Back on Budget with groceries.

 Good morning my dear friends!  How are things!  The fun keeps funnin here.  Einstein, our oldest son, has tested positive for Covid.  He is symptomatic.  Bless his heart!  Went to the Doc yesterday because of a fever and congestion.  The list of meds is long, but we're so blessed in that we now have a doctor who's going to get him the care he needs.  Einstein's powering thru though.  He's out of work for 10 days, but will still be paid.  So that's nice.  

Our other son, Rubic, also tested positive for Covid.  We're thinking his was Omicron in that his symptoms were mild and only lasted a day or so.  He's 100% now and he tested Positive Christmas Day.  Einstein's symptoms mimic mine and Dh's and so I'm thinking his may be Delta.

This is all 2021 saying good bye.  It will be a tearful "so long"......NOT!  

Anyhoo.  With the New Year on the way and the holiday baking supplies shopping/stocking season in the rearview mirror, I've put aside my pantry storage extravaganza and am looking to get back on my normal grocery budget.  My pantry storage extravaganza is mainly due to the fact that basics are more than likely what's on sale during the holiday season.  For that reason, I buy and store more in Nov-Dec than any other time of year.  There were deals, but few and far between, sad to say.  Some I was able to get and some were out of stock.   Because I'm stocking up, I increase my budget this time of year.  I even will draw from savings if need be.  At least that's what I've done this year.  I figured it would be cheaper to get it now than wait for the inevitable increase in the new year.  Did you hear Dollar Tree is raising their prices to $1.25 in the new year?  (sigh)

With all that behind me though, I'm getting back on a normal budget.  Maybe I should say normal(ish).  Right now my plan is to increase our grocery budget to adjust for inflation.  So I added an extra $28 dollars a month.  My budget will go from $400 to $428 a  month.  I haven't raised my grocery budget for years, but feel the need to do it now.  I'm hopeful I can raise it that much.  That's an extra $728 dollars a year for one category!  That doesn't count increases in everything else; Gas, energy, house hold expenses, etc.  That amount is my plan for the grocery budget, we'll have to see if we can afford it.  I may be cutting that back.  It might be hard to even hit $400.  So that's up in the air for now.

I've seen some "Pantry challenge" or "No Spend" month videos on Youtube for the New Year.  While I understand the concept of a pantry/no spend challenge to use up things in your pantry: I'm not comfortable with that personally with inflation on the rise.  If I'm holding off buying an item for a no spend challenge, it's only going to be more expensive when I do get around to getting it or replacing it once used.  Plus, there are still things that are a good deal to store even in Jan and Feb

Instead I'm opting to focus more on 

1) What I have canned up, dehydrated, or frozen from the garden.  I want to use those before I allow myself to buy anything in the produce category.  The thought being, these will be replaced thru planting seeds I already have rather than making another purchase.  I'm just finishing up my blueberries (sad face).  

2)  Growing more; even now.  I currently have broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, parsley, lettuce, a volunteer kale, and a volunteer Bok Choy growing in my green house!  Yes I now have a "Greenhouse".  It's not perfect, but it's functional!  

I know. It looks like something a Batman Villain would make.  If you don't know that reference; my apologies.  Go watch an old Adam West as Batman show and you will know of what I speak.  I always say this project will never be in Better Homes and Gardens, but it deserves an honorable mention in the Red Neck quarterly!

In addition, I've thinned out my blackberry, strawberry, and a few blueberry pants and transplanted the thinned plants into other parts of the garden.  I'm hopeful this will insure a larger harvest this summer.  This is a great investment, because they are perennials, which means they come back every year.  No buying new plants!

If interested in building a Hoop Greenhouse of your own, do a search on Hoop Greenhouses and you will see "How to" videos galore!

3) Minimizing leftovers.  Any left overs we have need to be lunch the next day or used in another recipe: meat loaf into spaghetti sauce or chili, left over baked potatoes become hash browns for the next days breakfast, etc.  This also includes repurposing items that might go bad.  Sour milk replaces butter milk in baked goods.  So does Yogurt, and sour cream.  These are just a few examples.  

4)  Making more items myself rather than buying them.  There are times I've cheated and bought (usually breads) things at the store to save time.  Then I started reading labels.  When I bought whole wheat bagels, for instance, I discovered the ingredient list contained things that cause inflammation or were otherwise unhealthy.  Better I just do it myself.  Along these same lines: for health and frugality, I'm focusing on making desserts that use less fat and sugar.  Butter is a luxury that's becoming more expensive by the day.  I can make chocolate chip cookies blind folded, but none of us need those, and using a half a package of butter to make it probably isn't the best idea.  Enter items like the Chocolate Pumpkin cake or Banana chocolate chip cake.  These two examples are made with 100% whole wheat,  2 cups of pumpkin or mashed banana, less sugar, and only 1 TBS of butter in the whole thing!  When I top the Banana chocolate chip cake, it's with way fewer chocolate chips than I would use in cookies.  You can find the recipe on my desserts page.  I also am looking to expand my horizons into other things I can make at home instead of buy.  Hmmmmm

5)  Looking into bartering more.  Come spring we're hopeful to be covered up with eggs.  There's only so many I need to freeze.  So I'm looking to trade for things I can't grow.  This one is still a plan in the works,  Not sure how it's going to succeed, but I'm willing to try.  

These are some of the ideas I have to make the food dollars stretch!  What are some of yours?  

Please Live Again!

 Merry day after Christmas, and Happy New Year!  

Can I pose a potential New Years resolution?  Just a suggestion.  Start off 2022 with a new lease on life.  In other words don't pay any attention to the panic purveyors, those gumbas that insist on keeping us masked, isolated, etc by using a virus who's latest variant, Omicron, is so mild as to be regulated to the common cold.  

According to Dr Marty Makary of John Hopkins, Omicron doesn't infiltrate the lungs.  Instead it's superficial, much like our common cold.  You didn't live in fear of the common cold before.  Don't now.  I don't care what they say.  Throw off your mask!  Gather together!  Ring in the new year!  

Personally we're looking forward to 2022 in the hopes it's a little easier on us.  2021 has been a challenge.  Even with the challenges of 2021 we have much to celebrate and thank 2021 for!  

1) My husband was able to have back surgery that allowed him to regain the use of his legs.  By the time the surgery day came he was having a hard time even walking a few feet.  Now he's back to his workouts and his flexibility is almost back

2) My husbands surgery is now paid in full!  In addition, that surgery covered our deductible which kept my hospital stay from hitting us financially.  We only owed a small amount.  

3) Dh and I are now fully vaccinated in that we've both had Covid.  Now I did end up with Myocarditis from my bout with Covid, but it's since resolved and I'm back to a normal (ish) workout on the treadmill.  Plus, my bout with myocarditis, brought me to my new Doctor.

4) Our youngest son has worked hard to get past his own hurdles and is well on the way towards his future.  

5) Our Daughter got a job she loves.  

8) The greatest blessing of this year is the fact that thru lost work hours, cuts in pay, hospital expenses, illness and injury, and a variety of other obstacles; God has seen us thru it all.  God has provided strength, healing, and provision anywhere it was needed.  

Guess what!  God will provide the same in 2022!  We're not any more special than anyone else.  God doesn't show favoritism.  He loves all of us (you too!) and will see you thru anything you face as well.  You only have to ask.  

So instead of focusing on the fears, failures, and other problems of 2021; focus on how God has seen you thru those things.  How can you see His provision?  Look for the silver lining in every circumstance.  We could've focused on the problems this year instead of focusing on God provision.  Our perspective and reaction would have been much different.  Shift your focus towards God's provision.  It changes things.  '

So while we would like things to be easier in 2022, I'm confident that whatever 2022 holds, God will hold us.  

So we say "Thanks" to 2021 and goodbye(ahem somewhat gladly), and "Hello" and a little "Bring it on" to 2022.

Had to share again!

 I just had to share this again given that this old post from a long while back is still relevant today.  It's so easy to get caught up with the trappings of what the world says Christmas is about: shopping, getting, spending, over eating, etc.

  Take a minute, and remember exactly what we were given on that Silent Night so long ago.  This gift is eternal, and given with a love our minds can't fathom.  It's the gift of Jesus Christ.  He loves you.  He came for you.  He died for you.  He rose FOR YOU!.  If you were the only one that needed this gift. HE WOULD STILL COME!  Hold that thought as you read on....

