The plan this year is very simple. We're staying at home, we're going to eat a lot of veggies, very little meat (if any) and we're going to relax. I'm due this weekend, so I am not up to my usual "get the turkey in the oven first thing in the morning and work, work, work, until I crash that night" kind of Thanksgiving.
This means I feel more than a little lost. I don't even have a timetable this year and it's already late morning. But we've had sprouted wheat pancakes this morning, so that's good. And I do have a menu planned out so that's also good.
It won't be the best Thanksgiving ever, but it won't be a disaster either.
And now, in honor of the holiday, I'm grateful I have the opportunity to stay home with my children. I'm grateful for women who write wonderful blogs that help motivate me and strengthen me in my efforts to be a good homemaker. I'm grateful for women who write books I can keep on my shelves for times when I'm discouraged and know that if I turn on the computer the last thing I'll be doing is something productive. I am grateful for so much more, but that's a start for today.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Baby Prep Update
So far I've:
- Cleared out half the clutter in the master bedroom.
- Gotten two meals large enough for our family in the freezer (thank you Mega Menu Mailer for helping me organize that).
- Finish organizing my room.
- Get caught up on laundry and organize the laundry room (so that if anyone tries to help out they won't be completely lost).
- Make five more freezer meals by Monday of next week.
- Get most of Thanksgiving in the freezer or refrigerator next week so that I'll have next to nothing to do on the actual day (my due date is two days after Thanksgiving... can you believe that?).
Buying (Some) Food in Bulk
Just thought it might be helpful to those out there to know where we get our grains from since I'm going to be talking about our journey through pancakes pretty soon.
We get our hard red winter wheat (our primary grain) through LDS Distribution.
Long-grain brown rice, kasha, oatmeal, and most of our legumes come through Wal-Mart.
Specialty grains like millet and red lentils are acquired through a local health food store.
We're trying to find a source for buckwheat, rye and short-grain brown rice. When my husband worked downtown, he was able to purchase 40 lbs of short-grain brown rice at an Asian grocery store. It worked beautifully and I felt so sad when we finally used it all up. I love short-grain brown rice. Its stickiness makes it a perfect substitute for white rice in so many ways.
I think we're going to try Bob's Red Mill, though we may also go with another distributor we've been hearing about. Once we decide what we're going to do, and actually have the grain in our hot little hands, I'll blog and let the world know if it worked or not.
So, why on earth do we do this? We've found that grinding the grain ourselves (or soaking and sprouting the grain) has helped our health tremendously. Whatever extra cost is involved in buying that much at once is offset both by the return in the food itself (cost per ounce) and the fact that it fills our stomachs more than processed grains/foods. We've also found that having a wide variety of grains is crucial to following this plan of buying grains/legumes in bulk. Without the wide variety, you not only miss out on crucial nutrients but it just gets boring. Wheat is pretty versatile, so it's not too bad, but still... there's only so much soaked/sprouted/soured wheat a person can handle.
Tomorrow I'm going to start talking about our Thanksgiving plans.
We get our hard red winter wheat (our primary grain) through LDS Distribution.
Long-grain brown rice, kasha, oatmeal, and most of our legumes come through Wal-Mart.
Specialty grains like millet and red lentils are acquired through a local health food store.
We're trying to find a source for buckwheat, rye and short-grain brown rice. When my husband worked downtown, he was able to purchase 40 lbs of short-grain brown rice at an Asian grocery store. It worked beautifully and I felt so sad when we finally used it all up. I love short-grain brown rice. Its stickiness makes it a perfect substitute for white rice in so many ways.
I think we're going to try Bob's Red Mill, though we may also go with another distributor we've been hearing about. Once we decide what we're going to do, and actually have the grain in our hot little hands, I'll blog and let the world know if it worked or not.
