Pantry Challenge - week 3

Our pantry challenge is still going, but we struggled a little this week.  We had lots going on and Kevin was gone for 4 days.  When we have a lot going on, we tend to eat quick & easy meals so we didn't use a lot of our meat and we ate a Subway a couple times with our gift card from Christmas.  When Kevin is gone we like to eat breakfasty type foods because he doesn't prefer breakfast for supper or lunch.  We had pancakes, waffles, sausage, and french toast.  This uses up baking ingredients and bread, but again not much meat or vegetables.  Hopefully this week we can get back on track and finish cleaning out that pantry!  Here is how I did on my goals:

Goal #1 - Spend less on groceries.  This week I ordered my groceries from Azure so it was my big spending week.  I ordered 38 pounds of oranges, 20 pounds of apples, 5 pounds of flax seed, and 25 pounds of oatmeal.  I spent $62.68.  I also had to buy a frozen pizza, a box pizza, and a bag of shredded cheese for a 4-H cooking lesson (comparing pizza costs, tastes, & prep time) which cost me $6.99.  Added to week 1 & 2 total of $11.58 - my total for January so far is now $74.26.  I am well under my $125 budget for the month, so if I can stick to it for next week I will be very happy with this challenge!

Goal #2 - Make more space in my cupboards.  I used 1 jar of pizza sauce from my pantry so I didn't get much accomplished here this week.

Goal #3 - Reduce the stuff in my freezer.  Didn't get far on this either.  Most of the meat I thawed out for the week is still in the refrigerator, so we will have to get that used right away this week.

Goal #4 - Have fun!  We had a lot of fun making pizzas for the 4-H lesson.  We learned that we will never again buy the pizza kit in a box.  The sauce was terrible, it cost more than homemade or frozen, and it took longer to prepare than homemade and frozen.  We did like the homemade pizza and frozen pizza about the same, but overall homemade pizza was cheaper per serving.  We also enjoyed making and eating waffles & pancakes this week.  We also made homemade pretzels this week - it was fun bending them into lots of different shapes!  We may not have accomplished much else, but at least we had fun this week!

How is your pantry challenge coming?  Want to see how everyone else is doing?  Check it out over at Good Cheap Eats.

All pain....No Gain

This post brought to you by Walgreens. All opinions are 100% mine.

Sometimes you need to fill a prescription by next week, so you place a mail order for a 90-day supply.  Sometimes you need a prescription on a Tuesday afternoon when you leave the doctors office, so you stop by your local pharmacy and get it that same day.  Sometimes you need a prescription on a Saturday night at 10pm because you just realized you ran out of medication.  It is times like this that you rely on Walgreens to help you out.  In fact, you might rely on Walgreens in all three of the above scenarios.  How would you feel if you were forced to fill your prescription at a different pharmacy, further away, with less convenient hours, fewer choices, and higher prices?

If your prescription insurance plan is managed by Express Script and you are a loyal Walgreens customer you may have to do just that.  Walgreens and Express Script were unable to come to an agreement when their 3 year contract ended on December 31, 2011.  What does this mean for you?  It means that to use your in-network pharmacy, you will have to go somewhere other than Walgreens.  And since Walgreens dispenses generic medications more often than other pharmacies, you may also have to purchase more expensive, name-brand medications.

Walgreens values your business.  They are taking steps to minimize the disruption by offering a special discount on their Walgreens Prescription Savings Club.  For the entire month of January, the price of annual membership is only $5 for an individual - a savings of over 70%.  Membership saves you money on over 8,000 medications, discounts on prescriptions & supplies, and bonuses when you purchase Walgreens and Nice! brand products. A family membership offers these benefits to you, your spouse, your dependents under age 22, and even your pets, for only $10 a year.

I 'liked' Walgreens on Facebook to show them my support for what they are doing.  I hope you will too!  You can also find Walgreens on Twitter to see the latest happenings and product updates.  Walgreens is in the business of serving their customers with convenient store locations, convenient hours, and competitive prices.

So look for the Express Script name on the back of your prescription insurance card to see if you are affected.  Then let Express Script know how you feel about this change.  Stop by your local Walgreens and sign up for the Walgreens Prescription Savings Club today.  Make your voice heard.  Don't settle for all pain, no gain.

