Using What You Have

I've been spending lots of time the last few weeks reflecting on this past year–the triumphs and struggles, the victories and failures. While doing so, I've been making out a list of concrete and realistic goals for 2010.

And I'm excited about what this next year holds–some of which involves this blog! I'll be sharing more details about some of my goals for 2010 and unveiling new features and additions to this blog (including a complete blog re-design!) over the next few weeks.

In the mean time, though, I wanted to tell you one big thing FishMama and I have up our sleeves. Instead of hosting another Freezer Cooking Day in January, we're going to be co-hosting a month-long Eat From the Pantry Challenge.

We realized in inventorying our cupboards, refrigerators, and freezers, that we have lots of food stocked up and many odds and ends which need to be used up. So during the month of January, we'll be challenging ourselves to stay out of the grocery store unless absolutely necessary and feed our families from what we already have on hand.

I've done this for a week or two at a time, but never for an entire month so it should certainly be an interesting adventure in creativity! We'll be blogging what we're eating, recipes we're concocting, and how we're pulling it off.

While no one is required to participate, we'd love to have you join us–whether for a week, two weeks, or the whole month!

Stay tuned for more details on the Eat From the Pantry Challenge coming early next week. If you're planning to participate, you can sign-up on the Facebook page here.

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Guest Post by Katie from Frugal Femina

Did you panic when you heard there might be a pumpkin shortage? My stores have plenty, but the rumors made me wonder what I would do in a pinch. At first I thought, "I can live without pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving."

Then someone posted on Twitter about making their own pie filling from a real, live pumpkin {gasp!}. So I thought I'd give it a try. You know what? It's easy to do, and your kiddos will love scooping out the seeds. Check out these tips.

Pie pumpkins are smaller than the kind you might use for carving–usually about 6-8 inches each. Walmart sells them for $0.78/lb. I got them for $3/pumpkin at a pumpkin farm. I got 5, because pumpkins are about 90% water, and I wanted to make sure I had enough.

I ended up with so much puree I had to freeze some in a plastic container. I love pumpkin, though, and will definitely put it to good use!

Here's how I turned the pumpkins from the pumpkin farm into pumpkin puree:

When I got home, I washed the pumpkin with plain water.

Then I cut off the stem.

Next, I cut the pumpkin in half with a large, serrated knife. I'm told
you're less likely to slip and cut yourself with a serrated knife. I
would much rather eat pumpkin than go to the ER. How 'bout you?

I scooped out the seeds/strings with an ice cream scoop. You can save the seeds to roast or plant next year. We did both.

I put the pumpkin halves in a dish with a couple of inches of water. I
didn't have a deep enough dish with a lid, so I just covered them with
a dish towel and  microwaved them for 30 minutes. You can cook them in
the oven, but it takes a little longer.

The skin slid right off the pumpkin once it was cooked through.

Next, I pureed it in the food processor until it was smooth. It took a
minute or two. You'll want to drain off any free-standing water.
And now you're ready to bake!

I ended up making:

Pumpkin Cookies

Pumpkin Coconut Bread

THE Pumpkin Dessert

Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal

Pumpkin Dinner Rolls (I served these with Cinnamon Honey Spread–1/2 cup softened butter or margarine blended with 1 cup powdered sugar,
1/4 cup honey, and
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon.)

Want more tips? Check out PickYourOwn.org. It's my favorite resource for all things preserving.

Katie is a pastor's wife, a stay-at-home mama of one little munchkin,
and a part-time nursing student. Her family lives in a little cabin on
a farm in Kentucky. Katie has been blogging since 2005, and she shares
fun and thrifty talk for a well-managed home at her latest project, Frugal Femina.

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It's been 14 days since I've stepped foot into a grocery store and four days that we've officially been eating from the pantry. I have to say, I'm rather enjoying this challenge and was excited with the meals I came up with today.

The funny thing is, I keep feeling like we have "nothing left in the cupboards and refrigerator" and while they are barer than usual, we keep finding plenty to eat. It just makes me realize how truly blessed we are in the abundance we have. And this challenge has reminded me of this anew.

Here's what we ate:

Breakfast: Leftover biscuits (from dinner last night) with butter and honey, apple slices, and scrambled eggs with cheese

Lunch: Tuna salad sandwiches on hamburger buns with carrot sticks

Snack: No bake cookies

Dinner: Steak, baked potatoes, green bean casserole, ice cream

If you're eating from your pantry this week, I'd love to hear what was on your menu today!

