Core Shopping List

Quite a few years ago my husband quit his casino job for ethical and personal reasons, and we had to really be creative about the money that was coming in. He took a part time job at a local fishery, smoking fish, and the money was NOT even close to what it was at the casino. (BUT we did get all the smoked salmon, trout and chubs we could eat!) We had to cut corners everywhere for him to be able to quit the casino job, and after years of being a spender, I had to learn to make do with what I had. I stopped buying pre-made food, and made everything from scratch. Eventually I got our food budget down to $250 a month. I am happy to tell you that I stuck with that and we are still only budgeting $250 a month for food. People think I am crazy when I tell them how much we spend. I know families that spend close to $800 a month to feed their family of 5-6. I can't IMAGINE having that much money to spend on food. I can tell you where it would go...into food storage!

Anywho...

This is my core monthly shopping list for our family of 5. With this list, I know that I can feed us all well for an entire month. Now, granted, I have a well-stocked pantry full of assorted whole grains, beans, rice, baking soda, baking powder, spices, and huge cans of tomato sauce and whole tomatoes which I purchase every few months. With this list and my pantry items I can whip up a ton of different meals, all fairly simple, and feed my family of 5 for about $250 a month. What you won't see on the list is fresh fruits and veggies. We eat them, but they come out of the "extra" money that is left over after I do my core shopping. When we want bananas, oranges, or a big container of salad greens we buy them, but we don't have a continuous supply in the house. We also don't buy a lot of seasonal foods when they are not in season. When salad isn't in season, we don't eat a lot of it. We eat lots of potatoes in the winter, and much more fresh fruit and veggies in the spring and summer.

I do buy bulk items from Azure Standard, such as spices, grains, and big huge bags of oranges or other fruit that's on sale. I also am trying to get to Costco every other month or so to the majority of my shopping. The less time I spend in Walmart, Safeway or Albertons, the more money I save. There are certain things I know are cheaper at Walmart, so I do buy them there, but for the most part, I am trying to stay away from that place :-) 

I look for sales on meat and only buy meat that is as natural as can be. Our local Warehouse Market has great all natural chicken that goes on sale every now and again. This past month I picked up 5 whole roasters for $20.  Last month I picked up 4 or 5 packages of drumsticks and thighs for about $18. I also buy our ground beef from the local meat market. It's all grass fed and is delicious. If I can't find a good sale on natural chicken, we stick with the ground beef or go without. I refuse to buy factory farmed meat. 

With all that said, here is the list with costs and location:

4 whole chickens ~ $24 ~ Warehouse Market

2 packages of chicken (breasts/drums/thighs) ~ $20 ~ Warehouse Market

4 lbs ground beef ~ $16 ~ Sackett's meat market

8 lbs cheese ~ $24 ~ Albertson's/Costco

6 gallons milk ~ $18 ~ Safeway

4 lbs butter ~ $10 ~ Costco

10 lbs organic sugar ~ $8 ~ Costco

15 lbs potatoes ~ $6 ~ Costco

5 lbs onions ~ $5 ~ Costco

Peanut butter ~ $5 ~ wherever 

Frozen fruit to make jam and smoothies ~ $7 ~ Walmart

Frozen veggies (any combination) ~ $15 ~ Costco/Walmart

5 lbs whole wheat flour (wheat montana) ~ $5 ~ Walmart

5 lbs all purpose flour (wheat montana) ~ $5 ~ Walmart

Sour cream (the big tub of Daisy) ~ $5 ~ Walmart

4 dozen eggs (until my hens start laying) ~ $12 ~ Safeway

5 lbs raw honey ~ $15 ~ health food store

20 lbs pinto beans ~ $15 ~ Walmart

5 lbs raisins or craisins ~ $10 ~ Costco

Organic beef and chicken "better than bouillon" ~ $12 ~ Costco

Total Cost ~ $237

I haven't been buying the bags of flour because I have so many wheat berries in my pantry now, but I do like to have flour on hand for making gravies and sauces or just to whip up a quick pan of rolls or a cake. I like easy :-) 

With this list I can make everything I want for dinners throughout the month...chicken pot pie, sloppy joes, soups of all sorts, scalloped potatoes and onions, chicken and dumplings, etc. I have a huge assortment of pastas in the house from my last few Costco trips, but normally, if we wanted pasta I would make my own. Since moving to Wyoming, I had to leave a ton of stuff behind...my pasta maker was one of those things, so I don't really care for rolling out pasta by hand, although it's not so bad for making big ol' noodles that will just go in a soup. We also don't buy bread (usually). We make our own English muffins, rolls, pizza dough, sandwich bread, flat breads, tortillas, etc. 

