Monday, January 30, 2012
Organized Home: Planning Your Days for Less Stress
Sunday, January 29, 2012
In The Backwoods Kitchen, 1/29/12
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Meal Plan Week 4
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Organized Christmas 2012: January Tasks
It's January. Why are we thinking about Christmas at the end of January?
Yes, I know, it seems extreme. But did you know that Christmas brings the most stress of any holiday out there? Except for maybe Fourth of July, where some well meaning family member always shows up with incendiary devices to place near my children. I'm looking at you, my brother Jason. I mean, really, they are pretty to look at and all, and I do secretly enjoy blowing stuff up, but those are my kids there. Moving on.
Yes, we're talking Christmas in January.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Groceries On A Shoestring: Couponing 101 part 2
How to use coupons for maximum value
Once you start clipping coupons, the issue of how to use them most efficiently often comes up. Do I buy an item I need now with the coupon, or do I wait for it to be on sale? The answer to both of these, is yes.
When you are coupon shopping, there are two types of shopping that you will be doing. The first is called needs shopping. Sometimes, you need a particular item that you have a coupon for, and it just can't wait. This is a situation where it's perfectly fine to use a coupon, but you only want to buy the minimum of that item, that you need.
When you are coupon shopping, there are two types of shopping that you will be doing. The first is called needs shopping. Sometimes, you need a particular item that you have a coupon for, and it just can't wait. This is a situation where it's perfectly fine to use a coupon, but you only want to buy the minimum of that item, that you need.
Monday, January 23, 2012
Organized Home: Meal Planning Notebook
Sunday, January 22, 2012
In The Backwoods Kitchen, 1/22/12
Happy Sunday! I hope you're all ready to tackle your week and own it! Today, after posting this, I'll be looking at our family calendar, and my calendar for posting, so I can plan everything out and line up my week for less stress!
Last week, I got the beef and mushroom broths done, but not the chicken. I'll be roasting the chicken this afternoon, and flipping my meal plan around a bit to accommodate for that, and making the broth on Monday. I also got a new batch of quick biscuit mix (to substitute for the stuff in the big yellow box) made. As a matter of fact, several batches, because I made a lot of pancakes for the freezer. I have tried making a whole wheat version and the taste difference was enough that my family didn't like it for something like dumplings, and the pancakes I made with it were a mess. I will order some organic pastry flour when I get my tax refund, and try a batch with that and see how it goes. For the record, I only use this mix for a few things: pancakes, dumplings, and cheeseburger pie. For biscuits, I have a different recipe.
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| 72 pancakes, for the freezer |
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Meal Plan, Week 3
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| Photo Credit: Stevie Rocco |
Another important note-just because a recipe says it has to be a certain cut of meat, doesn't mean it has to be. For example, one of the casserole recipes I thought about using this week calls for chicken breasts, but there's no reason you couldn't use 2-4 cups of cooked chicken instead, although you may need to adjust the cooking time. Chicken breasts are over $2.00 per pound where I live, and whole chickens are usually around $.99 per pound. That's a huge savings when a recipe calls for 2 or 3 pounds of chicken breasts! I buy whole chickens and roast them, then pick off the meat and freeze. Then I have chicken carcasses for chicken broth. I've also done this with chicken leg quarters, but the last two bags of those I've purchased locally have been bad, so I switched to whole chickens, which, at my store, comes from a different supplier.
Monday: Chuck Roast, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy, Carrots, Rolls
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| Photo Credit: Father.Jack |
Wednesday: Goulash, Corn, Rolls
Thursday: Smoked Sausage and Red Beans, Cornbread
Friday: Beef Stroganoff, Green Beans, Rolls (utilizing leftovers from the chuck roast on Monday)
Saturday: Buffalo Casserole, Carrots, Rolls
Sunday: Cheesy Beef and Rice, Cornbread
Friday, January 20, 2012
Recipe: Mushroom Broth
I use this mushroom broth, with a roux, as a substitute for condensed cream of mushroom soup. While a simple roux of cornstarch and water does the job, if you make your roux with butter, flour and half and half you will get a creamier, tastier substitute for that canned soup, and the cost is really reduced over buying the canned version.
Ingredients
1 pound mushrooms of your choice
Water
Really, that's it. Sure, you can add vegetables and seasonings to the broth, but I prefer to do that later, depending on what I'm making with it. You could also saute the mushrooms in butter first, but I prefer the broth to be fat free, because it doesn't need the fat when I add it to something like beef stroganoff.
Slice your mushrooms into the pot, and add enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about an hour. You don't need much longer than that to get the essence of the mushrooms into the broth. Yes, my pot is stained. I use it every day. Moving on.
Strain your broth. You can skip this step if you like chunks of mushrooms, but the now cooked mushrooms don't have much flavor left in them. We don't like chunks of mushroom, but I love the flavor they add to so many meals, so I strain them out.
Here's what you're left with. Notice there are a few small flakes of mushroom material in there. If you want to get rid of those, pour it through a sieve. I just leave them in.
Use immediately, or pour into jars and freeze or can. One pint of broth plus the roux ingredients will equal a bit more than one can of condensed cream of mushroom soup. I freeze in quart jars because I cook for eight. If you're canning, pressure can according to recommendations in the Ball Blue Book of Canning for broths or soups, depending upon if you put sliced mushrooms in or not. One pound of mushrooms makes a little under two quarts of broth.
A little note: I am looking for somewhere to store all of my recipes as printable documents. When I get that set up, I will update all previously published recipes with printable versions!
Ingredients
1 pound mushrooms of your choice
Water
Really, that's it. Sure, you can add vegetables and seasonings to the broth, but I prefer to do that later, depending on what I'm making with it. You could also saute the mushrooms in butter first, but I prefer the broth to be fat free, because it doesn't need the fat when I add it to something like beef stroganoff.
Slice your mushrooms into the pot, and add enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about an hour. You don't need much longer than that to get the essence of the mushrooms into the broth. Yes, my pot is stained. I use it every day. Moving on.
Strain your broth. You can skip this step if you like chunks of mushrooms, but the now cooked mushrooms don't have much flavor left in them. We don't like chunks of mushroom, but I love the flavor they add to so many meals, so I strain them out.
Here's what you're left with. Notice there are a few small flakes of mushroom material in there. If you want to get rid of those, pour it through a sieve. I just leave them in.
Use immediately, or pour into jars and freeze or can. One pint of broth plus the roux ingredients will equal a bit more than one can of condensed cream of mushroom soup. I freeze in quart jars because I cook for eight. If you're canning, pressure can according to recommendations in the Ball Blue Book of Canning for broths or soups, depending upon if you put sliced mushrooms in or not. One pound of mushrooms makes a little under two quarts of broth.
A little note: I am looking for somewhere to store all of my recipes as printable documents. When I get that set up, I will update all previously published recipes with printable versions!
When Dinner Fails
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| Photo Credit: Dottie Mae |
Has anyone ever misread a recipe and ended up with something not fit for man nor beast? Oh look, lots of hands there!
Have you ever forgot to take a crucial dinner ingredient out to thaw, or forgotten to pick it up at the store? Yes, I thought so.
Ever set your kitchen on fire, rendering your stove inoperable? No? Just me, then.
I've had all of those experiences, and I'm pretty sure you have, too-except the whole setting your kitchen on fire thing. For the record, I have set every stove I've ever owned on fire, at least once. When I lived in the city, a failed dinner usually meant a call to have pizza delivered, or a quick trip to a fast food restaurant. However, out here, in the backwoods, that's not an option. Pizza places don't deliver here (and neither will Burger King, when they start delivery services), and there are no quick trips to fast food restaurants. My bank account also says that's not an option.
Just last night I planned to make stuffed pork tenderloin. I stuff it with cornbread stuffing. I made cornbread with dinner the night before, and left the remainder out all night to start to harden. Yesterday afternoon, I crumbled it up onto a cookie sheet, and put it in the oven on a slow heat, and went about my other afternoon jobs, like welcoming the kids home, overseeing snack time ("No, gum is not a good snack"), folding laundry, and, well, everything else that usually goes on in the afternoon. And promptly forgot about the cornbread crumbles in the oven. When I thought to go check on it, it was a dark brown, almost completely burned mess, and there was no way to save it, and no time to bake more cornbread.
Fortunately, I had all the ingredients to modify my plans a bit, and modified Kirsten's recipe for Fruit Filled Pork Roast (my guys won't eat any meat that's filled with fruit!), and served it with some creamy potatoes. Even without the fruit, it was amazing, and is definitely a keeper in my house! However, not all dinners are saved so easily.
Here's a list of foods I try to keep in my freezer or pantry to rescue dinners that fail!
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| Photo Credit: thebittenword.com |
Freezer Meals-Whether you use recipes from Once A Month Cooking sites or books, or just make extras and freeze your own, having a full meal ready to heat from the freezer sure can save the day!
Home Canned Spaghetti Sauce and Chili-Whether these are pressure canned or frozen, I can use them for quick meal replacements when I need to.
Pre-made hamburger patties-When ground beef is on sale, I will make a large batch of hamburger patties, freeze them individually, and then pull them out of something comes up. Even served on sandwich bread with fried potatoes, these make a pretty easy and quick meal. During the summer, I cook them on the grill ahead of time so I can even skip the cooking time!
Breakfast for dinner-I usually have a lot of eggs on hand, and have even frozen eggs in batches big enough to make a skillet full of scrambled eggs. Throw in some pre-cooked bulk breakfast sausage or bacon, and add pancakes and fruit, and I've got a dinner that everyone loves.
What are your go-to plans for when dinner fails?
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Changing Directions
I started this blog in October with one simple goal: To help one mom out there know that she wasn't the only mom out there struggling with whatever issues, big or small, that she may be struggling with. Oh, of course, I wanted to post about being a mom, and a homemaker, and about living on a farm-with a bit of dry humor thrown in.
When I began, I imagined mainly a memoir or personal blog, where I talked about my family, or the farm, or life in general, with a few "useful" posts thrown in. But as I've talked with people on Twitter, responded to comments here, and read my emails, I could see what readers were responding to, and I changed my posts to accommodate that. I was thrilled to do it. After all, these posts were helping people, which is what my original goal was. In about the past month, this goal has started to coalesce into real things happening. I've launched my Organized Home, Organized Christmas, and Groceries on a Shoestring series, and have more sign ups than I ever imagined I would have. I've gotten direct questions on Twitter about coupons, and healthier eating, and other little things that people need to know. I've had some amazing conversations on various social networks where I was able to help people out when they needed it-sometimes, with just a little encouragement.
My life is not perfect. There are days when I don't get all the dishes done, and the laundry will never be done, and sometimes, I really just want a nap! Some days the bread doesn't rise, or I burn dinner, and truthfully, I get frustrated, just like the majority of other moms out there. But I have twenty years' experience at this housewife gig, and I refuse to let one bad day get me down. I have, however, seen other women so frustrated they let so much go, and that frustration quickly leads to being overwhelmed, and if I can help them, then that's what I'm going to do!
When I was growing up, my mom worked. Women had fought for the right to work, and raise a family, and, in some areas, are still fighting today to be paid equally with men. I'm proud of my mom for that for being part of that movement-and I thank her, and every woman who came before me, for giving me the right to choose, if I'm financially able, to stay home with my children, instead of my role being pre-ordained because of my gender. However, my mother, and many mothers of her generation, were so busy juggling a career and their family that they forgot to actually teach us how to do things like manage our homes. Even when my mother was home, she didn't really teach me, or my brother, much about how to manage a home. House cleaning was a frantic Saturday morning affair accompanied by yelling and threats of grounding. Laundry was a last minute "Oh crap, I don't have any clean underpants" kind of deal, and dinner was often out of a box. I don't fault my mom. She was doing what she thought best, and what millions of other moms of that age were doing.
