Homemaking Homesteader

Happy Birthday to my Baby!!

We celebrated his birthday with quite a houseful.  He had three of his friends here, plus a few other friends and family..  had to pull out a second table to serve dinner.. but it was lots of fun!   

Here are a couple pictures of my boy and his special day.. 

Love you so much Mr. I !!   

Trim the Budget: Sandwiches

    My husband takes two sandwiches to work every day.  Typically I was using lunch meat.  He liked lunch meat and it was easy and convenient for me.  But it was not great for the budget or a healthy choice either.  Lunch meat is processed and full of non healthy ingredients and loaded with sodium.   

So here is what I have been doing to cut the cost of purchasing lunch meat and improving health while I am at it!  

When I started I took a whole chicken and cooked it in the crockpot.  When it was done I deboned the meat and chopped it up into small pieces.  I divided the meat into 3 containers.  One I used the week I made it and the other two went in the freezer.  To make a sandwich I took the chopped chicken meat and added a little salt, pepper and mayonnaise to it.  I used this chicken spread for the week.  My hubby loved it and I loved the savings.   

Sandwich meat can run anywhere from $3.00 to $6.00 per pound (and up, but that is the range I have paid).  I buy about a pound or so a week.  My chicken cost me about $5.00 and I had enough meat from it for 3 weeks.   

The second type of sandwich meat I made was beef.  I will have a harder time giving you an accurate cost calculation on this because we buy our beef from a local farmer and buy a whole cow each year.  But I can tell you what I did.  I put a small beef roast into the crockpot (I will guess maybe 4lbs) and let this cook for a good long time… until the meat was falling apart.  I then removed bone and fat and chopped this up and was able to divide it into 4 containers (I figure about 2 cups of meat is what I need per week).  I used it the same way I used the chicken. I added salt, pepper and mayonnaise to the chopped meat and used this to make sandwiches.  I also added a little Dijon mustard as well and that gave it a really nice flavor.   

The cost of this meat would be determined by how much you paid for the roast.  You can use an inexpensive cut of roast like a rump roast or a chuck roast to do this.   

Putting the meat into the freezer also means that I have the added bonus of this being very convenient (one of the reasons I liked lunch meat).  After cooking just one chicken and the roast I ended up with enough lunch meat for 7 weeks of lunches. 

New eBook from The Family Homestead: Handmade Soap

Handmade Soap:
A Step-by-Step Photo Tutorial
by Crystal Miller

This eBook will teach you how to make soap step-by-step!

This 45 page eBook includes photo tutorials on making 3 different types of soap. I walk you through the entire soap making process in pictures! 

The Cost of this eBook is $10.00

For more information click here: http://crystalscountrystore.com/handmadesoapebook.htm

 or

Rice Pads are Back in Stock!

 Rice Pads are now back in stock at my country store.  

I use to sell them regularly and they were very popular.  My daughter Emily was the one who made them.  When her life got busy she did not have time for sewing them any more.   

Now, my youngest daughter Sierra and her friend Makayla have picked this project up.  They have been spending many evenings and weekends sewing up rice pads and are doing a great job! 

If you are interested in purchasing a rice pad you can read more information about them and see the current fabric choices here: http://crystalscountrystore.com/ricepads.htm

Trim the Budget: Cabbage!!

 When the prices of veggies start climbing higher during the winter months I turn to my best winter veggie choice, cabbage!  Cabbage is healthy and nutritious and can be used in so many ways. 

Cabbage is high in vitamins K and C.  It is also high in dietary fiber.  You will also find some really good B vitamins such as, vitamins b6, b1, and b2 and vitamin A. 

It is also interesting to note that the vitamin C content in red cabbage is 6 to 8 times higher than that of white cabbage.  

Cabbage is chocked full of minerals: calcium, potassium, magnesium.  

And it even contains a little bit of protein and fat (the good omega 3 fatty acids).  

The best part of cabbage from a budget stand point is that it is so inexpensive this time of year.  I recently paid 45 cents a pound. I spent $1.15 for a head of cabbage that weighted around 2 ½ lbs.   

Ways to incorporate cabbage into your diet.. 

Eat it as a side dish.  I love to sauté chopped cabbage and onions in butter.  When it is soft, salt a little and enjoy with your meal. 

I also add red cabbage to my winter salads.  They are less expensive than tomatoes and add lots of color and nutrition to a salad.  

My all time favorite way to use cabbage is lacto fermented sauerkraut..  You can find my recipe and step by step instructions to make this delicious food here: http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/homemadekraut.htm

Yet another way I enjoy using cabbage is cabbage rolls. 

I made these yesterday for my family and they are always a big hit.  I made a double batch so the pictures show 2 pans of rolls, but the recipe will make one pan.   

