How to Make Sauerkraut

Every once in a while, people will ask me how we make our homemade sauerkraut, and I've even led workshops at my house to teach this simple skill. It's a snap once you know what the steps are! Zach and I just made a big batch (five cabbages/17 pounds), and I had the forethought to actually catalogue the process so I could write this blog post. Read on to find out how to make this tasty food!

How I Made a Wreath

 This week I made a wreath for our front door! It was a fun process. The design was loosely based on a macrame pattern from the book "Nature Macrame" by Rachel Brueklander, with my own twist.

What I've Been Reading: Late February 2023

 When I severely curtailed my social media use for Lent, I knew I'd need something to fill the void, including what I like to call "floofy books": light, fun reading that inspire me. I've skimmed through a bunch of housekeeping/organizing/decor books, but these are the ones I've read cover to cover and thoroughly enjoyed.

What I've Been Reading: Late August 2022

Books about art, boundaries, and housekeeping

Recipe: Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread

Peanut-butter-honey-chia toast with kale salad = delicious breakfast!

Since Zach and I loooove our carbs, we eat toast with peanut butter and honey basically every morning. And since we want delicious, hearty homemade bread for our toast, bread-making is a weekly ritual for me. 

What I've Been Up To: January

Hiking at Cuivre River State Park on a freakishly warm day

 This has been the month of both change and stagnation, a month of breathing easier and mastering myself and feeling depressed and letting myself go. Winter is a tough season for me because it feels claustrophobic— no amount of getting outside helps with that (incidentally, this is how I feel in the middle of summer, too)— and the feeling is intensified by the pandemic. But despite this, I've been finding joy in leaning into my everyday life, cleaning and decluttering my physical space, and reading good books. And let me just say, having a president who actually 1) believes in climate change and 2) is actually doing something about it is enough to make me feel like I've dropped into some sort of alternate reality. And yet in the middle of that sensation, I feel the gap between what's being done and what needs to be done, the social justice that still needs to happen, the systems that need to be remade, and I don't celebrate long. But still, the weight of being actively sabotaged at every turn is lifted, and I feel flickerings of hope that society can make some headway.

And maybe so can I. 

Recipes This Week: Violet Foods, Fermented Garlic, Vinegar, and Herbs

This past week, I vowed to get outside and take better advantage of the plants, herbs, and "weeds" growing in our garden! Foraging from my yard gives me such a deep sense of satisfaction, especially as I'm beginning to learn the specialty and medicinal plants. We also decided to try out two separate fermented garlic recipes. Here's what we've been making…

Super Frugal Grocery Mini Challenge #4: Share Food

Hoping for more cucumbers to share this summer!

(Read all Super Frugal Grocery Challenge posts here!)

(This post, when I drafted it three weeks ago, was originally titled, "Have a Potluck." LOL how times change! The potluck ideal is still relevant, though— I just added some pandemic-friendly ideas, too.)

Today's challenge, should you choose to accept it: Find some way to share food with your community.

In the modern Western world, we tend to think of everything in an individual sense: how can I (and possibly my immediate nuclear family) accomplish this? Money and food are no exception, but stepping outside of that mindset a bit allows us to see a whole new host of possibilities: food, like most resources, is best (and cheapest!) when it's shared.

You all know that I positively adore potlucks. I love the random things that people bring, and the way that 90% of the time the dishes harmonize perfectly, and the other 10% everyone brings carrot sticks and popcorn and we have the weirdest meal ever. I love sitting down and talking over a meal that everyone contributed to. 

It wasn't until recently that I considered the money-saving part of a potluck, too. On the first day of our challenge we had a potluck at our house, and I threw together a simple dish of rice, collard greens, and roasted carrots with a homemade kung pao sauce. Other people brought veggie dishes, pasta, cheese and crackers, and more. My dish by itself wasn't a good full meal, but with our powers combined, it was part of a filling and wholesome dinner! Then everyone who wanted leftovers got to take some home.

If you're trying to save money on food, I encourage you to think of the ways that you can share food with other people. This can look like all sorts of things: having a "use up the dregs of the pantry" cooking party, doing a cookie/tea/baked good/casserole swap, a dinner club, or giving away the chili you've been eating five days in a row that you just don't feel like eating anymore. 

