Meal List Monday…A One Year Solution

October 20, 2008 at 10:48 am (Homemaking, Menu Plan Monday, Preparedness, food)

I did it! I have come up to the solution for my meal list situation.

I have a reoccuring meal list that runs for 3 weeks. So it is not the same meals every week or two. The family doesn’t complain about it and that makes me happy. So, I made up a calendar in Works and it is for a whole year. So, now I have a years worth of meals planned.

I did go through and change the days when there are special things going on. Birthdays, that person gets their choice, and other holidays were included too.

Now, I know what we’re eating a year from now, LoL.

Blessings,
Mama

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How do I Keep Food From Spoiling?

October 17, 2008 at 9:48 pm (Homemaking, Preparedness, canning, food, homesteading)

A friend of mine asked me, “How do you keep food from spoiling?  Everytime I have ever bought in bulk it’s gone bad before I could use it up.  “
I’m not sure what kinds of food you are talking about…here’s what I can think of before I head off to bed…
 
Flour & dried pasta…I freeze it for 3 days (to kill any flour bug eggs) and then I put it in 5 gallon buckets. 
 
Rice…5 gallon buckets
 
Meats and left-overs from meals I’ve made…I am canning more and more of our leftovers.  It’s really easy to do as long as you keep your canning stuff handy.  I also put them in containers and freeze them for quick meals for the kids or adults. 
 
beans…I can them which also cooks them at the same time.  I do various size jars so that they are made for  group meals or single person meals.
 
Crisco, lard, oils…I keep them in a cool dark place and so far they have kept without problem
 
cereals…I do the same as the flour…freeze for 3 days then put in a 5 gallon bucket.
 
Eggs…ours mostly come fresh from the chickens and ducks, so as long as they are not washed (you can wipe, just no moisture) they will stay good in the fridge for months. *(just use the float test before using them if you think they might have been there for too long)  If you are concerned about it, eggs can be frozen.  Just open the shell and dump the egg into an ice tray.  Once they are all frozen, put them in a jar in the freezer. 
 
Fruits…I dice and freeze them when they are on sale.
 
sugar…I do the same as with the flour
 
Milk…I do not like powdered and we go through our milk for baking pretty quickly.  It comes fresh from a friend of mine @ 1 gallon per week.  Once our cow & or goat gets old enough they will be bred and then we will have our own milk.  I will however, can left over milk at that time.  I also have some rennet and I make cheese as well as making butter. 
 
My 5 gallon buckets are all food grade (I got them from a fast food place in town) and I keep them stacked up in the laundry area. 
 
I think that covers the basics.  Mostly, I can what I am able.  I have slowly bought jars over the last couple of years and I am getting better at it with practice.  I can cook up 20 pounds of ground beef as taco meat and then can it.  It makes a whole bunch of quart size jars and some single serving size.  The kids will pop a small can open and eat it with tortillas when I make them, or on bread.  I do that with soup and stews also.
 
Okay, my brain is fried.  I am headed off to bed.
Blessings,
Mama
* I didnt think about this until I posted it to the blog

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DRY POTATOES

October 9, 2008 at 7:56 am (Homemaking, Recipes, food, homesteading)

DRY POTATOES

Preparation; Peel, wash and slice 1/4 to 3/8 inch thick or shoestring

3/16 inch thick , or grate or dice depending on how the dried potato is

to be used. Pretreatment: Steam blanch over water containing 1 tsp. sodium

bisulfite per cup of water 4 to 6 min or until translucent but still firm.

Rinse well in cold water to remove gelled starch.

Drying Temperature: 160F for 1 to 2 hours, or until done.

How to use: Grate slices and rehydreate for hash brown potatoes.

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Stockpiling

September 24, 2008 at 10:54 am (Daily Writing, food, garden, homesteading)

This lady who’s emails I’m subscribed to from her website is talking about stockpiling.  I wanted to let y’all know something about stockpiling.  While I have diligently been getting rid of clutter that has stockpiled, I have not gotten rid of our food stockpile.  We had a full pantry, overflowing to the shelves in the laundry room.  And let me tell you, it has been a blessing. 
 
There has not been a lot of work in the diesel repair industry in Tucson right now.  So, there are not a lot of hours at Marcs work.  Add to that, the awful heat in July & August which meant we had to run the air conditioners instead of the swamp coolers.  That lead to $450 for one month of electricty.  All of that added up to not much cash flow for groceries.  Yup, I bet you knew it had to work into the stockpiling somehow, LoL.  Anyhow, I have stretched the food in the pantry plus about $100 every two weeks to feed this family for a month.  Now, we still have about two more small cash flow paydays, but there should be a bit more in the grocery fund, which will allow us to continue to eat.  If it had not been for our piled pantry and our full deep freezer, I do not know what we would have done. (Okay, so I do, but none of our animals at this current time are intended for slaughter, so it would have put us back more money in the end replacing them.)
 
My point is that while stockpiling crap and papers and books and books and books is not good or healthy, stockpiling food is not something I will give up on. 
 
Time to go make some bread.
 
Have a great day,
Mama

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Canning food

February 18, 2008 at 3:57 pm (Recipes, food)
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Well, my experiment in canned taco meat appears to have been successful.  We will know for sure in a few days when I use it in a meal.  The jam is a total success and a hit with everyone here!  The beans turned out awesome and I will be doing some kidney beans later today.  The spaghetti sauce is good and the salsa was a snap. 

I want to make some plam and grape jelly, so those that don’t live here that refuse to eat the fruit pieces can also enjoy something from my canner.  (And I’m not talking about a kid, LoL)

Canning really is very simple as long as you are careful and clean everything well AND sterilize your jars and accessories.

Huggles,  Mama

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IRS, Smaller spaces, Salsa, and Jam

February 15, 2008 at 9:50 pm (food, homesteading)
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Life is just kinda going day by day…we got our taxes done which is awesome because in the end, we will be breaking even. Which means that we do not owe the IRS anything further.  YAY!!!  Finally

We got Andy moved into our room this evening.  We are all prepping to be living in a smaller space (namely the bus) in the next 6 months.  We have the office area combined with the livingroom, and we are working on getting used to being closer together all the time.  I figure this way we can work on it instead of it being an instant thing. 

We also canned 15 jars of salsa.  Tomorrow we are going to make and can a bunch of plum jam and maybe even some grape jam.  We’ll see how it goes.  I would also like to can some beans, but I don’t know if I’ll get to it yet.

We are off to bed in a bit, and I still need to finish cleaning up the kitchen from our canning today.

Blessings,  Mama

 

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