"Thoughts of Long Ago"

Christmas Eve makes me remember when I was a child, and December 24th would arrive.  I think Christmas Eve has always been my favorite.  Don't get me wrong.  Presents have always been great so Christmas Morning was the ultimate, but Christmas Morning was the last day.  Once the gifts were unwrapped, the anticipation was over.  Christmas was over, at least in my childhood mind.  Christmas Eve, however, was the height of anticipation.  There was electricity in the air!  As a child I felt like Christmas Day would never come and Christmas Eve seemed to last forever.  But it was fun!

We always got a gift on Christmas Eve.  Some little something to take the edge off; so to speak. Ironically the one gift I remember best from one childhood Christmas Eve, was the one I received in bed because I had the stomach flu.  Stomach flu had gone thru just about everyone in the house, and I was one of the last on the roster.  I had recovered by Christmas Day, but was still shaky.  Anyway, that Christmas Eve I got a Charlie Brown...how would you say?  It was like a magnetic board, but it wasn't magnetic.  It was slick and it had little slick Charlie Brown Characters you could attach in any way you wanted in order to create a scene.  Not a big elaborate gift, but it did the trick.

Christmas Eve was the best after bed time.  Christmas Eve is the one time of year children will willingly go to bed and try to sleep.  Lol.  In order to keep us 5 kids in line, Christmas Eve was the time all us kids slept in the same room with our oldest sister watching us.  We had electric candles in the window and my mom had multiple colors of lights in them.  We got to leave the candles on all night, and the result was surreal.  A rainbow of colors spread across the ceiling! There was little to no sleep....for us or our parents.  My poor parents were up just about the whole night getting everything put out.  I (We, Daddy, I wasn't the only one regardless of what my brothers said) was up the whole night worrying my parents were still going to be awake and Santa wouldn't stop (Bad parents!  lol), or sneaking out to the hall to peer into the darkness (again Daddy I wasn't the only one) in the hopes we could see something after our parents turned the lights off and went to bed.  Needless to say 5 am was a perfectly logical time to drag my sister and subsequently our parents out of the bed to start Christmas Day.

As the years have passed my Christmases have changed.  No longer a child myself, I would see Christmas through the eyes of my children.   Wide eyed wonder at the lights, Santa, the presents, etc.  Now my Children are adults themselves.  My daughter and her husband have the joy of seeing Christmas in their children's eyes.  Christmas has changed for us again.  Now it is really more of a spiritual celebration.  I still love the giving and receiving of gifts, but my focus turns more toward why we give those gifts.

This year, as I laid out the Nativity, it just so happened O Holy Night was playing on Pandora.  The Nativity ended up being laid out with tears. I couldn't help but Praise God for this precious gift.  Over 2000 years ago, on another Christmas Eve, the world held its breath in anticipation of the child to be born on Christmas Day.  I guess anticipation has always been a major part of Christmas, only the first Christmas never ended with the coming of Christmas day.  Instead it became the beginning of everything.

Answers I knew all along!

 Good morning friends!  

Today is 4 weeks exactly since my bout with myocarditis.  I've seen all the doctors, and am cleared for activity as tolerated.  Today is another attempt to get things back on track.  My toleration of exercise is still in the "work back to it" stage, but I'm getting there.  

As I sit here this morning sipping my coffee; which I can taste again Praise God!, I'm filled with a lot of different emotions.  I'm happy, relieved, mad, and VINDICATED!

3 years ago this past August when I had that heart attack, I had lost 63 lbs.  My cholesterol was awesome.  I had no blockages, and yet I've spent the past 3 years fighting with doctors who kept pushing drugs on me.  Drugs that had side effects.  Those side effects kept me fearful that first year after, and it's been down hill from there.  I felt like I was banging my head against a wall.  After a year, I was finally off of them by my choice, but each doctor visit it would be "suggested" that I really need to get my cholesterol down.  It made no sense to me.  

Kinda like everyone needs to get the vaccination cause the vaccinated need protecting from the unvaccinated, cause the vaccination doesn't work?  Okay, that's another rant.

Onto my story!  My OBGYN did suggest Magnesium, so I've been taking that for the past 2 years.  Still, every doctor visit was stressful.  I finally went back to a NP who supported my initial desire of diet and exercise after my heart attack.  Only now, I don't see her, because of my myocarditis.  It's crazy.  

I needed a new primary care physician.  Relying on urgent care is not an effective tool.  They don't know you, and really, you get the feeling you're just a number.  I needed someone who would oversee all of my care regardless of what specialty I was going too.  Above that, I wanted someone who would be open minded and independent.  I wanted someone to listen.  A friend recommended a primary care physician about 20 minutes away.  He files no insurance.  You pay at the time of service.  He isn't in a group.  It's his own practice.  He's been a doctor for 40 years.  I went to see him.

THANK THE LORD ALMIGHTY!  This Doctor is the most thorough doctor I've ever seen.  I was the only patient scheduled for that time period.  There is no over booking for appointments.  His clinic is open various hours in order for people that work during the day to come see him when they're off in the evening.  His nurse was in there during the physical exam, taking notes as he dictated them.  He actually read the medical questionnaire(10 pages) I filled out from his office.  He questioned me about everything.  

We get to the subject of my heart attack.  I had already talked to him about my migraines.  I also have raynaud's syndrome which is where the capillaries in my finger tips close in the cold weather.  It's genetic.  A lot of women have this.  He begins to clarify:  "  You had no blockages?".  I answer no.  I tell him my cholesterol was fine as well.  He says" Okay, you had a vasospasm".  I told him that's what I was told.  It means my artery closed temporarily on it's own.  He points to my hands and says "  Raynaud's is a vasospasm".  He points to my head "Your migraines are a vasospasm".  He points to my heart and says "Your heart attack was a vasospasm".  "What you have is a vascular issue".  "The only thing you should have been started on after your heart attack was Magnesium".  "Your OB had it right".  I went ahead and shared with him that my migraines seem to occur during hormonal fluctuations.  I'm premenopausal, so there's a lot of chaos.  My heart attack occurred during a time of hormonal fluctuations.  Could that be linked?  I've asked this question to every doctor I've seen in the past 3 years.  I get a smile and a "No".  Isn't it cute she thinks she's a doctor.  His response?  "Yes".  Apparently it isn't the hormones themselves that are the issue.  It's the wild fluctuations that are the problem.  He said it's hard on kids going into puberty, and it's hard coming out.  He said many children have migraines and such during puberty.  My case isn't any different.   

FINALLY!  I feel like this weight has been lifted!  On the other hand I could, in the words of my mom"  beat those other docs til I'm tired".  Not really guys.  It's just a figure of expression.  Nobody call the cops please.  I'm just so mad, that I lost 3 years of my life over all this!  At a time when I was at my best!  Grrrrr!  

So, you start where you are.  This morning I've done 30 minutes on the treadmill.  I have another 30 to do to compensate for a less intense workout.  My new doctor has all my labs, Dr's notes, etc. from every visit and hospital stay in the last few months as well as those from my heart attack.  In a week or so, we will meet to formulate a plan moving forward.  I'm in good hands.  

NEWS FLASH! Viruses Mutate

 Sooo IT'S HERE!  The latest mutation of Covid has reached our shores.  You'd think we were facing Ebola or something.  Speaking of...remember when two American citizens were brought home with Ebola, about 10 years ago.  That was Ebola, and there wasn't near the craziness with that on our shores.  Now I know it was just a couple of folks, but had Ebola been released here?  YIKES!  That has like a 50% mortality rate!  

Covid still has about a 1% mortality rate.  

So here's the thing.  Viruses mutate.  When they do it's always to become more transmissible, but less lethal.  Hear what I say.  A virus wants to spread, but not kill.  Why do you ask?  Because the virus will die with it's host if it didn't.  It's in it's best interest to not kill the host.  Now the virus doesn't care if it makes the host ill, but it doesn't want to do it in.  

Knowing that, our fearless leaders are still spreading fear amongst the people.  Now why do you think that is?  I don't see the logic in trusting any entity; be it the government or "Medical expert" that

1)  Blocks any differing opinions

2)  Blocks information on and the availability of effective treatments for Covid. Now why would they do this?  Well, just a tidbit of info to make of it what you will, but the FDA(Fduh) wouldn't give emergency authorization for the vaccine if there were any effective treatments.  Sooooo.

