Excellent Thrift Find

 So I found one of these coffee pots:

at a thrift store in Lewiston Idaho. I paid 5$ plus tax so like, $5.30.  

The pic is bogarted from ebay where the person is trying to get 64$ plus crazy expensive shipping.  The one I got is in better shape than the ebay one.  We'll see if that one sells for that price.

I've already used it multiple times.

Protip:  Turkish grind (like talcum powder) coffee is a bit fine for this pot and takes about 20 min to drip through and leaves a good quantity of sludge, but is delicious. I will try it with a proper grind size when I get some.

Thrifty Gifts I've Given and Gotten That Were Actually Appreciated.

 1) A pound of good coffee beans.  I get this one often and I LOVE it.  I like coffee.  I like the process of making coffee rather than going out for coffee, which is also fine but not as rewarding to my aspergery brain.

2) Really good sox!  Who doesn't like really nice sox?  And it saves me spending on sox. I give and get these.

3) Complete cookie mix in a jar.  I like to give this when I can get ahold of powdered egg and dry milk powder (the full fat kind) if required..  Powdered egg is gross if you try to fry it but for baking JUST FINE.  When I can get that, the cookie mix usually just needs a bit of oil or butter and some water.  People love it.  Layer it up in a jar so the various ingredients contrast in stripes or wedges.  Then fill the remaining space with candies or chocolate chips or whatever wrapped in a bit of plastic wrap.  Put the lid on.  I make a tag with the recipe, including a list of all ingredients, and tie that on with a bit of ribbon.  Old christmas cards make nice tags.  Just cut the front off and either cut out the santa/angel/other-featured-element, or use it whole. 

4) Homemade jams, jellies, canned goods (if you trust the person who canned them!).  GIVE THE JARS BACK with the bands. 

5) Dried fruits and mushrooms.  I get these and I like it.  They are home dried by a relative and are super handy as shelf stable food.  The mushrooms work really well in soups and casseroles.  If I put them in water for a bit, then blot dry, they can go in omelets.  

6) Any other homemade product.  I make mustard with no sugar or salt so it is keto/diabetes/glutenfree/lowsodium diet friendly.

7) Undies!  In college one of my favorite aunts always sent me nice undies for christmas.  As I was chronically broke, my undies would get a bit tatty and I'd just keep wearing them until you didn't know which was the leg hole and which was just a hole.  I kind of miss getting undies...(cough cough...jockey's for her hipsters size 6

8)  Grocery store gift card!  I gave this to a young friend when he was in college and he was GIDDY.  It was from a discount grocer so he really made it stretch and was able.

9) Handcrocheted throw from a friend now deceased.  She also made me an appliqued blanket from a cheap furniture blanket and felt cut outs with scenes from my life.  Awesome!

10) A cartoon alphabet similar to Edward Gorey style I got as a graduation gift YEARS ago and still love.  It has a scene for every letter, a rhyming phrase under each picture.  Composed and drawn by my broke-ass college friends.

11) Wine glasses with beaded skirts.  I was broke...but wanted to give a good gift so I found some affordable but nice wine glasses and beaded tiny skirts on them.  I think they might still be in use and it was a good 30 years ago that I made them.

Grocery Debacle

 I'm fine-tuning the budget.  As one does when prices go up.

Beyond tracking my grocery budget, which is at or below the "thrifty" level of the USDA food cost thingy. 

https://fns-prod.azureedge.us/sites/default/files/media/file/CostofFoodSep2022Thrifty.pdf

For one old chick: 51-70 years $51.30/week  $222.50/month.

I thought I could do better.  I have in the past.  

So, I did a couple of things.

In the grocery budget, I made a subheading for spending called "crap" meaning candy, industrial kombucha, sugary treats at the farmers market.  Stuff I can live without or make myself.   

In October the "crap" category was about 27% of the spending!  That's about 50$ last month of my actual spend at the grocery store and farmers market.  Without that 50$ of crap, I had plenty of nutrition and calories and variety.   If I repurpose even 1/2 that amount into DIY treats or some local meat that will be a better option.  Cooking treats at home with the honey/cocoa/etc I have in stock is not "crap", for the record.

We'll see if I manage that this month.  The only trip to a grocery store this month I spent 3$ on crap!  Granted, it was a good deal for what I got, really high quality dark chocolate, but I did not need it.  Damn that discount grocery store.

NOOOOO!!!!! Leslie Jordan Has Suddenly Died

 I am so sad,

Here is a link to some of this megastar's best work:

https://youtu.be/SFbzbWnUgQs?t=190

Soooo...APPARENTLY....I had the 'Rona

 Also apparently, the Red Cross tested me for antibodies when I donated blood in May of this year.  They had stopped the antibody testing ages ago.  I didn't realize they had re-started for a short time to find "convalescent plasma" donor options.   I think they aren't testing again...

ANYWAY...I was booking or rebooking an appointment for the future and was looking through my old vitals and whatnot from past appointments because, why not.  I have great blood pressure and sometimes my heart rate is so low they have to call HQ for permission to drain my blood.  They say things like "no, she's fine, just calm" or "I guess she meditates" and then they can do it.

On the May appointment record was also a covid antibody test that said "Reactive +"

When one has the vaccine and an immune response to it, you get "Reactive" but no "+".  So I looked that up!  I had enough antibodies for convalescent plasma donations (to help those who are sick).  

You have to have "had" the disease or at least mounted a major immune response to it.

I had tested my nose several times through spring before travel or when I was seeing someone with a compromised immune system.   And in the spring when I sneezed once and once when I was tired on a Friday.  All negative.   Interesting.

As far as I know, I didn't infect anyone fragile!  I hope!!  There was a time when everyone at work but me and another woman were out sick.  She also has "never had" the 'rona.  But people she lives with have had it multiple times.

Probably she and I had those no-symptom cases I've heard about.  I figured I would be one who had that but was also enjoying that I might be the LAST person to get it.  Guess not!

I'm fairly glad to know I've had it.  More immune having had vaccine and the disease than either one alone and I've had my vaccines.  And a booster.  Cool.

In much much sadder news...Loretta Lynn died today.  

Here are links to a couple of songs that were banned from radio and something more recent:

Rated X about divorced women being treated poorly 

https://youtu.be/SVlnhB3xPtY

The Pill...about birth control and how important that is:

https://youtu.be/E2pd1l0i0A8

And something she did with Jack White because...why not!

https://youtu.be/11tjR5ZflSw

RIP Loretta.

Juanita Turns 200,000

 Miles that is...

Juanita being the Honda I bought in early 2021, like February or something.  I could look that up but I can't be arsed. 

Here's the blog post where I talked about it:

https://simplicityandfrugality.blogspot.com/2021/03/brand-new-extremely-used-car.html

SO...yesterday I had extra running around to do after work, which wasn't frugal but crap comes up sometimes and there you go.

Headed to Moscow and noticed that Juanita was at 199,982 a bit south of my place (which is north of Moscow).  Cool.  By the time I left Moscow, where the aforementioned run-aroundery took place, I was nearly at the big 200k.

Here are actual before and after photos: 

BEFORE

AFTER

Here's how she looks as of earlier this week

Note the new sticker...bit small but makes her look large and in charge

Closer view of the sticker:

I put one on each front door.  They look like the real agency stickers but smaller and with more 'sqatch.

I have had the vehicle for 19 months and put 34,000 miles on it.  That is an average of 1789miles per month, give or take.  About normal for me.  I used to average 30,000/year.  This would be 21,500 per year.   A few more on on the pick up, but with a busted odometer, no one knows how many.  

ANYWAY:  5000$ purchase price.  About 1200$ in tires and repairs (tune up earlier and brakes recently).  6200$ for 34000 miles...  Ownership and major repair costs as of now:  16cents/mile

IF she goes to 300,000 miles, assuming I will need more brakes and something else, and tires that would end up at about 7500$ total (because I did pads and rotors this time, rotors should last so next brake job should be less)  for 134,000 miles is 5.6cents per mile...nice!  We'll see if that happens.

Incidental Frugality

 I'm doing a month of "no industrial bread type products" as a diet experiment.  I do like my diet experiments...this one did NOT result in intestinal distress.   Suddenly-Keto...that one went bad on me. Oops!

Anyway, this month has been no industrially produced bread, wraps, tortillas, chips, pasta, etc.  No carby things from big factories.  I am buying a bit of bread and maybe a 1x per week sugary treat from local bakers at a farmers market.  As a result, the salt and the processed food are way lower.

As a side effect...my grocery costs are WAY down.

The grainy-carby things I have at home are whole dried hominy and chicos (corn stuff) from a past trip to Santa Fe, some wheat berries (the stuff that comes off the wheat plant before it is ground up into flour), and I recently added some millet because it was cheap and I wanted to try it.

I've been canning dry black beans with the hominy and/or chicos.  EXCELLENT!  It takes the same amount of time and butane to can 4 pints of beans an corn as it would to cook a meal's worth.  I end up with 4 instant meals.  So far I haven't even heated them up.  Just eaten right out of the jar.  I may try it with wheat berries too.  

