $1.88

The total for the groceries - $49.49! Whew. I admit this can be a challenge, but it can be done.

To make this meal plan work you need to roast the chicken the first day, eat what you can, and then boil the heck out of it to get the rest of the meat and some broth. I get about six quarts of broth from one tiny little chicken. You need about 2 cups worth of meat that you can set aside. It doesn't have to be pretty, it can be the dark meat and small pieces. These "leftovers" will be used in the chicken pot pie and in the homemade macaroni and cheese. Also, make sure to save any leftover veggies that you have throughout the week as these will be used in our beef stew.

I am not telling you how to roast your chicken, cook your peas, and make instant potatoes since I think that is pretty self explanatory and basic. However, if you have any questions, just let me know.

The hamburger needs to be split in half - one half will be used for the chili and the other for making meatballs. You need the meatballs for the soup. I did not put tomato sauce on the list because you can use anything for the tomato in chili ranging from tomato paste to tomato sauce to diced tomatoes, etc. I have even been known to use a $1.00 can of spaghetti sauce a time or two. You can sprinkle a small amount of cheese on the soup, but don't go crazy because you need as much as you can spare for the macaroni and cheese. Okay?

The chili is basically ground meat, seasonings, something with tomatoes, water, and kidney beans. You can make it thin; you can make it thick depending on how many you have to feed. Now, one box of cornbread does not go far; if you can spare the $0.56, grab a second box. You're family will thank you, even if you pay for it in all pennies. And honey-butter really just makes cornbread great, doesn't it! If you have chili powder and other "hot" spices at home, skip the seasoning packet and make your own. Really, it is super easy and there are all sorts of recipes online for how to make it.

Chicken pot pie is really just a two crusted pie with meat, veggies, and gravy. Use one of the cups of chicken from the first night and make your own gravy using the homemade chicken broth, butter, and flour. It's that easy. Use one of the bags of frozen veggies since the other is for the meatball soup. But only use as much as you have to for your pie pan. You want a nice full pie, but you want to save some of the vegetables for your beef stew if you can.

Meatball soup is really just soup made with meatballs, a can of diced tomatoes, and a bag of frozen veggies. Pretty simple and filling. Fortunately, homemade biscuits are cheap and easy to make. Just don't go crazy with the butter because right now, that stuff is like liquid gold and priced the same. And you really need a good amount of butter for the macaroni and cheese. We could only afford the one can of diced tomatoes; you can use it with the chili or with the enchiladas instead. If not using it for the meatball soup, just puree it up and you have instant tomato sauce.

The night that you are making the bean enchiladas you will need to make the whole bag of rice ahead of time. Long grain rice takes at least an hour. Some of the rice you will use to make spanish rice; the rest you will blend and puree with your can of beans to stretch it out a bit. Season the bean and rice paste so that it tastes good to you. I am sure you noticed that I did not include enchilada seasonings on the list; we are cheating and using taco seasoned cheese. Divide the bag of cheese in half so that you use one half in the enchiladas and the other half on top. You can make homemade sour cream with a little milk and vinegar. For the enchilada sauce, see the chili instructions for options or see the meatball soup. You have a choice. Layer the enchiladas in a baking dish, cover with a red tomato sauce of some kind, cover with the rest of the taco cheese and bake. Quick, easy, filling, and delicious. Okay, so not authentic Mexican, but it still sure tastes good when you are on a budget.

Homemade macaroni and cheese is the easiest thing to make. Make a basic white sauce, throw in all the cheese you have leftover from the week, including the taco. Melt it in until smooth and creamy with a little salt, pepper, and ground mustard. (Liquid works too if that is all you have; just don't put too much in.) Mix the cheese sauce with the noodles and the last of the chicken. (I cook my noodles in homemade chicken broth. Give more flavor while requiring less meat. Yeah, I know, it's another cheat). Throw it in the oven and bake for about 30 minutes just so that it all melts together really nicely.

