July 2014

Periodically, because it's good household management but usually because we're in a budget crunch, I go on a campaign to eat the food that we have. Those items that have gotten pushed to the back of the pantry or freezer. Anyone else have this issue? I consider it the fat corn years intended to supply the lean corn ears (see Genesis, the story of Joseph and Pharaoh), but just like the biblical story, it takes some creative management.

I'm going to keep a journal, hopefully during the entire month of July, of my own efforts to economize as I clean and organize my food. My journey is happening in 2014, a time when Americans waste about 25% of what we buy (see newsstory here). That's appalling, but it easy to do. When my culture fails this way, it pains me. When I am too lazy to eat the rest of the spaghetti sauce in my fridge, hey, what do you know about my life? Stay off my back.

Monday, September 29, 2014

It's time...to get SAUCY!!!

Hi, this is Lizzye, proud daughter of Angie. As I guest blog today, I wanna take you on a journey through your fridge. You probably have that fruit thing, a meat section, or a spot dedicated to cheese. But what about your side doors? Yeah, that's right, those aren't just for decoration, and they aren't just for storing all the things you don't use. Is it just me, or is there like 30 sauces and dressings that sit idly in those compartments crying out for the right to be used?

So, now your thinking, I don't use them, but I don't need to. I'll save them for when I'm having fries, or a salad. What you didn't know, is that sauces such as Ketchup, Mustard, BBQ, or even hot sauce can go bad. You can save them for a magical moment, pull them out stir the gross oily mixture up and suffer the smell, or you can start using sauces before they turn into something that resembles a melted McDonald's shake.

The first problem with sauce is that you assume they have to go ON something, when in fact a lot of sauces can go IN something. The other problem is that each sauce has one item tied to it like life depends on that combination. Ketchup = fries. Salsa = chips, Hot sauce = wings, BBQ = ribs, Dressing = salad, etc. Those are popular because they're yummy, not because they are the only combination possible.

Do you have that weird friend who puts ranch on fries, or hot sauce on onion rings? Shhh, I don't need to hear their name. I'm actually going to tell you THAT THEY ARE NOT THAT WEIRD, THEY ARE INGENIOUS. Don't be afraid to put a sauce on a food where it "doesn't belong." A sauce is never somewhere it doesn't belong, so stop thinking it is. That kind of thinking will accumulate sauces faster than chocolate accumulates women.

I personally like Asiago Caesar dressing on tortillas. And onion rings. Now step back to when I said sauces can go IN things not just ON them. That is where the search engine is your friend because there are countless recipes that include significant amounts of a sauce as an ingredient. So plug in a sauce to your search bar, get off this page and go get saucy in your kitchen! Lizzye out, keep up for more great ideas with Angie, a wonderful loving mom.

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Building a new habit

This semester has been insanely busy for me: a new job, full (FULL) days teaching at my old job, helping my recent high school grad look for a job, and the baby finally taking her moment in the spotlight of busy. It feels like I never have time to breathe. I am definitely falling behind in laundry and housecleaning.

However, we're not ordering out. I go to the grocery store about once a week, because I don't have time to think about food. I am using up meats in the freezer, still ordering produce every other week, and cooking freezer meals that I had the foresight to put together before the craziness set in.

I have been out of biscuits for the past week. However, I had spent a little time making up vanilla scones from a mix that was shoved in the pantry...and I've just been eating those instead of the beloved biscuits. I know from the summer that I can survive without them.

I have planned carefully to have leftovers on nights that I am going to be tired, but there have still been times that meals have snuck up on me: "What?? People need to eat? Didn't we just do this??" I have overcome all of my gourmet expectations: we eat what we have. Grilled cheese, an odd mixture of foods that the girls wanted but now won't finish, etc.

The other day, I put on our "eat up" list some frozen fried ravioli that my middle child used to like. It had been in the freezer for over a month, and I thought, hey, it's not the most healthy, but it could be a side to a soup, and it would no longer take up space on the bread shelf. (You know, pasta is bread. Even when stuffed with beef and fried.) Then one evening I walk into the kitchen to find her (the one that bought it, the one that then turned her nose up at it) finishing off the ravioli with marinara dipping sauce (which was also cleaning out a jar in the fridge). Who knew! Even my picky children are adapting to our new lifestyle.
photo courtesy of Bonnie Camp

The time that I took in July contemplating how we eat and seeking something simpler (not only in effort, but in emotion and expectations) has blessed us in both our finances and my stress levels.

The change was contemplated and implemented during a time of rest. The blessing has come during a time of stress. Note that you could not create the change in a time of stress--you're too stressed! But using wisdom in the quieter seasons pays off when things get crazy.

I also think it's significant that I only worked on one area this summer. I didn't try to conquer my whole life: just the kitchen. Next summer, I could pick the housework, or fitness.

I don't know about you, but I'm already looking forward to summertime.

Monday, August 18, 2014

Eat What You've Stored

We've all read the stories from someone at the end of their life who wishes they had used the fine china, worn the pretty negligee, or skipped the occasional day of work.

Here's another thing that might be on your regret list: never eating the food you have stored.

I have taco soup in the freezer that I cleverly put back for good reason: the recipe made a lot of soup, and instead of getting thoroughly sick of eating it, I could store it so I would be appreciative some busy day in the unknown future.

It's still there. Have I had busy days since I froze it? Yes. How did I manage to feed the family? Chances are, we ordered pizza or I dashed to the store for something easy. Really?? What is the point of saving for a future that never qualifies as "busy"?

The other day, I used some red pepper that had only been in the freezer for two weeks. In fact, recently I used some cookies that had only been frozen for three days. Part of me was shocked: why did I save this if I'm only going to USE it?? But what is the crime in using something two days after freezing it instead of two months?

Using from your storage should be rewarding. This is the very purpose for which you are storing! The next time you are on a baking craze, you will know that future you will be appreciative. Future you will actually use the rolls, not hoard them. What if you made a cake for someone that went bad just because they thought it was too pretty to eat? You start to look like Miss Havisham from Great Expectations.

Instead of panicking as you eat the food in your freezer (What if I am in greater need sometime in the future and there's no soup in the freezer??), celebrate. You planned; you benefited. Might I suggest you serve it on your best china as well.

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Be gourmet

I had leftover hotdogs, for which I bought a can of saurkraut. If you had told me when I was a child that hot dogs with saurkraut and grilled onions would be one of my favorite meals, I would have thought you absolutely crazy. Saurkraut was the only item that caused our mom to take pity on us kids. Not only did we not have to "try some, you'll like it"--we got to eat at a small table in my brother's room, over the hardwood floors, just to escape the smell.

So I bought a can of saurkraut for the dogs, but what I did not buy was hot dog buns. I had mental arguments with myself over this fact for two days. I considered cutting the dogs and stirring everything together: a dog/kraut skillet. I only had two hot dogs; if I bought hot dog buns, I'd be freezing five of them.

In the end, I served the hot dogs on hamburger buns I had in the freezer. I sliced them and then cut them, and arranged the pieces on buns, topped with the kraut and onions.

It was divine. It was gourmet.