Lots of lentils with wheat berries.  Cook up in about 30 min and then I take it to work the next day.

Breakfasts have been eggs.  Lately with grated carrot or kohlrabi thrown in and fried up together into sort of a hash thing.   Good.  

I bought a grain mill, manual and small, from thrift a while back and busted that out a couple of days ago.  Turned wheat berries into course whole wheat flour (it's not a great mill but it works and was cheapish).  I added some to a breakfast carrot hash and it made it into more of a fritter.  Then I mixed the rest up like a biscuit dough and slow fried it over a very low flame.  Brought it to work and it was a fine biscuit if a bit heavy.  I'll get better.

The possible downside...is...well...ENORMOUS amounts of fiber.  This is healthy.  And gassy.  Win win??  Not for my colleagues.  But I'm not hungry all the time.

It's making me eat mostly what I cook.  Think before going to a restaurant because there is crappy industrial bread everywhere.  And it's making me really appreciate the local bread makers, especially my favorite guy with his long ferment sourdoughs.  I'm only buying a bit since even artisanal bread is super salty. 

The few times I've eaten at restaurants I've gotten in the habit of going for salad, no croutons.  Then just ignoring any rolls or bread on the side.  Mostly it makes me think before I even go to a restaurant.   A brunch meeting for work was ok. I picked the veggie omelette and skipped the biscuit (those are usually gross anyway).  

My grocery bill is coming in on budget so far and I'd lowered the budget considerably to make room for the increased gas costs.

Good Lord! Food Costs!!!

 So I went in a regular grocery store for the first time in ages.  

And HOLY COW!   $9.19 for a 42oz (not even 4lbs) of quaker rolled oats.

I was going to drop some $$ for the tiny food pantry but not those $$.

Instead, I went to Winco, an employee owned chain with better prices.  Got bulk rolled oats for 1$/lb.  WAY better than those quakers at about $3.5/lb. 

What if I a) didn't have a decent income and b) didn't have access to multiple grocery options c) didn't have transportation to said stores???

I'd have to pay whatever was charged and apparently go broke.  Criminitly.

And watch those quantities on your food containers, and other packaging, for this nutso shrinkflation.  The container appeared to be the same size as the old 4lb one, which I also would not pay that much for, but must have had empty space.  I'm not spending my money to check the empty space quantity.

My weekly exercise of reviewing the grocery store flyers I can't seem to prevent from jamming my mailbox (my actual physical one) to see what I would be eating using the "dollar a pound all year round" guideline.  It can still be done.  If one had a freezer, and power and etc to keep it going, one could save a boatload stocking up on loss leader sales of meat (mostly chicken parts and pork) when it hits 1$ or less per lb.  There is usually basic veg (potatoes, onions, carrots) for that.  And a bit of fruit.  I also know that NOT in the flyer are the regular things like bananas that are generally under the price guideline and past-the prime fruit and veg at good prices.  The "reduced for quicksale meat also often hits that.

You have to work for it, but it can be done if you have some infrastructure.

Canned beans are close most weeks, dry beans usually, and given that they cook up to 2x the dry quantity, are always a better deal than canned (also no salt on the dry ones...) if you have a cooking method available.

Anyway, I'm sorry to those with fewer options, in food deserts, and in urban areas without decent stores and transportation. I will be seeing if my donating or activisming could address the issue in some small way.

SHRINKFLATION: I actually noticed it

 Even though I rarely shop "normal" stores like supermarkets and bigbox stores, instead preferring thrift, salvage (Ross, TJ, Grocery Outlet), and other options, I have noticed shrinkflation.

I check the clearance food aisles at Ross and TJ and I shop Grocery Outlet for groceries.  You'd be surprised what you find at Ross and TJ.  Like whole bean coffee.  I figure decent coffee for 5$/lb is doable for me.   Since I shop based on price per volume, I always check the amount listed on the package and in the case of bagged produce, I weigh the bags as there is quite a bit of variation.

Coffee is the case in point.  A while back, years?, I noticed that what looked like a 1lb bag listed 12oz as the weight.  That would be 3/4llb, not 1lb.  NOPE.  $3.75 is max for 12oz.   It has to be a full lb.  That is getting rare.  

This weekend at one of the discount/salvage stores I noticed 11oz bags of coffee beans.  Since I am shopping where merchandise goes to die, this must have arrived on "normal" store shelves months ago  Do let me know!

I await the 10oz of coffee beans in the 1lb size bag.  Cripes.

In June, didn't go in July, I found 2lb bags of coffee beans at Grocery Outlet for $9.99 so that met the 5$/lb price point.  I don't worry too much about the blend or roast at that price.  I do avoid flavored types. These almost always cost more and so far have never been the only option.

With prices going up, I bought a brick of "dollar store" type coffee.  It is well under the 5$/lb rate even in an 8oz, or is it 6?, size. We'll see if it is drinkable.

TP is another one.  I buy a regionally sourced off-brand.  It is under 5$ for 24 rolls.  Not fancy, soft, scented, lotioned, etc.  JUST TP.  I haven't bought any in a few months as I can store 2 packs at that size (thanks dead camper fridge that is still mouseproof!) so haven't looked at it of late.  I should keep the size label portion of the current pack and date it so in the future I can see if my TP rolls are shrinking.  At one point I calculated price per square foot but it was a lot of calculating.  I am rethinking "family cloths" (wipe rags) and rotating in newspaper now and then at least for #1s.   The savings is real now.  We'll see...

I went for 5gallon buckets at various hardware stores now and didn't buy any.  7-8$ per bucket.  Last time I bought them they were $3.50ish per bucket.   So, I did not buy any new buckets.  I am going to sort through what I have and glue up some of the old ones with glue I have.  Those that are beyond gluing but still bucket-like, will get the tool-toting duty.  Those that are glued and water tight can be non-potable water toting type tasks.  Glued but not water tight can haul dirt-like things.  Those that are still in good shape will get rotated in to laundry and other duties I consider high-end.

As for Shrinkflation with buckets...some of the "5-gallon" buckets are 4 gallon!  This is fine, but ends up with a non-standard height or lid size and mess up my system.  Also, less hauling/storage capacity for the price.

I Fixed A Thing!

 Which is hard because I don't know how ...

(there is a scene in the movie "Happy Texas" that would be perfect here but I can't find a clip)

I had a twin window fan.  Then, at thrift I bought a "new" one. I tested it in the outlet at the store BEFORE I bought it.  Then stuck it in storage and got rid of the old one that was starting to malfunction and smell funny.

A couple weeks ago things got HOT so I dug out the 'new' used fan.

ALAS it didn't run!  Didn't click.  Not slow.  NOTHING.

So, crap.  I put it in the car to throw out rather than have a dead fan taking up room.

There were no fans at thrift so I checked stores thinking it was late in the season and the fans would be marked down.  They were.  To 30$!!!  Uh, no.  I got the thrift fans for a max of 5$ each.  

So, fortunately I'm forgetful and had forgotten to chuck the 'new' fan.  I got it back out of the car and took a look at it while a video ran in the wee shed one evening.  After taking out about 2 dozen tiny screws (and wisely putting them in a bag) I saw a wire just hanging in space by the switch and the switch dealie also hanging in space.

I stuck the wire in the obvious empty hole and plugged the fan into the solar inverter. IT WORKED!!!  WOOT WOOT.

Dug out the glue.  Picked one that looked like it would work with plastic (could not find electrical tape, may not have any).  Using toothpicks as wedges I glued the switch dealie into the receptical that seemed meant for it.  Then jammed the dangly wire in the obvious hole (I had unplugged the fan) and used a couple of toothpicks as wedges to hold things in place for a couple of days while it dried.  And I was busy.

Tested again...still worked.  

Removed toothpick wedges.  Put all the screws back (no left over parts!! That's a first) and voila.  For about 15 minutes of hands on repair, I saved 30$ on a crap discounted fan from Rite-Aid (the cheapest one I saw...I boycott walmart and amazon so I do concede there may be cheaper new fans, but I won't by them).  

The hourly wage for that repair would extrapolate to 120$/hour.  That's worth the fix.

Saladify July

 I like my monthly themes even when I fail at them a bit.

This month is salad every day.  Yesterday, I had 2.

I don't like to cook a ton in the summer in the wee shed because it heats up.

Alas this summer, the weather is working against solar cooking most days I am home.  The garden is late but greens are coming on.   This morning I spent about 2 minutes picking some greens including wild greens like clover and golden rod.  FYI: old mature golden rod leaves are TOUGH.  I got tired of chewing.  I threw in some catmint (really mild mint), walking onion leaf, and good king henry leaves from the raised bed.  2 minutes.  Easy. 

I had left over dressing from a trip to the Edgy Veggie salad truck yesterday (those salads are big and good...and no more costly than any other lunch out).  A friend with me went to a cheese steak food truck.  They are delicious, but we were on the way to give a talk in the heat outside...salad worked better.  I wasn't bogged down with half a pound of salty meat.

