A Reflection on Pantry Living Take 2

Pantry Living ended 2 weeks ago. I've been grocery shopping twice since and I'm surprised by a few things I learned this year.

Pantry Living at the start

Pantry Living at the end

•  We really had a ton of food left at the end of the summer. I love my pictures tracking my shelves so I can visually compare week to week. At the end of last year I had pretty bare shelves. This year was a different story. This brings me so much joy because if this wasn't a choice and I was forced to live off our food storage I know that we could do it! And we could do it for quite a bit longer. 
• I am in control of what goes into our bellies. Before the summer began I bought a few packs of cookies and goodies. At the end of the summer we had so much of those left because I rarely would bust open a pack. My family knew no different either. I guess it is another reason I love my pantry that is separate from our kitchen, out of sight out of mind (and belly).
• I was a baking maniac this summer. You probably already noticed how many treats I baked cause I had to use up my zucchini (I still have 2 sitting on my counter). Next year I need WAY MORE flour, sugar, and brown sugar. Those are the items I went through faster than I could count. 

• I should check out my basement freezer more often. I typically only went there to get meat and maybe a bag of french fries, or a box of butter. I totally forgot about all the frozen veggies and other items I'd stashed away. 
• Canned fruit is something I need to store more of, Katy adores it! She can eat an entire can of mandarin oranges and still want more. 
• We use a lot of salad dressing. Obviously for salads, but I cook with it more than I'd realized. Ranch and Italian are great, especially combined over chicken.
• We still eat lots of 
• cereal: 44 at the start, 5 at the end
• peanut butter: 1 large jar a month
• jam: 1 large jar every 6 weeks 
• mayo: 1 large jar a month
• Our garden was wonderful and I will definitely grow one next year! The plan is for 1 zucchini, 3 green beans, 2 tomatoes, and a cucumber.

 I love my experiment and I'm looking forward to next year. Beforehand I created a master inventory list of items we keep on hand and recorded the start amount and the end amount. Those figures will definitely help in preparation for Pantry Living Take 3. I made a master list for the fridge and freezer as well but I never filled in those amounts. Next year I want to focus more attention on how much of those cold items we use.

Thank you for following my summer journey! I hope it inspires you to be prepared. If ye are prepared ye shall not fear!

Happy Autumn!

Pantry Living Week 10 and then some

IT IS OVER! My hubby returned to teaching middle school today which means my pantry living guidelines are done, finished, kaput.

First the update:

• Boxes of cereal after week 9: 10.5
• Boxes of cereal after week 10+: 5.5
• Allowable purchases: milk, eggs, ice cream, sliced cheese, shredded cheese
• Cash purchases: Burger King, earrings for Lilia, skateboard for Max(to ride on his belly), plastic drawers, clothes for Katy, long handle grabber for Max to use
• Cheats: rotisserie chicken from Sam's, pizza, cartoons for the kids, milk shakes to reward Max for his bravery during the cast, clearance flip flops for Lilia, clearance beach towels, toy speed boats to amuse kids, fabric for a new nursing cover and sling for myself and baby
• Necessary Items with credit card: duct tape and blue sticky tack for Dave's classroom, plastic cast protector to shower Max,
• New bags/jars opened: chocolate chips, sugar ice cream cones, flour, shortening, cocoa powder, syrup, sugar, chips, marshmallows

We survived. I cheated too much and by the end I was really tired of cooking dinner, if you couldn't tell. I spent the summer baking, playing with my kids and saving money. I love this experience and am excited to go through my inventory list and see how much we really used of our pantry.

Happy Summer's End!

My cup is overflowing

My life is more interesting lately than seems necessary. Five days ago I was back to school shopping, signing my son up for soccer, and washing new born baby clothes. In the past few days my energetic 4yr old son broke his leg, got a blue long leg cast, and I've just about lost my mind. I've averaged 5 hrs of sleep each night and have sought therapeutic relief from heating pads, chocolate, and caffeinated sodas.