I think restaurants do that: "Rats, we're out of hot dog buns. Well, let's just serve it on a hamburger bun and act like it's the latest thing, a creative leap forward in culinary art."

If I only had baby kale to put on them--then they would have been the most fashion-forward imaginable.

Saturday, August 9, 2014

Nine days after

I have been very amused this past week. After a month of trying to clean and organize the food supplies at my house, I seemed to end as full as I had been at the beginning. Maybe it took me a month before the progress began showing; maybe writing about it was holding me back. In any case, this past week, the contents of my freezer have dwindled, I guess mainly as I ate the muffins. The refrigerator also grew bare, since it was the second week out from Produce Acquisition. Both the veggie and fruit crispers are cleaned and contents planned for (instead of mysterious buckets of maybe food).

Today I made biscuits, and tomorrow I will enjoy one with honey...first time in a month. My husband and I cooked out for just us two. Well, technically, I wanted to feed the college student one more time before the semester started, but she forgot and drove on without eating. However, I would usually buy something for us to eat and save the "freezer food" for company and some fancy cooking out occasion. But we were eating what we have.

I have a few other random observations.

I am learning to escape Food Panic. Have you felt this before? What if you don't buy butter at the store, and you are out at home but forgot to put it on the list? Then you get home and there are three pounds of butter. Or you are sure your family will starve if you don't have ten meals prepared for. I have noticed I make a lot of purchases based on a fear of running out of something.

This feeling is heightened Christmas Day, the only time in the United States when there is not a 24-hour grocery store waiting with any exotic ingredient you might need. A feeder of Food Panic, those grocery stores. What did we used to do when stores closed?

In the last week, I did not have queso fresca for a recipe (I substituted). Another time I ran out of colby (again, substituted), and today I didn't have American cheese for our burgers (I used Swiss). Granted, since all this seems to be a cheese theme, I did buy more cheese for the freezer. But what if we had to do without cheese on our burgers?

It would not be the end of the world. Really.

Today I considered the fact that my youngest daughter is starting school on Monday, and I will begin teaching in a couple of weeks. I am interviewing for a second job. Do I want to store up meals again? Am I content planning three days out instead of fourteen? Am I able to live in the busy season without Food Panic?

I was tired this evening, and my husband suggested we have peanut butter and jelly. I can't remember the last time I fed him pb&j for a meal. We have cherries on hand, so it would even be a healthy meal. I could make salad if I wanted to.

Maybe eating what we have is teaching me a little more contentment. I'll keep you posted.

Thursday, July 31, 2014

Day 31: the conclusion

I have been thinking about this last day all week. I am going to miss writing these blogs every day. They mark a season of quiet and reflection for me. A season of noticing how I live and thinking about my choices. BUSY is coming, and I hope to leverage what I have learned to be a little more purposeful, more rightly focused, a little more wise.

I ate the last spelt biscuit this morning, with peach preserves. I will probably buy honey the next time I get groceries, but I'll keep eating muffins for a while for breakfast. Yesterday, I added some roasted peppers to the vegetable shelf in the freezer, and thought of Proverbs 31: "She provides food for her family and portions for her female servants" (v.15). I wish I had female servants. But then again, I would have to provide portions for them. Which would mean eating what we have. Okay, this seems like a great idea.

I have realized, in the course of writing this blog, that I don't have a plan for the rest of my house. When I was younger, I had a system for all of the housework, but I have let that slide, as if the kitchen were the only room. The internet is a wonderful source for information, but it has allowed me to grow distorted, to overdevelop in one direction. I have an overgrown Kitchen Interest.

I want to revisit the passage from Titus: "Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to too much wine, but to teach what is good." We older women can get jaded. We can stop be reverent and grateful, seeking only our comfort, offering only criticism. But we need to hold to what is good so that, "Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God" (Titus 2:3-5).

It's a good list to look at regularly. It's easy to drift one direction or another without the gentle reminder: don't forget self-control! Don't forget kindness! Don't forget your husband!

So, the official conclusion. I started this project hoping to trim my budget. I haven't really succeeded, although I have strengthened some good habits. I hoped to reduce waste. Again, I have shored up what I already practiced. But I have also learned that I need to be very purposeful when I work in the kitchen. Enjoy it, but don't escape mindlessly into cooking. Aim simple, and even if it's odd, eat what you have.

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Day 30: care a little less

I intended to use the leftover spinach in an omelet. I love spinach and eggs, and I love breakfast for dinner. But yesterday, I needed an easy dinner, and I wanted the torn lettuce left from Sunday out of the fridge.

I did something simple and against my mental expectations: we ate the spinach and lettuce together in a salad. Then I had Monterey mashed potatoes and my husband had couscous. I normally get very attached to ideas I dream up; I will want a spinach omelet for a long time now, and I'll just have to watch for an opportunity.

Right now, I'm eating what I have, and it's not spinach.

I need to make some decisions today about what and how I am going to freeze some food. And I need to make a list of food I freeze so I will unfreeze it in the future and actually eat it. Instead of buying spinach and making an omelet.

See how this works? Discipline. And for me, it means caring a little less about what my meals look like.

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Day 29: keeping track

I have enjoyed blogging every day on this journey. It has kept me focused and always thinking about the next step. I've started to wonder what I want to do in August...

It is wisdom to write things down: goals, things to do, budgets. We hold ourselves accountable in the writing.

The truth is I will be too busy with school. However, I have discovered that one reason we struggle to eat all we have is that we are watching our calorie intake. I am not the 20-something I used to be, who could eat whatever I want and waltz thinly on. Maybe in August I will keep a simple journal of what I eat each day. Am I getting enough nutrition? Am I indulging somewhere without noticing?

The trick for me is truly to not buy what I don't need. I have kettle corn that is divinely delicious, and I didn't need to buy it. I have leftover pizza because I like to be generous when we entertain, and now all that's left are the toppings that the kids don't like. I am going to let the children finish up the birthday cake because they will enjoy it, and I do not need another ounce sitting on my hips. And I'm telling you, it is very good cake. But I'm not going to eat any more. Really.

Some of my shelves are neater than they were. Perhaps the influx of food in the fridge is due to Produce Acquisition and birthday celebration. It's just a little overwhelming to be at the end of the month and there is still so much there. I wish Africa were right next door, and that the single mom there had children who liked chips and salsa.

Monday, July 28, 2014

Day 28: still adjusting my time

Last Saturday was exhausting. We had a family event the following day that I was preparing for, in addition to all of my goals with the influx of produce. I thought if I did a lot of cooking, I would save myself time this week.

I'm not sure if my plan was sound. Some of the things that I prepared ahead I will now have to scramble to use. Some of the things I need to use, I didn't anticipate. For example, there was fresh spinach leftover from a salad on Sunday, which wasn't part of the basket and will now go into an omelet. The spinach is more fragile, and it delays me using the salsas I made in Mexican dishes. Plus we brought home an entire large pizza--more leftovers that cannot be frozen or wait to be eaten up.

My goal Saturday was to budget my time in the kitchen--which I still need to do. But I think I was already cooking quite a bit those Saturdays when I pick up a produce basket; making the day more ambitious just made me tired.

