Menu Monday - Eating Out of Food Storage

Here's is my menu ideas for the upcoming week.  I'm pretty terrible at following menu plans but i do like to start off the week with a loose idea of what is available, needs to be cooked and would please my fam.

I should start out by saying we do not eat like a traditional family.  I place that blame on the mechanic.  The man completely refuses to eat at set times of the day.   Typically he has a smoothie in the morning before work and will eat his next meal after he is finished for the day.  Sometimes that is at 5:00 p.m. or it may be 11:00 p.m.  

Stormy is a challenge as well.  She just hates to eat and would rather not be bothered by it.  Many a plate has been set before her just to remain untouched.  No amount of bribes, treats or threat of punishment will change her mind.  Therefore I simply feed her when she asks for it.  That being said, she really only likes  to eat about 4 different items at a time and they can change without notice.  I keep her favorites stocked up and ready to go.  Right now she is eating noodles with butter and cheese, white rice with butter, peanut butter and honey on toast, cheese, smoothies and this morning she shocked me by eating my french toast so there is a chance that may go in the rotation. 

What works for my family is to just to have food ready.  At all times I like to have in my fridge beans, noodles or rice, a side veggie and a main dish.  I also make sure we always have bread and a baked good made and smoothie ingredients.

Here is what I plan to have ready  this week for whoever is hungry at any given time. 

Breakfasts:  eggs, oatmeal, yogurt and smoothies

Main Dish for Lunch or dinner:  egg salad sandwiches, Sloppy Lentils, stir fried rice, beans and lasagna.

Side veggies:  frozen Normandy mix, pickled beets, and spicy carrots are ready to go

Baked good or snacks:  My "Kind" Bar (knock off recipe) with walnuts and dried cherries and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.  We also enjoy popcorn, hot buttered bread and peanut butter and jelly on bread

Part of my canning pantry

More of my pantry

I already have all the ingredients needed for the week.  I'm planning having two kitchen days where I cook and restock the fridge and the rest of the week will just be a manner of eating the leftovers.

Frugal Friday - Easy Crockpot Beans From Scratch

We love eating beans!  They are nutritious, delicious and cheap.  But that is only true if you cook your own beans.  The store bought canned  beans are expensive and not nearly as nutritious or delicious.  I'm pretty baffled about why more people do not cook their own beans because it's easy but it intimidates the best of cooks.

If you have a crockpot you are golden!  It's possible to cook beans easily without a crockpot but with one is the easiest way I have found.  I make at least two pots a week and we always have beans available to eat in the fridge.  So easy to make burritos, beans on toast, beans and rice or a quick pot of chili if they are ready to go.  My all time favorite way to eat them is folded in a corn tortilla with some rice and cheese and fried until the tortilla is crispy.  

Here's my easy, fast and cheap way to make a great pot of beans.

1.  The night before measure out the amount of beans (any type)  you want to cook.  I cook three cups at a time.  Sort the beans by picking out any stones or deformed beans.  Most bags of beans today are very clean without stones but if you are picking up commodity beans it may be a different story.

Sorting Beans

2.  Rinse the beans in a colander and put in a large bowl.  Cover beans with water, making sure you have twice the amount of water to beans because they will swell up.  I like to add a splash of apple cider vinegar in there.  Soaking your beans overnight helps them to become easier to digest (less gas for you), more nutritious and faster to cook.  If you forget this step you can still cook them.

Soaking beans with a splash of ACV

3.  The next morning, I drain off the water and place the beans in the crockpot.  I cover with fresh water and add my spices.  I typically use 1 1/2 tbsp of salt, 1 tbsp pepper, 1 tbsp chili powder or cumin, onion and garlic (fresh or powder).  .  We do like it spicy so make sure you season according to your taste.  I set my crockpot on high and let it rip along all day.

In the crockpot with onions, garlic, salt, pepper and chili powder.

By dinner time I know I will have beans ready.  This pot will last us 3-4 days but if not eaten I will freeze the leftovers or feed to the chickens.  Tonight we will have these beans on toast with some fried eggs, cheddar cheese and hot sauce.  

Beans are ready to eat or use in recipes.