We also make our own breakfast foods, like oatmeal, granola, cornmeal mush, etc.

Lunches consist of leftovers, eggs and toast, peanut butter and jelly on tortillas, steamed veggies, etc. Basically whatever is on hand and quick. 

I also save all of my chicken bones (yes from every meal) and carcasses and put them in the freezer after all our meals throughout the month. At the end of the month I will make a big pot of stock, usually about 4-6 quarts, and that goes right in the freezer for the next months meals. (I could really do without the "better than bouillon" that is on my list, but I love having it on hand.)

The one thing that is not on my list is COFFEE and tea. I love coffee, am probably addicted, and will not go without it. It's not in my grocery budget because it is just for me, so it comes out of the money that is not allocated to bills, gasoline, or food. We drink water from our Berkey and sun tea throughout the month, and if you don't like those two things, well...tough patooties, drink it anyway :-) We have special drinks on sabbath, like Hansen's soda, but that does not come out of the grocery budget, it comes out of the "extra". 

So, there it is...I hope this helps you in some areas, and if YOU have a tight budget for food, let me know how you do it. I am always looking for ways to save money.

(We also purchase 5 gallon buckets of expeller pressed coconut oil from Tropical Traditions and use this as our main cooking oil, for frying, baking,etc., and  also for making deodorant and toothpaste)

Mung Beans! Yum Beans!

Spicy Mung Beans with Tomato and Onions
This is one of my favorite foodie blogs. Vegetarian, simple, healthy, and creative. Lisa's Kitchen has tons of recipes that incorporate chickpeas, mung beans, and other legumes that I love. Eating biblically clean foods has forced us to eat more legumes and less meat, just because we can not find local, pastured, and affordable meats. Finding recipes like this one makes me happy! Thank you, Lisa's Kitchen, for once again giving me more creative ideas for the beloved bean!

Thanksgiving Day Menu

I am so excited about Thanksgiving, which has to be my most favorite American holiday. I love the smells, the season, the friends and family and the FOOD! Oh, the food...

I thought I'd post our menu plan for all to see and the links to some of the recipes. I LOVE www.allrecipes.com . It is my go to recipe sight when I am looking for something to make. One of my favorite things about it is the fact that there are photos of the food. I am a visual person, and if I can see the picture of how it is supposed to look, I feel like I can do a better job at preparing it.


Turkey
20 lbs. Brined and roasted by my dear friend over at Declared Unto Him

Mashed potatoes and homemade gravy
The recipe for the gravy will have to wait because I have no idea how much of what I put in. Basically, it's just a bechemel sauce, except you substitute the butter with drippings, and use stock instead of milk. I still use some milk, just to make it creamier.  I add chicken stock to the potatoes to give them more flavor without adding a lot of fat. I'm making my stock today.

Sausage, Apple, and Cranberry Stuffing 
I am assembling this on Wednesday without the liquid so I can just pop it in the oven on Thursday. Just add the stock and melted butter before you cook it. Add a little more liquid if you are cooking it outside of a turkey. *Turkey sausage NOT pork, never pork :~)


Cranberry sauce
Two bags of cranberries
2 c. sugar
1 1/2 c orange juice
a smidge of ginger

Dissolve sugar and OJ in a sauce pan over medium heat. Stir in cranberries and cook until they pop. Refrigerate till cool. Garnish with orange peel if you like...I don't like. Making this Wednesday.

Roasted Russet and Sweet potatoes
Peel both sweets and russets and cube
Toss with olive oil, enough to coat. Salt, pepper, curry powder, a smidge of cinnamon and cardamom, a smidge of coriander, and a tad bit of brown sugar, and toss again. Roast on baking sheet lined with parchment paper @ 425 degrees for about 40-50 minutes. I'm putting these in the oven an hour before the stuffing (2 hours before dinner) and then tossing them in a hot crockpot till everything else is ready to be served. I'll have two racks of these roasting so the cooking time might need to be increased and trays might need to be rotated.

Grandma's Egg Custard Pie
Never done this before...we'll see how it goes. I made a practice custard this week, and it tasted great but was a little watery. Hoping the pies turn out better. I'm making these on Wednesday.

Pumpkin Pie
Your basic, back-of-the-can recipe. Nothing fancy :-) Making Wednesday.

My lovely friends are bringing apple pie, corn, cider and dinner rolls and the TURKEY!

We will be feasting! Then probably fasting...