    *** Just a bit of an aside.   Looky at what I'm taking post Covid to help with my Covid induced Myocarditis!  What do you know it's actually Ivermectin and it's for people!  Who'd a thunk it!  Yea.  It's only been around for over 40 years and the creator is a Nobel Peace Prize winner FOR IT"S CREATION!   

3)  Pushes/Forces a medical procedure on it's citizens without allowing them to be totally informed of risks and benefits of said procedure.

4)  Gives no recourse for those adversely affected by said medical procedure.

5)  Lies about the effectiveness of masking, and the vaccine for that matter..

6)  Sensationalizes the seriousness of the new Omicron variant to push Vaccines/Boosters, probably to set things up for politicians; after all, next year is an election year.  The scientist who discovered the new variant says it is more easily transmitted, but symptoms seem to be less severe.  "Much milder symptoms" is what I believe she said.  That's not what you hear on the news.  

7)  Calls what is at best a therapeutic, a vaccine!  It isn't!  If it was, it wouldn't matter who was vaccinated or not.  If one was vaccinated, they would be protected from those of us who aren't.

They've done all this and there are people who say " that's all fine.  Put whatever that is in my body".  Yea.  Not this little grey duck.

What really stuns me are the number of Healthcare members pushing masks and vaccines when they know the same things I do about infection control, cross contamination, and  now vaccine efficacy.  I actually had a doctor tell me in the ER that I should get the vaccine.  I said, "But I've had Covid".  She said "Oh I know, you can't get the vaccine for 8 months, but then you really should".  I said" But I've had Covid".  She said" but we don't know how long that lasts".  I'm thinking, well we do know how long the vaccines last.  Hence the need for a booster.  Sorry, but I'm not getting on a booster Hamster wheel.  

 Don't let them scare you into compliance.  Educate yourself.  Think critically.  Find a good doctor that thinks for him or her self and doesn't just push pills.  Talk to them.  Don't let the powers that be dictate your health.  They don't have to deal with the repercussions.  You do.  If I'd had an independent Doctor when I had Covid; I might not be dealing with this Myocarditis now.  I have one now, and am grateful.

Not a Prepper. It's just Life

 Nothing like a Pandemic, supply line issues, and inflation to motivate Prepping conversations.  Why you can't sling a 50 lb bag of flour without hitting someone on YouTube talking about prepping.  Actually it's hard to sling a 50 lb bag of  flour without hitting something!  

All this prepping stuff got me to thinking.  Would people think We're Preppers?  They might, I guess, but we don't really think of ourselves that way.  To us this is just how we've chosen to live our life.  

It's to help our children should they need to shop from our pantry

It's to Feed our family healthier (in our opinion) food

It's to save money

It's to fight inflation

It's to protect us in the event of an unexpected illness, layoff, or pay cut.  

It's to help when we have an unexpected expense.

It's to be as self reliant as we can be to limit how much we need big business.  

Every one of these reasons has taken place this year!  Every one!  We didn't have the ice storm, snowed in thing, but if it had happened this year; it would be nice to not have to get out in it to get milk, eggs, and bread.  Aside from that little caveat, we've used our pantry for every one of these reasons THIS YEAR.  It's helped.  It's nice to be able to be able to bypass grocery shopping for a month or so in order to make ends meet.  In the beginning of the year DH lost hours at work both because of work issues and because of his back.  Then he was out for 4 weeks after back surgery.  Then we had hospital bills to pay off.  We had loved ones shop from our pantry.  Both of us had Covid.  Then I got to go to the hospital. The inflation stuff needs no explanation.  

We do not, nor plan to have 25 years worth of food shoved into Mylar bags with O2 absorbers and in 5 gallon buckets.  We do not have MREs.  We don't have security plans.  We do have extra set aside to help in the event of an emergency; your everyday emergency.  We have Matches, candles, batteries incase of a power outage.  That's about it.  

To be honest, the idea that everyone can put aside 25 years worth of things to survive an end of the world as we know it scenario is naïve.   That doesn't mean don't plan for a rainy day, but many don't have the time, money, or space to put up 25 years of stuff.  

I learned a long time ago, there are things we can and should do, but when it all comes down to it, we do what we can and where we can't God can.  We have to leave this in His hands.  It doesn't mean we don't do our part to be prudent, but we can't do it all.  

Update on how I like Dehydrating

 Morning everyone!  

Todays post is about anything other than Covid or my Heart.  All is well, but I'm just wanting to be Frugal maven today.  

Last early spring, I think around March or so, we invested in a dehydrator.  Now when I say "Invested" I mean we bought one.  It wasn't much; about $45-$50.  I felt it would go much faster drying herbs for storage, primarily basil.  It did an amazing job dehydrating herbs.  Things like Herbs, Kale, Lettuce, Spinach, Beet greens, etc. you know, leafy things, dried out very fast.  As a result, I was able to put away quite a bit of leafy greens.  The plan for that was to add them to soups, stew, and casseroles to give them a nutritional boost.  That plan has worked very well.  So chalk one up for the dehydrator there.

Over the last week, I've begun "playing" with some of my other things to see how they do; things like peppers, onions, and those wonderful cherry tomatoes I dried.  I have to say I am thrilled!  Plus I'm pretty proud of myself!  Heh Heh.  

In the summer my husband likes Everything Bagels with cream cheese, sliced garden fresh tomatoes, and seasoned with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.  The other day I fixed that meal, only instead of the garden fresh tomato, I crushed the dried tomatoes and sprinkled them across the top.  He liked it!  Yay!  These are also good to eat as a snack; like chips!  

Yesterday I was making up mixes to go into the pantry for convenience.  I keep Taco seasoning mix, and Spaghetti mix made up.  It saves having to drag out every spice to make a meal.  Very nice.  I started to make up the Taco seasoning mix and was reminded that it calls for dried onion, not onion powder.  Light bulb moment.  I dried some onion !  I took it out, poured it into my blender and just pulsed it a few times to make it a little smaller.  I had dried it in rings cause there is less crying slicing an onion compared to chopping an onion.  I ended up with exactly what I needed for the mix, and the rest I turned into onion powder.  It worked so well!  

Next up!  We had sloppy joes last night for dinner and I wanted to try out my bell peppers.  Again, I dried these in strips or rings to save time.  I ended up with a 2 quart jar of dried bell peppers.  That's a lot of peppers.  I pulled out some dried peppers, and "chopped" them simply by crushing them with my rolling pin.  Easy breezy!  

To reconstitute anything I use, I simply put them into a dish, cover with boiling water, and wait about 15 minutes.  If I'm adding them to soups, I just add.  I don't reconstitute first.  

Guys I'm so happy with my little dehydrator!  Since these items were dried instead of frozen, I didn't take up freezer space.  Since they aren't canned, I didn't take up valuable pantry space, and even though I dried them in bigger pieces, I don't have to chop anything!  

All in all this was a good investment.  

If you're interested in my Taco Seasoning mix, you can catch it on my "Mixes and Condiments" page.  

Here is my Spaghetti Sauce Mix:  

This will fill a quart jar and make 12 servings of mix.  Use 2.33 TBS of the mix for a quart of tomato sauce with or without meat.

4 TBS ONION POWDER

2 TBS GARLIC POWDER

4 TBS DRY BASIL

1 TBS OREGANO 

12 TBS SUGAR

4 TBS SALT

Mix all together and store in a quart size jar or container.  

 

Movin slow today

 Hello everyone!  It's been a week.  What am I saying it's been a month!  What topped off this stellar (not) month was this past early Sunday morning when I'm struck out of the blue with excruciating chest pain.  Greater than labor and that's saying something.  After taking my first nitro, nothing, took second nitro and called 911.  Husband goes out to meet them.  I'm taken to the hospital.  3 total nitros and nothing happens.  That is nothing gets better.  It took a shot of morphine to get the pain to subside.  3 hospital days, 1 (once again) clean cath, and just for fun a cardiac MRI later; I finally find out what's wrong with me:  Myocarditis.  Myocarditis is a viral inflammation of the heart.  This one was possibly brought on by my bout with Covid.  What this means is that while I was feeling this horrible pain, my heart was just beating away like nothing was wrong.  So no damage to my heart.  The inflammation was what I was feeling.  As an aside here...ahem.  My cholesterol was THE LOWEST IT'S EVER BEEN!  Sorry.  Just had to throw that in there.