But when I grew up and had my own child and home to take care of, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. In those pre-internet days (yes, I am that old; my oldest daughter will be 20 in March), there was no where to turn to figure out different methods of organizing your kitchen, or what essentials I should have there, or how often should I clean the bath tub, or how can I throw my child a birthday party on the cheap.
Today, we're seeing a renaissance of Stay At Home Mothers. The reasons for it are myriad; for some, it's just not feasible to work and pay for daycare and business clothes and commute expenses; for others, it's a desire to be with their children more than their own moms were, and for some others, it's a realization that maybe you can "have it all," but that's it's damn hard to do so. But many of those moms grew up with moms like mine, and so they may need somewhere to turn to help them figure out how to juggle this three ring circus called being a housewife.
So moving forward, here at Backwoods Housewife, you'll see less personal posts, and more posts about how to do those "housewife" tasks-pretty much what you've been seeing here for the last several weeks. Groceries on a shoestring budget, home organization, home decor, and more in that vein. Oh, I'll still be mentioning my family-after all, without them, I wouldn't need to be doing any of these things. But there won't be a whole lot of "we went to the dentist today" types of posts. Which is OK with me-while the urge to write pulls at me like, well, gravity, I'm not 100% comfortable sharing so deeply about my children. But I'm paranoid.
Moving on.
Over the next few weeks you will see changes here at Backwoods Housewife, with a complete re-launch sometime in February. You may see a few less posts between now and then, but I'll get the essentials out for you! I hope you embrace the changes and stay with me here! I appreciate every single one of you that's visited Backwoods Housewife. It is truly a labor of love for me!
When I began, I imagined mainly a memoir or personal blog, where I talked about my family, or the farm, or life in general, with a few "useful" posts thrown in. But as I've talked with people on Twitter, responded to comments here, and read my emails, I could see what readers were responding to, and I changed my posts to accommodate that. I was thrilled to do it. After all, these posts were helping people, which is what my original goal was. In about the past month, this goal has started to coalesce into real things happening. I've launched my Organized Home, Organized Christmas, and Groceries on a Shoestring series, and have more sign ups than I ever imagined I would have. I've gotten direct questions on Twitter about coupons, and healthier eating, and other little things that people need to know. I've had some amazing conversations on various social networks where I was able to help people out when they needed it-sometimes, with just a little encouragement.
 |
| Photo Credit: Roy Montgomery |
When I was growing up, my mom worked. Women had fought for the right to work, and raise a family, and, in some areas, are still fighting today to be paid equally with men. I'm proud of my mom for that for being part of that movement-and I thank her, and every woman who came before me, for giving me the right to choose, if I'm financially able, to stay home with my children, instead of my role being pre-ordained because of my gender. However, my mother, and many mothers of her generation, were so busy juggling a career and their family that they forgot to actually teach us how to do things like manage our homes. Even when my mother was home, she didn't really teach me, or my brother, much about how to manage a home. House cleaning was a frantic Saturday morning affair accompanied by yelling and threats of grounding. Laundry was a last minute "Oh crap, I don't have any clean underpants" kind of deal, and dinner was often out of a box. I don't fault my mom. She was doing what she thought best, and what millions of other moms of that age were doing.
But when I grew up and had my own child and home to take care of, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. In those pre-internet days (yes, I am that old; my oldest daughter will be 20 in March), there was no where to turn to figure out different methods of organizing your kitchen, or what essentials I should have there, or how often should I clean the bath tub, or how can I throw my child a birthday party on the cheap.
 |
| Photo Credit: Elsie esq. |
So moving forward, here at Backwoods Housewife, you'll see less personal posts, and more posts about how to do those "housewife" tasks-pretty much what you've been seeing here for the last several weeks. Groceries on a shoestring budget, home organization, home decor, and more in that vein. Oh, I'll still be mentioning my family-after all, without them, I wouldn't need to be doing any of these things. But there won't be a whole lot of "we went to the dentist today" types of posts. Which is OK with me-while the urge to write pulls at me like, well, gravity, I'm not 100% comfortable sharing so deeply about my children. But I'm paranoid.
Moving on.
Over the next few weeks you will see changes here at Backwoods Housewife, with a complete re-launch sometime in February. You may see a few less posts between now and then, but I'll get the essentials out for you! I hope you embrace the changes and stay with me here! I appreciate every single one of you that's visited Backwoods Housewife. It is truly a labor of love for me!
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Stop SOPA
Good morning folks!
If you're a regular visitor here, you'll see I've changed things around a bit today. Since I didn't have a whole lot of time to put a cool ribbon on my normal header,or the money to pay a designer to do it for me, I just removed it.
Today I want to talk about SOPA-the Stop Online Piracy Act, and its nefarious sister, PIPA, the Protect IP Act. If you're not sure what SOPA and PIPA are, you can read more about it on reddit's blog.
I also want to tell you what that means to a blog like mine.
Let's say I uploaded a video of one of my kids singing their own version of a song. Any song, that's ever been recorded by an American artist, or marketed by an American based company. Current law states that if the artist wants to, he or she can have his legal representation email me and ask for it to be removed, or begin action through the copyright infringement act, which sends me an official letter in the mail telling me to take that content off my site.
If I unknowingly copy someone's recipe the same thing can happen. While my recipes are all my own (or I link to the recipe I used or tell you which book I got it from), it's hubris to think that no one else has ever had the same ideas, and maybe they published their ideas before I did. That happens.
If I take the content off of my site, the deal is done. If I refuse, then legal action progresses, up to and including a jury trial. While most bloggers would never knowingly use someone else's recipes or content, I can't tell you the number of times I've seen videos on a blogger's site of their children rendering their versions of "Isn't She Lovely" or "The Lion Sleeps Tonight." But when faced with legal action, most bloggers would immediately remove the offending content from their site. Done deal.
Under SOPA, without benefit of a jury trial, my site can be shut down immediately if I, knowingly or unknowingly, violate someone's copyright. Not only that, but they can shut down all of my sources of income relating to my blog, including my paypal account and bank account-accounts which I use for things other than receiving payments from my blog. Things like buying groceries and making my house payments. They can also demand that any sites that link to mine, remove those links. So if another blogger has my blog in his or her blog roll, or has ever linked to an article that I've posted, they must remove those links. If they do not, they face the same penalties.
So let's say that I link to Blogger A's awesome article about saving money. What I didn't realize is that Blogger A is not really the author of that article-he or she has scraped it from another source without crediting the author. Blogger A is an asshat, and fully knows what he is doing is against the law, but doesn't care. He's made his little bit of cash and he's going to run with it, so he ignores emails from bloggers whose content he has scraped, and eventually gets shut down under SOPA. I have no knowledge of this, and neither have hundreds of bloggers who have linked to his stuff. Suddenly, they get notices to remove the links from their sites. If they don't comply soon enough, their sites are gone, too!
Further, let's say I like to Blogger B's awesome article about saving money. Blogger B is an honest blogger, and hasn't scraped content, but did post a video of her children singing along or doing a booty dance to someone's song. Blogger B got burned out by blogging and took a break, but didn't take her blog down. She doesn't notice when the SOPA police come knocking, and only gets involved when suddenly her paypal account or bank account are shut down-or she doesn't have advertising on her blog, so those accounts aren't impacted. I get the notice to remove her link from my site, and I do. But the SOPA law says that no further linking to this site can occur. So if, a few weeks later, someone posts a link to her site in comments. I'm required to scrub that content, too. I'm also required to remove any comments she may have made on my site, that include a link back to her site.
You can imagine the financial burden that this would place on sites like reddit, StumbleUpon, Facebook, and any forums, sites driven by user content.
Want to do something? Let Congress know that while piracy must be stopped, SOPA and PIPA are badly written laws. Enforcing the laws currently in place would have far more impact than passing one that would actually censor sites. Piracy needs to be ended; SOPA ends our liberty.
If you're a regular visitor here, you'll see I've changed things around a bit today. Since I didn't have a whole lot of time to put a cool ribbon on my normal header,or the money to pay a designer to do it for me, I just removed it.
Today I want to talk about SOPA-the Stop Online Piracy Act, and its nefarious sister, PIPA, the Protect IP Act. If you're not sure what SOPA and PIPA are, you can read more about it on reddit's blog.
I also want to tell you what that means to a blog like mine.
Let's say I uploaded a video of one of my kids singing their own version of a song. Any song, that's ever been recorded by an American artist, or marketed by an American based company. Current law states that if the artist wants to, he or she can have his legal representation email me and ask for it to be removed, or begin action through the copyright infringement act, which sends me an official letter in the mail telling me to take that content off my site.
If I unknowingly copy someone's recipe the same thing can happen. While my recipes are all my own (or I link to the recipe I used or tell you which book I got it from), it's hubris to think that no one else has ever had the same ideas, and maybe they published their ideas before I did. That happens.
If I take the content off of my site, the deal is done. If I refuse, then legal action progresses, up to and including a jury trial. While most bloggers would never knowingly use someone else's recipes or content, I can't tell you the number of times I've seen videos on a blogger's site of their children rendering their versions of "Isn't She Lovely" or "The Lion Sleeps Tonight." But when faced with legal action, most bloggers would immediately remove the offending content from their site. Done deal.
Under SOPA, without benefit of a jury trial, my site can be shut down immediately if I, knowingly or unknowingly, violate someone's copyright. Not only that, but they can shut down all of my sources of income relating to my blog, including my paypal account and bank account-accounts which I use for things other than receiving payments from my blog. Things like buying groceries and making my house payments. They can also demand that any sites that link to mine, remove those links. So if another blogger has my blog in his or her blog roll, or has ever linked to an article that I've posted, they must remove those links. If they do not, they face the same penalties.
So let's say that I link to Blogger A's awesome article about saving money. What I didn't realize is that Blogger A is not really the author of that article-he or she has scraped it from another source without crediting the author. Blogger A is an asshat, and fully knows what he is doing is against the law, but doesn't care. He's made his little bit of cash and he's going to run with it, so he ignores emails from bloggers whose content he has scraped, and eventually gets shut down under SOPA. I have no knowledge of this, and neither have hundreds of bloggers who have linked to his stuff. Suddenly, they get notices to remove the links from their sites. If they don't comply soon enough, their sites are gone, too!
Further, let's say I like to Blogger B's awesome article about saving money. Blogger B is an honest blogger, and hasn't scraped content, but did post a video of her children singing along or doing a booty dance to someone's song. Blogger B got burned out by blogging and took a break, but didn't take her blog down. She doesn't notice when the SOPA police come knocking, and only gets involved when suddenly her paypal account or bank account are shut down-or she doesn't have advertising on her blog, so those accounts aren't impacted. I get the notice to remove her link from my site, and I do. But the SOPA law says that no further linking to this site can occur. So if, a few weeks later, someone posts a link to her site in comments. I'm required to scrub that content, too. I'm also required to remove any comments she may have made on my site, that include a link back to her site.
You can imagine the financial burden that this would place on sites like reddit, StumbleUpon, Facebook, and any forums, sites driven by user content.
Want to do something? Let Congress know that while piracy must be stopped, SOPA and PIPA are badly written laws. Enforcing the laws currently in place would have far more impact than passing one that would actually censor sites. Piracy needs to be ended; SOPA ends our liberty.
