So far so good. In the three days I've been living from my larder (so to speak), I've managed to both feed us well and have a few creative endeavors without spending a cent, except on gasoline.
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Meals so far: On Thursday evening I roasted a bone-in ham from the freezer (thawed it the day before). I sauteed a small head of cabbage with olive oil and caraway seeds, and had a salad on the side. We're trying to watch our carbs, so I'm cooking a minimum of empty starches. I cut most of the remaining ham from the bone, and threw the bone and a handful of carrots in the crock pot with water for soup. I peeled a rutabaga and cut it in thick slices, and put it in the crock pot for Friday's meal.
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Friday night (last night), Mashed rutabaga with ham and cabbage. Rye bread for Peter. I retrieved the ham bone from the broth which had been cooling all day, and picked off the good meat. I saved the fat and the bones for the farm dogs. I strained the broth, pulled out the carrots, and cleaned the crock pot, then put the broth, carrots and ham bits back in for soup. Added a nice dry lentil mix I have on hand, the leftover rutabaga chunks, and 4 frozen tomatoes, some more carrots, and set it on low for the night.
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Saturday morning: woke up to a house that smelled of ham and lentil soup. Yum! Checked it out, and it needed water, so I added that, adjusted the salt and pepper, added a bit of frozen corn and a little more chopped ham. Good to go. I took a container of it to Earl (with a ham sandwich of course!), and we'll be eating it for lunch. I'll probably have fish (from the freezer) for dinner. I'm getting tired of ham! The leftover soup will be tomorrow's lunch, or frozen in a quart container for another day.
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Creative endeavors: I've been working on my penny rug (recycled wool cloth). I took it to school to show the kids in my studio class, as we'll be doing a "Green" project soon, recycling found objects. They were really interested, as were a few of the faculty members. It's amazing to me how "new" an old handicraft seems. I also made a pair of wool soakers (part of a skein of red wool I had on hand), but I'm not happy with the width of the leg hole. It seems too big. Since I don't have an infant on hand to size it to, I'll hold on to them until one is available, then rework my pattern. I have a few likely offspring of my colleagues at school.
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This frugality is sort of fun; it reminds me of my childhood (though I wasn't cooking back then...just looking for ways to make something from nothing...a great skill, as it turns out!). We'll see how it feels a week from now, at the end of my little goal.
Ham salad re-do; healthy on-hand version:
ReplyDeleteThe old recipe called for the following:
3 cups ground fully cooked ham
1 hard-cooked egg, chopped
2 tablespoons finely chopped celery
2 teaspoons finely chopped onion
2 teaspoons sweet pickle relish
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon prepared mustard
Assorted crackers
On-hand substitutions:
2 cups ground fully cooked ham, chopped fine
1 egg worth of egg-white, cooked and chopped
4 tablespoons finely chopped celery
2 finely chopped sallions
2 chopped dill pickles and some additional juice
1/4 cup low fat mayonnaise, 1/4 cup kefir cheese
1 tablespoon prepared mustard
no crackers; rye bread for hubby, cucumber for me
YUM.
Yummy, the new version sounds great.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if you saw it, but I posted a link to the nourishing traditions cook book, if you think you're interested at all I can send you some links to some websites that have recipies you would find in the book.
Q