Stretching the Family Meal

We have a family of five. When I plan meals many times, it will say 3-4 people would be served. Out of necessary come the best inventions or adaptations. I would always look at a recipe and wonder how I could make it stretch. See we have lived a very humble married life. Farming is feast or famine. You can feel rich one day and dirt poor the next. So from year to year or month to month, my grocery bill could go up or down. Today I thought I would share some basics, for that just starting to figure out the money is tight.

The first thing I do before I shop is plan. By that, I write down dinner meals most of the family will eat. Five people don’t always agree, but if most are happy most of the time it works better. Then I go through the grocery ads and see what is on sale. The focus has to be what is cheap that week or month. If tuna is on sale, I am not buying a can of salmon. Therefore, from there I sometimes change my menu ideas. If there is a great sale on chickens I will buy three instead of one if I have the money to do so. I will freeze the other two for another time.

Therefore, you have looked at your ads and you have a list. Then you head out to the store. What many stores do is have unadvertised specials, this is an opportunity to get some deals. So let’s say the list says spaghetti but macaroni is on sale. You will go with the cheapest that most will eat.

Another trick I do is looking for what I call “meal stretchers” the things that make a meal from 3-4 to feed 5-6. These are typically carbohydrates. But I have found a can of petite diced tomatoes works wonders in taco meat. An extra can of beans can make fabulous chili. Yes sometimes I add rice or noodles but more often then not, I get more adventurous. If you add onions, carrots and celery chopped, very fine your taco meat will be tasty and tender. Is it the expected dish? No but I promise it tastes wonderful. This is not about buying extra veggies to stretch your meals. It is using what you have on hand. That extra end part of the tomato is perfect in tacos or spaghetti sauce. A third of a 1015(Texas Aggie version of Vidalia sweet onion) makes everything taste better. If you have a can of petite-diced tomatoes on hand, throw it in too.

I do own a vacuum sealer, it is a wonderful device if you can swing it money wise. My Hubby works shift work so many times I am cooking for him and cooking later for the kids and me. When steaks are cheap, I buy them and freeze them individually.

Now to the dirty secret about grocery shopping few will tell you. The discounted meat is normally just fine. We eat it all the time. Every store has a policy of when they put it out, so ask your meat person what the schedule is. There is a time of day the run the grinder, and a time of day, they mark down meat. If you have ever eaten at a fancy restaurant and demanded “aged beef”, you have eaten old beef.

The only thing you have to do is make sure the package has not been tampered with, most stores double wrap the discounted me. Then make sure you cook it to the proper temperature. Undercooked meat is far more dangerous than older meat. Undercooked meat allows the bacteria to thrive. We never eat rare meat, we do eat medium where there is some pink in the middle. We do not allow our kids ever to eat pink meat; it is not a wise decision.

I hope these basics can help you stretch your dollar and improve the taste of food as well.

Blessings in a Small Town

When I first moved here I honestly thought my town was a bit like Mayberry. Maybe it is, maybe not. I do know there are quite a few Ernest types around here. What I do love about this town is I know people. I know the UPS guy, matter of fact he is my brother in law's nephew. He has seen me pregnant with three kids, he has seen me at my worst but rarely at my best. The local post office has three workers there that I can call by their first name. When I am unsure of what to do or how to do it they walk me through it. I know our doctor, his wife, his sister, his mom and his kids. It doesn't get me star treatment it just helps knowing that you are not talking to a person not even here in America.

The personal side of life in a small town has a lot of rough and nasty edges, people know the bad and good about everyone. You screw up and it will travel faster than the speed of lightening. Extramarital affairs are known by many except the spouse. See there are no secrets, only thoughts of secrets. The good, the bad and the ugly all get exposed here.

But for all the bad, I do enjoy knowing that the UPS guy knows exactly where to leave a package that I can find. The DHL guy is never accurate, he rarely comes to town. There is an ease about life when you know so many. If there is a problem 95% know who did what and when. So you can live your life in peace.

Tonight I will be thankful for being a town where people do know my name. The beauty of knowing people will help each other no matter what is a warm feeling inside.

Makes me think of a warm apple pie with a bit of cool whip on top melting just a little.

Crock Pot Cooking

The secret to having a hot meal for a busy household is one appliance that is a must for any family with 2 or 20 people, the slow cooker or as we call ours the Crock Pot. Slowly cooking meat makes it tender and juicy. It also lowers your energy use, which saves you money.

