Day 13, Friday with an apple cobbler

Sniffing a great odor around the kitchen, I found some of the girls' leftover apple pie sugar-slurry with about half a cut up apple in it. It was sugary and full of the aroma of cinnamon.  I got a late night urge to create something with my find, rather than throw it away.  Here's what I made. 

     I whipped up a double batch of my biscuit/dumpling dough, but sweetened it with about  a quarter cup of sugar.  I poured half of the apple juice and pieces in a casserole dish, layed dolops of the biscuit dough across the whole dish, then poured the rest of the apple slices and flavoring over the dough.  I baked this concoction at 350 until toasty looking, and put it in the school lunches.  It was really just glorified biscuits, but was a bit sweet and cinnamon spicy, and felt like dessert.  Plus, we didn't waste something we might, before, have just poured down the drain.  

     breakfast:  cold cereal, milk and tea

cost:  $2.29

    

     For lunch I wanted to make something different, so I chose rice for our carbs.  Along with the cobbler for dessert, I figured this would help fill everybody's hungry stomachs.  I added chicken and gravy to put over the rice, plus carrots for a daily vegetable.

lunch menu:  chicken, gravy, rice, carrot sticks, apple cobbler 

 cost:  $4.63

1/4 chicken:  1.00

1/4 chicken:  1.00

gravy:  .67

flour:  .10

1.5 lb rice: .96

19 oz carrots: .40

apple cobbler: 1.50

    

after school snack:  the rest of the cobbler, no extra charge

     Also, I almost forgot!  This morning I got the idea to make a treat for my college kids.  Kate and her friends were planning to drive over to Pullman this morning, so as soon as the children were off to the bus, I made a batch of roll dough and put it to rise over warm water to hurry it along.  The girls were taking the day off school and I needed the rolls to be done by 10 am. 

     Wow did it smell good here all day.  Garlic and basil wafting throughout the house.  The rolls came out by 10:15, and the girls picked them up.  By afternoon there were comments on facebook about the pesto rolls which showed up at Peter's house in Pullman.  It was a worthwhile project.  I miss my Annie and Peter.

    

     Supper was weird tonight, because Rodger and I went to chaperone at a Jr High school lock in, plus Kate was gone, and Noah had a Pizza Hut book-it certificate to use up, so the numbers were significantly reduced at home.  Just Sarah, Trudy, and the little girls.  So Trudy made a loaf of my french dough into pizza and cinnamon sticks.  They also bought some ice cream for 1.99 with our extra funds, and made Floats for a treat, as they have been eagerly awaiting.

 Here is Christiana busily working on her special book report.  It's a puppet stage in which her popsicle stick puppets will act out a scene from the Boxcar Children book.

Supper menu:  pesto rolls, pizza, soda pop and ice cream

Supper total:  $2.79

6 pesto rolls: 1.08

1 loaf dough: .28

 tomato sauce: .25

9 oz cheese: 1.18

Daily Total, without the ice cream:  $9.79

Ice cream will come out of the extra savings money we have accumulated with in our budget.  I'll post on that tomorrow.

Time out, to look at Where we're at...how we're doing

     Here are some things I'm noticing about our life in the midst of 10for10for10:

1.  I spend more time in the kitchen, because I am making bread or peeling potatoes more than usual.  This doesn't seem like a big big deal.  I notice there are also more large bowls to wash, too.

2.  I'm spending time on the computer typing more than usual. 

3.  The family is snacking less than before.  The collective conscience has been awakened about taking undesignated food.

4.  I notice more of the small expenditures then EVER before, such as a splash of milk in tea, a blurp of oil in the pan, a cup of flour to thicken the gravy...all these things eventually do add up, but I've never counted them into the cost of a meal before, for sure.

5.  My stomach comes to the end of my meals, and then must wait for gratification until the next food time.  No more grazing. 

6.  We think more about Haiti.  Every time we feel hungry, we think of our friend, the Dr. who just came back from there, who told us that the patients at the hospital he visited get only one meal a day, and that meal comes whenever the World Vision truck arrives with rice and beans.  Even the staff only gets that one meal, unless they packed granola bars or other yummies from America in their suitcases and haven't had them stolen.
   
One meal a day!  And no hope of more than that for tomorrow, next week, or next year.  I am seeing us for the privileged people we are.  Even in the midst of this one dollar-a-day eating we are doing, we have variety, variety, variety.  I can choose food groups, I can be health-minded. 

