A Throw Back to Thoreau

I began this test with a reference to Henry David Thoreau and our common call for a simpler life. Sometimes I long for the days of old when people struggled or thrived because of the grace of God and their own efforts. I don’t know if “simpler times” really ever existed for anyone. Even when things were relatively calm, it was always a hard-won peace and required a daily striving to keep it that way.

In our case, I think that as much as I rely on our efforts and God’s blessings, I look to my friends, family and neighbors for support, especially when I’ve run out of a key item like, dishwasher tabs for instance(thanks, Liz) and I need to go borrowing. Henry had the hang of this concept, if he was craving company or bread made by someone else’s hands, he went to his neighbors and was satisfied by what they had to share. This is my epiphany in this experiment. It isn’t about the hundreds of dollars I didn’t spend - I thought the money would be the most important thing I’d come away with. But now I’m realizing that the money comes farther down the list. I don’t want to spoil my top ten list of things I’ve learned, but I will say that I’m glad to have friends and neighbors (and blog commenters) who care and are willing to share. My family has been blessed with peace and plenty because of you.

Since we’re sharing, I want to share with you my favorite recipe I discovered this month. It is for home made tortillas. My sister says that if she ever has to rely solely on her food storage to get by, she’s not making bread, she’s making tortillas. Here is a variation on her classic tortilla recipe, I found this one here with the photos.

Recipe

Flour Tortillas

2 cups flour
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
3/4 cup warm water
11/2 tsps salt

Mix all the ingredients in a mixing bowl, then turn the dough out onto the counter and knead the dough for about a minute. I stick mine in my kitchen aid and give it a whorl for a few minutes. Let the dough rest for about 5 min. Divide the dough into eight rounded balls. I double this recipe to have lots of leftovers.

Heat up a frying pan over medium heat. The heavier the pan the better. Sprinkle some flour onto the counter and roll out each ball of dough into a flat circle about 6 inches in diameter. If the dough is sticking to the table, just add more flour. Rotating the circle around as you're rolling it out can help you get that nice circular shape, but it really just takes practice; and they'll taste great even if they're not perfectly circular
Take a clean cloth and dust off any flour that's adhered to the tortilla, and place it onto the frying pan. You don't need to add any oil to the pan, they won't stick. When you see bubbles popping up all over the top of the tortilla, it's done. Take it off the heat and wrap in a clean dishtowel as you repeat the process.

Don't get discouraged if you're tortillas look funny, by the second or third batch you do you'll be a seasoned pro; and the whole process won't take more than about 20 minutes. Be warned though, once your family or friends get used to your hot fresh tortillas, there's no going back to store bought ever again!

These are great with butter and satl, honey butter, beans and cheese, or any other topping you can think of. The texture of these tortillas is amazing, you’ll be thrilled, just remember, DON’T HANDLE THEM TOO MUCH. That is THE KEY to tortilla success.

Enjoy, and when you’ve made them, go share some with your neighbors.

Nutritional Facts

So, I'm beginning to question the nutritional value of some of our meals, especially breakfast and lunches. We have been officially out of milk for a few days and are left to our moo juice substitute. They say you should have at least three food groups form the pyramid with your morning meal, but my kids will not have anything to do with the morning moo unless it is mixed into something that is then baked or heated somehow.
This week we began okay. Here's what we've eaten so far -

Monday we had hot oat bran (this is the grains family) and bottled peaches (thank you for the token fruit) but no dairy or protein to speak of at breakfast. The kids took home made bread, apples and a cookie in their lunches. Dinner was a potato bar eaten on the run as we hurried to the Trunk or Treat. Not too bad as far as a meal goes, but again, not a lot of protein or calcium to be found other than what was in the whole wheat bread and sour cream/cheese for the potatoes.


Tuesday, I already mentioned, Don made a scrambled egg skillet dish with bacon and cheese, plenty of protein, a little dairy. We also had hot chocolate, I'm sure that counted as a full serving of dairy. Kids ate the same lunch as they had Monday. Dinner was burgers and fries for lots of fun and fatty calories.


Today we got a late start and KC made pumpkin pancakes, no dairy but at least one good serving of fruit with the pumpkin. We had pizza for lunch at Costco, I went just to return a printer and didn't buy anything but lunch for the kids. Dinner was hurried again. I made rice earlier this afternoon. Good plan. Bren made potstickers and ate his helping on the run. Don, the little kids and I actually sat down together for a few minutes to eat. KC was coming in as I was leaving and hopefully this was the last crazy evening for a while.

So, dairy, or maybe I should say calcium and vitamin d, seem to be the lacking, but I think we're doing okay. I'm off for now. You can see what we've eaten this week so far. What we lack in quality dinner times we've made up in a few nice sit-down breakfasts this week.

The Best Laid Plans....

Notice the new quote on the side bar. I like to change it occasionally and I think the current quote is appropriate for the final stretch of our experiment. So, here I'll tell you about the day's plans, and then we'll see how they went awry.

Today I planned to get up, shower and groom, get breakfast on the table, family scriptures read, lunches made and out the door in time to pick up kids for the car pool. All this was accomplished with the indispensable assistance of my supportive spouse. I had a class to teach this morning and I couldn’t have done all of the above without him.

Once at school I had an remarkable experience with the leadership education class my son is in. I have been team teaching all year and go in periodically for leadership in action events we’ve planned as a class. This week is the National Student Mock Elections and because it is a presidential election year, it is a big deal to be involved in the voting process with millions of other students around the country. Our leadership class voted early this morning so they can be election officials on Thursday when the rest of the school votes. You may wonder where this is going and how it applies to no more grocery shopping, and I’ll get to that. We spent the last ten minutes of class today in a mock debate and I have to say I was supremely impressed by the depth of character demonstrated by these young people. When it came down to my final question (I was the moderator), “How can YOU best make a difference for good NOW? In this class, with these peers, how can you effect positive change?” I have to say, their answers were simple but profound and they all knew exactly what their right answer was. I was so moved by their honest, specific responses that I have been pondering all day what my answer to that same question would be. Whether I look at it in the context of my home and family, my neighborhood and community, my country and the world. Or, just in context of this blog. How can I make a difference for good NOW? It’s an interesting question, isn’t it? It makes me think of great plans for this blog and the vision I originally began with. I’ll come back to that question before I close, but for now it brings me back to the title of this post. The best laid plans…..

Here’s a break down of the day after my glowing morning:

Best Laid Plan #1 - Help Tiff (accommodating sis-in-law extraordinaire) defrost her freezer.
Gone Awry - Nearly had a house fire caused by burning a pot of water over here, left the rest of the thaw process to Tiff.

Best Laid Plan #2 - Spend the afternoon writing because there will be plenty of time to clean and make dinner later.
Gone Awry - I forgot about my appointment to visit a neighbor and didn’t have time for either cooking or cleaning once the kids got home.

Best Laid Plan #3 - Savor my 30 minutes with the kids when they get home, then spend the remainder of the afternoon attending to needful things as they arose.
Gone Awry - The kids were 30 minutes late getting home (an honest mom moment of short-term memory loss), KC had to hurry off to an activity that would take all evening, Brennan was stressed and swamped with homework, with the hustle and bustle every kid needed something simultaneously.