Monday, January 16, 2012
In The Backwoods Kitchen, 1/16/11
Last week in the Backwoods Kitchen didn't turn out quite the way I wanted it to. First, my husband was home most of the week, which means helping him on large projects rather than focusing on smaller things that can wait. Also, I've been majorly sleep deprived this week-which I'm sure most of you mothers, and many of you fathers, who are reading this, can empathize with. I also became obsessed with cleaning my walls. Since we use a wood stove for heat, the walls get grimy fairly quickly. What I discovered in the dining room upset me quite a bit. There is some kind of stucco finish on the walls in there, and I'm guessing that whoever put it on didn't do it correctly, because when I started washing those walls, it started coming off. So we'll be adding another project to the never ending list.
I did get the gravy mix and bisquick done. I'll be adding a tutorial and recipe for the gravy mix later this week, and posting a new bisquick one, too. I also got permanent storage for my wheat berries. I did not get the tortillas done, so I'll be working on those for this week, and the same with the apple pie filling. I was just not coordinated enough last week to juggle everything! And I know you can relate to that!
This week we're also doing a few broths. My stock of several broths is running low. When we moved in May, I pretty much stopped making stuff ahead of time, because I didn't want to move it. We let our supplies and stockpile dwindle way down because, really, who wants to move a whole bunch of frozen stuff. Well, who wants to move anything, honestly. So I've been making broths as I needed them, and that has left only a small bit in the freezer, and those get used pretty quickly in this season of soups and casseroles. I'll be posting tutorials on beef broth and mushroom broth (used, with a roux, as a substitute for condensed cream of mushroom soup), and you can find my tutorial for chicken broth here. I tried making a chicken broth last week without roasting the chicken first, and was really disappointed. I think there just wasn't enough cooking time for the heat to penetrate the marrow of the bone and get the good flavor into the broth. Roasting the chicken can be done while you're busy doing something else, and makes sure that the broth has a yummier flavor. Ideally, I could can the broths, but as I still haven't ordered my pressure regulator for my canner, I'm freezing them.
Here's my meal plan for this week, and recipes will be coming up!
I hope you have a wonderful week in your kitchen!
This week we're also doing a few broths. My stock of several broths is running low. When we moved in May, I pretty much stopped making stuff ahead of time, because I didn't want to move it. We let our supplies and stockpile dwindle way down because, really, who wants to move a whole bunch of frozen stuff. Well, who wants to move anything, honestly. So I've been making broths as I needed them, and that has left only a small bit in the freezer, and those get used pretty quickly in this season of soups and casseroles. I'll be posting tutorials on beef broth and mushroom broth (used, with a roux, as a substitute for condensed cream of mushroom soup), and you can find my tutorial for chicken broth here. I tried making a chicken broth last week without roasting the chicken first, and was really disappointed. I think there just wasn't enough cooking time for the heat to penetrate the marrow of the bone and get the good flavor into the broth. Roasting the chicken can be done while you're busy doing something else, and makes sure that the broth has a yummier flavor. Ideally, I could can the broths, but as I still haven't ordered my pressure regulator for my canner, I'm freezing them.
Here's my meal plan for this week, and recipes will be coming up!
I hope you have a wonderful week in your kitchen!
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Meal Plan, Week 2
It's another week, people, and that means it's time to get your collective butts in gear! How is your butt doing this week? I'm running a little late, but I'll get caught up. Of course, that may not happen in this lifetime, but at some point, I'll be caught up!
My meal plan this week is fairly simple-just what I need right now! I will be making lots of broths this week-beef, mushroom and chicken, so there will be posts for beef broth and mushroom broth coming up. The extras will be frozen for later use. I use mushroom broth because my kids won't eat the mushrooms themselves, but we all enjoy the flavor they add. Plus, thickening the broth with a roux makes a great substitute for condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup that many recipes call for.
Monday: Beef Pot Pie, Cornbread
Tuesday: Confederate Bean Soup (From Paula Deen's Southern Cooking Bible), Whole Wheat Rolls
Wednesday: Stuffed Pork Tenderloin, Carrots, Whole Wheat Rolls
Thursday: Taco Soup, Cornbread
Friday: Turkey and Stuffing Casserole, Corn, Sweet Potatoes
Saturday: Country Breakfast Casserole, Fruit (Yes, this was supposed to be last week; we had hamburgers instead)
Sunday: Chicken Macaroni, Corn, Rolls
Most of the meats this week come from a friend. Her husband died recently, and she brought us over a bunch of meat that her husband had in the freezer, but that she won't eat. So the only meat I have to buy this week is a brisket, which is good, because our grocery budget this week is really bursting at the seams!
I'm trying to get recipes for all of the meal plans posted, but I'm quite behind, so it will be a few weeks before they are all up. Make sure you subscribe to my blog by email or .rss feed so that you get notice when I add a new recipe! The links are on the top right of your screen.
My meal plan this week is fairly simple-just what I need right now! I will be making lots of broths this week-beef, mushroom and chicken, so there will be posts for beef broth and mushroom broth coming up. The extras will be frozen for later use. I use mushroom broth because my kids won't eat the mushrooms themselves, but we all enjoy the flavor they add. Plus, thickening the broth with a roux makes a great substitute for condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup that many recipes call for.
Monday: Beef Pot Pie, Cornbread
Tuesday: Confederate Bean Soup (From Paula Deen's Southern Cooking Bible), Whole Wheat Rolls
Wednesday: Stuffed Pork Tenderloin, Carrots, Whole Wheat Rolls
Thursday: Taco Soup, Cornbread
Friday: Turkey and Stuffing Casserole, Corn, Sweet Potatoes
Saturday: Country Breakfast Casserole, Fruit (Yes, this was supposed to be last week; we had hamburgers instead)
Sunday: Chicken Macaroni, Corn, Rolls
Most of the meats this week come from a friend. Her husband died recently, and she brought us over a bunch of meat that her husband had in the freezer, but that she won't eat. So the only meat I have to buy this week is a brisket, which is good, because our grocery budget this week is really bursting at the seams!
I'm trying to get recipes for all of the meal plans posted, but I'm quite behind, so it will be a few weeks before they are all up. Make sure you subscribe to my blog by email or .rss feed so that you get notice when I add a new recipe! The links are on the top right of your screen.
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Hope Lives Here
Yesterday, I could not put the proverbial pen to paper about this issue, other than 140 character messages on Twitter. This morning, I woke up knowing exactly what I needed to say.
A sweet, beautiful, cognitively impaired little girl is being denied a kidney transplant because she is cognitively impaired. The issue here is not organ procurement. This child has a living donor in her family, willing to donate an organ to her. She needs only a transplant team who is willing to complete the surgery, and a venue where she can have the surgery and recover. Her name is Amelia, and as so many special needs parents can probably understand, she has multiple diagnoses.
Amelia's story is not mine to tell. Her mother did it beautifully here. I'm not sure of her entire background, and really, it doesn't matter. What does matter is that in Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love, a transplant team at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, whose motto is "Hope Lives Here," decided that this little girl's life is not important, because she's cognitively impaired. That this little girl should die, despite a willing organ donor, because she may never read the collected works of Shakespeare or solve a calculus equation.
Let's show Amelia's parents that Hope does, indeed, Live Here.
Update 1/14/11 11:17 AM: Kristen, over at A Little Something for Me, gave us an update on Amelia.
A sweet, beautiful, cognitively impaired little girl is being denied a kidney transplant because she is cognitively impaired. The issue here is not organ procurement. This child has a living donor in her family, willing to donate an organ to her. She needs only a transplant team who is willing to complete the surgery, and a venue where she can have the surgery and recover. Her name is Amelia, and as so many special needs parents can probably understand, she has multiple diagnoses.
Amelia's story is not mine to tell. Her mother did it beautifully here. I'm not sure of her entire background, and really, it doesn't matter. What does matter is that in Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love, a transplant team at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, whose motto is "Hope Lives Here," decided that this little girl's life is not important, because she's cognitively impaired. That this little girl should die, despite a willing organ donor, because she may never read the collected works of Shakespeare or solve a calculus equation.
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| Photo Credit: mikebaird |
Please, go an read Amelia's story, and then go sign the petition that Sunday Stillwell, @xtremeparnthood, started on Amelia's behalf. Share her story with everyone you can. On Twitter, the hashtag #TeamAmelia is being used. Because this could very easily be my child, or your child.
Let's show Amelia's parents that Hope does, indeed, Live Here.
Update 1/14/11 11:17 AM: Kristen, over at A Little Something for Me, gave us an update on Amelia.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Groceries On A Shoestring: Couponing 101
How, When and Where to get Coupons
Right now, as you're reading this, you're probably thinking to yourself "Well, the newspaper, of course!" And, of course, the newspaper should be your first stop to finding coupons because usually, the savings value of usable coupons is much more than what you've paid for the newspaper. However, the Sunday newspaper is not the be-all, end-all when it comes to coupons.
The biggest issue I have with the coupons in the Sunday newspaper is the quality and usefulness of the coupons. If you've been reading the In The Backwoods Kitchen and Meal Plan posts here, you know that I'm trying to take certain foods out of our diet. Many of the coupons you will find in your Sunday newspaper can be for foods that I don't want to feed my family-and I've heard this issue often from other people who aren't using coupons. However, there are still hundreds of coupons out there that I can use. In the past few months I have had coupons for yeast, flour, salad mixes, natural cheeses, and fruit juice blends that were definitely used. Plus there's often coupons for paper goods, pet food, and medicines that I use on a regular basis. It's important to remember that some foods aren't worth the savings, but just because you don't buy "junk food" doesn't mean that you can't use coupons. I'm even starting to see coupons for organic products (Glen Muir, for example) and I think we'll see more of that, especially if the Extreme Couponing show continues to be popular.
Sunday Coupon Preview helps me determine if I should go out and buy one, or a dozen, newspapers this week. Usually updated on Thursdays, this site gives a list of what coupons should be in the Sunday paper. However, this list is based on a full set of inserts in a major metropolitan area. Since I don't live in or near a major metropolitan area, I often find that I don't get all of the coupons that are listed in the preview, or they are lower values. Manufacturers want to get the most bang for their buck, so they are going to place the best coupons in areas where they will be used the most.
What the Sunday Coupon Preview site also does for me, is tells me what coupons are available, so I know if I should go pay to have coupons clipped for me. While coupons have no cash value, and cannot be sold, there are many coupon clipping services out there where you're not paying for the coupons, but for the time to clip them. I have used The Coupon Clippers for years. Their service has always been fantastic, and they have the coupons in stock that the Sunday Coupon Preview tells me I should have gotten in my Sunday newspaper, but didn't. That allows me to pay to have The Coupon Clippers clip the good ones for me, and I can buy as many as I need, instead of buying a huge bunch of newspapers. While we use the papers to start fires in our wood stove, all of the ads, which can't be burned, end up in a landfill, and I don't like that.
Also available are something relatively new on the coupon landscape, Internet Printable (IP) coupons. IP coupons are coupons that you print at home, clip, and use just like coupons that you get out of the Sunday newspaper. While previously some stores, namely Walmart, would not take IP coupons due to fraud, most stores now take them, although many still have limits as to what value of coupons they will take. I have found that there is a large variety of IP coupons available, and they are usually updated weekly, on Mondays. Be sure to only print the coupons you're reasonably sure you will use, or for products that you know you want to try, because IP coupons use a lot of ink and paper. Here is a list of places to print Internet Printable coupons.