I guess the lesson is this: when budgeting (either time or money), don't be afraid to throw out your first or fifteenth plan. Keep at it, keep aiming to simplify and save. Don't be afraid to look honestly at the situation and scrap what isn't working.

At one point in this adventure, my husband commented, "Your transferring more to a French lifestyle, where you buy what you need the day that you cook." I thought, "Not exactly." But maybe that does work for me: a little puttering every day in my favorite room of the house. I still need a plan; I still need to watch what I have. But cooking ahead has to be very intentional on my part, and I don't see to incorporate it well yet.

I'm going to make limeade, to get the limes off the cabinet, and enjoy Monterey mashed potatoes and salad for lunch. I'm grateful for every fresh new start.


This photo shows me with my grandma, who celebrated her 99th birthday on Sunday. She told me over and over, "I love you."

Saturday, July 26, 2014

Day 26: Produce Acquisition Day

Once again, I have brought home a feast of produce. I did break down and buy the Mexican Fiesta Pack, so I have many peppers along with the regular basket. Because I volunteered, I got a few extra goodies (limes, garlic).

I cleaned out the veggie crisper and placed my new things carefully inside. The lettuce will be used at a family celebration on Sunday. In the winter, the carrots and celery get incorporated easily, but this summer I have thrown away a whole pack of carrots.

To counter that problem, I'm going to make cream of celery soup. I make it from scratch when I can, and I'll use it in a lovely chicken rotel casserole. I'll also make some homemade rotel with the tomatoes and jalapenos.

I'm going to make some veggie baggies for my husband's lunch next week, to replace chips and granola bars. At his checkup, he was told he needs to drop five pounds. Five pounds can be a lot of work, so we'll send carrots, celery, and radishes to his aid.

I'll make red and green salsas today. Cut the cantaloupe for my youngest, probably make limeade. If I have time, I'll make a batch of Monterey mashed potatoes that a TPG customer described to me this morning. Another low priority will be my favorite poblanos and corn.

I'm also going to make chicken and couscous, to use up a pesky box of couscous that I am tired of storing, and perhaps some scones from a mix I also found hiding in the cabinet.

It is an ambitious day, but it will make the early part of the week very easy, kitchen-wise. The trick for me will be to plan work outside the kitchen: syllabi for school, vacuuming, mopping, maybe some gardening. This is one of my new habits, leaving the kitchen alone when it is full of options and working elsewhere.

Contents of today's basket: pineapple, cantaloupe, bananas, mangoes, cherry tomatoes, romaine lettuce, poblano peppers, garlic, radishes, celery, carrots. The Algebra I book shown in the photo is not included in the standard basket.

Friday, July 25, 2014

Day 25: compulsive busy-ness hangovers

Yesterday I cleaned out the spice cabinet. I threw away six bottles by combining (yes, there were duplicates)--and actually one of the bottles was simply sitting on the shelf, empty. I threw away the Lowry's seasoned salt because there was so little of it, and it's loaded with MSG.

And I moved a few things to more logical locations, like putting my husband's morning oatmeal with the cereal instead of the canning jars. Sometimes, things take root in weird places.

When my kids were small, I functioned better if I left the house every day. If I could just load them in the car and see adult faces for a short while, I was more sane. However, I wasn't motivated to leave unless I was "accomplishing something," and the appropriate number of errands for a trip out of the house was THREE.

Every day, I had a cluster of three things to do. I collected errands like tokens, spending them wisely and carefully, but definitely collecting. As the kids got older, and we began homeschooling, I needed more time at home. Yet I always seemed to have these errands to run.

These days, with teenagers, I seem to have very few errands. Or they come in spurts--but nothing like three a day, every day. I applaud my younger self for the sanity system, but here's the trick: those habits carried over even when the need for them was extinct. As I began homeschooling, I made it a goal to stay home two days a week, my way of adjusting my system for new needs.

Last year I began teaching outside of the home, to help pay for my eldest child's college education. My class schedule will be a little heavier than last year, although I have the benefit of my first year behind me. Now I'm thinking there is a dinosaur in my time planning again.

I have noticed many things as we have eaten what we have. One: the food budget is not sacred and untouchable just because it is a necessary part of our spending. Two: I really like to cook, and I often do so for my own comfort or escape, rather than purposefully.

When my husband's grandmother lived with us, between her schedule, my husband going off to work, one daughter in public school, two homeschooled--the kitchen was always busy. There would be maybe an hour in the afternoon when someone wasn't doing something (cooking, cleaning) in that central room of the house.

It is hands down my favorite room. I remember wanting to make a new recipe for lemon turkey meatballs when my mom came to stay with me after my first child was born. She looked at me like I was crazy: you are trying a new recipe with a two-day old baby? Can't we just cook something simple?

The bottom line: there are other things that need my attention, outside of the kitchen. If I work all day on Produce Acquisition, and just evenings during the week, I might be able to tame the kitchen monster. I will likely still end up with Zaycon sausages sometimes (See "meat my impulses") and make too many zucchini muffins or jam (See "oh, honey"), but I can see now that I need to budget my time in the kitchen.

Next July, I'll probably have a blog on organizing my housework. As if there were other rooms in the house--who knew!

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Day 24: food is emotional

Cooking is an emotional thing. I probably enjoy it because I often get very good feedback. I made soft tacos for my husband and me for dinner last night. I used up the taco meat, the refried beans, the very good tortillas I had frozen the last time The Produce Gathering offered them. One of my tacos had an odd bit of salad. My husband got the leftover queso fresca and chipoltes, which I am going to start keeping on hand but therefore need to be used regularly.

My dh praised the dinner...and honestly, it was just leftovers, repackaged. I enjoyed the "eating what I have," and it was quite tasty. [Insert feelings of success here.]

Not everything lately has been so affirming. I didn't want zucchini for a vegetable the other day. I felt like a pouty two-year-old: "I don't want zucchini [imagine the hanging lip, stamping foot]." I had not purchased broccoli at the store, which is what I really wanted, because I knew I had the zucchini. But I didn't make it as a sidedish.

Instead, I decided to make chocolate zucchini cake. My youngest loves it, and she's hard to please. However, that recipe takes an hour to bake, and the temperatures were feeling like July in Oklahoma, so I opted for chocolate zucchini muffins, a new recipe I found online.

They were amazing! The best way to eat them: peel off the muffin liner and enjoy the soft, chocolaty bottom. Then munch into the muffin top. It's a little crunchy, like a sugar cookie...really fantastic!

The recipe made 24, a huge amount for our zucchini-muffin-eating crowd. And it only used one of my remaining zucchini.

Never fear! They were very, very good, worth the effort, worth adding to my already full freezer. Until...

My youngest didn't like them.

I could have made the stupid cake, and she would have gobbled it up.

I could have just pan fried the zucchini with parmesan, and everyone would be healthier.

Now I have two dozen muffins to add to the freezer, to eat slowly in the morning instead of biscuits and honey.

