A Month of No Groceries!

Yes, you read that title right. We are currently in a month of buying no groceries. We did this in November of 2015 and you can read about it here. This time, there are a couple of reasons why we are doing this. The first of course is to try and save some money in an overly tight January budget. The second reason however is more exciting. Our steers are going to be butchered in a week and we need all the freezer space we can get!

When we did this in the past, we had done it on a whim, and during November. I really didn't think it through, knowing that we would end up having to buy somethings for Thanksgiving, but we plunged forward and made it through.  Yes, we still bought a few groceries, but not nearly as many as we would have during a regular month.

This time around is going to be a little different. We really are under than gun to clean out some freezer space for the beef that we will soon have. Also January is always a tight month for us. There is Christmas that we just spent money on, taxes that we just paid, plus this year our Christmas present to ourselves was a little pricey...a fireplace. A gas log fireplace. It is something that we built ourselves and are so proud of. It is not quite finished yet, but when it does, I will post pictures and how we built it. We are hoping that since it is gas, it will save us money on our electric bill. So in the end, it will end up paying for itself!

So back to the month of no groceries, I really do mean what I say. We are not going to be spending money on groceries during the month of January. Each week on Monday, I will update you all on how we did with the groceries and what I cooked using food out of our pantry and freezer.

So for week one's update: yes we bought a few grocery items. We bought two cartons of almond milk (as soon as I get a decent blender, I will be making it myself!) and some cheese.  We spent all of around $7 for the three items, but it should get us through the rest of the month.

So what did I cook? Well our meals looked a little like this:

Homemade lasagna...take that Stouffer's!

Monday: Salad and Chicken Wings (left over from New Years Eve)
Tuesday: Vegetable Soup and Stuffing Muffins (left over from Thanksgiving that I had frozen)
Wednesday: Smothered Pork Chops (slow cooked with potatoes and onions)
Thursday: French Dip Sandwiches (used left-over pork chops and the juice to make these)
Friday: Pizza (this was at my mom and dad's house and was not planned)
Saturday: Lasagna and Beer Bread (I didn't have ricotta or cottage cheese, so instead I used cream cheese which I did have, and it was amazing!)
Sunday: Left-Over Night (Or clean out the fridge, as I like to call it)

My yummy beer bread! A quick and easy way to make bread.

So you can see that everything that I made was something that I had in my freezer or pantry, but mainly freezer. While I was cooking the hamburger for the lasagna I decided to cook some extra and I will be using that for a Mexican meal this evening.

I love that I was able to take my left-overs from Wednesday and turn them into a whole new meal for Thursday. Doing this challenge really helps me plan out what I am going to cook, and how I can use the left-overs for other meals. The best part is that I am using food that I already have, I am not wasting anything, and I am saving money that we need for other things this month.

Have you ever done this challenge?  Want to join me? Let me know in the comments below!

Leave a Comment budget, groceries, meal planning, meals, no spend

Happy National Pancake Day! (A Great Gluten-Free Recipe)

Happy National Pancake Day!  In our family we love pancakes!  Drew especially loves pancakes and asks for them every weekend for breakfast.  We don't always get to eat them every weekend, but we do try and have them a couple of times a month.

When we can't have them for breakfast, we have no problem making them for dinner.  They are an easy and quick meal to make and we try and balance out their cake-y goodness by adding in a protein and healthy fruit.  For dinner, we try and make them more savory and still enjoy veggies on the side!

I have a little secret to share.  When it comes to making plain old honest-to-goodness pancakes, Steve is the winner.  Every time!  His pancakes are truly the best and I have yet to be able to duplicate their fluffy, golden goodness.  However, when it comes to flavored pancakes, I'm the winner!  

I thought I would share with you a recipe for pancakes that is a little different.  This is a gluten-free recipe.  Most gluten-free pancake recipes use coconut flour, rice flour, or almond meal, but mine use something different...garbanzo bean flour!

Yep, you read that right, garbanzo bean flour.  It is one of the best flours I have used.  You can substitute 7/8 of garbanzo bean flour for every 1 cup of wheat flour with the same results.  That is almost a 1:1 ratio!  That makes it very easy when it comes to subbing it for recipes.  You can also use garbanzo bean flour in conjunction with other flours to make a gluten-free flour mixture.

This flour works very well in cake and quick bread recipes.  The first time I had this type of flour was when my friend Amy made a chocolate brownie, marshmallow, to die-for dessert!  In fact she is the one that turned me on to this type of flour.  

Never heard of this type of flour before?  Ever heard of gram flour?  It's the same thing! It is also known as chickpea flour. This type of flour is high in protein and fiber. And even though it has double (don't worry it still isn't that much) fat as whole wheat flour, 70% of the fat you find in this flour is from healthy unsaturated fats.  Those are the kind that you want to help lower your cholesterol.  It also is rich in calcium, magnesium, potassium, zinc, iron, phosphorus, manganese, selenium, and copper. 

You can also use this type of flour to help thicken sauces and gravies.  That is great when you are adhering to a gluten free diet. Ready for the recipe?  Well here it is!

Another recipe with mainly pantry staples for ingredients.  If you want to use regular flour feel free!

The ingredients you need are:

• 2 cups of garbanzo bean flour
• 3 teaspoons of baking powder
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 tablespoon of sugar
• 1 cup of milk
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla

First mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl.  In a separate bowl, mix together the wet ingredients. I like to use my measuring cup to mix the wet ingredients together as you can see below.

