Saving Money and Frustrations

Living on a budget and trying to save your health and the environment can get to be frustrating. Last year we invested in a big bag of soap nuts. The price was reasonable when you considered all it was replacing. For $35 we had laundry soap, bath soap, shampoo, etc. The only problem was we didn't like it. My family hated the feel of the soap on their skin and hair. I hated that it went bad so I had to constantly make fresh batches and keep them in the refrigerator (which meant remembering to take it out and using really cold soap on our bodies). Eventually, it just became laundry soap. Our laundry grew dimmer and dimmer over the months until one day my husband announced he had had it. He does the laundry in our home and he just couldn't do it any more. I was so grateful because I could stand the fact that my clothes looked awful and the static was enough to kill us all. It just didn't work for us. The worst part is I still have half a bag of soap nuts that I have to figure out what to do with (supposedly they make great insect repellent so that's what we'll be using it for). This is just one example of how hard it is to do the right thing. Last night was grocery night. There were sales we didn't want to miss so mid-week shopping was what we had to do. I can't control when the food stamps arrive or when pay day is - fortunately they are on the same day. That meant late evening shopping which is frustrating enough. We started at our Co-op. The plan was to buy the hamburger there. The price has been $2.89 and if you buy three packs you get it for $2.59. The meat department was dark by the time we made it there (that in its self is a long terrible story but not all that important except to say I was already tired). The hamburger was $3.39. What!? My mother was there on Sunday and it was $2.89. After a time and me nearly leaving without hamburger. The lovely man that was helping us had finally found someone who knew something about the deal. We got 30 cents off a pound and bought the last four packs (two for us and two for my dad). We ended up paying $3.09 a pound. It's still a better deal but 50 cents in two days is a huge price jump. I did find a huge container of plain yogurt for just over $5 which was great because I wanted to start adding yogurt back into my lunch. This will get me a months worth and then I can save some to make my own (I forgot to save some from my last batch). On to store number 2. I had 2 things I wanted to get there - butter for $1.69 a pound and milk. Before we gave up milk we bought it there. The milk was from a local(ish) farm and was amazing, except I can't remember the name of the farm. There were three choices at the store - generic for $2.49, Dairygold for $2.99 and one organic brand for over $6. No local farm milk. I did peek at the milk at the co-op and there was nothing there for less than $6 a gallon. I can't do it. I remember the milk we bought wasn't that pricey, when did organic milk become over twice the price of the non-organic milk. No organic milk for us this month. I head for the butter. It's a generic brand for $1.99 with a coupon for 30 cents off. Not bad, except I forgot this is Idaho and even if you use food stamps, they tax the coupons. I didn't even think about it. As we were checking out, my son was going on about how he wanted some change and I hadn't even brought in my purse so I had nothing. That's when the girl at the counter asked if we had 12 cents to pay the tax. I understand that 12 cents is not much but it's inconvenient. I think it's horrible and the state's way of preventing those who use food stamps from using coupons. It's nearly a scam - the food is not taxed because of the food stamps but the coupons are. It's the whole reason I refuse to use coupons. I know if I think about this rationally - I saved $1.80 and they only want me to pay 12 cents but I have to tell you - I never have change. Change is what my son always takes. He loves the change, always had and I don't have a problem giving him the pennies and what not I find. But I, also, rarely deal in cash so change is not something I always have. By this time we had spent most of our food stamps (down to $18) and had 6 different foods to feed my family - hamburger, yogurt, milk, eggs, butter and flour (my wonderful husband had picked up the flour earlier in the day). For those who are keeping track - we started with $92. I'm fully frustrated. I don't know how I'm going to feed my family. Our cupboards are getting barer and barer each month. I still have a ton of applesauce but that's not any good if I don't have more to go with it. We're working our way through the grains we have in the pantry and the beans but I still haven't got a plan in place for when they are gone. I still have the option of going to the store right now but it makes me think of what will happen if I don't have that option. What if the world really does end? I worry about the economy and the environment. I've always been a nature lover but over the past few years I have been learning about what nature really provides for us. I get to thinking about the weeds - there's food and nutrition out there but there's also pesticides and herbicides and natural poisons. This winter has opened my eyes. I have to learn more, be vigilant in finding free or inexpensive sources of food, and find ways of preserving that food without coating it in sugar or salt. I know I'm not alone in this. I'm finding a growing community of people who want the same thing - sustainable sources of healthy food. That I am grateful for.

