A young family  answered  a question  that I posted on Face Book the other  day.

I asked……

The response was  …

So far the responses  are fantastic! I want to make a place here for this discussion to continue….. I will copy the Face Book entries below ..  Please continue to post in the comment section. Recently [...]]]>

Real, Organic Food on a TIGHT budget…..is it possible?

A young family  answered  a question  that I posted on Face Book the other  day.

I asked……

What’s holding you back from eating better ? From being healthier ..Stronger..?
should anything?

The response was  …

Money

So far the responses  are fantastic! I want to make a place here for this discussion to continue….. I will copy the Face Book entries below ..  Please continue to post in the comment section. Recently Fox News has a Food Stamp Challenge here are the Videos

As this economic downturn continues  we  need  fresh ideas and encouragement on how to Keep Food REAL  and live healthier  lives on  tightening  budgets..

Please   share your wisdom…..thoughts and ideas..

Also let’s remember to pray for those that are struggling financially and always be on the look out for ways to bless one another.

Looking forward to seeing your comments …

Shalom,

Kitchen Counter Culture .LLC We have a young family that would like some advice on how they manage a modest Real Food Budget of $30.00 a week. They are small business owners… and although things are beginning to look up for them they need to watch every penny. They have two young children…
What can you share with them about eating healthy on such a tight budget?

Chandelle Heimbigner beans, beans and more beans they are so cheap and so easy to make, there is a wide variety of them as well, pinto, black, garbanzo, lentils, white beans, kidney beans…eat with rice and you have a complete protien with a ton of amino acids. I usually start mine in the afternoon, I do the quick soaking method, where I bring water to a boil add the beans, turn off, let soak for an hour, than simmer for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours, I add garlic, jalepenos, onions, cumin sometiems, and an awesome tip i just learned is to wait until the very end to add salt because salt causes the beans to not absorb liquid, which slows down the cooking process. Also, make your own tortillas, so cheap and healthy, all it is is 1 cup warm water, 1/3 of a cup olive oil, pinch of salt and 3 cups flour, mix everything, knead into a ball, pinch about 12 to 13 balls and roll out into tortillas, cook on cast iron for 30 sec on each side.

Also, raw milk, it is as expenisive as organic, and you can make awesome things like kefir which ends up being way cheaper than yogurt and so much better for you and the kiddos, mine love it in smoothies, you can also make your own butter and sour cream with one initial investment in the culture but it lasts forever and saves in the end

Shop farmers maket, cheap and locall, find an egg source on craigslist, 1.50 to 3.00 typically for farm fresh eggs, grow your own stuff if you can, get an indoor herb garden set up to make yummy dishes with

use left overs, or freeze them, buy a whole chicken for example cook, eat what you will, than freeze in meal portions. buy whole salmon at fredmeyers, sometimes it is as cheap as 2.00 a pound and if you ask they will fillet it for you for free

p.s. check to see if you qualify for the ebt card if it is something you would use

Thanks!

Kitchen Counter Culture .LLC Sprouting is another economical way to provide fresh, nutrition rich greens to your diet….No fancy equipment required.. a jar and and an appropriate top .. cheese cloth nylon window screen or a sprouting jar top..

Mary Beth James This summer our weekly groceries for our family of 8 were about $150 a week, that’s just under $20 a week per person, buying fresh almost entirly non processed food. Boy do I get funny looks at the store checkout, then I take a glance at the peoples carts behind me in line it makes it obvious why, I go to the store to actually buy food! Imagine that! Here is a sample of my weekly shopping list, it does vary some depending on what produce is in season but I find for the most part I have a basic norm. I try to get mostly organic, but not entirely.