So, why on earth do we do this? We've found that grinding the grain ourselves (or soaking and sprouting the grain) has helped our health tremendously. Whatever extra cost is involved in buying that much at once is offset both by the return in the food itself (cost per ounce) and the fact that it fills our stomachs more than processed grains/foods. We've also found that having a wide variety of grains is crucial to following this plan of buying grains/legumes in bulk. Without the wide variety, you not only miss out on crucial nutrients but it just gets boring. Wheat is pretty versatile, so it's not too bad, but still... there's only so much soaked/sprouted/soured wheat a person can handle.
Tomorrow I'm going to start talking about our Thanksgiving plans.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Review: More With Less Cookbook
I've decided to review a cookbook two or three times a month since I've tried out various kinds over the past ten years. I've decided to start with the More With Less cookbook because it doesn't get any more basic than what's inside this book.
Summary: Great cookbook for those just starting to cook from scratch and save money. Best for those with some experience cooking and/or baking. True beginners may want to try something like Better Homes and Gardens just to get their feet wet (Note: link is only there so you have an idea of what the cover looks like... my copy is about 20 years old and I got it free from a friend... I've found the older the copy the better the recipes but that could just be me).
Pros: Simple dishes with minimal use of processed items. Clear instructions. Good message regarding overconsumption and what we really need when it comes to food. Encourages using up what we eat and gives good suggestions for reducing cost. Menu "skeletons" for entertaining are not only thorough but also give a much needed freshness to entertaining others.
Cons: Old. Does not include information regarding soaking, sprouting, or souring grains to reduce phytate content. Relies heavily on soybeans in bean section; some research shows that soybeans are best eaten in a highly fermented state such as in tofu, tempeh, and miso to break down phytates which could otherwise rob the body of nutrients. Also, assumes overpopulation as an established fact when other research points toward poor agricultural practices and political games as the source for most food shortages.
The Review:
The More With Less cookbook by Doris Janzen Longacre is a collection of recipes from various Mennonite families, first collected about twenty years ago. The first part of the book describes why the book exists, including quite a bit of space devoted to overconsumption and overpopulation. Longacre makes some excellent points regarding how our diet has changed from our grandparents diet, though she doesn't mention that our grandparents ate parts of animals we would never even touch nowadays. She also makes an excellent point regarding the nature of cooking itself in a homemaking capacity: we've elevated it to a cumbersome art when it should be about good friends and family. After going over some suggestions for changing the way we approach food and meals in general, including basic nutrition, the protein question, how to transition into a "more with less" kind of menu structure for both everyday meals and entertaining, and eating with joy instead of just to fill our stomachs, we find ourselves in the recipe section.
There's a very important note at the beginning of the recipe section that I feel needs to be stressed in case someone picks up this book and tries a recipe that's "expensive". "Expensive" depends entirely on where you live. If you live near the shore or in a fishing town, seafood will likely cost much less than it would if you were further inland. I live in Texas and here beef is comparatively cheap. You can even find ground buffalo at the local Wal-Mart, something I doubt is easy to come by in a place like... Boston, for example.
Point? Use what's local to your area and you'll likely do better in your budget. Also, we've found eating regional dishes tends to help us acclimate better to our surroundings. Could just be us.
The recipes themselves are well-thought out, and there's a lot of them. A lot of time is spent on grains and beans, though obviously not with the latest information regarding soaking, sprouting, and souring. However, this is still a valuable book for those who want to cook from scratch and are overwhelmed by cookbooks that seem to have a multitude of ingredients for what sounds like a simple dish.
Most of the recipes will require some thought, especially regarding menu planning if you want to save the most money. Although there are a number of recipes that can be put together quickly, there are also a number that may take an hour or two at least -- though I have to admit that even those recipes don't require much hands-on work... just waiting, especially when it comes to making bread. There are also a number of recipes that use white flour as a default. Personally, I've found white flour to be very detrimental to my family's health. Although some recipes work if you substitute whole wheat, if you aren't used to working with whole grain flours chances are good they won't turn out the way you expect. I wasn't too impressed with many of the bread recipes for this reason. If you've never made bread before and are willing to use white flour, these recipes might be worth trying.