The cast will remain for 6-8 weeks. My due date is in two weeks, and my hubby returns to teaching in one week. The math is not in my favor. And added bonus: As we pull into our driveway from the orthopedic surgeon we notice our street is full of dump trucks, excavators and various construction vehicles that will be digging our street for the next 45 days. See, I told you it is more interesting than necessary.

So here are the contents of my "cup": swollen belly, heavy immobile child, two other energetic girls desiring my attention, and a partially accessible street. Upon first glance it appears only half-full of lemon juice. But upon closer observation the sugar is added.
1tsp sugar- My baby within is active and healthy. Honestly, the hospital stay may be more like a vacation.
3tsp sugar- My son's sturdy blue cast now allows him to start rolling over and giving his healing bone more support so the pain killers are no longer necessary.

The latest in preschooler fashion Blue Long Leg Casts!

7tsp sugar- Social media has once again blessed our lives. A sweet angel saw my need for a pediatric wheelchair and acquired it for free. He is now getting around the house better and able to join us for meals at the table. He loves his new ride!

Not the best shot of the wheelchair but it is glorious! And they are enjoying wind up motor boats I found on sale today in dishes of water.

3tsp sugar- Kind friends and family have showered us with love and concern. My little one's received get well cards, toy trucks, a movie and a giant get well cookie. 

So awesome!

4tsp sugar-My girls are beautiful and maddening all at once. They make me smile and grit my teeth in the same breath. 

my girls are good helpers.....most of the time.

10tsp sugar- the variety of construction vehicles roaming our small street is loud. My children's ears perk up at each engine roar and horn blast. This requires us to race to the front porch. We sit and wave as the workers pass. We try to imagine what their next move will be. Breakfast is enjoyed to the blaring sounds of a concrete cutter. Afternoon popsicles cool us as the two-story tall excavator is delivered.

My cup isn't perfect. It is covered in sticky finger smudges. The rim is lipstick stained. The lemonade is sometimes cloudy, but it is sweet to the taste. Our Heavenly Father blesses us more than we deserve. He carries me through the dark days and holds my hand through the sunny ones. I'm still tired, my patience is short and my back aches. But my heart is full, and for that I am grateful.

Life can be hard

I'm a bag of emotions. I feel pain for my son who is splinted from foot to hip after his fall from the monkey bars. Guilt washes through me as I recall how I told him from a distance he could accomplish them all by himself without me as he cried for help. Relief calms my soul as I remember the tender mercy of the Lord because I bought a phenomenal extra wide single stroller at a yard sale yesterday morning for only $10. This stroller is my little man's "wheelchair" at the moment. Financial peace is granted as I hand my insurance card to everyone we meet. Embarrassed as the nurses wrap his feet and see the dirt smudges from his barefoot adventures. Laughter fills the air as the pain killers calm him and we can see the silly side of life and pretend every superhero has a broken leg too. My superhero is temporarily out of commission. My heart aches as I reflect on his muscular form in his new Captain America costume he wore most of the day yesterday. He flexed throughout lunch and would respond to all our questions with a thumbs up and a deep voice. Concern and confusion take over as I contemplate my life for the next while.

Four hours of interrupted sleep is all that's in my fuel tank this morning. Today life seems hard. My back is sore, my ankles are swollen and my baby within is getting anxious. The last few weeks I've encouraged my baby to make his debut, how quickly that changed. I need this baby to wait as long as he can and perhaps add a few days beyond the due date.

But the Lord continues to bless me. He swept my little man off to dream land after many hours of writhing in pain. He brings my hubby to the rescue when my words and back aren't enough. He granted me wonderful parents who fill in all my gaps and missing links. He allows me social media to reach out to family and friends who in return offer prayers and well wishes. He soothes my soul during all of this. He forgives my wrongs and lifts my chin reminding me I get another chance.

Today life is hard, but at least I know I'm not left alone.

Pantry Living Week 9

We're almost done Pantry Living Take 2! I can hardly believe it. Only one more week to go.