Wet and dry ingredients

Next add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until just incorporated.  You really don't want to over mix this just as you would a normal pancake recipe.

Ingredients all incorporated

Place the batter on a hot griddle.  You can use whatever you like to grease the griddle, butter, coconut oil, olive oil. I use whatever I have on hand.  I also use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to measure out my batter so that the pancakes are roughly the same size.

Ready to flip!

Cook them until they have bubbles and the outer edges are starting to dry out, like the picture above. Then flip to the other side.

A beautiful golden brown!

Cook for an additional 30 seconds to a minute and then remove.  These pancakes cook up so nice and have a gorgeous golden brown color.

My mouth is watering!

The only thing that I would add to this recipe is a little cinnamon.  I did not add that to my recipe because I know not everyone likes cinnamon.  I did sprinkle some on top after the fact and it was ah-ma-zing!

Ready for a bite!

These pancakes are so easy to make and so delicious!  They would also be scrumptious with chocolate chips or blueberries added.  My kids loved them and I didn't mention the fact that they were gluten free, OR that they were made from beans!

Want a clean copy of the recipe to print out?  Click HERE.

Need a great and economical syrup recipe for your pancakes?  Then visit my post on how to make your own pancake syrup.  It is yummy and not too sweet!

Don't have time to make pancakes?  Then you are in luck!  Today IHOP is giving away one free short stack of Buttermilk Pancakes per customer.  You can find out more information here.

Have you used garbanzo bean flour before?  Let me know in the comments below!  I would love to hear your stories!!

Leave a Comment budget, charities, donations, free, ihop, pancakes, recipes

A No Spend January Update and an Organization Project

It is hard to believe that it is already February.  I had intended on giving you an update on how my No Spend January went, but I ran out of time before I even realized it.  So a quick update on how the month went.

At the beginning of January, I really didn't take the no spend challenge seriously.  Now that's not to say I spent lavishly on things we didn't need, but I also did little to reel my spending in.  That was not the case for the second half of the month.  I looked at our budget and our bills and realized that the spending had to be shut down for the rest of the month in order to get the bills paid.  January is always a difficult month for us with it being right after Christmas and taxes.  There was absolutely NO spending for the last two weeks of the month.  I started making things from scratch.  We started eating out of our freezers and pantry and made do with what we had.  We made it through the end of the month and we were able to pay all of our bills.

As for February, I plan on keeping my spending down and I also plan on buying as little groceries as possible.  Our freezers are packed to the brim with food and so is our pantry so I really don't think that we will starve.  I need new tires and I have to get them this month, so our extra money will be going to that purchase.

The other project that we started in January was to clean, organize, and declutter.  We started off great, but it soon got derailed as we decided (during a no spend month, mind you), to enlarge our master closet.  We are still in the process of working on it drywall soon to come, so I started cleaning out cabinets to keep up with our decluttering process.

If you remember we had cleaned our entry closet and our pantry.  Well, I have a corner cabinet in my kitchen that needed major decluttering, so I decided to tackle that this weekend.

My "baking" cabinet

It may not look like it, but I did take items out and throw out old stuff.  This is my go to cabinet when I cook.  With this cabinet I now know what I have, and where it is.  No more rummaging around looking for things.  It feels so much better to be able to have this organized and will help to cut down on my cooking time.  I do have a separate spice cabinet on the other side of my stove that is just spices.  That cabinet will be next.  I know I have some spices that are outdated that need to be thrown away.  It feels so good to get these little things done.

As for February, I will continue to curb my spending and I will be sharing with you some of our favorite meals that like to make.  I look forward to sharing a Cheeseburger Salad recipe with you on Thursday!

2 comments budget, cleaning, house repairs, January, no spend, organization, simple living

Lentil Sloppy Joes

I love sloppy joes!  I haven't always.  Growing up, my mom used to make sloppy joes from scratch and I really didn't care for them.  I think she used a mixture of ketchup and mustard and probably added in some of the homemade tomato juice that they always canned every summer.  It was on the runny side and it just didn't have that sweet and tangy taste that I have now grown to love.  I disliked her sloppy joes so much that she had to make me a plain hamburger patty every time she made them.

The first time I tried the canned version of the sauce, I was in heaven!  I thought that was the best stuff that I had ever eaten.  From then on I loved sloppy joes!  But that was back in the 90's.  A time when we were young and carefree and the price of beef was where a poor 20-something could actually afford it.  In fact, hamburger used to be considered a budget meal! Now, not only is beef NOT a budget item but it is not all that healthy, unless you are lucky enough to raise it yourself or buy from a farmer that you know is raising their cattle grass fed.

I have my sister Lori to thank for turning me onto lentils.  Last year, we were looking for substitutes for meat during a time when we really needed to watch our money.  Before I go any further, I have to add that my husband is all about eating meat.  He would eat meat and potatoes for every meal if I let him, so the idea of substituting a couple of meals a week with vegetarian meals did not exactly thrill him.  But my sister assured me that lentils were very tasty, were inexpensive, and could be substituted as a meat in just about any dish that calls for hamburger.

I first looked up the benefits of lentils which include: good source of iron, great source of protein, low in calories, and the list goes on and on.  Next I looked up recipes and found a ton of recipes with lentils.  Things like chili, salads, lentil loaf (instead of meatloaf), taco lentils, and of course sloppy joes.

