Scratching around in the dirt

August is harvest month for gardeners! We are getting our fair share for sure, but it is definitely eye-opening to see how much we can actually bring in and how much we need to feed everyone given the space/knowledge/resources we have.

I made a real grocery trip this week. I haven't done that in months. To be completely honest, it feels so bittersweet. I have so much more peace when it comes to a meal time because there is enough food stocked up in the pantry and refrigerator to actually put something together that resembles a meal instead of a plate full of snacks from all of the food groups. On the other hand, it was weird just picking up cheese in a brightly lit deli case and not getting it from a cooler stashed behind a 3 foot table.

 

Carrots have been the prize winning crop for us this year. We haven't bought carrots since... March, maybe? It's been a long long time. They just keep coming! We have chopped, steamed, pureed, stir-fried, or roasted these beauties in at least one meal every day.

 

The cooler days have us back outside playing in the dirt again. We are all really enjoying the lower temperatures. All of us...the people, the poultry and the plants. The naughty-flighty-moody, yet curious and totally quirky, hens are each laying about an egg a day, giving us anywhere from 24-28 eggs a week.

 

We have beets! This was totally an experiment. I had a pack of Burpee's Golden Beets from Seed Savers sitting in my seed box and an empty row between beans and potatoes. The entire plant is edible, which means greens in a stir fry and beets in a salad. I love using ALL of the plant up.

 

The tomatoes are still rolling in, thank goodness. See these two jars of tomato sauce? 23 roma tomatoes. 23.  We are pulling anywhere from 10-15 red tomatoes every night or every other night. We consume them just as quickly as we pull them, so nothing has been canned yet. I froze a couple of jars of salsa and these two jars are sitting in the refrigerator awaiting their fate in a spinach lasagna that is planned for this weekend. 

We visited the Randolph Fair this morning. It was so... magical. I don't know how the importance of the county fair got lost on me over the years, but it is so important. Teaching kids how to care and raise animals should be a required class in every school, in my opinion. I wish I knew half of what older generations know naturally about raising livestock.

Killing as many birds as I can with this stone.

Today we are settling back into our routine after a 3 day excursion driving through beautiful Kentucky. The laundry was tackled yesterday... today is meal preparation for the week.

We returned home to a totally stressed out dog, and even though he was more than well taken care of by my in-laws, he is still a bit psychotic. I won't go into details, but lets just say our dog Charlie will be eating a special diet for the next few days until he gets back to somewhat normal.

So the morning started off with boiling chicken and cooking rice for Charlie's tumultuous tummy.
I pulled 3 chicken breast aside for us to make some delicious chicken salad for lunch for the Mister and myself.

Balsamic Chicken Salad
3 cooked chicken breast
1 - 2 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/3 cup of relish or chopped up pickles
about a 1/3 Cup of mayo (enough to just barely cover the chicken, not coat it)
salt & pepper
fresh basil and oregano leaves
serve over fresh greens with diced roma tomato

Makes enough for 2 to 3 servings depending on the size of the chicken breast you use.

I saved the broth from the cooked chicken to start my stock for the week. I may as well as make it while the stove is still hot, right? I tossed in the remaining bulb of garlic that was trying to root itself right there in the basket, along with the bottoms of a few celery stalks since the girls were having ants on a log for lunch. Finally, I threw in the bottoms and tops of the carrots I was preparing for the next two weeks.  I tossed half the peels in the stock and the other half in the compost.

Our family eats about 5 lbs of carrots in 2 weeks. I shred a third to use for salads, soups, stir-fry and baked goods that we will eat during the week. Another third is cut into carrot sticks to snack on when the mood strikes and the final third is sliced, blanched (5 to 7 minutes) and frozen.

We ended up with 3 jars of broth. This will last a little over a week for us.

When we returned we found ourselves with some very dark strawberries and 4 brown bananas. Since we are all out of nuts I went with a new version of the banana bread I usually make.

Smoothie Bread
4 mashed bananas
1 Cup blueberries
3/4 Cup strawberries
1 Cup all-purpose flour
1 Cup whole-wheat flour
1 1/2 Cup oats
1/3 Cup flaxseed
1 egg
1 Tablespoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoon baking soda
1 Cup sugar
3/4 Cup brown sugar
1/2 stick butter

Bake 350 degrees for about an hour. Makes 2 short loaves.

I used the remaining strawberries to make a strawberry vinaigrette for salads this week and a bit of strawberry syrup for pancakes.

I set aside about a cup of the rice I made for Charlie this morning to make rice pudding for breakfast tomorrow.

Rice Pudding
1 Cup cooked brown rice
1/4 brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 Tablespoon butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 Cup almond milk

Cook over medium heat 15-20 minutes.

Marathon cooking day... but at least we have a good start for our week.

Food Budget

Everyone talks about ways to save money on your grocery bill... I'm not going to try to re-invent the wheel. But... I will tell you what we do.

We buy most of our food in bulk. We purchase our meat once a month.We have a local meat market that is pretty great. Dumas is a short drive for us and well worth it. They offer large bundles but we haven't committed that much to are our carnivorous ways just yet so we usually buy 1 pound of bacon,  5 lbs ground beef and 10 pounds of chicken breast.

