Our February spendings come to $985.05 just on food!!

These numbers are of course not the cost of the food we actually ate since a) we had food from before in our pantry, and b) most of the Azure stuff I bought in bulk is still in our pantry, and should feed us a few more months. The dairy cost isn’t accurate either since we only got one delivery from Noris this month, but will probably get weekly deliveries in the future. It’s a bit frightening seeing it all laid out like this, but at the same time, it makes it easier to see where we can save in the future. If (and it is an admittedly HUGE “if”) we can cut out all restaurants, I think we should be able to get down to $100/week on food. Once our hens start laying eggs, the CSA starts delivering, and we hopefully also get our garden going, this figure should drop even further…

Produce/Misc:
Organics to You $50.00
Pioneer Organics $29.01
Wild Oats $23.43
People’s Co-op $55.00 (est)
Uncle Paul’s Produce $22.74
Hillsdale Farmers’ Market $63.00
Azure Standard bulk produce $35.42
Subtotal: $278.52 ($70/week)

Dairy & Eggs:
Raw milk $28.50
Noris $27.50
Subtotal: $56 ($14/week, but I anticipate the true cost to be $25/week)

Azure Standard:
Grains, legumes, spices, oils etc $350.45
Subtotal: $350.45 ($87.50/week, but I am projecting that the dry goods will last us 6 months and therefore just cost $15/week)
TOTAL: $685.05

In addition to this, the family ate out for almost $200, and Dan bought lunches for $100.

Eating out:
Grandma Leeth’s $26.45
Burgerville $33.31
Dingo’s $12.50
Zach’s Shack $13.75
Academy Theater $20.50
Vita Cafe $37.95
Kalga Kafe $40.00
Ben & Jerry’s $8.40
Thai Thai $20.00
Subtotal: $199.11
Dan’s lunches $100.91
TOTAL $300.02 ($75/week)

GRAND TOTAL: $985.05!!!!!!!

I made a pasta sauce from scratch by putting a bunch of roma tomatoes, 2 cloves elephant garlic, a can of tomato paste, some thyme, basil, oregano, salt, pepper, hot sauce, and a little bit of brown sugar into a blender and mushing it all into a sauce, then grating a big fat carrot, cooking it all on the stove for about 15 mins, and serving with fresh pasta that I got — for free, thanks to my Chinook Book — from Pastaworks on Hawthorne. Yumm!

When tomatoes are in season again, I am definitely buying at least 20 lbs and making a bunch of cans of pasta sauce. I didn’t even have to go through the whole boiling and dipping into an ice bath to peel them (yes, I read that on marthastewart.com).

Right now I am making beet kvass***, whatever the hell that is. I had some local, farm direct Chiogga Beets from my very first Organics to You delivery that I wanted to make something with. At first I wasn’t sure if they were beets or radishes since they have a red peel, but are white inside– at least until you peel a bit further and realize they have alternating white and red layers.

Ingredients

3 medium beets, chopped
1/4 cup whey
1 tbsp sea salt
water

Preparation

Mix all ingredients in a 2 qt pitcher. Stir, cover, and let stand 2 days at room temperature before transferring to fridge.

***Kvass can also be made from beets. The result is not so much epicurean as medicinal, although beet kvass is often added to borscht. No traditional Ukranian home was without its bottle of beet kvass, according to Lubow A. Kylvska, author of Ukranian Dishes, “handy and ready when a pleasing, sour flavor had to be added to soups and vinaigrettes.”

Folk medicine values beets and beet kvass for their liver cleansing properties and beet kvass is widely used in cancer therapy in Europe. Anecdotal reports indicate that beet kvass is an excellent therapy for chronic fatigue, chemical sensitivities, allergies and digestive problems.

A little while ago, Dr. Mercola had an interesting article about how even just one wholesome meal can start to repair the damage done to your body from poor diet. I wish I could find it to read again because I feel like I am already starting to see results from the switch we have made. I used to be plagued with mild to moderate stomach aches after almost every single meal I ate. For the longest time I tried figuring out, without avail, what food was upsetting my stomach: was it the dairy? was it the gluten? was it the onions or garlic? was it IBS???

Now I just think it was the processing itself that was the culprit. It’s only been 3 weeks, but I have noticed ever since I started cooking at home more, and using whole organic ingredients, that my stomach does not hurt after I eat.

I have also noticed that I now crave things I never used to crave before– like raw whole milk. We were never big milk drinkers, and would rarely go through more than half a gallon every week or two. Now, not only do I think that it’s kinda gross and unnatural that milk is ultrapasteurized to not go bad and can sit in your fridge for a month without even souring or clobbering up, but I actually want to drink milk. Raw milk tastes so good, so much better than any store bought milk I have ever had, including the raw milk we used to get in California (which I just don’t think was as fresh since we didn’t get it directly from the creamery).

