Expressions of Perceptions

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We eat a healthy non-gmo diet, mostly organic, so I don’t expect our food to be cheap.  I’d really like to lower my food budget, but I’m not sure how to.  I recently read a food article buy a woman who feeds her family of 6 (5 of whom are boys with double-digit ages!) on $600 a month.  Sadly, that woman puts me to shame, and we’re only a family of 5.  Her family eats mostly organic, and they do have a huge garden and fruit tress that they preserve the harvest from, but they don’t eat much meat, and they do eat alot of noodles.  Unfortunately, that wouldn’t fly at my house.  Not to mention, food in her area of the country is much cheaper than it is here.  (One example, my eggs cost over double the amount that she pays for her eggs.  Don’t even get me started on the price comparison for fruits and meat.)

My kids are still young, but they sure do eat alot.  And they’re not only picky, but one of them also has food allergies.  I have to try to cook food that both tastes good and is safe for my family to eat, and that’s quite a challenge.

My oldest child detests cheese, noodles, anything pickled, and anything spicy.  My middle child refuses meat, but loves her cheese and carbohydrates.  My youngest child is wonderful because he likes most things.  And my husband hates vegetables and will rarely eat fruit, and he’s pretty much opposed to anything that may even be remotely construed as healthy.

I think one of the reasons I spend so much money on food is because in trying to please everyone, every meal turns out to be a feast in which I prepare a main dish with multiple side dishes so that there’s sure to be something that everyone will eat.

Yes, it’s most likely my fault for letting my kids get so picky instead of just telling them to eat what’s on the table (although my mother-in-law bears the responsibility for my husband’s pickiness), but I swear they’d go on a week-long hunger strike, my husband included, if I did that.  Trust me, I’ve tried, but I worried they would starve if I didn’t cave.

Getting back on subject, my goal is to find some healthy, inexpensive, kid-friendly, husband-friendly recipes to make for the month of February.  I know I’ll experience some resistance at first, but I’ve got to try.  I’m hoping that making a meal calendar in advance will help me to plan my meals and shopping list, and perhaps swap out some more expensive meals for less expensive ones.  So, I’ve got my meal calendar made.  Now I’m going to see what I can change on it to make it less expensive yet equally nutritious.  I know I won’t be able to cut my food budget in half in a single month, but by planning ahead with my meal calendar, I’m hoping to whittle it down a little bit every month until it’s at least close to what I want it to be.

To measure a solid fat (coconut oil, lard, beef tallow) for a recipe, fill a large measuring cup with one cup of cold water.  Add the fat until the level of the water is 1 cup more than the amount of fat you need.  Drain the water, and your fat is perfectly measured!

You know I’m always touting healthy food, and you probably also know that eating healthy can be expensive sometimes.  Well, here’s your chance to try a free organic product: bouillon!  Technically, it’s “Better Than Bouillon”.

All you have to do is “like” their facebook page (located here), fill out your name and address on the giveaway page, and choose your preferred flavor  (I chose chicken).  Then, your FREE bouillon should arrive in about 12 business days.

Give it a try.  Get your freebie.  Then come back and let me know how you liked it!

Boy, time sure has gotten away from me lately.  Harvest season is upon us, and with it comes a LOT of work.  I’ve only got a small garden, but I’ve managed to grow tomatoes, zucchini, wax beans, peas, peppers, and more.  I try to eat as much of it as possible, but sometimes there’s just so much food that I need to preserve it so it doesn’t rot.

There are different food preservation techniques for different budgets, time constraints, and storage space.  I prefer to do the easiest method, which is freezing, but I just don’t have enough room in my freezer.  I plan to dehydrate some zucchini to use for zucchini bread later on this year.  I’d like to freeze a bit of corn.  Lately though, my method of preservation has been canning.

I’ve canned pickles, jelly, dilly beans, salsa, and tomato sauce.  Some of the produce was given to me, some of it I grew myself, and some of it I bought.  A farm not too far away had “pick your own” tomatoes for 25-cents per pound, so I took my kids, who didn’t trample a single tomato in the whole field, and we picked 29 1/2 pounds for a total of $7.37, hence the tomato sauce.

