Having totally fallen off the wagon, we are working our way back on to the wagon. Life got a little overwhelming for a while for no good reason and we're settling back into a routine. We still eat about 90% pastured/grassfed meat but still supplement from the grocery store if we run out. The majority of our produce is from the grocery store as the growing season ramps up. However, this year, I started my *own* (first!) garden (which was an adventure in getting HOA approval!) and will hopefully have an abundance of peppers, tomatoes, onions, carrots, squashes, melons, lettuce, chard, beets, peas, pole beans and various herbs.
The big reason I'm bringing this journal back is because we have decided to start the GAPS journey. GAPS stands for Gut And Psychology Syndrome. The theory behind it is based on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet which was developed to help people with various intestinal problems and, later, autism (there is a common problem found in the gut of autistic children called Autistic Enterocolitis however it's pretty controversial because the doctor who found it has been discredited, but parents are still seeing relief for their children nonetheless which is the most important thing). Dr. Campbell-McBride saw relief with her own son on the SCD and expanded upon it then started noticing common things with her own patients (from autism to ADHD to even schizophrenia finding relief). It all comes down to the balance of gut flora, which has become a pretty popular/mainstream concept lately. That gut flora is put out of balance whether that's from prescription drugs, poor eating habits, various toxins, etc. What you're doing with GAPS is starving off the bad and supplementing with the good and feeding the existing good bacteria bringing your system back into balance.
Personally this makes a lot of sense. I am the fourth generation of formula fed children and was born via cesarean section (as were, sadly, both of my children). This is significant because children are born with sterile guts. Their guts are populated when passing through the birth canal and later through breastfeeding. However, when your gut is already compromised (like mine) then chances are you are passing along the same imbalanced flora. There are a variety of personal reasons for doing GAPS for myself - acne, asthma, seasonal allergies, and a variety of other mental snafus that overlap each other. I experienced my own gut issues in my teenage years into my early 20s and witnessed my daughter having her own gut issues as early as 6 weeks old. Let me tell you, nothing makes you feel more helpless than to know something is going on with your child and not knowing how to fix it. DH suffers from a variety of things and wouldn't it be nice to see relief, even if not 100%?
I know it is a lot of anecdotal evidence but really, funding is pretty limited for studies and the human body is so complex. There is so much we don't know that I can't imagine wasting time waiting to see if this is proven when I could just try it and see for myself. In addition, the primal lifestyle is VERY appealing to my husband and I, and there's not much difference between it and GAPS.
For the last few weeks I've been working on reading the GAPS book, the GAPS Guide book, and various websites/blogs I can come across with others' experiences. I joined the yahoo group. I already do things like cook with coconut oil, and make bone broth (well, from chicken at least), and ferment my own vegetables, and purchase pastured eggs/meat. I have made kefir before. However in the last week I have made ghee for the first time, and I picked apart a chicken and put everything that wasn't bone or tough cartiledge into a food processor for "chicken pate" to mix in with soups. I made Nutty Blueberry Protein Balls (walnuts, macadamia nuts, coconut oil, shredded coconut and fresh blueberries), Lemon/Blueberry/Pecan bars, attempted Cinnamon Apple Pecan bars (but it was crumbly, needs raisins or dates to hold it together), and I'm trying to get in the habit of making more soup.
This week I'll be getting some fermented cod liver oil (to add, small amounts at a time, to soup), beef soup bones (to make beef bone broth and beef pate), and hopefully I'll find some gherkins to make homemade fermented pickles. I also want find a good fermented salsa recipe so I can make dehydrated zucchini chips to eat with it. We are working on phasing out all of our non-GAPS/primal food and are down to some beans, rice and flour. I'll be trying out various recipes this week to keep food available to us so I'll be posting those relatively frequently.
I'm going to aim to post an update every day just so I can keep track of what we're eating and how we're feeling, though I want to be realistic that it may only happen every few days or a week. ;)
Monday, May 30, 2011
Friday, December 3, 2010
Fell Off the Wagon
This is one of the harder posts to write. I'm being accountable, right? I'm drinking soda every day. We're still eating well when I cook but things got crazy around here. Fast food and delivery and yadda yadda yadda crept back in. It's so *easy*.