Anyway, it's going fine.  Need to pick younger wild greens or get stronger jaw muscles though!

For Me This Day Will Live In Infamy

Human Rights in the US have been rolled back.  

So Much for May

 I didn't do "anti-inflammatory may" hence I am puffy and inflamed.

I need an alliterative month name as a motivator, apparently.

JUNKLESS JUNE awaits!  No crap.  Like no industrial candy bars, crappy cookies/brownies, white bread even on free sandwiches (a weak point this month).

Good whole food cooked in small batches are peachy.  Also expensive or time consuming which helps keep limits on it.

OMG!!!! Mind Blowing Advance in Laundry Technology

 I like laundry.  The only household chore I like.  For reals...well, canning to but for like the daily crap.

ANYWAY!!!!  

I knew about the energy efficient ventless European style washer/dryer combination units that use condensation tech for drying.

I knew about the portables.

The high efficiency machines (talking to YOU Jonny...stop putting SO MUCH DETERGENT in the high efficiency washer.  It clogs up the line and the drum and wrecks the machine.)

I did NOT know that they make a DRAWER washer UNDER the main washer, just for poopoo undies and yoga pants and fragile bras

Dude...a tiny washer under the mondo washer.  So much waste of resources making it and using it but I totes want one.  I won't ever have one due to the electricity and lack of need.  The drawer only does delicates and light loads so you end up with the big washer as the main one.  I have heavy dirty clothes so something exclusive to yoga pants and panties won't cut it.  If they ever add a heavy duty cycle to the wee drawer washer I might be on that. 

Anti-Inflammatory April: The Final Count Down

 Getting close to the end and all is well.

The toe that has the stiffness and inflammation is coming along, but will need work for much longer.

The arthritis in the knee is OK most days, as opposed to annoying most days.

I think I've had 1/2 of a chocolate chip cookie in the last week as a bauble, otherwise, totally on track.

It is a decent way to eat.  I put some stevia herb, not the refined stuff, on the steamed squash I had with breakfast and it tastes sweet.  When I am on sugar/corn-syrup, it tastes bitter.  So the tastebuds must have adjusted.

I have a field trip at work tomorrow but I am bringing whole fruit, peanuts (low or no salt one hopes...will depend on availability) and sandwich fixings for people.   Also cookies and brownies because others will want them.   I can use the lettuce to make a wrap which should work fine.  The others can use the bread.

Remembering to bring stuff on field trips has been one minor issue.   Turns out a bag of salt-free peanuts and an apple are available almost anywhere you stop.  

I still have duck meat, but have been eating lots of eggs because the chickens are laying plenty.  And more gelatine.  Using up a bottle of pure cranberry juice, unsweetened, in the "jello" made with the organic free range gelatine.  Since I'm off sugar, it tastes fine.  Straight cranberry juice is too tart/bitter when I've just had super sweet stuff.

ALSO:  Loving home made popcorn over the wood stove in my little vintage popcorn popper.  It works over the butane burner as well.  1/8 or 1/4 cup of kernels popped in coconut oil is a decent dinner side or snack.  Organic popcorn of course.  Especially good with smoked paprika on it.

The maker is like this:

Apparently getting it for 2-3$ at thrift was a good deal.  It hadn't been used so is in better shape than the one in the picture.  And it makes nice popcorn, BUT...the oil spits out the screen top all over heck while popping so I hold a sheet of paper over it gently, trying not to burn my fingers, while shaking it etc.  It works.  Then the paper goes in the fire-starter scrap paper area after I use it to soak up any extra oil left in the popper.

I'd forgotten how good real, oil popped, popcorn was. I've been airpopping and dry-popping in the microwave.  Those are fine, but bland.   

Eating whole foods also means the calories in the popcorn and oil are not an issue.

This is boring, but it works.  And it is CHEAP to eat whole food.

The apple and peanuts snack on the road was $1.20 or so.  In a gas station one is pressed to get a candy bar for that.  I could have skipped it and not eaten, but figured finding things that work is also good.

So far this month I've eaten mostly pantry food and freebies from friends and a couple of meals out.  Grocery spend this month is currently 49$. 

With a work field trip tomorrow, lunch provided (I'm the shopper so I know I will have stuff that works), that's another meal filled in.   

Enough of this.  Back to work!!

Anti-Inflammatory Update 3: The Minor Sugar Intake

 Still sticking with the anti-inflammatory April as I define it.  No sugar, no refined carbs.  Bit of organic whole wheat flour, plenty of veggies, eggs, and whatnot.

It is going well.  My owie toe is getting mobility back. I have no idea if it would have gotten better at this rate without the diet, but I had been working on it for 2 months before this and only made a little progress.  I COULD drop a log on the same toe on the other foot and start eating crap to see how long it takes that to get better, but I'm not going to.  

LOTS of potatoes this week because that is what I have and they are getting soft so have to eat it up. Also, carrots and onions.  I'm eating nearly an onion a day and lots of soups.  Soups are easy and tasty...NOT NEWS on that.  Mostly boiling the diced onion directly in the water rather than frying it, as noted before, because I do not want every thing I own to stink of fried onion.

I'll have garlic for next week if I run out of onions.

It is easier to keep salt intake low when one cooks for one's self.

And, as with previous food experiments, it is making more creative.  You can do lots of things with a potato.

As I run out of potatoes and the quinoa is getting low, I've started adding in a bit of whole wheat flour doing countertop dough, because I do not have a fridge.  I add dried yeast bought YEARS ago, that dry stuff cheap by the pound, to some whole wheat organic flour.  Then add water (no salt, keeping sodium low) and leave it at least over night.

When it came time to bake the first try at the dough, I greased up the tiny skillet (from thrift, obviously) formerly probably in a cookie kit gift thingy, and put the dough on it and stuck it inside the wood stove.  That worked great!  I spun it around after a while, because one side was toward the coals, then flipped it when the top was pretty brown.   It was good!  Bland because no salt so I will probably try putting herbs or spices in it eventually.  Or fermenting it longer.  I have vital wheat gluten to boost the protein etc and have used that a time or two.

Eggs...buttloads of eggs are being consumed.  4 today.  The hens are laying so free range pastured eggs are available to me.  And delicious.   Boiled, fried, scrambled.  Not poached or soft boiled because that is GROSS.  Also did some muffins at work in the toaster oven with a bit of that flour in some eggs with some olive oil and service berries stored in vinegar all winter.   Service berries have also gone in some gelatin, unflavored organic beef gelatin.

I'm out of lentils, garbanzos and peruana beans.  Down to split green peas and working on learning to cook those.  They are fine.  Will probably do a pea and quinoa pilaf next week when the taters have run out.  

Yes, I could buy more potatoes or whatever but I want to do a clear out on my stored food before the farmers markets start up in May.  

Eggs with the anti-inflammatory spice mix has been most breakfasts.  A few I just put in a lot of cocoa powder.  Also good!  2T of either of those with 2 eggs beaten in makes more or less a pancake whether fried or microwaved in a bowl.

As for new recipes...other than the woodstove firebox baked bread, nothing new and there only the location of the baking was new.

If I come up with a good way to make green peas, I will share.

That is all pretty boring!  But, it's going well.

So...the minor sugar intake.  Yesterday a long time friend and colleague defended her PhD Dissertation via zoom and in person, I was in person.  She had made cookies and zucchini or something bread.  I went with 2 reasonably sized cookies.  I meant to take one, but maybe muscle memory defeated me??

Anyway, less than 40 carbs/sugars and under 40 sods based on the recipe she seems to have used.  Very good.

I've run out of some teas (like that rooibos from Paris...sigh) which motivated me to use up the nettle and other herbal tea supply, or start on it.  The nettles are a diuretic so the first day drinking that I got extra steps in running to the turlet.  But my cankles looked great!

Even with a bit of sugar yesterday, I am not having cravings today which is good.  

I've also managed 2 lunches out without blowing it.  Going to a restaurant that specializes in locally sourced ingredients and has healthy salad and soup options, then skipping the bread (salty even if local and organic flour is used and I have the salt issue...thanks old age!)

Not bad over all.

 

Anti-Inflammatory April Update 2: Cauliflower Stem Soup Recipe

 So, it's going really well.  Guts are sorting themselves out.  Arthritis less annoying, still there, I mean, it's not a miracle cure but I did a whole workout at the gym with weights this morning without thinking about my arthritic knee or my owie toe (pro tip--do NOT drop logs on the joint between your big toe and your foot and then ignore it because it doesn't bruise.  Damaged all the tendons/ligaments which froze up and now I'm like 3 months in to trying to get the mobility back to what it was.).  The toe mobility is coming along, I suspect the lower inflammation level is helping.  Maybe it is placebo effect and I don't care.

Also, not as itchy.  I have the driest skin on the planet according to a healthcare provider and it is often itchy.  Less so now.

I've made my own chocolate treats like mochas with dehydrated coconut milk powder, just coconut bits, home brewed coffee (drinking 1/2 as much as before...2 cups per day rather than 4), and cocoa powder.  No sweetener.  It's quite good.  So that helps with the skipping candy bars at the store even when on super sale.  I stocked up on cocoa powder just for this.

