First was to reduce the milk stash in the fridge. I took a gallon of milk and began the cheese process yesterday. Sadly I let it sit too long and it didn’t make cheese, but some kind of rubbery concoction. But I did manage to save 1/2 gallon of whey from the mix. I froze that since I just didn’t have time to do anything with it.

Then I took everything that could go in the deep freeze and froze it. The fresh ground flours, cheeses, yeast and meats.

This morning, I took the homemade yogurts and the half can of pineapple and made some pineapple yogurt to top our granola. YUM!

The next big challenge was the vegetables. So I cooked up the beets in the fridge to use on salads. Then I took the homemade pineapple vinegar, cabbage, onion, and carrots and whipped up some sauerkraut. That right there used up a lot of stuff out of the fridge.

Next project is to use up all the pineapple juice and make an Asian sauce for chicken. This is easy to make and can be frozen for future use.

So this was an unplanned “Cooking Day” but feeling good about all that’s getting accomplished.

So I bought the foil pans, prepared for casserole type meals, but didn’t use a one of them! Cooking casseroles is just not something we do often and I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. Basically I wanted my freezer like going down the frozen convenience food section at the grocery store – but natural of course. I wanted pieces of meals so that my kids could pull out what they wanted and create a home-cooked meal. Maybe I will get around to using those foil pans, but for now zip-loc bags have done the trick.

So this is what we came up with so far. I made a big batch of spaghetti sauce and froze it into meal sized portions. Zip-locs work great for sauces because if you freeze them flat, they stack nicely. I had also made pesto sauce and oriental pineapple sauce and froze those in zip-locs too. I bought 20 lbs of all-natural beef and cooked it into sloppy joes, chili, and meatballs. We ate one portion for dinner and then froze the rest. I made potato soup one day for lunch. I took the remaining broth and froze it so that we could defrost and just add potatoes one day. Since we received more squash and zucchini than I could eat fresh, I froze it too. I grated some zucchini for zucchini bread and froze it. I breaded some zucchini sticks and froze them, ready to be dropped in hot oil. Then I made a big pot of squish squash (or creamed squash) for dinner one night. We ate one portion for dinner, but then I froze the remainder. Now my husband can enjoy some squash when he comes home to visit from Afghanistan. I also froze corn on the cob as I got some each week. I ordered some organic stewing hens too so that we could create soups and dumplings in the crock pot. And don’t forget the few roasts in the freezer too.

I ordered a canning pack from our local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) this year, so I also have many things canned and ready to eat. Things like Pickled okra, pickles, green beans, jelly, pickled beets, whole and diced tomatoes, and canned fruit. Dried beans are also a great thing to can and have ready, but I haven’t gotten there yet.

My freezer is packed and my pantry is overflowing. I think we are ready to feed this family of soon-to-be-seven!

I have learned that you can get some good deals on Amazon.com and most qualify for the free shipping! Check that out.

Here is an excellent article written by Marilyn Moll and a link to testimonials following:

I received the following letter of inquiry about baking and grain storage:

Dear Marilyn,

“Looking at the prices for the grains, I don’t think it would be cheaper to buy and grind your own flour, so I’m wondering what the benefit would be. How would you store that much grain without bugs or vermin or mold getting into it? It seems like a fabulous idea, but how do I do it?” Connie G.

Here is my response:

Dear Connie:

Thanks for writing and asking great questions! Let me answer your questions one by one.

First of all, I do believe that when you compare homemade whole grain bread to commercial equivalents you will not only have significant cost savings but you will have the satisfaction of filling your home with a fragrant aroma and beautiful, nutritious loaves of bread that can not be compared easily to commercial bread.

Whole grain bread offers significant nutritional benefits because it contains at least 26 naturally occurring vitamins and minerals along with good quality fiber and wheat germ oil missing from commercial breads. The grain refining process removes the bran, and the wheat germ oil and most of the nutritional value. White refined flour has four B-vitamins left in it which are not in the original proportions. That’s It!

Consuming white flour product is like being robbed. Your body needs nutrient dense foods and refined flour baked goods are devoid of health enhancing nutrition.

Your body needs nutrient dense foods for good health. The term “nutrient dense” refers to foods that naturally contain a high spectrum of vitamins, and minerals. Spending our family’s precious grocery dollars on items that are largely manufactured and processed from inferior ingredients is associated with a number of common degenerative diseases, such as hemorrhoids, constipation, arthritis, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and allergies which are associated with low fiber diets along with the consumption of refined and processed foods.

Economics of Home baked bread

Recently, I calculated the cost of making Marilyn’s Famous Whole Wheat Bread. My cost came in at just over a dollar even at the higher cost of grain. There is probably less than 25 cents worth of grain in each commercial loaf of bread. Today, a 1 1/2 pound loaf of whole grain costs at least $4.00.

By using your own quality ingredients you will be able to make superior tasting bread for a lower cost because you will be eliminating the cost of the plastic disposable packaging, the bakery’s overhead for producing the bread, the transportation costs to ship the bread from the bakery to the store, the bakery manager’s salary, costs of undesirable ingredients and other costs of purchasing ready-made breads.

Depending on the size of your family and how many loaves of bread your family consumes each week, you can calculate the annual savings. For example, in my family, we consume four loaves of sandwich bread a week. Commercial equivalent bread costs $4.50 in my area. Compare $18.00 a week with $5.00 a week! If you make cinnamon rolls, dinner rolls, homemade pancakes, waffles, biscuits etc., you can quickly add up the savings over commercial flour.