If sharing food in a communal meal isn't an option (like, I dunno, maybe there's a global pandemic going on and you're not supposed to hang out with people), there are still ways to pool resources. Dig out the canned goods in your pantry and offer to swap with someone. Bake two loaves of bread and give one away. Grow some food, find other people who are growing food, and share the extras. If you need an ingredient, put out the word among your friends and see if someone will give it to you for free (or in exchange for a value-added item, e.g. bread in exchange for flour.) See if a restaurant, catering company, or grocery store will let you take their leftovers before they hit the dumpster, and share the bounty. The possibilities are endless!

We are stronger and more resilient together, and community support is one of the best ways to maintain a frugal but abundant life. How will you share your food (or other resources) this month?

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The Super Frugal Grocery Challenge, Week Three

Lentil-couscous patties with tahini sauce and foraged dandelion and purple deadnettle

(Read all Super Frugal Grocery Challenge posts here!) 

Dollar amount of food consumed this week: $42.86

Total "spent" so far: $169.47

I'll admit, I'm getting tired of this challenge.

The existential dread has really been getting to me lately, and recording how many ounces of rice I'm using for supper feels futile sometimes. The only thing that keeps me going is the thought that I'm gathering useful data for us— getting a sense of what $200 of groceries in a month actually feels like for two people. Doing it the way we have is very time-consuming and detail-oriented, so I only want to do it once. Then, in April… we'll probably keep eating just about the same, just without worrying about the details! (Oh, and Zach will start putting half and half in his coffee again.)

I'm also trying to focus on how much I'm learning. I continue to be astonished at how much stuff adds up, even with relatively few "big-ticket items" on the list— and I'm becoming convinced that the best way to save money on food is not simply being thrifty, but learning to share (look for a post about this later this week).

I asked Zach if Walmart had butter, and he sent this photo

Our goal this week was not to shop at the store too much, but we ended up buying about as much as usual, mostly because… well, we were both stressed and we didn't want to do anything to make life harder. Zach has to put his health at risk to go work at the store five times a week anyway, so the incentive to avoid buying a couple packs of tortillas and replenish our butter reserves was just not high. That said, we didn't do any major stocking up, and we didn't buy any toilet paper, so maybe that's a win?

Some random thoughts and events this week:

1. Vegan baking recipes are my new favorite. Organic butter, milk, and eggs are expensive, so I've been relying on vegan recipes which use cheaper ingredients like oil, flaxseed, and plant-based milk (I usually sub watered-down milk kefir). 

2. Anxious eating drives up the food budget. When I feel anxious, I tend to eat a lot, and this week my anxiety has generally been through the roof. I've been snacking on relatively cheap things— mostly bread and oatmeal— but that certainly adds up over time. I'm trying to work on ways to sooth myself without resorting to food.

3. Spring greens are coming up! I was so excited this week to do our first foraging: onion grass (field garlic), purple deadnettle, tender dandelion greens, red clover, and garlic mustard! (Stinging nettles, violets, and redbud leaves/flowers are coming soon.) Early spring greens are mild and delicious, giving our bodies a much-needed boost of nutrition. My kale, which survived the winter, has started putting out new growth, so I was able to make some pesto with it (using nutritional yeast instead of parmesan). Hooray for spring!

This went to feed almost thirty people!

4. Yesterday we ended up getting an unexpected windfall of food: a couple hundred pounds of leftover produce from a restaurant! I was so excited to be able to give most of it away, but we still have oranges, potatoes, cabbage, a lot of cheese, and a few tomatoes for ourselves, and I wasn't quite sure whether to consider them "bought" or to accept them as free. After some discussion, we decided to go ahead and count them as free, since this event, while unexpected, is similar to what I've experienced sometimes when volunteering at my local food pantry and getting leftovers (or harvesting from our garden during the summer). Plus, if we were in dire financial straits, I wouldn't think twice about getting food at a local food pantry— that's what they're there for!

In the meantime, here's what we've been eating this week…

Snacks and drinks: Whole-wheat flatbread with homemade hummus, leftover pancakes, cornbread, coffee, water kefir

Day 15: Peanut butter toast, leftover pasta, rice and beans (Zach) and chickpeas and rice (Lisa), burrito, quinoa with pork (gleaned from a damaged package last month).

Day 16: Peanut butter toast, pasta with pork and kale pesto from the garden, chili and cornbread, leftovers.