The chickens are laying well now so eating more eggs.  Some people find them inflammatory but I seem to do fine on them.

Eating a tiny bit of whole wheat organic flour.  About a cup a week cooked into things like chocolate service berry bannock made with no-sodium baking soda or no-sodium baking powder.  I have a bit of vanilla extract, organic real stuff, if I want to kick it up but so far haven't bothered.

Having banana eggs or just eggs and anti-inflammatory spice mix for breakfast most days.  

To support my good diet, I'm buying more produce, while keeping it frugal.   Last Saturday I had to be in town for a thing so I combined that with my grocery run and laundry duties to minimize trips.   

I got organic purple and green cauliflower heads, one each, for $1.50 each!  Since they each weighed over 1.5lbs, I hit my "Dollar a pound all year round" (that's a Jeff Yeager guideline for saving $$ on groceries...buy what is cheap and use it all).

I made a critical error when cooking up the first head, the green cauliflower.  I cut out the stem and leaves and put it in the chicken bucket (a pan that holds food scraps that the chickens can eat...then I add water and let it cook on the wood stove if that stove is going, because chickens don't eat raw onions).  OOPS!  I Don't keep that pan clean enough for human consumption of contents so...darn it!

I had forgotten that the stems are fine diced up small and put in soup or mashed potatoes or whatever!  Even fried up.  Same with the leaves and the ribs from the leaves!  It was like 1/2 the weight of the cauliflower.  

SO, yesterday I had the purple cauliflower florets for lunch with some boiled eggs and a dressing made from the dregs of fancy mustard, vinegar and olive oil.  It was good.  

I KEPT the stem and leaves in a bag and took them home.  Last night I diced them up into a pan.  There was about 1.5 cups of usable food.  The chickens just got those dry hard nubbins from where there were cuts/trims.  I added water, a chopped onion, a couple of carrots (saved the top bits to regrow the greens in little cups of water because that is fun and carrot tops are my go-to version of parsley), a 1/4 cup of dry green split peas.  This is my first attempt at cooking split peas. Seasonings: marjoram, thyme, fennel (the stuff I have the most of...that's how I chose)  We'll see at lunch today how it is.

Brought it to a boil and simmered it until I got sick of simmering it.  No, I did not fry the onion. I could have but then everything I own stinks of fried onion. It's in a jar in the work fridge.  Most of it.  There was like 3/4 of a cup of soup that would not fit in the jar so that's at the house (which was 34degs F when I lift this morning, basically the whole place is a fridge today) waiting to become tomato soup tonight.  I'll add more water and a can of (low sodium) tomato paste.  Again, tomatoes inflammatory to some but I do well on them.  That usually makes a decent tomato soup.  Pepper and vinegar can fix most crappy soups.

Lesson:  cook up the stems.  If you want, you can peel them.  The peel is usually the hard, fibrous, bitter part.  ALSO full of vitamins and whatnot.  I left it on this time.  Of course I wash my veg too.  If I don't care for the skin in this soup, I might leave it out next time.

My groceries, being INGREDIENTS and PRODUCE was cheap!  I threw in some probiotics which were on a rare 20% off sale and might encourage the guts to improve.  My Dr. (jesus I'm old...I still BLOG and I quote my Dr...) approves of them.  Also stocked up on the powdered coconut milk.  It was on the same 20% off sale and I don't tend to binge use it if I stock up.  Unlike nuts and dried fruit...I don't dare have a back stock of nuts, nut butter or dried fruit because apparently that is my kryptonite.  I just eat the entire stock way to fast and throw my guts out of whack.  

Groceries, for 2 weeks plus some restocking, was about 27$.  That is being used with my pantry staples like the flour, cocoa, coffee, tea, and fresh eggs.  I spend about an hour in the evening making something for the next few days lunches if need be.  That keeps me from spending that evening sitting in a chair spiraling down a youtube rat hole.  And of course it saves me running to the store for something for those lunches which happened now and then before.  

7$ Challenge for 9 Meals from "Jan from NYC Saves Money"

This 7$ Challenge for 9 Meals is from a youtuber I follow:  Jan from NYC Saves Money

Click that link to watch the vid for more background if you like.   Or, forge ahead.

Here are prices from a local grocery store I can walk to..saving fuel costs.  The local store is on a reservation and does not charge the state sales tax of 6% (yes, even on basic food we pay state sales tax).

1 bulb garlic:    0.89

3 loose carrots:   0.89

3 d'anjou pears   1.13

1lb margarine    0.99

5lb whole wheat flour  1.99

1 doz med eggs  1.09

Total: $6.91

It might be a boring 9 meals...but it will work!  Jan assumes 3 meals per day so we will go with that.

And it will be floury.  Yes, a smaller amount of flour would make room for more veg or a bag of lentils, but 1lb isn't enough calories (and this is cheap calories) assuming1850cals per day which is about what I eat.   Also, the 5lbs for 1.99 is a short term deal.  The 1lb and 2lb bags of flour cost OVER 2$!!!

I went with eggs over dry beans or lentils.  Partly because the eggs allow me to make noodles and pancakes better than beans or lentils do.  More versatile.  But I am saving that 9cents left over, and there will be at least 1/2 the flour left.  The margarine comes up 1T short from what is required below so that day will be 70 calories down, but my average will be fine.  

Step 1: put 1/2c flour in a jar with some no-chlorine room temp water and put a cloth over the top.  Hope for some fermentation over the next couple of day.  Help it by putting it in a warm spot.  If it ferments by the 3rd day, use it for bread on the next round of 3 day cooking for more variety beyond the pancakes and tortillas below.

220 calories to be consumed eventually...

Breakfast every day: 1/2C flour, 1 egg with the white beaten up as leavening, the yolk just stirred into the flour with a bit of water.  Fold in the whites.  Fry up in margarine like bad pancakes.  Serve with 1/2 the pear sliced up and more margarine to make sure there are enough calories.  Tap water to drink.  4T marg total used.

220+63+210+48 = 541 calories

Lunch every day: 2 eggs fried or scrambled with 1/6 of the garlic in 3T margarine on a tortillas(made with 1/2 C flour and 2T melted margarine) with 1/2 the carrot shredded up.  Tap water.

126+220+350+14=710

Supper every day:  Make egg drop soup with 1T margarine, 1/2 carrot, 1/6 of the garlic, and an egg.  Make tortillas with 1/2C flour, 1T melted margarine and water.  Fry those up in a dry skillet and spread with 2T margarine to get the calories up. And the other half of the pear.  Tap water.

220+63+280+13+12+48 = 635

1886 calories X 2  = 3772

1816 for the 3rd day added to that is 5588total calories consumed.

That is an average of 1862.67 calories per day.  Very close to my needs.  

Yes, bit shy on vitamins, protein and flavor.  I will have used less than 1/3 of the flour.  Hopefully that sourdough started in step 1 worked. If I skipped the flour on the next trip, I would have $1.99 to spend on something other than flour.  And that 9cents left over would of course be saved in the grocery budget so $7.07 to spend.

Free things I can add to that to increase the vitamins include:

Pine needle or spruce needle tea from trees I know are not sprayed with chemicals.  Vitamin C is in that.  

Dandelion leaves, clover leaves, plantain leaves, and other wild edibles in areas I know are not sprayed with chemicals can be gathered.  These go in soup, scrambled eggs, or raw as a salad or added to the lunch wraps.   They can also be fried up with garlic as a side dish.

The next trip to the store, assuming the same sale flyer is in effect,  would add a pound of lentils, 1.09

Take out the 1.99 for the flour, and the total comes to $6.01

99cents savings!  Added to the 9cents from before, I have $1.08 for the next trip, and with lentils in my soup, or mashed as a spread on the tortillas, I have more protein and more options.  I would cut the added calories from the margarine amounts, saving some of that for the next round.  With the sour dough starter probably going, I can make bread/pancakes without adding oil to the batter/dough.  Of course the "waste" starter from cutting in half and refeeding would be fried up as pancakes or used to coat carrot slices as fritters, or some of those delicious wild greens mixed in for fritters (actually...that sounds good in general, might try it).

With an extra 1.08 the next 3 days would have $8.08 available to spend.  Buy the same again, because 1/3 of the flour is still there.  By the end of THOSE 3 days, would have $2.07 left (8.08-6.01).  I would get another 5lbs of flour as a stock up, and the usual list minus the margarine, leaving 99cents.  By now I would be super sick of the pears and carrots and garlic but what are you going to do?  They are reliably cheap and flour is cheaper than potatoes...the other super cheap veg.  Onions are an option but generally though you get more weight, the calorie content is low and the flavor/serving per $1 is less than a bulb of garlic.  

Once I had 3$, I would hit the discount bins and maybe get those bruised bananas or a bag of onions or if it was spring and I owned a bucket of dirt or more, a pack or two of radish seeds.  You can grow those in a couple of weeks to the point you can harvest greens.  3-6 weeks and you have radishes.  12 weeks and you have more seeds.  