Health Benefits

Several years back, a customer told me that she quit baking her homemade bread for a while, and that is when her son had an appendicitis attack. She believes it was related to returning to a white bread diet. The emergency surgery and hospital bills were covered by insurance, but their portion of the bill would have more than paid for a brand new mill and mixer.

The point I’m making is that when we take responsibility for our family’s health, medical bills can diminish dramatically. Another customer contacted me recently and reported that making nutritional changes in her family’s diet during a one year time period had cut their medical expenses in half that year compared to the previous year. This resulted in savings of over $1,000 for her family in medical and pharmacy bills. Our family has not needed to see a doctor for other than emergencies (a broken arm, a bike accident) or sports and camp physicals for many years.

Satisfaction

A mother who is busy at home cooking and baking from scratch for her family will enjoy the fruit of her labors not only financially and nutritionally but also in terms of better health. Her children will arise and call her blessed. Her husband will also. She will enjoy the intrinsic rewards of knowing that she has been a wise steward of her family’s resources and provided well for her family (Prov. 31).

Grain Storage

Whole grain can be stored for hundreds of years as long as it is stored cool and dry. The bran, or outer coating of grain, protects the each grain from deterioration until the bran is broken and ground into flour. Once flour is made, every particle of the flour is exposed to oxidation and nutritional deterioration.

I have always stored grain in six gallon plastic food grade pails or buckets in the coolest part of my house and never had any troubles with pests or mold. A cool place and a dry place are key. Storing whole grains is not only economically wise in uncertain times but nutritionally superior.

I also believe it is biblical to store grain as you recall the story of Joseph who was lead through dreams to store seven years worth of grain for a famine that lay ahead. I’m not predicting a famine, but I do believe in uncertain times grain and food storage is our protection against economic hardships.

More . . .

First thing you need to do is organize your freezer space. You can’t use it, if you can’t fit anything in there. If all you have is an above fridge freezer, don’t fear – you can make great use out of that space too! If you are blessed to have added freezer space in the form of a chest or upright, be thankful! I’m gonna focus mostly on the above fridge freezer since that is what most have. My freezer didn’t have any shelves in it for whatever reason, so I bought plastic shelves from Wal-Mart and placed a large one that was the same length as my freezer space. This gave me double room instantly! The next best thing you can do to conserve freezer space is the containers you use. I have never been a fan of buying matching square containers, but if that is in your budget or you already have some – enjoy! I actually use freezer bags. I fill them up, then lay them flat to freeze. They remain in a flat, stackable form. And you are using only the space you need. If you fill a square container half-full, you still have to use the whole space of the container.

Now that your freezer is looking better, what do you put in it other than frozen pizzas? Here are some of my suggestions:

Spaghetti Sauce – I make a large batch in the crock pot and then freeze meal portions in quart sized freezer bags. Stack and freeze.

Pizza Crust – Make the dough and roll out the pizza crusts. Bake at 400 for about 10-15 min. Then freeze flat. Once frozen you will need to package them in something. This can be tricky, but I found crock pot liners work pretty good!

Bread Rolls – I make a large batch of rolls, then set them on a cookie sheet to freeze. Once frozen solid, I place a meal portion in quart size bags. Obviously these won’t freeze flat, so they usually stack on the very top or in the door.

Veggie Stock – I take the ends of my celery, onions and carrots and turn it into yummy soup stock. Boil water with these leftover veggies with a little chicken boullion and salt and pepper for a few hours. Drain the liquid off the veggies and let cool before placing in gallon size bags. Freeze flat.

Taco or Sloppy Joe Meat – I try to make a double batch of these whenever I make them. Then take and store the extra meat in a labeled quart bag and freeze. It will be ready for a quick meal.

That list should get you started. Think up your own ideas and share!

The first thing that made the biggest difference in my meal planning success is the worksheet I use. If it is not easy to use, I’m not going to use it! I will be offering my meal planning worksheets for free to my readers soon. (So keep checking back!)

The second most important thing is to schedule time each week to plan your meals. I find doing any more than a week’s worth of meals at a time is overwhelming. I do my meal planning on Friday’s and my shopping on the weekend. But if you don’t schedule time to do this then it usually never gets done.

I also discovered that meal planning is great when mom is not home! I had to leave home for a retreat this weekend and I planned all the meals for my husband. I made sure he had all the ingredients he needed and that it was easy, nourishing meals. This sure beat my family eating fast food all weekend! Here is the menu that I planned for my husband:

Friday
Dinner – Roast and Fresh Spinach. I started the roast in my slow cooker Friday morning. All he had to do was cook up the spinach and serve.

Saturday
Breakfast – Granola. I made some the morning before.
Snack – Fruit
Lunch – leftovers. We usually eat the week’s leftovers on Friday’s for lunch. I just saved the leftover day for Saturday so all he had to do was heat up the food.
Snack – dried sausage
Dinner – Fajitas. I had defrosted the pre-seasoned fajita meat. My husband loves to cook outside on the pit, so this was fun for him.

Sunday
Breakfast – cereal. I don’t usually buy cereal, but I did for this occasion.
No snack because they were at church.
Lunch – bring coleslaw to the church potluck.
Snack – fruit
Dinner – dine out with mom.

Now my husband didn’t follow it exactly, but he did real close. He didn’t have to think about what to make them. I have to leave again this weekend to visit my sister and I have already planned out their meals. This worked great!