Making cabbage rolls takes a little time, but is so yummy!  The first thing I do is prepare the cabbage.  I take a full head of cabbage and core it.  To do this I make cuts around the core until it is loose enough to be able to pull out.  Then I get a large pan and put about 2 inches of water in it and bring this to a boil.  I set the whole cored cabbage in the water, cover with a lid and bring it back to a boil.  I boil this for 15 minutes.  Carefully remove the head of cabbage and give it a few minutes to cool.  Once it is cool enough to touch you can begin removing the leaves.  If you find that the center of the cabbage is still to firm you can put it back in the boiling water for a couple of minutes to soften up.  I lay the leaves out on a towel while I prepare the filling.   

The Filling: 

1lb hamburger
1 onion, chopped
1 t minced garlic
3 cups cooked brown rice
2 egg
1 t salt
1 t pepper 

Cook hamburger and chopped onion in a frying pan until the meat is no longer pink and the onions are soft.  Transfer to a large mixing bowl.  Add the remaining ingredients and combine well.   

Now it is time to make your cabbage rolls.. 

Lay one leaf down in front of you and put a tablespoon or two of filling right in the middle.  How much filling you put in will depend on the size of the leaf.  Fold the bottom of the leaf up over the filling.  Fold the left side over and then fold the right side over.  Now take the top and bring it down.   

Lay the finished cabbage roll in a 9x13 pan (I spray mine with non stick cooking spray first).  Finish making rolls until you are out of leaves and filling. 

When the cabbage rolls are all made it is time to make the sauce.   

Cabbage Roll Sauce:

1- 8oz can tomato sauce
1 14oz can diced tomatoes
3 T cane juice crystals or sugar
2 T vinegar
½ cup water
2T cornstarch combined w/ ¼ cup cold water 

Combine all ingredients into a sauce pan.  Cook on medium high heat, stirring occasionally to begin with and then more frequently as it comes to a boil.  Boil and cook the sauce for about 1 to 2 minutes until the sauce thickens.  

Pour the sauce over the cabbage rolls.  Bake in a 350* oven for 40 to 45 minutes and enjoy!!

Cost Break Down: 

Hamburger: $2.79
Cabbage: $1.15
Brown Rice: $1.02
Eggs: .25
Tomato Sauce: .80
Diced Tomatoes:  $1.60 

Approx. Total: $7.75 (I rounded up from the actual total) 

I served my meal with slices of fresh baked whole wheat bread and green beans.  Everyone walked away stuffed and satisfied! 

Trim the Budget: Black Bean Sloppy Joes!

 Here is another meal that makes a large serving, tastes great, utilizes a low cost basic food (beans), and is delicious!!   

Black Bean Sloppy Joes

Usually sloppy joes are made with all hamburger.  That can be a lot of expense in meat.  The last time I looked at Costco hamburger was $2.79 a pound.  One way to still enjoy sloppy joes and save some money is to make Black Bean Sloppy Joes.  The black beans stretch the hamburger while giving you a delicious and nutritious meal!  You can find the recipe on my website here:   http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/blackbeansloppyjoes.htm  

Make sure to get your beans cooking in the morning so all you have to do come evening is assemble the rest of the recipe.  This will also give you the afternoon to make the rolls to serve the sloppy joes on.  

Making your own high quality bread products is also a good way to cut costs.  White bread will always be dirt cheap, but with no nutritional value and not worth the cost.. no matter how cheap.  Making homemade bread is one way to ensure better quality bread products in your home for a very reasonable price.   

This was a new recipe I tried out for the dinner rolls.  They were delicious!!  I wanted a sub sandwich type bread that was soft and would make great sandwiches or could be used for recipes like sloppy joes.  I was very happy with this one!   

Sub Sandwich Rolls
Crystal Miller

1½ cups water
½ cup honey
6T butter
½ cup oats
2t salt
1T yeast
2 eggs
5½ to 7 cups whole wheat flour 

In a small sauce pan combine water, honey, butter and oats and heat over medium high until hot and butter has melted, do not boil.  Pour this mixture into your Bosch or Kitchen Aid mixing bowl. Allow the mixture to cool for 15 to 20 minutes.  When it is very warm, but not hot to the touch add the salt, yeast and eggs.  Now begin adding flour.  Add 5 ½ cups and then add a half cup at a time until the dough is no longer sticky, but still is a soft dough.  Knead 4 to 5 minutes in a Bosch or 7 to 10 in a Kitchen Aid or 12 to 15 minutes if you are doing this by hand.   

Let the dough rise for one hour.  Punch down and knead again for a few minutes to remove air bubbles. 