Also...I look for carrots, even bagged and trimmed ones sometimes work...with a bit of top or full tops.  Carrot tops are basically parsley so can be used fresh as a green/herb and dried as an herb for later.  Nutritious!

And I save and toast, or plant, the seeds from squash and melons.    Don't forget that dry beans, peas, lentils can be sprouted as long as they are whole beans/peas/lentils not split.  

Finally, the lack of flavor here is difficult.  Another option for seeds is herbs.  Pretty easy to grow indoors and they are nutritious and make these meals less boring as well as being encouraging because you take control of a tiny bit of your life.

NOTES:

While playing this headgame with myself, I have noticed that I couldn't come up with a personally applicable scenario where I had only 7$ for food for 3 days, no stocked items, my chickens/eggs were gone/not available, no friend was offering help before I even asked, no family member would just make sure I had food, or all the catchable wildlife and edible plants on my property were gone.  HOLY PRIVILEGE BATMAN!!!!  Being middle aged, female, cysgender, white, educated, and connected to a community of people who trust me and give a crap, having living family I am in touch with, being reasonably healthy and having a job!   Jeez. Then there is owning land outright, which is due to the above,   My mind boggled at how much I have and how little others doe.  

Anti-Inflammatory April Update 1, with Banana Eggs Recipes

 Yes, "recipes," but that's for the end (is that a teaser or a spoiler?)

It is going well.  I even passed up a brownie yesterday!  The maker declared that his brownies were the best and I made assumptions about scratch cooking with top notch ingredients.   Turns out it was a mix but he put half the mix in the pan, then a layer of chocolate candy bars, then more batter.   So, it would have been delicious but SUPER inflammatory. 

When I got home, I made a chocolate thing...I don't know what it would be.  3T organic whole wheat flour, 1 T vital wheat gluten for a protein boost and to use it up, 1 large egg and 1 airfart egg (a tiny egg with only white in it, no yolk, laid by a hen who is just getting started with the egg laying), some no-sodium baking soda (which is incidentally a calcium source...nice), 2 T service berries that had stored in vinegar, and 1 or 2 T of the vinegar off the berries, and 1 T cocoa powder.   The soda and vinegar of course make it rise more cake like.  Especially now that I have the hang of using the no sodium baking soda.  The vinegar/soda ratio is different than with regular soda.  ANYWAY, mixed it up, quite thick like drop biscuit, almost a dough.   Heated up coconut oil in the skillet on the wee stove and bake/fried it with the flame on super low and the lid on the pan but cracked to let the moisture out.  About 7-8 min per side and I had a nice cake-y treat that was not sweet, bit tangy with the berries that go well with the bitter cocoa.   

My neighbor is storing her berries in vinegar as well and really likes them.  It's fun when I can share a tip with someone who has 24 years on me and has shared some killer offgrid tips with me!   

So, clearly less inflamed as well.  My arthritic knee is less painful.  No more mobile yet, but less painful is good.

My left big toe (yes Mom, I had to double check the left/right issue...thanks for the dyslexia!) seized up a few months back after I dropped an 8lb log on it and the corner of the end of the log hit the main joint where it joins the foot.  I've been fighting this since January with warming it up and stretching per my Dr's orders. The tendons/ligaments all stiffened up and got inflamed from the blow.  Dang it.   Apparently this takes time to get the mobility back.  My fingers and toes are overly mobile, bending back to 90degs, so going from frozen flat to full mobility is a slow process.  With avoiding sugar/salt/processed food it is less sore and slightly more mobile.  I think I'm between 45 and 60 degs now.  Better.

I'm prepping meals and trying to make sure I have food ready at work so I don't get caught hungry and I also realize that I am not going to starve if I miss a lunch.

A commenter asked about the Banana Eggs in the pervious post.  I think I've done the recipe before but since I am making them specifically anti-inflammatory this month more than most, I will share the recipes (skillet and microwave style).

I keep a pint jar of my anti-inflammatory spice mix on hand at home and at the office and use it almost daily.

Current mix: 1 1/2C turmeric, 1 C cinnamon, 1/2C cloves, 1/2C nutmeg  (usually only 1C turmeric but I had more of that than cinnamon when I mixed this batch up).  I buy the spices in bulk at ethnic stores, a food co-op or the back end of  TJ max type stores.  I keep an eye out and grab it when any one of them hits about 5$/lb or less.   

Anti-Inflammatory Banana Eggs in a Skillet

1 T anti-inflammatory spice mix

1 banana, over ripe is good, over ripe and frozen then thawed while still whole and peel on is easiest.

2 eggs

1T oil

Mix up the banana and the spices.  If the banana is frozen and thawed it is already super mushy and easy to nearly liquify.  Mix slowly as the turmeric stains everything if it puffs out of the bowl.

Add the 2 eggs and mix until the whites aren't identifiable anymore.  If you are picky, beat them well before you throw the eggs into the banana bowl but I don't want to bother dirtying 2 bowls.  I also mix with the fork I will eat with.

Heat the oil in a cast iron skillet.  Once spit or water dances in the oil, put in the mix, turn the heat to medium. Wash the fork.

When it will slide around the pan while you shake it and maintain its shape and the top is set, flip it.

Once that side is cooked, eat it.   It is good with berries on it or just plain.  Eat right out of the skillet if you don't want to dirty a plate.

Anti-Inflammatory Banana Eggs in the Microwave.

Find a microwave safe bowl about cereal/soup size.  Too deep and the middle takes forever to cook.

1 T anti-inflammatory spice mix

1 banana, over ripe is good, over ripe and frozen then thawed while still whole and peel on is easiest.

2 eggs

Mix up the spice and the banana.  Mix in the eggs.  Mix them a bit more than you think.

Cook in the microwave for 1 minute.  Mix again.   Put back in the microwave and cook for 30sec to 1 min.  My microwave at work takes 2 min total, but it is low power.  Check it often the first few times.

Yes, the spice mix is a tad bitter.  Cinnamon sweetens it up and if I have been of sugary stuff for a while, it tastes just complex.  Not bitter or sweet.

If you are up for it, a bit of fresh cracked black pepper on the final product is supposed to kick up the anti-inflammatory properties of turmeric but I generally forget that.

Anti-Inflammatory April

 I totes made that up.  But I'm doing it.

Sugar and crap food binging, even just eating, is expensive up front and in the long run.

Up front because sugar and crap is a bad deal.  Maybe I can get more calories per dollar, but my arthritis/bursitis flair up and my guts rebel which is annoying and costs, time, productivity and $$ in the form of diarrhea meds, probiotics, and the the like.

Up front, sugar and crap food have no real food benefit so should probably be under the "entertainment" line in the budget, or a new line called "self-sabotage"...actually, I might do that.  It might work!

Anyway, I plan to eat whole foods, cook from scratch, largely with ingredients I have with infusions of  some fresh fruit and veg.

To prep, I went to the local grocery store today and bought a farewell candy bar (a big one), along with some good fruit and veg at good deals. Apples for 89cents/lb.   Cantaloupe for 79cents/lb.  There weren't any over ripe bananas (25cents/lb) but I have a few in the work freezer and can check back. Also a few garlic  bulbs at $5.99/lb.  Not super cheap but good and help with bland veg. 1 package of organic celery hearts for $1.89, there is 1.5lbs in the bag.  It didn't hit my $1/lb target but it is pretty close and the full amount in the package is edible.  With cantaloupe I don't eat the skin or guts (I do eat the seeds and the worms eat the skin and guts).  With apples I eat all but the stem and seeds which go in the wormery.  With celery though, usually the butt end is dirt and the tops are past it so there is trimming.  The bill for everything was about 9$.  2$ of that was the candy bar.  I got about 6.5lbs of veg and fruit for 7$, 2$ for the candy bar.  At the local store there is no tax, elsewhere in Idaho there would have been 6% added to the total so I can pay a bit more locally and save the tax and the gas $$ since I walk from my office to the store.

Tonight I am making a Lentil Quinoa Pilaf for tomorrow.  I sweated an onion in a tablespoon of coconut oil, added 2 carrots, some sweet pear herb leaves (no idea if that's a good idea but I did it), and it's boiling now with a quarter cup of dry lentils in it.  I didn't even sort them to see if there was a rock.  I like to live on the edge.  In a minute, I add a half cup of quinoa and let it finish up, then pack it in my 3 tier tiffin and put it on the porchfridge to cool.  Done and done.

At work for breakfast I have a banana thawing to make banana eggs for breakfast with a tablespoon of my anti-inflammatory spice mix.  Turmeric, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  The balance is a bit turmericky this time but it's still good.

I have plenty of tea and coffee (no sugar, no additives, no milk, I take it all straight) and water to drink.

Some people say coffee is inflammatory, others say not.  I figure without the sugar and keeping the amount reasonable (with the price of beans going up I am cutting back on coffee even homemade, 2T of ground coffee perday, I can rebrew it as many times as I like) it has not bothered me in the past.