And finally, the beef stew. Fry up the beef stew meat in some butter. Throw it in a stock pot or crock pot and liberally coat with flour. Pour in some more of your chicken soup stock (trust me, no one will know the difference), and your bag of potatoes. I don't peel mine because I'm lazy; you can peel them if you want. Cut them into fairly big chunks and throw them in with the meat. Cook on low for several hours (high if using a crock pot and dinner is in 4 to 6 hours; later than that? Put it on low; earlier than that, put it on the stove in a stock pot). About an hour before dinner, throw in any leftover veggies you might have from earlier in the week.

All of my crusts, breads, rolls, etc. are homemade (except for the cornbread) and use only basic ingredients like flour, baking soda, water, crisco, baking powder, etc. I did not provide any specific instructions here, but feel free to let me know if you need a recipe for any of these.

Is this type of a post helpful to you? Would you like me to post other menu plans? If so, at what dollar threshold? Let me know and I'll see what I can come up with for you.

Be blessed.

Eliminating the Grocery Store Challenge - Day 11: Get A Dehydrator....No Really!

I am a huge proponent of having the right tools for the right jobs. I mean, what a chore certain tasks become when you don't have the tools that can make it easier and faster and, well, let's admit it - more fun! Right? Let's look at carrots as an example. I buy my carrots currently at the grocery store. What option do I have in the middle of winter? It is what it is. Anyway, I buy them in the large, five pound bag. I could keep these carrots in my refrigerator, where it would take up about half of one vegetable drawer. I primarily use carrots in soups and stews because we are just not huge fans of cooked carrots. Unless they are cooked in a honey glaze - which is really not all the good for you. So, these carrots would most likely just turn nasty. Come on, we've all been there. Holding our nose with one hand while trying to throw away the white, slimy mess that was once a bag of carrots. My solution to this dilemma? My dehydrator!

But I'm getting ahead of myself. We were talking about the right tools for the job. Okay. Back to the carrots. Now, because these are store bought and definitely not organic, you absolutely should get the skin off. Have you ever tried to peel a carrots with a knife? I just tried - for the fun of it and to see if it was possible. Yeah - only if you want to risk losing a finger or two and waste most of the carrots. See, a peeler is the right tool for the job.

Okay, I know. Pretty dump example, right. But how about slicing the carrots? The way I see it, you have four options: (1) bribe your husband or bully a child to cut them. Assuming, of course, that they don't just jump up and volunteer for the sheer joy of it! Good luck. Especially since they will not be consistent in thickness. (2) Cut it yourself with a knife and try to be as exact and precise as possible. Take a day of it and have fun. Me, I have better things to do. No, really, I do. I don't spend all day in the kitchen. (3) Use a mandolin to slice the carrots. This works okay and is a much better option than a knife. But you do increase the risk of losing a finger tip. And carrots don't fit in the safety holder handle grippy thing. They are usually to hard and skinny. (4) The best tool for the job to slice carrots? A food processor with a slicing tool. You can slice five pounds of carrots in like ten minutes. It's awesome. And with three kids "helping" they could barely keep up handing me the peeled carrots. See, the right tool for the right job.

Now, once those carrots are nicely sliced, put them on the screen of the dehydrator. Now, some people recommend blanching them before dehydrating. Me, forget about it. It's an extra step that isn't necessary - providing you are using them in soups. It also minimizes the time it takes to dehydrate them. However, if you really like your carrots on the side, as in an actual side dish, you may want to blanch them first so that they look a more bright and bold orange. Personally, I could care less. My cooked carrots are usually a caramelized brown when I am done torching, I mean cooking them.

See, don't these look so pretty? Now, I have enough screens to dehydrate ten trays at a time. Believe it or not, that is only a little more than half the bag of carrots. The next day, I did it again and filled another nine trays - so for the math challenged, that means I dehydrated 19 trays of carrots in a two day period. I put this together in the late afternoon once we were done homeschooling and let it dehydrate overnight.

In the morning, we put the finished carrots in jars. That one five pound bag gave me a quart and a half-pint of dehydrated carrots. Now, the last time I did this, I used it in my convenient meals in jars for about 12 of them, if my memory serves me correctly. So, five pounds really doesn't go as far as you think. But still, don't they look so pretty? Orange is really not my color, but I just love seeing these jars. I know, I know, it's probably just me.