The first time we made the sloppy joes, I followed a recipe I found.  It was okay, but not great.  The lentils were under cooked and the sauce didn't have any wow factor.  But, it was good enough that I knew, if I started tweaking the recipe, it could be great!  So that is what I have for you today, my tweaked version of lentil sloppy joes that my family (kids included!) love!

Green Lentils

You can get green, red, or black lentils.  We usually gravitate towards the green because they are easier to find in regular grocery stores.  We like to cook our lentils till they are soft, but just before the mushy stage.  Like I said the first time I cooked them, they were under cooked.  I believe the recipe said to cook them for 15 minutes.  That was not long enough for us!  We really wanted it more of the consistency of the hamburger meat that we were replacing.  Also, I need to mention that before you cook your lentils, you need to go through them and wash them just as you would dry beans.

The sauce for this recipe is a cross between my grandmother's swedish meatball sauce and what I use for baked beans.  I decided to stick with a sauce I was familiar with and play with the amounts and add and tweak as needed.  So here is our version of lentil sloppy joes.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup dry lentils
• 4 1/2 cups water

Sauce:

• 1 8 oz. can tomato sauce
• 1 cup ketchup
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon prepared mustard
• 1 tablespoon minced onion
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 dash Worcestershire sauce
• salt and pepper to taste

Ingredients...just missing the Worcestershire and tomato sauce.

Bring 4 1/2 cups of water to a boil.  Add in 1 cup of dry lentils.  Reduce heat and let simmer 25-30 minutes.  This is double the amount of time that the original recipe we tried said.  For us it was trial and error and this is the consistency we liked.  I would suggest cooking them for 20 minutes, tasting one to see the texture and then if too hard, continue cooking.

While the lentils are cooking, you can prepare your sauce.  Add the tomato sauce, ketchup, brown sugar, mustard, minced onions, garlic powder, and Worcestershire sauce to a sauce pan and cook over low heat.  You want the sugar to dissolve and the flavors to meld.  Let it simmer until the lentils are done.

Once the lentils are cooked to your desired consistency, drain off the water.

Cooked lentils

Add your cooked lentils to your sauce.  At this time, you can keep them warm on the stove, which is what I had to do, just be careful not to overcook the lentils or they will turn into mush.

Cooked lentils in sloppy joe sauce.

You can see from the picture that it is pretty saucy!  We like sloppy, sloppy joes.  1 cup of lentils more than fed our family of 4.  In fact we have quite a few left-overs.  

Yummy!

If only I would have had time to make my own buns, that would have made the meal.  However I was able to pick these lovely buns up for 1/2 price because of the use by date.  I didn't mind that they were expiring that day since I was going to be using them the same day.  The whole sandwich was delicious!

I really hope you give this recipe a try.  Want a printable version of the recipe?  Then click HERE.

And please let me know in the comments below what you think about using lentils or if you have even tried them before.

4 comments budget, food, health, recipes, sandwiches, vegetables, vegetarian

A No Spend January Challege

For the past three years we have participated in a no spend January. If you have never done that before it basically means that you pay your bills and buy only the necessities.  You spend as little as possible on gas and groceries.  And if you don't need it, you don't buy it!

The first year we participated in this went great. We didn't spend any extra money and I'll never forget that we spent a total of $75.00 on food that month. In fact I strive to do the same every month, but have never been able to duplicate that month's food budget.  

The next year went ok. We had to buy tires for Steve's car but we had money saved and was able to use that. When we did go shopping I made sure what we got was what we needed, not what we wanted. That meant that I put several items back on the shelf after having them in my cart.  As I walked around the store, I asked myself, is this something my family can live without?

Last year (our third year) just seemed to fall apart from the beginning.  Drew needed new glasses and insurance didn't cover them. We had several repairs that came up and it seemed we were shelling out money for the kids for this activity or that. 

I really had not planned on doing a no spend January this year, but after looking at our finances and knowing we needed a way to recover from Christmas and taxes, and everything else that cost money in December, I thought it would be good if we went ahead and did a no spend month.

I know that this year, we are not going to have a true no spend January.  My car needs tires and really that is a necessity.  We will also be getting new glasses, but this time the insurance should cover the cost.  I plan on using up what I have in my pantry and freezers.  Flashback to November. ;-)

We will also be going through our house and purging anything that we do not need or use.  We have already tackled the hall closet (post coming soon) and I have gone through Carly's clothes.  It had been over a year since I have went through her clothes and gotten rid of the ones that don't fit. Needless to say I have two trash bags full of girl's clothes.

I hope that you will join me in this challenge.  I have started a Facebook group as a support to help each other out.  You can find it by going here.  

Let me know in the comments below if you have ever participated in a no spend month, and please join us on Facebook!

Leave a Comment budget, cleaning, January, no spend, simple living, sustainable living

Throw Back Thursday: Loaded Baked Potatoes

One of our favorite, easy, and budget friendly meals to make are baked potatoes.  In the winter time, this is the perfect comfort food, and can be a meal in itself.  In the summer, we love to throw a couple on the grill with our steaks or pork chops.  Either way, you can't go wrong.

Several years ago, we were in one of our favorite (locally owned) grocery stores and we saw that they had potatoes already to cook.  They were seasoned and wrapped in foil so you could either bake them in the oven or throw them on the grill.  We decided to try them (even though they were a little pricey) and man were they the best potatoes I have ever had!  I'm not exaggerating.  They. Were. The. Best.