Monday Morning

I thought I had a recipe in mind for today but I can't remember what it was to save my life.  I'm having a braindead sort of day.  Tomorrow is grocery day which means things are a little tight in the kitchen.
Yesterday I made graham crackers out of nothing but graham flour since I had no other wheat flour in the house.  They are good.  Have a sort of coconutty texture and flavor to them which was weird since I had only thought about adding coconut flour.  I'm guessing that the graham flour lends a sort of coconut feeling.  I left out the spices so they are rather plain and cracker like but we were going to make s'mores (until we discovered the buckets of candy my dad brought for Easter).  I did make marshmallows, opting to use frangelico in place of the vanilla.  It didn't really change the flavor but we'll see how they roast. 
Let's see what else do I have to share.  My dad made an amazing ham for Easter.  I'll get his glaze and share.  He always uses a recipe so it's easy to get them from him.  I know the glaze had mustard and maple syrup.  I used the drippings on my mashed potatoes - what an amazing meaty sweet sauce it made.
Speaking of ham, that's got some good prices right now.  All the Easter sales carry on until tomorrow so we'll be shopping in the evening of a work night.  I prefer shopping on the weekend so I have time but we want to hit the remaining sales.  One store has butter for $1.69 a pound so we'll be stocking up.  We're moving away from the Nucoa.  We're reinvestigating my husband's dairy allergy since he hasn't gotten any healthier staying away from the dairy.  We'll be on the lookout for a local milk that I know has been sold in the area before.  I just can't remember the name so that's my mission for tomorrow.  We'll be buying hamburger from the co-op.  It's local beef and ground there at the store.  If you buy 3 packages it's $2.59 a pound.  Slightly higher than my $2 a pound limit but I have discovered that it's not working.  We are so sick of chicken thighs.  We're also worried about all the new discoveries they are making when it comes to meat products.  The co-op also sells chickens for $1.99 a pound but at the moment it's whole chickens so we'll look into that next month.
Still working on researching foods and I think we're moving in the right direction.  We're back to butter and getting rid of the plasticy Nucoa.  We've been investigating coconut oil.  At this moment, we haven't switched because the best price is mail-order and I'm just not ready for that yet.  I make lotions and soaps so having large quantities of coconut oil is good (the stuff I have now I'm not sure is good for eating so when that is gone, we'll be buying new stuff that will be food-grade).  I'll share more on that when we get around to the order.
Safeway has the whole white wheat flour on sale for $4.69 (new regular price $4.99) until tuesday.  My son didn't think 30 cents was much of a sale but when we started explaining that last month we paid $5.09 but prior to that we paid $5.39, it feels like a much better sale.  Still not $1.99 like white flour but we'll take what we can get. 
We're skipping the bountiful basket this week because of the season.  It's just hasn't been a great selection and we're so full of apples and pears that we want to wait to get into a new season of foods before buying again.  We may get one next week or wait until towards the end of the month.  We've gotten a little back-up with some of the produce so it gives us a chance to use everything up.

Homemade gummy candy

Yesterdays menu:  Breakfast - fried egg with grape tomatoes, Lunch - leftovers from dinner, Dinner - a one pot dish with cabbage, broccoli, onions, peppers and polish sausage served over barley.