Divide dough into 10 pieces.  Roll each piece into an 8 inch log. Spray a large cookie sheet or jelly roll pan with non stick spray. Lay the bread dough pieces on the cookie sheet and cover with a towel. Let rise until double in size, about 30 to 45 minutes.  

Bake at 375 for 25 minutes.  

To use for the Black Bean Sloppy Joe recipe I cut the rolls in half (lengthwise) and then sliced them in center (like you would if you were going to make a sandwich out of them).  You can toast the bread first before topping with the sloppy joe mix.  Serve the sloppy joes over the bread.  

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This meal is filling!  It is big enough to easily serve 8 to 10 people.  So if your family is smaller, you can freeze half of this for another night.     

I fed the 7 of us (4 adults, a 16 year old, a 14 year old and an 11 year old) dinner and still had sandwich rolls and sloppy joes left over.  I will serve the last of the sloppy joes to the family that is home today for lunch and if there are any remaining sandwich rolls after today they will get used up with our lunch tomorrow.  This meal gave me a lot of mileage for my money!   

Now for the budget cost breakdown..  I determine costs of bulk type items using the method I described here:  http://www.homesteadblogger.com/quiverfull/153483/   I don’t calculate the costs of things like salt or a ½ of an onion.  After I determine the cost of the main ingredients in a recipe I then round up to get and idea of the costs of the small items I did not include.   

Here is what I figured for last night’s meal: 

Black Bean Sloppy Joes:
Hamburger: $2.79
Black Beans: .95
Ketchup: $1.08
6oz tomato paste: .90  

Approx. cost: $5.72 or rounded up to $6.00  

Dinner Rolls:
Honey: .91
Whole Wheat (I grind my own wheat so this is the cost of the actual wheat berries, not the cost of flour):  .80
Oats: .05
Butter: .33
Eggs: .25  

Approx. cost of rolls: $2.34 or rounded to $2.50  

In the end, $8.50 fed my family a delicious, nutritious dinner plus I have leftovers.  If I had wanted to stretch this meal out for two full dinner meals for my family I could have added another cup or two of cooked beans and a little of the bean broth to give it the right consistency.  That would have increased the cost by just a few cents, and I may do that the next time I make this meal. 

Salsa Questions Answered..

My last blog post generated a few salsa questions.. 

Kristi asked…I have a question on the salsa - first of all, could I use Romas that I froze (with the intention of canning more pizza sauce? and secondly, how long will a gallon of the salsa keep in your fridge?  

Kristi, I have never made the salsa from frozen tomatoes.  The salsa is basically a fresh type salsa.  I am thinking that frozen tomatoes would work better in a cooked type of salsa. 

As for how long it keeps in the fridge? We eat our salsa up pretty fast, typically.  This last summer when I had some extra tomatoes I made two gallons at a time.  Some of that salsa sat in the fridge for well over a month and it was just fine.  The salsa is fermented (like making cabbage into sauerkraut) and that is what gives it the long shelf life. 

Shell from Ohio also asked how long it would keep.. so that was answered above. 

Last Question: I have a question on the salsa. Could I substitute anything for the whey? 

Well, no, not really.. if you want the fermented salsa.  Whey is very easy to get.  I have instructions on making sauerkraut on my site and it shows how to get whey from a yogurt:  http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/homemadekraut.htm   

I make feta cheese to get my whey.. that too is very easy and you get lots of whey from this.  You can freeze the whey too. Plus you get a jar of yummy feta cheese to enjoy as well!  Here is the recipe:  http://www.thefamilyhomestead.com/easyfetacheese.htm

Updates from the Homestead

Life on my homestead is humming right along.  I spent more days in town this last week than I like, but that is life sometimes. A trip to town takes about 45 minutes one way.  For starters, I had one day in town with Tobin.  We ran errands and bought some new tires for our van.  Another day I took Leanne to the community college so she could take her Biology CLEP..  and she passed!!!  She now has 40 credits towards her degree.    We are so very proud of her.   

The next trip into town was to meet up with my oldest son and his wife and they took Jacob and Isaac to their home for the weekend (The big Halo party LOL ).  Then Leanne, Sierra and I went fabric shopping.  We bought fabric for Sierra’s bedroom curtains and some fabric for her to make a skirt out of a pair of jeans. After that we went home, had lunch, I made dinner, got hubby out the door to work and we turned around and went back to town to take Leanne to her dance class (she has been taking ballroom dancing lessons since last summer), or I should say she took me.  She is working on getting her license so I try and let her drive any chance we have. We were finally home after 11:pm.  

Finally my last trip to town I met up with one of my daughters for coffee and picked up Jacob and Isaac.  Life in the country often means a lot of driving LOL..  So far this week has only had one trip into town…  However, I really did not mind it considering it was with my super fantastic hubby for our weekly date.  We’ll see how the last part of this week goes!   

