Slow Living August 2014

Linking up with Linda who has taken over from Christine in hosting the Slow Living Nine.  I am so glad this is continuing as it is great to hear what everyone is up to.

Nourish -Make and bake as much as possible from scratch. Ditch over packaged, over processed convenience foods and opt for 'real' food instead.
With my self imposed "How little Can You Spend Month" everything except the one meal I ate out with a friend was made from scratch.  We have heaps of eggs and silverbeet so quiches continues to be on the menu in its many forms.

Prepare - Stockpile and preserve. Freeze extra meals or excess garden/market produce. Bottle/can, dehydrate or pickle foods to enjoy when they are not in season.

Our stockpile took a bit of a hit during the month as we tried not to spend more than $50 for the entire month.  But right at the end of the month we were given some oranges so I made a batch of marmalade.

Reduce - Cut down on household waste by re-using, re-purposing and repairing.

I am not sure we did anything specific that I can think of that fits this category this month, I am sure there was something but nothing springs to mind.

Green - Start (or continue!) using homemade cleaners, body products and basic herbal remedies. The options are endless, the savings huge and the health benefits enormous.
Just the usual happening on this front.  I have a catch of citrus cleaner on the go but now that I have all these oranges I will be getting another batch started.

Grow - plant/harvest. What's growing this month? What's being eaten from the garden?

The garden is producing lots of Silverbeet and herbs, we have harvested a couple of purple cauliflower but it is now getting warm and I suspect the rest might not come to anything and get fed to the cow. I am growing spring onions, beetroot, fennel and celeriac. The peas I planted are really stunted and I have only had about 20 pods from them.  I have got my first planting of Summer veg in and we will see how that goes.

Some Summer Veg are in

Create - To fill a need or feed the soul. Create for ourselves or for others.

Creations have been on hold this month and reading has taken over but I have plans to pick up my crochet hook again in the next few weeks.

Discover - Feed the mind by reading texts relevant to current interests.

I have been reading lots over the last month about dog training, the environment, farming and some back copies of the National Geographic which although are old are still fascinating.

Enhance - Community

It is all systems go (only 8 weeks to go) in organising the car show that I am involved in and things are just getting busier and busier in this area.

Enjoy - Life! Embrace moments with friends and family. Marking the seasons, celebrations and new arrivals are all cause for enjoyment.

We had a few family get together's during the month and we caught up with some of Hubby's relatives we had not seen for 12 months.  I have also been spending quite a bit of time around our 5 month old nephew which has been lovely.

I also got to spend the day with a friend who I have note seen for over a year and meet her 4 month old for the first time.  It was a real joy to see her and her new babe and how much her now 3 year old had grown.

What have you been up to?

How Little Can You Spend - Update

This month I set myself a challenge to spend as little as possible over the entire month and I thought I would update you on how the month has progressed.

I have found it easy to make many meals from our veggie garden, pantry and freezer with just a few editions. Breakfasts were not a problem at all and I was able to do enough baking to keep us well stocked in snacks and lunchbox extras, there were plenty of eggs and an endless supply of cherry tomatoes, silverbeet and herbs from the garden. 

Dinners were where I had to add purchased ingredients, which I expected, but what I had not factored in so much was the amount of fruit and carrots we would purchase over a month.  I am happy to eat the citrus from our garden or that I can get from a roadside tree for free but Hubby is not a citrus fan.

Every day at the moment Hubby takes 2 apples, 2 carrots and 3 bananas to work plus some leftovers, dried pawpaw or a birdseed bar and often a couple of boiled eggs.  That might sound like a lot but he works in a very physical job and works from 6 am till 5 pm so he needs a lot of food.  I am also glad he chooses to take such a healthy lunchbox too.  I work from home so I make it up on the day what I am having.

I was hoping to spend less than $50 for the whole month and here I what I have spent so far:

1 Cucumber:   1.20

4 x 1 kg Carrots    5.64

1 Red Cabbage 2.98

6 Free Range Chicken Drumsticks 4.52

3 x 3 lt Milk 9.00 (we used UHT milk from our stockpile for the rest of the month)

3.84 kg Granny Smith Apples 7.64

1.215 kg Brown Onions 1.93

1 Red Onion .44

1/2 Green Cabbage 1.49

Peppercorns 1.10

359 gm Mushrooms 3.15

2.45 kg Bananas 8.56

1.35 kg Potatoes 2.15

Dried Pawpaw 3.79

Total Spent so far: $53.59 and I am pretty confident we can make it to the end of the month with just a few more dollars on fruit for Hubby.