There are some basics I do that you might like. I rinse my beans at night, and put them in a bowl of fresh water overnight. The next morning I throw in 4 whole crushed garlic cloves and some bacon pieces. We have a local butcher where you can buy bacon ends, but a few pieces give you the same flavor. I go ahead and pepper, but until I know how salty the bacon is I don't add the salt for a few hours. Cook it on low for 6-8 hours, and you can eat it warm or hot.

Pork Roast is excellent in a crock pot as well. I marinade it overnight in some spices then I throw it in the morning, with some BBQ sauce and cook it on low. You can serve this on buns, and it will taste exactly like pulled pork.

You can crock pot a chicken if you like to also. My chickens are so big I can not fully cook them in a crock pot for 8 hours. So I bake mine, but I did cook mine when we had smaller grocery store chickens. Personally I like Lemon Pepper and lemon juice on a chicken. Always with chicken brine it first. Brining chicken keeps chicken from becoming a rubber chicken. It will be moist and juicy. All you have to do is when you open up your chicken wash it, and get a big bowl. Put the chicken in the bowl, cover it with water and throw in about 2 tablespoons of salt. The salt sets in the flavor. Good Eats Alton brines turkey as well using a different method. All I know is before I got the in on the chicken I cooked many a rubber chicken.

So grab some meat or beans and start your day off right. No more struggling with 5 pans and a hungry set of mouths to feed.

How much can we afford?

I am into to a few things. I like to save money and keep my life as simple as possible. In Central Texas it has been hot, over 80 degrees. Normally the A/C would have been cranked on, but not this year. I am using it for a couple of hours on days where the inside temp is over 85 degrees. We have a pier and beam house, so our windows are high up. We have three windows we keep open, and it helps the whole circulation process. We do have an attic fan but Hubby hasn’t put the slipped belt back on. The attic fan takes out the hot air and pulls in cooler air. It works great in the spring, in the summer the air is hot everywhere.

We are hopeful this summer we will use A/C, Hubby and TD don’t work in A/C. So when they come home cooling off is priority number 1! Today Hubby and I had a long talk about the amount of A/C we would be willing to pay for and need for the summer. I may have a cut on temperature that would work best for us. If it gets a certain temperature, the A/C comes on. I would love to say I can live without A/C but this is a muggy hot area, and I tired it once. I ended up with heatstroke. Since my cancer, I am more fragile than before, I need to be able to cool off for a few hours a day.

I have also noticed my refrigerator runs a lot when it is hot inside. Tonight as I post is going to be in the forties. That seems odd to me in April, but I enjoy the ease of heat. Masterpiece Theatre was not on PBS tonight; I felt like my best friend moved away and didn’t tell me. Thankfully, I watched my last two hours of one on Netflix yesterday.

If only my A/C was off of solar panels!

A Good Buy When Money is Tight

We use netflix. I wouldn't do without it, movies are a common happening at our home and netflix is the cheapest way for a family to go. You get free online movies, and it is unlimited for most plans no how many rentals you use. We rarely (once a year) buy movie tickets, so for less than $20.00 a month we have all the movies we have time for. I can't rent a local movie for under $5.00, plus the gas and the possible late fees. The kids and I shop around for movie finds.

Our family likes all different kinds of movies, I am totally into period pieces, and the BBC or PBS Masterpiece theater. Over the years I have missed so many mini-series the view instantly lets me watch some great drama when I have the time.

I have found the reviews for the most part to be very helpful. Every once in a while I see a movie that I like and the reviews were way off but most of the time I totally agreed with some posts.

Another plus is I have never had a scratched DVD come, with the rental it was more common than you can imagine.

Texas's Winning FFA Agriculture Mechanic Team

 

This team won 1st in FFA Ag Mech in the state of Texas. These fine boys beat out teams from larger, richer and better schools. What do these boys have that the other schools don't? The Answer is the man smiling on the left side. Mr. Joe Hanke, he is an unbelievable coach and former FFA teacher. He does what no one else can do, coach anyone to victory! He loves these boys, believes in them and coaches them like no one else. TD is a better kid because Mr. Hanke was his teacher and his coach. God Bless Mr. Hanke!