We pray more for the people of Haiti.  We are more thankful people.  Our heightened awareness of food, this most basic of human needs, helps keep us close to God when we are careful to remember, "Give us this day our daily bread."
And that helps us focus on, "forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us."

7.  I have to be careful to listen to my family about their food needs.  Remembering that this is not actually a "diet," I have to make sure my husband and children feel supplied with enough to meet their needs every day.  10 weeks on a project is so long that really I must not make it miserable in any way.  Sustainable is the concept I am reaching for here.  That is precisely why I chose a long project.  (plus, it sounded catchy: 10for10for10)  Sustainable, cheap, healthy eating.  Really cheap.

8.  As I focus on my 10for10for10 project, I must keep from obsessing about it, and keep up with all the many other tasks of my life.  Especially relationships.  The family won't like my project if it takes me away from them.  (or if it makes it so they can never get a turn on the computer, either)

9.  I have to resist the urge to fudge or lie about how much of anything I am using.  I would be only damaging my own integrity, really, because nobody else actually cares if I go over my budget or not.  If I go over, why not admit it?  Cheating is a bad, insidious, ugly habit.  Even if the truth hurts, integrity does not.  So, I am preaching to myself, too. This project is just another chance to use it or lose it, as they say.

Day 12, Getting everybody enough to eat

     We were tired and cranky this morning and so glad the lunches were all made last night!

     Standard fare for breakfast---cold cereal with milk and tea.

breakfast menu:  life cereal, milk, tea
Cost:  $2.20
one box cold cereal, divided 10 ways: 1.00
half gallon milk: 1.20

  The good news came at lunch time, when there were two sandwiches, plus two vegetables, plus gogurts for all the kids.  It felt more luxurious to have an extra sandwich, which I personally saved for that 2 o'clock hour when I just really want food.

lunch menu:  ham sandwiches, peanut butter and jam sandwiches, sliced carrots, lettuce wedges, go-gurts for the kids

cost: $3.49

8 oz ham: .75

2 loaves homemade bread:  .56

a head of iceberg lettuce:  .83

1 lb carrots: .33

peanut butter: .18

jam: .12

8 go-gurts: .72 (close dated)

     Noah saved his peanut butter sandwich, too, which was hard for him, but at 2pm, when he was hungry, and I reminded him that he had another sandwich, he was all about that!  He saw the benefits of waiting, really enjoyed a peanut butter and jam sandwich, and is learning the benefits of delayed gratification.

snack:  popcorn and kettle corn, plus a bowl of black bean chili for Rodger

cost: $.62 for three large bowls full

12 oz popcorn: .35

6 tbsp oil: .18

1/2 c sugar: .09

     Supper was maybe better called "dinner" tonight, because dumplings were on the menu again, by popular demand. In the picture you can see the chicken gravy is augmented with diced cabbage, potatoes, carrots, and onions.  I was going to say that I "beefed" it up with the veggies, but can you really beef things up in a chicken gravy?  Ha. 

     Sarah, our resident nutritionist, wants to make sure we're getting enough of our leafy greens, which is why the cabbage made its way in there.  I thought there might be a rebellion, but there were no comments on the negative side, except from  Noah, who thought maybe he was only hungry enough to eat the dumplings.  He was promptly informed that no dumplings would enter his mouth until the vegetables had disappeared from his plate.  He managed alright.  There was enough veggie/chicken gravy for seconds and even thirds, so everyone was satiated this day.

    Here is a twin moment at the table. The self portrait was made just after the pictures of the soup, when the camera was found on the table.

dinner menu:  chicken and dumplings with mixed vegetable gravy

$3.24

biscuit dough, double batch: 1.32

1/4 chicken with broth: 1.00

carrot: .07

1/2 head cabbage:  .48

1 onion: .10

2 large potatoes: .21

1/2 cup flour (to thicken): .05

Today's Total cost:  $ 9.70

This day was a culinary success!

Day 11: There is a first time for everything, even black beans.

     Since I saw these beans sitting on the mark-down cart at Cash and Carry, I knew I had to try black beans.

     At the store I asked why they were on sale, and apparently someone had mistakenly special-ordered them for a customer who had actally wanted some other type of bean.  Not regularly in the store inventory, the black beans were placed with the markdowns, and I got them for 10 bucks.  I figured for 40 cents a pound, I can try something new, even if  it is dubious looking. 

