Homestead Acres

Archive for the ‘Homemaking’ Category

Well we have had a big change in the weather.  It’s the low 20′s today and the next few days look to be in the high teens.  It’s a big change from our heat wave we’ve been having.  It is much nicer for sleeping and canning though!  We are suppose to get some rain in the next few days and hopefully that will help the garden to.

This morning we watched some of the opening ceremonies for the Olympic games.   I missed the first bit  I just couldn’t get up early enough after all the lack of sleep this week!  Last night we had no storms, well one did come by but was far enough away not to be loud.  Baby girl slept all night to whoo hoo!! LOL

Anyway the girls loved watching all the different dancers and fireworks.  We’ll be doing a study on the Olympics and I’ll post links to some great sites latter on tonight.

I’m just taking a little rest before starting supper.  We are having an early supper tonight so we can go shopping right after.  We’ve tried to shop quickly and come home for supper but that never works lol.   We always get to hungry when shopping takes longer and that leads to eating out.   So it’s much better to eat first!  I’m making creamy egg noodles with chicken and veggies and blueberry coffee cake for desert.

Well I’m up to my neck in meat LOL!!  Yesterday afternoon we discovered the freezer had been unplugged since last Sat.  All of our fruit and veggies are goners.    We thought all the meat was to but after a closer look I was able to save most of it.    So last night was spent doing a LOT of cooking.  I cooked up a large pork roast, 35 pounds of ground beef and a roaster full of chicken parts.  The ground beef and chicken have all been bagged and refrozen.  The pork is in the fridge for a stir fry latter and some casseroles this week.

I also have a turkey cooking right now and a few racks of ribs and 15 pounds of ground beef left to do.

It sure smells good around here LOL!!

This is one of the reasons we like canning so much better then freezing!  We are working at canning ALL of our meat and using only the small freezer on top of the fridge, instead of our two large ones.

How many times does it happen to us, in the middle of making supper we find we are missing an important ingredient.  We rush to the store for just ONE thing and before we know it other “extras” have found there way into our cart.  Soon the one item has cost you 30.00 plus and a lot of wasted time.

So how do we avoid falling into this trap?

1. Make a Menu List

Write down all of your family’s favourite meals, and include the ingredients.

2. Make a Master Shopping List

You can set this up how it best suites your family.  For ours we made a 3 column chart.  One each for freezer, fridge, and pantry.  We then listed each item we used on a regular bases in the proper column.

We decided how many of each item we wanted to keep on hand.  Beside each item put the desired number of check boxes. 

Now this is the important part.  EVERY time you open something that is on your list check it off right a way.  No you might not NEED it this week but now that you’ve opened that jar of mayo you should buy another one to replace it.  Then when you are getting low you don’t need to make a trip out to buy another. 

Preparing our list this way has saved us a lot of money and time.  It’s stopped the quick trip to the corner store for 1 item.  And since our local store has a minimum purchase amount to use debit that 1 item would always cost us 10.00.  Our other alternative was to drive to the next town for one thing and spend the difference in gas and time. 

When you find your self needing/wanting to eat out.  We have found a great place.  Check the deli at your grocery store.  Ours has many wonderful goodies.  Our favourite meal is a bucket of chicken strips, large box of potato wedges and a salad for 12.99!!  That feeds our family of 5 with left overs.  If we eat at McDonalds (yuck!) or A&W or such a place it cost us 35.00 for us to eat and that’s with splitting two kids meals between 3 kids.  The food is also much better tasting and filling.

Cooking oils quickly go rancid.  To save money and quality buy cooking oils when on sale and store in the freezer.  Unlike water and milk, oil contracts when frozen so you do not need to poor some off before freezing.