Best Laid Plan #4 - Have the house straight & dinner under way before Don comes home.
Gone Awry - Don arrived 30 minutes early, homework took the entire time from when Bren got home until it was time for me to go. The positive side of this Is that he and I had some very meaningful exchanges on the topic of stem cell research and gene therapy that we wouldn’t have had if my plans had gone as I’d set them out. Needless to say, the huse was in disarray and dinner was no where near being under way.

Best Laid Plan # Fifth and Final - Make dinner when I come home from my visit to the neighbor.
Gone Awry - When I got home I had a bunch of hungry kids and a helpful husband who was not sure what I had planned for dinner other than my quick, “Don’t worry about it, I’ll do it when I get home,” as I went out the door. So, he picked up where I left off with homework.

Resolution - When your best laid plans go awry, pack every body up in the car and head for the closest burger joint. That’s what we did and everyone, including me, was happy.

Back to my question, and I’d love your comments on this - If you had the power to influence your little part of the world for good using your blog, what would you do? I’d love to hear all your best laid plans, don’t worry about what they say about those, whose to say “awry” isn’t right where you want to be?

Two Cheats

Okay, I have an occasions for cheating I have to fess up to right now. It's not exactly grocery shopping, but I do have to go into the grocery store to retrieve my needed item. The object of my requirement is DRY ICE and it is for all of the fun and festive activities we have planned for Halloween. Here are some things we are doing:

1. I am doing dry ice science in KC's class. Click here to see what I mean.
2. We are making a spook alley for our trick-or-treaters to enjoy and want lots of dense, rolling fog (the fog machine makes misty, slightly-opaque fog) to give a spooky effect.
3. My kids like to experience explosions as frequently as they can, and though it doesn't involve pyrotechnics, Halloween and dry ice science explosions make a great interlude between Independence Day and New Years.

The thing about dry ice is that you can only get it from grocery stores. so, Friday morn, I'll be at a grocery story, breaking my first rule, by the letter of the law. But, I do justify myself by saying I will still be in keeping with the spirit of the law because I will NOT be grocery shopping. So, there's my first confession.

My second cheat is that I've broken rule # 3 and gotten another infusion of cash. Between costumes, camping, produce from the farm (including six smashing pumpkins), and two dinners out (just sandwiches or fresh mex, but still) for the whole fam, I blew through my hundred bucks a week ago. I received an infusion of $50 and that should get me through the end of the experiment, cash wise.

So, again, that was all in the spirit of full disclosure. Just trying to be accountable, even if only to myself. Thanks for all of the words of encouragement and interest. Look for some of my great successes and failures in the home stretch of our experiment, to be posted soon.

The Curse of the Blog

Okay, I’m killing myself trying to keep up with this blog. I want so many things for it it’s becoming like another pet, which I never said I’d have because it’s all I can do to keep four little bi-pedal creatures going in a day. Why would I ever take on the four-legged kind that may be house trained but certainly don’t flush. Yet, I do have two cats who live in the garage. No one pays them much mind until I tell the kids it’s time for our pets to find a more loving home. Then there are tears and demonstrations of genuine concern, that lasts about a day until we all find something else to concern ourselves with. Anyway, I am trying to play catch up. Ever since our crazy campout, life has been much altered. We discovered some key ingredients are missing from our preparation plans and I’ve been trying to fill in those holes. Anyway, sorry to neglect the blog. I really do have such great plans for it.

Maybe I need a blog consultant to advise me on how to move forward. I learned several helpful skills while preparing for and experiencing our three days in the wilderness, look for these in posts to come:

Season the Dutch Oven
Make a cardboard box oven
Make tortillas from scratch
Make banana bread without using electricity

On the other hand, you are really all here, not because you want to hear about us roughing it in the wilderness, but because you want to know how to get by without going to the grocery store, so, maybe I’ll stick to the topic at hand and that is the best advise of all. Maybe what I should do is address all these fascinating topics in future blogs when I’m back to grocery shopping, but moving on to avoiding some other necessary addictions, like electricity.

Oh, this is good. You are such a great listener. Let’s keep going with this. So here’s my idea. I’ll stick to mostly no more grocery shopping content this month. If I get a chance to write some little snippets about other things I’m learning along the way I’ll reference them in the blog and you can always access them on the sidebar under topics like “Tips and Tricks”, “Cool Tools,” etc. That way, people coming for menus, recipes and day-to-day ideas that are on topic will not be disappointed. But, here’s my plan for the blog after November 4.

November 4 -December 25 will be “No More Holiday Shopping” days. Rules and guidelines for this idea will be posted on November 4. The blog’s official url will remain “no more grocery shopping,” but the title page will read, “No More Holiday Shopping.”

January will be “No More Eating Out,” month. After the hefty holiday meals and usual expenditures (though this year is bound to be leaner due to the “no more holiday shopping,” experiment,) I’d like to have a month long fast food/restaurant food fast and get back to some simple, soulful home cookin’. Maybe you don't eat out much, we don't either. But, I do rely on a quick pizza pick-up and a date-night out occasionally. This experiment will be good for my bank book and my recipe repertoire.

February is going to be “No More Electricity,” month. I’m not sure exactly what this is going to look like, but I will be selecting a block of hours in the day where we will live nearly off the grid. Stay tuned for more info.

Wow, I appreciate all of the good advice and ideas. Thanks for helping me through that. I’ll quit trying to play catch up and get out of the glory days of the campout, come back to the day-to-day life outside of the grocery store and see if I can’t make my way successfully through
the rest of this experiment. Thanks for sticking it out with me.

Home, Sweet Home

I’m back! We went camping with our cousins for a few days. We did some awesome archaeology, explored old Indian ruins, slept out in below freezing temperatures, and ate a lot of food. Some meals were better than others, but we fared pretty well considering it was 3 days, 7 meals, and 12 people to plan for. I’ll share our camping recipes/menu later, first, let me recap the rest of week 2….Scroll down and look for the back dated entries.

Week Two Menu

A Work in Progress until the week is over. Look for recipes on corresponding week's recipe post.

Sunday
Breakfast - This Sunday was Fast Sunday, where we fast for two meals and donate the amount
Lunch - we would have spent on those meals to charity.
Dinner - Cheesy Potato & Bacon Soup, followed by Pear Crisp

Monday
Breakfast - Cold cereal, juice
Lunch - Fresh fruits and veggies - the kids have been loving apple slices sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar with their lunches
Dinner - Canned soups, corn bread muffins, hot chocolate

Tuesday
Breakfast - Cold cereal, juice
Lunch - Corn bread muffins, carrots, chips
Dinner - Dracula's Chicken Paprika

Wednesday
Breakfast - Cold cereal, juice
Lunch - Fruit, carrots, chips, boiled eggs
Dinner - Chicken Tacos

Thursdays
Breakfast - Mountain man potato skillet
Lunch - Sandwiches
Dinner - Potato cheese soup and pumpkin muffins

Friday
Breakfast - Oatmeal and hot chocolate
Lunch - deli meat, cheese, boiled eggs, fruit
Dinner - Italian Mountain Man Meal, green beans and peach cobbler

Saturday
Breakfast - Hot chocolate and cold cereal
Lunch - Hot dogs and fruit
Dinner - Kids, pizza; Mom & Dad, date night at Thai restaurant.