I know this is also going to save me $$ because cooking at home from scratch and from what I have always does.  Inflation on basics has been not too bad so I'm fine, but this will help free up $$ for other life goals as well.  April always has some expenses in it.  A couple of annual bills are due and I do save for them each month, but still hate to see the big amounts leave all at once.

What If.... Preppers/Savers on the Youtubes Sometimes Lack Creativity and Experience

 OK, rando rant a bit because I'm kind of a dick.

On the youtubes, the thrifty people I follow are doing this "What if" type thing. Fine.  

Things like "What if you only had a half a bag of rice, 3oz lentils, and moldy cheese, and you don't get paid for a week and the money is gone...how would you stretch the food and what would you make?"

Mornings with Granny is best at this because I suspect she's been poor for reals.

I was poor once upon a time and now I'm too lazy/cheap/frugal to run in to town when I am lacking an ingredient.

ANYWAY...recently, the ones I watch are "prepping" or stocking up for power outages.  Turns out rice is a bad idea without power.  Um...like the electric stove or any of the 2 dozen counter top plug in appliances are the only ways to cook???

JEEZ people!  One vlogger was talking, this morning, about a power out where they had no way to heat water or cook food. She has other videos where they grill food outside.  Does the propane tank and/or charcoal not work when the electricity is out???

Also, candles under an upturned can with holes cut in the can-sides makes a tiny stove.   So does a can of crisco with a wick (which can be a bit of dry wood, twisted fabric, wooden skewers, taper candle jammed in a hole, or almost any cooking oil/fat you have around).  PEOPLE!!! Electricity is not the only power.  

What about a solar cooker?  Or the dashboard of your car in mid day?  Heat water with those mid day and then put it in a thermos, or even just wrap up the container of hot water with whatever.  That reflective dealy in the windshield works well.  ALSO coolers keep things warm.  They are don't just keep things cool.   Then you can heat that warmish water for washing or whatever.

Also...rice, pasta, grains can be soaked for a while, brought to the boil, poured into a thermos or the pan wrapped up and they will cook much faster with very little heat, e.g. over a candle or crisco heater.

Grills hold pots as well as naked slabs of meat. You can even bake bread, cake, whatever on there.

ALL YOU NEED TO COOK IS A HEAT SOURCE.  

Other tips for power-outage cookery:

Think about the size and power of your heat source.  Boiling a cup of water over a candle will take a while.   Boiling a cup of water on the grill is wasting heat...boil up the big pan of water (tea kettle, anyone?) and store the excess because maybe it will still be warm later.   Overnight oats/soaked-rice for 4 is too much to bring to a boil over a candle.  Not too much on a grill or in a solar cooker.  

Frying is faster.  Small bits cook faster.  You can fry on a grill.  Put the frying pan (cast iron is the best option) on the grill.  Add fat and whatever.  Cook.  Don't wander off.

Grill outside.  Want to bring some of that heat inside?  Heat up clay plant pots and bring them inside in metal buckets, set them on things that won't burn like bricks or the hearth.  You want get super warm, but you'll be busy and a bit warmer and NOT die of carbon monoxide. 

Butane burners are great, I use them all the time.  But the butane runs out pretty fast if you start with cold water and want to boil it up.  Hence lots of preheating on the woodstove and storing the water hot in thermoses (thermosi?  thermopodi?)...insulated containers!

Things to do now:

Make a "hay box" for your favorite pasta/rice pan.  NOT the insta pot.  Don't be an idiot.  The pan that you can put on the grill, stove, woodstove, etc.  Best if it has small handles but just use what you have.  Find a box, card board, wood, or a metal milk crate, that fits the pan with several inches to spare on all sides.   Line your box with wool blankets or old sweaters if you have it, or hay (hence the name), straw, cardboard, or even metallic bubble wrap. Make sure there is an inch of cardboard or wood or no-flammable at cooking temps fabric between any plasticky crap or fabric and the pan. Make the lining fit tight around the pan.   When the time comes, heat the pan up, like on that grill, and when the food is boiling hard, put the pan in the box (which of course you insulted on the bottom and sides and top) and close it up.  If you can heat up a rock or plant pot ahead of time and put that in the box while you finish boiling up the food, that will preheat the box and make it work better.

Don't have a box?  Make a bean hole in the ground and preheat it like in the olden days.  I will let you google that.

You can boil things mid-day in the solar cooker and transfer to the hay box or bean hole or thermos.

When using a thermos, preheating is best.

These all work like slow cookers.   Pasta will get mushy fast, whole rye berries hold up super well as do wheat berries, oat groats, and barley.   Quinoa is an excellent option as well.

If I am putting meat in, I prefer it to be fully cooked first, either fried up (sliced thin it fries faster/less fuel) or precanned by me or an industrial canning service.

If using a thermos for soup or flavored grains/pasta, you'll want to not use that for coffee or tea water later.  No matter what they say, the flavors linger. I have tested glass, plastic, and stainless steel lined thermoses and all retain that stank.  It's fine in the next cooked item, but not great in my coffee.  

To make the thermos cooking work: invest in a good bottle brush and good funnels.  I use a big canning funnel for the wide mouth thermoses and a skinny funnel for the insulated bottle type thermoses.  

The water you use to preheat a thermos is fine to use in the next batch of soup, to drink, to give to pets who usually enjoy the vague food stank, or to soak tomorrow's grains.  

These practices always save fuel/money/pollution/resources to why not be practicing now??

Rant complete...for now.

Loss to the Planet

 I just heard my favorite professor, mentor and good friend, David Gradwohl passed away.

Here he is in a chat with another student during 'rona times:

https://youtu.be/32YLAo8ITWQ

Pantry ReStock Blow Out...OOOPS. BUT one big benefit to the 2months of eating from the pantry

 So apparently I lack focus (yes, not a surprise to anyone who has met me).  Sometimes it looks like I have focus because the distractions are all inside my head.  My affect free expression may not change.

BUT, distracted get I do (and I don't even LIKE star wars crap, yet the yoda comes out).

So, haven't been in a grocery store or market in AGES.   Haven't even gone through the food bits of salvage stores like Ross Dress For Less.  

My skillz are RUSTY.  I had a list with me.   Divided into "now" stuff and "stock up" stuff.  Well, NO WHERE on there was "cheap maple nut clusters" but they were on sale for 50cents at Ross (or maybe Marhsalls, whatever).  And then I ate them.  10 servings of not good nut candy clusters.  Like gross sweet.  I did plan to buy the Honey Mama chocolates at Grocery Outlet.  DID NOT plan on eating all of them while I drove home.   Did plan on checking out the winter market down in Moscow.  Planned on 1 cookie.  Had 1 normal cookie (excellent).  BUT there was a young super cute couple selling TINY COOKIES and MINIATURE donuts and cinnamon rolls.  So, there you go.  I had to have those.  3$.  Damn.  

I also got quinoa which was the cheap "grain" (yes, it is not a real grain it's a brassica seed yada yada yada).  Made pilaf this AM with some elk steak (from a friend...wow was it good) to have for M, T, W lunches.  BUT ate it for breakfast and lunch today already.

Thank goodness I got distracted and didn't buy the whole wheat sourdough loaf!  I have eaten 4 days of food/calories in 1.5 days.  AND I have a bday to hit this afternoon.  Dammit.

Food is so good!

Still, I have had a breakthrough on the coffee. I was early (yeah, always) and the cheapo grocery wasn't open yet.  AND I had forgotten my coffee on my porch and NOT walked back up the snowy hill to get it.  I have a coffee-out budget this month and used 6$ of it for a coconut milk latte and 1$ for the tip.  Well...won't happen again.  The first time I had this particular latte, a dirty chai with a shot of huckleberry syrup...the "sasquatch" it was amazeballs.  About 50% of the time since then it has been really good.  50% of the time...not great but good.   This time!  BARF!  SO SWEET.  Probably a bit too much huckleberry syrup plus I had had only honey and maple syrup for the past several weeks since running out of sugar.  Also, some stevia.  I have made all but ONE coffee at home.  That other coffee was an americano on a preplanned coffee date with a friend's son (to check up on him in his new town, not a blind date.  No one get their hopes up...talking to you MOM).  That was fine. Strong, dark and bitter...like me. (heh heh).  This time. GROSS.  I respect that the prices have gone up in the 2months I have been out of coffee circulation and I always tip.  However, even at the old price of 4.50$, this would not have been worth it.  I am going to help the coffee huts in the region with their staffing issue by not going there anymore.  Maybe the occassional americano, straight espresso shot, or drip when a social obligation is easier to deal with that way, but mostly just no.  Not good enough.  