Coupons.com
Red Plum
Swag Bucks
Coupon Suzy
Additionally, many manufacturers will reward you for liking their Facebook page, visiting their site, signing up for their newsletters, or other types of interaction, with coupons. A Full Cup carries a list of IP coupons direct from the manufacturers. These coupons are usually better than the coupons in your Sunday newspaper or the IP coupons.
If your store has a reward card program, many stores will also let you load coupons onto your rewards card. You can find a central database of many of these stores at Cellfire, which means you can load to multiple stores reward cards without having to go to multiple websites. If your store is not listed there, try their individual websites.
Another great resource for finding coupons is a coupon exchange. While you can find these online (google "coupon trains"), my luck in participating in these has not been great. If just one person gets busy and forgets to mail the coupons to the next recipient, the train derails. What I do instead is participate in a local coupon exchange with my friends who also clip coupons. We get together once every few weeks, in a park if the weather is nice, or at someone's house. We sit around the table and drink tea or coffee, and go through each others piles of unneeded coupons. For example, I don't have any kids who use formula anymore, but I clip the formula coupons for a new mom in the group. From her I usually get a lot of yogurt coupons. We put all the coupons in one huge pile, and send them around the circle of people and we each get to pick one of any particular coupon. Then it goes around again and we can pick and second one of that coupon if we need one. This continues until there are no more coupons anyone is interested in. We always bring our kids, and they are playing nearby, and we alternate bringing a snack for all the kids.
Also, don't overlook friends, family, and neighbors who are already getting the Sunday paper. If they are getting the paper, ask them if they are using the coupons. When we lived in town, I picked up inserts each week from four neighbors who weren't using them. It was a huge help!
Groceries On a Shoestring: Couponing 101 is part of a weekly series, Groceries On a Shoestring. If you'd like to get notified of all of the Groceries On a Shoestring posts as they come out, and learn how I feed my family of eight on only $125 per week, please join my mailing list! Next week, I'll be discussing how to get the most bang out of your buck with coupons!
Disclosure: Many of the above links are affiliate links and, as such, I will get a percentage of any sales that occur as a result of you clicking them.
Right now, as you're reading this, you're probably thinking to yourself "Well, the newspaper, of course!" And, of course, the newspaper should be your first stop to finding coupons because usually, the savings value of usable coupons is much more than what you've paid for the newspaper. However, the Sunday newspaper is not the be-all, end-all when it comes to coupons.
 |
| Photo Credit: E Von Zita |
Sunday Coupon Preview helps me determine if I should go out and buy one, or a dozen, newspapers this week. Usually updated on Thursdays, this site gives a list of what coupons should be in the Sunday paper. However, this list is based on a full set of inserts in a major metropolitan area. Since I don't live in or near a major metropolitan area, I often find that I don't get all of the coupons that are listed in the preview, or they are lower values. Manufacturers want to get the most bang for their buck, so they are going to place the best coupons in areas where they will be used the most.
What the Sunday Coupon Preview site also does for me, is tells me what coupons are available, so I know if I should go pay to have coupons clipped for me. While coupons have no cash value, and cannot be sold, there are many coupon clipping services out there where you're not paying for the coupons, but for the time to clip them. I have used The Coupon Clippers for years. Their service has always been fantastic, and they have the coupons in stock that the Sunday Coupon Preview tells me I should have gotten in my Sunday newspaper, but didn't. That allows me to pay to have The Coupon Clippers clip the good ones for me, and I can buy as many as I need, instead of buying a huge bunch of newspapers. While we use the papers to start fires in our wood stove, all of the ads, which can't be burned, end up in a landfill, and I don't like that.
 |
| Photo Credit: Mary-Lynn |
Coupons.com
Red Plum
Swag Bucks
Coupon Suzy
Additionally, many manufacturers will reward you for liking their Facebook page, visiting their site, signing up for their newsletters, or other types of interaction, with coupons. A Full Cup carries a list of IP coupons direct from the manufacturers. These coupons are usually better than the coupons in your Sunday newspaper or the IP coupons.
If your store has a reward card program, many stores will also let you load coupons onto your rewards card. You can find a central database of many of these stores at Cellfire, which means you can load to multiple stores reward cards without having to go to multiple websites. If your store is not listed there, try their individual websites.
Another great resource for finding coupons is a coupon exchange. While you can find these online (google "coupon trains"), my luck in participating in these has not been great. If just one person gets busy and forgets to mail the coupons to the next recipient, the train derails. What I do instead is participate in a local coupon exchange with my friends who also clip coupons. We get together once every few weeks, in a park if the weather is nice, or at someone's house. We sit around the table and drink tea or coffee, and go through each others piles of unneeded coupons. For example, I don't have any kids who use formula anymore, but I clip the formula coupons for a new mom in the group. From her I usually get a lot of yogurt coupons. We put all the coupons in one huge pile, and send them around the circle of people and we each get to pick one of any particular coupon. Then it goes around again and we can pick and second one of that coupon if we need one. This continues until there are no more coupons anyone is interested in. We always bring our kids, and they are playing nearby, and we alternate bringing a snack for all the kids.
Also, don't overlook friends, family, and neighbors who are already getting the Sunday paper. If they are getting the paper, ask them if they are using the coupons. When we lived in town, I picked up inserts each week from four neighbors who weren't using them. It was a huge help!
Groceries On a Shoestring: Couponing 101 is part of a weekly series, Groceries On a Shoestring. If you'd like to get notified of all of the Groceries On a Shoestring posts as they come out, and learn how I feed my family of eight on only $125 per week, please join my mailing list! Next week, I'll be discussing how to get the most bang out of your buck with coupons!
Disclosure: Many of the above links are affiliate links and, as such, I will get a percentage of any sales that occur as a result of you clicking them.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Organized Home: The Family Calendar
Long ago (in a galaxy far, far away?), the family calendar stood guard in the kitchen or office, noting birthdays and an occasional doctor's appointment, subtle reminders for moms to pick up birthday presents or send invites or pick the kids up early from school to get their eyes checked.
Today, with schedules busier than ever before, the family calendar often takes center stage, noting not only birthdays and doctor's appointments, but PTA meetings, therapy sessions, music lessons, gymnastics practice, family get-togethers, projects, and more. Whew! I'm tired just typing all of that!
While the stand-by paper calendar in the kitchen is still found in most homes (including mine), most moms today either go digital, or have a calendar they can carry with them so it's always around when you need it. Digital hasn't worked for me in the past, although it works for many moms. For one, I don't have a smart phone, so I can't add to a digital calendar from my phone, and I'm not always near a computer. For two, I just don't like change, and I've used a paper calendar for a very long time. But I'm not telling you not to go digital. If it works for you, go for it! The upside to digital is that it's usually free. Google has a great calendar function. Just because it doesn't work for me, doesn't mean that it won't work for you!
I'm a paper kind of lady, and I'm going to recommend my favorite essential paper calendar here in a bit. But before I do, I want to list some of the items that I include in my calendar, to help me stay organized in my busy life. If my crazy life is anything like your crazy life, then most weeks are a crazy juggling act-wherein you're juggling those balls around while walking through a carnival fun house with a randomly tilting floor and randomly rolling balls designed to trip you up. However, a well organized (and utilized!) calendar can make a huge difference in how smoothly your day goes-reducing the amount of stress you experience in the long term.
Do you see a theme here? Having an organized home leads to less stress. And having an organized mind is the beginning of having an organized home. And there's no way you can have an organized mind if you don't know what's going on day to day. So, the goal here, is less stress. Cause mamas, we put way too much stress on ourselves!
Here's the list of what I include in my family calendar
Birthdays-I start with ours and work my way out to my friends and extended family. I use last year's calendar for this, then text, email, or call new friends to get those added in. With family birthdays, I take a few extra steps, including noting the date of the party, and when I need to start planning the party, and when Thank You notes need to go out.
School Schedules-You know those calendars that come home at the beginning of the school year with all the holidays, in service days, and conferences? Those all get noted in the family calendar, plus the dates for our "School's Out" party.
Known Meetings-Do you have a meeting that always happens on the third Thursday of every month? Add that on there, too!
Special Events-We always go to our local Celtic festival, and it's always held on a specific weekend. So that's on the schedule, along with the Parade of Lights, summer festivals, and anything else we plan to attend.
Of course, as the year progresses, you will get invitations to birthday parties, potlucks, and other events that will need to go into the family calendar. There will be doctor's appointments and sports events and extra curricular activities. And of course, you won't always be home when you find out about some of these events, so you need a calendar that goes with you.
That is why many moms are choosing to go digital for their calendars. For most of us, our cell phones go with us everywhere, including places our purses don't even go. Really. Raise your hand if you've ever texted from the bathroom. However, I don't use my phone, because the calendar features on the phone are really bad, and it's not a smart phone, so if often won't connect to the internet when I want it to, and sometimes I can't type on a page using my phone, so adding an entry to a digital calendar is impossible.
So I carry a calendar. It goes into my backpack (some day, I'll post about why I carry a backpack instead of a purse) and I can pull it out any time I'm notified of a new event. For this, I absolutely love the momAgenda All-in-One Folio. Mine hasn't arrived yet, so I can't honestly review it, but I love the functionality that the description implies. It has a twelve month calendar, plus 24 interchangeable tab sections, so I'll be able to move some of the items from my household notebook, like my children's clothing sizes, into the folio, and have them with me while at shopping in case I find a great clearance deal.
But, in reality, it doesn't matter which type of calendar you use, as long as it's working for you. The trick to keeping it working for you is to sit down, once a week, and review your calendar for the upcoming week or two. I do this on Friday nights. I go over the next few weeks, adding birthday cards to the grocery list, or noting that the school concert is Tuesday so I need to make dinner early that day. This helps to keep the events fresh in my mind, which means I'm more organized and less stressed! Then, each morning, I take a quick glance at the calendar so I know what's going on that day-and that I need to remind my son to return his library book or my daughter to take her uniform to school for her basketball game that afternoon.
Organized Home: The Family Calendar is part of a weekly series, Organized Home. If you'd like to get notified of all of the Organized Home posts as they come out, and see my own process of organizing my new home, please join my mailing list!
Disclosure: The above link to the momAgenda All-in-One Folio is an affiliate link, and as such, I will receive a percentage of any sales that result from you clicking the link.
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| Photo Credit: Andreanna Moya Photography |
While the stand-by paper calendar in the kitchen is still found in most homes (including mine), most moms today either go digital, or have a calendar they can carry with them so it's always around when you need it. Digital hasn't worked for me in the past, although it works for many moms. For one, I don't have a smart phone, so I can't add to a digital calendar from my phone, and I'm not always near a computer. For two, I just don't like change, and I've used a paper calendar for a very long time. But I'm not telling you not to go digital. If it works for you, go for it! The upside to digital is that it's usually free. Google has a great calendar function. Just because it doesn't work for me, doesn't mean that it won't work for you!
 |
| Photo Credit: MoonSoleil |
Do you see a theme here? Having an organized home leads to less stress. And having an organized mind is the beginning of having an organized home. And there's no way you can have an organized mind if you don't know what's going on day to day. So, the goal here, is less stress. Cause mamas, we put way too much stress on ourselves!
Here's the list of what I include in my family calendar
Birthdays-I start with ours and work my way out to my friends and extended family. I use last year's calendar for this, then text, email, or call new friends to get those added in. With family birthdays, I take a few extra steps, including noting the date of the party, and when I need to start planning the party, and when Thank You notes need to go out.