Every time we went by the store, we always picked some up to bake.  I had played around with trying to make them myself, but I didn't really get serious about it.  Then the price increased and we were paying $1.00 per potato.  I know that doesn't sound like much, but when you can get a 5 lb. bag or even a 10 lb. bag on sale for a couple of dollars the price of $1 per potato is expensive.

So it took me awhile, but I think that I have the recipe figured out.  At least, I have it figured out so that my family loves them!  Of course I don't know what herbs and spices they use to help season the potatoes, but that's okay.  We have figured out what we like and I want to share it with you.

The first step is to pick out potatoes that are very similar in size and shape. That way they will cook evenly. I like to use Russet potatoes.  There is something about the starch content in them, that makes the perfect baked potato.  Once you have your potatoes picked out, you will need to scrub them  until they are clean, but don't scrub so hard the skin comes off, and then dry them (very important!)

My potatoes, all nice and clean and waiting for the next step.

When they are clean and dried, you can then season them.  I first get my foil ready by tearing off sheets that I need.  Then I get my other ingredients ready.

Baked potato ingredients...super simple!

I first put a little bit of extra virgin olive oil (you can use regular olive oil) on a piece of foil.  Then I roll the potato around in the oil.  You can also use your hand and make sure that the oil is completely covering the potato.  Then comes your salt.  You want to use coarse salt.  DO NOT USE TABLE SALT.  You will end up with an extremely salty inedible potato.  Trust me! You can see my little baggie above is full of apple wood smoked coarse salt and other seasonings.  I got that from my local farmer's market and love it!  You can use just regular coarse salt such as sea salt, or kosher salt, or even Himalayan salt.  Make sure that the salt and seasonings completely cover the potato.

Oiled, seasoned and ready to bake!

As you can see from the picture above, it is not plastered with salt and seasonings.  You don't want to get too wild. :-)  Next just wrap up your potato and let it sit.  Try and let it sit for a couple of hours.  I made these in the morning and didn't bake them until the evening.  It allows the oil and seasonings to penetrate the skin and flavor the potato. 

Then bake in a 450°F oven for 1 hour, or until potatoes are soft when slightly squeezed.  You can also put these on the grill, or you can put them in your slow cooker on low and cook them for 6-8 hours.  I personally love the oven the best, but I have cooked them in my slow cooker and on the grill.

Our potato bar

As you can see above, I got our toppings ready.  I tend to use whatever we have on hand or leftover.  For this meal, I steamed some broccoli, and also had some salsa, shredded cheese, onions, and bacon pieces.  And of course butter!  I love it when we have chili left over and I can use that as a topping for our potatoes. 

My baked potato!

Here is my baked potato ready to eat!  I made these during one of the no groceries during the month of November weeks.

I was able to use things that we already had in our pantry or fridge which accounts for the white onions rather than the green, and the addition of steamed broccoli.  These were so good!  This recipe is the only way that we make potatoes now.  I have microwaved them a couple of times since, but they just aren't as good.  They are definitely not as flavorful.  To us it is worth the time to season them up and bake them in the oven.  And you know what the best part is?  The kids will actually eat the potato skin!

If you would like a printable version of the recipe, click HERE.

Please let me know in the comments below what you think of the recipe!  I hope you enjoy it!

1 comment budget, cooking, meals, potatoes, recipes

A Month of No Groceries: My November Food Challenge Week 4

Well the November food challenge of no groceries for a month is officially over.  This really has been an eye opener for me and my spending habits when it comes to food.  Here is how I did this last week of the challenge.

I did have to buy groceries this past week, but let me tell you why.  I put the turkey that my mom had purchased for our Thanksgiving feast in my fridge to thaw on Sunday of last week.  On Tuesday I went to put it in a brine and realized that the turkey had been thawing and dripping blood into my crisper drawers.  My veggies that I was going to use for the dressing had been marinating in turkey blood for at least a day.  Yuck!  I wasn't about to take any chances, so those veggies were thrown out, my fridge got a good cleaning, my turkey ended up in the brine, and I had to go and buy onions, carrots, and oranges that I used for our Thanksgiving meal.  I also ended up buying two loaves of bread for the dressing.  I had made bread, but I ran out of time and I got really nervous about having enough.  My mom had extra celery so she gave me hers and I didn't have to buy that.  I ended up spending less than $10.00 for what I had to replace.

Our meals this week were sporadic and consisted of quite a few sandwiches, ham and pbj, until the day of the feast.  Since then we have been eating leftovers.

I was really hoping that I could have made it through the month and tell you that I spent nothing on groceries. What I can tell you is that I spent less than $100.00 on groceries this month and for that I am extremely proud!  For groceries, we generally spend anywhere from $300.00 (on a slim month) to $500.00.  Our freezer also looks much better.  In fact I plan on taking inventory of what we have left and organizing it so I can access food better.  Our pantry has less food in it, but it is still a mess.  I do need to organize my pantry, but that will be a job for a cold snowy day.

I did learn some things while going through this process.  And I thought I would share what I learned with you.

Take Inventory
At the beginning of the month, take an inventory of what you have in your pantry and freezer.  Be sure and write down what you have on hand.  You might be surprised to find that you have multiples of an item.  My favorite inventory worksheets can be found HERE. Just scroll down till you see Cleaning & Organizing and you will find both the pantry inventory and the freezer inventory worksheets that are free!