Think for a minute about which side you fall on with your family: everyone raves about your cooking, or people turn up their noses. Even apathy can work against how much time and thought you spend into feeding your people.

If you want to talk further about this, please stop by. I have some delicious chocolate zucchini muffins to share with you. If you come, you have to eat one. And probably take two home with you. And tell me how wonderful they are.

Addendum: the next night for dinner, I made zucchini fritters with the last zucchini. My youngest came downstairs and asked what I was eating. "Zucchini cakes," I said. "But they're not sweet. Just a vegetable." She tried a bite, and then proceeded to eat the remaining cakes. I felt very victorious. Celebrated with a chocolate zucchini muffin.

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Day 23: make a list

Remember Day 1, when I enthusiastically said I would inventory everything? The goal was to make a list of meals that I could concoct from what was hiding in the pantry and freezer. The failure of Day 1 has been clearly documented. Instead of "Do it all!", I have opted for baby steps: clean out this shelf, look through this basket in the freezer, etc.

But what about my idea to organize things into meals? On Produce Acquisition days, I make two lists: one that is simply what food there is, and one that is ideas of what to do with it. Sometimes I write days next to the idea list; sometimes I rewrite it as if I know exactly what I'll make Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. I seem to fail consistently after three days. Usually I overestimate what we'll eat, somehow overlooking leftovers in my planning.

Instead of a list of meals, I made a list of things I could make with food from the freezer/pantry. What's the difference, you ask? Well, "couscous fritters" is on the list. That's not a meal. "Leftover tacos" is on the list. That is a meal. "Queso fresco" is just an ingredient...I'm not sure how that ended up in this column.

The point is: on Sunday, I gave myself about 9 ideas for using up food that I have on hand. I like to cook, so the list isn't dictatorial. I can use my creativity; I can be impulsive. I was going to make kale pesto and serve it with fettuccini, but I opted to make kale & chicken enchiladas. The kale is marked off the list (it's gone!), but the fettccini remains. Since pasta keeps, I can ignore it in favor of something more fragile, like queso fresca.

I did use most of the queso fresca on the enchiladas, and now there is just a tiny amount left over. I should throw it on a grilled cheese. Or sneak it into a quesadilla for my daughter. And the enchiladas used up tomatoes from the garden. In fact, I might make that enchilada topping out of abundant tomatoes and freeze it. Very good discovery.

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Day 22: the secret to happiness

One of the reasons that my kitchen gets out of control is that I'm always seeking happiness through purchasing. I find a recipe online that looks fabulous, buy the ingredients, feed it to my family. I see a product at the store, imagine their joy at me serving it up, buy it and take it home.

In these instances, my decision-making is coming from outside of myself. My purchases are being suggested to me. I am not looking at my own menu plan, my own routine, and choosing to adjust it, and then seeking out a means for doing so. The American economy thrives on encouraging us to purchase when we wouldn't normally choose to do so: "You deserve a new car!" "Now my family is getting good nutrition and we are enjoying mealtimes again [child enthusiastically hugs mom]." It would be nice if these sayings were simply implied, but these days, they are often stated straight up. The number of times they are implied probably approaches infinity.

My family has been watching TED talks lately, which are the PBS of the internet. Two of my favorites relate our variety of choices to a decline in happiness (Barry Schwartz, The Paradox of Choice, and Dan Gilbert on synthetic happiness).

I tried to get my best friend to write this blog entry today, but she rolled her eyes--I shall try to offer you her perspective. Both she and my mom have begun shopping at Aldi. I've been before, but the store makes me cringe: it's crowded, there are so few options, I'm not familiar with it so I don't know what I'm doing, etc. But she loves it because she has one choice for salad dressing. If she needs ranch, there it is: one option. In Schwartz's TED talk, he mentioned that his grocery store carries 175 varieties of salad dressing.

Limited choices raise our contentment, and in fact, our happiness.

On the homefront, as we eat what we have, our choices are limited: there's still that package of fettuccini, the leftover tacos, a few ribs, some zucchini. If I were not on this campaign, dinner plans could look like this: what will we eat? Oh, there are five gazillion cool recipes on the internet. What can I buy? What should I do? Where can we go?

A menu plan always helps limit choices, limit those last minute decisions (which Schwartz says, lead to paralysis...how often have you given up planning dinner and gone out to eat? Nothing will eat up your budget faster than eating out). But when you are making the menu plan, aren't you still starting at the point of limitless possibilities?

This July, I am closing my eyes even further to what my culture offers me. If what I do at home consumes me less, I can give more to others who need a listening ear, a casserole for dinner, or a little help with their heating bill.

Monday, July 21, 2014

Day 21: random observations

* I updated our budget this morning. I was discouraged to find that we have spent about as much as we always do, at this point in the month, on groceries. However, our spending in every other area is way down. I think this must be because my attention is at home, not on what we can acquire to be a happy family. I am so influenced by a consumer culture!

* My eldest asked for ribs yesterday and offered to pick anything up at the grocery store if I needed it. But we simply used what we had: the ribs, a salad (she did complain that the lettuce was "old," but she only threw out three small pieces), corn, pasta salad with homemade dressing, and blueberries and strawberries with cool whip (what I call, "red white & blue salad"--but it was really dessert).

* I make "oatmeal packets" for my husband, instead of buying a box of flavored instant oatmeal at the store. He sets the container on the cabinet when he's low, and I make more. We have lots of silent communication systems like that. The container was out Saturday morning, and I felt a flurry of panic: do I have the ingredients? The answer was yes, I did have the ingredients. However, I think I often overstock out of this panicky feeling that we will somehow run out of food.

* I am ordering from The Produce Gathering this morning, for pick up on Saturday. The theme is Mexican, and in addition to the regular basket, I can get a Mexican pack, that will have avocados, tomatoes, tomatillos, etc. I have lots of tomatoes from the garden; I don't like guacamole; I'm going to let it pass. I really, really want to buy it. It has poblano peppers! (Deep breaths.)

Saturday, July 19, 2014

Day 19: in which I whine a little

Yesterday, I picked up some necessities at the grocery store. I needed some salad dressing, which is on the same aisle as the honey. In fact, I picked up the honey and put it in my cart. It's only $8. I was buying other basics, like pasta and juice. Things we eat. We eat honey. I could make peanut butter balls for my daughter with the honey. See, it's not entirely for me. It's for my family, such sweet, precious people.

And I realize: my problem is not eating what I have. My problem is spoiling myself. Poor me has been eating mango preserves every morning this week. I thought it was really fun to make those preserves: I used up some mangoes (last summer); the preserves came out a funky yellow color. I gave some away. People smiled at me.

It's all fun and games until someone has to eat the last jar. Someone who would rather have honey.

I put the honey back on the store shelf, by the way.

Stupid honey is turning out to be a mirror to my self-indulgent soul.

I really love to cook. I spent a little time yesterday rearranging the inside freezer: meat on the top shelf, then breads, then fruits, then veggies. There seems to be a lot of juice concentrate in the door. Why do I have that much? And why are some of them open? I think it was for a recipe sometime. I wonder if I dump them all in a pitcher, add water, if my husband would drink it. Mystery juice. That sounds fun.

