Started early

That's what I get for saying something to Hubby about starting to eat from the pantry Oct 1st instead of Jan 1st.

His response was "can you start tonight?"

I pulled some leftover turkey pieces from the deep freezer, diced that up and added to it diced onions,diced celery, diced carrots and diced garlic. Sauteed that for a little bit to soften the veggies. Added broth and milk. Let it get hot again then added frozen peas and the dumpling dough I made from the Bisquick( which I realized I was low on). Served applesauce on the side and called it done. I drew a star on the date on the calendar and thought one down.

Tonight is cubed steak. But since there is only 3 small ones and I know that's not enough for our dinner and Hubby's lunch I am slicing it in strips and cooking sliced onions and mushrooms to add to it. I will serve it on what ever bread I have. I will serve with it a tossed salad loaded with veggies and french fries that are in the freezer,cottage cheese that Hubby will eat with apple butter on and I will drink a V8 fusion. I will make a Waldorf salad but use crunchy peanut butter instead of mayo as that it Hubby's preference. Another star on the calendar.

I have 4 more trays in the new dehydrator of ripe tomatoes and  4 trays of bell peppers in the old dehydrator. I don't think there is going to be any more bell peppers out of the garden.

The square foot gardens are pretty much done and ready to be prepped for winter. That leaves the 2 tomato patches, if I can call a garden that has 120 tomato plants in it a patch, yet to wrap up. Tomatoes are still okay there so I might have to cover them if we get a frost any time soon. That only leaves the horseradish left to dig up after the first frost.

Have a Blessed Day. Talk to you tomorrow

Oct 1st. Eating from the Pantry

I am still putting up (old timers term) the harvest but instead of waiting until Jan to start eating out of the pantry for the most part. I decided to start Oct 1st.

My goals are as following:

to make more room for what is still coming in, including turkeys and hams

to use food up so it doesn't go to waste ...after clearing my mother's pantry and having to throw the majority of it out it broke my heart because I know if she had been in a different state of mind she would have been feeding others with it.

to cut the budget as low as possible to finish paying off some of the bills. We have several medical bills right now due to my sickness and shoulder/arm injury along with back taxes and 2 loans. The last loan due to be paid off Jan 2017 and I am aiming to pay it off in 2015.


SO I also decided to hold my self accountable so I will post on here what we are eating and when we buy something what it will be.

Thankfully the weather is cooler now because this requires me to bake the bread for toast and meals.

Blessed be

Sept and still canning

My son calls me almost daily on his drive to work to make sure I am doing okay. Then he calls me at lunch time and see how I feel and what I have been doing that day and what else will I be doing and then on his way home he calls to see how it went and what I fixed his dad and me for dinner..for the last couple months the answer has been .I am in the tomatoes and I am canning tomatoes in some form.Tomatoes has been on the table in some way pretty every night.

At the beginning of the season I had one of these every day or no later than a day and half. then it was every other day, then every third day. It's been 5 days since the last load. The weather has turned unusually cool for us and this time of year. The tomatoes aren't turning red as fast but I am still pretty well loaded with green tomatoes. Guess fried green tomatoes are going to start being on the table a lot also.

On Monday during my son's lunch call he was silent for a few minutes when I told him we had went to the produce auction and then stopped at a farmer's market on the way home. I could tell he hated to ask what we picked up but just couldn't help himself.Probably so he knows what to tell his sisters so they know what food they can ask for later.

I got mushrooms (dried and canned them), pluots (dried and canned them),bananas (dried and canned them ),butternut squash (still to do),cabbage ( made jarred kraut for the first time),acorn squash,(still to do)pumpkins (roasted, pureed and then dried), delicata squash (fresh eating), spag squash( fresh eating),winter onions ( hanging in nylons),4 bushels of different types of apples( still to do ) and 50 lbs of potatoes( still to do). Yes I still have tomatoes coming in. I even asked a friend if he had chili peppers that I could have to make more salsa.

The freezers are full. The pantry is almost out of shelf space. Will be long before I finish for this season. I have started dehydrating things I normally can such as pumpkin just to have room for other things.I got the chili soup made and canned but not the veggie beef soup.I haven't made my dried noodles either.That's also on the to do list.

I have tried to keep the grocery budget at less than $300 but the canning supplies is coming out of the grocery budget like it was a over flowing river breaking through the damn. Hubby has even taken to buying supplies for me out of the overtime he has gotten off and on.

We know if things turn bad like they did a couple years back , that the food I put up (ha ha old term ) is money in the bank for us and our adult kids . I am becoming my grandpa more and more each year.If he didn't grow it,hunt it, fish it,barter it or raise it , he didn't eat it. We don't hunt or fish (hubby drowns plastic worms) and I will buy meat and some other things but most in the pantry is home grown.

I need to go check the canner and the dehydrator.

Blessed be