I was happy to have food in my freezer to make into quick meals for a busy week.  In between all that running around I did manage to get 8 loaves of bread baked and made a gallon of my lacto fermented salsa.  I have not made any of it since the summer months.  I canned a lot of salsa and we are just about out of that so I figured it was time to make some.  We had enchiladas the day the salsa was ready and everyone agreed..  there is “nothing”  better than the taste of fresh salsa!!   I have loved the convenience of my canned but I think we are all spoiled now by the lacto fermented salsa.   

The weather has been just beautiful here in the PNW; unseasonably warm and sunny.  I am enjoying this little look into spring!  It’s getting me excited to get the garden going.   

Today I have several things on my to-do list… orders to pack up, laundry to move through, vacuuming and dusting, a visit with my daughter and granddaughter, and if the sunny weather is still with us, Tobin and I were going to do a little work in the garden… we will see what the day holds!  

Hope you all have a great Wednesday on your homestead! 

Rolled Oats and Quick Oats Clarified

I have had a couple of people leave comments on my last blog post (on making instant oatmeal mix) that I wanted to clarify: 

Teresa asked:
Can you use rolled oats instead of quick cooking oats? 

Quick oats are rolled oats..  they are just rolled thinner.  There is nothing different about them other than the size they are rolled.  The reason I use them instead of the regular rolled oats is that because they are not cooked they would not get soft enough for most peoples tastes.   

And Stacey asked:
I'm also wondering if you can use rolled oats or traditional oats in place of the quick cooking oats... 

Same answer as above..  quick oats are rolled or traditional oats.. they have just been rolled thinner.   

Hope that clarifies any confusion!! 

Trim the Budget: Breakfast Bargain

 Breakfast is a great meal to incorporate those low cost basic foods..  Grains make a nutritious and filling meal.  I am always looking to simplify my weekday breakfast routine in my home. I like to get breakfast done and over with quickly so we can move onto the important issues of the day.  One food my children like me to have on hand is Instant Oatmeal.  I like to have it because I know they will get a good and filling breakfast quickly while making a minimal amount of mess in the kitchen while they are at it!  

Today’s post will be on how to make your own instant oatmeal and a cost comparison of making your own to buying the little packets of Quaker Instant Oatmeal.   

Bulk Instant Oatmeal (the recipe can be found HERE ): Here is how you make it....

Gather together your ingredients

Take half the oats (10 cups) and run a few cups at a time through your food process or blender to make smaller

Combine them with the other 10 cups of oats and add the powdered milk, cinnamon and salt

Stir well and put in a gallon size jar

To make a serving combine ½ cup of the mix with 1 cup boiling water

Put something over the top of the bowl (I use a small plate) and let is sit for a few minutes

When it is done, stir  and it is ready to serve

You can add your sweetener of choice and a little milk for a yummy, quick, hot breakfast  

Now for the cost: 

Using the method of calculating costs of items that I posted in the last Trim the Budget blog post I came up with these numbers: 

$1.33 Powdered Milk
$2.09 Quick Oats (this was the price for the non organic oats) 

The cost was $3.42   

I did not calculate the cost of the cinnamon and salt but I don't believe it makes a significant change in the total amount.

At $3.42 I calculated this to cost 4 cents per ounce.   

Compared to buying a box of 10 instant oatmeal packets (Quaker Oats brand, regular, no flavoring or sugar added, total weight for one box was 11.8 oz) at: $3.84 per box (generic brands could be cheaper) brings the cost to 32.5 cents an ounce.  Even if you could find them cheaper the cost would still be very high compared to making it yourself.   

One last note of interest, the store bought instant oatmeal also has MSG added to it.  It is the second ingredient after oats.  The sweetened types also have sugar added, the second ingredient after oats with the MSG following in 3rd place.   

Homemade is not only way less expensive but much healthier as well! 

Garden Planning

Even though most gardens are still sleeping right now it is not too early to start thinking about this year’s garden.  If you plan to start any seeds you will want to do this in a bit.  I would love to do this myself, but seem to lack the space to make it happen.  My hubby had a few ideas for helping me make an area for this, so we will see how it goes this year.   

If you have never planted your own starters then you might find my friend Jennie’s article on this very helpful.  She wrote this for my newsletter a couple of years ago and I have it on my website HERE.   

If you purchase seeds online from the same place then you probably already have received catalogs in the mail.  I love looking through them and dreaming.  If you have not, then now would be the time to start ordering catalogs and making your seed lists.   