But I digress...the second shelf of the freezer is full of baked goods, because I just wanted to make muffins and scones recently. They were my favorites, not really something that the family liked. And now guess who has to eat them? I am moving farther and farther away from my simple biscuit and honey breakfast.

The next time I have the urge to cook or bake some delicacy, I am going to have to ask myself: who will be eating this? If I don't have an immediate answer, I better find some other activity to take my time.

Laundry does not smell as good as hot, fresh scones.

But this had better be my new reality. I am only packaging my self-indulgence in a productive, enjoyable habit. If I were my child, I would probably be lecturing me.

Friday, July 18, 2014

Day 18: what you look at

Many years ago, I realized that I got two kinds of junk mail: catalogs/advertisements to buy things and informational letters/magazines about missions, both local and overseas. I found that I took time to peruse the catalogs and flyers looking for sales, things I might want, and I would ditch the letters.

At some point, I consciously chose to reverse how I spent my time. It is uplifting for me to see what God and His people are doing in the world--it's like an antidote to the evening news. And the catalogs? Companies were randomly sending me their publications, and I was wandering into their store, giving them my time just because they showed up in my mailbox.

I shouldn't budget my time based on who rings my doorbell.

But looking through catalogs (or these days, browsing a website just because JCP sent you a link or Google threw a scheming ad into your browser margin) doesn't just eat up my time: it eats up my heart. Our hearts are designed to want things. When we spend our time showing our heart things to buy, it will want to buy things. When we spend our time showing our hearts what Christians are doing around the world, our hearts will want to join, to help, to give.

The same is true with my pantry. If I spend time looking through recipes online, browsing cookbooks, shopping at Walmart or Williams Sonoma, I will want to buy things for my kitchen. I will see possibilities out there, with a price tag, to make my family happy and healthy and well fed.

However, when I keep my gaze at home, looking through cabinets and freezer shelves, I can seek ways to feed and entertain my family without the price tag. The things in my own shelves are already an investment of my money: I should use it well. It is very tempting for me to be always spending money on food because food is essential. How could I be wasting money on something that is essential?

Commercials and websites will even tell me I am being frugal. I can buy a feeling of frugality! Only in America...

Titus, a short letter in the Bible, tells older women that they should teach younger women. My translation says to "urge" younger women to do a certain list of things, including "be busy at home" (Titus 2:4-5). Women, even in the first century AD, without billions of shekels being spent on advertising, had to be urged to be busy at home.

It is natural for us to be busy online, or busy at the mall. Today, I am urging myself to be busy at home.

Which is as easy as shifting your time and your eyesight. Get off the cooking websites and look in the cabinets. Make a list of things to use at home instead of just a list of things to buy. Desire a system for keeping the freezer organized instead of creating a wish list on Amazon.

What you look at will feed your heart.

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Day 17: a small thing

I have a lazy susan in one of my corner cabinets, where I store pasta (top) and cereal (bottom). Things collect there, and when that area gets full, they start spilling on to the counter beneath.

A long time ago (twenty years?), I bought some cereal keepers, the ones that hold the clear bag of cereal so you can throw away the box and see what you have and how much. The kids don't really like them. In fact they've been storing their cereal boxes on the counter for years now. Oftentimes, the bottom tier of the lazy susan holds empty cereal keepers, while boxes of cereal sit on the counter.

I still have this and that bit of odd pasta to use up, but I think I will put the cereal keepers away for now and fill that second tier with the snacky food that sits on the counter (at our house, cereal is more of a snack than a breakfast food). The family will probably push back: if they can't see the food, how will they ever eat it? But they can get used to opening the cabinet door. They're a talented bunch.

A few years back, I put a square basket on the counter; we keep all the chips in there. It looks much better than having them pile around. The cereal boxes have always gotten piled next to the basket. If they're gone, I see some tidyness in my kitchen.

You know, the first day of July, my blog entry was something like, "Inventory everything!" But that hasn't been the key to getting my kitchen in order, some Herculean effort with amazing results. I've just picked away at it, a bit at a time, a little each day.

And now, instead of a dramatic declaration (I HAVE FIXED EVERYTHING!), I am finding a lifestyle that I want to maintain, even when July is over, a long-term plan for trimming waste from my budget as well as my shelves.





Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Day 16: meat my impulses

I love to order in bulk, from food co-ops...really, any odd source that isn't the grocery store. It makes me feel more connected to people. Imagine, connecting not just over eating food, but also buying it!

One of the companies I like is Zaycon, which sells meat products in parking lot events all over the United States. I currently have beef, chicken, ribs, and all-beef hot dogs in my outdoor freezer, courtesy of Zaycon. And yesterday, I received information via email about some lovely Italian chicken sausages. I can just imagine using those in skillets, grilling out, slicing them for pizza. I can see the smiles on my family's faces now. "Thanks, Mom," they'll say. "These are amazing."

After countless hours of American television, my imagination can now produce its own commercials. Yeah, me.

I was all set to order those sausages, but then I paused: I should eat what I have. (I'm actually writing a blog about this very thing! You can read it here.) So instead of buying warm smiles of joy for my family--I mean, Zaycon sausages, I inventoried the outside freezer.

Not too much meat there: 8 racks of ribs, 24 hot dogs, 12 hamburger patties, 7 pounds of beef, 2 pounds of chicken, and 2 pounds of salmon (cough, cough). But here's the thing: I buy food with some idyllic idea of eating it.

Not actual plans.

In my defense, I bought the ribs and hot dogs because my daughter was home for the summer, and she likes that sort of food. But my family eats meat very slowly. It is seldom the main feature of a meal. And now, my daughter is going back to college in a couple of weeks.

I'm having to plan very carefully how to use those ribs. The hot dogs will be gone soon for a cookout. But the ribs I will probably use for some family events, and they may last into the fall. It will be a nice spread for relatives, but without my inventory, I likely would have planned something else. And let the poor ribs keep languishing in the freezer.

And if I'm now doing ribs for my mother-in-law's birthday, when will I cook the burgers?

Today, I am considering the fresh fruits and veggies still on hand, which take precedence over freezer food. But I have added a new list to my food-planning notebook that contains the outdoor freezer inventory. I'm having a hard time creating a commercial in my head of smiling daughters eating food from the freezer. But my budget...it is definitely smiling more.

If you are interested in Zaycon meats, mention "mrsellis" as your referring friend. I will get $1 credit for anyone who signs up using my name. And I will spend it reasonably, I promise. Maybe the next time they sell sausages...

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Day 15: wasting away

In home living magazines, do you ever see a near-empty bottle of hand soap at the kitchen sink? Never. Why? Because only full bottles are beautiful. This lesson, like full lips and shiny hair, has been subtly communicated to me.

The soap bottle at my sink (middle) has had about an inch or less soap in it for weeks. I have been eagerly waiting for it to die. Every time I have company coming over, I wonder, "Should I switch out that soap bottle? It's almost empty."

Because people coming to my house would be so impressed if the soap bottle was FULL. Right?