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photo by bkajino

Guest Post by Hannah and Abby from Safely Gathered In

Syndicated radio host Dave Ramsey advises his listeners to set up an emergency fund that consists of
three to six months of living expenses. The fund is for "just in case"
situations like job loss and medical or auto emergencies–basically a
source of cash for unexpected tough times.

Along this same line of
thinking, it is also smart to consider setting up an emergency fund of
food. Thinking of your long-term food needs is not only for
"gloom-and-doom" situations. By systematically storing food that your
family enjoys eating, you will be able to purchase the food on your
plan when it is at rock-bottom prices, learn to plan and budget better,
and give your family peace of mind.

Building
a three month supply of food can seem daunting at first—it is a lot of
food!  But it can be done. The first step is to plan meals you want to
store. It won't do you much good to just store random food items. 

Make
a menu plan and post it on your pantry door for easy reference. Ideally, you want to plan meals that only use non-perishable items so
your food storage isn't ruined if you lose electricity and your freezer
food thaws. Spaghetti, rice and beans, chicken pot pie, and vegetarian
taco soup are some excellent meals that can be made completely from
pantry (non-perishables) items.

Once your meals are planned
out, write down all the ingredients you need on one "Master List." Each time you visit the grocery store, look at what's on sale and stock
up reasonably on the things from your list. Or, you can just buy one
extra full meal every time you shop. Soon you will have a week of
extra meals, then a month, and so on.

A supply of food should
be built up slowly according to both your budget and plan. Do not go
into debt building your food storage—that's neither frugal or
responsible. Don't "hoard" food either. Only buy what you need and
what your family will enjoy eating. Then use it when you need it.

The
third important step in creating your emergency fund of food is
rotation. Even non-perishable food can spoil. This is why it's so
important to "store what you eat and eat what you store."

In order to
avoid wasting the money that you spent purchasing the non-perishable
food items, pay close attention to expiration dates, and devise a
system for rotation. For example, if you have cans of veggies or fruit
in your food storage, eat them. Then, when you replace the items
you've taken out, put the new food in the back so the old food gets
eaten first. Food storage is a constant cycle of buying, storing,
rotating, eating, and replacing.

Do we only serve food storage
meals to our families? Of course not! We like to try new food storage
recipes weekly and we also like to eat a lot of fresh foods in the
summertime. We
rotate our supply, usually eating at least one food storage meal per
week, sometimes more. Because the foods are non-perishable, there is
not any pressure to use them immediately. At the same time, if we don't
feel like cooking what we had planned for dinner, we can fall back on
one of the food storage classics, and no one will complain.

Just
recently, Abby and her family had a tight month financially with some
car issues. The one expense they could confidently cut was their food
budget. She stopped going to the grocery store completely except to get
a few things like milk, eggs, and a little produce. Did they starve?
Not at all! They ate delicious, nutritious meals. In fact, no one even
noticed she hadn't been shopping as long as they didn't look in her
fridge. 

Hannah and Abby share recipe ideas, food preservation
tutorials, and more information regarding food storage
at SafelyGatheredIn.blogspot.com.

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My family has a pear tree and lots of extra pears this year so my mom shared two big grocery sacks full of pears with us this week. I've been having fun coming up with creative ways to use them.

I've already made some pear sauce and am thinking of pear muffins or pear crisp, but I'd love to hear any and all ideas you all might have for ways to use the abundance of pears I have on my hands right now. I'm especially looking for very inexpensive, fairly simple ideas which are also nutritious.

Any input? I'll share what I end up doing with them in a post soon!

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Thanks to Jennifer for introducing me to this incredible new recipe website:

Supercook is a recipe search engine that finds recipes you can make with the ingredients you have at home. To begin, simply start adding ingredients you have. The more ingredients you add, the better the results will be.

Supercook is similar to AllRecipes.com, but is much more exhaustive. If you’ve ever needed ideas for in cooking from your pantry or doing a better job of using what you have on hand, you’ll definitely want to check this website out. You could add all the ingredients in your pantry, refrigerator, and freezer and come up with a whole week’s worth of recipes or more!

What a resource this will be–especially when you feel fresh out of ideas. Thanks so much, Jennifer!

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