Healthy Living - Eating REAL Food

The next step on our journey to healthy living was to eat more "real" food.  When I talk about real food, I am referring to food that generally doesn't come in a box off a shelf at the grocery store.  I recently heard a tip for eating healthy that recommended eating from the "perimeter" of the grocery store.  Generally, you will find fresh fruits and vegetables, refrigerated dairy products, fresh meat, and frozen foods around the perimeter of the store.  Most boxed, processed, & bottled foods come from the center shelves.   The fresher a food is, the less processing it has been through, the better it is for you.
You may be thinking that it costs more to eat fresh.  That's what I thought too.  However, if you watch for sales and shop smart you can eat healthy on a very small budget.  You can also find affordable fruits and vegetables at food co-ops (like Azure), farmers' markets, and from your own garden.  At first, it was hard for us to make this switch.  Like I mentioned before, I was trying to save money, not just eat healthier.  We started out by trying to eat more fruit and vegetables and less "boxed" convenience products.  We also grew lots of tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, beets, carrots, etc in our garden.  We were able to can a lot of veggies and ate them fresh from the garden as often as possible.  Once you are in the habit of eating fresh, it is easier to do so, even in the winter.  Now we order 20-30 pounds of fresh fruit from Azure every month.  Any fruit leftover at the end of the month is either frozen or canned to use later.  The fruit from Azure is much cheaper than our local grocery store and mostly organic.  We eat the vegetables we have canned ourselves, along with some fresh vegetables from the store when we can find it on sale.

Eating fresh is an important step in healthy living.  First, you get a lot more vitamins and minerals from your food.  The longer food sits or the more it gets processed, the fewer nutrients it retains.  Second, fresh foods do not usually have additives like artifical colors & flavors or sugars.  Third, fresh food tastes better.   Although fresh food may cost a little more initially, the savings will come in the form of fewer doctor visits and less supplements/vitamins.  Fresh food tastes better, nourishes your body more, and helps keep you healthy!

Pantry Challenge: Week 2

Week 2 of the the Pantry Challenge and we're still going strong!  I am starting to feel like I am actually accomplishing something this week.  Despite my busy schedule with all the new calves, we managed to eat most of our meals at home and only made one stop to the grocery store.

My first goal is to spend less money on groceries.  I did grab a bag of oranges and a head of lettuce while we were at the store.  The 5 lb. bag of oranges was on sale for $1.99 and the lettuce was $1.59.  So this week I spent $3.58.  That brings the total for January to $11.58.  :)

My second goal is to make more space in my cupboards.  We didn't eat a lot of canned food this week, but we did use up a couple things I have had forever, finished off the peaches, and are down to ONE package of Jell-o left.  We also finished off the last package of whole wheat spaghetti noodles (I bought several packages and it turned out we didn't like them so they have been tough to use up).

My third goal is to reduce the amount of stuff in my freezer.  With 3 baby calves to feed we are making quite a dent in the freezer half of it is full of frozen milk.  We also used up some more meat and a few packages of vegetables.

My fourth goal is to have fun.  I can't really say that I enjoyed cooking this week.  I mostly just tried to get through the week with all my extra chores to do.  I didn't try any new recipes, but we did make No-Bake Cookies with chocolate peanut butter - that turned out really good (and very chocolatey!).

If you are doing the pantry challenge, I hope it's going well!  If not, it's never too late to hop on board.  Head on over to Good Cheap Eats and see how everyone else's pantry challenge is going!

The craziness continues.....

Saturday morning my friend Dawn called to tell me about a cow she saw on Craigslist.  I checked out the pictures and had to call about it.  She was a 7 year old Jersey cow that had lost her calves in December and was now almost dry with mastitis in one quarter.  We came a negotiable price and on Monday morning we were off to buy a cow!  Arriving at the farm to see Molly, I realized that she was in worse shape than I had anticipated.  She was in a small pen in muck 6 inches deep.  She was not getting proper nutrition and the mastitis in the left rear quarter was out of control.  But Molly's personality completely won me over.  She was curious, friendly, and quiet.  She let us rub her and mess with her.  I knew we were taking her home.  I also knew I had a long road ahead with regards to helping her get healthy again.  She needed good food, minerals, decent hay, and a calf to clean up the mastitis (a calf can heal mastitis twice as fast as I can because of the constant butting/massaging the calf gives her).  She had a little milk in the other 3 quarters and I am hoping to bring her back to full milk by putting calves on her.  We stopped at the dairy on the way home and picked up 4 heifer calves - 2 Holsteins and 2 Jersey crosses.  We picked out the newest born calves we could find because they have the best chance at survival.  The dairy doesn't treat the calves real well, so it wasn't surprising that we did end up losing 1 this morning.  The other 3 calves are looking great.  Molly has adopted 2 of them (she wanted all 3, but we decided 2 would be enough for her to handle and we will bottle feed the other one).   Molly is already looking better and her mastitis is slowly, slowly loosening up.  Today I turned Molly and the 2 calves out into the pasture with the rest of my cows.  I am excited for the possibilities I have with her!