Plan Meals
Once you have your inventory of your foods, then start planning your meals for the month.  This is a great time to sit down with the family and let them help plan the meals.  I know my kids have favorite meals that they always want me to make.  As I write down the meals I make notes of what I have on hand and what I will need.  I also make notes if it can be a slow cooker meal, or if it will take additional time to make (making it the perfect weekend meal).

Cook From Scratch
Cooking from scratch is a great way to save money, use up your stockpile of groceries AND eat healthy.  I love to cook from scratch, but unfortunately I'm not always home to be able to.  Some of my favorite things  to cook (or bake) are bread, cookies, and soups.  What I have found is that it doesn't take much extra time to make, you can control the ingredients that goes into the food, and it tastes so much better!

It's Okay to Make Mistakes
It is okay if you make a mistake.  It is okay if you have to go and buy groceries, when you didn't plan on it.  I experienced some stress because I wanted to be really successful in this challenge.  At first I thought that if I bought groceries, then I had failed.  That is not the case at all.  The savings my family experienced is enough for me to call this challenge a success. Plus I have the bonus of using food that might have ended up being thrown out instead of eaten.  So now I have learned not to be so hard on myself.  We all experience setbacks and we can always turn those setbacks into something positive.

So how did you guys do?  Did you make it through the month?  If any of you tried this challenge let me know in the comments below how your month ended. 

Leave a Comment budget, groceries, no spend, simple living

A Month of No Groceries: My November Food Challenge Week 3

Well, week 3 didn't go as planned.  I'll tell you more about that later.  The good news is that the meals we had were much better than week 2.  I was actually able to plan ahead and cook more!  Here is what we had.

Monday: Leftovers from take out we got on Sunday
Tuesday: Taco Soup (Recipe to come later)
Wednesday: Loaded Baked Potatoes
Thursday: Beans & Ham and Mac & Cheese
Friday: Beef and Bean Enchiladas
Saturday: Meatloaf, Mashed Potatoes, Peas, and Homemade Bread
Sunday: Clean out the Fridge Night!

I'm happy to report that the beef and bean enchiladas used the most leftovers of any of the meals.  I had leftover tortilla shells, leftover homemade enchilada sauce in the freezer, and leftover beans from the night before.

Beef and Bean Enchiladas. Yummy goodness inside!

And then you can see our Sunday evening meal was a clean out the fridge night.  I wanted to make sure that all the leftovers from the meals we had this week were eaten and not taking up valuable space in the fridge since in just a couple of days it will be Thanksgiving!  Already the turkey (that my mom so graciously gave me) is in the fridge thawing and getting ready to be roasted on Thursday morning.

Our Wednesday night meal

Now for the bad news.  I did buy groceries this week.  I broke down and got some things that we really needed for meals and for Thanksgiving.  Here is a run down of what I ended up buying:

• milk - $2.87
• celery - $0.49
• 2 lbs. carrots - $0.99
• 10 lbs. potatoes - $1.49
• corn - $2.00 (4 cans)
• sharp cheddar cheese - $1.79 (block)
• sliced ham - $3.29 (all natural)
• cream cheese - $0.89
• coffee creamer - $1.69
• Cranberries - $0.99
• mandarin oranges (I gave in to the cryings of my children, they love these!) - $3.56 (4 cans)
• 3 lbs. sweet potatoes - $0.99
• pumpkin - $1.78 (2 cans)

So for under $25.00 I was able to get a few groceries that helped supplement our meals, and will help make the recipes that I plan to serve for Thanksgiving.  While I was really hoping that I could get by without buying any groceries at all this month, I think this is pretty good.  Remember I did spend some the first week, and while I didn't give you a total on what I had spent that week, I will tell you now.  It was $18.00 for 4 items.  Those 4 items were purchased at Wal-Mart.  The items above I purchased at Aldi.  It makes a big difference.  So while I'm not happy that I bought groceries, at least I did save money on them.

Tuesday's meal, taco soup, yummy!

This week is going to be tricky with making meals.  I don't want to make big meals that we will have lots of leftovers due to Thanksgiving coming up.  I don't want to take up space in my fridge now that it is cleaned out, but I do want to continue to cook our meals.  I guess you will have to wait and see how we do this week, and see what kinds of meals I can come up with for my family, and hopefully resist the urge to buy any more!

So tell me, how did you guys do this week?

2 comments budget, cooking, food, groceries, no spend, sustainable living, tips

Throw Back Thursday: Goulash

I love today's post, because I get to share with you one of my family's favorite meals.  In fact, I believe this is probably the most requested meal that I get from my family.  It is also a dish that I grew up with, and one that is easy to make, and budget friendly!

My mom always called this goulash.  I know that there are other variations of goulash and I have tried a couple of those recipes, but I always come back to the variation that I grew up with. Well, kind of.  My mom made her goulash with hamburger meat, diced onions, elbow macaroni, and home canned tomato juice.  For us, I use my home canned pasta sauce so that there is a thicker sauce that already has spices added.

Goulash ingredients, yep that's all there is!