Day 17: Toast (Zach) and oatmeal (Lisa), leftovers, pancakes, corned beef and cabbage (a gift from our housemate) with roasted potatoes and sunchokes with pesto, zucchini bread (a gift from our neighbor).

Day 18: Rice with lentils and sweet potatoes, leftovers, rice and chickpeas, oatmeal, lentil-couscous patties with kale.

Day 19: Toast, leftovers, lentil-couscous patty wrap, oatmeal, patty wraps with foraged spring greens.

Day 20: Toast, leftovers, lentil-couscous patty wrap, oatmeal, lentil-couscous patty wraps with foraged greens.

Day 21: Toast with peanut butter (Lisa) or eggs (Zach), burrito, patty wrap, mac n' cheese with salad (leftovers/gleaned).

Stay safe and well, y'all!

~~~

Recipe: How to Roast Vegetables

Many of us are familiar with the cooking advice to make a big pot roast on Sunday, and then creatively rework the meat into meals throughout the rest of the week. This is great advice, but Zach and I rarely eat meat. So what is the vegetarian equivalent of this advice?

Enter roast vegetables. Although they serve as a different part of the meal than meat (the starch/veggie rather than the protein), they have a similar function to the pot roast: make once, eat all week. Plus, I am convinced that roasting is the #1 way to cook almost all hearty vegetables (sweet potatoes, beets, broccoli, potatoes, onions, Brussels sprouts, radishes, cauliflower, butternut squash, carrots, etc.). I've often had people exclaim, "I didn't think I liked sweet potatoes, but these are delicious!" This is because a nice hot roast brings out the sugary starches in the vegetables and caramelizes them, creating a delicious taste unachievable by boiling or even frying.

How can you eat roasted vegetables? Let me count the ways…

• Mixed with a protein such as fried eggs, tofu, black beans, lentil loaf (like meatloaf but with lentils), or refried beans

• In a stir-fry with rice

• On a tortilla with cheese and refried beans

• As a side dish to fish or other main dish

• On top of pizza

• In a wrap with hummus and lettuce

• In an egg scramble or quiche

• With toasted bread cubes in a broth to create savory stuffing/dressing

• Warmed up and topping a green salad

• With any grain, such as barley, quinoa, or couscous

• Tossed with pasta, especially when white sauce is involved

• Blended with broth into a creamy soup

• Straight off the pan, because they're so tasty

• And more that I'm probably forgetting!

So without further ado, here is the basic method:

Roasted Vegetables

Supplies:

Rimmed sheet pans

Spatula

Good knife and cutting board

Large bowl

Ingredients:

Hearty vegetables (sweet potatoes, beets, broccoli, potatoes, onions, Brussels sprouts, radishes, cauliflower, butternut squash, carrots, etc.).

Oil (I use olive oil)

Salt

Pepper

Place the sheet pans in the oven and preheat it to 425ºF. (Having the pans nice and hot will help sear the veggies and make them not stick.)

If you are roasting multiple kinds of vegetables, cut them up one kind at a time, since you'll want to place them on separate parts of the pan because they will roast at different speeds.

Chop up one kind of vegetables into whatever size you like. I tend to err on the side of cubes the size of board game dice, but any size will work.

Pour the veggies into the bowl and drizzle oil over them. Add a generous sprinkle or two of salt and a few pinches/grinds of pepper. Grab the bowl by the sides and shake/toss the vegetables until they are completely coated in oil, adding more oil if necessary.

If using other kinds of vegetables, repeat with different bowls.

When the oven is preheated, use oven mitts to remove one pan at a time, and pour the vegetables onto the pan. Give the pan a good shake to evenly distribute the veggies— they can touch, but they shouldn't be piled up on top of each other. You have to give them room to sear.

Place the pans back in the oven. Check the vegetables after 15 minutes by removing a pan and poking the veggie with a knife to see if the blade slides in easily (done) or if you meet resistance (still needs to cook). Flip the pieces over with a spatula and return to the oven.

Cooking times will widely vary depending on what kind of veggie it is. Cubed potatoes can take 40 minutes, while radishes might be done in 15. If the knife easily slides into a few of the veggie pieces, they're ready to pull out.

Use immediately, or let cool and put in the fridge to enjoy all week!