This is our first Thanksgiving in a new place, away from all of our family. Wyoming is treating us well. I am beginning to meet people, but still miss home terribly. I am really looking forward to hosting this dinner though, and loving people in my most favorite way, and that is to FEED them. :~) 

Wow, do I feel better getting this all out and seeing it on the screen. I have made list upon list, but I finally have it organized and figured out to a T. Now, I just need to locate a few more chairs...

My to do list

Today I get to buy raw honey...I am pleased. 

I will sprout more mung beans, as these have become my most favorite food lately. 

I will sweep the wood floors throughout the house. We must all shed a lot of skin and hair...it's everywhere. 

I will clean my bedroom, which I totally despise doing. I will clean it and organize the closet. An act of dying to self :-)

I will paint the rest of my dining room trim white. Purple just didn't go. I thought purple went with everything...silly me. 

I will drink the kombucha that I brewed...no sense in brewing it if I'm not going to drink it. 

(which reminds me...I need fresh ginger to make ginger kombucha)

I will make the corn pie that I have been meaning to make. Something about making pie crusts...you think it is this huge daunting task, but then you start doing it and remember that it's simple and quick. I forget this often...

I will fix my husbands button hole he has been complaining about. I will learn that a safety pin is not fixing something...it is merely a temporary solution.

I will finish reading Ezekiel. I am afraid of this. It gives me nightmares. I have the worst dreams when I read it before bed. I dreamed about a man living in a pig barn, sitting in a corner filled with cat dung, and he would grab worms from the pit of the dung pile for his food. When he would squeeze them, they were filled with worms. Worms within worms...filth within filth. I dreamed about a small Chinese girl who was being sold to men, and when I arrived to save her, she had been lit on fire. In these dreams I can not do anything to stop the evil that is taking place. I could only comfort the girl and give her hope, but I could not stop the filth from happening. The man in the pig pen...filth within filth...it is the way of the world. No one cares, and I can't stop it. It's disheartening. These dreams have been haunting me all week.

I will pray more. Pray for that faceless, nameless Chinese girl. I know she represents multitudes of little girls and women all over the world that have been sold into the sex trade industry. They are broken and lost and without hope. I will pray that someone comes along to give them hope.

I will stop being so critical, of myself and others. Satan wants to kill and destroy. Destroy relationships, and I won't have any part of it, any more. I am called to love and we are called to have unity with one another. I will  recognize criticism when it rears its ugly head, and I will rebuke it and I will NOT walk in it any longer. 

And I will make bread. It's a simple task that yields so much fruit. My family feels loved when I bake bread. So,  I will knead my dough and pray. I will wait patiently for it to rise. I will knead it again and pray. I will shape it and form it and cover it softly with cloth. I will wait for it to rise again. Then, I will place it in warmth and watch it take it's true form. Then we will break bread together. 

 I know theres a sermon in there someplace...

Creamy Walnut Sauce

I LOVE this sauce! Every now and again I want a thick creamy pasta sauce and this is a very healthy and delicious recipe.

Add the following ingredients to blender and blend together until smooth.

Serve with pasta and toss.

Great with Chicken as well.

2/3 c. walnut

2 cloves garlic

1/2 t. salt

1/2 t. pepper

1/2 c. chicken stock

2 T. Parsley

1 t. lemon juice

2 t. walnut oil 

If it is a little too thick, just add more stock. 

Delicious! And the benefits of walnuts are amazing.

Chickpea Salad

My lovely husband took me out to lunch the other day at my favorite restaurant in town, The Plaza Cafe. I love this place because most of their food is organic, non-GMO, and just fresh and delicious. I ordered a new dish, which is not my style (I like to stick with what I know). I am glad I did though, because my chicken guacamole wrap was yummy. I ordered it with a side of chickpea salad and that was the best part of the whole meal. One of my favorite things to do, culinary wise, is to eat out and then recreate the meal at home. I am so glad I tried to recreate this salad. SO GOOD! The recipe is sort of a taste-as-you-go recipe, so nothing is really measured out. Taste and see!

2 cans of garbanzo beans (chickpeas)

half of a English cucumber -chopped

a few handfuls of julienned carrots

half of a large red onion -diced

3 0r 4 small celery sticks -chopped

Drizzle olive oil two or three times around the bowl.

Do the same with either red or white wine vinegar. I used red, but pretty sure the Plaza used white. Either one is good.

Salt conservatively.

Pepper liberally.

A few tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro.

Two cap-fulls of lime juice.

1 tablespoon of pure cane sugar or honey.

Toss together and let sit for at least 30 minutes in the fridge.

*variations...