Okay yes TD is one of those boys, the one on the right side in the blue jacket. Mr. Hanke is his favorite teacher, obviously. His freshman year Mr. Hanke took him to Ft. Worth to do the calf scramble, he almost got one too. I stayed behind with the other kids, Hubby had to work. It was W's birthday. That trip was like going to Disneyland with Mickey himself. TD got to look at engines with the man that understands them best! He came home on cloud 9, and ever since when Mr. Hanke had a team or a task TD is on board. That is when I knew any hope of TD going into life other than Agriculture was null and void. He found a soulmate that day, and a true idol.

I am proud as a peacock!

Solar Energy

I have been fascinated by solar energy since I first heard the word decades ago. Living in Texas solar is a natural method of energy, that and wind when you are out of the big city. Yesterday I listened to a Texas Solar Conference online. Green Radio had it on a live stream. It was not rivoting, but there was some good information in it. My biggest hiccup with solar is using on existing housing, I don't plan to build a house but want solar. Solar right now is not cheap, I thought it was until I truly started pricing it. With new construction is affordable, mainly because you can build a house around solar. The panels are not light weight and you have to place them in a correct angle with the proper support. What I did learn is there is a new technology out there with very lightweight solar, from what my lay person brain can understand it is a thin film that you can place on windows.

If money were no object we would buy some acreage, do a simple house off grid or net metering. I also learned about net metering, it is where you sell your energy to the power company. That would be fun too.

Realistically eventually I can see us doing something with solar or wind, but that is a long way off from what they offer and what we can afford.

Grain Shovel and Teens

My TD is a slob, I would love to lie but what is the point? I have told TD I am cleaning up his room with a grain shovel. They are like a shovel only bigger, wider and deeper. I could clean his room in a heart beat with a grain shovel. God only knows what I would find by hand but with a grain shovel I would have time to run or dump the shovel over and kill it.

I am thinking about marketing grain shovels to Teen parents, I think most parents would truly pay for something like this!!

My Favorite Truck

This is our beloved Toyota Truck in the field. Actually we all fight over driving it. It is a great gas saver and a sweet ride to boot. You have 5 seat belts and room to haul some stuff. I highly recommend Toyotas for the money factor alone. They have a higher resale value, and last a good long time even with this farm family

Ebaying my Life Away

I am ebaying my life away. Yesterday I put on ebay the piano books my wonderful aunt Helen learned to play the piano. The beast taught me to love people not things, but when those people are gone for me there is an attachment to things. I am selling the piano and the keyboard we own, I don’t need the hymnal. I need money but things I don’t. I am to the point in my life where I would keep the couch, the TV and other appliances and a bed for each person the rest is not needed. Wait a minute I do need a computer! I want to focus on the people in my life and not things. Things do not bring you warmth, or happiness. As long as my family is here, I need very little.

The weird part of that statement is my Hubby is not into minimalism. What I didn’t know about most farmers is the things they can do with almost nothing, so they tend to keep a lot of things. That way they rarely buy anything. What is good at the farm is not good at home. I did not buy half of the stuff in my home. Hubby bought most of it. That and being given stuff by my mother and other people has overwhelmed me. Now finally Hubby has jumped on board when I say I am getting rid of everything not nailed down, he is willing to sell a lot for him. I work on him everyday a little bit at a time.

As most will tell you ebaying is messy when you have too much stuff. The piano is leaving; it is a big piece in our small living room. I finally decided to load up the living room with the stuff on sale that way it is closer to the door. It will be gone soon. If I list 10 things every day I will make money no doubt about it, I could do that for over a year or two I know. Over the weekend I saw some of Hubby’s secret stash, he has plenty to spare. Most of it he wouldn’t even know was gone, but I am going to ask each time. He has to take ownership of it, he has to let go and let God bless him. Cleaning out your house is like cleaning out your spirit. Hubby needs to know how great it feels to be free of stuff weighing you down. I have plans for the garage to be a man cave deluxe that can’t happen if he doesn’t let it.

Personally I feel great, everything I list I feel better and better. The money will soon hit my account and I will feel even better then! I am so ready to let go of it!