My dad picked me some apples, and I picked some apples from the trees of other family and friends, and I made and canned some delicious apple jelly without even adding any extra pectin.  It’s nice to know where my food is coming from.  It’s even nicer to think of how much money I’m saving by making, rather than buying, canned products.

So, here’s a short description of the 3 basic preservation methods I listed:

1.  Freezing:  Aside from the food and cutting boards and utensils, you’ll need a pot to in which blanch your produce, a bowl for ice water in which to cool your produce, zip-top freezer bags, and a freezer.  There’s minimal investment necessary, with plastic bags for about $2-3 per box being your main purchase, unless you don’t have a freezer.

2.  Dehydrating:  Aside from the food and cutting boards and utensils, you’ll need a dehydrator and something in which to store your dehydrated food.  Dehydrators can range from around $35 – $300 depending on the quality.  (I own an Excalibur brand dehydrator that I absolutely love, especially for making homemade fruit leather and fruit roll ups.)  If your oven temperature is low enough, you may be able to use it instead.  I’ve used an oven to make jerky before, but have never tried it for dehydrating fruits or vegetables.  You could store your dehydrated food in plastic bags, canning jars, kitchen containers, or any other food grade airtight storage containers.

3.  Canning:  I think canning is by far the most expensive and time consuming if you’re new to preserving.  Besides the food and cutting boards and utensils, you’ll need a canner (either a water bath canner or a pressure canner, depending on what you’re canning), canning jars and lids and rings, and possibly a jar lifter and/or other specialty canning gadgets.  The initial investment for canning can be quite expensive, especially when buying jars.  Canners can cost $40+, with the pressure canners that I’ve seen almost always costing more than $120.  A dozen jars with lids and rings usually ranges anywhere from $8-$15, depending on the size and style.  Although the initial investment is expensive, the canner, jars, and rings are reusable.  After the initial purchase, you should only need to purchase new lids every year.  A dozen lids usually costs around $3 in my area.  Although a good book on canning would be beneficial, you could always borrow one from your local library.

Those are the 3 basic food preservation methods.  Lacto-fermenting is also great (and healthy) method of preservation, and I do make lacto-fermented pickles that my kids love, but I don’t know quite enough about the fermentation process yet to include it in this article.

Food is our biggest expense.  Maybe we eat a lot.  Maybe we’re food snobs.  Maybe food is just incredibly expensive.  Perhaps, it’s a combination of all of those things and more.  Nonetheless, I’m trying to lower my monthly food budget, and I’m not willing to replace healthy foods with junk food to accomplish it.

I buy a lot of organic foods, mainly so I know they’re not genetically modified, but also to avoid chemical pesticides and other toxins.  It’s not possible for me to buy everything organic, so I buy what I can organic and either skip other things or buy them conventionally grown.  There is a better way to decide what to buy organic though, at least as far as produce is concerned.

Have you ever heard of the “Dirty Dozen” list or the “Clean 15″ list?  The Environmental Working Group has a “Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce” that lists the top 12 produce items with the most pesticide residues and the 15 produce items with the least amount of pesticide residues.  You can find it free at www.EWG.org

For example, did you know that apples are ranked #1 on the “Dirty Dozen” list?  Onions are #1 on the “Clean 15″ list.  Using that guide, I know that I need to buy organic apples, but I don’t necessarily need to buy my onions organic.

The EWG’s Shopper’s Guide is only for produce though.  It won’t tell you that non-organic butter is the single most contaminated food overall.  It also won’t tell you that the pesticides on the foods that animals eat like to hang around in their bodies, get stored in their fat, and are excreted in their milk.  Nonetheless, it’s a valuable tool for your organic versus conventional produce choices if you’re concerned about pesticides.