This impulse to go ahead and ditch it, get a new one--this is where some of that 25% waste comes from. There's not much ketchup in the bottle--just throw it out. The toothpaste is almost empty--toss it. Not much ice cream in the container--go ahead and have a second bowl. (Oh, wait, that's WAIST, not WASTE.)

My husband and I always take home leftovers from a restaurant. I store my shampoo bottle upside down to let the last bit drip to the bottom. I scrape the last of the honey from the jar with a spoon. Ah, the last of the honey...

These habits are sometimes a pain, and sometimes they feel cheap. I mean, if I can drink Starbucks coffee at $5/drink, I can throw out the near-empty ketchup bottle. I live in America!

Let's say my family uses 5 bottles of ketchup in a year, and I throw out the bottle when it is still 20% full. (If I were a manufacturer, I would make that last little bit hard to get out and as invisible as possible.) I am tossing the equivalent of one bottle of ketchup a year. My family really only uses four, but we buy one to throw away. One ketchup bottle is half a Starbucks drink--have priorities, people.

I was really excited yesterday when I could no longer get any soap out of the dispenser in the kitchen. The thrill of a new, FULL bottle! But I lasted almost a month using up what I had. And I think if I can find a way to balance it upside down, I can get the last capful into my new bottle.

Cheap? Maybe. But I want habits that help me always use what I have.

Monday, July 14, 2014

Day 14: some things belong

The first time I campaigned to eat what we have, my husband got really excited and ate all the chocolate chips. Um, no. The goal is not to eat everything that is there. The goal is to eat the things that we've been ignoring or overlooking.

Chocolate chips (along with many other things) are staple items. They will always be in my cabinet. The problem comes when I stockpile too much or acquire things that are not in my normal pathways of eating.

I suppose the corollary of "eat what you have" is "buy what you need." And here's where I run into problems. Over the weekend, when I had a fresh influx of food and many favorite dishes that I could now envision cooking, I forgot the leftovers. The weird mac & cheese and broccoli that someone had to eat. The remaining spaghetti and fresh roma sauce. The mandarin oranges I forgot to put in the everything salad. The black beans leftover from a pasta salad recipe. And those cornmeal pancakes. Oh my!

So even in the thrill of Produce Acquisition, I remembered to eat what I have, and took inventory accordingly. I am not, however, sorry I bought the salmon. Yum.

Saturday, July 12, 2014

Day 12: so much cooking

Today is Produce Acquisition: a pick-up day for The Produce Gathering. I am now overflowing with produce again, a surprise assortment for $15.
If you live near Tulsa, Oklahoma, and want to see TPG started in your area, there is information on their webpage.

Today, I have to do a lot of cooking and planning. I am making homemade salsa because I have cilantro to use up (and a gazillion romas from the garden). I am making salmon stuffed with leeks for dinner--the salmon is a splurge, but it was $8.88 at Reasor's, so I bought a little extra to put back in the freezer. Salmon is very healthy. I know I just added to the freezer...I know, I know. I bought poblanos to cook with some corn for lunch (soft tacos--find the recipe here).

I'm going to juice most of the lemons, along with some citrus leftover from the last basket (both grapefruit and oranges). I will make pesto out of the kale, and serve that with fettuccine that needs to be used up (Sunday's dinner). Probably use the tomatoes for blt's after church tomorrow.

For the criminis, I will hunt for a vegetarian burger recipe. For the zucchini, I have a corn/zucchini skillet that I have been wanting, and I might serve it with couscous fritters (found a whole box of couscous that I need to use up). (The photo is corn & poblanos, cooked with queso fresca.)

I spend a lot of time in the kitchen. I really enjoy cooking, so it is good time spent--but it's still a lot. It is useful for me to notice how much time cooking takes, so I can adjust my expectations. If I think I'm just going to whip up everything I've mentioned in this blog entry in a matter of two hours, I am woefully ignorant.

If I commit one Saturday every two weeks to ONLY kitchen work, I wonder how long that will carry me? Will I find myself devoting two other evenings or afternoons to planning, prepping, and cooking?

A budget requires that you first record how you are spending your time/money/calories/whatever. Because I enjoy it, I haven't really thought of noticing how much time I spend cooking.

Here's to noticing.

Friday, July 11, 2014

Day 11: an unexpected discovery

Meals are complicated at my house. We do not sit down to family dinners; we are hardly ever on the same schedule. I wish I had this idyllic family meal time, and I have a very large suitcase of guilt about it (see? it's so bulky sitting next to me.).

If you want to read about family meals and training your children to not be picky eaters, you will have to read a different blog. I wish you the best.

Okay, are they gone? The judgmental people who don't approve of me? So it's just us now, and we're okay with my real life?

My oldest two children feed themselves. My elder child even shops for herself, and the middle daughter is very loud about what she wants, what she needs help with, why don't we have blah on hand, etc. My youngest, the introvert in the chaos of our household, just quietly doesn't eat sometimes.

The other day I asked her if she had had breakfast. No, she had not. Would she like oatmeal? Yes, that would be good. "I'll make it for you!" I announced. "Mom of the year!" She tilted her pretty head and said, sarcastically, "Mom of the year? Because you're feeding your child?"

So it is with three, chaotic teenage daughters that I am working through the pantry and freezer. My youngest loved the cornmeal pancakes; none of them touched the spaghetti sauce I made last night from a cache of frozen romas. My middle daughter has made it her mission to clean up the taco shells, which also uses fresh tomatoes (the garden is now yielding an abundance). We still, like all humans, connect over food. Things just don't look standard here.

And in all of this reorganizing, I made an important observation: I need to cook for my youngest every day. I go on binges of cooking for her sometimes, but I need to set aside time daily to cook for her. I honestly could not see how to do this before now, before this month of "eat what we have." She and I inventoried what she likes, what I have on hand, and I now have a goal for the coming school year.

When I started this project, it was not with the intention of being more organized going forward. I did not expect to gain insight into how we eat. But it's as if food is such a central thing, it is pulling our entire home towards a better future.

I wish for all of you enough of a pause in the hustle and bustle that you can make some useful discoveries. Maybe it's how to creatively cook a bag of frozen peas or incorporate three cans of something you found in the back shelf. Or maybe you'll see a family dynamic in a fresh way, and find a way forward that is satisfying to your soul.

Thursday, July 10, 2014

Day 10: impatience and sentimentality

The cornmeal pancakes I mentioned in Day 8 turned out fantastic. There's a round 2 for later. My family eats small amounts-at least we do if we want to keep our waistlines. It is tempting sometimes to think, "Well, I'm going to eat MORE so this stupid food will be GONE."

It's not like we get a medal if we hurry through this process. One goal is to spend less money, so taking longer to eat all these crazy concoctions and leftovers is cost-effective. I guess this is one of those times when my coffee-drinking personality works against me: Do stupid things faster with more energy!

On one side is my impatience to reach the goal line. On the other is my reluctance to actually finish out certain items. In the freezer, there is a gallon-sized bag with four cubes of lemon juice. I know I should use them up, but it makes me so sad! Back in February (I think), I bought 100 lemons from my food co-op as a complement, an extra purchase. And I juiced them all, froze the results in ice cube trays, and we have had fresh lemonade so easily from them. I also saved a lot of lemon zest, of which I still have a good supply.