School Schedules-You know those calendars that come home at the beginning of the school year with all the holidays, in service days, and conferences? Those all get noted in the family calendar, plus the dates for our "School's Out" party.
Known Meetings-Do you have a meeting that always happens on the third Thursday of every month? Add that on there, too!
Special Events-We always go to our local Celtic festival, and it's always held on a specific weekend. So that's on the schedule, along with the Parade of Lights, summer festivals, and anything else we plan to attend.
Of course, as the year progresses, you will get invitations to birthday parties, potlucks, and other events that will need to go into the family calendar. There will be doctor's appointments and sports events and extra curricular activities. And of course, you won't always be home when you find out about some of these events, so you need a calendar that goes with you.
That is why many moms are choosing to go digital for their calendars. For most of us, our cell phones go with us everywhere, including places our purses don't even go. Really. Raise your hand if you've ever texted from the bathroom. However, I don't use my phone, because the calendar features on the phone are really bad, and it's not a smart phone, so if often won't connect to the internet when I want it to, and sometimes I can't type on a page using my phone, so adding an entry to a digital calendar is impossible.
 |
| Photo Credit: momAgenda |
But, in reality, it doesn't matter which type of calendar you use, as long as it's working for you. The trick to keeping it working for you is to sit down, once a week, and review your calendar for the upcoming week or two. I do this on Friday nights. I go over the next few weeks, adding birthday cards to the grocery list, or noting that the school concert is Tuesday so I need to make dinner early that day. This helps to keep the events fresh in my mind, which means I'm more organized and less stressed! Then, each morning, I take a quick glance at the calendar so I know what's going on that day-and that I need to remind my son to return his library book or my daughter to take her uniform to school for her basketball game that afternoon.
Organized Home: The Family Calendar is part of a weekly series, Organized Home. If you'd like to get notified of all of the Organized Home posts as they come out, and see my own process of organizing my new home, please join my mailing list!
Disclosure: The above link to the momAgenda All-in-One Folio is an affiliate link, and as such, I will receive a percentage of any sales that result from you clicking the link.
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Meal Plan Week 1
I'm moving meal plans to their own post because, well, I can. Actually, I want them to have their own "spot" here on Backwoods Housewife so they will be easier for you to find. They had been previously buried at the bottom of the "In The Backwoods Kitchen" posts, but I think having them separate is good!
My meal plan for this week is a little challenging. For a long time I've been doing the Sunday through Saturday plan, and I never changed it when my husband got a job that left him on call every day but Sunday, meaning that was the only day I could really count on to be able to go grocery shopping. Which left me in a fog come Sunday morning, trying to decide what to do for breakfast and lunch. It's not that it never occurred to me to change it, it's that it never occurred to me. Apparently, I don't like change.
That's the thing about a meal plan. It has to work for you. Later in the Groceries On A Shoestring series, I'm going to talk about how to put together a meal plan. The why is pretty simple-it takes the stress out of your day, and makes your grocery budget go further, because you can buy what's on sale instead of making many last minute stops at the grocery store-where you're more likely to go over budget by impulse buying. I have a friend that does a two week meal plan, because her husband is an independent contractor and doesn't always know when he'll get paid, but he's usually got some sort of check coming in every two weeks. She usually goes to the store weekly, though, if just to pick up perishables and sale items, that she then implements into the following two week meal plan. That works for her. You need to do a meal plan that works for you.
The other challenge that I have this week is that due to weather, and my husband's schedule with the holidays, we haven't actually been to the store since before Christmas. My pantry is looking a little more bare than I like it to be. I don't drive, because I get migraines, which affect my vision. That's not such a big deal in my little rural area where I'm never driving more than 20 mph, but it's a huge deal at 75 mph on the highway. So I can only go shop when my husband is available.
This week at Safeway, round steak and chicken breasts are on sale for pretty good prices. Ground beef and pork roasts are also on sale at decent prices. So those will figure into my meal plan this week.
So here's my eight day meal plan to accomodate for changing to Monday-Sunday planning.
Sunday: Sloppy Joes, Seasoned Fries, Corn on the Cob (It took me an hour to find a sloppy joe recipe without ketchup in it. You'll go read it, like it, and make it. Now!)
Monday: Taco Salad (I have a PTA meeting Monday so I'll put the taco meat into the crockpot and pre-prep all the veggies)
Tuesday: Chicken and Dumplings
Wednesday: Sausage Breakfast Casserole
Thursday: Baked Asian Style Honey Chicken, rice, stir fry veggies
Friday: Spaghetti (yes, again, I've been craving it), green beans, garlic bread
Saturday: Baked Potato Soup
Sunday: Shepherd's Pie
My meal plan for this week is a little challenging. For a long time I've been doing the Sunday through Saturday plan, and I never changed it when my husband got a job that left him on call every day but Sunday, meaning that was the only day I could really count on to be able to go grocery shopping. Which left me in a fog come Sunday morning, trying to decide what to do for breakfast and lunch. It's not that it never occurred to me to change it, it's that it never occurred to me. Apparently, I don't like change.
That's the thing about a meal plan. It has to work for you. Later in the Groceries On A Shoestring series, I'm going to talk about how to put together a meal plan. The why is pretty simple-it takes the stress out of your day, and makes your grocery budget go further, because you can buy what's on sale instead of making many last minute stops at the grocery store-where you're more likely to go over budget by impulse buying. I have a friend that does a two week meal plan, because her husband is an independent contractor and doesn't always know when he'll get paid, but he's usually got some sort of check coming in every two weeks. She usually goes to the store weekly, though, if just to pick up perishables and sale items, that she then implements into the following two week meal plan. That works for her. You need to do a meal plan that works for you.
The other challenge that I have this week is that due to weather, and my husband's schedule with the holidays, we haven't actually been to the store since before Christmas. My pantry is looking a little more bare than I like it to be. I don't drive, because I get migraines, which affect my vision. That's not such a big deal in my little rural area where I'm never driving more than 20 mph, but it's a huge deal at 75 mph on the highway. So I can only go shop when my husband is available.
This week at Safeway, round steak and chicken breasts are on sale for pretty good prices. Ground beef and pork roasts are also on sale at decent prices. So those will figure into my meal plan this week.
So here's my eight day meal plan to accomodate for changing to Monday-Sunday planning.
Sunday: Sloppy Joes, Seasoned Fries, Corn on the Cob (It took me an hour to find a sloppy joe recipe without ketchup in it. You'll go read it, like it, and make it. Now!)
Monday: Taco Salad (I have a PTA meeting Monday so I'll put the taco meat into the crockpot and pre-prep all the veggies)
Tuesday: Chicken and Dumplings
Wednesday: Sausage Breakfast Casserole
Thursday: Baked Asian Style Honey Chicken, rice, stir fry veggies
Friday: Spaghetti (yes, again, I've been craving it), green beans, garlic bread
Saturday: Baked Potato Soup
Sunday: Shepherd's Pie
Friday, January 6, 2012
In The Backwoods Kitchen, 1/8/12
It's another week into the New Year! How are your resolutions holding up? Mine are doing pretty well, but I kept them simple on purpose. It's much easier to keep those resolutions if you make them reasonable!
This week in the Backwoods Kitchen, I am still working on my yearly meal plan. Yes, still. This isn't something you can do in ten minutes. But, really, it's saved me a lot of headaches in previous years. I do a new one every year because we try to add at least two new recipes every month, plus, as the kids tastes grow and evolve, someday I will be able to remove "mac and cheese and hot dogs" from my lunch menus! Even though I do want to serve healthier foods to my family, I am not planning on depriving them of some of their favorites! I'm also changing the rules a bit, making sure that two soups or stews and two casseroles are included every week in the cooler months, September through April. This will reduce our meat usage greatly, and cut down on our grocery budget.
When you're trying to feed your family healthier meals, the secret is to make small changes that they will embrace, rather than going full bore into foods that may be new to your children. For example, this week, I'm making apple cobbler. The simple ingredients make it a great quick breakfast, and it has no more sugar than pancakes would. I often do cobblers for breakfast and rotate around peach, berry, and apple. I could easily pick up a can of apple pie filling to go into the cobbler, but instead I'm going to make a small batch of spiced apples to go in the cobbler, using fresh apples. I usually keep spiced apples in the freezer year round, but we had a late freeze this year that killed all the apple trees, so I've had to buy all my apples, and the one case I managed to get, went pretty quickly! By making the apple filling from scratch, I'm cutting out any additives and sugar that may be in the canned filling.
I'll also be making a batch of home made Bisquick. There are a number of recipes on the web. Not all of them are created equal, but most of them work fairly well. We're having pancakes, dutch babies, and biscuits and gravy this week, so I'll definitely get good use out of it!
I'll also be making and freezing at least 100 tortillas this week. When I make them fresh, my kids eat them all before I get a chance to use them, so I make them in large batches so that I can stash some in the freezer. The tortillas we get in the store have a lot of additives in them, mostly to maintain freshness while they sit on the store shelf, and there's not much in this world that tastes better than a fresh tortilla with a bit of real butter! Now I'm hungry. Maybe I should make 200!
Here's my meal plan for this week. Can't wait to try the two new recipes that are on the list!
What are you making in your kitchen this week?
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| Photo Credit: HerryLawford |
When you're trying to feed your family healthier meals, the secret is to make small changes that they will embrace, rather than going full bore into foods that may be new to your children. For example, this week, I'm making apple cobbler. The simple ingredients make it a great quick breakfast, and it has no more sugar than pancakes would. I often do cobblers for breakfast and rotate around peach, berry, and apple. I could easily pick up a can of apple pie filling to go into the cobbler, but instead I'm going to make a small batch of spiced apples to go in the cobbler, using fresh apples. I usually keep spiced apples in the freezer year round, but we had a late freeze this year that killed all the apple trees, so I've had to buy all my apples, and the one case I managed to get, went pretty quickly! By making the apple filling from scratch, I'm cutting out any additives and sugar that may be in the canned filling.
I'll also be making a batch of home made Bisquick. There are a number of recipes on the web. Not all of them are created equal, but most of them work fairly well. We're having pancakes, dutch babies, and biscuits and gravy this week, so I'll definitely get good use out of it!
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| Photo Credit: little blue hen |
Here's my meal plan for this week. Can't wait to try the two new recipes that are on the list!
What are you making in your kitchen this week?
Ten Things I'm Taking Out of My Pantry in 2012
I have always tried to feed my family healthy foods. Tried being the keyword. Cost is usually an issue for many families when they are trying to feed their families the best, and we have been no different. Moving to the backwoods reinforced this commitment for me, and I'm bound and determined to buy, and grow, the healthiest food possible for my family. I realize this will be an area that we will have to continue to grow in, but I'm all for that.
Here's my list of things I want to take out of my pantry this year
Cooking Spray - The type of spray that you use to oil baking pans and muffin tins and cookie sheets, instead of using butter. They are full of chemicals and artificial ingredients, and I'm just done. I'll be using butter, and a spritzer filled with olive oil for tasks like oiling cling wrap to go over rising bread.
Margarine - This one has been on my list for a long time, but I think I can swing it this year. It's a substitute for butter whose time to go away has come.
Laundry Soap - We all have allergies. I'm allergic to most things that grow, which is ironic, considering I'm going to have a garden that may be bigger than my house. It's a mild allergy, it just makes me itchy, but still. One of my daughters and I both have issues with itchy skin, and I've tried every "free and clear" laundry soap on the market. So we'll be making our own.