Anyway, you really do need to get a dehydrator because you can use it to make your own minced onion, onion powder, garlic powder, chili powder, tomato powder, cheese powder, instant rice, tomato paste, celery, parsley, cilantro, chives, strawberries, mangoes, blueberries, apples, bananas, grapes, etc. I think you get idea. And all of these things can be used to make your food taste absolutely wonderful. And you can prepare meals in advance. Bonus, right? And minimize space required for the refrigerator. And eliminate having unidentifiable plastic growing stinky things in your vegetable drawer. Out of all the reasons to have a dehydrator, that has to be the one that does it for me.

Now, if you'll excuse me for a bit, I have some celery to slice and dehydrate.

Be blessed!

Eliminating the Grocery Store Challenge - Day 10: Say Cheese!

On Friday, I finally broke down and went to do some shopping. Well, my husband went on Thursday night and spent $17 buying two pounds of butter, one gallon of milk, one dozen eggs, and two small containers of heavy cream. I then went shopping on Friday. First I visited my local Amish store to buy some cilantro, which I was completely out of and need to make salsa, and some whole bay leaves that I then crushed. I also bought two 16 ounce containers of sour cream. Total cost of spices and sour cream was $8.

My next stop was the local cheese factory. I am not sure why, but for some reason I thought that the cheese factory store would be more expensive than the local stores in our area. I had resigned myself to paying slightly higher prices in support of a local factory that supported all of our local dairy farmers. To my surprise, prices were cheaper and I ended up saving an acceptable amount. I spent $49 and bought two medium blocks of cheddar and colby cheese and one huge block of mozzarella. I also purchased four pounds of butter because it was only $2.49 per pound instead of the $3.49 and more being charged at the store. And, since the kids were with me and hungry, we bought a package of freshly made cheese curds for $3.18. I recognize that this is a Wisconsin thing, but yummy!

So, I paid $36 for my cheese. I generally use just shredded cheese so as soon as I got home I set up the trusty food processor and began shredding. The medium sized blocks of colby and cheddar cheese each yielded ten cups of shredded cheese; the mozzarella came to twenty cups. I then vacuum sealed these in bags holding about five cups of cheese each. So, I got eight bags of shredded cheese for $36 or roughly $4.50 a bag. I was curious as to how much this same amount of cheese would have cost me at the Wal-mart store located about an hour away from me. I looked at both the generic and Kraft cheese. Personally, I think that our factory cheese is closer to the Sargento brand quality wise, but getting those prices for comparison purposes from online was challenging. I had to convert the advertised prices to a per cup value since Wal-mart does not carry five cup bags of cheese. So, the result?

If I had purchased an equivalent amount of the Wal-mart generic brand of cheese, it would have cost me about $46, or $10 more than I had spent. But this is really good, high quality cheese, so I truly do believe that a more honest comparison is to look at a good brand of cheese, such as Kraft. If I had purchased an equivalent amount of Kraft cheese, I would have paid closer to $56 or $20 more than I had spent.

Lesson learned? Well, even though we might have an impression that something or some place is more expensive, we may be pleasantly surprised to learn that we are wrong. While the goal of eliminating the grocery store was to drastically reduce the amount of money that I would be spending on groceries overall, I anticipated that I would be paying, in some situations, more money but for better quality. To find that I will actually be saving even more money was really nice.

The other good news for the day? I found a source for farm fresh eggs for $1.50 a dozen. A $1.50 per dozen! The same quality of eggs at the grocery store - more than $4 a dozen! And, I can get whole chickens from the same farmer. Double score!

The bad news of the day? I had to buy some carrots and celery to make some more of my convenient meals. So, I bought two packages of celery, one five pound bag of carrots, two loafs of sandwich bread (since I am still working on solving that issue!), and some whipped cream for our homemade apple pie we were having for dinner that night. I also grabbed a bottle of wine and two bottles of sparkling grape juice for the kids. So, I bought a total of nine things at the grocery store. Total cost? A whopping $40! So frustrating.