    

     Do you have a good way of preparing black beans?  A recipe you like?  I'd love to try your way of eating these unusual beans.  Just leave me a comment at the end of the post.  It's easy to do, you don't have to register or anything, just use the "anonymous" box, and write me a note, then click send.  I have a chance to check my comments and put them up onto the blog after I read them.

    I arrived home tonight to find Noah reading on my bed dressed like this.  I guess he got into the fiesta of black beans himself!  He wants to hear your bean cooking ideas, too.

     Emily and Noah helped make some bread dough this morning.  We enriched the bread this time, by adding some milk, sugar and oil to the recipe.  I'll have this recipe on my separate recipe page, so take a look. 

     Bread is easy to make---even if I'm in a hurry and don't make my best bread ever, my family is still appreciative.  Walking into a home after school or work with the aroma of fresh bread has a promise of good things to come!  What it takes to make bread is not so much effort, it takes thinking ahead. 

     If you want bread tomorrow and have to work all day, you can make the dough tonight and refrigerate it until then.  Or, mix some up before work, put it in the frig to rise slowly all day, and pop it in to bake while you fix the rest of supper.  Or, make up the dough with just a fraction of the suggested yeast, then leave it to rise all day, covered, on the counter, and it will be ready to cook just before dinner. 

     Dough that has risen very slowly tastes better than over-yeasted bread of the same recipe.  Dough that has over-risen itself gets a new unpleasant flavor as well, so don't think you can just let your bread rise all day without reducing the yeast, or slowing down the yeast by refrigerating it.  Breadmaking is an exciting science, and beautiful artistry, too.

These two loaves cost about me about 28 cents each.  That is a lot of eating pleasure for the price!  We polished off one loaf for afternoon snack, and another with the "black bean chili soup" that we had for supper. 

Breakfast menu:  pancakes, jam, orange juice, tea

Cost:  $2.65

 35 scratch pancakes:  1.10

jam:  .30

OJ:  .99

2 cups milk for tea:  .26

Sack lunches:  ham sandwiches, carrots, lettuce, applesauce

Lunch cost : $3.69

8 oz ham: .75

1 loaf vitabee bread:  1.25

1 head iceberg lettuce: .83

six (22 oz) carrots:  .46

applesauce:  .40

Supper menu: chili bean soup, fresh bread

Supper cost:  $2.09

1 lb black beans: .40

1/2 stalk celery: .35

hamburger meat: 1.00

chili powder: .05

salt: .01

1 loaf fresh bread:  .28

I had made up a double batch of bean chili, and used half of the chili for supper.  The whole double batch had cost 3.62, or about .15 cents per cup of soup.  We used 12 cups for supper.  However, when I got home from teaching at about 10pm, I found that 2 more cups of soup had vanished.  I'll check into that when we are all together next.  I'm adding the .30 to today's eating total to make up for the snitching.  I don't like snitching, but at least they liked the soup enough to want more.   

Daily total cost: $8.95 plus .39 = $9.25 

The children are going to like black beans even more when they find out that eating black beans will be their ticket to affording ice cream!  I'll see what their reaction is tonight when I tell them this news...

Here you get a glimpse of the boothie lunch making station.  We make 10 sack lunches five days a week around here.  It is a major operation.  We are packing a more substantial lunch for tomorrow, because we all felt unsatisfied with the amount yesterday. 

When Rodger and I got home from teaching the Baby Basics class together, this is what we found on the table.  It was smelling delicioso and looking beautious, but unfortunately, is not for us.  It is a birthday present for Maddie, and has her name inscribed into the top crust.  Wow, that made our mouths water.  I'll have to see how much a pie costs...

School lunch fixings:  ham sandwiches in front with names, because some are smaller than others, just like some of the people here are smaller.  Behind them are pb&  j sandwiches, and to the side, carrots and lettuce.  You can see Sarah's laptop, from whence these pictures are uploaded.

I'll put up the info about these sandwiches tomorrow, because they will be eaten tomorrow.  See you then.

Quick, last minute sack lunches on a budget, Day 10

I didn't write a meal plan on Monday night, nor did we make our lunches as usual.  But we did buy some nice Sorel kids' pac-boots at Fred Meyer's last night, for next year.  Sorels and Kamiks are 70% off the clearance price this week, and there are tons of them.  Check it out!