~~~

Super Frugal Grocery Challenge, Week Two

Rice, lentils, red sauerkraut

(Read all Super Frugal Grocery Challenge posts here!) 

Dollar amount of food consumed this week: $46.02

Total spent so far: $126.61

Welcome to the ongoing scintillating adventures of the Super Frugal Grocery Challenge! This week we ate a lot of beans, accepted some food (a meal at Cracker Barrel, fish sticks and tater tots with a friend, and a jar of almond butter someone didn't want), but also made the call to "buy" an expensive juice concentrate from our pantry ($10.99) in order for Zach to continue making water kefir, which he drinks instead of soda.

Zach works at Walmart, so he's seen firsthand the crazy runs on the paper goods sections and the way that people continue to ravage the food aisles. With this in mind, our goal this week is to eat from our pantry as much as possible, to lessen the burden on grocery stocks right now. If everyone who was able kept a full pantry year round, the stockpiling and hoarding happening during times of supposed scarcity wouldn't be an issue. 

We know that food banks are feeling the strain right now, so we went ahead and donated the $75 we'd promised from this challenge to our local food pantry, along with some extra. This is the whole point of frugality: allowing ourselves extra cash to put toward people who are truly vulnerable in a time of economic turbulence like this.

Anyway, on to the meals!

Snacks/drinks this week: Homemade crackers, pancakes, homemade hummus, roasted chickpeas, lots of bread with honey, homemade water kefir, coffee

Day 8: Peanut butter toast, chili and cornbread, burritos (Zach) and oatmeal (me)

Day 9: Peanut butter toast, (lunch at Cracker Barrel which my parents paid for), almond butter toast, egg burritos

Day 10: Almond butter toast, leftover chili, chocolate oatmeal, burrito, egg and veggie flatbread

Day 11: Peanut butter toast (Zach) and oatmeal (me), flatbread, burrito (Zach) and dinner at a friend's house (me)

Day 12:  Peanut butter wrap/toast, flatbread, oatmeal, rice with lentils and kimchi

Day 13: Toast/oatmeal, leftovers, rice with lentils and sweet potatoes

Day 14: Toast/oatmeal, sweet potatoes and sauerkraut, leftovers, homemade pasta with white sauce

Two and a half weeks to go! In the meantime, do you have any questions for us?

~~~

Super Frugal Grocery Mini Challenge #3: Plan Ahead

Sauerkraut, pickled sunchokes, red sauerkraut, and kimchi— make once, eat all month!

(Read all Super Frugal Grocery Challenge posts here!)

Today's challenge, should you choose to accept it: Take some time to plan ahead.

When I look over my food budget for the past several months, what jumps out to me is that most of the times I spent more than usual, it was because I was unprepared.

The weather was nice and we decided to take a day trip, and I didn't have any snacks for us to bring. We were spontaneously invited over for dinner and didn't have a side dish to share. I forgot to pack snacks for Zach to take to work. We were out errand-running and got hungry in between meals. I didn't know what to make for dinner and getting pizza seemed easier. The excuses go on and on, but they boil down to one thing: a lack of planning ahead.

One of the best ways to consistently keep a budget of any kind low, but especially on the food front, is to think about what you can do now to make your meal prep easier later.

The best way to start is to think back to all the times that you were caught unprepared. What was the reason? How could you have avoided it? How can you block out time to prepare so you won't get caught off-guard again?

This will be completely different for each person, but this might look like…

• Making a meal plan at the beginning of each week so you know exactly what you're making for dinner each night

• Keeping a stash of snacks in the pantry, your purse, and/or the car

• Having meals, side dishes, or snacks in the freezer

• Growing a garden (you're never caught unawares when someone asks you to bring a salad to the barbecue!)

• Prepping a lot of grab-and-go meals on a week when you know you're going to be rushing around

• Starting a meal in the crockpot in the morning so it'll be ready in the evening

• Baking a loaf of bread

• Making sauerkraut or other preserved veggies 

• Taking snacks as well as a sandwich to work

• Roasting a big batch of veggies, cooking a bunch of beans, throwing some meat in the crockpot, and boiling a couple different grains at the beginning of the week for easy mix-n-match meals

• Removing items from the freezer to thaw the night before you need them

• Making your own fast food

• Doing the dishes so it'll be easier to cook later

• Making an extra meatloaf, lasagna, or pot of chili so you can freeze some

• Creating a grocery list rather than just going to the store and grabbing whatever looks good

• Soaking beans or grains to cook later

• Keeping a stash of granola bars in your purse

What are your favorite ways to plan ahead?