Overall, we spent a total of $106. I am happy that we didn't buy anything for over a week. And I am happy about the money that I saved purchasing the cheese at the cheese factory as well as my Amish purchases and the new sourcing for poultry products. There is nothing I can really do about the carrots or celery purchase because, let's face it, it's the middle of winter right now. Wine, too is a critical component of our weekly Sabbath so not much I can do about that either, other than learn how to make my own wine. Which requires fresh fruit. And then we run back into the fact that I live in a frozen wonderland.

How did you do this week? What were your grocery expenditures like? Are any of the things that I am doing encouraging you to make changes for your family? Let me know!

Be blessed!

Eliminating the Grocery Store Challenge - Day 9: The Magical Power of Vinegar

There are some things that I absolutely must have in my home in mass quantities at all times - and vinegar is one of them! You should see the strange looks I get when I buy my vinegar - all ten to twelve gallons - at a time. And this is just for a one month supply. Vinegar is one thing that I will have to buy at a minimum quarterly. It is a staple in our household, as much as flour, sugar, and salt. However, all the multiple uses for vinegar can eliminate the need for many other things, such as: fabric softener, dryer sheets, Windex, etc. In a way, it does its part in helping me with eliminating the grocery store - at least, the cleaning department! So, why do I like vinegar so much? Oh, let me share the ways!

• I use vinegar instead of liquid fabric softener. Fabric softener can cost anywhere from $3 to $8 - and that is not even for a whole gallon of the stuff. My generic white vinegar, on the other hand, costs less than $3 a gallon. It helps eliminate funky odors from towels and wash cloths while simultaneously making laundered items nice and soft.
• But that is not all of its wonderful and magical laundry capabilities. I can also use vinegar mixed with really cheap hair conditioner to make homemade dryer sheets. Right now I am using lavender scented conditioner so my clothes come out soft, lightly scented, and with a minimum of shocking power. Dryer sheets run $4 to $6 and give you either 40 or 80 sheets. My one homemade dryer sheet is good for about 50 loads - and it is reusable. Again. And again. And again. At least, until the rag I use for a dryer sheet disintegrates. In about three years time.
• Most people know that vinegar can be used to clean windows and mirrors. We do that too. Windex can cost $3 to $6 a bottle. My wonderful vinegar comes in a gallon size for less than $3 remember, so it is a real money saver there too. And another advantage to vinegar over Windex is the lack of ammonia. This is really important because ammonia does not play nice with other cleaning chemicals.
• Did you know that mixing baking soda with vinegar expands the cleaning potential exponentially? This wonderful mixture as a paste can be used to clean sinks, bathtubs, stove tops, and counters. If you need a little bit of scrubbing power.
• We also use baking soda and vinegar as a deodorizer for plastics, like the kitty litter tub. Pouring in a heavy coating of baking soda followed by a bunch of vinegar will remove the smell from the plastic after sitting for about ten minutes.
• I keep a spray bottle full of vinegar on my counter for quick cleaning. This same bottle is used by the kids to clean the bathrooms. It can be sprayed liberally on all the surfaces, including the toilet, for quick and easy cleaning without any harsh chemicals that I need to worry about exposing them to. Side benefit - less time spent cleaning by me!
• I also use vinegar to rinse my hair. It works great to remove buildups from shampoos and conditioners and leave my locks smooth and silky.
• I use vinegar mixed with olive oil to refurnish my wood floors.
• I love using vinegar to kill the weeds and grass that grow in the cracks of my sidewalk or between the rocks of my fire pit.
• My husband runs straight vinegar through his coffee maker to remove hard water build up. I use it to clean the inside of my tea kettle for the same thing.
• A few tablespoons of vinegar in the water boil canner and the pressure canner keeps my jars from turning white and chalky during the canning process.
• Of course, I also use vinegar in the kitchen. I drink a little bit of vinegar when I make my Trim and Healthy Mama Good Girl Moonshine. A little bit of vinegar can go a long way.
• Vinegar can also be used to convert whole milk into homemade cheese curds and sour cream.
• And of course, I use vinegar to turn cucumbers into pickles for my family.