You can see from the picture above that there really isn't much to it.  The ingredients I use are:

• 1 pound hamburger meat (this would be good with ground deer meat for you hunters out there)
• 1 to 1 1/2 cups dry pasta, we prefer elbow macaroni, cooked according to package directions
• 1 jar pasta sauce of your choice

For this recipe, we like to use elbow macaroni, but when I made it this time, I didn't have enough. You can see in my picture of the finished recipe that there is also penne pasta thrown in as well.  Remember this is my no grocery month, so I had to use what I had on hand.  The bowl in the picture has my homemade pasta sauce in it.  I opened a jar to use some for pizza, and needed to use the leftover sauce for something else.  This was the perfect dish to do that!

To make the goulash:

1. Cook pasta according to package directions 
2. While the pasta is boiling, brown 1 lb. of hamburger meat.
3. After the hamburger meat is cooked through and chunked - my husband loves bigger chunks - add any spices you like.  I add a little minced onion (remember I'm using already seasoned sauce).
4. Pour the pasta sauce in with the hamburger meat and let it simmer on low heat.
5. When the pasta is done (I cook it to al dente), drain the pasta and add it to the sauce.

 And that's it!

There almost wasn't any left to get a picture of it!

Once I finished cooking this batch, I set the pan on the table and went to get my camera to take a picture.  When I came back, there was hardly any left!  I had to scrap together a small pile just to get a picture. That is how much my family loves this dish!

I like to serve this with a salad and homemade french bread.  Of course some nights, we don't even bother with a veggie or bread, we just grab a big bowl of this pasta dish and enjoy.  This is comfort food at its finest!

Let me know in the comments below what you think of this recipe, and let me know if you have made this recipe before!

Leave a Comment budget, cooking, food, hamburger, homemade, meals, recipes, tbt

A Month of No Groceries: My November Food Challenge Week 2

We have just finished week 2 of no groceries and I can tell you that it is getting harder.  I can also tell you that life is getting busier as you can probably tell since this post is late.

The good news is we did NOT buy any groceries this week. The bad news is that we did eat out a couple of times. The reason we got take-out  is because this weekend we were working hard on putting siding on our house. Since it was just Steve and I putting on the siding, I wasn't able to take the time off to make meals. Plus by the time we called it a day from putting up siding, we were both exhausted!

This picture was too cute not to share, plus you can see the mess behind them from the siding project

What bothers me about the meals we bought, was the money we spent.  We could have used the money spent to purchase enough groceries for at least 1 week probably longer. :-/  What I should have done was plan ahead and had something in the crock pot, or fixed a meal ahead that would have been easy to reheat.  However the way last week went, that just didn't happen.

My lack of planning was the real issue this weekend.  I now realize that I need to plan ahead.  I have always been horrible at meal planning.  Even if I do plan ahead, I don't stick with it.  

As for meals this week, it has been interesting to say the least.  This week was probably one of the most stressful weeks I have had in a long time.  Not due to the no groceries, but to other things that were going on.

Monday: Kids ate at my sister's house; Steve and I ate pbj

Tuesday: I honestly don't even remember

Wednesday: Crock pot chicken (big fail) turned chicken tacos

Thursday: Goulash (family recipe coming soon)

Friday: scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, sausage, gravy, & biscuits (honestly the best meal this week)

As you can see we had some issues this week with the meals.  On Monday, the kids ate at my sister's house. Actually I had a couple of bites (alright more than a couple!) of her chicken and dumplings.  They were delish!  I definitely need to get her recipe.

Tuesday I honestly cannot remember what we had.  Wednesday I took one of my freezer chicken meals and put it in the crock pot.  It did not turn out well.  This is the second time I have fixed it and the second time that it was horrible.  I will not be making brown sugar chicken again!  I ended up shredding the chicken and used some tortilla shells we had to make chicken tacos.

Goulash - our family's recipe

 
Thursday I made my family's recipe for goulash.  The kids had been asking for this one.  They love it!  I will be sharing that recipe with you very soon.  And Friday it was breakfast for supper.  Really it was my favorite meal.  I love breakfast!

Our yummy breakfast for supper!

My goals for this week are meal planning and making some meals ahead so that they will be easy to heat up. Even though we do not have activities this week we do have siding to finish installing so long as the weather cooperates.  Hopefully this week will be a little easier and I can do more cooking!

So for those of you doing this challenge, how did you do?  Let me know in the comments below.

4 comments budget, food, groceries, no spend, sustainable living

A Month of No Groceries: My November Food Challenge Week 1

Well, the first week of buying no groceries has passed.  If you haven't read my post about my November food challenge, the you can read it here, but basically the challenge is to go through a whole month without buying groceries.

Actually this week was not as bad as I had thought it would be.  The excitement of the challenge was there to keep me going.  Normally, I live for Wednesdays where I can read the grocery store ads and see what is on sale that week.  And now that the holidays are nearing, there is usually some pretty cool baking supplies that are available that aren't available at other times of the year.  Or at least they are harder to find.  But I was good, and didn't look at the ads until Friday, when my curiosity got the better of me.  Old habits die hard I guess.  Still there was nothing in those ads that tempted me. 

Another thing that helped a lot this week was the fact that we were able to stay home every night!  That hasn't happened in a couple of months.  But football and cheerleading are over for the time being.  Nothing starts again until the middle of January.  We do have church on Sundays and cub scouts on Mondays, but the rest of our days are our own.

Being able to stay home during the evenings this week, allowed me to fix supper every night.  It wasn't always a grand meal, but we were able to use up some food from our freezer and pantry.