Gone Camping

We're off on Fall Break. I'll be back with lots of great non-grocery-shopping, survivor stories.

Dracula’s Chicken

Today, I put a chicken in the crock pot to roast. I have a three meal plan for this chicken and today is Meal 1. Roasted chicken with veggies. Tomorrow is Day 2, chicken tacos, and Sunday I’m going to make chicken soup with the little remaining chicken I have and the stock made from all the bones and stuff. But, let me tell you about today’s meal and give you a little look into a favorite afternoon ritual I share with the kids.

When the kids get home from school I have a small window of their time before they run off to play, do homework, or become engaged in other activities. For 30 minutes every day I get them all to myself. Since I am usually the one to drive them home, I’ve already gotten the low-down on their day, so from 3:30-4pm we are free, and I get to perform one of my favorite past times as a mom; reading to my children. When we got home, the chicken was already roasting away and I had a simple snack ready for them. They sat down to graze and I began our October classic, Dracula. The kids and I have read several abridged classics over the last many months and this is our spooky pick for the month of All Hallows Eve. Anyway, there is a moment where the first main character, Jonathon, is traveling through Eastern Europe and he stops at various places for food and lodging. We LOVE food references in literature, and whenever we come across one as we’re reading, we try to plan a meal around the foods described. So, today it was Chicken Paprika, and since I already had a chicken roasting it was a simple thing to add a bunch of paprika to the pot and let it do it’s thing. I have to reference a new favorite thing here:

McCormic’s Smoked Paprika

It is so much more robust and flavorful than any other paprika I’ve ever tried that I’ve been using it as a condiment since I got it. Anyway, it was excellent on the chicken, and here’s the recipe for Day 1 of the whole chicken meals. I have to say, I was looking over my shoulder the whole time I was preparing this, though, I felt like Dracula was going to come up behind me any moment. Turns out Dracula doesn't like chicken, but we sure loved this dish.

Paprika Chicken and Salad

Paprika Veggies

Recipe

Hungarian Chicken Paprika
1 Whole chicken
2 Tbsp. olive oil
5 garlic cloves, peeled and halved
2 tsp. kosher salt
1 Tbsp. paprika
1 tsp. black pepper
1 onion, quartered
1 ½ cup water
Carrots, onions, sweet peppers, all chopped

Clean chicken and rub with olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper and paprika. Leave garlic in pan and add onions and water (be sure not to rinse the paprika off the chicken when you pour the water into the pan). Cover and roast at 350 for as long as it takes to get clear juices from the leg and breast (Sorry this is lame, I used my crock pot and just let it do it’s thing). When the chicken is nearing it’s finish throw the veggies in a pan with some of the chicken broth. Add a little more salt and paprika to the veggies if needed. Serve it all piping hot and reserve the leftovers (bones and all) for your next meals.

Family Night Fun

Now, don't get worried that I've forgotten which blog I'm writing for and mistaking this one for my family blog, found here. I promise my ramblings will have relevance, as you'll see soon.

Last night we went to a great Story in Concert, which is sort of like a musical play with a lot more narrative. It was a retelling of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” at an amphitheater in a beautiful old park. The weather has been pretty chilly here, and the festivities began around dinner time, so I wanted to bring a few warm provisions for the evening.

First, I weighed my options and honestly, not so long ago my first response would have been to head for fast food. Quick and easy. But, I have to tell you, this is another poor practice I’m wanting to purge from my life. Fast food is really fun sometimes, but I’ve noticed two tell-tale truths in the last several months that alert me to the idea of ditching fast food as a family affair. They are:

1. Fast food menu items are shrinking in size as my kids are simultaneously growing in size.
2. Fast food menu items do not seem to satisfy and sustain like they used to.
   

Maybe I’m thinking too hard, but I just hate spending $30 to feed my family a bunch of crappy food that doesn’t really fill or nourish them. So, I decided to make dinner and bring it with us. Here’s what I did instead.

I made corn bread muffins, honey butter and hot chocolate, heated assorted canned soups and packed them all up in my new thermoses and hot boxes. Our cousins came with us to the play and the muffins were a hit with adults and kids alike. All my kids had their own thermos of hot chocolate (Don and I shared) and that really cut down on the “I’m so cold,” complaints. Only Don & Bren ate soup because while I said I made assorted soups, I ended up leaving everything but clam chowder here at home. So sorry to my kids who hate clams. The whole meal probably cost me 5 bucks and everyone was happy.

Here is my recipe for corn bread, which, even with the egg (read this eggcelent article about storing eggs, sent to me by my favorite tree hugger up north, Katie), is a friendly food storage recipe. I followed the recipe and then made muffins and they were great.

Recipe

Corn Bread
1 cup corn meal
½ cup wheat flour
½ cup white flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 Tbs baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 egg
1 cup milk (I used 2 Tbs morning moo powder and 1 cup water)

Mix dry ingredients (including milk powder if you use it), add wet ingredients, stir well. Pour into greased 8 inch pan, bake on 350 for 25 minutes. Check with a poke test, may need another 5 minutes or so depending on altitude.

Interesting note about gear: I have a few friends who have mentored me in the idea that it pays to ask for discounts, and today I was richly rewarded for doing so. Earlier in the day I visited a local outdoor outlet where camping and outdoor supplies are sold. Disclaimer: this is not a grocery store and I’m still in the bounds of the rules. I grabbed a few great 72-hour-kit items on clearance and then sat down in front of the thermoses. Now this store is a bit of a fun mess. It’s kind of like a treasure hunt finding what you’re looking for. But, when you find it, if it’s missing it’s box or looks like it’s been on the shelf a long time, the manager will totally give you a deal. I found several great deals and took them to the cash register. The manager sold me all of this stuff - 4 thermos mugs, 1 thermos canister, 2 good sized hot/cold lunch box canisters with food containers and some extra containers to go with them - for $35. Normally, it would have cost $65. I’m telling you this because as far as being prepared goes, things that can help keep your food hot and/or cold are really handy to have around.

Week Two Recipes

Disclaimer: Not all of these recipes are 100% food storage recipes, but there are several. Just remember the experiment isn't eating only from our food storage, it's No More Grocery Shopping. Also, This is a quirky post because I'm attempting to back-date it so you can see all the recipes in one place with out having to read through all the ramblings to get to it. for any missing details, feel free to search the blog for stories and photos relating to these recipes.

Pear Crisp
6 sickly pears, peeled and sliced
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
Stir gently to cover pears in sugar and spice. Top with:
1/4 cup butter
1/3 cup brown sugar (maybe a little more, I'm not great at measuring and I just made this
up)
2/3 cup oats with a dash of cinnamon

Mix topping together and top pears. Bake at 350F for about 20 minutes, or when the topping is golden brown and crisp. Sorry to all of my international friends, I don't know how to convert the quantities or temp for you, but I have great confidence that you'll figure it out.