Isn't vinegar wonderful? I have shared the many ways that I use vinegar - do you have a use that I didn't mention? Share it with us today!

Be blessed.

Eliminating the Grocery Store Challenge - Day 8: Can I Have A Snack? I'm Hungry!

The question, "Can I have a snack" is like a recurring nightmare from which I never seem to wake up. I have a charming and beautiful three year old - the one featured in yesterday's post about pizza - that must be going through a growth spurt. She is constantly seeking and asking for food. And it's always because she "is hungry". I usually have snack-type foods like raisins, carrots, and on occasion, homemade fruit roll ups. But sometimes we just really crave the saltiness of a potato chip or the sweetness of a cookie.

I am not even going to try to make homemade potato chips. I do not want a fat fryer in my house; otherwise I will turn into a fat frier. Nope. It's true. I've had one in the past and I can tell you that there is nothing like home fried foods. Oh. My. Goodness. It was awesome. Until none of my clothes fit. Then the bubble burst. We got rid of the fryer.

Sweets though, I can handle that. Yes, I confess I have a terrible sweet tooth. In an effort to keep the sweets as simple as possible and ensuring that the "stand-by" recipes are ones I can make with readily available pantry items that I will have in bulk, I am working my way through my 1001 Cookies cookbook. Not in any particular order other than as the mood strikes me. Today, when the "Can I have a snack? I'm hungry" message was broadcast for the tenth time, I finally started rummaging around for something to quiet the beast. I mean, the darling child, the apple of my eye. Unfortunately, we were kind of looking at some pretty slim pickings.

My supply of raisins - gone. My homemade fruit roll ups - gone. Veggies - gone. Fruits - gone. Cheese - gone. And I used the last of the milk today for breakfast. I am trying really hard to hold out until Friday but at this rate, I don't think it's going to happen. In the meantime, I needed to create something and quick.

Today's saving snack is homemade sugar cookies.

They are the easiest and quickest things to throw together and this particular recipe does not require any extensive time chilling in the refrigerator. Which is good because I don't think I could have handled the hunger protest for another four hours. It took me about as long as it took the oven to preheat to whip the ingredients together, roll them into balls, spin them around in a sugar bowl, and get them into the oven.

Ten minutes later and I am enjoying the peace and quiet of satisfied children. Not really - we just raised them to not talk with food in their mouths.

Today's lesson is that I need to think about snacks that I can make and store at home for enjoying during those leaner times when the garden is frozen and the kids are sick of eating canned goods like applesauce.

So what kind of snacking foods does your family enjoy that you would have to find a substitute for?

Be blessed.

Eliminating the Grocery Store Challenge - Day 7: Pizza! Pizza!

My family absolutely loves pizza whereas I could live to the end of my days without ever taking another bite out of one. What can I say? My husband is Italian and I am German. Oh, the battles of traditional foods that we have had. (Yes honey, butter goes onto and into everything! No, we do not have to eat something with pasta every single night. How about some meat and potatoes for a change?)

Anyway, pizza is pretty much a once-a-week kind of thing for us, especially if the Green Bay Packers are expected to play. Sometimes, we "splurge" and buy them from Papa Murphy's to bring home and bake ourselves. Most of the time, though, we buy the frozen, tasteless (in my opinion) cardboard pizzas from one of the local grocery stores. If we are going to ever be successful at eliminating the grocery store, then I absolutely have to find a way to make wonderful, aromatic, and tasteful pizzas that I can freeze and make at home.

Today, I took my basic sour dough bread recipe and added some olive oil and sugar to make some homemade pizza dough. I actually doubled the recipe so that I could make as many pizzas as possible. Unfortunately, I had to make them smaller, which means that we will eat them faster than the store versions. The smaller size was necessitated by the size of my Foodsaver expandable bags. I might be able to try to make cookie sheet type ones in the future, but I thought that I would start with cirles.

Once we rolled out the dough into a circle shape, I then used an oven-safe dinner plate to cut it out and pre-bake it for about five minutes. This is supposed to ensure that the pizza does not get soggy and mushy from the freezing and defrosting/baking process. I plan on cooking the pizzas on stoneware, so I will have to let you know how it turns out after we have actually eaten some that have been thus stored.