Breakfast is always simple here, so, no surprises, except to say that when planning for a 10 dollar daily budget, a 69 cent increase in the cost of a gallon of milk can really make a dent into a day...

breakfast menu:  cold cereal, milk

Breakfast cost: $2.39

1 box cold cereal: 1.00

1/2 gallon milk: 1.39

     Rodger made lunches on the fly this morning.  Peanut butter and jelly is the fastest, so it was the best choice for today.  We were both blurry-eyed, because Noah couldn't sleep well with his sore mouth, and spent most of the night in our bed with us.  If you're a parent you know that nights with sick children make for tired parents.

    

     lunch menu:  PB andJ sandwiches, carrot sticks, oranges

 Lunch cost:  $3.78

1 loaf bread: .88

peanut butter: .48

jam: .25

5 carrots: .55

9 oranges@ .16 ea: 1.44

1 oz cheese: .13

Even though the oranges were cheap, they made up the single biggest cost of the meal, as you can see.  My goal of putting fresh fruits and vegetables into our diet at this price is difficult!

 Snack menu:  homemade french bread

Cost: about $.14

      

     Everybody was starving by suppertime.  One peanut butter sandwich is small when accompanied only by carrots and an orange.  We could have gone through 2 loaves of bread at snack without feeling too full to eat a good supper.

Supper menu:  boiled eggs, green salad, boiled garlic potatoes with a touch of basil, french bread, applesauce

Cost: $3.27

2 hearts of romaine: .95

12 eggs:  .99

2 french loaves, homemade: .30

dressing for those who wanted it: .18

4 lbs potatoes, boiled: .40

garlic powder, sprinkle of basil: .05

applesauce: .40

     We forgot to get out the Dr Pepper...but we did have a neighbor stop over and have fun eating with us and using the kids' tricky egg slicer on her boiled egg.  That egg slicer makes eating eggs more fun.  No doubt  about it.

Daily Total Cost:  $9.44

     The children are asking me if we have saved any money up.  I wasn't sure exactly what they meant.  What came to my mind, was, "Sure, that's why we are trying to eat so cheaply to save money."  That seemed obvious.  But the child-minds were thinking on a different plane...

     What they actually wanted to know was whether we have been below budget (the 10for10for10 budget) enough to have money in the budget to buy some ice cream.  They want to use their Dr. Pepper to make floats.  They're always thinking, those kids of mine!  I'll add up the week's totals and see what spare change is available. 

      Even a small treat is a motivation, isn't it.  It can make all that scrimping worthwhile.  

Week 2, it's day 9, Monday February 22 Dumplings!

    Draper Valley veg-fed, no antibiotics-ever, chickens were on sale for $.69/lb today at Thriftway.  I always shop for meat and veggies at Wray's Thriftway.  Their prices are good on fresh foods, they mark down yesterday's meats every morning at 9am which makes meat affordable for us, and they sell local vegetables and fruits at excellent prices. 

     I boiled a chicken with salt and a shredded carrot, then after school, Emily whipped up a double batch of biscuit dough for making dumplings.  Making biscuit dough is just as fun as play-dough, and much more satisfying.  The simple, tasty recipe is in my recipe page.  We slightly modified "Uncle Joe's Country biscuits" recipe from the Mandy Cookbook, if you remember Mandy from your girlhood reading.

     While I was cheering at Mercy's and Charity's last basketball game, Trudy boiled the dumplings in the chicken broth.  As soon as we got home, Charity, Christiana, and I boned the chicken and divided it into portions.  Sarah set the table with a cloth, and we cut a quarter of the meat into bits to add to the dumpling gravy, also adding  about 2 cups of leftover mashed potatoes from yesterday's lunch to help thicken everything.

     Having dumplings was cause for celebration, so another bottle, this time of Diet Dr Pepper, was brought out, and served up for dessert along with the applesauce.  We drank a good five cents of the stuff, and put the rest in the frig for tomorrow.

Today's spending at a glance:

breakfast menu:  cold cereal, oatmeal squares or crispy rice, milk, tea

Breakfast Total: $2.39

cereal: 1.00

milk:  1.39

lunch menu:  mashed potatoes, hamburger gravy, carrots sticks, cucumber slices, pretzels

Lunch total:  $4.04

hamburger meat: 2.00

8 lbs mashed potatoes:  .80

gravy: .33

5 carrots:  .55

10 bags pretzels w/ 16 each:  .60

1 large cucumber:  .50

(I prorated the potatoes and gravy, and it came out to .24 per container.  This sized batch made 13 12oz containers full, plus some extra mashed potatoes I used in the supper meal.  We all packed one portion, except Rodger, who had 2 portions.  So we used .24 x 11 = 2.64 on the main dish today, and I'll cost the rest into whatever day they are consumed)

snack menu:  soda crackers

Snack cost:  $.18

     I found the crackers in a mark-down bin for .75, because one of the corners of the box was smashed in.  We didn't care.  We used up one of the 4 sleeves of crackers inside. 