But the lemon juice cubes have gone pretty fast. As the supply has dwindled, I've been less and less willing to make lemonade. The girls drink it so quickly. Juicing those 100 lemons was a lot of work, and I love to see them enjoy it...but it's almost over. Only four more cubes.

Cleaning out my kitchen this summer requires a bit of discipline. And discipline has a spiritual side. The quiet of this July is allowing me to find a place of rest, of contentment. A place where I can save the rest of the cornmeal batter for another day, and just as easily mix up the last pitcher of lemonade.

All good things ultimately come from God's hand. I don't have to be too controlling with what I'm holding now.

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Day 9: seasons

Eating what we have is about two things: spending less this month on groceries and regaining control of the pantry and freezer. I have a system for keeping the kitchen organized, but this summer, it needs a little extra attention.

I have a tendency to think that I can come up with the perfect system that will cause me never to need to clean out corners of the refrigerator. "If I just do blah, all the time..." I like systems. I believe in improving.

But I also believe in seasons. The spring semester of school got very busy for me. Some of the things that kept me busy were unusual, and may never happen again (like the events of my daughter's senior year). Some things, like extra tutoring, I have learned not to take on (or, if I do take them on again, I will better understand the cost). Busy-ness somehow led to about three packages of pasta that we don't normally keep on hand and a snack cabinet so piled with food that no one knew what was there.

Spring was a busy season. This July is a time to rest and reorganize. Expecting myself to be hyper-organized during the spring so that I don't have to rest and reorganize in July is silly. Spring was fun; it was a little too crazy to keep up all the time. And this season of rest is a gift.

Life is meant to come in seasons. A mentor once told me: these are the busy seasons for this job. You will be tempted to stay busy when they are over, but you must resist that urge and rest.

All of life has crunch times, hurricanes of activity. Rest when you are given the chance. Get your kitchen clean, get your good habits back in place, because the next time of Crazy is coming.

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Day 8: inventory, attempt #3

My "first step" in this process was to inventory what I wanted to use up in the form of meals or snacks that we could have. It never happened. My second attempt at inventory dissolved into my normal inventory of eating up available produce.

For Round #3, I'm giving up on the big picture. Before today, I have actually made inroads in small areas: some mystery jars in the fridge (Day 2), a cabinet that had become literally piled with stuff, the lazy susan where I store pasta, and the counter space where boxes of cereal and other snacks accumulate. In little pockets of time, I have attacked each of these, usually for some purpose.

When making pasta for my daughter, I cleaned off the shelf as she chose what she wanted.

Once the pasta shelf was clean, I could move some snack foods off the counter to be stored there. (My husband's comment: "How will we know to eat them if we can't see them?")

Frustrated when bringing home a new bottle of ketchup, I cleaned out the poor cabinet that had been piled with food since my college student came home. Now it's in categories: replacements (things I normally store in the fridge once they're open), food for daughters, popcorn, cocoa and marshmallows (how did we get six varieties of both cocoa and marshmallows?), and canning supplies.

Along the way, I planned a few meals. I used the half box of giant shells to make Chicken Stuffed Shells, a recipe I found that did not require me to go buy ricotta (like most stuffed pastas would demand). I altered the recipe to use what I had on hand: a small amount of leftover chicken, a box of frozen spinach (how did I accumulate three of those?), and leftover spaghetti sauce. I even served this new dish to my visiting nephew, who told me four times how wonderful it was, and thanked me three times for cooking. He could hire himself out as an encourager; contact me privately for more information.

We had an exotic mac and cheese that my daughter begged me to buy then never ate, along with the rest of the broccoli. And I found a bag of beans that I can cook with a ham hock from the freezer. My mom gave me a homemade cornbread mix at Christmas. I know it's July, but I really need to use that up. Don't tell her; it's kind of embarrassing. Maybe I could make cornbread pancakes out of it. Isn't that some kind of American heritage food? (PW to the rescue. And I have frozen blueberries for homemade syrup!)

So, the new goal for inventory: small steps. Next, I'm going to tackle the shelf at the bottom of the freezer. Or the baking supplies on the top shelf above the flour. Hey, I could use up those odd, leftover sprinkles with the cornmeal pancakes! I am on a roll.

Monday, July 7, 2014

Day 7: oh, honey

I went shopping yesterday for a few staple items. I did not buy honey. I have a biscuit, orange juice, and coffee almost every day for breakfast. I make the biscuits up in a double batch and freeze them. Routines are nice because they free up your mind for other tasks; I don't spend any time thinking about what I'll have for breakfast.

I love honey on my biscuits. As a child, we had preserves around all the time, and everyone in the family competed over the strawberry freezer jam. For some reason, my own family is not big on fruit spreads. I began making them a couple of years ago, and now I find that I am really the only one that eats them. I currently have monkey butter (a delicious gift from a friend), strawberry preserves, mango preserves, and maybe peach.

Honey is over $7, as expensive as steak and coffee. I used the rest of mine the other day in a recipe, trying to use up other ingredients. It was on my shopping list, but truthfully, I can eat preserves on my biscuit. I don't need the honey. I didn't buy it. I'm not always good at this thing called "discipline." You know, not doing exactly what you want, when you want to do it.

My husband tells me that he is the biggest fan of this blog. He says, "I don't read it, but I get to live it." You would think that's sarcasm, right? But he really loves the adventure. In our marriage, he's the saver, and so this enterprise is exactly how he would live all the time.

My husband never complains about leftovers, and is more likely to scold me for throwing something out than feeding him something weird. "Why didn't you let me eat that?" he'll say. "I paid for it."

So no honey, at least for July. I find that when I know I am going to have to have preserves on my biscuit, I don't think that much about it. The motivation to not spend money on groceries right now trumps my personal preference in biscuit topping.

Truth-telling: Don't think things are all sunshine and lollipops at my house, with everyone gladly consuming oddities from deep in the pantry and freezer. My children are picky eaters. We will quickly fall off any pedestal you put us on, because my kids think it's cool to jump from heights. Perhaps one of these days I will write about their contribution.


Saturday, July 5, 2014

Day 5: back to the beginning

This morning I woke up: the day after all the July 4th celebrations. And there's still food to think about. Ah, the ongoing joys of managing a home! When you come to a turn or reset, go back to the beginning. Remember Day 1, when I took inventory? (cough, cough) Here we are, Saturday morning. Time for inventory again.

Food from produce co-op takes precedence over food from pantry/freezer. We have slaw and broccoli that need to be eaten, and plenty of leftover meat to pair with it. Cooking with co-op food has really changed me. The co-op that I belong to, The Produce Gathering, offers a basket every other Saturday with 10-12 items, half fruit, half veggie, that will feed a family of 4 for a week. I never know what will be in the basket, but for $15, it sets my menu.

When I first started in a produce co-op, I would find recipes online and then go buy ingredients to use up the produce. It was a lot of effort and costly. However, as time went on, I figured out what produce my family would eat and what produce I could alter slightly so they would eat it.