This time I have answers at least.  I can hear the Pro-maskers, Pro-vaxers neener neening me from afar.  Here's the truth of it.  Do I regret not being vaccinated?  NOPE!  Do I wish I had never had Covid?  YEP!  I could have gone my entire life without dealing with this virus.  That isn't the way things went.  Like it or not, vaccines are failing; hence the need for booster shots FOR EVERYONE!  Yea.  I read today that PFizer has recommended boosters for all.  Big surprise, not!  Don't get me started on masks (eye roll).  The fact is, Thanks to China, politics, money, and the stupidity of leaders in general, this virus is out there now and I got a taste of it.  I still, thru this all, feel I made the right choice for me.  So!  I will contend with this too.  This means some changes in my future.  

1)  White sugar, white flour, white rice, processed foods, hydrogenated anything, etc, causes inflammation.  The first three of these are the only things we are still using.  They're now gone; from my diet at least.  Hopefully in the future I'll be posting recipes I can come up with using the alternatives of Whole wheat, Brown or Wild rice, Maple syrup, Raw honey, and Monk fruit.  I didn't eat anything from Sunday evening around 8P.M til Wednesday morning around 3 A.M.  In the beginning it was by Doctors order.  My cath was at 4 P.M.  Once that was over I was nauseous the rest of the time.  Since I've had my appetite back, though, it's been no sugar, flour, or white rice: as promised.  

So why this step?  These things are known to cause inflammation.  That's something I'm actively trying to get rid of.  So out they go so the inflammation doesn't have an ally.

Tried Monk Fruit today in my coffee.  Yes, all is right with my world if I get coffee.  It was good.  Now my taste buds aren't fully back yet, but not too bad.  It has potential.  I do think I'm going to stick with a tiny bit of real maple syrup in my coffee though, and save the Monk fruit for baking.  

2)  Before I even knew my diagnosis, I determined I was getting my life back this time.  I wasn't going to sulk and be afraid.  New eating, and moving!  I was more mad than afraid. I've known for a while I needed to get my health back, but it was on the back burner for a list of reasons (excuses).  Now it's top priority.  I need an outlet for stress.  I need to strengthen my heart.  It's as easy as that.  

So today I'm movin slow, but I'm moving.   I have to take things easy.  While no damage was done to my heart, I did have a tube stuck into it thru my veins sooooo there is that.   

I've been on the treadmill 30 minutes as of this posting; 2mph, no incline and in 7.5 minute intervals.  I also managed to can 7 quarts of potatoes with my son's help and sitting on a stool.  I covered my one lone cool weather crop garden bed with floating row cover.  Floating is the operative word.  It's very light weight.  I've puttered around the house doing little small things.  I'm not supposed to lift anything heavier than a gallon of milk.  So I keep that in mind.  When I start to feel tired I stop.  I have my follow up appointment in 2 weeks.  At that time I'm hopeful the doctor will okay more exertion.  In the mean time I'll just keep on keepin on.  I'm very grateful to still be here.

Mark Downs are Your Friend!

 Hello again yall!

So as stated in my last post I went to our local Kroger store early, early this morning.  Guys I kid you not it was weird looking.  The produce section was slim stocked, as was the meat section.  I did get what I went for though.  Well at least for the most part.  I didn't find the pork loin on sale, but did find a diamond in the rough; 2 Pork Butts, one small, one large for .30 a lb.!  That is not a typo!  That is a mark down!

Mark downs happen when an item gets close to it's "Sell By" date and the manager needs to move it.  They won't sell these after that date.  By law they can't, but you can get some great buys watching for these.  They are completely safe.  The only thing you need to pay heed to is that it needs to be cooked or frozen that day.  

"Sell By" dates are the date the store has to sell the item by, not necessarily the expiration date.  

In the case of these two pork butts, I came home, trimmed off any extra fat, ( pork butts tend to be a bit fatty), and set them in the roasting pan in my oven at 275 degrees.  There they sat roasting for about 5 hours.  When they were done they were falling off the bone so to speak.  Perfect for pulled pork.  I'm currently canning them up; getting 7 pints total and a little extra for hubby's lunch tomorrow.  The trimmed fat was put into the oven in a separate pan, with a lid, to cook down into what will be lard.  Nothing goes to waste.  The broth will be used to cook up our dogs rice.  Yes, we have converted our dogs over to chicken and rice or some other type meat and rice.  Yea.  They're happy dogs.  

Other items you can find marked down:

            Milk- is good for drinking a week past it's sell by date.  After that it's fine for baking.  Use as you would buttermilk.  Milk can be frozen.  Just pour off a little into a jar (about a cup from a gallon) and it will be fine.  Half Gallon jugs don't need to be "poured off".  Those can be frozen "as is".  That frozen milk will be fine for drinking for a week after it's thawed. 

            Yogurt- is good for 3 months past it's sell by date!  Yogurt, sour cream or cottage cheese can be stored unopened and upside down in the fridge.  Yogurt can be frozen.  Sour cream and cottage cheese technically can be frozen, but it can affect the texture. 

            Produce-  My usual finds here are Bananas which are great sliced and frozen with a little bit of chocolate syrup on them!  Great summer treat.  Then there's the smoothies they can make.  I've also found peppers which can simply be chopped and frozen.  Apples which in many cases are still good crisp and perfect for eating.  I've used them as well for applesauce etc.  I've seen onions and potatoes which can be frozen.  

            Breads- Bagels, hamburger buns, goodies, etc.  Now I've found better sale prices on the actual bread isle, but you can make some decent finds at the "Oops we over baked" rack.  Any bread item you find can be frozen until needed.  

            Meat-  This is what really needs to be used or frozen that day.  Never been a problem if I can get a good enough price.  There have been times where I look at the sell price and go"  Eh.  No".   Then there are other times where I find that diamond in the rough that is a great prize.  Fix it when you get home or freeze it if you don't have time.  It's all good here and the meat will be fine as long as you do one of those two things at least.  I'm canning the pork today, but you can cook it, let it cool and freeze in containers or freezer bags.   You can also cook it and just keep it in your fridge.  It'll be good as long as any other left over would be once it's cooked.

        Dry Goods-They're fine for way longer past their expiration date.  Doubt you'll find any way past the expiration date in a store.  They can't sell past it.  Should you ever be given something that's expired, inside 6 months should be fine.  Canned goods longer than that.  

This is what I'm talking about! Shopping in lieu of gardening

 Good morning everyone!  

First of all I have to share that today I had an actual cup of coffee!  It might have had more sugar in it than normal, but it was coffee.  Since having "The Rona", I havent been able to taste and smell.  It's gradually coming back.  I started my morning opening the coffee grounds to make coffee and holding it up to my nose to see if I can smell it.  My logic is if I can smell it I can drink it.  I could smell it!!!!!!  It wasn't as strong as it normally would be.  I have always loved the smell of coffee even when I didn't drink it.  Anyhoo it was worth a try.  Try I did and got to drink coffee!  It really is the little things.  

Anyway, I love to drink my coffee in the morning and check out the grocery adds.  I did that today as Kroger (may be Ralphs or Fred Meyer where you are) had a preview for their sale that starts tomorrow.  Here are some of the deals:

Boneless pork half loin- $1.88 lb.  Not the cheapest I've ever paid, but in the ball park of a decent sale.  

Whole Frozen Turkey!-  .47 lb with a $25 order.  I will have a $25 order

10 lb bag of Kroger Russet Potatoes-  $1.97 a bag with a digital coupon.  Plus you can use the coupon 5 times.

2 Lb. pkg. of Kroger Cheese-  3.97 each with digital coupon that can be used 5 times in a single transaction.  

This is what I was talking about in my past post " Can't Garden, but Can You Shop?".  