I also found myself disappointed by the inclusion of so many recipes calling for soybeans. I've boiled soybeans and made my own soymilk and the only thing I can say about it is that I've never been able to get over the way soybeans smell like plastic. Some people love the smell. I can't stand it. Tofu is the only soybean product I've had that I actually enjoyed.
I used to feel bad about this until I did more research and discovered that soy isn't being used the way it should be to get the maximum benefit from it. The high phytate content needs to be broken down, and has been traditionally broken down in Asian countries, through fermentation. Some miso soup bases are fermented for a couple of years at least. So, if you want to try these recipes, I would recommend looking into modifying them to take advantage of fermentation's benefits.
There are also many delicious recipes in this book for vegetables, especially greens like kale, and many ethnic dishes as well that use vegetables as a main component of the meal. The focus of the book is on meatless dishes, but there are also many recipes, including casserole recipes, that use meat. Dairy and eggs are also given a front and center treatment for those who love them. The dessert section is one of the best I've seen and fits with the other recipes in its focus on simplicity, taste, and health.
Perhaps my favorite part of the recipe section is a small column at the end of each food section entitled Gather Up the Fragments. It was here that I first started to realize how much food I wasted each time I cooked, not only in what I put into my food but also how to use what was leftover. An example is bread heels and stale bread: dice it up and put it in a blender to make your own bread crumbs. Never spend money on a can of bread crumbs again. :)
The last two sections of the book are worth mentioning separately from the rest: gardening and preserving, and snacks. Both are small, but I mention them separately for different reasons.
The gardening section has one of the best attitudes I've seen regarding this wonderful practice. Garden for the sake of joy, not out of duty. That and the tips regarding vegetables, preservation, and finding food in the wild make this a section that will whet the appetite for more information.
The snacks section is small on purpose. Most good snacks are either fruits or vegetables (we also use raw nuts). Anything more than that can be made in advance in bulk, like homemade popsicles, cookies or puddings. If your family is like mine, though, I stick with fruit and vegetables, maybe making a dip out of nuts they can use for extra flavor. If I didn't do this, they wouldn't get nearly the amount of fresh food they need for health. The recipes in this section seem to have the same philosophy because there are many "dips" and not many cracker recipes like I've seen in other cookbooks. If the information isn't enough, or lunch needs more help, I highly recommend Lunches and Snacks by Sue Gregg, who has the same philosophy in many ways as Longacre, but uses more recent data and has a stronger emphasis on kid participation in her book.
Summary: Great cookbook for those just starting to cook from scratch and save money. Best for those with some experience cooking and/or baking. True beginners may want to try something like Better Homes and Gardens just to get their feet wet (Note: link is only there so you have an idea of what the cover looks like... my copy is about 20 years old and I got it free from a friend... I've found the older the copy the better the recipes but that could just be me).
Pros: Simple dishes with minimal use of processed items. Clear instructions. Good message regarding overconsumption and what we really need when it comes to food. Encourages using up what we eat and gives good suggestions for reducing cost. Menu "skeletons" for entertaining are not only thorough but also give a much needed freshness to entertaining others.
Cons: Old. Does not include information regarding soaking, sprouting, or souring grains to reduce phytate content. Relies heavily on soybeans in bean section; some research shows that soybeans are best eaten in a highly fermented state such as in tofu, tempeh, and miso to break down phytates which could otherwise rob the body of nutrients. Also, assumes overpopulation as an established fact when other research points toward poor agricultural practices and political games as the source for most food shortages.
The Review:
The More With Less cookbook by Doris Janzen Longacre is a collection of recipes from various Mennonite families, first collected about twenty years ago. The first part of the book describes why the book exists, including quite a bit of space devoted to overconsumption and overpopulation. Longacre makes some excellent points regarding how our diet has changed from our grandparents diet, though she doesn't mention that our grandparents ate parts of animals we would never even touch nowadays. She also makes an excellent point regarding the nature of cooking itself in a homemaking capacity: we've elevated it to a cumbersome art when it should be about good friends and family. After going over some suggestions for changing the way we approach food and meals in general, including basic nutrition, the protein question, how to transition into a "more with less" kind of menu structure for both everyday meals and entertaining, and eating with joy instead of just to fill our stomachs, we find ourselves in the recipe section.