Sure, I still crave coke (and today I was very proud of myself for resisting the soda fountain when we had lunch for $8.55 at OMSI) and sweets every now and then (spent $6.70 on a cookie cookie sundae at Ben & Jerry’s today and $4.95 on a hazelnut shake at Burgerville the other day), but all in all, I feel better and actually more nourished than before. I also think I am going to look into making my own desserts and treats from scratch, so that I can have something to reach for when I get that sweet tooth urge instead of spending $5 on something outside.

Anyway, I can’t wait for this month to be over to tally up our spendings. I have a feeling it’s going to be a pretty high figure, but I choose to look at this as saving us on future medical bills. I also think things will even themselves out as time goes on since we won’t have to buy grains and legumes again for at least a few months.

What kind of foodie am I? I have missed out on posting about at least 3 or 4 meals I’ve made!

Yesterday, we ate the fresh wild Columbia River salmon that we bought from the Farmers’ Market, and it was delicious! I also made Sunny Coleslaw again, this time with red cabbage, and it too was yummy! Zoe helped set the dining room table (we usually just eat in the kitchen) and we had a very nice old fashioned family sit-down meal. We need to have those more often, I think.

Today, I am attempting to make a creole dish, red beans and rice, at Dan’s request. It’s kinda hard since I’ve never had it myself, so I don’t know what it’s supposed to taste like, but I found a recipe online that I am trying to follow with some modifications (like leaving out the pickled pork and sausage).

Ingredients

2 cups red kidney beans, dry
1 red onion, chopped
2 yellow bell peppers, chopped
5 ribs celery, chopped
5 or 6 cloves garlic
1/2 to 1 tsp. dried thyme leaves, crushed
as many dashes hot sauce as you like, to taste
a few dashes Worcestershire sauce
Cajun seasoning, to taste
Salt to taste

Preparation

Soak the beans overnight. The next day, drain and put fresh water in a slow cooker, bring the beans to a boil and then cook on low till tender, but not falling apart. Drain. While the beans are boiling, sauté the onions, celery, and bell pepper until the onions turn translucent. Add the garlic and sauté for 2 more minutes, stirring occasionally. After the beans are boiled and drained, add the sautéed vegetables to the beans, add seasonings, and just enough water to cover.

Return to slow cooker and cook on low for 2 hours at least, preferably 3, until the whole thing gets nice and creamy. Adjust seasonings as you go along.

Serve generous ladles over hot long-grain rice, with collard greens.

No kasha for us, but guess I am growing buckwheat lettuce instead!

Today was the day my buckwheat sprouts were supposed to be done, but the hulls weren’t rinsing away like they “should have” according to the instructions on the handy dandy set of sprouting lids I bought at Mirador Community Store. Turns out whole (unhulled) buckwheat is what you use to grow buckwheat lettuce. This means that I have 5 lbs worth of whole buckwheat just waiting to be turned into buckwheat lettuce… I sure hope that it is tasty!!

I have never eaten buckwheat lettuce (to my knowledge), but it sounds like it’s really good for you.

Buckwheat greens are an excellent, mild-tasting lettuce. They are fresh because they go from the soil right into your plate and are loaded with live enzymes, which are needed by every process in the body. These greens are a rich source of rutin, which is a blood builder and lecithin, which helps eliminate excess cholesterol. Lecithin is also a brain food. Buckwheat greens are an excellent source of vitamins A and C, with good amount of B-vitamins such as riboflavin.

Tomorrow I will have to figure out some kind of planting medium in some kind of tray system to grow it in since the buckwheat is all pre-sprouted and ready to go with little 1/2″ long white sprouts. Guess you learn something new everyday!

..but it was supposed to be cream cheese and whey.

I attempted to follow the recipe in Nourishing Traditions, and let the raw milk stand for 4 days to separate. I then lined a strainer with a linen kitchen towel, and poured the milk into it. I was a bit surprised (although really, this was exactly what I expected to happen) that the milk was a thick, clumpy consistency since the book didn’t say anything about that. I let it strain overnight despite my doubts, and below you can see the results: a small bowl of cream cheese that actually tastes a bit sour and has small curds in it (so maybe it is more like cottage cheese?), and almost 2 quarts of whey.

I’m assuming that the whey will be fine to use for lacto-fermentation, since well… fermenting seems to me like a process of making food “go bad” on purpose, but I am not so sure about the cream cheese… Maybe it’s just a matter of taste preference, but Munchkie tasted it too, and spit it all out (and she normally likes goats’ milk yogurt)!

I obviously have no idea what I’m doing here, so if anyone has any advice, it would be appreciated!

We got our first home delivery of Noris milk, cream, cheese, butter, and eggs today. Oh. My. God. the butter is sooooooo good!! It’s also a lot darker yellow than any store bought butter I have ever tried, and it is softer and sweeter, too. I spread it on some of our home baked bread, and we are all sitting here right now enjoying some of it. Yumm!!