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A lovely pot of pintos and black beans ready for the week.  Whole foods cooked straight from my food storage.

But I Can't Afford to Buy Organic...Myth Busted!

I am here to dispel the myth that a family cannot feed their family whole, organic foods and keep on their limited budget.  I live in a very expensive state to buy food, especially organic and my budget is $500 for a family of three but I feed four (you know, the adult son that has moved out but shows up at mealtime...).

First, I will acknowledge that the organic label is just that a label.  I know that it can be manipulated and I also acknowledge that the well intentioned farmer may be growing a contaminated crop.  I have to leave that in the hands of the Lord and vote with my money to buy foods that are hopefully closer to what was created for us than the man made junk. 

(Confession:  We do occasionally buy junk food, especially on road trips and around birthdays and holidays but the goal is to not consume it as a daily part of our diet).

The past couple of days I have taken a picture of everything I ate and offered to my family.  It was cheap, healthy and fast.  I don't believe I have spent more than 45 minutes a day cooking and cleaning for us.

Breakfast- Homemade (in the crockpot) yogurt with chia seeds, sunflower seeds and rolled oats.  The only thing I bought for this meal in August was the milk.  This meal is delicious and packed full of probiotics and a great way to eat seeds and nuts that we should be eating everyday.

Eggs on toast and a smear of butter and a sprinkle of pepper flakes.  We raise chickens so we have unlimited, fresh eggs.  If at all possible I think everyone should raise their own chickens for the fresh eggs.  Eggs are so healthy for you and the better life the chickens have, the better eggs you get to eat.  Currently our small flock of 8 banty hens give us 6 eggs a day.  I also make my own bread in my trusty breadmaker.  Total cost of this meal for the month of August is the smear of butter.

Lunch

Because we have an abundance of eggs, I often eat them for lunch as well.  Here is my cheap but satisfying version of a breakfast burrito.  Egg fried in butter or coconut oil, wrapped up in a flour tortilla with a sprinkle of cheese and placed back in the pan to brown and crisp up a bit.  I usually eat a side of veggies with it.  Impact on my budget was a bit more.  I did buy the tortillas and cheese earlier in the month to make my hubby smothered burritos for his birthday. I really would not consider the flour tortilla to be a whole food.

Beans on homemade corn tortillas.  I made these tortillas a bit thicker because I wanted a tamale taste to my meal.  Very easy to make, just some masa, baking soda and water.  We always have beans in the fridge and a bit of cheese and hot sauce satisfied my craving for mexican food.  Normally I would eat my beans over toast. The only item I bought for this meal was the cheese.

Dinner

Leftover Pizza - I heart pizza.  Pizza is my favorite.  I made homemade pizza a couple days ago and saved up this slice for a quick dinner.  Again, I already had everything in my food storage and only purchased the cheese this month.

French Toast - I had every intention of eating a bowl of white chili and rice that I had made the day before for my husband but I was having a sweet tooth attack so I whipped up some french toast.  So easy to do when you have all the fresh eggs you can eat and homemade bread just sitting there.  I covered it with some homemade rhubarb syrup.  Please consider making your own syrup.  It is as easy as boiling water and sugar together.  If you want a flavored syrup, use fruit juice instead of water.  You can add your own flavors or extracts as well.  I use organic evaporated cane juice for my sugar.  The syrup will last for months on your pantry shelf.  This meal was essentially free for me to make this month and came entirely out of food storage.

Snacks

I have been trying to limit my snacking.  This week I made an applesauce cake (flour, sugar, applesauce, eggs and spices) and helped to eat the rest of the ice cream, which is junk of course.  I don't plan on buying ice cream again until Thanksgiving.  I also enjoyed some fresh hot bread with butter.  No cost to me this month to snack, aside from the butter that I had to buy.

Drinks

I am not so great at tracking everything that I drink throughout the day.  Typically its espresso, water, my vitamin mix, sparkling water and an occasional Zevia soda. I did buy our coffee this month via Amazon's Subscribe and Save.  It's a bit pricey but it is one of the places I will spend a few more dollars for a superior product.  The Zevia soda is also a treat and comes via Amazon but I don't believe that I will continue buying it.  I enjoy sparkling water just as much and it is cheaper.