We then assembled seven pizzas: cheese, pepperoni, spinach and mushroom, and chicken Alfredo. Unfortunately, we ran out of cheese and so our last pizza crust was turned into a dessert pizza covered with brown sugar, white sugar, butter, pecans, and cinnamon.

To be honest, I was really looking forward to eating the dessert pizza. What can I say? I have a terrible sweet tooth!

I had a few little helpers as we processed the pizzas, vacuum sealed them, and got them put in the freezer. Out of seven crusts, I had just enough cheese for six. Of all seven pizzas we made, we were able to freeze five. The other two, we ate for dinner.

The verdict? Well, the dessert pizza was awesome! And, surprisingly, even though I used sour dough starter instead of yeast, the pizza dough tasted like, or I guess I should say better, than any other pizza I have had. If I had not made it myself, I don't think I would have ever noticed or even known that the pizza dough was made with a sour dough starter. It was all pretty good. The true test will come when we cook the ones that we froze. I have a feeling that all five of them will get eaten the same day. I may just have to designate an entire shelf in my upright freezer just for homemade pizza.

You know what they say....if you can't fight them; join them. With six kids that love pizza, I guess I better just give up and steal the chicken Alfredo all for myself.

Do you make homemade pizzas and freeze them? If so, do you have any recommendations or suggestions for me? Comment below and let me know! I could use all the pizza help I can get!

Be blessed!

Eliminating the Grocery Store Challenge - Day 6: Ahh, the Luxury of Convenience

I think that one of the hooks that grocery stores, and restaurants for that matter, have in us is the desire for convenience foods. We all live insanely busy lives and unbelievably, our families still expect to eat three times a day. It's crazy; I know. So, how can we have good, healthy convenient food while eliminating the grocery store?

Actually, it was a lot easier than one would think. There are a few tools that you need to make it work. For starters, a good dehydrator. Preferably one with multiple shelves. Thus far, I really love my Nesco/American Harvester dehydrator with the extra shelves and screens. I dehydrate celery, carrots, potatoes, peppers, spinach, zucchini, corn, peas, beans, and so much more. These dehydrated foods are essential for preparing personalized convenient foods.

Second, you really do need a good vacuum sealing type of system. I use the 2-in-1 sealer from FoodSaver. So far, it has been doing the job.

Third, I would suggest getting some good books with a subject of Meals and Jars. Once you have these, and of course, a bunch of empty jars, you are set to go.

I spent about two hours assembling my convenience foods. Now, mind you, I was doing this while simultaneously monitoring my kids doing school work, so there was quite a bit of back-and-forth going on. However, after it was all said and done, I prepared 20 meals in less than 2 hours. What did I make?

I assembled four jars for each recipe:

• Chicken Noodle Soup
• Chicken 'N Rice Soup
• Potato Soup
• Beef, Lentils and Rice Soup
• Beef, Lentils and Pasta Soup

Now, each of these does require a few additional ingredients to finalize the meal. The beef soups need a can of diced tomatoes as well as some of my home-canned beef. The chicken recipes need canned chicken and the potato soup requires some milk. If I don't have canned meat readily available, I can always cook up some fresh, too. Part of my plan for eliminating the grocery store is to continue canning meats like beef and chicken. While I have not done so in the past, I can also preserve my own diced tomatoes too, instead of using the store canned version.

Next, I need to determine a way to make and save homemade frozen pizzas. What are some of the convenience foods that your family is pretty dependent upon? Be sure to stay tuned.

Be blessed.

Eliminating the Grocery Store Challenge - Day 5: Breaking the Sandwich Habit

My kids eat a sandwich for lunch on an almost daily basis. Their favorite is peanut butter and nutella. We finally got them to try peanut butter and jelly made with my homemade jelly. And they will eat it, but they still prefer nutella. As part of eliminating the grocery store I need to break the lunch-time sandwich habit. This is in part due to the bread issue.