I thought it would be nice to have a page of resources on my website that listed garden seed companies. Aside from a few I know, I am sure there are more seed companies out there!   I prefer to know about companies that people have used and been happy with their seeds and service.  If you have a favorite seed company that you have used and feel good about recommending I would love to know about it and then add it to my up and coming resource page.  If you would leave the company name and link to their website in comments page or email the info to me I would so appreciate this!!  My email: crystal@thefamilyhomestead.com 

For now I will leave you with my two favorite companies: 

Territorial Seed: http://www.territorialseed.com/  (their specialty is seeds for those who garden in the Pacific Northwest)

Henry Fields: http://henryfields.com  

Happy Garden Planning!! 

Budget Minded: Homemade Floor Cleaner

Part of my grocery budget includes non food items such as plastic wrap, foil, zip baggies, cat food, and cleaners. So looking for ways to save on some of these items is a help.  I have found that making my own cleaners is quick, easy and a real budget saver.   

Here is how I make floor cleaner… 

I start with a ½ cup of vinegar…

Add one gallon of water…

A couple drops of essential oil of your choice is optional, but does add a nice scent…

All this plus a little elbow grease equals one clean kitchen floor!

I have more homemade cleaner recipes on my website HERE..

Trim the Budget: Calculating the Cost

 After making tonight’s low cost meal I thought I would share how you calculate the cost of food items that are a little trickier to figure out.  I am referring to things like pasta, rice, beans, etc..  how do you determine what a cup of pasta or beans cost?  You will need a small scale to do this.  Having a scale in the kitchen is very handy.  I bought a small postal scale from ebay years ago and have put to good use! 

The first thing you need to know is the price you paid for your item and how much it weighs.  Let’s use pasta for this example (I had to do this today to calculate how much I spent on my dinner, so it is an easy one for me to share).   I bought a 10lb box of whole wheat elbow macaroni from my food co-op Azure Standard.  I paid $21.35 for it.   The next step is to find out is what 1 cup of dry elbow macaroni weighs.  I put it on my scale and it weighed 5.4oz. 

There are 16 ounces in one pound so I multiplied 10 pounds by 16 which is 160 ounces in 10 pounds.

Next, I take the price I paid of $21.35 and divide by 160.

This gives a price of 13.3 cents per ounce.

Now I weighed 1 cup of elbow macaroni and it weighed 5.4 oz.  So, I take 13.3 cents per ounce and multiply it by 5.4  and this gives me 71.82 cents which I round to 72 cents per cup.

There you have it!!  You can calculate the cost of basic food items easily to help you determine what you are paying for each meal.  This really allows you to “know” how much you are spending on a meal and if it’s a frugal meal.  I remember looking at a website of “frugal recipes” and was surprised to find how many of the recipes were not frugal at all, at least in my budget.  Knowing what you pay can vary greatly from what you “think” you are paying. 

Every frugal meal you can make for your family will have a big impact on your monthly food budget. 

Now for tonight’s dinner…

I made Quick Beef Stroganoff.  This meal is easy to make and tastes delicious!!  My family really likes it.  The recipe made one pot of stroganoff that was enough to feed us for dinner, but did not leave much in the way of leftovers for my family size and appetite.  But, it was very budget friendly and that is the goal.  If you have a large family you may want to double it.  It fed 6 of us (one of my daughters was not home).  I served it with green beans (from last summer’s garden) and buttered homemade bread. 

Quick Beef Stroganoff



1 lb. Ground beef
½ cup chopped onions, opt.
1 1/2 cups elbow macaroni, uncooked—whole wheat if possible
Liquid mixture ( These ingredients need to come to a total of 4 cups):

½ cup plain yogurt or sour cream
2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 8 oz. can tomato sauce
Beef broth (or bouillon and water), filled up to the 4 cup mark
1 T. Italian seasonings
Salt, pepper

Brown the ground beef in large cooking pot, adding onions if desired. Drain beef and return to pan. Layer uncooked elbow macaroni over beef. Pour liquid mixture over beef and macaroni. DO NOT STIR Bring to boil and cover. Turn down heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes. Add green beans or salad and bread for a complete meal. This goes together very quickly and tastes very good!

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Cost for beef stroganoff  

2.79 ground beef
1.08 for pasta
.275 yogurt
.80 for one can organic tomato sauce

$4.95 total

You could round this up to $5.50 account for the cost of the spices, onions and so forth.

Updates from the Homestead

Well I think I have enough weddings for awhile!    My friend Sarah’s son Aaron was married yesterday. The wedding was beautiful!  I am so happy for Aaron and his new wife.. she is just the sweetest nicest young lady.   