Every two weeks we hit Sam's club. I stock up on the huge bags of shredded cheddar and mozzarella and a very large block of colby cheese. Cheese freezes well so it gets divided up and pulled from the freezer as we need it. The cheese usually lasts close to a month. I usually get a large bag of tilapia and salmon for the month as well. We also buy most of our produce in bulk. Strawberries, blueberries, bananas, apples, salad, and oranges. We usually will munch right through this in about a week to a week an half but I try to freeze some to stretch us out to two weeks. We buy the large bags of garden rotini pasta and brown rice and that lasts us a long while... maybe 3 to 4 weeks.

After I divide out all my meat, I count how many dinners I have. This month is 11 chicken dinners and 6 to 7 beef dinners. We eat tilapia or salmon twice a week.   The rest of the month we will eat pasta, pizza, egg, beans and vegetable dishes for dinner. If there is a special occasion I will stop back at Dumas and pick up steaks or lamb.  I make meal plans, but rarely stick to them. We stop at the grocery once a week and spend $40-$50 in little things like milk, condiments, butter, etc. We are a family of 4 and we spend roughly $350 a month in groceries. I have gotten this much lower in the past but everyone complains about being hungry and hating what I make. This is what works for us for now.

The Way We Eat

I think about food constantly. One because I'm looking at the belly of the third trimester of this pregnancy and two because the majority of my day is occupied by preparing and cleaning up food.  I like the way we eat, but I wish it were better. I think that is true for most of us. I wish we could grab eggs from our own chickens in our own backyard, but our city doesn't allow it. I wish we grew all of our own food, but we just aren't there yet. I wish what we did have to buy was all organic, but we just don't have the budget for it all the time. Ideally there would be more fruits and vegetables and less starchiness.

Growing up my mom made dinner every night and my dad made breakfast on the weekends. We ate the same every night. Meat. Potato. Vegetable. Usually in the form of a breaded and pan-fried pork chop, real mashed potatoes and veggies from a can. My mom worked long days in a factory and when she got home, I'm sure the last thing she wanted to do was put a lot of time and energy into dinner. So she consistently made the same things that were cheap to buy and she knew we would eat. Makes sense, right? We never ate chicken or pasta of any kind. It was either ground beef or pork tenderloins. We never ate salad. It was canned green beans or corn. It wasn't uncommon to have mashed potatoes, boxed macaroni and cheese and bread with butter in one meal. And we drank 2% milk every night with dinner period.  We never ate breakfast. We had pb & j packed sandwiches for lunch with crackers and money for juice. On the weekends we grilled or my dad made a pot of chili.

It wasn't until I was married did I realize that I had absolutely no idea how to cook and no clue to eat well. I was given a Better Homes and Garden Cookbook as a wedding gift. I balked at it. And then one day I was forced to open it and figure out how to feed myself and another person on a very tight budget. I still use this cookbook to this day... it's one of my favorites. (Thanks Aunt Nancy!)

Having children drastically changed my views on food. I think I may have gone a little crazy, to be honest. Our first born ate only organic for almost the first 3 years of her life. I remember almost biting through my jaw when my mother gave our daughter instant mashed potatoes. We planned our vacations contingent upon a natural food store being nearby. It was a slightly manic time for me.

My husband was vegetarian for the first 8 years we were married. While some may have found this challenge exciting and a great way to express their creativity... I was bored and frustrated. I was making three different meals for each of us... and none of them were anything that I was proud of.

Over the past few years I have tried to make food that I feel good about. I gave myself permission to screw up. To burn meals. To try things that weren't in cookbooks... and this has been an awakening. I love to cook now. I love the heat from the oven and bubbling of a pot and the way onions and garlic fill my house with a smell that makes my mouth water every single time.

Tonight I made dinner with my mother on my mind. Simple and easy.
 Meat. Potatoes. Vegetables.

Meat: Pan fried Chicken Breast
Coat a frying pan with olive oil. Drop 3 chicken breast into pan. Add 1 Tablespoon worcestershire sauce. 1 Tablespoon of soy sauce and a couple shakes of garlic powder and black pepper. I usually end up cutting my chicken right in the pan to make sure it is cooked all the way through.

Potatoes: Russet Potatoes
Par-boil 3 to 4 medium size sliced potatoes for 5 - 10 minutes until tender but not completely soft. Drain water. Add a bit of olive oil and 1 Tablespoon unsalted butter. Salt and pepper to taste. Cook Potatoes until they reach the doneness you like. For us, that's crispy and brown. Top with parmesan cheese.

Vegetable: Green Beans
Place 2 to 3 Cups of frozen cut green beans in pan. Lightly drizzle with olive oil. Add 1 Tablespoon of butter and a nice pinch of salt. Cover with lid and let cook until medium softness. Top with parmesan cheese.

Bacon & Egg Salad Sandwiches

Nothing fancy... just what we are eating these days.

 

Recipe:

makes 6 sandwiches. takes about 20 minutes to prepare

7 eggs, hard boiled
2 spoonfuls of mayonnaise
1 spoonful of relish
6 sandwich buns (yes... sadly mine are store-bought)
6 slices of bacon, cooked
lettuce
1 roma tomato, sliced

on the side: dill pickles and colby cheese