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.