Some of the meals we have eaten during the month for dinners (and for lunches as left overs) are:

Roast Pumpkin, Quinoa, Feta and Bacon Salad

Quiche

Greek Salad

Home-made Lamb Sausage Rolls

Roast Chicken Drumsticks and Black Bean Salad

Vegetable Curry

We have really used up nearly every package of frozen meat from the freezer over the month and used up the last of our home raised beef which has allowed us to stick to our spending goal for the month.
While the challenge has helped use up some of the pantry staples that have been sitting around for some time (I used up a number of my jars of my preserved tomatoes and some preserved fruit from 2012) there are still quite a few items I have yet to use up including a heap of polenta (not sure why I have so much of it since we do not eat it that often - it must have been on sale), lots of dried beans, and things like my sushi rice and wrappers that need just a few things to make them complete.
So while I will not be repeating the challenge in the same way in September I will be focusing on using up these odds and ends and items I have lots of.

Now I guess I better look into how many ways I can use polenta.  Ideas anyone?

Tasty Mince - Many Frugal Meals

As part of the ongoing challenge of 'How Little Can You Spend' in our house I decided that some tasty mince was in order.
I used a few basic vegetable that I had on hand as well as some items from the garden and stockpile to make some tasty mince that can be eaten on it's own or combined with pasta, rice or potatoes to make different meals.
There was 1 kg of mince, 2 carrots, 1 capsicum, 2 onions (one of the ones in the photo had gone bad) some silverbeet and garlic chives from the garden, and I used 2 jars of diced tomatoes from the panty.

There was also this strange looking ball of frozen mushrooms that I found lurking at the bottom of the freezer.  Sure they were not much to look at a past their best but in a dish like this they just added to the flavour.

I also added celery salt, pepper and garlic and some red lentil at the end to thicken the mix and soak up some of the juices.

I am sure everyone has a recipe for tasty mince so I won't write one out here but I will say that my tips for maximum flavour are as follows:
Cook the onions until soft and translucent over a medium heat without browning so that they become sweet then remove them from you pan
Brown the mince in batches so that it gets lots of colour on it
Once the mince is browned add you tomatoes or liquid so that you can lift all of the tasty bits off the bottom of the pan
Add the rest of the ingredients and cook till done.

I have frozen this in smaller amounts and we will use it over the month to make a variety of meals.  It is easy to turn it into something new by just adding additional spices.

Do you make tasty mince?
How do you keep it interesting?

How Little Can You Spend - Stretched Sausage Pasta

For the Month of August I have declared it "How Little Can You Spend Month".  This basically means that I will try and spend as little as possible on all things groceries.  Hubby is less enthused about this plan but I figure if I keep baking tasty treats for his lunch and dinner he will come around to the idea.

Tonight I managed to turn some very basic ingredients ad two lonely sausages in to 4 serves of pasta and meatballs.  If you are not someone who normally uses anchovies I encourage you to give them a try like this. They dissolve way to nothing but impart a rich salty flavour to the meal.

Pasta Sauce

1 Large Onion, finely diced
1/2 red Capsicum, finely diced
6 Anchovies, finely diced
2 Cloves Crushed Garlic
2 Cups of Quartered Cheery Tomatoes
2 Good quality flavoured sausages ( I used Lamb and Rosemary)
1 Tsp Fresh Thyme

Add a few tablespoons of olive oil to a large frypan and gently fry the onion  on a low heat until it is soft and nearly translucent.  Add the capsicum and cook until soft then add the anchovies and garlic and cook for 2 minutes before adding the tomatoes and 1/2 cup of water and stir to combine.  You then need to pinch off little portions of your sausages, roll them into balls and drop them into the sauce mix to cook through.
Cook some pasta and once cooked add the cooked pasta to the fry pan with a little of the pasta cooking water, mix together and serve.

How Little Can You Spend?

I am setting myself a challenge and I would like you to join me.

For the month of August I am going to see how little I can spend on groceries.  For me this includes everything that I would normally buy at the butcher, green grocer and supermarket.  This means almost all of the shopping I do.  As we buy our dog food and chicken food in bulk I know that we have enough to get us through the month.

I thought that following on from plastic free July it would be a good time to do this challenge as it means that because I have avoiding single use plastic in July I was not adding to my stock pile.  This means that going into this challenge I am relying on what I have on hand.
This is also a good time to give the pantry a good spring clean by using up the odds and ends that are floating around and the ingredients that I purchased on a whim for a special project/meal.
I know that I am going to have to get creative and we may be eating some interesting meals over the month, but I already have a good system going for menu planning which you can read about here, which should make it easier.

I do not expect that I will be able to go the entire month without shopping but I am hoping to keep it really limited.

The things I expect I will have to buy are: milk, some fruit, some veg, and a small amount of meat since our cow is still not in the freezer.

I find that it is really easy to get into the habit of shopping for things you like to eat instead of using up the things you already have on hand.  We do not have a lot ready for harvest in the veggie garden or orchard but if all I have to buy are a small amount of these items I will be very pleased.

Over the entire month of August I would like to spend less than $50 and hopefully less than $30.  But that is just for the two of us so your target amount might be bigger than mine.

I have left this post until right at the end of July because if you are going to join in you will not have time to stock up in advance as that is not what this is about.

So is anyone else up for the challenge?  

How little can you spend this month?  What will your target budget be?