Last night I made a garlic rosemary grassfed chuck roast. It cooked all day in the oven at 170 degrees and was *so* good. I can hardly wait for leftovers tonight. A friend of mine sent me some of her pink and blue potatoes which was nice to fry up on the side.
The holidays have been proven to be difficult. Trying to get things done, buy gifts, and not having a lot of money to spend are all factors in it. I have to figure out which is more important - the experience of Christmas or eating well?
Add to that my perfectionist streak and you can see why it was so easy to fall off the wagon. It's just easier to give up entirely than to do "what you can" and never truly be able to define it - and always think you could have done more.
I'm starting over again, and trying to get around to posting here more often. I've now got a stockpile going of meats in the freezer. I'll be sitting down here shortly in the small amount of quiet I have to write out a meal plan and grocery list and to do list. If I don't defrost something in time then I need to have a backup. I also need to get the gluten and dairy back out of my diet. It's affecting my ability to deal with life.
Last night I made a garlic rosemary grassfed chuck roast. It cooked all day in the oven at 170 degrees and was *so* good. I can hardly wait for leftovers tonight. A friend of mine sent me some of her pink and blue potatoes which was nice to fry up on the side.
The holidays have been proven to be difficult. Trying to get things done, buy gifts, and not having a lot of money to spend are all factors in it. I have to figure out which is more important - the experience of Christmas or eating well?
Add to that my perfectionist streak and you can see why it was so easy to fall off the wagon. It's just easier to give up entirely than to do "what you can" and never truly be able to define it - and always think you could have done more.
I'm starting over again, and trying to get around to posting here more often. I've now got a stockpile going of meats in the freezer. I'll be sitting down here shortly in the small amount of quiet I have to write out a meal plan and grocery list and to do list. If I don't defrost something in time then I need to have a backup. I also need to get the gluten and dairy back out of my diet. It's affecting my ability to deal with life.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
October Financials and November Goals
Wow. From 9/27 to 10/27 we have spent $1,000 on groceries. That is almost double my budget! Time to reign that in a little bit. So here's the plan for 11/1/2010 to 12/1/2010:
Weekly Food: Normally ~$30 ($6.20 for dairy for DH, $13 for sirloin steak, $10 for a couple heads of cabbage, red beets, collards, whatever other veggie he has available). I will increase this by another $30 for 1 lb ground pork, 1 medium (4 lb) broiler chicken, 1 dozen eggs and 1 lb breakfast sausage.
Monthly UNFI coop: I spent $115 this month including a $30-something credit from last months HUGE bulk order. I got maple syrup, tortilla chips, buckwheat flour (pancakes), hazelnut milk (for coffee), and bacon basically removing my need to go to Wegman's every week for said flour and milk and removing the temptation to spend more money. I will keep this at $115 for next month.
Monthly Salmon/Coffee: This is a new one for me that I'll be starting 10/28. I will buy 4x8 oz packs of salmon of which we'll use 8 oz per week for a meal. I will buy 2 packs of coffee ($11 each, unknown size as of yet) and see how far I get with that. I may need to cut my coffee consumption down to accommodate this but I'll cross that bridge when I get there. This will be ~$50/month.
That's $375 before going to the grocery store. However we've already got 1 steak, 1 pork, 1 fish, 1 whole chicken, 1 use of leftover meat and 1 day of leftovers. I may add a pork tenderloin to the rotation until the arm roast order through Polyface. Polyface arm roasts are $3.90/lb but my other farmers charge over $6/lb. On the flip side, Polyface charges $15/lb for a max of 2.4 lb package however my little farmer charges $7/lb for a max 2 lb package. I'll consider it for next week's order. In fact, I just placed next week's order:
1 gallon milk - $5.25
1 dozen eggs - $3.50
1 sirloin steak - $8.50/lb, usually 1.5 lbs, we'll say $13
1 lb ground pork - $4.20
1 4 lb chicken - $14.00
1 lb breakfast sausage - $4.50
1 bunch beets - $2.50
1 head cauliflower - $3.00
Subtotal: $49.95
Delivery: ~$8
Total: $57.95 (will vary)
My weekly grocery bill varied from $85 to $120 over the last month so I will increase this budget to $100/week though I will try to stay under it. Let's say I'll aim for $80 but be a little forgiving! That brings us to a total of $775 for the month. Oh, except for the Larabars which breaks down as:
16xChocolate Coconut Chew: $16.99
16xCoconut Cream Pie: $16.54
16xCherry Pie: $15.47
Total: $49.00
If I divide that by 4 weeks, I get $12.25. If I cut my grocery bill down by that amount it is $87.75. That I think I can do.