Here is the real kicker.  Even though we didn't buy any food (see below for a few exceptions), we did receive some food.  A friend whose son has started taking piano lessons from me brought us some deer meat, and some bierocks that she makes which are awesome!  I put those in the freezer and I can take one of those to lunch when I don't have anything else!  We also received some fresh veggies from my mother-in-law.  She had bought some for a party she was having and she didn't want the left-overs so we ended up with them as well.  We also received a gift of a very nice beef roast from some friends of ours. 

What amazes me is how blessed we are that even though we aren't buying food, we still receive it.  This same thing happened to us last year, during a no-spend month.  God does provide!

I want to share with you our meals that we had this week.  For a couple of meals, I was able to use left-overs and turn them into something else for another meal.  I love it when it works out like that!  Also, please don't judge on some of these meals.  I am going to be better about adding in veggies or fruit.  There are a couple that after I looked at them, are not the healthiest, but hey, we ate!  Here they are:

Monday: Porcini Mushroom Tortellini, roasted green beans, peaches
Tuesday: Pork chops, stuffing, and beets
Wednesday: Hamburgers, fried eggs, and tator tots
Thursday: Pork roast, mashed potatoes and gravy, crescent rolls
Friday: Hamburger pizza (from leftover hamburger) and BBQ Pulled Pork Pizza (from left-over pork roast)
Saturday: SOS (slop on a shingle) This was made from leftover gravy from breakfast and leftover hamburger and roasted turnips
Sunday: Beans and Ham with cornbread and slaw.

BBQ Pulled Pork Pizza - made from leftover pork roast.

It wasn't until Friday that I started making things from scratch, and making due with what I had.  I really wanted to make a BBQ pork pizza, but we didn't have pizza crust and we didn't have shredded cheese.  So I found a somewhat quick pizza crust recipe on Pinterest. The one I usually use takes 1 1/2 hours rising time.  I did not have that much time.  While we didn't have shredded cheese or sprinkle cheese as we call it in our house, we did have sliced cheese that I cut up into little squares and used.  The crust turned out great, and no one was the wiser when it came to the cheese!

The kids devoured the hamburger pizza before I could take a picture.

As for Saturday's meal, that morning I had made biscuits and gravy for breakfast.  I usually don't cook breakfast except for on weekends.  We ended up with left-over gravy and I still had a hamburger patty left-over which gave me the idea for SOS, or as my husband says slop on a shingle.  Actually that first "s" stands for something else, but I will leave that up to your imagination.

SOS or Slop on a Shingle as we call it.

I also made two loaves of white bread to put the hamburger gravy on.  I really was afraid that this meal was going to be a flop.  Growing up we would have it every once in a while.  In my early twenties, I used to fix it quite a bit because it was inexpensive and easy.  I didn't know how Steve and the kids would react to it.  To my surprise, they loved it!

Homemade white bread...my favorite!

So the big question is, did we buy any groceries?  Well...kinda.  When I made the pizza crust on Friday, I realized that I didn't have that much yeast.  And then I used almost all of what I had left on Saturday for the bread.  So Sunday we went to Wal-Mart and we bought yeast, as well as coffee creamer, Pepsi (my husband's addiction), and potato chips (also my husband's addiction).  If it was up to me alone, I would have bought the yeast and that would have been all.  But I'll admit since my husband wanted the coffee creamer, I will enjoy that as well.  As for the Pepsi and the chips, well they are all his.

I'm hoping that the second week goes a little better and that I will be able to tell you that we bought no groceries!  On a positive note, my mom has a turkey for Thanksgiving, so we won't have to buy one!  I'll be getting a turkey from her to cook for our festivities.

So did you decide to do this challenge?  If so, comment below and let me know how your week went.

6 comments budget, food, groceries, sustainable living

My November Food Challenge: A Month of No Groceries

I can hardly believe that it is already November! October is always one of those months that is filled with football games, birthday parties, and Halloween festivities.  With all those activities, the month tends to fly by.  This year was no exception. 

With all of the events and activities there was very little time for me to cook for my family. We have gotten into the rut of either grabbing fast food on the way to or from an activity, or we just plain and simple eat junk! The couple of meals I did make tasted so good. It made me realize how much I have missed eating real home cooked meals. Our fall garden did very well so those home cooked meals included such things as spinach and green beans and will soon include turnips and peas as well. There is nothing as good as fresh veggies from the garden! 

Our very messy pantry!

As I was trying to figure out some ideas for meals for this week I was looking through the pantry and freezer and the amount of food we have is astonishing. My first thought was that I really needed to organize my pantry. Then I realized I don't need to organize it, I need to use it! The same goes for our fridge/freezer and our deep freeze.

Our deep freeze...this is only the surface.

That's when I had a great idea! Why not go a whole month without buying groceries? I was so excited about the prospect of not going grocery shopping. I looked and we have plenty of staples...flour, sugar, eggs (thanks to our ducks), potatoes, onions, etc. We have meat in the freezer from the cow we butchered, and even some pork leftover. We could actually do this!

I went to go tell Steve my great idea and then it hit me...Thanksgiving! I completely forgot about Thanksgiving. And we are hosting this year. I don't have a turkey in the freezer. But I do have pumpkin for pie, and I have cranberries for sauce, and I can make bread for stuffing.  I started thinking, maybe I can make this work. 

Our fridge freezer, it is pretty packed!

After telling Steve my plan he agreed that we could do this and that we needed to. The savings from not buying food could go towards purchasing siding for our house which we desperately need. It would also allow us to use the food we already have, and not let it go to waste where we would eventually throw it away.  I hate to waste food!