We live on .78 acres.  We raise chickens, not turkeys or pigs.  So pork loin and turkeys at a good price are important to me.  I don't have the garden space to grow enough potatoes so I've been hoping there would be a good sale I could stock up on.  I've gotten some decent prices on potatoes lately and was getting those; storing them well or canning them up.  Tomorrow's sale is an AWESOME sale at .20 ish cents a lb.  I'm currently canning up the ones I have stored in order to make the  most of the 5 times coupon at Kroger.  So, yes I'm about to buy 50lbs. of potatoes.  Stored in a cool dry dark place, and OUT of the bag they come in, potatoes can last a little while if bought in season(which is now).  I will take them out of the bag and lay them out on a rack or towel for a few days to let them kinda "re-cure" and/ or dry before I store them.  If you can't store that many for that long, go ahead and cook up some and freeze them!  You can!  

The Turkey is going to be roasted, then canned.  The bones will be made into bone broth which will also be canned up.  The scraps from that go to the dogs who love me for it.  Not to worry, though.  The bones are soft and mushy before I give it to them.  

The pork loin this go around will more than likely be canned as I am really on a canning jag to save freezer space.  

The cheese will go in the freezer.  

I have to say I was a little nervous that I wouldn't find the deals this year.  While few in number, I have managed to get some good buys.  The over riding plan is to find items on sale, and make the most of them in order to get thru til the next sale/deal.  Kroger is not the only store I will be looking at.  Last week I bought 2 Butterball turkeys on sale at Aldi for .87 lb.  Limit of 2.  One of these is in my freezer.  The other has been cooked, canned, broth made, etc.  

Now is the time to look for basics at the store; Usually flour, sugar, evaporated or sweetened condensed milk, chocolate, spices, possibly canned vegetables, butter, broth (beef and chicken), celery, potatoes (sweet and white; although haven't seen sweet on sale yet).  

I am finding some decent sales.  Get creative to be able to make the most of what you can put aside.  These things help when it comes to offsetting price increases now and later.  

Been doin' stuff!

 Good morning all!  

Sorry it's been a while since last we spoke, but I've been making up for the 2 weeks I lost being vaccinated by God for Covid!  That was a long road to hoe, but not near as long as some who've gone thru the process.  I'm not complaining at all!  I'm glad it's over and done with though.  I still don't have my sense of taste and smell back.  It is coming back a little at a time.  The other night I had chicken on the stove cooking.  We have a large open area that is a combination of the kitchen and the Den (aka the gym/man cave).  I was sitting in a chair in the Man cave with DH, when all of the sudden I smelled something that smelled so good!  It was the chicken!  I hadn't smelled anything for 2 weeks!  It was awesome.  Other things haven't come back yet, but that did; so I know I'm on the right track.  

Once I was over the Fever, the Covid, and the migraine that had nothing to do with Covid, but decided that would be the time to harrang me; I started doing things a little at a time.  I started with processing the huge amount of Bell and Jalapeno peppers from the end of the summer garden.  

The larger ones I just blanched and froze for use as Jalapeno poppers and for stuffed bell peppers.  The rest were made into  Cowboy Candy aka Candied Jalapenos  These are a very sweet hot condiment used to top cream cheese and crackers, or Hamburgers, sandwiches, Bar B Q.  All this was slow going and it was about all I could do that day.  

I've cut out things to sew, and begun the process of reclaiming the house again.  I've baked some bread.  I need to do that again.  I've made a batch of Cookies.  Probably should do that soon.  The thing that has given me the most pleasure, and strength is being outside again!  It's time to get things set up for fall and winter.  I swear something happens every fall that sets me back where I can't get it all done, but I've made lots of progress.  I've been clearing out beds, thinning strawberry beds, replanting and giving away strawberry plants, preparing perennials for colder temps, basic yard clean up and raking up leaves both for our yard, my garden beds, and our chickens.  I/We have a lot to still do.  We have 7 roosters to start processing for the freezer.  That's on the docket for this weekend.  It's no where near a years worth of chicken for the freezer, but it's something, and we'll take it.  

Yesterday was a rainy, cold day; so no playing outside.  Instead I opted to do something I've been meaning to do: Can dried beans for convenience.  It takes a while to do it, mainly processing time in the canner.  In order to maximize efficiency, I opted to do this in conjunction  with making last nights dinner: Ham and Navy Bean Soup.  So I got out my Big water bath canner and filled it with 6 lbs of navy beans.  I let them cook til almost soft.  I measured out 6 cups of beans for dinner and put that in a Dutch oven  with the rest of the ingredients to finish cooking.  I then proceeded to can up the rest in my pressure canner into exactly 7 quarts of navy beans.   

Our dinner last night was the soup paired with Garlic Parmesan Bread Sticks.  This morning I'm canning up last nights leftover soup to go on the shelf : 4 pints, plus 2 pints of left over chili.  

Yea, I could freeze it, but this way it doesn't take up freezer space, and I don't have to thaw it to serve it.  I'm feeling like this practice is going to become common place here.  It's more work on the front end, canning all this up, but the pay off of having the convenience of just opening a jar for dinner sounds very appealing.  Not to mention something shelf stable allows me to free up freezer space for other things, or to eventually get to the point where I no longer need a second freezer!  Dare I dream?  That would be a nice energy savings at a time when energy prices are climbing.  

I won't be canning up any dried beans over the next 2 weeks.  The canner is slated to be canning up the chickens we process( possibly), a turkey I bought yesterday (definitely), the bone broth from both, and some potatoes that need to have something done with them.  

Covid hits home

 Yes, yes.  It finally happened.  Dh and I have been down with Covid.  Hence the delay in a new post.  I haven't had much energy to do much more than sleep.  I'm amazed at how much I've slept these past 5 days.  

DH was exposed a week ago this past Monday, and he began to show symptoms a week ago this past Thursday.  This past Thursday was when he brought it home to me.  Home, you know that place where you don't have masks on?  He may have gotten his at work, but work came home with him.   I started showing symptoms on Sunday.  Sunday was DH worst day and Wednesday was my worst day.  Those were the days we were at our worst and our fevers were the highest.  Both of us had high fevers of around 102.  Everything about our two cases were identical down to losing our sense of taste and smell.  His loss actually came near the end of his bout with Covid.  Mine started around day 2 and crept in over time.  I say all of this to point out this:

DH is vaccinated.  I'm not.  Here are some other interesting things to ponder.

DH is a nurse in a clinic.  This is a clinic where everyone is masked, including patients.  These are healthcare workers using surgical masks correctly.  In addition, not only was DH vaccinated, but I would hazard a guess that the bulk of his coworkers were vaxed as well.  This is relevant because his clinic is shut down for the week because all but one of the staff tested positive for Covid.  If there was ever a case study into the efficacy of masks and the vaccines, this would be it.  

Now I'm not gonna lie to ya.  I would rather not have Covid.  We're blessed in that we didn't have a case that put us into the hospital.  But it's been rough.  If given the choice I would rather not have to ever experience Covid, but that wasn't the case.  Thanks China.  But, I'm happy to day our immune system mounted a defense and won.  The trade off for the misery we're enduring right now is that we now have natural immunity to this.  That is good as gold in my book.  Worth it?  Given my choices?  In my book, yes.  I made a choice to take my chances with Covid to obtain an immunity far better than artificial.  I made this decision in a well thought out manner, fully understanding what I was accepting.  Everything I believed in the beginning as all been proven out.

Everyone has to do what's right for them.  That's what it all boils down to.  I made a choice to risk Covid to obtain natural immunity.  I knew I would get it eventually.  I stand by that choice.  I know that's the right decision for me, but I'll admit, I'm ready to get past this thing.  UGH!  Worst virus I've ever had.

Better late than never! The long awaited Lard post!

 Hello my friends!  I finally got around to posting about how to render lard.  I know.  This is the be all end all "Tell all" article of the year....NOT.  

I have to say, though, when money is tight and you have limited resources, having a source of cooking fat in one way or another is a blessing.  So without further adieu, the "How to".

I'm using as an example, 5 lbs. of ground beef that's 80/20.  In other words 80% meat and 20% fat.  If you're using something like a roast or other meat, just use the fat you trim off.  You can collect it in the freezer if you want,  No matter if it's beef or pork you use: the steps are the same; well except for the browning the ground beef part.  

If using ground beef.

1)  Place a strainer or colander into a large pan.  Set aside.  Put about 2 quarts to a gallon of water on to boil.  

2)  Cook or "Brown" the ground beef.  As it gets cooked, you can remove it from the pan with a slotted spoon, and put it in the strainer lined pan.  Keep doing this until all of the ground beef is cooked. 