So as you can see, I have eaten really well for just a few dollars.  It does help that I have a food storage plan.  Having food storage really helps on months that you need to save money on.  For us, this month we had to pay property taxes.  To take the sting out of that cost we simply eat out of our storage and only buy fresh foods such as dairy.  We are gathering fresh veggies from the garden but did buy some kale for smoothies.  We are also eating fresh berries and rhubarb this month instead of buying fruit.  Not much of a sacrifice at all.  At the end of the month I will post how much I spent on groceries and what I bought.  

If I can do this in the middle of Alaska, I know you can do it too.  Whole, organic foods do not have to be expensive but they may require a bit of extra work.  In my next post I will share how I cook from scratch for my family, spending as little time as possible in the kitchen and spending very little money.

Lovin life and eating well!

My Frugal Reading List for August

I think sitting down and reading a book is becoming a lost skill. Personally I find myself falling into the easy habit of watching videos or listening to a book on tape.  Nothing at all wrong with that but nothing beats opening up a book and losing yourself in a story.

My goal through the busy summer is to read a book each month.  Winters are made for reading and I like to read a book a week huddle under a warm blanket.  Here's what I've been reading this month.  I do like to have several books going at once including a classic, a fiction and non-fiction choice and a read aloud to Stormy.
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The classic book I am reading right now is also my fiction choice. Dune by Frank Herbert.
It's been twenty years since my last attempt to read this book.  The movie just ruined it for me.  I must say that I am quite enjoying the read as long as I block out all images of the movie.  

My non-fiction choice is Trance-formation of America by Cathy O'Brien.  I have been wanting to read it since I watched her YouTube videos.  I snagged it up on my Kindle when it went on sale for $8.00  This book is not for the faint hearted.  It covers her tragic life as a MK Ultra slave.  You can read many of my earlier posts about my research into MK Ultra mind control and just how corrupt our government is.  In her book she tells all about her encounters with the Presidents Ford, Reagan, Bush and Clinton as well as many entertainers especially in the country music realm.   Please know that this book contains material dealing with child sexual abuse and satanic ritual abuse.  Be aware that it is explicit.

My read aloud with Stormy is Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder.  Still a favorite of mine and always will be.

I've been very frugal lately with buying books.  With the exception of the Kindle book, I haven't bought a book for months and I don't plan to.  My next set of books are already on my shelf.  Go frugal me!

Lovin' Life with a good book in my hand.

New Blog Name and Simple Foods

I believe a person should blog about what they are passionate about.  I am passionate about my faith, my family and being frugal.  I am a little less passionate about my pets, the chickens and homeschooling but they are up there as well.

I have several posts in the works.  For instance, does canning save you money?  Can raising chickens save you money?  Do I need to buy expensive homeschool materials?  All my answers based on my life long experience of living in Alaska.

Right now I am working on the goal of reducing my grocery costs.  I am doing this by simlifying our food choices.  We are very simple people with simple taste but if you could see in my pantry right now, it is anything but simple.  Why in the world do I have five different flours?  Two shelves full of spices?  I haven't counted but I think I have over five different sweeteners.

The answer is because I have been dieting for the past five years trying to lose weight.  In those five years I have tried at least three different diet plans that all come with their unique ingredients and all to no avail.  I ditched the diets and my budget and body are thanking me for it.

Now I am simply eating when I am hungry, I am eating only whole foods and not eating later in the evenings.  I feel fantastic and my clothes are fitting better.  Not sure about weight loss because I also ditched the scale.

Last month I spent under $400 for our food, including household items and pet food.  This is good news for us because some months I was spending almost $800.  Yikes!  It was a wake up call to quit buying expensive, processed diet foods for Trim Healthy Mama.

So what's on the simplified menu now?  Plenty of beans, eggs, smoothies, oatmeal, cakes, cookies, pizza, tacos and coffee.  All whole foods, all under $400 which is amazing for an Alaskan family.  

Stay tuned and I will give up the details!