In my thoughts about how this would take place, I started thinking about how we might need to make some exceptions, or what I needed to get, just in case.  Those kinds of thoughts are what have gotten us in this food hoard mess in the first place!  I am not going grocery shopping.  If I run out of bread, I'll bake more.  If I run out of milk, I have powdered.  We have lots of grains, we have veggies from the garden, and we have meat and eggs.  WE CAN DO THIS! 

So this month, I will be keeping you posted on how this challenge is going every Monday.  In fact this post was supposed to be published yesterday, but life happens!  I will even let you know some of the meals that we have made, and I will start with what we ate last night.  We had Porchini mushroom tortelloni in my homemade canned marinara sauce, roasted green beans from our garden, and canned peaches for dessert.  It was Meatless Monday for us.  The family loved it and there were just enough leftovers for lunch the next day!

Our "blue plate" special meal.

I want to stress that this is NOT a no spend month, this is simply a no grocery month.  Do you hoard food?  Would you like to try this challenge yourself?  If so, let me know in the comments below!

Read my post on how we did with this challenge during Week 1
Read my post on how we did with this challenge during Week 2
Read my post on how we did with this challenge during Week 3
Read my post on how we did with this challenge during Week 4

Leave a Comment budget, food, freezer, groceries, pantry, sustainable living

How to Make Raised Garden Beds for a Fall Garden (Absolutely Free!)

Some of you may remember me mentioning that my garden didn't do well this year.  To be absolutely honest that is an understatement.  It really did nothing at all.  I was able to pick some shelly beans which I saved for seed, and I got a few cucumbers out of the garden.  That was it.  My husband says that it was because we bought a new pressure canner.  We jinxed ourselves.  I say it was because of all the rain we got, (we are still! trying to fix all the leaks in our roof).   Whatever it was, our garden just sucked!

But not everyone's garden fared poorly. My niece's garden did great this year.  The rain didn't seem to bother her's at all.  I am so jealous happy for her. :-)  So what was the difference between her garden and ours?  Her's was a raised bed garden.  Ours was straight in the ground.  I probably don't have to explain that with hers the water was able to drain, while ours was sitting in water.  In fact our garden looked like a pond in some places!

So while our garden did not do well at all this summer, we are not people who give up easily.  I talked my husband into building some raised beds for us to plant our fall garden.  It really wasn't that hard to persuade him.  I asked and he said yes.  The ones he built are small so that we can try them out and see how we like them.  Also they were built from lumber we already had on hand, which also determined the size.  After all, that is the point of being sustainable, right?  

I decided if we were going to do this, I should read up on raised garden beds.  I already had a plan in mind and I was able to get some newspapers from the local library that they were going to discard. I thought newspapers would be great for putting down first to keep the grass and weeds out of the garden. Then I read where cardboard really is better because it breaks down slower.  I was in luck, because of just moving my mother-in-law, we had lots of cardboard that we hadn't gotten around to recycling yet.  Since I had both, I decided to use cardboard in one and newspaper in the other to see what works the best.  I will have to let you know after this gardening season.

So to begin, the garden bed is just a box.  We already had these put together.  In fact they are parts of a porch railing which we took out the slats.

It began life as a railing...

Then we put two together to make it deeper.  We wanted to make sure that there was enough root space for the vegetables to take hold.

Stacking one on top of the other.

Steve screwed the two together to that they would be more stable.

The perfect size!

Then we set them where we wanted.  We decided we wanted them just outside our garden area, that way it would be easy to transplant in the spring.  Our garden proper, will soon become a chicken run once again (the perfect pest control!).

After that, I layered one with newspaper, and the other with cardboard.

From this point on, it is hit and miss on what to do next.  Some used a system that was cardboard, mulch, soil.  Others put the soil right on top.  We decided that on top of the newspapers/cardboard to first put grass clippings (that is our mulch), and then we put some chicken manure on top of that.  I want to stress that the chicken manure that we used was not fresh.  It was from a pile that we had sitting out composting, or as my dad would say it was "seasoned."  

With the grass clippings

Then on top of that we used soil.  We had all of this on hand which is why we used what we did.  The point was to make these without spending any money!

Ready for seeds!

While we were getting these ready and before we actually planted in them (thank goodness!) our dear sweet Abby (our boarder collie) decided she wanted to help.  She did this by digging in them.  So we decided that we needed covers for them.  I was thinking along the line of just laying some chicken wire along the top, which we had plenty of, but leave it to Steve to get all fancy on me.

He actually used a couple of more railing sections and built me covers for my boxes.  He did use chicken wire and he even made me handles for the boxes from scratch!  He used some stout wire that he had to fashion them. 

So here it is in all of its glory.  Steve actually made me two more for a total of three.  I couldn't be prouder of my little raised beds.  The best part is that they cost $0 to make.  

All done and ready for the veggies to grow!

Wondering what I planted?  Well, I used seed that I already had saved so that was something else, I didn't have to buy.  I planted carrots, turnips, peas, spinach, and green beans.  

I can't wait for my little fall garden to start growing and I can't wait to see how these raised beds do.  Hopefully we won't have to worry so much about weeding or getting too much rain.  I'll keep you all posted on how my garden grows. ;-)

So tell me in the comments below, how many of you use raised beds? 

3 comments budget, fall, gardening, planting, sustainable living, vegetables