Cereal - Most cereals have no nutritional value. They don't much resemble the grains they contain, because they've been processed so much. They also have a ton of sugar. This one, will break my kids' heart, but they'll be healthier for it.
Processed Cheese - What I'm referring to are the packaged cheese slices that people put on sandwiches. I want real cheese for my kids. The reason we haven't done this sooner is also a cost issue.
Store Bought Canned Veggies - These are the lowest on the nutrient scale in terms of veggies. Canned veggies are better than no veggies, but I'm going to try to switch to frozen. We still have a stockpile of canned veggies but I'm hoping to not have to buy any more. As my garden begins to put out, we'll can and freeze our own.
Store Bought Canned Fruits - Also the lowest on the nutrition scale, and even light syrups may be supplemented with sugar. I want my kids to taste fruits and veggies as they were designed to be tasted. I'll hit up Farmer's Markets to get deals on fruits and can and freeze them myself.
Lunch Meats - Filled with additives, and some of them taste nothing like the meat they claim to be. Instead I'll be buying roasts, chickens, and turkeys, and cooking them myself, then freezing them for lunch meat. We'll save some money this way, too, especially with the roast beef.
White Rice - Pretty much no nutritional value is left in white rice once it hits the store shelves. We'll be switching to brown rice.
White Flour - The same as white rice-it's been processed and refined into something tasteless and with little nutritional value. Right now I'm in the process of going half and half with all of my recipes that involve all purpose flour. I'll gradually increase the amount of whole wheat until that's all we're eating.
Here's my list of things I want to take out of my pantry this year
Cooking Spray - The type of spray that you use to oil baking pans and muffin tins and cookie sheets, instead of using butter. They are full of chemicals and artificial ingredients, and I'm just done. I'll be using butter, and a spritzer filled with olive oil for tasks like oiling cling wrap to go over rising bread.
Margarine - This one has been on my list for a long time, but I think I can swing it this year. It's a substitute for butter whose time to go away has come.
Laundry Soap - We all have allergies. I'm allergic to most things that grow, which is ironic, considering I'm going to have a garden that may be bigger than my house. It's a mild allergy, it just makes me itchy, but still. One of my daughters and I both have issues with itchy skin, and I've tried every "free and clear" laundry soap on the market. So we'll be making our own.
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| Photo Credit: ajleon |
Processed Cheese - What I'm referring to are the packaged cheese slices that people put on sandwiches. I want real cheese for my kids. The reason we haven't done this sooner is also a cost issue.
Store Bought Canned Veggies - These are the lowest on the nutrient scale in terms of veggies. Canned veggies are better than no veggies, but I'm going to try to switch to frozen. We still have a stockpile of canned veggies but I'm hoping to not have to buy any more. As my garden begins to put out, we'll can and freeze our own.
Store Bought Canned Fruits - Also the lowest on the nutrition scale, and even light syrups may be supplemented with sugar. I want my kids to taste fruits and veggies as they were designed to be tasted. I'll hit up Farmer's Markets to get deals on fruits and can and freeze them myself.
Lunch Meats - Filled with additives, and some of them taste nothing like the meat they claim to be. Instead I'll be buying roasts, chickens, and turkeys, and cooking them myself, then freezing them for lunch meat. We'll save some money this way, too, especially with the roast beef.
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| Photo Credit: Calgary Reviews |
White Flour - The same as white rice-it's been processed and refined into something tasteless and with little nutritional value. Right now I'm in the process of going half and half with all of my recipes that involve all purpose flour. I'll gradually increase the amount of whole wheat until that's all we're eating.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Friday Blog Share: Comfortably Domestic
This week I'm sharing one of my favorite blogs, Comfortably Domestic by Kirsten. I started reading her blog because we talk a lot about food together on Twitter. I fell in love with her blog because her pictures are extraordinary, and her recipes make me hungry. Not just hungry, but starving. Plus, she's a really funny lady, and I love all of her posts. Also, she calls her husband "Bacon Slayer," which is just completely awesome!
Here are some of my favorites from Comfortably Domestic:
Things Are About To Get Crazy Up In Here - Kirsten's son kicks her out of her own kitchen!
Overnight Apple Butter - Can't wait to try this!
What to do with all that Halloween Candy When You Don't Want To Get Caught Snarfing It In The Bathroom - Really, the title's enough, isn't it?
She celebrates Pie Week, people! Do you really need another reason to hop on over to Comfortably Domestic and give her some love? Grab me some pie while you're there!
Here are some of my favorites from Comfortably Domestic:
Things Are About To Get Crazy Up In Here - Kirsten's son kicks her out of her own kitchen!
Overnight Apple Butter - Can't wait to try this!
What to do with all that Halloween Candy When You Don't Want To Get Caught Snarfing It In The Bathroom - Really, the title's enough, isn't it?
She celebrates Pie Week, people! Do you really need another reason to hop on over to Comfortably Domestic and give her some love? Grab me some pie while you're there!
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Groceries on a Shoestring: Setting A Grocery Budget
Welcome to the first post in my new Groceries on a Shoestring series! Today I'm talking about how to set your grocery budget.
Setting a grocery budget can be a challenge for any family. If you're dealing with financial issues that mean you need to cut costs, it can be even harder. Cutting costs can be a challenge while you're trying to maintain healthy foods. As we get further into the series, we will be discussing ways to make your meals healthier while still keeping your costs down.
Before we go any further, let me make some disclosures. I'm all about fairness, you know. Here's some things you should know:
So, now you know that about how I manage my grocery budget. Of course, the big question to answer is, how did I arrive at that amount?
Initially, I set our budget to be $15 per person, per week, just for food. At that time, our older daughter was still at home with us, so we maxed out at $135 per week, for food only. I also budgeted $12.50 per person, per week, for household consumables like paper goods, shampoo, diapers, etc., which was $112.50 per week when everyone was here. Eventually, spending that amount of money became impossible for us. Dropping almost $250 per week at the grocery store was just a bit much for our single income budget. Of course, cutting our food budget meant I needed to use coupons more efficiently, cook more from scratch, and look for substitutions for pre-made products. The by-product of cutting our grocery budget also meant that we are eating far healthier foods.
I think that the key to setting your grocery budget is to look at it on a larger scheme. Instead of thinking about it as a weekly expenditure, think about it as a monthly or yearly expenditure. This will help you get a better handle on what you should be spending. For example, on my previous budget, $250 per week times four weeks = $1000/month on food and household consumables. That's more than I've ever paid in rent, and even more than my mortgage.
Many financial gurus advocate for setting any budget amount using the percentage method. In other words, 35% of your income is for your mortgage, 10% is for entertainment, 6% for debt repayment, etc. However, the trouble with this is that your percentage could be different than mine. According to North Dakota State University's Family Economics Specialist Debra Pankow, the average family spends 12% of their take home income on food. However, if Family A takes home $1000 per month, their food budget is $120 per month. If Family B takes home $2000 per month, their food budget is $240 per month. Depending on family size, Family A may need to allot a higher percentage of their income to their grocery budget.
I have one friend that set her budget by what the USDA guidelines for food stamps are. These are numbers put together that say what you should be spending on food, determined by family size. These guidelines show what a family, by size, should be spending per month on food. They are based on poverty levels and other indicators that show what your grocery budget should be. The goal of the food stamp (or SNAP) program is to get family up to that level by supplementing what their income provides with food stamps up to the amount they calculate that a family should be getting. By scrolling down to the benefits tab, you can see that for the eight people in my household right now, I should be spending $1,202 (this is the maximum benefit amount that would be given to a family of eight with 0 income). While our food budget could be bigger, that amount is more than twice what I'm currently spending. On that amount of food, I would definitely be eating all organic.
The long and short of it is, there is no one solution to setting your grocery budget. I love the concept of the 5DollarDinners site, and I believe that an average of $5.00 per meal is very do-able, even for larger families. For example, here are the two meals I planned for today:
Breakfast: Pancakes-Cost of home made Bisquick mix for the pancakes I made $.85. Cost of syrup $.50 (not real maple syrup). Cost of real butter $.30. Total cost of meal that fed seven, plus a few leftovers for the freezer was $1.65.
Dinner: Ham and Potato Soup-Cost of ham bone for soup base $0 (ham was budgeted for Christmas dinner; the ham bone is a bonus). Cost of three pounds of potatoes $1.17 (bought in a ten pound bag for $3.99). Cost of 2 cups of cheese $2.22. Cost of 1 cup broccoli $.75. Cost of 1 cup cauliflower $.75. Cost of home made loaf of whole wheat sourdough bread $1.25. Cost of butter for bread $.50. Total cost of meal that fed 8, $6.64.
Please note, that the two meals I planned today did not include the amounts of fruits and vegetables that they should have. Had I been able to get to the store, we would have served salad with dinner, and some kind of fruit with breakfast.
Lunch was not planned because the kids had school. Mr. Sullivan took a lunch meat sandwich, yogurt and some snack crackers to work for lunch, and I ate leftovers.
My average cost per meal today was $4.15. Adding a pancake to breakfast and a serving of salad to dinner would have increased the average to $5.40 per meal, which isn't bad considering off season purchases of produce.
As you can imagine, there's not much room in our grocery budget for eating out. It's a rare occurence. A pizza night can run us $40, and even fast food will run into that amount unless we all stick to the dollar menu. That's not to say that we never do it, but it is rare.
Here's my weekly spending wrap up
Amount Spent: $35.78 (Due to scheduling and holidays, we could not do a big shop, so we're eating mostly out of the pantry/freezer this week)
Amount Saved: $0
2012 Budget Remaining: $6964.22
If you're concerned about how to save more money on your grocery budget, and want to learn more techniques than just couponing, please consider signing up for my newsletter, Groceries on a Shoestring, where you'll get notified of every post that I do regarding cutting your grocery budget. You can learn my methods for feeding my family on a very lean budget.
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| Photo Credit AMagill |
Before we go any further, let me make some disclosures. I'm all about fairness, you know. Here's some things you should know:
- Our food budget for eight people is $125 per week. In recent weeks, I have gone over budget-mainly, but not entirely, due to Christmas dinner and the kids being home for two weeks, which I did not plan very well for.
- I have a "bonus" budget of $15 per week. This is to cover items I find on sale that are not in the sale ad. I cannot exceed this amount. However, if I don't spend all of it one week, it carries over.
- This year, I'm adding $500 to the overall budget when we get our income tax refund. This will allow us to stock up. That puts my total regular budget for the year at $7000. So I will go over the weekly grocery budget when we get our tax refund check, but I should not exceed the annual budget.
- We do not eat organic. For one, it's not available in three of the four stores that I shop regularly: Walmart, Safeway, Family Dollar and a small local market in the town nearest me. Organic food is available at Safeway, but is generally cost prohibitive. This is one reason why we wanted to move to a parcel of land large enough that we would be able to grow most of our own food.
- This year we will probably be able to have layer chickens. We will deduct the cost of purchasing them from the $500 that I'm adding from the tax refund, and the cost of their feed will come out of the grocery budget as it's purchased. Since they probably won't begin to lay full sized eggs until the summer of 2013, this is going to mean a hit to our grocery budget. Fortunately, much of the food we feed them will come in the form of garden scraps.
So, now you know that about how I manage my grocery budget. Of course, the big question to answer is, how did I arrive at that amount?