I Am In Love With Life

Sitting here listening to my canner go jiggle, jiggle and watching my chickens scratch out in the yard, I had an incredible sense of peace settle over me and I know that I love my blessed life.

It's not that life is perfect by any means.  There are a few family dramas unfolding and I sold something on eBay and that's going south but hopefully it can be resolved without too much pain.  My mechanic hubby is so busy I hardly see him and summer is coming to an end.  So not a perfect life, but still so blessed.

There has been changes since the last time I blogged here.  We have adopted many animals including two dogs, two cats and ten chickens.  It has been so much fun watching these new critters meld themselves into our lives and it is amazing how much love can be exchanged between us.  The sad news would be that we did lose our beloved dog, Oddball but he did live an long life of sixteen years and developed lung cancer that just was too much to fight.

The summer has been amazing.  My son from Texas moved up with his family and now lives in the city only 200 miles away.  It's been great catching up with him and getting to know my grandchildren.  It is so comforting to know that all of my close family lives right here in Alaska!

I have decided to start up blogging again and I want to focus on frugal living here in Alaska, frugal homeschooling and more.  

Absolutely lovin' life!

Frugal Friday- How We Paid Off $22.000 in Debt in One Year!

This morning I made a cup of coffee, grabbed my check book and wrote out a check for a whopping $10,627.  I gave my husband a high five and a huge smile because we are now debt free! 

Here is our story about how we paid off over $22,000.00 in debt in about a year.

The mechanic and I were married 6 years ago and I came into the marriage debt free  He was not.  He didn't have a lot of debt, mostly business related, and it was never an issue for him.  He actually had a pretty slick operation going on and I saw no reason to interfere with it. We never combined our bank accounts and he continued to pay  the utilities and I bought the groceries.  When larger purchases were needed we usually pooled our money together for it. 

It started to became a struggle for me at work and Stormy was becoming of age to start home school.  My sweet hubby decided it was time for me to quit my job and come home full time to teach Stormy and lessen my stress load.  We decided that I would stop working as soon as we had all of our debts paid off.  I was ecstatic until we figured out our debts came to over $22,000.00. How can that be?

Turns out it was a combination of many things that just snowballed.  It also turns out that the mechanic's slick operation really wasn't so slick. Let's just say, if you pay all of your bills via credit card, make sure the auto pay for the said credit card is set for more than the minimum payment.  That is all.

I was still motivated.  I could not wait to quit my job and become a stay at home mom.  I attacked the plan with vengeance. 

The first thing we did was transfer all the utility payments over to my debit card.  Next we consolidated under an interest rate that was set at 4.9%.  After that we simply threw every spare penny we had at the payment. We never sent less than twice the monthly minimum and often sent much more.

We let the business pay off our debt instead of building more inventory.  Our eBay store had a few good months and we immediately transferred that money into my account.  Previously we would have used that money to purchase inventory but for this year we only used the inventory on hand.  The Mechanic also sold a couple of cars he fixed up and we sent that money on its merry way.

Living in the great state of Alaska has its perks.  Every year we get a check from them just for being here.  This year was an exceptional year and that was what put the icing on the cake and allowed me to write that check.

It is just as important what we didn't do.  Here is a small list of priorities that we set in order to stay sane.

1.  We didn't listen to Dave Ramsey(or is it Gordon Ramsey? eh, whatever, we didn't listen to either of them) but followed God's plan.  We always gave to the Lord first in tithes and never hesitated to help those that needed help.  I have no doubt at all that the Lord blessed our efforts.

2.   We never compromised on what we believe in.  It is important to us to eat the best food.  By that I mean organic and non-gmo. We still bought grass-fed beef but we bought less of it by spreading one package over 2 meals.

3.  We didn't do without.  If we needed it, we bought it.  If I wanted to take a trip to visit my family, I went. But we did do it smarter.  We shopped around for the best prices and I drove the vehicle that had the best gas mileage instead of what was the most fun or comfortable.

4.  We didn't touch our emergency fund or as we call it the "when the s hits the fan and the world ends as we know it" fund.  Bring on the zombies!  

That's all folks and it is fair to say that I'm lovin' the debt free- stay at  home all day in my pajamas kind of life!