Meal plan to come as it is bedtime here.
Weekly Food: Normally ~$30 ($6.20 for dairy for DH, $13 for sirloin steak, $10 for a couple heads of cabbage, red beets, collards, whatever other veggie he has available). I will increase this by another $30 for 1 lb ground pork, 1 medium (4 lb) broiler chicken, 1 dozen eggs and 1 lb breakfast sausage.
Monthly UNFI coop: I spent $115 this month including a $30-something credit from last months HUGE bulk order. I got maple syrup, tortilla chips, buckwheat flour (pancakes), hazelnut milk (for coffee), and bacon basically removing my need to go to Wegman's every week for said flour and milk and removing the temptation to spend more money. I will keep this at $115 for next month.
Monthly Salmon/Coffee: This is a new one for me that I'll be starting 10/28. I will buy 4x8 oz packs of salmon of which we'll use 8 oz per week for a meal. I will buy 2 packs of coffee ($11 each, unknown size as of yet) and see how far I get with that. I may need to cut my coffee consumption down to accommodate this but I'll cross that bridge when I get there. This will be ~$50/month.
That's $375 before going to the grocery store. However we've already got 1 steak, 1 pork, 1 fish, 1 whole chicken, 1 use of leftover meat and 1 day of leftovers. I may add a pork tenderloin to the rotation until the arm roast order through Polyface. Polyface arm roasts are $3.90/lb but my other farmers charge over $6/lb. On the flip side, Polyface charges $15/lb for a max of 2.4 lb package however my little farmer charges $7/lb for a max 2 lb package. I'll consider it for next week's order. In fact, I just placed next week's order:
1 gallon milk - $5.25
1 dozen eggs - $3.50
1 sirloin steak - $8.50/lb, usually 1.5 lbs, we'll say $13
1 lb ground pork - $4.20
1 4 lb chicken - $14.00
1 lb breakfast sausage - $4.50
1 bunch beets - $2.50
1 head cauliflower - $3.00
Subtotal: $49.95
Delivery: ~$8
Total: $57.95 (will vary)
My weekly grocery bill varied from $85 to $120 over the last month so I will increase this budget to $100/week though I will try to stay under it. Let's say I'll aim for $80 but be a little forgiving! That brings us to a total of $775 for the month. Oh, except for the Larabars which breaks down as:
16xChocolate Coconut Chew: $16.99
16xCoconut Cream Pie: $16.54
16xCherry Pie: $15.47
Total: $49.00
If I divide that by 4 weeks, I get $12.25. If I cut my grocery bill down by that amount it is $87.75. That I think I can do.
Meal plan to come as it is bedtime here.
Supporting with Money
With the distractions of DH's job (keeping him up late at night which throws everyone's day off) we missed our Polyface pickup this last weekend. I'll incur the $20 restock fee, which I will gladly pay because, hey, it was my fuck up. For the next 4 weeks I'll be ordering my chicken, steak, ground pork, ground beef, etc. through my weekly dairy order. The prices are comparable except for roasts where there's a $2.50 or so price difference. It got me to thinking about where I should be sourcing what food?
People have been touting the support of your local farmer for several years now. My dairy farmers are not in the national (or even international) spotlight like Joel Salatin and Polyface Farm are. Wouldn't they be more deserving of my money? However, Joel Salatin is bringing a revolution in farming techniques/technology to the industry and I want to support that. Based on how quickly items go out of stock (they restock the inventory online every Monday) I can tell he has plenty of support. So, really, it comes down to money for me. Which is kind of the point of this blog isn't it?