2 bags apples, 1 bag oranges, 6 bunches bananas, 1 bag other fruit (peaches, pears, plums ect…) 1 bag of 4 large or 8 small avocados, 2 coconuts, 1 papaya or pineapple, two cantaloupe, one watermelon (substitute winter squash for melon in winter) 1 big container of mixed greens, 2 bunches green onion, 1 bunch cilantro, 5 zucchini, 4 tomato’s, 1 package mushrooms, 2 bell peppers, 1 kale, 4 cups aprx. almonds or walnuts, 2 lbs honey, miso (every other week), 4-5 lbs oatmeal or other grain cereal, 2 packages frozen fruit ususally blueberries, one block butter, one flat brown eggs, 6 frozen tuna steaks, 1 package frozen chicken, 3 lbs carrots, celery, 1 bag jalapeno’s,
2 lbs cheese, 1 bag onions, 1 bag potato’s, tortilla’s if i don’t make them, 1 bag flour, 1 bag brown rice, and lentils/buckwheat, olive oil.

some of the things I like to have, but don’t buy every week, are flax seeds, raw sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, nutritional yeast, nori wraps, soy sauce(brags), dates, olives, cranberries(frozen), mate or green tea, tahini. dark chocolate.

not included in list is lamb(we butcher)

like i said the list varies some week to week but this is really average.

when times are tight I can cut the list almost in half cost wise by just skipping a few of the most expensive items, like honey, dates extra meat, out of season fruit, avacado’s ect…. I’ve made it by just fine for under a hundred.

hope this helps some:)

Mary Beth James not sure if I made that really clear but for that grocery list I posted, if I spend $100(sticking to the main list without all the extras) for eight people thats about $12 each so that would be fairly close to your budget, I know it can be hard eating healthy when good food seems so expensive sometimes, but it is possible.

Jo George Yes, stop buying any junk period! You can afford all the organic basics! Make your cookies, stop drinking pop! Stop buying all crap that is toxic and has been processed. Buy only organic meats, veggies and fruits! Cook from scratch, leave everything else at the store. Skip 90% of all the isles. It is easy to accomplish this!

In the spring of 2006, just before relocating to Idaho, a super cell ripped through our town breaking windows and damaging cars…. We suffered both. Hand sized chunks of jagged ice dropped like bombs from the sky. It was a bad storm.

We will never forget that freaky, weird, green color in the sky which was the tell tale sign of the danger that moved us [...]]]>

Found this pic on-line...We had hail this large in 2006

Hail Storms in the West….

In the spring of 2006, just before relocating to Idaho, a super cell ripped through our town breaking windows and damaging cars…. We suffered both. Hand sized chunks of jagged ice dropped like bombs from the sky. It was a bad storm.

We will never forget that freaky, weird, green color in the sky which was the tell tale sign of the danger that moved us quickly inside to safety. I knew more than one person that was badly bruised from getting caught outside without cover. Several friends had windows broken. The car dealers took a real bad hit… Our new Nissan was badly dimpled as were most of the cars in the area.  Fortunately because of our impending move we didn’t plant a garden that year. If we had, it would have been utterly destroyed.

Keeping the Garden…

That was by far the most severe storm I’d ever encountered in Oregon in my 41 years of living there. Every year, though, we would experience hail storms that would threaten to pulverize new seed beds. Little starts would be pummeled to destruction by marble sized hail. Larger plants would have their leaves ripped and battered; stunting growth and inviting disease after the storm had passed.

So now, I try to make every effort to protect tender plants from the devastation of pelting ice rocks.

I cover the potatoes with a covering of straw. Use grass reed fencing to protect young peas and lettuce plants. Tender herbs are protected using whatever is available inverted buckets or baskets work well . Strong winds usually accompany hail so precautions need to be taken to ensure the “cover” won’t end up at the neighbors or into another one of  YOUR planted areas..causing more damage. Well placed rocks, bricks , stepping stones, etc make good weights for holding down cover. I have them staged around my yard for just such occasions.

 

Food in the garden=Money in the bank

A  healthy garden is like money in the bank…

Food prices are going up.. who knows where they will top out…
I need to protect my investment of money and time with a little preparation. Hopefully this season won’t see any super cell storms,  but if it does I’ll be ready.  Knowing what you will do when severe or unseasonal weather threatens your kitchen garden is an important consideration.. My advice to new gardeners is this… have your protection supplies ready. It only takes 5 minutes of pelting hail to ruin your plants.

Have a plan and be ready to go.

Stage your materials around the ares of the garden that you feel are at the most risk. Tender herbs and small seedlings are the most vulnerable. Don’t wait until the hail is already coming down. Be alert to changes in the weather . Feel the air is it icy ? has the wind picked up? are the clouds dark and threatening? With all the crazy weather going on, fine tune  YOUR radar to what is going on around you.