One of my favorite treats is gummy candy but I hate all the artificial gunk in them.  My husband and I were talking about this one day and he mentioned a woman he knew growing up who made all natural gummy bears to sell in his community.  Yesterday, I thought it was time to see if there was a recipe online.  The one I am sharing today is the first recipe I found.  It's not all natural since it uses packaged Jello but it was so easy that I was glad I started there instead of picking a complicated natural recipe.  My mom had said she wanted a particular jelly candy - it's similar to a gummy candy but with nonpareil candies coating it.  I rushed home and made this candy.  The gummy part is great.  I don't recommend trying to coat them in nonpareils.  They were hard to keep on the candy and by morning had disintegrated into a rainbow goo which stains (they were making lovely colors on my plates last night when they were being attached).  The candy replication for my mother was not a success but I did manage to make a really good gummy candy.  It was so easy that I may never buy gummy candy again.
I did not use a mold but poured it into a 9x9 glass pan.  They're not pretty but great for learning.  If you choose to use molds - do not grease and let the candies sit for awhile.  The recipe said 20 minutes but mine was still tacky (I did double the batch) which was perfect for adding the nonpareil mess but difficult for removing.  I just cut mine up with scissors to make bite sized candies.

Gummy Candy
1 3oz box of Jello
2 packages of knox gelatin
1/3 cup water
Add water to a saucepan and sprinkle on Jello and gelatin.  Let sit 5-10 minutes.  Cook on medium heat, stirring constantly, until all the gelatin has dissolved (2-5 minutes).  Pour into molds or glass pan (ungreased).  Let sit for 20 minutes before removing.
Easy Peasy!

Lentil Chili

We tried out the lemonade. I was slightly disappointed that it didn't taste special. It was still overly sweet, even after cutting a whole cup of sugar (next time I might cut it to 1 1/2 cups). To me, it tasted like Kool-aid Lemonade. I had expected something that would be like nothing I could get at the store. It's still good and the family thinks it's the best thing ever. Yesterday's menu: Breakfast - grits with just a little butter, Lunch - dinner leftovers, Dinner - spaghetti with homemade sauce (4 slices pepper bacon, 2 cans low salt tomato sauce, onion and garlic powders), salad. I stopped by the store to pick up the pasta since we're not buying it anymore and the family really wanted pasta. Eggs were on sale 99 cents a dozen so I picked up two. My plan was to buy some parmesan cheese but I only had 5 dollars. The pasta was $1.50 and I wanted two dozen eggs since we were starting to go through them fast again and Monday I paid $1.89 for a dozen. That didn't leave me much for cheese and the parmesan was nearly $3. I opted for cheese sticks - 1 mozzarella and 2 cheddar at 3 for $1. It's makes for pricier cheese per ounce but all I wanted was some for dinner as a treat so this worked perfectly. We're not eating cheese right now while we're trying to get my husband off of dairy. I noticed we've really missed it because I bought real butter on Monday (with the eggs to make the lemon curd) and we're going through it rather fast. It didn't help that we used nearly half of the butter in making the lemon curd. I don't have a recipe that I have made this week to share with you. I would have loved to shared my husband's soup recipe but it was really a dump of what we had in the kitchen (I think he used split peas instead of lentils but I haven't double checked). I have shared my lentil chili recipe just this last December so I thought - I'll share the famous Lentil Festival Chili with you. This is an award winning chili that is served every year during the Lentil Festival. They serve it from this huge bowl and it's free for everyone to come eat. It's so good and this recipe, though smaller than what they use, still makes a good vat of chili. Every year they do a lentil recipe contest so you may be seeing some more recipes posted as we try to find the perfect entry. World’s Largest Bowl of Lentil Chili Submitted By: National Lentil Festival -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- INGREDIENTS Lentils: 2 2/3 Cups Water: 3 Quarts + 1 Cup Onions, diced: 2/3 Cup Celery, diced: 1/3 Cup Carrots, diced: 1/3 Cup Tomato puree: 17 Oz. Pace brand salsa: 1 Cups + 1 Tablespoon Chili powder, mild: 2 Tablespoon Cumin: 1 Tablespoon Granulated garlic: 1 Tablespoon Granulated sugar: 2 Tablespoons Kosher salt: 1 1/2 Tablespoons Crushed red chili flakes: 1/2 Teaspoon 2/3 Cup water and 1/4 Cup cornstarch, stirred into a slurry Cinnamon: 1/2 Teaspoon Chopped cilantro: 1 Tablespoon Mexican chocolate: 2 oz. Green bell pepper, diced: 1/3 Cup Red bell pepper, diced: 1/3 Cup -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DIRECTIONS 1. DO NOT INCLUDE CILANTRO OR CORNSTARCH SLURRY AT THIS TIME. Mix all ingredients together (EXCEPT cilantro and cornstarch slurry), bring to a boil, stir and cook (will take a couple of hours) until lentils are tender. 2. When the lentils are tender and the broth is well blended, add the cornstarch slurry and continue cooking until the chili consistency is very uniform. 3. Just before serving: add the cilantro, stir, serve.