What’s worse than pesticides though is genetically modified (cloned) “foods”.  I use the term “food” loosely here.  Thank God there’s a guide for that, too.  The Non-GMO Shopping Guide is an invaluable little booklet that helps you steer clear of gmo’s.  They’re in practically every packaged food there is that isn’t organic, which is the main reason why I buy organic: to avoid gmo’s.

You can download the non-gmo shopping guide for free at www.NonGMOShoppingGuide.com  The guide also lists brands that are enrolled in the non-gmo project.

With that information, I was able to see that since Kettle brand (not “kettle style”) potato chips are gmo-free, I don’t have to buy organic potato chips when we occasionally splurge on junk food.  Gmo-free is fine by me for an occasional treat.

One more incredibly helpful bit of information for avoiding gmo’s  and/or determining if your produce is organic, conventionally grown, or genetically modified (cloned) is found at http://www.marksdailyapple.com/cracking-the-code/

It lets you know what those little stickers with the PLU code on your produce mean.  For example, a 4-digit code on the sticker means it’s conventionally grown with chemical assistance, a five-digit code that begins with a 9 pertains to organically grown produce, and a five-digit code beginning with the number 8 applies only to genetically engineered (cloned) items.

Of course I will advocate organic as much as possible.  It’s clearly the best for both your body and the environment, but if you can only afford to buy some organics, it’s important to have the information to make an educated decision regarding what to splurge on for organic and what not to fret too much about if you buy it conventional.

A couple weeks ago, I was generously given some green beans, and I had some yellow beans in my garden.  I love fresh beans cooked in salt and butter, but I had tried (and liked) a “dilly bean” once, and it is canning season, so I thought I’d try my hand at canning a batch of dilly beans.

Now if you know me, you know I’m not really one to follow a recipe.  I just can’t leave well enough alone.  I’ve got to personalize it and make it my very own.

Well, I made a batch of dilly beans, gave a jar to the person that gave me the green beans, and put the rest of the jars of beans in my basement.  I actually forgot about them until one day when I was grocery shopping and had a woman come up to me and exclaim “I have got to have your recipe!”  Of course I replied “Okay.  Which one?”  (See, I can be easy to get along with.)  To which, she gushed about how much she loved my dilly beans that had been shared with her by the man who gave me the green beans.

You can find the recipe for dilly beans in many canning books.  That’s where I found the recipe… before I “personalized” it.  I made a few minor changes, like the type of vinegar, but apparently they made for a great tasting bean, and I was even told that the juice would make a great salad dressing.  So, at the risk of sharing my “secret recipe”, here’s how I made them:

Dilly Beans

 2 lbs. fresh green or yellow beans

1/4 c. canning salt (I used sea salt.)

2 c. vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar, Bragg brand with 5% acidity.)

2 c. water

4 cloves garlic

4-6 tsp. dried dill weed

~ 1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes (I was out of flakes, so I added a few dashes of Red Hot to each jar.)

 Yield: 4 pints

Wash and trim ends from beans.  Cut into 4-inch pieces, or small enough to fit in the jars.  Place beans in jars, leaving 1/2-inch headspace.  Add 1 clove garlic, 1 to 1 1/2 tsp. dill weed, and a pinch of red pepper flakes (or hot sauce) to each sterilized pint jar.

In a pot on the stove, combine water, vinegar, and salt.  Bring to a boil to dissolve the salt.  Stir.  Pour hot liquid over beans, leaving 1/2-inch headspace.

Adjust lids and process in a boiling water canner for 10 minutes (for an altitude of 1,001-6,000 feet).  (As of 3/13/2011, the town in which I live has an altitude of 1,732 feet, with the county’s altitude ranging from 1,600-1,900 feet.)

We’ve got family coming in from California tomorrow. We’re excited to visit with them, but I’m also busy trying to think of quick, easy, inexpensive foods to serve. I like having company. Family is a blessing, not a burden, but entertaining does bring with it more expenses. Here are some tips to help you serve inexpensive end-of-the-summer picnics:

1. Choose an inexpensive protein. Picnics don’t have to have fried chicken, grilled burgers, or even cold cuts. (Just ask a vegetarian!) Protein is expensive. Rather than making meat the main course, serve a variety of side dishes with deviled eggs and/or baked beans as the protein sources.