From a health perspective, I think it is safe to say that my kids are carbohydrate junkies. This does not bode well for them as adults, especially if they follow in my footsteps. I recognize that growing kids need way more carbohydrates than adults but at the same time, I don't think that they should live solely on them. In reviewing our meals I was surprised by how large a role carbohydrates are playing. No wonder I am not losing weight!

I can make awesome homemade bread using commercially produced yeast. Wonderful, soft, rich homemade bread. The kind where you can eat an entire loaf with a cup of butter. In an hour. As good as this bread is, it just doesn't work for sandwiches since it is too soft and light. And bigger slices don't really work either.

I have also learned how to make homemade sour dough bread without commercially produced yeast by making my own fermented starter. Fermented foods are good for your digestion, but sour dough and peanut butter. Bleh. Not so tasty. And my kids complain that it "is not the same as store bread".

How does one make store bread at home? Until I can solve that issue I am working on making lunches that do not require sandwiches. Thankfully it is winter so homemade soups can go far. My kids love my homemade tomato soup using the produce from our garden. And I can make a pretty tasty chicken noodle soup too. Provided I can live with the carbohydrates. Sigh. Add learn how to make homemade noodles to the list.

I am finding that this challenge has a tendency to have a snowball effect. I figure out one thing, such as how to replace paper towels, only to discover that I need to learn multiple things in the from-scratch department. What keeps me going is knowing that people used to live this way a long time ago. And knowing that I am not the only person to try this. Thankfully I can look to what others have done and tried. And hopefully, we can all start sharing ideas here too, so that we can all learn together. Knowing that we are not alone is nice.

Be blessed.

Eliminating the Grocery Store Challenge - Day 4: Being A Good American?

As I continue to research various ways to try eliminating the grocery store, I stumbled across a post by someone where they accused the writer of not being a good American in their effort to reduce their expenditures. Unfortunately, I did not save the post; I would like to ask that person how does spending money make someone a good American? We consider ourselves to be good Americans - maybe more inline with early 1900's conservative America as opposed to 2014 liberal America, but still good consuming Americans.

While I am working at eliminating the grocery store, I am realistic in that I do need to purchase certain basics, like flour, sugar, salt, coffee, and spices, to name a few. The goal is to spend $100 or less each month opposed to the $1,000 per month we have historically spent. So, instead of paying $1.99 for a one pound canister of oatmeal, I will pay $20.00 for a 50-pound bag. Instead of paying $30 for sugar (5-10 pound bags at $6.00 per bag), I can buy a 50-pound bag of sugar for $25.00. Buying in bulk will obviously save us some money and support the local Amish community instead of some larger corporate giant.

If consumerism is the measuring stick for determining whether or not someone is a good American, rest assured, we will still be spending the money - just on other things. For example, out of the $12,000 annual grocery expenditure, I am hoping to spend only $1,000 this year. That is a savings of 90%. Of the $11,000 remaining, we might be able to replace my husband's car, for cash. A car that has over 250,000 miles on it. Or we might be able to replace my two-door coupe with a family sized van. We are also attempting to restore our home, which has been flipped several times over the years. It takes money to renovate bathrooms and kitchens. A fair amount of money. So yes, we will still be consuming, at least until the house is finished.

We have an extensive garden and are planting a small orchard. That means buying fencing, seeds, and trees. Rather than spending money on groceries, that we eat once and are done with, we are investing in future food supplies. It is important to know our history. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, most people were self-sustaining, living debt-free, paying cash or bartering for things that they could not produce for themselves.

Did you know that debt was practically a foreign concept? In fact, home mortgages did not come about until after the second World War. We have made an effort to remain debt free as much as possible; hence, the need to reallocate expenditures. We do not want to go into debt to renovate our kitchen. We do not want to go into debt to renovate our bathrooms. We even went so far as to negotiate a land contract when we purchased our home; we pay less interest than the bank would have charged and are supporting another person directly instead of a corporation.

Finally, I just want to say that if being a good American means high consumerism, high debt, low savings, and a dependence on currency, then we need to redefine what being a good American is all about. After all, our nation was founded on Christian values - a system promoting contentment instead of consumerism, no debt opposed to indebtedness, and being a good steward of what we have already been blessed with.

Be blessed.