3)  Your water should be boiling by now.  Pour the boiling water over the now cooked ground beef; making sure you pour over all of the cooked meat.  Pour slowly and keep an eye on the pan underneath to make sure it doesn't get too full.  

4)  Once you're done pouring water over the meat, let it drain a few seconds.  Set the colander of cooked meat to the side.  Pour fat from the pan used to cook the beef into the larger pot as well.   

5)  Let cool, then refrigerate until it cools completely, the fat rises to the top and solidifies.  

***Make note.  When you remove the pan from the fridge the first time, the fat on the top will be more semi solid than solid.  It will harden as the process goes.

6)  Fill a smaller pan with clean water.  Remove the now semi solid fat from the bigger pan and put in the new smaller pan with clean water.  You're done with the big pan now.  You can dump the old water and wash the pan.  

7)  Place the small pan with the fat on the stove and begin to melt the fat on a low/medium heat.  Let it boil gently a few minutes and then turn off the burner.  Let it cool  then refrigerate.

8)  Once the fat  has cooled completely, and solidified; remove the pan from the fridge.  Remove the now block of fat from the pan.  Dump the water, refill the pan with clean water and repeat step 7.

9)  You will repeat steps 7 and 8 about 4 more times until your block of fat is hard enough for you to break it, white in color, and has no odor.  

*** you will have some stubborn bits that like to stay on the fat, these can be removed by either rinsing in hot water, or scraping with a knife.

I got about 1.5 cups of Tallow/Lard from this batch.  

By doing this I

a)  create a leaner ground beef and get it for much less than what it would cost in the store.  This ends up being more like 90-93% lean ground beef.

b)  cook up the ground beef ahead of time and so it's ready to use at the drop of a hat any time I need it.

c)  Save on buying 12 oz worth of a cooking fat at the store.

d)  Get more bang for my buck because I'm using something we normally throw away.

e)  Get a Tallow/Lard that hasn't been hydrogenated like all of the lards at the store.

If you are using fat trimmings from other cuts of meat, 

1)  Cut fat trimmings into tiny pieces-  In this case it would be prudent to save the fat trimmings in the freezer until you have a good amount to make this process worth your time.

2) Place trimmings in a pot of clean water,  Put on the stove at a low/med heat and let simmer until all or most of the fat is released.  

3)  Strain out any left over bits with a slotted spoon.  Let cool then refrigerate.

4)  Follow steps 7-9 repeatedly until it's the consistency you need.

So there you go!  Yes, there are a lot of steps so to speak, but really it isn't really complicated to do.  Worth a try.  Try it out and let me know how it went!

A revisit to a previous post. Thought it might give some ideas in a tight time.

 Just n FYI.  I'm almost finished with my "lard rendering post".  It should be posted sometime later today or tomorrow.  

I can't speak for everyone, but money has been tight for us lately.  We did have a blessing in that our pit, Mona, will have surgery to remove her tumor and it won't be near as expensive as we thought.  WHEW!  That being said, we're still recovering from a line of hits to our finances that started about 8 months ago.  No, it isn't our current President...well...

Anyway, as a result we're having to scale back Christmas this year at least in regards to how much we spend on gifts.  Due to that, I've been thinking about this post from long ago.  I'm using it for inspiration myself, and thought I would share it with anyone else interested.  

Posted Nov 2016

No Money for Christmas, Now what?

I've always loved Christmas.  We put our tree up on Thanksgiving night after all the turkey eating festivities and to the wonderful tunes of traditional Christmas music.  Love, love, love Christmas.  Always have, always will I expect.  My parents always made it such an event and I've always tried to do the same.  Things were harder when the kids were little.  Money was tighter then, but we still wanted the kids to have a good Christmas.  Reminiscing about those times made me think about other young parents or other families going through a tight holiday or even an impossible holiday.  What do you do?  How do you celebrate this holiday without money?

First and foremost, just like the Who's down in Whoville, we know that Christmas is not about the gifts unless you count THE GIFT given.  It's easy to wax philosophical when you don't have kids.  Kids would argue with the Who's down in Whoville.  Christmas is about gifts, and Santa.  First off you have to be honest with them about what you guys are facing.  Be as honest as their age will allow.  I grew up with Santa coming down the chimney to bring us gifts.  I know there are some out there who don't do Santa.  If Santa doesn't make a yearly stop at your house, telling the kids money is tight will be easier.  We always knew there may be times when money would be tight and we never wanted Santa to "not come".  We did do Santa at our house.  However, because we never wanted Santa to be affected by a financial down turn, Santa brought 1 gift and the stocking.  Everything else was provided by us. That way if they only got 1 gift it was from Santa and they would understand Mom and Dad were low on money.  Not telling kids can actually make them worry more.  Kids are very perceptive and they'll know something is up.  Letting them in on this can actually help them because it will enable them to "Help "make the Holiday special.

So once you have the whole "telling the kids" thing out of the way; my first step is easy and fun.

1)  Decorate for Christmas-  You don't need to buy anything new.  Use what you already have on hand, but make it festive.  Play Christmas music and pull out all the stops. If you can't afford lights, no problem.  Decorations are just as pretty without.  Plus, no fire hazard or cords to worry about.  String popcorn,  Make construction paper garland,  Bring in some evergreen from outside.  Go on a pine cone hunt for cones to place in a basket.  Don't have a Christmas Tree?  Make a Christmas table to place what gifts there are.  You can put your evergreen from outside here and put out a few ornaments.  You can use other ornaments around the house as well. You can hang out the stockings over the table in a triangle shape on the wall.  Place your festive containers of baked goods there as well; like a bowl of individually wrapped popcorn balls tied with a ribbon.  These are just some thoughts.  The idea is to create a festive atmosphere.  Pintrest has great ideas for Christmas crafts from things you may already have on hand.

2)  Found Money-  Okay, you've probably run the numbers and just thought, "there's just no way!".  There is, but you may need to think outside the box.  You may not be able to get what your normal budget is, but you might be able to get a little,  Think along these lines

a)  Do you or your spouse contribute to a 401k at work?  Maybe suspend the contributions for the next 2 months.  These are extremes I know, but we're thinking outside the box.  You'll be able to restart contributions after the Holidays.

b)  Would your family rather have internet and cable for the next two months or gifts on Christmas morning?  If the later, cancel for the next two months.  Many times your cable/ internet provider will be sending you deals to entice you back by the beginning of the year.  I understand it means no internet connection.  This is Black Belt frugality.

c)   There maybe family or friends that gift you with gift cards or money for Christmas.  If this happens, use the money for gifts under the tree.  The time for you to be able to spend on yourself (which is great) can come later.  Family doesn't need to know your situation if you aren't keen on sharing, but they can know that If  your family participates in a gift exchange, they will be homemade gifts.

d)  Do you have a skill or something you can make to sell that may raise a little money?  Can you watch kids for someone to run errands?  Help someone decorate their home for Christmas, bake Christmas cookies for someone too busy to do it their self?  Let people know your available.  Print out some signs advertising your availability to help: include rates too.  Just 8 x 10 printer paper, nothing extravagant.  You can hang it on community bulletin boards at post offices, grocery stores, schools (if they allow, ask first), your church, etc.

e)  If you haven't already changed your tax withholding now's the time.  It will be reflected on the next check that does come in.  Take those deductions!  Many parents with children will claim only one dependent when they have several in order to reap a large refund during tax time.  This works against you.  It allows Uncle Sam to use your money interest free until you file while you struggle to make ends meet.  Take the deductions.  

f) Dave Ramsey would have my hide, but some companies will let you skip a payment around the holidays only paying interest.  It's a last resort and not one I recommend lightly.  Really think this one through.  If you can avoid using this step, do so.

g)  If you haven't already, call around for better car insurance rates.  A lot of people will just keep the same insurance for years and years, never shopping around.  I was one of those people.  In one call I save $700 over a year!  Crazy!

What money you free up this way will be gold.  You want to use it very carefully.  What is the one "Wow" gift your kids would want?  What do you need to make this Christmas happen?  