Tomorrow I'll be picking up what will hopefully be the start of my monthly purchase of Alaskan wild-caught salmon and locally roasted fair trade (and in some cases organic) coffee. From what I understand, this farmer gets the salmon directly from Alaska, no middle man, so my money will help support his operation as well. If there were such a thing as local wild-caught salmon or locally grown coffee I'd purchase that. :D I've even debated not drinking coffee but I'm not quite ready for that leap yet. Cutting down my carbon footprint is definitely on the list of things to do but I have many other things to figure out first.
I learned about a local farm, Moutoux Orchard, that does a winter CSA. Mostly root veggies but also includes grassfed meats and unlimited (within reason) flour. We're GFDF (again...) so I wouldn't be taking advantage of that but it's a nice idea. It may be something to consider for next winter, and for that matter I may need to check them out for the regular season. I might go back to Great Country Farms, though, because they have a great option and they deliver.
I promised on my last post that I'd be going through financials but it has been chaos in this house. We took a trip out of state to visit some friends, had a cold hit two of us, and I am now trying to get us back onto a schedule again. On top of that, my husband (who is in IT) has been on call seemingly constantly because he's the Subject Matter Expert - this week, though, he is the primary on call guy so it's a little more intense. I've had a word document open for several days with my meal plan, the price breakdown of some things, all outlining this financial post. I'll get there.
Back to the point of this post.. All farmers involved in my life deserve my attention and my money. They're all doing their parts, great or small, to fix our food system and provide the best nutrient dense foods they can. It will continue to come down to money for me for now.
People have been touting the support of your local farmer for several years now. My dairy farmers are not in the national (or even international) spotlight like Joel Salatin and Polyface Farm are. Wouldn't they be more deserving of my money? However, Joel Salatin is bringing a revolution in farming techniques/technology to the industry and I want to support that. Based on how quickly items go out of stock (they restock the inventory online every Monday) I can tell he has plenty of support. So, really, it comes down to money for me. Which is kind of the point of this blog isn't it?
Tomorrow I'll be picking up what will hopefully be the start of my monthly purchase of Alaskan wild-caught salmon and locally roasted fair trade (and in some cases organic) coffee. From what I understand, this farmer gets the salmon directly from Alaska, no middle man, so my money will help support his operation as well. If there were such a thing as local wild-caught salmon or locally grown coffee I'd purchase that. :D I've even debated not drinking coffee but I'm not quite ready for that leap yet. Cutting down my carbon footprint is definitely on the list of things to do but I have many other things to figure out first.
I learned about a local farm, Moutoux Orchard, that does a winter CSA. Mostly root veggies but also includes grassfed meats and unlimited (within reason) flour. We're GFDF (again...) so I wouldn't be taking advantage of that but it's a nice idea. It may be something to consider for next winter, and for that matter I may need to check them out for the regular season. I might go back to Great Country Farms, though, because they have a great option and they deliver.
I promised on my last post that I'd be going through financials but it has been chaos in this house. We took a trip out of state to visit some friends, had a cold hit two of us, and I am now trying to get us back onto a schedule again. On top of that, my husband (who is in IT) has been on call seemingly constantly because he's the Subject Matter Expert - this week, though, he is the primary on call guy so it's a little more intense. I've had a word document open for several days with my meal plan, the price breakdown of some things, all outlining this financial post. I'll get there.
Back to the point of this post.. All farmers involved in my life deserve my attention and my money. They're all doing their parts, great or small, to fix our food system and provide the best nutrient dense foods they can. It will continue to come down to money for me for now.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Almost No Sickness!
We're almost better here, so finally getting back into the swing of things. I've still been making meals at home, thankfully, but definitely not working with my budget. I need to review the spending on food over the last month and adjust accordingly. Polyface is getting so popular that if you don't hit your shopping cart the day they update their stock you're SOL. I only was able to order breakfast sausage and Freedom Roaster chickens for delivery this weekend. This means I really have to be on top of things for the next delivery since it's the last one for 3 months. I'm blessed to have many other options for grassfed meats but Polyface is a very well known "brand" and the price is best.
