Status and Goals

I realized I've been doing this blog for 5 weeks now! I thought I should review what I've done so far and make some new goals.

I've made a roast a week and it's something I look forward to continuing. I made stock each week and used it to make soup (filled with tons of veggies and good fats) for the week *and* I finished eating all of it. I began a rotation of fermenting veggies and, surprisingly, found I *craved* them. I now have carrot sauerkraut to use and it's so good! I haven't had fast food in 1 month and I don't miss it. I also don't consider Chipotle fast food as nothing I eat there is fried and they focus on increasing the sustainability and health of the foods they provide (my standard order is rice, pinto beans, chicken, pico de gallo, guacamole and lettuce) and I've had it now 4 times in the last month. It is nice to have this option when life gets hectic (when your husband is in IT, has to be on call every so often plus work until 3 am some nights in addition to caring for two kids, a dog and maintaining a house...).

The Freedom Ranger chickens were good alternatives to the cornish cross chickens. We ended up with more meat than we wanted with the cornish cross so I think I'll order only Freedom Rangers now.

I made 3 batches of sofrito and put it in the freezer. It's not as much as I wanted to do in my first post but it's better than nothing!

We went gluten/dairy free so no bread on Sundays. :P

I got my UNFI order and put black beans and great northern beans into FoodSaver bags. I'm still in the process of "preserving" everything, but I have giant jars (originally purchased for Kombucha making which I'll get to eventually another time) filled with brown rice, white rice, and lentils. I have 18 lbs of raisins in 3 lb FoodSaver packages. All that is left is to "crispify" the walnuts, almonds and sunflower seeds. I was thinking about soaking beans then freezing them which is convenient but I want to maximize nutrients so I'm going to try soaking as I need them.

My goals for the next month are:

Sundays continue to be Roast Day. I will continue to make stock to use for soup for the week (though I need a new soup recipe, feel free to recommend one in comments!).

I will pick one day a week for a couple of weeks to be Beef Roast Day and I will likely use the crock pot. This day I will take advantage of having free of dinner prep and do something fun with the kids, whether that is the library or maybe apple picking? This will be a trial to see how difficult it is compared to normal dinner prep.

I will increase my fermented food intake to twice a day. I've been enjoying Polyface's breakfast sausage with my homemade sauerkraut at lunch. It's also good with roast chicken. My batch of ginger carrots was very salty so I hardly used it. Thanks to some ladies in one of my yahoo groups I've got some great ideas for other veggies to ferment. In fact, I have some radishes I don't know what I'm going to do with...

I will continue my UNFI ordering each month for maple syrup, nuts, cleaning supplies, and some other things I need to investigate my cupboards/household on. I've got a good stock of olive oil, beans, grains and raisins to last a long while.

I joined a local Mountain Rose Herbs coop where I'll be getting some cumin seed, mustard seed (both for adding flavor to ferments), garlic powder, chili flakes (both for making our own chili powder), and some other things as I see we need them.

I need to buy a pepper grinder of all things. I've been using those grocery store sized pepper grinders and I went through one in just a couple of weeks now that I'm cooking at home so much!

I will try to keep variety in meal planning - one steak, one whole chicken, one roast, one fish, one pork a week if possible. I can get wild caught frozen salmon through one of my farmer's connections straight from the boat in Alaska for around $10/lb, though I will need to figure out a plan other than weekly to get it as it's a drive I don't want to make every week. An added bonus is that I just discovered this coop charges $7 less for my cod liver oil capsules.. :D

The same coop I can get salmon from procures coffee from Sommo Coffees so I think I want to add that at some point. I have not investigated enough to see how the cost will impact me, though. I would like to move away from Dunkin Donuts coffee! I like supporting local businesses who support the same ideals I like to follow.