Fall always finds me preparing new schedules and routines, re-organizing, and yes, writing lists. There’s something about getting back into the regular everyday groove after summer that just makes me want to get organized. I held a garage sale a couple weeks ago, have been setting up a new homeschooling binder for the year, am…
Written by Anne S, Guest Writer In the “old days”, canning was just part of the household routine, a useful way to preserve the bounty of the growing season for the cold dark days of winter. Mothers passed down the skills of canning to their daughters in the same way they passed down all the…
Eggs have often been called “one of nature’s perfect foods”. And for good reason. They pack a powerful nutritional punch in just a small package. Inside that little shell is a powerhouse of nutrition. There are many ways to incorporate eggs into meals. By incorporating eggs into our diet whenever possible, we increase the nutritional…
To those who’ve been doing this challenge all along, way to go! You’ve reached week 4 and your family hasn’t starved yet. Your creativity has been stretched to the max, no doubt, but I hope that you have some excellent savings to show for your hard work. To those who have joined us at some…
Welcome to the third week of the Eat From the Pantry and Freezer Challenge! Find out what it’s all about or read my post from Week 2. My update as I head into week three: This afternoon, we went to Costco with some friends. Walking around was pure torture for my husband, who kept noticing all sorts…
We’ve all had one of those amazing salads, that was so good we just had to keep shoving forkfuls into our mouths. On the other hand, I imagine we’ve all had a boring salad. Just greens, a veggie or two, and a drizzle of dressing. You eat it because you know it’s good for you,…
That’s it. No more shopping for you. Or me, for that matter. It’s time to begin our “Eating from the Pantry and Freezer Challenge“! What I’ve spent so far I had about $230 remaining for the rest of May out of my $450 budget (the other $220 had been spent at the beginning of the…
It’s time to begin the Eating From the Pantry and Freezer Challenge. I’m excited to get going and I hope you are, too! I promised to share my own plan and goals with you, so here’s what I’m planning to do: My financial goal is to save $300 (our regular monthly budget is $450). I…
Written by Erin Odom, Contributing Writer When I first started cooking from scratch, it didn’t seem too hard. I gathered my ingredients and followed the recipes. But then one day it hit me: I wasn’t buying processed, pre-packaged meals anymore, but I was using processed, pre-packed ingredients to make my “from-scratch” meals. And these ingredients were…
Written by Mindy, Contributing Writer Without proper planning, a whole foods diet can be more draining on your wallet than you might expect! However, by menu planning and incorporating meals with lower cost ingredients into my meal plans, I actually spend the same amount on groceries now as I did before we made the switch…
Welcome to the “official” (see last week) start of the Plan It- Don’t Panic Meal Planning Challenge! This challenge will be running for the next 6 weeks (Sept.26- Nov.7). Every Monday I will be posting both my own menu plan for the week, some tips on aspects of meal planning OR some recipes I want…
Written by Kate Tietje, Contributing Writer Are you new to preserving food — or maybe just curious about it? Maybe you’d like to give it a shot, but don’t really know where to start. I was in your shoes last year! It was my very first year preserving food for my family. I had no…
This week I breathed a sigh of thankfulness that I have read the Little House on the Prairie series. That Caroline Ingalls was a wonder, as were so many of the inspiringly creative and brilliant pioneering women who came before us! Due to poor supports (a lack of foresight on my part), a heavy load…
Today was Day 1 of the Freezer Cooking portion of the Cook More Real Food event. It’s been a long day of cooking, but it’s exciting to see the results of all that hard work! Phew! In the first picture, you can see: Jars of chicken broth 2 dozen pumpkin gluten-free muffins (hmmm, now where…
I hope you’re all as excited as I am to spend conclude this Cook More Real Food Event by spending some concentrated time cooking and baking, in order to fill my freezer up with easy, real food meals and snacks! Before I share my cooking list and plan for the day with you, here’s a…
I love passing on real food recipes, whether they’re tried and true, or newly acquired favorites. Lately, though, I just haven’t been cooking up anything all that interesting! With my trip to the Blissdom conference earlier this month, just a busy month in general for our family, and cleaning out my fridge in preparation for…
Welcome to my newest monthly feature, the Real Food Recipe Roundup! Back when I did my readers survey, I learned that finding nourishing, whole food recipes is right up there among your favorite topics on this blog. I thought that it might serve you all if I shared some great recipes from around the web…
It’s time to share all of our favorite, tried-and-true recipes! You know, the ones that you can’t really imagine not having at your holiday table and that just taste like Christmas to you. Traditions are such an important part of how we celebrate holidays, and traditions involve all of the senses- including our smell and…
**Mmmm… delicious granola bars I made this afternoon!** Phew! I am tired after a looong day in the kitchen (not to mention being up late the night before, grinding grain and getting everything soaking!). No energy or time to post up pictures, but just wanted to share the final outcome of the day. This was…
As you may have noticed, I've begun a new series called Preserving Summer's Bounty, where I am creating photo tutorials of some of the different foods that I am preserving this summer, along with a variety of preserving methods. If you missed the first two, they are: Beautiful Blueberries (freezing) Blanching and Freezing Vegetables Also…
It's been awhile, so I thought it might be time for a quick photo garden tour! These pictures were actually taken a week ago, so just imagine everything a little bit bigger! This patch is a mix of cauliflower to the far left, potatoes in the center and front, a bit of broccoli to the…
I guess I only see what is on your blog but sometimes I get a bit discouraged thinking how can you do all that when I am attempting to do things and not fulfilling what I think I should be doing, most of the time? I do a lot, when I think about it,…
**Too bad the picture behind me didn't turn out too well. It's probably my favorite piece of art in our home. Makes me feel like I'm on a cobblestone street in Europe. 🙂 I'm still enjoying the "golden months", as I like to call them (you know, those middle months where the sickness and…
There were so many great questions asked in the comments in my recent post How My Grocery Budget Works, that I felt the need to address them in a separate post. Here goes… What is your dill pickle recipe? I’ll post both this recipe, and our favorite Bread and Butter pickles recipes up within the…