Most of the beans I have at home are really good, gifts from the holidays!  Thanks all!! and even the lesser beans/roasts I have now learned how to prepare.  Like today, old fashioned perculator on good beans, boiled until it was tar made an excellent fake espresso.  I added powdered coconut milk and a bit of stevia and vanilla extract.  Whole thing cost me maybe 90cents (most of that was the coconut milk powder...spendy but awesome). $6.10 savings off the poor quality dirty chai...even though I like saying "dirty chai."  I can brew a chai with coconut milk or nut milk (even cheaper when I have nuts (heh heh)), add flavor and stevia if it needs it.  If I am paying for the coffee it is under a quarter a cup (I re-use grounds...more anon on that), like well under.  And I get what I want.  As my taste preferences have shifted to include strong sours and bitters, and less standard sugar sweeteners, and certainly less high fructose corn syrup (which I bet was in the huckleberry syrup) I get less tolerant of the sicky sweet coffee things. David Sedaris (heart emoji here) calls those "liquid snickers bars" and he's right.

I was down to about 10$/month on coffees out on average, including vacations.  I expect that it will start averaging 3$/month.  7x12=84$/year savings.  Not huge, but it is a thing!  1/10th of a window for the future house.  

My tolerance for candy is also less high ...I think we have a term for that...ah yes, "lower."

While I ate all that crap, I didn't like it.  I was distracted.  I made coconut oil coconut fat bombs with peppermint flavor last week with what I had in the pantry and they were FAB!  Fatty, fibery, and good.  NO sweetener in there at all.  Just coconut oil melted, desiccated coconut that was about 2 years beyond the "best by" date but not rancid, and a bit of peppermint emulsion I bought at least 4 years ago.  The "best by" date has faded and I can't read it.  I also binge ate those, but with fewer negative gut and budget repercussions.  Next I am going to try replicating the Honey Mama style chocolate.  Which is really cocoa treats per their information.  No cocoa butter so not officially chocolate.  They use coconut oil, excellent cocoa powder, and some honey along with various flavors and it is ASTOUNDINGLY good.  NOT over sweet.  Tasty, rich and doesn't make one more hungry like sugar/fructose syrup can do.  I'm wondering how it would go with maple syrup thought I did not find any maple syrup in the budget this round.  I will pay more for local or traceable and packed in glass. The only reasonable deal with in plastic and not made by a traceable farm

Pantry Challenge: The End of the End

 OK, there may be a final final final end of the end report if I manage to do a proper inventory.

I had a bauble on Jan 30th.  I had packed some lovely soup for lunch (smoked duck, gingered carrots, garlic cloves, can of tomatoes, dried mushrooms, dried thyme leaves and rosemary saved from my garden, onion granules, and a low sodium bouillon cube along with some cracked pepper and a bit of vinegar because that perks stuff up and I needed to empty the jar...a quart jar with a table spoon of service berry vinegar in it is a waste of tiny space).   Anyway, it was great.  And the thermos SEALED to the point I could not open it.  I couldn't open it with two people trying at the same time (one holds it and one tries to crank the lid...nothing).  I tried banging on it, warming it, etc.  Stuck.   Yesterday I found someone incredibly strong and we got it open.  But on Sunday...no lunch and I was away from home.  I cracked!  Got a coffee and a cookie (bad idea...made me hungrier).  So, a burger and tots as a major treat.  Threw my sodium level above the OK range...dang it!!

Anyway, today is a make up day.  Sunday night I made a rye berry and lentil pilaf with some onion powder, a bouillon cube, various other flavors, lentils and a can of artichoke hearts (thanks Chris!) and it is delicious.   I have a serving of soup left and most of the pilaf.  That and the eggs I had for breakfast will keep me going at least today.  Possibly tomorrow.

ALSO finally got my radish seeds for sprouts going and have nearly 1.5pints of sprouts ready.  Still have tons of seeds.  Sprouting at the office where it is reasonably warm and the temperature is fairly steady worked.  Sprouting at home did not work.  Dang it all.  But now I know.  And I will put those in the soup today, or half of them.  It's a lot.

I should do a follow up on this...like my new favorite recipes.  And how I will change my pantry stock staples (more whole grains please!!).

Anyway: what I know I have left;

3 pints chicken broth (home canned)

2 pints duck meat (seriously)

1 smoked duck carcass that I can't even deal with so it might go to the chickens.  It's frozen in a bag in a tin on the porch so it will be fine for days yet, but I just have SO MUCH food and we had a hell of a time plucking the damn ducks that there are some feathers on the skin...maybe I can peel it and give the hide to the chickens and boil up the bones...that might work.  I do like duck bone broth and the residual smoke flavor comes through.

Gelatin:  this is a great thing to have!  Just this AM I decided to add 2T to my 2 eggs and anti-inflammatory spice mix breakfast (done in a microwave but highly edible).  It boosts protein rather than getting all calories from fat when the veg runs low, and is easier on my guts.  Also my hair and nails are fantastic.  Just mix the dry powder into the dry ingredients, and continue as usual.  I've also used it to beef up the protein in muffins and to compensate for lacking 1 egg (when I didn't want to open a new bag of powdered egg which also works well in baked goods and pancakes).  The texture is different but fine.  The eggs this morning fluffed up in volume to about 3x the usual and yet, still low sodium and lots of protein per calorie.

2+lbs coffee left.  Holiday gifts increased the supply.

Plenty of tea.

Plenty of herbs/spices/salt

Got pepper corns for christmas (Thanks Chris) so plenty of those left.  

A quart of cranberry juice (unsweetened) 

1.5quarts of berries preserved in vinegar

Plenty of vinegar 

Getting 2 eggs per day on average (once in a while 1 or 3) and so that's all fine

About a half a cup of lentils left,

A pint of dry garbanzos 

A half pint of dry peruana beans

A half cup of chicos

Small bag freeze dried corn

Small bag freeze dried blueberries

1-2lbs whole wheat flour

Bit of coconut flour

1 cup almond flour

3/4 quart vital wheat gluten

small bag psyllium husk

1 pint camelina seeds (those are pretty good in a keto-ish skillet bread that you then use for a fried egg sandwich with homemade mustard)

1/2pint gingered carrots...frozen

1/2 hand ginger

TONS of ingredients for the anti-inflammatory spice mix (turmeric, cinnamon, nutmeg...sometimes ground ginger)

1 little can of tomato paste

1/2 bag dried mushrooms

2 small bags dried chilis

1 cup dried veggie soup mix

1.5 bags powdered egg

3/4 bag powdered coconut milk

Plenty of stevia

1/2 bottle olive oil

1/4 lb coconut oil

4oz baking cocoa

plenty of leavening (baking soda, baking powder, yeast)

squash seeds (saved from squash...some will go to the chickens because I am not going to get them eaten)

1 qt of beet kvass

1/2 jar olives (thanks Chris!!  Might have some with lunch)

1.5 rolls TP

There are probably other things of note that I am forgetting.

So, tons of calories left, tons of vitamins and protein left.  If I needed to, I could easily go another month and not starve or have any negative health effects. I could run out of fat for frying if I weren't careful.  I am totally out of sugar/honey/maple syrup (well, I have some maple water in the syrup bottle to get the last of the sweetness out) so my sweet tooth would suffer.  

Pantry Challenge Update: 1 Month and 27 Days

 After today, just 4 days to go on the pantry challenge.

Right now I am cooking up the final squash in the work microwave.  ALSO found a tiny, mostly dried up garlic head, like 3-4 cloves, in the bottom drawer of the work fridge.  I know it is mine because I am the only one who uses the drawer and I'm the only one with fresh veg, and I'm the only one who would have a garlic head with dirt on it rather than shiny store bought garlic.

I'm thinking of throwing tomatoes on some of the squash for lunch (this is breakfast time, the microwave is free now).  With some spicy garlic seasoning and maybe an egg on the side.  Or not.

Looks like I will get 4 small portions or 3 good sized ones.  We'll see.  

The radish sprouts are finally going !   Warmer at the office than home so they are doing better.  Might take them home for the weekend if they are far enough along.

I got an invite to a friend's house on Saturday to help with farm chores and see the baby lambs.   The friend is a feeder so I will eat what is served.  

For the rest of this week and the weekend, I'm taking home the smoked duck, some service berries in vinegar, and maybe something else.

I FINALLY used the out of date desiccated coconut I had gotten at ross dress for less ages ago.  I mixed it into melted coconut oil and threw in a bit of peppermint emulsion I have had for literally years.  Put it in a bee-themed silicone cake mold (thanks pam) that works also as a chocolate/candy mold.  I put a tiny bit of stevia in the mix but I don't think it was needed.  Had one with my coffee.  I wonder if it counts as a fat bomb?  Anyway, will finally just eat that stupid coconut.

I might also bring the last of my maple syrup home for the weekend.  It is major delicious.

I am totally out of nuts!  Ate up the walnuts a few days ago when I was too lazy to cook.  Also had some in pancakes which was really nice with the maple syrup.  

Still have plenty of dried mushrooms, beans, lentils, a cup or so of rye berries and some chicos.  I have a half cup of chicos soaking so I can hopefully have duck with them for lunch tomorrow.  They take to long to cook to have for supper tonight.  I'd be up until midnight.  So, cook them up, put them out in a tin overnight to freeze (helps soften beans so I think it might work on chicos) and then spice up and stew again with duck or beans for a meal.