2. Serve pasta. Pasta salads are easy inexpensive dishes that are easy to make in large batches.

3. Serve local in-season fruit. You don’t have to go all out with a tropical or extravagant fruit salad. A simple tray of watermelon would work just as well as a bowl of mandarin orange salad with pine nuts and toasted coconut.

4. Serve beverages in pitchers. You don’t have to offer bottles of water or cans of soda. You can easily make pitchers of water, lemonade, and iced tea for much less than the cost of individual beverages.

5. Make it a potluck. Unless your guests are traveling a great distance to see you, it couldn’t hurt to ask them to bring a side dish or dessert.

6. Exclude dessert. Desserts can get expensive, especially fruit pies and cheesecakes. If you’re already serving fruit, guests can satisfy their sweet tooth with fresh fruit.

7. Serve what you’ve got. If you’re growing a garden, serve a lot of vegetable dishes lke salads and crudites.

8. Make it a theme party. Theme parties narrow down the variety of dishes and can greatly reduce the price of a picnic. Make it a salad and dessert party, a garden harvest party, or a pastapalooza.

9. Be careful what time you schedule the party. If you have a party at or around a meal time, such as lunch or dinner, guests will eat more. If your party is at a time like 2-4 pm, your guests won’t be as hungry, so you won’t have to provide as much food.

I pick up my farm share from Sage Meadow, a health food store in the neighboring town of Clarion, PA.  While I was there one day, I saw “Organic Chicken” advertised for $2.75 per pound.  I asked the owner about it and was told that it was organic, what farm it came from, and that the farmer also sold it at the farmer’s market.  A few weeks later, I went to the farmer’s market, met the farmer, and asked him about his chicken.  He told me that his chickens are fed commercial feed, non-organic commercial feed.  That means that the chicken isn’t really organic.

Now, without discussing the pros and cons of buying organic, it just isn’t right that the chicken is being sold as “organic” if it really isn’t.

I told the owner of the health food store, but she never changed the sign.  Weeks later, it still reads “Organic Chicken $2.75/pound”.

So, what’s the big deal?  The big deal is that people are being lied to and deceived out of their money!  They could get the same chicken at Walmart for a lot less money, but they truly believe that they’re buying organic.

What would you do if you knew that someone was charging more for something that was being falsely advertised?  I truly want to know.  This really bothers me that people are being deceived and paying more for this falsely advertised food.

And if you still think I’m making a big deal about the whole organic thing, replace the word “organic” with :”kosher”, “vegan”, “hypoallergenic”, or some other term that gets people to spend more money for a particular type of product.  False advertising is wrong no matter what the product is.

So, tell me, I really want to know:  What would you do???

A couple of months ago, I ordered a cow.  Yes, that greatly excited two of my children who thought we were getting a real live cow.  My oldest, who is actually only 4 years old, knew differently.  I ordered a cow, but, as she told her siblings, it would be “all cut up to put in the freezer”.

Originally, I was just going to buy half a cow, but I bought a chest freezer for only $40 from a distant relative, so I ordered a whole cow.  Since the farm I ordered from only slaughters once a year, I ordered some chicken from my food co-op to tide us over until our beef was ready.

When my co-op order came in, the chicken didn’t.  I was a bit disappointed at first, but it didn’t take me more than a day or two to completely forget about it.  I made due with the meat that I had.

Then, a woman from the farm called to let me know that my cow would be ready a week early.  Woohoo!  I was practically ecstatic as I loaded 524 pounds of organically raised grass-fed beef into my freezers.  (Yes, I did need 2 freezers, my upright and a small chest freezer.)  When my next co-op order came in though, the chicken that I had previously ordered arrived with it – all 12 packs of organic boneless skinless chicken thighs!