~~~

Super Frugal Grocery Mini-Challenge #2: Make Your Own Fast Food

Mm... pancakes! (These are my new favorite kind of pancakes— recipe here.)

(Read all Super Frugal Grocery Challenge posts here!) 

Today's challenge, should you choose to accept it: Figure out some cheap "junk food" meals and snacks to stock in your freezer and pantry.

Something I've noticed about most people, including me, is that when we are making food from scratch at home, we try to make it as "healthy" and unprocessed as possible… but when we grab a bag of chips from the store, order drive-through, or hit up a vending machine, we give ourselves a pass because we don't see the ingredients in it. As a result, a lot of people psyche themselves out of cooking at home because they are constrained by the idea that everything cooked from scratch must be whole-grain-organic-low-carb-clean-eating-whole-30-approved-blessed-by-angels healthy. Then we get overwhelmed, and order Chinese takeout. 

Sometimes you're not going to feel like cooking. Sometimes you don't have time to make food for work and have to rush out the door. Sometimes you just want comfort food and Netflix and not have to worry about anything for a while. Life happens. And because you know that life happens, you can avoid expensive fast-food runs by assembling some junk food yourself.

Fast food may not seem expensive at the time, but compared to home-prepared food, it's not a good deal. A burger off the dollar menu barely counts as a meal, whereas a 34¢ box of mac n' cheese will fill you up. A personal pizza on the go is convenient, but leftover pizza slices from a frozen pizza you made last night will save you several bucks. (And don't even get me started on take-out food that you pay a delivery fee for!) Is it healthy? No, but neither is the food you were going to eat anyway, so if something's unhealthy, it might as well be cheap!

What does this look like in practice? It really depends on what your comfort foods are. For instance, for me, chocolate-flavored oatmeal (old-fashioned oats with cocoa powder, nuts, maple syrup, and kefir), peanut butter toast, and refried bean burritos pretty much always sound good— so I always keep oatmeal mix, tortillas, and bread in the pantry, and peanut butter, refried beans, and cheese in the fridge. If I don't know what to eat, one of those will always sound good. 

Everyone likes different things, but if you know your comfort food habits, you'll be on the right track of keeping your food bills down— while still indulging in junk food.

Here's list of ideas, which are quick, simple, and can be easily stored until you feel like breaking them out.

Freezer:

• Freezer meals that you buy at a store

• Ready-to-eat frozen food of any kind: tater tots, fish sticks, chicken nuggets, etc.

• Burritos: Wrap up some refried beans and cheese in a tortilla, with veggies if you like.

• Egg McMuffin: Scrambled eggs (and sausage, if you like that) and cheese on an English muffin

• Any sort of egg or meat or cheese sandwich: on bread, on a bagel, etc.

• Pizza. Freezer pizza is much cheaper than ordering it! (If you wanna go DIY, I keep our sourdough discard on hand for making a crust: just add shredded cheese and sauce. Faster than going to pick up a pizza, and a lot cheaper!)

• Homemade hot pockets. Crescent roll dough can be wrapped around any sort of filling and baked in the oven until it's bubbling. Then pop in a freezer bag for later.

• Waffles or pancakes

• Cake, cookies, or other baked goods

Refrigerator:

• Peanut butter or nutella (spread on crackers or bread, or dip apple slices into it)

• Salsa or guacamole

• Eggs

• String cheese (or cheese that you've cut into bite-sized portions)

• Yogurt with chocolate sauce

• Sauces that taste good on everything (I've made many a meal of plain ingredients seem special with a dose of homemade Kung Pao sauce!)

• Cheese, olives, salami, etc.

Pantry:

• Pasta sauce and quick-cooking pasta

• Ramen

• Mac n' cheese

• Tortilla chips

• Instant meals (as long as you actually like them)

• Good bread

• Crackers

• Flour or corn tortillas

• Refried beans

• Cans of tuna 

• Croutons (am I the only one who loves eating croutons plain?)

• Popcorn

What are some of your favorite cheap junk foods? Leave a comment below!

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