Lemonade Syrup

Yesterday's Menu- Breakfast: grits with a fried egg, Lunch: Leftovers from dinner, Dinner: Lentil vegetable soup (water with beef bouillon, lentils, onions, peppers, tomatoes), cornbread, salad (romaine lettuce, cucumber, tomato).
I made the lemon curd while my husband made cornbread for dinner. The triple batch of lemon curd used far more eggs than I planned (I don't know why but my brain refuses to acknowledge how many eggs are in a batch) so I only made a triple batch (instead of 2 triple batches). This worked out perfectly though. I got four 8 oz jars and a little leftover for dinner. I canned the jars so I can send one to a friend. The lemon curd was amazing on the cornbread.
I went on to use the remaining lemon juice in Lemonade syrup. I used only 2 cups of sugar since these lemons were rather sweet and 3 cups just seemed excessive. The flavor is great and it made about 1 1/2 quarts (I just poured into to canning jars to store in the fridge). It was still warm so we didn't try it as lemonade but as syrup it is so tasty. It's not thick enough to use on something like pancakes but I was tempted to just drink it out of the bottle. Once again I skipped the zest - all my lemon peel is now nicely frozen for future projects (like lemoncello). I used a pot to make this syrup and even heated the water/sugar mix just a little to make sure all the sugar dissolved.

Lemonade Syrup
3 cups sugar
1 cup boiling water
3 cups fresh lemon juice (about 16 lemons)
2 tablespoons grated lemon zest
Measure sugar into 1½ quart bowl. Pour boiling water over sugar and stir until dissolved. Let mixture cool before adding lemon juice and zest. Blend well and store in covered jar in refrigerator. To make lemonade, blend ¼-1/3 cup lemonade syrup with ¾ cup cold water. For a sparkling, fizzy lemonade, use club soda or seltzer in place of water.

Lemon Curd

Menu for yesterday - last of the homemade instant oatmeal for breakfast and leftovers from Sunday dinner (veggies and pork chops cooked with cream of chicken soup and rice). Dinner was fantastic. My husband put 4 chicken thighs in a casserole dish (3 for dinner, 1 for my lunch). He covered them with leftover pasta sauce and sprinkled on feta cheese and then baked the whole thing at 350 until the chicken was perfectly cooked. The feta doesn't melt but makes a crust that tasted amazing. He also sliced up sweet potatoes and baked them into chips and served it all with millet groats. The millet groats have no flavor but covered in sauce from the chicken they were amazing. It could easily become a favorite grain, especially since they come in bags that you boil them in (super easy).
I didn't take time to make the lemon curd last night since I wanted to do some research on canning it first. Lemon curd is made with eggs so I wasn't sure they would be shelf stable. I want to send some to my friend in LA who sent me the lemons. I did learn I can seal the jars but they need to be used in two months - that should work to get a jar to her.
This recipe makes a tiny amount and can easily be doubled. I'll be making 2 triple batches because I am not confident in the ability to make a 6x batch. I, also, skip the zest. I like the creaminess and don't want anything chewy to disrupt the wonderfulness of this spread. I've made this with lemon/lime juice and grapefruit juice. I did purchase real butter for this since I have never made it with nucoa.
To can - process in a water bath for atleast 20 minutes.

Lemon Curd
2-3 lemons
1/2 cup sugar
3 eggs
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into cubes
Zest 1 lemon. Squeeze juice from lemons to measure 1/3 cup. In heavy saucepan, combine juice, zest, sugar and eggs. Whisk until blended. Place over med-low heat. Stir constantly, slowly add butter - let melt before adding more. Cook slowly until thickened 10-15 minutes. Transfer to bowl and cover with plastic wrap to prevent film on surface.

