How many things in your cupboard do you take for granted? If you want to make tacos do you have all of the seasonings to add? Chili powder, cumin, cayenne pepper, etc? I know that I really rely on my variety of spices to make tasty meals. I like having an assortment of different spices …
Did you know that the USDA has a list of how much money we should be spending on food? It is actually a tiered list. The USDA Food Plans: Cost of Food states “The Thrifty, Low-Cost, Moderate-Cost and Liberal Food Plans each represent a nutritious diet at a different cost. The Thrifty Food Plan is …
The other day I posted about a wonderful and inexpensive legume that we’ve added to our food storage and menu. Whole peas come in at only 41 cents a pound (Azure Standard quantity 25 pounds). We made three tasty dishes with our peas. One was an Egg Foo Yung. These were very much like the …
Last year, my friend Andi shared this post on sprouting. I was totally intrigued by the sprouted peas. Especially the cost of those peas. $8.05 for 25 pounds seemed like a steal! I had to try them. Like everything, the price of these peas has increased. I got mine through Azure Standard. Today’s cost is …
Have you been working to increase your food storage but have stalled due to budget, lack of inspiration or just not sure what to do next? Last year I did a post about Real Food and Food Storage. Having a well stocked pantry is something that is still important to us in fact it may …
Okay, so maybe it is not a big event but I do find it quite fun that someone designated January as National Oatmeal Month. I really oatmeal so in honor of National Oatmeal Month I thought I’d share some of our favorite oatmeal recipes and uses. At less than 55 cents a pound, oatmeal is …
> When I first began this blog, one thing that I did was share our monthly food budget and the results of achieving (or not) that budget. Toward the end of 2010 I stopped that sharing for reasons I can’t even remember. Even though I haven’t been sharing our budget, we still have one and …
This is a delicious way to finish off a pot of beans. Usually by the end of my bean pot there are still some beans in it with quite a bit of the cooking liquid. Since I cook the beans in broth this is still a very nutrient dense liquid. We’ve talked about the wonderful …
A couple of weeks ago one of my friends gave me a lesson in pressure canning. A different friend taught me how to water bath can a couple of years ago but pressure canning is totally new to me. My pressure canning lesson was on meat. Using this post with instructions we canned 7 quarts …
> Something that has been on my mind as we do the GAPS Introduction diet is our food budget. When we began our real/whole/traditional foods journey we made slow and deliberate changes which really helped us to keep our food spending very close to what it had been when we were eating a Standard American …
Pinto Beans are prominently featured in my 13 Week Rotating Menu Plan on 3 different weeks (as Stretchy Beans) in those 3 plus months. Pintos have been a very familiar food for me since I was a child. My mama would make a big pot of pintos every Friday night and that was our food …
Since the beginning of the year I’ve been sharing my rotating menu each week. The other day, I was listening to a video and was reminded just why I put together this menu plan. Why we have Stretchy Beans three nights a week on the plan. Why the bulk of our meals are based on …
I have been spending quite a bit of time talking about my 13 Week Menu Plan. While my menu plan only lists dinners we really do eat other meals here too 🙂 I have already done a post on what we do for breakfasts and thought I would also share about lunches. Just like for …
Rice is one of our preferred side dishes. One reason is that rice goes well with beans and we sure do eat alot of beans! 😉 We usually have soaked brown rice but sometimes we have regular old white rice. I know that brown rice is a better choice nutritionally but Kiki and Lulu love …
I know that I have mentioned Stretchy Beans quite a bit lately as part of my 13 Week Menu Plan. It occurred to me that every time I mention them, it is part of another post or a page. I was thinking today that Stretchy Beans being incredibly popular and useful at my house …