Cheesy Potato & Bacon Soup
½ onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbs butter
3 potatoes, diced
3 cans (12 oz. each) chicken broth
1 ½ cup morning moo (we used our pre-mixed powdered milk)
½ cup canned milk
2 Tbs flour
1-2 cups cheese (Bren grated ½ c. Romano and Don threw in a few handfuls cheddar)
1 cup crumbled bacon (shelf stable stuff)

Over medium heat, saute garlic and onion in butter until onion is translucent and garlic is golden. Add chicken broth and potatoes. Allow potatoes to soften in the soup for about 5 minutes. Whisk flour into milk and add to soup along with canned milk. Allow to simmer another 5 minutes. Add cheese and bacon. Simmer and stir till all cheese is melted. Serve piping hot.


Corn Bread
1 cup corn meal
½ cup wheat flour
½ cup white flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 Tbs baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 egg
1 cup milk (I used 2 Tbs morning moo powder and 1 cup water)

Mix dry ingredients (including milk powder if you use it), add wet ingredients, stir well. Pour into greased 8 inch pan, bake on 350 for 25 minutes. Check with a poke test, may need another 5 minutes or so depending on altitude.

Hungarian Chicken Paprika
1 Whole chicken
2 Tbsp. olive oil
5 garlic cloves, peeled and halved
2 tsp. kosher salt
1 Tbsp. paprika
1 tsp. black pepper
1 onion, quartered
1 ½ cup water
Carrots, onions, sweet peppers, all chopped

Clean chicken and rub with olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper and paprika. Leave garlic in pan and add onions and water (be sure not to rinse the paprika off the chicken when you pour the water into the pan). Cover and roast at 350 for as long as it takes to get clear juices from the leg and breast (Sorry this is lame, I used my crock pot and just let it do it’s thing). When the chicken is nearing it’s finish throw the veggies in a pan with some of the chicken broth. Add a little more salt and paprika to the veggies if needed. Serve it all piping hot and reserve the leftovers (bones and all) for your next meals.

Sabbath Sickday

Today I woke up with the virus that's been hanging over Hannah for a few days. Sore throat, fever, general malaise. So, Hannah and I stayed home while the rest of the fam went off to church. We laid around all day and when the kids got home, Bren and KC started dinner. They made a very comfort-full soup that turned out awesome, was a near food storage recipe, and only required periodic instruction from me on the couch. Don came home just before we ate and tied up finishing meal prep details. Here’s to health and wellness, meals that kids can prepare, and a husband who cares.

The soup stood on it’s own tonight as far as the meal was concerned, no bread or salad, but we did follow it up with our pear crisp topped with whipped cream. The evening was a success, everyone ate their fill of exactly what was served. No one asked if they could eat cereal or something else instead. Way to go guys.

This is a great food storage recipe and is a modified version of my sis-in-laws famous Potato Cheese soup. Thanks, Tiff.

Recipe

Cheesy Potato & Bacon Soup

½ onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbs butter
3 potatoes, diced
3 cans (12 oz. each) chicken broth
1 ½ cup morning moo (we used our pre-mixed powdered milk)
½ cup canned milk
2 Tbs flour
1-2 cups cheese (Bren grated ½ c. ramano and Don threw in a few handfuls cheddar)
1 cup crumbled bacon (shelf stable stuff)

Over medium heat, saute garlic and onion in butter until onion is translucent and garlic is golden. Add chicken broth and potatoes. Allow potatoes to soften in the soup for about 5 minutes. Wisk flour into milk and add to soup along with canned milk. Allow to simmer another 5 minutes. Add cheese and bacon. Simmer and stir till all cheese is melted. Serve piping hot.

Six Pairs Saved From Wasteful Death

I had some pears that were on the brink of ruin. I had to act fast or all would have been lost. Part of our experiment is to reduce the amount of wasted food we add to the trash heap. Here's one idea and recipe.

Pear Crisp

It all started with six, sickly pairs whose skins looked like this.

I had to show you these because I forgot to take a "Before" picture.

These are evidence of how far gone those pears were.

After cutting and stirring and topping, they looked like this.

Finally, out of the oven, and ready to eat. I wish technology was up to smell-o-vision. You can't believe the heavenly aroma filling my home. I'd love to have you all over for some delightful pair crisp topped with whipped cream, but since I can, you go make your own and tell me how it turns out. A great experiment in using what I have and watching my waste (if not my waist).


Recipe

Pear Crisp
6 sickly pears, peeled and sliced
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
Stir gently to cover pears in sugar and spice. Top with:
1/4 cup butter
1/3 cup brown sugar (maybe a little more, I'm not great at measuring and I just made this up)
2/3 cup oats with a dash of cinnamon

Mix topping together and top pears. Bake at 350F for about 20 minutes, or when the topping is golden brown and crisp. Sorry to all of my international friends, I don't know how to convert the quantities or temp for you, but I have great confidence that you'll figure it out.

Week One Menu

I've had lot's of requests, so, here's a menu for week 1. Not too different form everyone else's menu. Remember, the experiment is just beginning and we still have lots of fresh food in the fridge. Be sure to check the recipe page for recipes.

Sunday
Breakfast - Eggs and Toast
Lunch - Sandwiches
Dinner - Pasta, tomato salad, home made french bread, cheese plate

Monday
Breakfast - Cold Cereal & Milk, fruit slices
Lunch - Sack lunches
Dinner - Waffles

Tuesday
Breakfast - Cream of Wheat
Lunch - Sack lunches
Dinner - Lettuce Wraps & Rice

Wednesday
Breakfast - Cold Cereal
Lunch - Campbell’s Chunky Chicken Soup rotated from our 72 kits
Dinner - Left over penne pasta, food-storage enhanced alfredo sauce, leftover home made bread made into garlic toast, green salad with tomatoes from the garden.

Thursday
Breakfast - 100% food storage friendly rice pudding
Lunch - Who knows, I can’t even remember lunch
Snack - Rice crispy treats and pumpkin pancakes
Dinner - Tacos, taco salad, nachos and whatever else you can imagine making with pre-packaged taco shells, ground beef, cheese, tomatoes, guacamole, etc.

Friday
Breakfast - Cold cereal
Lunch - Chicken nuggets and fruit
Dinner - Fend For Yourself - Noodles and Soup

Saturday
Breakfast - Cold Cereal
Lunch - Crackers & Cheese, veggie sticks
Dinner - Pasta & Salad

Weekend Update

Friday

A few days ago I decided to institute Fend For Yourself Fridays. Usually we have a family activity planned for the evening (this Friday it was the StoryTelling Festival at school) and there's not a lot of time for intensive meal prep. So, Friday's a good night for everyone to eat what they want, with in reason. Here's how it went:

What we ate: Breakfast - cold cereal (we're still doing pretty good on real milk, it seems to go a lot further when I bake and cook with the powdered stuff)
Lunch - early day home from school, kids ate fresh fruit and chicken nuggets
Dinner - Hannah & Caleb - Campbell's chunky chicken soup (the kind from our 72 hour kits that I'm glad I rotated out, tastes like baby baby food bland). Brennan & KC - Top Ramen spiced up and added to for a palate pleasing meal. Don & I - Instant Chow Mien, also rotated from our 72 hour kits, but MUCH preferable to the chunky soup.