Initially, I set our budget to be $15 per person, per week, just for food. At that time, our older daughter was still at home with us, so we maxed out at $135 per week, for food only. I also budgeted $12.50 per person, per week, for household consumables like paper goods, shampoo, diapers, etc., which was $112.50 per week when everyone was here. Eventually, spending that amount of money became impossible for us. Dropping almost $250 per week at the grocery store was just a bit much for our single income budget. Of course, cutting our food budget meant I needed to use coupons more efficiently, cook more from scratch, and look for substitutions for pre-made products. The by-product of cutting our grocery budget also meant that we are eating far healthier foods.
I think that the key to setting your grocery budget is to look at it on a larger scheme. Instead of thinking about it as a weekly expenditure, think about it as a monthly or yearly expenditure. This will help you get a better handle on what you should be spending. For example, on my previous budget, $250 per week times four weeks = $1000/month on food and household consumables. That's more than I've ever paid in rent, and even more than my mortgage.
 |
| Photo Credit: jessica mullen |
I have one friend that set her budget by what the USDA guidelines for food stamps are. These are numbers put together that say what you should be spending on food, determined by family size. These guidelines show what a family, by size, should be spending per month on food. They are based on poverty levels and other indicators that show what your grocery budget should be. The goal of the food stamp (or SNAP) program is to get family up to that level by supplementing what their income provides with food stamps up to the amount they calculate that a family should be getting. By scrolling down to the benefits tab, you can see that for the eight people in my household right now, I should be spending $1,202 (this is the maximum benefit amount that would be given to a family of eight with 0 income). While our food budget could be bigger, that amount is more than twice what I'm currently spending. On that amount of food, I would definitely be eating all organic.
The long and short of it is, there is no one solution to setting your grocery budget. I love the concept of the 5DollarDinners site, and I believe that an average of $5.00 per meal is very do-able, even for larger families. For example, here are the two meals I planned for today:
Breakfast: Pancakes-Cost of home made Bisquick mix for the pancakes I made $.85. Cost of syrup $.50 (not real maple syrup). Cost of real butter $.30. Total cost of meal that fed seven, plus a few leftovers for the freezer was $1.65.
Dinner: Ham and Potato Soup-Cost of ham bone for soup base $0 (ham was budgeted for Christmas dinner; the ham bone is a bonus). Cost of three pounds of potatoes $1.17 (bought in a ten pound bag for $3.99). Cost of 2 cups of cheese $2.22. Cost of 1 cup broccoli $.75. Cost of 1 cup cauliflower $.75. Cost of home made loaf of whole wheat sourdough bread $1.25. Cost of butter for bread $.50. Total cost of meal that fed 8, $6.64.
Please note, that the two meals I planned today did not include the amounts of fruits and vegetables that they should have. Had I been able to get to the store, we would have served salad with dinner, and some kind of fruit with breakfast.
Lunch was not planned because the kids had school. Mr. Sullivan took a lunch meat sandwich, yogurt and some snack crackers to work for lunch, and I ate leftovers.
My average cost per meal today was $4.15. Adding a pancake to breakfast and a serving of salad to dinner would have increased the average to $5.40 per meal, which isn't bad considering off season purchases of produce.
As you can imagine, there's not much room in our grocery budget for eating out. It's a rare occurence. A pizza night can run us $40, and even fast food will run into that amount unless we all stick to the dollar menu. That's not to say that we never do it, but it is rare.
Here's my weekly spending wrap up
Amount Spent: $35.78 (Due to scheduling and holidays, we could not do a big shop, so we're eating mostly out of the pantry/freezer this week)
Amount Saved: $0
2012 Budget Remaining: $6964.22
If you're concerned about how to save more money on your grocery budget, and want to learn more techniques than just couponing, please consider signing up for my newsletter, Groceries on a Shoestring, where you'll get notified of every post that I do regarding cutting your grocery budget. You can learn my methods for feeding my family on a very lean budget.
Monday, January 2, 2012
Organized Home: It Starts With You-An Organized Mind
Today, I'm starting a new series here on Backwoods Housewife, Organized Home. One of my goals for the year is to be more organized, and I'm guessing that some of you have also made this a priority. While the series will be focusing on every area of the home, I'm going to start with the most basic-an organized mind.
Ever feel like you have so much on your mind, you don't know where to start? I mean, it's not like you're busy, right? You're only juggling managing your household, raising children, being the head cook, chauffeur, and chief dish washer, and maybe even working. Why should you ever feel like your life is a three (or ten) ring circus? Ha! Those feelings can quickly become overwhelming. Yesterday, New Years' Day, I was walking around with my mind full to brimming of things that needed to be accomplished. I felt a tremendous desire to get things off to a great start for the new year, but there was just so much that needed to be done! So I took ten minutes to sit down and write things down.
My mom was a big believer in lists. She always had one of those little Gregg Shorthand notebooks on the dining room table or next to the phone. In it would go messages, her grocery lists, to do lists, and other little notes of importance. Every note sent to the school to excuse one of my absences would come from that notebook.
I have taken this a bit further. I have a Household Notebook, a Meal Planning Notebook, and a Master Notebook. The Household Notebook has our master family calendar, chore schedules, a to do list of things that don't really fit into the chore schedule, the kids clothes and shoe sizes so I can make a list quickly if an opportunity to go thrift store shopping comes up, etc. The Meal Planning Notebook contains a years' worth of meal planning pages, so that I can make notes on what days I need quick meals, and notes on changes to recipes that I've tried for the first time. It also contains my One Year Meal Plan, so that I have that to refer back to when making grocery lists.
While those two notebooks are in hard bound, three ring binders, my Master Notebook is a spiral notebook. It's temporary, because it's always evolving. In the Master Notebook you'll find a quick note about needing to pick up light bulbs at the store, or that a friend is having a birthday party next week, or that I need to measure the shelves in the bathroom so that we can put doors on them. It's my place to write things down when I'm hurried, or in the middle of something else, or just so frazzled that I need to get my thoughts down on paper to make sense of them. For example, a few weeks ago I texted new friends to get birthdates to add to the calendar, so I can make sure I pick up cards and gifts. While I got many responses within just a few minutes, while I was actively working on the calendar, a few people were busy and didn't get back to me until later, by which time I had moved on to another project. So I wrote those birthdays down in the Master Notebook, and moved them to the calendar later. Every few days, I go through the notebook and transfer notes to their permanent home. Notes about the grocery list get added to the .xls document I use for groceries. If a friend called about her child's upcoming birthday party while I was sitting on the couch with the kids, I move the note from the notebook to the calendar. Once I've moved the note to its' permanent home, I draw a line through it. When the page is filled and all of the notes or lists organized, I toss it out.
One of the things that I have to admit about myself is that I have Squirrel Syndrome. Remember in the movie Up, where the dogs would be going off to help the bad guy try to capture the bird or kill off the old guy, and they'd get distracted by squirrels? Someone (some dog?) would yell "Squirrel!" and they would all be off task, chasing the squirrel. Well, I'm distracted by everything and anything, and if I don't make it a priority to stay focused, I've started thirteen projects and finished nothing by days' end. The Master Notebook helps me to be able to take care of notes I think of while in the middle of doing something else, without actually changing projects-or losing my focus. In short, it keeps my mind organized.
Keeping your mind organized is often simply a matter of getting what's in your head, out. If you write down the mental lists, notes to yourself, things you need to talk to your kids or spouse or mom about, it allows you to prioritize, and remember. While it won't fix everything, it's certainly a great place to start!
Do you want to have a more Organized Home? I would love to help you get organized! I'll be doing a weekly post on organization tips and tricks, including what steps I've taken to get my own home organized, since we've recently moved. If you would like to get notified each time I post about organization, please sign up for the Organized Home newsletter!
Ever feel like you have so much on your mind, you don't know where to start? I mean, it's not like you're busy, right? You're only juggling managing your household, raising children, being the head cook, chauffeur, and chief dish washer, and maybe even working. Why should you ever feel like your life is a three (or ten) ring circus? Ha! Those feelings can quickly become overwhelming. Yesterday, New Years' Day, I was walking around with my mind full to brimming of things that needed to be accomplished. I felt a tremendous desire to get things off to a great start for the new year, but there was just so much that needed to be done! So I took ten minutes to sit down and write things down.
 |
| Photo Credit: Mccready |
I have taken this a bit further. I have a Household Notebook, a Meal Planning Notebook, and a Master Notebook. The Household Notebook has our master family calendar, chore schedules, a to do list of things that don't really fit into the chore schedule, the kids clothes and shoe sizes so I can make a list quickly if an opportunity to go thrift store shopping comes up, etc. The Meal Planning Notebook contains a years' worth of meal planning pages, so that I can make notes on what days I need quick meals, and notes on changes to recipes that I've tried for the first time. It also contains my One Year Meal Plan, so that I have that to refer back to when making grocery lists.
 |
| Photo Credit: sarah.mckenzie11 |
One of the things that I have to admit about myself is that I have Squirrel Syndrome. Remember in the movie Up, where the dogs would be going off to help the bad guy try to capture the bird or kill off the old guy, and they'd get distracted by squirrels? Someone (some dog?) would yell "Squirrel!" and they would all be off task, chasing the squirrel. Well, I'm distracted by everything and anything, and if I don't make it a priority to stay focused, I've started thirteen projects and finished nothing by days' end. The Master Notebook helps me to be able to take care of notes I think of while in the middle of doing something else, without actually changing projects-or losing my focus. In short, it keeps my mind organized.
Keeping your mind organized is often simply a matter of getting what's in your head, out. If you write down the mental lists, notes to yourself, things you need to talk to your kids or spouse or mom about, it allows you to prioritize, and remember. While it won't fix everything, it's certainly a great place to start!
Do you want to have a more Organized Home? I would love to help you get organized! I'll be doing a weekly post on organization tips and tricks, including what steps I've taken to get my own home organized, since we've recently moved. If you would like to get notified each time I post about organization, please sign up for the Organized Home newsletter!
Sunday, January 1, 2012
In The Backwoods Kitchen, 1/1/12
Happy New Year! I can't believe that I actually remembered to put "12" up there in the date instead of "11"!
This week in the Backwoods Kitchen I've been mostly out of the kitchen. At the beginning of each year, I sit down and do a plan for next year. This is kind of a long project and involves a lot of writing. I plan out several things for each year:
A meal plan
A "project" plan
A "when and how much to buy" plan
Putting Together a Yearly Meal Plan
This meal plan is not set in stone, but it serves two purposes. For one, it gives me a rough idea for meals when I'm planning each week, helping me to make sure I don't serve Spaghetti 27 times over the year while only having Chuckwagon Stew once. The second, and most important, is that it gives me a very good idea of how much "raw materials" I'll need to buy when these items are on sale. For example, if I know that I'm cooking 100 pounds of ground beef this year, and that it goes on sale for a great price approximately four times a year, I know that I need to buy 25 pounds each time it goes on sale. This meal plan goes a long way towards helping me make my grocery budget goals each year.
I start by making an excel document of every meal I make. As we try a new recipe and we like it, it gets added to the .xls. I have categories for beef, ground beef, pork, chicken and turkey. We don't eat fish, as we are land locked and the quality of fish we get here is really really bad. I use the .xls on a weekly basis as I finalize my meal plans. Even though I have the yearly plan as a basis to go from, it doesn't take into account things like days I need quick dinners because there's a PTA meeting, or invitations to dinner with friends or pot lucks or any of the other things that may necessitate a change in meal plans.