Pantry after week 9

Here's the update:

• Boxes of cereal after week 8: 15
• Boxes of cereal after week 9: 10.5 (again the stack of individual servings make the .5)
• Allowable Purchases: bananas, blueberries, apples, 
• Necessary purchases: school supplies (my 1st grader is ready to learn)
• Cash purchases: ice cream cones, a few clothes for my post prego body, a new skirt for Lilia, 
• Cheats: jammies for my upcoming hospital stay, and a post prego dress, and some slimming under the clothes things for my soon to be flabby belly. Truthfully, I consider each of these necessary, (and reminder they're considered "cheats" cause I used my credit card.)
• Opened jars/bags- sugar, spaghetti sauce, lasagna noodles, chips, raspberry lemonade mix, 
• Confession: I'm losing my mind. I usually refer to it as "mommy brain". Lately I've become so consumed with my impending labor I forget to start the dishwasher. I almost (I repeat almost) forget that I've invited people over. I forget to re-diaper my overactive toddler until she jumps on the couch and her bare bum is revealed. I forget to pee... this may sound particularly bizarre but all of a sudden I'm super uncomfortable and realize its cause I've needed to go for over an hour and just kept putting it off and so my belly has a contraction to remind me. Seriously, I'm this forgetful!!! So this also flows into the blog and keeping track of the "purchases", "cheats", "opened jars" etc. I try desperately to think back over the last 7 days but I'm sure things have been forgotten or added to the wrong week. oh well. 

We're nearly at the end and I'm excited to grocery shop again but at the same time I love my Pantry Living obligation. I love sending the kiddos to retrieve a new bottle of dressing or a can of veggies. It is exhilarating to know we can survive.

Happy Summer!

Lasagna Rolls with invisible zucchini

Tonight as I pull our dinner from the oven I hear the words "Not zucchini again!" I carefully responded with "I made lasagna." hehehe little did he know it had 2 cups of zucchini hidden within. We spent the lovely day at the beach. Yup, four hours playing in the waves and digging in the sand. Life is good. Life is especially good when I plan ahead and make dinner before leaving the house. I tried out this awesome new recipe called Three Cheese Zucchini Lasagna Roll. DELECTABLE!

Before they went into the fridge for the day. But they are ready to be baked!

Ready to enter my belly!

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 10 lasagna noodles, cooked (that was 1/2 of the box)
• 1 tsp olive oil
• A couple spoonfuls of minced garlic
• 2 cups zucchini grated
• 1 cup ricotta cheese
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 1/2 tsp salt
• a few shakes of pepper
• 1 3/4 cups Marinara sauce
• 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
• fresh basil for garnish (optional)

Directions:

• Ladle about 1 cup sauce on the bottom of a 9 x 13-inch baking dish.
• Cook lasagna noodles according to package, drain and rinse in cold water.
• In a medium nonstick skillet, sauté garlic and olive oil over medium heat for about 1 minute; add zucchini, salt and pepper to taste and cook about 4-5 minutes, until soft.
• Combine the zucchini, ricotta cheese, Parmesan cheese, egg, salt and pepper in a medium bowl.  
• Lay out the lasagna noodles on a clean work surface. Make sure noodles are a little dry. Take 1/4 cup of ricotta mixture and spread evenly over the noodle. Roll carefully and place seam side down onto the prepared baking dish. Repeat with remaining noodles. 
• Ladle the remaining sauce over the lasagna rolls and top each one with 1 tbsp mozzarella cheese. Put foil over baking dish and bake at 350 for about 40 minutes, or until the inside is heated through and the cheese is melted. Top with fresh basil if desired and eat hot.

My family gobbled it up and no one found any trace of the zucchini. I'm a sneaky one! Hope you enjoy it as much as we did! 

Happy Summer!

How does your garden grow?

Last year I had one cherry tomato plant in a pot on my deck. After I killed it I dug a hole in the yard and tried to transplant it. The roots and plant separated from each other in my hands. I shoved them back together, buried it with dirt, and turned my back on it for the rest of the summer. Without my black thumb it flourished and provided us with delicious tomatoes through Sept.