Saturday

What Today was family fun (and cleaning) day and Mom & Dad's date night.
What we ate: Breakfast - Everyone did their own thing for breakfast.
Lunch - We had cheese and crackers and carrot sticks, courtesy of Don. He made some dips (remember, we're all about sauces at our house) and arranged some cheeses on a plate along with carrot sticks and pita crackers. Everyone loved it and it filled us nicely before the movies. We are going to be sad when we run out of cheese and sour cream.
Dinner - We made a meal to take to a new neighbor who just moved in today. They have a small family, so we were able to keep half the food we made to feed our kids. Bren made a butter and herb pasta, I made a salad, and we also took some "Warm Delights" (mentioned in a previous post) and bread that we picked up at the Health Food Store (which is not a supermarket). Don & I went to our favorite fresh mex cafe. We just ordered soup and tortillas, plus some sauce to take home and the whole date cost us $13.26. We ran into a neighbor who's read my blog. She hugged me and said, "You're here. You're not at the grocery store, you're here." I showed her that we were still very good and frugal and only got the soup (we're also a bit under the weather which is closer to the real reason for our frugal order) and she had lots of encouragement for us. See, I paid with cash, ordered cheap, I'm sticking to it. But, that leads me to -

A tips from Don & Mariah's date night:

If you have a favorite item from a restaurant, like a dip, dressing or sauce, talk to someone there about ordering that item as a side for take-out. We used to have a favorite Caesar salad dressing we loved getting from a local Italian place. They let us order it by the pint and we'd take it home in a paper cup with a lid. It was a lot cheaper to do it that way than to come back repeatedly ordering the whole salad. In today's case, this cafe makes an amazing tomatillo dressing that is difficult to duplicate, believe me, I've tried, and while sometimes close is good enough, there's nothing like the real deal. So, rather than spending a bunch of money on food that is just carrier for the sauce, try ordering just the sauce and go home and make the food.

Week One Recipes

Disclaimer: Not all of these recipes are 100% food storage recipes, but there are several. Just remember the experiment isn't eating only from our food storage, it's No More Grocery Shopping. Also, This is a quirky post because I'm attempting to back-date it so you can see all the recipes in one place with out having to read through all the ramblings to get to it. for any missing details, feel free to search the blog for stories and photos relating to these recipes.

Rice Pudding
3 cups leftover cooked rice
1 cup morning moo (reconstituted powdered milk)
½ cup canned milk
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Cinnamon and nutmeg to taste
Bring milk, sugar, vanilla and spices to a boil. Reduce heat, add rice. Simmer for five minutes and serve.

Pumpkin Pancakes
Make your favorite pancake recipe and add ¼ cup pumpkin for ever 2 cups flour. Mix and make like you would normal pancakes. Fabulously hale and hearty fare.

Brennan’s Famous Alfredo - Not a food storage recipe, but oh so good
2 Tbsp butter
2-3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 ½ cup heavy cream
½ cup milk, with 2 tbsp flour mixed in as emulsifier
1 cup grated hard cheese (Parmesan or Romano)
Salt to taste

Saute garlic in the butter over medium-high heat until golden brown (the garlic not the butter). Turn the heat down to medium. Add cream and milk mixed with flour. Bring to a near-boil (that means you see one or two bubbles come to the surface). Turn down one more notch and add the cheese. Simmer until all cheese is melted. Salt to taste. Makes enough for at least a pound of pasta. When I needed it to stretch further the second time around, I added ½ cup canned milk and ¼ cup parm. cheese.

Lettuce Wraps
Lettuce wraps are a favorite in our house. We take long leaves of romaine and line them with rice, add on veggies (carrots, broccoli, onions, all raw), herbs (cilantro, basil, mint, etc), meat is optional, tonight we used prepackaged potstickers. And then, gratuitous amounts of our favorite Asian sauce.

Awesome Asian Pantry Sauce
3 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp vinegar
1 Tbsp peanut butter (optional)
1 tsp. sesame oil
Dash ginger
Dash garlic

Whisk heartily and serve as topping or dip with any Asian food; rice, stir-fried veggies, egg rolls, etc. Also, add a little ranch dressing for a new twist on raw veggie dip.

Fresh Fruit Smoothy
2 ripe bananas
1 peeled pear
1 cup fresh-frozen berries
1 cup orange juice
1 ½ cup moo juice (fresh or premade powdered milk)
½ tsp. vanilla
¼ cup sugar

Serves 6 - Side with popcorn, gingerbread, or any other handy, healthful snack you have ready to go.

French Bread, Not Baguette
1 Tbsp. dry yeast
1 tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. salt
2 c. warm water
4 c. flour

In a large bowl dissolve yeast, sugar, salt and warm water. Let stand 10 minutes. Stir in 4 cups flour. Turn out onto floured surface. Lift and turn dough which is very soft, until it sticks enough to knead. Add more flour if necessary. Knead 10 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Put in clean bowl, cover and let rise in warm place until doubled (45 minutes). Turn dough out onto floured surface, pat flat and dust with flour. Fold in half and then half again. Return to bowl and let rise 30 minutes. Turn dough out onto floured surface, divide into 2 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball and let rest 5 minutes. Shape each ball into long oval, cut tops with scissors for artistic look. Place on greased sheet. Let rise until almost double. Brush loaves with well-beaten egg and water mixture. Bake in 450 degree oven for 20 to 25 minutes.

Trial and Error. Mostly Error.

Disclaimer: Amateur at work, for best results,

seek professional help.

I made my first batch of morning moo (my select brand of powdered milk). It was an entertaining process. Here are the steps I took:
First, I gathered my supplies and read the directions - gallon jug, morning moo, measuring cup, funnel. Mixed 2 cups powder with 1 quart hot water, then add to remaining 3 quarts cold water equaling 1 gallon finished product. Fine.
Second, I measured out the morning moo, 2 cups powder. So far so good.
Third, I tried to figure out how to get all that sticky, messy powder down the funnel and into the milk jug. This was my first big mistake, and mid-process I burst out laughing. Why didn’t I mix this in a pitcher first and then pour it into the jug though the funnel, I wondered. I bet you were wondering that, too. Oh well, I love to reinvent the wheel, so forward I went.
Fourth, I made a paper funnel, thinking a bigger exit hole would help when my plastic funnel wasn’t working out so well. This step did not help as much as I hoped.
Fifth, I added water and gave it a shake. I shook this stuff so hard I lost my wrap skirt twice (good thing I was all alone in the privacy of my own home). It took a long time to get all the lumps to dissolve.
Sixth, I started adding the cold water to top off my gallon. Here I ran into a problem with foam. Seventh, I pause the game (isn’t this so much fun) and call my good friend Donna. I tell her of my trial so far, we laugh hysterically, then I ask seriously “Donna, what do you do about all the foam?” I get the feeling that if I had done it right in the first place, I wouldn’t have such a problem with the foam. Kindly, Donna does not say this. She just says, “Let it rest. Come back to it later. You could try stirring the foam down a little, add some more water, let it rest and then add some more water.” Patience is often the most practical advise.
Eighth, I wait, add water, stir. Wait some more, add more water. Patience, patience.
Ninth, I clean up my enormous mess (see photos below).
Tenth, I let lots of time elapse and finally refrigerate my first gallon of morning moo.