I did my best to arrange the freezers to fit the abundance of meat I now possessed.  It wasn’t easy, but I got it all crammed in with barely an inch of room to spare!

So by now, you’re probably thinking about how incredibly rich I must be to be able to afford to buy an entire cow, and maybe even a small flock of chickens – or at least their thighs.  Well, I’m sorry to say, but I’m not rich.  My secret is this: I budget.

My cow cost $2.75 per pound, for a total cost of $1441.  The chicken came out of my regular monthly food budget, but the cow I had to save up for.  Since the beef is only available once a year, I’ve got 12 months to save up to afford it.  I had figured on it costing about $1200, so that meant saving $100 per month to afford it.  Saving $100 sounds difficult, but I actually have “cow” on the bills section of my monthly budget.  I treat it just like a regular bill and set aside the money in a savings account for non-regular bills (bills due yearly, quarterly, etc.).

Saving up the first year may be difficult.  The first year, I only bought a quarter of a cow.  The second year I planned on buying a half.  Once you’ve got some beef in your freezer, you can begin saving money that you would have spent on groceries to pay for the following year’s cow, or half or quarter.

Once you’ve got a year’s worth of meat in your freezer, you can start deducting the amount you save up to buy it from the food category of your monthly budget.  Not only does it get easier to afford it, especially at the greatly discounted rate you get by buying in bulk from a farm, but it also saves time and energy not having to go grocery shopping as often.  Those are of course beneficial, but you could save in another way, too.  By purchasing and consuming healthy meat instead of grain-fed, hormone-injected, antibiotic-fed, factory farmed meat, you can improve your family’s health and save money on doctor bills.

For information on buying from a farm in your area, ask around, drive around, check your telephone book, or visit www.LocalHarvest.org

I was talking with a friend of mine about how expensive food is and was pretty relieved when she admitted that food was her biggest monthly expense.  Food is my biggest monthly expense, too, but I’ve read so many places about what percentage of your income you should spend on food, housing, and other things that I felt a little squeamish about “food” being my biggest budget category.  My budget works for me, but at times I’ve still felt a bit, for lack of a better word, abnormal about how my money is spent.

Of course since I find it difficult to have a conversation about money without bringing in the word “budget”, I asked my friend if she budgeted.  She said that she did but that she “always blows the food part of it”.

I used to have that problem, too.  I tried, I really tried, but I just couldn’t stay within the amount I allotted for food.  I hated seeing that I was $100 (or more) over-budget in my food category.  It made me want to quit budgeting all together.  I’d still spend money, but without a budget, I wouldn’t have to stare failure in the face every month.

Spending, however, wasn’t really my problem.  My problem was that I was too strict with myself.  I was trying to cut too much to fast.  I wanted to not spend so much on food, so I budgeted much less than I actually spent.  I didn’t give myself a chance to slowly adjust to spending less.  Instead, I jumped right in to an unrealistic budget.

Eventually, I gave in to my food spending and just raised the amount I budgeted for food every month.  In doing so, I did cut back on the money I budgeted for other categories, but something needed to be done.  I spent less money on unnecessary purchases, like toys, and was able to finally have a balanced budget.

Food is still my biggest monthly expense, but with my more realistic monthly allotment, I manage to not over-spend anymore. 

I wish that was something that other people would better understand.  There is no one-size-fits-all budget that can tell you exactly what percentage of your income to put toward each specific expense.  Your budget is up to you.  It doesn’t matter if you spend $800 per month on food while your neighbor spends only $400.  Do what works for you.  Don’t compare your budget to anyone else’s.  For all you know, your neighbor who spends $400 a month on food may be eating oatmeal for dinner 3 nights a week so she can spend the other $400 to pay off credit card debt, buy a vacation home, or take care of an elderly parent.

Your budget should only be about what works for you.  If it’s not working for you, adjust it until it does.  If you need help, ask for help.  But whatever you do, don’t quit trying.  Your efforts will pay off.  Trust me.  I’ve struggled, too, but it gets easier, especially when you give up unrealistic expectations.