Weekend Planning

I had to come up with something. I've been terrible this week. Menus for yesterday - Breakfast was grits with bay seasoning, Lunch was hash browns with eggs and tortillas and carrot sticks. Come the evening, my dad invited us over for Pizza. He was out and about and decided to get Papa Murphy's but he can't eat the whole thing. I know he could buy smaller but he likes the company. We talked him into coming over to our house so I could work on stuff that didn't happen (we ended up with more company and it was nearly nine when everyone left - oh well).
The thing about the weekend is that it's a chance for me to play with recipes and work on projects. I like going into the weekend with a plan. Maybe not concrete because things happen but a list of recipes I can play with.
Tonight is movie night so it's spaghetti night with my dad. Saturday will be different since my son and I will be in Moscow all morning. I have a craft jury to attend (cross fingers because this could be a good money maker for us and an opportunity to do something fun). While there, we plan on spending our time doing the community scavenger hunt. If you get 15 items, you get a $5 gift certificate. I think I might use that to buy us something for lunch since we'll be there a long time.
My husband already has dinner ideas - we're doing stir fry with barley. Barley has become his favorite grain. Maybe we'll make the hulled barley and see how that compares.
Sunday brings Sunday dinner. We try to attend church but I haven't been feeling well and my husband is working all weekend so we'll be staying home. A great time to cook up those pears and lemons that I want to work with. Next week, I should have great recipes to share. I'm thinking a lemon focaccia and more pear breads (oh and lemon curd of course).
We're not great with our meal planning and that's something we need to work on. Maybe we'll sit down and plan the weeks meals. I hope to make up some pizza dough. Dough freezes well so I could mix it up ahead of time and have it ready. I could bake it too and have it be completely ready for use - so many ideas, now I just need the time and energy to follow through.

Potato Candy

Yesterday we had leftovers for breakfast and lunch - nothing interesting there. For dinner my husband made a rice dish. He sauteed a head of cabbage with a polish sausage (we picked up four packages on a really good sale). He added the remaining onion soup that I turned into gravy and some leftover plum sauce and served it over brown rice. It was good. A bit on the gooey side but the brown rice offered a nice firm texture under the saucy cabbage. The flavor was amazing. It's fun to clean out the fridge sometimes and dump extra sauces in dishes. Sometimes it's the seasonings that make the dish.
I promised a potato candy recipe - the actual recipe will be at the end of this post.
My son has this deep love of potato candy and, to him, it's the ultimate St. Patricks Day food. He requests it when he has a function at school during the holiday.
I started with having him peel 6-7 small potatoes (I thought they were small, in hindsight they may have been closer to medium). I wanted him to have enough but I also thought it made sense to use up the bag. I didn't realize this was far too many potatoes. I boiled the potatoes until they were soft and then ran them under cold water to keep them from being to hot to handle. I mashed them with a stick of Nucoa and then set them in the freezer to cool. It took a little work but by the time I added the sugar they were cold. I mixed in slowly an entire 2 pound bag of powdered sugar. This was when I realized I was in trouble. I didn't have anything resembling a dough - this was a definite soup of a mess. I couldn't run to the store - I didn't have time since I left this to the last minute so I did what any great cook does, I substituted. I added some regular sugar, maybe 2 cups but that didn't really help and the texture went from smooth to gritty. I needed something that maintained the current flavor and yet thickened it. While thinking on that, I added the vanilla which was not enough and my homemade version wasn't strong enough. Being of quick mind, I grabbed a rather dusty, forgotten bottle of Irish Cream coffee syrup and added that to the mix. It was perfect, the flavor complemented nicely and may become the new flavoring for this particular candy. I decided that coconut flour would be perfect since I finish off with coconut. I like coconut flour, it adds a nice nutty flavor to baked goods and was my go to GF flour (I started using it long before going GF though because it's high in fiber). About 1 cup of the flour and the dough was good to go. I finished it with about 2/3 of a bag of sweetened coconut and put the whole thing in the fridge. By this time I was too tired to spend time rolling it into balls and then in the remaining coconut.
My son and husband did that before his party. He said the kids were skeptical at first but then ate them all up. I want to note that they only rolled a portion of the dough. I still have a ton of it in my fridge that I need to come up with a plan for. The gritty texture never really went away but the flavor only got better. I may be coming up with a way to use the dough as a filler in cookies.