I am still amazed how long the pantry stock is lasting.  Even with the meals out, I have plenty of protein, nutritious veg/fruit options left.  Also whole wheat flour, leavening, coconut and almond flour and various things to throw in to make keto style meals.  With the sprouts on line now, also some fresh green things.

The TP is getting low.  Partly because I have lots of stock and haven't been scrimping.  I think I am lowish on hand sanitizer at home but I prefer to use soap and water so using that has just been laziness.

I'm working a list for a gradual resupply with more of the things I will truly eat up so there isn't as much stuff hanging around super long term.  I think I will also keep posting a penciled list of things to eat up over my cooking/prep area.  I don't' always eat them on the assigned week, but faster than if I just leave them jammed in the back of the pantry stock.  Also, dividing up the big packages and portioning them out by a week's supply worked well.  Made for a more useful active pantry right by the food prep area and a more manageable inventory of the longer term storage locations.

A close out inventory should prove interesting.

Pantry Challenge Update: 1 Month and 21 Days

 So far so good!

Someone brought me store bought bread yesterday, and food freely given by people who don't know what I am up to is inside the "ok" category per the rules I set up.  Anyone trying to give me stuff through pity or sabotage...that is outside the "ok" category.

So I ate some.  I hadn't had industrially processed carbs since an xmas dinner before xmas.  Turns out...I do not digest them nearly as well as whole grains well cooked/soaked.  Good to know.  Also, the bread was not particularly delicious, threw my sodium intake off, and I look like a puff ball today.  Totally not worth it.  I will try a little of the long ferment sourdough I can get at a local farmers market, but I think store bread type products are just not doing it.   I have the no-sodium baking powder and baking soda as well as yeast and the whole wheat, plain flour and keto-ish breads I've made with those, even with additional wheat gluten for texture, have been fine with my guts.  Again, excellent info.  Store bread is BS for my GI.  Like dairy...I might eat some breads now and then, but it will have to be worth it not crap.

Alright, as for the regular pantry challenge.  There are 10days left after today and I am clearly not going to clean out the supplies.  I will have protein (beans, lentils, duck meat, maybe tuna) left.  Grains, probably the whole wheat flour, left.  I won't get through the camelina seeds, the vinegar preserved berries, spices/herbs, coffee, tea, vinegar (still literal gallons), cocoa, possibly not the keto-flours, definitely not the vital wheat gluten.  Plenty of gelatin (I use it as a protein supplement, egg replacement in some recipes, and to thicken things).  Someone at work...and old lady...needed honey to make herbal medicines and casually said "do you have any honey?"...then STARED AT ME POINTEDLY.  I couldn't lie and said yes.  She stood there until I handed it over.  So...I will be out of sweeteners other than stevia.  Will need a bit of sugar to keep the kombucha mother going.

I will eat up the squash and I might go for the smoked duck this weekend.  Also hitting a jar of that chicken broth.  I think an egg drop soup made with that and some hot and sour spices and the dried veggies/mushrooms I have will be quite nice.  I plan to get onions, garlic and carrots once off the pantry challenge though I have granulated onion and garlic which is fine and can still do sprouts for fresh veggies and have a few frozen carrot slices.  I do want some fermented ginger carrots going again because they are delicious and keep their crunchy texture.  That really improves soups made with dried veggie mix.

At thrift yesterday (was in town to re-up the building permit) and got a norpro spaetzle cutter for 94cents!  It would have been a buck but I'm old and it was 10% off for the 55 and up crowd that day so whoohoo!  I have a spaetzle shaker with a squeezy lid too, also from thrift, obviously.

Once I go back to stores, I might put semolina flour on the "if it is on super sale" list because I think that is the better flour for those noodles.

I could easily go a few more weeks or a month on what I have and it would not be an issue as far as nutrition or calories.   NUTS.  I had no idea I had that much food.  Good to know. 

Pantry Challenge Update: 1 Month and 16 Days

Going well!   

Had strawberry pancakes made with whole wheat flour, strawberry powder (thanks Pam), and an egg with maple syrup.  WOW was that delicious.  Also coffee and rooibos tea (thanks Chris).  

Lunch yesterday and today is/was duck soup.  Like actual soup made with duck meat, not a movie with the Marx Bro's.  I added my last fresh onion and the last of the non-frozen fermented ginger carrots along with some dried mushrooms (thanks Sher).  Really really good.  Yesterday I made some whole wheat flour dumplings to go with the soup.   Since I would be out and about today, radio show day and laundry day, I made some bread things to go with: almond and coconut flours with psyllium husk and camelina seeds.  Egg and fake (low sodium) baking soda for leavening.  Quite good!  I fried them up last night in the last of a jar of coconut oil.  I have another jar.  I supplemented breakfast with some walnuts.  I have about a pound of those left.  

I have more soup for supper or for tomorrow.  Probably for supper.  I don't work tomorrow so will have time to make beans or something.  I meant to bring home smoked salmon, lunches midweek were smoked salmon and some muffins made in the work toaster oven.  Anyway, forgot the salmon in the office freezer so I have that to eat.  I am thinking it would make a killer pilaf with the rye berries.  It is a low sodium brined fish smoked by a colleague (thanks!) and given to me.  

While I can see some definite gaps in the pantry now, I'm not in any danger of starving any time soon.  The radish seeds I tried to sprout said no...too cold at the wee shed.  Need to move the sprout factory to the office.  I am down to a few cloves of garlic, most of a hand of ginger, and a decent sized pumpkin and those sproutable seeds for "fresh" veg.   Still have dried peppers, dried mushrooms (I know they aren't really a vegetable, neither is a squash if we are playing that game), dried veggie soup mix and a can of artichoke hearts (thanks Chris!).  Plenty of beans which may or may not be a veg depending on your biases.

For proteins I have dried beans and lentils, gelatin, smoked salmon, smoked duck, a big can of tuna, and a couple of jars of duck as well as walnuts, pine nuts, eggs from the chickens and 1 3/4 bags of dried eggs (thanks Cindy).  Like I said, not starving.  Oh, and vital wheat gluten which is both protein and flour-like.  Also camelina seeds...are they a protein?  A superfood?  Something just to get stuck in my teeth?

Still have rye berries, whole wheat flour, almond flour, coconut flour, and that vital wheat gluten.

I'd like to use up the arrow root.  Maybe a pudding with coconut milk?  I have a bag of that left.

Also have tons of spices and dried herbs.  I'll parcel out the squash hopefully between this week and next and then we're done.   

Plenty of coffee, tea, cocoa, coconut oil and olive oil.   I've been using a vinaigrette I got for xmas (thanks Cindy!) for making baking soda leavened whole wheat quick breads at work.  It is really good!  I still have plenty of yeast as well.

My grocery list for the after challenge times is more refined.  Like I eat dried fruit too fast so less of that.  Also nuts in the shell go slowly, nuts out of the shell I eat too fast.  Nutbutters rarely make it into a sandwich much less a recipe.  I just eat them on a spoon which is stupid and pointless.  And expensive.

Tart jams go slowly as well.  Other stuff goes better if I portion it out by week's worth rather than looking at the whole giant quantity.  That's just a pantry reorganization issue for effective use of what I've got.

It is still strange to just skip grocery stores.

I was chagrined today to see the tiny free pantry I usually contribute to when I do groceries, is totally empty!  Usually it has stuff in it.  It is at a church and this is Sunday for pity's sake!  Put your canned goods where your mouth is people!  

OK, time to prep the radio show some more.  Enough bloggery.

Random Aside Blog Entry: Your Answer Can't Be Books

This is actually a youtube tag but I don't roll that way.

I heard about it from "Thor Wants Another Letter" who is a hoot and talks about books on the youtube.

It is a questionnaire for book people, but answers to the questions can't be books.

Here goes.  There are 6 questions.

1. What is something that you own way too many of, other than books?

Uh...like everything!  OK, coffee gadgets. This is JUST IN THE WEE SHED not in storage.  Or the office  2 manual grinders.  1 antique/vintage coffee scoop. A couple of vintage coffee storage things (a jar and a tin).  17.5 brewing methods in the wee shed alone, over a dozen in active use, mostly Planetary Design french press dealies.  The .5 is half a copper coffee brewer I got at thrift but the pot part had been separated and I hold out hope it will get donated back by whomever bought it (who may be waiting for the half I got to be donated back...it is basically a chronological range war) and I can buy it to complete the set.

2. What is something that you do for fun that’s not reading a book?

Snowshoeing and staring at chickens. Not generally at the same time.

3. What is something special or important on your nightstand, that’s not a book?

My night stand is the important thing.  It is a hand made wooden tray done by a cool cousin-in-law.

4. What’s something that you buy at a bookstore other than books?

Pencils. I love pencils.  And handmade paper.

5. What’s a fun gift that you’ve received that wasn’t a book or a gift card for books?

I suppose the book light isn't fair here.  So many...snowshoes come to mind.  And the tibetan singing bowl.  

6. What’s a YouTube channel that you watch, that’s not related to books?

Tasting History with Max Miller!