I was going to be a helper in the kitchen during the reception.  The lady in charge of kitchen organization and all the food for the reception got sick that morning with the flu..  Sarah called (a bit in a panic) and asked if I could handle that job.. “sure”.. I said..    Well..  let me tell you.. there were about 140 people there  (maybe more) and it was a sit down dinner that we served.  I had some helpers in the kitchen to dish up plates and my girls and a couple more girls from Sarah’s church did the serving..  but that still left me in the kitchen the whole time.. coffee making, punch making as it ran out, dishes to wash (thankfully the church we were using had a commercial dishwasher that washed a load of dishes in less than 2 minutes..  I will have to say one thing..  I want one of those.. LOL!!!  )..  None the less it was a huge undertaking to just walk into.. and be in charge of..  whew..  I spent the whole day on my feet with no time for breaks..  But, I will have to say that Sarah was so thankful..  and I was so thankful to be able to help her out in a real time of need..  But now it is back to my regularly scheduled programming, sore feet and all, and I am very happy about moving on!!  

As we near the end of January I am always excited..  I think that spring will not be far off!  January is my least liked month of the year and it always seems sooo long.  One thing about both of these weddings is that it has made the month go by quickly!  This is also the half way point of our school year.  So far, despite all the busyness the kids are on track and will be at the half way point in their books by end of the month.  That always gets the kids excited too..  Summer break is just that much closer. 

I have also been working on one of my New Year goals.. making soap!  I got 30lbs made so far, and still have that much and maybe more to go.  So this week I will be gearing up for another 30lb batch of soap.                      

Well that is all the updates for this Sunday evening..  I will be back this week with more “Trim the Budget” posts!!   Hope you have a great evening on your homestead! 

Trim the Budget: The Cost of Healthy Eating

  The cost of some very basic items can really vary.  I am thinking of things like milk, eggs, butter, cheese, canned tomato products, etc..  I buy a lot dairy from Costco, except for my eggs.  I buy them from my food co-op Azure Standard.  This is where health vs budget comes into play.  You ultimately have to make choices in areas that are the most important to you and maintain your grocery budget.  If we make compromises to much in the area of food to save money we end up with health issues which could lead to other types of costs and in the end we really have not saved much.  Also I feel like the nutritional quality of so much refined food is so bad that in reality even those cheap prices are way too expensive for the bad quality that we are getting.  In the end the choice of how much you spend on better quality food and how much you save will be up to you.  I think we have to be good stewards of our money.  Shopping and spending wisely and living within our means must be a paramount.  Sometimes the reality is that you only have so much money to spend on food and you have to make it work!  

One of the ways I have been able to stay within my grocery budget and afford some better quality foods is to cook at home and not eat out (we rarely eat out), make a huge portion of our food from scratch and cook with lots of low cost basic foods such as beans and grains.  This savings has allowed me to make better quality choices when buying other foods.  Sometimes we make compromises.. I could say that “this” food item would be the very best quality but I will have to buy the less expensive alternative that is not quite so healthy to stay within our budget.   

You have to decide what areas you will compromise on and what areas you won’t.  For me, I stay completely away from any foods that contain hydrogenated oils.   I also do my best to avoid MSG in any form. I make my own bread because it is healthy and low cost.  I use better quality sweeteners (like organic sugars and honey) as often as I can.  If my budget is tight, I may use sugar occasionally and just a whole lot less of it.  Every step I do make towards healthy eating I look at as moving my family’s health in a positive direction.  

Here is another budget dinner to share with you.  Leanne made Sausage and Gravy over Biscuts for us tonight. 

Sausage and Gravy

2 lbs sausage (such as Jimmy Dean brand)
6 cups milk
¾ cup whole wheat pastry flour
Salt and pepper to taste 

Cook sausage.  Sprinkle flour over sausage and stir.  Add milk.  Stir. Bring to a boil and cook until thickened and continue to simmer for a couple minutes to cook flour.  Add salt and pepper to taste.   

The following biscuit recipe is my favorite!  These biscuits always come out so good! 

Biscuits

6 cups whole wheat pastry flour
2T baking powder
2T cane juice crystals or sugar
1t baking soda
2t salt
½ cup coconut oil
½ cup butter
2 ¼ cups cold milk or buttermilk 

Combine dry ingredients and mix well. Cut in coconut oil and butter until it resembles cornmeal.  Add milk (or buttermilk) and stir until moist.  Knead 4 or 5 times (try not to handle the dough any more than necessary, it will make lighter biscuits).  Cut with biscuit cutter or glass.  Bake at 450 for 15 to 17 minutes.  This recipe makes approx 3 dozen biscuits. I served this meal with orange slices.   