If you can’t be home make plans to have non-damaging cover over your plants if you feel the threat of bad weather is high. But don’t leave things like dark colored buckets over the top of plants all day if you expect it to be sunny. You’ll come home to cooked plants.

If you have a stay at home neighbor that you can trust with your yard, make arrangements with them in advance to protect your garden in your absence. If they ever have to help you, don’t forget to share the bounty with them

New to Gardening?

Don’t be a worry wart but do be proactive.. And even if it does ‘hail on your parade’, it’s not the end of the world. If you sustain damage just get busy and replant as soon as the weather permits. Your garden is extension of your kitchen and with practice you’ll learn to  keep up with it as easily as you do your inside pantry.

My grandson Ashton, enjoying the idea of eating Savta's watermelon.

Thanks to DutchSinse YouTuber for his valuable weather monitoring…  http://www.youtube.com/user/dutchsinse

Here’s a little video to encourage you to be ready to protect your veggies and herbs…

Blessings….and as always!   Keep Food REAL!

Judith

Just warm enough to take the chill out of the house.. and the smell ….. you can’t get that from forced air heating :0)

Here’s what we’re having for dinner……

Roast Chicken

Much of what we call “cooking” consists of opening packages, bottles and cans purchased at the mega low cost food mart, than assembling the ingredients   in a color by number   style and heating up the [...]]]> The kitchen is said to be the heart of the home,

yet many of today’s kitchens function more like the company break room.

There was a day when food was thoughtfully prepared from basic ingredients, most of which came from the local economy if not the backyard itself.

Much of what we call “cooking” consists of opening packages, bottles and cans purchased at the mega low cost food mart, than assembling the ingredients   in a color by number   style and heating up the results.

In this kitchen environment   the conventional range gets very little play time because the   microwave is stealing the show as well as the remaining health in the food being prepared.

Many cooking; shows, books, home party plans and trade shows marketing to middleclass moms, focus not on preparing truly healthy foods but on having family time around the table. That’s cool, but families should eat Well together, not just consume the latest combination of advertised food stuffs that the billion dollar food industry is churning out into the grocery markets.

The major thrust of all this is convenience. Voices, in the market place, are chanting that we don’t have the time, that we need a fast fix for our hunger, a time saver so we can get on with the important things in life like working, shopping and playing.

But seriously, we all still have the same 24 hour day as did  our  grandmothers,

not to mention a battery of labor saving devices at our disposal. So it’s really not about, not having enough time, but rather, what are you doing with YOUR time.

To further make the point that our food industry has gone berserk is all the controversial nutrition disinformation.

Are we really so gullible to believe that food products, created months   ago, in  food stuff factories , hundreds if not thousands of miles from our kitchen, are  really healthy??? So what if it doesn’t contain artificial colors, or artificial preservatives, is low fat,  all natural or even organic. It’s old, processed and there is a reason that it doesn’t spoil on the store shelf and in our pantry cupboard….there is nothing left to decay!  It’s already dead.

It is an empty harvest.. a ruse to make you think that you have when you don’t.. unfortunately you spent your money on their product didn’t you?

The money that you earned being too busy to cook for yourself..

Do you need these types of products??? Is it conceivable to live without cold breakfast cereal or the hot ones in the cute packages that come in all the nifty flavors that you just heat up in the M-wave?  Could you find the time to make your bread from flour you’ve milled yourself?

Are you even a little curious as to how to make it happen for you and your family?

YOU CAN!!!!!!  It isn’t hard. You just need to learn how , understand why and then you are off to creating your own Kitchen Counter Culture.

The mission of this site is to;

Show you the skills necessary in making the transition from grocery shopper to grocery maker,

Equip you with information that is critical for you to make truly informed choices concerning your food purchases.

Empower you to facilitate  health and wellness in yourself and the ones you love through “at home” food preparation.

And to have FUN;  learning ,creating and  cooking with your family, friends and neighbors..

I’m happy you’ve read this far…..  :0)

Now take the next step and

KEEP FOOD REAL!

Email me and we will set a time for you,  your group, or church to learn the why and the how to making delicious, nutritious food at home :0)

Blessings!

Judith Parker,  HN

judith@kitchencounterculture.com