There's a very important note at the beginning of the recipe section that I feel needs to be stressed in case someone picks up this book and tries a recipe that's "expensive". "Expensive" depends entirely on where you live. If you live near the shore or in a fishing town, seafood will likely cost much less than it would if you were further inland. I live in Texas and here beef is comparatively cheap. You can even find ground buffalo at the local Wal-Mart, something I doubt is easy to come by in a place like... Boston, for example.
Point? Use what's local to your area and you'll likely do better in your budget. Also, we've found eating regional dishes tends to help us acclimate better to our surroundings. Could just be us.
The recipes themselves are well-thought out, and there's a lot of them. A lot of time is spent on grains and beans, though obviously not with the latest information regarding soaking, sprouting, and souring. However, this is still a valuable book for those who want to cook from scratch and are overwhelmed by cookbooks that seem to have a multitude of ingredients for what sounds like a simple dish.
Most of the recipes will require some thought, especially regarding menu planning if you want to save the most money. Although there are a number of recipes that can be put together quickly, there are also a number that may take an hour or two at least -- though I have to admit that even those recipes don't require much hands-on work... just waiting, especially when it comes to making bread. There are also a number of recipes that use white flour as a default. Personally, I've found white flour to be very detrimental to my family's health. Although some recipes work if you substitute whole wheat, if you aren't used to working with whole grain flours chances are good they won't turn out the way you expect. I wasn't too impressed with many of the bread recipes for this reason. If you've never made bread before and are willing to use white flour, these recipes might be worth trying.
I also found myself disappointed by the inclusion of so many recipes calling for soybeans. I've boiled soybeans and made my own soymilk and the only thing I can say about it is that I've never been able to get over the way soybeans smell like plastic. Some people love the smell. I can't stand it. Tofu is the only soybean product I've had that I actually enjoyed.
I used to feel bad about this until I did more research and discovered that soy isn't being used the way it should be to get the maximum benefit from it. The high phytate content needs to be broken down, and has been traditionally broken down in Asian countries, through fermentation. Some miso soup bases are fermented for a couple of years at least. So, if you want to try these recipes, I would recommend looking into modifying them to take advantage of fermentation's benefits.
There are also many delicious recipes in this book for vegetables, especially greens like kale, and many ethnic dishes as well that use vegetables as a main component of the meal. The focus of the book is on meatless dishes, but there are also many recipes, including casserole recipes, that use meat. Dairy and eggs are also given a front and center treatment for those who love them. The dessert section is one of the best I've seen and fits with the other recipes in its focus on simplicity, taste, and health.
Perhaps my favorite part of the recipe section is a small column at the end of each food section entitled Gather Up the Fragments. It was here that I first started to realize how much food I wasted each time I cooked, not only in what I put into my food but also how to use what was leftover. An example is bread heels and stale bread: dice it up and put it in a blender to make your own bread crumbs. Never spend money on a can of bread crumbs again. :)
The last two sections of the book are worth mentioning separately from the rest: gardening and preserving, and snacks. Both are small, but I mention them separately for different reasons.
The gardening section has one of the best attitudes I've seen regarding this wonderful practice. Garden for the sake of joy, not out of duty. That and the tips regarding vegetables, preservation, and finding food in the wild make this a section that will whet the appetite for more information.
The snacks section is small on purpose. Most good snacks are either fruits or vegetables (we also use raw nuts). Anything more than that can be made in advance in bulk, like homemade popsicles, cookies or puddings. If your family is like mine, though, I stick with fruit and vegetables, maybe making a dip out of nuts they can use for extra flavor. If I didn't do this, they wouldn't get nearly the amount of fresh food they need for health. The recipes in this section seem to have the same philosophy because there are many "dips" and not many cracker recipes like I've seen in other cookbooks. If the information isn't enough, or lunch needs more help, I highly recommend Lunches and Snacks by Sue Gregg, who has the same philosophy in many ways as Longacre, but uses more recent data and has a stronger emphasis on kid participation in her book.