3)  Christmas food with what's on hand-   So you probably can't stock up right now because of the financial hardship.  You can, however, work in a couple of extra basic items for Christmas.  The great thing is, if you already have flour, sugar, butter or margarine, you can make goodies for the holidays.  Add a bottle of corn syrup to your grocery shopping list and you can add making candies for stockings(see my recipe page for Butter Toffee Crunch).  Chips, cokes, cereal, boxed anything, and anything pre-made needs to go off your list.  Plan on making more casseroles or soups so you can free up the money you would use to buy a lot of meats.  Basics. You are looking for basics. This will save you considerably on your grocery list and allow extra for purchasing things for holiday baking or allow you extra money to go toward a few small gifts or stocking stuffers.  You can make your own biscuits and cornbread for making stuffing.  Make your own cream soup for casseroles (see my recipe page for the cream soup mix recipe).

Every Christmas we have a Christmas breakfast as opposed to a Christmas dinner.  The menu usually consists of Cinnamon Rolls, Sausage balls, Sausage croissants, Gorilla Bread, coffee, Hot Chocolate, and OJ,  We end up munching on this pretty much all day. I make the cinnamon rolls, sausage (see my recipe page), sausage balls, Gorilla bread, and hot chocolate from scratch.   I use the dough from the cinnamon rolls to make the Gorilla bread as well.  The only extra thing I usually have to buy is the OJ, Crescent rolls, and cream cheese for the Gorilla bread.  All of which could be omitted in a tight situation.  Here are some other recipes for you to try that don't take a lot of effort or expense:

Dinner Rolls ( This is what I use for Cinnamon Rolls, Gorilla Bread, and Raisin Bread)

4- 4 1/2 cups flour
1 pkg of yeast (or 1 TBS)
1 cup milk
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter, shortening or margarine
1 ts salt
2 eggs

In a small saucepan, add your milk, butter, sugar, and salt.  Heat milk mixture just until the butter is just about melted.  While that heats up, put 2 cups flour and yeast in a large mixing bowl and mix together.   Once milk is hot (120 degrees) dump into the flour mixture and add the two eggs.  Mix all together for about 100 strokes.  Stir in as much remaining flour as you can with a spoon.  Dump out onto a floured counter.  Knead dough 10-12 minutes adding just enough flour to keep dough from being sticky as you work.  Once dough starts to tear, it's time to stop kneading (or if the timer goes off).  Place dough in a greased bowl, turning once to coat.  Cover, Let rise no more than 30 minutes.  Punch down, shape into desired rolls.  Place in the pan you will use.  Cover and let rise until double.
Bake 350 degrees for 15-20 min or until golden on top.  Or you can just put the whole thing in the bread machine; liquids first, sugar, salt, flour, yeast being last.  Put on dough setting and go read a book.  Then shape how you want weather it's dinner rolls, cinnamon rolls, or Gorilla bread

Don't have yeast?  Try this for cinnamon rolls

3 cups self rising flour
1/3cup sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 cup milk

In a mixing bowl place your flour and sugar (mix well)and cut in the butter until it make a crumbly mix.  Add milk and fold in until well mixed.  Turn out onto a floured surface and knead exactly 8 times (  that's basically just to shape it well into a ball).  Roll out thin(about 1/2 inch) and rectangular.  Spread with melted butter and sprinkle liberally with cinnamon and sugar.  Starting with the long side, roll up the dough and cut into "cinnamon rolls".  Place in a baking pan and bake 10-15 minutes at 350 degrees.  Once out, you can milk 1 cup powdered sugar with 2 Tbs milk and 1/2 tsp vanill extract and pour over the top.

Just had an interesting idea in trying this for Gorilla bread too.  Hmmm.  Yea, I am my own worst enemy when it comes to eating healthy.  Hey!  It's the holidays!


Hot Cocoa 

1/3- 1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup cocoa powder
4 cups milk or 1 1/3 cups dry milk powder plus water to make 4 cups
1/2 ts vanilla
dash salt

Mix your sugar, cocoa powder,and dash salt in a pan.  Stir in the milk and continue stirring frequently while it warms to hot.  A whisk works best for this, but if you don't have one, no big deal.  Once hot, remove from heat and add the vanilla.  Serve hot.  If you have marshmallows, great.  A small peppermint stick would be good too.


Easy Fudge


1/2 cup butter or margarine
1/3 cup water
1 box (16 oz) powdered sugar
1/2 cup dry milk powder
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
dash salt
1/2 cup chopped nuts (if you have them)

*** If you don't have dry milk, omit the water and dry milk and use 1/3 cup of evaporated milk.

*** Don't have evaporated milk?  You can evaporate it yourself by taking 2/3 cups milk and simmer until reduced by half.  

In a small sauce pan heat together butter/margarine and water just to boiling, stirring to melt the butter/margarine.  Sift together (whisk together) dry ingredients.  Add the melted butter mixture.  Stir til well blended.  Stir in nuts if you have them.  Turn into a buttered 8x8x2 inch pan.  Chill several hours.  Cut into squares.

You can make popcorn balls, peanut brittle, the fudge, toffee, etc for very little outlay of funds and these can go in stockings.  If you have peppermint sticks, you can crush one or two (to taste) and stir in the fudge or sprinkle on top for a festive stocking stuffer.


4)  Make gifts   - This can be a difficult one if you don't really have a crafty side.  I'm not gonna leave you hanging I swear!  My next post will be a how to on making a hobby horse.  I'm actually making one for my grandson for Christmas this year along with a Superman or Super hero cape.  Neither of these will require a pattern.  Do you have some scrap wood; ends of 2 x 4 or 2 x 2's?  Cut these into different sizes and shapes.  Sand them smooth and voila, Blocks to play with.

Here comes another recipe for Playdough!!!!

2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup salt
4 tsp cream of tarter
2 cups water with food coloring adding in whatever color you want
2 T oil

Mix all ingredients together in a pan.  Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it forms a hard ball.  I'll try to include more over the next few weeks.


You can sew doll clothes, pajama pants, super hero capes, etc.  Don't have fabric?  I buy sheets (King size flat sheets in solid cottons or flannel) for fabric at thrift stores.  If you can't afford that you can always sacrifice a sheet or two (done that before too).  I mean how many sets does one person need!  (smile).  I will have another post soon containing some ways to save on sewing in general.

Don't have a Sewing machine?  It is harder to do if that is the case, but not impossible.  In a day of google we can pull up how to's on hand stitching and sew your items by hand.

There's no time to sew!  My sister and I, many years ago, put up a sheet to block off an area of her house normally open to the rest of the family.  We named it "Santa's Workshop" and all our creations were hidden from the crowd.  We sewed in the evening.  She sewed at night after I had gone to my home.  To this day my niece says the sound of a sewing machine lulls her to sleep.  It is comforting to her because she would go to sleep to the sound of my sister sewing for her family.  Aren't good memories great?!

Speaking of Thrift stores!  They, as well as Yard Sales can be resources for Christmas gifts.  Books can be found there cheap that are in great condition.  Other items can be found that may need a little TLC to be like new again.  Great thing is in this age of Google there are a slew of "How To" videos or articles to help you take a thrift store find and revamp it to be like new.  Little secret.  I have never bought a brand new video game or DVD.  Nope.  I always purchased them from either Amazon or a thrift store.  In fact when my kids were young, and we didn't have a lot of money for gaming systems, we bought a used system for all three kids together.  It wasn't the latest and greatest, but the kids loved it.  I found a Play mobile Castle with all the characters at a yard sale for $5 for the whole thing!

I realize this may not be the coolest Christmas, at least on paper, but it can still be a great Christmas.  I hope some of these ideas can help.  I will try to add to them over the next few weeks.  The idea is to be able to still celebrate even in the midst of financial hardship.

Stretch what you have! A life of "Hmmm I wonder"

 Morning all!  How's everyone?  Come on in an sit a spell.  I have coffee.  Join me!  

So it's no surprise, prices are going up!  And up and up!  It's crazy!  In addition to all the prices going up, availability is going down for certain things.  

Whenever you order something from Walmart, they very nicely (insert sarcasm here) keep track of your purchases.  You know to help you buy them quicker next time.  I will admit it's more convenient, but I would rather not have every purchase I've made saved for posterity.  I digress though. Yesterday I pulled up my Walmart "reorder" list and, while I should have been surprised, wasn't really surprised to see the bulk of my past purchases "Out of Stock".  Walmart is one store, but you will find this just about everywhere.  Products from outside the country have a hard time disembarking from their ships,.  Products within the country have a hard time finding enough truck driver's to make the trip to their destination.  If the product does make it to it's destination, it's having a hard time being unloaded and put on the shelf.  This is the problem for products once they're made!  These same "out of Stock" scenarios hamper a products ability to be created in the first place!  