Beans and Rice

A dear friend of ours last year told us the senior year of high school is as expensive as the first year of a child’s birth. In his case and in our case that has been true. TD loves to be active. He is an enterprising person. His whole life he was an doer rather than a watcher. So this year has been a final completion to all his doing. He loves to hang with his buds, just doing nothing at all. He loves to hunt and fish; to him it is stress relief. Not all of that costs, but the active lifestyle of his extracurricular activities are expensive. His bow he bought, his truck he is paying for but his insurance is our responsibility. The livestock shows participation are not cheap, you have to buy the animals and feed them. This year with the price of everything, so high the feed is the highest ever. Once you win, you have to write the thank you, buy or provide the animal the buyer purchased dressed. So he had that cost as well. The weird part about premiums sales is even though you hear these big numbers it is weeks or months before the kid will see the money. Last year he waited three months before he got a check. Therefore, this year we expect something in July rather than when we would like it.

That financial stress as well as driving as buying a car we did not expect to is costing us a lot. We have certain bills that we have to pay. For years we have paid our mortgage weekly rather than monthly. When you do weekly payments you add a few extra payments and you never miss it, because you don’t have it. If I could I would divide every payment we had into weekly, because since Hubby’s job pays weekly it is much easier to budget it that way. Hubby and I had a long look at our debt last night, it is not a pretty picture. It is doable but it ain’t going to be easy. Beans and rice will become a focus more and more versus meat and potatoes. There is no way I can cook what I would like to anymore. I am a great cook, I am not small nor is Hubby. You don’t get large eating bad tasting food, you get this way eating great food. It is much harder to cook good food on the cheap, my skills are challenged and “that is a good thing” as Martha would say. I can do it but it will not taste as good as we ate before. Losing weight is not bad for Hubby and I, it is something that we both need to do. W and TD are losing some weight as well, which is good for them too. The one I worry about is S, he honestly is so picky I can not seem to get him to turn the leaf. He is the slimmest child I have ever had. A few years ago, he wore 9 Slim size jeans, they were impossible to find. Today he is a 12 slim. He doesn’t need to lose any weight, but I can’t get him to be interested in rice or beans sometimes. I can cook spaghetti every day of his life, with whole-wheat pasta and he will lap it up, but that is not much protein. I forced him the other day to eat a 1-inch cube of cheese, because I thought he had not any protein that day. Yesterday I got some peanut butter; hopefully I can get him to eat a PB & J sandwich sometimes.

So dinner tonight will be hot dogs and black beans. The hot dogs were on sale, I know they are not a good choice but every once in a while I have to give my kids a junk food or they will eat elsewhere. The choices I make now are more important than when I was trying to figure out nutrition when they were babies.

Letting Go

TD is going to the prom, he has a beautiful sweet girl that he has asked to go. I should be happy, and I am happy. As with everything there is good and bad, TD has become "prom focused". He is doing everything to make this girl happy, and in that quest I am left out. He is buying flowers where she thinks is best, he is renting a tux to the tee that pleases her. His time has become their time, I am out of the loop. Suddenly I fully understand what a groom's mother feels like, only they are not getting married. This is his prom, not hers(she is younger).

This entire year I have had to let go far more often than I would like. In August TD will be 180 miles away from me, I have to let go. He will make mistakes, and he will be stronger than he and I both think he is. TD will stand on his feet and do it. I know his character, I also know he has senioritis.

With the FFA award ceremony many mothers were crying, I thought I would but I didn't. I have to know regardless of what happens he is my son, and he will come back to me. He is truly a homebody, that is very dependent at times on me. But truly more often than not he doesn't need me.

As the bible says "train up a child and he will not depart." This scripture has often over the years comforted me that he would not leave me forever or his faith or his character. What I know is TD is going to forge his future, and when he needs me he will call me in a panic. This year more than any other year he and Hubby have become so close, which is great and painful. But I know for TD and Hubby it is a need they both have.

So as I struggle Hubby is fine so far. W and S have begun to wonder about TD leaving.

Tomorrow I will focus on our financial struggle, but for today I have to let this fear out!

My motherboard and Me

After a long absence I am finally back online. My computer is up and running. My motherboard and power supply went kaput. There is nothing like being offline for over a week. My biggest miss was this blog, then I was concerned about online friends. Had I missed important emails?

Which of course all of was quickly resolved once I got all my tax commitments done. We are in the process of leaving the school farm where we housed some goats and our chickens. They are disinfecting the barns, so everything has to go. We have gotten so much stuff from the raising and showing of goats, it has seemed to multiply like rabbits. The chicken stuff is a lot but not really that much of little stuff.