Monday, November 17, 2008
The Economy and Skills
I'm big on preparing as much as possible for future events. Often, in our house, this means tangibles, though we're working on knowledge as well and having an emergency plan.
That's why I really liked this article about Investing in Skills at The Simple Dollar. In all my preparedness research, the thing that keeps jumping out at me is knowing the people in your community. It's one of the reasons I would smile when I would hear the head of our church talk about getting involved in our communities, helping others, serving others. These bonds of friendship are the things that hold civilization together when a crisis erupts. And from what I've been reading, we're about to go into a rather nasty crisis.
I also highly endorse the concept of working on skills NOW that you may need when things get bad. When Mr. Vinca and I were first married, we had several weeks where it would be better financially if we didn't buy bread (we've always been of the opinion that food and shelter come before bills but we try to be as frugal as we can in all areas). I said that wasn't a big deal because I knew how to make bread: I learned when I was 12 and made bread on a consistent basis for my family because the family I was staying with at the time was on church welfare and always seemed to be out of bread but rarely used the flour they got. Because I had practiced so much as a young woman, it didn't take me long (one or two tries) to turn out a decent loaf for our family. I still have trouble with air bubbles at the top of the loaf (overkneading) but the bread tastes good and cooks through fine.
It took me several years to get to a point where I could easily say "no problem" to many of the challenges we've faced due to learned skills. I've learned self-sufficiency to a point where I can see I'm not really self-sufficient at all, though others might think I'm delusional for saying that. When you reach that point, you'll know it and realize how important it is to avoid becoming isolated.
Anyway, for now, I add a little to our 72 hour kits with each shopping trip. I focus on learning how to sew, both by machine and hand. I try to get my family healthy and get them used to living foods, including "bitters" and sour tastes. And at the moment, that's all we can do. Hopefully, one day we'll live on a farm and raise our own livestock, though I have to admit I'd just be happy with owning our own home again. It's more responsibility, but more opportunity as well.
Anyway, enough of my babble. Must get to work. Hope you enjoy the article.
That's why I really liked this article about Investing in Skills at The Simple Dollar. In all my preparedness research, the thing that keeps jumping out at me is knowing the people in your community. It's one of the reasons I would smile when I would hear the head of our church talk about getting involved in our communities, helping others, serving others. These bonds of friendship are the things that hold civilization together when a crisis erupts. And from what I've been reading, we're about to go into a rather nasty crisis.
I also highly endorse the concept of working on skills NOW that you may need when things get bad. When Mr. Vinca and I were first married, we had several weeks where it would be better financially if we didn't buy bread (we've always been of the opinion that food and shelter come before bills but we try to be as frugal as we can in all areas). I said that wasn't a big deal because I knew how to make bread: I learned when I was 12 and made bread on a consistent basis for my family because the family I was staying with at the time was on church welfare and always seemed to be out of bread but rarely used the flour they got. Because I had practiced so much as a young woman, it didn't take me long (one or two tries) to turn out a decent loaf for our family. I still have trouble with air bubbles at the top of the loaf (overkneading) but the bread tastes good and cooks through fine.
It took me several years to get to a point where I could easily say "no problem" to many of the challenges we've faced due to learned skills. I've learned self-sufficiency to a point where I can see I'm not really self-sufficient at all, though others might think I'm delusional for saying that. When you reach that point, you'll know it and realize how important it is to avoid becoming isolated.
Anyway, for now, I add a little to our 72 hour kits with each shopping trip. I focus on learning how to sew, both by machine and hand. I try to get my family healthy and get them used to living foods, including "bitters" and sour tastes. And at the moment, that's all we can do. Hopefully, one day we'll live on a farm and raise our own livestock, though I have to admit I'd just be happy with owning our own home again. It's more responsibility, but more opportunity as well.
Anyway, enough of my babble. Must get to work. Hope you enjoy the article.