Next time I would leave the cucumber out (which is something I added that was not in the original recipe) because the flavor seems to over power the entire dish the second day. It is good if you aren't planning on having left overs though.

I will definitely add red peppers the next time I make this. More celery and maybe add some fresh sweet corn.

I would use cumin in this if there were no cucumbers. Especially with the addition of corn and peppers.

Instead of wine vinegar you could use balsamic and add a squeeze of Dijon mustard, leave out the cilantro. That would be yummy.

Cooking is all about discovering what you like, what works and what doesn't. Be creative and make mistakes. It's fun.

Making Applesauce

We were given a few bags of apples that were on the edge. Since they weren't very good for eating whole and I didn't want to see them go to waste, I made applesauce. This is a very simple recipe and the results were pretty good.


I peeled about 18 large apples and cut them into large cubes. Set the crockpot on high and add apples, 2 t. cinnamon, 4 t. vanilla, 4T. brown sugar and about 8 T. of lemon juice. The recipe I had called for 1 c. of water for this many apples, but if I had to do it over again, I wouldn't add any water. There was plenty of liquid from the apples. I did end up adding a bit more brown sugar and cinnamon. Probably about 2 more teaspoons of cinnamon and a tablespoon more of brown sugar. Stir it all up and let it cook for about 4 hours.




This made 4 pints of applesauce. The kids loved it, so I guess this is a winning recipe!

Food Shopping -or- Why does my chicken feed taste like chicken?

So, today is one of those days where I just rant. However, my rants mean something. I am not complaining to just complain. Well, maybe, but there is a deeper desire. It is one of ill-content. What comes with ill-content, is a need for change. And change is good. The desire for change is a most desirable thing. Which is why this rant has become a resounding gong in my head.

I am at Walmart. Right off the bat, I know that is where my problem lies. I am in this store that I abhorrently loathe. Why am I here? Because I am poor. Because I haven't enough money to do all my shopping locally and organically. However, today is different. I am walking down these aisles looking for food that is good for us. I am in the cereal aisle. I normally buy the same thing every week, a bag Honey nut Scooters, or a bag of Crisp Rice cereal. The equivalent of Honey nut cheerios and Rice Crispies of course. I buy them because I can get 39 ounces of cereal for about $4.70. That's pretty cheap. Today, I can't buy anything. Everything I look at seems toxic to me. I know that over half the crap in here is genetically modified in some way or another, and that just freaks me out. So I end up buying the Quaker old fashioned oats. It's what I normally buy along with the bagged cereal, but today, it is the only breakfast item I purchase. Even that makes me feel cautious. It is the healthiest product in the entire aisle. With only one ingredient, you know you are getting a quality whole food. Or do you? Is this a GMO (genetically modified organism)? Have these oats been altered?! I don't want altered oats. I want oats that my grandmother ate. I want oats that have heirloom quality. But how do I know what I am getting? There are no signs that say, "Hey, these here oats are missing part of their genetic makeup. But we added something else to it. It might make your daughters grow breasts at 8 years old, but we make one hell of a profit. " No, there are no signs. No labels. Nothing.

Does anyone else know this? Does everyone feel alright about putting all this crap into our bodies? I don't know where half this food comes from. I don't feel OK about it. I definitely feel weird about it. Weird, like science fiction weird, and I have never liked science fiction. Except Star Trek. Star Wars as well. And of course, Hitchhikers Guide...well, it's still weird. It is disconcerting. What to do... that is where I am. What do I do. What do I eat. The only thing I've eaten today has been two organic pears, and some fair trade coffee. Which isn't even organic. I can't find a bag of fair trade, organic coffee to save my life. It's either one or the other. I am about to eat two cage free eggs, but I realize that I don't even know what their standards are. I think of cage free, and I think of pasture. Even then, on the carton it says they are being fed a diet of high quality corn and soy products. The most genetically modified food out there. So, as a consumer I can't win.

If you want to know more about Genetically Modified food, please visit the following site. Read it thoroughly and act. With all the issues we are having with our food supply and the rising cost of food, it is time we rethink how we eat and what we buy. Communities must come together to form cooperative food networks so that people can eat healthy, sustainable food, and support local farmers at the same time. If my great great grandmother Ada was still here, she would wonder why we eat like we do. It would be nonsensical for her, that we were not growing and preserving our own foods. She would see all the problems we are having with ecoli and mad cow disease, and look at us as if we were idiots. Mass production of foods, factory farms where animals are fed their own by products and waste, genetically modified corn. We are idiots if we accept this as the norm. This is not normal. This is definitely weird.

www.responsibletechnology.org