It's a never ending cycle.  For that reason, and to save money during increasing prices; things we already have need to last longer and spread further!  Thinking out of the box is a must in this day and age.  Both my Dad and Grandmother (my Dad's Mom) held onto things "just in case".  We used to shake our heads at them, but now?  They would look at us with a smug "I told you so look".  My grandmother grew up during the Depression.  My Dad was born in 1939 near the end of the depression and was old enough to remember WWII and the subsequent rationing.  There's a reason they held onto things thru their life.  The things they held onto had the potential to be used in a variety of ways should the need arise.  These items were and are assets!  Utilizing these assets is a skill who's time has come around again.  Making the most of what we have in our possession, and seeing things in a new way are a must!

For that reason, I wanted to give a few examples of both.  These may or may not be useful to you specifically, but they are listed as a means to hopefully inspire you to look at your own assets with a new eye.  What can you do to make things go further, or be useful in new and different ways?  As you read, I hope you'll begin to formulate your own plans.  Let's begin.

1)  Meat-  Meat is becoming expensive.  My family likes their meat, so full on vegan ain't happening.  For that reason, I stretch it to go further without losing the pleasure and nutrition of meat.  

a)  Use less in a recipe.  Instead of a piece of meat with sides, I try to use meat in casseroles, and soups.  Even then I use less meat than the recipe calls for.  Half is a good starting point, but keep reducing til someone complains!  Lol.  In some recipes you can throw in lentils or beans to still bulk it up.  You can also throw in more veggies to fill in for the missing meat.  

b)  Make the most of bone in meats.  Many times you can get bone in meats cheaper than boneless.  This is actually beneficial on multiple accounts.  Bone in meats have a better flavor, texture, and make great broth!  Save the bones!  Use the bones to make bone broth!  Here's an impromptu "How to" .  Bone broth enables you to add much needed nutrients and minerals to your meals while also reducing the amount of meat in the recipe.  It's also great for what ails ya!  Season it though!  Unseasoned bone broth is ick by itself.  

c)  Speaking of bone in, reminds me to not forget the fat!  I've trimmed off fat from roasts ( back when we could afford them), and even saved the fat from cooking up ground beef, and rendered it into a nice white Tallow ( lard ) useful for anything from biscuits and pie crusts, to sautéing. Tallow is even used in candle making!  Haven't done that though.  I've cooked chicken skin in a pan and saved the resulting fat for cooking later.  The skins are a treat for my dogs then.  They love it when I do this.  Most times I use this fat in the dog treats I make for them, but I've also used the chicken fat to sauté the veggies for a chicken dish when oil is called for.  If you're interested in rendering Tallow or Lard, I'm about to cook up a 5 lb package of ground beef.  When I do, I'll do a post on rendering lard or Tallow.   

d) Left over roast becomes beef stew.  Left over meat loaf becomes the ground meat in Chili or spaghetti.  Any left overs become the meat used in another recipe!  

2)  Veggies-

a)  Use as much of the vegetable as possible.  I leave peelings on my potatoes.  I do wash them, and all my veggies.  When I need to peel carrots, celery, or onions, I save the peelings to use in my bone broth.  That way I'm not needing to sacrifice an actual vegetable to make the broth, but getting the nutrients and minerals anyway.  I also use the celery leaves and tops.  I do draw the line at any bad places on my veggies.  FYI.  

b)  When you have left over tidbits, but not enough for an actual serving to be consumed later, throw them into a decent size container.  Make sure you include any liquid the veggies were cooked in.  Once you've collected enough, you use them to make vegetable soup!  

c)  Repurpose those veggies!  Add some flour, an egg, and a little milk to mashed potatoes to make a think batter, then fry in a pan to make potato pancakes.  These are great with sour cream.  You can also add some chives or chopped onion to the batter.  Mashed potatoes, oatmeal and rice can be added to muffin or pancake batter to stretch the number of muffins or pancakes made.  Usually about 1/2 cup to the batter to start with.  Left over baked potatoes for dinner can become fried potatoes in the morning.  Left over cooked carrots or sweet potatoes can become a sweet breakfast muffin come morning.

d)  When buying green onions from the store, replant the ends where the roots are.  Keep them well watered.  They will begin to grow another onion.  Keep that going and you'll never have to buy green onions again!  

3)  Fruits- a)  As with the vegetables, use as much of fruit as possible.  Left over bits of applesauce or banana can replace some of the fat used in baked good like muffins, quick breads, etc.  Apple cores and peelings can be used to make apple jelly, or even vinegar!.  Apparently watermelon rind can be used for mock apple pie filling or sweet pickles.  Orange rinds can be dried and powdered, or grated and dried (depending on preference) to use in recipes calling for grated orange peel.  The same can be said for lemons, and limes.  Orange peels can also be placed in a pot of water with a cinnamon stick and whole cloves to create your own home fragrance, or placed in oil for a while to make orange oil to polish furniture.  

Milk and Eggs-  

a)  There's no crying over spilt milk, well unless you were needing it for something, but you should be at least a little concerned to throw out spoilt milk.  Even milk that has soured is usable.  In fact soured milk can give baked good the flavor of Buttermilk baked goods.  I've had milk sour and chosen to freeze it in cup measurements to use in baked good.  I just thaw it out and use it  in biscuits, pancakes, etc.  In fact you can use soured milk in any baked good.  

b)  To make milk go further, and cut calories at the same time, buy whole milk and mix it half and half with water.  It will produce milk with a 2% milk consistency and taste, but at half the cost and calories! 2 Gallons of milk for the price of one!  This is fine for kids over the age of 2.  Before two, keep the whole milk full strength.

c)  Yes you can freeze milk!  So when you find it on sale grab a few extra to freeze.  Also, milk is good  for a week after it's expiration date.  So when you see milk marked down because its close to it's expiration date, buy some to use and freeze.  I will bring it home and pour it into quart jars and freeze.  Then I only have to remove a quart at a time to use.  It means I will go thru that quart before it has time to go sour.  Just make sure if you're using glass jars/container, to leave the lid off until it's frozen to give room for expansion as it freezes.

d) As for eggs, I'll have to use an eggs wash for bagels or French bread, but I'll use the left over egg wash in another baked good as the egg called for in the recipe.  Same thing applies when making French toast.  The left over egg milk mixture will be added to flour, sugar and oil to make muffins,  Those are put in the freezer.  FYI, 2 eggs yolks are equal to 1 regular egg.  

e)  Yes you can freeze eggs!  Take a 12 cup muffin pan.  Crack about 20-24 eggs into a bowl.  Beat them with or without salt.  I add salt to mine to save a step later, but you can opt to not.  Once the eggs are beaten, fill up the cups of the muffin pan.  Cover with plastic wrap and freeze.  Once frozen, submerge the bottom of the muffin pan in cold water.  Once the eggs loosen, pop them out and into a gallon size freezer bag and freeze.  

Miscellaneous-

a)  I get my flannel and polycotton fabric from flat bed sheets at thrift stores.  I can use this fabric anywhere I would use flannel or poly cotton; pajamas, scrubs for dh, shirts, etc.  

b)  I've taken ratty ole t shirts and cut them into strips which I use to tie up tomatoes.  I've even used them to crochet hot pads for the kitchen!

c)  I'll remove zippers, buttons, etc from clothes I have to throw away.  I can then use them in new clothes I make.

d)  Empty pill bottles make great storage containers for seeds

These are just a few ideas.  Ironically in this day of being environmentally aware, we sure do throw out a lot.  It's all designed to be disposable now.  However, our ancestors were much more environmental then than we are now.  Clothes hung on a line.  Clothes handed down.  Things mended and worn as long as possible, then converted to something else.  During the depression, grain and flour sacks were made of fabric that was then used to make dresses for little girls.  My mom told me once that people could tell how long a couple had been married by the age of their appliances.  I guess the same could be said today in some cases, except now it's because marriages don't last as long and appliances are built to last about 5 years.  Sad to say on both accounts.

The idea is to not pigeon hole an item into having only one function.  It needs to spread it's wings and fly into something new!  Always be willing to try, especially if you aren't going to be out anything by giving it a go.