We have no real shed to put this all in so we are borrowing some room in a shed at Grandpas. All the goats are together, so far so good. It was stressful moving them, but I am sure they are happy to be settled. Hubby has gone back to work, so the boys and I have several loads to take to grandpas.

Next we focus on prom. TD has his prom in May, and we will all be doing Ag in a classroom for the local 4Th graders. It is where the 4Th graders in the county come and see demonstrations up close and hands on. They get to touch animals, feel corn, cotton, see a milking demonstration. For some kids it is the first time to see anything like it in their lives.

Next week is Earth Day, and while don't actually celebrate Earth Day we do turn in our cans and other metals. It is a great time to get rid of some huge loads of metal.

So I am back to daily posts, I am sorry for any frustration. No one is happier to be back online than me!

Life Happens

Sorry about the delay in blog posting today. Life happens, and my online life is just as unpredictable as my real life.

After several computer crashes today and yesterday, I am back online. I am no longer pleading with my computer to run. What I did was to copy my pictures over to a new program, which doubled my space storing pictures. My favorite software in the world is Window Washer, it is designed to lessen your online temp files taking up your hard drive. Mine had run out, but I was hoping to keep going without it. One run of it, then I could burn my picture CDs and get on with my life. Window washer helped me in the past to keep an obsolete computer going, it basically organizes your files so you get the maximum room to do surfing. The cost of it is $29.99 but to buy back up storage is much more.

I also have another new favorite back up storage software. Adrive is something a High School Tech teacher alerted me to. TD has a lot of projects that are too large for a zip drive but perfect for Adrive. He recently did a movie trailer which he could not store on a zip or transfer through the school email. Adrive made it possible to upload and present in class. The best part about Adrive is the price free! 50 GB storage for free is a dream come true for us, my kids have put way too much on my computer. So this allows me to store it in a safe place.

The great finds that I find are well worth the taking a look at. I rarely buy software so if I spend money I am usually very happy with something about it. The only other software I buy on a regular basis is TaxAct, it is my preferred form of tax software. It is simple and straightforward. The price is unbeatable. For $12.95 you get a download complete with a Schedule C and Schedule F, and a free e-file. Budget friendly tax prep is a great bonus.

Good things can come from bad, you get some basic knowledge of real software answers, and I got practice in fixing my problem.

I know I need the readers

As I began this blog it was a past time hobby. Something I did to chronicle my life with my family. The more I read the more I see this is a possible part time job. So far I have not figured it out how to get my readership up. I need exposure, but which is the best route I am unclear. I do know that when some people visit I hook them in, I just need to hook more people. Mainly because the fear of talking to myself would be a very boring concept.

W reads my blog faithfully, and he argues at times when he feels I have not expressed the true situation. I never thought W would be the one reading it, the older he gets the more he surprises me.

So my game plan right now is throw up everything on exposure and see what works the most. I am not convinced I have a clue what I am doing in PR. I do know what I am doing in my writing.

I consider my best work The Horny Toad. It is a great piece of Texas tradition. Texas is what I know best, not because I have lived here my whole life but because I have lived other places I know how different Texas is. Many states have pride but few have the natives we do, we eat, breathe and bleed Texas in our veins. TD carried the Texas flag in the ceremony to begin the County Show Sale. Nothing could have made us prouder than to watch him carry the Lone Star Flag. Texas is who we are as a family. My family came to Dallas and settled in White Rock Lake with a grainery. My Hubby's family came to Texas from Germany and bought up 6,000 acres of Texas soil. It is what we as parents and people know best. Travis was a name dear to my Hubby when we had boys. The men that fought in the Alamo, and helped give Texas freedom are people that embody what Texas loves most.

When my state Congressman stopped by the county convention, I heard him speak from his heart. As he spoke I can not imagine him ever governing from DC. It is a hard cruel place where no true Texan belongs. I feel for any Texan who has had to move from our great state. We have the pleasure of driving all day and never leaving Texas. When my family lived in Colorado we would drive from Dallas to Amarillo, spend the night then drive through Texas, New Mexico and Colorado to Denver. You can drive and drive and never leave Texas. Some might think you would get bored but our land is so different there is no comparison to each area.

I plan on doing a series on each area of Texas for those that need to understand it better. There is not enough focus on Texas History and our roots for my taste.

So bear with me as a wade through the advertisment world, to see what works best and what I like most. Eventually it will get easier I know that.