I print out the complete list of all the meals, and on notebook paper I make a rough calendar, just using lined paper and numbering 1-31 (or whatever) for each month. I do this on paper because I can do it in the living room while watching TV with the kids or while they serve me play doh cookies or put fake make up on me. If I was smart, I would have started in October and been able to do it on the computer while they were at school. But I didn't, and, besides, the play doh cookies are tasty. Oh, wait, I'm not supposed to really eat those?
Moving on. I note "important meal dates" like holidays and birthdays, when everyone gets to choose what they want for dinner. Also, the all important "leftover" days for the day after Thanksgiving and Christmas, when I don't have to cook anything. Then I start filling in the summer months. I do the summer months first because I try not to cook foods during the summer that will heat up the kitchen too much, so we end up having many of the same meals over again during the summer-so I want to avoid fixing those as much as I can during the winter. I also leave at least two "new recipe" nights a month to give us a chance to add new recipes that I find in cookbooks or online.
As I add a meal to the meal plan, I make a hash mark next to it, so I can make note of how many times it's served. By the end of the summer "Grilled Chicken" has been used eight times, and the side dish "Plain Rice" has been used twelve. Once I get the summer meals done, I finish the rest of the months, starting with the meals that didn't get used at all during the summer, like soups, stews, and casseroles that aren't crock pot meals.
On the .xls, next to the recipe name, is a column where I note what primary ingredients it needs. For example, the entry for spaghetti reads "3 qts. sauce, 1 lb ground beef, 2 boxes angel hair pasta." That will tell me how many quarts of sauce I need to make, plus how much ground beef and pasta to buy when it's on sale. So once the meal plan is done, I can go through the .xls and count up each usage of each primary ingredient. This will tell me that I need X pounds of roast, Y pounds of plain rice, and Z pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breasts. I use a guide like the one here to tell me how long a particular food can last in the freezer, too. For example, this week, boneless, skinless chicken breasts are on sale for $1.29/lb, a price that I haven't seen in a long time. The guide tells me that I can hold that chicken for a year in the freezer, so if I have enough money in my grocery budget this week, I can buy a years' worth of chicken breasts.
I use my rotating breakfast and lunch menus to calculate how many of the raw ingredients I need to buy for each of those meals, too.
Putting Together a Food Project Plan
There are many items that are considered convenience foods, that I prefer to make myself. This way I know they are free of additives and preservatives. Items like pudding mixes, hot chocolate, rice a roni, gravy mixes, etc. Not only are they healthier, they are usually cheaper when I make them myself. If you're not sure if you can make it yourself, check out the list at Budget101.com. They have put together an extremely comprehensive list of make it yourself foods. The food projects list also includes canning, freezing, or dehydrating my own fruits and veggies in season. For example, each month I make a double batch of Bisquick mix, and use it for biscuits and pancakes. I make it for less than half the cost of buying it at the store. No projects are planned for August, September, and October, because that is when the garden is ready to harvest and the Farmer's Market is full of goods I was unable to grow. I've made use of this calendar that shows when fresh produce is on sale so that I can fill in what I couldn't get locally, or what we didn't grow enough of. We can usually get a year's supply of free apples with ease, but we had a late freeze last spring which killed everyone's budding apples, so I ended up needing to buy apples.
My project list includes not only preserving the garden bounty, but reminders to make instant oatmeal (in January, when oatmeal goes on sale), rice a roni mix, and more. These are spread out throughout the year, but made in a timely fashion-hot chocolate gets made as soon as I'm done canning in October.
The food project plan also includes my Spring Baking Marathon. In March and April, I bake for the upcoming summer. This way we have lots of snacks available that were made from scratch, but which I didn't have to heat up the oven for. We have usually used up most of all of our previously frozen fruit and vegetable stores, so there's plenty of room for the baked goods, and this helps us keep our freezers full (and operating more efficiently), as we wait for the summer meat sales to play out.
Putting together a Buying Schedule
A buying schedule helps me plan when certain items will go on sale. I use this to plan purchases of every item that falls under my "grocery budget"-groceries plus consumables like paper goods, OTC medicines, pet food, etc. So according to the Store Sales Cycle calendar, I will be buying broccoli in January. I hope to get five quarts frozen, for use in future meals. That won't last until the garden crop gets in, but it will last until it goes on sale again. By buying this way, I'm ensuring that I'm paying the lowest price, as frozen veggies are rarely less than $1.49/lb here. For something like granola, which takes a lot of oatmeal, I'll know that to make the approximately three gallons I make every month, I need to buy 36 large containers of oatmeal when they go on sale, or 72 small containers. Assuming the small containers go on sale for $1.00 each, down from their regular price of $1.68 each, I'll save $48.96 over the course of the year by buying them all at that price. If I bought three gallons of pre-made granola every month, I'll have paid at least $15.00 per month for granola, so I'm saving the difference there, too. Add in another 72 small containers for instant oatmeal, and I've saved another $48.96 on just the oats for the oatmeal.
In addition to the buying schedule, I also do a list, by week, of items to purchase that don't really go on sale, but that I need on a repeating basis, that may or may not be part of the grocery budget, but that I can buy at the same time. For example, every single week, someone in my household gets a package of socks or underwear. They rarely go on sale, and certainly not at enough of a price difference that I can stalk up on a years' worth at a time for eight people. So every 16 weeks, Mr. Sullivan gets 6 more pairs of underpants. By that time he's probably blown a hole in the rear end of a pair or two, and they are certainly looking warn or droopy. Included in this list are shoes (we put money on a gift card for one pair a month if no one needs shoes right now), food storage containers, organization tools, etc. I also use this part of the list to plan for purchases like school supplies and Christmas stuff like cards, bows, paper, etc., so I'm not having to make those purchases all at once.
Once I get these plans completely done, I'll set up Google docs and get them added so you can see them.
That's what I've been working on, this week in the Backwoods Kitchen.
This week in the Backwoods Kitchen I've been mostly out of the kitchen. At the beginning of each year, I sit down and do a plan for next year. This is kind of a long project and involves a lot of writing. I plan out several things for each year:
A meal plan
A "project" plan
A "when and how much to buy" plan
Putting Together a Yearly Meal Plan
 |
| Photo Credit: LizMarie_AK |
I start by making an excel document of every meal I make. As we try a new recipe and we like it, it gets added to the .xls. I have categories for beef, ground beef, pork, chicken and turkey. We don't eat fish, as we are land locked and the quality of fish we get here is really really bad. I use the .xls on a weekly basis as I finalize my meal plans. Even though I have the yearly plan as a basis to go from, it doesn't take into account things like days I need quick dinners because there's a PTA meeting, or invitations to dinner with friends or pot lucks or any of the other things that may necessitate a change in meal plans.
I print out the complete list of all the meals, and on notebook paper I make a rough calendar, just using lined paper and numbering 1-31 (or whatever) for each month. I do this on paper because I can do it in the living room while watching TV with the kids or while they serve me play doh cookies or put fake make up on me. If I was smart, I would have started in October and been able to do it on the computer while they were at school. But I didn't, and, besides, the play doh cookies are tasty. Oh, wait, I'm not supposed to really eat those?
Moving on. I note "important meal dates" like holidays and birthdays, when everyone gets to choose what they want for dinner. Also, the all important "leftover" days for the day after Thanksgiving and Christmas, when I don't have to cook anything. Then I start filling in the summer months. I do the summer months first because I try not to cook foods during the summer that will heat up the kitchen too much, so we end up having many of the same meals over again during the summer-so I want to avoid fixing those as much as I can during the winter. I also leave at least two "new recipe" nights a month to give us a chance to add new recipes that I find in cookbooks or online.
As I add a meal to the meal plan, I make a hash mark next to it, so I can make note of how many times it's served. By the end of the summer "Grilled Chicken" has been used eight times, and the side dish "Plain Rice" has been used twelve. Once I get the summer meals done, I finish the rest of the months, starting with the meals that didn't get used at all during the summer, like soups, stews, and casseroles that aren't crock pot meals.
On the .xls, next to the recipe name, is a column where I note what primary ingredients it needs. For example, the entry for spaghetti reads "3 qts. sauce, 1 lb ground beef, 2 boxes angel hair pasta." That will tell me how many quarts of sauce I need to make, plus how much ground beef and pasta to buy when it's on sale. So once the meal plan is done, I can go through the .xls and count up each usage of each primary ingredient. This will tell me that I need X pounds of roast, Y pounds of plain rice, and Z pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breasts. I use a guide like the one here to tell me how long a particular food can last in the freezer, too. For example, this week, boneless, skinless chicken breasts are on sale for $1.29/lb, a price that I haven't seen in a long time. The guide tells me that I can hold that chicken for a year in the freezer, so if I have enough money in my grocery budget this week, I can buy a years' worth of chicken breasts.
I use my rotating breakfast and lunch menus to calculate how many of the raw ingredients I need to buy for each of those meals, too.
Putting Together a Food Project Plan
 |
| Photo Credit: jules:stonesoup |
My project list includes not only preserving the garden bounty, but reminders to make instant oatmeal (in January, when oatmeal goes on sale), rice a roni mix, and more. These are spread out throughout the year, but made in a timely fashion-hot chocolate gets made as soon as I'm done canning in October.
The food project plan also includes my Spring Baking Marathon. In March and April, I bake for the upcoming summer. This way we have lots of snacks available that were made from scratch, but which I didn't have to heat up the oven for. We have usually used up most of all of our previously frozen fruit and vegetable stores, so there's plenty of room for the baked goods, and this helps us keep our freezers full (and operating more efficiently), as we wait for the summer meat sales to play out.
Putting together a Buying Schedule
A buying schedule helps me plan when certain items will go on sale. I use this to plan purchases of every item that falls under my "grocery budget"-groceries plus consumables like paper goods, OTC medicines, pet food, etc. So according to the Store Sales Cycle calendar, I will be buying broccoli in January. I hope to get five quarts frozen, for use in future meals. That won't last until the garden crop gets in, but it will last until it goes on sale again. By buying this way, I'm ensuring that I'm paying the lowest price, as frozen veggies are rarely less than $1.49/lb here. For something like granola, which takes a lot of oatmeal, I'll know that to make the approximately three gallons I make every month, I need to buy 36 large containers of oatmeal when they go on sale, or 72 small containers. Assuming the small containers go on sale for $1.00 each, down from their regular price of $1.68 each, I'll save $48.96 over the course of the year by buying them all at that price. If I bought three gallons of pre-made granola every month, I'll have paid at least $15.00 per month for granola, so I'm saving the difference there, too. Add in another 72 small containers for instant oatmeal, and I've saved another $48.96 on just the oats for the oatmeal.
In addition to the buying schedule, I also do a list, by week, of items to purchase that don't really go on sale, but that I need on a repeating basis, that may or may not be part of the grocery budget, but that I can buy at the same time. For example, every single week, someone in my household gets a package of socks or underwear. They rarely go on sale, and certainly not at enough of a price difference that I can stalk up on a years' worth at a time for eight people. So every 16 weeks, Mr. Sullivan gets 6 more pairs of underpants. By that time he's probably blown a hole in the rear end of a pair or two, and they are certainly looking warn or droopy. Included in this list are shoes (we put money on a gift card for one pair a month if no one needs shoes right now), food storage containers, organization tools, etc. I also use this part of the list to plan for purchases like school supplies and Christmas stuff like cards, bows, paper, etc., so I'm not having to make those purchases all at once.
Once I get these plans completely done, I'll set up Google docs and get them added so you can see them.
That's what I've been working on, this week in the Backwoods Kitchen.
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