Where I have been
Sorry it's taken me so long to blog. It's getting pretty late in my pregnancy and I've been focusing a lot on what I need to do so that my husband won't be overwhelmed when he takes over the house for the first week after the baby is born.
These things include:
However, that has changed. I'm not entirely sure of the reason. I know that it comes from the top leaders of our church.
Anyway, here's the revised policy: meals will only be given on an emergency basis (i.e. things that are unplanned). Even then, meals will only be given for the first few days afterward. Beyond that, members need to coordinate with their local leaders.
The point of this change is to encourage self-sufficiency. After all, if you know you're going in for surgery or having a baby, you have several months sometimes to plan for the event. I think there's another reason, though, that isn't being said but that I've seen in regards to bringing meals over. I've seen it a lot because we have two children with special needs and that includes diet. There's just too many places in the old way of doing things where people with good intentions could really put a family in a bind. One time, we were given a meal we could NOT eat (this surprised us because food allergies and special considerations are always taken into account when the organization would draw up the list). We couldn't call up the family who donated the meal and tell them, "I'm sorry but there's no way we could eat this. If we do, we'll all get sick, especially my two eldest who can't handle many of the foods you've included in this meal. So, do you think you could bring us something else, something we can eat?" I've forgotten what we did. I think we broke out the peanut butter and bread... or we might have ordered out. I don't remember. But I do remember how disappointed we all were.
As wonderful as the system can be when it works (and when it works it works phenomenally well) it can also a breeding ground for resentment.
So, no more meals. A friend of mine from church got a little ticked at the policy and will be bringing us a meal for that first night afterward, and another friend will give us a meal after that, but from that point on we're on our own. And you know what? I don't really mind.
So, today is going to be spent on preparing the "birth room" (a.k.a. our bedroom) and planning out when to make these meals, as well as get a couple in the freezer. That, combined with keeping up with six kids, should take up most of my week... so, if you don't hear from me much over the next few weeks, that's what I'm doing.
Just so you know. :)
These things include:
- Lots of decluttering and cleaning
- Meal planning
- Freezing as many meals as I can so that all he has to do is cook the food
- Gathering necessary baby supplies
- Figuring out Thanksgiving and getting as much of that frozen/prepared in case the baby shows up early.
However, that has changed. I'm not entirely sure of the reason. I know that it comes from the top leaders of our church.
Anyway, here's the revised policy: meals will only be given on an emergency basis (i.e. things that are unplanned). Even then, meals will only be given for the first few days afterward. Beyond that, members need to coordinate with their local leaders.
The point of this change is to encourage self-sufficiency. After all, if you know you're going in for surgery or having a baby, you have several months sometimes to plan for the event. I think there's another reason, though, that isn't being said but that I've seen in regards to bringing meals over. I've seen it a lot because we have two children with special needs and that includes diet. There's just too many places in the old way of doing things where people with good intentions could really put a family in a bind. One time, we were given a meal we could NOT eat (this surprised us because food allergies and special considerations are always taken into account when the organization would draw up the list). We couldn't call up the family who donated the meal and tell them, "I'm sorry but there's no way we could eat this. If we do, we'll all get sick, especially my two eldest who can't handle many of the foods you've included in this meal. So, do you think you could bring us something else, something we can eat?" I've forgotten what we did. I think we broke out the peanut butter and bread... or we might have ordered out. I don't remember. But I do remember how disappointed we all were.
As wonderful as the system can be when it works (and when it works it works phenomenally well) it can also a breeding ground for resentment.
So, no more meals. A friend of mine from church got a little ticked at the policy and will be bringing us a meal for that first night afterward, and another friend will give us a meal after that, but from that point on we're on our own. And you know what? I don't really mind.
So, today is going to be spent on preparing the "birth room" (a.k.a. our bedroom) and planning out when to make these meals, as well as get a couple in the freezer. That, combined with keeping up with six kids, should take up most of my week... so, if you don't hear from me much over the next few weeks, that's what I'm doing.
Just so you know. :)
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