I was more ambitious this year even though I know my tendency to kill plants. Pinterest to the rescue again! I found lots of great tips for a raised bed garden and I bought all the plants from our grocery store. We built the perimeter with concrete blocks, turned the earth, and added fertilizer and soil. I inserted six 36" wooden posts to hold up our green plastic garden fence. I used zip ties to attach the fence to the posts and left one side accessible. Where the two ends met I closed it with strips of velcro for easy access.

My hubby turning the earth

Our garden this year was:

Our garden after about one month

• 1 zucchini plant
• 2 green bell peppers that magically grew into pablano peppers
• 1 cherry tomato plant
• 1 tomato plant
• 1 plum tomato plant
• 2 green bean plants
• 2 cut onions
• 2 cilantro plants
• 1 raspberry stick that would theoretically turn into a bush (in a side plot)

Our raspberry stick

Our results:

• Oodles and gobs of lovely zucchini. Probably 10 or so with a few more still growing
• 7 pablano peppers
• a bushel  of cherry tomatoes, we were able to keep up with them.
• a bunch of slicing tomatoes that tend to outgrow their skins. unfortunately I've had to chuck a lot of them. they rot too quickly for us.
• more plum tomatoes than I could ever handle, I'm researching tomato recipes today cause I brought in tons of all three varieties this morning. 
• a few meals worth of green beans. they are delish but the yield isn't high enough
• one onion rotted in the soil the other grew 2 small bulbs the size of bouncey balls
• somehow I killed the cilantro. I tried to keep up with them and pop the buds off regularly but they never grew the round flat leaves while I had them, only skiny ones. and eventually it became brown sticks.
• I still have one brown raspberry stick. 

Our garden now, 3 months later

The plan for next year:

• Another single zucchini plant, don't think I could handle more than that.
• No peppers, they were tasty but not worth the water for only 7.
• Only two tomato plants. Three plants are too many for us. The plum are the most prolific this year but I like the taste of the other two better. So we'll see.
• More green beans. Forgot to add I had a lovely lattice in place for it to climb and discovered later the plant was bush beans not pole beans. Oh well. But I would love three or four plants next year. 
• The onions were an experiment this year, I won't do them again.
• I love cilantro but I may only do one next year and not add to the actual garden. I'm thinking the garden didn't mind when I ignored it for a bit but the cilantro was offended. 
• I will not dig up the raspberry stick for another year or two. Perhaps it will eventually decide to produce something. But I may invest in a real bush next year; I adore raspberries. 
• Cucumbers. I wanted to try them this year but discovered you have to do them from seed which I was not prepared to try. My kids recently got these "crazy cucumber seeds" in paper from McDonald's at National Night Out. You just plant the paper in the dirt and water it. It sounds like it may survive my black thumb. We shall see. 

Future endeavors:

• We have 2 random trees in our yard, a giant evergreen planted next to a flag pole and a half dead something near the fence. We hope to remove both of them and where the half dead one is I'd like to plant a fruit tree next year. I'm thinking peach.
• We have a great back yard with lots of room for more raised beds. We won't add another next year but perhaps as our family gets hungrier we'll add to it. 

Additional Lessons learned:

• We planted marigolds throughout the garden between plants and in many of the concrete blocks. They were beautiful and did the trick of keeping away the pests.
• Next year I'll need access to the garden from both long sides instead of just one. Weeding became acrobatic at times.
• The fence was great; it kept out animals as well as little "helpers". 
• Will need to research more about getting tomato plants to grow taller instead of bushier. That was a big issue this year but it didn't seem to hurt our harvest. 
• Watering the garden is therapeutic. I usually went out around bedtime for my kids (7pm) and would be able to reflect on our day as I watered the earth. 
• Frequent rain is much cheaper and more nutritious for the plants. I always noticed more growth after a rainfall. 
• Miracle Gro for tomatoes can be poured on all the plants. I did this maybe 3x this summer before the plants began to produce actual vegetables. I think they liked it.
• Gardening isn't my favorite activity but it sure is rewarding, especially baking and enjoying the harvest!

Decadent Chocolate Zucchini Cake

Zucchini Bread and muffins

Chile Relleno made from our pablano peppers

I'd love to hear what was in your garden and the tips and tricks that work for you!

Happy Summer!