Molly

Molly's adopted calf - June

Molly's other adopted calf - Daisy

Bottle calf - Squirt

Squirt's barn buddy - Becky  (the lamb we got in December that was an "oops")

Amish Cake Pie

A couple months ago I got a cookbook called The Homestyle Amish Kitchen Cookbook - Plainly Delicious Recipes from the Simple Life.  It has some great recipes in it. I have tried several new recipes and have yet to be disappointed.  I really enjoy cooking homestyle foods from basic ingredients.  This week we tried "Cake Pie" and once again we were delighted with the results.  Here's how to make it:

Use your favorite pie crust recipe to make an 8 or 9 inch single pie crust.  Place this in your pie pan.
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1 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
1 cup flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Cream butter & sugar together.  Mix egg & milk together.  Mix flour and baking powder together.  Alternate adding milk/egg mixture and flour mixture - stirring after each addition.  Add the vanilla and mix well.  Set aside.
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4 Tbls. cocoa
1/2 cup sugar
6 Tbls. water
1/4 tsp. vanilla

Mix together cocoa, sugar, water & vanilla. 
Pour chocolate mixture into the unbaked pie shell.
Next pour the mixture you set aside on top of the chocolate mixture.  The chocolate will come up around the edges.  The pie crust will not be very full - don't worry it will rise during baking. 
Bake at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes - toothpick in center should come out clean.

Cool & Enjoy!

This recipe is unlike anything I have ever had before.  The center is cake-like (tastes like a homemade pound cake) with a thin layer of chocolate on the bottom and sides that is chocolate pie consistency & taste.  Of course, the whole thing is completed by pie crust (which I love!).  Very interesting & very yummy!  I will definitely be making this recipe again!

Pantry Challenge Week #1

The first week of my pantry challenge went well.  Here is an update on how I worked toward my goals for the first week:

My first goal is to reduce my spending for the month (and stay out of the grocery store).  I did have to go to the store, but it was for good reason :)  I found a coupon in my local ad to buy 2 bottles of grapefruit juice (on sale for 2/$4) and get a 5lb. bag of grapefruit for free.  I did this twice so I spent $8 this week on groceries.

My second goal is to make space in my cupboards.  I am mostly trying to get through the older stuff that I bought once upon a time and never used.  We made quite a dent in the pile of Jell-o I had in the pantry, we also ate about half of the case of peaches my mother-in-law gave me.  I also did some cupboard reorganizing this week.  Refilled and labeled most of my jars.  The pantry is looking good!

My third goal is to reduce the amount of meat in my freezer.  We are still plugging away on this.  I got out the meat for week and several bags of frozen veggies.

My fourth goal in the pantry challenge is to have fun.  I tried a new recipe this week (which I hope to share later this week), and I spent Saturday morning doing some baking for my family.  I love to put on an apron and spend the day in the kitchen baking up goodies and trying new things! :)

I hope your pantry challenge is going well!  I am excited to start week #2!

Phase II - Complete

Several months ago, when I got my last batch of broiler chicks for the summer, I had this idea to try and raise my own broiler chicks for next year.  I was told that broiler chickens cannot survive as long as most chickens because they grow too fast and will die of heart attacks or their legs will give out.  I was also told they cannot lay eggs.  And I was told that if I ever got them to lay eggs they would not be fertile or hatchable.  Well, if you know me, you know I don't like to listen when someone tells me something cannot be done.  I formulated a 3-phase plan to make my dream a reality and I started on Phase I. 
Phase I was to raise some broiler chickens well past the usual butchering age of 10 weeks.  I started with about 20 chicks and once I could tell the hens from the roosters, I sorted off 6 hens and 2 roosters to save.  I intentionally chose the smallest ones.  I continued to feed them reduced rations and at 10 weeks they were just over half the size of the others chickens that were ready to be butchered.  At about 15 weeks I let them out to live with my laying hens.  They were surprisingly sturdy and able to fly almost as high as the laying hens.  They walked a little slower and ate a little more, but at this stage I was pretty sure they were going to make it.  Unfortunately, I lost both of my roosters to two separate accidents on the road.  I guess now we know why chickens (especially stupid broiler roosters) should not cross the road.  Phase I - complete.
Phase II is to get the chickens to actually lay eggs.  I waited and watched for some white eggs to begin showing up in my henhouse.  In October and November my chickens all stopped laying completely, so I knew the broilers had yet to lay eggs despite being way past the age they should have started.  Finally in December the hens slowly started back up.  I was getting a white egg almost every day and even though I have a hen or two that lays white eggs, I was crossing my fingers that this egg belonged to a broiler.  In order to know for sure if this was one of their eggs, they needed to be separated.  This week I was able to get a space made for them in the barn and I put all 6 broiler hens and the rooster I  plan to cross them with in the barn.  Then I waited for the coveted eggs to appear.  I peeked in on them tonight and WOOHOO!  2 eggs!  Most surprising of all is that the eggs are BROWN!!  I had been expecting and looking for white eggs.  They may have been laying longer than I realized.  Oh, how I love proving people wrong!  Phase II - complete.
So on to Phase III - actually getting the eggs to hatch.  I am going to wait 1 week before I start collecting eggs because I don't want them fertilized by any of my other various roosters around.  Then I will collect 10-12 eggs and incubate them.  I should know about 6 weeks from now if my experiment was a success or a failure.  Stay tuned......