Tip: Think ahead to prevent a 3 step simple process from turning into a 10 step invasive procedure.

Morning Moo Footprints on My New Floor

A Magnificent Mess

Day 5 - Acknowledging Addictions

Okay, so I have to make a confession. Today I took the kids to school and noticed that just down the street a brand new grocery market had a parking lot full of cars. “I wonder if that new store is open?” I mused aloud. It’s a good thing I have kids to keep me on track and accountable, because KC said, “Well, it doesn’t really matter because we’re not going to the grocery store for a month, right?” Drat. It was then I realized that while grocery shopping may be a hated habit, it is also a common craving that is hard to say no to. In that moment of seeing a brand new store on the brink of a Grand Opening, I actually felt some strong psychological withdrawal pangs. But, with my KC girl there to get me through it, they passed and I didn’t change the course of my day to satisfy my curiosity.

P.S. I had a call from my friend Liz. I'd remarked to her about the store opening, and Liz, never to miss an opportunity for a really excellent bargain, checked into it. She left a message informing me that the store doesn't actually open until November 12th, after the experiment end. I'm hoping to have killed my curiosity by then. Any encouraging comments to help me through this difficult time would be appreciated.

The Easier the Better

Today is a day I’d really, really rather eat out. Better out than in, I always say, when the day flies by so fast and you can hardly catch a moment to breathe. But, I resisted that urge, saving my cash for another day, and decided to make tacos instead. And with pre-made corn tortilla shells, it was so easy.

What We Ate: Breakfast - 100% food storage friendly rice pudding (recipe to follow)
Lunch - Who knows, I can’t even remember lunch
Snack - Rice crispy treats and pumpkin pancakes
Dinner - Tacos, taco salad, nachos and whatever else you can imagine making with pre-packaged taco shells, ground beef (to quote Don, “I love ground beef. Why don’t we eat it more often?” Oh, just wait as the month moves on, you’ll have your fill of ground beef, I muse with a grin.), cheese, guacamole and a bunch of other non-food storage items.

One comment here, a trick I learned from my sis. To make your taco meat stretch further, add an egg to the pan once you’ve drained the grease. Think fried rice only Mexican style.

Recipe

Rice Pudding
3 cups leftover cooked rice
1 cup morning moo (reconstituted powdered milk)
½ cup canned milk
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Cinnamon and nutmeg to taste
Bring milk, sugar, vanilla and spices to a boil. Reduce heat, add rice. Simmer for five minutes and serve.

Day 4 - Powdered Parmesan Alfredo

Can you believe it's only been four days of no shopping? It feels like its been a whole week already. Tonight is a crazy night, everyone going in separate directions but me. Good thing I fed the kids an after school snack inspired by my friend Donna. We had pumpkin pancakes and they were a huge hit and so, so easy. This evening I’m keeping the home fires burning with one, now two, now three and finally four children all at home. Don has church meetings and I’m glad we had a nice sit down breakfast this morning because that counts for one family meal in the day.

Something occurred to me as I prepared our leftover pasta for dinner. I thought I’d serve some lovely frozen green beans with the meal because all of the kids like them and one kid in particular eats more of them than the rest of the family combined (Hannah). But, then I thought at the rate my greens are going, we’d better eat all of our fresh before we move on to frozen. So, here’s your tip for the day.

When you are in a pinch, and can’t make it to the store for whatever reason (my sister-in-law once had 6 weeks of blizzard where trucks couldn’t get food in to the stores) use up your fresh food first.

And that’s what we did. Plus, I added canned milk and powdered Parmesan to Bren’s awesome alfredo sauce to stretch it out a bit further. No one even noticed.


What We Ate: All vegetarian, all day (except for the chunky chickens)
Breakfast - Cold Cereal
Lunch - Campbell’s Chunky Chicken Soup rotated from our 72 kits, taste and smelled just like baby food. When I opened the can I had a flash back to earlier days of feeding not-quite-toddlers from a jar. Not a winner, but Hannah liked it and it would get you by in a pinch.
Dinner - Left over penne pasta, food-storage enhanced alfredo sauce, leftover home made bread made into garlic toast, green salad with tomatoes from the garden.

Recipes

Pumpkin Pancakes
Make your favorite pancake recipe and add ¼ cup pumpkin for ever 2 cups flour. Mix and make like you would normal pancakes. Fabulously hale and hearty fare.


Brennan’s Famous Alfredo - Not food storage friendly, but oh so good
2 Tbsp butter
2-3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 ½ cup heavy cream
½ cup milk, with 2 tbsp flour mixed in as emulsifier
1 cup grated hard cheese (Parmesan or Romano)
Salt to taste


Saute garlic in the butter over medium-high heat until golden brown (the garlic not the butter). Turn the heat down to medium. Add cream and milk mixed with flour. Bring to a near-boil (that means you see one or two bubbles come to the surface). Turn down one more notch and add the cheese. Simmer until all cheese is melted. Salt to taste. Makes enough for at least a pound of pasta. When I needed it to stretch further the second time around, I added ½ cup canned milk and ¼ cup parm. cheese.

I Wish I Had...

These are the things I ran out of during my month of No More Grocery Shopping

1. Paper plates
2. Paper cups
3. Paper muffin cups - My awesome neighbors sensed a need and shared.
4. Paper lunch bags -Ditto here, Thank you.
5. Sesame oil
6. Lettuce
7. Milk
8. Cilantro
9. Cream
10. Salad greens
11. Other fresh veggies
12. Hot chocolate mix

That's it so far.

Greetings From the Bottom of the Bottle

Last night I was sad to discover that I'd got down to the bottom of the bottle of sesame oil, one of my favorite Asian condiments. I'd tried to be prepared for this one, knowing I was low, but every time I went to buy it I didn't like the price. This is an item I usually buy in quantity, so I don't know if it's been a while since my last sesame oil purchase or if I'm completely out of touch, but I was not willing to pay $10 for 8 oz. of the stuff, so, we may be going with out for a while. By the way, I have now added labels to my blog, so you can search on the side bar for all sorts of stuff. This post is going to have 2 labels, one is Depleted Supplies, to which I also need to mention paper muffin cups and paper lunch sacks. Again, I knew I was low on these paper goods, not to mention paper plates and cups, but I didn't write them down, so they were forgotten in all of my last minute grocery shopping madness. Maybe that should be another label: things I should have written down. But for sure, the other label for today's post will be Recipes, because I did do something write and my family actually had something to eat last night. Thanks to Chef Bren for helping on the meal prep.