**NOTE** Both of these recipes are doubled.  It fed us (7 people) dinner with leftovers for another meal.     

I did not do a price breakdown due to time!  Sausage was most likely the biggest expense ($4.00 for 2lbs).  I have not taken the time to figure out the cost per cup of coconut oil.. so I will have to do that to get an accurate price breakdown.  You can sub all butter in the recipe if you don’t have coconut oil.  I am currently paying  about $1.75 for a pound of butter, which would make the cost of butter in the recipe .44 cents (double that if you used all butter).  But if I guessed I would say about $7.00 and to me that is not bad.  Feeding 7 people which includes hubby, me, daughters (ages 19,18, 14) and sons (ages 16, 12) for two meals makes this recipe budget friendly and pretty healthy as well!   

Happy Birthday to Jacob!!

Yesterday we celebrated my son Jacob’s birthday. Jacob is my 6th child and second boy.  He turned 16 years old.  The years just move by so quickly and I find it amazing to remember my sweet little baby boy who is now growing up into a wonderful, responsible young man. We are very proud of him!  

Jacob enjoyed a sleep over at our house over the weekend with a couple of his good friends. And yesterday we had pizza and cake and ice cream for his celebration.  Richard and Doneza came and so did Grandpa.  It was a very enjoyable evening and here are a few pics to share…

Sewing on the Homestead: Make an Easy Table Runner

I have wanted to make a table runner for awhile now and with all of life’s busyness as of late I did not have the time. I looked at stores and on ebay to see if I could buy something and did not really want to pay the prices I was seeing. I knew I had lots of fabric around that I might be able to put something together. I liked the idea of “shopping at home” for my fabric! Something just feels good about being resourceful with what I already have in my hand.

So I had a calm easy going afternoon over the weekend (have not had one of those in awhile! LOL) and I looked through my fabric, found some scraps that would work and came up with a plan. Here is what I made (all seams were ¼ inch):



I had a fat quarter (the green farm fabric) and I cut it to 10 ½ inches wide (and left it 18 inches long).


I had another red fabric that has black outlines of chickens on it. I used this for the boarders. I cut 2 pieces of fabric 4 ½ inches wide and 10 1/2 inches long. And the other 2 I cut 2 ½ inches wide and 27 inches long.

I sewed the 4 ½ inch pieces to the short ends of the main green fabric and pressed my seams open…



I then sewed the 2 ½ inch pieces to the long ends and pressed my seams open…

I cut a piece of interfacing the same size as my runner. If you use fusible interfacing you can iron it on. Mine was not fusible.….

I cut a piece of fabric from my red chicken fabric the same size as the table runner for the back. I put this on top of the table runner, right sides together…

I sewed around the runner leaving space to turn it right side out. When it was done I turned it right side out…

I ironed around the edges, turning the seam allowance for the unsewed area in. Then I top stitched all the way around the table runner, closing the open space in the process.

Then I put it on my table and enjoyed my creation..

I’m not really sure how much fabric you would need if you were to go out and buy what you needed… but my guess would be, 1 fat quarter and a yard or maybe less of the contrasting fabric for the sides and back and some interfacing.  But if you do a lot of sewing you (like me) most likely have scraps left from projects and fabric that you bought and never used..  this is a great project to use up some of that fabric and making something pretty for your home.

Low Cost Basic Foods to Lower the Grocery Budget

The best way I know how to reduce the amount of money I spend on groceries and still feed my family healthy meals is to utilize low cost basic foods.  Those basic foods are typically beans and grains.   

When I plan a meal I think grains and/or beans first, not meat.  The grains and beans are full of nutrition and the meat adds flavor to the meal.   

Last nights dinner is an example.  I made tuna patties.  I used brown rice instead of bread crumbs(as I usually do) because I had cooked rice in the frig.  On Wednesday night I made a big batch of brown rice.  For dinner on Wednesday I combined some leftover meatballs (leftover in the freezer from the wedding) and added cooked rice and homemade bbq sauce with them.  I put them in a 9x13 pan and sprinkled with a little bit of cheese and baked this until everything was hot.  I served the meal with a salad. 

Last night I took about 3 cups of leftover rice and combined this with 4 cans of tuna fish (drained).  I added 4 eggs, 1 cup of milk, and about 1 cup of flour.  I also added salt, pepper, seasoning salt, dried onions and a little soy sauce to season.  I fried about ¼ cup of the mixture per patty in olive oil.   

This meal was very inexpensive.  The tuna was about .45 cents a can ($2.00 rounded up), and the rice was about .20 cents and then there were eggs and milk.  I think $3.00 or less would cover the whole meal, depending on how much you spend for eggs and milk. 

I served this meal with corn on the cob and green beans (from my garden.. had it in the freezer).  This meal could also be served with a salad or canned green beans.   

  Now onto breakfast! This morning’s breakfast at my house prompted me to share this with you.  

