Yesterday I started a batch of Candy’s Crockpot Yogurt. This morning I poured it into canning jars and put it up in the refrigerator. It’s really pretty thin stuff! I was going to make yogurt cheese, but it’s just too thin for that. Hopefully it will thicken up a bit over the next couple of days…Marty’s really wanting some yogurt cheese. He loves the stuff!
Monday, we had Beans & Rice for dinner along with rolls. Yesterday it was pork steaks and stir-fry veggies. Today we’re having chicken and veggies cooked in the crockpot. Our grocery store had leg quarters on sale for $.49 a pound so we bought several packages. I just chopped up an onion, 4 celery stalks, and 5 carrots and put them all in the crockpot with the chicken. I seasoned it with a bit of garlic, rosemary and paprika. It smells soooo wonderful! I’ll probably serve it with biscuits.
Today the kneading paddles for my 2 Zojirushi bread machines (bought at a garage sale for $1 each, they were just missing the kneading paddles) arrived!! I’m so excited! I’m going to get my sour dough starter going this weekend, so next Saturday, I’ll start playing around with a recipe for sour dough in the bread machine. I’m really looking forward to using these new “servants”.
We’ve been doing a lot of “robot meals” around here lately. The crockpot and counter top convection oven have been seeing ALOT of work! The bread machines will be added to our robot meals as well. They don’t heat up my house the way the stove/oven does. I don’t have to use harmful microwaves either! We bought our counter-top convection oven at a garage sale for $3 and it’s been in constant use. We’ve used it to bake biscuits, cook meats and veggies. Sunday, we had a delicious meal. In the bottom of the convection oven we placed fresh green beans, added water, a stick of butter, and seasonings. On the grill part, we placed steaks and seasoned them as well. We turned the oven on and in about 30 minutes we had delicious, juicy steaks and green beans to die for! Easy peasy! If fact, if we ever find another one of those ovens at a garage sale, we’re going to snatch it up quick! Sunday afternoon, I put bean and rice to soak in our crockpot (as in Nourishing Traditions). Then Monday morning, I drained off the water, added fresh water and cooked them all day. We not only had enough for dinner, but there was enough for Marty to take to work to eat for lunch the rest of the week! They were so yummy! I love the ease of cooking in these electronic servants!
I’m out of whey, so I’m going to set out some lentils to soak in water and yogurt for tomorrow’s dinner. We’re going to have letil tacos. Tomorrow morning, I’ll drain off the water and put it in the crockpot along with fresh water and a chopped onion and seasonings. I’ll let them cook all day. Then about 1 hour before dinner, I’ll brown some ground beef (1 pound) in the skillet and then add it to the lentils. I’ll let it cook until dinner time. We serve it on sprouted grain tortillas with cheese. This is another family favorite and it will also provide a lot of leftovers. I’ll put the in the refrigerator to cool and then place the cooled taco mixture into seal-a-meal bags and use our new (another recent garage sale find) vacuume food sealer to pump out the air and seal the bag. I’ll then put them in the freezer so I have a quick meal ready and waiting. I’m going to do the same thing with the leftover beans from monday (what Marty didn’t take to work). I’m trying very hard to teach myself to do these sort of things, as they really do cut down on the grocery bill.
Another thing I’m trying to do is cut out all sodas. I’m keeping a big pitcher of ice tea made at all times. I use organic caffeine free green tea. This is a healthy drink with no calories or chemicals. Much better for me than caffeine free diet Dr. Pepper! It’s hard giving up my Dr. Pepper habit, but I know it will be much better for me. My tea, sweetened with a little stevia hits the spot and fills the sweet void that cutting Dr. Pepper left behind.
Well, I’ve rambled on long enough! LOL! I need to get busy and do some more laundry. Have a great day everyone!
Essential Traditions/Real Food Real Frugal 