What we ate: Lettuce wraps with rice (from food storage), potstickers (from the freezer - if you wonder why they're called that, just fry some up and you'll see), and an awesome Asian sauce (100% pantry produced). Here’s a recipe or two:

Lettuce Wraps

Lettuce wraps are a favorite in our house. We take long leaves of romaine and line them with rice, add on veggies (carrots, broccoli, onions, all raw), herbs (cilantro, basil, mint, etc), meat is optional, tonight we used prepackaged potstickers. And then, gratuitous amounts of our favorite Asian sauce.

Awesome Asian Pantry Sauce

3 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp vinegar
1 Tbsp peanut butter (optional)
1 tsp. sesame oil
Dash ginger
Dash garlic

Whisk heartily and serve as topping or dip with any Asian food; rice, stir-fried veggies, egg rolls, etc. Also, add a little ranch dressing for a new twist on raw veggie dip.

Handy Dandy Food Storage Calculator

I’ve had lots of questions on what to get and what I‘ve got. For online security purposes, and so if things ever get really bad I don’t have some guy backing up a u-haul to my front door to cart off all my food storage, I’m just going to tell you items we’ve gathered and keep quantities confidential. This way, if that guy ever does come knocking, I can just say, “What food storage? We ate it all. Didn’t you read my blog? I didn’t go to the store for a whole month.”

But, internet security aside, I will point you to your very own, very complete food storage calculator, here: http://lds.about.com/library/bl/faq/blcalculator.htm

There are others on the web, but this is the original Provident Living calculator, which has since been replaced by a slimmed-down version to meet the needs of food-storers world wide who may not be up on powdered fruit drink and peanut butter. And, just because it’s been replaced with a simpler, sleeker version, doesn’t make this one less true, just less universally applicable. So, sorry to my blog followers in distant lands where Jello isn’t as much a commodity as it is here. There’s still lots of good stuff on the list.

Expect my full inventory of food storage items (minus the amounts) in an upcoming post.

Mushy Fruit

Alright, half my pears are ripening way too fast. Gotta use this fresh fruit quick before it goes bad. Here’s one recipe for today’s happy, healthy afternoon refreshment.

Recipe

Fresh Fruit Smoothy -

2 ripe bananas
1 peeled pear
1 cup fresh-frozen berries
1 cup orange juice
1 ½ cup moo juice (fresh or premade powdered milk)
½ tsp. vanilla
¼ cup sugar

Serves 6 - Side with popcorn, gingerbread, or any other handy, healthful snack you have ready to go.

Monday Night - Letting Go of Poor Practices

Okay, before I get into the dirty details of preparing to be prepared, I’d better blog about tonight’s dinner, that way there is a daily report of dinner ideas for the duration of the experiment.

I was going to do leftovers from the lovely dinner we had with my sister’s family. But, because
Don was away on business for the day/evening, I thought I’d take advantage of an opportunity to have breakfast for dinner. Now, Don would say that he doesn’t mind having pancakes and eggs for breakfast, but I know that he doesn’t generally prefer it. Also, I wanted to break with one of my long held beliefs which said:

If Dad is gone, we’re eating out!

This has cost me more money than it should have over the years because I don’t always feel like cooking when my husband is gone. And with one pair of hands against four, my odds of keeping sane to through the day seem better with drive thru service. But, tonight I chose a better way - I gave dinner over to Bren and pancake mix from our food storage.

What we ate: Bren made a lovely batch of waffles and everyone was happy. We used food storage syrup, sour cream and jam from the fridge, fruit from cold storage and powdered sugar from the pantry. One thing I would have done differently:

Use powdered milk in place of the real stuff when cooking and baking.

Future tip: When I come to the end of the next gallon of milk, I’m going to mix up some of the powdered counterfeit in it’s place and label it “Chef’s Special - Dairy Substitute.” No one’s going to drink it any sooner than they would go next door and ask for a cup of soy milk, but it will work for now when we’re cooking up some fine food storage fare.

Practical Matters - Last Week's Highlights and Shopping Experience

Remember, last week was the lead up to the experiment. Here are some highlights of the meals and preparations:

Monday - Play Practice and Family Night: A pioneer dinner. Hannah was in charge and wanted to have an authentic pioneer dinner by candle light.
What we ate: Baked fish (caught by Bren over the previous weekend) - very authentic; corn bread with butter and honey - pretty authentic pioneer fare; salad with ranch dressing -not so authentic.

Tuesday - Gear up for no more grocery shopping, everyone home for the evening: I did some shopping earlier today, my last big trip which ended with an exasperated customer service clerk who questioned every item I wanted on a rain check and gave me a friendly reminder of why I‘m avoiding the grocery store for a month. Sheesh, who knew baking goods could be so controversial. Here’s what I was hoping for but didn‘t get:
20 bags of 70 Cent Hershey’s baking chips - You can‘t really say your food storage is complete until you have the bargaining power of chocolate chips backing you up
20 packages of $1 Betty Crocker’s Warm Delights - Mmm goodness in a microwaveable dish. You have a decadent dessert ready in a minute and thirty seconds (including the time it takes to add water, stir and microwave) Again, in tough economic times, who doesn’t need easy baked goods. Never mind if the microwave doesn’t work. The little black bowl will go perfectly in my solar oven ; ).
3 whole chickens at $.59/lb - What is the deal with whole, raw chickens costing as much as the cooked rotisserie version from Costco. 99 cents a pound? Forget it. I’ll just make due with the two I have in the freezer.
Anyway, the customer service lady kept questioning my intentions and integrity and reminded me of yet another reason I hate the grocery store:

Customer Service is an oxymoron in too many institutions.

I also went to the orchards and bought a crazy bunch of potatoes along with apples, pears, and peaches. Last I stopped at the egg lady’s. she supplies us with awesome fresh eggs. We are conducting a side experiment with our neighbors on egg preservation. But, since my favorite tree hugger from up North sent me a detailed article about it, I’m quitting the eggsperiment and sticking with food storage. One thing at a time, please. Anyway, all the research has been done. I’ll include it as soon as I find the email.
What we ate: Breakfast - Scrambled hen fruit

Lunch - Sack lunches, who knows what the kids put in them, I'll have to pay more attention

Dinner- Chicken wraps, with tenders from the freezer, homemade tortillas, lettuce and cilantro from the fridge, tomatoes from the garden.

Wednesday, Oct. 1: Scouts and church meetings.
What we ate - Breakfast: Pumpkin cream of wheat. Hot porridge with a bit of canned milk, canned pumpkin, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Some liked it more than others.
Lunch: Various sack lunches; sandwiches, chips and leftovers.
Dinner: Today, we roasted a giant potato. It had an animal shape like this one, but was more like a turtle than a dog. Bren spiced it up like we would a roast and we cooked it in the crock pot all afternoon. It fed all six of us and we had leftovers for breakfast. We also had salad and leftover cornbread.

Animalian Potatoes on Parade

Stay tuned for a detailed log of this weeks meals, all week, all meals, and see how long we are able to last without going back to the store. Also look for some helpful for implementing no more grocery shopping in your life.