 Oats are another low cost basic food, and the cheapest breakfast I know is oatmeal.  I serve it a lot.  The one thing that bugs me is leftover oatmeal.  I usually end up making more than we need.  Sometimes I make the leftover oatmeal into muffins.  Sometimes I put in the fridge and the next morning heat it up in the microwave and serve it again.  I really hate wasting it.  I have come up with another way to use it that is super easy…  I make fried oatmeal mush.  I take the leftover oatmeal and while it is still warm I put it in a loaf pan (I spray with Pam first).  Then cover it and put it in the fridge.  The next morning remove the loaf from the pan and slice it.  Fry it in butter and serve with a bit of maple syrup (homemade syrup is another way to cut costs).  

The price on this breakfast will vary depending on how much you pay for oats.  I buy my oats from my health food co-op Azure Standard.  Currently organic quick oats are costing me .16 cents a cup (that is $16.40 for a 25# bag.  The non organic oats are $10.45 making the cost per cup of dry oats about 10 cents a cup).  If I make my kids oatmeal using 4 to 5 cups - dry - of oats the cost is .80 cents for the organic oats, and it stretches over two mornings that is .40 cents a morning in oats that are filling and nutritional.   I call that a very healthy and inexpensive budget trimmer! 

New Year Goal: Trim the Grocery Budget!

Well now that the wedding is behind me I am on to thinking about my new year goals.  One big goal is to cut the grocery budget.  I still have 5 children at home and with the rising cost of food I am really refocusing on how to save money on groceries.  I am not implanting anything new here..  just a major refocus.  It is so easy to get distracted by the things of life and end up buying more than I would like, or buying foods that are marginally healthy but still expensive.  In order for me to save money I trade my time..  I think it is a worthwhile trade!  LOL..  hubby trades his time for money and I in turn trade my time to be a good steward of that money.   

So what are my plans?  They included utilizing healthy, low cost basic food items to create some yummy and delicious meals!   

Here is what I served for dinner last night and cost breakdown for the meal.  I need to update all the prices of my basic ingredients since I did this last.  When I updated the cost of my pinto beans I was shocked to see that I was paying $7.39 for a 25# bag in 2005 and now Azure Standard is charging $19.85 for a 25# bag!  I have updated the costs of last nights dinner for this calculation.   

Pinto Bean and Sausage Soup (recipe below)
Cornbread (I made a 9x13 pan, the recipe I linked to is for making an 9 inch pan. I doubled this recipe)
Salad

Total cost for this meal was approx. $7.75 

Here is a quick breakdown (this is for 7 people (4 adults, 2 teenagers and 1- 11yr old): 

Soup Costs
Pinto beans $1.28
1lb sausage $2.00
Rounded costs: $3.75 ( I rounded up to include cost of onion and seasonings) 

Cornbread
Whole wheat pastry flour: .45
Cornmeal: .28
Milk: .46
Olive oil: .80 

Rounded Costs ($1.99 as listed above, I added extra for the remaining ingredients) $2.50 

Salad Costs:
Salad is hard to break down..  so I am estimating $1.50 .. the price varies depending on what you put into a salad.  In the winter the least expensive veggies are cabbage and carrots.  I like to use romaine lettuce with chopped read cabbage and grated carrots.  The salad is nutritious, inexpensive and looks pretty!    I make my own salad dressings to cut costs.  I will be working up a price breakdown for those soon.   

I have soup leftover to feed for lunch today and will serve that with oranges and homemade bread.   

Pinto Bean and Sausage Soup
4 cups dry pinto beans
16 cups water
4t salt
1lb sausage (such as “Jimmy Dean” brand)
1 onion chopped
salt and pepper to taste
A few dashes of Tabasco for anyone wanting a little zip to the soup 

Early in the day begin cooking beans.  Combine the pinto beans, water and salt.  Bring to a boil, slowly reduce heat over 5 minutes.  Put lid on and reduce heat all the way to low.  This process helps prevent the beans from boiling over after you put the lid on.  Simmer the beans for 2 ½ hours or until nice and soft. 

When the beans are almost done cook the sausage and chopped onion in a frying pan until the sausage is no longer pink and the onions are soft.   

Drain some of the water out of the beans.  Add the cooked sausage and if needed you can add back in some of the water to get the soup consistency you desire.  I always add about ½ teaspoon pepper.  Taste and add more salt, if needed, to suit your taste.  Add a few dashes of Tabasco for a little zing..   

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I will be posting more menu ideas and cost breakdowns as I work on this for my grocery budget.

Laundry Soap Kits are back in stock at Crystal’s Country Store!

I am happy to say that my little country store is restocked with Orange and Lemongrass Laundry Soap Kits.  The Tide-like scent will be in stock very soon.   Thanks for your patients and understanding!  Click HERE for more info!