For example, no one in my house eats raw tomatoes. My best friend eats raw tomatoes for breakfast, lunch, and snacks. That just doesn't happen at my house. Pineapple, yes. Tomatoes, no. I spent some amount of time feeling sad that we are not a raw tomato family...and then I discovered salsa. Homemade salsa is amazing, and it uses onion, garlic, and tomatoes. I grow peppers in the summer, roast them and freeze them for the winter. And I can buy them whenever necessary. My family inhales it, and if for some reason they don't, one of my favorite, easy go-to meals uses salsa.

I guess that's what I began to develop: easy, go-to ideas for using up produce. I have a cost-effective source for produce, that doesn't require me to think. That sounds odd, doesn't it? But I don't have to stand in the produce section or the farmer's market and think, "Do I want leeks this week?" They just show up, and then I make leek-stuffed salmon or leek rosti. Or in the winter, leek and potato soup.

The Produce Gathering also puts me in the habit of eating what is on hand. I can buy a pound and a half of salmon to go with the leeks, because salmon is good food, and everything else in that recipe is readily available in my kitchen. But if I want a low-cost option, potatoes are almost always hanging around, and leeks go great with potatoes. I have learned how to make leeks a part of our menu.

And still things accumulate in odd corners. I guess I'll go back to working on the odd corners Monday.

Truth-telling: I still haven't really inventoried yet.

Friday, July 4, 2014

Day 4: skimping on holidays

One of my budget blindspots is entertaining (another is gifts, but don't get me started). When we have people coming over, I throw frugality aside and cook like a hotel. I have recently discovered that this is unnecessary.

Partly, I'm a nervous entertainer. Having good props makes me feel better about company. Recently, however, I had an epiphany (I am anticipating your laughter). My oldest was eating with us along with her boyfriend, and we had ribs to cook out. I started to stop at the store for chips and dip, and something else that seemed hugely necessary but which I cannot remember now, when it occurred to me: I had the fixings for salad. Why couldn't we just eat salad? It's more healthy, and I already have it on hand. And I made roasted potatoes, somewhat irregardless of whether it was anyone's favorite. In the process, my daughter's boyfriend discovered something new that he liked (okay, so I accidentally used too much cayenne, but he liked it).

For the 4th, I pulled a pound cake out of the freezer, with blueberries and strawberries (also frozen, but that's fine when you're sugaring them up). We're having green salad, pasta salad, and elote (I bought the corn, but it was 25 cents an ear). I chose sliders over burgers so we could enjoy small portions, and the buns were cheaper because I bought dinner rolls. Normally I buy both wheat and white, both hot dog and burger, and sometimes onion buns. Again, overachiever.

I resisted the impulse to buy bell peppers: it is not mandatory to have grilled onions and bell peppers "in case someone wants them." That is just my own need to overdo.

Besides, my daughter ended up buying a pretty red pepper for the pasta salad, and I can use half of it to julienne and cook with onions. Sometimes things work out, and they're more fun when you don't strive after them.

We're having tea and lemonade today (no soda, which my mother-in-law offered to bring, but who really needs it?), probably coffee with dessert. And we will enjoy being together, no props necessary.

Thursday, July 3, 2014

Bonus: word from a friend

This nugget is provided by my friend, Vicki Hookham. I am always impressed with how she manages her crew!

We are nearly done with our "eat what we have" campaign--admittedly, I started it late May when a very tight budget meant $125/month for groceries for a family of seven for a couple months. Because I am a couponer and have created a good stockpile over time, we were able to eat a variety for 3 of those weeks without having to buy anything at all. Then after I used up all my pantry and creativity could take us no farther, I needed to use the grocery money for ingredients again. It was nice to empty the freezer and pantry, but no one who blogs about these campaigns mentions the end result: a high price tag on restocking your own shelves. You have to buy things you haven't had to buy for months. But it's a nice opportunity to rethink meals, efficiency and eating habits nonethless--a great chance to "start over" and make better choices and habits.

Day 3: delaying purchases

I keep a shopping list. Without it, I could never remember what I need from the store. It's budgeting device 101.

Normally, I write something on the list when I am running low--like, soap. But if I'm tightening up budget-wise, I try to delay purchases as long as possible. Today I rounded up all the little travel soaps and decorative soaps scattered in places around the house: this is our new soap supply. The fat years supplying the lean years!

One perk of tightening the budget is cleaning up clutter. One benefit of clutter is supplying a tight spot.

Some staples I would restock immediately when I run out, but in this season, I don't want to. Delaying purchases saves me from spending. These days, I buy what I have to at the store, then copy the purchases I'm "saving" onto the new list. My memory and budget are both satisfied.

Today I made my husband's sandwich on the last two pieces of odd leftover bread. He won't go back to work for four days, so I will delay buying bread until Sunday. Oh, wait, I do have one hot dog bun leftover from last week's cooking out. We're having sliders for the 4th, so I'll probably have my husband eat a leftover slider on the hot dog bun come Saturday lunch. I didn't put tapenade on his sandwich; the bread was a little stale, and I wanted to spare him too much weirdness.

I also began whittling down our jelly supply. There is a tiny bit of homemade strawberry jam left; I had some on my biscuit for breakfast. Back in the days of higher metabolism, I would have had a second biscuit just to finish up the preserves. However, in the interest of my waistline, I stuck the near-empty jar back in the refrigerator. It might last two more mornings. In fact, there are about four jars of mostly-eaten jams on the top shelf of the fridge. They might last me two weeks, and delay me purchasing honey, my favorite morning topping and a very expensive one as well.



Day 2: the odd invisibles


I am attacking those jars in the frig that have been there forever, so long that I don't see them anymore. Three examples:

*Dried Tomato & Caper Tapenade: I will designate this for my husband's late night snacks, or put it on his sandwiches. It needs to be gone.

*Sugar free hot fudge: If my diabetic father-in-law doesn't eat the rest of it on the 4th, my husband or daughter gets to finish it with a spoon.

*Spelt flour: So little in such a large container--it shall go in my next batch of biscuits and be gone.

Today's effort doesn't require much energy from me, but it's still a productive step. What weird things are lurking in your fridge?

Day 1: inventory

It seems wise to begin with inventory. In the little notebook that contains my life, I have a section called "food." I'm making lists of meals and snacks that are available from what we have. I'm also making a list of food to use up, and working this afternoon on the most perishable items. Every time I buy produce from my produce club, I make this kind of list so I can use up my treasures, but (again) there are things that get ignored, pushed to the corners in all my busy-ness. This inventory is an attempt to attack those things.
Truth-telling: I never got to this list yesterday! I worked all afternoon in the kitchen, but only on using up produce from my regular list. Sigh. Feeding people is time-consuming. The upside of my afternoon work is I did hit upon a solution to a persistent problem. I often get citrus from my produce club that I don't know how to deal with. Citrus doesn't always make my stomach happy, and the kids don't gobble it up. If you want to read about my new fruity ideas and how they've boosted my desire for water, see my food blog, specifically the entry Wow Waters.