No Shopping on the Sabbath

We had a beautiful sabbath. It was actually restful and restorative. Usually it's much crazier with church meetings (mostly Don's), choir practice (I'm the director), and worship services (3 hours isn't bad, it's the 2:30 time slot that kills me). But today we had general conference and could listen in the comfort of our own home.

Because I had so much hearth and home time today, I made bread. I was hoping to make a delicious crust baguette, but it turned out like my usual farm bread shaped like a baguette, which isn't bad, just not what I was going for. Maybe it's because when I googled a "baggette recipe," I didn't realize the I didn't know how to spell baguette. That could have effected the whole process. I knew I should have paid better attention in my spelling lessons. I was hoping for light and airy on the inside, with a firm crust on the outside. Oh well. It was perfectly serviceable and was part of a lovely meal for two families. If anyone has any tips on how to make a true baguette, please send a comment.

My bread before it was baked. I didn't get a photo after because we cut it up and ate it. Oh well.

Recipe

French Bread, Not Baguette
Here's the easy, easy food storage approved recipe:
1 Tbsp. dry yeast
1 tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. salt
2 c. warm water
4 c. flour


In a large bowl dissolve yeast, sugar, salt and warm water. Let stand 10 minutes. Stir in 4 cups flour. Turn out onto floured surface. Lift and turn dough which is very soft, until it sticks enough to knead. Add more flour if necessary. Knead 10 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Put in clean bowl, cover and let rise in warm place until doubled (45 minutes). Turn dough out onto floured surface, pat flat and dust with flour. Fold in half and then half again. Return to bowl and let rise 30 minutes. Turn dough out onto floured surface, divide into 4 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball and let rest 5 minutes. Shape each ball into long oval, cut tops with scissors for artistic look. Place on greased sheet. Let rise until almost double. Brush loaves with well-beaten egg and water mixture. Bake in 450 degree oven for 20 to 25 minutes.

I modified the directions to the recipe found here:
http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1918,155189-240193,00.html

What I Got

Okay, you are going to look at the following images and laugh. I could probably feed a small army on what I've got here at home, but remember, I didn't do a ton of stocking up. Just regular grocery shopping and what I've got already in the house. i must say I'm always surprised when I peek into my friends fridges. Ours always looks like this. Packed. And there are a lot of eggs because that is a separate eggsperiment.:

The fridge and freezer, tonight.

My Messy Pantry

Fresh Produce

I won't bore you with any more, but this is what we're going with and it should be interesting to see how far we can get. Remember, I do have two growing boys (and 2 girls, but they aren't eating me out of house and home at the same rate as their brothers). Bren and I see eye to eye and Caleb is in the 95% for height and weight. Should be interesting.

The Rules - No More Grocery Shopping

Here is a simple list of rules for myself while conducting this experiment.

1. No more trips to the grocery store between now and election day, November 4, 2008. The grocery store is any type of supermarket - Smiths, Albertsons, Costco, Wal-Mart, etc.
2. I can go to the orchard for local produce and the fresh eggs,and to the gas station for milk if I must, but only with cash.
3. All food purchases must come from my $100 of cash - including family fun and dates.
4. Blog all meals, menus, errands and purchases for accountability’s sake.

In the spirit of full disclosure I will say that we are working on our general preparedness. I feel like the food part is pretty well done, that's why this is No More Grocery Shopping. However, we do still have some purchases to make as far as other items go, like we need radios and lanterns, etc. Those are separate from the food budget and I'll probably have to go to the outdoor goods place. The point is to avoid the grocery store.

Longing for Walden

I was thrilled to hear Elder L. Tom Perry reference Walden today in conference. I’m all about leading a simpler life. In fact, I started a quest to do just that over 10 years ago when KC was born and I’m still working on it. Thoreau is truly inspiring and introspective and reading Walden makes you want to move out into the wilderness and start homesteading. The catch is, when good old Henry did his little experiment of living off the land, he didn’t have a spouse and children to consider. It was just man against wild, or, rather, man working with wild actually. And because he only had himself to worry about, he could do very well on oats, peas, beans and barley. I have a husband, (who read Thoreau with a combination of respect and skepticism) and four kids with a variety of food preferences. I won’t label any of us picky, but we are all connoisseurs in our own right. Here’s a list of some of my challenges:

• Don loves salads and lots of fresh produce, other than that his only dislikes (and he would say, “I just don’t prefer them.”) are brussel sprouts and bologna. I’m not sure how the whole produce thing is going to work out three weeks into our experiment, especially as it gets colder and my garden is less abundant, but I do have some ideas.
• I need a certain level of convenience on busy Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday nights and crave other people’s cooking (like the great chef’s at our local fresh mex café and the new burger joint that just opened) by the weekend.
• Bren is all about the right kind of sauces and is a sort of separatist at heart. He doesn't like food that mingles too much (other than herbs and spices and cheeses), so casseroles (I don't think I've even made one since he's been big enough to help in the kitchen) and most soups are not on his list of faves.
• KC is a carnivore, straight up. She loves meat and bread and must be kindly compelled to put other items on her plate.
• Caleb is the easiest kid to feed. I’m racking my brain to think of something he would really complain about if I served it. His biggest challenge might be that he just doesn't feel like eating what's for dinner, but usually does without too much fuss.
• Hannah thinks we should eat out for every meal (I like that idea sometimes, too) and is disappointed in that desire most of the time. She eats best when she’s happy, so as long as I can help mealtime be peaceful, she will eat reasonably well.
  

I am making provisions to work with some of these challenges, but for the most part, I want to move forward with what we have, not do a ton of “stocking up” and see what we can make of our lot. I’m excited to see what abundance awaits.

Top 10 Reasons to Avoid the Grocery Store

First, let me start by saying the title of this blog is misleading. I don't know that I will ever be at a point where I can completely quit going to the grocery store, but I have a goal and here it is.

Go one full month without going to the grocery store.

Earlier this year we made a goal to have our pantry pretty well prepared by a certain date. For some odd reason, we chose election day, November 4th. There are lots of reasons for our experiment. Here are a few.

My top ten reasons for avoiding the grocery store for a whole month:

10. Sadomasochism. How painful can it really be?

9. Use it or lose it - certain food storage items requiring a little rotation - I think we acquired some of it from my parents when we got married 16 years ago.

8. My menu was starting to get boring. Wonder what I can do with a hundred pounds of rice, 32 cans of olives and a boat load of ramen noodles.

7. I'm hypermiling and trips to the store in my fat family wagon kill my mileage.

6. I read about it here in the Reader's Digest. Who doesn't love this practical periodical.

5. I'd rather be reading. I'm trying to work my way through the unabridged Les Mis, a beautiful but VERY long book. I'm on page 36 of 1463.

4. "Walmart. Save money. Live better." That's their slogan, not mine.

3. I am the queen of impulse buys. Hmm, I think I need some travel size lint removers and a laser pen/flashlight.

2.I save so much money when I don't go to the store!

And, the Number 1 reason for avoiding the store for a month -

The government bailout didn't include my personal checking account.

More to come concerning this weeks meals and details about my last official shopping day.