I haven’t tasted the milk or cheese or cream yet, but if it’s anything like the butter it’s going to be good. I should mention that unfortunately, Noris’s milk isn’t raw, but at least it isn’t ultra pasteurized, and it isn’t homogenized*** either. And I really like that it comes in glass bottles and not plastic jugs.

Half gallon whole milk $3.50
Pint cream $3.00
1/2 lb Organic Farmhouse Cheese $4.00
1/2 lb Organic Pepperjack Cheese $4.00
1 lb Salted butter $5.00
Dozen Organic Eggs $4.00
2 x bottle deposit $4.00

Total: 27.50

*** PSA: Scientists believe it’s no coincidence that the homogenization of milk and the increase of atherosclerotic heart disease began at about the same time– in the 1940s. When milk is homogenized mechanically, the fat particles of the cream are strained under great pressure, becoming so small they will stay in suspension within the milk, rather than rise to the top of the milk, giving the product a “smoother” feel. The fat is damaged during the process when temperature or the pressure is too high. This unnatural composition cannot be broken down by the body as intended, making it more susceptible to rancidity and oxidation which may contribute to heart disease.

We took a trip to the Hillsdale Farmers’ Market this morning, and bought a bunch of tasty treats. It was our first time at this market. It was really very nice with lots of yummy artisan cheeses, breads, smoked fish, honey, jams, eggs, meat and poultry, and local veggies and fruit of course. Munchkie kept asking for “more samples” the whole time, just like she used to when we’d go to the Farmers’ Market in Irvine. She especially liked the pear cider, I think.

They allow dogs there, so Munchkie also had a great time looking at all the hau-haus, including a humongous Newfoundland that she pointed at and said, “Bear!” Then she wanted to climb up the grassy hillside, and slide down on her butt a few times. And as we left, she spotted the wagons (that the market lends people so they can shop) and wanted a little wagon ride around the parking lot. After that, as we walked back to the car, she wanted to walk on a low stacked stone wall holding my hand. I can’t believe how big she is getting!

$6 Red Anjou pears
$9 smoked salmon
$7 fresh, wild caught salmon from the Columbia River
$2 collard greens
$2 broccoli greens
$4 sunchokes
$5.80 sheeps milk cheese
$2 Havarti cheeses (made from Noris milk)
$7.38 ground lamb
$9.82 buffalo sausage
$4 slice of pizza
$4 lamb sausage in a blanket
Total: $63

I had terrible cravings tonight for something sweet. I wonder if it means anything, like, I’m addicted to sugar or maybe I am starting to detox since it’s been so long since I had something sweet…?? I ended up eating waffles with strawberry preserves and whipped cream– yumm!!

For lunch I made black eyed peas and arame, and it was actually tastier than expected. The recipe was super simple too: just soak 2 cups black eyed peas overnight, drain and rinse, and add to a heavy bottomed pot with 2/3 cup arame. Cook for 30 mins or until beans are tender, then stir in 3 tbls soy sauce, 2 tbls maple syrup, 1/2 tbls freshly grated ginger, and 1 tsp brown rice vinegar.

Tomorrow I am making my mother’s (hence the metric measurements) delicious lentil and spinach soup.

Ingredients

2.5 dl lentils
1 1/2 l water
2 tsp olive oil
1 yellow onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
100 gr spinach, shredded
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp lemon rind
1 tbls vegetable bouillon
salt and pepper

Preparation

Soak lentils with 2 tbls lemon overnight.
Cook onion, garlic and cumin in the olive oil about 2 mins.
Add lentils.
Crumble the bouillon and add water.
Cover and cook for 20-30 mins.
Add lemon rind, salt and pepper.
Add spinach at the end.

On top of everything else, I am also trying my hand at sprouting. I wasn’t initially interested in this since I do not personally like sprouts at all although, admittedly, I am basing this purely on my dislike of alfalfa sprouts (which interestingly enough is the one single sprout that Sally Fallon does not recommend for human consumption! Coincidence?).

Turns out, I accidentally (ie in my ignorance) ordered whole buckwheat instead of hulled buckwheat, otherwise known as groats. All I knew was that I wanted to make kasha, so buckwheat it was. Needless to say, the hulls are inedible and need to come off, which is where sprouting comes into play.

Right now, I have a quart size mason jar on the counter full of soaking buckwheat. Tomorrow, I will drain the water out and start the process of rinsing twice a day for 3-4 days till it has sprouted. I believe I will then be able to toast the sprouted buckwheat and make kasha, but I am not sure… Help would be appreciated!

I also have a 2 liter jug of raw milk standing on the counter since Wednesday night. I am waiting for the milk to separate, so I can strain it through some cheese cloth and make cream cheese and whey. I have no idea how this will work since I suspect our house stays much too cold for the milk to truly separate or do whatever it is it needs to do. In 2 days, so far, the cream has just risen to the top, which is what it does in the fridge as well… If this doesn’t work out, I am so blaming it on the house with no insulation (namely our home)!

I also have 2 cups of black-eyed peas soaking on the counter. Tomorrow I want to make a dish with them and the arame I bought…