I'll continue purchasing my sirloin steak weekly from my dairy farmer and whatever other veggies I can get (lately it's beets and cabbage - yum!). I'll add a roast in every other week maybe. I'm going to try a roast from the grocery store this week in the crock pot. I just need to find a good recipe. I also need to find my Grassfed Gourmet and look up good recipes there, too. I understand there's an excellent Beef Bourgignon in there.
We are more or less off the GFDF diet. DH and I have had several very good (and intense!) discussions about the myriad of possibilities. The improvements we've seen thus far may have been due to eating better in general because not eating dairy or gluten meant no fast food. We've instituted a few rules for this, though. Just because we're eating dairy and gluten does not mean we'll eat just ANY dairy or gluten. Raw dairy preferably, organic pasteurized if we've got no other option. Whole wheat flour, not refined white flour, unless it's a special occasion (like the Panera trip for a Mom's Night Out last night). I'm still maintaining a relatively GFDF household, though, just because I'm used to doing it at this point and I don't want to set up any bad habits. I know how eating bread makes me want more bread so I'm trying to keep the reins tight on that one.
My next blog post should be a financial one as I get the opportunity to review everything.
I'll continue purchasing my sirloin steak weekly from my dairy farmer and whatever other veggies I can get (lately it's beets and cabbage - yum!). I'll add a roast in every other week maybe. I'm going to try a roast from the grocery store this week in the crock pot. I just need to find a good recipe. I also need to find my Grassfed Gourmet and look up good recipes there, too. I understand there's an excellent Beef Bourgignon in there.
We are more or less off the GFDF diet. DH and I have had several very good (and intense!) discussions about the myriad of possibilities. The improvements we've seen thus far may have been due to eating better in general because not eating dairy or gluten meant no fast food. We've instituted a few rules for this, though. Just because we're eating dairy and gluten does not mean we'll eat just ANY dairy or gluten. Raw dairy preferably, organic pasteurized if we've got no other option. Whole wheat flour, not refined white flour, unless it's a special occasion (like the Panera trip for a Mom's Night Out last night). I'm still maintaining a relatively GFDF household, though, just because I'm used to doing it at this point and I don't want to set up any bad habits. I know how eating bread makes me want more bread so I'm trying to keep the reins tight on that one.
My next blog post should be a financial one as I get the opportunity to review everything.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Help!
All of this talk of cooking and I still have one problem I can't seem to figure out. Any time I marinate in a dark sauce (soy sauce or balsamic vinegar) then frying it in a saute pan I end up burning it. Maybe it's the small amount of sugar in the marinade, I'm not sure. I'm talking about this recipe for Balsamic Chicken. I got the pan onto medium heat (my dial goes lo, then 2 through 6, then hi and I put it between 3 and 4) even though the recipe said medium high. I put in the chicken breasts and thought I'd just wait it out and see if, like Mario Batali says, I'm one of those home cooks who's afraid of something getting a deep brown (cuz that's where the flavor is). I flipped it after 6 minutes and waited the 7 minutes on the other side and when I looked at it the bottom of the pan was black. I moved the breasts over to another pan, poured in the marinade, and finished cooking it. It turned out delicious.
I know chicken should be cooked at high heat to get a good browning on the outside before the inside goes dry, but maybe my stove's medium is still too high? Any suggestions?
On the flip side, I made a roast chicken yesterday with quinoa on the side. It was delicious. The stock I made from it even made it into the fridge and maybe I'll get around to making a soup tomorrow. Doubtful with the plans I've got but it's good to have ideas.
I know chicken should be cooked at high heat to get a good browning on the outside before the inside goes dry, but maybe my stove's medium is still too high? Any suggestions?
On the flip side, I made a roast chicken yesterday with quinoa on the side. It was delicious. The stock I made from it even made it into the fridge and maybe I'll get around to making a soup tomorrow. Doubtful with the plans I've got but it's good to have ideas.
Monday, October 11, 2010
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.
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.
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