     I like looking through the markdowns.  You never know what will be there!  I remember once finding cans of coconut milk for 25 cents.  I had always wanted to try coconut milk in a curry, but its price hadn't been worth the risk ever before. 

     I love bargains, but don't go looking all over town for them, because in my big family-sized van, the gas it takes to shop around would totally offset any cents off savings I would incur.  Instead, I shop at stores close to where I live, or stores close to places I would be driving anyway for other reasons, using gas I would have used anyway.  Does this make sense to you?  It does to me. 

      So, no, I'm not a rabid bargain hunter, but I do love a bargain, when it is something I would be buying anyway, and have a pantry stocked with basic and cheaply bought foods to prove it.  

supper menu:  chicken and dumplings with gravy, bit of carrot, applesauce

Supper Total:  $2.82

1/4 boiled, boned chicken:  .99

double batch biscuit dough:  1.32

applesauce:  .40

1 carrot, to color the broth:  .11

Here is a bowl of the dumplings before adding the chicken gravy. Applesauce has not been served yet.

     I do have one thing I remember that I didn't add into today's figures.  I gave Noah a bit of yogurt, because he has such a bad cankor sore that he hasn't been willing to eat any food he has to chew up.  Poor boy.  The mashed potatoes were easy for him, as were the dumplings, but saltines made his mouth sting, so he got some yogurt instead.

A Sunday without Mom around much, February 21

     Today we pretended we were part of Rodger's OM summer team in France.  His team never had much money, so they ate bread and jam for breakfast.  The Boothies toasted bread and served it with jam and orange juice today.  We had no milk for tea.  We polished off a whole loaf of the store-bought white fluff, just like that. 

     The German exchange students in our home last year used to love American soft white bread!  It is very unlike European breads. We use white bread for peanut butter sandwiches and feel guilty.  Usually, I prefer to buy Vitabee bread from Fred Meyers, because it isn't fake whole wheat; it really has fiber and has no high fructose corn syrup.  These days I am making my own bread instead, which takes more forethought.

       breakfast menu:  buttered toast, jam, orange juice

Breakfast total: $2.30

one loaf white bread: .99

half gallon OJ:  .99

butter, 12 pats:  .20

jam:  .12

Today we walked to church, and the morning weather did not disappoint.  We learned about praying for those who spitefully use us, and praying during difficult circumstances.

After church I went to set up my classroom for teaching.  I teach Childbirth classes for the hospital, and this is a Sunday "on".   I didn't have to worry about lunch for the fam, because the youth group had a potato feed.  I grabbed a banana and ran off to meet my couples at the classroom.  I am always energized and excited to teach, and exhausted afterward.

Lunch Total: not applicable, everybody ate out

Snack total:  $.40

2 bananas for christine: .30
2 liter bottle of Dr Pepper:  .10

(the kids bought the Dr Pepper at Albertsons with an in-store coupon---free pop and you only pay the sales tax.)  The store limit was one pop per person.  The store manager said that every child could purchase one if they  were personally at the store, so they all headed over with their dimes in hand. We now own diet Dr Pepper galore.  We don't drink soda pop around here, but Rodger let them drink a whole bottle this afternoon.  We'll use the rest for gifts or school functions or celebrations.  I've never had this much Dr Pepper in my house ever before in my life!

After class I munched on my Valentine's gift from Rodger.  No, it wasn't chocolate.  It was...drum roll...beef jerky!  Bet you never would have guessed that one.  Oh Boy, Oberto!

Sunday suppers around here are Mom's night off.  Cold cereal.  Boring but easy.  We treated ourselves to a big plateful of asparagus, too.  I had purchased the asparagus just before the 10for10for10 experiment, and couldn't work it into my budget all week.  So, because of the meal at church, I had a little spare pocket change in my food budget to use up 3 bucks worth of the savory green spears. 

supper menu:  oatmeal squares, milk, asparagus as a treat

Supper total: $5.56

cold cereal:  1.00

1/2 gallon milk: 1.35(price up today)

2 pounds asparagus: 3.00

3 tbsp butter on the asparagus:  .15

Today's total expenditures:  $8.26

I'll post the how-to's of my fry bread on the recipe page tomorrow morning.  See you there, then.