Potato Candy
1 large potato - peeled
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
4-5 cups confectioner’s sugar
5 cups sweetened coconut flakes
Boil potato until soft Mash until smooth and add butter. Let cool completely. Mix in vanilla and slowly add sugar. (if the potato is still warm it will melt the sugar so make sure it is cool). Add sugar until you have a stiff dough. Knead in half of the coconut. Roll the dough into small balls and roll in remaining coconut. The dough gets soft when warm so may have to refrigerate it to make it workable.
Can add green food coloring with the vanilla.

Menus and Peppered Bacon and Pear Scones

I was talking with my mother on Friday and we got to talking about keeping a record of what we eat especially when it comes to how we use the foods we forage. I've been struggling a little with this blog because I haven't found a good way to share how we survive the month with our food budget. I have shared recipes and grocery budgets but that doesn't touch the day to day ways we stretch our food and the mistakes we make. Starting this week, I will be sharing our daily menus as well as recipes and tips. It may need some tweaking so please be patient while I figure out how best to share this information.
Sundays are a family dinner day and consists of a sort of potluck centered around a theme or main dish. Currently, we are down to just us and my dad. Sometimes we get more family and weird combinations as people just bring something to share.
This Sunday we wanted to do something Irish in honor of St Pat's day but no corned beef. My mother had given us a roast that she found in her freezer - she wasn't quite sure what it was or what condition it was in but we're forever scavengers so we gladly took it.
We got our Bountiful Baskets on Saturday. In the basket we had - romaine lettuce, tomatoes, spring onions, some kale looking leafy green (that no one was able to identify), potatoes, granny smith apples, 2 english cucumbers, carrots, oranges, melon, and 2 cabbages. I think that was everything.
We centered our meal around the roast and his basket (since it's really just him, he likes to use it when we eat with him). We cooked the roast in the crockpot for 6 hours. We had covered it onion soup I had made weeks before (we froze the excess). It was amazing. My dad made a salad of lettuce, shredded carrots, chopped cucumbers and tomatoes. Then he grated Cougar Gold Cheese over the top. Then he chopped up a cabbage and sauteed it with garlic and soy sauce. We microwaved some potatoes while I made a gravy out of the onion soup (1/2 stick butter, 1 cup flour and all the soup). We finished the meal with some cupcakes my father made (cake mix, frosting and grated coconut).
That was dinner. I had made breakfast late in the day so we only had the two meals.
Breakfast was Peppered Bacon and Pear Scones. We have some overly ripe pears that need to be cooked so you'll be seeing a lot of pear dishes this week. I had come across a recipe for Peppered Pear Scones and thought they would be wonderful with the peppery bacon I had purchased this month. These have no added sugar and just a touch of fat making them fairly healthy and super tasty.
Peppered Bacon and Pear Scones
2 cups chopped over-ripe pears (removing core and seeds but leaving skin)
2 cups whole wheat white flour
2 teas baking powder
1/4 teas baking soda
4 slices thick cut peppered bacon
2 eggs
1 TB Molasses
1/4 cup milk
Bake bacon in the oven (lay bacon on a cooling rack over a cookie sheet) at 350 until crisp. Meanwhile make batter. Add flour to a bowl with baking powder and baking soda. Beat in eggs and molasses. Mix in pears, taking care not to break them down too much. Using scissors, cut bacon into 1/4 inch pieces and drop into bowl. Add 1 tablespoon bacon grease, try to get the meat drippings and extra pepper in the process. Mix thoroughly. Drizzle in milk, 1 tablespoon at a time until the batter is wet. Pour onto a baking sheet and smooth out until an even 1/2-3/4 inch. The batter will be rather wet.
Bake at 375 for 10-15 minutes or until cooked through. Serve warm with butter.